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With the widespread use of the composites over other metallic materials in different fields of engineering, studies on damages of composite structures have assumed great importance. Among various kinds of damages, delamination is of very serious concern to composite applications. It may arise as a consequence of impact loading, stress concentration near a geometrical or material discontinuity or manufacturing defects. The presence of one or more delaminations in the composite laminate may lead to a premature collapse of the structure due to buckling at a lower level of compressive loading. So the effect of delamination on stability of composite structures needs attention and thus constitutes a problem of current interest. The purpose of this paper is to deal with both numerical and experimental investigations on buckling behaviour of single and multiple, delaminated, industry driven, woven roving glass/epoxy composite plates on clamped free clamped free (CFCF) rectangular plates.

For numerical analysis, a finite element model was developed with an eight noded two dimensional quadratic isoparametric element having five degrees of freedom per node. The elastic stiffness matrices were derived using linear first order shear deformation theory with a shear correction factor. Green's nonlinear strain equations are used to derive the geometric stiffness matrix. The computation of buckling load based on present formulation is compared with the experimental results for the effect of different parameters on critical load of the delaminated composite panels. In the experimental study, the influences of various parameters such as delamination area, fiber orientations, number of layers, aspect ratios on the buckling behaviour of single and multiple delaminated woven roving glass/epoxy composite plates were investigated. Buckling loads were measured by INSTRON 1195 machine for the delaminated composite plates.

Comparison of numerical results with experimental results showed a good agreement. Both the results revealed that the area of delaminations, fiber orientations, number of layers and aspect ratio have paramount influence on the buckling behaviour of delaminated plate.

The present study is part of Jayaram Mohanty's doctoral thesis, an original research work.

In 2003, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in southern India, Jayaram Jayalalithaa, gave a speech about the “silent revolution” of the empowerment of Indian women. But 15 years on, regrettably, the promises of that revolution do not seem to have been fulfilled. Thanks to the various programs set up to champion women’s empowerment (involving local NGOs, public programs, and international support), women are now more prominent in certain public spaces and are able to play a genuine advocacy role with regard to the public authorities. Girls education has also significantly improved. But it has not brought about improved employment opportunities. Women are in fact losing out on paid employment (as is the case in India as a whole). They are also heavily indebted (not only from microcredit, but also informal lending and lending from private financial companies). Their indebtedness is disproportionate to their income, and compared to men. Moreover, women almost exclusively put debt toward the social reproduction of families. Reduced opportunities for paid employment and massive debt have hit Dalit women particularly hard. The analyses of this chapter use data collected over more than a decade in a rural area of Tamil Nadu, drawing together ethnography and quantitative data, including panel data (2010–2016). They shed light on the complexity of social change, intertwining forms of domination (here, caste, and gender), and the ambiguous qualities of so-called empowerment programs, whose impacts have been various and unexpected.

To assess the state of supply chain management (SCM) research in India and to understand the research trends and methodologies used. The present study also aims to create a taxonomy of the subject areas researched in India.

The present study employed the systematic literature review methodology. Literature from 395 peer journal papers in 67 leading journals over a 20-year period (2000–2020 Quarter-1) was comprehensively reviewed and assessed.

SCM research in India started around the year 2000. The quantum of research was low (single digit) until 2010. There has been steady growth over the last decade, and over 50% of the total papers up until now has been published in the last four years. The present study created a three-tiered taxonomy of the subject areas and classified the papers as per it. The first tier (level-1) has seven categories (SCM strategy, network design, SCM processes and integration, IT systems, skills, performance measurement and others). A perusal of the newly created taxonomy revealed that, except for a few areas under level-1 categories (such as SCM processes and SCM strategy), the other level-1 categories have not seen much research. Similarly, there is little or no research in a large number of level-2 categories (such as outsourcing strategy, channel strategy, demand management, demand fulfillment, customer relationship management, integrated supply chain planning, new product development, returns, supply chain orientation, performance monitoring, performance improvement, SCM adoption process, SCM implementation issues and quantified benefits of SCM). Methodologically, the rigor of SCM research in India needs improvement.

A comprehensive taxonomy of SCM subject areas researched in India at three cascading levels was created for the first time in the present study. The taxonomy will help provide researchers with a clear understanding of the structure of the subject areas and help in identifying areas where research has been carried out and the subject areas where gaps exist for future research to proceed. The present study also provides an overview of the methodological rigor of SCM research in India and points out some of the limitations that researchers should avoid in future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationships between low carbon supply chain practices and their relationships with environmental sustainability (ES) and the economic performances (EP) of firms. The study also includes an examination of the low carbon supply chain practices that are utilized by Indian manufacturing firms.

Through a questionnaire-based survey, the data received from 83 Indian manufacturing firms was analyzed using a variance-based structural equation modeling technique to test the proposed hypotheses.

The study indicates that carbon governance is a strategic imperative for the adoption of low carbon supply chain practices. Similarly, low carbon product and process design (LCPPD), manufacturing and logistics lead to improved ES. In addition, low carbon purchasing is positively related to the adoption of LCPPD, manufacturing and logistics. No significant relationship was found between the adoption of low carbon supply chain practices and the EP of a firm.

The findings of this study may assist manufacturing managers in prioritizing operational practices for the reduction of emissions.

This study provides two major contributions to green supply chain management. First, it provides comprehensive empirical evidence on low carbon supply chain practices that are being followed by Indian manufacturing firms. Second, this study also empirically validated a structural model of low carbon supply chain practices.

Benchmarking is an approach to understand and evaluate the current position of different entities like third-party logistics (3PLs) service providers with respect to the best practices. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated approach to benchmark the 3PLs and minimize the transportation cost, operational cost, total carbon emissions and improve vehicle capacity utilization rate and demand management in an efficient manner.

Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) is extended to develop an integrated approach involving DEA and adaptive linear neuron network (ADALINE). The proposed methodology is dichotomized to the benchmarking of DMUs using Charnes, Cooper, Rhodes ratio and, in the process, helps to suggest ways to reduce inefficiencies.

The approach also supports the decision makers to understand ways to increase the efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs) that are relatively inefficient for a set of 3PLs considered in this study. This is one of the potential researches as it studies how to improve the efficiency of inefficient DMUs.

The proposed approach would help the decision makers to better understand the complexities associated with the low-performing 3PLs. The application of the proposed DEA-ADALINE methodology is illustrated using a range of data set for 3PLs.

The paper examines and explains the value added to the conventional DEA model for obtaining the relative efficiencies with reference to the most efficient DMUs without any loss to the original characteristics of DEA and ADALINE.

The purpose of this study is to explore the mediation effect of volatile economic conditions on performance benefits of successful kean manufacturing implementation (LMI). The mediating factor of economic volatility (EV) is constructed based on four macroeconomic dimensions – supplier uncertainty, market demand fluctuations, governmental policy changes and peer competition.

An attempt is made to build an exhaustive list of the internal operational manifests grouped into one human and three technical input factors. Similarly the benefits accrued are collated under two performance measures – customer satisfaction (CS) and organizational goal satisfaction (OGS). Based on data from the Indian manufacturing sector, structural equation modelling (SEM) and ordinary least square (OLS) analyses are carried out to validate the proposed model.

Results of the structural model validate the first six hypotheses posited in the model. Results of OLS further reveal the mediation effect of EV having negative impact on LMI–CS and LMI–OGS nexus.

This research offers a fair understanding of the internal operational lean factors and the effect of volatile macroeconomic conditions on lean benefits. The structural model will aid the academicians and lean implementers comprehend the dimensional structure underlying the lean practices and beliefs. This work further helps to understand the moderation effect of environmental complexity on the output measures of LMI in the Indian manufacturing sector.

This work is one of the very first empirical analyses of lean performance under contingent economic conditions. The paper presents a valuable recommendation to practitioners for considering the dynamism of external economic environment instead of simply adopting standalone internal lean parameters, if satisfactory levels of performance in terms of CS and OGS are to be achieved.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of organizational size on adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices for the Indian industry. It also evaluates the impact of GSCM practices on organizational performance.

This study aims to empirically test the GSCM model to investigate the present orientation of the Indian industry toward GSCM practices using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The statistical inferences were drawn using the data provided by 161 Indian firms. This has compared the GSCM practice implementations among small-sized, medium-sized and large-sized organizations.

The study reveals that Indian organizations have shown a satisfactory implementation of majority of the environmental practices, except supplier ISO:14001 certification and Tier-II supplier evaluation. Out of 21 practices, medium-sized organizations have adopted GSCM practices at a similar level compared with large organizations, with three exceptions: existing environmental management systems, support from mid-level and top management and supplier evaluation for environmental practice. It was found that GSCM adoption can lead to equal improvements in operational performance for both large-size and medium-size organizations.

This paper makes two major contributions in the domain of green supply chain practices in India. First, it investigates the adoption of GSCM practices in organizations of different sizes (small, medium and large) and the impact of GSCM practices on the performance of organizations of different sizes. Second, it identifies the key areas for improvement and recommends a set of measures for improving the implementation of GSCM practices in Indian organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to use an inter-disciplinary approach to examine the relevance of F.W. Taylor’s principles to modern shop-floor practices in the context of a manufacturing organization.

Standard time study guidelines laid out by the ILO were adopted and random observations made between two operators independently performing an identical operation in the shop-floor premises of a particular factory.

It was evident from the study that modern management has developed the science for each element of the operator’s manual work, as postulated and proposed by F.W. Taylor. It was also evident that completion of the operation on time was necessary for the operators but not as important as the total number of jobs performed during the duration of the shift. These empirical findings highlighted the high relevance of F.W. Taylor’s principles to modern shop-floor practices.

The authors adopted time study observation as the single method to collect real data from real practices but this could be considered as a biased approach. Since the time study observation is a slow, time consuming, and expensive process of obtaining data, the authors restricted the study to only two operators. Further, the study was carried out in a real setting under several assumptions that may limit its wider applications and practical implications. The study findings suggest that measuring the operator’s performance in terms of time consumption and resource utilization is necessary but not sufficient to evaluate and improve his/her productivity because operators evaluate their performance in terms of the total number of jobs completed during the duration of the shift. Therefore, it is suggested that the managers on the modern shop-floor measure the output at the aggregate level for the given input, while developing new work methods as well as devising performance management and reward systems.

The study has contributed to the body of knowledge by conducting a complete assessment of F.W. Taylor’s first principle from its origin to its application in modern shop-floor practices. Also, the authors empirically examined the relevance of Taylor’s principles to modern shop-floor practices in the context of a manufacturing organization. The study supports the descriptive work of Freeman (1996), who envisaged the relevance of Taylor’s ideas to modern management practices; also, it gives a few directions to test behavioral operations theory in terms of using real operational data to examine an established organization theory (Gino and Pisano, 2008).

Green or sustainable supply chain management (GSCM/SSCM) has in recent years attracted much attention from academia and practitioners in all part of the world. In recent years, all humanity has experienced severe climate change which is widely attributed to human activity. Harmful emissions have made a major contribution to recent climate change which presents major challenges and threats to the entire human race in form of global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunami and floods. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual GSCM/SSCM framework contributing to knowledge-based view theory and systems theory (ST) and provide an exhaustive list of further research directions.

In this paper the authors have used a systematic literature review to identify building blocks of the conceptual framework, which is the principal contribution of the present paper.

In this paper the authors have proposed a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain network and at the end the authors have outlined further research directions.

The current paper is an attempt to develop a conceptual framework which is grounded in knowledge-based theory. The study helps to extent the prior works which lacks theory focused approach.

The present work has immense theoretical value and can be useful to the policy makers or practitioners engaged in GSCM practices.

Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) assist managers to improve their operational efficiency while aiming at reducing the generation of waste. The purpose of this paper is to construct a structural model of the SCP practices in a supply chain context.

The work is based on the experience of supply chain professionals, a case study and literature review related to SCP. The present work recommends an assessment framework by prioritizing the SCP oriented practices using best-worst method.

The current work is an effort to understand the significance of SCP practices and to reveal their level of influence in developing a sustainable culture in value chains. Data for this work are derived from an automotive company operating in India. Findings reveal that the “resource efficiency” acquires the highest rank and “sharing assets” acquires the last lank among all SCP practices.

It is difficult to finalize the SCP practices. This work uses the expert’s approach for this. In this way, the process needs to be conducted very carefully.

This research can assist automotive managers and practitioners in efficiently utilizing their companies’ resources, which would result in superior business effectiveness by generating higher employment opportunities in value chains.

Efforts have been made to contribute in the identification and analysis of SCP oriented practices. The developed structural model will help in understanding the ranking of practices.