eTiPs: A Rule-based Team Performance Prediction Model Prototype

Understanding human potentials in teams are crucial because having the right people in a team can impact team performance.However, to date, there is no consensus on the right composition of team members because team dynamism and its interrelated factors is complex to uncover. Therefore, this paper presents an implementation of a rule-based team performance prediction model prototype or known as eTiPs.This prototype was developed to predict team effectiveness based on four factors: prior academic achievement, personality types, personality diversity, and software development methodology.Three main components of the eTiPs consist of interface, rule-based inference engine, and database was developed to realise the prediction model. A tested and verified IF-THEN rules extracted from rough set technique were used as inference engine of the eTiPs prototype, thus increasing validity and reliability of eTiPs to determine team effectiveness. To assess the usefulness and ease of use of the eTiPs, a usability evaluation was carried out by 12 experts from academic and industrial domain.Results show that the eTiPs able to provide a useful tool for decision makers as early preventive mechanism to predict team effectiveness.Future works will incorporate the eTiPs with intelligent elements to improve decision making process

A Review of Supply Chain Data Mining Publications

The use of data mining in supply chains is growing, and covers almost all aspects of supply chain management. A framework of supply chain analytics is used to classify data mining publications reported in supply chain management academic literature. Scholarly articles were identified using SCOPUS and EBSCO Business search engines. Articles were classified by supply chain function. Additional papers reflecting technology, to include RFID use and text analysis were separately reviewed. The paper concludes with discussion of potential research issues and outlook for future development

The Link between Advanced Servitization, Global Distribution Channels and the Longitudinal Performance of Sales in International Markets

Purpose The research presented in this paper has been conducted to understand the impact of advanced-servitized-products on the longitudinal sales performance of manufacturing companies across international markets. The research strives to understand how the onsite presence leverages this impact

The Link between Advanced Servitization, Global Distribution Channels and the Longitudinal Performance of Sales in International Markets

Purpose The research presented in this paper has been conducted to understand the impact of advanced-servitized-products on the longitudinal sales performance of manufacturing companies across international markets. The research strives to understand how the onsite presence leverages this impact

Optimising Supply Chain Performance via Information Sharing and Coordinated Management

Supply chain management has attracted much attention in the last decade. There has been a noticeable shift from a traditional individual organisation-based management to an integrated management across the supply chain network since the end of the last century. The shift contributes to better decision making in the supply chain context, as it is necessary for a company to cooperate with other supply chain members by utilising relevant information such as inventory, demand and resource capacity. In other words, information sharing and coordinated management are essential mechanisms to improve supply chain performance. Supply chains may differ significantly in terms of industry sectors, geographic locations, and firm sizes. This study was based on case studies from small and medium sized manufacturing supply chains in People Republic of China. The study was motivated by the following facts. Firstly, small and medium enterprises have made a big contribution to China’s economic growth. Several studies revealed that most of the Chinese manufacturing enterprises became aware of the importance of supply chain management, but compared to western firms, the supply chain management level of Chinese firms had been lagging behind. Research on supply chain management and performance optimisation in Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) was very scarce. Secondly, there had been plenty of studies in the literature that focused on two or three level supply chains whilst considering a number of uncertain factors (e.g. customer demand) or a single supply chain performance indicator (e.g. cost). However, the research on multiple stage supply chain systems with multiple uncertainties and multiple objectives based on real industrial cases had been spared and deserved more attention. One reason was due to the lack of reliable industrial data that required an enormous effort to collect the primary data and there was a serious concern about data confidentiality from the industry aspect. This study employed two SME manufacturing companies as case studies. The first one was in the Aluminium industry and another was in the Chemical industry. The aim was to better understand the characteristics of the supply chains in Chinese SMEs through performing in-depth case studies, and built models and tools to evaluate different strategies for improving their supply chain performance. The main contributions of this study included the following aspects. Firstly, this study generalised a supply chain model including a domestic supply chain part and an international supply chain part based on deep case studies with the emphasis on identifying key characteristics in the case supply chains, such as uncertainties, constraints and cost elements in association with flows and activities in the domestic supply chain and the international supply chain. Secondly, two important SCM issues, i.e. the integrated raw material procurement and finished goods production planning, and the international sales planning, were identified. Thirdly, mathematical models were formulated to represent the supply chain model taking into account multiple uncertainties. Fourthly, several operational strategies utilising the concepts of just-in-time, safety-stock/capacity, Kanban, and vendor managed inventory, were evaluated and compared with the case company's original strategy in various scenarios through simulation methods, which enabled quantification of the impact of information sharing on supply chain performance. Fifthly, a single objective genetic algorithm was developed to optimise the integrated raw material ordering and finished goods production decisions under (s, S) policy (a dynamic inventory control policy), which enabled the impact of coordinated management on supply chain performance to be quantified. Finally, a multiple objectives genetic algorithm considering both total supply chain cost and customer service level was developed to optimise the integrated raw material ordering and finished goods production with the international sales plan decisions under (s, S) policy in various scenarios. This also enabled the quantification of the impact of coordinated management on supply chain performances

Service Integration in the Downstream Value Chain of Project-based Firms

Many project-based firms have become solution providers that offer a combination of products and services as life-cycle solutions, i.e., solutions that offer value to customers over time. Firms involved in solution business need to acknowledge customers’ needs and integrate different components to deliver higher value to customers. However, integrating services into solution offerings is not straightforward and imposes different challenges and changes to project-based firms. Such integration is not limited to system integration that involves suppliers in the upstream value chain during the project execution phase. The downstream value chain, where project-based firms face customers also features an integration challenge. Integrating services successfully in the solution offering requires that project-based firms consider the downstream integration needs of distributors as well as internal business units that are involved in solution sales and delivery. This research aims to increase understanding of the operational implications of integrating services with solution offerings and the related internal and external integration practices. Previous research has considered systems integration at the strategic, organisational and project levels, and particularly from the perspective of supply and the upstream value chain. While it acknowledges the need for changes in the organisation of project-based firms’ transition towards solution business, practices in the downstream value chain are not sufficiently known as of yet. The downstream value chain is where customer value is defined with the customers and delivered to them. The internal and external actors in the downstream value chain are the most neglected actors of project-based firms. Project-based firms need strong practices for integrating different actors and services to solution offerings, ultimately to succeed in delivering lifecycle solutions. Four qualitative case studies were conducted herein with respect to project-based firms in the engineering and technology industries focusing on different aspects of integrating services to solution offerings. The findings show that integrating services with solution offerings challenge solution sales and delivery and creates several integration requirement in sales and service work. Project-based firm needs to organise the sales and service work to respond to challenges resulting from the x increased service orientation. The identification of challenges at the practice level enhances the current understanding of the experiences of individuals in internal business units in integrating services. Various integration practices were mapped, in use among different actors in the downstream value chain, including the interface of project operations and services, sales and services, and project-based firm and distributors. As actors in the downstream value chain have a stable position within the permanent organisations and service delivery lasts quite a long time after project delivery, integration at the business level is critical for improving interpersonal and organisational relationships and facilitating integration practices at the project level. This research contributes to the solution business and supply chain integration literatures. It illuminates what it takes to integrate non-core actors in the downstream value chain of project-based firms at the practice level. Moreover, this study suggests specifying the challenges that emerged through integration of offerings and proposes suitable integration practices to overcome various integration challenges. As well, the research contributes to supply chain integration knowledge by describing the importance of integrating with distributors as intermediaries between project-based firms and customers. Overall, this research made six propositions regarding selection of organisational integration practices based on type of challenges to overcome, solution life cycle, type of interfaces, the experience level of actors, and uncertainty in the environment. For managers, this research provides insights into the challenges at the sales-service, project operation-service, and project-based firm-distributor interfaces. Different organisational integration practices are posited to facilitate integration across internal and external actors, thereby integrating services with solution offerings successfully