Optimal inventory control policy for periodic‐review inventory systems with inventory‐level‐dependent demand

We consider a setting in which inventory plays both promotional and service roles; that is, higher inventories not only improve service levels but also stimulate demand by serving as a promotional tool (e.g., as the result of advertising effect by the enhanced product visibility). Specifically, we study the periodic‐review inventory systems in which the demand in each period is uncertain but increases with the inventory level. We investigate the multiperiod model with normal and expediting orders in each period, that is, any shortage will be met through emergency replenishment. Such a model takes the lost sales model as a special case. For the cases without and with fixed order costs, the optimal inventory replenishment policy is shown to be of the base‐stock type and of the (s,S) type, respectively. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012     

Economic lot sizing with constant capacities and concave inventory costs

This article studies the classical single‐item economic lot‐sizing problem with constant capacities, fixed‐plus‐linear order costs, and concave inventory costs, where backlogging is allowed. We propose an O(T³) optimal algorithm for the problem, which improves upon the O(T⁴) running time of the famous algorithm developed by Florian and Klein (Manage Sci18 (1971) 12–20). Instead of using the standard dynamic programming approach by predetermining the minimal cost for every possible subplan, we develop a backward dynamic programming algorithm to obtain a more efficient implementation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012     

Newsvendor problems with sequentially revealed demand information

This article analyzes a capacity/inventory planning problem with a one‐time uncertain demand. There is a long procurement leadtime, but as some partial demand information is revealed, the firm is allowed to cancel some of the original capacity reservation at a certain fee or sell off some inventory at a lower price. The problem can be viewed as a generalization of the classic newsvendor problem and can be found in many applications. One key observation of the analysis is that the dynamic programming formulation of the problem is closely related to a recursion that arises in the study of a far more complex system, a series inventory system with stochastic demand over an infinite horizon. Using this equivalence, we characterize the optimal policy and assess the value of the additional demand information. We also extend the analysis to a richer model of information. Here, demand is driven by an underlying Markov process, representing economic conditions, weather, market competition, and other environmental factors. Interestingly, under this more general model, the connection to the series inventory system is different. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2012     

WSEIAC模型的中远程空空导弹武器系统效能分析

依据中远程空空导弹武器平台系统的战术指标,建立了中远程空空导弹武器平台系统的效能评价体系.对ADC扩展模型中的人为因素K进行了修正,在能力矩阵C中增加对载机生存能力和信息支持能力的体现.在此基础上给出了修正扩展模型下的系统效能,计算了在原始ADC模型下的系统效能,并对两种模型下的效能差异进行了比较.     

军用飞机综合效能/费用评估方法

军用飞机的效能与费用是两个相互制约的因素,对两者进行科学合理的综合评估,对于军用飞机的发展和使用有着很重要的意义。在分析综合效能/费用的基本评估指标基础上,提出了在军用飞机全寿命周期综合效能/费用评估指标,重点对作战使用阶段的最佳效能/费用进行评估分析,最后给出结论。     

Inside the Iraqi State Records: Saddam Hussein, ‘Irangate’, and the United States

This article uses captured Iraqi state records to examine Saddam Hussein's reaction to US arms to sales to Iran during the Iran–Iraq War (the Iran/Contra scandal). These records show that ‘Irangate’ marked a decisive departure in Saddam's relations with the United States. Irangate reinforced Saddam's preexisting suspicions of US policy, convincing him that Washington was a strategic enemy that could not be trusted. Saddam concealed his anger to preserve a working relationship with the Reagan administration, but this episode nevertheless cemented his negative views of the United States and forged a legacy of hostility and mistrust that would inform his strategic calculus for years to come.     

A queueing system with vacations after N services

This article is devoted to the study of an M/G/1 queue with a particular vacation discipline. The server is due to take a vacation as soon as it has served exactly N customers since the end of the previous vacation. N may be either a constant or a random variable. If the system becomes empty before the server has served N customers, then it stays idle until the next customer arrival. Such a vacation discipline arises, for example, in production systems and in order picking in warehouses. We determine the joint transform of the length of a visit period and the number of customers in the system at the end of that period. We also derive the generating function of the number of customers at a random instant, and the Laplace–Stieltjes transform of the delay of a customer. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 646–658, 2015     

Inventory models with nonlinear shortage costs and stochastic lead times; applications of shape properties of randomly stopped counting processes

In this article, we study generalizations of some of the inventory models with nonlinear costs considered by Rosling in (Oper. Res. 50 (2002) 797–809). In particular, we extend the study of both the periodic review and the compound renewal demand processes from a constant lead time to a random lead time. We find that the quasiconvexity properties of the cost function (and therefore the existence of optimal (s, S) policies), holds true when the lead time has suitable log‐concavity properties. The results are derived by structural properties of renewal delayed processes stopped at an independent random time and by the study of log‐concavity properties of compound distributions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 345–356, 2015     

Integrated scheduling of loading and transportation with tractors and semitrailers separated

Motivated by some practical applications, we study a new integrated loading and transportation scheduling problem. Given a set of jobs, a single crane is available to load jobs, one by one, onto semitrailers with a given capacity. Loaded semitrailers are assigned to tractors for transportation tasks. Subject to limited resources (crane, semitrailers, and tractors), the problem is to determine (1) an assignment of jobs to semitrailers for loading tasks, (2) a sequence for the crane to load jobs onto semitrailers, (3) an assignment of loaded semitrailers to tractors for transportation tasks, and (4) a transportation schedule of assigned tractors such that the completion time of the last transportation task is minimized. We first formulate the problem as a mixed integer linear programming model (MILPM) and prove that the problem is strongly NP‐hard. Then, optimality properties are provided which are useful in establishing an improved MILPM and designing solution algorithms. We develop a constructive heuristic, two LP‐based heuristics, and a recovering beam search heuristic to solve this problem. An improved procedure for solutions by heuristics is also presented. Furthermore, two branch‐and‐bound (B&B) algorithms with two different lower bounds are developed to solve the problem to optimality. Finally, computational experiments using both real data and randomly generated data demonstrate that our heuristics are highly efficient and effective. In terms of computational time and the number of instances solved to optimality in a time limit, the B&B algorithms are better than solving the MILPM. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 416–433, 2015     

海战潜艇兵力作战任务聚合、解聚与重构实现

根据海战仿真对潜艇作战仿真的多分辨率需求,采用聚合与解聚的方法对潜艇智能兵力作战行为模型进行层次划分和结构化设计,利用J2EE/EJB组件建模技术构建了潜艇智能兵力作战行为仿真组件模型,通过行为决策模型构建和多分辨率接口设计,对兵力作战任务进行解聚和聚合,仿真不同分辨率下的作战任务行为和作战指标,并通过任务行为决策控制参数调整实现兵力作战行为重构,满足了系统对智能兵力作战行为多分辨率建模和战法战术验证的功能需求,并有效提高了模型利用效率和可重用性。