Harish Garg, Dang Ngoc Hoang Thanh and Rizk M. Rizk-Allah
The paper aims to introduce a novel concept to solve the bi-level multi-criteria nonlinear fractional programming (BL-MCNFP) problems. Bi-level programming problem (BLPP) is…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to introduce a novel concept to solve the bi-level multi-criteria nonlinear fractional programming (BL-MCNFP) problems. Bi-level programming problem (BLPP) is rigorously flourished and studied by several researchers, which deals with decentralized decisions by comprising a sequence of two optimization problems, namely upper and lower-level problems. However, on the other hand, many real-world decision-making problems involve multiple objectives with fraction aspects, called fractional programming problems that reflect technical and economic performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces a VIKOR (“VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje”) approach to solve the BL-MCNFP problem. In this approach, an aggregating function based on LP metrics is formulated on the basis of the “closeness” scheme from the “ideal” solution. The three steps perform the solution process: First, a new concept is attempted to minimize and maximize of the numerators and denominators from their respective ideal solutions and anti-ideal values simultaneously. Second, for each level, the K-dimensional objective space of each level is converted to a one-dimensional space by an aggregating function. Third, to obtain the final solution, all levels are combined into single-level model where the decision variables of upper levels are interrelated with other levels through fuzzy strategy-based linear and nonlinear membership functions.
Findings
The effectiveness of the proposed VIKOR is demonstrated by numerical examples, where the reported results affirm that the extended VIKOR method provides superior results in comparison with the same methods in the literature, and it is a good alternative to BL-MCNFP problems.
Originality/value
In terms of the assistance-based right decision, a parametric analysis for the weight of the majority is provided to exhibit a wide range of compromise solutions for the decision-maker.
Details
Keywords
M.A. Abd El‐Ghaffar, A.F. Shaaban, M. Moustafa and A.A. Salman
Metal free biphthalocyanine was prepared by the urea fusion method, the structure was elucidated by analytical data, infrared, proton nmr and mass spectra.
M.A. Abd El‐Ghaffar, I.A. Sabbah, M. Moustafa and A.A. Salman
Cobalt, Nickel and Copper hexaazabiphthalocyanine were prepared by the reaction of pyridine 2,3‐dicarboxylic acid anhydride, pyromillitic acid dianhydride, with urea and metal…
Abstract
Cobalt, Nickel and Copper hexaazabiphthalocyanine were prepared by the reaction of pyridine 2,3‐dicarboxylic acid anhydride, pyromillitic acid dianhydride, with urea and metal salt in presence of ammonium molybdate catalyst. The reaction is carried out in an inert solvent [nitrobenzene]. The structure of the prepared compound was confirmed by microanalytical and pectrophotometric methods. Evaluation of the highly coloured products according to international standard methods showed their suitability as excellent pigments for coating applications.
Linda Moder, Tobias Fehrer and Maximilian Röglinger
Given today’s dynamic environment, process improvement and innovation (PII) are a central activity for business process management. Despite increasingly available process data and…
Abstract
Purpose
Given today’s dynamic environment, process improvement and innovation (PII) are a central activity for business process management. Despite increasingly available process data and advances in artificial intelligence, only a few works address the automation of PII, highlighting the need for so-called PII systems that support human process designers. However, previous research focuses on problem statements and expository software engineering artifacts. In contrast, design knowledge for PII systems remains scarce, presenting challenges for researchers and practitioners alike. Prescriptive knowledge could address this issue and support future PIIS development. Thus, this paper provides design knowledge for PII systems in the form of 14 design principles.
Design/methodology/approach
We follow the design science research paradigm, building on two systematic literature reviews, 20 exploratory expert interviews and two evaluation surveys.
Findings
This paper presents three design requirements and 14 design principles for PII systems as the main contribution. They help to identify necessary functionalities, guide the design and development of future PIIS and serve as a starting point toward comprehensive design knowledge for PII systems.
Originality/value
The original contribution of this paper consists of prescriptive design knowledge for PII systems based on literature and qualitative insights. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to define design principles for PII systems, bringing together knowledge from related system classes as well as unique requirements from a process design perspective.
Details
Keywords
Malathi Sivasankara Pillai and Kannan Balakrishnan
This paper aims to prove the following hypothesis Problem Statement: HYPOTHESIS (1) User Experience collection of mobile applications can be done using the Crowdsourcing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to prove the following hypothesis Problem Statement: HYPOTHESIS (1) User Experience collection of mobile applications can be done using the Crowdsourcing mechanism; (2) User Experience collection of mobile applications are influenced by the mindset of Crowdmembers, culture/ethnicity/social background, ease of interface use and rewards, among other factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors of this paper, did a literature review first to find if Crowdsourcing was applicable and a used method to solve problems in Software Engineering. This helped us to narrow down the application of Crowdsourcing to the Requirements Engineering-Usability (User Experience) collection. User experience collection of two Malayalam language-based mobile applications, AarogyaSetu and BevQ was done as the next step. Incorporating findings from Study I, another study using AarogyaSetu and Manglish was launched as Study II. The results from both cases were consolidated and analyzed. Significant concerns relating to expectations of Crowd members with User Experience collection were unraveled and the purpose of Study was accomplished.
Findings
(1) Crowdsourcing is and can be used in Software Engineering activities. (2) Crowd members have expectations (motivating factors) of User Interface and other elements that enable them to be an effective contributor. (3) An individual’s environment and mindset (character) are influential in him becoming a contributor in Crowdsourcing. (4) Culture and social practices of a region strongly affects the crowd-participating decision of an individual.
Originality/value
This is purely self-done work. The value of this research work is two-fold. Crowdsourcing is endorsed significant in Software Engineering tasks, especially in User Experience collection of mobile applications. Two, the Crowd service requesters can be careful about designing the questionnaire for Crowdsourcing. They have to be aware and prepared to meet the expectations of the Crowd. This can ensure the active participation of potential contributors. Future researchers can use the results of this work to base their research on similar purposes.
Details
Keywords
Majid Rahi, Ali Ebrahimnejad and Homayun Motameni
Taking into consideration the current human need for agricultural produce such as rice that requires water for growth, the optimal consumption of this valuable liquid is…
Abstract
Purpose
Taking into consideration the current human need for agricultural produce such as rice that requires water for growth, the optimal consumption of this valuable liquid is important. Unfortunately, the traditional use of water by humans for agricultural purposes contradicts the concept of optimal consumption. Therefore, designing and implementing a mechanized irrigation system is of the highest importance. This system includes hardware equipment such as liquid altimeter sensors, valves and pumps which have a failure phenomenon as an integral part, causing faults in the system. Naturally, these faults occur at probable time intervals, and the probability function with exponential distribution is used to simulate this interval. Thus, before the implementation of such high-cost systems, its evaluation is essential during the design phase.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed approach included two main steps: offline and online. The offline phase included the simulation of the studied system (i.e. the irrigation system of paddy fields) and the acquisition of a data set for training machine learning algorithms such as decision trees to detect, locate (classification) and evaluate faults. In the online phase, C5.0 decision trees trained in the offline phase were used on a stream of data generated by the system.
Findings
The proposed approach is a comprehensive online component-oriented method, which is a combination of supervised machine learning methods to investigate system faults. Each of these methods is considered a component determined by the dimensions and complexity of the case study (to discover, classify and evaluate fault tolerance). These components are placed together in the form of a process framework so that the appropriate method for each component is obtained based on comparison with other machine learning methods. As a result, depending on the conditions under study, the most efficient method is selected in the components. Before the system implementation phase, its reliability is checked by evaluating the predicted faults (in the system design phase). Therefore, this approach avoids the construction of a high-risk system. Compared to existing methods, the proposed approach is more comprehensive and has greater flexibility.
Research limitations/implications
By expanding the dimensions of the problem, the model verification space grows exponentially using automata.
Originality/value
Unlike the existing methods that only examine one or two aspects of fault analysis such as fault detection, classification and fault-tolerance evaluation, this paper proposes a comprehensive process-oriented approach that investigates all three aspects of fault analysis concurrently.
Details
Keywords
Christopher Julian Kern, Leo Poss, Julia Kroenung and Stefan Schönig
Business process management (BPM), as a pillar of information systems (IS) research, has become more complex with the advent of new technologies, emphasizing the need for moral…
Abstract
Purpose
Business process management (BPM), as a pillar of information systems (IS) research, has become more complex with the advent of new technologies, emphasizing the need for moral and ethical perspectives. To foster moral behavior and responsible action, including ethical values in IT systems and processes can be a solid option. By incorporating a socio-technical perspective, we are able to analyze the various aspects of BPM and organizational processes and the incorporated values. We find an overall acknowledgment of the importance of values and ethics in BPM.
Design/methodology/approach
This publication explores ethical values within BPM through a systematic literature review (SLR). The study aims to identify the ethical dimensions inherent in BPM and their practical implications in process management and task execution. The methodological approach adopted is a SLR (Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2015), adapting the PRISMA guidelines (Page et al., 2021) to identify 82 articles from 21 top IS journals suggested by Lowry et al. (2013).
Findings
A descriptive framework is developed to explain the use and application of ethical values within business processes. This framework enables practitioners and researchers to categorize and understand the various ethical considerations involved in BPM. It provides a structured approach highlighting the interrelation between process perspectives and ethical values, demonstrating how different BPM approaches may have varying ethical implications. We compare past and future research in business processes, identifying areas for further investigation and theoretical development. A historical analysis of values and literature also helps contextualize contemporary discussions on ethics in BPM, shedding light on the evolution of ethical considerations within this domain.
Originality/value
Our study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of BPM, highlighting the importance of considering ethical values and socio-technical perspectives in designing and implementing business processes. These findings contribute to understanding the values associated with different types of processes and their employment and highlight potential areas for future research. Our study provides ethics-oriented research in IS with novel insights by examining BPM from an ethical value perspective. We contribute to the BPM literature by examining which values are applied in which process types from which perspective. In addition, our research suggestions provide food for thought for both research streams.
Details
Keywords
Marek Szelągowski and Justyna Berniak-Woźny
The aim of this paper is to identify the main challenges and limitations of current business process management (BPM) development directions noticed by researchers, as well as to…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to identify the main challenges and limitations of current business process management (BPM) development directions noticed by researchers, as well as to define the areas of the main BPM paradigm shifts necessary for the BPM of tomorrow to meet the challenges posed by Industry 4.0 and the emerging Industry 5.0. This is extremely important from the perspective of eliminating the existing broadening gap between the considerations of academic researchers and the needs of business itself.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was conducted on the basis of the resources of two digital databases: Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS. Based on the PRISMA protocol, the authors selected 29 papers published in the last decade that diagnosed the challenges and limitations of modern BPM and contained recommendations for its future development. The content of the articles was analyzed within four BPM core areas.
Findings
The authors of the selected articles most commonly point to the areas of organization (21 articles) and methods and information technology (IT) (22 articles) in the context of the challenges and limitations of current BPM and the directions of recommended future BPM development. This points to the prevalence among researchers of the perspective of Industry 4.0 – or focus on technological solutions and raising process efficiency, with the full exclusion or only the partial signalization of the influence of implementing new technologies on the stakeholders and in particular – employees, their roles and competencies – the key aspects of Industry 5.0.
Research limitations/implications
The proposal of BPM future development directions requires the extension of the BPM paradigm, taking into account its holistic nature, especially unpredictable, knowledge-intensive business processes requiring dynamic management, the need to integrate BPM with knowledge management (KM) and the requirements of Industry 5.0 in terms of organizational culture. The limitation is that the study is based on only two databases: WoS and SCOPUS and that the search has been narrowed down to publications in English only.
Practical implications
The proposal of BPM future development directions also requires the extension of the BPM paradigm, taking into account the specific challenges and limitations that managers encounter on a daily basis. The presented summaries of the challenges and limitations resulting from the literature review are accompanied by recommendations that are primarily dedicated to practitioners.
Social implications
The article indicates the area people and culture as one of the four core areas of BPM. It emphasizes the necessity to account to a greater degree for the influence of people, their knowledge, experience and engagement, as well as formal and informal communication, without which it is impossible to use the creativity, innovativeness and dynamism of the individual and the communities to create value in the course of business process execution.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic review of the literature on the limitations of modern BPM and its future in the context of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0.
Details
Keywords
M.F. Abd El‐Sabour, M.A. Abo El‐Seoud and M. Rizk
Describes field experiments to determine the effects of previous organic waste composts, using different types and application rates, on sunflower yield. Oil, carbohydrates and…
Abstract
Describes field experiments to determine the effects of previous organic waste composts, using different types and application rates, on sunflower yield. Oil, carbohydrates and metal content were evaluated. Experiments were conducted in the Nuclear Research Centre Farm, in sandy, infertile soil. Results show a remarkable increase in dry matter and seed yields, due to previous single compost additions. A mixture of water hyacinth and biosolid compost showed an improvement. The results of this research indicate that application of organic waste composts is a feasible and valuable recycling method in sandy desert soils.