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A Rotation-based Branch-and-price for the Nurse Scheduling Problem

Hovsepian, Angineh | 2021

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 53815 (02)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Mathematical Sciences
  6. Advisor(s): Mahdavi Amiri, Nezamoddin
  7. Abstract:
  8. Here, we explain an algorithm, recently introduced in the literature, for the personalized nurse scheduling problem. In this algorithm the authors focus on the deterministic counterpart of the specific problem that has been described in the second international nurse rostering competition. One specificity of this version is that most constraints are soft, meaning that they can be violated at the price of a penalty. The problem is modeled as an integer program (IP) and is solved using a branch-and-price procedure. In this model, each column of the IP corresponds to a rotation, i.e., a sequence of consecutive working days for a nurse. In contrast, classical models involve individual nurse schedules over the complete horizon. We tackle instances involving up to 120 nurses and 4 shifts over an 8-weeks horizon by embedding the branch-and-price in a large-neighborhood-search framework. Initial solutions of the large-neighborhood search are found by a rolling-horizon algorithm well-suited to the rotation model. Then, we review the results, by implementing the method on these instances. Finally, by adapting the rotation idea, we define and implement a simpler problem and obtain the nurses’ schedule for instances involving 5 nurses and 3 shifts over a 2-weeks horizon
  9. Keywords:
  10. Branch and Price Method ; Decomposition ; Column Generation Algorithm ; Nurses Scheduling Problem ; Rolling Horizon Planning ; Large Neighborhood Search

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