Integrated Use of Rule Engines and Constraint/Linear Solvers
Operational business problems can be defined by a set of decision variables and a set of rules that specify relationships between these variables – see the formal definition. This…
Topic
Constraint Solvers
46 posts
Building Decision Models for DMCommunity.org Challenge “Balanced Assignment”
DMCommunity Sep-2018 Challenge “Balanced Assignment” gives an example of a complex business problem with a serious optimization component. This problem deals with the assignment…
A Formal Definition of Operational Business Decision
Dr. Bob Moore in his DMCommunity.org post "What is a ‘Decision’?" considers different definitions of a "Business Decision" and "Business Decision Logic", which Bob, Ron Ross, and…
Model-based Optimal Solutions for Flight Rebooking Challenge
During the closing discussion at the DecisionCAMP-2018, I promoted a new "model-based" approach to decision modeling that contrary to the commonly used "method-based" approach…
Model-based Solutions for Advanced Vacation Days Challenge
I provided two solutions for DMCommunity.org Challenge “Vacation Days Advanced”. So far, all decision models submitted as solutions for the old Jan-2016 Challenge and the new…
“Model-based” vs. “Method-based” Approaches to Decision Modeling
In Aug-2018 Prof. Robert Fourer gave a tutorial "Model-based Optimization", in which he compares two essentially different approaches to modeling optimization problem:…
DMCommunity Challenge July-2018 “Zoo, Buses, and Kids”
The July’s challenge "Zoo, Buses, and Kids" deals with a very simple optimization problem: "300 kids need to travel to the London zoo. The school may rent 40 seats and 30 seats…
Decision Automation and Explanations
Prof. Gene Freuder wrote a position paper "Complete Explanations" for The Second Workshop on Progress Towards the Holy Grail that will be held on Aug 27, 2018 during CP 2018 in…
OpenRules Solution for the Christmas Challenge
DMCommunity.org offered a new Dec-2017 Challenge called "Reindeer Ordering". It has a nice Christmas formulation: Santa always leaves plans for his elves to determine the order in…
Building a Custom Scheduler with OpenRules and JSR-331
One of the largest Japanese telecom company is successfully using OpenRules being integrated with a BPM product produced by our partner Intra-Mart. Last month this customer asked…
Decision Models: Finding Alternative and Optimal Decisions
People frequently assume that a good, consistent decision model should produce one and only one decision (solution) for any valid input. However, in real-world applications we…
“Monkey Business” Analyzed
I decided to add the decision model "Monkey Business" to our new What-If Analyzer. It brought several considerations missed by other solutions. In this post I will discuss my…