EFFICIENT DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS – PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY DOMAINS Edited by Chiang S. Jao Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains Edited by Chiang S. Jao Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2011 InTech All chapters are Open Access articles distributed under the Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike Attribution 3.0 license, which permits to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work in any medium, so long as the original work is properly cited. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published articles. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Petra Zobic Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer Jan Hyrat Image Copyright zimmytws, 2010. Used under license from Shutterstock.com First published August, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechweb.org Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains, Edited by Chiang S. Jao p. cm. ISBN 978-953-307-441-2 free online editions of InTech Books and Journals can be found at www.intechopen.com Contents Preface IX Part 1 Applications in Business 1 Chapter 1 Application of Decision Support System in Improving Customer Loyalty: From the Banking Perspectives 3 Cho-Pu Lin and Yann-Haur Huang Chapter 2 Intelligent Agent Technology in Modern Production and Trade Management 21 Serge Parshutin and Arnis Kirshners Chapter 3 Modeling Stock Analysts Decision Making: An Intelligent Decision Support System 43 Harry Zhou Chapter 4 Business Intelligence – CDMB – Implementing BI-CMDB to Lower Operation Cost Expenses and Satisfy Increasing User Expectations 67 Vlad Nicolicin-Georgescu, Vincent Bénatier, Rémi Lehn and Henri Briand Chapter 5 Decision Support Systems Application to Business Processes at Enterprises in Russia 83 Konstantin Aksyonov, Eugene Bykov, Leonid Dorosinskiy, Elena Smoliy, Olga Aksyonova, Anna Antonova and Irina Spitsina Chapter 6 Intelligence Decision Support Systems in E-commerce 109 Petr Suchánek, Roman Šperka, Radim Dolák and Martin Miškus Chapter 7 Quick Response in a Continuous-Replenishment-Programme Based Manufacturer Retailer Supply Chain 131 Shu-Lu Hsu and Chih-Ming Lee VI Contents Chapter 8 Collaboration in Decision Making: A Semi-Automated Support for Managing the Evolution of Virtual Enterprises 147 Marcus Vinicius Drissen-Silva and Ricardo J. Rabelo Chapter 9 A Lean Balanced Scorecard Using the Delphi Process: Enhancements for Decision Making 171 Chuo-Hsuan Lee, Edward J. Lusk and Michael Halperin Part 2 Applications in Water Resource Management 185 Chapter 10 Linking a Developed Decision Support System with Advanced Methodologies for Optimized Agricultural Water Delivery 187 Kristoph-Dietrich Kinzli, David Gensler and Ramchand Oad Chapter 11 Estimating the Impact on Water Quality under Alternate Land Use Scenarios: A Watershed Level BASINS-SWAT Modeling in West Georgia, United States 213 Gandhi Bhattarai, Diane Hite and Upton Hatch Chapter 12 Flood Progression Modelling and Impact Analysis 227 D. Mioc, F. Anton, B. Nickerson, M. Santos, P. Adda, T. Tienaah, A. Ahmad, M. Mezouaghi,E. MacGillivray, A. Morton and P. Tang Chapter 13 Providing Efficient Decision Support for Green Operations Management: An Integrated Perspective 247 Shaofeng Liu and Meili Jiang Part 3 Applications in Agriculture 271 Chapter 14 Uncertainty Analysis Using Fuzzy Sets for Decision Support System 273 Mohd Najib Mohd Salleh, Nazri Mohd Nawi and Rozaida Ghazali Chapter 15 A Web-Based Decision Support System for Surface Irrigation Design 291 José M. Gonçalves, André P. Muga and Luis Santos Pereira Part 4 Applications in Spatial Management 319 Chapter 16 A Decision Support System (FMOTS) for Location Decision of Taxicab Stands 321 Ebru Vesile Ocalir, Ozge Yalciner Ercoskun and Rifat Tur Chapter 17 Sensor Network and GeoSimulation: Keystones for Spatial Decision Support Systems 337 Nafaâ Jabeur, Nabil Sahli and Hedi Haddad Contents VII Part 5 Applications in Risk and Crisis Management 357 Chapter 18 Emerging Applications of Decision Support Systems (DSS) in Crisis Management 359 Gabriela Prelipcean and Mircea Boscoianu Chapter 19 Risk Analysis and Crisis Scenario Evaluation in Critical Infrastructures Protection 377 Vittorio Rosato, Vincenzo Artale, Giovanna Pisacane, Gianmaria Sannino, Maria Vittoria Struglia, Aberto Tofani and Eddy Pascucci Part 6 Miscellaneous Case Studies 395 Chapter 20 Applications of Decision Support System in Aviation Maintenance 397 Peng Zhang, Shi-Wei Zhao, Bin Tan, Li-Ming Yu and Ke-Qiang Hua Chapter 21 Evaluating the Power Consumption in Carbonate Rock Sawing Process by Using FDAHP and TOPSIS Techniques 413 Reza Mikaeil, Mohammad Ataei and Reza Yousefi Chapter 22 A Supporting Decisions Platform for the Design and Optimization of a Storage Industrial System 437 Riccardo Manzini, Riccardo Accorsi, Laura Pattitoni and Alberto Regattieri Chapter 23 Challenges in Climate-Driven Decision Support Systems in Forestry 459 Oleg Panferov, Bernd Ahrends, Robert S. Nuske, Jan C. Thiele and Martin Jansen Preface Series Preface This series is directed to diverse managerial professionals who are leading the transformation of individual domains by using expert information and domain knowledge to drive decision support systems (DSSs). The series offers a broad range of subjects addressed in specific areas such as health care, business management, banking, agriculture, environmental improvement, natural resource and spatial management, aviation administration, and hybrid applications of information technology aimed to interdisciplinary issues. This book series is composed of three volumes: Volume 1 consists of general concepts and methodology of DSSs; Volume 2 consists of applications of DSSs in the biomedical domain; Volume 3 consists of hybrid applications of DSSs in multidisciplinary domains. The book is shaped decision support strategies in the new infrastructure that assists the readers in full use of the creative technology to manipulate input data and to transform information into useful decisions for decision makers. This book series is dedicated to support professionals and series readers in the emerging field of DSS. Preface Book Volume 2 extends the applications of decision support systems (DSSs) to regulate various resources in dealing with business, water resource, agriculture, space, risks/crisis, and other interdisciplinary issues. Design and development of such hybrid types of DSSs need to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge, resource data, as well as a variety of surrounding interdisciplinary parameters (for example behavioral-, economic-, environmental-, and social-related factors) and to effectively improve resource management. This book can be used in case-study courses related to decision support systems (DSSs). It may be used by both undergraduate senior and graduate students from diverse computer-related fields. After reading this book, the readers should be able to draw a clear picture about how to apply DSSs in multidisciplinary fields. It will also assist professionals in business, spatial, agricultural, aviation and other non-biomedical fields for self-study or reference. Section 1, including Chapter 1 through 9, illustrates several applications of intelligent DSSs for business purposes. Chapter 1 focuses on customer relationship management X Preface and its adoption in banking industry. Chapter 2 focuses on the improvement of modern production and trade management using intelligent agent technologies. Chapter 3 presents a novel DSS performed to analyze stocks, calling market turns and making recommendations by combining knowledge-based problem solving with case- based reasoning and fuzzy logic inference. Chapter 4 presents an efficient business DSS, integrated with the configuration management database, to reduce operational cost expenses and promote the satisfactory level of client expectations. Chapter 5 focuses on enhancing decision making for managers to re-engineer existing business processes and enterprise activity analysis. Chapter 6 presents an intelligent DSS that assists managers in improving customer needs who are using e-commerce systems based on collected data relating to their behavior. Chapter 7 presents another intelligent DSS that provides quick responses in a continuous replenishment program to reduce the stock level throughout the supply chain. Chapter 8 presents a semi- automated DSS protocol for collaborative decision making in managing virtual enterprises with business globalization and sharing supply chains. Chapter 9 presents a lean balanced scorecard method to enhance the organization’s competitive advantages for decision making in its financial dimension. Section 2, including Chapter 10 through 13, presents a set of DSSs aimed to water resource management and planning issues. Chapter 10 focuses on improving water delivery operations in irrigation systems through the innovative use of water DSSs. Chapter 11 uses one of the latest biophysical watershed level modeling tools to estimate the effects of land use change in water quality. Chapter 12 presents a flood prediction model with visual representation for decision making in early flood warning and impact analysis. Chapter 13 presents an integrated sustainability analysis model that provides holistic decision evaluation and support addressed the environmental and social issues in green operations management. Section 3, including Chapter 14 through 15, presents two DSSs applied in the agricultural domain. Chapter 14 integrates agricultural knowledge and data representation using fuzzy logic methodology that generalizes decision tree algorithms when an uncertainty (missing data) is existed. Chapter 15 presents Web- based DSS models in respectively dealing with surface irrigation and sustainable pest management in the agricultural domain. Section 4, including Chapter 16 through 17, illustrates two spatial DSSs applied to multidisciplinary areas. Chapter 16 presents the DSS for location decisions of taxicab stands in an urban area with the assistance of geographical information system (GIS) and fuzzy logic techniques. Chapter 17 presents the spatial DSS integrated with GIS data to assist managers identifying and managing impending crisis situations. Section 5, including Chapter 18 and 19, emphasizes the importance of DSS applications in risk analysis and crisis management. In a world experiencing recurrent risks and crises, it is essential to establish intelligent risk and crisis management systems at the managerial level that supports appropriate decision making strategies and reduces the [...]... Science and Network Security, Vol.8, pp 53-63 20 Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains Zhu, K., Kraemer, K L., Xu, S & Dedrick, J (2004) Information technology payoff in e-business environments: An international perspective on value creation in the financial services industry Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol.21, pp 17-54 0 2 Intelligent... Foreshore: A vision of CRM outsourcing Customer Inter@ction Solutions, Vol.22, pp 42-46 Ernst & Young (2001) Eighth annual special report on technology in banking and financial services 18 Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains Fadlalla, A & Lin, C (2001) An analysis of the applications of neural networks in finance Interfaces, Vol.31, pp 112-122 Galletta,... their research and in (Thomassey & Happiette, 2007) a new system based on idea of combining clustering and classification methods was introduced Authors used Artificial Neural Networks technologies to cluster 22 2 Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains Will-be-set-by -IN- TECH and classify sales time series As they state, the proposed system increases accuracy... continues to evolve, its emphasis has been on the engineering characteristics of the CRM system while limited attention has been paid to 6 Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains assessing and enhancing users’ subjective evaluations of the system (Yahaya, Deraman, and Hamdan, 2008; Ortega, Perez, and Rojas, 2003) A key management objective when dealing... In fact, a number of studies indicate that firms have suffered failures 4 Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains organizational problems (53%) or an inability to access the most relevant information technologies (40%) (Ernst & Young, 2001) In Taiwan’s banking industry, there is also a CRM adoption issue Most banks do not quite understand CRM F H Lin... present a demand forecasting framework for accurately forecasting product demand, thus providing valuable information to assist managers in decision- making regarding capacity planning The framework is based on the diffusion model and, as authors state, has a practical viability to forecast demands and provide valuable forecasting information for supporting capacity planning decisions and manufacturing strategies... Decision Support Agent 2.1.1 Data Management Agent The Data Management Agent is an agent as it uses a predefined logic and cannot change it over time The agent handles several data management tasks, including data cleaning, normalization and preparing datasets The environment the Data Management Agent is 24 4 Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains Will-be-set-by -IN- TECH... website of Financial Supervisory Commission, Executive Yuan in Taiwan There are 37 domestic banks and 31 local branches of foreign banks in Taiwan The research samples are the CRM users in IT or Customer-Service departments in those banks 10 Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains 3.3 Statistical methods Two statistical methods were conducted in this present... existing IT infrastructures in banks are often obstacles to efficiently running a bank, in spite of a heavy investment in IT Veitinger and Loschenkohl (2005) asserted that Application of Decision Support System in Improving Customer Loyalty: From the Banking Perspectives 7 modular and flexible CRM/ERP systems could mitigate some of the legacy-application problems with the banks since CRM/ERP systems. .. Broadvision, NetSuite 10, SAP, E.pipjany, Rightnow CRM 7.0, Salesforce.com, Salesnet.com, and Microsoft) 8 Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains According to Hsu and Rogero (2003), in Taiwan, the major CRM vendors are the wellknown brand names, such as IBM, Oracle, Heart-CRM, and SAP Confronted with so many vendors, organizations that wish to implement a CRM . EFFICIENT DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS – PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY DOMAINS Edited by Chiang S. Jao Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice. Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains 8 According to Hsu and Rogero (2003), in Taiwan, the major CRM vendors are the well- known brand. Efficient Decision Support Systems – Practice and Challenges in Multidisciplinary Domains 6 assessing and enhancing users’ subjective evaluations of the system (Yahaya, Deraman, and Hamdan,