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ABSTRACTWe plan the manpower supply for aircraft line maintenance, taking into account two types of stochastic incidents: manpower demands for a flight and the number of aircraft needing to be serviced at one time. The problem is solved to find the shift and maintenance group combinations best suited for the given airline. The optimal aircraft maintenance certification for a crew is also analyzed to improve the entire manpower structure. In addition, the addition of temporary manpower required for actual daily operations is also considered as a part of understanding the total manpower utilized in actual operations. An integrated method including scenario generation and a stochastic model is developed to deal with the problem. Finally, we perform a case study based on operating data obtained from a major airline in Taiwan. The results and findings are compared with the airline’s current manpower plan in the discussion, and suggestions for improvement are made.

AbstractIn this study, we examine an integrated problem involving fleet replacement and pilot training scheduling for airborne service helicopters. Two objectives, minimizing the total cost and the number of batches of pilot training, are considered based on the practical requirements. Multi-objective programming combined with a time–space network technique is applied to solve the problem. Numerical tests, in reference to the operations of a Taiwanese organization, are carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed model. A comparison of the proposed model and two single-objective models corresponding to the two objectives is also presented.

In the real world, there are a number of common factors that can cause perturbations at check-in counters, such as an airport closure, a temporary power failure, crashing of the counter computer, baggage conveyor belt malfunctions, and so on, forcing the airport authority to reassign flights to new check-in counters. In this study, we develop a model and a solution method to solve common-use check-in counter reassignment problems with a variable number of service lines and a variable length of time window. To test how well the proposed model and the solution method can be applied to the real world, we perform numerical tests based on a hypothetical incident in relation to a Taiwan airport’s operations. The test results show that the model and solution would be useful for the airport authority in actual operations.

The airline-specific gate which is exclusively used by a specific airline has been applied in many airports. In this study, we follow the above consideration to develop a system analysis tool for gate assignment problem occurred in the airline industry. The system tool is embodied in an optimization design model resulted from an airline’s perspective. Numerical tests, based on the operations of a Taiwanese airline, are carried out to demonstrate the performance of the proposed system tool.

Stochastic bus travel times and varying passenger demand often occur in actual inter-city bus operations and such variation can reduce the performance of preplanned bus routes/schedules. In past research, stochastic disturbances have often been handled in the planning and the real-time stages separately, meaning that the interrelationship between these two stages, as affected by such disturbances, has been neglected. In this research, we develop a framework embedded in a solution process designed to help inter-city bus carriers plan bus routes/schedules that are sensitive to stochastic bus travel times and varying passenger demand. The test results, related to a major Taiwan inter-city bus operation, show that the proposed framework performs better than the current carrier timetables and the traditional deterministic model.

The Short Message Service (SMS) in the GSM system is designed to provide a vehicle for delivering length-limited data messages between mobile users. This paper describes a prototype system that is capable of providing a Short Message Command Interface (SMCI) for mobile users employing GSM-enabled terminal devices to access remote PCs or workstations by executing DOS or UNIX commands. In addition, based on our successful testing of the implemented SMCI prototype system, we further devise a framework of the Home Network Service Centre by expanding this prototype system for mobile users to access emerging information appliances connected by Home Networks in a reliable and cost-efficient way. The SMCI prototype system is composed of three parts: the SMCI Clients, the SMCI Servers, and the SMCI Gateway. The SMCI Clients are mobile users who can send commands to the SMCI Servers and receive results from the SMCI Servers both through the SMCI Gateway. By taking advantage of this prototype system and the proposed framework, mobile users can login remote machines and can access value-added services as well as Home Network services provided on those machines or information appliances.