Purpose The purpose of the article is to report a study on evaluation of smart manufacturing (SM) performance using a grey theory-based approach. Design/methodology/approach In total, 30 criteria and 79 attributes for SM performance have been developed. A grey theory-based approach has been used for SM performance evaluation. The grey index has been calculated, and weaker areas have been derived. Performance

Purpose In order to accurately predict the uncertain and nonlinear characteristics of China's three clean energy generation, this paper presents a novel time-varying grey Riccati model (TGRM(1,1)) based on interval grey number sequences. Design/methodology/approach By combining grey Verhulst model and a special kind of Riccati equation and introducing a time-varying parameter and random disturbance

Purpose In the present era, executives are shifting keenly toward industrial Internet of things (IIoTs) spheres. It is observed that IIoTs spheres become a key for each industry to grow up and bear the largest entrepreneurship opportunities globally and is linked to improve the shifting sphere of publics (SSPs). The core objective of research work is SSPs, which is nexus on secondary objectives. The

Purpose During the service period of communication satellite systems, their performance is often degraded due to the depletion mechanism. In this paper, the grey system theory is applied to the multi-state system effectiveness evaluation and the grey Lz-transformation ADC (availability, dependability and capability) effectiveness evaluation model is constructed to address the characteristics of the

Purpose This paper develops a robust hospital readmission prediction framework by combining the feature selection algorithm and machine learning (ML) classifiers. The improved feature selection is proposed by considering the uncertainty in patient's attributes that leads to the output variable. Design/methodology/approach First, data preprocessing is conducted which includes how raw data is managed

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to make multivariable gray model to be available for the application on interval gray number sequences directly, the matrix form of interval multivariable gray model (IMGM(1,m,k) model) is constructed to simulate and forecast original interval gray number sequences in this paper. Design/methodology/approach Firstly, the interval gray number is regarded as a three-dimensional

Purpose To predict the passenger volume reasonably and accurately, this paper fills the gap in the research of quarterly data forecast of railway passenger volume. The research results can also provide references for railway departments to plan railway operation lines reasonably and efficiently. Design/methodology/approach This paper intends to establish a seasonal cycle first order univariate grey

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to overcome the weakness of the traditional model, in which the grey action quantity is a real number and thus leads to a “unique solution” and to build the model with a trapezoidal possibility degree function. Design/methodology/approach Using the system input and output block diagram of the model, the interval grey action quantity is restored under the condition

Purpose A new method for forecasting wind turbine capacity of China is proposed through grey modelling technique. Design/methodology/approach First of all, the concepts of discrete grey model are introduced into the NGBM(1,1) model to reduce the discretization error from the differential equation to its discrete forms. Then incorporating the conformable fractional accumulation into the discrete NGBM(1

Purpose The purpose of the development of the paper is to construct probabilistic interval-valued hesitant fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) model and to improve some preliminary aggregation operators such as probabilistic interval-valued hesitant fuzzy averaging (PIVHFA) operator, probabilistic interval-valued hesitant fuzzy geometric (PIVHFG) operator

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance a novel grey variable dual precision rough set model for grey concept. Design/methodology/approach To obtain the approximation of a grey object, the authors first define the concepts of grey rough membership degree and grey degree of approximation on the basic thinking logic of variable precision rough set. Based on grey rough membership degree and grey

Purpose The airline industry has been significantly hit by the occurrence of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, facing one of its worst crises in history. In this context, the present paper analyses one of the well-known boarding methods used in practice by the airlines before and during the coronavirus outbreak, namely back-to-front and suggests which variations of this method to use when three passenger

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to establish a grey cloud incidence clustering model to assess the drought disaster degree under 15 indexes in 18 cities of Henan province. Design/methodology/approach The grey incidence degree between each index and ideal index is used to determine the index weight and combined with the subjective weight, the comprehensive weight is given; the traditional possibility

Purpose Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software which is a knowledge-based design on the interconnective communication of business units and information share, ensures that business processes such as finance, production, purchasing, sales, logistics and human resources, are integrated and gathered under one roof. This integrated system allows the company to make fast and accurate decisions and

Purpose In recent years, online public opinion reversal incidents have been occurring frequently, which has increased the complexity of the evolution of online public opinion, and they have become a difficult issue for public opinion management and control. It is of great significance to explore the regularity of online public opinion reversal. Design/methodology/approach Combined with the grey characteristics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to construct an interval grey number NGM(1,1) direct prediction model (abbreviated as IGNGM(1,1)), which need not transform interval grey numbers sequences into real number sequences, and the Markov model is used to optimize residual sequences of IGNGM(1,1) model. Design/methodology/approach A definition equation of IGNGM(1,1) model is proposed in this paper, and

Purpose In the presented research work, the authors fabricated the multiple MS plate (Grade: IS 2062) specimens and applied a novel integrated computational TRIFMRG approach with grey relational analysis (GRA) toward solving weld bead optimization problem in MIG welding procedure. The objective of research is to determine the optimum setting between MIG welding input process parameters, e.g. welding

Purpose The purpose of this study is to construct a gray relational model based on information diffusion to avoid rank reversal when the available decision information is insufficient, or the decision objects vary. Design/methodology/approach Considering that the sample dependence of the ideal sequence selection in gray relational decision-making is based on case sampling, which causes the phenomenon

Purpose This paper is to propose a novel generalized grey target decision method (GGTDM) with index and weight both containing mixed types of data. Design/methodology/approach The decision-making steps of the proposed approach are as follows. First, all mixed attribute values of alternatives and weights are transformed into binary connection numbers and also comprised two-tuple (determinacy, uncertainty)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the spectral characteristics of moving average operator and to propose a novel time-frequency hybrid sequence operator. Design/methodology/approach Firstly, the complex data is converted into frequency domain data by Fourier transform. An appropriate frequency domain operator is constructed to eliminate the impact of disturbance. Then, the inverse Fourier

Purpose To solve the problem of simulation evaluation with small samples, a fresh approach of grey estimation is presented based on classical statistical theory and grey system theory. The purpose of this paper is to make full use of the difference of data distribution and avoid the marginal data being ignored. Design/methodology/approach Based upon the grey distribution characteristics of small sample

Purpose The improved classical model makes it possible that the evaluation strategy has an optimal tendency, which reveals the purpose of this paper is to facilitate the first price sealed-bid auction more in line with the actual situation. To be more specific, there are several merits in the improvement process. On the one hand, the bid-winning probability can be improved for the bidder; on the other

Purpose Aiming to address the forecasting dilemma of seasonal air quality, the authors design the novel self-adaptive seasonal adjustment factor to extract the seasonal fluctuation information about the air quality index. Based on the novel self-adaptive seasonal adjustment factor, the novel seasonal grey forecasting models are established to predict the air quality in China. Design/methodology/approach

Purpose This research proposes weighted grey relational analysis (WGRA) method to evaluate the performance of 325 multilevel dispatching rules in the wafer fabrication process. Design/methodology/approach The research methodology involves multilevel dispatching rule generation, simulations, WGRA and result analysis. A complete permutation of multilevel dispatching rules, including the partial orders

Purpose Smart senior care industry in China currently faces a series of practical difficulties such as an imbalance in the demand and supply structure, service products unable to cater to the actual needs of the elderly and a low degree of marketization. This study therefore proposes using grey relational analysis and the Fuzzy-quality function development (QFD) quality improvement method to help solve

Purpose The implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy is of practical significance for improving the quality and efficiency of economic growth and accelerating the transformation of economic development mode. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of innovation-driven strategies on marine industry agglomeration and industrial transformation. Design/methodology/approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a small data set forecasting method to improve the effectiveness when making managerial decisions. Design/methodology/approach In the grey modeling process, appropriate background values are one of the key factors in determining forecasting accuracy. In this paper, grey compensation terms are developed to make more appropriate background values to further

Purpose This study aims to improve the accuracy of hyperspectral estimation of soil organic matter content. Design/methodology/approach Based on the uncertainty in spectral estimation, 76 soil samples collected in Zhangqiu District, Jinan City, Shandong Province, were studied in this paper. First, the spectral transformation of the spectral data after denoising was carried out by means of 11 transformation

Purpose Smog seriously affects the ecological environment and poses a threat to public health. Therefore, smog control has become a key task in China, which requires reliable prediction. Design/methodology/approach This paper establishes a novel time-lag GM(1,N) model based on interval grey number sequences. Firstly, calculating kernel and degree of greyness of the interval grey number sequence respectively

Purpose This study examines the potential of contracts as one of the supply chain coordination mechanisms under competitive conditions. It also investigates a two-echelon supply chain model with two manufacturers and two retailers to develop a competitive structure in grey stochastic demand. Design/methodology/approach Supply chain demand is considered as a stochastic phenomenon depending on the selling

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to unify the expression of fractional grey accumulating generation operator and the reducing generation operator, and build the FDGM(1,1) model with the unified fractional grey generation operator. Design/methodology/approach By systematically studying the properties of the fractional accumulating operator and the reducing operator, and analyzing the sensitivity

Purpose purpose of this paper is providing a solution for flexible flow shop scheduling problem with uncertain processing time in aeronautical composite lay-up workshop. Design/methodology/approach A flexible flow scheduling model and algorithm with interval grey processing time is established. First, according to actual needs of composite laminate shop scheduling process, interval grey number is used

Purpose The main objective of this experimental work is to analyze and measure the form tolerances namely flatness and squareness while machining a meso deep hole in EDM on Inconel-718 material plate. Design/methodology/approach The experiments were performed on 15 amps rated SPARKONIX-EDM as per DOE (design of experiments). Kerosene was used as a dielectric along with constant pressure of 0.2 kg/cm2

Purpose A core challenge of assessing regional agricultural drought vulnerability (RADV) is to reveal what vulnerability factors, under which kinds of synergistic combinations and at what strengths, will lead to higher vulnerability: namely, the influence patterns of RADV. Design/methodology/approach A two-phased grey rough combined model is proposed to identify influence patterns of RADV from a new

Purpose The purpose of this study to provide a reference basis for effectively managing the risk of agrometeorological disasters in Henan Province, speeding up the establishment of a scientific and reasonable system of agrometeorological disasters prevention and reduction and guaranteeing grain security. Design/methodology/approach Firstly, according to the statistical data of areas covered by natural

Purpose With the massive use of fossil energy polluting the natural environment, clean energy has gradually become the focus of future energy development. The purpose of this article is to propose a new hybrid forecasting model to forecast the production and consumption of clean energy. Design/methodology/approach Firstly, the memory characteristics of the production and consumption of clean energy

Purpose PM10 is one of the most dangerous air pollutants which is harmful to the ecological system and human health. Accurate forecasting of PM10 concentration makes it easier for the government to make efficient decisions and policies. However, the PM10 concentration, particularly, the emerging short-term concentration has high uncertainties as it is often impacted by many factors and also time varying

Purpose In the current study, two grey prediction models, Even GM (1, 1) and Non-homogeneous discrete grey model (NDGM), and ARIMA models are deployed to forecast cocoa bean production of the six major cocoa-producing countries. Furthermore, relying on Relative Growth Rate (RGR) and Doubling Time (Dt), production growth is analyzed. Design/methodology/approach The secondary data were extracted from

Purpose The paper aims to propose a clustering model for panel data. More specifically, the paper aims to construct a gray incidence model for panel data to solve the classification with multi-factors and multi-attributes. Design/methodology/approach The paper opted for a clustering theory study using gray incidence theory based on dynamic weighted function. The paper presents an example to verify

Purpose Online health monitoring of large complex equipment has become a trend in the field of equipment diagnostics and prognostics due to the rapid development of sensing and computing technologies. The purpose of this paper is to construct a more accurate and stable grey model based on similar information fusion to predict the real-time remaining useful life (RUL) of aircraft engines. Design/methodology/approach

Purpose Advanced manufacturing machines (AMMs) are searched as a momentous asset across the manufacturing societies for quenching and addressing the production units under economical circumstances, i.e. production of high-quality of goods under feasible cost. AMMs are significant in holding the managers against their rivals and competitors with high profit margins. The authors developed the decision

Purpose This paper applied grey wave forecasting in a decomposition–ensemble forecasting method for modelling the complex and non-linear features in time series data. This application aims to test the advantages of grey wave forecasting method in predicting time series with periodic fluctuations. Design/methodology/approach The decomposition–ensemble method combines empirical mode decomposition (EMD)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to establish the index system of leading industries in Kashgar urban agglomeration, and use the multi-attribute weighted intelligent grey target decision-making evaluation model to measure the comprehensive effect, so as to select the leading industries of Kashgar urban agglomeration. Design/methodology/approach First, 18 industries in Kashgar urban agglomerations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of an improved dummy variables control grey model (DVCGM) considering the hysteresis effect of government policies in China's energy intensity (EI) forecasting. Design/methodology/approach Energy consumption is considered as an important driver of economic development. China has introduced policies those aim at the optimization of energy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the grey decision model and distance measuring method of general grey number. Design/methodology/approach First, intuitionistic grey number (IGN) set and an IGN are defined by grey number probability function. Second, each interval grey number in general grey number is represented by an IGN and converts the general grey number into an IGN set. Final, the

Purpose An important issue in online auditing is how to improve the reliability of online auditing in order to reduce the overall audit risk. In this paper, a reliability assessment and early-warning method of online auditing based on RC (rank centroid), AHP (analytic hierarchy process) and GM (1,1) is proposed from the perspective of information technology (IT) audit risk control. Design/methodology/approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to solve the problems existing in topic popularity prediction in online social networks and advance a fine-grained and long-term prediction model for lack of sufficient data. Design/methodology/approach Based on GM(1,1) and neural networks, a co-training model for topic tendency prediction is proposed in this paper. The interpolation based on GM(1,1) is employed

Purpose Gross domestic product (GDP) is an important indicator to measure a country's economic development. If the future development trend of a country's GDP can be accurately predicted, it will have a positive effect on the formulation and implementation of the country's future economic development policies. In order to explore the future development trend of China's GDP, the purpose of this paper

Purpose This paper takes the seven overcapacity industries such as the textile industry, electricity and heat, steel, coal, automobile manufacturing, nonferrous metals and petrochemical industry as research objects and proposes a TOPSIS grey relational projection group decision method with mixed multiattributes, which is used for the ranking of the seven industries with overcapacity and provided relevant

Purpose This paper aims to deal with the grey relational problem of panel data with an attribute value of interval numbers. The grey relational model of interval number for panel data is constructed in this paper. Design/methodology/approach First, three kinds of interval grey relational operators for the behavior sequence of a dimensionless system are proposed. At the same time, the positive treatment

Purpose Tourism industry is a highly complex system surrounded by many uncertainties because of its innumerable connections with other supporting systems. Considering tourism, a grey system, the current study proposes optimistic–pessimistic method (OPM). This technique can aid in improving forecast accuracy of four tourism-related indicators, inbound tourism to China, outbound tourism from China, revenues

Purpose To develop the theory and application of the grey prediction model, this investigation constructs a novel discrete grey Riccati model termed DGRM(1,1). Design/methodology/approach By examining a special kind of Riccati difference equation and the structure of the conventional discrete grey model (DGM), we advance a novel DGRM, and the model's prediction effect is evaluated by two numerical

Purpose The purpose of this study is to master the development process and the construction effectiveness of backbone circulation network in an all-round way, formulate regional logistics development planning as well as promote the development of logistics industry by scientifically evaluating the logistics development of node cities with a view to analyzing their spatial differentiation features.

Purpose Modularization and level of repair analysis for fleet system influences every phase of the system life cycle. Modular based fleet system design raises new issues since the maintenance/repair services introduces further requirements than traditional product engineering. The decision of modular system and level of repair plays an important role to reduce the Life Cycle Costs (LCC) of fleet maintenance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively and accurately analyze the supply and demand structural balance of grain in the context of China's agricultural supply-side reform. By subdividing and forecasting the supply and demand, it is beneficial for targeted production in the case of clear demand and supply trends of main grain varieties. Design/methodology/approach This paper forecasted

Purpose In the present study, the thermal performance of engine radiator using conventional coolant and nanofluid is determined experimentally for the different flow rates. Further, the study implemented the Integrated Taguchi-GRA-PCA for optimising the heat transfer performance. Design/methodology/approach Nanofluids were prepared by taking ethylene glycol and water (25:75 by volume) with volume fraction

Purpose It is challenging to derive an appropriate tolerance relation for tolerance rough set-based classifiers (TRSCs). The traditional tolerance rough set employs a simple distance function to determine the tolerance relation. However, such a simple function does not take into account criterion weights and the interaction among criteria. Further, the traditional tolerance relation ignores interdependencies

Purpose In order to improve the competitiveness of the “double first-class” university in China, it is essential to conduct a rational, scientific study of the current status of the staff to ensure its long-term development. Design/methodology/approach Based on the grey analytic hierarchy process (Grey–AHP), this paper evaluates the situation of faculty and staff, hereby, analyzes the initiative and

Purpose Magnesium alloys are becoming prominent as an alternative to the permanent biomedical implants. In present work, electric discharge drilling (EDD) process has been investigated and optimized for ZM21 Mg alloy that can be used for producing perforated bone implants having geometrically precise micro holes. Design/methodology/approach Planning of experiments has been carried out in accordance

Purpose In present research work, the effects of rotational speed, feed rate and vibration amplitude have been investigated during novel method of ultrasonic-assisted bone grinding. During dissection of tumors, firstly a bone flap is removed near the target region to create passage for grinding burr. During abrasion, heat is produced, which sometimes increases the temperature to unsafe levels. So,