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The purpose of this paper is to eliminate the wastes and inefficient procedures in the maintenance organization of aircraft so as to reduce its downtime and increase mission availability.

Customized lean Six Sigma (LSS) was applied at the task level and servicing cycle level to reduce the task content, cycle length and resources in servicing. The loading of the servicing facility was simulated through a simulation program developed from a statistical analysis of historical data for validating/simulating/determining optimum loading of servicing facility with refined tasks, reduced cycle length and resources. In simulation, the optimum combination of manpower, resources and infrastructure at the facility level was determined through sensitive analysis and design of experiments (DoE).

Optimization at the task level and its re-organization at the servicing cycle level reduced the cycle length by 55-68 per cent and manpower resources by 26 per cent. This further reduced facility-level manpower by 25 to 40 per cent, capacity requirements by more than 33 per cent and annual aircraft downtime by 78 per cent. The approach reduced the average number of aircraft undergoing servicing at each airbase at any time from 2.35 to just 0.76 and increased the mission availability to 20 per cent.

The hallmark of the paper has been the design of LSS approach from structured historical data and its validation through innovative simulation. The multi-pronged bottom-up approach practically bundles all wastes resident in the maintenance organization. The paper provides cursory approach to lean practitioners in the elimination of wastes in the maintenance of capital assets like aircraft.

A systems perspective of waste management allows an integrated approach not only to the five basic functional elements of waste management itself (generation, reduction, collection, recycling, disposal), but to the problems arising at the interfaces with the management of energy, nature conservation, environmental protection, economic factors like unemployment and productivity, etc. This monograph separately describes present practices and the problems to be solved in each of the functional areas of waste management and at the important interfaces. Strategies for more efficient control are then proposed from a systems perspective. Systematic and objective means of solving problems become possible leading to optimal management and a positive contribution to economic development, not least through resource conservation. India is the particular context within which waste generation and management are discussed. In considering waste disposal techniques, special attention is given to sewage and radioactive wastes.

Manpower planning is defined in terms of the elements of prediction and control, and certain key aspects of these dimensions are identified. It is suggested that there is scope for integrating what are essentially quantitative and qualitative approaches to manpower planning. At organisational level, manpower planning activities have certain constraints and these must be considered. The question of personnel movement in relation to the organisation is discussed as a manifestation of organisational behaviour, and certain dimensions of organisational control are considered. It is argued that a consideration of the theoretical and practical contributions of behavioural scientists are essential for manpower planning.

Introduction It has been said that “the human resource is probably the last great cost that is relatively unmanaged”. Since this article was written in 1982, we are aware of the recognition for, and the implementation of, management and planning for this resource. The new emphasis on the human resource is probably a result of a change in attitude on the part of management.

The effect of global integration of businesses and interchange of ideas and technology through internet has many facets. Increase in economic recessions and decrease in research funding has forced both private and public sector research organizations to introduce measures of self-sustainability. Enhancing research and development (R&D) productivity of researchers can be one of those measures. The purpose of this paper is to attempt toward identifying and analyzing those factors of productivity that may be related to the manpower in R&D.

Based upon the theoretical background and the nature of data available, this empirical study has been carried out as a case study for a public sector research laboratory. The extent of involvement in research projects have been analyzed with respect to the R&D outputs generated by the researchers, which if found to be positively related, may be focussed upon, for increasing productivity of manpower in R&D. Several other determinants of R&D productivity were identified from the literature review and were analyzed in association with the “involvement.” “Robust Regression” technique was used for the statistical analysis.

It was found that the R&D productivity of researchers has a positive correlation with their extent of involvement in the R&D projects.

The result may help in creation of the policies for enhancing organizational self-sustainability.

Several prior studies have been conducted with different determinants of R&D productivity but hardly any studies were found considering “extent of manpower involvement in research projects.” This study can be useful for public sector research organizations to relate the findings with their endeavors of enhancing R&D productivity.

The Institute of Manpower Studies (IMS) was established because of a widespread belief that there was a need for a national centre of practical knowledge and experience of the manpower field; it would be available to all those working on manpower problems, particularly in employing organisations. It was thought that it should be possible to develop techniques and approaches of general applicability to those interested.

Within an organisation, the information system plays a vital role in the decision‐making process. There is a need to design and introduce a new Manpower Management Information System (MMIS) for the State Ministry of Manpower and Training (SMMT) as a primary step to help in the formulation of a policy for manpower in Egypt.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors that are important for logistics organizations from the perspective of manpower readiness for digitization of logistics operations. The study also prioritizes the identified factors and also evaluates the readiness index of manpower for the digitalization of logistics processes.

The factors for manpower readiness are identified through literature review and analysis of a case study. Three major categories of factors are identified. These are organizational, behavioural and technological factors. Under these three major categories of factors, 18 sub-factors are identified. Thereafter, with experts' inputs, the factors are prioritized using Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Further, a case illustration of an Indian logistics company has been taken to understand the current processes, technical capabilities, manpower skills and organization culture. After the case analysis and expert inputs, the manpower readiness index has been evaluated by using graph theory matrix approach (GTMA).

The prioritization of manpower readiness factors has been done using Fuzzy AHP. Organizational factors are found to be the most important factors which require quick attention. Sub-factors that are most important for building competencies in the logistics sector are providing the right training on functional skill development (0.129), top management support and commitment for digitalization (0.117), and organizational culture for process digitalization (0.114), etc. Finally, framework for evaluation of manpower readiness index for logistics operations in the digital age has been illustrated for a case company.

Indian logistics companies can benchmark their readiness index with respect to the best in the industry. Based on the readiness index, logistics companies can analyse their position, gaps from best and worst and can also identify potential areas for improvement.

The novelty of the study lies in the development of a framework for manpower readiness for digitalization in the logistics sector. In literature, this field is very less researched and provides the scope for developing strategies for improving manpower competencies for Industry 4.0. Logistics companies can improve their performance by making their manpower ready based on results obtained for readiness index.

After the restoration of Turkish parliamentary democracy in 1961, Turkey adopted the path of development by planning to be coordinated by the newly created State Planning Organisation (SPO). Manpower and educational planning were given top priority and longrange forecasting became an important task of SPO's Social Planning Department (SPD). Some 20 years later, the same institutional organisation and the original preoccupation with longrange manpower forecasting is maintained, despite the fact that this period has seen a rapid technological, structural and industrial transformation of the economy and the emergence of an acute problem of unemployment. While manpower planning is focused on future labour market conditions, there is virtually no employment policy designed to accelerate productive employment creation in the short and medium runs.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the interactions among different enablers of agile manufacturing system (AMS). The existing enablers available in the past literature are scattered and not able to meet specific requirements of the customers. So, it becomes a necessity to encapsulate these enablers in appropriate proportions to enable traditional organizations to AMS. To fill this gap total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) and MICMAC analysis-based framework model have been developed to understand the mutual interactions between among the enablers.

Identification of enablers followed by application of TISM, which is an innovative version of ISM and MICMAC analysis, is used to study and analyze the mutual interactions between identified enablers.

The result reveals that top management support, organizational structure and information technology integration have strong driving power and weak dependence power and are at the lowest level in the TISM model hierarchy, while the outcome enablers of AMS have low-driving power but have high-dependence power.

This model is developed on the basis of inputs from few experts and may not reflect the opinion of whole industry community.

Top management must stress on enablers having strong driving power for efficient implementation of AMS. Managers in the area of manufacturing may drive useful insights from the empirical study presented in this paper. Managers should plan an effective strategy for proper implementation of AMS which makes organization more agile, productive, competitive and profitable.

TISM-based framework structural model has been proposed for industry or organization which is a new effort for implementation of AMS.