Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen M. Featherstone / The oat processing industry is a competitive industry and maintaining a cost advantage is important for the industry supply chain. General Mills continuously looks to maintain a competitive advantage in the oat supply chain because it is important for strategic short and long term planning. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze supply chain scenarios to determine where future investments should be made. The analysis looks at an existing location, a refurbished location and a Greenfield site. The analysis projects income statements and net cash flows to determine the conclusions using Net Present Value. The question answered is "Should the company continue to invest in the existing supply chain or should it look to different alternatives in the form of a refurbished or Greenfield plant site for production of oat flour?" The analysis found important relationships between the variables that can influence net cash flow and ultimately NPV. However, given the information from this analysis, a determination was made that the existing facility is still the best investment. Future analysis should be used and the company should plan to analyze this issue again in a five to ten year time frame to maintain its competitive advantage.

A partial description of the convex hull of solutions to the economic lot-sizing problem with start-up costs (ELSS) has been derived recently. Here a larger class of valid inequalities is given and it is shown that these inequalities describe the convex hull of ELSS. This in turn proves that a plant location formulation as a linear program solves ELSS. Finally a separation algorithm is given.

In this thesis some problems in mathematical programming have been studied. Chapter 1 contains a brief review of the problems studied and the motivation for choosing these problems for further investigation. The development of two algorithms for finding all the vertices of a convex polyhedron and their applications are reported in Chapter 2. The linear complementary problem is studied in Chapter 3 and an algorithm to solve this problem is outlined. Chapter 4 contains a description of the plant location problem (uncapacited). This problem has been studied in some depth and an algorithm to solve this problem is presented. By using the Chinese representation of integers a new algorithm has been developed for transforming a nonsingular integer matrix into its Smith Normal Form; this work is discussed in Chapter 5. A hybrid algorithm involving the gradient method and the simplex method has also been developed to solve the linear programming problem. Chapter 6 contains a description of this method. The computer programs written in FORTRAN IV for these algorithms are set out in Appendices Rl to R5. A report on study of the group theory and its application in mathematical programming is presented as supplementary material. The algorithms in Chapter 2 are new. Part one of Chapter 3 is a collection of published material on the solution of the linear complementary problem; however the algorithm in Part two of this Chapter is original. The formulation of the plant location problem (uncapacited) together with some simplifications are claimed to be original. The use of Chinese representation of integers to transform an integer matrix into its Smith Normal Form is a new technique. The algorithm in Chapter 6 illustrates a new approach to solve the linear programming problem by a mixture of gradient and simplex method.

La localisation des plantes-hôtes est un processus déterminant dans la stratégie adaptative des insectes phytophages et les stimuli olfactifs, qui sont des composés volatils émis par les plantes, jouent un rôle essentiel dans ce processus. Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera, Tephritidae) est responsable d'importants dégâts sur maintes cultures maraîchères à l'échelle mondiale et à La Réunion. Si la bio-écologie et la structuration génétique des populations de cette espèce sont relativement bien connues, des connaissances sur la médiation chimique se produisant lors de la localisation des fruits-hôtes restent nécessaires pour améliorer la gestion des populations de cette espèce. L'objectif de la thèse est de caractériser les stimuli olfactifs impliqués dans la localisation à distance par les femelles de B.cucurbitae, d'une large gamme de fruits-hôtes de Cucurbitaceae sauvages et cultivées de La Réunion. Une approche bidisciplinaire (comportementale et chimique) a été adoptée afin d'identifier, parmi 27 fruits-hôtes, les composés volatils responsables de l'attraction des femelles vers leurs sites de ponte. Les résultats soulignent, qu'au sein de la gamme de plantes-hôtes, la réponse des femelles aux effluves de ces fruits est très hétérogène (taux d’attraction de 1 % à 74 %), variant selon l'espèce végétale, la variété et le stade de maturité des fruits. Parallèlement, l'étude de la composition chimique des effluves de ces fruits révèle une chimiodiversité inter- et intraspécifique considérable : 280 composés volatils identifiés au total, avec des profils d'émission différents d'un fruit à l'autre. Ces résultats, complétés par de l’électroantennographie couplée à la chromatographie gazeuse, ont permis de déterminer 34 composés potentiellement impliqués dans l'attraction des femelles. De plus, un mélange à deux composés volatils de synthèse, aussi attractif qu'une odeur de fruits frais, a été identifié à partir des réponses des femelles à 10 des 34 composés, présentés individuellement ou en mélange. Les rôles des composés volatils de fruits-hôtes dans le processus de localisation des sites de ponte et dans la spécialisation écologique de cette espèce de ravageurs sont discutés. Par ailleurs, l'association des résultats de préférence des femelles et de performance larvaire représente une perspective de recherche prometteuse, qui contribuerait à acquérir une connaissance plus fine du phénomène de spécialisation d'hôte. Enfin, il est désormais possible d'envisager l'utilisation du mélange simple à deux composés volatils dans un système de piégeage des femelles, à intégrer dans un schéma de gestion agroécologique des populations de B. cucurbitae. / Locating host-plants is a key process in the adaptive strategy of phytophagous insects, and olfactory stimuli, which arevolatile compounds emitted by plants, play an essential role in this process. Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera,Tephritidae) is responsible for significant damage to many vegetable crops in Reunion Island and worldwide. Whilethe bioecology and genetic population structure of this species are relatively well known, understanding the chemicalmediation occurring during host-fruit location is needed to improve the management of this pest. The aim of this thesis is to characterize the olfactory stimuli involved in the location by females of B. cucurbitae, of awide range of wild and cultivated host fruits of Cucurbitaceae in Reunion Island. A multidisciplinary approach (behavioural and chemical) was adopted to identify volatile compounds responsible for the attraction of females to their oviposition sites in 27 host fruits. The results highlight that within the range of host plants the female response to fruit odours is very heterogeneous(attraction rates from 1% to 74%). These levels of female response vary according to the plant species and the varietyand the stage of fruit maturity. Meanwhile, the study of the chemical composition of fruit odours reveals aconsiderable inter- and intraspecific chemodiversity: 280 volatile compounds identified in total, with differentemission profiles from one fruit to another. These results, complemented by coupled gas chromatographyelectroantennographic detection, have identified 34 compounds potentially involved in female attraction. In addition, ablend of two synthetic compounds as attractive as fresh fruit odour was identified by measuring attractiveness of 10 ofthe 34 compounds presented individually or in combination. The roles of volatiles in oviposition sites location and ecological specialization of this pest are discussed. Moreover,the association of these results with data on female preference and larval performance represents a promising researchdirection, which would contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of host specialization. Finally, theintegration of a simple two-component blend in a trapping system for females into an agroecological management scheme for B. cucurbitae populations is proposed.

"The purpose of this study was to collect and analyze locational data on all branch maufacturing plants established in Dallas County in 1954, 1955, and 1956; these data were acquired through personal interviews in 1957. For comparative purposes the same data on branch plants established in 1959 were obtained in 1960. The following elements of the locational process were determined and analyzed: 1. Origin and character of the new plants; specifically location of home office, types of products, size and location of the plant in Dallas. 2.locational process, including company personnel assigned the task of locating a suitable site and local agencies assisting in the locational process. 3. reasons for establishing the branch plant 4. factors that influenced management to locate the plant inDallas in preference to any other locations."-- leaf 4.

Um dos problemas mais relevantes em organizações de grande porte é a escolha de locais para instalação de plantas industriais, centros de distribuição ou mesmo pontos comerciais. Esse problema logístico é uma decisão estratégica que pode causar um impacto significativo no custo total do produto comercializado. Existem na literatura diversos trabalhos que abordam esse problema. Assim, o objetivo desse trabalho é analisar o problema da localização de instalações proposto por diferentes autores e definir um modelo que seja o mais adequado possível ao mercado de distribuição de combustíveis no Brasil. Para isso, foi realizada uma análise do fluxo de refino e distribuição praticado neste segmento e da formação do respectivo custo de transporte. Foram consideradas restrições como capacidade de estoque, gama de produtos ofertados e níveis da hierarquia de distribuição. A partir dessa análise, foi definido um modelo matemático aplicado à redução dos custos de frete considerando-se a carga tributária. O modelo matemático foi implementado, em linguagem C, e permite simular o problema. Foram aplicadas técnicas de computação paralela visando reduzir o tempo de execução do algoritmo. Os resultados obtidos com o modelo Single Uncapacited Facility Location Problem (SUFLP) simulado nas duas versões do programa, sequencial e paralela, demonstram ganhos de até 5% em economia de custos e redução do tempo de execução em mais de 50%. / One of the most relevant problems at large organizations is the choice of locations for estabilishing facilities, distribution centers or retail stores. This logistics issue is an strategic decision which may cause signicant impact at the eective cost of the product. There are several papers tackling this issue. The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the Facility Location Problem previously developed by other authors and to dene the most applicable model to the fuel distribution industry in Brazil. It started from the analyzis of the upstream and downstream ow in practice at this segment and from the respective transportation cost formation. Some constraints were considered like stock capacity, multicommodity oer and distribution hierarchy levels so it could be possible to dene a mathematical model applied to freight economy considering the incident taxes. The dissertation also has the objective of creating a program using the C language which could simulate the problem. It were applied parallel computing techniques to reduce runtime of the algorithm. The results obtained from the Single Uncapacited Facility Location Problem (SUFLP) executed in both program versions, sequential and parallel, demonstrate up to 5% of eective costs gain and reduction of more than 50% in execution time.

In this thesis we study two discrete optimization problems: Traffic Light Synchronization and Location with Customers Orderings. A widely used approach to solve the synchronization of traffic lights on transport networks is the maximization of the time during which cars start at one end of a street and can go to the other without stopping for a red light (bandwidth maximization). The mixed integer linear model found in the literature, named MAXBAND, can be solved by optimization solvers only for small instances. In this manuscript we review in detail all the constraints of the original linear model, including those that describe all the cyclic routes in the graph, and we generalize some bounds for integer variables which so far had been presented only for problems that do not consider cycles. Furthermore, we summarized the first systematic algorithm to solve a simpler version of the problem on a single street. We also propose a solution algorithm that uses Tabu Search and Variable Neighbourhood Search and we carry out a computational study. In addition we propose a linear formulation for the shortest path problem with traffic lights constraints (SPTL). On the other hand, the simple plant location problem with order (SPLPO) is a variant of the simple plant location problem (SPLP) where the customers have preferences on the facilities which will serve them. In particular, customers define their preferences by ranking each of the potential facilities. Even though the SPLP has been widely studied in the literature, the SPLPO has been studied much less and the size of the instances that can be solved is very limited. In this manuscript, we propose a heuristic that uses a Lagrangean relaxation output as a starting point of a semi-Lagrangean relaxation algorithm to find good feasible solutions (often the optimal solution). We also carry out a computational study to illustrate the good performance of our method. Last, we introduce the partial and stochastic versions of SPLPO and apply the Lagrangean algorithm proposed for the deterministic case to then show examples and results.

Um dos problemas mais relevantes em organizações de grande porte é a escolha de locais para instalação de plantas industriais, centros de distribuição ou mesmo pontos comerciais. Esse problema logístico é uma decisão estratégica que pode causar um impacto significativo no custo total do produto comercializado. Existem na literatura diversos trabalhos que abordam esse problema. Assim, o objetivo desse trabalho é analisar o problema da localização de instalações proposto por diferentes autores e definir um modelo que seja o mais adequado possível ao mercado de distribuição de combustíveis no Brasil. Para isso, foi realizada uma análise do fluxo de refino e distribuição praticado neste segmento e da formação do respectivo custo de transporte. Foram consideradas restrições como capacidade de estoque, gama de produtos ofertados e níveis da hierarquia de distribuição. A partir dessa análise, foi definido um modelo matemático aplicado à redução dos custos de frete considerando-se a carga tributária. O modelo matemático foi implementado, em linguagem C, e permite simular o problema. Foram aplicadas técnicas de computação paralela visando reduzir o tempo de execução do algoritmo. Os resultados obtidos com o modelo Single Uncapacited Facility Location Problem (SUFLP) simulado nas duas versões do programa, sequencial e paralela, demonstram ganhos de até 5% em economia de custos e redução do tempo de execução em mais de 50%. / One of the most relevant problems at large organizations is the choice of locations for estabilishing facilities, distribution centers or retail stores. This logistics issue is an strategic decision which may cause signicant impact at the eective cost of the product. There are several papers tackling this issue. The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the Facility Location Problem previously developed by other authors and to dene the most applicable model to the fuel distribution industry in Brazil. It started from the analyzis of the upstream and downstream ow in practice at this segment and from the respective transportation cost formation. Some constraints were considered like stock capacity, multicommodity oer and distribution hierarchy levels so it could be possible to dene a mathematical model applied to freight economy considering the incident taxes. The dissertation also has the objective of creating a program using the C language which could simulate the problem. It were applied parallel computing techniques to reduce runtime of the algorithm. The results obtained from the Single Uncapacited Facility Location Problem (SUFLP) executed in both program versions, sequential and parallel, demonstrate up to 5% of eective costs gain and reduction of more than 50% in execution time.

Several documents have been presented outlining the methods incorporated by large multinational corporations in their plant location process. These methods contribute to our knowledge of how companies choose a location in which to locate a manufacturing operation. The role of the region or municipality in preparing an appropriate atmosphere to coordinate with an industry's specific requirements has not been widely examined. The objective of this research paper is to examine the role played by the Town of Ingersoll, Township of South-West Oxford and County of Oxford in Southwestern Ontario in preparing a suitable land, infrastructure and zoning regulations package to facilitate the requirement for a joint General Motors and Suzuki automotive assembly plant. The results obtained from this research paper will aid in the awareness of the actions that occur to aid such a large industrial and economic expansions within a small agricultural society. / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:08:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2000-11-06T00:00:00Z / Este trabalho de doutoramento em Administração de Empresas pela EAESP/FGV de São Paulo apresenta estudo sobre a localização de 27 Incubadoras nacionais, abrangendo 9 Estados da Federação. A partir de dados coletados por meio de questionários, são avaliados os fatores de localização de pequenas empresas de base tecnológica e de incubadoras. Apresenta-se uma revisão dos principais aspectos clássicos e contemporâneos da Teoria Locacional.