51,171 research outputs found
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Evaluating the resilience and security of boundaryless, evolving socio-technical Systems of Systems
The impact of external market factors on operational practices and performance of companies
The links between operational practices and performance are well studied in the literature, both theoretically and
empirically. However, mostly internal factors are inspected more closely as the basis of operational performance,
even if the impact of external, environmental factors is often emphasized. Our research fills a part of this existing
gap in the literature. We examine how two environmental factors, market dynamism and competition impact the
use of some operational practices (such as quality improvement, product development, automation, etc.) and the
resulting operations and business performance.
The method of path analysis is used. Data were acquired through an international survey (IMSS â International
Manufacturing Strategy Survey), which was executed in 2005, in 23 participating countries in so called
"innovative" industries (ISIC 28-35) with a sample of 711 firms. Results show that both market dynamism and
competition have large impact on business performance, but the indirect effects, through operations practices are
rather weak compared to direct ones. The most influential practices are from the area of process and control, and
quality management
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Protective wrapping of off-the-shelf components
System designers using off-the-shelf components (OTSCs), whose internals they cannot change, often use add-on âwrappersâ to adapt the OTSCsâ behaviour as required. In most cases, wrappers are used to change âfunctionalâ properties of the components they wrap. In this paper we discuss instead protective wrapping, the use of wrappers to improve the dependability â i.e., ânon-functionalâ properties like availability, reliability, security, and/or safety â of a component and thus of a system. Wrappers can improve dependability by adding fault tolerance, e.g. graceful degradation, or error recovery mechanisms. We discuss the rational specification of such protective wrappers in view of system dependability requirements, and highlight some of the design trade-offs and uncertainties that affect system design with OTSCs and wrappers, and that differentiate it from other forms of fault-tolerant design
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DPN -- Dependability Priority Numbers
This paper proposes a novel model-based approach to combine the quantitative
dependability (safety, reliability, availability, maintainability and IT
security) analysis and trade-off analysis. The proposed approach is called DPN
(Dependability Priority Numbers) and allows the comparison of different actual
dependability characteristics of a systems with its target values and evaluates
them regarding trade-off analysis criteria. Therefore, the target values of
system dependability characteristics are taken as requirements, while the
actual value of a specific system design are provided by quantitative and
qualitative dependability analysis (FHA, FMEA, FMEDA, of CFT-based FTA). The
DPN approach evaluates the fulfillment of individual target requirements and
perform trade-offs between analysis objectives. We present the workflow and
meta-model of the DPN approach, and illustrate our approach using a case study
on a brake warning contact system. Hence, we demonstrate how the model-based
DPNs improve system dependability by selecting the project crucial dependable
design alternatives or measures
Issues about the Adoption of Formal Methods for Dependable Composition of Web Services
Web Services provide interoperable mechanisms for describing, locating and
invoking services over the Internet; composition further enables to build
complex services out of simpler ones for complex B2B applications. While
current studies on these topics are mostly focused - from the technical
viewpoint - on standards and protocols, this paper investigates the adoption of
formal methods, especially for composition. We logically classify and analyze
three different (but interconnected) kinds of important issues towards this
goal, namely foundations, verification and extensions. The aim of this work is
to individuate the proper questions on the adoption of formal methods for
dependable composition of Web Services, not necessarily to find the optimal
answers. Nevertheless, we still try to propose some tentative answers based on
our proposal for a composition calculus, which we hope can animate a proper
discussion
A QFD framework for quality, innovation and high-tech product development dynamics
The customer mostly chooses a product on the base of its quality, which therefore arises as the main cause of its commercial success. In a nearly axiomatic drawing, it follows that the effect of innovation is the improvement of quality, which itself becomes the aim of innovation. Even though the previous statement relates quality and innovation, it still does not explain their dynamics. To stress them, the âquality' concept must be analyzed in more detail. In fact, in addition to the âperceived quality', the quality ensured through `design, manufacturing and marketing' combined domains should be dealt with. This paper enhances this issue taking advantage of principles and models made available by control theory schemes coupled with quality function development (QFD) and best practice software modeling based on unified modeling language (UML
Innovative capabilities, operations priorities and corporate performance in manufacturing firms
The purpose of this paper is to explore the linkage between innovative capabilities and operations priorities and corporate performance and try to answer the question of how innovative capabilities support a manufacturing firmâs operations priorities and corporate performance. By using survey data from 184 manufacturing firms, firms are clustered according to their innovative capabilities. These clusters are explored in terms of operations priorities and corporate performance. The findings substantiate that manufacturing firms can be clustered according to their innovative capabilities. Each innovation cluster adopts and develops different operations priorities and they attain diverse financial performance levels implying that there are alternative ways to compete in the market even within the same industry. However, each alternative strategy provides diverse levels of benefits. The findings demonstrate further that high performing firms compete effectively on multiple operations priorities simultaneously. Hence, firms need to excel in multiple priorities and innovation types in their market
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