Electric Vehicle Storage Management in Operating Reserve Auctions

Carsharing operators, which rent out electric vehicles for minutes or hours, lose money on idle vehicles. We develop a model that allows carsharing operators to offer the storage of these vehicles on operating reserve markets (market for quickly rampable back-up power sources that replace for instance failing power plants). We consider it a dispatch and pricing problem with the tradeoff between the payoffs of offering vehicles for rental and selling their storage. This is a problem of stochastic nature taking into account that people can rent electric vehicles at any time. To evaluate our model we tracked the location and status of 350 electric vehicles from the carsharing company Car2Go and simulated the dispatch in the Dutch market. This market needs to be redesigned for optimal use of storage. We make recommendations for the market redesign and show that carsharing operators can make substantial additional profits in operating reserve markets

Learning optimization models in the presence of unknown relations

In a sequential auction with multiple bidding agents, it is highly challenging to determine the ordering of the items to sell in order to maximize the revenue due to the fact that the autonomy and private information of the agents heavily influence the outcome of the auction. The main contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, we demonstrate how to apply machine learning techniques to solve the optimal ordering problem in sequential auctions. We learn regression models from historical auctions, which are subsequently used to predict the expected value of orderings for new auctions. Given the learned models, we propose two types of optimization methods: a black-box best-first search approach, and a novel white-box approach that maps learned models to integer linear programs (ILP) which can then be solved by any ILP-solver. Although the studied auction design problem is hard, our proposed optimization methods obtain good orderings with high revenues. Our second main contribution is the insight that the internal structure of regression models can be efficiently evaluated inside an ILP solver for optimization purposes. To this end, we provide efficient encodings of regression trees and linear regression models as ILP constraints. This new way of using learned models for optimization is promising. As the experimental results show, it significantly outperforms the black-box best-first search in nearly all settings.Comment: 37 pages. Working pape

Fair task allocation in transportation

Task allocation problems have traditionally focused on cost optimization. However, more and more attention is being given to cases in which cost should not always be the sole or major consideration. In this paper we study a fair task allocation problem in transportation where an optimal allocation not only has low cost but more importantly, it distributes tasks as even as possible among heterogeneous participants who have different capacities and costs to execute tasks. To tackle this fair minimum cost allocation problem we analyze and solve it in two parts using two novel polynomial-time algorithms. We show that despite the new fairness criterion, the proposed algorithms can solve the fair minimum cost allocation problem optimally in polynomial time. In addition, we conduct an extensive set of experiments to investigate the trade-off between cost minimization and fairness. Our experimental results demonstrate the benefit of factoring fairness into task allocation. Among the majority of test instances, fairness comes with a very small price in terms of cost

Online reverse auctions research in marketing versus SCM: A review and future directions

An online reverse auction (ORA) is a dynamic procurement mechanism that allows suppliers to compete in real time via a platform to gain a buyer’s business. The ORA is a technological tool introduced in the late 1990s, gaining proponents and detractors among practitioners and academics. Remarkably, while practitioner interestin ORAs has grown, related marketing and supply chain management (SCM) research has declined. This contradiction between theory and practice suggests the need to conduct a systematic review to provide readers with a state-of-the-art understanding of ORAs and recommend fruitful avenues for further research. We focus on the marketing literature and contrast the findings with SCM literature, in such an analysis practical relevance is stressed. Our study offers three main contributions: (1) integration of the cumulative marketing knowledge on ORAs in the 2002–2020 period, (2) development of a three-layer framework of the ORA domain (i.e., conceptualization, ORA as a process, and research setting), and (3) construction of a new research agenda to deal with scholarly challenges and emerging trends.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. GPC ED431B 2022/10Universidade de Vigo/CISU

Procurement planning factors influencing the quality performance of primary healthcare building facilities : a mediation effect of the firm’s business partnership

Abstract: The paper reports on an assessment of the mediation effect of a firm’s business partnership on procurement planning factors influencing the quality performance of primary healthcare building facilities. A quantitative data collection approach was adopted in the study using structured questionnaires circulated to 520 respondents comprising project managers in the Nigerian construction industry. A stratified proportionate random sampling method was used for the selection of respondents which yielded 370 responses and 357 were used for analysis. Findings were that procurement planning factors influenced the quality performance of primary healthcare building facilities, and the firm’s business partnerships mediate the relationship between procurement factors and quality performance of primary healthcare building facilities. This study serves as awareness to governments and other stakeholders in the construction industry on the provision of quality primary healthcare building facilities by leveraging a firm’s business partnership as a mediating factor..

Modelling and analysis of a network organization for cooperation of manufacturers on production capacity

We present an analytical model to analyze the operation of a productive cooperation network where producers cooperate on production capacity. Producers have limited capacity and have access to subcontractors at a higher cost. A single-unit auction-based allocation mechanism is proposed to allocate an arriving order based on the producers' cost structures and their current loads to maximize the total profit. We show that when the costs are private information, producers are willing to cooperate in order to increase their expected profit. Furthermore, it is shown that there is an equilibrium where producers bid their actual costs. The cooperation can also generate extra profit to cover a part of its operating expenses with this allocation mechanism. A continuous-time Markov chain model is utilized to evaluate the performance of the allocation mechanism where producers submit their myopic best response bids. The cooperation case is also compared with the no-cooperation case and also with the centralized operation of producers

Impacto do revenue management nos sistemas de controle de gerenciamento

The Revenue Management (RM) purpose is to foresee the demand for products or services as accurately as possible, in order to establish and adapt the price decision and product availability in different sales channels, and maximize profitability. The RM tries to maximize the income that a company can reach with a product manufacturing fixed capacity or providing a service; Thus, the objective is to try to allocate capacity to customers that bring more value to the company, giving them adequate capacity. In this framework it is often referred constantly to the need to produce a result, or achieve profitability, however only variable costs are considered, and to a lesser extent fixed costs, leading us to raise the question what impact does the cost calculation method have in the processes of revenue management? This is the question that forms the purpose of this article, to identify the interrelationships between accounting management and RM, since both perspectives are complementary in achieving a common goal, such as seeking greater efficiency and economic effectiveness in developed operations by any company.El Revenue Management (RM) tiene por objeto prever la demanda de productos o servicios de la manera más precisa posible, a fin de poder establecer y adaptar las decisiones de precio y disponibilidad de productos, en los diferentes canales de venta, y maximizar la rentabilidad. El RM trata de maximizar el ingreso que puede alcanzar una empresa con una capacidad fija de fabricación de un producto o de prestación de un servicio; así, el objetivo es tratar de destinar la capacidad a aquellos clientes que aportan más valor a la empresa, asignándoles la capacidad adecuada. En este marco de actuación se suele aludir, constantemente, a la necesidad de generar un resultado, o alcanzar una rentabilidad, sin embargo a estos efectos sólo se toman en consideración los costes variables, y en menor medida los costes fijos, lo que nos lleva a plantear la cuestión ¿qué impacto tiene el método de cálculo de costes en los procesos de gestión de ingresos? Esta es la cuestión que conforma el objetivo del presente artículo, al identificar cuáles son las interrelaciones que existen entre la contabilidad de gestión y el RM, dado que ambas perspectivas son complementarias en el logro de un objetivo común, como es buscar la mayor eficiencia y efectividad económica de las operaciones desarrolladas por cualquier empresa.O Revenue Management (RM) tem por objeto prever a demanda de produtos ou serviços da maneira mais precisa possível, a fim de poder estabelecer e adaptar as decisões de preço e disponibilidade de produtos, nos diferentes canais de venda, e maximizar a rentabilidade. O RM trata de maximizar o rendimento que pode atingir uma empresa com uma capacidade fixa de fabricação de um produto ou de prestação de um serviço. Assim, o objetivo é tratar de destinar a capacidade àqueles clientes que contribuem com maior valor à empresa, atribuindo-lhes a capacidade adequada. Neste contexto de ação costuma-se aludir, constantemente, à necessidade de gerar um resultado, ou atingir uma rentabilidade. No entanto para estes efeitos só se tomam em consideração os custos variáveis, e em menor medida os custos fixos, o que nos leva a propor a seguinte pergunta: Qual o impacto do método de cálculo de custos nos processos de gerenciamento de rendimentos? Esta é a questão que indica o objetivo do presente artigo, ao identificar quais são as inter-relações que existem entre a contabilidade de gerenciamento e o RM, dado que ambas as perspectivas são complementares no lucro de um objetivo comum, como é procurar a maior eficiência e efetividade econômica das operações desenvolvidas por qualquer empres

Agent-level determinants of price expectation formation in online double-sided auctions

For an auctioneer, it is of utmost importance to design an auction mechanism that gives robust price signals which in turn increases auction performance. Information architecture and forward trading platforms are the two main information sources that could generate these price signals. However the traditional presumption that agents form rational expectations by accurately processing all available information in the online trading environment and forming their expectations accordingly has found mixed support. We develop a research model that empirically tests the impact of agents’ attitudes on their price expectation through their trading behaviour. Using a unique data set, we tested our hypotheses on real ex ante forecasts, evaluated ex post, in an electricity day ahead auction context. This paper is one of the first to take an information-based view to study the trading behaviour of agents and their price expectations, with results that suggest a re-consideration of some of the conventional concepts