Real Life Scheduling Problem: Saturday and Sunday requires 3 employees...

rwhproductions

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2017
Messages
2
Hello Everyone,
I am seeking assistance in solving a real world scheduling problem. This is not a homework question, I’m trying to help my mom with her weekend scheduling issues. Basically, each Saturday and Sunday requires 3 employees to be working and the amount of days each worked has to be equal, otherwise they would whine about the inequality. Originally there were 9 employees in total, so I set up 3 groups of 3 employees each (A,B, and C), and had them rotating on a 3 month cycle that went like this;
Month 1: A=2 Days, B=3 Days, C=3 Days
Month 2: A=3 Days, B=2 Days, C=3 Days
Month 3: A=3 Days, B=3 Days, C=2 Days
and then the cycle would repeat, that way each employee worked 8 days per cycle.
However, I now have 2 more employees in addition to the original 9; one of the new employees can only work Saturdays and the other can only work Sundays. So now not only do I have an indivisible number of employees, but the variable of which days they can work has become a condition in the system, and I need to balance everything out so that each works an equal number of days per cycle, but never works more than 3 days per month. Here’s a breakdown of the conditions of the problem;
- 8 days per month (4 Saturdays, 4 Sundays)
- 3 Employees required to work each day
- 9 employees who can work either day, 1 employee who can only work Saturdays, 1 who can work only Sundays.
- All employees must work an equal amount of days
- Each employees should work no more than 3 days per month.
So how would y’all recommend I go about solving this problem? I appreciate any suggestions, thank you!
-Rick H.
 
Hello Everyone,
I am seeking assistance in solving a real world scheduling problem. This is not a homework question, I’m trying to help my mom with her weekend scheduling issues. Basically, each Saturday and Sunday requires 3 employees to be working and the amount of days each worked has to be equal, otherwise they would whine about the inequality. Originally there were 9 employees in total, so I set up 3 groups of 3 employees each (A,B, and C), and had them rotating on a 3 month cycle that went like this;
Month 1: A=2 Days, B=3 Days, C=3 Days
Month 2: A=3 Days, B=2 Days, C=3 Days
Month 3: A=3 Days, B=3 Days, C=2 Days
and then the cycle would repeat, that way each employee worked 8 days per cycle.
However, I now have 2 more employees in addition to the original 9; one of the new employees can only work Saturdays and the other can only work Sundays. So now not only do I have an indivisible number of employees, but the variable of which days they can work has become a condition in the system, and I need to balance everything out so that each works an equal number of days per cycle, but never works more than 3 days per month. Here’s a breakdown of the conditions of the problem;
- 8 days per month (4 Saturdays, 4 Sundays)
- 3 Employees required to work each day
- 9 employees who can work either day, 1 employee who can only work Saturdays, 1 who can work only Sundays.
- All employees must work an equal amount of days
- Each employees should work no more than 3 days per month.
So how would y’all recommend I go about solving this problem? I appreciate any suggestions, thank you!
-Rick H.
My recommendation for you would be to go to the local university (or community college) and hire a "hungry" graduate student to perform this task - cost of doing business!!
 
Top