Crew scheduling

Crew scheduling is the process of assigning crews to operate transportation systems, such as rail lines or airlines.^[1]

Most transportation systems use software to manage the crew scheduling process. Crew scheduling becomes more and more complex as you add variables to the problem. These variables can be as simple as 1 location, 1 skill requirement, 1 shift of work and 1 set roster of people. In the Transportation industries, such as Rail or mainly Air Travel, these variables become very complex. In Air Travel for instance, there are numerous rules or "constraints" that are introduced. These mainly deal with legalities relating to work shifts and time, and a crew member's qualifications for working on a particular aircraft. Add numerous locations to the equation and Collective Bargaining and Federal labor laws and these become new considerations for the problem solving method. Fuel is also a major consideration as aircraft and other vehicles require a lot of costly fuel to operate. Finding the most efficient route and staffing it with properly qualified personnel is a critical financial consideration. The same applies to rail travel. Crew scheduling involves assigning complementary crews for each scheduled trip based on the timetable for the next day or a short period.^[2] In rail transportation, crew scheduling involves generating crew duties for conductors and train operators.^[3]

The problem is computationally difficult and there are competing mathematical methods of solving the problem. Although not easy to describe in one sentence, the goal is essentially the same for any method of attacking the problem: "Within a set of constraints and rules, move a set roster of people with certain qualifications, from place to place with the fewest personnel and aircraft or vehicles in the least amount of time." Lowest cost has traditionally been the major driver for any crew scheduling solution.

Although not a "rule", We can describe at least four parts of the equation that are ingested by the computational process:

• People and their qualifications and abilities.
• Aircraft or vehicles and their "People" qualification requirements and their cost to operate over distance.
• Locations and the time and distance between each location.
• Work rules for the personnel, including Shift hours and seniority.

In crew scheduling the rules and constraints are typically a combination of:

• government regulations concerning flight time, duty time and required rest, designed to promote aviation safety and limit pilot fatigue,
• crew bid requests, vacations,
• labor agreements
• aircraft maintenance schedules
• crew member qualification and licensing
• other constraints related to training
• pairing experienced crew members with more junior crew members
• returning crew to their base at the end of their trip (called deadheading)

The first phase in crew planning is building the crew pairings (also known as trips, rotations, among other popular descriptions). This process pairs a generic crew member with a flight so that at the end of this process all aircraft flights are covered and all trips (combination of flights starting at a crew base and returning to that crew base or co-terminal are crew legal. The next step is the allocation of those trips to the individual crewmember.

For the US, Canada and Australia, seniority generally rules. The two processes (which are completely different) are referred to as bid lines and preferential bidding. In seniority order, pilots bid for either a line of time (bidline) or trips and days off (preferential bidding. These are awarded based on seniority and modified only when their selections have already been taken by a more senior crew member (bidlines) or their trip and day off selections (preferential bidding) do not make up a complete line (hours, days off, etc. parameters agreed to by the company and the union). The senior folks have more time off, better choice of time off and fly better trips than the junior crew members, generally speaking. In the US, this is considered fair.

Para las aerolíneas europeas y otras aerolíneas del resto del mundo, el proceso de asignación es completamente diferente. La compañía elabora los horarios de los pilotos directamente para satisfacer sus necesidades, no las de los pilotos. Antes de asignar un solo viaje, los planificadores incluyen todas las ausencias planificadas (vacaciones, formación, etc.) en el horario de los miembros de la tripulación. Solo entonces se asignan los viajes a cada miembro de la tripulación. De este modo, la equidad implica que el capitán con más antigüedad y el capitán con menos antigüedad tengan la misma cantidad de tiempo de servicio, horas de vuelo, tiempo nocturno, tiempo fuera de la base, escalas, pago de gastos, etc., en un período de programación determinado. La antigüedad queda fuera y todo el trabajo se homogeneiza por completo. Para ellos, cualquier otra cosa es injusta y antidemocrática. Lentamente, durante los últimos treinta años, las aerolíneas extranjeras que utilizan el sistema de programación "sin antigüedad" han permitido que cierta antigüedad se infiltre en el proceso de asignación, ya que los pilotos ahora pueden solicitar un día libre o un viaje específico una vez al trimestre o realizar varias solicitudes dentro de un período de programación. Aunque esto pueda sonar muy parecido a una licitación preferencial, no lo es. La diferencia entre los miembros más jóvenes y los más experimentados de la tripulación sigue siendo muy limitada, por lo que el éxito en tus objetivos también lo es.

Las interrupciones adicionales no planificadas en los horarios debido al clima, el mantenimiento y los retrasos del control del tráfico aéreo pueden alterar los horarios, por lo que el software de programación de tripulaciones sigue siendo un área de investigación continua. ^{[ 4 ]}

• Planificación y programación automatizadas
• Generación de columnas
• Problema de programación de conductores
• Herramienta de programación para evitar la fatiga
• Fatiga (seguridad)
• Programación lineal
• Sistema de licitación preferencial
• Búsqueda tabú

• Alex Osleger (January 17, 2019). "Solving The Nightmare Of Crew Scheduling". Airways Mag.