This book aims to address the coordination of quality control with other aspects of a firm's production system and supply chain, specifically, the coordination between the inspection-repair of finished products and their follow-up services, between inspection and process revision, between production and inspection under capacity constraints, between replenishment and rework quantities, and between supply and substitution decisions. To address these issues, the authors have in recent years developed a set of dynamic approaches based on Markov decision programming and using stochastic comparison techniques, including those based on notions of stochastic convexity and submodularity. The focal question driving their studies is this: under what conditions and for what systems does a certain class of policies become optimal in the sense of striking the best coordination among several competing or even conflicting aspects in the production-inventory system? Particular emphasis has been put on the class of policies that have simple, threshold structures -- simple enough to facilitate implementation, but sophisticated enough to be optimal. Written in a self-contained and well-motivated manner, the book offers a timely and useful text or reference to researchers and practitioners in operations research and management, industrial and quality engineering, systems and control, applied mathematics and statistics, and related fields.

This book covers the broad range of research in stochastic models and optimization. Applications covered include networks, financial engineering, production planning and supply chain management. Each contribution is aimed at graduate students working in operations research, probability, and statistics.

This timely and synoptic text contains the essentials of queueing networks, from the classical product-form theory to the more recent developments such as diffusion and fluid limits, stochastic comparisons, stability, dynamic scheduling, and optimization. Written by two leading experts in stochastic models and applied probability, the book is based on the authors' lecture notes accumulated over many years of teaching queueing networks. The selection of materials is well-balanced in breadth and depth, making the book an ideal graduate-level text for students in engineering, business, applied mathematics, and probability and statistics. As queueing networks have become widely used as a basic model of many physical systems in a diverse range of fields, from supply chains to communication networks, the book is also a useful reference for researchers and practitioners in industrial engineering, operations research and management, computer systems, telecommunications, and related fields.

In the foreword to Supply Chain Structures, Professor Paul Zipkin notes three global changes that have enabled the recent vast developments in the field of supply chains. Moreover, these changes may be only the beginning and more change is likely in the fast-moving field of supply chain management. These global changes are: the explosive growth of the Internet; the growth in free-market economies with the corresponding political interest in global economic stability; and the emergence of a global managerial culture focused on performance, quality, and service. Professor Zipkin goes on to say "In Supply Chain Structures, the editors Jeannette Song and David Yao have collected a spectrum of approaches to these challenges from some of the leading scholars of supply chains, from both the academic and commercial worlds. Each of the articles offers an interesting and illuminating way to think about the key issues in supply chain management. Some also offer practical techniques to solve important problems. Together they provide an excellent survey of the current state of the art in research and practice."

This volume originates from two workshops, both focusing on themes that are reflected in the title of the volume. The first workshop took place at Eindhoven University of Technology, April 24-26, 2001, on the occasion of the University granting a doctorate honoris causa to Profes sor John A. Buzacott. The second workshop was held on June 15, 2002 at Cornell University (preceding the annual INFORMSjMSOM Confer ence), honoring John's retirement and his lifetime contributions. Each of the two workshops consisted of about a dozen technical presentations. The objective of the volume, however, is not to simply publish the proceedings of the two workshops. Rather, our objective is to put to gether a select set of articles, each organized into a well-written chapter, focusing on a timely topic. Collected into a single volume, these chapters aim to serve as a useful reference for researchers and practitioners alike, and also as reading materials for graduate courses or seminars."

The progress of science and technology has placed Queueing Theory among the most popular disciplines in applied mathematics, operations research, and engineering. Although queueing has been on the scientific market since the beginning of this century, it is still rapidly expanding by capturing new areas in technology. Advances in Queueing provides a comprehensive overview of problems in this enormous area of science and focuses on the most significant methods recently developed. Written by a team of 24 eminent scientists, the book examines stochastic, analytic, and generic methods such as approximations, estimates and bounds, and simulation. The first chapter presents an overview of classical queueing methods from the birth of queues to the seventies. It also contains the most comprehensive bibliography of books on queueing and telecommunications to date. Each of the following chapters surveys recent methods applied to classes of queueing systems and networks followed by a discussion of open problems and future research directions. Advances in Queueing is a practical reference that allows the reader quick access to the latest methods.

The progress of science and technology has placed Queueing Theory among the most popular disciplines in applied mathematics, operations research, and engineering. Although queueing has been on the scientific market since the beginning of this century, it is still rapidly expanding by capturing new areas in technology. Advances in Queueing provides a comprehensive overview of problems in this enormous area of science and focuses on the most significant methods recently developed.
Written by a team of 24 eminent scientists, the book examines stochastic, analytic, and generic methods such as approximations, estimates and bounds, and simulation. The first chapter presents an overview of classical queueing methods from the birth of queues to the seventies. It also contains the most comprehensive bibliography of books on queueing and telecommunications to date. Each of the following chapters surveys recent methods applied to classes of queueing systems and networks followed by a discussion of open problems and future research directions.
Advances in Queueing is a practical reference that allows the reader quick access to the latest methods.

Manufacturing systems have become increasingly complex over recent years. This volume presents a collection of chapters which reflect the recent developments of probabilistic models and methodologies that have either been motivated by manufacturing systems research or been demonstrated to have significant potential in such research. The editor has invited a number of leading experts to present detailed expositions of specific topics. These include: Jackson networks, fluid models, diffusion and strong approximations, the GSMP framework, stochastic convexity and majorization, perturbation analysis, scheduling via Brownian models, and re-entrant lines and dynamic scheduling. Each chapter has been written with graduate students in mind, and several have been used in graduate courses that teach the modeling and analysis of manufacturing systems.

This volume originates from two workshops, both focusing on themes that are reflected in the title of the volume. The first workshop took place at Eindhoven University of Technology, April 24-26, 2001, on the occasion of the University granting a doctorate honoris causa to Profes sor John A. Buzacott. The second workshop was held on June 15, 2002 at Cornell University (preceding the annual INFORMSjMSOM Confer ence), honoring John's retirement and his lifetime contributions. Each of the two workshops consisted of about a dozen technical presentations. The objective of the volume, however, is not to simply publish the proceedings of the two workshops. Rather, our objective is to put to gether a select set of articles, each organized into a well-written chapter, focusing on a timely topic. Collected into a single volume, these chapters aim to serve as a useful reference for researchers and practitioners alike, and also as reading materials for graduate courses or seminars.

Looks at quality management in a new way; Offers a very different mathematical tool set than traditionally employed for quality control problems; Yao is a leading researcher in the area of stochastic modeling and the author of a previous Springer book

This books covers the broad range of research in stochastic models and optimization. Applications presented include networks, financial engineering, production planning, and supply chain management. Each contribution is aimed at graduate students working in operations research, probability, and statistics.

In the foreword to Supply Chain Structures, Professor Paul Zipkin notes three global changes that have enabled the recent vast developments in the field of supply chains. Moreover, these changes may be only the beginning and more change is likely in the fast-moving field of supply chain management. These global changes are: the explosive growth of the Internet; the growth in free-market economies with the corresponding political interest in global economic stability; and the emergence of a global managerial culture focused on performance, quality, and service. Professor Zipkin goes on to say "In Supply Chain Structures, the editors Jeannette Song and David Yao have collected a spectrum of approaches to these challenges from some of the leading scholars of supply chains, from both the academic and commercial worlds. Each of the articles offers an interesting and illuminating way to think about the key issues in supply chain management. Some also offer practical techniques to solve important problems. Together they provide an excellent survey of the current state of the art in research and practice."

This accessible book aims to collect in a single volume the essentials of stochastic networks. Stochastic networks have become widely used as a basic model of many physical systems in a diverse range of fields. Written by leading authors in the field, this book is meant to be used as a reference or supplementary reading by practitioners in operations research, computer systems, communications networks, production planning, and logistics.

Two of the most exciting topics of current research in stochastic networks are the complementary subjects of stability and rare events - roughly, the former deals with the typical behavior of networks, and the latter with significant atypical behavior. Both are classical topics, of interest since the early days of queueing theory, that have experienced renewed interest mo tivated by new applications to emerging technologies. For example, new stability issues arise in the scheduling of multiple job classes in semiconduc tor manufacturing, the so-called "re-entrant lines;" and a prominent need for studying rare events is associated with the design of telecommunication systems using the new ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology so as to guarantee quality of service. The objective of this volume is hence to present a sample - by no means comprehensive - of recent research problems, methodologies, and results in these two exciting and burgeoning areas. The volume is organized in two parts, with the first part focusing on stability, and the second part on rare events. But it is impossible to draw sharp boundaries in a healthy field, and inevitably some articles touch on both issues and several develop links with other areas as well. Part I is concerned with the issue of stability in queueing networks."