IBM® Maximo® Optimizer optimization models

You can run optimization models to schedule or assign work within a scenario. When you run an optimization model, the work is scheduled and assigned based on the criteria that you specify. Each model provides results that are tailored to a specific business need.

Some models provide information for long-term planning, while others focus on short-term planning and assigning work. You can run multiple optimization models and compare the results by creating multiple scenarios.

Table 1. Optimization model options
Planning type	Applications	Optimization scenarios
Long-term planning	Graphical Scheduling Graphical Scheduling - Large Projects	Resource leveling Capacity planning Maintenance scheduling optimization
Short-term assignment	Graphical Assignment	Labor and crew assignment Spatial scheduling

Optimization models

Resource leveling optimization

You can optimize your schedule to balance your resource use, balancing your work demands with the resource pool that is available. With resource leveling optimization, you do not under use labor resources, or over-allocate work to a specific craft.

With resource leveling optimization, you do not over-schedule the amount of work that you can get accomplished. When you level resources, you can also meet other objectives, such as minimizing task interruptions or labor costs. For example, you can match a required skill level to a work record, rather than assigning it to a resource with a higher skill level. The model has the what-if analysis function.

Capacity planning optimization

You can optimize your schedule to help you complete as much work as possible in the allotted time period.

In planning work, you can identify whether more labor resources are necessary to complete work in a specific time-frame. For example, 100 work orders must be completed this week. With capacity planning optimization, you use all available labor resources to accomplish your goal. When you set the optimization parameters, you can set other criteria that must be met. For example, you can arrange that work is scheduled only when the asset is available for maintenance.

Maintenance scheduling optimization

You can optimize your scheduling of complex projects like outages or shutdowns, which often contain thousands of work orders or tasks.

As part of the scheduling, this optimization also considers constraints that are related to resource availability to determine the critical path for the complex project. The optimization considers maximum aggregated capacity for crafts, crew, tools, and also aviation zones with the aviation industry solution.

The Graphical Scheduling Large Projects application manages the hierarchy, precedence constraints, and time windows for work orders. The following list is the list of default objectives for optimization.

Minimizing turnaround time
Plan change
Earliness and lateness for soft time windows
Maximizing the high priority work orders first

The optimization can be used for rescheduling activities that are either completed or in progress. The model has the what-if analysis function.

Labor and crew assignment optimization

You can optimize your schedule to automatically assign people and crews to work based on their availability and required skills.

Assigning work can be time-consuming for supervisors and planners. Factors to consider include resource availability and the skill level that the work requires. You can set the labor and crew optimization model to accommodate these factors, which are based on your preferences. For example, you can set the optimization model to respect appointments that were made, or use the same labor resource or crew resource throughout a job.

You can then review the assignments, adjust them as needed, and publish them.

Spatial scheduling optimization

You can optimize your schedule to automatically assign work to people and crews based on their geographic location.

When you use spatial scheduling optimization to assign work, work is assigned based on the locations and work zones of labor and crew resources. Crew types are evaluated and assigned to appropriate work, and efficient routes are created. You can then review the assignments in the Gantt view and adjust them as needed, or view them spatially on the Dispatch View tab. You can publish the assignments when ready.