Human factors, ergonomics, and safety
Silas Oseme Okuma; Akpofure Avwerosuoghene Enughwure
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate the safety of inland waterway transportation in Kurutie, Okerenkoko, and Escravos River, Nigeria. The study used a cross-sectional research design, and the study's target group includes passengers who are technical experts, maritime workers, non-academic, ...
Read More
The purpose of this research is to investigate the safety of inland waterway transportation in Kurutie, Okerenkoko, and Escravos River, Nigeria. The study used a cross-sectional research design, and the study's target group includes passengers who are technical experts, maritime workers, non-academic, academic personnel's and students of Nigeria Maritime University, and self-employed passengers who live in the study locations. Questionnaires and field observations were used to obtain data. 378 questionnaires were delivered throughout the study area. According to the study, most cases of maritime boat mishaps beleaguered the inland waterway in the study area due to unskilled boat drivers, overloading/overcrowding of boats, and a lack of enforcement of safety laws by government agencies within the study area. The study recommended that relevant authorities, such as the Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority, enforce safety regulations among jetty operators and boat drivers; that training and certifying boat drivers are enforced; and that government involvement be increased by developing a sensitization program to educate passengers on the importance of adhering to safety practices along the waterways.
Mohammad Hemati
Abstract
The prediction of economic variables is one of the main issues in a country's macro decisions. Since in many cases there is no historical data for this purpose and it is necessary to have more than one output, it is necessary to use expert opinions and consequently, model expert opinions in the form ...
Read More
The prediction of economic variables is one of the main issues in a country's macro decisions. Since in many cases there is no historical data for this purpose and it is necessary to have more than one output, it is necessary to use expert opinions and consequently, model expert opinions in the form of mathematical functions, adds to the complexity of the task and the importance of the problem. To solve such problems, this paper presents a ten-step process using fuzzy rule-based systems. At the first step, the three inputs that include: the price of OPEC oil, the level of Iran and Saudi relations and the level of political tension in OPEC member countries and also the three output variables that include: the amount of employment, the economic growth, and the oil price forecast, have been modeled in the form of trapezoidal and triangular functions. Then, these variables have been converted to linear functions. In the next steps, the three-dimensional decision tables were designed and then by using the fuzzy rule-based systems (if, ... Then...), the preconditions and sequences (results) of the decision rules were written and coded in the Matlab software. The results indicate that the outputs are in line with the existing economic realities of Iran and that three input variables to a certain extent can cause changes in the three output variables. Less technical so far with problems with this complexity of problems are capable of results with this obvious.
Engineering Optimization
Yudi Prastyo; Wahyu Adhi Yatma; Hernadewita Hernadewita
Abstract
The profit margins decrease up to 30%; the bottles are as the main cause of 10%. This study focuses on bottle analysis and aims to get the optimal weight of the Milkuat LAB 70 ml bottle by not forgetting about some standard parameters that cannot be changed. This experiment uses the Taguchi method, which ...
Read More
The profit margins decrease up to 30%; the bottles are as the main cause of 10%. This study focuses on bottle analysis and aims to get the optimal weight of the Milkuat LAB 70 ml bottle by not forgetting about some standard parameters that cannot be changed. This experiment uses the Taguchi method, which includes knowing the factor level settings, optimal settings, optimal bottle weight, optimal bottle strength, getting QLF (Quality Loss Function), results from transportation test, and reject ratio in the production line. And some additional methods such as transportation tests have also carried out in this study. The results of this study are that the influential level factor settings are S2 and S4, for setting the optimal level is S2 (A3) is 1.25 mm and bottle S4 (B3) is 0.95 mm, the optimal bottle weight is 7.00 gr from before 7.80 gr, with current bottle strength 19.64 Kg with the previous weight is 19.80 Kg, the value of QLF (Quality Loss Function) is IDR. 7,000, - from before is IDR. 7,815, - deviation of IDR. 16.02, - and efficient per Day IDR. 28,836,000, - with output 1,800,000 bottles per day and the results of transportation tests remain on 22 cartons stack; the reject decline production ratio is not too much different for 1 hour production, 1 production shift and up to 1-3 months of production using a bottle of 7.00 gr with the conclusion of the statistics that is "Not Significant Difference from 7.80 gr" that means that the results are good in productivity and cost efficiency.
Alborz Hajikhani; Mahtab Panahifard; Mohsen Malekmohamadi; Azar Azadi; Jamshid Bahrami
Volume 1, Issue 4 , October 2014, , Pages 250-258
Abstract
In this paper, the problem of scheduling in a two-stage supply chain system is investigated with considering coordinated scheduling of different stages. The objective is to find the similar sequences of processing tasks in two steps with two aims of minimizing the total preparation time as well as the ...
Read More
In this paper, the problem of scheduling in a two-stage supply chain system is investigated with considering coordinated scheduling of different stages. The objective is to find the similar sequences of processing tasks in two steps with two aims of minimizing the total preparation time as well as the maximum preparation time of each stage. To do so, the problem has been solved by non-dominant sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and using a variety of multi-objective techniques. The proposed meta-heuristic algorithm is applied for the first time in this problem. The results show that the proposed algorithm is able to find Pareto optimal solutions with a high efficiency.
Engineering Optimization
Ala’ K. Abu-Rumman; Iyad Muslih; Mahmoud. A. Barghash
Abstract
Life cycle costing (LCC) is a methodology used first time by the Department of Defense of United State, it’s an economic calculation of all costs propagated during the life span of any technical system. For Renewable Energy (RE) systems, LCC is a good methodology, which shows the cost-effectiveness ...
Read More
Life cycle costing (LCC) is a methodology used first time by the Department of Defense of United State, it’s an economic calculation of all costs propagated during the life span of any technical system. For Renewable Energy (RE) systems, LCC is a good methodology, which shows the cost-effectiveness of using RE as an alternative source compared to conventional power generations. A LCC model was introduced for PV generation system. Data collection was done through four different cost data sources. The results shows that the average module price is $0.56/Wp and the capital investment cost is $1.184/Wp. For a 20 years PV project life-time, the operation and maintenance cost forms 27% of the total LCC of the system.
Management and Entrepreneurship
Md. Suman Rahman; Md. Tahiduzzaman; Rupom Kundu; S. M. Nuruzzaman Juwel; Md. Rubayet Karim
Abstract
This study addresses the application of the lean manufacturing philosophy to the mass production sector with a focus on the plastic piping section of a selected plastic pipe manufacturing industry. In this study, the different weakness and waste of the piping section are measured by using the specific ...
Read More
This study addresses the application of the lean manufacturing philosophy to the mass production sector with a focus on the plastic piping section of a selected plastic pipe manufacturing industry. In this study, the different weakness and waste of the piping section are measured by using the specific lean tools, such as Cause-effect diagram, Pareto analysis, Time Base Mapping, and 5S. The cause-effect analysis shows the various root causes of the waste time and rejection of the pipes. The Time Base Mapping measures the required time needed from the raw material to finish the product dispatch. The time has reduced approximately 17 hours by eliminating or reducing the non-value added work activities. The 5S analysis is done to focus on the effective workplace organization and standard work procedure. It also simplifies the work environment, reduces all possible waste and non-value added activity while improving quality, efficiency, and safety. In this study, we have found out the various types of waste (value-added activities and non-value added activities) exist in the piping section and the possible causes behind these activities that also have proposed some recommendation for the studied process industry in order to improve the performance of the piping section.
Morteza Raei Dehaghi; Seyed Mohammad Mirhashemi
Volume 1, Issue 5 , December 2014, , Pages 307-319
Abstract
The present survey explores the effects of institutional quality on foreign direct investment in selected OPEC member countries. To this end, the annual data of foreign direct investment, institutional quality index, gross domestic product, and freedom of the trade index in Angola, Algeria, Ecuador, ...
Read More
The present survey explores the effects of institutional quality on foreign direct investment in selected OPEC member countries. To this end, the annual data of foreign direct investment, institutional quality index, gross domestic product, and freedom of the trade index in Angola, Algeria, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela were employed for the time period 1999-2010. The results of Im, Pesaran and Shin unit root test (2003) and Levin, Lin and Chu test (2002) revealed that all variables are stationary. As Pesaran test (2004) and Frees test (2004) show cross-sectional dependence correlation among the sections, the seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) model was used. Estimation results disclosed that besides gross domestic product and freedom of the trade that have a positive and significant effect on attracting foreign direct investment, the effect of institutional quality on foreign direct investment is positive and significant too in the countries under study. Also, the results showed that among institutional development indexes, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness and control of corruption have a positive and significant effect on foreign direct investment in the countries under study.
Soheila Badrloo; Ali Husseinzadeh Kashan
Abstract
A lot of real-world problems such as the assignment of special rooms in hospitals, operating room layout, image processing, etc., could be formulated in terms of Quadratic assignment problem. Different exact methods are suggested to solve these problems, but because of the special structure of these ...
Read More
A lot of real-world problems such as the assignment of special rooms in hospitals, operating room layout, image processing, etc., could be formulated in terms of Quadratic assignment problem. Different exact methods are suggested to solve these problems, but because of the special structure of these problems, by increasing the size of the problem, finding an exact solution become more complicated and even impossible. So, employing meta-heuristic algorithms is inevitable, due to this problem we use optics inspired optimization (OIO) in this paper. The obtained results and its comparison with the solutions of the central library of Quadratic assignment problem (QAPLIB) show that the proposed algorithm can exactly solve small-sized problems with 100% efficiency while the efficiency of medium-to-large size instances is 96%. Accordingly, one can conclude that the proposed OIO has generally high efficiency for solving permutation-based problems.
Game theory
Elham Sadat Mousavi; Ashkan Hafezalkotob; Ahmad Makui; Mohammad Kazem Sayadi
Abstract
This paper presents an optimization model for hotel pricing in the competitive environment following the Covid-19 epidemic, in which the government intervenes by offering appropriate tariffs and hotels use incentive policies such as discounts to attract customers. we consider the government as the leader ...
Read More
This paper presents an optimization model for hotel pricing in the competitive environment following the Covid-19 epidemic, in which the government intervenes by offering appropriate tariffs and hotels use incentive policies such as discounts to attract customers. we consider the government as the leader and the hotels as the followers of the Stalkberg model, then apply the Nash equilibrium to determine the optimal price and demand of hotels in competitive conditions, taking into account the discount. By considering a government utility function, the optimal level of government tariffs is determined. The results indicate that government intervention in the tourism industry includes measures that benefit tourism. Because the government can increase the hotel revenue and expand tourism in favor of hoteliers by reducing its profits. Extensive analysis has been performed on five-star, four-star, and three-star hotels in a tourist area in Iran, and some of the most important managerial insights have been explained.
Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA
Maryam Arbabi; Zohreh Moghaddas; Alireza Amirteimoori; Mohsen Khunsiavash
Abstract
Sensitivity analysis in optimization problems is important for managers and decision maker to introduce different strategies. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a method based on mathematical programming to evaluate the efficiency of a set of Decision-Making Units (DMUs). Due to the importance of sensitivity ...
Read More
Sensitivity analysis in optimization problems is important for managers and decision maker to introduce different strategies. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a method based on mathematical programming to evaluate the efficiency of a set of Decision-Making Units (DMUs). Due to the importance of sensitivity analysis in an optimization problem, a development of DEA model called inverse model in DEA is presented. The purpose of this model is to analyze the sensitivity of some inputs or outputs to changes in some other inputs or outputs of the unit under evaluation, provided that the amount of efficiency remains constant or improves at the discretion of the manager. In this research, for the first time, we introduce the inverse model in DEA with network structure. In fact, we examine the extent to which the input parameters are likely to change based on the presuppositions of the problem, for the output changes that are applied as the manager desires. One of the key points of this research is that to make the modeling more consistent with reality, the leader-follower method was used in estimating the parameters in the network. In addition, the opinions of the system manager and the decision maker, who have full control over the system under their management, are included in this modeling to estimate the desired values. Another feature of this modeling is the consideration of uncontrollable factors in the inverse model in DEA with network structure. Finally, using a numerical example, the results obtained are analyzed based on the proposed model.
Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA
Maryam Nematizadeh; Maryeh Nematizadeh
Abstract
Naturally, managers are interested in analyzing the relative efficiency of the production systems with parametric or non-parametric methods. One of the non-parametric methods utilized in recent three decades is a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) that can evaluate the relative efficiency of these structures ...
Read More
Naturally, managers are interested in analyzing the relative efficiency of the production systems with parametric or non-parametric methods. One of the non-parametric methods utilized in recent three decades is a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) that can evaluate the relative efficiency of these structures and determine their strengths and weaknesses. In the real world, most production systems have a network structure. So, Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) is a suitable non-parametric method to evaluate the performance of production processes, which considers the internal processes. In addition to the importance of treating consumed waters and pollutants in environmental protection in today’s world, increasing the profitability of the production unit can be an important motivation to design the proper model to evaluate the performance of these structures in terms of profitability. In this sense, we first introduce a two-stage feedback structure including undesirable factors. Then, by applying the assumption of weak disposability for undesirable factors, a method for analyzing the relative performance of such network structures is given. The focus would be on profitability maximization. Moreover, to illustrate the proposed approach, a real case on the ecological system of 31 regions of China is used.
T. Aliheidari bioki; H. Khademi Zare
Volume 1, Issue 1 , March 2014, , Pages 35-49
Abstract
Competition among the industrial and service organizations to provide their clients with financial and credit requirements through the banking facilities has considerably increased. On the other hand, the challenge facing these financial and credit resources is that they are limited. Therefore, the optimal ...
Read More
Competition among the industrial and service organizations to provide their clients with financial and credit requirements through the banking facilities has considerably increased. On the other hand, the challenge facing these financial and credit resources is that they are limited. Therefore, the optimal allocation of these limited financial resources with the aim of maximizing the investment value is of a great priority for banks and other financial institutes. In this study, first the credit criteria for the applicants for bank facilities have been identified and then based on the improved Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique, an effective method has been proposed for the client clustering. The improved DEA method which is called Golden DEA reduces the calculation time and increases the decision-making operations that ultimately lead to the improvement of the existing method. Also, the improved DEA model provides a short, dynamic and straight path in order to achieve greater efficiency for every institution. The priority provided by the improved DEA method has been compatible with the priority given by the existing DEA method for all of the understudied cases.
Mona Ganjali; Hadi Shirouyehzad; Arash Shahin
Volume 3, 1(4) , December 2016, , Pages 39-48
Abstract
Today, the rapid increase of the industrial activities and uncontrolled consumption of natural resources cause environmental problems and interested companies in the activities that support sustainable environment. The primary concerns of reverse logistics are waste management, material recovery, part ...
Read More
Today, the rapid increase of the industrial activities and uncontrolled consumption of natural resources cause environmental problems and interested companies in the activities that support sustainable environment. The primary concerns of reverse logistics are waste management, material recovery, part recovery and product recovery. This paper aims to prioritize critical success factors of reverse logistics in HAMGAM KHODRO ASIA. The results were obtained through a questionnaire from the top-level managers and engineers that work in HAMGAM KHODRO ASIA. Results of case study show that critical success factors of expert and trained personnel, customer satisfaction, flexibility of system, financial advocate of managers and flexibility of management are the strength point of company. Weak points of this case study are environmental awareness, environmental issue, reduction in overall production cost, regularity issue and use of existing personnel.
Case studies in industry and services
Seyed Fakhreddin Fakhrehosseini; Meysam Kaviani
Abstract
The expansion of production and development in the industrial sector is due to increase the investment on the activity of this sector. On one hand limits of the financial resources to the investment and high risk of investments in industrial and production activities, and by the other hand, the frequency ...
Read More
The expansion of production and development in the industrial sector is due to increase the investment on the activity of this sector. On one hand limits of the financial resources to the investment and high risk of investments in industrial and production activities, and by the other hand, the frequency of necessities and goals is inevitable to planning and priorities of investment. This study wants to provide optimize pattern by attention to the condition of risk and uncertainty and fluctuations in supply and demand market of industry, to determine priorities and economics feasibility to the investment in this sector. This study will examine its purpose in three scenarios (optimistic, pessimistic and uncertain market). The model used in this study is a fuzzy multi-criteria decision method. This research has been made for Mazandaran Province from 2005 to 2010. The results of this research involve the investment criteria and specify the priority of these sectors. The final results of this study indicate that in conductions of uncertainty and volatility of market, the current pattern of investment in the industrial sector was not optimal and needs to be adjusted in the percentages and amounts of investment.
Fuzzy optimization
Nemat Allah Taghi-Nezhad; Fatemeh Taleshian
Abstract
Quadratic Programming has been widely applied to solve real-world problems. This paper describes a solution method for solving a special class of fuzzy quadratic programming problems with fuzziness in relations. Then the method is generalized to a more general fuzzy quadratic programming problem, where ...
Read More
Quadratic Programming has been widely applied to solve real-world problems. This paper describes a solution method for solving a special class of fuzzy quadratic programming problems with fuzziness in relations. Then the method is generalized to a more general fuzzy quadratic programming problem, where the cost coefficients, the matrix of the quadratic form, constraints coefficients, and the right-hand sides are all fuzzy numbers. Finally, some examples are taken to the utility of our proposed method.
Decision analysis and methods
Iman Ajripour; Milad Asadpour; Leila Tabatabaie
Abstract
The organization Performance management is an important component that directly affects the total performance of the organization and the competitive environment. Hence, manager(s) performance is one of the most important functional parts of an organization. Senior manager(s) decisions are one of the ...
Read More
The organization Performance management is an important component that directly affects the total performance of the organization and the competitive environment. Hence, manager(s) performance is one of the most important functional parts of an organization. Senior manager(s) decisions are one of the most important factors affecting the organization performance management. In this paper, organization performance management is evaluated using criteria derived from Balanced Scorecard. The purpose of this paper is to prioritize alternatives related to manager(s) performance in an organization using multi-criteria decision-making, i.e. PROMETHEE, ELECTRE, and TOPSIS and provide a model for it. Mean Maximum-Minimum Square Ranks method is proposed to combining the results obtained from applying multi-criteria decision-making methods. Also, roadmaps are presented for alternatives with higher priority for the organization. The proposed model provides the possibility of solving issues related to the organizational performance by analyzing various alternatives and criteria for organization manager(s). To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed approach, the model is implemented in a petrochemical company, which its final products are used to make fibers.
Decision analysis and methods
Reza Hassanzadeh; Hossein Asghari
Abstract
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) includes up-to-date forecasts that lead to sales schedules, production schedules, inventory schedules, customer delivery plans, new product development plans, and financial plans. The purpose of this study is to identify the affecting factors of the implementation ...
Read More
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) includes up-to-date forecasts that lead to sales schedules, production schedules, inventory schedules, customer delivery plans, new product development plans, and financial plans. The purpose of this study is to identify the affecting factors of the implementation of the S&OP Process and determine the significance of each of them, as well as the ranking of the implementing department of this process by using the fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS. Data collections in this research, by 10 experts of different planning and production departments of Kalleh dairy production company in 2018 have been conducted. To identify the factors, research findings and expert opinion have been used and the required data have been collected through the designed questionnaires. The validity of the questionnaire has been confirmed by the experts in this area, and its reliability has been analyzed using the incompatibility rate of the AHP method. The data analysis in this study was done using coding in Eecel software. The results show that among the S&OP executing parts, the highest impact of factors on UHT section was observed with 0.56 points and the lowest impact on the concentration with 0.37 points. The major affecting factors of sales and operations planning process implementation, relations with countries of the region and the world, customs rules (roof of the outflow of currency from the country in return for raw materials) and inflation rate and currency changes are known that the organization can be grown in order to thrive to generalize these issues.
Payam Khosravi; Mehdi Alinaghian; Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi; Erfan Babaee Tirkolaee
Volume 2, Issue 1 , March 2015, , Pages 64-76
Abstract
Waste collection is a highly visible municipal service that involves large expenditures and difficult operational problems. In addition, it is expensive to operate in terms of investment costs (i.e. vehicles fleet), operational costs (i.e. fuel and maintenances) so that generating small improvements ...
Read More
Waste collection is a highly visible municipal service that involves large expenditures and difficult operational problems. In addition, it is expensive to operate in terms of investment costs (i.e. vehicles fleet), operational costs (i.e. fuel and maintenances) so that generating small improvements in this area can lead to huge savings in municipal expenditures. Among the issues raised in the process of decisions making by managers and associated policy makers, one can point to determining the optimal weekly policies of waste collection. In this paper, the periodic capacitated arc routing problem (PCARP)in mobile disposal sites is described and the authors seek to determine the optimal routes of required edges (streets or alleys) per week, number and location of mobile disposal sites, and the number of required vehicles. We present two simulated annealing algorithms, which are different in cooling schedule and number of iterations of each temperature. To evaluate the performance of these algorithms on small-sized problems, the solver “CPLEX"in application “GAMS” is used. The experimental results show that the presented algorithms have appropriate performance and a reasonable time range.
Forecasting, production planning, and control
Samrad Jafarian-Namin; Davood Shishebori; Alireza Goli
Abstract
The temperature has been a highly discussed issue in climate change. Predicting it plays an essential role in human affairs and lives. It is a challenging task to provide an accurate prediction of air temperature because of its complex and chaotic nature. This issue has drawn attention to utilizing the ...
Read More
The temperature has been a highly discussed issue in climate change. Predicting it plays an essential role in human affairs and lives. It is a challenging task to provide an accurate prediction of air temperature because of its complex and chaotic nature. This issue has drawn attention to utilizing the advances in modelling capabilities. ARIMA is a popular model for describing the underlying stochastic structure of available data. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) can also be appropriate alternatives. In the literature, forecasting the temperature of Tehran using both techniques has not been presented so far. Therefore, this article focuses on modelling air temperatures in the Tehran metropolis and then forecasting for twelve months by comparing ANN with ARIMA. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) can help deal with complex problems. However, its potential for improving the performance of forecasting methods has been neglected in the literature. Thus, improving the accuracy of ANN using PSO is investigated as well. After evaluations, applying the seasonal ARIMA model is recommended. Moreover, the improved ANN by PSO outperforms the pure ANN in predicting air temperature.
Mohammad Hassan Pourkhandani; Seyed Javad Iranban; Seyed Masoud Seyedi
Volume 1, Issue 2 , June 2014, , Pages 112-129
Abstract
The Quality Function Deployment method (QFD) is one of the most effective tools of designing and improving quality being used in order to supply customer’s requirements and enhancing his/her satisfaction. The main purpose of this research is to prioritize the identifiers of improving servicequality ...
Read More
The Quality Function Deployment method (QFD) is one of the most effective tools of designing and improving quality being used in order to supply customer’s requirements and enhancing his/her satisfaction. The main purpose of this research is to prioritize the identifiers of improving servicequality of dental clinic using QFD approach and combined ANP and DEMATEL with fuzzy approach. Initially in this research, patients’ demands were determined. Before ranking, the patients’ demands were classified based on dimensions of SERVQUAL model, then they were ranked by the combined ANP and DEMATEL with fuzzy approach. Then, technical requirements were determined by nominal group technique. At last, the matrix of house of quality (HOQ) was completed that the most significant technical requirements include holding training courses, purchasing modern equipment, and recruiting skilled and committed personnel.
Decision analysis and methods
Seyede Narges Taati; Ayda Esmaili Dooki
Abstract
Nowadays, hospitals are considered as one of the most important service industries in which nurses play a vital role. Indeed, the patient's safety will be treated and the hospital credibility will be lost, if the hospital nurses do not carry out their tasks properly. In this paper, an integration of ...
Read More
Nowadays, hospitals are considered as one of the most important service industries in which nurses play a vital role. Indeed, the patient's safety will be treated and the hospital credibility will be lost, if the hospital nurses do not carry out their tasks properly. In this paper, an integration of Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation (FDEMATEL), Fuzzy Hierarchy Process Analysis (FAHP), and Fuzzy VIKOR (FVIKOR) is proposed to select the best hospital nurses of a year regarding to some qualitative and quantitative criteria. Firstly, FDEMATEL method is used to identify the most important criteria of the problem and then FAHP approach is utilized to determine the weight importance of the criteria. Finally, prioritizing of the hospital nurses is done by FVIKOR method and the proposed method is implemented in a real-world case study of one of the most prominent hospitals in the north of Iran, for the first time. The results illustrate that the proposed method is very functional and effective in both selecting and ranking the hospital nurses process.
Elahe Shariatmadari Serkani
Volume 2, Issue 2 , June 2015, , Pages 120-138
Abstract
Customer relationship management (CRM) and innovation are widely considered to be valuable capabilities associated with competitive advantage. CRM is a comprehensive guideline and process of management and data sharing with key customers to prompt supreme values of partnership and customers. Innovation ...
Read More
Customer relationship management (CRM) and innovation are widely considered to be valuable capabilities associated with competitive advantage. CRM is a comprehensive guideline and process of management and data sharing with key customers to prompt supreme values of partnership and customers. Innovation is an important factor in setting successful mature firms apart from their competitors. Innovation capability assessments are methods to evaluate the innovation capability of enterprises, in particular, for the identification of their strengths, the improvement of their potentials, and for a good basis for a sustainable improvement of the innovation capability. The propose of this study is choosing the most effective dimensions of CRM by using the hybrid approach of Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytic Network Process (ANP). Thus, based on experiences of the industry firm, we draw the causal relations among innovation capabilities using DEMATEL mathematical model and determine their effects on each other. Then based on these causal relations, we choose the most effective dimensions of CRM by using the ANP model. At the result, “long-term cooperation” has the best score and can be said that it is the most effective dimensions and And then respectively followed by Customer relationship management technology-oriented, Customer participation, information sharing and consultation on problems.
Industrial Mathematics
Mohamad Ali Movafaghpour
Abstract
The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which was developed by Saaty is a decision analysis tool. It has been applied to many different decision fields. Acquiring Pairwise Comparison Matrices (PCM) is the main step in AHP and also is frequently used in other multi-criteria decision-making methods. In a ...
Read More
The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which was developed by Saaty is a decision analysis tool. It has been applied to many different decision fields. Acquiring Pairwise Comparison Matrices (PCM) is the main step in AHP and also is frequently used in other multi-criteria decision-making methods. In a real problem when the number of alternatives/criteria to be compared is increased, the number of Pairwise Comparisons (PC) often becomes overwhelming. Since the Decision Maker’s (DM) performance in representing the relative preferences tends to deteriorate in such cases, it is preferred to gather fewer data from each individual DM in the form of pairwise comparisons. Missing values in Pairwise Comparison Matrices (PCM) in AHP is a spreading problem in areas dealing with great or dynamic data. The aim of this paper is to present an efficient mathematical programming model for estimating preference vector of pairwise comparison matrices with missing entries.
Forecasting, production planning, and control
Adeniran Adetayo Olaniyi; Kanyio Olufunto Adedotun; Owoeye Adelanke Samuel
Abstract
Two years single moving average and simple exponential smoothing with smoothing constant of 0.9 were applied to forecast the 2018 demand for domestic air passenger in Nigeria. Also, the two methods of forecasting were evaluated and compared with Mean Squared Deviations (MSD) to determine which method ...
Read More
Two years single moving average and simple exponential smoothing with smoothing constant of 0.9 were applied to forecast the 2018 demand for domestic air passenger in Nigeria. Also, the two methods of forecasting were evaluated and compared with Mean Squared Deviations (MSD) to determine which method gives the lowest deviation as it will produce best forecast for the year 2018 domestic air passenger demand in Nigeria. The study relied on data of domestic air passenger demand between the periods of the year 2010 to the year 2017. It was revealed that the MSD of two yearly single moving average gave the best year 2018 forecast as it has a lower MSD when compared to the MSD of simple exponential smoothing with the smoothing constant of 0.9. This study is useful in the planning process of an airport, airline, and other stakeholders involved in Nigeria’s air transportation. It will help to prevent problems of having excess air transport demand over air transport supply or having excess air transport supply over demand.
Farhad Yazdani; Reza Tavakkoli Moghadam; Mehdi Bashiri
Volume 1, Issue 3 , September 2014, , Pages 180-197
Abstract
In recent years, reverse logistics has received more attention by researchers due to governmental regulations, environmental issues and social responsibilities. This paper deals with the design of a multi-product closed-loop supply chain network, in which some production centers experience minor and ...
Read More
In recent years, reverse logistics has received more attention by researchers due to governmental regulations, environmental issues and social responsibilities. This paper deals with the design of a multi-product closed-loop supply chain network, in which some production centers experience minor and general disruptions. The proposed network has three levels in the forward direction (i.e., suppliers, plants and distributors) and three levels in the reverse direction (i.e., collection centers, redistribution and disposal). Initially, plants prepare their needed raw materials from the suppliers; after production in plants, the final products are delivered to customers through distribution centers, percentage of these products are collected from customers by collecting centers. In the collection centers, the percentage of products is returned to manufacturing factories for recycling, percentage of them is sent to redistribution centers for sale to secondary customers, and the percentage that does not possess any capability of the cited items will be sent to disposal centers. The mathematical model presented in this study is a bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear model while maximizing the profit, the delivery time to customers will be minimized. For validation of the model, a numerical example is provided by Pareto curve, in which the profit is versus the time.
