International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Productional Research
Volume:33 Issue: 1, Mar 2022

The role of sustainability dimensions in the value creation process has received much attention. Adopting a proper set of key performance indicators sustainability leads to accurate calculation of chain value. This paper focuses on the dimensions of in the biofuel supply chain and seeks to evaluate the value in the chain. First, the importance of biofuels and its various types are discussed. Then, a new model is presented by designing the proposed energy chain and considering its sustainability dimensions and indicators in uncertain environment. Rough set theory is one of the best mathematical tools for dealing with uncertainty. The proposed biofuel energy supply chain is modeled to obtain the total value of the system considering sustainability indicators and layers of the supply chain. A multi-objective rough mathematical formulation is presented and solved. Best-worst method was integrated to determine the significance score of sustainability indicators. Finally, the model of the rough linear mathematical program is solved with optimization tools and the sustainable value of the chain is obtained.

This paper designs a Scenario analysis approach to determine the joint production policy for two products under possible substitution. The Scenario analysis is designed to improve decision making by considering possible outcomes and their implications. The traditional multi-products production models assume that there is no possible substitution between products. However, in real-world cases, there are many substitutable products where substitution may occur in the event of a product stock-out. The proposed model optimizes production quantities for two products under substitution with the aim of minimizing the total cost of inventory system, including setup and holding costs, subject to a resource constraint. To analyze the problem, four special Scenarios are derived and discussed in detail. Furthermore, the total cost functions are derived for each Scenario separately, and then a solution procedure is suggested based on the Scenarios developed. The numerical examples are implemented, and the results are discussed in detail.

Organizations have used Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) as an appropriate pattern to classify their customers. Data mining techniques have enabled organizations to analyze their customers’ behaviors more quantitatively. This research has been carried out to cluster customers based on factors of CLV model including length, recency, frequency, and monetary (LRFM) through data mining. Based on LRFM, transaction data of 1865 customers in a software company has been analyzed through Crisp-DM method and the research roadmap. Four CLV factors have been developed based on feature selection algorithm. They also have been prepared for clustering using quintile method. To determine the optimum number of clusters, silhouette and SSE indexes have been evaluated. Additionally, k-means algorithm has been applied to cluster the customers. Then, CLV amounts have been evaluated and the clusters have been ranked. The results show that customers have been clustered in 4 groups namely high value loyal customers, uncertain lost customers, uncertain new customers, and high consumption cost customers. The first cluster customers with the highest number and the highest CLV are the most valuable customers and the fourth, third, and second cluster customers are in the second, third, and fourth positions respectively. The attributes of customers in each cluster have been analyzed and the marketing strategies have been proposed for each group.

Tourists are getting more aware of the environment. To determine the effectiveness of eco-tourism infrastructure management, the motivation and segmentation of demand for eco-tourism have been analysed using functional theory as a guide. The empirical analysis was conducted in the Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions. 382 surveys were obtained by random sampling. To make the data analysis, factor analysis and non-hierarchical segmentation were performed. The results indicate that there are several eco-tourism motivational aspects including self-development, interpersonal relationships, defence functions, building personal relationships, reward, and appreciation from nature. Three different segments of eco-tourists were also identified based on their motives related to nature, reward, and escape. Characteristics of different segments were also specified. This study will help government agencies and private companies improve their travel content and develop more effective marketing plans. The research has shown that in most cases, the success of any project is in cooperation between NGOs, locals, authorities, and the private sector. The optimal level of local participation is determined by the specifics and scale of each project, which may focus on individual villages or several communities that experience any impact of tourism. The economic essence of the concept of tourism motivation has been improved, which is defined as a set of needs that affect a person in the process of participation in tourism activities and are a central factor in the decision-making process. Studying the most important motivations of eco-tourists in the region, three groups of motives have been identified: cultural and educational activities, proximity to nature, health and rehabilitation measures.

For several years, considerable efforts have been made in the field of biometric research. The major interest of this line of research is linked, among other things, to the recognition of the individual because the security needs are becoming increasingly important, and the economic stakes are colossal. There are many and diverse biometric applications that provide a substantial level of security.Unimodal biometric systems allow a person to be recognized using a single biometric modality, but cannot guarantee correct identification with certainty. While multimodal biometric systems, using several biometric modalities, guarantee better recognition.In this article, we are interested in the study of evaluation tools for biometric systems. For this, we will first calculate three essential parameters, namely: False Rejection Rate (FRR), False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and Equal Error Rate (EER). Second, we will determine the performance curves, in this case, the ROC curve (Receiver Operating Characteristic) and the DET curve (Detection Error Tradeoff). The calculation of these metrics allows the evaluation of unimodal and bimodal biometric systems to compare the benefit of merging the biometric modalities.

In some statistical processes monitoring (SPM) applications, relationship between two or more ordinal factors is shown by an ordinal contingency table (OCT) and it is described by the ordinal Log-linear model (OLLM). Newton-Raphson algorithm methods have also been used to estimate the parameters of the log-linear model. In this paper, the OLLM based processes is monitored using MR and likelihood ratio test (LRT) approaches in Phase I. Some simulation studies are applied to performance evaluation of the proposed approaches in terms of probability of signal under step shifts, drifts and the presence of outliers. Results show that, by imposing the small and moderate shifts in the ordinal log-linear model parameters, the MR statistic has better performance than LRT. In addition, a real case study in dissolution testing in pharmaceutical industry is employed to show the application of the proposed control charts in Phase I.

The essence of the economic security of the Ukraine's agricultural sector, its role in further globalization, as well as the trends of changes in key indicators of economic security till 2024 are considered in the article. The economic security of the agricultural sector is determined by the authors as an important component of the economic security of a country, it provides the state of a system (as a whole or individual entities), which in conditions of permanent influence of external and internal factors ensures the stability and progressive development of the agricultural sector providing conditions for preservation and further reproduction of resource potential, guarantees food security, promotes the development of rural areas. The emphasis is focused on the special role of food security in the context of achieving the Global Sustainable Development Goals. The key indicators of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 2 "Overcoming hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agricultural development" are analyzed. The positive dynamics is established for the following indicators: Productivity labour in agriculture; Index of agricultural products; The share of agricultural lands under organic production in the total area of this year lands; The consumer price index for food. Other indicators show that Ukraine lags far behind the targets. The need to form a unified approach to the management of economic security of the agricultural sector has become the basis for the development of conceptual foundations for the strategy of economic security of the Ukraine's agricultural sector in the context of globalization. The implementation of this strategy will strengthen further the food security.

Drawing lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic according to literature, this contribution aims to show that greening the United Nations System with stronger environmental considerations, can help to shift the global economy from fossil energy to renewable energy with public-health resilient systems. This contribution starts with highlighting the fact that past economic crises and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Global Agenda have not been able to generate strong institutional arrangements for sustainable development including climate resilience building and public health resilient systems. This allows us to apprehend the possibility that the Covid-19 pandemic crisis may face the same incapacity. In response to these statements, this contribution shares the opinion that institutional reforms within the United Nations System may lead to perennial normative provisions and institutional arrangements able to make sustainable development happen with resilient public-health systems. This note highlights the fall of GHZ emissions during the Covid-19 pandemic. It shows, however, based on the history of the past crisis, that the huge investment being mobilized to recover from the pandemic can quickly absorb GHZ emissions fall. The way out suggested is that both the Global Economy and the Global Public Health agendas can be revisited to be strengthened by stronger environmental considerations. One of our findings is that multilateralism can adopt suitable institutional arrangements in Global Environmental Governance throughout the current global agenda on International Environmental Governance Reform within the United Nations System.

The article analyzes the ecological condition of the soil and identifies the main problems of the environmentalization of land use in Ukraine in the case of the Kharkiv region. Deterioration of the ecological condition of agricultural land, weakening of their erosion resistance, violation of the optimal structure of land, reduction of the content of humus and basic nutrients lead to a decrease in land productivity. In general, the current state of environmental safety of land is quite unsatisfactory, so it significantly reduces the quality and volume of agricultural production. The analysis of the situation and the forecast of the efficiency of soil fertility show that due to the sharp decrease in the application of organic and mineral fertilizers, insufficient implementation of forest reclamation, and anti-erosion measures, degradation processes have intensified in all areas. The problem with the balance of nutrients has become more acute, the acidity of the soil solution is increasing, the humus content is reducing, and the intensity of erosion processes has significantly increased. The main tasks of the environmentalization of agricultural land use involve measures for increasing soil fertility by limiting the use of intensive chemicalization of agriculture; measures for the application of the organic fertilizer to ensure a deficit-free balance of humus in the soil; measures for mechanization, chemicalization, land reclamation using the latest methods; anti-erosion measures and the use of new methods of tillage, liming, soil, and minimization of tillage. Thus, to ensure the formation of environmentally friendly agricultural land use, an important condition is the creation of a scientifically sound structure and optimization of the ratio of productive (arable land) and environmentally friendly (hayfields, pastures, wooded areas) land use. The main environmentally friendly elements of this structure include agro-ameliorative and forest-ameliorative measures that form the ecological framework of agro-landscapes and are the basis for providing favorable agro-environmental parameters for agricultural land.

This study seeks to introduce the influential factors in controlling and dealing with uncertainty in intermittent demand. Hybrid forecasting and Grey Theory, due to their potential in facing complex nature, insufficient data, have been used simultaneously. Different modeling, unbiased weighting results have been used in estimating the safety stock(SS) by both theoretical and experimental methods. In other words, this work deals with the less studied feature of various modeling errors and their effect on SS determination and recommends its use to address the uncertainty of intermittent demand as a criterion for introducing a superior model in the field of inventory.

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a widely used model of project management based on prior experience. This standard does not distinguish between small and large projects, but small projects, with their limited schedules and budgets, face challenges using the extensive structure proposed by this standard. It has been suggested that the standard can be adapted to each project within its specifications; however, the tailoring procedures are complex, time-consuming, and at times impossible to apply to small projects. The present study examined whether or not the PMBOK is an appropriate model for small projects. To address this issue, a questionnaire was prepared and sent to 134 professional project managers. Analysis of the data confirmed that the assumption that PMBOK is a challenge to small projects was not contradicted. Most participants agreed that the procedure should be tailored to prioritize the standard tools and guiding techniques, in addition to the knowledge areas, for small projects.

The paper suggests methodological approaches to the complex evaluation of the efficiency of decentralization reform, which can be used for monitoring and adjusting decisions at any of its implementation stages. The suggested methodological approaches contribute to narrowing the results of the analysis of diverse phenomena and processes down to a single unified system of standardized parameters, thereby developing a single monitoring model and simplifying the decision-making process. The fact that the decentralization process has primarily 3 interrelated and interdependent directions is taken into account in forming the methodological approaches to evaluation of the ongoing reform efficiency. The indicators of analysis of the reform implementation efficiency across the organizational-administrative, budgetary, and socio-economic components are systematized in order to be used both for determining the average reform implementation paces in the country and comparing the respective structural changes. The set of mathematical tools to evaluate them is suggested. The efficiency of the decentralization reform implementation is comprehensively analyzed across Ukrainian regions. The major accomplishments and bottlenecks to be addressed at the current stage are determined. The comparative analysis of the efficiency of the decentralization reform implementation across Ukrainian regions has shown that, currently, there isn’t any consistent relationship between the organizational, budgetary, and socio-economic results of the reform in the regions. The abovementioned processes remain to be unbalanced due to slow reform implementation in some regions, available unresolved controversies, some duplicated managerial functions, and lacking sufficient level of residents’ confidence in authorities.

The fourth industrial revolution has changed our lives by enabling everyone to be interconnected virtually. A trustworthy system is required to secure large volume of stored data in IoT-based devices. Blockchain technology has led to transfer and to save data in a safe way. With this in mind, the blockchain-based cryptocurrencies have gained quite a bit of popularity because of their potential for financial transactions. In this regard, monitoring transactions network is very fruitful to find users’ abnormal behaviors. In this research, a novel procedure is used to monitor blockchain cryptocurrency transactions network. To do so, a random, binary graph model is used to simulate the transactions between users, and a SCAN method is used to detect the abnormal behaviors in the simulated model. Also, a multivariate exponentially weighted moving average (MEWMA) control chart is used to monitor centrality measures. The probability of signal is used to assess the performance of the SCAN method and that of the MEWMA control chart in distinguishing abnormalities. Then, the procedure is adopted to a Bitcoin transactions dataset.

The health insurance system can play an effective role to control health expenditures. The purpose of this study is to provide a model for estimating the physician visit tariffs. To achieve this goal, a hybrid model was used. fuzzy logic is the most appropriate tool for controlling systems and deriving rules for the relationship between inputs and outputs. So, the output of the data mining techniques enter the fuzzy logic as an input variable. The data were collected from the Health Insurance Organization of Iran in two sections including the physicians' costs and physicians' deductions. Owing to the techniques used in this model, NN had the least error, as compared to other data mining techniques (0.0034 and 0.0013, respectively). After defining the variables, membership functions and fuzzy logic rules, the accuracy of the whole control model was confirmed by random data. This research has dealt with the domains of health insurance , their connections and defining effective variables better and more extensively than the other studies in the field.