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Flexibility of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) has been considered as an effective tool to compete in the present manufacturing environment. Enormous research efforts have been made to harness the benefits of flexibility through superior control strategies. While modeling flexibility and control strategies, researchers have mostly assumed an information system that can provide real-time control. Literature qualitatively reports that the real-time control can be highly capital intensive and difficult to achieve. This paper focuses on FMS operating under reviewperiod (RP)-based control and presents a combined study of routing flexibility (RF), control strategies, and information system under Taguchi's method using simulation. RP-based control for FMS has been compared with real-time control. This paper contributes an approach for the decision maker to study the performance of an FMS operating under RP control and to identify the periodicity (time interval) of RP that will not deteriorate its performance in comparison to real-time control. It also helps the decision maker to reach a tradeoff between RP-based control and real-time control. The results show that RP-based control can be effectively implemented on an FMS having lower RF level. RP-based control can outperform real-time control with a superior control strategy and smaller RP size. The results under Taguchi's method suggest that the RF and control strategy should have maximum relative percentage contributions in FMS performance, whereas contribution of the RP (information system) should be minimum. Increasing the relative percentage contribution of the information system may deteriorate the performance of FMS. The information system is needed as a catalyst to facilitate the the contributions of other factors in improving the FMS performance and not its own contribution. Index Terms--Control strategy, flexible manufacturing system (FMS), review period (RP), routing flexibility (RF) levels, Taguchi's method.

The performance of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) largely depends on how the control system can control the flow of entities in the system. The control system takes control decisions based on the information provided as an input to the decision-making process. Therefore, it is important that the decision-making process and information systems operate in a synchronised manner with respect to the FMS characteristics. This can also be referred to as a Decision-Information-Synchronisation (DIS) operating zone implemented in the control system. To study the DIS in the present research, three types of visibility for decision-makers in FMS shop-floor control have been identified: (1) no local visibility, (2) physical local visibility and (3) physical and information local visibility of decision-maker/operator. These alternative visibilities and automation levels of decision and information system provide the hybrid environments of FMSs control. The current paper presents an approach to identify the DIS operating zone of FMS with suitable visibility of decision-maker and automation level. Simulation results show that under non-real-time control (low automation level in decision and information system) with physical local visibility, the FMS system performs comparable with the real-time control (high automation level in decision and information system) when routing flexibility levels are presented. Under the current global competitive environment, this study helps industrial managers determine a suitable level of visibility and automation in planning an FMS control system in order to obtain the desired performance at the lower cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Rajat Bhagwat, Felix T.S. Chan, Milind Kumar Sharma In Supply Chain Management (SCM), performance measurement can facilitate understanding and integration among the supply chain partners. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to review the existing SCM performance measurement framework based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Balanced Scorecard (BSC) models reported in the literature. Second, based on the prioritisation of the suggested performance measures/metrics and performance at different decision levels, a mathematical model is developed to optimise the overall performance measurement of SCM for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Byline: Milind Kumar Sharma, Rajat Bhagwat Performance Measurement System (PMS) is underdeveloped and underresearched in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It has emerged as a vital decision support tool at the strategic management level in SMEs in the developing nations. This research explores and examines the PMS development through four select case studies in India. Another purpose of this study is to provide some preliminary insights on why SMEs adopt the PMS. It also aims to identify critical issues that would contribute to the effective performance measurement function in Indian SMEs. This research is exploratory in nature; a case study methodology is used for the research. Based on four case studies from diverse SMEs from three different states of western India, the paper presents four important issues - PMS strategy, competitive priorities, benefits observed/perceived by effective management of PMS function and barriers observed in implementing PMS practices. Based on the analysis of the case studies, several propositions as recommendations for effective PMS development in Indian SMEs are proposed.

Byline: Rajat Bhagwat, Milind Kumar Sharma To improve overall business performance and the more and more use of Information Technology (IT) have forced Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to design and deploy effective strategy for management of Information system (IS) function and follow proper IS-related practices. SMEs with limited resources may be able to deploy IS for their normal operations, but may not be able to manage the IS functions or follow IS practices properly. This study aims to identify critical issues that would contribute to effective performance of the IS management in Indian SMEs sector. On the basis of the four case studies from diverse SMEs from three different states of western India, this paper presents the four important issues in IS management - IS strategy, competitive priorities, benefits observed/perceived by effective management of IS function and barriers observed in implementing IS management practices. On the basis of the analysis of the case studies, several propositions as recommendations such as the role of top management, use of IT tools, investment in IT, supply chain linkages and work culture for an effective IS management in Indian SMEs have been discussed.

Byline: Milind Kumar Sharma, Rajat Bhagwat, Govind Sharan Dangayach The findings in the paper are reported on the basis of the outcome of sponsored research project on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Effective Performance Measurement System (PMS) for organisation is a key factor for success in today's competitive globalised market. In the era of globalisation and outsourcing, SMEs understand and acknowledge the importance of the performance measurement system in day-to-day business operations but may not able to pay serious attention to it. This paper presents results of a survey of Indian SMEs whilst addressing this issue. The study included SMEs from three western states of India covering the manufacturing, high tech engineering, finance, packaging, and distribution sector. Responses from 147 SMEs are analysed for various issues related to performance measurement system.