(An) integer programming approach to the problem of daily crew scheduling

Abstract

This thesis considers the problem of subway crew scheduling. Crew scheduling is concerned with finding a minimum number of assignments of crews to a given timetable satisfying various restrictions. Traditionally, crew scheduling problem has been formulated as a set covering or set partitioning problem possessing exponentially many variables, but even the LP relaxation of the problem is hard to solve due to the exponential number of variables. In this thesis, we propose two basic techniques that solve the problem in a reasonable time. To reduce the number of variables, we adopt column-generation technique. We could develop an algorithm that solves column-generation problem in polynomial time. In addition, the integrality of the solution is accomplished by variable fixing technique. Computational results show column-generation makes the problem of treatable size, and variable fixing enables solving LP relaxation in shorter time without a considerable increase in the optimal value. Finally, we were able to obtain an integer optimal solution of a real instance within a reasonable time.