010916   Shah M N (NO, Natn Inst of Constr Mgmt and Res, Pune) : To market or to metamarket - doing real business in the convergence era. NICMAR J Constr Mgmt 2005, 20(1), 27-33.

Of growing interest is the concept of "metamarkets" which first began to be spoken around the turn of the century and displays persistent interest amongst experts like Dr. Philip Kotler, Dr. Mohanbir Sawhney, and some others who have been writing and speaking about the natural progression of an organization post-internet and service new millenium customers. Author decided to focus on this concept with an aim to strengthen it and attempts to take it beyond the realm of conceptual to the real. The attempts is to extend this concept across sectors (consumer aad business, and product and service variety). The idea is that once these models are built, management could be motivated to think agile and organize themselves around these markets. Perhaps with this concept organizations would recognize market / product offerings more seamlessly to meet clusters of customer needs and perhaps even completely turn themselves inside out in the process! The key drivers in this change will definitely be a far greater commitment and capability to technology (Internet, online, SCM) and a Service orientation, the capability to look beyond products to "only customer" view. The paper also takes a tentative step towards addressing issues like will there be scuh etities as say metacorporations, metamediaries serving metaneeds of customers in metamarkets?

5 illus, 21 ref

010915   Kishore Kumar M (Mgmt Dep Fac of Civ Engng, Coll of Military Engng, Pune) : OPTBID - a rational approach towards bidding strategies. NICMAR J Constr Mgmt 2005, 20(2), 1-12.

Strategies on bidding are affected by numerous factors related to to the specific features of the project and competitors in the tendering process. The bid mark-up decisions are mostly based upon intuition and past experience. `OPTBID' bidding model is an improvement over the existing mathematical approaches by incorporating the crucial information about competitors in the decision making through fuzzification techniques. Thus the proposed methodology focuses primarily on the risk and competition. Further the model developed has been deliberately left unstructured and generalized for easy adaptability by the practitioners in dynamic scenario.

3 tables, 6 ref

010914   Basaran A;Mohamed A N (Civ Engng Dep, East Mediterranean Univ, North Cyprus, Turkey) : Resource constrained project scheduling problem by ant colony optimization. NICMAR J Constr Mgmt 2005, 20(1), 1-8.

Construction projects, project activities are scheduled under limited resources, such as limited crew sizes, limited equipment amounts and limited materials. There are several direct methods, such as Critical Path Method (CPM) and Project Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT), for planning and scheduling projects. These direct solutions are not suitable for solving resource constrained problems. Since scheduling is an important part of project planning, there should be appropriate techniques for obtaining reasonable schedules for real life problems. Optimization methods find the best solution, but these methods often exceed the present computational and storage capacities of ordinary computers, especially for large projects that are common in the construction industry. This paper presents Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) method for resource constrained project scheduling. Two ACO algorithms, ACO with single ant (ACO-s) and ACO with five ants (ACO-5M) are proposed and are tested on a set of bench-mark problems from Proejct Scheduling Library (PSLIB). The selected bench-mark problem set has 600 problem instances, each having 120 activities and 4 renewable resources. Software has been developed by using Microsoft Visual Basic in order to solve the selected bench-mark problems. The developed software is able to do CPM calculations, draw Gantt chart and resources histogram before ACO iterations and after ACO iterations.

13 illus, 1 table, 22 ref

009861   Thomas A;Jose K K (NO, Vimala Coll, Thrissur, Kerala) : Marshall-olkin bivariate pareto distribution and its applications. IAPQR Trans 2004, 29(1), 1-9.

Marshall-Olkin bivariate Pareto (MOBP) distribution is introduced. Reliability characteristics of MOBP are developed. Some characterizations arc investigated.

14 ref

009860   Suresh Kumar R;Gopal G (NO, Univ of Madras, Madras, India) : On the expected time to recruitment in a two grade organisation when the thresholds are erlang 2. IAPQR Trans 2004, 29(1), 21-31.

In marketing organisation announcement of policy revisions regarding wages, incentives and targets results in the loss of manpower and frequent recruitments are not advocated due to various costs involved. It is assumed that an organisation has two grades and transfer of personnel from one grade to the other is permitted. The organisation undergoes cumulative loss of manpower in both the grades due to successive policy revisions, and recruitments take place when she cumulative loss of manpower crosses a random threshold level. Since Erlang 2 distribution arises as a special case of the general from of distribution that exhibits IHR property, it is more appropriate to have Erlang 2 distribution as the threshold in both the grades. Using shock model and cumulative damage process, the expected time to recruitment and its variance in a two-grade organisation are obtained.

2 ref

009859   Pandya M;Jani P N (NO, Bhavnagar Univ, India) : Bayesian estimation in a stress-strength change point model having a change in strength. IAPQR Trans 2004, 29(1), 11-19.

Bayes estimates of change point reliabilities in a stress-Strength change point model under symmetric and asymmetric loss functions have been derived, considering different priors. The sensitivity of the Bayes estimates has also been studied.

6 tables, 9 ref

009858   Gopalan M N (NO, The Natn Inst of Engng, Mysore, India) : Probabilistic analysis of a two-stage production system with two parallel machines in the first stage. IAPQR Trans 2004, 29(1), 53-66.

Deals with the probabilistic analysis of a two-stage production system with two production machines in parallel in the first stage. The time taken to process a job on any of the three machines is random, governed by a probability distribution and the distribution is quite general. Semi-finished jobs processed by the machines in the first-stage arec transferred to the machine in the second stage for further processing. The analysis is carried out by employing the state-space method and the regeneration point technique and several measures of system performance, transient in nature, are evaluated. A cost analysis is also carried out by using some of the measures of system performance obtained.

16 illus, 4 ref

008670   Ranganathan R;Ramanathan B (Sardar Vallabhbhai, Patel Institute of Textile Management, Coimbatore) : Decision making process for investment in research and development in textile sector. Man Made Text India 2005, August, 288-93.

Research and Development (R&D) is a rarely spelt word with respect to Indian textile industry, even though reports suggest that India is the future destination for R&D outsourcing ($8 billion by 2010). The market for India's R&D outsourcing is expected to grow form the present $1.3 billion to $8 billion in 2008. For textiles the R&D expenditure as a percentage of net sales is 1.36%. Successful textile companies of the 21st century will be those that manage knowledge to their advantage. The company that can source and apply knowledge to solve problems and develop technological differentiation in an environmentally sustainable manner will put the stress on its competitors. These companies will be the innovators who will prosper and expand. Any textile company must undertake evaluation process in order to select the best R&D projects to help expand their business opportunities. This may be termed as "decision making process in R&D investments". Authors would like to propose an evaluation tool for such process. An assessment of various types of project proposals is discussed in detail in the paper.

5 illus, 11 ref

008669   Dogra P;Tripathi K P;Sharda V N;Dhyani S K (NO, Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Dehradun -248 195) : Quantitative evaluation of participation paradigms of watershed development projects-a methodology. Indian J Soil Conserv 2005, 33(2), 152-61.

Success stories in participatory mode of watershed development within and out side the country and its ability to meet the Agenda 21's complex demands with a single coherent strategy made it a popular strategy among diverse agencies. India's four decade old watershed management programme switched from top-down to bottom-up watershed development approach based on the recommendations of the Hanumantha Rao Committee in 1995. With this approach, Common Guidelines for watershed development were formulated by Government of India in respect of programmes within its mandate. Despite wide coverage of various watershed development programmes as per the new guidelines in the country, there is a lack of methodologies for capturing the participatory processes. This is an attempt to evolve a methodology to evaluate the new paradigm of participatory watershed management adopted in the form of common guidelines by various implementing agencies. A list of components covering nearly every aspect of participatory watershed development was prepared. The responses of the stakeholders of an evaluated watershed were taken for the components and valued with a 3-point scale. The components were weighed as per expert opinion and grouped into major components along with their weights thereby providing weights of the major components. Based on their weights, the major components were ranked and assigned fresh weights. Finally, Participation Paradigm Index and Participatory Watershed Development Index have been developed and validated to quantitatively evaluate and monitor participation of stakeholders in watershed development programme. The methodology was utilized for evaluating two watershed development projects executed by different agencies.

5 tables, 9 ref

006467   Malik A (Lal Bahadur Shastri Inst of Mgmt, , Sector-III, R K Puram, New Delhi-110 022) : Customer relationship management. Indian J Fertil 2005, 1(6), 71-5.

India is an agrarian based economy and rural India is showing promising growth rate, which gives every reason for the marketer to consider this market seriously. In the past, fertilisers had been considered as the commodity requiring least marketing effort. However, with the change in the macro and micro-economic conditions and the farmer's behaviour, this sector is also witnessing competition. The article deals with the recent marketing concept of customer relationship management and explores what his CRM, its origin and more importantly, if implemented, how it can be beneficial for the fertiliser companies.

6 ref

005341   Chakraborty P S;Majumder G;Sarkar B (Adult, Continuing Education and Extension Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700 032) : Performance evaluation of existing vendors using analytic hierarchy process. J scient ind Res 2005, 64(9), 648-52.

The study, done on a light engineering industry situated at Faridabad having most of the vendors within 10 km radius, evaluates the performance of existing die casting vendors. The organization wants to reduce existing die casting vendors from five to three. System adaptability criterion consists of factors such as green manufacturing, support to lean manufacturing by adapting Direct on Line (DOL) system. Other criteria are cost, quality, schedule adherence and general cooperation. The management guided for the weightage to different criteria. Performance of the vendors was evaluated using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is a powerful and flexible decision-making tool for complex, multi-criteria problems. Consistency ratio was checked. Composite rank was calculated for vendors. Based on composite rank score, recommendations were made. After that, number of vendors reduced to streamline the supply chain.

8 tables, 17 ref

024980   Prabhjot Kaur;Dhaliwal R K;Dhillon D S (Extension Education Dep, Punjab Agricultural Univ, Ludhiana-141 004) : Prevailing and desired organizational climate at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana agricultural Univ, Hisar. Ann agric biol Res 2007, 12(1), 65-74.

Data were collected from 100 agricultural scientists of CCSHAU, Hisar. Organizational climate scale was developed by using Likert technique. Organizational climate was measured in the areas of communication, managing rewards, interpersonal relationships, supervision and decision-making.  Different items were prepared in each of the areas. Response was recorded on a five-point continuum viz., strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree with the weightage of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 for positive statements and 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for negative statements, respectively. Organizational climate was measured in terms of the scores obtained by the agricultural scientists on organizational climate scale. Mean score for prevailing and desired organizational climate was worked out area-wise. Paired t-test was used to test the significance of difference in the mean score of prevailing and desired climate. Gap of mean score of 29.43 was found in the overall perceived organizational climate. Gap of mean score of 4.49, 7.16, 5.59, 5.26 and 6.93 was found in the areas of communication managing rewards, interpersonal relationships, supervision and decision-making, respectively.

7 tables, 2 ref

020913   Sarkar A;Sarkar T (NO, Centralmechanical Engng Res Inst, Durgapu-713 209) : Managing quality of R & D organization through ISO 9001 certification. J scient ind Res 2007, 66(2), 124-7.

With the increase in complexity and globalization, business environment has made R & D very important to an organization for its survival. ISO 9001: 2000 standard has influenced, to a great extent, the management of quality in an organization - big or small by introducing the concept of continual improvement and customer satisfaction in the system irrespective of its activities. This paper discusses some of the benefits of ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS) to manage the functions of any organization, including R & D, and implementing the same in an organization with particular reference to 'Continual Improvement' and 'Customer Satisfaction', which have been highlighted in the said standard.

3 tables, 5 ref

020912   Bhardwaj J R;Chawla R;Sharma R K (Nation Disaster Mangement Authority, Centaur Hotel (Near IGI Airport), , New Delhi-110 037, Email: jrb2600@gmail.com) : Chemical disaster management: current status and perspecties. J scient ind Res 2007, 66(2), 110-19.

Analysis of major chemical accidents has exhibited deficiencies like laxity towards safety measures, non-conformance to techno-legal systems and lesser public consultation. A paradigm shift has occurred in government's focus from rescue, relief, restoration-centric approach to planning, prevention/mitigation and preparedness approach. The designing of safer engineering practices, standard operating procedures, well-rehearsed on/off-site emergency plans, community awareness, resource and risk inventory built up, training, education, capacity built up, are important practices that may eventually help in development of community mindset to bravely face disasters so as to reduce their impact. This review summarizes existing concept of chemical (industrial) disaster management in India, discusses some important key issues, identifies gray areas needing recuperation and presents future trends and challenges.

1 illus, 4 tables, 40 ref

019953   Jana H;Adhikary M M;Basu D (Agricultural Extension Dep, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur-741 252) : Adoption of various sale promotion methods of agricultural input retailers in West Bengal. Envir Ecol 2006, 24S(3), 599-601.

Study was carried out in Midnapur (East) district (one of leading agricultural district) of West Bengal with 100 respondents (selected by universe method) of five randomly selected blocks. The data were collected by personal interview method and analysis of data was done by using percentage and ranks. The major sale promotion methods adopted by agricultural input retailers were individual contact to farmers (97%), selling products in credit (95%), diagnosing and prescribing (95%) and participating dealers' meeting (45%). The study indicates that agricultural input retailers are helping farmers in several ways namely selling products in credit, diagnosing and prescribing, offering gift package, visiting farm and home. Government should have suitable measures to promote the activities of agricultural input-retailers and extension agency should follow a well chalked-out program for solving the related problems of agricultural input-retailers in marketing of pesticides.

1 table, 1 ref

018897   Singh P;Sunita Rani;Tewari P (Home Sci Extension Dep, Coll of Home Sci, G.B. Pant Univ of Agric and Technol, Pantnagar-263 145) : Utilization of animal waste among farm families. Pantnagar J Res 2006, 4(2), 137-40.

Our forest wealth is dwinding due to over grazing as well as over exploitation both for commercial purpose and household needs. One of the major causes for degradation of forests is illegal cutting and removal of trees by contractors and their labourers. Biogas is an alternative for restricting the degradation of forests and maintaining the balance of ecosystem. Gobar gas plant makes the rural atmosphere neat and hygienic. It mitigates drudgery of rural women and reduces the pressure on forests. The main objective behind the study was to know the extent and ways of utilizing the animal waste and knowledge of farm women regarding bio-gas. Out of five villages, 91 families possessed animals and most of the families used cow dung and farm wastes for manure and fuel. Only 10 per cent families were using L.P.G for cooking and rest were using wood and cow dung cake for fuel. Thirty percent respondents were aware of biogas plant and 20 per cent perceived the advantage of biogas and were willing to construct biogas plant after availing the training.

2 illus, 6 tables, 5 ref

016788   Shailendra Kumar (Grow Talent Company, , Gurgaon) : Human resource development techniques - need for indian dairy development. Indian Dairyman 2006, 58(12), 89-93.

016787   Ganguli N C (NO, ICAR, New Delhi) : Management policies and strategies for development & implementation of total quality assurance system in dairy industry. Indian Dairyman 2006, 58(12), 69-72.

016786   Bhalla S K (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, , Anand) : Strategies for development of total quality assurance system. Indian Dairyman 2006, 58(12), 58-62.

016785   Bandyopadhyay P (Cambridge Solutions Ltd, , Bangalore) : Behavioral science intervention for enhancing organisational effectiveness. Indian Dairyman 2006, 58(12), 82-8.

26 ref

015769   Baisya R K (Management Studies Dep, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110 016) : Indian processed food industry - present status & future challenges. Indian Fd Packer 2006, 60(5), 55-62.

In the post liberalization era, Indian processed food industry is going through radical transformation in i, the sense that with MNCs entering the Indian market there is significant technology upgradation and new product introduction supported by high pitch marketing and innovative promotional activities. In spite of that our domestic market as well as international market has not grown as expected but the import of processed foods into the country has gone up during that period. Many multinationals such as Nutricia" have even decided to withdraw from the Indian market after all their attempts failed to deliver sustainable performance. Those MNCs who have decided to continue are really struggling to survive keeping a very long term focus Indian market. Captures current performance with respect to some of the key categories of processed foods and attempts to trace the reasons thereof. It also attempts to identify key challenges the industry is facing and lists the tasks ahead.

6 tables

010349   Jyoti;Banwet D K;Deshmukh S G (NO, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi-110 016, Email: jyoti_tikoria@rediffmail.com) : Balanced scorecard for performance evaluation of R&D organization: a conceptual model. J scient ind Res 2006, 65(11), 879-86.

Research and Development has been recognized as most important for future competitiveness to survive in competitive and highly turbulent environment. A huge amount of money and other resources are being deployed in R&D by government as well as private organizations. A major consideration is required on performance improvement that needs to continuously evaluate the performance of R&D in line with vision and strategy of the organization. Evaluating the performance of R&D organizations from four perspectives (financial, customers', innovative and learning, and internal business processes) using the balanced scorecard technique.

2 illus, 7 tables, 24 ref

010348   Chandra Mouli, K V V;Subbaiah K V;Acharyulu (Department of Industrial Production Engineering, College of Engineering, GITAM, Visakhapatnam-530 045, Email: acharyulusg@rediffmail.com) : Optimal production planning under resource constraints. J scient ind Res 2006, 65(12), 966-9.

Production planning is meant to arrive at the framework of manufacturing operations during the period planned. Addresses the solution for finding an optimal production planning to minimize the total cost under the resource constraints taking overtime and subcontracting costs. A mathematical model is formulated and Genetic algorithms arc implemented in constrained optimization to arrive an optimal solution.

1 illus, 6 tables, 11 ref

010347   Abo Alhol T R;Ismail M Y;Sapuan S M;Hamdan M M (Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia, Email: sapuan@eng.upm.edu.my) : Effects of quality circle participation on employee perception and attitude in five Malaysian companies. J scient ind Res 2006, 65(12), 970-6.

Investigates changes in employee attitude brought about through participation in Quality Circle (QC). Assessment of circle performance was measured by technical aspects, length of participation, training, member feelings about QCs, job satisfaction and job commitment has been investigated. Study illustrates the impacts of participation on 130 workers from 5 Malaysian companies participated in a survey. Results show that QCs develop positive attitudes among employees who derive job satisfaction when they feel that their companies are a good place to work and consequently, more willing to extend their efforts for their companies.

5 tables, 40 ref

008131   Shrimali S C (Aeronaut Developmental Ag, , Bangalore) : Quality assurance and system effectieness activities at ADA. R&D Qual 2004, 6-7(2-1), 19-22.

008130   Khurana A (NO, Terminal Ballistics Res Lab, Chanigarh) : Benefits of ISO-9000 quality management systems (QMS) in R&D environment. R&D Qual 2004, 6-7(2-1), 1-13.

Post liberalization policies of the Indian Government have given a real challenge to the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) scientists to live with the paradigm of strict time schedules, improved quality and reduced costs. Scientists are now expected to reduce lead times of design, development, purchasing and deliver the required product. Keeping this in view, many DRDO laboratories have gone for Quality Management System (QMS) implementation and obtained ISO-9001 certification. Though being generic in nature, QMS was mainly implemented earlier in the manufacturing sector. After, its incorporation in the R&D environment, a study was done to establish its benefits in the R&D organization, which may be of great benefit to other research establishments, who wish to implement QMS.

10 ref

008129   Cherian S (Hindustant Aeronautics Limited, , Bangalore-560 001) : Development of China's civil aviation industry. R&D Qual 2004, 6-7(2-1), 14-8.

Indian aviation made a great start of October 1932 when J R D Tata made his inaugural mail flight from Karachi to Mumbai. Since 1953, when the Government of India nationalised the Airlines, the aviation activities in India are under the control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The ICAO predicts the world's fastest aviation market growth rate (7 percent) till 2015 for India. Predictions however can be deceptive. Air travel per capita in India is negligible. The Chinese, Pakistanis, Indonesians, Turks and Malaysians clock more air miles than Indians do. The reforms in China, since it's opening up in 1978, have enabled rapid growth in all sectors of Civil Aviation progressively. By 2005, total air transport turnover is expected to reach 100 million passengers in China. The results of ICAO's work on the economic contribution of civil aviation states that in the global economy, every $ 100 of output and every 100 jobs generated by air transport trigger additonal demand of some $ 325 and 610 jobs in other industries.

10 ref

007097   Srinivasa Rao V;Srinivasa Rao K;Vivekananda Murthy M (Statist Dep, Andhra Univ, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh) : Two graded stochastic model in manpower planning. Andhra Agric J 2005, 52(1-2), 247-52.

Planning is a natural and inevitable phenomenon in every day life for optimum utilization of resources. One of the major resources is human resources. The planning of personnel in an organisation is often referred as manpower planning of the organisation. Manpower planning is the integration of manpower policies, practices and procedures in order to achieve the right people in the right jobs at right time. It is often defined as the attempt to match the supply of people with the jobs available for them. The growth and development of a company is dependent largely on the proper planning of the their personnel. Since, the human behaviour is random in nature, stochastic models provide the basic frame work for efficient analysis and design of a manpower systems.

1 illus, 1 table, 9 ref

007096   Rajiv Kumar;Singh S P;Chandrawat H N (Dep of Industrial Engng, Natn Inst of Technol, Jalandhar-144 011, Email: rajivsharma1972@yahoo.com) : Experimental adaptive vibration control of smart structures using LVQ neural networks. J scient ind Res 2006, 65(10), 798-807.

Presemt experimental adaptive identification and control of a smart structure featuring piezoceramic-based sensors/actuators. An inverted L-structure with surface bonded piezoceramic sensors/actuators is used for analysis. The state-space presentation, from control input voltages, to output sensor voltage is established in multivariable form. It is assumed that the parameters of the smart structure are changing at fast rates. Computational time required for classical identification techniques is generally quite high. For the system, whose parameters change quickly with time, classical system identification techniques fail. So, for improving the system performance, Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) cannot be re-designed in real-time for changed parameters of the flexible structure, even if these parameters are identified in real time. Closed loop identification of system parameters and control gains based on system classification technique is proposed for the systems changing at fast rates.

8 illus, 4 tables, 12 ref

007095   Qi Hua L;Hong Zhang Y;Yi Rong Gao (Sch of Business Adm, Shandong Inst of Business and Technol, Yantai-264 005, Shangdong, P R China, Email: liangqh@sina.com) : MNC's technology correlation effect and industry agglomeration. J scient ind Res 2006, 65(10), 787-93.

MNC's FDI and technology transfer are related to technology correlation, and they interact with industry agglomeration. Conceptions of "correlated technology" and "spin-off technology" are defined in a new way. Then based on relationship between technical innovation and industry agglomeration, interactive mechanism of MNC's technology correlation and industry agglomeration is analyzed, and interative effect of correlated technology, spin-off technology and industry agglomeration is further studied.

6 illus, 18 ref

007094   Jyoti ;Banwet D K;Deshmukh S G (NO, Indian Inst of Technol, New Delhi-110 016, Email: jyoti_tikoria@rediffmail.com) : Balanced scorecard for performance evaluation of R&D organization: a conceptual model. J scient ind Res 2006, 65(11), 879-86.

Research and Development has been recognized as most important for future competitiveness to survive in the competitive and highly turbulent environment. A huge amount of money and other resources are being deployed in R&D by government as well as private organizations. A major consideration is required on performance improvement that needs to continuously evaluate the performance of R&D in line with vision and strategy of the organization. Evaluating the performance of R&D organizations from four perspectives (financial, customers', innovative and learning, and internal business processes) using the balanced scorecard technique.

2 illus, 7 tables, 24 ref

007093   Bhardwaj A;Sushil ;Sharma S K;Sharma V S (Dep of Industrial Engng, Dr B R Ambedkar Natn Inst of Technol, Jalandhar, Email: arvind_rec@yahoo.com) : Vendor-customer relationship for product design-An exploratory study of Indian automotive industry. J scient ind Res 2006, 65(10), 794-7.

Focuses on the partnership between Indian automotive vendors and vehicle manufacturers for product design activity. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect unit level data. Questionnaire included closed ended questions and the responses were taken on a 5-point scale. Responses (84) were collected from vendor organizations (40). Vendors were clustered into different categories for bringing but their characteristics. The level of involvement of vendors in the product design activity for their customers was investigated. A very low involvement of vendors was observed for this activity and there is a lot of variation with respect to this activity for different Clusters.

3 tables, 8 ref

006015   Chiu S W;Chiu Y S P;Shih C C (Dep of Business Adm, Chaoyang Univ of Technol, 168, Gifeng E.Rd., Wufeng, Taichung, Taiwan-413, Email: ypchiu@mail.cyut.edu.tw) : Determining expedited time and cost of the end product with defective component parts using critical path method (CPM) and time costing method. J scient ind Res 2006, 65(9), 695-701.

Extends an existing work that dealt with the issue of expediting completion time of the end product (ECTEP) and presents a revised algorithm for determining the expedited time and cost of end product in product structure diagram that takes defective component parts into consideration. The algorithm for ECTEP problem proposed in prior work assumes that all component-parts produced or purchased are of perfect quality. However, in real-life situations, production of defective items is inevitable. This study incorporates an adjusted unit procurement cost and adjusted quantity into the ECTEP solution procedure to cope with the existence of defective materials. Both stationary and random defective rates are examined. Critical path method and time-costing technique are employed for determining optimal component procuring alternatives when expediting end product's completion time is desired.

4 illus, 6 tables, 17 ref

006014   Bhargava R (SAI Consultants Engrs Pvt. Ltd, , 4, Kuldip Society, Near Ishwar Bhuvan, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad-380 009) : Leadership in project management of highway contracts. Indian Highw 2006, 34(1), 43-7.

005077   Varma S;Wadhwa S;Deshmukh S G (NO, Inst of Manangement Technol, Ghaziabad) : Measuring productivity in the supply chain use of the balanced scorecard. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 330-8.

Petroleum supply chain, being a process industry supply chain, presents a unique set of attributes. Develops a framework for applying the balanced scorecard to determining the productivity of the supply chain in the petroleum industry. Quantification has been made possible by assigning weights using the AHP method. Finally, a generalized framework has been developed which can even be used for benchmarking a supply chain with other supply chains in the petroleum industry.

2 illus, 5 tables, 39 ref

005076   Tewari P;Akhtar K (NO, Birla Inst of Technol, Mesra, Ranchi) : Analysis of a PVC pipe manufacturing plant in a medium scale industry. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 363-73.

PVC is one of the most widely used plastics globally as its application is very wide. PVC is a heat sensitive material. It degrades before reaching to its processing temperature, but with the compounding of suitable additives, it enables the production of a large variety of product range. There are several processing techniques of plastics, but here, study is done to know the processing technique used in manufacturing of pipes. An in-depth analysis has been conducted to decide optimum values of various parameters using the Taguchi approach which provides a systematic way to optimize design the performance, quality and cost.

7 illus, 9 tables, 9 ref

005075   Singh S;Garg D (NO, Mech Engng Dep Govt Polytechinc, Ambla City, Haryana) : JIT purchasing Attributes and Supplier Evaluation in Indian Industries:A Survery. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 307-12.

Recently just-in-time (JIT) practices have been recognised as a cornerstone of Japan's success in improving product quality and productivity. Purchasing has been found to be an important area of JIT application due to its potential for quality improvement and cost savings. Attempts to analyze the importance of JIT purchasing attributes and supplier evaluation criteria on the basis of a survey of 41 Indian industries.

6 tables, 15 ref

005074   Singh H P;Singla M L (Fac of Mgmt Stud, Univ of Delhi, New Delhi) : Emerging issues in supply chain management. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 321-9.

No enterprise can gain a competitive edge unless it integrates its strategies with supply chain management. One of the leading emerging trends in this context is that IT applications have led to e-SCM becoming a potent market force today.

22 ref

005073   Saxena A (Inst of Dev and Res in Banking Technol, , Hyderabad-500 057) : Information system security. Elect Inf Plann 2006, 33(7-8), 176-81.

As in any environment that involves electronic exchange of business information, system security is a critical issue. With Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) security is especially important because, one is transferring sensitive and confidential data information. The security mechanism that will enable widespread use and acceptance of commerce over network should uphold the following principles: 1. Authentication: to verify the identity of sender of the message to the intended recipient to prevent spoofing or impersonation. 2. Authorisation: to control the access to specific resources for unauthorised persons. 3. Confidentiality: to maintain the secrecy of the contents of a transmission between authorised parties. 4 Integrity: the message ensures that no changes/errors were introduced during transmission. 5. Non-repudiation of origin and receipt to ensure that an entity cannot, later, deny the contents of the communication. With the advancement in the technologies and increase usage in the online Data interchanges, the security of Data and Network is of prime concern. Discuss some of the issues covering Security Approaches, Application and its Management.

illus, tables, ref

005072   Risikko J (Mobey Forum, , Finland) : Mobile financial services. Elect Inf Plann 2006, 33(7-8), 182-93.

The vision of the Mobey Forum is that the mobile device will become a universal platform with which people will manage their financial issues (e.g. accounts, brokerage, etc.), make purchases in proximity and remote online environments and secure authentication to various services. Mobile phones can be utilised for different kinds of remote and local payment transactions, banking services and trust services. The mobile channel will be a complementary channel to the Internet while enabling various services that cannot be offered with current technologies through existing channels to become available. Existing and emerging mobile technologies, such as enhanced browsing technologies, enhanced graphical capabilities of mobile devices, fast packet networks, Java(tm) MIDP, TCP/IP, etc., enable banks to improve the usability and security level of mobile banking services. These technologies, and others, are discussed later in this document. For further information see Mobey Forum white paper on mobile financial services available at www.mobeyforum.org. Mobey Forum is also an open non-profit organisation welcoming new members all the time.

4 illus, 1 table, 4 ref

005071   Mohan V N;Ajaya Kumar V (Dep of Futures Stud, Univ of Kerala, Trivandrum) : Determinants of managerial effectiveness through IT. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 391-7.

Identified the factors determining the success of the development of IT-enabled management systems. Managerial strength of the firm, expertise available in computer areas, whether the information architecture had been designed before software development was started, the number of hierarchical levels in the organisation etc, are the important factors identified. Factors relevant to different types of organisations are also found out separately. Manufacturing firms are only at the initial stages of development of IT-enabled management system. Private organisations are ahead of others in exploiting IT.

3 tables, 10 ref

005070   Mitra S;Bose D (NO, Indian Inst of Mgmt, Kolkata) : Supply chain issues in the Indian poultry meat industry: The case of a vertically integrated farm. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 339-45.

Supply chain issues specific to the Indian poultry-meat industry are discussed and the case study of a vertically-integrated farm is presented. The poultry-meat industry in India is a success story, gradually transforming from unorganized backyard farming into large-scale, organized farming. However, the supply chains are still characterized by inefficiencies, diseconomies of scale, lack of investments and inadequate infrastructure. Policies and procedures need to be eased to facilitate investments and exports. The focus should be on consolidation through mergers and acquisitions, and creating vertically-integrated farms such as the one presented.

1 illus, 7 ref

005069   Kumanan S;Prasanna Kumar J;K Kumar (NO, Natn Inst of Technol, Tiruchirappalli) : Facility location in a supply chain network using microsoft excel. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 346-50.

Logistics/supply chain mainly tackles four major problem areas: customer service levels, facility location, inventory decisions and transportation decisions. Each has an important impact on system design. In the paper a facility location model is formulated and is solved using Microsoft Excel's solver.

2 illus, 6 tables, 8 ref

005068   Gunasekaran N;Arunachalam V P;Shanmugaraja M; Devadasan S R (Dep of Mechanical Engng, Kumaraguru Coll of Technol, Coimbatore) : Improving the quality and productivity using six sigma methodology: A case study. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 297-306.

Six Sigma quality is the focus of various industries to be globally competitive. Discusses the quality and productivity improvement in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through a case study. The sigma quality level has been improved to 3.65 σ using Taguchi's DOE technique in the second phase of its implementation.

11 illus, 10 tables, 12 ref

005067   Gulati V P (Tata Consultancy Services Limited, , Hyderabad-500 081) : Indian payment systems-A revolution in the offing. Elect Inf Plann 2006, 33(7-8), 173-5.

An excerpt from 'The Vision of the Ultimate Payment and Settlement System the Committee on payment and settlement systems of the Bank for International Settlements, Basel'. 'Anyone can make payments to whomsoever one likes, whenever one likes, in whatever type of currency one likes...no settlement delays or mountains of paperwork and value is received instantaneously.' The vision may soon become a reality thanks to the ongoing developments in Indian Payments and Systems arena. There is a need to make the payments systems, both the retail and wholesale ones, more efficient, secure and real-time in operation to enable interaction with global systems and enable customer protection. Accordingly, the Reserve Bank of India has undertaken several initiatives. The aim is the development of an integrated market facilitating better market operations and risk-adjusted returns and to do away with several restrictive norms. This will promote increased transparency, greater information base, good market practices, reduced costs and efficient, reliable settlement mechanisms. Some of the initiatives to facilitate such an infrastructure are the INFINET, PDO-NDS, the Clearing Corporation of India, Structured Financial Messaging System and the RTGS. While these are on the wholesale side, there are developments occurring on the retail front as well that are revolutionising how consumers are making their payments. Volumes are already phenomenal, with credit card transactions reaching Rs. 17.268 crores in 2003-04 and debit cards Rs. 18,513 crores. About 575 per cent growth was registered for Electronic. Funds. Transfer. Volumes are picking up for wholesale systems as well, with RTGS now available at 6000 branches at 400 centres. The Smart Cards project is in the pilot stage and soon their presence may be felt in payments arena. As a nation, a lot yet needs to be done in terms of coping with such volumes and designing robust systems. Perhaps, with this in view, the RBI has outlined its Payment Systems Vision 2005-08, emphasising its 'Triple-S+E' principle - Safety, Security, Soundness and Efficiency. The major themes are a new institutional, structure for retail payment systems; National Settlement System, a sound legal base, continuing risk mitigation, improved efficiency, rural sector facilitation and customer production.

illus, tables, ref

005066   Dalu R S;Deshmukh S G (Dep of Mechanical Engng, Govt Coll of Engng, Amravati) : Total quality management implementation models for SMES. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 374-7.

Satus of Total Quality Management (TQM) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and explains various implementation model available to them.

2 illus, 2 tables, 14 ref

005065   Chandna P;Sharma S K (Dep of Mechanical Engng, N.I.T., Kurukshetra) : Meta heuristics to hybrid: A short journey for job shop scheduling. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 313-20.

Scheduling in job shop is an important aspect of a shop floor management system, which has a significant impact on the performance of the shop floor. A review of all meta heuristics and hybrid approaches used for job shop scheduling has been presented. It has been concluded that by reasonably combining the perspective advantages of any two different paradigms, researchers are able to obtain high quality solutions within reasonable computational time.

53 ref

005064   Banerjee N;Metri B A;Deshpande V B (NO, BITS, Pilani) : Behaviour based safety: A cultural approach to accident prevention in construction industry. Productivity 2005, 46(2-3), 357-61.

Construction is an accident-prone industry. Unsafe act of workers is a major contributor to accidents and in turn affects the construction safety performance. Attempts to identify the significant behavioural issues and their impact on overall safety performance measured in terms of frequency rate of lost time accidents and recordable incidences and severity rate of lost time accidents.

14 tables, 8 ref

004040   Egemen M;Mohamed A N (Department of Civil Engineering, Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagusa, Turkey) : Marketing strategies and practices of contracting organizations in Turkish and Northern Cyprus construction markets. NICMAR J Constr Mgmt 2006, 21(1), 29-39.

Although marketing has been very commonly used in other industrial sectors for a long time, the 'unique' construction sector has not been applying marketing principles widely. A detailed critical review of the marketing strategies and practices of the contracting organizations has been made by presenting survey findings of 80 contractor firms in Turkish and Northern Cyprus construction markets. The findings revealed that construction marketing is still in its early stages and there is still a long way to go. It is obvious from the results that marketing is still essentially understood as a sales function and any marketing activities, which are undertaken occurs mostly on an intuitive basis. Even the firms which accept the importance of marketing concept try to do marketing without assigning extra resources or budget for it, which is definitely limiting the amount of benefit the firms could have gotten from their marketing applications. The findings also reveal that larger sized companies are involved in marketing action more often than smaller sized ones. Moreover, it was concluded that a combination of the relationship marketing with the traditional marketing mix will give the best results for contracting organizations in construction markets. Although marketing planning and strategy formulation stages are assigned relatively high importance by the firms, it is found that the basis of these strategies are not defined properly due to lack of systematic approaches in marketing research. Although marketing is a dynamic process, which needs regular evaluation and updates, it seems that the contractor firms are not involved in a systematic and periodical evaluation of their strategies. Although the findings of this study are based on input from Turkish and Northern Cyprus construction markets only believe that the overall approach, framework and the findings this study are of good value to the organizations contracting in other construction markets throughout the world as well.

^iia1 table, 20 ref

003030   Susheelamma B N;Dandin S B;Prithviraj Urs M K;Balakrishna R (NO, Cent Sericulatural Res & Training Inst, Srirampura, Manandavadi Road, Mysore-570 008) : Studies on the association of quantitative variables with harvest index in mulberry (Morus Spp.). Adv Pl Sci 2005, 18(2), 555-8.

Considerable variability existed among the genotypes studied for quantitative variables and their association with harvest index. Harvest index had close association with total shoot length, number of branches per plant, number of leaves per meter length of the shoot, weight of leaves per longest branch, leaf area of longest branch, weight of hundred leaves, moisture content and leaf yield. The height of longest branch showed negative association with harvest index. The effect of seasons on quantitative variables showed highly significant variation in different seasons. However, number of leaves per longest branch showed non-significance between the seasons. Genotypes x season interaction was also highly significant for all the quantitative variables studied. Since quantitative variables have direct effect on harvest index, while selecting for the harvest index, the quantitative variables are also to be considered as selection criteria. Among the different quantitative variables studied, number of branches per plant (0.743) and leaf yield (0.877) had strongly associated with harvest index.

2 tables, 10 ref