The product development process for the automotive industry is normally complicated, lengthy, expensive, and risky. Hence, a study on a new concept for Low Volume Automotive Manufacturing (LVAM), used for niche car models manufacturing, is proposed to overcome this issue. The development of a hybrid Knowledge Based (KB) System, which is a blend of KB System, Gauging Absences of Pre-requisites (GAP), and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is proposed for LVAM research. The hybrid KB/GAP/AHP System identifies all potential elements of LVAM issues throughout the development of this system. The KB System used in the LVAM analyses the gap between the existing and the benchmark organisations for an effective implementation. The novelty and differences in the current research approach emphasises the use of Knowledge Based (KB) System in the planning and designing stages by suggesting recommendations of LVAM implementation, through: a) developing the conceptual LVAM model; b) designing the KBLVAM System structure based on the conceptual LVAM model; and c) embedding Gauging Absences of Pre-requisites (GAP) analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach in the hybrid KBLVAM System. The KBLVAM Model explores five major perspectives in two stages. Planning Stage (Stage 1) consists of Manufacturer Environment Perspective (Level 0), LVAM Manufacturer Business Perspective (Level 1), and LVAM Manufacturer Resource Perspective (Level 2). Design Stage (Stage 2) consists of LVAM Manufacturer Capability ¿ Car Body Part Manufacturing Perspective (Level 3), LVAM Manufacturer Capability ¿ Competitive Priorities Perspective (Level 4), and LVAM Manufacturer Capability ¿ Lean Process Optimisation Perspective (Level 5). Each of these perspectives consists of modules and sub-modules that represent specific subjects in the LVAM development. Based on the conceptual LVAM model, all perspectives were transformed into the KBLVAM System structure, which is embedded with the GAP and AHP techniques, hence, key areas of potential improvement are recommended for each activity for LVAM implementation. In order to be able to address the real situation of LVAM environment, the research verification was conducted for two automotive manufacturers in Malaysia. Some published case studies were also used to check several modules for their validity and reliability. This research concludes that the developed KBLVAM System provides valuable decision making information and knowledge to assist LVAM practitioners to plan, design and implement LVAM in terms of business organisation, manufacturing aspects and practices. / Universiti Malaysia Pahang and Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia

The complexity of sustainable building maintenance environment requires managers to define and implement appropriate quality benchmark system suitable for this function. Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is one of the most effective process improvement and optimization philosophy that maintenance organisations can implement in their environment. However, literature review has shown that 90% of failures in LSS implementations are due to lack of readiness to change, the unawareness of the required benchmark organisation capabilities, and improper control of priorities. The contribution of the current research approach is in developing a hybrid Knowledge-Based (KB)/GAP/AHP System, consisting of three stages (Planning, Designing and Implementation) and containing over 2500 KB rules. The KB System can assist the decision-makers in identifying the obstacles behind the organisation readiness to change into a benchmark LSS maintenance environment. Thus the KB System will be used to achieve benchmark standards by determining the gap existing between the current environment and the benchmark goal, and then suggest a detailed plan to overcome these hurdles in a prioritised and structured manner, thus achieving cost benefits. To ensure its consistency and reliability, the KB System was validated in three Oman-based maintenance organisations, and one published case study for a UK-based organisation. The results from the validation were positive with the System output suggesting list of top priorities and action plans for achieving benchmark LSS standards for these organisations. The research concludes that the developed KB System is a consistent and reliable methodology for assisting decision-makers in designing, planning, and implementing LSS for benchmark sustainable building maintenance.

Assuring production forms a crucial part of mining business profitability. Factors related to various mine operations, activities and business processes can threaten required/planned mine production. To address problems and ensure production level in mining, it is necessary to implement a mine production assurance program (MPA). Since such a guideline does not exist for mining as a process industry, this study started by reviewing four such techniques used in similar industries. These methods include: total productive maintenance, six sigma, a method prescribed by European foundation of quality management, and production assurance program (PAP) used in the oil and gas industry.These methods and techniques were reviewed according to their objectives and applications. Their implementation and achieved success was determined through a literature review and field participation/study. Comparing the tools, techniques and focus with mining productivity and production factors, it was observed that applicability of these methods for mining is limited due to a lack of tools for specific analysis or a lack of consideration of the requirements of mining. However, given certain similarities in objective and methods, PAP from the oil and gas industry may provide some guidance for MPA.As a basis of MPA, an index is required to create a clear relationship between different situations which can occur in mining operation and production loss. A literature review on mining productivity improvement methods shows availability, utilisation and production performance of equipment are the key factors in determining overall production. A single index applicable for chain operation in mining is needed. Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) which includes these three elements has some limitations for application in mining. A Mine Production index (MPi) is thus proposed. This index involves all three parameters for equipment productivity mentioned above. It also consists of weights for each parameter. The weights in this study are determined through expert opinions/judgements using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). Equipment with low MPi can be labelled as bottlenecks. Weights associated with MPi calculation for bottleneck equipment can point out critical factors in equipment operation. Once bottleneck equipment and relevant critical factors are known, further analysis can be carried out to determine the exact cause of production loss.By using MPi for machine operations, it is possible to rank machines in terms of production effectiveness. When the study applied MPi to chain operations in a mining case study, a crusher was determined as bottleneck equipment. Further root cause analysis and uncertainty detection for bottleneck equipment is also possible, and this forms the basis for MPA. / CAMM - Lean mining

evaluate disruption risks in the supply chain of petroleum production. This methodology is developed to formalise and facilitate the systematic integration and implementation of various models; such as analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and various statistical tests. The methodology is validated with the case of Nigeria’s oil industry. The study revealed the need to provide a responsive approach to managing the influence of geopolitical risk factors affecting supply chain in the petroleum production industry. However, the exploration and production risk, and geopolitical risk were identified as concomitant risk factors that impact performance in Nigeria’s oil industry. The research findings show that behavioural-based mechanisms successfully predict the ability of the petroleum industry to manage supply chain risks. The significant implication for this study is that the current theoretical debate on the supply chain risk management creates the understanding of agency theory as a governing mechanism for supply chain risk in the Nigerian oil industry. The systematic approach results provide an insight and objective information for decisions-making in resolving disruption risk to the petroleum supply chain in Nigeria. Furthermore, this study highlights to stakeholders on how to develop supply chain risk management strategies for mitigating and building resilience in the supply chain in the Nigerian oil industry. The developed systematic method is associated with supply chain risk management and performance measure. The approach facilitates an effective way for the stakeholders to plan according to their risk mitigation strategies. This will consistently help the stakeholders to evaluate supply chain risk and respond to disruptions in supply chain. This capability will allow for efficient management of supply chain and provide the organization with quicker response to customer needs, continuity of supply, lower costs of operations and improve return on investment in the Nigeria oil industry. Therefore, the methodology applied provide a new way for implementing good practice for managing disruption risk in supply chain. Further, the systematic approach provides a simplistic modelling process for disruption risk evaluation for researchers and oil industry professionals. This approach would develop a holistic procedure for monitoring and controlling disruption risk in supply chains practices in Nigeria.

Yes / In this paper, a novel multilink selection framework is developed for different applications with various quality of service (QoS) requirements in avionic systems, based on the multi-attribute decisionmaking model. Two metaheuristic algorithms are proposed to solve this model while optimizing the multilink selection performances. Multilink configuration and multi-homing capabilities are generally required for aircrafts operating in a heterogeneous wireless network environment. The first algorithm, called Analytic Hierarchy Process and Simulated Annealing (AHP-SA), utilises a two-phase process. In Phase one, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to choose the decision weight factors. Then, in Phase two, a simulated annealing process is applied to select suitable networks, for various service requests, based on the weights obtained from first phase. Further, to improve customer satisfaction, Simulated Annealing algorithm for Simultaneous Weights and Network Selection Optimisation (SA-SWNO) is developed, in which a simulated annealing algorithm is applied to dynamically optimise weight factors of objective functions and the request-to-network assignment matrix. Simulation results demonstrates that both proposed algorithms outperform the commonly used price-based or QoS-based network selection scheme with much higher averaged satisfaction degree and lower computational complexity. / Cockpit NetwOrk CoMmunications Environment Testing (COMET) Project under the European Commission’s Program Clean Sky2 in partnership with the European Aeronautical Industry

Klimatförändringarna och den globala uppvärmningen är ett faktum som kan leda till kraftigare nederbördstillfällen samt öka risken för bland annat översvämningar. Översvämningsrelaterade katastrofer har under de senaste 20 åren ökat och översvämningsrelaterade händelser står för 44 procent av världens naturkatastrofer. Samtidigt ökar tillväxten av många städer och samhällen vilket sätter större krav på beslutsfattare och kommuner att välja lämpliga platser för exploatering. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur en GIS-baserad multikriterieanalys kan användas för att identifiera översvämningsrisker samt hur karteringen över översvämningsrisker vidare kan användas för att identifiera lämpliga platser för bostadsexploatering. Studien utfördes genom att intervjua översvämningsexperter och samhällsplanerare, samt genom att använda geografiska informationssystems (GIS)-baserade metoder såsom Multikriterieanalys (MKA), Analytisk hieratisk process (AHP) och känslighetsanalys. Intervjuerna gav värdefulla synpunkter på kriterier, rangordning och viktning. Resultaten av översvmningsriskkarteringen visar de områden som har mycket hög till mycket låg risk att exponeras för en översvämning. För att identifiera lämpliga platser för bostadsutveckling användes översvämningsriskkarteringen som ett kriterium tillsammans med andra viktiga komponenter såsom fysiska och sociala faktorer. Resultaten visar att den lämpligaste platsen är lokaliserad i den sydvästra delen av Näringen och har en storlek på 25 737 kvadratmeter (kvm). Den känslighetsanalys som utfördes i studien, genom att ändra rangordningen på kategorierna (översvämningsrisk, fysiska- och sociala faktorer), visade det att den största förändringen skedde när de sociala faktorerna fick en hög rangordning och vikt. Diskussionen och slutsatsen visar hur bland annat valet av kriterier och intervjupersoner kan påverka resultatet och att det finns många osäkerheter med att använda MKA. Resultatet av en MKA bör därför utvärderas om det ska vara möjligt att avgöra om bostäder kan exploateras på Näringen. / Climate change and global warming are some causes that can lead to heavier precipitation and increased risk of floods. Flood-related disasters have increased over the past 20 years and 44 percent of the world's natural disasters are due to flood-related events. At the same time, the growth is increasing in many of the world's cities and communities, which places greater demands on decision-makers and municipalities to choose suitable places for exploitation. The purpose of the study is to investigate how a GIS-based multi-criteria analysis can be used to identify flood risks and how the mapping of flood risks can be used further to identify suitable sites for housing development. The study was conducted by interviewing flood experts and urban planners and implementing Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based method such as Multi-criteria Analysis (MCA), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Sensitivity Analysis to produce the results. The respondents provided valuable views on the criteria, ranking and weighting of criteria. The results of the flood hazard map show the areas that are at high and low risk of being flooded. In finding suitable sites for housing development, the flood hazard map was used as an input together with other important components such physical and social factors. The results show that the most suitable place is in the southwestern part of Näringen, which has a size of 25 737 m2. In the sensitivity analysis that was performed where ranking of the categories was changed (flood risk, physical and social factors), it showed that the biggest change took place when the social factors received high ranking and weight. The discussion and conclusion show how the choice of criteria, weighting and interviews can affect the results and the many uncertainties with using MCA. The results of an MCA should therefore be evaluated if it is to be possible to decide whether housing can be exploited on Näringen.

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.

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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