Assigning licenced technicians to maintenance tasks at aircraft maintenance base: a bi-objective approach and a Chinese airline application. Issue 19 (2nd October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chen, Gang; He, Wen; Leung, Lawrence C.; Lan, Tian; Han, Yingying
• Is Part Of: International journal of production research. Volume 55:Issue 19(2017)
• Page Start: 5550
• Page End: 5563
• Publication Date: 2017-10-02
• Subjects: maintenance planning -- assignment problem -- workload fairness -- bi-objective optimisation -- heuristics; Factory management -- Periodicals; 658.57
• DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2017.1296204
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-7543

Abstract

Abstract : Assigning technicians to maintenance tasks at an aircraft maintenance base is challenging and needs to consider technician licences, fairness and such operational constraints as hangar capacity and work shifts. We formulate the problem as a bi-objective optimisation model, which minimises total cost while simultaneously achieving fairness in workload allocation among different technicians. A tabu-based heuristic algorithm is developed to obtain Pareto efficient solutions. The algorithm is shown to be effective through comparison with CPLEX. A case study from a major Chinese airline demonstrates that our optimisation-based approach is applicable and beneficial to the practice. Managerial issues on maintenance workforce management are examined as well. The results show that training technicians and upgrading their licences may not be better off, and increasing the number of technicians has both favourable and unfavourable effects.