E-Procurement – Process Based Conceptual Model

This paper aims to contribute to the development of a process based conceptual model of electronic procurement. Model is based on three basic eprocurement processes – strategic, tactical and operational eprocurement. Processes are divided into phases which are supported by applications (i.e. software programmes). Apart from applications supporting basic procurement activities there is a currently fast growing group of ADM (Analytical - Decision support - Management) applications, which brings business benefits especially in complex procurement environments. The basic view is that of ICT’s (Information and Communication Technologies - namely Internet, Internet technologies, Internet standards, Internet applications) support of procurement activities. Paper presents integrated e-procurement applications and also various integration requirements of e-procurement applications. Model may perhaps help enterprises, which are new to e-procurement, e.g. SMEs, to gain basic understanding of which applications may be used for implementation of eprocurement processes

Система поддержки принятия управленческих решений в университете на примере группы процессов «Наука и инновации»

One of the main areas of a modern university’s activity is a group of processes related to scientific research and innovation. According to the concept of “University 4.0,” a modern university is the center of the space for introducing innovations and developing territories. The concept of “University 4.0” provides for increased requirements for the quality of university management. Based on the methods of modelling, analysis, synthesis, the existing support system for making managerial decisions at the university is investigated. In the course of the study, a comprehensive management decision-making support system for the management of the Science and Innovation business process was developed, including a university management model with separation of management and administration procedures, a methodology for assessing the economic efficiency of innovative projects, and an information management support decision-making system. The developed management decision support system has been tested at the university while managing the Science and Innovation business process, proving its effectiveness. It is proposed to create a single intersectoral information and management platform “Science – Production – Operation”. © 2020 LLC Ecological Help. All rights reserved

ICT enabled participatory urban planning and policy development: The UrbanAPI project

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present the effectiveness of participatory information and communication technology (ICT) tools for urban planning, in particular, supporting bottom-up decision-making in urban management and governance. Design/methodology/approach: This work begins with a presentation on the state of the art literature on the existing participatory approaches and their contribution to urban planning and the policymaking process. Furthermore, a case study, namely, the UrbanAPI project, is selected to identify new visualisation and simulation tools applied at different urban scales. These tools are applied in four different European cities - Vienna, Bologna, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Ruse - with the objective to identify the data needs for application development, commonalities in requirements of such participatory tools and their expected impact in policy and decision-making processes. Findings: The case study presents three planning applications: three-dimensional Virtual Reality at neighbourhood scale, Public Motion Explorer at city-wide scale and Urban Growth Simulation at city-region scale. UrbanAPI applications indicate both active and passive participation secured by applying these tools at different urban scales and hence facilitate evidence-based urban planning decision-making. Structured engagement with the city administrations indicates commonalities in user needs and application requirements creating the potential for the development of generic features in these ICT tools which can be applied to many other cities throughout Europe. Originality/value: This paper presents new ICT-enabled participatory urban planning tools at different urban scales to support collaborative decision-making and urban policy development. Various technologies are used for the development of these IT tools and applied to the real environment of four European cities. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Capacity to support cumulative effects assessment and management in the Athabasca watershed, Alberta, Canada

It has been well articulated that there is a need to better assess and manage cumulative environmental effects on Canada’s watersheds. Cumulative Effects Assessment and Management (CEAM) is simply not working in its current form. Presently there exists a significant amount of literature on the scientific aspects necessary to assess cumulative environmental effects; however, there are limitations in the understanding of the institutional arrangements relating to CEAM. Taking into account this shortcoming, the objectives of this research are to evaluate the current institutional framework by determining the presence of requisites necessary for watershed-based CEAM and to identify the capacity requirements to support the these requisites in the Athabasca watershed in Alberta. The methods applied to achieve these objectives are a focus group meeting with participants familiar with CEAM; a review of relevant documents prepared by industry, watershed groups, and government; and a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The overall analysis will be based upon eight requisites necessary for CEAM which have been identified through a previous research study of watershed-based cumulative effects assessment and management. The central findings of this study demonstrate that, although the institutional arrangements are in the process of being developed in the Athabasca watershed, there still exist many challenges relating to the capacity requirements to support watershed-based CEAM. The primary challenges which have been identified by those who participated in this study include the lack of effective data management and coordination, a lack of broader regional programs, and a lack of an overarching funding mechanism to support watershed-based CEAM initiatives. Despite these challenges, it was found that steps are being taken in the Athabasca watershed and province to develop frameworks which are conducive to advancing the institutional arrangements and capacity for watershed-based CEAM. This is demonstrated through the development of recent legislation mandated to provide direction for CEAM, in addition to the presence of various multi-stakeholder organizations which participate in the decision-making processes relating to watershed management. This research will contribute to a larger, Canada-wide project focused on the effective implementation of watershed-based CEAM in Canadian watersheds. Specifically, this study will contribute to the understanding of institutional arrangements and capacity requirements in the Athabasca watershed in Alberta

Recruitment and selection processes through an effective GDSS

[[abstract]]This study proposes a group decision support system (GDSS), with multiple criteria to assist in recruitment and selection (R&S) processes of human resources. A two-phase decision-making procedure is first suggested; various techniques involving multiple criteria and group participation are then defined corresponding to each step in the procedure. A wide scope of personnel characteristics is evaluated, and the concept of consensus is enhanced. The procedure recommended herein is expected to be more effective than traditional approaches. In addition, the procedure is implemented on a network-based PC system with web interfaces to support the R&S activities. In the final stage, key personnel at a human resources department of a chemical company in southern Taiwan authenticated the feasibility of the illustrated example.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國內[[incitationindex]]SCI[[incitationindex]]E

Decision Management Process Improvement Project

A Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Project ManagementIt has become all too common that questions are raised during the execution of a project pertaining to the decisions that were made early on. Without having maintained a concise, accessible record of project decisions, the project manager and team members would find it difficult to provide hard evidence as to how they got to this point and what impacts specific decisions had on the project’s trajectory. This paper introduces the Decision Management Process Improvement Project (DMPIP), which focuses on improving decision management process throughout the lifecycle of a project with the aim of adding value to project performance and helping obtain project success. This new tool was inspired due to a lack of appropriate methods involving complex projects at a local consulting firm. The process along with the tool is being added to the toolset of a local Consulting Firm. This Firm plans to introduce the tools and techniques to clients that will benefit from an increased Project Management maturity level with improvements to its decision-tracking processes and demonstration of downstream effects of important decisions. The final product is a contribution to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) in the form of creating a Project Decision Management knowledge area in the PMBOK format. A decision log that follows a decision throughout the whole process from problem identification and analysis to the eventual outcome is at the core of the created knowledge area.Title Page / Table of Contents / List of Exhibits / Abstract / Keywords / Introduction / Project Purpose / Project Benefits / Research Methodology / Research Results Analysis / Project Management Approach / Final Products / Conclusion and Recommendations / Opportunities for Future Development / Reference

A model-driven DSS architecture for delivery management in collaborative supply chains with lack of homogeneity in products

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Production Planning & Control: The Management of Operations on 2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09537287.2013.798085Uniform product deliveries are required in the ceramic, horticulture and leather sectors because customers require product homogeneity to use, present or consume them together. Some industries cannot prevent the lack of homogeneity in products in their manufacturing processes; hence, they cannot avoid non-uniform finished products arriving at their warehouses and, consequently, fragmentation of their stocks. Therefore, final uniform product amounts do not match planned production ones, which frequently makes serving previous committed orders with homogeneous quantities impossible. This paper proposes a model-driven decision support system (DSS) to help the person in charge of delivery management to reallocate the available real inventory to orders to satisfy homogenous customer requirements in a collaborative supply chain (SC). The DSS has been validated in a ceramic tile collaborative SC.This research has been carried out within the framework of the project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ref. DPI2011-23597) and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Ref. PAID-06-11/1840) entitled 'Methods and models for operations planning and order management in supply chains characterized by uncertainty in production due to the lack of product uniformity' (PLANGES-FHP). Also, we thank the comments and suggestions made by the Editors and the Reviewers. In our opinion, these changes have improved the quality of the paper.Boza García, A.; Alemany Díaz, MDM.; Alarcón Valero, F.; Cuenca, L. (2014). A model-driven DSS architecture for delivery management in collaborative supply chains with lack of homogeneity in products. Production Planning and Control. 25(8):650-661. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2013.798085S650661258Abid, C., D’amours, S., & Montreuil, B. (2004). Collaborative order management in distributed manufacturing. International Journal of Production Research, 42(2), 283-302. doi:10.1080/00207540310001602919Akkermans, H., Bogerd, P., & van Doremalen, J. (2004). Travail, transparency and trust: A case study of computer-supported collaborative supply chain planning in high-tech electronics. European Journal of Operational Research, 153(2), 445-456. doi:10.1016/s0377-2217(03)00164-4Alarcón, F., Alemany, M. M. E., Lario, F. C., & Oltra, R. F. (2011). La falta de homogeneidad del producto (FHP) en las empresas cerámicas y su impacto en la reasignación del inventario. Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio, 50(1), 49-58. doi:10.3989/cyv.072011Alarcón, F., Alemany, M. M. E., & Ortiz, A. (2009). Conceptual framework for the characterization of the order promising process in a collaborative selling network context. International Journal of Production Economics, 120(1), 100-114. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2008.07.031Alemany, M. M. E., Alarcón, F., Lario, F.-C., & Boj, J. J. (2011). An application to support the temporal and spatial distributed decision-making process in supply chain collaborative planning. Computers in Industry, 62(5), 519-540. doi:10.1016/j.compind.2011.02.002Alemany, M. M. E., Alarcón, F., Ortiz, A., & Lario, F.-C. (2008). Order promising process for extended collaborative selling chain. Production Planning & Control, 19(2), 105-131. doi:10.1080/09537280801896011Alemany, M. M. E., Lario, F.-C., Ortiz, A., & Gómez, F. (2013). Available-To-Promise modeling for multi-plant manufacturing characterized by lack of homogeneity in the product: An illustration of a ceramic case. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 37(5), 3380-3398. doi:10.1016/j.apm.2012.07.022Arshinder, Kanda, A., & Deshmukh, S. G. (2008). Supply chain coordination: Perspectives, empirical studies and research directions. International Journal of Production Economics, 115(2), 316-335. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2008.05.011Azevedo, A. ., & Sousa, J. . (2000). A component-based approach to support order planning in a distributed manufacturing enterprise. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 107(1-3), 431-438. doi:10.1016/s0924-0136(00)00680-4Balakrishnan, A., & Geunes, J. (2000). Requirements Planning with Substitutions: Exploiting Bill-of-Materials Flexibility in Production Planning. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2(2), 166-185. doi:10.1287/msom.2.2.166.12349Bhakoo, V., Singh, P., & Sohal, A. (2012). Collaborative management of inventory in Australian hospital supply chains: practices and issues. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(2), 217-230. doi:10.1108/13598541211212933Bititci, U., Turner, T., Mackay, D., Kearney, D., Parung, J., & Walters, D. (2007). Managing synergy in collaborative enterprises. Production Planning & Control, 18(6), 454-465. doi:10.1080/09537280701494990Boza, A., Ortiz, A., & Cuenca, L. (2010). A Framework for Developing a Web-Based Optimization Decision Support System for Intra/Inter-organizational Decision-Making Processes. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 121-128. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-14341-0_14Framinan, J. M., & Leisten, R. (2009). Available-to-promise (ATP) systems: a classification and framework for analysis. International Journal of Production Research, 48(11), 3079-3103. doi:10.1080/00207540902810544Gomes da Silva, C., Figueira, J., Lisboa, J., & Barman, S. (2006). An interactive decision support system for an aggregate production planning model based on multiple criteria mixed integer linear programming. Omega, 34(2), 167-177. doi:10.1016/j.omega.2004.08.007Hernández, J. E., Poler, R., Mula, J., & Lario, F. C. (2010). The Reverse Logistic Process of an Automobile Supply Chain Network Supported by a Collaborative Decision-Making Model. Group Decision and Negotiation, 20(1), 79-114. doi:10.1007/s10726-010-9205-7Holweg, M., & Pil, F. K. (2007). Theoretical perspectives on the coordination of supply chains. Journal of Operations Management, 26(3), 389-406. doi:10.1016/j.jom.2007.08.003Jagdev, H. S., & Thoben, K.-D. (2001). Anatomy of enterprise collaborations. Production Planning & Control, 12(5), 437-451. doi:10.1080/09537280110042675Kubat, C., Öztemel, E., & Taşkιn, H. (2007). Decision support systems in production planning and control. Production Planning & Control, 18(1), 1-2. doi:10.1080/09537280600940572Lambert, D. M., & Cooper, M. C. (2000). Issues in Supply Chain Management. Industrial Marketing Management, 29(1), 65-83. doi:10.1016/s0019-8501(99)00113-3Lejeune, M. A., & Yakova, N. (2004). On characterizing the 4 C’s in supply chain management. Journal of Operations Management, 23(1), 81-100. doi:10.1016/j.jom.2004.09.004Okongwu, U., Lauras, M., Dupont, L., & Humez, V. (2011). A decision support system for optimising the order fulfilment process. Production Planning & Control, 23(8), 581-598. doi:10.1080/09537287.2011.566230Pibernik, R. (2006). Managing stock‐outs effectively with order fulfilment systems. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 17(6), 721-736. doi:10.1108/17410380610678765Poler, R., Hernandez, J. E., Mula, J., & Lario, F. C. (2008). Collaborative forecasting in networked manufacturing enterprises. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 19(4), 514-528. doi:10.1108/17410380810869941Romano, P. (2003). Co-ordination and integration mechanisms to manage logistics processes across supply networks. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 9(3), 119-134. doi:10.1016/s1478-4092(03)00008-6Zschorn, L. (2006). An extended model of ATP to increase flexibility of delivery. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 19(5), 434-442. doi:10.1080/0951192050039903

Towards the realisation of an integratated decision support environment for organisational decision making

Traditional decision support systems are based on the paradigm of a single decision maker working at a stand‐alone computer or terminal who has a specific decision to make with a specific goal in mind. Organizational decision support systems aim to support decision makers at all levels of an organization (from executive, middle management managers to operators), who have a variety of decisions to make, with different priorities, often in a distributed and dynamic environment. Such systems need to be designed and developed with extra functionality to meet the challenges such as collaborative working. This paper proposes an Integrated Decision Support Environment (IDSE) for organizational decision making. The IDSE distinguishes itself from traditional decision support systems in that it can flexibly configure and re‐configure its functions to support various decision applications. IDSE is an open software platform which allows its users to define their own decision processes and choose their own exiting decision tools to be integrated into the platform. The IDSE is designed and developed based on distributed client/server networking, with a multi‐tier integration framework for consistent information exchange and sharing, seamless process co‐ordination and synchronisation, and quick access to packaged and legacy systems. The prototype of the IDSE demonstrates good performance in agile response to fast changing decision situations

Planning of an organisational and post-structure for the Bureau of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT)

Resulting from financial pressure and the desire to accelerate the completion of lexicographical projects, planning and management aspects are receiving increasing attention by lexicographical institutions. However, these important matters are not adequately emphasized at lexicographical conferences.The topic of this article is the planning and management of a lexicographical project, especially the planning of its organisational and post structure. Although it here concerns the planning and management of the Bureau of the WAT, the views expressed can also be applied to other lexicographical projects.The designing of an organisational and post structure of any institution is closely related to its strategic planning. The decision to adjust the organisational and post structure of the Bureau of the WAT logically resulted from its strategic planning which was done during 1989.For the Bureau to give meaning to its endeavour and to perform its task the organisational and post structure should meet the following requirements:(i)   Work processes, support systems and work ethics should focus on end results;(ii)  The editorial process should be accelerated with the aid of technology and editorial methodology;(iii) Contextual relevance of the content of the WAT should be guaranteed;(iv)  The management culture should be user-driven; and(v)   A business management approach which supports cost sensitivity and which focuses on generation of income.This article discusses the organisational and post structure which has been designed for the Bureau of the WAT with these requirements in mind.Because this article focuses on planners and managers of lexicographical projects and not in the first place on planning and management specialists, some ideas and standard details are being looked at more closely.Keywords: strategic planning, organisational and post structure, group plan, line function, staff supporting service, critical performance area, critical performance output, success indicators, control information, organisational analysis, job evaluation, remuneration structure, remuneration package, organisational diagram, job descriptions, organisational analysis statement, key functions, performance management system, lexicographical project

Implementing ERP systems - organisational implications

Success of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems depend on rigorous and disciplined approach to planning and implementation. This article presents a selection and implementation methodology that has been applied to three similar companies and highlights a wide variation in outcome. The underlying reasons for the variations in success can be specifically attributed to organisational personalities and culture. Analysis of these case studies provides key lessons and concludes by summarising these lessons in a cause and effect diagram