In this paper, we study a two-echelon supply chain network consisting of multi-outsourcers and multi-subcontractors. Each one is composed of a failure-prone production unit that produces a single product to fulfil market demands with variable production rates. Sometimes the manufacturing systems are not able to satisfy demand; in this case, outsourcing option is adopted to improve the limited in-house production capacity. The outsourcing is not justified by the production lack of manufacturing systems, but is also considered for the costs minimization issues. In the considered problem, we assume that the failure rate is dependent on the time and production rate. Preventive maintenance activities can be conducted to mitigate the deterioration effects, and minimal repairs are performed when unplanned failures occurs. We consider that the production cost depends on the rate of the machine utilization. The aim of this research is to propose a joint policy based on a mixed integer programming formulation to balance the trade-off between two-echelon of supply chain. We seek to assist outsourcers to determine the integrated in-house/ outsourcing, and maintenance plans, and the subcontractors to determine the integrated production-maintenance plans so that the benefit of the supply chain is maximized over a finite planning horizon. We develop an improved optimization procedure based on the genetic algorithms, and we discuss and conduct computational experiments to study the managerial insights for the developed framework.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid method SKACICM of development of knowledge management systems. Based on weaknesses of the method of performance dashboards SKANDIA, we proposed a pragmatisation and adaptation of Skandia to give ASKANDIA, by enrichment of its performance book. We ameliorated CICM model against the requirements of GERAM to give ACICM model by mappings between their proposed metamodels. We tried to hybridise ACICM, ASKANDIA and business intelligence to propose a new method SKACICM of development of knowledge management systems. We applied SKACICM on a cement company to develop software containing three main modules, module knowledge management, module business intelligence and performance dashboard system. The developed system ameliorated the performance of the enterprise by 26% and could be generalised to other manufacturing or service systems.

This paper deals with a new smart algorithm allowing open-circuit and reversed polarity faults prognosis in photovoltaic generators. Its contribution lies on the optimization of support vector regression (SVR) technique by a k-NN regression tool (k-NNR) for undetermined outputs. To testing the performance of the proposed algorithm, we used a significant data base containing the generator functioning history, and as indicators we selected variance, standard deviation, Confidence interval, absolute and relative errors.

In recent years, companies have emerged in an advanced competitive environment. To meet the requirements of cost reduction, customer demand, minimising delays, quality and variety improvement, companies must improve their performance to remain competitive, survive and expand. To achieve this goal, several models are used such as total quality management, Kaizen, just in time, enterprise resource planning, business process reengineering and Six Sigma, etc. In this work, we look for an effective model (drawn from Six Sigma approach) used mainly to warrant the competitiveness of a company denoted as the weighted defects per million opportunities model. The aim of this paper is to apply this model to measure process levels (weights) and assess the company competitiveness. The results of this model are applied in a real manufacturing system which produces gas bottles.

The purpose of this paper is to compare between three methods of intellectual capital (IC) measurement; intellectual capital dynamic valuation (IC-dVal), value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC), and national intellectual capital index (NICI). The three methods are the most used in practice; we used 24 criteria covering important aspects of IC to do general comparison. According to ten criteria, we compared and prioritised them using analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The results of this comparison show that the methods are close for some criteria and distant for other criteria. The prioritisation with AHP found that NICI method is the most method responding to the criteria, namely: macro measure, guidelines of the method, dynamic valuation, involved levels of business, usability by stakeholders, covered aspects of IC, quantifiability, frequency of use and applicability. IC-dVal is the second one and VAIC is the third method responding to the criteria. The analysis could give more significant results using larger set of criteria. This is the first research prioritising methods of measurement of IC using AHP analysis.

This paper considers a supply chain management problem which integrates production, inventory, and distribution decisions. The supply chain is composed of one supplier production facility and several retailers located in a given geographic region. The supplier is responsible for the production and the replenishment of the inventory of retailers, in a vendor managed inventory (VMI) context. The distance between retailers is negligible compared to the distance between the supplier and the retailers’ region. Thus, for each vehicle, there is a major fixed cost for traveling to the cluster of retailers and a minor fixed cost for visiting each individual retailer. The problem consists of determining quantities to be produced, quantities to be delivered to retailers, vehicles to be used, and retailers to be serviced by each vehicle. This problem is an extension of the one warehouse multi-retailer problem with the consideration of production planning and storage and vehicle capacity limitations in addition to fixed vehicle utilization costs and retailer servicing costs. The objective is to minimize a total cost composed of production, transportation, and inventory holding costs at the supplier and at the retailers. Two mixed integer linear programming formulations are proposed and six families of valid inequalities are added to strengthen these formulations. Two of these families are new and the others are adapted from the literature. The numerical results show that the valid inequalities considerably improve the quality of the formulations. Moreover, the parameters that influence the most computational times are analyzed

Flexible job-shop scheduling problem (FJSP), which is proved to be NP-hard, is an extension of the classical job-shop scheduling problem. In this paper, we propose a new genetic algorithm (NGA) to solve FJSP to minimize makespan. This new algorithm uses a new chromosome representation and adopts different strategies for crossover and mutation. The proposed algorithm is validated on a series of benchmark data sets and tested on data from a drug manufacturing company. Experimental results prove that the NGA is more efficient and competitive than some other existing algorithms.

The single machine scheduling problem has been often regarded as a simplified representation that contains many polynomial solvable cases. However, in real-world applications, the imprecision of data at the level of each job can be critical for the implementation of scheduling strategies. Therefore, the single machine scheduling problem with the weighted discounted sum of completion times is treated in this paper, where we assume that the processing times, weighting coefficients and discount factor are all described using trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. Our aim in this study is to elaborate adequate measures in the context of possibility theory for the assessment of the optimality of a fixed schedule. Two optimization approaches namely genetic algorithm and pattern search are proposed as computational tools for the validation of the obtained properties and results. The proposed approaches are experimented on the benchmark problem instances and a sensitivity analysis with respect to some configuration parameters is conducted. Modeling and resolution frameworks considered in this research offer promise to deal with optimality in the wide class of fuzzy scheduling problems, which is recognized to be a difficult task by both researchers and practitioners.

Ce modeste travail a pour objectif d’évaluer la performance du processus de fabrication de l’entreprise par un nouvel outil de mesure, en l’occurrence le niveau sigma dont la finalité consiste à chiffrer les couts inhérents à chaque sous processus de production, mesurer les niveaux six sigma des sous processus adjacents, les pondérer pour parvenir à calculer le DPMO (Defects Per Million Opportunity) et évaluer ainsi la compétitivité globale de l’entreprise. Ce nouvel outil de mesure de la performance du processus de fabrication (niveau sigma) sera appliqué à une entreprise de fabrication de Bouteilles A Gaz (BAG – Batna).

In this paper, we proposed a new mathematical model of the I-V characteristic of a faulty photovoltaic generator. It presents its behavior in normal and faulty operations. In particular, when its basic components such as cells, bypass and blocking diodes are subjected to the impedance or reversed polarity faults. The developed model of the faulty PV generator will allow studying of the I-V characteristic, measures the tolerances of the technical functions, avoids numerous experiments, and ensure better assessment of fault consequences.

In this paper, we proposed a new mathematical model of a faulty photovoltaic generator operation. It presents its behavior, when it's subjected to the open-circuit and the short-circuit faults at its basic components as: cells, bypass diodes and blocking diodes. Such kind of modeling will allow developing fault detection and diagnosis methods. Indeed, the proposed model will be used to set normal and fault operation conditions database, which will facilitate learning and classifications phases.

This paper deals with a new smart algorithm allowing open-circuit and reversed polarity faults prognosis in photovoltaic generators. Its contribution lies on the optimization of support vector regression (SVR) technique by a k-NN regression tool (k-NNR) for undetermined outputs. To testing the performance of the proposed algorithm, we used a significant data base containing the generator functioning history, and as indicators we selected variance, standard deviation, Confidence interval, absolute and relative errors. Nomenclature PV Photovoltaic SVM Support Vector Machines SVR Support Vector Regression k-NNR k-Nearest Neighbor Regression X SVR input vector Y SVR output vector f Linear function Ф Nonlinear mapping function w Weight vector e Squared loss function x Problem variable x * New problem variable α Lagrange multipliers N Number of classes m Number of index of minimum distances I / V Current / Voltage IPH Photocurrent

This paper deals with a new algorithm allowing short-circuit and impedance faults smart diagnosis of PV generators. It is based on the use of the SVM technique for the classification of observations not located in its margin, otherwise the proposed algorithm is used a k-NN method. A PV generator database containing observations distributed over classes is used for testing the new algorithm performance, which shows therefore its contribution and its effectiveness in the diagnosis area.

The continuing evolution of technology and human behavior puts the company in an uncertain and evolving environment. The company must be responsive and even proactive; therefore, control performance becomes increasingly difficult. Choosing the best method of ensuring control by the management policy of the company and its strategy is also a decision problem. The aim of this paper is the comparative study of three methods: the Balanced Scorecard, GIMSI and SKANDIAs NAVIGATOR for choosing the best method for ensuring the orderly following the policy of the company while maintaining its durability. Our work is divided into three parts. We firstly proposed original structural and kinetic metamodels for the three methods that allow an overall view of a method. Secondly, based on the three metamodels, we have drawn a generic comparison to analyze completeness of the method. Thirdly, we performed a restrictive comparison based on a restrictive set of criteria related to the same aspect example organizational learning, which is one of the bricks of knowledge management for a reconciliation to a proactive organization in an environment disturbed and uncertain, and the urgent needs. We note that we applied the three methods are applied in our precedent works. [1][23]