Simulation modeling for manpower planning in electrical maintenance service facility

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the simulation model for manpower planning in electrical maintenance service facility and evaluates different scenarios to improve resource utilization while meeting the desired service level. Design/methodology/approach The process systematically maps entire system of electrical fault rectification, identifies probability distributions of demand of electrical maintenance requests and its process times using historical data. The simulation software Arena was used to model the entire system and various possible improvements were evaluated to assess performance of maintenance service facility. Findings The simulation results obtained for the proposed changes in the system indicated the potential improvement in resource utilization while meeting the average waiting time expectations of customers. Practical implications The proposed simulation model can help maintenance people to decide the optimum number of resources to meet the agreed performance level that is expected by various stakeholders. Originality/value The paper considers the computer simulation in modeling complex real-life system for understanding the resource requirement of electrical fault maintenance facility to improve resource utilization while meeting the desired service level.