Improved implicit optimal modeling of the labor shift scheduling problem

This paper presents an integer programming model for developing optimal shift schedules while allowing extensive flexibiity in terms of alternate shift starting times, shift lengths, and break placement. The model combines the work of Moondra and Bechtold and Jacobs by implicitly matching meal breaks to implicitly represented shifts. Moreover, the new model extends the work of these authors to enable the scheduling of overtime and the scheduling of rest breaks. The paper compares the new model to Bechtold and Jacobs’ model over a diverse set of 588 test problems. The new model generates optimal solutions more rapidly, solves problems with more shift alternatives, and does not generate schedules violating the operative restrictions on break timing.