A Decision Support System for Scheduling Personnel in a Newspaper Publishing Environment

Mohan Gopalakrishnan, Srimathy Gopalakrishnan and David M. Miller
Additional contact information
Mohan Gopalakrishnan: Department of Decision Sciences and MIS, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8, Canada
Srimathy Gopalakrishnan: Operations Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
David M. Miller: Department of Management Science and Statistics and Alabama Productivity Center, The University of Alabama, PO Box 870318, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0318

Interfaces, 1993, vol. 23, issue 4, 104-115

Abstract: We developed and implemented a PC-based decision support system for planning and scheduling part-time workers at a local newspaper company. The system addresses two important issues: generating requirements for part-time workers for each shift and scheduling them based on certain criteria. We used a rule-based system to generate the requirements and a heuristic search procedure incorporated into the system to develop schedules. The system has been in use for the past two years and has resulted in a 16-percent reduction in the number of part-time workers hired, which translates to an annual savings of $50,000. It has also reduced the time supervisors spend generating requirements and schedules for part-time workers.

Keywords: decision analysis: applications; industries: printing/publications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1993
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