IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/annopr/v155y2007i1p279-28810.1007-s10479-007-0202-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Solving the multi-objective nurse scheduling problem with a weighted cost function

Author

Listed:
  • D. Parr
  • J. Thompson

Abstract

The primary objective of the nurse scheduling problem is to ensure there are sufficient nurses on each shift. There are also a number of secondary objectives designed to make the schedule more pleasant. Neighbourhood search implementations use a weighted cost function with the weights dependent on the importance of each objective. Setting the weights on binding constraints so they are satisfied but still allow the search to find good solutions is difficult. This paper compares two methods for overcoming this problem, SAWing and Noising with simulated annealing and demonstrates that Noising produces better schedules. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Suggested Citation

  • D. Parr & J. Thompson, 2007. "Solving the multi-objective nurse scheduling problem with a weighted cost function," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 279-288, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:155:y:2007:i:1:p:279-288:10.1007/s10479-007-0202-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10479-007-0202-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10479-007-0202-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10479-007-0202-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berrada, Ilham & Ferland, Jacques A. & Michelon, Philippe, 1996. "A multi-objective approach to nurse scheduling with both hard and soft constraints," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 183-193, September.
    2. Fred Glover, 1989. "Tabu Search---Part I," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 1(3), pages 190-206, August.
    3. Dowsland, Kathryn A., 1998. "Nurse scheduling with tabu search and strategic oscillation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(2-3), pages 393-407, April.
    4. D. Abramson, 1991. "Constructing School Timetables Using Simulated Annealing: Sequential and Parallel Algorithms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 98-113, January.
    5. Bellanti, F. & Carello, G. & Della Croce, F. & Tadei, R., 2004. "A greedy-based neighborhood search approach to a nurse rostering problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(1), pages 28-40, February.
    6. Kenneth R. Baker & Michael J. Magazine, 1977. "Workforce Scheduling with Cyclic Demands and Day-Off Constraints," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 161-167, October.
    7. Charon, Irene & Hudry, Olivier, 2001. "The noising methods: A generalization of some metaheuristics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 86-101, November.
    8. K A Dowsland & J M Thompson, 2000. "Solving a nurse scheduling problem with knapsacks, networks and tabu search," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 51(7), pages 825-833, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ağralı, Semra & Taşkın, Z. Caner & Ünal, A. Tamer, 2017. "Employee scheduling in service industries with flexible employee availability and demand," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 66(PA), pages 159-169.
    2. Sanja Petrovic & Greet Berghe, 2012. "A comparison of two approaches to nurse rostering problems," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 365-384, April.
    3. Wolbeck, Lena Antonia, 2019. "Fairness aspects in personnel scheduling," Discussion Papers 2019/16, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    4. Mauro Falasca & Christopher Zobel & Cliff Ragsdale, 2011. "Helping a Small Development Organization Manage Volunteers More Efficiently," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 41(3), pages 254-262, June.
    5. Yiting Xing & Ling Li & Zhuming Bi & Marzena Wilamowska‐Korsak & Li Zhang, 2013. "Operations Research (OR) in Service Industries: A Comprehensive Review," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 300-353, May.
    6. Gülcin Ermis & Can Akkan, 2019. "Search algorithms for improving the pareto front in a timetabling problem with a solution network-based robustness measure," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 275(1), pages 101-121, April.
    7. D. Wooff & S. Stirling, 2015. "Practical statistical methods for call centres with a case study addressing urgent medical care delivery," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 233(1), pages 501-515, October.
    8. Vanhoucke, Mario & Maenhout, Broos, 2009. "On the characterization and generation of nurse scheduling problem instances," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(2), pages 457-467, July.
    9. Sophie Veldhoven & Gerhard Post & Egbert Veen & Tim Curtois, 2016. "An assessment of a days off decomposition approach to personnel shift scheduling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 239(1), pages 207-223, April.
    10. Nieves Brisaboa & Luisa Carpente & Ana Cerdeira-Pena & Silvia Lorenzo-Freire, 2015. "Optimization in dubbing scheduling," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 23(3), pages 685-702, October.
    11. Mohammad Reza Hassani & J. Behnamian, 2021. "A scenario-based robust optimization with a pessimistic approach for nurse rostering problem," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 143-169, January.
    12. Peyman Kiani Nahand & Mahdi Hamid & Mahdi Bastan & Ali Mollajan, 2019. "Human resource management: new approach to nurse scheduling by considering human error," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 10(6), pages 1429-1443, December.
    13. Van den Bergh, Jorne & Beliën, Jeroen & De Bruecker, Philippe & Demeulemeester, Erik & De Boeck, Liesje, 2013. "Personnel scheduling: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 226(3), pages 367-385.
    14. Tom Rihm & Philipp Baumann, 2018. "Staff assignment with lexicographically ordered acceptance levels," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 167-189, April.
    15. Kibaek Kim & Sanjay Mehrotra, 2015. "A Two-Stage Stochastic Integer Programming Approach to Integrated Staffing and Scheduling with Application to Nurse Management," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1431-1451, December.
    16. Falasca, Mauro & Zobel, Christopher, 2012. "An optimization model for volunteer assignments in humanitarian organizations," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 250-260.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vanhoucke, Mario & Maenhout, Broos, 2009. "On the characterization and generation of nurse scheduling problem instances," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(2), pages 457-467, July.
    2. Topaloglu, Seyda, 2009. "A shift scheduling model for employees with different seniority levels and an application in healthcare," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 198(3), pages 943-957, November.
    3. Deborah L. Kellogg & Steven Walczak, 2007. "Nurse Scheduling: From Academia to Implementation or Not?," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 37(4), pages 355-369, August.
    4. Jingpeng Li & Uwe Aickelin & Edmund K. Burke, 2009. "A Component-Based Heuristic Search Method with Evolutionary Eliminations for Hospital Personnel Scheduling," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 468-479, August.
    5. Burke, Edmund K. & Curtois, Timothy & Post, Gerhard & Qu, Rong & Veltman, Bart, 2008. "A hybrid heuristic ordering and variable neighbourhood search for the nurse rostering problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 188(2), pages 330-341, July.
    6. Edmund K. Burke & Timothy Curtois & Rong Qu & Greet Vanden Berghe, 2013. "A Time Predefined Variable Depth Search for Nurse Rostering," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 411-419, August.
    7. G Beddoe & S Petrovic, 2007. "Enhancing case-based reasoning for personnel rostering with selected tabu search concepts," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 58(12), pages 1586-1598, December.
    8. Edmund Burke & Jingpeng Li & Rong Qu, 2012. "A Pareto-based search methodology for multi-objective nurse scheduling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 196(1), pages 91-109, July.
    9. Farasat, Alireza & Nikolaev, Alexander G., 2016. "Signed social structure optimization for shift assignment in the nurse scheduling problem," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 3-13.
    10. Tom Rihm & Philipp Baumann, 2018. "Staff assignment with lexicographically ordered acceptance levels," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 167-189, April.
    11. Hadi W. Purnomo & Jonathan F. Bard, 2007. "Cyclic preference scheduling for nurses using branch and price," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 200-220, March.
    12. Drexl, Andreas & Salewski, Frank, 1997. "Distribution requirements and compactness constraints in school timetabling," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 193-214, October.
    13. Bard, Jonathan F. & Purnomo, Hadi W., 2005. "Preference scheduling for nurses using column generation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 164(2), pages 510-534, July.
    14. Hai Wang, 2019. "Routing and Scheduling for a Last-Mile Transportation System," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 131-147, February.
    15. B Maenhout & M Vanhoucke, 2009. "The impact of incorporating nurse-specific characteristics in a cyclical scheduling approach," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(12), pages 1683-1698, December.
    16. Manion Anderson & Merve Bodur & Scott Rathwell & Vahid Sarhangian, 2023. "Optimization Helps Scheduling Nursing Staff at the Long-Term Care Homes of the City of Toronto," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 53(2), pages 133-154, March.
    17. Bellanti, F. & Carello, G. & Della Croce, F. & Tadei, R., 2004. "A greedy-based neighborhood search approach to a nurse rostering problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(1), pages 28-40, February.
    18. Cheang, B. & Li, H. & Lim, A. & Rodrigues, B., 2003. "Nurse rostering problems--a bibliographic survey," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(3), pages 447-460, December.
    19. R. Alvarez-Valdes & G. Martin & J. Tamarit, 1995. "Hores: A timetabling system for Spanish secondary schools," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 3(1), pages 137-144, June.
    20. Ernst, A. T. & Jiang, H. & Krishnamoorthy, M. & Sier, D., 2004. "Staff scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(1), pages 3-27, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:annopr:v:155:y:2007:i:1:p:279-288:10.1007/s10479-007-0202-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.