Latest Articles Include:
- From the Editor: Changes at Interfaces
- Interfaces 39(1):1 (2009)
No abstract available. - Introduction: 2008 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences
- Interfaces 39(1):2-5 (2009)
This special issue of Interfaces is devoted to the finalists of the 37th annual competition for the Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences, the profession's prestigious award for the practice of operations research. Of the six entries, one demonstrates the benefits derived from OR/MS-based scheduling for the care of the elderly in Sweden. The second shows dramatic improvement in air traffic management with new weather-system-related policies in the United States. The third shows how to improve network configuration and routing of natural gas in Norway and neighboring countries. The fourth shows how to place contaminant sensors in water sources and its application in the United States. The fifth reflects productivity improvements in print shops and document manufacturing facilities, also in the United States. The final entry shows how OR/MS was used to construct a brand new timetable for the passenger railway system in The! Netherlands to account for much higher demand on the system. - The New Dutch Timetable: The OR Revolution
- Interfaces 39(1):6-17 (2009)
In December 2006, Netherlands Railways introduced a completely new timetable. Its objective was to facilitate the growth of passenger and freight transport on a highly utilized railway network and improve the robustness of the timetable, thus resulting in fewer operational train delays. Modifications to the existing timetable, which was constructed in 1970, were not an option; additional growth would require significant investments in the rail infrastructure. Constructing a railway timetable from scratch for about 5,500 daily trains was a complex problem. To support this process, we generated several timetables using sophisticated operations research techniques. Furthermore, because rolling-stock and crew costs are principal components of the costs of a passenger railway operator, we used innovative operations research tools to devise efficient schedules for these two resources. The new resource schedules and the increased number of passengers resulted in an addition! al annual profit of {euro}40 million ($60 million); the additional revenues generated approximately {euro}10 million of this profit. We expect this profit to increase to {euro}70 million ($105 million) annually in the coming years. However, the benefits of the new timetable for the Dutch society as a whole are much greater: more trains are transporting more passengers on the same railway infrastructure, and these trains are arriving and departing on schedule more than they ever have in the past. In addition, the rail transport system will be able to handle future transportation demand growth and thus allow cities to remain accessible to more people. Therefore, we expect that many will switch from car transport to rail transport, thus reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. - Operations Research Improves Quality and Efficiency in Home Care
- Interfaces 39(1):18-34 (2009)
Elder care systems are facing increased costs, primarily because the elderly constitute a growing percentage of the population. Sweden publicly finances such systems; in 2005, the cost to taxpayers on a national level was 8.8 billion euros ($13 billion). The many customized aspects of scheduling home care workers to assist elderly and disabled citizens with their varying needs contribute to these costs. LAPS CARE, a system that was developed in 2002, uses operations research modeling to eliminate the manual planning of home care unit assignments. More than 200 units/organizations in Swedish municipalities use LAPS CARE each day to plan staff scheduling and routing for 4,000 home care workers. The system has increased operational efficiency by 10-15 percent; this corresponds to an annual savings of 20-30 million euros ($30-$45 million). In addition, the quality of home care for elderly citizens has improved. The City of Stockholm, with its 800,000 inhabitants, adopted L! APS CARE in 2006 and started a full implementation and rollout during 2008, thus adding 800 units and 15,000 home care workers to the system. The savings for the City of Stockholm will be 20-30 million euros ($30-$45 million). - Reducing Flight Delays Through Better Traffic Management
- Interfaces 39(1):35-45 (2009)
As air traffic in the United States has grown over the last several years, traffic demand has begun to outstrip capacity. As of 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had no effective approach for strategically managing a weather event that has been very disruptive to the national aviation system--large-scale thunderstorms that block the major flight routes in the northeastern United States. The operations research team that supports the FAA's efforts to provide innovations in air traffic management, led by researchers at Metron Aviation, Inc. and the Volpe Transportation Center, recognized the consequence of this operational deficiency and set out to resolve it. In this paper, we show how this team (1) developed and applied system-simulation models to quantify the extent of the traffic flow management problem and convey its magnitude to the FAA and to the aviation industry; (2) designed the Airspace Flow Program (AFP), a new approach to managing air traffic! that could correct the problem within the limitations of a short development cycle and a change-resistant culture; (3) designed and developed an interactive simulation system that could be and was used to refine and perfect this concept prior to deployment by developing policies on the use of a decision support system; (4) engaged FAA and airline traffic management experts in a series of interactive exercises using the simulation system to develop the final software design, operational procedures, and decision rules for deployment and use; and (5) provided a clear and convincing postdeployment benefits assessment for the new traffic management approach. The deployment of this new capability was an enormous success that both the FAA and the airline community heralded widely. The postdeployment impact assessment showed benefits to the aircraft operators and the flying public of almost $190 million in 2006 and 2007, the first two years of use, compared to less than $5 mil! lion in design and development costs. Broader usage of AFPs an! d new applications for them show a projected 10-year benefit of approximately $2.8 billion. - Optimizing the Norwegian Natural Gas Production and Transport
- Interfaces 39(1):46-56 (2009)
The network for transport of natural gas on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, with 7,800 km of subsea pipelines, is the world's largest offshore pipeline network. The gas flowing through this network represents approximately 15 percent of European consumption, and the system has a capacity of 120 billion standard cubic meters (bcm) a year. In a network of interconnected pipelines, system effects are prevalent, and the network must be analyzed as a whole to determine the optimal operation. SINTEF has developed a decision support tool, GassOpt, which is based on a mixed-integer program, to optimize the network configuration and routing for the main Norwegian shipper of natural gas, StatoilHydro, and the independent network operator, Gassco. GassOpt allows users to graphically model their network and run optimizations to find the best solutions quickly. StatoilHydro and Gassco use it to evaluate the current network and possible network extensions. Both companies use operat! ions research (OR) methods in the departments that are responsible for transport planning and security of supply. Several new OR projects have grown out from this cooperation. StatoilHydro estimates that its accumulated savings related to the use of GassOpt were approximately US$2 billion in the period 1995-2008. - US Environmental Protection Agency Uses Operations Research to Reduce Contamination Risks in Drinking Water
- Interfaces 39(1):57-68 (2009)
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the lead federal agency for the security of drinking water in the United States. The agency is responsible for providing information and technical assistance to the more than 50,000 water utilities across the country. The distributed physical layout of drinking-water utilities makes them inherently vulnerable to contamination incidents caused by terrorists. To counter this threat, the EPA is using operations research to design, test, and deploy contamination warning systems (CWSs) that rapidly detect the presence of contaminants in drinking water. We developed a software tool to optimize the design process, published a decision-making process to assist utilities in applying the tool, pilot-tested the tool on nine large water utilities, and provided training and technical assistance to a larger group of utilities. We formed a collaborative team of industry, academia, and government to critique our approach and share CWS de! ployment experiences. Our work has demonstrated that a CWS is a cost-effective, timely, and capable method of detecting a broad range of contaminants. Widespread application of these new systems will significantly reduce the risks associated with catastrophic contamination incidents: the median estimated fatalities reduction for the nine utilities already studied is 48 percent; the corresponding economic-impact reduction is over $19 billion. Because of this operations research program, online monitoring programs, such as a CWS, are now the accepted technology for reducing contamination risks in drinking water. - LDP Lean Document Production--O.R.-Enhanced Productivity Improvements for the Printing Industry
- Interfaces 39(1):69-90 (2009)
Xerox has invented, tested, and implemented a novel class of operations-research-based productivity-improvement offerings, trademarked LDP Lean Document Production(R) solutions, for the $100 billion printing industry in the United States. These solutions, which Xerox has implemented in approximately 100 sites to date, have provided dramatic productivity and cost improvements for both print shops and document-manufacturing facilities, as measured by reductions of 20-40 percent in revenue-per-unit labor cost. They have generated approximately $200 million of incremental profit across the Xerox customer value chain since their initial introduction in 2000. The offerings have extended the use of operations research to small- and medium-sized print shops, while increasing the scope of its application to large document-production facilities. - Book Reviews
- Interfaces 39(1):91-96 (2009)
In Book Reviews, we review an extensive and diverse range of books. They cover theory and applications in operations research, statistics, management science, econometrics, mathematics, computers, and information systems. In addition, we include books in other fields that emphasize technical applications. However, we do not review software. To submit a book for review, please send it to me at the above address. Although we cannot review all books because of space limitations, we do list all books that we receive. We commission all book reviews and do not accept unsolicited reviews. To become a reviewer, please send me your name, address, and specific areas of expertise. We encourage readers to suggest books for review or to ask publishers to send copies of such books. The authors or editors of books we review in this issue are Milind W. Dawande, H. Neil Geismar, Suresh P. Sethi, Chelliah Sriskandarajah, Finn R. Forsund, Yu-Chi Ho, Qian-Chuan Zhao, and Qing-Shan Jia. - Contributors
- Interfaces 39(1):97-103 (2009)
No abstract available. - Interfaces--Instructions to Authors
- Interfaces 39(1):104-106 (2009)
No abstract available. - INFORMS MEETING CALENDAR
- Interfaces 39(1):107 (2009)
No abstract available. - Call for Papers--Interfaces Special Issue: Humanitarian Applications: Doing Good with Good OR
- Interfaces 39(1):108 (2009)
No abstract available.
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