Public food procurement for Italian schools: results from analytical and content analyzes

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiorella Pia Salvatore ◽  
Simone Fanelli ◽  
Gianluca Lanza ◽  
Michele Milone
Keyword(s):  
Food Quality ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Evaluation Phase ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Hierarchy Process

PurposeThe study objective was to understand if uniformity of approach exists in evaluation methods of public food tender for schools at national and local level. This purpose was divided into three sub-objectives: (1) to extract the main criteria, (2) to document the synthesizing findings process and (3) to prioritize the different decision-making alternatives through pairwise comparisons.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the sub-objectives (1) and (2), a content analysis of the Italian food tenders was carried out. Analytic hierarchy process was used to evaluate and compare the importance of various food tender evaluation criteria (3). The inclusion criteria were: cities' selection; metro area population; population density; duration of the contract; years.FindingsSix public food tenders were analyzed. The first one concerned the National legislation guidelines. The remaining five food tenders were categorized according to the city investigated. Four macro-categories (Food quality; Sustainability; Resources; Ancillary services) were classified. AHP revealed that “Food quality” and “Resources” categories have greater importance in the evaluation phase of almost all cities investigated.Originality/valueThis study in-depth analyzes each criterion used to evaluate public food tenders, providing a new methodological framework for assigning scores to clusters of criteria. Since the literature search did not reveal any previous study on a quantitative evaluation of elements such as short supply chain, organic food and environmental impacts on public food tenders, this research delivers interesting results and fills this knowledge gap.

Benchmarking maintenance performance in select agro-based industry

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Balasaheb Shahaji Gandhare ◽  
Milind M. Akarte
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Modeling ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Maintenance Management ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Area ◽  
Overall Performance ◽  
Hierarchy Process ◽  
Level Group ◽  
Maintenance Performance

PurposeThis paper demonstrates a multi-criteria analytic hierarchy process (AHP) framework for evaluating and benchmarking maintenance performance in the select agro-based industry.Design/methodology/approachInitially, 20 maintenance practices (criteria) have been identified after a detailed literature review and discussion with the agro-based industry (sugar, textile and dairy industry) executives. These are then grouped into six maintenance management areas referred to as group criteria. The multi-criteria methodology consists of three steps: criteria identification, hierarchical modeling and data collection and maintenance performance evaluation, and benchmarking. The multi-criteria methodology proposed in this work facilitates two ways of carrying out benchmarking: (1) within the agro-based industry and (2) between the agro-based industry. The methodology has been explained by taking a case example of 45 agro-based industries (18 dairy, 13 sugar and 14 textile) from the western region of India. The sensitivity analysis of the model has been performed to ascertain the robustness of the results.FindingsThere is a difference in the maintenance performance across the agro-based industries due to different maintenance practices perceived differently.Research limitations/implicationsThe outcome of the model is mainly given by the judgments of the agro-based industry executives. It is also sensitive to any change in the relative importance to the evaluation criteria or the perception about the maintenance performance.Practical implicationsThe study contributes in identifying the weakness, if any, by comparing the agro-based industry under investigation with the benchmark factory at three levels, namely, overall performance (factory level), group criteria (maintenance management area level) and criteria (maintenance practice level) allowing further improvement.Originality/valueThe methodology assists in better decision-making and in improving maintenance performance.

Identification and prioritization of corporate sustainability practices using analytical hierarchy process

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Praveen Goyal ◽  
Zillur Rahman ◽  
Absar Ahmad Kazmi
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Corporate Sustainability Performance ◽  
Sustainability Practices ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the corporate sustainability practices to improve the corporate sustainability performance in the manufacturing sector. Further, these practices are being prioritized to find out the essential practices to ensure logical allocation of limited resources. Design/methodology/approach – It examines the corporate sustainability practices which have been shortlisted from both the literature review and experts judgment. Then, analytic hierarchy process has been used to assess the identified 12 practices of corporate sustainability and to find their priorities for improvement of the corporate sustainability performance. Findings – Based on the hierarchical model developed in this study, the analysis reveals market value, environment management and strategy, research and development, pollution prevention, corporate governance and investor responsibility, which have been found to be the most important practices in improving the corporate sustainability performance. Practical implications – The findings of the study would be useful to the practitioners in the proper allocation of scarce resources to optimize the corporate sustainability performance of firms, especially the manufacturing entities. Originality/value – It is a fact that multi-faceted nature of corporate sustainability includes both subjective and objective dimensions. Therefore, prioritization of corporate sustainability at the factor level is one of the important contributions to the literature that has been addressed in the present study. The results of this paper may be generalized to the other sectors.

Developing human resource for the digitization of logistics operations: readiness index framework

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anchal Gupta ◽  
Rajesh Kr Singh ◽  
Shivam Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Fuzzy Ahp ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Organization Culture ◽  
Management Support ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Top Management Support ◽  
Logistics Company ◽  
The Right ◽  
Hierarchy Process

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify factors that are important for logistics organizations from the perspective of manpower readiness for digitization of logistics operations. The study also prioritizes the identified factors and also evaluates the readiness index of manpower for the digitalization of logistics processes.Design/methodology/approachThe factors for manpower readiness are identified through literature review and analysis of a case study. Three major categories of factors are identified. These are organizational, behavioural and technological factors. Under these three major categories of factors, 18 sub-factors are identified. Thereafter, with experts' inputs, the factors are prioritized using Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Further, a case illustration of an Indian logistics company has been taken to understand the current processes, technical capabilities, manpower skills and organization culture. After the case analysis and expert inputs, the manpower readiness index has been evaluated by using graph theory matrix approach (GTMA).FindingsThe prioritization of manpower readiness factors has been done using Fuzzy AHP. Organizational factors are found to be the most important factors which require quick attention. Sub-factors that are most important for building competencies in the logistics sector are providing the right training on functional skill development (0.129), top management support and commitment for digitalization (0.117), and organizational culture for process digitalization (0.114), etc. Finally, framework for evaluation of manpower readiness index for logistics operations in the digital age has been illustrated for a case company.Practical implicationsIndian logistics companies can benchmark their readiness index with respect to the best in the industry. Based on the readiness index, logistics companies can analyse their position, gaps from best and worst and can also identify potential areas for improvement.Originality/valueThe novelty of the study lies in the development of a framework for manpower readiness for digitalization in the logistics sector. In literature, this field is very less researched and provides the scope for developing strategies for improving manpower competencies for Industry 4.0. Logistics companies can improve their performance by making their manpower ready based on results obtained for readiness index.

Performance of physical asset management using the analytic hierarchy process

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fawzeia Abdulla Al Marzooqi ◽  
Matloub Hussain ◽  
Syed Zamberi Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Analytic Hierarchy Process ◽  
Asset Management ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Equal Importance ◽  
The Analytic Hierarchy Process ◽  
Physical Asset ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hierarchy Process ◽  
Asset Managers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore certain resources, capabilities and competencies needed to improve the performance of physical asset management (PAM). Design/methodology/approach The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to select and prioritize the most appropriate factors for improving performance. A multi-criteria approach is used to analyze and compare the importance of 6 main criteria and 18 subcriteria identified from a survey of relevant literature. Findings The study revealed that not all factors are viewed as having equal importance in improving PAM performance, as three of the main factors attained greater importance among the six factors. Research limitations/implications This study explored the factors required for managing assets only within the third stage of asset lifecycle, that is, the utilization stage. It is recommended that future studies be conducted in such a way as to determine the importance of similar factors in the other stages of the asset lifecycle, or to identify new factors and add new criteria. Practical implications Knowledge of the differential impacts of the factors on the performance of PAM can impact asset managers and decision makers in their allocation of resources and focus their work on the highest-ranked rather than the lowest-ranked factors. Also, AHP used provides an effective mean for asset managers to identify priorities among decision criteria in their organization. Originality/value To date, no study has explored the impact of six combined factors on the performance of PAM. Previous studies have found that these factors each had equal importance. However, their relative ranking in practice and when they appear together have remained unrecognized.

A grey STA-GERT quality evaluation model for complex products based on manufacture-service dual-network

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruiting Xu ◽  
Zhigeng Fang ◽  
Jinyu Sun
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Complex Products ◽  
Reasonable Approach ◽  
Estimate Quality ◽  
Grey Number ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find out a scientific method to evaluate quality of complex products, whose quality is different from general products. Design/methodology/approach – Based on interval grey number theory, reliability analysis method and stochastic network theory, authors have established grey success tree analysis-graph evaluation and review technique (GSTA-GERT) model in this paper. Findings – Comparing complex products and general products, authors have found that complex products have two characters, i.e. quality of manufacture and quality of service. Furthermore, this paper has proved the GSTA-GERT model is a scientific and reasonable approach to estimate quality of complex products from the sight of manufacture-service network. Originality/value – This paper has established GSTA-GERT model, which surmounts the defect of traditional estimation method, such as lacking logic analysis in the method of analytic hierarchy process.

A grey analytic hierarchy process approach to project manager selection

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 749-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yakup Çelikbilek
Keyword(s):  
Analytic Hierarchy Process ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Project Manager ◽  
Software Project ◽  
Decision Matrix ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Energy Company ◽  
Manager Selection ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Purpose Evaluations of grey systems and systems with subjective judgements are always like an impasse for science and companies. Especially, calculations of the problems which include various units are really difficult situations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a grey analytic hierarchy process (G-AHP) for engineering and managerial problems with grey systems to make more clear and objective decisions. Design/methodology/approach Proposed G-AHP approach is applied to project manager selection for a software project of an energy company. The application includes three different units as year, score and assessment. Six engineers are evaluated with 25 criteria in the application. Weights of the factors and assessments are done by three top managers of the company as pairwise comparisons. Other data in the decision matrix are obtained from the personal information and exam results of engineers. Findings Final weights of the criteria and evaluations of engineers are all done with the proposed G-AHP. Obtained results of G-AHP are also compared with grey “VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje” results as a validation of the calculations and proposed approach. Final results of the applications are ranked for the evaluations and comparison. All results of the case study are concluded with the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed G-AHP method both for this study and other fields of science, engineering and management. Originality/value This study provides to evaluate and interpret grey systems with different units and subjective judgements for science, engineering and management more clearly and objectively in an easier way.

A qualitative attraction ranking model for personalized recommendations

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-13
Author(s):  
Thara Angskun ◽  
Jitimon Angskun
Keyword(s):  
Recommendation System ◽  
Theoretical Implication ◽  
Personalized Recommendation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tourist Attractions ◽  
Ranking Model ◽  
Travel Decisions ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Purpose This paper aims to find a way to personalize attraction recommendations for travelers. The research objective is to find a more accurate way to suggest new attractions to each traveler based on the opinions of other like-minded travelers and the traveler’s preferences. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the goal, developers have created a personalized system to generate attraction recommendations. The system considers an individual traveler’s preferences to construct a qualitative attraction ranking model. The new ranking model is the result of blending two processes: K-means clustering and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Findings The performance of the developed recommendation system has been assessed by measuring the accuracy and scalability of the ranking model of the system. The experimental results indicate that the ranking model always returns accurate results independent of the number of attractions and the number of travelers in each cluster. The ranking model has also proved to be scalable because the processing time is independent of the numbers of travelers. Additionally, the results reveal that the overall system usability is at a very satisfactory level. Research limitations/implications The main theoretical implication is that integrating the processes of K-means and AHP techniques enables a new qualitative ranking model for personalized recommendations that deliver only high-quality attractions. However, the designed recommendation system has some limitations. First, it is necessary to manually update information about the new tourist attractions. Second, the overall response time depends on the internet bandwidth and latency. Practical implications This research contributes to the tourism business and individual travelers by introducing an accurate and scalable way to suggest new attractions to each traveler. The potential benefit includes possible increased revenue for travel agencies that offer personalized package tours and support individual travelers to make the final travel decisions. The designed system could also integrate with itinerary planning systems to plot out a journey that pinpoints what travelers will most enjoy. Originality/value This research proposes a design and implementation of a personalized recommendation system based on the qualitative attraction ranking model introduced in this article. The novel ranking model is designed and developed by integrating K-means and AHP techniques, which has proved to be accurate and scalable.

A novel MCDM model for prioritizing the renewable power plants’ construction

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Sedady ◽  
Mohammad Ali Beheshtinia
Keyword(s):  
Power Plants ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Tidal Power ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Renewable Power ◽  
Comparison Results ◽  
Criteria Weights ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy Process Method ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a new multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique to determine the priority of renewable power plants construction conceding technical, economic, social, political and environmental aspects. Design/methodology/approach First, a comprehensive set of 5 main criteria of technical, economic, social, political and environmental are considered for renewable power plants construction, each including 5 sub-criteria (a total of 25 sub-criteria). Then, the analytic hierarchy process method is used to determine the weight of the criteria. Finally, a new MCDM technique proposed to prioritize the construction of renewable power plants, named TOPKOR. To demonstrate the capability of the proposed method, a case study is conducted in which six types of renewable power plants are evaluated. Findings Comparison results of the main criteria weights show that the “economic” [0.403], “environmental” [0.296] and “technical” [0.17] aspects have the highest importance, respectively. The results also show that solar, hydroelectric and wave and tidal power plants have the highest priority for construction, respectively. Research limitations/implications The result of this research could be useful for related decision makers in construction of the renewable power plants to have a comprehensive set of criteria in technical, economic, social, political and environmental aspects in their decision process. Originality/value This research provides a comprehensive set of criteria and sub-criteria for prioritizing the renewable power plants. Moreover, a new hybrid MCDM technique is introduced for prioritizing the construction of power plants.

Transportation systems’ impacts on the Vilnius housing market

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 418-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virgilija Vasiliene-Vasiliauskiene ◽  
Aidas Vasilis Vasiliauskas ◽  
Rišard Golembovskij ◽  
Ieva Meidute-Kavaliauskiene ◽  
Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Housing Market ◽  
Housing Markets ◽  
Transportation System ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
System Factors ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of how transportation system factors affect city housing markets. The goal was to show that identifying these factors alone is not enough without also examining their effects and variations according to the housing location. Design/methodology/approach Transportation system factors were identified by conducting a thorough literature review. The factors’ relevance was tested using a quantitative methodology and a sample of 317 Vilnius residents. This city was next divided into three zones, and data collected from 18 real estate experts was subjected to qualitative analysis. The analytic hierarchy process was then applied to identify transportation system factors’ level of impact and dynamics by the housing location. Findings The results show that the factors affect the housing market in question but that these effects vary by the housing location and the most critical factors differ for each city zone. Research limitations/implications Only data on Vilnius were used. Further research is needed to compare transportation factors’ dynamics in multiple cities. Practical implications Priorities in transportation system improvements should be assessed to facilitate sustainable urban development and enhance the residents’ quality of life. Housing market regulations can only be successful if investment in transportation systems is allocated purposefully and coherently. Originality/value This research went beyond identifying transportation system factors by employing a broad, systematic approach to clarifying potential options for regulating housing markets through transportation system projects.

The use of an analytic hierarchy process to evaluate the flexibility and adaptability in architecture

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine De Paris ◽  
Carlos Nuno Lacerda Lopes ◽  
Alvaro Neuenfeldt Junior
Keyword(s):  
Multicriteria Analysis ◽  
Practical Case ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Criteria Importance ◽  
Hierarchy Process ◽  
Complex Subject

PurposeInvestigation of housing adaptability is related to understanding factors that influence project transformation. Factors may be associated with the design and project stage as also alternative uses to existing buildings. To structure methodology for criteria analysis of adaptability, the research aims to verify the importance level of factors related to adaptability and flexibility context in architecture.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a multicriteria analysis and a diagnosis performed with architecture professionals, criteria importance identified in a bibliographic survey is contacted.FindingsWith harmonious results, key elements highlighted in the diagnosis are discussed. Adaptability and flexibility are mainly related to balance in the design of spaces and their connections, so the user can have control administrating the organization of their habitat.Originality/valueAs a complex subject, involving legal, social and cultural issues, the multicriteria method supports the scientific analysis of data. The results can be used in a practical case study as assessment of housing adaptability and flexibility, as a useful tool to decision support in architectural project.

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