Sidhartha S. Padhi

Contractor selection in government procurement auctions: a case study

This paper aims to present a combined fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Simple Multi-Attribute Ranking Technique (SMART) approach to deal with the contractor selection problem in government procurement auctions. The proposed approach utilises a set of ten attributes for the evaluation of a contractor. In this approach, the attributes of both the past performance and the present status of the contractor is considered wherein the selection attributes are qualitative and/or quantitative type having inhibiting and/or enabling in nature. A case study of the Rural Development Department of the government of Orissa has been taken up to demonstrate the contractor selection process. [Submitted 9 February 2008; Revised 27 June 2008; Revised 8 August 2008; Accepted 12 August 2008]

A simulation-based methodology to analyse production line disruptions

This article proposes a discrete event simulation (DES) framework to analyse the impact of disturbances, their parameter values, and their interactions, on production line efficiency. The framework is demonstrated by means of a case study of a manufacturing process in an Indian automotive manufacturer. Various scenarios are generated and studied using design of experiment (DOE) to investigate the effects of changes in product, technology, cycle time, and worker competency, and to derive the optimal set of process and decision parameters.

Adoption of e-procurement in the government departments

The purpose of this study is to explore the enabling and inhibiting factors that affect the adoption of electronic procurement (e-procurement) in government departments of Orissa in India. Reviewing the literatures on adoption of e-procurement in government and private organisations, this paper first brings out a number of key factors contributing to the adoption of e-procurement. Based on these factors, a questionnaire survey was conducted among the government officers. An analysis of the responses to the questionnaire survey, together with the use of principal component analysis and factor analysis, helped in framing six constructs: reduction of imperfections, effective procurement, internal resistance, quality software design, IT-readiness and management policy effectiveness. Using these constructs, ten hypotheses were developed and tested in the framework of structural equation modelling. The results indicate that management policy effectiveness and IT-readiness encourage the adoption of e-procurement and simultaneously reduce imperfections and enhance effective procurement in the government organisations.

A real option-based supply chain project evaluation and scheduling method

Supply chain departments spend their time managing numerous projects that will improve and maintain their supply chains. Recent literature has most frequently described the content of these projects and their scheduling but neglected to include risk and uncertainty in the expected cost, profits and time durations of these projects. In this article, we have introduced real option valuation (ROV) to supply chain project scheduling as a flexible method to quantify those risks. Our proposed two-step framework links ROV to all relevant constraints of a multi-project set-up by binary fuzzy goal programming. We applied the framework to a real-life case study data of 21 projects that were facing numerous risks and resource constraints. The results show how scheduling performance improved in comparison to methods ignoring risk and uncertainty (e.g. net present value-based scheduling). For validation we conducted hypothesis tests and sensitivity analysis, and provide an in-depth discussion. The findings contribute to research and practice by capturing project-related risks and managerial flexibilities in general and in supply chains in particular.

Centralized construction contractor selection considering past performance of contractors: a case of India

Analyzing the contractor selection procedures of government departments in various countries and in the Rural Development Department (RDD) in India, this paper bring out several weaknesses of the present contractor selection procedure. It suggests the inclusion of three new selection attributes and the adoption of a centralized contractor evaluation process. The suggested attributes are: time quoted to complete the project, warranty period quoted, and past performance score of the contractor. To obtain the past performance score of a contractor, the paper uses a fuzzy multi-attribute utility scoring technique that allows consideration of qualitative/quantitative and enabling/inhibiting character of the relevant attributes. To solve the resulting multi-attribute–multi-objective decision-making problem, the paper proposes a fuzzy binary goal programming model. When tested with the existing contractor selection procedure for three past projects in RDD, the model yields the same results as those taken by RDD in the past, confirming the credibility of the model. When tested with the suggested procedure, the model yields much superior results.

Process evaluation of award of work contracts in a government department

Government departments in India predominantly procure products and services following a manual procedure. The process is lengthy and it takes three months or more to finally award a contract. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the improvements that are possible to derive by adopting e-procurement. The procurement system followed for the award of a works contract by the Rural Development Department of the Orissa Government is taken here as a case. Discrete-event simulation is used to evaluate the system improvement in terms of reduction in lead time, and the proportion of contracts awarded out of the requested work-orders.

Design of Auction Parameters to Reduce the Effect of Collusion

Government departments are increasingly turning to auctions to procure goods and services. Collusion among bidders, however, reduces competition and raises winning bid prices. Since conventional collusion control measures based on the redesign of auction mechanisms are less effective in government procurement auctions, there is a need to devise control measures that decrease the effect of collusion. This article demonstrates how the principles of design of experiments can be applied in a system dynamics model to find the auction parameter values that substantially reduce the effect of collusion in government procurement auctions. This research makes a number of contributions. First, it develops a feedback-based dynamic mechanism of collusion in government procurement auctions. The mechanism proposes the winning bid price as being determined not by the total number of bidders but by the number of independent bidders. It defines each cartel as one independent bidder regardless of the number of bidders in the cartel. Second, the mechanism is tested by developing a system dynamics model to government auctions for procuring contracts for roadwork projects in India. Third, the principles of experimental design are applied to find the auction parameter values that ensure high bid participation and low winning price-to-reserve price ratios.

An empirical investigation of the antecedents of value co-creation in B2B IT services outsourcing

– The purpose of this paper is to conduct empirical investigation of value co-creation phenomena in IT services outsourcing. This survey based research enabled to identify antecedents of value co-creation and their impact on value outcomes. , – This empirical study identifies 25 drivers of value co-creation in IT outsourcing services. These drivers were identified from reported literature and by studying IT project reports. The data were collected from client and supplier organizations followed by verification of the drivers (using PCA and CFA methodologies) that contribute significantly to value co-creation in the IT services outsourcing domain. Furthermore, using SEM and linear regression, the authors have verified the strength of their relationships with value co-creation. , – This research is subjected to exploratory factor analysis, which resulted in six antecedents of value co-creation in IT services outsourcing. These antecedents include alliance relationship, strategic intent, service actualization, intrapreneurship, collective capabilities, and resource management. The alliance relationship, strategic intent, service actualization, and intrapreneurship are found to be significant for value co-creation. While collective capabilities as a standalone was not significant, the relationship of collective capabilities to value co-creation has achieved significance under the influence of alliance relationship, strategic intent, and other antecedents – when tested and hypothesized through the SEM path model. , – The research has the following limitations. The antecedents identified are contextual. The potential illustrative, but not exhaustive reasons, for the change of the context may be due to contract duration, age of the project, relationship maturity, expected value outcome from both the parties, etc. The drivers identified in this research are applicable only to IT services (IT and ITES outsourcing). They cannot be generalized to other B2B outsourcing relationship. The authors propose the conducting of separate research to identify the priorities of these antecedents for different types of outsourcing as well different types of value outcomes. , – This study has added to the knowledge on value co-creation in IT services outsourcing relationships through empirical modeling. From the perspective practitioners of IT industry, this work brings rich information of what are the drivers to value co-creation and their significance on value outcomes in IT services outsourcing. It can provide guidelines to both clients and service providers of similar industry to assess their current practices for value co-creation and re-prioritize their activities and budgets based on the significance of value based benefits. Moreover, practitioners in the IT services industry can use these value drivers and understand the antecedents for value co-creation. As this work is from a dual perspective, both clients and suppliers can assess the applicability of these drivers and antecedents and adopt them to realize mutual value. , – In the past, researchers have focussed on value after it was created and shared among the respective relationship partners, and very few emphasized the need for proactive identification of the antecedents of value co-creation. Researchers have emphasized on the need for an empirical approach, because most of the published studies are theoretical and conceptual in nature. Hence, the significant contribution of this empirical study is to validate the value co-creation drivers identified from literature and qualitative study (case studies) with IT industry practitioners (no. 256) across the globe and the relevance of antecedents to B2B IT services outsourcing body of knowledge.

Bio‐immune systems analogy for effective managerial decision making in conflicting environment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the analogy of the human immune system with the economic auction theory.Design/methodology/approach – The paper develops an analogy of bio‐immune system with competitive bidding in auction, then develops a model of the situation and discusses its managerial implications.Findings – The human immune system can be benchmarked to model decision making under competitive environment, such as biddings in auctions and obtains gainful insights.Practical implications – Various engineering, management, social science, and defense and security‐related applications of the model are suggested.Originality/value – The paper presents a novel and innovative model with tremendous potential for varied applications.

Identification of bottlenecks to improve equipment availability: a case study

In this highly competitive market where the demand for the products is increasing gradually, it is essential for a manufacturing company to reduce the production cycle time and cost accordingly. One of the methods for this is to increase the availability of process. This paper attempts to identify and quantify the causes of machine downtime in a manufacturing company. For this a four-prong approach is taken: Firstly, the major causes for the low availability of process are determined, where bearing failure is found to be the major causes of low availability. Second, combining desirability function approach and data envelopment analysis are performed to identify the sensitive input variables that affect the bearing failure. Thirdly, ordinary linear regression is used to validate the results of DEA. Lastly, some managerial implications to reduce the downtime were suggested. We have considered an electrolytic tinplating line process in a tin sheet manufacturing company as a case study.