In projects with a flexible project structure, the activities that have to be scheduled are not completely known beforehand. Instead, scheduling such a project includes the decision whether to carry out particular activities at all. This also effects precedence constraints between the finally...

This paper addresses the question of organization of work and efficient reorganization. An emerging literature is basically concerned with the polar model of high involvement (holistic) vs. traditional (Tayloristic) work organizations. This paper extends in two ways: First, the polar case is...

The objective of the paper is to confront the conclusions in the seminal papers of Lindbeck and Snower (2001, 2000, 1996) and Snower (1998) with the empirical evidence in the manufacturing sector, thus testing the from-Tayloristic-to-holistic-organization model. Starting from stylized facts as...

The polar model of work organization is motivated by stylized facts of the last 10-20 years. A widespread process of reorganization towards innovative work practices and extended worker responsibility has been observed. The polar model derives formal conditions for such a holistic reorganization...

In this paper, we analyze the performance of call centers of financial service providers with two levels of support and a time-dependent overflow mechanism. Waiting calls from the front-office queue flow over to the back office, if a waiting-time limit is reached and at least one back-office...

This paper presents an optimization-based solution approach for the dynamic multi-level capacitated lot sizing problem (MLCLSP) with positive lead times. The key idea is to solve a series of mixed-integer programs in an iterative fix-and-optimize algorithm. Each of these programs is optimized...

We derive the well-known continuity principle for adjoint variables for preannounced or anticipated changes in parameters for continuous-time, infinite-horizon, perfect foresight optimization models. For easy and intuitive numerical computation of the resulting multi point boundary value problem...

This paper presents a new algorithm for the dynamic Multi-Level Capacitated Lot Sizing Problem with Setup Carry-Overs (MLCLSP-L). The MLCLSP-L is a big-bucket model that allows the production of any number of products within a period, but it incorporates partial sequencing of the production...

This paper presents a linear programming approach to analyze and optimize flow lines with limited buffer capacities and stochastic processing times. The basic idea is to solve a huge but simple linear program that models an entire simulation run of a multi-stage production process in discrete...

This paper analyzes the Steiner-Weber-Problem with piecewise linear or piecewise constant transportation costs. These non-differentiable cost functions are analyzed using different one-step and dynamic linearization methods, which are based on approximations via average and marginal costs. An...