This paper deals with an integrated multi-stage supply chain inventory model with the objective of cost minimization by synchronizing the replenishment decisions for procurement, production and delivery activities. The supply chain structure examined here consists of a single manufacturer with multi-buyer where manufacturer orders a fixed quantity of raw material from outside suppliers, processes the materials and delivers the finished products in unequal shipments to each customer. In this paper, we consider an imperfect production system, which produces defective items randomly and assumes that all defective items could be reworked. A simple algorithm is developed to obtain an optimal production policy, which minimizes the expected average total cost of the integrated production-inventory system.

An effective and expeditious method of the synthesis of a highly functionalized piperidines, catalyzed by nontoxic, recyclable and environment friendly sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), via one-pot multi-component condensation of aldehydes, amines and β-ketoesters in water at room temperature, has been developed. This new protocol has advantages such as moderate to high yields of products obtained after simple post reaction workup. Structure of the synthesized compounds 4a–4j have been elucidated based on the 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FT-IR spectroscopy and elemental analysis.

This study aims to identify and evaluate the perception of major stakeholders on factors causing International Development Project (IDP) failure in the context of Afghanistan. The study adopts a quantitative cross-sectional survey research design. Thirty significant IDP failure factors included in the questionnaire were identified and shortlisted through literature reviews and validated by experts and IDP management practitioners. The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire to investigate the most significant IDP failure factors, and various statistical tools were employed to evaluate the perception of the survey respondents. RII was used to examine the relative importance index of each failure factor. The failure factors were then grouped into five categories: Financial constraints, Ineffective recruitment, External forces, Project leadership, and Project management practices using EFA. The findings of the study will help the international development community and their IDP implementing partners, INGs and project management practitioners manage IDPs proactively and mitigate the risks of project failure. It will also contribute to the IDP management body of knowledge. The research is the first of its kind to examine the possible factors causing IDP failure in Afghanistan.

The current research copes with the optimization of the surface heat transfer coefficients of a square mild steel test specimen by spray impingement cooling. A laboratory scale experimental setup was developed at School of Mechanical Engineering KIIT University, Odisha, India to investigate the role of various process parameters to enhance the heat transfer from the surface of the heated steal specimen. The mild steel plates of dimension 120 mm × 120 mm, and different thicknesses of 4 mm, 6 mm and 8 mm were used in the experiment. The effect of the process parameters such as thickness of the tested plate, nozzle to plate distance, air and water pressure upon the surface heat transfer coefficient (HTC) was optimized. The optimization of the controlling parameters was carried out by using the desirability functions. The Design Expert 8 software was used to analyze the experimental results. A new correlation was developed for optimization of the surface heat transfer coefficient.

With the progress in technology and innovation in product development, the contribution of computer- aided design (CAD) software in the design and manufacture of parts/products is growing on significantly. Selection of an appropriate CAD software is not a trifling task as it involves analyzing the appositeness of the available software packages to the unique requirements of the organization. Existence of a large number of CAD software vendors, presence of discordance among different hardware and software systems, and dearth of technical knowledge and experience of the decision makers further complicate the selection procedure. Moreover, there are very few published research papers related to CAD software selection, and majority of them have either employed criteria weights computed utilizing subjective judgements of the end users or floundered to incorporate the voice of customers in the decision making process. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a well-known technique for determining the relative importance of customers’ defined criteria for selection of any product or service. Therefore, this paper deals with design and development of a QFD-based decision making model in Visual BASIC 6.0 for selection of CAD software for manufacturing organizations. In order to demonstrate the applicability and potentiality of the developed model in the form of a software prototype, two illustrative examples are also provided.

Manufacturing organizations are under the pressure to give quality products at least cost within the possible minimum delivery time, even during unpredictable economic conditions. Due to competition like improved customer service and cost reduction, organizations are looking for innovative ways for creating competitive advantage. One such way is the effective information sharing among all the members of supply chain. To understand information sharing, we have to know the benefits of information sharing within the supply chain. In this study, on the basis of the relevant available literature and the suggestions of an expert team composed of managerial and technical experts of the manufacturing organization and academicians, eleven information sharing benefits have been diagnosed. An ISM-based model has been formed to study the understanding of the information sharing benefits in adopting the right information sharing within a manufacturing industry. We propose the ISM model, and a MICMAC investigation is applied. Its practical significance is to make use of the decision makers’ knowledge to give a fundamental understanding of a complicated situation, followed by a course of actions for problem-solving.

Powder mixed electro discharge machining (PMEDM) is a hybrid machining process where electrically conductive powder is suspended into a dielectric medium, for enhancing the material removal as well as the surface finish. In this investigation, electro discharge machining (EDM) has been performed for the machining of AISI 304 stainless steel by using the tungsten carbide electrode, when silicon carbide (SiC) powder is suspended into kerosene dielectric medium. Peak current, pulse on time, gap voltage, duty cycle and powder concentration are considered as process parameter while the surface roughness (Ra) is the only response. The effect of significant process parameters on the response has been studied. A regression analysis has been performed to describe the correlation of data between the machining parameter, and the response. Microstructural analysis has been done for the PMEDMed surface. The result shows that peak current is the most influential parameter for surface roughness. Surface roughness decreases with the increase of powder concentration.

The present paper develops a sustainable framework under a supply chain environment by considering a vendor and a buyer. The vendor governs the manufacturing process to serve the demand of the buyer. The manufacturing system is imperfect which ends up producing some fraction of defectives. For the sake of maintaining the goodwill of the organization, it is imperative to maintain the quality standards. Thus, the buyer employs the screening process to bifurcate the perfect items from the imperfect ones. The imperfect items secluded after screening are reverted back to the vendor, for which a warranty cost is incurred. Further, in an attempt to achieve sustainability the model considers the carbon-emissions costs during the transportation process. A one-time discrete investment is also considered for minimizing the setup cost of the vendor for subsequent cycles. The models are developed for the case of the individual decision and for the joint verdict of the players under consideration. Moreover, it has been proved that the integrated model performs proficiently over the individual model. The objective is to jointly optimize the costs sustained by the two players. Numerical analysis and sensitivity analysis is done for imparting the validity and robustness of the model.

In the present research work, four different multi response optimization techniques, viz. multiple response signal-to-noise (MRSN) ratio, weighted signal-to-noise (WSN) ratio, Grey relational analysis (GRA) and VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje in Serbian) methods have been used to optimize the electro-discharge machining (EDM) performance characteristics such as material removal rate (MRR), tool wear rate (TWR) and surface roughness (SR) simultaneously. Experiments have been planned on a D2 steel specimen based on L9 orthogonal array. Experimental results are analyzed using the standard procedure. The optimum level combinations of input process parameters such as voltage, current, pulse-on-time and pulse-off-time, and percentage contributions of each process parameter using ANOVA technique have been determined. Different correlations have been developed between the various input process parameters and output performance characteristics. Finally, the optimum performances of these four methods are compared and the results show that WSN ratio method is the best multiresponse optimization technique for this process. From the analysis, it is also found that the current has the maximum effect on the overall performance of EDM operation as compared to other process parameters.

Most of the supply chain models have been developed under symmetric information structure i.e. players have complete knowledge of each other’s policies. But in most of the cases, players do not have complete information about the other players i.e. some information regarding their businesses is hidden. This paper studies supply chain model of imperfect quality items under asymmetric information in which unit price taken by the buyer and unit marketing expenditure are influencing product’s demand. This information is hidden to seller. The seller delivers the supply to the buyer. Each delivered lot goes through an inspection process at the buyer’s side. In the inspection process, the items are divided into two categories. The first category is perfect quality items while the second category is of imperfect quality items. After the inspecting the lots, the perfect quality commodities are to be sold at selling price and the imperfect items are supposed to get sold at a discounted price. The interaction between two constituents of the supply chain is modeled by non-cooperative Seller Stackelberg game approach in which the role of leader is played by the seller while the role of follower is played by the buyer. In our proposed model, the seller does not have information related to market demand but the buyer does. Numerical examples and sensitivity analysis explain the significance of the theory.