A case study for timetabling in a dutch secondary school

Abstract

This paper describes a case study for constructing the yearly schedule of a secondary school in the Netherlands. This construction is divided in three steps. In the first step we create cluster schemes containing the optional subjects. A cluster scheme consists of cluster lines, and a cluster line contains classes which will be taught simultaneously. Part of the problem is that the students are not yet assigned to the classes. Once the cluster schemes are fixed, it remains to schedule the lessons to time slots and rooms. We first schedule the lessons to day-parts, and once this is completed we schedule the lessons to time slots within the day-parts. Thanks to consistency checks in the day-part phase, going from day-parts to time slots is possible. Finally, in the third step, we improve the previously found schedule by a tabu search using ejection chains. Compared to hand-made schedules, the results are very promising. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.