Digitalisation and Business Model Innovation: Exploring the Microfoundations of Dynamic Consistency

The Industry 4.0 paradigm (I4.0) as the digitalisation of manufacturing firms denotes the exploitation of real-time data originating from a ubiquitous interconnection of objects, machines and humans (via the internet) across the entire value network. I4.0 not only serves as a catalyst to improve value-adding activities or to design new product and service solutions but also, more fundamentally, enables manufacturing firms to innovate their established business models (BMs). Against this rapid socio-technological shift, manufacturers face the challenge of holistically innovating their BMs. This requires the individualisation of the value proposition alongside the flexibilisation of their value creating and capturing activities, as well as a continuous adaptation and alignment of these activities with the firm’s organisational systems and the resource and competence base. Adopting the view of a BMI (business model innovation) as a system of interdependent activities, the continuous alignment of activities across the BMI is called dynamic consistency. However, it is not clear what mechanisms denote the notion of dynamic consistency. This thesis operationalises the microfoundations of dynamic consistency in an I4.0-driven BMI by empirically investigating six European manufacturing firms. Following the design themes of BMI, it argues that the notion of dynamic consistency comprises three main aspects: (1) a value focus on data and software; (2) a flexi-directional interlinkage to facilitate the exchange of information and materials; (3) agile working ensembles governing changes to the activity system. Moreover, it proposes open-mindedness and integrity of behaviour as a cognitive foundation that facilitates changes to the activity system. Taken together, these microfoundations provide reasoning for manufacturing firms to transform their traditional make-and-sell BM into a sense-and-act BM, yielding higher profits and profitability. The results demonstrate that the notion of BMI as an activity system must be complemented by the cognitive perspective of BMI to sufficiently operationalise the concept of dynamic consistency. This thesis is anticipated to be a starting point for further studies to achieve consistency during I4.0-driven BMI to generate superior and sustained value appropriation for manufacturing firms.Ford Britain Trust, Queens' Colleg

Higher-Order Process Modeling: Product-Lining, Variability Modeling and Beyond

We present a graphical and dynamic framework for binding and execution of business) process models. It is tailored to integrate 1) ad hoc processes modeled graphically, 2) third party services discovered in the (Inter)net, and 3) (dynamically) synthesized process chains that solve situation-specific tasks, with the synthesis taking place not only at design time, but also at runtime. Key to our approach is the introduction of type-safe stacked second-order execution contexts that allow for higher-order process modeling. Tamed by our underlying strict service-oriented notion of abstraction, this approach is tailored also to be used by application experts with little technical knowledge: users can select, modify, construct and then pass (component) processes during process execution as if they were data. We illustrate the impact and essence of our framework along a concrete, realistic (business) process modeling scenario: the development of Springer's browser-based Online Conference Service (OCS). The most advanced feature of our new framework allows one to combine online synthesis with the integration of the synthesized process into the running application. This ability leads to a particularly flexible way of implementing self-adaption, and to a particularly concise and powerful way of achieving variability not only at design time, but also at runtime.Comment: In Proceedings Festschrift for Dave Schmidt, arXiv:1309.455

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

Deliberate development of asset frontiers in innovative manufacturing businesses

Manufacturing companies need to be innovative to ensure long term success. This requires organisations to reconcile the conflicting temporal demands of a dynamic business environment and the more gradual development of infrastructure, systems and people. This challenge is explored by examining the relationship between a firm’s innovation propensity and the profile of its portfolio of manufacturing resources. The Theory of Performance Frontiers is used to characterise the capability profile arising from a firm’s suite of assets and resources. The theory contends that the distance between a firm’s operating frontier (OF) and its asset frontier (AF) is related to the manufacturing unit’s ability to be agile and flexible. A new measure is developed and validated that represents the gap between the frontiers – the OF-AF Gap. The organisation’s innovation propensity is shown to have a negative impact on firm performance unless it is accompanied by a correspondingly large OF-AF gap. It is therefore important that the gap is actively managed by addressing its three constituent elements. Firstly, organisational learning should be planned along the technological trajectory of the business ahead of current needs. Secondly, product development resources should be balanced between exploitative and explorative projects, with exploration grounded in the fertile areas created by prior knowledge-acquisition activities. Thirdly, justification for investment in physical assets should not be limited to project-related benefits, but should incorporate the capability-building value new equipment brings to the organisation. The acquisition of equipment that has capability beyond immediate project-specific requirements then becomes more justifiable in a financial environment where return-on-investment is king. The research concludes by developing a simple tool that allows an organisation’s OF-AF gap to be enumerated on a normalised scale. This unlocks the potential for firms to benchmark themselves against industry norms and to numerically incorporate the capability-building value of asset investments in financial justifications

Evaluation of transport options from KMS shaft to the mill at Obuasi mine, Anglogold Ashanti

The underground mine at AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine in Ghana currently transports about 175,000 tpm from four shafts to the mill. Two major shafts, Kwesi Mensah Shaft (KMS) and Kwesi Renner Shaft (KRS) handle about 85-90% of this total tonnage. Transfer of ore from all the shafts to the mill is largely by means of contractor trucks. The mill is approximately 2.8 km and 1.5 km by road from KMS and KRS shafts respectively. Earlier plans to introduce a surface conveyor to the mill were found not to be economically viable largely due to the lower production level prevailing at that time. The objectives at that time were to decrease cost, improve availability and security, and to limit the numerous problems associated with contractor trucking. The current Business Plan indicates a phased increase in the underground production from 175,000 tpm up to 220,000 tpm. The extra tonnage is to feed the new Tailings Sulphide Plant (TSP), located adjacent to the existing mill. With the plan to increase underground production, and the need to decrease cost and improve efficiency against the current financial downturn, this project serves to review the four ore transfer options that link the shafts to the mill. The options are the continued usage of contractor trucks, purchase mine-owned trucks, use surface or underground conveyors. The factors to be used in the selection process were categorised under economic, environmental and technical parameters. Secondly the options were multiple and consequently the appropriate selection method was the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This is a Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methodology which is a widely used technique. The AHP is a very simple, structured and easily understandable method in which both non-numerical and numerical data are considered in the selection processes with multiple options, where the need for optimization is paramount. The overall observation by the experts’ favoured surface conveyors. However, the issue of capital in the present regime of the Obuasi mine, makes it quite difficult to obtain management approval in the immediate future. The surface conveyor however, has the potential to make adequate returns. From the financial analysis showing a six to ten year payback period in a mining environment, other forms of finance could be considered. Alternatively, the next highest ranking option, which is contractor trucking could be used but with two contractors. This would introduce competition which could improve cost and availability. This is the first time that a more structured approach has been used for equipment selection at Obuasi

CREATING THE FOUNDATION FOR A STARTUP: DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A DATABASE SYSTEM FOR AN ELECTRICAL BICYCLE RENTAL COMPANY

BoltAbout was started by 4 Cal Poly students, and their COO is a fellow Industrial Engineering student that I met during the first half of the senior project series class. He presented the project to me and I decided to work with him in developing this new database for his startup company. BoltAbout’s customer base is growing and current operations are not fit to meet the demand of a growing company. More specifically, their data management system can’t be used by all current employees to perform essential tasks such as rental processing, bicycle and equipment organization, and customer data analysis. This is the origin and need for this project. The end goal was to design a completely new database with an appropriate structure and user friendly interface that would allow all employees to utilize it efficiently. The current and future needs of the company were used as the main requirements for the database design, this decision would ensure that the database is functional today but also five years down the line. The final design meets the need for a simpler and more intuitive user friendly interface with a main form that serves as a starting point for all functions or tasks employees might need to perform. From this main form, a user can simply click a button to go to a form to either register or update a customer, register new equipment, add equipment maintenance details to the maintenance log, create, edit, or end a customer order, and view statistics about their monthly performance. All these tasks are one click away. As a conclusion, the design successfully meets BoltAbout’s needs for a simpler and functional data management system. In addition, it allows for flexibility if the company wants to add a new product line or different additional equipment models in the future with minimal to no changes required to the database structure or design. Future recommendations would be related to data security. Currently, to be able to fully use the database and all its operations, the user needs to have access to all the information. As the company and the employee base grows, this availability to information might have to be limited or address as a potential area of improvement

A comparison of processing techniques for producing prototype injection moulding inserts.

This project involves the investigation of processing techniques for producing low-cost moulding inserts used in the particulate injection moulding (PIM) process. Prototype moulds were made from both additive and subtractive processes as well as a combination of the two. The general motivation for this was to reduce the entry cost of users when considering PIM. PIM cavity inserts were first made by conventional machining from a polymer block using the pocket NC desktop mill. PIM cavity inserts were also made by fused filament deposition modelling using the Tiertime UP plus 3D printer. The injection moulding trials manifested in surface finish and part removal defects. The feedstock was a titanium metal blend which is brittle in comparison to commodity polymers. That in combination with the mesoscale features, small cross-sections and complex geometries were considered the main problems. For both processing methods, fixes were identified and made to test the theory. These consisted of a blended approach that saw a combination of both the additive and subtractive processes being used. The parts produced from the three processing methods are investigated and their respective merits and issues are discussed

When to make or buy?

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia de ProduçãoO âmbito deste estudo foi o de desenvolver uma metodologia de apoio à tomada de decisão quando o problema de "make-or-buy" surge. A metodologia foi desenvolvida após uma revisão à bibliografia existente e tem como base um modelo de duas fases que onde o ambiente externo vai desencadear o processo de "make-or-buy". A primeira fase tem início com três diferentes disciplinas de valor — proximidade com o cliente, liderança do produto, e a excelência operacional, que formam a disciplina do valor para o cliente. A estas disciplinas de valor estão associados seis objetivos: custo, qualidade, variabilidade, flexibilidade, tempo e o capital humano. Na segunda fase estão disponíveis três opções: Fazer, Fazer e Comprar, e Comprar. A estrutura do modelo foi desenvolvida de forma que o Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) pudesse ser aplicado na classificação dos critérios considerados. Foi também desenvolvido um procedimento para a implementação de três fases, onde uma equipa multifuncional classifica os todos os critérios. A metodologia foi implementada numa empresa que opera no setor automóvel. Apesar da aplicação prática não ter seguido os passos do procedimento de implementação, determinou-se que a melhor opção era a fazer o produto em vez de comprar ou mesmo fazer e comprar. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram coerência em cada nível, uma vez que os julgamentos/decisões tomadas foram sujeitas a uma verificação de consistência ao longo do processo. No entanto, é sugerido um maior estudo empírico para avaliar a utilidade do modelo e a sua aplicabilidade em situações reais de tomada de decisão de "make-or-buy". Este estudo seria acompanhado por "workshops" nas empresas onde a metodologia seria implementada, bem como pelo desenvolvimento de software que facilite a aplicação da metodologia de AHP

Reducing risk in pre-production investigations through undergraduate engineering projects.

This poster is the culmination of final year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (B.Eng.Tech) student projects in 2017 and 2018. The B.Eng.Tech is a level seven qualification that aligns with the Sydney accord for a three-year engineering degree and hence is internationally benchmarked. The enabling mechanism of these projects is the industry connectivity that creates real-world projects and highlights the benefits of the investigation of process at the technologist level. The methodologies we use are basic and transparent, with enough depth of technical knowledge to ensure the industry partners gain from the collaboration process. The process we use minimizes the disconnect between the student and the industry supervisor while maintaining the academic freedom of the student and the commercial sensitivities of the supervisor. The general motivation for this approach is the reduction of the entry cost of the industry to enable consideration of new technologies and thereby reducing risk to core business and shareholder profits. The poster presents several images and interpretive dialogue to explain the positive and negative aspects of the student process