Heuristic Method for Optimum Shift Scheduling Design

This paper describes a method to schedule shifts in the most optimum way desire for today’s cost sensitive industries. The main problem for this domain is to make sure all shifts are assigned to cover all or maximum jobs available. The shifts also need to be schedule with the least manpower possible, avoid manpower idling during the shift and take into consideration employee’s time adaptability. Our approach is to use the existing manpower prediction method to determine the minimum manpower require to complete all the jobs. Based on the minimum manpower number and shift criteria’s, the shifts are then assigned to form schedules using our proposed algorithm. The potential schedules are then optimized. Our prototype running data from airline staff shows that the method used can solve the problem efficiently even for large problem instances in seconds.