Design of demand driven return supply chain for high-tech products

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to design a responsive network for after-sale services of high-tech products. Design/methodology/approach: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and weighted max-min approach are integrated to solve a fuzzy goal programming model. Findings: Uncertainty is an important characteristic of reverse logistics networks, and the level of uncertainty increases with the decrease of the products’ life-cycle. Research limitations/implications: Some of the objective functions of our model are simplified to deal with non-linearities. Practical implications: Designing after-sale services networks for high-tech products is an overwhelming task, especially when the external environment is characterized by high levels of uncertainty and dynamism. This study presents a comprehensive modeling approach to simplify this task. Originality/value: Consideration of multiple objectives is rare in reverse logistics network design literature. Although the number of multi-objective reverse logistics network design studies has been increasing in recent years, the last two objective of our model is unique to this research area.Peer Reviewe

Development of an experiment-based robust design paradigm for multiple quality characteristics using physical programming

The well-known quality improvement methodology, robust design, is a powerful and cost-effective technique for building quality into the design of products and processes. Although several approaches to robust design have been proposed in the literature, little attention has been given to the development of a flexible robust design model. Specifically, flexibility is needed in order to consider multiple quality characteristics simultaneously, just as customers do when judging products, and to capture design preferences with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Physical programming, a relatively new optimization technique, is an effective tool that can be used to transform design preferences into specific weighted objectives. In this paper, we extend the basic concept of physical programming to robust design by establishing the links of experimental design and response surface methodology to address designers’ preferences in a multiresponse robust design paradigm. A numerical example is used to show the proposed procedure and the results obtained are validated through a sensitivity study

Optimal Forest Strategies for Addressing Tradeoffs and Uncertainty in Economic Development under Old-Growth Constraints

In Canada, governments have historically promoted economic development in rural regions by promoting exploitation of natural resources, particularly forests. Forest resources are an economic development driver in many of the more than 80% of native communities located in forest regions. But forests also provide aboriginal people with cultural and spiritual values, and non-timber forest amenities (e.g., biodiversity, wildlife harvests for meat and fur, etc.), that are incompatible with timber exploitation. Some cultural and other amenities can only be satisfied by maintaining a certain amount of timber in an old-growth state. In that case, resource constraints might be too onerous to satisfy development needs. We employ compromise programming and fuzzy programming to identify forest management strategies that best compromise between development and other objectives, applying our models to an aboriginal community in northern Alberta. In addition to describing how mathematical programming techniques can be applied to regional development and forest management, we conclude from the analysis that no management strategy is able to satisfy all of the technical, environmental and social/cultural constraints and, at the same time, offer aboriginal peoples forest-based economic development. Nonetheless, we demonstrate that extant forest management policies can be improved upon.forest-dependent aboriginal communities, boreal forest, compromise and fuzzy programming, sustainability and uncertainty, International Development, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, R11, Q23, Q01, C61,

Penghasilan manual rjngkas penggunaan alat Total Station Sokkia Set5f dan Perisian Sdr Mapping & Design untuk automasi ukur topografi

Projek ini dilaksanakan untuk menghasilkan manual ringkas penggunaan alat Total Station Sokkia SET5F dan Perisian SDR Mapping & Design dalam menghasilkan pelan topografi yang lengkap mengikut konsep field to finish. Manual telah dihasilkan dalam dua bentuk iaitu buku dan CD-ROM. Manual ini telah dinilai berdasarkan data yang diperolehi daripada 7 orang responden melalui kaedah Borang Penilaian Manual. Analisis data dilakukan menggunakan perisian SPSS versi 11.0. Hasil analisis skor min menunjukkan kesemua responden bersetuju bahawa manual dalam bentuk buku ini menarik Min ( M ) ^ ^ dan Sisihan Piawai (SD) = .535 tetapi kurang interaktif (M) = 2.29 dan (SD) = 0.488. Berbanding dengan manual dalam format CD-ROM yang mencatat nilai (M) = 3.57 dan (SD) = 0.535 semua responden bersetuju bahawa manual ini mesra pengguna dan lebih interakti

Decision support model for the selection of asphalt wearing courses in highly trafficked roads

The suitable choice of the materials forming the wearing course of highly trafficked roads is a delicate task because of their direct interaction with vehicles. Furthermore, modern roads must be planned according to sustainable development goals, which is complex because some of these might be in conflict. Under this premise, this paper develops a multi-criteria decision support model based on the analytic hierarchy process and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution to facilitate the selection of wearing courses in European countries. Variables were modelled using either fuzzy logic or Monte Carlo methods, depending on their nature. The views of a panel of experts on the problem were collected and processed using the generalized reduced gradient algorithm and a distance-based aggregation approach. The results showed a clear preponderance by stone mastic asphalt over the remaining alternatives in different scenarios evaluated through sensitivity analysis. The research leading to these results was framed in the European FP7 Project DURABROADS (No. 605404).The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under Grant Agreement No. 605404