Implications of Including the Developer in the IS Delegation Framework

The capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) systems bring about new leaps in organizational change. While several work processes are now digital, and are increasingly getting automated, organizational processes thrive from augmenting AI-based tasks and human tasks. One framework depicting the augmentation between humans and AI is the delegation framework which theorizes on delegation of tasks between human agents and agentic IS artifacts. However, as the framework is limited to elaborating human agent-agentic IS agent roles, the role of the developer is missing. This study aims to shed light on the role of the developer within the delegation framework. We explore the implication of this involvement through the theoretical lens of adaptive structuration. We use cases drawn from 12 literature sources, qualified by assessing them used against the delegation framework guidelines, and analyzed them to identify developer roles. Our findings show that the developer influences the processes underlying the functioning of the agentic IS artifact, its attributes, its evolution, and mechanisms for delegation. The state of agency in an artifact is influenced and even largely defined by the developer. This implies that agency in an IS artifact can be viewed as encompassing more than their own abilities to act within their environments

The how and why of plant-related fatalities in the Australian construction industry

Drawing on the findings of coronial investigations, this research aimed to investigate the circumstances and causes of fatal incidents involving plant in the Australian construction industry. The analysis sought to provide greater insight into how and why fatal incidents occur and to inform recommendations for the prevention of fatal incidents involving plant

The impact of construction commencement intervals on residential production building

One model of operation that production builders can use is continuous construction. They build typical house models and generally work with the same subcontractors. In this continuous operation, an order from the sales department triggers the process, which only commences construction when the first required crew becomes available. In this system the decision to commence construction relies on the readiness of the first activity. However the effects of this decision on the whole construction process are often ignored. This research aims to shed light on the importance of construction commencement decisions by highlighting the consequences of this decision on the whole production system

Explaining the Increase in the Australian Average House Completion Time:Activity-based versus Workflow-based Approach

The Australian house building industry has been facing an increase in the average house completion time in the last decade. This increase in some states is quite dramatic. For instance, Western Australia has faced a 70 percent increase in the average house completion time during this period. This paper uses two planning approaches to explain this; i) the activity-based planning methods and ii) the workflow-based planning methods. In addition, this research investigates the strengths and weaknesses of these two planning approaches in explaining the behaviour of the house building industry. For this purpose, a national case study and five state case studies including Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia have been used. The data related to the key parameters have been collected and their correlation with the average house completion time has been investigated. These key parameters include the average house floor area, the number of house completions and the number of houses under construction. The reasons for the increasing trend of the average house completion time have been postulated in all case studies. According to this research, the increase in the average house completion time cannot be explained using activity-based planning methods. In contrast, by using workflow-based planning methods, it has been shown that the average house completion time is correlated with the number of houses under construction. This paper shows that the average completion time is influenced directly by the workflow in the house building industry and that workflow planning should be the basis for the house building industry planning

Effect of lemon waste on soil ph and availability of micronutrient in calcareous soils of fars province, Southern Iran

Most of soils of Iran are calcareous in nature. The orchard trees are widespread in south of Iran. Sour lemon is one product of the area and is processed for lemon juice. To evaluate the effect of lemon waste on soil pH and availability of micronutrients, composite soil samples were collected from 0-40 Cm of the area and analyzed for physico- chemical properties. Lemon waste was gathered from processing factory, dried at 70 c and crushed to 1-2 mm size. A statistical complete randomized design with 4 replicate and 30 treatments were used for evaluation of lemon waste on soil properties. The treatments were 0, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 PPM of lemon waste which were added to pots containing 160 go soils and leaved in incubator for 0, 2, 4, 8, and 16 weeks at 27-30 c, pot moisture were kept at field capacity during the experiment. At dates of 0, 2, 4, 8, and 16 weeks after treatment the treated soils were sampled and physico-chemical properties were determined. According the results, the pH of treated soils with lemon waste decrease and organic mater increase slightly with increase in amount of lemon waste and time of incaution. The availability of Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, and P in treated soils increased with increasing the amount of lemon waste and time of incubation

House completion time in Australia: workflow planning approach

The Australian house building industry has seen an increase in the average house completion time in the past decade. This increase in some Australian states was quite dramatic. For instance, Western Australia faced a seventy percent increase in the average house completion time during this period. Since houses make up more than seventy-five percent of dwellings in Australia, this increase affected a large proportion of housing supply in the country. This research addresses this issue at industry and company level by investigating house completion time using a workflow-based planning approach. For this purpose, a national and five State case studies (Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia) are used at industry level. At company level, production house building is adopted for the study. The research starts with possible explanations for changes in house completion time suggested by activity-based and workflow-based planning approaches. Investigation of the relationship between average house completion time, number of house completions and number of houses under construction is undertaken by comparison between predicted number of houses under construction using Little’s law and actual data. Research at company level includes modelling of an actual house building process, simulation of different operational strategies and exploration of their effects on house completion time. The strategies investigated in the research are the control of workflow, control on construction commencement and having different house options in the process. The result of research at industry level shows that there is a strong correlation between average house completion time and number of houses under construction. Little’s law predicts the number of houses under construction by a small error and it holds true for the national and State house building industries. The existence of a two-phase relationship between house completion time and number of houses under construction is demonstrated and house building industry capacity is estimated for the whole country and different States. This is the maximum number of houses that the industry can work on without increasing the completion time. At company level, the simulation of different levels of workflow shows that constant workflow returns constant completion time. Reducing the construction commencement intervals in order to achieve higher resource utilization may increase house completion time dramatically. Further, when the new house option is smaller than the current options, its completion time fluctuates between its minimum completion time and the completion time of the largest house option. The modelling also shows that, in the case of the launch of a house option larger than the current options, queues in the production operation are inevitable and the completion time of all house options grows infinitely. To summarise, the research investigates house completion time in Australia and highlights the effect of workflow on this parameter at industry and company level. It demonstrates the applicability of a workflow-based planning approach in the house building industry and recommends it for use by housing policy makers, house builders and housing researchers for analysis of industry’s dynamics and understanding of house building process