Master's Thesis presentation, Arber Vokshi

Abstract: This project has studied the ability to schedule staff in customer service at Telia Sverige AB using a well-known optimisation algorithm called `column generation'. Two main mathematical models have been constructed, one for obtaining the amount of shifts required to satisfy the given demand - on which the column generation algorithm is applied, the other for distributing those shifts among employees. Also, two ways of generating shifts are presented with the first method being picking from a list of all possible allowed shifts, while the other method involves repeatedly solving a minimum cost flow problem. The objective of this project was to see how well a more optimisation-based approach compares to the already in-use system at the company. After obtaining the results it was concluded that an optimisation-based approach works quite well for problems of this nature, but that additional real-world parameters need to be taken into account before the model can be used in a call centre.

Supervisors: Ann-Brith Strömberg and Caroline Granfeldt