A large mixed integer production and distribution program

A decomposition algorithm for a production and distribution problem allows finding a very good suboptimal solution for an 85 000 variable model with 2600 0–1 variables. A global reoptimization process of the continuous part improves the final solution. Annual savings over 3.7% of variable costs and a reasonable CPU time are obtained. A user-oriented program (generation, solution and report) is developed.     

Portfolio optimization with linear and fixed transaction costs

We consider the problem of portfolio selection, with transaction costs and constraints on exposure to risk. Linear transaction costs, bounds on the variance of the return, and bounds on different shortfall probabilities are efficiently handled by convex optimization methods. For such problems, the globally optimal portfolio can be computed very rapidly. Portfolio optimization problems with transaction costs that include a fixed fee, or discount breakpoints, cannot be directly solved by convex optimization. We describe a relaxation method which yields an easily computable upper bound via convex optimization. We also describe a heuristic method for finding a suboptimal portfolio, which is based on solving a small number of convex optimization problems (and hence can be done efficiently). Thus, we produce a suboptimal solution, and also an upper bound on the optimal solution. Numerical experiments suggest that for practical problems the gap between the two is small, even for large problems involving hundreds of assets. The same approach can be used for related problems, such as that of tracking an index with a portfolio consisting of a small number of assets.     

Necessary conditions for nonlinear suboptimization over the weakly-efficient set

The optimization problem of a nonlinear real function over the weakly-efficient set associated to a nonlinear multi-objective program is examined. Necessary first-order conditions for a suboptimal solution are proposed, assuming the convexity of the multi-objective program. Estimations of the optimal value are established and an algorithm for finding suboptimal solutions is proposed. The optimal value is approximated to any prescribed degree of accuracy using a weakly-efficient suboptimal solution.This work was done while the author was preparing his Ph.D. Thesis at the University of Melbourne, Australia. The author is thankful to Dr. B. D. Craven for his suggestions and helpful discussions and to Professor W. Stadler and the anonymous referees for their helpful comments and corrections.     

A stochastic optimal control approach to a class of production and inventory problems

A comprehensible and unified system control approach is presented to solve a class of production/inventory smoothing problems. A nonstationary, non-Gaussian, finite-time linear optimal solution with an attractive computation scheme is obtained for a general quadratic and linear cost structure. A complete solution to a classical production/inventory control problem is given as an example. A general solution to the discrete-time optimal regulator with arbitrary but known disturbance is provided and discussed in detail. A computationally attractive closed-loop suboptimal scheme is presented for problems with constraints or nonquadratic costs. Implementation and interpretation of the results are discussed.     

Dynamic pricing for perishable items with costly price adjustments

Dynamic pricing is widely adopted in inventory management for perishable items, and the corresponding price adjustment cost should be taken into account. This work assumes that the price adjustment cost comprises of a fixed component and a variable one, and attempts to search for the optimal dynamic pricing strategy to maximize the firm’s profit. However, considering the fixed price adjustment cost turns this dynamic pricing problem to a non-smooth optimal control problem which cannot be solved directly by Pontryagin’s maximum principle. Hence, we first degenerate the original problem into a standard optimal control problem and calculate the corresponding solution. On the basis of this solution, we further propose a suboptimal pricing strategy which simultaneously combines static pricing and dynamic pricing strategies. The upper bound of profit gap between the suboptimal solution and the optimal one is obtained. Numerical simulation indicates that the suboptimal pricing strategy enjoys an efficient performance.     

Path Capacity Dimensioning in a Multiprotocol Label Switched Network: Analysis of Optimal and Suboptimal Solutions

In recent years, the problem of capacity allocation for a label switched patch (LSP) in a multiprotocol label switched (MPLS) network has received great attention due to its relevance in the context of traffic control. In this paper, the problem of capacity allocation is formulated as an optimal control problem and its solution is obtained by assuming the knowledge of the bandwidth requests on the entire control interval. A suboptimal solution is also given which has the advantage of requiring limited information about future bandwidth requests. The analysis of the suboptimal solution is explored both analytically and numerically by using simulated and real data. This study demonstrates that the suboptimal solution, also with limited knowledge of the future, yields a good approximation of the optimal one and requires little additional cost.     

Hydrodynamic analogy for direct shear force and bending moment evaluation in a plate

A brand new interpretation of the plate bending equations is given using hydrodynamic analogy. It permits one to determine directly the shear forces and bending moments of a plate without the need of finding deflections. In engineering design of a plate it is more important to know shear forces and bending moments than the deflections. The existing numerical methods of solution of plate problems consist in determining deflections; then shear forces and bending moments are obtained by differentiating the deflection three and two times which produces great loss of accuracy. The hydrodynamic analogy method has the advantage over other numerical methods because the shear forces and bending moments are obtained directly, without the need of finding deflections and because they are obtained with better accuracy. The hydrodynamic analogy can be applied to a plate of arbitrary shape, with arbitrary boundary conditions under an arbitrary loading.     

The asymptotic probabilistic behaviour of quadratic sum assignment problems

In this paper a surprising probabilistic behaviour of quadratic sum assignment problems is shown. The relative difference between worst and optimal solution value tends to zero with probability tending to one as the size of the problem goes to infinity. This result suggests that for high dimensional quadratic assignment problems even very simple approximation algorithms can in practice yield good suboptimal solutions.     

Mixed sensitivity minimization problems with rationall 1-optimal solutions

Up to this time, the only known method to solve the discrete-time mixed sensitivity minimization problem inl ¹ has been to use a certain infinite-dimensional linear programming approach, presented by Dahleh and Pearson in 1988 and later modified by Mendlovitz. That approach does not give in general true optimal solutions; only suboptimal ones are obtained. Here, for the first time, the truel ¹-optimal solutions are found for some mixed sensitivity minimization problems. In particular, Dahleh and Pearson construct an 11h order suboptimal compensator for a certain second-order plan with first-order weight functions; it is shown that the unique optimal compensator for that problem is rational and of order two. The author discovered this fact when trying out a new scheme of solving the infinite-dimensional linear programming system. This scheme is of independent interest, because when it is combined with the Dahleh-Pearson-Mendlovitz scheme, it gives both an upper bound and a lower bound on the optimal performance; hence, it provides the missing error bound that enables one to truncate the solution. Of course, truncation is appropriate only if the order of the optimal compensator is too high. This may indeed be the case, as is shown with an example where the order of the optimal compensator can be arbitrarily high.     

A new method for solving fully fuzzy linear programming problems

Lotfi et al. [Solving a full fuzzy linear programming using lexicography method and fuzzy approximate solution, Appl. Math. Modell. 33 (2009) 3151–3156] pointed out that there is no method in literature for finding the fuzzy optimal solution of fully fuzzy linear programming (FFLP) problems and proposed a new method to find the fuzzy optimal solution of FFLP problems with equality constraints. In this paper, a new method is proposed to find the fuzzy optimal solution of same type of fuzzy linear programming problems. It is easy to apply the proposed method compare to the existing method for solving the FFLP problems with equality constraints occurring in real life situations. To illustrate the proposed method numerical examples are solved and the obtained results are discussed.     

POD a-posteriori error analysis for optimal control problems with mixed control-state constraints

In this work linear-quadratic optimal control problems for parabolic equations with mixed control-state constraints are considered. These problems arise when a Lavrentiev regularization is utilized for state constrained linear-quadratic optimal control problems. For the numerical solution a Galerkin discretization is applied utilizing proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). Based on a perturbation method it is determined how far the suboptimal control, computed on the basis of the POD method, is from the (unknown) exact one. Numerical examples illustrate the theoretical results. In particular, the POD Galerkin scheme is applied to a problem with state constraints.     

NAUTILUS method: An interactive technique in multiobjective optimization based on the nadir point

Most interactive methods developed for solving multiobjective optimization problems sequentially generate Pareto optimal or nondominated vectors and the decision maker must always allow impairment in at least one objective function to get a new solution. The NAUTILUS method proposed is based on the assumptions that past experiences affect decision makers’ hopes and that people do not react symmetrically to gains and losses. Therefore, some decision makers may prefer to start from the worst possible objective values and to improve every objective step by step according to their preferences. In NAUTILUS, starting from the nadir point, a solution is obtained at each iteration which dominates the previous one. Although only the last solution will be Pareto optimal, the decision maker never looses sight of the Pareto optimal set, and the search is oriented so that (s)he progressively focusses on the preferred part of the Pareto optimal set. Each new solution is obtained by minimizing an achievement scalarizing function including preferences about desired improvements in objective function values. NAUTILUS is specially suitable for avoiding undesired anchoring effects, for example in negotiation support problems, or just as a means of finding an initial Pareto optimal solution for any interactive procedure. An illustrative example demonstrates how this new method iterates.     

Sampling subproblems of heterogeneous Max‐Cut problems and approximation algorithms

Recent work in the analysis of randomized approximation algorithms for NP‐hard optimization problems has involved approximating the solution to a problem by the solution of a related subproblem of constant size, where the subproblem is constructed by sampling elements of the original problem uniformly at random. In light of interest in problems with a heterogeneous structure, for which uniform sampling might be expected to yield suboptimal results, we investigate the use of nonuniform sampling probabilities. We develop and analyze an algorithm which uses a novel sampling method to obtain improved bounds for approximating the Max‐Cut of a graph. In particular, we show that by judicious choice of sampling probabilities one can obtain error bounds that are superior to the ones obtained by uniform sampling, both for unweighted and weighted versions of Max‐Cut. Of at least as much interest as the results we derive are the techniques we use. The first technique is a method to compute a compressed approximate decomposition of a matrix as the product of three smaller matrices, each of which has several appealing properties. The second technique is a method to approximate the feasibility or infeasibility of a large linear program by checking the feasibility or infeasibility of a nonuniformly randomly chosen subprogram of the original linear program. We expect that these and related techniques will prove fruitful for the future development of randomized approximation algorithms for problems whose input instances contain heterogeneities. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2008     

Dynamic Programming and Value-Function Approximation in Sequential Decision Problems: Error Analysis and Numerical Results

Value-function approximation is investigated for the solution via Dynamic Programming (DP) of continuous-state sequential N-stage decision problems, in which the reward to be maximized has an additive structure over a finite number of stages. Conditions that guarantee smoothness properties of the value function at each stage are derived. These properties are exploited to approximate such functions by means of certain nonlinear approximation schemes, which include splines of suitable order and Gaussian radial-basis networks with variable centers and widths. The accuracies of suboptimal solutions obtained by combining DP with these approximation tools are estimated. The results provide insights into the successful performances appeared in the literature about the use of value-function approximators in DP. The theoretical analysis is applied to a problem of optimal consumption, with simulation results illustrating the use of the proposed solution methodology. Numerical comparisons with classical linear approximators are presented.     

Solving some optimal control problems using the barrier penalty function method

In this paper we present a new approach to solve a two-level optimization problem arising from an approximation by means of the finite element method of optimal control problems governed by unilateral boundary-value problems. The problem considered is to find a minimum of a functional with respect to the control variablesu. The minimized functional depends on control variables and state variablesx. The latter are the optimal solution of an auxiliary quadratic programming problem, whose parameters depend onu.Our main idea is to replace this QP problem by its dual and then apply the barrier penalty method to this dual QP problem or to the primal one if it is in an appropriate form. As a result we obtain a problem approximating the original one. Its good property is the differentiable dependence of state variables with respect to the control variables. Furthermore, we propose a method for finding an approximate solution of a penalized lower-level problem if the optimal solution of the original QP problem is known. We apply the result obtained to some optimal shape design problems governed by the Dirichlet-Signorini boundary-value problem.This research was supported by the Academy of Finland and the Systems Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences.     

Graph labeling and radio channel assignment

The vertex-labeling of graphs with nonnegative integers provides a natural setting in which to study problems of radio channel assignment. Vertices correspond to transmitter locations and their labels to radio channels. As a model for the way in which interference is avoided in real radio systems, each pair of vertices has, depending on their separation, a constraint on the difference between the labels that can be assigned. We consider the question of finding labelings of minimum span, given a graph and a set of constraints. The focus is on the infinite triangular lattice, infinite square lattice, and infinite line lattice, and optimal labelings for up to three levels of constraint are obtained. We highlight how accepted practice can lead to suboptimal channel assignments. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 29: 263–283, 1998     

Stochastic Methods for Practical Global Optimization

Engineering design problems often involve global optimization of functions that are supplied as black box functions. These functions may be nonconvex, nondifferentiable and even discontinuous. In addition, the decision variables may be a combination of discrete and continuous variables. The functions are usually computationally expensive, and may involve finite element methods. An engineering example of this type of problem is to minimize the weight of a structure, while limiting strain to be below a certain threshold. This type of global optimization problem is very difficult to solve, yet design engineers must find some solution to their problem – even if it is a suboptimal one. Sometimes the most difficult part of the problem is finding any feasible solution. Stochastic methods, including sequential random search and simulated annealing, are finding many applications to this type of practical global optimization problem. Improving Hit-and-Run (IHR) is a sequential random search method that has been successfully used in several engineering design applications, such as the optimal design of composite structures. A motivation to IHR is discussed as well as several enhancements. The enhancements include allowing both continuous and discrete variables in the problem formulation. This has many practical advantages, because design variables often involve a mixture of continuous and discrete values. IHR and several variations have been applied to the composites design problem. Some of this practical experience is discussed.     

A new class of hybrid extragradient algorithms for solving quasi-equilibrium problems

Generalized Nash equilibrium problems are important examples of quasi-equilibrium problems. The aim of this paper is to study a general class of algorithms for solving such problems. The method is a hybrid extragradient method whose second step consists in finding a descent direction for the distance function to the solution set. This is done thanks to a linesearch. Two descent directions are studied and for each one several steplengths are proposed to obtain the next iterate. A general convergence theorem applicable to each algorithm of the class is presented. It is obtained under weak assumptions: the pseudomonotonicity of the equilibrium function and the continuity of the multivalued mapping defining the constraint set of the quasi-equilibrium problem. Finally some preliminary numerical results are displayed to show the behavior of each algorithm of the class on generalized Nash equilibrium problems.     

Iterative algorithms with the regularization for the constrained convex minimization problem and maximal monotone operators

In this paper, we prove a strong convergence theorem for finding a common element of the solution set of a constrained convex minimization problem and the set of solutions of a finite family of variational inclusion problems in Hilbert space. A strong convergence theorem for finding a common element of the solution set of a constrained convex minimization problem and the solution sets of a finite family of zero points of the maximal monotone operator problem in Hilbert space is also obtained. Using our main result, we have some additional results for various types of non-linear problems in Hilbert space.     

A numerical method to approximate optimal production and maintenance plan in a flexible manufacturing system

The simultaneous planning of the production and the maintenance in a flexible manufacturing system is considered in this paper. The manufacturing system is composed of one machine that produces a single product. There is a preventive maintenance plan to reduce the failure rate of the machine. This paper is different from the previous researches in this area in two separate ways. First, the failure rate of the machine is supposed to be a function of its age. Second, we assume that the demand of the manufacturing product is time dependent and its rate depends on the level of advertisement on that product. The objective is to maximize the expected discounted total profit of the firm over an infinite time horizon. In the process of finding a solution to the problem, we first characterize an optimal control by introducing a set of Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman partial differential equations. Then we realize that under practical assumptions, this set of equations can not be solved analytically. Thus to find a suboptimal control, we approximate the original stochastic optimal control model by a discrete-time deterministic optimal control problem. Then proposing a numerical method to solve the steady state Riccati equation, we approximate a suboptimal solution to the problem.