Crew Planning
• Optimization
• Mastering the planning objectives
• Demo: Carmen Crew Pairing
• Demo: Carmen Crew Rostering
• Summary
Optimization
Optimization
Optimization
Better optimization means more room for increased stability
and more business opportunities.
• Predictability
• Flexibility
• Holistic view
• Best of breed optimization
always pays off
Optimization
Products concepts
Stability
Flexibility
Speed
Savings
Process changes
Control
Satisfied crew
Target Mastery
Simulation capability
Change Power
Good forecasting
No sub-optimization
Power Integration
Optimization
Target Mastery
Control and predictability of results
• Know what you get
• Create scenarios
• Create low cost solutions
• Create stable solutions
• Investigate trade-offs
Optimization
Change Power
The ability to quickly implement new business rules and processes
• You can always change your mind
• New agreements, new bases,
revised timetables, etc
• Decrease the lead-time of change
(of both solution properties and
the process itself)
• Consistent legality, quality and
cost constraints in all systems
Optimization
Power Integration
Simultaneous optimization and integration of different resources
• Don’t sub-optimize
• Always use best of breed
applications
• Always regard all necessary
resources
• Always have access to
relevant data
Optimization
Optimization: Set partitioning
Select the a number of pairings, such that all legs are covered and
the total cost is minimised. This is a very hard optimization problem.
Rosters or
crew pairings
min
min cx
Ax=b
Flight or
pairing
leg
leg
leg
leg
leg
1
2
3
4
5
C1
1
1
0
0
1
C2
C3
C4
C5
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
1
0
1
=
=
=
=
=
1
1
1
1
1
Optimization
112
110
101
Optimize
107
95
94
92
98
89
128
130
115
120
84
82
58
0
65
0
75
The Optimization methods allows
a global approach where the total
cost/quality is important.
(Individual extreme cases can of
course still be avoided.)
???
419
414
390
340
332
450
Optimization
Carmen Rave
• The same legality tool in
all products
• Short lead-times to
introduce new rules
• Very important when
performing simulations
• Clients estimate that Rave
gives more than 2%
additional savings
RULE max_duty =
%duty% <= 10:00;
REMARK “Maximal duty”;
END
Optimization
Lufthansa
Air France
British
Airways
• Optimization
methods
• GUI
• Modelling tools like
Rave and the report
generator
• Basic functionality
Core
product
Deutsche Bahn
• Legality
• Quality
• Costs
• Reports
• Interfaces
• Colours
• etc...
Optimization
Optimization Benefits
•
Reduce costs
•
Increase stability
•
Easy to change business rules and processes
•
Control planning trade-off effects
(e.g. cost, stability, crew influence)
•
Detailed simulations to support informed decisions
Mastering the planning objectives
Product Overview
Carmen
Passenger Tracking
Carmen
Tail Assignment
Anonymous
fleet assignment
Carmen Crew
Pairing
Aircraft
Routings
Carmen Roster
Maintenance
Carmen Crew
Rostering
Anonymous
pairings
Carmen
Aircraft Tracking
Carmen
Crew Tracking
Rosters
Carmen Time Table Manager
Carmen Rave (Global Modelling Language)
Carmen Crew Communicator
Carmen
Integrated
Operations Control
Carmen Fleet
Assignment
The Planning Objectives
• Improved utilization of resources
• Increased operational stability
• Measurability and control
• Increased service level to
the end consumer (passenger, cargo)
Planning Objectives
Improved utilization of resources
•
Reduce crew size
•
Reduce crew costs (e.g. hotel, per diem, positioning, etc)
•
Allow crew to influence their rosters
Planning Objectives
Increased operational stability
•
Start planning later
•
Plan crew to minimise delays (e.g. crew synchronisation, buffers)
•
Synchronise crew and fleet (minimize critical aircraft changes)
Planning Objectives
Measurability and control
•
Simulate effects from changes (new union agreements, changed
crew base structure, fleet restructuring, etc)
•
Cost control of the entire process
•
Reduce complexity in planning process (e.g. remove lose-lose rules,
put crew in control over quality aspects)
•
Increase predictability in result (by making quality, cost and stability
aspects independent of individual interpretations)
Integration and Simulation
• Integration within planning
• Simulations to support long-term
decisions
• Simulations as a part of the
planning process
• Simulations to explain results
Integration and Simulation
Integration within crew planning
•
Regard roster pre-assignments when creating pairings
•
Allow pairings to be moved between bases in rostering
•
Create preliminary pairings and rosters to find future bottlenecks
•
Connect the planning more with the post-planning processes
•
Evaluate pairings and rosters returned from day of operations
Integration and Simulation
Simulations to support long-term decisions
•
The potential in renegotiating the crew agreements
•
The consequence of detailed changes
•
The consequence of changing the base distribution
•
The consequence of a new flight schedule, network or a
new fleet structure
•
The consequence of changing the payment structure
Integration and Simulation
Simulations as part of the planning process
Always produce plans for
–
Real plans
–
Lowest possible cost
–
Industrial rules benchmarking
–
Crew requests status report
• Easier to perform relevant reporting to upper management
• Increase the cost awareness in the planning department
• Promotes planners to explore the new technology
Integration and Simulation
Published Key Figures
Cost
Max PBS
Published
No quality
and no PBS
Industrial
regulations
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB
2001
2002
Integration and Simulation
Explaining results
•
“How can the planning be efficient when I have two blank
days, and three deadheads in my roster this month?"
•
“The meaning with any change is to trick us into
working more!“
•
“Why are we having less block time per crew than
airline X?“
Carmen Crew Rostering
Minimizing crew costs and achieving stability
Carmen Crew Pairing
Carmen Crew Pairing – Short Demo
• Create a solution (both
seasonal and dated)
• Create many scenarios
• Analyse the result
• Manual operations
• Always legality control
• Apply seasonal planning
to a new time period
• Change legality
Carmen Crew Pairing – Start the optimizer
Open
flights
Select flights and
start an optimization
session in the
background
Carmen Crew Pairing – Start the optimizer
Crew
pairings
Total solution cost
for each improved
solution
It is always possible
to monitor the
optimization sessions,
and to analyze
available sub solutions
Carmen Crew Pairing – Monitor the solutions
Key figures are always
available both from the
monitoring system and
from the pairing editor
Carmen Crew Pairing – Rolling-out
Dated pairings
Some pairings
contains
cancelled flights
Roll out weekly
pairing solution
Additional open
flights
It is possible to apply an
already available
standard pairing to a
new period.
And some pairings
becomes illegal
Carmen Crew Pairing – Repair solution
The system can repair a
a standard solution
applied on a new period
Carmen Crew Pairing – Directly to dated
It is also possible to
perform dated planning
directly from open flights
Carmen Crew Pairing – Legality control
Illegal pairing
Generic control
panel for legality,
quality and cost
The system makes sure
that no illegal pairings
are created by the
optimization or in the
pairing editor
Carmen Crew Pairing – Changing legality
Adding a rule with Carmen Rave
RULE max_duty =
%duty% <= 10:00;
REMARK “Maximal duty”;
END
Carmen Crew Pairing – Changing legality
The system
immediately respects
the new rule
Generic control
panel for legality,
quality and cost
A Rave
programmer
creates the rule
Adding a new legality
rule to the system
Carmen Crew Rostering
Lowering crew costs and high quality of life
Carmen Crew Rostering
Carmen Crew Rostering – Short Demo
• Manual editing of rosters
• Look for resource bottlenecks
• Create a solution
• Analysis reports
• Changing legality
• Create scenarios
• Improve an already
existing solution
Carmen Crew Rostering
Pre-planned
time off
Production from
previous planning
period
Ground duty
Previous
planning
periods
Select crew members
and open production
(e.g. crew pairings and
standby blocks)
Open production
(pairings and
standby blocks)
Time-off
request
Carmen Crew Rostering – Manual interaction
It is always possible to
edit details in a solution,
at any stage.
Carmen Crew Rostering – Manual interaction
Assigning internal
meetings to
administrative pilots.
Carmen Crew Rostering – Manual interaction
Copying parts of a
roster.
Crew Rostering – Analyse the problem
Forecast
report
Critical
resourc
e
situation
Run production forecast
report.
Crew Rostering – Start the optimizer
Cover production
Stability
Requests
Fairness
Set trade-off
settings and start
optimizer
Crew Rostering – Trade-offs
Controlling Trade-off effects
•
Productivity
(few crew members, low hotel and allowance cost, etc)
•
Stability
(rest buffers on strategic duty, efficient stand-by patterns, etc)
•
Fairness
(fair distribution of free weekends, attractive layovers, etc)
•
Individual preferences / crew requests
(late check in, short pairings, specific time off, etc)
•
Service level, long-term stability, high revenue flights, etc
Carmen Crew Rostering – Monitor the solutions
Comparing quality of longterm duty distribution,
preferences and fairness
It is always possible to
monitor each scenario
while it is being further
improved.
Total solution cost
for each improved
solution
All open production
covered
Carmen Crew Rostering – Monitor the solutions
Any reports can be
created with Rave
Publisher. (The example
shows a roster overview
and crew requests.)
Carmen Crew Rostering – Improving or scenarios
It is always possible to
improve a scenario even
further, e.g. by changing
some parameters.
Carmen Crew Rostering – Improving or scenarios
It is always possible to
improve a scenario even
further, e.g. by changing
some parameters.
Summary
• More efficient crew planning
• Easy to change objectives
and processes
• Cost and stability control
• Simulations and scenarios
• Crew requests
www.carmensystems.com
carmen@carmensystems.com