Goal model integration for tailoring product line development processes

Many companies rely on the promised benefits of product lines, targeting systems between fully custom made software and mass products. Such customized mass products account for a large number of applications automatically derived from a product line. This results in the special importance of product lines for companies with a large part of their product portfolio based on their product line. The success of product line development efforts is highly dependent on tailoring the development process. This paper presents an integrative model of influence factors to tailor product line development processes according to different project needs, organizational goals, individual goals of the developers or constraints of the environment. This model integrates goal models, SPEM models and requirements to tailor development processes

Paths to Innovation in Supply Chains: The Landscape of Future Research

This chapter presents a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for supply chain and it is the result of an intensive work jointly performed involving a wide network of stakeholders from discrete manufacturing, process industry and logistics sector to put forward a vision to strengthen European Supply Chains for the next decade. The work is based on matching visions from literature and from experts with several iterations between desk research and workshops, focus groups and interviews. The result is a detailed analysis of the supply chain strategies identified as most relevant for the next years and definition of the related research and innovation topics as future developments and steps for the full implementation of the strategies, thus proposing innovative and cutting-edge actions to be implemented based on technological development and organisational change

Overcoming digitalization-driven challenges in banks : An exploration of theory and practice towards improving Enterprise Architecture Management’s ability to support rapid change

Banks increasingly need the ability to implement rapid change to react to changes in technology, user demands, and regulations that are difficult to foresee. The complex information systems (IS) and process landscape of incumbent banks impede this ability. Enterprise architecture management (EAM), as a function that aims to oversee the coherent development of the IS and IT landscape in alignment with the business, is argued to have the capability to support this ability. However, the speed and uncertainty of changes, as well as a focus of banks to implement Agile project methodolo-gies and de-centralize decision-making, challenges EAM to effectively fulfill this role. A Theoretical Base model is constructed from the literature and promising approaches to increase the effectiveness are identified. An exploratory case study of three large banks that are affected by digitalization to different extents, is conducted on the basis of this model. The findings indicate non-technical issues to be the most challenging factors for EAM today, which need to be addressed to allow EAM to valuably support banks’ ability to accommodate rapid change by providing transparency, guidance for projects regarding processes and technology, as well as steering for the long-term evolution of the IT landscape. EAM can help banks most effectively by supporting cross-team communication and facilitating reduced complexity in the long-run

Next Generation Supply Chains

This open access book explores supply chains strategies to help companies face challenges such as societal emergency, digitalization, climate changes and scarcity of resources. The book identifies industrial scenarios for the next decade based on the analysis of trends at social, economic, environmental technological and political level, and examines how they may impact on supply chain processes and how to design next generation supply chains to answer these challenges. By mapping enabling technologies for supply chain innovation, the book proposes a roadmap for the full implementation of the supply chain strategies based on the integration of production and logistics processes. Case studies from process industry, discrete manufacturing, distribution and logistics, as well as ICT providers are provided, and policy recommendations are put forward to support companies in this transformative process

Hybrid modeling to support the smart manufacturing: concepts, theoretic contributions and real-case applications about Hybrid and Wisdom-based Systems

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Minimum Viable Model (MVM) Methodology for Integration of Agile Methods into Operational Simulation of Logistics

Background: Logistics problems involve a large number of complexities, which makes the development of models challenging. While computer simulation models are developed for addressing complexities, it is essential to ensure that the necessary operational behaviours are captured, and that the architecture of the model is suitable to represent them. The early stage of simulation modelling, known as conceptual modelling (CM), is thus dependent on successfully extracting tacit operational knowledge and avoiding misunderstanding between the client (customer of the model) and simulation analyst. Objective: This paper developed a methodology for managing the knowledge-acquisition process needed to create a sufficient simulation model at the early or the CM stage to ensure the correctness of operation representation. Methods: A minimum viable model (MVM) methodology was proposed with five principles relevant to CM: iterative development, embedded communication, soliciting tacit knowledge, interactive face validity, and a sufficient model. The method was validated by a case study of freight operations, and the results were encouraging. Conclusions: The MVM method improved the architecture of the simulation model through eliciting tacit knowledge and clearing up communication misunderstandings. It also helped shape the architecture of the model towards the features most appreciated by the client, and features not needed in the model. Originality: The novel contribution of this work is the presentation of a method for eliciting tacit information from industrial clients, and building a minimally sufficient simulation model at the early modelling stage. The framework is demonstrated for logistics operations, though the principles may benefit simulation practitioners more generally.</jats:p

Industrialising Software Development in Systems Integration

Compared to other disciplines, software engineering as of today is still dependent on craftsmanship of highly-skilled workers. However, with constantly increasing complexity and efforts, existing software engineering approaches appear more and more inefficient. A paradigm shift towards industrial production methods seems inevitable. Recent advances in academia and practice have lead to the availability of industrial key principles in software development as well. Specialization is represented in software product lines, standardization and systematic reuse are available with component-based development, and automation has become accessible through model-driven engineering. While each of the above is well researched in theory, only few cases of successful implementation in the industry are known. This becomes even more evident in specialized areas of software engineering such as systems integration. Today’s IT systems need to quickly adapt to new business requirements due to mergers and acquisitions and cooperations between enterprises. This certainly leads to integration efforts, i.e. joining different subsystems into a cohesive whole in order to provide new functionality. In such an environment. the application of industrial methods for software development seems even more important. Unfortunately, software development in this field is a highly complex and heterogeneous undertaking, as IT environments differ from customer to customer. In such settings, existing industrialization concepts would never break even due to one-time projects and thus insufficient economies of scale and scope. This present thesis, therefore, describes a novel approach for a more efficient implementation of prior key principles while considering the characteristics of software development for systems integration. After identifying the characteristics of the field and their affects on currently-known industrialization concepts, an organizational model for industrialized systems integration has thus been developed. It takes software product lines and adapts them in a way feasible for a systems integrator active in several business domains. The result is a three-tiered model consolidating recurring activities and reducing the efforts for individual product lines. For the implementation of component-based development, the present thesis assesses current component approaches and applies an integration metamodel to the most suitable one. This ensures a common understanding of systems integration across different product lines and thus alleviates component reuse, even across product line boundaries. The approach is furthermore aligned with the organizational model to depict in which way component-based development may be applied in industrialized systems integration. Automating software development in systems integration with model-driven engineering was found to be insufficient in its current state. The reason herefore lies in insufficient tool chains and a lack of modelling standards. As an alternative, an XML-based configuration of products within a software product line has been developed. It models a product line and its products with the help of a domain-specific language and utilizes stylesheet transformations to generate compliable artefacts. The approach has been tested for its feasibility within an exemplarily implementation following a real-world scenario. As not all aspects of industrialized systems integration could be simulated in a laboratory environment, the concept was furthermore validated during several expert interviews with industry representatives. Here, it was also possible to assess cultural and economic aspects. The thesis concludes with a detailed summary of the contributions to the field and suggests further areas of research in the context of industrialized systems integration

Next Generation Supply Chains:A Roadmap for Research and Innovation

This open access book explores supply chains strategies to help companies face challenges such as societal emergency, digitalization, climate changes and scarcity of resources. The book identifies industrial scenarios for the next decade based on the analysis of trends at social, economic, environmental technological and political level, and examines how they may impact on supply chain processes and how to design next generation supply chains to answer these challenges. By mapping enabling technologies for supply chain innovation, the book proposes a roadmap for the full implementation of the supply chain strategies based on the integration of production and logistics processes. Case studies from process industry, discrete manufacturing, distribution and logistics, as well as ICT providers are provided, and policy recommendations are put forward to support companies in this transformative process

Management, Technology and Learning for Individuals, Organisations and Society in Turbulent Environments

This book presents the collection of fifty two papers which were presented on the First International Conference on BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY ’08 - Management, Technology and Learning for Individuals, Organisations and Society in Turbulent Environments, held in Ofir, Portugal, from 25th to 27th of June, 2008. The main motive of the meeting was the growing awareness of the importance of the sustainability issue. This importance had emerged from the growing uncertainty of the market behaviour that leads to the characterization of the market, i.e. environment, as turbulent. Actually, the characterization of the environment as uncertain and turbulent reflects the fact that the traditional technocratic and/or socio-technical approaches cannot effectively and efficiently lead with the present situation. In other words, the rise of the sustainability issue means the quest for new instruments to deal with uncertainty and/or turbulence. The sustainability issue has a complex nature and solutions are sought in a wide range of domains and instruments to achieve and manage it. The domains range from environmental sustainability (referring to natural environment) through organisational and business sustainability towards social sustainability. Concerning the instruments for sustainability, they range from traditional engineering and management methodologies towards “soft” instruments such as knowledge, learning, creativity. The papers in this book address virtually whole sustainability problems space in a greater or lesser extent. However, although the uncertainty and/or turbulence, or in other words the dynamic properties, come from coupling of management, technology, learning, individuals, organisations and society, meaning that everything is at the same time effect and cause, we wanted to put the emphasis on business with the intention to address primarily the companies and their businesses. From this reason, the main title of the book is “Business Sustainability” but with the approach of coupling Management, Technology and Learning for individuals, organisations and society in Turbulent Environments. Concerning the First International Conference on BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY, its particularity was that it had served primarily as a learning environment in which the papers published in this book were the ground for further individual and collective growth in understanding and perception of sustainability and capacity for building new instruments for business sustainability. In that respect, the methodology of the conference work was basically dialogical, meaning promoting dialog on the papers, but also including formal paper presentations. In this way, the conference presented a rich space for satisfying different authors’ and participants’ needs. Additionally, promoting the widest and global learning environment and participativeness, the Conference Organisation provided the broadcasting over Internet of the Conference sessions, dialogical and formal presentations, for all authors’ and participants’ institutions, as an innovative Conference feature. In these terms, this book could also be understood as a complementary instrument to the Conference authors’ and participants’, but also to the wider readerships’ interested in the sustainability issues. The book brought together 97 authors from 10 countries, namely from Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Sweden and United Kingdom. The authors “ranged” from senior and renowned scientists to young researchers providing a rich and learning environment. At the end, the editors hope and would like that this book will be useful, meeting the expectation of the authors and wider readership and serving for enhancing the individual and collective learning, and to incentive further scientific development and creation of new papers. Also, the editors would use this opportunity to announce the intention to continue with new editions of the conference and subsequent editions of accompanying books on the subject of BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY, the second of which is planned for year 2011.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development and implementation of a comprehensive construction management approach through collaborative interaction of 5D BIM design, multi-flexible construction execution organization, and continuous improvement principles

RESUMEN: Aunque en los últimos años se han implementado enormes avances tecnológicos y estratégicos en el sector de la construcción, existe un margen sustancial de mejora. La presente tesis descubre por qué las herramientas de programación aplicadas actualmente y los enfoques de organización de proyectos basados en la agilidad no han alcanzado todavía todo su potencial. La falta de interrelación entre los aspectos de diseño, coste y tiempo del proyecto dentro de la fase de diseño del mismo y su escasa utilización a lo largo de la ejecución del proyecto se señalan como los factores que contribuyen a la lentitud del desarrollo. Para cambiar fundamentalmente esta situación, se propone una solución de organización de proyectos amplia y coherente. El proceso clave de esta solución utiliza un modelo de información de construcción 5D que comprende estrechas concatenaciones entre los objetos individuales del modelo y los correspondientes valores de coste de construcción y esfuerzo de tiempo. Las fechas clave de una simulación del proceso de construcción en cascada, establecidas durante la fase de planificación del proyecto, proporcionan información particular para crear una estructura para la ejecución ágil y organizada del proyecto. La implementación de bucles de retroalimentación de la información permite realizar comparaciones entre los objetivos y la realidad y contribuye a mejorar continuamente la planificación futura. Se llevó a cabo un estudio de caso comparativo con resultados auspiciosos sobre las mejoras en el rendimiento general del proyecto y la fiabilidad del calendario y los costes.ABSTRACT: Although tremendous technological and strategic advances have been implemented in the construction sector in recent years, there is substantial room for improvements. The present thesis discovers why the currently applied scheduling tools and agile-based project organization approaches have not yet achieved their full potential. A missing interlinkage between the project’s design, cost, and time aspects within the project design phase and its sparse utilization throughout project execution were indicated as the driving contributors responsible for the slow progress in development. To fundamentally change this situation, an extensive and coherent project organization solution is proposed. The key process of this solution utilizes a 5D Building Information Model comprising tight concatenations between the individual model objects and the corresponding construction cost and time effort values. The key dates of a waterfall-based construction process simulation, set during the project planning phase, provide particular information to create a structure for agile organized project execution. The implementation of information feedback loops allows target/actual comparisons and contributes to continual improvements in future planning. A comparative case study was conducted with auspicious results on improvements in the overall project performance, and schedule and cost reliability