Activity-Based-Model (ABC) is used for the purpose of significant improvement for overhead accounting systems by providing the best information required for managerial decision. This pa-per discusses implacability of ABC technique on inventory valuation as a management account-ing innovation. In order to prove the applicability of ABC for inventory control a material driven medium-sized and privately owned company from engineering (iron and steel) industry is select-ed and by analysis of its production process and its material dependency and use of indirect in-ventory, an ABC model is explored for better inventory control. The case revealed that the ne-cessity of ABC in the area of inventory control is significant. The company is not only able to increase its quality of decision but also it can significantly analyze its cost of direct material cost, valuation of direct material and use its implications for better decision making.

Six Sigma is the concept of improving the quality by reducing process variations, making con-tinuous improvements, reducing defect rates and improving the processes. Initially, the concept of Six Sigma focused on defect reduction, cost reduction and value addition. Fundamentally the basic idea of Six Sigma is to improve the process-capability and making the process more relia-ble along with reducing wastes within industries. Evaluation the implication of applying Six Sigma over the small and medium-sized enterprises is the main purpose of this research work taking a particular case of automobile industries. In the present work, DMAIC methodology of Six Sigma is used to a small seat slider lock nut manufacturing unit to reduce the play issue in K2 seat slider lock in automobile units by reducing defects inherent in the process. After apply-ing Six Sigma methodology, it was found that manufacturing units could earn profits in terms of reducing the wastage as well as improving the quality standard of the product by controlling the play issue in seat slider lock nut mechanism. Result shows that with the application of Six Sig-ma, process, sigma level brought up to 5.53σ from 1.59σ by varying the seat slider lock nut di-mensions/size.

This study aims to understand the uncertainty about the optimum or best pin position (Dp) for friction stir lap welding (FSLW) of Al-Cu. Tensile shear testing is used to determine the Mechanical strength of FSL welds under static loading. Fracture strength (σLap) corresponding to the maximum load in a test over the sample width is used as the strength value. Interface microstructures differ depending on whether the tool pin penetrates the lapping interface. It has been found that σLap values of the defect free weld samples vary quite significantly and in general are significantly higher than those reported in the literature. When the pin penetration is close to zero no intermetallic layers were formed, hence the value of σLap was zero. When the pin penetration is 0.4mm, the commonly observed a thin Al–Cu interface layer forms and this layer does not grow beyond 3µm. It is shown that the thin interfacial layer can withstand a high tensile-shear load and thus the adjacent Al material shears to fracture. When the pin penetrates more than 0.4mm, the commonly observed mix stir zone (MSZ) forms and values of σLap are lower than that of 0.4mm pin penetration welds but remain quite high.

One of the most promising strategies that will smooth out the maintainability issues of the software is refactoring. Due to lack of proper design approach, the code often inherits some bad smells which may lead to improper functioning of the code, especially when it is subject to change and requires some maintenance. A lot of studies have been performed to optimize the refactoring strategy which is also a very expensive process. In this paper, a component based system is considered, and a Fuzzy Multi Criteria Decision Making (FMCDM) model is proposed by combining subjective and objective weights to rank the components as per their urgency of refactoring. Jdeodorant tool is used to detect the code smells from the individual components of a software system. The objective method uses the Entropy approach to rank the component having the code smell. The subjective method uses the Fuzzy TOPSIS approach based on decision makers’ judgement, to identify the critically and dependency of these code smells on the overall software. The suggested approach is implemented on component-based software having 15 components. The constitute components are ranked based on refactoring requirements.

An enormous amount of heat is released at the contact surface during machining of a component/partdue to friction, rubbing action and cutting forces generated. Cutting fluids are generally applied to provide lubrication and cooling at the tool and workpiece interface. They also play a beneficial role in machining operations, and enhance job shop’s productivity, tool life and quality of the finished parts/products. In addition to these, they act as an important contributor in optimizing a machining operation. However, a cutting fluid suitable for a particular machining requirement may not be equally good for other applications and hence, there is a need for selection of the appropriate type of cutting fluid with a view to facilitate superlative and uncomplicated machining operation. Several factors, such as material ofthe cutting tool, operator’s safety, compatibility with the machine tool, reliability and rancidity of the cutting fluid, and cost may all combine to limit the effectiveness or applicability of a cutting fluid. Therefore, the present study explores the potentiality of a modified similarity-based method, which is a multi-criteria decision making tool, in solving cutting fluid selection problems. To illustrate the procedural steps of this method, two real time problems are solved. The results obtained highly corroborate with the opinions of the experts in the related field, demonstrating the applicability of the said method.

This paper deals with the degree constrained k-cardinality minimum spanning tree (k-MSTPD) problem defined on a connected, edge weighted and undirected graph. The aim of this problem is to determine the least weighted spanning tree with exactly k vertices such that except the root vertex, no other vertex in the resultant spanning tree exceeds the specified degree limit. The k-MSTPD problem has many practical applications for the design of electric, communication, and transportation networks. The problem is then formulated as a zero-one programming. In this paper, an exact algorithm known as Lexi-search algorithm (LSA) is developed to tackle the k-MSTPD problem. Furthermore, the developed LSA is programmed in Matlab and tested on some benchmark instances as well as on random instances and the respective results are reported. The obtained experimental results showed that the developed LSA takes significantly less time to find the optimal solutions.

In this paper, the ranking performance of six most popular and easily comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, i.e. weighted sum method (WSM), weighted product method (WPM), weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) method, multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis and reference point approach (MOORA) method, and multiplicative form of MOORA method (MULTIMOORA) is investigated using two real time industrial robot selection problems. Both single dimensional and high dimensional weight sensitivity analyses are performed to study the effects of weight variations of the most important as well as the most critical criterion on the ranking stability of all the six considered MCDM methods. The identified local weight stability interval indicates the range of weights within which the rank of the best alternative remains unaltered, whereas, the global weight stability interval determines the range of weights within which the overall rank order of all the alternatives remains unaffected. It is observed that for both the problems, multiplicative form of MOORA is the most robust method being least affected by the changing weights of the most important and the most critical criteria.

When a supplier announces a price increase at a certain time in the future, for each retailer it is important to choose whether to purchase supplementary stock to take benefit of the current lower price or procure at a new price. This article focuses on the possible effects of price increase on a retailer’s replenishment strategy for constant deterioration of items. Here, quadratic demand is debated; which is appropriate for the products for which demand increases initially and subsequently it starts to decrease with the new version of the substitute. We discuss two scenarios in this study: (I) when the special order time coincides with the retailer’s replenishment time and (II) when the special order time falls during the retailer’s sales period. We determine an optimal ordering policy for each case by maximizing total cost savings between special and regular orders during the depletion time of the special order quantity. Scenarios are established and illustrated with numerical examples. Through, sensitivity analysis important inventory parameters are classified. Graphical results, in two and three dimensions, are exhibited with supervisory decision.

Trade credit mainly signifies increase in order quantity when retailer offers a trade credit to the customer. From the customer’s view, granting trade credit not only increases sales and revenue but also increases opportunity cost. So, the choice to offer trade credit is an important managerial consideration. Moreover another significant decision on purchasing is to include (or not to include) cash discount benefits and the motivations behind it. Therefore, the major objective of this article is to derive the inventory models for deteriorating items by maximizing the total profit of the retailer. The models includes the cash discount for the retailer depending on ordering quantity and also cash discount for the customer depending on the time. The customer’s demand is expressed as a function of time and price, which is appropriate for the products for which demand increases initially and after sometime it starts to decrease. Lastly, numerical examples along with sensitivity analysis are done, which extracts some fruitful managerial insights.