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An integer linear programming-based heuristic for scheduling heterogeneous, part-time service employees

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  • Hojati, Mehran
  • Patil, Ashok S.

Abstract

Scheduling of heterogeneous, part-time, service employees with limited availability is especially challenging because employees have different availability and skills, and work different total work hours in a planning period, e.g., a week. The constraints typically are to meet employee requirements during each hour in a planning period with shifts which have a minimum & maximum length, and do not exceed 5 work days per week for each employee. The objectives typically are to minimize over staffing and to meet the target total work hours for each employee during the planning period. We decompose this problem into (a) determining good shifts and then (b) assigning the good shifts to employees, and use a set of small integer linear programs to solve each part. We apply this method to the data given in a reference paper and compare our results. Also, several random problems are generated and solved to verify the robustness of our solution method.

Suggested Citation

  • Hojati, Mehran & Patil, Ashok S., 2011. "An integer linear programming-based heuristic for scheduling heterogeneous, part-time service employees," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 209(1), pages 37-50, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:209:y:2011:i:1:p:37-50
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Gérard, Matthieu & Clautiaux, François & Sadykov, Ruslan, 2016. "Column generation based approaches for a tour scheduling problem with a multi-skill heterogeneous workforce," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(3), pages 1019-1030.
    2. Lin, Shih-Wei & Ying, Kuo-Ching, 2014. "Minimizing shifts for personnel task scheduling problems: A three-phase algorithm," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(1), pages 323-334.
    3. Parisio, Alessandra & Neil Jones, Colin, 2015. "A two-stage stochastic programming approach to employee scheduling in retail outlets with uncertain demand," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 97-103.
    4. Banu Sungur & Cemal Özgüven & Yasemin Kariper, 2017. "Shift scheduling with break windows, ideal break periods, and ideal waiting times," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 203-222, June.
    5. Van den Bergh, Jorne & Beliën, Jeroen & De Bruecker, Philippe & Demeulemeester, Erik & De Boeck, Liesje, 2013. "Personnel scheduling: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 226(3), pages 367-385.
    6. De Bruecker, Philippe & Van den Bergh, Jorne & Beliën, Jeroen & Demeulemeester, Erik, 2015. "Workforce planning incorporating skills: State of the art," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(1), pages 1-16.
    7. Sanja Petrovic, 2019. "“You have to get wet to learn how to swim” applied to bridging the gap between research into personnel scheduling and its implementation in practice," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 275(1), pages 161-179, April.
    8. Wang, Wenshu & Xie, Kexin & Guo, Siqi & Li, Weixing & Xiao, Fan & Liang, Zhe, 2023. "A shift-based model to solve the integrated staff rostering and task assignment problem with real-world requirements," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(1), pages 360-378.

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