Crew Assignment Problem

A project report
submitted by

Akshay Kumar Ranwa

(IVR No: 201700027139)

under the supervision of

Dr.
INTRODUCTION
According to a recent analysis, the aviation business has grown steadily over
the last decade, indicating the likelihood of sustained expansion in the years
ahead. The airline industry’s spectacular rise into a highly competitive global
transportation network over the last thirty years has been accompanied by
considerable application of operations research and management science tech-
niques in all aspects of airline operations. All airlines invest heavily in ad-
vanced aircrafts and employ highly trained and competent personnel. The
efficient use of such significant and costly resources is unquestionably a key
goal in the functioning of a profitable airline. The purpose of this report is to
solve the air Crew Assignment Problem (CAP) using an operations research
technique called, the Hungarian assignment method.

METHODOLOGY:
The Hungarian method is a combinatorial optimization algorithm that solves
the assignment problem in polynomial time. This technique is quick and
easy to use, and it works for any problem that can be represented as in-
teger programming. It has been frequently employed in many assignment
and matching issues. This approach was created specifically to solve assign-
ment problems with ease and efficiency. It is of widespread use in common
balanced assignment problems with a set number of persons and an equal
number of jobs (or even an unbalanced matrix) and a minimization-type ob-
jective function. Here, the aim of the crew assignment problem is the optimal
allocation of a given set of crew pairings to crew members, in a way that a
set of constraints is satisfied.

HUNGARIAN ASSIGNMENT ALGORITHM:

Step 1:(Row reduced matrix) For each row of the matrix, find the smallest
element and subtract it from every element in its row.

Step 2:(Column reduced matrix) Do the same (as step 1) for all columns.

Step 3: Starting with the first row of the matrix so obtained, examine rows
successively, until a row with exactly one zero(uncircled) is found. Circle this
zero and cross out all other zeroes in the corresponding column. Proceed,
until the last row is examined.

Step 4: Now examine columns, starting with column one, until a column

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containing exactly one uncircled zero is found. Circle this zero and cross out
all other zeroes in the corresponding row. Proceed, until the last column is
examined.

Step 5: Continue the steps 3 and 4 until either (a)until all zeroes are circled
or crossed-out or, (b)the remaining uncircled zeroes lies at least two in a
row/column. In (b) choose any one of the zeroes and continue step 3 and 4
until all zeroes are either circled or crossed-out.

Step 6: If there is exactly one circled zero in every row and column, the
complete optimal assignment is obtained. We stop at this stage. If not, then
we pass onto step 7.

Step 7: Ticking process

(a) Tick (✓) all rows for which assignment have not been made.
(b) Tick (✓) columns which have zeroes in ticked rows.
(c) Tick (✓) rows(not already ticked) which have assignment in ticked columns.
(d) Repeat (b) and (c) until the chain of ticking ends.
(e) Draw lines through unticked rows and ticked columns.

Step 8: Select the smallest of the elements those do not have a line through
them. Subtract it from all the elements that do not have a line through
them, add it to every element that lies at the intersection of two lines and
leave the remaining elements of the matrix unchanged.

Step 9: Go to step 3.

PROBLEM :-
An airline operates seven days a week has a time table shown in the table.
Crews must have a minimum layover of seven hours between flights. Obtain
the pairing of flights that minimizes layover time away from home. For any
given pairing the crew will be based city that results in the smaller layover.
For each pair, also mention the town where the crew should be based.

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Solution:- Our objective is to minimize the total layover time. First we
determine the layover time both at Indore and at Jaipur for all possible
pairing.

Now, we prepare a table with the help of above two tables containing the

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minimum layover time. The mark(*) implies that the layover is at Jaipur.

Using Hungarian algorithm, we find the optimal solution.

Step 1:

Step 2:

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Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5:

Thus, the optimum solution with minimum layover time is given by:

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Flights 1 → 103 2 → 104 3 → 101 4 → 102
Base Delhi Jaipur Jaipur Delhi

IMPLEMENTATION OF PROBLEM USING EXCEL

• Prepared table on which we apply Hungarian method:

• We get the required assignment solution as follows:

• As we can see, here the assignments are exactly same as our solution
which is 1 → 103, 2 → 104, 3 → 101, 4 → 102.

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 CONCLUSION

The purpose of conducting the research was to identify methods that help
save time as well as cost for an Airline company. Based on the analysis, it
can be inferred that there is a possible way out for the air crew assignment
problem. The Airline industry that was the badly hit sector during Covid 19,
suffered a blow and received a grave shock with a ban on passenger move-
ments. To overcome and minimize the losses incurred, it is important to
focus on optimization of both cost and time. These are the two important
factors that affect the industry performance along with uncertain fuel prices
that have an impact on the industry. Air crew assignment using Hungarian
method is one such technique that can help in achieving optimality and aid
the recovery process in the industry during grievous times.

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REFERENCES
1. Gupta. N, Optimization techniques for engineers, Third edition, Aashir-
wad Publications(2007).

2. S. Khanna, Application of the Hungarian Assignment Method in the

Aviation Industry, IJISRT, Volume 6, Issue 10, October-2021.

3. G. Srinivasan, Operations Research Principles and Applications Second

Edition, IIT Madras, October 2010.

4. Dr. B. S. Goel and S. K. Mittal, Operations Research, Fourth enlarged

and revised edition, Pragati Prakashan(1979).