Pub Date : 2025-12-14DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.015
Zhensheng Zhou, Nils Boysen, Konrad Stephan, Hu Yu, Yugang Yu
In the fast-paced realm of e-commerce and omnichannel retail, the swift consolidation of orders is a crucial bottleneck in today’s distribution centers and warehouses. In this context, compact 3D sorter modules are among the latest inventions. Inside these modules an array of liftable trays circulate along loading stations and shelves to transport picked products from the former to the latter. Each shelf is tasked with gathering products for a particular customer order and is situated on one of the several movable rack carts arrayed around the module’s perimeter. Upon the completion of all orders on a rack, it is detached from the sorter, conveyed to the packing area, and supplanted by a vacant rack. Achieving efficient order consolidation with 3D sorters hinges on resolving several operational decision-making tasks: determining the allocation of orders to shelves, assigning products of identical stock keeping units to specific orders, and tray loading considering delays caused by liftable trays still occupied by a product awaiting dispatch when passing a loading station. This paper models these operational decisions, introduces efficient solution methods, and demonstrates that sophisticated optimization markedly enhances throughput efficiency beyond the capabilities of basic decision-making rules. Our computational results highlight potential performance improvements of 50% and more.
{"title":"Order consolidation in warehouses with compact 3D sorter modules","authors":"Zhensheng Zhou, Nils Boysen, Konrad Stephan, Hu Yu, Yugang Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.015","url":null,"abstract":"In the fast-paced realm of e-commerce and omnichannel retail, the swift consolidation of orders is a crucial bottleneck in today’s distribution centers and warehouses. In this context, compact 3D sorter modules are among the latest inventions. Inside these modules an array of liftable trays circulate along loading stations and shelves to transport picked products from the former to the latter. Each shelf is tasked with gathering products for a particular customer order and is situated on one of the several movable rack carts arrayed around the module’s perimeter. Upon the completion of all orders on a rack, it is detached from the sorter, conveyed to the packing area, and supplanted by a vacant rack. Achieving efficient order consolidation with 3D sorters hinges on resolving several operational decision-making tasks: determining the allocation of orders to shelves, assigning products of identical stock keeping units to specific orders, and tray loading considering delays caused by liftable trays still occupied by a product awaiting dispatch when passing a loading station. This paper models these operational decisions, introduces efficient solution methods, and demonstrates that sophisticated optimization markedly enhances throughput efficiency beyond the capabilities of basic decision-making rules. Our computational results highlight potential performance improvements of 50% and more.","PeriodicalId":55161,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Operational Research","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145759432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-13DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.012
Gabriella Colajanni, Patrizia Daniele, Anna Nagurney, Daniele Sciacca
This paper introduces a novel framework for Flexible Production Value Networks (FPVNs) based on a variational inequality formulation that captures the decentralized behavior of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and demand markets under environmental and capacity constraints. The model establishes existence and uniqueness conditions for the equilibrium and is solved through a projection-type algorithm. Numerical illustrations on test networks demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. In particular, the results show that the equilibrium solutions are stable with respect to demand and cost perturbations, and they highlight the role of environmental constraints in reshaping production and distribution strategies.
{"title":"A Multitiered Framework for Competitive Flexible Production Value Networks under Environmental Regulations","authors":"Gabriella Colajanni, Patrizia Daniele, Anna Nagurney, Daniele Sciacca","doi":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.012","url":null,"abstract":"This paper introduces a novel framework for Flexible Production Value Networks (FPVNs) based on a variational inequality formulation that captures the decentralized behavior of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and demand markets under environmental and capacity constraints. The model establishes existence and uniqueness conditions for the equilibrium and is solved through a projection-type algorithm. Numerical illustrations on test networks demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. In particular, the results show that the equilibrium solutions are stable with respect to demand and cost perturbations, and they highlight the role of environmental constraints in reshaping production and distribution strategies.","PeriodicalId":55161,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Operational Research","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145759494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-13DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.020
Jinmuzi Zhang, Xu Yang, Witold Pedrycz, Haiyan Xu
Subjectivity in classical Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR) modeling remains a primary concern and scales poorly to large-scale group (LSG) conflicts on social media. In LSG conflicts, (i) difficulties in obtaining and measuring conflict data excessively restrict model objectivity and applications, and (ii) overlapping coalitions create internal vetoes that standard reachability ignores. This motivation calls for a data-driven GMCR that can discover stakeholder groups, quantify overlaps, and preserve interpretability. Accordingly, this research starts from a data perspective and proposes a novel LSG-GMCR model with overlapping coalitions to obtain conflict equilibrium solutions. Considering the requirements of massive data with potential attributes, we employ a crawler algorithm to extract conflict texts from posts, comments, and comment replies on Weibo. A triple conflict data preprocessing mechanism is designed to accurately tackle the scattered forms and large scales. Multiple technologies are integrated to extract features. Then, a meta-clustering algorithm proposed in this paper is constructed for features with different attributes to classify clusters as the group decision makers. A fuzzy membership matrix is also yielded for overlap computation. Finally, the LSG-GMCR model with overlapping is established, supported by the formalized directed overlap and admissibility filter. For validation and verification purposes, this proposed framework is applied to investigate actual conflicts with respect to controversial issues like power rationing conflicts. The approach enhances the scalability, automation, and realism of OR-based conflict analysis and is directly applicable to policy design in complex LSG settings.
{"title":"Graph Model for Conflict Resolution of Large-scale Group with Overlapping Coalitions Based on Meta-Clustering under Big Data","authors":"Jinmuzi Zhang, Xu Yang, Witold Pedrycz, Haiyan Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.020","url":null,"abstract":"Subjectivity in classical Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR) modeling remains a primary concern and scales poorly to large-scale group (LSG) conflicts on social media. In LSG conflicts, (i) difficulties in obtaining and measuring conflict data excessively restrict model objectivity and applications, and (ii) overlapping coalitions create internal vetoes that standard reachability ignores. This motivation calls for a data-driven GMCR that can discover stakeholder groups, quantify overlaps, and preserve interpretability. Accordingly, this research starts from a data perspective and proposes a novel LSG-GMCR model with overlapping coalitions to obtain conflict equilibrium solutions. Considering the requirements of massive data with potential attributes, we employ a crawler algorithm to extract conflict texts from posts, comments, and comment replies on Weibo. A triple conflict data preprocessing mechanism is designed to accurately tackle the scattered forms and large scales. Multiple technologies are integrated to extract features. Then, a meta-clustering algorithm proposed in this paper is constructed for features with different attributes to classify clusters as the group decision makers. A fuzzy membership matrix is also yielded for overlap computation. Finally, the LSG-GMCR model with overlapping is established, supported by the formalized directed overlap and admissibility filter. For validation and verification purposes, this proposed framework is applied to investigate actual conflicts with respect to controversial issues like power rationing conflicts. The approach enhances the scalability, automation, and realism of OR-based conflict analysis and is directly applicable to policy design in complex LSG settings.","PeriodicalId":55161,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Operational Research","volume":"121 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145759467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-12DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.016
Alessandro Albano, José Luis García-Lapresta, Antonella Plaia, Mariangela Sciandra
{"title":"Measuring consensus and voter influence in ternary preferences","authors":"Alessandro Albano, José Luis García-Lapresta, Antonella Plaia, Mariangela Sciandra","doi":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55161,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Operational Research","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.018
Edward Mellor , Kevin Glazebrook , Kyle Lin , Rob Shone
We consider a search problem in which an object is hidden in one of n geographically distinct locations according to a known probability distribution. A searcher moves between these locations in order to find the object. A search at location i takes ti time units and independently finds the object with probability qi if the object is there, for . Additionally, traveling from location i to location j takes dij time units, for . The searcher aims to minimize the expected total amount of time needed to find the object. The version of our problem without travel times can be solved to optimality using Gittins indices, which directs the searcher to always search the location that yields the maximal rate of finding the object. When travel times are included the problem becomes much more challenging, because the searcher becomes less willing to move to another location due to the potential future travel time back to the current location. In addition, when choosing the next destination, the searcher needs to take into account not only the distance to each destination, but also each destination’s distance to all other locations. We draw upon restless bandit theory to derive an index heuristic that takes travel times into account, and show that this heuristic has a tendency to leave a location prematurely. Subsequently, we use a range of methods to improve the index heuristic and demonstrate their strong performance via computational experiments.
{"title":"Traveling between dispersed locations to search for a hidden object","authors":"Edward Mellor , Kevin Glazebrook , Kyle Lin , Rob Shone","doi":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.018","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.018","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We consider a search problem in which an object is hidden in one of <em>n</em> geographically distinct locations according to a known probability distribution. A searcher moves between these locations in order to find the object. A search at location <em>i</em> takes <em>t<sub>i</sub></em> time units and independently finds the object with probability <em>q<sub>i</sub></em> if the object is there, for <span><math><mrow><mi>i</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>,</mo><mo>…</mo><mo>,</mo><mi>n</mi></mrow></math></span>. Additionally, traveling from location <em>i</em> to location <em>j</em> takes <em>d<sub>ij</sub></em> time units, for <span><math><mrow><mi>i</mi><mo>,</mo><mi>j</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>,</mo><mo>…</mo><mo>,</mo><mi>n</mi></mrow></math></span>. The searcher aims to minimize the expected total amount of time needed to find the object. The version of our problem without travel times can be solved to optimality using Gittins indices, which directs the searcher to always search the location that yields the maximal rate of finding the object. When travel times are included the problem becomes much more challenging, because the searcher becomes less willing to move to another location due to the potential future travel time back to the current location. In addition, when choosing the next destination, the searcher needs to take into account not only the distance to each destination, but also each destination’s distance to all other locations. We draw upon restless bandit theory to derive an index heuristic that takes travel times into account, and show that this heuristic has a tendency to leave a location prematurely. Subsequently, we use a range of methods to improve the index heuristic and demonstrate their strong performance via computational experiments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55161,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Operational Research","volume":"330 1","pages":"Pages 169-181"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.017
Mirko Stappert, Bernhard Lutz, Janis Brammer, Dirk Neumann
{"title":"Solving the Paint Shop Problem with Flexible Management of Multi-Lane Buffers Using Reinforcement Learning and Action Masking","authors":"Mirko Stappert, Bernhard Lutz, Janis Brammer, Dirk Neumann","doi":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.017","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55161,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Operational Research","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145732356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.11.032
Sigrún Andradóttir, Hayriye Ayhan
We consider a Markovian queueing system with two types of customers (basic and advanced) and two types of servers (regular and specialist) in the presence of customer classification errors. We assume that there are always both types of customers waiting for service. When an advanced customer is misclassified as a basic customer, he needs to be served by a specialist after being served by a regular server. Our objective is to determine the dynamic assignment of the specialists between advanced and misclassified customers that maximizes the long-run average profit. We consider two versions of the problem that differ depending on whether the misclassified customers experience service continuity (the regular servers stay with misclassified customers while they wait for specialists, preventing the regular servers from serving other basic customers) or not (the regular servers continue serving other basic customers while misclassified customers wait for specialists). For both versions of the problem, we first characterize the optimal assignment of the specialists and then investigate how the optimal long-run average profit depends on the misclassification probability. We provide examples of systems where the optimal long-run average profit is not monotone in the misclassification probability, which is counter intuitive as one would expect misclassification to have a negative impact on system performance. We conclude our analysis by identifying under what conditions it is more profitable to serve customers with or without service continuity.
{"title":"Optimal server control with Two Customer Classes and Classification Errors","authors":"Sigrún Andradóttir, Hayriye Ayhan","doi":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.11.032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.11.032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We consider a Markovian queueing system with two types of customers (basic and advanced) and two types of servers (regular and specialist) in the presence of customer classification errors. We assume that there are always both types of customers waiting for service. When an advanced customer is misclassified as a basic customer, he needs to be served by a specialist after being served by a regular server. Our objective is to determine the dynamic assignment of the specialists between advanced and misclassified customers that maximizes the long-run average profit. We consider two versions of the problem that differ depending on whether the misclassified customers experience service continuity (the regular servers stay with misclassified customers while they wait for specialists, preventing the regular servers from serving other basic customers) or not (the regular servers continue serving other basic customers while misclassified customers wait for specialists). For both versions of the problem, we first characterize the optimal assignment of the specialists and then investigate how the optimal long-run average profit depends on the misclassification probability. We provide examples of systems where the optimal long-run average profit is not monotone in the misclassification probability, which is counter intuitive as one would expect misclassification to have a negative impact on system performance. We conclude our analysis by identifying under what conditions it is more profitable to serve customers with or without service continuity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55161,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Operational Research","volume":"330 2","pages":"Pages 512-524"},"PeriodicalIF":6.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.014
Clemens Puppe, Attila Tasnádi
{"title":"Do Performances of Violin Virtuosi Fade Over Time? A Response Using the Nash Collective Utility Function","authors":"Clemens Puppe, Attila Tasnádi","doi":"10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.12.014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":55161,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Operational Research","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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