摘要:

AbstractThis paper describes a methodology for strategic management whose primary aim is to gain involvement and commitment from those whose actions will secure the organization's future, rather than to produce perfect plans. The process involves a continuous cycle of workshops in which many managerial levels participate, focussing on the creation and evaluation of strategic options, including analysis of the competitive environment in which the options would be carried out. Through such workshops, a knowledge base of the‘corporate context’is built up of the combined, and often opposing, views of those who have participated, and this is fed back into future workshops. There is thus a flow of ideas and experiences both up and down and across the organization. It is argued that as well as enhancing commitment and understanding, the process also fosters creativity, reduces bounded vision and encourages participants to think about themselves and the organization in new lights.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.155

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThis paper examines the use of a concordance-type model for prioritizing transportation projects. In the particular case examined, multiple criteria are involved, and projects can be rated only on a qualitative basis. The model augments the well-known ELECTRA methodology with a tournament ranking procedure. The resulting procedure, known as SELECTRA, is presently being used to rank order over 200 investment projects within the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.156

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThis paper reports on the use of a dynamic programming model to sequence the loading of storage facilities at an apple-packing plant operating in the state of New York, USA. The post-harvest quality of perishable agricultural products is significantly affected by delays in getting the product under storage conditions. This model minimizes this delay by identifying the optimal order in which storage facilities should be loaded. An optimal sequence is identified which is insensitive to changes in the relative importance of storage facilities, but which is influenced by differences in the deterioration rate among apple varieties.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.157

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractControl variables may be used in the estimation of percentiles by stochastic stimulation. Hitherto control variables have only been applied to estimating the mean of a response variable; however, in many uses of simulation, information about the tails of the distribution of a response variable are of more interest. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated by application to an example of a simulation study in capital budgeting where exposure to risk is important.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.158

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractRecent research has demonstrated that little validation is carried out during and after the building of operational research models for decision support. In a subject area that has been of great interest for more than a decade, this reflects the fact that validation is not yet firmly embedded into the methodology of mathematical modelling that underpins conventional decision support systems. With the interest now being shown in expert systems, it is important to devise an appropriate methodology of validation for such systems. This paper contributes to this development by describing the types of validation that should be performed with decision support systems, and compares and contrasts the features found in the validation of mathematical models with those required of validation of expert systems.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.159

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThe use of a mathematical metamodel such as a regression model, constructed from simulation data and used to aid in the analysis of the simulated system, has been studied in recent years. For practitioners, the vast benefits of establishing a functional relationship among the variables in an unfamiliar and complex simulated system may be largely overshadowed by the concern that the metamodel, being a strongly data-based technique, may be valid only for the one particular set of simulation-generated data that went into it, which is to say not valid at all. Based on a study of 30 simulation experiments using three different simulation models, the authors conclude that the simulation metamodel is a reliable and valid technique to use in post-simulation analysis, and is probably just as good as the simulation model on which it is based.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.160

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractWe consider anNduplicate-server system, where each server consists of two reconfigurable duplicated units which are subject to breakdowns. This system is studied analytically using generating-functions, and also numerically using the matrix-geometric procedure. Using the generating-function approach we obtain a recursive expression of the queue-length probability distribution forN= 1. This expression is difficult to generalize toN⩾2. The numerical method is applicable for any value ofN. For anyN, we also obtain the condition for stability and the availability of the system.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.161

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractIn this paper we introduce a model to determine the maintenance float needed to maximize the availability of an operating system withNnumber of circulating units. An implicit enumeration algorithm is used as a solution technique to the closed queueing maintenance network with two types of repairs: minor and major repairs. It is shown that when there is no differentiation of repair type, this special case is obtained as a by-product of the two-repair-centre model. This paper assumes exponential failure times and exponential repair times with load-independent servers. The approach followed in this paper provides an approximate and simple way to solve the maintenance-float problem of this complex closed-network system.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.162

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThe asymptotic behaviour of the time to sell a given quantity of stock depleted by a discrete demand process is derived for discrete time and continuous time (block depletion and continuous depletion).

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.163

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractA Normal approximation is described for the finite exponential source queueing model,M(λQ/G/S//N, under‘high intensity’conditions. Empirical evidence for the result is summarized.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1988.164

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1988

数据来源: Taylor