关键词: 呼叫中心, 周排班, 整数规划模型, 启发式算法

Abstract: Call centers work out the weekly scheduling schemes via flexibly arranging agents' duties while ensuring each one is assigned to a constant shift throughout the week. An integer programming model is formulated with respect to the practical scenario. Based on the analysis of data characteristics and optimization properties, two constructive heuristics are proposed by defining the metrics of shifts that effectively satisfy requirements of telephone service of intervals. The performance of the model and algorithms is evaluated on data from enterprise instances. The experimental results illustrate that the integer programming model is suitable for solving small-scale problems, while the heuristics can achieve (near-)optimal solutions at low computational cost for large-scale problems. Finally, the influence of the same shift regulation that ensures agents' work regularity on human resource cost is discussed.

Key words: call center, weekly shift scheduling and rostering, integer programming model, heuristic