Journal of Advances in Industrial Engineering
Volume:43 Issue: 1, 2009

Revenue management is the process of accepting or ordering which increases gained revenue by using different techniques of pricing and selling capacity. This technique has improved greatly in service sector specially passenger section. In this article, the process of selling ticket in Tehran-Mashhad route for Ghazal passenger train is modeled by two static multi class and heuristic EMSR-b that is one of the revenue management models. Finally both models are run 30000 times and the results in comparison with current revenue show potential for 8 to 10 billion Rial increase in revenue annually which is very economic even by taking into consideration the costs of implementing the project. By deeper studies especially in the field of network models for revenue management, it is possible to increase the revenue in the whole network of Ghazal passenger trains.

Risk assessment and management of petrochemical feed and product transportation pipelines is very important to preventing probable accidents. So, 60 pipelines evaluated by chemical exposure index and chlorine pipeline due to high hazard distances selected for relative risk analysis. The chlorine pipeline with 3468 meter length divided to 100 meter sections, and Third Party Damage Index (TPDI), Corrosion Index (CI), Incorrect Operation Index (IOI) and Design Index (DI) in this line were assessed. Leak Impact Factor (LIF) also calculated by product hazard, leak volume, dispersion and receptors near the pipeline. At the end of the study, relative risk was calculated and recommendations for risk management were offered. The results of study were shown that in the chlorine pipeline, TPDI has highest risk while DI has lowest risk. Also, up to average 22.09% improvement at the RR was achieved by suggested risk management program.

In this paper, a stochastic multi-depot multi-objective vehicle routing problem (VRP) is studied. Based on observations in real-world problems, we develop an aspect of the problem, such as stochastic availability of routes. To solve the problem in this situation, a two-objective mathematical model is developed, in which the related objective functions are: (1) minimizing transportation costs and (2) maximizing probability of delivery to customers. The second objective function, which is nonlinear, has performed to a linear function. Since this problem is NP-hard, to solve it we propose simulated annealing (SA) that is a well-known meta-heuristic algorithm. To show the performance of this algorithm, we compare the related results in terms of run-time and objective function values with the lower bound and Lingo 8 software for different sizes of the given problem.

Generally speaking Technical Analysis Rules are a set of methods which concentrate on prices trends in order to predict the prices trend in the future. It must be mentioned that Technical Analysis Rules are many and varied and in order to make effective outcome, one must select the most useful methods which are depends on the market situation. In this paper, the profitability of 46 popular technical trading rules such as “moving average”, “trading range breakout”, “Bollinger bands”, “stochastic”, “RSI” and “MACD” in 22 company in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) from 1995-2005 have been evaluated. The small nature, short-selling constraints, lack of analyst coverage, and loose insider trading regulation suggest that the TSE equity market may be has less efficient. This cause that technical analysis has more potential to be profitable. To overcome the shortfalls of the t-test methodology within our test sample, the significance of the technical trading rules have been analyzed by using the bootstrap methodology with Random Walk null models. The numerical results indicate that technical trading rules have predictive ability in the mentioned companies. This result rejects the null hypothesis that the returns to be earned from applying trading rules values are equal to those achieved from a naive buy and hold strategy. This research also illustrates that among all 46 Technical Analysis Rules, “moving average” and “stochastic” are the most effective trading rules.

In this paper, a mechanized system for self-assessment based on process-oriented approach of ISO 9004:2000 has been developed. To design of this mechanized system, the expert system has been used as in providing the assessment and scoring questions the experts’ knowledge, head auditors of quality management system, has been used and this knowledge has been saved in the ACCESS software database. Also, Visual Basic software for creating user interface and deduction has been applied. In addition, the stage of development of this system conforms to the stage of development of expert systems. The organizations or users can assess themselves, determine their quality management maturity level, and identify their performance improvement points, based on ISO 9004:2000, with using this system.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate suppliers using a Multi Objective Programming Problem and Multiple Criteria Data Envelope Analysis. Toward accomplishing this goal, first a general algorithm is introduced to obtain a continuous set of efficient solutions of the given Multi Objective Programming Problem. Then, since each member of such set can be viewed as a combination of inputs such as raw material for purchasing firm, outputs level of the firm corresponding to the specific combinations of the inputs are estimated. Finally, based on these inputs and outputs, the efficiency of the purchasing firm is computed by applying Multiple Criteria DEA. So the number of suppliers and order allocation among them are determined in a way that maximizes the DEA efficiency of the firm.

In this research, a method for determining feeding buffer sizes in critical chain project scheduling is introduced. The method integrates project characteristics into the formulation as well as environment project risk. Resource tightness, environment risk and network morphology incorporate into the formulation. The method is tested and compared to three commonly suggested methods in the literature, the cut and paste method, the root square error method and adaptive procedure with resource tightness. The comparison is done by means of a simulation study using the kolicsh hartman data set. The test results indicate that all of the suggested methods generate better buffer sizes; therefore, they provide sufficient protection against the delays in project completion time.

In this paper, we introduce a methodology for safety stock placement in supply chain. The problem has two minimization of good's delivery time and inventory cost. Because the problem belongs to NP-Hard category, we develop a proper simulated annealing algorithm (SA) for solve the proposed methodology in large scaled problem. For verify the performance and efficiency of the methodology is shown via a numerical example. The obtained results imply the efficiency of proposed methodology and the ability of developed simulated annealing algorithms for achieve to near optimal solution.

In this paper, the problem of lot sizing, scheduling and delivery of several items in a two-stage supply chain over a finite planning horizon is studied. Single supplier via a flexible flow line production system (FFL) produces several items and delivers them directly to an assembly facility. Based on basic period (BP) strategy, a new mixed zero-one nonlinear programming model has been developed with the objective of minimization average setup, inventory-holding and delivery costs per unit time in the supply chain without any stock-out. The problem is very complex and it cannot be solved to optimality especially in real-sized problems. So, an efficient hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) has been proposed based on applying the most applied BP approach i.e., power-of-two policy. Based on a number of problem instances, the solution quality of the algorithm has been evaluated and also compared with the common cycle approach. Numerical experiments demonstrate the superiority of the solutions of proposed HGA and indicate that is a very promising solution method for the problem.