Environmental regulation in project‐based industries

We study the environmental regulation of industrial activities that are organized as projects. Applications arise in construction, ship and aircraft building, and film making, among other industries. Relative to manufacturing, environmental regulation is different in project‐based industries, due to the uniqueness and geographical diversity of projects, and a lack of product takeback programs. Because the amount of waste and pollution generated by project companies can be large, regulators need environmental policies to ensure reduction of waste and pollution. We consider a regulator who attempts to maximize social welfare. We model this problem as a bilevel nonlinear program. The upper level regulator specifies waste reduction targets, which the lower level project companies meet using waste stream reduction and remediation of pollution, while attempting to control their project costs. We find that high waste diversion targets lead to outcomes with little pollution, but excessive project costs and only modest waste stream reduction. Projects that have lower task precedence density, or that have pollutants with different environmental impacts, show larger increases in project cost and time resulting from regulation. We describe a subsidy for waste stream reduction that coordinates the system, and we estimate the value of coordination. We also describe a bonus that encourages truthful reporting by project companies, and evaluate the relative cost and effectiveness of the subsidy and the bonus. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 228–247, 2015     

Automated integration of real-time and non-real-time defense systems

Various application domains require the integration of distributed real-time or near-real-time systems with non-real-time systems.Smart cities,smart homes,ambient intelligent systems,or network-centric defense systems are among these application domains.Data Distribution Service(DDS)is a communi-cation mechanism based on Data-Centric Publish-Subscribe(DCPS)model.It is used for distributed systems with real-time operational constraints.Java Message Service(JMS)is a messaging standard for enterprise systems using Service Oriented Architecture(SOA)for non-real-time operations.JMS allows Java programs to exchange messages in a loosely coupled fashion.JMS also supports sending and receiving messages using a messaging queue and a publish-subscribe interface.In this article,we pro-pose an architecture enabling the automated integration of distributed real-time and non-real-time systems.We test our proposed architecture using a distributed Command,Control,Communications,Computers,and Intelligence(C4I)system.The system has DDS-based real-time Combat Management System components deployed to naval warships,and SOA-based non-real-time Command and Control components used at headquarters.The proposed solution enables the exchange of data between these two systems efficiently.We compare the proposed solution with a similar study.Our solution is superior in terms of automation support,ease of implementation,scalability,and performance.     

Collaborative procurement among competing buyers

Collaborative procurement emerged as one of the many initiatives for achieving improved inter‐firm coordination and collaboration. In this article, we adopt a game‐theoretical approach to study the interaction between two firms who procure jointly, but produce independently and remain competitors in a product market characterized by price‐sensitive demand. We study the underlying economics behind collaborative procurement, examine the effects of collaboration on buyer and supplier profitability, and derive conditions under which collaboration is beneficial to each participant. We find that a necessary and sufficient condition for a buyer to collaborate is to increase its sales. We identify the conditions that lead equal size buyers (i.e., consortia consisting of only large buyers or only small buyers) versus different size buyers to collaborate. We also determine the conditions that make collaboration profitable for the supplier, and show that rather than selling a large quantity to a single buyer, the supplier prefers to sell to multiple buyers in smaller quantities. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Benders decomposition with alternative multiple cuts for a multi‐product closed‐loop supply chain network design model

In this article, we consider a multi‐product closed‐loop supply chain network design problem where we locate collection centers and remanufacturing facilities while coordinating the forward and reverse flows in the network so as to minimize the processing, transportation, and fixed location costs. The problem of interest is motivated by the practice of an original equipment manufacturer in the automotive industry that provides service parts for vehicle maintenance and repair. We provide an effective problem formulation that is amenable to efficient Benders reformulation and an exact solution approach. More specifically, we develop an efficient dual solution approach to generate strong Benders cuts, and, in addition to the classical single Benders cut approach, we propose three different approaches for adding multiple Benders cuts. These cuts are obtained via dual problem disaggregation based either on the forward and reverse flows, or the products, or both. We present computational results which illustrate the superior performance of the proposed solution methodology with multiple Benders cuts in comparison to the branch‐and‐cut approach as well as the traditional Benders decomposition approach with a single cut. In particular, we observe that the use of multiple Benders cuts generates stronger lower bounds and promotes faster convergence to optimality. We also observe that if the model parameters are such that the different costs are not balanced, but, rather, are biased towards one of the major cost categories (processing, transportation or fixed location costs), the time required to obtain the optimal solution decreases considerably when using the proposed solution methodology as well as the branch‐and‐cut approach. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

The concept of logistics derived from Clausewitz: All that is required so that the fighting force can be taken as a given

This article assesses the existing literature on logistics in war, concluding that there is no satisfactory conceptual definition of logistics. It proposes a concept of logistics derived from Clausewitz's theory of war to fill that void. This is presented as a derivation because Clausewitz's distinction between (1) the use of the fighting forces (tactics and strategy) and (2) all other activities in war that were required so that forces could be taken as a given. The latter, left unnamed by Clausewitz, corresponds to a concept of logistics that proves to be an analytical peer to Clausewitz's categories of politics, tactics and strategy.     

The Challe Plan: Vain Yet Indispensable Victory

On April 23, 1960, General Maurice Challe left Algiers and his position as Commander in Chief there, having achieved a rapid military victory over the rebellion within Algeria. As an airman at the head of an essentially ground force engaged since 1954 in counter-insurgency warfare, he had within 16 months gained the military success everyone deemed indispensable. It proved a vain victory though over an enemy already made irrelevant by rapid developments on the national and international political stage. The enemy, Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), was a two-tiered organization. In accordance with revolutionary doctrine, the military branch, the Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN), supported the political arm, the Organisation Politico-Administrative (OPA), and in this case all operated both inside Algeria and in exile. The strength of the FLN over the course of the conflict had shifted externally to Algeria, particularly under Houari Boumedienne's leadership in Tunis. The major portion of the ALN its Tunisian sanctuary had gradually renounced the costly support of its internal units and chosen to wait in exile for further developments. The freshly formed Gouvernement Provisoire de la Republique Algerienne (GPRA), also in Tunis, had managed to obtain international recognition, and with this development the war within Algeria lost its decisive character. From an operational perspective though, the Challe Plan belongs to the list of military successes. Four years into a fight of limited tactical and strategic accomplishments, Challe, through his imagination and energy, was able to achieve victory within his short assignment with the resources at hand. Just how he accomplished this feat, as we shall see, is a fascinating example of a successful ‘small war’.     

Approximation algorithms for sequential batch‐testing of series systems

We introduce and study a generalization of the classic sequential testing problem, asking to identify the correct state of a given series system that consists of independent stochastic components. In this setting, costly tests are required to examine the state of individual components, which are sequentially tested until the correct system state can be uniquely identified. The goal is to propose a policy that minimizes the expected testing cost, given a‐priori probabilistic information on the stochastic nature of each individual component. Unlike the classic setting, where variables are tested one after the other, we allow multiple tests to be conducted simultaneously, at the expense of incurring an additional set‐up cost. The main contribution of this article consists in showing that the batch testing problem can be approximated in polynomial time within factor , for any fixed . In addition, we explain how, in spite of its highly nonlinear objective function, the batch testing problem can be formulated as an approximate integer program of polynomial size, while blowing up its expected cost by a factor of at most . Finally, we conduct extensive computational experiments, to demonstrate the practical effectiveness of these algorithms as well as to evaluate their limitations. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 275–286, 2016     

A Criterion for Settling Inconsistencies in Clausewitz’s On War

On War’s unfinished state has been a source of difficulties for interpretation for 180 years. By establishing a hierarchy of revision among the parts, we propose a criterion that can bring any part of On War in line with the most advanced stage of Clausewitz’s thinking. We exemplify the utility, illustrate the underpinnings and appreciate the potential of this criterion. We argue that the criterion offers the prospect of a shared, coherent, fully consistent and faithful rendering of Clausewitz’s theory of war.