Interactive Visual Facets to Support Fluid Exploratory Search

Exploratory search starts with ill-defined goals and involves browsing, learning, and formulating new targets for search. To fluidly support such dynamic search behaviours, we focus on devising interactive visual facets (IVF), visualising information facets to support user comprehension and control of the information space. To do this, we reviewed existing faceted search interfaces and derived two design requirements (DR) that have not been fully addressed to sup- port fluid interactions in exploratory search. We then exemplified the requirements through devising an IVF tool, which coordinates a linear and a categorical facet representing the distribution and summarisation of items, respectively, and providing context for faceted exploration (DR1). To support rapid transitions between search criteria (DR2), the tool introduces a novel design concept of using facets to select items without filtering the item space. Particularly, we propose a filter-swipe technique that enables users to drag a categorical facet value sequentially over linear facet bars to view the items in the intersection of the two facets along with the categorical facet dynamically summarizing the items in the interaction. A user study of 11 participants with realistic email search tasks shows that dynamic suggestions through the timeline navigation can help discover useful suggestions for search; the novel design concept was favoured over using facet values as filters. Based on these practices, we derive IVF design implications for fluid, exploratory searches.Peer reviewe

Framework of Six Sigma implementation analysis on SMEs in Malaysia for information technology services, products and processes

For the past two decades, the majority of Malaysia’s IT companies have been widely adopting a Quality Assurance (QA) approach as a basis for self-improvement and internal-assessment in IT project management. Quality Control (QC) is a comprehensive top-down observation approach used to fulfill requirements for quality outputs which focuses on the aspect of process outputs evaluation. However in the Malaysian context, QC and combination of QA and QC as a means of quality improvement approaches have not received significant attention. This research study aims to explore the possibility of integrating QC and QA+QC approaches through Six Sigma quality management standard to provide tangible and measureable business results by continuous process improvement to boost customer satisfactions. The research project adopted an exploratory case study approach on three Malaysian IT companies in the business area of IT Process, IT Service and IT Product. Semi-structured interviews, online surveys, self-administered questionnaires, job observations, document analysis and on-the-job-training are amongst the methodologies employed in these case studies. These collected data and viewpoints along with findings from an extensive literature review were used to benchmark quality improvement initiatives, best practices and to develop a Six Sigma framework for the context of the SMEs in the Malaysian IT industry. This research project contributed to both the theory and practice of implementing and integrating Six Sigma in IT products, services and processes. The newly developed framework has been proven capable of providing a general and fundamental start-up decision by demonstrating how a company with and without formal QIM can be integrated and implemented with Six Sigma practices to close the variation gap between QA and QC. This framework also takes into consideration those companies with an existing QIM for a new face-lift migration without having to drop their existing QIM. This can be achieved by integrating a new QIM which addresses most weaknesses of the current QIM while retaining most of the current business routine strengths. This framework explored how Six Sigma can be expanded and extended to include secondary external factors that are critical to successful QIM implementation. A vital segment emphasizes Six Sigma as a QA+QC approach in IT processes; and the ability to properly manage IT processes will result in overall performance improvement to IT Products and IT Services. The developed Six Sigma implementation framework can serve as a baseline for SMEs to better manage, control and track business performance and product quality; and at the same time creates clearer insights and un-biased views of Six Sigma implementation onto the IT industries to drive towards operational excellence

Leveraging Large Language Models in Conversational Recommender Systems

A Conversational Recommender System (CRS) offers increased transparency and control to users by enabling them to engage with the system through a real-time multi-turn dialogue. Recently, Large Language Models (LLMs) have exhibited an unprecedented ability to converse naturally and incorporate world knowledge and common-sense reasoning into language understanding, unlocking the potential of this paradigm. However, effectively leveraging LLMs within a CRS introduces new technical challenges, including properly understanding and controlling a complex conversation and retrieving from external sources of information. These issues are exacerbated by a large, evolving item corpus and a lack of conversational data for training. In this paper, we provide a roadmap for building an end-to-end large-scale CRS using LLMs. In particular, we propose new implementations for user preference understanding, flexible dialogue management and explainable recommendations as part of an integrated architecture powered by LLMs. For improved personalization, we describe how an LLM can consume interpretable natural language user profiles and use them to modulate session-level context. To overcome conversational data limitations in the absence of an existing production CRS, we propose techniques for building a controllable LLM-based user simulator to generate synthetic conversations. As a proof of concept we introduce RecLLM, a large-scale CRS for YouTube videos built on LaMDA, and demonstrate its fluency and diverse functionality through some illustrative example conversations

Evaluation of key value drivers as a decision support tool for strategy implementation in BHP Billiton Manganese

This study evaluated the use of Key Value Drivers as a decision support tool for strategy implementation in BHP Billiton Manganese. The evaluation methods used in this study were subjective and were based on perception data collected from BHP Billiton Manganese Management. Three data collection methods were used, namely, survey questionnaire, archival search and interviews. The results obtained indicated that BHP Billiton Manganese managers perceive Key Value Drivers to be an effective decision support tool for strategy implementation, however the current Microsoft Excel model that has evolved over the past decade is perceived to be difficult to maintain with respect to data management and the support that is offered to users in the form of training material and on-line help is limited. The study indicated that Key Value Drivers as currently used in BHP Billiton Manganese, are an important integrator for a number of business processes such as Planning, Performance Management, Business Improvement and Management Information Systems. At a practical level, the study provided a method for identification and ranking of Key Value Drivers and a subjective evaluation process that can be used to get user input in design and implementation of management information systems. At a theoretical level, the study has shown that the relevance of Decision Support Systems and Value Based Management approaches still persists in contemporary managerial decision-making and that there is potential to use modern technologies such as Business Intelligence platforms to support these legacy systems. The empirical findings of this study were in general supportive of what could be expected based on the literature review covering Decision Support Systems, Key Value Drivers, Business Intelligence and Information Systems’ Evaluation Approaches. The Business Intelligence implementation project that is currently underway will benefit from the feedback generated by this study, particularly by ensuring that the two key shortcomings of the current KVD model are addressed. The study was a cross-sectional study limited to BHP Billiton Manganese. The study can be replicated in other Customer Sector Groups or repeated in BHP Billiton Manganese to create a longitudinal profil

Framework of Six Sigma implementation analysis on SMEs in Malaysia for information technology services, products and processes

For the past two decades, the majority of Malaysia’s IT companies have been widely adopting a Quality Assurance (QA) approach as a basis for self-improvement and internal-assessment in IT project management. Quality Control (QC) is a comprehensive top-down observation approach used to fulfill requirements for quality outputs which focuses on the aspect of process outputs evaluation. However in the Malaysian context, QC and combination of QA and QC as a means of quality improvement approaches have not received significant attention. This research study aims to explore the possibility of integrating QC and QA+QC approaches through Six Sigma quality management standard to provide tangible and measureable business results by continuous process improvement to boost customer satisfactions. The research project adopted an exploratory case study approach on three Malaysian IT companies in the business area of IT Process, IT Service and IT Product. Semi-structured interviews, online surveys, self-administered questionnaires, job observations, document analysis and on-the-job-training are amongst the methodologies employed in these case studies. These collected data and viewpoints along with findings from an extensive literature review were used to benchmark quality improvement initiatives, best practices and to develop a Six Sigma framework for the context of the SMEs in the Malaysian IT industry. This research project contributed to both the theory and practice of implementing and integrating Six Sigma in IT products, services and processes. The newly developed framework has been proven capable of providing a general and fundamental start-up decision by demonstrating how a company with and without formal QIM can be integrated and implemented with Six Sigma practices to close the variation gap between QA and QC. This framework also takes into consideration those companies with an existing QIM for a new face-lift migration without having to drop their existing QIM. This can be achieved by integrating a new QIM which addresses most weaknesses of the current QIM while retaining most of the current business routine strengths. This framework explored how Six Sigma can be expanded and extended to include secondary external factors that are critical to successful QIM implementation. A vital segment emphasizes Six Sigma as a QA+QC approach in IT processes; and the ability to properly manage IT processes will result in overall performance improvement to IT Products and IT Services. The developed Six Sigma implementation framework can serve as a baseline for SMEs to better manage, control and track business performance and product quality; and at the same time creates clearer insights and un-biased views of Six Sigma implementation onto the IT industries to drive towards operational excellence

Self-Sovereign Identity Ecosystems: Benefits and Challenges

Verifiable credentials, coupled with decentralized ledger technologies, have been potential providers of trustworthy digital identity for individuals, organizations, and other entities, and thus, potential enablers of trustful digital interactions. The rapid development of this technology—called self-sovereign identity (SSI)—and the ecosystems built around it have been fostered even more by the societal needs stemming from the current pandemic crisis, when governments, non-profit organizations, businesses, and individuals are working together on different aspects of SSI to enable mainstream adoption. In this study, we build on rich qualitative data gathered from SSI practitioners to give a fresh overview of the perceived benefits and challenges of SSI. The paper advances research on the domain of SSI adoption and provides valuable insights into the feasibility of SSI for practitioners both in the private and public sectors

Survey on Additive Manufacturing, Cloud 3D Printing and Services

Cloud Manufacturing (CM) is the concept of using manufacturing resources in a service oriented way over the Internet. Recent developments in Additive Manufacturing (AM) are making it possible to utilise resources ad-hoc as replacement for traditional manufacturing resources in case of spontaneous problems in the established manufacturing processes. In order to be of use in these scenarios the AM resources must adhere to a strict principle of transparency and service composition in adherence to the Cloud Computing (CC) paradigm. With this review we provide an overview over CM, AM and relevant domains as well as present the historical development of scientific research in these fields, starting from 2002. Part of this work is also a meta-review on the domain to further detail its development and structure

A knowledge sharing framework to support rapid prototyping in collaborative automotive supply chain

In today’s global economy, competition is increasingly driven by a high rate of product renewal. In this context, with market demands for the development of high quality products at lower costs, highly customisable and with short life cycles, new technologies have been adopted by the automotive manufacturers in the move away from a local economy towards the global economy. The continuous evolution of this technology often requires the updating and integration of existing systems within new environments, in order to avoid technological obsolescence. To allow companies to compete in the global market, they (the companies) can no longer be seen acting as standalone entities and are having to reconsider their organisational and operational structure. This thesis presents a Knowledge Sharing Framework Design Roadmap to support rapid prototyping in the automotive and collaborative supply chain. IranKhodro Diesel (IKD) is the automotive company and CarGlass Company (Iran) is the supplier and sponsor of this research study. These two companies will be used to develop and test the Knowledge Sharing Framework Design Roadmap (KSFDR) methodology. An industrially based case study was conducted in IKD and CarGlass to identify key elements in the Knowledge Sharing Framework and provide the focus for this study. The study itself drew on empirical sources of data, including interviews with IKD personnel via an internal company survey. The absence of mechanisms to make information accessible in a multilingual environment and its dissemination to geographically dispersed NPD project team members was identified along with the lack of explicit information about the knowledge used and generated to support first stage rapid prototyping in the product development process with respect to reduction of costs and lead times. The Knowledge Sharing Framework Design Roadmap was tested between IKD and CarGlass. The business objectives in both IKD and CarGlass are the main drivers of knowledge system development. The main novel point from this research study is that this particular framework can be used to capture and disseminate information and knowledge. This was supported by positive feedback from a series of interviews with NPD practitioners. The Knowledge Sharing Framework Design Roadmap (KSFDR) methodology, however, can also be applied in other manufacturing and business environments. Further testing of the framework is strongly advised to minimise any minor flaws, which remain