Search results

Changes are inevitable in risky and uncertain business environments of today’s volatile supply chains. The concept of flexibility originates from this need to mitigate the ill-effects of risks and uncertainty in supply chains. In this paper, an attempt is made to present an exhaustive review on supply chain flexibility (SCF) and its implementation to gain strategic advantages.

A citation analysis method is employed in this paper to discuss, analyse and apprehend the conceptual, empirical, analytical and simulation studies done in this field. In this paper, about 110 papers on flexibility from many reputed journals are examined to study and assimilate various aspects of flexibility.

SCF embraces a unified process-based view including the core processes such as procurement, sourcing, distribution and logistics and mitigates uncertainty or risks involved. The review helps to assimilate the key knowledge about relevant practices in SCF and helps to draw implementing strategies while offering managerial insight on the subject.

Citation and co-citation analysis is done to review the SCF literature. Efforts are made to investigate relevant papers from various journals regarding its ability to mitigate risk or aid in making strategic decision. The study, however, is limited to certain industries in the papers as per chosen approach here. The strategies described in here may further be verified by the researchers and practitioners pertaining to their study or industries focused.

It provides managerial insight for practitioners on how to use flexibility within the firm and across supply chain while considering various trade-offs.

This paper is unique as a review paper, as it encompasses various kinds of studies done on SCF from conceptual models to mathematical models. Further, it briefs with the current practices in industries/SC towards being flexible. It talks of various trade-offs in pursuit of flexibility and concludes while suggesting numerous research gaps and opening new dimensions for SCF research. It offers many managerial and academic implications.

This paper aims to make an attempt to identify labour intensity of organized manufacturing industries in India using the Annual Survey of Industry (ASI) data at three-digit level. It estimates total factor productivity growth (TFPG) and technical efficiency for both labour intensive and all manufacturing industries during the pre- and post-reforms periods.

The study uses three approaches to estimate TFPG. They are growth accounting (GA) (non-parametric), production function with correction for endogeneity – Levinsohn-Petrin (LP) (semi-parametric) and stochastic production frontier (SPF) analysis (parametric). The study uses ASI data published by Central Statistical Organization, Government of India for the period 1980-1981 to 2007-2008 for the analysis.

The study finds that the rate of decline of the labour intensity is more pronounced in the case of labour-intensive industries than all the manufacturing industries. The results of GA method suggest that the TFPG of labour-intensive industries has declined continuously from the pre-reforms period to the post-reforms period. Similarly, LP method indicates a continuous decline in TFPG of labour-intensive manufacturing industries during the post-reforms period. Interestingly, the results of SPF method also corroborate the findings of earlier two methods at the aggregate level but vary at a certain degree at the disaggregated level.

This paper is useful in the context of India considering the importance given to labour-intensive industries by the present government in terms of reviving the sector and improving the productivity and output.

The purpose of this work is to investigate the static performance characteristics of thermohydrodynamic journal bearing operating under nanolubricants (lubricants containing per cent weight concentration of nanoparticles).

Addition of nanoparticles in the lubricant increases lubricant viscosity. To study the effect of this variation on journal bearing, analytical models are developed for the relationship between viscosity, 0-0.5 per cent weight concentration of nanoparticles and temperature range of 300-900°C. To obtain pressure and temperature distribution, modified Reynolds and energy equations are solved by using the finite element method. The viscosity field (varies with temperature and per cent weight concentration of nanoparticles) is updated in these two equations by using the developed analytical model. The steady-state performance characteristics are computed for various values of eccentricity ratios for non-thermoviscous (viscosity of lubricant varies with per cent weight concentration of nanoparticles) and thermoviscous (viscosity of lubricant varies with per cent weight concentration of nanoparticles and temperature) cases. The lubricant and the nanoparticles used for the present work are SAE15W40, copper oxide (CuO), cerium oxide (CeO₂) and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃).

The pressure and temperature distribution across the lubricant film in the clearance space of journal bearing and static performance characteristics are calculated.

The computed results show that addition of nanoparticles in the lubricant influences the performance characteristics considerable in thermoviscous case than non-thermoviscous case.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a cost-effective foundation technique for the design of foundations of transmission towers, heavily loaded structures, etc.

Experimental model tests are conducted in a model test tank to find out the effect of length and diameter of geogrid encased granular pile anchors, the relative density of sand and the angle of inclination of the pile from the vertical on uplift behavior of granular pile anchors.

The uplift capacity of the geogrid encased granular pile anchor increased with increasing length and diameter of granular pile anchor. Further, increasing the relative density of surrounding soil increased uplift capacity of geogrid encased granular pile anchor system. Moreover, increasing the angle of inclination of loading also increased uplift capacity of whole system. Thus, the proposed system can be effectively used in field for further applications.

The paper is helpful for the engineers looking for cost-effective foundation techniques for heavily loaded structures.

The purpose of this paper is to numerically investigate steady, laminar natural and mixed convection heat transfer in a two-dimensional cavity by using a finite volume method with a fourth-order approximation of convective terms, with and without the presence of nanoparticles. Highly accurate benchmark results are also provided.

A finite volume method on a non-uniform staggered grid is used for the solution of two-dimensional momentum and energy conservation equations. Diffusion terms, in the momentum and energy equations, are approximated using second-order central differences, whereas a non-uniform four-point fourth-order interpolation (FPFOI) scheme is developed for the convective terms. Coupled mass and momentum conservation equations are solved iteratively using a semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equation method.

For the case of natural convection problem at high-Rayleigh numbers, grid density must be sufficiently high in order to obtain grid-independent results and capture reality of the physics. Heat transfer enhancement for natural convection is observed up to a certain value of the nanoparticle volume fraction. After that value, heat transfer deterioration is found with increasing nanoparticle volume fraction.

Developed a non-uniform FPFOI scheme. Highly accurate benchmark results for the heat transfer of Al₂O₃-water nanofluid in a cavity are provided.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are regarded as the key drivers to steer the engine of economic development in any nation. As a result, to understand the context and process of innovation and entrepreneurship there has been a steady rise in scientific literature and empirical studies. The purpose of this paper is to study the trends and progress of academic research on innovation and entrepreneurship in India by identifying the key articles, journals, authors and institutions.

Scientometric methods especially bibliometrics is used, for measuring the maturity of this research field in the country. The paper studies the research landscape in innovation and entrepreneurship in India by doing a bibliometric analysis using data from publications indexed in the Scopus database from the year 2000 to 2018. The study takes a multidisciplinary review of the literature in innovation and entrepreneurship research in India and could be used as a reference for future studies in this theme.

The study finds an increase in the scholarly studies in innovation and entrepreneurship in India in the last decade. It was also found that a large number of publications were joint-authored and collaborations between Indian and foreign universities is happening. The paper also highlights the authorship patterns, top journals and the most cited papers.

A major limitation of this study is that it has considered publications which are indexed in Scopus. This paper has contributed by highlighting the growth of studies in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Indian context. The results can be used by future studies in this area as a starting point to highlight the nature of this research area.

The study attempts to present a trend analysis of published literature on innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

This paper aims to study the concept, characteristics and factors of the resilient supply chain (RSC) and develop a hierarchical structural model and classify the factors based on their interrelationships.

This paper has used a mixed-approach of literature review and expert opinion to identify the factors of RSC. For the development of the structural model and clustering of the factors, this paper has used the total interpretive structural modeling approach with Matrice d’Impacts Croises-Multiplication Applique and Classment and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory analysis.

In total, this study has identified 17 factors that enable the 3R capability of the RSC. The result shows that the factors have a close dependence relationship with supply chain (SC) risk management culture as the most influencing factor. Further, this study classifies the factors into enablers and strategies.

This research work is the theoretical contribution to the RSC concept and helps the experts to develop and improve the resilient ability in the SC. This research is based entirely on subjective expert feedback; thus, the results are sensitive to the expert’s judgment.

This research will help the decision-makers in allocating the resources and policies to develop or improve the SC capabilities.

This research work is the first kind of research in the field of the RSC that considers the 3R concept to identify and model the resilient factors of the SC. Along with the theoretical concept, this research provides empirical evidence for the importance ranking of the factors.