This paper examines the optimization of production involving a tandem two-machine system producing a single part type, with each machine being subject to random breakdowns and repairs. An analytical model is formulated with a view to solving an optimal stochastic production problem of the system with machines having up-downtime non-exponential distributions. The model developed is obtained by using a dynamic programming approach and a semi-Markov process. The control problem aims to find the production rates needed by the machines to meet the demand rate, through a minimization of the inventory/shortage cost. Using the Bellman principle, the optimality conditions obtained satisfy the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, which depends on time and system states, and ultimately, leads to a feedback control. Consequently, the new model enables us to improve the coefficient of variation (CVup/down) to be less than one while it is equal to one in Markov model. Heuristics methods are used to involve the problem because of the difficulty of the analytical model using several states, and to show what control law should be used in each system state (i.e., including Kanban, feedback and CONWIP control). Numerical methods are used to solve the optimality conditions and to show how a machine should produce.

The economic lot scheduling problem (ELSP) is a challenge between sequencing and lot sizing. In this problem, several products must be produced on a single machine in a cyclical production pattern and the primary goal is to minimize the total setup and holding expenditures. Since time affects the value of money, it is necessary to take into account the time value of money when gradual payment is the case. In this paper, a new ELSP model with the consideration of the time value of money is considered. The proposed model of this paper is formulated as a nonlinear mixed integer model and a hybrid GA is presented to solve the resulted model for large-scale problems. The proposed method is solved for some benchmark problems for large-scale problems.

In this paper, we address the optimization of an integrated line balancing process with workstation inventory management. While doing so, we have studied the interconnection between line balancing and its conversion process. Almost each and every moderate to large manufacturing industry depends on a long and integrated supply chain, consisting of inbound logistic, conversion process and outbound logistic. In this sense an approach addresses a very general problem of integrated line balancing. Research works reported in the literature so far mainly deals with minimization of cost for inbound and outbound logistic subsystems. In most of the cases conversion process has been ignored. We suggest a generic approach for linking the balancing of the line of production in the conversion area with the customers’ rate of demand in the market and for configuring the related stock chambers. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to translate the underlying problem in the form of mixed nonlinear programming problem and design the optimum supply chain so that the total inventory cost and the cost of balancing loss of the conversion process is jointly minimized and ideal cycle time of the production process is determined along with ideal sizes of the stock chambers. A numerical example has been added to demonstrate the suitability of our approach.

This paper addresses a bi-criteria scheduling problem with deteriorating jobs on a single machine. We develop a model for a single machine bi-criteria scheduling problem (SMBSP) with the aim of minimizing total tardiness and work in process (WIP) costs. WIP cost increases as a job passes through a series of stages in the production process. Due to the uncertainty involved in real-world scheduling problems, it is sometimes unrealistic or even impossible to acquire exact input data. Hence, we consider the SMBSP under the hypothesis of fuzzy L-R processing time's knowledge and fuzzy L-R due date. The effectiveness of the proposed model and the denoted methodology is demonstrated through a test problem.

This paper proposes a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to solve various types of economic dispatch (ED) problems in power systems such as, environmental/economic dispatch (EED) and multi-area environmental/economic dispatch. The proposed model considers the environmental impact to achieve the minimization of fuel costs and pollutant emissions, simultaneously. The EED problem is further extended to dispatch the power among different areas to aid emission allowance trading. The performance of the proposed PSO is compared with conventional method and genetic algorithm. The results clearly show that the proposed algorithms give global optimum solution compared to the other methods. The results obtained also show that the proposed PSO algorithms can provide comparable dispatch solutions with reduced computation time for all types of ED problems.

Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one of the most popular approaches in the area of multiple attribute decision making (MADM). However, it is not practical any more if input information are fuzzy. In this paper, we propose a new method for fuzzy AHP which is especially useful to make decisions for multiple attribute problems. The method is developed by applying preference ratio concept which makes it practical since it assigns crisp weights and crisp scores to different alternatives. Two algorithms are proposed in this paper: The first one defines crisp and normalized weight by pairwise comparison with fuzzy data while the second one calculates fuzzy consistency ratio. The proposed method is applied to prioritize different short courses in a management school.

This paper conducts a simulation study of the effects of violating the ANOVA normality assumption in the presence of Weibull data. Twelve specific Weibull distributions, characterizing the life data of a variety of real-world products and systems, are investigated. Confidence intervals on test significance and power are generated and compared against intervals from normally distributed data. The ANOVA procedure is found to be robust in the majority of cases. Furthermore, a designed experiment is conducted to isolate the effects of the Weibull shape and scale parameters within the preceding study. The shape parameter is found to have a significant effect on significance and power, whereas the scale parameter does not have a significant effect at the target α = 0.05 test significance level.

Measuring the performance of a supply chain is normally of a function of various parameters. Such a problem often involves in a multiple criteria decision making (MCMD) problem where different criteria need to be defined and calculated, properly. During the past two decades, Analytical hierarchy procedure (AHP) and DEMATEL have been some of the most popular MCDM approaches for prioritizing various attributes. The study of this paper uses a new methodology which is a combination of AHP and DEMATEL to rank various parameters affecting the performance of the supply chain. The DEMATEL is used for understanding the relationship between comparison metrics and AHP is used for the integration to provide a value for the overall performance

During the past two decades, there have been increasing interests on permutation flow shop with different types of objective functions such as minimizing the makespan, the weighted mean flow-time etc. The permutation flow shop is formulated as a mixed integer programming and it is classified as NP-Hard problem. Therefore, a direct solution is not available and meta-heuristic approaches need to be used to find the near-optimal solutions. In this paper, we present a new discrete firefly meta-heuristic to minimize the makespan for the permutation flow shop scheduling problem. The results of implementation of the proposed method are compared with other existing ant colony optimization technique. The preliminary results indicate that the new proposed method performs better than the ant colony for some well known benchmark problems.

This paper studies inventory and pricing policies in a non-cooperative supply chain with one supplier and several retailers who are involved in producing, delivering and selling a single product. We consider inventory policies in an information-asymmetric vendor managed inventory. The study consists of different scenarios where a supplier produces the product at the wholesale price to multiple retailers. The retailers also distribute the product in dispersed and independent markets at retail selling prices. The demand rate for each market is a non-decreasing concave function of the marketing expenditures of both local retailers and the manufacturer, but a non-increasing and convex function of the retail selling prices. The primary purpose is to determine wholesale price, marketing expenditure for supplier and retailers, replenishment cycles for the product, and backorder quantity to maximize the total profit for both groups of supplier and retailers. All scenarios are modeled as a Stackelberg game where the manufacturer is the leader and the retailers are the followers. A numerical study has been presented to demonstrate the influences of decision variables and/or parameters in various scenarios. Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed to study the impact of different parameters on total profitability.