Temporal Bin Packing with Half-Capacity Jobs

Motivated by applications in cloud computing, we study a temporal bin packing problem with jobs that occupy half of a bin’s capacity. An instance is given by a set of jobs, each with a start and end time during which it must be processed, i.e., assigned to a bin. A bin can accommodate two jobs … Read more

Practical Risk Modeling for the Stochastic Technician Routing and Scheduling Problem

Planning for uncertainty is crucial for finding good, stable solutions. However, it is often impractical to incorporate stochastic elements into a large production system. Our paper tackles this issue in the context of the Technician Routing and Scheduling Problem (TRSP). We develop a set of techniques, based on phase-type distributions, to quickly and accurately evaluate … Read more

Interval-based Dynamic Discretization Discovery for Solving the Continuous-Time Service Network Design Problem

We introduce an effective and efficient iterative algorithm for solving the Continuous-Time Service Network Design Problem. The algorithm achieves its efficiency by carefully and dynamically refining partially time-expanded network models so that only a small number of small integer programs, defined over these networks, need to be solved. An extensive computational study shows that the … Read more

The Continuous Time Service Network Design Problem

Consolidation carriers transport shipments that are small relative to trailer capacity. To be cost-effective, the carrier must consolidate shipments, which requires coordinating their paths in both space and time, i.e., the carrier must solve a Service Network Design problem. Most service network design models rely on discretization of time, i.e., instead of determining the exact … Read more