Dynamic regulation on innovation and adoption of green technology with information asymmetry

This study investigates a regulator's dynamic policy to motivate firms' research on and adoption of green technology. In the proposed model, a firm makes unobservable efforts and can hide the technology's arrival from the regulator to avoid adoption costs. We find that the optimal policy follows a simple structure and induces part-time efforts, rather than the maximal effort reported in previous studies. In particular, the regulator should offer no subsidy before the arrival of a technology report, provide a one-time subsidy contingent upon that report, and always set a termination deadline. At the deadline, the firm is forced to select an external option that is associated with social costs. The optimal report-based subsidy decreases with time. Under the optimal policy, the firm works until an effort deadline, makes no effort thereafter, and reports the technology as soon as it arrives. This study also characterizes the necessary and sufficient conditions under which the optimal policy reduces to one that leads, in terms of throughout time, to effort that is maximal or minimal. Our results indicate that policymakers should implement a policy that compensates firms more in the present and less in the future.     

Dynamic order acceptance and capacity planning on a single bottleneck resource

We present a tactical decision model for order acceptance and capacity planning that maximizes the expected profits from accepted orders, allowing for aggregate regular as well as nonregular capacity. The stream of incoming order arrivals is the main source of uncertainty in dynamic order acceptance and the company only has forecasts of the main properties of the future incoming projects. Project proposals arrive sequentially with deterministic interarrival times and a decision on order acceptance and capacity planning needs to be made each time a proposal arrives and its project characteristics are revealed. We apply stochastic dynamic programming to determine a profit threshold for the accept/reject decision as well as to deterministically allocate a single bottleneck resource to the accepted projects, both with an eye on maximizing the expected revenues within the problem horizon. We derive a number of managerial insights based on an analysis of the influence of project and environmental characteristics on optimal project selection and aggregate capacity usage. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

海洋环境监测平行系统优化融合

多个海洋环境监测系统之间存在的功能冗余导致资源浪费和不必要的资金投入,因此应将各个系统优化融合成有机整体来节约海洋环境监测的资源和成本。将海洋环境监测系统按照功能划分为不同的模块,在线性规划融合的基础上引入熵方法,以成本和效能指标为主要对象,通过合理分配,在确保系统优化融合后监测能力不降低的同时,尽量减少建设成本。     

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.     

Allocation of quality improvement targets based on investments in learning

Purchased materials often account for more than 50% of a manufacturer's product nonconformance cost. A common strategy for reducing such costs is to allocate periodic quality improvement targets to suppliers of such materials. Improvement target allocations are often accomplished via ad hoc methods such as prescribing a fixed, across‐the‐board percentage improvement for all suppliers, which, however, may not be the most effective or efficient approach for allocating improvement targets. We propose a formal modeling and optimization approach for assessing quality improvement targets for suppliers, based on process variance reduction. In our models, a manufacturer has multiple product performance measures that are linear functions of a common set of design variables (factors), each of which is an output from an independent supplier's process. We assume that a manufacturer's quality improvement is a result of reductions in supplier process variances, obtained through learning and experience, which require appropriate investments by both the manufacturer and suppliers. Three learning investment (cost) models for achieving a given learning rate are used to determine the allocations that minimize expected costs for both the supplier and manufacturer and to assess the sensitivity of investment in learning on the allocation of quality improvement targets. Solutions for determining optimal learning rates, and concomitant quality improvement targets are derived for each learning investment function. We also account for the risk that a supplier may not achieve a targeted learning rate for quality improvements. An extensive computational study is conducted to investigate the differences between optimal variance allocations and a fixed percentage allocation. These differences are examined with respect to (i) variance improvement targets and (ii) total expected cost. For certain types of learning investment models, the results suggest that orders of magnitude differences in variance allocations and expected total costs occur between optimal allocations and those arrived at via the commonly used rule of fixed percentage allocations. However, for learning investments characterized by a quadratic function, there is surprisingly close agreement with an “across‐the‐board” allocation of 20% quality improvement targets. © John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 48: 684–709, 2001     

How not to pay for the war

As a result of allied subsidy and the influence of sunk costs, the marginal cost of the Gulf War to the US was reduced to negligible size. This result is at variance with the Olson‐Zeckhauser thesis that in an alliance “the small exploit the large.” A game theoretic alternative explanation suggests that the relation between allies resembles the game of Chicken, successfully played by the US. The ability to shift the marginal costs of war in the short term raises questions about the possible underestimation of long term effects.     

Time-cost tradeoffs in uncertain empirical research projects

This paper explores the relationship between research project cost and expected time to completion under various scheduling strategies; it assumes that many potential technical approaches to the research problem can be identified; and that each approach has a low but finite subjective probability of success. It is shown that under a variety of assumptions, expected time to project completion can be reduced, but that as a result expected project cost rises at an increasing rate. Some cases in which this convex time-cost tradeoff relationship might not hold generally are identified. When the time-cost tradeoff function is convex, the desirability of concurrent as opposed to series scheduling of approaches depends crucially upon the depth of the stream of benefits expected to be realized upon successful project completion. The deeper the benefit stream is, the more desirable concurrent scheduling is.     

An inventory model of incentives for on-time delivery in just-in-time purchasing contracts

This article formulates an analytic model of just-in-time purchasing contracts and compares the minimum cost solution with the cost attainable through vertical integration. The models use standard inventory theory cost parameters and decision variables. The results quantify the increase in cost of buying an item rather than making it. Optimal incentives are characterized when JIT purchasing contracts are used. When JIT purchasing is implemented, buffer inventories are typically reduced. This inventory reduction makes on-time delivery critical to the buyer; yet timeliness is controlled by the supplier. As an incentive to provide on-time delivery, the buyer offers the supplier a bonus for on-time delivery. The supplier chooses a flow time allowance based upon the bonus offered. First- and second-order conditions are characterized in general, and examples are provided for exponentially and uniformly distributed flow times. The delivery timeliness obtainable in a vertically integrated firm is determined and compared with timeliness obtainable between separate firms. This comparison indicates that buyers who choose to purchase materials from a separate firm are more likely to experience late deliveries. The relationship between the value of the bonus and the proportion of on-time deliveries is also considered. The bonus required to achieve the same probability of on-time delivery as under vertical integration is also determined. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

间歇采样转发假目标对CFAR检测影响分析

分析间歇采样转发形成的假目标干扰对雷达CFAR检测的影响和间歇采样转发假目标生成机理,给出间歇采样转发假目标产生方法。在此基础上,以雷达一次搜索周期内虚警、漏警造成的检测代价作为检测性能指标,分别分析单元平均恒虚警检测器、有序恒虚警检测器、剔除和平均恒虚警检测器在间歇采样转发假目标干扰下的检测代价。着重分析间歇采样转发干扰关键参数对检测代价的影响。仿真结果表明,间歇采样转发产生的多个假目标显著提高了雷达的检测代价,检测代价受转发占空比、转发功率的影响较大,而受转发频率影响较小。在三种恒虚警检测器的对比中,剔除和平均恒虚警检测器相对于另两种检测器的检测代价更大些。     

Lot sizing when yields increase during the production run

We investigate the problem of determining lot sizes for multiple items when the expected percentage of acceptable output increases with the duration of the production run, usually due to adjustments made during the early part of the production run. Such problems arise in metal stamping, textile finishing processes, and a variety of other industries. The goal is to minimize the total cost of production, inventory holding costs, and setup costs (where applicable). We develop a heuristic procedure based on a Lagrangian relaxation that differs from relaxations used in earlier studies. We use various properties of the objective function to guide the adjustment of the initial solution from the relaxation toward feasibility. Computational results indicate that, on the average, the heuristic produces solutions within 4.9% of the lower bound obtained from the Lagrangian relaxation. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

化学实验废液的危害及其处理方法

通过对不同化学实验产生的废液的分析研究,提出了一些简单易行的化学实验废液的处理方法,便于学生实际操作,可减少对环境的污染,有助提高学生的环保意识。     

Setting military reenlistment bonuses

The United States military frequently has difficulty retaining enlisted personnel beyond their initial enlistment. A bonus program within each service, called a Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB) program, seeks to enhance reenlistments and thus reduce personnel shortages in critical military occupational specialties (MOSs). The amount of bonus is set by assigning “SRB multipliers” to each MOS. We develop a nonlinear integer program to select multipliers which minimize a function of deviations from desired reenlistment targets. A Lagrangian relaxation of a linearized version of the integer program is used to obtain lower bounds and feasible solutions. The best feasible solution, discovered in a coordinate search of the Lagrangian function, is heuristically improved by apportioning unexpended funds. For large problems a heuristic variable reduction is employed to speed model solution. U.S. Army data and requirements for FY87 yield a 0-1 integer program with 12,992 binary variables and 273 constraints, which is solved within 0.00002% of optimality on an IBM 3033AP in less than 1.7 seconds. More general models with up to 463,000 binary variables are solved, on average, to within 0.009% of optimality in less than 1.8 minutes. The U.S. Marine Corps has used a simpler version of this model since 1986. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

基于信息态势共享的编队反导目标分配方案优化

在编队目标信息态势实现共享的条件下,可实现网络化防空反导作战的常规作战样式,对目标进行集中统一分配,如何形成最优化分配方案,是防空反导作战指挥决策中的关键。在给定目标来袭态势下,根据编队目标分配原则,可形成多种目标分配初始方案,先后采用了基于负载平衡和基于任务有利度方法,对目标分配方案进行优化。优化所得方案有利度的均方根最大,目标来袭密度的均方根最小,可作为下一步编队组织使用火力通道的依据。     

The dynamic and stochastic knapsack Problem with homogeneous‐sized items and postponement options

This article generalizes the dynamic and stochastic knapsack problem by allowing the decision‐maker to postpone the accept/reject decision for an item and maintain a queue of waiting items to be considered later. Postponed decisions are penalized with delay costs, while idle capacity incurs a holding cost. This generalization addresses applications where requests of scarce resources can be delayed, for example, dispatching in logistics and allocation of funding to investments. We model the problem as a Markov decision process and analyze it through dynamic programming. We show that the optimal policy with homogeneous‐sized items possesses a bithreshold structure, despite the high dimensionality of the decision space. Finally, the value (or price) of postponement is illustrated through numerical examples. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 267–292, 2015     

Optimal cutoff strategies in capacity expansion problems

Capacity expansion refers to the process of adding facilities or manpower to meet increasing demand. Typical capacity expansion decisions are characterized by uncertain demand forecasts and uncertainty in the eventual cost of expansion projects. This article models capacity expansion within the framework of piecewise deterministic Markov processes and investigates the problem of controlling investment in a succession of same type projects in order to meet increasing demand with minimum cost. In particular, we investigate the optimality of a class of investment strategies called cutoff strategies. These strategies have the property that there exists some undercapacity level M such that the strategy invests at the maximum available rate at all levels above M and does not invest at any level below M. Cutoff strategies are appealing because they are straightforward to implement. We determine conditions on the undercapacity penalty function that ensure the existence of optimal cutoff strategies when the cost of completing a project is exponentially distributed. A by-product of the proof is an algorithm for determining the optimal strategy and its cost. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

给定人员情况下最小化开发时间和成本的软件项目调度

给出了一种软件项目的随机调度模型.它明确地把调度策略作为输入,一旦调度策略确定,模型就可以输出关于项目的完成时间或成本的一个概率分布.利用随机最优化技术,能够计算出软件项目的一个调度策略,它使得项目在人员给定的情况下开发时间和成本最小.     

无线传感器网络在海防工程结构健康监测中的应用

海防工程是海军赢得非接触、非对称作战胜利和保存作战潜力的重要硬件基础,将关系到海军作战装备战斗力的发挥,直接影响作战的进程与结局。因此,海防工程结构健康监测系统正成为军内学术界和工程界的研究热点。无线传感器网络由于安装方便、维护成本低和部署灵活等特点,已被广泛应用于各类工程结构健康监测系统中。本文阐述了基于无线传感器网络的海防工程结构健康监测系统提出的背景、基本概念和构成体系,通过模拟部署舰艇洞库结构健康监测系统,协作地实时感知和采集洞库结构信息及环境数据,从而实现海防工程、信息网络和后勤管理的无缝衔接,形成一体化保障能力。     

The resource constrained project scheduling problem with multiple crashable modes: An exact solution method

We introduce a formulation and an exact solution method for a nonpreemptive resource constrained project scheduling problem in which the duration/cost of an activity is determined by the mode selection and the duration reduction (crashing) within the mode. This problem is a natural combination of the time/cost tradeoff problem and the resource constrained project scheduling problem. It involves the determination, for each activity, of its resource requirements, the extent of crashing, and its start time so that the total project cost is minimized. We present a branch and bound procedure and report computational results with a set of 160 problems. Computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of our procedure. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 48: 107–127, 2001     

THE SUPPLY PRICE OF COMMITMENT: EVIDENCE FROM THE AIR FORCE ENLISTMENT BONUS PROGRAM

In fiscal year 1999, the US Air Force introduced a bonus program designed to encourage longer enlistment terms. This regime shift provides a unique opportunity to estimate the elasticity of labor supply at a new margin: the length of the employment contract. A $5000 bonus differential is estimated to increase the probability that a recruit will choose a 6‐year enlistment over a 4‐year enlistment by 30 percentage points. The program is found to be cost‐effective relative to other policies to increase man‐years.     

An efficient metaheuristic for integrated scheduling and staffing IT projects based on a generalized minimum cost flow network

Scheduling IT projects and assigning the project work to human resources are an important and common tasks in almost any IT service company. It is particularly complex because human resources usually have multiple skills. Up to now only little work has considered IT‐specific properties of the project structure and human resources. In this article, we present an optimization model that simultaneously schedules the activities of multiple IT projects with serial network structures and assigns the project work to multiskilled internal and external human resources with different efficiencies. The goal is to minimize costs. We introduce a metaheuristic that decomposes the problem into a binary scheduling problem and a continuous staffing problem where the latter is solved efficiently by exploiting its underlying network structure. For comparison, we solve the mixed–binary linear program with a state–of–the–art commercial solver. The impacts of problem parameters on computation time and solution gaps between the metaheuristic and the solver are assessed in an experimental study. Our results show that the metaheuristic provides very favorable results in considerable less time than the solver for midsize problems. For larger problems, it shows a similar performance while the solver fails to return feasible solutions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 59: 111–127, 2012