Essay on Importance of Applied Simulation and Optimization in Aeronautical Industry

Introduction

The complexity of the aeronautical industry requires efficiency and high level of coordination at all levels and departments. The personnel in the industry need to integrate software technology to be competitive and efficient. Applied simulation and optimization plays a vital role in enhancing the performance and provision of services in the industry. The ground crew, for instance, needs optimization to efficiently schedule flights. The use of optimization in the aeronautical sector encapsulates the use of both mathematical models and the recently developed heuristic algorithms. The following essay is an in-depth discourse on the importance of applied simulation and optimization in the aeronautical industry.

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In almost all airports in the world, the ground crew needs to be competent to appropriately deal with the problem of scheduling of departure and arrivals of aircraft at the airport. International airports, for instance, have to schedule tens of flights of every day, optimization knowledge helps in the solving of these scheduling process. In such airports, we have different levels of a workforce with diverse skills. We have fixed tasks which are assigned to a certain number of workers who perform the functions in shifts, and we have the operational work. The latter forms part of an optimization problem in the industry. The number of arrivals and departures at the airport determines the required number of workforce.

Initially, scheduling at the airport used to be a big problem. In order to carry on the task, several departments were involved. The IT department, planers, and human resource department had to cooperate in order in order to be efficient. The three departments played different roles that complimented each other. The human resource department was responsible for the provision of the relevant information concerning the workforce available. The information reflected an updated list of the workers, their skills, and availability. The IT department was responsible for the provision of a record of latest flights. The whole process took an average of 14 days which needed an additional confirmation within the last 24 hours. Under this manual scheduling method, the problem arose due to the big difference in availability of workforce between peak hours and off-peak hours. The problem prompted the airport management to use students to help during the time of scarcity. The use of students was not a sustainable solution and the entire process easily led to errors, overloads, and possible delays. The expansion of airports with additional terminals has further increased the delays and made the process even slower. Optimization has helped in helping the scheduling process easy and first at the airport by alternating the use of mathematical models and heuristics. The Fuzzy multi-objective linear programming is one such mathematical method used in solving the scheduling problems at the airport.

The simulation also plays a crucial role in the revolution of the aeronautical industry. The primary focus of simulation study in the aeronautical industry is the maintenance of aircraft in which the time that plane stays at the airport helps in the classification. The maintenance schedule is prepared to depend on the time the aircraft is expected to be at the airport before their next flight. A calculation of the required number of technicians is then done for the shifts during the day. Stochastic methods are used in the estimate of the delay costs in air traffic. In an attempt to balance the workload of the staff at the ground, the landing schedule of aircraft can be influenced by the use of this soft technology.

Simulation is not only used in the scheduling of maintenance aircraft but also as a compliment of the optimization method in improving the handling of aircraft at the ground through discrete event simulation (DES). In the simulation and optimization of technical air transportation system, Agent-Based Modelling (ABM). The technique also helped in the prediction of airport capacity. It is possible to model the events at the airports using discrete (DES) events simulation alone, but the use of it alongside agent-based modeling (ABM) increases flexibility and accuracy. DES is used in the handling of most of the operations while ABM is preferred for modeling of ground crew activities such as communications within the crew, supervisors and even aircraft with little or no abstraction. Agent-Based Modelling, therefore, improves the simulation accuracy, its transparency, and the client's comprehension. Effects of personal work efficiency are done through the modeling of decisions of the individuals, equipment, and groups at the workplace.

Conclusion

The operations in the aeronautical industry are complex involving. Soft technology together with the competency of workers helps in executing such operations with speed and improved accuracy. One of the significant challenges in this industry is the preparation of schedules such as aircraft maintenance schedule and that of arrival and departure of aircraft. Manual execution of such tasks might be stressful and prone to errors. Applied simulation and optimization is, therefore, a soft technology that has dramatically revolutionized the preparation of such schedules and help in enhancing the competence of the airport crew.

References

Baggia, A., &Rodic, B. (2017). Embry-Riddle Login. Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-55810-3_5#citeas

Qian, Y., & Xu, C. (1998). Innovation and bureaucracy under soft and hard budget constraints. The Review of Economic Studies, 65(1), 151-164.

Boddy, M., & Lovering, J. (1986). The high technology industry in the Bristol sub-region: the aerospace/ defense nexus. Regional studies, 20(3), 217-231.