This paper presents a two-stage hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with setup and assembly operations. The proposed study of this paper considers one kind of product with a quantity of demand where each product is made by assembling a set of different parts. At first, the parts are manufactured in a two-stage hybrid flow-shop and then the parts are assembled into products on assembly stage. Setup operations are needed when a machine starts processing the parts or it changes items. The considered objective is minimizing the completion time of all products. Since the problem is classified as NP-hard class, a combinatorial algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm is a three-step procedure where we use heuristic, genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing (SA), NEH and Johnson’s algorithm. Three lower bounds are presented and improved to evaluate the proposed algorithms. An extensive computational experiment is conducted to compare the performances of the proposed algorithms.

This paper presents a survey on relationship between supply chain management and innovation in an Iranian holding firm in auto industry named Iran Khodro. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and using random sampling technique, distributes 250 questionnaires among some managers of this holding firm. The study consists of three parts including supply chain management, innovation and organizational performance. The study uses regression technique as well as structural equation modeling and it has detected that there were some strong and positive relationship between supply chain management and innovation. In addition, the result of the survey indicates that there was some positive and meaningful relationship between supply chain management and organizational performance.

One of the most important issues in production planning is to reduce waste materials as much as possible. This helps reduce all necessary expenses and increase productivity and efficiency. This paper presents an empirical investigation to find important factors for reaching lean production planning. The proposed study determines nine different factors including information technology, organization and leadership, human resources development, inventory management, total quality management, process management, equipment management, maintenance engineering. In order to find out the effects of these factors, the study designs a questionnaire and distributes it among some managers in producer of radiator in Iran. Cronbach alpha is equal to 0.86, which validates the questionnaire. Using some statistical observations, the study has confirmed that all mentioned factors influences production planning, positively.

This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the impacts of personal entrepreneurial characteristics including “Need to succeed”, “Idea fluency” and “Pragmatism” among students who were enrolled in different fields at Islamic Azad University of Zanjan, Iran. Using a standard questionnaire, which is modified for Iranian culture, the study measures the effects of three factors. The results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov indicate that all three variables of the survey were normally distributed. The results of t-student test for “Need to succeed” is equal to 28.623 with df = 349 and Sig. = 0.000, which is statistically significant. In addition, t-student test for “Idea fluency” is equal to 16.124 with df = 349 and Sig. = 0.000, which is also statistically significant. Finally, the results of t-student test for “Pragmatism” is equal to 31.255 with df = 349 and Sig. = 0.000, which is statistically significant. The findings indicate that the participants hold relatively high level of personal entrepreneurial characteristics.

A number of factors, e.g. cutting speed and feed rate, affect the surface roughness in machining process. In this paper, an Artificial Neural Network model was used to forecast surface roughness with related inputs, including cutting speed and feed rate. The output of the ANN model input parameters related to the machined surface roughness parameters. In this research, twelve samples of experimental data were used to train the network. Moreover, four other experimental tests were implemented to test the network. The study concludes that ANN was a reliable and accurate method for predicting machining parameters in CNC turning operation of Particulate Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composites (PAMCs) specimens with 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% filler. The aim of this work is to decrease the production cost and consequently increase the production rate of these materials for industry without any trial and error method procedure.

During the past two decades, there have been significant damages on environment such as ozone layer depletion, global warming effects, etc. and people are getting more concerned about taking necessary actions to help environment. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of green marketing on consumers’ purchasing intention in dairy industry. The proposed study designs a questionnaire and distributes it among 154 randomly selected people who purchase dairy products in four different regions of city of Babol, located in north region of Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study has detected that green marketing influences on consumers’ purchasing intention, positively.

This paper presents a new search methodology for different sizes of 0-1 Knapsack Problem (KP). The proposed methodology uses a modified scatter search as a meta-heuristic algorithm. Moreover, rough set theory is implemented to improve the initial features of scatter search. Thereby, the preliminary results of applying the proposed approach on some benchmark dataset appear that the proposed method was capable of providing better results in terms of time and quality of solutions.

This paper presents an empirical study to investigate the effect of conflict management strategies on development of cooperative culture in one of Iranian auto industries. The proposed study adopts a Putnam and Wilson’s questionnaire (1982) [Putnam, L. L., & Wilson, C. E. (1982). Communication strategies in organizational conflicts: Reliability and validity of a measurement scale. Communication Yearbook, 6, 629-652.] for measuring different components of conflict management. In addition, the study also designs a questionnaire for measuring cooperative culture. Cronbach alphas are calculated for conflict management and cooperative cultures as 0.76 and 0.79, respectively. Using Spearman correlation ratio as well as regression technique, the study has determined that three components of conflict management strategies including cooperation, competition and compromise could significantly contribute of development of cooperative culture.

The primary objective of this paper is to detect factors influencing the alignment of accounting information systems for firms in manufacturing sector listed on Tehran Stock Exchange. The concept of alignment has been investigated for many years, and strategic alignment plays essential role in increasing company performance. This paper investigates different levels of alignment and studies the factors, which influence alignment. More specifically, the work concentrates on the alignment between the requirements for accounting information (AIS requirements) and the capacity of accounting systems (AIS capacity) to build the information, in the specific context of manufacturing in Iran. The research sample consists of 216 companies over the period 2011-2007. The fit between these two sets was explored based on the moderation method and evidences indicate that AIS alignment in some firms was high. In addition, the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables through multiple regressions yields a positive relationship between these variables.

This paper investigates the effect of market orientation on small businesses active in fast food industry. Using a simple random method, the study selects a sample 278 fast food units out of approximately 1000 existing restaurants in city of Tehran, Iran. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among regular fast food consumers. Using structural equation modeling, the study has detected that there were positive and meaningful relationships between continuous changes on consumer preferences on products and services on one side and market orientation on the other side.