Applications – OR and Management Sciences

A competitive iterative procedure using a time-indexed model for solving flexible job shop scheduling problems

  • Torgny Almgren
  • Michael Patriksson
  • Ann-Brith Strömberg
  • Karin Thörnblad
    • Categories (Mixed) Integer Linear Programming, Production and Logistics, Scheduling Tags , , , , , ,

    We investigate the efficiency of a discretization procedure utilizing a time-indexed mathematical optimization model for finding accurate solutions to flexible job shop scheduling problems considering objectives comprising the makespan and the tardiness of jobs, respectively. The time-indexed model is used to find solutions to these problems by iteratively employing time steps of decreasing length. The … Read more

    Approximate Dynamic Programming for a Class of Long-Horizon Maritime Inventory Routing Problems

  • Myun-Seok Cheon
  • George L. Nemhauser
  • Dimitri J. Papageorgiou
  • Joel Sokol
    • Categories Production and Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Transportation Tags , , , ,

    We study a deterministic maritime inventory routing problem with a long planning horizon. For instances with many ports and many vessels, mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) solvers often require hours to produce good solutions even when the planning horizon is 90 or 120 periods. Building on the recent successes of approximate dynamic programming (ADP) for road-based … Read more

    A game-theoretic approach to computation offloading in mobile cloud computing

  • Valeria Cardellini
  • Francisco Facchinei
  • Veronica Piccialli
  • Vittoria De Nitto Persone'
  • Valerio Di Valerio
  • Vincenzo Grassi
  • Francesco Lo Presti
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Complementarity and Variational Inequalities, Game Theory

    We consider a three-tier architecture for mobile and pervasive computing scenarios, consisting of a local tier of mobile nodes, a middle tier (cloudlets) of nearby computing nodes, typically located at the mobile nodes access points but characterized by a limited amount of resources, and a remote tier of distant cloud servers, which have practically infinite … Read more

    Scheduling of Two Agents Task Chains with a Central Selection Mechanism

  • Alessandro Agnetis
  • Gaia Nicosia
  • Ulrich Pferschy
  • Andrea Pacifici
    • Categories Combinatorial Optimization, Game Theory, Scheduling Tags , , ,

    In this paper we address a deterministic scheduling problem in which two agents compete for the usage of a single machine. Each agent decides on a fixed order to submit its tasks to an external coordination subject, who sequences them according to a known priority rule. We consider the problem from different perspectives. First, we … Read more

    A New Framework for Combining Global and Local Methods in Black Box Optimization

  • Yibo Ji
  • Sujin Kim
  • Wendy Lu Xu
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Bound-constrained Optimization, Global Optimization

    We propose a new framework for the optimization of computationally expensive black box problems, where neither closed-form expressions nor derivatives of the objective functions are available. The proposed framework consists of two procedures. The first constructs a global metamodel to approximate the underlying black box function and explores an unvisited area to search for a … Read more

    The Freight Train Routing Problem

  • Ralf Borndœrfer
  • Armin Fügenschuh
  • Torsten Klug
  • Thilo Schang
  • Thomas Schlechte
  • Hanno Schülldorf
    • Categories (Mixed) Integer Nonlinear Programming, Network Optimization, Transportation Tags , , ,

    We consider the following freight train routing problem (FTRP). Given is a transportation network with fixed routes for passenger trains and a set of freight trains (requests), each defined by an origin and destination station pair. The objective is to calculate a feasible route for each freight train such that a sum of all expected … Read more

    Multiperiod Portfolio Optimization with General Transaction Costs

  • Victor DeMiguel
  • Xiaoling Mei
  • Francisco Javier Nogales
    • Categories Convex Optimization, Finance and Economics

    We analyze the properties of the optimal portfolio policy for a multiperiod mean-variance investor facing multiple risky assets in the presence of general transaction costs such as proportional, market impact, and quadratic transaction costs. For proportional transaction costs, we find that a buy-and-hold policy is optimal: if the starting portfolio is outside a parallelogram-shaped no-trade … Read more

    A practicable framework for distributionally robust linear optimization

  • Dimitris Bertsimas
  • Melvyn Sim
  • Meilin Zhang
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences Tags , ,

    We developed a modular framework to obtain exact and approximate solutions to a class of linear optimization problems with recourse with the goal to minimize the worst-case expected objective over an ambiguity set of distributions. The ambiguity set is specified by linear and conic quadratic representable expectation constraints and the support set is also linear … Read more

    Optimization of Demand Response Through Peak Shaving

  • D. Craigie
  • Michael J. Todd
  • Andrew B. Philpott
  • Golbon Zakeri
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences, Linear Programming Tags , ,

    We consider a model in which a consumer of a resource over several periods must pay a per unit charge for the resource as well as a peak charge. The consumer has the ability to reduce his consumption in any period at some given cost, subject to a constraint on the total amount of reduction … Read more

    An MILP approach to Multi-location, Multi-Period Equipment Selection for Surface Mining with Case Studies

  • Christina Burt
  • Louis Caccetta
  • Leon Fouche
  • Palitha Welgama
    • Categories Applications - OR and Management Sciences Tags , ,

    In the surface mining industry, the Equipment Selection Problem involves choosing an appropriate fleet of trucks and loaders such that the long-term mine plan can be satisfied. An important characteristic for multi-location (multi-location and multi-dumpsite) mines is that the underlying problem is a multi-commodity flow problem. The problem is therefore at least as difficult as … Read more