Jin-Su Kang

Using DEMATEL method to explore the core competences and causal effect of the IC design service company

Research highlights? The DEMATEL method is demonstrated as a useful approach in exploring the causal and effect interrelationship of the core competences of an industry or a firm. ? Seven core competences that a successful IC design service company should possess are identified. Five of them are defined as causal factors while the other two are in the effect group. ? The IP design capability is concluded as the most important core competences of an IC design service company. ? To enhance the five causal factors will strengthen the overall competitive advantage. The booming of Integrated Circuit (IC) design service has become a critical sub-industry to the evolution of semiconductor industry. In this paper, we took the case of a tier one IC design service company to explore the core competences of this emerging industry. Seven core competences are defined throughout the research. More specifically, this paper analyzes the in-depth of the interrelation among the core competences by utilizing the DEMATEL method. They are divided into causal and effect groups, enabling readers to gain a better understanding of the interactive relationship between them, as well as making suggestions for improvement to enhance their overall performance. The result has shown that the Intellectual Property (IP) design capability is the most important core competence. Enhancing five of the core competences in the causal group will improve the overall performance. Further, DEMATEL method is demonstrated as a useful approach in exploring the interrelationship.

Culture and the Importance of Usability Attributes

Purpose – This study into cultural usability aims to identify whether the importance of usability attributes varied between nationalities, and whether this variance was related to cultural dimensions.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 144 subjects from four countries were surveyed on the importance they placed on the usability attributes of cell phones. Results were compared by country, and relationships with cultural dimensions were investigated.Findings – For each country, usability attributes were not rated equally. Across countries, no difference in the rating of effectiveness was found, while ratings of efficiency and satisfaction varied significantly. In addition, the study identified significant relationships between the importance given to efficiency and satisfaction and cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede and the World Values Survey, with values relating to task‐orientation influencing efficiency, and non‐task oriented values affecting the importance users place on satisfaction.Pract...

Robust economic optimization of process design under uncertainty

In this study, ranges of model parameters are analyzed for robustness measures. In particular, the properties of partial mean and worst-case cost in robust optimization are investigated. The robust optimization models are considered as multiobjective problems having two objectives, the expected performance (i.e. expected cost) and a robustness measure (Suh, M. and Lee, T. (2001) Robust optimization method for the economic term in chemical process design and planning. Industrial & Engineering Chemical Research, 40, 5950–5959). The robust partial mean model is defined with objectives of expected value and partial mean. The robust worst-case model is defined with the objective of expected value and worst-case. They are proved to guarantee Pareto optimality, which should be satisfied for multiobjective optimization problems. A graphical representation of the meaningful parameter ranges is clearly defined with mathematical proofs. The robustness of the solutions is discussed, based on the analysis of the ranges of the parameters. Three meaningful ranges of the parameters are investigated to choose a proper target value for the robust partial mean model. The worst-case value obtained from the worst-case analysis is recommended as the most effective target value, in order to obtain the optimal solution in a tradeoff between robustness and optimality. The proposed analysis in this study is validated with examples in chemical process design problems.

Robust optimization for engineering design

This study proposes a robust optimization model to handle uncertainty during the process design stage, together with a decision-making procedure. Different robustness concepts are presented to describe the characteristic, either economic or technical, of a given variable in the model. Among economic robustness measures, partial mean of costs is analysed to address its intrinsic problem of excessive variability of performance with respect to the change of values in its parameters. To resolve it, a novel formulation of robust economic optimization is derived, providing a conceptual framework for suggesting a proper range of parameter values. Then, the model is further extended to consider technical robustness as well. Lastly, the decision-making procedure is presented using the proposed nadir vector which is computationally inexpensive and also useful in selecting a final solution. The applicability of the model was successfully demonstrated by applying it to process design examples.

Closed-form formulas for the Zhang-Zhang polynomials of benzenoid structures

We show that the Zhang-Zhang (ZZ) polynomial of a benzenoid obtained by fusing a parallelogram M ( m , n ) with an arbitrary benzenoid structure A B C can be simply computed as a product of the ZZ polynomials of both fragments. It seems possible to extend this important result also to cases where both fused structures are arbitrary Kekulean benzenoids. Formal proofs of explicit forms of the ZZ polynomials for prolate rectangles P r ( m , n ) and generalized prolate rectangles P r ( m 1 , m 2 , ? , m n , n ) follow as a straightforward application of the general theory, giving Z Z ( P r ( m , n ) , x ) = ( 1 + ( 1 + x ) ? m ) n and Z Z ( P r ( m 1 , m 2 , ? , m n , n ) , x ) = ? k = 1 n ( 1 + ( 1 + x ) ? m k ) .

Sharing benefits of Eco-Industrial Park by multiobjective material flow optimization

Abstract The goal of an Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) is to improve the economic performances of the participating companies while minimizing their environmental impacts. But various socio-economic problems are obstacles for realization. From the economic point of view, EIP has the benefit sharing problem in which the interest of each company may conflict depending on the configuration of material flow network of an ecosystem so that it is not recommended to insist on one-sided concession. That is, to make a compromise is the key of success of an EIP. In this study, the concept of robust optimal design is applied for construction of EIP so that reasonable alternatives are proposed to distribute the benefit of each company without conflicts in an EIP at the point of Pareto optimality. The industrial example constructed by EIP is addressed to show the performance of the proposed approach.

Robust Optimization of Microgrids - An Application to Taichung Industrial Park

Abstract Despite a number of studies of a microgrid, robust optimization of a microgrid has not been studied yet. This is critical to a microgrid because it has lots of uncertainties concerning main grid failure, power quality issues, estimates of demand, energy price, regulation change, etc. It is therefore of importance to study and develop robust optimization strategies that take the uncertainty into account at planning a microgrid. The current study aims at developing a robust optimization model for a microgrid which provides set of robust solutions and decision-making procedure for a best solution. The model enables us to consider various uncertainties including energy price, regulation change, and estimates of demand using scenario based approach. The proposed model is validated with Taichung Industrial Park in Taiwan.