An Approach to the Questionnaire State in the Knowledge-Based Operations Management System

This paper discusses some preliminary thoughts about the development of a questionnaire for the Knowledge-based Operations Management System (KOMS) project. The questionnaire is designed to elicit information from managers, regarding the type of operating problems faced by them in terms of decisions which have to be made. This information is to be used to design the type of operating system appropriate for the case in question.The role of the questionnaire in relation to KOMS is discussed, with an account of the tasks that this stage would perform in the system. The type of information needed at each point has been lined briefly.Supported in part by the Office of Naval Research under contract 67-A-0204-007

The General N-Location Distribution Problem

This paper studies the one-period, general network distribution problem with linear costs. The approach is to decompose the problem into a transportation problem that represents a stocking decision, and decoupled newsboy problems that represent the realization of demand with the usual associated holding and shortage costs. This approach leads to a characterization of optimal policies in terms of the dual of the transportation problem. Specifically, it is shown that there is a correspondence between the optimal policies and the extreme points, edges, faces etc. of the dual feasible region. This method is not directly suitable for the solution of large problems but the exact solution for small problems can be obtained. It is shown that the three location case involves 37 policies as compared to seven for the two location case. For the numerical solutions of large problems, the problem has been formulated as a linear program with column generation. This latter approach is quite robust in the sense that it is easily extended to incorporate capacity constraints and the multiproduct case. Extensions of this work are briefly discussed.Supported in part by the Office o Naval Research under contract 67-A-0204-007

The Mathematical Analysis of Multilocation Distribution Systems: A Survey

Not AvailableSupported in part by the Office of Naval Research under contract 67-A-0204-007

Note---Lot-Sizing and Sequencing Delays

In production scheduling, time performance is usually taken to be the province of sequencing models which take task processing times to be given. However, in practice, processing times can often be controlled by the choice of lot sizes which thus have a major impact on makespan, waiting times, flow times and other measures. Here the interface between lot sizing and sequencing is introduced and the effect of lot sizes on makespan and flow times is qualitatively analyzed.queues, production/scheduling: job shop, deterministic, inventory/production: operating characteristics

Integrating MRP with Kanban/Pull Systems

Push manufacturing systems like MRP and pull systems like Kanban, are sometimes thought of as representing antithetical approaches to controlling production. However, these approaches involve principles that are not incompatible. A hybrid system is described that combines MRP at the plant-wide level with a Kanban approach at the local cell level. The calculations required in the MRP system are simplified, but the ability to utilize advance information about demand is retained. Simultaneously, the reactive abilities and the appealing incentive structure of the Kanban system are incorporated in the hybrid system. This approach is appropriate for a repetitive batch manufacturing environment, with part fabrication, subassembly and assembly stages