Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

A unified framework standing behind of a methodology aimed at object oriented decision support system (DSS) design is considered. First of all the consistency of the assumed knowledge bases describing an object (enterprise) and requests (standard options supporting a decision maker), respectively are examined. Then the knowledge base representation is transformed into representation of so called constraint satisfaction problem (CSP). Possible ways of the CSP decomposition as well as possibility of different programming languages application lead then to a problem aimed at searching for a distribution strategy allowing one to interact in an on-line model. The results obtained are implemented in a software package supporting production flow planning in the SMEs. Illustrative example of the ILOG-based software application is provided. Experiments carried out by means of the package have been executed in Archimedes S.A., a hydraulic and pneumatic equipment manufacturer.

Business process models assist business and information technology managers while adapting, reengineering and optimizing the organizational processes through analysis, visualization and simulation. Despite the number of notations and techniques to support business process modeling, there is no agreement on the modeling criteria to be used by different organizational stakeholders. This paper describes a method to infer business activities in order to facilitate the consistent representation of business processes, thus facilitating their sharing, dissemination and analysis. The method relies on using a number of properties derived from the dimensions of the Zachman framework.

Information systems play a critical role in today’s manufacturing business, and the need for enterprise-wide integrated information system has grown rapidly. Although there are different integration approaches reported in the published literature, in today’s industrial practice, most of the information system integration projects are still done on a trial-and-error basis owing to the lack of practical and feasible integration methodologies. This research proposed an integration framework which provides a logical and structured methodology to tackle information systems integration problems in real-world manufacturing environments. The framework is driven by the corporate strategy of manufacturing enterprises. The ‘Decomposing-and-Mapping’ method, normally used in the engineering axiomatic design approach, has been utilised here in a novel setting to design an integrated manufacturing information system.

World globalization affects customers and push toward rapid products replacement. Companies compete to get their product on the market first. Continual reduction of product life cycle and in product development time results in perpetual change of processes. This puts enormous pressure on engineering activities (design, production, logistics, etc.) to be performed with higher quality and in shorter time. In this paper is presented the research project “Research and Implementation of the Virtual Enterprise Model - RIVEM” which deals with co-operation among SME’s. Its aim is to implement collaboration tools within companies to be able to perform activities electronically connected with product development and production to cooperate with other participating partners. In this research project manufacturing companies geographically spread cooperate. Although the paradigm of Virtual Enterprise itself is exploited on reasonable level, the technical and technological solutions that allow companies to work in qualitative new environment, have only begun to be implemented in the SME’s. The groundwork of this project is focused on homogenous and holistic solutions to make the virtual enterprise operational.

Engineering design projects are more and more often developed in network of R&D services of several companies. It is particularly the case of projects developed in the context of European Network of Excellence (NoE). Such a research network is characterized by assignments. One of them is new knowledge creation; it represents the core of the network assignments. In this paper, we aim to characterize the process of new knowledge creation in collaborative and distributed scientific research context. Then we suggest some specifications and a framework for a system to support the creation of new knowledge in a context of distributed collaborative project of engineering design.

The ubiquitous globalization, which opens up new markets with their specific local conditions and labor costs, as well as the increasing pressure regarding time, costs and flexibility lead to the decentralization of the value added. The resulting global value added networks, consisting of company-owned and external sites as well as logistic partners, have to be configured, operated and optimized. An important criterion for these networks is their ability to a fast and efficient ramp-up. This article presents a concept to assess and select potential value added network’s nodes (sites or external partners) according to their ramp-up performance to achieve an optimal configuration of the network.

This paper underlines the necessity of developing a framework supported by methodologies and concepts that make it possible to provide instances of the network’s global performance management system in collaborative networks, and to simultaneously lead to the necessary alignment of all participants. We propose a way to identify and suggest the requirements to develop a framework that can support a dynamic Performance Management System efficiently through a conceptual schema that enables the implementation.

Few corporate activities result in the density of knowledge generation that Research and Development activities do. This knowledge comes at high cost and should be managed as an high-value asset.. Of paramount importance in the knowledge management process, is the knowledge availability for (re-)use within the enterprise.

This paper discusses a quantified approach to the management of tacit knowledge through the creation of user profiles that capture the expertise of an employee. Once constructed, these profiles can be used to make tacit knowledge searchable, as well as to bring together experts and those in search of expertise.

In the last few years, organizations were compelled to innovate just to stay competitive. However, the value added by that innovation is rarely measured. At the same time, the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) became popular as a tool to measure business performance. Unfortunately, the traditional BSC is not appropriate to measure the value added by innovation.

In this paper we propose an Innovation Scorecard based on innovation metrics and the traditional BSC in order to measure the value added by innovation and also guarantee the alignment with the organization strategic objectives. We are currently developing a pilot for a large industrial company that demonstrates how the proposal can be applied in practice.

In the last 15 years, initiatives aiming to improve Business Process Management (BPM) have increased significantly. Agility, distribution and interoperability are BPM requirements for the emergent new organizational forms, which have an important role in providing distributed shared process management. In collaborative activities, it is extremely relevant the interactions between several actors for the process success. In order to develop information system that efficiently support collaborative activities this interactions should be contemplated during system specification. The recently emerged/adopted socio-technical approaches to systems development have contributed with theories and methods which allow contemplating the social environment lived in organization(s), in systems specification.

This paper analyze how the current BMP initiatives and social-technical approaches can contribute to the digital information systems development process, in order to address the main characteristics of a collaborative environment