Threshold incentives over multiple periods and the sales hockey stick phenomenon

In this article, we study threshold‐based sales‐force incentives and their impact on a dealer's optimal effort. A phenomenon, observed in practice, is that the dealer exerts a large effort toward the end of the incentive period to boost sales and reach the threshold to make additional profits. In the literature, the resulting last‐period sales spike is sometimes called the hockey stick phenomenon (HSP). In this article, we show that the manufacturer's choice of the incentive parameters and the underlying demand uncertainty affect the dealer's optimal effort choice. This results in the sales HSP over multiple time periods even when there is a cost associated with waiting. We then show that, by linking the threshold to a correlated market signal, the HSP can be regulated. We also characterize the variance of the total sales across all the periods and demonstrate conditions under the sales variance can be reduced. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

军事供应链不确定性产生机理研究

军事供应链中不可避免地存在不确定性。构建了军事供应链不确定性产生机理的概念模型,从需求、供应、环境三个方面分析了军事供应链不确定性产生的原因,同时,对军事供应链中可能存在的各种不确定性进行了讨论,明确了加剧不确定性影响的因素是军事供应链系统的复杂性。具体表现为军事供应链成员交互关系的复杂性和军事供应链网络结构的复杂性。提出正是由于这两个原因的存在,对军事供应链的保障性能产生了巨大的影响。     

毁歼概率积分的高精度计算

精确地计算武器系统对目标的毁歼概率是重要的。在对几种数值积分方案比较的基础上,证明了Ｇａｕｓ－Ｈｅｒｍｉｔ数值积分方案可以最少的积分点达到最高的精度,并以此方案计算了各个参数对毁歼概率的影响     

The impact of animal welfare regulations on firms' product offerings: Humane or organic product?

Increased public concerns about animal welfare have spurred new regulations to improve animals' treatment and living conditions. We study how these regulations affect firms' product offerings, prices, and profits. We consider two competing animal agriculture supply chains, each consisting of a supplier and a buyer. New regulations require firms to choose between offering humane or organic products, which are differentiated by animals' living conditions. We find that consumers' growing awareness of animal welfare encourages firms to offer organic products, which require the highest standards for animals' living conditions. We also show that tightening humane product standards and loosening organic product standards encourage firms to offer organic products—but with distinct pricing implications. The former leads to higher retail prices whereas the latter may lower retail prices. Depending on costs and consumers' awareness of animal welfare, a humane product may be priced higher or lower than an organic product. Furthermore, we provide conditions under which a regulator should offer a unit-cost or an investment cost subsidy to improve social welfare. We show that subsidies can encourage firms to change from offering humane to organic products, or vice versa, to enhance total social welfare.     

Performance analysis of queue length monitoring of M/G/1 systems

This study investigates the statistical process control application for monitoring queue length data in M/G/1 systems. Specifically, we studied the average run length (ARL) characteristics of two different control charts for detecting changes in system utilization. First, the nL chart monitors the sums of successive queue length samples by subgrouping individual observations with sample size n. Next is the individual chart with a warning zone whose control scheme is specified by two pairs of parameters, (upper control limit, d_u) and (lower control limit, d_l), as proposed by Bhat and Rao (Oper Res 20 (1972) 955–966). We will present approaches to calculate ARL for the two types of control charts using the Markov chain formulation and also investigate the effects of parameters of the control charts to provide useful design guidelines for better performance. Extensive numerical results are included for illustration. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

弹道导弹防御中多目标拦截的策略

多目标拦截是弹道导弹防御的重大难题,也是目前美国导弹防御系统所遇到的最大的技术难点。在将多目标问题分为单弹头攻击和多弹头攻击2类问题的基础上,结合美国的相关研究计划,分别针对核爆炸防御、助推段防御、先进的目标识别器和多拦截器防御等多目标拦截策略进行了分析研究。     

弹炮结合防空武器系统毁伤概率分析与仿真

针对弹炮结合防空武器系统毁伤概率是决定系统效能的关键问题,分析了决定系统精度和毁伤概率的主要因素及其相互关系.以单枚导弹对目标的毁伤概率和高炮一次点射对目标的毁伤概率为目的,建立了弹炮结合系统毁伤概率分析模型.通过计算机仿真得出了一定航路条件下对典型目标射击,高炮一个2S长的36发点射的平均毁伤概率为40%,单枚导弹的平均毁伤概率为63%.在2枚导弹和2个点射的情况下,系统总的毁伤概率可达97.8%.     

演化硬件中变异概率对进化算法首次命中时间的影响

在(1+1)EAs中,采用马尔可夫链推移时间分析法,推导出了平均首次命中时间的表达式。从理论上分析了变异概率对平均首次命中时间的影响。结果表明适当的变异概率会缩短平均首次命中时间,加快进化算法的寻优时间。     

马氏链的战术导弹发射能力评估模型

采用马氏链状态转移的方法,对战术导弹发射单元与发射阵地在作战过程中的状态变化进行了研究。在此基础上,对战术导弹在战争条件下的发射能力进行研究,建立评估战术导弹发射能力的动态模型。通过仿真试验,验证了模型的可靠性和有效性。     

A facility reliability problem: Formulation,properties, and algorithm

Having a robustly designed supply chain network is one of the most effective ways to hedge against network disruptions because contingency plans in the event of a disruption are often significantly limited. In this article, we study the facility reliability problem: how to design a reliable supply chain network in the presence of random facility disruptions with the option of hardening selected facilities. We consider a facility location problem incorporating two types of facilities, one that is unreliable and another that is reliable (which is not subject to disruption, but is more expensive). We formulate this as a mixed integer programming model and develop a Lagrangian Relaxation‐based solution algorithm. We derive structural properties of the problem and show that for some values of the disruption probability, the problem reduces to the classical uncapacitated fixed charge location problem. In addition, we show that the proposed solution algorithm is not only capable of solving large‐scale problems, but is also computationally effective. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010