Assessment of the ecological health of Vellar and Ennore estuarine ecosystems using health indices

1580-1592Coastal and marine environments face various perturbations which include a variety of industrial wastes and other toxic compounds accruing from shore line industries. Dumping of fly ash slurry and coolant water from thermal power plant is known to affect the physico-chemical nature of the estuarine environment and thereby cause severe damage to the benthic organisms. To combat this, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) developed a suite of health indices, of which, the AMBI (AZTI- Marine Biotic Index) index is proved to be efficient in assessing the ecological status of marine environment by using the macro benthic communities. In this backdrop, the present study was made to ascertain the ecological health of Vellar and Ennore estuarine regions using AMBI and M-AMBI (Multivariate- AZTI Marine Biotic Index) indices. The AMBI values (0.391 to1.13) and M-AMBI (0.92 to 0.96) calculated for the Vellar estuary indicated relatively undisturbed nature and high ecological quality while the values calculated for Ennore estuary (AMBI: 2.032 to 4.146 and M-AMBI: 0.27 to 0.76) signaled moderately disturbed nature and poor ecological quality of the system. The present study proves that there is an immense scope for application of AMBI & M-AMBI in ecological health assessment studies

Delivery Process Of Inbound Goods During The Supply Chain From Fulfillment Centers

Abstract - Security in the worldwide supply chain could really compare to ever. Driven by dangers, for example robbery, and burglary, it is likewise progressively muddled. It is important to advance opportune and proficient stream of genuine business while shielding and verifying the supply chain from abuse, and decreasing its helplessness to interruption. By far most of the misfortunes are owing to retail burglary. This makes retail robbery one of the most serious issues confronting independent company retailers today. The environment, atmosphere and flow of work in the FC were enchanting and cheerful which thus made the work effortless. Initial weeks were about understanding the core elements of the fulfillment centers and also understanding the operational aspects of the company and importantly the flow of the operational proces

A framework to arrive at a unique performance measurement score for the balanced scorecard

For any business activity, it is essential to identify the required performance measures which have strategic implications. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a very useful performance measurement system. But there is no distinction made with regard to the importance provided to the perspectives under BSC. Furthermore, for some metrics, the actual performance may be greater than the targeted performance and for some, it is less. This makes it unclear for decision makers whether the firm had achieved the strategic intent in totality or not. In this article, the weightages for the perspectives and subcriteria are arrived at through the fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and an analytical expression developed by the author. This model further helps in arriving at a unified score to portray the overall performance of the organisation. The developed model is validated through a real-life example.performance score; balanced scorecard; BSC; fuzzy analytical hierarchy process; fuzzy AHP; financial factors; nonfinancial factors; performance measurement.

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Declarar de interés educativo las primeras jornadas los cambios de la educación organizadas por el Instituto Superior Docente del Instituto Independencia y la Fundación para la Excelencia Educativa que se llevarán a cabo entre los días 19 de octubre al 16 de noviembre de 199

Integrating fuzzy analytical hierarchy process and data envelopment analysis for performance management in automobile repair shops

In today's competitive situation, with service industries sprouting at an incredible rate, managing service performance becomes an essential strategy for success and survival. The automotive service industry is one such industry where managing service performance becomes essential for successful operations. In automobile repair shops, the various dimensions considered for service performance include cost, time and service quality dimensions. In service quality measurement, vagueness and uncertainty lead to the insufficient and imprecise capture of the judgements of decision makers. Hence, in this paper, the authors use fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (fuzzy AHP) for the accurate measurement of service quality. The Service Quality Measure (SQM) from fuzzy AHP, the cost dimensions (generated revenue and operating cost) and the time dimension (productive service time) are provided to the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to measure the efficiency of automobile repair shops. In addition, the results from DEA also provide the efficiency targets for all Decision-Making Units (DMUs) through a comparison with benchmark units. The integrated approach ensures the accurate measurement of service performance and provides efficient targets for each considered automobile unit. [Received 31 January 2008; Revised 09 June 2008; Accepted 19 December 2008]service performance management; service quality; fuzzy AHP; data envelopment analysis; DEA; automobile industry; automotive repair shops; analytical hierarchy process; decision making.

A Strategic Approach for Automation Technology Initiatives Selection

Part 1: Knowledge-Based Performance ImprovementInternational audienceDespite the rapid development of new manufacturing technologies, a large portion of adoptions fail to achieve expected benefits. Existing models for technology selection are criticized for requiring large computations, and for being time consuming and difficult to use. This paper presents a strategic approach to support decision-makers in automation technology selection that is efficient and easy to apply in practice. It involves technology strategy decisions, process and technology analyses, technology/process ranking and considerations on investment and implementation. The approach has been developed through literature reviews and close collaboration with two case companies, utilizing the action research method. Its use is illustrated in an ongoing automation project at a world leading supplier of plastic pipes systems