Industrialization in Cloud Computing with Enterprise Systems: Order-to-Cash Automation for SaaS Products

Industrialization has led to efficiency and effectiveness gains in manufacturing industries. Industrialization approaches such as standardization or sourcing are also key concepts in modern service companies. Therefore, current IS research studies how to transfer industrialization approaches to IT service production in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Automated and integrated value creation, as supported by ERP systems, have only been limitedly researched in the context of IT service production, although companies see this as an important area of improvement. In this paper, a model of how to automate and integrate an order-to-cash process for providers who offer SaaS products is proposed. The focus lies on the service provisioning process step and the model is evaluated with a prototype implementation. This research has implications for researchers and practitioners alike, as it proposes how to more effectively and efficiently deliver IT services, and use established IS research to do so

The experiences of Malaysian in industrialised building system (IBS) to enhance construct ability and sustainability in construction project

The reality of construction is that most of the problems encountered in the field such as reworks, delay and low in quality or productivity are often compounded by inherent design flaws that generated in the design phase.Implementing construct ability concept is an alternative solution to overcome the problem.Construct ability is often portrayed as integrating construction knowledge, resource, technology and experience into the engineering and design of a project.Since 1998, Malaysian government through Construction Industry Development Board seriously took an action to reform the current construction practice (currently use conventional method) towards industrialization concept.One of the main strategies been taken by the government which introduced a concept of design of prefabrication, pre-assembly and modularization especially in public projects.This paper will highlight the initiative be done by in the Malaysian construction industry to implement that system and indirectly the concept of construct ability will be enhanced

Ein methodisches Rahmenwerk zur Gestaltung der Produktarchitektur bei der Konzeption

Product architecture represents the structure of products or product families from different perspectives. By an explicit consideration of product architecture during the design process, the achievement of various design goals can be supported. For this, methodical approaches for product architecture design exist that focus, for instance, on modularization, platform development, or function integration. However, for designers and researchers, the variety of existing approaches causes the challenge to select and apply those approaches most suitable for specific situations in design. The aim of this thesis is to gain an overarching understanding of approaches for product architecture design. Therefore, existing approaches are analyzed regarding their contributions to different fields of design research, for instance, their proposed product models to represent product architecture and their design principles to improve the product architecture. In this way, the basis for a framework is elaborated that includes and expediently classifies the relevant knowledge from a variety of established approaches. To allow designers to access this knowledge, supports are developed that guide designers through the main activities regarding the consideration of product architecture. The application of the framework is demonstrated by case studies aiming at the conceptualization of product families and improving existing products by considering alternative product architectures. The results contribute towards both design practice and design research. On the one hand, the framework allows designers to gain a comprehensive understanding of product architecture design and enables them to select and apply approaches most appropriate for their individual design tasks. On the other hand, design research is enriched by an overarching concept of product architecture design allowing researchers to allocate own work in the context of others and elaborate new knowledge on the basis of already existing knowledge.Die Produktarchitektur bildet die Struktur von Produkten und Produktfamilien ab. Durch eine explizite Berücksichtigung der Produktarchitektur während der Produktentwicklung kann die Erreichung von einer Vielzahl von Entwicklungszielen unterstützt werden. Aus diesem Grund existieren methodische Ansätze für die Gestaltung der Produktarchitektur, die beispielsweise auf Modularisierung, Baukastenentwicklung oder Funktionsintegration abzielen. Für Produktentwickler/innen und Forscher/innen ist es allerdings eine Herausforderung, in der Vielzahl bestehender Ansätze die am besten geeigneten für spezifische Entwicklungssituationen auszuwählen und anzuwenden. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein übergeordnetes Verständnis von Ansätzen zur Gestaltung der Produktarchitektur zu erlangen. Dafür werden existierende Ansätze hinsichtlich ihrer Beiträge zu unterschiedlichen Forschungsfeldern analysiert, zum Beispiel, den vorgeschlagenen Produktmodellen zur Abbildung der Produktarchitektur und den Prinzipien zur Gestaltung der Produktarchitektur. Somit wird die Basis für ein Rahmenwerk geschaffen, welches das relevante Wissen einer Vielzahl etablierter Ansätze umfasst und zweckmäßig klassifiziert. Um Entwickler/innen einen Zugriff auf das Wissen zur ermöglichen, werden Hilfsmittel entwickelt, die sie durch zentrale Aktivitäten der Gestaltung der Produktarchitektur führen. Die Anwendung des Rahmenwerks wird in Fallstudien demonstriert, die auf die Konzeption von Produktfamilien und die Verbesserung bestehender Produkte durch alternative Produktarchitekturen abzielen. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit leisten sowohl einen Beitrag zur praktischen Produktentwicklung als auch zur Forschung. Einerseits ermöglicht das Rahmenwerk Entwickler/innen ein umfassendes Verständnis von der Gestaltung der Produktarchitektur zu erlangen und ertüchtigt sie, geeignete Ansätze für spezifische Entwicklungssituationen auszuwählen und anzuwenden. Anderseits wird der Stand der Forschung um ein übergeordnetes Konzept für die Gestaltung der Produktarchitektur erweitert, das es Forscher/innen erlaubt, eigene Arbeiten in den Kontext anderer zu setzen und neue Ansätze unter Berücksichtigung von bestehendem Wissen zu erarbeiten

Cyber-Physical-Systems for Fluid Manufacturing Systems

Increased volatility continues to challenge the automotive manufacturer's production performance. More than a century after the start of mass production, changeable production systems that allow the flexibility for the economic mass production of customized products have arisen. Limitations on established production systems are driving the development of changeable production systems like the Fluid Manufacturing System (FLMS). In an FLMS, the individual production modules are mobile and consist of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) which can be combined ad-hoc to adapt to changing requirements. By connecting different CPS - e.g., Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) or smart load carriers - adaptable and flexible production will be achieved. This paper presents the first real-world initiation of an FLMS with the design and development of CPS and digital twins for production and logistics at the ARENA2036 research campus

A lightweight method for improving coordination in distributed, high-variability product companies

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-75).Product companies face new challenges as they continue to expand their international footprints. Whereas globalization initially sought savings by outsourcing production to low-cost regions, emerging markets now present new sales opportunities with unique customer demands. Companies increasingly must be sensitive to local expectations at the same time that products are becoming more technology rich and with shorter life cycles. Improved coordination that enables greater speed, flexibility, and multi-market effectiveness is particularly important as companies shift engineering and commercial responsibilities to formerly production-only centers. This study develops and demonstrates an approach to one domain of coordination-the flow of material and related information between globally distributed sites-based on lessons from engineer-to- order (ETO) operating models. By examining contemporary trends in ETO and identifying several generalizable tensions, this study outlines key parameters that distinguish dynamic coordination needs from those embedded in conventional process improvement frameworks. The five-step approach developed in this paper takes a dynamic systems perspective on organizational interfaces and seeks to build feedback mechanisms at multiple levels. It targets the knowledge-transfer, business planning, and execution levels of material management while also addressing the behavioral and practical components of implementation. In doing so, the approach recognizes that uneven process maturity and uncertain external demands must be accommodated. It argues that traditional approaches to coordination have had limited success, because they are slow to adapt and encourage circumvention. Whereas these past methods have exchanged reduced process "waste" for greatly increased rigidity and process housekeeping, the proposed method seeks reinforcing loops that align stakeholders without exhaustive process definition or significant maintenance. A detailed case study at a global ETO business group illustrates the method and its initial results in an environment of limited patience for formal process development. The resulting portfolio of change initiatives, which includes inter-site service level commitments, local forecast sharing, service parts forecasting, and reverse logistics, demonstrates an integrative approach to business site interfaces that attempts to tie local short-term performance with global long-term success.by Brian S. Hendrickson.S.M.M.B.A

A Capability Framework for IT Service Integration and Management in Multi-Sourcing

Multi-sourcing, the blending of services from multiple external and internal providers, has gradually become the standard mode of operation in IT outsourcing. It allows companies to assemble a best-of-breed provider portfolio and to reduce costs. A key difference between single- and multi-sourcing is the potential interdependence between services delivered by multiple providers. To deliver a seamless service to the client’s business units, various services often need to be integrated and managed as an end-to-end service. This activity is denoted as service integration and management. Many clients, however, are having difficulties implementing and performing this important task. Therefore, we explore which IT capabilities organizations need to build for performing service integration and management. \ \ After deriving challenges from literature, we perform a multi-stage qualitative study based on a series of focus group sessions and expert interviews. In a qualitative content analysis, we develop a framework of IT capabilities which enable successful service integration and management by addressing the key challenges. We, thus, aim to contribute to more effective multi-sourcing solutions in practice and to lay the groundwork for future research in this important field

Improving order-to-delivery process : Case study:Company X

Improving companies’ processes is one of the core ways to gain competitive advantage in today’s markets. Identifying the problem areas and finding solutions for them is an essential part of companies’ survival and therefore companies are investing in process improvement even more especially when they are preparing themselves for changes. Improving the company’s operations in engineer-to-order environments differs from the other manufacturing strategies due to the lack of standardization in the order-to-delivery process. The purpose of this research is to discover the issues that engineer-to-order manufacturing companies are struggling with and to find ways to improve the case company’s order-to-delivery process. This research also considers the ways that the process and its practices can be standardized in the engineer-to-order environment. The aim is to provide information of the company’s current process and its problems and find solutions for those issues to improve the overall performance of their order-to-delivery process. At the beginning of this research there is a literature review which contains the basic phases of process improvement, the stages and characteristics of the order-to-delivery process in engineer-to-order environment and the common methodologies for process improvement. The information from the literature review is used to form common themes for the empirical part of the research. The empirical part is a single case study where the data is collected through a workshop, interviews and observations. The data is analyzed with fishbone diagrams, five whys tool and with a value stream map. The results from the analysis are used to evaluate the company’s process and to create solutions for the company to implement afterwards. Based on the results, many of the problems in the engineer-to-order environment can be derived from the lack of standardization in the process and its practices. Bad communication practices are creating several other problems and creating better, more standard, ways to communicate and document all actions and data in daily bases is critical for the company’s process performance to be improved. Many phases, as well as the products, can be standardized in some way, but making those changes requires time and resources that must be saved and relocated from the on-value adding activities that are currently done. Measuring the process provides valuable information about the performance and helps identifying problem areas. Managements participation and employees’ proactive attitudes are incredibly important for the process to be successfully improved. This is a single case study for a small company in a very specific business field, and therefore the generalization of the results can be questioned. The results are used to improve the case company’s performance but other SME companies working in engineer-to-order environment can use the results as guidance in their own process improvement projects

Maintainability and evolvability of control software in machine and plant manufacturing -- An industrial survey

Automated Production Systems (aPS) have lifetimes of up to 30-50 years, throughout which the desired products change ever more frequently. This requires flexible, reusable control software that can be easily maintained and evolved. To evaluate selected criteria that are especially relevant for maturity in software maintainability and evolvability of aPS, the approach SWMAT4aPS+ builds on a questionnaire with 52 questions. The three main research questions cover updates of software modules and success factors for both cross-disciplinary development as well as reusable models. This paper presents the evaluation results of 68 companies from machine and plant manufacturing (MPM). Companies providing automation devices and/or engineering tools will be able to identify challenges their customers in MPM face. Validity is ensured through feedback of the participating companies and an analysis of the statistical unambiguousness of the results. From a software or systems engineering point of view, almost all criteria are fulfilled below expectations

Advances in Production Management Systems: Issues, Trends, and Vision Towards 2030

Since its inception in 1978, the IFIP Working Group (WG) 5.7 on Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS) has played an active role in the fields of production and production management. The Working Group has focused on the conception, development, strategies, frameworks, architectures, processes, methods, and tools needed for the advancement of both fields. The associated standards created by the IFIP WG5.7 have always been impacted by the latest developments of scientific rigour, academic research, and industrial practices. The most recent of those developments involves the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is having remarkable (r)evolutionary and disruptive changes in both the fields and the standards. These changes are triggered by the fusion of advanced operational and informational technologies, innovative operating and business models, as well as social and environmental pressures for more sustainable production systems. This chapter reviews past, current, and future issues and trends to establish a coherent vision and research agenda for the IFIP WG5.7 and its international community. The chapter covers a wide range of production aspects and resources required to design, engineer, and manage the next generation of sustainable and smart production systems.acceptedVersio