Distribution refers to the steps taken to move and store a product from the suppliers to a customers in the supply chain and is a key driver of the overall profitability of a firm and overall supply chain. In this paper, a problem regarding managing of the move and store of goods are articulated and a mathematical model is presented to solve the model. The objective function is the total costs of distribution network, including transportation, storage rental, general warehousing, goods damages due to the transportation and storage, procurement, packing, and finally loading and unloading costs. The cost components described are defined based on the assumptions for a real distribution network of a chain stores firm. The aim of developing such a model is to find the optimum pattern to move and store goods based on the minimum cost of the distribution network.

The aim of this research is to present a hybrid model to select auto part suppliers. The proposed method of this paper uses factor analysis to find the most influencing factors on part maker selection and the results are validated using different statistical tests such as Cronbach & apos; s Alpha and Kaiser-Meyer. The hybrid model uses analytical network process to rank different part maker suppliers and fuzzy goal programming to choose the appropriate alternative among various choices. The implementation of the proposed model of this paper is used for a case study of real-world problem and the results are discussed.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is founded based on the value exchange between organization and customers and focuses merely on the value created in this connection. In this paper, the critical success factors are identified for a proper and effective implementation of CRM for an oil distribution company. The proposed survey of this paper identifies some important factors affecting the CRM implementation and determines the most important ones using a survey. The results indicate that there are twelve factors playing the most important roles on the success of CRM. There are CRM strategy, knowledge management in customer relationship, CRM technology, effective strategic committee, management of customer contact channels, customer information management, customer-oriented change management, training programs, strategic communication with staff, staff commitment, integration, and sectional implementation. We categorize the factors into two levels based on the level of their importance. The first level consists of the most important ones include only four items and the other eight items are categorized in level 2.

This paper performs an empirical study to study the effects of social capital on social contribution for a group of people of 18-year-orl who lived in a city of Meymand/Iran. The survey selects 300 people out of 5026 people based on a two-stage cluster sampling and distributed questionnaire among them. The results are analyzed based on descriptive and inductive terms, which indicate a positive and meaningful relation between social capital and social solidarity. However, there is a negative and meaningful relationship between social opposition and conflict with organizations while there are some opposite relationships among networks of social relationships instead of level of internal group relationships.

In current paper, an organized and quantitative approach is proposed for selection of quality management systems. The proposed model of this paper first uses fuzzy analytic hierarchical process to rank different quality management systems. Since there are normally various constraints associated with the selection of quality management, we propose a 0-1 programming for selecting an optimal mix of quality management systems. We also use the proposed model of this paper for a real-world case study of research center in aerial industries and the results are discussed.

In this paper, we present two regression functions to estimate gold coin futures price based on gold coin price, foreign exchange rate, price of gold traded globally and trend of time. The proposed model of this paper is used for price estimation of gold coin futures in Iran mercantile exchange (IME).
The proposed model of this paper is applied for historical data of future gold prices and the results are discussed. The preliminary results indicate that an increase on gold coin price could increase gold coin futures price. An increase on foreign exchange price has negative impact on gold coin futures and time horizon has positive impact on gold coin futures on IME.

Fuzzy logic has created suitable mathematics for making decisions in uncertain environments including professional judgments. One of the situations is to assess auditee risks. During recent years, risk based audit (RBA) has been regarded as one of the main tools to fight against fraud. The main issue in RBA is to determine the overall audit risk an auditor accepts, which impact the efficiency of an audit. The primary objective of this research is to redesign the audit risk model (ARM) proposed by auditing standards. The proposed model of this paper uses fuzzy inference systems (FIS) based on the judgments of audit experts. The implementation of proposed fuzzy technique uses triangular fuzzy numbers to express the inputs and Mamdani method along with center of gravity are incorporated for defuzzification. The proposed model uses three FISs for audit, inherent and control risks, and there are five levels of linguistic variables for outputs. FISs include 25, 25 and 81 rules of if-then respectively and officials of Iranian audit experts confirm all the rules.

In this paper, we present an empirical study on measuring the effects of training programs on efficiency of university employee. The proposed model of this paper uses Kirkpatrick four level models based on some questionnaire. The questions are divided into four different groups of reflection, leaning, behavior and efficiency and the feedback are collected using Likert scales. We perform some statistical tests to analyze the results and conclude that staff training has relatively positive impact on all four items. In addition, the effects of different personal characteristics such as age, gender and marriage conditions are investigated on all four levels of Kirkpatrick & apos; s model. The results indicate that the Kirkpatrick could be implemented for measuring the effects of training programs, efficiently.

One of the most important objectives of any modern organization is to gain competitive advantage of customers & apos; data. In order to find hidden patterns or models from data, application of modern and steady methodologies is a necessity. Banking industry is not exceptional from this trend and they may often wish to make more profit by providing appropriate services to potential customers. Analyzing databases to manage customer behaviors seems difficult since databases are multi-dimensional, comprised of monthly account records and daily transactional records. Therefore, to analyze databases, we propose a methodology by considering human factors and building an integrated data utilization system. Moreover, self-organizing neural network map is used to identify groups of customers based on repayment behavior, recency, frequency, and monetary behavioral scoring predicators. We also perform more analysis using Apriori association rule to make marketing strategies for services used by banks.

An increase competition on today & apos; s economy has created motivation for many organizations to look for different alternatives on better serving the customers. There are always some budget limitations on any customer relationship method, which leads us to prioritize different alternatives. In this paper, we present an empirical method based on an integrated Kano and fuzzy analytical hierarchy procedure to rank suitable alternatives. The proposed model of this paper uses a questionnaire survey to gather customer & apos; s opinions and implements the method for a real-world case study of transportation planning. The questionnaire includes 37 questions distributed among 976 passengers for two trips in Iran. The results indicate that driver & apos; s physical and mental health, buss equipments with GPS functionality and familiarity of drivers with road and road & apos; s conditions play important role on choosing a transportation company.