Technic and Collaboration Breakdown Structures: Drivers of collaborative problem solving approaches in a supply chain context

Problem Solving Methodologies have been par excellence a cornerstone element of the firms’ strategy on achieving effective continuous improvement. But the enterprise evolution towards an extended environment characterized by network-based organization has radically changed the problem solving paradigms. This paper aims to propose a generic and collaborative methodology addressing more complex and distributed problems, dealing with Supply Chain issues and having a key role as a driver for building global competitive advantages and create superior performances at a Supply Chain level

Collaborative methodology for supply chain quality management: framework and integration with strategic decision processes in product development

The new generation of network-based organizations has triggered the emergence of distributed and more complex contexts for the analysis of firms’ strategies. This gradual change in the way we understand enterprises has induced radical evolutions on the Quality Management domain. As a consequence, the Problem Solving Methodologies (PSM)widely used in industry and positioned up to now as one of the key elements for achieving continuous improvement efforts within local scopes are now insufficient to deal with major and distributed problems and requirements in this new environment. The definition of a generic and collaborative PSM well-adapted to supply chain contexts is one of the purposes of this paper. Additional requirements linked to specificities carried out by the introduction of a networked context within the methodology scope, the relational aspects of the supply chains, complexity and distribution of information, distributed decision-making processes and knowledge management challenges are some of the aspects being addressed by the proposed methodology. A special focus is made on benefits obtained through the integration of those elements across all problem-solving phases and particularly a proposal for multi-level root-cause analysis articulating both horizontal and vertical decision processes of supply chains is presented. In addition to laying out the expected benefits of such a methodology in the Quality Management area, the article studies the reuse of all the quality-related evidence capitalized in series phase as a driver for improving upstream phases of product development projects. This paper addresses this link between series and development activities in light of the proposed PSM and intends to encourage discussion on the definition of new approaches for Quality Management throughout the whole product life cycle. Some enabling elements in the decision-making processes linked to both the problem-solving in series phase and the roll-out of new products are introduced

Formalization and reuse of collaboration experiences in industrial processes

Collaboration is a key factor for carrying out activities in industrial processes and an efficient collaboration is essential to accomplish an overall improvement of any process. In this article, we introduce a collaborative process-modeling framework, which allows evaluating collaboration throughout all the activities of an industrial process. The proposed framework uses experience management notions towards the creation of a repository of collaboration experiences. This experience base facilitates the reuse of past experiences to support decision making for the organization and execution of future collaborations. The article concludes by discussing the contributions and limitations of the proposed collaboration model

Collaboration evaluation methodology for experience capitalization in industrial processes

Collaboration is a key factor that encourages an efficient running of industrial processes. The measurement of the collaboration performance is necessary to allow experience capitalization and reuse in order to support decision making about efficient collaborations in future processes. This article describes a proposition of collaboration and performance evaluation methodology in industrial processes for experience capitalization. For this purpose, a collaboration model is introduced in order to develop an evaluation methodology. Finally, a case study applied to the aeronautical domain is presented to illustrate the methodology and validate the proposal

Proposition of an agile knowledge-based process model

Modern organizations generally define and use standardized models of their processes. They manage their activities using such standards. In these processes, the generalization and reuse of knowledge is facilitated by the standardization. But it is sometimes difficult to react to unexpected events due to over-constrained standards. Companies need to become agile to survive to continuous changes in their environments. There is a requirement of agility for the processes in order to ensure constant responsiveness and flexibility. This necessity of agility can be achieved through a knowledge-based system. This "versioning" allows to formalize experiences and to capitalize them for future reuse. Finally, an application of the method to the problem solving domain is presented. It is shown how the standard 9 Steps process becomes more agile by deploying the proposed methodology.Therefore, this article proposes a knowledge-based agile process model in which agility is driven by the reuse of knowledge and experiences. For this purpose, agility operators are defined as formalized pieces of knowledge. A model of an agile process in which these operators are used is presented. The basis of a methodology describing incremental versions of the model is also presented

Experience reuse to improve agility in knowledge-driven industrial processes

Companies need to become more agile to survive to the unstable and highly changing market-place. This can be achieved through the adaptation and control of their business processes. A process sufficiently structured but not over constrained by standards and based on experience feedback principles is necessary. This article describes a proposition of agile process driven by the reuse of experiences and knowledge. For this purpose, based on Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) principles, the complete lifecycle of an agile process is introduced, from requirements definition, retrieval, reuse, adaptation, and storage steps. Finally, an example applied to the domain of industrial problem solving is presented to illustrate the methodology

Formalization and reuse of collaboration experiences in industrial processes

International audienceCollaboration is a key factor for carrying out activities in industrial processes and an efficient collaboration is essential to accomplish an overall improvement of any process. In this article, we introduce a collaborative process-modeling framework, which allows evaluating collaboration throughout all the activities of an industrial process. The proposed framework uses experience management notions towards the creation of a repository of collaboration experiences. This experience base facilitates the reuse of past experiences to support decision making for the organization and execution of future collaborations. The article concludes by discussing the contributions and limitations of the proposed collaboration model

Proposition of an agile knowledge-based process model

International audienceModern organizations generally define and use standardized models of their processes. They manage their activities using such standards. In these processes, the generalization and reuse of knowledge is facilitated by the standardization. But it is sometimes difficult to react to unexpected events due to over-constrained standards. Companies need to become agile to survive to continuous changes in their environments. There is a requirement of agility for the processes in order to ensure constant responsiveness and flexibility. This necessity of agility can be achieved through a knowledge-based system. This "versioning" allows to formalize experiences and to capitalize them for future reuse. Finally, an application of the method to the problem solving domain is presented. It is shown how the standard 9 Steps process becomes more agile by deploying the proposed methodology.Therefore, this article proposes a knowledge-based agile process model in which agility is driven by the reuse of knowledge and experiences. For this purpose, agility operators are defined as formalized pieces of knowledge. A model of an agile process in which these operators are used is presented. The basis of a methodology describing incremental versions of the model is also presented