Zhi-a Hu

A Decision Support Framework for Port Efficiency Discovery Based on Intelligent Data Integration

Trading port efficiency is an important determinant of the competitiveness of the goods and a key factor to improve the investment climate of the countries. Managing the efficiency and coordinating distributed entities in a supply chain is a challenging task. This paper provide proposed s decision support framework for port efficiency discovery based on intelligent data integration, and provided some intelligent approaches to measure and analysis the trading port efficiency from supply chain aspect. The solution can take adequate use of the massive operational data accumulated in the distributed information system scattered in different sectors, and give useful information to support decision-making. A Case study has been developed to give an illustration of employing the proposed decision support framework in one of the trading port in China. The results obtained indicate that the prototype system is capable of get some useful insights into port efficiency.

Relief demand forecasting in emergency logistics based on tolerance model

Various disasters with serious results are reported and happen around our lives. Most of them are unconventional contingency events that are difficult to be detected and discriminated. Emergency management is an important activity dealing with the contingent events. For the uncertainty, imperfect, stochastic, fuzzy and disturbed environments and the unrecognized characteristics of the events, it is hard to make the urgent decision for relief demands in the context of emergency management. Inspired by the higher efficiency and special structure of immune system dealing with the pathogens, and the tolerance mechanisms dealing with incentives, a tolerance model based approach is proposed to forecast the emergency demands for protect disaster node. The concepts, models and algorithms are studied.

GIS-based safe area discovery for emergency logistics

Quick response to urgent relief right after natural disasters through efficient emergency logistics distribution is vital to the alleviation of disaster impact in the affected areas, which remains challenging in the field of logistics and related study areas. This paper analyzes the spatial data and the attribute data by space model and logistics models. Numerical studies with a real large-scale earthquake disaster occurring in Wenchuan are conducted, and the corresponding results indicate the applicability of the proposed method and its potential advantages.

Designing Container Supply Chain by Optimizing Energy Consumption

Container supply chain (CSC) is a typical form of supply chain with the rapid development of container transportation and large-scale trades. Under the backgrounds of financial crisis and green supply chain, cost and time efficiency are not the singular objective of supply chain. How the industries can save the energy is a critical problem for the governments and enterprises. The container supply chain correlates with many companies in the chain. The design optimization of it contributes to the energy reduction. The CSC is simplified as a multi-epoch supply chain network. A model is built to choose the optimal chain between the suppliers and the consumer with minimal energy consumption. The simulation study shows the efficiency. The approach produces a significant result for global management of CSC for government and the industries.

Notice of Retraction Hot research topics and trends of SCM: A statisical review

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has been a very hot research fields. However, the boundaries of it are difficult to be discriminated. There are too many buzzwords on the SCM or related topics. The reviewing studies on SCM are mainly conducted in three ways. First, the concepts, principles and models are reviewed to construct the general view of SCM. Second, the literature on specific topic in SCM is reviewed to show the concrete content and extension of it. The third type is about the application of SCM in specific industry. In this study, the statistical methods are used to analyze the topics in the recent two years. The objective is to find out the hot research topics and the trends. Moreover, the conditions in China are also studied and discussed.

A Decision Support System for Tobacco Distribution Partition Optimization Based on Immune Co-Evolutionary Algorithm

The tobacco distribution in China is organized by the tobacco company in the unit of city. The distribution cycle is commonly a week with five fixed distribution districts started from the center depot, and the routes in each district are fixed for the vehicles and drivers. This method with low efficiency and high cost has continued for several decades because of the poor technology and economic reasons. In this paper, we propose a feasible and optimal method for the tobacco distribution partition balance problem (TDPBP) by breaking the fixed partitions. An immune co-evolutionary algorithm (ICEA) is proposed to search the optimal partitions. Moreover, the decision support system (DSS) for partition balance is designed. Linfen city in China as a real-world case is proved that the DSS can discover the efficient distribution planning. The comparisons among three solutions, ‘Fixed’, ‘the DSS’ and ‘Pure VRP’, further prove that the DSS is an effective decision support tool for TDPBP.

Remanufacturing Logistics Network Design Considering FTZ

With the establishment of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (CSPFTZ). For remanufacture industry, Free Trade Zone (FTZ) has improved in some policies, such as import tariff, customs performance and timeliness of shipments. Regarding the remanufacturing network design considering FTZ as research subject, the maximum operating profit and the highest Logistics Performance Index (LPI) as objectives, an optimization model involving recovery ratio reflected by dynamic pricing will be build to study the collection strategies and specific logistics network layout of remanufacturing enterprise. Our conclusions show that, under the premise of just considering economic efficiency, the enterprise will still set up remanufacturing center outside the FTZ in spite of taking off the restriction of double-overseas industrial pattern. Meanwhile, along with the increase of the goal weight of LPI, lifting double-overseas industrial pattern restriction will cause the remanufacturing center transfer to FTZ and the bigger scale of the center.

Multi-objective Based Fuzzy Mathematical Programming Model for Green Logistics Network Design Under Uncertainty

Current environmental issues are reflected in the environmental legislation of several countries. Because of the significance of environmental issues, enterprises actively seek ways in which to reduce CO2 emission across the logistics network Elhedhli and Merrick; Transp Res Part D 17(5):370–379, 2012. This paper develops a multi-objective fuzzy programming model for designing a strategic green logistics network under uncertainty, which aims to minimize the total cost and the CO2 emissions. Besides, to solve the multi-objective fuzzy model, an interactive fuzzy solution approach is applied. The case study indicates the applicability of the model and the usefulness of the solution method.

Research on Path Scheduling Model and its Stochastic Evolutionary Algorithm with Uncertain Node Set

In general path planning problem, the road network is presumed to be determined, and real-time optimization method is used to establish optimal path. The result of this approach is not practical. In the rapidly developing China, the road network in fact is changing rapidly, while the road networks of the electronic maps are often not real-time updated; even if the path of their own real-time planning is feasible, the driver will take more time significantly than expected be because of lack of experience on the new road. Considering the uncertainty of the passed nodes, it is feasible to generate stable periodic path to balance the cost and time spent in the path. In this paper, path planning model with uncertainly passed nodes is proposed and a stochastic evolutionary algorithm is designed. Simulation studies show that the model is valid with promising solving performance. The achievement is expected to be integrated in the distribution or transportation decision support system for route planning.

Staff assessment and promotion models based on social assessment matrix inspired by social network

How can we explain the oriental promotion system, especially in China? It seems that the best individuals fail to obtain the positions in many cases. However, some ordinary people with outstanding performances are chosen and become more and more important in business groups. Can it be explained and can the principle be built? In this study, a set of concepts and models inspired by social network are proposed as tools which aim to be decision-making principles in human resource management. Moreover, the studies are demonstrated by simulation. However, it is only a start in this period. Some novel questions and plans are proposed for future study.