In this work we look at the delay analysis of a customer in a discrete-time queueing system with one permanent server and one occasional extra server. The arrival process is assumed to be general independent, the buffer size infinite and the service times deterministically equal to one slot. The system is assumed to be in one of two different states; during the UP-state 2 servers are available and

This paper takes an axiomatic bargaining approach to bankruptcy problems with nontransferable utility, by using properties from bargaining theory in order to characterize bankruptcy rules. In particular, we derive new axiomatic characterizations of the proportional rule, the truncated proportional rule, and the constrained relative equal awards rule, using properties which concern changes in the estate

Owing to its high efficiency and flexibility, the seru production system (SPS), which originated in Japan, has attracted greater attention in management and academic studies. This research focuses on optimizing the configuration for implementing the SPS under an uncertain demand. The study is aimed at formulating a robust production system capable of effectively responding to stochastic demands. The

Natural disasters not only inflict massive life and economic losses but also result in psychological damage to survivors, at times even causing social unrest. It is necessary to design a sustainable last mile relief network for distributing relief supplies regarding social factors, disaster relief efficiency as well as the economic cost of three perspectives in terms of sustainability. We establish

The aim of this paper is to extend the Myerson value (Myerson in Math Oper Res 2:225–229, 1977) to situations in which players in a TU-game, in addition to having cooperation possibilities restricted by a graph, also have different bargaining abilities. Then, we will associate to each player in a communication situation a weight in the interval [0, 1] that measures his bargaining ability. A unitary

The leader–follower facility location problem consists of a leader and a follower who are competitors that locate new facilities sequentially. Traditional studies have generally assumed that the leader has partial or full advance information of the follower’s response when making a decision. However, this assumption might be invalid or impracticable in practice. In this paper, we consider that the

Since the mid 1990s some European countries (including Italy) implemented a Notional Defined Contribution (NDC) pension system. Such a system is based on pay-as-you-go funding, while the pension amount is a function of the individual lifelong contribution. Despite many appealing features, the NDC system presents some drawbacks: first, it is vulnerable to demographic and economic shocks compromising

For a class of nonsmooth nonconvex multiobjective problems, we develop an inexact multiple proximal bundle method. In our approach instead of scalarization, we find descent direction for every objective function separately by utilizing the inexact proximal bundle method. Then we attempt to find a common descent direction for all objective functions. We study the effect of the inexactness of the objective

Facing multiple and often considered as conflicting stakes, either economical, migratory, or environmental, policy-making may struggle to identify and implement relevant policy action allowing for balanced and joint completion of such challenges. Addressing this important public issue, we develop a multi-criteria two-stage Goal Programming (GP) model to identify optimal policy paths towards the Europe

We study a new class of inventory control problems, the recruitment stocking problem (RSP), applicable to general recruitment systems and products with limited supplies. Recruitment stocking occurs routinely in many organizations with the goal of identifying qualified candidates rapidly and cost effectively. This activity may take place at multiple sites simultaneously to shorten the recruitment time

This article establishes some theoretical results about the maximum function of probability density functions (\(f_{\max }\)) and the integration of \(f_{\max }\) (\(If_{\max }\)). Using the probability density function extracted from the image as a relatively stable feature of the image and \(If_{\max }\) as a measure the similarity between a “face” candidate region and a group of training face images

With the emergence of information and communication technologies, organizations worldwide have been putting in meaningful efforts towards developing and gaining business insights by combining technology capability, management capability and personnel capability to explore data potential, which is known as big data analytics (BDA) capability. In this context, variables such as sensing capability—which

A shortage of water leads to severe consequences for populations. Recent examples like the ongoing water shortage in Kapstadt or in Gloucestershire in 2007 highlight both the challenges authorities face to restore the water supply and the importance of installing efficient preparedness measures and plans. This study develops a proactive planning approach of emergency measures for possible impairments

We introduce “Polyhedral Support Vector Regression” (PSVR), a regression model for data represented by arbitrary convex polyhedral sets. PSVR is derived as a generalization of support vector regression, in which the data is represented by individual points along input variables \(X_1\), \(X_2\), \(\ldots \), \(X_p\) and output variable Y, and extends a support vector classification model previously

This work develops a general model of a two-echelon supply chain in which a dominant retailer interacts with a manufacturer via a consignment contract with revenue sharing. The manufacturer’s cost function is known only to him, whereas the retailer has only an estimation of this function, which is based on common knowledge. We formulate the interaction between the parties as a Stackelberg game in which

Information technology and data science have enabled firms to practice price discrimination on an unprecedented scale, arousing privacy concerns among their customers. When consumers know a firm is practicing price discrimination, they may take costly measures to conceal their identities so as to avoid being targeted. Governments, in turn, may require firms to disclose their price discrimination practices

Set-valued extensions of vector-valued functions are used to investigate the relations between weak efficiency and variational inequalities (both Stampacchia and Minty type) which allows to apply the complete lattice framework from set optimization. Since the seminal work of Giannessi, it has been a challenge to generalize scalar results to the vector case. In this effort, some notions of generalized

Artificial intelligence has been increasingly employed to improve operations for various firms and industries. In this study, we construct a box office revenue prediction system for a film at its early stage of production, which can help management overcome resource allocation challenges considering the significant investment and risk for the whole film production. In this research, we focus on China’s

On July 1st, 2018, federal elections for president, senators and deputies took place in Mexico. In most states, elections for state governors and representatives took also place in the same polling booths. The Technical Unit for Information Services (UNICOM) of the National Electoral Institute (INE) of Mexico has the responsibility for planning and implementation of the Preliminary Electoral Results

Optimizing over the efficient set of a multi-objective optimization problem is among the difficult problems in global optimization because of its nonconvexity, even in the linear case. In this paper, we consider only properly efficient solutions which are characterized through weighted sum scalarization. We propose a numerical method to tackle this problem when the objective functions and the feasible

We analyze a macroeconomic model with intergenerational equity considerations and spatial spillovers, which gives rise to a multicriteria optimization problem. Intergenerational equity requires to add in the definition of social welfare a long run sustainability criterion to the traditional discounted utilitarian criterion. The spatial structure allows for the possibility of heterogeneiity and spatial

Large volumes of online product reviews generated by customers have important strategic values for new product development. We consider a duopoly setting where two manufacturers aim to develop their own new products and services. Applying a differential game framework, we examine how online customer reviews can be leveraged as external knowledge for manufacturers to develop new products. In our base

Progressive Hedging is a popular decomposition algorithm for solving multi-stage stochastic optimization problems. A computational bottleneck of this algorithm is that all scenario subproblems have to be solved at each iteration. In this paper, we introduce randomized versions of the Progressive Hedging algorithm able to produce new iterates as soon as a single scenario subproblem is solved. Building

In this paper, we study the optimal ordering and inventory reallocation of the inventory service platform under the retailer demand information sharing. Due to the uncertainty of market demand, retailers’ demand information is likely to be inaccurate or even false. In this regard, retailers can reduce demand uncertainty by screening market signals. Therefore, based on the sharing of mean demand information

Big data analytics research in humanitarian supply chain management has gained popularity for its ability to manage risks. While big data analytics can predict future events, it can also concentrate on current events and support preparation for future events. Big data analytics-driven approaches in humanitarian supply chain management are complicated due to the presence of multiple barriers. The current

The secure domination problem, a variation of the domination problem with some important real-world applications, is considered. Very few algorithmic attempts to solve this problem have been presented in literature, and the most successful to date is a binary programming formulation which is solved using CPLEX. A new binary programming formulation is proposed here which requires fewer constraints and

Quality inspection is essential in preventing defective products from entering the market. Due to the typically low percentage of defective products, it is generally challenging to detect them using algorithms that aim for the overall classification accuracy. To help solve this problem, we propose an ensemble learning classification model, where we employ adaptive boosting (AdaBoost) to cascade multiple

This erratum is published as due to some technical error author names appeared reversed in the final publication.

Farmers submit claims to insurance providers when affected by sowing/planting risk, standing crop risk, post-harvest risk, and localized calamities risk. Decision making for settlement of claims submitted by farmers has been observed to comprise of type-I and type-II errors. The existence of these errors reduces confidence on agri-insurance providers and government in general as it fails to serve the

Statistical thinking (ST) is a concept that has been discussed in the literature as principles and concepts disseminated in companies to conduct a statistical approach and it is often associated with using continuous improvement programs (CIPs), such as Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma since the 1990s. There is a lack of empirical studies in the literature that address this topic concerning the impacts

This paper investigates a two-stage supply chain consisting of a battery supplier (BS) and an electric vehicle manufacturer (EVM). Considering consumers’ sensitivity to the battery driving range, the BS can improve the driving range level by investing, and obtain subsidies if the driving range level exceeds the subsidy threshold set by the government. Meanwhile, the BS may misreport his private information

This article addresses the one-commodity pickup and delivery traveling salesman problem (1-PDTSP), which is a generalization of the well-known traveling salesman problem. The 1-PDTSP aims to find a Hamiltonian tour in which a set of supply points (pickup locations), demand points (delivery locations) are visited and, the total traveled distance is minimized. We propose a hybrid metaheuristic based

In order to balance the deviation time between replacement and failure, a new notion of cost named as deviation cost is taken into account for planning replacement policies. We firstly take up a standard parallel system with n identical units and model replacement policies that are done at planned time and at periodic times. Next, we model again the above replacement policies when the number of units

The aim of this paper is to propose a regression-based approach for obtaining a set of weights for multi-criteria ABC inventory analysis, which differ across classification criteria but are common across inventory items and follow a predetermined descending ordering scheme regarding the relative importance of classification criteria. The proposed alternative is based on the Inequality Constrained Least

The uncertainty associated with the location, severity and timing of disaster makes it difficult for the humanitarian organization (HO) to predict demand for the aid material and thereby making the relief material procurement even more challenging. This research explores whether options contract can be used as a mechanism to aid the HO in making procurement of relief material less challenging by addressing

Manufacturers and consumers prefer reliable products, or systems in general, since they need to assure that systems work satisfactory for given mission times. The redundancy allocation to original system components is a common technique to improve reliabilities. But, allocation of redundants is not an easy task and must be considered properly with respect to environmental working conditions and possible

Inspired by actual parcel delivery operations in London, this paper describes a two-echelon distribution system that combines the use of driving and walking as part of last-mile deliveries in urban areas for a single driver. The paper presents an optimisation model that explicitly treats and integrates the driving and walking elements, and describes a branch-and-cut algorithm that uses new valid inequalities

We study single machine scheduling problems with an additional option of performing a weight-modifying-activity. If such an activity is performed, the cost of subsequent jobs is reduced, as reflected by smaller job-weights. We focus first on minimizing total weighted completion time. A pseudo-polynomial dynamic programming algorithm is introduced for this problem. Several special cases of unit processing

We consider a monopolistic retailer of a seasonal product who faces random demand of strategic customers. The selling season is segmented into two periods, a normal selling period and a sales or discounted price period. The retailer preannounces the total sales quantity and the prices offered in these periods. Customers have identical product valuation in the normal selling period. However, a customer’s

Fuzzy theory is a discipline that has recently appeared in the mathematical literature. It generalizes classic situations. Therefore, its success continues to increase and to keep going up from time to time. In this work, we consider the model of Markov decision processes where the information on the costs includes imprecision. The fuzzy cost is represented by the fuzzy number set and the infinite

Schultz (J Optim Theory Appl 73(1):89–99, 1992) formulated 2-person, zero-sum, discounted switching control stochastic games as a linear complementarity problem (LCP) and discussed computational results. It remained open to prove or disprove Lemke-processibility of this LCP. We settle this question by providing a counter example to show that Lemke’s algorithm does not always successfully process this

In this paper, we address a two-stage integrated lot-sizing, scheduling and cutting stock problem with sequence-dependent setup times and setup costs. In production stage one, a cutting machine is used to cut large objects into smaller pieces, in which cutting patterns are generated and used to cut the pieces, and should be sequenced in order to obtain a complete cutting plan for the problem. The cut

The paper aims to present a multi-product, multi-stage, multi-period, and multi-objective, probabilistic mixed-integer linear programming model for a sustainable forward and reverse logistics network problem. It looks at original and return products to determine both flows in the supply chain—forward and reverse—simultaneously. Besides, to establish centres of forward and reverse logistics activities

The CoMirror algorithm, by Beck et al. (Oper Res Lett 38(6):493–498, 2010), is designed to solve convex optimization problems with one functional constraint. At each iteration, it performs a mirror-descent update using either the subgradient of the objective function or the subgradient of the constraint function, depending on whether or not the constraint violation is below some tolerance. In this

Limited supply can be an emergent issue in refined oil distribution, which may increase operating cost and decrease gasoline station satisfaction with shortage. Hence, how to devise an optimal distribution scheme is the central problem for oil distribution companies. The main problem with limited supply involves: (I) depicting the dynamic efforts on vehicle routing driven by the demand and priority

Although research on pricing and lot-sizing decisions concerning payment types has been extensive, almost all of it has been done from the buyer's perspective. In this study, we incorporate the following relevant and essential facts. If a seller allows a buyer to pay on credit, it increases sales volume. But if a seller asks a buyer for an advance payment, it decreases sales volume. Sometimes, a seller

This erratum is published due to proofing error as author corrections were overlooked.

With the development of information technology, increasing retailers cooperate with third-party payment platforms (3PPs) to provide mobile payment service for consumers. The entry of 3PPs into supply chains, not only changes the cash flow, but also decreases consumer price sensitivity and stimulates demand by facilitating credit consumptions. Moreover, information sharing becomes more feasible with

The global sports industry is extremely competitive. We focus on ice hockey and propose a (largely) costless reform to its operations that can potentially enhance the sport’s popularity by increasing the number of goals. The reform optimizes a logistic convention on the use of on-ice sides and off-ice benches, which affects the amount of attacking play and within-game scoring dynamics through the players’

In this note we introduce multivariate extensions to the bivariate discrete analogue to continuous probability distributions proposed in Barbiero [Annals of Operations Research, doi: 10.1007/s10479-019-03388-8, 2019]. We furthermore show that identical properties of the bivariate case also hold for n-variate discrete analogues.

In this paper a new Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) target setting approach is proposed based on a modification of the discrete Raiffa solution of bargaining problems. It is a multistage method that in the first step moves along the segment towards the ideal point, advancing along it as much as possible. If that first intermediate operating point is weak efficient (i.e. some input or output dimensions

In this paper, we consider due-window assignment scheduling in the proportionate flow shop setting with position-dependent weights where the weights depend on the position in which a job is scheduled. Under the common due-window (CONW) and slack due-window (SLKW) assignment methods, the location of the window and its properties are established. The objective is to determine the sequence of all jobs

Fairness has several interpretations in sports, one of them being that the rules should guarantee incentive compatibility, namely, a team cannot be worse off due to better results in any feasible scenario. The current seeding regime of the most prestigious annual European club football tournament, the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Champions League, is shown to violate this requirement

We address the problem of modifying vertex weights of a block graph at minimum total cost so that a predetermined set of p connected vertices becomes a connected p-median on the perturbed block graph. This problem is the so-called inverse connected p-median problem on block graphs. We consider the problem on a block graph with uniform edge lengths under various cost functions, say rectilinear norm

The paper addresses the problem of designing a multi-country production-distribution network that also provides services such as repairs and remanufacturing. The proposed work concentrates primarily on post-sale service provided by the firm under warranty returns. The proposed model assumes that existing warehouses can also serve as collection centres or repair centres for reverse logistics. In addition

Quality management has been widely discussed in the literature, and recent special issues on humanitarian supply chains and relief operations have emphasized the increasing importance of quality management in this key emerging area. In this paper, we provide an extensive literature review in the field of quality management in humanitarian operations and disaster relief management. Our comprehensive

Financial models are based on the standard assumptions of frictionless markets, complete information, no transaction costs and no taxes and borrowing and short selling without restrictions. Short-selling bans around the world after the global financial crisis and in several exchanges during the COVID 19 period, become more and more important. This paper bridges the gap by providing for the first time

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak shows that pandemics and epidemics can seriously wreak havoc on supply chains (SC) around the globe. Humanitarian logistics literature has extensively studied epidemic impacts; however, there exists a research gap in understanding of pandemic impacts in commercial SCs. To progress in this direction, we present a systematic analysis of the impacts of epidemic outbreaks

Viability is the ability of a supply chain (SC) to maintain itself and survive in a changing environment through a redesign of structures and replanning of performance with long-term impacts. In this paper, we theorize a new notion-the viable supply chain (VSC). In our approach, viability is considered as an underlying SC property spanning three perspectives, i.e., agility, resilience, and sustainability

In this paper, we study the project staffing problem with discrete time/resource trade-offs to minimise the personnel staffing budget. This staffing problem embeds activity scheduling flexibility by incorporating the project scheduling problem into the personnel staffing problem to improve the quality of the staffing plan. In addition, we introduce extra demand scheduling flexibility resulting from