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Ferre, Jose L. "Construction management : a viable solution to traditional project delivery problems." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/22378.
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Engevall, Stefan. "Cost allocation in some routing problems : a game theoretic approach /." Linköping : Univ, 2002. http://www.bibl.liu.se/liupubl/disp/disp2002/tek754s.pdf.
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Zaharieva, Elissaveta. "Supply chain management and international marketing problems in transitional economies : evidence from the Bulgarian wine industry." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.273515.
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Dlakwa, Mohammed Musa. "Analysis of some problems in the management and cost control of public sector construction projects in Nigeria." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2144.
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Development is a difficult, painful and long-term enterprise. Not only because of world wide social and economic changes with extensive debts problems, inflation, recession and slow growth, but it is also a matter of finding the technically and economically optimum solution. Over the long-term, the challenge for developing countries is to use their limited resources more efficiently and more equitably through the management of all investment outlays in both the public and private sector. Construction is a major investment sector in Nigeria, attracting an average of over 60% of all capital investment, with over 70% of that 60% sponsored by the public sector. Construction projects handled by the public sector in developing countries are however fraught with problems, from inception through to completion and beyond. This is well known to members of the public sector agencies. Year after year, in good times and bad, development projects suffer from a host of problems: some of design; others of appraisal; and still others of implementation. Most construction projects are characterised by overruns in cost and time, and are sometimes halted altogether before completion. It is therefore necessary to understand the problems underlying the system being practised, to establish a realistic pattern, and to be able to interpret and correct any abnormalities. A lack of understanding of the constraints leads to unrealistic planning, and to later problems that may become insoluble. This research was therefore aimed at identifying these problems, many of which arise from attempts to implement a technology, in this case management technology, in a country other than the country of its origin. In a comparative study between Nigeria and Scotland a large number of public agencies which sponsor construction projects, and the contracting and consulting organisations that work for these agencies, were surveyed using both face-to-face interviews and the postal questionnaire technique. It was found that the major problems in Nigeria are: bureaucratic obstacles affecting timely payment to contractors; ambiguity in consultant/client contract agreements; lack of sufficient qualified professionals in the agencies; and lack of suitable information on which to base initial estimates. Recommendations for improving practice in Nigeria include: administrative reform of construction agencies to reduce the trammels of bureaucracy; a better system of funding by central Government; establishment of a construction cost information agency; and payment of competitive salaries to public sector professional staff. These changes, taking into account the cultural environment of Nigeria, should enable decisions to be made with greater certainty of outcome by all parties involved.
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Bettemir, Onder Halis. "Optimization Of Time-cost-resource Trade-off Problems In Project Scheduling Using Meta-heuristic Algorithms." Phd thesis, METU, 2009. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12611971/index.pdf.
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In this thesis, meta-heuristic algorithms are developed to obtain optimum or near optimum solutions for the time-cost-resource trade-off and resource leveling problems in project scheduling. Time cost trade-off, resource leveling, single-mode resource constrained project scheduling, multi-mode resource constrained project scheduling and resource constrained time cost trade-off problems are analyzed.
Genetic algorithm simulated annealing, quantum simulated annealing, memetic algorithm, variable neighborhood search, particle swarm optimization, ant colony optimization and electromagnetic scatter search meta-heuristic algorithms are implemented for time cost trade-off problems with unlimited resources. In this thesis, three new meta-heuristic algorithms are developed by embedding meta-heuristic algorithms in each other. Hybrid genetic algorithm with simulated annealing presents the best results for time cost trade-off.
Resource leveling problem is analyzed by five genetic algorithm based meta-heuristic algorithms. Apart from simple genetic algorithm, four meta-heuristic algorithms obtained same schedules obtained in the literature. In addition to this, in one of the test problems the solution is improved by the four meta-heuristic algorithms.
For the resource constrained scheduling problemsgenetic algorithm, genetic algorithm with simulated annealing, hybrid genetic algorithm with simulated annealing and particle swarm optimization meta-heuristic algorithms are implemented. The algorithms are tested by using the project sets of Kolisch and Sprecher (1996). Genetic algorithm with simulated annealing and hybrid genetic algorithm simulated annealing algorithm obtained very successful results when compared with the previous state of the art algorithms. 120-activity multi-mode problem set is produced by using the single mode problem set of Kolisch and Sprecher (1996) for the analysis of resource constrained time cost trade-off problem. Genetic algorithm with simulated annealing presented the least total project cost.
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Pfister, Christina Cara. "Problems of beginning teachers at the secondary level." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/login?COPT=REJTPTU0NWQmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=3739.
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Ozen, Aykut. "Material Flow Cost Versus Congestion In Dynamic Distributed Facility Layout Problem." Master's thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609602/index.pdf.
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In this thesis, we study both dynamic and distributed facility layout problems, where the demand for product mix changes over time. We propose a new simulated annealing algorithm, SALAB, for the dynamic facility layout problem. Four variants of SALAB find the best known solution for 20 of the 48 benchmark problems from the literature, improving upon the best known solutions of 18 problems. We modify SALAB to obtain DSALAB, solving the dynamic distributed facility layout problem with the objective of minimizing relocation cost and total (full and empty) travel cost of the material handling system. We simulate DSALAB solutions of randomly generated problems to study the tradeoff between total cost and congestion in the system. Our experimental results indicate that distributing the department duplicates throughout the facility reduces the total cost with diminishing returns and causes increasing congestion. Therefore, distribution beyond a certain level is not justified.
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El-Meshaialy, Faisal. "Managerial and manpower problems : labour turnover, costs and causes in manufacturing industries; the case of Kuwait." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.314779.
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Degirmenci, Guvenc. "The Budget Constrained Discrete Time/cost Trade-off Problem In Project Networks." Master's thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609737/index.pdf.
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The time/cost trade-off models in project management aim to compress the project completion time by accelerating the activity durations at an expense of additional resources.
The budget problem in discrete time/cost trade-off scheduling selects the time/cost mode -among the discrete set of specified modes- for each activity so as to minimize the project completion time without exceeding the available budget. There may be alternative modes that solve the budget problem optimally, however each solution may have a different total cost value.
In this study we aim to find the minimum cost solution among the optimal solutions of the budget problem. We analyze the structure of the problem together with its linear programming relaxation and derive some mechanisms for reducing the problem size. We solve the reduced problem by linear programming relaxation and branch and bound based approximation and optimization algorithms. We find that our branch and bound algorithm finds optimal solutions for medium-sized problem instances in reasonable times and the approximation algorithms produce high quality solutions. We also discuss the way our algorithms could be used to construct the time/cost trade-off curve.
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Croxton, Keely L. "Modeling and solving network flow problems with piecewise linear costs, with applications in supply chain management." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/9786.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-132).
by Keely L. Croxton.
Ph.D.
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Le, Roux Frieda Elizabeth. "The provision of low-cost housing in South Africa : a wicked problem with a systems theory solution." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/17474.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2011.One of the serious problems facing South Africa is that of the provision of adequate low-cost housing for its people. According to Statistics South Africa (2009), 56% of South Africans lived in fully-owned formal dwellings in 2009. Not only does it seem impossible to work away the backlogs, but problems with the standard of construction, location and continuing urbanisation adds to the challenge. International commitments such as the UN’s Millennium Goals put further pressure on government to permanently resolve the issue. Adequate housing is recognised globally as a basic human right. This includes access to running water and sanitation and a safe environment. This study does not aim to investigate, in any way, construction techniques, specific choices of location or other planning-related issues. However, it does try to find a more successful approach to the challenge of the provision of housing given the already stated challenges, combined with, amongst others, the provision of the necessary financing and relevant political processes. The provision of low-cost housing is a wicked problem. This means that it has certain characteristics, including being unique in character and can never be fully resolved. However, within futures studies, systems theory is recognised as one of the more successful ways to address wicked problems. By investigating low-cost housing programmes in Brazil, Argentina and Peru and identifying the elements of systems theory used, it was possible to find pointers to help formulate a set of steps (or actions) to use to address South Africa’s low-cost housing challenge. This research report proposes that, while the challenge of housing provision in a country like South Africa will most probably always be present, it can be alleviated by applying systems thinking to the problem.
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Costa, Salas Yasel José Verfasser], Michael [Akademischer Betreuer] Schenk, and Machado Norge [Akademischer Betreuer] [Coello. "Algorithmic assistance to the optimization process in vehicle routing problems / Yasel José Costa Salas. Betreuer: Michael Schenk ; Norge Isaías Coello Machado." Magdeburg : Universitätsbibliothek, 2013. http://d-nb.info/1054135908/34.
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Costa, Salas Yasel José [Verfasser], Michael Akademischer Betreuer] Schenk, and Machado Norge [Akademischer Betreuer] [Coello. "Algorithmic assistance to the optimization process in vehicle routing problems / Yasel José Costa Salas. Betreuer: Michael Schenk ; Norge Isaías Coello Machado." Magdeburg : Universitätsbibliothek, 2013. http://d-nb.info/1054135908/34.
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Khaki, Boukani Farzad. "Overcoming logistical problems in organizations : The case of Elicom AB." Thesis, University of Skövde, University of Skövde, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-476.
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This paper presents an empirical case study of the company Elicom AB. Elicom AB is producing electrical devices that are mostly used in the telecom market where the main customers are. The data that was collected from this case was collected through observations, interviews and the study of company documents. This allowed the author to compare secondary and primary data, as well as quantitative and qualitative information. The problem, the company is facing in the logistical field, was discovered in the labeling production process.
The production of the labels is unnecessarily complicated and inefficient due to incompatibility of the computer systems. Therefore some parts of the label design have to be made manually, even though the company has a scanning system. When analyzing the problem in detail it became clear to the author that it could be fixed easily and fast and that the key individuals involved in the process already knew the answer to the problem. Therefore the question of the underlying cause of the problem arose. Why has the company not yet fixed the problem if it is so obvious and also everybody in the organization is aware of it?
When further reanalyzing the problem, the author discovered a second problem, which was not lying in the logistics of the production process, but had its roots in the organizational structure. The problem of interfering authorities and responsibilities made it impossible for the company to overcome the changes needed to solve the logistical problem in the labeling production process. Therefore this problem must be addressed first, together with overcoming the obstacles to change in the organization, to make a problem-solving-process in the logistical area possible.
In general this paper shows the interrelation of logistics with organization and the highly complex environment manufacturing companies are facing when it comes to changes in the production process.
Denna uppsats är en empirisk fallstudie som gjordes på Elicom AB. Elicom AB är en tillverkare av elektrisk apparatur som till mestadels används inom Telecom-marknaden, vilket också är den marknad som de flesta av företagets kunder finns inom. Den data som författaren samlat in är igenom observationer, intervjuer samt analys av olika interna företagsdokument. Detta gjorde att författaren kunde jämföra sekundär-och primär-data samt kvalitativ-och kvantitativ-data. Problemet som företaget hade framför sig var av logistisk karaktär och upptäcktes i etikettproduktionsprocessen.
Produktionen av etiketter är onödigt komplicerad och ineffektiv pga icke kompatibla datasystem. Därför sker visa delar av skapandet av etiketter manuellt, även om företaget har ett scanning system. Efter viss analys blev det dock klart för författaren att problemet var lätt att ordna upp och att huvudpersonerna som var involverade, i etikett hanteringen, visste om att problemet var lätt löst men gjorde inget åt situationen. Detta ledde till att författaren fråga sig vad den underliggande orsaken, till detta problem, kunde vara. Varför har inte företaget gjort något åt problemet om det har varit uppenbart för dem att problemet existerar?
När all information sedan om analyserades, upptäckte författaren ett andra problem vilket inte var inom logistikområdet utan hade sina rötter i organisationens struktur. Problemet med överlappande auktoritet, samt ansvarsområden, gör det omöjligt för företaget att lösa deras logistiska problem inom etiketthanteringen. Därför måste detta problem ses över först, samtidigt som inställningen till förändring måste ändras för att göra det möjligt att skapa en ”problem-lösnings-process” i den logistiska delen.
Generellt visar denna fallstudie på relationen mellan logistik- och organisation och på den mycket komplicerade miljön som tillverkande företag ställs inför vid en förändring av sina processer.
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Aminbakhsh, Saman. "Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm For Obtaining Pareto Front Of Discrete Time-cost Trade-off Problem." Master's thesis, METU, 2013. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615398/index.pdf.
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In pursuance of decreasing costs, both the client and the contractor would strive to speed up the construction project. However, accelerating the project schedule will impose additional cost and might be profitable up to a certain limit. Paramount for construction management, analyses of this trade-off between duration and cost is hailed as the time-cost trade-off (TCT) optimization. Inadequacies of existing commercial software packages for such analyses tied with eminence of discretization, motivated development of different paradigms of particle swarm optimizers (PSO) for three extensions of discrete TCT problems (DTCTPs). A sole-PSO algorithm for concomitant minimization of time and cost is proposed which involves minimal adjustments to shift focus to the completion deadline problem. A hybrid model is also developed to unravel the time-cost curve extension of DCTCPs. Engaging novel principles for evaluation of cost-slopes, and pbest/gbest positions, the hybrid SAM-PSO model combines complementary strengths of overhauled versions of the Siemens Approximation Method (SAM) and the PSO algorithm. Effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithms are validated employing instances derived from the literature.
Throughout computational experiments, mixed integer programming technique is implemented to introduce the optimal non-dominated fronts of two specific benchmark problems for the very first time in the literature. Another chief contribution of this thesis can be depicted as potency of SAM-PSO model in locating the entire Pareto fronts of the practiced instances, within acceptable time-frames with reasonable deviations from the optima. Possible further improvements and applications of SAM-PSO model are suggested in the conclusion.
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Du, Toit C. E. (Catherina Elizabeth). "Agentskapsteorie." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52080.
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Study project (MAcc)--Stellenbosch University, 2001.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The most basic principle of agency theory is that an individual will always serve his own interest best. According to Eisenhardt (1989) agency theory describes individuals as rational, risk averse en motivated by egotism. Agency theory also deals with the conflict that exists between different parties in an organization due to people's egoism. This self-interest can lead to goal incongruence if a person is placed in an environment where he has to serve somebody else's interest. Ownership and management vested in the same party until about 130 years ago. These roles were however separated with the development of the modem organization. The principal or owner is now represented by the shareholder and management serves as the agent. The principal thus appoints the agent to serve and manage his interest in the organization optimally. The principal's goal is the maximising of his shareholders' wealth. The agent's goal to carry out his task with the minimum effort and or to obtain maximum benefit for himself. It is thus clear that the goals of the principal and agent might often differ and this will give rise to goal Incongruence. This goal incongruence may give rise to some managerial actions which will be detrimental to optimal value of the company. The agency conflict, which is caused by man's self interest, manifests in the modem organization in a number of ways. These are referred to agency problems in this assignment. Agency problems are found both on a micro- and macroeconomical level. Agency cost is the sum of the difference between the real and optimal value of the company, the monitoring costs of the principal and the bonding costs of the agent. This cost is to the disadvantage of the principal and might even be to the disadvantage of the agent. It is thus essential that agency conflict and agency costs are reduced to a minimum. A number of measures are taken to address the agency problems and to reduce their negative effect on the organization. None of these measures will be efficient enough ifused in isolation. An optimal combination of solutions will depend on the company's specific circumstances. An empirical study was conducted to determine to what extent the agency problems manifest during the demutualisation of a big insurance business. The measures taken to address these problems were also investigated as well as the extent to which these were successful.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die basiese aanname van agentskapsteorie is dat die individu sy selfbelang altyd eerste sal stel. Volgens Eisenhardt (1989) beskryf agentskapsteorie individue as rasioneel, risikoongeneigd en gemotiveer deur selfbelang. Agentskapsteorie handel verder oor die konflik wat tussen die verskillende belanghebbende partye binne 'n organisasie as gevolg van persone se selfbelang ontstaan. Hierdie selfbelang van die mens kan lei tot doelwitinkongruensie, indien die persoon in 'n omgewing geplaas word waar daar van hom verwag word om 'n ander se belange te dien. Eienaarskap en bestuur was tot ongeveer 130 jaar gelede gevestig in dieselfde party. Met die totstandkoming van die moderne onderneming, is hierdie rolle egter geskei. Die prinsipaal of eienaar word nou verteenwoordig deur die aandeelhouer en die bestuur dien as die agent. Die prinsipaal stel dus die agent aan om na sy belang in die onderneming om te sien en dit optimaal te bestuur. Die prinsipaal se doel is die maksimering van sy aandeelhouerswelvaart. Die agent poog om sy taak met minimale inspanning te voltooi en of uitsonderlike voordeel vir homself te behaal. Dit is duidelik dat die prinsipaal en agent se doelwitte meermale sal verskil en doelwitinkongruensie ontstaan dus. Hierdie doelwitinkongruensie word vergestalt in sekere aksies wat bestuur soms neem en wat daartoe lei dat die optimale waarde van die firma nie bereik word nie. Die agentskapskonflik wat as gevolg van die partye se selfbelang ontstaan manifesteer in die moderne onderneming op 'n verskeidenheid van wyses, wat in hierdie werkstuk as agenskapsprobleme gedefinieer word. Agentskapsprobleme kom op 'n mikro- sowel as op 'n makro-ekonomiese vlak voor. Die verskil tussen die werklike en optimale waarde van die organisasie, plus die prinsipaal se moniteringskoste en die agent se gebondenheidskoste, verteenwoordig agentskapskoste. Hierdie koste strek tot die nadeel van die eienaars en meermale ook tot die nadeel van die bestuur. Dit is dus noodsaaklik dat agentskapskonflik en die gepaardgaande agentskapskoste tot 'n minimum beperk word. Daar word van 'n verskeidenheid van maatreëls gebruik gemaak ten einde die agenskapsprobleme aan te spreek en hul negatiewe impak op die onderneming te versag. Nie een van hierdie oplossings kan in isolasie gebruik gemaak word nie en afhangend van die onderneming se spesifieke omstandighede, sal daar hoogstens 'n optimale kombinasie van oplossings ontwikkel kan word. Daar is vervolgens in hierdie werkstuk 'n empiriese ondersoek uitgevoer ten einde te bepaal in hoe 'n mate die agenskapsprobleme tydens die demutualisering van 'n groot versekeringsonderneming manifesteer. Die neem van regstellende stappe om hierdie probleem aan te spreek is ondersoek, sowel as die mate waartoe hierdie maatreëls suksesvol was al dan nie.
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Hammoudan, Zakaria. "Production and delivery integrated scheduling problems in multi-transporter multi-custumer supply chain with costs considerations." Thesis, Belfort-Montbéliard, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015BELF0267/document.
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La coordination des activités dans une chaîne logistique a suscité récemment beaucoup d'attention dans larecherche de gestion. Dans une chaîne logistique typique, des produits finis sont produits et transportés pour êtrestockage temporairement ou arriver directement chez clients. Pour réaliser la représentation opérationnelleoptimale, la coordination et l'intégration de la production, de la livraison, et du stockage devient très importante.L'étude récente a considéré le coût de stockage de client avec le coût fixe de transport ou la taille fixe des lots, cequi est irréaliste.Dans cette thèse, nous étudions la coordination de traitement des produits en lots et l'ordonnancement des lots, quiinclut la coordination du traitement en lots des produits dans les groupes après l'étape de production,l'ordonnancement des lots après les productions exigent la livraison du fournisseur ainsi que le stockage desproduits aux clients. Ce travail focalise sur les cas du simple-fournisseur/plusieurs-clients et le cas de simplefournisseur/plusieurs-transporteurs. Pour le premier scénario avec plusieurs-clients, deux modèles illustrent letransfert des lots aux clients. Dans le premier modèle, nous avons considéré un simple-fournisseur/plusieurs-clientsavec un transporteur disponible pour servir les clients sans considération du problème de tournée de véhicule. Puis,dans le deuxième modèle, nous avons considéré un simple-fournisseur/plusieurs-clients avec plusieurs transportersdisponibles pour servir les clients. Différentes hypothèses sont proposées et comparées dans le dernier chapitre.Pour ce qui concerne le deuxième scénario, nous avons étudié le cas du simple-fournisseur avec plusieurstransporteurs disponibles pour servir un seul client. Dans ce scénario, des modèles avec les véhicules homogèneset hétérogènes sont étudiés. Tout le coût du système est calculé en additionnant de tout le coût de la livraison et destockage pour les différents clients et transporteurs qui se sont dans le système à étudier. Le nombre des produitsdans les lots peut être inégal et les lots sont limités seulement par la capacité du transporteur utilisé. Le coût destockage chez les clients dépend de chaque client, la distance entre le fournisseur et leurs clients dépend del'emplacement de client, qui est le cas du coût de livraison également qui dépend de l'emplacement du client. Dansle cas des multi transporteurs, le coût de livraison dépend du transporteur utilisé.Dans chaque modèle, nous présentons ce qui suit : procédures de solution pour résoudre chaque modèle, plusieursexemples numériques pour soutenir des résultats mathématiques et pour clarifier le problème, et comparaisons desperformances parmi différents résultats. La future extension de cette recherche peut considérer des contraintes detemps et de coût de chargement dans l'étape de production, la considération du tourné de véhicule avec un cout destockage chez les clientsThe coordination of logistics activities in a supply chain has recently received a lot of attention in operationsmanagement research. In a typical supply chain, finished products are produced and either shipped to be temporarystorage or arrived directly on time to the customers. To achieve optimal operational performance, the coordinationand integration of production, delivery, and storage is an important consideration. The recent study consideredcustomer storage cost with fixed transportation cost or fixed batch size, which is unrealistic. In this thesis, we studythe coordinate of batching and scheduling activities, which includes the coordination of batching of products inbatches after the production stage, the coordination of scheduling, customer(s) orders which require the deliveryfrom the supplier, and the storage of products at the customer(s). This study focus on single-supplier/multi-customerscenario and single-supplier/multi-transporter scenario. For the first scenario with multi-customer, two modelsillustrate the transferring of batches to the customer. Where in the first model, we considered a singlesupplier/ multicustomerwith one capacitated transporter available to serve the customers without the vehicle routingconsideration. Then, in the second model, we considered a single-supplier/multi-customer with multi-transportavailable to serve the customers. In this case different assumption is proposed and compared in the last chapter.Concerning the second scenario, we studied the case of single-supplier with multi-transporter available to serve asingle customer. In this scenario, models with homogeneous and heterogeneous vehicles are studied. The totalsystem cost is calculated by summing the total delivery and storage cost for different customers and transporters inthe system. The number of products by batch is unequal and they are limited only by the capacity of the transporterused. The storage cost of the customers depends on the customer destination, the distance between the supplierand their customers depends on the customer location, which is the case of the delivery cost also which depends onthe customer¿s location. In the case of the multi-transporters, the delivery cost depends on the transporter used.In each model, we present the following: solution procedures to solve each model, many numerical examples tosupport mathematical findings and to clarify the problem under study, and performance comparisons amongdifferent findings. The future extension of this research may involve considering setup time and cost constraints inthe production stage, the vehicle routing consideration with inventory in the multi-customer case
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Ozlen, Melih. "A Bicriteria Rescheduling Problem On Unrelated Parallel Machines: Network Flow And Enumeration Based Approaches." Phd thesis, METU, 2006. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12607822/index.pdf.
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This study considers bicriteria approaches to the minimum cost network flow problem and a rescheduling problem where those approaches find their applications.
For the bicriteria integer minimum cost network flow problem, we generate all efficient solutions in two phases. The first phase generates the extreme supported efficient points that are the extreme points of the objective space of the continuous bicriteria network flow problem. In the second phase, we generate the nonextreme supported and unsupported efficient points by Integer Programming Based approaches.
Our rescheduling problem considers parallel unrelated machine environments. The criteria are the total flow time as an efficiency measure and the total reassignment cost as a stability measure. We show that the problems that address linear functions of the two criteria can be represented by bicriteria network flow models. To generate all efficient solutions, we use a Classical Approach that is based on the optimal solutions of the singly constrained network flow problem and provide a Branch and Bound approach that starts with extreme supported efficient set and uses powerful bounds. To find an optimal solution to any nonlinear function of the two criteria, we provide a Branch and Bound approach and an Integer Programming Based approach that eliminates some portions of the efficient set that cannot provide improved solutions.
We contribute both to the network flow and scheduling literature by proposing algorithms to the bicriteria network flow models and applying them to a rescheduling problem that is bicriteria in nature.
The results of our extensive computations with up to 100 jobs and 12 machines have revealed that, the Branch and Bound algorithm finds the efficient set in less computational effort compared to the classical approach. In minimizing a nonlinear function of the two criteria both IP Based approach and Branch and Bound algorithm perform quite satisfactory.
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Khan, Mohd Rifat. "Designing Cost Effective and Flexible Vinyl Windows Supply Chain: Assembly Line Design Using CM/SERU Concepts and Simultaneous Selection of Facilities and Suppliers." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1501863274303785.
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何民權 and Man-kuen Alexander Ho. "Budget control: communication problems." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1994. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31266046.
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Ho, Man-kuen Alexander. "Budget control : communication problems /." [Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong], 1994. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B13787925.
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Husain, Shakir, and Emre Yilmaz. "The Transfer Pricing Problem in a Service Firm : A Case Study on a Swedish Multinational Enterprise." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-260559.
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The purpose of this study is to answer the research question of how a service company (ServiceCo) could achieve a transfer price of its services. This is of particular interest, due to the growth of service firms that have rapidly increased and surpassed the manufacturing firms, as well as the dominant logic shifting towards services. However, the problem with this field of study is that transfer pricing with regards to the service industry, is a rather unexplored phenomenon in which the guidelines and theories are mostly directed towards manufacturing firms. This study uses a single case study approach where ServiceCo’s organizational characteristics were analyzed in order to attain the information required to understand how ServiceCo could achieve a transfer price of its services. Furthermore, this study uses the Eccles (1983) MAP and the OECD Guidelines, as well as incorporating Porter’s (1985) value chain. This study assesses that ServiceCo, in its current state, uses a sub-optimal transfer pricing method of its services. Therefore, a change in the transfer pricing method was suggested to ServiceCo. Given the organizational characteristics of ServiceCo, the results led to the conclusion that ServiceCo could benefit from a residual analysis in the profit split method, in which an actual full cost plus mark-up compensation could be used on its routine functions, and the residual profit could be split between the entities based on the intangible assets employed, functions performed and the risks carried.
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Fang, Shunlan. "Real Cost Management." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2013. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/216540.
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Business Administration/InterdisciplinaryPh.D.
This dissertation examines how managers make cost decisions under significant economic events. The economic events of interests are the economic crisis from 2008 to 2010 and corporate loan financing. The economic crisis caused many firms to experience sales declines and created tremendous pessimism about prospects of sales rebounding in the future. I find that not all firms were affected equally. Sales-down firms exhibit anti-sticky cost behavior during this period; that is, costs are cut back more steeply as sales fall than they increase as sales rise. Such a behavior during the economic crisis is exactly the opposite of the average sticky cost behavior during normal economic periods documented in prior accounting research. This, in turn, implies that net income and cash flows from operations (as percentage of sales) may increase, rather than decrease for sales-down firms during an economic downturn. In the second study, I use a difference-in-difference research design to examine whether and how managers engage in cost management before and after loan financing. I find that managers significantly cut back operating expenses prior to loan financing. However, cost reduction is asymmetric with respect to the direction of sales changes. Compared with firms experiencing sales increases, firms experiencing sales declines reduce costs to a greater extent prior to financing and also exhibit a reversion in the cost level after financing. The reversion in cost level is negatively related to the percentage of financial covenants that are based on earnings. I do not find consistent evidence supporting that managers engage in accrual management, overproduction or asset sales.
Temple University--Theses
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Lunday, Brian Joseph. "Resource Allocation on Networks: Nested Event Tree Optimization, Network Interdiction, and Game Theoretic Methods." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/77323.
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This dissertation addresses five fundamental resource allocation problems on networks, all of which have applications to support Homeland Security or industry challenges. In the first application, we model and solve the strategic problem of minimizing the expected loss inflicted by a hostile terrorist organization. An appropriate allocation of certain capability-related, intent-related, vulnerability-related, and consequence-related resources is used to reduce the probabilities of success in the respective attack-related actions, and to ameliorate losses in case of a successful attack. Given the disparate nature of prioritizing capital and material investments by federal, state, local, and private agencies to combat terrorism, our model and accompanying solution procedure represent an innovative, comprehensive, and quantitative approach to coordinate resource allocations from various agencies across the breadth of domains that deal with preventing attacks and mitigating their consequences. Adopting a nested event tree optimization framework, we present a novel formulation for the problem as a specially structured nonconvex factorable program, and develop two branch-and-bound schemes based respectively on utilizing a convex nonlinear relaxation and a linear outer-approximation, both of which are proven to converge to a global optimal solution. We also investigate a fundamental special-case variant for each of these schemes, and design an alternative direct mixed-integer programming model representation for this scenario. Several range reduction, partitioning, and branching strategies are proposed, and extensive computational results are presented to study the efficacy of different compositions of these algorithmic ingredients, including comparisons with the commercial software BARON. The developed set of algorithmic implementation strategies and enhancements are shown to outperform BARON over a set of simulated test instances, where the best proposed methodology produces an average optimality gap of 0.35% (compared to 4.29% for BARON) and reduces the required computational effort by a factor of 33. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to explore the effect of certain key model parameters, whereupon we demonstrate that the prescribed algorithm can attain significantly tighter optimality gaps with only a near-linear corresponding increase in computational effort. In addition to enabling effective comprehensive resource allocations, this research permits coordinating agencies to conduct quantitative what-if studies on the impact of alternative resourcing priorities.
The second application is motivated by the author's experience with the U.S. Army during a tour in Iraq, during which combined operations involving U.S. Army, Iraqi Army, and Iraqi Police forces sought to interdict the transport of selected materials used for the manufacture of specialized types of Improvised Explosive Devices, as well as to interdict the distribution of assembled devices to operatives in the field. In this application, we model and solve the problem of minimizing the maximum flow through a network from a given source node to a terminus node, integrating different forms of superadditive synergy with respect to the effect of resources applied to the arcs in the network. Herein, the superadditive synergy reflects the additional effectiveness of forces conducting combined operations, vis-Ã -vis unilateral efforts. We examine linear, concave, and general nonconcave superadditive synergistic relationships between resources, and accordingly develop and test effective solution procedures for the underlying nonlinear programs. For the linear case, we formulate an alternative model representation via Fourier-Motzkin elimination that reduces average computational effort by over 40% on a set of randomly generated test instances. This test is followed by extensive analyses of instance parameters to determine their effect on the levels of synergy attained using different specified metrics. For the case of concave synergy relationships, which yields a convex program, we design an inner-linearization procedure that attains solutions on average within 3% of optimality with a reduction in computational effort by a factor of 18 in comparison with the commercial codes SBB and BARON for small- and medium-sized problems; and outperforms these softwares on large-sized problems, where both solvers failed to attain an optimal solution (and often failed to detect a feasible solution) within 1800 CPU seconds. Examining a general nonlinear synergy relationship, we develop solution methods based on outer-linearizations, inner-linearizations, and mixed-integer approximations, and compare these against the commercial software BARON. Considering increased granularities for the outer-linearization and mixed-integer approximations, as well as different implementation variants for both these approaches, we conduct extensive computational experiments to reveal that, whereas both these techniques perform comparably with respect to BARON on small-sized problems, they significantly improve upon the performance for medium- and large-sized problems. Our superlative procedure reduces the computational effort by a factor of 461 for the subset of test problems for which the commercial global optimization software BARON could identify a feasible solution, while also achieving solutions of objective value 0.20% better than BARON.
The third application is likewise motivated by the author's military experience in Iraq, both from several instances involving coalition forces attempting to interdict the transport of a kidnapping victim by a sectarian militia as well as, from the opposite perspective, instances involving coalition forces transporting detainees between interment facilities. For this application, we examine the network interdiction problem of minimizing the maximum probability of evasion by an entity traversing a network from a given source to a designated terminus, while incorporating novel forms of superadditive synergy between resources applied to arcs in the network. Our formulations examine either linear or concave (nonlinear) synergy relationships. Conformant with military strategies that frequently involve a combination of overt and covert operations to achieve an operational objective, we also propose an alternative model for sequential overt and covert deployment of subsets of interdiction resources, and conduct theoretical as well as empirical comparative analyses between models for purely overt (with or without synergy) and composite overt-covert strategies to provide insights into absolute and relative threshold criteria for recommended resource utilization.
In contrast to existing static models, in a fourth application, we present a novel dynamic network interdiction model that improves realism by accounting for interactions between an interdictor deploying resources on arcs in a digraph and an evader traversing the network from a designated source to a known terminus, wherein the agents may modify strategies in selected subsequent periods according to respective decision and implementation cycles. We further enhance the realism of our model by considering a multi-component objective function, wherein the interdictor seeks to minimize the maximum value of a regret function that consists of the evader's net flow from the source to the terminus; the interdictor's procurement, deployment, and redeployment costs; and penalties incurred by the evader for misperceptions as to the interdicted state of the network. For the resulting minimax model, we use duality to develop a reformulation that facilitates a direct solution procedure using the commercial software BARON, and examine certain related stability and convergence issues. We demonstrate cases for convergence to a stable equilibrium of strategies for problem structures having a unique solution to minimize the maximum evader flow, as well as convergence to a region of bounded oscillation for structures yielding alternative interdictor strategies that minimize the maximum evader flow. We also provide insights into the computational performance of BARON for these two problem structures, yielding useful guidelines for other research involving similar non-convex optimization problems.
For the fifth application, we examine the problem of apportioning railcars to car manufacturers and railroads participating in a pooling agreement for shipping automobiles, given a dynamically determined total fleet size. This study is motivated by the existence of such a consortium of automobile manufacturers and railroads, for which the collaborative fleet sizing and efforts to equitably allocate railcars amongst the participants are currently orchestrated by the \textit{TTX Company} in Chicago, Illinois. In our study, we first demonstrate potential inequities in the industry standard resulting either from failing to address disconnected transportation network components separately, or from utilizing the current manufacturer allocation technique that is based on average nodal empty transit time estimates. We next propose and illustrate four alternative schemes to apportion railcars to manufacturers, respectively based on total transit time that accounts for queuing; two marginal cost-induced methods; and a Shapley value approach. We also provide a game-theoretic insight into the existing procedure for apportioning railcars to railroads, and develop an alternative railroad allocation scheme based on capital plus operating costs. Extensive computational results are presented for the ten combinations of current and proposed allocation techniques for automobile manufacturers and railroads, using realistic instances derived from representative data of the current business environment. We conclude with recommendations for adopting an appropriate apportionment methodology for implementation by the industry.Ph. D.
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Sastry, Trilochan. "Polyhedral structure of the product cycling problem with changeover costs." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/14089.
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Vorster, Francois. "Critical factors for project success in an engineering environment / Francois Vorster." Thesis, North-West University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/2341.
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Not every project deserving of success achieves it. Conversely, not every project heading for the scrap heap arrives. The journey to project success is long and hard and does not happen overnight. To understand the journey to project success we need to understand what makes a project successful. A successful project can be classified as a Project of which the costs did not exceed 25% of the agreed capital approved with a less than 25% schedule slip and with all the operational problems being sorted out in less than a year. Project success potential, can be increased by focusing on the critical factors listed in this study, namely: Project Front End Loading (FEL), high calibre project teams, and people skills/soft skills of project management. The success of a project can be increased when the project has high calibre project teams starting the project with very effective Front End Loading (FEL) and keep project team members continuity based on the fact that the project is managed by a project manager understanding people who have the soft skill to lead and influence the project team, rather than managing the team. The research was conducted by means of a literature and empirical study. The literature study documents the critical factors for project success. Knowledge gained from the literature study formed the basis for the empirical study to test critical factors for project success in practice and the recommendations can be read in chapter four.Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.
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Gamerov, Jonatan, and Patrik Mattsson. "The impact of information in cost accounting - The problems when identifying activity cost drivers." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Örebro Universitet, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-55911.
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Gaillard, de Saint Germain Etienne. "Arbitrer coût et flexibilité dans la Supply Chain." Thesis, Paris Est, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018PESC1113/document.
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Cette thèse développe des méthodes d'optimisation pour la gestion de la Supply Chain et a pour thème central la flexibilité définie comme la capacité à fournir un service ou un produit au consommateur dans un environnement incertain. La recherche a été menée dans le cadre d'un partenariat entre Argon Consulting, une société indépendante de conseil en Supply Chain et l'École des Ponts ParisTech. Dans cette thèse, nous développons trois sujets rencontrés par Argon Consulting et ses clients et qui correspondent à trois différents niveaux de décision (long terme, moyen terme et court terme).Lorsque les entreprises élargissent leur portefeuille de produits, elles doivent décider dans quelles usines produire chaque article. Il s'agit d'une décision à long terme, car une fois qu'elle est prise, elle ne peut être facilement modifiée. Plus qu'un problème d'affectation où un article est produit par une seule usine, ce problème consiste à décider si certains articles doivent être produits par plusieurs usines et par lesquelles. Cette interrogation est motivée par la grande incertitude de la demande. En effet, pour satisfaire la demande, l'affectation doit pouvoir équilibrer la charge de travail entre les usines. Nous appelons ce problème le multi-sourcing de la production. Comme il ne s'agit pas d'un problème récurrent, il est essentiel de tenir compte du risque au moment de décider le niveau de multi-sourcing. Nous proposons un modèle générique qui inclut les contraintes techniques du problème et une contrainte d'aversion au risque basée sur des mesures de risque issues de la théorie financière. Nous développons un algorithme et une heuristique basés sur les outils standards de la Recherche Opérationnelle et de l'Optimisation Stochastique pour résoudre le problème du multi-sourcing et nous testons leur efficacité sur des données réelles.Avant de planifier la production, certains indicateurs macroscopiques doivent être décidés à horizon moyen terme tels la quantité de matières premières à commander ou la taille des lots produits. Certaines entreprises utilisent des modèles de stock en temps continu, mais ces modèles reposent souvent sur un compromis entre les coûts de stock et les coûts de lancement. Ces derniers sont des coûts fixes payés au lancement de la production et sont difficiles à estimer en pratique. En revanche, à horizon moyen terme, la flexibilité des moyens de production est déjà fixée et les entreprises estiment facilement le nombre maximal de lancements. Poussés par cette observation, nous proposons des extensions de certains modèles classiques de stock en temps continu, sans coût de lancement et avec une limite sur le nombre d'installations. Nous avons utilisé les outils standard de l'Optimisation Continue pour calculer les indicateurs macroscopiques optimaux.Enfin, la planification de la production est une décision à court terme qui consiste à décider quels articles doivent être produits par la ligne de production pendant la période en cours. Ce problème appartient à la classe bien étudiée des problèmes de Lot-Sizing. Comme pour les décisions à moyen terme, ces problèmes reposent souvent sur un compromis entre les coûts de stock et les coûts de lancement. Fondant notre modèle sur ces considérations industrielles, nous gardons le même point de vue (aucun coût de lancement et une borne supérieure sur le nombre de lancement) et proposons un nouveau modèle.Bien qu'il s'agisse de décisions à court terme, les décisions de production doivent tenir compte de la demande future, qui demeure incertaine. Nous résolvons notre problème de planification de la production à l'aide d'outils standard de Recherche Opérationnelle et d'Optimisation Stochastique, nous testons l'efficacité sur des données réelles et nous la comparons aux heuristiques utilisées par les clients d'Argon ConsultingThis thesis develops optimization methods for Supply Chain Management and is focused on the flexibility defined as the ability to deliver a service or a product to a costumer in an uncertain environment. The research was conducted throughout a partnership between Argon Consulting, which is an independent consulting firm in Supply Chain Operations and the École des Ponts ParisTech. In this thesis, we explore three topics that are encountered by Argon Consulting and its clients and that correspond to three different levels of decision (long-term, mid-term and short-term).When companies expand their product portfolio, they must decide in which plants to produce each item. This is a long-term decision since once it is decided, it cannot be easily changed. More than a assignment problem where one item is produced by a single plant, this problem consists in deciding if some items should be produced on several plants and by which plants. This is motivated by a highly uncertain demand. So, in order to satisfy the demand, the assignment must be able to balance the workload between plants. We call this problem the multi-sourcing of production. Since it is not a repeated problem, it is essential to take into account the risk when making the multi-sourcing decision. We propose a generic model that includes the technical constraints of the assignment and a risk-averse constraint based on risk measures from financial theory. We develop an algorithm and a heuristic based on standard tools from Operations Research and Stochastic Optimization to solve the multi-sourcing problem and we test their efficiency on real datasets.Before planning the production, some macroscopic indicators must be decided at mid-term level such as the quantity of raw materials to order or the size of produced lots. Continuous-time inventory models are used by some companies but these models often rely on a trade-off between holding costs and setups costs. These latters are fixed costs paid when production is launched and are hard to estimate in practice. On the other hand, at mid-term level, flexibility of the means of production is already fixed and companies easily estimate the maximal number of setups. Motivated by this observation, we propose extensions of some classical continuous-time inventory models with no setup costs and with a bound on the number of setups. We used standard tools from Continuous Optimization to compute the optimal macroscopic indicators.Finally, planning the production is a short-term decision consisting in deciding which items must be produced by the assembly line during the current period. This problem belongs to the well-studied class of Lot-Sizing Problems. As for mid-term decisions, these problems often rely on a trade-off between holding and setup costs. Basing our model on industrial considerations, we keep the same point of view (no setup cost and a bound on the number of setups) and propose a new model. Although these are short-term decisions, production decisions must take future demand into account, which remains uncertain. We solve our production planning problem using standard tools from Operations Research and Stochastic Optimization, test the efficiency on real datasets, and compare it to heuristics used by Argon Consulting's clients
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Celebi, Emre. "MODELS OF EFFICIENT CONSUMER PRICING SCHEMES IN ELECTRICITY MARKETS." Thesis, University of Waterloo, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/811.
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Suppliers in competitive electricity markets regularly respond to prices that change hour by hour or even more frequently, but most consumers respond to price changes on a very different time scale, i. e. they observe and respond to changes in price as reflected on their monthly bills. This thesis examines mixed complementarity programming models of equilibrium that can bridge the speed of response gap between suppliers and consumers, yet adhere to the principle of marginal cost pricing of electricity. It develops a computable equilibrium model to estimate the time-of-use (TOU) prices that can be used in retail electricity markets. An optimization model for the supply side of the electricity market, combined with a price-responsive geometric distributed lagged demand function, computes the TOU prices that satisfy the equilibrium conditions. Monthly load duration curves are approximated and discretized in the context of the supplier's optimization model. The models are formulated and solved by the mixed complementarity problem approach. It is intended that the models will be useful (a) in the regular exercise of setting consumer prices (i. e. , TOU prices that reflect the marginal cost of electricity) by a regulatory body (e. g. , Ontario Energy Board) for jurisdictions (e. g. , Ontario) where consumers' prices are regulated, but suppliers offer into a competitive market, (b) for forecasting in markets without price regulation, but where consumers pay a weighted average of wholesale price, (c) in evaluation of the policies regarding time-of-use pricing compared to the single pricing, and (d) in assessment of the welfare changes due to the implementation of TOU prices.
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Tarpinian, Gary (Gary L. ). 1966. "Cost reduction methodology and management." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80523.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, 1999.by Gary Tarpinian.
S.M.
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MEDEIROS, Robson Wagner Albuquerque de. "Cost management of service composition." Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 2017. https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/123456789/24891.
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Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a software design style based on the notion of Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) that facilitates the interoperability among computer systems of possibly different businesses. Cost is one of the most challenging factors influencing SOA adoption in organisations and a significant factor in SOA project success. Nevertheless, many institutions across the world have adopted SOA to interconnect their computing infrastructures (Business-to-Business) and offer interfaces to their customers (Business-to-Customer). For these companies, SOA can address their needs to access the market more quickly, respond to changes in a business environment, improve business processes, improve customers’ services and even reduce costs. In SOA, service composition has emerged as an important strategy to enable collaboration of applications provided by different companies (Business-to-Business). With the increasing number of Web services having similar functionality but different pricing schemes, choosing the most appropriate set of services with the lowest cost has been a challenge in service compositions. Several techniques to compute and analyse the cost of service compositions already exist. However, there is still no approach to developing cost management systems able to assist in the planning, definition, scheduling, execution, monitoring and adaptation of compositions taking into account all classes of cost behaviour and all type of cost drivers. Thus, the principal objective of this thesis is to present a framework to manage cost throughout the service composition life-cycle in an integrated way taking into account cost properties of services and service compositions. Therefore, we provide a metamodel to specify complex cost behaviours. Also, we propose algorithms to compute service costs and select the best services that meet the cost requirements of the service composition according to the cost behaviour of each service. Moreover, we propose an architecture for developing engines able to manage the cost throughout the service composition life-cycle. Finally, we implemented a prototype based on the proposed architecture and executed experiments that show the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach to managing the cost of service composition.
A Arquitetura Orientada a Serviços (do inglêsSOA) é um estilo de projeto de software baseado na Computação Orientada a Serviço (do inglêsSOC) que facilita a interoperabilidade entre os sistemas de computadores de empresas possivelmente diferentes. Custo é um dos fatores mais desafiadores que influenciam a adoção de SOA nas organizações e um fator significativo no sucesso do projeto SOA. No entanto, muitas organizações em todo o mundo adotaram SOA para interconectar suas infra-estruturas de computação (Business-to-Business) e oferecer interfaces para seus clientes (Business-to-Customer). Para essas empresas, SOA pode atender às suas necessidades de acesso ao mercado mais rapidamente, responder às mudanças em um ambiente de negócio, melhorar os processos de negócios, melhorar os serviços dos clientes e até mesmo reduzir os custos. Em SOA, a composição de serviço emergiu como uma estratégia importante para permitir a colaboração de aplicações fornecidas por diferentes empresas (Business-toBusiness). Com o crescente número de serviços Web com funcionalidades semelhantes, mas com modelos de precificação diferentes, a escolha do conjunto de serviços com o menor custo tem sido um desafio nas composições de serviços. Na literatura existem técnicas para calcular e analisar o custo de composições de serviços. No entanto, ainda não há uma abordagem para desenvolver sistemas de gerenciamento de custos capazes de auxiliar no planejamento, definição, escalonamento, execução, monitoramento e adaptação de composições levando em conta todas as classes de comportamento de custo e os diferentes tipo de fatores de custo adotados pelos provedores de serviços. O objetivo principal desta tese é apresentar um framework para gerenciar composições de serviços ao longo de todas as fases do seu ciclo de vida de uma forma integrada levando em consideração comportamentos complexos de custo de serviços. Sendo assim, fornecemos um metamodelo para especificar comportamentos complexos de custo. Além disso, propomos algoritmos para calcular os custos e selecionar os melhores serviços que atendam aos requisitos de custo da composição de acordo com o modelo de comportamento de custo de cada serviço. Além disso, propomos uma arquitetura para o desenvolvimento de engines de execução capazes de gerenciar o custo ao longo do ciclo de vida da composição. Finalmente, desenvolvemos um protótipo baseado na arquitetura proposta e executamos experimentos que mostram a eficácia e a eficiência de nossa abordagem para gerenciar custo de composições de serviço.
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Skog, Isaac. "Low-Cost Navigation Systems : A Study of Four Problems." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Signalbehandling, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-11736.
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Today the area of high-cost and high-performance navigation for vehicles is a well-developed field. The challenge now is to develop high-performance navigation systems using low-cost sensortechnology. This development involves problems spanning from signal processing of the dirty measurements produced by low-costsensors via fusion and synchronization of information produced by a large set of diverse sensors, to reducing the size and energyconsumption of the systems. This thesis examines and proposessolutions to four of these problems. The first problem examined is the time synchronizing of the sensordata in a global positioning system aided inertial navigationsystem in which no hardware clock synchronization is possible. A poor time synchronization results in an increased mean squareerror of the navigation solution and expressions for calculating this mean square error are presented. A method to solve the timesynchronization issue in the data integration software is proposed. The potential of the method is illustrated with tests onreal-world data that are subjected to timing errors. The second problem examined is the achievable clocksynchronization accuracy in a sensor network employing a two-waymessage exchange model. The Cramer-Rao bound for the estimation of the clock parameters is derived and transformed in to a lower bound on the mean square error of the clock offset.Further, an approximate maximum likelihood estimator for the clockparameters is proposed. The estimator is shown to be of low complexity and to have a mean square error in the vicinity of the Cramer-Rao bound. The third problem examined is the detection of the time epochswhen zero-velocity updates can be applied in a foot-mountedpedestrian navigation system. Four general likelihood ratio testsfor detecting when the navigation system is stationary based onthe inertial measurement data are studied. The performance of thefour detectors is evaluated using levelled ground, forward-gaitdata. The results show that the signals from the gyroscopes holdthe most reliable information for the zero-velocity detection. The fourth problem examined is the calibration of a low-costinertial measurement unit. A calibration procedure that relaxesthe accuracy requirements of the orientation angles the inertialmeasurement unit must be placed in during the calibration isstudied. The proposed calibration method is compared with theCramer-Rao bound for the case when the inertial measurementunit is rotated into precisely controlled orientations. Simulationresults show that the mean square error of the estimated sensormodel parameters reaches the Cramer-Rao bound within fewdecibels. Thus, the proposed method may be acceptable for a widerange of low-cost applications.QC 20100810
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Iyogun, Paul Omolewa. "Lower bounds for production/inventory problems by cost allocation." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27323.
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This thesis presents a cost allocation method for deriving lower bounds on costs of feasible policies for a class of production/inventory problems. Consider the joint replenishment problem where a group of items is replenished together or individually. A sequence of reorders for any particular item will incur holding, backorder and set-up costs specific to the item, in addition whenever any item is replenished a joint cost is incurred. What is required of the total problem is the minimization of a cost function of the replenishment sequence or policy.
The cost allocation method consists of decomposing the total problem into sub-problems, one for each item, by allocating the joint cost amongst the items in such a way that every item in the group receives a positive allocation or none. The result is that, for an arbitrary feasible cost allocation, the sum of the minimum costs for the subproblems is a lower bound on the cost of any feasible policy to the total problem. The results for the joint replenishment problem follows:
For the constant and continuous demand case we reproduce the lower bound of Jackson, Maxwell and Muckstadt more easily than they did. For the multi-item dynamic
lot-size problem, we generalize Silver-Meal and part-period balancing heuristics, and derive a cost allocation bound with little extra work. For the 'can-order' system, we use periodic policies derived from the cost allocation method and show that they are superior to the more complex (s,c,S) policies. The cost allocation method is easily
generalized to pure distribution problems where joint replenishment decisions are taken at several facilities. For example, for the one-warehouse multi-retailer problem, we reproduce Roundy's bound more easily than he did. For the multi-facility joint replenishment problem (a pure distribution system with an arbitrary number of warehouses),
we give a lower bound algorithm whose complexity is dr log r where d is the maximum number of facilities which replenish a particular item and r is the number of items.Business, Sauder School of
Graduate
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Newman, Andrew Henry. "The behavioral effect of cost targets on managerial cost reporting honesty." unrestricted, 2009. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-05062009-121522/.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2009.Title from file title page. Lynn Hannan, committee chair; Galen Sevcik, Kristy Towry, Larry Brown, Tim Mitchell, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Sept. 14, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-82).
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Oduguwa, Patrick Ademola. "Cost impact analysis for requirements management." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2006. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/1616.
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Competition and the associated challenges in the automotive industry are increasing. Products are becoming more complex to satisfy growing needs of the consumers and products need to be cheaper and produced quicker. The automotive industry is responding to these challenges, by developing products within collaborative and extended enterprises across diverse geographical location. New customer requirements imply high frequency changes to the initial design requirements. Current unstructured approaches are not robust to deal with the volume and complexity of the nature of product changes in this environment. The aim of this research is to develop two methodologies, one for requirements extraction methodology (REXTRAM) and the second cost impact analysis methodology (CIAM) within the automotive industry. The research was conducted in a collaborative development environment between automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers and Tier 1 Suppliers. The thesis has proposed two novel methodologies. The first methodology (REXTRAM) extracts relevant data from product design documents and industrial domain experts. REXTRAM generates as output a repository of requirements, design parameters and their constraints. The second methodology (CIAM) identifies two types of changes (constraints changing on requirements and constraints changing on design parameters). CIAM combines matrixes and business (cost and time) driver rules to determine incurred (delta) cost of requirement changes. The matrixes exhibit three types of relationships: requirements to requirements; requirements to design parameters and design parameters to design parameters relationships. Case study approach and independent expert are used to illustrate the application and the capability of both methodologies. In this way this research proposes a tested and validated set of methodologies for the extraction of relevant data and the cost impact analysis of requirement changes and its challenges. The resultant methodologies have widespread application in the context of complex mechanical designs. The research also identifies future research directions in the relevant areas.
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Riek, Christine Leviczky. "The problems with social cost-benefit analysis : economics, ethics and politics." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26112.
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This thesis examines the problems with social cost-benefit analysis in three areas -- economics, ethics and politics -- and suggests how these problems might be addressed in government project review processes. Problems in economics are empirical, methodological or theoretical dilemmas that make a social cost-benefit analysis difficult to prepare and interpret. Problems in ethics stem from the value judgments implicit in a social cost-benefit analysis that may be in conflict with the ethical beliefs of some individuals in society. Problems in politics stem from the various powers of individuals in a political process and challenge the relevancy of analysis.
A literature survey, primarily of welfare economics but also of environmental ethics and political theory, is used to determine the various problems with social cost-benefit analysis, while a case study is used to illustrate how these problems are reflected in practice. Similarly, ideas for improvement are drawn from the literature of environmental impact assessment and these ideas are illustrated by applying them to the case study. The problems are discussed according to the stage of analysis at which they occur: problem definition, specification of objectives, selection of alternatives, prediction of consequences, and evaluation of alternatives. The case study is of the social cost-benefit analysis of B.C. Hydro's proposed Site C hydroelectric development and the associated project review process of the B.C. Utilities Commission Act.
Empirical problems in economics range from: defining "wicked problems"; measuring interpersonal utility; defining and measuring consequences; obtaining adequate data; and evaluating or recognizing intangibles. Methodological problems in economics include: predicting consequences; elements of bias in evaluation techniques; the neglect of non-users in evaluation techniques for non-market resources; option values for environmental resources; and evaluating irreversible project consequences. Theoretical problems in economics stem from: narrow problem definitions and incomplete specification of alternatives which hinder achievement of optimal decisions; the theory of "second best"; the Scitovsky reversal paradox; the need for actual compensation to take place under certain situations; the use of willingness-to-pay or willingness-to-be-compensated measures of consumer surplus; the selection of a discount rate; and the effect of risk and uncertainty on evaluation.
Ethical problems in social cost-benefit analysis arise from: the existence of multiple and conflicting problem definitions and sets of alternatives; Arrow's Impossibility Theorem which precludes the specification of a social welfare function; value judgments made implicitly in the methods of inquiry in both economics and the science needed for impact prediction; the existence of non-utilitarian frameworks that conflict with the utilitarian emphasis of social cost-benefit analysis; the reductionist nature of valuing environmental resources; the judgments made about individual rights in the selection of willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-be-compensated measures; and the judgments made about future generations in the selection of a discount rate.
Political problems in social cost-benefit analysis are evident in: the hidden agendas and political goals of politicians, bureaucrats and interest groups; incentives to bias problem definition and alternative selection in order to justify a politically but not necessarily economically justified project; incentives to restrict the boundaries of analysis to provincial boundaries; and incentives to overstate benefits, understate costs and neglect qualitative project effects.
Some of the economic, ethical and political problems can be resolved by changing the way that government project review processes operate. Three broad changes are recommended: a two-tier review process which clearly separates evaluation from the preceding stages of analysis; an increased use of public and interdepartmental review in the early stages of analysis; and a flexible and experimental approach to evaluation.Business, Sauder School of
Graduate
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Ağralı, Semra. "Optimal supply chain planning problems with nonlinear revenue and cost functions." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2009. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0024786.
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Rocha, Leno Silva. "Analytic hierarchy process to tune cost functions in optimal control problems." Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, 2014. http://www.bd.bibl.ita.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=3081.
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The optimal control theory has a sophisticated framework with powerful tools to solve practical problems in various fields of knowledge. However, this theory requires precise definition of the problems under consideration. In this respect, the correct weighting of the relative importance of the effects represented by aggregate elements to performance indexes is critical. The decision theory can help to overcome this mishap. In particular, the technique Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is adequate for the task of consistently weigh the components of proposed performance indexes and has other advantages such as keeping a detailed record of the criteria, values, comparisons and judgments that guided decision making.
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Teetzmann, Eckart T. "Target Cost and Quality Management in Kreditinstituten." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2003. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:swb:14-1061969606796-41574.
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Die Wettbewerbssituation hat sich für Banken in den vergangenen Jahren deutlich verschärft. Auf höhere Kundenerwartungen hinsichtlich Preis und Qualität, sowie auf steigende Betriebskosten müssen Banken mit einer klaren Kundenorientierung und einem effizienten Kostenmanagement reagieren. Das in der Arbeit dargestellte Konzept des Target Cost and Quality Management (TCQM) beruht auf den Grundüberlegungen des Target Costing, wird jedoch zu einem integrierten Instrument der Planung und Steuerung der Kosten und der Qualität von Bankleistungen ausgebaut bzw. adaptiert. In der Arbeit werden zunächst vor dem Hintergrund verschiedener Auffassungen in der Literatur bezüglich des Charakters und der Systematisierung von Bankleistungen das Verständnis der Bankleistung thematisiert. Im Anschluß daran werden die für das TCQM grundlegenden Konzepte des Target Costing und des Total Quality Management/Quality Banking erläutert und daraus ein grobes Phasenmodell des TCQM abgeleitet. Dieses Phasenmodell wird in einen strategischen Rahmen eingebettet. Nachfolgend wird, aufbauend auf einer allgemeinen Darstellung des Prozesses der marktorientierten Bankleistungs-/Prozeßgestaltung, die Festlegung von Preis-, Qualitäts- und Kostenzielen detailliert erläutert. Grundlage für eine marktgerechte Zieldefinition ist die Identifikation und Bewertung von Kundenanforderungen. Für den konkreten Einsatz der in der Arbeit dargestellten Instrumente und Methoden ist insbesondere die Differenzierung der Kundenanforderungen nach Basis-, Leistungs- und Begeisterungsanforderungen sowie nach merkmals- bzw. ereignisorientierten Anforderungen relevant. Mit Hilfe verschiedener, aufeinander abgestimmter Tabellen können dann konkrete Ziele abgeleitet werden. Den Ausführungen zur Zielfestlegung schließt sich eine Darstellung von Methoden zur Unterstützung der Zielerreichung an. Ein Schwerpunkt wird auf das bankspezifische Prozeßkostenmanagement aufgrund seiner erfolgskritischen Bedeutung für das TCQM gelegt.
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Teetzmann, Eckart T. "Target cost and Quality-Management in Kreditinstituten." Doctoral thesis, [S.l. : s.n.], 2002. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=969452209.
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Mohd, Nazir M. A. N. "Cost-effective resource management for distributed computing." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2011. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1331897/.
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Current distributed computing and resource management infrastructures (e.g., Cluster and Grid) suffer from a wide variety of problems related to resource management, which include scalability bottleneck, resource allocation delay, limited quality-of-service (QoS) support, and lack of cost-aware and service level agreement (SLA) mechanisms. This thesis addresses these issues by presenting a cost-effective resource management solution which introduces the possibility of managing geographically distributed resources in resource units that are under the control of a Virtual Authority (VA). A VA is a collection of resources controlled, but not necessarily owned, by a group of users or an authority representing a group of users. It leverages the fact that different resources in disparate locations will have varying usage levels. By creating smaller divisions of resources called VAs, users would be given the opportunity to choose between a variety of cost models, and each VA could rent resources from resource providers when necessary, or could potentially rent out its own resources when underloaded. The resource management is simplified since the user and owner of a resource recognize only the VA because all permissions and charges are associated directly with the VA. The VA is controlled by a ’rental’ policy which is supported by a pool of resources that the system may rent from external resource providers. As far as scheduling is concerned, the VA is independent from competitors and can instead concentrate on managing its own resources. As a result, the VA offers scalable resource management with minimal infrastructure and operating costs. We demonstrate the feasibility of the VA through both a practical implementation of the prototype system and an illustration of its quantitative advantages through the use of extensive simulations. First, the VA concept is demonstrated through a practical implementation of the prototype system. Further, we perform a cost-benefit analysis of current distributed resource infrastructures to demonstrate the potential cost benefit of such a VA system. We then propose a costing model for evaluating the cost effectiveness of the VA approach by using an economic approach that captures revenues generated from applications and expenses incurred from renting resources. Based on our costing methodology, we present rental policies that can potentially offer effective mechanisms for running distributed and parallel applications without a heavy upfront investment and without the cost of maintaining idle resources. By using real workload trace data, we test the effectiveness of our proposed rental approaches. Finally, we propose an extension to the VA framework that promotes long-term negotiations and rentals based on service level agreements or long-term contracts. Based on the extended framework, we present new SLA-aware policies and evaluate them using real workload traces to demonstrate their effectiveness in improving rental decisions.
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Ren, Hong. "Risk management in construction cost and inflation." Thesis, University of Reading, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.332040.
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Sedlmeyer, Leo R. "Fire Officer Leadership Strategies for Cost Management." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4101.
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Fire departments in the United States accounted for 31% of municipal budgets with increases of 85% spending between 2015 and 2016. The purpose of this single case study was to explore leadership strategies fire officers used to manage costs associated with hazardous operations. The conceptual framework grounding this study was transformational leadership theory. The participants in this study were 10 fire officers who manage hazardous operations in central Wisconsin. The data collection process included open-ended questions in a semistructured format resulting in transcripts, a review of fire department staffing documents, and personal journal notes. Methodological triangulation was used to compare the collected data and verified through member checking for accuracy. Upon completion of data collection, the data analysis process consisted of transcripts involving coding, grouping key words, and reconstructing data into themes. Four central themes emerged from the study: servant leadership, partnership, accountability, and creative staffing. The fire officers used servant leadership to ensure the provisions of services to internal and external customers. The servant leadership practice created trust and integrity. Creative staffing provided innovative cost management and fiscal responsibility to include partnership. Partnership and accountability worked in every facet of the fire department soliciting input from every level of staff. Fire officers in the study practiced transformational leadership daily in both emergency and nonemergency situations. Social implications include innovative leadership strategies and application that may help fire officers promote positive social change through saving lives of firefighters and the citizens they serve.
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Göransson, Olof, and Andreas Nilsson. "A total cost analysis of reinforcement management." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Kommunikations- och transportsystem, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-142887.
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En totalkostnadsanalys som jämför två olika alternativ för armering. I första alternativet tillverkar företaget sin egen armering på ett lager för att sedan transportera ut armeringen till byggarbetsplatsen i färdiga armeringskorgar. I det andra alternativet beställs ILF (inläggningsfärdig armering) som levereras direkt till byggarbetsplatsen där den sedan knyta. Rapporten innehåller en beskrivande teoretisk referensram, noggrann beskriv av beräkningsgången samt analys och slutsatser utifrån resultaten i beräkningarna.
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Bisseker, Gabrielle Jayne. "Management of Sleep Problems in Preschoolers." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Health Sciences, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/5329.
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There is minimal research into behavioural interventions for typically developing preschoolers (2-5 years of age) with sleep problems. Often these children are not considered as a distinct developmental group and are incorporated into sleep intervention studies for infants or school-aged children. Yet preschoolers do differ in their language, social and cognitive abilities. The present study examines an intervention tailored to the developmental abilities of four preschool children with sleep problems. It utilised positive reinforcement in order to create a less restrictive intervention than those based on extinction alone. This was combined with a range of other behavioural strategies such as parental presence, standard and graduated extinction to reduce a variety of sleep problems. Problems targeted included bedtime refusal, co-sleeping, night waking and a possible diagnosis of sleep terrors. Behavioural interventions effectively reduced sleep problems in all four participants. Parental report demonstrated acceptance of strategies implemented and satisfaction in intervention outcomes.
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Romero, Morales Dolores. "Optimization problems in supply chain management /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 2000. http://aleph.unisg.ch/hsgscan/hm00021582.pdf.
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Maccaferri, Cristian. "Valorization and recycling of raw materials through a waste management system, case of study Koinonia Community, Lusaka, Zambia." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2017. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/13571/.
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This thesis presents the implementation and the optimization of a waste management system (WMS) in the Koinonia community (that is sited in the Chilanga district near Lusaka), showing the challenges that must be faced, implementing a WMS in a developing country. In the first part of the thesis it will be contextualized the waste management in the Zambian economy showing how a diversification involving the it could fit with the needs of the Nation. In the second part it will be treated the waste management hierarchy through the illustration of some European policies (like Circular Economy Package) and best practice (like WtE in Sweden). In the third part it will be analyzed the case of study Koinonia community where it has been spent three month. The object of the study was how to make the waste management system economical sustainable, the various issue regarding this subject are described by some reports wrote at the beginning of the experience and at the end. In addition, the chapter presents a study about the waste production in Chilanga and the data collected by means the interview with the waste aggregator present in the city.
Concluding, it is showed a proposal of evolution of the waste management system which consist in install a phv (Photovoltaic) system that will feed an ecological island of low dimension.
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Assiamah, Albert Kofi, Daniel Allotey, and Prince Kofi Hanson. "MATERIALS MANAGEMENT AND ITS EFFECTS ON COST OF SUPPLIES : MATERIALS MANAGEMENT." Thesis, Mälardalen University, School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-795.
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Date: 2008-06-05
Course: Master Thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS credits. EF0704
Authors: Albert Kofi Assiamah Daniel Allotey Prince Kofi Hanson
Supervisor: Sigvard Herber
Title: Materials Management and its Effect on Cost of Supplies
Background: In most organizations within the country (Ghana), materials management has
been relegated to the background without any proper control. This means
that companies are investing heavily in materials than is necessary.
Problem: How can materials management minimize the cost of supplies in
Cocoa Processing Company of Ghana?
Purpose: The aim of this research is to illustrate how the application of
materials management concept can minimize the cost of supplies in Cocoa
Processing Company of Ghana.
Methods: With regards to primary data, interviews (face-to-face, telephone) and questionnaire
were used. Secondary data has been sourced through literature from the university
library and internet sources, qualitative design method was chosen over others
because of the nature of the research work.
Conclusion: Financially, materials (inventories) are very important to manufacturing companies and on the balance sheet they usually represent from twenty to sixty percent of total
assets. Therefore, if the application of the concept of materials management is accepted with well qualified personnel, it could lead to the minimization of cost. The function of a materials manager is to promote coordination and integration within the supply chain and the major benefits are assumed to be; reduction in interdepartmental conflicts, reduction of inventory levels, increased knowledge of total corporate operations and reduction of materials handling costs among others.
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Allenby, Valda R. "Cost models for engineering services." Thesis, Aston University, 1986. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/12156/.
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This thesis describes the procedure and results from four years research undertaken through the IHD (Interdisciplinary Higher Degrees) Scheme at Aston University in Birmingham, sponsored by the SERC (Science and Engineering Research Council) and Monk Dunstone Associates, Chartered Quantity Surveyors. A stochastic networking technique VERT (Venture Evaluation and Review Technique) was used to model the pre-tender costs of public health, heating ventilating, air-conditioning, fire protection, lifts and electrical installations within office developments. The model enabled the quantity surveyor to analyse, manipulate and explore complex scenarios which previously had defied ready mathematical analysis. The process involved the examination of historical material costs, labour factors and design performance data. Components and installation types were defined and formatted. Data was updated and adjusted using mechanical and electrical pre-tender cost indices and location, selection of contractor, contract sum, height and site condition factors. Ranges of cost, time and performance data were represented by probability density functions and defined by constant, uniform, normal and beta distributions. These variables and a network of the interrelationships between services components provided the framework for analysis. The VERT program, in this particular study, relied upon Monte Carlo simulation to model the uncertainties associated with pre-tender estimates of all possible installations. The computer generated output in the form of relative and cumulative frequency distributions of current element and total services costs, critical path analyses and details of statistical parameters. From this data alternative design solutions were compared, the degree of risk associated with estimates was determined, heuristics were tested and redeveloped, and cost significant items were isolated for closer examination. The resultant models successfully combined cost, time and performance factors and provided the quantity surveyor with an appreciation of the cost ranges associated with the various engineering services design options.
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Konan, Nangan Christian. "Problems encountered with the implementation of an activity-based costing system." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1018653.
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The activity-based costing (ABC) system is a cost allocation technique which appears to have many benefits over the traditional costing systems. However, companies that have attempted to implement ABC have encountered various difficulties. Thus, there is a need to investigate the problems faced by companies while implementing ABC. The main objective of this study was to find solutions to overcome the problems encountered by South African companies during the implementation of an activity-based costing system.