Implementation analysis of cuckoo search for the benchmark rosenbrock and levy test functions

This paper presents the implementation analysis of the benchmark Rosenbrock and Levy test functions using the Cuckoo Search with emphasis on the effect of the search population and iterations count in the algorithm’s search processes. After many experimental procedures, this study revealed that deploying a population of 10 nests is sufficient to obtain acceptable solutions to the Rosenbrock and Levy test functions (or any similar problem to these test landscapes). In fact, increasing the search population to 25 or more nests was a demerit to the Cuckoo Search as it resulted in increased processing overhead without any improvement in processing outcomes. In terms of the iteration count, it was discovered that the Cuckoo Search could obtain satisfactory results in as little as 100 iterations. The outcome of this study is beneficial to the research community as it helps in facilitating the choice of parameters whenever one is confronted with similar problems

Examining price and service competition among retailers in a supply chain under potential demand disruption

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Supply chain disruptions management has attracted significant attention among researchers and practitioners. The paper aims to examine the effect of potential market demand disruptions on price and service level for competing retailers. To investigate the effect of potential demand disruptions, we consider both a centralized and a decentralized supply chain structure. To analyze the decentralized supply chain, the Manufacturing Stackelberg (MS) game theoretical approach was undertaken. The analytical results were tested using several numerical analyses. It was shown that price and service level investment decisions are significantly influenced by demand disruptions to retail markets. For example, decentralized decision makers tend to lower wholesale and retail prices under potential demand disruptions, whereas a proactive retailer needs to increase service level with an increased level of possible disruptions. This research may aid managers to analyze disruptions prone market and to make appropriate decision for price and service level. The manufacturer or the retailers will also be able to better determine when to close a market based on the proposed analysis by considering anticipated disruptions. The benefits and usefulness of the proposed approach are explained through a real-life case adopted from a toy supply chain in Bangladesh

A Stackelberg game theoretic model for optimizing product family architecting with supply chain consideration

Planning of an optimal product family architecture (PFA) plays a critical role in defining an organization's product platforms for product variant configuration while leveraging commonality and variety. The focus of PFA planning has been traditionally limited to the product design stage, yet with limited consideration of the downstream supply chain-related issues. Decisions of supply chain configuration have a profound impact on not only the end cost of product family fulfillment, but also how to design the architecture of module configuration within a product family. It is imperative for product family architecting to be optimized in conjunction with supply chain configuration decisions. This paper formulates joint optimization of PFA planning and supply chain configuration as a Stackelberg game. A nonlinear, mixed integer bilevel programming model is developed to deal with the leader–follower game decisions between product family architecting and supply chain configuration. The PFA decision making is represented as an upper-level optimization problem for optimal selection of the base modules and compound modules. A lower-level optimization problem copes with supply chain decisions in accordance with the upper-level decisions of product variant configuration. Consistent with the bilevel optimization model, a nested genetic algorithm is developed to derive near optimal solutions for PFA and the corresponding supply chain network. A case study of joint PFA and supply chain decisions for power transformers is reported to demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the proposed Stackelberg game theoretic joint optimization of PFA and supply chain decisions

Lu-Lu: A framework for collaborative decision making games

This paper proposes Lu-Lu as an add-on architecture to open MMOGs and social network games, which has been developed to utilise a key set of ingredients that underline collaborative decision making games as reported within the research literature: personalisation, team matching, non-optimal decision making, leading, decisiveness index, scoring, levelling, and multiple stages. The implementation of Lu-Lu is demonstrated as an add-on to the classic supply chain beer game, including customisation of Lu-Lu to facilitate information exchange through the Facebook games platform, e.g., Graph API and Scores API. Performance assessment of Lu-Lu using Behaviour-Driven Development suggests a successful integration of all key ingredients within Lu-Lu's architecture, yielding autonomous behaviour that improves both player enjoyment and decision making

Centralized Supply Chain Network Ddesign: Monopoly, Duopoly, and Ooligopoly Competitions under Uncertainty

This paper presents a competitive supply chain network design problem in which one, two, or three supply chains are planning to enter the price-dependent markets simultaneously in uncertain environments and decide to set the prices and shape their networks. The chains produce competitive products either identical or highly substitutable. Fuzzy multi-level mixed integer programming is used to model the competition modes, and then the models are converted into an integrated bi-level one to be solved, in which the inner part sets the prices in dynamic competition and the outer part shapes the network cooperatively.Finally, a real-world problem is investigatedto illustrate how the bi-level model works and discuss how price, market share, total income, and supply chain network behave with respect to key marketing activities such as advertising, promotions, and brand loyalty

Multilevel decision-making: A survey

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Multilevel decision-making techniques aim to deal with decentralized management problems that feature interactive decision entities distributed throughout a multiple level hierarchy. Significant efforts have been devoted to understanding the fundamental concepts and developing diverse solution algorithms associated with multilevel decision-making by researchers in areas of both mathematics/computer science and business areas. Researchers have emphasized the importance of developing a range of multilevel decision-making techniques to handle a wide variety of management and optimization problems in real-world applications, and have successfully gained experience in this area. It is thus vital that a high quality, instructive review of current trends should be conducted, not only of the theoretical research results but also the practical developments in multilevel decision-making in business. This paper systematically reviews up-to-date multilevel decision-making techniques and clusters related technique developments into four main categories: bi-level decision-making (including multi-objective and multi-follower situations), tri-level decision-making, fuzzy multilevel decision-making, and the applications of these techniques in different domains. By providing state-of-the-art knowledge, this survey will directly support researchers and practical professionals in their understanding of developments in theoretical research results and applications in relation to multilevel decision-making techniques

A multi-agent optimisation model for solving supply network configuration problems

Supply chain literature highlights the increasing importance of effective supply network configuration decisions that take into account such realities as market turbulence and demand volatility, as well as ever-expanding global production networks. These realities have been extensively discussed in the supply network literature under the structural (i.e., physical characteristics), spatial (i.e., geographical positions), and temporal (i.e., changing supply network conditions) dimensions. Supply network configuration decisions that account for these contingencies are expected to meet the evolving needs of consumers while delivering better outcomes for all parties involved and enhancing supply network performance against the key metrics of efficiency, speed and responsiveness. However, making supply network configuration decisions in the situations described above is an ongoing challenge. Taking a systems perspective, supply networks are typically viewed as socio-technical systems where SN entities (e.g., suppliers, manufacturers) are autonomous individuals with distinct goals, practices and policies, physically inter-connected transferring goods (e.g., raw materials, finished products), as well as socially connected with formal and informal interactions and information sharing. Since the structure and behaviour of such social and technical sub-systems of a supply network, as well as the interactions between those subsystems, determine the overall behaviour of the supply network, both systems should be considered in analysing the overall system

Optimisation Methodologies for the Design and Planning of Water Systems

This thesis addresses current topics of design and planning of water systems from water treatment units to a country-wide resources management schemes. The methodologies proposed are presented as models and solution approaches using mathematical programming, and mixed integer linear (MILP) and non-linear (MINLP) programming techniques. In Part I of the thesis, a synthesis problem for water treatment processes using superstructure optimisation is studied. An MINLP model is developed for the minimisation of water production cost considering physicochemical properties of water and operating conditions of candidate technologies. Next, new alternative path options are introduced to the superstructure. The resulting MINLP model is then partially linearised (plMINLP) and also presented as a mixed integer linear fractional programming (MILFP) model in order to improve the convergence of the optimisation model. Various linearisation and approximation techniques are developed. As a solution procedure to the fractional model, a variation of the Dinkelbach's algorithm is proposed. The models are tested on theoretical examples with industrial data. In Part II, an optimisation approach formulated as a spatially-explicit multi-period MILP model is proposed for the design of planning of water resources at regional and national scales. The optimisation framework encompasses decisions such as installation of new purification plants, capacity expansion, trading schemes among regions and pricing, and water availability under climate change. The objective is to meet water demand while minimising the total cost associated with developing and operating the water supply chain. Additionally, a fair trade-o between the total cost and reliability of the supply chain is incorporated in the model. The solution method is applied based on game theory using the concept of Nash equilibrium. The methodology is implemented on a case study based on Australian water management systems

PLATFORM-DRIVEN CROWDSOURCED MANUFACTURING FOR MANUFACTURING AS A SERVICE

Platform-driven crowdsourced manufacturing is an emerging manufacturing paradigm to instantiate the adoption of the open business model in the context of achieving Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS). It has attracted attention from both industries and academia as a powerful way of searching for manufacturing solutions extensively in a smart manufacturing era. In this regard, this work examines the origination and evolution of the open business model and highlights the trends towards platform-driven crowdsourced manufacturing as a solution for MaaS. Platform-driven crowdsourced manufacturing has a full function of value capturing, creation, and delivery approach, which is fulfilled by the cooperation among manufacturers, open innovators, and platforms. The platform-driven crowdsourced manufacturing workflow is proposed to organize these three decision agents by specifying the domains and interactions, following a functional, behavioral, and structural mapping model. A MaaS reference model is proposed to outline the critical functions and inter-relationships. A series of quantitative, qualitative, and computational solutions are developed for fulfilling the outlined functions. The case studies demonstrate the proposed methodologies and can pace the way towards a service-oriented product fulfillment process. This dissertation initially proposes a manufacturing theory and decision models by integrating manufacturer crowds through a cyber platform. This dissertation reveals the elementary conceptual framework based on stakeholder analysis, including dichotomy analysis of industrial applicability, decision agent identification, workflow, and holistic framework of platform-driven crowdsourced manufacturing. Three stakeholders require three essential service fields, and their cooperation requires an information service system as a kernel. These essential functions include contracting evaluation services for open innovators, manufacturers' task execution services, and platforms' management services. This research tackles these research challenges to provide a technology implementation roadmap and transition guidebook for industries towards crowdsourcing.Ph.D