BUS606: Operations and Supply Chain Management

From comparing the generated schedules using the old and new methods, there are several things to be noted for the operators' shifts. First of all, the old solution gave total overtime of 16 shifts while the new solution has total overtime of 15 shifts. This represents a 6.25% reduction in overtime costs. The smaller reduction in overtime when compared to the supervisor case can be explained as due to the fact that there is an additional shift for operators and also more operators are required per shift compared to supervisors. When we compare the old and new solutions, there is a slightly better distribution of overtime; for example, in the old solution there are 3 staff with 2 shifts of overtime and 3 staff with 1 shift of overtime whereas in the new solution there are 2 staff with 2 shifts of overtime and 4 staff with 1 shift of overtime each. One limitation to note however is that with both the old and new solutions there are still cases of high amounts of overtime, for example, 3 and 4 shifts of overtime. This indicates that there is still some unfair allocation of work in some cases. Finally, we also note that the staffs' preferences have been catered for in the new solution (see, e.g., Operator 9 who is majorly on the evening shift). We also note that all operators have more regular days off when compared to the old solution where most operators were on all four shifts and also off days were not allocated regularly. From analysis of the results, we can conclude that the initial objectives of reducing overtime and catering for operator preferences have been achieved.