We consider the timing of replacement of obsolete subsystems within an extensive, complex infrastructure. Such replacement action, known as capital renewal, must balance uncertainty about future profitability against uncertainty about future renewal costs. Treating renewal investments as real...

Increased demand variability in supply chains (the bullwhip effect) has been discussed in the literature. The practical measurement of this effect, however, entails some problems that have not received much attention in the literature and that have to do with the aggregation of data,...

Gives an overview of quantitative model‐based research in operations management, focusing on research methodology. Distinguishes between empirical and axiomatic research, and furthermore between descriptive and normative research. Presents guidelines for doing quantitative model‐based...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the implications of outsourcing at the operational planning level, i.e. how the operational planning function is complicated owing to the strategic outsourcing decisions that have been made in the past. Design/methodology/approach – First,...

Discusses the variety of production control situations within process industries. Following a literature review, a typology is introduced which discriminates between two extreme types of process industries: batch/mix and process/flow businesses. Reviews the research in production and inventory...

In a changing and more dynamic market of the 1980s, available mathematical programming algorithms on which production planning in process industries was based did not provide the required responsiveness. Although it is suggested in the literature that a variable cycle times policy will enable...