Selecting a near‐optimal design for multiple criteria with improved robustness to different user priorities

In a decision‐making process, relying on only one objective can often lead to oversimplified decisions that ignore important considerations. Incorporating multiple, and likely competing, objectives is critical for balancing trade‐offs on different aspects of performance. When multiple objectives are considered, it is often hard to make a precise decision on how to weight the different objectives when combining their performance for ranking and selecting designs. We show that there are situations when selecting a design with near‐optimality for a broad range of weight combinations of the criteria is a better test selection strategy compared with choosing a design that is strictly optimal under very restricted conditions. We propose a new design selection strategy that identifies several top‐ranked solutions across broad weight combinations using layered Pareto fronts and then selects the final design that offers the best robustness to different user priorities. This method involves identifying multiple leading solutions based on the primary objectives and comparing the alternatives using secondary objectives to make the final decision. We focus on the selection of screening designs because they are widely used both in industrial research, development, and operational testing. The method is illustrated with an example of selecting a single design from a catalog of designs of a fixed size. However, the method can be adapted to more general designed experiment selection problems that involve searching through a large design space.     

Balancing Multiple Criteria Incorporating Cost using Pareto Front Optimization for Split‐Plot Designed Experiments

Finding a D‐optimal design for a split‐plot experiment requires knowledge of the relative size of the whole plot (WP) and sub‐plot error variances. Since this information is typically not known a priori, we propose an optimization strategy based on balancing performance across a range of plausible variance ratios. This approach provides protection against selecting a design which could be sub‐optimal if a single initial guess is incorrect. In addition, options for incorporating experimental cost into design selection are explored. The method uses Pareto front multiple criteria optimization to balance these objectives and allows the experimenter to understand the trade‐offs between several design choices and select one that best suits the goals of the experiment. We present new algorithms for populating the Pareto front for the split‐plot situation when the number of WPs is either fixed or flexible. We illustrate the method with a case study and demonstrate how considering robustness across variance ratios offers improved performance. The Pareto approach identifies multiple promising designs, and allows the experimenter to understand trade‐offs between alternatives and examining their robustness to different ways of combining the objectives. New graphical summaries for up to four criteria are developed to help guide improved decision‐making. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards a Conceptual Sustainable Packaging Development Model: A Corrugated Box Case Study

Corrugated package designers are focused on balancing the need for product protection, material use efficiency and the packaging material's impact on the environment in the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual sustainable packaging model that integrates the variables of technical design, supply chain systems and environmental factors and then use the model to identify to improve upon corrugated container design. A model was developed, from the extant literature, and a case study was performed on a corrugated container. This is believed to be a unique integrated model of most relevant agents related to the design and implementation of a corrugated box through a supply chain from design to potential post‐consumer reuse. From this study, we found opportunities to improve the environmental design of the corrugated container through four ex ante design stages, and two ex post facto supply chain stages. Further, research can evaluate and refine this model via a ‘live supply chain’ for use in guiding corrugated box material selection design and reuse/recycling. Integration of the design criterion for a unit load in the supply chain creates opportunity to observe the packaging system holistically. Waste in the manufacturing process and CO₂ emissions are traced along the material flow until the end of its useful life to provide an overall picture of the packaging system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A New Decision-Making Model Based on Plithogenic Set for Supplier Selection

Supplier selection is a common and relevant phase to initialize the supply chain processes and ensure its sustainability. The choice of supplier is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) to obtain the optimal decision based on a group of criteria. The health care sector faces several types of problems, and one of the most important is selecting an appropriate supplier that fits the desired performance level. The development of service/product quality in health care facilities in a country will improve the quality of the life of its population. This paper proposes an integrated multi-attribute border approximation area comparison (MABAC) based on the best-worst method (BWM), plithogenic set, and rough numbers. BWM is applied to regulate the weight vector of the measures in group decision-making problems with a high level of consistency. For the treatment of uncertainty, a plithogenic set and rough number (RN) are used to improve the accuracy of results. Plithogenic set operations are used to deal with information in the desired manner that handles uncertainty and vagueness. Then, based on the plithogenic aggregation and the results of BWM evaluation, we use MABAC to find the optimal alternative according to defined criteria. To examine the proposed integrated algorithm, an empirical example is produced to select an optimal supplier within five options in the healthcare industry.     

Social sustainable supplier evaluation and selection: a group decision-support approach

Organisational and managerial decisions are influenced by corporate sustainability pressures. Organisations need to consider economic, environmental and social sustainability dimensions in their decisions to become sustainable. Supply chain decisions play a distinct and critical role in organisational good and service outputs sustainability. Sustainable supplier selection influences the supply chain sustainability allowing many organisations to build competitive advantage. Within this context, the social sustainability dimension has received relatively minor investigation; with emphasis typically on economic and environmental sustainability. Neglecting social sustainability can have serious repercussions for organisational supply chains. This study proposes a social sustainability attribute decision framework to evaluate and select socially sustainable suppliers. A grey-based multi-criteria decision-support tool composed of the ‘best-worst method’ (BWM) and TODIM (TOmada de Decisão Interativa e Multicritério – in Portuguese ‘Interactive and Multicriteria Decision Making’) is introduced. A grey-BWM approach is used to determine social sustainability attribute weights, and a grey-TODIM method is utilised to rank suppliers. This process is completed in a group decision setting. A case study of an Iranian manufacturing company is used to exemplify the applicability and suitability of the proposed social sustainability decision framework. Managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are introduced after the application of the model.     

Bayesian calculation of optimal burn‐in time using the joint criteria of cost and delivered reliability

Burn‐in is a quality control process used to minimize the warranty cost of a product by screening out defective products through prior operation for a period of time before sale. Two decision criteria used to determine the optimal burn‐in time are the maximization of the reliability of the delivered product and the minimization of the total cost, which are composed of the cost of burn‐in process and the cost of warranty claims. Because of uncertainty regarding the underlying lifetime distribution of the product, both the product reliability and the total cost are random variables. In this paper, the uncertainty in reliability and cost is quantified by use of Bayesian analysis. The joint distribution of reliability and cost is inferred from the uncertainty distribution of the parameters of the product lifetime distribution. To incorporate the uncertainty in reliability and cost as well as the tradeoff between them into the selection of optimal burn‐in time, the joint utility function of reliability and cost is constructed using the joint distribution of reliability and cost. The optimal burn‐in time is selected as the time that maximizes the joint utility function. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cost‐constrained G‐efficient Response Surface Designs for Cuboidal Regions

In many industrial experiments there are restrictions on the resource (or cost) required for performing the runs in a response surface design. This will require practitioners to choose some subset of the candidate set of experimental runs. The appropriate selection of design points under resource constraints is an important aspect of multi‐factor experimentation. A well‐planned experiment should consist of factor‐level combinations selected such that the resulting design will have desirable statistical properties but the resource constraints should not be violated or the experimental cost should be minimized. The resulting designs are referred to as cost‐efficient designs. We use a genetic algorithm for constructing cost‐constrained G‐efficient second‐order response surface designs over cuboidal regions when an experimental cost at a certain factor level is high and a resource constraint exists. Consideration of practical resource (or cost) restrictions and different cost structures will provide valuable information for planning effective and economical experiments when optimizing statistical design properties. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A supply chain sustainability innovation framework and evaluation methodology

Sustainability is hinged on innovation. The importance of sustainable innovation management in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) cannot be underestimated. Studies on SSCM have emphasised the need for sustainable innovation in achieving sustainability but none provide deep insights into sustainable innovation management in SSCM implementation. This lack of research depth stimulates this study to identify and investigate criteria for sustainable supply chain management innovation advancement. This paper proposes a sustainable innovation criteria framework for investigating sustainable supply chains in manufacturing companies. To exemplify the applicability and efficiency of the proposed framework, a sample of five Indian manufacturing companies are used to evaluate and prioritise the sustainable innovation management criteria, using the ‘best–worst’ multi-criteria decision-making (BW-MCDM) model. The criteria weights for all companies from BWM are aggregated, averaged and used for ranking. The respondent managers viewed ‘financial availability for innovation’ as the most important sustainable innovation sub-criteria. The results of the study will inform industrial managers, practitioners and decision-makers on which criteria to focus on during the implementation stage, to increase sustainability in manufacturing supply chains, and further advance corporate and supply chain sustainable development. The framework may also serve as a theoretical construct for a future empirical study on sustainable supply chain innovation in the manufacturing sector. This paper sets the stage for further research in sustainable innovation practices in the manufacturing sector and its supply chains.     

The impact of strategic inventory and procurement strategies on green product design in a two-period supply chain

This study analyses the impact of power structures and strategic inventory on the development-intensive and marginal-cost-intensive green product types under three procurement strategies. The results suggest that (i) in the manufacturer-Stackelberg game, the retailer retains strategic inventory to earn higher profits. The retailer's decision improves profit for the manufacturer and greening level of the product; (ii) for the marginal-cost-intensive green product, the power structures and procurement strategies cannot make any impact on the greening level and the retailer cannot build up strategic inventory under retailer-Stackelberg game; (iii) under the Nash game, the procurement decision creates conflict between the supply chain members for marginal-cost-intensive green products; (iv) if the retailer does not maintain strategic inventory or procures product in a single lot, then the manufacturer prefers to produce marginal-cost-intensive products and retailer prefers to sale development-intensive products to receive maximum profits under manufacturer-Stackelberg game. The optimal preferences are concurrent under retailer-Stackelberg game, but not under the Nash game; (v) single-period equilibrium solutions may exhibit sub-optimal characteristics, but two-period planning can lead to exemplary outcomes in the perspective of the greening level and profits of the supply chain members.     

The Effect of Modifying Structure to Display Product Versus Graphical Representation on Packaging

Research is presented that investigates whether the amount of physical product visible from the primary display panel of a package has an effect on consumer attention and purchase decision in the category of grill ware. It is hypothesized that a package providing the most physical product exposure will be preferred by consumers over alternative structural designs. To test this, three similar products were placed in four distinct package structures varying the amount of visible product exposure (0%, 40%, 90% and 100%). The packages were positioned on the shelves of the fully immersive simulated shopping environment CUshop?. A total of 127 participants were fitted with eye‐tracking glasses and presented a shopping list that included one of the three grill ware products (fork, spatula and tongs). Participants were asked to shop as they normally would, and data concerning their visual attention in the store and final purchase selection was collected. Purchase patterns showed that the packaging that revealed the most physical product possible was chosen more than the other three configurations tested. Analysis of eye‐tracking data supports expected behaviour, suggesting that consumers prefer to see at least some of the product, with the 0% visible product receiving significantly fewer fixations, a slower time to first fixation and lower total fixation durations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Model‐robust choice experiments: discussion and case study

Choice experiments are an effective way of obtaining objective information regarding the voice of the customer. They can be used to obtain the relevant customer attributes and importance rankings used in the first step of quality function deployment. They are also used extensively in marketing research. Optimal designs for choice experiments have been discussed in the literature. However, optimal designs are only optimal for a particular model. In this article we borrow ideas from quality engineering and industrial experimentation to develop designs for choice experiments that are model‐robust (in the sense that they are efficient for fitting a model involving main effects plus a few interactions that need not be specified in advance). A case study is presented to illustrate the use of a model‐robust design for a choice experiment. Two unsuspected interactions were discovered in the case study, and this discovery led to added insight regarding customer preferences and importance rankings of product attributes. These insights would not have been possible if an optimal design for the main effects model had been used. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of Frequency Response Function of Product‐Transport System Based on Multi‐coordinate Coupled Inverse Substructure Method

The product and vehicle, through a packaging, constitute a complex product‐transport system in logistics. It is very important to obtain the frequency response functions of the product‐transport system and its substructures for the design of product packaging. In this paper, the product‐transport system is treated as a two‐substructures multi‐coordinate coupled system. It is composed of a product substructure and a vehicle substructure, which are connected by a packaging structure consisting of many packaging units. The multi‐coordinate coupled inverse substructure method is developed and used to analyse the dynamic characteristics of the product‐transport system. To verify the validity of this method for the product‐transport system, the experiment of a physical prototype is conducted. The results show that the predicted substructure‐level frequency response functions are in accordance with the measured. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

航空行李自动贴标机的设计与实现

目的 为定量评价包装设计方案的可持续性,提供一种基于AHP和TOPSIS的最优方案筛选方法。方法 充分考虑包装产品设计中的材料、生产、运输、销售、处理及回收等环节,构建可持续包装设计方案的三级评价体系。将AHP与TOPSIS有机结合,建立可持续包装设计方案的评价模型,采用AHP法构建判断矩阵,确定包装设计方案指标的权重,采用TOPSIS法计算评价指标最优集和最劣集,得到不同设计方案的优劣排序。结果 实例分析了同一茶叶产品的3种可持续包装设计方案,得出3种设计方案的优越度分别为0.7182, 0.7503, 0.2673,牛皮纸和加厚卡纸设计的泡袋礼盒的设计方案为最优方案。结论 实验表明,AHP和TOPSIS构建的评价模型,能够合理、高效地对可持续包装设计方案的优劣进行排序,为可持续包装设计方案的优化提供了有益参考。     

A finite element‐based approach for whole‐system simulation of packaging systems for their improved design and operation

The introduction of legislation to minimize packaging waste requires consumer goods manufacturers to use lighter‐weight materials and increase the use of recycled materials. This is demanding that machinery manufacturers provide highly flexible machines and tooling capable of handling these materials and new package designs. However, the ability of manufacturers to achieve this is all but prevented by a lack of fundamental understanding of machine–material interactions and an ability to generate such understanding. One way to overcome this is to use advanced simulation tools to represent the whole system including machine, process, materials and product. A finite element‐based simulation has been created to represent the in‐process behaviour of a packing system. The simulation focuses on the critical transition between flattened and erected states of a carton. In order to successfully simulate such a complex process, there are a number of major challenges concerning the representation of packaging materials and their properties, changing material behaviour during processing, machinery simulation and process modelling (simulating the interfacial interactions that take place during processing). The application of the whole‐system simulation for the purposes of improved design and operation are discussed with respect to four activities: design and set‐up of tooling, determination of optimal process settings, specification of material properties and the design of the pack. In all cases, a strong correlation was observed between the theoretical results and those obtained practically, thereby enabling quantitative understanding and quantitative rules to be generated. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Packaging throughout the value chain in the customer perspective marketing mix

Lauterborn has suggested that McCarthy's 4 P marketing mix classification be viewed by suppliers as the customers' four Cs, i.e. customer value, cost to satisfy, convenience and communication (the 4C perspective). 1 This paper seeks to illustrate the impacts of the four Cs on packaging value in the area of fast‐moving consumer goods throughout the whole value chain from the packaging producer to the end‐user, the consumer. Findings from two separate studies regarding trade‐offs in package values between different actors in the value chain, created through development of value‐adding package solutions, are presented and elaborated on. The positive effects of brand advertising can be acknowledged, but they cannot compensate for less efficient packaging. The market need will easily be affected and turned into a higher demand chain pull when creating packaging solutions that will attract retail business. Dynamics in values and trade‐offs were identified, even though requirements from the whole value chain were considered. The packaging solutions created gave the majority of stakeholders in the value chain great advantages, but the lack of dynamism in available infrastructure demanded adaptation that diminished value addition for all actors in the value chain. The contribution of this article is to theorize the 4C concept in the process of package design, taking value chain actor needs and value optimisation into consideration. Furthermore, a suggestion of an evaluation model from the 4C perspective on all value chain actors is presented and elaborated on. Copyright­© 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sustainable packaging design: a holistic methodology for packaging design

This study describes a holistic methodology for sustainable packaging design. This methodology studies the combined systems of packaging and the packaged products across the whole distribution chain from manufacturer to end consumer and the life cycle from raw material extraction to the waste phase. It contains a number of indicators that are grouped into the following main categories: environmental sustainability, distribution costs, product protection, market acceptance and user friendliness. The methodology integrates a number of different analytical methods. It is intended to be used in packaging design and optimisation, for idea generation, decision support and as documentation of properties of existing packaging systems. The study describes experiences with the methodology from one case study in the Norwegian Food Industry. The experiences show that the methodology is very comprehensive, and gives a good overview of the properties of a packaging solution. It enables quantitative comparisons between different packaging solutions throughout the design process. The methodology reduces the risk of implementing sub‐optimal packaging solutions. An additional benefit of the methodology is gained by working in cross‐functional teams. One potential drawback is that the methodology can be resource and data intensive. The methodology can be used as a tool box in packaging design, i.e. it is not necessary to use all methods and quantify all indicators to gain benefit. However, all indicators and requirements should be evaluated and considered. In all cases, it should be considered to include additional indicators if important sustainability issues have not been addressed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inverse Sub‐Structuring Method for Multi‐Coordinate Coupled Product Transport System

A new high‐accuracy transfer function is selected, and an inverse sub‐structuring method is developed for the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of a three‐sub‐structure coupled product transport system. The closed‐form analytical solution to inverse sub‐structuring analysis of multi‐coordinate coupled multi‐ sub‐structure product transport system is derived. The proposed method is validated by a lumped mass spring damper model; the predicted frequency response functions (FRFs) of sub‐structures and the coupling stiffness, in addition to the most concerned system‐level FRF, are compared with the direct computations, showing exact agreement. Then, FRF tests of a physical prototype of the multi‐coordinate coupled product transport system with three sub‐structures are performed to further check the accuracy of the suggested method. The method developed offers an approach to predict the unknown sub‐structure‐level FRFs and coupling stiffness purely from system‐level FRFs. The suggested method may help obtain the main controlling factors and contributions from the various structure‐borne paths for the product transport system, which may certainly facilitate the cushioning packaging design. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Minimum Setup Minimum Aberration Two‐level Split‐plot Type Designs for Physical Prototype Testing

Although new technologies allow for less effort in prototyping, physical testing still remains an important step in the product development cycle. Well‐planned experiments are useful to guide the decision‐making process. During the design of an experiment, one of the challenges is to balance limited resources and system constraints to obtain useful information. It is common that prototypes are composed of several parts, with some parts more difficult to assemble than others. And, usually, there is only one piece available of each part type and a large number of different setups. Under these conditions, designs with randomization restrictions become attractive approaches. Considering this scenario, a new and additional criterion, minimum setup, to construct split‐plot type designs is presented. Designs with the minimum number of setups of the more difficult parts, which are especially useful for screening purposes in physical prototype testing, are discussed. The use of the proposed criterion combined with minimum aberration for selecting a regular design is shown through a real application in testing car prototypes. As a tool to practitioners, catalogs of selected 32‐run minimum setup minimum aberration split‐split‐plot and split‐split‐split‐plot designs are presented. More complete catalogs are available as Supporting information. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

减量化包装的设计理念研究

目的对可持续包装中的减量化设计理念进行定量分析。方法当前我国经济正处于粗放式发展阶段,消费观念亟待调整,本着遵循创新、协调、绿色、开放、共享的5大发展理念,通过借鉴国内外相关部门制定的可循环措施,比较多个实际产品案例及材料特性,分析减量化这一核心理念,从设计理念、材料、结构、生产、视觉设计表现等几方面进行纵向剖析,深入探索减量化设计理念在包装设计中的具体运用。结论通过减量化设计加快包装设计的绿色可持续进程。减量化包装是社会文明发展的产物,也是未来发展的必然趋势。减量化包装的普及和推广可以缓解人与自然的矛盾,使社会环境和生活环境发展更加完善,且加快从粗放式发展向可持续发展迈进的步伐。基于减量化这一核心理念,设计师应担负起时代赋予的社会责任,从材料、结构、视觉等多方面进行可持续设计。     

Framework for Sustainable Food Packaging Design

The environmental impacts of packages have been found to be relatively small compared with the food items they contain. Furthermore, from the environmental and operational point of view, the most significant task of the package is to protect the product, which is important to acknowledge in the packaging design process. This study introduces a guiding framework for designing sustainable food packaging. In this approach, the entire life cycle of the product–package combination is taken into consideration. The emphasis is on the prevention of food losses in packaging design as a major environmental criterion. Consideration of the properties of both the package and the product itself when designing the final package will lead to a better end result with smaller product losses and environmental impacts. By using different assessment methods in the different stages of the packaging design, the sustainability of the package can be enhanced. The decision making of the packaging designer is facilitated with methods that are introduced step by step and in a certain order that will also allow for corrective measures through back‐loops in the design process. The purpose is to integrate sustainability aspects at all stages firmly into the design process. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.