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Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators recounts the development of the field of Operations Research (OR), the science of decision making. The book traces the development of OR from its military origins to a mature discipline that is recognized worldwide for its contributions to managerial planning and complex global operations. Over the past six decades, OR analyses have impacted our daily lives: when making an airline or hotel reservation, waiting in line at a bank, getting the correctly blended fuel at the gas station, and ensuring that the book you are holding arrived at its destination on time. OR originated in the late 1930s when British scientists from various disciplines joined Royal Air Force officers to determine the most effective way to employ new radar technology for intercepting enemy aircraft. During World War II, similar applied research groups were formed to study, test, and evaluate military operations on both sides of the Atlantic. Their work resulted in great improvements OR helped the Allies win the war. The scientific field that emerged from these studies was called operational research in the U.K. and operations research in the U.S. Today, OR provides a broad and powerful science to aid decision making. Profiles describes the lives and contributions of 43 OR pioneers and innovators and relates how these individuals, with varying backgrounds and diverse interests, were drawn to the nascent field of OR. The profiles also describe how OR techniques and applications expanded considerably beyond the military context to find new domains in business and industry. In addition to their scientific contributions, these profiles capture the life stories of the individuals interwoven with personal tales, vivid vignettes, family backgrounds, and views of the mission and future of OR. Collectively, the profiles recount the fascinating story of the growth and development of a field enriched by the convergence of different disciplines. The Editors: Arjang A. Assad is Dean of the School of Management, University at Buffalo, State University of New York. Saul I. Gass is Professor Emeritus, Department of Decision, Operations & Information Technologies, Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. From the Reviews Profiles In Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators. Book Review by Nigel Cummings: U.K. OR Society's e-journal, Inside OR., Sept 2011. "I can thoroughly recommend this book. I found it both enlighteningand undeniably gripping, so much so in fact, you may find it difficultto put it down once you have commenced reading it. Arjang A. Assad and Saul I. Gass have created a masterwork whichwill serve to immortalise [stet] the pioneers of O.R. for many years to come."

Operational research. Game theory --- speltheorie --- operationeel onderzoek

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As a fundamental problem in stochastic inventory control, the newsvendor problem has been studied since the 18th century in the economic literature, and has been widely used to analyze supply chains in fashion and seasonal product industries. Since the 1950s, the newsvendor problem has been extensively studied in operations research and extended to model a variety of real-life problems. The simplest and most elementary version of the newsvendor problem is an optimal stocking problem in which a newsvendor needs to decide how many newspapers to order for future demand, where the future demand is uncertain and follows a stationary distribution. Research in this area has greatly increased over the last few years, and now the Handbook of Newsvendor Problems: Models, Extensions and Applications captures the state of the art. The handbook consists of two sections -- Models and Extensions, and Applications. Each section includes many interesting works in the respective domain. Section I presents papers on topics like the multi-product newsvendor problems; the newsvendor problem with law invariant coherent measures of risk; a Copula approach to inventory pooling problems with newsvendor products; repeated newsvendor games with transshipments; cooperative newsvendor games; an economic interpretation for the price-setting newsvendor problem; newsvendor models with alternative risk preferences within expected utility theory and prospect theory frameworks; and newsvendor problems with VaR and CVaR consideration. Section II presents papers on such topics as a two-period newsvendor problem for closed-loop supply chain analysis; the remanufacturing newsvendor problem; inventory centralization in a newsvendor setting when shortage costs differ; production planning on an unreliable machine for multiple items; analysis of the newsvendor problem under carbon emissions policies; optimal decisions of the manufacturer and distributor in a fresh product supply chain involving long distance transportation; a newsvendor perspective on profit target setting for multiple divisions; and a portfolio approach to multi-product newsvendor problem with budget constraint. This well-balanced handbook presents a wealth of theoretical results from different perspectives. With contributions from many of the leading researchers in the field, the Handbook of Newsvendor Problems: Models, Extensions and Applications is a timely addition to the literature and consolidates all the new and exciting works related to the newsvendor problem into one high quality source.

Operational research. Game theory --- speltheorie --- operationeel onderzoek

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What are the random-like phenomena that can be found everywhere in real-life world? When carrying out a random sampling survey on the traffic situation, we often obtain some descriptive results such as approximately expedite, a little crowded and so on, therefore, the average level should be regarded as the random fuzzy phenomenon, which is one of the random-like phenomena. Decision makers usually need to make the decision for these problems with random-like phenomena. Which model should be constructed for them? How should we handle these models to find the optimal strategy? How can we apply these models to solve real-life problems with random-like phenomena? In order to answer these questions, this book provides an up-to-date methodology system 5MRP for random-like multiple objective decision making, which includes problem system with random-like phenomena, model system with random-like coefficients, research system with random-like uncertain methods. Some practical applications are also provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology system. Researchers, practitioners and students in systems science, economics, mathematics, information, engineering and MS/OR will get a lot of useful references from this research monograph.    

Operational research. Game theory --- speltheorie --- operationeel onderzoek

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Natural disasters cause considerable economic damage. While developed countries usually are able to cope with the impacts of natural hazards, developing countries are faced with severe consequences for their resources. In order to prevent long-term macroeconomic repercussions, governments need a comprehensive disaster risk management strategy. Stefan Hochrainer develops a catastrophe risk management model. It illustrates which trade-offs and choices a country must make in managing economic risks due to natural disasters. Budgetary resources are allocated to pre-disaster risk management strategies to reduce the probability of financing gaps. The framework and model approach allows cross country comparisons as well as the assessment of financial vulnerability, macroeconomic risk, and risk management strategies. Three case studies demonstrate its flexibility and coherent approach.

Operational research. Game theory --- speltheorie --- operationeel onderzoek

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This monograph presents results originating from a research project investigating autonomous adaptation of vehicle schedules and systematically develops and evaluates innovative ideas for the management of transportation processes in volatile scenarios. Showing the progress made in the development of the methodological toolbox for decision support in dynamic process management is the major motivation behind this book.  The result is a new integrated approach to dynamic decision making. Existing process planning approaches for volatile environments and their application boundaries are investigated in Part I. Part II introduces the concept of feedback-controlled adaptive decision models and proposes the required extensions of the online decision making framework and of multi-agent systems. A comprehensive evaluation of the proposed decision model adaptation framework based on computational simulation experiments is reported in Part III and demonstrates the predominance of the new approach. Distinguishing features of this book are: -It provides the first contribution to the operational management of processes in supply networks that explicitly addresses the two challenges of dynamics and distributed decision making simultaneously. -It systematically approaches the limits of model-based process planning but also proposes methods to extend the application boundaries. -Software prototypes are developed and a comprehensive evaluation within numerical simulation experiments is executed. -The observed results are discussed with an explicit focus on specific performance indicators (flexibility, stability and robustness). -The strict interdisciplinary approach merging the requirements and needs of management sciences, operations research and computer sciences is pursued throughout the book.

Operational research. Game theory --- speltheorie --- operationeel onderzoek