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US 11,531,939 B1Granted
Shift design and assignment system
AssigneeWorkday, Inc.
InventorJin Yang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for shift design and assignment comprises an interface configured to receive scheduling input data which includes labor demand data, worker data, and scheduling configuration data, and a processor configured to generate a set of shift candidates, determine a set of decision variables, determine a cost function, determine a set of constraints, and determine simultaneously, using a SAT, a MP solver, or a MIP solver, a subset of the shift candidates selected in a final schedule and a set of shift assignments of which worker is assigned to which selected shift candidate of the subset of the shift candidates such that the hard constraints are fully respected, violations to the soft constraints are minimized, and the cost function is minimized.
Claims24
A system for shift design and assignment, comprising:
- an interface configured to:
- receive labor demand data;
- receive worker data;
- and
- receive scheduling configuration data;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- execute, by a software application, via a user interface controls of the interface, a request schedule creation to receive and refine a portion of the scheduling configuration data comprising relative weights of certain penalty cost options, wherein the user interface controls comprise a screen for receiving and displaying a selection of worker preferences by adjusting, via the user interface controls, the relative weights of the certain penalty cost options;
- generate a set of shift candidates;
- determine a set of decision variables representing whether a particular shift candidate is selected in a final schedule and whether a particular worker is assigned to the particular shift candidate;
- determine a cost function, wherein the cost function is expressed at least in part in terms of the set of decision variables, a worker cost data of the worker data, and the scheduling configuration data;
- determine a set of constraints, wherein the set of constraints comprises hard constraints and soft constraints, wherein the set of constraints is based at least in part on the set of decision variables, the set of shift candidates, the worker data, the labor demand data, and the scheduling configuration data;
- and
- determine simultaneously, using either a SAT solver, MP solver, or a MIP solver:
- 1) a subset of the shift candidates selected in the final schedule;
- and
- 2) a set of shift assignments of which worker is assigned to which selected shift candidate of the subset of the shift candidates, wherein the simultaneously determined subset of shift candidates and set of shift assignments fully respects the hard constraints and optimizes an objective function comprising the cost function and at least one constraint violation term added to the objective function in response to relaxing a soft constraint of the soft constraints.
14 more elements
A method for shift design and assignment, comprising:
- receiving labor demand data;
- receiving worker data;
- receiving scheduling configuration data;
- executing, using a processor by a software application, via a user interface controls of the interface, a request schedule creation to receive and refine a portion of the scheduling configuration data comprising relative weights of certain penalty cost options, wherein the user interface controls comprise a screen for receiving and displaying a selection of worker preferences by adjusting, via the user interface controls, the relative weights of the certain penalty cost options;
- generating a set of shift candidates;
- determining a set of decision variables representing whether a particular shift candidate is selected in a final schedule and whether a particular worker is assigned to the particular shift candidate;
- determining a cost function, wherein the cost function is expressed at least in part in terms of the set of decision variables, a worker cost data of the worker data, and the scheduling configuration data;
- determining a set of constraints, wherein the set of constraints comprises hard constraints and soft constraints, wherein the set of constraints is based at least in part on the set of decision variables, the set of shift candidates, the worker data, the labor demand data, and the scheduling configuration data;
- and
- determining simultaneously, using either a SAT solver, a MP solver, or a MIP solver:
- 1) A subset of the shift candidates selected in the final schedule;
- and
- 2) a set of shift assignments of which worker is assigned to which selected shift candidate of the subset of the shift candidates, wherein the simultaneously determined subset of shift candidates and set of shift assignments fully respects the hard constraints and optimizes an objective function comprising the cost function and at least one constraint violation term added to the objective function in response to relaxing a soft constraint of the soft constraints.
10 more elements
A computer program product for shift design and assignment, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:
- receiving labor demand data
- receiving worker data;
- receiving scheduling configuration data;
- executing, using a processor by a software application, via a user interface controls of the interface, a request schedule creation to receive and refine a portion of the scheduling configuration data comprising relative weights of certain penalty cost options, wherein the user interface controls comprise a screen for receiving and displaying a selection of worker preferences by adjusting via the user interface controls the relative weights of the certain penalty cost options;
- generating a set of shift candidates;
- determining a set of decision variables representing whether a particular shift candidate is selected in a final schedule and whether a particular worker is assigned to the particular shift candidate;
- determining a cost function, wherein the cost function is expressed at least in part in terms of the set of decision variables, a worker cost data of the worker data, and the scheduling configuration data;
- determining a set of constraints, wherein the set of constraints comprises hard constraints and soft constraints, wherein the set of constraints is based at least in part on the set of decision variables, the set of shift candidates, the worker data, the labor demand data, and the scheduling configuration data;
- and
- determining simultaneously, using either a SAT solver, a MP solver, or a MIP solver:
- 1) A subset of the shift candidates selected in the final schedule;
- and
- 2) a set of shift assignments of which worker is assigned to which selected shift candidate of the subset of shift candidates, wherein the simultaneously determined subset of shift candidates and set of shift assignments fully respects the hard constraints and optimizes an objective function comprising the cost function and at least one constraint violation term added to the objective function in response to relaxing a soft constraint of the soft constraints.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.