In this paper, we model a research-and-development project as consisting of several modules, with each module containing one or more activities. We examine how to schedule the activities of such a project in order to maximize the expected profit when the activities have a probability of failure...

We study a distribution warehouse in which trailers need to be assigned to docks for loading or unloading. A parking lot is used as a buffer zone and transportation between the parking lot and the docks is performed by auxiliary resources called terminal tractors. Each incoming trailer has a...

In this paper, we develop exact and heuristic algorithms for the order acceptance and scheduling problem in a single-machine environment. We consider the case where a pool consisting of firm planned orders as well as potential orders is available from which an over-demanded company can select....

We present a tactical decision model for order acceptance and capacity planning that maximizes the expected profits from accepted orders, allowing for regular as well as nonregular capacity. We apply stochastic dynamic programming to determine a profit threshold for the accept/reject decision as...

This paper presents an optimization model for the selection of sets of clients that will receive an offer for one or more products during a promotion campaign. The complexity of the problem makes it very difficult to produce optimal solutions using standard optimization methods. We propose an...

We consider an extension of classic parallel machine scheduling where a set of jobs is scheduled on identical parallel machines and an undirected conflict graph is part of the input. Each node in the graph represents a job and an edge implies that its two jobs are conflicting, meaning that they...

This paper presents a model for a dock assignment problem, where trailers need to be assigned to gates for a given period of time for loading or unloading activities. The parking lot is used as a buffer zone. Transportation between the parking lot and the gates is performed by additional...

This article describes a heuristic for scheduling so-called ‘modular' projects. Exact solutions to this NP-hard problem can be obtained with existing branch-and-bound and dynamic-programming algorithms, but only for small to medium-size instances. The proposed heuristic, by contrast, can be...