Quantum leap in IT productivity in an Emerging Economy- The Sony India Case

This paper presents a country specific case study, with specific reference to the social and business conditions prevalent in an emerging economy, namely India. In this case we see the unique conditions like cultural and religious diversity, vastness of the geography, difference in taxation systems between the different states of India, customer perception of the particular transnational brand, local sales and distribution practices, local customer needs, which have constrained the growth of the organisation in the past. However visualising the power of an integrated flexible ERP system, and the availability of well trained ERP experts and engineering graduates at nominal salaries, SONY India put together an international IT project management team that went ahead to design and implement a system that becomes the backbone of the revitalized supply chain. A quantum growth of 40% for three consecutive years from 2004 is recounted in this paper

Enabling Disaster Relief Supply Chain Visibility (SCV) and Supply Chain Coordination (SCC)

In disaster relief–humanitarian logistics (DRHL), supply chain visibility (SCV) and supply chain coordination (SCC) remain crucial to supply chain performance, when demand and lead times are volatile. Many DRHL solutions based on operations research or other such models in the literature, rely on SCV and SCC. However, there is a paucity of literature on how to enable SCV and SCC immediately after disasters strike. This paper proposes decentralised, peer–to–peer (P2P) systems architecture (SA) that augments existing information systems and communications networks in use. This architecture has additional capabilities that enable a ‘low cost version’ of SCV and SCC. By identifying antecedents and characteristics of agile and quick response supply chain and introducing them into DRHL, we lay the framework for enabling SCV and SCC in DRHL. Based on this completed research on the systems architecture and framework, this paper outlines briefly, an implementable version of an artefact for such deployment

The TOC-ABC choice debate for product mix decisions : introducing asset specificity as an alternate explanation

Though constructed with different purposes, the theory of constraints and activity based costing systems pose a choice problem in respect of product mix decisions. We believe that the existing explanation of short versus long run criterion to explain firms\u27 choice between these two systems is incomplete and offer an alternate explanation based on asset specificity. We argue that the extent to which specialized resources are deployed to make products in a mix determines the choice. We present a 2*2 matrix stating that when asset specificity is high, a firm is likely to choose ABC instead of TOC since ABC makes a large portion of costs visible to enable control. However, the choice is likely to be a TOC-ABC combination when the manufacture of asset specific products is also constrained by bottlenecks.<br /

Developing third-party purchase (3PP) services: New Zealand third-party logistics providers’ perspectives

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the opportunity for third-party logistics providers (3PLs) to develop further value-added services for their clients, focused on purchasing. The provider perspectives on third-party purchase (3PP) services are examined in conjunction with their business environment, with a survey informed by transaction cost economics. Design/methodology/approach: New Zealand 3PL providers were surveyed, and 166 responses were received. Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model. Findings: From the perspective of 3PL providers, uncertainty, frequency and transaction size, but not asset specificity, are significantly associated with client value from a 3PP service. While asset specificity in investments is not required by 3PLs, they need a high frequency of orders, sufficient order size and low levels of uncertainty as supporting conditions for the development of 3PP services. Research limitations/implications: The sample focuses on 3PL providers and therefore does not address the behavioral characteristics of users or customers of the services. Originality/value: This study shows that 3PP services may be further developed by 3PL providers to improve the value offered to their clients

Impact of Motivation and Strategy Use on Performance in a Blended Learning Course

Understanding students’ self-regulatory learning (SRL) processes is important, especially in Blended Learning (BL). This study examined the predictability of students’ final scores based on indicators from students’ reported measures reflecting SRL. We administrated the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MLSLQ) three times to measure students’ motivation belief and use of learning strategies (N=189) and collected 515 viable surveys. We found that students’ motivation and strategy use dropped until midterm and it increased again as the course progressed towards the end. We identified the constructs that had a high correlation with final scores. In terms of prediction, stepwise regression mostly used motivational components as predictors. The findings confirmed the importance of understanding students’ motivation and SRL process and disclosed the advantages of using students’ reported measures of SRL, which is meaningful to Learning Analytics. The findings also support the potential for an early final score prediction, which would be very helpful in identifying at-risk students, addressing one of the LA aims

Symmetric traveling salesman problem and flows in hypergraphs: New algorithmic possibilities

The traveling salesperson problem (TSP) is a very well-known NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem. Many different integer programming formulations are known for the TSP. Some of them are "compact"", in the sense of having a polynomially-bounded number of variables and constraints. We focus on one compact formulation for the symmetric TSP, known as the "multistage insertion" formulation [T. S. Arthanari, Discrete Mathematics 306, 1474 (2006)], and show that its linear programming (LP) relaxation can be viewed as a minimum-cost flow problem in a hypergraph. Using some ideas of R. Cambini, G. Gallo and M. G. Scutella' [University of Pisa, TR-1/92 (1992)] on flows in hypergraphs, we propose new algorithms to solve the LP relaxation. We also exploit the Leontief structure of a certain subproblem, to provide additional algorithms for solving the LP relaxation. Some bounds on the running time are also derived

ON PEDIGREE POLYTOPE AND ITS PROPERTIES

The fact that linear optimization over a polytope can be done in polynomial time in the input size of the instance, has created renewed interest in studying 0-1 polytopes corresponding to combinatorial optimization problems. Studying their polyhedral structure has resulted in new algorithms to solve very large instances of some difficult problems like the symmetric traveling salesman problem. The multistage insertion formulation (MI) given by the author, in 1982, for the symmetric traveling salesman problem (STSP), gives rise to a combinatorial object called the pedigree. The pedigrees are in one-to-one correspondence with Hamiltonian cycles. Given n, the convex hull of all the pedigrees is called the corresponding pedigree polytope. In this article we bring together the research done a little over a decade by the author and his doctoral students, on the pedigree polytope, its structure, membership problem and properties of the MI formulation for the STSP. In addition we summarise some of the computational and other peripheral results relating to pedigree approach to solve the STSP. The pedigree polytope possesses properties not shared by the STSP (tour) polytope, which makes it interesting to study the pedigrees, both from theoretical and algorithmic perspectives

ZigBee Architecture for Disaster Relief Supply Chain Visibility and Supply Chain Coordination

Supply chain visibility is essential to supply chain coordination in disaster relief humanitarian logistics but are in short supply. To enable visibility and coordination we designed a generic system architecture using autonomous peer-to-peer (P2P) mesh networks, with an analytics module that delivers partial visibility to improve coordination. From this architecture, a specific implementation was provided as a proof-of-concept, using ZigBee protocol (IEEE 802.15.4) as the wireless communications standard, Mosquitto as the message broker, and MySQL as the database. We explain how our prototype enables a ‘low cost’ Internet of Things (IoT) for disaster relief for sharing logistics information. We detail how different wireless communications standards (e.g. Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G, and 4G) can be integrated into prototypes for multi-standard support

The Architecture of a Navigational Support System

The dynamic and complex nature of projects makes it difficult for project managers to understand project performance is with respect to benchmark targets. In this research we have created a Navigational Support System (NSS) as a generic engine to visualize the current position of project performance, by considering the correlation between key performance indicators in a multidimensional space. The NSS is created by integrating multivariate measurement systems and a dynamic decision-making tool. In order to validate the NSS we have applied it to building construction projects