Cash flow models are one of the spotlights for evaluating a project. The actual data should be modeled then it could be used for the prediction process. In this paper, 996 airplane maintenance basis data are used as a database, and 119 similar data are chosen after clustering. The project is divided into 20 equal periods and first three periods are used for simulating the next point. The predicted data for each point is achieved by using of previous points from the beginning. The model is based on artificial neural network, and it is trained by three algorithms which are Genet-ic Algorithm (GA), Estimation of Distribution Algorithm (EDA), and hybrid GA-EDA method. Two dynamic ratios are used which are dividing the population into two halves, and the other is a ratio without dividing. The ratio would give a proportion to GA and EDA models in the hybrid algorithm, and then the hybrid algorithm could model the system more accurately. For each algorithm, three main errors are calculated which are mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), mean square error (MSE), and root means square error (RMSE). The best result is achieved for hybrid GA-EDA model without dividing the population and the MAPE, RMSE, and MSE values are %0.022, 28944.59 Dollars, and 837789503.79 Dollars, respectively.

Project management system (PMS) is broadly recognized as the effective management tool for several organizations. European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) model provides some advantages for companies to be successful in current competitive environment. This paper is based on the combination of EFQM and Quality function deployment (QFD) in order to eval-uate a PMS in an aviation organization. Although, an integration of these models increases the system complexity, the implementation of EFQM-QFD helps us identify all noteworthy success factors of PMS within the organization. In addition, the current status of PMS performance is evaluated based on these factors. This study attempts to find out how organizations ought to be managed to take full advantage of PMS tools. This study uses a comprehensive questionnaire to find all critical factors influencing on the success of the organization. The method of this paper is implemented in an organization in aviation industry with several management departments.

Among different factors, correct scheduling is one of the vital elements for project management success. There are several ways to schedule projects including the Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Due to problems in estimating dura-tions of activities, these methods cannot accurately and completely model actual projects. The use of fuzzy theory is a basic way to improve scheduling and deal with such problems. Fuzzy theory approximates project scheduling models to reality by taking into account uncertainties in decision parameters and expert experience and mental models. This paper provides a step-by-step approach for accurate estimation of time and cost of projects using the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and expert views as fuzzy numbers. The proposed method included several steps. In the first step, the necessary information for project time and cost is estimated using the Critical Path Method (CPM) and the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). The second step considers the duration and cost of the project activities as the trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, and then, the time and cost of the project are recalculated. The duration and cost of activities are estimated using the questionnaires as well as weighing the expert opinions, averaging and defuzzification based on a step-by-step algorithm. The calculating procedures for evaluating these methods are applied in a real project; and the obtained results are explained.

Retrofitting technologies have helped to manage energy consumptions in residential, public and industrial buildings. However, understanding of the technical and economic considerations for selection of appropriate retrofitting technology is still evolving and divergent. Thus, this study presents a framework that combines techno-economic requirements as a means for evaluating the important retrofitting criteria and suitable lighting retrofit technologies for building projects. The framework is hinged on the unique features of entropy fuzzy and TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) methods. The analysis of the lighting technology selection was performed from technical, economic and techno-economic perspectives. During the application of the proposed framework, four lighting technologies (CFL, T5, E-ballast and T8-electronic) and nine techno-economic criteria were considered. The most and least important techno-economic criteria for the case study were net present value and electricity saved, respectively. The least and most suitable retrofitting technologies were T8-electronic and CFL, respectively, from techno-economic perspective. T5 and T8-electronic were identified as the most suitable lighting technologies from an economic and technical perspectives, respectively. This discrepancy in the results justified the need for the techno-economic approach for the retrofitting technologies evaluation.

The paper focuses on the application of TODIM (TOmada de Decisao Interativa Multicriterio), which means in Portuguese ‘interactive and multi-criteria decision making’) method in identify-ing the most attractive and affordable under-construction housing project in the city of Kolkata in India. In this decision making problem, 14 under-construction housing projects spanning in and around Kolkata are evaluated with respect to ten important criteria. The deployment of TODIM method can well be validated with respect to its ability to deal with both qualitative and quantitative criteria in the presence of risk factors. This method is also acknowledged to be a robust tool being almost unaffected by the varying values of the attenuation factor of losses. Using TODIM method, an under-construction housing project at Rajarhat in the eastern fringes of Kolkata city is selected as the optimal choice while meeting the requirements of investors, inhabitants and other stakeholders.

Nowadays, one of the challenges in the organizations according to budget limitations in the com-panies, is how to prioritize their project portfolios in the events of their strategies. In other words, organizations are seeking to allocate resources in order to gain the maximum profit ac-cording to budget limitations. In this article, a hybrid decision making method is used to priori-tize construction project portfolio by considering sustainability criteria. First, Lexicographic method is applied to weight the sustainability criteria. Then, by considering the weights derived from the Lexicographic and sustainability criteria, projects are prioritized based on VIKOR method. The proposed method of this study is applied for a case study of projects in the refinery scope.

Generation of solid waste is the integral consequence of civilization and its management is stand-ing as a big challenge in front of state government at present time. Municipal solid waste in Durg-Bhilai is littered with improper places due to lack of understanding about the scientific im-portance of garbage and its consequences. Our foremost concern is the selection of appropriate dumping area nearby Durg-Bhilai (C.G.) and for the selection of appropriate dumping area, a multi criteria decision making technique is used. This paper attempts to evaluate 4 dumping areas based on 5 criteria. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is used to determine the weighs for each criterion and quality function deployment (QFD) is also implemented. The results indicate that Potiyakala was the best dumping site nearby Durg-Bhilai area.

This study examines the properties of the downward-sloping region of the linear supply function equilibrium (cartel case), which has not been considered in the literature. In simple duopoly set-tings, we find two regions, depending on the cartel type. Specifically, in a tight cartel, fiercer competition yields higher profits to firms, but the equilibrium is unstable. Instead, in the case of a loose cartel, fiercer competition yields lower profits, and the equilibrium is stable. Thus, in our framework, individual firms’ profits as a stable equilibrium are maximized not in a pure cartel, but rather in a somewhat weak cartel. This result sheds lights on the situations policymakers should focus on while monitoring cartels.

Sustainability in project operations such as financial, social and environmental sustainability is one of the most prominent issues of the present times to address. The increased focus on sus-tainable business operations has changed the viewpoint of researchers and corporate community towards the project management. Today sustainability in business operations along with sustain-ability of natural and environmental resources are of paramount significance which has further caused a huge impact on conception, planning, scheduling and execution of the project manage-ment activities. In this paper, a literature review between 1987 and 2018 on different issues af-fecting the sustainability in project management is carried out. The present study also identifies and discusses the future possibilities to apply computational procedures in order to estimate and optimize the sustainability issues in the management of projects, for example the computational evolutionary algorithms can be applied to formulate the multi-objective decision-making problem after considering critical factors of sustainability in the projects and then yielding optimized solu-tions for the formulated problem to achieve sustainability in the projects. A new integrated framework with the inclusion of feedback function for assessment of each decision and actions taken towards the sustainability of the projects is also identified and presented.

The project scheduling problem is both practically and theoretically of paramount importance. From the practical perspective, improvement of project scheduling as a critical part of project management process can lead to successful project completion and significantly decrease of the relevant costs. From the theoretical perspective, project scheduling is regarded as one of the in-teresting optimization issues, which has attracted the attention of many researchers in the area of operations research. Therefore, the project scheduling issue has been significantly evaluated over time and has been developed from various aspects. In this research, the topics related to Re-source-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) are reviewed, recent developments in this field are evaluated, and the results are presented for future studies. In this regard, first, the standard problem of RCPSP is expressed and related developments are presented from four as-pects of resources, characteristics of activities, type of objective functions, and availability level of information. Following that, details about 216 articles conducted on RCPSP during 1980-2017 are expressed. At the end, in line with the statistics obtained from the evaluation of previ-ous articles, suggestions are made for the future studies in order to help the development of new issues in this area.