Optimizing Recruiting Asset Allocation and Routing with Integer Programming

In the United States Army, regional brigades schedule and attend recruiting events. A set of centrally managed physical assets such as large-scale displays and branded vehicles provide supplemental support. The integer programming model presented here assigns assets to maximize recruitment value for sets of up to 500 events given event values, locations, and dates. The model is currently in use and has reduced the allocation process from three days to less than one and generates solutions that dominate manually generated solutions in all key criteria. Most importantly, it allows decision-makers to shift their focus from logistics to value-based tradeoffs.