The first paper, “The Impact of E-Business on Supply Chain Performance in the Context of Indian Automobile Industry”, by Sumit Chandak, Neeraj Kumar and Avadesh Dalpati, highlights the importance of internet-based technologies in the context of e-business. The idea behind implementing e-business processes in the supply chain is to increase the competitive benefits by improving the overall performance. The authors state that the advancement of e-business processes and internet-based technologies can help companies in generating more revenue and profits. Organizations can easily avail information on the supply chain due to the latest development in technologies. This development in technology has decreased the cost of availing information across the entire supply chain. Supply chain managers have realized that adoption of these technologies could provide them strong competitive tools to manage the supply chain network in an efficient way and provide quality products at an affordable price. Therefore, this paper seeks to study the impact of e-business process on the performance of supply chain management in the Indian automobile industry. Two important parameters, i.e., cost reduction and customer satisfaction, are taken to justify performance improvement. The results reveal that there is a significant positive relationship between the parameters of supply chain and supply chain performance.

The second paper, “Green Supply Chain Management Practices in Ethiopia’s Leather and Leather Product Industry”, by Habtamu Abebaw Worku and Sandeep Singh Virdi, has highlighted the importance of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices. GSCM practice improves environmental performance by integrating environmental concerns into supply chain activities. The authors state that manufacturing companies around the world, particularly in emerging economies, have an increased awareness of green concepts and attempt to adopt environment-friendly practices. Given the growing importance of green concepts, the leather industry in Ethiopia is facing severe pressure to minimize environmental pollution. The paper assesses the current practices of GSCM in Ethiopia’s leather and leather product industry. The results indicate that the companies in Ethiopia’s leather and leather product industry have significantly initiated the implementation of GSCM practices in terms of internal environmental management practice, eco-design, green manufacturing practice, green packaging and investment recovery, while green distribution practices, cooperation with customers and reverse logistics evidenced a low level.

The third paper, “Development of a Mathematical Model for Supply Chain Mapping of Composite Materials in the Aerospace Industry”, by Amool A Raina and Thomas Gries, focuses on the benefits of usage of composite materials in aerospace industry. The authors highlight that aerospace industry has seen an escalating trend towards the use of alternative materials with enhanced properties in building aircrafts since 1950. The wide application of composite materials in aerospace industry has opened paths to various studies within. Development of composite materials for use in the aerospace sector is both expensive and involves high risk; therefore, the initial development was performed by defence sector which has a relatively large budget as compared to commercial aircraft manufacturers. The use of lightweight materials in aircraft manufacturing is driven by several factors such as the need to reduce consumption of fuel, global trend of reducing CO2 emission and the need to increase cargo/passenger load per flight. Composite materials give OEMs an opportunity to produce light weight structures and thereby reduce fuel costs and further reduce emissions. Hence, the increase in usage of composite materials in aerospace is justified. The supply chain mapping of composite materials is mainly focused on in this study. The principle involved in developing the procurement strategy of these materials in a complex supply chain network and its manufacturability is the motivation for this project. Optimizing a procurement strategy is always a trade-off between many dimensions. The three main aspects are quality, time and cost. This paper investigates the issues of mapping processes by effective planning to minimize the overall cost, maximize the industry set quality standards and minimize the lead time for procuring the product. A mathematical model is developed, and an optimization problem is addressed as a part of this paper.

The fourth paper, “Selecting a Logistics Service Provider for a Manufacturing Firm: Issues and Suggestions”, by Srishti Gupta and Nasina Jigeesh, highlights the negative impact of delays on customer satisfaction and firm performance. Highlighting the importance of logistics management, the authors state that logistics is an important activity for all manufacturing firms to distribute their products to the customers on time. Adoption of good logistics by a firm can also contribute to maintaining competitive advantage. The paper attempts to understand the logistics of a big firm in India engaged in manufacturing fertilizers. It proposes the services of one service provider by taking into view several important issues like availability of trucks, distance and turnaround time and others, particularly from the perspective of the manufacturer. It also surveys three different multinational companies to understand the logistics solution adopted by them and their understanding of the issues related to the proposed service provider. In addition, the study also surveys three competent logistics service providers to understand their logistics model and their views on the service provider. Finally, the study proposes a logistics model to select a service provider.