Incorporating human factors in planning and scheduling for small business enterprises

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Conventional planning and scheduling in manufacturing does not consider human factors or human factors are**only considered as a disturbance to a plan or schedule. To small manufacturing enterprises (SMEs), internal**redundancies in terms of resources (human, material, and knowledge) are little, and as such, the conventional**approach to planning or scheduling for SMEs fails, especially in the context of the globalization of economy**and society. In this project, a methodology for developing a robust pan and schedule will be investigated with**the general idea - i.e. incorporating human factors in planning and scheduling.**The project will take a small manufacturing enterprise in the agricultural machinery sector as an example and**to develop this methodology and then to generalize it to all the small manufacturing enterprises. There are two**specific objectives in this research. The first specific objective is to identify all human factors along with their**relationships in SMEs. The second specific objective is to develop a methodology for incorporating the identified human factors into a plan and schedule for SMEs. This project will be carried out in a close collaboration with the supporting organization in Saskatchewan. The anticipated outcome from this research includes (a) the theory of human factors to manufacturing operations management and (b) the methodology for planning and scheduling with consideration of human**factors. The main technical merit of this project is the contribution to the field of planning and scheduling by the theory and methodology for planning and scheduling with consideration of human factors and thus to improve the robustness of a plan and schedule. The current literature has little to address this issue, but the current manufacturing practice has frequently shown the significant impact of human and social factors to planning and scheduling especially in SMEs. Broadly, this research will help SMEs in coping with the challenge in planning and scheduling arising due to the globalization both in economy and society. Since over 80% of manufacturing enterprises in Canada are SMEs, this project will be extremely beneficial to Canada.