Available-To-Promise modeling for multi-plant manufacturing characterized by lack of homogeneity in the product: An illustration of a ceramic case

Lack of homogeneity in the product (LHP) appears in some production processes which incorporate raw materials that originate directly from nature and/or production processes with operations that confer heterogeneity to the characteristics of the outputs obtained, even when the inputs used are homogeneous. Poor LHP management may have a very negative impact on the customer service level and on the supply chains’ operation costs, especially when the customer needs to be served with homogeneous units of one same product. One of the key processes for suitable LHP management is the order-promising process. This work presents a mathematical programming order-promising model for make-to-stock environments with LHP. The model considers two objectives placed within a single objective by the weighted sum method. For the purpose of testing the validity of the proposed model and to evaluate the characteristics of the solutions obtained in different scenarios, numerical experiments based on realistic data from a ceramic tile company have been conducted. The results show that better results are obtained for the defined performance measures if multiple objectives are considered when promising orders than the single objective of maximizing profits. Furthermore, the superiority of the results obtained from the proposed model, if compared with current company practice, proves the model’s utility.     

Synthesis of lodopyridone

The total synthesis of the unusual 4-pyridone marine metabolite lodopyridone has been achieved by late stage manipulation of the related 4-pyrone. Key reactions include a Suzuki–Miyaura coupling to form the tetracyclic core and a modified Corey–Ganem–Gilman reaction to install the ethanolamide side-chain.     

Lie-trotter product formulas for nonlinear filtering

The nonlinear filtering problem for a diffusion process whose drift and diffusion coefficients depend parametrically on a finite-state jump process involves the solution of a vector system of linear, stochastic partial differential equations. A Lie-Trotter product formula is proven to hold for this system and a recursive implementation is discussed.     

Cup product structure for symplectic K2

For a field F with trivial involution we have the Karoubi L-groups ±1^Ln(F). For 0≤n≤2 these groups are intimately related to subgroups of the classical Witt ring of quadratic forms. -1^L ₂(F) also has a presentation by symbols due to Matsumoto. In terms of this data we make explicit calculations for two cup product maps that appear in the L-theory of fields.     

Finite-Difference Time-Domain Analysis of the Interaction of Gaussian Evanescent Light with a Single Dielectric Sphere or Ordered Dielectric Spheres

The interaction of gaussian evanescent light with a single dielectric sphere or ordered dielectric spheres in an attenuated total reflection (ATR) geometry was analyzed by the finite-difference time-domain method. Various aspects of this interaction were investigated in terms of spatial visualizations of light intensity, reflectance vs. wavelength characteristics, the transient behavior of reflectances, and so forth. In the case of a single sphere, it was evident that the whispering gallery mode can be excited in ATR geometries, but such excitation cannot be easily confirmed only through the observation of wavelength-scanned ATR spectra. In the case of a closely packed two-dimensional array of dielectric spheres, it was found that an easy axis and also a difficult axis for light propagation exist.This paper was originally presented at the 5th International Conference on NEAR FIELD OPTICS and RELATED TECHNOLOGIES (NFO-5), which was held on December 6–10, 1998 at Coganoi Bay Hotel, Shirahama, Japan, in cooperation with the Japan Society of Applied Phisics and Mombusho Grantin Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas “Near-field Nano-optics” Project, sponsored by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.     

Analysis of industry equilibria in models with sustaining and disruptive technology

This paper analyzes a special type of technology evolution, referred to in the literature as disruptive technology vs. sustaining technology. In general, “old” products based on sustaining technology are perceived to be superior to the “new” ones based on disruptive technology. However, the latter have distinctive features that allow them to attract an exclusive set of customers. Examples include notebooks vs. netbooks, hard-disk drives vs. solid-state drives, laser printers vs. inkjet printers, etc. We consider a model with an established firm and an entrant firm that have heterogeneous product-offering capabilities: the established firm can offer either or both types of products, while the entrant firm can only offer new products. Firms make capacity, pricing, and quantity decisions that maximize their ex-ante profit. Within this framework, we analyze deterministic games with perfect information and stochastic games with uncertain valuation of the disruptive technology. Equilibrium decisions are discussed under various market conditions, as well as under dedicated vs. flexible capacity assumptions.     

Discrete Gradient Method: Derivative-Free Method for Nonsmooth Optimization

A new derivative-free method is developed for solving unconstrained nonsmooth optimization problems. This method is based on the notion of a discrete gradient. It is demonstrated that the discrete gradients can be used to approximate subgradients of a broad class of nonsmooth functions. It is also shown that the discrete gradients can be applied to find descent directions of nonsmooth functions. The preliminary results of numerical experiments with unconstrained nonsmooth optimization problems as well as the comparison of the proposed method with the nonsmooth optimization solver DNLP from CONOPT-GAMS and the derivative-free optimization solver CONDOR are presented.     

The dynamics of asset lifetime under technological change

The variable lifetime of assets is analyzed in a serial replacement problem. Technological change impacts the maintenance cost and new asset cost. The optimal asset lifetime appears to be constant only when both costs decrease with the same rate. We identify cases when the technological change decreases or increases the optimal lifetime.