Marek Vlk, Přemysl Šůcha, Jarosław Rudy, Radosław Idzikowski
{"title":"Purchase and production optimization in a meat processing plant","authors":"Marek Vlk, Přemysl Šůcha, Jarosław Rudy, Radosław Idzikowski","doi":"10.1111/itor.70081","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/itor.70081","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper addresses an optimization problem concerning the purchase and subsequent material processing in a meat processing company. Unlike the majority of existing papers, we do not concentrate on how this problem concerns supply chain management, but we focus on the production stage, primarily the meat cutting. Specifically, we study the operational level of production management, where the company responds to fluctuations in demand and controls the flow of materials, as this level of management significantly affects its profit. The problem involves the concept of alternative ways of material processing, stock of material with different expiration dates, and extra constraints widely neglected in the current literature addressing meat cutting and processing, namely, the minimum order quantity and the minimum percentage in alternatives. We prove that each of these two constraints makes the problem <span></span><math>\u0000 <semantics>\u0000 <mi>NP</mi>\u0000 <annotation>$mathcal {NP}$</annotation>\u0000 </semantics></math>-hard, and we design an exact iterative approach based on integer linear programming that allows us to solve real-life instances even using an open-source integer linear programming solver. Another advantage of this approach is that it mitigates numerical issues, caused by the extensive range of data values, we experienced with a commercial solver. The results obtained using real data from the meat processing company showed that our algorithm can find the optimum solution in a few seconds for all considered use cases.</p>","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 2","pages":"1016-1051"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/itor.70081","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145197191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhaohui Li, Chuang Zhang, Tianhong Wu, Shanshan Zhou, Yantong Li
{"title":"Optimizing plastic product manufacturing scheduling: an integrated approach to minimize setup costs and tardiness with preventive maintenance considerations","authors":"Zhaohui Li, Chuang Zhang, Tianhong Wu, Shanshan Zhou, Yantong Li","doi":"10.1111/itor.70085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/itor.70085","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the competitive landscape of plastic product manufacturing, optimizing production scheduling is crucial for enhancing efficiency and reducing costs. This paper presents an integrated approach to address the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem (UPMSP) with a focus on minimizing setup costs and tardiness penalties, while also considering the necessity of preventive maintenance. We incorporate practical constraints such as release time, machine eligibility, and delivery due dates into our model to ensure its applicability to real-world manufacturing scenarios. We propose a mixed-integer linear programming model designed to minimize the total costs associated with setup and tardiness. To solve this complex problem, we develop a constructive heuristic and an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm, which introduces novel destroy and repair operators. These algorithms are tailored to the specific structure of the UPMSP and are tested through a case study involving a real plastic product manufacturer. Results from the case study demonstrate that our proposed solution method significantly outperforms the company's current planning approach, achieving a reduction in total costs by 73.11%. Furthermore, the ALNS algorithm's performance is validated through numerical experiments on a range of randomly generated instances, showcasing its ability to provide high-quality solutions within practical computation times.</p>","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 2","pages":"984-1015"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145196874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kaan Kılıç, Melike Meterelliyoz, İlay Güvenç Pelit, Mehmet Soysal
{"title":"Modeling a humanitarian-aid covering tour problem with location selection and vehicle assignment decisions","authors":"Kaan Kılıç, Melike Meterelliyoz, İlay Güvenç Pelit, Mehmet Soysal","doi":"10.1111/itor.70088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/itor.70088","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In post-disaster situations, time-critical decision-making is essential. Due to high demand and limited resources, visiting all affected locations is often infeasible. This study presents a novel variant of the covering tour problem that addresses these constraints by integrating location selection and vehicle assignment decisions. In the proposed problem, vehicles depart from selected relief centers, visit a subset of victim locations, and are allowed to complete their tours at any center. The demands of unvisited locations are satisfied through demand transfers from nearby visited nodes, with associated transfer times included in the total operation time. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is formulated to minimize total operation time, incorporating both travel and demand transfer times. Scenario-based analyses are performed to evaluate the model's performance under various operational conditions, including transfer time sensitivity, route flexibility, demand coverage constraints, time-based covering radius, and partial fulfillment policies. To address scalability, a two-stage clustering-based heuristic is developed, offering a practical and computationally efficient solution method. From a humanitarian logistics perspective, the findings emphasize the importance of flexible routing, strategic placement of relief centers, and careful management of coverage thresholds. Additionally, the simplicity and adaptability of the proposed heuristic make it well suited for real-time decision-making in post-disaster response operations.</p>","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 3","pages":"1559-1608"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145646680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Integrating cognitive mapping, neutrosophic logic and DEMATEL for sustainable entrepreneurship in SMEs","authors":"Neuza C. M. Q. F. Ferreira, João J. M. Ferreira","doi":"10.1111/itor.70086","DOIUrl":"10.1111/itor.70086","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Sustainability is essential for contemporary businesses as it influences the social, financial, and environmental aspects of their operations. However, numerous studies reveal that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face significant challenges when aligning with sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) principles and the triple bottom line. This study aims to leverage a more comprehensive approach to SE by integrating cognitive mapping, neutrosophic logic, and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The primary objective is to identify cause-and-effect relationships among SE initiatives in SMEs, enhancing clarity and guiding strategic actions. By comparing the outcomes of DEMATEL and neutrosophic logic, the research addresses the handling of uncertainty and promotes more accurate decision-making processes. Findings provide valuable insights for academics, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and regulatory bodies, underscoring the value of the proposed methodological framework. Furthermore, this study lays a comparative foundation for future research exploring causal relationships among SE initiatives in SMEs and contributes to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; e.g., SDG8 [Decent Work and Economic Growth], SDG 9 [Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure], and SDG 12 [Responsible Consumption and Production]) by advancing sustainable practices in SMEs.</p>","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 4","pages":"2605-2638"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146176110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital and greening strategies for financial resilience in a three-echelon supply chain","authors":"Sushil Kumar Dey, Kaustav Kundu, Prasun Das","doi":"10.1111/itor.70072","DOIUrl":"10.1111/itor.70072","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Integrating green initiatives and digital technology within supply chain management presents notable advantages, enhancing both sustainability and operational efficiency. This study examines the pivotal roles of blockchain and cybersecurity technologies in managing green supply chains under deterministic and stochastic conditions. It explores a three-tier supply chain setup encompassing a supplier, a manufacturer, and a retailer. Through a comparative analysis of traditional and digital implementation scenarios, the study delineates the impacts through numerical illustration. In the deterministic scenario, the classical optimization approach is applied by implementing a Stackelberg leader–follower game using the backwards induction method for optimal pricing and greening. In the stochastic scenario, for the centralized case, an optimization method based on a search technique is employed. The results underscore the indispensability of green investment and blockchain technology to facilitate optimal decision-making, with market variability exerting a significant influence on stakeholder profitability. Moreover, the stochastic nature of demand occasionally yields economic benefits. In the context of random scenarios, the centralized game significantly surpasses the traditional and only blockchain-implemented approaches seen in deterministic situations, indicating the financial resilience of each stakeholder. Managers should adopt green and pricing strategies that leverage blockchain and cybersecurity technologies to enhance transparency, reduce costs, and build customer trust, regardless of whether demand is deterministic or stochastic. By integrating these technologies, firms can optimize supply chain efficiency, mitigate risks, and align with sustainability goals while adapting to varying demand scenarios.</p>","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 4","pages":"2289-2324"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146147981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Special Issue on “Decision Support System Technology in the Artificial Intelligence Era”","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/itor.70065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/itor.70065","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144751216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Special Issue on “Cutting and Packing”","authors":"","doi":"10.1111/itor.70067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/itor.70067","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 1","pages":"713-714"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144751398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sustainable reverse logistics network design: a case of waste electrical and electronic equipment management","authors":"R. A. Arun Kumar, B. Vipin, R. Sridharan","doi":"10.1111/itor.70082","DOIUrl":"10.1111/itor.70082","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this study, we develop a reverse logistics network design model to recover value from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) under uncertainty. We propose a multi-objective, multi-period, and multi-product optimization model under uncertainty, focusing on economic, environmental, and social aspects for the WEEE management organization in India. The uncertainty associated with the price of reprocessed items, as well as the quantity and quality of product returns, is captured using the scenario generation technique. The augmented <span></span><math>\u0000 <semantics>\u0000 <mi>ε</mi>\u0000 <annotation>$varepsilon$</annotation>\u0000 </semantics></math>-constraint method is employed to address the multi-objective optimization problem to generate Pareto-optimal solutions. Our model incorporates the modular capacity expansion and inventory management aspects that accommodate the resilience of the reverse logistics network. Our results show that strategic inventory management can yield better outcomes from a sustainability perspective in the presence of fluctuating prices of reprocessed items. Furthermore, we observe that when the quality of the product returns decreases, the profit and social benefits decrease.</p>","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 4","pages":"2577-2604"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146155130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Premium sharing for supply chain coordination with business interruption insurance under supply disruption","authors":"Yingjian Lei, Hong Zhou, Yujie Zhao","doi":"10.1111/itor.70080","DOIUrl":"10.1111/itor.70080","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Effective supply chain financing plays a critical role in mitigating disruption risks. However, current studies predominantly examine financing mechanisms through financial institutions or supply chain members. Research on insurance-based financing remains insufficient despite its critical importance in managing severe disruptions. This study addresses how to coordinate a supply chain under the risk of supply interruption by employing business interruption insurance. A two-echelon supply chain comprising a capital-constrained manufacturer and a retailer is modeled using the Stackelberg game framework. Business interruption insurance is implemented to mitigate losses caused by supply interruptions. Two insurance contracts, self-insuring and joint-insuring, are proposed. The findings demonstrate that the JI contract enables effective supply chain coordination under high disruption severity by significantly enhancing risk resilience. This study also reveals that transferring risk from the capital-constrained manufacturer to the retailer through a well-designed insurance cost-sharing scheme is crucial for supply chain coordination. Numerical experiments further evaluate the performance of the supply chain under different contracts and analyze how compensation for stockout, cost-sharing ratio, key parameters, and demand distribution affect the benefits of supply chain members.</p>","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 4","pages":"2325-2357"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146155131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anna Rita Dipierro, Kristof De Witte, Pierluigi Toma
{"title":"Nonparametric efficiency and artificial intelligence techniques in higher education: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis","authors":"Anna Rita Dipierro, Kristof De Witte, Pierluigi Toma","doi":"10.1111/itor.70070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/itor.70070","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In a sector that needs to work as efficient as possible, artificial intelligence (AI) can guide the efficiency improvements of higher education institutions (HEIs). This paper explores both the AI literature and the efficiency literature as applied to HEIs following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review guidelines. The goal is to identify the relevant research that uses nonparametric efficiency and AI techniques within the HEI sector by examining articles published up to March 2025. Our findings provide a powerful mix of bibliometric and systematic literature review results that identify the main trends common to these two strands of research. The analysis highlights a long-standing tradition of applying nonparametric efficiency analysis to the sector, as it is attracting the increasing attention of AI scholars. We outline the substantial evidence that reveals much room for improvement in efficiency in the HEI sector, and how the application of AI may be well-suited. This is particularly evident as AI can support efficiency evaluations, particularly in handling tasks that traditional efficiency techniques alone cannot perform. A key contribution of this work is the identification of the opportunities for further research focus within this critical intersection between the two fields, which can inform both HEI administrators and policymakers.</p>","PeriodicalId":49176,"journal":{"name":"International Transactions in Operational Research","volume":"33 3","pages":"1427-1464"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/itor.70070","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145646485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}