In formulating linear programming problems, analysts tend to include constraints that are not binding at the optimal solution for fear of excluding necessary constraints. The inclusion of such constraints does not alter the optimum solutions, but may require many additional iterations to be...

Intelligent problem-solving, whether by man or by machine, implies selective rather than just rapid behavior. Humans achieve this selectivity through heuristics--principles that, on the average, contribute to reduction of search in problem-solving. Heuristic programming is the construction of...

Several recent research efforts have studied the use of probabilistic schemes for generating solutions to particular combinatorial problems. Characteristically, such schemes include both rapid production of many potential solutions, through repeated application of simple choice rules, and...

This paper presents a heuristic procedure for balancing production assembly lines and a computer program for carrying out that procedure. This research was undertaken to investigate the application of complex information processing techniques (as used in producing the Chess Machine and Logic...

A code for solving travelling salesman problem employing heuristic ideas is described. Acyclic permutations of the cities are constructed by first choosing two cities at random for a permutation of length two, putting the remaining cities in a random list and then inserting cities from the list...

A machine is to be bought, used for productive purposes for a length of time, and then sold. It is possible to do preventive maintenance while the machine is being used, if desired, in order to slow down the degradation of the machine's capability. The value of owning the machine is the sum of...

This note points out that three of the facilities layout problems solved by Picone and Wilhelm (Picone, C. J., W. E. Wilhelm. 1984. A perturbation scheme to improve Hillier's solution to the facilities layout problem. Management Sci. 30 1238--1249.) are different from the test problems given in...

A quadratic model for production-inventory planning was made famous by Holt, Modigliani, Muth, and Simon in 1960 in (Holt, C. C., F. Modigliani, J. F. Muth, H. A. Simon. 1960. Planning Production, Inventories, and Work Force. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.), especially for its...

Modelling planning problems that extend over many time periods as linear programs leads to a special structure called a "staircase" or "dynamic" linear program. In this special structure, the nonzero coefficients of the linear program appear in blocks along the "main diagonal" of the coefficient...

Business policy questions frequently involve competitive encounters among several different firms. Oligopoly theory in economics was devised to answer similar questions, but its results so far are largely confined to cases of monopoly (one firm), duopoly (two firms), and many firms (wheat...