Optimal control policies for an inventory system with commitment lead time

We consider a firm which faces a Poisson customer demand and uses a base‐stock policy to replenish its inventories from an outside supplier with a fixed lead time. The firm can use a preorder strategy which allows the customers to place their orders before their actual need. The time from a customer's order until the date a product is actually needed is called commitment lead time. The firm pays a commitment cost which is strictly increasing and convex in the length of the commitment lead time. For such a system, we prove the optimality of bang‐bang and all‐or‐nothing policies for the commitment lead time and the base‐stock policy, respectively. We study the case where the commitment cost is linear in the length of the commitment lead time in detail. We show that there exists a unit commitment cost threshold which dictates the optimality of either a buy‐to‐order (BTO) or a buy‐to‐stock strategy. The unit commitment cost threshold is increasing in the unit holding and backordering costs and decreasing in the mean lead time demand. We determine the conditions on the unit commitment cost for profitability of the BTO strategy and study the case with a compound Poisson customer demand.     

Inventory management with advance capacity information

An important aspect of supply chain management is dealing with demand and supply uncertainty. The uncertainty of future supply can be reduced if a company is able to obtain advance capacity information (ACI) about future supply/production capacity availability from its supplier. We address a periodic‐review inventory system under stochastic demand and stochastic limited supply, for which ACI is available. We show that the optimal ordering policy is a state‐dependent base‐stock policy characterized by a base‐stock level that is a function of ACI. We establish a link with inventory models that use advance demand information (ADI) by developing a capacitated inventory system with ADI, and we show that equivalence can only be set under a very specific and restrictive assumption, implying that ADI insights will not necessarily hold in the ACI environment. Our numerical results reveal several managerial insights. In particular, we show that ACI is most beneficial when there is sufficient flexibility to react to anticipated demand and supply capacity mismatches. Further, most of the benefits can be achieved with only limited future visibility. We also show that the system parameters affecting the value of ACI interact in a complex way and therefore need to be considered in an integrated manner. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

Peace enforcement in Africa: Doctrinal distinctions between the African Union and United Nations

When the United Nations (UN) Security Council needs to authorize a peace enforcement operation in Africa, its partner of choice is the African Union (AU). Africa has developed significant peace operations capacity over the past decade. In addition to deploying eight AU operations, Africa now contributes 50% of all UN peacekeepers. African stability operations, like its mission in Somalia, are often described as peace enforcement operations. In this article, I question whether it is accurate to categorize African stability operations as peace enforcement? I answer the question by considering what the criteria are that are used to differentiate between peace enforcement and peacekeeping operations in the UN context. I then use the peace enforcement criteria to assess whether AU stabilization operations would qualify as peace enforcement operations. In conclusion, I consider the implications of the findings for the strategic partnership between the AU and the UN.     

具有终端约束的制导炸弹模糊变结构制导律设计

针对INS/GPS制导炸弹对地面目标的精确打击问题,提出带落角约束的模糊变结构制导律。在变结构制导律的基础上,引入终端落角约束项,应用模糊规则对所设计制导律中的变结构开关项系数增益进行在线调节。仿真结果表明,在对地面目标进行攻击时,该制导律降低变结构控制系统的抖振,同时满足制导精度和期望落角的要求,具有有效性和鲁棒性。     

基于云模型的无人机作战系统效能评估

对无人机作战系统进行效能评估有利于了解无人机的能力和不足,为无人机的后继研发提供有效依据。针对作战系统指标的相对性、模糊性与不确定性,通过层次分析法建立无人机作战系统效能评估的指标体系,采用云模型实现作战系统指标的定性属性与定量属性的相互结合与转换,结合专家打分法给出作战系统指标的定性权重和评价,并利用正态云拟合算法得出无人机作战系统的综合效能。通过实例分析,表明该方法具有可行性。     

Scheduling deteriorating jobs to minimize makespan

We consider a single-machine problem of scheduling n independent jobs to minimize makespan, in which the processing time of job J_j grows by w_j with each time unit its start is delayed beyond a given common critical date d. This processing time is p_j if J_j starts by d. We show that this problem is NP-hard, give a pseudopolynomial algorithm that runs in time and O(nd) space, and develop a branch-and-bound algorithm that solves instances with up to 100 jobs in a reasonable amount of time. We also introduce the case of bounded deterioration, where the processing time of a job grows no further if the job starts after a common maximum deterioration date D > d. For this case, we give two pseudopolynomial time algorithms: one runs in O(n²d(D − d) time and O(nd(D − d)) space, the other runs in p_j)²) time and p_j) space. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 45: 511–523, 1998     

Worst‐case performance of approximation algorithms for tool management problems

Since the introduction of flexible manufacturing systems, researchers have investigated various planning and scheduling problems faced by the users of such systems. Several of these problems are not encountered in more classical production settings, and so‐called tool management problems appear to be among the more fundamental ones of these problems. Most tool management problems are hard to solve, so that numerous approximate solution techniques have been proposed to tackle them. In this paper, we investigate the quality of such algorithms by means of worst‐case analysis. We consider several polynomial‐time approximation algorithms described in the literature, and we show that all these algorithms exhibit rather poor worst‐case behavior. We also study the complexity of solving tool management problems approximately. In this respect, we investigate the interrelationships among tool management problems, as well as their relationships with other well‐known combinatorial problems such as the maximum clique problem or the set covering problem, and we prove several negative results on the approximability of various tool management problems. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 46: 445–462, 1999     

惰性气体中电爆丝爆炸激励冲击波的理论分析

建立了惰性气体中电爆丝爆炸激励的冲击波模型。对于冲击波马赫数与光辐射强度的关系、惰性气体种类对冲击波强度的影响以及电爆丝根数对冲击波强度的影响,进行了理论计算与分析,所得结论对红外脉冲强光辐射源的研究有重要作用。     

Capitalism & the “new wars”: free markets and societal insecurity before and after the cold war, 1970–2013

Critics of globalisation suggest that growing free-market conditions generate anomie, leading ultimately to what some term ‘new wars’ and new insecurities. Others argue that liberal economies dissuade violence since people gain from peace. This study argues for a micro perspective that views predatory economic policies driving higher investment in rebellion-specific capital, such as shadow economic activity that easily translates into insurgency in weak-state settings. Investment in the shadows determines survivability against superior state forces, and survivability determines rebellion, by definition. Using civil war onset data from 1970 to 2013, as well as the Global Peace Index (GPI) and several of its individual components, which capture societal insecurity above and beyond the absence of armed violence, this study finds that countries that are more capitalistic have a lower risk of civil war and societal insecurity. The results are robust to alternative models, testing methods, and uphold when examining several relevant subcomponents of the index, such as internal conflict, violent crime, homicides, ease of access to small arms, and political instability. Surprisingly, democracy tends not to be associated with peace but associates with increased criminality whereas strong autocracy reduces it, suggesting that capitalism, more than democracy, associates with conditions favourable to societal security, independently of a country’s level of development.     

Winning hearts and minds: legitimacy in the Namibian war for independence

Efforts at winning hearts and minds (WHAM) impact on and are affected by perceptions of legitimacy. In the Namibian war for independence (1966–1989) efforts of the South African counterinsurgent forces at winning hearts and minds focused mainly on persuading the population to cooperate in exchange for material benefits and services. The article demonstrates that this successfully contributed to a dimension of legitimacy that is conceptualized as pragmatic legitimacy. However, other dimensions of legitimacy are identified in which the South Africans were lacking, that is in moral, legal, and identity-based legitimacy. Furthermore, in areas where control was contested and where the population could not be shielded from insurgent intimidation, it is argued that the effects of coercion outweighed legitimacy altogether.