Growing Science

One of the primary issues on marketing planning is to know the customer & apos; s behavioral trends. A
customer & apos; s purchasing interest may fluctuate for different reasons and it is important to find the
declining or increasing trends whenever they happen. It is important to study these fluctuations
to improve customer relationships. There are different methods to increase the customer & apos; s
willingness such as planning good promotions, an increase on advertisement, etc. This paper
proposes a new methodology to measure customer & apos; s behavioral trends called customer
electrocardiogram. The proposed model of this paper uses K-means clustering method with
RFM analysis to study customer & apos; s fluctuations over different time frames. We also apply the
proposed electrocardiogram methodology for a real-world case study of food industry and the
results are discussed in details

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52.

Continuous supply chain collaboration: Road to achieve operational excellence Pages 149-156 Download PDF

Authors: N. Senthil Kumar, P. Subburethina Bharathi

DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2010.03.007

Keywords: Continuous improvement, Continuous supply chain collaboration (CSCC), Operational excellence, Supply chain management

Abstract:

Supply chain management (SCM) is becoming critical as firms recognize that competition is
shifting from company versus company to supply chain versus supply chain. In the present
competitive scenario, the fierce competition has driven most companies to seek for means of
enhancing performance beyond their four wall boundaries. The firm’s ability in collaborating
with its upstream and downstream partners determines its success in attaining better
performance with supply chain collaboration; a firm is able to serve fragmented markets in
which end customers require more product varieties and availability with shorter product life
cycle and, at the same time, lower supply chain costs. This paper introduces the framework of
continuous supply chain collaboration (CSCC), which extends the traditional frame of reference
in strategic sourcing from a supplier centric to a supply-chain-scope as continuous
improvement efforts to enhance the customer satisfaction. CSCC practices are rather
exceptional, yet CSCC is believed to be the single most comprehensive framework for attaining
operational excellence.

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53.

Strategic planning model for Startups: A case study of Iranian packaging industry Pages 157-166 Download PDF

Authors: Khashayar Mahdavi Mazdeh, Mohammad Mahdavi Mazdeh, Khashayar Moradi

DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2010.03.005

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Food packaging, Planning, Small business, Startup, Strategic planning

Abstract:

In today’s turbulent and competitive world, strategic planning plays an important role for the
success of firms. Despite the fact that there are literally numerous models proposed for different
companies in various states and structures, the possibility of using strategic planning for
startups has never been seriously considered. In this paper, we present a survey by asking
experts to find out whether strategic planning is suitable for startups. We also propose a model
for strategic planning in startups based on the strategic planning models for small businesses
and entrepreneurship concepts. The model is similar to other models and what differentiates
this models form other approaches is the methodology used for internal and external analysis
and the parameters taken into consideration. The proposed model is examined on an Iranian
food packaging industry for validation. The preliminary results indicate that the success of
startups depends on two sets of parameters: “entrepreneurial opportunities” and “competitive
advantages and entrepreneurial characteristics”.

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54.

Statistical modeling of main cutting force produced by wet turning using soluble oil-water mixture lubricant Pages 167-180 Download PDF

Authors: L B Abhang, M Hameedullah

DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2010.03.002

Keywords: Cutting force, Factorial design, Metal cutting, Response surface methodology, Statistical modeling

Abstract:

In this paper, we present machining tests by turning En-31 steel alloy with tungsten carbide
inserts using soluble oil-water mixture lubricant under different machining conditions. Firstorder
and second-order cutting force prediction models were developed by using the
experimental data by applying response surface methodology combined with factorial design of
experiments. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is also employed to check the adequacy of the
developed models. The established equations show that feed rate and depth of cut are the main
influencing factors on the cutting force followed by tool nose radius and cutting velocity. It
increases with increase in the feed rate, depth of cut and tool nose radius but decreases with an
increase in the cutting velocity. The predicted cutting force values of the samples have been
found to lie close to that of the experimentally observed values with 95% confident levels.
Moreover, the surface response counters have been generated from the model equations.
Desirability function is used for single response optimization.

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55.

An empirical study on measuring the impact of personality type on employee capabilities Pages 181-186 Download PDF

Authors: N. Sha’bani, S. Salajeqe, M. Fallah, S.E. Najafi

DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2010.03.003

Keywords: Big fives, Employee ability, Empowerment, Personality type

Abstract:

Personality is a stable set of characteristics and tendencies, which specifies similarities, and
differences of people & apos; psychological behavior. Personality is normally a permanent behavior
through time and may not be comprehended easily or recognized as immediate or direct
situations due to some environmental and social stresses. In this paper, we study the
relationship between employees & apos; personality and ability types. The paper identifies that there
are some relationships between employees & apos; personality type and their ability. There is also a
relationship between introvert, extrovert, sensitive, emotive, thoughtful, considerate and
judging personality type and employees & apos; ability.

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56.

A methodology to identify and prioritize organizational factors affecting implementation of value engineering Pages 187-194 Download PDF

Authors: Fereshteh Amin, Ali Ramezani, Hamed Babaei

DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2010.03.001

Keywords: ELECTRE III, Multiple criteria, Organizational factors, Strategic planning, Value engineering

Abstract:

The new millennium must be called the century to compete for survival. The increase
interaction among international organizations has changed the world into a global village and
firms have no choice but to develop a variety of instruments and equipments to compete with
each other. Value engineering (VE) is one of the new techniques of management science
emerged in using the power of organizational creativity and entrepreneurship programs. VE
modifies the organizational activities, removes the non value-added activities and increases the
current values of organizations. VE has been successfully implemented in many areas of
management such as quality, productivity, project management, etc. The success of a VE
program depends on many organizational factors such as the availability of resources, the
strategy and the organization structure, the senior management support, the organizational
culture and the communication and information systems. In this study, we identify and
prioritize organization factors affecting the implementation of VE using ELECTRE III method.

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57.

An empirical study to measure the relative efficiencies of training organizations using data envelopment analysis Pages 195-202 Download PDF

Authors: Ahmad Ahmadkhani, Masoud Babakhani

DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2010.02.004

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA, Driving test, Efficiency, Performance measurement

Abstract:

This paper presents an empirical study on measuring relative efficiencies of test drive
educational organizations using data envelopment analysis. The study uses a Delphi method to
determine the most important input/output factors and then gathers the actual data for all units
located in an Iranian province called Zanjan. The results of the implementation of the DEA
method are compared for different periods of the recent year and they are analyzed. We perform
the DEA implementation for two separate regions, one for the units located inside the city and
the other for the units located in the rural area. The output results of both methods are compared
and the results are discussed in details.

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58.

A GRASP model in network design for two-stage supply chain Pages 203-212 Download PDF

Authors: Hassan Javanshir, Mahdis Haghighi Ghashti

DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2010.02.003

Keywords: GRASP, Inventory lost, Lead time, Network design, Safety stock

Abstract:

We consider a capacitated facility location problem (CFLP) which contains a production facility and distribution centers (DCs) supplying retailers' demand. The primary purpose is to locate distribution centres in the network and the objective is the minimization of the sum of fixed facility location, pipeline inventory, safety stock and lost sales. We use Greedy randomized adaptive search procedures (GRASP) to solve the model. The preliminary results indicate that the proposed method of this paper could provide competitive results in reasonable amount time.

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59.

A robust LINMAP for EFQM self assessment Pages 213-222 Download PDF

Authors: Sepideh Rasouli, Mohsen Gharakhani, Masoud Babakhani

Keywords: EFQM, Linear Programming, LINMAP, Preference Analysis, Robust Decision Making, Robust Optimization

Abstract:

During the past two decades, there have been tremendous efforts on developing efficient
business excellence models to improve the quality of organizations. A typical business
excellence model proposes several alternatives with different budget and the primary objective
is to use the best ones. In this paper, we present a robust LINMAP method for measuring the
relative importance of various alternatives in an EFQM self assessment. The presented robust
model is capable of handling uncertainty as part of the problem formulation. The proposed
model of this paper is implemented for a case-study of energy sector in Iran with various
alternatives. The orderings of the alternatives are measured using data from multiple experts
through applying the proposed model of this paper.

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60.

An empirical study to determine the critical success factors on customer retention: A case study of Iranian banking sector Pages 223-234 Download PDF

Authors: Sadollah Ebrahim Nezhad, Neda Jomehri, Hassan Javanshir

DOI: 10.5267/j.msl.2010.02.002

Keywords: Banking industry, Customer loyalty, Customer retention, Customer satisfaction, Customer value

Abstract:

One of the most important strategic issues for any enterprise is to create
and deliver superior value for its customers and provide enough
evidences to convince them not to choose another competitive. In this
study, we study the effects of customer value, customer satisfaction and
customer loyalty on customer retention. The results indicate that all
aspects of the customer value have positive relationships with customer
satisfaction but only emotional value has a positive and direct
relationship with customer loyalty. The study confirms that while none
of customer value aspects has direct and positive relationship with
customer retention, both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty
positively and directly affect customer retention.

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