A study in work-force scheduling was conducted of the impact on labor utilization of six types of scheduling flexibility: shifts of fewer than eight hours (shift length); weekly tours shorter than five days (tour length); non-consecutive days-off pattern (days-off pattern); shift starts in any hour of the day (shift starts); shift starts in different hours of the day on subsequent days of a tour (start-time float); and meal breaks taken in any of a number of periods within a day (meal-break window). Four types of labor requirement variability were included: day length; labor requirement mean; amplitude; and pattern. / An integer linear programming formulation was developed to model the scheduling flexibility types. The formulation implicitly represents employee schedules that contain meal-break window and start-time float flexibility. The implicit formulation is more compact than traditional set covering approaches which explicitly represent employee schedules. / The results of the study showed meal-break windows and shift length effective in improving labor utilization without regard to the shape of the labor requirement pattern. Shift length, tour length, and shift starts were found to be important to labor utilization where the labor requirement pattern exhibited hourly and daily variation in the level of demand. Days-off pattern and start-time float provided virtually no improvement in labor utilization for any of the labor requirement patterns. Longer day length was associated with improved labor utilization for all labor requirement patterns. Mean labor requirement showed no relationship to labor utilization for any labor requirement pattern. High labor requirement amplitude was shown to have a strong adverse effect on labor utilization. In addition, many interaction effects were found significant. / The study concludes with a list of numerous suggested research extensions in the use of the compact formulation in labor scheduling applications and flexibility analyses. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-08, Section: A, page: 2565. / Major Professor: Stephen E. Bechtold. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78046 |
| Contributors | Jacobs, Larry Woodrow., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 366 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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