Which algorithm for assigning shifts (discrete optimization problem)

Question

I\'m developing an application that optimally assigns shifts to nurses in a hospital. I believe this is a linear programming problem with discrete variables, and therefore p

Answer 1

Mike,

Don't know if you ever got a good answer to this, but I'm pretty sure that constraint programming is the ticket. While a GA might give you an answer, CP is designed to give you many answers or tell you if there is no feasible solution. A search on "constraint programming" and scheduling should bring up lots of info. It's a relatively new area and CP methods work well on many types of problems where traditional optimization methods bog down.