SCHEDULING AIRCRAFT CLEANING CREWS.

A technique is developed for the scheduling of crews for cleaning aircraft interiors between scheduled flights. The cleaning requirements for each aircraft are given in terms of total man-hours work to be performed. The problem is formulated as a pure integer programming problem. Included in the formulation are constraints designed to avoid certain undesirable phenomenon namely: shift, job, and worker interruptions. A method of decomposing large problems into a series of smaller problems amenable to solution on computers with limited capacity is suggested. The paper includes the solution to a numerical problem derived from a case study involving a medium size international airline.