Project Blue Ocean report

A project was undertaken for Synlait Milk Limited in partial fulfilment of the Master in Engineering Management degree at the University of Canterbury. Project Blue Ocean aimed to discover opportunities for new technology adoption to improve the business operation. The project was initiated to drive the Manufacturing Excellence framework which contains three strong pillars: Safety, Reliability and People. The project began with the discovery of the current issues, mainly focused on manual handling (critical risk activities), repetitive and low-value tasks. The technology solutions were generated respectively to each issue and a high level concept study was developed for each of the top three technology solutions. Design Thinking methodology was applied throughout the project to understand the problems, define the underlying issues, generate unconstrained technology ideas, and prototype the most feasible solution. Justification methods such as the NTCP Diamond Model, the Total Application Model and the Technology Category Model were combined to create an evaluation matrix to find out the top three technology solutions: Vacuum System at Fluid Bed, Collaborative Robots and Fob Key Integration. Preliminary economic evaluation and recommendation plans were made, based on a high level concept study of each solution

The MinK Framework: An Integrated Framework to Assess Individual Knowledge in Organisational Context.

Knowledge is the currency of the global economy, the foundation of wealth creation, and the sole antecedent of sustainable competitive advantage in today’s markets. In the current business environment, success of organisations is dependent upon their ability to develop and implement resilient Knowledge Management (KM) strategies to leverage and exploit their knowledge assets. Yet, knowledge is intrinsically linked to individuals and their exclusive abilities to create, share and apply knowledge thereby creating value for their organisations. Knowledge holders are without doubt the valuable assets which lead the increasing velocity of organisational transformation in order to cope with market pressures and confront uncertainty. Effectual KM thus implicates knowledge assessment capability that enables the identification of knowledge holders within the firm and accordingly optimises the allocation of knowledge assets. Identifying and retaining knowledge holders requires a systematic KM initiative to help managers assess the individual knowledge of their employees and hence formulate and evaluate knowledge management and retention strategies. This research therefore attempts to focus on knowledge assessment practice and explores the underlying constructs of individual knowledge in the organisational context. In light of the knowledge-based view of the firm[1][2][3], a comprehensive theoretical model highlights the crucial role of individuals in organisational knowledge dynamics based on seminal KM theories of Stocks and Flows of Knowledge[4], Intellectual Capital[5] [6] [7], and the SECI Model of Knowledge Creation[8]. Evolving from this conceptual foundation, the MinK framework is proposed as an innovative framework that endows organisations in delineating knowledge stocks and visualising knowledge flows by providing an integrated assessment platform for decision makers. The presented framework ensures that individual knowledge is accurately assessed from a number of perspectives using a well-defined set of theoretically grounded and industry validated indicators stemming from a multi-dimensional scorecard. Flexibility is embedded in the MinK framework, allowing managers to customise the key measures according to the firm’s specific context. Adopting the 360-degree approach, the assessment process uses self evaluations and multi-source knowledge appraisals to provide rich and insightful results. An Individual Knowledge Index (IK-Index) that denotes the overall knowledge rating of each employee is another research outcome spanning out of a unique formula that combines a number of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques to consolidate assessment results into a single reflective numeral. The incorporation of technology enables the complete automation of the assessment process and helps to address parametric multiplicity and arithmetic complexity. Armed with advances in Information Technology, the MinK Web System offers a user-friendly interface supported by a sophisticated computational module and a smart deep learning algorithm to ensure the efficiency, security, and accuracy of the assessment process. Companies that used MinK in the pilot study have described the framework as an accurate assessment solution which can enable managers to make informed decisions, particularly in human capital planning. Such an approach balances the art and science of KM while taking into account the culture and dynamics of the organisation. Ultimately, this research advocates a people-centric KM approach that places the individual knowledge holder at the core of KM activity, and suggests that effective KM is essentially effective management of knowledge workers

A review of cyber-ranges and test-beds:current and future trends

Cyber situational awareness has been proven to be of value in forming a comprehensive understanding of threats and vulnerabilities within organisations, as the degree of exposure is governed by the prevailing levels of cyber-hygiene and established processes. A more accurate assessment of the security provision informs on the most vulnerable environments that necessitate more diligent management. The rapid proliferation in the automation of cyber-attacks is reducing the gap between information and operational technologies and the need to review the current levels of robustness against new sophisticated cyber-attacks, trends, technologies and mitigation countermeasures has become pressing. A deeper characterisation is also the basis with which to predict future vulnerabilities in turn guiding the most appropriate deployment technologies. Thus, refreshing established practices and the scope of the training to support the decision making of users and operators. The foundation of the training provision is the use of Cyber-Ranges (CRs) and Test-Beds (TBs), platforms/tools that help inculcate a deeper understanding of the evolution of an attack and the methodology to deploy the most impactful countermeasures to arrest breaches. In this paper, an evaluation of documented CR and TB platforms is evaluated. CRs and TBs are segmented by type, technology, threat scenarios, applications and the scope of attainable training. To enrich the analysis of documented CR and TB research and cap the study, a taxonomy is developed to provide a broader comprehension of the future of CRs and TBs. The taxonomy elaborates on the CRs/TBs dimensions, as well as, highlighting a diminishing differentiation between application areas

Digitising the Industry Internet of Things Connecting the Physical, Digital and VirtualWorlds

This book provides an overview of the current Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, ranging from the research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies in a global context. A successful deployment of IoT technologies requires integration on all layers, be it cognitive and semantic aspects, middleware components, services, edge devices/machines and infrastructures. It is intended to be a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC - Internet of Things European Research Cluster from research to technological innovation, validation and deployment. The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European Research Cluster and the IoT European Platform Initiative (IoT-EPI) and presents global views and state of the art results on the challenges facing the research, innovation, development and deployment of IoT in the next years. The IoT is bridging the physical world with virtual world and requires sound information processing capabilities for the "digital shadows" of these real things. The research and innovation in nanoelectronics, semiconductor, sensors/actuators, communication, analytics technologies, cyber-physical systems, software, swarm intelligent and deep learning systems are essential for the successful deployment of IoT applications. The emergence of IoT platforms with multiple functionalities enables rapid development and lower costs by offering standardised components that can be shared across multiple solutions in many industry verticals. The IoT applications will gradually move from vertical, single purpose solutions to multi-purpose and collaborative applications interacting across industry verticals, organisations and people, being one of the essential paradigms of the digital economy. Many of those applications still have to be identified and involvement of end-users including the creative sector in this innovation is crucial. The IoT applications and deployments as integrated building blocks of the new digital economy are part of the accompanying IoT policy framework to address issues of horizontal nature and common interest (i.e. privacy, end-to-end security, user acceptance, societal, ethical aspects and legal issues) for providing trusted IoT solutions in a coordinated and consolidated manner across the IoT activities and pilots. In this, context IoT ecosystems offer solutions beyond a platform and solve important technical challenges in the different verticals and across verticals. These IoT technology ecosystems are instrumental for the deployment of large pilots and can easily be connected to or build upon the core IoT solutions for different applications in order to expand the system of use and allow new and even unanticipated IoT end uses. Technical topics discussed in the book include: • Introduction• Digitising industry and IoT as key enabler in the new era of Digital Economy• IoT Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda• IoT in the digital industrial context: Digital Single Market• Integration of heterogeneous systems and bridging the virtual, digital and physical worlds• Federated IoT platforms and interoperability• Evolution from intelligent devices to connected systems of systems by adding new layers of cognitive behaviour, artificial intelligence and user interfaces.• Innovation through IoT ecosystems• Trust-based IoT end-to-end security, privacy framework• User acceptance, societal, ethical aspects and legal issues• Internet of Things Application

Digitising the Industry Internet of Things Connecting the Physical, Digital and VirtualWorlds

This book provides an overview of the current Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, ranging from the research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies in a global context. A successful deployment of IoT technologies requires integration on all layers, be it cognitive and semantic aspects, middleware components, services, edge devices/machines and infrastructures. It is intended to be a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC - Internet of Things European Research Cluster from research to technological innovation, validation and deployment. The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European Research Cluster and the IoT European Platform Initiative (IoT-EPI) and presents global views and state of the art results on the challenges facing the research, innovation, development and deployment of IoT in the next years. The IoT is bridging the physical world with virtual world and requires sound information processing capabilities for the "digital shadows" of these real things. The research and innovation in nanoelectronics, semiconductor, sensors/actuators, communication, analytics technologies, cyber-physical systems, software, swarm intelligent and deep learning systems are essential for the successful deployment of IoT applications. The emergence of IoT platforms with multiple functionalities enables rapid development and lower costs by offering standardised components that can be shared across multiple solutions in many industry verticals. The IoT applications will gradually move from vertical, single purpose solutions to multi-purpose and collaborative applications interacting across industry verticals, organisations and people, being one of the essential paradigms of the digital economy. Many of those applications still have to be identified and involvement of end-users including the creative sector in this innovation is crucial. The IoT applications and deployments as integrated building blocks of the new digital economy are part of the accompanying IoT policy framework to address issues of horizontal nature and common interest (i.e. privacy, end-to-end security, user acceptance, societal, ethical aspects and legal issues) for providing trusted IoT solutions in a coordinated and consolidated manner across the IoT activities and pilots. In this, context IoT ecosystems offer solutions beyond a platform and solve important technical challenges in the different verticals and across verticals. These IoT technology ecosystems are instrumental for the deployment of large pilots and can easily be connected to or build upon the core IoT solutions for different applications in order to expand the system of use and allow new and even unanticipated IoT end uses. Technical topics discussed in the book include: • Introduction• Digitising industry and IoT as key enabler in the new era of Digital Economy• IoT Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda• IoT in the digital industrial context: Digital Single Market• Integration of heterogeneous systems and bridging the virtual, digital and physical worlds• Federated IoT platforms and interoperability• Evolution from intelligent devices to connected systems of systems by adding new layers of cognitive behaviour, artificial intelligence and user interfaces.• Innovation through IoT ecosystems• Trust-based IoT end-to-end security, privacy framework• User acceptance, societal, ethical aspects and legal issues• Internet of Things Application

Reducing under-five mortality in Makonde district’s public healthcare institutions: an exploratory investigation into the potential role of emerging technologies.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Under-five mortality rate remains unacceptably high globally, with Sub-Saharan Africa being the region with the worst under-five mortality outcomes. The United Nations reported that an average of 15 000 under-fives died daily in 2018, translating to 5.3 million under-fives dying annually. The United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) estimated that up to 5.5 million under-fives died in 2021. The outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) worsened the situation for child healthcare in low-resource settings due to overwhelmed and strained healthcare systems. Promoting the health and well-being of under-fives remains a priority of the United Nations and its member states, as evidenced by the setting of under-five mortality goals in both the expired Millennium Development Goals and the current Sustainable Development Goals. Globally, under-five mortality outcomes are meagrely improving, registering a 4 per cent improvement in 18 years. Zimbabwe is one of the countries with high under-five mortality rates, with the Midlands and Mashonaland West provinces having the worst under-five mortality rates, according to the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) report. Despite the evidence of emerging technologies helping to reduce under-five mortality rates in other regions and countries like the United States of America, the United Kingdom and South-West Nigeria, the potential of such technologies to reduce under-five mortality rates in Zimbabwe’s public healthcare institutions has not been explored. Although Zimbabwe has registered improvements in under-five mortality rates over the years through such programmes as free healthcare for under-fives in public health facilitie s, child immunisation programmes, provision of nutritional supplements and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), the rates are still unacceptably high and above the SDG target of 23 per 1 000 live births, making Zimbabwe ranked amongst the fifty countries with the highest early childhood mortality in the world. The country’s poor under-five mortalit y rates suggest that the existing methods need to be complemented by different approaches. Guided by three theoretical frameworks, the Diffusion of Innovation, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and the Capabilities Approach, the researcher explored the potential role of emerging technologies in reducing under-five mortality in Makonde District, Zimbabwe. The key deliverables of this study included a framework for the adoption of emerging technologies to reduce under-five mortality in resource-constrained settings like Makonde district. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was used, in which 20 healthcare professionals from Makonde public health facilities participated in interviews and a focus group, while 90 healthcare professionals and 391 mothers of under-five children xi responded to questionnaires. The researcher used purposive and snowball sampling to identify interview and focus group participants, where experience and whether one works in the paediatric ward, works with children or pregnant women were critical considerations. Mothers of under-fives were randomly sampled. The study revealed that the participants arguably value under-fives the most and would accept any technology intended to improve their health and wellbeing. They perceive emerging technologies as helpful in areas like improving diagnosis, minimising loss to follow-ups and providing data-driven, evidence-based and personalised paediatrics. The impediments to adoption included the fear of medico-legal hazards, centralisation of digital health decision-making, network problems, resistance to change and demoralised workforce. There is generally poor knowledge of emerging technologies by healthcare professionals in Makonde District. The study proffers recommendations on what needs to be done for emerging technologies to be adopted in Makonde District’s public healthcare institutions to reduce under-five mortality. An adoption framework is also presented.No isiZulu abstract available

An Innovation-driven IT Governance Framework for Benefits Realisation and its Application to Public Sector

Information and communication technology (ICT or IT) provides benefits to an organisation. However, a large number of IT projects fail. The research literature shows extant governance frameworks are not adequately protecting against project failures and are not as effective on many of these IT projects as they should be. This thesis developed a new IT governance framework using an agile benefit management approach, aimed to achieve benefits realisation for any scale of IT projects, particularly for projects in the public sector such as Defence. The framework objectively targets digital transformation and technological agility, however, is shown in the thesis to assist in other enterprise challenges with IT acquisition and through-life management, such as cyber-resilience. The framework is based on many theories, principles, and practices, such as: Transaction Cost Economics Theory, Prospect Theory (Decision-Making Under Uncertainty), Reference Class Forecasting, Stratification and the Incremental Enlargement Principle and Fuzzy Logic. The framework is shown to be effective primarily through better informed decision-making. Benefits realisation is critical for information technology project success. The framework provides a systematic methodology on how to define economic benefit, technical benefit, and strategic benefit. It provides benefit realisation measures through fuzzy inference system, and it provides decision support based on the benefit performance measures and dis-benefit risk management. When compared to industry-based frameworks for IT acquisition and sustainment this new framework is unique because it includes all internal and external stakeholders such as users, providers, industry, and academia to continuously collaborate for innovating, iterating, and evaluating technology for realisation of benefits to achieve the organisational goals and objectives. The proof of concept has been conducted through a detailed case study in the Defence public sector, and several critiques of IT reform in other public sector applications where difficulties are occurring. Organisations will be able to use this framework for a more rapid and assured uptake of emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution into their technology stack. Examples of some of these emerging technologies are AI, machine learning, geo-spatial, block chain, cognitive and brain computing, cloud computing, data echo system, and cybersecurity