Exact Methods and Heuristics for the Liner Shipping Crew Scheduling Problem

In this paper the liner shipping crew scheduling problem is described and modelled. Three different models have been formulated and tested for the scheduling problem. A mixed integer formulation and a set covering formulation are constructed and solved using exact methods. A mat-heuristic based on column generation has been implemented and tested. Moreover, a simple heuristic is implemented as a benchmark value. The models and methods were tested on smaller instances of the problem. The results show that good results can be achieved within 5 min using the heuristic and around an hour using the set partitioning formulation.