The translation of will into act: achieving a consensus between managerial decisions and operational abilities

• Published in: IFAC Proceedings Volumes Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 69 - 74
• Main Authors: Montmain, J., Trousset, F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Constraints Solving Problems (CSP); Efficiency; Industrial performance; Management; Multi Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT); Optimization; Performance improvement; Efficiency; Industrial performance; Management; Constraints Solving Problems (CSP); Performance improvement; Multi Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT); Optimization
• ISSN: 1474-6670
• DOI: 10.3182/20090603-3-RU-2001.0256

In the current industrial context, strategies intended to bring about continuous improvement have to include the multi-criteria performance expression aspects. A MAUT model is proposed in the first part of this paper: it captures the managers’ strategy in terms of performances improvement. The search of an efficient improvement is formalized as an optimization problem. Nevertheless, MAUT models address purely managerial decisions but do not include the material constraints related to the action plans that address the required improvement. A qualitative model is thus proposed to support this implementation part. It models the relations between goals and actions to define the most relevant action plan. Finally, a unified framework is proposed to conciliate managerial and implementation aspects in an industrial improvement project. It integrates a preferences’ model for the managerial aspects and a CSP model for the operational aspects. Both models are conjointly run into an iterative process to define an efficient improvement.