The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Operational decision · 2007–2008
A Manhattan dance studio scheduled its showcases with an Excel integer program.
Fred Astaire East Side replaced days of manual showcase scheduling with an Excel integer program honoring every instructor, student, and venue constraint.
Fred Astaire East Side Dance Studio
The solution
Fred Astaire East Side Dance Studio in Manhattan holds ballroom dancing showcases at least twice a year. Constructing the timetable of dance presentations—the most important part of organizing a showcase—was done manually and consumed a great deal of management time and effort.
For the Summer 2007 showcase, the studio's management asked researchers to build a computer-based tool. The result combines algorithms and integer programming in a user-friendly, spreadsheet-based system that runs in Excel and respects the constraints of management, instructors, and students.
The tool generated the showcase timetable successfully, and management spent considerably less time on scheduling than with manual construction, freeing time for teacher training, dance instruction, sales, and marketing.
Why it worked
- The scheduling problem repeats twice a year, so the automation effort pays back every showcase.
- An Excel front end means the studio never needs an OR specialist to run it.
- It turns a stressful, error-prone task into a minutes-long one.
What can be applied
Even a tiny business can swap a hand-built schedule for optimization when the problem repeats; a spreadsheet interface makes the model usable by people who will never see the math.
Aftermath
The tool was used for the Summer 2007 showcase and the study was published in Interfaces in 2008; the preprint remains openly available on Optimization Online.
Sources
- Showcase Scheduling at Fred Astaire East Side Dance Studio
- Showcase Scheduling at Fred Astaire East Side Dance Studio
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