Workers assignment problems in manufacturing systems: A literature analysis

Workers assignment problems (WAPs) are found in several types of manufacturing systems. Typically, WAPs are known to greatly impact the system performance. Numerous research works related to WAPs have been published. In this work, we analyze this literature according to several types of criteria. We first take into account such important features of the WAP as workers flexibility, the number of workers with respect to the number of stations, workers movement, the problem nature (static or dynamic assignment) and human consideration (e. g. learning and forgetting effects). We also take into consideration the type of system it is related to (e. g. U-shaped systems, and cellular organizations). The different methods used to solve these problems are distinguished (e. g. mathematical approaches, simulation, hybrid methods, etc.). Several research directions are pointed out and discussed in the conclusion.