Labor rules in Auto Assign
Updated
by
Leigh Hutchens
Introduction
Through labor rules and business rules, you are able to control what rules should be taken into consideration when Auto Assign assigns shifts to employees. Labor rules and business rules can be configured in Quinyx and/or in Pythia (AI optimization). In Quinyx the labor rules that can be considered in the Auto Assign solution are configured in the agreement templates, while any additional rules are configured in Pythia (AI Optimization).
Labor rules defined in agreement templates
Within the agreement templates configured in Quiny,x you are able to define a number of labor rules that can be considered in the Auto Assign solution. This is especially useful in case restrictions, such as the maximum number of working days per week, change over time, due to a new agreement or when agreement templates differ based on the age of the employee. As such, labor rules can be considered on an employee level, as opposed to on a unit level.
You can select only a few of the rules while other rules are ignored. Once enabled, the labor rules and any changes to the rule parameters will automatically be considered in the Auto Assign solution.
The following labor rules configured on an agreement level can be considered in the Auto Assign solution.
Agreement Template Field | Description |
Minimum shift length | The minimum number of minutes of a shift to be assigned. Employees should not be assigned shifts shorter than the minimum shift duration. If multiple minimum shift lengths are defined for different time periods in the agreement templates, Auto Assign only uses the smallest value as a minimum for the whole schedule period. |
Max hours/day | The maximum number of hours an employee can be assigned within a day. Shifts spanning multiple days assign respective hours to both days. |
Minimum hours/week | The minimum hours an employee should be assigned within a week based on all shifts that start within that week. |
Max hours/week | The maximum hours an employee can be assigned within a week based on all shifts that start within that week. |
Min rest | The daily rest can be interpreted in two ways depending on the configuration:
|
Minimum rest/week | The minimum consecutive rest time per week. A week can be defined as a fixed period or as a rolling period. |
Max days | The maximum consecutive days an employee is allowed to work. |
Free days | The minimum number of consecutive days off the employee is entitled to after working the max consecutive workdays. |
Maximum work hours w/o breaks (h) | The maximum number of work hours allowed without breaks. If a shift does not have a break although it should, then the shift cannot be assigned. |
Minimum break minutes | The minimum duration of a break. If a shift does not fulfill the minimum break length, then the shift cannot be assigned. |
Maximum break minutes | The maximum duration of a break. If a shift does not fulfill the maximum break length, then the shift cannot be assigned. |
Labor rules defined in Pythia (AI Optimization)
Although the most commonly used rules within schedule assignments can be defined in the agreement templates, there are additional rules that are considered when creating the schedule that cannot be defined there. These rules are instead defined and maintained in Pythia (AI Optimization) by Quinyx.
The Auto Assign solution has a library of additional rules suitable for different geographies, industries, or customer-specific situations. These rules can be used on top of the agreement template rules to ensure that additional aspects taken into consideration by a scheduler when creating a manual schedule can be replicated when using Auto Assign. This is to ensure that as few manual changes have to be done as possible to a schedule assigned by Auto Assign before publishing.
Any additional rules after the initial Auto Assign configuration should also be added and maintained by Quinyx to ensure that the algorithm continues to perform as expected.
The labor rules can be configured per unit but also per specific shift types, users, agreements or age groups.
Rule adherence and preferences
The Auto Assign solution can consider both soft (preferential) rules and as well as hard (mandatory) rules. This is defined per every single rule. Rules that are considered mandatory rules will not be violated in the shift assignment process. Rules that are considered preferential rules can be weighed against one another in order to specify the order of importance of rule adherence. As such, you are able to define what is important for you to consider when assigning shifts.
The Auto Assign solution will assign shifts while considering the labor rules and the priorities of the preferential rules in order to achieve the most optimal schedule within those constraints.
