The Engineering Economics 

About: The Engineering Economics is an academic journal published by Kaunas University of Technology. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): European union & Quality (business). It has an ISSN identifier of 1392-2785. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 966 publications have been published receiving 14484 citations.

The Concept of Sustainable Development and its Use for Sustainability Scenarios

Abstract: The problem of conceptual descriptions and evaluation of sustainable development are analyzed in the work. As the objectives, descriptions of the concept of sustainable development are analyzed and classified. Then the analysis of the concept of sustainable development is given. After this analysis the systematic view of the dimensions of sustainable development is provided. Methods of systematic scientific literature analysis, general and logical analysis, comparison and generalization were used for the research.

The Comparative Analysis of MCDA Methods SAW and COPRAS

Abstract: In recent years, ąuantitative multicriteria methods have been widely used for comparative evaluation of complicated technological and social-economic processes, as well as for determining the best alternative among the available options and ranking the alternatives based on their significance for a particular purpose. Professor of Vilnius Gediminas Tecnnical University E.K. Zavadskas was the first to use these methods in Lithuania in the mid-eignties of the last century for evaluation, substantiation and choosing of optimal technological solutions at various stages of construction (3aeadcxac 1987). In this period, new multicriteria evaluation methods were being developed and widely used in the world in various scientific and practical areas. Later, numerous disciples and colleagues of prof. Zavadskas as well representatives of various scientific schools extensively used the considered methods in Lithuania.The main concept behind the ąuantitative evaluation methods is integration of the values of the criteria describing a particular process and their weights (significances) into a single magnitude, i.e. the criterion of the method. For some particular (maximizing) criteria the largest value is the best, while for others (minimizing criteria) the smallest value is the best. The units of criteria measurement are also different. The alternatives compared are ranked according to the calculated values of the criterion of the method. Great numbers of multicriteria evaluation methods, based on different logical principles and having different complexity levels and the inherent features, have been created in the world. There is hardly any 'best' multicriteria evaluation method. Therefore, a parallel use of several multicriteria evaluation methods as well as the analysis of the spread of estimates and averaging of the values obtained may be recommended for evaluating complicated multifaceted objects and processes.The method SAW (Simple Additive JVeigMing) is one of the simplest, natural and most widely used multicriteria evaluation methods. It clearly demonstrates the idea of integrating the values and weights of criteria into a single estimating value - the criterion of the method. However, SAW uses only maximizing evaluation criteria, while minimizing evaluation criteria should be converted into the maximizing ones by the respective formulas prior to their application. This limitation is eliminated in the method COPRAS (Complex Proportional Assessment). The authors of the method, E. K. Zavadskas and his disciple A.Kaklauskas suggested that the influence of maximizing and minimizing evaluation criteria should be assessed separately. In this case, the component, taking into account the effect of maximizing criteria, matches the estimate yielded by the method SAW.Despite the fact that the method COPRAS is most commonly used in Lithuania, its main characteristics and properties have not been clearly defined and demonstrated. However, the awareness of these properties allows us to show the benefits of the method's application, to predict the influence of minimizing criteria values on the final result (estimate), to check the calculations and to take into account possible instability of estimates yielded by the method due to the specific character of the actual data.The paper describes the main features of multicriteria evaluation methods SAW and COPRAS and their common and diverse characteristics, as well as defining and demonstrating the properties of the method COPRAS, wMch are of great theoretical and practical value.All theoretical statements are illustrated by numerous examples and calculations. http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.22.2.310

Multi-criteria Optimization System for Decision Making in Construction Design and Management

Abstract: All new ideas and possible variants of decisions mustbe compared according to many criteria. The complexnature of decision-making requires practitioners to selectinvestment options based on a wider variety of policyconsiderations in addition to cost benefit analysis and puretechnical considerations. In economics and decisionmaking it is essential to be able to take into account theimpacts of cultural, social, moral, legislative, demographic,economic, environmental, governmental and technologicalchange, as well as changes in the business world oninternational, national, regional and local markets. Costbenefit analysis approach is a useful tool for investmentdecision-making from an economic perspective. Cautionsshould also be given to the methods of determining thevalue of social and local interests. Some socialexternalities, such as employment and regional economicimpacts, are generally omitted in current practices.Current practices tend to use cardinal or ordinal scales inmeasure in non-monetized criteria. The use of unreasonablemonetization methods in some cases has discredited costbenefit analysis in the eyes of decision makers and thepublic. It may be appropriate to consider these externalities inqualitative forms in a multi-criteria analysis. Multi-criteriadecision making is used in various areas of humanactivities. The Criteria can be qualitative and quantitative.They usually have different units of measurement anddiffer in optimization direction. The normalization aims atobtaining comparable scales of criteria values. In the newversion of the program LEVI 4 the normalization methodsare including vector, linear scale, non-linear and newlogarithmic techniques may be used. This softwareconsiders the main aspects of two-sided game problems.The following strategic principles are used: Wald's rule,Savage criterion, Hurwicz's rule, Laplace's rule, Bayes'srule and Hodges-Lehmann rule. This program isdemonstrated by considering a real case study involving 4evaluation criteria of the currently used external walls ofindividual residential buildings.

New Application of SWARA Method in Prioritizing Sustainability Assessment Indicators of Energy System

Abstract: A major topic among the current researches on energy is a sustainable energy development and assessment. An importance of energy system is obvious in our life. There are many important energy applications. There are heating and cooling, power generation, desalination, air conditioning and so on. By the year 2020 world will need 50% more energy than today and the Asia-Pacific region will become world's largest consumer of energy. In 21-st century, world faces with the challenge of converting its fossil fuels energy base to the sustainable energy sources. Regarding the increasing rise of the energy demand and consumption, virtually everyone in the world must implement an integrated resource planning (IRP). It is vitally important to achieve sustainable growth. Sustainability assessment of energy system is one of the important issues in policy making all around the world. Decision making on energy system is very risky and difficult and therefore cannot be individual. Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is a renowned methodology in decision making and evaluation. Some of the most famous MCDM tools are as following: AHP, ANP, TOPSIS, ELECTRE, MUSA, AKUTA, VIKOR, PROMETHEE, SAW, MOORA, COPRAS, COPRAS-G, SWARA, FARE. A Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method is one of the new MCDM methods presented in 2010. SWARA method is applied for some reasons in this paper. Firstly, SWARA’s perspective is different from other similar methods like AHP, ANP and FARE. SWARA gives the chance for decision and policy makers to select their priority based on the current situation of environment and economy. In this method, expert has an important role on evaluations and calculating weights. The ability to estimate experts’ opinion about importance ratio of the criteria is the main element of this method. SWARA is developed for identifying importance of criteria and relative weights of each criterion. Current research applies SWARA as a new framework for evaluating and prioritizing sustainability assessment indicators of energy system. General indicator system consists of Resource Indicator, Environment Indicator, Economic Indicator and Social Indicator and their sub-criterions. For instance, complex environmental indicator consists of CO2, SO2 and NOX indicators while complex economic indicator consists of energy costs, investment and efficiency indicators. The research revealed that the most important indicator is Social (0.342). Then, the range of indicators is as following: Environmental (0.284), Economic (0.212) and Resource (0.162). Finally, the research shows that this methodology can be useful as a framework to operate with sustainability assessment indicators of the energy system. Also, this methodology can be used for decision making in real issues of future researches in different areas. The results of this methodology also can be compared to other methods such as AHP and ANP. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.24.5.4526

A framework for the Selection of a packaging design based on the SWARA method

Abstract: Well-designed packaging is intended to present a product in the best possible way, which would have a significant impact on sales improvement. Creating and finding the ideal design solution for packaging is an extremely complex process. Many characteristics of a packaging design can affect the level of customer satisfaction, where the different characteristics of the packaging tend to have a different significance. To make the problem more complex, the significance of characteristics of a packaging design is not the same for all customers. Therefore, creating and finding the ideal design solution for packaging often involves an evaluation of a number of variants, typically evaluated on the basis of multiple criteria, often with different significance. To provide an efficient approach for the selection of appropriate packaging, a framework for selecting the appropriate packaging design which meets customer preferences, based on the SWARA method and group decision making, is proposed. The usability and efficiency of the proposed framework is considered in the case of the selecting the appropriate packaging design for the wine of the autochthonous grape variety called Black Tamjanika. On the basis the considered examples, it can be concluded that SWARA method can be successfully used to solve many similar problems, and that in some cases may have some advantages over similar methods, such as AHP method or Conjoint Analysis. As an advantage of the proposed procedure can be mentioned a much smaller number of comparisons in pairs, compared with the AHP method, and much more comprehensible procedure for selecting the most acceptable alternative, compared with Conjoint Analysis. The proposed framework can also be easily adjusted to solve a significant number of MCDM problems DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.26.2.8820