¹GERAD and École des Hautes Études Commerciales, Canada

Correspondence: Dr G Laporte, GERAD and École des Hautes Études Commerciales, 3000 chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, Canada H3T 2A7. E-mail: gilbert@crt.umontreal.ca

Received October 1998; Accepted May 1999.

Abstract

Rotating schedules are commonly used in a number of industries and public services where employees work round the clock, seven days a week. Several rules govern the design of such schedules. While this problem can be formulated as an integer linear program, this methodology is often too rigid. In this paper I argue that to obtain rotating schedules that are acceptable in practice, rules often have to be broken so that designing good schedules is more of an art than a science.