Operations Research

The Parallel Lives of Benjamin Britten and Peter Grimes

by Herman H. Leptz IV

New York University 2011

A new fuzzy approach for defining multi-purpose criticality of activities in PERT

by Sina Khanmohammadi

In this paper a new fuzzy approach is developed for defining the general criticality of activities where some other... more In this paper a new fuzzy approach is developed for defining the general criticality of activities where some other features such as probability of finishing on time zone, probability of impact, impact threat and ability to retaliate are considered as criticality factors of activities in project management process. In this way the risky situation (vulnerability) of activities are calculated by using fuzzy inference system. Activities are prioritized and classified by means of a fuzzy decision making procedure. The effect of considering such factors on project duration and cost are compared with classic PERT - where only the slack times are considered as criticality factors of activities -by means of Mont Carlo simulation.

In search of optimality: A systems technologist goes east [from New Zealand!]

by Peter Mellalieu

Mellalieu, P. J. (1983). In search of optimality: A systems technologist goes east. Overseas study report. Wellington, New Zealand: Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).

In 1983, the author undertook a period of post-doctoral study based in the operations research departments at... more In 1983, the author undertook a period of post-doctoral study based in the operations research departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Lancaster University, England. The objectives of the overseas study were to report on practical developments in using systems technologies applied to planning activities. Of special concern was the application of such techniques to strategic planning and R&D planning. The report details the itinerary of the tour, observations, and recommendations.

The important developments observed were:

In business situations there is a strong emphasis in providing computer-based end-user oriented systems often using graphics and microcomputers

Artificial intelligence approaches, especially expert systems have already begun to be used by industrial practitioners.

In the United States, research into the planning and operation of flexible manufacturing systems (such as networks of robots) is a topic of high concern amongst operations researchers.

Strategic management is developing a strong discipline in its own right, with traditional operations research techniques being viewed as one of many available analytical tools.

The availability of both software and hardware computer technologies far exceeds the capacity of even large organisations to identify where the technology could be applied, what benefits might occur and how to adopt the technology.

The report recommends that New Zealand’s principle industrial and scientific organisation (DSIR) should play a major role in encouraging the construction of a ‘knowledge infrastructure’ that facilitates effective communication of technological know-how between national knowledge centers. The first generation of such an infrastructure are now emerging, but in a fragmented fashion. DSIR’s attention should focus on the strategic specification of the knowledge infrastructure needed by New Zealand in 1990. This specification will then identify pilot projects that should be commissioned over the next five years to provide the necessary base of experience for the detailed systems design. The report details specific proposals for achieving the recommendations.

A Decision Support System for Corporate Planning in a New Zealand Dairy Company

by Peter Mellalieu

Mellalieu, P. J. (1983). A Decision Support System for Corporate Planning in a New Zealand Dairy Company. Presented at the 25th Annual Conference of the Operational Research Society, Warwick University.

The context for the need to construct an interactive model of a large New Zealand dairy company is described. The... more The context for the need to construct an interactive model of a large New Zealand dairy company is described. The practical aspects of developing the hardware and software necessary for the decision support task are discussed followed by application examples. Comments are made regarding the combination of human judgement skills and mathematical models. Finally, some future developments of the NETPLAN system are outlined.

See also:
Mellalieu, P. J. (1982). A Decision Support System for Corporate Planning in the New Zealand Dairy Industry (Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics, statistics and operations research). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/568


Mellalieu, P. J., & Hall, K. R. (1983). An Interactive Planning Model for the New Zealand Dairy Industry. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 34, 521–532. doi:10.1057/jors.1983.119

Kearney, T. D., Hall, K. R., & Mellalieu, P. J. (1984). Recent Advances in Network Optimization Methods and Applications. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Presented at the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1569500/Recent_Advances_in_Network_Optimization_Methods_and_Applications

Design and Optimization Method for Inertial Particle Separator Systems

by Eyas Alfaris

Modelling the Acidification of Milk

by Peter Mellalieu

Morison, K., & Mellalieu, P. J. (1989). Modelling the Acidification of Milk. In H. Morton (Ed.), Industrial Problem Solving Consultancy Workshop, Occasional Publications in Mathematics and Statistics. Palmerston North, NZ: Massey University.

Provides illustration of one problem brought to an industrial problem solving consultancy workshop held at Massey... more Provides illustration of one problem brought to an industrial problem solving consultancy workshop held at Massey University. The particular problem concerned the manufacture of casein using the process of acidifying milk using a bacterial colony. For production planning purposes it was desirable to either reduce the variation in total acidification time, or predict when the acidification process would compete. The paper identifies sources of variation, such as milk temperature, milk quality, and initial bacterial concentration. The paper is a comprehensive, practical example of how experimental observations and mathematics can be applied to achieve the objectives of an industrial process.

Development of a large transhipment and production model for the dairy industry

by Peter Mellalieu

Mellalieu, P. J., & Hall, K. R. (1981). Development of a large transhipment and production model for the dairy industry. Proceedings of the Operations Research Society of New Zealand (ORSNZ), 51–61.

Related publications:
Mellalieu, P. J. (1982). A Decision Support System for Corporate Planning in the New Zealand Dairy Industry (Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics, statistics and operations research). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/568

Mellalieu, P. J., & Houlistan, M. (1982). Towards decision support systems in New Zealand. Proceedings of the Operations Research Society of New Zealand (ORSNZ), 99–106. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1571355/Towards_decision_support_systems_in_New_Zealand

Kearney, T. D., Hall, K. R., & Mellalieu, P. J. (1984). Recent Advances in Network Optimization Methods and Applications. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Presented at the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1569500/Recent_Advances_in_Network_Optimization_Methods_and_Applications

Mellalieu, P. J., & Hall, K. R. (1983). An Interactive Planning Model for the New Zealand Dairy Industry. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 34, 521–532. doi:10.1057/jors.1983.119

Sankaran, J. K., & Luxton, P. (2003). Logistics in relation to strategy in dairying: The case of New Zealand dairy. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 23(5), 522–545. doi:10.1108/01443570310471848

A long-range planning model for a large New Zealand dairy company is described. Aspects of the model’s systems design... more A long-range planning model for a large New Zealand dairy company is described. Aspects of the model’s systems design are discussed in relation to the development of an interactive user-oriented system. The system, known as NETPLAN is based on a network flow formulation that maximizes net variable revenues.

Towards decision support systems in New Zealand

by Peter Mellalieu

Mellalieu, P. J., & Houlistan, M. (1982). Towards decision support systems in New Zealand. Proceedings of the Operations Research Society of New Zealand (ORSNZ), 99–106. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1571355/Towards_decision_support_systems_in_New_Zealand

Related papers:
Mellalieu, P. J. (1982). A Decision Support System for Corporate Planning in the New Zealand Dairy Industry (Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics, statistics and operations research). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/568

Mellalieu, P. J., & Hall, K. R. (1983). An Interactive Planning Model for the New Zealand Dairy Industry. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 34, 521–532. doi:10.1057/jors.1983.119

Kearney, T. D., Hall, K. R., & Mellalieu, P. J. (1984). Recent Advances in Network Optimization Methods and Applications. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Presented at the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1569500/Recent_Advances_in_Network_Optimization_Methods_and_Applications

The trend of operations research/management science activity towards the construction of models that will be used... more The trend of operations research/management science activity towards the construction of models that will be used recurrently for decision making leads naturally towards the concept of Decision Support Systems (DSS). Factors influencing this trend are identified, and the movement towards DSS construction in New Zealand is reviewed through examination of several successful NZ applications.

To meet the demand for more formal approaches to strategic planning the idea of a Decision Support Group is introduced. A brief examination beyond DSS is made in which it is suggested that more automated methods for implementing management decisions will complete the ‘management control’ cycle.

Management aids in the biological industries

by Peter Mellalieu

Mellalieu, P. J. (1977). Management aids in the biological industries. Productivity & Technology, NZ Department of Trade & Industry, 77(3), 13–14.

Reviews highlights of the conference 'Management of dynamic systems in agriculture' at the Department of Scientific... more Reviews highlights of the conference 'Management of dynamic systems in agriculture' at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) Physics and Engineering Laboratory (PEL). My attendance at this conference led to my recruitment to PEL to undertake my doctoral studies.

See subsequent:
Mellalieu, P. J. (1982). A Decision Support System for Corporate Planning in the New Zealand Dairy Industry (Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics, statistics and operations research). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/568

Mellalieu, P. J., & Hall, K. R. (1983). An Interactive Planning Model for the New Zealand Dairy Industry. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 34, 521–532. doi:10.1057/jors.1983.119

Kearney, T. D., Hall, K. R., & Mellalieu, P. J. (1984). Recent Advances in Network Optimization Methods and Applications. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Presented at the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1569500/Recent_Advances_in_Network_Optimization_Methods_and_Applications

Recent Advances in Network Optimization Methods and Applications

by Peter Mellalieu

Kearney, T. D., Hall, K. R., & Mellalieu, P. J. (1984). Recent Advances in Network Optimization Methods and Applications. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Presented at the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society.

Network optimisation techniques are easy to use and can solve large optimization problems quickly when compared with... more Network optimisation techniques are easy to use and can solve large optimization problems quickly when compared with techniques such as Linear Programming. By the early 1980s, network optimization teachniques had been developed, extended, and applied to a far wider range of problems than the earlier Out-of-Kilter network optimisazation algorithm. For example, through the incorporation of LP-like side constraints, and flow gains and losses. This paper describes these developments from the perspective of the operations research/ modelling practitioner rather than the algorithmist. Several practical applications to agribusiness and the criminal justice system are used to illustrate the capability of the new network optimisation algorithms.

Hydro Power Plants Operation Optimization using an On-offline Approach

by Guilherme Bastos

Draft only. Published in 54th POWID Annual ISA Symposium

This paper presents a proposal for the optimization of the operation of hydro power plants by the optimal distribution... more This paper presents a proposal for the optimization of the operation of hydro power plants by the optimal distribution of the dispatched power among its power generating units. Some optimization algorithms are presented and com-pared for the simulation and optimization of the Rio Bonito small hydro. Effi-ciency curves of the units were obtained from field tests.

An interactive planning model for the New Zealand dairy industry

by Peter Mellalieu

Mellalieu, P. J., & Hall, K. R. (1983). An Interactive Planning Model for the New Zealand Dairy Industry. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 34, 521–532. doi:10.1057/jors.1983.119

For subsequent papers related to this work see:
Mellalieu, P. J. (1982). A Decision Support System for Corporate Planning in the New Zealand Dairy Industry (Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics, statistics and operations research). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10063/568

Kearney, T. D., Hall, K. R., & Mellalieu, P. J. (1984). Recent Advances in Network Optimization Methods and Applications. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Presented at the Annual Conference of the United Kingdom Operational Research Society. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1569500/Recent_Advances_in_Network_Optimization_Methods_and_Applications

A long-term planning model for a large New Zealand dairy company is described. The model presents an integrated view... more A long-term planning model for a large New Zealand dairy company is described. The model presents an integrated view of the company's operation, including transportation and processing. The model used is based on a network formulation, NETPLAN, developed by the authors to carry out the optimisation. NETPLAN is highly flexible, interactive and provides graphical output of the results. The optimisation maximises net revenue based on product prices, variable process costs and variable transport costs subject to factory capacity, product demand and raw material supply constraints.

Sensitivity in inventory models

by Pablo Cayuela

JAIIO 33ª - SIO 2004
Simposio de Investigación Operativa 2004

Modeling A Publish/Subscribe System As A Multi-Commodity Transportation Problem

by Shrisha Rao

6th Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (IEEE SysCon 2012), Vancouver, Canada, March 2012.

The publish/subscribe paradigm enables creation of loosely coupled dynamic systems with asynchronous communication... more The publish/subscribe paradigm enables creation of loosely coupled dynamic systems with asynchronous communication models but at the cost of unpredictable system behavior. Hence quality of service guarantees (QoS) are to be provided to bring in predictability in system behavior. There is a cost associated with providing the QoS guarantees and this cost needs to be reduced. In a publish/subscribe system, published information has to be delivered to a set of subscribers who have expressed interest in the publications. Optimal routing of information from producers of information to the consumers of information is critical to the performance of the publish/subscribe system. This paper proposes a strategy for routing of publications in a publish/subscribe system by modeling it as a multi commodity transportation problem. The proposed approach minimizes the cost of routing publications and also maintains the QoS guarantees.

Direct algorithms for checking consistency and making inferences from conditional probability assessments

by Renato Pelessoni

Co-authored with Peter Walley and Paolo Vicig. Published in the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, 126 (1), 119-151, 2004. Preliminary version attached.

We solve two fundamental problems of probabilistic reasoning: given finitely many conditional probability assessments,... more We solve two fundamental problems of probabilistic reasoning: given finitely many conditional probability assessments, how to determine whether the assessments are mutually consistent, and how to determine what they imply about the conditional probabilities of other events? These problems were posed in 1854 by George Boole, who gave a partial solution using algebraic methods. The two problems are fundamental in applications of the Bayesian theory of probability; Bruno de Finetti solved the second problem for the special case of unconditional probability assessments in what he called ‘the fundamental theorem of probability’. We give examples to show that previous attempts to solve the two problems, using probabilistic logic and similar methods, can produce incorrect answers. Using ideas from the theory of imprecise probability, we show that the general problems have simple, direct solutions which can be implemented using linear programming algorithms. Unlike earlier proposals, our methods are formulated directly in terms of the assessments, without introducing unknown probabilities. Our methods work when any of the conditioning events may have probability zero, and they work when the assessments include imprecise (upper and lower) probabilities or previsions. The main methodological contribution of the paper is to provide general algorithms for making inferences from any finite collection of (possibly imprecise) conditional probabilities.

Some remarks on the use of the strict complementarity in checking coherence and extending coherent probabilities

by Renato Pelessoni

The problem of verifying the coherence of a probabilistic assignment on a finite set of conditional events has been... more The problem of verifying the coherence of a probabilistic assignment on a finite set of conditional events has been recently examined by several authors. The algorithms proposed are substantially very similar and they all require to solve a
sequence of systems of linear inequalities, such that the number of rows of each of these systems is determined by the solution found for the previous one. In the paper, we shall
examine how the concept of strictly complementary solution of a linear program (LP) can be applied in this framework to reduce the number and the size of the systems to be solved.

Novel linear programming approach for building a piecewise nonlinear binary classifier with a priori accuracy

by Orestes Manzanilla Salazar

* Co-authored with Ubaldo Manuel García Palomares.
* Published in "Decision Support Systems", on feb-2012

This paper describes a novel approach to build a piecewise (non)linear surface that separates individuals from two... more This paper describes a novel approach to build a piecewise (non)linear surface that separates individuals from two classes with an a priori classification accuracy. In particular, total classification with a good generalization level can be obtained, provided no individual belongs to both classes. The method is iterative: at each iteration a new piece of the surface is found via the solution of a Linear Programming model. Theoretically, the larger the number of iterations, the better the classification accuracy in the training set; numerically, we also found that the generalization ability does not deteriorate on the cases tested. Nonetheless, we have included a procedure that computes a lower bound to the number of errors that will be generated in any given validation set. If needed, an early stopping criterion is provided. We also showed that each piece of the discriminating surface is equivalent to a neuron of a feed forward neural network (FFNN); so as a byproduct we are providing a novel training scheme for FFNNs that avoids the minimization of non convex functions which, in general, present many local minima.

We compare this algorithm with a new linear SVM that needs no pre tuning and has an excellent performance on standard and synthetic data. Highly encouraging numerical results are reported on synthetic examples, on the Japanese Bank dataset, and on medium and small datasets from the Irvine repository of machine learning databases.rly stopping criteria is provided. We also showed that each piece of the discriminating surface is equivalent to a neuron of a feed
forward neural network (FFNN); so as a byproduct we are providing a novel training scheme for FFNNs that avoids the minimization of flat non convex functions which, in general, present many local minima. High encouraging numerical results are reported on a synthetic example, on the Japanese Bank
dataset, and on medium and small datasets from the Irvine repository of machine learning databases.

Modelling Technical Manpower: A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering in the University of Canterbury.

by Graeme Britton

Published 1979

Training for Electrical and Electronic Vocations in New Zealand: A Systems Analysis

by Graeme Britton

Britton, G.A. 1984. Training for Electrical and Electronic Vocations in New Zealand: A Systems Analysis. Vocational Training Council.

Interactive Planning: A Modern Approach for Improving Corporate Performance.

by Graeme Britton

Britton, G.A. 1988. Interactive Planning: A Modern Approach for Improving Corporate Performance. International Conference on Industrial Engineering, 7-9 July, Singapore.