Scheduling recurrent construction

A problem we call recurrent construction involves manufacturing large, complex, expensive products such as airplanes, houses, and ships. Customers order configurations of these products well in advance of due dates for delivery. Early delivery may not be permitted. How should the manufacturer determine when to purchase and release materials before fabrication, assembly, and delivery? Major material expenses, significant penalties for deliveries beyond due dates, and long product makespans in recurrent construction motivate choosing a release timetable that maximizes the net present value of cash flows. Our heuristic first projects an initial schedule that dispatches worker teams to tasks for the backlogged products, and then solves a series of maximal closure problems to find material release times that maximize NPV. This method compares favorably with other well‐known work release heuristics in solution quality for large problems over a wide range of operating conditions, including order strength, cost structure, utilization level, batch policy, and uncertainty level. Computation times exhibit near linear growth in problem size. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004     

Economic ordering decisions with market choice flexibility

Standard approaches to classical inventory control problems treat satisfying a predefined demand level as a constraint. In many practical contexts, however, total demand is comprised of separate demands from different markets or customers. It is not always clear that constraining a producer to satisfy all markets is an optimal approach. Since the inventory‐related cost of an item depends on total demand volume, no clear method exists for determining a market's profitability a priori, based simply on per unit revenue and cost. Moreover, capacity constraints often limit a producer's ability to meet all demands. This paper presents models to address economic ordering decisions when a producer can choose whether to satisfy multiple markets. These models result in a set of nonlinear binary integer programming problems that, in the uncapacitated case, lend themselves to efficient solution due to their special structure. The capacitated versions can be cast as nonlinear knapsack problems, for which we propose a heuristic solution approach that is asymptotically optimal in the number of markets. The models generalize the classical EOQ and EPQ problems and lead to interesting optimization problems with intuitively appealing solution properties and interesting implications for inventory and pricing management. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004.     

混合遗传算法在大型运输机装载问题中的运用

为解决大型运输机装载方案的制定问题,构建了考虑飞机重心、飞机载重量、货舱容积、货物摆放方向、承压能力、装载优先级、货物底置位置和系留等现实约束的装载方案数学模型,提出了一种新的融合整体退火选择方式和对交叉、变异概率进行自适应处理的混合遗传算法,并将此方法运用到两个货物装载算例中。仿真实例表明:该混合遗传算法方法为大型运输机装载方案制定选择提供了一种科学有效的决策方法。     

兵力展开问题研究

如何将基地的兵力以最短时间展开到多个阵地中,是运输问题中的一种。为解决此问题对著名的兵力展开问题进行了研究。建立了兵力展开问题的数学模型,此模型是一个混合整数规划模型。提出了一种求解方法,该方法可解决类似的混合整数规划问题。最后给出了一个实例。     

公众聚集场所消防监督管理存在问题及对策

近年来 ,我国公众聚集场所群死群伤恶性火灾时有发生 ,原因固然是多方面的 ,但是 ,公众聚集场所在监督和管理两个层面上存在的突出问题和薄弱环节 ,不能不引起我们的高度重视。结合多年来开展消防监督工作的实践 ,从消防法律法规、消防安全管理体制、技术标准等方面分析了公众聚集场所消防安全监督管理存在的问题 ,并提出了相应对策措施。     

大学生问题行为及对策浅析

本文从心理学的角度分析了大学生常见的问题行为,对问题行为的性质、外部表现、心理特征及应对措施作了详尽分析,集中讨论了人格不适、失恋、考试焦虑及人格障碍等方面的问题,以期有助于大学生问题行为的处理。     

The bottleneck problem with minimum quantity commitments

Given an edge‐distance graph of a set of suppliers and clients, the bottleneck problem is to assign each client to a selected supplier minimizing their maximum distance. We introduce minimum quantity commitments to balance workloads of suppliers, provide the best possible approximation algorithm, and study its generalizations and specializations. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

The impact of manufacturer rebates on supply chain profits

Manufacturer rebates are commonly used as price discount tools for attracting end customers. In this study, we consider a two‐stage supply chain with a manufacturer and a retailer, where a single seasonal product faces uncertain and price‐sensitive demand. We characterize the impact of a manufacturer rebate on the expected profits of both the manufacturer and the retailer. We show that unless all of the customers claim the rebate, the rebate always benefits the manufacturer. Our results thus imply that “mail‐in rebates,” where some customers end up not claiming the rebate, particularly when the size of the rebate is relatively small, always benefit the manufacturer. On the other hand, an “instant rebate,” such as the one offered in the automotive industry where every customer redeems the rebate on the spot when he/she purchases a car, does not necessarily benefit the manufacturer. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

A branch‐and‐price algorithm for a targeting problem

In this paper, we consider a new weapon‐target allocation problem with the objective of minimizing the overall firing cost. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear integer programming model, but it can be transformed into a linear integer programming model. We present a branch‐and‐price algorithm for the problem employing the disaggregated formulation, which has exponentially many columns denoting the feasible allocations of weapon systems to each target. A greedy‐style heuristic is used to get some initial columns to start the column generation. A branching strategy compatible with the pricing problem is also proposed. Computational results using randomly generated data show this approach is promising for the targeting problem. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

Flexibility and complexity in periodic distribution problems

In this paper, we explore trade‐offs between operational flexibility and operational complexity in periodic distribution problems. We consider the gains from operational flexibility in terms of vehicle routing costs and customer service benefits, as well as the costs of operational complexity in terms of modeling, solution methods, and implementation challenges for drivers and customers. The period vehicle routing problem (PVRP) is a variation of the classic vehicle routing problem in which delivery routes are constructed for a period of time; the PVRP with service choice (PVRP‐SC) extends the PVRP to allow service (visit) frequency to become a decision of the model. For the periodic distribution problems represented by PVRP and PVRP‐SC, we introduce operational flexibility levers and a set of quantitative measures to evaluate the trade‐offs between flexibility and complexity. We develop a Tabu Search heuristic to incorporate a range of operational flexibility options. We analyze the potential value and the increased operational complexity of the flexibility levers. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007