Integrated product relationships management : a model to enable concurrent product design and assembly sequence planning

The paper describes a novel approach to product relationships management in the context of concurrent engineering and product lifecycle management (PLM). Current industrial practices in product data management and manufacturing process management systems require better efficiency, flexibility, and sensitivity in managing product information at various levels of abstraction throughout its lifecycle. The aim of the proposed work is to manage vital yet complex and inherent product relationship information to enable concurrent product design and assembly sequence planning. Indeed, the definition of the product with its assembly sequence requires the management and the understanding of the numerous product relationships, ensuring consistency between the product and its components. This main objective stresses the relational design paradigm by focusing on product relationships along its lifecycle. This paper gives the detailed description of the background and models which highlight the need for a more efficient PLM approach. The proposed theoretical approach is then described in detail. A separate paper will focus on the implementation of the proposed approach in a PLM-based application, and an in-depth case study to evaluate the implementation of the novel approach will also be given

Internet enabled modelling of extended manufacturing enterprises using the process based techniques

The paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing research project on Internet enabled process-based modelling of extended manufacturing enterprises. It is proposed to apply the Open System Architecture for CIM (CIMOSA) modelling framework alongside with object-oriented Petri Net models of enterprise processes and object-oriented techniques for extended enterprises modelling. The main features of the proposed approach are described and some components discussed. Elementary examples of object-oriented Petri Net implementation and real-time visualisation are presented

Improvement of the social and economic development of single-industry regions in the Russian Federation

In this paper, the author has made a comprehensive analysis of a number of Russian studies devoted to single-industry towns, categorizing them according to their contribution to theoretical knowledge as well as their methods and methodology. Common features in these papers have been identified, including those establishing the criteria for classifying a city as a single-industry one and estimating the number of such cities in the Russian Federation in terms of their socio-economic status. Methods for assessing the socio-economic development of single-industry towns and directions for their development are proposed. Having summarized existing theoretical and methodological approaches set out in the various papers reviewed, the author (1) proposes the adoption of the novel concept of a “single-industry region”; (2) identifies the criteria for assigning such a designation; (3) calculates the number of such single-industry regions in the Russian Federation; (4) suggests allocation of grants from the federal budget to the respective RF Subjects for improving the socio-economic situation in their single-industry towns; (5) classifies single-industry regions into (a) “balanced socio-economic development”, (b) “an unbalanced and backward economic development”, (c) “an unbalanced and backward social development” and finally (d) “deprived regions that are unbalanced and have very low levels of socio-economic development”. The author has developed a model for improving the socio-economic development of single-industry regions, whose focus is on a balanced approach to project planning for the socioeconomic development of mono-cities and the efficient allocation of budgetary funds, providing mechanisms for regular and detailed monitoring of the socioeconomic development of mono-cities and allowing the effectiveness of the allocation of budgetary funds to be systematically monitored by introducing a system of grantification aimed at improving the socioeconomic development in mono-cities. The scientific and practical results of the research will allow the development of theoretical and methodological approaches to improving the socioeconomic development of single-industry towns, facilitating the introduction of the new term “single-industry region” into the academic lexicon

Firm Performance and the Political Economy of Corporate Governance: Survey Evidence for Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia

Using survey data for 220 traditional manufacturing firms over 7 years of transition and 4 CEE countries, we find firms that produced for the EU market under planning consistently outperform those that produced for the CMEA market. Within the previously CMEA market, the best firms were selected to outside privatisation and outperformed insider/state owned firms. Outside privatisation was resisted in EU oriented firms and ownership was found to have no effect on performance. We argue that insider/state ownership in previously CMEA and EU markets builds up political support for the market system during its initial stages, ensuring its long-term success.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39722/3/wp338.pd

Using ERP as a basis for Enterprise application integration

Architecting and implementing e-Business supply chain solutions across and within the modern day enterprise, is now becoming a necessity in order to maintain competitive and be adaptable to market needs. As such, the integration of information and processes is a vital step, using technologies such as using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and enterprise portal platforms. The effective sharing of resource planning and other enterprise related data across and within the enterprise is typically seen as a facet of a business to business (B2B) platform. However, such infrastructures typically involve a tight integration across intra and inter-organisational systems. This paper examines an Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) initiative taken by a global manufacturer of industrial automation products, which attempted to utilise ERP as an integration tool across its internal B2B infrastructure, to achieve such an aim. This paper discusses those integration considerations and complexities, experienced by the case company upon embarking on an EAI integration programme through the adoption of a core ERP as a catalyst for organizational change. In doing so the authors present an analysis of the inherent risks and limitations of this approach in terms of previously published literature in the field, relating to technology-driven organizational change and EAI impact and adoption frameworks