IIE Transactions articles from June 2004

IIE Transactions archives from June 2004

Replacement under ongoing technological progress.
June 1, 2004... 1. Replacement under ongoing technological progress Technological progress that continues indefinitely, reducing costs for challengers to future assets as well as to the current defender, greatly complicates replacement decisions. The...

A time-predefined local search approach to exam timetabling problems.
June 1, 2004... 1. Introduction The university examination timetabling problem has attracted significant research interest over the years. Its various instances usually appear as large-scale, highly constrained and difficult to solve NP-hard problems....

Make-to-order, make-to-stock, or delay product differentiation? A common framework for modeling and analysis.
June 1, 2004... 1. Introduction In today's business environment, a manufacturing firm that has the ability to fill customer orders quickly, as well as offer custom products, enjoys a competitive advantage. However, the need to a have high product variety...

Simulation in dynamic environments: optimization of transportation inside a coal mine.
June 1, 2004... 1. Introduction In some operational environments, the layout structure changes continuously, thus making it difficult to determine the appropriate current operation policies. When simulation is used, an additional problem is the periodic...

A simulation-based learning automata framework for solving semi-Markov decision problems under long-run average reward.
June 1, 2004... 1. Introduction A large class of problems of sequential decision making under uncertainty, whose underlying probability structure has a controlled Markov chain, can be formulated as Markov Decision Problems (MDPs). The objective underlying...

Monopoly pricing when customers queue.
June 1, 2004... 1. Introduction Consider the pricing decisions of a rural supermarket faced with an increase in the number of customers living in its catchment area. Since Hotelling (1929) considerable effort has been devoted to determining the size of a...

The effect of discreteness in vendor-buyer relationships.
June 1, 2004... 1. Introduction The relationships and interaction between various links of the supply chain have received considerable attention in recent decades. A direct and natural path in this direction is the extension of the classic, individual...

A survey of recent advances in discrete input parameter discrete-event simulation optimization.
June 1, 2004... 1. Introduction Simulation optimization provides a structured approach to determine optimal input parameter values, where optimal is measured by a function of the output variables (steady state or transient) associated with a simulation...