Efficiently Generating k-Best Solutions to Procurement Auctions

: © Efficiently Generating k-Best Solutions to Procurement Auctions Andrew Byde, Terence Kelly, Yunhong Zhou, Robert Tarjan HP Laboratories HPL-2009-163 procurement, auctions, decision support, combinatorial optimization, knapsack problems, k-shortest paths Procurement executives often find it difficult to articulate their preferences and constraints regarding auctions, making it difficult to cast procurement decisions as straightforward optimization problems. This paper presents an efficient algorithm to aid decision support in such situations. Instead of trying to compute a single optimal solution for the auction winner determination problem, we generate many candidate solutions in ascending order of buyer expenditure. Standard techniques such as clustering and dominance pruning can then trim this list to a compact yet diverse menu of alternatives; other analyses can illuminate the cost of constraints and the competitive landscape. Our efficient solution-generation algorithm address...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: AAIM
• Authors: Andrew Byde, Terence Kelly, Yunhong Zhou, Robert Endre Tarjan
• Keywords: AAIM 2009, Algorithms, Constraints Regarding Auctions, Decision Support, Procurement Auctions