A bi-level optimization model of the technician routing and scheduling problem for access communications

接入通信是一家有线电视和电信提供商，为萨斯喀彻温省240多个社区提供服务。这些社区广泛分布在全省，跨越了很大的地理区域。Access Communications技术运营的主要职能之一是响应客户请求，服务问题并提供预防性维护措施。目前，Access Communications除了拥有各种不同技能的第三方承包商外，还拥有50多名全职技术人员。Access Communications有兴趣调查将技术人员分配到工作/社区的过程，以及根据当前需求区域和技术人员技能组合将技术人员分配到何处。他们还有兴趣找到最佳路线安排，以最大限度地减少技术人员的旅行时间。最终目标是减少驾驶时间，减少所需的承包商数量，技术人员的调度和路由问题是一个困难的优化问题。虽然有许多研究论文讨论了这个问题，但接入通信所面临的环境和限制是独特的。出于这个原因，我们计划开发一个双层优化模型，以最好地代表公司的问题和局限性。当问题的规模很大时，解决这种优化问题是困难的，所以我们计划开发一种启发式算法，可以在现实的时间范围内生成合理的解决方案。

Access Communications is a cable television and telecommunications provider serving over 240 communitiesin Saskatchewan. These communities are widely spread across the province, spanning a large geographic area.One of the main functions for technical operations at Access Communications is to respond to customerrequests, service issues and to provide preventive maintenance measures. Currently, Access Communicationsemploys more than 50 full-time technicians in addition to a pool of 3rd-party contractors with a variety ofdifferent skill sets. Access Communications is interested in investigating the process of assigning technicians tojobs/communities and where to locate technicians based on current demand zones and technician skill sets.They are also interested in finding an optimal routing schedule that will minimize travel time for technicians.The ultimate goal is to reduce drive time, reduce the number of contractors needed, and to enhance customerservice.The problem of technician scheduling and routing is a hard optimization problem. Although there are a numberof research papers that discuss this problem, the setting and limitations faced by Access Communications areunique. For that reason, we plan to develop a bi-level optimization model to best represent the companyproblem and limitations. Solving this kind of optimization problem is harder when the size of the problem islarge, so we plan to develop a heuristic algorithm that can generate reasonable solutions within a realistic timeframe.