Employee Scheduling Model

OPTIMIZATION MODELS
Introduction
• A wide variety of problems can be formulated as linear programming
models, but there are some that cannot.
• Some models require integer variables, or they are nonlinear in the
decision variables.
• Once the models are formulated, Solver can be used to solve
them.
• However, integer and nonlinear models are inherently more
difficult to solve.
• Solver must use more complex algorithms and is not always
guaranteed to find the optimal solution.
Employee Scheduling Models
• Many organizations use employee scheduling models to
schedule employees to provide adequate service.
• LP can be used to schedule employees on a daily basis, as
shown in the next example.
Example 14.1: Employee Scheduling at Briggs
• Objective: To develop an optimization model that relates five-day shift schedules to daily numbers of
employees available, and to use Solver on this model to find a schedule that uses the fewest number of
employees and meets all daily workforce requirements.
• Solution: The number of full-time employees required each day is given in the table at the bottom left.
• Union rules state that each full-time employee must work five consecutive days and then receive two
days off.
• The business wants to meet its daily requirements using only full-time employees, with the objective of
minimizing the number of full-time employees.

© 2020 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-
protected website or school-approved learning management system for classroom use.
Developing the Spreadsheet Model
• Inputs and range names. Enter the number of employees needed on
each day of the week in the blue cells, and create the range names
shown.
• Employees beginning each day. Enter any trial values for the number
of employees beginning work on each day of the week in the
Employees_starting range. These beginning days determine the
possible five-day shifts. For example, the employees in cell B4 work
Monday through Friday.
• Employees on hand each day. The key to this solution is to realize
that the numbers in the Employees_starting range—the changing
cells—do not represent the number of workers who will show up
each day. As an example, the number in cell B4 represent those who
start on Monday work Monday through Friday. Therefore, enter the
formula
=$B$4
• in cell B14 and copy it across to cell F14. Proceed similarly for rows
15–20, being careful to take “wraparounds” into account. For
example, the workers starting on Thursday work Thursday through
Sunday, plus Monday. Then calculate the total number who are
available on each day by entering the formula
=SUM(B14:B20) in cell B23 and copying it across to cell H23.
• Total employees. Calculate the total number of employees in cell B28
with the formula
=SUM(Employees_starting)
Note that there is no double-counting in this sum. For example, the
employees in cells B4 and B5 are not the same people.
Example 14.1: Employee Scheduling at Briggs (slide 2 of 3)
• Add an integer constraint in Solver to ensure that the
number of employees
starting work on some days is not a fraction.
The spreadsheet model with this integer constraint is
shown below.
When you solve this problem, you might get a different
schedule that is still optimal.
• Such multiple optimal solutions are not uncommon
and are good news for a manager, who can then choose
among the optimal solutions.
© 2020 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-
protected website or school-approved learning management system for classroom use.
 Employee Scheduling at Briggs
• Sensitivity analysis
Look at how much
the number of
employees needed
on each day of the
week changes the
total number of
employees needed.

© 2020 Cengage. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-
protected website or school-approved learning management system for classroom use.
Modeling Issues
• The employee scheduling example is called a static scheduling model
because we assume that the business faces the same situation each week.
• In reality, demands change over time. A dynamic scheduling model is
necessary for such problems.
• A scheduling model for a more complex organization has a larger number
of decision variables, and optimization software such as Solver will have
difficulty finding a solution.
• Heuristic methods have been used to find solutions to these problems.
• The scheduling model can be expanded to handle part-time employees, the
use of overtime, and alternative objectives such as maximizing the number
of weekend days off.
Reference
• Business Analytics: Data Analysis and Decision Making by Albright,
S.C. and Winston, W.L.
Copyright 2020 by Cengage Learning.