Supply Chain Indicators Research Articles

Analysis on supply chain risks in Indian apparel retail chains and proposal of risk prioritization model using Interpretive structural modeling

Indian apparel retail industry is on a complete transformation journey and trying to evolve as an organized industry. It is very common to find the disruption factors in every business and the ways to mitigate and manage them is of current research interest. The paper discusses the selective risks associated with the apparel retail supply chains in India by structural analysis of the controllable risks that are identified. The work also reveals the use of Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) to establish the interdependencies between these risks spread across various supply chain functions of retail industry. The relationships are established based on expert opinions using Delphi technique followed by ISM modeling technique and Fuzzy MICMAC analysis. It also classifies the risk factors based on their driving and dependence power. ISM is proved to be a useful tool to help understand the impact of risks at stages of retail supply chain. Globalization, labor issues and security and safety of resources turns out to be the strong drivers of other supply chain uncertainties. The domino effect of these risks leads to financial crises for the organization.The paper also proposes a new model for the Risk Priority Number (RPN) calculation using ISM and Fuzzy MICMAC methodology for the applications in retail and various other domain risk studies. The sample size of experts is small and to remove the biasness of opinion, the model can be further validated using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in the future. The outcome would help practicing managers to analyze and to take actions for managing the factors by improving the bottom line of the organization by proper utilization of resources.

Analyzing the Barriers of Health Care Supply Chain in India: The Contribution and Interaction of Factors

Healthcare supply chain has been a subject of interest for many years. The pressure of changes in environment lead to changes in guiding principles which produce solid problems viewed as problems with no feasible solutions. Healthcare supply chain demands effort on part of researchers to not view the problems as static. The different factors need to be viewed as dynamic. We attempt to highlight the benefits of adopting a factor interaction approach to hospital protocol. The interpretative system modelling (ISM) approach is utilized for interaction of variables affecting healthcare supply chain. This can provide healthcare sector professionals with programme guidelines where they can investigate their dynamic effects. Case study analysis and interviews have been used for generating data for ISM to understand the frame of reference in which Healthcare supply chain operate. ISM methodology has been successfully used to observe the boundaries between the different stratums of various systems and visualise the different echelons of the interacting variables of Healthcare supply chain operations. This helps to embrace and integrate human thinking. This is an advantage over hard quantitative approaches where expert knowledge is pushed to give a number to their opinion usually in form of weights to variables such as structured equation modelling or goal programming using historical data. The research paper aims to build a new frame of reference for studying and measuring the performance of Healthcare supply chain operations.

HYV Rice Seeds Accessibility and Availability in India and Bangladesh: Stakeholderss Perspective

Implementation of the project 'Addressing Barriers to Rice Seeds Trade between India and Bangladesh' (RISTE) has contributed to a constructive dialogue on trade and cooperation between the two countries. Through action research, networking and advocacy, it has involved policy makers, research organisations, NGOs, media and foreign trade specialists from both countries. This has provided excellent opportunities for influencing reforms for formalising trade and cooperation, better knowledge sharing and harmonisation of seed regulations and trade policy between the two countries.This set of seven case studies (four from India, and three from Bangladesh) is premised on interactions of the project team with stakeholders engaged in rice seed supply chain in India and Bangladesh. It presents stakeholders perspectives on issues related to ensuring adequate availability and accessibility to variety rice seeds. The revelations from the case studies are pointers to the fact that despite lack of any official arrangements between India and Bangladesh, sharing of knowledge in the form of seeds continues. These also reveal major issues and challenges faced by farmers in the two countries in accessing quality seeds, and how informal access to seeds are helping farmers in meeting their requirements of quality rice seeds. Therefore, there is urgent need for the governments of both countries to come forward and create a mechanism for formal knowledge sharing, trade and cooperation. It will benefit farmers, seed producers, seed dealers and traders.

Identifying the Barriers and Opportunities for Enhanced Coherence between Agriculture and Public Health Policies: Improving the Fat Supply in India

The national Government of India has published draft regulation proposing a 5% upper limit of trans fat in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (PHVOs). Global recommendations are to replace PHVOs with unsaturated fat but it is not known whether this will be feasible in India. We systematically identified policy options to address the three major underlying agricultural sector issues that influence reformulation with healthier oils: the low productivity of domestically produced oilseeds leading to a reliance on palm oil imports, supply chain wastage, and the low availability of oils high in unsaturated fats. Strengthening domestic supply chains in India will be necessary to maximize health gains associated with product reformulation.

Analysis of critical activities for GSCM implementation in mining supply chains in India using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process

Strong evidence exists in literature regarding improved organisational performance in economical and environmental front due to adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. Motivated by this, few bigger Indian mining industries have started adopting GSCM practices with a view not only to improve their performance but also to maintain a steady operation that is free from government and social interruptions. One of the reasons behind poor rate of GSCM adoption in Indian mining industries is lack of sector specific GSCM success criteria. In order to bridge this gap this paper makes a novel approach to establish a validated set of GSCM success activities. This paper further employs fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) to evaluate the priority weights of these success activities which could be helpful for the decision makers in assessing and improving their GSCM effectiveness.

Implementing Supply Chain Technologies in Emerging Markets: An Institutional Theory Perspective

Supply chain technology (SCT) facilitates information transfer within and across firm boundaries. However, institutional environments in emerging markets give rise to challenges that inhibit the implementation of SCT and the consequent realization of its benefits. Unfortunately, there is a lack of understanding as to the nature or the extent of these implementation challenges. We undertook a grounded theory study in the emerging market of India to investigate how SCT is implemented when subjected to prevailing institutional pressures. Based on an analysis of interviews with 50 supply chain managers, we find that early adopters of SCT experience significant and numerous unmet expectations associated with SCT implementation. These unmet expectations arise from competing institutional logics with the resultant isomorphic pressure causing the juxtaposition of two incompatible supply chains in India. A key finding of this study contradicts extant research, supporting recent work in emerging markets, to suggest a need to reassess our mental models developed in the West and conceptualize de novo models that are sensitive to the institutional environments of emerging markets.

Role of Organised Retailers in Rationalising Fruits and Vegetables Supply Chain in India

The prevailing supply chain system for fruits and vegetables in India is long, fragmented and results in high wastages. The share of producers is low in the total price. Growing needs of consumers for affordable, quality, safe and hygienic fruits and vegetables cannot be fulfilled effectively in the present system. A competitive alternate marketing system, with special focus on supply chain, is required in order to reap the potential of the emerging consumer demand. A rationalised supply chain system has to provide a complete solution to meet key needs of the stakeholders. The system has to be reviewed mainly from investment, technology and management perspectives. The unorganised retailers who have huge share in the present market cannot meet this challenge on their own. Hence, an alternate system has to be evolved. Hence, this study covers the role of organised retailers in rationalising vegetables and fruits supply chain. The data required for the study is collected through field survey by administering the questionnaire to the respondents across Karnataka, one of the states in India. The study shows that the three key parameters of supply chain, that is, cost of distribution, wastage and price, are favouring organised retailers.

English

This paper is an attempt to explore the problems faced by Indian agriculture for food security in terms of inadequate infrastructure and highly inefficient supply chain in context of information technology. Due to lack of efficient infrastructure and food processing industry about 30-35 per cent of all foods produced in India are wasted. This paper examines the critical issues at each sub-system of agriculture supply chain, starting from the input to the consumer, with a view to integrating them in efficient and effective manner. Investments in cold chain infrastructure, applied research in post-harvest technologies, installation of food processing plants in various sectors and development of food retailing sector are mandatory for achieving gains in this sector. Paper broadly covers some of important aspects of agriculture supply chain in India- identification of issues at different levels in the supply chain; transformation in the agriculture due to various supply chain interventions; the role of ICTs in supply chain management: and this paper also covers the suggestion to improve efficiency at different levels in supply chain. There is wide research gap in this sector, having such potential and prospectus for overall growth there is not much research in this field. The paper concludes that efficient supply chain plays very important role for development and contemporary issue for agriculture therefore; government action must address the issue of infrastructure development to achieve the objective of food security for all.   Keywords: Agriculture, infrastructure, supply chain, food security, development, investment.

The feasibility of multisectoral policy options aimed at reducing trans fats and encouraging its replacement with healthier oils in India.

The World Health Organization recommends replacement of trans fat with polyunsaturated fat to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. Although several high-income countries have been successful in reducing trans fat in the food supply, low- and middle-income countries such as India may face additional contextual challenges such as the large informal sector, lack of consumer awareness, less enforcement capacity and low availability and affordability of healthier unsaturated fats. The objective of this study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of multisectoral policy options aimed at supporting trans fat reduction and its replacement with polyunsaturated fats in India. Multisectoral policy options examined in this study were identified using food supply chain analysis. Semi-structured interviews (n = 17) were conducted with key informants from agriculture, trade, finance, retail, industry, food standards, non-governmental organizations and the health professions to gain their views on the feasibility and acceptability of the policy options. Purposive sampling was used to identify key informants. Data were coded and organized based on key themes. There was support for policies aimed at improving the quality of seeds, supporting farmer co-operatives and developing affordable farming equipment suited to smallholders to improve the production of healthier oils. Increasing the role of the private sector to improve links among producers, processors and retailers may help to streamline the fats supply chain in India. Blending healthier oils with oils high in saturated fat, which are currently readily available, could help to improve the quality of fat in the short term. Improving consumer awareness through mass media campaigns and improved labelling may help increase consumer demand for healthier products. Reorienting agricultural policies to support production of healthier oils will help increase their uptake by industry. Policy coherence across sectors will be critical to reduce trans fat intakes and could be improved by increasing engagement among researchers, the private sector and government.

Underdeveloped Supply Chain Dynamics of Indian Agriculture: Reference to Information Technology and Knowledge Management

Agriculture in India is the most important sector for food security and socio-economic development. Agriculture accounted for about 14 per cent of the GDP and employed about 60 per cent of the country’s population. This article tries to explore the problems faced by Indian agriculture for food security in terms of inadequate infrastructure and highly inefficient supply chain in context of information technology (IT). This article examines the critical issues at each sub-system of agriculture supply chain, starting from the input to the consumer, with a view to integrating them in efficient and effective manner. As proper flow of information across the chain constitutes an integral part, the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in improving supply chain efficiency in agriculture is discussed in detail. Thus, this article broadly covers some of the important aspects of agriculture supply chain in India—identification of issues at different levels in the supply chain; transformation in agriculture due to various supply chain interventions; the role of ICTs in supply chain management (SCM)—and the suggestion to improve efficiency at different levels in the supply chain. There is a wide research gap in this sector; having such potential and prospect for overall growth, not much research has been done in this field. The article concludes that ICT plays a very important role for the development and contemporary issues of agriculture; therefore, the government action must address the issue of infrastructure development to achieve the objective of food security for all.

Assessing Transaction Cost to Describe Scope of the Firm in Emerging Farm Supply Chain in India: The Case of ITC E-Chaupal

This paper aims to describe the implication for transaction costs for agricultural marketing channel structure and outline a model of vertical coordination in agriculture. Considering new ways of assessing the true cost of conducting business is an important step towards improving system and reducing such costs. This is the question of appropriate scope of the corporation. The corporation should leverage its resources into every business in which it can create value. 262 The paper is based on recent work done by the author for the Indian agribusiness supply chain (Rakesh 2004). The rationale for undertaking work of this sort stems from two main objectives. First is a general dissatisfaction with the way economist have approached their study of vertical coordination in the broader framework of political economy (Sukhpal 2000) and others. The second perspective from which this work has emerged is the belief that a sensible coordination of the theories from the institutional economics, supply chain management and relationship marketing can be applied fruitfully to the study of agri food and agri commodity supply chains. When the emphasis within most agricultural system and most predominantly Indian agriculture is changing from policy dependence to more market orientation and when technological and structural changes suggest a need for a more analytical and dynamic approach. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the possibility of using a series of studies from Institutional economics as a basis of detailed diagnostic investigation of individual relationship within agricultural supply chain systems and to explore the implications for vertical coordination and integration. This study is a need to bridge the gap in the study of agricultural supply chains by concentrating on relationship between contractual organizational forms and their strategic viability. We will thus explore the scope of corporation in a strategic context. The rest of the paper concentrates closely on the nature of such contractual forms. It starts by considering recent antecedent research from the institutional economics and then discusses approaches to evaluate vertical coordination before applying one approach to the assessment of ITC e-choupal sourcing and rural retailing system. It studies the E-Chaupal experiment from transaction costs perspective and studies its scope within the context of the nature of it‘ corporate strategy.

Modelling Rural Healthcare Supply Chain in India using System Dynamics

Indian healthcare supply chain seems to be diverse depending upon the healthcare facilities and population. The present work entirely focuses on the supply of Iron Folic Acid tabs in state government owned rural healthcare systems. Brief introduction about system dynamic has been given in this paper. A survey has been conducted related to the supply chain of folic acid tabs from state drug stores to patients via women's hospital, community health centre (CHC), primary health centres, and sub centres in District Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India. Modeling and simulation of entire supply chain has been performed using system dynamics technique. Causal loop diagram (CLD) has been constructed which displays the supply chain process at various stages throughout the entire system. The factors such as frequency of patients, and order frequency has been considered while constructing the causal loop diagram. The CLD has been translated into stock-flow diagram (SFD) for the entire supply chain on Stella® platform and simulation has been run for a period of one year (Jan to Dec). It has been noticed that there is a huge shortage (stock out) of folic acid tabs at women's hospital, CHC, PHCs, and sub centres because of large delivery time. The present research may assist the government policy makers to take necessary decisions for improving the sustainability of the rural healthcare supply chain by reducing stock out of the medicine.

System Dynamics Modeling Based Analysis to Combat Counterfeit Drugs Supply Chain in India

The Counterfeit Drugs Supply Chain dynamics seem to follow a counterintuitive pattern. Despite it being targeted by law enforcement policies globally, it has been going on increasing rampantly. This paper proposes and investigates a dynamic hypothesis based on Systems approach questioning the very way in which the supplies of counterfeit drugs have been regulated. Using the modeling and simulation framework of System Dynamics, a holistic influence model has been propounded which highlights the mutual interplay of influencing factors in major sub-sectors having circular causality under the Counterfeit Drugs supply chain ecosystem. With the support of empirical facts and data, long-term impacts of various decision scenarios have been simulated to assess alternative policy for giving a holistic response to dismantle Counterfeit Drugs (CFD) markets in India. The goal of this research is to identify the key policy intervention points that are critical for this purpose. It was also intended to assess the cascading effect that these interventionist decisions create over the entire chain. System dynamics modeling is considered as suitable approach to investigate these key parameters impact. The motivation behind looking at counterfeiting in Indian pharmaceutical industry from a system dynamics point of view is that all the sub-sectors or stakeholders along with their impact over the central incidence of counterfeiting are included in the ecosystem modeling.

Consumer behaviour, customer satisfaction vis-a-vis brand performance: an empirical study of dairy food supply chain in India

Quantifying customer satisfaction in any manufacturing or service supply chain is extremely important to know the end-user preferences. The higher the customer satisfaction, the higher is the sales, which in turn leads to better supply chain performance. In the current study customer satisfaction is measured quantitatively from a dairy food supply chain perspective in India. The data collected from the customers have been subjected to a rigorous analysis giving due weightage to the sampling and reliability of the instrument used for the study. From large number of indicators, factors have been drawn by using factor analysis and customer satisfaction index has been calculated thereto. The empirical findings are expected to add value to the concept where products are highly perishable and need conditioned transportation at every stage.

Establishment of a sustainable development framework in small scale mining supply chains in India

Green supply chain management (GSCM) improves environmental performance of the organisation which leads to their increased social image while enabling them to improve economical performance through cost reduction and cost saving principles. In fact GSCM success can lead to increased contribution of the organisations towards sustainable development (SD). However, mining industries in India particularly small scale mines are either unable to implement GSCM successfully or reluctant to adopt it. The reason may be lack of adequate knowledge of potential GSCM barriers and the existing causal relationship among them. To bridge this gap this research tries to explore the potential GSCM barriers in small scale Indian mining industries and proposes, decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to extract the causal relationships among them. Prior knowledge of the barriers and their nature will help the decision makers in formulating effective strategies to bring improvements in GSCM implementation that supports sustainable development.

Role of FDI in Multi-brand Retail Trade in India and its Implications

The Indian food supply chains are changing fast due to many policy and practice changes. There has been presence of domestic food supermarkets in the sector for many years now and their performance varies across states and chains. But, for the past few years, there has been plenty of debate and discussion about the potential role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail, including food. This article tries to understand the role of FDI in multi-brand retail in improving the efficiency of food supply chains in India and its implications for various stakeholders in the chain. It uses empirical evidence from the experience of Indian domestic retail supermarkets and wholesale cash ‘n’ carry supermarkets and from other developing countries to examine the role FDI can play. The article also examines various mechanisms which could be used to leverage the presence of FDI in supermarkets and explores the role of policy and regulation to promote the small farmer and the traditional retail interests in such chains. It examines the role and implications of FDI supermarkets for food inflation, farmer income enhancement and employment generation.

Gains from coordination in milkfed dairy in Punjab

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of benefits to farmers from vertical coordination in dairy. To analyze this, the authors first document the functioning of the cooperative (and changes thereof with increased competition). The paper also uses a field survey to quantify the benefits. In the process, the authors investigate the issue of selection/participation of farmers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is largely based on a survey of households in two districts of Indian Punjab along with secondary data. Descriptive as well as regression analyses have been conducted to address the research questions.FindingsThe paper presents several key findings. First, the public sector enterprise has been dynamic as competition from private sector has brought favorable changes. There is also evidence of negative selection of farmers implying that those who join dairy cooperatives would have significantly inferior outcomes outside vis‐à‐vis the ones who actually are independent. No bias against farmers by their herd size and significant gains upon participation can explain the scaling up from the demand side. In other words many farmers would find it profitable to become members of the cooperative.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the survey was extensive in measurement of costs by including variable and fixed costs of production, marketing as well as transaction costs, the data on fixed costs turned out to be noisy. Further, the analysis based on cross‐sectional data could not account for unobserved farmer level individual heterogeneity. Also, the outside option for the farmer in this paper is to be independent. It is possible that this could be integration with private sector, a case that the study does not cover.Social implicationsBenefits from coordination should motivate policies for promoting it. The finding that increased competition has fostered dynamism in the public sector has implications far beyond the case studied here.Originality/valueDespite the extensive system of cooperatives, there do not exist rigorous studies that assess the gains to farmers from this type of horizontal and vertical coordination. The extent of gains establishes a measure of foregone earnings since the supply chains in India remain uncoordinated.

Farm to Fork Supply Chain of Potato in the State of Bihar in India

The food supply chain in India is highly fragmented. The number of intermediaries in the chain is exceedingly high. These intermediaries are important because they act as a substitute for infrastructure where none exists. But over the years a layer of intermediaries has grown most of which add little value to the produce but collectively they add significantly to the final cost. This study carried out in the state of Bihar has found that the share of the farmer in the total margin across the value chain of potato is considerably low and the maximum part of the margin is cornered by the intermediaries. The study has also analyzed the contribution of value addition in total price escalation along the value chain and the share of farmer in the final retail price. The study has also listed the current constraints in the system and ends with recommendations towards weeding out inefficiencies from the current system.

Impact of functionalities on e-commerce in supply chain in India

The objective of this exploratory study pertains to system architecture of e-commerce development model. It understands the determinants of development of e-commerce in SCM within Indian industry. The research was initiated to study the findings and focused on the impact of organisational and social functionalities in the field of e-commerce development. Data collected from small and big enterprises were analysed with simple regression analysis. The results confirmed the explanatory power of e-commerce functionalities and organisation functionalities on e-commerce development, as in other innovation adoption. The study showed that one of the factors of supply chain functionalities, that is, SCM coordination level was significantly related to the e-commerce development level. The main findings include: (1) supply chain functionalities as a new factor group is proved to have significant power in explaining e-commerce development level among Indian companies and (2) the extent of e-commerce development varies across business types.

Indian Auto-Component Supply Chain at the Crossroads

We trace the evolution of the auto-component supply chain in India beginning with the opening of the economy in 1990 by using a combination of data on firm and sector performance, customer-satisfaction surveys, and interviews with experts. During the past decade, the industry has made remarkable progress on multiple fronts. This is particularly true with regard to quality—10 firms in this industry have won the coveted Deming prize during the past six years. Surprisingly, we first observe that the financial performance of the firms that won the Deming prize (i.e., Deming firms) shows no definitive differences from the performance in the rest of the industry. We then analyze the productivity growth at the firm level across two five-year intervals using a total-factor productivity model. Our results suggest that productivity improved much more during the second period, which is the interval in which most of the firms won the Deming prize. We also analyze the impact of winning the award on profitability and suggest that new firms were able to grow faster in the improving business environment. To “externally” validate our findings, we compare the auto sector in India with that in China. Despite a 10-year disadvantage because of costs that are beyond the control of the firm, the auto sector in India seems to be competitive with that sector in China on all firm-specific factors. In summary, we suggest that firms in this sector have taken the first step by becoming competitive in the areas of cost and quality. We suggest that they are now at a crossroads and must make several choices to leverage these quality gains into a profitable, global supply chain strategy.