An algorithm, based on finding a shortest route in a finite directed network, is given for the assembly line balancing problem. Arc lengths are such that it is sufficient to find any path from the origin to destination node containing a minimal number of arcs. Computational results are presented...

A model is developed for planning the intake of employees as a function of time in the face of varying demand for service. The problem is complicated by resignations which, in part, depend on the intake. The model is solved by dynamic programming using a form of successive approximations to...

The number of days required to clear a check drawn on a bank in city j depends on the city i in which the check is cashed. Thus, to maximize its available funds, a company that pays bills to numerous clients in various locations may find it advantageous to maintain accounts in several...

Redistricting, the redrawing of congressional district boundaries within the states, may occur every 10 years on the basis of the population census. Many redistricting plans are designed with partisan politics in mind, resulting in disputes and forcing judges to intervene. We address this...

In the course of the deliberations of the 1977 Lanchester Prize Committee, Alan J. Goldman brought to our attention an error in the proof of Lemma 1 of our paper (Cornuejols, G., M. L. Fisher, G. L. Nemhauser. 1977. Location of bank accounts to optimize float: an analytic study of exact and...

We consider two classes of multi-item lot-sizing problems. The first is a class of single stage problems involving joint machine capacity constraints and/or start up costs, and the second is a class of multistage problems with general product structure. The problems are solved as mixed integer...

bc --- prod is a prototype modelling and optimization system designed and able to tackle a wide variety of the discrete-time lot-sizing problems arising both in practice and in the literature. To use bc --- prod, the user needs to formulate his/her problem as a mixed integer program using...

By relaxing the nonnegativity constraints on a set of basic variables, an integer programming problem can be reduced to a shortest route problem over a finite Abelian group. Here it is shown how given a similar relaxation on any set of variables, a structurally simpler problem is obtained, which...

In spite of the remarkable improvements in the quality of general purpose mixed-integer programming software, the effective solution of a variety of lot-sizing problems depends crucially on the development of tight formulations for the special problem features occurring in practice. After...

Based on research on the polyhedral structure of lot-sizing models over the last 20 years, we claim that there is a nontrivial fraction of practical lot-sizing problems that can now be solved by nonspecialists just by taking an appropriate a priori reformulation of the problem, and then feeding...