Managing supply chains for sustainable operations in the era of industry 4.0 and circular economy: Analysis of barriers

Organizations are struggling to leverage emerging opportunities for maintaining sustainability in the global markets due to many barriers in the era of Industry 4.0 and circular economy. The main aim of this study is to analyze these barriers to improve the sustainability of a supply chain. Our study identifies the major criteria for sustainable operations and barriers that need to be overcome to achieve the objectives of sustainability through literature review and experts’ opinions. An integrated approach comprising Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Elimination and Choice Expressing Reality (ELECTRE) is used to analyze these barriers and ensure the sustainable supply chain operations. Resource circularity, increasing profits from green products, and designing processes for resource and energy efficiency have been found to be as major sustainability criteria. There are many barriers to the implementation of Industry 4.0. These barriers include but are not limited to, a lack of a skilled workforce that understands Industry 4.0, ineffective legislation and controls, ineffective performance framework, and short-term corporate goals. The study finds that ineffective strategies for the integration of industry 4.0 with sustainability measures, combined with a lack of funds for industry 4.0 initiatives, are just two of the major barriers. The findings of the study will help organizations to develop an effective and integrated strategic approach that will foster sustainable operations through the utilization of improved knowledge of Industry 4.0 and the circular economy

Advanced Modeling, Control, and Optimization Methods in Power Hybrid Systems - 2021

The climate changes that are becoming visible today are a challenge for the global research community. In this context, renewable energy sources, fuel cell systems and other energy generating sources must be optimally combined and connected to the grid system using advanced energy transaction methods. As this reprint presents the latest solutions in the implementation of fuel cell and renewable energy in mobile and stationary applications such as hybrid and microgrid power systems based on the Energy Internet, blockchain technology and smart contracts, we hope that they will be of interest to readers working in the related fields mentioned above

Multiple-Criteria Decision Making

Decision-making on real-world problems, including individual process decisions, requires an appropriate and reliable decision support system. Fuzzy set theory, rough set theory, and neutrosophic set theory, which are MCDM techniques, are useful for modeling complex decision-making problems with imprecise, ambiguous, or vague data.This Special Issue, “Multiple Criteria Decision Making”, aims to incorporate recent developments in the area of the multi-criteria decision-making field. Topics include, but are not limited to:- MCDM optimization in engineering;- Environmental sustainability in engineering processes;- Multi-criteria production and logistics process planning;- New trends in multi-criteria evaluation of sustainable processes;- Multi-criteria decision making in strategic management based on sustainable criteria

An analytical decision approach to rural telecommunication infrastructure selection

Telecommunications infrastructure is recognised as the fundamental factor for economic and social development for it is the platform of communication and transaction within and beyond geographical boundaries. It is a necessity for social benefits, growth, connection and competition, more in the rural communities in developing countries. Its acquisition entails great investment, considering the emergence of various technologies and thereby making the selection a critical task. The research described in this thesis is concerned with a comprehensive examination and analytical procedures on the selection of technologies, for rural telecommunications infrastructure. A structured systematic approach is deemed necessary to reduce the time and effort in the decision-making process. A literature review was carried out to explore the knowledge in the areas of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approaches, with particular focus on the analytical decision processes. The findings indicate that, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)/AnalyticNetwork Process (ANP) are powerful decision methods capable of modelling such acomplex problem. Primarily, an AHP model is formulated, however, since the problem at hand involves many interactions and dependencies, a more holistic method is required to overcome its shortcomings by allowing for dependencies and feedback within the structure. Hence, the ANP is adopted and its network is established to represent the problem, making way to telecommunications experts to provide their judgements on the elements within the structure. The data collected are used to estimate the relative influence from which the overall synthesise is derived, forming a general ANP model for such a rural telecommunications selection problem. To provide a more wide-ranging investigation regarding selecting a potential rural telecommunications infrastructure, another systematic analysis that utilises a BOCR-based (Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks) ANP was conducted. The obtained results indicate that Microwave technology is the most preferred alternative within the context of the developing countries. Sensitivity analysis was performed to show robustness of the obtained results. This framework provides the structure and the flexibility required for such decisions. It enables decision makers to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the problem, by comparing several technology options, with respect to appropriate gauge for judgement. Moreover, using the ANP, the criteria for such a technology selection task were clearly identified and the problem was structured systematically. A case study was carried out in Libya involving its main telecommunications infrastructure provider to demonstrate how such rural technology selection decisions can be made within a specific developing country's rural area. Based on the results of this case study that were in agreement with the focus group's expectations, it can be concluded that the application of the ANP in the selection of telecommunications technology, is indeed beneficial. In addition, it is believed that telecommunications planners could, by the use of data pertaining to another rural area, utilise the developed model to propose appropriate solutions. If new criteria and/or alternatives emerge to satisfy changing business needs, they can also be included in the ANP model.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceLibyan GovernmentGBUnited Kingdo

Rethinking the risk matrix

So far risk has been mostly defined as the expected value of a loss, mathematically PL (being P the probability of an adverse event and L the loss incurred as a consequence of the adverse event). The so called risk matrix follows from such definition. This definition of risk is justified in a long term “managerial” perspective, in which it is conceivable to distribute the effects of an adverse event on a large number of subjects or a large number of recurrences. In other words, this definition is mostly justified on frequentist terms. Moreover, according to this definition, in two extreme situations (high-probability/low-consequence and low-probability/high-consequence), the estimated risk is low. This logic is against the principles of sustainability and continuous improvement, which should impose instead both a continuous search for lower probabilities of adverse events (higher and higher reliability) and a continuous search for lower impact of adverse events (in accordance with the fail-safe principle). In this work a different definition of risk is proposed, which stems from the idea of safeguard: (1Risk)=(1P)(1L). According to this definition, the risk levels can be considered low only when both the probability of the adverse event and the loss are small. Such perspective, in which the calculation of safeguard is privileged to the calculation of risk, would possibly avoid exposing the Society to catastrophic consequences, sometimes due to wrong or oversimplified use of probabilistic models. Therefore, it can be seen as the citizen’s perspective to the definition of risk