Raja Jayaraman

New Mexico State University | NMSU · Department of Industrial Engineering

Child labor has been on the rise in recent years, which necessitates improved identification and reporting mechanisms. Current labor management systems, which are often manual or paper-based, lack traceability, audit, privacy, security, and trust features. This leads to challenges in detecting and reporting violations, particularly in large or remo...

Current conventional agricultural practices have exacerbated the depletion of soil, loss of biodiversity, and intensified the substantial challenges of food security including monoculture dependence, resource intensiveness, access and distribution issues. This has raised consumers awareness towards monitoring the resources of their food consumption...

In the dynamic world of fashion, high-heeled footwear is revered as a symbol of style, luxury and sophistication. Yet, beneath the facade of elegance of classy footwear lies the harsh reality of discomfort and pain. Thus, this study aims to investigate the influence of wearing high-heeled shoes on the sensation of pain across different body regions...

Operational excellence (OpEx) is a proven philosophy focusing on continuous improvement in processes and systems for superior performance and efficiency. It plays a crucial role in the energy sector, acting as a catalyst for safety, customer satisfaction, sustainability and competitiveness. This research aims to assess OpEx methodologies in Oman’s...

Purpose The purpose of this global study is to investigate the critical failure factors (CFFs) in the deployment of operational excellence (OPEX) programs as well as the key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used to measure OPEX failures. The study also empirically analyzes various OPEX methodologies adopted by various organizations at a gl...

Efforts to combat environmental degradation and tackle climate change have gained significant global recognition. Many advocate that all consumable products should carry sustainability labels to inform consumers about their production methods, resources, and disposal practices. However, the lack of standardized sustainability labels and limited sco...

Guaranteeing steel quality is a crucial step in the steel manufacturing process. Many manufacturing industries still resort to manual visual inspection, which is inefficient and time-consuming. Industries have not fully adopted automated visual inspection due to inaccuracies, the variability of real-world manufacturing environments, and a lack of f...

Preventative maintenance is imperative for ensuring the longevity and reliability of diagnostic medical imaging equipment. However, conventional maintenance systems face challenges related to centralization, fragmented information, and ineffective tracking mechanisms. In response to these challenges, this research presents a blockchain-based soluti...

The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies road traffic injuries as a global health problem. The Eastern-Mediterranean region is particularly suffering from low traffic safety levels, recording the third highest death per capita ratio in the world. It is critical to evaluate and understand the causes of crashes and their severity levels as a fi...

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the Critical Failure Factors (CFFs) linked to various types of Process improvement (PI) projects such as Kaizen, Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and Agile. Proposing a mitigation framework accordingly is also an aim of this study. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: This research undertakes a systemati...

Digital twins have immense potential to enhance the planning, management, and optimization of smart cities across diverse domains. A digital twin represents a real-world physical component through an integrated multiphysics, multiscale, and probabilistic simulation. By leveraging digital twins, smart cities can visualize designs in 3D, conduct virt...

Purpose Design science research (DSR) is a structured approach for solving complex ill-structured problems in organizations through the development of an artefact followed by its validation. This paper aims to evaluate existing DSR methodology and propose specific accents to promote DSR for environmental, social and governance (ESG)-oriented operat...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the critical failure factors (CFFs) linked to various types of process improvement (PI) projects such as Kaizen, Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma and Agile. Proposing a mitigation framework accordingly is also an aim of this study. Design/methodology/approach This research undertakes a systematic lite...

Purpose This study aims to investigate how early and late adopters of Quality 4.0 (Q4.0) differ in terms of organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors employed a grounded theory approach for interviewing 15 senior managers from diverse organizational contexts throughout the globe as part of their qualitative research metho...

This special issue sets out to prepare the grounds for creating competitive advantage in organisations through an integrated approach of OPEX and Industry 4.0 tools. Therefore, we target submissions that address:  In-depth qualitative studies that focus on the implementation of the integrated approach, focusing on the rationale behind the use of...

Purpose This study aims to identify, analyze and rank the critical success factors (CSFs) of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation in Indian manufacturing sector based micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This study provides critical insight for managers and researchers aspiring for successful implementation of LSS in Indian manufacturing MSM...

Purpose Quality 4.0 (Q4.0) leverages new emerging technologies to achieve operational excellence and enhance performance. Implementing Q4.0 in digital manufacturing can bring about reliable, flexible and decentralized manufacturing. Emerging technologies such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Blockchain and Interplanetary File Storage (IPFS) can all b...

Purpose Entering a new era of digital transformation, Industry 4.0 (I 4.0) promises to revolutionize the way business has been done, providing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. This study aims to investigate empirically and comparatively analyse the benefits, challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) of Industry 4.0 across four conti...

Buildings are major contributors to global energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions, making energy efficiency in buildings a pivotal step towards a more sustainable sector. About 40%-50% of the energy consumed in buildings goes to maintaining comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions for the occupants. Therefore, developing insights...

The year 2020 has witnessed the emergence of coronavirus (COVID-19) that has rapidly spread and adversely affected the global economy, health, and human lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the limitations of existing healthcare systems regarding their inadequacy to timely and efficiently handle public health emergencies. A large portion of tod...

p>The year 2020 has witnessed the emergence of coronavirus (COVID-19) that has rapidly spread and adversely affected the global economy, health, and human lives. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the limitations of existing healthcare systems regarding their inadequacy to timely and efficiently handle public health emergencies. A large portion of t...

A digital twin (DT) is an exact digital replica of a physical world object or asset that aids in managing, controlling, or monitoring the real object. The current systems used for managing DTs are centralized and not easily accessible. Typically, a DT is built by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and becomes hard to access and manage once i...

p>The distribution, traceability, and management of shipping container logistics require secure data flow and trusted transactions. Digital Twins (DTs) can realize these features by offering shipping tracking and traceability, process flow and status monitoring, and management of the physical containers all in a remote manner. However, the data of...

p>The distribution, traceability, and management of shipping container logistics require secure data flow and trusted transactions. Digital Twins (DTs) can realize these features by offering shipping tracking and traceability, process flow and status monitoring, and management of the physical containers all in a remote manner. However, the data of...

Quality 4.0 is the new paradigm in the field of quality management, due to the advent of technological advancement and digital transformation of many organizations. The field of Quality 4.0 is still in its nascent stage, and there is no self-assessment tool to assess whether an organization is ready or not in implementing Quality 4.0. This study us...

Sustainable operational excellence (OPEX) initiatives result in a competitive advantage by optimising the use of resources, contributing to profitability, and leading to expanded growth of organisations. OPEX being a practice-led initiative has no standard framework leading to sustainable OPEX efforts in organisations. In this study, we employ the...

Lean is a philosophy that helps organizations develop a continuous improvement culture by eliminating waste and minimizing the use of resources. On the other hand, Industry 4.0 is a complex high-tech model that contributes to flexible organizations using different technologies such as IoT, cloud computing, blockchain, virtual reality, and Artificia...

Software licenses are legal agreements of sale and usage among software developers and clients. Such legal agreements are crucial to effectively manage ownership and protect the rights of involved parties. Today’s software licensing mechanisms are mostly centralized and do not address the ever-increasing issues and complexities of modern software t...

The authenticity, traceability, and management of expensive food products require trusted, secure, and transparent end-to-end data provenance and transactions. In today’s systems, transactions and data related to managing and tracing the origins and history of food products are typically stored in segregated data repositories, and controlled and ma...

Ranking systems have proven to improve the quality of education and help build the reputation of academic institutions. Each of the current academic ranking systems is based on different methodologies, criteria, and standards of measurement. Academic and employer reputations are subjective indicators of some rankings determined through surveying th...

Medical devices play a crucial role in the global healthcare system, but their high cost has led to the increasing adoption of refurbished medical devices as a sustainable alternative for hospitals and patients around the world. The repositioning of refurbished devices into the market, however, is accompanied by a number of challenges, including co...

Healthcare credentialing plays a vital role in ensuring the competence and integrity of healthcare professionals. However, the current credentials verification process suffers from time-consuming procedures due to the large number of intermediaries, limited information access, data fragmentation and the persistent risk of fraudulent credentials, le...

Crop insurance serves as a crucial risk mitigation strategy for farmers facing uncertainties stemming from unpredictable weather conditions and vulnerabilities within the agricultural production process. Unfortunately, the prevailing traditional methods of crop insurance are laden with complexities, high costs, and, more critically, a lack of trust...

Medical errors are recognized as major threats to patient safety worldwide. Lack of streamlined communication and an inability to share and exchange data are among the contributory factors affecting patient safety. To address these challenges, blockchain can be utilized to ensure a secure, transparent and decentralized data exchange among stakehold...

Globally manufacturing organizations are implementing operational excellence (OPEX) projects to improve their long-term sustainability and competitive advantage. This research analyzes the critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing OPEX initiatives in manufacturing organizations through the utilization of a meta-analysis technique. Thirty stu...

Mobile health (mHealth) is playing a key role in facilitating health services for patients. Such services may include remote diagnostics and monitoring, chronic conditions management, preventive medicine, and health promotion. While mHealth has gained significant traction during the COVID-19 pandemic, they may pose safety risks to patients. This en...

Metaverse has the potential to reshape and transform the way people interact and perform their daily tasks. A metaverse is a virtual, digital, and three-dimensional universe formed by integrating different cutting-edge technologies and virtual places. In this paper, we discuss how the metaverse can be utilized in healthcare. We provide insightful d...

Industrialization and the rapid increase in the world population have led to the generation of a large amount of plastic waste. Efficient recycling of such waste and fairly rewarding the general public for their services and efforts are two challenging problems. A large portion of today's systems and technologies that are leveraged for managing pla...

The effects of climate change can be seen immediately in ecosystems. Recent events have resulted in a commitment to the Paris Agreement for the reduction of carbon emissions by a significant amount by the year 2030. Rapid urbanisation is taking place to provide room for an increasing number of people’s residences. Increasing the size of a city and...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption in the healthcare market, which resulted in shortages of essential healthcare products. The pandemic exacerbated the problems that already existed in the healthcare supply chain, such as poor data availability, transparency, and accessibility. Such problems necessitate the introduction of a solution that is c...

The digital transformation has changed how stake-holders communicate and interact within the supply chain. Personal computers, mobile devices, Inter-net of Things (IoT), 3D printing, drones, robotics, wearables, self-driving cars, smartwatches and smart-phones are examples of technological innovations that change the way people exchange and process...

Purpose ISO 18404:2015 standard defines the proficiencies to the attainment of distinct competency levels with either Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma or separately combined strategy Lean Six Sigma (LSS). The purpose of this paper is to perform a detailed investigation of the applicability of current LSS competency standard in SMEs and examine the n...

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have recently received widespread attention as their market has experienced massive growth since early 2021. NFTs are blockchain-based tokens used to represent ownership of digital and physical assets in a manner that is transparent, traceable, tamper-proof, secure, and trustworthy. Although NFTs have enabled new applicat...

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has been applied in many healthcare organisations, but there has been limited research on the evolution of LSS application in healthcare. This paper aims to present the challenges, critical success factors (CSFs), readiness factors and most common tools and techniques used for LSS deployment in healthcare. A systematic literatu...

While Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has been applied extensively in healthcare organisations, there has been limited research on the trends of LSS application in healthcare in recent years. This paper aims to present the key motivations and benefits of LSS in healthcare with a view to highlighting the types of problems that LSS in healthcare can aid in solv...

Fine jewelry is a unique class of ornaments composed of precious metals and gemstones. Premium-grade metals such as gold, platinum, and sliver, and gemstones such as pearls, diamonds, rubies, and emeralds are used use to make fine jewelry. Paper-based certificates are typically issued by retailers and producers for fine jewelry and gemstones as a p...

Purpose The main purpose of this study is to revisit Ishikawa's statement: “95% of problems in processes can be accomplished using the original 7 Quality Control (QC) tools”. The paper critically investigates the validity of this statement in higher education institutions (HEIs). It involves analysis of the usage of the 7 QC tools and identifying t...

Globalization has created a competitive environment in the manufacturing sector in terms of the quality, cost and user experience of the product. The product life cycle has shortened, which adds multiple products to production lines. This has led to adding complexity to the input material, cost of operation and waste generation through the manufact...