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Due to the importance of quality to customers, this study considers criteria of quality and profit and optimizes both in a multi-echelon cold chain of perishable agricultural products whose quality immediately begins to deteriorate after harvest. The two objectives of the proposed cold chain are to maximize profit and quality. Since postharvest quality loss in the supply chain depends on various decisions and factors, in addition to strategic decisions, the authors consider the temperature setting in refrigerated facilities and transportation vehicles due to the unfixed shelf life of the products which is related to the temperature found by Arrhenius formula.

The authors use bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming to design a four-echelon supply chain. The authors integrate the supply chain echelons to detect the sources and factors of quality loss. The four echelons include supply, processing, storage and customer. The decisions, including facility location, assigning nodes of each echelon to corresponding nodes from the adjacent echelon, allocation of vehicles to transport the products from farms to wholesalers, processing selection, and temperature setting in refrigerated facilities, are made in an integrated way. Model verification and validation in the case study are done based on three perishable herbal plants.

The model obtains a 29% profit against a total cost of 71 and 93% of original quality of the crops is maintained, indicating a 7% quality loss. The final quality of 93% is the result of making a US$6m investment in the supply chain, including the procurement of high-quality raw materials; facility establishment; high-speed, high-capacity vehicles; location assignment; processing selection and refrigeration equipment in the storage and transportation systems, helping to maximize both the final quality of the products and the total profit.

The proposed supply chain model should help managers with modeling decisions, especially when it comes to cold chains for agricultural products. The model yields these results – optimal location-allocation decisions for the facilities to minimize distances between the network nodes, which save time and maintain the majority of the products’ original quality; choosing the most appropriate processing method, which reduces the perishability rate; providing high-capacity, high-speed vehicles in the logistics system, which minimizes transportation costs and maximizes the quality; and setting the right temperature in the refrigerated facilities, which mitigates the postharvest decay reaction rate of the products.

Comparison of the results of the present research with those of the traditional chain (obtained through experts) shows that since the designed chain increases the profit as well as the final quality, it has benefits for the main chain stakeholders, which are customers of agricultural products. This study model is expected to have a positive impact on the environment by placing strong emphasis on quality and preventing excessive waste generation and air pollution by imposing a financial penalty on extra demand production.

Since profit and quality of the final product are two important factors in all cultures and communities, the proposed supply chain model can be used in any food industry around the world. Applying the proposed model induces growth in local industries and promotes the culture of prioritizing quality in societies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research on a bi-objective four-echelon (supply, processing, storage and customer) postharvest supply chain for agricultural products including that integrates transportation logistics and considers the deterioration rate of products as a time-dependent variable at different levels of decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically assess three comparative approaches to measuring service quality: modified gap model, TOPSIS and loss function. Aims to argue for the use of TOPSIS from decision sciences, and Loss function from operations research and engineering, as alternative approaches to the gap model.

The empirical evidence is provided by large sample consumer data on the service quality for leading Indian commercial banks. The service quality evaluations obtained from these three distinct methods are compared and tested for their mutual agreement.

Fndings show that the rankings obtained from different methods are statistically in agreement, suggesting that the alternative approaches can provide equally good measurement of service quality. But they should not be used in an interchangeable manner.

Research shows that a single measure of overall service quality based on gap model is over‐simplistic. It would be more useful to explore a richer profile of customer service quality provided by different measurement approaches. Each methodology has its own advantages and disadvantages, and should be used based on its suitability for a particular application.

This research offers profound practical implications. It offers managers with a framework of service quality improvement that measures service quality gaps, selects an optimal combination of attribute levels to deliver customer satisfaction, and focuses on reducing the future loss caused by poor quality.

Extant marketing literature is replete with gap model applications for measuring service quality. Drawing from interdisciplinary literature, alternatives are provided to the traditional gap model, which show equally good measurement with greater suitability of application under certain conditions.

This research aims to represent an initial exploration of how partitioned pricing influences consumers’ purchase decisions of new versus used products from the theoretical perspectives of prospect theory and gain/loss decision frames.

Four experiments to test the hypotheses with multiple product categories have been conducted.

Results from a series of experimental studies find that consumers prefer partitioned pricing over all-inclusive pricing for new products, whereas all-inclusive pricing is more preferred for used products. In addition, the authors demonstrate that a high-quality brand can reverse this effect for used products; specifically, consumers prefer partitioned pricing over all-inclusive pricing for a used product with a high-quality brand.

This research contributes to the literature on second-hand consumption by examining the impact of pricing strategies on consumer purchase decisions of new versus used products. This study deepens our understanding of consumer decision-making for new versus used products and it provides implications for bolstering sustainable consumption.

Average quadratic quality loss function (QQLF) measures quality of a given process using mean shift from its target value and variance. While it has a target parameter for the mean, it lacks a target for the variance revisable for counting any progress of the process across different quality levels, above/below the standard level; thus, it appears too general. Hence, in this research, it was initially supposed that all processes are located at two possible quality spaces, above/below the standard level. The purpose of this paper is to propose a two-criterion QQLF, in which each criterion is specifically proper to one of the quality spaces.

Since 1.33 is a literarily standard or satisfactory value for two most important process capability indices C_p and C_pk, its upper/lower spaces are assumed as high-/low-quality spaces. Then the indices are integrated into traditional QQLF, of type nominal the best (NTB), to develop a two-criterion QQLF, in which each criterion is more suitable for each quality space. These two criteria have also been innovatively embedded in the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to help continuous improvement. Finally, the proposed function has been examined in comparison with the traditional one in Feiz Hospital in the province of Isfahan, Iran.

Results indicate that the internal process of the studied case is placed on the lower quality space. So the first criterion of revised QQLF gives a more relevant evaluation for that process, compared with the traditional function. Moreover, this study has embedded both proposed criteria in the PDCA cycle as well.

Formulating the two-criterion QQLF only for observations of normal and symmetric distributions, and offering it solely for NTB characteristics are limitations of this study.

Two more relevant quality loss criteria have been formulated for each process (service or manufacturing). However, in order to show the comprehensiveness of the proposed method even in service institutes, emergency function of Feiz Hospital has been examined.

The traditional loss function of type NTB merely and implicitly targets zero defect for variance. In fact, it calculates quality loss of all processes placed on different quality spaces using a same measure. This study, however, provides a practitioner with opportunity of targeting excellent or satisfactory targets.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a straightforward method to quantify volume and value of postharvest losses in the tomato postharvest value chain in Nepal and estimate the monetary loss shouldered by value chain actors.

The study combines interview data to quantify volume and prices with produce sampling to quantify quality losses, and does this at four nodes of the tomato value chain in Nepal: farmers, collectors, wholesalers, and retailers to estimate volume and value of postharvest losses.

Almost one-fourth of the total tomato harvest weight that enters the value chain is lost before it reaches consumers, and other one-fifth is traded by the value chain actors at reduced price due to quality damage. The total volume of postharvest loss (weight and quality loss) is not the same for all value chain actors and the average monetary loss ranges from 4 percent of gross revenues for farmers to 12 percent for wholesalers.

A standard method to account for both physical weight losses and quality losses of horticultural produce is lacking in estimates of the monetary value of postharvest losses for horticultural crops. Knowing such losses is essential for postharvest technology generation, promotion, and adoption. This study provides a framework that can be adopted and improved in future loss assessment studies for estimating the volume and value of postharvest losses in a horticultural value chain.

The uniqueness of the method used in this study is that it combines interview data to estimate price and volume with produce sampling to quantify quality losses, and does this at four nodes of the value chain: farmers, collectors, wholesalers, and retailers. This method could become a standard approach for assessment of postharvest weight and quality losses and to estimate the monetary value of total postharvest losses in the value chain for horticultural crops.

The process capability indices have been widely used to measure process capability and performance. In this paper, we proposed a new process capability index which is based on an actual dollar loss by defects. The new index is similar to the Taguchi’s loss function and fully incorporates the distribution of quality attribute in a process. The strength of the index is to apply itself to non‐normal or asymmetric distributions. Numerical examples were presented to show superiority of the new index against Cp, Cpk, and Cpm which are the most widely used process capability indices.

Measuring quality costs has been emphasized as an important part of quality improvement since the early 1950s. A chapter on quality costs seems to be almost compulsory in every book pertaining to total quality management, business process improvement, and similar topics. There is no doubt that measuring quality costs is useful in order to direct improvement efforts; the problem is that the concept is not as valid today as it used to be. While customer requirements and production systems have changed considerably during the last decades, quality cost measurement is advocated in nearly the same way as it was 40 years ago. This work presents a new customer and process focused poor quality cost model that enables the provider of a product or service to focus on elements that really matter to his customers. The input to the model is customer requirements and the output is expected poor quality costs estimated through the Taguchi loss function. Quality function deployment is used to translate the voice of the customer to key process parameters, that is process parameters having a direct influence on the fulfilment of customer requirements. The quality function deployment matrix is also used to estimate intangible costs. Traditional cost categories have been altered, and the expected loss for each cost category is estimated based on actual process performance and stepwise quadratic loss functions with multiple intervals. The intended use of the model is as a top management decision‐making tool able to link quality improvement to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

As overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a metric to estimate equipment effectiveness of production systems, the purpose of this paper is to identify strategic management tools and techniques based on OEE assessment of the ice cream production line.

This paper presents the collection and the analysis of data for ice cream production under real working conditions. The data cover a period of eight months. A framework process to improve the OEE of an automated production system was proposed. Six major stoppage losses, i.e. equipment failure, setup and adjustment, idling and minor stoppage, reduced speed, defects in the process, and reduced yield, were examined with the help of Pareto analysis. In addition, the actual availability (A), performance efficiency (PΕ) and quality rate (QR) measures, together with the complete OEE for each working day, week and month of the production line were shown.

The main goal of the study is to identify major stoppage losses, in order to examine and improve the overall equipment efficiency (OEE) of the ice cream production line through the application of an adequate management, i.e. TPM approach. Based on the obtained results, maintenance management strategy and production planning have been suggested to improve their maintenance procedures and the productivity as well.

The proposed method can be applied to each automated production system. The main benefits of this method are the improvement of productivity, quality enhancement of products, the reduction of sudden breakdowns and the cost of maintenance. Moreover, the analysis provides a useful perspective and helps managers/engineers make better decisions on the operations management of the line, and suggestions for improvement were proposed and will be implemented accordingly.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between reporting a loss and changes in board quality. Low quality corporate governance is associated with adverse accounting outcomes and is characterised by the lack of non-executive and independent directors on the board. Changes in these board quality indicators in response to the reporting of a loss and conditioned by the severity of the loss are examined.

This study uses four years of board information spanning the report of an initial loss for companies listed on the UK stock exchange. An industry and size matched control sample is used in a difference-in-difference analysis to isolate the impact of the loss from underlying changes in board quality.

Overall the results indicate that more severe initial loss events precipitate improvements in board quality over and above the control sample as well as less severe loss events.

Although unambiguous, the reporting of a loss is only one measure of underperformance. Also the board quality indicators used in this study are two from several individual corporate governance variables and amalgamations used in the extent literature.

The findings demonstrate that the relationship between corporate governance and performance is endogenous and that the majority of any improvement in board quality actually anticipates the reporting of the loss. Any celebration of improvements in governance need to be tempered by an understanding of the precariousness of the firms at which these improvements are made.

This study contributes to a research stream that examines negative shocks, and losses in particular, as an event likely to precipitate firm-level changes in board quality, i.e. firms tend not to make improvements to board quality without the impetus to do so.

Quality improvement decisions are the catalyst for substantial technological improvements being made in the manufacturing sector. The new technology, however, has developed faster than techniques for evaluating capital investments in such improvements. This is largely because the benefits of quality improvement technology are difficult to quantify. The Taguchi loss function is incorporated into a net present value capital budgeting technique to provide an estimate of these benefits. Describes the loss function in relation to key quality costs: appraisal and prevention costs, and internal and external failure costs. External failure cost savings are generated by reducing variability in the manufacturing process. These savings are then compared with the cost of the quality improving technology. Results indicate that these savings can be substantial, depending on the achieved reduction in the process variability, the cost of capital, and on the estimate of the cost of processing a customer’s return of the product.