Optimized Workforce Scheduling in Bus Transit Companies

Abstract

Workforce scheduling has become increasingly important for both the public sector and private companies. Optimized shifts and rosters lower costs, utilize resources more effectively and ensure fairer workloads and distribution of shifts. This paper presents our work with workforce scheduling in bus transit companies. We present the workforce scheduling process in these companies and give an example of an optimized real-world staff rostering instance. We also give an outline of the PEAST algorithm which we use to tackle workforce scheduling problems. The algorithm has been successfully used to solve workforce scheduling problems in Finnish bus transit companies. The algorithm has been integrated into market-leading workforce management software in Finland.