This paper characterizes optimal service policies in terms of the frequency and timing of services which are intended to maintain a stock of assets. The model is non-stochastic. The results are obtained by a two-stage step-wise minimization procedure wherein dynamic programming is first used to characterize sub-optimal policies and then the calculus of finite differences is utilized to select the optimal policy. The effect of the time horizon on the optimal policy is emphasized throughout and, in two specific interpretations of the model, the classical results of the economic lot-size and equipment replacement policy are shown to be limits of more general policies.
Abstract This article presents information about the developments related to the field of accounting. South-Western Publishing Co. has announced a $500 annual contribution to the American Accounting Association (AAA) Fellowship Fund. The only stipulation made by South-Western respecting the annual contribution is that grants to individuals from the Fellowship Fund shall not in any way be identified as coming from South-Western Publishing Company. Mr. Eric L. Kohier, former President of the AAA, has been presented a certificate of appreciation and a life membership in the Federal Government Accountants Association. The Small Business Administration has prepared a listing of Management Research Summaries available free on request. The summaries cover a wide variety of subjects in the broad areas of managing, financing, and operating small business enterprises. The National Association of Accountants has announced special recognition awards offered for research essays written on the topic "Choosing Accounting Practices For Reporting To Management."
Abstract In an examination of the 1959 published corporate financial reports of 600 companies in 1960' it was found that 421 or more than 70% referred to an employee stock option plan. It has been asserted in fact that well over 50% of the companies whose stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange have adopted some form of stock distribution plan for their employees. The courts have permitted stock option plans to be upset by litigation on the part of minority stockholders. One particularly sensitive matter involves developing, recommending, and adopting of stock option plans by parties directly benefiting even if later ratified by the stockholders. Stockholders have some basis at least to judge the adequacy of the consideration given by executives to the corporation. Certainly accountants can do no less than clearly indicate the total consideration given by the corporation and its relative significance. According to the author, no real effort is made to inform the stockholders fully as to the real cost of their managerial services.
In this note we study dynamic inventory problem for a follow-on provisioning in which program length is subject to uncertainty with a known distribution. It is shown that under rather general cost conditions, optimal policy is of (S, s) type. This is true whether or not there exists a time lag in delivery provided that excess demand is always backlogged. The case of an infinite program horizon is also briefly discussed. MODERN INVENTORY theory has been a relatively recent development, but its brief existence has proceeded at least along two fronts: theory and applications. The earliest work falling under this theory is that by Masse [6], followed by those of Arrow, Harris, and Marschak [1], Dvoretzky, Kiefer and Wolfowitz [5], Bellman, Glicksberg and Gross [4], and Modigliani and Hohn [7]. An excellent account of historical back ground of this theory was given by Arrow [2], and its applications to a great variety of economic and business may be found in many journals in such fields as operations research, management science, and production control. A detailed discussion of the nature and structure of inventory problems was given by Arrow, Karlin, and Scarf [2, Chap. 2], and a simple mathematical exposition of theory may also be found in Bellman [3, Chap. 5]. Briefly, problem involves determination of (optimal) stock levels for inventories which extend over a sequence of time periods and are subject to fluctuating demand in each such period. Such may arise in a number of ways, e.g., in scheduling production or determining distribution of commodities over certain markets, in finding replacement policy for aged equipment, or in combinations of some or all of these features. The treatment of demand in modern inventory theory is usually handled in two ways: (1) time periods are regularly spaced, and demand in each period is a random variable with a known probability distribution; or (2) size of each demand is fixed but times at which successive demands occur are random variables. We study here an inventory problem which is in some sense a hybrid between two and which occurs frequently in involving follow-on provisioning. (Follow-on provisioning is a subsequent provisioning of same item from same supply source.) Here, time periods are equally spaced (corresponding to budget cycles) and demand in each period is a random variable subject to a known
Discusses the importance of decision-making in management. Assessment of the literature on decision research; Different approaches to decision-making; Definition of a decision process; Uniformities of decisioning; Scheme for the analysis of decisioning; Advantages of the scheme.
This paper describes a method of minimizing a strictly convex quadratic functional of several variables constrained by a system of linear inequalities. The method takes advantage of strict convexity by first computing the absolute minimum of the functional. In the event that the values of the variables yielding the absolute minimum do not satisfy the constraints, an equivalent and simplified quadratic problem in the “Lagrange multipliers” is derived. An efficient algorithm is devised for the transformed problem, which leads to the solution in a finite number of applications. A numerical example illustrates the method.