The phenomenon of infrequent price changes has troubled economists for decades. Intuitively one feels that for most price-setters there exists a range of inaction, i.e. a substantial measure of the states of the world, within which they do not wish to modify prevailing prices. However, basic...

Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit sind zwei praktisch und theoretisch bedeutsame Probleme, die bei just-in-time orientierter Variantenfließfertigung auftreten. Ein Problem besteht darin, den Teilebedarf in der Endmontage so konstant wie möglich zu halten ("Level Scheduling Problem"). Das...

In this paper an improved set of benchmark instances for the simple assembly line balancing problem is presented. The benchmark set currently available consists of instances with 7 to 297 tasks to be executed. Although claims made in the literature state that instances with up to 1000 tasks can...

The car sequencing problem is to find feasible sequences of product variants requiring specific options while taking care of sequencing constraints. First, a branching scheme and constraint propagation algorithms for the computation of feasible sequences are provided. Second, an algorithm is...

While balancing straight assembly lines is a well-studied problem, the Situation where the assembly line has a U-shaped Iayout is a still emerging research field. The advantage of these lines is that workers may simply turn around to operate at two legs of the line. Hence, there is an additional...

This paper focuses on Single machine scheduling subject to inventory constraints. Jobs add and remove items to and from, respectively, the inventory. Jobs that remove items cannot be processed if the required number of items is not available. We consider scheduling problems on a Single machine...

A flow line consists of a sequence of work places (or stations) through which one or more producta (or models) move one-way in order to be processed. Each model requires specific Operations which must be performed in a predefined Order. To be able to do so, the stations must be equipped with...

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 treats the problem of setting the inventory level of closed-loop flow lines operating under the constant-work-in-process (CONWIP) protocol. We solve a huge but simple linear program that models an entire simulation run of a closed-loop flow line in discrete time to determine a...

This paper treats the problem of setting the inventory level and optimizing the buffer allocation of closed-loop flow lines operating under the constant-work-in-process (CONWIP) protocol. We solve a very large but simple linear program that models an entire simulation run of a closed-loop flow...