Simulation-Optimization in Geographic Maintenance Scheduling

An application of a combination of scheduling theory, simulation modelling and combinatorial optimization is presented. The system under study deals with human resource and assets management to perform maintenance in large support networks. The paper includes the development of the framework of the software tool that will be embedded into the commercial maintenance package called INGRID. Following the modelling approach, a fully detailed explanation of the data requirements, the decision variables and the output variables is given. A detailed discussion on the genetic algorithm that is going to be used is also provided. The routines have been developed in spreadsheets so that there is an easy link with the rest of the software application