We consider two shipment models (motivated by a real application) where multiple customers asking for sets of products are to be satissed from inventory in the best manner possible. The restrictions posed by the customers include that the rst shipment be at least a minimum fraction of the total demand, and that the second shipment (if any) should not be too small nor be further split. We rst sh...

A factory needs a good distribution pipeline for its products, and so does a cell that manufactures collagen. Wilson et al. (1) describe a protein that helps pack several varieties of collagen into vesicles so they can be shipped from the cell. Collagen was one of the fi rst proteins identifi ed, but researchers are still trying to elucidate the mechanics of its secretion. After their synthesis...

Inspired by the retail industry, we consider a stochastic inventory routing problem where retailers are replenished from central warehouse using time-based shipment consolidation policy. Such dispatching policy, facing demand repetitively at fixed times, is essential in practice. It allows for easy incorporation with dependent up- and downstream planning problems such as personal staffing opera...

The ability to morph flat sheets into complex 3D shapes is extremely useful for fast manufacturing and saving materials while also allowing volumetrically efficient storage shipment a functional use. Direct 4D printing compelling method out of as-printed 2D plates. However, most direct methods require multi-material systems involving costly machines. Moreover, works have used an open-cell desig...

This paper studies fundamental problems for distributed graph simulation. Given a pattern query Q and a graph G that is fragmented and distributed, a graph simulation algorithm A is to compute the matches Q(G) of Q in G. We say that A is parallel scalable in (a) response time if its parallel computational cost is determined by the largest fragment Fm of G and the size |Q| of query Q, and (b) da...

In this paper, we develop a competitive freight service provision network model for disaster relief. A humanitarian relief organization is interested in determining its most cost-effective deliveries of needed supplies in a crisis setting. Multiple freight service providers are engaged in competition to acquire the business of carrying the supplies in the amounts desired to the destinations. We...

Shipment consolidation is a laborious and, sometimes, tedious task for airfreight forwarders since there is enormous information to be considered and literally quite a number of practical constraints to be fulfilled. In Hong Kong, the unique forwarding operation and rapid cargo flow has further complicated the consolidating process in such a way that local forwarders are almost impossible to ac...

This paper focuses on addressing uncertainties in disasters when considering lateral transshipment opportunities for pre-positioning relief supplies. To deal with uncertain demands the problem is formulated as a two-stage stochastic programming model, which decides simultaneously locations of facilities and allocations supplies to demand nodes. Meanwhile, different damage levels caused by are c...