In the light of the anticipated economic slowdown all over the world, there is an inevitable focus on cost-cutting, process redesigning, etc. This issue focuses on those aspects in operations management that help to improve the processes and integrate systems.
Selection of the location is one of the most important decision-making processes that require consideration of several criteria. In supply chain management, determining optimal facility location is a crucial problem. The first paper, “Decision Making in Location Selection: An Integrated Approach with Clustering and TOPSIS”, by K Kumar and S Kumanan, aims to provide a decision support model to help the decision makers to select the best location. It proposes a hybrid method, which incorporates K-means and Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering techniques and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) into an evaluation process to solve the Facility Location Selection (FLS) problem. The results of hybrid method are validated with other approaches and demonstrated for effectiveness and feasibility of the model to real world applications. The suggested methodology can be applied for any type of selection problems involving any number of attributes.
The second paper, “Design Optimization Studies on Compressor Rotor Blade Root Attachment”, by H R Rekha, R V Praveena Gowda and U Chandrashekar, reports an integrated stress analysis to evaluate the distribution of stresses in dovetail disc and blade attachment of compressor. Dovetail joints are used to secure compressor blades to rotor disc in a gas turbine. One of the weakest parts of the entire rotating assembly in gas turbine engine is the joint between rotor disc and the compressor blade. Stress analysis of dovetail attachments presents great challenges due to high stress concentration and weight budgeting. Optimization of disc parameters using design of experiments is done by the researchers for redistribution of stress and mitigation of stress concentration. The researchers report that a slight variation in the dovetail geometry shows significant reduction of stress at dovetail joint.
The third paper, “Multi-Item Inventory Control Model with Space Constraints for Perishable Items”, by G N Purohit and Himanshu Rathore, presents a multi-item inventory control model for perishable items in which production (or supply) is instantaneous with no lead time. Demand is uniform and deterministic and shortages are not allowed. The model is solved analytically for minimizing the total inventory cost, using Kuhn-Tucker theorem. The results are also illustrated numerically.
In project management, selection of project is the foremost activity. Several factors influence the project selection process. The paper, “Selection of Project as Important Beginning for Information Technology Project Management”, by Nasina Jigeesh, focuses on the factors influencing the Information Technology (IT) project selection process. A survey was conducted in two mid-sized IT organizations, one public and another private, and nine small-sized IT companies to study their business practices in selecting projects, and major influencing issues were identified. Along with developing a framework, the study presents a system dynamics influence diagram and describes the type of influence of the issues on project selection.
The last paper, “Information Technology for Maintaining Land Records in India: An Operations Perspective”, by S N Singh and O P Dubey, presents an operations perspective to computerization of land records in India. A weak land record system has been viewed as a systematic weakness in India. This has assumed greater proportion in the light of mass land-related agitations. As a result, the Government of India has started the centrally sponsored scheme of Computerization of Land Records (CoLR). The process of CoLR enables detailed mapping of areas and land under different usage patterns and enables an analysis of mapping of nature of barren land, ownership patterns, etc. The benefits are manifold, both for the individual and the state. The paper reports that the progress across the country has been highly skewed. Some of the states have made good progress, while others have lagged behind. As a result, the overall human resources and infrastructure requirement for land management has reduced.
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs): The Changing Face of Banking in India
Bank Management
Information and communication technology has changed the way in which banks provide services to its customers. These days the customers are able to perform their routine banking transactions without even entering the bank premises. ATM is one such development in recent years, which provides remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the development of this self-service banking in India based on the secondary data.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is playing a very important role in the progress and advancement in almost all walks of life. The deregulated environment has provided an opportunity to restructure the means and methods of delivery of services in many areas, including the banking sector. The ICT has been a focused issue in the past two decades in Indian banking. In fact, ICTs are enabling the banks to change the way in which they are functioning. Improved customer service has become very important for the very survival and growth of banking sector in the reforms era. The technological advancements, deregulations, and intense competition due to the entry of private sector and foreign banks have altered the face of banking from one of mere intermediation to one of provider of quick, efficient and customer-friendly services. With the introduction and adoption of ICT in the banking sector, the customers are fast moving away from the traditional branch banking system to the convenient and comfort of virtual banking. The most important virtual banking services are phone banking, mobile banking, Internet banking and ATM banking. These electronic channels have enhanced the delivery of banking services accurately and efficiently to the customers. The ATMs are an important part of a bank’s alternative channel to reach the customers, to showcase products and services and to create brand awareness. This is reflected in the increase in the number of ATMs all over the world. ATM is one of the most widely used remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the growth of ATMs of different bank groups in India.
International Scenario
If ATMs are largely available over geographically dispersed areas, the benefit from using an ATM will increase as customers will be able to access their bank accounts from any geographic location. This would imply that the value of an ATM network increases with the number of available ATM locations, and the value of a bank network to a customer will be determined in part by the final network size of the banking system. The statistical information on the growth of branches and ATM network in select countries.
Indian Scenario
The financial services industry in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth, diversification and specialization since the initiation of financial sector reforms in 1991. Greater customer orientation is the only way to retain customer loyalty and withstand competition in the liberalized world. In a market-driven strategy of development, customer preference is of paramount importance in any economy. Gone are the days when customers used to come to the doorsteps of banks. Now the banks are required to chase the customers; only those banks which are customercentric and extremely focused on the needs of their clients can succeed in their business today.
