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1 – 10 of over 15000Nima Gerami Seresht, Rodolfo Lourenzutti, Ahmad Salah and Aminah Robinson Fayek
Due to the increasing size and complexity of construction projects, construction engineering and management involves the coordination of many complex and dynamic processes and…
Abstract
Due to the increasing size and complexity of construction projects, construction engineering and management involves the coordination of many complex and dynamic processes and relies on the analysis of uncertain, imprecise and incomplete information, including subjective and linguistically expressed information. Various modelling and computing techniques have been used by construction researchers and applied to practical construction problems in order to overcome these challenges, including fuzzy hybrid techniques. Fuzzy hybrid techniques combine the human-like reasoning capabilities of fuzzy logic with the capabilities of other techniques, such as optimization, machine learning, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) and simulation, to capitalise on their strengths and overcome their limitations. Based on a review of construction literature, this chapter identifies the most common types of fuzzy hybrid techniques applied to construction problems and reviews selected papers in each category of fuzzy hybrid technique to illustrate their capabilities for addressing construction challenges. Finally, this chapter discusses areas for future development of fuzzy hybrid techniques that will increase their capabilities for solving construction-related problems. The contributions of this chapter are threefold: (1) the limitations of some standard techniques for solving construction problems are discussed, as are the ways that fuzzy methods have been hybridized with these techniques in order to address their limitations; (2) a review of existing applications of fuzzy hybrid techniques in construction is provided in order to illustrate the capabilities of these techniques for solving a variety of construction problems and (3) potential improvements in each category of fuzzy hybrid technique in construction are provided, as areas for future research.
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Chun-Wei Lin, Shiou-Yun Jeng, Ming-Lang Tseng and Wai Peng Wong
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the wastewater discharge and a zero-wastewater-discharge (ZWD) reproduction plan is designed for a paper mill in Taiwan.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the wastewater discharge and a zero-wastewater-discharge (ZWD) reproduction plan is designed for a paper mill in Taiwan.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model of ZWD reproduction planning is established using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and Taguchi method to determine the overall wastewater recovery rate. Still the prior studies failed to address a systematic approach to optimize the waste water recovery rate.
Findings
The optimal solution for clean water is 500 tons, recovery electrodialysis reversal is 345 tons, the wastewater reuse performance is 1.3 and waste heat recycling performance is 0.8, the larger number is performed well. The results shows that the maximum overall waste water recovery rate is 97.8 percent.
Originality/value
A paper mill is strived for improving their sustainable development. In real situation, there is a need to address the qualitative information and qualitative data to carry out the optimal ZWD reproduction planning.
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Feng Huang and Zhigang Yu
Ecological small towns can attract a large number of rural surplus labors and ease the population pressure, how to carry out the planning and construction ecological town becomes…
Abstract
Ecological small towns can attract a large number of rural surplus labors and ease the population pressure, how to carry out the planning and construction ecological town becomes a hotspot of research. Based on this, planning and construction of ecological small towns absorbing surplus rural labor based on fuzzy evaluation method were proposed. First of all, planning and construction of small towns under the concept of ecology were elaborated; and then the planning and construction strategies of small towns integrating ecological concepts were put forward, including the utilization of water resources, ecological the landscape and transportation planning; at the same time, a project for ecological small town in Hebei Province was taken as an example for the planning and design; in addition, the planning objectives and layout planning were analyzed and evaluated by fuzzy evaluation method, and the results confirmed the success of planning and design.
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R. Ghasemy Yaghin and P. Sarlak
This paper aims to propose an integrated supplier selection, order allocation, transportation planning model, along with investment planning for corporate social responsibility…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose an integrated supplier selection, order allocation, transportation planning model, along with investment planning for corporate social responsibility (CSR), over a given multi-period horizon under uncertainty. Furthermore, a customer’s behavior to pay more money for items with CSR attributes is considered in the total market demand.
Design/methodology/approach
The objective functions, i.e. social value of purchasing, total profit (TP), total delivery lead-time, total air pollution, total water pollution and total energy consumption with regard to a number of constraints are jointly considered in a multi-product system. It is worth noting that operational- and sustainable-related parameters are usually vague and imprecise in this area. Therefore, this paper develops a new fuzzy multi-objective optimization model to capture this inherent fuzziness in critical data.
Findings
Through the numerical examples in the textile industry, the application of the model and usefulness of solution procedures are carried out. The numerical results obtained from the proposed approach indicate the efficiency of the solution algorithm in different instances. Moreover, the authors observe that social investment of the buyer, to stimulate market demand, can affect the TP and also involve the total contribution of suppliers in social responsibility.
Originality/value
This research work concentrates on providing a procurement and inventory model through the lens of sustainability to enable textile supply chain managers and related industries to apply the approach to their inventory control and supply management. Totally, the proposed methodology could be applied by many fabric buyers of textile industry tackling purchasing issues and attempting to perfect understanding of social supply chains.
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Chun-Wei Lin, Shiou-Yun Jeng, Ming-Lang Tseng and Raymond Tan
The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated approach for a green product cradle-to-cradle (C2C) fuzzy recycling production planning model.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated approach for a green product cradle-to-cradle (C2C) fuzzy recycling production planning model.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper applies the failure mode and effects analysis technique and Taguchi experimental design method, develops a green product C2C performance evaluation system that considers the fuzzy impacts of environmental laws and regulations, green goodwill, and environmental efficiency of targeting countries, and decides both the optimal green production plan and estimated optimal life cycles.
Findings
This study compares the different degree of maturity in environmental regulations, and various recycling situations are simulated to demonstrate the successful applicability of the proposed model as well as the incentive policy for Taiwan, the USA and Bangladesh.
Originality/value
Previous studies failed both to develop a holistic recycling production plan which is able to consider both the optimal combination of recycled components used and final green products produced with the maximum total resultant sales profit and to consider the potential failure phenomenon of recycled components adopted in the final product. Furthermore, most prior studies ignored the influence of environmental law, goodwill of the product and the efficiency of recycling mechanism of the community.
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Julia T. Thomas and Mahesh Kumar
The purpose of the paper is set to minimize the total cost of a manufacturing system when an acceptance sampling plan (ASP) is carried out in a fuzzy environment.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is set to minimize the total cost of a manufacturing system when an acceptance sampling plan (ASP) is carried out in a fuzzy environment.
Design/methodology/approach
A fuzzy acceptance sampling plan (FASP) is employed for the inspection of the batch of products and a fuzzy cost optimization problem is formulated.
Findings
The extent of uncertainty determines an interval for the total cost function with upper and lower bounds. The effect of variation in the ambiguity of the proportion of defectives in the probability of acceptance is determined.
Practical implications
The proposed model is specifically designed for production and supply units with ASP for attributes. Still, the proportion of defectives in the inspection process is fuzzy.
Originality/value
Fuzzy probability distribution is used to model an optimal inspection plan for a general supply chain. Economic design of supply chain under fuzzy proportion of defectives is discussed for the first time.
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Mohammad Nabi Shahiki Tash, Saber Molaei and Kamran Barghandan
The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of cardinal welfare based on Sen’s index using both Pareto and non-Pareto states besides evaluating the effective factors on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of cardinal welfare based on Sen’s index using both Pareto and non-Pareto states besides evaluating the effective factors on the welfare changes according to a fuzzy least-squares regression model.
Design/methodology/approach
The social welfare functions express the optimal social allocations in the public economics. Therefore, they can be applied as a tool to represent the difference of utility allocations among consumers. There are various criteria on the literature pertaining to the social welfare functions such as those of Dasgupta et al. (1970), Sheshinski (1972), Sen (1974), Yitzhaki (1979), Shorrocks (1983), Kakwani (1984), Dagum (1990, 1993), Mukhopadhaya (2003), and Mukhopadhaya and Rao (2001). The Sen’s welfare function because of strong theoretical basis and enjoying the welfare axioms is more celebrated among others so that it is a function of individual utilities resulting from the individual’s social positions.
Findings
The findings indicate that the welfare level has increased by about 4.8 percent during the period 2002-2007; by nearly 3.1 percent during 1997-2001 and mature to 2.7 percent from 1992 to 1996 such that the period 1997-2007 has had the highest level of social welfare improvement in Iran. The results obtained from the fuzzy regression show that the unemployment rate, inflation rate and Gini coefficient variables have an adverse relation with the cardinal welfare in both Pareto and non-Pareto cases, while the literacy rate and government expenditures have a positive relation with the welfare index. The findings also imply that there is a positive relationship between economic growth and welfare level in Iran.
Originality/value
I verify that this manuscript is an original study.
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Vaibhav Chaudhary, Rakhee Kulshrestha and Srikanta Routroy
The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the perishable inventory models along various dimensions such as its evolution, scope, demand, shelf life, replenishment policy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the perishable inventory models along various dimensions such as its evolution, scope, demand, shelf life, replenishment policy, modeling techniques and research gaps.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 418 relevant and scholarly articles of various researchers and practitioners during 1990-2016 were reviewed. They were critically analyzed along author profile, nature of perishability, research contributions of different countries, publication along time, research methodologies adopted, etc. to draw fruitful conclusions. The future research for perishable inventory modeling was also discussed and suggested.
Findings
There are plethora of perishable inventory studies with divergent objectives and scope. Besides demand and perishable rate in perishable inventory models, other factors such as price discount, allow shortage or not, inflation, time value of money and so on were found to be combined to make it more realistic. The modeling of inventory systems with two or more perishable items is limited. The multi-echelon inventory with centralized decision and information sharing is acquiring lot of importance because of supply chain integration in the competitive market.
Research limitations/implications
Only peer-reviewed journals and conference papers were analyzed, whereas the manuals, reports, white papers and blood-related articles were excluded. Clustering of literature revealed that future studies should focus on stochastic modeling.
Practical implications
Stress had been laid to identify future research gaps that will help in developing realistic models. The present work will form a guideline to choose the appropriate methodology(s) and mathematical technique(s) in different situations with perishable inventory.
Originality/value
The current review analyzed 419 research papers available in the literature on perishable inventory modeling to summarize its current status and identify its potential future directions. Also the future research gaps were uncovered. This systemic review is strongly felt to fill the gap in the perishable inventory literature and help in formulating effective strategies to design of an effective and efficient inventory management system for perishable items.
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Shiou-Yun Jeng, Chun-Wei Lin, Ming-Lang Tseng and Tatre Jantarakolica
The purpose of this paper is to propose a cradle-to-cradle (C2C) zero discharge production planning system with a fuzzy hybrid optimization model that uses fuzzy comprehensive…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a cradle-to-cradle (C2C) zero discharge production planning system with a fuzzy hybrid optimization model that uses fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to establish fuzzy indicators, and then defuzzify the fuzzy indicators to construct a fuzzy multiobjective programming (FMOP) model.
Design/methodology/approach
The FMOP model pursues overall satisfaction using a particle swarm optimization algorithm to produce the best output values for the maximum waste paper recovery rate, the condensate reuse quality and minimum total cost of the zero discharge production planning system.
Findings
Recovered waste heat is seldom recycled and consumed in Taiwan. There is a need to capture and utilize heat recovery and use it in the production process supply. In contrast, waste materials are used as resources to perform waste paper recovery and recycle the waste heat of evaporation collection in the production process.
Originality/value
This paper develops a system to establish the best output value for an overall high satisfaction level. According to the results, the waste paper recovery rate is 99.8 percent, condensate reuse quality water is 102.6 tons and the total cost of the zero discharge production planning system is NT$1,312,012.
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Yongxiu He, Weijun Tao, Aiying Dai, Lifang Yang, Rui Fang and Furong Li
The purpose of this paper is to use artificial intelligence to evaluate the risks of urban power network planning.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use artificial intelligence to evaluate the risks of urban power network planning.
Design/methodology/approach
A fuzzy Bayesian least squares support vector machine (LS_SVM) model is established in this paper, which can learn the risk information of urban power network planning through artificial intelligence and acquire expert knowledge for its risk evaluation. With the advantage of possessing learning analog simulation precision and speed, the proposed model can be effectively applied in conducting a risk evaluation of an urban network planning system. First, fuzzy theory is applied to quantify qualitative risk factors of the planning to determine the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation value of the risk factors. Then, Bayesian evidence framework is utilized in LS_SVM model parameter optimization to automatically adjust the LS_SVM regularization parameters and nuclear parameters to obtain the best parameter values. Based on this, a risk comprehensive evaluation of urban network planning based on artificial intelligence is established.
Findings
The fuzzy Bayesian LS_SVM model established in this paper is an effective artificial intelligence method for risk comprehensive evaluation in urban network planning through empirical study.
Originality/value
The paper breaks new ground in using artificial intelligence to evaluate urban power network planning risks.
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