71,416 research outputs found
SMEs: ERP or virtual collaboration teams
Small firms are indeed the engines of global economic growth. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role to promote economic development. SMEs in the beginning of implementing new technologies always face capital shortage and need technological assistance. Available ERP systems do not fulfil the specific requirements of Small firms. SMEs has scarce resources and manpower therefore many SMEs don?t have the possessions to buy and operate an ERP System. On the other hand competition and competitiveness of SMEs have to be strengthened. This paper briefly reviews the existing perspectives on virtual teams and their effect on SMEs management. It also discusses the main characteristics of virtual teams and clarifies the differences aspects of virtual team application in SMEs. After outlining some of the main advantages and pitfall of such teams, it concentrates on comparing of ERP and virtual collaborative teams in SMEs. Finally, it provides evidence for the need of ?Software as a Service (SaaS)? where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the web for SMEs as an alternative of ERP. It has been widely argued that ERP disadvantage in SMEs such as administrative expenditure and cost, isolated structure, severe lack of software flexibility, insufficient support of SMEs business and high operating cost, lead SMEs to use virtual collaborative team which is net work base solution
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A framework of justification criteria for advanced manufacturing technology implementation in small and medium enterprises
Today in order to stay in businesses and prosper, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are seeking higher electiveness and competitiveness across the entire cycle of marketing, product design, manufacture, test and sales. SMEs play an increasingly important role in all aspects of competitiveness: both products and production techniques, but also management methods, the organization of the firm and human resources training. One of the ways by which SMEs can achieve a competitive advantage in manufacturing is through the implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT). An increasing number of them have chosen and are choosing various levels of AMT as the solution. Realizing the importance of SMEs, an attempt has been made in this paper to review the application of AMT in SMEs. Also, a framework has been offered for the implementation of AMT in SMEs. Finally, a summary of findings and conclusions are presented
The role of high-performance people management practices in Industry 4.0: The case of medium-sized Spanish firms
Purpose: This paper wants to build the case for the key role of high-performance people management
practices in the development of I4.0 in SMEs. The research upon which this paper is based wants to
prove that the consolidation of those practices should be a priority for any company willing to embark
in this journey. The paper deals specifically with medium-sized Spanish firms which, on top, are already
having significant issues with digitization.
Design/methodology: The paper starts by digging into the literature to see how past technologies
have impacted productivity, followed by a review of the material available on digitization and Industry
4.0. It moves on to explore the relationship between people management practices, productivity and
innovation. Finally, the focus is placed on Spanish medium-sized companies, understanding their current
levels of consolidation of high-performance people management practices as well as digitization. With
all this information, several propositions are posited for validation using the Delphi methodology.
Findings: I4.0 is, at its core, about productivity improvements through business process and business
model innovation. People management practices are found to be strongly correlated with both
productivity and innovation. It has also been found that Spanish medium-sized firms already have a
significant initial gap compared to those of other OECD countries not only in productivity, but also
people management practices and digitization. The experts seem to agree on the key role of people
management practices and that they should be a high priority for any firm seriously thinking about
industry 4.0. This is not to say that strategy or leadership will not play a paramount role in any digital
transformation, but to emphasize the fact that the normally-forgotten people management practices will
be important enablers in this process.
Originality/value: It is believed that this is a topic that has been mostly neglected in the I4.0 literature.
In that sense, the findings of this paper could be relevant for small and medium-sized businesses
embarking on the industry 4.0 journey. This will entail a significant investment of time and money and,
if the key role of people management practices is not on the radar screen, it may have significant
implications for the success of those ventures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Community Development Evaluation Storymap and Legend
Community based organizations, funders, and intermediary organizations working in the community development field have a shared interest in building stronger organizations and stronger communities. Through evaluation these organizations can learn how their programs and activities contribute to the achievement of these goals, and how to improve their effectiveness and the well-being of their communities. Yet, evaluation is rarely seen as part of a non-judgemental organizational learning process. Instead, the term "evaluation" has often generated anxiety and confusion. The Community Development Storymap project is a response to those concerns.Illustrations found in this document were produced by Grove Consultants
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
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Investigating factors influencing the decision making process for ERP adoption and implementation: An exploratory case study
The rapid developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have resulted into a borderless business environment along with an amplified market competition. Traversing through such a trend globally, organisations have significantly focused on adopting and implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to automate their prime business processes, enhance organisational productivity with lower costs and prompt service delivery to fulfil consumer demands. Thus, ERP systems are considered as a principal source to provide imperative information vital for strategic decision making process. On the contrary, ERP systems adoption and implementation is also highly considered as a challenging and expensive process that not only requires rigorous efforts but also demands to have an exhaustive investigation of influential factors that are critical to the adoption and implementation of ERP systems. A plethora of research studies have been theorised exploring factors influencing the decision making process for ERP adoption and implementation; however, the authors claim that these studies are not filtered comprehensively in terms of the different perspectives. Notwithstanding, the implications of such research have yet to be assessed, leaving scope for timeliness and novel research. This paper thus focuses on the ERP critical success factors from five different perspectives such as: stakeholders; process; technology; organisation; and project based on the literature analysis. These perspectives comprise of 24 factors that are imperative for a successful ERP adoption and implementation, which are validated through a qualitative single case study based research. The empirical findings illustrate that these factor help realise significant benefits such as reducing costs and saving time or extra effort
SMEs; Virtual research and development (R&D) teams and new product development: A literature review
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are indeed the engines of global economic growth. Their continued growth is a major subject for the economy and employment of any country. Towards that end, virtual research and development (R&D) could be a viable option to sustain and ease the operations of SMEs. However, literature shows there has not been a great deal of research into the diverse characteristic of virtual R&D teams in SMEs. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R&D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the literature review is to provide an outline on the structure and dynamics of R&D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the rationale and relevance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R&D team for SMEs and new product development (NPD) has been examined. It concludes with identifying the gaps and feebleness in the existing literature and calls for future research in this area. It is argued to form of virtual R&D team deserves consideration at top level management for venturing into the new product development within SMEs
Effects of storage temperature and storage duration of biodiesel properties, visual appearances and emision
Biofuels based on vegetable oils offer the advantage being a sustainable and
environmentally attractive alternative to conventional petroleum based fuel. Biodiesel is
produced from any fat or oil such as soybean oil, through a refinery process called
transesterification. The key issue in using vegetable oil-based fuels is oxidation stability,
stoichiometric point, bio-fuel composition, antioxidants on the degradation and much
oxygen with comparing to diesel gas oil. Biodiesel can be used as a pure fuel or blended
with petroleum in any percentage but the standard storage and handling procedures used
for biodiesel are the main issue due to the biodiesel fuel specifications. In the quest for
fulfill the industry specifications standard; the fuel should be stored in a clean, dry and
dark environment. In this research, three different storage temperature were study which
are; low (0 – 5 °C), ambient (25 – 29 °C), and high (40 – 50 °C). The key parameters
that are required to store biodiesel are discussed, and the recent research advances are
noted. Five types of biodiesel after storage all the samples for 2016 hours were tested
plus with two product of combustion. Images analysis for combustion process was used
to image appearances analysis. Under 2016 hours of storage duration, the effect of
degradation was happen although the effect is not significance because the changes are
still in acceptable ranges
Virtual R&D teams in small and medium enterprises: a literature review
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the driving engine behind economic growth. While SMEs play a critical role in generating employment and supporting trade, they face numerous challenges, the prominent among them are the need to respond to fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Towards that end, research and development (R & D) aspect deserves particular attention to promote and facilitate the operations of SMEs. Virtual R & D team could be a viable option. However, literature shows that virtual R & D teaming in SMEs is still at its infancy. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R & D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the state-of-the-art literature review is to provide an overview on the structure and dynamics of R & D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the foundation and importance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R & D team and SMEs has been examined. It concludes with the identification of the gaps in the existing literature's and calls for future research. It is argued that setting-up an infrastructure for virtual R & D team in SMEs still requires a large amount of engineering efforts and deserves consideration at top level management
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Challenges and influential factors in ERP adoption and implementation
The adoption and implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is a challenging and expensive task that not only requires rigorous efforts but also demands to have a detailed analysis of such factors that are critical to the adoption or implementation of ERP systems. Many efforts have been made to identify such influential factors for ERP; however, they are not filtered comprehensively in terms of the different perspectives. This paper focuses on the ERP critical success factors from five different perspectives such as: stakeholders; process; technology; organisation; and project. Results from the literature review are presented and 19 such factors are identified that are imperative for a successful ERP implementation, which are listed in order of their importance. Considering these factors can realize several benefits such as reducing costs and saving time or extra effort
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