Search results for "Operation"
showing 10 items of 2969 documents
Vehicle scheduling for rental-with-driver services
2021
Abstract In this paper, we introduce a new vehicle scheduling problem (VSP) with driver consistency faced by rental-with-driver companies. A weekly time-horizon is considered and a set of potential customers, each one associated with a list of required tasks, is assumed. The company can choose to accept or reject a customer, but if accepted, all required tasks must be performed by the same driver. A profit is associated with each customer. The goal is to maximize the company’s total profit, by respecting a list of daily and the weekly drivers’ workload limitations imposed by drivers’ contracts. We propose a mathematical formulation of the problem and design an exact solution method based on…
Handling stakeholder uncertain judgments in strategic transport service analyses
2013
Abstract The quality level of services has to be constantly controlled, especially under conditions of competition increasing and limited resources. However, considering that service performance analyses are based on stakeholders' judgments, they can be characterized by possible uncertainties related to incompleteness for partial ignorance, imprecision for subjectivity and even vagueness. Therefore, under these conditions, unreliable results can be obtained by widely used service analysis methodologies. In the present paper, a methodology based on a recent extension of the SERVQUAL model, and that uses in combined manner the fuzzy set theory and the analytic hierarchy process method is prop…
An effective opportunistic maintenance policy for a global service
2010
The aim of the present paper is to develop a model for an effective maintenance policy with refer to a global service contract between a services provider company and a company for the waste management. The contract requires, with fixed performance levels of the service, the supplying of a mandatory set of maintenance services on a set of waste compactors vehicles of the outsourcer company. In particular, the service provider (SP) must perform corrective maintenance actions and the replacement of the fault parts. The tackled problem concerns the determination of an effective opportunistic maintenance policy in order to assure the required service performance levels at the minimum global mai…
Fuzzy ServPerf model combined with ELECTRE III to comparatively evaluate service quality of international airports in Sicily
2015
In this paper a new approach was proposed so as to comparatively evaluate the quality of service alternatives. In particular, a fuzzy extension of the ServPerf service conceptual model was considered to estimate quality scores of fundamental service criteria, whereas the non-compensative multi-criteria decision-making ELECTRE III method was employed to point out the quality ranking of service alternatives on the basis of which the comparative service quality analysis was performed. In order to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an empirical study concerning service quality evaluation of the three international airports in Sicily (Italy) was conducted with detailed proposals fo…
A combined fuzzy-SEM evaluation approach to identify the key drivers of the academic library service quality in the digital technology era: An empiri…
2017
A conceptual model of the Academic Library (AL) service quality is hypothesized in the present article, and then validated and analyzed by a novel evaluation approach. Specifically, the conceptual model integrates the fundamental attributes of the canonical AL service together with those more relevant of the new and widely considered AL Electronic Service (e-services). As concerns the evaluation approach, it incorporates the Fuzzy Sets Theory (FST) so as to deal with the students' uncertainty over their own judgments on the AL service quality and a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to validate the conceptual model and to determine the key drivers of the AL service quality. The effectiveness o…
Modeling Ordinal Item Responses via Binary GLMMs and Alternative Link Functions: An Application to Measurement of a Perceived Service Quality
2010
Evaluation of a service on the basis of consumer opinion is a widespread practice in many fields. The assessment of perceived quality [7] of a service is generally carried out through administration of a questionnaire, composed of several items with responses posed on an ordinal scale, whereby each item represents an important feature of the evaluated service [3, 7]. In this context, the aim is to evaluate something similar to the external effectiveness, that is the part of efficacy related to the satisfaction expressed by the service users for the provided service. A particular and important example of service users is represented by students’ responses measuring the perceived quality of s…
La satisfacción del cliente como indicador de calidad en neurorehabilitación
2015
This paper tries to determine customer satisfaction degree from two perspectives: outsider customer (primary in patient and secondary in relatives) and insider customer (employee), being all of them indicators of quality of care in a neurorehabilitation centre. Results support clinician tendency of introducing patient satisfaction degree as an indicator, like effectiveness or efficiency, in order to value success treatment. This tendency allows to coordinate all actions in health care design in a such way that integrates professionals, patients and, in the case of a neurorehabilitation service, relatives perspectives.
The four spheres of value co-creation in humanitarian professional services
2021
PurposeThe study focuses on the value co-creation processes in humanitarian professional services provision, analysing the key enabling factors of beneficiaries' participation, involved in long-term integration programmes (L-TIPs).Design/methodology/approachThrough an in-depth case study, the research looks at the practices of value co-creation in humanitarian professional services, considering both the perspectives of the professional service provider and beneficiary.FindingsIn professional services beneficiary's participation affects the success of the L-TIPs outcomes. Participation's enablers can be classified into four different spheres, each belonging to different elements of professio…
Design and optimisation of an innovative two-hub-and-spoke network for the Mediterranean short-sea-shipping market
2020
Abstract Short Sea Shipping (SSS) is generally considered as a privileged transport mode in terms of reducing road congestion and related external costs. In the last two decades, SSS has attracted a lot of attention in the European Union, where it is also regarded as a key factor for economic and social cohesion between countries. In this regard, the present study proposes a new network design that aims at improving and increasing freight traffic between the north-western and the south-eastern shores of the Mediterranean Basin. The proposed model, designed for Ro-Ro (Roll-on Roll-off) freight transport, tries to overcome the limits of the existing multi-port-calling services through an inno…
A model of the filling process of an intermittent distribution network
2010
In many countries, private tanks are acquired by users to reduce their vulnerability to intermittent supply. The presence of these local reservoirs modifies the user demand pattern and usually increases user water demand at the beginning of the service period depending on the tank filling process. This practice is thus responsible for the inequality that occurs among users: those located in advantaged positions of the network are able to obtain water resources soon after the service period begins, while disadvantaged users have to wait much longer, after the network is full. This dynamic process requires the development of ad hoc models in order to obtain reliable results. This paper discus…