DEVELOPING A PERFORMANCE IMPORTANCE MATRIX FOR A PUBLIC SECTOR BUS TRANSPORT COMPANY: A CASE STUDY

This paper presents a study of comparison of the importance attached by the service providers’ and the customers’ with respect to eighteen service characteristics towards the public transportation services provided by a bus company. The survey was conducted in three bus depots in one division of a state road transport undertaking (SRTU) in south India. The importance the SRTU and the customers attach to these characteristics indicates significant differences. This reveals the existence of a gap between customers’ expectations and the service provided by the company. Finally the customer retention and customer development criteria have been. identified.Performance importance matrix, Customer expectations, Public bus transport, Radar chart.

Fishery and biology of white sardine, Escualosa thoracata (Valenciennes) at Versova, Bombay

Gill net fishery exclusively for the white sardine, Escualosa thoracata, which started in mid-eighties at Versova, is described. During 1987-88 to 1991-92 periods, the annual average landing of the species was 202.2 tons with year to year fluctuations. The peak fishing season was during April-May. The size range of the species in the gill net was 41-105 mm and the von Bertalanffy growth parameters, L. and K, estimated by the ELEFAN program were 110 mm and 1.8 per year. The length-weight relationship was W=0.000001508 L(super 3.3946) for the males and W=0.000002561 L(super 3.2706) for the females. The food consisted of copepods, cladocerans and crustacean larvae. The size at maturity for the females was 82 mm and spawning took place during October - February period. The sex-ratio showed equal proportion except during January, July and October when females dominated in the catch

Synthesis and Characterization of Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide (CIGS) Nano-Crystalline Powder using SPEX Mill

The CuIn1 – xGaxSe2 (CIGS) (x = 0.3) nanocrystalline powder was synthesized by reacting to its constituent elements i.e. Copper, Indium, Gallium, and Selenium in a SPEX mill. The SPEX mill is a high-energy mill where the reaction between constituent elements takes place in solid-state to form a nanocrystalline compound powder. SPEX mill consists of tungsten lined hardened steel vials and tungsten carbide balls are used as grinding media. Three different size grinding media was used with ball to charge ratio of 10 : 1. The optimization of milling time was studied to obtain CIGS nanocrystalline powder using SPEX mill. The phase analysis by X-ray diffraction shows the formation chalcopyrite (tetragonal) structure of CIGS after 4 h of high-energy milling with an average crystallite size of 10-13 nm. Raman spectra peak at 174 cm – 1 confirms the formation of the CIGS phase. The compositional analysis by EDAX confirms the formation of the stoichiometric composition of CIGS. This study reveals that it is possible to synthesize CIGS nanocrystalline powder using SPEX mill

Dynamic supply chain modeling using a new fuzzy hybrid negotiation mechanism

The key part of dynamic supply chain management is negotiating with suppliers and with buyers. Coordination is essential for successful supply chain management. In order to model coordination among suppliers and buyers in a dynamic supply chain, this paper takes a step further and proposes a new fuzzy- logic-based hybrid negotiation mechanism. In most real-world negotiation situations, agents have a common interest to cooperate, but have conflicting interests over exactly how to cooperate. These situations involve restrictions and preferences that may be vaguely and partly defined. Therefore, this study takes the advantage of fuzzy logic and develops a hybrid negotiation-based mechanism, that combines both cooperative and competitive negotiations. Achieving effective coordination in a multi-agent system is non-trivial as no agent possesses the global view of the problem space. Moreover, the different strategies adopted by agents may produce conflicts. While agents coordinate with each other in the operations, they will negotiate about their strategies to reduce conflicts. The proposed fuzzy hybrid negotiation mechanism allows negotiation agents more flexibility and robustness in an automated negotiation system. The proposed mechanism not only helps sellers and buyers to explore various new choices and opportunities that the e-markets offer but also allows them to identify and analyze their resource constraints in a given schedule, and helps them to explore and exploit many alternatives for a better solution. The efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated through an illustrative example.Coordination Negotiation Fuzzy logic Agents Supply chain management

An exploratory study of manufacturing strategy practices of machinery manufacturing companies in India

This paper presents findings of a survey on manufacturing strategy practices adopted by the Indian machinery manufacturing companies (IMMC). Based on the survey, three companies have been selected for detailed case studies. Their experiences in the manufacturing strategy process are analyzed. Although the companies represented diversity in terms of product type, sales volume, and geographic location, they share several commonalties including use of advanced manufacturing technologies and use of several improvement techniques. The process of strategy formulation varied among the companies in terms of participants, complexity and degree of formalization. Competitive priorities, order winners and critical success factors are also identified for these companies. Based on strategic manufacturing issues, manufacturing competence index and business performance index for the companies has been worked out.Manufacturing strategy Order winners Competitive priorities Manufacturing competence index