Optimization and Systems Theory Seminar
April 4, 1997, 11.00-12.00


Patrik Alfredsson
Division of Optimization and Systems Theory,
Department of Mathematics,
KTH

Optimization of support systems

In this talk, I will summarize parts of the research presented in the thesis: 'On the Optimization of Support Systems'. The thesis deals with the modeling and optimal design of support systems. We study multi-echelon support system models including spare part stocks, transportation resources, and repair resources. After introducing the field and relevant theory, we shall present the fundamental spare parts optimization problem. We propose a heuristic for solving this problem and compare it with another algorithm often used. We motivate theoretically and show in practice that our heuristic produces better spares allocations. Next, we present an efficient scheme for finding the sensitivity of the support system performance with respect to any support system parameter, for example, repair or shipment times. Based on the sensitivities we present an iterative scheme for improving the support design. Finally, we describe a policy for analyzing the behavior of the support system when supply flexibility options are implemented. Numerical experiments show that the implementation of supply flexibility can definitely pay dividend.
Calendar of seminars
Last update: March 10, 1997 by Anders Forsgren, andersf@math.kth.se.