Advanced Techniques for Assets Maintenance Management

16th IFAC Symposium on Information Control Problems in Manufacturing INCOM 2018 Bergamo, Italy, 11–13 June 2018. Edited by Marco Macchi, László Monostori, Roberto PintoThe aim of this paper is to remark the importance of new and advanced techniques supporting decision making in different business processes for maintenance and assets management, as well as the basic need of adopting a certain management framework with a clear processes map and the corresponding IT supporting systems. Framework processes and systems will be the key fundamental enablers for success and for continuous improvement. The suggested framework will help to define and improve business policies and work procedures for the assets operation and maintenance along their life cycle. The following sections present some achievements on this focus, proposing finally possible future lines for a research agenda within this field of assets management

Antecedents and consequences of knowledge integration in product development. An empirical evidence

The purpose of this paper is to explain product development performance through the link between knowledge management and knowledge integration. When product development teams integrate knowledge about two external entities -customers and suppliers, they acquire a better understanding of the market and of each other´s needs and capabilities, which enables them to operate and innovate better than their competitors. In this context, our theoretical framework focuses on the social enablers usually associated to knowledge management, and combine them with knowledge integration as to determine product development performance.

Understanding Applications of Project Planning and Scheduling in Construction Projects

Construction project life-cycle processes must be managed in a more effective and predictable way to meet project stakeholders’ needs. However, there is increasing concern about whether know-how effectively improves understanding of underlying theories of project management processes for construction organizations and their project managers. Project planning and scheduling are considered as key and challenging tools in controlling and monitoring project performance, but many worldwide construction projects appear to give insufficient attention to effective management and definition of project planning, including preplanning stages. Indeed, some planning issues have been completely overlooked, resulting in unsuccessful project performance. There is a lack of knowledge of, and understanding about, the significance of applications of project planning and scheduling theory in construction projects. Thus, improving such knowledge should be incorporated with new management strategies or tools to improve organizational learning and integration in the context of project planning and scheduling. This implies a need to assess project stakeholders’ understanding on the application of project planning and scheduling theories to practice. The main aim was to study and describe project stakeholders’ perspectives regarding a set of identified criteria comprising aspects assumed to be significant in successful project planning and scheduling. The main research question was developed as follows: What level of understanding do project stakeholders have about the application of project planning and scheduling theories in practices of construction projects? This key question is divided into a number of specific questions concerned with various aspects of project planning and scheduling. Three different questionnaire surveys were considered and designed in order to collect and analyse data relevant to the empirical studies presented and discussed under the scope of this thesis. The study context is Oman. The thesis is based on a summary of five appended papers, of which four represent empirical survey studies. The results form the basis of discussions and reflections, and the four key factors identified are: (1) highlighting management tools needed to improve organizational knowledge and understanding of project planning theories and methods; (2) paying particular consideration to the significant factors (enablers and barriers) impacting project planning and scheduling; (3) identifying project management roles and organizational behaviour in planning and scheduling; and (4) increasing project stakeholders’ awareness of front-end planning for a more successful project execution

HOMEBOTS: Intelligent Decentralized Services for Energy Management

The deregulation of the European energy market, combined with emerging advanced capabilities of information technology, provides strategic opportunities for new knowledge-oriented services on the power grid. HOMEBOTS is the namewe have coined for one of these innovative services: decentralized power load management at the customer side, automatically carried out by a `society' of interactive household, industrial and utility equipment. They act as independent intelligent agents that communicate and negotiate in a computational market economy. The knowledge and competence aspects of this application are discussed, using an improved \ud version of task analysis according to the COMMONKADS knowledge methodology. Illustrated by simulation results, we indicate how customer knowledge can be mobilized to achieve joint goals of cost and energy savings. General implications for knowledge creation and its management are discussed

The Unseen Face of E-Business Project Development

The purpose of this paper is intent on identify and analyze the unseen factors of successful or failure of e-business project development. The IT managers must take into account both all costs involved in e-business development and all phases (analysis, design, testing, implementation, maintenance and operation) according to principle of project management for software/systems life cycle development. There are many solutions to exceed these factors of failure among could be counted outsourcing, a good project management, involvement of senior management, a real cost estimation etc.Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej nauk

What characterizes leading companies within business excellence models? An analysis of “EFQM recognized for excellence” recipients in Spain

This paper investigates whether there is a specific approach to the adoption of best management practices embedded in the EFQM Excellence Model, which characterizes leading “Recognized for Excellence” organizations in Spain. In addition, it studies which practices within EFQM’s enablers predict high performance. In contrast to most previous research that used surveys of managers’ perceptions, this study uses the actual criteria and sub-criteria scores attained by organizations in their assessment for EFQM recognition. Scores of a population of 216 organizations, which were assessed in the period from March 2011 to March 2013, are analyzed via ANOVA, factor and regression analyses. The findings show that Spanish organizations adopt the best practices encompassing the EFQM model in a similar fashion: organizations on average follow parallel trends in the scores received per criterion, and there are no significant differences in the importance attributed to enablers. Either role models are being followed, or most organizations know what is expected by the assessors and try to fulfil these expectations. Consequently, an imitative process disseminates and legitimizes the EFQM model in Spain. In addition, it is found that the People criterion makes a difference in attaining high performance, thus emphasizing the relative importance of the softer dimension in Quality Management. This study contributes to the management literature on best practices, by highlighting a consistent trend in the use of the EFQM model, and also provides insights to managers on how to better allocate resources within Business Excellence Models

Application of an Enterprise Modelling approach to deploy Systems Engineering processes in large organizations

Enterprise Modelling (EM) enables the representation of companies' activities, of their resources along with their roles and responsibilities in order to share the company's knowledge and support performance analysis. For this, EM promotes various concepts, techniques, frameworks, modelling languages and tools today widely used in companies. Currently, even a partial model of an enterprise constitutes a way to communicate, to share advices, to analyse and to make decisions. Therefore, EM appears to be a privileged tool to support any business change management. In a complementary way, Systems Engineering (SE) is a tried and tested methodological approach to design and test new products whatever their complexity or nature. Nowadays SE is considered in industry as a competitive and structured approach enabling a company to manage design activities and more generally to improve its capacity and ability to design complex systems efficiently. SE acts as a model-based engineering approach and promotes to this end a set of standardized collaborative processes, modelling languages and frameworks. Thus, when considering large companies designing complex systems such as a helicopter manufacturer, first it appears critical to be able to adapt processes proposed by SE standardization according to the business specific needs. This tailoring must be guided in order to consider the inherent complexity of the organization, the various human actors' profiles and skills, tools and stakeholders involved in the design of new products. As they all have to communicate and interact efficiently together their abilities and capacities to be interoperable i.e. to really work together should be analysed and improved accordingly before going further. Then, it appears necessary to prepare the company for the required changes, and to deploy in situ the adopted SE processes taking into account not only company's classical constrains and objectives but also the current level of interoperability of its elements. Finally, company managers must become able to control and adjust these processes from the cradle to the grave according to feedbacks from their stakeholders. To support all these activities, Enterprise Modelling (EM) provides several techniques, modelling languages, reference models and interoperability assessment methods which have been adapted and applied in this research work. The purpose of this article is threefold: 1) to provide a state of the art in interoperability, Systems Engineering (SE), and EM to illustrate how these disciplines are interrelated, to identify the needs they imply in the deployment, to discuss lacks in existing works considering these needs and thus to formulate how we aim to meet them, 2) to present an approach based on EM helping companies to lead changes required to apply SE principles and aiming to promote interoperability; and 3) to introduce the modelling environment proposed to support the approach including an ontology, an extension of BPMN 2.0 and software tools

Cloud Computing Adoption in the South African Public Sector

Scholars have touted a variety of benefits for adopting cloud computing solutions in the public sector. However, the  adoption of cloud computing has been low in the South African (SA) government context. This study investigates the factors influencing cloud computing adoption within the SA public sector. The study adopted a case study approach. The research was informed by the Technological Organisational Environmental (TOE) and the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theoretical frameworks to understand the trajectory of cloud computing adoption. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with respondents from government departments. Additionally, secondary data from government Information Technology (IT) policies and strategic documents was analysed. The results highlighted that the enablers that are critical for cloud adoption include cloud computing policy, skills, IT infrastructure and financial support. The barriers that are hindering cloud adoption are related to security risks, network connection, cloud computing policy, costs and budget availability, among others. The identified benefits that may be realised through cloud adoption include enhanced service improvement, cost savings, high system availability, green IT, centralised and shared services and accessibility. The study proposes several guiding principles for cloud computing adoption in the public sector

Development Of An Integrated Operating Framework For Strategy Execution In Gauteng Municipalities In South Africa

The establishment of a new democracy has created high expectations amongst all the different communities of South Africa. The demand for basic essential services by the previously disadvantaged communities has increased drastically, whilst at the same time, communities from developed areas are expecting and demanding an acceptable level of maintenance and services in their respective areas. Municipalities are in serious distress with regular service delivery protests, huge service delivery and infrastructure backlog challenges (e.g., electricity, roads, housing, water, and sanitation), poor financial management and the inability to execute approved strategies, plans, and programs. This article focused on the municipalities in the Gauteng Province of South Africa and the main objective was to answer the survey question: “What prevents Gauteng municipalities to successfully execute its strategies and what can be done to address the situation?” The research objectives were firstly, to review the literature and determine the key enablers required for successful strategy execution; secondly, to analyze the findings of the empirical research and to make recommendations towards the improvement of strategy execution within Gauteng municipalities. The third and final objective was to develop an integrated operating framework for strategy execution in Gauteng municipalities. The article concluded by making recommendations towards the improvement of strategy execution within municipalities and developing an integrated operating framework for strategy execution. The results of the literature review as well as the empirical research were taken into account during the development of the integrated operating framework