Digitization of the manufacturing sector across the EU: assessing readiness for industry 4.0

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementIndustry 4.0 is a concept that represents the adoption by industrial companies of techniques and processes allowed by digitization, cloud computing, the internet of things and big data to gain competitive advantages in domestic and global markets. Measuring how the manufacturing sector is adopting Industry 4.0 is challenging, given that there is not a closed definition of the term and that the collection of information is not specifically directed to Industry 4.0 concepts. Recognizing these difficulties, the present study measures the presence of the factors that characterize Industry 4.0 across EU countries. The analysis provides evidence that the existence of a digital infrastructure combined with the analytical capabilities to deal with big data emerge as the two dimensions that show the readiness for Industry 4.0 in each country. At EU level, five homogeneous groups of countries were found, showing large disparities across countries. The implementation of the single digital market strategy with regard to the manufacturing sector demands the collection of more detailed information on Industry 4.0

The driving force of government in promoting BIM implementation

The adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one of the greatest technological innovations in the construction industry to date. However, the implementation of BIM lags far behind its potential due to the existence of various barriers. Strong government support is critical for the successful development and deployment of complex technology systems. BIM could seek government support to drive its implementation process and overcome the barriers. Through a survey, this paper aims to discover stakeholders’ expectations of the government role in BIM implementation and explores specific ways for governments to promote BIM implementation. The research findings are expected to assist related departments to accelerate BIM implementation

Barriers and motivations affecting information systems usage by Hajj-Umrah religious tourism operators in Saudi Arabia

Hajj & Umrah religious tourism accounts for seven million visitors each year in Saudi Arabia. The government has recently taken initiatives to promote the use of Information Systems (IS) in the religious tourism industry, encouraging firms to adopt IS innovations like e-commerce and enforcing the use of the Makha'a information system in Umrah for external pilgrims and the Yosr information system in Hajj for internal pilgrims. This study outlines the motivations and challenges that affect the utilisation of various IS services in the Saudi religious tourism industry through a qualitative analysis of the views and perceptions of senior executives and owners of travel firms. The findings suggest that while government initiatives and industry competitiveness were two positive factors promoting IS use, there are some major barriers preventing private firms from fully utilising the advantages of information systems. These include external factors such as lack of support from the IT industry and access to IT resources as well as internal factors within an organisation such as lack of commitment or the need for professional IT expertise. The study finds that relative advantage is a critical contributor to IS utilisation which depends on information systems characteristic

Business strategy driven IT systems for engineer-to-order and make-to-order manufacturing enterprises

This thesis reports research into the specification and implementation of an Information Technology (IT) Route Map. The purpose of the Route Map is to enable rapid design and deployment of IT solutions capable of semi-automating business processes in a manufacturing enterprise. The Map helps structure transition processes involved in “identification of key business strategies and design of business processes” and “choice of enterprise systems and supporting implementation techniques”. Common limitations of current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are observed and incorporated as Route Map implications and constraints. Scope of investigation is targeted at Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) that employ Engineer-To-Order (ETO) and Make-To-Order (MTO) business processes. However, a feature of the Route Map is that it takes into account contemporary business concerns related to “globalisation”, “mergers and acquisitions” and “typical resource constraint problems of SMEs”. In the course of the research a “Business Strategy Driven IT System Concept” was conceived and examined. The main purpose of this concept is to promote the development of agile and innovative business activity in SMEs. The Road Map encourages strategy driven solutions to be (a) specified based on the use of emerging enterprise engineering theories and (b) implemented and changed using componentbased systems design and composition techniques. Part-evaluation of the applicability and capabilities of the Road Map has been carried out by conducting industrial survey and case study work. This assesses requirements of real industrial problems and solutions. The evaluation work has also been enabled by conducting a pilot implementation of the thesis concepts at the premises of a partner SME

An investigation of Business Process maturity: a case study in a South African parastatal

Business Process Management (BPM) has become one of the management approaches adopted by many organisations that strive to survive in a turbulent and competitive environment. BPM offers the means to manage and optimize business processes with the objective of improved efficiency and effectiveness; thereby improving the potential of business success. However, the extent to which BPM influences business success is a matter of debate with diverse schools of thought finding it difficult to reach consensus regarding the critical success factors of BPM and the extent at which processes and people influence business success. The capability of an organisation or enterprise is the ability to deliver on a desired outcome. In this dissertation, the enterprise capabilities of BPM are investigated. The research sets out to investigate the BPM maturity level of a South African parastatal. The intention is to identify and improve on those factors that influence maturity of the enterprise capabilities and may have negative impact on stakeholders. The approach taken to address the research objectives drew on case study methodology. Fieldwork was conducted using company documents, observation, a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. The questionnaire responses were qualitatively analysed using the categories of Hammer's model of enterprise capability. The research findings identified weaknesses in all categories of enterprise capability though expertise appeared to be thriving. The findings further suggest that weaknesses in leadership and the leadership style in particular impact on the effectiveness of business processes. The leadership style was seen as the major driver to impede process effectiveness. The following themes describing leadership style were derived from interviews: creation of sense of belonging, degree of approachability and extent of collaboration. In order to improve the BPM in the case company, the following recommendations were made: communication sessions, awareness training and process remodelling. The research study also provides the opportunity to understand BPM in a broader context, thus having potential for transferability to other organisations

Supply chain operation strategies and risk management with working capital consideration: a case study of the supply chain of lightning protection products in China

JEL: G32; D21With the advent of economic globalization, competition is increasingly hinged on supply chain. Meanwhile, working capital becomes a key element of a successful supply chain. This thesis researches the supply chain of a typical lightning protection products manufacturer in China, i.e. Company Z. The thesis starts with the working capital issues in the supply chain of Company Z; then, with the help of questionnaires and a sensible indicator system and weight assignments; analyzes and summarizes the status quo of the working capital and related key issues in the supply chain consisting of Company Z and its suppliers and customers. Building on such analysis, a two-dimensional classification matrix is created to divide suppliers and customers into four groups (namely, strategic-type, partner-type, general-type, and bottleneck-type) and supply chain operation strategies are devised for each group. Furthermore, based on such supply chain operations strategies of Company Z, a working capital risk management mechanism with an early warning system is developed, and a supply chain-based financing platform is designed to help the supply chain participants seek financing and share the risks with working capital.Com o advento da era da globalização económica, a cadeia de suprimentos tornou-se cada vez mais importante para a concorrência empresarial, e ao mesmo tempo, o fundo de maneio tornou-se num elemento chave para o sucesso da gestão da cadeia de suprimentos. Neste trabalho, a cadeia de suprimentos de uma empresa chinesa de fabricação de produtos típicos de proteção contra relâmpagos, a empresa Z, é o objeto de estudo. Tomando como ponto de partida os problemas de fundo de maneio existentes na cadeia de suprimentos da empresa Z, por meio de questionários combinados com o estabelecimento de um sistema de indexação e de ponderação, foram realizadas análises precisas sobre problemas-chaves existentes e da situação atual da gestão do fundo de maneio da cadeia de suprimentos a montante e a jusante da empresa Z. Estabeleceram-se matrizes bidimensionais de classificação para respectivamente subdividir os fornecedores e clientes em quatro categorias, a saber, categoria de fornecedores/clientes estratégicos, categoria de fornecedores/clientes parceiros, categoria de fornecedores/clientes comuns e categoria de fornecedores/clientes críticos (“engarrafamentos”) e propor estratégias diferentes na cadeia de suprimentos para diferentes categorias. Por fim, o nosso estudo indica que segundo a estratégia de operação da cadeia de suprimentos da empresa Z, deve ser estabelecido um mecanismo de controle e gestão de risco de fundo de maneio, um sistema de alerta de risco e, ainda, projetar uma plataforma de financiamento a fim de prover o financiamento emergente da cadeia de suprimentos da empresa Z e a partilha dos riscos de gestão do fundo de maneio

The development of a learning organisation in Hong Kong: from design to implementation - the case of McDonald's Restaurants (H.K. Limited).

This project aims to develop a learning organisation model for Hong Kong Chinese enterprises. It examines the case of the McDonald's Learning Programme, which shows how company-wide problems can be solved by the stakeholders in the company through a strategic learning initiative. The McDonald's Learning Programme has provided a practical implementation framework and a localised model for companies aspiring to become a learning organisation. The success factors for becoming a learning organisation and for a system supporting a learning organisation are identified. In order to explore the learning organisation concept in greater depth and to triangulate these factors, selected Hong Kong Chinese enterprises have been studied through the following two surveys: • The Executive Interview Survey This survey analyses executives' views on business success and learning organisation. Organisational learning is considered as one important factor in maintaining organisational competitiveness. • The Staff Learning Climate Survey This survey examines staff learning climate. It shows a crucial point that the development of a learning culture is greatly influenced by the management’s (directors') initiatives and involvement. With the findings of the case study of McDonald's Learning Programme and the two surveys, a learning organisation model is built. This model provides a practical implementation framework, which composes of three main parts: organisation and stakeholder initiatives, individual and team level learning and a framework supporting a learning organisation. This study should provide useful and valuable reference material on learning organisation development for other Hong Kong Chinese enterprises

Analysing ICT Investment by Micro-enterprises in the Western Cape

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM)Micro-enterprises solve many socio-economic issues facing developing nations because of their large contribution to economic development and progress. Micro-enterprises have been influenced by the continued globalisation, digitisation and modernisation of business practices. As a result, micro-enterprises’ are investing in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance enterprise and economic growth, performance, productivity and a competitive advantage. However, the benefits of these investments are not always realised, often because of the ad hoc nature in which micro-enterprises function and a lack of formalised methods and strategy. When these are not realised, micro-enterprise suffer in terms of competitiveness, performance and returns. Maturity models, are tools that help solve issues relating to an enterprise’s current status in terms of its capabilities and resources, and how these issues can be improved. Maturity models may present the ideal solution for micro-enterprise to invest in ICT. Larger enterprises have been able to use maturity models for strategic ICT investments realising benefits. The benefits of using maturity models as a guide to ICT investment include: saving on long-term operational and tactical costs, self-evaluation and linking business and ICT strategy among others. This research sought to determine how micro-enterprises in the Western Cape can use a maturity model in planning strategy for investments in ICT. Data was gathered from micro-enterprises and their stakeholders to find the best maturity model fit. These model fitness considered the entire internal and external environmental factors influencing micro-enterprise ICT investment decision-making. The research investigated micro-enterprises, their current practices, focus and strategic, tactical and operational behaviour in terms of business and ICT. Of the 34 micro-enterprises that took part, most them knew of the concept of growth and maturity of the enterprise, they used none discernable metric to measure their internal and external activities regarding ICT investment. It highlighted the alignment of business and ICT as a major issue that needed to be addressed in order for micro-enterprises to be competitive, improve performance and returns. The recommended model from the research provides a formalised process that covers both the micro-enterprises internal and external matrices when deciding on the ICT investment to be made

Research on evolution process of EMFs’ international expansion strategy

JEL： M1Under the background of globalization, international expansion of emerging market firms (EMFs) has become an emerging research front in international business research. Based on the Springboard Theory, LLL model and Uppsala internationalization process model, the thesis describes the bidirectional dependency between EMFs technologies and market resources using methods such as event path analysis, multi-case study and process analysis, and establishes an internationalization behavior framework which is based on the two motivations and the two dependable forces. The result shows that: (1) EMFs' two kinds of strategic behaviors of assets-seeking and opportunities-seeking continue to evolve with the development of the enterprise. In the first stage, There is no obvious difference. In the second stage, assets-seeking and opportunities-seeking are alternative dominant. In the third stage, opportunities-seeking are dominant. (2) EMFs' assets-seeking strategies are mainly driven by internal forces, and opportunities-seeking strategies are mainly driven by both internal and external forces; (3) EMFs leveraging international assets and opportunities through external linkage, and balancing their assets and opportunities through alternative domination strategic. (4) The internationalization process of EMFs is an enterprise‘s learning process under repeated linkage and leverage effect. The main contributions of this paper are: (1) to discuss the evolution rules and action mechanism of the two strategic motivations and dependable forces of EMFs in the internationalization process and help to establish clear external decision-making situation and logic for the internationalization of domestic enterprises; (2) to find out the features of EMFs to establish international chains to acquire the external assets and opportunities, and alternate domination features of the two strategies in the internationalization process, and help to better guide the implementation of internationalization strategies of domestic enterprises; (3) to establish an internationalization process model based on repeated linkage and alternate domination, uncover the nature of EMFs‘ internationalization process from the point of resource dependence, explain how to achieve the objective of globalization strategy for EMFS represented by China under late-developing disadvantages, expand the current EMFs-related theoretical boundary, and provide more scientific decision basis for "Going Out" of domestic enterprisesNo contexto da globalização, a expansão internacionalizada da empresa do mercado nascente(EMFs) já se tornou uma frente de investigação nascente na área de investigação do comércio internacional. No processo de internacionalização, devido à desvantagem da competição congênita, EMFs não segue totalmente o caminho internacional de empresa multinacional dos países desenvolvidos. Para isto, o Luo e o Tung propôs teoria de trampolim. Eles acham que EMFs obte ativos-chave das empresas do país desenvolvido através de uma série das expansões internacionalizadas radicais para compensar e superar sua desvantagem retardatária. Sobre a proposição da teoria de trampolim, a deficiência, que o incrementalismo internacionalizado não pode bem explicar os comportamentos internacionalizados de EMFs, foi compensada. No entanto, ainda existe muitos limites na investigação atual e a teoria atual falta das investigações para o mecanismo, regra e caraterística da evolução estratégica do processo da internacionalização de EMFs. À base da teoria de trampolim, modelo LLL e o incrementalismo internacionalizado Uppsala, este texto usa análise de caminho de evento, estudo de casos múltiplos, análise de processo e outros métodos, caracterizando o cenário de dependência dupla de tenologia de EMFs e de recurso de mercado, também estabelecendo o quadro de comportamento de internacionalização com base nos dois motivos e duas forças dependetens. O resultado apresenta que: (1) Os dois comportamentos estratégicos de busca de ativos e de busca de oportunidades de EMFs mudam continuamente com o desenvolvimento das fases de empresa. Na primeira fase, não houve diferença distinta; na segunda fase, as duas buscas de ativo e de oportunidade conduzem por sua vez; na terceira fase, tem a busca de oportunidade como o principal; (2) A estratégia de busca de ativos de EMFs é promovida por força inteira da empresa, mas a estratégia de busca de oportunidade é promovida juntamente pelas forças inteira e exterior da empresa; (3) EMFs alavanca ativos e oportunidades internacionalizadas pelo link externo e balança ativos e oportunidades através de alternação de comportamento de clideração; (4) A internacionalização de EMFs é um processo de aprendizagem organizacional sob o elo de link e a liderança alternada. As contribuições principais deste texto são: (1) Descobriu a regra de evolução e o mecanismo de função no processo de internacionalização dos dois motivos estratégicos e a força dependente, ajudando a estabelecer o cenário e a lógica de tomada de decisão externos claros para a internacionalização das empresas do nosso país; (2) Revelou a característica que a EMFs alavanca ativos e oportunidades externos através de estabelecimento de link de internacionalização e a característica de liderança alterna das duas estratégia, ajudando a lidar melhor a execução da estratégia de internacionalização das empresas do nosso país; (3) Estabeleceu um modelo do processo de internacionalização com base na elo de link e liderança alterna e relevou a natureza do processo de internacionalização de EMFs do ponto de vista da dependência de recursos, explicando como o EMFs caracterizala pela China realizou o objetivo de estratégia de globalização sob a condição de desvantagem retardatário e expandiu os limites teóricos existentes de EMFs, e ofereceu os bases da decisão mais científicos às empresas domésticas para "Vai globalmente"