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1. Introduction
Organizations have been under increased pressure in recent decades to become more productive, have higher levels of quality, and generally move toward leaner operations (see e.g. Gel et al., 2007; Bordoloi, 1999). This is due, in part, to intense competition and a broad spectrum of market challenges (Shah and Ward, 2003; Pine, 1993). Further, there is a movement toward greater agility and flexibility with increases in product and service diversity (Qin and Nembhard, 2010; Hottenstein and Bowman, 1998). Changes in automation, process technologies, and other advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) create a challenging set of requirements for the frontline workforce and the management of their operations. While in many cases AMTs are intended to mitigate the traditional trade-off between shop floor efficiency and flexibility (e.g. Pagell et al., 2000; Swink et al., 2005), insufficient management of human resources has often led to failed AMT performance (Snell and Dean, 1992). Further, Pagell et al. (2000) suggest that managers, who are better able to make appropriate choices regarding workforce skills, will have higher levels of AMT performance.
In this study, we investigate potential learning and forgetting losses from cross-training workers on a set of tasks in the workplace. We investigate a dynamic workplace and seek to determine appropriate levels of cross-training in order to provide high flexibility while not unduly sacrificing efficiency. We do this by simulating a number of workplace environments based on a serial production process for a single product, and examine the effects that cross-training has on both efficiency and flexibility, two primary output measures, whose tradoffs have been examined across a range of studies (e.g. Bordoloi, 1999; Kelliher and Riley, 2003; Adler et al., 1999). Efficiency is defined as the average output of a product (in units) for a given number of workers over one year. It averages the efficiency of the system and all its involved workers over the year. Flexibility is defined as the time (in days) required to meet a given level of demand following the introduction of a new product. This definition has been described as delivery flexibility by Vokurka and O’Leary-Kelly (2000).
The structure of the remainder of the paper is as follows. In Section 2, we provide a brief review of the...