Schedule modeling in a fire station: a linear approach to optimize service and human resources

• Author(s): Silva, Ana Rita ; Rodrigues, Helena Sofia ; Silva, Ângela
• Date: 2024
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/43500
• Origin: RIA - Repositório Institucional da Universidade de Aveiro
• Document Type: Book part
• Language: English

Description

Associations of Volunteer Firefighters form the basis of helping the Portuguese population. In these institutions, to guarantee the first line of assistance, there are volunteers and also a group of professional firefighters. However, there are not always enough funds to hire the human resources effectively needed, or even to guarantee the continuity of services provided 24 h a day. In this work, the linear programming method was used to study a schedule problem, and the simulations presented were carried out at Excel OpenSolver. The aim was to understand the minimum number of firefighters needed to meet the demands of the population and to guarantee a quick response to requests that may occur over the day. Even with some restrictions associated with the specific roles of each firefighter, it was possible to design several scenarios, involving different shifts, and left the decision of the best solution for the responsible of the fire station taking into account the trade-off between costs and provided service.