A fundamental decision every merchant has to make is on is how large his stores should be. This is particularly true in light of the drastic changes retail concepts have seen in the last decade. There has been a noticeable tendency, particularly for food and convenience retailers, to open more...

Lateral transshipments within an inventory system are stock movements between locations of the same echelon. These transshipments can be conducted periodically at predetermined points in time to proactively redistribute stock, or they can be used reactively as a method of meeting demand which...

It has long been recognised that situations in which some key resource or service is to be allocated among jobs or customers competing for it are often subject to a range of uncertainties. Key amongst these concern the reliability of service itself. When the service being delivered to a job is...

It has long been recognised that situations in which some key resource or service is to be allocated among jobs or customers competing for it are often subject to a range of uncertainties. Key amongst these concern the reliability of service itself. When the service being delivered to a job is...

A collection of jobs (or customers, or patients) wait impatiently for service. Each has a random lifetime during which it is available for service. Should this lifetime expire before its service starts then it leaves unserved. Limited resources mean that it is only possible to serve one job at a...

We consider a scenario in which a large equipment manufacturer wishes to outsource the work involved in repairing purchased goods while under warranty. Several external service vendors are available for this work. We develop models and analyses to support decisions concerning how responsibility...