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Research Perspective
of Supply Chain
Modeling
-- T T Narendran and K Ganesh
The
focus of business has, over the last decade, shifted from individual functions
to the entire supply chain. The strategic importance of planning, controlling
and designing a supply chain as a whole, has been realized. In an effort to help
firms capture the synergy of inter-functional and inter-organizational integration
and coordination across the supply chain, and to subsequently make better decisions,
this paper outlines the various functions, characteristics and the scope of supply
chain modeling, identifying the key challenges and opportunities for researchers
in supply chain management. ©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
A
Heuristic Procedure for One-dimensional Bin-packing Problem with Additional Constraints
--
Satyendra
Kumar In
this paper, the author proposes a heuristic algorithm to solve the one-dimensional
bin-packing problem with additional constraints. The proposed algorithm has been
applied to solve a practical vehicle-allocation problem. The experimental results
show that the proposed heuristic provides optimal or near-optimal results, and
performs better than the first fit decreasing algorithm, modified to incorporate
additional constraints. ©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Service
Quality Measurement in Management Education Institutes
--
B
A Prajapati and Tohid Kachwala The
delivery of information in the context of knowledge transmission in the case of
Management Education Institutes (MEI) is intangible in nature. Therefore, their
inputs in terms of delivery of this knowledge—faculty, equipment and the
entire environment and infrastructure—are very important for research as
well as quality. There exists a gap between the quality rendered by faculty and
service provider, and quality required by students. It is essential to understand
the exact quality required by the students to develop a course and curriculum
that suit their requirements. To understand the quality required, it is mandatory
for it to be measured. Service quality can be described in terms of objective
and perceptual characteristics: Objective characteristics include things like,
lecture time, wait time, etc., and can be easily quantified. Perceptual characteristics
on the other hand, depend on the students' perceptions, which include dimensions
of service quality based on the SERVQUAL and other service quality instruments.
In this paper, the requirements of Business Schools in Mumbai as perceived by
students, are evaluated. The questionnaire is on the basis of a hypothesized model
for service quality. The responses are evaluated to assess whether the factors
identified in the model significantly influence the service quality in business
schools. Based on factor analysis of the responses, the authors try to develop
a working model for the perceived service quality factors in Management Education
Institutes. This will help to identify the improvements in Service Quality in
Management Education Institutes. ©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
ISO
9000 Implementation in Indian Industries: A Study of its Reasons and Benefits
-- K
Subrahmanya Bhat and R Jagadeesh
Quality
has been identified as one of the competitive strategies for improving business
performance in a global market. Organizations all over the world are using different
techniques for quality improvement. ISO 9000, is both a management tool, and a
source of competitive advantage, with the potential to stimulate the company in
moving towards Total Quality Management (TQM). Indian industries have gone for
ISO certification in a big way since the beginning of the 1990s. This paper describes
the findings from a survey conducted on a sample of Indian companies that have
been ISO 9000:2000 certified. This survey mainly focuses on the reasons for certification
and the benefits after certification. The survey also tries to find out the major
benefits and difficulties of introducing TQM in Indian industries. The results
of this survey show that there is a significant difference between the Indian
and foreign industries with regard to internal reasons for ISO 9000 certification.
The major benefits achieved by them after certification include customer satisfaction,
improved customer service and product quality. ©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Why
TQM Initiatives Fail?
-- Mostafa
Moballeghi and B Shivaraj
The
general definition of Total Quality Management (TQM) as—a philosophy that
would enable an organization to consistently meet the needs of customers—is
accepted worldwide by manufacturing executives, as a strategic concept for organizational
survival. However, reaching the TQM destination has been a continuing challenge
for them. This paper focuses on the barrier factors of TQM implementation and
the real causes of its failure, and discusses the reason why different manufacturers
implement TQM with varying degrees of success. Successful TQM implementation requires
a thorough understanding of the critical success factors, barriers to achieve
these factors, and managerial tools and techniques to overcome these barriers.
The paper concludes that implementation of TQM is not a guarantee for the highest
quality, but is a step in the right direction, i.e., there is a need for an increased
focus on the area of organizational change related to TQM. ©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Case
Study Ashok
Leyland's ISO 14001 Journey
-- K Subhadra
©
2002 ICMR. All Rights Reserved. For accessing
and procuring the case study, log on to www.ecch.cranfield.ac.uk | 
