Note: Minimizing the variability of the waiting times in a globally gated elevator polling system

A polling system comprising n queues and a single server is considered. Service is performed according to an elevator scheme under the globally gated regime. The problem of arranging the channels to minimize a measure of the variability of the waiting times is addressed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 44: 605–611, 1997     

A time dependent continuous review inventory model with compound poisson demand

We discuss a time dependent optimal ordering policy for a finite horizon inventory system for which the provision of service is essential and thus no stockout is allowed. It is assumed that the system can place an order at any point in time during the horizon when it cannot meet the customer's demand and that lead time is negligible. The demand is considered to be distributed as a compound Poisson process with known parameters and the functional equation approach of dynamic programming is used to formulate the objective function. An algorithm has been developed to obtain the solution for all the cases. In addition, analytical solutions of the basic equation under two limiting conditions are presented.     

An optimum multiechelon repair policy and stockage model

Currently, sophisticated multiechelon models compute stockage quantities for spares and repair parts that will minimize total inventory investment while achieving a target level of weapon system operational availability. The maintenance policies to be followed are input to the stockage models. The Optimum Allocation of Test Equipment/Manpower Evaluated Against Logistics (OATMEAL) model will determine optimum maintenance as well as stockage policies for a weapon system. Specifically, it will determine at which echelon each maintenance function should be performed, including an option for component or module throwaway. Test equipment requirements to handle work load at each echelon are simultaneously optimized. Mixed-integer programming (MIP) combined with a Lagrangian approach are used to do the constrained cost minimization, that is, to minimize all costs dependent on maintenance and stockage policies while achieving a target weapons system operational availability. Real-life test cases are included.     

Fatigue crack propagation in a helicopter component subjected to impact damage

Damage tolerant methodology is increasingly used in aeronautical components,especially due the fact that the Aviation Regulation requires such an assessment in case an accidental damage occurs.At pre-sent,there is a strong and actual interest in applying such procedures to helicopter components that are subjected to high frequency cyclic loads.In this paper,an investigation on a damaged transmission shaft for a tail rotor transmission of an actual helicopter has been carried out focusing on the fatigue crack propagation.A complete sequence of experimental tests was performed in order to create an actual ballistic damage and to subsequently check the damage tolerant behaviour.The shaft was damaged by oblique ballistic impact and was subsequently subjected to torsional fatigue loading.During the fatigue cycles several cracks propagated from the ballistic damages.Both of these steps(impact and fatigue loading)were also simulated by a complex modelling approach based on Finite Element Models and fracture mechanics theory.The comparison between the experimental and numerical results shows a good agreement but it underlines the need for a very refined modelling technique capable to replicate all the features associated with the damage in order to reliably simulate the subsequent propagation phase.     

Numerical simulation of warhead transportation

The new numerical approach for analysis of the warhead transportations is suggested.This approach allows to control the warhead operability before its experimental analysis.The approach is implemented by the adequate models for the software ANSYS.Analysis of the loads at land operations and trans-portations of the warhead by natural roads,water and aviation allows to obtain the maximal values of loads,which are used in numerical simulations of the warhead.These loads give an opportunity to analyze the operability and the fatigue strength of the cartridge warhead.The numerical simulations of the attachments of the warhead combat elements are performed on the basis of the suggested method.The data of the numerical simulations verifies the operability of the fastener system of the warhead combat elements.     

A two-machine repair model with variable repair rate

A two-unit cold standby production system with one repairman is considered. After inspection of a failed unit the repairman chooses either a slow or a fast repair rate to carry out the corresponding amount of work. At system breakdown the repairman has an additional opportunity to switch to the fast rate. If there are no fixed costs associated with system breakdowns, then the policy which minimizes longrun average costs is shown to be a two-dimensional control limit rule. If fixed costs are incurred every time the system breaks down, then the optimal policy is not necessarily of control limit type. This is illustrated by a counterexample. Furthermore, we present several performance measures for this maintenance system controlled by a two-dimensional control limit rule. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Note: “Simultaneous optimization of efficiency and performance balance measures in single-machine scheduling problems”

n independent jobs are to be scheduled nonpreemptively on a single machine so as to minimize some performance measure. Federgruen and Mosheiov [2] show that a large class of such scheduling problems can be optimized by solving either a single instance or a finite sequence of instances of the so-called SQC problem, in which all the jobs have a fixed or controllable common due date and the sum of general quasiconvex functions of the job completion times is to be minimized. In this note we point out that this is not always true. In particular, we show that the algorithm proposed in [2] does not always find a global optimal schedule to the problem of minimizing the weighted sum of the mean and variance of job completion times. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.