Scheduling of periodic services to customers in dispersed locations from heterogeneous multi-agent companies considering uncertainty: A real case study

Abstract

The scheduling problem of periodic services from service providers to customers located in different places and need different services. The service centers are also located in different positions, each of which has limited number of teams with the capability of performing one or some services. The goal is to simultaneously minimize ‘total service costs’ and ‘total earliness/tardiness’ in providing services to customers. Providing an optimal maintenance schedule is a big challenge in those companies with dispersed supply centers. In this paper, a novel bi-objective mixed integer linear programming model along with augmented epsilon constraint method is presented to exactly solve this problem. Then, a bi-objective meta-heuristic technique based on genetic algorithm is proposed and its performance in solving large-scaled problems is assessed. The uncertain parameters are faced through robust possibilistic programming approach to diminish the risk of decision making. Finally, the performance of the proposed model and solution approaches are evaluated through a real case study in maintenance scheduling of CNG stations equipment in Iran.