A feature-based comparison of the centralised versus market-based decision making under lens of environment uncertainty: Case of the mobile task allocation problem

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Decision making problems are amongst the most common challenges facing managers at different management levels in the organisation: strategic, tactical, and operational. However, prior reaching decisions at the operational level of the management hierarchy, operations management departments frequently have to deal with the optimisation process to evaluate the available decision alternatives. Industries with complex supply chain structures and service organisations that have to optimise the utilisation of their resources are examples. Conventionally, operational decisions used to be taken centrally by a decision making authority located at the top of a hierarchically-structured organisation. In order to take decisions, information related to the managed system and the affecting externalities (e.g. demand) should be globally available to the decision maker. The obtained information is then processed to reach the optimal decision. This approach usually makes extensive use of information systems (IS) containing myriad of optimisation algorithms and meta-heuristics to process the high amount and complex nature of data. The decisions reached are then broadcasted to the passive actuators of the system to put them in execution. On the other hand, recent advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) made it possible to distribute the decision making rights and proved its applicability in several sectors. The market-based approach is as such a distributed decision making mechanism where passive actuators are delegated the rights of taking individual decisions matching their self-interests. The communication among the market agents is done through market transactions regulated by auctions. The system’s global optimisation, therefore, raise from the aggregated self-oriented market agents. As opposed to the centralised approach, the main characteristics of the market-based approach are the market mechanism and local knowledge of the agents. The existence of both approaches attracted several studies to compare them in different contexts. Recently, some comparisons compared the centralised versus market-based approaches in the context of transportation applications from an algorithm perspective. Transportation applications and routing problems are assumed to be good candidates for this comparison given the distributed nature of the system and due to the presence of several sources of uncertainty. Uncertainty exceptions make decisions highly vulnerable and necessitating frequent corrective interventions to keep an efficient level of service. Motivated by the previous comparison studies, this research aims at further investigating the features of both approaches and to contrast them in the context of a distributed task allocation problem in light of environmental uncertainty. Similar applications are often faced by service industries with mobile workforce. Contrary to the previous comparison studies that sought to compare those approaches at the mechanism level, this research attempts to identify the effect of the most significant characteristics of each approach to face environmental uncertainty, which is reflected in this research by the arrival of dynamic tasks and the occurrence of stochasticity delays. To achieve the aim of this research, a target optimisation problem from the VRP family is proposed and solved with both approaches. Given that this research does not target proposing new algorithms, two basic solution mechanisms are adopted to compare the centralised and the market-based approach. The produced solutions are executed on a dedicated multi-agent simulation system. During execution dynamism and stochasticity are introduced. The research findings suggest that a market-based approach is attractive to implement in highly uncertain environments when the degree of local knowledge and workers’ experience is high and when the system tends to be complex with large dimensions. It is also suggested that a centralised approach fits more in situations where uncertainty is lower and the decision maker is able to make timely decision updates, which is in turn regulated by the size of the system at hand

An Optimization Framework for a Dynamic Multi-Skill Workforce Scheduling and Routing Problem with Time Windows and Synchronization Constraints

This article addresses the dynamic multi-skill workforce scheduling and routing problem with time windows and synchronization constraints (DWSRP-TW-SC) inherent in the on-demand home services sector. In this problem, new service requests (tasks) emerge in real-time, necessitating a constant reevaluation of service team task plans. This reevaluation involves maintaining a portion of the plan unaltered, ensuring team-task compatibility, addressing task priorities, and managing synchronization when task demands exceed a team's capabilities. To address the problem, we introduce a real-time optimization framework triggered upon the arrival of new tasks or the elapse of a set time. This framework redesigns the routes of teams with the goal of minimizing the cumulative weighted throughput time for all tasks. For the route redesign phase of this framework, we develop both a mathematical model and an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) algorithm. We conduct a comprehensive computational study to assess the performance of our proposed ALNS-based reoptimization framework and to examine the impact of reoptimization strategies, frozen period lengths, and varying degrees of dynamism. Our contributions provide practical insights and solutions for effective dynamic workforce management in on-demand home services

A feature-based comparison of the centralised versus market-based decision making under lens of environment uncertainty : case of the mobile task allocation problem

Decision making problems are amongst the most common challenges facing managers at different management levels in the organisation: strategic, tactical, and operational. However, prior reaching decisions at the operational level of the management hierarchy, operations management departments frequently have to deal with the optimisation process to evaluate the available decision alternatives. Industries with complex supply chain structures and service organisations that have to optimise the utilisation of their resources are examples. Conventionally, operational decisions used to be taken centrally by a decision making authority located at the top of a hierarchically-structured organisation. In order to take decisions, information related to the managed system and the affecting externalities (e.g. demand) should be globally available to the decision maker. The obtained information is then processed to reach the optimal decision. This approach usually makes extensive use of information systems (IS) containing myriad of optimisation algorithms and meta-heuristics to process the high amount and complex nature of data. The decisions reached are then broadcasted to the passive actuators of the system to put them in execution. On the other hand, recent advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) made it possible to distribute the decision making rights and proved its applicability in several sectors. The market-based approach is as such a distributed decision making mechanism where passive actuators are delegated the rights of taking individual decisions matching their self-interests. The communication among the market agents is done through market transactions regulated by auctions. The system’s global optimisation, therefore, raise from the aggregated self-oriented market agents. As opposed to the centralised approach, the main characteristics of the market-based approach are the market mechanism and local knowledge of the agents. The existence of both approaches attracted several studies to compare them in different contexts. Recently, some comparisons compared the centralised versus market-based approaches in the context of transportation applications from an algorithm perspective. Transportation applications and routing problems are assumed to be good candidates for this comparison given the distributed nature of the system and due to the presence of several sources of uncertainty. Uncertainty exceptions make decisions highly vulnerable and necessitating frequent corrective interventions to keep an efficient level of service. Motivated by the previous comparison studies, this research aims at further investigating the features of both approaches and to contrast them in the context of a distributed task allocation problem in light of environmental uncertainty. Similar applications are often faced by service industries with mobile workforce. Contrary to the previous comparison studies that sought to compare those approaches at the mechanism level, this research attempts to identify the effect of the most significant characteristics of each approach to face environmental uncertainty, which is reflected in this research by the arrival of dynamic tasks and the occurrence of stochasticity delays. To achieve the aim of this research, a target optimisation problem from the VRP family is proposed and solved with both approaches. Given that this research does not target proposing new algorithms, two basic solution mechanisms are adopted to compare the centralised and the market-based approach. The produced solutions are executed on a dedicated multi-agent simulation system. During execution dynamism and stochasticity are introduced. The research findings suggest that a market-based approach is attractive to implement in highly uncertain environments when the degree of local knowledge and workers’ experience is high and when the system tends to be complex with large dimensions. It is also suggested that a centralised approach fits more in situations where uncertainty is lower and the decision maker is able to make timely decision updates, which is in turn regulated by the size of the system at hand.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Kenttähuoltopalvelun laadun ja tuottavuuden lisääminen aikatauluttamista parantamalla - tapaustutkimus

The importance of workforce scheduling in different service industries has been widely emphasized in recent research. The effects of scheduling to service quality and productivity are recognized, for example, in field services, where travelling causes significant costs which can be minimized by effective scheduling. Despite the vast academic research of effectiveness of different scheduling systems in field services, the constraints related to transfer from environment where structured scheduling doesn’t exist to automated scheduling remain mostly unstudied. This thesis studies workforce scheduling in maintenance field service. It represents the elements of an effective scheduling system, and examines how scheduling affects to service quality and productivity. This study also investigates real-life constraints in scheduling of a case organization and how those identified constraints are related to the scheduling literature. The empirical analysis of this study is conducted using the Theory of Constraints (TOC) Thinking Process (TP) methods. TOC is a management philosophy that focuses on the factors that are constraining the performance of a system, and TP contains set of logic tools to solve unstructured and complex problems. In this study, the application of TOC to maintenance field services exposed several deficiencies in case organization’s service process that are preventing effective scheduling. For the most part, those deficiencies are related to lacking information throughout the service process. Information relevant for scheduling is either, lacking, not available when needed, or undocumented. In addition, policy constraints, that complicate the scheduling process, were revealed concerning the prioritization of tasks and allocation domains. Attempt for fast responses fragments the day of the field technician, which cause difficulties to follow the schedules. Strict boundaries between allocation domains, in turn, cause unlevelled demand and sub-optimized schedules. Design propositions are given in this thesis to improve the documentation and the level of master data, as well as clarifying the premises for prioritizing and levelling demand.Työvoiman aikataulutuksen merkitystä eri palvelualoilla on painotettu laajalti viimeaikaisessa tutkimuksessa. Aikatauluttamisen vaikutus palvelun laatuun ja tuottavuuteen on tunnistettu esimerkiksi kenttäpalveluissa, joissa matkustaminen asettaa merkittäviä kustannuksia, joita voidaan minimoida tehokkaalla aikatauluttamisella. Viimeaikainen tutkimus on painottunut laajalti eri aikataulutusmenetelmien tehokkuuteen, kun taas manuaalisesta aikatauluttamisesta automaattiseen aikatauluttamiseen siirtymiseen liittyviä rajoitteita ei ole kartoitettu. Tämä diplomityö tutkii työvoiman aikatauluttamista kenttähuoltopalvelussa. Tutkimus esittelee tehokkaan aikatauluttamisen tekijöitä ja tarkastelee, mitä vaikutuksia aikatauluttamisella on palvelun laatuun ja tuottavuuteen. Lisäksi tämä työ tutkii esimerkkiyrityksen kautta mitä todellisia käytännönrajoitteita aikatauluttamisessa ilmenee ja miten nämä löydetyt rajoitteet liittyvät aikataulutuksesta tehtyyn aiempaan tutkimukseen. Kenttähuoltopalvelun rajoitteita tutkitaan tässä diplomityössä kapeikkoteorian (Theory of Constraints TOC) ajatteluprosessien (Thinking Process TP) avulla. TOC on johtamisfilosofia, joka keskittyy järjestelmän esteisiin, jotka rajoittavat järjestelmän suorituskykyä. TP puolestaan sisältää joukon loogisia työkaluja, jotka pyrkivät ratkaisemaan monimutkaisia ja jäsentämättömiä ongelmia. Tutkimuksessa osoitetaan, että TOC:in soveltaminen kenttähuoltoon paljastaa useita puutteita esimerkkiyrityksen palveluprosessissa. Nämä puutteet estävät tehokkaan aikatauluttamisen. Puutteet liittyvät pitkälti puutteelliseen informaatioon: informaatiota palveluprosessin eri vaiheissa ei ole joko olemassa, saatavilla tai dokumentoitu. Lisäksi työssä löydettiin priorisointiin ja töiden allokointiin liittyviä menettelytapoja, jotka vaikeuttavat tehokasta aikataulujen luomista ja niiden toteuttamista. Pyrkimys nopeisiin vasteaikoihin pirstaloi kenttäasentajan työpäivän, mikä vaikeuttaa aikataulujen noudattamista. Töiden allokointialueiden tiukat rajat puolestaan aiheuttavat epätasapainoa eri allokointialueiden työkuormaan. Tutkimus antaa kehitysehdotuksia havaittujen rajoitteiden eliminoimiseksi sisältäen muun muassa dokumentoinnin ja masterdatan tasojen parantamisen, priorisointiparametrien tarkentamisen sekä resursoinnin helpottamisen eri allokointialueiden välillä

Heuristics and policies for online pickup and delivery problems

Master ThesisIn the last few decades, increased attention has been dedicated to a speci c subclass of Vehicle Routing Problems due to its signi cant importance in several transportation areas such as taxi companies, courier companies, transportation of people, organ transportation, etc. These problems are characterized by their dynamicity as the demands are, in general, unknown in advance and the corresponding locations are paired. This thesis addresses a version of such Dynamic Pickup and Delivery Problems, motivated by a problem arisen in an Australian courier company, which operates in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, where almost every day more than a thousand transportation orders arrive and need to be accommodated. The rm has a eet of almost two hundred vehicles of various types, mostly operating within the city areas. Thus, whenever new orders arrive at the system the dispatchers face a complex decision regarding the allocation of the new customers within the distribution routes (already existing or new) taking into account a complex multi-level objective function. The thesis thus focuses on the process of learning simple dispatch heuristics, and lays the foundations of a recommendation system able to rank such heuristics. We implemented eight of these, observing di erent characteristics of the current eet and orders. It incorporates an arti cial neural network that is trained on two hundred days of past data, and is supervised by schedules produced by an oracle, Indigo, which is a system able to produce suboptimal solutions to problem instances. The system opens the possibility for many dispatch policies to be implemented that are based on this rule ranking, and helps dispatchers to manage the vehicles of the eet. It also provides results for the human resources required each single day and within the di erent periods of the day. We complement the quite promising results obtained with a discussion on future additions and improvements such as channel eet management, tra c consideration, and learning hyper-heuristics to control simple rule sequences.The thesis work was partially supported by the National ICT Australia according to the Visitor Research Agreement contract between NICTA and Martin Damyanov Aleksandro

Heuristics and policies for online pickup and delivery problems

Master ThesisIn the last few decades, increased attention has been dedicated to a speci c subclass of Vehicle Routing Problems due to its signi cant importance in several transportation areas such as taxi companies, courier companies, transportation of people, organ transportation, etc. These problems are characterized by their dynamicity as the demands are, in general, unknown in advance and the corresponding locations are paired. This thesis addresses a version of such Dynamic Pickup and Delivery Problems, motivated by a problem arisen in an Australian courier company, which operates in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, where almost every day more than a thousand transportation orders arrive and need to be accommodated. The rm has a eet of almost two hundred vehicles of various types, mostly operating within the city areas. Thus, whenever new orders arrive at the system the dispatchers face a complex decision regarding the allocation of the new customers within the distribution routes (already existing or new) taking into account a complex multi-level objective function. The thesis thus focuses on the process of learning simple dispatch heuristics, and lays the foundations of a recommendation system able to rank such heuristics. We implemented eight of these, observing di erent characteristics of the current eet and orders. It incorporates an arti cial neural network that is trained on two hundred days of past data, and is supervised by schedules produced by an oracle, Indigo, which is a system able to produce suboptimal solutions to problem instances. The system opens the possibility for many dispatch policies to be implemented that are based on this rule ranking, and helps dispatchers to manage the vehicles of the eet. It also provides results for the human resources required each single day and within the di erent periods of the day. We complement the quite promising results obtained with a discussion on future additions and improvements such as channel eet management, tra c consideration, and learning hyper-heuristics to control simple rule sequences.The thesis work was partially supported by the National ICT Australia according to the Visitor Research Agreement contract between NICTA and Martin Damyanov Aleksandro

Parallel memetic algorithms for the problem of workforce distribution in dynamis multi-agent system

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Informática, Departamento de Arquitectura de Computadores y Automática, leída el 20/09/2013Esta tesis describe un novedoso enfoque para resolver el problema de distribución de carga de trabajo en sistemas multi-agente dinámicos basados en arquitecturas de pizarra, enfocándose especialmente en un escenario real: el call center multitarea. Para abordar este tipo de entornos dinámicos, tradicionalmente se han aplicado diversas heurísticas voraces que permiten dar una solución en tiempo real. Básicamente, dichas heurísticas realizan planificaciones continuamente, considerando el estado del sistema en cada momento. Como las decisiones se toman de forma voraz sin hacer una planificación óptima, la distribución de la carga de trabajo puede ser pobre a medio y/o largo plazo. El uso de algoritmos meméticos paralelos nos puede permitir encontrar soluciones mucho más precisas. Para aplicar este tipo de algoritmos, introducimos el concepto de ventana temporal adaptativa. De esta forma, el tamaño de la ventana temporal depende del nivel de dinamismo del sistema en un instante dado. Este trabajo propone una serie de herramientas para determinar el dinamismo del sistema de forma automática, así como un novedoso módulo de predicción basado en una red neuronal y un potente método de búsqueda basado en meta-algoritmos meméticos paralelos para poder lidiar con entornos dinámicos complejos. Para concluir, comparamos nuestro enfoque con otras técnicas del estado del arte en un entorno de producción real (Telefónica) obteniendo mejores resultados que el resto de técnicas actuales. También se proporciona un estudio exhaustivo de cada uno de los módulos.Depto. de Arquitectura de Computadores y AutomáticaFac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

Enabling flexibility through strategic management of complex engineering systems

”Flexibility is a highly desired attribute of many systems operating in changing or uncertain conditions. It is a common theme in complex systems to identify where flexibility is generated within a system and how to model the processes needed to maintain and sustain flexibility. The key research question that is addressed is: how do we create a new definition of workforce flexibility within a human-technology-artificial intelligence environment? Workforce flexibility is the management of organizational labor capacities and capabilities in operational environments using a broad and diffuse set of tools and approaches to mitigate system imbalances caused by uncertainties or changes. We establish a baseline reference for managers to use in choosing flexibility methods for specific applications and we determine the scope and effectiveness of these traditional flexibility methods. The unique contributions of this research are: a) a new definition of workforce flexibility for a human-technology work environment versus traditional definitions; b) using a system of systems (SoS) approach to create and sustain that flexibility; and c) applying a coordinating strategy for optimal workforce flexibility within the human- technology framework. This dissertation research fills the gap of how we can model flexibility using SoS engineering to show where flexibility emerges and what strategies a manager can use to manage flexibility within this technology construct”--Abstract, page iii