This paper considers the dynamic variant of single processor scheduling problem of minimizing total tardiness. In practice, it occurs when minimizing tardiness penalty. The problem is NP-hard; thus two heuristics were proposed. The utility of the proposed models was demonstrated through computational experiments and comparative analyses against existing solution methods and the Branch and Bound (BB) method. The results show that the proposed models yield effi-cient solutions and in most cases perform effectively better than the existing heuristics in the lit-erature.

Construction sites are accident-prone locations and therefore safety management plays an im-portant role in these workplaces. This study presents an adaptive algorithm for performance as-sessment of project management with respect to resilience engineering and job security in a large construction site. The required data are collected using questionnaires in a large construction site. The presented algorithm is composed of radial basis function (RBF), artificial neural networks multi-layer perceptron (ANN-MLP), and statistical tests. The results indicate that preparedness, fault-tolerance, and flexibility are the most effective factors on overall efficiency. Moreover, job security and resilience engineering have similar statistical impacts on overall system efficiency. The results are verified and validated by the proposed algorithm.

Use of Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) is highly significant in Flexible Manufacturing Sys-tem (FMS) in which material handling in form of jobs is performed from one work center to an-other work center. A multifold increase in through put of FMS can be observed by application of multi load AGVs. In this paper, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) integrated with Memetic Algorithm (MA) named as Modified Memetic Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm (MMP-SO) is applied to yield initial feasible solutions for scheduling of multi load AGVs for minimum travel and waiting time in the FMS. The proposed MMPSO algorithm exhibits balanced explora-tion and exploitation for global search method of standard Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and local search method of Memetic Algorithm (MA) which further results into yield of efficient and effective initial feasible solutions for the multi load AGVs scheduling problem.

Recently, there have been significant development on e-business and nearly all business partners try to offer their products and services via internet. One primary question for the implementation of e-business is to measure the effect of this new facility on supply chain in project based organizations. Although e-business may not directly influence on organizational performance, it definitely influences on unifying customers and suppliers, which yields to a better performance of organizations. This study performs a study to measure the indirect effect of e-business on project based organizational performance. The proposed study of this paper designs a questionnaire and distributes it among 140 professional experts in different industries in province of Ontario, Canada. The survey examines different hypotheses for a possible correlation between e-business and integrated suppliers, e-business and customers, integrated customers and suppliers with organizational performance. The results of this survey indicate a positive relationship between all these components either directly or indirectly.

The objective of the present study is to determine the start times and ordering plans for two-period projects in project-oriented organizations. The following assumptions are made: orders can be placed in either of a project’s two consecutive periods; and the same raw materials are used, which are ordered at the start of the periods according to their interdependent demands. The main innovation of the present research is to develop a model that is mainly based on the two-period newsvendor problem, but assumes that demand is interdependent, i.e. it is actually a combination of inventory and project management. After presenting the model, numerical meth-ods are used to approximate the order quantities for each period. Near-optimal solutions of a numerical example, in a case study on molding industry, are obtained using a genetic algorithm. Results show that the proposed model with interdependent demand provides a better solution than independent demand. The model is applicable to large-scale industrial and construction pro-jects where the majority of raw materials have of the same nature.

Sentiment is a powerful psychological force that can significantly affect employee behavior and performance. However, workplace emotions are still an issue to be studied, especially in the field of sales management in project based organizations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence and flexibility on the tendency of employees to leave the organization. The method of this research is descriptive correlational and in a survey method and it is a practical purpose. The statistical population of this study includes all 108 employees of the representatives of selected insurance firms in city of Zanjan, Iran. Using Cochran formula, 84 people were selected as the statistical sample. The results have indicated that while there was a positive and meaningful relationship between emotional intelligence and flexibility (r = 0.534, Sig. = 0.000), there were negative and meaningful relationships between flexibility and emotion-al intelligence on one side and intend to leave an organization on the other side.

One of the primary concerns for investment in oil and gas projects is to have a comprehensive understanding on different issues associated with this industry. The industry is mainly influ-enced by the price of oil and gas and in some events, many production units have been forced to shut down solely because of low price of oil and gas. Environmental issues are other important factors, which may put pressure on Canada’s political affairs since the country has strong com-mitment to reduce green gas effect. In this paper, we introduce a multi-criteria decision making method, which helps us rank different projects in terms of investment. The proposed study con-siders different investment factors including net present value, rate of return, benefit-cost analy-sis and payback period along with the intensity of green gas effects for ranking the present oil and gas projects in Canada.

E-governance practices and standardization of processes are significant factors affecting the per-formance of government organizations and undertakings in India. Customer is the backbone of any organization and customer satisfaction is the key for ensuring the success. Using a multiple-criteria decision analysis method named TOPSIS, we attempt to study the impact of e-governance practices on customer satisfaction of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). The method determines the ranking and contribution of different elements in an attempt to determine a suitable strategy for every customer segment. Results show that cus-tomers belonging to Higher Income Group (HIG) and Middle Income Group (MIG) are more satisfied with the Online Mitra Service while the customers of Lower Income Group (LIG) and Economic Weaker Section (EWS) are more inclined towards Process Standardization. In order to remove bias and obtain fairly accurate results the data were collected through questionnaire from every customer segment.

Graphical evaluation and review techniques (GERT) is a technique to study the stochastic nature of networks consists of different branches. In GERT, all branches are explained in terms of the probability that the branch is traversed and the tile to traverse the branch in case it is realized. This paper presents recent advances of the implementation of GERT in various industries. The study presents a comprehensive description of GERT and recent advances on the implementation of GERT in various industries over the period 2002-2017.

Portfolio selection is a business process which has helped organisations identify an area of com-petitive advantage and it is a major concern to industrial players in the banking sectors. In order to enhance bank portfolio selection, cost, profitability, time and location are important parameters that decision-makers often consider. This study implements a fuzzy-TOPSIS (Technique for Or-der Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) framework to evaluate three potential portfolios (automated teller machine gallery, quick service point and branch) for a bank using the infor-mation from three decision-makers. An illustrative example of real bank information is used to demonstrate the proposed framework applicability. The complex proportional assessment of al-ternatives (COPRAS) method is also used as an evaluation technique and the results are com-pared, which yields that the results from the ranking order of fuzzy-TOPSIS and COPRAS were different. However, there is a consistency between the aggregation of intuition-based, fuzzy-TOPSIS and COPRAS ranks and fuzzy-TOPSIS ranking results. The presented framework is an easy-to-apply tool that improves portfolio selection decision in the banking system.