A rapid increase in the use of harder and difficult-to-machine metals and alloys has led to the d... more A rapid increase in the use of harder and difficult-to-machine metals and alloys has led to the development of nontraditional machining (NTM) processes. In NTM processes, material removal takes place employing mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical energy or combinations of these energies, without the use of a sharp cutting tool. These advanced machining processes are used to generate intricate and accurate shapes in materials, like titanium, fiberreinforced composites, ceramics, refractories and other difficult-to-machine alloys having higher strength, hardness, toughness and other diverse material properties. As various NTM processes with different capabilities and specifications are available today for a wide range of applications, there is a need for selecting a suitable NTM process for a particular application for effective utilization of its machining capabilities. The past researches reported on the selection of NTM processes using expert systems, mathematical approaches a...
An increasing quantity of electronic waste (e-waste) is not a new cause of concern, and it has be... more An increasing quantity of electronic waste (e-waste) is not a new cause of concern, and it has been causing trouble throughout the world. This waste comprises of valuable metals along with harmful compounds that leads to harmful environmental consequences. Managing this kind of waste in developing economies is difficult due to presence of lot of hindrance in the process. Therefore, the goal of this research work is to determine the barriers while taking expert opinions and through available literature, and subsequently prioritize them to address the challenges in e-waste management. Moreover, this study reflects a hybrid Fuzzy DEcision-MAking Trail and Evaluation Laboratory (F-DEMATEL) and Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modeling (F-ISM) approaches applied for determining the interrelationship between the barriers. The F-DEMATEL technique facilitates in identifying influential and influenced barriers and categorizes them into causal or effect groups. Performance data obtained from thi...
Steel has played critical role in the expansionist ambition of successful aristocrats and laying ... more Steel has played critical role in the expansionist ambition of successful aristocrats and laying the foundation of enviable empires. Modern economies are built on strong infrastructure, communication, and transport networks. Industries, like automobiles, consumer durables, real estate, cannot be imagined without steel. Its synonymy with growth of an economy can be gauged by the fact that matrices, like per capital steel consumption and its contribution to the GDP, are considered as parameters of economic development. It is one of the most tracked industries by the investors, analysts, and financial institutions. In this chapter, a novel multi-criteria decision-making tool while integrating measurement alternatives and ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS) and criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC) methods is developed for evaluation of steel organisations which are constituents of BSE 200 index. The results derived from the implementation of integ...
Decision Making: Applications in Management and Engineering
Recent economy and financial business environment is undergoing a quick and accelerating revoluti... more Recent economy and financial business environment is undergoing a quick and accelerating revolution and paradigm shift, resulting in growing uncertainty and complexity. Therefore, the need for an all-inclusive and far-reaching performance measurement model is universally felt as it can provide management-oriented information and act as a supporting tool in developing, inspecting, and interpreting policy-making strategies of an enterprise to achieve competitive advantages. Hence, this paper proposes an application of the balanced scorecard (BSC) model in an insurance organization for coordinating and regulating its corporate vision, mission, and strategy with organizational performance through the interrelation of different layers of business perspectives. In the next stage, a framework to unify both BSC and best-worst method (BWM) models is implemented for the very first time in the insurance domain to assess its performance over two-time periods. The integrated BSC-BWM model can he...
In the present global competitive environment, manufacturing organizations are being forced to co... more In the present global competitive environment, manufacturing organizations are being forced to constantly develop newer methods/technologies for pro‐ ducing high quality products/components at the minimum possible cost to satisfy the diverse and dynamic needs of customers. Selection of a proper cut‐ ting tool within a process planning system is vital for the productive efficiency and cost effectiveness of a manufacturing process. In this paper, a knowledge‐ based system is developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 and subsequently implemented for selection of an appropriate end mill for a given machining application from a set of feasible alternatives. Although, there are some published re‐ search papers on the applications of knowledge‐based systems for selecting of cutting tools, none of them has investigated its scope for choosing a suitable end mill from a comprehensive list of options available on the market. The developed system first narrows down the list of end mills based on some predefined parameters as set by the process planner and then ranks the fea‐ sible end mills according to their suitability for the desired machining applica‐ tion. While ranking the end mill alternatives, criteria weights are determined using Shannon's entropy method to avoid subjectivity in judgments. It also guides the process planner in identifying the corresponding speed and feed for different combinations of workpiece material and machining operation.
In order to realize the manufacturing/machining demands thrived by newer, hard and difficult-to-m... more In order to realize the manufacturing/machining demands thrived by newer, hard and difficult-to-machine materials being utilized in the present day industries, an assortment of non-traditional machining (NTM) processes has been developed over the past few decades. These processes are capable of generating intricate and complex shapes with high degree of accuracy, close dimensional tolerance and better surface finish. In this paper, a decision guidance framework is developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 to help the process engineers in selecting the most appropriate NTM process for a specific work material and shape feature combination. It also assists in identifying the ideal process parameter combinations for the most suitable NTM process. The derived results highly corroborate with the opinions of the experts in the related field, demonstrating the acceptability of the developed system.
Cutting fluid is applied for numerous reasons while machining a workpiece, like increasing tool l... more Cutting fluid is applied for numerous reasons while machining a workpiece, like increasing tool life, minimizing workpiece thermal deformation, enhancing surface finish, flushing away chips from cutting surface, and so on. Hence, choosing a proper cutting fluid for a specific machining application becomes important for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness of a manufacturing process. Cutting fluid selection is a complex procedure as the decision depends on many complicated interactions, including work material's machinability, rigorousness of operation, cutting tool material, metallurgical, chemical, and human compatibility, reliability and stability of fluid, and cost. In this paper, a decision making model is developed based on quality function deployment technique with a view to respond to the complex character of cutting fluid selection problem and facilitate judicious selection of cutting fluid from a comprehensive list of available alternatives. In the first example, HD-CUTSOL is recognized as the most suitable cutting fluid for drilling holes in titanium alloy with tungsten carbide tool and in the second example, for performing honing operation on stainless steel alloy with cubic boron nitride tool, CF5 emerges out as the best honing fluid. Implementation of this model would result in cost reduction through decreased manpower requirement, enhanced workforce efficiency, and efficient information exploitation.
With the progress in technology and innovation in product development, the contribution of comput... more With the progress in technology and innovation in product development, the contribution of computer-aided design (CAD) software in the design and manufacture of parts/products is growing on significantly. Selection of an appropriate CAD software is not a trifling task as it involves analyzing the appositeness of the available software packages to the unique requirements of the organization. Existence of a large number of CAD software vendors, presence of discordance among different hardware and software systems, and dearth of technical knowledge and experience of the decision makers further complicate the selection procedure. Moreover, there are very few published research papers related to CAD software selection, and majority of them have either employed criteria weights computed utilizing subjective judgements of the end users or floundered to incorporate the voice of customers in the decision making process. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a well-known technique for determining the relative importance of customers' defined criteria for selection of any product or service. Therefore, this paper deals with design and development of a QFD-based decision making model in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selection of CAD software for manufacturing organizations. In order to demonstrate the applicability and potentiality of the developed model in the form of a software prototype, two illustrative examples are also provided.
Computer numerical control (CNC) machine
tools are automated devices capable of generating compli... more Computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools are automated devices capable of generating complicated and intricate product shapes in shorter time. Selection of the best CNC machine tool is a critical, complex and time-consuming task due to availability of a wide range of alternatives and conflicting nature of several evaluation criteria. Although, the past researchers had attempted to select the appropriate machining centres using different knowledge-based systems, mathematical models and multi-criteria decision-making methods, none of those approaches has given due importance to the voice of customers. The aforesaid limitation can be overcome using quality function deployment (QFD) technique, which is a systematic approach for integrating customers’ needs and designing the product to meet those needs first time and every time. In this paper, the adopted QFD-based methodology helps in selecting CNC turning centres for a manufacturing organization, providing due importance to the voice of customers to meet their requirements. An expert system based on QFD technique is developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 to automate the CNC turning centre selection procedure for different production plans. Three illustrative examples are demonstrated to explain the realtime applicability of the developed expert system.
Nowadays, every industry is experiencing demographic, economic and technological shifts, which ha... more Nowadays, every industry is experiencing demographic, economic and technological shifts, which have made innovation indispensable for them. The innovation in the construction industry can be evidenced through availability of a diverse range of new material handling equipments (MHEs) in the market having varying advanced features. AnMHE is a critical investmentmade by a construction company thatmay significantly affect its future performance, competitiveness and sustainability. Therefore, selecting the bestMHE with the desirable characteristics from a vast array of available alternatives is one of the most onerous tasks as often being faced by the construction engineers. In this paper, a software prototype based on quality function deployment (QFD) technique is designed and developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selecting two most suitable bulk-type MHEs, i.e. excavator and wheel loader for specific applications at a construction site. It is integrated with QFD method to provide due importance to the spoken and unspoken needs of the customers/construction engineers. It automates the entire MHE selection process and also performs sensitivity analysis study to investigate the effect of changing criterion weight on the alternative MHEs' ranking pattern. Its potentiality and applicability in solving bulk-type MHE selection problems is demonstrated in detail.
Non-traditional machining (NTM) refers to a variety of thermal, chemical, electrical and mechanic... more Non-traditional machining (NTM) refers to a variety of thermal, chemical, electrical and mechanical material removal processes, developed to generate complex and intricate shapes in advanced engineering materials with high strength-to-weight ratio. Selection of the optimal NTM process for generating a desired feature on a given material requires the consideration of several factors among which the type of the work material and shape to be machined are the most significant ones. Presence of a large number of NTM processes along with their complex characteristics and capabilities, and lack of experts in NTM process selection domain compel for development of a structured approach for NTM process selection for a given machining application. Thus, the objective of this paper is set to develop a decision-making model in Visual BASIC 6.0 to automate the NTM process selection procedure with the help of graphical user interface and visual decision aids. It is also integrated with quality function deployment technique to correlate the customers’ requirements (product characteristics) with technical requirements (process characteristics). Four illustrative examples are also provided to demonstrate the potentiality of the developed model in solving NTM process selection problems.
A rapid increase in the use of harder and difficult-to-machine metals and alloys has led to the d... more A rapid increase in the use of harder and difficult-to-machine metals and alloys has led to the development of nontraditional machining (NTM) processes. In NTM processes, material removal takes place employing mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical energy or combinations of these energies, without the use of a sharp cutting tool. These advanced machining processes are used to generate intricate and accurate shapes in materials, like titanium, fiberreinforced composites, ceramics, refractories and other difficult-to-machine alloys having higher strength, hardness, toughness and other diverse material properties. As various NTM processes with different capabilities and specifications are available today for a wide range of applications, there is a need for selecting a suitable NTM process for a particular application for effective utilization of its machining capabilities. The past researches reported on the selection of NTM processes using expert systems, mathematical approaches a...
An increasing quantity of electronic waste (e-waste) is not a new cause of concern, and it has be... more An increasing quantity of electronic waste (e-waste) is not a new cause of concern, and it has been causing trouble throughout the world. This waste comprises of valuable metals along with harmful compounds that leads to harmful environmental consequences. Managing this kind of waste in developing economies is difficult due to presence of lot of hindrance in the process. Therefore, the goal of this research work is to determine the barriers while taking expert opinions and through available literature, and subsequently prioritize them to address the challenges in e-waste management. Moreover, this study reflects a hybrid Fuzzy DEcision-MAking Trail and Evaluation Laboratory (F-DEMATEL) and Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modeling (F-ISM) approaches applied for determining the interrelationship between the barriers. The F-DEMATEL technique facilitates in identifying influential and influenced barriers and categorizes them into causal or effect groups. Performance data obtained from thi...
Steel has played critical role in the expansionist ambition of successful aristocrats and laying ... more Steel has played critical role in the expansionist ambition of successful aristocrats and laying the foundation of enviable empires. Modern economies are built on strong infrastructure, communication, and transport networks. Industries, like automobiles, consumer durables, real estate, cannot be imagined without steel. Its synonymy with growth of an economy can be gauged by the fact that matrices, like per capital steel consumption and its contribution to the GDP, are considered as parameters of economic development. It is one of the most tracked industries by the investors, analysts, and financial institutions. In this chapter, a novel multi-criteria decision-making tool while integrating measurement alternatives and ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS) and criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC) methods is developed for evaluation of steel organisations which are constituents of BSE 200 index. The results derived from the implementation of integ...
Decision Making: Applications in Management and Engineering
Recent economy and financial business environment is undergoing a quick and accelerating revoluti... more Recent economy and financial business environment is undergoing a quick and accelerating revolution and paradigm shift, resulting in growing uncertainty and complexity. Therefore, the need for an all-inclusive and far-reaching performance measurement model is universally felt as it can provide management-oriented information and act as a supporting tool in developing, inspecting, and interpreting policy-making strategies of an enterprise to achieve competitive advantages. Hence, this paper proposes an application of the balanced scorecard (BSC) model in an insurance organization for coordinating and regulating its corporate vision, mission, and strategy with organizational performance through the interrelation of different layers of business perspectives. In the next stage, a framework to unify both BSC and best-worst method (BWM) models is implemented for the very first time in the insurance domain to assess its performance over two-time periods. The integrated BSC-BWM model can he...
In the present global competitive environment, manufacturing organizations are being forced to co... more In the present global competitive environment, manufacturing organizations are being forced to constantly develop newer methods/technologies for pro‐ ducing high quality products/components at the minimum possible cost to satisfy the diverse and dynamic needs of customers. Selection of a proper cut‐ ting tool within a process planning system is vital for the productive efficiency and cost effectiveness of a manufacturing process. In this paper, a knowledge‐ based system is developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 and subsequently implemented for selection of an appropriate end mill for a given machining application from a set of feasible alternatives. Although, there are some published re‐ search papers on the applications of knowledge‐based systems for selecting of cutting tools, none of them has investigated its scope for choosing a suitable end mill from a comprehensive list of options available on the market. The developed system first narrows down the list of end mills based on some predefined parameters as set by the process planner and then ranks the fea‐ sible end mills according to their suitability for the desired machining applica‐ tion. While ranking the end mill alternatives, criteria weights are determined using Shannon's entropy method to avoid subjectivity in judgments. It also guides the process planner in identifying the corresponding speed and feed for different combinations of workpiece material and machining operation.
In order to realize the manufacturing/machining demands thrived by newer, hard and difficult-to-m... more In order to realize the manufacturing/machining demands thrived by newer, hard and difficult-to-machine materials being utilized in the present day industries, an assortment of non-traditional machining (NTM) processes has been developed over the past few decades. These processes are capable of generating intricate and complex shapes with high degree of accuracy, close dimensional tolerance and better surface finish. In this paper, a decision guidance framework is developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 to help the process engineers in selecting the most appropriate NTM process for a specific work material and shape feature combination. It also assists in identifying the ideal process parameter combinations for the most suitable NTM process. The derived results highly corroborate with the opinions of the experts in the related field, demonstrating the acceptability of the developed system.
Cutting fluid is applied for numerous reasons while machining a workpiece, like increasing tool l... more Cutting fluid is applied for numerous reasons while machining a workpiece, like increasing tool life, minimizing workpiece thermal deformation, enhancing surface finish, flushing away chips from cutting surface, and so on. Hence, choosing a proper cutting fluid for a specific machining application becomes important for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness of a manufacturing process. Cutting fluid selection is a complex procedure as the decision depends on many complicated interactions, including work material's machinability, rigorousness of operation, cutting tool material, metallurgical, chemical, and human compatibility, reliability and stability of fluid, and cost. In this paper, a decision making model is developed based on quality function deployment technique with a view to respond to the complex character of cutting fluid selection problem and facilitate judicious selection of cutting fluid from a comprehensive list of available alternatives. In the first example, HD-CUTSOL is recognized as the most suitable cutting fluid for drilling holes in titanium alloy with tungsten carbide tool and in the second example, for performing honing operation on stainless steel alloy with cubic boron nitride tool, CF5 emerges out as the best honing fluid. Implementation of this model would result in cost reduction through decreased manpower requirement, enhanced workforce efficiency, and efficient information exploitation.
With the progress in technology and innovation in product development, the contribution of comput... more With the progress in technology and innovation in product development, the contribution of computer-aided design (CAD) software in the design and manufacture of parts/products is growing on significantly. Selection of an appropriate CAD software is not a trifling task as it involves analyzing the appositeness of the available software packages to the unique requirements of the organization. Existence of a large number of CAD software vendors, presence of discordance among different hardware and software systems, and dearth of technical knowledge and experience of the decision makers further complicate the selection procedure. Moreover, there are very few published research papers related to CAD software selection, and majority of them have either employed criteria weights computed utilizing subjective judgements of the end users or floundered to incorporate the voice of customers in the decision making process. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a well-known technique for determining the relative importance of customers' defined criteria for selection of any product or service. Therefore, this paper deals with design and development of a QFD-based decision making model in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selection of CAD software for manufacturing organizations. In order to demonstrate the applicability and potentiality of the developed model in the form of a software prototype, two illustrative examples are also provided.
Computer numerical control (CNC) machine
tools are automated devices capable of generating compli... more Computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools are automated devices capable of generating complicated and intricate product shapes in shorter time. Selection of the best CNC machine tool is a critical, complex and time-consuming task due to availability of a wide range of alternatives and conflicting nature of several evaluation criteria. Although, the past researchers had attempted to select the appropriate machining centres using different knowledge-based systems, mathematical models and multi-criteria decision-making methods, none of those approaches has given due importance to the voice of customers. The aforesaid limitation can be overcome using quality function deployment (QFD) technique, which is a systematic approach for integrating customers’ needs and designing the product to meet those needs first time and every time. In this paper, the adopted QFD-based methodology helps in selecting CNC turning centres for a manufacturing organization, providing due importance to the voice of customers to meet their requirements. An expert system based on QFD technique is developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 to automate the CNC turning centre selection procedure for different production plans. Three illustrative examples are demonstrated to explain the realtime applicability of the developed expert system.
Nowadays, every industry is experiencing demographic, economic and technological shifts, which ha... more Nowadays, every industry is experiencing demographic, economic and technological shifts, which have made innovation indispensable for them. The innovation in the construction industry can be evidenced through availability of a diverse range of new material handling equipments (MHEs) in the market having varying advanced features. AnMHE is a critical investmentmade by a construction company thatmay significantly affect its future performance, competitiveness and sustainability. Therefore, selecting the bestMHE with the desirable characteristics from a vast array of available alternatives is one of the most onerous tasks as often being faced by the construction engineers. In this paper, a software prototype based on quality function deployment (QFD) technique is designed and developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selecting two most suitable bulk-type MHEs, i.e. excavator and wheel loader for specific applications at a construction site. It is integrated with QFD method to provide due importance to the spoken and unspoken needs of the customers/construction engineers. It automates the entire MHE selection process and also performs sensitivity analysis study to investigate the effect of changing criterion weight on the alternative MHEs' ranking pattern. Its potentiality and applicability in solving bulk-type MHE selection problems is demonstrated in detail.
Non-traditional machining (NTM) refers to a variety of thermal, chemical, electrical and mechanic... more Non-traditional machining (NTM) refers to a variety of thermal, chemical, electrical and mechanical material removal processes, developed to generate complex and intricate shapes in advanced engineering materials with high strength-to-weight ratio. Selection of the optimal NTM process for generating a desired feature on a given material requires the consideration of several factors among which the type of the work material and shape to be machined are the most significant ones. Presence of a large number of NTM processes along with their complex characteristics and capabilities, and lack of experts in NTM process selection domain compel for development of a structured approach for NTM process selection for a given machining application. Thus, the objective of this paper is set to develop a decision-making model in Visual BASIC 6.0 to automate the NTM process selection procedure with the help of graphical user interface and visual decision aids. It is also integrated with quality function deployment technique to correlate the customers’ requirements (product characteristics) with technical requirements (process characteristics). Four illustrative examples are also provided to demonstrate the potentiality of the developed model in solving NTM process selection problems.
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tools are automated devices capable of generating complicated
and intricate product shapes in shorter time.
Selection of the best CNC machine tool is a critical,
complex and time-consuming task due to availability of a
wide range of alternatives and conflicting nature of several
evaluation criteria. Although, the past researchers had
attempted to select the appropriate machining centres using
different knowledge-based systems, mathematical models
and multi-criteria decision-making methods, none of those
approaches has given due importance to the voice of customers.
The aforesaid limitation can be overcome using
quality function deployment (QFD) technique, which is a
systematic approach for integrating customers’ needs and
designing the product to meet those needs first time and
every time. In this paper, the adopted QFD-based
methodology helps in selecting CNC turning centres for a
manufacturing organization, providing due importance to
the voice of customers to meet their requirements. An
expert system based on QFD technique is developed in
Visual BASIC 6.0 to automate the CNC turning centre
selection procedure for different production plans. Three
illustrative examples are demonstrated to explain the realtime
applicability of the developed expert system.
innovation indispensable for them. The innovation in the construction industry can be evidenced through availability
of a diverse range of new material handling equipments (MHEs) in the market having varying advanced
features. AnMHE is a critical investmentmade by a construction company thatmay significantly affect its future
performance, competitiveness and sustainability. Therefore, selecting the bestMHE with the desirable characteristics
from a vast array of available alternatives is one of the most onerous tasks as often being faced by the construction
engineers. In this paper, a software prototype based on quality function deployment (QFD) technique is
designed and developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selecting two most suitable bulk-type MHEs, i.e. excavator and
wheel loader for specific applications at a construction site. It is integrated with QFD method to provide due importance
to the spoken and unspoken needs of the customers/construction engineers. It automates the entire
MHE selection process and also performs sensitivity analysis study to investigate the effect of changing criterion
weight on the alternative MHEs' ranking pattern. Its potentiality and applicability in solving bulk-type MHE
selection problems is demonstrated in detail.
tools are automated devices capable of generating complicated
and intricate product shapes in shorter time.
Selection of the best CNC machine tool is a critical,
complex and time-consuming task due to availability of a
wide range of alternatives and conflicting nature of several
evaluation criteria. Although, the past researchers had
attempted to select the appropriate machining centres using
different knowledge-based systems, mathematical models
and multi-criteria decision-making methods, none of those
approaches has given due importance to the voice of customers.
The aforesaid limitation can be overcome using
quality function deployment (QFD) technique, which is a
systematic approach for integrating customers’ needs and
designing the product to meet those needs first time and
every time. In this paper, the adopted QFD-based
methodology helps in selecting CNC turning centres for a
manufacturing organization, providing due importance to
the voice of customers to meet their requirements. An
expert system based on QFD technique is developed in
Visual BASIC 6.0 to automate the CNC turning centre
selection procedure for different production plans. Three
illustrative examples are demonstrated to explain the realtime
applicability of the developed expert system.
innovation indispensable for them. The innovation in the construction industry can be evidenced through availability
of a diverse range of new material handling equipments (MHEs) in the market having varying advanced
features. AnMHE is a critical investmentmade by a construction company thatmay significantly affect its future
performance, competitiveness and sustainability. Therefore, selecting the bestMHE with the desirable characteristics
from a vast array of available alternatives is one of the most onerous tasks as often being faced by the construction
engineers. In this paper, a software prototype based on quality function deployment (QFD) technique is
designed and developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selecting two most suitable bulk-type MHEs, i.e. excavator and
wheel loader for specific applications at a construction site. It is integrated with QFD method to provide due importance
to the spoken and unspoken needs of the customers/construction engineers. It automates the entire
MHE selection process and also performs sensitivity analysis study to investigate the effect of changing criterion
weight on the alternative MHEs' ranking pattern. Its potentiality and applicability in solving bulk-type MHE
selection problems is demonstrated in detail.