One of the key elements in production planning hierarchy is master production scheduling. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare thirteen alternative MPS development methods, including multi-objective optimization as well as twelve heuristics, in different operating conditions for multi-product single-level capacity-constrained production systems. We extract six critical criteria from...

An inventory manager is typically concerned with a number of diierent products. His decision-making task is made complicated by such factors as interdependent uncertain product demands and competition for limited storage space. The stochastic inventory problem involving these complexities cannot in general be decomposed into a number of distinct single product problems. In the paper \Stochastic...

We investigate a rst-order extension of the Theory of Primitive Objects of 5] that supports method extension in presence of object subsumption. Extension is the ability of modifying the behavior of an object by adding new methods (and inheriting the existing ones). Object subsumption allows to use objects with a bigger interface in a context expecting another object with a smaller interface. Th...

This thesis examines two complex, dynamic problems by employing the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). Chapters 2 and 3 consider assemble-to-order (ATO) inventory systems. An ATO system consists of several components and several products, and assembles products as demand is realized; it is becoming increasingly popular since it provides greater flexibility in manufacturing at a reasona...

We study a single product inventory system with nonnegative setup cost in which the demand is a continuous random variable but orders are restricted to be integer valued. Optimal policies, when there are no setup costs, have a nice form. However, we show that, when the setup costs are nonzero, optimal policies may have a very counterintuitive form without any particular structure. We obtain a b...