New currency recirculation guidelines implemented by the Federal Reserve System (Fed) of the United States are intended to reduce the overuse of its currency processing services by depository institutions (banks). These changes are expected to have a significant impact on operating policies at those depository institutions that handle large volumes of currency. We describe two business models that capture the flow of currency between a bank and the Fed; the first model captures the current operations of most banks, while the second is expected to be adapted by many banks in response to the new guidelines. Motivated by our work with Brink’s, Inc., to assess the economic impact that banks will sustain from these guidelines, we present a detailed analysis that provides managers of banks with optimal strategies to manage the flow of currency to and from the Fed for a variety of cost structures and demand patterns. Given this insight into a bank’s optimal behavior, the Fed can also use our analysis to fine tune its guidelines to achieve the desired goals.
A n important difference between both manufacturing and wholesaling vs. retail is the information available concerning inventory. Typically, far less information characterizes retail. Here, an extreme environment of information shortfall is examined. The environment is technically termed "unattended points of sale," but colloquially called vending machines. Once inventory is loaded into a machine, information on demand and inventory level is not observed until the scheduled reloading date. Technological advances and business process changes have drawn attention to the value of information (VOI) in retail inventory in many venues. Moreover, technology is now available that allows unattended points of sale to report inventory information. Capturing the value of this information requires changes in current business practice. We demonstrate the value of capturing information analytically in an environment with restrictive demand assumptions. Experiments in an environment with realistic demand assumptions and parameter values show that the VOI depends greatly on operating characteristics and can range from negligible effects to increasing profitability 30% or more in actual practice.
Cluster tools (also referred to as robotic cells) are extensively used in semiconductor wafer fabrication. We consider the problem of scheduling operations in an -machine cluster tool that produces identical parts (wafers). Each machine is equipped with a unit-capacity input buffer and a unit-capacity output buffer. The machines and buffers are served by a dual-gripper robot. Each wafer is processed on each of the machines, and the objective is to find a cyclic sequence of robot moves that minimizes the long-run average time to produce a part or, equivalently, maximizes the throughput.We first obtain a tight upper bound on the optimal throughput and then use this bound to obtain an asymptotically optimal sequence under conditions that are common in practice. Next, we quantify the improvement in productivity that can be realized from the use of unit-capacity input and output buffers at the machines. Finally, we illustrate our analysis on cluster tools with realistic parameters, based on our work with a Dallas-based semiconductor equipment manufacturer.Note to Practitioners-Semiconductor manufacturers often seek methods to increase the productivity of their cluster tools. This paper considers the option of adding single-unit-capacity input and output buffers at each processing chamber of a cluster tool with a dual gripper robot. We demonstrate that this is an effective approach for tools that are transport-bound, i.e., those in which the robot is the bottleneck resource. We also present a sequence of robot movements that provides the optimum throughput for such a tool. The use of these internal buffers is not beneficial for tools that are process-bound, i.e., those in which a processing chamber is the bottleneck.
This article assesses the benefits of implementing a dual-arm robot in a flow shop manufacturing cell. Such a robot has the ability to tend (unload or load) to two adjacent machines simultaneously. This significantly changes the analysis required to find sequences of robot actions that maximize a cell's throughput. For cells processing identical parts, optimal sequences are identified for two-and three-machine cells and also structural results are derived for cells with an arbitrary number of machines. Cells processing different part-types are fully analyzed for the case of two-machine cells. For each case the productivity of single-arm and dual-arm robotic cells is compared.
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