This issue focuses on topics covering different aspects of business operations.
The first paper, “Green Supply Chain Management Initiatives by IT Companies
in India”, by Vishal Gupta, Naseem Abidi, Tarun Bansal and Reshu Kumar Jain, focuses on the green supply chain initiatives followed by three IT companies in India. E-waste is a major concern for IT companies, and the paper deals with the different aspects of green supply chain, viz., green procurement, green manufacturing, green packaging, recycling and e-waste management, adopted by these companies. The paper also identifies some of the major challenges to the effective implementation and the desired outcome of the green initiatives.

In spite of the challenges faced by the handloom industry, the sector has shown great resilience in surviving and sustaining over the decades by maintaining a
20-25% share of the total textile production in the country. The second paper, “Handloom Production in Tribal Clusters: A Case Study of Thenzawl in Mizoram”, by Rama Ramswamy and N V R Jyoti Kumar, studies the various aspects of handloom production such as production processes, the number and type of looms owned, and their capacity utilization, in the traditionally run micro handloom enterprises in the Thenzawl cluster, a remote tribal cluster predominantly run by women entrepreneurs, located in Mizoram, India. The paper suggests development activities to be undertaken in the cluster to enable the enterprises to first sustain, and then grow.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a well-known method for improving operational efficiency. The third paper, “Integration of Kano’s Model into Quality Function Deployment: A Review”, by Nikhat Afshan and P N Sindhuja, explains the usefulness of QFD in the product development process and shows how the integration of Kano’s model has made it an even more effective tool in enhancing customer satisfaction.

The last paper, “Towards Integrated Manufacturing Planning and Control: A Review and Classification”, by Viraj Tyagi, Ajai Jain and P K Jain, reviews the various approaches of Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC), viz., Hierarchical Production Planning (HPP), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) systems, etc. The study aims at providing an insight into the working principles, strength and limitations of the important approaches of MPC. Certain issues that are important for an integrated MPC system, but have not received proper attention in the recent past, have also been outlined.

-- Anupam Ghosh
Consulting Editor