Robert F. Love

A multi-facility minimax location method for Euclidean distances

SUMMARY The problem of optimally locating any number of new facilities in relation to any number of existing facilities is considered where the minimax criterion is to be satisfied. Costs in the system are proportional to the Euclidean distances between all pairs of new facilities and all pairs of new and existing facilities. A new non-linear programming solution method is presented and three numerical examples are given with computation results.

A Model for Optimizing the Buffer Inventory Storage Size in a Sequential Production System

Abstract A model is presented here for optimizing the inventory storage capacity of an in-process buffer stock. The buffer stock is present between two operations, each of which has processing time which is exponentially distributed. The benefit or gain from the system of carrying buffer stock is assumed to be proportional to the rate of flow of production. Two costs are incurred by the buffer inventory: one is proportional to the expected on-hand stock, and the second is a facility cost which is proportional to the maximum buffer stock size.

A NOTE ON THE CONVEXITY OF THE PROBLEM OF SITING DEPOTS

SUMMARY “The Siting of Depots” by K. B. Haley appeared in an earlier issue. The convexity proof developed there is based on the assumption that derivatives of the total cost function exist at all points. It is proven here that this assumption does not hold and an alternative proof is presented.

THE OPTIMAL DIVISION OF A CONTAINER INTO N COMPARTMENTS BY CONVEX PROGRAMMING

SUMMARY This paper develops a method for computing the optimal division of a container into any number (N) of compartments when each compartment contains an item which is subjected to an independent demand over some time period. Each of the N compartments is filled at the beginning of the period and the objective is to minimise total runout cost during the demand period.