A Neural Network Application in Personnel Scheduling

In this paper, we present and evaluate a neural network model for solving a typical personnel-scheduling problem, i.e. an airport ground staff rostering problem. Personnel scheduling problems are widely found in servicing and manufacturing industries. The inherent complexity of personnel scheduling problems has normally resulted in the development of integer programming-based models and various heuristic solution procedures. The neural network approach has been admitted as a promising alternative to solving a variety of combinatorial optimization problems. While few works relate neural network to applications of personnel scheduling problems, there is great theoretical and practical value in exploring the potential of this area. In this paper, we introduce a neural network model following a relatively new modeling approach to solve a real rostering case. We show how to convert a mixed integer programming formulation to a neural network model. We also provide the experiment results comparing the neural network method with three popular heuristics, i.e. simulated annealing, Tabu search and genetic algorithm. The computational study reveals some potential of neural networks in solving personnel scheduling problems.

[1]  Marimuthu Palaniswami,et al.  Traditional heuristic versus Hopfield neural network approaches to a car sequencing problem , 1996 .

[2]  William L. Berry,et al.  Heuristic Methods for Telephone Operator Shift Scheduling: An Experimental Analysis , 1976 .

[3]  Michael J. Brusco,et al.  Improving Personnel Scheduling at Airline Stations , 1995, Oper. Res..

[4]  Stephen E. Bechtold,et al.  A Comparative Evaluation of Labor Tour Scheduling Methods , 1991 .

[5]  Marimuthu Palaniswami,et al.  A hybrid neural approach to combinatorial optimization , 1996, Comput. Oper. Res..

[6]  Marimuthu Palaniswami,et al.  Neural techniques for combinatorial optimization with applications , 1998, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks.

[7]  Andrzej Cichocki,et al.  Neural networks for optimization and signal processing , 1993 .

[8]  Sol Schindler,et al.  Station Staffing at Pan American World Airways , 1993 .

[9]  Stephen E. Bechtold,et al.  Implicit modeling of flexible break assignments in optimal shift scheduling , 1990 .

[10]  Albert Y. Zomaya,et al.  Scheduling in Parallel Computing Systems: Fuzzy and Annealing Techniques , 1999 .

[11]  Jacobus E. Rooda,et al.  NEURAL NETWORKS FOR JOB-SHOP SCHEDULING , 1994 .

[12]  Akio Yamamoto,et al.  Scheduling for minimizing total actual flow time by neural networks , 1992 .

[13]  Carsten Peterson,et al.  Parallel Distributed Approaches to Combinatorial Optimization: Benchmark Studies on Traveling Salesman Problem , 1990, Neural Computation.

[14]  Ramesh Sharda,et al.  Neural networks and operations research/management science , 1996 .

[15]  Matevž Kovačič,et al.  Timetable construction with Markovian neural network , 1993 .

[16]  Yoshiyasu Takefuji,et al.  Integer linear programming neural networks for job-shop scheduling , 1988, IEEE 1988 International Conference on Neural Networks.

[17]  Kenneth R. Baker,et al.  Workforce Allocation in Cyclical Scheduling Problems: A Survey , 1976 .

[18]  Yoshiyasu Takefuji,et al.  Stochastic neural networks for solving job-shop scheduling. I. Problem representation , 1988, IEEE 1988 International Conference on Neural Networks.

[19]  James P. Ignizio,et al.  Neural networks and operations research: An overview , 1992, Comput. Oper. Res..

[20]  J. J. Hopfield,et al.  “Neural” computation of decisions in optimization problems , 1985, Biological Cybernetics.

[21]  John B. Moore,et al.  Application of an Annealed Neural Network to a Timetabling Problem , 1996, INFORMS J. Comput..

[22]  Y. Censor,et al.  Parallel Optimization: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications , 1997 .

[23]  Denis Pellerin,et al.  Scheduling with neural networks: Application to timetable construction , 1994, Neurocomputing.

[24]  Yoshiyasu Takefuji,et al.  Stochastic neural networks for solving job-shop scheduling. II. architecture and simulations , 1988, IEEE 1988 International Conference on Neural Networks.

[25]  J. Fort.  Solving a combinatorial problem via self-organizing process: An application of the Kohonen algorithm to the traveling salesman problem , 1988, Biological Cybernetics.

[26]  Jean-Yves Potvin,et al.  THE TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM: A NEURAL NETWORK PERSPECTIVE , 1993 .

[27]  Yoshiyasu Takefuji,et al.  Neural computing for optimization and combinatorics , 1996 .

[28]  Vladimir Cherkassky,et al.  A neural network approach to job-shop scheduling , 1991, IEEE Trans. Neural Networks.

[29]  Laura I. Burke,et al.  Neural methods for the traveling salesman problem: Insights from operations research , 1994, Neural Networks.

[30]  T. Watanabe,et al.  Job-shop scheduling using neural networks , 1993 .

[31]  K. P. Chow,et al.  Knowledge-based system for rostering , 1993 .