A CUSTOMIZING PLATFORM FOR INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTION PLANNING AND CONTROL SOLUTIONS

In production planning and control, decision support has to face the special properties of production processes and systems. To find an optimal solution for decision problems in this domain is usually np-hard and a proper definition of objective functions and constraints is extremely difficult. One reason for the problem of proper model definition for classical optimization methods is the individual character of production systems. Thus, in many cases only individual solutions for PPC offer satisfying results. In this paper, we introduce a framework for efficient implementation of PPC tools in serial manufacturing

COMMONALITIES AND CONTRASTS: AN INVESTIGATION OF ERP USABILITY IN A COMPARATIVE USER STUDY

In recent years, several user studies have examined specific usability problems in the field of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). These studies focused on different branches, various usability aspects, and several user groups. In spite of this diversification, some common and essential usability problems have become apparent, which are related to system complexity and difficulties in finding required information. However, these findings are based on the situation in a specific country, a singular ERP system and few data samples. Therefore, this paper aims at complementing the related work by results from a comparative user survey from two different European countries: Germany and Latvia. The survey is based on 184 ERP users from Germany and 24 ERP users from Latvia. The results indicated that both countries have several contrasts, but also diverse commonalities in industry, ERP market and culture. However, users in both countries are very homogenous with regard to the assessment of usability problems in their ERP interfaces. This paper investigates elementary usability problems derived from the related work and examines to which extent they are valid in both countries today. The main hypothesis claims that diverse national characteristics do not necessarily lead to a different assessment of usability problems in ERP systems

Facilities Redesign of Stockroom at Elcon Precision

Elcon Precision is a company based out of San Jose, California specializing in the photochemical processing of materials and brazing of metals and ceramics for a variety of different industries. Three students from the Industrial Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo were contacted by Elcon Precision to help redesign their stockroom and inventory areas in their San Jose location in order to allow for the future growth of the company. Elcon asked the Cal Poly project team to help increase efficiencies throughout the stockroom by creating an alternative layout that best suited the company\u27s needs. This report will provide an in depth analysis of the Cal Poly project team\u27s approach to achieve a more efficient layout for the Elcon Precision stockroom

Effets de contagion de conflits de projets TI antérieurs:Une recherche-action lors des phases préliminaires d'un projet d’implémentation

This article received the Best paper awardInternational audienceUser conflicts and resistance behaviours are important issues during Information System (IS) implementation. However, despite a large body of user resistance, conflicts, user acceptance or task-technology alignment literature focusing on on-going Information Technology (IT) projects, there is little literature addressing the impact of resistance behaviours that occurred in the past during previous IT projects, on the IT to-be-implemented. IS managers need to anticipate potential causes for project failure because of actual resistance behaviours, but also because of previous conflict behaviours. This paper discusses a 2-year action research project conducted at Efficient Innovation (a European leader in innovation management consulting) during preliminary phases of its R&D portfolio management Decision Support System (DST) implementation project. Through the lens of resistance behaviours, our findings reveal the following: (1) The tool was used by DST-advocate groups as a legitimation and homogenisation tool (boundary object) to cover consultants having different skills, or lack of skills: a socio-political oriented conflict appeared to hide a task-oriented conflict. Beyond the task-oriented conflict, a socio-political oriented conflict appeared to hide a struggle for power and appreciation; and (2) Different conflict behaviours came to light, associated with the firm's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The observation was that conflict behaviours expressed towards an existing IT (ERP) can be contagious and cascaded to another IT to-be-implemented (DST). The underlying message of this paper for researchers and practitioners is to consider the latter previous resistance behaviours and potential conflict contagion effects as a key process embedded into IT design.Les conflits des utilisateurs ainsi que les comportements de résistance sont des questions importantes au cours de l’implémentation des Systèmes d'Information (SI). Toutefois, en dépit d'une littérature très riche en SI traitant de la résistance des utilisateurs, les conflits, l'acceptation de la technologie, ou bien l’alignement tâche-technologie, il y a peu de littérature concernant les comportements de résistance qui ont eu lieu dans le passé, lors des projets TI antérieurs, et qui pourraient avoir un impact sur les projets TI en cours. Les managers ont besoin d’anticiper les causes potentielles de l’échec des projets en raison des comportements actuels de résistance mais aussi l'échec issu de comportements de résistances antérieures. Cet article traite un projet de recherche-action de 2 ans mené au sein d’Efficient Innovation (un leader européen dans le conseil en gestion de l'innovation) lors de phases préliminaires du projet d’implémentation d’un système d’aide à la décision (DST) pour la gestion de portefeuilles des projets R&D. Au travers du cadre théorique de comportements de résistance, nos résultats révèlent ce qui suit : (1) L'outil a été utilisé par les groupes pro-DST comme un outil de légitimation et d'homogénéisation (objet-frontière) pour couvrir les consultants ayant des compétences différentes, ou bien manquant de compétences. Un conflit axé socio-politique cachait un conflit axé tâche. Au-delà du conflit axé tâche, un conflit axé socio-politique cachait une lutte pour le pouvoir et l'appréciation ; et (2) d’autres conflits apparaissaient, associés au système Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) de l'entreprise. L'observation était que les conflits exprimés envers une TI existante (ERP) pourraient être contagieux et impacter une autre TI en cours d’implémentation (DST). Le message sous-jacent de ce document pour les chercheurs et les praticiens est de prendre en considération les comportements de résistance antérieurs et les effets potentiels de contagion des conflits comme un facteur clé intégré dans la conception de la TI

FESTivE: an information system method to improve product designers and environmental experts information exchanges

Effective collaboration between product designers and environmental experts is an important driver for the ecodesign practice in industry. This paper investigates the principal functions required for such an e ective collaboration and aims at facilitating them. Product designers should be able to integrate the environmental parameters into their activities, and to exchange information dynamically with the environmental expert whenever needed during the design process. Therefore, the IT system should be in itself dynamic and exible to the integration of new concepts (knowledge, software). Recent developments in Model Driven Engineering (MDE) are showing some interesting results to gain exibility and dynamism in the IT system. Combining software interoperability using model federation based on MDE with the speci city of ecodesign practice in industry this paper proposes the FESTivE method for Federate EcodeSign Tool modEls. Experimented in two different industrial contexts the practical feasibility of FESTivE has been validated with practitioners. Results on the e ects of using FESTivE in industry shows that product designers and environmental experts are more equipped to anticipate and to respond to each other's needs at each stage of the design process of product or service

Factors Affecting Adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in the Kenyan Sugar Industry (A Case of Mumias Sugar Company LTD)

It was found necessary to undertake this study so as to bridge the knowledge gap as concerns the factors that affect the adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning systems. The specific objectives of the study were: to establish the role of Perceived Ease of Use of Enterprise Resource Planning in its adoption; to evaluate the effect of Perceived Usefulness of Enterprise Resource Planning on its adoption; and to determine the effects of individual perception towards the adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning. The study focused on Mumias Sugar Company. The population of interest was the employees of the company who are current users of the Systems Applications Product Enterprise Resource Planning, drawn from the three categories of staff as presented in the organizational structure - Heads of departments, Managers and Supervisors, whose number stood at 200 as at 31st December 2009. A semi-structured questionnaire was the main data collection instrument. The researcher also used interview schedules with open questions, aimed at meeting the objectives of the study. Primary data were analyzed by employing descriptive statistics such as percentages. The responses indicate that perceived ease of use was a key factor in determining adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning in Mumias Sugar Company. The employees embraced change of technology with anticipation for better performance, which further enhanced the adoption of Systems Applications Product Enterprise Resource Planning in the company. In line with perceived ease of use, the other factors that influenced the adoption of Systems Applications Product Enterprise Resource Planning in Mumias Sugar Company include the perceived feeling of comfort when using Systems Applications Product Enterprise Resource Planning, the user friendliness of Systems Applications Product Enterprise Resource Planning, the speed with which Systems Applications Product Enterprise Resource Planning processed transactions and the ability of the users to get support when using Systems Applications Product Enterprise Resource Planning. The findings also show that Perceived Usefulness is an important factor in determining the adaptation of innovations. The higher the perceived usefulness of the Enterprise Resource Planning system, the higher the chances that it would be adopted. Moreover, the degree to which an individual believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance enhances the chances of adopting the system and the more the suitable the system is to the work ethic of the users the higher the acceptance rate. Further, the findings show that attitudes are a significant predictor of behavior. In addition, though individual attitude is necessary in determining adoption of new technologies, it is not sufficient condition for success. Certainly attitude may not strongly determine the intentions of an individual at the workplace regarding performance when additional factors e.g. usefulness are taken into account independently. Keywords: Enterprise Resource Planning, Perceived Ease of Use, Systems Applications Product, Legacy Systems, Perceived Usefulness, Material Requirements Planning, Business Processe

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Development of a lean principles framework for ERP implementation process

The aim of this research is to develop a novel framework based on lean principles and tools to be exploited in managing ERP implementation processes in order to enhance the overall success rate of the implementation project, which in turn minimises cost and time overruns. The framework consists of three stages built in a logical sequence taking into consideration the requirements of ERP projects implementations and the lean transformation principles. The first stage starts with an assessment model to measure the organisational readiness for implementing ERP system using leanness assessment approach. The second stage of the framework introduces the use of the Obeya lean tool along with a change management model to help visualize and streamlining the process of ERP implementation. In the final stage, a value stream mapping technique is used to identify potential waste occurrence and eliminate non-value adding activities from the process. As a result, a new eight stages ERP implementation process is developed and presented with descriptions on the activities encompassed in each stage. A research methodology consisting of four major phases was employed to attain the targeted objectives of the research; beginning with project initiation and contextual definition followed by data collection and field study. The data acquired from the previous two phases were used to conduct a thorough analysis from which key findings were drawn and used in the creative development of the readiness assessment model and the framework. Finally, elementary aspects of the framework were put to scrutiny through live case studies and professional expert judgement. The author made use of both qualitative and quantitative research measures. A validation for the ERP readiness assessment model is conducted initially on three case studies, and then the whole framework is validated through two other case studies and experts’ judgments. The results and overall feedback reflected a high level of acceptance of the framework structure and approach. The novel framework has the capability to improve the ERP implementation process providing it is utilised fully. It helps organisation to successfully deliver ERP systems on time, on budget, and with the required functionalities with high-level of acceptance from all stakeholders

Business strategy driven IT systems for engineer-to-order and make-to-order manufacturing enterprises

This thesis reports research into the specification and implementation of an Information Technology (IT) Route Map. The purpose of the Route Map is to enable rapid design and deployment of IT solutions capable of semi-automating business processes in a manufacturing enterprise. The Map helps structure transition processes involved in “identification of key business strategies and design of business processes” and “choice of enterprise systems and supporting implementation techniques”. Common limitations of current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are observed and incorporated as Route Map implications and constraints. Scope of investigation is targeted at Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) that employ Engineer-To-Order (ETO) and Make-To-Order (MTO) business processes. However, a feature of the Route Map is that it takes into account contemporary business concerns related to “globalisation”, “mergers and acquisitions” and “typical resource constraint problems of SMEs”. In the course of the research a “Business Strategy Driven IT System Concept” was conceived and examined. The main purpose of this concept is to promote the development of agile and innovative business activity in SMEs. The Road Map encourages strategy driven solutions to be (a) specified based on the use of emerging enterprise engineering theories and (b) implemented and changed using componentbased systems design and composition techniques. Part-evaluation of the applicability and capabilities of the Road Map has been carried out by conducting industrial survey and case study work. This assesses requirements of real industrial problems and solutions. The evaluation work has also been enabled by conducting a pilot implementation of the thesis concepts at the premises of a partner SME