Rethinking tradeoffs and OR/MS methodology

V J Mabin (), J Davies () and S Kim ()
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V J Mabin: Victoria University of Wellington
J Davies: Victoria University of Wellington
S Kim: Seoul National University of Technology

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2009, vol. 60, issue 10, 1384-1395

Abstract: Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of a process known as the ‘evaporating cloud’ (EC) as a way of enhancing OR/MS modelling. While other authors have described the use of the EC process to explore the tradeoffs in a traditional Economic Order Quantity model, this paper demonstrates the use of the EC with a facilities location problem, which was originally solved via mixed integer programming. We relate our findings to OR/MS modelling in general, and argue that the EC could contribute effectively to different phases of the problem-solving process, for example, aiding the problem-structuring phase and helping to find better solutions in many OR/MS modelling situations. We demonstrate that the EC is a valuable tool to use in modelling practice as a problem-structuring tool, as a way of dealing specifically with tradeoffs, and that it can therefore be a useful complement to OR/MS methodology, and contribute to OR/MS practice and teaching.

Keywords: tradeoffs; methodology; problem-structuring methods; theory of constraints; supply chain management; OR education/teaching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1057/jors.2008.90

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