A Study of Corporate Managerial Module and Information System Orienting Agile Virtual Enterprises

The operation modules and information system construction are essential contents in agile virtual enterprises. Based on the analyses of the characteristics, organization forms and operation processes in agile virtual enterprises, studies are extended to the corresponding information systems, and the development of systematic logic modules and kernel methodology is also proposed in the paper

Maintenance behaviour-based prediction system using data mining

In the last years we have assisted to several and deep changes in industrial manufacturing. Induced by the need of increasing efficiency, bigger flexibility, better quality and lower costs, it became more complex. The complexity of this new scenario has caused big pressure under enterprises production systems and consequently in its maintenance systems. Manufacturing systems recognize high level costs due equipment breakdown, motivated by the time spent to repair, which corresponds to no production time and scrapyard, and also money spent in repair actions. Usually, enterprises do not share data produced from their maintenance interventions. This investigation intends to create an organizational architecture that integrates data produced in factories on their activities of reactive, predictive and preventive maintenance. The main idea is to develop a decentralized predictive maintenance system based on data mining concepts. Predicting the possibility of breakdowns with bigger accuracy will increase systems reliability

A decentralized predictive maintenance system based on data mining concepts

In the last years we have assisted to several and deep changes in industrial manufacturing. Induced by the need of increasing efficiency, bigger flexibility, better quality and lower costs, it became more complex [1]. Enterprises had had the need to cope with market expectations, incorporating in their production philosophies new paradigms such as JIT- Just in time, MTOMake to order, Mass Customization, agile manufacturing or Lean Manufacturing, that allow them to satisfy markets with a big diversity of products and also big quantities, becoming therefore more competitive. All this complexity has caused big pressure under enterprises maintenance systems. Maintenance mission is to make equipment and facilities available when requested. Maintenance function, seen as a non value aggregator one, became more and more requested to contribute to cost reduction, based on bigger and consistent equipment reliability. This perspective is stressed when enterprises existing equipment has an advanced service life. It is expected a profusion of breakdowns at those scenarios and consequently a smaller usability of equipment driving to less productivity. From an economic perspective, maintenance function is seen to the enterprise as a cost [2]. In fact, experience shows that a major percentage of the overall costs of the business concerns with maintenance [3]. Considering this perspective, decreasing costs with equipment operationalization will increase maintenance productivity and consequently overall productivity [4]

Evolving VirtuE

One of the most attractive aspects of virtual enterprises is their agility: the inherent ability to adapt and evolve in response to changing market conditions. Evolving VirtuE is a formal framework within which such agility can be realized. Through the concepts of enterprise time, activity logging, and log mining, the recent behavior and performance of an enterprise may be studied,and corresponding evolutionary steps can be induced. These steps may be intended to benefit the operation of individual enterprise members, as well the enterprise as a whole. In addition, we examine enterprise creation, a period of rapid evolution that concludes when the enterprise reaches stability and begins transacting its business activities.One of the most attractive aspects of virtual enterprises is their agility: the inherent ability to adapt and evolve in response to changing market conditions. Evolving VirtuE is a formal framework within which such agility can be realized. Through the concepts of enterprise time, activity logging, and log mining, the recent behavior and performance of an enterprise may be studied,and corresponding evolutionary steps can be induced. These steps may be intended to benefit the operation of individual enterprise members, as well the enterprise as a whole. In addition, we examine enterprise creation, a period of rapid evolution that concludes when the enterprise reaches stability and begins transacting its business activities.Monograph's chapter

Social Media Affordances and Sequential Use to Engage Clients During the Sales Process

Social media has changed the ways salespeople communicate and build relationships with clients. This study explores how social media are integrated into the communication repertoires of sellers using an affordances framework. Based on data from a large multinational corporation, seller strategies used to build and develop relationships with customers are analyzed. The findings reveal that employees strategically select media that allow for common affordances in order to build stronger client relationships. The discussion outlines practical implications for managers, and aligns the process of social media selection with the sales cycle based on capabilities afforded by various media choices

Interorganisationale Zusammenarbeit als Erfolgsfaktor im Innovationsprozess

Die Bedeutung von Forschung und Entwicklung ist in den letzten Jahren aufgrund des steigenden Wettbewerbs und der Komplexität von Produkt- und Prozessentwicklungen, stark gestiegen. Eine Möglichkeit, diese effektiver und effizienter zu betreiben wird durch Kooperationen ermöglicht. Diese Möglichkeit wurde auch von der unternehmerischen Praxis erkannt. So zeigen bisherige Studien, dass knapp die Hälfte der Unternehmen mehr als zehn Prozent ihres F&E-Budgets für Kooperationen ausgibt und sich die interorganisationale Zusammenarbeit positiv auf den Erfolg von Innovationen auswirkt. Gezeigt wurde, dass sich interorganisationale Zusammenarbeit positiv auf den Erfolg von Innovationen auswirkt. Fachliche Qualifikationen alleine sind allerdings nicht ausreichend – eine bedeutende Wirkung wird auch den sozialen Qualifikationen zugesprochen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Betrachtung der Umsetzung von Kooperationsaktivitäten. Schwerpunkte bilden dabei die Initiierung von Kontakten, die Abwicklung von Kooperationen, Konfliktlösungsmechanismen, Evaluationsprozeduren und Auswirkungen auf den Kooperationserfolg. Mithilfe von 17 qualitativen Interviews in der österreichischen Kunststoffindustrie wird gezeigt, dass ein Bewusstsein über Maßnahmen zur Erfolgserreichung vorhanden, deren Umsetzung allerdings nur bedingt festzustellen ist. Offen bleibt, inwiefern sich durch die Einführung solcher Maßnahmen der Erfolg vergrößern lassen würde. In jedem Fall würden sie zur Kontrollierbarkeit und Steuerbarkeit der Innovationsprozesse und des Erfolgs von Kooperationen beitragen

Management, Technology and Learning for Individuals, Organisations and Society in Turbulent Environments

This book presents the collection of fifty two papers which were presented on the First International Conference on BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY ’08 - Management, Technology and Learning for Individuals, Organisations and Society in Turbulent Environments, held in Ofir, Portugal, from 25th to 27th of June, 2008. The main motive of the meeting was the growing awareness of the importance of the sustainability issue. This importance had emerged from the growing uncertainty of the market behaviour that leads to the characterization of the market, i.e. environment, as turbulent. Actually, the characterization of the environment as uncertain and turbulent reflects the fact that the traditional technocratic and/or socio-technical approaches cannot effectively and efficiently lead with the present situation. In other words, the rise of the sustainability issue means the quest for new instruments to deal with uncertainty and/or turbulence. The sustainability issue has a complex nature and solutions are sought in a wide range of domains and instruments to achieve and manage it. The domains range from environmental sustainability (referring to natural environment) through organisational and business sustainability towards social sustainability. Concerning the instruments for sustainability, they range from traditional engineering and management methodologies towards “soft” instruments such as knowledge, learning, creativity. The papers in this book address virtually whole sustainability problems space in a greater or lesser extent. However, although the uncertainty and/or turbulence, or in other words the dynamic properties, come from coupling of management, technology, learning, individuals, organisations and society, meaning that everything is at the same time effect and cause, we wanted to put the emphasis on business with the intention to address primarily the companies and their businesses. From this reason, the main title of the book is “Business Sustainability” but with the approach of coupling Management, Technology and Learning for individuals, organisations and society in Turbulent Environments. Concerning the First International Conference on BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY, its particularity was that it had served primarily as a learning environment in which the papers published in this book were the ground for further individual and collective growth in understanding and perception of sustainability and capacity for building new instruments for business sustainability. In that respect, the methodology of the conference work was basically dialogical, meaning promoting dialog on the papers, but also including formal paper presentations. In this way, the conference presented a rich space for satisfying different authors’ and participants’ needs. Additionally, promoting the widest and global learning environment and participativeness, the Conference Organisation provided the broadcasting over Internet of the Conference sessions, dialogical and formal presentations, for all authors’ and participants’ institutions, as an innovative Conference feature. In these terms, this book could also be understood as a complementary instrument to the Conference authors’ and participants’, but also to the wider readerships’ interested in the sustainability issues. The book brought together 97 authors from 10 countries, namely from Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Sweden and United Kingdom. The authors “ranged” from senior and renowned scientists to young researchers providing a rich and learning environment. At the end, the editors hope and would like that this book will be useful, meeting the expectation of the authors and wider readership and serving for enhancing the individual and collective learning, and to incentive further scientific development and creation of new papers. Also, the editors would use this opportunity to announce the intention to continue with new editions of the conference and subsequent editions of accompanying books on the subject of BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY, the second of which is planned for year 2011.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio