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Resource Assignment Problem for Fleet Management Considering Outsourcing: Modelling and a Decomposition Approach

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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021 (ICCSA 2021)

Abstract

Many institutions have to manage internal and external resources to assure the realization of working trips. In this work we consider two different types of resources: vehicles and drivers. The assignment of these resources to trips is interlinked, since the number of drivers will depend on the number of assigned vehicles, and also on other characteristics of the trip itself. Furthermore, it is possible to improve the use of resources if they can be shared between compatible trips: trips that have compatible origin and destination pairs and are also compatible regarding the realization time periods. Instead of considering internal resources only, this work presents a new model where the possibility of outsourcing is also considered. This problem can be interpreted as an extension of the Generalized Assignment Problem, that is known to be NP-hard. An optimization approach is also proposed, based on the decomposition of the problem. Computational tests were performed to assess the solutions produced by the model and the behaviour of the decomposition approach. The computational results show that the developed model is capable of representing in a faithful way the problem, and the algorithmic approach presents a better performance when compared with a general solver applied to the whole problem.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., Projects UIBD/00308/2020 and UIDB/05037/2020. The first author has been supported by CAPES Proc. 009345/2013–02 BEX.

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Correspondence to Maria João Alves .

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Monnerat, F., Dias, J., Alves, M.J. (2021). Resource Assignment Problem for Fleet Management Considering Outsourcing: Modelling and a Decomposition Approach. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021. ICCSA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12953. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86976-2_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86976-2_18

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-86975-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-86976-2

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