SHIFT AND BREAK

PLANNING
REVIEW ON SHIFT PLANNING/SCHEDULING IN SERVICE INDUSTRY/KPO
SUBMITTED BY 

MANSHU LAKESH(2K20/AE/037)
PANKAJ GARHWAL (2K20/AE/051)
 INTRODUCTION
Linear programming can be defined as:
"A method to allocate scarce resources to competing activities in an optimal manner when the problem can
be expressed using a linear objective function and linear inequality constraints."
A linear program consists of a set of variables, a linear objective function indicating the contribution of each
variable to the desired outcome, and a set of linear constraints describing the limits on the values of the
variables. The answer" to a linear program is a set of values for the problem variables that results in the best
largest or smallest value of the objective function and yet is consistent with all the constraints. Formulation is
the process of translating a real-world problem into a linear program. Once a problem has been formulated as
a linear program, a computer program can be used to solve the problem. In this regard, solving a linear
program is relatively easy. The hardest part about applying linear programming is formulating the problem
and interpreting the solution.
CLASSIC APPLICATIONS OF LINEAR
PROGRAMMING
1. Manufacturing: Product choice. Several alternative outputs with different input requirements to
Maximize profit.
2. Agriculture: Feed choice. Several possible feed ingredients with different nutritional content
Nutritional requirements Minimize costs.
3. The Transportation Problem: Several depots with various amounts of inventory Several customers to
whom shipments must be made Minimize cost of serving customers.
4. Scheduling: Many possible personnel shifts Staffing requirements at various times Restrictions on
shift timing and length Minimize cost of meeting staffing requirements.
5. Finance: Several types of financial instruments available Cash flow requirements over time Minimize
cost
APPLICATIONS IN
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY
Manufacturing industries use linear programming for analyzing their
supply chain operations. Their motive is to maximize efficiency with
minimum operation cost. As per the recommendations from the linear
programming model, the manufacturer can reconfigure their storage
layout, adjust their workforce and reduce the bottlenecks.
 PRODUCTION SCHEDULING - Setting a low-cost production schedule over a period of weeks or
months is a difficult and important management problem in most plants. The production manager has
to consider many factors: labor capacity, inventory and storage costs, space limitations, product
demand, and labor relations. Because most companies produce more than one product, the scheduling
process is often quite complex. Basically, the problem resembles the product mix model for each
period in the future. The objective is either to maximize profit or to minimize the total cost (production
plus inventory) of carrying out the task. Production scheduling is amenable to solution by LP because it
is a problem that must be solved on a regular basis. When the objective function and constraints for a
firm are established, the inputs can easily be changed each.
 PRODUCTION MIX - A fertile field for the use of LP is in planning for the optimal mix of products
to manufacture. A company must meet a myriad of constraints, ranging from financial concerns to sales
demand to material contracts to union labor demands. Its primary goal is to generate the largest profit
possible.
 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

The planning horizon consists of a set of consecutive days such as a week.

The objective function is the weighted sum of overstaffing, understaffing, and the number of selected
template shifts. The first two factors can easily be defined by using the active time periods of a duty.
Let at to represent number of duties that are active at time period t. The overstaffing, O, represents the
total excess of active duties and the understaffing, U, the total shortage. They are defined as follows

Using the weights W1,W2 and W3 to penalize the different solution criteria, and using |S| to represent the
total number of selected template shifts, the objective is formulated in the following way.
Case Study
Figure 1 and Table 1 show, respectively, an example of staffing requirements over a two-day period, and
a set of shift types. Each template shift should belong to one of the shift types, which in this case means
that the starting time of a template shift should lie between 05:00 and 08:00, or 09:00 and 11:00, or 13:00
and 15:00, or 21:00 and 23:00, and a template shift must have a duration between 7 and 9 h.
 A solution could consist of a template shift m from 08:00 to 16:00, a template shift e from
13:00 to 20:00, and a template shift n from 21:00 to 05:00. Choosing the number of shifts
starting on day 1 and day 2 as in Table 2, we fulfill exactly the staffing requirements.
If breaks have to be assigned to the shifts, there will be understaffing during all breaks, and the
periods immediately after the breaks.
CONCLUSION

We proposed an integer linear programming approach for the shift and break design problem, which
obtains better results on all instances when compared to the best results available in the literature. Since
we were not able to solve the ILP in the first phase to optimality we are not sure of the performance of
our algorithm in case the optimal solution for this ILP would have been be found. We decomposed the
shift and break design problem in two phases, a first phase where we decide on the template shifts and the
number of shifts, and a second phase in which we decide where to place the breaks.