智能运筹学与动态系统实时优化控制

针对传统的运筹学理论难以处理动态优化问题这一缺陷, 将运筹学与人工智能及知识工 程等学科理论交叉融合, 提出创立智能运筹学这一新学科的构想, 阐述了智能运筹学理论处理 动态问题的原理和新思路, 给出了动态系统实时优化控制M u lt i2agen t 系统的框架结构, 并较 深入地研究了智能运筹学理论体系中的问题知识表示、模型知识表示、基于事例学习的建模方 法与建模支持系统等理论和实践问题. 本项研究是运筹学与人工智能、知识工程等学科的交叉 与渗透, 为运筹学理论解决动态优化问题开辟了途径.     

不确定性环境下在线实时定价的深度强化学习策略

电子商务的迅速发展为在线实时定价奠定了环境基础，本文基于深度强化学习理论提出了一个在不确定性环境下针对有限销售时间段内在线销售给定库存量商品的动态定价学习框架DRL-DP(deep reinforcement learning framework for dynamic pricing)。DRL-DP首先将动态定价问题建模成马尔科夫决策过程(markov decision process, MDP),然后基于深度强化学习理论设计了动态定价算法。实验结果表明在不确定性动态定价环境中，DRL-DP相比于传统的表格式强化学习动态定价算法，能够在需求与环境特征存在相关性时取得更好的收益表现。     

考虑波次订单动态释放的B2C电商订单合并配送决策方法

本文针对动态释放、异质性强的B2C电商波次订单的物流配送决策难题,以提高车辆满载率、降低配送成本为目标,研究考虑波次订单动态释放的B2C电商订单城区物流合并配送问题。首先,将原动态问题建模为一阶马尔可夫决策过程以表达其多阶段时序序贯决策的特点;其次,基于状态转移具有的时序特征,提出一种基于时序预测的前向动态规划方法用于寻找最优策略,将时序预测信息融入到合并配送决策的模型中,并结合定性启发式规则与定量优化模型以兼顾方法的决策效率与优化能力;最后,基于标准算例下的数值实验和某B2C电商平台的实例分析,验证了所提方法的有效性和实用性。此研究可为B2C电商订单物流配送提供决策支持,同时对于状态转移具有时序特征的马尔可夫决策问题提供了求解的新思路。     

模糊需求信息条件下的实时动态车辆调度问题研究

将传统确定性车辆调度问题扩展为具有模糊特征的模糊车辆调度问题。在对模糊需求信息条件下的车辆调度问题进行简单描述的基础上,阐述了全面、实时地考虑所有可用信息的动态模糊车辆调度问题的求解思路,并通过引入决策者主观偏好和模糊可能性的概念,构建了该问题的数学模型,给出了解决该问题的一种实时启发式算法。最后,在最小化车辆行驶距离的目标下,通过随机模拟方法研究了决策者主观偏好值对最终决策目标的影响作用,并通过与非实时调度的比较验证了实时车辆调度的优越性。     

大数据驱动的决策范式转变——以个性化O2O即时物流调度为例

大数据环境下传统的决策范式正转变为基于数据的决策范式，本文以O2O即时服务这种新型商业模式为情景，研究大数据驱动的新决策范式下的O2O即时物流调度模型.本文跨域融合物流部门、其他运营部门以及外部环境信息构成全景式数据，同时放宽传统决策范式的经典假设，实现从无差异化配送时间到个性化配送时间的转变，以及需求服从先验分布到考虑未来需求时空属性的转变.本文融合机器学习和运筹优化方法，实现新决策范式下的O2O即时物流调度模型.在预测层面，构建个性化众包配送时间预测模型和基于订单集时空相似性的需求场景预测算法；在决策层面，同时考虑个性化预测模型的点估计及其不确定性，并考虑未来订单集的时空分布，构建考虑预测不确定性的调度模型，同时设计同步预测和决策算法求解.本文与中国主流的O2O商超平台合作，通过基于真实数据的模拟仿真，验证了新决策范式下的O2O即时物流调度模型的可行性和有效性.相较于传统的决策范式，本文提出的模型能实现更精准的供需匹配，降低延误订单数、平均配送时间和配送成本.     

物联网环境下企业组织管理特征、问题与方法

随着物联网、人工智能、智慧城市等万物互联的智能时代来临，在上世纪大规模生产背景下及其之后互联网背景下产生的传统管理学理论，面临着新的挑战，为此，本文以物流行业为应用对象，提出物联网环境下企业组织管理新问题和方法。首先分析了物联网系统和环境的基本特征，然后从结构、流程、行为和宏观环境四个方面，分析了企业在物联网系统、技术和物联网环境下企业组织所具有的特征和性能。基于这些分析，从组织的结构、流程、行为和运作四个方面，提出了物联网环境下企业组织管理研究的科学问题和新的研究方法。为物联网环境或智能环境下企业组织管理研究提供了思路并指出了发展方向。     

物流配送车辆路径规划模型的知识表示研究

针对物流配送车辆路径规划的实时动态建模问题,以解决模型的目标函数和约束等符号化知识的知识表示及基于知识的求解机制为突破口,提出了以七元组M=(B,O,C,I,P,E,D)表示车辆路径规划模型的知识表示方法--BOCIPED表示法;并以沈阳昌达集团餐饮配送公司为应用背景,设计建立了相应的车辆路径规划问题的建模与求解系统,通过系统的实际应用,验证了系统中BOCIPED表示方法的可行性与有效性.本研究为车辆路径规划这一难题提供由计算机自动生成模型并求解的新方法,有利于建立高智能的物流配送实时调度系统.     

基于系统分析的炼钢连铸重调度框架

针对炼钢连铸生产过程受动态扰动因素的影响而使得初始调度不可行的情况,应用系统分析方法,从扰动因素、策略、方法以及性能评价4个层次提出了基于系统分析的炼钢连铸重调度框架,并对框架中的研究内容展开了深入分析和讨论,以期为企业管理者决策时提供依据和参考.     

通信技术在煤矿生产调度管理系统中的应用

煤矿生产中的安全生产一直是煤炭行业运营中重点关注的问题之一,也是保证煤炭行业可持续发展的一个重要因素。在煤矿企业生产中,调度指挥中心在整个安全生产过程中有着重要的作用。同时调度中心也是生产中各类信息资料的集结地,在科学技术飞速发展的今天,井下越来越多的电子设备,以及调度中心的信息资源共享、工作流程优化的要求,以及传统的基于小灵通无线固话技术为主的有线通讯调度系统存在调度效率低,可调度范围小等一系列问题,一整套基于3G移动互联网、光纤网络、FTTH、物联网、云计算等技术的信息化解决方案是非常重要的。     

大规模定制模式下供应链计划调度优化分析

大规模定制模式下供应链生产计划调度问题是一个典型的随机需求与随机资源约束的 多目标动态优化问题. 在对该问题特征翔实描述,分析所总结的理论研究成果基础上,提出了 完整的随机多目标动态优化数学模型. 通过实例简要分析了优化目标的成熟性及模型的可行 性. 最后,指出了较为重要的动态优化调度过程的实现,并进行了实践应用过程的验证与说明     

Power,authority and legitimacy

Management, human resources, organization, control, leadership, etc., all seem to be just so many euphemisms for power, and this suggests a discourse of management and organization that calls things by their proper name. This paper on the contrary stresses the need to resolve the concept of ‘power’ itself into more differentiated notions, and proposes that clarification may be derived from distinctions once explicit in the vocabulary of Classical antiquity, but lost in modern European languages. It argues that nothing but confusion in thinking about organizations, management and legitimation can result from the failure to recognize that the phenomena this vocabulary identifies and distinguishes are irreducibly different.     

Defining Spirituality of Work

There is a current surge of writings on spirituality and related topics. For instance, Woodward (1997) has pointed out that since Thomas Moore's publication of Care of the Soul in 1994 there have been nearly 800books published with the word soul in the title. These run all the way from Chicken Soup for theWoman's Soul (Canfield et al., 1996) to A Guide to Liberating YourSoul (Barrett, 1995). Spirituality of work is a big part of this surge. Definitionsof spirituality of work seem to vary widely. Bowman (1998, p. 8) in his `reviewof the phenomenon of spirituality of work' found `Definitions of the term spirituality in the context of the Spirituality of Work troublesome and particularly subjective. Many writers do not even attempt definitions.' The purpose of this article is to review the concept of spirituality of work in its historical and current use and to propose a comprehensive definition.     

WebStress: a web interface to explore a multidatabase bibliographic corpus on occupational stress

A bibliographic study on a multidisciplinary subject, such as occupational stress, requires a multidatabase query facility. Given this, we searched eight databases belonging to different fields (medicine, psychology, etc.) and from different countries. Thus, more than 26000 references on occupational stress were gathered. A bibliographic corpus of this sort is unusable because of the heterogeneous format of the records and the number of duplicate entries. Considering the limitations of commercial programs, we have developed a system, called WebStress, for reformatting the data and removing duplicates. The huge number of references and the research needs of updating and searching have necessitated the addition of several other functions to WebStress. Therefore WebStress comprises a web interface that makes it possible to search the corpus with advanced features (using clustering, a specialized thesaurus on stress and Boolean queries). In addition to the usual bibliographic queries on a specific database such as Medline, WebStress provides bibliometric analysis of the corpus, which might contribute to a detailed analysis on occupational stress in order to highlight the networks of researchers and to find the main topics studied in this area. WebStress is not yet available to researchers in general. It is being further developed, and also permission needs to be obtained from the eight commercial bibliographic databases that it consults.     

A new lease for life? The return of vitalism in management and organization studies

This paper starts from a growing interest in the concept of concern, lived experience or “inhabiting” as part of the so-called “affective turn”. My main argument is that the notion of concern cannot be thought or understood without the concept of life. The concept of life, however, is somewhat of a taboo topic in the social sciences. I hold, nevertheless, that in order to reflect on their assumptions and to define concern for their own studies, scholars need to think about life and make a choice regarding the various approaches that can be taken. I therefore present and compare four vitalist approaches: romanticism and Lebensphilosophie, vitalism as ethos and pathos, neuroecosociality as well as vitalism as becoming.     

Effects of the implementation of information technology on employees' strain and job satisfaction: a context-dependent approach

The effects on staff of the implementation of new office information technology were investigated in ten companies in Vienna using a longitudinal design. Strain and satisfaction of 331 employees (implementation sample: n = 212; control sample: n = 119) were measured at five points in time over a period of 22 months. The study is based on a context-dependent approach. Personal factors (individual differences, external load) were assessed by questionnaires, and situational factors (job design, implementation content and implementation context) by objective measures. The impact of these factors on employees' strain responses was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). While the implementation of new technology as such made no significant contribution to the explanation of strain variables, a reasonable model fit was achieved when implementation characteristics were taken into account. The data suggest that negative effects of implementations must be expected if (1) adaptational demands do not include the enhancement of employee qualifications, (2) character-based user interfaces are not replaced, and (3) employees have few or no opportunities to participate in the implementation process.     

Consequences of work-family conflict on employee well-being over time

The effects of work-family conflict on the well-being of a diverse sample of 342 non-professional employees from the greater Los Angeles area were examined. Data were collected at two points in time, and a rigorous research design was employed. The effects of self-report bias were considered by controlling for social desirability bias, and by collecting two sources of data (i.e. self-reports and co-workers reports). The results revealed that work-family conflict predicted employee well-being over and above social desirability bias. In addition, analyses were consistent when both self-reports and co-workers reports were utilized. Finally, work-family conflict was a longitudinal predictor of employee's positive well-being. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were consistent across self-reports and co-worker reports.     

Policy Goals for Health and Safety

Health management and safety regulation are separate disciplines but share the aim to extend expectancy of life in good health. The need to improve cost-effectiveness calls for their co-ordinated management according to a unified rationale. Three guiding principles of accountability, demonstrable net benefit and a uniform measure of performance, have been laid out in Canada by the Joint Committee on Health and Safety. They call for open accounting in terms of (health-related quality-adjusted) life expectancy. The principles are utilitarian in format but, it is argued, inequity is naturally diminished in the process of optimizing cost-effectiveness through maximum marginal returns. Comments are made on practical implementation. The need for public consent in practice calls for two additional principles reflecting fair procedure and sovereignty of the citizens. It is concluded that public health and safety measures should be surveyed, documented for cost-effectiveness and prioritized for improvement.     

The impact of a participatory organizational intervention on job stress in community health care institutions

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a short-term participatory intervention in health care institutions in Norway on workers' control, other job characteristics, job stress, subjective health and job satisfaction. Participants (including managers and supervisors) were randomly allocated to intervention groups and to a control group. Actions to solve problems based on the employees' own perceptions of the main problems were seen as the key motivators for organizational improvement and increased control at the task and office level in the work situation. The main stressors identified by the participants in this study were lack of information, communication and respect between professions, as well as the need for professional and personal development. The participatory intervention had a positive, but limited effect on work-related stress, job characteristics, learning climate and management style, and seemed to have started a beneficial change process. There were no negative short-term effects on work-related stress and job demands. Organizational interventions may be a potential training ground for acquiring participatory skills and resources, and if sustained after the intervention period, they can have long-term effects on problem solving, job stress and employee satisfaction.     

Circadian Rhythm and the Business Person

Each human being has an internal timekeeping mechanism. To date, over 100 so-called circadian rhythms have been detected. Perhaps the most significant is body temperature. There is an apparent connection between this rhythm and the efficiency with which we do things in the course of the working day. Within individuals, patterns have been discovered which give credence to the popular notions of a morning or an afternoon person, and so on. Our memory changes from morning to afternoon: short-term memory is stronger in the morning, and long-term memory stronger in the afternoon; in schools, morning students have higher grades than students who have other time-of-day preferences. Therefore, a strong case can be made in support of flexible time schedules. It is reported that productivity went up on the introduction of such a scheme. Employee stress has been seen to decline also. When flextime was offered, parents with small children took advantage of the benefit as well as unmarried employees. The only drawback is ensuring that, with so many individual variations in preferences, the needs of the company are fully met. If such a scheme can be devised, however, the research suggests that productivity and efficiency will increase.