Grey goal programming and the application of the method to the labor scheduling decision problem in prototype production

Labor scheduling decision problems are a difficult and time-consuming problem to be solved by businesses working on shift and irregular working days. The aim of the labor scheduling is to ensure efficient use of resources and balanced workload distribution. At the same time, a successful labor scheduling needs to fulfill the employee's individual needs as much as possible. It is inevitable for businesses to make decisions under uncertainty when we consider the internal and external environmental factors in today's competition conditions. In this case, businesses need to solve the labor scheduling decision problems using objective decision-making methods that reflect the uncertainty. Grey system theory includes methods used in modeling uncertainty caused by incomplete information. The Goal Programming method provides satisfactory solutions to minimize deviations from the goals set within the constraints that limit the decision problem. The labor scheduling decision problem is a decision problem that the decision maker has more than one goal. In this respect, it is appropriate to use the "Grey Goal Programming" approach in the production of prototypes where uncertainty caused from incomplete information is dominant. In this study, labor scheduling decision problem with prototype production has been examined in in a business that operates in the automotive sector. The model has been solved by the help of Microsoft Excel Solver using real data derived from the business.