Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Other works have proposed fuzzy multi-objective formalizations [Chang N.B. et al.,
1997; Chang N.B. et al., 2000]. Chang and Chen (1997) highlight how the common objective
of minimizing the present value of the overall cost/benefit can be extended to deal explicitly
with environmental considerations, such as air pollution, traffic flow limitation, and leaching
and noise impacts.
Shekdar and Mistry (2001) have proposed an interactive goal programming model of
multi-objective planning of the system. The system incorporates the activities involved from
waste collection to final disposal of waste. Specifically, it includes processes associated with
waste collection, transportation, resource recovery, treatment and disposal. The considered
strategy regards the maximization of energy recovery, the maximization of material recovery,
the minimization of expenditure, the limitation on the land filling capacity. It is important to
note that there can be variations in the priority assigned to a particular goal by the
management while managing the system. The Shekdar and Mistry's software procedure uses
a goal programming method to allow each of the objective functions to be solved without
necessarily providing a relationship between them. The model can be run interactively by
setting the goals in any priority order. Generally speaking, there are different procedures of
interactive multiple objective programming, and Gardiner and Steuer (1994) showed how
these procedures can be unified into a single algorithm. As concerns environmental
management, which is often formulated as a multi-objective problem, the reference point
methodology (Wierzbicki et al, 2002) has proposed as an appropriate approach.
2. Supply Chain Optimization for Forest Biomass Use for Energy
Production
The developed DSS, that is a generalization and the further research activity presented in
a previous work (Freppaz et al., 2004), is based on the integration of Geographic Information
Systems tools, a relational database, and decision models (in terms of decision variables,
objectives, and constraints). There is one main general goal that the DSS application wishes
to achieve: the definition of a clear path of the decisional processes on “how-to” make a
biomass supply chain (BSC) effective on a territory, in order to create sustainable,
economically attractive strategies. The BSC organization can be taken into account as a
manufacturing process with specific attention to environmental impacts, actors participation,
and costs minimization. Modern manufacturing requires a deep horizontal integration, for
example among customers and suppliers, supported mainly by Internet/Intranet technologies.
In this respect, the availability of the Supply-Chain Operations Reference-model (SCOR)
(figure 2.1) recently had a major impact on business system planning. This model breaks
down Supply Chain Management (SCM) into four main processes:
PLAN, related to typical production planning activities, such as the definition of the
Master Production Schedule;
SOURCE, related to activities typically associated with the management of providers and
of the inventory;
DELIVER, related to the management of customers and the distribution of products;
MAKE, related to production processes.
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