We’re happy to present you our practical stage report. Taisiya is terribly sorry for the quality of tables.

Report#2_Team#2

Hope, you’ll enjoy it.

The approach using AHP simplifies a complex problem into simple pair-wise comparisons. A hierarchy is constructed of goals, criteria and alternatives. It is very useful in complex decision-making.

Pic.4. SAATI method scheme

So with a help of this method we’ve got the functional model (for additional information look document saati_1):

F(X,Y,Z,W)= 0,1X+0,2Y+0,3Z+0,4W=0,1(0,5X1+0,25(X2+X3))+ 0,2(0,14Y1+0,29Y2+0,57Y3)+ 0,3(0,33(Z1+Z2)+0,25Z3+0,08Z4)+0,4(0,23W1+0,09W4+0,33(0,22(W21+W23)+0,19W22+0,14(W25+W26)+0,08W24)+0,35(0,18(W31+W32+W37)+0,16W36+0,1W35+0,08W34+0,06W33+0,04W38))= 0,05X1+0,025(X2+X3)+0,028Y1+0,058Y2+0,114Y3+0,099(Z1+Z2)+0,075Z3+0,024Z4+0,092W1+0,036W4+0,02904(W21+W23)+0,02508W22+0,006468(W25+W26)+0,01056W24+0,252(W31+W32+W37)+0,0224W36+ 0,014W35+0,012W34+0,0084W22+0,0056W38

So, in the shorter form:

F(X,Y,Z,W)= 0,05X1+0,025(X2+X3)+0,028Y1+0,058Y2+0,114Y3+0,099(Z1+Z2)+0,075Z3+0,024Z4+

0,092W1+0,036W4+0,02904(W21+W23)+0,02508W22+0,006468(W25+W26)+0,01056W24+

0,0252(W31+W32+W37)+0,0224W36+ 0,014W35+0,012W34+0,0084W33+0,0056W38

You can find all these conventional signs written in the table above.

On our opinion, to make this function more presentable we can partly use the method ABC of logistical systems analyzing. Highlighted indicators are mostly influential, as their coefficients are bigger. So you can see three groups of factors (A – most influential, B and C) and their influence on the function on the pic.3 below.

Pic.5. Influence of factors groups

II. Quick Scan

And finally we’re coming to Quick Scan. We decided to use weighted sum approach in the end.

Quick Scan

References (I’m sorry not to find another place to put it):

SAATY AHP (e-books):

1) http://books.google.ru/books?id=TegYgX6JRo8C&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=SAATY+T.+decisions&source=bl&ots=yCLBDyogaG&sig=Sk3g1Ct8JAH60ypv4vB5K_lzumo&hl=ru&ei=fvfuSoGkNJaSnAOsh8SZDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=SAATY%20T.%20decisions&f=false

2) http://wdc.org.ua/CODATA/materials/proceedings/full%20papers/The%20Group%20Method%20of%20Data%20Handling%20and%20Analytic%20Hierarchy%20Process%20in%20Decision%20Making%20Problems.pdf

SAATY AHP (russian non-pfficil source):

http://www.gorskiy.ru/Articles/Dmss/AHP.html

As sustainability was defined like a state of the social and natural systems, it has its own factors and indicators. You can see the scheme of factors division in the frames of the company.

Pic.2. Groups of sustainability factors on the firm level (transport is in the empty square)

We like the deduction method and we decided to apply it in indicating factors as well. Thus we developed common sustainability factors and particularly sustainability factors in logistics.

A)   As our research area is defined, we resolved not to go into common factors division and just to define two groups: internal and external factors.

So the distinguised external factors are:

1) legal system including taxes,

2) government investments,

3) target market,

4) private investments,

5) HR,

6) the size of the company,

7) infrastructure of the company,

used techs,

9) general management,

10) procurement,

11) type of the product,

12) the market competition and whole state,

13) the X factor.

The internal factors:

1) labour organization,

2) production volumes,

3) transportation,

4) communicational system,

5) capacity,

6) the X factor.

Of course, all these factors can be grouped according to their sphere of activity or initiative. And so the internal factors can be further subdivided.

B)   To describe sustainability in logistics factors we’d like to present you the framework of company’s parts interaction with society, government and biosphere. It’s illustrated below.

Pic.3. Company interaction with customers, government and procurement.

where B stands for biosphere, C – for a company with P (production) and S (storage), G – government, Proc – procurement, TM – target market. So you can notice here different financial, informational and material flows, that are studied by logistics; white arrow symbolizes an impact on the planet made by the enterprise. Logistics is presented on the scheme as a correlation and cooperation of all the flows and their conditions (as, for instance, the position of S).

All processes are cyclical, so there’s no beginning and no end. The system is very fragile, that’s why sustainability in logistics is considered to be essential as it keeps all the parts (including Biosphere) in required balance.

Factors, as it seems to us, are represented by the influence or the activity of all structures in this picture.

In the end, we’ve got the following hierarchy of factors (AFSD – atmosphere friendly for sustainable development):

Table 1. Sustainability indicators, their description and scales of estimation

That’s for the factors. We have identified the correlation between factors and groups of them with the help of SAATI – Analytical Hierarchy Procedure.

XX century is the time of great progress in science, particularly in the production technologies. As we know it is time when the second scientific and technical revolution took place. This leap was caused by many events and social processes, such as Second World War, following it Cold War and the development and spreading of democracy.

The fact that humanity realized the lack of resources and our intolerable attitude to planet is not illogic.

Thus mankind faced the problem of economical usage of resources and optimization of production process. Logistical aspect of this problem is not new, but due to the world trend to integration the concern of shipping, storing and distribution became actual and universally common. That is why logistics and particularly sustainability in it are highly important issues to be analyzed.

To understand what sustainability in logistics is we’d like to ascertain what sustainability is in general. We developed the common scheme of social system functioning in the frames of biosphere (pic.1.), where “G” stands for government, “S” – for consumer society and “B” – for business, enterprise including three main parts and relations between them: “ext” means extracting resources, “man” means manufacturing of goods, “dis” – distribution of them.

Pic.1. Scheme of social system’s subjects interconnection in biosphere

This generalized scheme illustrates activity of social systems, so you can see two-way flows of goods, money, resources and other. By creating this scheme we want to demonstrate the limitation of everything inside biosphere by its borders. So from this scheme we can conclude the following general definition of sustainability:

“Sustainability is the state of social system, whose subjects continue adequately operating in conditions of optimization of biosphere resources usage and reproduction of them”.

This definition is not far from the classic one: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, 11th of December, 1987). In other words, sustainability means the durable maintenance of balance between parts of something. Thereupon we can develop the definition of sustainability in logistics:

“Sustainability in logistics means such a state and organisation of logistical system that keeps all its parts in active form letting the whole enterprise develop in conditions of biosphere resources reproduction and optimization of their usage”.

And here you can see the definition all Russian teams have developed (and anyway we think that all aspects of this concept are presented in it):

“Sustainability in logistics is such a state of enterprise logistical system which affords to keep preservation of the systematic control and management of material, financial and informational flows of the company in conditions of maintenance of general balance between different spheres of society and environment”.

So the distinguised external factors are:

1) legal system including taxes,

2) government investments,

3) target market,

4) private investments,

5) HR,

6) the size of the company,

7) infrastructure of the company,

used techs,

9) general management,

10) procurement,

11) type of the product,

12) the market competition and whole state,

13) the X factor.

The internal factors:

1) labour organization,

2) production volumes,

3) transportation,

4) communicational system,

5) capacity,

6) the X factor.

Of course, all these factors can be grouped according to their sphere of activity or initiative. And so the internal factors can be further subdivided. This subdivision we’ll present in the next post.

“Interface” produces different kinds of carpets. However the most interesting thing for us in “Interface” is that they have stated “mission zero”: “our promise to eliminate any negative impact Interface has on the environment by 2020”.  You can read a lot about this company and its steps towards the stated aim here: http://www.interfaceglobal.com/Sustainability.aspx. We’d like to share with you the Interface’s division of sustainability concerns. It’s called “The Seven Fronts of Mount Sustainability”. They include:

1)      elimination of waste;

2)      benign emissions;

3)      renewable energy;

4)      closing the loop:  to redesign processes and products to close the technical loop using recovered and bio-based materials;

5)      resource-efficient transportation: to transport people and products efficiently to eliminate waste and emissions;

6)      sensitizing stakeholders;

7)      redesigning commerce.

These are measures taken by the company to reach their objective.

In addition to this, we’d like to present you the The Next Industrial Revolution: Model for the Prototypical Company of the 21st Century, how it’s called by Interface:

This model is very close to our understanding of sustainable company.

I’m sorry for the size of the scheme, it’s the most appropriate one for examination.

Here we are presenting you our common definition of sustainability in logistics, which was developed by all three Russian teams at today’s discussion.

“Sustainability in logistics is such a state and interaction of enterprise systems that enable the preservation of the integrated control and management of material, financial and informational flows of the company in conditions of maintenance of general balance between different spheres of society and environment”

We enjoyed Rui’s definition much. Thank you, Rui, for all the information you’ve given, it’s very useful. And we would like you all to have a small discussion with us concerning the given definitions.

]]> http://www.kaledinovawebdesign.com/sil_blog/our-common-russian-definition-of-sil/feed/ 3 http://www.kaledinovawebdesign.com/sil_blog/about-the-process-of-our-work/ http://www.kaledinovawebdesign.com/sil_blog/about-the-process-of-our-work/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:54:41 +0000 Taisiya Sikorskaya http://www.kaledinovawebdesign.com/sil_blog/?p=66 XX century is the time of great progress in science, particularly in the production technologies. As we know it is exactly when the second scientific and technical revolution took place. This leap was caused by many events and social processes, such as Second World War, following it Cold War and the development and spreading of democracy.

The fact that humanity realized the lack of resources and our intolerable attitude to planet is not illogic.

Thus mankind faced the problem of economical usage of resources and optimization of production process. Logistical aspect of this problem is not new, but due to the world trend to integration the concern of shipping, storing and distribution became actual and universally common. That is why logistics and particularly sustainability in it are highly important issues to be analyzed.

To understand what sustainability in logistics is we’d like to ascertain what sustainability is in general. We developed the common scheme of social system functioning in the frames of biosphere (pic.1.), where “G” stands for government, “C” – for consumer society and “B” – for business, enterprise including three main parts and relations between them: “ext” means extracting resources, “mun” means manufacturing of goods, “dis” – distribution of them.

Pic.1. Scheme of social system’s subjects interconnection in biosphere

This generalized scheme illustrates activity of social systems, so you can see two-way flows of goods, money, resources and other. By creating this scheme we want to demonstrate the limitation of everything inside biosphere by its borders.

So from this scheme we can conclude the following general definition of sustainability:

“Sustainability is the state of social system, whose subjects continue adequately operating in conditions of optimization of biosphere resources usage and reproduction of them”.

This definition is not far from the classic one: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. In other words, sustainability means the durable maintenance of balance between parts of something. Thereupon we can develop the definition of sustainability in logistics:

“Sustainability in logistics means such a state and organisation of logistical system that keeps all its parts in active form letting the whole enterprise develop in conditions of biosphere resources reproduction and optimization of their usage”.

That’s as for the beginning, we’re sure that we’ll change our mind about the second definition, because we haven’t studied the whole area yet. We’ve distinguished factors (or indicators) as well, but we need time to research the law area needed to summarize all the factors we selected. Besides, we’ve created a simple scheme of production company structure (where we marked out some logistically necessary points), that I’ve posted here too. We think the last scheme demonstrates the arrangement of all the factors we distinguished on the internal firm level. We’ve assigned external level as well. We suppose this division will help us to present two essential sets of indicators in sustainability in logistics approach.