4TH
OPERATIONS RESEARCH
CONFERENCE
(Qld)
USQ, Toowoomba, Australia 20 April 2001
Editors:
Mehryar Nooriafshar, Erhan Kozan & Peter Wark
ISBN: 0 909 756 430
Paper and Poster
Abstracts
THE APPLICABILITY
OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH TO YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN
Vince
Aisthorpe
Supply
Services Manager
Brisbane
City Council
ABSTRACT
After a successful 23 year career in Supply/Logistics with the Royal Australian Air Force, Vince spent 3 years as a Senior Logistics Consultant with the Symonds Henderson office in Brisbane. For the past two years he has been the Supply Services Manager for one of the world’s largest local government authorities, the Brisbane City Council. As well as this he is the president of the Queensland Division of the Logistics Association of Australia, a position he has held for three years.
In his short presentation, Vince will describe Brisbane City Council’s Supply Chain strategy and provide a practitioners view of some of the Operations Research techniques utilised by Council to enhance and develop this strategy. He will highlight problems and successes with the various techniques utilised.
Finally, Vince will highlight the difficulties associated with the role of the Logistics Association, particularly in relation to attracting and retaining membership, influencing government and educational institutions and attracting “the young” to a career in Logistics and endeavour to compare them with the ASOR.
THE NEW DIRECTION OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA
Erhan Kozan
Operations Research and Decision Science Group
School of Mathematical Sciences
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Box 2434 Brisbane Qld. 4001 Australia
ABSTRACT
A general spectrum of operations research in Australia is provided in this paper. In this sense, the followings is highlighted: The Australian Society for Operations Research Inc. (ASOR); OR carrier and employment; OR applications and cases; and a survey on the direction of OR.
SUPPLY CHAIN
MODELING, AN OVERVIEW OF PRACTICE AND METHODOLOGY
H T Burley,
School of Business, La Trobe University
Victoria, 3086
Fax: (03) 94791654
ABSTRACT
Keywords: supply-chain management, inventories, modelling
INTEGRATED ITERATIVE ALGORITHMS FOR SEAPORT TERMINALS
Peter Preston and Erhan Kozan
Operations Research and Decision Science
Group
School of Mathematical Sciences
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Box 2434 Brisbane Qld. 4001 Australia
ABSTRACT
This paper models the sea port system with the objective of determining the optimal storage strategy and container-handling schedule. It presents an iterative search algorithm that integrates a Container Transfer Model (CTM) with a Container Location Model (CLM) in a cyclic fashion to determine both optimal locations and corresponding handling schedule. The results section presents and analyses of different resource levels and a comparison with current practise at the Port of Brisbane.
Key Words: scheduling, heuristics, containers, seaports.
THE APPLICATION OF RESOURCE CONSTRAINED SEQUENCING AND
SCHEDULING SOLUTION TECHNIQUES FOR A PARTICULAR
MIXED MODEL ASSEMBLY PROCESS
Robert Burdett and Erhan Kozan
Operations Research and Decision Science
Group
School of Mathematical Sciences
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Box 2434 Brisbane Qld. 4001 Australia
ABSTRACT
This paper researches the implementation and execution of heuristic solution techniques for solving the large sized resource allocation, sequencing and scheduling problem within a particular mixed-model assembly (MMA) process. Due to the exact nature and size of this industrial problem modifications and improvements have been made to previously developed algorithms. First and foremost is a decomposition approach which allows successively larger simplified sub-problems to be solved until the full sized problem can be solved in entirety. At this approach is the use of previously obtained simplified sub problem solution which are then used as the basis for generating starting solution to the next larger sub-problem instance.
Key Words: flowshop sequencing and scheduling, mixed-model assembly, heuristics
A GENERIC SCHEDULING MODEL FOR OBJECT-ORIENTED IMPLEMENTATION OF
APPLICATION SPECIFIC CONSTRAINTS
Paul Corry and Erhan Kozan
Operations Research and Decision Science
Group
School of Mathematical Sciences
Queensland University of Technology
GPO Box 2434 Brisbane Qld. 4001 Australia
ABSTRACT
Many scheduling problems that arise in industry have additional constraints specific to that industry. Any scheduling methodologies developed must be highly customised to deal with the industry specific constraints. Alternatively, industry constraints can be embedded into standard scheduling constraints already present in classical models. In this approach, a set of industry constraints can be interchanged with another industry constraints without modifying the scheduling methodologies. This study proposes a model that fulfils these aims. The methodologies are demonstrated by the production scheduling problems of Toowoomba Foundry.
Key Words: scheduling, jobshop,
metaheuristics.
HOW ABOUT TOMORROW? OPTIMAL PROCRASTINATION AND
THE IMPLICATIONS FOR DELAY IN SUBMITTING TO CONFERENCES
Stuart McDonald , Rodney Beard and Tim Purcell
School of Economics
University of Queensland
St. Lucia, Qld 4072.
mailto:t.purcell@mailbox.uq.edu.au
ABSTRACT
In these
times of academic stress in which one’s time budget is a binding constraint,
procrastination and delay may be an optimal response to dead lines
imposed by
conference organizers. We formulate a model of optimal procrastination using
optimal stopping theory. Whilst the date of the conference is known and the
“soft” deadline is also known by the authors of the paper, the “hard” deadline
for the publication of the conference proceedings and program is only known by
the organizers. Organizers possess a lower and upper bound on the numbers of
participants that is determined by the budget by their budget and the capacity
of the conference venue. The authors would like to submit papers as late as
possible subject to these constraints. The question this paper attempts to
address is “What is the optimal period of procrastination for the authors?”
Keywords: Optimal
stopping and Markov Decision Theory, Renewal Theory, The Economics of Academic
Skulduggery.
Managers Must Model: - The
use and abuse of spreadsheets.
Ray Fairfield
Faculty of Business,
University of Southern Queensland.
Toowoomba, Q4350
Abstract:
The expanding capability of spreadsheet packages, and their ubiquity in business, is encouraging managers to use them for modelling applications for which they are perhaps not best suited. Modelling activity of any sort must be encouraged, but managers should be informed that there are better tools than spreadsheets.
MODELLING WARRANTY COST FOR USED PRODUCTS
WITH OVERHAULING BEFORE SALE
G. Chattopadhyay
Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Medical Engineering
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane Q 4000, Australia
Fax (617) 3864 2442
g.chattopadhyay@qut.edu.au
ABSTRACT
Often, the dealer
decides to overhaul used products before sale. It improves the potential for sale
since the product becomes more reliable after improvement and, as a result, the
dealer can offer better warranty terms. Any improvement action costs money but
reduces the expected warranty cost. The overhaul is worthwhile only if the cost
of improvement is less than the resulting reduction in the expected warranty
cost. This paper deals with development of models to determine the optimal
overhaul action by dealer before sale of second-hand products with free
replacement warranty (FRW) policy.
KEY WORDS: Warranty Cost,
Overhaul, Used Product
QUANTUM SIMULATION – PARALLEL SIMULATION WITH CLONING
AND THINNING
Ron Addie
University
of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia;
Telephone:
+61 7 46 31 5520, Fax: +61 7 46 31 5550
ABSTRACT
A new
method of rare event simulation, termed quantum simulation is
introduced. The term quantum simulation is used here for this simulation
method because the entire ensemble of simulations resembles the parallel
universes model of quantum mechanics. Quantum simulation is a variation on the
well established class of simulation methods known as importance splitting.
A general formula for an unbiased estimator of any quantity in a quantum
simulation is derived. Also, a formal
proof that importance splitting is a special case of quantum simulation is
presented.
Keywords: Importance Splitting, Simulation.
RANDOM SEARCH AS A SOLUTION PROCEDURE
FOR OPTIMAL STOCHASTIC CONTROL PROBLEMS
Rodney Beard
School of Economics
University of Queensland
ABSTRACT
In this
paper, I survey a number of techniques
for numerical solution of continuous-time optimal stochastic control problems.
Random search combined
with
based. Monte-Carlo diffusion is suggested as an alternative means of breaking
the curse of dimensionality compared to random and quasi-random multi-grid
techniques using Markov chain approximation.
POSSIBLE
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPROVING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT FOR REGIONAL COMMUNITIES
Mehryar
Nooriafshar, John Searle and Richard Temple Smith
Department of Economics and Resources
Management
University of Southern Queensland
Toowoomba, Qld 4350
ABSTRACT
Responsibility for the decline of rural and regional communities in Australia and elsewhere over the last 30 years has been placed widely. Politicians have blamed globalisation and other factors presumably beyond their control. Sociologists and, to some extent, economists have blamed the decline on the draw provided by metropolitan areas to the ‘generation x’ and other members of these rural and regional communities.
However, improvements in the operating efficiency of firms particularly in the management of supply chains has clearly been accompanied by rationalisation of distribution and other business networks that have traditionally been located in regional areas. This process of rationalising regional business activity has in turn extensively impacted upon the viability of rural and regional communities. Improved management of supply chains is likely to continue to erode the capacity of rural and regional communities to function effectively as integral components of the wider community.
Key words: Supply Chain
Management; rural and regional communities; social, economic and environmental
sub-systems; economic efficiency; digital divide; intermediation; self-interest;
collective good; political economy.
Supply Chain
Management and Operations Research: The Future
Tom Rafferty
University of Southern Queensland
Toowoomba, Qld 4350
&
ABSTRACT
There has never been a better opportunity to advance the discipline of OR than that presented by the changing attitudes to Supply Chain Management in the business community. For organisations to truly achieve all the benefits of SCM, OR is prerequisite. Many Australian businesses do not understand the fundamentals of some very basic techniques in fields such as inventory management, forecasting, network design, etc. The Internet revolution has provided many solutions, but posed at least as many problems and exposed many weaknesses. The translation of strategy to tactics and tactics to operations are areas of considerable weakness. This is exacerbated by the lack of understanding of OR techniques and the absence of their application, in far too many companies. SCM will not succeed without OR, unfortunately, this has still to become a “self-evident truth” for many firms. This paper addresses the future of SCM and the role that OR must play if organisations are to realise the benefits of SCM.
Key Words: Operations Research, Supply Chain Management, Strategy
EFFECTIVE SUPPLY CHAIN OPTIMISATION
Phil Dunne, Peter Nicholas, Daniel Stannard
Students in Logistics & Operations Management
C/- Department of Logistics & Operations Management
USQ Toowoomba Qld 4350
ABSTRACT (for poster)
Collaboration is the key to success. Working together to ensure that the quality of your product meets the consumer’s expectations is a sure-fire way to increase sales and profitability. But there is more to Supply Chain Management than just talking about it: it must be put into practice and it must become an integral part of the way in which you do business. And once you have started managing your supply chain, you then have to optimise it in order to leverage the full benefits of this most basic of business activities. There is enormous potential to be realised by all businesses in focusing on Supply Chain Optimisation with additional emphasis being placed on maximising profits as well as the traditional paradigm of reducing costs.
As students of Logistics and Operations Management at USQ, we are disciples of the new era in Supply Chain Optimisation and encourage all businesses to be receptive to advances inherent in effectively managing your supply chain.
Keywords: Supply Chain Optimisation, Communication, Collaboration.