We consider a workforce scheduling problem which consists of determining optimal working shifts for cleaning personnel at a rail station. Trains arrive and depart according to a specified schedule and require a given amount of cleaning time from the personnel before their departure from the station. Working shifts must specify a sequence of trains to be cleaned by a worker together with corresponding cleaning times and are subject to contract regulations which impose both a minimum and a maximum duration of the shift. We model the problem as a mixed-integer program with a pseudo-polynomial number of variables and propose an exponentially sized reformulation obtained through Dantzig–Wolfe reformulation. The reformulation is strengthened by valid inequalities and used to compute lower bounds on the optimal cost. A heuristic algorithm based on column generation and variable fixing is then proposed and computationally evaluated on both a set of instances derived from real data and a larger set of randomly generated ones. The reported computational results show that the algorithm provides solutions very close to the optimal ones within 1 h of computing time.
Scheduling cleaning activities on trains by minimizing idle times / Bartolini, Enrico; Dell'Amico, Mauro; Iori, Manuel. - In: JOURNAL OF SCHEDULING. - ISSN 1094-6136. - 20:(2017), pp. 493-506. [10.1007/s10951-017-0517-1]
Scheduling cleaning activities on trains by minimizing idle times
BARTOLINI, ENRICO;DELL'AMICO, Mauro;IORI, MANUEL
2017
Abstract
We consider a workforce scheduling problem which consists of determining optimal working shifts for cleaning personnel at a rail station. Trains arrive and depart according to a specified schedule and require a given amount of cleaning time from the personnel before their departure from the station. Working shifts must specify a sequence of trains to be cleaned by a worker together with corresponding cleaning times and are subject to contract regulations which impose both a minimum and a maximum duration of the shift. We model the problem as a mixed-integer program with a pseudo-polynomial number of variables and propose an exponentially sized reformulation obtained through Dantzig–Wolfe reformulation. The reformulation is strengthened by valid inequalities and used to compute lower bounds on the optimal cost. A heuristic algorithm based on column generation and variable fixing is then proposed and computationally evaluated on both a set of instances derived from real data and a larger set of randomly generated ones. The reported computational results show that the algorithm provides solutions very close to the optimal ones within 1 h of computing time.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
s10951-017-0517-1.pdf
Accesso riservato
Tipologia:
Versione pubblicata dall'editore
Dimensione
533.78 kB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
533.78 kB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri Richiedi una copia |
Pubblicazioni consigliate
I metadati presenti in IRIS UNIMORE sono rilasciati con licenza Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal, mentre i file delle pubblicazioni sono rilasciati con licenza Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale (CC BY 4.0), salvo diversa indicazione.
In caso di violazione di copyright, contattare Supporto Iris