Since the early 1990s, many companies have begun adopting lean principles and practices. While it appears to be an effective methodology to improve operational efficiency and process productivity, lean implementation has failed in many organisations with their performance sliding back to the...

The market for solar energy in the US has grown exponentially due to increased consumer demand resulting from price reduction via economies of scale, technological progress, and a variety of incentives from federal and state governments as well as utility companies. The installation of solar...

This paper is concerned with scheduling a number of jobs on multiple identical parallel machines to minimise job Completion Time Variance (CTV), which is a performance measure that emphasises providing uniform service to jobs. CTV minimisation is closely related to common due date problems,...

The paper investigates a problem faced by a make-to-order (MTO) firm that has the ability to reject or accept orders, and set prices and lead-times to influence demands. Inventory holding costs for early completed orders, tardiness costs for late delivery orders, order rejection costs,...

This paper is concerned with scheduling a number of jobs on multiple identical parallel machines to minimise job Completion Time Variance (CTV), which is a performance measure that emphasises providing uniform service to jobs. CTV minimisation is closely related to common due date problems,...

Citing the myriad applications of nanotechnology, this paper emphasizes the need to conduct “life cycle” based assessments as early in the new product development process as possible, for a better understanding of the potential environmental and human health consequences of nanomaterials...

Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) help connecting buyers and suppliers in supply chains. Hence, logistics quality significantly affects the performance of the supply chain. An intensely competitive business environment necessitates that firms provide services according to customer demand to...

Despite the fact that millions of people use the Internet every day and visit various shopping sites, it is interesting to find that quite a few of them do not complete purchase transactions. It is still a major challenge for online businesses to learn why these e-shoppers chose not to complete...

The main function of the NOVEL SMART MAP(NSM) is to assist tourists who come to the Ximending area for sightseeing in Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. With this digitalized map, they can smoothly plan their schedules. The idea of Novel SMART MAP comes from that tourists won’t need to spend too much time...

To make agricultural marketing policies be carried out more easily, this research establishes a decision support system by using the rice field of one farmer in Changhwa area, Taiwan as the example and explains how this decision support system works. Actually, this research has three purposes:...