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Abstract: With growing worldwide awareness of environmental protection, green production has become an important issue for almost every manufacturer and will determine the sustainability of a manufacturer in the long term. A performance evaluation system for green suppliers thus is necessary to determine the suitability of suppliers to cooperate with the firm. While the works on the evaluation and/or selection of suppliers are abundant, those that concern environmental issues are rather limited. Therefore, in this study, a model for evaluating green suppliers is proposed. The Delphi method is applied first to differentiate the criteria for evaluating traditional suppliers and green suppliers. A hierarchy is constructed next to help evaluate the importance of the selected criteria and the performance of green suppliers. Since experts may not identify the importance of factors clearly, the results of questionnaires may be biased. To consider the vagueness of experts’ opinions, the fuzzy extended analytic hierarchy process is exploited. With the proposed model, manufacturers can have a better understanding of the capabilities that a green supplier must possess and can evaluate and select the most suitable green supplier for cooperation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The prevalence of business-to-business (B2B) has made the relationship among firms more closer than ever. Whether in simple arm-length transactions or business cooperation, many firms, in order to reduce costs and achieve efficiency, have shifted their day-to-day operations from the tradition of relying on manpower to the use of information technology in handling tasks such as inventory, procurement, production planning, distribution, etc. As a result, the need of a business process information system is imminent for firms to coordinate with partners in the supply chain and to be sustainable in the competitive market. This study thus proposes a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approach for evaluating business process information systems. First, the factors that should be taken into account in selecting an appropriate system are explored. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) is adopted next to understand the interrelationships among the criteria. Based on the results from the DEMATEL, the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) is applied to calculate the importance of the factors. Fuzzy Techniques for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) is used to rank the business process information systems. The interrelationship among the factors should be considered in the decision-making; thus, the FANP can be a recommended methodology. However, the FANP questionnaire is usually very lengthy and cumbersome. The use of DEMATEL in advance can shorten the questionnaire substantially. FTOPSIS is used to rank the alternatives so that the pairwise comparisons of the alternatives required in the FANP can be avoided. Fuzzy set theory is incorporated in the study so that the uncertainty and ambiguity present in decision-making can be considered. The proposed approach can provide references for decision makers for making relevant decisions and can be revised and adopted in similar problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Due to the impacts of fossil and nuclear energy on the security, economics, and environment in the world, the demand of alternative energy resources is expanding consistently and tremendously in recent years. Wind energy production, with its safe and environmental characteristics, has become the fastest growing renewable energy source in the world. The construction of new wind farms and the installation of new wind turbines are important processes in order to provide a long-term energy production. In this research, a comprehensive evaluation model, which incorporates interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and fuzzy analytic network process (FANP), is constructed to select suitable turbines when developing a wind farm. A case study is carried out in Taiwan in evaluating the expected performance of several potential types of wind turbines, and experts in a wind farm are invited to contribute their expertise in determining the importance of the factors of the wind turbine evaluation and in rating the performance of the turbines with respect to each factor. The most suitable turbines for installation can finally be generated after the calculations. The results can be references for decision makers in selecting the most appropriate wind turbines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]