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The aim of this paper is to present empirical evidence about the relationship between Agri-fresh Food Supply Chain Quality (AFSCQ) practices and Organizational Sustainability (OS) outcomes. Organizational Sustainability embraces economic, environment and social sustainability. Based on literature review, a set of AFSCQ practices has been identified to create a theoretical model and to setup their relationship to OS as Economic Sustainability (ECS), Social Sustainability (SOS) and Environmental Sustainability (ENS). The measurement scales of AFSCQ practices and measures of OS were established in four stages: initial instrument development; structured interviews and utilization of Q-sort method; wide-ranging data collection by survey questionnaire; and analysis to confirm reliability and validity. Finally, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilized to validate the model with survey data collected from Indian agri-fresh food industry. The study developed relationships between AFSCQ and OS. Specifically, Customer Focus (CF) and Supplier Management(SM), both have direct and indirect influence on OS while Top Management Leadership and Commitment to AFSCQ, Internal Management(IM) and Supply Chain Integration Management using IT(SCIMIT) have indirect and direct influences on OS, respectively. The results also show that AFSCQ practices should be executed as an integrated coordination instead of independent practices, wherein they co-operate with each other and enrich OS. The empirical outcomes of this paper give evidence to count the AFSCQ as a reliable medium for OS. The AFSCQ practices are favorable to develop organizational sustainability, and then improve economic, social and environmental performance indirectly. The suggested model establishes the relationship between AFSCQ and OS. Additionally, the model’s justification to utilize the Indian agri-fresh food industry gave significant insights both from theoretic and realistic perspectives.

PurposeScarcity of resources and ever-changing demand have attracted the government and manufacturers for an integrated sustainable-green-lean-six sigma-agile manufacturing system (ISGLSAMS). Many organizations failed to adopt ISGLSAMS due to various barriers. The purpose of this paper is to identify and rank the various barriers to ISGLSAMS and to analyze the correlations among the various barriers to ISGLSAMS so that the adoption of ISGLSAMS can be implemented in manufacturing organizations for more sustainable development of the industries, and industrial ecology.Design/methodology/approachA three tiers methodology is used to analyze the barriers to the adoption of ISGLSAMS. First, a total of 24 ISGLSAMS barriers are identified through a comprehensive literature review. Then data are collected with a structured questionnaire from 108 Indian manufacturing industries. Then, the sign test is used to check the relevance and significance of barriers. Then ISGLSAMS barriers are ranked based on the median and standard deviation. Spearman's correlations between the ISGLSAMS barriers are identified and studied to strengthen the in-depth understanding of correlations among the barriers.FindingsThe result shows that most of the Indian manufacturing industries agreed with the selected barriers to the adoption of ISGLSAMS. Low supplier commitment, uncertain financial benefits, the misconception of high cost, difficulty in evaluation of system performance throughout the life cycle, complexity in ISGLSA process design, the complexity of management of ISGLSAMS, complexity in ISGLSA system design, lack of updated information, complexity in ISGLSA product design and uncertain future legislation are found the major barriers for the ISGLSAMS in Indian manufacturing industries. While lack of leadership, low top management commitment, lack of government support, organizational structure, low employees' commitment, technological risk and low public pressure are considered minor barriers for the ISGLSAMS. Inter-relationships study of the barriers further contributes to the methodology to overcome the barriers.Practical implicationsThe study contributes to a better understanding of ISGLSAMS barriers. Through this study, government, stakeholders and policymakers may plan the policy, roadmap and strategies to overcome the barriers to the ISGLSAMS. This will lead to the successful adoption of ISGLSAMS for more sustainable development of manufacturing industries in India.Originality/valueThis work contributes to identifying the barriers to a more sustainable manufacturing system, i.e. ISGLSAMS (7Rs based), and prioritizing them in Indian manufacturing industries. The research also contributes to the (1) study of inter-relationships among the ISGLSAMS barriers for analyzing the effect of one barrier over another barrier, and (2) ISGLSAMS literature because the sustainable manufacturing literature still lags the achievement of sustainability goals due to 6Rs focus.

PurposeResearch in agri-fresh food supply chain quality (AFSCQ) has been given less consideration in developing countries as compared to developed countries and its role in achieving organizational sustainability has not been researched yet. Thus, this study aims to determine and combine numerous significant factors to establish a framework for managing AFSCQ practices favorable to organizational sustainability in the Indian context.Design/methodology/approachTo accomplish this, all-inclusive framework of AFSCQ has been established through succeeding phases of data collection, analysis using structural equation modelling along with refinement of data. The collection of data for this study was from the Indian food industry, which relates to agri-fresh food products.FindingsThe AFSCQ practices are conducive to enrich organizational sustainability, and then enhance economic, social and environmental performance indirectly. The study established relationships among the AFSCQ practices promising to enhance organizational sustainability.Originality/valueAFSCQ practices have a huge impact on organizational sustainability by means of practices that sum up activities along the whole supply chain. The organizational sustainability consists of economic, social and environmental sustainability.

This study aims to evaluate the contribution of the Indian corporate world towards sustainable development. We propose a framework of Corporate Sustainability Performance derived from factors suggested by Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a component of a global agenda for sustainability. This framework is further applied to evaluate the sustainability performance of Indian firms to identify potential gaps in their sustainability efforts. The impact of factors like firm‐size, ownership structure, and environmental sensitivity of firms has been statistically tested for these firms. The paper uses a mixed‐method where content analysis has been applied to generate the data by analyzing disclosure reports of the top 100 Indian firms for the year 2016–2017, and a mathematical model is used to arrive at sustainability performance factors at various levels. Statistical tools like descriptive analytics, t test, and analysis of variance are used to test various hypotheses. The findings suggest a significant gap in the full potential and current status of sustainability investments by Indian corporates and hence confirm a huge improvement potential. “Cement” is the best performing sector, whereas “Media” is at the bottom of the performance stack. The Indian corporate world aligns its maximum effort along the “Education and Learning” dimension, whereas minimum effort is made for “Oceans, Sea, and Marine.” A significant difference was found for the performance based on environment sensitivity and firm‐size. Differences across firms based on ownership identity and concentration could not be established. The study highlights the implications for the regulatory mechanism that needs to change if the contribution from the private sector is required for SDGs.

The use of internet browsing through laptops, desktop systems, and mobile phones by kids has augmented manifold during this COVID-19 pandemic for online education. Since there is an inordinateness of objectionable content on the internet, the kids might get exposed to this content typically accidentally whereas sometimes intentionally. Therefore, it becomes vital to observe the web activities of kids by the parents. The lack of parental control, guidance & inability of parents to monitor their kids throughout the whole time frame motivated us to style and develop a parental control and management tool. Initially, we conducted a background study to understand the state-of-the-art tools currently available in the market and compare those tools in terms of functionality, accuracy, efficiency, usability, and security. We also studied the benchmark requirements set by the parents and the freedom of access expressed by the children. We have implemented a front-end solution and an Android App that follows the default criteria set by us. As the internet is a highly dynamic space, we have used a Machine Learning-based approach to classify the website dynamically to provide dynamicity to the tool. The very basic idea is to scrape a website's content once the user enters the URL and then apply an appropriate algorithm to classify the same, essentially converting the problem into a multi-class classification problem. The result indicates that our tool efficiently blocks inappropriate content and facilitates parents with features to control and monitor their children's online activity and help mitigate the risk of cyber threats for children of the current age.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider one of the recent and practical extensions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) termed as the multi-skill resource-constrained project scheduling problem (MSRCPSP) for investigation. The objective is the minimization of the makespan or total project duration. Design/methodology/approach To solve this complex problem, the authors propose a teaching–learning-based optimization (TLBO) algorithm in which self-study and examination have been used as additional features to enhance its exploration and exploitation capabilities. An activity list-based encoding scheme has been modified to include the resource assignment information because of the multi-skill nature of the algorithm. In addition, a genetic algorithm (GA) is also developed in this work for the purpose of comparisons. The computational experiments are performed on 216 test instances with varying complexity and characteristics generated for the purpose. Findings The results obtained after computations show that the TLBO has performed significantly better than GA in terms of average percentage deviation from the critical path-based lower bound for different combinations of three parameters, namely, skill factor, network complexity and modified resource strength. Research limitations/implications The modified TLBO proposed in this paper can be conveniently applied to any product or service organization wherein human resources are involved in executing project activities. Practical implications The developed model can suitably handle resource allocation problems faced in real-life large-sized projects usually administered in software development companies, consultancy firms, R&D-based organizations, maintenance firms, big construction houses, etc. wherein human resources are involved. Originality/value The current work aims to propose an effective metaheuristic for a more realistic version of MSRCPSP, in which resource requirements of activities may be more than one. Moreover, to enhance the exploration and exploitation capabilities of the original TLBO, the authors use two additional concepts, namely, self-study and examination in the search process.

Poems have always been an excellent way of expressing emotions in any language. In particular, Hindi poetry is having versatile popularity among native and non-native speakers all over the world. A typical poem in Hindi is characterized by meter (“Chhand”), emotion (“Rasa”), and figure of speech (“Alankaar”). The present research work is the first of its kind in Hindi Natural Language Processing (NLP), which touches on the area of Hindi figure of speech. The authors have created a systematic hierarchical structure of Hindi “Alankaar” types and sub-types and attempted and extended the work to identify a few. A taxonomical list of 58 Hindi figures of speech is presented along with their nearest mapping to English equivalents. On the sidelines, the paper also presents the distinct rules for each type and sub-type needed for the classification task of NLP. The authors achieved 97% efficiency in reporting the first results with an average execution time of 0.002 seconds.

Poetry covers a vast part of the literature of any language. Similarly, Hindi poetry is also having a massive portion in Hindi literature. In Hindi poetry construction, it is necessary to take care of various verse writing rules. This paper focuses on the automatic metadata generation from such poems by computational linguistics integrated advance and systematic, prosody rule-based modeling and detection procedures specially designed for Hindi poetry. The paper covers various challenges and the best possible solutions for those challenges, describing the methodology to generate automatic metadata for “Chhand” based on the poems’ stanzas. It also provides some advanced information and techniques for metadata generation for “Muktak Chhands”. Rules of the “Chhands” incorporated in this research were identified, verified, and modeled as per the computational linguistics perspective the very first time, which required a lot of effort and time. In this research work, 111 different “Chhand” rules were found. This paper presents rule-based modeling of all of the “Chhands”. Out of the all modeled “Chhands” the research work covers 53 “Chhands” for which at least 20 to 277 examples were found and used for automatic processing of the data for metadata generation. For this research work, the automatic metadata generator processed 3120 UTF-8 based inputs of 53 Hindi “Chhand” types, achieved 95.02% overall accuracy, and the overall failure rate was 4.98%. The minimum time taken for the processing of “Chhand” for metadata generation was 1.12 seconds, and the maximum was 91.79 seconds.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between corporate sustainability performance (CSP) and corporate firm performance (CFP) for a sample of the top 500 Indian firms covering the period from 2008 to 2018. CSP variables have been considered at both aggregate and disaggregate levels of environmental, social and governance performance. CFP has been evaluated in both accounting and market-based measures. Rigorous statistical methods have been used to evaluate the bidirectional causality and intensity of the CSP-CFP relationship using the Granger causality test and multiple regression for panel data. A sectoral level trend analysis is presented dividing the firms in various industries and classifying them in ESI vs non-ESI sectors. The findings indicate the absence of causality among CSP and CFP variables in either direction and suggest that the CSP-CFP linkage is mostly insignificant for Indian firms at the aggregate level. At an individual level, some negative association is found between CSP and CFP. This relationship has an adverse impact on CSP-CFP linkage in both cases, which means that Indian firms don’t get the financial performance benefits of investments done for sustainability. Our findings with mostly insignificant results for this relation also means that firms with higher or lower CSP on ESG dimensions will perform likewise in terms of CFP. The findings have practical implications for corporates, academicians, and policymakers alike given sustainability as a high focus area for all.

PurposeGlobal competition has intensified pressure on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to implement lean. Recently, the debate has converged to the role of lean implementation barriers (LIBs). The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this debate by exploring the LIBs in SMEs through three case studies.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach was employed followed by interpretive structural modelling (ISM) to model the interrelationship among the LIBs.FindingsThis study reveals that lack of management commitment, leadership and resources are the key barriers to lean implementation in SMEs in India. Furthermore, poor communication between different levels of the organisation and inadequate dissemination of the knowledge of lean benefits also creates hindrance in lean implementation. Managerial implications of the identified barriers for lean implementation in SMEs have been discussed.Originality/valueThe research regarding lean implementation in SMEs is scarce. This study is the first attempt of its kind to identify the lean barriers in a small industry setup through mathematical analysis.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of perishable food supply chain quality (PFSCQ) and to suggest a structural model that counts the influence of PFSCQ practices on organizational sustainable performance.Design/methodology/approachOn the basis of comprehensive literature review, PFSCQ highly significant practices were examined and designated. These practices were classified into four dimensions: upstream quality (supplier quality), downstream quality (customer focus), internal quality (process and logistics quality) and support practices (top management leadership and commitment to quality, quality of human resource, quality of information and supply chain integration). The measurement instrument of organizational sustainable performance was also build on, containing three aspects: economic, environmental and social performance.FindingsAn inventive conceptual model that specifies a comprehensive image cover up core dimensions of PFSCQ and various aspects of organizational sustainable performance was suggested. This conceptual model can be used as “a directive” for theory developing and measurement instrument development of PFSCQ practices and organizational sustainable performance. More prominently, on the road to achieving additional insight, an extensive structural model that makes out direct and indirect relationships between PFSCQ practices and organizational sustainable performance was also developed. Practitioners can apply this model as “a path plan” for implementing PFSCQ practices to improve organizational sustainable performance.Originality/valueThe integration of quality and supply chain even now remains inadequate in the literature. Consequently, it is required to have a more focused approach in assessing quality issues inside the upstream, internal and downstream of the supply chain. This study concentrates on the practices which make better quality aspects of the supply chain, known as PFSCQ practices. Suggested research models in this paper contribute to conceptual frameworks for theory building in PFSCQ and sustainable organizational performance. It is also expected that this research can suggest a useful direction for determining and implementing PFSCQ practices as well as make possible further studies in this arena.

Purpose In a developing economy like India, the contribution of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the national gross domestic product is significant. This sector creates immense employment opportunities and produces economic products and services. To survive in the globalized marked condition, it is essential for SMEs to be competitive on several fronts such as quality, cost, delivery, lead time, flexibility, etc. Hence, it is imperative for them to have a sound supplier base. Therefore, supplier selection problem (SSP) has a vital role to play in supply chain management of SMEs. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach However, SSP has now become a significant challenge to address due to the complexity, vagueness and various criteria involved in it. Recently, fuzzy Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution method has been widely used to tackle such problems. Findings The present paper aims at developing an intelligent system for SSP, which can consider the multiple criteria and the uncertainty aspects in the decision process. A case study of a small-scale manufacturing company has been presented. Practical implications This study provides a guideline for SME sector to implement intelligent systems for supplier selection decision-making problems. Case application concludes that this model improves firm’s decision making and suppliers’ performance. Originality/value The proposed intelligent model can provide the guidelines and directions for the decision makers to effectively choose suppliers in the current competitive environment. And it also provides an opportunity for supplier improvement.

The inbuilt multi-window feature released with Android Nougat has enabled simultaneous working and visualization of multiple applications on mobile display screen. However, multi-window operations result in unnecessary energy drain due to increased multitasking, CPU load, and multithread processing. Considering linear dependence between power consumed and the displayed colors, we present the design and realization of MultiDroid , a novel display power reduction technique during multi-window operations for the OLED screens. MultiDroid employs dynamic local dimming based on the context switching between the application pairs displayed on the screen. The display optimization works based on the user interaction with the mobile screen, where dynamic changes on the display screens are implemented for the non-critical application window. MultiDroid architecture is validated through power modeling and correctness verification. Furthermore, a survey on multi-window usage has been conducted reflecting the application usage pattern. The performance of MultiDroid is evaluated on preferred application pairs on multi-window framework obtained from the survey. Modeling and comparative analysis of the energy profiles for the devised test cases on optimized and default multi-window screens reflect around 10% to 25% reduction in the overall device power consumption per hour with a negligible performance degradation. After experimental validation, we present user acceptance and feasibility of MultiDroid based on the feedback from 50 participants.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deliver a structured literature review of existing literature on agri-fresh food supply chain quality (AFSCQ) over a period of 23 years (1994 to mid-2016) and provide a platform for practitioners and researchers trying to identify the existing state of work, gaps in current research, and future directions in the field of AFSCQ. Design/methodology/approach The existing literature is classified on the basis of several classes like number of publications per year, journal-wise publications, studies across various countries, growth of empirical research, data analysis methods or tool used, issues related to supply chain quality as well as performance measurement (with respect to entity of analysis, level of analysis and element of exchange). Findings Most of the research publications discuss issues in developed countries, while relatively lesser publications are available on issues in developing countries. Hence, larger opportunities in the field of AFSCQ are available in developing countries. Empirical research is also growing in the field of AFSCQ. Largely research publications make use of “case study” research approach and “statistical analysis” as a quantitative tool of research. The literature is also categorized under the various issues of supply chain quality such as sustainability management, information management, logistic management, collaboration and coordination management, strategic management, demand management, inventory management, food safety, performance management, supply chain integration, supplier management, quality management, etc. It was found that in the majority of articles, information management, sustainability management, and logistics management are very critical issues as far as AFSCQ is concerned. Performance measurement of agri-fresh food supply chain is also on a growing stage. It is also an integral part of AFSCQ. Originality/value Most of the prior reviews are concentrated on a particular issue as production and distribution planning for agri-foods, temperature monitoring, corporate and consumer social responsibility, traceability system and ignore the wider perception. There exists a necessity of having a detailed review to cover up all the issues in AFSCQ. This review fills this gap in the extant AFSCQ literature.

Metadata generation for the poems based on the unified rules is very complex from the viewpoint of computational linguistics. This is more tedious when it comes to Hindi poems. Prosody or ‘Chhand’ as it is called in the Hindi language consists of several sets of rules and which are used while construction of a Hindi poem. Currently, no such metadata generator or technique is in existence which can generate the metadata of Hindi poetry based on the prosody or any other Hindi grammatical rule. In this research paper, we are trying to wrap up all the difficulties with respect to the metadata generator based on ‘Chhands’, Types of ‘Chhands’, Parts of ‘Chhands’, Classification of ‘Chhands’. Along with this paper majorly focuses on the unified-rule based technique for the generation of metadata based on the different set of rules of prosody. On 3026 different UTF-8 based inputs of poems, part of poems, stories, etc., We were able to achieve 98.09% accuracy with the implementation of this unified-rule based technique of metadata generation, rest 1.91% failure was mostly due to input data related issue.

In the epoch of open economy and with the emergence of availability of individualised products over the Internet, Indian manufacturing industries are facing an enormous pressure to become more flexible and responsive, to accomplish customer’s varied and increasing demands. Mass customisation (MC) is about developing a customised product on demand for a particular customer after reception of a real order and producing it with the similar operational efficiency as one would anticipate from a mass-produced product. MC takes into account the merits of both the earlier systems of production, i.e. mass production and craft production. The craft production satisfies the personalised demands of customers and the mass production produces a limited variety of products at lower cost. Industries in developing countries such as India confront pressure from several perspectives to adopt MC. This study has been presented in the context of Indian manufacturing industries, and particularly for footwear industries ...

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to propose a supplier selection model for an automobile company using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach. Supplier selection is now growing to be an important but complex issue, as it involves a large number of factors and decisions. These factors have complicated operational and financial implications.Design/methodology/approach– A case study of an Indian automobile company is used to illustrate and propose a supplier selection model using AHP approach.Findings– Key criteria of the supplier selection problem are identified based on the literature review and case study. Then, a model is proposed for supplier selection using AHP approach followed by a detailed sensitivity analysis.Practical implications– This paper contributes to supplier selection process, and points out the importance of supplier selection. It proposes a supplier selection model for an automobile industry which often faces heterogeneous supply environments. The proposed model provides key criteria for supplier selection in Indian context. This model may have high acceptability, where a large number of suppliers are available to supply the materials or provide the services.Originality/value– The proposed model can provide guidelines and directions for managers involved in purchasing function to effectively select suppliers on the basis of the identified criteria in the heterogeneous manufacturing environment.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-criteria supplier selection model using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) approach for a leading automobile company in India. Design/methodology/approach – FAHP approach followed by a sensitivity analysis has been used. Findings – In this study, a FAHP-based supplier selection model is proposed to provide useful insights in choosing appropriate suppliers in dynamic situations in order to enhance long-term relationship with them. Practical implications – This study proposes a supplier selection model for an automobile industry which often faces heterogeneous supply environments. This model may have a high acceptability where a large number of suppliers are available to supply the materials or provide the services. As analytic hierarchy process is the most widely used methodology for supplier selection, however, it becomes less efficient in case of inconsistencies observed in the data. However a FAHP-based approach may overcome this difficulty. Originality/value – It contributes to supplier selection process and points out the importance of supplier selection problem, especially in the context of multi-criteria decision-making in Indian scenario.

PurposePeer-review programmes in radiation oncology are used to facilitate the process and evaluation of clinical decision-making. However, web-based peer-review methods are still uncommon. This study analysed an inter-centre, web-based peer-review case conference as a method of facilitating the decision-making process in radiation oncology.MethodologyA benchmark form was designed based on the American Society for Radiation Oncology targets for radiation oncology peer review. This was used for evaluating the contents of the peer-review case presentations on 40 cases, selected from three participating radiation oncology centres. A scoring system was used for comparison of data, and a survey was conducted to analyse the experiences of radiation oncology professionals who attended the web-based peer-review meetings in order to identify priorities for improvement.ResultsThe mean scores for the evaluations were 82·7, 84·5, 86·3 and 87·3% for cervical, prostate, breast and head and neck presentations, respectively. The survey showed that radiation oncology professionals were confident about the role of web-based peer-reviews in facilitating sharing of good practice, stimulating professionalism and promoting professional growth. The participants were satisfied with the quality of the audio and visual aspects of the web-based meeting.ConclusionThe results of this study suggest that simple inter-centre web-based peer-review case conferences are a feasible technique for peer review in radiation oncology. Limitations such as data security and confidentiality can be overcome by the use of appropriate structure and technology. To drive the issues of quality and safety a step further, small radiotherapy departments may need to consider web-based peer-review case conference as part of their routine quality assurance practices.

Purpose – The problem of supplier selection gets complicated when a company looks for various criteria to evaluate different suppliers. The decision criteria used for supplier selection process can be different for different organizations due to a large number of factors. Hence, it can be said that supplier selection is basically, a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid data envelopment analytical hierarchy process (DEAHP) approach to solve the supplier selection problem for an automobile company. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach is embedded into analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology. Literature review suggested that majority of researches found it appropriate using DEA and AHP methodologies for supplier selection process; hence it is felt that a hybrid DEAHP would be a useful methodology to offer a MCDM model for supplier selection problem. Findings – First, the key criteria of the supplier selection problem for the company are identified. Then a model is developed and implemented for supplier selection using DEAHP approach. This study concluded that quality, cost and service are the most crucial criteria for an automobile company operational in a developing country like India. Sensitivity analysis further helped to evaluate suppliers based on each criterion. Research limitations/implications – As this analysis and findings are based on only one case study of an Indian automobile company, and this necessitates caution in interpreting the results. The limited number of interviewed managers in a company restricts the generalizability of the results. Though the company selected for this study is typical of developing country businesses, the findings of the paper may not be readily extensible to other companies. Second, this study used retrospective settings, based on the interviewed feedback after the events had occurred. This method naturally poses limitations due to respondent recall and the accuracy of information provided. Third, the problem chosen for this study is based in a single country context and further additional research will be required to examine if the findings could be extended to other automobile companies in other developing nations. Also in some cases technique used in the study may pose some extra computational efforts. Practical implications – This study points out the importance of the supplier selection problem. It provides key criteria for supplier selection in Indian context also proposes a framework to deal with multiple criteria. proposed model deals with two crucial criteria long term relationships and flexibility which were relatively less discussed and considered in the literature in past. Originality/value – The proposed MCDM model can provide the guidelines and directions for the decision makers to effectively choose suppliers in the current competitive environment.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify important factors those which constrain implementation and sustenance of lean strategies in aviation sector and ways to avoid slow attrition within annals of lean. Design/methodology/approach – This research is exploratory in nature and survey methodology is used for assessing the post lean management implementation environment. The focus of study is cross-sectional, within aircraft industry based on the information collected through survey and a case study. Findings – The reasons for the weak sustenance of lean initiative have been identified. The measures as undertaken in the case study implied a successful turnaround of specific department. Comparison with automobile industry indicates suggestions and pitfalls to be avoided with suitable illustration. Research limitations/implications – The target of the study is the aircraft manufacturer and hence it has the limitation in terms of the scope. However, overall results are encouraging with the survey generating expected inputs and underline the need for similar research in the aerospace sector. The study has implications for managers in all types of industrial environment, especially in aviation, in the era of globalized lean supply chain establishment. Practical implications – Inputs obtained are from both industrial research in a live environment and a case study which impacts lean management in industries. Originality/value – This paper presents novel inputs regarding post lean implementation scenario in aviation sector, which has complicated internal processes. It also tries to establish factors relevant for any organization in assessing lean initiatives.

Safety issue associated with the high flammability and volatility of organic electrolytes used in commercial rechargeable lithium ion batteries has led to significant attention to ceramic-based solid electrolytes. In the present study, lithium ion conduction in two polymorphs of LiZr2(PO4)3 synthesized via the sol-gel route has been investigated. Rietveld refinement of room temperature X-ray diffraction data of LiZr2(PO4)3 powders calcined at 900 °C and 1300 °C confirmed these to be the monoclinic phase with P21/n structure and rhombohedral phase with R3c structure, respectively. Increase in calcination temperature and resultant phase transformation improved the room temperature conductivity from 2.27×10−6 ohm-1m−1 for the monoclinic phase to 1.41×10−4 ohm−1m−1 for rhombohedral phase. Temperature dependence of conductivity was modeled using Arrhenius law and activation energy of ∼ 0.59 eV (for monoclinic phase) and ∼0.50 eV (for rhombohedral phase) were obtained.Safety issue associated with the high flammability and volatility of organic electrolytes used in commercial rechargeable lithium ion batteries has led to significant attention to ceramic-based solid electrolytes. In the present study, lithium ion conduction in two polymorphs of LiZr2(PO4)3 synthesized via the sol-gel route has been investigated. Rietveld refinement of room temperature X-ray diffraction data of LiZr2(PO4)3 powders calcined at 900 °C and 1300 °C confirmed these to be the monoclinic phase with P21/n structure and rhombohedral phase with R3c structure, respectively. Increase in calcination temperature and resultant phase transformation improved the room temperature conductivity from 2.27×10−6 ohm-1m−1 for the monoclinic phase to 1.41×10−4 ohm−1m−1 for rhombohedral phase. Temperature dependence of conductivity was modeled using Arrhenius law and activation energy of ∼ 0.59 eV (for monoclinic phase) and ∼0.50 eV (for rhombohedral phase) were obtained.

An integrated supply chain has an advantage on the competitiveness of the individual companies. This article compares supply chains of three Indian passenger car manufacturing industries using Fuzzy AHP and extent analysis technique. Different factors pertaining to supply chain competitiveness have been identified. These factors are further grouped under three main factors, namely, assets, processes, and performance. Finally, the most competitive supply chain among the available alternatives is determined.

AimTo study the use of RapidArc techniques in the treatment of prostate cancer patients with hip prosthesis.BackgroundAn important aspect of treatment planning is to achieve dose homogeneity inside the planning target volume (PTV). Especially for those patients presenting with hip prosthesis, it becomes a challenging task to achieve dose uniformity inside the PTV.Materials and methodsFive prostate patients presenting with hip prosthesis who had undergone radical radiotherapy were selected for this study. Depending on the composition of prosthesis, a predefined set of Hounsfield values were assigned to each study set. RapidArc plans were generated on an Eclipse treatment planning system. Two arcs that include clockwise and counter-clockwise arcs were used in all these cases. To avoid beams passing through the prosthesis, a simple structure was defined around it with 1cm margin and a strict dose constraint applied to the block during VMAT optimization.ResultsThe mean D2/D98 ratio of PTV for all the patients was 1.06±0.01. The mean percentage rectum volume receiving 50Gy, 60Gy, 70Gy and 75Gy for all the patients were 33.1±5.9, 21.7±5.5, 13.8±4.4 and 9.5±3.0, respectively.ConclusionsThis study shows that using a double arc RapidArc technique is a simple and effective treatment method of treating prostate cancer in patients presenting with a hip prosthesis. The definition of a beam avoidance structure encompassing the prosthesis and applying strict dose constraints to it reduces the beam contribution to the prosthesis

In the era of globalisation, requirements of customer are changing very fast. Product life cycle is shortening. Organisations are under pressure to reduce cost, delivery time, improve reliability of product by changing their process continuously. Supply chain management has become integral part of strategy for most of the organisations in meeting these challenges. Success of supply chain depends on effective strategy for improving coordination among the members to make it more responsive for market needs by optimising available resources. In this context, supply chain needs to be flexible. Based on the literature, it is observed that overall flexibility of supply chain depends upon suppliers’ flexibility, manufacturing flexibility and customers’ flexibility. Other sub-factors affecting flexibility may be product and process design, capacity planning, logistic management, suppliers’ capabilities and nature of customers. This study has tried to prioritise flexibility alternatives by analytical network proce...

Recently, an increase of global incidence has been observed for various types of cancers. Diet, lifestyle and environmental factors have an evident correlation to the development of breast cancer. Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer related death in women. Several studies also revealed that excessive free radical generation and decreased antioxidant status had been implicated in cancer. These factors rekindled our interest upon the interaction of free radicals and antioxidants and hence the present study was undertaken to evaluate the significance of non enzymic antioxidants: glutathione, albumin and ascorbic acid levels in breast cancer patients. The study population was divided into 3 groups as follows: Group I control subjects (age group 21-60), Group II: breast cancer Patients (age group 21-35) and Group III breast cancer patients (age group 36-60). Highly statistically significant increases in glutathione, albumin and ascorbic acid levels were observed in Group I as compared to other groups. No significant differences in glutathione, albumin and ascorbic acid levels were observed in a group comparison between Group II and Group III. This relative decline of non enzymic antioxidants in breast cancer patients may be due to an increased generation of reactive oxygen species or free radicals. The results obtained emphasize the need of more detailed study involving a large number of newly detected cancers for evaluating the role of these antioxidant parameters in the prevention of cancer.

Hydro power plant is the source of renewable energy which leads to reduction in burning of fossil fuels. So the environment is no longer polluted. This project depicts how sediment erosion occurs in Kaplan turbine and the various components of Kaplan turbine where actually erosion takes place. It reduces efficiency [7] and life of hydro power turbine but also causes problems in operations and maintenance. We conducted some necessary test on Kaplan turbine in fluid power laboratory. We are doing this experiment to know about the possible problems and errors which can appear during the mechanical analysis of low head Kaplan turbine with view of the runner draft interaction. Turbine flows have been focused earlier we have also concentrated on blade operation. This paper gives report on unsteady pressure measurement in runner blade of Kaplan turbine .We also analyse torque and load bearing measurement on corresponding prototype when operated at best possible efficiency. &nbsp

PurposeToday's customer‐focused paradigm of business environment puts tremendous pressures of quality, delivery, dependability, flexibility and cost on the manufacturing organisation. Automatic manufacturing systems offer several advantages and are increasingly being adopted as a strategy to improve the performance of manufacturing organisations. Automatic manufacturing systems are highly sophisticated and expensive, and it is therefore important to maximise their productivity. Yet, one can improve only what one can measure. Performance measurement is the key to improving performance, and is a prerequisite to diagnosing, trouble‐shooting and improving the production system. Accordingly, performance measurement has been attracting increasing attention over the last two decades, and several frameworks have emerged for the design, review, evaluation and improvement of performance measurement systems for businesses and manufacturing organizations. The performance measurement, monitoring and continuous productivity improvement of automatic manufacturing systems has assumed special significance on account of their high investments and operating costs.Design/methodology/approachA review of the current literature is undertaken to determine the current status and the status of performance measurement in automated production systems.FindingsOverall equipment effectiveness (OEE) has emerged as one important and universally accepted metric for measuring the overall performance of single automatic equipments. OEE has been further adapted and extended into several variations for use as a metric for automatic manufacturing systems consisting of several automatic machines.Originality/valueThis paper reviews the recent developments and the current status of performance measurement of automatic manufacturing systems.

The performance measurement problem has gained great attention in business and operations management literature. The first objective of this study is to determine the required performance measures and to develop a model for performance evaluation, based on these selected measures using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology. The second objective is to explain how an integrated AHP-PGP (pre-emptive goal programming) model can be used in performance measurement while optimising the overall performance. An integration of AHP and multi-objective PGP is used to consider both quantitative and qualitative performance measures in optimising the overall performance of the system. The integrated model is presented with a real-world application using source data provided by a survey conducted in India. Findings demonstrate that the integrated AHP-PGP model can be useful to all supply chain industries in their day-to-day performance measurement decisions.

Summary Nucleoprotein complexes present challenges to genome stability by acting as potent blocks to replication. One attractive model of how such conflicts are resolved is direct targeting of blocked forks by helicases with the ability to displace the blocking protein-DNA complex. We show that Rep and UvrD each promote movement of E. coli replisomes blocked by nucleoprotein complexes in vitro, that such an activity is required to clear protein blocks (primarily transcription complexes) in vivo, and that a polarity of translocation opposite that of the replicative helicase is critical for this activity. However, these two helicases are not equivalent. Rep but not UvrD interacts physically and functionally with the replicative helicase. In contrast, UvrD likely provides a general means of protein-DNA complex turnover during replication, repair, and recombination. Rep and UvrD therefore provide two contrasting solutions as to how organisms may promote replication of protein-bound DNA.

In today's era of globalisation, managing information systems (IS) for operations management has become one of the key strategic issues for increasing organisational effectiveness and optimal achievement of goals. The globalised competition and business supply chain management has forced many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India to adopt IS practices to manage their day-to-day business operations. Most of the SMEs realised the need of an efficient and effective IS as a strategic weapon for competing in the globalised market. One of the important issues for SMEs is to follow the proficient practices for business operations and management of IS that can provide an efficient and effective IS performance. This article presents the findings of a survey study of leading SMEs operational in the three states of the western part of India. The survey focused on the prevalent practices for management of IS and their relationship with IS performance measurement. The study reduced these routine IS management p...

The manufacturing organizations around the globe have been observing a paradigm shifting from mass production to mass customization (MC). Mass customization capability (MCC) is the ability of a firm to produce varieties of customized products quickly, on a large scale and at a cost comparable to mass-production through flexible production processes and responsive supply chain. The goal of this paper to report a existing mass customization capability level (MCCL) appraisement of Indian bicycle manufacturing firm using multi-grade fuzzy approach. Through this study, a MCCL measurement model integrated with multi-grade fuzzy approach was designed. After the computation of MCCL index, the areas for improvement have been identified to adopt and implement mass customization strategy in the case firm. The approach contributed in this paper could be employed as appraisement equipment for estimating an organization’s capability to turn out to be a mass customizer.

Disasters have been striking mankind quite regularly from time immemorial. The way mankind responded to these disasters has changed from just fleeing from the location to modern-day ability to stay put and face the scenario of aftereffects of the disaster. This change in perception and requirement is the result of a sea change in sociopolitical factors as well as advancement in science and technology to cater for the exigencies of a disaster. However, the more the ability to stay back and fight the disaster, the better need be the agility and flexibility to convey the benefits of research and technology to the location where it is needed most at the quickest possible time. This is possible only if there is a robust supply chain (SC) designed to cater for all eventualities. This paper is an attempt to identify the configurations of the SC for disaster management and thus analyze humanitarian logistic issues and try to suggest a model for incorporating humanitarian logistics into SC models.

Phage integrases are required for recombination of the phage genome with the host chromosome either to establish or exit from the lysogenic state. ϕC31 integrase is a member of the serine recombinase family of site-specific recombinases. In the absence of any accessory factors integrase is unidirectional, catalysing the integration reaction between the phage and host attachment sites, attP × attB to generate the hybrid sites, attL and attR. The basis for this directionality is due to selective synapsis of attP and attB sites. Here we show that mutations in attB can block the integration reaction at different stages. Mutations at positions distal to the crossover site inhibit recombination by destabilizing the synapse with attP without significantly affecting DNA-binding affinity. These data are consistent with the proposal that integrase adopts a specific conformation on binding to attB that permits synapsis with attP. Other attB mutants with changes close to the crossover site are able to form a stable synapse but cleavage of the substrates is prevented. These mutants indicate that there is a post-synaptic DNA recognition event that results in activation of DNA cleavage.

PurposePerformance measurement in the implementation of information systems is under‐developed for, under‐researched in, small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). This article aims to develop a framework for IS that measures and evaluates IS performance from the following six perspectives: operational efficiency of the IS function, down time of IS, responsiveness of IS, timeliness of information, accuracy of information, overall competitive position.Design/methodology/approachThis research is exploratory in nature, a survey methodology is used for study and the focus of study is cross‐sectional. The objective of the study was to become more familiar through survey and information collected at one point in time. The methodology was based on a questionnaire survey and personal interviews.FindingsEmpirical analysis from 147 Indian SMEs suggests that IS performance measurement framework can be the foundation for SMEs' strategic growth in the era of globalization. These findings provide SMEs the opportunity to compare their IS performance against other firms of similar size.Research limitations/implicationsThe target of the study is the SMEs operational in the western part of India and hence it has the limitation in terms of the scope. However, the overall results are encouraging with 70 percent response rate in the survey and underline the need for more such studies. The results have implications for all managers responsible for IS, in any SME in the era of globalization.Originality/valueThe paper presents a framework for IS performance measurement for SMEs. Findings reported in the paper provide SMEs the utility of IS‐related practices and its performance measurement in day‐to‐day business operations.