Troubleshooting optimization using multi-start simulated annealing

A troubleshooting strategy is a sequence of actions that must be carried out in order to solve a problem. Some troubleshooting strategies consist of a combination of actions and questions. In such cases, each possible answer for a question may lead to a different set of troubleshooting actions (or a different sequence of troubleshooting actions). In many applications, the set of all possible actions and questions are known. Then, the troubleshooting problem can be defined as finding the optimal sequence of actions and questions, which can be modeled as a combinatorial optimization problem. This paper describes an optimization method to minimize the expected cost of repair (ECR) of a single failure troubleshooting model, considering both dependent and independent actions, questions and cost clusters. The proposed method uses a combination of simulated annealing and multi start search to solve the troubleshooting problem. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the application of the proposed method in troubleshooting models with different complexity levels.