Linear Programming Exercise 1 Employee Scheduling Problem (due 9/26) A bank manager has 4 full time tellers that

t must be scheduled for six consecutive hours. These individuals are paid $12.00 per hour. Full time tellers can work up to one hour of overtime per shift at $15.00 per hour. Part time tellers can be scheduled in two or three consecutive hour shifts. The hourly wages that must be paid to part time tellers working two or three hour shifts are $10.00 and $9.00, respectively. There are no restrictions on the number of part time shifts used. The minimum number of tellers needed to meet customer service requirements during each hour of the day is summarized below: Hour: 8-9 am 9-10 am 10-11 am 11-12 pm 12-1 pm 1-2 pm 2-3 pm 3-4 pm 4-5 pm 6 5 4 7 8 6 3 2 3

Document a solution for assigning starting hours to different types of shifts that will minimize total labor costs.

Eric Acchitelli ISYE-1100 Prof. Malmborg 14 September 2012 The Employee Scheduling Problem Solution, or How to Not Break the Bank In this situation, the objective is to create a work schedule that will minimize the total labor costs for the day. There are 36 possible variables to consider in this equation. However, this task has three constraints. The first of these constraints is that all four full-time workers (whether they work overtime or not) must be scheduled at some point during the day. The second constraint is the minimum number of tellers that must be on duty for any given hour of work. The third and final constraint is that the workers must work for the entire specified amount of time. Before attempting to solve the scheduling dilemma, it is a very good idea to eliminate unnecessary variables. However, because of the final constraint, there are a few variables that can be immediately eliminated from the equation. Because full-time workers who do not work an overtime shift must work for a full six-hour shift, none can be assigned beyond the fourth hour. Therefore, all variables from Xfn5 to Xfn9 are no longer considered. Due to similar time constraints, the variables from Xfo4 to Xfo9, XP2-9, and from XP3-8 to XP3-9 are all moot, leaving a total count of 22 variables In order to have the lowest possible labor cost, this is what the final schedule should include: During the first hour (8-9 am), three of the full-time tellers (who will not work overtime) and three two-hour part-time tellers should be assigned. This fulfills our requirement that there must be at least 6 workers during this hour. During the second hour (9-10 am), no other tellers need to be scheduled. The six tellers that started their shift in the first hour are still on duty and fulfill the requirement that there must be at least 5 workers during this hour. At the beginning of the third hour (10-11 am), the three two-hour part-time tellers finish their shift. To offset this, a three-hour part-time teller should be scheduled to start at this hour, meeting the requirement of 4 tellers for this hour. For the fourth hour (11 am-12 pm), one full-time teller (not working overtime), one twohour part-time teller, and one three-hour part-time teller should be scheduled in order to have 7 tellers working the bank. During the fifth hour (12-1 pm), one three-hour part-time teller should be scheduled to fulfill the eight-teller requirement.

At the start of the sixth hour (1-2 pm), two members of the staff end their shift. However, the requirement of six tellers for this hour is still fulfilled, so none need to be scheduled. For the seventh hour (2-3 pm), however, the first three full-time tellers as well as one of the part-time workers have finished their shifts. In order to meet the requirement that three tellers be working this hour, another three-hour part-time teller must be scheduled. At the beginning of the eighth hour (3-4 pm), the part-time teller who started at noon has finished his or her shift. While no teller needs to be added to fulfill the minimum teller requirement of two for this hour, schedule a part-time two-hour teller to fulfill the last hours requirement. This is because a teller cannot be scheduled during the last hour because of the lack of available hours. Because of the foresight in the previous hour, this hour (4-5 pm) meets the minimum requirements of three tellers on duty. And at the end of this hour, all members of staff have completed a full shift, closing the bank for the day.

At the end of this schedule, the total labor cost is calculated to be $496. Overview: Hour 1. Bank opens; 3 full-time tellers with no OT + 3 two-hour part-time tellers Hour 2. No additions Hour 3. 1 three-hour part-time teller Hour 4. 1 full-time teller with no OT + 1 two-hour part-time teller + 1 three-hour part-time teller Hour 5. 1 three-hour part-time teller Hour 6. No additions Hour 7. 1 three-hour part-time teller Hour 8. 1 two-hour part-time teller Hour 9. No additions; Bank closes