Evolutionary computing for shift scheduling and other combinatorial optimization problems

Abstract:- Generating high-quality schedules for a rotating workforce is a critical task in all situations where a certain staffing level must be guaranteed, such as in industrial plants, hospitals, or airline com-panies. Results from ergonomics indicate that shift schedules have a profound impact on the health and satisfaction of employees as well as on their performance at work. Moreover, shift schedules must satisfy legal requirements and should also meet the objectives of the employing organization. Shift scheduling comprises several sub-problems such as the allocation of workers to shifts or the design of the shifts themselves that present interesting challenges both from practical (our algorithms are sold in a successful commercial package) as well as theoretical viewpoints. I will describe some of our results in both areas. In particular, we studied evolutionary computing methods and automatic tuning methods that have many applications beyond shift scheduling