A common challenge in field service planning is to evaluate different design choices, related to staffing decisions, technician scheduling strategies, and technological improvements in order to make the system more efficient. This work provides a simulation-based optimization tool to support decision makers in tackling this challenging problem. The proposed framework relies on an optimization engine for the generation of the daily plans.
The study uses AnyLogic as field service planning software to evaluate the applicability of such plans by taking into account the stochastic factors. Furthermore, an interface manages the communication between these two components and allows a feedback loop between the simulator and the optimizer to achieve more robust plans. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated through a business case to evaluate different staffing decisions.