BACKGROUND፡ Considering various researches were carried out to implement Lean techniques in healthcare centers, this study has tried to investigate how lean principles could be prioritized in the Emergency Department (ED) by comparing physicians and nurses viewpoints.METHODOLOGY: In the first stage, relevant Lean techniques and several criteria to evaluate the ED performance were selected by reviewing the literature. Then, weight factors for each criterion were calculated using the Entropy method, and Lean techniques were compared and ranked via a questionnaire by which the physicians' and nurses' opinions were obtained separately. In the last stage, the final ranking of Lean techniques was done using VIKOR and SAW methods as two powerful means of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM).RESULTS: Theory of Constraints (TOC) was selected as the most appropriate principle from the physicians' viewpoints by both decision-making methods. However, according to the nurses' opinions, Jiduka was the best approach by the VIKOR method, while with the SAW method, 5S was chosen as the most practical Lean technique.CONCLUSION: This study has illustrated that although all Lean techniques are useable for ED, these techniques' prioritization has a key role in choosing the more suitable Lean approach. Moreover, it provides a chance for the emergency wards to keep down different costs and improve staff and patient satisfaction and the quality of treatment simultaneously.

This study presents a model for inventory control of deteriorating product in which both quantity and quality deterioration of the products are considered overtime. In this regard, for maximizing the profit, a new model is developed through two concepts: (1) establishing a decreasing pricing policy that depends on quality in order to prevent the decline in demand and product quality deterioration, and (2) investigating the level of investment in preservation technology as a significant solution in affecting the product deterioration rate. Consequently, it maintains the quality of products and increases their expiration date. In addition, the time value of money and inflation are well noticed in making the calculation of financial flows more accurate. To demonstrate the characteristics of the model, two comparative studies are conducted. The first one emphasizes the increase in the total profit of the inventory system caused by dynamic pricing policy, and another establishes the major impact of paying attention to the time value of money and inflation on making decisions.

Nowadays, in competitive market, in order to increase confidence in the quality of products, dealers set a warranty for selling them. This issue seems to have a tremendous effect on attracting more customers, especially when it comes to purchasing second-hand products. In this regard, this paper tends to present a two-dimensional warranty policy for second-hand products containing age and usage in two cases, L-shaped and Rectangular. Since maximizing customer repurchase probability is directly linked with dealer’s profit as well as minimizing costs, dealers ought to consider customer satisfaction. In fact, customer satisfaction depends on warranty length and the expected numbers of failures in the post-warranty period. To demonstrate the characteristics of the model, two comparative studies are conducted to present the effect of bi-objective function on warranty models. Finally, in order to extend insights into the matter, a sensitivity analysis is carried out on the varying parameters.