DYNAMO: Dynamic Programming Models

• Main Authors: Arenas, Joseph Mari P., Crisologo, Lennie, Honrado, Danilo A., Jose, Jess Willingson S.R.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1989
• Subjects: Dynamic programming; Software engineering; Programming (Electronic computers); Computer software
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6754
• Institution: De La Salle University

DYNAMO is a software for solving Dynamic Programming Models. It provides decision policies based on data given by the user. These policies may be used as an aid for decision-making. The dynamic programming approach of Operations Research was used to solve the problems. Sensitivity analysis can be performed either explicitly or implicitly. The system is equipped with features which are fast becoming standards in commercial softwares today. It uses pull-down menus and pop-up windows in interacting with the user. It has an editing facility which mainly uses spreadsheet-type templates for convenient data entry. There are also context-sensitive help screens accessible at any time during program execution. The system has 8 dynamic programming models, namely: equipment replacement, flow shop scheduling, investment, knapsack, markov, production scheduling, reliability, and stagecoach. A narrative for each of these models can be accessed during run time. The top-down design method was used in designing the system. Modularity, abstraction, and adaptability are also among the techniques applied in the design. The software can mainly be used by the manufacturing industry since it is the area where applications of Operations Research are common. However, it may also be used for solving problems in other fields as long as the problem can be converted to any one of the models. The computations take about 5 to 10 seconds on the average and may take as long as a minute for extreme cases. This time may be improved with the use of fast hardware (10 MHz. and above). This is a significant improvement from a manual computation which may take a few minutes to solve for simple problems and maybe several days for large problems (especially if the solution involves many computations and comparisons).