Making defense planning meaningful: the evolution of strategic guidance in the Hungarian Ministry of Defense

Hungary, a former communist state, adapted a Western-style defense planning system during the 1990s and 2000s. Although on the surface the elements of this planning system were similar to the planning programming budgeting system (PPBS) developed by the US Department of Defense, strategic guidance for defense planning has not been properly developed until recently. Thus, albeit PPBS-based defense plans were developed in the Hungarian Ministry of Defense (Hungarian MoD) regularly, they lacked both an expression of clear priorities and strategic focus. This article delineates the evolution of strategic guidance in the Hungarian MoD concentrating on current developments, and introduces the newly elaborated analytical concepts and tools, which helped to create needed strategic guidance in Hungary.     

Optimal pricing and scheduling control of product shipping

In this article, we seek to understand how a capacity‐constrained seller optimally prices and schedules product shipping to customers who are heterogeneous on willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to wait (WTW). The capacity‐constrained seller does not observe each customer's WTP and WTW and knows only the aggregate distributions of WTP and WTW. The seller's problem is modeled as an M/M/N_s queueing model with multiclass customers and multidimensional information screening. We contribute to the literature by providing an optimal and efficient algorithm. Furthermore, we numerically find that customers with a larger waiting cost enjoys a higher scheduling priority, but customers with higher valuation do not necessarily get a higher scheduling priority. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 215–227, 2015     

A stochastic assignment problem

There are n boxes with box i having a quota value Balls arrive sequentially, with each ball having a binary vector attached to it, with the interpretation being that if X_i = 1 then that ball is eligible to be put in box i. A ball's vector is revealed when it arrives and the ball can be put in any alive box for which it is eligible, where a box is said to be alive if it has not yet met its quota. Assuming that the components of a vector are independent, we are interested in the policy that minimizes, either stochastically or in expectation, the number of balls that need arrive until all boxes have met their quotas. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 62:23–31, 2015     

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     

Two‐agent scheduling on a single sequential and compatible batching machine

We study two‐agent scheduling on a single sequential and compatible batching machine in which jobs in each batch are processed sequentially and compatibility means that jobs of distinct agents can be processed in a common batch. A fixed setup time is required before each batch is started. Each agent seeks to optimize some scheduling criterion that depends on the completion times of its own jobs only. We consider several scheduling problems arising from different combinations of some regular scheduling criteria, including the maximum cost (embracing lateness and makespan as its special cases), the total completion time, and the (weighted) number of tardy jobs. Our goal is to find an optimal schedule that minimizes the objective value of one agent, subject to an upper bound on the objective value of the other agent. For each problem under consideration, we provide either a polynomial‐time or a pseudo‐polynomial‐time algorithm to solve it. We also devise a fully polynomial‐time approximation scheme when both agents’ scheduling criteria are the weighted number of tardy jobs.     

线性规划的一种并行修正松弛算法

对求解线性规划问题的松弛算法进行了修正,在此基础上提出了一种基于cluster结构的并行算法,分析了算法的性能;基于曙光3000大规模并行计算机,给出了算法用于求解线性规划问题实例的实验结果.理论分析和实验结果表明,修正算法改进了松弛算法的实际性能,同时具有较好的并行性和稳定性,可用于求解此类大规模科学与工程规划问题的高性能计算.     

给定人员情况下最小化开发时间和成本的软件项目调度

给出了一种软件项目的随机调度模型.它明确地把调度策略作为输入,一旦调度策略确定,模型就可以输出关于项目的完成时间或成本的一个概率分布.利用随机最优化技术,能够计算出软件项目的一个调度策略,它使得项目在人员给定的情况下开发时间和成本最小.     

层次分析法中一致性检验的一种调整方法

针对层次分析法中一致性检验难以通过的问题,提出了一种优化调整方法,并分析了该方法的基本思路及可行性。为方便上机编程,还给出了该方法的具体实现步骤。     

Robust capacity planning in semiconductor manufacturing

We present a stochastic programming approach to capacity planning under demand uncertainty in semiconductor manufacturing. Given multiple demand scenarios together with associated probabilities, our aim is to identify a set of tools that is a good compromise for all these scenarios. More precisely, we formulate a mixed‐integer program in which expected value of the unmet demand is minimized subject to capacity and budget constraints. This is a difficult two‐stage stochastic mixed‐integer program which cannot be solved to optimality in a reasonable amount of time. We instead propose a heuristic that can produce near‐optimal solutions. Our heuristic strengthens the linear programming relaxation of the formulation with cutting planes and performs limited enumeration. Analyses of the results in some real‐life situations are also presented. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2005.     

The failure of defense planning in European Post-Communist Defense Institutions: ascertaining causation and determining solutions

By any objective measure, defense institutions in Central and Eastern Europe have all but universally been incapable of producing viable defense plans that are based on objective costing and operational planning data. This situation exists in spite the provision of considerable Western advice and assistance, let alone reporting to and receiving assessments by NATO’s International Staff under Partnership for Peace, as well as via the integrated defense planning and reporting systems. An explanation for this systematic failure across European post-Communist defense institutions can be found in the continued slow development of an over-arching policy framework which directs and approves all activities of the armed forces, as well as the de-centralization of financial decision-making down to capability providers. The essay ends with an examination of the adverse effects of the early introduction of planning programming, budgeting system (PPBS), have had on the development of effective policy and planning capabilities within these defense institutions.