Suggested Topics for Dissertations and Thesis Research Projects in Lean, Six Sigma, and Sustainability in the areas of
Procurement Management, Supply Chain Management, Inventory Management, and Distribution Management

Keywords applicable to this article: dissertation, thesis, topics, lean and six sigma in supply chain management, sustainable supply chain management, sustainable procurement, sustainable logistics
capabilities, sustainable production, sustainable transportation, sustainable warehousing, sustainable distribution
By: Sourabh Kishore, Chief Consulting Officer

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Please contact us at consulting@eproindia.com or consulting@eproindia.net to discuss your topic or to get ideas about new topics pertaining to your subject area.

I am happy to present the second part of the article on dissertation and thesis topic development in the fields of Procurement Management, Supply Chain Management, Inventory Management, and Distribution Management. This is an extension of our original
article in these fields, accessible through the following link:

Link to
the first part of this article for topic development in the areas of logistics and supply chain performance, integration, aggregation planning, effectiveness, efficiency, IT and technologies in supply chain management, and cloud supply chains and manufacturing.

The third part of this article is accessible through the following link:

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the third part of this article for topic development on Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Cloud Manufacturing, and Blockchain in the areas of logistics and supply chain management.

The fourth part of this article is accessible through the following link:

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the fourth part of this article for topic development on machine learning and artificial intelligence in Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0, smart contracts in blockchains, and additive manufacturing in cloud manufacturing ecosystem

This article explores many newer topics of research in supply chain management and its associated domains categorized under four broad research areas. The article largely covers the research areas of lean and six sigma and sustainability in supply chain management. Each area presents opportunities for studying a number of practices and the factor variables (both mediators and moderators) associated with it, and their interrelationships. The studies proposed are mostly positivistic, deductive, and quantitative employing inferential statistical methods like ANOVA, MANOVA, Multiple Regressions, and advanced Multivariate Statistical Modelling and Analysis comprising of Exploratory Factor Analysis using Principal Component Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Structural Equation Modelling. Please visit our page on Multivariate Statistical Modelling and Analysis for further details on analysing and optimising the measurement constructs. You may also consider in touch programmes (action research), organisational ethnography, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and phenomenology as appropriate qualitative methods for deriving deeper knowledge about the variables and their possible interrelationships after completing the quantitative part (I mean, employing methodology and data triangulation using quantitative data and analytics). The descriptions of the areas and their associated practices are presented as the following:

(A) Lean and Six Sigma in Supply Chain Management:

Lean and six sigma are two philosophical approaches that are focused on enhancing the capabilities of an organization for achieving quality excellence in cost effective ways. Lean philosophy advocates optimum use of resources, elimination of wastes, and costs reduction. Six sigma advocates elimination of defects and errors in a quality system in such a way that defects per million of opportunities shifts multiple sigmas (a sigma is the standard deviation) away from the mean of a million measurements of the target quality statistic in a normal distribution curve. At the sixth sigma from the mean of the target quality statistic, the defects per million opportunities are only 3.4 and the accuracy level of the process task is 99.9999980%. This is called the six sigma quality level. This target may not appear to be feasible in many processes because one may not be able to visualize the targeted mean of a quality statistic in a million opportunities accurately, and the targeted statistical mean of the quality statistic in a million measurements may be shifting periodically. Hence, the philosophy of six sigma is not about achieving this statistical quality target albeit is to achieve a culture of listening to the voices of customers (that is, collecting and analyzing data on the concerns raised and feedbacks provided by the customers) continuously, performing quality measurements continuously, performing continuous improvements, striving for excellence, and data-driven statistical thinking. The model for achieving these cultural changes and the resulting systems and processes is called DMAIC (define, measure, analyse, improve, and control). Lean and six sigma philosophies can be combined for achieving excellence in logistics and supply chain management with the help of the following practices:

1. Management commitment by setting directions and allocation of funds and resources
2. Monitoring and control by top management
3. Process reforms championships for managing changes
4. Cost consciousness through skewing of the costs and the expenses incurred towards the goals aligned with the voices of customers (concerns raised and feedbacks provided by the customers), and the most essential business objectives and goals
5. Quality consciousness and orientation in the processes, tasks, and deliverables
6. Elimination of wastes: here wastes refer to the processes and tasks that poorly or do not contribute to the primary business objectives such as shareholders' wealth creation, customer satisfaction, productivity, innovation, efficiency, sustainability, and compliance
7. Elimination of defects: here defects refer to deviations from requirement specifications in execution of processes and their tasks
8. Multi-skilling of employees for expanding their working domains
9. Aligning every policy, process, and tasks to the voices of customers
10. Lean consumption of internal resources
11. Lean consumption of external and natural resources
12. Lean strategies of operations (like, maintaining transit warehouses, reducing transportation size for better volume consumption per trip, just-in-time production, just-in-time inventory replenishment, demand-linked lean distribution, etc.)
13. Strategic supplier relationships
14. Vendor-managed inventory
15. Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment
16. Quick Response
17. Efficient Customer Response
18. Just-in-time
19. Cellular manufacturing design (as against continuous flow assembly lines design)
20. Demand pull strategy
21. Flexible and agile capabilities in the final stages of production (like, delaying assembly of finished products until the orders have been confirmed)
22. Toyota Production System (TPS) and Total Quality Management (TQM) principles, and their relationships with lean and six sigma philosophies
23. Competencies and capabilities to process small / tiny batches of orders in large numbers with significantly varying specifications as demanded by the customers
24. Real time data collection and analytics
25. Big Data Visualisation revealing perception layer reflecting the events of the real layer
26. Real time monitoring and control
27. Events data synchronisation between the real and virtual worlds
28. Big Data Analytics
29. Big data mining, data matrix, and fusion
30. Information granularity
31. Predictive analytics
32. Prioritisation of flows based on demands
33. Modular network design
34. People centric automation
35. Lean Six Sigma capabilities in the Industry 4.0 era
36. Lean Six Sigma capabilities in the Industry 5.0 era
37. Multi-Party Blockchains
38. Digital Twins, Siblings, or Cousins
39. Additive manufacturing (3D printing)
40. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
41. Time based design and synchronisation
42. Collaborative robotics and indoor GPS
43. Modular and reconfigurable manufacturing and supply chain
44. Collaborative value generation for customers
45. Multi-supplier multi-customer collaborative partnership modelling
46. Asset Administration Shells synchnonised with ERP, WMS, or DMS systems
47. Intelligent materials handling and distribution
48. Smart production and logistics systems
49. Smart packaging, transportation, and distribution
50. Smart warehousing and inventory management

The above list is a representative set of practices that influence planning, adopting, implementing, operating, and controlling lean and six sigma systems and processes following their philosophies. Each of these practices may be supported by a number of underlying factor variables acting as mediators and moderators. Topics may involve overlapping concepts and hence establishing the right spotlight and focus is crucial to keep the research contribution original. One may consider studying these practices and their variables separately through in touch programmes (action research), organisational ethnography, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and phenomenology as in qualitative studies or investigating their interrelationships through hypothesis testing and testing of structural constructs (complex relationships models) in quantitative studies. Some topics may require modeling and simulations and software programming methods. This is a vast research area that requires significant contributions by students and professionals. The existing empirical knowledge of lean and six sigma in supply chain management is inadequate requiring significant research efforts as it is very valuable for achieving quality excellence in cost effective ways. Please visit our page on Multivariate Statistical Modelling and Analysis for further details on analysing and optimising the measurement constructs.

In addition to the suggestions above, please contact us at consulting@eproindia.com or consulting@eproindia.net to get more topic suggestions and to discuss your topic.

Dear Visitor: Please visit the page detailing SUBJECT AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION pertaining to our services to view the broader perspective of our offerings for Dissertations and Thesis Projects. Please also visit the page having TOPICS DELIVERED by us. Please visit the the first part of this article for topic development in the areas of logistics and supply chain performance, integration, aggregation planning, effectiveness, efficiency, IT and technologies in supply chain management, and cloud supply chains and manufacturing.
With Sincere Regards, Sourabh Kishore. Apologies for interruption; please continue reading.

(B) Sustainable Supply Chain Management - Transforming Supply Chains into Value Chain Networks:

Many scholars have attempted to derive definitions of sustainability. However, the stereotyped outcomes of such research studies have evolved a modern theory that there cannot be a single most valid scientific definition of sustainability. Hence, sustainability is viewed as a framework of three large areas interacting with each other for ensuring that humanity-centric problems that can challenge the long-term survival of humanity can be identified and addressed. This framework is widely referred as the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), which comprises of three large areas: Economics, Environment, and Empowerment. Some literatures also refer to it as the Triple-E model. The practices under the three areas in the Triple Bottom Line / Triple-E model pertaining to supply chain management are the following:

Economics:

1. Enhancing the role of supply chain competencies in achieving business performance
2. Effective management of financial risks of supply chain management
3. Enhancing cost effectiveness by reducing costs and improving productivity
4. Enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of manufacturing plants
5. Enhancing the accuracy and timeliness of supplies and demands forecasting
6. Enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of procurement, production, logistics, transportation, and distribution
7. Enhanced controls on inventory management to meet demands effectively
8. Eliminating dysfunctional phenomena, like order rationing, beer gaming, and bullwhip effect
9. Implementing activity-based costing in supply chain management
10. Keeping the variance of key performance metrics within the tolerance limits
11. Enhancing the potential of long-term sustainable competitive advantages
12. Developing dynamic capabilities to respond to all Planet risks effectively and efficiently
13. Building local economic value by developing local suppliers, local employment, and local community involvement
14. Balancing between usage of local currency and global currencies (protecting the nation from Dollarisation)
15. Integrating production, logistics, inventory managment, and supply networking functions effectively to reduce costs and enhance sustainability
16. Developing localisation within globalisation strategy to reduce carbon footprints of long distance transportation as much as possible
17. Digitalisation of logistics, production, and inventory systems for real time data collection and performance analysis
18. Additive manufacturing technologies for economic production and logistics systems
19. Real time monitoring of proceses for timely detection and elimination of cost surges and wastages
20. Predictive analytics of economics and business performances
21. Big data systems for granular visibility into the process events
22. Closed Loop Multi-party Distributed Blockchains of suppliers and manufacturers for economic performance
23. Localisation strategies for reducing costs and supply transportation routes
24. Cloud manufacturing for operating networked economies
25. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for economic production and logistics
27. Adopting flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing and logistics strategies
28. Segregating static and dynamic material flows for demand synchronisation
29. Flexible and adaptive material storage systems for economic performance
30. Automation and its maturity levels for economic performance

Environmental:

1. Checking of and reducing the depletion of critical atmospheric layers
2. Measuring and reducing the carbon footprint on transportation channels caused by movements of freight ships, commercial vehicles, and freight airplanes
3. Measuring and reducing greenhouse emissions that may be aiding the ongoing global warming and related climate changes
4. Implementing green standards in the processes of all the echelons of a supply chain
5. Exploring, adopting, and implementing global standards for handling of hazardous materials
6. Measuring and reducing harmful radiations in a supply chain causing hazards to people, plants, and species
7. Lean approach towards consumption of natural resources
8. Measuring and reducing pollutions of all forms
9. Taking appropriate actions for preventing harms caused to species and biodiversity
10. Applying appropriate green labelling and green instructions on the packages in transit, storage, and distribution
11. Applying cooler production techniques to curb global warming
12. Enhancing energy efficiency and using cleaner environment friendly energy systems
13. Planning and deploying carbon deposition technologies
14. Using Industrial Internet of Things for environmental measurements and accounting
15. Industrial sensors, data transmission systems, and dashboards for measurements of CO, CO2, PM2.5, PM10, VOC, TVOC, Temperature, and Humidity
16. Using virtualisation for energy efficiency in data centres
17. Monitoring of heat isles and reducing them to improve HVAC environmental performance
18. Monitoring and control of environmental parameters using Industry 4.0 designs
19. Using machine learning and artificial intelligence for predicting environmental impacts of production systems
20. Using big data analytics for data granularity, fusion, and mining of environmental data

Empowerment:

1. Creating employment opportunities for the local communities in the supply chain
2. Developing healthy relationships with the local communities affected by the operations of a supply chain
3. Creating employment opportunities for the displaced people and expatriates travelling long distances in search of well being
4. Identifying and eliminating all possible unfair employment practices
5. Exploring, adopting, and implementing global standards for occupational health and safety and labour management practices
6. Exploring, adopting, and implementing global standards for protection of workers when exposed to harsh working conditions
7. Eliminating gender inequality
8. Eliminating corruption and money laundering practices
9. Multi-skilling of employees for building an efficient workforce
10. Eliminating child labour
11. People centric industrial control systems in Industry 5.0
12. Human - Robotis Collaboration in Industry 5.0
13. Human controlled robotic societies in Industry 5.0
14. Human operated Augmented Reality in Industry 5.0
15. Exoskeleton wearable devices to enhance human strength and endurance in Industry 5.0
16. Human body sensors and data collection through wearables for enhanced health and safety
17. Human controlled intelligence automation that cares for human health and safety
18. Human controlled smart operations in Industry 5.0
19. Smart human friendly manufacturing and logistics environments with continuous improvements
20. Artificial intelligence for predictive causality analysis of future accidents and disasters

I suggest referring the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards document for a complete list of triple bottom line variables. The triple bottom line practices presented above form a representative set, which can be expanded through extended review of literatures. Each of these practices may be supported by a number of underlying factor variables acting as mediators and moderators. One may consider studying these practices and their variables separately through focus group discussions and interviews in qualitative studies or investigating their interrelationships through hypothesis testing and testing of structural constructs (complex relationships models) in quantitative studies. This is a vast research area that requires significant contributions by students and professionals. Latest studies have linked lean and agile practices and lean six sigma philosophies with sustainability practices of supply chain management. Hence, the practices and their corresponding factor variables in research areas A and B (explained above) can be combined in the same studies. You should be careful not to overload your study with too many practices and their factor variables. I suggest keeping the focus on one independent practice and one dependent practice in a master research. As a ballpark, such topics may comprise of six to twelve factor variables in their initial structural theoretical constructs (called initial measurement models). At PHD level, you may choose two independent and two dependent practices in your topic design. As a ballpark, such topics may comprise of fifteen to twenty-five factor variables in their initial structural theoretical constructs. These variables may include both the mediators and the moderators. Please visit our page on Multivariate Statistical Modelling and Analysis for further details on analysing and optimising the measurement constructs. Some topics may require modeling and simulations and software programming methods.

Another emerging area in sustainable supply chain management is "market-orientation of sustainability capabilities for achieving competitive advantages in supply chain management". A number of studies have been conducted in past five years but this area is so much complex and in demand that many new studies can be designed. The fundamental question is raised by the business stakeholders of a company: what is the return on investments on sustainability for a business? The economics area of triple bottom line model addresses this question to a good extent, but answers need to be explored in the environment and empowerment areas, as well. Recent studies are gradually building the theoretical foundation but a lot of new studies are desired in this area.

In addition to the suggestions above, please contact us at consulting@eproindia.com or consulting@eproindia.net to get more topic suggestions and to discuss your topic. We will be happy to assist you in developing your narrow research topic with an original contribution based on the research context, research problem, and the research aim, and objectives.
Further, We also offer you to develop the "background and context", "problem description and statement", "aim, objectives, research questions", "design of methodology and methods", and "15 to 25 most relevant citations per topic" for three topics of your choice of research areas at a nominal fee. Such a synopsis shall help you in focussing, critically thinking, discussing with your reviewer, and developing your research proposal. To avail this service, Please Click Here for more details.

(C) Sustainable Procurement:

Normally, sustainable procurement should have been a part of sustainable supply chain management. However, this research area is studied separately because sustainable procurement has been standardized in the form of a structured and organized framework included in the legal and regulatory systems for public procurement in UK, EU, and Australia based on the research and analysis by Sustainable Procurement Task Force (SPTF) of HM Government (UK), Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA, UK), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), professional designs (such as IBM's Maturity Model for Sustainable Procurement and INSEAD report on sustainable procurement design), and large number of academic research studies. Sustainable procurement largely follows the lean and agile designs and the triple bottom line model of sustainability. The differences in sustainable procurement as compared to sustainable supply chain management are the following:

1. There is a structured and organised legal and regulatory framework for sustainable procurement in place.
2. Every government and public sector organisation is expected to maintain a complete documented standard for sustainable procurement.
3. The documented standard should comprise of organisational strategies and policies, operating processes and tasks, controls, criteria for decision-making, information systems, and all the additional documentation of contracts, records, communications, and suppliers' compliance reports.
4. The life cycle of each sustainable procurement project is defined and published.
5. There are clear guidelines defined by DEFRA and UNDP on measuring sustainability in the entire raw materials acquisition, production, packaging, storing, transportation, and distribution life cycle operated by suppliers.
6. The guidelines also include measures, indicators, and measurement methods for suppliers' sustainability auditing.
7. All the internal and supplier audit and assessment records and related compliance reports are published.
8. The concept of framework agreements is implemented as a part of the sustainable procurement practices.
9. Procurement officers use effective sustainability monitoring technologies and methods.
10. Sustainability practices and compliances can be tracked and traced in the entire supply chains.
11. Category management is conducted for supporting sustainability decision-making.
12. Framework agreements and competitive premiums/incentives are allowed for products having good sustainability track records.
13. Corporates producing sustainability accounting and reporting are preferred in government procurement contracts.
14. Products and companies with proven non-compliances to sustainability are discouraged and gradually phased out.
15. Backward traceability to procurement credits and certifications is enabled through blockchains.

The students may like to study the effectiveness of the above practices in public sector and government organisations through qualitative studies involving in touch programmes (action research), organisational ethnography, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and phenomenology. In addition, the research topics in sustainable procurement may be designed to cover the following:

1. Various practices and factor variables related to the DEFRA and UNDP standards for sustainable procurement
2. Performance measures, indicators, and performance measurement methods in product lifecycle performance assessment and sustainable procurement standards
3. Supplier auditing and assessment for sustainable procurement
4. Sustainable procurement life cycle planning, implementation, monitoring, control, and reporting
5. Various designs and implementation of framework agreements
6. Practices and their factor variables related to sustainable procurement effectiveness and efficiency
7. Strategic supplier relationships; role of suppliers in effective sustainable procurement
8. Economics of sustainable procurement
9. Market orientation of sustainable procurement
10. Competitive advantages achieved because of sustainable procurement practices
11. Excellence in processes and tasks related to sustainable procurement
12. Continuous improvements in sustainable procurement through lean six sigma
13. Smart contracts and blockchains for sustainable procurement
14. Products traceability in blockchains for sustainability compliance evidences
15. Machine learning and artificial intelligence for sustainable procurement
16. Sustainable practices evaluation through IIoT-enabled real-time monitoring and data collection
17. Augmented reality monitoring and ontrol of sustainability practices in contracts execution
18. Sustainability designs in procurement through critical control loops monitored by procurement officers
19. Digital procurement and marketplaces for products certified and proven for sustainability compliances
20. Sustainability brand evaluation in sustainable procurement practice
21. Enabling technologies and solutions for procurement procurement standards and best practices
22. Knowledge management for sustainable procurement
23. Industry 4.0 designs for sustainable procurement and inventory management
24. Evaluating sustainable manufacturing and logistics practices in sustainable procurement
25. Sustainability practices evaluation in food and agriculture sector
26. Sustainability practices evaluation in clothing and footwear sector
27. Sustainable procurement of products emerging out of recycling and circular economy
28. Success factors and barriers to sustainable procurement in the Industry 4.0 era
29. Sustainable procurement in the small and medium scale enterprises
30. New models for sustainable procurement practices in government and public sector purchasing
31. Sustainable procurement practices in Materials Requirements Planning
32. Knowledge and skills required for effective sustainable procurement
33. Managing volatility and supplier negatiation power in sustainable procurement
34. Building negotiation power in sustainable procurement
35. Supplier profiling and complexity issues in sustainable procurement
36. Digital culture development for sustainable procurement
37. Risk-based approaches for sustainable procurement
38. Governmental support and policies for sustainable procurement
39. Legal and regulatory challenges in sustainable procurement
40. Alignment of suppliers with corporate sustainability policies for sustainable procurement
41. Advanced analytics and analytical tools for sustainable procurement
42. Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0, and automation maturity in sustainable procurement
43. Technological innovations for sustainable procurement practices
44. Enhanced and accelerated innovation for sustainable procurement
45. Proactive prevenbtion of non-sustainable products induction in sustainable procurement practices
46. Supplier responsiveness to sustainability issues raised in sustainable procurement
47. Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle for sustainable procurement
48. Human and technology interactions' and usage considerations in sustainable procurement
49. Technology linked health and safety issues' considerations in sustainable procurement
50. Modern engineering practices, equipment, and elements' evaluation in sustainable procurement

Currently, this research area has been addressed by a number of qualitative studies following in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and critical literature analysis. This research area requires a number of quantitative studies for investigating the interrelationships between practices and their factor variables. As recommended above, master studies may comprise of one independent practice and one dependent practice, and their corresponding factor variables; and PHD studies may comprise of two independent and two dependent practices, and their corresponding factor variables. Please visit our page on Multivariate Statistical Modelling and Analysis for further details on analysing and optimising the measurement constructs.

In addition to the suggestions above, please contact us at consulting@eproindia.com or consulting@eproindia.net to get more topic suggestions and to discuss your topic. We will be happy to assist you in developing your narrow research topic with an original contribution based on the research context, research problem, and the research aim, and objectives.
Further, We also offer you to develop the "background and context", "problem description and statement", "aim, objectives, research questions", "design of methodology and methods", and "15 to 25 most relevant citations per topic" for three topics of your choice of research areas at a nominal fee. Such a synopsis shall help you in focussing, critically thinking, discussing with your reviewer, and developing your research proposal. To avail this service, Please Click Here for more details.

(D) Sustainable Logistics Capabilities for Industrial Engineering Excellence in Production, Transportation & Warehousing, and Distribution:

Sustainable logistics capabilities study is a part of sustainable supply chain management. However, there are many research topics related to industrial engineering in achieving sustainable logistics, which may not be covered in the triple bottom line framework studies under sustainable supply chain management. The following is a representative list of topics on industrial engineering excellence for sustainable logistics capability development in the fields of production, transportation, warehousing, and distribution:


1. Sustainability in different phases of plant logistics operations
2. Impact of sustainability on logistics costing (such as lot quantity, inventory carrying, transportation and warehousing, and order processing costs)
3. Sustainability in reverse logistics for returns, warranty claims, and recycling
4. Sustainability in manufacturing cycle, jobs, buffering, and assembly planning
5. Sustainability in enterprise resources planning
6. Sustainability in materials requirements planning (MRP II)
7. Sustainability in inter-stage material feeds, job preparation tasks, buffers, and machine operations
8. Sustainability in management of loading / unloading areas, docking stations, internal transportation, spaces and cubes, storage and retrieval systems (like, conveyor belts), heating, cooling, boilers, water circulation, power supplies, power distribution, pipelines and valves, other similar industrial systems, and the end-to-end infrastructure of machines and tools
9. Sustainability in transportation networking management and vehicle routing (both internal and external)
10. Sustainability in configurations and assembly of finished products
11. Sustainability in safety stock and forecasting management
12. Sustainability in managing arrivals, departures, and internal lead times of transit buffers
13. Sustainability in procurement planning and inventory replenishment
14. Sustainability in assembly and disassembly networks
15. Sustainability in third party and fourth party logistics management and in vendor managed inventory management
16. Sustainability in automotive parts warehousing
17. Sustainability in automotive manufacturing
18. Sustainability in energy generation, transmission, and distribution
19. Sustainability achievement through data collection from IIoT sensors and modeling
20. Sustainability in food and beverages supply chains
21. Sustainability in additive manufacturing of plastics, ceramics, metals, and cementituous materials
22. Sustainability in clothing industry
23, Sustainability in food processing industries
24. Sustainability in computers and mobile phones manufacturing processes
25. Sustainability in mining industry
26. Sustainability designs through recycling and circular economy
27. Sustainability in international logistics, production, and supp;ly chains 28. Sustainability quantitative modelling for supply chain and logistics
29. Sustainability practices adoption in manufacturing and supply chains of emerging economies
30. Sustainability Values and Ethics in Shareholder to STakeholder engagements
31. Sustainability in warehousing, packaging, and flow management
32. Sustainability considerations in modern supply network designing
33. Key barriers and enablers to sustainable supply network design and operations
34. Life cycle assessment for sustainability in products' design
35. Analytical Hierarchy Process for sustainability evaluation in manufacturing processes
36. Multi-criteria decision-making for sustainability considerations in products' and production designs
37. Equilibrium modelling between sustainability and business performance
38. Production planning and designing for circular economy marketplaces
39. Sustainability considerations in hospitality and travelling industry
40. Sustainability considerations in by-products in production systems
41. Sustainability considerations in project management
42. Sustainability considerations through collaboration and communications in supply chain management
43. Interactions and conflicts between sustainable practices and supply chain management
44. Sustainability monitoring and control through machine-to-machine communications in the Industry 4.0 era
45.Sustainability monitoring and control through Multi-Party Blockchains
46. Sustainability monitoring and control through Digital Twins, Siblings, or Cousins
47. Sustainability monitoring and control through additive manufacturing (3D printing)
48. Sustainability monitoring and control through Big Data Analytics and Data Mining
49. Sustainability monitoring and control through Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
50. Sustainability monitoring and control through Blockchains


Many more topics of sustainability in industrial engineering excellence can be added. ISO 14000 series standards, OHSAS 18000 series standards, and many academic studies cover about sustainability in industrial engineering excellence. These topics can be researched through detailed process modelling, process layout study, system dynamics modelling, and Taguchi's method. Some of the tools recommended for these studies are ARENA, VENSIM, MATLAB, and Taguchi's templates.
Please feel free to contact us at
consulting@eproindia.com or consulting@eproindia.net to get recommendations of your research topics or discuss the research topic you have chosen. We will be happy to assist you in developing your narrow research topic with an original contribution based on the research context, research problem, and the research aim, and objectives. Further, We also offer you to develop the "background and context", "problem description and statement", "aim, objectives, research questions", "design of methodology and methods", and "15 to 25 most relevant citations per topic" for three topics of your choice of research areas at a nominal fee. Such a synopsis shall help you in focussing, critically thinking, discussing with your reviewer, and developing your research proposal. To avail this service, Please Click Here for more details.

In the first part of this article, you will find many more research areas and opportunities that are still highly pursued in higher education in the field of supply chain management and its associated domains. You may like to access the article by clicking the following link:

Link to
the first part of this article for topic development in the areas of logistics and supply chain performance, integration,
aggregation planning, effectiveness, efficiency, IT and technologies in supply chain management, and cloud supply chains and
manufacturing.

Link to
the third part of this article for topic development on Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Cloud
Manufacturing, and Blockchain in the areas of logistics and supply chain management.

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