A Constraint Programming based column generation approach to nurse rostering problems

He, F. and Qu, R. 2012. A Constraint Programming based column generation approach to nurse rostering problems. Computers and Operations Research. 39 (12), pp. 3331-3343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2012.04.018

TitleA Constraint Programming based column generation approach to nurse rostering problems
AuthorsHe, F. and Qu, R.
Abstract

This paper presents our investigations on a hybrid constraint programming based column generation
(CP–CG) approach to nurse rostering problems. We present a complete model to formulate all the
complex real-world constraints in several benchmark nurse rostering problems. The hybrid CP–CG
approach is featured with not only the effective relaxation and optimality reasoning of linear
programming but also the powerful expressiveness of constraint programming in modeling the complex
logical constraints in nurse rostering problems. In solving the CP pricing subproblem, we propose
two strategies to generate promising columns which contribute to the efficiency of the CG procedure.
A Depth Bounded Discrepancy Search is employed to obtain diverse columns. A cost threshold is
adaptively tightened based on the information collected during the search to generate columns of
good quality. Computational experiments on a set of benchmark nurse rostering problems demonstrate
a faster convergence by the two strategies and justify the effectiveness and efficiency of
the hybrid CP–CG approach.

KeywordsColumn generation; Constraint programming ;Heuristics; Nurse rostering problems; Scheduling
JournalComputers and Operations Research
Journal citation39 (12), pp. 3331-3343
ISSN0305-0548
Year2012
PublisherElsevier
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2012.04.018
Publication dates
Published21 Apr 2012

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