Dynamic resource allocation: A flexible and tractable modeling framework

This paper presents a binary optimization framework for modeling dynamic resource allocation problems. The framework (a) allows modeling flexibility by incorporating different objective functions, alternative sets of resources and fairness controls; (b) is widely applicable in a variety of problems in transportation, services and engineering; and (c) is tractable, i.e., provides near optimal solutions fast for large-scale instances. To justify these assertions, we model and report encouraging computational results on three widely studied problems - the Air Traffic Flow Management, the Aircraft Maintenance Problems and Job Shop Scheduling. Finally, we provide several polyhedral results that offer insights on its effectiveness. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.