Ventilation is a critical task in underground mining operation. Lack of a good ventilation system causes accumulation of harmful gases, explosions, and even fatalities. A proper ventilation system provides adequate fresh air to miners for a safe and comfortable working environment. Fans, which provide air flow to different faces of a mine, have great impact in ventilation systems. Thus, selection of appropriate fans for a mine is the acute task. Unsuitable selection of a fan decreases safety and production rate, which increases capital and operational costs. Moreover, pitch angle of fans&rsquo / blades plays an important role in fan&rsquo / s efficiency. Therefore, selection of a fan and its pitch angle, which yields the maximum efficiency, is an emerging issue for an efficient mine ventilation. The main objective of this research study is to provide a decision making methodology for the selection of a main fan and its appropriate pitch angle for efficient mine ventilation. Nowadays, analytical hierarchy process as multi criteria decision making is used, and it yields outputs based on pairwise comparison. On the other hand, Fuzzy Logic as a soft computing method was combined with analytical hierarchy process and combined model did not yield appropriate results / because Fuzzy AHP increased uncertainty ratio in this study. However, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process might be inapplicable when it faces with vague and complex data set. Soft computing methods can be utilized for complicated situations. One of the soft computing methods is a Neuro-Fuzzy algorithm which is used in classification and DM issues. This study has two phases: i) selection of an appropriate fan using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP) and ii) selection of an appropriate pitch angle using Neuro-Fuzzy algorithm and Fuzzy AHP method. This study showed that AHP can be effectively utilized for main fan selection. It performs better than Fuzzy AHP because FAHP contains more expertise and makes problems more complex for evaluating. When FAHP and Neuro-Fuzzy is compared for pitch angle selection, both methodologies yielded the same results. Therefore, utilization of Neuro-Fuzzy in situation with complicated and vague data will be applicable.

Despite the fact that Sustainable Development (SD) has been growing since the 1980s, methods and models that assist in carrying out sustainable strategies are still uncommon. IT managers at AstraZeneca (AZ) struggle to come up with the most sustainable decision in IT because there are no methods/models that facilitate such a decision-making process at AZ. This thesis aims at evaluating newly suggested sustainability additions to the Adaptive Delivery Framework (ADF) by comparing them to the Green Design (GD) (a model for sustainable decision-making of capital investment projects at AZ) and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The evaluation was done using quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method utilized a method from previous research that employs pair-wise comparisons and matrix multiplication, and the qualitative method was in the form of one-on-one semi-structured interviews with AstraZeneca employees. The results showed that the new ADF performed sufficiently well against the already established GD and the literature’s state-of-the-art AHP. The new additions to ADF are capable of dealing with the sustainability problems of IT. Furthermore, the results from the quantitative and the qualitative methods suggested that the additions could improve in three key areas, namely the interdisciplinary approach, long-term perspective, and participation. First, the interdisciplinary approach could be improved by including the indirect and transformational effects of IT. Second, the long-term perspective could be improved by incorporating some long-term assessments, such as the expected number of uses, expected data access proportion, and the expected lifetime. Third, the participation could be improved by including a facilitator during the URS meetings. / Trots att hållbar utveckling SD har vuxit sedan dess 1980-talet, metoder och modeller som hjälper till att genomföra hållbara strategier är fortfarande ovanliga. IT-chefer på AstraZeneca (AZ) kämpar för att komma upp med det mest hållbara beslutet inom IT eftersom det inte finns några metoder/modeller som underlättar en sådan beslutsprocess på AZ. Denna avhandling syftar till utvärderar nyligen föreslagna hållbarhetstillägg till Adaptive Delivery Framework (ADF) genom att jämföra dem med Green Design (GD) (en modell för hållbart beslutsfattande av kapitalinvesteringsprojekt på AZ) och den Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Utvärderingen gjordes med hjälp av kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder. Den kvantitativa metoden använde en metod från tidigare forskning som använder parvisa jämförelser och matrismultiplikation, och den kvalitativa metoden var i form av en- semistrukturerade intervjuer med AstraZeneca anställda. Resultaten visade att den nya ADF:en fungerade tillräckligt bra mot den redan etablerade GD och litteraturens toppmoderna AHP. De nya tilläggen till ADF är kapabla att hantera hållbarhetsproblemen inom IT. Dessutom, resultaten från de kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoderna antydde det tilläggen skulle kunna förbättras inom tre nyckelområden, nämligen det tvärvetenskapliga förhållningssätt, långsiktighet och delaktighet. Först det tvärvetenskapliga tillvägagångssätt skulle kunna förbättras genom att inkludera indirekta och transformerande effekter av IT. För det andra skulle det långsiktiga perspektivet kunna förbättras genom att införliva vissa långsiktiga bedömningar, såsom det förväntade antalet användningar, förväntas dataåtkomstandel och förväntad livslängd. För det tredje, deltagandet skulle kunna förbättras genom att inkludera en facilitator under URS-mötena.

This thesis investigates Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) adoption and implementation in Service Sector Organisations (SSOs). ERP is a business management system that has emerged to support organisations to use a system of integrated applications to enhance their Information Technology (IT) infrastructures, enhance business processes and deliver high quality of services. Regardless of the fact that several other sector organisations have adopted and implemented ERP systems, its application in SSOs is rather inadequate. Among other reasons, two core rationales can be attributed to the latter fact – firstly, SSOs lack the sufficient knowledge, expertise and training to implement such sophisticated integrated systems and secondly, the top management lacks the ability to take appropriate decisions for ERP adoption and implementation. However, merely focusing on a number of factors influencing ERP adoption and implementation may not be suffice, as there is a need for a systematic decision-making process for adopting and implementing ERP systems in SSOs. The limited number of ERP systems’ applications in SSOs has resulted in inadequate research in this area with many issues, like its adoption and implementation requiring further exploration. Despite, the implications of ERP systems have yet to be assessed in SSOs, leaving ample scope for relevance and producing a unique piece of research work. Thus, the author demonstrates that it is of high importance to investigate this area within SSOs and contribute towards successful ERP adoption and implementation. This thesis makes a step forward and contributes to the body of knowledge as it: investigates factors influencing the decision-making process for ERP adoption and implementation in SSOs, prioritises the importance of factors influencing ERP adoption and implementation, evaluates ERP lifecycle phases and stages, maps the ERP factors on different phases and stages of the ERP lifecycle, and in doing so, to propose a model for ERP adoption and implementation in SSOs. The author claims that such an ERP adoption and implementation process in SSOs is significant and novel as: it extends established norms for ERP adoption and implementation, by including Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique for prioritising the importance of factors, thus, facilitating SSOs to produce more robust proposals for ERP adoption and implementation. The author further assess the proposed ERP adoption and implementation model by using a qualitative, interpretive, multiple case study research strategy. Findings from two case studies demonstrate that such a systematic approach contributes towards more robust decisions for ERP adoption and implementation and indicates that it is acceptable by the case study organisations. The thesis proposes, assesses and presents a novel model for ERP adoption and implementation in SSOs and contributes to the body of knowledge by extending the literature.

Construction activity is known to have a major impact on the environment and is a major consumer of a wide range of naturally occurring and synthesized resources. Despite the recognition that environmental issues are important to the survival of the construction industry, the industry continues to degrade the environment, exploiting resources and generating waste, and is slow to change its conventional practices to incorporate environmental matters as part of its decision making process. With increased awareness and knowledge of these impacts, efforts are being made to avoid these adverse effects and to work towards impact mitigation. Among these is sustainable building material selection. Building material selection is an important issue in building design and construction decision-making and environmental issues need to be incorporated into the evaluation process. The research reported in this thesis was initiated to address these issues in the UK, towards developing an assessment model for incorporating sustainability into building material selection process. A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the level of awareness, knowledge and implementation of sustainable practices among architects and designers and how this impacts on their design decisions. To facilitate the implementation of sustainable practices into building material selection, a set of sustainable assessment criteria (SAC) for modeling and evaluating sustainability performance of building materials was developed. Building material can be assessed using an index system that combines the principal criteria of sustainable development. The derived criteria were assessed and aggregated into a composite sustainability index using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique which has been praised for its ability to incorporate both objective and subjective considerations in the decision process. The development of a sustainability index is a way of supporting decision makers faced with making numerous and sometimes conflicting evaluation as with building material selection. The methodology adopted in undertaking this research was the mixed method approach involving a detailed review of the relevant literature, followed by an industry-wide survey of UK architects and designers. Following this, case study was conducted to collect data for sustainability criteria used in the assessment model. The data collected were analyzed, with the aid of SPSS, Excel and expert choice software using a variety of statistical methods including descriptive statistics analysis, relative index analysis, Kendall’s concordance and factor analysis. The key finding was the existing gap between awareness and implementation of sustainable construction practices, which has led to failure of realizing the benefits of a sustainable approach to construction. The study showed a discrepancy between what architects and designers claim to be convinced about, and knowledgeable in, and their commitment and practices; they seem to be unable to translate their environmental awareness and knowledge into appropriate design decisions and are in need of a decision support system that can aid the incorporation of sustainability into building design. The model developed satisfy this gap and was validated by application to a roof covering material selection decision process for a case study building project by means of experts’ review via a survey and the findings obtained suggest that the model is valuable and suitable for use in practice. Finally, areas for further research were identified.

Depuis plusieurs années, le contexte de mondialisation et l'accroissement de la concurrence ont défini un nouvel ordre économique et industriel pour les entreprises de production de biens. En effet, ces entreprises sont quotidiennement confrontées à la maîtrise et à l'amélioration des performances de l'ensemble de leurs processus afin de garantir leur pérennité et leur compétitivité. En raison de l'ouverture des marchés et de la concurrence accrue, plusieurs phénomènes concourants ont lieu. Tout d'abord, le phénomène le plus notable concerne l'attente des clients de plus en plus forte, non seulement en ce qui concerne le prix et la qualité, mais également sur l'innovation des produits ainsi que sur leur disponibilité. Dans de telles situations nous proposons de suivre la variabilité du processus par l'intégration de la méthode Six Sigma, afin de détecter toute preuve de changement significatif de la variabilité. L'objectif principal de Six Sigma est d'augmenter la rentabilité de l'entreprise en réduisant le gaspillage, tout en ayant l'intérêt du client à coeur. Elle est aussi une mesure statistique de la performance des processus qui permet de déterminer avec une grande précision la qualité des produits ou services. Six Sigma est le système de management qui se développe le plus vite aujourd'hui dans l'industrie. Centré sur une puissante méthodologie de résolution de problème et d'optimisation des processus. La puissance de Six Sigma vient de l'application d'outils statistiques dans le contexte d'une méthodologie structurée et facile à mettre en oeuvre. Ces outils, utilisés le plus souvent dans un environnement opérationnel de production, s'appliquent égalemen t à tous les processus, y compris administratifs. L'objectif de notre travail de recherche, est de fournir une vision opérationnelle, structurée à travers l'intégration de la méthodologie Six Sigma basée sur les outils multicritères d'aide à la décision afin d'améliorer un système de production, cela se traduit par comprendre et savoir comment optimiser les processus de production dans le but de réduire le nombre de défauts et la variabilité des processus. La méthodologie proposé est appliqué au sein de la société SIDILEC international spécialisée dans la fabrication des faisceaux de câbles électriques pour les constructeurs des voitures avec et sans permis. Le secteur automobile évolue à une vitesse de plus en plus importante. En effet, l'évolution rapide des techniques et des technologies accompagnée d'une explosion de l'informatique, a mis les entreprises face à une concurrence acharnée. Face à cette situation, l'entreprise doit tourner son souci vers la recherche d'une meilleure démarche lui permettant d'atteindre le niveau de compétitivité recherché et de satisfaire les clients. Les travaux se déroulent dans une usine de production spécialisée dans l'étude et la réalisation de faisceaux de câbles électriques pour les secteurs industriels automobiles et ferroviaires. Au terme de ce travail, nous considérons que nos objectifs identifiés dans le support théorique sont bien réalisés et justifiés dans le cadre de ce chapitre pratique. L'intégration de la méthode Six Sigma basée sur les outils multicritères d'aide à la décision pour améliorer un processus de production est parfaitement accomplie et cela se traduit par comprendre et savoir comment améliorer un processus de production dans le but de réduire le nombre de défauts et la variabilité des processus.

A risk-based decision methodology is presented to support United States Coast Guard regulators' determinations of the most appropriate fire safety areas for allocating research and development resources. The methodology consists of risk-based analysis of previous shipboard fire and explosion incidents to establish historical problem areas and trends. The analysis results were then presented to a panel of experts in shipboard fire safety regulations. An analytical hierarchical process was used to encode these experts' opinions on subjective attributes of the decision. Nineteen attributes were selected by the panel and used to rate eighteen potential research and development alternatives. The series of eighteen alternative areas for possible research and development efforts were ranked using a scoring model. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the top five alternatives to assess the relative influence the attributes have on the decision. Information from two marine casualty databases were analyzed to establish the historical problem areas and trends. Fire and explosion incidents were taken from the United States Coast Guard's Marine Safety Information System (MSIS) database and Lloyd's Maritime Information Service Ltd.'s Casualty System (CASMAN). Following the methodology presented, the top five areas for possible allocation of research and development resources are: egress of passengers and crew, development of international design & approval standards for fire protection systems, hazard analysis review of fire safety regulations, development of alternative design assessment methodology, and investigation of lagging requirements for fire protection.

In this study cost-benefits problems concerning the knapsack problem of limited resources is studied and how this relates to an attacker perspective when choosing defense strategies. This is accomplished by adopting a cost-benefit method and merging it with game theory. The cost-benefit method chosen for this study is the Analytical Hierarchy Process and from the field of game theory the Bayesian Nash Equilibrium is used. The Analytical Hierarchy Process allows the user to determine internally comparable weights between elements, and to bring in a security dimension to the Analytical Hierarchy Process a sub category consisting of confidentiality, integrity and availability is used. To determine the attacker strategy and, in effect, determine the best defense strategy the Bayesian Nash Equilibrium is used.

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and sustainability are inextricably linked. SEA can be used to assess the sustainability impacts of plan, program and policy (PPP) initiatives, inform decision-making with regard to sustainability issues and promote the trickle down of sustainability principles to project level assessment, among others. However, in terms of energy sector practice in particular, SEA application is neither well applied nor understood, there has been insufficient evidence of the operationalization of sustainability in SEA and little research showing how SEA might provide a systematic framework for the integration of sustainability principles. As a result, this thesis examines the relationship between SEA and sustainability, with the goal of understanding how sustainability principles and criteria can be integrated and operationalized in the development of energy futures. The thesis chapters are manuscript based. The first manuscript presents a literature review of ten years of academic research examining how SEA facilitates the integration of sustainability in PPP development decision making, while the second and third manuscripts focus on a ‘state of practice’ examination of SEA application and sustainability integration in international electricity sector case practice. The fourth manuscript applies a structured SEA framework that operationalizes sustainability principles using an expert-based assessment of alternative future scenarios for electricity development in Saskatchewan, along with an examination of implications for both electricity sector practice and SEA methodology. Finally, the conclusion discusses the major findings from the four manuscripts and identifies challenges for the operationalization of sustainability, the adoption of good-practice SEA elements in practice and makes recommendations for future SEA guidance and academic research. Overall, the lack of operationalization of sustainability in energy sector SEA suggests the need for improved SEA methodology and guidance that describes the scope of and approaches to sustainability in SEA and outlines how to effectively incorporate sustainability in SEA practice. In order for SEA to deliver on its sustainability mandate, impact assessment methodologies that allow for clarification of both the concept of sustainability and the uncertainty surrounding higher level policy, plan and program (PPP) decision-making need to be developed and more widely adopted. Lessons learned from practice that describe the appropriate use of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies also need to be better disseminated and shared amongst the SEA research and practitioner community. However, results from this research also illustrate that there is still inconsistent application of SEA processes, which likely stems from uncertainty and confusion on behalf of practitioners and decision-makers as to what the role and purpose of SEA is in PPP development. More case-practice evidence of SEA application is needed that demonstrates the purpose and benefits of SEA for sustainability in a variety of decision-making contexts. Evidence from this research also shows that tiering, both upward to higher PPP levels and downward to the project level, is occurring in some electricity sector SEAs. That SEA outcomes are potentially tiering upward to influence the development of legislation is a finding that counters the often-cited notion that tiering in SEA is idealistic. This research indicates the need for additional focus on institutional arrangements that allow for SEA application to effectively inform and influence PPP decision-making in support of sustainability. The need for SEA as a higher order assessment process to capture regional and strategic impacts is becoming increasingly important in light of current federal legislation that eliminates environmental impact assessment requirements for many small-scale projects. However, although SEA emerged, in part, to inform and direct decisions made at the project level, the link between SEA, sustainability and operational decisions still remains elusive in practice.

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a powerful technique for relatively efficiency measurement and it is intensively used in different kind of disciplines but this technique has some drawbacks. In the conventional DEA technique, total number of inputs and outputs is determined by the number of evaluated firms. Therefore, this powerful efficiency measurement technique cannot be employed for limited number firm problems. DEA uses realized data so it can be used for objective evaluations. However, in some Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and mining cases, subjective evaluation is also very important so it should be included in DEA analyses. To get rid of these drawbacks, a new technique is developed with integration of DEA and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and it is named as AHP.DEA Method. The developed method creates an opportunity using more inputs and outputs in the relatively efficiency measurement for limited number firm cases. Therefore, reliability of the estimation is increased with increasing the number of inputs and outputs in the estimations. The AHP.DEA technique also integrates both subjective opinion of experts and objective evaluation. Combination of them can give more consistent results when compared only subjective or objective evaluation methods. After the application of AHP.DEA method in mining and OHS industry, managers of mining companies can compare their organizations with the competitors or their branches and they can identify strengths and weakness of them. Therefore, quantity and quality of output may be increased while number of accidents is decreased and also new opportunities can be identified to upgrade current operations.

The Pre-Project Phase of building construction manages the communication between client organization, user groups and designers. Disconnects and miscommunication in this phase may result in a product that does not fulfill the expectations of the parties involved. It is expected that the adoption of more formal methods can streamline the communication and improve its precision. Based on a literature review, a triage of methods is introduced: (a) a method for initial criteria management, supported by the EcoProP software (developed by VTT in Finland); (b) a method to rationalize and manage criteria in relation to the design organizational instruments, supported by the QFD ProP software (developed by VTT in Finland); (c) a method that supports multi criteria decision making, supported by a range of commercially available software tools. In order to assess the effectiveness of these tools they have been applied in the specific case of Pre-Project Phase of a healthcare facility. A Case Study on a concrete discrete decision problem is dealt with. It concerns the choice between a central medication room and patient room dispenser closets (also known as Nurservers). The Nurservers Case Study is used to evaluate the applicability of the proposed criteria gathering, ranking and decision methods in the Pre-Project Phases daily practices. The claim that these rational methods increase efficiency, precision and satisfaction of the parties involved in this phase is investigated. The thesis evaluates how the introduction of rational methods benefits the communication between stakeholders.