Abstract
This chapter discusses the challenges of workforce scheduling in systems with time-varying arrival rates, with customer impatience (abandonments), general service and abandonment distributions and an exhaustive end-of-shift policy (servers may work overtime at the end of their shift to complete the service process of a customer). We explore the opportunities of simulation-optimization approaches in such a context. Two simulation-optimization approaches are evaluated: a fast two-step heuristic and a branch-and-bound method that yields an estimated optimal shift schedule. We compare their computational effort and personnel costs, and analyze the sensitivity of the methods to the number of replications that is used in the simulation model.
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This research was supported by the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) (grant no G.0547.09).
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Appendix: Shift Specifications
Appendix: Shift Specifications
See Table 9.6.
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Defraeye, M., Van Nieuwenhuyse, I. (2015). Personnel Scheduling in Queues with Time-varying Arrival Rates: Applications of Simulation-Optimization. In: Dellino, G., Meloni, C. (eds) Uncertainty Management in Simulation-Optimization of Complex Systems. Operations Research/Computer Science Interfaces Series, vol 59. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7547-8_9
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