The processing time of the machine is assumed fixed in several studies. In many real industrial applications, the processing time is affected by learning and forgetting effects. This research proposes a scheduling approach to support a manufacturing system under learning/forgetting effect. The approach is supported by a Multi-Agent System to perform the scheduling activities in a quasi-real-time and in general manufacturing systems. A simulation environment is developed to test the proposed approach and the results are compared with a benchmark model for evaluating several performance measures of the manufacturing system. The simulation results highlight how the proposed approach improves all the performance measures under different conditions of inter-arrival time, learning and forgetting rates. A complete Analysis of the Variance highlights the main effects on the performance measures to support the decision maker of the manufacturing system.

The multiple travelling salesman problem (MTSP) is one of the widely studied combinatorial optimization problems with various theoretical and practical applications. However, most of the studies intended to deal with classical MTSP, very limited attention has been given to an open multiple travelling salesman problem and its variants. In this paper, an open multiple travelling salesman problem with load balancing constraint (OMTSPLB) is addressed. The OMTSPLB differs from the conventional MTSP, in which all the salesmen start from the central depot and need not come back to it after visiting the given number of cities by accomplishing the load balance constraint, which helps in fairly distributing the task among all salesmen. The problem aims to minimize the overall traversal distance/cost for operating open tours subject to the load balancing constraint. A zero-one integer linear programming (0-1 ILP) model and an efficient metaheuristic genetic algorithm (GA), is established for the OMTSPLB. Since no existing study on OMTSPLB, the proposed GA is tested on the relaxed version of the present model, comparative results are reported. The comparative results show that the proposed GA is competent over the existing algorithms. Furthermore, extensive experiments are carried out on OMTSPLB and the results show that proposed GA can find the global solution effectively.

School bus routing problem is widely studied, however, social elements such as the interaction between children traveling on the same route have not been considered so far. In this way, this article has as its main objective to propose a methodology to solve the school bus routing problem, including affinity as a strategy to increase positive interrelationships between children, and with this, support in bullying situations during school trips. The methodology includes two stages, assigning children to vehicles considering affinities and defining vehicle routes. The main contribution is the consideration of affinity in the process of forming the groups of children that will be taken on the bus, evidencing a balance in the affinity of the groups. Additionally, from the methodological point of view, the integration of a modified group technology algorithm and a new assignment model are proposed that simplify the classic quadratic assignment problem. Consideration of affinity in school bus routing generates benefits from a social point of view.

In this paper, an optimization model for the Charging Station Location Problem of Electric Vehicles for Freight Transportation CSLP-EVFT is presented. This model aims to determine an optimal location strategy of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations EVCSs and the routing plan of a fleet of electric vehicles under battery driving range limitation, in conjunction with the impact on the power distribution system. Freight transportation is modeled under the mobility patterns followed by the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem CVRP for contracted fleet, and Shortest Path SP problem for subcontracted fleet. A linear formulation of the power flow is used in order to consider the impact on the electric grid. Several costs are examined, i.e., EVs routing, installation and energy consumption of EVCSs, and energy losses. Although uncertainties related to temporal variation of some aspects (number of customers and their demands, fleet size, power network nodes and routes) are not addressed, the proposed model represents a useful approach to evaluate multiple scenarios or to be introduced within stochastic optimization. Instead, the mathematical model is studied under the variation of EVs travel range that accounts for the advance of battery technology and sensitivity analysis. Additionally, the problem is reduced to a mixed integer non-linear mathematical model, which is linearized by using multivariable Taylor’s series.

In this study, several series of experiments on turning process of AISI 12L14 free cutting steel characterized by its self-lubrication and the high percentage of lead in its composition were performed to rate the influence of cutting conditions (Vc, f and ap) on the machining performance such as surface roughness, cutting force, cutting power and material removal rate. A computer generated optimal design of experiment based on the I-optimality criteria along with analysis of variance was created to study the characterizations in turning of this steel, and desirability function was utilized for the optimization. The global optimization, combined high surface quality and productivity with low cutting power consumption, gave 12 optimal setting points provided high desirability values. The obtained correlation for surface roughness, cutting force, material removal rate and cutting power were 99.4%, 95.5%, 99.7% and 94.3%, respectively.

In this paper, an efficient rolling horizon-based heuristic is presented to solve the integrated berth allocation and crane assignment problem in bulk ports. We were guided by a real case study of a multi-terminal port, owned by our Moroccan industrial partner, under several restrictions as high tides and installation’s availability. First, we proposed a mixed integer programming model for the problem. Then, we investigated a strategy to dissipate the congestion within the presented rolling horizon. A variety of experiments were conducted, and the obtained results show that the proposed methods were efficient from a practical point of view.

Human resource is the core issue of socio-economic development all over the world and human resource practice can serve as a sustainable competitive advantage, which are considered central in the company's performance. In the field of telecommunications services, there exists a need for research on human resource management practices to lay the groundwork for improving the human resource management regime in enterprises, which has received great interest of both business executives and researchers. The current paper aims to assess the impact of human resource management practices on enterprises' competitive advantages and business per-formance for the case of Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group enterprises. This study uses structural equation modeling with 117 parameters to be estimated when the total sample size is 773 observations. Research results show that: (1) Functional activities of human resource management, leading and encouraging changes, team and group activities, employee involvement, administrative activities are positively correlated with human resource management practices at Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group enterprises. Moreover, the quality of human resources, human resource behavior, human resource management practices have a positive effect on the competitive advantage of human resources at Vietnam Post and Telecommunica-tions Group enterprises. Furthermore, human resource management practices are found to have a positive effect on the business performance of Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group enterprises.

Millennials are the generation that lived in the era of information technology revolution with the emergence of the internet and smart phones. Because of this experience, millennial has become an important element for human resources to meet industry 4.0. However, it is not clear how older leadership behaves on this generation and what impact they have on organizational performance. Thus, this paper focuses on investigating the effect of openness on millennial employee style on leadership effectiveness and its impact on 4.0 organizational performance. Survey is conducted on 224 millennial employees working in various companies in Indonesia. Data are analyzed using Smart-PLS 3.0 based on structural equation modeling (SEM). Our results showed that openness to millennial employee style had a positive effect on 4.0 organizational performance partially mediat-ed by 4.0 leadership effectiveness in industrial settings. These results confirm the role of millennial in shaping organizational performance and how managers need to implement appropriate measures to manage millennials and be open to various characteristics of this generation.

Research on marketing performance has been discussed by several previous researchers on institutions and industries. One of them is in the field of education. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of brand image toward marketing performance, brand image on trust and brand image toward marketing performance mediated by trust. In previous studies there have been many studies that measure marketing performance from internal or management perspective. On the other hand, this research discusses marketing performance that can be measured through the perspective of the student as consumer. This research studies the marketing performance of private higher education in the perspective of students in the Indonesian context. This research was conducted in DKI Jakarta. In this study it was found that there was not a significant influence on brand image toward marketing performance; brand image has a significant influence on trust and also trust towards marketing performance; but brand image has a significant influence toward marketing performance mediated by trust.

This study examines whether responsible innovation can be an important channel through which the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy influences the competitive advantage of the firm. Specifically, we tried to test the role of firm size and activity sector as conditional factors in the mediation of responsible innovation between CSR strategy and the competitive advantage for the case of Saudi Arabia enterprises. Based on structural equation modelling (SEM), our results show that responsible innovation is a key element of the sustainable business model since it determines the success of CSR strategy in boosting the competitive advantage of firms. In this model, the mediation of responsible innovation is moderated differently by the firm size and the activity sector, and it is dependent on the choice between strategic or reactive CSR strategy. Within this context, we also find that the indirect effects of the CSR strategy on competitive advantage are moderated by the firm size in the case of reactive CSR, whereas by the activity sector in case of strategic CSR. The originality of this paper is that it examines whether the competitive advantage of firms in a developing country is more dependent on the reactive CSR strategy or the strategic CSR strategy. It also proposes an empirical investigation into the conditional factors of responsible innovation and their effects on the relationship between CSR strategy and competitive advantage.