Optimization methods for complex personnel shift scheduling problems

Kronos加拿大系统公司将Workforce ERP软件商业化到全球1,100多家组织，其中包括加拿大的107家。该软件可以确定各个领域的员工的工作时间表，包括零售，医疗保健，休闲和酒店以及制造业。人员轮班调度是一个复杂的优化问题，涉及为每个可用的员工确定他的工作日，每个工作日的确切班次以及每个班次中要执行的工作，以便最好地满足每个工作的员工需求。在Kronos，当前的优化算法旨在解决人员调度问题的规划版本。在这个项目中，我们建议提高其能力，并探讨替代算法来解决复杂版本的人员调度问题，即，重新安排，需要修改计划的时间表时，不可预见的事件发生，强大的调度，考虑到需求的变化和潜在的员工缺勤，多部门/多站点调度，考虑可能的员工转移部门之间或站点之间。我们的主要目标是开发一个有效的算法来解决这些问题的每个变种的实际情况。为此，我们将进行数学建模、数据分析和方法开发。 这项研究的成功结果将被集成到劳动力管理软件中。它们将为Kronos提供商业优势，因为这些新功能没有包含在竞争对手的软件中。因此，一家加拿大公司将直接受益于该项目的积极影响。此外，许多使用Workforce ERP软件安排其员工的加拿大公司也将间接受益于该项目的成果，因为它们将获得更适合其需要的改进版软件。最后，该项目将资助7名硕士和博士生的培训。

Kronos Canadian Systems Inc. commercializes the Workforce Scheduler software to more than 1,100 organizations across the world, including 107 in Canada. This software allows to determine the work schedules of employees in various domains including retail, healthcare, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing. Personnel shift scheduling is a complex optimization problem that involves determining for each available employee his working days, the exact shift to work on each working day, and the job(s) to perform in each shift, in order to cover at best the demand in employees for each job. At Kronos, the current optimization algorithm aims at solving a planning version of the personnel scheduling problem. In this project, we propose to enhance its capabilities and to explore alternative algorithms for solving complex versions of the personnel scheduling problem, namely, rescheduling that requires revising planned schedules when unforeseen event occur, robust scheduling that takes into account demand variation and potential employee absenteeism, and multi-department/multi-site scheduling that considers possible employee transfers between departments or between sites. Our main objective is to develop an efficient algorithm for solving practical instances of each of these problem variants. To do so, we will perform mathematical modeling, data analysis, and methodological developments. The successful results from this research will be integrated into the Workforce Scheduler software. They will provide a commercial advantage to Kronos because these new features are not incorporated in the softwares of its competitors. A Canadian company will thus benefit directly from the positive impacts of this project. Moreover, a large number of Canadian companies that use the Workforce Scheduler software for scheduling their workforce will also benefit indirectly from the results of this project when they will have access to an improved version of the software that will better suit their needs. Finally, this project will finance the training of seven MSc and PhD students.