Scheduling and due‐date quotation in a make‐to‐order supply chain

We consider a manufacturer, served by a single supplier, who has to quote due dates to arriving customers in a make‐to‐order production environment. The manufacturer is penalized for long lead times and for missing due dates. To meet due dates, the manufacturer has to obtain components from a supplier. We model this manufacturer and supplier as a two‐machine flow shop, consider several variations of this problem, and design effective due‐date quotation and scheduling algorithms for centralized and decentralized versions of the model. We perform extensive computational testing to assess the effectiveness of our algorithms and to compare the centralized and decentralized models to quantify the value of centralized control in a make‐to‐order supply chain. Since complete information exchange and centralized control is not always practical or cost‐effective, we explore the value of partial information exchange for this system. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

基于功能分解组合的协同防空作战体系效能评估

协同防空作战体系各要素具有复杂耦合特性,所提出的功能分解-组合效能分析方法可以分析各要素对协同防空体系作战效能的贡献。首先利用功能分解提取出态势数据共享、集中式目标分配、火控级目标数据共享、协同制导4种特征功能,然后组合形成分区防空、集中指挥、协同探测、协同作战4种不同协同级别的防空样式,建立了包含效用指标和代价指标的效能指标体系,通过蒙特卡罗仿真获取了可以互相参考对比的规律性的效能指标规律,为复杂作战体系效能评估提供了一种思路。     

Partial input to output impacts in DEA: Production considerations and resource sharing among business subunits

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a methodology for evaluating the relative efficiencies of peer decision‐making units (DMUs), in a multiple input/output setting. Although it is generally assumed that all outputs are impacted by all inputs, there are many situations where this may not be the case. This article extends the conventional DEA methodology to allow for the measurement of technical efficiency in situations where only partial input‐to‐output impacts exist. The new methodology involves viewing the DMU as a business unit, consisting of a set of mutually exclusive subunits, each of which can be treated in the conventional DEA sense. A further consideration involves the imposition of constraints in the form of assurance regions (AR) on pairs of multipliers. These AR constraints often arise at the level of the subunit, and as a result, there can be multiple and often inconsistent AR constraints on any given variable pair. We present a methodology for resolving such inconsistencies. To demonstrate the overall methodology, we apply it to the problem of evaluating the efficiencies of a set of steel fabrication plants. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

A cooperative game in search theory

Search theory originates from the military research efforts of WWII. Most researchers of that period modeled their search games in noncooperative games, where players are enemies or compete against each other. In this article, we deal with a cooperative search game, where multiple searchers behave cooperatively. First we describe several search problems and discuss the possibility of a coalition or cooperation among searchers. For the cooperative search game, we define a function named quasi‐characteristic function, which gives us a criterion similar to the so‐called characteristic function in the general coalition game with transferable utility. The search operation includes a kind of randomness with respect to whether the searchers can detect a target and get the value of the target. We also propose a methodology to divide the obtained target value among members of the coalition taking account of the randomness. As a concrete problem of the cooperative search game, we take the so‐called search allocation game, where searchers distribute their searching resources to detect a target in a cooperative way and the target moves in a search space to evade the searchers. Lastly, we discuss the core of the cooperative search allocation game. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009     

Inspection games with local and global allocation bounds

This article discusses a two‐player noncooperative nonzero‐sum inspection game. There are multiple sites that are subject to potential inspection by the first player (an inspector). The second player (potentially a violator) has to choose a vector of violation probabilities over the sites, so that the sum of these probabilities do not exceed one. An efficient method is introduced to compute all Nash equilibria parametrically in the amount of resource that is available to the inspector. Sensitivity analysis reveals nonmonotonicity of the equilibrium utility of the inspector, considered as a function of the amount of resource that is available to it; a phenomenon which is a variant of the well‐known Braess paradox. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

Simultaneous determination of production and maintenance schedules using in‐line equipment condition and yield information

In many manufacturing environments, equipment condition has a significant impact on product quality, or yield. This paper presents a semi‐Markov decision process model of a single‐stage production system with multiple products and multiple maintenance actions. The model simultaneously determines maintenance and production schedules, accounting for the fact that equipment condition affects the yield of each product differently. It extends earlier work by allowing the expected time between decision epochs to vary by both action and machine state, by allowing multiple maintenance actions, and by treating the outcome of maintenance as less than certain. Sufficient conditions are developed that ensure the monotonicity of both the optimal production and maintenance actions. While the maintenance conditions closely resemble previously studied conditions for this type of problem, the production conditions represent a significant departure from earlier results. The simultaneous solution method is compared to an approach commonly used in industry, where the maintenance and production problems are treated independently. Solving more than one thousand test problems confirms that the combination of both features of the model—accounting for product differences and solving the problems simultaneously—has a significant impact on performance. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

The building evacuation problem with shared information

In this article, the Building Evacuation Problem with Shared Information (BEPSI) is formulated as a mixed integer linear program, where the objective is to determine the set of routes along which to send evacuees (supply) from multiple locations throughout a building (sources) to the exits (sinks) such that the total time until all evacuees reach the exits is minimized. The formulation explicitly incorporates the constraints of shared information in providing online instructions to evacuees, ensuring that evacuees departing from an intermediate or source location at a mutual point in time receive common instructions. Arc travel time and capacity, as well as supply at the nodes, are permitted to vary with time and capacity is assumed to be recaptured over time. The BEPSI is shown to be NP‐hard. An exact technique based on Benders decomposition is proposed for its solution. Computational results from numerical experiments on a real‐world network representing a four‐story building are given. Results of experiments employing Benders cuts generated in solving a given problem instance as initial cuts in addressing an updated problem instance are also provided. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

基于DEA方法的新疆少数民族高等教育效率评价研究

由于数据包络分析方法（DEA）对多输入多输出系统的效率评价问题具有十分独特的优势。近年来,DEA方法在高等教育效率评价,尤其是在高等学校人力资源利用效率评价中的应用日趋增多,取得了丰硕的研究成果。本文针对新疆少数民族高等教育效率评价问题,重点从地域角度,采用DEA交叉评价方法定量研究新疆少数民族高等教育资源利用效率的状况,以期为教育管理者在制定资源配置政策以及高校在如何提高资源利用效率方面提供借鉴与参考。     

Optimal empty vehicle redistribution for hub‐and‐spoke transportation systems

This article considers the empty vehicle redistribution problem in a hub‐and‐spoke transportation system, with random demands and stochastic transportation times. An event‐driven model is formulated, which yields the implicit optimal control policy. Based on the analytical results for two‐depot systems, a dynamic decomposition procedure is presented which produces a near‐optimal policy with linear computational complexity in terms of the number of spokes. The resulting policy has the same asymptotic behavior as that of the optimal policy. It is found that the threshold‐type control policy is not usually optimal in such systems. The results are illustrated through small‐scale numerical examples. Through simulation the robustness of the dynamic decomposition policy is tested using a variety of scenarios: more spokes, more vehicles, different combinations of distribution types for the empty vehicle travel times and loaded vehicle arrivals. This shows that the dynamic decomposition policy is significantly better than a heuristics policy in all scenarios and appears to be robust to the assumptions of the distribution types. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Quay crane scheduling at container terminals to minimize the maximum relative tardiness of vessel departures

In this paper, we study the problem of scheduling quay cranes (QCs) at container terminals where incoming vessels have different ready times. The objective is to minimize the maximum relative tardiness of vessel departures. The problem can be formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model of large size that is difficult to solve directly. We propose a heuristic decomposition approach to breakdown the problem into two smaller, linked models, the vessel‐level and the berth‐level models. With the same berth‐level model, two heuristic methods are developed using different vessel‐level models. Computational experiments show that the proposed approach is effective and efficient. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

Optimal control policies in service systems with limited information on the downstream stage

Existing models in multistage service systems assume full information on the state of downstream stages. In this paper, we investigate how much the lack of such information impacts jobs' waiting time in a two‐stage system with two types of jobs at the first stage. The goal is to find the optimal control policy for the server at the first stage to switch between type‐1 and type‐2 jobs, while minimizing the long‐run average number of jobs in the system. We identify control policies and corresponding conditions under which having no or partial information, the system can still capture the most benefit of having full information.     

Revisiting inspection game and inspector leadership through reaction networks

The inspection game is a two-player noncooperative game that models a situation where an inspector verifies whether the inspectee complies with the rules (on the assumption that the inspectee has the tendency to violate at least one of the rules). The usual approach in the analysis of this game seeks to find an optimal strategic inspection scheme for each of the two players yielding favorable payoffs. Recently, there have been some developments in the study of such games that use a mathematical structure known as reaction network involving a set of molecular species and the existing reactions among these species. In this paper, we use a reaction network to analyze the inspection game giving an alternative way of modeling the social situation. The molecular species play the role of the players' decision moves and their resulting gain or loss, while the reactions are the encounters of the decisions of the players which, as expected, yield payoffs. We reexamine the dynamics of the inspection game through the lens of reaction network theory and consider various situations that call for more detailed analyses such as equal or unequal reaction rates and inspection leadership. Conditions concerning reaction rates, initial population of decision species, benefits, and costs are determined in order to identify strategies that yield better payoffs both for the inspector and inspectee. These results illustrate practical insights rooted from the formulated simple game models.     

Oligopolistic contracting: Channel coordination under competition

We study contracts between a single retailer and multiple suppliers of two substitutable products, where suppliers have fixed capacities and present the retailer cost contracts for their supplies. After observing the contracts, the retailer decides how much capacity to purchase from each supplier, to maximize profits from the purchased capacity from the suppliers plus his possessed inventory (endowment). This is modeled as a noncooperative, nonzero‐sum game, where suppliers, or principals, move simultaneously as leaders and the retailer, the common agent, is the sole follower. We are interested in the form of the contracts in equilibrium, their effect on the total supply chain profit, and how the profit is split between the suppliers and the retailer. Under mild assumptions, we characterize the set of all equilibrium contracts and discuss all‐unit and marginal‐unit quantity discounts as special cases. We also show that the supply chain is coordinated in equilibrium with a unique profit split between the retailer and the suppliers. Each supplier's profit is equal to the marginal contribution of her capacity to supply chain profits in equilibrium. The retailer's profit is equal to the total revenue collected from the market minus the payments to the suppliers and the associated sales costs.     

Exact algorithms and bounds for the dynamic assignment interdiction problem

We study a multi‐stage dynamic assignment interdiction (DAI) game in which two agents, a user and an attacker, compete in the underlying bipartite assignment graph. The user wishes to assign a set of tasks at the minimum cost, and the attacker seeks to interdict a subset of arcs to maximize the user's objective. The user assigns exactly one task per stage, and the assignment costs and interdiction impacts vary across stages. Before any stage commences in the game, the attacker can interdict arcs subject to a cardinality constraint. An interdicted arc can still be used by the user, but at an increased assignment cost. The goal is to find an optimal sequence of assignments, coupled with the attacker's optimal interdiction strategy. We prove that this problem is strongly NP‐hard, even when the attacker can interdict only one arc. We propose an exact exponential‐state dynamic‐programming algorithm for this problem as well as lower and upper bounds on the optimal objective function value. Our bounds are based on classical interdiction and robust optimization models, and on variations of the DAI game. We examine the efficiency of our algorithms and the quality of our bounds on a set of randomly generated instances. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 64: 373–387, 2017     

A selective newsvendor approach to order management

Consider a supplier offering a product to several potential demand sources, each with a unique revenue, size, and probability that it will materialize. Given a long procurement lead time, the supplier must choose the orders to pursue and the total quantity to procure prior to the selling season. We model this as a selective newsvendor problem of maximizing profits where the total (random) demand is given by the set of pursued orders. Given that the dimensionality of a mixed‐integer linear programming formulation of the problem increases exponentially with the number of potential orders, we develop both a tailored exact algorithm based on the L‐shaped method for two‐stage stochastic programming as well as a heuristic method. We also extend our solution approach to account for piecewise‐linear cost and revenue functions as well as a multiperiod setting. Extensive experimentation indicates that our exact approach rapidly finds optimal solutions with three times as many orders as a state‐of‐the‐art commercial solver. In addition, our heuristic approach provides average gaps of less than 1% for the largest problems that can be solved exactly. Observing that the gaps decrease as problem size grows, we expect the heuristic approach to work well for large problem instances. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2008     

Thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate catalyzed with CuO nanoparticles

Ammonium perchlorate (APC) is the most common oxidizer in use for solid rocket propulsion systems. However its initial thermal decomposition is an endothermic process that requires 102.5 J·g⁻¹. This manner involves high activation energy and could render high burning rate regime. This study reports on the sustainable fabrication of CuO nanoparticles as a novel catalyzing agent for APC oxidizer. Colloidal CuO nanoparticles with consistent product quality were fabricated by using hydrothermal processing. TEM micrographs demonstrated mono-dispersed particles of 15 nm particle size. XRD diffractogram demonstrated highly crystalline material. The synthesized colloidal CuO particles were effectively coated with APC particles via co-precipitation by using fast-crash solvent–antisolvent technique. The impact of copper oxide particles on APC thermal behavior has been investigated using DSC and TGA techniques. APC demonstrated an initial endothermic decomposition stage at 242 °C with subsequent two exothermic decomposition stages at 297.8 °C and 452.8 °C respectively. At 1 wt%, copper oxide offered decrease in initial endothermic decomposition stage by 30%. The main outcome of this study is that the two main exothermic decomposition peaks were merged into one single peak with an increase in total heat release by 53%. These novel features can inherit copper oxide particles unique catalyzing ability for advanced highly energetic systems.     

Optimal sensor placement for underwater threat detection

The optimization framework for optimal sensor placement for underwater threat detection has been developed. It considers single‐period and multiperiod detection models, each of which includes two components: detection algorithm and optimization problem for sensor placement. The detection algorithms for single‐period and multiperiod models are based on likelihood ratio and sequential testing, respectively. For the both models, the optimization problems use the principle of superadditive coverage, which is closely related to energy‐based and information‐based approaches. An algorithm for quasi‐regular sensor placement approximating solutions to the optimization problems has been developed based on corresponding continuous relaxations and a criterion for its applicability has been obtained. Numerical experiments have demonstrated that the algorithm consistently outperforms existing optimization techniques for optimal sensor placement.© 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Lot streaming with supplier–manufacturer coordination

Lot splitting refers to breaking a production lot into smaller sublots during production. Coordinating lot splitting decisions across multiple stages of a production process is a challenging task. Traditional lot splitting and lot streaming models implicitly assume that the entire system is operated and owned by the same firm, or there exists a coordinator who controls the operation of all machines in the system. In this paper, we consider the situation where the machines in a multiple‐stage production process are owned and managed by different companies. Every item in a given production lot has to go through the processing by the supplier's machine, followed by the manufacturer's machine, and so on. We develop and analyze coordination mechanisms that enable different parties in the supply chain to coordinate their lot splitting decisions so as to achieve a systemwide optimum. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004     

Competitive location and capacity decisions for firms serving time‐sensitive customers

In this article we explore how two competing firms locate and set capacities to serve time‐sensitive customers. Because customers are time‐sensitive, they may decline to place an order from either competitor if their expected waiting time is large. We develop a two‐stage game where firms set capacities and then locations, and show that three types of subgame perfect equilibria are possible: local monopoly (in which each customer is served by a single firm, but some customers may be left unserved), constrained local monopoly (in which firms serve the entire interval of customers but do not compete with each other), and constrained competition (in which firms also serve the entire interval of customers, but now compete for some customers). We perform a comparative statics analysis to illustrate differences in the equilibrium behavior of a duopolist and a coordinated monopolist. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Performance analysis of the cultural and creative industry: a network‐based approach

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in Taiwan have gradually contributed to the national economy under the impetus of government policies. We employ a two‐stage data envelopment analysis model with an additive efficiency decomposition approach to measure the profitability and marketability of 22 Taiwanese cultural and creative companies. Furthermore, we employ the network‐based ranking approach to identify benchmark inputs/outputs, and the strengths and weakness of each company. Our empirical results show that the profitability of the cultural and creative companies is better than their marketability. Companies in the industries of publishing, creative life, popular music, and cultural content averagely perform better than those in the other three types of CCIs in terms of profitability. Companies in the creative life industry are on average more efficient than those in the other five types of CCIs in terms of marketability. The profitability/marketability matrix of cultural and creative companies is also presented.