Analyzing Information Flows for Coordination within Projects - A Mini Case Study Analysis

An important task of management is to design the communication within the organization in an effective way. In projects, people with different know-how have to work together as an organization in order to fulfil a pre-defined task within a predefined period of time and within a limit on budget. Constantly, decisions have to be made based on information exchange between the participants. Especially in large international or interdisciplinary projects, foreign and technical language barriers have to be overcome. Therefore, the effectiveness of any project is strongly influenced by the accurate setup of information channels. However, there is hardly any methodology available to design the information flows within projects in a structured way and to access the quality of a organizations. Based on two mini case studies carried out at we show how the informational and organizational setting of projects can be assessed by applying a theory originally grounded in cybernetics

Requirements Specification for Supply Chain Controlling - A Mini Case Study

“If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.” (Wittgenstein) Supply Chain Management (SCM) deals with the management of flows of goods, funds and information within and between supply chain partners in order to satisfy consumer needs in the most efficient way (Christopher, 1998). Information is one of the biggest drivers of supply chain performance. The concept of Supply Chain Controlling (SCC) aims at supporting SCM by providing accurate information to the right manager at the right time for supply chain wide optimal decision making. Consequently, information from different sources must be integrated in order to set up a supply-chain-wide decision support system (DSS). However, there is hardly any method available that provides guidelines for the requirements specification for SCC. We close this gap by combining a theory based on cybernetics with conceptual modeling and test it in a mini case study

Adapting Urban Water Systems to Manage Scarcity in the 21st Century: The Case of Los Angeles.

Acute water shortages for large metropolitan regions are likely to become more frequent as climate changes impact historic precipitation levels and urban population grows. California and Los Angeles County have just experienced a severe four year drought followed by a year of high precipitation, and likely drought conditions again in Southern California. We show how the embedded preferences for distant sources, and their local manifestations, have created and/or exacerbated fluctuations in local water availability and suboptimal management. As a socio technical system, water management in the Los Angeles metropolitan region has created a kind of scarcity lock-in in years of low rainfall. We come to this through a decade of coupled research examining landscapes and water use, the development of the complex institutional water management infrastructure, hydrology and a systems network model. Such integrated research is a model for other regions to unpack and understand the actual water resources of a metropolitan region, how it is managed and potential ability to become more water self reliant if the institutions collaborate and manage the resource both parsimoniously, but also in an integrated and conjunctive manner. The Los Angeles County metropolitan region, we find, could transition to a nearly water self sufficient system

Product Development in the World Auto Industry

macroeconomics, auto industry, management efficiency, productivity

Knowledge-Intensive Processes: Characteristics, Requirements and Analysis of Contemporary Approaches

Engineering of knowledge-intensive processes (KiPs) is far from being mastered, since they are genuinely knowledge- and data-centric, and require substantial flexibility, at both design- and run-time. In this work, starting from a scientific literature analysis in the area of KiPs and from three real-world domains and application scenarios, we provide a precise characterization of KiPs. Furthermore, we devise some general requirements related to KiPs management and execution. Such requirements contribute to the definition of an evaluation framework to assess current system support for KiPs. To this end, we present a critical analysis on a number of existing process-oriented approaches by discussing their efficacy against the requirements

Competitiveness and sustainability in tourism industry: the "albergo diffuso" case study

The objective of the analysis developed in this paper is to verify whether the sustainability of the hotel ospitality model contributes to the competitiveness of tourist destinations. The research question is: does the model of “albergo diffuso” satisfy the requirement for a social, economic and environmental sustainability? The research method adopted consisted in a survey with the submission of a questionnaire to a number of alberghi diffusi operating worldwide, that is 130 units of analysis. The submission period went from October to December 2016. Through the questionnaire submitted to the interviewees it has been possible to analyze the motivation for the business start-up as well as the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the managerial systems and the governance style. The results will be analyzed through the application of the Weaver model (2014; 2017) which is considered essential to evaluate the contribution of the albergo diffuso to tourism sustainability. The implementation of the Weaver matrix to evaluate the contribution of the albergo diffuso to the sustainability of a tourist destination is the original element of the paper. The paper discusses the implications of sustainability with particular regards to the “albergo diffuso”. Therefore, it would be suitable to expand the analysis to additional models of tourist hospitality present in the international tourism scenario

The Principle of Subsidiarity and Innovation Support Measures

Innovation is a policy area in which the European Union (EU) has the competence to support, coordinate and supplement Member States policies according to the new Lisbon Treaty (2007). The Member States (MS) have the primacy in this area and the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality are applicable to decide whether EU support, coordination or supplementation of MS policies is justified. This paper presents a detailed subsidiarity test. It is applied to three innovation support measures as part of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme of the European Commission. These measures are access to finance for the start-ups and growth of SMEs and investment in innovation activities, networks in support of business and innovation-community grants (new Enterprise Europe Network), and the Intellectual Property Rights Helpdesk.