Dynamic Job Assignment for Railway Personnel

This paper presents the results of a study on the assignment of jobs to the travelling personnel of a small railway company. The jobs in question are those of engine driver, conductor, etc. On one hand, these jobs have different requirements; on the other, the employees have different qualifications. The problem is to match job requirements and employee qualifications. The problem is a dynamic one since employees are assigned jobs on consecutive days of the month and, at the same time, a number of constraints as to the succession of jobs assigned to an employee are to be respected. In addition, all employees should get their fair share of jobs of each kind, early and late ones, short and long ones. This job assignment planning was formerly done in the company by means of a planning board every month--a procedure which was time-consuming and did not distribute the jobs among the employees fairly enough. A computer solution was, therefore, called for which would reduce the planning cost and also give greater employee satisfaction--an important factor in these days of "overemployment" and increasing demand for more leisure time.