A Framework for Addressing the Challenges of Business Process Change during Enterprise Systems Integration

Purpose- Enterprise Systems Integration (ESI) is necessary for today’s business environment to access real-time data and quickly respond to fluctuating market demand. Business Process Change (BPC) as a significant prerequisite of ESI encompasses various challenges that must be tackled by employing success factors, techniques, and approaches. This study focuses on BPC challenges and develops a conceptual framework for addressing BPC challenges in ESI. Design/Methodology/Approach- BPC challenges and their success factors were firstly identified through a literature analysis. Then, the findings from the literature were thematically analysed and qualitatively validated through 35 unstructured interviews for developing the conceptual framework. Findings- The findings from the literature suggested 17 BPC challenge along with their success factors. During the validation process, 15 BPC challenges were accepted by all interviewees, while most of the respondents disagreed with the two challenges of ‘consolidation of information system reengineering with BPR’, and ‘customisation’. Moreover, ‘risk’ was suggested as a BPC challenge by several interviewees. Thus, the study offered a modified list of BPC challenges that was empirically validated. Originality/value- The study proposes a conceptual framework for addressing BPC challenges in ESI that enables enterprises to design their systems integration roadmap, based on an understanding of BPC challenges and their success factors; as well as supporting solution providers to develop solutions for effective and efficient BPC. Furthermore, the framework will act as a basis for BPC and developing a similar framework for other related contexts, such as smart cities

Towards a City’s Systems Integration Model for Smart City Development: A Conceptualization

Abstract— Smart city development is a response to address the issues of urbanization and need for flexibility and agility in delivering services to citizens. City as a complex system of systems needs to be efficient, inter-operable, and integrated. Thus, similar to systems integration in enterprises, integration of city systems provides flexibility and access to real-time information for creation and delivery of efficient services. In addition, Business Process Change is essential for systems integration in smart city development. Similar to business process change in the private enterprises, there are a number of challenging dimensions in smart city development. This conceptualization research considers a city as a large-scale enterprise and attempts to design a business process centric model for city’s systems integration

Innovation in manufacturing through digital technologies and applications: Thoughts and Reflections on Industry 4.0

The rapid pace of developments in digital technologies offers many opportunities to increase the efficiency, flexibility and sophistication of manufacturing processes; including the potential for easier customisation, lower volumes and rapid changeover of products within the same manufacturing cell or line. A number of initiatives on this theme have been proposed around the world to support national industries under names such as Industry 4.0 (Industrie 4.0 in Germany, Made-in-China in China and Made Smarter in the UK). This book presents an overview of the state of art and upcoming developments in digital technologies pertaining to manufacturing. The starting point is an introduction on Industry 4.0 and its potential for enhancing the manufacturing process. Later on moving to the design of smart (that is digitally driven) business processes which are going to rely on sensing of all relevant parameters, gathering, storing and processing the data from these sensors, using computing power and intelligence at the most appropriate points in the digital workflow including application of edge computing and parallel processing. A key component of this workflow is the application of Artificial Intelligence and particularly techniques in Machine Learning to derive actionable information from this data; be it real-time automated responses such as actuating transducers or informing human operators to follow specified standard operating procedures or providing management data for operational and strategic planning. Further consideration also needs to be given to the properties and behaviours of particular machines that are controlled and materials that are transformed during the manufacturing process and this is sometimes referred to as Operational Technology (OT) as opposed to IT. The digital capture of these properties and behaviours can then be used to define so-called Cyber Physical Systems. Given the power of these digital technologies it is of paramount importance that they operate safely and are not vulnerable to malicious interference. Industry 4.0 brings unprecedented cybersecurity challenges to manufacturing and the overall industrial sector and the case is made here that new codes of practice are needed for the combined Information Technology and Operational Technology worlds, but with a framework that should be native to Industry 4.0. Current computing technologies are also able to go in other directions than supporting the digital ‘sense to action’ process described above. One of these is to use digital technologies to enhance the ability of the human operators who are still essential within the manufacturing process. One such technology, that has recently become accessible for widespread adoption, is Augmented Reality, providing operators with real-time additional information in situ with the machines that they interact with in their workspace in a hands-free mode. Finally, two linked chapters discuss the specific application of digital technologies to High Pressure Die Casting (HDPC) of Magnesium components. Optimizing the HPDC process is a key task for increasing productivity and reducing defective parts and the first chapter provides an overview of the HPDC process with attention to the most common defects and their sources. It does this by first looking at real-time process control mechanisms, understanding the various process variables and assessing their impact on the end product quality. This understanding drives the choice of sensing methods and the associated smart digital workflow to allow real-time control and mitigation of variation in the identified variables. Also, data from this workflow can be captured and used for the design of optimised dies and associated processes

Urban Computing and Smart Cities: Towards Changing City Processes by Applying Enterprise Systems Integration Practices

For developing smart cities, it is necessary to integrate all components of a city as a system of systems. This is facilitated by urban computing as a technology to address the complexity of providing adequate services to citizens through various city sectors/systems. Since business processes across city sectors/systems should be aligned with the objectives of urban computing, Business Process Change (BPC) is also a significant prerequisite of city systems integration for Smart City Development (SCD). However, there is limited research on understanding of BPC and its challenges in SCD, while in the private sector, the BPC best practices for Enterprise Systems Integration (ESI) have already been recognised and implemented. By considering city as an enterprise, this research aims at providing an understanding of similarities and differences between BPC challenges in the two contexts: SCD and ESI. This study collects data through literature analyses, interviews, and document analyses and suggests that many BPC challenges in SCD have an equivalent from the ESI context. In addition, the findings provide new insights through some challenges that are only relevant to the SCD context, so-called unsolved challenges. Consequently, the study developed a comparison framework, which indicates that the learnings from ESI could be utilised for the SCD context, in order to address BPC challenges. This will assist city authorities in designing their SCD roadmap, prioritising BPC challenges based on the efforts employed for ESI, and thinking about addressing unsolved challenges; as well as smart city solution providers to develop solutions for changing city processes

An Enterprise Architecture Framework for Mobile Commerce

The increasing deployment of mobile technologies across industry sectors is creating fertile ground for organisations to exploit new revenue streams generated from applications that exploit the mobile ecosystem. M-Commerce has been recognised as a key driving force of next generation computing and industry analysts such as IDC have predicted revenue growth arising from m-commerce to far exceed US$27 billion by the end of the decade [1]. Mobility has, without doubt, underpinned the current wave and generation of computing systems resulting in the concept and practicality of mobile solutions becoming embedded as natural or inherent ones that support the daily functions of individuals and corporations. This paper explores an approach to encapsulating the m-commerce ecosystem through the perspective of an enterprise architecture framework

Context Based Knowledge Management in Healthcare: An EA Approached

While an enterprise architectural approach is appropriate for business and IT alignment it also has potential with respect to the design and implementation of healthcare applications by effective representation of healthcare processes. Our research is to develop an enterprise architectural framework for managing contextual knowledge by exploiting object location deduction technologies in healthcare processes that involve the movement of patients. Such a framework is intended to facilitate healthcare managers in adopting location deduction technologies for patient care resulting in improvements in clinical process management and healthcare services

Beyond Smart: How ICT Is Enabling Sustainable Cities of the Future

Cities around the world face pressing sustainability challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and unsustainable growth. Smart cities have emerged as a response to these challenges, leveraging information and communication technologies (ICTs) to create more efficient and liveable urban environments. However, the concept of smart cities is often defined in vague and ideologically driven terms that lack clear guidelines for promoting sustainability. In this study, we use qualitative methods to examine how the use of ICTs can support the goals of sustainability in smart city development, resulting in what we call a ‘smart sustainable city’. Drawing on a case study involving stakeholder analysis, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, we investigate the key roles of local government, ICT firms, and citizens in shaping sustainable urban development through smart city initiatives. Our findings shed light on the potential of ICTs to promote sustainability in smart cities and provide insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars working towards creating more sustainable urban environments. The findings of this research showed that ICT’s role in supporting sustainability in smart cities relies on understanding the interests and priorities of civic, ICT firms, and citizens, promoting effective collaboration and avoiding self-serving outcomes

A computational design method for bio-mimicked horizontal axis tidal turbines

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comparative analysis between a straight blade (SB) and a curved caudal-fin tidal turbine blade (CB) and to examine the aspects relating to geometry, turbulence modelling, non-dimensional forces lift and power coefficients. Design/methodology/approach The comparison utilises results obtained from a default horizontal axis tidal turbine with turbine models available from the literature. A computational design method was then developed and implemented for “horizontal axis tidal turbine blade”. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results for the blade design are presented in terms of lift coefficient distribution at mid-height blades, power coefficients and blade surface pressure distributions. Moving the CB back towards the SB ensures that the total blade height stays constant for all geometries. A 3D mesh independency study of a “straight blade horizontal axis tidal turbine blade” modelled using CFD was carried out. The grid convergence study was produced by employing two turbulence models, the standard k-ε model and shear stress transport (SST) in ANSYS CFX. Three parameters were investigated: mesh resolution, turbulence model, and power coefficient in the initial CFD, analysis. Findings It was found that the mesh resolution and the turbulence model affect the power coefficient results. The power coefficients obtained from the standard k-ε model are 15 to 20 per cent lower than the accuracy of the SST model. Further analysis was performed on both the designed blades using ANSYS CFX and SST turbulence model. The variation in pressure distributions yields to the varying lift coefficient distribution across blade spans. The lift coefficient reached its peak between 0.75 and 0.8 of the blade span where the total lift accelerates with increasing pressure before drastically dropping down at 0.9 onwards due to the escalating rotational velocity of the blades. Originality/value The work presents a computational design methodological approach that is entirely original. While this numerical method has proven to be accurate and robust for many traditional tidal turbines, it has now been verified further for CB tidal turbines

Intelligent agent simulator in massive crowd

Crowd simulations have many benefits over real-life research such as in computer games, architecture and entertainment. One of the key elements in this study is to include elements of decision-making into the crowd. The aim of this simulator is to simulate the features of an intelligent agent to escape from crowded environments especially in one-way corridor, two-way corridor and four-way intersection. The addition of the graphical user interface enables intuitive and fast handling in all settings and features of the Intelligent Agent Simulator and allows convenient research in the field of intelligent behaviour in massive crowd. This paper describes the development of a simulator by using the Open Graphics Library (OpenGL), starting from the production of training data, the simulation process, until the simulation results. The Social Force Model (SFM) is used to generate the motion of agents and the Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to predict the next step for intelligent agent