Coupled heuristic and simulation scheduling in a highly variable environment

The topic of this paper is workforce scheduling in a highly variable environment - check proofing and encoding in a bank - where uncertainties include both volume and arrival pattern of the work. A shop floor simulation model and a heuristic algorithm for workforce scheduling using simulation to estimate objective function are presented. The proposed approach results in a robust workforce schedule that can be easily adjusted in real time in response to environmental changes, such as volume and throughput fluctuations. A planning and scheduling framework within which the simulation is implemented is briefly discussed.