فصلنامه مدرس علوم انسانی
سال دوازدهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 59، زمستان 1387)

Toyday Six sigma method is known as an efficient and effective method of solving the problem.The most common methodology in six sigma is DMAIC that includes five steps: Defenition, Measurement, Analysis, Improvement and Control. One of the most important bases of six sigma methodology is the use a lot of statistical techniques and methods for data analysis and identification of the basical cause of defects. On the other hand, one of the prominences of this method comparing to the other improvement methods is the use of statistical methods so that by the use of statistical tools in analysis phase one can measure the effects of potential causes on critical factors. So far, many classifications of statistical techniques and statistical tests have been offered in the analysis phase of six sigma, Which are often divided into two parts: parametric and nonparametric. Of course, there are a lot of difficulties for using these techniques. The aim of this research in the first sage was to recognize the inadequencies and lack of statistical tests in the analysis phase; then, to present a technique to remove the difficulties by using Multiple Attribute Decision Making in the operation research. The results of this research reveated three classes of major difficulties using the statistical tests: 1- Most of nonparametric statistical tests have less confidence and strenghth than parametric tests.Futher, they do not enjoy sufficient accurancy. 2- When the amount of the considerated data or the sample size is not large enough. 3- In some cases, no statistical tests(either parametric or nonparametric) is proportional to the conditions of six sigma research. In this research, we reviewed the valid scientific sources available in the field of MADM (Multi Attribute Decisin Making) and the types of classification of these methods to remove defects. At the end, a new method (algorithm) to apply MADM in the analyse phase of six sigma was developed. The algorithm pays attention to the Decision Maker, MADM characteristics, the problem characteristics and chracteristics of the obtained solution. Applying of this new algorithm, in the cases that statistical tests do not have sufficient strength and accurancy, can strongly increase the efficiency of six sigma methodology.

In both the quality improvement and the design of a product, primarily the engineering characteristics affecting product performance are identified and improved to optimize customer needs (CNs). Especially, the limited resources, increased market competition and product complexity require a customer-driven quality management and product development system to achieve higher customer satisfaction. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and its House of Quality (HOQ) are used as powerful tools for improving product design and quality, and procuring a customer-driven quality system. In this study, an integrated framework based on fuzzy-QFD and a goal programming model was proposed to determine the technical requirements (TRs) to be considered in designing a product. The coefficients of the mathematical model were obtained from a fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) approach. Furthermore, the proposed analytic procedure should take into account the multi-objective nature of the problem, and thus, incorporate other goals such as cost, extendibility, technological feasibility and competitiveness of TRs. Finally, the model, a zero–one goal programming methodology, includes the important levels of TRs deriven using the fuzzy ANP, cost budget, feasibility level, extendibility level, and competitiveness level as system constraints to determine the TRs to be considered in designing the product. An application for YEKTA washing machine powder in PAKNAM Company (Tehran, Iran) producing detergent products was presented to illustrate the proposed framework.

A critical step to develop artificial neural networks that has considerable effect on network performance is designing architecture of neural networks. In designing the architecture of networks, generally, the number of hidden layers, number of neurons in each layer and transfer functions are determined. Most researchers often use trial and error approach and/or ignore interactive effects between the factors of design. In this research, a model is presented based on the design of experiment (DOE) for optimal architecture of neural networks. The proposed model was applied to determine the optimal architecture of neural network for forecasting the monthly consumption of gas oil of Iran. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model, using the common method of trial and error was used and advantages of the proposed model were shown. In addition, to compare the performance of neural networks by statistical methods, two models based on regression and ARIMA were designed. Comparison of the forecasting results obtained by neural networks and the statistical methods proved that the proposed model produced better forecasts in all performance criteria.

The aim of this research is was to evaluate the role of educational supervisors and their knowledge level in 2007-2008 from the view of principals and teachers of elementary schools in yazd city. With respect to the goal of educational principles which is to guide and conduct the growth of human beings, and teaching is the current guidance and supervision of learning, therefore, educational supervision is one of the fundamental activities and the main point of education. Supervision is vital and sensitive in teaching, hence, the role of educational supervisors and their methods of supervising is very significant and effective. Inspite of the fact that one of their most important roles is technical and professional education, unfortunately, the major part of their activities is tended to be organizational and officiall, which is basically traditional and nonetheless inspectional. Sometimes, extreme of it makes a watch-dog approach in teachers and an intervening role in their activities. This negative and pessimistic approach causes ineffectiveness of educational supervisors roles. Thus, it is essential to diagnose such ill-roles by the concerned authorities and try to remove As them. a result the status and major roles of educational supervisors will be reconstructed. Indeed, one of the ways to remove such problems is to select qualified educational supervisors. So, the qualification and standard criteria must be defined for such posts and their roles. In this way, those applicants who are experienced, interested, compassionate and qualified must be appointed to prove the proverb: “The right man in the right place”. The present research is a field-survey and its method is statistical-descriptive that contains five research questions. After studying and analyzing the data, it was specified that the supervising roles of educational supervisors are not outstanding, while their organizational and official roles are significant. Futher, they bear no essential qualities and there is no significant difference among the group of subjects in terms of their scientific qualification and their view points in this regard. The population size of this research was 1568 and the sample size was 500.

One of the most important permanence factors in today’s competition environment is decreasing of the cost of the products. Selecting the appropriate suppliers can significantly reduce the purchasing cost and increase organization competitiveness. It is due to the fact that in most industries, the cost of raw material and component parts includes the main cost of a product. The aim of this paper was to introduce a fuzzy decision making approach for supplier selection problems in supply chain. Most of such decisions are unstructured and many of the performance criteria such as quality, cost, flexibility and delivery time to determine the best supplier should be considered. In this paper, verbal variables were used for evaluation and determination of the performance of supplier under each criterion and determination of the weight of the criteria. Verbal variables were described by means of the triangular and trapezoid fuzzy numbers. Furthermore, the priority and the rank of suppliers by fuzzy multi-criteria decision making were determined. Finally, an example was presented to the process of decision making.

Firms in many industries rely on knowledge generated outside of the firm as an input to their own research and development. The ability to exploit knowledge that exists outside the boundary of the firm is calld Absorptive Capacity. Cohen and Levinthal defined AC as ‘‘the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new and external knowledge, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends’’. They argued that AC is an organizational learning concept and the cumulative effect of continuous learning. However, this definition deals primarily with external knowledge. Implicit in the definition is the notion that firms are aware of internal information and have access to it. In some cases, organizations may not be aware or have access to their existing knowledge, especially tacit knowledge that can only be communicated by direct social interaction.Thus, a network of formal and informal communication linkages are necessary for the internal diffusion of new knowledge and technology. We employed a social theory of absorptive capacity and investigated its affect on innovaton and fliexibility in firm. On the other hand, we investigated the effect of intersubjectivity on absorptive capacity. To illustrate the links, the present study tested the hypothesis by structural equation, applied to a large sample (n=619). The results indicated a strong, positive and direct relation among intersubjectivity, absorptive capacity innovation and flexibility.

Nowadays, ICT infrastructures and applications have been developed because of its capabilities in responsing to the needs of business. These capabilities cause ICT to be used as a simple fying and empowerment tool to achieve. Recently, the ICT infrastructures have been developed to the rural areas through the Rural ICT Plan. Using ICT capabilities for rural empowerment, decreasing rural poverty and decreasing rural problems are the final goal of this plan. This plan had good advancements in hardware and network dimensions, but there is no integrated methodology for developing its applications. Therefore, in this paper, based on the enterprise architecture issues, an architecture framework was introduced based on rural ICT infrastructure. The proposed framework mainly focuses on the rural supply chain in agriculture domain, because of its importance as a rural core process. The grounded theory is the research methodology of this study and the resulted architecture framework was developed in three layers. Finally, the framework was compared with the common enterprise architecture frameworks.

Purchasing stock portfolio is one of the ways of risk mitigation in the light of investment process on securities. The research applies two measures, Z and G, to demonstrate stock portfolio. Fundamental variables applied in the research are Z index, which demonstrates financial authenticity of firm and G index that shows the growth rate of firm’s net profit. Accordingly, The stocks of 153 firms have been rated in Tehran stock exchange in to two patterns comprising nine portfolios and twelve portfolios based on Beta and the return during a five year period. The results showed that the concordance of these portfolios’rating in a 9 porffolio pattern based on risk indexes and return is higher than a 12 portfolio pattern. In addition, concordance of the rate of portfolios based on the return index is higher than the concordance of rates based on the beta index. Z1G3 portfolio has the highest rate in a 9 portfolio pattern based on the return mean. In other words, it yields the highest return in terms of beta mean index. In terms of beta mean, Z2G1 portfolio has the highest rate, that is, it has the least beta.

In this paper, our aim was to get a definition of reputation that can be accepted in management literature. But the results of the research showed that there is not a common definition over reputation, because the meaning of reputation has been examined in diverse areas and domains. However, through collecting different definitions about reputation in various areas, the research attempted to present a new model of corporate reputation. The proposed corporate reputation model is a combination of corporate identity mix, corporate image, organizational culture, corporate social responsibility, crisis management and their relationships. The model was tested by path analysis model on seven Iranian banks. In the reminder of this paper, new suggestions offered for the bank managers. Futher, the stakeholders conceptual differences about the constructs were explored.