BUS MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS AND MAINTENANCE SCHEDULING: MODEL FORMULATIONS AND SOLUTIONS

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2002

Subject Area

operations - scheduling, infrastructure - vehicle, planning - methods, mode - bus

Keywords

Vehicle maintenance, Schedules and scheduling, Programming (Mathematics), Optimization theory, Optimization, Optimisation, Mathematical programming, Integer programming, Inspection, Heuristic methods, Case studies, Bus transit operations, Bus garages, Branch and bound algorithms, Algorithms

Abstract

The problem of scheduling bus maintenance activities is an important component in the bus transit operations planning process. This paper presents a mathematical programming approach to this problem. This approach takes as input a given daily operating schedule for all buses assigned to a depot along with available maintenance resources. It then attempts to design daily inspection and maintenance schedules for the buses that are due for inspection so as to minimize the interruptions in the daily bus operating schedule and maximize the utilization of the maintenance facilities. Three integer programming formulations are presented and different properties of the problem are discussed. Several heuristic methods are presented and tested. Some of these procedures produce very close to optimal solutions very efficiently. In some cases, the computational times required to obtain these solutions are less than 1% of the computational time required for the conventional branch and bound algorithm. A case study based on an actual 181-bus transit property was used to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed solution procedures.

Comments

Transportation Research Part A Home Page: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

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