Project Objectives

$1.$

Gather knowledge from this course and clearly identify a specific problem related to an industrial application such as forecasting, production, inventory control, transportation, facility locating, routing, aggregate planning, MRP$,$ etc.

$2.$

Each student should gather information and data about the chosen problem, discuss the current practice $($if such information is available$),$ apply what you have learned to analyze the problem and provide your solution. Your analysis must be quantitative, based on data and models.

In this project, you need to consider at least one of the following two practical factors into your chosen problem. $($This may need you to extend beyond what you have learned in class$)$

$1.$

Decision making under practical constraints $($e$.$g$.,$ aggregate planning with capacity constraint$)$

$2.$

Decision making under uncertainty $($e$.$g$.,$ forecasting$/$inventory management with uncertainty in processing time $/$ demand$)$

Identify An Appropriate Topic

There are mainly two ways to identify an appropriate topic:

$1.$

If you have connections $/$ working with a company having a relevant problem and could share some details $($data may be slightly altered for confidentiality$),$ this may be of more interest to the class.

$2.$

You may find a problem $/$ case from online sources, books or journal articles. You need to clearly cite the problem $/$ data source in the reference section. In this case, your report will be compared with the original source for originality.

Inappropriate Topics$/$Projects $($Commonly Seen$)$

$1.$

As simple as a HW problem. For example, you want to apply several prediction methods in class to a dataset for demand forecast and compare their performance. This topic is not very much different from a HW problem, except maybe you have a larger dataset.

$2.$

Too qualitative. Making decisions based on logical reasoning and arguments, not based on data and models.

$3.$

Too vague. Your project must be specific about the objectives, the methods you use to achieve them, and the conclusions reached.

$4.$

The workload is too low. The project accounts for $30\%$ of overall grade, so it cannot be as simple as a few HW problems. Think about the workload $($including planning, data collection and analysis$)$ roughly of all the HWs combined.

$5.$

A topic you have no access to its data. For example, you want to predict demand of a specific company, but the data you need is not open to public. It is ok$,$ however, that you use numbers from a reasonable alternative source $($e$.$g$.,$ data from a similar company or industry average$).$

Project Assessment

Students will submit to D$2$L a project report, which should consist of the following parts:

$1.$

Introduction and background $(15$ points$).$ Clearly state the problem and explain why it is of interest.

$2.$

Literature review $(10$ points$).$ Provide a literature review, summarizing key findings from existing literature related to your problem, and methodologies and theories employed in previous works to address the problem.

$3.$

Methodologies $(20$ points$).$ Detail the models you chose for solving the problem. Justify your choice of models based on their relevance and effectiveness as demonstrated in the literature or preliminary analysis. Explain how you implement these models. List any assumptions made during the modeling process.

$4.$

Solution approaches $(20$ points$).$ Describe the procedure you develop for approaching and constructing solutions to the problem. Discuss whether your solution approach is designed to guarantee optimality or if it aims for a solution within a certain approximation ratio.

$5.$

Computational results $(20$ points$).$ Describe the computational environment, datasets, or instances used for testing your methodologies. Present the outcomes of your computational experiments. Include tables, graphs, or charts as necessary to illustrate your findings effectively. Analyze the results in the context of the problem. If applicable, discuss the performance of your solution approach, comparing it with benchmarks or results from the literature.

$6.$

Conclusion $(10$ points$).$ Recap the main findings of your project, emphasizing how your approach addressed the problem. Highlight your contributions to the field or problem area. Suggest areas for future research or further improvements to your methodologies.

$7.$

References $(5$ points$).$ Ensure that all sources cited throughout your report are listed.

$8.$

Appendix $($if needed$).$ Codes and instances used; extra numerical results.