SURFSKED an Optimization Aid for Surface Combatant Inter-Deployment Scheduling

The surface force inter-deployment scheduling process is the means by which units of the U.S Navy are slated to accomplish maintenance, training, and inspection events in preparation for planned deployments or emergent missions. The schedule objective is to maximize fleet readiness while meeting the constraints of fuel, budget, home port time, and availability of supporting services. This thesis provides a computerized model (SURFSKED) to assist schedulers in the optimization of the inter-deployment schedule. A set- partitioning model is used in a two-stage heuristic process to minimize scheduling costs subject to constraints on support assets. The model is tested using a combination of actual and hypothetical data for 96 ships of the Pacific Fleet. The test runs include 88 event types and generate 13 week (one quarter) schedules.