Mark Gershon

A survey instrument for standardizing TQM modeling research

For over a decade, total quality management has been a principle focus of business managers and academic researchers alike. The myriad prescriptions and practices, all purporting to represent this management philosophy, have been implemented with varying degrees of success. Despite the significant failure rate of TQM programs, the successes, as indicated by Baldrige Award winners, support continued interest in TQM. The search for linkages between current descriptive models and proposed prescriptive models of TQM spawned our research, which, in turn, required creation of a survey instrument. This paper describes the initial sources and development of this instrument, the rigorous sequence of testing that it has been subjected to, and its application for current and future research. The successful achievement of key survey statistics suggests that this instrument can be used for TQM data collection with confidence by researchers elsewhere who will investigate other proposed models.

Which TQM Practices Really Matter: An Empirical Investigation

Research leading toward a standard definition of TQM is reviewed here, making the case that a clearer definition of TQM is emerging from the literature. This definition is necessary prior to further research in the area, especially in light of the many ..

Optimal mine production scheduling: evaluation of large scale mathematical programming approaches

SummaryComputational difficulties arising in the solution of linear programming models have mitigated against their widespread use in mine scheduling. These difficulties are identified and discussed and key avenues for further research are isolated.

The role of weights and scales in the application of multiobjective decision making

Abstract The application of multiobjective solution techniques requires, at some point in the analysis, the specification of the preference structure of the decision maker over the set of objectives. In practice, this step must often take the form of determining a set of weights that attempts to quantify the relative importance of the various competing objectives. This paper looks at how some of the well known techniques make use of these weights in attempting to achieve the best compromise solution. The definition of the weights (i.e., what meaning they carry into the analysis) is also explored. It is found that one must be very careful about applying weights when using these techniques. A different set of weights for the same objectives may apply when implementing two different techniques. In addition, a related factor, the specification of scales or ranges over which the objectives are to be evaluated, is explored. Again, it is found that different techniques use these scales in ways that change the manner in which they should be defined. The techniques reviewed are compromise programming, multiattribute utility theory, ELECTRE and cooperative game theory. Concepts are illustrated through the use of a water resources example problem.

A procedure for selection of a multiobjective technique with application to water and mineral resources

The problem of selecting the appropriate multiobjective solution technique to solve an arbitrary multiobjective decision problem is considered. Various classification schemes of available techniques are discussed, leading to the development of a set of 28 model choice criteria and an algorithm for model choice. This algorithm divides the criteria into four groups, only one of which must be reevaluated for each decision problem encountered. The model choice problem is itself modeled as a multiobjective decision problem-strongly influenced, however, by the individual performing the analysis. The appropriate technique is selected for implementation by use of the compromise programming technique. Two example problems are presented to demonstrate the use of this algorithm. The first is concerned with ranking a predefined set of river basin planning alternatives with multiple noncommensurate ordinally ranked consequences. The second deals with coal blending and is modeled by dual objective linear programming. An appropriate multiobjective solution technique is selected for each of these two examples.

Application of a new approach for drillholes location optimization

ABSTRACT Geostatistics has seen limited application to the problem of determining drillhole locations, and both approaches in use have been successful in improving drilling strategies. The first approach in use is a sequential optimization scheme. The effect of drilling each candidate drillhole is evaluated, and the one yielding the largest decrease in the estimation variance is chosen. The second approach attempts to identify regions of high estimation variance and locates drillholes in these regions. A number of different sets of drillholes can then be evaluated and the best set selected. Here, the computer implementation of a third approach is discussed, and computational results are presented applying all three approaches to the same property. This new approach guarantees that the set of drilling sites chosen will be the best possible set from among the given candidate sites. Two models have been programmed, representing differing definitions of the “best” set of locations. In the first model, the bes...

Comparing the cost of quality between C = 0 acceptance plans and MIL-STD-105E plans

Practitioners using acceptance sampling are under pressure to use C = 0 plans in place of the traditional MIL-STD-105E sampling plans. This paper investigates the effects of this practice, leading to a cost comparison of the two approaches. Previous research has looked at the effect on producer costs, but this paper identifies the costs to both the producer and the consumer, total costs. Six factors are identified, which affect total costs, and the results of each on total cost are shown. Circumstances when one plan might be better than the other are identified, leading to some prescriptive recommendations concerning when to use each.

Optimizing single hole mine cuts by dynamic programming

Abstract In planning a mine with layered deposits one must decide the ultimate disposition of the material to be mined. Some material will be mined for processing as ore and some will be discarded as waste. Mining equipment can remove the layers of waste and ore separately. There are, however, minimum widths for waste and ore cuts because of the way the equipment is designed and operated. Thus, decisions on the disposition of any given depth interval depend on its ore quality as well as that of neighboring intervals. Information on ore quality by depth is gained by drilling holes into the ore body and measuring the mineral content at periodic intervals. This paper presents a dynamic programming approach that optimizes the cuts for a single drillhole from which the ore qualities are evaluated.We implement a trial version to illustrate the properties of the solution, using Lotus 123.

Application of multiobjective dynamic programming to regional natural resource management

The general multiobjective dynamic programming problem is reformulated as a classical dynamic programming problem that then can be solved by regular dynamic programming methods. It is shown that the method of differential dynamic programming is most applicable for solution of this problem, which has a higher dimension state space. A case study, the management of a large natural resource system, is presented and modeled next. Finally, the model is applied to the case of bauxite mining development in Hungary, and numerical results for this case are presented.

A Composite Method to Compare Countries to Ascertain Supply Chain Success: Case of USA and India

Supply chains are assessed for the contribution they make in improving business processes. Assessment also looks at the return on investment and improves the overall functioning of the entire chain. However, supply chains extend beyond geographical borders and span a wide variety of activities; therefore, a systematic examination of factors required for success of supply chains is essential. This paper proposes a composite method by which supply chains could be assessed at multiple levels to enable a comprehensive comparison. The objective is to first compare at a global level and then narrow down to the firms’ level. Although over time a number of measures have been developed to evaluate supply chain performance, this paper provides a methodology involving well-known techniques to assess the supply chain success based on objective considerations. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate how global players can select the partnering countries to reap maximum benefits. Finally, a comprehensive model is provided involving three approaches that look at the issue of comparison from different perspectives and are debated with respect to India and the United States.