Valuing Workforce Cross-Training Flexibility

Author

Ruwen Qin, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
David Nembhard

Abstract

Workforce flexibility is an often sought-after capability of production systems. Manufacturing and service organizations understand that the composition of a workforce (i.e., the number of workers who are competent at specific tasks in a production system and their skill levels on these tasks) may significantly affect productivity. Cross training is one such lever on productivity because it can potentially increase operational productivity by training the workforce in a specific tactical or strategic manner. The capabilities of a workforce given a level of cross training may be considered an important component of workforce flexibility (e.g., see Ebeling and Lee, 1994; Gerwin, 1993; Molleman and Slomp, 1999).

Recommended Citation

R. Qin and D. Nembhard, "Valuing Workforce Cross-Training Flexibility," Workforce Cross Training, pp. 131 - 151, CRC Press, Apr 2007.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420005349.ch5

Department(s)

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering

Comments

Chapter 5

Keywords and Phrases

Economics; Finance; Business and Industry; Engineering and Technology

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-1-4200-0534-9

Document Type

Book - Chapter

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2007 CRC Press, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

25 Apr 2007