Predicting the value of product service-systems for potential future implementers: results from multiple industrial case studies

The great impact played by Product/Service-Systems (PSS) on industry and academia can be motivated by the need for modernizing business models, carrying out internal companies' reconfiguration, enhancing environmental sustainability. Despite the large number of objectives pursued by PSS, sparks of criticism have recently emerged, as well as the results ensuing from PSS adoption have not been rigorously assessed. In particular, the authors highlight a lack of quantitative analysis concerning the service aspects of PSS and hurdles in service modeling and evaluation. The paper's objective is to contribute in this field by individuating factors, advantages and disadvantages that are not directly measurable in monetary terms by companies. This kind of assessment might result crucial, as the implementation of PSS-oriented strategies require a not negligible amount of commitment, besides propensity to risk. A first activity was carried out thanks to a pilot group of firms that have not implemented any PSS initiative so far, which have been exposed to business reconfiguration scenarios underpinning PSS. A model for generalizing pros and cons of future PSS implementation has been subsequently experimented by a larger group of industrial organizations. Such a model has represented the backbone for the creation of a tentative quantitative estimation tool, which assesses and forecasts the added value of services featured by the introduction of PSS and hence represents a candidate criterion for undertaking decisions concerning the implementation of PSS strategies. The paper clarifies which assumptions are introduced in order to achieve this result

CoPs-Centered Knowledge Management

Rajiv Khosla is an Associate Professor at School of Business, La Trobe University. He is the director of externally funded Business Intelligence Institute-Business Systems and Knowledge Modelling research laboratory. Rajiv has a multi-disciplinary background in management, engineering and computer science. He has published over 120 refereed journal and conference papers. He has also authored four books (research monographs) in the area of Emotional Intelligence, Human-Centred e-Business, Multimedia based Socio-technical Information systems, Intelligent Hybrid Multi-agent Systems. Rajiv is the Associate editor of the International Journal of Pattern Recognition, Regional editor of Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing (Springer-verlag), and Action Editor of Journal of Cognitive Systems Research. He has been a project leader of over a dozen industry projects and has commercialised four IT products in Australia. Associate Professor Rajiv Khosla Business Intelligence Institute and Business Systems Knowledge Modeling Laboratory (http://www.latrobe.edu.au/bskm) School of Business, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria – 3086, Australia E-Mail: [email protected] of the primary reasons identified for the failure of existing knowledge management solutions has been that knowledge management tools and research have primarily been designed around technology push-models as against strategy pull-models. In an era where organizations are undergoing rapid and discontinuous change it is imperative that knowledge management systems and organizational entities like CoPs that facilitate knowledge management and organizational transformation are more closely aligned with business strategies and goals of an organization. This would enable organizations to respond more quickly to changing business environments and corresponding change in their knowledge management needs from time to time. This seminar presents a strategy-pull approach for Modeling and Design of CoPs-centered Knowledge Management Systems to facilitate organizational transformation. Among other aspects the seminar will focus on definition of dimensions and criteria for defining CoPs in an organization, application of fuzzy integral techniques to rank 16 criteria employed by CoPs to engage in knowledge management. From a knowledge management and organizational transformation perspective this approach will enable a more direct relationship between business strategy, CoPs and Knowledge Management solutions.published_or_final_versionCentre for Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kon

A MODEL FOR PRODUCT-INTEGRATION TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGHLY COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF Ti- 6Al-4V ALLOY TREATED WITH PULSED LASER Nd:YAG IN AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

This article aims to contribute to a new planning policy in the innovative products development. To do so, it presents a new modeling proposal to integrate technological innovation and new product development (NPD) in Ti-6Al-4V Alloy Treated With Pulsed Laser Nd:YAG for turbines for Aerospace Industry, carried out according to the following stages: Phase 1: Modeling of the information needs; Phase 2: Determining of technology integration dimensions to the product; Phase 3: Evaluation of performance of technology integration dimensions to the product. To demonstrate the feasibility and plausibility of the modeling, a case study was conducted in a high tech company in Brazil (hypothetical application). The investigation was helped by the intervention of specialists with technical and scientific knowledge about the research object. To reduce subjectivity in the results, the following methods were used: Law of Categorical Judgment - psychometric scaling of Thurstone (1927), Multivariate Analysis statistical methods and method Compromise Programming, Electre III and Promethee II - multi-criteria analysis; and Neurofuzzy Technology. It is hoped that this study will stimulate a broad debate on the issue and it is acknowledged that more studies are needed to build more robust results in the near future. The results were satisfactory, validating the present proposa

Hierarchically Clustered Adaptive Quantization CMAC and Its Learning Convergence

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