bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Review of Buyer Behavior
Authors: Sheth Jagdish N. 
Published: November 2008

Post-war advances in technology have changed the concept of marketing management considerably. The core of this change is the shift of emphasis from the firm to the buyer. In this survey article, the author reviews all the important approaches to understanding buying behavior and provides an up-to-date bibliography. Two important issues emerge from the review. First, the existing variety of formulations resembles the variety of responses of seven blind men touching different parts of an elephant and making inferences about the animal which necessarily differ from, and occasionally contradict, one another. Second, the theory which attempts to explain the observed phenomenon of buying behavior and the quantitative techniques which provide adequate definitions and measurements have been developed independently of each other to the detriment of the maturity of the discipline.
Dynamic Job Assignment for Railway Personnel
Authors: Pappás Ioánnis A. 
Published: November 2008

This paper presents the results of a study on the assignment of jobs to the travelling personnel of a small railway company. The jobs in question are those of engine driver, conductor, etc. On one hand, these jobs have different requirements; on the other, the employees have different qualifications. The problem is to match job requirements and employee qualifications. The problem is a dynamic one since employees are assigned jobs on consecutive days of the month and, at the same time, a number of constraints as to the succession of jobs assigned to an employee are to be respected. In addition, all employees should get their fair share of jobs of each kind, early and late ones, short and long ones. This job assignment planning was formerly done in the company by means of a planning board every month—a procedure which was time-consuming and did not distribute the jobs among the employees fairly enough. A computer solution was, therefore, called for which would reduce the planning cost and also give greater employee satisfaction—an important factor in these days of “overemployment” and increasing demand for more leisure time.
Load Forecasting, Priority Sequencing, and Simulation in a Job Shop Control System
Authors: Bulkin Michael H. , Colley John L. , Steinhoff Harry W. 
Published: November 2008

This paper reports the development, installation and evaluation of a simulation which sequences shop operations for the next shift. Simulation outputs give each foreman the priority of jobs currently in his section and those jobs which might be coming through his area during the next work period. The foreman can determine in advance what tools, raw materials, etc., are needed and obtain them, thus tending to eliminate queue time for hot jobs. In three months of operation, the simulation has been more successful than initially expected. Coordination and expediting efforts have been reduced, in-process inventory has been reduced along with worker idle time, and schedule performance has improved. An additional important result noted during this time is an enlargement of the foreman's job. He has less need for coordinators and expediters since he has the information needed to make rational decisions on sequencing the work. This effort illustrates the practicality and desirability of incorporating advanced concepts into operating systems if the system's demands on working personnel are made compatible with the objectives and capabilities of the workers.
Scheduling Maintenance and Determining Crew Size for Stochastically Failing Equipment
Authors: Vergin R. C. 
Published: November 2008

Past treatment of the single machine maintenance problem has shown that preventive maintenance may be desirable for equipment for which failures are caused at least partially by wear-out factors. In all previous treatment, however, the size of the maintenance-repair crew has been held constant and the optimal maintenance period has then been determined. This paper develops a simultaneous solution for the maintenance-repair crew size and the optimal maintenance period. The optimal maintenance period is seen to shift as the size of the maintenance-repair crew varies. For the multi-machine maintenance problem, the sharing of the maintenance-repair crew creates a queuing system. Because of its complexity, an analytical solution of this multi-machine maintenance queuing system is not feasible. A simulation model was used to develop a set of general rules for scheduling maintenance for the multi-machine case.
Models and Modelling for Manpower Planning
Authors: Dill W. R. , Gaver D. P. , Weber W. L. 
Published: November 2008

Some parts of the long-range planning problem have been widely discussed. Other parts have received less attention. Of the relatively neglected areas, one of special importance is manpower planning. Manpower planning includes a specification of the kinds and numbers of men an organization will need to accomplish its profit, growth, or service objectives; a forecast from current personnel inventories of how well it is now set to meet the projected needs; and by a comparison of needs with forecasted supply, the formulation of plans for recruiting, assigning, and developing personnel. This paper explores some issues in manpower planning. We review some of the kinds of approaches that have been tried and look in some detail at two approaches which seem especially promising.
Financial Implications of Lot-Size Inventory Models
Authors: Beranek William 
Published: November 2008

The definition of the cost of resources devoted to inventories which is inherent in the economic-lot-size procedure implies financial conditions which may not exist. This would lead to infeasibility and/or to a misstatement of carrying costs. If carrying costs are incorrectly stated, then in these, as well as all standard inventory models which emobdy the same assumption, the indicated optimum inventory is either too high or too low, and needlessly excessive costs are incurred by firms using such models. These weaknesses can be corrected by reflecting the firm's actual financial arrangements in the model's carrying cost equation and deriving the corresponding optimum lot size. Examples are presented illustrating how this may be done in the face of several different financial circumstances. In each case, the results of our procedure are compared to those that emerge from an application of the standard lot-size model. Worthwhile savings in inventory cost are indicated, especially if the firm is employing the standard, or classical, model for a number of different products or for a single product which involves a large commitment of resources. In sum, the model builder must be prepared to develop models which reflect the conditions of his financial environment if he is to choose both an optimal inventory and an optimal means of financing the inventory.
Flexible Pricing of Computer Services
Authors: Smidt Seymour 
Published: November 2008

This article proposes using a flexible price system to allocate computer time and to determine charges for computer users. The proposal is presented in the context of a central university computing center (UCC) although it may be applicable, with some modifications, to a wide range of queueing problems. At present, user-charges in most UCC's are based on average costs with little or no attention to speed of service. This leads to high charges and under-utilization when there is excess capacity, low charges and long queues when capacity is short, and to other problems. Under the proposed fiexible price systems, user-charges are dynamically determined by overall system demand and by user selected turn-around priority. The complexity of the price system can be varied to meet the needs of a particular instillation. The main reason for proposing flexible pricing for computer service is that this approach is consistent with an efficient use of scarce resources, including both the computer and users' time. This conclusion is justified in terms of a formal economic analysis which also serves to clarify the conditions under which revenue from a flexible pricing system would cover the full costs of the computer installation. The pricing of specialized computer hardware and software is also discussed. Finally, consideration is given to possible applications of fiexible pricing to other problems that have traditionidly been discussed in terms of queueing theory.
Non-Stocking Criterion
Authors: Fenske R. W. 
Published: November 2008

Contemporary inventory management attempts to make two critical inventory decisions—the order quantity and the order point. This type of analysis presupposes that stocking of the item is economically justified. Quite obviously this will not always be the case and inventory managers have had to turn to rules of thumb which are highly inflexible and consequently these rules often suggest exactly the opposite decision from that which should be made. The profit under conditions of both stocking and non-stocking can be analytically determined and then compared in a breakeven-type analysis. The intersection point or inventory cutoff level determines the minimum demand which will justify stocking the item and is derived along with a graphical representation. Two variations are provided—one for the manufacturer who produces to stock and one for the wholesaler or retailer who orders to stock.
Systems Analysis in Government Operations
Authors: Black Guy 
Published: November 2008

Non-defense Federal government departments and agencies are in the second year of program development and budgetary review in the context of a program packaging structure, in which activities with related objectives are grouped in common packages for analytical and budgetary purposes. One advantage in this approach is that activities can then be cost-benefit traded relative to a simplified objective structure. Where activities are complex and interrelated, it is particularly useful to develop a system concept as the framework for analysis. This paper seeks to introduce the concepts and methodology of systems analysis as applied to non-defense government operations. It places systems analysis in the context of an overall systems approach intended to develop and implement the best possible system configuration. A broad overview is presented of the problems of objectives, model building, quantification of system parameters, ambiguities in concepts of benefit, cost, and optimization. The organizational problem of integrating system analysis and program packaging concepts is discussed, particularly for an agency characterized by bottom up planning, extensive and detailed routine budgeting, including comments on control of suboptimization of systems analytical capability directly supporting top management and supporting analytical capability throughout the organization.
Games with Incomplete Information Played by “Bayesian” Players, I–III Part I. The Basic Model
Authors: Harsanyi John C. 
Published: November 2008

The paper develops a new theory for the analysis of games with incomplete information where the players are uncertain about some important parameters of the game situation, such as the payoff functions, the strategies available to various players, the information other players have about the game, etc. However, each player has a subjective probability distribution over the alternative possibilities. In most of the paper it is assumed that these probability distributions entertained by the different players are mutually “consistent”, in the sense that they can be regarded as conditional probability distributions derived from a certain “basic probability distribution” over the parameters unknown to the various players. But later the theory is extended also to cases where the different players' subjective probability distributions fail to satisfy this consistency assumption. In cases where the consistency assumption holds, the original game can be replaced by a game where nature first conducts a lottery in accordance with the basic probability distribution, and the outcome of this lottery will decide which particular subgame will be played, i.e., what the actual values of the relevant parameters will be in the game. Yet, each player will receive only partial information about the outcome of the lottery, and about the values of these parameters. However, every player will know the “basic probability distribution” governing the lottery. Thus, technically, the resulting game will be a game with complete information. It is called the Bayes-equivalent of the original game. Part I of the paper describes the basic model and discusses various intuitive interpretations for the latter. Part II shows that the Nash equilibrium points of the Bayes-equivalent game yield “Bayesian equilibrium points” for the original game. Finally, Part III considers the main properties of the “basic probability distribution”.
Games with Incomplete Information Played by “Bayesian” Players Part II. Bayesian Equilibrium Points
Authors: Harsanyi John C. 
Published: November 2008

Part I of this paper has described a new theory for the analysis of games with incomplete information. It has been shown that, if the various players' subjective probability distributions satisfy a certain mutual-consistency requirement, then any given game with incomplete information will be equivalent to a certain game with complete information, called the “Bayes-equivalent” of the original game, or briefly a “Bayesian game.” Part II of the paper will now show that any Nash equilibrium point of this Bayesian game yields a “Bayesian equilibrium point” for the original game and conversely. This result will then be illustrated by numerical examples, representing two-person zero-sum games with incomplete information. We shall also show how our theory enables us to analyze the problem of exploiting the opponent's erroneous beliefs. However, apart from its indubitable usefulness in locating Bayesian equilibrium points, we shall show it on a numerical example (the Bayes-equivalent of a two-person cooperative game) that the normal form of a Bayesian game is in many cases a highly unsatisfactory representation of the game situation and has to be replaced by other representations (e.g., by the semi-normal form). We shall argue that this rather unexpected result is due to the fact that Bayesian games must be interpreted as games with “delayed commitment” whereas the normal-form representation always envisages a game with “immediate commitment.”
Games with Incomplete Information Played by ‘Bayesian’ Players, Part III. The Basic Probability Distribution of the Game
Authors: Harsanyi John C. 
Published: November 2008

Parts I and II of this paper have described a new theory for the analysis of games with incomplete information. Two cases have been distinguished: consistent games in which there exists some basic probability distribution from which the players' subjective probability distributions can be derived as conditional probability distributions; and inconsistent games in which no such basic probability distribution exists. Part III will now show that in consistent games, where a basic probability distribution exists, it is essentially unique. It will also be argued that, in the absence of special reasons to the contrary, one should try to analyze any given game situation with incomplete information in terms of a consistent-game model. However, it will be shown that our theory can be extended also to inconsistent games, in case the situation does require the use of an inconsistent-game model.
Some New Views on the Payback Period and Capital Budgeting Decisions
Authors: Weingartner H. Martin 
Published: November 2008

The Payback Period has been dismissed as misleading and worthless by most writers on capital budgeting at the same time that businessmen continue to utilise this concept. This paper seeks to identify the problems which businessmen try to solve by use of the payback period, so that better tools can be provided for solving these, since neither the present value nor the internal rate of return does so. In the course of the analysis the payback concept is considered in its role as a criterion versus a payback constraint, payback and liquidity of capital assets and the liquidity requirements of the firm, payback as a break-even concept, and payback as a crude measure of the rate of resolution of uncertainty. While payback is not advocated for capital investment decisions, the reasons for its popularity need to be understood before it is possible to develop superior alternatives.
Simulation and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of New York's Emergency Ambulance Service
Authors: Savas E. S. 
Published: November 2008

Computer simulation was used to analyze the possible improvements in ambulance service that would result from proposed changes in the number and location of ambulances. The cost-effectiveness of several alternatives was examined. A particular alternative was shown to be of considerable value and it was concluded that low-cost improvements in service could indeed be achieved by redistributing ambulances in accordance with this alternative. This marks the first time that the City of New York has utilized computer simulation as an aid to decision-making. In addition, this represents another step in the move to use computers more creatively in municipal management. More generally speaking, the notion of applying the “space-age methods” of systems analysis, operations research, cost-effectiveness analysis, etc., to solve urban problems is a very popular one, frequently written about, discussed, and presented at conferences. The work reported here has translated this concept into practical results in a vital area of public service. This is a small but significant advance, of potential value to urban governments everywhere.
Fundamental Issues in the Simulation of Human Behavior: A Case in the Strategy of Behavioral Science
Authors: Mitroff Ian I. 
Published: November 2008

Every scientific study has its own unique case history. Unfortunately, most scientific papers present a greatly distorted and static image of the true history and sociology of a research project. This paper represents an attempt to report on selected aspects of the actual growth and development of a simulation project, especially as that process affected the development of a novel method for validating simulation models. The paper also represents a philosophical analysis of the concept of simulation, especially as that analysis formed an integral part of the study's development. One of the paper's main theses is that the teleology or purpose behind the construction of a simulation model is an ever present task-master guiding and influencing all the phases of a model's construction and validation. A general thesis is that a researcher's philosophy of science is as characteristic of him (i.e., his psychology) as it is of the phenomena he typically studies. The implications of these theses are illustrated in terms of the simulation of the engineering design behavior of a practicing mechanical engineer.
The Formulation of Credit Policy Models
Authors: Mehta Dileep 
Published: November 2008

This study undertakes to apply the statistical technique of sequential decision process to a specific range of problems of (trade) credit management. In particular, the study examines two problems: first, credit extension policy on a specific request or account; and second, construction of indices measuring the effectiveness of such a policy. The end goal is to establish a control system which has heretofore resisted analytical solution. Since management exercises its discretion primarily during the credit-extension phase, and since subsequent phases of credit policy are closely related to this particular phase, attention is focused on this aspect of credit policy. However, the analysis does not ignore other important aspects of credit policy, such as bad-debt level, length of the credit period, collection activities, and level of lost sales. The above situation is then reversed: indices in terms of bad-debt level, receivable level, etc., measure the impact of credit extension procedures on the subsequent phases of credit policy. The strength of the suggested approach lies in the logical relationship between the operating decision rules, that meaningfully take into account past experience, and the control indices. Thus it helps management in framing the optimal credit policy. The limitations of the study, such as the implied assumption of linearity of cost data and the neglect of cash discount policy or an integrated investment scheme, do not detract from the operational usefulness of the suggested approach.
An Empirical Study of Computer Maintenance Policies
Authors: Hsu John I. S. 
Published: November 2008

This paper reports the findings of the study of maintenance policies for the IBM 1620 system installed at the university's computing center. Three Maintenance policies were investigated by studying the operating characteristics of the system's two functional units, IBM 1620 Processor and IBM 1622 Card-Punch, covering the period of twenty-nine months. Cost minimization approach is used to determine the optimum policy among three alternatives. These three alternatives are: (1) repairs only; (2) scheduled maintenance at a time interval of t hours of operation without failure; (3) performing maintenance procedures at t, 2t, 3t,… regardless of intervening repairs. The problems of gathering information and the condition of optimum for the alternatives 2 and 3 are discussed. The empirical result of this study is in favor of alternative 1 for servicing both functional units, 1622 and 1620.
Sixty Years of Queueing Theory
Authors: Bhat U. Narayan 
Published: November 2008

Queueing Theory has been attacked on two fronts. Some theoreticians say that Queueing Theory is closed. Some practitioners feel that there is very little in it for use. In view of this, it seems that after six decades of development it is time for stock taking. It is hoped that a discussion of the problems, achievements and the shortcomings of Queueing Theory will be helpful for both theorists and practitioners by putting things in proper perspective. This paper reviews some of the major strides taken by Queueing Theory with respect to its three constituent problems: (i) Behavioral, (ii) Statistical, and (iii) Operational. If one looks at the general picture of the developments in these areas it is hard not to conclude that, in spite of the practitioners' accusations, the systems studied have become more and more realistic over the years. This review makes an attempt to bring this out. An extensive bibliography which is directive in nature rather than exhaustive should be helpful to an interested researcher or a practitioner in identifying the articles of his interest. A discussion of the future of Queueing Theory concludes the paper.
The Criss-Cross Method for Solving Linear Programming Problems
Authors: Zionts Stanley 
Published: November 2008

This paper1 describes the Criss-Cross Method of solving linear programming problems. The method, a primal-dual scheme, normally begins with a problem solution that is neither primal nor dual feasible, and generates an optimal feasible solution in a finite number of iterations. Convergence of the method is proved and flow charts of the method are presented. The method has been programmed in FORTRAN and has been run on a number of computers including the IBM 1620, the IBM 7044, the CDC G-20, and the CDC 6400. A number of problems have been solved using the Criss-Cross method, and some comparisons between the Criss-Cross method and the Simplex method have been made. The results, though scanty, are favorable for the Criss-Cross method. A means of using the product form of the inverse with the Criss-Cross method is also discussed.