Optimization Solutions by Industry

Airlines and Trucking

Crew Scheduling: Given a flight schedule, aircraft assignments, and restrictions on duty periods, allocate crews most effectively to flights
Fleet Routing and Assignment: Determine which aircraft to fly on each route, and the sequence of segments flown by each aircraft
Revenue Management: For different classes of tickets, determine how many seats to sell or hold back as flight date approaches

Gasoline Blending: From hydrocarbons with specific octane ratings, vapor pressure, volatility and cost, determine how much of each should be blended together to produce regular, midgrade, and premium gasoline
Gas Contract Purchase: With forecasted but uncertain demand for gas, determine which contracts to buy, and how much gas to store at different times
Pipeline Capacity Auction: Determine which bids, at different prices, should be awarded to maximize sales revenue while not exceeding daily pipeline capacity

Cutting Stock Problems: Given large wood / paper sheets or steel slabs / bars, and demand for units of smaller lengths/widths, determine the cutting pattern of large into small pieces that meets demand while minimizing waste

Crop Planning: Given forecasted crop prices and growing conditions, determine how much of each crop to plant
Feed Blending: Given the nutritional requirements for feed animals and the price of available feeds, find the blend of feed ingredients that will minimize total cost

Generator Commitment: Given forecasted demand by period and operating cost for each generator, determine which generators should be run in each time interval
Electricity Trading: Maximize the value of electricity sales in an ongoing auction environment

Efficient Portfolios: Given forecasts of stock, bond or asset class returns, variances and covariances, allocate funds to investments to minimize portfolio risk for a given rate of return
Index Fund Management: Solve a portfolio optimization problem that minimizes "tracking error" for a fund mirroring an index composed of thousands of securities
Asset/Liability Management: Allocate funds to various investments to maximize portfolio return while ensuring that periodic liabilities are fully funded