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OR and Simulation in Combination for Optimization

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Abstract

This chapter aims to promote and illustrate the fruitful combination of classical operations research (OR) and computer simulation. First, a highly instructive example of parallel queues will be studied. This simple example already shows the necessary combination of OR (queueing) and simulation that appears to be of practical interest such as for call center optimization. Next, two more ‘real life’ applications are regarded: (1) blood platelet production and inventory management at blood banks, and (2) train conflict resolution for railway junctions. Both applications show the useful combination of simulation and optimization methods from OR, in particular stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) and Markov decision theory (MDP), to obtain simple rules that are nearly optimal. The results are based on real-life Dutch case studies and show that this combined OR-simulation approach can be most useful for ‘practical optimization’ and that it is still wide open for further application.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Nico M. van Dijk, René Haijema, Erik van der Sluis, Nikky Kortbeek, Assil Al-Ibrahim & Jan van der Wal

  2. Stochastic Operations Research group, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Nico M. van Dijk & Nikky Kortbeek

  3. Operations Research and Logistics Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    René Haijema

Authors
  1. Nico M. van Dijk
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  2. René Haijema
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  3. Erik van der Sluis
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  4. Nikky Kortbeek
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  5. Assil Al-Ibrahim
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  6. Jan van der Wal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nico M. van Dijk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aviation Academy, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands

    Miguel Mujica Mota

  2. Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

    Idalia Flores De La Mota

  3. Optimisation Research Group, NICTA, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Daniel Guimarans Serrano

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van Dijk, N.M., Haijema, R., van der Sluis, E., Kortbeek, N., Al-Ibrahim, A., van der Wal, J. (2015). OR and Simulation in Combination for Optimization. In: Mujica Mota, M., De La Mota, I., Guimarans Serrano, D. (eds) Applied Simulation and Optimization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15033-8_3

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