Veeris Ammarapala

A Collaborative Multi‐criteria Decision Making Technique for Risk Factor Prioritization

Organizations are a collection of individuals, and often a disastrous organizational accident involves contributions from several technical/environmental factors and actors throughout the system over time. This paper illustrates the efficiency of a new collaborative decision making technique that could assist a group of executive decision makers in identifying, analyzing, evaluating and prioritizing significant organizational system risks. The results from the collaborative technique when applied to real world risk intensive situations, such as aviation safety risk management, are compared with those obtained by using existing notable techniques. For the case examples shown, the number of expert judgments is reduced by up to 80%. Advantages and limitations of the proposed modeling approach for collaborative decision making are discussed.

An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach to evaluate factors that influence cross border trade facilitation: A case study of East-West Economic Corridor route

This research proposes a framework to evaluate cross border trade facilitation among East-West Economic Corridor route or EWEC (R-9 Route), which encompasses four ASEAN countries; Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The framework includes the study of factors that may influence trade facilitation along the economic corridor. They were broadly classified as time, cost and complication of overall trading processes. Then, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed to measure the influencing weight of each factor. Expert opinions are obtained through the interview of leading logistic experts - entrepreneurs, academic researchers and policy makers. The influencing weights of different factors were determined through the geometric mean of the AHP. It was revealed that the complication of overall trading processes is the most important factor that influences trade facilitation. The results obtained from this investigation helps in identifying appropriate factors and weights for the characteristic of R-9 Route, which can further be utilized in order to evaluate the trade facilitation in each of the four ASEAN countries.

The development of highways assets management system

This paper presents a development of the assets management system that purposely aspires to assist the Department of Highways (DOH), Ministry of Transportation, Thailand in managing their assets. Currently, the DOH has over hundred billions Thai Baht or approximately three billions USD in assets under management, which require a constant maintenance. The study initially focuses on an assessment of assets such as assets conditions, and the importance of each asset, in regards of engineering, economic and social impacts. After that, the results of the assessment are transformed into three indices, which are Condition Rating (CR), Asset Serviceability Index (ASI) and Priority Index (PI). Based on the indices, the system prioritizes all routine maintenance jobs under the responsible of DOH. This prioritization helps support the DOH executives in making proper judgments on how to set up an annual routine maintenance program of their assets, and manage their limited routine maintenance budget. Additionally, this system could be extended to include the scope of a budget tracking system. In this paper, the authors illustrate the development of an assets management system for twenty three groups of the DOHs assets. During the construction phrase, the research team gathered the assets information from five sub-districts in all five regions of the country. The collected data were analyzed and utilized in the pilot test of the system. In the end, the authors make conclusion and suggestions about how this system can be enhanced in the future.

Perception of logistics service provider regarding trade facilitation for cross border transportation: a case study of east-west economic corridor

The aim of this research is to evaluate the trade facilitation on cross border trade along the east-west economic corridor route. This study employs two methods for evaluating the trade performance. First, the different influence factors and their effect on the trade are considered. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is employed to measure the influencing weight of each factor. Expert opinions are obtained through interviews of leading logistic experts: entrepreneurs, academic researchers, and policy makers. Second, trade facilitation surveys are conducted. The interview technique and six-point Likert scale questionnaires were used to gather data from logistics providers and related firms who operate within the R-9 route. The results obtained from this investigation help in identifying appropriate factors and weights for the characteristics of the R-9 route, which can further be utilised to evaluate the trade facilitation in each of the four countries.

Key factors influencing management decisions concerning safety equipment selection

The construction industry involves many hazardous activities that may expose workers to a wide variety of health hazards. Selection of construction safety equipment is crucial in ensuring workers’ safety. This article aims to examine key factors influencing management decisions concerning safety equipment selection, utilizing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). A questionnaire survey is conducted in the construction companies in Bangkok, Thailand. The factor analysis extracts 103 sets of data into six key factors – namely supplier agreements, supplier support, personal, equipment design, safety-related policies and cost value factors – with a total of 20 associated items. The AHP results conclude that the safety-related policies, equipment design and personal factors are the most important factors when selecting construction safety equipment. A construction company can use the study results as a checklist to help assess different safety equipment, and to select the best equipment.

The AEC road freight transportation hub potential of Thailand

Due to Thailands strategic geographical location at the center of Mainland ASEAN, several prospects of Thailand becoming the logistics hub of ASEAN in the realization of ASEAN Economic Integration in 2015 have been broadly discussed. Both Thai government and private sectors have been very active in promoting Thailand to be the logistics hub of ASEAN. In Thailand, Road freight transport is the dominant mode of transport with approximately 82.6% of all logistics activities. This paper analyzes Thailands potential to be the road freight hub by using Porters Diamond Model Analysis. The Porters Diamond Model provides the perspective of factor condition, demand condition, strategy, structure, and rivalry, Related and supporting industries, as well as chance and government. The information in this paper is obtained mainly from in-depth interviews with government agencies; private logistics services providers; and logistics expert. Moreover, the authors also obtained information based on statistics from government publications and electronic papers. The authors analyzed the information of Thailands potential to be the road freight hub of ASEAN and provide policy recommendations to related organizations and government agencies.

Thai Regional Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and their Effect on the Automotive Industry in Thailand

This lucid and informative book analyzes the problem of clusters in transition through studies of agglomerations at different stages of development in various East Asian countries.

Maintenance budget planning: A case study for rigid pavement maintenance system in Thailand

The expansion of rigid pavement network under the responsibility of the Department of Rural Roads (DORR) has driven DORR to initiate the development of Rigid Pavement Maintenance System (RPMS). The developed system is aimed to analyze concrete or rigid pavement conditions, select the most appropriate treatment technique, and prioritize importance of the maintenance to be performed on different road sections in order to optimize the DORRs limited maintenance budgets. The system consists of two modules: Pavement Condition Index (PCI) Module and Optimization Module. Deterioration data, obtained from the visual roads survey of pavement conditions, are collected and analyzed using the PCI Module. The Optimization Module allows the DORR to effectively arrange the maintenance for all concrete pavement sections. In addition, the rigid pavement performance criteria and the maintenance budget planning are discussed in this paper.

A review of Thailand Pavement Management System (TPMS)

This paper is a review of a maintenance management system, known as Thailand Pavement Management System (TPMS), which has been used for about three decades by Thailand Department of Highways (DoH). The main purpose of this system is to manage a limited annual maintenance budget that DoH obtains. This system is a combination of two modules: TPMS module and TPMS budgeting module. TPMS module is used for rating the performance of the road section, while TPMS budgeting module is used for performing the economic decision analysis and suggesting the most appropriate treatment for that specific road section based on the results. This paper discusses the history and significance of TPMS, the usages, the embedded model and its limitations.