Intelligent Search Heuristics for Cost Based Scheduling

TL;DR

This paper introduces an intelligent search heuristic for cost-based nurse scheduling, demonstrating improved efficiency over traditional meta-heuristics in establishing feasible solutions for complex, constrained problems.

Contribution

It proposes a novel search heuristic that effectively handles cost-based nurse scheduling problems, outperforming existing algorithms in solution time.

Findings

Heuristic achieves faster feasible solutions.

Outperforms previous algorithms in efficiency.

Effective for complex, constrained scheduling problems.

Abstract

Nurse scheduling is a difficult optimization problem with multiple constraints. There is extensive research in the literature solving the problem using meta-heuristics approaches. In this paper, we will investigate an intelligent search heuristics that handles cost based scheduling problem. The heuristics demonstrated superior performances compared to the original algorithms used to solve the problems described in Li et. Al. (2003) and Ozkarahan (1989) in terms of time needed to establish a feasible solution. Both problems can be formulated as a cost problem. The search heuristic consists of several phrases of search and input based on the cost of each assignment and how the assignment will interact with the cost of the resources.