Exploratory study explicating value addition of emerging technologies in the infrastructure component of Logistics Performance Index (LPI)

India had undertaken several logistics development agendas.Initiatives were aligned to improve the logistics infrastructure in India. Advancement in technology had also benefited the logistics sector. Logistics Performance Index (LPI) has been a multi-dimensional evaluation criterion developed by the World Bank to assess logistics capabilities of countries. The LPI score of India had been low. Regarding this, present research study aimed to analyse the poor performance of India in LPI and how the deployment of emerging technologies could help improve it. The findings were based on a questionnaire shared with five experts. Delphi technique was applied for this study. The prioritization was identified through Analytical Hierarchy Process. The key findings in this study were prioritization of application of emerging technologies for various sub-dimensions of infrastructure like roadways, railways, ports, airports, warehouse, and institution. Emerging technologies like cloud computing, blockchain, internet of things were emphasized by experts to improve the infrastructure of India.

Near Candidate-Less Apriori with Tidlists and Other Apriori Implementations

In this study we implemented four different versions of Apriori, namely, basic and basic multi-threaded, bloom filter, trie, and count-min sketch, and proposed a new algorithm – NCLAT (Near Candidate-Less Apriori with Tidlists). We compared the runtimes and max memory usages of our implementations among each other as well as with the runtime of Borgelt’s Apriori implementation in some of the cases. NCLAT implementation is more efficient than the other Apriori implementations that we know of in terms of the number of times the database is scanned, and the number of candidates generated. Unlike the original Apriori algorithm which scans the database for every level and creates all of the candidates in advance for each level, NCLAT scans the database only once and creates candidate itemsets only for level one but not afterwards. Thus the number of candidates created is equal to the number of unique items in the database.

Safety and Security beyond Industry 4.0

As open standards like OPC UA were introduced to facilitate the interoperability of devices, safety and security standards were only gradually incorporated into Industry 4.0 designs. Hence, safety and security issues have eventually emerged with the growing complexity of such systems, and they need to expand outside of their premises to be integrated into larger set-ups. Typical examples thereof are power grids, whose dependability was guarded for long times by strict rules and restrictive communication protocols. Once they were exposed on the Internet, however, their vulnerability has increased to a point where their safety could be compromised. Hence, there is an urgent need to implement effective safety and security mechanisms into OPC UA to provide systems with appropriate levels of functional safety as well as data security. With increasing levels of integration, e.g. with Industry 5.0, these standards need to evolve to provide for sustainability in a globally interconnected world.

The impact of a manufacturing execution system on supply chain performance

Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) are still rather unknown compared to their relatives, Enterprise Information Systems. To date, most research about MES focused on technical aspects and implementation approaches. In this paper, five statistical models are developed and a web-based survey among global Operations and Supply Chain managers from the manufacturing industry is conducted. Managers were invited to complete a questionnaire, where the central questions queried the mentioned performance metrics, but also other conditions like the presence of ERP or Lean practices. When comparing the means between companies with and without an MES, it shows that on each performance metric, MES-companies perform better than non-MES companies do. The results of the statistical analysis support the authors’ claim that companies with an MES in place outperform their competitors without an MES on the inventory- and logistics performance, as well as on Order Lead Time.

Theory and Practice of the Post-audit of Capital projects - Evidence from the Czech Republic

This paper reports on the post-audit practices of organisations in the Czech Republic. Much of the earlier published empirical research has been conducted in Australia, Canada, the USA, and Western Europe. Only recently, attention has been given to emerging markets, including Eastern European accession/transition countries. This exploratory study's main objective is to identify CZ companies' post-audit practices and obtain opinions on various post-audit issues. It also seeks to assess if these practices mirror those adopted by more developed economies. The research adopts interview, questionnaire, and descriptive statistical analysis approaches. The results present some interesting findings which are of value to both academics and practitioners. Although at the fringe of the general understanding of logistics, project management is a vital part. The authors believe that this is one of the first papers to focus on CZ post-audit practices and fills an important gap in the applied logistics literature.

A study of strategic group mapping and understanding mobility barriers in Indian logistic industry

The purpose of this research was to identify the strategic groups present in the Indian logistics industry and discuss the mobility barriers across the strategic groups. Secondary research was performed by collecting data from online sources and results were vetted by experts in supply chain management through convergent interviews. The research identified nine strategic groups in Indian logistic industry. Requirement of group specific fleet structures, assets, expertise in Value-added services were some prominent intergroup mobility barriers identified. Managers could devise ‘End to End’ supply chain solutions by collaborating with firms of other strategic groups as identified in the study.

Implications of Economic Decision-Making to the Project Manager - An Investigative Report

Decision-making is required frequently from a project manager. Therefore, this study investigates the fundamentals of economic decision-making, beneficial project manager characteristics, methods that help the project manager’s decision-making, and when economic decision-making should be applied. It was found that internal and external factors influence economic decision-making for a project manager. Also, it was established that economic decision-making should be implemented throughout the duration of the project. When there is not enough data to support economic estimation methods and no time to improve the method, then the project manager must use his/her experience to make a decision.

Study of Adoption and Absorption of Emerging Technologies for Smart Supply Chain Management

The world has been witnessing the advent of a wide range of emerging technologies like machine learning, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, internet of things, and others. In supply chain management (SCM) functions, these technologies have increasingly been playing a decisive role in improving the overall success of an organization. So, the purpose of this article was to understand the strategic imperative of adopting smart SCM utilizing these emerging technologies by Indian firms. Thus, the context was of an emerging economy like India from a dynamic capabilities' perspective. The authors undertook a qualitative research with a positivist approach by undertaking expert interviews with 14 respondents. The respondents were interviewed with a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire. The responses were content analyzed for themes. The SCM experts were engaged in the adoption of emerging technologies to transform SCM. The adoption of emerging technologies helped SCM functions of Indian firms to cater to the increased expectations of customers.

Exploratory Study of the Role of Emerging Technologies in Outsourcing of Supply Chain Functions

Emerging technologies (ETs) like blockchain technologies (BCT), internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and others offered promising new avenues to improve productivity, efficiency, and convenience in supply chain management (SCM) functions. The authors conducted a structured literature review to identify the researchable gaps. Subsequently, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 SCM experts from Indian organizations who were implementing ETs were conducted to secure expert insights. The authors then conducted thematic content analysis of the expert interview responses and presented the findings. The authors presented an integrated framework by incorporating process, activities, and resource-based considerations while making sourcing decisions involving emerging technologies in SCM functions.

The Importance of Railroad Freight Transportation and Its Correlation to Economic Growth

In this study, the railroad freight transportation and economic growth relationship in Turkey was examined using the econometric analysis for the period of 1984-2017. As a result of the econometric analysis, it was found that there is no causal relationship between railroad freight transportation and economic growth in the long run, while there is a causality relationship from railroad freight transportation to economic growth in the short run. In addition to causality tests, an econometric model was created using stationary series, and the OLS method was applied for this model. According to this estimation result, an increase in railroad freight transportation increases economic growth. When this result obtained from the OLS estimation and the findings obtained from the Granger causality test are evaluated altogether, it can be stated that an increase in railroad freight transportation accelerates economic growth in the short run in Turkey.