Location selection of agricultural-residuals particleboard industry through group decision: The case study of northern Iran

This paper presents a framework for locating agricultural-residuals particleboard industry in the northern provinces of Iran. Particleboard industry is the only Iranian wood and paper industry with an export potential and the use of agricultural residuals as the raw material can help with increasing the production in this industry, while reducing the damage to forest resources. The northern provinces of Iran are agricultural centers with ample amounts of agricultural residues. These provinces are, therefore, preferable to other provinces as the construction sites of particleboard plants. In the location selection model presented in this paper, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used and the results indicate that the criterion of ‘material and production’ and the sub-criterion of ‘reliability of supply’ have the highest priorities, and that Golestan province is the best alternative

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

Selection of biogas, solar, and wind power plants’ locations: An MCDA approach

This study discusses a multi-criteria approach to locating biogas, solar and wind power plants that significantly addresses the challenge of global warming caused by power generation. Because the utility of locations to build renewable energy power plants depends on economic, social and environmental dimensions, after reviewing literature, the sustainable frameworks of criteria affecting the location of biogas, solar and wind power plants were examined in this paper. The offered frameworks are applied to determining the site of biogas, solar, and wind power plants in Iran. The provinces of Iran are assessed as alternatives in this paper. To compute the weight of criteria in the offered framework, data from a sample of experts in Iran are used via an online survey form designed based on the best-worst method (BWM). Using the results of the BWM and the performance data, the overall score are calculated for the various provinces of Iran. The results of this study indicate that energy saving, effect on resources and natural reserves and wind flow, respectively, are the most effective factors for determining the place of biogas, solar and wind power plants, and South Khorasan, Khuzestan, and Khuzestan show the best result for establishing biogas, solar, and wind power plants in Iran respectively

Supplier selection in automobile industry: A mixed balanced scorecard–fuzzy AHP approach

AbstractThis study proposed an integrated Balanced Scorecard–Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchical Process (BSC–FAHP) model to select suppliers in the automotive industry. In spite of the vast amount of studies on supplier selection, the evaluation and selection of suppliers using the specific measures of the automotive industry are less investigated. In order to fill this gap, this research proposed a new BSC for supplier selection of automobile industry. Measures were gathered using a literature survey and accredited using Nominal Group Technique (NGT). Finally, a fuzzy AHP was used to select the best supplier

Identifying and prioritizing the effective factors in the implementation of green supply chain management in the construction industry

In recent years, environmental protection and sustainability have become significant issues and have attracted everyone's attention. And many organizations are now interested in using it as their strategy to gain customer satisfaction and market share and outperform competitors. This article aims to identify and prioritize the main factors that implement green supply chain management (GSCM) in the construction industry. To achieve the goal, the integrated approach combining is fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (FDEMATEL) and fuzzy analysis network Process (FANP) developed. The parameters employed are in this approach identified through an extensive literature review, and validation is criteria introduced through the experts’ opinions to discuss data uncertainty. First, the FDEMATEL method sets up the interrelationships between the criteria, which used for determining are the most important factors in the GSCM approach. Then, the local weight of the criteria calculated using the FANP approach based on cause and effect relationships, and through the FDEMATEL method. The results of this study show that external factors are the most important and influential factors in the GSCM approach, Therefore, the findings of this study can guide managers to make better use of the GSCM approach in the Iranian construction industry

Grey Strategies Interaction Model

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose - This paper aims to implement the strategies selection process in a proposed formulated mathematical framework to prioritize selected strategies with the interaction of other groups of strategies, known as the strategies interaction model (SIM). Design/methodology/approach - SWOT analysis is a popular useful strategic planning tool, which analyzes organizations internal and external factors. The traditional SWOT procedure lists internal and external factors and derives four groups of strategies based on the organization’s strategic position. SWOT is easy to use as a business analyzing tool, while it is not competent enough for strategic formulation. With the emergence of the economy's vicissitudes, undulations in the markets and multiple changes, and various variables in the industrial competitive environment, selection of the organization strategies confront uncertainty in decision-making. The SIM framework presents a solution to select alternative strategies for organizations in unpredictable situations. Findings – The findings show that SIM is a reliable approach to evaluate, select and rank organization’ strategies. SIM proposes alternative strategies due to the uncertainty of the organization’ environment with respect to the four strategic positions. The SIM’ proposed ranking process is in accordance with the highest impact of each strategy on each other. Furthermore, it possesses advantages of AHP, ANP and other applied MCDM techniques in SWOT analysis. Practical implications - In this paper SIM is applied within a dairy company located in the north of Iran. Originality/value - SIM has the advantages of the classic SWOT and fills the gaps of MCDM methods application in the SWOT analysis. Moreover, it provides a formulated algorithm for the organizations to face the uncertainty of the environment. SIM philosophy can be widely used in the decision and managerial implications

Formulation of Manufacturing Strategies Based on An Extended SWARA Method with Intuitionistic Fuzzy Numbers: An Automotive Industry Application

Applying any kind of manufacturing strategy requires evaluating the current situation of the system at the internal and external levels and providing strategies for improving the system performance. Hence, the study presents review and design the optimal manufacturing strategy for increasing the efficiency of the automotive industry. This article presents a three-step manufacturing strategy model using Miltenburg worksheet and extended the Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method into the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. It concentrates on five manufacturing objectives encompassing the production system, manufacturing outputs, manufacturing leverage, production capabilities, and competitive analysis. First,the basis of current production system is Product\Volume Layout\Flow Matrix (PV-LF) matrix. At the point, six manufacturing levers are analysed and assessed. The following step extends the SWARA method into the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. The research evaluates manufacturing outputs (delivery and cost, quality and performance) to define criteria of the optimal production system. Eventually, the study describes optimal strategies. Thus, the production system could change to the optimal policy. The results demonstrated that the case study production system is Equipment Paced Line Flow (EPL) and should vary from EPL to Just in Time (JIT). Furthermore, changing manufacturing levers is necessary to execute the proposed framework successfully

Social sustainable supplier evaluation and selection: a group decision-support approach

Organisational and managerial decisions are influenced by corporate sustainability pressures. Organisations need to consider economic, environmental and social sustainability dimensions in their decisions to become sustainable. Supply chain decisions play a distinct and critical role in organisational good and service outputs sustainability. Sustainable supplier selection influences the supply chain sustainability allowing many organisations to build competitive advantage. Within this context, the social sustainability dimension has received relatively minor investigation; with emphasis typically on economic and environmental sustainability. Neglecting social sustainability can have serious repercussions for organisational supply chains. This study proposes a social sustainability attribute decision framework to evaluate and select socially sustainable suppliers. A grey-based multi-criteria decision-support tool composed of the ‘best-worst method’ (BWM) and TODIM (TOmada de Decisão Interativa e Multicritério – in Portuguese ‘Interactive and Multicriteria Decision Making’) is introduced. A grey-BWM approach is used to determine social sustainability attribute weights, and a grey-TODIM method is utilised to rank suppliers. This process is completed in a group decision setting. A case study of an Iranian manufacturing company is used to exemplify the applicability and suitability of the proposed social sustainability decision framework. Managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are introduced after the application of the model

Strategic hybrid approach for selecting suppliers of high-density polyethylene

Supplier selection is an important process for companies in the plastic sector due to its influence on firm performance and competitiveness. For a proper selection, a number of criteria from different aspects need to be considered by decision makers. Yet, as in different fields, because there are numerous criteria and alternatives to be considered in the plastic industry, choosing an appropriate multicriteria decision-making approach has become a critical step for selecting suppliers. Therefore, the aim of this research is to define the most suitable supplier of high-density polyethylene through the integration of powerful multicriteria decision-making methods. For this purpose, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) is initially applied to define initial weights of factors and subfactors under uncertainty, followed by the use of decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to evaluate interrelations between the elements of the hierarchy. Then, after combining FAHP and DEMATEL to calculate the final contributions of both factors and subfactors on the basis of interdependence, the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution is used to assess the supplier alternatives. In addition, this paper also explores the differences between the judgments of decision makers for both AHP and DEMATEL methods. To do these, a case study is presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach

A process-based guide for international entrepreneurs while investing in the agrifood sector of an emerging economy: a multi-layer decision-making approach

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose – Due to the political, economic and infrastructure barriers and risks that international entrepreneurs (IEs) face when researching an emerging economy’s agrifood sector, this research aims to identify the major barriers, analyse their relationships, quantify their importance, classify and rank them. Thus, the IEs will gain a better understanding and vision of their decision-making processes in this era. Design/methodology/approach – To do this, the authors first created a list of barriers to entry for IEs into Iran’s rising economy’s agrifood industry. Following that, a multi-layer decision-making approach was developed and implemented to accomplish the research objectives. The first stage utilized a hybrid of interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) to depict the level-based conceptual model and classification of the IEs’ obstacles to entry into the agrifood sector. Following that, a hybrid decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), and analytic network process (ANP) called DANP was utilized to present a causal relationship between the barriers, identify their causes and effects, and also quantify the relevance of each barrier. Findings – After employing the multi-layer decision-making approach, the results demonstrated that fundamental limitations, including infrastructure and technology limitations, are the most critical barriers alongside policy factors encompassing governmental support and access to global or regional economy/ market. According to the results, innovation and economic sustainability of the agrifood supply chain also matter. All of these critical barriers are intertwined and should be planned and solved simultaneously. Furthermore, based on DANP results, the sustainability pillars (economy, environment, society), besides the low efficiency of the agrifood sector in Iran, should be investigated further for future policy makings. Originality/value – A hybrid multi-layer decision-making approach has been used for analysing the barriers of investment in the agrifood sector of the emerging economy of Iran for the international entrepreneurs. Moreover, the authors provide implications and insights for IEs and officials for decision-making in the future