SHIFT PLANNING AND ROSTERING IN LARGE-SCALE SERVICE OPERATIONS

Abstract

My internship work in Friartuck Pte Ltd is mainly on shift design and rostering issues. Efficient and optimized workforce management in large-scale service organizations is the stepping stone to their success. Maximum satisfaction on the part of the staff is also of paramount importance for these organizations. Most workforce scheduling problems have a similar underlying structure involving working in different shifts and varying staffing requirements throughout the day and during the course of the rostering period. Also many workforce allocation problems feature requirements like work shift patterns over a period of several days, constraints involving number of rest and off days, public holidays and annual leaves. All these requirements have to be met with simultaneous maximization of staff preference satisfaction. This paper shows how to address and automate the complex and cumbersome rostering process; how to generate optimal staff rosters keeping in mind all the above stated broad-based requirements as well as specialized requirements and idiosyncrasies that arise in a specific workforce management problem.