This study compares the predictive performance of several mathematical programming models. Using the cropping patterns, yields and crop gross margins of eighteen farms over a period of five years we compare the models' optimum solutions with observed crop distributions after the Reform of the EU...

This paper shows that important insights can be lost when assessing the relative performance of balancing methods solely based on individual optima. This is demonstrated through a multi-objective assessment. A trade-off curve between RAS and sign-preserving absolute differences (SPAD) is...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is the need to build a novel approach that would allow flexible modeling and solving of food supply chain management (FSCM) problems. The models developed would use the data (data-driven modeling) as early as possible at the modeling phase, which would lead to a...

Purpose This paper aims to propose and formulate a complicated routing/scheduling problem for multiple automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in a manufacturing system. Design/methodology/approach Considering the due date of AGVs requiring for material handling among shops in a jobshop layout, their...

Recent reforms in the Common Agricultural Policy and the sugar regime caused serious concerns for the future of the European sugar industry. At the same time, the European Commission considers transportation bio-fuels as a key factor for reducing reliance on imported fuels, emission levels of...

Purpose – Supply chain network design is an important strategic decision that firms make considering both the short‐ and long‐term consequences of the network's performance. The typical design approach implicitly assumes that, once designed, the facilities and the links will always operate...

The problem of optimal software reliability design is considered. Allocation models are usually used to compute the target reliability for each module of a software system to maximize the overall system reliability. This objective can also be achieved by employing redundancy, e.g. N‐version...

Purpose – This paper aims to present a unified approach for effective capacity management, with the flexibility to position the organization across differing market‐orientations, anywhere from produce‐to‐stock to purchase‐and‐produce‐to‐order. Design/methodology/approach – The...

For many years, facilities location problems have attracted a great deal of attention in the literature. As a result, there is now a variety of methods for solving these problems. However, due to the recent interest, little research is found relating to the issues concerning international...