Very recently, Qiupeng and Zuxing (2017) [Qiupeng, G., & Zuxing, X. (2017). A new approach for ranking fuzzy numbers based on possibility theory. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 309, 674-682.] suggested a new fuzzy ranking technique on the basis of possibility theory. In this note, we show that this method leads to the incorrect result in various cases.

Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (F-ANP) method is able to consider the complex relationships among different levels of decisions, transactions, and feedbacks of criteria and alternatives to calculate the weights of the elements. The large number of pair-wise comparisons in F-ANP and also difficulties in understanding the way of comparisons for the expert, have reduced the efficiency and practicality of this method. In this paper, in order to eliminate the above-mentioned problems, it has been tried to provide an approach using the Fuzzy Best-Worst method, called F-BWANP. The proposed method, requires less comparison data and leads to more consistent comparisons, which means that more reliable results can be obtained, while making it much easier for responding by experts. Finally, in order to describe the proposed method and evaluate its capability, a numerical example is provided.

As an attractive feature for modern transportation systems, the potential of the transfers capability (the load/passenger transfer between the two vehicles in its route) in reducing costs, increasing customer satisfaction and increasing the flexibility of the system, has been approved. But how profitable it could be under different circumstances? In other words, to which factors its influence depends on? what are its benefits versus its costs? The present research aimed to give a relatively comprehensive answer to these questions using a mathematical model of the pickup and delivery system with transfers. According to the model results under different situations, many factors such as modeling assumptions, system goals, transportation network scheme, vehicle fleet in terms of capacity, cost rate, and time window of activity and requests in terms of the length (direct distance between the pickup and delivery points), time windows and the volume to vehicle capacity ratio, affect the transfers benefits. As the small-scale numerical results indicate, we have an average of 5.7% reduction in the trip cost under normal conditions, which increases with the heterogeneity of vehicles, shorter time windows, and an increase in the length of the request. On the other hand, it is expected that profitability increases by problem size.

The goal of the present study was to strategically analyze the value chain of the services based on cell phone in Iran’s capital market and to present solutions for its upgrade. Nowadays, due to focusing on the customer and his needs, services are of great significance to create value for the customers. On the other hand, given the growing trend of online users, the capital market’s future be-longs to the online business. This research was concerned with a strategic analysis of the aforesaid services value chain. By using SWOT method, the data related to the strengths, weaknesses and threats, as well as environmental opportunities, were collected through using two questionnaires and interviews with users, specialists, and experts in technical and regulatory domains. At the end, by using descriptive statistical methods of analysis, suggestions for upgrading every part of the chain have been presented. Regarding the analyses, the weakness in communication networks and the existing infrastructure for the purpose of information transfer could be regarded as the greatest barrier to the services; also, due to the substructure problems, sometimes the users could be faced with problems such as inaccessibility to the information and inability in conducting their transactions. However, it should be noted that the companies providing these services have been success-ful in presenting efficient software and useful information for their users, as well as giving them deep satisfaction. Given the existing high capacity in this competitive market and the growing number of online users, it is predicted that the capital market could have the potential to be greatly prosperous and serve as an appropriate market for newcomers’ activity.

This paper presents the case study of fuzzy statistical process control which has been simulated for variable and discontinuous production within a particular time frame in a key manufacturing work-shop. In order to reduce waste production and increase productivity, dimensional inspection from raw product is categorized into three groups: product of type A, product of type B, and discard. In first part, the appearance characteristics of product is defined as fuzzy membership function as the input of the system in order to allocate the output obtained from fuzzy inference of product to one of the three quality levels. Afterwards, each quality level is assigned to its own group by means of Monte Carlo simulation techniques. In the second part, with fuzzy development of a multinomial p chart, the production process is illustrated as a control chart within the particular period of time.

The aim of this paper is to integrate fuzzy approach into statistical process control in order to provide a comprehensive description of an operator’s performance. To this end, all influential factors in quality of a product are simultaneously controlled to assess the performance in each working day. Then a fuzzy x̄ chart is used for statistical modeling process during a month. This paper shows that the fuzzy controller chart can provide a good indication to evaluate a person's work performance.

During the previous decades, policy makers have formulated policies for developing entrepreneurship in different countries in order to decrease unemployment and poverty toward sustainable development. Some of these policies include encouraging people to be an entrepreneur, opportunity creation, educating new skills to entrepreneurs and so on. In recent years an appropriate context has been formed for entrepreneurship development in Iran and some programs have been executed. Therefore, formulating appropriate frameworks to guide Iranian government in this way is a necessity. This paper evaluates the impact of entrepreneurship policies on opportunity to startup in Iran. The results of path analysis indicate that supportive financial and non-financial actions influence positively on opportunity to startup. In addition, education and culture also influence positively on opportunity to startup. Finally, legislation also positively influences on opportunity to startup.

This study examines the impact of psychological characteristics, materialism, unity, uniqueness, hedonism, and perfectionism, and demographic characteristics including gender, age and income as well as the costing behavior (price) on the views towards the luxury restaurant. The results show that perfectionism and uniqueness had a direct impact on the consumer's views towards luxury restaurant. On the other hand, the demographic characteristics such as age, income and education had a positive relationship with the consumer's views towards the luxury restaurant. Finally, a new hypothesis as the relationship between price and service quality and customer atti-tudes was examined in this study and it was concluded that there was a significant positive rela-tionship between price and customer’s views. The results of the research data also confirmed the relationship between price and service quality.

In this article, we present an acceptance sampling plan for machine replacement problem based on the backward dynamic programming model. Discount dynamic programming is used to solve a two-state machine replacement problem. We plan to design a model for maintenance by consid-ering the quality of the item produced. The purpose of the proposed model is to determine the optimal threshold policy for maintenance in a finite time horizon. We create a decision tree based on a sequential sampling including renew, repair and do nothing and wish to achieve an optimal threshold for making decisions including renew, repair and continue the production in order to minimize the expected cost. Results show that the optimal policy is sensitive to the data, for the probability of defective machines and parameters defined in the model. This can be clearly demonstrated by a sensitivity analysis technique.

Selection of optimum methods which have appropriate speed and precision for planning and de-cision-making has always been a challenge for investors and managers. One the most important concerns for them is investment planning and optimization for acquisition of desirable wealth under controlled risk with the best return. This paper proposes a model based on Markowitz the-orem by considering the aforementioned limitations in order to help effective decisions-making for portfolio selection. Then, the model is investigated by fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms, for the optimization of the portfolio in selected active companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2012-2016 and the results of the above models are discussed. The results show that the two studied models had functional differences in portfolio optimization, its tools and the possibility of supplementing each other and their selection.