Industrial Engineering, Management Science and Applications 2015

Thailand may encounter both opportunities and crises when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is implemented by the end of 2015. AEC will open more opportunities to enterprises in both trade and investment, which will create a competitive market of over 600 million people, as well as enhance the competitive advantage. As such, it may be necessary for enterprises to redesign their supply chains via finding a new production base which has low labor cost, high labor skill and numerous of labor available. This strategy will help companies especially for garment industry in order to maintain a competitive position in the global market. Therefore, location decision play a key role in achieving corporate competitiveness, and as a result of this, selecting the right country is a critical issue of these new strategies. Hence, this research aims to 1) investigate factors affecting location decision for garment industry, 2) select countries in ASEAN region which has potential for establishing or expanding a production base of Thai garment industry, and 3) propose a generic model for location selection decision using Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP). The results from the empirical study reveal that according to the entrepreneurs’ opinion, key criteria affecting location decision for garment industry are 1) raw materials factors, 2) labor factors, 3) logistics system, 4) infrastructure, 5) government policies and 6) economy factors, respectively. The top four sub-criteria of those main factors are also taken in consideration in this research as their important details. Three outstanding countries i.e. Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam are mentioned for alternative location decision from interviewing expert persons. Due to both tangible and intangible criteria are included in the problem, Multi Criteria Decision Making Approach (MCDM) is then employed to this research. The generic model for regional location selection decision is proposed using Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP) technique. This model contributes to planning practice for top management by suggesting a more comprehensive decision making tool in location selection.

Sustainable campus has became an important issue amongst universities around the world. Universities can generate a significant impacts to environment due to the high usage of energy, extensive transportation, massive waste, high consumption of materials, and extensive development of buildings and facilities. Thus, there is a need to assess the sustainable campus performance. This paper proposes a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for sustainable campus assessment consisting of six categories divided into a total of 35 indicators. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is applied to determine the importance weight of the KPIs. The results indicated the most important category for the sustainable campus assessment is education with an importance weight of 0.2665, while energy and climate change is regarded as the least important category. It is hoped the proposed KPIs can assist the universities to achieve the higher performance in sustainable campus.

A digitalized medical image data has personal information such as name and phone number or medical image that contains patient’s physical characteristics, so it requires protective measure. The simplest way for meeting this demand is encrypting that, but, in recently, performance problem occurs owing to a considerable increase of data size with the development of medical imaging equipment. Thus, we need the way that provides protection function by transforming only some elements of medical image information. In this paper, we propose the method of obfuscation and integrity verification by encrypting at the least part of medical image that is stored in JPEG or JPEG2000 format.

This paper studies the optimal hedging strategies for risk neutral players in a competitive supply chain setting. We consider two processors procuring two commodities from spot markets to process and sell through index-based contracts to a retailer. Commodity prices are stochastic and correlated. The retailer is facing price sensitive demand curves so it controls its market demands through market pricing. First, we characterize the optimal index-based contracts for processors which implies that processors prefer to be exposed to commodity price risks. We show that the processor‘s optimal contract consists of a processing margin which is independent of its financial hedging decisions and a hedge ratio which is a function of commodity price volatility. We show that processors can benefit from market pricing, when these prices are linked to input commodity prices and index-based contracts are a means to link these prices. We also explore how commodity and product market parameters affect optimal hedging decisions.

This study aimed to present an application of Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) to discover loss in the process and dynamic programming in decision making of improvement solutions. The research focused on internal supply chain operations of the case study. Based on MFCA analysis, the overall cost can be classified as the cost of positive product as 46.97% and the cost of negative product as 53.03%. The highest cost of negative product was material cost (MC) 45.52% following by system cost (SC) 6.41%, and energy cost (EC) 1.10% of the total product cost. The improvement solutions were proposed for MC reduction. Industrial engineering problem solving tools; cause and effect diagram, pareto diagram and why-why analysis, were used to investigate root causes for negative MC. Seven improvement solutions were proposed and evaluated based on MFCA calculation. The decision making was carried out using dynamic programming when the incursion was formulated using the cost of positive product increased by each solution. Finally, only the 1

st

, 2

nd

, 6

th

and 7

th

solution were selected and the cost of positive product can be increased from 46.97% to 56.08% and the cost of negative product reduced from 53.03% to 43.92%

The principle of Value Engineering is applied to make an innovative product that can help the public and the environment. Value Engineering is a technique in which the value of a system’s output is optimized by improving the function or reducing the cost. Innovation is the application or creation of new product to satisfy new requirements and market needs. Wood has been an important construction material since humans began building shelters. It has always been used extensively for furniture, such as chairs, tables and beds. But there will come a time that the consumption of woods is more than the amount of trees that are growing back. For these purpose a composite board that can be an alternative to wood using waste to reduce the need to consume natural resources is created. The coconut coir fibers, plastic resin, and hardener are used as the materials for the composite board. In order to come up with the product, the techniques including coir pounding and washing, mold waxing, molding, pressing, drying, and polishing were executed. Upon completion of the project, a naturally wood looking product is manufactured because of the coir strands which even made the product stronger than ordinary plywood.

In this study, conventional filter system (with a polypropylene membrane) was used with

L. delbrueckii

to treat dye waste from textile waste water. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of temperature on the colour and TSS removal of dye wastes in an integrated biological and filtration treatment system. Temperature was varied in a range of 33

o

C, 35

o

C, 37

o

C and 39

o

C and pH was controlled at 6 for 50 wt% dilution of dye. Fourier Transform Infrared Sprectroscopy (FTIR), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), color removal, pH profile and total suspended solid (TSS) analyses were done on the dye waste before and after the treatment. The optimum temperature and pH identified for dye degradation were at 37

o

C and 6 with initial color removal of 22.6% and final removal of 75%. Initial total suspended solid removed was 5% whereas the final removal was 75%.

Multi-agent systems have been successfully used to represent distributed manufacturing systems. Each part or characteristic of the system can be represented by an agent which acts independently and in a cooperative way. A better integrated operation can emerge as the result of each agent following its own rules and communicating with the others. Better decisions from a holistic viewpoint can be achieved when manufacturing asset management is supported by a multi-agent approach. A model to manage distributed manufacturing is proposed and applied to on-shore oil fields. The distributed characteristics of oil field units, such as wells, collecting stations, compressing stations and supplies mean that they have to cooperate to reach production targets. The integrated management model carries out a cost analysis and helps to identify unprofitable assets and to support decision making processes. Agents help to reduce the load of information for the operator, giving more time to focus on situations that require greater attention. Example applications are presented in which the proposed multi-agent model, its ontology and rules, could help oil field surveillance and support decision-making process.

Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) requires high heat input for welding. After welding, the workpiece cools down non-uniformly which creates residual stresses. Generally tensile residual stress weaken the strength of the welded joints and shorten the fatigue life of the material. It is very important to identify appropriate welding conditions in order to prevent negative effects from the residual stresses. In this research, the full factorial design of experiment technique was constructed for predicting residual stress occurred after the GTAW welding process. The values of the residual stresses were obtained from the results from the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model, which had been verified by the residual stress measurement from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) machine. Effects of four welding process parameters: efficiency, arc voltage, arc current, and welding speed on residual stresses at the center of the welded joint and at the heated affected zone (HAZ) were investigated. Each factor had 2 levels (2

4

Full Factorial Design). The regression equation for predicting the residual stress from significant factors was constructed. The results showed that the arc voltage, arc current, welding speed and interaction effects between efficiency and welding speed were significant factors, with the most compressive residual stress value of about -50.97 MPa.

This paper employs a MATLAB based system identification toolbox (SID) to obtain a mathematical model of a loss-in-weight (LIW) feeder. In this study a pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) was used to excite a loss-in-weight feeder used in a cement manufacturing process. The input and output data were then processed using a MATLAB system identification toolbox that yielded an ARMAX model of the process. The identified model was sufficiently validated in the MATLAB control toolbox. Details of data capture, system identification, open-loop simulation, and validation tests were presented in this paper. The results are well assuring to control practitioners and students that MATLAB SID toolbox is a perfect candidate for offline process identification.

Post stroke rehabilitation consumes a huge amount of health care resources in terms of costs related to hospital and home assistance. Recently, robot-assisted rehabilitation has been adapted to support physiotherapists in providing high-intensity and repetitive rehabilitation sessions. It has been observed that robotics offers an objective and reliable instrumented tool to monitor patient’s progress and accurately assess their motor function. Each finger is attached to an instrumented mechanism which allowing force control and a mostly linear displacement. This paper presents a novel finger rehabilitation approach for acute paralyzed stroke survivors using a wearable robotic interface for hand motor function recovery. The device designed based on biomechanics measurements, able to assist the subject in opening and closing movements. It capable to adapt with various hand shapes and finger sizes. Main features of the interface include a differential system, and a lead screw mechanism which allows independent movement of the five fingers with actuators. The device is safe, easily transportable, and offers multiple training possibilities. The prototype deployment was carried out to determine the requirements for a finger rehabilitation device, the design and characterization of the complete system. Offering ease of use and affordability, the device has great potential to be deployed for individualized rehabilitation session for patients who have to undergo therapy in their home.

Quantiles are used to measure risk in many application areas. We consider simulation methods for estimating a quantile using a variance-reduction technique that combines stratified sampling and control variates. We provide an asymptotically valid confidence interval for the quantile.

Airport baggage handling systems (BHS) are a crucial infrastructure in major airports to ensure smooth baggage transfer while avoiding congestion. Therefore, it is important to operate the BHS efficiently.

Recently, the number of tourists increases year after year in Taiwan, leading to an insufficient capacity of airport baggage storage. Hence, the parameter setting in BHS for baggage transfer becomes more important and challenging regarding future system reconstructions. For experiment efficiency and cost reduction, a widely used method to evaluate system performances and compare alternatives is to apply discrete event simulation models. This paper presents an empirical study of interval release time by using simulation with full factorial design of the BHS. The goals are to determine the best combination of the interval release time, understand their interactions, and minimize congestion time. The results demonstrate a 23% time reduction in peak-time congestion while the optimized parameter setting achieves smooth system operation.

This paper presents a new two-phase approach for Petri Net based modeling of scheduling problems. Though Petri Nets have been used as heuristic approach for modeling scheduling problems, literature study reveals two major difficulties: 1) the large size of Petri Net models, and 2) the inability to differentiate workstations. In this paper, these two difficulties are avoided by a two-phase approach known as Activity-Oriented Petri Nets (AOPN). General Purpose Petri Net Simulator (GPenSIM) is a new Petri Net simulator that implements AOPN on MATLAB platform. This paper introduces AOPN and GPenSIM in a tutorial style, working through an example on job scheduling in grid computing. This example shows the usability of the AOPN approach for the modeling of scheduling problems and the easiness of GPenSIM for coding and simulation.

The effects of impulse faults of different nature and different locations of occurrence in the high voltage winding of a transformer are investigated in this work. During the investigation, a high frequency transformer model developed in MATLAB Simulink was subjected to different lightning and switching impulse waveforms. Turn-to-earth and turn-to-turn faults were simulated at different locations of the windings due to applied impulse. The transformer response is studied owing to the variation of the input impulse waveforms, fault types and their location along the windings. This study is important in the purview of fault characterization which provides an important basis for developing more reliable and sensitive methods to detect internal faults in the transformer windings.

The influence of study environment is one of the significant impacts to study efficiency. This research examine the problem of two different group of student which study in the same course but different study environment, The samples are divided into 2 groups. The one is study in middle of the town campus, the other one is study in the far away in rural area. The primary concern problem is to reduce the gap of study result between both of campus, due to the study result of faraway campus was less than the other. One of our assumptions is from the different amount of campus’s facility such as library and daily life. Although, this research introduce solution by using tools to help both of study group connect to each other and also share their study environment together. The tool simulates social network status to deliver short lesson to student’s mobile phone. Notification will send to every one in the class to shows if any of students has read short lesson, or post any comment. There are approximately 40 students of faraway classroom and 120 students in in town class participated. Social network application for study has been experimented in other research and produces interested result. This research will show the approach that will reduce location gap between to different classroom by sharing assignment and connects them by use social network methodology to update their mate activity and duce bounder of the distance. After deployed tools students are response positive way for both, during the study period, and examination result.

Telematics technology is the most popular in recent years, the field of intelligent vehicles issues, was becoming increasingly relevant research. However, the research is still lack in the technology development forecasting. The purpose of this research is to study the technology life cycle of the telematics, and investigates the major technologies in different technology life cycle to point out technical change trends. We used logistic growth curve model and patent analysis to explore future development time phase and technology development saturation. The results indicate that telematics technology is currently in a growth phase, and until the saturation phase, the technology will have eighteen years to grow and develop. Telematics is an emerging technology and will continue to integrate the services or facilities adapted for wireless communication networks and traffic control systems in the future. We assessed telematics development phase and proposed technology development recommendations to telematics industry and government.

This paper deliberates about the design of the prototype model of the online collaborative learning system for introductory Structural Analysis and Design course. The model of collaborative learning system has been developed in pursuance of supporting the collaborative learning activities in virtual environment. A design of a structure model for an online collaborative learning system has been constructed for the sake of sustaining the online collaborative learning activities in a virtual environment. The methodology of this study consists of three processes which are data collection, system analysis & design and system implementation. Initially, a set of questionnaire was conducted to a sample group including one hundred of second- year students from Modern Management and Information Technology program at Chiang Mai University (CMU), Chiang Mai, Thailand. The students were selected to be respondents during the data collection process. The analysis results from the questionnaires will reveal the students’ interests, learning styles and preferences in learning Structural Analysis and Design course for the online system development. The results have illustrated significant correlation proving that the online application has been essential and helpful for the students to achieve better results in Structural Analysis and Design course.

In the age of globalisation, many firms are being operated by Information Technology (IT) to improve and streamline their business processes. IT systems usually play an important role to support internal information management. An Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP system), which can be regarded as one of IT solutions for business, is able to integrate business process and information flow across the enterprise to support decision-making process. However, the selection of ERP system might be complicated as it is affected by various factors. This paper, therefore, aims to gather and identify key factors to select the ERP system for manufacturers. Methodology of this paper is mainly based on a combination of literature reviews from related papers. As a result, this paper provides a conceptual framework illustrating a set of major factors that should be considered to select ERP system for manufacturers.

With a series of institutional arrangements University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) activities in Japan have emerged since the late 1990s. This study examines the low licensing activities by universities in Japan because it is one of the serious problems universities are now facing. Interviews with the relevant technology transfer officers in major universities in Japan were conducted. Results show that co-ownership of patents, attitude of industry, and human resource and financial constraints exist behind the low licensing activities.

The Wualai community of Northern Thailand represents important intellectual and social capital and their silver handicraft products are desirable tourist souvenirs within Chiang Mai Province. This community has been in danger of losing this social and intellectual capital due to apply an improper tool, the Scottish Enterprise model of clustering. This research aims to analyse and increase its competitive advantages for preventing the loss of social and intellectual capital. To improve the Wualai’s competitive advantage, analysis is undertaken using a Porterian cluster approach, including the diamond model, five forces model and cluster mapping. Research results suggest that utilizing the community’s Buddhist beliefs can foster collaboration between community members and is the only way to improve cluster effectiveness, increase competitive advantage, and in turn conserve the Wualai community.

The Thai government have launched the National Research University (NRU) project since 2009 to boost the country’s research activities and the University-Industry Linkages (UILs). The objective of this study is to investigate the joint research activities between research intensive universities and domestic firms, in the case of Thailand-NRUs. We used co-patents and co-publications as indicators representing the successful joint research outputs. The two sets of data were collected from DIP (Thailand’s patent database) and ISI database. The result shows that a large portion of firms’ co-patenting and co-publishing with the NRUs were from low-tech and medium-low tech sectors including food and agriculture. The NRU project seems to gain success in creating and sustaining the collaboration in low-tech and medium-low tech sectors. However, it has strengthened only the existing collaborations in the case of high-tech sector and did not create new collaboration as much as the policy makers pursued. Another concern is that a number of co-publications from high-tech sectors were from few large incumbents not from SMEs.

Tourism business is recognized as one of the main income source for Thailand for several decades. This is evident by the numbers of tourist visitors and the revenue from them has increased for several years. Besides, in the year 2015, Thailand will enter to the Asian Economic Community (AEC); Thailand then will be recognized as the main country providing tourism and aviation business within this community. As a result, such will enlarge the tourism industry in Thailand. This paper investigates the factors influencing the use of information technology for combining the operations among government, educational and tourism small business sectors in Chiang Mai. In particular, it measures the attitude of small tourism operators on how the information technology can be employed to collaborate among such government, educational and tourism small business sectors so as to sustain the business. With the use of questionnaire, the data is analyzed by using the Structural Equation Modeling to clarify the relationship between all related variables. The result is then used to provide appropriate recommendations for all parties on how information technology can be augmented the sustainability of tourism industry in Thailand.

As economic development increasingly relies on the innovation of the firm, firms are required to improve innovative capability to survive in the market. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) play a critical role in the transition of a developing country. It is essential for SME to leverage innovative capability in long-term growth and survival, and the role of the firm’s entrepreneurs play the key role for leveraging innovative capability. Yet at present little is known about the relationship between the managerial capabilities of entrepreneurs and the innovative capability of the firm. This paper contributes to the understanding of the innovative capability leveraging of an organization by developing theory about the interplay between managerial capabilities of the entrepreneur and the firm’s TIM capability.

Hurst model has received significant interest in recent years and are being increasingly used to explain the stochastic phenomenon with long term dependency such as stock market fluctuations. Different from existing methods in traditional integer dimension construction, this paper proposes a novel fractional dimension derivation along with the exact algorithm involving the fractional norm definition and the fractional center moment extension, which ends up a complex Hurst parameter. The proposed algorithm provides more granularities in terms of the norm and the center moment that eventually leading to the detail revealing of the underline stock marketing drivers from both real and imaginary angles. The calculation results demonstrate that the complex model is able to distinguish the subtle difference between the stock market performances for the same field that the real model may overlook. We take the e-commence cluster of online related companies as an example.

Supplier selection is one of the most important activities in purchasing management. Once the suppliers are determined, the proper allocation of the order among the suppliers can greatly help the company to reduce the raw material and production costs. In this paper, the order allocation with quantity discount of a single product is considered. The product can be offered with either an all unit discount model or an incremental discount one. Since the problem is NP-hard, three metaheuristics are applied to solve the problem. The metaheuristics are water cycle algorithm, artificial bee colony algorithm and hybrid water cycle-artificial bee colony algorithm. The results obtained from these algorithms are then compared.

The paper is focused on the operational model for transport the single wagon consignments on Slovak railway network using time-discrete train formation. The paper gives an overview of evaluation of railway stations by multi-criteria approach. The resulting indicators characterize the station based on evaluation scale. This model is one of the effective ways to meet the development strategy of the EU transport policy. By applying this model in practice, the transport company can guarantee a higher quality of service and expect increasing of transport performance. The model is also applicable to other railway networks. This model supplements a theoretical problem of train formation by new ways of looking at evaluation of factors affecting the organization of wagon flows.

This paper focuses on vehicle routing decision, a real-world problem proposed by a travel agency company operating in Chonburi, Thailand. The objective is to minimize the total number of vehicles used and the total travelling distance. Currently, the company’s planners have to spend hours on manually planning with spreadsheet software. Therefore, the decision-making software was developed by using an approach based on golden ball algorithm to increase the efficiency of the route assignment and especially suitable for the practical use. Computational results on a set of benchmark problems show that the proposed approach is competitive when compared it with the best existing approaches in the literature. Moreover, when the proposed approach is applied to solve the company’s problems, the obtained solutions were able to significantly reduce the total number of vehicles used and the total travelling distance for supporting the planners’ decision.

This study addresses warehouse storage location assignment problems (SLAP) where the traveling distance in an order-picking process is considered with three-axis traveling distance; two-horizontal and one-vertical distance. A mathematical model of the problem is first presented, then LINGO is used to find optimal solutions for a set of generated problems. However, as the problem size increases, computing time increases rapidly, and eventually the solution could not be found when the problem size is very large. Thus, this study presents an application of Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm to solve SLAP. The performance of proposed DE is evaluated on a set of generated problems, and the experimental results shows that the algorithm is able to provide good solutions especially for the large-size problems with relatively shorter computing time.

Pharmaceutical products are indispensable for human life. Typically, a manufacturer should well plan the production in order to meet the customer demand. However, it is due to the fact that pharmaceutical industry typically produces mixed products in different dosage forms; therefore, a good plan is hardly obtained. Therefore, this research presents the business process redesign of the Master Production Schedule MPS for the tablet manufacturing process. The objective of this study is to plan synchronized master production schedule of tableting, coating and packing line utilizing the developed heuristic algorithm. As a result, practical MPS can be created from starting to finish date scheduling in each process of tablet production. This methodology is then applied to sample data sets, attempting to develop MPS with an aim for on-time delivery.

In this paper, simulation optimization approach for simultaneous scheduling of machines and identical automated guided vehicles with minimizing the makespan in flexible manufacturing system is presented. In the past time, this problem has been solved by using heuristic algorithm such as genetic algorithms (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO) etc. Actually, many factors should be considered in real situation such as deadlock or blockage of AGV and processing time with uncertainty in FMS. This will impact the system performance significantly. Hence, discrete event simulation model is used to evaluate the system performances which consider those random factors and to compare alternatives. In addition, optimal computing budget allocation (OCBA) embedded with GA is used to reduce simulation replications and provide reliable evaluations and identified for ranking chromosomes of the GA procedure. As a result, we prove those random factors affect system performance significantly. The numerical experiment results demonstrate the superiority of the hybrid approach in terms of computing cost for this problem.

This paper presents a collaborative agents model for Sales and Operation Planning (S&OP) in industry. We show how an S&OP system can be used in a multi-agent approach considering existing legacy software and how people and software agents interact in a planning environment in a process industry, such as the petrochemical industry. The model helps to describe the process, determine the pre-existing software integrations, define responsibilities, and promote communication and learning. The solution adopted is crucial for a high performance S&OP. It is also important to consider the interaction among human agents and software agents, which are required for its success. The multi-agent system (MAS) paradigm is useful for helping industries handle distributed information sources and interactions between a number of actors and teams. We examine activities of an S&OP in a petrochemical company and how these activities can be more efficiently performed through MAS.

This paper proposes a Node-Based Coincidence Algorithm (NB-COIN) for the permutation flowshop scheduling problems (PFSP) aimed at Makespan minimization. For almost half a century, a variety of complex algorithms have been introduced to solve the problems. Nevertheless, these algorithms will be useless if they fail to implement in practice where computational time and complexity of algorithm become an important issue of concern. NB-COIN is proved to be an effective algorithm and it is extremely fast. Based on the bench-mark data sets of Taillard, the presented algorithm provides acceptable solutions within a very short period of time. More importantly, the results generated by NB-COIN are also better than other well-known algorithms in consideration.

PT Djambi Waras Jujuhan is one of Crumb Rubber Factory which is inseparable of inventory problems. It needs packaging materials for production process, especially in packaging process. Currently, PT Djambi Waras Jujuhan has the problems in controlling inventory system of packaging materials because of one supplier only supplying materials, variation of lead time, high minimum stocks of packaging materials and pile up in the storage. The aim of the research is to propose an inventory system of packaging materials to improve inventory performance considering variations of lead time. The inventory system we proposed consists of four steps. The first step is calculating Inventory Turnover (ITO) to identify how the performance level of the existing inventory system. The second step is determining aggregate planning of packaging materials, classifying packaging materials using ABC analysis and testing distribution of lead time. The third step is determining economic order quantity and order interval, safety stock and reorder point. The fourth step is calculating total annual inventory cost considering safety stock and variation of lead time. Sensitivity analysis is performed to see the effects of changes of input parameters to the decision variables and total inventory cost. Based on analysis we have done, current inventory system of packaging materials at PT Djambi Waras Jujuhan has not been efficient yet that we can see from the value of inventory turnover. From 38 types of packaging materials, 18 types of packaging materials have the value of inventory turnover more than 1 and 20 types have the value of inventory turnover less than 1. The inventory system we proposes in this paper can save 78,46% of total current inventory cost that is Rp.320.728.188,-. Therefore, the inventory system considering variation of lead time we proposed at PT Djambi Waras Jujuhan has increased the inventory performance.

This research discusses on proposing a new design methodology for industrial ceramic based on “formgiving” perspective. A significant finding of formgiving between two different domains which, industrial design and engineering design has defined the potential new design segment introduced in ceramic industries. However, with the predisposed of aesthetics and human sensation, it insists to investigate the principle of design requirements among the designer, artifacts and users, in order to aesthetically solve the appearance and consequences of form development. The aim of this study is to propose a principle of solution embarks with ablution tub as sub-sanitary ware design rooted in user’s expectations. Finally, the study concludes the most important pattern of formgiving used in between designer and design situations.

Inquiries and transfer of innovative knowledge and technologies would be a one of the main goal of an each company. Through these innovations get company a new view of solving problems and an opportunity to be better than its competitors. In this paper we would like to describe a project, which was oriented to transfer of innovation knowledge and technologies in the logistics and transport processes. As a result of the project is a simulation module of technology progress of transfer and logistics processes. The simulation module is consisted of three separated parts which are railway classification yard, storehouse and intermodal terminal.

In this paper we describe partial results of the research focused on the improvement of the decision-making quality and control in the project contracts management in concurrent environment. Bearing in mind the diversity of interdependences between the stakeholders involved in the project and their decisions, our considerations are embedded in the complex systemic process model introduced by one of the most popular project management methodologies. Here we propose the improved process of project contractors selection associated with the contract type selection and work distribution. The model of this process is developed with the ability to use in the environment with multiple contractors and their sub- contractors on the one of more levels.

The paper analyses and discusses the interest and results from 3-years factory logistics improvement projects in 75 factories in Northern Thailand region. Funded by government agency, the consultant had conducted man-days of consultancy for the factory, aiming at improving logistics efficiency or reduce logistics cost. However, with limited resource, only top priority problem can be chosen. Where the size and type of industry varies, the problem, approach and result are different as expected. Therefore, it is interesting to understand the nature of the factory and their selected project type.

Successfully implementing projects accelerate organizational growth. Given the limited organizational resources available, project funding is a critical strategic decision to ensure the most appropriate projects are selected. Recent research suggests that a proposed project’s target benefits—those anticipated to be realized at project completion—are important to consider when making decisions for project funding. Yet, the literature provides few measures to appraise the quality of target benefits. Consequently, sub-optimal projects are funded due to estimations errors, optimism bias about the future (“planning fallacy”) and strategic misrepresentation of target benefits. This paper presents three studies to develop and validate a new “Quality of Target Benefits” (QTB) scale consisting of three dimensions: specificity, attainability, and comprehensiveness. This scale can be used practically—that is, to objectively appraise a proposed project’s target benefits and to support an informed funding decision. It can also be used theoretically—as an instrument to facilitate theory development in areas of decision making, organizational strategy implementation, and project performance.

Project management is a well understood management method, widely adopted today, in order to give predictable results to complex problems. It is based on the assumption that unique undertakings require flexible organizational structures and different skill sets, in order to be implemented successfully. It is evident that matching the required, by each project, skills with the skills offered from the available human capital, is not a trivial process. This need of building high performing, effective teams with the appropriate skill set, is quite important since it is a prerequisite for successful project completion. Furthermore the recent shift to agile project management, together with the fact that projects today do not only require technical skills but also behavioral and contextual skills increases the importance of project team selection. In this paper, we present the ONSOCIAL system, a system that attempts to capitalize knowledge accumulated over social networks and to support the project team selection process. For achieving this objective, the ONSOCIAL system is using information stored in social network systems, analyses the stored profiles and offers recommendations for candidate team members.

Cloud computing refers to subscription-based, fee-for-service utilization of computer hardware and software over the Internet. The model is gaining acceptance for business information technology (IT) applications because it allows capacity and functionality to increase on the fly without major investment in infrastructure, personnel or licensing fees. This paper propose a agriculture information cloud solution to provide for agriculture information computing of a mass of heterogeneous, distributed giant collection of information systems. At the same time, this paper also proposes agriculture information cloud architecture that is optimized. This cloud architecture mainly is constituted of hardware layer, data service, virtual layer, middleware layer, application layer. To effectively manage agriculture information platform, this paper also provides insights on market-based resource management strategies that encompass both customer-drive service and application management. Furthermore this paper finally evaluate the performance of CPU and internet-based service workload in the environment of proposed agriculture information cloud architecture and management service strategies. Experiments shows that the proposed agriculture information cloud infrastructure and management service strategies is effective and essential for large-scale agriculture information resource computing of a mass of heterogeneous, distributed giant collection of information systems which carry environmental resources, agricultural production, agricultural products, rural synthesize management and farmers’ education and training.

Value stream mapping (VSM) is widely spread both in research and industrial application. In some industries it is established as a standard approach and starting point for improving production systems. This is because of the relatively distinct ease of use and the high effectiveness of the method as well as the standardized visualization. Nowadays production systems are more and more characterized by a high volatility concerning volume and variants of produced parts. Here the method of VSM reaches its limits because of its snapshot character and the rather manual data collection. In order to cope with this volatility quick data collections and the possibility to view historical data regarding e.g. inventory, process characteristics or energy consumption as a factor for sustainability are getting more important. Thus in this paper the use of manufacturing execution systems (MES) is examined to support the main elements of VSM: the value stream analysis (VSA) leading to current state maps and the value stream design (VSD) of future states. Further potentials and inhibitions are discussed using a case study.

Oil palm cultivation is one of the most important occupation in South East Asia. Since oil palm plantations cover the wide range of area, it is difficult to count the population of oil palm manually. This paper presents a new method to detect and identify oil palms over the plantation from aerial images regard- less of their sizes using features such as shape, size, and texture. The proposed method can handle the problem of identifying oil palms from an aerial image when oil palms are too close to each other which cause them to be detected as a single stand. The process consists of removing non-tree components from an image, distinguishing oil palms from other components, identifying individual oil palm, and counting the number of oil palms. In this paper, oil palm can be detected and distinguished from other components using ideal low-pass filter and normalized cross correlation. Then a proposed multi-scale clustering meth- od and erosion are used to identify individual oil palm from a bush. The method was evaluated on a set of 21 aerial images taken over oil palm plantations from different regions of Thailand by attaching a digital camera to a remote airplane. The experimental results reveal that our proposed method can detect most of the oil palms with the accuracy as high as 90%.

As the quality of software defined by the users satisfaction, in order to maximize the users satisfaction under constrains of budget, time and resource, the software engineer need to prioritize the requirements. Requirement prioritization involves identifying the core requirements used for project planning. This article proposes a method to compare the accuracy of requirement prioritization model. The subjects include customers, project leaders, users and the representatives of developer such as programmers and testers. They have to select a related list of requirements among two sets of requirements. Those pair lists of requirements have to be the same order from difference prioritizing models. Whereas, the subjects don’t realize those which requirements are belong to which practical model. The main objective of this study is to assess the accuracy of a proposed model with a reference model. The results show that the proposed approach provides precise measurement of accuracy for prioritizing model.

The rapid progress in the industry increases the number of plant, and a myriad of operation and maintenance manuals is required for the plant safety activities. Moreover, major challenge in safety prevention and maintenance is that manual search and retrieval requires extensive labor-intensive and time-consuming process incurred by high degree of semantic ambiguity and linguistic complexities among the various operation and maintenance manuals. In this paper, we propose a novel approach on plant operation and maintenance guideline using semantic processing and clustering techniques for the plant safety activities. Specifically, the proposed method can provide the engineers with the more enhanced guidelines by information propagation.

In this study, load equivalency factors based on rutting criteria of heavy vehicles operating at the southern portion of Malaysian peninsula were developed. The study was based on the traffic volume and weight collected by three weight-in-motion stations for more than 6 million heavy vehicles. It was also based on the analysis of the effect of their weight on more than three hundred and fifty kilometers of flexible pavements. Based on the analysis made in this study, the average rutting load equivalency factors for each heavy vehicles type were developed. The developed rutting load equivalency factors could be used in flexible pavement design and rehabilitation purposes in the southern portion of Malaysian peninsula.

The learning of subtraction is essential for elementary students. However, common subtraction misconceptions hinder mathematics underachievers from learning subtraction. Existing remedial instruction focuses on teacher-oriented or self-learning approaches. However, we think that the tutor-based approach with virtual manipulatives can provide students with an opportunity to correct their misconceptions. In this study, a simple tutoring method based on misconception diagnosis is proposed, and supportive virtual manipulatives are prepared for voluntary tutors to use. First, the tutor identifies the tutee’s misconception by conducting a diagnostic test. Then, the tutor applies corresponding virtual manipulatives to help the tutee to understand the concept. For the first case manipulatives from the National Laboratory of Virtual Manipulatives (NLVM’s) are used, and the tutor-tutee interaction patterns are identified by sequential analysis. An enhanced virtual manipulative was then developed according to the aforementioned analysis, and applied to the second case to investigate its performance. Evaluation results indicate that despite the need for further improvement, the tutoring method with the enhanced virtual manipulative is effective for correcting subtraction misconceptions. Finally, recommendations for future research are proposed.

Development of an information system is a challenging task due to many of its unique and sensitive nature. As stakeholders, it is important for both managerial and technical counterparts to understand the challenges in information system development. This paper explores the efficiency of implementing a simulation workshop on information system development in an industrial engineering class as well as report lesson leant from the industrial points of view.

Environmental issues associated with industrial activities such as gas emissions and toxic chemicals waste caused the nature imbalance effects. Therefore, ISO14001 standard was introduced and employed globally. Previous studies related to ISO 14001 in Malaysia are focused at high technologies and construction sectors. Thus, this research aims to determine the correlation between ISO 14001 orientation factor and environmental management capability (EMC) of suppliers towards SMEs organizational performance. The surveys were distributed to various ISO 14001 certified furniture manufacturing companies registered under Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers in southern region of Malaysia. The data were collected among 70 respondents at the managerial and production level. Efficient production and EMC of suppliers’ factors are significantly correlated to organizational performance. Thus, companies are recommended to employed green supply chain practices and eco-efficiency production processes. This quantitative case study is important to SMEs in the specific area in order to provide knowledge on the impact of ISO14001 into production and operation.

Frontline service workers provide service to customers on behalf of the organization. Many recent studies have confirmed that customer service performances are positively linked with customer’s feelings. Frontline service workers in contact with customers have to conceal their true emotions while at work, instead displaying emotions appropriate to those required by the organization. However, the everyday emotions of members in the organization affect individual behavior. The display of day-to-day behavior by frontline service workers may be influenced by personal emotions. This study is thus designed as a longitudinal study to observe the effect of daily emotional variations on the emotional labor of service personnel.

Supply chain risk management has been an essential issue in recent years. Cargo loss in supply chain and logistics activities has been the major cause of delays and supply chain disruption; however, rarely do studies provide comprehensive studies focusing on cargo loss analysis and prevention in various modes of transportation. Hence, this study aims to investigate the cargo loss severity of an electronics company. Decision tree analysis is adapted to develop classification models for cargo loss severity of electronics products. The empirical results with the classification rules can be utilized as a cargo loss prediction tool to help managers to make an effective plan on cargo loss prevention.

This paper investigates the effect of information sharing on inventory management of two-echelon distribution network, consisting of a distribution center and retailers. Shortages that occur at DC and at retailers are assumed backlogged and lost sales. Performance of a decentralized system, where inventory decisions are made locally, is compared with a centralized system, where echelon inventory position and lead time are used through information sharing. An iterative procedure to determine inventory policy parameters is used in both systems. The purpose is to minimize the total inventory management cost, including costs of ordering, inventory holding, and shortage. A numerical example is provided.

Hong Kong rice supply chain is characterized as totally importing from overseas countries and huge local demand. There exist numerous risk issues in different stages of the supply chain. Using the technique of value stream analysis, this paper investigates the supply chain structure and identifies the relevant risk factors on the supply side and demand side of the chain. Findings show that the rice supply chain risk may arise from the process of rice production and milling, storing and distribution, government policy, demand fluctuation and so on. All risk factors are assessed based on value chain analysis and the related mitigation measures are proposed.

Researches on product development since 1970s have discussed many aspects, yet studies on the role of product development in driving product success, as believed in SCM concept, are rarely available. The available ones do not clearly describe the way product development affects product success. This paper presents a model development of the relationship between several aspects including product development, and product success. Six variables are constructed based on a review, and the relationships are evaluated using meta-analysis on 166 studies spanning 35 years, carried out in four continents, covering large scale industries and SMEs, manufacturers and services, profit and non-profit organization. The result shows that five of the six variables are clearly correlated to product success, while one of them could not be proven. The future work then is model modification based on this result.

Thai silk is one of Thailand’s most well-known products, which is considered as the best silk in the world. It is famous for its bearing uniqueness features, beautiful designs, bright colors and elegant quality. Silk weaving is a long-established folk craft passed down from generation to generation that resembles the region’s cultural heritage. It pays an important role to the foundation of Thai local economy for centuries.Thai products produced by local communities using indigenous skills and craftsmanship combined with available natural resources and raw materials. However, it is widely accepted that there exists a managerial gap in many small or micro-sized enterprise, many activities may not be enough to make those products are sustainable. Understanding the key issues affected Thai silk entire chain is an important step to improve the competitiveness of those products. In this paper, case studies are therefore conducted, as part of a research project to examine the current stage. The SCOR model is employed to identify challenges and pinpoint weaknesses in management practices also in what processes have an effect on inefficiency within the supply chain before radical suggestions improvements. This paper intends to report two case studies of Thai silk products and concludes with a summary of key issues that are raised in the fieldwork. Finally, conclusions and recommendations for further development of the main study are also provided in the paper.

In this paper, a multi-objective mathematical model is developed in fuzzy environment in which the vagueness in aspiration level of objectives and data imprecision regarding the selection criteria and related constraints are considered simultaneously as a source of fuzziness. In the model, such data imprecision is presented based on the estimation of its possibility distribution to better capture the uncertainty. Finally, a fuzzy solution methodology is constructed by the aid of weighted additive aggregation function to derive optimal solution. As preliminary investigation, we report that the proposed model is more flexible and convenient than the previous models whose imprecise parameters are treated as a given single estimated value.

At the end of 2015, all the ASEAN member countries including Thailand will become one ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) to promote regional integration. A consequence of the AEC is that there will be no taxes for the products whose origins are in the ASEAN region. Local businesses in all sectors must be prepared to compete with their counterparts from other countries within the region. Steel is an important fundamental industry in developing countries. Every year, Thailand imports over two million tons of long steel. Part of this is due to the lack of a steel smelting plant in Thailand. This paper analyzes the value-added chain of long steel products in Thailand and projects the total circulating volume up to 2017. This paper also assesses important factors influencing the long steel supply chain in Thailand, including those from the AEC, in order to recommend improvement strategies for this industry in the future.

The steel industry is an important basic industry to the economic growth of developing countries. Steel is a primary raw material for many products downstream in the supply chain. In this paper, we study important factors in the steel industry in Thailand. The relations among the factors are analyzed using a method called DEMATEL. There are totally 11 important factors. The analysis shows that there are three groups of factors: causal, affected, and independent ones. Since the causal factors affect other factors, they should be paid attention very closely. The analysis shows that there are four causal factors which are large domestic market size, favorable government policies, high labor skill, and well planned production schedule. The other factors, however, are also important to the industry even though their roles are different. Strategies are then formulated based on the roles of the factors to enhance the competitiveness of the Thai iron and steel supply chain.

This research is a sequel of the authors’ earlier conducted researches in the fields of identifying the key performance indicator for actors and regulators. In the previous study, authors proposed a model based on Balanced Scorecard perspective, by integrating process based on SCOR into the internal business processes and incorporated the role of regulators in each perspective. This model referred as B-S-Rc model (Balanced Scorecard-SCOR-Regulator contribution). The weakness of this model is it has no standard methodology and the inability to provide a benchmark. The objective of the present study is developing a model to overcome the shortcomings of the B-S–Rc, by combining the B-S - Rc with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This integrated model is validated on supply chain’s SME and regulators of innovative products in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It is found that the combination of BS-Rc-DEA provides information that enables benchmarking to overcome the weaknesses of B-S-Rc model.

The Study of consumers’ post consumption behaviour is important to obtain an explanation of consumers’ behaviour. This information is needed to design the appropriate reverse logistics activities. This study conducted toward the mobile phone users in Indonesia, aims to solicit the data of consumers’ post consumption behaviour for mobile phone. From 346 respondents, there were three post consumption behaviours identified, namely: sell to second-hand market, storage/ donated to others, and direct discarding, meanwhile there was no consumer who were willing to return to a take back program. The study showed that the behaviour with the highest frequency distribution was storage/ donated to others. The homogeneity tests revealed the differences in proportion of storage/ donated to others and direct discarding based on gender, as well as the differences in proportion of direct discarding based on the income. The independent test found that there was no relationship between demographic backgrounds with the choices of post consumption behaviour.

To successfully operate an organization nowadays needs to improve the environmental performance due to increasing demands on environmental concerns. To identify improving area requires assessment methodology. This study applies supply chain operations assessment framework and FMEA to identify area that need to be urgently improved. The application of this assessment methodology is implemented to the can packaging industry to identify the improving area. Then the suggestion for improvement is achieved by the application of mathematical modelling. The improvement can be achieved and the performance of the can packaging manufacturer is increase both environmental and supply chain performance.

This paper proposes the application of Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory to the selection of digital communication channels, in order to attain the finest trade-off between return on investment and risk. Previous application of financial portfolio theory in Marketing, as a means to optimize the portfolio, focused solely on the use of the model in decisions related to product, customer and customer segment, retail format and price promotion portfolios. The authors concluded that the Modern Portfolio Theory may be used as a decision support system in the selection of a company’s Digital Marketing channels or tactics, mutatis mutandis, so to find the share of the communication budget to be allocated to each type of digital channel or tactic.

Customers can browse the information of stockout items in online retailing, thus change their preferences for the stockout product. This study tests the hypothesis that brand equity moderates the effect of causes of stockout on consumer preference for the online stockout product. The results reveal that for high-equity branded products, consumers exhibit a slit decrease in preference for the product whether the product is out-of-stock due to heavy demand or short supply. By comparison, for low-equity branded products, consumers increase preference for the product if the product is out-of-stock due to excessive demand and decrease preference for the product if stockout cause is supply-based. These findings highlight the importance of taking the product’s brand equity into consideration when stating different kinds of causes for stockout to consumers.

Designed, developed and presented in this paper is a remote controlled mobile robot for toy application using RF module in PIC microcontroller. The goal of this study is to provide a reliable way of communication over a Wi-Fi network for mobile robot using Radio Frequency (RF) wireless communication module. The proponents make use of model-based task allocation method. This effective task allocation method is made possible thru central commanding computer, which realizes reliable operation for identified tasks. The proponents built a mobile robot, with capability of responding to three simple movements: forward, turn left and turn right. The proponents make use of PIC microcontroller as its control unit and it was programmed using C++. The mobile robot will communicate with a central commanding server, which is to be controlled over RF wireless communication. Through a local area network, the computer will send the command movements to the mobile robot using RF module.

Spatial Fourier Transform theory is used to evaluate the performance characteristics of electrical machines. Yamamura’s Space Fourier Transform theory applicable to linear induction motor is adapted for predicting the performance characteristics of different electrical machines.

A concept of design by customer (DBC) recently introduced by researchers aims to increase customer satisfaction by opening maximum possible channel for customers to involve in value creation. A comprehensive analysis is needed before applying the concept in order to maximize the opportunity for success. Proposed in this paper is product attribute analysis (PAA), a systematic method to determine the optimum level for customers to involve in defining product specifications so that their fitness to individual customer preference can be achieved without any problem in production process. The analysis starts with identifying the product attributes that customers may focus on and then finding out the corresponding building elements that contribute to the quality of the attributes. A progressive PAA evaluation table is utilized to conduct stage by stage assessments. Based on the table, the flexibility level of the attributes can be identified and the position of CIDPs can be assigned.

The customer choice and awareness have been increasing tremendously during this decade due to more open economy, the advent of information technology and media revolution, besides hectic competition for resources by banks. As markets have become increasingly competitive, customers can now immediately go elsewhere if they do not get what they want. Continuous improvement, gaining the competitive edge, increased market share, higher profits-none of these things is possible unless businesses can find new ways of maintaining the loyalty of existing customers. It takes only a few incidents and direct experiences for the knowledgeable customers to form an opinion about the quality of the services and the quality of the product offered. Hence, ”customer service is not being viewed as just a business strategy but should become a corporate mission.”

Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) in Indonesia will play an increasingly significant part in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). To prepare for the single market place at the end of 2015, Indonesia LSPs need to understand their existing situation and how they can improve their performance. The study follows a prior research on Thai LSPs and thus the same questionnaire was distributed to Indonesia LSPs and users. The SERVQUAL method was utilized to identify the gaps between the LSPs and users. It was found that neither Indonesia LSPs nor Thai LSPs can perform their service to meet with their customers’ expectation over the service delivered. The LSPs must improve their performance to satisfy their customers, which will directly drive product flows and eventually help them gain benefits from AEC.

In this study, physical and mechanical properties of high density kenaf (

hibiscus cannabinus

) fibreboard (HDKF) were evaluated. Thermochemical treated kenaf fibres were treated with three different temperatures that were 100ºC, 130ºC and 150ºC in laboratory autoclave. The physical properties (thickness swelling and water absorption) and mechanical properties (static bending and internal bonding tests) were tested according to British Standards. The results showed that the thermochemical treatment was effective to reduce thickness swelling (TS) and water absorption (WA). Since the static bending test modulus of rupture (MOR) was reduced, whereas modulus of elasticity (MOE) was increased up to 130°C of treatment than started to drop when treated with 150°C of temperature. For internal bonding test results showed some improvement when treated with thermochemical treatment.

ACE Logistics, Inc. operates cross-dock procedures where products from different suppliers are distributed directly to the customers. The study will focus on the dispatch process. It aims to reduce the cases of Receiving Discrepancy Reports (RDR) that induce charges, to analyze the present system, to identify the causes of RDR and to develop a proposed system for the company. It was carried out using the DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) model of Lean Six Sigma. The DMAIC Model identified that the factors that causes RDR are facility, equipment, process and man. The proposed system, which includes the improvement of the facilities layout and the cross dock operation process, could be used in order to reduce the cases of RDR.

With China’s rapid economic development in recent years, the scale of foreign direct investment has been expanding.In the meantime, environmental issues have been receiving increasing attention, since the concept of a low carbon economy is prevalent in the world. Secondary Industry is the major energy consumers and the emitted carbon dioxide has a significant negative influence on the environment.This paper discusses the background of low carbon economy and conducts an empirical study of the carbon dioxide emission effect of foreign direct investment in the Secondary Industryin Shandong Province. The conclusion is that foreign direct investment leads to more carbon dioxide emissions, which is not conducive to the development of green productivity and a low carbon economy in Shandong Province.

In this work, an evaluation of the flux density of the solar radio burst is analyzed. We used a nineteenth (19) elements of rod aluminums’ type as a conductor with of different sizes is being prepared to construct a log periodic dipole antenna (LPDA) from 45 - 870 MHz. The testing was carried out at the National Space Agency (PAN), Sg. Lang, Banting Selangor by connecting to the

Compound Low Cost Low Frequency Spectroscopy Transportable Observatory

(CALLISTO) spectrometer. We choose the input impedance, R

0

= 50 ohm for this LPDA antenna. From the analysis, the gain of the antenna is 9.3 dB. This antenna possibly captures a signal that covers about 0.08 m2 area of the Sun. It was found that the temperature of the burst that detected at the feed point of the antenna is 32 K. However, the signal becomes decrease to 28.75K while by the CALLISTO spectrometer as a receiver. We found that the isotropic source spectral power is 1576 W/Hz. Since the burst level above the background sky is 0.41 dB, the flux density of the burst is 5.5 x 10

− 21

W/m

2

/Hz. We conclude that this antenna is suitable for to observe the Sun activities at low frequency region.

This paper aims to studies the opinion, attitude and compliance of cyclists who ride a bicycle in Chiang Mai city, Thailand, with a Bicycle-Helmet Signal (BHS). The purpose of BHS is to help decreasing accidents for cyclists. The device automatically shows turning signal when cyclists lean their head to the left or right-hand side. The findings are based on a sample size of 30 which were taken from the local cyclists. Two groups have been separated to test the confidence, the group of cyclists using BHS and the other cyclists who use the same road with the first group. The results of five sections of questionnaires have been analyzed and show the quality of BHS. The details of opinions, attitudes and compliance are valuable for the design of BHS which provides safety on the road.

A Real Time and Automatic Customer Satisfaction Index is an application-based facial expression recognition system which is used to capture a person facial expression. The main idea of this system is to capture customer’s facial expressions while using a product or services and act as an assessment tool to evaluate customer satisfaction with subjective evaluation (questionnaire) to understand customer’s facial expressions. Hence, the system will enable product or services seller to get customer feedback immediately and it can help product or services seller to save time because the ordinary way to get customer feedback about a product or services is by doing a survey or interview.

Designed and presented in this paper is Indoor Air Quality Assessment using fuzzy logic technology. Triangular membership functions for classified Air and Gaseous parametric categories are to be constructed in Matlab Fuzzy Logic Toolbox using ASHRAE, EPA and WHO standards. Air parameters include Temperature (T) and Relative Humidity (RH) while Gaseous parameters include Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Carbon Dioxide (CO

2

). The parameters are to be classified as Very Good (VG), Good (G), Fair (F), Poor (P) and Very Poor (VP). The Sugeno-style of inference systems is utilized in this proposed to describe the fuzziness of assessing indoor air quality. There were 131 fuzzy rules formulated. The output parameter is classified as Highly Acceptable (HA), Acceptable (A), Just Acceptable (JA), Not Acceptable (NA), and Highly Not Acceptable (HNA). The fuzzy-based system is simulated and the results were further verified using the weighted means of 90 generated data samples.

With the wide spread popularity of internet in the field of entertainment industry, online games emerged as one of the biggest sources of entertainment. Many players all over the globe play online and compete against each other. But unfortunately not all players playing online games are honest. Some players use unfair means to have advantage over the others, the use of bot is the one among them. In this paper we will purpose a new Artificial Intelligent System which makes use of both hardware and software to identify the bots and to stop them from playing the game. Later in the paper we discussed how this technique is better than the existing techniques and what more should be done in order to stop bots from playing online games.

A lane detection method is presented based on original omni-directional images. The parameterized representation of curves in panoramic images is provided by analyzing the projection model of omni-directional multi-camera system. Those lines of lane markings in image can be described by the parameter of lane markings in world coordinate system. The results of line fitting into world coordinate system are directly used to fit lane model for both parallel lane and non-parallel lanes. The performance of feature extractor and effectiveness of proposed lane detection method is verified on real world data.

Due to massively increasing of web pages and online documents, one of crucial processes to handle those documents is automatic (or at least semi-automatic) text classification. Based on the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS), a framework for text classification is presented. In the framework, we introduce statistical methods to represent each document as an IFS and to learn a pattern of each document class. Then, a similarity measure for IFSs is applied in order to assign the most relevant class to a new document. The proposed framework with various similarity measures for IFSs is evaluated by benchmark datasets. The experimental results show that our framework yields satisfactory results.

In this paper fully informed particle swarm optimization (FIPSO) is used as a tool to create an incremental method for design and optimization of Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy controllers. The controller is refined as time goes on, starting from a single controlling rule and evolving as FIPSO leads it to optimize itself. The controller is adaptive and can adjust itself to changes in the parameters of the system as it updates its rule base and parameters. The proposed scheme was applied to the inverted wedge that is a planar robot with two degrees of freedom and a single control input. The inverted wedge is an under actuated system known to be a good test bed for the development of unconventional advanced control techniques. The adaptive fuzzy TSK controller achieved the control objective in a short period of time which shows the efficiency of the proposed method.

In this study, the proponents make use of the concepts of fuzzy logic in simulating the ground grid integrity test of LPU-L SHL bldg. as Highly Acceptable (HA), Considerably Acceptable (CA), Just Acceptable (JA), Poor (P) and Critical (C). The input parameters include grounding conductor (conductivity), earth resistivity (Ω-

o

C) and grounding electrode (Ω -mm). The parameters in the model are acquired through the use of standards prescribed by the Philippine Electrical Code (PEC) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE). This study aims to provide a mathematical model to assess the integrity of the grounding system of the SHL bldg., design a fuzzy-based system, simulate and verify the effectiveness of the results. The proponents preferred to use the triangular membership functions and Sugeno-style of fuzzy inference systems.

This paper discusses possibilities of using ensembles of neural-networks-based classifiers in pattern recognition and classification. Attention is paid to systems that minimize demands on data preprocessing. Minimizing of requirements for preprocessing leads automatically to systems that are able to sufficiently classify the submitted data into predefined classes without knowledge of details of their significance. In our experiment, we try to increase diversity of classifiers by various filtering methods. The methods proposed in this paper come out from a technique called boosting, which is based on the principle of combining a large number of so-called weak classifiers into a strong classifier. All proposed improvements are experimentally verified.

Mining

frequent itemset

generates frequently purchased itemsets. However, a frequent itemset may not be the itemset with high value.

Mining high utility itemset

considers both of the profits and purchased quantities for the items, which is to find the itemsets with high utility for the business. However, mining high utility itemsets from the whole database may lose the high utility itemsets in a specific time period. Mining

high utility itemsets in different time periods

considers when the itemsets will be high utility, which can provide business manager to promote high utility itemsets in a specific time period.

In this paper, we propose an approach for mining high utility itemsets in different time periods. We first partition the database according to the user-specified basic time periods, and then combine the transactions in the continuous basic periods to find high utility itemsets in the continuous periods. Besides, we remain the itemsets which are not high utility in the previous periods, but may be high utility after combining the previous periods with the current basic period, such that the high utility itemsets in continuous basic periods will not be lost.

This paper presents a novel and an efficient content based image retrieval technique based on content color, texture and shape, which are primary low level features to describe image. The proposed method uses fuzzy texton method to extract texture features and discrete shearlet transform for shape features in addition to color features. Fuzzy Texton is a way to describe the texture properties in image analysis. Shearlet transforms can analyze signals defined not only at various orientations but also at multiple scales. The test results emerged more efficient than all the predecessor peer techniques like Texton Co-occurrence Matrix (TCM), Texton Multi Histogram (TMH) and Texels of Fuzzy Texton (TT).

The lean management philosophy is applied to improve the productivity and customer satisfaction of an organization. Though lean implementations often fail or are not sustainable. Based on this, an assessment tool is developed. It consists of 24 criteria that are divided in the 4 categories: leadership, culture, knowledge, and process. The category culture is subdivided in: improvement, empowering, and partnering. The rating of each criterion works by interviews on the management and supervisor level, and surveys on all levels of the company. To improve the score of low rated criteria, different countermeasures for each criterion are named. By gathering the knowledge of different research and case studies, this tool can help companies to implement lean in a sustainable way.

In hard anodizing process which requires an aluminum part soaked in the electrolysis solution in order to form anodic (aluminum oxide) film on the aluminum part so that it will be harder and durable for work. Although, this part will be drained afterwards by ionize water to eliminate impurities from it, aluminum sulfate stain may be traceable from the part. It is especially for cookware products that require clear coating on an anodized part for aesthetic purpose. It can be imagined that the trace mark from aluminum sulfate can scrap this part or it has to be reworked. However, in coating process, there are three coating steps named prime, middle, top that may aid to conceal the mark as long as the required coating thickness is within specification. However, only middle level is concerned in this work. Therefore, the objective of this paper is two folds. One is to investigate the relationship of spray coating parameters to dry film thickness (DFT) and the other is to determine DFT which is able to conceal the abovementioned trace on the hard anodizing part.

In the last decade the industrial automation had been making important changes integrating Internet and other emergent technologies, concepts, methods and tools, as cloud computing and Service Oriented Architecture(SOA) approaches. As a first consequence, the industrial automation context is also increasing in complexity, presenting new challenges for engineers and managers. Examples include dealing with autonomous cyber physical systems, evolvable heterogeneous structures that do not appear completely formed and where functions and goal are added, removed or modified along the life cycle, as well as handling emergent properties and behaviours of entire systems, e.g. resulting from integrating new systems being not localized to any single system component. [1]. The objective of this paper is to make a review in industrial automation background, analyze the technological trends and challenges and propose a flexible and autoconfigurable service-oriented model, making up basis for the cloud manufacturing. In this model the entities are loosely coupled, due the fact that a service’s functionality communication is showed through its interfaces.

Spray coating process is a simple technique to develop a thin and uniform coating layer on a substrate, where the atomized coating material is transferred to the target surface for deposition by the assist of pressurized air flow. However, the utilization of coating material and deposition rate associated with this technique can be extremely low under the improper setup of spraying conditions. The process study and optimization of spray coating were experimentally examined in this paper to provide an insight into the process. Teflon was employed as the coating material due to its renowned on the non-stick feature. Air pressure, spray time, nozzle size and spray distance were optimized with regard to the material consumption and coating layer thickness. As per the experimental results, the small nozzle size of spray gun should be applied together with the low air pressure, low spray time and short spray distance from the target to minimize the Teflon consumption and to accurately control the dry film thickness obtained. The predictive models for these two responses were also presented in this research.

Industrial or manufacturing management is a complex task that requires prior information from several entries to support in order to make the right decision with efficient solution and obtain the optimum profit. Business intelligent technology approach allows business organization to utilize information in a form of heterogeneous view and benefits several objectives for uses. This work employs business intelligent concepts to develop simplified real time process analysis systems for supportive manufacturing management. With many desirable benefits provided, multiple objectives of analysis derive from the single database. The system trial in homogenous or mass productions results in displaying the data analysis and enabling managers to view the multidimensional information based on a variety of perspectives such as a process improvement, inventory control, material management, quality assurance and eventually governance management in manufacturing. Furthermore, this work can be applicable to different configuration products.

This paper is aimed at demonstrating a design of a loading and unloading station cell for transporting the Slider, one of the critical components in a hard disk drive, which is attached at the end of the head gimbal arm, for electronic inspection and verification before transferring to the Head Gimbal Assembly (HGA) line. This is due to the fact that the Slider must be defect free so that a hard disk drive can perfectly perform its function as a data storage device. Therefore, each Slider must be 100% quality checked and identified as a conforming or nonconforming product and it must be done by an automated testing machine. The required yearly demand of a Slider for testing is around 160 million pieces. Therefore, a design to meet this criterion is a must and must be cost-effectiveness. A machine cluster concept is proposed to design load/unload station configuration. It is found that the proposed design is consisted of four cells which is composed of 44 automated load/unload machines with only one worker to perform feeding service to these cells.

With the growth of communications services and mobile devices, it leads to the popularity of mobile operating systems such as Android and iOS, and bring the market growth opportunities for the software industry. Among lots kinds of applications (APP), game APPs have attracted much attention. According to related research, it estimates that in 2015 the market value of game APPs will reach to 20% of the overall game market. In the fierce competition, how to design products for satisfying the needs of users, and attract users to download have become one of important issues for developers of game APPs. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to define the potential factors that influence users to download game APP based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and innovation diffusion theory (IDT). Then, two feature selection methods, Support Vector Machine-Recursive Feature Elimination (SVM-RFE) and Information Gain (IG) will be utilized to identify the key factors of downloading game APPs. Finally, a comparison between different groups will be provided. The results can be used as a reference for game developers and researchers to design game APPs.

The surge e-commerce demand stimulates the corresponding huge logistics requirements in China. However, most managers have little knowledge about how to well manage e-commerce logistics. This study systematically investigates the logistics system of two representative e-commerce platforms (i.e., Big Taobao and JD.COM) in China. Furthermore, the SWOT analysis was conducted to explore the logistics system of Big Taobao and JD.COM, respectively. Finally, the crucial operations strategies were devised based on the results of SWOT analysis.

Banks were among the pioneers in developing and implementing relationship marketing strategies, since they were between the first recipients of the radical changes that took place in global economy in recent years. This study is part of an ongoing research project, which among others, aims to develop an instrument to measure the outcome of the implementation of relationship marketing strategies. Field research was conducted among customers of Greek banks. Principal component analysis was then performed in order to identify latent factors among the questionnaire items. The results obtained were satisfactory, since 7 factors were extracted, which were labeled as relationship value, crisis management, personalized sales, customer focus, flexibility, communication quality and reliability. Moreover, regression analysis verified the significant explanatory power of the factors emerged over customer loyalty.

Websites are one of the most critical mechanics which are used to establish transaction between consumers and businesses. Gaining trust from the customers can be challenging, especially for new entrepreneurs. This paper analyzes websites of top global logistics providers based on a trust building framework. The results reveal motivating factors that are valuable and critical for building trust on the websites. In this paper, common factors and imperfection affecting trust of the top global logistics websites are uncovered. The findings provide guidelines in building trust for any emerging logistics businesses, or other E-business.

Nowadays, a lack of continuity and a lack of information sharing, often known as “fragmented system” have been found in Thai hospital supply chain. This issue is a critical problem in healthcare domain. To solve this situation, the fragmented pieces of business processes can be assembled by business process reengineering (BPR). A tool for understanding systems and determining whether changes are effective is needed as one foundation. Likewise, a standard view of collaboration among individuals and functions are required. Therefore, this study aims to construct the multi-purpose of hospital supply chain process reference model (H-PROM) in order to achieve BPR in healthcare. In order to develop the model, the empirical-based construction method is proposed. At the first two stage of the methodology, some results are presented in this paper. The hospital supply chain process reference framework is constructed based on the empirical foundation that acquired from hospital case studies.

With the rapid penetration of mobile devices into society, potential of using smartphones in healthcare are very exciting. Smartphone based healthcare platforms bringing the advanced laboratory instruments to rural areas, develop-ing countries and in case of emergency. It is foreseeable that the ubiquitous smartphone based platform would generate tremendous data. We need to find better ways to manage and analyze them. Other challenges involving reliability, usability and security are also important issues to take into account. Mobile is the future of healthcare. The way of healthcare will be changed stupendously after mitigate the barriers and limitations.

Operating room (OR) scientific management calls for an efficient decision making to determine the elective surgeries date and assign qualified nurses to shifts over a certain period. Such two decisions, the surgery planning and nurse rostering, are classified as the mid-term decision. They have mutual influence to each other but are solved independently in the literature. A mid-term OR decision optimization integrating surgery planning and nurse rostering is described and an ACO approach is proposed to solve such multi-objective optimization problem. The test case from the 10-days actual hospital operation data is used to evaluate the proposed approach. The comparison analysis shows the advantage of the integrated decision in balancing the daily surgeries quantity and the nurses’ workload.

Previous studies of hospital supply chain performance measurement normally focus on either the performance of the hospital supply chain to be measured and the framework/methodology for performance measurement, or the performance of certain activities/processes in the chain for improvement. There is limited number of studies that explore the entire hospital supply chain performance concurrently with the processes in the hospital supply chain. This paper attempts to explore the performance of hospital supply chain and link them to the activities of the hospital supply chain in order to see the relationship of performance on the hospital supply chain activities to eventually identify the key performance indicator for the particular process. The result of the study shows that relationship of hospital supply chain performance, the business process and the link between the two can yield the key performance indicator for the considered process.

Kansei’s physiological measurement were pursued in 4 (four) production systems of small-medium sized enterprises in in Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY), Indonesia. These SMEs produces indigenous food product of Bakpia, Cracker, Fish chips and Tempe. Profile of Mood States (POMS) was used as the verbal parameter to measure Total Mood Disturbance (TMD). Heart rate was used as the non-verbal parameter. The measurement was pursued in daily check-in before working and check-out after working. The research results indicated TMD and heart rate are sensible to measure physiological response to workplace environmental parameters. Workplace environment has greater impact to the sensibility of worker mood and heart rate in Bakpia and Tempe’s SMEs, while it has less impact in Cracker and Fish Chips’s SMEs.

Notebook experienced rapid growth following the human needs. This is evidenced by the increase of notebook sales every year. The problem of shortage and mismatch facilities and supporting infrastructure causes of notebook users force their capacity to use the notebook with non ergonomic position. A preliminary survey through interviews found that the notebook soft case not yet provide ease of mobilization, convenience of use, and protection of health to the users. Therefore it is required an alternatives design of notebook soft case which is ergonomics and multifunction. One of the methods used to design the notebook soft case is Quality Function Deployment (QFD). In this study, QFD is implemented to determine the customer and technical requirements. The results indicate that the material selection which has impact resistant and waterproof is very important to design an ergonomics and multifunctional notebook soft case.

Household has been identified by researchers as an important target group of energy conservation. User behavior in utilizing electricity becomes significant. Energy consumption in the residential sector offers an important opportunity for conserving resources. This study attempts to identify the role of the economic behaviour of resident households. In this paper, we analyse the extent to which the use of electricity is determined by the technical specifications of the dwelling as compared to the demographic characteristics of the residents. Analysis is based on a sample of 210 Padang homes and their occupants. Results show that electricity consumption varies more directly with household composition. The results provide a scientific evidence for stakeholders on the potential of controlling electricity consumption and designing energy policy in residential sector

In this paper, we have considered for study the central composite design (CCD) with a view to extending the related second-order response surface models. In the CCD, there are three types of design points, such as the factorial, axial and center points. We devised a new type of CCD for the experiments with replicate runs at such design points, not just at the design center. This type of experimental design, named as CCD-R, proves to be flexible in the sense that there exist a myriad of exactly orthogonal and nearly rotatable designs. It is also demonstrated that the proposed CCD-R is useful, especially when a number of replicate runs are desired in the experiment for one reason or another. Since the second-order generalized regression models provide a good framework of the method, an attempt is given to the problem of logistic regression analysis for categorical data based on the CCD-R.

There exist many software trustworthiness measures based on the decompositions of attributes. However, few of them are concerned with using more rigorous approaches to measure software trustworthiness and carrying out the theoretical validation of measures. Axiomatic approaches formalize the empirical understanding of a software attribute through the definition of a set of desirable software measure properties. It can provide precise and formal terms for the quantification of software attributes. We once used axiomatic approaches to measure software trustworthiness based on multi-dimensional attributes, in this paper, based on previous works, we apply axiomatic approaches to measure software trustworthiness based on the decompositions of attributes, propose the desirable properties of software trustworthiness measures based on the decompositions of attributes, present a software trustworthiness measure and validate this measure from the theory by proving that it complies with the set of properties. Compared with the popular software trustworthiness measures, this measure can evaluate software trustworthiness better in view of our properties.

In today’s highly competitive market, the demand for quality is the single most critical factor for companies to survive in the ever-expanding global marketplace. Total Quality Management (TQM) has been developed as a result of intense global competition. Most of the previous works show that TQM has significant relationship with business performance. However, the examining of moderators is less given in previous work, which mediators are known generally as general tools and techniques without specific focus on types of improvement. The purpose of this paper is to propose relationship between TQM practices and business performance with mediators effect of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) based on extensive review of the literature. The main contribution of this paper is to identify the relationships among TQM, TPM practices and business performance as a conceptual model. This proposed conceptual model will help the academicians and industry players to have better understanding on the relationship between the practices.

Purpose

The aim of this review paper is to critically analyse those factors which influence upon the way human resource practices are worked-out in MNCs particularly those that operate in emerging markets like China & India. These factors comprises internal factors and also external factors that play their pivotal role in shaping the said HR practices like recruitment & selection, compensation, remuneration, training and development, etc. and therefore these determinants if truly taken into consideration by multinational corporations increase the likelihood of success that these companies know better ways in order to attract, develop and retain employees that keep potential, skills and capabilities with them. For firms whose strategic focus is on its employees do prosper and can earn competitive advantage against their counterpart even if they are operating in developed countries. Hence, in order to highlight those critical determinant/factors the conceptual framework completed by Mohan Thite, Adrian Wilkinson & Dhara Shah on the reserach subject of internationlization and Human resource strategies in MNCs of emerging markets. After having gone through the literature we come to know that the conceptual framework keeps some gaps in itself and doesn’t include other important and critical factors which have been proposed by our research in form of extented concpetual framwork like for instance, strategic role of HR department, high performance work system (HPWS), corporate social responsibilty and its link with HR practices and many more.

Value

This research keeps significance for those MNCs which operate in emerging markets. Despite the fact that stiff competition, advance technological interventions, globalizaiton have made very much difficult environment for MNCs to earn success in form of competitive advantage in the industry, companies can lead from the front if they manage to utilize their workforce potential in the right direction. To achieve this end companies will have to deliberate upon internal and external factors that exert influnce over their HR practices as it is well known to everyone that if organizaitons want to gain competitive or even comparative advantage they need to take their human resource as a strategic asset not merely as an input for work process.

Conclusion

It has been concluded that if MNCs really want to outperform in emerging markets those should have to take all concerned critical factors into consideration which are significant for bringing success to them in form of outcomes that are to be generated by capable workforce MNCs have got with them. Thus, all depends on the way MNCs attract, develop and retain their human resource which is composed of diversity and get affected by multifarious challanges and from the organizational point of view it gives glimpse to the solution of problems that arise from forward or reverse diffusion to MNCs.

Organizations regardless of their size and sector need to measure and review their quality performance strategically and tactically for gaining a competitive advantage. The primary purpose of this paper is to empirically identify and analyze the measures perceived as important for assessing business excellence practices within the United Arab Emirates context. Eight factors with a total of 52 practice sub-factors have been identified and derived from an extensive literature review followed by expert’s panel assessment. A self-administered questionnaire survey is conducted to confirm the adaptability of the proposed measured with 138 companies from different sector and business. The SPSS software was employed to perform the required statistical analysis of the data collected from surveys. Based on analysis, five factors including 29 sub-factors have proposed as excellence practices measures for assessing business excellence practices. The proposed measures then become the main constructs and basis for developing a self-assessment tool in the future research.

Recently, the cloud computing with big data is known as a next-generation software service paradigm. However, the effective method of software reliability assessment considering the big data and cloud computing has been only few presented. In particular, the big data on cloud computing is managed by using several software, i.e., Hadoop and NoSQL are used as the big-data-targeted processing software, OpenStack and Eucalyptus are well-known as the cloud computing software. In this paper, we propose the method of component-based reliability assessment for the software such as database and cloud. Moreover, we propose the method of system-wide reliability assessment considering the big data on cloud computing. In particular, we deeply analyze the software reliability based on two kinds of data set in terms of the background factors. Then, we analyze the software failure-occurrence time data and the cumulative number of detected faults data by applying the hazard rate model and stochastic differential equation one. Additionally, we show several numerical examples for the actual data.

Vibration fatigue is one of the main mechanisms which will cause the failures of electronic devices. If the natural frequency of a PCB and its case do not obey octave rule, the vibration of the PCB and the case will couple with each other, and stress applied on PCB will be amplified, resulting in early failure. With Steinberg vibration fatigue prediction models, this paper studies the effect of vibration transmissibility on fatigue lifetime of electronic devices with consideration of coupling. ADAMS software is used to simulate and analyze the vibration transmissibility of electronic devices. The correction of vibration transmissibility in Steinberg model is given. In case study, vibration fatigue lifetimes that compute with corrected Steinberg model and the model without consideration of vibration transmissibility are compared. Effect of vibration transmissibility on electronic devices’ fatigue life is discussed.

Safety instrumented systems (SISs) are used in many application areas to reduce the likelihood of hazardous events and/or to mitigate the consequences of such events. A typical SIS has three subsystems, each with redundant channels that are vulnerable to common cause failures. This paper deals with the reliability importance of the channels of a SIS. Five different importance measures are determined with the average probability of failure on demand as reliability performance measure. A Markov method is used to link the failure rates of channels and the system unavailability. Common cause failures are also taken into account. An illustrative example is provided to describe the calculation process of the reliability importance of the channels.

In this study, fatigue damage ratios caused by different types of heavy vehicles operating in the southern part of Malaysian Peninsula were developed. More than 6 million heavy vehicles’ traffic volumes and weights were collected from 3 Weight-In-Motion stations located at Tangkak, Yong Peng, and Sedenak. Through the analysis, an average fatigue damage ratios for each heavy vehicles types were developed to be used in flexible pavement design and rehabilitation purposes.

The analysis of the manufacturing process that formed the product inherent reliability and the determination of the key technological factors that have great influence on product inherent reliability can be the foundation of the process control and process improvement. And in order to improve the prediction accuracy and efficiency of the model, the input variables were selected firstly based on the analysis of input and output variables correlation. Firstly, the regularity of the product inherent reliability formed in manufacturing process was obtained through the analysis of production process. secondly, the estimation method of mutual information based on the copula entropy was given. thirdly, the steps choosing the key process factors were proposed based on the nonlinear correlation analysis. And finally the feasibility and practicability of the method were indicated by an application case.

This study is to identify the awareness of public towards maintenance in their vehicle. The maintenance discuss in this study are narrowed and focused on two type of maintenance strategy particularly preventive maintenance. Maintaining vehicle have been an issue in Malaysia where we can see accidents happening in every seasonal in transportation sector. The lack of awareness towards maintenance may also lead to breakdown and malfunction. Therefore, the question comes whether the public has the awareness in maintaining their automobile, thus, this study will identify the public awareness in corrective and preventive maintenance towards personal Drivers. The study has been carried out at University of Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and focuses on the Drivers age from early 20s to late 40s to identify their awareness or understanding towards maintenance. The study has been conducted with quantitative method and analyzed using statistical tools by cross tabulation. Studies on awareness in maintenance of vehicle have not been carrying out on individuals/users. Averagely, the respondents score a mean of 0.6475 which means that the respondents have more Yes answered in their sets of awareness questions. The study also concluded that experience and education on the respondents has the difference in affecting their awareness.

Cervical Cancer is one of the ubiquitous forms of cancer afflicting the female population worldwide. A Digital Colposcope is a self-illuminated powerful microscope which acquires the image of the affected cervix. The raw cervix image acquired by the colposcope is known as a cervigram. The raw cervigram is preprocessed by removing the specular reflections and then the region of interest is sought. Different novel segmentation algorithms which were proposed in our earlier papers are applied to the cervigram to detect the acetowhite tissues. In the current paper, we try to draw a correlation between Pap smear results, colposcopic findings, histopathologic biopsy results and our proposed algorithmic analysis. The significance of association is assessed by chi-square testing and the strength of association by kappa statistic. The association between impression and histology was significant, the strength of correlation was also significant. The overall kappa statistic for the concordance of the algorithm with the human experts was 0.809, while that among raters, excluding the algorithm was 0.804. The proposed algorithm had better agreement with the expert decision.