Abstract Nowadays, many organizations face with increasing competition and uncertainty environment, supported by innovating technologies and the changing needs of customers. In this environment, past methods in supply chain loose their ability. One efficient method in this regard is agility. Thus, for modeling the agility of supply chain, a wide range of research was done in the literature. The results of this research and interview by experts found 11 critical success factors of agile supply chain. Then these factors were entered into a questionnaire and the experts of Zobahan Co Supply Chain were asked to fill in it. The obtained results were analyzed by interpretive structural modeling and the Correlations between those factors were determined. The attained correlations indicated that development of the employees’ skills, employment of IT and programming are the basics of agility in supply chain. This model would help the supply chain managers in strategic planning for improving the agility of supply chain.

Abstract The main purpose of this research is to provide a good insight into the use of analytic network process (ANP) that is a multiple criteria decision-making methodology in evaluating the supplier selection problems. Supplier selection problems are complex problems, which have many qualitative and quantitative concerns. In this study, an ANP model as a framework for evaluation of the most important factor and selecting strategic supplier is proposed. ANP can be used as a decision analysis tool to solve multi-criteria supplier selection problems that contain interdependencies. ANP is a complex methodology and requires more comparisons and efforts than the traditional AHP. To show the application of the proposed mode, a case as an example is proposed.

Abstract Information systems decisions are of the main concerns of managers. Existence of uncertainties and different objectives and attributes influence the quality of decisions. Environmental uncertainties can challenge the quality of IS investment decisions. Investment decisions, made without any respect to environmental changes, will loose their effectiveness as time passes. IS investment decisions require attention to different attributes such as return on investment, strategic competitiveness and user satisfaction. Multi-attribute decision making (MADM) approaches can play an important role to make investment decisions. This study aims to integrate scenario planning (as a tool to meet environmental uncertainties), Axiomatic Design (MADM approach) and Fuzzy Delphi method (experts opinions acquiring and consensus tool) as a Hybrid Model to propose a new methodology to make IS investment decisions about the outsourcing or insourcing of the development of the information systems. A case study in IS investment has been done. The case is about the selection of an ERP system in Iranian National Oil Company (NOC).

Abstract Governments, are not successful in implementation of many policies. Various challenges, obstacles and constraints may occur and hamper the policy implementation; but when a policy fails in implementation, only the implementators are blamed; while policy-makers have a major role in the (success and) failure of a policy, too. In fact, disrespect to rationality in policy formulation can lead the policy process to failure in implementation. In this study, according to Ignace Snallen (2002), the concepts of rationality consists of legal, economical, political and professional dimensions. The hypothesis of this research is that “rationality of the policies formulated in the 7th Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran” differs to “the optimum/ideal rationality that, leads us to a successful implementation”. The necessary data were gathered from the experts by questionnaire, and analyzed by statistics tests. Data analyses confirmed the research hypothesis. It is concluded that disregard to the desirable composition of rationalities has led the to unsuccessful implementations of policies processes.

Abstract Risk management and improving the processes’ reliability are important in operations and production management. Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) is regarded as one of the most powerful methods in this area. High applicability and proper analyzability have caused FMEA to be among the most important techniques of systems’ risk analysis and safety improvement. On the other hand, widespread application of this method in various fields has revealed some weak points and constrains; subsequently many researchers have offered revisions and modifications on it. In this article, analytical network process (ANP), a modern and powerful method in decision-making field, has been used in combination with FMEA (ANPFMEA) for defeating the shortcomings. ANP-FMEA considers mutual relationships of hazardous factors, and by offering certain structure, develops a systematic and flexible view in risk management scope. The suggested method deploys simple concept of risk priority number and assigns different importance in the form of power for each factor. The resulted RPN will cope better with the system, in which it is applied. This method provides more accurate analysis of risk and, consequently, more efficient and effective actions, causing attainment and maintenance of more desirable reliability.

Abstract This research has been done with the aim of identification of the effective factors that influence credit risk and designing a model for the credit rating of the legal clients of Tejarat Bank in 2003-2004 by using Data Envelopment Analysis. For this purpose, the necessary sample data on financial and nonfinancial information of 146 companies (as random simple) was selected. In this research, 27 explanatory variables (including financial and non-financial variables) were identified and examined. Finally, with the application of factor analysis and Delphi method, 8 variables, which had significant effect on credit risk, were selected and entered into the DEA model. Efficiency of the companies was calculated by using these variables. Then the model validity was measured by regression analysis. The DEA credibility scores represented the dependent variables while the 8 ratios used were considered as independent variables. The findings of the research showed that 25 companies stand on the border of efficiency. Also with one exception (owners equity/ total asset), ’all variables had the expected direction α = %5 . Research conclusions confirmed the hypothesis of DEA model’s efficiency on credit rating of the companies who have taken credit facilities from branches of Tejarat Bank in Tehran city.

Abstract One of the common problems in manufacturing firms is selecting the best manufacturing system with regard to firm capabilities, market situation, competitors and political and economical issues. Just-In-Time system is one of the best manufacturing systems, which has many benefits. In contrast; implementation of this system is very difficult because of various constraints. Therefore, manufacturing managers encounter the problem of using or not using this system in their firm. In this article, a decision making model based on Analytic Network Process (ANP) is presented for analyzing this problem in a printing factory for finding the appropriate manufacturing strategy. To sum up, the decision making criteria were determined by studying the literature, relevant articles and using Nominal Group Technique among the experts. Then, the related decision making model was prepared by expert interviews. Finally, the best strategy was selected by paircomparison and solving the model.

Abstract Design and implementation of QMS will cause to the improvement of organizational performance if it concerns on the especial characteristics of the organization. In general, previous studies have obtained different results about the effect of QMS (7 main practices) on organizational performance (4 main practices). In this survey, the relationship between QMS and organizational performance practices is analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that QMS practices have a significant relationship with the employee’s satisfaction, customer satisfaction and organization effectiveness, but the relationship between financial practice and QMS is not significant.

Abstract In today’s markets, production systems must satisfy simultaneously productivity, quality, and cost requirements. In these systems managers should focus on managing the flow of production through all the steps that add value to the final product. Lean production as an efficient approach has been presented in the literature of production management for increasing the level of products' quality and decreasing the cost of production. Although this approach is introduced and studied in many of works, but there are still some challenges in applying it. It means that there is not a comprehensive model for assessing and analyzing the lean production in manufacturing firms. This paper tries to present a model that is able to accurately analyze and measure the leanness degree of firms. At first step a hierarchical model for measuring the degree of leanness has been designed. The proposed model applied at the Yazd Tile and Ceramic Industries and the degree of leanness of these industries was measured. Finally, some suggestions for improving the degree of leanness in these industries have been presented.

Abstract Entrepreneurship is a general term that is used to both organizations and individuals. Therefore, we cannot imagine an entrepreneur organization that its people do not accurately understand about their ability and creativity. Entrepreneurship acts as a driving force towards people and firms development. We cannot expect an organization’s development without consideration of its people. SMEs want that profitable companies should use all of their capacities and it is easy with entrepreneurship. This paper focuses on the main factors as management, organizational structure, strategic components, financial and budgeting systems, evaluation of performance and cultural aspects in SMEs and surveying of their roles on entrepreneurship filed in companies. The data required were collected through questionnaires that offered to the employees and managers of 25 companies in Kurdistan province. The research method was casual comparative. Findings of the paper showed that entrepreneur firms mangerial skills have a meaningful difference to those of non entrepreneur mangers. This result is true for the financial and budgeting systems and evaluation of performance and cultural characteristics in the studied groups. There was no significant difference in the structural variables (concentration and formality) and the strategic aspects (goal setting and policy making) in the two firms. The results also showed that entrepreneur organizations are more complex than others. Consequently, the innovators of small and medium enterprises have a good mission statement in comparison to non entrepreneur firms.