Machine maintenance with workload considerations

Machine maintenance is modeled in the setting of a single‐server queue. Machine deterioration corresponds to slower service rates and failure. This leads to higher congestion and an increase in customer holding costs. The decision‐maker decides when to perform maintenance, which may be done pre‐emptively; before catastrophic failures. Similar to classic maintenance control models, the information available to the decision‐maker includes the state of the server. Unlike classic models, the information also includes the number of customers in queue. Considered are both a repair model and a replacement model. In the repair model, with random replacement times, fixed costs are assumed to be constant in the server state. In the replacement model, both constant and variable fixed costs are considered. It is shown in general that the optimal maintenance policies have switching curve structure that is monotone in the server state. However, the switching curve policies for the repair model are not always monotone in the number of customers in the queue. Numerical examples and two heuristics are also presented. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

Generation and storage dispatch in electricity networks with generator disruptions

We present methods for optimizing generation and storage decisions in an electricity network with multiple unreliable generators, each colocated with one energy storage unit (e.g., battery), and multiple loads under power flow constraints. Our model chooses the amount of energy produced by each generator and the amount of energy stored in each battery in every time period in order to minimize power generation and storage costs when each generator faces stochastic Markovian supply disruptions. This problem cannot be optimized easily using stochastic programming and/or dynamic programming approaches. Therefore, in this study, we present several heuristic methods to find an approximate optimal solution for this system. Each heuristic involves decomposing the network into several single‐generator, single‐battery, multiload systems and solving them optimally using dynamic programming, then obtaining a solution for the original problem by recombining. We discuss the computational performance of the proposed heuristics as well as insights gained from the models. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 493–511, 2015     

Force protection and society

Wars have long been fought with a firm focus upon armies' domestic contexts. These socio-political foundations have underpinned decisions regarding embarking upon war as well the conduct of war itself. Of particular importance among liberal democracies is the emphasis which is now placed upon force protection; broadly conceived as the range of measures employed to ensure the protection of servicemen and women on operations. Decisions surrounding protective equipment, deployed locations and wartime activities all face detailed scrutiny in contemporary operating environments. The attitudes of the government, the military and the civilian population combine to create a complex and dynamic backdrop of harmony and tension to this most sensitive characteristic of modern wars.     

Rectangles algorithm for generating normal variates

We propose an algorithm for generating normal random variates that is based on the acceptance–rejection method and uses a piecewise majorizing function. The piecewise function has 2048 equal‐area pieces, 2046 of which are constant, and the two extreme pieces are curves that majorize the tails. The proposed algorithm has not only good performance from correlation induction perspective, but also works well from a speed perspective. It is faster than the inversion method by Odeh and Evans and most other methods. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

Bullwhip and reverse bullwhip effects under the rationing game

When an unreliable supplier serves multiple retailers, the retailers may compete with each other by inflating their order quantities in order to obtain their desired allocation from the supplier, a behavior known as the rationing game. We introduce capacity information sharing and a capacity reservation mechanism in the rationing game and show that a Nash equilibrium always exists. Moreover, we provide conditions guaranteeing the existence of the reverse bullwhip effect upstream, a consequence of the disruption caused by the supplier. In contrast, we also provide conditions under which the bullwhip effect does not exist. In addition, we show that a smaller unit reservation payment leads to more bullwhip and reverse bullwhip effects, while a large unit underage cost results in a more severe bullwhip effect. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 64: 203–216, 2017     

Product commonality in multiple‐period,make‐to‐stock systems

It is well known that replacing several products by a single common product can reduce required safety stock levels due to the benefits of risk pooling. Recent research utilizing single‐period models has investigated the cost savings (or losses) from doing so. This paper uses a very general multiple‐period model, with general demand distributions, any number of products, and the objective of minimizing production, holding, and shortage costs. Two scenarios are considered—one that utilizes a common product and one that does not. Prior results utilizing single‐period models indicate that even if the common product is more expensive than the products it replaces, there are many circumstances under which it is still worthwhile to employ. Surprisingly, this paper will show that this is almost never the case in a multiple‐period model. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 46: 737–751, 1999     

When to commit in a serial supply chain with forecast updating

Negotiations between an end product manufacturer and a parts supplier often revolve around two main issues: the supplier's price and the length of time the manufacturer is contractually held to its order quantity, commonly termed the “commitment time frame.” Because actual demand is unknown, the specification of the commitment time frame determines how the demand risk is shared among the members of the supply chain. Casual observation indicates that most manufacturers prefer to delay commitments as long as possible while suppliers prefer early commitments. In this paper, we investigate whether these goals are always in the firm's best interest. In particular, we find that the manufacturer may sometimes be better off with a contract that requires an early commitment to its order quantity, before the supplier commits resources and the supplier may sometimes be better off with a delayed commitment. We also find that the preferred commitment time frame depends upon which member of the supply chain has the power to set their exchange price. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2003     

A new surrogate dual multiplier search procedure

Efficient computation of tight bounds is of primary concern in any branch-and-bound procedure for solving integer programming problems. Many successful branch-and-bound approaches use the linear programming relaxation for bounding purposes. Significant interest has been reported in Lagrangian and surrogate duals as alternative sources of bounds. The existence of efficient techniques such as subgradient search for solving Lagrangian duals has led to some very successful applications of Lagrangian duality in solving specially structured problems. While surrogate duals have been theoretically shown to provide stronger bounds, the difficulty of surrogate dual-multiplier search has discouraged their employment in solving integer programs. Based on the development of a new relationship between surrogate and Lagrangian duality, we suggest a new strategy for computing surrogate dual values. The proposed approach allows us to directly use established Lagrangian search methods for exploring surrogate dual multipliers. Computational experience with randomly generated capital budgeting problems validates the economic feasibility of the proposed ideas.