Abstract
We address one of the external factors of personnel inventory behavior, deployments. The configuration of persistent unit deployments has the ability to affect everything from individual perceptions of service palatability to operational effectiveness. There is little evidence to suggest any analytical underpinnings to the U.S. Army deployment scheduling and unit assignment patterns. This paper shows that the deployment scheduling and unit assignment problem can be formulated as an interval graph such that modifications to traditional graph coloring algorithms provide an efficient mechanism for dealing with multiple objectives.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Unit deployments in persistent conflict range from 9 to 15 months in recent history. It is reasonable to assume a 9-month lower bound since shorter deployments continue to worsen BOG:Dwell ratios and can cause logistics and operations issues that make solutions infeasible in other domains.
Intervals in the graph may have the same endpoints.
References
Alfares, H. (2004). Survey, categorization, and comparison of recent tour scheduling literature. Annals of Operations Research, 127, 1–4.
Aviles, S. M. (1995). Scheduling Army Deployment to Two Nearly Simultaneous Major Regional Conflicts. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School.
Baker, K. R. (1976). Workforce allocation in cyclical scheduling problems: a survey. Operational Research Quarterly, 27, 155–167.
Blochliger, I. (2004). Scheduling; staff; modeling tutorial, modeling staff scheduling problems. A tutorial. European Journal of Operational Research, 158, 533–542.
Bonds, T. M., Baiocchi, D., & McDonald, L. L. (2010). Army Deployments to OIF and OEF. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation.
Cazals, F., & Karande, C. (2008). A note on the problem of reporting maximal cliques. Journal of Theoretical Computer Science, 407, 564–568.
Cheng, T. C. E., & Chen, Z.-L. (1994). Parallel-machine scheduling problems with earliness and tardiness penalties. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 645, 685–695.
Costa, D., Hertz, A., & Dubuis, C. (1995). Embedding a sequential procedure within an evolutionary algorithm for coloring problems in graphs. Journal of Heuristics, 1, 105–128.
Dabkowski, M., Kwinn, M. J., Miller, K., & Zais, M. (2009). Unit BOG: Dwell...a closed-form approach. Phalanx, 42(4), 11–14.
Department of the Army, AR 525–29: Army Force Generation, March 2011.
Department of the Army, Army Deployment Period Policy, August 2011.
Department of the Army, FM 3-24: Counterinsurgency, December 2006.
Department of the Army, Personnel Policy Guidance for Overseas Contingency Operations, July 2009.
Galinier, P., & Hertz, A. (2006). A survey of local search methods for graph coloring. Computers and Operations Research, 33, 2547–2562.
Gamach, M., Hertz, A., & Ouellet, J. O. (2007). A graph coloring model for a feasibility problem in monthly crew scheduling with preferential bidding. Computers and Operations Research, 34, 2384–2395.
Glover, F., & McMillan, C. (1986). The general employee scheduling problem: an integration of MS and AI. Computers and Operations Research, 13, 563–573.
Glover, F. (1989). Tabu search - part I. ORSA Journal of Computing, 1, 190–206.
Graham, R.L., Lawler, E.L., Lenstra, J.K., & Rinnooy Kan, A.H.G. (1979). Annals of Discrete Mathematics 5: Optimization and Approximation in Deterministic Sequencing and Scheduling: A Survey, Hammer, P.L. and Johnson, E.L. and Korte, B.H.. North-Holland Publishing Company.
Hodgson, T. J., Melendez, B., Thoney, K. A., & Trainor, T. (2004). The deployment scheduling anayisis tool (DSAT). Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 39, 905–924.
Hughes, David W., Zais, Mark M., Kucik, Paul, & Huerta, Fernando M. (2011). ARFORGEN BOG: Dwell Simulation. Operations Research Center of Excellence.
Kierstead, H. A. (1988). The linearity of first-fit coloring of interval graphs. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 1, 526–530.
Kierstead, H. A., & Qin, J. (1995). Coloring interval graphs with first-fit. Discrete Mathematics, 144, 47–57.
Kilcullen, D. (2006). Twenty-eight articles: fundamentals of company-level counterinsurgency. Military Review, 86, 50.
Leighton, F. T. (1979). A graph coloring algorithm for large scheduling problems. Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards, 84(6), 489–506.
Lenstra, J. K., Rinnooy Kan, A. H. G., & Brucker, P. (1977). Complexity of machine scheduling problems. Annals of Discrete Mathematics, 1, 343–362.
Malaguti, E., & Toth, P. (2010). A survey on vertex coloring problems. International Transactions in Operational Research, 17, 1–34.
Marler, R. T., & Arora, J. S. (2004). Survey of multi-objective optimization methods for engineering. Structural Multidisciplinary Optimization, 26, 369–395.
McKinzie, K., & Barnes, J. W. (2004). A review of strategic mobility models supporting the defense transportation system. Mathematical and Computer Modeling, 39, 839–868.
Palubeckis, G. (2008). On the recursive largest first algorithm for graph colouring. International Journal of Computer Mathematics, 85, 191–200.
Reed, Heather (2011). Wartime Sourcing: Building Capability and Predictability through Continuity. Military Review, May-June 2011..
Rosen, K. H. (2011). Elementary Number Theory and Its Applications (6th ed.). Boston: Addison Wesley Longman.
Van den Bergh, J., Beliën, J., De Brueker, P., & Demeulemeester, E. (2013). Personnel scheduling: a literature review. European Journal of Operational Research, 226, 367–385.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zais, M., Laguna, M. A graph coloring approach to the deployment scheduling and unit assignment problem. J Sched 19, 73–90 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-015-0434-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-015-0434-0