Article ID: | iaor19992899 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 108 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 585 |
End Page Number: | 603 |
Publication Date: | Aug 1998 |
Journal: | European Journal of Operational Research |
Authors: | Hertz Alain, Robert Vincent |
Keywords: | programming: assignment |
We propose in this paper a new approach for tackling constrained course scheduling problems. The main idea is to decompose the problem into a series of easier subproblems. Each subproblem is an assignment type problem in which items have to be assigned to resources subject to some constraints. By solving a first series of assignment type subproblems, we build an initial solution which takes into account the constraints imposing a structure on the schedule. The total number of overlapping situations is reduced in a second phase by means of another series of assignment type problems. The proposed approach was implemented in practice and has proven to be satisfactory.