Advanced analysis of branch and bound algorithms

Als de code van een cijferslot zoek is, kan het alleen geopend worden door alle cijfercom­binaties langs te gaan. In het slechtste geval is de laatste combinatie de juiste. Echter, als de code uit tien cijfers bestaat, moeten tien miljard mogelijkheden bekeken worden. De zogenaamde 'NP-lastige' problemen in het proefschrift van Marcel Turkensteen zijn vergelijkbaar met het 'cijferslotprobleem'. Ook bij deze problemen is het aantal mogelijkheden buitensporig groot. De kunst is derhalve om de zoekruimte op een slimme manier af te tasten. Bij de Branch and Bound (BnB) methode wordt dit gedaan door de zoekruimte op te splitsen in kleinere deelgebieden. Turkensteen past de BnB methode onder andere toe bij het handelsreizigersprobleem, waarbij een kortste route door een verzameling plaatsen bepaald moet worden. Dit probleem is in algemene vorm nog steeds niet opgelost. De economische gevolgen kunnen groot zijn: zo staat nog steeds niet vast of bijvoorbeeld een routeplanner vrachtwagens optimaal laat rondrijden. De huidige BnB-methoden worden in dit proefschrift met name verbeterd door niet naar de kosten van een verbinding te kijken, maar naar de kostentoename als een verbinding niet gebruikt wordt: de boventolerantie.

Criteria, approaches and key enablers for a segmented supply chain – a study of Swedish industrial manufacturing companies

Problem definition: Supply chain segmentation is a topic which in later years has received increasing attention from supply chain managers of companies in industrial settings. To members of the supply chain research community the ideas and theoretical contributions underlying the concept of supply chain segmentation are hardly new, but have evolved ever since the beginning of the 1990s. However, as general definitions and well-documented approaches from industrial settings are scarce it is understandable that the concept is not that wide-spread and that supply chain managers struggle not only with the concept as a whole but also with its implementation in and applicability to a particular company. This research suggests a framework for supply chain segmentation, developed from investigation of criteria, approaches and key enablers for a segmented supply chain. Purpose: The research purpose is, firstly, to summarize criteria for segmentation of supply chain strategy. Secondly, it is to summarize approaches taken in research case studies where an actual criteria analysis has been conducted and supply chain segmentation executed. Thirdly, it is to summarize key enablers that companies must have in place to execute a segmented strategy. In all three subsets, the purpose is to investigate and compare theory and practice. Methodology: Data was collected through a qualitative interview study comprising fifteen interviewees from twelve Swedish industrial manufacturing companies. Before that, a thorough literature review was conducted for acquisition of deep theoretical understanding. Conclusions: While there are differing views regarding what supply chain segmentation really entails, the customer requirements and/or the customer demand patterns must be the starting point. The framework for a segmented supply chain describes one way to approach and execute supply chain segmentation, taking customers, constraints and organizational readiness in key enabling areas into account

Effects of Customer Services Efficiency and Market Effectiveness on Dealer Performance

Market orientation is positively associated with performance of dealers in terms of customer service quality, growth in sales and increase in market share. This paper aims at analyzing the impact of market orientation strategies and performance of customer services on customer acquisition, retention and sales of automobiles, which reveals overall performance of the automobile dealers in Mexico. Discussion in the paper also comprehends understanding on customer-dealer relationship in the automobile market segment referring to the key factors which establish services quality encompassing tangibility, responsiveness, trust, accuracy and empathy. The results of the study reveal that the customers perceive better quality of the relationship in a given frame of functions that are performed effectively by the dealer lowering the extent of conflicts thereof. High conformance quality services of dealers and value added customer relationship to offer high customer satisfaction develop life time customer value and strengthen the customer-dealer relationship.Market orientation, customer services, services quality, dealer performance, customer value, competitive strategies

Bridging Sales and Services Quality Functions in Retailing of High Technology Consumer Products

High technology product sales are positively associated with performance of retailers and distributors in terms of customer service quality, growth in sales and increase in market share. This paper aims at analyzing the impact of retail sales strategies and performance of customer services on customer acquisition, retention and sales growth of high technology consumer products of the high technology consumer products retailers and distributors in Mexico. This paper discusses the triadic relationship of customer- retailer-distributor in the high technology consumer products market segment in reference to the SERVQUAL factors which establish services quality encompassing tangibility, responsiveness, trust, accuracy and empathy. Results of the study reveal that the customers perceive better quality of the relationship in a given frame of functions that are performed effectively by the distributor lowering the extent of conflicts thereof. The discussions in the paper argue that high conformance of quality services delivered by the distributors and value added customer relationship is instrumental for retailers in acquiring new customers and retaining existing customer by augmenting the customer life time value.High technology products sales, customer services, SERVQUAL, customer-distributor relationship, customer value, distributor performance

Towards an Innovative Validation-Driven Approach to Lean Product Development

Many software products contain unnecessary functionality. Industrial reports show 45% of the features in analyzed software products are never used. \ Software-centric organizations have been trying to sustain their competitive advantage by re-defining their product development strategy. Recent attempts to re-strategize the product development process tend towards customer-centric approaches. We propose a validation-driven model based around proven lean principles, agile methods, and value-driven design. To increase the model’s likelihood of success, the study discusses suitable guidelines and deployment protocols that have been evolved in industrial settings.

New appraisal values of travel time saving and reliability in Great Britain

© 2017, The Author(s). This paper provides an overview of the study ‘Provision of market research for value of time savings and reliability’ undertaken by the Arup/ITS Leeds/Accent consortium for the UK Department for Transport (DfT). The paper summarises recommendations for revised national average values of in-vehicle travel time savings, reliability and time-related quality (e.g. crowding and congestion), which were developed using willingness-to-pay (WTP) methods, for a range of modes, and covering both business and non-work travel purposes. The paper examines variation in these values by characteristics of the traveller and trip, and offers insights into the uncertainties around the values, especially through the calculation of confidence intervals. With regards to non-work, our recommendations entail an increase of around 50% in values for commute, but a reduction of around 25% for other non-work—relative to previous DfT ‘WebTAG’ guidance. With regards to business, our recommendations are based on WTP, and thus represent a methodological shift away from the cost saving approach (CSA) traditionally used in WebTAG. These WTP-based business values show marked variation by distance; for trips of less than 20miles, values are around 75% lower than previous WebTAG values; for trips of around 100miles, WTP-based values are comparable to previous WebTAG; and for longer trips still, WTP-based values exceed those previously in WebTAG

Value assessment of new product innovations

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-85).In the commercial industry, an investment in a new innovation can make or break a company. In order for the new innovation to succeed in a competitive marketplace, it must deliver value to its stakeholders. Companies are thus rewarded to assess the value an innovation will deliver to its customers early in the design process. This thesis provides a framework to measure the potential value a new innovation will deliver to consumers based on scoping the project. The framework provides details on creating a model based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) by establishing a hierarchy of customer objectives. The application of the framework is then applied to a large company developing two new innovations. Two interesting facts arose from the study. First, the value assessment model can be fractionated to evaluate how new products are valued by multiple market segments. A company can use this information to align a new innovation with a brand segmentation and develop an appropriate strategy to launch products. Secondly, this methodology has been shown to work on incremental innovation and non-traditional products which expand the customer base. The methodology does work when applied to radical innovation which overturns existing value structures and changes the market dynamics.by Timothy N. Aykroyd.S.M

The Anesthesia Continuing Education Market and the Value Creation From a Sustainable Unified Platform

Practicing anesthesia professionals in the United States are all governed by various profession-specific regulatory bodies that mandate continuing education (CE) requirements. To date, no unified resource exists for anesthesia professionals (i.e., Anesthesiologists, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, and Anesthesiologist Assistants) to explore the CE offerings available within the marketplace. This study endeavored to convey the potential value of a unified anesthesia CE resource. It investigated how to cultivate a sustainable platform to potentially improve how anesthesia professionals search available CE offerings and to potentially enhance how anesthesia CE providers reach anesthesia professionals. This qualitative study was conducted utilizing an integrative review of the literature. The key concepts identified and investigated were network effect, segmentation, first to market, best of breed, search costs, transaction costs, minimally viable product, evolutionary phases of platforms, platform theory, platform business model, platform economy, and types of platforms. Inductive content analysis was chosen as the organizational method for the resultant qualitative data. The goal of the analysis was to create a conceptual, practical, and strategically applicable platform paradigm for the anesthesia CE marketplace driven by the insights and amalgamations from the literature. The analyzed concepts, dimensions, and indicators of platform successes and their applications potentially facilitate anesthesia professionals’ CE explorations and CE providers’ marketing efforts, as well as contextualize the overarching impacts and implications onto the anesthesia CE industry and beyond. The conclusion portrays these impacts and implications