Real-Life Optimum Shift Scheduling Design

In many industries, manpower shift scheduling poses problems that require immediate solutions. The fundamental need in this domain is to ensure that all shifts are assigned to cover all or as many jobs as possible. The shifts should additionally be planned with minimum manpower utilization, minimum manpower idleness and enhanced adaptability of employee schedules. The approach used in this study was to utilize an existing manpower prediction method to decide the minimum manpower required to complete all jobs. Based on the minimum manpower number and shift criteria, the shifts were assigned to form schedules using random pick and criteria-based selection methods. The potential schedules were then optimized and the best ones selected. Based on several realistic test instances, the proposed heuristic approach appears to offer promising solutions for shift scheduling as it improves shift idle time, complies with better shift starting time and significantly reduces the manpower needed and the time spent on creating schedules, regardless of data size.