Heuristic Algorithm for a Military Training Timetabling Problem

Abstract

This paper focuses on a military training timetabling problem (MTTP) that occurs in the Korea army. The MTTP can be considered a generalized version of the professor-lecturer model composed of classes, groups of classes, professors for group lectures and lecturers for class lectures. Unlike the typical professor-lecturer model, we need to consider additional constraints to reflect real situations, such as those for lunch time, duration of each lecture (2 hours and 4 hours), and set-up time required between the lectures if places (indoor and outdoor) for two consecutive lectures are different. We suggest a heuristic algorithm for the MTTP with the objective of minimizing the makespan and the number of setups. This algorithm employs solution methods for the edge-coloring problem, in which solutions are found by edge-ordering rules. Results of computational experiments show that the suggested algorithm gives good schedules in a reasonably short time.