An algorithm for single shift scheduling of hierarchical workforce

This paper presents an optimal algorithm for single shift scheduling of hierarchical workforce in seven-day-a-week industries. There are many categories of workers; their capabilities are arranged hierarchically. The objective is to arrive at the most economical mix of categories of employees satisfying the pattern of demand for employees and desired work characteristics. The demand for employees varies from one category to the other and for each category the demand during weekdays is fixed and is different from that of weekends. The desired work characteristics are: (i) each employee must be given two days off every week including at least a proportion A out of every B weekends off and (ii) each employee can have at most 5 working shifts between any two offdays. The algorithm provides a computational scheme for arriving at the minimum workforce size comprising the most economical mix of categories of employees for this demand context and a new technique for characterizing the problem to achieve feasible assignment of employees to shifts.