A heuristic programming approach to the employee scheduling problem and some thoughts on ‘managerial robots’

The authors describe a system for the automatic scheduling of employees in the particular setting in which: the number of employees wanted on duty throughout the week fluctuates; the availabilities of the employees varies and changes from week to week; and a new schedule must be produced each week, by virtue of the changing demand for service. The problem which they address appears in a variety of settings, including: airline reservation offices; telephone offices; supermarkets; fast food restaurants; banks and hotels. The authors set forth the general features of our heuristic approach, which they see as an application of artificial intelligence. The authors suggest that systems like that which they describe deserve a name, to distinguish them from comparable, computer based systems which do not replace, but rather supplement a manager, and the authors suggest the name ‘managerial robot’ for such systems. They elaborate, in this paper, a specific application of the present system, and show how the design of shifts, and the placement of breaks, serve to yield a fit whose quality no human schedular can duplicate.