This study uses a hybrid scale to identify the factors contributing to internal and external service quality at employer-employee interface in the SMEs of emerging economies like India. 144 shop floor workers and executives working in different SMEs situated in northern India participated in an interview schedule to rate the quality of services being offered to (and delivered by) the employees in such units on 1-5 Likert scale. Application of factor analysis followed by Structural Equation Modelling developed a model showing how organization’s HR practices influences employee service quality which consequently leads to Satisfaction and Loyalty which are the established indicators of competitive advantage for such firms. The model is empirically validated using model fit indices and is found satisfactory. This paper thus proposes an empirical framework for the measurement of employee service quality in a relatively less explored sector. This study finds support for strengthening relationships with employees to achieve a culture of achievement in SMEs. The two scales proposed in this study can be used as benchmarks by SME practitioners for evaluation of services being offered to (and delivered by) their employees. The methodology used may be applied in more such settings for evolving a generic and tailor-made scale.

Nowadays, automobile industries are facing huge competition as the sector is expanding and ame-liorating day by day. All organizations are thriving to attain top position by increasing their produc-tivity. Productivity improvement is a function of eliminating rejection problem and improving system. To excel and improve the organizational efficiency a complete focus on finding root causes and eliminating factors responsible is needed. In industries, hurdles are associated with all operations. The existing study is about problem solving in a diecasting industry manufacturing alternator bracket. The authors explain the use of different statistical quality tools with the help of Minitab software to analyze root cause for enhancing the low productivity level. The streaming explanation of methodology can be useful for the organization of similar profile towards productivity improvement.

Due to various added advantages over the conventional material removal processes, non-traditional machining (NTM) processes have now been widely applied in different manufacturing industries. To achieve the desired response values, it is always recommended to operate these NTM processes at their optimal parametric settings. Various single response optimization techniques are already available to determine the optimal combinations of NTM process parameters for achieving maximum or minimum value of a single response. In this paper, a multivariate quality loss function approach is adopted for simultaneous optimization of responses for three NTM processes. It is observed that this approach outperforms the other multi-response optimization techniques, like desirability function, distance function and mean squared error methods with respect to the achieved re-sponse values. With modification of the corresponding objective function and constraints of the de-veloped non-linear programming problem, it can be effectively applied to any non-traditional as well as conventional machining process as a multi-objective optimization tool.

Teamwork, for competitive advantage, involving techno-socio-cultural aspects of organizations for engineering developments, is gaining importance rather rapidly due to advent of globalization. The purpose of this study is to identify the importance of teamwork culture for new product develop-ment (NPD) success through enriching the NPD team’s capability in Indian manufacturing industries. It accumulates the teamwork culture dynamics and practices, their interrelationships and their combined impact on NPD team’s capability in terms of technological developments for NPD success. This practical analysis collects primary data from 263 design and development experts from Indian engineering manufacturing companies. Structural equation modeling (SEM) approach is applied to investigate the interrelationship among associated variables of teamwork culture and NPD team’s capability for NPD success. Concurrent engineering team (CET), communication infrastruc-ture (CI), system integration (SI) and result orientation (RO) have been recognized as allied factors of teamwork culture. Successful adoption of associated variables ensures NPD success through influencing NPD team’s capability which in turn articulated by technological developments. The realization of combined impact of teamwork and its allied variables escalates technological developments which in turn enriches NPD team’s capability assuring organizational success. The result indicates that both CI and SI support CET for accelerating NPD team’s capability through technological developments. Besides, CET motivates innovation orientation most precisely referred as RO for escalating NPD team’s capability through technological developments for innovation.

Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is a compound system containing essentials like workplac-es, computerized storing and recovery systems, and material control devices such as automatons and automated guided vehicles (AGVs). In this paper, an attempt is made to study concurrently the machine and vehicle planning features in an FMS for minimization of the makespan. Planning is concerned with the distribution of partial resources to tasks over time and it is a resolution making procedure. It associates the processes, time, cost and overall purposes of the company. In this work, Nawaz-Enscore-Ham (NEH) heuristic algorithm is implemented to solve the scheduling problems in FMS. Eighty two problems and their existing solutions with different approaches are examined. The preliminary results indicate that the NEH heuristic algorithm provides better solu-tions with less computational time.

It is a commonly visible scenario in todays’ market, especially in small and medium sized enterpris-es (SMEs), where the focus is on quantity rather than quality. This paper explains the common high rejection problem of a SME and how the productivity levels were enhanced after the successful implementation of Six-Sigma DMAIC methodology. Once the project completion industry was able to acquire many tangible and intangible benefits, this paper offers a systematic step by step illustration of DMAIC methodology to help the other firms start similar productivity improvement initiatives.

The objective of the present study is to bring out a multidimensional metric to measure service quality delivered by employees serving in Indian small & medium manufacturing enterprises. 144 executives working at top/middle level in different small-medium manufacturing units of north India responded to a questionnaire survey. The respondents were asked to assess service quality being delivered by the shop-floor workers serving their respective units on the 1-5 perception scale. Application of exploratory factor analysis resulted in an interpretable latent structure comprising of 5 determinants and 22 indicator items. Confirmatory factor analysis condensed this scale to bring out the final scale 4 determinants viz., Dependability, Agility, Professionalism and Understanding with 13 indicator statements. This scale thus emerged is tested for validity and reliability using established tools. The study provides a framework to SME managers to assess services of their workforce. It also contributes to researchers to build up more such metrics for similar situations in other sectors so that more concrete generalizations can be made.

A series of novel 5-Bromo-3-iodo-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine linked various sulfonamide derivatives 8a-8j poly functionalized were designed and synthesized in moderate to good yield. A starting with iodination of 5-Bromo-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine 5 with iodine produced intermediate 5-Bromo-3-iodo-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridine 6 with the reaction of various sulfonamide derivatives 7a-7j via copper catalyzed coupling reaction produced targeted compounds8a-8j. The isolated compounds were accepted by spectral and elemental analysis. The compounds 8a,8c,8d, and 8i were excellent active against Gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strain compare to streptomycin standard drug. All synthesized compounds showed moderate to good antioxidant properties with used DPPH and Superoxide radical scavenging assay, Compounds 8c, 8g, and 8i exerted significant antioxidant scavenging activity for the DPPH radical.

This paper compares and evaluates the performance of five different conventional job selection dis-patching rules for scheduling of multi-load automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) serving for material handling operations in variable sized flexible manufacturing system (FMS) layout. Four sizes of FMS layout are considered for the performance evaluation of the five types of conventional job se-lection dispatching rules. The FMS layouts under consideration are served by the two multi-load AGVs. The multi-load AGVs cruises under machine initiated the nearest vehicle (NV) dispatching rule for the material handling activities at all work centers (WCs) for all four sizes of FMS layout. Four sizes of FMS layout produce five different types of parts and consist of three, six, nine and twelve work centers and loading-unloading centers, respectively. In the simulation test, it is found that the identical destination first (IDF) job selection rule having selection criterion based on the destination similarity of two picked up jobs outperforms all other job selection dispatching rules for an overall production rate of the FMS (parts/hr) in all four FMS layouts.

Variation exists in all processes. There is not even a single process that is completely true. Measuring the trueness of the process is itself a process which can also imitate the process variation. Therefore, measurement system should be strong enough to wager on the trueness of the process. This paper is an attempt to indicate the true method and substantiate the use of measurement system analysis (MSA) by using it in two different environments i.e. in manufacturing as well as process industry. Also, a comparison among various analyzing techniques has been drawn for authenticating the candid method followed by an evaluation using fuzzy TOPSIS for authenticating the results of comparison. The organization’s type, also, strongly influences the performance of MSA as revealed in the conclusion of the article. The results calculated by various methods and in both environments were discussed and as a result ANOVA comes out to be the best method. The application of correct MSA is highly required which ultimately results in increased organizations’ performance. The study is one of its type and will motivate the researchers and industrialists to use and explore the new and efficient ways of MSA.