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This paper investigates the overall system risk for a foodgrains supply chain capturing the interrelationship among the risk factors and the effect of risk mitigation strategies.

This paper first calculates the weight of risk factors using an integrated approach of failure mode, effects analysis and fuzzy VIKOR technique. Next, the weights are utilized as input for the weighted fuzzy Petri-net (WFPN) approach to calculate the system risk.

Two different WFPN models are developed based on the relationships among the risk factors, and both models demonstrate a higher risk value for the overall system.

The proposed methodology will help practitioners or managers understand the complexity involved in the system by capturing the interrelationship behaviour. This study also considers the concurrent effect of risk mitigation strategies for calculating the overall system risk, which helps to improve the system’s performance.

The present situation of COVID-19 pandemic has put the health-care systems under tremendous stress and stringent tests for their ability to offer expected quality of health-care services, as it decides the sustainability and growth of health-care service providers. This study aims to deliver a quantitative framework for service quality assessment in the health-care industry by classifying the health-care service quality parameters into four balanced scorecard (BSC) perspectives.

To determine the service quality for the Indian health-care system, decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory and analytical network process are integrated in a fuzzy environment to contemplate the interaction among BSC perspectives and respective performance measures.

The results indicate “internal processes” perspective assumes the key role within BSC perspectives, while performance measures “nursing staff turnover” and “staff training” play the key roles. The results also signify that “patient satisfaction” is the most vital issue and can be strongly influenced by measures belonging to the “learning and growth” perspective. In “learning and growth” perspective, “staff training” is the most decisive criteria, very highly influencing “patient satisfaction”, highly influencing “profitability,” “change of cost per patient (both in and out patients)” and “outpatient waiting time” while moderately influencing “staff satisfaction,” “bed occupancy” and “nursing staff turnover”. Moreover, “staff training” criteria have a positive influence on “nursing staff turnover.”

The contributions of this study are in two folds in the domain of quantification of service quality for the health-care system. First, it delivers an assessment framework for Indian health-care service quality. Second, it demonstrates an application of the framework for a case situation and validates the proposed framework.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated gray-decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (Grey-DEMATEL) framework to evaluate the ICT adoption barriers in manufacturing small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) running in developing countries. The proposed model is also tested for Indian MSMEs.

The model consists of 16 potential ICT adoption barriers selected from existing literature and refined based on discussion with domain experts. While DEMATEL analyses causal relationship and prioritizes them, Grey approach tackles individual biases and data insufficiency.

The authors conclude that lack of awareness about benchmarking and lack of management vision are the most critical ICT adoption barriers in the case of Indian MSMEs.

Outcomes of the present research are based on the experts’ inputs which are subject to the biases related to their experience and exposure. In India practices adopted by SMEs have geographical and political influence that is also neglected.

This study provides a model consisting of 16 ICT adoption barriers for MSMEs in developing country and a framework to analyze causal relationships among the barriers with the flexibility of data input from their own domain experts. The framework is also capable of dealing with expert biases and data insufficiency.

This paper investigates the risks involved in the Indian foodgrain supply chain (FSC) and proposes risk mitigation taxonomy to enable decision making.

This paper used failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) for risk estimation. In the traditional FMEA, risk priority number (RPN) is evaluated by multiplying the probability of occurrence, severity and detection. Because of some drawbacks of the traditional FMEA, instead of calculating RPN, this paper prioritizes the FSC risk factors using fuzzy VIKOR. VIKOR is a multiple attribute decision-making technique which aims to rank FSC risk factors with respect to criteria.

The findings indicate that “technological risk” has a higher impact on the FSC, followed by natural disaster, communication failure, non-availability of procurement centers, malfunctioning in PDS and inadequate storage facility. Sensitivity analysis is performed to check the robustness of the results.

The outcomes of the study can help in deriving detailed risk mitigation strategy and risk mitigation taxonomy for the improved resilience of FSC.

Specifically, this research investigates the risks for foodgrains supply chain system for a developing country such as India, an area which has received limited attention in the present literature.

The purpose of this paper is to apply a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework to evaluate distribution strategies for an e-tailer. An application of MCDM method, the hybrid DANP–VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) model, is used for e-tailers’ distribution strategy evaluation. The choice of distribution strategies under various dimensions is evaluated.

The authors used a hybrid MCDM model to solve the decision-making framework, which combines Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), DEMATEL-based analytic network process and VIKOR method. Data were collected from the experts (e-tail manager, logistics manager, operations manager and distribution center (DC) manager) using two questionnaires, first for the influential relationship among the criteria and dimensions and second for a performance rating of each alternative (distribution strategies) against each criterion.

DANP with VIKOR method prioritizes the distribution strategies in the following order: DC shipment, drop shipment, click and collect, store shipment and click and reserve. Performance gap was calculated based on the VIKOR method to provide distribution strategies to an e-tailer under different situations. The authors infer that in developing country, product characteristics and transportation have a major influence on deciding the distribution strategy.

Decision-making framework will provide e-tail mangers a knowledge-based understanding to select the distribution strategy under the different situations related to the performance, product, e-tailer and external characteristics for smooth order fulfillment process. The insights developed by this research provide a framework for rational decision making in distribution strategy selection in e-business.

This is the first kind of a study which offers a decision framework for e-tail managers on how to choose distribution strategies under different situations which are related to the performance, product, e-tailer and external characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a balanced scorecard (BSC)- and strategy map-based quantitative framework for assessing the lean and green performance of the supply chain (SC). As the SC competitiveness demands efficient and effective utilization of resources throughout the value chain, not only adoption of lean and green SC paradigms but simultaneously its performance evaluation is also vital.

The lean and green SC performance measures are classified into four categories of BSC. A fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) methodology combined with analytical network process is proposed for examining the causal relationships between BSC perspectives and respective assessment criteria. The application of the proposed assessment framework is demonstrated for the case of Indian textile SC.

The research delivers a quantitative assessment framework for evaluating lean and green performance of the SC. The results obtained for a typical case of Indian textile SC revealed that “delivery performance,” “profitability” and “operational cost” are the most crucial performance measures. The perspective of “internal processes” is the most significant of all BSC perspectives while “learning and growth” perspective acts as the driving force to improve lean and green SC performance.

The paper makes two contributions in the domain of lean and green assessment of SC performance. First, it proposes an evaluation framework to investigate into the causal relationships among the BSC perspectives and related factors. Second, it undertakes an empirical investigation for Indian textile SC to develop key managerial insights and provide policy-related recommendations.

The Indian manufacturing sector currently contributes 16–17% to gross domestic product (GDP) and gives employment to around 12% (2014) of the country's workforce. Among the various initiatives planned under Atma Nirbhar Bharat and “Make in India”, the Indian government aims to increase the share of the manufacturing sector to country's GDP to 25% by 2025. To ensure sustainable growth of the Indian manufacturing industries in global market, successful and implementation of strategies such as lean manufacturing, green manufacturing along with six sigma are crucial. This research aims at identification and analysis of barriers to successful implementation of integrated Lean Green Six Sigma (LG&SS) strategies.

Based on an evaluative literature review and expert's opinion, this research identifies 18 barriers to lean, green and six sigma implementation in the manufacturing industry in India. The inter-relationships among the barriers is identified using an integrated approach of ISM (interpretive structural modelling) and Fuzzy Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement (MICMAC).

ISM helps to derive key managerial insights and implementation plan based on the identified inter-relationships among the barriers. Fuzzy MICMAC analysis classifies the barriers into four categories, namely, autonomous, driver, dependent and linkage to understand their relative impact on the implementation of LG&SS practices in the Indian manufacturing industry. “Lack of cooperation and mutual trust between management and employees”, “The scarcity of time and work pressure”, “lack of continuous improvement work culture” and “lack of cooperation from suppliers” that forms the top most level of the model. “Weak legislation” is a highly significant barrier to LG&SS implementation in the Indian manufacturing industries.

It is expected that the findings of this research will help the Indian manufacturing industry to derive a sustainable competitive advantage through an effective implementation of LG&SS practices.

This study can be seen as the first attempt in investigating barriers to successful implementation of lean, green and six sigma strategies in the Indian manufacturing industries using ISM and fuzzy MICMAC analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key performance factors that can lead toward sustainability in the Industry 4.0 supply chains of manufacturing industries.

Questionnaire is used to collect the data from manufacturing sector to prioritize the factors, which integrates both Industry 4.0 and sustainability. For this, stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method is used to obtain the weights for criteria and sub-criteria to prioritize the factors.

The present study brings the findings about five key performance factors. Social factor needs much attention among all the criteria, followed by ecological, economic, information technology and dynamic capability theory. Further, change management, third-party audits and novel business models are key sub-factors to improve performance of sustainability in Industry 4.0 supply chains.

This study prioritized the performance factors of Industry 4.0 and sustainable supply chain in Indian manufacturing sector. These prioritized factors help to improve performance of organizations, which are practicing the Industry 4.0 and sustainability practices. Managers in manufacturing industries can use the SWARA for assessment of weights for the criteria and sub-criteria factors to take appropriate decisions to improve the organizations’ performance.

Managers in manufacturing industry can use these prioritized factors to improve the performance of their supply chains.

The food supply chain is exposed to severe environmental and social issues with serious economic consequences. The identification and assessment of risk involved in the food supply chain can help to overcome these challenges. In response, the purpose of this paper is to develop a risk assessment framework for a typical food supply chain.

An integrated methodology of grey analytical hierarchy process and grey technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution is proposed for developing a comprehensive risk index. The opinion of the experts is used to illustrate an application of the proposed methodology for the risk assessment of the food supply chain in India.

Valuable insights and recommendations are drawn from the results, which are helpful to the practitioners working at strategic and tactical levels in the food supply chain for minimising the supply chain disruptions.

The risk quantification for the case organisation is primarily based on inputs collected from the experts working for Indian food supply chain, and so the generalisation of the results is limited to the context of developing countries. However, the generalisability of the proposed risk quantification methodology and key insights developed in the food supply chain will assist practitioners in policy making.

The risk priorities established by this research would enable an implementation of systematic risk mitigation strategies and deployment of necessary resources for leveraging the efficiency of food supply chain.

Specifically, this research has delivered a risk quantification framework and strengthened the inquiry of risk management for the food supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate into the improvement strategies for lead time reduction of military aircraft major overhaul (enhance the overhaul task from present seven to nine-plus aircrafts as agreed to customer) for ABC Company.

This research has been conducted based on the available knowledge and extensive experience gained while working in the overhaul unit of the case organization for a long period of time. The research employs an integrated approach of multi-criteria decision method (in specific analytic hierarchy process (AHP)), theory of constraint (TOC) and simulation for M/M/1/K queuing environment for investigating the improvement strategies for lead time reduction in major overhaul of military aircraft. This has mainly included: Step 1: analysis of existing activity network using actual overhaul data; Step 2: ranking of constraint activities that most affects the lead time using AHP; Step 3: revised flow activity network using time buffers (TBs) concept of TOC; Step 4: mathematical model formulation for effective utilization of TB using single server finite queuing approach (M/M/1/K queuing environment); Step 5: discrete event simulation representing present overhaul conditions and revised overhaul conditions with different scenarios; and Step 6: sensitivity analysis and interpretation of results. The proposed methodology has been tested on an industrial case study dealing with an aircraft overhaul in India (namely ABC Company).

The proposed overhaul lead-time reduction plan points out the augmentation of resources in order to achieve more than 50 per cent reduction in lead time and waiting time under two scenarios – with overtime and without overtime.

An integrated approach proposed has so far been applicable to the specific aircrafts (Jaguar/Mirage/Kiran) of the ABC Company overhaul division. However, the particular methodology can be proved potentially useful and highly practical when applying to other aircraft types.

The results indicate several problems with the current overhaul strategies that need focused process improvements and a need for capacity augmentation for achieving the enhanced overhaul task of nine+ aircrafts per year with reduced overhaul lead time. The proposed approach also provides the maintenance planners with a platform for decision analysis and support often ignored the capacity augmentation.