Selecting the right supply chain for a customer in project business : an action research study in the mobile communications infrastructure industry

This thesis is about integrating a supply chain to a customer's implementation project. The study is to identify and describe key factors that influence supply chain choices for project businesses. The aim is to explain the selection criteria for the right chain for an individual customer under different circumstances. The research problem, a highly relevant theme in the Internet age, is how to select the most appropriate supply chain for a customer in different business conditions. In addition to contributing to the scientific literature, this research also aims to support practical business situations in the industry by creating a normative decision-making model. The scope of this study is, thus, restricted to supply chains in project businesses where the success of logistics processes is largely dependent on how well physical deliveries are integrated into the implementation schedules of a project. The focused product type is typical of high-tech and innovative products with relatively short life cycles. Furthermore, the business environment of the scope is characterised by fast-growing turbulent markets. This study is an action research conducted in the GSM network business in Europe during 1999 and 2000. The research is an inductive, theory-building multiple-case study. The supplier case company is Nokia Networks, one of the leading suppliers of fixed and mobile telecommunication systems, and the customers consist of major European mobile phone operators, which however are anonymous in the thesis for the sake of business confidentiality. The research material was collected from customer-specific implementation projects that were individually carried out as part of an extensive supply chain re-engineering program inside the case company. The program, called BIRD (Breakthrough Inventory Rotation Days), aimed to streamline the process for high-volume base station deliveries and implement one of alternative supply solutions for a customer to best fit its individual needs. An individual process implementation for a customer (N=11) is considered to be the unit of analysis in this study. The basic axiom in the thesis is the Contingency Theory of Organisations that briefly says: "There is not one best way to organise something, but rather it depends on the environment". A customer's environmental requirements should determine the appropriate structure for the supply chain. The study maintains that there are two effective means to differentiate supply chain solutions for an individual customer. The first means is the well-known concept of Order Penetration Point (OPP). The second one is the value offering point (VOP), which is still a rather fresh and theoretical concept in the supply chain management literature. The study demonstrates how the positioning of these two points impact on the three dimensions of supply chains, i.e. on customer service, capital employment and total costs. The research results drawn from the in-depth case analysis are as follows: Three types of customer demand chains, distinguished by the position of the value offering point, can be identified among customers in project business. These are (1) call for project planning, (2) call for project execution and (3) call for project inventory management. Alternative supply chains are being used in different customer projects, quite intuitively, without a proper justification for the choices made. This is mainly due to contradictory target setting in project and supply chain systems (e.g., time buffers vs. material buffers) that makes it extremely complex to find the "right" supply chain solution for a customer. The accuracy of project planning and the implementation of a pre-defined execution trigger for ordering are actually sufficient selection factors to specify the right combination of value offering and order penetration points. However, as these selection factors are on a highly operational level, it is difficult to estimate their behaviour in a project beforehand. The technology life-cycle stage (which in this instance is represented by GSM penetration) and the level of the customer-supplier process collaboration are business conditions that can be used to estimate the behaviour of the selection factors in a project beforehand. Furthermore, these are considered to be necessary conditions in moving the value offering point further downstream in the chain. As a conclusion this study provides companies with a useful model to implement successful supply solutions for individual customers, especially applicable in the project business environment for innovative and high tech products. The study provides a set of normative rules to specify the right supply chain for a customer and defines the underlying pre-conditions to apply the rules. In addition to these normative results, the study provides new insight on the existing body of knowledge on integrating equipment deliveries into a customer's implementation project - which seems to be a fairly untouched area in the literature. According to the selected research approach, these conclusions are valid within the case study settings and their generalisation to a wider context should be further studied.reviewe

Capacitive silicon MEMS based combined accelerometer and gyroscope sensors in headlight levelling systems

When driving in conditions with suboptimal lighting, the use of headlights is essential for safe travel. However, headlights pose a fundamental safety conflict as with increasing headlight intensity, visibility is improved, but this simultaneously increases the glaring effect on pedestrians and oncoming traffic, reducing overall safety. To address this issue, the UN has launched a regulation binding all original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, of the concurring regions to implement automatic head light levelling systems that aim to keep the headlight alignment optimal. The regulation will apply to all new type approvals starting from September 2026 and all vehicles starting from September 2029. Since in most cases OEMs are offering a great variety of different automobiles, this regulation is putting high pressure to find a general cost-effective solution that works for every model and configuration. When switching from manual headlight alignment to automatic, the system needs to consider how load from passengers and luggage is tilting the vehicle and what is the vehicle pose in respect to the road angle. In static situations, this can be handled with a 3-axis accelerometer sensor in combination with an extended Kalman filter. When adjustment in dynamic situations is required, the complexity of algorithms between sensor data and actuators controlling the headlight alignment becomes significantly higher. The system needs to now take into account accelerations, breaking, driving in bends and vibration effects. To improve interpretation of these dynamic situations, a 3-axis gyroscope must be implemented to the system as well. Additionally, in dynamic situations, a fast response time is crucial and when considering the relatively small angles of adjustments needed, effects of lifetime degradation start to play are role in accuracy. This means that high reliability and performance of the measurement capability is needed for the whole system to retain its accuracy. Development in the MEMS field has enabled manufacturing of low cost, but extremely accurate, stable and reliable accelerometers and gyroscopes, which makes them a good candidate to address the aforementioned problems. This paper is reviewing an automatic headlight levelling solution utilizing a combined accelerometer and gyroscope sensor, which is based on capacitive silicon MEMS technology

IT Leadership in Transition - The Impact of Digitalization on Finnish Organizations

Digitalization is transforming business models across industries. As information technology (IT) is becoming embedded in products and services, IT leadership has an increasingly dualistic role in supporting the organization and also serving its customers' changing needs. The ACIO research program studied how Finnish industry and public sector organizations utilize information technology in developing and managing critical business capabilities. The focus was on understanding and analyzing contemporary approaches to IT leadership. This research report summarizes some of the key research findings, providing scholars and practitioners with insights into and understanding of digitalization and changes in IT leadership in Finnish informationintensive organizations

Suomi - Teollisen Internetin piilaakso

”Suomalainen Teollinen Internet – haasteesta mahdollisuudeksi” -hankkeen tavoitteena on ollut selvittää, mitkä ovat Teollisen Internetin mahdollisuudet ja uhat, kehittämisen kannusteet ja esteet sekä työllisyysvaikutukset Suomen taloudessa. Hankkeen keskeinen painotus on suomalaisessa valmistavassa teollisuudessa, mutta se leikkaa teollisuuden lisäksi myös muita keskeisiä elinkeinoelämän alueita (mm. energia, liikenne ja logistiikka, kauppa, kiinteistöt ja infrastruktuuri) sekä julkisen sektorin toimintaa. Tämän raportin pääsisältö on joukko toimenpide-ehdotuksia, joilla edistetään Suomessa toimivien yritysten menestystä Teollisen Internetin aiheuttamassa murroksessa ja tehdään Suomesta houkutteleva sijoittumiskohde yritysten eri toiminnoille. Lopullinen tavoite on Suomessa tapahtuvan arvonmuodostuksen kasvattaminen

Finland - The Silicon Valley of Industrial Internet

This report offers a number of recommendations to promote the success of companies in Finland in the upheaval brought on by the industrial internet and to make Finland an attractive location for various business functions. The final goal is to increase the value creation that takes place in Finland. The value is comprised of salaries with statutory expenses, profit entered as income in Finland, depreciation and rents that the whole society benefits from, for example through taxes but also by means of productivity and a rising gross domestic product. Kieliversiot: Suomi - Teollisen Internetin piilaakso (27.04.2015

Onko Suomi jäämässä alustatalouden junasta?

Digitaaliset alustat ja alustatalous nähdään merkittävänä murroksena, joka vaikuttaa myös Suomessa toimiviin yrityksiin. Tässä raportissa on haettu vastauksia seuraaviin kysymyksiin: 1. Millä sovellusalueilla Suomessa on parhaat edellytykset digitaalisten palveluekosysteemien ja alustojen syntymiselle? Mitkä ovat näiden sovellusalueiden vahvuudet ja heikkoudet? 2. Millä toimenpiteillä voidaan edistää digitaalisiin alustoihin perustuvan liiketoiminnan ja uusien työpaikkojen syntymistä Suomessa ja näihin alustoihin perustuvan liiketoiminnan kasvua ja kansainvälistymistä? Tiedonhankinta- ja analysointimenetelminä selvityksessä käytettiin perinteisen kirjallisuuskatsauksen lisäksi asiantuntijoiden haastatteluja, työpajatyöskentelyä, selvitystyössä olevien henkilöiden omia taustatutkimuksia ja kokemuksia, systeemidynaamista mallinnusta sekä yritysten internetissä julkaiseman tiedon analysointia. Hankittu tieto jäsennettiin innovaatiojärjestelmiä ja alustataloutta kuvaaviin viitekehyksiin. Hankkeen lopuksi muodostettiin tilanneanalyysin pohjalta joukko toimenpide-ehdotuksia julkiselle vallalle. Ne voidaan jakaa kolmeen ryhmään: laajemmat politiikkatoimet, julkisen vallan täsmätoimet alustatalouden edistämiseksi ja toimialakohtaiset interventiot

Creation of a library of induced pluripotent stem cells from Parkinsonian patients.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are becoming an important source of pre-clinical models for research focusing on neurodegeneration. They offer the possibility for better understanding of common and divergent pathogenic mechanisms of brain diseases. Moreover, iPSCs provide a unique opportunity to develop personalized therapeutic strategies, as well as explore early pathogenic mechanisms, since they rely on the use of patients' own cells that are otherwise accessible only post-mortem, when neuronal death-related cellular pathways and processes are advanced and adaptive. Neurodegenerative diseases are in majority of unknown cause, but mutations in specific genes can lead to familial forms of these diseases. For example, mutations in the superoxide dismutase 1 gene lead to the motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), while mutations in the SNCA gene encoding for alpha-synuclein protein lead to familial Parkinson's disease (PD). The generations of libraries of familial human ALS iPSC lines have been described, and the iPSCs rapidly became useful models for studying cell autonomous and non-cell autonomous mechanisms of the disease. Here we report the generation of a comprehensive library of iPSC lines of familial PD and an associated synucleinopathy, multiple system atrophy (MSA). In addition, we provide examples of relevant neural cell types these iPSC can be differentiated into, and which could be used to further explore early disease mechanisms. These human cellular models will be a valuable resource for identifying common and divergent mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration in PD and MSA