A note on ‘impacts of random scrap rate on production system in supply chain environment with a specific shipping policy’

This paper employs an alternative approach to reexamine the impacts of random scrap rate on production system in supply chain environment with a specific shipping policy. A straightforward approach in terms of a two-phase algebraic derivation is proposed in this study to replace the conventional method with the need of applying first-order and second-order differentiations to the system cost function for proof of convexity before derivation of the optimal production-shipment policy. The research result of this study is confirmed that is identical to what was obtained by Cheng et al. [1] where they used the conventional method to solve the same problem. The proposed approach is helpful for practitioners, who may not have sufficient knowledge of differential calculus to understand such an integrated production-shipment system in supply chain environment

A Multi-Periodic Multi-Product Inventory Control Problem with Discount: GA Optimization Algorithm

In this article, a finite horizon, multi product and multi period economic order quantity like seasonal items is considered where demand rate is deterministic and known but variable in each period. The order quantities of items come in batch sizes and the end of the period order quantity and, consequently, demand of customers are zero. In addition, storage space is constrained and the problem was considered under all units discount (AUD) policy. The modeling technique used for this problem is mixed binary integer programming. The objective was to find the minimization optimal order quantities under time value of money over the finite horizon. The inventory control system costs include three costs: ordering cost, holding cost, and purchase cost. In order to solve the proposed model, a genetic algorithm (GA) is applied. Finally, we provide a number of examples in order to illustrate the algorithms further

Propiedades cualitativas de un modelo de inventario con rotura

Muchas empresas de producción o comercialización invierten grandes sumas de dinero en la gestión y mantenimiento de sus inventarios. Gran parte de esos costos son ocasionados por la pérdida total o parcial del valor del ítem en especial cuando estos son almacenados durante periodos de tiempo prolongados. En este trabajo se presenta un análisis de la dinámica de un modelo de inventario con rotura de ítems por contacto, considerando la demanda y el lead-time constantes. Si bien el modelo es no lineal, mediante la teoría cualita tiva de ecuaciones diferenciales fue posible describir rigurosamente las propiedades generales sin la necesidad de recurrir a simulaciones numéricas. Además se establecen una serie de criterios para la formulación de una política de reposición exitosa y se propone una estrategia de venta que evita llegar a niveles de stock nulo. Por último mediante la simulación son estudiados los efectos del comportamiento estocástico y periódicos de la demanda.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Application of Optimization in Production, Logistics, Inventory, Supply Chain Management and Block Chain

The evolution of industrial development since the 18th century is now experiencing the fourth industrial revolution. The effect of the development has propagated into almost every sector of the industry. From inventory to the circular economy, the effectiveness of technology has been fruitful for industry. The recent trends in research, with new ideas and methodologies, are included in this book. Several new ideas and business strategies are developed in the area of the supply chain management, logistics, optimization, and forecasting for the improvement of the economy of the society and the environment. The proposed technologies and ideas are either novel or help modify several other new ideas. Different real life problems with different dimensions are discussed in the book so that readers may connect with the recent issues in society and industry. The collection of the articles provides a glimpse into the new research trends in technology, business, and the environment

Buying into the world of goods: Eighteenth-century consumerism and the retail trade from London to the Virginia frontier

This is a study of the cultural problem of consumerism. It examines the complex, rich, and multi-varied world of consumer goods in eighteenth-century Anglo-America, when traditional notions of hierarchy were increasingly challenged by new patterns of social and geographical mobility and changing measures of human worth. It was also a time when more and more consumer goods came into the lives of average men and women.;Few historians have scrutinized the role of those goods or the means and motives for their acquisition. Objects become an important part of the story of consumerism, however, by examining affordability (commodities and value), availability (local and long-distance access) and desirability (a complex bundle that includes differentiation or solidarity of group, formation of identity, and symbolism). Studying the retail trade of Britain and Virginia further focuses on how goods moved from manufacturer to consumer, and the environment and behavior of shopping.;This study then asks how the world of goods, often defined by elites and the fashion system in England, extended even to the fringe of the empire in backcounty Virginia. Careful examination of the merchant John Hook in Bedford County reveals an intensely competitive retail trade. Hook worked hard to attract and keep customers--middling and poorer men and women, free and enslaved--through his stock of high-quality, fashionable goods.;Everyday purchase choices--a ribbon or nails, rum or tea--demonstrate how men and women responded to larger Anglo-American changes and how local and market economies intertwined through trading home production and personal services for imported goods and groceries. It was the purchase of small, inexpensive items coupled with slowly-changing behaviors within an inherited cultural shell that defined backcountry consumerism. Thus, while many in the middling ranks of Bedford society fought and drank in small log-built structures, they also added small items of household comfort and dressed with an eye to fashion. Ultimately, Virginians below the economic elite and far from the cultural core were part of the hegemony of fashion-makers, but also chose to reject them through locally determined consumer choice

RFID Technology in Intelligent Tracking Systems in Construction Waste Logistics Using Optimisation Techniques

Construction waste disposal is an urgent issue for protecting our environment. This paper proposes a waste management system and illustrates the work process using plasterboard waste as an example, which creates a hazardous gas when land filled with household waste, and for which the recycling rate is less than 10% in the UK. The proposed system integrates RFID technology, Rule-Based Reasoning, Ant Colony optimization and knowledge technology for auditing and tracking plasterboard waste, guiding the operation staff, arranging vehicles, schedule planning, and also provides evidence to verify its disposal. It h relies on RFID equipment for collecting logistical data and uses digital imaging equipment to give further evidence; the reasoning core in the third layer is responsible for generating schedules and route plans and guidance, and the last layer delivers the result to inform users. The paper firstly introduces the current plasterboard disposal situation and addresses the logistical problem that is now the main barrier to a higher recycling rate, followed by discussion of the proposed system in terms of both system level structure and process structure. And finally, an example scenario will be given to illustrate the system’s utilization

Ontology Validation for Managers

Ontology driven conceptual modeling focuses on accurately representing a domain of interest, instead of making information fit an arbitrary set of constructs. It may be used for different purposes, like to achieve semantic interoperability (Nardi, Falbo and Almeida, 2013), development of knowledge representation models (Guizzardi and Zamborlini, 2012) and language evaluation (Santos, Almeida and Guizzardi,2010). Regardless its final application, a model must be accurately defined in order for it to be a successful solution. This new branch of conceptual modeling improves traditional techniques by taking into consideration ontological properties, such as rigidity, identity and dependence, which are derived from a foundational ontology. This increasing interest in more expressive languages for conceptual modeling is shown by OMGs request for language proposals for the Semantic Information Model Federation (SIMF) (OMG,2011). OntoUML (Guizzardi, 2005) is an example of a language designed for that purpose.Its metamodel (Carraretto, 2010) is designed to comply to the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO). It focus on structural aspects of individuals and universals.Grounded on human cognition and linguistics, it aims to provide the most basic categories in which humans understand and classify things around them.In (Guizzardi, 2010) Guizzardi quotes the famous Dijkstras lecture, in which he discusses the humble programmer and makes an analogy entitled the humble ontologist. He argues that the task of ontology-driven conceptual modeling is extremely complex and thus, modelers should surround themselves with as many tools as possible to aid in the development of the ontology. These complexities arise from different sources. A couple of them come from foundational ontology itself, both its modal nature, which imposes modelers to deal with possibilities, and the many different restrictions of each ontological category. But they also come from the need of accurately defining instance level constraints, which require additional rules, outside of the languages graphical notation. To help modelers to develop high quality OntoUML models, a number of tools have been proposed to aid in different phases of conceptual modeling. From the construction of the models themselves using design patterns questions (Guizzardi et al., 2011), to automatic syntax verification (Benevides, 2010) and model validation through simulation (Benevides et al., 2010). The importance of domain specification that accurately captures the intended conceptualization has been recognized by both the traditional conceptual modeling community (Moody et al., 2003) and the ontology community (Vrandečić, 2009). In this research we want to improve (Benevides et al., 2010) initiative, but focus exclusively on the validation of ontology driven conceptual models, and not on verification. With the complexity of the modeling activity in mind, we want to help modelers to systematically produce high quality ontologies, improving precision and coverage (Gangemi et al., 2005) of the models. We intend to make the simulationbased approach available for users that are not experts in the formal method, relieving them of the need to learn yet another language, solely for the purpose of validating their models

Modelling innovation activity processes for global fashion marketplaces.

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Foundations of Business [OER]

The Open Educational Resource (OER), Foundations of Business, was created for use in Virginia Commonwealth University BUSN 201. In this course, students will study the concepts, principles and operations of private enterprise. They will compare and contrast sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations – and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Students will explore the functions of modern business management, marketing, and ethics and social responsibility that can improve or tarnish a brand. They will also look at the human resource management side of running a business, and learn how employers can motivate their employees. Finally, students will address the numbers side of running a business and examine bookkeeping, accounting, financial management, and financial statements