A branch-and-price algorithm for production routing problems with carbon cap-and-trade

This study presents a model for a pollution production-routing problem under carbon cap-and-trade. The aim is to incorporate carbon emissions into production inventory and routing decisions. The model is characterized by an additional flow-related cost structure, which generalizes models for pollution-routing problems and production inventory and routing problems. Correspondingly, we develop a branch-and-price heuristic by incorporating a column-generation formulation based on the Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition. In addition, we design an ad hoc label-setting algorithm to deal with time-slice networks in pricing subproblems. Computational results allow us to provide managerial insights concerning reduction of carbon emissions in supply chains. We prove that the model has the potential to reduce emission levels of carbon dioxide and operational costs.     

Electricity planning vs energy planning: A modelling approach

An essential part of the energy policy making process is the co-ordination of the sub-sectorial plans of energy producers in order to ensure that they are compatible with the broader goals of the global energy system. In this paper an attempt is made to underline the significance and estimate the size of this problem through an interplay of two optimization models; a global energy system model and an electricity subsystem model. The possibility of model interlink, leading to a higher level of co-ordination, is discussed.     

A commonsense approach to portfolio planning

For the diversified firm, business portfolio planning offers a way of determining its individual businesses' roles and developing a synergistic corporate strategy. In practice, however, the common tools of portfolio planning—the growth/share and market attractiveness/business position matrices—present problems in that often neither of the matrices is precisely suitable for a given individual business. This article makes use of modifications of the growth/share and market attractiveness/business position matrices in order to make them more operational. The authors believe that a step-by-step ‘shirt-sleeve’ approach to portfolio planning can make this type of analysis accessible and invaluable to a small diversified firm, as well as providing insights to larger corporations with formal planning departments.     

A new approach to corporate planning

A fresh approach to planning can help corporate executives deal with such long-range planning problems as the setting of unrealistic plan targets by division managers and a poor record of long-range plan implementation and control. This article considers such an approach.     

A business development approach to planning

In recent years there has been disappointment within industry at the relative failure of strategic planning techniques to contribute significantly to improved business success. Furthermore, this disappointment has tended to grow as planning specialists and academics have developed more complex planning techniques in terms of quantitative and financial models to counter the problem.

In this article, the author states that strategic planning needs to be project oriented, i.e. to adopt a business development approach rather than the present technique of a procedural oriented approach, if the potential rewards are to be realized in practice.     

A heuristic approach for component scheduling on a high-speed PCB assembly machine

The collect-and-place machine is one of the most widely used placement machines for assembling electronic components on the printed circuit boards (PCBs). Nevertheless, the number of researches concerning the optimisation of the machine performance is very few. This motivates us to study the component scheduling problem for this type of machine with the objective of minimising the total assembly time. The component scheduling problem is an integration of the component sequencing problem, that is, the sequencing of component placements; and the feeder arrangement problem, that is, the assignment of component types to feeders. To solve the component scheduling problem efficiently, a hybrid genetic algorithm is developed in this paper. A numerical example is used to compare the performance of the algorithm with different component grouping approaches and different population sizes.     

Managerial manpower planning— A systematic approach

At what ages should managers be recruited? Are the young managers receiving the right sort of experience at an early stage in their careers? What effect will the proposed merger have on the career prospects in the company.....? Questions such as these are likely to face every company from time to time, but finding the answers can be very difficult. The task may be made much easier through the application of some simple analytical techniques. These techniques are discussed here in the form of a case study.     

Guidelines for contingency approach to planning

In an earlier article the author discussed the contingency approach to planning as a flexible managerial tool making it possible to find a good fit between the planning process and the organization. In the present article the contingency approach is applied to the product life cycle to show how the different steps in the planning process can be varied as the situation changes. The contingency approach to planning can be used in a similar fashion for a product line, a product division, or the entire organization.     

A Lagrangian relaxation approach for the multiple sequence alignment problem

We present a branch-and-bound (bb) algorithm for the multiple sequence alignment problem (MSA), one of the most important problems in computational biology. The upper bound at each bb node is based on a Lagrangian relaxation of an integer linear programming formulation for MSA. Dualizing certain inequalities, the Lagrangian subproblem becomes a pairwise alignment problem, which can be solved efficiently by a dynamic programming approach. Due to a reformulation w.r.t. additionally introduced variables prior to relaxation we improve the convergence rate dramatically while at the same time being able to solve the Lagrangian problem efficiently. Our experiments show that our implementation, although preliminary, outperforms all exact algorithms for the multiple sequence alignment problem. Furthermore, the quality of the alignments is among the best computed so far.     

A goal programming approach to production planning for flexible manufacturing systems

The increased use of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) reduces production time variability as the fixed processing time of automated systems replaces the variable processing time of human resources in production systems. This reduction in the variability permits the application of deterministic, constrained optimization models that recognize the conflicting multi-objective nature of resource utilization in an FMS environment. One such multi-objective optimization model is linear goal programming. Unlike most linear programming models, linear goal programming is designed to handle conflicting multi-objective problems. A goal programming model is developed a and presented in this paper as an aid in FMS planning. An application is also presented to illustrate the informational benefits of using the proposed model.     

A general approach to disassembly planning and control

Closing product and material cycles have emerged as a paradigm for industry in the 21st century, and are directed towards an economical and responsible use of our limited resources. Disassembly plays a key role in recycling. It enables the recovery of functioning components for re-use of pure materials for re-utilization and the separation of harmful substances. Major challenges are presented by the enormous variety of products to be disassembled, by uncertainty as to quantity and by their unknown properties. An appropriate planning and control of disassembly processes is essential for an economic disassembly. Based on an investigation of the suitability of common production planning and control (PPC) methods for disassembly, a specific disassembly planning and control concept (DPC) is outlined.     

Corporate product planning: A vector analysis approach

This article presents one approach for reviewing corporate product decisions using vector analysis. Vector analysis is a relatively little used technique in business; however, it is helpful in dealing with marketing problems involving more than two major variables. This technique is especially useful to marketing executives since it can provide information for allocating resources to each brand in the product line.The companies in which this technique may be applied share certain characteristics: all have multi-products which are substitutable and distributed nationally; all depend on marketing as an important part of their operations and all use marketing research on a regular basis.     

A hierarchical approach to multi-project planning under uncertainty

We survey several viewpoints on the management of the planning complexity of multi-project organisations under uncertainty. Based on these viewpoints we propose a positioning framework to distinguish between different types of project-driven organisations. This framework is meant to aid project management in the choice between the various existing planning approaches. We also discuss the current state of the art of hierarchical planning approaches both for traditional manufacturing and for project environments. Next, we introduce a generic hierarchical project planning-and-control framework that serves to position planning methods for multi-project planning under uncertainty. We discuss various techniques for dealing with the uncertainty inherent to the different hierarchical stages in a multi-project organisation. In the last part of this paper we discuss two cases from practice and relate these to the positioning framework that is put forward in the paper.     

Strategic planning for hospitals--a health-needs approach.

This paper presents a strategic planning approach which provides methods for analysing hospitals in relation to their environment and for assessing their community dependency. Hospitals must not only focus on their clienteles but must also plan their future in relation to the needs of their constituency while taking into account the other elements of the health services network. The proposed approach also takes into account the need for all the actors concerned with the future of the hospital to become involved through an active-reactive-adaptive process.     

A multistage approach for production and workforce planning in long-cycle product environments

Aggregate production planning (APP) has been studied extensively for the past two decades. The APP problem, also called production and workforce scheduling, is to determine the optimal workforce and production level in each period of the planning horizon in order to satisfy demand forecasts for these periods. The advantages of the APP are low cost of data collection and computational cost of the running model; the accuracy of data; and, effective managerial understanding of the results. If the product of concern takes longer than one period, it is called a long-cycle product. Examples of long-cycle products are aircraft, ships, buildings and special machines. A detailed model incorporating dynamic productivity and long-cycle products considerations is presented to solve the problem of production and workforce planning. Using a multistage production system approach, a search technique is developed to solve this class of problems where the objective function is linear and some of the constraint coefficients are dynamically nonlinear. The model provides a better solution than an aggregate production planning model, often used to solve these problems.     

Getting management commitment to planning—A new approach

The problem of getting colleagues committed to planning is one which many corporate planning managers are well aware of. This article sets out in practical terms a new approach to overcoming the problem.     

An analytic approach for planning computerized office systems

The increasing demand for timely business information as well as the need to improve the effectiveness of administrative operations are forcing managements to consider installing automated office systems. These systems provide text word processing capabilities, information management and communication options. Their planning and evaluation process considers decision issues that are, at times, in conflict with each other. This paper presents a decision framework for the planning and evaluation of computerized office systems. Attention is focused, in particular, on the selection and the integration of word processing systems in the broader context of future office developments. It evolved from several real acquisition cases where such systems had to be planned, evaluated and selected.     

Strategic planning for telecommunications—a systems approach

This paper outlines the practical application of a systems approach to designing and implementing the Strategic Planning Process in a mid-sized, capital/technology intensive Canadian telecommunications company. The basic General Systems concepts used are briefly mentioned, the design of the Organization Structure and the Information Structure for the Strategic Planning Process are reviewed, the Operational Dynamics of the Strategic Planning Process outlined, outputs and application case described and conclusions reached.