Compressed workweek scheduling with differing weekdays and weekends labor demands

The objective of this paper is to develop optimum solutions for the labor scheduling problem in which workers are given three or four consecutive workdays per week. These solutions apply to the special cases in which labor demand has two different levels: D for weekdays and E for weekends. They do not include linear or integer programming, and do not assume that the costs of different days-off patterns are equal. The dual solution is utilized to determine the minimum workforce size and days-off assignments that minimize the total labor cost. By requiring only simple manual calculations, the new solutions eliminate the need for linear or integer programming software.