Showing papers by "Abid Haleem published in 2011"

Barriers to implement green supply chain management in automobile industry using interpretive structural modeling technique: An Indian perspective

Abstract: Purpose : Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) has received growing attention in the last few years. Most of the automobile industries are setting up their own manufacturing plants in competitive Indian market. Due to public awareness, economic, environmental or legislative reasons, the requirement of GSCM has increased. In this context, this study aims to develop a structural model of the barriers to implement GSCM in Indian automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach: We have identified various barriers and contextual relationships among the identified barriers. Classification of barriers has been carried out based upon dependence and driving power with the help of MICMAC analysis. In addition to this, a structural model of barriers to implement GSCM in Indian automobile industry has also been put forward using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) technique. Findings: Eleven numbers of relevant barriers have been identified from literature and subsequent discussions with experts from academia and industry. Out of which, five numbers of barriers have been identified as dependent variables; three number of barriers have been identified as the driver variables and three number of barriers have been identified as the linkage variables. No barrier has been identified as autonomous variable. Four barriers have been identified as top level barriers and one bottom level barrier. Removal of these barriers has also been discussed. Research limitations/implications: A hypothetical model of these barriers has been developed based upon experts’ opinions. The conclusions so drawn may be further modified to apply in real situation problem. Practical implications: Clear understanding of these barriers will help organizations to prioritize better and manage their resources in an efficient and effective way. Originality/value: Through this paper we contribute to identify the barriers to implement GSCM in Indian automobile industry and to prioritize them. The structured model developed will help to understand interdependence of the barriers. This paper also suggests the removal of these barriers.

Identification of drivers for greening of supply chain in India

Abstract: Global concern for environment has forced organisations to consider various initiatives for controlling and monitoring the environmental impact of their products, processes and services throughout the supply chain. Though there is a rise in environmental initiatives taken by Indian industries, still it has a long way to go. This paper identifies a set of drivers for greening the supply chain and groups them into different categories for an Indian context. Based on a detailed analysis of extant literature 19 drivers were identified and a structured questionnaire was developed and distributed to middle level managers from different sectors of Indian industry. A total of 119 valid responses were received on a five point Likert scale ranging from unimportant to most important. Statistical analysis was used to establish the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. Factor analysis identified five factors as regulatory drivers, market drivers, economic drivers, social drivers and internal drivers. Further descriptive statistics was used to find their importance in Indian context. This work can help Indian managers and practitioners to understand the importance of these drivers and their role in greening their supply chain.

Cell Formation Techniques - A Study

Abstract: Cellular manufacturing system has been proved a vital approach for batch and job shop production systems. Group technology has been an essential tool for developing a cellular manufacturing system. The paper aims to discuss various cell formation techniques and highlights the significant research work done in past over the years and attempts to points out the gap in research of past studies. In general, descriptive procedures can be classified into three major classes. The first class, which is referred to as part families identification (PFI), begins the cell formation process by identifying the families of parts first and then allocates machines to the families. The second class, which is referred to as machine groups identification (MGI). The third class of the descriptive procedures, which is referred to as part families/machine grouping (PF/MG), identifies the part families and machine groups simultaneously. PFI methods can be sub- classified as those based on informal systems (e.g., rules of thumb, visual examination or other criteria) and those based on formal coding and classification systems. The role of group technology (GT) codes in the context of cellular manufacturing is primarily as an aid in identifying the part families to which production cells should be dedicated. Further analysis is required before a family of parts to be manufactured in a cell, and the machines, which will comprise that cell, can be specified. MGI procedures consider the CF problem as a two- stage process where in the first stage of their analysis, machines are grouped based on information available in part routings and then in the second stage, parts are allocated to machine groups. When a CF approach attempts to group parts into part families and machines into machine groups simultaneously, then such an approach can be classified as PF/MG. Burbidge (1971) proposed one of the earliest PF/MG descriptive approaches for the CF problem which is referred to as Production Flow Analysis (PFA). PFA is a technique, which analyses the information given in route cards to form cells. A manual method for CF called "Nuclear Synthesis" is proposed where manufacturing cells are created around "key machines". E1-Essawy (1972) proposed a method called Component Flow Analysis (CFA) at about the same time. In some respects, the methodology of CFA does differ from that of Burbidge's PFA procedure since the latter first partitions the problem, whereas the former does not.

Risk Effect Of IT Outsourcing On Firm Performance And Value

Abstract: This study examines the risk effect of IT outsourcing on firm performance and value in different types of contracts categorized by contract value and contract term. We used audited financial data to investigate the impact of IT outsourcing on firms’ performance and value. We examined the performance and value in a sample of 90 publicly traded firms that outsourced their IT activities between 1986 and 2009, over a four-quarter period following the outsourcing announcements. Our findings confirm the trend of shrinking outsourcing contract value and term in reality. The results reveal that short-term and low-weight IT outsourcing contracts improve firms’ performance more than long-term and high-weight contracts.

Performance Optimization of an Imbalanced Flexible Manufacturing System Using Taguchi Approach

Abstract: Considering the diverse range of manufacturing capabilities of modern manufacturing systems, uniform distribution of load onthe workstations (WSs) is difficult to achieve as some of the WSs are required to process more parts than others or sometimes processing time of a WS can differ from one part to the other. These situations lead to unbalancing of the manufacturing system. The objective of this paper is to study and optimize the performance of an imbalanced Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) under different operating environments. The FMS under consideration manufactures three types of parts having different processing characteristics. The experimental variables for the study are buffer capacities at the WSs, reduction in processing time of bottleneck WS, WSs processing time distribution, and parts release control. Throughput, average work-in-process (AWIP) and Average Throughput Time (ATT) are taken as performance measures. Taguchi approach is used to analyze the effects of above variables and establish the combinations of best factor levels to get the optimal performance. All variables are found to affect the performance to some extent. Reduction in processing time of the bottleneck WS and processing time distribution affected the performance of the system severely. The best factor level ombinations differ for parts having different processing characteristics. This paper may help industry in analyzing the performance of an imbalanced FMS.

The Impact of Various Dimensions of SCM Practices in Indian Oil and Gas Sector

Abstract: The Indian oil and gas sector is one of the core industries in India and has very significant forward linkages with the entire economy. India has been growing at a decent rate annually and is omitted to accelerate the growth momentum in the years to come. The paper investigates the complex relationships between the six dimensions of supply chain management practices (strategic relationship, customer's relationship, information sharing, postponement, delivery dependability, time to market) in oil and gas sector. An empirical study of 309 respondents in oil and gas industries were taken for empirical study, SPSS-16 software were used for analysis, out of six factors three factors were selected through factor analysis and further correlation was done among the selected variables, reveals that strategic relationship, customer relationship and information is positively correlated with Supply chain management (SCM) practices. The oil and gas sector in India presents a significant opportunity for investors and is exhibited to demonstrate robust growth in line with the growth of the Indian economy. The lack of available supplies has so far hindered the growth of this segment.