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This study aims to evaluate the relative importance of critical performing supply chain (SC) processes instrumental in reducing the Time to Market (TTM) of a firm by taking the case of an apparel company. An integrated decision support system based on the Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been employed to prioritize the critical strategic factors and their relevant sub-factors essential for TTM. This approach also allows determining the degree of impact of each factor on the company’s TTM. The results show the instrumental role of Plan and Deliver in SC processes in reducing the TTM. Within Plan and Deliver, the role of demand forecasting error and service quality was found to be substantial in controlling TTM. The findings of the study can be helpful for the managers and decision-makers to identify the key areas at the operational level that need to be improved and has an impact on strategic level performance, i.e., TTM. The use of a decision support system to identify the critical supply chain processes and sub-processes is the major contribution of this study.

Technological advancement is re-defining supply chains (SCs) processes and soon traditional ways of managing SCs will no more be feasible and effective. Due to recent advancement in technology, digitalization has become an emerging topic among decision-makers and researchers. To cope-up with this emerging trend in customer behavior and remain competitive, organizations must move from their traditional ways of managing their SCs to digital supply chains (DSCs) for improved organizational performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is in two folds: First, to identify critical factors of DSCs that are essential for transitioning traditional SCs to DSCs to improve organizational performance. Second, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is used to establish the relationship among critical factors and MICMAC (Matriced’ Impacts Croise´s Multiplication Applique´e a´un Classement) used to identify the driving and dependency power of the critical factors. Thus, this study identified fifteen DSC critical factors and established their direct and indirect effect on DSCs. The results show that “SC resilience”, and “proactive prevention” have the highest dependency power factors whilst “integration” and “advanced operational models” have the highest driving power factors. This study can help SC managers and decision-makers to understand the critical factors essential in adopting DSCs for improving organizational performance.

Funding Information: This study was funded by K.H. Renlund?s Foundation https://khrenlund.fi/en/foundation/ (accessed on 19 March 2021). We would like to thank Boliden AB for providing ore material, as well as the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland for providing the bubble size analyzer. The authors express their deepest gratitude to Jukka Laukkanen for analyzing the samples for mineral characterization. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved. Low grade sulfide ores are difficult to process due to their composite mineralogy and their fine grained dissemination with gangue minerals. Therefore, fine grinding of such ores becomes essential to liberate valuable minerals. In this research, selective flotation was carried out using two pitched blade turbine impellers with diameters of 6 cm and 7 cm to float copper and nickel. The main focus of this research was to generate optimum hydrodynamic conditions that can effectively separate nickel and copper from gangue minerals. In addition, we investigated the effects of superficial gas velocity, impeller speed, bubble size distribution, and bubble surface area flux on the flotation recovery and rate constant. The results demonstrated that a 7 cm impeller comparatively produced optimum hydrodynamic conditions that improved Cu-Ni recovery and the rate constant. The maximum copper and nickel recoveries in the 7 cm impeller tests were observed at 93.1% and 72.5%, respectively. However, a significant decrease in the flotation rate of nickel was observed, due to entrainment of nickel in copper concentrate and the slime coating of gangue minerals on the nickel particle surfaces.

This deliverable summarizes the lessons learned from the CUTLER project in terms of data interoperability and privacy with the intention to formally submit this document as part of EU’s regulations and directives on this topic.

The extensive use of the internet and web-based applications spot the multiserver authentication as a significant component. The users can get their services after authenticating with the service provider by using similar registration records. Various protocol schemes are developed for multiserver authentication, but the existing schemes are not secure and often lead towards various vulnerabilities and different security issues. Recently, Zhao et al. put forward a proposal for smart card and user's password-based authentication protocol for the multiserver environment and showed that their proposed protocol is efficient and secure against various security attacks. This paper points out that Zhao et al.'s authentication scheme is susceptive to traceability as well as anonymity attacks. Thus, it is not feasible for the multiserver environment. Furthermore, in their scheme, it is observed that a user while authenticating does not send any information with any mention of specific server identity. Therefore, this paper proposes an enhanced, efficient and secure user authentication scheme for use in any multiserver environment. The formal security analysis and verification of the protocol is performed using state-of-the-art tool “ProVerif” yielding that the proposed scheme provides higher levels of security.

This report summarizes the updated and final version of the integrated CUTLER platform including the methodologies and tools developed in WP3,4,5,6 and the BPM model developed in WP7 and the CUTLER frontend that will integrate the visualization widgets and implement the IAMER approach in a multi-facet layout

Deliverable 5.3 presents the optimized methodologies, tools and visualization widgets for assessing the environmental impact for each specific pilot (THESSALONIKI, ANTWERP, ANTALYA, CORK, VICENZA) based on: the internal characteristics of each pilot, the availability of data in each pilot and the environmental and information technology science. Delivering the optimised environmental outputs for each pilot was based on four levels,starting with the pilot and environmental data definition (LEVEL 0), followed by analysis and development of specific environmental stories (LEVEL 1), accomplished by Key Performance Indicators to assess the environmental impact of the proposed policy measures (LEVEL 2), and closing with the development of the environmental widgets which provided with visualizations of straightforward data, graphs, tables, maps, models, indicators, KPIs etc. (LEVEL 3).

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to adopt a supply chain performance measurement (SCPM) framework as proposed by (Dweiri and Khan 2012) to model a novel SCPM index (SCPMI) system to measure and improve supply chain performance (SCP).Design/methodology/approach - The adopted SCPM framework developed by Dweiri and Khan (2012) is used to model a generic SCPMI framework aided by analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method and inputs from industrial experts. To exemplify the applicability and efficiency of the generic SCPMI system, an automobile assembling company from an emerging economy was used. This SCMPI system is used to measure, improve and measure post-improvement SCP guided by DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve and control) methodology.Findings - The study’s initial measurement results showed an average SCP of the case company over a four-month period as 82 per cent. DMAIC methodology was used to identify inherent problems and proposed improvements. The post-improvement SCP measurement saw an improvement from an average of 82 to 83.82 per cent over the four-month period.Practical implications - The proposed generic SCPMI framework aided by AHP-DMAIC has been successfully implemented in a case company. After implementation, managers and decision-makers saw an improvement in their SCP. The proposed SCPMI system and results can be useful for benchmarking by manufacturing organizations for continuous SCP improvement.Originality/value - An original SCPMI framework proposed is general in nature and can be applied in any organization.