Bitwise Solutions, Inc.
Fort Worth, Texas
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"The ILOG CPLEX part of it made the actual solving of the problem pretty easy. The majority of the five man-years, the actual development of the model and optimization to run the model, probably took six months of that. So, it is a considerable savings, because we did use CPLEX to solve the fixed-integer problem."

Chris Martin Lead Programmer Bitwise Solutions, Inc.

Business
Bitwise Solutions is a technology solutions provider serving the fractional aviation industry. Fractional aviation fills the gap between private fleets and commercial airlines. Companies called "fractionals" sell shares in airplanes to medium and large businesses. Fractionals promise to make aircraft available whenever they are needed. The typical fractional operates 20 planes, and makes an average of 40 to 60 trips a day.

Goal
When a fractional does not have a plane available, it must charter or reposition one from another location. In both cases, the fractional absorbs the extra costs. Optimally scheduling flights and positioning aircraft can save a fractional millions of dollars.

Application
Bitwise Solutions has developed an application called FlightOps, designed to solve scheduling problems unique to fractionals. FlightOps enables fractionals to guarantee aircraft availability for customers. Powered by ILOG CPLEX, FlightOps finds feasible solutions that schedule planes to finish trips where they are needed next.

ILOG CPLEX equips Bitwise with:

• Agility
  Bitwise can customize FlightOps to the specific operational characteristics of any fractional.
• Ease of development
  Bitwise estimates cut development time by 10% using CPLEX.
• Web-based license management
  ILOG�s online customer services allowed Bitwise to easily obtain and manage licenses for ILOG CPLEX.

Results
Already, one company has reported saving US$4.4 million the first year it used a Bitwise solution. ILOG CPLEX helps FlightOps deliver:

• Dynamic real-time scheduling
• On-time service for customers
• Reduced positioning and chartering costs
• Safer operation though scheduled maintenance
• Closer adherence to federal regulations
• Observance of crew preferences

Technical
FlightOps took five man-years to develop, but only six months were spent on its ILOG CPLEX optimization component. The application was developed to run with Windows NT. FlightOps relies on three primary types of constraints: scheduling, maintenance and work regulations. As many as 10,822 constraints and 11,946 variables can be used to schedule a fractional fleet.

Scheduling constraints ensure that only one aircraft is assigned to each trip. FlightOps schedules planes so that they are maintained in compliance with manufacturer and government guidelines. Government regulations also specify how many hours a crew can fly each day, data that is also tracked by FlightOps.