Search results

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current thinking on intermediation and disintermediation, extract candidate drivers for this cycle, capture the expert opinions on what is driving the cycle and determine the quantitative and qualitative conclusions related to the electronics industry supply network integration and requirements for its success.

A series of one‐on‐one expert interviews were conducted to establish the validity of the initial list of drivers and to add to this list based upon their expert knowledge. A web‐based survey followed with the purpose of validating the final dimensions list and assessing the various alternative value propositions that intermediaries should be considering. Finally, a Delphi exercise concluded this research thrust by convening experts in the electronics supply network for a one‐day review of the results and a distillation of the results into expert forecasts of directions and trends.

Any supply chain intermediary must achieve “Operational Excellence” in their chosen field of endeavor for them to remain competitive in the electronics industry. But this condition is a necessary but not sufficient predictor of business success. The intermediary service “Bundles” bring more value than individual cash flow, material flow, information flow or knowledge flow alone. And unbundling one flow from the others does not seem to provide a successful disintermediation platform.

The paper provides electronics industry firms an assessment of the fundamental conclusions that must be addressed for this industry to better withstand another industry downturn than it did in the previous recessionary period (2001‐2002).

This paper documents the first triangulated research project where knowledgeable experts within the electronics industry supply network were polled to determine the fundamental drivers for the intermediation/disintermediation cycle present in the electronics industry today.

Requirements of a project are found to change in various ways during the course of the same. Studies have investigated the effect of requirement volatility on different project parameters like effort, schedule, quality, etc. However, these studies have not looked into how different “patterns” of requirement volatility influence project quality; and which intervention strategies could be effective under the circumstances. This paper aims to address this issue.

The “system dynamics” approach has been used for carrying out the research. Based on a recent finding, we implemented different resource management policies on a validated software process model on waterfall systems development life cycle. Subsequently, we examined the efficacies of these resource management policies on project quality under requirement volatility.

Results indicate variations in quality metrics like error generation, error detection, and quality assurance effort across experimental scenarios as different patterns of requirement volatility and resource management policies impact the software project dynamics in different ways.

In absence of any imposed schedule penalty, the extent of variations in project parameters across the policy choices was not very significant. The results are also expected to differ depending upon the project development environment.

Findings are expected to assist project managers in deciding on the workforce augmentation plan that would favorably satisfy both the organization's objectives as well as the users' quality requirements under requirement volatility.

In present day context of shorter time to market and stringent quality requirements; meeting quality targets become difficult especially in scenarios where requirement volatility is a norm. This paper provides a dynamic view of the phenomenon of how quality gets affected; and explores the efficacy of different resource management strategies in improving quality under the experimental scenarios.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential returns to value chain actors from employing desiccant bead drying and hermetic storage technology.

Information was collected from 175 different onion (Allium cepa L.) seed value chain actors in Nepal. Four different business models for the introduction of new bead drying and hermetic storage technology were compared to current practices through use of partial budgeting.

The increase in net income throughout the chain was quite similar in all four models, ranging from US$28.86 to 29.61 per kg of onion seed, making it difficult to say that any single model is best for all situations. However, there are differences in sharing of positive net income and negative net income for different actors in different models. Moreover, about US$5.85 million incremental return could be earned per year in Nepal from improved preservation of onion seed alone.

This research assesses how to introduce a new technology, the dry chain concept to maintain seed quality, into the existing marketplace.

This paper focuses on the economics of a novel technology and compares different business models and scenarios.