Development and implementation of a computer-aided method for planning resident shifts in a hospital

Ce mémoire propose une formulation pour le problème de confection d'horaire pour résidents, un problème peu étudiée dans la litérature. Les services hospitaliers mentionnés dans ce mémoire sont le service de pédiatrie du CHUL (Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval) et le service des urgences de l'Hôpital Enfant-Jésus à Québec. La contribution principale de ce mémoîre est la proposition d'un cadre d'analyse pour l’analyse de techniques manuelles utilisées dans des problèmes de confection d'horaires, souvent décrits comme des problèmes d'optimisation très complexes. Nous montrons qu'il est possible d'utiliser des techniques manuelles pour établir un ensemble réduit de contraintes sur lequel la recherche d’optimisation va se focaliser. Les techniques utilisées peuvent varier d’un horaire à l’autre et vont déterminer la qualité finale de l’horaire. La qualité d’un horaire est influencée par les choix qu’un planificateur fait dans l’utilisation de techniques spécifiques; cette technique reflète alors la perception du planificateur de la notion qualité de l’horaire. Le cadre d’analyse montre qu'un planificateur est capable de sélectionner un ensemble réduit de contraintes, lui permettant d’obtenir des horaires de très bonne qualité. Le fait que l'approche du planificateur est efficace devient clair lorsque ses horaires sont comparés aux solutions heuristiques. Pour ce faire, nous avons transposées les techniques manuelles en un algorithme afin de comparer les résultats avec les solutions manuelles. Mots clés: Confection d’horaires, Confection d’horaires pour résidents, Creation manuelle d’horaires, Heuristiques de confection d’horaires, Méthodes de recherche localeThis thesis provides a problem formulation for the resident scheduling problem, a problem on which very little research has been done. The hospital departments mentioned in this thesis are the paediatrics department of the CHUL (Centre Hospitalier de l’Université Laval) and the emergency department of the Hôpital Enfant-Jésus in Québec City. The main contribution of this thesis is the proposal of a framework for the analysis of manual techniques used in scheduling problems, often described as highly constrained optimisation problems. We show that it is possible to use manual scheduling techniques to establish a reduced set of constraints to focus the search on. The techniques used can differ from one schedule type to another and will determine the quality of the final solution. Since a scheduler manually makes the schedule, the techniques used reflect the scheduler’s notion of schedule quality. The framework shows that a scheduler is capable of selecting a reduced set of constraints, producing manual schedules that often are of very high quality. The fact that a scheduler’s approach is efficient becomes clear when his schedules are compared to heuristics solutions. We therefore translated the manual techniques into an algorithm so that the scheduler’s notion of schedule quality was used for the local search and show the results that were obtained. Key words: Timetable scheduling, Resident scheduling, Manual scheduling, Heuristic schedule generation, Local search method

Solving Challenging Real-World Scheduling Problems

This work contains a series of studies on the optimization of three real-world scheduling problems, school timetabling, sports scheduling and staff scheduling. These challenging problems are solved to customer satisfaction using the proposed PEAST algorithm. The customer satisfaction refers to the fact that implementations of the algorithm are in industry use. The PEAST algorithm is a product of long-term research and development. The first version of it was introduced in 1998. This thesis is a result of a five-year development of the algorithm. One of the most valuable characteristics of the algorithm has proven to be the ability to solve a wide range of scheduling problems. It is likely that it can be tuned to tackle also a range of other combinatorial problems. The algorithm uses features from numerous different metaheuristics which is the main reason for its success. In addition, the implementation of the algorithm is fast enough for real-world use.Siirretty Doriast

Matheuristics for robust optimization: application to real-world problems

In the field of optimization, the perspective that the problem data are subject to uncertainty is gaining more and more interest. The uncertainty in an optimization problem represents the measurement errors during the phase of collecting data, or unforeseen changes in the environment while implementing the optimal solution in practice. When the uncertainty is ignored, an optimal solution according to the mathematical model can turn out to be far from optimal, or even infeasible in reality. Robust optimization is an umbrella term for mathematical modelling methodologies focused on finding solutions that are reliable against the data perturbations caused by the uncertainty. Among the relatively more recent robust optimization methodologies, an important concept studied is the degree of conservativeness, which can be explained as the amount of targeted reliability against the uncertainty while looking for a solution. Because the reliability and solution cost usually end up being conflicting objectives, it is important for the decision maker to be able to configure the conservativeness degree, so that the desired balance between the cost and reliability can be obtained, and the most practical solution can be found for the problem at hand. The robust optimization methodologies are typically proposed within the framework of mathematical programming (i.e. linear programming, integer programming). Thanks to the nature of mathematical programming, these methodologies can find the exact optimum, according to the various solution evaluation perspectives they have. However, dependence on mathematical programming might also mean that such methodologies will require too much memory from the computer, and also too much execution time, when large-scale optimization problems are considered. A common strategy to avoid the big memory and execution time requirements of mathematical programming is to use metaheuristic optimization algorithms for solving large problem instances.In this research, we propose an approach for solving medium-to-large-sized robust optimization problem instances. The methodology we propose is a matheuristic (i.e. a hybridization of mathematical programming and metaheuristic). In the matheuristic approach we propose, the mathematical programming part handles the uncertainty, and the metaheuristic part handles the exploration of the solution space. Since the exploration of the solution space is entrusted onto the metaheuristic search, we can obtain practical near-optimal solutions while avoiding the big memory and time requirements that might be brought by pure mathematical programming methods. The mathematical programming part is used for making the metaheuristic favor the solutions which have more protections against the uncertainty. Another important characteristic of the methodology we propose is concurrency with information exchange: we concurrently execute multiple processes of the matheuristic algorithm, each process taking the uncertainty into account with a different degree of conservativeness. During the execution, these processes exchange their best solutions. So, if a process is stuck on a bad solution, it can realize that there is a better solution available thanks to the information exchange, and it can get unstuck. In the end, the solutions of these processes are collected into a solution pool. This solution pool provides the decision maker with alternative solutions with different costs and conservativeness degrees. Having a solution pool available at the end, the decision maker can make the most practical choice according to the problem at hand. In this thesis, we first discuss our studies in the field of robust optimization: a heuristic approach for solving a minimum power multicasting problem in wireless actuator networks under actuator distance uncertainty, and a linear programming approach for solving an aggregate blending problem in the construction industry, where the amounts of components found in aggregates are subject to uncertainty. These studies demonstrate the usage of mathematical programming for handling the uncertainty. We then discuss our studies in the field of matheuristics: a matheuristic approach for solving a large-scale energy management problem, and then a matheuristic approach for solving large instances of minimum power multicasting problem. In these studies, the usage of metaheuristics for handling the large problem instances is emphasized. In our study of solving minimum power multicasting problem, we also incorporate the mechanism of information exchange between different solvers. Later, we discuss the main matheuristic approach that we propose in this thesis. We first apply our matheuristic approach on a well-known combinatorial optimization problem: capacitated vehicle routing problem, by using an ant colony optimization as the metaheuristic part. Finally, we discuss the generality of the methodology that we propose: we suggest that it can be used as a general framework on various combinatorial optimization problems, by choosing the most appropriate metaheuristic algorithm according to the nature of the problem

An Integrated Framework for Staffing and Shift Scheduling in Hospitals

Over the years, one of the main concerns confronting hospital management is optimising the staffing and scheduling decisions. Consequences of inappropriate staffing can adversely impact on hospital performance, patient experience and staff satisfaction alike. A comprehensive review of literature (more than 1300 journal articles) is presented in a new taxonomy of three dimensions; problem contextualisation, solution approach, evaluation perspective and uncertainty. Utilising Operations Research methods, solutions can provide a positive contribution in underpinning staffing and scheduling decisions. However, there are still opportunities to integrate decision levels; incorporate practitioners view in solution architectures; consider staff behaviour impact, and offer comprehensive applied frameworks. Practitioners’ perspectives have been collated using an extensive exploratory study in Irish hospitals. A preliminary questionnaire has indicated the need of effective staffing and scheduling decisions before semi-structured interviews have taken place with twenty-five managers (fourteen Directors and eleven head nurses) across eleven major acute Irish hospitals (about 50% of healthcare service deliverers). Thematic analysis has produced five key themes; demand for care, staffing and scheduling issues, organisational aspects, management concern, and technology-enabled. In addition to other factors that can contribute to the problem such as coordination, environment complexity, understaffing, variability and lack of decision support. A multi-method approach including data analytics, modelling and simulation, machine learning, and optimisation has been employed in order to deliver adequate staffing and shift scheduling framework. A comprehensive portfolio of critical factors regarding patients, staff and hospitals are included in the decision. The framework was piloted in the Emergency Department of one of the leading and busiest university hospitals in Dublin (Tallaght Hospital). Solutions resulted from the framework (i.e. new shifts, staff workload balance, increased demands) have showed significant improvement in all key performance measures (e.g. patient waiting time, staff utilisation). Management team of the hospital endorsed the solution framework and are currently discussing enablers to implement the recommendation

A Two-Stage Dynamic Programming Model for Nurse Rostering Problem Under Uncertainty

No abstract provided.Master of Science in EngineeringIndustrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer ScienceUniversity of Michigan-Dearbornhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140733/1/WENJIE WANG_Thesis_Embedded.pdfDescription of WENJIE WANG_Thesis_Embedded.pdf : Thesi

The falling tide algorithm: A new multi-objective approach for complex workforce scheduling

We present a hybrid approach of goal programming and meta-heuristic search to find compromise solutions for a difficult employee scheduling problem, i.e. nurse rostering with many hard and soft constraints. By employing a goal programming model with different parameter settings in its objective function, we can easily obtain a coarse solution where only the system constraints (i.e. hard constraints) are satisfied and an ideal objective-value vector where each single goal (i.e. each soft constraint) reaches its optimal value. The coarse solution is generally unusable in practise, but it can act as an initial point for the subsequent meta-heuristic search to speed up the convergence. Also, the ideal objective-value vector is, of course, usually unachievable, but it can help a multi-criteria search method (i.e. compromise programming) to evaluate the fitness of obtained solutions more efficiently. By incorporating three distance metrics with changing weight vectors, we propose a new time-predefined meta-heuristic approach, which we call the falling tide algorithm, and apply it under a multi-objective framework to find various compromise solutions. By this approach, not only can we achieve a trade off between the computational time and the solution quality, but also we can achieve a trade off between the conflicting objectives to enable better decision-making

Workforce scheduling with large-scale mixed integer programming using column generation and 2D genetic algorithms: An application to airport ground staff scheduling

Due to the large volume of transportation that takes place on the airport every day, airlines need to efficiently manage their employees and tasks to guarantee necessary operations are performed well and on time. The quality of the workforce scheduling has an important influence on both the task performance and costs of labor and operations that airlines will take. In this regard, this thesis proposes a mathematical modeling for airport ground staff scheduling with corresponding algorithms, including a 2D GA for shift planning with daily-wise shift formats, column generation for rostering and task dispatching, and integer programming for disruption management. The presented optimization-based workforce scheduling can replace the manual planning or serve as a reference for practitioners.M.S

A study of evolutionary multiobjective algorithms and their application to knapsack and nurse scheduling problems

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) based on the concept of Pareto dominance seem the most suitable technique for multiobjective optimisation. In multiobjective optimisation, several criteria (usually conflicting) need to be taken into consideration simultaneously to assess a quality of a solution. Instead of finding a single solution, a set of trade-off or compromise solutions that represents a good approximation to the Pareto optimal set is often required. This thesis presents an investigation on evolutionary algorithms within the framework of multiobjective optimisation. This addresses a number of key issues in evolutionary multiobjective optimisation. Also, a new evolutionary multiobjective (EMO) algorithm is proposed. Firstly, this new EMO algorithm is applied to solve the multiple 0/1 knapsack problem (a wellknown benchmark multiobjective combinatorial optimisation problem) producing competitive results when compared to other state-of-the-art MOEAs. Secondly, this thesis also investigates the application of general EMO algorithms to solve real-world nurse scheduling problems. One of the challenges in solving real-world nurse scheduling problems is that these problems are highly constrained and specific-problem heuristics are normally required to handle these constraints. These heuristics have considerable influence on the search which could override the effect that general EMO algorithms could have in the solution process when applied to this type of problems. This thesis outlines a proposal for a general approach to model the nurse scheduling problems without the requirement of problem-specific heuristics so that general EMO algorithms could be applied. This would also help to assess the problems and the performance of general EMO algorithms more fairly