Strategic workforce and project planning for engineering automotive production systems: tackling the transition to electric vehicles.
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| Title: | Strategic workforce and project planning for engineering automotive production systems: tackling the transition to electric vehicles. |
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| Authors: | Kolter, Maximilian1 (AUTHOR) max.kolter@tum.de, Grunow, Martin1 (AUTHOR), Kolisch, Rainer1 (AUTHOR), Stäblein, Thomas1,2 (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | International Journal of Production Research. Feb2025, Vol. 63 Issue 3, p1105-1125. 21p. |
| Subjects: | Electric vehicles, Automobile emissions, Internal combustion engines, Automobile industry, Workforce planning |
| Abstract: | Car manufacturers are electrifying their product portfolios as a reaction to restrictions imposed on car emissions. This leads to additional product introductions of battery electric vehicles to the existing portfolio of internal combustion engine vehicles. For each introduction, car manufacturers must engineer the corresponding production systems. The engineering of these production systems is executed as projects that consist of designing, building, installing, and testing, requiring different types of engineers. Car manufacturers deploy an engineering workforce and outsource work to engineering service providers. In practice, workforce planning, project planning, and outsourcing are performed sequentially using spreadsheets. However, portfolio electrification increases the complexity of planning, calling for more advanced methods. We formulate an integrated workforce and project planning problem (mixed-integer programme) to minimise outsourcing and perform an experimental study using realistic data representing different prevalent strategies for portfolio electrification. Our approach significantly reduces outsourcing and increases workforce utilisation compared to current industry practice for a wide range of workforce sizes. Furthermore, we investigate the benefit of partially aligning the current practice with our integrated approach. Optimising outsourcing alone while maintaining the sequential planning process reaps 70% to 80% of the potential benefits, and integrating workforce or project planning achieves up to 90%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of International Journal of Production Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Engineering Source |
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| Abstract: | Car manufacturers are electrifying their product portfolios as a reaction to restrictions imposed on car emissions. This leads to additional product introductions of battery electric vehicles to the existing portfolio of internal combustion engine vehicles. For each introduction, car manufacturers must engineer the corresponding production systems. The engineering of these production systems is executed as projects that consist of designing, building, installing, and testing, requiring different types of engineers. Car manufacturers deploy an engineering workforce and outsource work to engineering service providers. In practice, workforce planning, project planning, and outsourcing are performed sequentially using spreadsheets. However, portfolio electrification increases the complexity of planning, calling for more advanced methods. We formulate an integrated workforce and project planning problem (mixed-integer programme) to minimise outsourcing and perform an experimental study using realistic data representing different prevalent strategies for portfolio electrification. Our approach significantly reduces outsourcing and increases workforce utilisation compared to current industry practice for a wide range of workforce sizes. Furthermore, we investigate the benefit of partially aligning the current practice with our integrated approach. Optimising outsourcing alone while maintaining the sequential planning process reaps 70% to 80% of the potential benefits, and integrating workforce or project planning achieves up to 90%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 00207543 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00207543.2024.2371097 |
