Designing an Open Virtual Factory of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises for Industrial Engineering Education

Curriculum of Industrial Engineering program must accomplish the requirement that graduates have the ability to design, develop, implement, and improve integrated system that include people, materials, equipment and energy. However, it is not easy to implement a curriculum that fosters such competencies. One of the strategies to achieve that is using an innovative learning media, so that the problem-based learning (PBL) can be accustomed. In this paper, we design a web-based enterprise resources planning. It is aimed to capture the real problem of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in bottled drinking water industries. The integrated system can be illustrated as ERP application that designed by using free open source software (FOSS). This research aimed to utilize the application to improve teaching methods in IE education. The result of the research can be used to improve the competencies of IE students, especially the abilities to identify, formulate, and solve the activities of the business process improvement in SMEs. Keywords Industrial engineering education, FOSS, innovative learning media, problem-based learnin

Chinese Experience with Global G3 Standard-Setting

China’s growth strategy as set out in the 11th 5-year plan in 2005 called for upgrading of product quality, the development of an innovation society, and reduced reliance on foreign intellectual property with high license fees. Consistent with this policy, China has been involved in recent years with the development of a Chinese standard in third generation (3G) mobile phone technology, both in negotiating the standard and seeing it through to commercialization. This is the first case of a developing country both originating and successfully negotiating a telecommunications standard and this experience raises issues for China’s future development strategy based on product and process upgrading in manufacturing. We argue that while precedent setting from an international negotiating point of view, the experience has thus far is unproven commercially. But the lessons learned will benefit future related efforts in follow-on technologies if similar Chinese efforts are made.This paper documents Chinese standard-setting efforts from proposal submission to ITU to the current large-scale trial network deployment in China and overseas trial networks deployment. We discuss the underlying objectives for this initiative, evaluate its effectiveness, and assess its broader implications for Chinese development policy.

Deregulation and Enterprization in Central and Eastern Telecommunication - a Benchmark for the West?

The restructuring of telecommunication in Central and Eastern Europe occurs at a time when the classical structures of telecommunication are falling apart worldwide. Coming from the socialist system in which telecommunication did not exist as an independent economic activity, the Eastern European countries have created specific "post-socialist" modes of reform, often outdoing Western countries in terms of speed and radicality. Deregulation and enterprization have dominated the process in all countries, leading to advanced technical standards and a wide segmentation of telecommunication markets. The role of foreign direct investment and technology transfer was particularly important. But the reforms also lead to an increasing social gap between the prosperous users of advanced telecommunication services, and the average citizen for which even telephony has become a luxury good. Our thesis is that CEE telecommunication reform, rather than copying Western models, may become a benchmark for the West, in particular for Western Europe. Technically, the advanced reform countries in Central Europe are about to succeed the leapfrogging process, i.e. the jump from post-war socialist technologies to world-leading edge-of-technology standards. With regard to industry structures, Central and Eastern European countries show that the age of "classical" integrated telecommunication activities is definitely over. Instead, most diversified telecommunication services are integrated in the emerging information sector. Finally, the very notion of telecommunication as an "infrastructure" is put in question for the first time in Eastern Europe. We start to address the two relevant policy issues: modes of regulation, and science and technology policies to accompany the restructuring process.

A case study of MMO2's Madic: A framework for creating mobile internet systems

Mobile Internet applications on ubiquitous mobile networks allows real-time, anywhere, anytime connectivity to services. Due to its scalability and potential cost savings, mobile communication is being increasingly applied in the business and consumer communities to create innovative data and voice application, which run over the Internet infrastructure. This paper reports on a case study at an organisation that created an innovative approach to developing mobile applications developed by third party independent developers. A conceptual wireless reference model is presented that was used to define the various system components required to create effective mobile applications

A policy note on telecommunications reform in Algeria

By the end of the 1990s, most industrial and many developing countries had liberalized their telecommunications markets to improve service accessibility and affordability for both businesses and households. In contrast, Algeria still managed its telecommunications sector as public property. The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications set the policy, enforced regulation, and was in charge of service provision. The sector suffered from huge supply shortages, the waiting list lengthened, the quality of service deteriorated and unbalanced the overall fiscal situation. In 1999, a new government appointed in the aftermath of President Bouteflika's election decided to change the situation and launched a comprehensive sector reform. Um reviews progress made in implementing this reform, discusses its preliminary impact, and comments on the main lessons learned. The author shows that by restraining arbitrary administrative action during the reform implementation, the government of Algeria laid the foundation for sustainable growth in the telecommunications sector.Telecommunications Infrastructure,Rural Communications,Knowledge Economy,ICT Policy and Strategies,Enterprise Development&Reform,ICT Policy and Strategies,Telecommunications Infrastructure,National Governance,Rural Communications,Public Sector Economics&Finance