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Rail-road terminals are the chain links in intermodal rail-road transportation where standardized load units (containers, swap bodies and trailers) are transfered from trucks to trains and vice versa. We consider three subproblems of the operational planning process at rail-road terminals that terminal operators are facing in their daily operations. These are the optimization problems storage planning, load planning and crane planning. The aim of storage planning is to determine load unit storage positions for a set of load units in a partially filled storage area. Here, different restrictions like non-overlapping of stored load units have to be respected. The objective of storage planning is to minimize the total transportation costs and the number of load units that are not stored at the ground level. For the load planning we assume a scenario of overbooked trains. So, the aim of load planning is to assign a subset of the load units that are booked on a train to feasible positions on the wagons such that the utilization of the train is maximized and the costs for the handling in the terminal are minimized. For the feasible positioning of load units length and weight restrictions for the wagons and the train have to be respected. For the load planning of trains we consider a deterministic version and a robust approach motivated by uncertainty in the input data. The last considered optimization problem is the crane planning. The crane planning determines the transfer of the load units by crane between the different transportation modes. For each crane a working plan is computed which contains a subset of the load units that have to be handled together with individual start times for the transfer operations. For the load units which have to be transfered in the terminal, storage and load planning compute destination positions (inside the terminal). These destination positions are part of the input for the crane planning. The main objective of crane planning is to minimize the total length of the empty crane moves that have to be performed between successive transports of load units by the cranes. We provide MIP-models for all three subproblems of the operational planning process at rail-road terminals. For the storage and crane planning we also propose fast heuristics. Furthermore, we present and compare computational results based on real world data for all subproblems. The main contributions of this thesis concern load and storage planning. For the deterministic load planning we provide the first model that represents all practical constraints including physical weight restrictions. For the load planning we furthermore present robustness approaches for different practical uncertainties. For the storage planning we provide complexity results for different variants. For the practical setting we developed a heuristic which is able to compute solutions of high quality in a small amount of runtime.

The significance of human capital development (HCD) from an organizational perspective is adequately reflected in the extant literature; however, its inherent connection with total quality management (TQM) philosophy is yet to be investigated. Hence, this study intends to explore the role of HCD in implementing TQM philosophy and to develop a comprehensive HCD framework in this respect. The labor-intensive Bangladesh ready-made garment sector is used as the research site since the phenomenon under inquiry is not readily evident in the chosen setting. The interpretivist worldview is espoused in this exploratory research to accomplish the research aim. Correspondingly, an inductive approach followed by a qualitative multiple case study methodology is adopted. Five (5) RMG establishments are purposively selected as case organizations. Thirty (30) in-depth interviews (6 from each case organization) are conducted, using the semi-structured interview technique to generate rich and thick primary data. Reflexive thematic analysis is manually performed to analyze the interview transcripts. Findings imply that HCD engenders three major effects: reduced costs of operations, improved product quality, and on-time shipment. Thereby HCD ensures greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, which is the essence of TQM philosophy. Empirical evidence specifically suggests that HCD can contribute to TQM implementation by empowering employees to reliably participate in problem solving and decision-making, innovatively perform tasks, and effectively accomplish appropriate changes in work processes and procedures. This study contributes to the knowledge by evidencing the fact that an HCD framework integrating both learning and healthcare interventions has an explicitly positive nexus with TQM philosophy. / Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK

The thesis “Effects of the Post Multi-fiber Agreement on Bangladesh Ready Made Garments Sector” is a part of our M.Sc. in Business Administration Program. The thesis paper on this topic is done under the supervision of Mr. Göran Alsén, Professor of Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) Ronneby, Sweden. In our country garment industry has been playing most vital role in our national economy, foreign exchange earnings, employment, growth in other sector and most prominently women employment. In the first chapter we tried to focus on the historical background of Multi Fiber Agreement, the growth of Bangladesh Garments Manufacturer and Exporter Association (BGMEA).In 1983 the total members of BGMEA were 143 with narrow export volume but in 2007 we see the total members are 4637.They contribute 75.64% of our total export (BGMEA, 2007). People who are directly involved with this sector became worried because of phase out of quota system from January 2005.But if we observe the current scenario it is very much positive for our national economy. It’s true that competition grew high but at the same time we can say that our garments industry did not lose its market reputation compared to that of other rival competitors like China, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam etc. It’s very obvious that we have great problem with the backward linkage industry. As a result we are facing huge competition among the competitors. We have to face huge competition with the other competitors as long as we could set up our backward linkage industry. Under these circumstances, our Government is taking necessary steps to remove this problem. It is now simply a matter of time. But we hope we will get rid of this problem very soon. In this thesis paper we have tried to analyze the performance of five different RMG companies and we have also tried to examine the impact of withdrawal of quota system. Based on these five RMG factories we observe that our RMG industry is performing well after Post MFA. In addition, if we look our total exports we see that approximately 74.93% of our total export is from RMG sector. It is very promising sector compared to other export items. Thus we can say that to survive in this competitive sector our RMG sector should take some more necessary steps like improving employee efficiency, ensuring more training facility, emphasizing on backward linkage industry etc. To attract foreign investors these are very important.