S. Pugazhendhi

AQUA: Analytical model for evaluation and selection of Third-Party Logistics service provider in supply chain

Selection of Third-Party Logistics (3PL) service provider is a strategic decision making in supply chain network. The challenge and need for supply chain analyst is to develop a real-life simple and implement-ease model, which can handle the voice of customer and internal and external business metrics for evaluation and selection of 3PL service provider. We develop a three-phase analytical model with the integration of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD). In the current competitive scenario, the consideration of business metrics and voice of customer for evaluating the selection criteria of 3PL service provider benchmarks the agility of an organisation. The analytical model is validated and illustrated with a real-life case study.

Integration of IPA and QFD to assess the service quality and to identify after sales service strategies to improve customer satisfaction – a case study

Abstract Customer satisfaction is considered very essential nowadays as it shows how firms are dedicated to afford quality products or services to their customers. Retaining the existing customer and acquiring the new customers are the basic objectives of any organisation and after sales service (ASS) has acquired a strategic role as a mean to achieve customer satisfaction. Importance–performance analysis (IPA) and quality function deployment (QFD) are the powerful tools successfully applied in many fields. However, studies on application of these tools in investigating the ASS quality and customer satisfaction seems to be scarce. This article investigates linking of IPA, which is a simple and effective customer satisfaction tool and QFD in the improvement of ASS attributes in an effort to determine the appropriate ASS strategic action plans to be adopted with the objective of enhancing customer satisfaction. In this study, a customer-driven model is proposed to examine the importance of the various ASS attributes and the performance of the organisation via questionnaire survey, and through the IP analysis, the areas to be focused are identified to help the decision makers in devising suitable policies, to improve the ASS performance. This is achieved through the employment of QFD that will help decision makers in the strategic planning to attain better customer satisfaction. A case study is carried out to exhibit the effectiveness of the developed model in a firm involved in manufacturing the home appliances.

An analytic model for selection of and allocation among third party logistics service providers

Third party logistics service provider (3PLSP) selection is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem in a supply chain involving many qualitative and quantitative factors. The selection of an efficient and potential set of 3PLSPs that can meet the particular requirements of the customer and with whom the customer can strengthen its relationships is a crucial decision. This decision is influenced by several factors often in conflict, such as price, services offered, location, technology, quality, etc., and the problem complexity increases because of the imprecision and uncertainty involved in the decision-making process. In this paper a simple but effective approach to handle this kind of problems is proposed and the problem of allocation of workloads among the ranked 3PLSPs satisfying the set of constraints and meeting the set objective is also addressed. The application of the proposed approach to a real case is also presented.

Assessment of impact of after sales service attributes on customer satisfaction for a home-appliances manufacturing firm

After sales services (ASSs) are activities that take place after the purchase of the product and are devoted to supporting customers in the usage and disposal of goods. ASS can create sustainable relationships with customers and contribute significantly to customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of ASS on customer satisfaction and to establish the influence of chosen ASS attributes on customer satisfaction. For this purpose SERVQUAL model coupled with multiple regression analysis is employed. A case company involved in manufacturing the home appliances is considered, the opinion of customers on its ASS operations were collected and then analysed using the SPSS-AMOS 21. The results of the study revealed that SERVQUAL-based ASS attributes are positively correlated with customer satisfaction and the reliability dimension plays the role of mediator in the effects of ASS quality. Finally the recommendations are presented to improve the performance of ASS operations of the case organisation.

An analysis of barriers in information sharing in supply chains

This paper aims to identify and analyse the main barriers in information sharing in supply chains. The barriers were identified through a detailed literature review followed by the screening of the barriers through analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to identify the most important barriers. The most important barriers thus identified are considered for further analysis by invoking interpretive structural modelling (ISM) to establish the relationship between these important barriers.

Comprehensive Study on Wastages of Supply Chain Information Sharing in Automotive Industries

A supply chain is a very extensive concept, which encompasses many problems and features when it comes to controlling. Now a days lean concept is a very common method to several areas, such as service sectors and manufacturing. Applying the lean concept to supply chain management is a very popular study part, it has attracted many industrial practices and researchers with different applications. Information sharing and technology remain one of the key factors of integrating the supply chain members. Current scenario the competition is no longer between the competing companies, but it happens between the supply chains. So the efficiency of the supply chain is very important. And the effective sharing of information can enhance the supply chain efficiency through minimizing the inventories and Information sharing can increase supply chain efficiency by reducing inventories and stabilizing the production. This paper describes and discusses about the seven deadly wastes of supply chain information with the comparative principle of Toyota production system (TPS) principle approach. How the TPS can be applied to supply chain information sharing And lean tool of 5S concept possibility improve the information sharing.

Development of a hybrid BSC-AHP model for institutions in higher education

As issues of performance measurement and issues of accountability become increasingly consequential in higher education, an understanding of the concerns motivating these changes and the new measurement frameworks which are emerging can be extremely useful. The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a tool that translates an organisations mission and strategy into tangible objectives and measures. The measures are balanced between outcome measures - the results of past efforts - and the measures that drive future performance. This paper develops a balanced scorecard for academic institutions that measures and evaluates day-to-day business operations from following four perspectives: finance, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth. This paper also proposes an analytic hierarchy process-based (AHP) approach for prioritising the performance measures of higher level academic institutions on the four perspectives of a balanced scorecard. The approach summarises the evaluation indexes extracted from related literature. Then, the relative weights of the chosen evaluation indexes are calculated using the analytic hierarchy process. The proposed approach is demonstrated through a case study involving a university in South India.