Some applications of the manpower planning system FORMASY

In this paper some manpower planning problems will be studied. It will be shown that the conversational computer program system FORMASY, which has been developed at Eindhoven University of Technology, can be of great help in analyzing problems with respect te the prospective distribution of manpower over several categories in a hierarchical system. FORMASY is based on Markov models, which can take into account: grade, qualification, age and grade age of the individual employees. This paper first gives a short introduction te the main features of the computer program system. This will be illustrated by some examples. Then it will be shown by two applications how FORMASY can be used for policy-making. The first application shows how a promotion- and recruitment policy can be found, such that the prospective distribution of manpower over the forthcoming years remains favourable although the growth of the organisation is stopped. The second application shows how some integration between three manpower groups can be used to absorb this ceasing of the growth without frustrating the career prospects of the employees too much.