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Working Papers | 2003

Improving In-plant Logistics by Process Reengineering: Case Study

N. Ravichandran

This paper documents the experience of redesigning in-plant logistics operations of a large petrochemical complex in India. The complex under reference is expected to have a traffic volume of one truck per one minute by 2005. The existing systems and procedures to receive and inspect a truck, load material, and complete commercial formalities are designed with a target truck turnaround time of 82 minutes. However, in reality the actual truck turnaround time is significantly higher than the target turnaround time. The plant is located in a growing industrial area. Inordinate delay in truck turnaround time is a major demotivating factor for the truck companies to place their trucks with this complex. Consequently, there is a significant variation between the planned and actual dispatch of finished goods. This investigation systematically analyzes the reasons for significant departure in the truck turnaround time. A truck driver survey is used to identify and prioritize areas of delay. As a consequence of this analysis, it is argued that deployment of additional resources, optimizing the activity processing time, sub-contracting some of the activities and extensive automation of the process would only marginally improve the performance of the turnaround time. In order to improve the turnaround time substantially, there is a need to redefine work, and fundamentally change the underlying process. Accordingly, several initiatives are identified to ensure dramatic reduction in the truck turnaround time.

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Working Papers | 2003

Reconcilation of the Dichotomies in Marketing Theory and Practice

Abraham Koshy and Dang Jha Priya

Although marketing researchers have aimed to discover theories in marketing, the level of theory development within the discipline is low. The paper reviews the knowledge development practices in marketing to identify a set of dichotomies that constrain theory development in the field. These dichotomies include (i) Dichotomy between positivist and relativist research paradigm, (ii) Dischotomy between theory testing and creation and (iii) Dichotomy between academics and practice. The paper then proposes means of reconciling these dichotomies so as to accelerate the level of theory development within the discipline.

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Working Papers | 2003

Modeling and Forecasting Volatility in Indian Capital Markets

Ajay Pandey

Various volatility estimators and models have been proposed in the literature to measure volatility of asset returns. In this paper, we compare empirical performance of various unconditional volatility estimators and conditional volatility models (GARCH and EGARCH) using time-series data of S&PCNX Nifty, a value-weighted index of 50 stocks traded on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Mumbai. The estimates computed by various estimators and conditional volatility models over non-overlapping one-day, five-day and one-month periods are compared with the "realized volatility" measured over the same period. We use three years' (1999-2001) high-frequency data set of five-minute returns to construct measures of realized volatility. In order to test the ability of the estimators and models to forecast volatility, we compare the estimates of unconditional estimators with the realized volatility measured in the next period of same length. For conditional volatility models, the forecasts for the same periods are obtained by estimating models from the time-series prior to the forecast period. Our results indicate that while conditional volatility models provide less biased estimates, extreme-value estimators are more efficient estimators of realized volatility. As far as forecasting ability of models and estimators is concerned, conditional volatility models fare extremely poorly in forecasting five-day (weekly) or monthly realized volatility. In contrast, extreme-value estimators, other than the Parkinson estimator, perform relatively well in forecasting volatility over these horizons.

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Working Papers | 2003

Solving Medium to Large Sized Euclidean Generalized Minimum Spanning Tree Problems

Diptesh Ghosh

The generalized minimum spanning tree problem is a generalization of the minimum spanning tree problem. This network design problems finds several practical applications, especially when one considers the design of a large-capacity backbone network connecting several individual networks. In this paper we study the performance of six neighborhood search heuristics based on tabu search and variable neighborhood search on this problem domain. Our principal finding is that a tabu search heuristic almost always provides the best quality solution for small to medium sized instances within short execution times while variable neighborhood decomposition search provides the best quality solutions for most large instances.

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Working Papers | 2003

Identification of Top Performing Economies

Kumar Akhilesh S and Ravindra H. Dholakia

Using seven indicators of the economic performance of 187 countries, the paper identifies the top 50 performers during the decades of 1981-90 and 1991-2000. Five of these indicators are the trend rates of growth over a decade in imports, FDI, capital formation, per capita income and forex reserves. Average inflation rate and HDI are the remaining indicators. Comparison of top performers of the 1980s and the 1990s suggest that high performance in inflation and HDI are the precondition for consistency of high overall performance over time. The paper also examines the interrelationship among the indicators over time.

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Working Papers | 2003

Transformation from rule bound government agency to a Customer centric service facility: The case of Indian Passport Offices

Bahuguna Doorva and N. Ravichandran

This paper documents the existing systems, procedures and performance of regional passport offices in India. The system today is administered by rules and procedures. The average (response) time to obtain a passport by an applicant is 147 days as against a target time of 25 days. By systematic analysis, a number of suggestions are made to improve the system response time. The suggestions relate to facilities, process, procedures, resource allocation, manpower deployment, performance measures, technology usage, elimination of activities and change in the managerial approach and orientation. In order to facilitate the implementation of these changes, the suggestions are grouped into four broad groups. It is hoped, eventually this important civil service would transform itself from a rule bound procedure oriented culture to a customer centric, operationally efficient world class service quality organization.

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Working Papers | 2003

An Online Magazine for and by Children: A Quasi Experimental Study

Shelat Manisha and Nande Kaustubh

The objective of the study was to help children conceptualise and develop an on-line magazine and observe changes in their skills and confidence as communicators due to their experience of developing this online magazine. A single group Post-test Post-test design was used for this study. A natural sample consisting of 23 students studying in standard six of Amrit Vidyalaya, Kalol, India was selected. The data collection was organized in three phases: Conducting the pre-tests, administering the treatment, conducting the post-tests. Paired samples t-tests were computed with the pre-test and the post-tests scores. Other statistics like measures of central tendency, correlation coefficients and range were computed for all the three tests. An evaluation questionnaire consisting of six questions was administered to 24 students of class sixth of Baroda High School, Alkapuri, Vadodara after the launch of the magazine on www.amritvidyalya.org website. The effect of the treatment has been positive in all the tests, however statistically only the Computer Test-1 showed significant change. Moreover, there is a direct indication from students' writings that they have had an enriching learning experience and the treatment has had a positive impact on them.

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Working Papers | 2003

Scheduling Partially Ordered Jobs Under Resource Constraints To Optimize Non-Regular Performance Measures

Dhavale N P, Sanjay Verma, and Bagchi Amitava

We describe a general best-first tree search scheme that schedules a set of partially ordered jobs under resource constraints to optimize a non-regular performance measure. The scheme has been implemented for two categories of problems. In the first category, jobs have individual duedates, and the objective is to minimize the total weighted earliness-tardiness penalty. Algorithms currently available for solving problems of this type lack the full generality of the scheme proposed here. In the second category, jobs have associated cash flows, and the objective is to maximize the Net Present Value (NPV). Our methods have been implemented in C both on a Linux-based Pentium PC and on a UNIX-based DEC ALPHA workstation, and successfully tested on problem instances derived from benchmark sets such as the PROGEN set and the Patterson set. For the NPV problem, it has been compared experimentally with the existing method of Icmeli and Erenguc. A theoretical proof of optimality is also provided.

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Working Papers | 2003

A Probabilistic Tabu Search Algorithm for the Generalized Minimum Spanning Tree Problem

Diptesh Ghosh

In this paper we present a probabilistic tabu search algorithm for the generalized minimum spanning tree problem. The basic idea behind the algorithm is to use preprocessing operations to arrive at a probability value for each vertex which roughly corresponds to its probability of being included in an optimal solution, and to use such probability values to shrink the size of the neighborhood of solutions to manageable proportions. We report results from computational experiments that demonstrate the superiority of this method over the generic tabu search method.

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Working Papers | 2003

An Institutional Economics Approach to the Problems of Small Farmer Credit in India.

Samar K. Datta

This paper applies the tools of institutional economics-especially those pertaining to informational asymmetry and transaction costs - for studying the credit problems of small farmers in India, who, in spite of a vast network of credit institutions developed over a long period of time under government ownership and/or control, are alleged as not getting a share of formal sector credit commensurate with their statistical dominance. It uses data collected by the Agro-economic Research Centers and Units under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India from a carefully selected sample of 700 borrower households across the country over a period of three years (1997-1998 to 1999-2000) to provide a preliminary explanation of the various dimensions of a credit package in terms of variation in borrower's village, household and other loan attributes.

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