International Journal of Advanced Operations Management (10 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Optimal production-distribution planning in electromotor manufacturing industries: A case study  
  by Reza Babazadeh 
  Abstract: Optimal production-distribution planning prevents capital accumulation, reduces costs, unemployment of machinery, and provides a good plan to satisfying customer needs. In this paper, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed to determine optimal production-distribution planning in electromotor manufacturing industries. The proposed model is a multi-product and multi-period one in which optimal amounts of production, inventory and distribution are determined in different periods. Also, the possibility of capacity expansion of facilities in different periods are modeled to optimally determine the capacity increase if necessary. To validate the proposed model, it is applied in a company in Iran producing different electro-motors. The achieved results confirm the efficiency of the model to be used in determining the optimum production-distribution plans in electromotor industries.
  Keywords: Production planning; Optimization; Electromotor industry; MILP.
  
  
• Assessing barriers to implementation of QMPs in Indian organizations-An Empirical Investigation  
  by Jagdeep Singh, Harwinder Singh, Surjit Kumar Gandhi 
  Abstract: In the post liberalization period, many Indian organizations have taken up Quality management Programs (QMPs) in order to compete with global standards, but it has been observed that organizations frequently confront problems during implementation of such programmes. In this study, a questionnaire survey has been performed to explore the problems in the organization and tried to find the linkages of the problems with the organizational context as well as the approach adopted by management while recovering the problems. It has been observed that the organizations implementing Quality Management Programs (QMPs) often confront hurdles in the process of managing the organizational change associated with such programs. On average quality practitioners in Indian service industry indicated significantly higher perceived values of barrier than in manufacturing industry in the attributes expertise in QMPs.
  Keywords: Quality management Programs (QMPs); hurdles; and organizational change.
  
  
• SWOT Analysis of Waste Management Techniques Quantitatively  
  by Harsimran Singh Sodhi, Doordarshi Singh, Bikram Jit Singh 
  Abstract: India is among the fastest growing nations across world. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are playing significant role for the economic enhancements of the nation. Even though it has been noticed that many of the SMEs are in sick condition or shut down because of their poor performance and higher financial deficits. Prime reason for the poor show of Indian SMEs on national and international platform is the continuous increase in the rate of scrap and rise in waste causing huge financial loses. Most of the organizations are using various waste management techniques in order to deal with higher scrap rate, but the results are not found favorable. One of the main reason for the poor performance of various waste management techniques is the wrong implementation of technique or there may be individual limitations of each technique. However in many cases it has been observed that these techniques are not capable of solving all the problems of the organization. Therefore in present research work, a quantitative SWOT analysis (Strength, weakness, opportunities and Threats) of various waste management techniques has been done in order to rectify the most appropriate and structured technique for waste management out of all available techniques.
  Keywords: JIT,Operations Planning,Six Sigma; Work study; TQM; Lean Six Sigma; Waste Management; SWOT Analysis.
  
  
• A Proposed Conceptual Action Plan for Identification, Assessment and Mitigation of Supply Chain Risks  
  by Muhammad Saeed Shahbaz, Bestoon Othman, Peshraw Mahmood Salman, Danish Ali, Raja Zuraidah R.M. Rasi 
  Abstract: Any disruption can disturb many organizations and even the whole system. There are many theories and frameworks that present a solution but no study is available that theoretically development framework for supply chain risk management. The focus of this study is to develop a framework for identifying risks and assessment of their effects on supply chain performance. Additionally, evaluate the role of supply chain collaboration for Malaysia Manufacturing. This is a conceptual paper, systematic as well as content analysis have been done for the literature review. For future studies, there is a need to empirically verification of this theoretical framework. The proposed methodology to achieve this framework is; a questionnaire will be developed from a pool and will be validated by an exploratory view for risk identification. This questionnaire will be distributed among Malaysian manufacturing and data will be analysed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) for risk assessment and mitigation. The theoretical contribution of this study is the support of the theory of swift, even flow and information processing theory.
  Keywords: Supply chain risk management; risk identification; risk assessment; risk mitigation.
  
  
• WORKFLOW ESTIMATION OF A RADIOLOGY DEPARTMENT USING MODELING AND SIMULATION  
  by FELICITAS IDIGO, VICTOR IDIGO, KENNETH AGWU, OBINNA ONWUJEKWE, MARK OKEJI, ANGEL-MARY ANAKWUE, ULOMA NWOGU 
  Abstract: This work was designed to measure, analyze and forecast the workflow process in a radiology department using modeling and simulation. A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out in a tertiary hospital radiology department on randomly selected 768 adult ambulant patients that underwent routine radiographic investigations. Arrival time, service time and waiting time were measured for each patient and MATLAB Simulink was used to model and simulate the workflow process. The probability of n arrival is inversely related to the arrival rate. System utilization increases with increase of the arrival rate and generally decreases with increase in the number of servers and mean service rate. The probability of the number of delays decreases at higher utilization rates. A software program called MATLAB Estimator was developed which showcases output parameters once the input parameters are known. rnrnKEYWORDS: Patient flow process; System utilization; Modeling and simulation; Radiology department; MATLAB Estimator.
  Keywords: Patient flow process; System utilization; Modeling and simulation; Radiology department; MATLAB Estimator.
  
  
• An application of the multi-depot heterogeneous fixed fleet open vehicle routing problem  
  by Anatol Husakou, Lars Magnus Hvattum, Ketil Danielsen, Arild Hoff 
  Abstract: This work describes an application of a multi-depot heterogeneous fixed fleet open vehicle routing problem. A contractor owns a fleet of vehicles with different capacities and running costs. The fleet is used to transport craftsmen from their homes to assigned project sites and back, with some of the craftsmen appointed as drivers while others are passengers. An optimization model is described that enables the contractor to minimize the transportation costs, and a computational study shows that the model can be solved to optimality for realistically sized instances using a standard mixed-integer programming solver.
  Keywords: mixed integer programming; assignment; transportation.
  
  
• A Literature Review on Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling  
  by Omur Tosun, M.K. Marichelvam 
  Abstract: Scheduling problems are one of the widely used problems which have both academic and real-life applications. In academic fields, it can be used to test the efficiency of a newly developed solution techniques. As its known to be NP-hard, these problems are keystones to show the performance of a new or improved method, especially metaheuristics. Apart from the standard scheduling problems, one of its challenging sub-problem is hybrid flow shop (HFS) scheduling. Except from the literature survey of Ruiz and Vazquez-Rodriguez (2010), no recent analysis is given to give the new solution trends in HFS. To solve this missing piece, in this study HFS studies 219 articles from 2010-2019 period are analyzed with the main focus of metaheuristic techniques. Also, analysis based on the citations are given.
  Keywords: Hybrid flow shop; literature review; metaheuristics; scheduling; optimization.
  
  
• Analysis of the Interrelationships between KPIs in a Small Business through Temporal Causal Models  
  by Gelmar García-Vidal, Alexander Sánchez-Rodríguez, Reyner Pérez-Campdesuñer, Rodobaldo Martínez-Vivar 
  Abstract: This paper provides an analysis of performance measurement system in small enterprises and the importance for owners - managers of knowing those indicators that show the performance of their business. The main objective is to uncover causal relationships between some key performance indicators (KPI) at small business. The review highlights the importance of studying the KPIs to know the performance of a business and the need to know the causality between them. It is possible to find articles that pursue this objective, but few allow to know the real causality among the studied KPIs. In order to reach the objective set, the causal temporal model was applied, which allowed to discover those indicators that had an impact on the performance of the small business studied. This facilitates the owner - manager to know more deeply his business and to take actions of improvement in function of its improvement.
  Keywords: Small business; KPIs; causality; performance measurement; temporal causal model.
  
  
• Numerical investigation on welding process parameters optimization using multi-objective optimization technique  
  by Mark Barrueta, Yongbo Li 
  Abstract: Applications of multi objective optimization getting extended with various fields including process parameters optimization. This study considers one such successful application of multi objective optimization technique on welding process parameters. There have been several developments evident in recent years on welding application including intervention of new technologies like laser welding. Among laser beam welding, Co2 laser beam welding has gaining more popular in recent research realm, which is also provide enough opportunities to explore. This study considers cupronickel as a material, in which the Co2 laser beam welding has been performed. Though several process parameters exist within the literature, only most cited parameters are considered namely focal position, welding speed, welding current and welding angle. In initial phase the experimental procedure was conducted with Co2 laser beam welding, further the obtained outputs given as inputs to the numerical evaluation. The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) has been considered as solution methodology for this study to identify the optimized process parameters. Several mechanical properties are considered as the multi objective functions for this study which includes impact, elongation, hardens, tensile strength and yield strength. With the assistance of this multi objective optimization, the researchers, shed light on one of the new applications of welding technologies.
  Keywords: Multi objective optimization; parameter optimization; Co2 Laser beam welding; TOPSIS.
  
  
• A parts feeding model for big size products: the Active and Idle Assembly Islands strategy  
  by Ilenia Zennaro, Serena Finco, Martina Calzavara, Daria Battini, Alessandro Persona 
  Abstract: In fixed-position assembly systems (or assembly islands) for big-size highly customized products, workers and parts move around the sub-assemblies, which stay fixed in one place. Generally, there are several parallel assembly islands and a single product is assembled in each of them. In some cases, assembly workers can also do the parts feeding activities, which are considered as non-value added activities, with a consequent decrease in the system performance. In this paper, we propose a new mathematical model to reduce parts feeding costs by considering active and idle assembly islands, so that the parts feeding and the assembly activities can be done simultaneously by the respective operators. A sensitivity analysis is carried out to study the effects of the variables and of the parameters on the model results. Moreover, the model is applied to two real applications by evaluating how many idle assembly islands are required to improve the efficiency of the whole system. The results show that the main parameters that influence the final number of idle assembly islands are the percentages of time that assembly operators spend for parts feeding activities and the time required for material preparation and assembly activities.
  Keywords: assembly islands; big size products; fixed-position layout; layout design; value and non-value activities; parts feeding.