Four-week employee scheduling using the (7/3, 7/3, 6/2) days-off schedule

An efficient heuristic technique is developed for a real-life labor days-off scheduling problem with a four-week cycle. Using a workdays/off-days notation, this days-off arrangement is referred to as the (7/3, 7/3, 6/2) schedule. Given two different levels of labor demands, D for weekdays and E for weekends, the primary objective is to minimize the workforce size. The secondary objective is to reduce the number of active days-off patterns required. The solution technique does not include linear or integer programming, but it utilizes the dual solution to determine the workforce size and feasible days-off assignments. Requiring only simple calculations, the new technique offers an efficient alternative to integer programming.