Reverse Logistics: RFID the key to optimality

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find ways to reduce uncertainties in Reverse logistic supply chain (RLSC) through the use of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reviews literature and builds model to relate RFID with uncertainties in order to optimize Reverse Logistics. Findings: RFID is really efficient to determine and detect quantity, variety and cycle times of returns; however it's not as convenient to determine quality of the returns. The collected information from RFID can be used to standardize the RLSC. Research limitations: Though it’s several and unique advantages some limitations of RFID have been identified in quality and processing sequence, collecting points and different standards, and in global usage. Originality/value: Previous studies in the area of Reverse Logistics and RFID don’t cover all impacts of this technology on RLSC. This review paper has investigated these impacts and offers a model for optimizing the Reverse Logistics Supply Chain.Peer Reviewe

Inclusive Growth through Branchless Banking: A Review of Agent Banking and its Impact

Branchless banking, the use of alternative delivery channels such as mobile banking and agent banking, is becoming increasingly popular among commercial banks in many developing countries. Branchless banking is believed to increase the use of financial services among financially excluded adults and is therefore becoming an increasingly popular phenomenon in many developing countries. Several countries adopted the concept of agent banking and getting huge success in the area of financial inclusion e.g. Kenya, Colombia, Brazil, Pakistan, Peru and so on. Post-Independence, the main concerns for Bangladesh has been its economic growth, poverty as well as food safety. We have achieved satisfactory growth over the last one decade. However one challenge is growth needs to be inclusive that is equally distributed among all sections of the society.  Financial inclusion plays a critical role in achieving inclusive growth of a country. The study is therefore attempt to assess the contribution of branchless banking in inclusive growth in different countries. Further this paper sets out to try exploring the opportunities with branchless banking as a way to overcome barriers to financial access in Bangladesh. This would help to find out new opportunities for inclusive growth of Bangladesh. Keywords: Agent banking, Bangladesh, Inclusive growth, Financial inclusion, Banks. JEL Classification: G20, G21

Battery Efficiency Measurement for Electrical Vehicle and Smart Grid Applications Using Isothermal Calorimeter: Method, Design, Theory and Results

The chapter primarily explores the likelihood of heat measurement by means of the calorimeter in the lithium-ion battery cells for different applications. The presented focus applications are electrical vehicle and smart grid application. The efficiency parameter for battery cell is established using state of the art isothermal calorimeter by taking the consideration of heat related measurement. The calorimeter is principally used for the determination of the heat flux of the battery cell. The main target is to achieve the precision and accuracy of measurement of battery cell thermal performance. In this chapter, the assessment of battery efficiency parameter is proposed. A newly devised efficiency calculation methodology is projected and illustrated. The procedure ensures the precision an accurate measurement of heat flux measurement and turns into more comparable efficiency parameter. In addition, the issue is to investigate thermal sensitivity to factors that influence the energy storage system performance, i.e., current rate and temperature requirements. The results provide insight into the establishment of new key performance indicator (KPI) efficiency specification of the battery system. The usage of the calorimetric experiments is presented to predict the temperature distribution over a battery cell and an array of cells

Trajectory Tracking of a Four Degree of Freedom Robotic Manipulator

A robotic manipulator can be utilized for multiple applications. As there are some expensive and bulky robotic manipulators with multi-functionalities are available in the market but not affordable for many people, a low-cost robotic manipulator, Dobot Magician, available in the market is used in this research to add more features in it. The forward kinematics and inverse kinematics are analyzed in this research besides studying about PID and computed torque control approaches. In this research, alphabets and numbers are coded using an object-oriented programming language (C#) to make the learning of alphabet, numbers, words, and sentence writing more fun to the children. Moreover, it has been found that the same robot and the same operation can be implemented in other applications. A speech recognizer is implemented to control the robot to execute some activities of daily living tasks which make it more accessible to the elderly individuals and the people with disabilities

Impact of Organizational Culture on Job Satisfaction: A Study on Banglalion Communication Ltd, Bangladesh

The study derived that organizational culture put significant impact on job satisfaction level of employees on Banglalion Communication Ltd. The research was concluded that the existing culture in Banglalion Communication Ltd is favorable and uplift employee morale and job satisfaction for the time being. The company should still focus some indices much more on values, internal labor market, justice and sound pay. It found employees were not very satisfied with those indices which might turn in job dissatisfaction in the long run. This study determined the relationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction. Organizational Culture is comprised of Components of Culture and Culture Type whereas Job Satisfaction has 3 basic elements Environmental Variable, Job Characteristic Index, Personality Variable. They consist of Market Opportunity, Autonomy, Role Ambiguity, Role Conflict, Role Overload, Distributive Justice, Supervisory Support, Internal Labor Market, Task Significance, Integration, Pay, Routinization, Work Motivation, Positive Affectivity, and Negative Affectivity. Means and Standard Deviation on all variables have been calculated for further analysis. A study of 36 employees, all of working population from Khulna City, was studied and SPSS v19 was used for the analysis of data. To check and demonstrate the hypotheses, Pearson Correlation and Regression Analysis were performed. The empirical results indicate that the relationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction in Banglalion Communication Ltd is positive and significant and the dominant culture here the research found  is Hierarchy Culture. Keywords: Organizational culture, Cultural component, Culture type, Job satisfaction

The Evaluation of Green Banking Practices in Bangladesh

Whilethe traditional banking mostly focused only on the economic motive, the Green Banking(GB) highlighted on economic, social and environmental motives simultaneously. This study consists the key concept of Green Banking activities.Continuing along, the report covers almost all the important information regardingBangladesh Bank’s initiatives, banks’ policy formulation and governance, bank’sannual budget allocation and utilization for their green finance, climate risk fund,Composition of the Green Banking Unit (GBU), Pin Points of Green Office Guide, Dataon Environmental Risk Rating (EnvRR), and Data on Green Finance (amount disbursedfor ETP, amount disbursed for the projects having ETP, bio-gas plant, solar/renewableenergy plant, Hybrid Hoffman Kiln, and others.).Keywords: Green Banking, EnvironmentalRisk Rating, Green Finance