Crew Scheduling for Netherlands Railways: "destination: customer"

: In this paper we describe the use of a set covering model with additional constraints for scheduling train drivers and conductors for the Dutch railway operator NS Reizigers. The schedules were generated according to new rules originating from the project "Destination: Customer" ("Bestemming: Klant" in Dutch). This project is carried out by NS Reizigers in order to increase the quality and the punctuality of its train services. With respect to the scheduling of drivers and conductors, this project involves the generation of efficient and acceptable duties with a high robustness against the transfer of delays of trains. A key issue for the acceptability of the duties is the included amount of variation per duty. The applied set covering model is solved by dynamic column generation techniques, Lagrangean relaxation and powerful heuristics. The model and the solution techniques are part of the TURNI system, which is currently used by NS Reizigers for carrying out several analyses concerning the required capacities of the depots. The latter are strongly influenced by the new rules.crew scheduling;dynamic column generation;lagrange relaxation;railways;set covering model

Exploring Priorities in Transit Scheduling Between Small and Large Bus Companies

This research paper explores the relative importance of strategic and tactical objectives during the crew scheduling and rostering process between smaller and larger bus companies via a survey of bus companies in Victoria, Australia. Results indicate that larger bus companies emphasise reduced labour cost through maximising their operational efficiency. They acknowledge the importance of keeping their customers satisfied and to a lesser extent their drivers, however, doing so is not as important as it is to smaller organisations. Whilst reducing labour cost plays an important role to small bus companies their main focus is maximising customer service levels. To a lesser extent keeping their drivers satisfied is also important, however, in both cases smaller companies are willing to sacrifice labour cost and operational efficiencies to ensure these two objectives are met.A modelling exercise was undertaken to determine the impacts of applying large company priorities to small bus operators. The key strategic objective applied during this process was reducing labour cost whilst at an operational level maximising the use of on-road meal break locations and reducing meal breaks during peak periods were the focus. As anticipated in both cases the labour costs were reduced (by between 1.5% and 13.3%). Dead running distances increased in both cases, however, these would have a minor impact on overall operating costs savings.The results of both this survey and subsequent modelling have implications for both research and practice. Research in the area of crew scheduling and rostering for smaller companies has been quite limited. Most literature has focussed primarily on the objectives of larger companies. Implications for future research and practice are identified.1. Introductio

"You have to get wet to learn how to swim" applied to bridging the gap between research into personnel scheduling and its implementation in practice

Personnel scheduling problems have attracted research interests for several decades. They have been considerably changed over time, accommodating a variety of constraints related to legal and organisation requirements, part-time staff, flexible hours of staff, staff preferences, etc. This led to a myriad of approaches developed for solving personnel scheduling problems including optimisation, meta-heuristics, artificial intelligence, decision-support, and also hybrids of these approaches. However, this still does not imply that this research has a large impact on practice and that state-of-the art models and algorithms are widely in use in organisations. One can find a reasonably large number of software packages that aim to assist in personnel scheduling. A classification of this software based on its purpose will be proposed, accompanied with a discussion about the level of support that this software offers to schedulers. A general conclusion is that the available software, with some exceptions, does not benefit from the wealth of developed models and methods. The remaining of the paper will provide insights into some characteristics of real-world scheduling problems that, in the author’s opinion, have not been given a due attention in the personnel scheduling research community yet and which could contribute to the enhancement of the implementation of research results in practice. Concluding remarks are that in order to bridge the gap that still exists between research into personnel scheduling and practice, we need to engage more with schedulers in practice and also with software developers; one may say we need to get wet if we want to learn how to swim

The crew scheduling problem of an interurban public transport bus company

Una planificación de los conductores adecuada impacta en el coste operacional de las empresas de transporte público. La dificultad de esta tarea se debe principalmente a dos aspectos (Esclapés 2001, Bonrostro, Yusta 2003, Ernst et al. 2004, Van den Bergh et al. 2013, Ibarra-Rojas et al. 2015, Li et al. 2015): por un lado, la planificación de los conductores es parte de un problema mayor, la planificación de los vehículos y conductores. Por otro lado, las diferencias entre las características de las redes de transporte, los recursos de las empresas, las restricciones reglamentarias o los acuerdos laborales hacen que las soluciones sean particulares para cada empresa. El objetivo principal de esta investigación es desarrollar un algoritmo eficiente que minimice en un tiempo de ejecución aceptable el problema de la planificación de los conductores de una compañía de autobuses de transporte de pasajeros público interurbano, permitiendo relevos ilimitados en cualquier parada de la red, es decir, al principio, final o cualquier otra parada intermedia de una línea. De esta manera, haciendo uso de la herramienta en una empresa real, se han examinado dos lagunas de investigación encontradas en el análisis de la literatura. Por un lado, el impacto de permitir relevos ilimitados al principio, al final o en cualquier otra parada intermedia de una línea. Por otro lado, el impacto del proceso de planificación cuando las restricciones a cumplir varían según el tipo de servicio que se incluye en las jornadas. Se han analizado dos procesos: el dividir el problema en problemas independientes según las características de los servicios, o el llevar a cabo una planificación global bajo las restricciones más restrictivas. Con respecto a la metodología de investigación, se han seguido los siete pasos de la Investigación Operativa (Winston, Goldberg 2004): (1) formular el problema, (2) observar el sistema, (3) formular un modelo del problema, (4) verificar el modelo y usarlo para la predicción, (5) seleccionar una alternativa adecuada, (6) presentar los resultados y conclusiones del estudio e (7) implementar y evaluar las recomendaciones. Los resultados muestran que en ocasiones vale la pena considerar los factores investigados.Gidarien lanaren plangintza egoki batek zuzenki eragiten du garraio publikoko enpresen kostu operatiboan. Tripulazioaren plangintzaren zailtasuna bi arrazoiengatik ematen da bereziki (Esclapés 2001, Bonrostro, Yusta 2003, Ernst et al. 2004, Van den Bergh et al. 2013, Ibarra-Rojas et al. 2015, Li et al. 2015): alde batetik, gidarien plangintza beste arazo handiago baten parte da, ibilgailu eta gidarien plangintzaren arazoaren parte. Bestalde, garraio sareen arteko ezberdintasunek, enpresen baliabideen arteko ezberdintasunek edota arautegi edo lan-akordioen arteko ezberdintasunek, enpresa bakoitzarentzako soluzio partikular bat garatzea behartzen dute. Ikerketa honen helburu nagusia "algoritmo eraginkor bat garatzea da, zeinek exekuzio denbora apropos baten, eta lehen, azken edo beste edozein bitarteko geldialditan errelebua baimenduz, hiriarteko sare baten diharduen garraio publikoko autobus konpainia batek behar duen tripulazioa minimizatzen duen". Horrela, eta konpainia erreal baten tripulazioaren planifikazioa oinarritzat hartuta, literaturan aurkitutako bi ikerketa-hutsune aztertu dira. Alde batetik, zenbatetan mugatu ezak eta lehen, azken edo beste edozein bitarteko geldialditan errelebuak baimentzeak daukan inpaktua aztertuko da. Bestalde, planifikatzerakoan ezaugarri ezberdinak dituzten zerbitzuek errestrikzio ezberdinak kontsideratzea behartzen dutenean, planifikazio prozesua aztertu da. Bi prozedura aztertu dira: arazoa zerbitzuen ezaugarrien araberako planifikazio independentetan banatzea edo errestrikzio gogorrenak kontsideratuta, planifikazio bakar bat osatzea. Ikerketaren metodologiari dagokionez, Eragiketen Ikerketako (Winston, Goldberg 2004) zazpi urratsak jarraitu dira: (1) arazoa formulatzea, (2) sistemaren behaketa, (3) arazoaren eredua formulatu, (4) eredua egiaztatzea eta aurreikuspenerako erabiltzea, (5) aukera egokia aukeratzea, (6) azterketaren emaitzak eta ondorioak aurkeztea eta (7) gomendioak ezartzea eta ebaluatzea. Emaitzen arabera, kasu batzuetan ikertu diren bi faktoreek emaitza hobeagoak dakartzatela baieztatu da.A proper crew scheduling impacts on the operational cost of public transport companies. The difficulty of the crew scheduling is due to two main aspects (Esclapés 2001, Bonrostro, Yusta 2003, Ernst et al. 2004, Van den Bergh et al. 2013, Ibarra-Rojas et al. 2015, Li et al. 2015): first, it is part of a larger problem, the Vehicle and Crew Scheduling Problem. Second, the differences among network features, resources of companies, regulatory restrictions or labour agreements make the solutions particular to each company. The main objective of the present research work is “to develop an efficient algorithm which minimizes in an acceptable execution time the Crew Scheduling Problem of an interurban passenger public transport bus company, allowing unlimited drivers’ reliefs that can occur at first, last or any other intermediate stop of a line”. So, using this tool on a real company’s crew scheduling problem, two research gaps found in the analysis of the literature have been examined. On one hand, the impact of allowing unlimited drivers’ reliefs that can occur at first, last or any other intermediate stop of a line. On the other hand, the impact of the scheduling procedure when restrictions vary depending on the type of service that is included in the duty. Two procedures have been studied: dividing the problem into independent problems or scheduling globally under the most limited restrictions. Concerning the research methodology, the seven steps of Operations Research (Winston, Goldberg 2004) have been followed: (1) formulate the problem, (2) observe the system, (3) formulate a model of the problem, (4) verify the model and use the model for prediction, (5) select a suitable alternative, (6) present the results and conclusion of the study and (7) implement and evaluate the recommendations. The results show that occasionally it is worthy to consider both investigated factors

Crew Scheduling for Netherlands Railways: "destination: customer"

: In this paper we describe the use of a set covering model with additional constraints for scheduling train drivers and conductors for the Dutch railway operator NS Reizigers. The schedules were generated according to new rules originating from the project "Destination: Customer" ("Bestemming: Klant" in Dutch). This project is carried out by NS Reizigers in order to increase the quality and the punctuality of its train services. With respect to the scheduling of drivers and conductors, this project involves the generation of efficient and acceptable duties with a high robustness against the transfer of delays of trains. A key issue for the acceptability of the duties is the included amount of variation per duty. The applied set covering model is solved by dynamic column generation techniques, Lagrangean relaxation and powerful heuristics. The model and the solution techniques are part of the TURNI system, which is currently used by NS Reizigers for carrying out several analyses concerning the required capacities of the depots. The latter are strongly influenced by the new rules

A rostering approach to minimize health risks for workers: An application to a container terminal in the Italian port of Genoa

The evolving safety regulation is pushing seaports to comply with safety measures for workers performing heavy loads handling and repetitive movements. This paper proposes a risk-aware rostering approach in maritime container terminals, i.e., it addresses the rostering problem of minimizing and balancing workers’ risk in such terminals. To this end, a mixed integer mathematical programming model incorporating workforce risks is proposed, considering constraints such as the satisfaction of the workforce demand to perform the terminal operations, the worker-task compatibility and restrictions on the sequence of tasks assigned to the same worker. The model has been successfully applied to plan workforce over a six months horizon in a real container terminal located in Northern Italy, the Southern European Container Hub (SECH) in Genoa. As the workforce demand in SECH terminal is available at most two weeks in advance, a rolling horizon planning approach is devised. Experimental tests on real data provided by SECH terminal over a six months planning horizon highlight the effectiveness of the approach - the maximum monthly risk for workers is reduced by 33.9% compared to the current planning – and suitability to other container terminal contexts. Moreover, the model is applicable to a broad range of port situations, and robust enough to need little adaptation

Welcome to OR&S! Where students, academics and professionals come together

In this manuscript, an overview is given of the activities done at the Operations Research and Scheduling (OR&S) research group of the faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Ghent University. Unlike the book published by [1] that gives a summary of all academic and professional activities done in the field of Project Management in collaboration with the OR&S group, the focus of the current manuscript lies on academic publications and the integration of these published results in teaching activities. An overview is given of the publications from the very beginning till today, and some of the topics that have led to publications are discussed in somewhat more detail. Moreover, it is shown how the research results have been used in the classroom to actively involve students in our research activities

Fairness aspects in personnel scheduling

In industries like health care, public transport or call centers a shift-based system ensures permanent availability of employees for covering needed services. The resource allocation problem – assigning employees to shifts – is known as personnel scheduling in literature and often aims at minimizing staffing costs. Working in shifts, though, impacts employees’ private lives which adds to the problem of increasing staff shortage in recent years. Therefore, more and more effort is spent on incorporating fairness into scheduling approaches in order to increase employees’ satisfaction. This paper presents a literature review of approaches for personnel scheduling considering fairness aspects. Since fairness is not a quantitative objective, but can be evaluated from different point of views, a large number of fairness measurements exists in the literature. Furthermore, perspective (group vs individual fairness) or time horizon (short-term vs long-term fairness) are often considered very differently. To conclude, we show that a uniform definition and approach for considering fairness in personnel scheduling is challenging and point out gaps for future research