A Fuzzy ANP Based Grey Relational Approach to Evaluate CRM System in Context of Bangladesh

This study aims to select a suitable CRM (customer relationship management) system among different possible alternatives for organization’s in Bangladesh. Since, evaluating CRM system on the basis of lot of attributes leads us to Multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) problems. In this study, a hybrid MCDA models were used. FuzzyANP (Analytic Network Process) and GRA (Grey Relational Analysis) approaches were adopted to solve the problem. The study explored that the Hubspot CRM was optimal solution in context of Bangladesh. Our research will beneficial to the organizing for better customer support. As far our knowledge goes, this is the first attempt to select CRM softwares in context of Bangladesh. Keywords: Analytic network process; Customer relationship management system; Grey relational analysis; Multiple-criteria decision analysis DOI: 10.7176/IKM/11-4-06 Publication date:June 30th 202

An overview of fuzzy multi-criteria decisionmaking methods in hospitality and tourism industries: bibliometrics, methodologies, applications and future directions

Stakeholders in hospitality and tourism industries are involved in many decision-making scenarios. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods have been widely used in hospitality and tourism industries. Although some articles summarised the applications of MCDM models in hospitality and tourism industries, they ignored the fuzziness of individual cognition in an uncertain environment. In addition, these surveys lacked a comprehensive overview from the perspective of bibliometrics analysis and content analysis regarding the whole hospitality and tourism industries. To analyse the applications of fuzzy MCDM methods in hospitality and tourism industries and further explore future research directions, this article reviews 85 selected papers published from 1997 to 2022 regarding fuzzy MCDM models applied in hospitality and tourism industries. Through analysing the results of bibliometric analysis, methodologies and applications, we found that analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and TOPSIS methods are the most widely used MCDM methods, and tourism evaluation, hotel evaluation and selection, tourism destination evaluation and selection are the most attractive research issues in hospitality and tourism industries. Finally, future research directions are proposed from three aspects. This article provides insights for researchers and practitioners who have interest in fuzzy MCDM models in hospitality and tourism industries

Sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection: a literature review

[EN] Outsourcing to third party to manage non-core activities helps the firm to focus on core activities. Manufacturing firms are outsourcing product development, manufacturing, logistics, customer care etc. to enhance production capacity and flexibility, and to reduce operational costs, which in turn can improve profitability and competitive advantage of the enterprise. Sustainability in operations and supply chain is gaining momentum due to increased global environmental concern, pressures from consumers and communities, and enforced regulations. Volatile and uncertain business environment necessitates the adoption of agility and flexibility to effectively manage manufacturing and supply chain. Globalisation has made the market very competitive and hence manufacturing firms are adopting manufacturing outsourcing to third parties. Selecting a sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner (MPS) is crucial as it will improve sustainability, efficiency, and effectiveness of the supply chain and competitive advantage to the firm. Detailed literature review on sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection has been carried out from EBSCO data base and Goggle scholar. Selection criteria used are classified into agile, operational, economic, environmental and social. The techniques use are mostly multi criteria decision making methods (MCDM) while few have adopted programming techniques. Discussion, implication and the scope of future work is also provided.Akhtar, M. (2022). Sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection: a literature review. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 10(2):143-158. https://doi.org/10.4995/ijpme.2022.1680714315810

A Decision Tool for Supplier Selection That Takes into Account Power and Performance

Companies select their suppliers to provide required performance while being successful partners. An important aspect of collaboration is the power relationship between the company and its suppliers. Although the significance of power in supplier selection is acknowledged, published work rarely includes assessment of power. An empirical study on selecting suppliers for new product developments in a major European diesel engine manufacturing company, supported by three smaller studies with electronic engineering companies, frames overall questions regarding the importance of incorporating power into supplier selection and how this might be achieved. This research proposes an approach that assesses both performance and power and integrates the assessment results by modelling the relative effects of power and performance. It positions the suppliers into six scenarios (ideal, satisfying, tolerable, unfavourable, risky and tough) which depict to what extent a supplier is ‘suitable’ to work with. A reverse analysis reviews the relationship when several suppliers appear suitable. An assessment method is developed incorporating both subjective and objective data for qualitative and quantitative criteria. It combines two decision making methods, AHP and TOPSIS, with triangular fuzzy numbers. Multiple judgements from several decision makers are synthesised. This method is adapted for performance assessment of single, group and cross-group suppliers. Weights are calculated for the criteria, and combined with calculations of supplier performance against each criterion to provide an overall assessment and supplier profile. Power is quantified against a set of power determinants and power relations (supplier dominance, buyer dominance and balanced) are determined. The effects of supplier perceptions (objective, optimistic and pessimistic) are estimated in the calculation. The proposed approach involves complex calculations and a prototype software tool is developed with graphical interfaces. The tool includes performance criteria and power determinants collected from literature and allows users to define new ones. Application to an agriculture case enables the sustainable performance of suppliers (farmers) to be evaluated and compared

A Dynamic Credit Index System for TSMEs in China Using the Delphi and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Methods

A high-quality credit index system is essential for technological small and medium-sized enterprises (TSMEs) to obtain financing from various institutions, such as banks, venture capital. Some attempts have made to construct the credit index system for TSMEs. However, the current credit index systems for TSMEs have placed too much emphasis on their financial ability with few prominent technological and talent indicators. Therefore, this study has proposed a dynamic credit index system for TSMEs in China using the Delphi and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods. This credit index system covers a wide range of indicators to measure the enterprises’ controller ability, operation and management ability, financial ability, and innovation capacity. This study made some contributions in the following aspects: (1) This study proposed a credit index system for TSMEs that highlights the main characteristics of technological innovation and talents of enterprises in China. (2) The credit index system is also highly adaptable as it can dynamically adjust the index weight according to the life cycles of TSMEs. (3) A case study of evaluating the credit of three TSMEs in China was selected to verify the feasibility and the effectiveness of this system. The results show that the credit index system constructed in this study provides a comprehensive and systematic model for evaluating the credit of TSMEs in China.The research was funded by Sichuan University and Chengdu Administration China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone. And the APC was funded by Sichuan University

Assessing the new product development process for the industrial decarbonization of sustainable economies

This study aims to find out the significant stages of new product development process for the industrial decarbonization of sustainable economies by using interval type-2 (IT2) fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The findings demonstrate that commercialization is the most significant process of new product generation process of industrial decarbonization. Moreover, it is also concluded that with respect to the sub-criteria, cost analysis, and performance evaluation have the highest weights. An effective cost analysis is required in the new product development process. The costs of the product development process can in some cases be much higher than anticipated. This situation eliminates the effectiveness of the newly developed product. In this context, companies need to make the necessary plans for the costs of these new products correctly. On the other hand, it is important to follow the costs in detail during the process. Otherwise, the product that does not provide a cost advantage will not be preferred by industrial companies. This will cause the actions to be taken to reduce carbon emissions to fail.Key Scientific Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Henan Province "Research on the key role of Investment in the Optimization and upgrading of Industrial structure in Henan Province"Soft Science Research Plan Project of Henan Provinc

Hierarchical Decision-making using a New Mathematical Model based on the Best-worst Method

Decision-making processes in different organizations often have a hierarchical and multilevel structure with various criteria and sub-criteria. The application of hierarchical decision-making has been increased in recent years in many different areas. Researchers have used different hierarchical decision-making methods through mathematical modeling. The best-worst method (BWM) is a multi-criteria evaluation methodology based on pairwise comparisons. In this paper, we introduce a new hierarchical BWM (HBWM) which consists of seven steps. In this new approach, the weights of the criteria and sub-criteria are obtained by using a novel integrated mathematical model. To analyze the proposed model, two numerical examples are provided. To show the performance of the introduced approach, a comparison is also made between the results of the HBWM and BWM methodologies. The analysis demonstrates that HBWM can effectively determine the weights of criteria and sub-criteria through an integrated model

Supplier evaluation and selection in fuzzy environments: a review of MADM approaches

In past years, the multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) approaches have been extensively applied by researchers to the supplier evaluation and selection problem. Many of these studies were performed in an uncertain environment described by fuzzy sets. This study provides a review of applications of MADM approaches for evaluation and selection of suppliers in a fuzzy environment. To this aim, a total of 339 publications were examined, including papers in peer-reviewed journals and reputable conferences and also some book chapters over the period of 2001 to 2016. These publications were extracted from many online databases and classified in some categories and subcategories according to the MADM approaches, and then they were analysed based on the frequency of approaches, number of citations, year of publication, country of origin and publishing journals. The results of this study show that the AHP and TOPSIS methods are the most popular approaches. Moreover, China and Taiwan are the top countries in terms of number of publications and number of citations, respectively. The top three journals with highest number of publications were: Expert Systems with Applications, International Journal of Production Research and The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Unveiling the relation between the challenges and benefits of Operational Excellence and Industry 4.0: A Hybrid Fuzzy Decision-Making Approach

Operational excellence (OpEx) is a direction toward learning and developing an excellent culture in all aspects of an organization. To reach this culture, revolutionizing activities using industry 4.0 (i4.0) technologies might be a significant empowering tool. This study aims to identify the challenges and benefits of both concepts and investigate their interrelationship to be considered in applying industry 4.0 technologies toward operational excellence. The challenges and benefits of OpEx and i4.0 are identified and finalized by reviewing the literature. The causal relations between the considered factors are extracted using the fuzzy DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) method. Then, the analytical network process (ANP) is applied to determine the importance and weight of the factors (challenges and benefits of OpEx and i4.0) according to the constructed network. The findings illustrated a strong network structure between the factors. First, the causal factors included OpEx and i4.0 challenges, while the OpEx challenges also affected the i4.0 challenges. Both group challenges had a significant effect on OpEx and i4.0 benefits. This means that challenges are the causal factors to be considered in the alignment of i4.0 toward OpEx. Among the OpEx challenges, lack of strategic planning and proper infrastructure were the main influential factors. In contrast, lack of government support and undeveloped business models were identified as the main challenges of i4.0. OpEx and i4.0 concepts are reviewed, and their pros and cons are studied. Previous studies determined an interaction among these concepts. However, from a practical viewpoint, the relation between the challenges and benefits of i4.0 and OpEx was studied for the first time for their alignment

A Framework for Prioritizing Opportunities of Improvement in the Context of Business Excellence Model in Healthcare Organization

In today\u27s world, the healthcare sector is facing challenges to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations. More and more improvement projects are being adopted to enhance healthcare services, making it more patient-centric, and enabling better cost control. Healthcare organizations strive to identify and carry out such improvement initiatives to sustain their businesses and gain competitive advantage. Seeking to reach a higher operational level of excellence, healthcare organizations utilize business excellence criteria to conduct assessment and identify organizational strengths and weaknesses. However, while such assessments routinely identify numerous areas for potential improvement, it is not feasible to conduct all improvement projects simultaneously due to limitations in time, capital, and personnel, as well as conflict with other organization\u27s projects or strategic objectives. An effective prioritization and selection approach is valuable in that it can assist the organization to optimize its available resources and outcomes. This study attempts to enable such an approach by developing a framework to prioritize improvement opportunities in healthcare in the context of the business excellence model through the integration of the Fuzzy Delphi Method and Fuzzy Interface System. To carry out the evaluation process, the framework consists of two phases. The first phase utilizes Fuzzy Delphi Method to identify the most significant factors that should be considered in healthcare for electing the improvement projects. The FDM is employed to handle the subjectivity of human assessment. The research identifies potential factors for evaluating projects, then utilizes FDM to capture expertise knowledge. The first round in FDM is intended to validate the identified list of factors from experts; which includes collecting additional factors from experts that the literature might have overlooked. When an acceptable level of consensus has been reached, a second round is conducted to obtain experts\u27 and other related stakeholders\u27 opinions on the appropriate weight of each factor\u27s importance. Finally, FDM analyses eliminate or retain the criteria to produce a final list of critical factors to select improvement projects. The second phase in the framework attempts to prioritize improvement initiatives using the Hierarchical Fuzzy Interface System. The Fuzzy Interface System combines the experts\u27 ratings for each improvement opportunity with respect to the factors deemed critical to compute the priority index. In the process of calculating the priority index, the framework allows the estimation of other intermediate indices including: social, financial impact, strategical, operational feasibility, and managerial indices. These indices bring an insight into the improvement opportunities with respect to each framework\u27s dimensions. The framework allows for a reduction of the bias in the assessment by developing a knowledge based on the perspectives of multiple experts