Universiteit Gent Faculteit Economie en Bedrijfskunde. Automation of workforce scheduling: required functionalities and performance measurement

Transcription

1 Universiteit Gent Faculteit Economie en Bedrijfskunde Academiejaar Automation of workforce scheduling: required functionalities and performance measurement Masterproef voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van Master of Science in de Toegepaste Economische Wetenschappen: Handelsingenieur Ben VAN LANCKER Yarne WULLAERT Onder leiding van Prof. dr. Broos Maenhout

2

3 PERMISSION Ondergetekende verklaart dat de inhoud van deze masterproef mag geraadpleegd en/of gereproduceerd worden, mits bronvermelding. Ben Van Lancker Yarne Wullaert

4 Preface We would like to start with thanking the people who contributed to the realisation of this thesis. The writing of a thesis is after all a long-lasting task for which advice and adjustments from experts in the research eld are essential. In the rst place, we would like to thank our promoter, prof. dr. B. Maenhout, for providing us with interesting ideas and for his continuous support during the writing of our thesis. Furthermore, we would like to thank G. Wullaert for introducing us into the subject, for providing us with a number of contacts and for his follow-up on the progress of our thesis. We would also like to thank all contact persons within the business and software organisations that will be discussed in this thesis. It is thanks to their willingness to cooperate and their willingness to share their knowledge that this thesis could be accomplished. All people who contributed in this way are mentioned by name in the Acknowledgements. iii

5 Samenvatting thesis Ondanks dat er verschillende softwarepakketten op de markt zijn voor het eectief en eciënt inplannen van personeel, wordt een personeelsplan in veel sectoren en bedrijven nog steeds manueel opgesteld. Het doel van deze thesis bestaat erin om na te gaan waarom bedrijven moeilijk hun personeelsplanningsproces gaan automatiseren. Om dit te achterhalen is het belangrijk om te onderzoeken welke de vereiste functionaliteiten zijn om personeel eectief en eciënt in te plannen en wat de performantie van de bestaande software is om met dit gegeven om te gaan. Het beoogde eindresultaat van deze thesis is een analyse te maken van de belangrijkheid van verschillende functionaliteiten, hoe goed de software scoort voor deze functionaliteiten en uiteindelijk de gap te beschrijven tussen wat de bedrijven vragen en wat de software aanbiedt. Personeelsplanning is een veelomvattend proces dat uit verschillende stappen bestaat en over verschillende tijdshorizonten kan gedenieerd worden. In de lange termijn worden strategische beslissingen genomen over het personeelsbeleid en de bezettingsvereisten. Het doel is hier om vraag en aanbod te matchen. Op middellange termijn worden tactische beslissingen genomen betreende het planningsbeleid en de in acht te nemen regels en objectieven om de personeelsplanning op te stellen. Ten slotte moeten ook operationele beslissingen worden genomen op korte termijn. Deze houden de eectieve toewijzing van mensen aan het rooster in, alsook de dagelijkse opvolging van de planning. Deze thesis zal zich focussen op de tactische en operationele problemen. Strategische problemen zoals vraagvoorspelling en bepaling van de werkbelasting zullen slechts kort aan bod komen. Een belangrijke opmerking is dat de thesis enkel de vraag naar software op de Belgische markt beschouwt. Door verschillen in wetgeving en verschillende opvattingen en gewoontes in andere landen, kunnen de vereiste functionaliteiten in andere landen sterk variëren. Het onderzoek startte met een korte studie van de bestaande literatuur om een eerste inzicht te krijgen in het domein van personeelsplanning. Daarna werd er een eerste verkennend onderzoek uitgevoerd in de praktijk. We spraken achtereenvolgens met een consultant manager met heel wat ervaring in personeelsplanning om het hele planningsproces onder de knie te krijgen, en met een sales manager van een personeelsplanningssoftware om een idee te krijgen hoe de implementatie van de software bij een bedrijf verloopt. In een volgende stap gingen we langs bij zeven bedrijven in vijf verschillende

6 sectoren om hun personeelsplanningsproces te ontleden. Op die manier onderzochten we de vereisten van de verschillende bedrijven en sectoren om hun personeel te plannen, alsook de planning tool die ze hebben geïmplementeerd. Daarna werden de functionaliteiten van vijf verschillende software providers nagegaan. Met alle verzamelde informatie konden toen een aantal conclusies worden gemaakt. Ten eerste werden de vereisten van de verschillende sectoren met elkaar vergeleken. Daarnaast werd een vergelijking gemaakt van de functionaliteiten van de verschillende softwarepakketten en werd hun performantie in kaart gebracht. Ten slotte werd een gap analysis uitgevoerd waarin de vereisten en de aangeboden functionaliteiten tegen elkaar worden afgewogen. De focus van de thesis ligt op de praktijk, waardoor de literatuurstudie vrij kort is en voornamelijk bedoeld is om het onderwerp in te leiden. Wanneer we speciek naar de mogelijkheden voor automatisatie van personeelsplanning gaan kijken, merken we toch een aantal verschillen op tussen de theorie en de praktijk. Academisch onderzoek richt zich voornamelijk op het zoeken van optimalisatietechnieken aan de hand van operationeel onderzoek en heuristieken. Later in de thesis zal duidelijk worden dat planning software deze technieken wel toepast in zijn algoritmes om het personeelsplan te optimaliseren, maar dat bedrijven in de praktijk daar slechts weinig gebruik van maken. Terwijl de optimalisatie in de theorie gebaseerd is op het minimaliseren of maximaliseren van een doelfunctie, worden zulke doelfuncties zelden gebruikt door de bedrijven, hoewel dit mogelijk is met de software. Dit komt later terug bij de gap tussen software en bedrijven. Om de vereiste functionaliteiten te achterhalen werd het planningsproces van zeven organisaties in vijf verschillende sectoren ontleed. Voor elke organisatie werden de verschillende stappen van de planning overlopen, van vraag- en werklastbepaling, over de eectieve toewijzing van de werknemers aan het rooster, tot de opvolging van het rooster en de rapporteringsmogelijkheden. Op basis van deze informatie werd een vergelijking opgemaakt van de vereiste functionaliteiten in de vijf verschillende sectoren. De eerste sector is de gezondheidssector, waar de planning van het verpleegkundig personeel in een ziekenhuis wordt besproken. Het ziekenhuis werkt met de software SP-Expert ter ondersteuning van hun planningsproces. Ter ondersteuning, want de eectieve planning gebeurt eigenlijk manueel. Het ziekenhuis werkt met een cyclisch rooster dat manueel wordt opgesteld en moet worden goedgekeurd door management en vakbonden. Daarna kan het cyclisch rooster worden uitgerold in SP-Expert. De software zorgt voor de opvolging van de planning, geeft regelovertredingen aan en staat in directe link met de personeelsdatabase, het tijdsregistratiesysteem, het verloningssysteem en een web terminal waar het personeel shiftwensen en verlof kan aanvragen. In de tweede case wordt de retail sector besproken. De case bestaat uit twee delen omdat twee verschillende retail organisaties aan bod komen. Beide organisaties werken momenteel met een zelfontwikkelde planning tool, die dient ter ondersteuning van de planning maar die niet in staat is om de planning te automatiseren of te optimaliseren. De planning gebeurt decentraal door de liaalmanager voor elk liaal. De retail staat bekend als een erg dynamische omgeving die constant bijsturing nodig heeft van de planner en dus heel

7 wat exibiliteit van de planning tool vergt. Een automatische planning tool kan deze exibiliteit niet altijd bieden. Nochtans is de retailer in het eerste deel van de case op zoek naar een nieuwe planning tool. De bedoeling zou zijn om over te schakelen naar semiautomatische planning, waar de tool rekening houdt met onder andere de kwalicaties van het personeel en de regelovertredingen, maar waar de planner de eindverantwoordelijkheid heeft om het personeel in te plannen. De derde case handelt over een sorteercentrum van een postbedrijf en wordt aldus aanschouwd als een productieomgeving. Dit bedrijf werkt ook met een zelfontwikkelde planning tool, die echter meer ontwikkeld is dan in de retail case. De tool houdt rekening met regelovertredingen en kwalicaties van de mensen en kan roostervoorstellen maken. Dit bedrijf werkt met vaste shiften, waarbij het personeel dus ofwel de vroege, ofwel de late, ofwel de nacht shift werkt (i.e. geen shiftrotatie). De belangrijkste reden waarom ze met een in-house ontwikkelde tool werken is omwille van de vereiste exibiliteit en de aversie voor verandering. Verder heeft het bedrijf eigenlijk ook geen gesosticeerde tool nodig, net omwille van dat vast shift systeem, en omdat er nog vele statutairen werken die moeten ingezet worden zoals het in hun contract is bepaald. In de vierde case wordt de planning van de onderhoudsteams in een productiebedrijf besproken. De gebruikte tool is ook door het bedrijf zelf ontwikkeld. Ze zijn echter op zoek naar een nieuwe tool die zou toelaten om de planning toch iets meer te automatiseren. De belangrijkste vereiste van de tool is de integratie met de SAP database. Het bedrijf wil geen interface met SAP, maar een echte real time integratie. De bestaande twijfel om de planning te automatiseren is het gevolg van de vrees voor sociale spanningen. De onderhoudsmecaniciens kunnen binnen hun shift de volgorde van hun taken zelf bepalen. Met automatische planning zou deze volgorde vaststaan, waardoor ze een deel van hun vrijheid verliezen. Er is dus veel weerstand vanuit het personeel tegen het automatiseren van de planning. De laatste sector die wordt besproken is de eld services. Ook hier komen twee bedrijven aan bod. Het eerste bedrijf heeft zijn planning volledige geautomatiseerd door de implementatie van ClickSchedule. De techniekers worden uitgestuurd naar verschillende locaties. Het belangrijkste objectief is routeoptimalisatie, om op die manier de verplaatsingstijd en de idle time te minimaliseren. De software gaat techniekers toewijzen aan taken op basis van hun kwalicaties en hun huidige locatie (in dienst van de route-optimalisatie). De taken worden doorgestuurd naar de pda's van de techniekers, welke op hun beurt de taakstatus doorgeven (bv. aangekomen, afgewerkt, vertrokken). De personeelsgegevens en de taken worden beheerd in SAP, dat gelinkt is met ClickSchedule. In de volgende sectie worden de planning tools van vijf software providers besproken. Voor elke software provider komen hun visie op planning, de werking en beperkingen van de software, de implementatie aanpak en de ontwikkelingen voor de toekomst aan bod. De vijf software tools zijn SP-Expert, Planning- Forge, Ortec Harmony, Quintiq en ClickSchedule. Ortec en Quintiq zijn de grootste spelers met de meeste ervaring, maar ook ClickSchedule heeft veel ervaring, hoewel dit voornamelijk in één sector is, namelijk in de eld services. SP-Expert is bijna een 100% standaard tool, en ook Ortec Harmony, PlanningForge en

8 ClickSchedule zijn grotendeels standaard, met conguraties bij de klant. Quintiq is minder standaard en werkt met drie lagen, een algemene oplossing, een sectorspecieke oplossing en een klantspecieke oplossing. ClickSchedule is volledig gericht op de eld services en SP-Expert is voornamelijk vertegenwoordigd in de gezondheidssector. De andere drie providers zijn niet speciek op een bepaalde markt gericht. Puur qua planningscapaciteiten scoren de verschillende tools ongeveer even goed. De rapportering is vooral bij SP-Expert sterk ontwikkeld dankzij hun dynamische rapporteringsmogelijkheden. Ook Ortec Harmony en Quintiq hebben vrij uitgebreide rapporteringsmogelijkheden. PlanningForge daarentegen biedt voornamelijk standaard rapporten aan, en ClickSchedule ziet rapportering als bijzaak. Qua interface mogelijkheden met databases en andere software scoren de meeste providers vrij goed. SP-Expert is iets beperkter in die mogelijkheden. Verder wordt er nog eens dieper ingegaan op welke specieke functionaliteiten al dan niet beschikbaar zijn binnen de verschillende tools voor de planningscapaciteiten, monitoring en rapporteringsmogelijkheden, en interface mogelijkheden. Het vergelijken van de bedrijven en de software resulteerde in een aantal voordelen van automatisatie van personeelsplanning, maar ook in een aantal redenen waarom vaak niet geautomatiseerd wordt. Het grootste voordeel van automatisatie is dat de planning eciënter is. Dit resulteert in lagere kosten, aangezien de planners minder tijd moeten spenderen aan de planning. Een software tool houdt automatisch rekening met wetgeving, arbeidsregels, kwalicaties van het personeel, enzovoort. De data-uitwisseling met HRM, tijdsregistratie en de loonlijst zorgt voor tijdswinst en minder fouten. Doordat het personeel eciënter is ingepland, zijn er minder overuren, minder idle time, en kan interim werk beperkt worden. Een centrale planning tool zorgt ook voor uniformiteit en transparantie binnen de organisatie, wat leidt tot consistente beslissingen en betere communicatie over het werkrooster. Langs de andere kant zijn er een aantal redenen waarom organisaties niet overstappen naar automatisatie. Vooreerst is er de weerstand tot verandering, omdat ze geen vertrouwen hebben in externe oplossingen en vrezen hun vrijheid te verliezen door een automatische tool. Ten tweede is er de hoge kostprijs, die niet stopt na de licentie- en implementatiekost, aangezien er ook nog een hoge onderhoudskost is. Het is belangrijk dat elke organisatie de kost afweegt tegen de mogelijke opbrengsten, en enkel doorgaat tot automatisatie wanneer dat echt rendabel is. Ten derde is de beschikbaarheid van data bij veel bedrijven een probleem. Een software tool vereist een uitgebreide personeelsdatabase om de planning te kunnen automatiseren, welke bij vele bedrijven niet aanwezig is of niet op punt staat. Ten laatste moet er ook voor gezorgd worden dat de planning tool kan worden ingepast in de bestaande IT architectuur, wat niet altijd van een leien dakje loopt. Ten slotte hebben we een gap analyse opgemaakt voor 22 verschillende functionaliteiten. De grootste gaps tussen software en bedrijven situeren zich op vlak van exibiliteit, rapporteringsmogelijkheden en simulatiemogelijkheden. Op deze punten schiet de software tekort in vergelijking met de benodigdheden van de bedrijven. Maar er zijn ook gaps in de omgekeerde richting. De software is goed in staat om planning te automatiseren en te optimaliseren, terwijl deze functionaliteiten niet ten volle worden benut

9 in de bedrijven, bijvoorbeeld omdat er met vaste contracten wordt gewerkt, waardoor het moeilijk is om de bezetting te minimaliseren. In dat opzicht sluit de software beter aan bij de literatuur dan dat de bedrijven daarbij aansluiten. In de literatuur worden modellen vooropgesteld om een doelfunctie te maximaliseren of te minimaliseren, wat mogelijk is binnen de software, maar zelden wordt uitgevoerd bij de bedrijven. Opvallend is opnieuw de vereiste van een personeelsdatabase, die de bedrijven toch dikwijls ontbreken. Bedrijven kunnen dus zeker geholpen worden door planning tools, hoewel deze meestal slechts semiautomatisch worden ingezet. De voordelen van de software zijn duidelijk aanwezig. Het implementatieproces is echter tijdrovend en bijgevolg vrij duur. Het kostenplaatje van de software zelf is ook niet te onderschatten, waardoor elk bedrijf voor zichzelf moet uitmaken of de voordelen van automatisatie wel opwegen tegen de totale kostprijs. Het implementeren van software is een investering, die enkel zal doorgevoerd worden wanneer ze ook rendabel is.

10 Contents List of Figures List of Tables xiii xiv 1 Introduction Subject motivation Problem denition Focus of the research Overview of the thesis Research approach Literature review Exploratory study Investigation of the business requirements Investigation of the software functionalities and performance Analysis Literature study Papers Conclusions: Gap analysis Business cases Case Healthcare Planning process Interaction with other systems: input and output The planning tool: from implementation to operability Improvement possibilities Summary ix

11 Contents x 4.2 Case Retail Organisation A Planning process Planning tool Organisation B Planning process Planning tool Rules of the planning Summary Case Production Planning process Planning tool Summary Case Plant Maintenance Planning process Planning tool Summary Case Field Services Organisation X Company prole Planning process Planning tool Future developments Organisation Y Summary Conclusions Software provider cases SP Expert Vision Methodology Limitations Implementation approach Future vision and development

12 Contents xi 5.2 PlanningForge Vision Methodology Limitations Implementation approach Future vision and development Ortec Harmony Vision Methodology Limitations Implementation approach Future vision and development Practical case: The Belgian railway infrastructure manager Quintiq Vision Methodology Limitations Implementation approach Future vision and development ClickSchedule Vision Methodology Limitations Implementation approach Future vision and development Conclusion: overview of functionalities and performance Research results Automation of workforce scheduling Motives to automation of workforce scheduling Reluctance to automation of workforce scheduling Summary Gap analysis Conclusion 112

13 Contents xii 8 Future recommendations 115 Acknowledgements 117 References 118 Bibliography 119 A Interview questionnaires 120 A.1 Business cases A.2 Software provider cases B ClickSoftware Suite of Solutions 126 B.1 ClickSchedule B.2 ClickMobile B.3 ClickContact B.4 ClickForecast B.5 ClickPlan B.6 ClickLocate B.7 ClickAnalyze B.8 ClickRoster B.9 ClickSoftware OnDemand C Standard objectives in ClickSchedule 132 D Objective, constraint and skill categories 133 D.1 Non exhaustive list of constraints D.2 Time related constraints E Scheduling tool requirements of the Plant Maintenance organisation 136 E.1 Requirements

14 List of Figures 4.1 Company prole of Field Service Organisation A Job characteristics of Field Service Organisation A Optimisation process of ClickSchedule Modules of the planning tool of Field Service Organisation B Scheduling trade-o The SP-Expert Modules Overview workforce scheduling solutions of Ortec The Quintiq architecture The scheduling trade-o of Quintiq Illustrative example of Quintiq's KPI Matrix Table with Software ratings Gap analysis between business requirements and software functionalities xiii

15 List of Tables 4.1 Summary Healthcare case Summary Retail case Volume determination parameters of the production company Summary Production case Summary Plant maintenance case Scheduling requirements of Field Service Organisation A Summary Field services case Sector analysis of business requirements Schedule per person in PlanningForge Task view in PlanningForge Summary of motives and reluctance to automation of workforce scheduling xiv

16 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Subject motivation West-European companies are constantly looking to optimise the employee cost. Hence, making sure that the available workforce matches the expected workload is crucial. Automation of workforce scheduling is one of the elements to optimise the employee cost. A lot of companies are looking for a solution to schedule their employees, while the software providers keep developing their products. As business engineers, we wanted to work on a practical subject that could have a real contribution to the business world. We wanted to conduct a research for which we did not merely have to review the literature. Therefore, this subject leaped us to the eye. Furthermore, the main purpose of this subject was to understand the scheduling requirements in dierent industries, as well as the oered functionalities of the software providers. Doing this research in the eld through interviews with subject matter experts really appealed to us. Those people have hands-on experience and could give us more insight in the subject. The subject and the research methodology t closely with our education. In this respect, we were convinced that the research and the writing of this thesis would be an interesting and useful experience to start with our further career. 1.2 Problem denition In the modern economy, the workforce is a valuable asset of each company, but simultaneously one of its largest expenses. It is more than ever important to use your available sta eciently. 1

17 Chapter 1. Introduction 2 Flexibility and employability are two very important terms in today's working environment. Employers want their employees to be exible concerning working hours, working location, job content and so on. But also employees demand exibility: dierent part time working regimes are emerging, as well as numerous rules and laws imposed by CBAs, labour unions and the government to protect the employee. Such rules are for instance the rest time regulation, reduction of working hours, dierent kinds of leave (e.g. maternity leave), extra payment for overtime or night shifts, and so on. All these rules have a great impact on the availability of the sta as well. Although exibility is asked from employees, they are required to possess specic skills and qualications in order to be able to perform certain tasks. The same applies for safety purposes as well. With the complexity of dierent rules, restrictions and required skills, it is dicult to schedule people in a manual way without making mistakes. In order to deal with that complexity, scheduling software can come in useful. Although a lot of software is on the market to schedule personnel eectively and eciently, many organisations keep scheduling their workforce manually. The purpose of this thesis is to nd out why organisations are reluctant to automate the workforce planning process. We will investigate what the required functionalities are for scheduling personnel eectively and eciently, and where the gap between these requirements and the oering of the software lies. We will also explore the possible advantages and disadvantages of implementing scheduling software. In the end, we will try to give an answer to the question why organisations should or should not implement software in order to automate the workforce scheduling process. 1.3 Focus of the research The workforce planning process can be quite extensive, dependent upon the planning horizon that is considered. In the long term, strategic decisions have to be made. These decisions include stang requirements and stang policies. The purpose of determining the stang requirements is to match supply and demand. Therefore, demand forecasting can be seen as a rst step of the workforce planning process. Next, in order to dene the required supply, the workload that corresponds with the forecasted demand needs to be determined. The workload determination should bear in mind a number of factors that can inuence the transition from demand to workload, like for instance the productivity of the employees. It is based on these projections that strategic decisions to hire or dismiss employees can be made.

18 Chapter 1. Introduction 3 In the mid-term, tactical decisions need to be made about the scheduling policies. The rules and constraints to draw the schedules or the rosters need to be established, as well as the objective(s) for the schedule. We want to stress the dierence between scheduling and rostering here. Organisations that do not work with a shift system do not have anything to do with rosters. We will use the term rostering in this thesis when the workforce planning is shift based. This is usually, but not necessarily accompanied by a shift based demand, like in hospitals for instance. When we talk about rostering, we talk about employees getting assigned to a shift (early, late or night shift) and a planner or planning tool that needs to make sure that the stang requirements for each shift are covered. Thus every employee has his own roster, where it is indicated which shift he has to work on which day. We see scheduling broader than rostering. Scheduling can also be task based. Employees can be assigned to dierent tasks in a day, like for instance in a retail store, but tasks can also endure a whole day or even multiple days, like for instance for road workers. It is clear that this requires a dierent assignment than with rostering. We see rostering as a more specic term than scheduling. Henceforth, we will mainly use the terms schedule and scheduling. When we talk about rosters and rostering, it will clearly point at shift based allocation. Apart from strategic long term and tactical mid-term decisions, operational decisions need to be made in the short term as well. In the short term, the personnel needs to be dispatched. Adaptations to the roster or the schedule may be necessary and some of the sta may have to be re-scheduled. We will also consider the daily follow-up on the schedules (e.g. time and attendance) as part of the operational phase. In this thesis, we will focus on the tactical and operational issues. This means that we will mainly discuss the roster and schedule generation, the assignment of the employees to the roster or schedule, the objectives and constraints, and the follow-up on the schedule. The purpose of this focus is twofold. First, we consider these parts as most tting the workforce scheduling problem, while demand forecasting and workload determination are also dependent upon other factors. Second, the software that is on the market for workforce planning also focuses on the tactical and operational level. Although some of the workforce planning software is able to cope with demand determination as well, more specialised software packages are on the market for that purpose. That is why most of the workforce planning software requires the workload as an input from other tools. We will not consider specialised software for demand forecasting and workload determination in this thesis.

19 Chapter 1. Introduction 4 Most of the scheduling tools are provided by software companies that oer a wide range of modules and solutions. We will focus on one or more specic modules of the software provider; those which are most implemented and most relevant as workforce scheduling tool. As mentioned before, some software providers also oer modules for, amongst others, workload determination. Discussing each module or solution would lead us away from the purpose of this thesis. Furthermore, some of the software providers also make a distinction between rostering and scheduling, for which they sometimes have separate modules. In this case, we will focus on the module that is best known within the company. Our study will mainly be practice-oriented. We lay the focus of our study on the meetings with the dierent companies and software providers. We are convinced that this is the best way to nd the gap between the requirements and the oerings. Therefore, we will limit our literature study. A well-oriented literature review should be sucient to get an image of the subject. To analyse the gap between practice and theory, we can use the gathered knowledge of both this literature review and the classes we got during our education 1. Notwithstanding the focus mentioned above, this study will rather be a broad study than an in-depth investigation. We will explore the functional requirements of ve completely dierent industries. This enables us to sketch the dierence in requirements between dierent industries, which is clearly present. In addition, we will discuss the functionalities and the performance of ve dierent players on the market of workforce scheduling software. Furthermore, most companies are rather reluctant to disclose much information towards students, which makes it dicult to conduct an in-depth investigation. Another factor that guided us towards a broad study is the time frame of our thesis. In practice, it can take up to several years for companies to inquire into their own requirements, to explore the market in search of a software tool, and to make the eventual decision of which software to implement. The road towards the choice and implementation of a scheduling tool can thus be very time-consuming. A last thing worth mentioning is that we only discuss the requirements of organisations operative in Belgium. Other countries may have dierent legislation, other working rules, another state of mind, other habits, and so on. This could result in dierent functional requirements for certain aspects. 1 Vanhoucke M. (2011), Applied operations research, Academia Press

20 Chapter 1. Introduction Overview of the thesis In chapter 2, we will discuss our research approach that led to this thesis. We will give a short explanation of the dierent steps in our research approach. Chapter 3 will cover the literature review we have done. We will give an overview of the papers we read and draw some conclusions from this literature study. In chapter 4, we will discuss the business cases of the dierent organisations where we have inquired into their required functionalities. We will successively discuss cases in the healthcare sector, retail, postal delivery, plant maintenance, and eld services. The retail case and the eld services case will both include two dierent organisations. For each case, we will consider the planning process and the used planning tool. At the end of the chapter, we will draw conclusions from the dierent business cases. In chapter 5, the cases of the software providers will be addressed. We will successively discuss the following software providers: SP-Expert, PlanningForge, Ortec, Quintiq, and ClickSchedule. For each software provider, we will consider the vision, the methodology or functioning of the software, the limitations of the software, the implementation approach, and the future vision of the software provider. We will conclude the chapter with an overview of the functionalities and performance of each software tool. Chapter 6 will be dedicated to the results of our research. First, we will give an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of automation of workforce scheduling. Second, we will conduct a gap analysis between the required functionalities from the business side, and the oered functionalities from the side of the software providers. Chapter 7 will summarise this thesis. Finally, in chapter 8, we will give some recommendations for future research that could be interesting to complement our research.

21 Chapter 2 Research approach 2.1 Literature review We started our research by reviewing the literature in order to explore the subject. Our main purpose for the literature study was to get an initial idea of the workforce planning problem. We explored the dierent components of workforce planning. We got an idea of the dierent objectives and constraints that are applicable on workforce planning. We also got familiar with the terminology used in the eld of workforce planning. In the end, we could derive the gap between the way workforce planning is approached in theory and in practice. 2.2 Exploratory study We got an initial idea about how the workforce planning process is composed from the literature. Next, we wanted to have a view on the subject in practice. We rst had a meeting with an experienced consultant manager, who gave us more insight into workforce planning. This is where we acquired the basic knowledge to continue our research. We were informed about the dierent steps and aspects of workforce planning and the interesting sectors where we could conduct our research. We also got a number of names of important players on the market of software for workforce planning. Second, we had a meeting with a sales representative of a workforce planning software provider. He explained us how the contact between the software provider and a potential customer goes o. We discovered the importance of dierent modules of the software and of the necessary customisation during the implementation. 6

22 Chapter 2. Research approach Investigation of the business requirements With the basic knowledge we acquired from the literature and the exploratory study, we were able to compile an extensive but structured questionnaire to nd out the requirements for workforce planning. We rst made up a list of potential sectors that could benet from automated software for workforce planning. Next, we contacted a number of large organisations of which we believed that they were relevant for our research. We came up with seven organisations in ve dierent sectors. For each of them, we had one or more meetings with the person(s) responsible for the workforce planning or for the planning tool they use. We made up an elaborate report of every meeting. The questionnaire we used to inquire for the necessary information is given in Appendix A Investigation of the software functionalities and performance After we completed all our meetings with the business side, we started contacting software providers. It was far more dicult to nd software providers willing to cooperate. The consultant manager we met with during the exploratory study helped us with contacts for some of the providers. We made up a questionnaire for these companies as well. We were able to arrange a meeting with ve dierent software providers or software implementation partners. During the meetings, we mainly discussed the functionalities of the software. We also tried to nd out extra information about the requirements from the business side. We received a clear explanation of the functioning of the software, sometimes supported by a demo version. Again, we made up a report of every meeting and listed the most important functionalities of each software tool. The used questionnaire can be found in Appendix A Analysis After we executed all planned interviews, we contacted some of the organisations of the business side to inquire for additional information. We then had already a wider view on workforce scheduling and had all the information on scheduling software. After we gathered all necessary information, we could elaborate the reports of every organisation and software provider. The next step was to draw the conclusions of our research. First, we compared the requirements of the dierent organisations, or in particular of the dierent sectors. Next, we made a comparison of

23 Chapter 2. Research approach 8 the oered functionalities and the performance of the dierent software tools. Last, we conducted a gap analyses between the literature, the required functionalities from the business side, and the oered functionalities from the software providers side.

24 Chapter 3 Literature study Before we started our analysis on functional requirements and performance of automated workforce scheduling software, it was essential to examine what research already existed in the eld of workforce scheduling. Therefore, we conducted a small literature study to get familiarised with the subject. It gave us the possibility to gather some basic knowledge and learn about the specic terminology. The focus of this thesis lies on the practical (business) side of workforce scheduling, so it is a concise literature study, but it gave us the opportunity to assess some of the existing gaps between the literature on workforce scheduling (theoretical side) and the business denitions (practical side). 3.1 Papers To do our literature research, we consulted a couple of digital papers our promoter recommended us to read and some papers we found on the internet. We will now shortly discuss three of these papers that contributed most to this thesis. Sta scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models The paper of A.T. Ernst et al. (2004) presents a review of sta scheduling and rostering problems in specic application areas, and some of the models and algorithms that already have been reported in the literature for their solution. The paper does not review specic software packages, something that we will do later on in the thesis (cf. Section 5.6). 9

25 Chapter 3. Literature study 10 The authors of the paper dene personnel scheduling, or rostering, as the process of constructing work timetables for its sta so that an organisation can satisfy the demand for its goods or services. This construction of a timetable should reckon with all possible factors that can inuence the process, such as the number of sta, the particular skills needed to meet the demand, industrial regulations, and so on. Therefore, in most business environments, it is extremely dicult to nd good solutions to these highly constrained and complex problems and even more dicult to determine optimal solutions that minimise costs, meet employee preferences, distribute shifts equitably among employees for fairness and also satisfy all the workplace constraints. That is the reason why in many organisations, people involved in developing rosters need support for their decisions from tools that help to provide the right employees at the right time and at the right cost, while achieving a high level of employee job satisfaction. These systems for decision support vary from spreadsheet and database tools for manual processes to rostering tools developed from appropriate mathematical models and algorithms. The development of the mathematical models and algorithms underlying a successful rostering tool should include three important parts. First, the tool should include a demand modelling study that collects and uses historical data to forecast demand for services and converts these to the stang levels needed to satisfy service standards. Second, there should be a consideration of the solution techniques required for a personnel scheduling tool that satises the constraints arising from workplace regulations, while best meeting a range of objectives including coverage of sta demand, minimum cost and maximum employee satisfaction. Finally, the tool should implement a specication of a reporting tool that displays solutions and provides performance reports. The paper also proposes a taxonomy and general classication of rostering. On a general level, the overall rostering process involves a number of dierent modules, and within these modules dierent models may be needed for specic applications. A rst module of the rostering process is demand modelling. This means determining how many sta is needed at dierent times over some planning period, or rostering horizon. Demand modelling is the process of translating some predicted pattern of incidents into associated duties and then using the duty requirements to ascertain a demand for sta. There are three broad incident categories on which sta demand can be based. For task based demand, demand is obtained from lists of individual tasks to be performed. These tasks are usually dened in terms of a starting time and duration, or a time window within which the task must be completed, and the skills required to perform the task.

26 Chapter 3. Literature study 11 In some cases tasks may be associated with locations. For exible demand, the likelihood of future incidents is less well known and must be modelled using forecasting techniques. Once a exible demand pattern has been generated, it may be apportioned to shifts that cover the demand. Once the shifts are determined they can be scheduled into lines of work. It is possible to associate suitable penalties with under and/or over cover of demand. In some cases it may be cost eective to allow under cover and deal with it using overtime (something we will see in practice in the business cases in Chapter 4). Lastly, for shift based demand, the demand is directly obtained from a specication of the number of sta that is required to be on duty during dierent shifts. This is typically the case for nurse scheduling (see Section 4.1) where sta levels are determined from a need to meet service measures such as nurse/patient ratios or response times. The second module of the rostering process is days o scheduling. It involves a determination of how rest days are to be interspersed between work days for dierent lines of work. The third module, shift scheduling, deals with the problem of selecting, from a potentially large pool of candidates, what shifts are to be worked, together with an assignment of the number of employees to each shift, in order to meet demand. In the fourth module, line of work construction, the creation of lines of work or work schedules spanning the rostering horizon for each sta member takes place. The process of constructing a line of work depends on the basic building blocks, typically shifts or duties, that are used. This module involves a consideration of both the rules relating to lines of work and the pattern of demand. It might be necessary to assign one or more tasks to be carried out during each shift. This happens in the fth module, task assignment. These tasks may require particular sta skills or levels of seniority and must therefore be associated with particular lines of work. The sixth and last module is sta assignment. It involves the assignment of individual sta to the lines of work. This assignment is often done during the construction of work lines. These modules provide a general framework within which dierent rostering models and algorithms may be placed. In the paper, this classication is used to dierentiate many rostering problems and solutions. There are three main factors that inuence the dierences between rostering problems and models: 1. The degree to which days o scheduling, line of work construction and task assignment are integrated. An appropriate decomposition strategy of the dierent modules discussed above can reduce the modelling complexity.

27 Chapter 3. Literature study The modules required to construct a roster. Some problems do not have tasks, others require non-trivial demand modelling, and some, such as crew scheduling and rostering, do not require task assignment. 3. The type of demand and the fundamental unit from which lines of work are constructed. For example, demand based on xed tasks compared to exible tasks. As mentioned above, constructing lines of work involves the determination of a sequence of duties spanning some period of time, to be allocated to individual sta members. There are a number of dierent line of work models. First there are cyclic and acyclic rosters. In cyclical rosters all employees of the same class perform exactly the same line of work, but with dierent starting times for the rst shift or duty. This roster type is most applicable for situations with repeating demand patterns (cf. nurse scheduling, Section 4.1). In acyclic rosters, the lines of work for individual employees are completely independent. This is often the case where demand uctuates with time and where shifts have dierent lengths and starting times. Acyclic rosters are used when a complete cyclic roster, for all sta, is not feasible, but it may be possible to have cyclic rosters within subgroups of the workforce or over subperiods of the rostering horizon. Another model involves stint-based rosters. In some organisations only certain shift sequences, in this paper called stints, are allowed. Typically, letter codes are used to depict these stints. For example, in nurse scheduling, DND can be used to refer to a stint with a day shift followed by a night shift and nishing with another day shift. A line of work is constructed as a sequence of stints. In this construction, the rules indicating allowed stint transitions and successions must be followed. In most applications, feasible rosters are signicantly constrained by rules, the line of work constraints, governing which work patterns are allowed for an individual. Such rules might for example impose restrictions on the number of sequential night shifts to be worked or specify the minimum time o between successive shifts. There is often a distinction between hard and soft line of work constraints, where the former must be satised and the latter may be violated, though it is generally undesirable to do so. This is usually modelled by including penalty terms in the objective function. Another important aspect of rostering, that is also required a lot in practical business requirements, is to allow for sta preferences. A popular approach to this problem is to use a bidding system. In this system, lines of work are generated and then bid for by crew members. Such a bidding system is for example possible in the software tool of PlanningForge in Section 5.2. Also

28 Chapter 3. Literature study 13 equity systems exist that attempt to distribute the workload fairly and evenly amongst equal crew members. This fairness distribution is often based on diculty or the degree of danger of a duty, or the popularity of shifts. In the remainder of the paper a description of the key problems of sta scheduling and rostering in dierent applications areas is provided. As we did our own research on this matter in practice for this thesis, will not discuss this here, but refer to the business cases in Chapter 4. Also the mathematical solution methods and techniques mentioned in the paper of Ernst et al. are outside the scope of this thesis. The paper concludes that a lot of work already has been done in the area of rostering and personnel scheduling. Nevertheless there is still signicant room for improvements in this area too. Not only for rostering algorithms, but also in the wider applicability of rostering because of the exibility that more sophisticated software tools will be able to provide in the future. One of these improvement areas applies mainly to applications where rostering already is well established. This could be for example the transportation sector in general of the aviation industry in particular. Here the main challenge is not to improve the scheduling algorithms, but to obtain a greater eciency by integrating more of the modules of the rostering process into a single problem. Another area of improvement according to the paper is the generalisation of models and methods to guarantee more exibility. Models and algorithms often require some signicant modications when they are to be transferred to a dierent application area, or to accommodate changes within an organisation. General algorithms are more robust to changes in the rostering requirements and are therefore necessary in a dynamic and changing environment. Also, technology transfer in the area of roster preparation is driven by issues related to algorithm inexibility. There are many application areas where manual rostering practices persist and this is partly due to the fact that existing rostering tools are perceived to be not exible enough to deal with specic individual workplace practices. It is also essential for business practices that the existing rostering algorithms and software can integrate with other standard industry systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Human Resource or payroll systems. This will make the software more accessible for a larger number of users. A last challenge is to incorporate individual preferences in the roster solutions. This means that the algorithms will need to involve individual-based work constraints, preferences and business rules. Including this in the rostering process has a clear impact on the complexity of the resulting rostering problems.