Partial orderings of life distributions with respect to their aging properties

New partial orderings of life distributions are given. The concepts of decreasing mean residual life, new better than used in expectation, harmonic new better than used in expectation, new better than used in failure rate, and new better than used in failure rate average are generalized, so as to compare the aging properties of two arbitrary life distributions.     

Scheduling economic lot sizes in deteriorating production systems

The paper considers the economic lot scheduling problem (ELSP) where production facility is assumed to deteriorate, owing to aging, with an increasing failure rate. The time to shift from an “in‐control” state to an “out‐of‐control” state is assumed to be normally distributed. The system is scheduled to be inspected at the end of each production lot. If the process is found to be in an “out‐of‐control” state, then corrective maintenance is performed to restore it to an “in‐control” state before the start of the next production run. Otherwise, preventive maintenance is carried out to enhance system reliability. The ELSP is formulated under the capacity constraint taking into account the quality related cost due to possible production of non‐conforming items, process inspection, and maintenance costs. In order to find a feasible production schedule, both the common cycle and time‐varying lot sizes approaches are utilized. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 50: 650–661, 2003     

Technical note: Traffic intensity estimation

This note examines estimation of the traffic intensity in an M/G/1 queue. We show that the ratio of sample mean service times to the sample mean interarrival times has undesirable sampling properties. To remedy this, two alternative estimators are introduced. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2009     

US–China military relations: competition and cooperation

ABSTRACT

China’s efforts to build a ‘new type of great power relations’ and a ‘new type of military-to-military relations’ do not constitute a major turning point in relations with the United States. Political relations set limits on military cooperation, and the two sides have been unable to construct a sustainable strategic basis for relations. This has contributed to an ‘on-again, off-again’ pattern in military ties. Trends show a pattern of frequent disruptions in military-to-military relations from 2000 to 2010, followed by an increase in interactions beginning in 2012. Nevertheless, obstacles on both sides are likely to limit mutual trust and constrain future development of military-to-military relations.     

The origins of the cancellation of Canada's Avro CF-105 arrow fighter program: A failure of strategy

The story of the demise of Canada's remarkable CF-105 Arrow jet-fighter interceptor has been told and retold by numerous Canadian writers. As told by most, it is a tragic tale. Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, in an act as unforgivable as it was incomprehensible, not only destroyed a highly promising all-Canadian state-of-the-art aircraft but ruined all hopes of Canada ever being an important player in the North American defense industry. This article offers a contrasting interpretation — locating the problems leading to the aircraft's cancellation further back in history, and in particular in serious and determinative failures in strategic thinking and analysis by senior Canadian military officials at the time of the Arrow program's birth in 1953.     

Reopen a joint school of military government and administration?

Today there are many calls for other elements of the government to do more to ‘do their part’, assist the military to restore order and stability and ‘win the peace’ in Iraq and Afghanistan, and prepare for similar roles in future conflicts. The authors here instead briefly review the history of US armed forces’ involvement in military governance operations from the Mexican War through World War II, and recommend the re-establishment of a School of Military Government similar to that created during the latter conflict.