Equipment replacement under technological change

For infinite-horizon replacement economy problems it is common practice to truncate the problem at some finite horizon. We develop bounds on the error due to such a truncation. These bounds differ from previous results in that they include both revenues and costs. Bounds are illustrated through a numerical example from a real case in vehicle replacement. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

基于BP神经网络的雷达网抗干扰性能综合评估

在分析目前综合评估雷达网抗干扰性能时遇到困难后,探讨了利用BP人工神经网络良好的非线性函数逼近特性来解决这一问题的可行性,并分析了在用这种方法建模评估的过程中需要注意的各种问题;其中侧重对在具体构造评估模型时输入输出评估指标集的确定方法和模型的训练验证方法进行了研究,并进一步分析了建立的模型可能的用途。最后指出这种思路也可以推广到对类似的复杂信息系统的综合评估中。     

影响武器装备维修质量的基本要素分析

制约、影响维修质量的因素是多方面的.从武器装备系统的全寿命过程出发,将影响维修质量的基本要素概括为7个方面即维修人员素质、维修设备与设施的状况、装配工艺、维修生产环境、原材料、备品备件的质量、维修管理制度等.通过具体研究、分析影响维修质量的这些因素及其特征量,指明这是实现维修质量管理和评定目标的必经之路,只有影响因素明确了,才能有的放矢地对维修质量进行管理、控制与评定.     

三参数威布尔分布在寿命分析中的参数估计

威布尔分布在可靠性工程中已得到了广泛的应用.在对己给定的寿命试验数据进行可靠性分析与评估中,因简单易解多采用二参数威布尔分布,但参数估计会带来较大误差.对具有以损耗失效为特征的某些机械零部件,采用三参数威布尔分布进行拟合及参数估计,可以得到更高的精度,因而较二参数威布尔分布,更能反映产品可靠性的实际情况.     

An interactive optimization system for bulk-cargo ship scheduling

This article considers the efficient scheduling of a fleet of ships engaged in pickup and delivery of bulk cargoes. Our optimization system begins by generating a menu of candidate schedules for each ship. This menu can contain all feasible solutions, which guarantees we will find an optimal solution or can be heuristically limited to contain only those schedules likely to be in an optimal solution. The problem of choosing from this menu an optimal schedule for the fleet is formulated as a set-packing problem and solved with a dual algorithm. Computational experience is presented based on real data obtained from the Military Sealift Command of the U. S. Navy. Run times for this data were reasonable and solutions were generated with the potential of saving up to about $30 million per year over the manual system currently in place. We also describe a color-graphics interface developed to facilitate interaction with the optimization system.     

On the robustness of the modified beta distribution for acceptance sampling in statistical quality control

The purpose of this article is to examine the robustness of the modified Beta distribution as a probability distribution of lot fraction defectives in Bayesian acceptance sampling for statistical quality control. In complex manufacturing systems, a production process may consist of multiple production stages in a serial or nonserial fashion. Hence, inputs to a production station can be a result of subassembly of several inputs, or outputs of some inspection stations for some prior work stages. We investigate the effectiveness of the modified Beta distribution as an approximation to the lot fraction defectives probability of inputs at intermediate work stations. The robustness of the modified Beta distribution simplifies both the determination of the optimal sampling plan for acceptance sampling, and the calibration of distributions resulted from subassembly or inspection operations in complex manufacturing systems.     

Approximate semieconomic design of control charts with multiple control limtis

Statistical quality control of complicated production processes subject to a multiplicity of assignable causes may require the utilization of control charts with multiple control limits. This article presents an approximate semieconomic design of such charts, which is easily implementable in practical situations. Evaluations of the semieconomic control chart design show that the proposed approximate method results in solutions that are very close to the true optima and can be obtained with minimal computational effort.     

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.