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Branch-and-price approaches for the Multiperiod Technician Routing and Scheduling Problem

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  • Zamorano, Emilio
  • Stolletz, Raik

Abstract

This paper addresses a technician routing and scheduling problem motivated by the case of an external maintenance provider. Technicians are proficient in different skills and paired into teams to perform maintenance tasks. Tasks are skill constrained and have time windows that may span multiple days. The objective is to determine the daily assignment of technicians into teams, of teams to tasks, and of teams to daily routes such that the operation costs are minimized. We propose a mixed integer program and a branch-and-price algorithm to solve this problem. Exploiting the structure of the problem, alternative formulations are used for the column generation-phase of the algorithm. Using real-world data from an external maintenance provider, we conduct numerical studies to evaluate the performance of our proposed solution approaches.

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  • Zamorano, Emilio & Stolletz, Raik, 2017. "Branch-and-price approaches for the Multiperiod Technician Routing and Scheduling Problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(1), pages 55-68.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:257:y:2017:i:1:p:55-68
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2016.06.058
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    4. Vincent F. Yu & Yueh-Sheng Lin & Panca Jodiawan & Shih-Wei Lin & Yu-Chi Lai, 2023. "The Field Technician Scheduling Problem with Experience-Dependent Service Times," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Zhen, Lu & Wang, Kai & Wang, Shuaian & Qu, Xiaobo, 2018. "Tug scheduling for hinterland barge transport: A branch-and-price approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(1), pages 119-132.
    6. Emilio Zamorano & Annika Becker & Raik Stolletz, 2018. "Task assignment with start time-dependent processing times for personnel at check-in counters," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 93-109, February.
    7. Ehsan Pourjavad & Eman Almehdawe, 2022. "Optimization of the technician routing and scheduling problem for a telecommunication industry," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(1), pages 371-395, August.
    8. Voravee Punyakum & Kanchana Sethanan & Krisanarach Nitisiri & Rapeepan Pitakaso, 2022. "Hybrid Particle Swarm and Whale Optimization Algorithm for Multi-Visit and Multi-Period Dynamic Workforce Scheduling and Routing Problems," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(19), pages 1-20, October.
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    11. Si, Guojin & Xia, Tangbin & Zhu, Ying & Du, Shichang & Xi, Lifeng, 2019. "Triple-level opportunistic maintenance policy for leasehold service network of multi-location production lines," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 1-1.
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