Consulting Services

GAMS’ expertise and experience has been proven through three decades of developing and refining high-quality optimization models across a wide variety of industry domains. Teaming up with your subject matter experts, we offer first class help in the following areas:

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Teaming up with your industry-specific experts, our experienced PhD.-level optimization specialists craft innovative solutions that precisely meet the requirements of your business. Our tailor-made optimization solutions deliver a high business impact and improve your business's decision-making abilities.

We start with analyzing the decision problem in collaborative meetings and interviews. Focusing on the long-term business goals of your company, we define objectives and business rules that describe your decision problem. Next, we develop your tailor-made optimization model using state-of-the-art modeling and solver technology. Working in close partnership with your business experts, we thoroughly validate the results and accompany you during the launch of your new decision support tool with customized training and workshops.

Benefits:

  • Tailor-made decision support, developed by our team of optimization experts
  • No, or only limited knowledge of mathematical modeling required on the part of your team

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Are you experiencing issues with performance, maintainability, or usability of your GAMS model?

Our PhD-level optimization specialists can help you analyze and improve your existing model, ensuring that it meets the specific requirements of your business while providing optimal performance.

Our experts are experienced in dealing with highly complex models that have grown over decades in such a way that maintainability becomes a problem. Use our model improvement services - from small adjustments to complete overhaul - to make your GAMS model fast and future-proof.

Benefit from our expertise and experience and collaborate with our team of experts to

  • select the best-performing solvers for your problem and tune them to maximize the performance even further
  • refactor your code and improve performance, readability, and maintainability
  • extend your existing model to incorporate new objectives or additional business rules
Benefits: Better performance, better maintainability, better user experience.

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Do you have a GAMS model that is complicated for users to operate due to the lack of a graphical user interface (GUI)? Or would you like to outsource the execution of your GAMS jobs to centralized compute resources?

With GAMS MIRO and GAMS Engine , we provide the tools to efficiently deploy your GAMS-based optimization applications for your users!

Share your needs and requirements for a graphical user interface with our team of experts who will design and develop a web application based on GAMS MIRO as a front end to your model. We can cover everything from simple table views to highly customized dashboards with tailor-made charts to visualize your model inputs and outputs. Once your model has been turned into a MIRO application, our experts will be happy to help you select and implement a suitable deployment option, from 100% local to 100% in the cloud.

Whether you use MIRO or operate your model without a GUI, with GAMS Engine you can run your models on centralized compute resources, either on-premise or in the cloud. Let us know your requirements regarding the desired type of usage, and our experts will work with you to make your model ready for GAMS Engine. From implementing customized clients to selecting appropriate hardware resources to setting up MIRO server solutions with our cloud-based GAMS Engine SaaS back-end, we can help you overcome all challenges.

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Improve your teams' skills with our training and workshops on optimization using the GAMS tool stack. Our optimization specialists will provide on-site or online training customized to your specific learning requirements. Popular training includes:

  • GAMS data exchange
  • Best practices modeling with GAMS
  • Parallelization
  • Performance Profiling and Performance Improvements
  • GAMS APIs
  • GAMS and Python
  • Deployment of GAMS Models

Please contact us at consulting@gams.com, to discuss your requirements!

Selected Projects

Model Improvement, Model Deployment, Training & Workshops

Power Systems Planning at the World Bank

GAMS and the World Bank partnered to improve the Bank’s Electricity Planning Model (EPM). The project involved a comprehensive review of the model and updating it with the latest GAMS features, resulting in significant performance improvements. Also, the EPM was made suitable for cloud deployment, and upgraded to run with MIRO as an interactive server application accessible to all members of the modeling team. The collaboration also included customized workshops on topics according to the World Bank’s needs, aimed at enhancing the team’s understanding of the new features and optimizing their use of the EPM.

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Model Deployment

Deployment of the TIMES Model Generator

TIMES (The Integrated MARKAL-EFOM System) is a widely used model generator for energy system analysis and optimization. It is employed by around 200 teams in 70 countries. GAMS collaborated with the Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program (ETSAP) of the International Energy Agency (IEA) to provide new deployment options for the TIMES model.

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Model Improvement

Production Planning at BASF

The GAMS consulting team collaborated with BASF, a leading chemical company, to improve their existing production scheduling model. The project involved the development and implementation of new business rules to synchronize the discrete and the continuous production steps while meeting demand quantities and due dates of individual products, as well as avoiding costly downtimes of the machines. Our improved model was successfully tested and delivered clear benefits for BASF.

Model Improvement, Model Deployment

Agricultural Modeling and Optimization at ZALF

In a collaboration between GAMS and ZALF, we worked on several projects related to their Multi-Objective Decision support tool for Agri-ecosystem Management (MODAM). MODAM focuses on the analysis, modelling and valuation of agricultural decision making of land user. This includes decision making on optimal schedules for agricultural actions or optimal land use. Our team reviewed and optimized the model code, with a focus on improving model generation and GAMS execution time. GAMS also developed a MIRO application for the MODAM model in close coordination with the ZALF team. Training sessions have enabled them to further develop the app independently. Going forward, the MIRO app will be embedded in existing IT infrastructure as part of a cross-system solution.

Workshop

Code Optimization Workshop

The GAMS consulting team collaborated with SINTEF to optimize their GAMS model through a custom workshop. The collaboration resulted in an efficient separation of model and data, solver tuning, and parallelization for faster simulations.

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Workshop

Custom GAMS Workshop

ifesca, a leading software company that develops solutions for optimal energy management, recently partnered with GAMS experts to optimize their modelling techniques through a customized workshop. The workshop covered a wide range of topics, including data exchange, data consistency checks, model development, fix and optimize techniques, such as rolling horizon, advanced GAMS language features, debugging, performance profiling, Cplex parameter tuning, and an overview of state-of-the-art MIP solvers.

Model Development, Model Deployment

Scheduling at the United States Military Academy

At the United States Military Academy in West Point, each student’s daily activities are a carefully regimented balance of academic, military, and physical requirements. The ~4,500 enrolled cadets compile their individual academic programs and it is necessary to ensure that each cadet can graduate in 8 semesters, which results in challenging scheduling problems. USMA relies on a highly customized decision support system to tackle tasks such as term scheduling, exam scheduling, and room scheduling. The schedulers are all based on GAMS and have been seamlessly integrated into USMA’s cadet administration system.

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Model Development

Scheduling at the United States Coast Guard Academy

GAMS consulting services helped the US Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) optimize its student-centric scheduling process by developing a customized solution using state-of-the-art optimization algorithms and tools. The result was a more streamlined and efficient academic environment that improved satisfaction among faculty and staff and outcomes for students. Thanks to GAMS’s expertise and support, the USCGA was able to achieve its scheduling goals and significantly reduce the time and effort required for scheduling.

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Model Development

Energy Modeling

GAMS cooperated with Greenmont Energy Consulting (GEC) to develop an integrated model of the US energy, coal, and emission market. The model included all power plants, regardless of fuel type, in the U.S. and Canada, with a particular high level of detail when it comes to coal-fired power plants. Together with a coal transportation model that was developed at the same time an optimization based forecasting platform was created that allows users to generate base cases and scenario simulations across various time horizons.

Model Improvement

BMW Boxmodel

GAMS and BMW have collaborated on a project aimed at improving decision-making in vehicle production. The quality of final products in vehicle manufacturing can be measured by various metrics which depend on the quality of the different vehicle components. Due to tolerances in the production process, the quality of vehicle components may vary within certain tolerance ranges. By leveraging a GAMS model, BMW can now optimize the tolerance ranges in component manufacturing within a given budget, ensuring the highest possible quality of the final vehicle. The model is a MINLP that uses a quadratic objective function, striking a balance between precision and efficiency and ultimately resulting in top-quality final products.

Model Improvement

Efficient Prototyping and Vehicle Testing

GAMS and Ford Motor Company collaborated to create two models that optimize design verification and vehicle testing processes. The Scheduling and Optimization model minimizes tests needed and provides a user-friendly interface, while the ltTOM2 model automates and optimizes vehicle testing schedules. These models have helped Ford in timely product development and certification.

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