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This paper aims to focus on the application of multi-attribute decision-making methods (MADMs) to ascertain the optimal machining parameters while turning Ti-6Al-4V alloy under minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) conditions using Jatropha-curcas oil (JCO) bio-based lubricant.

The experiments were designed and performed using Taguchi L27 design of experiments methodology. A total of 27 experiments were performed under MQL conditions using textured carbide cutting tools on which different MADMs like Analytic hierarchy process (AHP), Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and Simple additive weighting (SAW) were implemented in an empirical manner to extract optimize machining parameters for turning of Ti-6Al-4V alloy under set of constrained conditions.

The results evaluated through MADMs exhibit the optimized set of machining parameters (cutting speed V_c = 80 m/min, feed rate f = 0.05 mm/rev. and depth of cut a_p = 0.10 mm) for minimizing the average surface roughness (Ra), maximum flank wear (Vbmax), tangential cutting force (Fc) and cutting temperature (T). Further, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and traditional desirability function approach was applied and results of TOPSIS and SAW methods having optimal setting of parameters were compared as well as confirmation experiments were conducted to verify the results. A SEM analysis at lowest and highest cutting speeds was performed to investigate the tool wear patterns. At the highest speed, large cutting temperature generated, thereby resulted in chipping as well as notching and fracturing of the textured insert.

The research paper attempted in exploring the optimized machining parameters during turning of difficult-to-cut titanium alloy (Ti-6AL-4V) with textured carbide cutting tool under MQL environment through combined approach of MADMs techniques. Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been extensively used in important aerospace components like fuselage, hydraulic tubing, bulk head, wing spar, landing gear, as well as bio-medical applications.

The purpose of this study is to recognize critical barriers for Lean manufacturing practices implementation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) focusing in the context of a developing economy. The advancement of SMEs is of utmost important for a surge in exports while competing with other countries and these barriers have to be given due importance as they play a major role in stalling the overall development of SMEs.

In this present investigation, 26 barriers to Lean implementation in SMEs have been identified after an extensive study of the literature available on the subject. After that, the influential barriers were investigated through the Analytical hierarchy process-Technique of order preference by similarity to ideal solution (AHP-TOPSIS) method using priority weightage given to them by different experts in their industries. The ranking given to the barriers is based on the AHP-TOPSIS method and has been validated by the sensitivity analysis.

The investigation reveals that for the successful implementation of Lean manufacturing practices, the will of the management, individual will power and contribution of the people matter a lot apart from other barriers such as flexibility, expertise of the people, resources and resistance offered by the people to new programs. The solutions for overcoming these barriers are also provided in this study and a model has been suggested for the same.

This work was devoted to the evaluation of obstacles in the introduction of Lean practices and prioritizing them. But it was limited to the medium- and small-scale organizations located in Northern India. Further studies can expand the scope to the large-scale units in the field. Moreover, the scope of this study was confined to the manufacturing sector. Future studies can extend it to the non-manufacturing environments such as the service sector, health care, etc. This investigation was based on the judgments of industry experts and academicians. Another approach such as Viekriterijumsko kompromisno rangiranje can be used for future investigations.

This study is significant when keeping in mind the contribution of SMEs to a country’s economy, especially in the Indian context.

One area in which strategy and organizational ecology converge is organizational change. This essay weaves together salient themes in my (and my co-authors’) various writings on organizational change, and is anchored in the research literature of the last twenty years. Among other ideas developed here, I point out that there is now a convergence of agendas in strategy and ecology, with an important role being played by intraorganizational ecology. I develop the distinction between strong and weak selection approaches to organizational ecology. While the strong selection view does not find empirical support, there is stronger support for the weak selection view. I lay out some key features of an emerging evolutionary synthesis for the study of strategy and organization, and develop an evolutionary approach to organizational change.

Hemisphericity in behaviour studies is the role and dominance of right bran/left brain in the human brain, each side of which has varying roles and characteristics, thereby leading to different thinking orientations in the human. A study was conducted to measure the hemisphericity orientation of construction and design engineers in a large public construction organization. We know from literature that people of different hemisphericity orientations have unlike personalities and dissimilar perspectives of specific situations. The essential characteristics of hemisphericity as established in literature are presented and used in analysing the organization. From this study of engineers, it was seen that construction engineers in the organization, State Department of Engineering Construction (SDEC), are predominantly left‐brained while design engineers are predominantly right‐brained. This difference in orientation partially explains why the design and construction engineers at SDEC are unable to see eye‐to‐eye in issues concerning implementation of drawings. Left hemisphere dominant engineers are also seen to desire more organizational changes than their right hemisphere dominant counterparts. Ideally, researchers believe that a 50–50 distribution of hemisphericities in large organizations is desirable. Details, analysis, and recommendations are presented in the paper.

The purpose of this paper is to fabricate acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS)/high impact polystyrene (HIPS) based multi-material geometries using a low cost polymer printer. At the same time, efforts have been made to investigate the mechanical characteristics of the obtained prints and to perform the optimization using the Taguchi-Grey (TGRA) method.

Initially, the feedstock materials were in-house fabricated in the form of filament wires, workable with fused filament fabrication (FFF) technique, of 1.75 ± 0.1 mm diameter by using a single screw extruder. Multi-material structures were fabricated using variable parameters (such as: raster angles, layer height, fill density and solid layers) and the experimentation was conducted as per Taguchi L18 array. Mechanical responses obtained by performing tensile, impact and bending test were studied in response to input variables and ultimately optimized settings were obtained, for individual as well as multiple parameters). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was performed to analyze the fractured surfaces.

The Signal/Noise (S/N) plots for the quality characteristics highlighted that selected input parameters significantly influenced the obtained values for tensile strength, impact strength and flexural strength. Micrographs of the fractured specimens showed the occurrence of brittle fracture with higher levels of perimeter, infill density and solid layers. The extent of delamination was also increased under the bending load and further increased by increasing solid layers.

The results of the study strongly advocated the utility of fabricated multi-materials structures in automotive, aerospace and other manufacturing industries.

This work represents the fabrication, testing and analysis of polymer-based multi-material structures for engineering applications.

Firms operate in a market for their corporate assets, wherein important assets being bought and sold are business units. This market is therefore a primary mechanism for firm reconfiguration, and offers the opportunity for firms to gain performance advantage as they prepare for and engage in their boundary-changing moves. This paper focuses on resource reconfiguration between firms, and examines internally and externally driven sources of performance heterogeneity in firms’ use of the market for firm reconfiguration. Viewing between-firm resource reconfiguration through three theoretical lenses surfaces several potential avenues for firm differentiation. For one, the necessity of firms’ possessing capabilities to execute both sides of the external resource reconfiguration transaction – acquisition and divestiture capabilities – is revealed. For another, the institutional prerequisites that are needed in the operating environment for a firm to build a sustainable resource reconfiguration strategy are brought to the fore, and are well illustrated by the private equity industry. Lastly, the potential benefits of using the transactional view of firm scope to animate the study of external resource reconfiguration are raised. Taken together, these elements lead to a research agenda around resource reconfiguration across firm boundaries.

Delivering premium services and quality products are critical strategies for success in manufacturing. Continuous improvement (CI), as an underlying foundation for quality management, is an ongoing effort allowing manufacturing companies to see beyond the present to create a bright future. We propose a novel integrated fuzzy framework for analyzing the barriers to the implementation of CI in manufacturing companies.

We use the fuzzy failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and a fuzzy Shannon's entropy to identify and weigh the most significant barriers. We then use fuzzy multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA), the fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and fuzzy simple additive weighting (SAW) methods for prioritizing and ranking the barriers with each method. Finally, we aggregate these results with Copeland's method and extract the main CI implementation barriers in manufacturing.

We show “low cooperation and integration of the team in CI activities” is the most important barrier in CI implementation. Other important barriers are “limited management support in CI activities,” “low employee involvement in CI activities,” “weak communication system in the organization,” and “lack of knowledge in the organization to implement CI projects.”

We initially identify the barriers to the implementation of CI through rigorous literature review and then apply a unique integrated fuzzy approach to identify the most important barriers based on the opinions of industry experts and academics.

The study here responds to the view that the crucial problem in strategic management (research) is firm heterogeneity – why firms adopt different strategies and structures, why heterogeneity persists, and why competitors perform differently. The present study applies complexity theory tenets and a “neo-configurational perspective” of Misangyi et al. (2016) in proposing complex antecedent conditions affecting complex outcome conditions. Rather than examining variable directional relationships using null hypotheses statistical tests, the study examines case-based conditions using somewhat precise outcome tests (SPOT). The complex outcome conditions include firms with high financial performances in declining markets and firms with low financial performances in growing markets – the study focuses on seemingly paradoxical outcomes. The study here examines firm strategies and outcomes for separate samples of cross-sectional data of manufacturing firms with headquarters in one of two nations: Finland (n = 820) and Hungary (n = 300). The study includes examining the predictive validities of the models. The study contributes conceptual advances of complex firm orientation configurations and complex firm performance capabilities configurations as mediating conditions between firmographics, firm resources, and the two final complex outcome conditions (high performance in declining markets and low performance in growing markets). The study contributes by showing how fuzzy-logic computing with words (Zadeh, 1966) advances strategic management research toward achieving requisite variety to overcome the theory-analytic mismatch pervasive currently in the discipline (Fiss, 2007, 2011) – thus, this study is a useful step toward solving the crucial problem of how to explain firm heterogeneity.