Collaborative business networks evaluation of technological tools for decision support making

Nowadays, companies are living great difficulties on managing their business due to constant and unpredictable economic market fluctuations. Recent changes in market trends (such as the constant demand for new products and services, mass customization and the drastic reduction of delivery time) lead companies to adopt strategies of creating partnerships with other companies as a way to respond effectively to such difficult economical times. Collaborative Networks’ concept born by the consequence of companies could no longer consider their internal business processes’ management as sufficient and tend to seek for a collaborative approach with other partners for their critical processes. Information technologies (ICT) assumed a major role acting as “enablers” of these kinds of networks, enhancing information sharing and business process integration. Several new trends concerning ICT architectures have been created to support collaborative networks requirements, but still doesn’t exist a common platform to reduce the needed integration effort on virtual organizations. This study aims to investigate the current technological solutions available in the market which enhances the management of companies’ business processes (specially, Collaborative Planning). Finally, the research work ends with the presentation of a conceptual model to answer to the constraints evaluated.

Gestão e trabalhadores do conhecimento em Tecnologias da informação (UML)

RESUMO: O conhecimento existe desde sempre, mesmo num estado latente condicionado algures e apenas à espera de um meio (de uma oportunidade) de se poder manifestar. O conhecimento é duplamente um fenómeno da consciência: porque dela procede num dado momento da sua vida e da sua história e porque só nela termina, aperfeiçoando-a e enriquecendo-a. O conhecimento está assim em constante mudança. À relativamente pouco tempo começou-se a falar de Gestão do Conhecimento e na altura foi muito associada às Tecnologias da Informação, como meio de colectar, processar e armazenar cada vez mais, maiores quantidades de informação. As Tecnologias da Informação têm tido, desde alguns anos para cá, um papel extremamente importante nas organizações, inicialmente foram adoptadas com o propósito de automatizar os processos operacionais das organizações, que suportam as suas actividades quotidianas e nestes últimos tempos as Tecnologias da Informação dentro das organizações têm evoluído rapidamente. Todo o conhecimento, mesmo até o menos relevante de uma determinada área de negócio, é fundamental para apoiar o processo de tomada de decisão. As organizações para atingirem melhores «performances» e conseguirem transcender as metas a que se propuseram inicialmente, tendem a munir-se de mais e melhores Sistemas de Informação, assim como, à utilização de várias metodologias e tecnologias hoje em dia disponíveis. Por conseguinte, nestes últimos anos, muitas organizações têm vindo a demonstrar uma necessidade crucial de integração de toda a sua informação, a qual está dispersa pelos diversos departamentos constituintes. Para que os gestores de topo (mas também para outros funcionários) possam ter disponível em tempo útil, informação pertinente, verdadeira e fiável dos negócios da organização que eles representam, precisam de ter acesso a bons Sistemas de Tecnologias de Informação. Numa acção de poderem agir mais eficazmente e eficientemente nas tomadas de decisão, por terem conseguido tirar por esses meios o máximo de proveito possível da informação, e assim, apresentarem melhores níveis de sucesso organizacionais. Também, os Sistemas de «Business Intelligence» e as Tecnologias da Informação a ele associadas, utilizam os dados existentes nas organizações para disponibilizar informação relevante para as tomadas de decisão. Mas, para poderem alcançar esses níveis tão satisfatórios, as organizações necessitam de recursos humanos, pois como podem elas serem competitivas sem Luís Miguel Borges – Gestão e Trabalhadores do Conhecimento em Tecnologias da Informação (UML) ULHT – ECATI 6 trabalhadores qualificados. Assim, surge a necessidade das organizações em recrutar os chamados hoje em dia “Trabalhadores do Conhecimento”, que são os indivíduos habilitados para interpretar as informações dentro de um domínio específico. Eles detectam problemas e identificam alternativas, com os seus conhecimentos e discernimento, eles trabalham para solucionar esses problemas, ajudando consideravelmente as organizações que representam. E, usando metodologias e tecnologias da Engenharia do Conhecimento como a modelação, criarem e gerirem um histórico de conhecimento, incluindo conhecimento tácito, sobre várias áreas de negócios da organização, que podem estar explícitos em modelos abstractos, que possam ser compreendidos e interpretados facilmente, por outros trabalhadores com níveis de competência equivalentes. ABSTRACT: Knowledge has always existed, even in a latent state conditioning somewhere and just waiting for a half (an opportunity) to be able to manifest. Knowledge is doubly a phenomenon of consciousness: because proceeds itself at one point in its life and its history and because solely itself ends, perfecting it and enriching it. The knowledge is so in constant change. In the relatively short time that it began to speak of Knowledge Management and at that time was very associated with Information Technologies, as a means to collect, process and store more and more, larger amounts of information. Information Technologies has had, from a few years back, an extremely important role in organizations, were initially adopted in order to automate the operational processes of organizations, that support their daily activities and in recent times Information Technologies within organizations has evolved rapidly. All the knowledge, even to the least relevant to a particular business area, is fundamental to support the process of decision making. The organizations to achieve better performances and to transcend the goals that were initially propose, tend to provide itself with more and better Information Systems, as well as, the use of various methodologies and technologies available today. Consequently, in recent years, many organizations have demonstrated a crucial need for integrating all their information, which is dispersed by the diver constituents departments. For top managers (but also for other employees) may have ready in time, pertinent, truthful and reliable information of the organization they represent, need access to good Information Technology Systems. In an action that they can act more effectively and efficiently in decision making, for having managed to get through these means the maximum possible advantage of the information, and so, present better levels of organizational success. Also, the systems of Business Intelligence and Information Technologies its associated, use existing data on organizations to provide relevant information for decision making. But, in order to achieve these levels as satisfactory, organizations need human resources, because how can they be competitive without skilled workers. Thus, arises the need for organizations to recruit called today “Knowledge Workers”, they are the individuals enable to interpret the information within a specific domain. They detect problems and identify alternatives, with their knowledge and discernment they work to solve these problems, helping considerably the organizations that represent. And, using Luís Miguel Borges – Gestão e Trabalhadores do Conhecimento em Tecnologias da Informação (UML) ULHT – ECATI 8 methodologies and technologies of Knowledge Engineering as modeling, create and manage a history of knowledge, including tacit knowledge, on various business areas of the organization, that can be explicit in the abstract models, that can be understood and interpreted easily, by other workers with equivalent levels of competence.

ARX, model thinking: taxonomy and operativity of an architectural process

The purpose of this work was to establish a taxonomy of hand made model construction as a platform for an approach to project an operative method in architecture. It was therefore studied and catalogued in a systematic approach a broad model production in the work of ARX. A wide range of families and sub-families of models were found, with different purposes according to each phase of development, from searching steps for a new possible configuration to detailed refined decisions. This working method revealed as most relevant characteristics, the grounds for a potential personal reflection and open discussion on project method, its flexibility on space modeling, an accuracy on the representation of real construction situations and its constant and stimulating opening to new suggestions. This research helped on a meta-reflection about this method, having been useful on creating a consciousness of processes that pretend to become an autonomous language, knowledge that might become useful to those who pretend to implement a haptic modus operandi in the work of an architectural project.

Logística externa de materiais : dificuldades em obras de construção em Angola

The objectives of this article are to analyze the role of external logistics in the construction sites in Angola and to evaluate the problems inherent in this activity in this country so we can find ways of increasing the rationalization of the production and, as a consequence of that, the competitiveness of Portuguese contractors operating in Angola. In spite of logistics being an administrative process that is incorporated, mainly, in the seriated industrial companies, it must also be applied to the construction industry because it presents unquestionable and vital benefits to its performance. Nevertheless, the evolution of logistics applied to the construction has been poor, which is proved by the limited bibliography in this area. This happens for two reasons: the intrinsic specificities of this industry and the consequent inapplicability of algorithms to rationalize production. Although it’s not viable to approach the logistics of construction through numeric models, it’s not unreasonable to study logistics applied to this area. Despite the fact that an approach to the construction logistics by numeric modeling is not viable, studying this theme continues to be meaningful. In most of the industries and especially in the construction one, the supply of resources (materials, equipments, workmanship or subcontractors) is an essential factor for the success of a business. The optimization of management of the supply chain for the construction industry constitutes one of the ways of optimizing a company and, especially, of increasing the profitability of its operations. Only through an improved logistic efficiency is it possible to take competitive advantage in the current market and, particularly, in the international market. In order for that to happen it is necessary to start making businessmen aware of the specific logistic difficulties in this industry and of ways to solve them either by disclosing them or by making businessmen reflect about them.