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TransAlta Redesigns Its Service-Delivery Network

Author

Listed:
  • Erhan Erkut

    (Faculty of Business, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2R6)

  • Tony Myroon

    (Keefe Taylor & Associates, 401 10109-106 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 3L7)

  • Kevin Strangway

    (TransAlta Utilities, 100 Chippewa Road, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada T8A 4H4)

Abstract

TransAlta Utilities (TAU), Canada's largest publicly owned electric utility company, wanted to reduce costs and improve service, establish a call center, and redesign its service-delivery network. To help TAU locate service facilities, determine staffing levels, cluster facilities into call pools, locate equipment, and evaluate the impact of customers performing their own operations and maintenance, we used facility-location and vehicle-routing heuristics, multiple regression, cost/benefit analysis, and a geographical information system. We worked closely with TAU management, and TAU has implemented most of our recommendations.

Suggested Citation

  • Erhan Erkut & Tony Myroon & Kevin Strangway, 2000. "TransAlta Redesigns Its Service-Delivery Network," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 30(2), pages 54-69, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:30:y:2000:i:2:p:54-69
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.30.2.54.11677
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marshall L. Fisher, 1981. "The Lagrangian Relaxation Method for Solving Integer Programming Problems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 1-18, January.
    2. Michael B. Teitz & Polly Bart, 1968. "Heuristic Methods for Estimating the Generalized Vertex Median of a Weighted Graph," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 16(5), pages 955-961, October.
    3. Marshall L. Fisher & Arnold J. Greenfield & R. Jaikumar & Joseph T. Lester, 1982. "A Computerized Vehicle Routing Application," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 42-52, August.
    4. G. Clarke & J. W. Wright, 1964. "Scheduling of Vehicles from a Central Depot to a Number of Delivery Points," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 568-581, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wooseung Jang & Huay H. Lim & Thomas J. Crowe & Gail Raskin & Thomas E. Perkins, 2006. "The Missouri Lottery Optimizes Its Scheduling and Routing to Improve Efficiency and Balance," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 36(4), pages 302-313, August.
    2. Antiopi Panteli & Basilis Boutsinas & Ioannis Giannikos, 2021. "On solving the multiple p-median problem based on biclustering," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 775-799, March.

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