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A bin packing approach to solve the aircraft maintenance task allocation problem

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  • Witteman, Max
  • Deng, Qichen
  • Santos, Bruno F.

Abstract

This paper addresses the scheduling of aircraft maintenance tasks that must be carried out in multiple maintenance checks to keep a fleet of aircraft airworthy. The allocation of maintenance tasks to maintenance opportunities, also known as the task allocation problem (TAP), is a complex combinatorial problem that needs to be solved daily by maintenance operators. We propose a novel approach capable of efficiently solving the multi-year task allocation problem for a fleet of aircraft in a few minutes. We formulate this problem as a time-constrained variable-sized bin packing problem (TC-VS-BPP), extending the well-known variable-sized bin packing problem (VS-BPP) by adding deadlines, intervals, and arrivals for the repetition of tasks. In particular, we divide the planning horizon into variable size bins to which multidimensional tasks are allocated, subject to available labor power and task deadlines. To solve this problem, we propose a constructive heuristic based on the worst-fit decreasing (WFD) algorithm for TC-VS-BPP. The heuristic is tested and validated using the maintenance data of 45 aircraft from a European airline. Compared with the solution obtained with an approach using an exact method, the proposed heuristic is more than 30% faster for all the test cases discussed with the airline. Most of the cases have optimality gaps below 3%. Even for the extreme case, the optimality gap is still smaller than 5%.

Suggested Citation

  • Witteman, Max & Deng, Qichen & Santos, Bruno F., 2021. "A bin packing approach to solve the aircraft maintenance task allocation problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 294(1), pages 365-376.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:294:y:2021:i:1:p:365-376
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2021.01.027
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kang, Jangha & Park, Sungsoo, 2003. "Algorithms for the variable sized bin packing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 365-372, June.
    2. Deng, Qichen & Santos, Bruno F. & Curran, Richard, 2020. "A practical dynamic programming based methodology for aircraft maintenance check scheduling optimization," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(2), pages 256-273.
    3. Huaiyuan Li & Hongfu Zuo & Dan Lei & Kun Liang & Tingting Lu, 2015. "Optimal Combination of Aircraft Maintenance Tasks by a Novel Simplex Optimization Method," Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Hindawi, vol. 2015, pages 1-19, June.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

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    2. Alotaibi, Naif M. & Scarf, Philip & Cavalcante, Cristiano A.V. & Lopes, Rodrigo S. & de Oliveira e Silva, André Luiz & Rodrigues, Augusto J.S. & Alyami, Salem A., 2023. "Modified-opportunistic inspection and the case of remote, groundwater well-heads," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    3. Tao Dai & Xiangqi Fan, 2021. "Multi-Stove Scheduling for Sustainable On-Demand Food Delivery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-13, November.
    4. Polyakovskiy, Sergey & M’Hallah, Rym, 2022. "A lookahead matheuristic for the unweighed variable-sized two-dimensional bin packing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 299(1), pages 104-117.
    5. van Kessel, Paul J. & Freeman, Floris C. & Santos, Bruno F., 2023. "Airline maintenance task rescheduling in a disruptive environment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(2), pages 605-621.
    6. Sciau, Jean-Baptiste & Goyon, Agathe & Sarazin, Alexandre & Bascans, Jérémy & Prud’homme, Charles & Lorca, Xavier, 2024. "Using constraint programming to address the operational aircraft line maintenance scheduling problem," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Wang, Mengyao & Zhou, Chenhao & Wang, Aihu, 2022. "A cluster-based yard template design integrated with yard crane deployment using a placement heuristic," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    8. Epstein, Leah, 2024. "Tighter bounds for the harmonic bin packing algorithm," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 316(1), pages 72-84.

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