Date of Award

3-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Operations Research

Department

Department of Operational Sciences

First Advisor

Jeffery D. Weir, PhD

Abstract

Developmental testing of aircraft systems in the United States Air Force requires a complex set of resources for each test. The optimal scheduling of those resources is the job of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base. With more than 20 different Combined Task Forces requesting resources for roughly 300 flying missions each week, manual scheduling is a difficult task. The current process takes a team of schedulers several days to get a workable result from which they can start tailoring the final schedule. While concepts and techniques can be taken from industry scheduling problems, the body of knowledge as it relates to developmental test scheduling is sparse. The contribution of this paper is to initially document the Developmental Test Scheduling Problem, define it in structured terms for which a solution methodology can be designed, and present an Integer Programming based solution. The design allows for a scheduler to tailor an initial answer to fit nuanced and timely objectives and constraints. For this prototype effort the problem is scoped to the "Iron" Resources while bearing in mind the extensibility of the approach to "Range" Resources. This study and prototype will demonstrate results that will create an initial schedule in several hours and serve as a good starting point for the final schedule.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENS-MS-18-M-160

DTIC Accession Number

AD1056418

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