Business process management: a bird's-eye view and research agenda.

Processes; Management; Research;

Enhanced Value Stream Mapping for Improving Turnaround Process Efficiency in Oil and Gas Industry

Turnaround maintenance (TAM) is one of the most important maintenance strategies to minimise the risk of production losses. Managing these TAM projects is challenging as for its complexity due to the involvement of massive man powers and financial resources. The aim of this research is to develop an enhanced-Value Stream Mapping (enhanced-VSM) framework to effectively improve TAM efficiency. Four theoretical enhancements are made to the conventional VSM method and validation results show the successful implementation

Modelling the integration of BP and IT using business process simulation

Information Technology (IT) and Business Process (BP) communities argues that the use of IT to support business processes can bring a number of benefits to the organisation. Most of these benefits, however, can only be seen after the implementation of such technology. Moreover, there are many cases where the benefits brought by the implementation of IT do not fulfil the organisation’s expectations. One reason of this may happen is because research in BP and IS domains show little indication of which modelling methods, techniques or tools can help organisations to foresee the benefits of the integration of IT with BP. This paper describes the insights gained during a UK funded research project, namely ASSESS-IT, which used simulation techniques to address this problem. Considering IT as a two layered system, namely Information Systems (IS) and Computer Networks (CN), ASSESS-IT aimed to depict the benefits that new IT may bring to the BP. This paper uses the outcomes derived from ASSESS-IT to suggest that, in some cases; the relationship between BP and IT could be better understood by looking at the relationship between BP and IS alone. It then proposes an alternative simulation framework, namely ISBPS, that provides the means to develop simulation models that portray quantifiable metrics of the integration of BP and IS, offering in this way an alternative mechanism that can help BP and IS analyst to foresee the benefits that the insertion of a given IS design may bring to the organisational processes

Development of a mapping system engineering approaches to classic product development processes of technical products: A work project of project management in product development

Project Work presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThe automotive industry faces the challenge of meeting customer requirements while ensuring technological advancements, fast and cost-effective development, and high-quality production. Information systems play a crucial role in efficiently designing internal processes and meeting customer demands. Personalized solutions are increasingly adopted to cater to individual preferences while maintaining up-to-date technology. Information systems are utilized to record and manage customer requirements, optimize production processes, control inventories, and facilitate effective communication between departments. Product data management (PDM) solutions are widely employed, with 77% of automotive companies implementing them. PDM encompasses the storage and management of data relevant to product development, supporting the entire product lifecycle. As product complexity grows, efficient management of product data becomes essential, along with the optimization of business processes to shorten development time and parallelize tasks. CAx coordination, involving computer-aided design (CAD), manufacturing (CAM), and engineering (CAE), ensures smooth communication and coordination across the product development process. PDM systems act as intermediaries between CAx coordination and enterprise resource planning systems, facilitating seamless integration of design and manufacturing processes. Leading providers of enterprise resource planning and CAD systems offer software solutions for product lifecycle management and PDM, enabling centralized and accessible product information, streamlining development and management processes

Manufacturing Value Modelling, Flexibility, and Sustainability: from theoretical definition to empirical validation

The aim of this PhD thesis is to investigate the relevance of flexibility and sustainability within the smart manufacturing environment and understand if they could be adopted as emerging competitive dimensions and help firms to take decisions and delivering value

Multi-process modelling approach to complex organisation design

Present day markets require manufacturing enterprises (MEs) to be designed and run in a flexibly structured yet optimised way. However, contemporary approaches to ME engineering do not enable this requirement to capture ME attributes such that suitable processes, resource systems and support services can be readily implemented and changed. This study has developed and prototyped a model-driven environment for the design, optimisation and control of MEs with an embedded capability to handle various types of change. This so called Enriched-Process Modelling (E-MPM) Environment can support the engineering of strategic, tactical and operational processes and comprises two parts: (1) an E-MPM Method that informs, structures, and guides modelling activities required at different stages of ME systems design; and (2) an E-MPM Modelling Framework that specifies interconnections between modelling concepts necessary for the design and run time operation of ME systems. [Continues.

Using digital technologies to automat and optimize drilling parameters in real-time, its impact on value creation, and work process

The industry down-time from the second half of 2013 and corona pandemic has effectively turned most companies into introduction of new technologies and digitalization. The industrial landscape is undergoing innovation, leading organizations to embrace fresh strategies in order to leverage emerging technologies. Automation and automated work processes through the digital technologies are expanding through the life cycle of assets. The prevailing trend indicates that the competitive advantage of successful adapters is linked to automation, increase efficiency and safety, and add value to the asset. eDrilling is a global AI and digital twin software provider for the life cycle of drilling with mathematical- based model that represents the physical assets as the core technology. The suite of products comprises a transient hydraulic model, a mechanical torque and drag model, and a thermodynamic model. The models are embedded together which creates digital twin of a wellbore, in order to predict and optimize the drilling performance. The company is moving ahead with technology trend and recently developed a real-time parameter optimization software for drilling and tripping operations. This software leverages the concept of a digital twin, which is continuously calibrated in real-time, and perform lookahead simulations to optimize drilling parameters. This thesis focuses on investigating the optimization of drilling parameters using the wellGuide software and its impact on work performance. The drilling process involves numerous variables that continuously and dynamically interact with each other. The study specifically examines the parameters optimized by the wellGuide software and their value-added impact on asset performance. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the software, field data obtained from real drilling operations is utilized. The lookahead simulations are subsequently analysed to assess their impact on value creation and work processes, as well as to gain insights into system design, human-machine interface, and the technical aspects of the wellGuide package. By examining relevant research papers and functional descriptions, a comprehensive exploration of the theoretical and practical considerations pertaining to the software and its functionalities is conducted. The findings and recommendations derived from this analysis are then discussed

A structured method for the optimization of the existing last mile logistic flows

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceIn a fast-moving world some business exists due to the interconnectivity between countries. This happens because transports are able to reach the other side of the globe within few days and without being too expensive compensating the lower costs of production and competitive advantages. This is true for well-organized and big supply chains but even them can benefit from integration with disconnected and more complex supply chain as it is the case of e-commerce chains. The transaction of small packages from online shopping required in a totally distinct country of the place of production have very specific characteristics as they are spot flows, hard to predict and to combine with other goods owing to the fact that the destination of flows are different every time and it is not always worth it to dedicate a transport for such a small goods value and in addition most times, logistics have to answer to some challenging marketing requirements meaning they have time windows to fulfil. Last mile is a big part of logistics transports and is one important part of it that can really help companies having better prices and revenues for their transports. Last mile solutions need to be easy to implement and really have to translate in quick gains to logistic companies that are largely reducing their margins to increase competitiveness. In this context, the study aims to investigate and define a method following design Research Methodology hopping to draw some innovative solutions for the problem of last mile. In this respect, the work developed intends to study the solutions already implemented and extract insights on how distribution is made and how to maximize last mile profit through the mature of an algorithm able to reduce inefficiencies in a simple way without having to wiggle too much the structure of businesses as resources of last mile service providers are understood to be scarce as many last mile companies are small sized and running under big logistic players. The solution aims to attain the different marketing requirements exactly as it was defined without having to compromise anything but still being able to make good profit margins and perhaps make room for new opportunities to arise that previously were not profitable

The Design and Analysis of Context-Aware, Secure Workflow Systems

Workflows are set of activities that implement and realise business goals. Modern business goals add extra requirements on workflow systems and their management. Workflows may cross many organisations and utilise services on a variety of devices and/or supported by different platforms. Current workflows are therefore inherently context-aware. Each context is governed and constrained by its own policies and rules to prevent unauthorised participants from executing sensitive tasks and also to prevent tasks from accessing unauthorised services and/or data. We present a sound and multi-layered design language for the design and analysis of secure and context aware workflows systems