A. H. M. Yeaseen Chowdhury, M. M. Hussain Shahadat, Saurav Chandra Talukder
et al.
<i>Background</i>: This study explores the relationship among various supply chain management practices, including customer relationship management, lean practices, use of information technology, and quality of information sharing with operational performance in the readymade garments industry of Bangladesh. It also examines the mediating role of quality of information sharing in these relationships. <i>Methods</i>: Data were collected from 80 readymade garment companies across five different geographical locations, with companies of varying sizes (large, medium, and small), involving 365 respondents with a response rate of 65%. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied for the analysis. <i>Results</i>: The results indicate that all four practices significantly enhance operational performance, while customer relationship management and use of information technology also improve performance indirectly through quality of information sharing, unlike lean practices. <i>Conclusions</i>: The findings suggest that supply chain managers and stakeholders can improve operational performance by implementing supply chain management practices and understanding the complexities of their interrelationships.
Transportation and communication, Management. Industrial management
<i>Background</i>: This systematic review explores the integration of green practices into humanitarian supply chains to mitigate environmental impacts and contribute to global decarbonization efforts. <i>Methods</i>: This review focused on peer-reviewed articles published between 2011 and 2024 that addressed the environmental dimension of humanitarian logistics. Studies were included if they examined environmental practices within humanitarian supply chains and excluded if they lacked focus on environmental impact or logistics. A comprehensive search of the Scopus database in April 2024 yielded 291 records, of which 51 studies met the inclusion criteria. A thematic synthesis was conducted; due to the qualitative nature of the data, no formal risk-of-bias assessment was conducted. <i>Results</i>: The analysis revealed increasing adoption of environmentally focused practices, such as emissions monitoring, waste reduction, and resource-efficient transportation. Key barriers included operational complexity, inadequate digital infrastructure, and the absence of standardized environmental frameworks. The review identified digital innovation, inter-organizational collaboration, and integrated environmental performance metrics as promising pathways for improvement. Despite growing awareness, significant gaps remain in the standardization and measurement of environmental performance across humanitarian supply chains. <i>Conclusions</i>: The findings highlight the need for further research and coordinated efforts to develop consistent, scalable green practices in the humanitarian context.
Transportation and communication, Management. Industrial management
<i>Background:</i> The integration of drone technology into healthcare logistics presents a significant opportunity to enhance the speed, reliability, and efficiency of medical sample transportation. <i>Methods:</i> This paper provides a narrative review of current advancements in drone technology, focusing on its application in the rapid and secure delivery of medical samples, particularly in urban and remote regions where traditional transportation methods often face challenges. Drawing from recent studies and case reports, the review highlights the role of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)-driven navigation systems, real-time monitoring, and secure payload management in mitigating logistical barriers like traffic congestion and geographical isolation. <i>Results:</i> Based on findings from various case studies, the review demonstrates how drones can significantly reduce transportation time and costs, while improving accessibility to healthcare services in underserved areas. <i>Conclusions:</i> This paper concludes that, while challenges such as regulatory hurdles and privacy concerns remain, ongoing technological advancements and the development of supportive regulatory frameworks have the potential to revolutionize medical logistics, ultimately improving patient outcomes and healthcare delivery.
Transportation and communication, Management. Industrial management
Şimşek Kevser, Tuğrul Nisa Özge Önal, Çam İlhan
et al.
Aviation is one of the most global industries, and if we can model and predict a country’s air transportation flow and indicators ahead of time, we may be able to use it as a key decision-making tool for the management and operation process. This study proposes a new modeling, and prediction method that employs both fractional calculus and Multi Deep Assessment Methodology (MDAM) techniques. For the application, air passengers carried, air freight, available seat kilometers, number of flights, destination points, international travelers, international destination points, and international flight data between 2011 and 2019 for eight countries with the busiest airports were chosen. As a result, the highest modeling error was discovered to be Germany’s air transport freight factor expressed as a percentage of 1,59E-02. The percentage of predictions with errors less than 10% was 90.278. We also compared the performance of two different MDAM methodologies. The novel MDAM wd methodology proposed in this paper has a higher accuracy in aviation factors prediction and modeling.
Denisse Domínguez-Alfaro, Ismael Mendoza-Muñoz, Mildrend Ivett Montoya-Reyes
et al.
The Integral Ergonomic-Value Stream Mapping (Ergo-VSM) methodology is introduced in this study, which is tailored for the metal-mechanic sector and aims to assess the operational and ergonomic conditions of production processes. The methodology is designed to identify ergonomic risks and propose an improvement plan to increase productivity by integrating ergonomic measurement instruments aligned with official standards and lean manufacturing tools such as VSM and Kaizen. The study, which was conducted in a metal-mechanical MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises), resulted in an 11.8% overall improvement in psychosocial risk factors, a 4.4% increase in productivity with a 1.96-h reduction in cycle time, and a 20% decrease in reported quality rejections. Notably, the study shows that the Integral Ergo-VSM can be implemented in a variety of organizational contexts, ensuring adaptability without jeopardizing the methodology’s core objectives.
Transportation and communication, Management. Industrial management
Mechanizm dostosowywania cen na granicach jest instrumentem unijnej polityki klimatycznej, który postanowiono wdrożyć, aby uzupełnić unijny system handlu uprawnieniami do emisji gazów cieplarnianych oraz aby zapobiec ryzyku ucieczki emisji. Artykuł omawia podstawowe elementy CBAM i stanowi próbę jego oceny w zakresie przewidywanego praktycznego przełożenia oraz zgodności z wybranymi zasadami prawa ochrony środowiska.
Environmental law, Regulation of industry, trade, and commerce. Occupational law
Thiago de Carvalho Verano, Gabriel da Silva Medina, João Ricardo de Oliveira Júnior
<i>Background</i>: Family farmers’ participation in marketing channels has prompted debates on the types of market best suited to this type of farmer. Commodity production by rural communities and the role of agribusiness long marketing channels for family-based farmers are the subjects of numerous qualitative studies. However, quantitative studies capable of assessing the relevance of long channels to family-based farmers are scarce. Therefore, this study intends to assess the relevance of long marketing channels for family farmers. <i>Methods</i>: We compiled the data from the survey responses of family farmers from 155 municipalities in a state in the central region of Brazil. <i>Results</i>: (1) There was an economic concentration of some marketing channels, namely, the sale of commodities occurred in 35% of the municipalities and included 4.15% of the sampled family farmers. The income derived through these channels represented 2.13% of the farmers’ total income included in the study. (2) There is a low diversity of market types. On average, we found 2.95 long marketing channels per municipality. (3) Family farmers’ participation is low in most commodity long channels. Between 0.11% and 4.15% of the family farmers in the sampled municipalities participate in these channels. Long channels linked to the cattle production chain showed more relevant capacity for inclusion. <i>Conclusions</i>: Contrary to the expectations of those behind initiatives to promote the marketing and sale of locally-sourced commodities within rural communities, agribusiness long marketing channels provide limited opportunities for family farmers to market their goods.
Transportation and communication, Management. Industrial management
Natallya Levino, Madson Monte, Carlos Costa
et al.
<i>Background:</i> In the late 1990s, the idea of fighting drought gave way to the concept of how to live with drought in the Brazilian semi-arid region. From this perspective, the Brazilian Federal Government’s investment in social technology and education encouraged local agricultural production and subsistence agriculture began to have a surplus for commercialization and income generation. However, there are still difficulties in the development of the productive chain, as perceived in Alagoas, Brazil, with the jabuticaba fruit and its derivatives. In this locus, problems related to the creation of value and distributions of the product were identified. <i>Methods</i>: This study proposed a participant observation in a rural producers’ association and a multimethodological approach based on VFT (Value-Focused Thinking) and SWOT analysis aiming to structure the problem, identify communities’ objectives and develop alternatives to solve these problems so that they can get more out of their production. <i>Results:</i> showed that the product has marketing potential due to its differential, but the producers are limited in the process of distributing the goods. <i>Conclusions</i>: So, this study was able to analyze the problems of this productive system in a structured way, generating suggestions for actions to achieve the strategic objectives of the cooperative.
Transportation and communication, Management. Industrial management
This paper aims to study the Brazilian public policy for fomenting innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI), presenting the initial premise (hypothesis), to be inductively tested, that its greatest challenge is related to the endogenization or internalization of the processes of development and production of AI-related technologies in the country. To this end, we analyze data from the patenting of these technologies in Brazil, the most widely used indicator to measure national technological innovation, contrasting them with international data. Considering the diversity of formats that such public policies can take, this work reveals its importance, since it provides an accurate diagnosis of the reality in the AI segment in Brazil, a fundamental subsidy for the formulation of efficient planning.
Public law, Regulation of industry, trade, and commerce. Occupational law
Using a qualitative instrumental case study research design, this study examines the strategies and carbon reduction measures implemented by Sydney Airport to achieve their goal of being a carbon neutral airport by 2025. The study period was from 2013 to 2019. The qualitative data was analyzed using document analysis. Sydney Airport has implemented a wide range of carbon reduction measures that underpin its strategy to become a carbon neutral airport. Sydney Airport’s annual emissions intensity per passenger declined in each year examined in study. Sydney Airport has participated in the Airports Council International Airport Carbon Accreditation Program since 2014 and currently holds Accreditation Level 3: Optimization. Sydney Airport’s goal is to be awarded Accreditation Level 3+: Carbon Neutrality by 2025. Sydney Airport has a carbon offsets agreement in place with a not-for-profit organization.
For decades, trade between Europe and China has grown consistently, which has resulted in increased container transportation volumes. Such transportation has been dominated by sea-based options. However, over the years, an air-based mode of transport was developed, while it has lately become increasingly popular to use railways utilizing the Trans-Siberian land bridge. This latter approach boomed amid the COVID-19 crisis in 2020. However, the railway container boom in Eurasia has deeper roots than just the COVID-19 era. As is illustrated in this research work, international trade containers (trade between Russia and other countries, mostly China) and transit containers (e.g., serving the Chinese–EU route) were already showing some significance as early as 2003–2004. In 2020, their volume was already measured in the millions, regardless of the railway data source being used. This is well above the starting period in the 1980s and 1990s, when total annual volumes were around 0.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Container capacity has developed over the years, first being used for international trade and only lately for transit. As a preliminary comparison to air freight, the growth rate was roughly double that in the two-decade observation period.
Transportation and communication, Management. Industrial management
Cybercrimes in India is increasing at an alarming rate. Though various legal provisions under the conventional criminal laws including form the Indian Penal Code, could be used to regulate the cybercrimes, yet the changing nature of these crimes necessitated adoption of a new law framework. Thus, the Indian Information Technology Act was enacted in 2000 but seldom could regulate cybercrimes since it focused on promoting and facilitating e-commerce and e-governance. This Act underwent amendment in 2008 to accommodate provisions essential to regulate cybercrimes as well as protect data and privacy on cyber space. In addition to the law, other strategies were designed and adopted to better regulate cyber offences including announcing cyber security policies, constituting institutions to take care of certain concerns including those relating to critical infrastructure information, etc. This paper aims to provide an overview of the approach adopted in India primarily the legal approach adopted to regulate cybercrimes. Additionally, other strategies adopted by India is also reviewed in brief. Despite these, since cybercrimes are technical as well as dynamic in nature, there is a need to constantly review and revise nation’s strategies, which is also one of the objects of this paper.
Public law, Regulation of industry, trade, and commerce. Occupational law
Tahir Muhammad Naeem, Mäenpää Kari, Sukuvaara Timo
Modern societies are built on good road infra-structure and efficient transport system. Safety is a high-priority consideration in development of road traffic systems. In recent years the weather information has become becomes very vital for road traffic safety because slippery roads are the key source of road accidents in northern regions of Europe, America and Canada as well. In this article we are presenting the test experiences and pilot road weather related services by executing a set of Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communication scenarios by using IEEE 802.11p and 5G test networks. We have made an effort to evaluate the performance of IEEE 802.11p and 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) 5G test network. We also analyzed the performance of IEEE 802.11p with and without safety feature for secure and reliable vehicular communication. The combination of IEEE 802.11p with 5G test network cellular network makes the traffic system heterogeneous for traffic safety. This heterogeneous system provides the opportunity to exploit the vehicle-based actuators, sensor, and observation data in order to produce the intelligent service platform and up-to-date real time services for vehicles.
Abstract: Nowadays, with rapid development of the state-of-the-art railway transportation systems, requirements in expanding energy resources and better service quality are increased. Competitors in this field will probably focus on how to execute an optimal journey, which not only maximizes the service quality but also takes minimum energy consumption. This paper aimed to achieve efficient travel by a train under some predefined constraints in track profile and speed limits. In this context, multi-objective evolutionary techniques including NSGA-II and MOPSO are modified and adapted to accomplish the regarding speed trajectories with two conflict objectives i.e. minimum energy consumption and minimum journey time delay. In order to make the travel more comfortable, some equations are developed and influenced into the optimization process. Robustness of the solutions is regarded as an additional criterion for proving the efficiency of the achieved solutions.
Farshad Astaraki, Mohammad Reza Roozbini, Morteza Esmaeili
et al.
Increasing axle load and speed of travel on existing railway tracks is one of the approaches that is taken by the industry to improve rail transportation system. In this regard, improvement of railway embankments as an important part of railway infrastructure is increasingly appearing as a necessity. In this study, the application of geocell layers in railway embankment body as an improvement technique for geotechnical issues is surveyed. A numerical model is developed that resembles an embankment of 10-meter height on a scale 1:20 in the laboratory setup. The sensitivity analysis is carried out on the adhesion and elastic modulus of the embankment, geocell elastic modulus, and the embankment length. Loading is carried out on each reinforced and non-reinforced embankments until failure. The results indicate an increase in the loading capacity of the embankment and reduction of the crest settlement proportional to the increase in the number of geocell layers. Monitoring the geocell behavior indicates that stress inside the embedded geocell under loading is low in comparison with the tensile test result of the geocell.
The degree of collaboration among supply chain partners and the structure of the network are important determinants of the level of satisfaction customers derive from the products or services. However, the effects of these dimensions on customer satisfaction at the downstream section of the supply chain remain under-researched in Nigeria. This study precisely examined the effects of collaboration and supply chain design on customers’ satisfaction at the downstream end of the chain using Ekiti State as study area. The study employed descriptive survey design with the use of structured Likert scale questionnaire administered to 381 retailers of noodles in Ekiti State. The research hypotheses were analysed using simple linear regression as statistical technique with the aid of SPSS version 22.0. At the end of the study, it was observed that both collaboration and supply chain design were significant predictors of customers’ satisfaction of instant noodles in Ekiti State. However, collaboration among supply chain partners emerged as stronger determinant of customers’ satisfaction than supply chain design. The study concludes that these two practices of supply chain management are highly important criteria any manufacturing firm especially in the noodles industry must pay close attention to in order to satisfy her consumers.
Transportation and communication, Management. Industrial management
This article is devoted to feeder containership traffic optimization on the trunk and feeder shipping lines. The optimization is fulfilled in case of the necessity of laden containers delivery between fixed pairs of ports as well as in case of the requirement not to exceed the vessel's capacity, taking into account her residual value during transition between feeder port lines. The paper takes into account uneven distribution of empty container equipment in ports of line and the solution is suggested considering the estimation of the empty TEU’s number which is subject to reposition.