Serious Game Based on Visual Interactive Simulation for Dynamic Workers Assignment

Abstract

Assigning workers to machines dynamically, so as to achieve production objectives, is known as a difficult problem which must be addressed in several manufacturing systems. In fact, production managers must determine when and where to assign workers, which is a very difficult task because of the complexity induced by the dynamic changes and the stochastic behavior of these systems. The current scientific literature is mainly oriented towards static assignments problems (only few dynamic heuristics are published). We propose a new approach whose aim is to help the managers in improving their knowledge about how to assign workers in real time. It is based on Serious Games built using Visual Interactive Simulation (discrete event). Our experiments show that an appropriate training using the proposed game can improve the users' ability to make good decisions about dynamic workers assignment and that human decisions can become more efficient than existing workers assignment rules found in the literature.