Starting-time decisions in labor tour scheduling: An experimental analysis and case study

Many service organizations limit the number of daily planning periods in which employees may begin their shifts to a fixed number, S. Even for relatively small values of S, which are quite common in practice, there may be hundreds, thousands or millions of possible subsets of starting times. This paper presents the results of a large experimental study that revealed that, in many instances, only a very small portion of starting-time subsets was capable of providing the minimum workforce size. The importance of effective starting-time selection is further supported by a case study that describes a spreadsheet-based program designed for scheduling customer service representatives in the System Support Center, United States and Canada Group, Radio Network Solutions Group, Land Mobile Products Sector, Motorola.