A network-based approach to the multi-activity combined timetabling and crew scheduling problem: Workforce scheduling for public health policy implementation

This paper introduces the multi-activity combined timetabling and crew scheduling problem. The goal of this problem is to schedule the minimum number of workers required in order to successfully visit a set of customers characterized by services needed matched against schedule availability. Two solution strategies are proposed. The first is based on mathematical programming whilst the second uses a heuristic procedure in order to reduce computational time. The proposed model combines timetabling with crew scheduling decisions in one mixed integer programming model which considers multiple activities. The algorithms are tested on randomly generated and real instances provided by the Health to School Initiative, a program based at Bogota's local Health Department. The results show that the Initiative can increase its coverage by up to 68% using the proposed heuristic approach as a planning process tool. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.