Spares parts optimization for legacy telecom networks using a permutation-based evolutionary algorithm

Large service organizations such as telecom or utility companies face numerous decision management problems, many of which are related to the management of various resources. The management of spare parts and inventory is one of the key resource management problems an organization faces on a daily basis. Especially their timely availability can have serious impacts on the service quality and the customer satisfaction. Lack of visibility and availability of spare parts in the right place and at the right time can lead to traveling longer distance to supply the parts or in worst case a disruption of the service. We propose to automate the management of spare parts for a legacy technology in a telecom network by leveraging an evolutionary algorithm for optimizing the distribution of spare parts. Our results show that a significant gain can be made in comparison to a assignment typically performed in a manual mechanism.