Optimization of ship’s crew change schedule

Seaborne shipping must often cope with issues related to planning, ship scheduling, and arranging crews and optimal shipping routes between ports. Human resources departments typically plan ship crew shifts with regards to the seafarers’ right to vacation days. It is difficult to harmonize all the requirements and to satisfy both the seafarers and the company. Ideally, arrangements are made for the crewmember to sign off upon completion of a contract, with the vessel being at a port convenient to change the crew at a minimum cost. The latter may vary greatly, depending on the size of the crew to be replaced, the distance of the port from the crew destination, and the available taking-over crew at a specific place and time, etc. In these situations, linear programming (LP) is frequently used as a mathematical method to determine the optimal results. This study suggests the use of a linear-binary programming model in LINGO software to arrange the ship’s crew change schedule.