Decision Models in Engineering and Management


Book Description

Providing a comprehensive overview of various methods and applications in decision engineering, this book presents chapters written by a range experts in the field. It presents conceptual aspects of decision support applications in various areas including finance, vendor selection, construction, process management, water management and energy, agribusiness , production scheduling and control, and waste management. In addition to this, a special focus is given to methods of multi-criteria decision analysis. Decision making in organizations is a recurrent theme and is essential for business continuity. Managers from various fields including public, private, industrial, trading or service sectors are required to make decisions. Consequently managers need the support of these structured methods in order to engage in effective decision making. This book provides a valuable resource for graduate students, professors and researchers of decision analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis and group decision analysis. It is also intended for production engineers, civil engineers and engineering consultants.




Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management


Book Description

Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management is a comprehensive textbook that provides a logical process and analytical techniques for fact-based decision making for the most challenging systems problems. Grounded in systems thinking and based on sound systems engineering principles, the systems decisions process (SDP) leverages multiple objective decision analysis, multiple attribute value theory, and value-focused thinking to define the problem, measure stakeholder value, design creative solutions, explore the decision trade off space in the presence of uncertainty, and structure successful solution implementation. In addition to classical systems engineering problems, this approach has been successfully applied to a wide range of challenges including personnel recruiting, retention, and management; strategic policy analysis; facilities design and management; resource allocation; information assurance; security systems design; and other settings whose structure can be conceptualized as a system.




Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management


Book Description

IIE/Joint Publishers Book of the Year Award 2016! Awarded for ‘an outstanding published book that focuses on a facet of industrial engineering, improves education, or furthers the profession’. Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management emphasizes practical issues and examples of decision making with applications in engineering design and management Featuring a blend of theoretical and analytical aspects, this book presents multiple perspectives on decision making to better understand and improve risk management processes and decision-making systems. Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management uniquely presents and discusses three perspectives on decision making: problem solving, the decision-making process, and decision-making systems. The author highlights formal techniques for group decision making and game theory and includes numerical examples to compare and contrast different quantitative techniques. The importance of initially selecting the most appropriate decision-making process is emphasized through practical examples and applications that illustrate a variety of useful processes. Presenting an approach for modeling and improving decision-making systems, Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management also features: Theoretically sound and practical tools for decision making under uncertainty, multi-criteria decision making, group decision making, the value of information, and risk management Practical examples from both historical and current events that illustrate both good and bad decision making and risk management processes End-of-chapter exercises for readers to apply specific learning objectives and practice relevant skills A supplementary website with instructional support material, including worked solutions to the exercises, lesson plans, in-class activities, slides, and spreadsheets An excellent textbook for upper-undergraduate and graduate students, Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management is appropriate for courses on decision analysis, decision making, and risk management within the fields of engineering design, operations research, business and management science, and industrial and systems engineering. The book is also an ideal reference for academics and practitioners in business and management science, operations research, engineering design, systems engineering, applied mathematics, and statistics.




Decision Making in Engineering Design


Book Description

Whether you are an engineer facing decisions in product design, an instructor or student engaged in course work, or a researcher exploring new options and opportunities, you can turn to Decision Making in Engineering Design for: Foundations and fundamentals of making decisions in product design; Clear examples of effective application of Decision-Based Design; State-of-the-art theory and practice in Decision-Based Design; Thoughtful insights on validation, uncertainty, preferences, distributed design, demand modeling, and other issues; End-of-chapter exercise problems to facilitate learning. With this advanced text, you become current with research results on DBD developed since the inception of The Open Workshop on Decision-Based Design, a project funded by the National Science Foundation.




Hierarchical Decision Modeling


Book Description

This volume, developed in honor of Dr. Dundar F. Kocaoglu, aims to demonstrate the applications of the Hierarchical Decision Model (HDM) in different sectors and its capacity in decision analysis. It is comprised of essays from noted scholars, academics and researchers of engineering and technology management around the world. This book is organized into five parts: Technology Policy Planning, Strategic Technology Planning, Technology Assessment, Application Extensions, and Methodology Extensions. Dr. Dundar F. Kocaoglu is one of the pioneers of multiple decision models using hierarchies, and creator of the HDM in decision analysis. HDM is a mission-oriented method for evaluation and/or selection among alternatives. A wide range of alternatives can be considered, including but not limited to, different technologies, projects, markets, jobs, products, cities to live in, houses to buy, apartments to rent, and schools to attend. Dr. Kocaoglu’s approach has been adopted for decision problems in many industrial sectors, including electronics research and development, education, government planning, agriculture, energy, technology transfer, semiconductor manufacturing, and has influenced policy locally, nationally, and internationally. Moreover, his students developed advanced tools and software applications to further improve and enhance the robustness of the HDM approach. Dr. Kocaoglu has made many contributions to the field of Engineering and Technology Management. During his tenure at Portland State University, he founded the Engineering and Technology Management program, where he served as Program Director and later, Department Chair. He also started the Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), which organizes an annual conference in international locations such as Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Thailand, and Japan. His teaching has won awards and resulted in a strong sense of student loyalty among his students even decades later. Through his academic work and research, Dr. Kocaoglu has strongly supported researchers of engineering management and has provided tremendous service to the field. This volume recognizes and celebrates Dr. Kocaoglu’s profound contributions to the field, and will serve as a resource for generations of researchers, practitioners and students.




Multiple Criteria Decision Making


Book Description

This book presents a broad range of innovative applications and case studies in all areas of management and engineering, including public administration, finance, marketing, engineering, transportation, and energy systems. It addresses issues related to problem structuring, preference modeling, and model construction, presenting a framework that provides clear decision-making support in practice. In addition, it includes hybrid and integrated techniques combining multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) with other analytical methods. The book reflects the growing impact of MCDM in the field of management science and operations research. Building on recent and established theoretical advances and presenting their applications in specific domains, it offers a comprehensive resource for researchers, graduate students and professionals alike.




Asset Condition, Information Systems and Decision Models


Book Description

Asset Condition, Information Systems and Decision Models, is the second volume of the Engineering Asset Management Review Series. The manuscripts provide examples of implementations of asset information systems as well as some practical applications of condition data for diagnostics and prognostics. The increasing trend is towards prognostics rather than diagnostics, hence the need for assessment and decision models that promote the conversion of condition data into prognostic information to improve life-cycle planning for engineered assets. The research papers included here serve to support the on-going development of Condition Monitoring standards. This volume comprises selected papers from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd World Congresses on Engineering Asset Management, which were convened under the auspices of ISEAM in collaboration with a number of organisations, including CIEAM Australia, Asset Management Council Australia, BINDT UK, and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China. Asset Condition, Information Systems and Decision Models will be of particular interest to finance, maintenance, and operations personnel whose roles directly affect the capability value of engineering asset base, as well as asset managers in both industry and government.




Global Engineering


Book Description

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, today's companies expect to hire engineers who are effective in a global business environment. Although you can find many books covering globalization, most of them are aimed at business, management, or social sciences. Developed with engineers in mind, Global Engineering: Design, Decision Making, and C




Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis for Industrial Engineering


Book Description

This textbook presents methodologies and applications associated with multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA), especially for those students with an interest in industrial engineering. With respect to methodology, the book covers (1) problem structuring methods; (2) methods for ranking multi-dimensional deterministic outcomes including multiattribute value theory, the analytic hierarchy process, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and outranking techniques; (3) goal programming,; (4) methods for describing preference structures over single and multi-dimensional probabilistic outcomes (e.g., utility functions); (5) decision trees and influence diagrams; (6) methods for determining input probability distributions for decision trees, influence diagrams, and general simulation models; and (7) the use of simulation modeling for decision analysis. This textbook also offers: · Easy to follow descriptions of how to apply a wide variety of MCDA techniques · Specific examples involving multiple objectives and/or uncertainty/risk of interest to industrial engineers · A section on outranking techniques ; this group of techniques, which is popular in Europe, is very rarely mentioned as a methodology for MCDA in the United States · A chapter on simulation as a useful tool for MCDA, including ranking & selection procedures. Such material is rarely covered in courses in decision analysis · Both material review questions and problems at the end of each chapter . Solutions to the exercises are found in the Solutions Manual which will be provided along with PowerPoint slides for each chapter. The methodologies are demonstrated through the use of applications of interest to industrial engineers, including those involving product mix optimization, supplier selection, distribution center location and transportation planning, resource allocation and scheduling of a medical clinic, staffing of a call center, quality control, project management, production and inventory control,and so on. Specifically, industrial engineering problems are structured as classical problems in multiple criteria decision analysis, and the relevant methodologies are demonstrated.




Decision Making Models in Production & Operations Management


Book Description

This text focuses on the application of management decision-making tools in the field of production and operations. It provides an analysis of strategic decision-making problems and solutions on resource allocation, forecasting, and scheduling in manufacturing, services, and inventory management.