A fuzzy-QFD approach for the enhancement of work equipment safety: a case study in the agriculture sector

The paper proposes a design for safety methodology based on the use of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method, focusing on the need to identify and analyse risks related to a working task in an effective manner, i.e. considering the specific work activities related to such a task. To reduce the drawbacks of subjectivity while augmenting the consistency of judgements, the QFD was augmented by both the Delphi method and the fuzzy logic approach. To verify such an approach, it was implemented through a case study in the agricultural sector. While the proposed approach needs to be validated through further studies in different contexts, its positive results in performing hazard analysis and risk assessment in a comprehensive and thorough manner can contribute practically to the scientific knowledge on the application of QFD in design for safety activities

Review and prioritization of investment projects in the Waste Management organization of Tabriz Municipality with a Rough Sets Theory approach

Purpose: Prioritization of investment projects is a key step in the process of planning the investment activities of organizations. Choosing the suitable projects has a direct impact on the profitability and other strategic goals of organizations. Factors affecting the prioritization of investment projects are complex and the use of traditional methods alone cannot be useful, so there is a need to use a suitable model for prioritizing projects and investment plans. The purpose of this study is to prioritize projects and investment methods for projects (10 projects) considered by the Waste Management Organization of Tabriz Municipality. Methodology: The method of analysis used is the theory of rough, so that first the important investment projects in the field of waste management were determined using the research background and opinion of experts and the weight and priority of the projects were obtained using the Rough Sets Theory. Then, the priority of appropriate investment methods (out of 6 methods) of each project was obtained using Rough numbers, the opinion of experts and other aspects. Findings: The result of the research has been that construction project of a specialized recycling town, plastic recycling project, and recycled tire recycling project are three priority projects of Tabriz Municipality Waste Management Organization, respectively. Three investment methods, civil partnership agreements, BOT, and BOO can be used for them. Originality/Value: Tabriz Municipality Waste Management is an important and influential organization in the activities of the city, in which the investment methods in its projects are mostly based on common contracts and are performed in the same way for all projects. This research offers new methods for projects and their diversity according to Rough Sets technique

A fuzzy-based evaluation of financial risks in build-own-operate-transfer water supply projects

The build–own–operate–transfer (BOOT) scheme is widely used for the provision of new bulk water supply. However, this scheme is complex and carries significant financial risks because of the characteristics of the water sector and the involvement of public-private stakeholders with new and extended responsibilities, large private capital, and long contract duration. Drawing on the Nungua Seawater Desalination Plant (NSDP) in Ghana, this study seeks to identify and assess the critical financial risks associated with BOOT water supply projects and evaluate the financial risk level of the NSDP project. The risks and their relative criticality on the NSDP project are investigated by using a questionnaire survey method. The questionnaire was formulated with a set of 18 risks derived from extant literature and project documentation. Perceived critical financial risks affecting the NSDP project were assessed by a team of experts who had direct involvement in the project. A fuzzy synthetic evaluation suggests that the project is financially risky and that all the risks are critical to the project. Bankruptcy of consortium members, unfavorable economy of the host country, uncertainty in tariff adjustment of water products, rate of return restrictions, and availability problem of private capital are the five most highly-ranked risks. The fuzzy technique is used to represent and model experiential knowledge of the survey participants and to address the fuzziness of their expert judgments. The study’s results facilitate prioritization of risks and a comprehensive risk management program during the lifecycle of the case project and future projects. The fuzzy technique is suitable for early phases of BOOT projects to prioritize the risks that require a detailed analysis and to predict the risk level of a project

A framework for sustainable port planning in inland ports: a multistakeholder approach

In the European Union, all levels of government are convinced that an accelerated development of a modal shift towards inland navigation is one of the key requirements for reducing congestion and environmental externalities. This is becoming increasingly important, given the fast growing (road) transport needs at the macro-economic level. It is expected that inland ports can play a crucial role in achieving such a modal shift. However, many inland ports are confronted with important spatial, socio-economic and regulatory constraints as, historically, they have been located in the centre of large (capital) cities and other high density urban regions. As a result, they face constant pressure from a variety of stakeholders (urban residents, leisure industry, ecological movement, ?) and they must continuously defend their right of existence. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for inland port planning that builds upon a multistakeholder ? multicriteria approach, which takes into account all the short-term and long-term stakeholder preferences and objectives, in order to realize sustainable port development. This framework will also deal with the complexity of the port function in urban regions, as these ports/activities are in most cases dispersed over the urban region, whereby each port ?zone? has its own specific spatial, socio-economic, and regulatory characteristics. The combination of existing literature in the fields of (urban) port development and multicriteria analysis, and empirical evidence, gathered during the development of a strategic masterplan for the inland Port of Brussels, will permit the formulation of a new approach to inland port development.

A weighted interval rough number based method to determine relative importance ratings of customer requirements in QFD product planning

Customer requirements (CRs) play a significant role in the product development process, especially in the early design stage. Quality function deployment (QFD), as a useful tool in customer-oriented product development, provides a systematic approach towards satisfying CRs. Customers are heterogeneous and their requirements are often vague, therefore, how to determine the relative importance ratings (RIRs) of CRs and eventually evaluate the final importance ratings is a critical step in the QFD product planning process. Aiming to improve the existing approaches by interpreting various CR preferences more objectively and accurately, this paper proposes a weighted interval rough number method. CRs are rated with interval numbers, rather than a crisp number, which is more flexible to adapt in real life; also, the fusion of customer heterogeneity is addressed by assigning different weights to customers based on several factors. The consistency of RIRs is maintained by the proposed procedures with design rules. A comparative study among fuzzy weighted average method, rough number method and the proposed method is conducted at last. The result shows that the proposed method is more suitable in determining the RIRs of CRs with vague information

Optimization of Urban Highway Bypass Horizontal Alignment: A Methodological Overview of Intelligent Spatial MCDA Approach Using Fuzzy AHP and GIS

Selection of urban bypass highway alternatives involves the consideration of competing and conflicting criteria and factors, which require multicriteria decision analysis. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is one of the most commonly used multicriteria decision making (MCDM) methods that can integrate personal preferences in performing spatial analyses on the physical and nonphysical parameters. In this paper, the traditional AHP is modified to fuzzy AHP for the determination of the optimal bypass route for Eldoret town in Kenya. The fuzzy AHP is proposed in order to take care of the vagueness type uncertainty encountered in alternative bypass location determination. In the implementation, both engineering and environmental factors comprising of physical and socioeconomic objectives were considered at different levels of decision hierarchy. The results showed that the physical objectives (elevation, slope, soils, geology, and drainage networks) and socioeconomic objectives (land-use and road networks) contributed the same weight of 0.5 towards the bypass location prioritization process. At the subcriteria evaluation level, land-use and existing road networks contributed the highest significance of 47.3% amongst the seven decision factors. Integrated with GIS-based least cost path (LCP) analysis, the fuzzy AHP results produced the most desirable and optimal route alignment, as compared to the AHP only prioritization approach

Integrated Risk Assessment on Argon Purification Unit Based on FMECA and Fuzzy-AHP

Argon Purification Unit is a processing unit to purify the crude argon using hydrogen gas through an automatic machinery process. Based on the hazardous material and its automatic machinery process, the argon purification unit needs to be assessed for risk control consideration and business performance. This research proposed risk assessment of argon purification unit based on the failure modes using Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) with Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy-AHP) approach to minimize the risks and losses. In this research, FMECA is used to identify the potential failure modes, failure mechanism (causes), potential failure effects for each unit component and evaluate the risk by determining risk priority number (RPN). The RPN is the product of severity, occurrence, and detection variables. Then, Fuzzy-AHP is used to determine the weight of each variable based on its hierarchy. The fuzzy-AHP approach aims to increase validity and decrease expert judgment subjectivity in the risk assessment process for each failure mode by considering variables’ weight. The result of RPN is gained by multiplying each failure mode’s variables by considering the importance of variables. This research results weight of severity is 0.43, which is the highest of all variables. The highest RPN is 8.76, shown by the leaked joint of the argon compressor. This research indicates that the application of the fuzzy-AHP approach in FMECA can identify and evaluate the potential risk of the Argon Purification Unit validly and objectively, which provides the different weight of RPN variables

Partner selection in sustainable supply chains: a fuzzy ensemble learning model

With the increasing demands on businesses to operate more sustainably, firms must ensure that the performance of their whole supply chain in sustainability is optimized. As partner selection is critical to supply chain management, focal firms now need to select supply chain partners that can offer a high level of competence in sustainability. This paper proposes a novel multi-partner classification model for the partner qualification and classification process, combining ensemble learning technology and fuzzy set theory. The proposed model enables potential partners to be classified into one of four categories (strategic partner, preference partner, leverage partner and routine partner), thereby allowing distinctive partner management strategies to be applied for each category. The model provides for the simultaneous optimization of both efficiency in its use of multi-partner and multi-dimension evaluation data, and effectiveness in dealing with the vagueness and uncertainty of linguistic commentary data. Compared to more conventional methods, the proposed model has the advantage of offering a simple classification and a stable prediction performance. The practical efficacy of the model is illustrated by an application in a listed electronic equipment and instrument manufacturing company based in southeastern China

A weighted rough set based fuzzy axiomatic design approach for the selection of AM processes

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing, as an enabling technology for mass customization or personalization, has been developed rapidly in recent years. Various design tools, materials, machines and service bureaus can be found in the market. Clearly, the choices are abundant, but users can be easily confused as to which AM process they should use. This paper first reviews the existing multi-attribute decision-making methods for AM process selection and assesses their suitability with regard to two aspects, preference rating flexibility and performance evaluation objectivity. We propose that an approach that is capable of handling incomplete attribute information and objective assessment within inherent data has advantages over other approaches. Based on this proposition, this paper proposes a weighted preference graph method for personalized preference evaluation and a rough set based fuzzy axiomatic design approach for performance evaluation and the selection of appropriate AM processes. An example based on the previous research work of AM machine selection is given to validate its robustness for the priori articulation of AM process selection decision support