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Task assignment with start time-dependent processing times for personnel at check-in counters

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Abstract

This paper addresses a task assignment problem encountered by check-in counter personnel at airports. The problem consists of assigning multiskilled agents to a sequence of tasks in check-in counters. Because each task’s ending time is fixed to comply with the flight schedule, its processing time depends on the arrival of the assigned agents. We propose a mixed-integer program and a branch-and-price algorithm to solve this problem. We exploit the problem structure to efficiently formulate the pricing problems and improve computation time. Using real-world data from a German ground-handling agency, we conduct numerical studies to evaluate the performance of the proposed solutions.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Erich-Becker-Stiftung, a foundation of Fraport AG. The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees for helpful and constructive suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Production Management, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Emilio Zamorano, Annika Becker & Raik Stolletz

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  1. Emilio Zamorano
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  2. Annika Becker
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  3. Raik Stolletz
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Correspondence to Emilio Zamorano.

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Zamorano, E., Becker, A. & Stolletz, R. Task assignment with start time-dependent processing times for personnel at check-in counters. J Sched 21, 93–109 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-017-0523-3

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