An improved NSGA-II based-on project scheduling principles for workforce scheduling optimization in warehouse

This paper presents an approach to workforce scheduling optimization in a warehouse, considering multiple constraints such as precedent constraints among tasks, skill constraints between tasks and human resources, and working time constraints of human resources. The expected result is a set of optimized schedules for three objectives: order cycle time, total labor cost, and order on-time rate. By viewing a schedule under the lens of project management, we improve the NSGA-II with a customized initial population creation, and enhanced crossover and mutation operators. The algorithm is then tested against real data from an existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, including human, machine resources and tasks. The results show to perform well, thus making the algorithm applicable in the warehouse environment.