No abstract

Automation has attracted interest from the industry sector for its potential to improve energy efficiency, cost efficiency, and environmental performance. By elevating the LoA to the highest degree, associated costs will grow accordingly and its implementation will be far more complicated. This will also result in losing workers and decreasing environmental pollutants. On the other hand, increasing power consumption at high levels of automation leads to the production of greenhouse gases. This paper aims to increase the level of automation (LoA) considering the concept of sustainability. This study presents fuzzy multi-objective programming to determine the optimal LoA considering sustainability factors to achieve competitive advantages. To solve the model, the Zimmermann max-min approach was adopted and a cosmetics factory in Iran was chosen to optimize LoA according to this model. The results showed that it is possible to improve the LoA and also consider sustainability factors with the available resources without using the highest LoA. This study can help managers optimize the LoA in their organizations considering the current resources and sustainability issues, and control the company's return on investment and cost of overhead. They can run the model with every definition of LoA proposed till now. This research can benefit the environment and the workers' health in the production line by reducing environmental pollutants and prevent the dismissal of all personnel due to its negative social effects. It also reduces the risk of COVID-19 by minimizing the number of workers. So far, a mathematical model for selecting optimal LoA in the chemical industry considering sustainability has not been presented.

Background: With the outbreak of COVID-19 disease to reduce the risk of disease transmission, increasing the level of automation (LoA) in manufacturing and services is the concern of many managers. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to provide a new definition of LoA, considering the increasing use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and modern technologies such as blockchain and the internet of things (IoT). Methods: First, different generations of ERP systems were studied and three components of information, system, and human were identified in it, then the components of each class were studied and the solutions used in each component were examined. In the continuation of the research, the previous definitions of LoA were reviewed and the existing research gap was identified and the definition of new automation levels was presented. In this research, the Delphi method was used. For validation, the new definition of LoA was adapted to the definition performed by Verplank and Sheridan. Results: New LoA definition by considering the latest technologies in the world for use in production and service centers. Determining the LoA of a medical center and proposing the optimal level of the desired center with the available resources. Conclusions: The new LoA definition can help improve the LoA of medical centers practically.

This paper presents an implementation of system dynamics model to determine appropriate product mix by considering various factors such as labor, materials, overhead, etc. for an Iranian producer of cosmetic and sanitary products. The proposed model of this paper considers three hypotheses including the relationship between product mix and profitability, optimum production capacity and having minimum amount of storage to take advantage of low cost production. The implementation of system dynamics on VENSIM software package has confirmed all three hypotheses of the survey and suggested that in order to reach better mix product, it is necessary to reach optimum production planning, take advantage of all available production capacities and use inventory management techniques.