Technical Note ：SINGLE-PERIOD TWO-PRODUCT INVENTORY MODEL WITH SUBSTITUTION： SOLUTION AND PROPERTIES

In this paper, we study a single-period two-product inventory model with stochastic demands and downward substitution. The optimal order quantities are presented and some properties are provided. Comparing with newsboy model, we prove that both the profit and the fill rate can be improved by using the substitution policy. This work was supported partly by NSFC/RGC Joint Research Program under grant 79910161987 and the National Science Foundation of China (79825102, 70231010, 70321001). Lianqiao CAI is lecturer of School of International Business, Beijing Foreign Studies University. He received his B.S. and M.S. from School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, in 1995 and 1998, and Ph.D of Management Science from Tsinghua University in 2002. His research areas include supply chain management, optimization techniques. Jian Chen is Professor and Chairman of the Management Science Department and co-director of the Research Center for Contemporary Management, Tsinghua University. He has over 80 papers published in some leading international journals and first class Chinese journals, and has been a principal investigator for over 20 grants or research contracts with National Science Foundation of China, governmental organizations, and companies. His main research interests include supply chain management, E-commerce, modeling and control for complex systems, decision support systems and information systems, and forecast and optimization techniques. He serves as associate editor of the “IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Part A” and “IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Part C”, and on the Editorial Board of “The International Journal of Electronic Business” and “System Research and Behavioral Science”. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution Award of IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society in 1996, and the Young Scientist Award of China in 1992. He was Secretary General of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics in Beijing, Co-chair of the IPC of 1998 International Conference on Systems Science and Systems Engineering, Chair of the First Asian eBiz Workshop in 2001, Co-chair of the Asian eBiz Workshop in 2002 and 2003, and Co-chair of the international conference on Global Supply Chain Management in 2002. Houmin Yan received his B.S. and M.S. from the Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, in 1982 and 1985, respectively, and his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Management, University of Toronto in 1993. From Jan. 1994, he is with the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, the Chinese University of Hong Kong as an Assistance, Associate and Full Professor. He was a tenured Associate Professor at School of Management, the Univ. of Texas at Dallas. His main research areas are operations management, stochastic models, simulations, and supply chain management. He has published in journals such as Operations Research, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Optimization: Theory and Applications, IIE Transactions and IEEE Transactions. He consults several high-tech companies, such as Motorola, C&K Systems, and Oriental Power, on issues spanning from production planning and scheduling, supply chain management to business process re-engineering. He is a member of INFORMS.     

Simulating the supply disruption for the coordinated supply chain

There are many disruptive accidents in the supply chain operations system and achieving the coordination of supply chain is main objective for supply chain research. While disruptive accidents have increasingly influenced the coordinated operation of the supply chain, existing research literature on the supply chain coordination is setting in a stationary environment. The answer for how the disruptive accidents affect the coordinated supply chain is given in this paper. Based on the benchmark supply chain which is coordinated by the negative incentive mechanism, we study the impacts of supply disruption on the supply chain system by using simulation approach in which two different distribution function of random variable are used to express the supply disruption. Comparison between these two simulation results and possible coordination mechanism under the supply disruption are proposed. From the perspective of supply chain risk management, we provide the inspiration for the manager.     

“EII META—MODEL” ON INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK FOR VIABLE ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS——CITY PLANNING METAPHOR BASED ON STRUCTURAL SIMILARITY

Enterprise systems must have the structure to adapt the change of business environment.When rebuilding enterprise system to meet the extended operational boundaries,the concept of IT city planning is applicable and effective.The aim of this paper is to describe the architectural approach from the integrated imformation infrastructure(In3) standpoint and to propose for applying the “City Planning” concept for rebuilding “inter-application spaghetti” enterprise systems.This is mainly because the portion of infrastructure has increased with the change of information systems from centralized systems to distributed and open systems.As enterprise systems have involved heterogeneity or architectural black box in them,it may be required the integration framework (meta-architecture)as a discipline based on heterogeneity that can provide comprehensive view of the enterprise systems.This paper proposes “EII Meta-model” as the integration framework that can optimize the overall enterprise systems from the IT city planning point of view.EII Meta-model consists of “Integrated Information Infrastructure Map(In3-Map)”,“Service·Framework” and “IT Scenario”.It would be applicable and effective for the viable enterprise,because it has the mechanism to adapt the change.Finally,we illustrate a case of information system in an online securities company and demonstrate spplicability and effectiveness of EII Meta-model to meet their business goals.     

Conflict analysis approaches for investigating attitudes and misperceptions in the War of 1812

Formal systems engineering approaches to modeling misperceptions and attitudes are employed within the framework of the graph model for conflict resolution to systematically study the War of 1812 between the United States of America and Great Britain in order to provide enhanced insights into the causes of the war. More specifically, relational definitions for preferences, movements and stability concepts are defined for describing the attitudes and associated behavior of decision makers involved in a conflict. To capture misperceptions of decision makers in the War of 1812, attitudes are studied within the structure of a hypergame. Combining attitudes and misperceptions within the paradigm of the graph model furnishes the flexible analytical tool which demonstrates that misunderstanding of attitudes by Great Britain and the United States may have contributed to the outbreak of this nasty war.     

ON IMPROVING AN INTEGRATED INVENTORY MODEL FOR A SINGLE VENDOR AND MULTIPLE BUYERS WITH A RELAXED MATERIAL ORDERING CYCLE POLICY

1. Introduction With the development of information technology and the increasing market competition, simultaneously reducing inventory costs of raw materials, work-in-process, and finished items in different stages has become a major focus for supply chain management. Industrial practice and academic research have shown that VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory) can improve supply chain performance by decreasing inventory levels and costs. VMI is a collaborative business initiative where the vend…     

Special issue editorial

<正>This special issue of Journal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering recognizes the contributions of authors and participants in the     

Expert discovery and knowledge mining in complex multi-agent systems

Complex problem solving requires diverse expertise and multiple techniques. In order to solve such problems, complex multi-agent systems that include both of human experts and autonomous agents are required in many application domains. Most complex multi-agent systems work in open domains and include various heterogeneous agents. Due to the heterogeneity of agents and dynamic features of working environments, expertise and capabilities of agents might not be well estimated and presented in these systems. Therefore, how to discover useful knowledge from human and autonomous experts, make more accurate estimation for experts＇ capabilities and find out suitable expert（s） to solve incoming problems （＂Expert Mining＂） are important research issues in the area of multi-agent system. In this paper, we introduce an ontology-based approach for knowledge and expert mining in hybrid multi-agent systems. In this research, ontologies are hired to describe knowledge of the system. Knowledge and expert mining processes are executed as the system handles incoming problems. In this approach, we embed more self-learning and self-adjusting abilities in multi-agent systems, so as to help in discovering knowledge of heterogeneous experts of multi-agent systems.     

A NESTED PARTITIONS FRAMEWORK FOR SOLVING LARGE-SCALE MULTICOMMODITY FACILITY LOCATION PROBLEMS

Large-scale multicommodity facility location problems are generally intractable with respect to standard mixed-integer programming (MIP) tools such as the direct application of general-purpose Branch & Cut (BC) commercial solvers i.e. CPLEX. In this paper, the authors investigate a nested partitions (NP) framework that combines meta-heuristics with MIP tools (including branch-and-cut). We also consider a variety of alternative formulations and decomposition methods for this problem class. Our results show that our NP framework is capable of efficiently producing very high quality solutions to multicommodity facility location problems. For large-scale problems in this class, this approach is significantly faster and generates better feasible solutions than either CPLEX (applied directly to the given MIP) or the iterative Lagrangian-based methods that have generally been regarded as the most effective structure-based techniques for optimization of these problems. We also briefly discuss some other large-scale MIP problem classes for which this approach is expected to be very effective. This work is supported partly by the National Science Foundation under grant DMI-0100220, DMI-0217924, by the Air Force of Scientific Research under grant F49620-01-1-0222, by Rockwell Automation, and by John Deere Horicon Works. Leyuan Shi is a Professor of the Department of Industrial Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 1992, her M.S. in Engineering from Harvard University in 1990, her M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Tsinghua University in 1985, and her B.S. in Mathematics from Nanjing Normal University in 1982. Dr. Shi has been involved in undergraduate and graduate teaching, as well as research and professional service. Dr. Shi’s research is devoted to the theory and applications of large-scale optimization algorithms, discrete event simulation and modeling and analysis of discrete dynamic systems. She has published many papers in these areas. Her work has appeared in Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, Operations Research, Management Science, IEEE Trans., and, IIE Trans. She is currently a member of the editorial board for Journal of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, is an Associate Editor of Journal of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems, and an Associate Editor of INFORMS Journal on Computing. Dr. Shi is a member of IEEE and INFORMS. Robert R. Meyer received a B.S. in Mathematics from Caltech and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Computer Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has been on the faculty since 1973. He has co-edited six volumes of optimization conference proceedings and written more than 80 articles focusing on areas such as nonlinear network optimization, parallel decomposition algorithms for large-scale optimization, genetic algorithms, and theory and applications of discrete optimization. Mehmet Bozbay is a research assistant in the Department of Industrial Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently working towards his Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering. He received M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Computer Sciences from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.S. degree in Mathematics from Beloit College. He has been dealing with real-life supply chain optimization problems for the last 4 years. He is a member of INFORMS. Andrew J. Miller is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1999, his M.S. in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1996, and his B.S. in Mathematics from Furman University in 1994. Dr. Miller has been involved in research, undergraduate and graduate teaching, and professional service, as well as in some software prototyping and development. Dr. Miller’s research focuses on theoretical and computational aspects of mixed integer programming, and on its application to areas in production planning, supply chain design, and other fields. He has published several papers in these areas, including articles in Mathematical Programming, Operations Research, and European Journal of Operations Research. He has refereed numerous articles for the journals mentioned above, as well as for Management Science, Annals of Operations Research, and others. Dr. Miller is a member of INFORMS and of the Mathematical Programming Society.     

INCREASING RETURNS TO SCALE,DYNAMICS OF INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE AND SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF FIRMS

1. Introduction In the past decades, the evolutionary perspective has contributed lot to the economics (Arthur and Durlauf et al 1997, Dosi and Nelson 1994, Aruka 2001). The economy is studied as an evolving complex system with many features in complexity such as nonlinear interactions and emergent properties. In reality, the economic system consists of many adaptive agents. They learn from each other, and their values may be influenced by others’ values and actions. These interactions amo…     

A MODIFIED ANT-BASED TEXT CLUSTERING ALGORITHM WITH SEMANTIC SIMILARITY MEASURE

1. Introduction As an important application field of the data clustering technologies (Jain and Murty et al. 1999), text clustering is unsupervised partitioning of a collection of textual documents into self-similar groups so that any item is more similar with another item in the same group thanwith an item outside the group. Such groups are called clusters, which are run-timely formed during the clustering process, instead of being pre-defined as in the case of text categorization, which comm…     

PERSPECTIVES ON URBAN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE IN CHINA FOR THE 21^ST C0ENTURY： SDMUWEIC MODEL

Based on system dynamics approach, SDMUWEIC model is developed in order to evaluatefuture dynamics of urban water infrastructure development in China. Firstly, this paper presents thebasic structure and characteristics of the model, focusing on water infrastructure‘s dynamicrelationships with population increase, economic development, water resources shortage and waterconservation practices. Secondly, model veracity and robustness tests based on behavior reproductionand uncertainty analyses are illustrated. Thirdly, based on the model, future pattems of China‘s urbanwater infrastructure investment requirements are simulated, and effectiveness of two different policyscenarios are evaluated. Finally, conclusion,; and policy implications are drawn, allowing insights intoChina‘s sustainable water infrastructure policies and managements.     

A situation calculus based approach to dynamic management of e-business services

In the era of e-businesses, the traditional business services are greatly challenged by the ever-increasing demands from customers with various backgrounds and personalities. Large numbers of new e-businesses are driven by the needs of customers. The existing dynamics inherent in the customer needs require the corresponding dynamic management of services. Attempting to respond to customers in a rapid and intelligent way, this paper proposes a situation calculus based approach for dynamically managing e-Business services in the ubiquitous environment. By employing the formalism of the situation calculus to enable intelligence and automation, the approach can implement. the functions of service automatic composition and model verification. These functions will improve the degree of customer-orientation and enable fast responsiveness in the emerging e-service systems.     

ON INVENTORY STRATEGIES OF ONLINE RETAILERS

1.Introduction This research focuses on online retailers(etailers,hereafter)who engage in the sale of physical goods.In general,the order fulfillment process of such an etailer can be depicted by Figure1.As presented in Figure1,a customer will place an order at the etailer’s website.Upon receipt of each order,the etailer will confirm whether or not stock is available to fulfill the order.Assuming that inventory is indeed available,the order will be packaged,after which it will be delivered …     

Topology and cascading line outages in power grids

Motivated by the small world network research of Watts ＆ Strogatz, this paper studies relationships between topology and cascading line outages in electric power grids. Cascading line outages are a type of cascading collapse that can occur in power grids when the transmission network is congested. It is characterized by a self-sustaining sequence of line outages followed by grid breakup, which generally leads to widespread blackout. The main findings of this work are twofold： On one hand, the work suggests that topologies with more disorder in their interconnection topology tend to be robust with respect to cascading line outages in the sense of being able to support greater generation and demand levels than more regularly interconnected topologies. On the other hand, the work suggests that topologies with more disorder tend to be more fragile in that should a cascade get started, they tend to break apart after fewer outages than more regularly interconnected topologies. Thus, as has been observed in other complex networks, there appears to be a tradeoff between robustness and fragility. These results were established using synthetically generated power grid topologies and verified using the IEEE 57 bus and 188 bus power grid test cases.     

From Cybernetics and VSD to Management and Action

This paper uses Stafford Beer's Viable Systems Diagnosis (VSD) to suggest that the development of a model for actionable theory in organizations would take the form of a three-step process. The first step involves the definition and explanation of an appropriate theory base, the second theory interpretation into a coherent set of action principles and the third contextual action in organizations. We contend that even for a well-informed and widely read manager gleaning the theoretical basis for this process from the recognized Beer trilogy “Brain of the Firm,” “The Heart of the Enterprise” and “Diagnosing the System” is difficult to justify in terms of time, understanding, and action. We maintain that a sound set of action principles emanating from Beer's primary work must be considered before tackling the noted trilogy. We use Beer's initial text “Cybernetics and Management” to trace some fundamental operational research and the interdisciplinary tripartite science of cybernetics. We commence our action model process with some introductory thoughts into operational research, cybernetics, VSD, and contextual action. Our first step toward action involves some primary definitions and principles of cybernetic theory and the prospect of controlling overwhelming variety. Our second step provides our set of coherent potential action principles fundamental to cybernetic theory. The paper is written in a journalistic rather than academic style reflecting the need to couch the interpretation of the theory in a language that the well-informed manager may readily translate into third step contextual practice.     

Electronic support for knowledge creation in a research institute

This paper focuses on the question how to build an electronic support environment for knowledge creation in a research institute （JAIST）. In order to assess the importance of diverse conditions of scientific creativity, we performed a survey in JAIST, and extracted useful knowledge from the database of survey results. Following the analysis of the theory of academic processes of knowledge creation and the survey findings in JAIST, a computer-based integrated system is proposed. In the aspect of the system design, we postulate that an electronic support environment for academic creativity can be achieved through a seamless integration with Internet, Application Server, Middle Ware, Database and Data Warehouse. The paper addresses issues of knowledge representation in the Electronic Support System for academic research, testing and evaluation issues and conclusions.     

The coming crisis of western management education

The aim of this paper is to explore the contention that Western Management Education has entered a period of “crisis” and to examine the implications of such a development. Drawing on historical studies of management education in America and Europe, four modes of management “formation” are identified, each of which has been dominant in a particular period. From its preparadigmatic beginnings management education has been successively transformed under an “old” and latterly a “new” paradigm. Current changes in and critiques of the “new” paradigm imply that Western Management Education is entering a postparadigmatic mode. The implications of this postparadigmatic turn are considered in relation to management practice, management knowledge, and management “formation.” An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management, Aston University, Birmingham, September 16–18, 1996.     

ON SERVICES RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

1. Pertinent Background The importance of the services sector can not be overstated (Tien, 2006); it employs a large and growing proportion of workers in the industrialized nations. As reflected in Table 1, the services sector includes a number of large industries; indeed, services employment in the U.S. is at 82.1 percent, while the remaining four economic sectors (i.e., manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and mining), which together can be considered to be the “goods” sector, emplo…     

FUZZY SATISFYING INTERACTIVE MULTIOBJECTIVE THERMAL POWER DISPATCH： SWT APPROACH

In multiobjective optimization, trade-off analysis plays an important role in determining most preferred solution. This paper presents an explicit interactive trade-off analysis based on the surrogate worth trade-off function to determine the best compromised solution. In the multiobjective framework thermal power dispatch problem is undertaken in which four objectives viz. cost, NOx emission, SOx emission and COx emission are minimized simultaneously. The interactive process is implemented using a weighting method by regulating the relative weights of objectives in systematic manner. Hence the weighting method facilitates to simulate the trade-offrelation between the conflicting objectives in non-inferior domain. Exploiting fuzzy decision making theory to access the indifference band, interaction with the decision maker is obtained via surrogate worth trade-off （SWT） functions of the objectives. The surrogate worth trade-off functions are constructed in the functional space and then transformed into the decision space, so the surrogate worth trade-off functions of objectives relate the decision maker＇s preferences to non-inferior solutions through optimal weight patterns. The optimal solution of thermal power dispatch problem is obtained by considering real and reactive power losses. Decoupled load flow analysis is performed to find the transmission losses. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated on 11-bus, 17-lines IEEE system, comprising of three generators.     

ELECTRONIC DISCLOSURE AND FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

1. Introduction Majority of financial information are disseminated through the Internet, every day, huge amount of financial information are generated but the utilization is not good enough: according to the 10th WWW User Survey by the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Centre (GVU 1998), more than 45 percent of the respondents felt that they were not able to find the information they needed. A study of the Internet demography showed that searching, retrieving, and utilizing the avail…