Using compressed workweeks to save labour cost

Labour cost represents a huge portion of total cost in many industries. This paper looks at the novel idea of using compressed workweeks to save labour cost. While the idea is quite simple and applicable, it appears to be unknown. We give examples to show that savings in labour cost can be more than trivial, making the idea useful. We also provide formulae for computing workforce sizes and show how to construct schedules under a variety of scenarios.