Reference no: EM132915249

Case 1:  Scheduling Employees at Big Town Fire

This case focuses on developing a deeper understanding of the personnel scheduling problem.

Big Town Fire Department would like to schedule their human resource requirements in fire and safety operations.  The town runs two schedules per day, 12 hours each. Employees are compensated hourly at $30 per hour plus 33% for benefits.  Employees who work the night shift received $5 more per hour and have a commensurate increase in benefits. 

The weekly firefighter personnel requirements are:

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun

5a-5p 11 13 15 19 15 13 9

5a-5p 17 13 15 17 19 21 14

The normal shift for a fire-fighter is 4 days 12 hours a day followed 3 consecutive days off, working on either the day or the night shift.  Big Town managers would like to schedule the fire fighters in the least cost way, but must make sure the requirements are met?

Questions to Address

1. What is the basic challenge that Big Town faces in this setting?  What assumptions are made when building a model to schedule the fire fighters or in any personnel problem?
2. Given the above information what is the optimal schedule and the associated cost?  Call this solution and the associated total cost the "benchmark solution".
3. How does the benchmark solution change with increases in the needed number of firefighters on the weekend night shifts (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) of 5%, 10%, and 20%? 
4. How does the benchmark optimal solution change if there are part-time employees who work two consecutive days with 5 days off either day or night?
5. Provide a table with different solutions for 0%, 20%, 40%, etc., part time employees as defined in part c.
6. What if the total number of fire fighters are limited due to turnover or other challenges in hiring?  Starting from the benchmark solution, limit the total number of employees by 1, 2, 3, ..., 10.  To enable finding an answer, allow the employees to work "double" shifts (day and night), but double cost the Big Town "time and a half" for hours over 48 hours per week.  Report the implications in terms of cost?
7. Summarize and generalize the findings in this case.