Production‐inventory systems with imperfect advance demand information and updating

We consider a supplier with finite production capacity and stochastic production times. Customers provide advance demand information (ADI) to the supplier by announcing orders ahead of their due dates. However, this information is not perfect, and customers may request an order be fulfilled prior to or later than the expected due date. Customers update the status of their orders, but the time between consecutive updates is random. We formulate the production‐control problem as a continuous‐time Markov decision process and prove there is an optimal state‐dependent base‐stock policy, where the base‐stock levels depend upon the numbers of orders at various stages of update. In addition, we derive results on the sensitivity of the state‐dependent base‐stock levels to the number of orders in each stage of update. In a numerical study, we examine the benefit of ADI, and find that it is most valuable to the supplier when the time between updates is moderate. We also consider the impact of holding and backorder costs, numbers of updates, and the fraction of customers that provide ADI. In addition, we find that while ADI is always beneficial to the supplier, this may not be the case for the customers who provide the ADI. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

Optimal control of a capacitated inventory system with multiple demand classes

This article studies the optimal control of a periodic‐review make‐to‐stock system with limited production capacity and multiple demand classes. In this system, a single product is produced to fulfill several classes of demands. The manager has to make the production and inventory allocation decisions. His objective is to minimize the expected total discounted cost. The production decision is made at the beginning of each period and determines the amount of products to be produced. The inventory allocation decision is made after receiving the random demands and determines the amount of demands to be satisfied. A modified base stock policy is shown to be optimal for production, and a multi‐level rationing policy is shown to be optimal for inventory allocation. Then a heuristic algorithm is proposed to approximate the optimal policy. The numerical studies show that the heuristic algorithm is very effective. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 58: 43–58, 2011     

A combination of Lagrangian relaxation and column generation for order batching in steelmaking and continuous‐casting production

This article considers the order batching problem in steelmaking and continuous‐casting production. The problem is to jointly specify the slabs needed to satisfy each customer order and group all the slabs of different customer orders into production batches. A novel mixed integer programming model is formulated for the problem. Through relaxing the order assignment constraints, a Lagrangian relaxation model is then obtained. By exploiting the relationship between Lagrangian relaxation and column generation, we develop a combined algorithm that contains nested double loops. At the inner loop, the subgradient method is applied for approximating the Lagrangian dual problem and pricing out columns of the master problem corresponding to the linear dual form of the Lagrangian dual problem. At the outer loop, column generation is employed to solve the master problem exactly and adjust Lagrangian multipliers. Computational experiments are carried out using real data collected from a large steel company, as well as on large‐scaled problem instances randomly generated. The results demonstrate that the combined algorithm can obtain tighter lower bound and higher quality solution within an acceptable computation time as compared to the conventional Lagrangian relaxation algorithm. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

舰艇编队导弹航路规划仿真系统设计与实现

通过分析火力分配、区域划分、航路规划三者的关系,提出了舰艇编队导弹航路规划三位一体战术决策的思想.设计了一个以此为背景,基于高层体系结构(HLA)的可扩展、开放式仿真体系结构.依据HLA/RTI规范,设计开发了仿真联邦的联邦/仿真对象模型.基于系统的离散事件仿真特征,采用事件调度的仿真策略,利用Petri网建立了系统的...     

Fashion products with asymmetric sales horizons

In this study, we explore an inventory model for a wholesaler who sells a fashion product through two channels with asymmetric sales horizons. The wholesaler can improve profitability by employing joint procurement and inventory reallocation as a recourse action in response to the dynamics of sales. In this research, a simple stochastic programming model is analyzed to specify the properties of the optimal inventory decisions. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

自动化电弧喷涂路径偏移间距的优化模型

基于电弧喷涂沉积丘的轮廓呈高斯分布的假设,并结合实验结果,建立了电弧喷涂沉积丘轮廓的数学模型,由此推导出了自动化喷涂过程中平行路径偏移间距这一重要参量的优化模型。该模型为合理规划自动化喷涂的路径提供了依据。     

舰载声纳同频干扰目标最大掩蔽距离建模与仿真

以声纳方程为基础模型,根据声纳直达波对邻近同型号声纳的干扰,得出了干扰方程。计算了在舰艇编队搜潜中,舰载声纳的探测距离和舰艇间同频干扰能够掩盖目标的最大干扰掩蔽距离,并简要地提出了降低同频干扰的方法,对编队战术决策提供技术上的依据,对提高编队的搜潜效率和声纳的作战效能具有指导意义。     

Aircraft routing under the risk of detection

The deterministic problem for finding an aircraft's optimal risk trajectory in a threat environment has been formulated. The threat is associated with the risk of aircraft detection by radars or similar sensors. The model considers an aircraft's trajectory in three‐dimensional (3‐D) space and represents the aircraft by a symmetrical ellipsoid with the axis of symmetry directing the trajectory. Analytical and discrete optimization approaches for routing an aircraft with variable radar cross‐section (RCS) subject to a constraint on the trajectory length have been developed. Through techniques of Calculus of Variations, the analytical approach reduces the original risk optimization problem to a vectorial nonlinear differential equation. In the case of a single detecting installation, a solution to this equation is expressed by a quadrature. A network optimization approach reduces the original problem to the Constrained Shortest Path Problem (CSPP) for a 3‐D network. The CSPP has been solved for various ellipsoid shapes and different length constraints in cases with several radars. The impact of ellipsoid shape on the geometry of an optimal trajectory as well as the impact of variable RCS on the performance of a network optimization algorithm have been analyzed and illustrated by several numerical examples. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006     

An inspection game: Taking account of fulfillment probabilities of players' aims

This paper deals with an inspection game of customs and a smuggler. The customs can take two options of assigning a patrol or not. The smuggler has two strategies of shipping its cargo of contraband or not. Two players have several opportunities to take actions during a limited number of days. When both players do, there are some possibilities that the customs captures the smuggler and, simultaneously, the smuggler possibly makes a success of the smuggling. If the smuggler is captured or there remain no days for playing the game, the game ends. In this paper, we formulate the problem into a multi‐stage two‐person zero‐sum stochastic game and investigate some characteristics of the equilibrium solution, some of which are given in a closed form in a special case. There have been some studies so far on the inspection game. However, some consider the case that the smuggler has only one opportunity of smuggling or the perfect‐capture case that the customs can certainly arrest the smuggler on patrol, and others think of a recursive game without the probabilities of fulfilling the players' purposes. In this paper, we consider the inspection game taking account of the fulfillment probabilities of the players' aims. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006