An evolutionary complex systems decision-support tool for the management of operations

Purpose - The purpose of this is to add both to the development of complex systems thinking in the subject area of operations and production management and to the limited number of applications of computational models and simulations from the science of complex systems. The latter potentially offer helpful decision-support tools for operations and production managers. Design/methodology/approach - A mechanical engineering firm was used as a case study where a combined qualitative and quantitative methodological approach was employed to extract the required data from four senior managers. Company performance measures as well as firm technologies, practices and policies, and their relation and interaction with one another, were elicited. The data were subjected to an evolutionary complex systems (ECS) model resulting in a series of simulations. Findings - The findings highlighted the effects of the diversity in management decision making on the firm's evolutionary trajectory. The CEO appeared to have the most balanced view of the firm, closely followed by the marketing and research and development managers. The manufacturing manager's responses led to the most extreme evolutionary trajectory where the integrity of the entire firm came into question particularly when considering how employees were utilised. Research limitations/implications - By drawing directly from the opinions and views of managers, rather than from logical "if-then" rules and averaged mathematical representations of agents that characterise agent-based and other self-organisational models, this work builds on previous applications by capturing a micro-level description of diversity that has been problematical both in theory and application. Practical implications - This approach can be used as a decision-support tool for operations and other managers providing a forum with which to explore: the strengths, weaknesses and consequences of different decision-making capacities within the firm; the introduction of new manufacturing technologies, practices and policies; and the different evolutionary trajectories that a firm can take. Originality/value - With the inclusion of "micro-diversity", ECS modelling moves beyond the self-organisational models that populate the literature but has not as yet produced a great many practical simulation results. This work is a step in that direction

Towards a business model for cellular network and telecommunication operators: a theoretical framework

Cellular networks and telecommunications bring major change to the way businesses are conducted. Mobility has become one of the main priorities for users and this has impacted on cellular networks and telecommunication operators (CNTOs). However, entrants into the cellular industry have been confounded primarily by inexistent or weak Business Models (BMs). Designing a BM for a CNTO is complex and requires multiple actors to balance different and often conflicting design requirements. Nevertheless, most research about CNTOs has been technically oriented and has mainly addressed the technological and engineering issues related to their infrastructure. Less attention has been given to the business model of CNTOs. Hence, there is a need to enhance our ability to determine what constitutes the optimal and most viable business model to meet the various strategic objectives and goals for these CNTOs. In this paper an overview of research into the cellular business model and the main issues to be resolved is provided. In particular, the authors propose guidelines as a basis on which to develop a more comprehensive definition which may lead to a consensus. Moreover, a generic model (V4 Model) is proposed for the BM of these companies based on value proposition, value architecture, value network and value finance

Balancing and integrating basic values in the development of organic regulations and standards: proposal for a procedure using case studies of conflicting areas

The basic aim of the report is to develop a procedure for the integration of the ethical value base of organic farming into standards and regulations. For this it is necessary to identify the core ethical value of organic production, consider their coherence and relate them to existing practice of organic food and farming. Ethical values are per se in need of interpretation. It is therefore also necessary to consider the process of decision-making, when aiming to achieve a coherent integration of such values in the structure of a standard or regulation. In line with the European Action Plan for organic food and farming from 2004 the Project EEC 2092/91 (Organic) Revision supports the idea that delegating a larger role to values and basic principles will help to harmonise the rules, provide room for flexibility in implementation and to simplify the European Regulation for organic production. It is important to include basic values in standards and regulations, because organic farming is value based and all actors/stakeholders have value expectations, including consumers who the regulation wants to protect. Standards and regulations form the basis of a virtual contract between the consumer and the producers. By following the practices set out in the standards, producers give a promise to the consumer to deliver on additional ethical values, beyond the legal minimum standards for conventional agriculture and food. The growing and globalised organic market and the involvement of large companies have resulted in renewed interest in the values and principles of organic farming. There has been concern that the organic food and farming sector is becoming more conventionalised, and has lost touch with its basic values. Thus it will no longer function effectively as a real alternative to general agriculture for consumers, producers and also for policy makers. The report analyses what core ethical value are associated with organic agriculture and should therefore be considered for inclusion in a regulation. This value base is contrasted with the existing Regulation (EEC) 2092/91 and with examples of current practice of organic agriculture in Europe. The implications of including ethical values in the structure of a regulation for decisionmaking are considered. Following on from the European Action Plan a process of total revision of the EU regulation on organic production is underway. A new European Regulation for organic production was adopted by the European Council of Ministers in June 2006 and will come into force in Jan 2009. The text of the near final proposal from December 2006 has been considered in several sections of the report. The report finishes with some conclusions and recommendations for the EU Commission and other standard setting bodies regarding the choice and roles of values in organic standard, the rules for decision-making processes in relation to integrating values, and regarding the ongoing revision of the organic regulation in Europe

Modeling of Transitional Channel Flow Using Balanced Proper Orthogonal Decomposition

We study reduced-order models of three-dimensional perturbations in linearized channel flow using balanced proper orthogonal decomposition (BPOD). The models are obtained from three-dimensional simulations in physical space as opposed to the traditional single-wavenumber approach, and are therefore better able to capture the effects of localized disturbances or localized actuators. In order to assess the performance of the models, we consider the impulse response and frequency response, and variation of the Reynolds number as a model parameter. We show that the BPOD procedure yields models that capture the transient growth well at a low order, whereas standard POD does not capture the growth unless a considerably larger number of modes is included, and even then can be inaccurate. In the case of a localized actuator, we show that POD modes which are not energetically significant can be very important for capturing the energy growth. In addition, a comparison of the subspaces resulting from the two methods suggests that the use of a non-orthogonal projection with adjoint modes is most likely the main reason for the superior performance of BPOD. We also demonstrate that for single-wavenumber perturbations, low-order BPOD models reproduce the dominant eigenvalues of the full system better than POD models of the same order. These features indicate that the simple, yet accurate BPOD models are a good candidate for developing model-based controllers for channel flow.Comment: 35 pages, 20 figure