Probabilistic a priori routing-location problems

In many routing-location models customers located at nodes of a network generate calls for service with known probabilities. The customers that request service in a particular day are served by a single server that performs a service tour visiting these customers. The order of providing service to customers for each potential list of calls is uniquely defined by some a priori fixed basic sequence of all the customers (a priori tour). The problems addressed in this article are to find an optimal home location or an optimal basic sequence for the server so as to minimize the expectation of a criterion. The following criteria are considered: the total waiting time of all the customers, the total length of the tour, the maximal waiting time of a customer, the average traveled length per customer, and the average waiting time per customer. We present polynomial-time algorithms for the location problems. For the routing problems we present lower bounds that can be calculated efficiently (in polynomial time) and used in a branch-and-bound scheme. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Multi-item service constrained (s,S) policies for spare parts logistics systems

Many organizations providing service support for products or families of products must allocate inventory investment among the parts (or, identically, items) that make up those products or families. The allocation decision is crucial in today's competitive environment in which rapid response and low levels of inventory are both required for providing competitive levels of customer service in marketing a firm's products. This is particularly important in high-tech industries, such as computers, military equipment, and consumer appliances. Such rapid response typically implies regional and local distribution points for final products and for spare parts for repairs. In this article we fix attention on a given product or product family at a single location. This single-location problem is the basic building block of multi-echelon inventory systems based on level-by-level decomposition, and our modeling approach is developed with this application in mind. The product consists of field-replaceable units (i.e., parts), which are to be stocked as spares for field service repair. We assume that each part will be stocked at each location according to an (s, S) stocking policy. Moreover, we distinguish two classes of demand at each location: customer (or emergency) demand and normal replenishment demand from lower levels in the multiechelon system. The basic problem of interest is to determine the appropriate policies (s_i S_i) for each part i in the product under consideration. We formulate an approximate cost function and service level constraint, and we present a greedy heuristic algorithm for solving the resulting approximate constrained optimization problem. We present experimental results showing that the heuristics developed have good cost performance relative to optimal. We also discuss extensions to the multiproduct component commonality problem.     

A dynamic-programming approach to continuous-review obsolescent inventory problems

Inventory models of modern production and service operations should take into consideration possible exogenous failures or the abrupt decline of demand resulting from obsolescence. This article analyzes continuous-review versions of the classical obsolescence problem in inventory theory. We assume a deterministic demand model and general continuous random times to obsolescence (“failure”). Using continuous dynamic programming, we investigate structural properties of the problem and propose explicit and workable solution techniques. These techniques apply to two fairly wide (and sometimes overlapping) classes of failure distributions: those which are increasing in failure rate and those which have finite support. Consequently, several specific failure processes in continuous time are given exact solutions. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 44: 757–774, 1997     

新型自控式动活性检测仪特点分析

介绍了一种新型的自控式动活性检测仪,指出了该检测仪的结构和工作原理,分析了它的试验影响因素,同时探讨了其未来研究方向。     

测试与诊断技术的发展对装备计量保障工作的影响

测试与诊断技术的发展不断提高了装备的可靠性,在为装备计量保障工作提供方便的同时,也对计量保障机构的现场保障能力和计量保障体系建设提出了更高要求。     

Maintaining systems with heterogeneous spare parts

We consider the problem of optimally maintaining a stochastically degrading, single‐unit system using heterogeneous spares of varying quality. The system's failures are unannounced; therefore, it is inspected periodically to determine its status (functioning or failed). The system continues in operation until it is either preventively or correctively maintained. The available maintenance options include perfect repair, which restores the system to an as‐good‐as‐new condition, and replacement with a randomly selected unit from the supply of heterogeneous spares. The objective is to minimize the total expected discounted maintenance costs over an infinite time horizon. We formulate the problem using a mixed observability Markov decision process (MOMDP) model in which the system's age is observable but its quality must be inferred. We show, under suitable conditions, the monotonicity of the optimal value function in the belief about the system quality and establish conditions under which finite preventive maintenance thresholds exist. A detailed computational study reveals that the optimal policy encourages exploration when the system's quality is uncertain; the policy is more exploitive when the quality is highly certain. The study also demonstrates that substantial cost savings are achieved by utilizing our MOMDP‐based method as compared to more naïve methods of accounting for heterogeneous spares.     

考虑仿真可信度的舰炮虚拟校射

为利用仿真模型在有限校射样本的条件下对校射补偿量进行合理估计,对考虑仿真可信度的舰炮虚拟校射方法进行了研究。对自适应加权贝叶斯估计方法进行了研究,一方面对仿真先验可信度的计算方法进行了分析,另一方面对考虑先验可信度的自适应加权贝叶斯估计算法进行了研究。在此基础上,结合舰炮虚拟校射的原理和需求,建立了舰炮虚拟校射诸元误差自适应加权贝叶斯估计模型。仿真验证表明:自适应加权贝叶斯估计方法能够利用试验数据对仿真模型的可信度进行有效验证并进一步实现对目标分布的有效估计;所设计的校射方法能够综合利用仿真模型和校射样本的优势,实现对诸元误差的合理估计,达到有效提高校射精度的目的。     

Some order relations in closed networks of queues with multiserver stations

Consider a closed network of queues of the “product-form” type, where each station has s servers (s ≥ 1 is identical for all stations). We show that the throughput function of the network is Schur concave with respect to the loading of the stations and arrangement increasing with respect to the assignment of server groups. Consequently, different loading/assignment policies can be compared under majorization/arrangement orderings and their relative merits decided according to the yields of throughput. The results can be used to support planning decisions in computer and production systems which are modeled as closed networks of queues.     

Can Limited Intervention Work? Lessons from Britain’s Success Story in Sierra Leone

ABSTRACT

Following frustrating campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, Western interventions are becoming more limited, with troops being deployed for short bursts and residual peace-building tasks being left to others. Although this approach limits exposure for the intervening government, it struggles to achieve meaningful political change. Examining the comparatively successful British intervention in Sierra Leone (2000–02), this article identifies the conditions for effectiveness in these campaigns. It challenges the historiography of the case by framing armed confrontations and raids as enablers of politics rather than ends in themselves; indeed, in both the conduct and study of intervention, politics must reign supreme.     

领导干部要努力提高处置突发事件的能力

领导干部要提高处置突发事件的能力,必须充分认清正确处置突发事件的重要性紧迫性;科学把握正确应对突发事件的一些重点环节;努力增强正确应对突发事件的能力素质.