School bus routing problem: Contemporary trends and research directions

The school bus routing problem (SBRP) is a challenging operations research problem that has been studied by researchers for almost 50 years. SBRP publications address one or more operational sub-problems, including: bus stop selection, bus route generation, bus route scheduling, school bell time adjustment, and strategic transportation policy issues. This paper reviews 64 new SBRP research publications and analyzes them by sub-problem type, problem characteristics and solution approach. The impact of key SBRP characteristics (number of schools, mixed load, fleet mix, service environment, objective and constraints) are discussed and the different solution approaches to the SBRP are summarized by sub-problem type and methodology. We found in recent years, SBRP researchers are examining more complex real-world problem settings, adopting both evolutionary-based and trajectory-based metaheuristic solution approaches, and considering ridership and travel time uncertainty. This review documents recent trends in SBRP research and highlights research gaps and promising opportunities for future SBRP research.     

A comparison of Japanese failure models: Hybrid neural networks,logit models,and discriminant analysis

This article looks at the ability of a relatively new technique, hybrid artificial neural networks (ANNs), to predict Japanese banking and firm failures. These models are compared with traditional statistical techniques and conventional ANN models. The results suggest that hybrid neural networks outperform all other models in predicting failure for one year prior to the event. This suggests that for researchers, policymakers, and others interested in early warning systems, the hybrid network may be a useful tool for predicting banking and firm failures.     

Job scheduling with dual criteria and sequence-dependent setups: mathematical versus genetic programming

Flexibility, speed, and efficiency are major challenges for operations managers in today's knowledge-intensive organizations. Such requirements are converted into three production scheduling criteria: (a) minimize the impact of setup times in flexible production lines when moving from one product to another, (b) minimize number of tardy jobs, and (c) minimize overall production time, or makespan, for a given set of products or services. There is a wide range of solution methodologies for such NP-hard scheduling problems. While mathematical programming models provide optimal solutions, they become too complex to model for large scheduling problems. Simultaneously, heuristic approaches are simpler and very often independent of the problem size, but provide “good” rather than optimal solutions. This paper proposes and compares two alternative solutions: 0-1 mixed integer linear programming and genetic programming. It also provides guidelines that can be used by practitioners in the process of selecting the appropriate scheduling methodology.     

Linear solution schemes for Mean-SemiVariance Project portfolio selection problems: An application in the oil and gas industry

We study the Mean-SemiVariance Project (MSVP) portfolio selection problem, where the objective is to obtain the optimal risk-reward portfolio of non-divisible projects when the risk is measured by the semivariance of the portfolio׳s Net-Present Value (NPV) and the reward is measured by the portfolio׳s expected NPV. Similar to the well-known Mean-Variance portfolio selection problem, when integer variables are present (e.g., due to transaction costs, cardinality constraints, or asset illiquidity), the MSVP problem can be solved using Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) techniques. However, conventional MIQP solvers may be unable to solve large-scale MSVP problem instances in a reasonable amount of time. In this paper, we propose two linear solution schemes to solve the MSVP problem; that is, the proposed schemes avoid the use of MIQP solvers and only require the use of Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) techniques. In particular, we show that the solution of a class of real-world MSVP problems, in which project returns are positively correlated, can be accurately approximated by solving a single MILP problem. In general, we show that the MSVP problem can be effectively solved by a sequence of MILP problems, which allow us to solve large-scale MSVP problem instances faster than using MIQP solvers. We illustrate our solution schemes by solving a real MSVP problem arising in a Latin American oil and gas company. Also, we solve instances of the MSVP problem that are constructed using data from the PSPLIB library of project scheduling problems.     

A mathematical modeling approach to improving locomotive utilization at a freight railroad

Moving freight by rail remains one of the major transportation modes in today's business world. Although railcars compare unfavorably with trucks and airplanes with respect to mobility, flexibility, and speed, the shipping costs are lower and the energy-efficiency is higher. In order to become more competitive in the logistics industry, railroads have taken a number of new initiatives to improve their operations in recent years. One of such efforts made by Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) is described in this paper. The main focus of the present study is on helping Conrail increase the utilization of its locomotive fleet by developing a mixed integer linear program (MILP) to determine the least-cost plan of allocating locomotives to yards and moving light engines between yards. The MILP is tested on a set of real data gathered at Conrail and it is proven to be superior to the existing method. A simple sensitivity analysis is also performed to gain insight into the trade-off between investment in additional locomotives and cost of light engine moves.     

考虑产品变质的VMI混合补货发货策略及优化仿真

本文研究了“产品可变质”情况下的VMI库存补货与装运调度问题,并建立了Poisson需求过程下的VMI混合补货发货模型,根据此模型通过简单的规划求解即可得到使长期平均成本最小的最佳混合策略组合。由于模型推演过程中涉及到对补货周期内期望发货次数的近似估计,因而模型解是拟最优的。算例和模型仿真显示,模型结果与仿真结果十分相近,从而模型有效性得以确认。     

Scheduling aerial resource operations for the extinction of large-scale wildfires

The significant increase in large-scale wildfire events in recent decades, caused primarily by climate change, has resulted in a growing number of aerial resources being used in suppression efforts. Present-day management lacks efficient and scalable algorithms for complex aerial resource allocation and scheduling for the extinction of such fires, which is crucial to ensuring safety while maximizing the efficiency of operations. In this work, we present a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) optimization model tailored to large-scale wildfires for the daily scheduling of aerial operations. The main objective is to achieve a prioritized target water flow over all areas of operation and all time periods. Minimal target completion across individual areas and time periods and total water output are also maximized as secondary and ternary objectives, respectively. An efficient and scalable multi-start heuristic, combining a randomized greedy approach with simulated annealing employing large neighborhood search techniques, is proposed for larger instances. A diverse set of problem instances is generated with varying sizes and extinction strategies to test the approaches. Results indicate that the heuristic can achieve (near)-optimal solutions for smaller instances solvable by the MILP, and gives solutions approaching target water flows for larger problem sizes. The algorithm is parallelizable and has been shown to give promising results in a small number of iterations, making it applicable for both night-before planning and, more time-sensitive, early-morning scheduling.     

考虑差异化服务时间的多车型电动汽车路径优化与充电策略研究

在政府政策大力支持以及社会环境意识不断增长的背景下,电动汽车在物流配送行业快速普及。电动汽车参与的物流配送服务需要物流专员、电动汽车和顾客三方协作完成。因此,在传统车辆配送路径优化的基础上,车辆的多样性、充电策略、人车的匹配以及服务时间差异化等因素都会影响物流运营成本。本文提出了考虑差异化服务成本的多车型电动汽车路径优化与充电策略问题并建立了该问题的整数规划数学模型。其次,提出了混合启发式算法MCWGATS,并通过多组算例验证了算法的有效性。最后,采用多组算例分析了多车型和差异化服务时间对运营成本的影响。实验结果表明,该模型有助于物流企业提高人员、物流车辆、服务时间等资源的利用效率,降低运营成本。     

Job-shop scheduling-joint consideration of production,transport, and storage/retrieval systems

This paper proposes a new problem by integrating the job shop scheduling, the part feeding, and the automated storage and retrieval problems. These three problems are intertwined and the performance of each of these problems influences and is influenced by the performance of the other problems. We consider a manufacturing environment composed of a set of machines (production system) connected by a transport system and a storage/retrieval system. Jobs are retrieved from storage and delivered to a load/unload area (LU) by the automated storage retrieval system. Then they are transported to and between the machines where their operations are processed on by the transport system. Once all operations of a job are processed, the job is taken back to the LU and then returned to the storage cell. We propose a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model that can be solved to optimality for small-sized instances. We also propose a hybrid simulated annealing (HSA) algorithm to find good quality solutions for larger instances. The HSA incorporates a late acceptance hill-climbing algorithm and a multistart strategy to promote both intensification and exploration while decreasing computational requirements. To compute the optimality gap of the HSA solutions, we derive a very fast lower bounding procedure. Computational experiments are conducted on two sets of instances that we also propose. The computational results show the effectiveness of the MILP on small-sized instances as well as the effectiveness, efficiency, and robustness of the HSA on medium and large-sized instances. Furthermore, the computational experiments clearly shown that importance of optimizing the three problems simultaneous. Finally, the importance and relevance of including the storage/retrieval activities are empirically demonstrated as ignoring them leads to wrong and misleading results.

     

Fleet Replacement,Technology Choice,and the Option to Breach a Leasing Contract

We analyze the option to breach a leasing contract when replacing a fleet of ICVs (internal combustion engine vehicles) and EVs (electric vehicles) subject to cost uncertainty. We derive the optimal policy for technology choice and breaching ICV contracts. The decision to breach is shown to offer both cost savings resulting from reduced ICV operating costs and preemptive acquisition, but incurs additional costs arising from the need to compensate for breached vehicles and in the form of opportunity costs. We also demonstrate that the effects of breaching a leasing contract have a ripple effect across the decision horizon, thus amplifying the impact of a single breach. A numerical study based on data from La Poste, the French postal service, shows that breaching a leasing contract in this context offers measurable cost benefits.     

Product mix in the TFT-LCD industry

As operational costs and equipment depreciation in the TFT-LCD (thin film transistor-liquid crystal display) industry are a high percentage of the total cost, most manufacturers usually fully utilise their production capacity to reduce the average unit cost. However, when the market demand is less than the supply the stock of panels increases; this forces manufacturers to instigate a price war to reduce levels of stock and results in a wide fluctuation in panel prices. Inventory stocks of panels could be decreased by optimising the product mix. This will help manufacturers to reduce the risk of holding stocks, increase profit, and improve competitive advantage. This study uses mixed integer linear programming (MILP) to construct a product mix for the TFT-LCD industry given the conditions of profit, productivity, raw materials supply, and market demand. A case study shows that this model is proven to be effective in generating product mix for the TFT-LCD industry while improving profit. The product mix generated by this model can provide a reference for the sales department for orders and shipping, for the production department for the order quantity, and for master production scheduling for each product.     

The shift minimisation personnel task scheduling problem: A new hybrid approach and computational insights

Assigning scheduled tasks to a multi-skilled workforce is a known NP-complete problem with many applications in health care, services, logistics and manufacturing. Optimising the use and composition of costly and scarce resources such as staff has major implications on any organisation׳s health. The present paper introduces a new, versatile two-phase matheuristic approach to the shift minimisation personnel task scheduling problem, which considers assigning tasks to a set of multi-skilled employees, whose working times have been determined beforehand. Computational results show that the new hybrid method is capable of finding, for the first time, optimal solutions for all benchmark instances from the literature, in very limited computation time. The influence of a set of problem instance features on the performance of different algorithms is investigated in order to discover what makes particular problem instances harder than others. These insights are useful when deciding on organisational policies to better manage various operational aspects related to workforce. The empirical hardness results enable to generate hard problem instances. A set of new challenging instances is now available to the academic community.     

Health Effects Caused by Primary Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Emitted from Buses in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland

Fine particle (PM(2.5)) emissions from traffic have been associated with premature mortality. The current work compares PM(2.5)-induced mortality in alternative public bus transportation strategies as being considered by the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council, Finland. The current bus fleet and transportation volume is compared to four alternative hypothetical bus fleet strategies for the year 2020: (1) the current bus fleet for 2020 traffic volume, (2) modern diesel buses without particle traps, (3) diesel buses with particle traps, and (4) buses using natural gas engines. The average population PM(2.5) exposure level attributable to the bus emissions was determined for the 1996-1997 situation using PM(2.5) exposure measurements including elemental composition from the EXPOLIS-Helsinki study and similar element-based source apportionment of ambient PM(2.5) concentrations observed in the ULTRA study. Average population exposure to particles originating from the bus traffic in the year 2020 is assumed to be proportional to the bus emissions in each strategy. Associated mortality was calculated using dose-response relationships from two large cohort studies on PM(2.5) mortality from the United States. Estimated number of deaths per year (90% confidence intervals in parenthesis) associated with primary PM(2.5) emissions from buses in Helsinki Metropolitan Area in 2020 were 18 (0-55), 9 (0-27), 4 (0-14), and 3 (0-8) for the strategies 1-4, respectively. The relative differences in the associated mortalities for the alternative strategies are substantial, but the number of deaths in the lowest alternative, the gas buses, is only marginally lower than what would be achieved by diesel engines equipped with particle trap technology. The dose-response relationship and the emission factors were identified as the main sources of uncertainty in the model.     

Collaborative optimization for metro train scheduling and train connections combined with passenger flow control strategy

For high-frequency metro lines, the excessive travel demand during the peak hours brings a high risk to metro system and a low comfort to passengers, so it is important to consider passenger flow control when designing the metro train scheduling strategy. This paper presents a collaborative optimization method for metro train scheduling and train connections combined with passenger control strategy on a bi-directional metro line. Specifically, the dynamic equations for the train headway and train passenger loads along the metro line, the turnaround operations and the entering/exiting depot operations are considered simultaneously. The proposed collaborative optimization problem is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear programming model to realise the trade-off among the utilization of trains, passenger flow control strategy and the number of awaiting passengers at platforms, which is further reformulated into mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. To handle the complexity of this MILP model, a Lagrangian relaxation-based approach is designed to decompose the original problem into two small subproblems, which reduces the computational burden of the original problem and can efficiently find a good solution of the train schedule and train connections problem combined with passenger flow control strategy. The numerical experiments are implemented to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed model and approach, which shows that the proposed model is not sensitive to uncertain passenger demand. Under the proposed collaborative optimization approach, the number of train service connections and the crowding inside stations and carriages with the proper passenger flow control strategy can be evidently balanced, and thereby the operation efficiency and safety of the metro lines are effectively improved.     

A flight scheduling model for Taiwan airlines under market competitions

In this research, we develop a short-term flight scheduling model with variable market shares in order to help a Taiwan airline to solve for better fleet routes and flight schedules in today's competitive markets. The model is formulated as a non-linear mixed integer program, characterized as an NP-hard problem, which is more difficult to solve than the traditional fixed market share flight scheduling problems, often formulated as integer/mixed integer linear programs. We develop a heuristic method to efficiently solve the model. The test results, mainly using the data from a major Taiwan airline's operations, show the good performance of the model and the solution algorithm.     

A hybrid BA-VNS algorithm for coordinated serial-batching scheduling with deteriorating jobs,financial budget,and resource constraint in multiple manufacturers

We study a coordinated serial-batching scheduling problem that features deteriorating jobs, financial budget, resource constraints, resource-dependent processing times, setup times, and multiple manufacturers simultaneously. A unique feature but also a significant challenge in this problem is the dual constraints on resources, i.e., financial budget and resource quantity. Some key structural properties are first identified for the setting where the jobs and resources are already assigned to each manufacturer, which enables us to develop the optimal resource allocation scheme. Then, a polynomial-time scheduling rule is proposed to search for the optimal solution for each manufacturer in this setting. Then, a hybrid BA-VNS algorithm combining Bat algorithm (BA) and variable neighborhood search (VNS) is proposed to tackle the studied problem, and the optimal scheduling rule is implemented in its encoding procedure. Finally, computational experiments are conducted to test the performance of the proposed algorithm, and the efficiency and improvements are compared with those of BA, VNS, and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), with respect to convergence speed as well as computational stability.     

An Optimization‐Based Framework for the Identification of Vulnerabilities in Electric Power Grids Exposed to Natural Hazards

This article proposes a novel mathematical optimization framework for the identification of the vulnerabilities of electric power infrastructure systems (which is a paramount example of critical infrastructure) due to natural hazards. In this framework, the potential impacts of a specific natural hazard on an infrastructure are first evaluated in terms of failure and recovery probabilities of system components. Then, these are fed into a bi‐level attacker–defender interdiction model to determine the critical components whose failures lead to the largest system functionality loss. The proposed framework bridges the gap between the difficulties of accurately predicting the hazard information in classical probability‐based analyses and the over conservatism of the pure attacker–defender interdiction models. Mathematically, the proposed model configures a bi‐level max‐min mixed integer linear programming (MILP) that is challenging to solve. For its solution, the problem is casted into an equivalent one‐level MILP that can be solved by efficient global solvers. The approach is applied to a case study concerning the vulnerability identification of the georeferenced RTS24 test system under simulated wind storms. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework for identifying critical locations under multiple hazard events and, thus, for providing a useful tool to help decisionmakers in making more‐informed prehazard preparation decisions.     

A hybrid biased random key genetic algorithm approach for the unit commitment problem

This work proposes a hybrid genetic algorithm (GA) to address the unit commitment (UC) problem. In the UC problem, the goal is to schedule a subset of a given group of electrical power generating units and also to determine their production output in order to meet energy demands at minimum cost. In addition, the solution must satisfy a set of technological and operational constraints. The algorithm developed is a hybrid biased random key genetic algorithm (HBRKGA). It uses random keys to encode the solutions and introduces bias both in the parent selection procedure and in the crossover strategy. To intensify the search close to good solutions, the GA is hybridized with local search. Tests have been performed on benchmark large-scale power systems. The computational results demonstrate that the HBRKGA is effective and efficient. In addition, it is also shown that it improves the solutions obtained by current state-of-the-art methodologies.     

On‐Call Overtime for Service Workforce Scheduling when Demand Is Uncertain

This article builds on prior research to develop shift scheduling models that include on‐call overtime for service environments where demand is uncertain. The research is motivated by recent developments in nurse scheduling, such as laws prohibiting mandatory overtime and the popularity of self‐scheduling systems. For single‐period scenarios, models are developed, solution methods are described, and results are explored for a variety of environments. Results show that the use of on‐call overtime can reduce costs slightly, with the amount of savings dependent on characteristics of the scheduling environment. The factor that most significantly affects cost savings is the cost of outside agency workers relative to overtime workers. In addition to lowering costs, on‐call overtime greatly reduces reliance on outside agency workers, which can have important practical implications in terms of quality of service and workforce morale. Results based on single‐period models motivate multiperiod formulations for single‐ and multidepartment scenarios, and solution methods are outlined for those cases. The possibility of using multiperiod models within a rolling horizon framework with forecast updating is discussed. This goes along with an extension of the traditional workforce management hierarchy that separates overtime and regular‐time scheduling, as seen in practice with self‐scheduling and shift‐bidding systems.     

Modelling activity times by hybrid synthetic method

Uncertain (manual) activity times impact a number of manufacturing system modules: plant and layout design, capacity analysis, operator assignment, process planning, scheduling and simulation. Direct observation cannot be used for non-existent production lines. A hybrid direct observation/synthetic method derived from Method Time Measurement available in industry is proposed. To determine accurate activity times required by heuristics and metaheuristics optimisation, manufacturing system modules are modelled by MILP and operator efficiency parameters are used for time standardisation. Among human factors considered are skill and ergonomics. Application to the sterilisation of reusable medical devices is extensively described. Experimental data taken from observation on the field and a worst-case date have shown the model direct applicability for professionals also to non-manufacturing cases.