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Hierarchical spare parts inventory systems
Book Reviews
natural restrictions for all decisions which have to be taken in this field, a more detailed analysis of these parameters is a valuable tool for a deeper insight in particular models and solution techniques. This volume consists of three major parts following the line of NP-completeness, polynomial solvable problems and approximation algorithms in each of them. The first part deals with problems including parallel and dedicated machines with additional renewable resources (only their total usage at every moment is constrained) and discrete resource requests under various single performance measures. The second part adds nonrenewable (only their total consumption over the scheduling period is constrained) and doubly constrained (both usage and consumption are constrained) resources, models of divisibility (discrete a n d / o r continuous), and multicriteria performance aspects to the problem formulation. In the last part special emphasis is given to computer scheduling with deadlock avoidance considering unknown a priori task arrival times and resource requests submitted dynamically by tasks from an infinite stream. Moreover resource management in distributed systems under a multi-query environment is discussed. All parts are accompanied by a selection of problems to extend or modify the results presented in each chapter. Also in addition there is an appendix covering basic concepts of the theory of computational complexity of combinatorial problems which can be used as a technical background throughout this book. This text can be recommended to everyone who needs a high standard reference to the field of deterministic scheduling models especially, as the authors suggest, to researchers, graduate and advanced undergraduate students within the disciplines of Operations Research, Computer Science, Management Science, Business Administration, Industrial Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The major context of the book can be regarded as a continuation of earlier outstanding books like these of Conway, Maxwell and Miller [1], Baker [2], Lenstra [3], Rinnooy Kan [4], Coffman (ed.) [5], and French [6], enlarged by focussing project planning and computer operating systems in the second and the third part of the book. If there is one deficiency to mention it is the
389
price of the edition which could affect its deserved distribution.
Giinter S C H M I D T Technische Universitiit Berfin Franklinstrasse 2 8 / 2 9 D-IO00 Berlin 10, Germany, Fed. Rep.
References [1] Conway, R.W., Maxwell, W.L., and Miller, L.W., Theory of Scheduling, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1967. [2] Baker, K.R., Introduction to Sequencing and Scheduling, Wiley, New York, 1974. [3] Lenstra, J.K., Sequencing by Enumerative Methods, Mathematical Centre Tract 69, Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, 1976. [4] Rinnooy Kan, A.H.G., Machine Scheduling Problems: Classification, Complexity and Computation, Nijhof, The Hague, 1976. [5] Coffman Jr., E.G. (ed.), Computer & Job-Shop Scheduling Theory, Wiley, New York, 1976. [6] French, S., Sequencing and Scheduling: An Introduction to the Mathematics of the Job-Shop, Horwood, Chichester, 1982.
R. PETROVI(~, A. SENBORN and M. VUJOSEVIC
Hierarchical Spare Parts Inventory Systems Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1986, xiv + 296 pages Spare parts inventory control is one of the youngest topics of operational research - only a quarter century or so old. And yet an impressive amount of work already exists in this area. Recent years have seen a steady influx of contributions on the subject. This book, journeying through the existing literature, brings the important ideas and major theories on the subject together at one place. The book is divided into four chapters. The spare parts inventory control systems are mostly multistructured and therefore very complex. As a prologue to these systems, the first chapter discusses the relevant material from the traditional single level inventory control theory and describes demand forecasting and some deterministic as well as some stochastic inventory models.
390
Book Reviews
The second chapter, then, introduces the main topic of the book. It begins by giving a brief literature survey. Various terms used to describe the multistructured systems under study are explained here. Systems with consumables and with repairables, their demand and repair processes, their ordering policies - mostly of continuous review (s, S) type - and, finally, the problems of selecting their appropriate performance measures are discussed in this chapter. The third chapter deals with the problem of mathematical modelling and stationary analysis of the processes of the inventory systems under consideration. The aim is to derive an appropriate procedure for computing adequate performance measures of these systems. Most of the discussion, here, is centered around a two-echelon inventory and maintenance system with an arborescent structure. The replenishment policies are, once again, mostly of the continuous review (s, S) type with a variation in the final section where some periodic review type (R, Q) or (T, S) policies are also considered. The final chapter is devoted to some optimization problems encountered in the multistructured inventory systems. The system subinventories are assumed to follow a continuous review ( S - 1, S) ordering policy and the emphasis is on the optimization of the stock levels. Various optimization procedures based upon the Lagrange multipliers theory, dynamic programming approach and reliability principles are described. The chapter includes some numerical examples and postoptimal analysis. On the whole, the text is satisfactorily illustrated with graphs and flow-chart type diagrams. The level of mathematics is sufficiently high. As the authors have mentioned in the preface of the book, even though much and outstanding work has already been done on the subject, we are still somewhat away from a satisfactory understanding of the hierarchical spare parts inventory systems. This means that there is still a need and a scope for further research in this area. Besides the academicians and the researchers interested in this field, the book will be of some interest to mathematically oriented practitioners engaged in the control and maintenance of large scale inventory systems. It will also serve as a good starting point for any one wishing to pursue the multilevel in-
ventory systems either as a course of study or as a practice. Upendra DA VE 12 Damask House Flower House Estate Beckenham Hill Road London SE6 3PH, United Kingdom
D.G. C A R M I C H A E L
Engineering Queues in Construction and Mining Wiley, Chichester, 1987, 378 pages, £45.00 This book mainly treats the application of queueing theory. A lot of examples from construction and mining operations are given, and it is demonstrated how relevant queueing models can serve as tools for instance in manpower planning and cost analysis. The author has chosen to only include material for which he finds real applications. Further he mainly restricts himself to models where the theoretical results are quite simple. After a general introduction in Chapter 1, a treatment of queues with exponential arrival and service time distributions (i.e. M / M / c queues) is given in Chapter 2. It is demonstrated how the balance equations for these birth and death models are obtained. The main results (as the queue length distribution, mean queue length and mean waiting time) of the most important models are presented in tabular form, and graphs are given for some of the model parameters. A similar approach is chosen in Chapter 3, where models with Erlangian (E~) or constant (D) service time are treated. The author does not give many details on how the solutions of the balance equations are obtained, but chooses to concentrate on the results and their applications in mining. In particular, several models with a finite source of customers are discussed in this book. Approximations (for statistics as the mean waiting time and server utilization) are also given for some of the models. Chapter 4 treats cyclic queues and their applications in mining operations; a theory which is largely attributed to Koenigsberg. More general closed network models are, however, not introduced. Serial queues and queues with storage in the service process are discussed in Chapter 5.
natural restrictions for all decisions which have to be taken in this field, a more detailed analysis of these parameters is a valuable tool for a deeper insight in particular models and solution techniques. This volume consists of three major parts following the line of NP-completeness, polynomial solvable problems and approximation algorithms in each of them. The first part deals with problems including parallel and dedicated machines with additional renewable resources (only their total usage at every moment is constrained) and discrete resource requests under various single performance measures. The second part adds nonrenewable (only their total consumption over the scheduling period is constrained) and doubly constrained (both usage and consumption are constrained) resources, models of divisibility (discrete a n d / o r continuous), and multicriteria performance aspects to the problem formulation. In the last part special emphasis is given to computer scheduling with deadlock avoidance considering unknown a priori task arrival times and resource requests submitted dynamically by tasks from an infinite stream. Moreover resource management in distributed systems under a multi-query environment is discussed. All parts are accompanied by a selection of problems to extend or modify the results presented in each chapter. Also in addition there is an appendix covering basic concepts of the theory of computational complexity of combinatorial problems which can be used as a technical background throughout this book. This text can be recommended to everyone who needs a high standard reference to the field of deterministic scheduling models especially, as the authors suggest, to researchers, graduate and advanced undergraduate students within the disciplines of Operations Research, Computer Science, Management Science, Business Administration, Industrial Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The major context of the book can be regarded as a continuation of earlier outstanding books like these of Conway, Maxwell and Miller [1], Baker [2], Lenstra [3], Rinnooy Kan [4], Coffman (ed.) [5], and French [6], enlarged by focussing project planning and computer operating systems in the second and the third part of the book. If there is one deficiency to mention it is the
389
price of the edition which could affect its deserved distribution.
Giinter S C H M I D T Technische Universitiit Berfin Franklinstrasse 2 8 / 2 9 D-IO00 Berlin 10, Germany, Fed. Rep.
References [1] Conway, R.W., Maxwell, W.L., and Miller, L.W., Theory of Scheduling, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1967. [2] Baker, K.R., Introduction to Sequencing and Scheduling, Wiley, New York, 1974. [3] Lenstra, J.K., Sequencing by Enumerative Methods, Mathematical Centre Tract 69, Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, 1976. [4] Rinnooy Kan, A.H.G., Machine Scheduling Problems: Classification, Complexity and Computation, Nijhof, The Hague, 1976. [5] Coffman Jr., E.G. (ed.), Computer & Job-Shop Scheduling Theory, Wiley, New York, 1976. [6] French, S., Sequencing and Scheduling: An Introduction to the Mathematics of the Job-Shop, Horwood, Chichester, 1982.
R. PETROVI(~, A. SENBORN and M. VUJOSEVIC
Hierarchical Spare Parts Inventory Systems Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1986, xiv + 296 pages Spare parts inventory control is one of the youngest topics of operational research - only a quarter century or so old. And yet an impressive amount of work already exists in this area. Recent years have seen a steady influx of contributions on the subject. This book, journeying through the existing literature, brings the important ideas and major theories on the subject together at one place. The book is divided into four chapters. The spare parts inventory control systems are mostly multistructured and therefore very complex. As a prologue to these systems, the first chapter discusses the relevant material from the traditional single level inventory control theory and describes demand forecasting and some deterministic as well as some stochastic inventory models.
390
Book Reviews
The second chapter, then, introduces the main topic of the book. It begins by giving a brief literature survey. Various terms used to describe the multistructured systems under study are explained here. Systems with consumables and with repairables, their demand and repair processes, their ordering policies - mostly of continuous review (s, S) type - and, finally, the problems of selecting their appropriate performance measures are discussed in this chapter. The third chapter deals with the problem of mathematical modelling and stationary analysis of the processes of the inventory systems under consideration. The aim is to derive an appropriate procedure for computing adequate performance measures of these systems. Most of the discussion, here, is centered around a two-echelon inventory and maintenance system with an arborescent structure. The replenishment policies are, once again, mostly of the continuous review (s, S) type with a variation in the final section where some periodic review type (R, Q) or (T, S) policies are also considered. The final chapter is devoted to some optimization problems encountered in the multistructured inventory systems. The system subinventories are assumed to follow a continuous review ( S - 1, S) ordering policy and the emphasis is on the optimization of the stock levels. Various optimization procedures based upon the Lagrange multipliers theory, dynamic programming approach and reliability principles are described. The chapter includes some numerical examples and postoptimal analysis. On the whole, the text is satisfactorily illustrated with graphs and flow-chart type diagrams. The level of mathematics is sufficiently high. As the authors have mentioned in the preface of the book, even though much and outstanding work has already been done on the subject, we are still somewhat away from a satisfactory understanding of the hierarchical spare parts inventory systems. This means that there is still a need and a scope for further research in this area. Besides the academicians and the researchers interested in this field, the book will be of some interest to mathematically oriented practitioners engaged in the control and maintenance of large scale inventory systems. It will also serve as a good starting point for any one wishing to pursue the multilevel in-
ventory systems either as a course of study or as a practice. Upendra DA VE 12 Damask House Flower House Estate Beckenham Hill Road London SE6 3PH, United Kingdom
D.G. C A R M I C H A E L
Engineering Queues in Construction and Mining Wiley, Chichester, 1987, 378 pages, £45.00 This book mainly treats the application of queueing theory. A lot of examples from construction and mining operations are given, and it is demonstrated how relevant queueing models can serve as tools for instance in manpower planning and cost analysis. The author has chosen to only include material for which he finds real applications. Further he mainly restricts himself to models where the theoretical results are quite simple. After a general introduction in Chapter 1, a treatment of queues with exponential arrival and service time distributions (i.e. M / M / c queues) is given in Chapter 2. It is demonstrated how the balance equations for these birth and death models are obtained. The main results (as the queue length distribution, mean queue length and mean waiting time) of the most important models are presented in tabular form, and graphs are given for some of the model parameters. A similar approach is chosen in Chapter 3, where models with Erlangian (E~) or constant (D) service time are treated. The author does not give many details on how the solutions of the balance equations are obtained, but chooses to concentrate on the results and their applications in mining. In particular, several models with a finite source of customers are discussed in this book. Approximations (for statistics as the mean waiting time and server utilization) are also given for some of the models. Chapter 4 treats cyclic queues and their applications in mining operations; a theory which is largely attributed to Koenigsberg. More general closed network models are, however, not introduced. Serial queues and queues with storage in the service process are discussed in Chapter 5.