A Simulation Approach for Stochastic Employee Days-Off Scheduling

Alfares, Hesham K.

doi:10.2316/journal.205.2007.1.205-4281

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…They estimate that 10% savings in labor cost could be obtained by switching from five to four workdays per week for maintenance crews. Alfares [9] constructs a simulation model to evaluate alternative days-off schedules for a multi-craft pipeline maintenance workforce. Assuming stochastic daily demands for each craft, the model suggests a days-off schedule to reduce average completion times of maintenance orders.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multiobjective Scheduling of Remote-Area Employees with Minimum Cost of Transportation

Alfares

2014

Journal of Industrial Engineering

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An integer programming model and optimal solution procedure are presented for assigning employees to the (10, 14) days-off schedule. This schedule is used by a large oil company to schedule employees in remote work locations. The primary objective is to minimize the total number of employees. Since employees are flown to their remote work sites, the company also aims to minimize transportation cost. Therefore, secondary objectives include (1) minimizing the number of active days-off work patterns, (2) consistently using the same set of active days-off patterns, (3) assigning work schedules fairly among employees, and (4) avoiding the use of specialized optimization solvers. A rotation schedule is used in which two scheduling rules are enforced: a minimum proportion of weekend days off needs to be given and a maximum limit on the number of successive workdays cannot be exceeded. Utilizing the problem structure, simple optimal procedures are developed to solve this unique complex scheduling problem.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Patterns. Assignment to 10 days-off patterns (2,3,4,6,7,9,10,11,13,14) is applicable when = ⌈ + 0.4 ⌉ and a seven-pattern solution is not feasible. Assuming ( 4 = Setting the lower bound in (47a) less than or equal to the upper bound in (47b) leads to…”

Section: Ten Activementioning

confidence: 99%

Multiobjective Scheduling of Remote-Area Employees with Minimum Cost of Transportation

Alfares

2014

Journal of Industrial Engineering

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“…They achieved a 8.6% reduction in the combined cost of labor and overhead considering a 2‐week planning period. In related research, Alfares considered days‐off scheduling with stochastic daily demand. The problem is to assign a limited number of workers (13 technicians in his application) to three different days‐off patterns so that the demand is satisfied.…”

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Bounded flexibility in days-on and days-off scheduling

Brunner

Bard

Köhler

2013

Naval Research Logistics

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This article presents a flexible days‐on and days‐off scheduling problem and develops an exact branch and price (B&P) algorithm to find solutions. The main objective is to minimize the size of the total workforce required to cover time‐varying demand over a planning horizon that may extend up to 12 weeks. A new aspect of the problem is the general restriction that the number of consecutive days on and the number of consecutive days off must each fall within a predefined range. Moreover, the total assignment of working days in the planning horizon cannot exceed some maximum value. In the B&P framework, the master problem is stated as a set covering‐type problem whose columns are generated iteratively by solving one of three different subproblems. The first is an implicit model, the second is a resource constrained shortest path problem, and the third is a dynamic program. Computational experiments using both real‐word and randomly generated data show that workforce reductions up to 66% are possible with highly flexible days‐on and days‐off patterns. When evaluating the performance of the three subproblems, it was found that each yielded equivalent solutions but the dynamic program proved to be significantly more efficient. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 60: 678–701, 2013

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“…We handle the first source by adding time buffer constraints to our deterministic model; the second and third sources require the introduction of capacity buffer constraints (see the Results section). Alfares (2007) presents a simulation-based alternative approach to address uncertainty.…”

Section: Discuss How Continentalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Workforce Scheduling of Aircraft Line Maintenance at Sabena Technics

2011

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This paper presents our application of a visualization tool and optimization model based on mixed-integer linear programming to solve a workforce staffing and scheduling problem at Sabena Technics, a major aircraft maintenance company in Belgium. We used the software to generate many alternative, cost-efficient schedules and to analyze multiple scenarios. In several management meetings, stakeholders evaluated the schedules and raised concerns. We subsequently changed the model to successfully address their concerns. The model has resulted in considerable savings and a more efficient use of human resources.

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A Simulation Approach for Stochastic Employee Days-Off Scheduling

Cited by 8 publications

References 14 publications

Multiobjective Scheduling of Remote-Area Employees with Minimum Cost of Transportation

Multiobjective Scheduling of Remote-Area Employees with Minimum Cost of Transportation

Bounded flexibility in days-on and days-off scheduling

Improving Workforce Scheduling of Aircraft Line Maintenance at Sabena Technics

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