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The purpose of this paper is to revisit the growth mechanism of Indian sugar industry by deploying quantitative and qualitative metaphors.

The research paper has been composed through comprehensive primary research survey using a structured questionnaire, and qualitative discussion following semi- structured interviews with industry professionals on emerging issues across the whole value chain of sugar industry. Respondents regarding primary survey were selected using the purposive sampling, and this collected quantitative information has been verified on the lenses of multiple stream modelling (MSM).

To support the data analysis, MSM – a policy-making framework has been developed which found that government being a central construct exerts a profound presence across whole value chain; in suppliers’ mechanism, marketing of sugar and sugar mills’ infrastructural expansions. Nationwide uniformity in sugar policy instead of states’ monopolistic policies, rational and mutual benefits-based decisions collectively by the government, mills management and sugarcane growers, and diversification in production processes are enumerated as the proposed solutions against the chronical industry problems.

This study enriches extant Asian sugar industry literature. For policymakers, the proposed results should be of help in identifying specific policies to support the competitiveness of local systems and individual manufacturing companies in the Indian sugar industry suggesting that the development of growth mechanisms can contribute simultaneously to improve the financial, market and operational performance of both individual firms and supply chains.

Cyclicality in production, rising sugarcane farmers’ problems and resulting severe financial distress of mills are some of the topical issues of Indian sugar industry, and the study has explored these issues factually, quantitatively and qualitatively in proximity of industry professionals and described in this depository with the help of document analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical investigation of maintenance performance (MP) management practices from the sugar industry in India.

Empirical data for this study were collected through field visits, interviews and published reports. Statistical methods including correlation, multiple regression and cluster analysis are utilized to accomplish the objective of the study.

Explanation with multiple regression analysis showed that the sugar industry MP is significantly and positively related to maintenance approach (MA), continuous improvement (CI), financial approach and spare part management (SPM). Cluster analysis showed that sugar industries focusing on MA, CI and policy development and organization are having higher MP. The cluster analysis also pointed out that there is a substantial variation in MP due to the type of ownership (private and cooperative) while no variation has been observed due to installed capacity (low and high).

The generalization of the results obtained in this work for the sugar industry can be possible through a larger sample size.

The study contributes to the better understanding of maintenance measures in the sugar industry and provides insights on the role of maintenance managerial practices in enhancing the MP.

The findings provide empirical evidence that maintenance practices across the sugar industry are important to improve MP.

Industry 4.0 is recognised as a competitive strategy that helps implementers optimise their value chain. However, its adoption poses several challenges. This study investigates and ranks the drivers and barriers to implementing Industry 4.0 in the Thai sugar industry, the world's second-largest sugar exporter. It also evaluates the industry's readiness for Industry 4.0.

The drivers and impediments were identified based on a systematic literature review (SLR) and further investigated using a questionnaire, expert interviews, Pearson's correlation and nonparametric statistical analyses. The IMPULS model was used to assess the industry's readiness.

Most companies expect to minimise costs, develop employees and improve various elements of operational performance and data tracking capability. Thai sugar producers are still at a low readiness level to deploy Industry 4.0. High investment is the major challenge. Small businesses struggle to hire competent employees, collaborate with a highly credible technology provider and adapt to new solutions.

The findings can serve as a benchmark or guide for sugar manufacturers and companies in other sectors, where Industry 4.0 technologies are not yet widely utilised, to overcome existing roadblocks and make strategic decisions. They can also assist governments in developing policies that foster digital transformation and increase national competitiveness.

There is a scarcity of research on Industry 4.0 execution in the sugar industry. This study addresses this gap by investigating the reasons for the hesitancy of sugar producers to pursue Industry 4.0 and proposing solutions.

This paper aims to assess how Sharīʿah guidelines improve the working capital needs of the Indian sugar industry. Previous studies reveal that the sugar industry in India is in a state of cash deprivation for decades. Finance is not available for expansion, as well as for working capital requirements. Banks have also declined to provide working capital loans to the sugar industry.

Lack of working capital management and its impact upon sugar mills profitability are examined based on a sample of six Indian sugar mills and the use of panel data analysis for the period 2011-2015.

The regression results suggest the need for reducing the number of days’ account receivables and inventories to a reasonable minimum to maintain the liquidity necessary for the mills, which current mills cannot manage to achieve, and consequently, suffer liquidity problems.

This paper presents a model of Sharīʿah-compliant working capital financing for cash deprived Indian sugar industry. All the three parties stand to benefit from this arrangement: the farmer will get the price of his crop promptly and at its farmland, sugar mill will secure the required quantity of raw material (sugarcane) without any immediate cash outflow, and the Islamic bank will earn a reasonable mark-up profit from this transaction.

The study is the first comprehensive effort to explore the possible combination of Islamic banking products subject to the fulfillment of needs of sugar mills and farmers and the application of an Islamic banking instrument in the agriculture sector of India. It also suggests the possible models for financing under a Salam and Murabahah contract.

The purpose of this paper is to find out possible barriers of information technology (IT) applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India. All these barriers have their strategic importance for serving the supply chain partners in better way and also help in improving the Indian agrarian economy. The study is a blend of theoretical and practical frameworks, which would focus on those key factors or IT barriers leading to implementation of IT in the sugar supply chain.

The paper is based on theoretical exploration of potential barriers IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India and prioritizing these barriers by employing multi-criteria decision-making approach.

The findings of this paper are identification of barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India, and ranking of these barriers in terms of its severity.

Potential barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system of sugar industry in India considered in to the study are 11 in total. There can be more barriers of IT applications in the supply chain system.

This study reveals the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy AHP to Indian sugar industry for prioritizing the IT barriers which influence the sugar supply chain.

This paper seeks to examine the export competitiveness and concentration level of the 15 top sugar exporting countries over the last 18 years (2001–2018) with special reference to India.

First, the paper utilizes a review based approach and explains the structures of major sugar economies in context to protected and unprotected perspectives. Subsequently, empirical research was carried out to assess the competitiveness level of sugar using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) approach and Hirschman Herfindahl Index.

The study found structural changes in cane or beet sugar, and molasses over the time period between 2006 and 2015. Further, the findings confirmed that despite the stringent regulations in European Union, the United States of America, Guatemala, Mexico, Thailand, China, and India, the comparative advantage is high up to seven to nine sugar categories. Besides, despite the indulgent regulations in the Colombia, Brazil, and Canada, the comparative advantage is only consistent up to two to three sugar categories.

This study provides an overview of competitiveness patterns of 15 sugar exporting countries and further compare their comparative and concentration levels. In this context, in future, it would be interesting to study the macro-economic and firm and industry-specific factors which may strengthen the study findings.

This study suggests that the sugar export of few countries (i.e. Mexico and Canada) is restricted up to their trade pacts and free trade zones which is restricting the competitiveness level and performance. Accordingly, such countries need to enlarge their business boundaries to foster their export competitiveness level. Rational subsidies and governmental assistance in diversification schemes in terms of products' range and sustainable processes can make India a consistent exporter in more categories.

Although, the previous studies attempted to examine the sugar industry with particular country context, this study enlarge the body of knowledge through simultaneously examining the sugar export scenario of fifteen sugar exporting countries and providing a broad comparative view of their competitiveness and concentration levels.

The subject area of the case is operations management and capacity planning. The case adopts different operation strategies to use the idle capacity.

The case study is suitable for discussion in masters level classes. The case explains the situation of a company which is fighting for its survival. The case reveals the alternative operations strategies it applies to maximize its capacity utilization and reduce its costs.

The case describes a paper producing company which is earning low margins. The company’s capacity remains unused during the off-seasons. The company then plans to share its capacity with another dying industry. Both the companies plan to cooperate and share resources. However, there are other attractive alternatives too and the dilemma situations leave the gap for continuous discussions.

The case aims at providing potential alternatives to the students and initiating healthy discussions. The students will be able to understand the capacity utilization dilemmas and applicability of the operations strategy concept in practice.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

This paper demonstrates a multi-criteria analytic hierarchy process (AHP) framework for evaluating and benchmarking maintenance performance in the select agro-based industry.

Initially, 20 maintenance practices (criteria) have been identified after a detailed literature review and discussion with the agro-based industry (sugar, textile and dairy industry) executives. These are then grouped into six maintenance management areas referred to as group criteria. The multi-criteria methodology consists of three steps: criteria identification, hierarchical modeling and data collection and maintenance performance evaluation, and benchmarking. The multi-criteria methodology proposed in this work facilitates two ways of carrying out benchmarking: (1) within the agro-based industry and (2) between the agro-based industry. The methodology has been explained by taking a case example of 45 agro-based industries (18 dairy, 13 sugar and 14 textile) from the western region of India. The sensitivity analysis of the model has been performed to ascertain the robustness of the results.

There is a difference in the maintenance performance across the agro-based industries due to different maintenance practices perceived differently.

The outcome of the model is mainly given by the judgments of the agro-based industry executives. It is also sensitive to any change in the relative importance to the evaluation criteria or the perception about the maintenance performance.

The study contributes in identifying the weakness, if any, by comparing the agro-based industry under investigation with the benchmark factory at three levels, namely, overall performance (factory level), group criteria (maintenance management area level) and criteria (maintenance practice level) allowing further improvement.

The methodology assists in better decision-making and in improving maintenance performance.

The data used in this study is for the period 1980‐2000. Almost midway through this period (in 1992), the Kenyan government liberalized the sugar industry and the role of the market increased, while the government's role with respect to control of prices, imports and other aspects in the sector declined. This exposed the local sugar manufacturers to external competition from other sugar producers, especially from the COMESA region. This study aims to find whether there were any changes in efficiency of production between the two periods (pre and post‐liberalization).

The study utilized two methodologies to efficiency estimation: data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the stochastic frontier. DEA uses mathematical programming techniques and does not impose any functional form on the data. However, it attributes all deviation from the mean function to inefficiencies. The stochastic frontier utilizes econometric techniques.

The test for structural differences in the two periods does not show any statistically significant differences between the two periods. However, both methodologies show a decline in efficiency levels from 1992, with the lowest period experienced in 1998. From then on, efficiency levels began to increase.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to use both methodologies in the sugar industry in Kenya. It is shown that in industries where the noise (error) term is minimal (such as manufacturing), the DEA and stochastic frontier give similar results.

In this chapter the development of new sugarcane varieties in Florida and Louisiana is examined, along with the accompanying advancement in mechanization technology through the widespread adoption of sugarcane harvesters. An econometric analysis is carried out to determine the impact of the price of raw sugar on raw-sugar yields in Louisiana and Florida. This study found that in the case of Louisiana, the 3-year lagged US raw-sugar price had a positive and significant impact on sugar yields. The change in raw-sugar prices did not have a significant impact on sugar yields for the Florida industry. Sugar production has increased over time, in part, due to the development of new sugarcane varieties accompanied by modern sugarcane harvesters. Given the relationship between price and yield, particularly in Louisiana, policy makers and producers must be mindful of the potential impact of policy-induced research and development (R&D) on the competitiveness of their industry.