Approximating the Multi-Level Bottleneck Assignment Problem

Abstract

We consider the multi-level bottleneck assignment problem (MBA). This problem is described in the recent book "Assignment Problems" by Burkard et al. (2009) on pages 188 - 189. One of the applications described there concerns bus driver scheduling. We view the problem as a special case of a bottleneck m-dimensional multi-index assignment problem. We give approximation algorithms and inapproximability results, depending upon the completeness of the underlying graph.