This book represents the compilation of several research approaches on opera tional freight carrier planning carried out at the Chair of Logistics, University of Bremen. It took nearly three years from the first ideas to the final version, now in your hands. During this time, several persons helped me all the time to keep on going and to re-start when I got stuck in a dead end or when I could not see the wood for the trees. I am deeply indebted to them for their encouragement and comments. Prof. Dr. Herbert Kopfer, holder of the Chair of Logistics, introduced me into the field of operational transport planning. He motivated and supervised me. Furthermore, he supported me constantly and allowed me to be as free as possible in my research and encouraged me to be as creative as necessary. In addition, I have to thank Prof. Dr. Hans-Dietrich Haasis, Prof. Dr. Martin G. Mohrle and Prof. Dr. Thorsten Poddig. On behalf of all my colleagues, who supported me in numerous ways, I have to say thank you to Prof. Dr. Dirk C. Mattfeld, Prof. Dr. Christian Bierwirth, Henner Gratz, Prof. Dr. Elmar Erkens, Nadja Shigo and Katrin Dorow. They all helped me even with my most obscure and dubious problems. My family supported me all the time. They always showed me their trust and encouraged me continuously. Special thanks are dedicated to my parents Monika and Heinz-Jiirgen."

This textbook provides a comprehensive step-by-step guide for new public transport modelers. It includes an introduction to mathematical modeling, continuous and discrete optimization, numerical optimization, computational complexity analysis, metaheuristics, and multi-objective optimization. These tools help engineers and modelers to use better existing public transport models and also develop new models that can address future challenges. By reading this book, the reader will gain the ability to translate a future problem description into a mathematical model and solve it using an appropriate solution method. The textbook provides the knowledge needed to develop highly accurate mathematical models that can serve as decision support tools at the strategic, tactical, and operational planning levels of public transport services. Its detailed description of exact optimization methods, metaheuristics, bi-level, and multi-objective optimization approaches together with the detailed description of implementing these approaches in classic public transport problems with the use of open source tools is unique and will be highly useful to students and transport professionals.

Waiting in lines is a staple of everyday human life. Without really noticing, we are doing it when we go to buy a ticket at a movie theater, stop at a bank to make an account withdrawal, or proceed to checkout a purchase from one of our favorite department stores. Oftentimes, waiting lines are due to overcrowded, overfilling, or congestion; any time there is more customer demand for a service than can be provided, a waiting line forms. Queuing systems is a term used to describe the methods and techniques most ideal for measuring the probability and statistics of a wide variety of waiting line models. This book provides an introduction to basic queuing systems, such as M/M/1 and its variants, as well as newer concepts like systems with priorities, networks of queues, and general service policies. Numerical examples are presented to guide readers into thinking about practical real-world applications, and students and researchers will be able to apply the methods learned to designing queuing systems that extend beyond the classroom. Very little has been published in the area of queuing systems, and this volume will appeal to graduate-level students, researchers, and practitioners in the areas of management science, applied mathematics, engineering, computer science, and statistics.

This book summarizes a series of research work on integrated process planning and scheduling (IPPS) done by the authors, focusing on discussing the properties, novel solution methods and applications of process planning, scheduling and IPPS problems under different machining environments. It is a valuable reference resource for teachers, students and researchers working in the fields of engineering, management science and other related disciplines.

The book discusses the study and implementation of controlling in the modern enterprise from the perspective of Industry 4.0, which helps ensure the efficient and effective use of organizational resources in order to achieve planned goals. The aim of this book is to provide the most comprehensive and effective exchange of information on current developments in Enterprise Controlling. The authors describe lean/agile approaches that enterprises can use to reach the highest level of competitiveness in a global environment and help establish channels of communication and disseminate knowledge among professionals working in manufacturing and related institutions. The authors aim to help facilitate corporate coordination and help with its planning without deviating from standards. The publication is dedicated to all who want to learn in the field of controlling from researchers and academics to students.

This book provides a complete and comprehensive guide to Pyomo (Python Optimization Modeling Objects) for beginning and advanced modelers, including students at the undergraduate and graduate levels, academic researchers, and practitioners. Using many examples to illustrate the different techniques useful for formulating models, this text beautifully elucidates the breadth of modeling capabilities that are supported by Pyomo and its handling of complex real-world applications. In the third edition, much of the material has been reorganized, new examples have been added, and a new chapter has been added describing how modelers can improve the performance of their models. The authors have also modified their recommended method for importing Pyomo. A big change in this edition is the emphasis of concrete models, which provide fewer restrictions on the specification and use of Pyomo models. Pyomo is an open source software package for formulating and solving large-scale optimization problems. The software extends the modeling approach supported by modern AML (Algebraic Modeling Language) tools. Pyomo is a flexible, extensible, and portable AML that is embedded in Python, a full-featured scripting language. Python is a powerful and dynamic programming language that has a very clear, readable syntax and intuitive object orientation. Pyomo includes Python classes for defining sparse sets, parameters, and variables, which can be used to formulate algebraic expressions that define objectives and constraints. Moreover, Pyomo can be used from a command-line interface and within Python's interactive command environment, which makes it easy to create Pyomo models, apply a variety of optimizers, and examine solutions.

This book reviews the field of Knowledge Management, taking a holistic approach that includes both "soft" and "hard" aspects. It provides a broad perspective on the field, rather than one based on a single viewpoints from Computer Science or Organizational Learning, offering a comprehensive and integrated conception of Knowledge Management. The chapters represent the best Knowledge Management articles published in the 21st century in Knowledge Management Research & Practice and the European Journal of Information Systems, with contributors including Ikujiro Nonaka, Frada Burstein, and David Schwartz. Most of the chapters contribute significantly to practise as well as theory. The OR Essentials series presents a unique cross-section of high quality research work fundamental to understanding contemporary issues and research across a range of Operational Research topics. It brings together some of the best research papers from the highly respected journals of the Operational Research Society, also published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Businesses in the Asia-Pacific communities provide enormous opportunities for local entrepreneurs to develop and collectively collaborate with other economies. However, several challenges and success factors exist for effective business operations in the region. Innovative Management and Business Practices in Asia is a collection of innovative research that enhances understanding and collaboration in business, management, and technology in Asia for the present and in the future. While highlighting topics including corporate culture, international trade, and business administration, this book is ideally designed for managers, executives, CEOs, board members, corporate professionals, managing directors, deans, decision makers, professors, researchers, policymakers, industry practitioners, and students.

This book focuses on the tactical planning level for spare parts management. It describes a series of multi-item inventory models and presents exact and heuristic optimization methods, including greedy heuristics that work well for real, life-sized problems. The intended audience consists of graduate students, starting scholars in the field of spare parts inventory control, and spare parts planning specialists in the industry. In individual chapters the authors consider topics including: a basic single-location model; single-location models with multiple machine types and/or machine groups; the multi-location model with lateral transshipments; the classical METRIC model and its generalization to multi-indenture systems; and a single-location model with an explicit modeling of the repair capacity for failed parts and the priorities that one can set there. Various chapters of the book are used in a master course at Eindhoven University of Technology and in a PhD course of the Graduate Program Operations Management and Logistics (a Dutch network that organizes PhD courses in the field of OM&L). The required pre-knowledge consists of probability theory and basic knowledge of Markov processes and queuing theory. End-of-chapter problems appear for all chapters, with some answers appearing in an appendix.

This textbook offers graduate students a concise introduction to the classic notions of convex optimization. Written in a highly accessible style and including numerous examples and illustrations, it presents everything readers need to know about convexity and convex optimization. The book introduces a systematic three-step method for doing everything, which can be summarized as "conify, work, deconify". It starts with the concept of convex sets, their primal description, constructions, topological properties and dual description, and then moves on to convex functions and the fundamental principles of convex optimization and their use in the complete analysis of convex optimization problems by means of a systematic four-step method. Lastly, it includes chapters on alternative formulations of optimality conditions and on illustrations of their use. "The author deals with the delicate subjects in a precise yet light-minded spirit... For experts in the field, this book not only offers a unifying view, but also opens a door to new discoveries in convexity and optimization...perfectly suited for classroom teaching." Shuzhong Zhang, Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Minnesota

This volume results from the "Second International Conference on Dynamics of Disasters" held in Kalamata, Greece, June 29-July 2, 2015. The conference covered particular topics involved in natural and man-made disasters such as war, chemical spills, and wildfires. Papers in this volume examine the finer points of disasters through: Critical infrastructure protection Resiliency Humanitarian logistic Relief supply chains Cooperative game theory Dynamical systems Decision making under risk and uncertainty Spread of diseases Contagion Funding for disaster relief Tools for emergency preparedness Response, and risk mitigation Multi-disciplinary theories, tools, techniques and methodologies are linked with disasters from mitigation and preparedness to response and recovery. The interdisciplinary approach to problems in economics, optimization, government, management, business, humanities, engineering, medicine, mathematics, computer science, behavioral studies, emergency services, and environmental studies will engage readers from a wide variety of fields and backgrounds.

This book offers a concise introduction and comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field of decision-making and consensus modeling, with a special emphasis on fuzzy methods. It consists of a collection of authoritative contributions reporting on the decision-making process from different perspectives: from psychology to social and political sciences, from decision sciences to data mining, and from computational sciences in general, to artificial and computational intelligence and systems. Written as a homage to Mario Fedrizzi for his scholarly achievements, creative ideas and long lasting services to different scientific communities, it introduces key theoretical concepts, describes new models and methods, and discusses a range of promising real-world applications in the field of decision-making science. It is a timely reference guide and a source of inspiration for advanced students and researchers

Remarkable features of revenue management (RM) problems in the cargo, manufacturing and broadcasting industries are so-called flexible products. "Flexibility" means that the actual mode of production is not defined at the time of purchase, but can be chosen later on by the service provider. This book is among the first to analyze RM problems with flexible products and RM in broadcasting companies. The implications of flexibility are explicitly taken into account in the models and methods presented. As an aside, the book contains descriptions of algorithms to generate stochastic demand data streams for general RM problems. An implementation as a Microsoft Windows executable file is available, which can directly be used both by theoreticians and practitioners in their own simulation studies. This book will be of great value for researchers, managers and students interested in RM with flexible products in general and broadcasting companies in particular.

Let us endeavor to see things as they are, and then enquire whether we ought to complain. Whether to see life as it is, will give us much consolation, I know not; but the consolation which is drawn from truth if any there be, is solid and durable: that which may be derived from errour, must be, like its original, fallacious and fugitive. Samuel Johnson, Letter to Bennet Langton (1758) Attorneys and clients make hundreds of decisions in every litigation case. From initially deciding which attorney to retain to deciding which witnesses to call at trial, from deciding whether to ?le a complaint to deciding whether to appeal a verdict, attorneys and clients make multiple, critical decisions about strategies, costs, arguments, valuations, evidence and negotiations. Once made, these de- sions are scrutinized by an opponent intent on exploiting the consequences of any mistake. In this intense and adversarial arena, decision-making errors often are transparent, irreversible and dispositive, wielding the power to bankrupt clients and dissolve law ?rms. Although attorneys and clients may regard sound decision making as incidental to effective lawyering, sound decision making actually is the essence of effective lawyering. An attorney's knowledge, intelligence and experience are inert re- urces until the attorney decides how to deploy those skills to serve the client's interests. Those decisions, in turn, largely determine a case's course and outcome.

Earned Value Management (EVM) is a project management technique for measuring project progress in terms of cost, schedule and scope, and has developed into a very effective way to uncover performance problems at an early and correctible stage in any given project. From its earliest days as a financial analysis tool in the US in the early 1960 s, it steadily grew in use through the US Department of Defense until it was made the standard measurement for all DoD, NASA, and Department of Energy projects, and was widely adopted by publicly-traded companies trying to comply with the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley ruling calling for greater transparency and accountability. It has also long been used in software engineering projects.

Winning the 2008 Research Award from IPMA for his research leading to this proposed book, author Mario Vanhoucke has surveyed the published literature to find and evaluate the effectiveness of the latest developments (and established practices) in EVM. After first explaining the fundamentals and terminology of the practice, he explores all the latest research trends and then tests them against a group of fictitious projects to gauge their effectiveness, offering general results applicable to a wide set of project types that researchers and practitioners can use to expand their work in EVM-managed projects. With a focus on the simple calculations behind EVM systems, Vanhoucke shows how they can often lead to misinterpretation and frustration and how to avoid common mistakes.

Meant to complement rather than compete with the existing books on the subject, the proposed book deals with the project performance and control phases of the project life cycle to present a detailed investigation of the project s time performance measurement methods and risk analysis techniques in order to evaluate existing and newly developed methods in terms of their abilities to improve the corrective actions decision-making process during project tracking. As readers apply what is learned from the book, EVM practices will become even more effective in project management and cost engineering. Individual chapters look at simulation studies in forecast accuracy (under nine different scenarios); schedule adherence; time sensitivity; activity sensitivity; and using top-down or bottom-up project tracking. Vanhoucke also offers an actual real-life case study, a tutorial on the use of ProTrack software (newly developed based on his research) in EVM, and conclusions on the relative effectiveness for each technique presented. This will be an important read for anyone researching, using, or studying EVM and will certainly help to push the field forward in the coming years.

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This book is designed to assist industrial engineers and production managers in developing procedural and methodological engineering tools to meet industrial standards and mitigate engineering and production challenges. It offers practitioners expert guidance on how to implement adequate statistical process control (SPC), which takes account of the capability to ensure a stable process and then regulate if variations take place due to variables other than a random variation. Powerful engineering models of new product introduction (NPI), continuous improvement (CI), and the eight disciplines (8D) model of problem solving techniques are explained. The final three chapters introduce new methodological models in operations research (OR) and their applications in engineering, including the hyper-hybrid coordination for process effectiveness and production efficiency, and the Kraljic-Tesfay portfolio matrix of industrial buying.

This book focuses on decision-making problems in engineering. It investigates the ranking aggregation problem and the related features, such as input/output data, simplification hypotheses, importance hierarchy of experts. In addition to a well-structured overview of several interesting, consolidated methodological approaches, it presents innovative approaches that can also be applied profitably in other fields. The fascinating selection of topics included is based on research that has been developed in the past twenty years. The descriptions are supported by figures, tables, flowcharts, diagrams, examples and practical case studies. The book is an ideal resource for engineering academics, practitioners, technicians and students, who do not necessarily have an in-depth knowledge of decision-making. It is also a thought-provoking read for engineers and academics looking for innovative ways to improve engineering processes in a variety of fields, such as conceptual design, quality improvement, reliability engineering. "Today, rankings are exercised in all spheres of life, products are ranked on Amazon and similar platforms; services such as restaurants and hotels on platforms such as TripAdvisor; and other services such as lectures or even medical treatment on different specialized platforms. We often make our daily decisions based on these rankings. The quality of our decisions depends on our ability to select appropriate methods to fit the context and needs. We need to be familiar with the theory and practice of these methods to make them useful. To this purpose, this book is an important addition to the bookshelves of academics and professionals, not only from engineering. The connection between theory and practice is weaved throughout the book, making it useful for practitioners also." Prof. Yoram Reich, Full Professor and Head of Systems Engineering research Initiative at Tel Aviv University (Israel), Editor-in-Chief of "Research in Engineering Design"

In Linear Programming: A Modern Integrated Analysis, both boundary (simplex) and interior point methods are derived from the complementary slackness theorem and, unlike most books, the duality theorem is derived from Farkas's Lemma, which is proved as a convex separation theorem. The tedium of the simplex method is thus avoided. A new and inductive proof of Kantorovich's Theorem is offered, related to the convergence of Newton's method. Of the boundary methods, the book presents the (revised) primal and the dual simplex methods. An extensive discussion is given of the primal, dual and primal-dual affine scaling methods. In addition, the proof of the convergence under degeneracy, a bounded variable variant, and a super-linearly convergent variant of the primal affine scaling method are covered in one chapter. Polynomial barrier or path-following homotopy methods, and the projective transformation method are also covered in the interior point chapter. Besides the popular sparse Cholesky factorization and the conjugate gradient method, new methods are presented in a separate chapter on implementation. These methods use LQ factorization and iterative techniques.

'A refreshing and useful addition to the folklore of management. All in all this is a worthwhile insight into the management views and structure of some of our leading construction companies.' - J.J. Farrow, Chartered Builder This volume describes and analyses the behaviour of large UK construction firms in the determination and implementation of their strategy. It covers, in addition to the selection of objectives and the methods for their achievement, policies on growth and diversification, finance, marketing and bidding, international operations, management and labour and subcontracting. Throughout the book the relationship is examined between the theory outlined in the companion volume and the actual behaviour of firms. The final chapter concludes with a discussion of the means to bridge the gaps which are found to exist between theory and practice.

Technological developments in recent years have been tremendous. This evolution is visible in companies through technological equipment, computerized procedures, and management practices associated with technologies. One of the management practices that is visible is related to business intelligence and analytics (BI&A). Concepts such as data warehousing, key performance indicators (KPIs), data mining, and dashboards are changing the business arena. This book aims to promote research related to these new trends that open up a new field of research in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) area. Features Focuses on the more recent research findings occurring in the fields of BI&A Conveys how companies in the developed world are facing today's technological challenges Shares knowledge and insights on an international scale Provides different options and strategies to manage competitive organizations Addresses several dimensions of BI&A in favor of SMEs

This book covers important issues related to managing supply chain risks from various perspectives. Supply chains today are vulnerable to disruptions with a significant impact on firms' business and performance. The aim of supply chain risk management is to identify the potential sources of risks and implement appropriate actions in order to mitigate supply chain disruptions. This book presents a set of models, frameworks, strategies, and analyses that are essential for managing supply chain risks. As a comprehensive collection of the latest research and most recent cutting-edge developments on supply chain risk and its management, the book is structured into three main parts: 1) Supply Chain Risk Management; 2) Supply Chain Vulnerability and Disruptions Management; and 3) Toward a Resilient Supply Chain. Leading academic researchers as well as practitioners have contributed chapters, combining theoretical findings and research results with a practical and contemporary view on how companies can manage the supply chain risks and disruptions, as well as how to create a resilient supply chain. This book can serve as an essential source for students and scholars who are interested in pursuing research or teaching courses in the rapidly growing area of supply chain risk management. It can also provide an interesting and informative read for managers and practitioners who need to deepen their knowledge of effective supply chain risk management.

This book introduces readers to benchmarking techniques in the stochastic environment, primarily stochastic data envelopment analysis (DEA), and provides stochastic models in DEA for the possibility of variations in inputs and outputs. It focuses on the application of theories and interpretations of the mathematical programs, which are combined with economic and organizational thinking. The book's main purpose is to shed light on the advantages of the different methods in deterministic and stochastic environments and thoroughly prepare readers to properly use these methods in various cases. Simple examples, along with graphical illustrations and real-world applications in industry, are provided for a better understanding. The models introduced here can be easily used in both theoretical and real-world evaluations. This book is intended for graduate and PhD students, advanced consultants, and practitioners with an interest in quantitative performance evaluation.

The focus of Supply Chain Engineering is the engineering design and planning of supply chain systems. There exists a very large variety of supply chain system types, all with different goals, constraints, and decisions, but a systematic approach for the design and planning of any supply chain can be based on the principles and methods of system engineering. In this book, author Marc Goetschalckx presents material developed at the Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, the largest supply chain and logistics research and education program in the world. The book can be roughly divided into four sections. The first section focuses on data management. Since most of planning and design requires making decisions today so that supply chain functions can be executed efficiently in the future, this section introduces forecasting principles and techniques. The second section of the book focuses on transportation systems. First, the characteristics of transportation assets and infrastructure are shown. Then four chapters focus on the planning of transportation activities depending on who controls the transportation assets. The third section of the book is focused on storing goods, and the last section of the book is focused on supply chain systems that consider simultaneously procurement, production, and transportation and inventory as well as the design of the supply chain infrastructure or network design. In each chapter, first a model of the process being studied is developed followed by a description of practical solution algorithms. More advanced material is typically described in appendices. This makes it possible to use an integrated, breath-first treatment of supply chain systems by using the initial material in each chapter. A more in depth treatment of a specific topic or process can be found towards the end of each chapter. End-of-chapter exercises are included throughout. This text is suitable for several target audiences. The first target is a course for upper-level undergraduate students on supply chains. The second target is the use in a capstone senior design project in the supply chain area. The third target is an introductory course on supply chains either in a master of engineering or a master of business administration program, and the final audience consists of students attending logistics or supply chain post-graduate or continuing education courses.

One of the most well-known of all network optimization problems is the shortest path problem, where a shortest connection between two locations in a road network is to be found. This problem is the basis of route planners in vehicles and on the Internet. Networks are very common structures; they consist primarily of a ?nite number of locations (points, nodes), together with a number of links (edges, arcs, connections) between the locations. Very often a certain number is attached to the links, expressing the distance or the cost between the end points of that connection. Networks occur in an extremely wide range of applications, among them are: road networks; cable networks; human relations networks; project scheduling networks; production networks; distribution networks; neural networks; networks of atoms in molecules. In all these cases there are "objects" and "relations" between the objects. A n- work optimization problem is actually nothing else than the problem of ?nding a subset of the objects and the relations, such that a certain optimization objective is satis?ed.

This volume is dedicated to Bill Helton on the occasion of his sixty fifth birthday. It contains biographical material, a list of Bill's publications, a detailed survey of Bill's contributions to operator theory, optimization and control and 19 technical articles. Most of the technical articles are expository and should serve as useful introductions to many of the areas which Bill's highly original contributions have helped to shape over the last forty odd years. These include interpolation, Szegoe limit theorems, Nehari problems, trace formulas, systems and control theory, convexity, matrix completion problems, linear matrix inequalities and optimization. The book should be useful to graduate students in mathematics and engineering, as well as to faculty and individuals seeking entry level introductions and references to the indicated topics. It can also serve as a supplementary text to numerous courses in pure and applied mathematics and engineering, as well as a source book for seminars.