Optimal and asymptotically optimal policies for assemble‐to‐order n‐ and W‐systems

We consider two specially structured assemble‐to‐order (ATO) systems—the N‐ and W‐systems—under continuous review, stochastic demand, and nonidentical component replenishment leadtimes. Using a hybrid approach that combines sample‐path analysis, linear programming, and the tower property of conditional expectation, we characterize the optimal component replenishment policy and common‐component allocation rule, present comparative statics of the optimal policy parameters, and show that some commonly used heuristic policies can lead to significant optimality loss. The optimality results require certain symmetry in the cost parameters. In the absence of this symmetry, we show that, for systems with high demand volume, the asymptotically optimal policy has essentially the same structure; otherwise, the optimal policies have no clear structure. For these latter systems, we develop heuristic policies and show their effectiveness. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 617–645, 2015     

A theoretical justification for an increasing average failure rate strength distribution in fibrous composites

A general model for the failure of fibrous composite materials is described. It is shown to contain some of the well-known models in the literature. The composite material is viewed as a coherent system of independent identically distributed component strengths. Under the assumption that the applied load is redistributed “homotonically” to the unfailed components upon the failure of a component (an individual fiber segment) and that the distributions of component strengths are IFRA, it is shown that the system (composite) strength distribution is also IFRA. Examples are given using carbon reinforced composite data to illustrate the IFRA property.     

An application of the MTP2 property on bounds on system reliability

This paper is concerned with the joint prior distribution of the dependent reliabilities of the components of a binary system. When this distribution is MTP₂ (Multivariate Totally Positive of Order 2), it is shown in general that this actually makes the machinery of Natvig and Eide [7] available to arrive at the posterior distribution of the system's reliability, based on data both at the component and system level. As an illustration in a common environmental stress case, the joint prior distribution of the reliabilities is shown to have the MTP₂ property. We also show, similarly to Gåsemyr and Natvig [3], for the case of independent components given component reliabilities how this joint prior distribution may be based on the combination of expert opinions. A specific system is finally treated numerically. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 44: 741–755, 1997     

Dynamic signatures and their use in comparing the reliability of new and used systems

The signature of a system with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) component lifetimes is a vector whose ith element is the probability that the ith component failure is fatal to the system. System signatures have been found to be quite useful tools in the study and comparison of engineered systems. In this article, the theory of system signatures is extended to versions of signatures applicable in dynamic reliability settings. It is shown that, when a working used system is inspected at time t and it is noted that precisely k failures have occurred, the vector s [0,1]^n‐k whose jth element is the probability that the (k + j)th component failure is fatal to the system, for j = 1,2,2026;,n ‐ k, is a distribution‐free measure of the design of the residual system. Next, known representation and preservation theorems for system signatures are generalized to dynamic versions. Two additional applications of dynamic signatures are studied in detail. The well‐known “new better than used” (NBU) property of aging systems is extended to a uniform (UNBU) version, which compares systems when new and when used, conditional on the known number of failures. Sufficient conditions are given for a system to have the UNBU property. The application of dynamic signatures to the engineering practice of “burn‐in” is also treated. Specifically, we consider the comparison of new systems with working used systems burned‐in to a given ordered component failure time. In a reliability economics framework, we illustrate how one might compare a new system to one successfully burned‐in to the kth component failure, and we identify circumstances in which burn‐in is inferior (or is superior) to the fielding of a new system. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009     

国防知识产权运营市场化研究

提高国防知识产权转化应用水平,关键是解决制约国防知识产权转化应用的体制机制问题。可借鉴普通知识产权运营经验,以市场化方式促进国防知识产权运营工作。针对当前运营中出现的市场失灵现象,从创新政府治理模式、引入市场机制、增强法律法规建设、搭建公共服务平台等途径入手,逐步理顺政府与市场的关系,进行国防知识产权运营市场化改革。     

Replacing nonidentical vital components to extend system life

We consider a system that depends on a single vital component. If this component fails, the system life will terminate. If the component is replaced before its failure then the system life may be extended; however, there are only a finite number of spare components. In addition, the lifetimes of these spare components are not necessarily identically distributed. We propose a model for scheduling component replacements so as to maximize the expected system survival. We find the counterintuitive result that when comparing components' general lifetime distributions based on stochastic orderings, not even the strongest ordering provides an a priori guarantee of the optimal sequencing of components. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

A proof for the longest-job-first policy in one-machine scheduling

We consider a one-machine scheduling problem with earliness and tardiness penalties. All jobs are assigned a common due date and the objective is to minimize the total penalty due to job earliness and tardiness. We are interested in finding the optimal combination of the common due-date value and the job sequence. Despite the fact that this problem in general is very hard to solve, we prove that there exists at least a common property for all optimal solutions: The first job in an optimal sequence is one of the longest jobs. We also prove that this property holds for a general class of unimodal penalty functions.     

Progressive Type‐II censoring and coherent systems

A new connection between the distribution of component failure times of a coherent system and (adaptive) progressively Type‐II censored order statistics is established. Utilizing this property, we develop inferential procedures when the data is given by all component failures until system failure in two scenarios: In the case of complete information, we assume that the failed component is also observed whereas in the case of incomplete information, we have only information about the failure times but not about the components which have failed. In the first setting, we show that inferential methods for adaptive progressively Type‐II censored data can directly be applied to the problem. For incomplete information, we face the problem that the corresponding censoring plan is not observed and that the available inferential procedures depend on the knowledge of the used censoring plan. To get estimates for distributional parameters, we propose maximum likelihood estimators which can be obtained by solving the likelihood equations directly or via an Expectation‐Maximization‐algorithm type procedure. For an exponential distribution, we discuss also a linear estimator to estimate the mean. Moreover, we establish exact distributions for some estimators in the exponential case which can be used, for example, to construct exact confidence intervals. The results are illustrated by a five component bridge system. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 512–530, 2015     

Integrating decisions with advance supply information in an assemble-to-order system

We study a periodic-review assemble-to-order (ATO) system with multiple components and multiple products, in which the inventory replenishment for each component follows an independent base-stock policy and stochastic product demands are satisfied according to a First-Come-First-Served rule. We assume that the replenishment for various component suffers from lead time uncertainty. However, the decision maker has the so-called advance supply information (ASI) associated with the lead times and thus can take advantage of the information for system optimization. We propose a multistage stochastic integer program that incorporates ASI to address the joint optimization of inventory replenishment and component allocation. The optimal base-stock policy for the inventory replenishment is determined using the sample average approximation algorithm. Also, we provide a modified order-based component allocation (MOBCA) heuristic for the component allocation. We additionally consider a special case of the variable lead times where the resulting two-stage stochastic programming model can be characterized as a single-scenario case of the proposed multistage model. We carry out extensive computational studies to quantify the benefits of integrating ASI into joint optimization and to explore the possibility of employing the two-stage model as a relatively efficient approximation scheme for the multistage model.     

雷达抗干扰性能的测量研究

本文提出用得益矩阵对雷达抗干扰性能进行度量,对得益矩阵的建立及其在雷达抗干扰性能度量方面的应用进行了分析,并设计出一套自动测试系统,对雷达抗干扰改善因子进行测量。     

DN150装配式管线涡街流量检测装置研制

涡街流量检测技术是振动式流量仪表中应用最广泛的一种,具有测量范围宽、精度较高、重复性好、可靠性高、不受介质物性和组分变化影响、不需精细过滤、流阻小等一系列优点,特别适合在装配式输油管线上应用.介绍了DN150装配式管线涡街流量检测装置,重点介绍研制中解决的几个关键技术问题.     

A dynamic model for component testing

We consider the component testing problem of a system where the main feature is that the component failure rates are not constant parameters, but they change in a dynamic fashion with respect to time. More precisely, each component has a piecewise-constant failure-rate function such that the lifetime distribution is exponential with a constant rate over local intervals of time within the overall mission time. There are several such intervals, and the rates change dynamically from one interval to another. We note that these lifetime distributions can also be used in a more general setting to approximate arbitrary lifetime distributions. The optimal component testing problem is formulated as a semi-infinite linear program. We present an algorithmic procedure to compute optimal test times based on the column-generation technique and illustrate it with a numerical example. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 44: 187–197, 1997     

Stein–Chen approximation and error bounds for order fill rates in assemble‐to‐order systems

Assemble‐to‐order (ATO) is an important operational strategy for manufacturing firms to achieve quick response to customer orders while keeping low finished good inventories. This strategy has been successfully used not only by manufacturers (e.g., Dell, IBM) but also by retailers (e.g., Amazon.com). The evaluation of order‐based performance is known to be an important but difficult task, and the existing literature has been mainly focused on stochastic comparison to obtain performance bounds. In this article, we develop an extremely simple Stein–Chen approximation as well as its error‐bound for order‐based fill rate for a multiproduct multicomponent ATO system with random leadtimes to replenish components. This approximation gives an expression for order‐based fill rate in terms of component‐based fill rates. The approximation has the property that the higher the component replenishment leadtime variability, the smaller the error bound. The result allows an operations manager to analyze the improvement in order‐based fill rates when the base‐stock level for any component changes. Numerical studies demonstrate that the approximation performs well, especially when the demand processes of different components are highly correlated; when the components have high base‐stock levels; or when the component replenishment leadtimes have high variability. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012     

Optimal FCFS allocation rules for periodic‐review assemble‐to‐order systems

In Assemble‐To‐Order (ATO) systems, situations may arise in which customer demand must be backlogged due to a shortage of some components, leaving available stock of other components unused. Such unused component stock is called remnant stock. Remnant stock is a consequence of both component ordering decisions and decisions regarding allocation of components to end‐product demand. In this article, we examine periodic‐review ATO systems under linear holding and backlogging costs with a component installation stock policy and a First‐Come‐First‐Served (FCFS) allocation policy. We show that the FCFS allocation policy decouples the problem of optimal component allocation over time into deterministic period‐by‐period optimal component allocation problems. We denote the optimal allocation of components to end‐product demand as multimatching. We solve the multi‐matching problem by an iterative algorithm. In addition, an approximation scheme for the joint replenishment and allocation optimization problem with both upper and lower bounds is proposed. Numerical experiments for base‐stock component replenishment policies show that under optimal base‐stock policies and optimal allocation, remnant stock holding costs must be taken into account. Finally, joint optimization incorporating optimal FCFS component allocation is valuable because it provides a benchmark against which heuristic methods can be compared. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 158–169, 2015     

On matched active redundancy allocation for coherent systems with statistically dependent component lifetimes

This study addresses the allocation of matched active redundancy components to coherent systems with base components having statistically dependent lifetimes. We consider base component lifetimes and redundancy component lifetimes which are both stochastic arrangement monotone with respect to a pair of components given the lifetimes of the other components. In this context, allocating a more reliable redundancy component to the weaker base component is shown to incur a stochastically larger system lifetime. Numerical examples are presented as an illustration of the theoretical results.     

Requirements planning for modular products

The focus of this paper is on determining the requirements of different component options of a modular end‐product in an uncertain environment. We explicitly model two distinct sources of uncertainty: stochastic end‐product demand and unknown market proportions for the different product options available. Our cost minimizing model focuses on determining the optimal requirements policies for component options that meet a pre‐set service level. We show that simple common‐sense requirements policies are not generally optimal; there is a non‐linear connection between service level and component requirements that is hard to characterize without a detailed analysis. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

Maintenance scheduling for modular systems: Modeling and algorithms

We study new models of scheduled maintenance management for modular systems, consisting of multiple components with respective cycle limits. The cycle limit of each component specifies the time interval in which this component must be repaired or replaced. The goal is to compute a feasible maintenance schedule that minimizes the cost associated with component maintenance. Applications of these models arise in Air Force aircraft maintenance as well as in other arenas with required preventive maintenance. The typical cost structures that arise in practical settings are submodular, which make the resulting models computationally challenging. We develop two efficient and operationally tenable approximation algorithms. We prove constant factor worst‐case guarantees for both algorithms, and present computational experiments showing that these algorithms perform within a few percent of optimality on operationally relevant instances. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 472–488, 2014     

An adaptive dynamic programming algorithm for a stochastic multiproduct batch dispatch problem

We address the problem of dispatching a vehicle with different product classes. There is a common dispatch cost, but holding costs that vary by product class. The problem exhibits multidimensional state, outcome and action spaces, and as a result is computationally intractable using either discrete dynamic programming methods, or even as a deterministic integer program. We prove a key structural property for the decision function, and exploit this property in the development of continuous value function approximations that form the basis of an approximate dispatch rule. Comparisons on single product‐class problems, where optimal solutions are available, demonstrate solutions that are within a few percent of optimal. The algorithm is then applied to a problem with 100 product classes, and comparisons against a carefully tuned myopic heuristic demonstrate significant improvements. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 50: 742–769, 2003.     

Managing components for assemble‐to‐order products with lead‐time‐dependent pricing: The full‐shipment model

We study a component inventory planning problem in an assemble‐to‐order environment faced by many contract manufacturers in which both quick delivery and efficient management of component inventory are crucial for the manufacturers to achieve profitability in a highly competitive market. Extending a recent study in a similar problem setting by the same authors, we analyze an optimization model for determining the optimal component stocking decision for a contract manufacturer facing an uncertain future demand, where product price depends on the delivery times. In contrast to our earlier work, this paper considers the situation where the contract manufacturer needs to deliver the full order quantity in one single shipment. This delivery requirement is appropriate for many industries, such as the garment and toy industries, where the economies of scale in transportation is essential. We develop efficient solution procedures for solving this optimization problem. We use our model results to illustrate how the different model parameters affect the optimal solution. We also compare the results under this full‐shipment model with those from our earlier work that allows for multiple partial shipments. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

应用离子镀技术增加炮管寿命的一种工艺

从离子镀技术的基本原理、试验数据入手,探讨了采用多弧离子镀技术镀制大口径炮管的工作原理,并介绍了炮管镀膜设备的基本结构。试验结果表明,镀膜后的炮管,其表面硬度可提高6～9倍、耐磨性提高4倍以上,耐蚀性可达A级,防腐性能比其它方法高9倍以上。从而可有效地提高炮管的使用寿命和贮存可靠性。