Purpose – This study aims to develop a decision making model and approach for logistics planning problem which naturally involves two or more decision units at a hierarchical structure. Such a decision problem in practice often involves uncertain and imprecise factors with the parameters of a...

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the development of an integrated management system (IMS) by linking quantitative and qualitative decision parameters with a view to rank and optimise capital projects. Roles and impacts of the non‐financial criteria have been combined with traditional...

Purpose – In the Norwegian oil and gas industry the upstream logistics includes providing the offshore installations with needed supplies and return flow of used materials and equipment. This paper considers a real‐life routing problem for supply vessels serving offshore installations at...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an application of the simulated annealing algorithm to the redundant system reliability optimization. Its main aim is to analyze and compare this optimization method performance with those of similar application. Design/methodology/approach –...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the result of an optimisation via life cycle costs (LCC) depends on the assumptions made throughout the process of calculating LCC. Design/methodology/approach – A framework is used to structure the assumptions made in the process of...

Purpose – This paper seeks to provide business process redesign (BPR) practitioners and academics with insight into the most popular heuristics to derive improved process designs. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was carried out in the years 2003‐2004 among a wide range of...

Purpose – The purpose is to show that it is necessary for a company to choose a business strategy that relies on a thorough understanding of the company setting. Design/methodology/approach – The Strategic States Model is presented and illustrated by the Ericsson case. Advices on application...

Purpose – The evolution of six sigma has morphed from a method or set of techniques to a movement focused on business‐process improvement. Business processes are transformed through the successful selection and implementation of competing six sigma projects. However, the efforts to implement...

Purpose – The existing business paradigm in the sawmill industry is that improvements are achieved by enhancements at each individual sawmilling plant. The authors investigate a collaborative approach, and propose a model for optimizing production and inventory planning decisions within a...