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Solution approaches to large shift scheduling problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2008

Monia Rekik ,
Jean-François Cordeau  and
François Soumis
Monia Rekik
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique de Montréal and GERAD, C.P. 6079, succ. Centre-Ville Montréal, H3C 3A7, Canada
Jean-François Cordeau
Affiliation:
HEC Montréal and GERAD, 3000, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal H3T 2A7, Canada; jean-francois.cordeau@hec.ca
François Soumis
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique de Montréal and GERAD, C.P. 6079, succ. Centre-Ville Montréal, H3C 3A7, Canada
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Abstract

This paper considers large shift scheduling problems with different shift start times and lengths, fractionable breaks and work stretch duration restrictions. Two solution approaches are proposed to solve the problems over a multiple-day planning horizon. The first approach is based on a local branching strategy and the second one is based on a temporal decomposition of the problem. Local branching is very efficient in finding good feasible solutions when compared to a classical branch-and-bound procedure. However, the decomposition approach has the advantage of yielding feasible solutions in short computing times, even for difficult instances.

Keywords

Shift schedulingflexibilityfractionable breakswork stretch restrictionsforward and backward constraintslocal branchingheuristic.
Type
Research Article
Information
RAIRO - Operations Research , Volume 42 , Issue 2: CIRO 05 , April 2008 , pp. 229 - 258
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, ROADEF, SMAI, 2008

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