In this series of models we will see how the Solver can help in staff scheduling with employee preferences, assigning people to offices, and in larger-scale problems such as airline crew scheduling and employee hiring, firing and training. In the Crew worksheet, we look at a very simplified application where a small airline needs to schedule crews to operate various flights. A crew 'rotation' must begin and end in the same city. In the HireFire worksheet, we consider a company that has to change the composition of its workforce towards more highly trained employees. It can hire, fire and train employees at various costs.
Different objectives are possible, such as minimizing costs or employee turnover.
In the Offices worksheet, we look at the common problem of assigning employees to offices, taking into account employee preferences. In the three Scheduling worksheets, an amusement park needs to assign employees to different work schedules to meet the demand for operation of the various rides on busy days. In Sched2, we take into account employee preferences in scheduling. In Sched3, we also take into account seniority and assign greater weight to senior employees' preferences. In the Troops worksheet, an army needs to move troops from 3 different training camps to 4 bases.