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Abstract
Crew members are important resources for a cruise ship to provide adequate levels of service to on-board passengers. In order to maintain good service levels the cruise lines have established crew size (or par level) for each department. As the ship travels from one port to another, several crew members sign-off (completing their contract) and new members sign-on to meet the par levels. The no-show rate in cruise lines is up to 30%. In this paper an analysis of crew size dynamics is proposed and the performance of an overbooking policy is investigated.
Keywords
scheduling, crew management, resource planning.
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1. Introduction
A commercial pleasure cruise ship typically needs 1000 - 3500 crew members. Crew members are the most important resources to provide different types of services to on-board passengers. Having an appropriate number of crew onboard is essential to provide adequate services. Cruise line companies typically set the appropriate crew size (or par level) for each department (e.g. culinary, bar, cleaning, etc.) based on past experience. Every attempt will be made to ensure that the par level for each department is met. Each crew member has a contract that indicates the duration for which they have to work continuously on-board. Depending on the department in which the crew member works, the contract length varies from 3 to 8 months. As soon as the contract period expires, the crew member will be allowed to sign-off from the port where the ship is currently docked. In order to meet the par level new crew members will sign-on. As the ship travels from one port to another, sign-offs and sign-ons occur regularly at the ports.
If every crew member shows up as planned then the par level is always met. But in cruise lines no-shows are common; up to 30% of crew members do not show up to work (Note: This information was obtained from a leading cruise line company through informal discussions). In addition, some crew members on a contract might have to leave the ship due to sickness, family emergency, etc. When the par level is not met, satisfactory levels of service may not be provided in some departments. It also affects the planning process. When a ship leaves...