Integrated Personnel Scheduling in the Service Industry

该项目的主要目标是开发一个集成的决策支持系统，该系统可用于服务行业，以更好地满足其长期，中期和日常的人员配备需求。在每一个层次上，潜在的问题将被建模为大规模的整数程序，并结合精确的方法和启发式来解决。研究的一个重要部分是旨在设计有效的解决算法。一个相关的目标是开发新的分解技术和边界方案。因为在每一个层次上出现的许多子问题还没有被研究团体解决，所以很可能需要额外的建模来处理定性问题、不确定性，以及通知实际应用的约束的复杂性质。所开发的方法将在面对不确定性时着眼于计算效率和鲁棒性来实施。预期结果包括：(1)发展改进的服务行业人员计划和调度解决方法；(2)对周游生成和中断管理方面的建模问题有了更深入的理解；(3)相关算法性能的理论和实践表征；(4)综合决策支持系统的设计。有效的人员调度已成为服务企业保持竞争力的主要手段之一。与标准轮班和休息日的制造业不同，服务机构每周7天，每天24小时工作，面临着各种各样的需求。糟糕的员工日程安排会导致员工供过于求，却有太多的空闲时间，或者供过于求，导致客户不满，最终导致业务损失。换句话说，这个项目的一个重要目标是为非同质的劳动力找到健壮的时间表。管理人员面临的一般问题是在不违反劳动协议、公司政策和政府法规的情况下，以最低成本满足日常人员需求。在长期规划一级，必须考虑到决定长期工作人员的规模和组成的问题。在每周的水平上，必须跟踪关键资源并更新时间表以满足需求的变化。当缺勤、设备故障和其他中断需要在线重新调度时，实时控制在日常水平上发挥作用。

The principal goal of this project is to develop an integrated decision support system that can be used by the service industry to better meet their long-term, mid-range, and day-to-day staffing needs. At each of these levels, the underlying problems will be modeled as large-scale integer programs and solved with a combination of exact methods and heuristics. A significant portion of the research is aimed at devising efficient solution algorithms. An associated objective is to develop new decomposition techniques and bounding schemes. Because many of the subproblems that arise at each of these levels have yet to be addressed by the research community, it is likely that additional modeling will be required to deal with qualitative issues, uncertainty, and the intricate nature of the constraints that inform practical applications. The methodologies developed will be implemented with an eye toward computational efficiency and robustness in the face of uncertainty. Expected results include: (1) the development of improved solution methods for personnel planning and scheduling in the service industry; (2) a greater understanding of modeling issues with respect to weekly tour generation and disruption management; (3) theoretical and practical characterizations of the performance of related algorithms; and (4) the design of an integrated decision support system. Effective personnel scheduling has become one of the primary means by which service enterprises remain competitive. Unlike manufacturing where standard shifts and days off are the rule, service organizations operate up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and face widely varying demand. Poor staff schedules can lead to an oversupply of workers with too much idle time, or an undersupply with customer dissatisfaction and a resultant loss of business. Stated alternatively, an important goal of this project is to find robust schedules for a nonhomogeneous workforce. The general problem faced by management is to meet daily staffing requirements at minimum cost without violating labor agreements, company policies, and government regulations. At the long-term planning level, consideration must be given to issues that determine the size and composition of the permanent workforce. At the weekly level, critical resources must be tracked and schedules updated to meet changes in demand. Real-time control come into play at the day-to-day level where absenteeism, equipment failures, and other disruptions call for online rescheduling.