A study of the evolution of make/buy contracting for UK Independent Television (ITV): 1954-2001

This study is an account of how the interplay between socio-political concerns and economic objectives shaped programme supply make/buy decisions for establishing UK commercial television and the ongoing programme supply arrangements of its main terrestrial operator ITV (Independent Television). A main interest is to build a credible explanation of why make/buy decisions for programmes shown on ITV diverged from initial expectations that they would be determined on a competitive basis. The enquiry examines the underlying reasons that affected these decisions to show how socio-political fear of the potential impact commercial television might have on UK society impinged on the outcomes that prevailed and how changes occurred as this fear diminished. To achieve this aim, the investigation first focuses on the make/buy conditions impinging on decisions that led to the start up phase of UK commercial television. It is followed by a detailed examination of how programme supply make/buy arrangements for ITV evolved in the initial (1954 - 1964) and later (1990 - 2001) contract periods. These two contract periods are focused on as distinctive points of reference for guiding and containing the research within practical boundaries. The first represents a time when programme supply make/buy options were first established and the second when these options were substantively modified. An historical case study approach is applied, drawing upon state archives, interviews and programme supply statistics to explain the outcomes that prevailed

Version Management for tightly integrated Software Engineering Environments

The paper introduces a version management model which exploits knowledge about the contents of documents. This is in contrast to most existing models which basically consider versioned objects as at (attributed) files. The benefits of the approach are illustrated by describing some sample operations which are not possible with a conventional model. The paper then discusses a feasible implementation of the model on top of an existing object-oriented data base management system. Finally, it discusses related work and indicates how a sophisticated configuration management system is being built on top of the version management system

18th century scientific writing: A study of make complex predicates in the Coruña Corpus

Complex predicates formed by the verb make plus a noun are suitable for being studied historically with very interesting results, as it was observed in previous literature. However, our interest lies in tracing, comparing and understanding what may be the variation of these constructions in scientific writing, and in their different chronological layers, analysing different scientific disciplines included in the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing (CC hereafter). As this proves to be a long-term objective, the aim of this paper is to study the use of complex predicates in only one of these disciplines. To this end, some texts included in the 18th century Life Sciences discipline of the CC have been analysed. Linguistic and extralinguistic information has been taken into account. Finally, the use of complex predicates and related verbs made by the scientists in question has been compare

Weighted Round Robin (WRR) Based Replenishment Model in Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) System

Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a popular supply chain system where vendor or supplier take responsibility and decision in managing its customers’ inventory. Two important goals of the VMI are improving service level and maintaining inventory still low and available. Many studies in VMI compare their performance with the traditional system. Unfortunately, studies in improving VMI performance are rare. This work aims to improve VMI by implementing Weighted Round Robin (WRR), a popular scheduling model in computer system, in the replenishment model in VMI. WRR is popular because of its load balancing nature. Environment in this work is two-echelon supply chain. The vendor is a multi-product manufacturer. The customers are retailers. This WRR based replenishment model is then compared with two common replenishment models: (s, S) model and (r, Q) model. In this work, we observe two performance parameters: sales and inventory condition. Based on the simulation result, it is shown that the WRR model performs better than the existing (s, S) model and (r, Q) model and it occurs in most of the observed variables. In the certain condition, performance of the WRR model compared with the (s, S) model and the (r, Q) model is as follows. The WRR model performs 31 percent better than the (s, S) model and 12 percent better than the (r, Q) model in success ratio. Manufacturer’s stock in the WRR model is only 36 percent than in the (s, S) model and 40 percent than in the (r, Q) model. Total stock in the supply chain in the WRR model is only 63 percent than in the (s, S) model and 89 percent than in the (r, Q) model

Weighted Round Robin (WRR) Based Replenishment Model in Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) System

Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a popular supply chain system where vendor or supplier take responsibility and decision in managing its customers’ inventory. Two important goals of the VMI are improving service level and maintaining inventory still low and available. Many studies in VMI compare their performance with the traditional system. Unfortunately, studies in improving VMI performance are rare. This work aims to improve VMI by implementing Weighted Round Robin (WRR), a popular scheduling model in computer system, in the replenishment model in VMI. WRR is popular because of its load balancing nature. Environment in this work is two-echelon supply chain. The vendor is a multi-product manufacturer. The customers are retailers. This WRR based replenishment model is then compared with two common replenishment models: (s, S) model and (r, Q) model. In this work, we observe two performance parameters: sales and inventory condition. Based on the simulation result, it is shown that the WRR model performs better than the existing (s, S) model and (r, Q) model and it occurs in most of the observed variables. In the certain condition, performance of the WRR model compared with the (s, S) model and the (r, Q) model is as follows. The WRR model performs 31 percent better than the (s, S) model and 12 percent better than the (r, Q) model in success ratio. Manufacturer’s stock in the WRR model is only 36 percent than in the (s, S) model and 40 percent than in the (r, Q) model. Total stock in the supply chain in the WRR model is only 63 percent than in the (s, S) model and 89 percent than in the (r, Q) model

Inverse software configuration management

Software systems are playing an increasingly important role in almost every aspect of today’s society such that they impact on our businesses, industry, leisure, health and safety. Many of these systems are extremely large and complex and depend upon the correct interaction of many hundreds or even thousands of heterogeneous components. Commensurate with this increased reliance on software is the need for high quality products that meet customer expectations, perform reliably and which can be cost-effectively and safely maintained. Techniques such as software configuration management have proved to be invaluable during the development process to ensure that this is the case. However, there are a very large number of legacy systems which were not developed under controlled conditions, but which still, need to be maintained due to the heavy investment incorporated within them. Such systems are characterised by extremely high program comprehension overheads and the probability that new errors will be introduced during the maintenance process often with serious consequences. To address the issues concerning maintenance of legacy systems this thesis has defined and developed a new process and associated maintenance model, Inverse Software Configuration Management (ISCM). This model centres on a layered approach to the program comprehension process through the definition of a number of software configuration abstractions. This information together with the set of rules for reclaiming the information is stored within an Extensible System Information Base (ESIB) via, die definition of a Programming-in-the- Environment (PITE) language, the Inverse Configuration Description Language (ICDL). In order to assist the application of the ISCM process across a wide range of software applications and system architectures, die PISCES (Proforma Identification Scheme for Configurations of Existing Systems) method has been developed as a series of defined procedures and guidelines. To underpin the method and to offer a user-friendly interface to the process a series of templates, the Proforma Increasing Complexity Series (PICS) has been developed. To enable the useful employment of these techniques on large-scale systems, the subject of automation has been addressed through the development of a flexible meta-CASE environment, the PISCES M4 (MultiMedia Maintenance Manager) system. Of particular interest within this environment is the provision of a multimedia user interface (MUI) to die maintenance process. As a means of evaluating the PISCES method and to provide feedback into die ISCM process a number of practical applications have been modelled. In summary, this research has considered a number of concepts some of which are innovative in themselves, others of which are used in an innovative manner. In combination these concepts may be considered to considerably advance the knowledge and understanding of die comprehension process during the maintenance of legacy software systems. A number of publications have already resulted from the research and several more are in preparation. Additionally a number of areas for further study have been identified some of which are already underway as funded research and development projects

Purely top-down software rebuilding

Software rebuilding is the process of deriving a deployable software system from its primitive source objects. A build tool helps maintain consistency between the derived objects and source objects by ensuring that all necessary build steps are re-executed in the correct order after a set of changes is made to the source objects. It is imperative that derived objects accurately represent the source objects from which they were supposedly constructed; otherwise, subsequent testing and quality assurance is invalidated. This thesis aims to advance the state-of-the-art in tool support for automated software rebuilding. It surveys the body of background work, lays out a set of design considerations for build tools, and examines areas where current tools are limited. It examines the properties of a next-generation tool concept, redo, conceived by D. J. Bernstein; redo is novel because it employs a purely top-down approach to software rebuilding that promises to be simpler, more flexible, and more reliable than current approaches. The details of a redo prototype written by the author of this thesis are explained including the central algorithms and data structures. Lastly, the redo prototype is evaluated on some sample software systems with respect to migration effort between build tools as well as size, complexity, and performances aspects of the resulting build systems

Television channel identity: the role of channels in the delivery of public service television in Britain, 1996-2002

This thesis examines the developing role of television channels in the delivery of public service broadcasting in Britain, 1996-2002. Starting from a hypothesis that channels are distinct television products in their own right and increasingly important in organising how broadcasters think about their audiences, it argues that channels have identities expressed through their schedules and determined by their relationship to genre and target audience. Based on research at the BBC (from 1998 - 2002), involving interviews with key staff and the analysis of BBC documents, this study examines the television broadcasting functions of commissioning, scheduling, marketing and audience research. It illustrates how these activities created specific identities for television channels and how these identities shaped the programming that reached television screens. It reveals how channels became increasingly important in the television landscape as buyers in a more demand-led commissioning economy and acted as a focus for the creation of media brands. It then discusses how the evolution of a channel portfolio enabled each channel to play a specific role in fulfilling public service obligations and looks at how different models of audience emerged in relation to the different public service television channels, charting the decline of the mass audience and the emergence of the visualisation of audiences in a more individualised way. The thesis concludes by addressing some implications of these developments. It looks at how the different models of audience in circulation affect debates about quality television, and how changing ideas about the construction of public service channels may impact on the regulation of broadcasting. Finally, it explores the effect of multiple channels, each targeted at specific audiences, on the concept of a unitary public sphere and speculates that channels have the potential to underpin the creation of multiple imagined communities

Evolution of Make-to-Stock (MTS) production environment management methods – research concept

The aim of the study is to present a concept for researching the production-for-inventory environment. The article focuses on the comparison of two production stockpiling environments, namely that of Make-to-Stock (MTS) and its developed version, Make-to-Availability (MTA). The article also presents research concepts related to the evolution of the MTS environment. The article presents the characteristics of production for inventory and for availability, while the matter of maturity models is also presented and a gap in the research is identified. The target and scope of the research is defined and the research program is discussed, and the research methods used at individual research stages have been identified. The status of the level of advancement of the research is presented,as are conclusions from previously undertaken research as well as further directions for this research, recommendations for the future, and the expected results of this work. The synthesis of the research will be to propose a maturity model for organisations functioning in the MTS / MTA environment