Taraneh Sowlati

Information systems project prioritization using data envelopment analysis

Large organizations continually struggle with problems related to allocating their development dollars to various competing projects. Project prioritization is at the heart of these issues because there are always more demand than money available, so choosing the right projects is important. This situation is further aggravated by the omni-present political environment where some managers get their projects done because they have the political power to get them on the agenda. This paper presents a new model within the data envelopment analysis framework for prioritizing information system (IS) projects. The criteria used to judge the importance of projects are the inputs and outputs of the model. A set of sample/artificial projects is created for which the criteria and priority score are defined by decision makers. Each real project is compared to the set of defined projects and receives a score. The new model is tested on a real case of prioritizing IS projects at a large financial institution. The proposed model provides fair and equitable ranking, it is complex enough to model the problem reasonably and accurately and yet simple enough to be understood by the user community. More importantly, a new project can be prioritized at any time without affecting the priority of already assessed projects.

Quality of Wood Pellets Produced in British Columbia for Export

Wood pellet production and its use for heat and power production are increasing worldwide. The quality of export pellets has to consistently meet certain specifications as stipulated by the larger buyers, such as power utilities or as specified by the standards used for the non-industrial bag market. No specific data is available regarding the quality of export pellets to Europe. To develop a set of baseline data, wood pellets were sampled at an export terminal in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The sampling period was 18 months in 2007-2008 when pellets were transferred from storage bins to the ocean vessels. The sampling frequency was once every 1.5 to 2 months for a total of 9 loading/shipping events. The physical properties of the wood pellets measured were moisture content in the range of 3.5% to 6.5%, bulk density from 728 to 808 kg/m3, durability from 97% to 99%, fines content from 0.03% to 0.87%, calorific value as is from 17 to almost 18 MJ/kg, and ash content from 0.26% to 0.93%.The diameter and length were in the range of 6.4 to 6.5 mm and 14.0 to 19.0 mm, respectively. All of these values met the published non-industrial European grades (CEN) and the grades specified by the Pellet Fuel Institute for the United States for the bag market. The measured values for wood pellet properties were consistent except the ash content values decreased over the test period.

Logistics of supplying biomass from a mountain pine beetle-infested forest to a power plant in British Columbia

Abstract The search for alternative energy sources has increased the interest in forest biomass. During the past few years, the severe infestation of the mountain pine beetle (MPB) within the forests of interior British Columbia (BC) has led to huge volumes of dead wood that exceed the capacity of the lumber industry. One way to make the most value of the surplus wood is to use it as the feedstock for bioenergy. The high costs associated with harvest and transport, and uncertainty in supply logistics are issues related to forest biomass utilization. This paper presents the development of a forest biomass supply logistics simulation model and its application to a case of supplying MPB-killed biomass from Quesnel timber supply area (one of the most infested areas in the interior BC) to a potential 300 MW power plant adjacent to the city of Quesnel. It provides values of quantity, cost and moisture content of biomass which are important factors in feasibility study of bioenergy projects. In the case of a conventional harvesting system, the biomass recovered from roadside residues in 1 year will meet only about 30% of the annual demand of the power plant with an estimated delivered cost of Can

Life cycle assessment of windows for the North American residential market: Case study

45 per oven-dry tonne of woodchips. Sensitivity analyses were also performed.

Optimization of production allocation and transportation of customer orders for a leading forest products company

Abstract A life cycle assessment (LCA) of residential windows was conducted to evaluate the environmental impacts of those made with aluminum-clad wood, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and fiberglass frames for sale in North America. The LCA was a case study in which specific-site data were used for the manufacturing stage of each window, while published data were adapted to complete the life cycle inventories using Sima Pro software. These inventories were grouped into impact categories and scaled based on IMPACT 2002+ version 2.1 characterization and damage factors. The damage modeling indicated that the life cycle impacts are dominated by the combustion of non-renewable energy resources. The PVC life cycle used the most non-renewable energy and caused the most damage owing to that windows shorter service life. The disposal of aluminum cladding in the municipal waste stream caused greater aquatic ecotoxicity for the wood window. The sensitivity analysis revealed that replacing the virgin material in aluminum cladding with recycled content improved the life cycle impacts of the wood window. Using fiberglass or PVC to clad the wood window also improved the environmental performance. Other potential improvements to the life cycle impacts of the three windows include improving energy efficiency, particularly during the secondary manufacturing.

Developing a mathematical programming model for sensitivity analysis in analytic hierarchy process

A leading manufacturer of forest products with several production facilities located in geographical proximity to each other has recently acquired a number of new production plants in other regions/countries to increase its production capacity and expand its national and international markets. With the addition of this new capacity, the company wanted to know how to best allocate customer orders to its various mills to minimize the total cost of production and transportation. We developed mixed-integer programming models to jointly optimize production allocation and transportation of customer orders on a weekly basis. The models were run with real order files and the test results indicated the potential for significant cost savings over the companys current practices. The company further customized the models, integrated them into their IT system and implemented them successfully. Besides the actual cost savings for the company, the whole process from the initial step of analyzing the problem, to developing, testing, customizing, integrating and finally implementing the models provided enhanced intelligence to sales staff.

Information Technology Adoption in US and Canadian Forest Products Industries

Sensitivity analysis is an important step in multi-criteria decision making that provides useful information and insights on the decision problem. The solution of a decision problem is not complete if only the ranks of alternatives are determined, since any change in the input parameters may change the ranking and the final decision. This article presents a mathematical programming model for sensitivity analysis in the analytic hierarchy process method to assess the minimum required changes in the weights of criteria to alter the alternatives ranking. The proposed model is applied to a real case of evaluating and selecting design and manufacturing software packages in a kitchen cabinet manufacturing company in Canada. The results of sensitivity analysis are used to assess the robustness of the final decision.

Design and manufacturing software selection in the wood industry using analytic hierarchy process

Information technology (IT) has advanced at a rapid rate during the past three decades, and when used well, IT can bestow a competitive advantage in the modern economy. This article reviews key stu...

ECONOMICS OF PELLET PRODUCTION FOR EXPORT MARKET

This paper presents a real case of evaluating and selecting a design and manufacturing software package at a Canadian cabinet manufacturing company. Several tangible and intangible criteria were assessed in a group decision setting using the analytic hierarchy process technique. An aggregated decision was derived considering the relative influence of decision makers in the decision-making process. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the impact of changes in the influence of decision makers and changes in the importance of selection criteria on the final decision. The recommended software package was acquired by the company and has been integrated into their system.

Evaluating the impact of uncertainty and variability on the value chain optimization of a forest biomass power plant using Monte Carlo Simulation

Due to its renewable, clean-burning and cost-stable for home heating, wood pellet is gaining popularity day by day throughout North America. The use of pellets in co-firing with coal enhanced its utilization suddenly in Europe. As a result, some countries in Europe are planning to import wood pellets from Africa, America or neighboring European countries due to the shortage of wood in long term basis. This study focuses on the pellet production in Canada and its export to Sweden or the Netherlands. The transport and supply logistics were analyzed. The results showed that the total production cost of pellets was US