Debadyuti Das

Development of an AHP-QFD framework for designing a tourism product

A tourism product, characterised by its non-amenability to uniform product specifications, is considered to be an amalgam of different tangible and intangible elements. Keeping in view the heterogeneity, perishability and the uniqueness involved in a tourism product, the present study attempts to develop an AHP-QFD framework for designing a tourism product, which takes care of the touristic needs of tourists. The framework has been demonstrated with the help of an illustrative case study. Having identified the needs of tourists with reference to a tourist destination, the needs are prioritised with the help of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Subsequently, the concept of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is employed to formulate operating strategies by eliciting opinions from tourism professionals. Pairwise relationships among the operating strategies are investigated to find out whether the strategies support each other or are in conflict with each other. Finally the strategies are prioritised and evaluated, which enables the design of a tourism product incorporating the diverse needs of tourists.

An AHP framework of supplier evaluation with reference to high-value and critical items: a case study

This study developed a simple two-stage decision framework for evaluating suppliers of high-value and critical items with reference to a heavy engineering organisation by employing the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The first stage involved examining the qualifying criteria of the items on quality, while the second stage was concerned with identifying all other relevant attributes, including quality concerning high-value and critical items applicable to the organisation under study, and with finding out the relative importance of the same. The attributes were organised in a two-tier hierarchy showing four major criteria in the first tier and 17 subcriteria in the second tier. This enabled us to employ AHP to find out the relative importance of each individual subcriterion through pair-wise comparison between all major criteria and subcriteria by eliciting opinions from three experts. The findings indicated the quality/reliability of the items to be the most important criterion, followed by price and then technological capability of the suppliers. A group of five suppliers was evaluated on all 17 subcriteria with regard to their performance and the overall performance of the suppliers was compared on the factor scores obtained by each supplier.

A QFD Approach to Addressing the Impacts of Tourism Development

ABSTRACT The present study attempts to assess how far tourism development in a host region results in both positive as well as negative impacts. A series of paired t-tests are carried out between the expectation of the host community on tourism impacts and their experience with the same, which reveal that the host community expectation is remaining unfulfilled on all eight positive impacts. Results of t-tests pertaining to eight negative impacts further indicate that the experience of the host community with two negative impacts is significantly poor compared to their expectations. Subsequently with a view to addressing these unfulfilled positive impacts and significant negative impacts, a number of strategies are formulated by eliciting opinions from tourism professionals employing the concept of Quality Function Deployment (QFD). Pair-wise relationships among the strategies are investigated to find out whether the strategies support each other or are in conflict with each other. Finally the strategies are prioritized and evaluated, which provides valuable insights to the tourism planners for effectively addressing tourism impacts in the host region.

Attractiveness of Varanasi as a tourist destination: perspective of foreign tourists

The present paper examines the attractiveness of Varanasi as a tourist destination from the perspective of foreign tourists considering several important dimensions simultaneously. These are demographic characteristics of tourists, their expectation on touristic attributes of the destination as also satisfaction with the same and finally holistic impressions of the destination. A factor analysis carried out on 24 touristic attributes pertaining to the expectation of visitors gives rise to seven meaningful constructs. Results of step-wise multiple regression analysis between the perceived attractiveness and the above seven constructs reveal the importance of each of these seven constructs in explaining the perceived attractiveness of the destination. Holistic impressions of Varanasi reveal that it is a city embodying the essence of Indian spiritualism and mysticism with Ganges and Ghats forming the heart of the city.

An assessment of the impact of tourism development at Varanasi: perspectives of local tourism businesses

The present study attempts to assess how far tourism development in a host region results in both positive as well as negative impacts. A series of paired t-tests are carried out between the expectation of the tourism business community on tourism impacts and their experience with the same, which reveal that their expectation is remaining unfulfilled on all eight positive impacts. Results of t-tests pertaining to eight negative impacts further indicate that the experience of the community with two negative impacts is significantly poor compared to their apprehensions. The study findings pertaining to step-wise multiple regression analysis have revealed that four tourism impacts are most influential in shaping the future scenario of tourism at Varanasi.

Sustainable supply chain management in Indian organisations: an empirical investigation

The present work is an attempt to investigate the adoption of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices amongst manufacturing and process based organisations in India and its impact on organisational performance encompassing all three dimensions of sustainability. SSCM practices conceived in the present study include environmental management practices (EMP), socially inclusive practices for employees (SPE), socially inclusive practices for community (SPC), operations practices (OP) and supply chain integration (SCI) which were treated as exogenous variables. Organisational performance considered in this study includes five dimensions, namely environmental performance (EPR), employee-centred social performance (ESP), community-centred social performance (CSP), operations performance (OPR) and competitiveness, which were regarded as endogenous variables. The analysis was carried out with the help of structural equation modelling considering natural logarithm of manpower as a control variable. Few major findings are mentioned. EMP does not have any significant association with OPR, nor does it result in competitiveness. However, when jointly mediated through both EPR and OPR, EMP leads to competitiveness. SPC has significant negative association with competitiveness, when only direct relationship is considered. However, indirect relationship between SPC and competitiveness shows significant positive association when mediated through CSP. The resultant total effect between SPC and competitiveness turns out to be insignificant. Further, OPR fully mediates the relationship between OP and competitiveness. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

An Approach to Improve Supply Chain Profit Through Buy-Back Contract with Reference to a Book Publishing Firm

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existing practices of buy-back contract adopted by a book publishing firm and the amount of profit gained by the publisher and a distributor as also the total supply chain profit generated under the current contract. The study was carried out in a leading book publishing firm based in India. It has considered the publisher and a distributor based in Northern Zone of India as two partners in the supply chain acting as a single supplier and a single customer respectively. The forecast demand of a book is estimated based on qualitative and quantitative factors and thereafter the print-run quantity and volume of returns are determined under both existing scenario and the proposed scenario based on estimated demand, variability of demand and the service level. Finally the optimum buy-back price is found out under the proposed scenario which maximises the profit of both publisher and distributor and also the overall supply chain profit.

Critical Success Factors Influencing the Performance of Development Projects: An Empirical Study of Constituency Development Fund Projects in Kenya

The present work attempts to identify critical success factors (CSFs) influencing the performance of development projects based on their key performance indicators (KPIs). In order to achieve this, it has considered the case of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) projects constructed between 2003 and 2011 in Kenya and collected the viewpoints of 175 respondents comprising clients, consultants and contractors involved in the implementation of CDF projects with regard to their perceptions on 30 success variables. The findings reveal that the individual items constituting these six factors essentially represent six CSFs namely project-related, client-related, consultant-related, contractor-related, supply chain-related and external environment-related factor. The findings of this study are also relevant to the development projects undertaken in other developing countries.

Reverse supply chain management in consumer electronics: an Indian perspective

The present paper is an attempt to find out the strategic motive of an organisation to undertake reverse supply chain management (RSCM) activities with specific reference to consumer electronics industry in the Indian context. It has identified the facilitating factors as also the inhibiting factors faced by an organisation in pursuing RSCM activities by carrying out questionnaire survey amongst retailers and service providers doing repairing, refurbishing and remanufacturing of consumer electronic goods. This study has attempted to categorise the returned goods in terms of recency, usability and residual value and has tried to find out the percentage figures of individual element within each category of recency, usability and residual value. It has further analysed different return streams in terms of volume and residual value and revealed as to which return stream/s contribute most to the organisations. Finally, this study has analysed each element of RSCM activities in terms of time taken and cost incurred and identified the major activities consuming maximum amount of time and cost.