1,721,019 research outputs found
Mass-customized outpatient appointment rule generator
No full textThis study claims that if a mass-customized appointment rule is developed for each individual outpatient doctor, it could improve the performance and service quality of outpatient clinics. A simulation-based optimization algorithm is proposed for mass-customized appointment rule generation. Various environmental factors, such as user-provided preferred appointment interval time (slot), new patient-to-return patient ratio, no-show patient rate, characteristics of walk-in patients, stochastic consultation times, and patient tardiness, are considered in generating implementable and practical rules. The simulation-based optimization algorithm uses the previously proposed 18 appointment rules as initial solutions, evaluates their effectiveness through a simulation with considerations of practical environmental factors, improves them by using a neighborhood search, and reports the best rule. The algorithm generates a variable-block-size/fixed-interval rule, which consists of the numbers of new and return patients in each appointment interval time. Computational experiments show that the proposed algorithm can generate effective appointment rules with user-provided preferred appointment interval time considering the various environmental factors. © 2019 University of Cincinnati. All rights reserved.11Nsciescopu
Combinatorial Benders decomposition for melted material blending systems considering transportation and scheduling
No full text© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.We study an integrated optimisation problem with blending, scheduling, and routing components for a melted material blending production system. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model that considers the blending machine environment, due dates, target amounts, required chemical compositions of the products, and ready times of the materials in containers. This model aimed to determine the container pairings, blending plants for container pairs, and schedules for blending operations while minimising the total end time of material usage, total penalty for violating component specifications, and employee workload. Further, we propose a three-stage approach that involves solving a relaxed problem and then resolving the problem with fixed variables. We developed a combinatorial Benders decomposition algorithm with a minimal infeasible subsystem identification algorithm for the blending scheduling problem. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can find high-quality solutions within a reasonable amount of time.11Nsciescopu
Multi-type Electric Vehicle Relocation Problem with Consideration of Required Battery Charging Time
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