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Waste generated from electrical and electronic equipment, collectively known as E-waste, remains a persistent environmental, economic and social problem. Sustainable E-waste management (EWM) has numerous benefits, such as preventing electronic waste from entering landfills, reducing the need for virgin materials by recovering valuable materials from recycling and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Circular economy (CE) practices are considered the initial steps toward sustainable EWM, but some hurdles have been reported in the adoption of these practices. Therefore, the current study aims to identify the common CE practices, sustainability of the EWM process and the challenges in EWM, and to develop a conceptual framework for effective EWM.

Very few studies have proposed frameworks that acknowledge the challenges and CE practices of EWM. To fill this gap, a systematic literature review (SLR) was performed, and 169 research articles were explored.

A total of seven challenges in the adoption of effective EWM were identified: rules and policy, infrastructure, consumer behaviour, informal sectors, community culture, technology and economy. Eight common CE practices were also found for effective EWM: reuse, recycle, remanufacturing, refurbishment, repair, reduce, recover and repurpose.

A conceptual framework guiding sustainable EWM was proposed, which includes solutions for the identified challenges, and CE practices with sustainable benefits.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss different 3D printing techniques and also illustrate the issues related to 3D printing and cost-effectiveness in the near future.

A systematic literature review methodology is adopted for this review paper. 3D printing is in the initial phase of implementation in healthcare; therefore, a study of 70 research papers is done, which discusses the research trends of 3D printing in healthcare sector from 2007 to mid-2018.

Though additive manufacturing has a vast application, it has not been used to its full potential. Therefore, more research is required in that direction. It is revealed from the review that only a few researchers have explored issues related to cost, which can clearly show cost-effectiveness of adopting 3D printing.

This paper helps in understanding the different 3D printing techniques and their application in the healthcare. It also proposed some methods which can be applied in delivering customized pharmaceuticals to the customer and to improve surgery.

The paper aims to develop a novel method for the classification of different physical activities of a human being, using fabric sensors. This method focuses mainly on classifying the physical activity between normal action and violent attack on a victim and verifies its validity.

The system is realized as a protective jacket that can be worn by the subject. Stretch sensors, pressure sensors and a 9 degree of freedom accelerometer are strategically woven on the jacket. The jacket has an internal bus system made of conductive fabric that connects the sensors to the Flora chip, which acts as the data acquisition unit for the data generated. Different activities such as still, standing up, walking, twist-jump-turn, dancing and violent action are performed. The jacket in this study is worn by a healthy subject. The main phases which describe the activity recognition method undertaken in this study are the placement of sensors, pre-processing of data and deploying machine learning models for classification.

The effectiveness of the method was validated in a controlled environment. Certain challenges are also faced in building the experimental setup for the collection of data from the hardware. The most tedious challenge is to collect the data without noise and error, created by voltage fluctuations when stretched. The results show that the support vector machine classifier can classify different activities and is able to differentiate normal action and violent attacks with an accuracy of 98.8%, which is superior to other methods and algorithms.

This study leads to an understanding of human physical movement under violent activity. The results show that data compared with normal physical motion, which includes even a form of dance is quite different from the data collected during violent physical motion. This jacket construction with woven sensors can capture every dimension of the physical motion adding features to the data on which the machine learning model will be built.

Unlike other studies, where sensors are placed on isolated parts of the body, in this study, the fabric sensors are woven into the fabric itself to collect the data and to achieve maximum accuracy instead of using isolated wearable sensors. This method, together with a fabric pressure and stretch sensors, can provide key data and accurate feedback information when the victim is being attacked or is in a normal state of action.

In the era of digitization, blockchain technology (BCT) has gained huge attraction in a variety of business processes including operations and supply chains (SC) of different industrial sectors. This paper aims that the adoption of BCT in SC enables the industries to integrate the stakeholders and its distinct features enhance the performance of SC.

An attempt is made to develop a BCT platform a pilot case of bearing-SC and identify the challenges and their solutions in the integration of BCT with SC. Moreover, the impact of BCT on measures of SC performance is also studied.

The results show enhanced transparency in the transactions, better security of the data, diminished latency period for transfer of information, improved traceability of the bearing, reduced time for payment transfer process and decreased nonvalue-added activities. Ultimately, overall trust of the customer can be improved by the integration of BCT in bearing-SC.

In the same way, BCT can be applied to SC of other components to assure the product quality to the end-users.

Research in agri-fresh food supply chain quality (AFSCQ) has been given less consideration in developing countries as compared to developed countries and its role in achieving organizational sustainability has not been researched yet. Thus, this study aims to determine and combine numerous significant factors to establish a framework for managing AFSCQ practices favorable to organizational sustainability in the Indian context.

To accomplish this, all-inclusive framework of AFSCQ has been established through succeeding phases of data collection, analysis using structural equation modelling along with refinement of data. The collection of data for this study was from the Indian food industry, which relates to agri-fresh food products.

The AFSCQ practices are conducive to enrich organizational sustainability, and then enhance economic, social and environmental performance indirectly. The study established relationships among the AFSCQ practices promising to enhance organizational sustainability.

AFSCQ practices have a huge impact on organizational sustainability by means of practices that sum up activities along the whole supply chain. The organizational sustainability consists of economic, social and environmental sustainability.

In recent times, digital transformation (DT) has witnessed a surge in popularity, not only within large enterprises (LEs) but also among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Various sectors, including manufacturing, have shown a keen interest in embracing DT for their operational and supply chain needs. Beyond delivering benefits such as improved product quality, revenue growth, enhanced customer service and heightened safety measures, DT offers a range of advantages, including heightened productivity, risk mitigation and environmental protection. However, in developing countries like India, manufacturing SMEs encounter significant challenges when attempting to embrace DT. Therefore, this study aims to identify and model the obstacles that impede DT adoption within the context of Indian manufacturing SMEs.

The literature review was used to pinpoint the barriers to adopting DT. Subsequently, these identified barriers underwent validation within the specific context of Indian manufacturing SMEs through the assessment of an expert team. The expert team proceeded to model these barriers using the interpretive structural modeling approach.

This study shows that high investment, return on investment and multiskilled workforces are the most crucial barriers to DT adoption. The proposed study aids policy and decision-makers in identifying the connections and dependencies between the barriers.

It provides a guideline for practitioners to deal with DT adoption barriers in the Indian manufacturing SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to deliver a structured literature review of existing literature on agri-fresh food supply chain quality (AFSCQ) over a period of 23 years (1994 to mid-2016) and provide a platform for practitioners and researchers trying to identify the existing state of work, gaps in current research, and future directions in the field of AFSCQ.

The existing literature is classified on the basis of several classes like number of publications per year, journal-wise publications, studies across various countries, growth of empirical research, data analysis methods or tool used, issues related to supply chain quality as well as performance measurement (with respect to entity of analysis, level of analysis and element of exchange).

Most of the research publications discuss issues in developed countries, while relatively lesser publications are available on issues in developing countries. Hence, larger opportunities in the field of AFSCQ are available in developing countries. Empirical research is also growing in the field of AFSCQ. Largely research publications make use of “case study” research approach and “statistical analysis” as a quantitative tool of research. The literature is also categorized under the various issues of supply chain quality such as sustainability management, information management, logistic management, collaboration and coordination management, strategic management, demand management, inventory management, food safety, performance management, supply chain integration, supplier management, quality management, etc. It was found that in the majority of articles, information management, sustainability management, and logistics management are very critical issues as far as AFSCQ is concerned. Performance measurement of agri-fresh food supply chain is also on a growing stage. It is also an integral part of AFSCQ.

Most of the prior reviews are concentrated on a particular issue as production and distribution planning for agri-foods, temperature monitoring, corporate and consumer social responsibility, traceability system and ignore the wider perception. There exists a necessity of having a detailed review to cover up all the issues in AFSCQ. This review fills this gap in the extant AFSCQ literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-criteria supplier selection model using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) approach for a leading automobile company in India.

FAHP approach followed by a sensitivity analysis has been used.

In this study, a FAHP-based supplier selection model is proposed to provide useful insights in choosing appropriate suppliers in dynamic situations in order to enhance long-term relationship with them.

This study proposes a supplier selection model for an automobile industry which often faces heterogeneous supply environments. This model may have a high acceptability where a large number of suppliers are available to supply the materials or provide the services. As analytic hierarchy process is the most widely used methodology for supplier selection, however, it becomes less efficient in case of inconsistencies observed in the data. However a FAHP-based approach may overcome this difficulty.

It contributes to supplier selection process and points out the importance of supplier selection problem, especially in the context of multi-criteria decision-making in Indian scenario.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a supplier selection model for an automobile company using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach. Supplier selection is now growing to be an important but complex issue, as it involves a large number of factors and decisions. These factors have complicated operational and financial implications.

A case study of an Indian automobile company is used to illustrate and propose a supplier selection model using AHP approach.

Key criteria of the supplier selection problem are identified based on the literature review and case study. Then, a model is proposed for supplier selection using AHP approach followed by a detailed sensitivity analysis.

This paper contributes to supplier selection process, and points out the importance of supplier selection. It proposes a supplier selection model for an automobile industry which often faces heterogeneous supply environments. The proposed model provides key criteria for supplier selection in Indian context. This model may have high acceptability, where a large number of suppliers are available to supply the materials or provide the services.

The proposed model can provide guidelines and directions for managers involved in purchasing function to effectively select suppliers on the basis of the identified criteria in the heterogeneous manufacturing environment.

The problem of supplier selection gets complicated when a company looks for various criteria to evaluate different suppliers. The decision criteria used for supplier selection process can be different for different organizations due to a large number of factors. Hence, it can be said that supplier selection is basically, a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid data envelopment analytical hierarchy process (DEAHP) approach to solve the supplier selection problem for an automobile company.

In this study, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach is embedded into analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology. Literature review suggested that majority of researches found it appropriate using DEA and AHP methodologies for supplier selection process; hence it is felt that a hybrid DEAHP would be a useful methodology to offer a MCDM model for supplier selection problem.

First, the key criteria of the supplier selection problem for the company are identified. Then a model is developed and implemented for supplier selection using DEAHP approach. This study concluded that quality, cost and service are the most crucial criteria for an automobile company operational in a developing country like India. Sensitivity analysis further helped to evaluate suppliers based on each criterion.

As this analysis and findings are based on only one case study of an Indian automobile company, and this necessitates caution in interpreting the results. The limited number of interviewed managers in a company restricts the generalizability of the results. Though the company selected for this study is typical of developing country businesses, the findings of the paper may not be readily extensible to other companies. Second, this study used retrospective settings, based on the interviewed feedback after the events had occurred. This method naturally poses limitations due to respondent recall and the accuracy of information provided. Third, the problem chosen for this study is based in a single country context and further additional research will be required to examine if the findings could be extended to other automobile companies in other developing nations. Also in some cases technique used in the study may pose some extra computational efforts.

This study points out the importance of the supplier selection problem. It provides key criteria for supplier selection in Indian context also proposes a framework to deal with multiple criteria. proposed model deals with two crucial criteria long term relationships and flexibility which were relatively less discussed and considered in the literature in past.

The proposed MCDM model can provide the guidelines and directions for the decision makers to effectively choose suppliers in the current competitive environment.