http://www.jiei-tsb.com The latest research articles published by Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013-05-20T00:00:00Z Supply chain management is taken into account as an inseparable component in satisfying customers' requirements. This paper deals with the distribution network design (DND) problem which is a critical issue in achieving supply chain accomplishments. A capable DND can guarantee the success of the entire network performance. However, there are many factors that can cause fluctuations in input data determining market treatment, with respect to short-term planning, on the one hand. On the other hand, network performance may be threatened by the changes that take place within practicing periods, with respect to long-term planning. Thus, in order to bring both kinds of changes under control, we considered a new multi-period, multi-commodity, multi-source DND problem in circumstances where the network encounters uncertain demands. The fuzzy logic is applied here as an efficient tool for controlling the potential customers' demand risk. The defuzzifying framework leads the practitioners and decision-makers to interact with the solution procedure continuously. The fuzzy model is then validated by a sensitivity analysis test, and a typical problem is solved in order to illustrate the implementation steps. Finally, the formulation is tested by some different-sized problems to show its total performance. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/13 Babak Tabrizi Jafar Razmi Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:13 2013-05-20T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-13 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-13-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 13 2013-05-20T00:00:00Z PDF In many circumstances, the quality of a process or product is best characterized by a given mathematical function between a response variable and one or more explanatory variables that is typically referred to as profile. There are some investigations to monitor autocorrelated linear and nonlinear profiles in recent years. In the present paper, we use the linear mixed models to account autocorrelation within observations which is gathered on phase II of the monitoring process. We undertake that the structure of correlated linear profiles simultaneously has both random and fixed effects. The work enhanced a Hotelling's T2 statistic, a multivariate exponential weighted moving average (MEWMA), and a multivariate cumulative sum (MCUSUM) control charts to monitor process. We also compared their performances, in terms of average run length criterion, and designated that the proposed control charts schemes could effectively act in detecting shifts in process parameters. Finally, the results are applied on a real case study in an agricultural field. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/12 A Narvand P Soleimani Sadigh Raissi Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:12 2013-05-17T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-12 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-12-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 12 2013-05-17T00:00:00Z PDF In competitive markets, market segmentation is a critical point of business, and it can be used as a generic strategy. In each segment, strategies lead companies to their targets; thus, segment selection and the application of the appropriate strategies over time are very important to achieve successful business. This paper aims to model a strategy-aligned fuzzy approach to market segment evaluation and selection. A modular decision support system (DSS) is developed to select an optimum segment with its appropriate strategies. The suggested DSS has two main modules. The first one is SPACE matrix which indicates the risk of each segment. Also, it determines the long-term strategies. The second module finds the most preferred segment-strategies over time. Dynamic network process is applied to prioritize segment-strategies according to five competitive force factors. There is vagueness in pairwise comparisons, and this vagueness has been modeled using fuzzy concepts. To clarify, an example is illustrated by a case study in Iran's coffee market. The results show that success possibility of segments could be different, and choosing the best ones could help companies to be sure in developing their business. Moreover, changing the priority of strategies over time indicates the importance of long-term planning. This fact has been supported by a case study on strategic priority difference in short- and long-term consideration. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/11 Ali Mohammadi Nasrabadi Mohammad Hossein Hosseinpour Sadoullah Ebrahimnejad Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:11 2013-05-14T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-11 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-11-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 11 2013-05-14T00:00:00Z PDF Most decision making methods used to evaluate a system or demonstrate the weak and strength points are based on the fuzzy sets and evaluate the criteria with words that are modeled with fuzzy sets. The ambiguity and vagueness of the words and different perceptions of a word are not considered in these methods. For this reason the decision making methods that consider the perceptions of decision makers are desirable. Perceptual computing is a subjective judgment method that considers that words mean different things to different people. This method models the words with interval type 2 fuzzy sets (IT2 FSs) that considers the uncertainty of the words. Also there are inter-relations and dependency between the decision making criteria in the real world, therefore using decision making methods that cannot consider these relations are not feasible in some situations. The DEMATEL method considers the inter-relations between decision making criteria. The current study used the combination of DEMATEL and perceptual computing in order to improve the decision making methods. For this reason the fuzzy DEMATEL method was extended into type-2 fuzzy sets in order to obtain the weights of dependent criteria based on the words. The application of proposed method is presented for knowledge management evaluation criteria. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/10 Mohammad Jafar Tarokh Mitra Bokaei Hosseini Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:10 2013-05-08T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-10 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-10-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 10 2013-05-08T00:00:00Z PDF Nowadays, customer expectations are increasing and organizations are prone to operate in an uncertain environment. Under this uncertain environment, the ultimate success of the firm depends on its ability to integrate business processes among supply chain partners. Supply chain management emphasizes cross-functional links to improve the competitive strategy of organizations. Now, companies are moving from decoupled decision processes towards more integrated design and control of their components to achieve the strategic fit. In this paper, a new approach is developed to design a multi-echelon, multi-facility, and multi-product supply chain in fuzzy environment. In fuzzy environment, mixed integer programming problem is formulated through fuzzy goal programming in strategic level with supply chain cost and volume flexibility as fuzzy goals. These fuzzy goals are aggregated using minimum operator. In tactical level, continuous review policy for controlling raw material inventories in supplier echelon and controlling finished product inventories in plant as well as distribution center echelon is considered as fuzzy goals. A non-linear programming model is formulated through fuzzy goal programming using minimum operator in the tactical level. The proposed approach is illustrated with a numerical example. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/9 Kandukuri Rao Kambagowni Subbaiah Ganja Singh Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:9 2013-05-06T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-9 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-9-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 9 2013-05-06T00:00:00Z PDF This paper presents a multi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming model to design a group layout of a cellular manufacturing system in a dynamic environment, in which the number of cells to be formed is variable. Cell formation (CF) and group layout (GL) are concurrently made in a dynamic environment by the integrated model, which incorporates with an extensive coverage of important manufacturing features used in the design of CMSs. Additionally, there are some features that make the presented model different from the previous studies. These features include the following: (1) the variable number of cells, (2) the integrated CF and GL decisions in a dynamic environment by a multi-objective mathematical model, and (3) two conflicting objectives that minimize the total costs (i.e., costs of intra and inter-cell material handling, machine relocation, purchasing new machines, machine overhead, machine processing, and forming cells) and minimize the imbalance of workload among cells. Furthermore, the presented model considers some limitations, such as machine capability, machine capacity, part demands satisfaction, cell size, material flow conservation, and location assignment. Four numerical examples are solved by the GAMS software to illustrate the promising results obtained by the incorporated features. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/8 Reza Kia Hossein Shirazi Nikbakhsh Javadian Reza Tavakkoli-Moghaddam Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:8 2013-04-25T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-8 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-8-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 8 2013-04-25T00:00:00Z PDF A robust approach should be considered when estimating regression coefficients in multi-response problems. Many models are derived from the least squares method. Because the presence of outlier data is unavoidable in most real cases and because the least squares method is sensitive to these types of points, robust regression approaches appear to be a more reliable and suitable method for addressing this problem. Additionally, in many problems, more than one response must be analyzed; thus, multi-response problems have more applications. The robust regression approach used in this paper is based on M-estimator methods. One of the most widely used weighting functions used in regression estimation is Huber's function. In multi-response surfaces, an individual estimation of each response can cause a problem in future deductions because of separate outlier detection schemes. To address this obstacle, a simultaneous independent multi-response iterative reweighting (SIMIR) approach is suggested. By presenting a coincident outlier index (COI) criterion while considering a realistic number of outliers in a multi-response problem, the performance of the proposed method is illustrated. Two well-known cases are presented as numerical examples from the literature. The results show that the proposed approach performs better than the classic estimation, and the proposed index shows efficiency of the proposed approach. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/7 Mahdi Bashiri Amir Moslemi Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:7 2013-04-17T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-7 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-7-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 7 2013-04-17T00:00:00Z PDF The role of customers in green supply chain management needs to be identified and recognized as an important research area. This paper is an attempt to explore the involvement aspect of customers towards greening of the supply chain (SC). An empirical research approach has been used to collect primary data to rank different variables for effective customer involvement in green concept implementation in SC. An interpretive structural-based model has been presented, and variables have been classified using matrice d'impacts croises-multiplication appliqué a un classement analysis. Contextual relationships among variables have been established using experts' opinions. The research may help practicing managers to understand the interaction among variables affecting customer involvement. Further, this understanding may be helpful in framing the policies and strategies to green SC. Analyzing interaction among variables for effective customer involvement in greening SC to develop the structural model in the Indian perspective is an effort towards promoting environment consciousness. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/6 Sanjay Kumar Sunil Luthra Abid Haleem Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:6 2013-04-17T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-6 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-6-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 6 2013-04-17T00:00:00Z XML A very useful multi-objective technique is goal programming. There are many methodologies of goal programming such as weighted goal programming, min-max goal programming, and lexicographic goal programming. In this paper, weighted goal programming is reformulated as goal programming with logarithmic deviation variables. Here, a comparison of the proposed method and goal programming with weighted sum method is presented. A numerical example and applications on two industrial problems have also enriched this paper. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/5 Payel Ghosh Tapan Roy Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:5 2013-04-17T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-5 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-5-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 5 2013-04-17T00:00:00Z PDF In this paper, we considered a deterministic inventory model with time-dependent demand and time-varying holding cost where deterioration is time proportional. The model considered here allows for shortages, and the demand is partially backlogged. The model is solved analytically by minimizing the total inventory cost. The result is illustrated with numerical example for the model. The model can be applied to optimize the total inventory cost for the business enterprises where both the holding cost and deterioration rate are time dependent. http://www.jiei-tsb.com/content/9/1/4 Vinod Mishra Lal Singh Rakesh Kumar Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2013, null:4 2013-04-08T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2251-712X-9-4 /content/figures/2251-712X-9-4-toc.gif Journal of Industrial Engineering International 2251-712X ${item.volume} 4 2013-04-08T00:00:00Z XML