Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Airport ground workforce planning with hierarchical skills: a new formulation and branch-and-price approach

  • PATAT 2016
  • Published:
Annals of Operations Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We address the problem of strategic workforce planning for airport ground staff. The goal is to find a minimum workforce mix that satisfies a target coverage rate with respect to a given demand profile. Based on the classical tour scheduling problem, we propose a new formulation with hierarchical skills in which staff with higher level skills is permitted to cover demands of lower levels. A branch-and-price approach is proposed to solve the model. Numerical experiments based on real-world demand data demonstrate that our approach can efficiently produce near-optimal solutions to the model.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alfares, H. K. (2004). Survey, categorization, and comparison of recent tour scheduling literature. Annals of Operations Research, 127(1–4), 145–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, K. R. (1976). Workforce allocation in cyclical scheduling problems: A survey. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 27(1), 155–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bard, J. F. (2004). Staff scheduling in high volume service facilities with downgrading. IIE Transactions, 36(10), 985–997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnhart, C., Johnson, E. L., Nemhauser, G. L., Savelsbergh, M. W., & Vance, P. H. (1998). Branch-and-price: Column generation for solving huge integer programs. Operations Research, 46(3), 316–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Billionnet, A. (1999). Integer programming to schedule a hierarchical workforce with variable demands. European Journal of Operational Research, 114(1), 105–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunner, J. O., & Bard, J. F. (2013). Flexible weekly tour scheduling for postal service workers using a branch and price. Journal of Scheduling, 16(1), 129–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clausen, T. (2011). Airport ground staff scheduling. Doctoral dissertation, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark.

  • Dantzig, G. (1954). A comment on Edie’s traffic delay at toll booths. Operations Research, 2, 339–341.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowling, D., Krishnamoorthy, M., Mackenzie, H., & Sier, D. (1997). Staff rostering at a large international airport. Annals of Operations Research, 72, 125–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emmons, H., & Burns, R. N. (1991). Off-day scheduling with hierarchical worker categories. Operations Research, 39(3), 484–495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ernst, A. T., Jiang, H., Krishnamoorthy, M., & Sier, D. (2004). Staff scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models. European Journal of Operational Research, 153(1), 3–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herbers, J. (2005). Models and algorithms for ground staff scheduling on airports. Doctoral dissertation, RWTH Aachen, Germany.

  • Hung, R. (1994). Single-shift off-day scheduling of a hierarchical workforce with variable demands. European Journal of Operational Research, 78(1), 49–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, Y., Chen, J., & Cai, X. (2007). An integrated staff-sizing approach considering feasibility of scheduling decision. Annals of Operations Research, 155(1), 361–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason, A. J., Ryan, D. M., & Panton, D. M. (1998). Integrated simulation, heuristic and optimisation approaches to staff scheduling. Operations Research, 46(2), 161–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ni, H., & Abeledo, H. (2007). A branch-and-price approach for large-scale employee tour scheduling problems. Annals of Operations Research, 155(1), 167–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pascoal, M., Martins, E., & Santos, J. (2001). A new improvement for a k shortest paths algorithm. Investigação Operacional, 21, 47–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stolletz, R. (2010). Operational workforce planning for check-in counters at airports. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 46(3), 414–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Bergh, J., Beliën, J., De Bruecker, P., Demeulemeester, E., & De Boeck, L. (2013). Personnel scheduling: A literature review. European Journal of Operational Research, 226(3), 367–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research is supported in part by Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou (201610010188). We wish to thank Chunlei Mu, Shuai Tian, and other colleagues in our team for their excellent work on the project. We would like to acknowledge the help of two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments to improve the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IT Department, China Southern Airlines Headquarters, Guangzhou, China

    Lishun Zeng, Mingyu Zhao & Yangfan Liu

Authors
  1. Lishun Zeng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mingyu Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yangfan Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lishun Zeng.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zeng, L., Zhao, M. & Liu, Y. Airport ground workforce planning with hierarchical skills: a new formulation and branch-and-price approach. Ann Oper Res 275, 245–258 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-017-2624-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-017-2624-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation