Reference number : GC-2017-Q4-00044, amendment number : , agreement type : G, recipient legal name : Almehdawe, Eman (University of Regina), recipient country : CA, recipient province : nan, recipient city : Saskatchewan, recipient postal code : nan, program name english : Engage Grants for universities, program name french : Subventions d'engagement partenarial pour les universités, program purpose english : Access Communications is a cable television and telecommunications provider serving over 240 communities_x000D_
in Saskatchewan. These communities are widely spread across the province, spanning a large geographic area._x000D_
One of the main functions for technical operations at Access Communications is to respond to customer_x000D_
requests, service issues and to provide preventive maintenance measures. Currently, Access Communications_x000D_
employs more than 50 full-time technicians in addition to a pool of 3rd-party contractors with a variety of_x000D_
different skill sets. Access Communications is interested in investigating the process of assigning technicians to_x000D_
jobs/communities and where to locate technicians based on current demand zones and technician skill sets._x000D_
They are also interested in finding an optimal routing schedule that will minimize travel time for technicians._x000D_
The ultimate goal is to reduce drive time, reduce the number of contractors needed, and to enhance customer_x000D_
service._x000D_
The problem of technician scheduling and routing is a hard optimization problem. Although there are a number_x000D_
of research papers that discuss this problem, the setting and limitations faced by Access Communications are_x000D_
unique. For that reason, we plan to develop a bi-level optimization model to best represent the company_x000D_
problem and limitations. Solving this kind of optimization problem is harder when the size of the problem is_x000D_
large, so we plan to develop a heuristic algorithm that can generate reasonable solutions within a realistic time_x000D_
frame., program purpose french : Access Communications is a cable television and telecommunications provider serving over 240 communities_x000D_
in Saskatchewan. These communities are widely spread across the province, spanning a large geographic area._x000D_
One of the main functions for technical operations at Access Communications is to respond to customer_x000D_
requests, service issues and to provide preventive maintenance measures. Currently, Access Communications_x000D_
employs more than 50 full-time technicians in addition to a pool of 3rd-party contractors with a variety of_x000D_
different skill sets. Access Communications is interested in investigating the process of assigning technicians to_x000D_
jobs/communities and where to locate technicians based on current demand zones and technician skill sets._x000D_
They are also interested in finding an optimal routing schedule that will minimize travel time for technicians._x000D_
The ultimate goal is to reduce drive time, reduce the number of contractors needed, and to enhance customer_x000D_
service._x000D_
The problem of technician scheduling and routing is a hard optimization problem. Although there are a number_x000D_
of research papers that discuss this problem, the setting and limitations faced by Access Communications are_x000D_
unique. For that reason, we plan to develop a bi-level optimization model to best represent the company_x000D_
problem and limitations. Solving this kind of optimization problem is harder when the size of the problem is_x000D_
large, so we plan to develop a heuristic algorithm that can generate reasonable solutions within a realistic time_x000D_
frame., agreement title english : A bi-level optimization model of the technician routing and scheduling problem for access_x000D_
communications, agreement title french : A bi-level optimization model of the technician routing and scheduling problem for access_x000D_
communications, agreement number : EGP, agreement value : 25000.0, agreement start date : 2018-03-22, agreement end date : nan, description english : nan, description french : nan, expected results english : nan, expected results french : nan, additional information english : Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019)., additional information french : Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier (2017-2018 à 2018-2019)., owner organization : nserc-crsng, owner organization title : Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada