Optimization problems were and still are the focus of mathematics from antiquity to the present. Since the beginning of our civilization, the human race has had to confront numerous technological challenges, such as finding the optimal solution of various problems including control technologies, power sources construction, applications in economy, mechanical engineering and energy distribution amongst others. These examples encompass both ancient as well as modern technologies like the first electrical energy distribution network in USA etc. Some of the key principles formulated in the middle ages were done by Johannes Kepler (Problem of the wine barrels), Johan Bernoulli (brachystochrone problem), Leonhard Euler (Calculus of Variations), Lagrange (Principle multipliers), that were formulated primarily in the ancient world and are of a geometric nature. In the beginning of the modern era, works of L.V. Kantorovich and G.B. Dantzig (so-called linear programming) can be considered amongst others. This book discusses a wide spectrum of optimization methods from classical to modern, alike heuristics. Novel as well as classical techniques is also discussed in this book, including its mutual intersection. Together with many interesting chapters, a reader will also encounter various methods used for proposed optimization approaches, such as game theory and evolutionary algorithms or modelling of evolutionary algorithm dynamics like complex networks.

The book presents the proceedings of the 5th EAI International Conference on Management of Manufacturing Systems (MMS 2020), which took place online on October 27-29, 2020. The conference covers the management of manufacturing systems with support for Industry 4.0, logistics and intelligent manufacturing systems and applications, cooperation management, and its effective applications. Topics include RFID applications, economic impacts in logistics, ICT support for Industry 4.0, industrial and smart Logistics, intelligent manufacturing systems and applications, and much more. The topic is of interest to researchers, practitioners, students, and academics in manufacturing and communications engineering.

This book presents a panorama about the recent progress of industrial mathematics from the point of view of both industrials and researchers. The chapters correspond to a selection of the contributions presented in the "Industry Day" and in the Minisymposium "EU - MATHS - IN: Success Stories of Applications of Mathematics to Industry" organized in the framework of the International Conference ICIAM 2019 held in Valencia (Spain) on July 15-19, 2019. In the Industry Day, included for the first time in this series of Conferences, representatives of companies from different countries and several sectors presented their view about the benefits regarding the usage of mathematical tools and/or collaboration with mathematicians. The contributions of this special session were addressed to industry people. Minisymposium contributions detailed some collaborations between mathematicians and industrials that led to real benefits in several European companies. All the speakers were affiliated in some of the European National Networks that constitute the European Service Network of Mathematics for Industry and Innovation (EU-MATHS-IN).

This book proposes novel methods for solving different types of non-cooperative games with interval/fuzzy/intuitionistic fuzzy payoffs. It starts by discussing several existing methods and shows that some mathematically incorrect assumptions have been considered in all these methods. It then proposes solutions to adapt those methods and validate the new proposed methods, such as Gaurika method Ambika-I-IV, Mehar method and others, by using them for solving existing numerical problems. The book offers a comprehensive guide on non-cooperative games with fuzzy payoffs to both students and researchers. It provides them with the all the necessary tools to understand the methods and the theory behind them.

This book is the eighth volume in a series entitled "Contemporary Logistics in China," authored by researchers from the Logistics Research Center at Nankai University. In the spirit of the seven preceding annual volumes, this book carries on the ideal of providing a systematic exposition on the logistics development in China for the English-speaking community at large. Specially, this volume captures China's logistics development at a crucial turning point. This present report consists of ten chapters, organized into three sections. The introductory section, consisting of three chapters, depicts the current development status of the logistics market, the logistics facilities and technology, and the regional logistics market. The second section addresses the logistics characteristics of four rapidly expanding industries in China-the third-party logistics, the highway logistics, the express logistics, and the multimodal transport. The final section, consisting of three chapters, discusses some hot logistics topics in China. Chapter 8 studies the capital operation in China's logistics industry. The next chapter deals with the development of intelligent logistics in China. The last chapter of this section presents the development of regional logistics along the Belt and Road routes. As with the previous volumes, the ultimate aim of this book is to present a timely portrait of the rapid growth of China's logistics market and the status quo of its logistics industry. In so doing, the book offers an in-depth analysis of critical issues involved in the ongoing dynamic and multi-faceted development, and provides a valuable reference resource for interested readers in the academic and professional fields.

Financial economics is a fascinating topic where ideas from economics, mathematics and, most recently, psychology are combined to understand financial markets. This book gives a concise introduction into this field and includes for the first time recent results from behavioral finance that help to understand many puzzles in traditional finance. The book is tailor made for master and PhD students and includes tests and exercises that enable the students to keep track of their progress. Parts of the book can also be used on a bachelor level. Researchers will find it particularly useful as a source for recent results in behavioral finance and decision theory.

When it comes to the field of organization and management theory, a philosophical perspective enables us to conduct organizational research imbued with the attitude of 'wonder'; it helps researchers question dominant images of thought underlying mainstream thinking, and provides fresh distinctions that enable the development of new theory. In bringing together a collection of key essays by Haridimos Tsoukas, this volume explores fundamental concepts, such as organizational routine, that have gained currency in the field, as well as revisiting traditional concepts such as change, strategy, and organization. It discusses organizational knowledge, judgment, and reflection-in-action, and, at the meta-theoretical level, suggests complex forms of theorizing that do justice to the complexity of organizations. The conceptual attention throughout is on process and practice, underlain by performative phenomenology and an emphasis on agents' lived experience. This provides us with the language to appreciate the dynamic character of organizational behaviour, the embeddedness of action, and the complexity of organizational life. The theoretical claims presented in this volume have important implications for practice, insofar as they help retrain our attention; from seeing structures and individuals, we can now appreciate processes, experiences, and practices. A phenomenological attitude makes organization theory more open, more creative, and more reflexive, and this book will be essential reading for researchers and students in the field of organization studies.

This book gives a thorough and systematic introduction to the latest research results about fuzzy decision-making method based on prospect theory. It includes eight chapters: Introduction, Intuitionistic fuzzy MADM based on prospect theory, QUALIFLEX based on prospect theory with probabilistic linguistic information, Group PROMETHEE based on prospect theory with hesitant fuzzy linguistic information, Prospect consensus with probabilistic hesitant fuzzy preference information, Improved TODIM based on prospect theory and the improved TODIM with probabilistic hesitant fuzzy information, etc. This book is suitable for the researchers in the fields of fuzzy mathematics, operations research, behavioral science, management science and engineering, etc. It is also useful as a textbook for postgraduate and senior-year undergraduate students of the relevant professional institutions of higher learning.

Health threats pose significant dangers to humankind and form a major source of human suffering and sorrow. Responsible leadership and reasoned decision making can significantly improve the arenas that are affected by health threats, through establishing a better allocation of very scarce resources for building health capabilities and for increasing health preparedness, responsiveness and resilience. This book examines how public health leaders can use the cutting-edge research from Decision Sciences to better manage emerging and re-emerging health threats, with a focus on enhancing health security. While these decisions must be informed by the best available evidence, they must also address competing priorities and key uncertainties and must mitigate critical risks, albeit in a cost-effective manner which seeks to maximize societal value. This is a book about how decisions on health security can be improved, both in terms of the content that is utilized in a health decision analysis and the decision processes that are employed in reaching a decision. This decision-focused perspective can help public health leaders and public health experts to increase the health preparedness of health systems, the task of which involves improving health capabilities, increasing the robustness of health systems against health threats, as well as strengthening health resilience and the responsiveness of these systems against disease outbreaks.

Problems facing manufacturing clusters that intersect information technology, process management, and optimization within the Internet of Things (IoT) are examined in this book. Recent advances in information technology have transformed the use of resources and data exchange, often leading to management and optimization problems attributatble to technology limitations and strong market competition. This book discusses several problems and concepts which makes significant connections in the areas of information sharing, organization management, resource operations, and performance assessment. Geared toward practitioners and researchers, this treatment deepens the understanding between resource collaborative management and advanced information technology. Those in manufacturing will utilize the numerous mathematical models and methods offered to solve practical problems related to cutting stock, supply chain scheduling, and inventory management. Academics and students with a basic knowledge of manufacturing, combinatorics, and linear programming will find that this discussion widens the research area of resource collaborative management and unites the fields of information technology, manufacturing management, and optimization.

Knowledge management is far-reaching. It can dramatically reduce costs such as costs of office work repetition, human resource retirement, information reuse, etc. Rather than "reinventing the wheel" and having it be a costly and inefficient activity, systematic reuse of knowledge can show substantial cost benefits immediately. This book shows how to develop process-oriented methodologies, covers both interorganizational and enterprises models, discusses how knowledge management can dramatically reduce costs and increase speed of response, presents a wide range of quantitative methods applied to various knowledge engineering problems, and offers several graphical presentations of models and processes. Academicians and practitioners in the area of knowledge management and engineering, especially managers in industries will fine this book useful. The material might also be useful in knowledge management graduate studies.

This book deals with the choice of methods to be applied in the decision processes within organizations. It discusses the use of voting procedures for group decision in business organizations, focusing on decision-making contexts. Within this book the reader explores the relevant part of the decision-making process consisting of choosing the voting procedures and recognizing the drawbacks of that procedure. This book includes a unique feature of providing a framework for choosing the voting procedure that is the most appropriate for a particular business decision process. The book is useful for a broad researcher audience dealing with the group decision making processes within business organizations and for practitioners and students working in the group decision and negotiation field.

This Palgrave Pivot presents tournament design mainly within the axioms of incentive compatibility and fairness. It illustrates the advantages of an axiomatic approach through various examples, including several FIFA and UEFA tournaments, and uses theoretical tools and simulation methodology in its analysis. Chapter 1 discusses scoring systems of championships with multiple competitions, ranking in Swiss-system tournaments, and tie-breaking rules in round-robin leagues. It is followed by a thorough critical analysis of the current and previous FIFA World Rankings. The broad focus is substantially narrowed in Chapter 2, which turns to the topic of incentive (in)compatibility in multiple qualifiers. It is revealed that UEFA has faced at least three times recently this problem in the qualification to the UEFA Europa League, qualification to the UEFA Champions League, and the draw of the UEFA Champions League groups. Analogously, Chapter 3 discusses incentive (in)compatibility when there is only one group-based tournament but the complex progression rules to the subsequent stage can be designed poorly. Our examples include the qualifying tournaments of recent FIFA World Cups and UEFA European Championships. Chapter 4 moves to the problem of penalty shootout rules in soccer, where the fairness and complexity of some alternative mechanisms from the literature are evaluated. Fairness remains the central issue in Chapter 5, which presents the challenges of designing a tournament with 24 teams if the number of teams per group cannot exceed four. As expected, there is no perfect solution, and both FIFA and UEFA have introduced a reform in this format recently. Chapter 6 deals with the qualification for the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship. Its tournament design is perhaps the most complicated one that has ever been implemented in the real-world and suffers from serious shortcomings.

This book gathers a selection of refereed papers presented at the 4th International Symposium and 26th National Conference of the Hellenic Operational Research Society. It highlights recent scientific advances in operational research and management science (OR/MS), with a focus on linking OR/MS with other areas of quantitative methods in a multidisciplinary framework. Topics covered include areas such as business process modeling, supply chain management, organization performance and strategy planning, revenue management, financial applications, production planning, metaheuristics, logistics, inventory systems, and energy systems.

< p=""> The book covers the domain of multi-criteria decision making, a topic which has gained significant attention of researchers and practitioners spanning a variety of disciplines for enhancing their decision making in real life situation. The topics in this volume help readers understand the techniques in the model building and analysis stage. The chapters cover a variety of techniques and their applications for interesting problems. This book will be of interest to readers in diverse disciplines such as engineering, business, management, humanities, psychology and law. ^

Fundamental Theories of Mega Infrastructure Construction Management: Theoretical Considerations from Chinese Practices is a collection of decades of research and applications of managing megaprojects using theories of complex systems and management sciences. It presents basic (classical) theory of megaproject management and is a showcase of more than 30 years of research of complex system and management sciences on the theory of megaproject management resulting from the integrating of theory and practice of megaprojects. The theory and models have undergone rigorous systematic testing during the management and implementation of megaprojects in China. Megaprojects are huge undertakings, often in infrastructure (bridges, tunnels, airports, etc.) that involve huge levels of investment, often take years to complete, and typically run into delays, cost overruns, and any number of unforeseen problems. Over the last few decades, no one country has undertaken more of these projects than China, and this book presents the fundamental theories underlying the practice of Mega Infrastructure Construction Management as practiced in China. Individual chapters provide a basic definition of Mega Infrastructure Construction and it's management; an overview of the theories behind it; the Formation Path; basic concepts; fundamental principles; scientific problems; the Method System of Meta-synthesis; specialized methods in research; and intelligent management of Mega Infrastructure Construction. Although the theoretical construction management problems in this book are derived from construction practices in China, they can be applied universally and extended for great fundamental significance.

Michael Porter is recognized as one of the top authorities on corporate strategy and business competition. The historical review of strategic management clearly shows that Porter's research has bridged up two general paradigms (before and after the 1980s) thus helping both researchers and practitioners to better understand unanticipated global changes. His two generic strategies: costs and diversification, the two interdependent strategic options, are key in the context of the competitiveness of orthodox microeconomic theory. This is where Porter went further, constructing a popular value chain concept that provides the ability to disaggregate the key activities of business process in creating products and services in terms of cost analysis and value creation. This book is a collection of seven interconnected chapters that provides a coherent understanding of Michael Porter's contribution to the field of strategic management. It addresses key changes and challenges in the global business environment. The value chain concept has become highly applicable in both theory and practice. In the book, the authors offer an original interpretation of the Porters' research on strategic management in order to unravel or simplify his key theoretical concepts. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of strategic management and international business.

Exploring the three levels of project management, this edited collection analyses the practice of problem structuring approaches (PSAs) with an aim to improve organisational adaptability and value creation. By studying these approaches, the authors present techniques for enhancing project management knowledge, informing decision-making and guiding management actions. This book is an insightful and timely read, as it addresses the need for organisations to adapt in order to tackle new challenges within today's changing business landscape. Undoubtedly useful to those studying project management and operational research, this book is also an important read for managers and decision-makers within organisations as it identifies and examines the effective outcomes of PSAs.

Simulation-Based Optimization: Parametric Optimization Techniques and Reinforcement Learning introduce the evolving area of static and dynamic simulation-based optimization. Covered in detail are model-free optimization techniques - especially designed for those discrete-event, stochastic systems which can be simulated but whose analytical models are difficult to find in closed mathematical forms. Key features of this revised and improved Second Edition include: * Extensive coverage, via step-by-step recipes, of powerful new algorithms for static simulation optimization, including simultaneous perturbation, backtracking adaptive search and nested partitions, in addition to traditional methods, such as response surfaces, Nelder-Mead search and meta-heuristics (simulated annealing, tabu search, and genetic algorithms) * Detailed coverage of the Bellman equation framework for Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), along with dynamic programming (value and policy iteration) for discounted, average, and total reward performance metrics * An in-depth consideration of dynamic simulation optimization via temporal differences and Reinforcement Learning: Q-Learning, SARSA, and R-SMART algorithms, and policy search, via API, Q-P-Learning, actor-critics, and learning automata * A special examination of neural-network-based function approximation for Reinforcement Learning, semi-Markov decision processes (SMDPs), finite-horizon problems, two time scales, case studies for industrial tasks, computer codes (placed online) and convergence proofs, via Banach fixed point theory and Ordinary Differential Equations Themed around three areas in separate sets of chapters - Static Simulation Optimization, Reinforcement Learning and Convergence Analysis - this book is written for researchers and students in the fields of engineering (industrial, systems, electrical and computer), operations research, computer science and applied mathematics.

The book offers a comprehensive and timely overview of advanced mathematical tools for both uncertainty analysis and modeling of parallel processes, with a special emphasis on intuitionistic fuzzy sets and generalized nets. The different chapters, written by active researchers in their respective areas, are structured to provide a coherent picture of this interdisciplinary yet still evolving field of science. They describe key tools and give practical insights into and research perspectives on the use of Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy sets and logic, and generalized nets for describing and dealing with uncertainty in different areas of science, technology and business, in a single, to date unique book. Here, readers find theoretical chapters, dealing with intuitionistic fuzzy operators, membership functions and algorithms, among other topics, as well as application-oriented chapters, reporting on the implementation of methods and relevant case studies in management science, the IT industry, medicine and/or education. With this book, the editors wish to pay homage to Professor Krassimir Todorov Atanassov for his pioneering work on both generalized nets and intuitionistic fuzzy set.

Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is the study of methods and procedures by which concerns about multiple conflicting criteria can be formally incorporated into the management planning process. A key area of research in OR/MS, MCDM is now being applied in many new areas, including GIS systems, AI, and group decision making. Additionally, there has been very rapid growth in recent years in evolutionary Multiobjective optimization, stochastic analysis, robustness, and regression-based methods, and thus, the need for a look at the newest trends in the field.

This volume is in effect the third book in the Springer ISOR series by these editors, bringing the latest developments in MCDM into focus. It presents research from leaders in the field on such topics as Problem Structuring Methodologies; Measurement Theory and MCDA; Recent Developments in Evolutionary Multiobjective Optimization; Habitual Domains and Dynamic MCDM in Changeable Spaces; Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis; and more.

Assembly Line Planning and Control describes the basic fundamentals of assembly lines for single model lines, mixed model make-to-stock lines, mixed model make-to-order lines and for one-station assembly. The book shows how to select the quantity of units to schedule for a shift duration, compute the number of operators needed on a line, set the conveyor speed, coordinate the main line with sub-assembly lines, assign the work elements to the operators on the line, sequence the models down the line, sequence the jobs down the line, calculate the part and component requirements for a line and for each station, determine the replenish needs of the parts and components from the suppliers, compute the similarity between the models being produced and show applications, use learning curves to estimate time and costs of assembly, and measure the efficiency of the line. The material is timeless and the book will never become obsolete. The author presents solutions with easy-to-understand numerical examples that can be applied to real-life applications. "

Fashion is a glamorous industry, one of beauty, money, fame, and huge profits. However, from the inside, it is clear the industry is suffering. An industry worth $3 Billion (USD), the fashion industry is characterized by products with a short shelf-life, wrong forecasts, low profits, and ever-increasing competition. On the periphery, technology is rapidly invading the fashion industry, with emerging forms such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Artificial Neural Networks, Human-Robot Interface, making their way into this industry in recent years. AI in Fashion Industry discusses recent developments in fashion forecasting, developing a 'framework of AI-based fashion forecasting' and validates the framework with a qualitative case study of the world's first fashion intelligence company based in Bengaluru, India. This book studies the relationship between fashion and social media engagement of consumers, before moving on to create a 'conceptual framework of fashion e-forecasting.' The case study addresses the forecasting-based business problem of a family-owned fashion retail business. This book is unique, suggesting a novel method of fashion product development in the light of data-driven intelligence; documenting some of the rapid developments in the field with the onset of technology and addressing some of the fundamental questions that are becoming more relevant in recent years.

The subject for this book is my life work on the enterprise modeling and integration by a stochastic/queuing form, and the book plan was conceived before my stay in the USA in 1996-97 as a visiting scholar. The rst title was "Stochastic Management and Design of Manufacturing Systems." The rst version was attempted in 2001; however, this version was inappropriate and was not revised till now. It is 40 years since I attempted a stochastic approach to manufacturing and management due to the limitations of statistical approaches. The century in which industrial engineering and management rose to the forefront was one in which a static/statistical approach was applied to the development of classical models and general/average theory. This book presents a stochastic management approach to the manufacturing and service enterprise with risks by a game/strategic view, and is based on many papers in production/queueing studies that have appeared in famous journals. The book's objective is to discuss and show the goals and constraints on manufacturing and service enterprises, and to provide a strategic/collaborative solution for management with risks in heterogeneity. This book mainly focuses on the three manufacturing classes: continuous, poi- wise, and exible stream types under risks. These manufacturing streams are rst studied using the respective stochastic processes, and are characterized and dev- oped as a queueing/strategic control problem of look-ahead/buffer, selection/swit- over, and arrangement/routings. Moreover, the behaviors of some design/control variables are shown and useful theories for design are established.

Prevailing models of organisation divide people into owners, managers and employees, forcing especially the latter to obey, to behave, and to function well within a hierarchical and managerial pecking order. However, there is no natural law suggesting the need for such organisations, not in market economies and definitely not in modern democratic societies - and there is no justification for such types of organisation. Arguing that most current organisations are orthodox, hierarchical, anti-democratic, oppressive, unfair, and unjust, this book presents a viable alternative, a better type of organisation - the democratic organisation. Diefenbach develops and provides step by step a systematic, comprehensive, thorough, and detailed general model of the democratic organisation. He describes the democratic organisation's fundamental principles, values, governance, management, structures, and processes, and the ways it functions and operates both within the organisation and towards others and the environment. Crucially, and most importantly, the democratic organisation provides the institutions and organisational context for individuals to maintain and pursue their fundamental freedoms, inalienable rights, and dignity; to manage organisations in democratic, participative, and cooperative ways; and to conduct business in considerate, balanced, and sustainable ways. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of management, organisation studies, strategic management, business ethics, entrepreneurship, and family business.