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Publications

Publications by CESE

2012

Supplier's selection model based on an empirical study

Authors
Avila, P; Mota, A; Pires, A; Bastos, J; Putnik, G; Teixeira, J;

Publication
4TH CONFERENCE OF ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS - ALIGNING TECHNOLOGY, ORGANIZATIONS AND PEOPLE (CENTERIS 2012)

Abstract
The problem of selecting suppliers/partners is a crucial and important part in the process of decision making for companies that intend to perform competitively in their area of activity. The selection of supplier/partner is a time and resource-consuming task that involves data collection and a careful analysis of the factors that can positively or negatively influence the choice. Nevertheless it is a critical process that affects significantly the operational performance of each company. In this work, there were identified five broad selection criteria: Quality, Financial, Synergies, Cost, and Production System. Within these criteria, it was also included five sub-criteria. After the identification criteria, a survey was elaborated and companies were contacted in order to understand which factors have more weight in their decisions to choose the partners. Interpreted the results and processed the data, it was adopted a model of linear weighting to reflect the importance of each factor. The model has a hierarchical structure and can be applied with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method or Value Analysis. The goal of the paper it's to supply a selection reference model that can represent an orientation/pattern for a decision making on the suppliers/partners selection process (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of CENTERIS/SCIKA - Association for Promotion and Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge

2012

Six Sigma project selections by using a fuzzy multi criteria decision making approach: A case study in Poly Acryl Corp

Authors
Kazemi, SM; Karbasian, M; Homayouni, SM; Vasili, MR;

Publication
Proceedings of International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering, CIE

Abstract
Six sigma may be named as a powerful and comprehensive management tool which is necessary in order to bring changes in organization and to make conformity with customer needs. Despite of other quality approaches, six sigma is not only a method, but it contains a vision, a goal and a symbol. Beside the six sigma, symmetrical valuation method is interpreted as a tool to collect strategy. This system offers a method to converge occupation's activities with strategy, and also it offers a method in order to watch the operation of strategic goals during time. Undoubtedly, the first step in reducing the risk failure of the six sigma projects is to select the optimal choices. In this paper, the effectiveness of criteria in choosing six sigma projects are identified and defined. Moreover, a case study in Poly Acryl Corp is illustrated to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of the fuzzy multi-criteria decision making approach to select six sigma projects. In fact, we evaluated how selecting six sigma projects and goals using the fuzzy multi-criteria decision making technique affect the organization. © 2012 CIE & SAIIE.

2012

Integrated scheduling of SP-AS/RS and handling equipment in automated container terminals

Authors
Homayouni, SM; Vasili, MR; Kazemi, SM; Tang, SH;

Publication
Proceedings of International Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering, CIE

Abstract
Conventionally, the containers are stacked in storage yards inside the container terminals. However, in recent years a new storage system called split-platform automated storage/retrieval system (SP-AS/RS) has been introduced in the literature. On the other hand, integrated scheduling of handling equipment has been introduced as an essential concept to improve the performance of the automated container terminals. Improving the performance of container terminals would result in reduction of seaborne trade costs. In this paper a mixed integer programming model is formulated for the integrated scheduling of handling equipment (including the SP-AS/RS) in automated container terminals. In the formulation of the problem, tasks of cranes are scheduled considering the availability of the vehicles. Moreover, the vehicles are scheduled in accordance with the SP-AS/RS operations. The integrated scheduling has been proved as an NP-hard problem. Thus, a simulated annealing algorithm is developed to find near optimal solutions for the problem in relatively low computational time. Using a set of numerical test cases it is justified that the proposed simulated annealing algorithm is suitable to solve the problem. Further analyses on the number of available vehicles are the final notes of this paper. © 2012 CIE & SAIIE.

2012

Quantitative Analysis of Resource-Constrained Business Processes

Authors
Oliveira, CAL; Lima, RMF; Reijers, HA; Ribeiro, JTS;

Publication
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS MAN AND CYBERNETICS PART A-SYSTEMS AND HUMANS

Abstract
To address the need for evaluation techniques for complex business processes, also known as workflows, this paper proposes an approach based on generalized stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs). We review ten related approaches published in the last fifteen years and compare them to our approach using a wide range of criteria. On the basis of this evaluation, we observe that the newly proposed approach provides results that are at least as good as those from the most accepted alternatives and holds a number of additional advantages, such as modeling simplicity, improved precision, and model reuse for qualitative analyses. The overall approach is formally defined in this paper, along with the definition of several performance metrics. Part of these metrics can be computed analytically, while the remainder can be obtained by simulating the GSPN. Furthermore, a tool has been developed to translate automatically business process execution language processes into GSPNs. Finally, we present a case study in which we applied the proposed approach, colored Petri net tools, and an industrial tool to obtain performance insights into a realistic workflow. The results were highly similar, demonstrating the feasibility and the accuracy of our approach.

2012

Improving Product Quality and Reliability with Customer Experience Data

Authors
Brombacher, A; Hopma, E; Ittoo, A; Lu, Y; Luyk, I; Maruster, L; Ribeiro, J; Weijters, T; Wortmann, H;

Publication
QUALITY AND RELIABILITY ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL

Abstract
Advance technology development and wide use of the World Wide Web have made it possible for new product development organizations to access multi-sources of data-related customer complaints. However, the number of customer plaints of highly innovative consumer electronic products is still increasing; that is, product quality and reliability is at risk. This article aims to understand why existing solutions from literature as well as from industry to deal with these increasingly complex multiple data sources are not able to manage product quality and reliability. Three case studies in industry are discussed. On the basis of the case study results, this article also identifies a new research agenda that is needed to improve product quality and reliability under this circumstance. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

2012

Detecting abnormal patterns in call graphs based on the aggregation of relevant vertex measures

Authors
Alves, R; Ferreira, P; Ribeiro, J; Belo, O;

Publication
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Abstract
Graphs are a very important abstraction to model complex structures and respective interactions, with a broad range of applications including web analysis, telecommunications, chemical informatics and bioinformatics. In this work we are interested in the application of graph mining to identify abnormal behavior patterns from telecom Call Detail Records (CDRs). Such behaviors could also be used to model essential business tasks in telecom, for example churning, fraud, or marketing strategies, where the number of customers is typically quite large. Therefore, it is important to rank the most interesting patterns for further analysis. We propose a vertex relevant ranking score as a unified measure for focusing the search of abnormal patterns in weighted call graphs based on CDRs. Classical graph-vertex measures usually expose a quantitative perspective of vertices in telecom call graphs. We aggregate wellknown vertex measures for handling attribute-based information usually provided by CDRs. Experimental evaluation carried out with real data streams, from a local mobile telecom company, showed us the feasibility of the proposed strategy. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

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