摘要:

AbstractTraditionally, management‘theory’has dealt with prescriptions for improving managerial efficiency but has yet to set up a substantial scientific hypothesis relating to the nature of human organizations.The concept of autopoiesis, self-production, upgrades the idea that large human organizations are living organisms from a metaphor to a homologue, and this is offered as a scientific hypothesis.Should this hypothesis be established as a‘better’theory of human organizations, a number of important implications flowing from it will affect the world view of humans and their relationships with large organizations.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.81

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractEfficient vehicle routeing is critical to the competitive position of firms in many industries. The foodservice industry encounters complex and constantly changing routeing problems in which time is a critical factor. With the cooperation and support of management and staff of Kraft Inc., we implemented an heuristic-based decision-support system, which utilizes computer-graphic pictures of routes in a large foodservice distribution region of Kraft Inc.The system provides the route scheduler with a tool to enable the rapid evaluation of computer-proposed solutions and to easily modify them. In tests conducted by Kraft personnel, system users found potential variable cost savings of 10.7% on 10 actual delivery problems of up to 223 stops. A potential for reductions in fixed costs was also indicated. The system allows the scheduler great flexibility in dealing with unpredictable factors and also aids management in strategic planning for distribution. It is currently in day-to-day use at Kraft.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.82

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractA model has been constructed which enables a component manufacturing shop to be interactively defined at a V.D.U., and used to calculate the average job makespan (time taken on the shop) under a variety of assumptions relating to work content, capacity and operational procedures. A second phase of the model allows the production controller to define a scheduling technique and lead-time assignment method, and provides guidance on how the makespan should be converted to lead times (time allowed on the shop). The model uses a mixture of queueing theory and simulation. This paper principally describes the methodology, but uses of the model are briefly discussed.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.83

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThe pallet-loading problem, in which a number of identical boxes are to be packed orthogonally onto a rectangular pallet, has been the subject of several algorithms in recent years. These algorithms are concerned with maximizing the number of boxes fitted. In this paper, consideration is given to the development of loading patterns into pallet stacks, and criteria which might be applied to determine the suitability of these stacks for storage and transportation. A technique is developed which allows the stability and clampability of stacks to be tested, and this is applied to layouts produced by the recent algorithm of Bischoff and Dowsland. The relative importance of different criteria is illustrated and shown to have implications for the structure of algorithms that are to provide acceptable pallet stacks.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.84

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractIn the production of integrated circuits (I.C.s), the ability to estimate the yield of working devices, or die, is economically important. This yield depends on the distribution of material and processing defects across the surface of the wafer of devices.A number of models have been proposed to explain the distribution of point defects on I.C.s. Most of these models are based on the Poisson distribution for describing the number of defects expected on a die. These models do not inherently allow for dependence between the number of defects expected on two adjacent die.This paper develops a model for generating an I.C. defect distribution that allows for dependence in the number of defects on die that are near one another. The correlation matrix and yields of observed data are found to compare favourably with theoretical results of the proposed dependent model. Simulation results are used to compare the new dependent model to a previously proposed independent model. These dependent-model simulations show defective die clustered near each other on the wafer, a property that has been observed on real wafers. Methods of parameter and yield estimation in the dependent model are discussed.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.85

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractGoal programming, and in particular lexicographic goal programming (i.e. goal programming within a so-called‘pre-emptive priority’structure or having non-Archimedean weights), has become one of the most widely used of the approaches for multi-objective mathematical programming. While also applicable to non-linear or integer models, most of the literature has considered the lexicographic linear goal-programming model and its solution viaprimalsimplex-based methods. However, in many cases, enhanced efficiency (and significant additional flexibility) may be gained via an investigation of thedualof this problem. In this paper we consider an algorithm for solving such a dual and also indicate how it may be implemented on conventional (i.e. single objective) simplex software.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.86

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractA method is proposed for allocating doctors to weekly shifts in an accident and emergency department of a hospital. Two models, solved by dynamic programming, are used. The first finds the optimal solution to the problem of allocating doctors per hour of the week proportionally to the corresponding patient arrival-rate; and the second uses this solution to smooth out the hourly discrepancies in the number of doctors within a shift. The solution is then assessed by computer simulation.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.87

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractEstimating real-world parameter values by means of Monte-Carlo/stochastic simulation is usually accomplished by carrying out a number‘n’of computer runs, each using random numbers taken from a pseudo-random number generator. In order to improve the accuracy of the estimate (reduce the estimate's variance), the most common recourse is to increasen, as the estimate's variance is inversely proportional ton. Variance reduction techniques provide an alternative to increasingn. They use statistical approaches which obtain more information from the computer runs conducted, or control and direct the pseudo-random streams to optimize the information likely to be produced by a run.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.88

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThis paper considers the solution of a deterministic queueing system. In this system, the single server provides service in bulk with a threshold for the acceptance of customers into service. Analytic results are given for the steady-state probabilities of the number of customers in the system and in the queue for random and pre-arrival epochs. The solution of this system is a prerequisite to a four-point approximation to the modelGI/Ga,b/1. The paper demonstrates that the solution of such a system is not a trivial problem and can produce interesting results. The graphical solution discussed in the literature requires that the traffic intensity be a rational number. The results so generated may be misleading in practice when a control policy is imposed, even when the probability distributions for the interarrival and service times are both deterministic.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.89

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThis paper studies the problem of choosing a path through a network where the paths between the nodes have probabilities attached to them. The best path is defined as that with the highest overall probability. Resources can be expanded to increase the probabilities associated with each path. The problem is to find the best path while using the total resources available. The problem is formulated in dynamic programming.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1985.90

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1985

数据来源: Taylor