Production planning for multi-resource network systems

Production planning for large-scale production systems requiring the allocation of numerous resources is considered. It is demonstrated how the dynamic activity analysis developed by Shephard leads to linear programming solutions of production planning problems. Three types of planning problems are formulated: maximization of output levels for a given time horizon; minimization of production duration for given output histories; and minimization of production costs for given output histories.     

Optimal ordering policies when anticipating parameter changes in EOQ systems

The classical Economic Order Quantity Model requires the parameters of the model to be constant. Some EOQ models allow a single parameter to change with time. We consider EOQ systems in which one or more of the cost or demand parameters will change at some time in the future. The system we examine has two distinct advantages over previous models. One obvious advantage is that a change in any of the costs is likely to affect the demand rate and we allow for this. The second advantage is that often, the times that prices will rise are fairly well known by announcement or previous experience. We present the optimal ordering policy for these inventory systems with anticipated changes and a simple method for computing the optimal policy. For cases where the changes are in the distant future we present a myopic policy that yields costs which are near-optimal. In cases where the changes will occur in the relatively near future the optimal policy is significantly better than the myopic policy.     

On a single-server queue with state-dependent service

This paper discusses a class of queueing models in which the service time of a customer al a single server facility is dependent on the queue size at the onset of its service. The Laplace transform for the wait in queue distribution is derived and the utilization of the server is given when the arrival is a homogeneous Poisson process.     

Survey of approaches to readiness

About thirty references that feature naval logistics environments are considered. All are unclassified and all appear in the open literature or are available from the Defense Logistics Studies Information Exchange. Three approaches are identified–data analysis, theoretical models, and readiness indexes–and conclusions are presented as to possibilities for answering two questions: (a) Can the unit do the job? (b) How does readiness depend on resources? Four cases are treated in detail to illustrate methodology.     

Adaptive disposal models

This paper reconsiders the classical model for selling an asset in which offers come in daily and a decision must then be made as to whether or not to sell. For each day the item remains unsold a continuation (or maintenance cost) c is incurred. The successive offers are assumed to be independent and identically distributed random variables having an unknown distribution F. The model is considered both in the case where once an offer is rejected it may not be recalled at a later time and in the case where such recall of previous offers is allowed.     

Optimal investment,pricing and replacement of computer resources

The problem of multiple-resource capacity planning under an infinite time horizon is analyzed using a nonlinear programming model. The analysis generalizes to the long term the short-run pricing model for computer networks developed in Kriebel and Mikhail [5]. The environment assumes heterogeneous resource capacities by age (vingate), which service a heterogeneous and relatively captive market of users with known demand functions in each time period. Total variable operating costs are given by a continuous psuedoconcave function of system load, capacity, and resource age. Optimal investment, pricing, and replacement decision rules are derived in the presence of economies of scale and exogenous technological progress. Myopic properties of the decision rules which define natural (finite) planning subhorizons are discussed.     

Scheduling workers in a constricted area

A generalization of the equi-partitioning problem, termed the 2D-Partition Problem, is formulated. The motivation is an aircraft maintenance scheduling problem with the following characteristics. The complete maintenance overhaul of a single aircraft requires the completion of some 350 tasks. These tasks require a varying number of technicians working at the same time. For large subsets of these 350 tasks, the constraining resource is physical space—tasks must be completed in a physical space of limited size such as the cockpit. Furthermore, there is no precedence relationship among the tasks. For each subset, the problem is to schedule the tasks to minimize makespan. Let m denote the maximum number of technicians that can work at the same time in the physical area under consideration. We present optimization algorithms for m = 2 and 3. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An evaluation of scheduling heuristics for dynamic single-processor scheduling with early/tardy costs

In an endeavor to broaden the application of scheduling models to decisions involving the use of a manager's time we use simulation to investigate the performance of a number of simple algorithms (including eight priority rules and a construction heuristic) in a dynamic setting with tasks arriving (randomly) and scheduling decisions being made, over time. We compare these simple methods relative to a bound that uses an adjacent pairwise interchange algorithm. We model uncertainty in task durations, and costs being incurred for early and tardy task completion (representative of JIT settings). In addition to evaluating the efficacy of the scheduling rules and various preemption strategies (using ANOVA), we highlight the managerial implications of the effects of eight environmental parameters. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.