One approach for solving decision problems involving multiple objectives is interactive optimization. Methods based on this approach assess the decision maker's preference structure interactively, typically based on pairwise comparisons and tradeoffs, and guide the search process toward...

A new efficient system of representing the decision-maker's preference structure in solving multicriteria integer programming problems is developed. The problem is solved by an interactive branch-and-bound method that employs the procedure of Zionts and Wallenius (Zionts, S., J. Wallenius. 1983....

Decentralized planning has long been recognized as an important decision making problem. Many approaches based on the concepts of large-scale system decomposition have generally lacked the ability to model the type of truly independent subsystems which often exist in practice. Multilevel...

In this paper, we develop a Lagrangean relaxation-based heuristic procedure to generate near-optimal solutions to very-large-scale capacitated lot-sizing problems (CLSP) with setup times and limited overtime. Our computational results show that large problems involving several thousand products...

In this paper we develop a new conditional penalty for the fixed charge transportation problem. This penalty is stronger than both the Driebeek penalties and the Lagrangean penalties of Cabot and Erenguc. Computational testing shows that the use of these penalties leads to significant reductions...

This paper discusses the notion of workflow congestion in the context of material handling equipment interruptions in a manufacturing or warehousing facility. Development of a combination of probabilistic and physics-based models for workflow interruptions permits evaluation of the expected link...

In this paper we propose a new criterion for coverage which is suitable for two kinds of applications: (i) location of fire trucks in a geographical area in which some demands require multiple fire trucks to be within an acceptable distance standard to achieve coverage; and (ii) location of...

This note establishes a class of best possible upper bounds for the Dynamic Plant Layout Problem (DPLP) examined by Rosenblatt (Rosenblatt, M. J. 1986. The dynamics of plant layout. Management Sci. 32 76--86.) in this journal. We use the notation of that paper.

We present a model of fixing or patching a software problem after the product has been released in the market. Specifically, we model a software firm's trade-off in releasing a buggy product early and investments in fixing it later. Just as the marginal cost of producing software can be...

This paper presents a simple economic model of a drug dealer's decision about how many customers to supply. The model relates the number of customers (i.e., the branching factor of the distribution network) to a quantity discount factor describing the extent to which prices are marked up from...