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 set-processing algorithm for scheduling staff on 4-day or 3-day work weeks

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for scheduling a single-category work force on 4-day or 3-day work weeks. Employees work 4 or 3 days each week, have A out of every B weekends off, and work no more than 5 consecutive days in a work stretch on 4-day work weeks and no more than 4 days in a work stretch on 3-day work weeks. Such conditions often prevail in 7-day-a-week organizations such as hospitals, manufacturing plants, and retail stores. We determine the minimum number of workers required to satisfy the scheduling constraints under any pattern of daily requirements. Then we present the algorithm for assigning days off for each worker, thereby determining the work schedules. We show that the algorithm, by construction, will necessarily satisfy the scheduling constraints. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 45: 839–853, 1998     

Service levels in distribution systems with random customer order size

An approximate method for measuring the service levels of the warehouse-retailer system operating under (s, S) policy is presented. All the retailers are identical and the demand process at each retailer follows a stationary stuttering Poisson process. This type of demand process allows customer orders to be for a random number of units, which gives rise to the undershoot quantity at both the warehouse and retailer levels. Exact analyses of the distribution of the undershoot quantity and the number of orders place by a retailer during the warehouse reordering lead time are derived. By using this distribution together with probability approximation and other heuristic approaches, we model the behavior of the warehouse level. Based on the results of the warehouse level and on an existing framework from previous work, the service level at the retailer level is estimated. Results of the approximate method are then compared with those of simulation. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

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.     

Cost allocation and communication

This article considers a special class of cost allocation problems, where the communication possibilities among the agents are restricted. Integral formulas are derived for two allocation rules: The Myerson value and the position value. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

高超音速飞行器“黑障”解决方法

简述了"黑障"问题产生的原理、等离子鞘的流场分布及其对通信的影响;重点讨论了4种解决黑障的方法,从原理、具体实现等几个方面对其进行了阐述,并分析了这几种方法的优缺点。对其他的几种方法进行了简单的介绍。     

故障传播有向图在地面电源故障诊断的应用

基于图论的故障诊断方法能够有效地缩小故障源的搜索范围,在最短的时间内找到真正产生故障的部件。采用故障传播有向图的方法对某飞行器地面电源故障诊断算法进行了研究,针对该飞行器地面电源的物理结构及相关的电气特性得到其故障传播有向图,并经过一些运算后将有向图进行了分层重构,最后利用故障定位算法模拟了故障定位的过程,得到了很好的效果。     

装备保障指挥决策支持模型体系构建

以装备保障指挥决策过程为研究对象,针对传统决策方式准确性低、决策支持模型不全等问题,在分析装备保障指挥决策基本内涵及程序的基础上,提出了装备保障指挥决策支持模型三维框架结构,并对按功能和内容维展开的预测模型、评估模型和优化模型作了较为详细的描述。