2006 Graduate Catalog and 2005 Annual R & D Report - Sirindhorn ...

2006 Graduate Catalog and 2005 Annual R & D Report
Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT)
Research Interests:
The “Intermediate Form” of Intercorporate
Relations
The traditional ‘make’ refers to a company making its
own products whereas ‘buy’ refers to the transaction
in the market, has become a problem of the past.
Both ‘market’ and ‘organization’ as we know has its
own sets of attributes. In making a transaction, a
company has to select which is better between the
two, taking into consideration the attributes and costs
underlying each of them. A large diversified
organization has the internal market for the goods,
internal capital market, and internal labor market.
Transactions in the middle range has been labeled
differently as ‘hybrid transactions’, and ‘mixed
coordination systems’. Dr. Pornpimol’s focus is on the
study of these ‘intermediate forms’ which is not quite
a complete integration into a single firm, but not quite
an exchange between two separate firms in markets
either. Firms may form links or bonds of a long term,
‘relational’ nature, through which they become
interdependent for business. The study covers not
only the intercorporate shareholding and interlocking
directorates but includes cases where the buyer may
own tools used by the supplier or cases where there
may be intensive technology transfer or sharing of
technical and managerial knowledge between firms.
The transaction efficiency, stemming from such a
relationship, enables the parties involved to realize
the reduction of production cost and transaction costs
or its combination. Dr. Pornpimol observed the
relationship between the cohesiveness of
intercorporate relations and the reduction of
transaction costs of a business group in Thailand and
compared it with those of Japan. Social network
analysis is employed to quantitatively measure and
compare intercorporate shareholdings of the objects
of study to understand the changes of these
relationships over time. The results implied by
quantitative measurement are examined and logically
explained in terms of the effects to the reduction of
transaction costs.
Dr. Somrote Komolavanij
Associate Professor
B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
M.S. & Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, USA
Areas of Specialization: Engineering economy, Quality control, and Operations research.
Research Interests:
Applications of Fuzzy Sets Theory to Industrial
Problems
The theory of fuzzy set was proposed in the early
1960s. It is suitable for applying to a problem where
uncertainty is presented. The uncertainty can be the
uncertainty of the data or the uncertainty of
controlling rules. For example, capital budgeting
problems usually require a lot of data for doing
analysis and most of the data has to be estimated as
it is future data. Examples of such data are many
kinds of costs, interest rates and expected profit of
the particular project, etc. Therefore, there will be
uncertainty presented during the estimation process.
For the uncertainty of controlling rules, fuzzy set
theory can be used as the fuzzy decision-criteria to
control the machine or the process to operate more
efficiently or more economically.
Engineering Economy
Engineering Economy is the process that involves
guidelines used for evaluating alternatives of
investments. The research in this area will focus on
the topics of investment analysis, replacement
analysis, and mutually exclusive alternatives
selections. Both deterministic and probabilistic
capital budgeting models will be investigated.
Operations Research
The main purpose of research in this area is to
minimize the cost or maximize the profit of what we
are investigating. Mathematical models are used to
represent the situation of the problem. They can be
linear programming, non-linear programming, integer
programming, dynamic programming model or job
assignment model. After the type of model is
selected and the model is developed, the optimal
solution can be obtained by solving the model.
Quality Control
The application of quality control tools to improve the
process is the main interest in this area. The research
will include the application of Statistical Process
Control (SPC), Sampling Plan, ISO 9000 and ISO
14000.
Dr. Suebsak Nanthavanij
Associate Professor
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
M.S. & Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, USA
Areas of Specialization: Industrial ergonomics, Workforce scheduling, Industrial noise.
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