Title: Three-phase approach to service staff assignment for MRO tasks

Authors: Kai Pan; Xinjian Gu; Na Chen; Yangjian Ji; Chengyi Le

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Florida, 411 Weil Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611-6595, USA ' Industrial Engineering Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China ' Industrial Engineering Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China ' Industrial Engineering Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China ' Industrial Engineering Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

Abstract: Whereas the importance of MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul/Operation) service has been emphasised in manufacturing industries, few studies have focused on service staff assignment of MRO activities in spite of its great relevance. This paper aims to propose a novel method for assigning proper staff to specific task in such activities. Business object and process models are established, while two key problems, namely skill requirement analysis for MRO service tasks and assigning service staff, are pointed out. To present MRO service skills and properties of level, skill vector is stated and used to analyse skill requirements of tasks. A three-phase approach to assign service staff is put forward, applying an improved Genetic Algorithm (GA) and specific evaluation pattern to intelligently search and rank the feasible groups of service staff. Finally, a decision support system that is implemented to validate the approach proposed ahead is introduced.

Keywords: MRO tasks; staff assignment; GAs; genetic algorithms; product services; maintenance services; repair services; overhaul services; operations; manufacturing industry; employee assignment; process modelling; skills requirement; service staff; decision support systems; DSS.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOI.2012.051397

International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, 2012 Vol.7 No.2/3, pp.96 - 116

Received: 24 Oct 2011
Accepted: 03 Aug 2012
Published online: 27 Dec 2014 *

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