Academic articles

In light of low-frequency/high-impact disruptions, the ripple effect has recently been intro-duced into academic literature on supply chain management. The ripple effect in the supply chain results from disruption propagation from the initial disruption point to the supply, pro-duction and distribution networks. While optimization modelling dominates this research field, the potential of simulation modelling still remains under-explored. The objective of this study is to reveal research gaps that can be closed with the help of simulation modelling.

The recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals call for the end of poverty and the equitable provision of healthcare. These goals are often at odds, however: health seeking can lead to catastrophic spending, an outcome for which cancer patients and the poor in resource-limited settings are at particularly high risk. How various health policies affect the additional aims of financial wellbeing and equity is poorly understood. This paper evaluates the health, financial, and equity impacts of governmental and charitable policies for surgical oncology in a resource-limited setting. Three charitable platforms for surgical oncology delivery in Uganda were compared to six governmental policies aimed at improving healthcare access. An extended cost-effectiveness analysis using an agent-based simulation model examined the numbers of lives saved, catastrophic expenditure averted, impoverishment averted, costs, and the distribution of benefits across the wealth spectrum.

Sortie Generation Rate (SGR) is an important metric for air dominance. Lockheed Martin must demonstrate that the Air System can fly the sorties during an allotted time and deliver the capability to the war fighter. Aircraft turnaround time- the time between when the aircraft touches down, refuels, rearms, and completes inspections in order to release the aircraft, to aircraft wheels up - plays an important role in achieving the SGR requirement.

Pertussis control remains a challenge due to recently observed effects of waning immunity to acellular vaccine and suboptimal vaccine coverage. Multiple outbreaks have been reported in different ages worldwide. For certain outbreaks, publichealth authorities can launch an outbreak response immunization (ORI) campaign to control pertussis spread. The authors developed an agent-based model to investigate effects of outbreak response immunization campaigns targeting young adolescents in averting pertussis cases. The experience proved that ABM offers a promising methodology to evaluate other public health interventions used in pertussis control. The authors also identified the strong need for further research into application of modeling to further our understanding of pertussis epidemiology.

The public assistance system is supposed to offer a bridge between poverty and self-sufficiency. Families receive benefits such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to soften the impact of loss of income. The programs are intended to be limited in duration and provide a very modest amount of financial support. Some families are fortunate to also receive a housing voucher or a child care subsidy to help offset basic expenses. Eligibility for benefits varies by program and is based on different criteria, most of which are linked to personal income. This study asks: what happens when benefits are cut before individuals reach economic stability? This is frequently called the “benefits cliff.”

Order picking is one of the most labor- and time-consuming processes in supply chains. Improving the performance of order picking is thus a frequently researched topic. Due to high cost pressure for warehouse managers the space in storage areas has to be used efficiently. Hence narrow-aisle warehouses where order pickers cannot pass as well as several order pickers working in the same area are common. This leads to congestion which is in this context referred to as picker blocking. This paper employs an agent-based simulation approach to investigate the effects of picker blocking in manual order picking systems with different combinations of routing policies for three order pickers in a rectangular warehouse with narrow-aisles.

Spare part management is essential to many organizations, since excess inventory leads to high holding costs and stock outs can greatly impact operations performance, but it is a major problem in the testing work shop in Robert Bosch China Diesel (RBCD) Wuxi. The workshop is used to test the functionality of the injectors, such as those statistics for pressure, electro conductivity, etc. After implementing the automated tower storage in the work shop, the workshop supervisor applied monthly order policy to purchase spare parts, which means at the end of each month, he/she will check the consumption of last month’s spare parts and make orders according to that data. However, in order to control the inventory of spare parts and achieve minimum total inventory cost of those parts, the (Q, r) model was suggested to make the monthly order, realizing the goal of maximizing the net profit of injectors.

Due to their favorable electrical and optical properties, quantum dots (QDs) nanoparticles have found numerous applications including nanomedicine. However, there have been concerns about their potential environmental impacts. The objective of this study is to develop an agent-based simulation model for predicting the diffusion dynamics and concentration of toxic materials released from QDs. Reaction kinetics is used to model the stability of surface capping agent particularly due to oxidation process.

This paper first presents a simulation model implemented to study a specific workcenter in semiconductor manufacturing facilities (fabs) with the objective of controlling the risk on process equipment. The different components of the model, its inputs and its outputs, that led us to propose improvements in the workcenter, are explained. The risk evaluated in this study is the exposure level in the number of wafers on a process tool since the latest control performed for this tool, based on an indicator called Wafer at Risk. Our analysis shows that measures should be better managed to avoid lack of control and that an appropriate qualification strategy is required.

A virtual factory should represent most of the features and operations of the corresponding real factory. Some of the key features of the virtual factory include the ability to assess performance at multiple resolutions and generate analytics data similar to that possible in a real factory. One should be able to look at the overall factory performance and be able to drill down to a machine and analyze its performance. It will require a large amount of effort and expertise to build such a virtual factory. This paper describes an effort to build a multiple resolution model of a manufacturing cell. The model provides the ability to study the performance at the cell level or at the machine level. The benefits and limitations of the presented approach and future research directions are also described.