Journal of Heuristics, 7: 391–413, 2001 c  2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers Generalized Assignment Type Goal Programming Problem: Application to Nurse Scheduling JACQUES A. FERLAND ∗ DIRO, Universit´ e de Montr´ eal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-ville, Montr´ eal (Qu´ ebec), Canada H3C 3J7 email: ferland@iro.umontreal.ca ILHAM BERRADA ´ Ecole Nationale Sup´ erieure d’Informatique et d’Analyse des Syst` emes, Rabat, Morocco IMENE NABLI Universit´ e de Montr´ eal, Montr´ eal, Qu´ ebec, Canada B. AHIOD Facult´ e des Sciences de Rabat, Morocco PHILIPPE MICHELON Universit´ e d’Avignon, Avignon, France VIVIANE GASCON Universit´ e du Qu´ ebec ` a Trois-Rivi` eres, Trois-Rivi` eres, Qu´ ebec, Canada ´ ERIC GAGN ´ E IBM Services Mondiaux, Montr´ eal, Qu´ ebec, Canada Abstract The notion of the Generalized Assignment Type Goal Programming Problem is introduced to consider the additional side constraints of an Assignment Type problem as goal functions. A short term Tabu Search method together with diversification strategies are used to deal with this model. The methods are tested on real-world Nurse Scheduling Problems. Key Words: assignment, goal programming, Tabu Search, diversification, nurse scheduling 1. Introduction The notion of the Assignment Type Problem (ATP) seems to be a powerful modeling tool. In Ferland et al. (1996), the authors use a penalty approach to deal with additional side constraints. In this paper, the notion is extended to consider the additional side constraints as goal functions. ∗ To whom all correspondence should be addressed.