Abstract: Long time horizons, typical of forest management, make planning more difficult due to added exposure to climate uncertainty. Current methods for stochastic programming limit the incorporation of climate uncertainty in forest management planning. To account for climate uncertainty in forest harvest scheduling, we discretize the potential distribution of forest growth under different climate scenarios and solve the resulting stochastic mixed integer program. Increasing the number of scenarios allows for a better approximation of the entire probability space of future forest growth but at a computational expense. To address this shortcoming, we propose a new heuristic algorithm designed to work well with multistage stochastic harvest-scheduling problems. Starting from the root-node of the scenario tree that represents the discretized probability space, our progressive hedging algorithm sequentially fixes the values of decision variables associated with scenarios that share the same path up to a given node. Once all variables from a node are fixed, the problem can be decomposed into subproblems that can be solved independently. We tested the algorithm performance on six forests considering different numbers of scenarios. The results showed that our algorithm performed well when the number of scenarios was large. PubDate: Sat, 12 Dec 2020 10:35:00 +000
Abstract: In this study, the author proposes a new carbon taxing policy. This proposed carbon tax has two tax components. The first component is constant, and the second component depends on the green efficiency of production. The green efficiency of production is measured by the average amount of emissions per unit production in an assessment year. The green efficiency-based tax component can be reset every year. Lesser average emission rate indicates better green efficiency. The second component of this proposed carbon tax forces the firm to improve the green efficiency of production, which results in cleaner production. The author incorporates this new carbon tax policy in a production-inventory system with a price-sensitive demand rate. A rule is provided for the implementation of this new tax. Emissions during setup, production, and storage are considered as independent random variables. The firm has the opportunity of investing in green technologies to improve green efficiency. A profit maximization policy is adopted to solve the developed model. A solution algorithm is also provided. The model is illustrated by numerical examples with randomly generated model parameters. The results of numerical examples show the environmental benefits of the proposed carbon tax. PubDate: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 11:50:01 +000
Abstract: This paper provides a bibliometric analysis of the articles in the field of operations research or management science (OR/MS) published in the years 1980–2018 by European researchers. The analysis’s objective is to identify and examine the current state of OR/MS studies in Europe, which publishes about 38% of the papers published worldwide. The analysis was based on the data from the Web of Science (WoS) databases. We found a total of 65,352 papers in 148 different journals in the OR/MS field. The results provide a general picture of the studies, which are classified according to the most influential authors, institutions, papers, and journals. The study revealed that the ratio of OR/MS studies having at least one European author has steadily increased over the decades from 28.27% in the 1980 s to 41.29% in the 2010 s. The analysis also provides citation statistics of the European OR/MS articles. The study concluded that the impact of European publications is less than the impact of U.S. publications. The bibliometric analysis of the studies showed that only a small portion of the countries/regions, institutions, and even authors published a substantial portion of the papers, as indicated by the Pareto rule. The research trends have been identified through an analysis of keyword usage over the years. In keyword analysis, which subcategories are studied together is also identified. In the paper, collaboration among countries and institutions is also identified and depicted by using VOS viewer. PubDate: Sat, 24 Oct 2020 16:20:00 +000
Abstract: Wiener and Randić indices have long been studied in chemical graph theory as connection strength measures of graphs. Later, these indices were used in different fields such as network analysis. We consider two optimization problems related to these indices, with potential applications to network theory, in particular to epidemiological networks. Given a connected graph and a fixed total edge weight, we investigate how individual weights must be assigned to edges, minimizing the connection strength of the graph. In order to measure the connection strength, we use the weighted Wiener index and a modified version of the ordinary Randić index. Wiener index optimization is linear, while Randić index optimization turns out to be both nonlinear and nonconvex. Hence, we adopt the technique of separable programming to generate solutions. We present our experimental results by applying relevant algorithms to several graphs. PubDate: Sat, 26 Sep 2020 08:50:00 +000
Abstract: Under the background of severe air pollution and energy shortage, electric vehicles (EVs) are promising vehicles to support green supply chain and clean production. In the world, the renewal of EVs has become a general trend. Therefore, the concern about EVs is a hot issue at present, but EVs have the characteristics of limited driving distance and long charging time. When the EVs are used in logistics transportation, these characteristics have a significant impact on the vehicle routing problems. Therefore, based on the research experience of traditional vehicle routing optimization, combining with the characteristics of EVs, this paper presents an optimal problem of electric vehicle routes with time windows based on two charging methods and it also designs a mathematical model which was caused by early and late arrival as the objective function to minimize the transportation cost, vehicle use cost, power supply cost, and penalty cost. The model is solved using an ant colony algorithm. Finally, the ant colony algorithm is tested and analysed with an example. PubDate: Wed, 20 May 2020 11:35:03 +000
Abstract: The combination of traditional retail channel with direct channel adds a new dimension of competition to manufacturers’ distribution system. In this paper, we consider a make-to-order manufacturer with two channels of sale, sale through retailers and online direct sale. The customers are classified into different classes, based on their sensitivity to price and due date. The orders of traditional retail channel customers are fulfilled in the same period of ordering. However, price and due date are quoted to the online customers based on the available capacity as well as the other orders in the pipeline. We develop two different structures of the supply chain: centralized and decentralized dual-channel supply chain which are formulated as bilevel binary nonlinear models. The Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm is also developed to obtain a satisfactory near-optimal solution and compared to a genetic algorithm. Through various numerical analyses, we investigate the effects of the customers’ preference of a direct channel on the model’s variables. PubDate: Wed, 22 Apr 2020 08:35:02 +000
Abstract: The success of an industry today depends on its ability to innovate. In terms of energy performance, this innovation is reflected in the ability of manufacturers to implement new solutions or technologies that enable better energy management. In this regard, this paper aims to address this gap by incorporating energy consumption as an explicit criterion in flowshop scheduling of jobs and flexible preventive maintenance. Leveraging the variable speed of machining operations leading to different energy consumption levels, we explore the potential for energy saving in manufacturing. We develop a mixed integer linear multiobjective optimization model for minimizing the makespan and the total energy consumption. In the literature, no papers considering both production scheduling and flexible periods of maintenance with minimizing both objective the total of energy consumption in flowshop and makespan. The performance of the proposed mixed binary integer programming model is evaluated based on the exact method of branch and bound algorithm. A study of the results proved the performance of the model developed. PubDate: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 15:35:02 +000
Abstract: Many network problems deal with the routing of a main tool comprised of several parallel assisting tools. These problems can be found with multi-tool-head routing of CNC machines, waterjets, plasma sprayers, and cutting machines. Other applications involve logistics, distribution, and material handling that require a main tool with assisting tools. Currently no studies exist that optimally route a main tool comprised of and fitted with multiple tools, nor do any studies evaluate the impact of adding additional capabilities to the tool set. Herein we define the network routing problem for a main tool comprised of multiple secondary tools. We introduce first principles to properly configure the main tool with the appropriate number of supporting tools such that that system is not overstatured. We invert the network geometry to extract the “best case” configuration for toolset configuration to include speed, range, and number of such that the system is lean. Our computational studies reveal that the theorems introduced herein greatly improve the overall system performance without oversaturating it with unused resources. In order to validate experiments, we define a mixed integer program and compare it to our metaheuristics developed for experimentation. Both the MIP and the metaheuristics herein optimally route a main tool with multiple assisting tools as well as the routing of a parcel delivery truck comprised of many drones. PubDate: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 14:35:00 +000
Abstract: In this research, we will focus on one variant of the problem: the capacitated facility location problem (CFLP). In many formulations of the CFLP, it is assumed that each demand point can be supplied by only one open facility, which is the simplest case of the problem. We consider the case where each demand point can be supplied by more than one open facility. We first investigate a Lagrangian relaxation approach. Then, we illustrate in the problem decomposition how to introduce tighter constraints, which solve the CFLP faster while achieving a better quality solution as well. At the same time, we apply the volume algorithm to improve both the lower and the upper bound on the optimum solution of the original problem for the large problem size. PubDate: Tue, 04 Feb 2020 14:35:01 +000
Abstract: Many industries are looking for ways to economically use truck/rail/ship fitted with drone technologies to augment the “last mile” delivery effort. While drone technologies abound, few, if any studies look at the proper configuration of the drone based on significant features of the problem: delivery density, operating area, drone range, and speed. Here, we first present the truck-drone problem and then invert the network routing problem such that the best case drone speed and range are fitted to the truck for a given scenario based on the network delivery density. By inverting the problem, a business can quickly determine the drone configuration (proper drone range and speed) necessary to optimize the delivery system. Additionally, we provide a more usable version of the truck-drone routing problem as a mixed integer program that can be easily adopted with standardized software used to solve linear programming. Furthermore, our computational metaheuristics and experiments conducted in support of this work are available for download. The metaheuristics used herein surpass current best-in-class algorithms found in literature. PubDate: Wed, 22 Jan 2020 06:50:00 +000
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