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Question: Oakton River Bridge Case study The Oakton

River had long been considered an impediment to the
dev...

Oakton River Bridge Case study

The Oakton River had long been considered an impediment to the development of a certain
medium sized metropolitan area in the southeast. Lying to the east of the city, the river made it
difficult for people living on its faster bank to commute to jobs in and around the city and to take
advantage of the shopping and cultural attractions that the city had to offer. Similarly, the river
inhibited those on its western bank from access to the ocean resorts lying one hour to the east.

A personnel task force has been established to recruit, train and schedule the workers needed to
operate the toll facility. It has taken as part of its mandate the requirement that personnel costs
be kept as low as possible. One particular area of concern is the number of toll collectors that will
be needed. The bridge is scheduling three shifts of collectors: shift A from midnight to 8am, shift
B from 8am to 4pm, and shift C from 4pm to midnight. Recently the state employees union
negotiated a contract with the state which requires that all toll collectors be permanent, full time
employees. In addition, all collectors must work a #ve-on, two-off schedule on the same shift.
Thus, for example, a worker could be assigned to work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
and Saturday on shift A, followed by Sunday and Monday off. An employee could not be
schedule to work, say Tuesday on shift A followed by Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
on shift B or on any other mixture of shifts during a #ve day block. The employees would choose
their assignments in order of their seniority.

The task force has received projections of traffic $ow on the bridge by day and hour. (minimum
number of collectors required per shift, per day to handle the anticipated traffic load.

Minimum number of toll collectors require per shift

Shift Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
A 8 13 12 12 13 13 15
B 10 10 10 10 10 13 15
C 15 13 13 12 12 13 8
:
 The numbers in the table include one or two extra collectors per shift to #ll in for collectors who
call in sick and to provide relief for collectors on their scheduled breaks. Note that each of the
eight collectors needed for shift A on Sunday, for example could come from any of the A shifts
scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Questions
1. Determine the minimum number of toll collectors that would have to hired to meet the
requirements expressed in the table.
2. The union had indicated that it might lift its opposition to the mixing of shifts in a #ve day block
in exchange for additional compensation and bene#ts. By how much could the numbers of toll
collectors required be reduced if this were done.

Use this format

1. IP Model (the IP equations), assumptions that clarify the development of the model.

2. The EXCEL Model

3. A recommendation to the problem.

Expert Answer

Anonymous
answered this

The given information regarding minimum number of collectors under the three shifts is as
follows:

Minimum number of toll collectors require per shift

Shift/Day Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

A 8 13 12 12 13 13 15

B 10 10 10 10 10 13 15

C 15 13 13 12 12 13 8

The objective is to have minimum number of collectors and constraints are in terms of satisfaction
of minimum requirements per shift per day. Additional constraint is about #ve-on and two-off on
the same shift.

Let a1 be the number of collectors who works from Sunday to Thursday(shift A) and off on Friday
and Saturday, a2 be the number of collectors who work from Monday to Friday and off on
Saturday and Sunday, a3 be the number on from Tuesday to Saturday and off on Sunday and
Monday and so on we can de#ne a4, a5, a6 and a7 for shift A.
:
 Similarly we can de#ne b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, and b7 for Shift B and c1, c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, and c7
for shift C.

The constraints, variable and objective function in the excel sheet are as follows:

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu

Shift A A A A A A A B B B B B

No.
Collectors

ObjectiveCo-
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
eff.

Shift
Constraints
req.

A Sun 1 1 1 1 1

A Mon 1 1 1 1 1

A Tue 1 1 1 1 1

A Wed 1 1 1 1 1

A Thu 1 1 1 1 1

A Fri 1 1 1 1 1

A Sat 1 1 1 1 1

B Sun 0 1 1 1

B Mon 1 1 1

B Tue 1 1 1

B Wed 1 1 1 1

B Thu 1 1 1 1 1

B Fri 1 1 1 1

B Sat 1 1 1

C Sun

C Mon
:
 C Tue

C Wed

C Thu

C Fri

C Sat

Solution is as follows:

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu

Shift A A A A A A A B B B B B

No. 4E-
2 5 0 6 0 5 0 1 3 3 3
Collectors 16

ObjectiveCo-
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
eff.

Shift
Constraints
req.

A Sun 1 1 1 1 1

A Mon 1 1 1 1 1

A Tue 1 1 1 1 1

A Wed 1 1 1 1 1

A Thu 1 1 1 1 1

A Fri 1 1 1 1 1

A Sat 1 1 1 1 1

B Sun 0 1 1 1

B Mon 1 1 1

B Tue 1 1 1

B Wed 1 1 1 1
:
 B Thu 1 1 1 1 1

B Fri 1 1 1 1

B Sat 1 1 1

C Sun

C Mon

C Tue

C Wed

C Thu

C Fri

C Sat

Shift A and Shift C will have 18 each whereas Shift B will have 16 collectors. Thusv total of 52.

In case the condition about speci#c shift is relaxed then in plce of 21 variables (day*shifts) we
require only 7 variables as follows:

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

No. Collectors 3 9 8 6 9 7 8

ObjectiveCo-
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 50
eff.

Constraints Sum

Sun 1 1 1 1 1 33

Mon 1 1 1 1 1 36

Tue 1 1 1 1 1 35

Wed 1 1 1 1 1 34

Thu 1 1 1 1 1 35

Fri 1 1 1 1 1 39

Sat 1 1 1 1 1 38
:
 There is a total reduction of two persons from 52 to 50 in case of relaxation of shift condition.

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