Staff Shortage on SJ Trains

Sammanfattning: This thesis is a case study in collaboration with SJ AB, a government owned railway companyin Sweden. The employees aboard the trains are an essential part of operating thetrains efficiently. Therefore, it is vital to forecast absences well in order to avoid havingto cancel train trips or having employees work over time. The current process SJ usesdivides the total amount of absences into 11 categories representing reasons for not beingpresent. This is done three months in advance, but the model is not based on mathematics.This study is going to examine how well the forecasts compare to reality in addition toinvestigating which variables are possible to estimate using regression analysis. Furthermore,the extent to which the staff on board the trains are affected will be investigatedin terms of having to work less overtime. The financial impact of an enhanced model willbe researched. “Free” days, Vacation and Sickness all have significant regressors and canpotentially be forecast using regression analysis. Future work includes finding more potentialregressor variables that could be significant for more response variables in addition tousing the results of this thesis in an actual estimation model for the total absence.