Tuning inventory policy parameters in a small chemical company

A project to improve inventory management in a small UK chemical company is described. A research group comprising university academics and company managers for logistics and information technology examined current practices and analysed a database of historical records of business operations of the company. Based on the analysis, a scheme to categorise stock and set ordering policies to optimise inventory costs was developed. Some comments are made on process issues and the learning that took place.     

Synchronization in supply chains: implications for design and management

Supply chain management literature calls for coordination between the different members of the chain. Materials should be moved from one supplier to the next according to a just-in-time schedule. In this paper, we show that for many supply chain configurations, complete synchronization will result in some members of the chain being ‘losers’ in terms of cost. We develop an algorithm for optimal synchronization of supply chains and provide some guidelines for incentive alignment along the supply chain. In developing the model, we use the economic delivery and scheduling problem model and analyze supply chains dealing with single and multiple components. For single-component supply chains, we derive a closed-form expression for the optimal synchronized cycle time. For multi-component supply chains, we develop an algorithm for finding the optimal synchronized cycle time. We test the performance of the algorithm and show that it provides optimal solutions for a wide range of problems. We illustrate the models with numerical examples.     

A nonlinear programming algorithm for solving semidefinite programs via low-rank factorization

 In this paper, we present a nonlinear programming algorithm for solving semidefinite programs (SDPs) in standard form. The algorithm's distinguishing feature is a change of variables that replaces the symmetric, positive semidefinite variable X of the SDP with a rectangular variable R according to the factorization X=RR ^T . The rank of the factorization, i.e., the number of columns of R, is chosen minimally so as to enhance computational speed while maintaining equivalence with the SDP. Fundamental results concerning the convergence of the algorithm are derived, and encouraging computational results on some large-scale test problems are also presented. Received: March 22, 2001 / Accepted: August 30, 2002 Published online: December 9, 2002 Key Words. semidefinite programming – low-rank factorization – nonlinear programming – augmented Lagrangian – limited memory BFGS This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants CCR-9902010, INT-9910084, CCR-0203426 and CCR-0203113     

On quartics with three-divisible sets of cusps

 We study the geometry and codes of quartic surfaces with many cusps. We apply Gr?bner bases to find examples of various configurations of cusps on quartics. Received: 10 May 2002 / Revised version: 11 November 2002 Published online: 3 March 2003 Permanent address: Institute of Mathematics, Jagiellonian University, ul. Reymonta 4, 30-059 Kraków, Poland. e-mail: rams@mi.uni-erlangen.de, rams@im.uj.edu.pl Research partially supported by the Schwerpunktprogramm ``Global methods in complex geometry' of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and by EAGER. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 14J25, 14J17     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>-covering subgroup systems for the classes of supersoluble and nilpotent groups

LetF be a class of groups andG a group. We call a set Σ of subgroups ofG aG-covering subgroup system for the classF (or directly aF-covering subgroup system ofG) ifG ∈F whenever every subgroup in Σ is inF. In this paper, we provide some nontrivial sets of subgroups of a finite groupG which are simultaneouslyG-covering subgroup systems for the classes of supersoluble and nilpotent groups. Research of the first author is supported by the NNSF of China (Grant No. 10171086) and QLGCF of Jiangsu Province and a Croucher Fellowship of Hong Kong. Research of the second author is partially supported by a UGC (HK) grant #2060176 (2001/2002).     

An obstruction to the positivity of relative Yamabe invariants

For a supergroup , we describe an obstruction to the existence of positive scalar curvature metrics with minimal boundary condition on a compact n-dimensional -manifold W with nonempty boundary M, , in terms of the bordism class [M] in the Stolz obstruction group associated to [St2]. In par ticular, when W is a 5-dimensional spin manifold and the -invariant of a connected component of M is nonzero, we prove that W does not admit a positive scalar curvature metric with minimal boundary condition. Received: 4 July 2001; in final form: 5 February 2002 / Published online: 8 November 2002 RID="*" ID="*" Partially supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, No. 11640070.     

On Solvability of a Boundary Value Problem for Singular Integral Equations

This paper deals with the solvability of boundary value problems for singular integral equations of the form (i)-(ii).By an algebraic method we reduce the problem (i)-(ii) to a system of linear algebraic equations which gives all solutions in a closed form.AMS Subject Classification: 47G05, 45GO5, 45E05     

Empirical likelihood for partial linear models

In this paper the empirical likelihood method due to Owen (1988,Biometrika,75, 237–249) is applied to partial linear random models. A nonparametric version of Wilks' theorem is derived. The theorem is then used to construct confidence regions of the parameter vector in the partial linear models, which has correct asymptotic coverage. A simulation study is conducted to compare the empirical likelihood and normal approximation based method. Research supported by NNSF of China and a grant to the first author for his excellent Ph.D. dissertation work in China. Research supported by Hong Kong RGC CERG No. HKUST6162/97P.