Irreducibility of joint inventory positions in an assemble‐to‐order system under (r,nQ) policies

In a typical assemble‐to‐order system, a customer order may request multiple items, and the order may not be filled if any of the requested items are out of stock. A key customer service measure when unfilled orders are backordered is the order‐based backorder level. To evaluate this crucial performance measure, a fundamental question is whether the stationary joint inventory positions follow an independent and uniform distribution. In this context, this is equivalent to the irreducibility of the Markov chain formed by the joint inventory positions. This article presents a necessary and sufficient condition for the irreducibility of such a Markov chain through a set of simultaneous Diophantine equations. This result also leads to sufficient conditions that are more general than those in the published reports. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2011     

Optimal path finding in direction,location, and time dependent environments

This article examines optimal path finding problems where cost function and constraints are direction, location, and time dependent. Recent advancements in sensor and data‐processing technology facilitate the collection of detailed real‐time information about the environment surrounding a ground vehicle, an airplane, or a naval vessel. We present a navigation model that makes use of such information. We relax a number of assumptions from existing literature on path‐finding problems and create an accurate, yet tractable, model suitable for implementation for a large class of problems. We present a dynamic programming model which integrates our earlier results for direction‐dependent, time and space homogeneous environment, and consequently, improves its accuracy, efficiency, and run‐time. The proposed path finding model also addresses limited information about the surrounding environment, control‐feasibility of the considered paths, such as sharpest feasible turns a vehicle can make, and computational demands of a time‐dependent environment. To demonstrate the applicability and performance of our path‐finding algorithm, computational experiments for a short‐range ship routing in dynamic wave‐field problem are presented. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012     

Averaging frameworks for simulation optimization with applications to simulated annealing

We present two frameworks for designing random search methods for discrete simulation optimization. One of our frameworks is very broad (in that it includes many random search methods), whereas the other one considers a special class of random search methods called point‐based methods, that move iteratively between points within the feasible region. Our frameworks involve averaging, in that all decisions that require estimates of the objective function values at various feasible solutions are based on the averages of all observations collected at these solutions so far. Also, the methods are adaptive in that they can use information gathered in previous iterations to decide how simulation effort is expended in the current iteration. We show that the methods within our frameworks are almost surely globally convergent under mild conditions. Thus, the generality of our frameworks and associated convergence guarantees makes the frameworks useful to algorithm developers wishing to design efficient and rigorous procedures for simulation optimization. We also present two variants of the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm and provide their convergence analysis as example application of our point‐based framework. Finally, we provide numerical results that demonstrate the empirical effectiveness of averaging and adaptivity in the context of SA. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012     

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     

基于 SBM的操作级并行处理算法研究

SBM是支持操作级并行的一种有效的同步机制。文中基于SBM对结点调度和barrier插入算法进行了深入的研究,提出了一套有效的开发操作级并行的方案。用一有向图G(N,A)表示指令之间的相关关系,并以结点的临界路径为关键字将结点从小到大进行排序。按照排序后的结点顺序,描述了一种分配算法,将结点分配给各处理机。同时,描述了相关结点之间的barrier插入算法。     

Bayesian selling problem with partial information

We introduce an optimal stopping problem for selling an asset when the fixed but unknown distribution of successive offers is from one of n possible distributions. The initial probabilities as to which is the true distribution are given and updated in a Bayesian manner as the successive offers are observed. After receiving an offer, the seller has to decide whether to accept the offer or continue to observe the next offer. Each time an offer is observed a fixed cost is incurred. We consider both the cases where recalling a past offer is allowed and where it is not allowed. For each case, a dynamic programming model and some heuristic policies are presented. Using simulation, the performances of the heuristic methods are evaluated and upper bounds on the optimal expected return are obtained. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

Statistical equivalency and optimality of simple step‐stress accelerated test plans for the exponential distribution

Accelerated life testing (ALT) is commonly used to obtain reliability information about a product in a timely manner. Several stress loading designs have been proposed and recent research interests have emerged concerning the development of equivalent ALT plans. Step‐stress ALT (SSALT) is one of the most commonly used stress loadings because it usually shortens the test duration and reduces the number of required test units. This article considers two fundamental questions when designing a SSALT and provides formal proofs in answer to each. Namely: (1) can a simple SSALT be designed so that it is equivalent to other stress loading designs? (2) when optimizing a multilevel SSALT, does it degenerate to a simple SSALT plan? The answers to both queries, under certain reasonable model assumptions, are shown to be a qualified YES. In addition, we provide an argument to support the rationale of a common practice in designing a SSALT, that is, setting the higher stress level as high as possible in a SSALT plan. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

Formulations for dynamic lot sizing with service levels

In this article, we study deterministic dynamic lot‐sizing problems with a service‐level constraint on the total number of periods in which backlogs can occur over a finite planning horizon. We give a natural mixed integer programming formulation for the single item problem (LS‐SL‐I) and study the structure of its solution. We show that an optimal solution to this problem can be found in \begin{align*}\mathcal O(n^2\kappa)\end{align*} time, where n is the planning horizon and \begin{align*}\kappa=\mathcal O(n)\end{align*} is the maximum number of periods in which demand can be backlogged. Using the proposed shortest path algorithms, we develop alternative tight extended formulations for LS‐SL‐I and one of its relaxations, which we refer to as uncapacitated lot sizing with setups for stocks and backlogs. {We show that this relaxation also appears as a substructure in a lot‐sizing problem which limits the total amount of a period's demand met from a later period, across all periods.} We report computational results that compare the natural and extended formulations on multi‐item service‐level constrained instances. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013