The classical combinatorial optimization problem of minimizing maximum completion time in a general job-shop has been the subject of extensive research. In this paper we review and extend this work. A general bounding approach is developed which includes all previously presented lower bounds as...

A class of production planning problems is considered in which known demands have to be satisfied over a finite horizon at minimum total costs. For each period, production and storage cost functions are specified. The production costs may include set-up costs and the production levels may he...

The optimal way to cut a number of pieces from a reel is usually studied under the assumption that each piece has one of its sides parallel to the reel edge. If the material to be cut is homogeneous, it may be attractive to consider patterns in which certain pieces appear in an intermediate,...

Portfolios that are risk-return efficient in the sense of Markowitz sometimes contain too many securities to be attractive to the small investor. An optimal portfolio subject to a size constraint can be found by an implicit enumeration algorithm, that is much faster than a previous approach and...

Recently there has been considerable interest in the average-case performance of heuristics. This paper pursues that interest, where it concerns sequencing and packing problems. In particular, we survey the methods that have been used to obtain formal probabilistic analyses of heuristics for...