Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an advanced decision-making support for the appropriate responding to critical alarms in the hazardous industrial facilities. Design/methodology/approach A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process is suggested by considering three alternatives and four criteria using triangular fuzzy numbers to handle the associated uncertainty. A logarithmic fuzzy preference programming (LFPP)-based nonlinear priority method is employed to analyze the suggested model. Findings A quantitative decision-making support is not only a necessity in responding to critical alarms but also easy to implement even in a relatively short reaction time. Confirmation may not be the appropriate option to deal with a critical alarm, even with the availability of the needed resources. Practical implications A situation related to a flammable gas alarm in a gas plant is treated using the developed model showing its practical efficiency and practicality. Originality/value The proposed model provides a rational, simple and holistic fuzzy multi criteria tool with a refined number of criteria and alternatives using an LFPP method to handle process alarms.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to achieve the national strategic agenda’s criteria that aim for accomplishing sustainable buildings by estimating the effects of energy efficiency measures in order to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emission. Design/methodology/approach A design approach has been developed based on simulation software and a modeled building. Therefore, a typical office building is considered for testing five efficiency measures in three climatic conditions in Algeria. This approach is conducted in two phases: first, the analysis of each measure’s effect is independently carried out in terms of cooling energy and heating energy intensities. Then, a combination of optimal measures for each climate zone is measured in terms of three sustainable indicators: final energy consumption, energy cost saving and CO2 emission. Findings The results reveal that a combination of optimal measures has a substantial impact on building energy saving and CO2 emission. This saving can rise to 41 and 31 percent in a hot and cold climate, respectively. Furthermore, it is concluded that obtaining higher building performance, different design alternatives should be adapted to the climate proprieties and the local construction materials must be applied. Originality/value This study is considered as an opportunity for achieving the national strategy, as it may contribute in improving office building performance and demonstrating a suitable tool to assist stakeholders in the decision making of most important parameters in the design stage for new or retrofit buildings.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show the impact of operational and environmental conditions (risk influencing factors) on the component criticality of safety barriers, safety barrier performance and accidents frequency and therefore on risk levels. Design/methodology/approach The methodology focuses on the integration of criticality importance analysis in barrier and operational risk analysis method, abbreviated as BORA-CIA. First, the impact of risk influencing factors (RIFs) associated with basic events on safety barrier performance and accident frequency is studied, and then, a risk evaluation is performed. Finally, how unacceptable risks can be mitigated regarding risk criteria is analyzed. Findings In the proposed approach (BORA-CIA), the authors show how specific installation conditions influence risk levels and analyze the prioritization of components to improve safety barrier performance in oil and gas process. Practical implications The proposed methodology seems to be a powerful tool in risk decision. Ordering components of safety barriers taking into account RIFs allow maintenance strategies to be undertaken according to the real environment far from average data. Also, maintenance costs would be estimated adequately. Originality/value In this paper, an improved BORA method is developed by incorporating CIA. More precisely, the variability of criticality importance factors of components is used to analyze the prioritization of maintenance actions in an operational environment.

Road traffic plays a vital role in countries’ economic growth and future development. However, traffic accidents are considered a major public health issue affecting humankind. Despite efforts by governments to improve traffic safety, the misalignment between the policy efforts and on-ground infringements, distractions and breaches reflect the regulatory failure. This paper uses the Bayesian network method to investigate unsafe behaviors and traffic accidents involving unlicensed drivers as a perspective for the regulatory alignment assessment. The findings suggest that: (1) unlicensed drivers are more likely to have unsafe driving behaviors; (2) the probability of being involved in a severe traffic accident increases when the drivers are unlicensed and decreases in the case of licensed drivers; (3) young drivers are noticeably more likely to engage in unsafe behaviors, usually leading to serious injuries and deaths, when their driving licenses are invalid; (4) women are more likely to engage in right-of-way violations and to have collisions with no serious injuries, contrary to unlicensed men drivers, who are involved in other types of traffic accidents resulting in serious injuries.

Purpose This paper aims to propose a process optimization approach showing how organizations are able to achieve sustainable and efficient process optimization, based on integrated process-risk analysis using several criteria to a better decision-making. Design/methodology/approach Several approaches are used (functional/dysfunctional) to analyze how processes work and how to deal with risks forming multi-criteria decision-making. In addition, a risk factor is integrated into the structured analysis and design techniques (SADT) method forming a novel graphical view SADT-RISK; it identifies process’s failures using the traditional failure modes, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) and economic consideration “failure mode and effect, criticality analysis-cost FMECA-C” making a multi-criterion matrix for better decision-making. Subsequently, some recommendations are proposed to overcome the failure. Findings This paper illustrates a methodology with a case study in a company, which has a leading brand in the market in Algeria. The authors are integrating a varied portfolio of approaches linking with each other to analyze, improve and optimize the processes in terms of reliability and safety to deal with risks; reduce the complexity of the systems; increase the performance; and achieve a safer process. However, the proposed method can be readily used in practice. Originality/value The paper provides a new approach based on integrated management using new elements as an innovative contribution, forming a novel graphical view SADT-RISK; it identifies process’s failures using the traditional FMECA and economic consideration “a new multi-criterion matrix for better decision-making and using the SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats – as a balance to decide about the process improvement”. The authors conclude that this methodology is oriented and applicable to different types of companies such as financial, health and industrial as illustrated by this case study.

Renewable power generation facilities are constantly expanding due to the expected depletion of fossil fuels and the increasingly demanding policy of pollution control. Having said that, hydrogen is one of the promising energy sources. That said, hydrogen chain safety is an unescapable parameter that should continuously coexist with the development of hydrogen domain. In this context, this article presents a contribution to the risk analysis and evaluation of a complex hydrogen production system ’EGA-9000' at CIEMAT (Centre for Research on Energy, Environment and Technology - Madrid, Spain). The methodology followed in this study revolves around the risk analysis process through a FAST (Functional Analysis System Technique) functional analysis method and a HAZOP (HAZard and Operability) dysfunctional analysis method. The evaluation of the thirty-three scenarios identified by the risk analysis shows that the studied system is insecure. Indeed, five scenarios at an unacceptable level of risk. And it is noted that the risk of fire and explosion is the major risk for all scenarios studied. To this end, safety measures (recommendation) have been proposed based on the weaknesses detected by the risk analysis carried out.

Purpose Decoupling of pressures ranging from regulatory compliance and stakeholders expectations to business competitiveness and sustainability, companies need to align their environmental strategies with a broader consideration of these influences. This paper aims at developing a dynamic alignment model to enhance the environmental performance that considers the influential pressures based on a multi-criteria decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach Authors have proposed a dynamic model for the alignment of the environmental performance based on a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approach combining the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). This model considers contemporary strategic dynamism of the environmental performance and provides a methodology to assist companies prioritizing the environmental aspects based on the influential pressures and deciding on the enhancement pathways. Findings The proposed model based on a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making process allows prioritizing the environmental aspects considering the allocated weights to the alignment-triggered pressures and draw the way to develop different pathways to improve the alignment. Practical implications The proposed dynamic alignment model presents an instrument for the continuous alignment of the environmental performance and an effective management of changes and contributes to minimize gaps and divergences. Originality/value In this paper, the environmental performance has been approached through the contemporary strategic dynamism with the deployment of the multi-criteria decision-making techniques to yield an alignment framework for the environmental decision that combines the internal and external approaches for an effective and sustainable improvement of the environmental performance.

The industrial risk mapping is a topical problem in the field of risk management that attracts many researchers to develop risk matrices to ensure consultation between their actors. In this context, this paper aims to propose the principal component analysis (PCA) method as support for this consultation. Indeed, the use of PCA method is justified by its robustness for aggregate initial data associated with industrial risks as principal factors and ranking of this risk in terms of their criticalities in risk matrices. However, the aggregation of initial data on industrial risks by the main factors, in some cases, leads to inaccuracies which make it difficult to classify certain risks. This paper proposes two variants of PCA method to solve this inaccuracy and succeeds in classifying risks according to their respective criticalities, namely PCA-Improved (PCA-I) and PCA-I-Fuzzy (PCA-IF). The results come from the PCA application and its proposed variants (PCA-I and PCA-IF) on an example of accident scenarios ranking. We have established a scientific basis for the capitalization of mapping tool for consultation and decision support to industrial risk managers.

The dynamic modelling of the behaviour of the Ouarkissearthen dam under seismic loads was performed using the finite elements method (FEM), with an approach in effective stresses. The soil behaviour is described by the Mohr-Coulomb criterion. A numerical method and a procedure of analysis are presented in this work. The seismic response of an earthen dam was evaluated. Particular emphasis is placed on the calculation of stresses, displacements, deformations and interstitial overpressures recorded during the seismic solicitation. It has been shown that numerical simulation is able to highlight the fundamental aspects of the displacements and deformations processes experienced by the structure ofdam and to produce preliminary results for the evaluation of the seismic behaviour of the structure taking into account the physical non-linearity of the materials constituting the body of the dam and the effect of the rigidity of the different zones of the dam and the foundation.

Le présent article propose de redéfinir les balises frontalières séparant la binarité tant radotée dans l’enceinte heuristique des sciences humaines et sociales à savoir : (altérité/égocentrisme), et ce à la lumière de la philosophie ésotérique musulmane qui tend à considérer ces deux acceptions, non dans un tiraillement antithétique, mais plutôt dans une symbiose fusionnelle interdépendante. Afin de mettre sur les rails notre entreprise, une lecture descriptiveanalytique des jets des ma{\^ıtres soufis, ayant scellé de leur empreinte la philosophie mystique religieuse, parait plus qu’impérative afin d’élucider et étayer notre dessein.

il s’agit d’un compte rendu de l’ouvrage de TROVATO intitulé « La mémoire du temps chez Proust et Beckett ». L’auteur nous propose une étude transversale sur la mouvance de la notion « temps » dans deux chefs-d’øe}uvre qui ont marqué l’histoire de la littérature et les arts : « A la recherche du temps perdu » de Marcel Proust et « En attendant Godot » de Samuel Beckett. Qu’il s’agisse, en effet, de l’analyse de la valeur du temps ou le temps comme notion philosophique dans l’écriture, cet ouvrage permet une réflexion lucide sur l’impact du temps sur tout ce qui forme la scripto-genèse, la diègèse, la mémoire, la perception du monde et l’horizon d’attente.