Journal of Applied Research on Industrial Engineering
Volume:7 Issue: 1, Winter 2020

In recent decades, several outbreaks have threatened societies and claimed many lives. Outbreak response management plays a crucial role in reducing the fatality rate and the total healthcare system cost. Among all the parameters affecting the performance of the outbreak response system, the available resources are one of the most important. This becomes critical when the number of infected people who need such resources is substantial. In such circumstances, the system cost and the death rate may significantly rise. Therefore, in this paper, we present an analysis of the impact of the contact frequency among people during an outbreak considering the capacity of the healthcare system expressed as the total number of hospital beds following a systems dynamics approach. We investigate the case of the novel Coronavirus, known as COVID-19, in Iran for which the results indicate the circumstances under which the healthcare system may become exhausted, and a catastrophe may occur. Finally, some suggestions are made based on the analysis of the results to avoid such circumstances.

Road infrastructure in Nigeria is in a state of decay arising from various factors such as construction with low quality materials and poor maintenance. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that the materials used for construction are of the required standards and the alternative construction materials are available to reduce construction cost. In this research work, Cow Bone Ash (CBA) was used as filler in producing the asphaltic concrete samples. Then, Marshall Stability and flow test were carried out on the asphaltic concrete samples. The materials used in this study include 60/70 penetration grade bitumen, river sand, and crushed granites obtained from three selected quarries with various tests carried out to determine their suitability for use. The lower quality aggregates, based on the tests carried out on the aggregate samples, have shown to negatively affect the asphaltic concrete. The aggregate samples had average elongation index of 33.9% and abrasion index of 29.6%, while the asphaltic concrete samples had Marshall Stability values (with and without) CBA of 36.99 KN and 46.84 KN, respectively. The results of the flow test on the asphaltic concrete samples gave 8.29 mm with CBA and 14.71 mm without CBA. The study also reveals that asphaltic concrete samples produced without CBA as fillers are better as they have an average stability value of 15.61 KN and average flow value of 4.90 mm than those produced with CBA which have average stability value of 12.36 KN and an average flow value of 4.90 mm. Statistical analysis shows that the source of aggregate, significantly affects the properties of asphaltic concrete.

Nowadays, increasing environmental and social awareness has led numerous industries to adopt Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). Sustainable Supplier Selection (SSS) is considered as a very important and primary step of achieving an SSCM. SSS is a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem and is very intricate for its nature. This study aims to evaluate and rank sustainable suppliers using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which is a popular model for measuring the productive efficiency of decision-making units effectively and is also able to handle MCDM problems. To avoid some inherent limitations of DEA, an evolutionary algorithm Differential Evolution (DE) is used to solve the DEA model. This integrated DEA-DE model provides more accurate efficiencies and is verified through a case study in a pharmaceutical company. Employing this easy and fast model to assess sustainable suppliers will help industries and suppliers to move forward towards achieving and maintaining sustainability and thus will increase the overall performance of SSCM.

An Improved Genetic Algorithm (I-GA) for solving multi-objective Fuzzy Multi–Index Multi-objective Transportation Problem (FM-MOTP) is presented. Firstly, we introduce a new structure for the individual to be able to represent all possible feasible solutions. In addition, in order to keep the feasibility of the chromosome, a criterion of the feasibility was designed. Based on this criterion, the crossover and mutation were modified and implemented to generate feasible chromosomes. Secondly, an external archive of Pareto optimal solutions is used, which best conform a Pareto front. For avoiding an overwhelming number of solutions, the algorithm has a finite-sized archive of non-dominated solutions, which is updated iteratively at the presence of new solutions. Finally, the computational studies using two numerical problems, taken from the literature, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm to solve FM-MOTP Problem under fuzziness.

Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) includes up-to-date forecasts that lead to sales schedules, production schedules, inventory schedules, customer delivery plans, new product development plans, and financial plans. The purpose of this study is to identify the affecting factors of the implementation of the S&OP Process and determine the significance of each of them, as well as the ranking of the implementing department of this process by using the fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS. Data collections in this research, by 10 experts of different planning and production departments of Kalleh dairy production company in 2018 have been conducted. To identify the factors, research findings and expert opinion have been used and the required data have been collected through the designed questionnaires. The validity of the questionnaire has been confirmed by the experts in this area, and its reliability has been analyzed using the incompatibility rate of the AHP method. The data analysis in this study was done using coding in Eecel software. The results show that among the S&OP executing parts, the highest impact of factors on UHT section was observed with 0.56 points and the lowest impact on the concentration with 0.37 points. The major affecting factors of sales and operations planning process implementation, relations with countries of the region and the world, customs rules (roof of the outflow of currency from the country in return for raw materials) and inflation rate and currency changes are known that the organization can be grown in order to thrive to generalize these issues.

The R3 (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) system of waste management specified by Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) waste management framework is the pathway to sustainable environment. This system which is practiced in advanced countries is given little or no preference in Nigeria where open waste dumping is mostly practiced. Questionnaire based survey was employed to determine the awareness of the effects of open waste dumping by individuals. A physical survey was carried out to assess the risks posed by open waste dumping on the physical environment and health of individuals. Findings from the questionnaire-based survey indicated that many individuals are aware of the risks posed by open waste dumping system but have little or no knowledge of the R3 waste management standard for proper waste management. The physical survey pointed out that open waste dumping leads to infrastructural dilapidation and environmental degradation from drainage blockage and flooding. The findings also revealed that open waste dumping is responsible for outbreak of diseases such as Cholera, Diarrhoea, Malaria, Tetanus, Lassa fever, Typhoid and Yellow fever, Hookworm, and other parasite infestation as well as the promotion of fecal contamination of the hands, food and water that may result in fecal-oral transmission diseases. Hence, this method of waste management is responsible for water pollution, land pollution and the emission of obnoxious odour and also aid climate change and global warming through the release of Green House Gases (GHGs). From the risk evaluation carried out, simple and effective processes and technologies must be employed to aid the R3 practice for domestic recycling of specific waste.

Microfinance institutions contribute significantly to the development of a country and many of these institutions are found in most developing countries including Ghana. However, many challenges have been alleged to stifle the efforts of microfinance companies in their attempt to make their all-important contributions to the development of nations. This study explored the effect of operational flaws on the performance of microfinance institutions in Ghana. The results discovered the flaws and challenges associated with the operations of the Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in many areas including corporate governance, credit risk management, credit administration, regulatory challenges, and training programs. The study also revealed that such flaws and challenges do harm the overall performance of the MFIs. Based on the findings, it is recommended that MFIs put in place a well-composed and resourceful credit committee to perform the duty of credit risk management in the institutions. The institutions could also reduce their interest rates to encourage their clients to apply for more loans. Lastly, it is recommended that the MFIs take all necessary steps to ensure that they reduce the flaws and challenges they face to mitigate the negative impact of such deficiencies on their performance.