A Roadmap For Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become yet another bandwagon in the crowded caravans towards strategic information systems nirvana. In this paper, we contend that beyond serving as a buzzword and a passing fad to acquire an Information Technology (IT) solution from clamoring vendors, managements enthusiasm for CRM can effectively be cultivated to develop the organizations strategic plan for making the customer the focal point of all activities. To that end, we examine CRM technologies by considering what they offer for managing each stage of the Customer Resource Life Cycle (CRLC)

Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing; FAIM 2014

Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing, held May 20-23, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, and organized by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems, University of Texas at San Antonio; Includes bibliographical references; Decision Support Systems (DSS) have evolved from being considered as a competitive edge to a survival strategy. In different echelons of a value chain, when DSS is combined with lean tools it drives out not only the non-value added activities (muda a.k.a. waste) from the process but also provides a decision making tool at the hands of the people. In this paper, a successful implementation of a Scheduling and Quality Decision Support System (SQDSS) at a service sector, a direct mail (letter shop) company is explained. The two primary benefits garnered were (1) attainment of 100% scheduled delivery date adherence with less rework, and (2) a seamless communication platform across the value chain to see quality defects, plan the work, and to make the product flow efficiently across the value stream. The unique contribution of this work is the original implementation of a web based decision support system that was the backbone of reducing the complexity of scheduling and improving the quality of service delivery in a high variety and low volume letter shop environmen

Ant Algorithms: Review and Future Applications

A search for a robust optimization methodology for addressing dynamic problems in business and engineering has been in research for the past decade. One such tool in the array of algorithms is the Ant algorithms, inspired by the behavior of the real ants. These algorithms fall in the category of search meta-heuristics, which are used to arrive at the best possible solution from an initial one. The natural ant colonies exhibit the application of adhoc and dynamic decision-making process in their day-to-day living activities such as foraging and brooding that can definitely be used as a tool to tackle the mercurial scenarios present in the current industrial and manufacturing environment. This paper presents an overview of the concept of Ant algorithms and provides a review of its applications to solve real world problems