Evaluation of e-learning web sites using fuzzy axiomatic design based approach

High quality web site has been generally recognized as a critical enabler to conduct online business. Numerous studies exist in the literature to measure the business performance in relation to web site quality. In this paper, an axiomatic design based approach for fuzzy group decision making is adopted to evaluate the quality of e-learning web sites. Another multi-criteria decision making technique, namely fuzzy TOPSIS, is applied in order to validate the outcome. The methodology proposed in this paper has the advantage of incorporating requirements and enabling reductions in the problem size, as compared to fuzzy TOPSIS. A case study focusing on Turkish e-learning websites is presented, and based on the empirical findings, managerial implications and recommendations for future research are offered

Adverse effects of Interbank funds on bank efficiency: evidence from Turkish banking sector

This paper investigates the relationship between interbank funds and efficiencies is for the commercial banks operating in Turkey between 2001-2006. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is executed to find the efficiency scores of the banks for each year, and fixed effects panel data regression is carried out, with the efficiency scores being the response variable. It is observed that interbank funds (ratio) has negative effects on bank efficiency, while bank capitalization and loan ratio have positive, and profitability has insignificant effects. Our study serves as an illustrative evidence that interbank funds can have adverse effects in an emerging market

Re-mining item associations: methodology and a case study in apparel retailing

Association mining is the conventional data mining technique for analyzing market basket data and it reveals the positive and negative associations between items. While being an integral part of transaction data, pricing and time information have not been integrated into market basket analysis in earlier studies. This paper proposes a new approach to mine price, time and domain related attributes through re-mining of association mining results. The underlying factors behind positive and negative relationships can be characterized and described through this second data mining stage. The applicability of the methodology is demonstrated through the analysis of data coming from a large apparel retail chain, and its algorithmic complexity is analyzed in comparison to the existing techniques

Teaching warehousing concepts through interactive animations and 3D models

A significant challenge in teaching warehousing and facility logistics is conveying the important managerial and operational concepts to students effectively. These concepts always involve the presence and interactions of real-world objects such as facilities, vehicles, materials, storage and retrieval equipment, and most importantly humans. Meanwhile, knowledge in the mentioned fields does not only consist of concepts and principles but also includes algorithms that solve a variety of problems encountered in practice. Trying to communicate this body of knowledge in words with the help of photos and drawings frequently proves insufficient. In teaching his warehousing courses the author has realized that a set of educational media composed of interactive animations and virtual three dimensional (3-D) models indeed facilitates the challenges described earlier. Extensive educational media has been developed at Sabanci University in a coordinated effort of undergraduate students under the supervision of the author, and with the support of a multimedia expert. The media content has been selected and organized such that it can support and enrich classes and courses that would be based on two extremely useful books, one on implementing world-class practices in warehousing, and the other on strategies for saving space in the warehouse. The developed materials are freely available on the Internet to everyone, and are expected to contribute to the awareness, recognition, and growth of the fields of warehousing and facility logistics. In this chapter the educational materials developed, the rationale for the technology selections, and the teaching methods in class are explained. Meanwhile, resources for warehousing education are reviewed extensively and potential new technologies and approaches are highlighted

Financial benchmarking of transportation companies in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through data envelopment analysis (DEA) and visualization

In this paper, we present a benchmarking study of industrial transportation companies traded in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). There are two distinguishing aspects of our study: First, instead of using operational data for the input and the output items of the developed Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, we use financial data of the companies that are readily available on the Internet. Secondly, we visualize the efficiency scores of the companies in relation to the subsectors and the number of employees. These visualizations enable us to discover interesting insights about the companies within each subsector, and about subsectors in comparison to each other. The visualization approach that we employ can be used in any DEA study that contains subgroups within a group. Thus, our paper also contains a methodological contribution

Lojistik bilişim sistemleri

Bilişim Sistemleri, verinin toplanması, işlenmesi, depolanması ve bilgisayar ağları üzerinden istenen bir uca güvenli bir şekilde iletilerek kullanıcıların hizmetine sunulmasında kullanılan,ve donanım, yazılım ve iletişim teknolojilerini bütünleştiren sistemlerdir. Bu tümleşik yapılar, yazılım uygulamaları ve bilgisayar donanımının tasarlanması, geliştirilmesi, işletimi, yönetimi ve desteğini içeren hizmetler ile oluşturulur ve sürdürülürler. Bilişim Sistemleri, bilginin işlendiği ve paylaşıldığı tüm yapılarda kullanılmaktadır. Her bilim dalı ve iş kolu,bilişim sistemlerini kendi ihtiyaçları doğrultusunda yapılandırır. Bilginin işlendiği bilgisayar sistemleri genel olarak tüm yapılarda benzer olmakla birlikte özellikle yazılım her alanda farklılık gösterir. Benzer şekilde her iş kolunda bilgiyi toplama ve erişim için farklı çevre birimleri ve yöntemler kullanılır. Bu bölümde lojistik faaliyetlerine dönükLojistik Bilişim Sistemleri incelenecektir. Bu ünitede Lojistik Bilişim Teknolojileri iki ana grup altında incelenecektir.Bu gruplardan ilki Lojistik Bilgi Teknolojileri (Resim 6.1)ikincisi ise Lojistik Bilgi Sistemleri’dir (Resim6.7).Lojistik faaliyetlerine dönük kullanılanlojistik bilgi sistemleri yazılımları altyapı olarak lojistik bilgi teknolojilerine (çeşitli donanım ve yazılımlar) dayanırlar

Depolama sistemleri

Depolar, ürünlerin dağıtımı sırasında kullanılan geçici stok noktalarıdır. Depolar, tedarik zincirlerinin hedeflenen amaçlar doğrultusunda çalışmasına ve lojistik faaliyetlerinin etkin yürütülmesine önemli katkıda bulunurlar. Depolar, üretim tesislerinin içinde veya yanında bulunabileceği gibi, ayrı, özel olarak inşa edilmiş yapılar halinde de kurulabilirler. Şekil 4.1’de, tipik bir deponun genel görünüşü sunulmaktadır. Malzeme/ürünler, bu tipik depoda raflarda depolanmakta, malzeme giriş çıkışları depo rampaları üzerinden gerçekleşmekte, yükleme/boşaltma işlemleri forklift olarak adlandırılan araçlar kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmektedir. Deponun yönetimi, Depo Yöneticisi (Warehouse Manager) ya da Depo Müdürü unvanını taşıyan bir lojistik uzmanı tarafından yürütülmektedir

Çapraz sevkiyat için temel bilgiler

Çapraz sevkiyatta, kamyonlarla gelen malzemeler çıkış kapısına yönlendirilerek bekletilmeden doğrudan doğruya ya da kısa bir süreliğine bekletilerek sevkiyatı gerçekleştirecek kamyonlara yüklenir. Çapraz sevkiyat, lojistik süreçlerinde tasarruf elde etmek ve rekabetçi avantaj kazanmak için uygulanabilecek önemli bir tedarik zinciri stratejisidir. Örneğin, dünyanın en büyük perakendecisi olan Wal-Mart’ın lojistik başarısının temelinde çapraz sevkiyat ve bu stratejiyi gerçekleştirebilmek ve sürdürebilmek için kurulan sistem yatmaktadır. Bu makalede çapraz sevkiyat konusunda giriş seviyesinde bir bilgilendirme yapılacaktır: Çapraz sevkiyatın çeşitleri, ön koşulları, uygulandığı sektörler, getirdiği avantajlar ve dezavantajlar, ve perakende sektöründeki tipik bir çapraz sevkiyat süreci bu makalenin içeriğini oluşturmaktadır

Analyzing the solutions of DEA through information visualization and data mining techniques: SmartDEA framework

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has proven to be a useful tool for assessing efficiency or productivity of organizations, which is of vital practical importance in managerial decision making. DEA provides a significant amount of information from which analysts and managers derive insights and guidelines to promote their existing performances. Regarding to this fact, effective and methodologic analysis and interpretation of DEA solutions are very critical. The main objective of this study is then to develop a general decision support system (DSS) framework to analyze the solutions of basic DEA models. The paper formally shows how the solutions of DEA models should be structured so that these solutions can be examined and interpreted by analysts through information visualization and data mining techniques effectively. An innovative and convenient DEA solver, SmartDEA, is designed and developed in accordance with the proposed analysis framework. The developed software provides a DEA solution which is consistent with the framework and is ready-to-analyze with data mining tools, through a table-based structure. The developed framework is tested and applied in a real world project for benchmarking the vendors of a leading Turkish automotive company. The results show the effectiveness and the efficacy of the proposed framework