Showing papers by "Sunderesh S. Heragu published in 2017"

Modelling and solution of a large-scale vehicle routing problem at GE appliances & lighting

Abstract: We consider a special case of the vehicle routing problem where not only each customer has specified delivery time window, but each route has limited time duration. We propose a solution algorithm using network reduction techniques and simulated annealing meta-heuristic. The objective is twofold: minimising the travel time and minimising the total number of vehicles required. The time-window constraint ensures delivery without delay, thus, a potentially higher level of customer satisfaction. The algorithm has helped the transportation planning team at General Electric Appliances & Lighting to significantly reduce the number of required trucks in two real cases, while its performance on randomly generated cases is also efficient when compared to properly selected benchmarking algorithms.

A simulation-based optimization approach for mitigation of pandemic influenza

Abstract: In preparation for an influenza pandemic, knowledge of how disease spreads as well as having effective intervention strategies in place are critical to mitigate its impacts. We propose a simulation-based optimization model that minimizes the costs associated with the pandemic occurrence, while capturing how influenza spreads among individuals based on the socio-demographic characteristics of the population. Multiple intervention strategies, including school closure and home confinement, are considered to incorporate the changes of a pandemic course in our model and to measure the corresponding effects on the number of infected people. In addition, we apply the NSGS (Nelson, Swann, Goldsman, Song) procedure to achieve computationally efficient and tractable solutions to the resulting large-scale problem. Using real data from Jefferson County, Kentucky, with a population of more than 700,000 obtained from the US Census Bureau, we present computational results to demonstrate the efficacy of applying ...

Facilities Design and Planning

Abstract: Facilities Design and Planning can be broadly defined as the art and science of building facilities—buildings where people use material, machines, and other resources to produce a product or deliver a service. This chapter discusses four important topics in facilities layout. The types of layouts seen in manufacturing and service facilities can be classified as: product, process, group-technology, fixed position, and hybrid layouts. The chapter summarizes the various trends, challenges, and capabilities contained in that publication. It discusses the specific capabilities that will be required of the materials handling and logistics industry by 2025. The chapter discusses future research areas relative to warehouse design and operations. Following the models presented in Francis and White, Gue and Meller propose fishbone-like, warehouse aisle designs that also have been implemented in warehouses with random storage policy and human order-pickers. A flow process chart is a visual display of the various operations a product undergoes in a facility.