Dynamic modelling of labour assignment flexibility in the French fresh food industry

Owing to the perishability of fresh produce, the food industry has to react quickly by implementing different policies on labour management. We conduct two intensive surveys which showed that human resource management (HRM) issues in the fresh food industry mainly consist in finding appropriate labour capacity that meets the specific fluctuations in sales. The HRM decisions were taken so that flexible working time more efficiently matched the workload and staffing numbers. These empirical findings are very informative in that they point to how managers make HRM decisions when choosing the kind of employees they have to hire according to the type of additional workload imposed. In addition, they relate to the employment contract (temporary or permanent staff, subcontractor), the time required for employees to be efficient and their quality of work. Following this qualitative research, we mathematically formalize the combinatory possibilities of HRM assignments and the decision problems to be addressed. Finally, we propose a simulation tool for analysing the dynamical consequences of the HRM policies by comparing different policies on labour management.