Browsing by Subject "Customer satisfaction"
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Item Predicting temperature profiles to determine degree of doneness for beef biceps femoris and longissimus lumborum steaks(2004) Obuz E.; Dikeman M.E.; Erickson L.E.; Hunt M.C.; Herald T.J.The degree of steak doneness is an important factor in providing consumers with a satisfying eating experience. Endpoint temperature and cooking rate are the determinants of degree of doneness. Our objectives were to predict internal temperature profiles and cooking times for longissimus lumborum and biceps femoris steaks. Each biceps femoris and longissimus lumborum steak was cooked individually in a gas-fired, forced-air-convection oven at 163 °C until the center temperature of each steak reached 70 °C. Temperature profiles were recorded by a Doric temperature recorder and the recorded time and temperature data were imported into a spreadsheet. A prediction method was then implemented to predict cooking times and temperature profiles. No significant differences (p<0.05) were found in cooking times between experimental and predicted values for either longissimus lumborum or biceps femoris steaks. Good agreement was found between experimental and predicted temperature profiles for the longissimus lumborum muscle. However, predicted temperature profiles were consistently higher (except for the beginning of the cooking cycle) than the experimental values up to 65 °C in the cooking cycle for biceps femoris steaks. A highly positive linear relationship was found between experimental and modeled temperature profiles for longissimus lumborum (R2 = 0.99), whereas a high quadratic (R2 = 0.99) relationship was found for biceps femoris steaks. Our method for predicting temperature profiles of steaks for a specified cooking time to attain a given degree of doneness should increase consumer satisfaction by reducing variation in meat sensory traits related to an expected degree of doneness. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Study on lubricant quality and its effect on engine component performance(2008) Beşergil B.; Sabih Özer M.; Eskici M.; Atik E.Purpose- This paper aims to determine the usage time of the test lubricant N0, prepared from base oils of Aliaga Plant, Izmir, in gasoline and diesel-engines, and the investigations of high-temperature oxidation, engine-protective properties, and property changes of the lubricant in performance time.Design/methodology/approach- Physical and chemical properties of the lubricating oil were initially established, and the oil was then subjected to Petter W-1 gasoline and Petter AV-1 diesel test engines. Dismantling of the engine parts was followed by the examination of pistons, piston rings and bearings, and analysis of the lubricant was also undertaken. The engine performance test results and the quality control of the lubricating oil assessments were evaluated according to the International Engine Lubricant Specifications.Findings- The lubricating oil, under sluggish experimental conditions, appears to meet a 40-hour test in gasoline engines and a 120-hour test in diesel engines with the specifications. This means that under usual working conditions the lubricants keep the engine protective properties in 7,000 km distance for gasoline run-vehicles, and in 5,000 km distance for diesel run-vehicles, after which change of the oil is required.Originality/value- The paper provides information of value to those involved with lubrication and engine performance. © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing LimitedItem A facility layout problem in a marble factory via simulation(Association for Scientific Research, 2011) Edis R.S.; Kahraman B.; Araz O.U.; Özfirat M.K.The marble factory in this study is a typical instance of a flow shop based production system. Adding new machines to the plant and/or introducing a new product may convert the actual layout to an inefficient one. Such cases may cause a significant increase in transportation of materials between machines that decreases the utilization rates of machines and operators as well as overall productivity. Therefore, facility planning is a key issue in marble plants in terms of total cost and customer satisfaction. Another important property of these plants is its dynamic and stochastic behavior in terms of scrap rates, demands and processing times. The aim of this study is to develop an efficient plant layout for such dynamic systems. At first, the simulation model of the current system is built on ARENA 10.0. Then, an alternative layout is generated after some analysis and then, it is evaluated via simulation model. The proposed layout provides reduction in total transportation time as well as an increase in productivity. © Association for Scientific Research.Item Analysis of the determinants of customer satisfaction in an international manufacturing firm; [Uluslararasi bi̇r i̇malat fi̇rmasinda müşteri̇ memnuni̇yeti̇ni̇ beli̇rleyen faktörleri̇n anali̇zi̇](2011) Selim H.; Selim S.; Eroǧlu S.Today, applying an effective customer relationship management, which is one of the key processes of supply chain management, becomes a must to provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Customer relationship management is a customer-focused strategy, and it is based on collection, assessment and use of customer data. Under the implementation of customer relationship management in an international firm in food sector, factors that affect satisfaction levels of retailers and distributors, which take place in the supply chain, are investigated in this study. The results of the analysis, which are carried out by using factor analysis method and ordered probit model, shed light on the customer-related strategies and decisions of the firm by revealing the factors that affect customers' satisfaction levels as well as the level of importance of these factors.Item Simulation optimization approach for customer centric lot streaming problem in job shops(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2015) Güçdemir H.; Selim H.In today's competitive market, time based strategies become important to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, manufacturing companies need advanced production planning and control (PPC) techniques in order to respond quickly to demand. In addition, customer centricity becomes the key success factor for manufacturing industry. In this regard, integration of customer relationship management (CRM) and PPC decisions is necessary in order to satisfy customers with efficient use of manufacturing capabilities. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of customer centricity on lot streaming (LS) problem. To this aim, LS problem in job shop environment is dealt with in this study, and traditional LS problem is extended by including preferences of multiple customer segments. It is intended to find a lot splitting policy for each customer segment-product type combination. The objective function is defined as minimization of total weighted percentage deviation from the preferences of customer segments. Simulation optimization approach is used to solve the problem. The results reveal that the proposed approach supports order splitting decisions, and can effectively be used in practice. © 2015 IEEE.Item Dynamic dispatching priority setting in customer-oriented manufacturing environments(Springer London, 2017) Güçdemir H.; Selim H.In today’s competitive environment, customer-oriented view is essential in gaining sustainable competitive advantage. This study aims to reflect the customer-oriented view to production planning and control decisions. To this aim, a simulation optimization-based approach is developed for job shop systems with dynamic order arrivals. Product-type-based lot splitting is applied in order to improve the flow time, and machine-based dispatching rules are utilized for sublot scheduling to realize dynamic scheduling. Multiple customer segments with different importance weights and their expectations and penalties on order completion rate on due date, tardiness, and earliness are considered. A customer satisfaction-based objective function is defined. Customer-oriented dispatching rules are proposed in this study to ensure the prioritization of orders from the key customers in order fulfilling. In order to prevent customer losses by providing a balanced structure between the customer segments in terms of the satisfaction levels, weight setting functions that dynamically compute the weights in the proposed dispatching rules are proposed. It is aimed to determine the near-optimal values of the segment-based parameters of the related weight setting functions. To this aim, a differential evolution algorithm-based simulation optimization approach is proposed. To confirm its viability, the proposed approach is applied to a realistic job shop system. © 2017, Springer-Verlag London.Item The Comparison of Classical and Bayesian Structural Equation Models Through Ordered Categorical Data: A Case Study of Banking Service Quality(Gazi Universitesi, 2023) Erkan G.; Dogan M.; Tatlidil H.This study aims to compare classical Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling (BSEM) in terms of ordered categorical data. In order to show the relationship between service dimensions and banks’ customers’ satisfactions, a data were analyzed with classical SEM and BSEM parameter estimation methods. In the Banking Service Quality Scale (SERVQUAL), which consists of sequential categorical data, classical SEM and BSEM were compared to evaluate customer satisfaction. In classical SEM, parameter estimations were made according to the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation method. In most of the studies using SERVQUAL in the literature, the results found in previous studies could not be used as prior informative because the service dimensions consisted of different number of factors. For this reason, considering that the results could yield similar results with the ML estimation method due to the high sample size, the use of conjugate prior was preferred instead of the non-informative prior due to the ordinal categorical nature of the data in the BSEM analysis. Since the questionnaire used in the study had a Likert type scale structure, the threshold values were calculated for ordered categorical data and used as prior informative. Thus, by using the threshold values obtained from the data set, a faster convergence of the parameters was achieved. As a result, service dimensions affecting satisfaction according to the ML parameter estimation method were found, Assurance, Physical Appearance, and Accessibility. In addition to these, Reliability as a service dimension was found to be also statistically significant in BSEM. © 2023, Gazi Universitesi. All rights reserved.Item A simulation-based genetic algorithm approach for the simultaneous consideration of reverse logistics network design and disassembly line balancing with sequencing(Elsevier Ltd, 2024) Tasoglu G.; Ilgin M.A.Reverse logistics (RL) network design and disassembly line balancing (DLB) decisions are generally considered separately. In addition, the effect of disassembly sequencing on DLB is ignored. However, companies can take better-informed decisions by simultaneously considering RL, DLB and disassembly sequencing issues. This integrated approach results in more efficient processes which reduce cost and idle time, while maximizing throughput and customer satisfaction. In this study, we propose a simulation-based genetic algorithm approach for the joint optimization of RL network design and DLB with sequencing decisions. The use of simulation modeling allows for the consideration of stochastic aspects associated with RL and DLB such as transportation and disassembly times. A numerical example was provided to present the applicability of the proposed approach. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to study the impact of various parameters. The results indicate the superior performance of the proposed approach with respect to total cost. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd