{"title":"Polynomial-time algorithms for deterministic uncapacitated lot-sizing problem with heterogeneous production cycles","authors":"Tan Yu, Xiang Zhong, Yongpei Guan","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107304","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107304","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we explore a unique deterministic uncapacitated lot-sizing problem with two products of distinct quality and production cycles. Either product can fulfill the demand, necessitating concurrent inventory tracking, and adding model complexity. We target cost reduction and maintain an average quality level by optimizing ordering strategies. Incorporating multiple ordering properties into backward dynamic programming and the shortest path algorithm, we demonstrate finite value space enumeration and present an optimal algorithm with <span><math><mi>O</mi><mo>(</mo><msup><mrow><mi>N</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>4</mn></mrow></msup><mo>)</mo></math></span> complexity, where <em>N</em> denotes the number of planning horizon periods. The code is available at <span><span>Github</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107304"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144088838","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":"Fixed order scheduling with deadlines","authors":"André Berger, Arman Rouhani, Marc Schröder","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107306","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107306","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper studies a scheduling problem where machines must follow a predetermined fixed order for processing jobs. Given <em>n</em> jobs, each with processing times and deadlines, we aim to minimize the number of machines used while meeting deadlines and maintaining the order. We show that the first-fit algorithm is a 2-approximation when the order aligns with non-increasing slacks, non-decreasing slacks, or non-increasing deadlines. In general, we provide an <span><math><mi>O</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>log</mi><mo></mo><mi>n</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span>-approximation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107306"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144068375","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}
Sylvie Chaddad , Yezekael Hayel , Vineeth S. Varma
{"title":"A stochastic model for optimizing crowdfunding campaign success","authors":"Sylvie Chaddad , Yezekael Hayel , Vineeth S. Varma","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107303","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107303","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Crowdfunding is popular among entrepreneurs who aim to bypass classical funding channels and directly address the crowd via Internet-based Crowdfunding platforms. This work introduces a model to enhance crowdfunding by strategically managing friends and family (F&F) investments. It studies the impact of timely F&F funds on total raised amounts, employing offline and online policy strategies. The offline method aims at maximizing expected investment, while the online uses Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) to improve success probability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107303"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143921170","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}
José Rui Figueira , Kathrin Klamroth , Michael Stiglmayr , Julia Sudhoff Santos
{"title":"On the computational complexity of ordinal multi-objective unconstrained combinatorial optimization","authors":"José Rui Figueira , Kathrin Klamroth , Michael Stiglmayr , Julia Sudhoff Santos","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107302","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107302","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Multi-objective unconstrained combinatorial optimization problems (MUCO) are in general hard to solve, i.e., the corresponding decision problem is NP-hard and the outcome set is intractable. In this paper we explore special cases of MUCO problems that are actually easy, i.e., solvable in polynomial time. More precisely, we show that MUCO problems with up to two ordinal objective functions plus one real-valued objective function are tractable, and that their complete nondominated set can be computed in polynomial time. For MUCO problems with one ordinal and a second ordinal or real-valued objective function we present an even more efficient algorithm that applies a greedy strategy multiple times.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107302"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143923379","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":"Lifting cover inequalities for the robust knapsack problem","authors":"Youngjoo Roh , Junyoung Kim , Kyungsik Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107301","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107301","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Robust cover inequalities are well-known valid inequalities for the robust knapsack problem (RKP). To strengthen them, we use lifting, which involves solving lifting problems—special cases of the RKP. We propose a novel lifting method that leverages upper bounds for lifting problems. First, we introduce a strong, efficiently computable, and quality-guaranteed upper bound for the RKP based on the decomposition property of its solution set. We then devise an efficient lifting method by applying the proposed upper bound to lifting problems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107301"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143895549","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}
Lisa Garcia Tercero , David Van Bulck , Fabien Nießen , Dries Goossens
{"title":"Minimal and fair waiting times for single-day sports tournaments with multiple fields","authors":"Lisa Garcia Tercero , David Van Bulck , Fabien Nießen , Dries Goossens","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper studies a single-day round-robin sports tournament organized at a single location featuring multiple fields. Teams are fully rested after a certain period of not playing, and all other periods between games are declared as waiting times. Considering both efficiency and fairness regarding waiting times, we prove lower bounds on the total and maximum waiting time and develop polynomial-time algorithms with an absolute performance guarantee of at most 5 for an even number of teams and 1 for an odd number of teams.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107300"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143879096","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":"A note on the core of 2-matching games","authors":"Laura Sanità , Lucy Verberk","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107299","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107299","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cooperative 2-matching games are a generalization of cooperative matching games, where the value function is given by maximum-weight <em>b</em>-matchings, for a vertex capacity vector <span><math><mi>b</mi><mo>≤</mo><mn>2</mn></math></span>. We show how to separate over the core of 2-matching games in polynomial time, fixing a small flaw in the literature, and prove the existence of a compact extended formulation for it.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107299"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143863944","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":"Comparison between mean-variance and monotone mean-variance preferences in general markets: A new perspective","authors":"Yuchen Li , Zongxia Liang , Shunzhi Pang","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107298","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107298","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We propose a general framework to analyze the relationship between mean-variance and monotone mean-variance portfolio selections. Our framework does not rely on specific market settings, requiring only that the admissible final wealth set is closed or, further convex and closed. We apply this framework to several different markets: complete market, semimartingale market, market with cone-constrained strategies, and discrete-time market. We believe this framework can be extended to other markets, offering deeper insights into the relationship between these two preferences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107298"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143854404","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":"Q tensor tuples to polynomial complementarity problems","authors":"Tongtong Shang , Wensheng Jia","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107297","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107297","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The goal of this paper is to introduce a new class of structured tensor tuples, called <em>Q</em>-tensor tuple, which is associated with the solution of polynomial complementarity problems. Some characterizations of <em>Q</em>-tensor tuple are discussed. Furthermore, the uniqueness of the solution to the corresponding polynomial complementarity problems is investigated with a nonnegative <em>Q</em>-tensor tuple. A sufficient condition is given for the nonzero solution of the corresponding polynomial complementarity problem containing at least two nonzero components.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107297"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143842794","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":"Individual versus social optimization in statistical estimation","authors":"Moshe Haviv","doi":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107284","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.orl.2025.107284","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A number of estimators participate in a non-cooperative game where the data they collect are reported to a central planner who takes decisions. She in her turn decides on the estimates to be imposed on the participants. Because they are aware of this, they may behave strategically and misreport. We exemplify this decision making process where the James-Stein's estimator is used by the central planner. In particular, we consider the resulting optimization or Nash equilibria reporting strategies in a number of variations of this game.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54682,"journal":{"name":"Operations Research Letters","volume":"61 ","pages":"Article 107284"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143842793","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}