Shift design is an essential step in workforce planning in which staffing requirements must be obtained for a set of shifts which best cover forecasted demand given as a demand pattern. Existing models for this challenging optimization problem perform well when these demand patterns fluctuate around an average without any strong variability in demand. However, when demand is irregular, these models inevitably generate solutions with a significant amount of over—or understaffing or an excessive use of short shifts. The present paper explores a strategy which involves modifying the demand patterns such that the variable workload may be better matched using an acceptable number of shifts. Integer programming is employed to solve the resulting optimization problem. A computational study of the proposed model reveals interactions between different problem parameters which control the scope of demand modification and the type of the selected shifts. Moreover, the potential impact from an economic point-of-view is discussed and the time before profitability of the approach is evaluated. These insights enable operations management to better understand the trade-off between solution quality and different types of flexibility which may be realized in an organization.

轮班设计是劳动力规划中必不可少的步骤，其中必须获得一组轮班的人员需求，以最好地满足作为需求模式给出的预测需求。当这些需求模式围绕平均值波动而需求没有任何大的变化时，针对这个具有挑战性的优化问题的现有模型将表现良好。但是，当需求不规则时，这些模型将不可避免地生成解决方案，这些解决方案的人员过多，人手不足或过度使用短班。本文探讨了一种策略，该策略涉及修改需求模式，以便可以使用可接受的轮班次数更好地匹配可变工作量。采用整数编程来解决由此产生的优化问题。对所提出模型的计算研究揭示了控制需求修改范围和所选班次类型的不同问题参数之间的相互作用。此外，从经济的角度对潜在影响进行了讨论，并评估了该方法的获利能力所需的时间。这些见解使运营管理可以更好地理解解决方案质量与组织中可能实现的不同类型的灵活性之间的权衡。