Scheduling surgical specialties: Leveling the bed occupancy through stochastic master surgery scheduling

This research addresses the operational challenges faced by the Sophia Children’s Hospital through a comprehensive analysis of its current state, literature review, and mathematical modeling. A model is created that produces a master surgery schedule, allowing for the allocation of patients to specific specialties, operating rooms, and days. Our...

Construction schedule optimisation: Optimisation of BIM-based, component-level construction schedule for building structural and MEP systems considering parallel working zones

Construction schedule optimisation problems have been explored extensively, including activity sequencing rules and work packaging. Yet knowledge is still lacking in the sequencing of mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) components with geometric complexity, and how to handle conflicting precedence between MEP work packages arising from the...

Railway - Spare Inventory & Maintenance Scheduling model development

To better govern inventory control of spare parts in tandem with scheduling of maintenance operations in a railway setting, a Railway Spare Inventory & Maintenance Scheduling (R-SIMS) model is developed. To suit the railway industry setting the model includes an inventory control strategy which envokes continuous monitoring and a reorder...

Improving the Performance of Waste Handling Cranes by Optimisation-based Decision Rules

Waste-to-energy is the process of generating energy from municipal waste. The most conventional energy recovery method is incineration, which takes place at a waste-to-energy plant. The incoming waste is collected in a bunker, where an overhead crane stacks and mixes the material before feeding it to the furnaces. The more homogeneous the waste...

Tankpark scheduling optimisation

<br/>This thesis is done in cooperation with Sime Darby Oils Zwijndrecht (SDOZ). SDOZ is a refinery of vegetable based oils. The goal of this thesis is to optimize the scheduling of the Refined Oil Storage (ROS) of the refinery. This is done because within the company it is suspected that the current way of assigning the tanks, that is...

Air Freighter Schedule Planning: A Dynamic Programming Optimisation Approach

Margins for cargo airlines that were already thin have been put further under pressure, which stresses the importance of operating a profitable schedule. Research on modelling passenger operations has proven that integrating different steps in the schedule planning process can yield a significant increase in profit. For cargo operations no...

Flexibility services by a community microgrid: Quantifying the value of flexibility services by a community microgrid in the context of the Dutch electricity sector using Schoonschip as case study

The volatile production of renewable energy sources is often considered a key issue in future sustainable energy systems. Drawing on microgrid research, we argue that the potential synergy between microgrid energy management and provision of flexibility services to the wider grid could be further explored. In addition, the trade-off between cost...

Combinatorial optimisation methods for wind farm installation scheduling: Optimisation in crane actions and installation ship routing

The offshore wind industry is rapidly growing, and so is the competition in this market. Normally, offshore installation companies receive a subsidy for building offshore wind farms, but due to multiple companies bidding to install for lower and lower subsidies, the point where wind farms are installed without subsidy has been reached. Therefore...