Maximizing disability diversity, language diversity and productivity: A study in apparel manufacturing

Abstract The UN Sustainable Development Goals have recently emphasized the importance of diversity inclusion. Motivated by this goal, we examine the impact of employing individuals with disabilities in apparel manufacturing cells on overall team productivity. We formulate a series of deterministic and stochastic productivity maximization assignment problems to study the impact of disability inclusion on a production line. We extend the baseline productivity maximization formulation to study a multi‐objective problem that simultaneously maximizes productivity, disability diversity, and language diversity. Each analysis is performed across two different garments drawn from a real‐world setting. The models are tested using archival time study data collected in partnership with an apparel manufacturing firm where more than 75% of the billed work hours are from individuals with significant disabilities. The following insights emerge from the analyses. First, the productivity of teams which have individuals across multiple, different types of disabilities is higher than the productivity of teams with employees who share a single, specific type of disability. Second, teams that employ both individuals with and without disabilities perform slightly better than teams that consist of only individuals with disabilities. In some instances, contrary to intuition, teams of only individuals with disabilities even have higher productivity than teams of only individuals with no disabilities. Finally, our results from the multi‐objective problem that simultaneously maximizes productivity, disability diversity, and language diversity suggest that productivity is not generally sensitive to increases in disability diversity. However, productivity is sensitive at extreme levels of disability diversity and language diversity. Limitations and possible future extensions of the study are discussed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved