Environmental modelling of the Chief Information Officer

Since the introduction of the term in the 1980’s, the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has been widely researched. Various perceptions and dimensions of the role have been explored and debated. However, the explosion in data proliferation (and the inevitable resulting information fuelled change) further complicates organisational expectations of the CIOs role. If organisations are to competitively exploit the digital trend, then those charged with recruiting and developing CIOs now need to be more effective in determining (and shaping) CIO traits and attributes, within the context of their own organisational circumstances and in line with stakeholder expectations. CIOs also need to determine their own suitability and progression within their chosen organisation if they are to remain motivated and effective. Before modelling the role of the future CIO, it is necessary to synthesise our current knowledge (and the lessons learnt) about the CIO. This paper, therefore, aims to identify and summate the spectrum of key researched ‘themes’ pertaining to the role of the CIO. Summating previous research, themes are modelled around four key CIO ‘dimensions’, namely (1) Impacting factors, (2) Controlling factors (3) Responses and (4) CIO ‘attributes’. Having modelled the CIOs current environment, and recognising the evolving IT enabled information landscape, the authors call for further research to inform the recruitment and development of the future CIO in terms of personal attributes and the measurable impact such attributes will have on their respective organisation

Practitioner requirements for integrated Knowledge-Based Engineering in Product Lifecycle Management.

The effective management of knowledge as capital is considered essential to the success of engineering product/service systems. As Knowledge Management (KM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) practice gain industrial adoption, the question of functional overlaps between both the approaches becomes evident. This article explores the interoperability between PLM and Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) as a strategy for engineering KM. The opinion of key KBE/PLM practitioners are systematically captured and analysed. A set of ranked business functionalities to be fulfiled by the KBE/PLM systems integration is elicited. The article provides insights for the researchers and the practitioners playing both the user and development roles on the future needs for knowledge systems based on PLM

A framework to review performance measurement systems.

This paper describes a structured review framework for managing business performance. The framework entails the review of both business performance, including thestrategic relevance of the measures, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance measurement system itself. A range of approaches and tools are employed in the framework which features a review card providing a high level view of the review process, showing the different types of review perspectives and their interactions

Investigation Interoperability Problems in Pharmacy Automation: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

The aim of this case study is to investigate the nature of interoperability problems in hospital systems automation. One of the advanced healthcare providers in Saudi Arabia is the host of the study. The interaction between the pharmacy system and automated medication dispensing cabinets is the focus of the case system. The research method is a detailed case study where multiple data collection methods are used. The modelling of the processes of inpatient pharmacy systems is presented using Business Process Model Notation. The data collected is analysed to study the different interoperability problems. This paper presents a framework that classifies health informatics interoperability implementation problems into technical, semantic, organisational levels. The detailed study of the interoperability problems in this case illustrates the challenges to the adoption of health information system automation which could help other healthcare organisations in their system automation projects

Using an integrated information system to reduce interruptions and the number of non-relevant contacts in the inpatient pharmacy at tertiary hospital

Patient care is provided by a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals intended for high-quality and safe patient care. Accordingly, the team must work synergistically and communicate efficiently. In many hospitals, nursing and pharmacy communication relies mainly on telephone calls. In fact, numerous studies have reported telephone calls as a source of interruption for both pharmacy and nursing operations; therefore, the workload increases and the chance of errors raises. This report describes the implementation of an integrated information system that possibly can reduce telephone calls through providing real-time tracking capabilities and sorting prescriptions urgency, thus significantly improving traceability of all prescriptions inside pharmacy. The research design is based on a quasi-experiment using pre-post testing using the continuous improvement approach. The improvement project is performed using a six-step method. A survey was conducted in Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC) to measure the volume and types of telephone calls before and after implementation to evaluate the impact of the new system. Beforehand of the system implementation, during the two-week measurement period, all pharmacies received 4466 calls and the majority were follow-up calls. Subsequently of the integrated system rollout, there was a significant reduction (p > 0.001) in the volume of telephone calls to 2630 calls; besides, the calls nature turned out to be more professional inquiries (p > 0.001). As a result, avoidable interruptions and workload were decreased

Quality function deployment and sensitivity analysis of requirements for future aircraft propulsion cryogenic cooling systems

A number of novel future airframe and propulsion concepts are considered in order to meet aviation targets set by various aviation regulatory bodies including NASA and the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE). The current NASA concept for long-range civil aircraft is the Blended-Wing Body (BWB) aircraft, coupled with turbo-electric distributed propulsion (TeDP), to enable a host of efficiency benefits over current designs. NASA has identified superconducting technology as a key enabler to deliver this airframe. Superconductors need to be cooled to cryogenic temperatures for normal operation. Using a sensitivity matrix, it was found that the Exchange Heat and Transport/Pump Cryogen functions are the most sensitive to input variation. The failure modes and effects analysis performed on the functional model show that the detection functions are critical during component failure. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) analysis shows the Exchange Heat and Transport/Pump Cryogen functions are also critical

Simulation Modelling for Scenario Planning to Evaluate IVHM Benefit in Naval Ship Building

Naval ships are long life assets that could be called upon to perform missions not considered in their original design. The through life support arrangement is influenced by the military requirement as well as contracting practice. In navies that contract out the building and support of ships in different competitive packages, condition monitoring technology for through life health management may be stripped out to reduce ship building cost. This paper investigates the potential benefits of incorporating health management for the test and commissioning stages in naval shipbuilding to reduce the overall cost of a ship programme. Scenario planning using simulation suggests that for ships of high complexity in a multiple ships programme, health management is likely to enhance the lessons learnt process. The benefits to the follow on ships could justify the investment

A KBE System for the design of wind tunnel models using reusable knowledge components

Ponencia presentada en el VI Congreso Internacional de Ingeniería de Proyectos celebrada en Barcelona en el año 2002Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) has gradually gained prominence as a major tool to speed up product development, especially in large scale projects such the ones that take place in aerospace and automotive industry. The encoding of design knowledge from domain experts into computer codes that can generate complex geometric data has demonstrated significant savings in manpower and time resources for routine design problems. This paper is the experience of the development of a KBE application for the design and manufacture of a wind tunnel testing model of an aircraft nacelle. The industrial project is aimed to investigate the feasibility of KBE introduction in the company. This causes the researcher to achieve effective design task automation and at the same time consider how the KBE codes could be extended to other products in the company. The adoption of reusable knowledge components is then introduced as the response to the knowledge modelling issues in current KBE systems.Las tecnologías de ingeniería basada en el conocimiento (KBE, Knowledge-Based Engineering), han adquirido prominencia gradualmente como la principal herramienta orientada a acelerar el desarrollo de productos, especialmente en proyectos de gran tamaño como los que se llevan a cabo en la industria aerospacial y del automóvil. De este modo, la codificación del conocimiento de los expertos en diseño de un cierto dominio en forma de programas informáticos capaces de generar datos sobre la geometría de un producto, ha demostrado un significante ahorro en recursos humanos y tiempo en problemas de diseño rutinario. Este artículo reporta algunas experiencias en el desarrollo de una aplicación KBE destinada al diseño y fabricación de modelos de componentes de aeronaves de los que se utilizan en los ensayos aerodinámicos en túnel de viento. El proyecto industrial en el que se basa el trabajo aquí presentado es la investigación acerca de la idoneidad de introducir tecnologías de ingeniería basada en el conocimiento en la compañía colaboradora. Esta premisa dirige la motivación del trabajo desarrollado no sólo a cubrir la necesidad de una efectiva automatización de tareas de diseño en el caso de estudio escogido sino que además considera la extensión de los códigos KBE a otros productos de la compañía colaboradora. La respuesta a este problema se da en forma de la introducción de componentes reusables de conocimiento, (RKC, Reusable Knowledge Components), los cuales se muestran como una alternativa para acometer los problemas de modelado de conocimiento en los actuales sistemas KBE

Intelligent flexible manufacturing system control

This research proposes a generic decision making system structure for real time despatch control in small Flexible Manufacturing Systems. This is to satisfy the requirement for low cost control systems that can be flexibly adapted to a wide range of production environments. A simulation environment has been developed to emulate the detail real time despatch control of flexible manufacturing systems. This environment allows analysis of the decision making process and its effects. A model of a modular type FMS is used to study decision making in real time FMS control. Real time control is dynamic, the decision criteria change with the production states of the system. Decision making is based on both quantitative and qualitative factors. Apart from production quantity and time which are quantitative, there are installation dependent and production situations better expressed in states which are non-numeric. The knowledge based representation developed from artificial intelligence work is superior in modelling both mathematical scheduling research and discrete states information. Recognising the importance of system particular knowledge to effective control of the system, system independent functions are separated out to form elements of a generic control system architecture. This generic architecture contains elements of information handling to process information to service the scheduling decision making element. A core for regulating information flow and a data interface definintion allows this control architecture to be hardware independent. The decision making mechanism dependent on machinery hardware configuration and particular production characteristics can then be designed and interface to the architecture to form a complete control system. A decision design methodology has been designed to guide the design of the scheduling decision making system. The methodology addresses the design of work queue formation timing and the characteristics for each resource in the system. These are then integrated into a complete work flow control system by the resolution of contentions between the individual queues. The application of the design methodology and control system architecture is illustrated.Ph

Application of an AIS to the problem of through life health management of remotely piloted aircraft

The operation of RPAS includes a cognitive problem for the operators(Pilots, maintainers, ,managers, and the wider organization) to effectively maintain their situational awareness of the aircraft and predict its health state. This has a large impact on their ability to successfully identify faults and manage systems during operations. To overcome these system deficiencies an asset health management system that integrates more cognitive abilities to aid situational awareness could prove beneficial. This paper outlines an artificial immune system (AIS) approach that could meet these challenges and an experimental method within which to evaluate it