Formulation and implementation of a large-scale work scheduling algorithm for underground coal mines.

摘要

The assignment of available workers to prioritized jobs on a shift basis is one of the most important and difficult decisions for the managers of underground coal mines. The objective of this study was to develop a work scheduling algorithm to handle the worker assignment problem in an efficient and practical way.;The study basically consisted of three parts. The first part concerned the development of a mathematical programming model to handle the worker assignment problem. A goal programming model was developed first, and was converted a zero-one linear programming model which allows more flexibility in coping with various situations of the worker assignment problem in underground coal mines.;The second part aimed at achieving an efficient solution of the model. This included data manipulation for efficient input of technical coefficients that were developed using expert knowledge and development of an efficient method for solving the problem. Two different methods, the branch-and-bound method and the additive algorithm, were used to solve the problem. The results indicated that the additive algorithm only works for small problems. The branch-and-bound method will result in memory shortage and give very slow solution when solving large-scale problems. Thus, special attention should be given by a user to the manpower requirement structure so that the solution from simplex method can be integer and a quick solution of worker assignments can be achieved.;The third part of the study implemented the work scheduling algorithm to the worker assignment problem at the Martinka mine. Through the implementation, some other practical considerations, associated with the utilization of workers, were addressed by adjusting the model. The results showed that the work scheduling algorithm can make optimal assignments of workers to prioritized jobs in a reasonably short time, even for a large underground coal mine.;In conclusion, it is believed that this work scheduling algorithm has potential significance in increasing manpower utilization and can offer great help to coal mine managers in making efficient manpower allocations.