LINKAGES OF KEY ELEMENTS IN FUZZY PROGRAM-PLANNING

Any system small, medium or large can function effectively if all aspects relating to the system are considered in detail and proper planning is done to organize the various activities involved. It is always difficult to define in quantitative terms the attention needed to various aspects of the program planning for optimum utilization of input resources. Program Planning based on detailed analysis of the system is, therefore, a necessity. The utility of program planning can be increased further by application of fuzzy set theory to incorporate the qualitative aspects associated with the system. The paper deals with the application of Fuzzy Program Planning to ‘Energy Conservation in Indian Cement Industry’, identifying and analysing various elements and sub‐elements of the program, the key elements and the key sub‐elements based on Possibility of Interactions (POI) between them. Ranking of each sub‐element based on the POI has also been worked out and compared with rankings worked out using binary (0–1) analysis. Identification of key sub‐elements, their interaction with other sub‐elements and the ranking based on the fuzzy interaction is an extension of the work already done in the field of program planning. The superiority of Fuzzy Program Planning over the Program Planning based on binary (0–1) analysis has also been demonstrated successfully. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.