摘要:

AbstractThis article examines the use of theory and practice in the solution of Vehicle Routeing Problems (VRPs) in some major organizations located in Scotland. The respective organizations' backgrounds and delivery structures are presented. Solutions and implementations together with the role of computer software are discussed. Comparisons among these organizations are made. Management perceptions and reactions related to VRP are highlighted.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.1

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThe paper presents some of the difficulties in applying interactive, and interactive compromise, programming methods to real-life problems. These include the problem of dominated solutions when multiple optimal solutions exist to single objective function optimization, cycling, and the depiction of the analyst as a silent spectator in the decision making process. By taking as an example a recently proposed interactive compromise programming method, these difficulties are illustrated and necessary modifications are proposed to overcome these difficulties. These are further elucidated by a case study.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.2

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThis paper discusses the practical usefulness of separating market efficiency from profitability when assessing the comparative performance of private sector organizational units. The market efficiency of a unit reflects its ability to attract custom. The paper shows how data envelopment analysis can be used to assess market efficiency and it illustrates the usefulness of this measure in managing the public houses of a brewery.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.3

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThis paper describes a feasibility study for the development of a network of employment services for people with mental health problems (and others) who are unemployed. It highlights the problems of using debate-orientated, soft OR methods when there are difficulties of open communication between different interest groups. In this case, the interest groups were clients and professionals in the mental health system. To bypass these difficulties, a series of confidential interviews was conducted with stakeholders. The issue of who was to be interviewed was resolved through a rolling programme of recommendations, where each interviewee recommended others until most of the people being recommended were people who had already been seen. This approach allowed for the involvement of many people and agencies who the researchers did not initially suspect might be stakeholders. Having conducted the interviews, the researchers then produced a design in the form of an‘expert’report. Although they had serious reservations about taking such an approach instead of simply supporting the expertise of already identified stakeholders, it turned out, upon reflection, that they had made the right decision. The‘expert’appoach allowed the views of service users to be taken into account. Also, the rolling programme of recommendations used to determine who should be interviewed actually uncovered hitherto‘hidden’stakeholders who were crucial to the success or failure of the whole project.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.4

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractA series of treadmill experiments is described concerned with a runner's speed, heart-rate and the gradient. Together with the results of similar experiments, some of them carried out over 50 years ago, the results suggest that for a given heart-rate, log(speed) is linearly related to gradient, and that for a given gradient, heart-rate is linearly related to speed. The results suggest:that athletes who runp% faster on the level will runp% faster up a slope, if they maintain the same heart-rate;that athletes will use the same number of heart beats running up a hill of uniform slope no matter how fast or slowly they run;that athletes should run directly up any slope of less than about 20°and try to zigzag up slopes greater than this.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.5

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractData capture at point of sale, using laser scanning technology, is now commonplace in retail outlets in developed economies. The volume of data collected is enormous (a single UK grocery superstore carries over 15 000 different lines, each with a unique 13 digit barcode and will sell 600 000 items per week). It has been recognized that, where point of sale data can be translated into meaningful information, there is scope for efficiency savings and exploitable competitive advantage. In UK grocery retailing the uses of scanner data have concentrated on operational aspects such as improved ordering systems and staff scheduling. There have, however, been many recent studies, predominantly in the USA, which have examined, using scanner data, the relationship between marketing variables (price, display, advertising, coupons, and other promotions) and customer purchasing behaviour. This paper presents an overview of these studies and identifies the opportunities for operational researchers to further the understanding of such relationships through modelling and data handling.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.6

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractThis paper introduces a four-rule heuristic method for production/assembly line balancing which seeks to minimize the number of workstations for a given cycle time. To evaluate its performance, the proposed method was compared with 15 other heuristic methods ranging in complexity from random assignment of work elements to Hoffmann's enumeration procedure. The results, based on both randomly generated problems and problems taken from the literature, indicate that the proposed heuristic outperformed other procedures. Further, the suggested method was able to find the optimal solution for 57 (85%) of the 67 literature problems.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.7

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractAny statistical analysis or decision analysis contains numerical inputs of which we are unsure. Some of our uncertainty arises from physical randomness which we can model in various ways, ideally through probability. Some uncertainty relates to judgemental estimates of quantities about which we may be unsure in many different respects. There are other uncertainties involved, however: some relate to ambiguity and imprecision of meaning; some relate to lack of clarity in the objectives which the analysis seeks to meet; some relate to the numerical accuracy of calculations. How should the uncertainty arising from ambiguity be modelled? Other uncertainties can also impact on an analysis. Why is the analysis being conducted? Are the objectives clear?

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.8

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractProject managers readily adopted the concept of the critical path as an aid to identifying those activities most worthy of their attention and possible action. However, current project management packages do not offer a useful measure of criticality in resource constrained projects. A revised method of calculating resource constrained float is presented, together with a discussion of its use in project management. While resource constrained criticality appears to be a practical and useful tool in the analysis of project networks, care is needed in its interpretation as any calculation of such float is conditional on the particular resource allocation employed. A number of other measures of an activity's importance in a network are described and compared in an application to an aircraft development. A quantitative comparison of the measures is developed based on a simulation of the process of management identifying the key activities and directing their control efforts. Resource constrained float appears to be a useful single measure of an activity's importance, encapsulating several useful pieces of management information. However, there are some circumstances in which other measures might be preferred.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.9

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

AbstractA common assumption underlying the development of multi-echelon service models is that successive demands are independent. In this paper we study the robustness of two models, developed for a two-echelon serial inventory network, when the demand process is autocorrelated. Both stockpoints operate a periodic review order-up-to-Sechelon inventory policy. Using an analytic approach, we extend the original models so that they apply exactly for any autocorrelated period demand process and explore the behaviour of the extended models under different scenarios. In order to study the effects of different autocorrelation characteristics, an MA(1) and an AR(1) process are analysed in detail. Our results demonstrate that, depending on the overall system parameters setting, models which ignore the effects of autocorrelation may provide very unsatisfactory estimates of the system performance. Hence, extreme caution is required when deciding the use of multi-echelon service models in practice.

ISSN:0160-5682    

DOI:10.1057/jors.1995.10

出版商:Taylor&Francis    

年代:1995

数据来源: Taylor