ABSTRACT The goal of this study is to propose a decision model for supporting the choice of the best-agile model, based on the Flexible and Interactive Tradeoff (FITradeoff) method. This study provides the definition of an extensive set of 38 measurable criteria that were considered for evaluation of the most popular agile process models used in small and medium-scale enterprises. To illustrate the application of the model, we applied it to a set of alternatives that includes DSDM, SCRUM, XP2 and Crystal and an experienced project manager acted as our decision maker during the interactive elicitation process of the FITradeoff. The results show that the FITradeoff is very valuable for this class of problem because of its strong mathematical foundation and the possibility of combining two different ways for modeling the preferences of decision makers, which makes the process cognitively easier than other multi-criteria methods and increase the confidence on the results. Although our study focuses on the context of small and medium-scale companies for software development, the approach can be used to other types of environments, including distributed software development and large enterprises.

ABSTRACT The Circular Food Economy is a recent concept referred to co-creative food ecosystems where stakeholders from different echelons work together to improve the chain by using circular economy solutions for managing food loss and waste while increasing stakeholders’ income and reducing the environmental affectation. There is a lack of quantitative information on what should be prioritized when designing circular options considering the actors’ preferences. This study presents an application of the FITradeoff method within the Agri-Food Supply Chain in a multicriteria decision problem of ranking circular economy initiatives using six criteria (CO2 generation, blue-water usage, land usage efficiency, social impact, income, and implementation) and nine hypothetical alternatives artificially created from available data. It explores information regarding preferable alternatives for householders. The results are considered a quantitative starting point for collecting consumers’ preferences as a basis for further research to refine such circular initiatives into more beneficial and attractive ones.

ABSTRACT This paper presents an actual application of the FITradeoff method to support strategic decisions on military budgets. Using Optimization Techniques and a particular Multicriteria Decision Aid method to assess budget allocation efficiency, a model was built for the Brazilian Defense Ministry. A case study of the Brazilian Navy is described in this paper, whereby this model was used. The focus is on the adaptations of FITradeoff necessary to make it suitable for different groups of decision-makers and staff, performing different tasks on the process. The FITradeoff proposal allowed a group decision with different levels suitable to the military context and high-level strategic decisions. The use of multicriteria in this approach provides a meaningful utility measure. This provides a score value representing the desirability of an alternative, in terms of its attainment of the institution’s strategic objectives. The approach contributed to an approximate gain of 15% in budget efficiency in 2022.

ABSTRACT Mobility and urban planning are challenging tasks for public authorities, especially in densely populated cities. The city of Olinda, Pernambuco-Brazil, faces problems in traffic and access to places, making it necessary to identify new alternatives to improve urban mobility in Olinda. This study presents a decision support model to develop and evaluate new alternatives to do so. In the decision frontend, Value-Focused Thinking was applied to identify objectives and their respective attributes, and to create alternatives based on these objectives. As a result, 69 alternatives were generated, concatenated into 48, and categorized into four groups. Group 1 and Group 2 comprise 30 alternatives that serve the city’s north side; however, they attend to the neighborhoods separately. Group 3 comprises 11 alternatives routes that serve the two areas together, this being the focus of this study, and Group four consists of 7 short-term alternatives. In the decision backend, the FITradeoff for ranking problematic method was applied to evaluate the 11 alternatives of Group 3. The study showed that it would be possible to improve mobility more urgently by making a few improvements to the itinerary on the existing routes. Therefore, the study discusses the possibility of starting to make progress in the urban system of the city by using fewer complex alternatives compared to setting up new routes.

ABSTRACT The Failures Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) method is applied to different activities in order to improve production processes. Its operation allows to analyze failure modes, describe their effects, identify causes and design control systems. In addition to assessing these factors, it contributes to the formulation of various improvement actions; however, it has an intrinsic weakness when it comes to prioritizing these actions. Although recent versions acknowledge that it is convenient to regulate the beginning of the proposed actions, the method does not provide indisputable tools to establish priorities and organize action plans due to the fact that the Risk Priority Level traditional indicator has been questioned. In face of this need, this contribution proposes to complement the application of the FMEA with an individual multi-criteria compensatory method that allows actions to be programmed in a participatory manner to improve their management. This proposal provides an example of a real world application. The results and limitations of this work are presented in the conclusion.

ABSTRACT Since most of the studies about outsourcing are focused on mathematical models, this paper seeks to support from theoretical bases the use of partial information to ease the decision-making process; the practical contribution is to apply the FITradeoff method for solving a multicriteria problem of an agricultural research company that seeks to decide about the need to outsource the operation in case to overhead the limited capacity of the analysis services. After the FITradeoff method was applied to elicit preferences from each decision-maker (DM), the results show whether or not it would be feasible to outsource a given service, and what the most promising options are. The method required the DMs to answer in less time only a few questions, which avoided placing an unnecessary cognitive burden on them and proved to be useful in assisting DMs in the decision-making.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a broad overview of main contributions related to the FITradeoff (Flexible and Interactive Tradeoff) method. FITradeoff is a multicriteria method developed within the scope of the Multiattribute Value Theory (MAVT), considering partial information from the decision maker (DM) in the preference modelling process. Over the last few years, several methodological developments on this method have been published in the literature, as well as practical applications to a wide range of multicriteria decision problems. The most recent methodological advances are related to preference modelling process, which now integrate the two paradigms of elicitation by decomposition and holistic evaluation. Furthermore, contributions from behavioral studies, some of them including decision neuroscience, have enhanced the DSS free available for FITradeoff. In this paper, all previously developed works related to the FITradeoff method are approached, considering both methodological developments and practical applications. A summary on the different modeling approaches for solving different decision problematics (choice, ranking, sorting and portfolio) with FITradeoff is presented. The recently proposed combination of preference modeling paradigms - elicitation by decomposition and holistic evaluation - within the FITradeoff decision process is explained, as well its potential advantages for the elicitation process. Moreover, a brief review on the practical applications of the method in different contexts is presented. In addition, this work also brings a summary on the results of behavioral experiments conducted using neuroscience tools with the FITradeoff method, as well the methodological insights resulted from them, and future perspectives of potential research topics related to the FITradeoff method.

ABSTRACT The study investigates options to support the reverse logistics for wholesalers in a company. This big company, which do not have the name presented in this paper aims to improve the process of returning unsold items. At the moment, the process contained several rework-related losses. Hence, in this study two methodologies have been applied. The VFT has been used to structure the problem considering the multiple objectives presented by the Decision-Maker, in special those that are considered by sporting multinational. Also, the FITradeoff method has been used to identify the alternatives that should compose the portfolio of options concerning the reverse logistics. The portfolio problematic has been applied since it has been desired to obtain the subset of option to support the problem, constrained by monetary resources. Using the VFT, ten alternatives which were evaluated in ten criteria have been defined, and support by the FITradeoff method. As result, the alternatives five alternatives have been selected to compose the portfolio.

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyday life in societies around the world. One of the most severe consequences has been the social isolation imposed by this extremely contagious disease. In this context, many people began looking for a pet for the first time. In Brazil, for instance, the pet sector increased its financial returns in 2020. In addition, companies that produce pet foods have experienced problems with the supply of materials. Supply chain disruption is a problem faced by many different organizations during this time of crisis. This study, therefore, investigated the supply of raw materials stored in the silos and tanks of a large company. This company have operations in 80 countries across the world and produces different products, including pet food. Thirteen raw materials used to produce pet food were considered. In addition, eight criteria of the company’s supply process were identified and explored. Moreover, the Flexible and Interactive Tradeoff (FITradeoff) method, which is a Multiple Criteria Decision Making/Aiding (MCDM/A) method, was applied to rank the raw materials based on supply difficulty. In terms of supply criticality, the order of materials was established from less critical to most critical. These results can be used by companies to better plan the receipt of these materials to reduce the risk of supply chain-related disruptions and propose better ways to distribute activities between planners to help them in their daily management.

ABSTRACT This paper presents the problem of the prioritization of cultural tourism products (CTP) in Czeladź, one of the post-industrial towns in southern Poland. For the decision analysis, the new flexibility features of the FITradeoff multiple criteria method will be explored. In particular, this paper focuses on the combination of two preference modeling paradigms in the decision process: elicitation by decomposition, in the consequences space; and holistic evaluation, in the alternatives space. The FITradeoff method is a multiple criteria decision method for preferences elicitation in additive aggregation models, that works based on partial information about the decision maker’s preferences. The new decision process with the FITradeoff Decision Support System (DSS) will be explored and discussed in detail. The advantages of combination of two types of preference modeling are highlighted, with the possibility of shortening the decision problem with holistic judgments made based on graphical visualizations, saving time and effort from decision makers.

ABSTRACT This paper aims to support decision-making for the return of classes to determine actions to reduce the problems arising from the pandemic through a multi-methodological approach using Value-focused thinking (VFT) and Rich Picture (RP). The case study includes a Brazilian small university, in a region with social and economic vulnerability. Six stakeholders representing the students, the municipality community and the university were interviewed from which the hierarchy of fundamental objectives and an objectives’ network unfolded in education, health, and community were created. Even though health concerns were shared by all stakeholders, these networks revealed a variety of perspectives not typically discussed in large universities, such as access to information and communication technologies; awareness of biosafety measures; and real estate vacancy. These findings indicate that future research should address the specific needs of small universities in vulnerable cities, particularly those in developing and underdeveloped countries, where universities’ presence fosters the economy.

ABSTRACT The COS method was introduced in Fang & Oosterlee (2008) and then was applied to pricing a variety of stock options for continuous random variables. This paper adapts the Fourier-cosine series (COS) method to recover discrete probability mass functions. We approximate mixture and compound probability distributions with cosine series. Enormous precision and computational speed are the qualities of the function estimates here obtained. We also develop the pricing framework to trade derivatives subject to discrete random variables. We apply the method to calculate, for the first time, the price of an interest rate derivative of recent vintage introduced in the Brazilian financial market. Parameter calibration confirms the quality of the model.

ABSTRACT This work considers the strategic Supply Chain Network Design (SCND) problem, which is to define the number and location of facilities, and the flow of products among them to fulfilling a long-term deterministic demand. A two-phase heuristic approach was specially developed to solve large scale problems in reasonable time, extending a previous algorithm introduced in Farias et al. (2017). In the construction phase, a multi-start approach was developed to generate diversified initial solutions from each new iteration of a layered-based rounding heuristic. In the second phase, a local search heuristic improves the solution provided by the rounding method. The solution method is evaluated using randomly generated instances, and a evaluated strategic of marketing in a real case study applied to a company to redesigning the supply chain to two lines of products.The obtained results evidence the effectiveness and flexibility of the developed approach for handling very large instances.