Using Mathematical Programming to Help Supervisors Balance Workloads

As resources in the Department of Defense shrink, the Naval Aviation Supply Office must reduce the size of its organization, balancing work assignments fairly as it does. Having recently converted to Deming’s TQM principles, management assembled an employee involvement group to develop appropriate criteria for assigning work. Our introduction of management science techniques enabled this group to pursue its objectives. Using participative processes throughout, we applied mixed-integer programming to produce a model for repetitive use that all the participants own and understand. We utilized this model several times to mix types of work so that all participating employees received at least, and no more than, their fair shares.