The first essay considers a service center with two stations in accordance with independent Poisson processes. Service times at either station follow the same general distribution, are independent of each other and are independent of the arrival process. The system is charged station-dependent...

This dissertation examines global groups at work through an intensive study of cross-national student teams and case studies of exemplar companies that work across boundaries. We consider the role of transactive memory systems (TMS) as a way to create effective team processes. A TMS is a...

Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are being increasingly used in the classroom to provide users of computer simulations with a friendly and visual approach to specifying all input parameters and increased configuration flexibility. In this study, the authors first describe a number of software...

In this paper, we consider a multiple-stage tandem production/inventory system producing a single product. Processing time at each stage is assumed to have a general stationary processing time distribution. The cost of holding work-in-process (WIP) inventory is different at each stage....

We consider a make-to-stock production/inventory system consisting of a single deteriorating machine which produces a single item. We formulate the integrated decisions of maintenance and production using a Markov Decision Process. The optimal dynamic policy is shown to have a rather complex...

We consider M transmitting stations sending packets to a single receiver over a slotted time-multiplexed link. For each phase consisting of T consecutive slots, the receiver dynamically allocates these slots among the M transmitters. Our objective is to characterize policies that minimize the...

A simple, eclectic approach for solving discrete alternative multiple criteria decision problems is presented. It is based on the concept of the level of aspiration, and draws on ideas of various researchers. It assumes that the user has a set of alternatives with each alternative having a score...

On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) aims at gaining useful information quickly from large amounts of data residing in a data warehouse. To improve the quickness of response to queries, pre-aggregation is a useful strategy. However, it is usually impossible to pre-aggregate along all...

The management of innovation is a complex task and the management of suppliers' innovative activities is especially so because it involves managing technological factors across the traditional boundaries of the firm. This paper explores the determinants of suppliers' innovative activities by...

This is a report of a study on the evolution of manufacturing technology policy during the deployment of domestic advanced manufacturing systems in thirty-four plants and two panels of data collection separated by one year. Changing firm environment was significantly correlated with pioneering...