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Assigning Telephone Operators to Shifts at New Brunswick Telephone Company

Author

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  • Gary M. Thompson

    (School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853)

Abstract

I developed a procedure for assigning telephone operators to shifts at New Brunswick Telephone Company (NBTel). Although the problem has received scant attention in the literature, its solution greatly affects employees' satisfaction with their work schedules. NBTel requires that all shifts be assigned to employees, and it is obligated contractually to satisfy preferences for shifts in order of employee seniority. The specialized shift assignment heuristic (SSAH) that I developed runs on a personal computer, generating approximately three solutions per second. Employee and shift databases are maintained in a spreadsheet, and macros are used to integrate the heuristic into the spreadsheet. Both management and employees see SSAH as an improvement over the previous manual procedure.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary M. Thompson, 1997. "Assigning Telephone Operators to Shifts at New Brunswick Telephone Company," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 1-11, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:27:y:1997:i:4:p:1-11
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.27.4.1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Pastor, Rafael & Olivella, Jordi, 2008. "Selecting and adapting weekly work schedules with working time accounts: A case of a retail clothing chain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 184(1), pages 1-12, January.
    2. Anuj Mehrotra & Kenneth E. Murphy & Michael A. Trick, 2000. "Optimal shift scheduling: A branch‐and‐price approach," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(3), pages 185-200, April.
    3. Michael J. Brusco & Larry W. Jacobs, 2000. "Optimal Models for Meal-Break and Start-Time Flexibility in Continuous Tour Scheduling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(12), pages 1630-1641, December.
    4. Noah Gans & Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2003. "Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 79-141, September.
    5. Boyer, Kenneth K., 2001. "E-operations: a guide to streamlining with the internet," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 47-54.
    6. Mehran Hojati, 2010. "Near-optimal solution to an employee assignment problem with seniority," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 539-557, December.
    7. Prakash Mirchandani & G. G. Hegde & Richard E. Wendell, 2001. "Enhancing Competitiveness of the Customer Loan Center at Promistar Financial Corporation," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 28-43, June.
    8. Larry J. LeBlanc & Dale Randels & T. K. Swann, 2000. "Heery International's Spreadsheet Optimization Model for Assigning Managers to Construction Projects," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 95-106, December.

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