Motivated by the disintegration of supply networks observed in the automotive, textile and electronics industry, we discuss the impact of such phenomena on the network players. We hypothesize that the state of disintegration is not sustainable and will be followed by an eventual reintegration....

Uncertainty in manufacturing systems has long been the source of managerial complexity. In this paper we discuss the impact of different sources of uncertainty and present a methodology to assess their impact on system behavior. We introduce the concept of tradeoff curves as a characteristic of...

In this paper we discuss the concept of tradeoff curves in the context of the design of manufacturing systems that can be represented as open queuing networks. These curves are a characteristic of a system and allow us to understand the tradeoffs among different performance measures. We review...

We provide worst case error bounds for several approximation methods (heuristics, product aggregation, and partitioning of the planning horizon) for the uncapacitated dynamic lot size problem. We propose two managerially oriented heuristics and show that they have a relative wont case error...

In this paper we consider linear multiple objective programs with coefficients of the criteria given by intervals. This class of problems is of practical interest since in many instances it is difficult to determine precisely the coefficients of the objective functions. A subproblem to test if a...

Gabriel Bitran and Maureen Lojo develop a framework for analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of firms engaged in providing services, synthesizing and building on the literature addressing service operations. First, they summarize the distinguishing characteristics of service products, as...

In this paper we present a mathematical programming model for the Kanban system in a deterministic multi-stage capacitated assembly-tree-structure production setting. We discuss solution procedures to the problem and address three special cases of practical interest.

In this paper we study the computational complexity of the capacitated lot size problem with a particular cost structure that is likely to be used in practical settings. For the single item case new properties are introduced, classes of problems solvable by polynomial time algorithms are...

Aservice encounter is an experience that extends over time. Therefore, its effective management must include the control of the timing of the delivery of each of the service's elements and the enhancement of the customer's experience between and during the delivery of the various elements. This...

The allocation of a specific amount of a given resource among competitive alternatives can often be modelled as a knapsack problem. This model formulation is extremely efficient because it allows convex cost representation with bounded variables to be solved without great computational efforts....