Document Type

Article

Article Version

Post-print

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

A two-stage stochastic program is developed for scheduling and allocating cross-trained workers in a multi-department service environment with random demands. The first stage corresponds to scheduling days-off over a time horizon such as a week or month. The second stage is the recourse action that deals with allocating available workers at the beginning of a day to accommodate realized demands. After the general two-stage model is formulated, a special case is introduced for computational testing. The testing helps quantify the value of cross-training as a function of problem characteristics. Results show that cross-training can be more valuable than perfect information, especially when demand uncertainty is high.

Comments

This is a post peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Journal of the Operational Research Society. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors/journal/v62/n6/abs/jors201016a.html

Publication Title

Journal of the Operational Research Society

Published Citation

Campbell, Gerard. A two-stage stochastic program for scheduling and allocating cross-trained workers. Journal of the Operational Research Society (2011) 62, 1038–1047. doi:10.1057/jors.2010.16

DOI

10.1057/jors.2010.16

Peer Reviewed

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