Chapter 1
Scope of Problem Coverage and Introduction
Abstract This chapter begins with an introduction to the book’s scope and preliminary concepts applied throughout the book. We then present a set of basic, foundational, and classical models from the operations planning literature that serve as the
underpinning of the work presented throughout the book. These models include the
economic order quantity (EOQ), the newsvendor problem, the economic lot-sizing
problem (ELSP), the knapsack problem (KP), the generalized assignment problem
(GAP), and the facility location problem (FLP). The main results presented later
in this book generalize these classical models to account for a planner’s ability to
influence demands, which have traditionally served as fixed parameters in these
foundational models.
1.1 Scope and Preliminaries
The work in this book generalizes several of the most fundamental and classical
models for production and inventory planning. These include the economic order
quantity (EOQ), the newsvendor problem, the economic lot-sizing problem (ELSP),
the knapsack problem (KP), the generalized assignment problem (GAP), and the facility location problem (FLP). Each of these models involves a very specific set
of assumptions, which we will specify when introducing the associated model.
Each model represents an abstraction with respect to some practical problem that
is broadly applicable to entities that produce and/or stock consumer goods. This abstraction results in an idealized version of the associated real-world problem and,
thus, one is unlikely to find that the required assumptions hold precisely in any
practical setting. Despite this, these models are powerful for their approximation of
reality and because they mathematically formalize important relationships among
the key parameters and decision factors that combine to determine the economic
performance of the system being modeled. This book will, therefore, present each
model and its assumptions without providing strenuous arguments as to the degree
to which these assumptions provide an effective approximation for any particular
practical setting.
For ease of exposition, this book will also focus on the single-product version of
the models in question. While multiple-product generalizations often follow based
on a straightforward analysis, these generalizations tend to detract from the central
đang được dịch, vui lòng đợi..
