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This paper gives a bibliographical review of the finite element and boundary element parallel processing techniques from the theoretical and application points of view. Topics include: theory – domain decomposition/partitioning, load balancing, parallel solvers/algorithms, parallel mesh generation, adaptive methods, and visualization/graphics; applications – structural mechanics problems, dynamic problems, material/geometrical non‐linear problems, contact problems, fracture mechanics, field problems, coupled problems, sensitivity and optimization, and other problems; hardware and software environments – hardware environments, programming techniques, and software development and presentations. The bibliography at the end of this paper contains 850 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with presented subjects that were published between 1996 and 2002.

Presents a review on implementing finite element methods on supercomputers, workstations and PCs and gives main trends in hardware and software developments. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on the subjects retrospectively to 1985 and approximately 1,100 references are listed.

The resin transfer molding process for composites manufacturing consists of either of two considerations, namely, the fluid flow analysis through a porous fiber preform where the location of the flow front is of fundamental importance, and the combined flow/heat transfer/cure analysis. In this paper, the continuous sensitivity formulations are developed for the process modeling of composites manufactured by RTM to predict, analyze, and optimize the manufacturing process. Attention is focused here on developments for isothermal flow simulations, and various illustrative examples are presented for sensitivity analysis of practical applications which help serve as a design tool in the process modeling stages.

The purpose of the present paper is to describe the modeling, analysis and simulations for the resin transfer molding (RTM), manufacturing process with particular emphasis on the sensitivity analysis for non‐isothermal applications.

For the manufacturing of advanced composites via RTM, besides the tracking of the resin flow fronts through a porous fiber perform, the heat transfer and the resin cure kinetics play an important role. The computational modeling is coupled multi‐disciplinary problem of flow‐thermal‐cure. The paper describes the so‐called continuous sensitivity formulation via the finite element method for this multi‐disciplinary problem for process modeling of composites manufactured by RTM to predict, analyze and optimize the manufacturing process.

Illustrative numerical examples are presented for two sample problems which include examination of sensitivity parameters for the case of material and geometric properties, and boundary conditions including fill time sensitivity analysis. The results indicate that the proposed formulations serve a useful role for the design and optimization of the RTM manufacturing process, thereby, avoiding heuristic trial‐and‐error methods.

The paper restricts attention to constant properties and extensions to non‐linear thermophysical properties will serve as an added benefit.

The present efforts significantly impact the design/optimization process in the process modeling of composites manufactured by RTM.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time that continuous sensitivity analysis is done for non‐isothermal considerations in RTM.

Supply chain structure, characteristics, and applicable policies differ between developing and developed countries. While most supply chain management research is directed toward supply chains in developed countries, the authors wish to explore the financial impact of disruptions on supply chains in a developing country. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of effective supply chain management practices that could help avoid or mitigate disruptions in Indian companies. The authors study the stock market impact of supply chain disruptions in Indian companies. The authors also aim to understand the difference in financial implications from disruptions between companies in India and the USA.

Event study methodology is applied on supply chain disruptions data from Indian companies. The data are compiled from public news release in Indian press. A data set of 301 disruptions for a ten-year period from 2003-2012 is analyzed. Stock valuation of a company is used to assess the financial impact.

The results show that Indian companies on average lose −2.88 percent of shareholder wealth in an 11-day window covering the event day and five days pre- and post-disruption announcement. A significant stock decline was observed as early as three days prior to announcement, indicating possibility of insider trading and information differentials between investors. Irrespective of the location and responsibility of a disruption, companies experience significant negative returns. Company size, book-to-market ratio, and debt-to-equity ratio were found to be insignificant in affecting the stock market reactions to disruptions. The authors also compiled supply chain disruptions data for US companies. When compared to the US companies, Indian companies register a significantly higher stock decline in the event of a disruption.

Supply chain disruptions data from India and the USA are analyzed. Broad applicability of results across countries may require studying other developing countries. The research demonstrates potential effectiveness of investment in supply chain management initiatives. It also motivates research focussed specifically on supply chains in developing countries.

Supply chain decision makers in India could benefit from investment in disruptions management and mitigation practices. The results provide a valuation of effective supply chain management. The findings provide guidance for investors in making decisions when supply chains face disruptions.

The paper studies the financial consequences of supply chain disruptions in a developing country. The study is valuable because of increasing globalization, outsourcing, and the economic role of developing countries.

This paper's aim is to identify structural and relational factors influencing the upstream channel management of organized retailers in India.

In‐depth interviews were conducted with 15 organized retailers and two manufacturers in India. Data were analyzed using the thematic network analysis technique from qualitative research. The authors use the framework of institutional theory to guide the discussion.

The findings suggest that government regulations influence the supply chain structure in India. Relational bonds offset the uncertainty borne of weak institutions. Informational transparency and long‐term orientation foster trust between channel partners. This trust, in turn, leads to collaborative partnerships.

The findings have implications for multinationals planning to enter the Indian retail industry. There is a need to understand complex regulatory and social institutions in India. The uniqueness of these institutions calls for adaptive strategies toward channel management.

The paper contributes to the literature on the supply chain structure in India. Despite growing interest in the Indian retailing industry, not many studies reflect on the specific B2B exchange structure in India. The paper fills this gap and also provides several marketing implications for multinational retailers planning to enter the Indian market.

The purpose of this paper was to analyse the present status of the information available on rice bean [Vigna umbellata (Thunb.)] cultivars with respect to its nutritional and functional characteristics. It is one of the non-conventional and under-utilized beans of South and Southeast Asia. In northeastern regions of India, it is an important crop for shifting cultivation or kitchen garden which is consumed as vegetable (tender pod) and pulse. The information gaps filling could be useful for several work proposals and for consumers and cultivators to know the nutritional strength and varied usability of the grain which in-turn can help in its commercialization.

The approach to information collection was emphasized on nutritional strength of the grain compared to other beans of Vigna family and the varied usability among the rice bean varieties of the Himalayan Belt.

The average carbohydrate, protein, fat, crude fibre and ash content of 75 genotypes of rice bean was found 59.96 ± 2.81, 20.78 ± 2.65, 1.74 ± 1.42, 5.07 ± 1.17 and 4.44 ± 1.03 per cent, respectively. It has high quality protein with all essential amino acid in balance manner. Among the minerals, it contains calcium, iron, zinc and potassium with high bio-availability of calcium (59.8 ± 0.3 per cent). The factors such as flatulence producing saccharides, trypsin inhibitors, polyphenols, phytic acid, saponin and tannins of rice bean were reported to be in the range of 3.28-5.87 per cent, 55.12-163.98 TIU/g, 0.58-1.82 1.88-8.17, 1.2-3.1 and 0.24-1.55 per cent, respectively. The toxic compounds such as hydrogen cyanide (0.09 mg/100 g) and L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (0.36 mg/100 g) is lowest in rice bean. The nutritional advantages of rice bean over the other beans of Vigna family were required to emphasize to induce interest among the researchers, producers and consumers.

In view of the recommended daily requirements with respect of amino acids, vitamin-B and minerals, rice bean could be a major component of the diet to fulfill them. However, the scanty information available on nutritional and functional components of rice bean varieties grown in northeastern India calls for the gap filing research to explore full potential of the bean.

The information about differences among the northeastern varieties of rice bean available on nutritional functional components essentially required the updating of research data to explore full potential and utility of the bean.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current level of supply chain practices (SCPs) in Indian manufacturing organizations.

The 15 SCPs are identified based on the literature support and opinion of industry experts and academia, and data were collected from 292 organizations. Data were analyzed using the statistical package for the social science software to see the current level/penetration of SCPs in Indian manufacturing organizations.

The practices, namely, organizational culture, customer relationship, information and communication technology, benchmarking and performance measurement, lean manufacturing, agile manufacturing, supplier relationship are highly penetrated practices in Indian manufacturing organizations. The practices, namely, outsourcing, information sharing, just in time manufacturing, green supply chain management are moderately penetrated practices, while the practices, namely, reverse logistics, postponement, vendor managed inventory, radio frequency are least penetrated practices in Indian manufacturing organizations.

Further study can be extended to see the of penetration practices applicable to service and agriculture sectors.

The result of this paper will enable the organizations to identify and direct their focus on the areas that requires improvement. Also, the organizations will become more aware of the SCPs that will help in boosting up their performance and competitiveness and indirectly boost the growth and contribute to India’s economic development.

This is the first kind of study which checked the level of selected SCPs in Indian manufacturing organizations.

This paper aims to explore the state of strategic fit between “competitive strategy” (CS) and “supply chain strategy” (SCS) in the Indian manufacturing industry by investigating the mediating role of supply chain strategy between competitive strategy and performance of company/supply chain.

This aim is accomplished by using a survey questionnaire that was answered by 185 respondents from various sectors of Indian manufacturing industry. These sectors included automobile, electrical and electronics, process, machinery, textile, food, aviation and footwear sectors. The state of strategic fit is explored based on research framework of “matrix of strategic fit”.

The major findings revealed existence of a causal relationship between CS and SCS with CS as independent variable and SCS as dependent variable. It was also found that choice of CS and SCS affects business and supply chain performance. The other finding was establishment of the existence of strategic fit in Indian manufacturing industry, which was explained by analyzing the interaction effect between CS and SCS. It was also found that a major hurdle in implementing SCM practices in Indian manufacturing industry is “overcoming traditional practices”.

Indian manufacturing industry is growing by leaps and bounds, but to date there is no study that has explored the mediation effect of supply chain strategy between competitive strategy and performance in India. This paper provides a research framework to study and assess these dimensions of strategy on “matrix of strategic fit”.

Path planning is a fundamental and significant issue in robotics research, especially for the legged robots, since it is the core technology for robots to complete complex tasks such as autonomous navigation and exploration. The purpose of this paper is to propose a path planning and tracking framework for the autonomous navigation of hexapod robots.

First, a hexapod robot called Hexapod-Mini is briefly introduced. Then a path planning algorithm based on improved A* is proposed, which introduces the artificial potential field (APF) factor into the evaluation function to generate a safe and collision-free initial path. Then we apply a turning point optimization based on the greedy algorithm, which optimizes the number of turns of the path. And a fast-turning trajectory for hexapod robot is proposed, which is applied to path smoothing. Besides, a model predictive control-based motion tracking controller is used for path tracking.

The simulation and experiment results show that the framework can generate a safe, fast, collision-free and smooth path, and the author’s Hexapod robot can effectively track the path that demonstrates the performance of the framework.

The work presented a framework for autonomous path planning and tracking of hexapod robots. This new approach overcomes the disadvantages of the traditional path planning approach, such as lack of security, insufficient smoothness and an excessive number of turns. And the proposed method has been successfully applied to an actual hexapod robot.