Enterprise modelling : building a product lifecycle (PLM) model as a component of the integrated vision of the enterprise

Enterprise modelling has proved to be an efficient tool to study organisations structure and facilitate decision making. The enterprise is a complex system that is required to use its processes to generate value in a given environment (concurrent, market, suppliers and humanity). We focus on three management disciplines: Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). These business processes are so intertwined that the enterprise has to concentrate on the three to attain its economic objectives. To enhance the development of PLM, SCM and CRM models, the enterprise needs to capitalise the knowledge necessary to adapt and apply modelling techniques. Knowledge Management (KM) is a key factor to give a unified enterprise vision. Firstly, we propose an integrated enterprise model depicting the interactions between PLM, SCM, CRM and KM models. But a state of the art showed that PLM models are scarce. Most of the PLM models found depends strongly on the particular case studied and can not be used with other enterprises. After defining the most important components of the PLM vision, we propose to organise these components into a formalised way. The study of SCM and CRM models proved to be helpful to structure these components. Finally the validation methodology that is to be established in our coming research works is not only to be used with the PLM model presented in this paper but with SCM and CRM models also.Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Enterprise modelling, Enterprise systems

A collaboration framework to support decision making in new product development with the supply chain

Management use the supply chain features more frequently, as the increasing rate of product introduc-tions demands more efforts from a business to deliver new products effectively and efficiently. To produce products at the targeted cost, time, and quality, the supply chain must be aligned with product development processes. This will allow manufacturing firms to overcome problems such as (partially) failed product launches due to the lack of timely provision of parts and systems caused by insufficient capacities in the supply chain. With integrated New Product Development (NPD) and Supply Chain Management (SCM), enterprises have the benefit of increased supply chain capability, thus increasing the effectiveness of new product introduction and improving their overall performance. In this re-search, the authors have tried to link NPD of an automotive manufacturer to its global network of suppliers. The integration points in the integrated NPD and SCM framework will provide guidelines to identifying where critical decision are made in collaboration with the supply chain

ANALYZING CUSTOMER VALUE USING CONJOINT ANALYSIS: THE EXAMPLE OF A PACKAGING COMPANY

The fulfillment of customers’ wishes in a profitable way requires that companies understand which aspects of their product and service are most valued by the customer. Conjoint analysis is considered to be one of the best methods for achieving this purpose. Conjoint analysis consists of generating and conducting specific experiments among customers with the purpose of modeling their purchasing decision. This article will give an overview of the method and apply it to an Estonian packaging company. As a result of the empirical study the author is able to estimate the value creation models of 34 respondents (customers) both on a group and individual basis.customer value, conjoint analysis, market research methods

Manufacturing Quality Function Deployment: Literature Review and Future Trends

A comprehensive review of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) literature is made using extensive survey as a methodology. The most important results of the study are: (i) QFD modelling and applications are one-sided; prioritisation of technical attributes only maximise customer satisfaction without considering cost incurred (ii) we are still missing considerable knowledge about neural networks for predicting improvement measures in customer satisfaction (iii) further exploration of the subsequent phases (process planning and production planning) of QFD is needed (iv) more decision support systems are needed to automate QFD (v) feedbacks from customers are not accounted for in current studies

Non-Technical Individual Skills are Weakly Connected to the Maturity of Agile Practices

Context: Existing knowledge in agile software development suggests that individual competency (e.g. skills) is a critical success factor for agile projects. While assuming that technical skills are important for every kind of software development project, many researchers suggest that non-technical individual skills are especially important in agile software development. Objective: In this paper, we investigate whether non-technical individual skills can predict the use of agile practices. Method: Through creating a set of multiple linear regression models using a total of 113 participants from agile teams in six software development organizations from The Netherlands and Brazil, we analyzed the predictive power of non-technical individual skills in relation to agile practices. Results: The results show that there is surprisingly low power in using non-technical individual skills to predict (i.e. explain variance in) the mature use of agile practices in software development. Conclusions: Therefore, we conclude that looking at non-technical individual skills is not the optimal level of analysis when trying to understand, and explain, the mature use of agile practices in the software development context. We argue that it is more important to focus on the non-technical skills as a team-level capacity instead of assuring that all individuals possess such skills when understanding the use of the agile practices.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Sustainable Management and Total Quality Management in Public Organizations with Outsourcing

The aim of this paper is to explore how Total Quality Management (TQM) can act as a foundation and key catalyst for developing Sustainable Management and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within Public Organizations. In the public sector we have too often experienced low quality services, which have generated and perpetuated low expectations. The result has been great dissatisfaction and frustration, but not much action (Gaster, 1995). As any other organization, the Public Organization can apply TQM and thereby accomplish some improvements.CSR is an emerging topic within organizational research and praxis. It has parallels to sustainable development, environmental protection, social equity and economic growth.This paper shows specifically how to incorporate sustainability into a quality system by using a model that shows the relation between investment in quality and the variables fame and reputation. The interest in the nature of the relationship between TQM and CSR is long-standing. The aim of the quality movement is to enable organizations to deliver high quality services in the shortest possible time to market, at minimum cost, and in a manner that emphasises human dignity, work satisfaction, and mutual and long-term loyalty between the organization and its stakeholders. As such, TQM has a strong ethical dimension, advocating the importance of considering the interests of stakeholders (Oppenheim & Przasnyski, 1999). In this paper outsourcing in Public Organizations is considered as an instrument for raising the qualitative level of services and thus for developing CSR. First, the definitions of CSR are discussed. Second, the ethics in quality are described, followed by a discussion on existing quality models with regard to CSR. Third, the relationship between TQM and CSR is considered. We have analyzed the strong similarity between TQM and CSR, and outsourcing analysis is used to illustrate the combined CSR/TQM approach in Public Organizations. Finally, we have highlighted the main factors of resistance to externalization in Public Administrations and how these can be overcome by developing a risk management approach.

Identifying smart design attributes for Industry 4.0 customization using a clustering Genetic Algorithm

Industry 4.0 aims at achieving mass customization at a mass production cost. A key component to realizing this is accurate prediction of customer needs and wants, which is however a challenging issue due to the lack of smart analytics tools. This paper investigates this issue in depth and then develops a predictive analytic framework for integrating cloud computing, big data analysis, business informatics, communication technologies, and digital industrial production systems. Computational intelligence in the form of a cluster k-means approach is used to manage relevant big data for feeding potential customer needs and wants to smart designs for targeted productivity and customized mass production. The identification of patterns from big data is achieved with cluster k-means and with the selection of optimal attributes using genetic algorithms. A car customization case study shows how it may be applied and where to assign new clusters with growing knowledge of customer needs and wants. This approach offer a number of features suitable to smart design in realizing Industry 4.0