Optimizing Vehicle Repairs Scheduling Using Mixed Integer Linear Programming: A Case Study in the Portuguese Automobile Sector

This study investigates the scheduling of mechanical repairs performed at a Portuguese firm in automobile sector. The aim is to reduce amount time that vehicles spend inactive between interventions by developing mathematical model takes into account available resources and mechanics, necessary interventions, required for each repair. To accomplish this, mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) was employed, incorporating various variables schedule allocate resources, determine start times vehicle. problem formulated using AMPL modeling language, real-world instances problem, derived from data provided company, were solved Gurobi solver. Results show developed significantly improves vehicles’ firm, leading reduction 67% on average downtime allowing an automatic correct interventions. Moreover, comparison obtained firm’s procedure shows arriving repair shop are mostly repaired day entry, quicker delivery customer.