Menadžment poslovnih procesa i znanja u hrvatskim poduzećima

Contemporary companies function in constantly changing and highly turbulent business environment which is the cause of a constant need for change and learning at individual, group, organizational as well as interorganizational level (61). Organizational learning is considered to be one of the most promising concepts in modern managerial literature. According to de Geus ‘ability to learn faster than your competitors might be the only sustainable competitive advantage you have’ (11). Dimovski (12) provides an overview of previous research and identifies four perspectives on organizational learning. His model manages to merge informational, interpretational, strategic and behavioral approach to organizational learning and defines it as a process of information acquisition, information interpretation and resulting behavioral and cognitive changes, which should in turn have an impact on organizational performance. In recent research, another measurement variable for organizational learning emerged – Information quality (18). Another research topic introduced in this research was determination and evaluation of the business process orientation construct. Although definitions of the business process orientation vary, we adopt the McCormack’s and Johnson’s (2001) definition of process orientation: An organization that, in all its thinking, emphasizes process as opposed to hierarchies with a special emphasis on outcomes and customer satisfaction. McCormack and Johnson (2001) conducted an empirical study to explore the relationship between BPO and enhanced business performance. The research results showed that BPO is critical in reducing conflict and encouraging greater connectedness within an organization, while improving business performance. The more business process oriented an organization, the better it performs both from an overall perspective as well as from the perspective of the employees. The BPO construct describes a four-step pathway for systematically advancing business processes along the maturity continuum (Ad Hoc, Defined, Linked, and Integrated level). Each step builds on the work of the previous steps to apply improvement strategies that are appropriate to the current maturity level. It is important to note that trying to skip maturity levels is counter-productive, since each level builds a foundation from which to achieve the subsequent level. An organization must evolve through these levels to establish a culture of process excellence. The goal of our contribution was to test differences in the way companies learn and perceive their business process orientation in Slovenia and Croatia. During September and October 2005 questionnaires were distributed to Slovenian and Croatian companies with more than 50 employees. In Slovenian case, 203 completed questionnaires were returned (which accounts for 16.5% response rate) while in Croatia 202 completed questionnaires were returned to the research group (which accounts for 11.5% response rate). Received questionnaires from both countries allow us to compare the results and to implicitly test the impact of various country-based factors on the organizational learning phenomena. Using data gathered from two independent samples (Slovenia and Croatia) analysis of variance method and t-test were used in order to get the answer to our research question relating to differences in organizational learning and business process orientation between Slovenian and Croatian companies. Results indicate that Slovenian and Croatian companies differ only in 17 out of 48 items considering organizational learning research – especially in the way they acquire information and the way they perceive behavioral and cognitive changes currently under place. Croatian companies are more outward directed when acquiring information and are witnessing more turbulent changes in their internal as well as external business environment. Nevertheless, there are much more similar traits in the way Slovenian and Croatian companies learn than there are dissimilarities. However, there are some indications that Slovenian companies already bridged the transition period, while majority of Croatian companies still has to cross that bridge. Data analysis considering second part of the research revealed some important aspects of business process orientation in Slovenia and Croatia. It showed that Slovenian companies have reached slightly higher maturity level than Croatian companies, which was not surprising considering Croatian contemporary history. Though statistically significant, the difference is not large and the general state of the BPO in both countries is promising. Still, a lot is left to change and improve in order to transform the companies into process-oriented ones. The investigation also revealed some differences between both counties. Slovenian companies give more emphasis to the quality of process data and have monitoring and control systems in place to assure it. Besides that jobs are more frequently multidimensional and not just simple tasks in Slovenia then in Croatia. This is important aspect of process orientation whereby employees need to be equipped with wide arsenal of knowledge and skills in order to participate in different areas of a process. To realize BPO projects, most companies use different business process modelling/management methods and tools, which integrate components for static and dynamic modelling, measuring and monitoring the performance of the processes, as well as enabling the transformation of business process diagrams into tailor-made applications supporting the execution of workflows. The focus of this paper is to discuss the application of business process oriented concepts in different areas, depending on different projects' objectives and goals. The paper provides the results of a search in literature as well as a summary and comparison of features concerning business process modelling and business process management tools, placing them within an empirically derived framework.menadžment poslovnih procesa, menadžment znanja

Delineation of risk area in Log pod Mangartom due to debris flows from the Stoze landslide

The paper shows in detail the case of delineation of risk area in the village of Log pod Mangartom in the Koritnica River valley due to possible debris flows that might in future be triggered on the Stoze slope above the Mangart Mountain pasture. On the basis of field and laboratory investigations of the debris flow of November 17, 2000, that devastated the Koritnica River valley, the possible scenarios of triggering new debris flows on the Stoze slope were investigated. For the determination of debris flow hazard area in the Koritnica River valley, the results of one- and two-dimensional modelling of selected debris flows of known magnitudes and different viscosities were applied. For the determination of risk area, the existing and the possible new infrastructures were taken into account, and the risk area was divided into 3 zones. The paper presents the expert bases summarised by the legislator in the relevant decree issued by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia on the conditions and limitations governing the construction in the debris-flow risk area of Log pod Mangartom. This regulation is the first of its kind in Slovenia

Role of Random Numbers in Simulations of Economic Processes

Various ways of selecting random numbers used in process simulations will be presented in this paper. Special attention will be given to complex phenomena not known enough to be precisely described. Modes of interaction are unknown; what is known are probabilities of interaction outcome. Such cases are found mostly in social and economic phenomena, such as population growth, economic predictions, decision-making risk analysis, etc.random numbers, simulation, process, distribution, model.

Automated modelling of lakes from data and expert knowledge: evaluation of applications

Ecological models of lakes are useful tools for a better understanding of the ecosystem behaviour, lake management, policy making, as well as testing and accepting engineering solutions. Setting such model is a difficult task due to the complexity of these ecosystems. Therefore it is reasonable to use as many approaches as possible to construct a reliable model of the observed domain. In this paper the evaluation of an automated modelling method, called Lagramge, that combines the two basic approaches, i.e. data-driven (inductive) approach and knowledge-driven (deductive) approach, is given. The method supports the introduction of domain knowledge in the procedure of equation discovery from measured data, where the domain modelling knowledge is introduced in a form of modelling knowledge library. Four applications of the method, i.e. Lake Glumsø, Lake Bled, Lake Kasumigaura, and Greifensee, comprise different modelling tasks for Lagramge, each of them resulting in a specific model of the observed domains. The models are evaluated in terms of their descriptive power and their performance (goodness of fit to the measurements). Although faced with some constraints, the method can be successfully used in complex domains. It can be used successfully for model discovery as well as for other scientific discoveries, such as identifying dynamic patterns in the observed system, i.e. dynamic structure of the ecosystem

Matematičko modeliranje bioloških sustava

U ovom radu predstavljeni su matematički modeli za tri biološka sustava. Proučavanjem evolucije populacije, stanične dinamike i razvoja epidemijskih bolesti dolazimo do zaključka da navedene biološke sustave dobro opisuju sustavi običnih diferencijalnih jednadžbi. U analizi modela populacijske genetike dolazimo do zaključka da nasumično parenje uz ostale pretpostavke osnovnog modela nasumičnog parenja vode do očuvanja genetičke raznolikosti unutar populacije. Kada neka od pretpostavki modela nije ispunjena smatramo da dolazi do evolucije genetičke strukture populacije. S obzirom na globalno zatopljenje i sve većeg straha od cijepljenja postoji izrazita potreba za preciznim modelima razvoja epidemijskih bolesti. S time na umu, pokazali smo na koji način za svaku bolest za koju postoji cjepivo možemo izračunati potrebnu procijepljenost za efikasno sprječavanje epidemije. Zadnje poglavlje daje vrlo važnu informaciju za efikasna istraživanja na području stanične dinamike. Kako bi se smanjili troškovi eksperimentalnih mjerenja za potrebe istraživanja stanične dinamike, kvantitativni model metaboličkih sustava određuje minimalan broj unutarstaničnih bioreakcija koji opisuju sve značajne bioreakcije te stanice.This thesis presents mathematical models for three biological systems. The analysis of biological systems in population genetics, epidemiology and cellular dynamics has led us to the conclusion that they can be well described by ordinary differential equations. Population genetic model analysis showed that random pairing with other assumptions of the basic model of random mating leads to the preservation of genetic diversity within the population. When some of the assumptions of the model are not fulfilled, we consider the evolution of the genetic structure of the population. The aim of the second chapter is to give an elementary introduction to mathematical models that are used to explain epidemiologic phenomena and to assess vaccination strategies. Given the present trends in global warming, there is a need to predict the dynamics and transmission of mosquito-borne diseases with greater accuracy and over longer periods of time, both in constant and growing populations. In metabolic flux analysis an important issue concerns the number of distinct bioreactions that are generated when computing the EFMs. It may become very large because it combinatorially increases with the size of the underlying metabolic network. Therefore, there is clearly a need for reducing the model size as much as possible and trying to determine a minimal subset of bioreactions that are able to fully describe the available experimental data

3D geometrijsko modeliranje namještaja

U radu je prikazan opis računalne grafike u dizajnu namještaja. Uvođenje računalne grafike u dizajn namještaja mora biti koncipirano na bazi podataka pomoću kojih se mogu proučiti elementi modela ili cijeli model. Za tu je svrhu opisan način 3D geometrijskog modeliranja namještaja. Računalnom vizualizacijom virtualnog 3D postupka u interakciji s digitaliziranim realno izvedenim namještajem i okolinom uvedeno je optimalno i ergonomsko oblikovanje i određivanje dimenzija namještaja. Radi što boljeg uvida u sve komponente i redoslijede njihova sklapanja, izveden je rasčlanjeni prikaz stolice te ispitane mogućnosti vizualizacije modela

Modelling of hydrodynamics and mecury transport in lake Velenje. Part 2, Modelling and model verification

PCFLOW3D - a three-dimensional mathematical model that was developed at the Chair of Fluid\ud Mechanics of the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, was used for\ud hydrodynamic and Hg transport simulations in Lake Velenje. The model is fully non-linear and\ud computes three velocity components, water elevation and pressure. Transport-dispersion equations\ud for salinity and heat (and/or any pollutant) are further used to compute the distributions of these\ud parameters. The results show that the major sources of mercury in Lake Velenje are lake inflows.\ud The hydrodynamic simulations revealed that ground and/or surface water inflow and outflow do not\ud have much influence on water cycling in the lake basin. Wind and ambient temperature seem to\ud have the greatest influence on water movement in the lake. Mercury transport simulations\ud performed by PCFLOW3D show good agreement with the measured distribution of different Hg\ud and MeHg forms in Lake Velenje. Verification of water flow was done by isotope tracers δ18O and\ud δ2H and measurements of different Hg and MeHg forms. Distribution of different Hg species and\ud forms and isotopic composition in water of Lake Velenje is described in Part 1

MODELING OF LUBRICATING LAYER OF STRIP DRESSING WITH THE INFLUENCE OF SURFACE ROUGHNESS

Analizira se utjecaj poprečne hrapavosti trake na procese dresiranja s mazivima. Analiza polazi od Reynoldsove diferencijalne jednadžbe za podmazivanje u koju je ugrađena poprečna hrapavost trake. U proračunu se uzima u obzir i visina maziva na traci te njezin utjecaj na visinu maziva na ulaznom presjeku zone deformacije. Istraživanja su pokazala da poprečna hrapavost ima dvojak utjecaj na visinu maziva na ulaznome presjeku zone deformacije. Za malu hrapavost trake visina mazivoga sloja ima tendenciju laganoga opadanja u odnosu na nominalnu visinu (kada se proces opisuje glatkoćom površina) da bi dalje s porastom hrapavosti debljina mazivoga sloja rasla. Pod nominalnom visinom maziva smatra se slučaj prijelaza konkavne plohe u konveksnu koja djeluje prividno ravnom kao da se proces opisuje glatkoćom površina. Izvršeno je i modeliranje mazivoga sloja za slučaj trenja nedovoljno ovlaženih površina. Okosnicu analize nosila je numerička metoda Monte-Carlo, a izvedeno je i približno analitičko rješenje koje je u usporedbi s numeričkom metodom dalo dobru podudarnost. Ova teorijska istraživanja mogu pojasniti neke pojave podmazivanja u plastičnoj deformaciji metala i činjenicu da oblik hrapavosti trake određuje oblik mazivoga sloja.In the paper the influence of transversal roughness of the strip on dressing processes with lubricants is analyzed. The analysis begins with Reynolds differential equation for lubrication, in which transversal roughness of the strip is incorporated. In the estimation, the height of lubricant on the strip is taken into account, as well as its influence on the height of lubricant at the inlet section of the deformation zone. The research has shown that transversal roughness has a twofold influence on the height of lubricant at the inlet section of the deformation zone. If roughness is small of the strip the height of lubricating layer has a tendency of slight decreasing related to the nominal height (when the process is described by smoothness of surfaces) but with an increase of roughness, the thickness of lubricating layer has a tendency to increase. The nominal height of lubricant is considered to be the case of changing the concave surface into the convex one, which seems to look straight as if the process is described by smoothness of surfaces. Lubricating layer modeling in the friction area on insufficiently lubricated surfaces was also performed. The basis of the analysis was the Monte-Carlo numerical method, and an approximate analytical solution, that gave good match in comparison with the numerical method, was established. The results of this theoretical research can clarify some phenomena of lubrication in plastic deformation of metal and the fact that the shape of strip roughness determines the form of lubricating layer