A simulation approach for stochastic employee days-off scheduling

This paper presents a simulation approach for employee days-off scheduling when the daily labour demands are random variables. A simulation model is constructed, and a case study application of the proposed approach is described. The model recognizes limited staff availability, stochastic workload variability, and policy restrictions on the choice of employee work schedules. The model has been successfully applied in the days-off scheduling of a multicraft maintenance workforce of an oil and gas pipelines department. Without increasing the number or cost of employees, the model recommended alternative days-off assignments that are expected to reduce throughput times for maintenance work orders by an average of 25%.