1302. Enhancing Ergonomics by Integrated Shift Design and Rotating Workforce Scheduling
Invited abstract in session WB-12: Workforce scheduling, stream Scheduling and Project Management.
Wednesday, 10:30-12:00Room: Clarendon SR 1.02
Authors (first author is the speaker)
| 1. | Tristan Becker
|
| TU Dresden |
Abstract
In many organizations, human resources are a primary cost driver, making careful scheduling of this resource paramount. Within this context, shift design and scheduling emerge as key planning tasks. The shift design problem devises a set of workable shifts based on the staffing requirements. Then, the shift scheduling problem assembles these shifts to a shift schedule. Traditionally, shift design and scheduling are treated as separate problems. This separation ignores synergies between the shift design and scheduling, leading to inefficiencies when relying on predetermined shift designs. Therefore, we introduce an integrated approach for shift design and rotating workforce scheduling. In addition to the shift design objective function, we model an ergonomics objective function for the quality of the schedule. We solve the integrated problem using a branch-and-cut approach based on a compact formulation and graph representation, ensuring feasibility of shift designs by modeling the schedule as a Eulerian cycle of work and rest sequences. Results show that an integrated shift design and scheduling enables shift schedules with improved ergonomics without deteriorating the shift design objective compared to the sequential planning approach. Further, an analysis of the Pareto-efficient frontiers across the benchmark set indicates that substantial improvements in ergonomics are possible if decision makers are willing to accept a minor reduction in shift design quality.
Keywords
- Project Management and Scheduling
- Branch and Cut
- Human Resources Management
Status: accepted
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