Configuration Change Management

Configuration Change Management is an integral part of the design and development process for products and processes. Many companies do not focus on the issue of change management even with the realization that change is inevitable. History has shown that if a company does not continue to innovate, whether it is products or services, it will not be able to remain successful. This philosophy is extremely important with design engineering companies. If managed correctly, change can be a significant benefit to a company. Changes come at various stages in the lifecycle of a product. Understanding the impact at the specific stage in a product lifecycle will minimize the impact to the business. Change should be approached as a planned and managed process versus a process driven out of necessity. Configuration change management should focus to align resources and activities within an organization. Prior to a change being implemented, all stakeholders should review the proposal or request for impact assessment. This impact assessment should include an assessment of implementation feasibility, cost, resource assessment, and schedule impact, as well as a review for implementation. By analyzing this data, a business is much better positioned to make a decision that has the lowest impact to the business and the customer. In addition, prioritization and approval of the change should be a decision made by all parties within the organization. If change is properly prepared for and anticipated, then the business will be much better positioned to react when product changes are necessary. By understanding how the change affects the business, a company is able to effectively implement the change with minimal impact to the business

Modelling manufacturing systems flexibility.

The flexl.bility to change product and processes quickly and economically represents a significant competitive advantage to manufacturing organisations. The rapid rise in global sourcing, has resulted in manufacturers having to offer greater levels of customisation, thus a wider product range is essential to an organisation's competitiveness. The rate at which new products are introduced to the market has also increased, with greatly reduced development times being essential to a new product's market success. Hence there is a strong need to have a flexible manufacturing system such that new products may be introduced rapidly. These drivers have made the need for flexibility within manufacturing systems of great importance. However, there are many types of flexibility and to ensure that organisations correctly target these types of flexibility there is a need to measure fleXlbility, because, measuring fleXlDility allows manufacturers to identify systems which will improve their performance. This research, therefore, has focused on the development measures for two types of flexibility ie. mix fleXlDility and product flexibility. These represent the ability to change between the manufacture of current products i. e. mix flexibility and the ability to introduce new products i.e. product fleXlDility. In order to develop effective measures for these types of fleXlbility a conceptual model has been developed, which represents the current and potential future product range of manufacturing systems. The methodology developed for measuring mix and product flexibility has been successfully applied in two companies. These companies represent diverse manufacturing environments. One operates in high volume chemical manufacture and the other in low to medium volume furniture manufacture. Through applying this methodology in these two companies it has been demonstrated that the methodology is generic and can be used in a wide range of companIes

Exploring first-year students’ experiences of using Moodle in learning an accounting undergraduate module at a South African University

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.This qualitative case study explored first-year student’s experiences of using Moodle in learning an Accounting undergraduate module at a South African university. Studies have revealed that students are driven by three different types of experiences when using Moodle to learn an Accounting undergraduate module. These types of experiences comprises of usercentred, interaction-centred and written-centred experiences. Such experiences drive students’ actions when they are learning an accounting undergraduate’s module on Moodle. Thus, the focus of this study was to explore first-year student’s experiences of using Moodle to learn an Accounting undergraduate module. This study is a qualitative case study of six first-year accounting students in one of the South African universities. Its main purpose was to explore their experiences of using Moodle in learning an Accounting undergraduate module; and to further probe how their experiences improved their learning of Accounting module using Moodle. This qualitative case study is situated within the interpretive paradigm. Therefore, the researcher engages the situation from the viewpoint of the participants through generation of authentic data. Six first-year students who were doing accounting module in the social science discipline were purposively and conveniently selected at the university in which this study was conducted, based on their experience and expertise of learning accounting and other modules through Moodle. This qualitative interpretive enquiry was characterised by multiple datageneration methods, such reflective activity, one-on-one semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, to respond to key research questions of this study. Data generated in this qualitative research were analysed by using a thematic qualitative data analysis. These qualitative research questions were as follows, exploring what are the first-year student’s experiences of using Moodle in learning an Accounting undergraduate module at a South African university; how first-year student’s experiences of using Moodle can improve the learning of accounting, and why first-year student’s experiences are in a particular ways in the use of Moodle in learning an accounting undergraduate module at a South African university

National CPE Curriculum: a pathway to excellence

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_comm/1122/thumbnail.jp