Optimum workforce-size model using dynamic programming approach

Abstract

This paper presents an optimum workforce-size model which determines the minimum number of excess workers (overstaffing) as well as the minimum total recruitment cost during a specified planning horizon. The model is an extension of other existing dynamic programming models for manpower planning in the sense that it strikes a balance between overstaffing and understaffing at each stage of the computations. The model also considers a manpower planning system in which the employment level has upper and lower bounds. The employment level varies from one period to another while the cost incurred in each period depends only on recruitment size and the overstaffing cost from an earlier stage. A mathematical problem is formulated and solved to illustrate the model numerically.

KEYWORDS: Workforce-size, dynamic programming, Optimum, Overstaffing and Understaffing.