Journal of Operational Research in its Applications
Year:2015 | Volume:11 | Issue:4 (43)|Papers Count:8

In 1990, the United Nations Development Program introduced the Human Development Index (HDI) which ever since is published annually in the Human Development Report. Human Development Index is considered as a composite index, and one of the most important parameters for comparing developed countries. In this paper, the assessment of the HDI is reconsidered based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). Human development is benchmarked on the basis of empirical observations of best practice countries. First, in this paper, the despotis approach is applied to the countries of the regional aggregate of Asia and the Pacific. We observe that the despotis approach results in comparable ranking UNDP created in the ranking of countries has more changes. Finally, a nonparametric model is presented that puts restrictions on the weights of the components of the human development index, to solve problems of the despotis approach.

In today's world sever competitive environment, the selection of appropriate suppliers is a significantly important decision for having effective supply chain management. Supplier selection is a multi-criteria decision making problem in which a great deal of input information cannot be expressed precisely. In this paper, we propose a novel integrated satisfying optimization approach based on Fuzzy Goal Programming (FGP) and Logarithmic Fuzzy Preference Programming (LFPP). The goal of which is to handle effectively the uncertainties and vagueness of input data and different important preferences among fuzzy constraints and weights of objectives due to the above-mentioned problem. The proposed model is applied to a real case study of suppliers selection problem with multiple-item and optimal order allocation to each of them. The model output provides order allocation to each supplier taking cost, service quality and product quality criteria into consideration.

Selecting the suitable advertising media is one of the most important decisions in advertisement planning and it is a complex problem. In this field, the aim of this study is to propose a hybrid approach of analytic network process (ANP) and decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to solve this problem and eliminate the criticism of analytic hierarchy process to get close to reality. In proposal process performed in a Wi-Max sale agency; firstly, the most important attributes in selecting the advertising media were identified based on basic studies and opinion of experts. Then, they were compared pair-wisely in a network structure frame, and DEMATEL is used in order to evaluating relationship among them. Finally, the weights of attributes were computed based on ANP super matrix, and advertising media were ranked in order catalog and brochure, billboard, magazine and newspaper, TV and radio, SMS and email, and website.

Regarding to classical knowledge scope of DEA, the behavior of efficient DMUs would be considered as a pattern to deficient units, since there is no mention benchmarking and improvement solutions of efficient DMUs; in other words, efficient DMUs have lack of any pattern and template in classical models. However an efficient DMU needs improvement and progress, and this issue has received less emphasis in the classical DEA approach. This paper focuses on a tool for pattern determination in a structure similar to DEA model, with the difference considering managerial goals. Also, this tool provides benchmarking for efficient DMUs and puts DMUs thought get to peak point regarding to classical DEA in progress practically. The mentioned model studied potential of present the solution and merge goals in patterns for all the DMUs. Finally, the numerical example of model establishment is presented to represent the model. In the mentioned example, goals of experts have been merged and regarding to these patterns solutions have been presented; moreover, a pattern has been determined for efficient DMUs.

The main purpose of this paper is to forecast banks market share in Bushehr province using Markov chain and ranking them using the SWARA method. First, 19 banks were selected both in private and public sectors. Then, the average number of customers and its change were calculated during the years 2008 to 2011 using banks data. First, status identification conducted for forecasting banks market share. In the next stage, transition matrix has been developed for all selected banks. Finally, banks future market share has been calculated. All surveyed banks were ranked with regard to the 15 banking experts in the SWARA process. Results show EN bank, Parsian bank, Mellat bank, Melli bank and Tejarat bank have the same first to fifth ranks derived from Markov chain and the SWARA method respectively.

Spiritual leadership is a causal model for organizational change which has been designed to increase the intrinsic motivation of employees and reduce their resistance to organizational changes. This research, by presenting a model based on game theory, seeks to investigate the role of spiritual leadership of employees who tend to resist against organizational change for various reasons. In this model, spiritual leadership can diminish the employees' resistance against change by inspiring faith, hope, altruism, meaningfulness and membership, which obviously incur some costs for the leader and the organization. In contrast, a spiritual leader can act without any regard for the resistance of employees which again incur some costs for organization. Here, the players are the resistant leader and employees who interact with each other. The leader looks for a strategy that can minimize the resistance of employees against change and maximize their productivity with producing minimum cost. In this model, the components of spiritual leadership and employee resistance, the objective function of each player and finally the optimal strategy of the leader relative to the strategies of both sides of the game and the model parameters are examined.

In today's competitive business environment, the supplier selection process became a critical factor in the success of organizations and accomplishing competitive advantage. In fact, the nature of supplier selection is a multi-criteria problem that occurs in the environment with insufficient information. Therefore, for proper evaluation and selection of suppliers, we need to use methods that are effective in such environments. One of the most important of these is the gray system theory. In fact, the gray system theory solved the evaluation issues under insufficient information conditions. Therefore, in this study, we have tried to use a combination of approaches based on analytic hierarchy process and gray TOPSIS for the evaluation and selection of suppliers. We identify the criteria for selecting suppliers and then select the most appropriate criteria by experts. Finally, by using gray TOPSIS the suppliers are evaluated and ranked. Moreover, to validate the proposed model we try to employ it in a case study. The results show that using such methods can help managers to make decisions in the absence of full information.

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid, the need for health, water, food and other critical needs introduced has individual aspects. Also since man is a social person, the need for security is one of the basic human needs that deserve consideration in all disaster management planning. Thus, in this paper, hospitals as an institution providing medical services, food warehouses for meeting critical needs and police centers for securing the area in disaster have been considered. The backup warehouses considered to improve the reliability in disaster management in the model. The Mentioned problem has been modeled as non-linear and two-objective for which first linearization and then the epsilon constraint method is used. Also, a case study on the earthquake disaster in 1st district of Tehran has been studied by using the lagrangian relaxation method, which the results show that the optimal location of the facility and consideration of appropriate transfer points can be a help to decision makers in the area of disaster management and increasing services in time of disaster.