A Systematic Approach to Optimise Management in Global Sourcing Relationships

Despite a large number of studies, global IT sourcing projects are, in practice, performed ad-hoc and rely mostly on the manager’s experience. Outsourcing software development presents extra challenges because development is performed in an inter-organisational network. Although organisations collaborate by transferring knowledge from the customer to the vendor (e.g., requirements) and from the vendor to the client (e.g., product and status reports), each has its own interests and needs; which often conflict. Tacit requirements, conflicting interests and knowledge-domain gaps contribute to generate final solutions that cost more in terms of resources than what was originally planned or that do not help customers to meet their ambitions. In this work we propose eStudio, our semi-automatic quantitative-data based framework to provide guidance to reason about obstacles in, for instance, knowledge co-ordination

Design and development of an Energy Efficiency Knowledge Center (EEKC)

The Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) at West Virginia University has worked with more than 430 manufacturing companies over 17 years to identify energy and productivity saving opportunities for small and medium sized companies. The savings, which keep adding up year after year, are appreciable but do not fully capture the potential impacts of the IAC Program. The implementation rate of the recommendations has been only about 40% on average. This rate was expected to be improved with a knowledge center.;Energy Efficiency Knowledge Center (EEKC) is a regional system which includes the development and deployment of technical resources to assist industrial facilities in energy assessment phases. The EEKC as a repository for information and knowledge is designed to contribute to continuous improvement by incorporating the knowledge of IAC experts and plant personnel. The EEKC provides information to clients on how to obtain baseline energy use for their specific energy systems by fuel type using tools such as Quick Plant Energy Profiler (QuickPEP) by the Department of Energy (DOE).;The EEKC also incorporates access and utilization of the DOE Best Practices tools for enabling sensitivity analysis and estimating energy savings potential at various assessment phases. Moreover, spreadsheet tools are integrated within application software as required enabling clients to analyze the value of energy efficiency measures during the pre-assessment and assessment phases.;In this research thesis, the IAC activities and tasks are studied with respect to information and knowledge flow. The research objectives are presented and potential materials and steps to develop an online knowledge center are reviewed. Then, based on needs identified for continuous improvement, the design of EEKC is planned in which Web 2.0 is mainly used

Are Chinese Technologies A Mode Of Entry For Firms In Developing Countries? The Case of Furniture Manufacturing in Kenya

Kenya has started to rely significantly on technologies developed in developing countries particularly China rather than those from advanced countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. Using data from furniture manufacturing firms in Kenya, the paper compares the investment cost and the scale characteristics of the technologies (machines and equipment) from China with those from advanced countries and Kenya. By examining the characteristics of the firms that have invested in technologies from various sources, the paper concludes that the technologies from China and Kenya have lessened entry barrier (specifically high capital cost) for new firms, compared to advanced country technologies. Chinese technology appears to serve as an entry mode more than the Kenyan technology. In terms of barriers to entry, therefore Chinese and Kenyan technologies appear to be more appropriate for Kenya (and more generally developing countries) than advanced country technolog

Productivity and flexibility improvement of assembly lines for high-mix low-volume production. A white goods industry case

Las tendencias globales de la personalización e individualización en masa impulsan la producción industrial en serie corta y variada; y por tanto una gran variedad de productos en pequeñas cantidades. Por ello, la customización en masa precisa de sistemas de ensamblaje que sean a la vez altamente productivos y flexibles, a diferencia de la tradicional oposición entre ambas características. La llamada cuarta revolución industrial trae diversas tecnologías habilitadoras que podrían ser útiles para abordar este problema. Sin embargo, las metodologías para implementar el ensamblaje 4.0 todavía no han sido resueltas. De hecho, para aprovechar todas las ventajas potenciales de la Industria 4.0, es necesario contar con un nivel previo de excelencia operacional y un análisis holístico de los sistemas productivos. Esta tesis tiene como objetivo entender y definir cómo mejorar la productividad y la flexibilidad de las operaciones de montaje en serie corta y variada.Esta meta se ha dividido en tres objetivos. El primer objetivo consiste en comprender las relaciones entre la Industria 4.0 y las operaciones de ensamblaje, así como sus implicaciones para los operarios. El segundo objetivo consiste en desarrollar una metodología y las herramientas necesarias para evaluar el rendimiento de diferentes configuraciones de cadenas de ensamblaje. El último objetivo consiste en el diseño de sistemas de ensamblaje que permitan incrementar su productividad al menos un 25 %, produciendo en serie corta y variada, mediante la combinación de puestos de montaje manual y estaciones automatizadas.Para abordar la fase de comprensión y definición del problema, se llevó a cabo una revisión bibliográfica sistemática y se desarrolló un marco conceptual para el Ensamblaje 4.0. Se desarrollaron, verificaron y validaron dos herramientas de evaluación del rendimiento: un modelo matemático analítico y varios modelos de simulación por eventos discretos. Para la verificación, y como punto de partida para los análisis, se ha utilizado un caso de estudio industrial de un fabricante global de electrodomésticos. Se han empleado múltiples escenarios de simulación y técnicas de diseño de experimentos para investigar tres cuestiones clave.En primer lugar, se identificaron los factores más críticos para el rendimiento de líneas de montaje manuales multi-modelo. En segundo lugar, se analizó el rendimiento de líneas de montaje semiautomáticas paralelas con operarios móviles en comparación con líneas semiautomáticas o manuales con operarios fijos, empleando diversos escenarios de demanda en serie corta y variada. Por último, se investigó el uso de trenes milkrun para la logística interna de líneas de ensamblaje multi-modelo bajo la influencia de perturbaciones.Los resultados de las simulaciones muestran que las líneas paralelas con operarios móviles pueden superar a las de operarios fijos en cualquier escenario de demanda, alcanzando como mínimo el objetivo de mejorar la productividad en un 25% o más. También permiten reducir cómodamente el número de operarios trabajando en la línea sin afectar negativamente al equilibrado de la misma, posibilitando la producción eficiente de bajo volumen. Los resultados de las simulaciones de logística interna indican que los milkrun pueden proteger las líneas de ensamblaje de las perturbaciones originadas en procesos aguas arriba.Futuras líneas de investigación en base a los resultados obtenidos en esta tesis podrían incluir la expansión e integración de los modelos de simulación actuales para analizar las cadenas de montaje paralelas con operarios móviles incorporando logística, averías y mantenimiento, problemas de control de calidad y políticas de gestión de los retrabajos. Otra línea podría ser el uso de diferentes herramienta para el análisis del desempeño como, por ejemplo, técnicas de programación de la producción que permitan evaluar el desempeño operacional de diferentes configuraciones de cadenas de montaje con operarios móviles, tanto en términos de automatización como de organización en planta. Podrían incorporarse tecnologías de la Industria 4.0 a los modelos de simulación para evaluar su impacto operacional global ¿como cobots para ensamblaje o para la manipulación de materiales, realidad aumentada para el apoyo cognitivo a los operarios, o AGVs para la conducciónde los trenes milkrun. Por último, el trabajo presentado en esta tesis acerca las líneas de ensamblaje semiautomáticas con operarios móviles a su implementación industrial.<br /

TEXTUAL DATA MINING FOR NEXT GENERATION INTELLIGENT DECISION MAKING IN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT: A SURVEY

This paper proposes textual data mining as a next generation intelligent decision making technology for sustainable knowledge management solutions in any industrial environment. A detailed survey of applications of Data Mining techniques for exploiting information from different data formats and transforming this information into knowledge is presented in the literature survey. The focus of the survey is to show the power of different data mining techniques for exploiting information from data. The literature surveyed in this paper shows that intelligent decision making is of great importance in many contexts within manufacturing, construction and business generally. Business intelligence tools, which can be interpreted as decision support tools, are of increasing importance to companies for their success within competitive global markets. However, these tools are dependent on the relevancy, accuracy and overall quality of the knowledge on which they are based and which they use. Thus the research work presented in the paper uncover the importance and power of different data mining techniques supported by text mining methods used to exploit information from semi-structured or un-structured data formats. A great source of information is available in these formats and when exploited by combined efforts of data and text mining tools help the decision maker to take effective decision for the enhancement of business of industry and discovery of useful knowledge is made for next generation of intelligent decision making. Thus the survey shows the power of textual data mining as the next generation technology for intelligent decision making in the industrial environment

HBIM as support of preventive conservation actions in heritage Architecture: experience of the Renaissance Quadrant Façade of the Cathedral of Seville

This paper discusses the generation of Historic Building Information Models (HBIM) for the management of heritage information aimed at the preventive conservation of assets of cultural interest, through its experimentation in a specific case study: the façade of the Renaissance quadrant of the Cathedral of Seville. Two methodological aspects are presented: On the one hand,the process of modeling the solid entities that compose the digital model of the object of study, basedon the semi-automatic estimation of the generating surfaces of the main faces; on the other hand,a methodological proposal for the modeling of information on the surface of the model. A series ofimages and data tables are shown as a result of the application of these methods. These representthe process of introducing information related to the current conservation status documentation and recording the treatments included in the preventive conservation works recently developedby a specialized company. The implementation of the digital model in the exposed work validatesit as a solvency option, provided from the infographic medium, when facing the need to contain,manage and visualize all the information generated in preventive conservation actions on heritage architecture, facilitating, in turn, cross-cutting relationships between the different analysis that resultin a deeper knowledge of this type of buildin