Scheduling professionals in the retail pharmacy chain

To control operating costs, a zero-one integer programming model is developed to assist pharmacy staff scheduling decisions. Variable scheduling needs are met by the assignment of relief (mobile) pharmacists to help or temporarily replace full-time pharmacists. Assignments of relief pharmacists over a two-week planning horizon are determined with consideration given to variations in wage rates and travel costs together with the underlying corporate, contractual and operating constraints. The developed model has been applied with considerable success using data collected from a business district in the U.S. located in northern Louisiana related to a national retail chain pharmacy. Forecasting the number of chain retail outlets in the near future has been also performed and the results obtained argue in favor of adopting the model by the entire chain.