Scheduling Staff scheduling problems are prevalent in service organizations because of high variability in customer demand. Examples include scheduling call center representatives, hotel housekeepers, tollbooth operators, nurses, airline reservation clerks, police officers, fast-food restaurant employees, and many others. Staff scheduling attempts to match available personnel with the needs of the organization by: 1. Accurately forecasting demand and translating it into the quantity and timing of work to be done: 2. Determining the staffing required to perform work by time period; 3. Determining the personnel available and the full- and part-time mix of personnel; and 4. Matching capacity to demand requirements, and developing a work schedule that maximizes service and minimizes costs. The first step requires converting demand to a capacity measure that is, the number of staff required. For instance, we might determine that for every $400 of sales forecast, we need one additional full-time employee. The second step determines the quantity and timing of the work to be done in detail, usually by hour of the day, and sometimes in 5 to 10 minute time intervals. In step three takes into account worker productivity factors, personal allowances, sickness, vacations, no-shows, etc. Step focuses on the matching of capacity to demand requirements: this is the essence of scheduling. Different approaches are required for different situations because of the nature of constraints. If service demands are relatively level over time, as in the case of hotel housekeepers, it is usually easy to schedule personnel on standard weekly work shifts. If the workload varies greatly within a shift, this is the case for telephone customer service representatives, the problem become one of scheduling shifts to meet the varying demand. Let us examine a relatively simple problem of scheduling personnel with consecutive days off in the face of fluctuating requirements. T.R. Accounting Service is developing a workforce schedule for three weeks from now and has forecasted demand and translated it into the following minimum personnel requirements for the week: Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 69 5 3 8 6 The staff requirements are for full time accountants who do accounting work such as end-of- month financial statements, tax record organization, and federal, state and local tax payments. T.R., the owner of the accounting service, wants to schedule employees so that each employee has two consecutive days off and all demand requirements are met. Step 1 - locate the set of at least two consecutive days with the smallest requirements. We are doing this because the owner wants to give people two consecutive days off. You should see that Saturday and Sunday are the two consecutive days that meet this criteria. Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 6 6 8 Step 2 - assign the first accountant to the days not circled. That would be Monday through Friday. We have now scheduled someone for Monday through Friday so the requirements for that day can be reduced by one person. The new requirements are below: Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 75 5853 Day Mon Tue Wed 5 Step 3 -repeat step 1 Day Minimum personnel Mon Tue 7 5 Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 5 5 85 Step 4 - assign the second account to the days to circled (Monday-Friday) and subtract the requirement. This gives us the following requirements. Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 614102753 Step 5-you now have a scenario where there are two scenarios with the two lowest demands are equal. In this case it is up to the scheduler to choose the one they want. In this case I chose accountant three to have Tuesday and Wednesday off. The new requirement is listed below. Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 5 4 Step 6-we have another scenario where accountant 4 should work Monday through Friday and have Saturday and Sunday off. After we subtract the requirement, we get the requirements listed below. Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 2542 Day Continue this process until you have met all requirements, even if you end up scheduling more accountants than necessary on some days. I have already started filling in the Final Accountant Schedule by placing an "x" in the days that the accountants are working. Fill in the rest of the Final Accountant Schedule and sum up the number of workers each day to get a total number of workers each day. Final Accountant Schedule Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun X X X X X X X X x x X X X X X X Accountant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Compare the total number of accountants in the Final Accountant Schedule to the initial requirements. You need to fill in the total days from the above schedule Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 66 6 9 53 Total 8 There are three questions that should be addressed: 1. Did you meet the minimum personnel requirements each day? 2. Did you give every off two consecutive days? 3. What is the overall efficiency of your schedule? Remember that efficiency is how well you used your resources to meet the desire outcome. Sum up the total number of days worked by all employees. Sum up all the required days. 100% efficiency would be if the required number of days equaled the total number of days by all workers. However the scheduling requirements did not allow you to do that. In this case, complete the efficiency calculation below: Total required days * 100% Efficiency - Total days scheduled Scheduling Staff scheduling problems are prevalent in service organizations because of high variability in customer demand. Examples include scheduling call center representatives, hotel housekeepers, tollbooth operators, nurses, airline reservation clerks, police officers, fast-food restaurant employees, and many others. Staff scheduling attempts to match available personnel with the needs of the organization by: 1. Accurately forecasting demand and translating it into the quantity and timing of work to be done: 2. Determining the staffing required to perform work by time period; 3. Determining the personnel available and the full- and part-time mix of personnel; and 4. Matching capacity to demand requirements, and developing a work schedule that maximizes service and minimizes costs. The first step requires converting demand to a capacity measure that is, the number of staff required. For instance, we might determine that for every $400 of sales forecast, we need one additional full-time employee. The second step determines the quantity and timing of the work to be done in detail, usually by hour of the day, and sometimes in 5 to 10 minute time intervals. In step three takes into account worker productivity factors, personal allowances, sickness, vacations, no-shows, etc. Step focuses on the matching of capacity to demand requirements: this is the essence of scheduling. Different approaches are required for different situations because of the nature of constraints. If service demands are relatively level over time, as in the case of hotel housekeepers, it is usually easy to schedule personnel on standard weekly work shifts. If the workload varies greatly within a shift, this is the case for telephone customer service representatives, the problem become one of scheduling shifts to meet the varying demand. Let us examine a relatively simple problem of scheduling personnel with consecutive days off in the face of fluctuating requirements. T.R. Accounting Service is developing a workforce schedule for three weeks from now and has forecasted demand and translated it into the following minimum personnel requirements for the week: Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 69 5 3 8 6 The staff requirements are for full time accountants who do accounting work such as end-of- month financial statements, tax record organization, and federal, state and local tax payments. T.R., the owner of the accounting service, wants to schedule employees so that each employee has two consecutive days off and all demand requirements are met. Step 1 - locate the set of at least two consecutive days with the smallest requirements. We are doing this because the owner wants to give people two consecutive days off. You should see that Saturday and Sunday are the two consecutive days that meet this criteria. Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 6 6 8 Step 2 - assign the first accountant to the days not circled. That would be Monday through Friday. We have now scheduled someone for Monday through Friday so the requirements for that day can be reduced by one person. The new requirements are below: Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 75 5853 Day Mon Tue Wed 5 Step 3 -repeat step 1 Day Minimum personnel Mon Tue 7 5 Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 5 5 85 Step 4 - assign the second account to the days to circled (Monday-Friday) and subtract the requirement. This gives us the following requirements. Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 614102753 Step 5-you now have a scenario where there are two scenarios with the two lowest demands are equal. In this case it is up to the scheduler to choose the one they want. In this case I chose accountant three to have Tuesday and Wednesday off. The new requirement is listed below. Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 5 4 Step 6-we have another scenario where accountant 4 should work Monday through Friday and have Saturday and Sunday off. After we subtract the requirement, we get the requirements listed below. Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 2542 Day Continue this process until you have met all requirements, even if you end up scheduling more accountants than necessary on some days. I have already started filling in the Final Accountant Schedule by placing an "x" in the days that the accountants are working. Fill in the rest of the Final Accountant Schedule and sum up the number of workers each day to get a total number of workers each day. Final Accountant Schedule Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun X X X X X X X X x x X X X X X X Accountant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Compare the total number of accountants in the Final Accountant Schedule to the initial requirements. You need to fill in the total days from the above schedule Day Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Minimum personnel 66 6 9 53 Total 8 There are three questions that should be addressed: 1. Did you meet the minimum personnel requirements each day? 2. Did you give every off two consecutive days? 3. What is the overall efficiency of your schedule? Remember that efficiency is how well you used your resources to meet the desire outcome. Sum up the total number of days worked by all employees. Sum up all the required days. 100% efficiency would be if the required number of days equaled the total number of days by all workers. However the scheduling requirements did not allow you to do that. In this case, complete the efficiency calculation below: Total required days * 100% Efficiency - Total days scheduled