The Development of an Ontology-Based Model for Manpower Planning

Manpower planning is complex and demanding task, because in establishing the factual insights of an enterprise, one is required to have the in-depth knowledge of forecasting manpower planning and practices, as well as the knowledge of macroeconomics of the particular business involved. Inconsistency information and lack of knowledge during decision-making process could generate to inaccurate decision. In addition, massive amount of information in unstructured forms need to be managed into a systematic manner. The aim of this research is to develop a generic ontology-based architecture for supporting manpower planning and proves the effectiveness of integrating information extraction from diverse source in supporting information for manpower forecasting. Ontology is built to capture and structure domain expert knowledge based on criteria and preferences for selecting manpower forecasting adjustment. Currently, the framework is under implementation as a research prototype

Design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of BIM system to determine the safety index

Despite the safety improvement drive that has been implemented in the construction industry in Singapore for many years, the industry continues to report the highest number of workplace fatalities, compared to other industries. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical framework of the safety aspect of a proposed BIM System to determine a Safety Index. An online questionnaire survey was conducted to ascertain the current workplace safety and health situation in the construction industry and explore how BIM can be used to improve safety performance in the industry. A safety hazard library was developed based on the main contributors to fatal accidents in the construction industry, determined from the formal records and existing literature, and a series of discussions with representatives from the Workplace Safety and Health Institute (WSH Institute) in Singapore. The results from the survey suggested that the majority of the firms have implemented the necessary policies, programmes and procedures on Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) practices. However, BIM is still not widely applied or explored beyond the mandatory requirement that building plans should be submitted to the authorities for approval in BIM format. This paper presents a discussion of the safety aspect of the Intelligent Productivity and Safety System (IPASS) developed in the study. IPASS is an intelligent system incorporating the buildable design concept, theory on the detection, prevention and control of hazards, and the Construction Safety Audit Scoring System (ConSASS). The system is based on the premise that safety should be considered at the design stage, and BIM can be an effective tool to facilitate the efforts to enhance safety performance. IPASS allows users to analyse and monitor key aspects of the safety performance of the project before the project starts and as the project progresses

A review on seawater as concrete composites and its effects on the strength and durability

The world is facing a big challenge of balancing a growing population and demand with a natural environment that is increasingly under stress. The rapidly changing environmental conditions especially intensity and frequency of extreme weather it has now become very important to explore in green technology. Effective use of natural resources is pressing concern. Particularly, water resources for drinking are predicted to be in serious shortage in 2050 due to increase in population and rapid urbanization throughout the world. The beginning of the 21st century is straddled with enormous environmental problems of which water shortage is one of the most serious. It is a well-known fact that fresh water resources are continuously declining throughout the world and according to a report by the United Nations, water will be very short in future. It is expected that 5bn people will be short of drinking water in 2050 [1]. In another report published by OECD, it is stated that a number of people living in river basins will be under severe water stress which is expected to be double in 2050 .

Developing a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Land Domain Construct for Marine Corps Systems Command

NPS NRP Technical ReportThe purpose of this research is to consider four major areas for designing and analyzing an ontology, and conceptual data model (CDM) that can be applied across the Land Domain. Focus area 1 considers the importance of designing a generic (simple) ontology that comprehensively represents the system across the lifecycle. As such, an ontology that will serve as the foundation of the Land Domain will be described. Focus area 2 analyzes the relationships between entities defined within the ontology. System structure identifies the elements of the system that connect and interact with each other to achieve the system's purpose, and depicts how behavior will emerge within the system. A previously developed generic CDM will be analyzed, and further defined where needed, to serve as the basis of a common terminology and structure for the Land Domain. Focus area 3 considers the ontology as a foundation for an authoritative source of truth. This research will demonstrate the utility of having authoritative data within a defined structure, and validate the generic ontology and CDM using an example mission thread. Finally, focus area 4 will design a roadmap (modeling plan) depicting the recommended path to transition from document-based systems engineering to a true MBSE-based Land Domain.Marine Corps Systems Command (MARCORSYSCOM)This research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Development of an Extended Product Lifecycle Management through Service Oriented Architecture.

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityThe aim of this work is to define new business opportunities through the concept of Extended Product Lifecycle Management (ExtPLM), analysing its potential implementation within a Service Oriented Architecture. ExtPLM merges the concepts of Extended Product, Avatar and PLM. It aims at allowing a closer interaction between enterprises and their customers, who are integrated in all phases of the life cycle, creating new technical functionalities and services, improving both the practical (e.g. improving usage, improving safety, allowing predictive maintenance) and the emotional side (e.g. extreme customization) of the product.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Company; BAE Systems; S4T – Support Service Solutions: Strategy and Transitio

Envisioning the Future of Portfolio, Program, and Project Management (P3M): An Ontology

The vision of Portfolio, Program, and Project Management’s (P3M) future has to be visible in all its sagacity, complexity, and granularity to be effective. It has to be visible and meaningful to all stakeholders – to align them, to avoid dysfunctional conflicts among them, and for them to shape the future collaboratively, systematically, and systemically. Such visibility will help: (a) translate the vision into reality without distortion, (b) provide a coherent framework to manage uncertainty and change, (c) create a culture leading to excellence, (d) serve as a constant reference for assessment, feedback and learning throughout the P3M lifecycle, and (e) sustain the viability of P3M. We present an ontology to make the vision of P3M’s future visible. The ontology encapsulates the logic of the vision – its many dimensions, layers of elements, and innumerable components. It is parsimonious and can elucidate the vision’s complexity at different levels of granularity

Addressing information flow in lean production management and control in construction

Traditionally, production control on construction sites has been a challenging area, where the ad-hoc production control methods foster uncertainty - one of the biggest enemies of efficiency and smooth production flow. Lean construction methods such as the Last Planner System have partially tackled this problem by addressing the flow aspect through means such as constraints analysis and commitment planning. However, such systems have relatively long planning cycles to respond to the dynamic production requirements of construction, where almost daily if not hourly control is needed. New solutions have been designed by researchers to improve this aspect such as VisiLean, but again these types of software systems require the proximity and availability of computer devices to workers. Given this observation, there is a need for a communication system between the field and site office that is highly interoperable and provides real-time task status information. A High-level communication framework (using VisiLean) is presented in this paper, which aims to overcome the problems of system integration and improve the flow of information within the production system. The framework provides, among other things, generic and standardized interfaces to simplify the “push” and “pull” of the right (production) information, whenever needed, wherever needed, by whoever needs it. Overall, it is anticipated that the reliability of the production control will be improve

The SEC-system : reuse support for scheduling system development

Recently, in a joint cooperation of Stichting VNA, SAL Apotheken, the Faculty of Management and Organization, and the University Centre for Pharmacy, University of Groningen in the Netherlands, a Ph.D-study started regarding Apot(he)ek, Organization and Management (APOM). The APOM-project deals with the structuring and steering of pharmacy organization. The manageability of the internal pharmacy organization, and the manageability of the direct environment of pharmacy organization is the subject matter. The theoretical background of the APOM-project is described. A literature study was made to find mixes of objectives. Three mixes of objectives in pharmacy organization are postulated; the product mix, the process mix, and the customer mix. The typology will be used as a basic starting point for the empirical study in the next phase of the APOM-project.

An Approach to Agent-Based Service Composition and Its Application to Mobile

This paper describes an architecture model for multiagent systems that was developed in the European project LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Agent Platform). Its main feature is a set of generic services that are implemented independently of the agents and can be installed into the agents by the application developer in a flexible way. Moreover, two applications using this architecture model are described that were also developed within the LEAP project. The application domain is the support of mobile, virtual teams for the German automobile club ADAC and for British Telecommunications

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