An employee performance estimation model for the logistics industry

a r t i c l e i n f o In the last decade, the growing economy in Taiwan has brought about rapid growth in the logistics demands of enterprises. An important goal in the field of third party logistics (3PLs) is to improve the performance of logistics activities to enhance operation efficiency and enterprise competency. However, the employee performance must be determined in order to improve the activity performance of 3PLs. Thus, the aim of this research is to develop an employee performance estimation (EPE) model that includes three modules: direct performance determination (DPD), indirect performance determination (IPD), and performance score analysis (PSA). Moreover, a web-based logistics information management (LIM) platform was established via the EPE model in order to assist the managers in collecting and maintaining shop-floor operation data and to identify low-performance logistics tasks as well as inexperienced employees. In addition, a real-world case was used to demonstrate applicability of the proposed model and platform. As a whole, this paper presents an integrated model with the aims to more accurately calculate employee performance and significantly reduce the workload of 3PL decision makers. As the economy continues to grow in Taiwan, enterprises require more cooperation with professional logistics service providers in order to accomplish logistics activities since the complexity of logistics activities (e.g., distribution or warehousing) has gradually increased. This has resulted in a drastic increase in the number of third party logistics (3PLs) established for the purpose of fulfilling the logistics demands of enterprises. In order to enhance operation competency and efficiency, some 3PLs have utilized a variety of automated techniques and management strategies to improve the performance of logistical tasks. Although conventional 3PLs invest a large amount of money and time in their logistic operations, operation competency and efficiency has not shown significant improvement because managers cannot systematically recognize either low-performance logistics tasks or inexperienced employees. Logistics managers do not take a systematic approach for determining the performance of operators. In addition, logistics-related data (e.g., operation time) from the shop floor cannot be accurately gathered and imported into a logistics database and thus, they cannot be employed for operator performance evaluation. Under such circumstances, 3PL managers have difficulties reusing and analyzing logistics-related data. To overcome these problems, this research proposes a model aimed at determining the performance of different types of employees by utilizing the shop floor data of logistics activities. With regard to employee …