Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Automated Shift Design and Break Scheduling

  • Chapter
Automated Scheduling and Planning

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 505))

Abstract

Shift design and break scheduling are important employee scheduling problems that arise in many contexts, especially at airports, call centers, and service industries. The aim is to find a minimum number of legal shifts, the number of workers assigned to them, and a suitable number of breaks so that the deviation from predetermined workforce requirements is minimized. Such problems have been extensively investigated in Operations Research and recently have been also tackled with Artificial Intelligence techniques. In this chapter we outline major characteristics of these problems and provide a literature survey over solution techniques to solve them. We then describe in detail two state-of-the-art approaches based on local search techniques. Finally, we discuss our experiences with the application of one of these techniques in a real life case study.

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Aykin, T.: Optimal shift scheduling with multiple break windows. Management Science 42, 591–603 (1996)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Aykin, T.: A comparative evaluation of modelling approaches to the labour shift scheduling problem. European Journal of Operational Research 125, 381–397 (2000)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Bechtold, S.E., Jacobs, L.W.: Implicit modelling of flexible break assignments in optimal shift scheduling. Management Science 36(11), 1339–1351 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Beer, A., Gaertner, J., Musliu, N., Schafhauser, W., Slany, W.: Scheduling breaks in shift plans for call centers. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Montreal, Canada (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Beer, A., Gärtner, J., Musliu, N., Schafhauser, W., Slany, W.: An AI-based break-scheduling system for supervisory personnel. IEEE Intelligent Systems 25(2), 60–73 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Côté, M.-C., Gendron, B., Quimper, C.-G., Rousseau, L.-M.: Formal languages for integer programming modeling of shift scheduling problems. Constraints 16(1), 55–76 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Côté, M.-C., Gendron, B., Rousseau, L.-M.: Grammar-based integer programming models for multiactivity shift scheduling. Management Science 57(1), 151–163 (2011)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. Dantzig, G.B.: A comment on Eddie’s traffic delays at toll booths. Operations Research 2, 339–341 (1954)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Dechter, R., Meiri, I., Pearl, J.: Temporal constraint networks. Artificial Intelligence 49(1-3), 61–95 (1991)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Di Gaspero, L., Gärtner, J., Kortsarz, G., Musliu, N., Schaerf, A., Slany, W.: The minimum shift design problem. Annals of Operations Research 155, 79–105 (2007)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Di Gaspero, L., Schaerf, A.: Multi-neighbourhood local search with application to course timetabling. In: Burke, E.K., De Causmaecker, P. (eds.) PATAT 2002. LNCS, vol. 2740, pp. 262–275. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Gärtner, J., Musliu, N., Slany, W.: Rota: a research project on algorithms for workforce scheduling and shift design optimization. AI Commun. 14(2), 83–92 (2001)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Gärtner, J., Musliu, N., Slany, W.: A heuristic based system for generation of shifts with breaks. In: Proceedings of the 24th SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Di Gaspero, L., Gärtner, J., Kortsarz, G., Musliu, N., Schaerf, A., Slany, W.: The minimum shift design problem: Theory and practice. In: Di Battista, G., Zwick, U. (eds.) ESA 2003. LNCS, vol. 2832, pp. 593–604. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Di Gaspero, L., Gärtner, J., Musliu, N., Schaerf, A., Schafhauser, W., Slany, W.: A hybrid LS-CP solver for the shifts and breaks design problem. In: Blesa, M.J., Blum, C., Raidl, G., Roli, A., Sampels, M. (eds.) HM 2010. LNCS, vol. 6373, pp. 46–61. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Glover, F., Laguna, M.: Tabu search. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (1997)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. Hoos, H.H., Stützle, T.: Stochastic Local Search: Foundations & Applications. Elsevier / Morgan Kaufmann (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Minton, S., Johnston, M.D., Philips, A.B., Laird, P.: Minimizing conflicts: A heuristic repair method for constraint satisfaction and scheduling problems. Artif. Intell. 58(1-3), 161–205 (1992)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Musliu, N., Schaerf, A., Slany, W.: Local search for shift design. European Journal of Operational Research 153(1), 51–64 (2004)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. Musliu, N., Schafhauser, W., Widl, M.: A memetic algorithm for a break scheduling problem. In: 8th Metaheuristic International Conference, Hamburg, Germany (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Musliu, N.: Intelligent Search Methods for Workforce Scheduling: New Ideas and Practical Applications. PhD thesis, Vienna University of Technology (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Musliu, N.: Heuristic methods for automatic rotating workforce scheduling. International Journal of Computational Intelligence Research 2(4), 309–326 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Papadimitriou, C.H., Steiglitz, K.: Combinatorial Optimization: Algorithms and Complexity. Prentice Hall (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Quimper, C.-G., Rousseau, L.-M.: A large neighbourhood search approach to the multi-activity shift scheduling problem. Journal of Heuristics 16(3), 373–391 (2010)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Rekik, M., Cordeau, J.F., Soumis, F.: Implicit shift scheduling with multiple breaks and work stretch duration restrictions. Journal of Scheduling 13, 49–75 (2010)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. Schafhauser, W.: TEMPLE - A Domain Specific Language for Modeling and Solving Real-Life Staff Scheduling Problems. PhD thesis, Vienna University of Technology (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Selman, B., Kautz, H.A., Cohen, B.: Local search strategies for satisfiability testing. In: Proceedings of the Second DIMACS Challange on Cliques, Coloring, and Satisfiability (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Tellier, P., White, G.: Generating personnel schedules in an industrial setting using a tabu search algorithm. In: Burke, E.K., Rudova, H. (eds.) The 5th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, pp. 293–302 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Thompson, G.: Improved implicit modeling of the labor shift scheduling problem. Management Science 41(4), 595–607 (1995)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  30. Widl, M.: Memetic algorithms for break scheduling. Master’s thesis, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria (2010), http://www.kr.tuwien.ac.at/staff/widl/thesis.pdf

  31. Widl, M., Musliu, N.: An improved memetic algorithm for break scheduling. In: Blesa, M.J., Blum, C., Raidl, G., Roli, A., Sampels, M. (eds.) HM 2010. LNCS, vol. 6373, pp. 133–147. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. DIEGM, Università degli Studi di Udine, Udine, Italy

    Luca Di Gaspero & Andrea Schaerf

  2. XIMES GmbH, Wien, Austria

    Johannes Gärtner & Werner Schafhauser

  3. DBAI, Technische Universität Wien, Wien, Austria

    Nysret Musliu

  4. IST, Technische Universität Graz, Graz, Austria

    Wolfgang Slany

Authors
  1. Luca Di Gaspero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Johannes Gärtner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nysret Musliu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Andrea Schaerf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Werner Schafhauser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Wolfgang Slany
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luca Di Gaspero .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Elektrik-Elektronik Fakultesi, Istanbul Teknik Universitesi, Istanbul, 34469, Turkey

    A. Sima Uyar

  2. , School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, United Kingdom

    Ender Ozcan

  3. , Centre for Emergent Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, 10 Colinton Road, Edinburgh, EH10 5DT, United Kingdom

    Neil Urquhart

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Di Gaspero, L., Gärtner, J., Musliu, N., Schaerf, A., Schafhauser, W., Slany, W. (2013). Automated Shift Design and Break Scheduling. In: Uyar, A., Ozcan, E., Urquhart, N. (eds) Automated Scheduling and Planning. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 505. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39304-4_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39304-4_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39303-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39304-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation