The dependency of maintenance as a manufacturing logistic function has made the considerations of maintenance decisions complex in nature. The importance of maintenance has escalated significantly by the increasing of automation in manufacturing processes. This condition switches the traditional maintenance perspective of “fire-fighter” into the business competitive driver. As a consequence, maintenance needs to consider other related aspects of decision making to achieve competitive advantage. This research aims to develop a hybrid Knowledge-Based (KB) System/GAP/AHP methodology to support the integration of maintenance decision with business and manufacturing perspectives. It constructs over 2000 KB rules on Strategic Stage (business and manufacturing aspects) and Maintenance Operations Stage (maintenance aspects). Each aspect contains KB rules attached with GAP analysis to assess the gap between current and prerequisite condition. AHP analysis is then deployed to compare those aspects structurally in a pair-wise manner to identify the critical ones to be rectified. This hybrid KB system is useful in reviewing the existing maintenance system performance and provides reasonable recommendations to improve maintenance performance with respect to business and manufacturing perspectives. Eventually, it indicates the roadmap from the current state to the benchmark goals for the maintenance system. This novel methodology of KBS/GAP/AHP to support maintenance decision is developed for a particular application in the automotive environment. The validation is conducted in two automotive companies in Indonesia and one published case study in an automotive company. The result confirms that the developed KB system can provide the valid, reasonable and consistent result to propose structured recommendation for maintenance improvement priority.

No description available.

International cooperation and foreign investment issues are two important components of an international economy. The various aspects of research related to such international cooperation and foreign investment decisions are fraught with various complex factors. In this thesis, we consider two specific issues in the arena of international technological cooperation and foreign investments, by using established Operations Research techniques of game theory and multiple criteria decision making. We first analyze regional technological cooperation mechanisms using classical game theory. A concept of regional technological cooperation is developed based on a cooperative game theoretic model, in which a plan of payoff distributions induces an agreement that is acceptable to each participant. Under certain conditions, the underlying game is shown to be convex, and hence to have a nonempty core with the Shapley value allocations belonging to the core. A compensation scheme is devised based on the Shapley value allocations, whereby participants who enjoy a greater payoff with respect to the technological cooperation compensate the participants who receive a relatively lesser payoff via cooperation. In this manner, regional technological cooperation can bring overall benefits to all the involved players in the game. Some insightful examples are provided to illustrate the methodological concept. Next, we discuss a model for analyzing foreign direct investment opportunities and for evaluating related projects based on the International Investment Attracting Force Theory and the technology of fuzzy evaluation. This model is applied to assess the industrial investment projects that were proposed in the â â 95 China's Tumen River Area International Investment and Business Forumâ funded by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Accordingly, the projects are classified into groups based on their potential to attract foreign investors. Furthermore, we simulate the actual forming process whereby projects are sequenced and selected for funding by foreign investors based on a sequential update of their effect on the local economy. The results provide a scientific basis for formulating related decisions and policy recommendations regarding the various proposed projects. / Master of Science

Yes / Risk Management is one of the most relevant approaches and systematic applications of strategies, procedures and practices management that have been introduced in literatures for identifying and analysing risks which exist through the whole life of a product ,a process or services. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to propose a risk assessment model that will be implemented to the energy sector, particularly to power plants. This model combines the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique with a new enhanced Balance Score Card (BSC). AHP is constructed to determine the weights and the priorities for all perspectives and risk indicators that involved in the BSC. The novelty in this paper is not only in using the BSC for risk assessment, but also, in developing a new BSC with six perspectives, which are sustainability perspective; economic; learning and growth; internal and operational business process; supply chain and customer/demand perspective. Another three contributions of this paper are firstly, including the sustainability dimension in BSC, and covering nine risk categories, which comprise 84 risk indicators that have been distributed across the six risk BSC perspectives. Secondly, assessing the non-technical risks in power plants and finally, this research will concentrate on the strategic level instead of the operational level where the majority of researches focus on latter but the former is far less researched. The created model will provide an effective measurement for the risks particularly, in the power plants sector. The results of this study demonstrate that the supply chain risks perspective is the keystone for the decision making process. Furthermore, these risk indicators with the new structure of BSC with six perspectives, help in achieving the organisation mission and vision in addition to affording a robust risk assessment model. The inputs of this model are composed from a previous stage using a modified Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) (which has been used the Exponential Weighted Geometric Mean (EWGM)) to understand and analyse all risks, after which, the results of the developed FMEA which are the Risk Priority Numbers (RPN’s), have been used to build the AHP-BSC risk model. These risks are collected with difficulty from various literatures. This study will be validated in the next stage in power plants in the Middle East. / Hashemite University, Jordan

This thesis explores the strategic considerations for the international expansion of family-owned professional development companies in Central European markets, specifically Germany, Poland, Austria, and Slovakia. The study integrates multiple theoretical perspectives such as the Resource-Based View of the firm, Eclectic Paradigm, Institutional Theory, and Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory with empirical data on the markets in question to identify the most relevant factors that aid in the location choice decision-making. Multi-criteria decision Analysis was used in this research to assess various criteria such as market size, economic stability, cultural compatibility, competitors and revenue potential. Furthermore, regression analysis was carried out to test the optimal number of cultural dimensions to be included in the analysis. The results showed that Germany was the most attractive location followed by Austria, Poland, and Slovakia. Market size, economic stability, and cultural compatibility was found to be in alignment with the resource advantages strategies highlighted by the Resource Based View. The results provide a comprehensive framework for choosing the optimal criteria for country selection decisions for expansion which are robust and based on empirical market data and therefore should aid family-owned professional development companies to successfully expand into highly competitive international markets.

The aim of the study was to evaluate whether home health care is a better choice of care from an economic and quality of care perspective than conventional care for people over 65. To answer this, the costs for the two care models were estimated using parametric cost estimation. The quality of care and the cost were evaluated with the "Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process" to determine which of the care models was the best fit. The cost estimate showed that conventional care is cheaper than home care. However, a sensitivity analysis shows that a minimal efficiency in the number of home visits per patient is sufficient for home health care to become the most advantageous alternative from an economic point of view. In addition, a sensitivity analysis also shows that home health care is preferable in five cases out of six, when the weights obtained from the "Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process" are varied. In this preference system, both the cost and the characteristics that make up quality of care are weighted to be summed up to a comprehensive list of priorities of the two care options. Main process maps of the two care models were made to help find significant cost parameters for the two care models. The preparation of the main process maps was done by studying similar process maps to compile two complete overall process maps. However, no significant cost parameters were found when studying the process maps, but they are still included in the study to show the reader an overall difference between the two models. The study shows that home health care is usually more expensive than on-site care, but that home health care is, from a quality point of view, preferable to conventional care. / Studiens mål var att utvärdera om hemsjukvård är ett bättre vårdval ur ekonomisk- och vårdkvalitets synpunkt än konventionell vård för personer över 65. För att besvara detta uppskattades kostnaderna för de båda vårdmodellerna med hjälp av parametrisk kostnadsuppskattning. Vårdkvaliteten samt kostnaden utvärderades med ”Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process” för att avgöra vilken av vårdmodellerna som lämpade sig bäst. Kostnadsestimeringen visade på att konventionell vård är billigare än hemsjukvård. Dock påvisar en känslighetsanalys på att en minimal effektivisering för antalet hembesök per patient är tillräckligt för att hemsjukvården ska övergå till att vara det mest fördelaktiga alternativet ur ekonomisk synpunkt. Utöver detta visar en känslighetsanalys dessutom på att hemsjukvård är att preferera i fem fall utav sex, när de framtagna vikterna från ”Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process” varieras. I detta preferenssystem viktas både kostnaden samt egenskaperna som utgör vårdkvalitet för att summeras till en övergripande allomfattande prioriteringslista av de båda vårdalternativen.  Huvudprocesskartor över de båda vårdmodellerna framställdes för att hitta betydliga kostnadsparametrar för de båda vårdmodellerna. Framställningen av huvudprocesskartorna utfördes genom att studera likande processkartor för att sammanställa två fullständiga övergripande processkartor. Dock hittades inga betydliga kostnadsparametrar när processkartorna studerades, men finns ändå med i studien för att visa läsaren en övergriplig skillnad mellan de två modellerna. Studien visar på att hemsjukvård vanligtvis är dyrare än vård på plats, men att hemsjukvård ur kvalitetssynpunkt är att föredra framför konventionell vård.

兩岸發展競爭力消長，最近數年來尤為明顯。據瑞士洛桑管理學院(IMD)2007年全球競爭力評比，台灣排名自2005年之第11名滑落至2007年之第18名；中國大陸則由31名提升到第15名，首度超越台灣。彼長我消之因素頗多，牽涉問題亦深且不易解。例如兩岸的統獨之爭，國內的內閣更迭波潮不斷，及政局穩定度、政策一致性、社會凝聚力，以及投資誘因力道等表現相對脆弱。相對於中國大陸，則是彼岸發展處於強勢有利時期，正所謂對岸屬「政經和諧」時期，台灣則處於「政熱經冷」時期，而兩岸間亦依舊停留於「政冷經熱」階段。對岸目前所走的路線恰好是台灣三、四十年前以「經濟為導向」的發展途徑，此為兩岸政、經發展消長最明顯的地方。縱使台灣在自由民主、發明專利、通膨水準、高科技產品、科技人才仍占有優勢，亦或政府大力協助廠商布局全球，如果兩岸未能和諧發展，則仍將難於突破當前困境，或競爭力將持續陷入每下愈況的困局。 本論文研究目的主要針對台灣與中國大陸國力發展之消長過程與趨勢，及兩岸互動對台灣是威脅或是機會，探討台灣發展新思維及應採措施，亦即如何趨吉避凶，乃為本論文研究之預期目標。本論文首次引用決策模式──層級分析法（Analytic Hierarchy Process, AHP），將兩岸複雜問題系統化，以簡易之結構化思考架構下，由不同層面給予層級分(析)解，讓決策者迅速研判台灣之兩岸發展之優選策略，或據以實施。首先以過去有關兩岸政治、經濟、國防、外交等政策文獻，作為構思研擬台灣當前與未來急需優先採行的重大策略後，隨即親訪產、官、研專家，擬訂AHP層級分析法問卷調查所需問題界定，構建層級結構。即第一層為全方位優選策略，第二層為政治和諧(I1)、經濟發展(I2)、國防安全(I3)與全球化(I4)等四大主題，第三層為各主題內之各子(次要)項(各細分五子項，合計20子(次要)項)。 AHP層級分析法略以總群(組)體(total)、偏經濟專長大於40歲（eco>40）及小於四十歲(eco<40)、偏政策專長大於40歲(pol>40)及小於40歲(pol<40)等五個分類組別，輸入計算軟體結果分析比較得知，不論總群體組或不同各次群組，即不分何種專長、年齡層都以經濟發展(I2)為首選指標，其餘三大主題(項)依次為國防安全、全球化及政治和諧，但彼此權重之高低卻在伯仲之間(詳本論文第四章第三節結果分析)。足見且印證了經濟發展是當前兩岸發展中台灣之首要任務，亦為國內人民、企業界和國外世界級跨國管理大師之共同關注焦點。 本論文採用文獻及當前問題趨勢分析，配合訪談及應用「層級分析法」結果，顯示層級分析法是一種簡易又便捷的優選決策工具。不但可免去一般繁複卷數、人力之累，且其分析結果雖僅具少數專家卓見，卻能充分反映多數人的看法和企求目標，也頗符合「二八法則」管理關鍵原則，值得推廣應用。本論文研究之結論與建議事項，或可提供有關當局施政之參考。 / The rise and fall of competitiveness between China and Taiwan has fluctuated dramatically in recent years. According to the latest IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2007 (published on May 10th 2007), the ranks of Taiwan dropped from 11th in 2005 to 18th in 2007. On the contrary, China’s rank increased from 31st to 15th in the corresponding period of time. This is the first time China’s ranking overtook Taiwan. There are a lot of factors involved of the rise in China and the fall of Taiwan; the problems involved are complicated and hard to solve. There are numerous examples, such as the disputes about Taiwan’s cross strait status, the frequent change of the cabinets in Taiwan, as well as the political instability, policy inconsistency, the social cleavage, and the lack of attraction for investment in Taiwan. These problems have only improved a little when they are compared to China’s progress. China is in the stage of fast development, and both of the political and economical circumstances are in harmony. In contrast, the Taiwan government has focused on political issues rather than how to solve economical problems in the recent years. In addition to this, the cross-strait issues focus more on economical than political issues. Now, the road taken by China, happens to be the road that was taken by Taiwan government, which emphasized “economical-oriented policies” 30 to 40 years ago. This is the most noticeable aspect of the comparison of political and economical development across the strait. Taiwan has the advantage in freedom, patents, the inflation situation, high-tech products, and technology elites. The Taiwan government also spares no effort in assisting companies’ global layout. If the cross-strait situation cannot be improved, the current situation will be difficult to solve. In the end, the competitiveness of Taiwan will worsen. The target of this thesis lies on analysis of the process and tendency of rise and fall of national power across the strait, as well as discussion about whether or not cross-strait cooperation is a threat or an opportunity for Taiwan. It discusses the new thinking and measures of development that Taiwan should take. In other words, how to make good decisions and avoid bad policies is the goal of this thesis. This is the first time the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is adopted to systematize complicated problems cross strait. By using simplified structural thinking, different levels of problems are analyzed by the AHP. This way, policy makers can judge what are strategies are better to take for cross strait development, and may put them into practice in the future. In the beginning of this thesis, documents concerning cross-strait political affairs, economy, national defense, and foreign affairs were used as references to design major strategies that needed to be solved presently and in the future in Taiwan. Later, experts from industries, the government, and the research field were interviewed to design questions in the survey according to the AHP, and to make the structure of different levels. The first level is about policies in priority in every aspect. The second one is about political stability (I1), economical development (I2), national security (I3), and globalization (I4). The third level is about sub-items of each item (five sub-items of each and 20 sub-items in total). The AHP was divided into five groups: total, those with the specialty over 40 years of age (eco>40) and under (eco<40), those with the specialty of policy-making over 40 years of age (pol>40) and under (pol<40). After the five classified data was analyzed by computer software, the result showed that both the total and different sub-groups, people in different ages and with different specialties, all chose economic development (I2) as their choice in priority. The other three selective items in order were national security, globalization, and political stability. However, the differences among them were very slim (Please refer to the results and analysis in Chapter 4.3). This proves that economic development should be the primary mission in current cross-strait development. It is also a common concern by the people, companies, and international masters of management. In this thesis, documents and the current problems according to the AHP were adopted. With the interviews and results from the AHP, it showed that AHP is an easy and convenient tool to make prioritize policies. It not only can save the time and efforts of giving out large numbers of the survey, but the result can truly reflect opinions and goals pursued by the majority, even though only the opinions of a limited number of experts were taken. This also meets the 80/20 principle of the crucial rule of management. Meanwhile, it can also draw conclusion and suggestions in this thesis in providing policy-making references to the government. It shall be promoted and applied with great exertion.

這篇論文主要是要建構一個在考慮經濟面及效率面下，評估公有路邊停車場經營管理績效的機制。當考慮經濟面及效率面時，包含權利金委外、開單勞務委外及人力派遣與政府自辦的比較，何者較具有經營管理優勢。本文選擇以這四個制度為分析對象的理由，主要是源自於公共選擇理論。另外，評估方法則應用層級分析法來評估這四個經營管理機制。而在考慮經濟與效率為目標下，評估指標分別從投入與產出這二個面向著手，其中投入面向之評估指標有人力、設備及費用，產出面向之評估指標則有每格位開單率及每人每日營收金額等。以臺北市西門地區做為實證分析對象，透過問卷調查24名專家學者對評估指標的權重，再以簡單加權法求算各個替選方案評點，研究結果發現，開單勞務委外為最優方案，其次為權利金委外，而政府自辦在經濟及效率面向，與其他三個方案比較結果，顯示最不具有經營管理優勢。 / This thesis is aimed at construct the scheme of evaluating the management economy and efficiency for public curb parking lot. Those which draw up the parking charge list including of royalty, labor-outsourcing and leased work, are compared with the government manages oneself, when consideration economy and efficiency which alternative has the superiority of operation and management. The rationale to choice these four alternatives as evaluative object is the public choice theory. Moreover, the consideration of performance evaluation has three indicators such as manpower, facility and expenditure under the schema of input, and two indicators such as the rate of draw up the parking charge list for a parking space and each person of daily earning under the schema of output. Further, analysis hierarchy process and SAW are applied for the appraisal method. In empirical study, 24 experts replied our questionnaire survey. The result suggest that the priority alternative is labor outsourcing and the government manages oneself is inferior to other three alternatives. We develop a framework to promote a better understanding of the important of public curb parking lot performance management. Using the review literature and the results an empirical study of Taipei’s curb parking lots, we developed the framework presented herein, in hope that if would stimulate more interest in this area.

當政府機關開始大量的透過網路傳遞服務給民眾，政府迫切需要知道民眾對政府網站服務品質的認知評價為何。然而該如何衡量政府網站的服務品質至今仍沒有一個明確的方法。本論文旨在建構一套可以用來衡量政府網站服務品質的指標同時對政府網站服務品質提出相關的政策建議。本研究使用了線上問卷調查法與層級分析法，利用網路問卷線上調查了使用者對政府網站服務品質的評價，然後請專家利用層級分析法分析並計算出這些指標的相對權重。 本研究主要結果如下：(1).建構適合衡量台灣政府的網站服務品質指標，包含「設計性」、「易用性」、「可靠性」、「資訊品質」、「有用性」與「回應性」六大構面，而六大構面下共包含三十項指標；(2).實際調查台灣網路民眾對政府網站服務品質評價，發現民眾對政府網站服務品質的「有用性」相對評價最高，而對政府網站「回應性」的服務品質則是相對最不肯定；(3).請專家透過層級分析法對政府網站服務品質指標做出重要性權重排序，整體而言，專家給予「資訊品質」相對最高的權重，後依序是「有用性」、「回應性」、「可靠性」、「易用性」，而「設計性」則是專家排序中相對最不重視的；(4).比較專家與民眾對政府網站服務品質指標重要性與評價的差異，發現就評估構面而言，「資訊品質」與「回應性」是專家認為相對重要，但民眾基於使用經驗相對不肯定的指標，應該列為政府提昇網站服務品質優先改善的構面 基於上述研究發現，作者提出了隨時檢視資訊更新程度、替使用者重新編寫資訊與強化政府網站的回應能力等三點研究建議，以期待徹底提昇政府網站的服務品質。 / As government organizations have increasingly provided services to the public via Internet, e-government websites have demanded acute understanding of how the users perceived the service quality. However concerning it is not clear how the e-service quality of e-government websites can be measured. This thesis aims to construct the indicators to evaluate e-service quality of e-government websites and propose management suggestions to government. The research methods of this thesis include an online survey and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A survey was conducted with online users being asked to evaluate the e-service quality of e-government websites. Then AHP was applied to analysis and compute the weights of these indicators from the experts. The key findings are: First, Design, Usability, Reliability, Information Quality, Usefulness, and Responsiveness are key dimensions of e-service quality of e-government in Taiwan. Second, most of the online users are satisfied with the Usefulness of e-government websites in Taiwan, but they are not satisfied with the Responsiveness of e-government websites in Taiwan. Third, for the evaluation aspects, the sequence of importance for the e-service quality of e-government websites in Taiwan is Information Quality, Usefulness, Responsiveness, Reliability, Usability and Design. Among them, the domain experts think Information Quality and Responsiveness are relatively important aspects of e-service quality of e-government websites in Taiwan. However, general online users are not satisfied with these two aspects. So these two aspects should be listed on the top priority for improvement straight away. Based on the research findings, the author proposes three policy suggestions to improve the websites in Taiwan’s government. First, keep the information on the government websites most updated. Second, improve the information readability for online users. Finally enhance the responsiveness of government websites.

Freqüentemente os profissionais da construção naval tomam decisões para selecionar os elementos que devem ser especificados na composição de determinado projeto. Além da experiência e do conhecimento necessários para optar por um caminho adequado, a escolha deve atender eficientemente ao problema proposto e às preferências do projetista. A seleção de componentes do projeto de estruturas flutuantes para exploração de campos de petróleo no mar envolve aspectos objetivos e subjetivos. O trabalho apresenta e aplica alguns métodos de auxílio à tomada de decisão possibilitando ao projetista aprimorar sua sensibilidade. O objetivo da pesquisa é apresentar de forma sumária as duas bases para a decisão sobre o projeto, que são os métodos de apoio e os requisitos que as instalações FPSO devem atender, fornecendo como resultado um procedimento que permitirá aos usuários a melhor escolha dos componentes e aumentar a sensibilidade dos projetistas na seleção entre as possíveis opções (fazer totalmente novo ou aproveitar o existente). O trabalho apresenta uma revisão dos princípios da análise da decisão, informações sobre métodos de apoio à decisão, os dados de entrada do problema proposto, o método de projetos navais, os requisitos básicos para construção de estruturas flutuantes de exploração de petróleo no mar e os requisitos básicos para uma instalação FPSO. Para a solução do problema se aplicaram os métodos de árvore de decisão, para a parte correspondente às decisões sob risco e o método de análise hierárquica AHP para as decisões tomadas sob certeza. / Frequently, naval construction engineers take decisions to select the elements which must specified for the composition of a determined project. Besides the necessary experience and the knowledge to choose a proper way, the option must fulfil efficiently the problem requirements and the preferences of the designer. The choice of components in the design off-shore structures for production in sea oilfields, involves objective and subjective aspects. This work introduces and uses a few methods of decision aids, helping the designer to improve his sensibility. The objective of this research is to present in a simple way two foundations to decide about the project, which are the aid decision methods and the requirements which the FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading System) must fulfil, supplying a procedure that enables the designer to take the best choice of components and to increase his sensibility referring to the selection among the possible options, wich are to make a completely new FPSO or to use an existing one. This work offers a revision of the principles of the decision analysis theory, the data input of the problem, the classic naval design method, the basic requirements to build floating structures to off-shore oil extraction, and the basic requirements for a FPSO installation. To solve the problem the decision tree method, for decision under risk, and the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), for decision under certainty, were applied.