L■-convexity, one of the central concepts in discrete convex analysis, receives significant attentions in the operations literature in recent years as it provides a powerful tool to derive structures of optimal polic...L■-convexity, one of the central concepts in discrete convex analysis, receives significant attentions in the operations literature in recent years as it provides a powerful tool to derive structures of optimal policies and allows for efficient computational procedures. In this paper, we present a survey of key properties of L■-convexity and some closely related results in lattice programming, several of which were developed recently and motivated by operations applications. As a new contribution to the literature, we establish the relationship between a notion called m-differential monotonicity and L■-convexity. We then illustrate the techniques of applying L■-convexity through a detailed analysis of a perishable inventory model and a joint inventory and transshipment control model with random capacities.展开更多
基金supported by National ScienceFoundation (NSF) Grants CMMI-1363261, CMMI-1538451, CMMI1635160National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Grants 71520107001
文摘L■-convexity, one of the central concepts in discrete convex analysis, receives significant attentions in the operations literature in recent years as it provides a powerful tool to derive structures of optimal policies and allows for efficient computational procedures. In this paper, we present a survey of key properties of L■-convexity and some closely related results in lattice programming, several of which were developed recently and motivated by operations applications. As a new contribution to the literature, we establish the relationship between a notion called m-differential monotonicity and L■-convexity. We then illustrate the techniques of applying L■-convexity through a detailed analysis of a perishable inventory model and a joint inventory and transshipment control model with random capacities.