Effectiveness of Pilotage

The objective of the pilotage effectiveness study was to come up with a process descrip-tion of the pilotage procedure, to design performance indicators based on this process description, to be used by Finnpilot, and to work out a preliminary plan for the imple-mentation of the indicators within the Finnpilot organisation. The theoretical aspects of pilotage as well as the guidelines and standards used were determined through a literature review. Based on the literature review, a process flow model with the following phases was created: the planning of pilotage, the start of pilo-tage, the act of pilotage, the end of pilotage and the closing of pilotage. The model based on the literature review was tested through interviews and observation of pilotage. At the same time an e-mail survey directed at foreign pilotage organisations, which included a questionnaire concerning their standards and management systems, operations procedures, measurement tools and their attitude to the passage planning, was conducted. The main issues in the observations and interviews were the passage plan and the bridge team co-operation. The phases of the pilotage process model emerged in both the pilotage activities and the interviews whereas bridge team co-operation was relatively marginal. Most of the pilotage organisations, who responded to the query, also use some standard-based management system. All organisations who answered the survey use some sort of a pilotage process model. According to the query, the main measuring tools for pilotage are statistical information concerning pilotage and the organisations, the customer feedback surveys, and financial results. Attitudes to-wards passage planning were mostly positive among the organisations. A workshop with pilotage experts was arranged where the process model constructed on the basis of the literature review was tuned to match practical pilotage. In the workshop it was determined that certain phases and the corresponding tasks, through which pilo-tage can be described as a process, were identifiable in all pilotage. The result of the workshop was a complemented process model, which separates incoming and outgoing traffic, as well as the fairway pilotage and harbour pilotage from each other. Addition-ally indicators divided according to the data gathering method were defined. Data con-cerning safety and traffic flow is gathered in the form of customer feedback. The pilot's own perceptions of the pilotage process are gathered through self-assessment. The measurement data which is connected to the phases of the pilotage process is generated e.g. by gathering statistics of the success of the pilot dispatches, the accuracy of the pi-lotage and the incidents that occurred during the pilotage, near misses, deviations and accidents. The measurement data is collected via the PilotWeb at the closing of the pilo-tage. A separate project and a project group with pilots also participating will be established for the deployment of the performance indicators. The phases of the project are: the definition phase, the implementation phase and the deployment phase. The purpose of the definition phase is to prepare questions for ship commanders concerning the cus-tomer feedback questionnaire and also to work out the self-assessment queries and the queries concerning the process indicators.

Streamlining Launch Support Operations in a Product Platform

The new product development process is a massive investment to a company that aims to reduce their products’ time-to-market. Capability to shorter time-to market allows longer life-cycle to products which are introduced to market earlier but also give advantage to start product launch later while simultaneously learning from customer behavior and competitors. The product launch support operations are the last ramp-up activities before the product launching. This study defines what these operations mean in a product platform and how they can be streamlined to be more efficient. The methodology includes interviews, innovative group brainstorming and regular working group meetings. The challenges concerning the current situation of product launch support operations are allocated into four categories: General, Process, Project Resources and Project Management including altogether ten sub challenges. The challenges include issues related to technology and marketing management, branding strategy, organizing the global platform structure, harmonizing processes and clarifying handovers between shareholders in the process. The study makes a suggestion of a new Product Launch Support organization and clarification of its roles, responsibilities and tasks. In addition a new project management tool and Lessons Learned are suggested to improve the project management. The study can be seen as a pre-study when having an aim at combining technological and marketing know-how in the product ramp-up process before actual production. The future proceedings are suggested to include more detailed specifications and implementation in order to reach the long range target, reduced the time-to-market.

Hazard Risk Management in Large Nordic Companies' Operations in Russia

The objective of this research was to describe how Nordic companies manage hazard risks in their operations in Russia and how the local business environment is considered to affect the hazard risks. Research methods used in this research were literature review and expert interviews. Twelve Nordic industrial companies operating in different fields of industry were interviewed. Large Nordic companies typically guide risk management centralized from the parent company on behalf of the whole company group and the risk management standards and policies are integrated in all subsidiaries. Parent companies typically control hazard risk management in Russia by regular risk management reporting, auditing the Russian sites and by training local managers and employees to risk management work. Many companies have experienced several losses in the first years of operating in Russia before the risk management policies have been implemented in Russian subsidiaries. The companies have learned to take local characteristics better into account by experience and most companies are quite satisfied with their current risk management standards in Russia. The interviews indicate that companies experience especially the poor quality of infrastructure, some features in Russian organizational culture and high level of criminality to increase hazard risks in Russia. However, understanding these features and risks in the business environment makes the management of these risks possible. Risks related to infrastructure can be managed in advance by decreasing dependencies of infrastructure and considering the infrastructure quality already when planning the business operations. Also good local network is often considered critical in order to overcome the complications related to infrastructure. Russian personnel has typically different attitude towards risk management than Nordic personnel and neglecting safety and maintenance and concealing losses is more typical in Russia. By training and guiding the local personnel risk management and safety work and desired ways of actions these risks can be decreased. Criminality risks are often managed to certain extent by investing in security, increasing supervising and paying attention to reliability of the employees and other interest groups of the company.

Ambidextrous leadership in customer contact centre organization

In a modern dynamic environment organizations are facing new requirements for success and competitive advantage. This also sets new requirements for leaders. The term of ambidexterity is used in relation with organizations that are able to manage short-term efficiency and long-term innovation simultaneously. Ambidextrous leaders have the same capability at an individual level. They are able to balance between efficiency and flexibility. This study examined the confrontation of these two competing concepts in the leadership perspective. The aim of the study was to understand this recently arisen concept and its antecedents and examine what is currently known about ambidextrous leadership. This was a case study with data collected through theme interviews in a result orientated customer centre organization that has a cultural change at hand when it comes to leadership and empowerment. Organization wants to be efficient and flexible at the same time (a.k.a. ambidextrous) and that requires new type of leadership. In this study the aim was to describe the capabilities and criteria for ambidextrous leader and examine the leadership roles related to ambidextrous leadership in different hierarchical levels. The case organization had also created systematic means to support this cultural change and the effects of the process related to leadership were studied. This study showed that the area is yet widely unexplored and contradictory views are presented. This study contributes to the deprivation of study of ambidexterity in leadership and individuals. The study presents a description of ambidextrous leadership and describes the capabilities of ambidextrous leader. Ambidextrous leaders are able to make cognitive decisions between their leadership style according to situation that requires either leadership related to efficiency such as transactional leadership or leadership related to flexibility such as transformational leadership. Their leadership style supports both short-term and long-term goals. This study also shows that the role of top management is vital and operational leaders rely on their example.

Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment : Prosperity, competitiveness, sustainable development

Broschure of Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment.

E-PORT. Improving efficiency of Finnish port community by intelligent systems Final report of the Mobile Port project

The management of port-related supply chains is challenging due to the complex and heterogeneous operations of the ports with several actors and processes. That is why the importance of information sharing is emphasised in the ports. However, the information exchange between different port-related actors is often cumbersome and it still involves a lot of manual work and paper. Major ports and port-related actors usually have advanced information systems in daily use but these systems are seldom interoperable with each other, which prevents economies of scale to be reached. Smaller ports and companies might not be equipped with electronic data transmission at all. This is the final report of the Mobile port (MOPO) project, which has sought ways to improve the management and control of port-related sea and inland traffic with the aid of ICT technologies. The project has studied port community systems (PCS) used worldwide, evaluated the suitability of a PCS for the Finnish port operating environment and created a pilot solution of a Finnish PCS in the port of HaminaKotka. Further, the dry port concept and its influences on the transportation system have been explored. The Mobile Port project comprised of several literature reviews, interviews of over 50 port-related logistics and/or ICT professionals, two different kinds of simulation models as well as designing and implementing of the pilot solution of the Finnish PCS. The results of these multiple studies are summarised in this report. Furthermore, recommendations for future actions and the topics for further studies are addressed in the report. The study revealed that the information sharing in a typical Finnish port-related supply chain contains several bottlenecks that cause delays in shipments and waste resources. The study showed that many of these bottlenecks could be solved by building a port community system for the Finnish port community. Almost 30 different kinds of potential services or service entities of a Finnish PCS were found out during the study. The basic requirements, structure, interfaces and operation model of the Finnish PCS were also defined in the study. On the basis of the results of the study, a pilot solution of the Finnish PCS was implemented in the port of HaminaKotka. The pilot solution includes a Portconnect portal for the Finnish port community system (available at https://www.portconnect.fi) and two pilot applications, which are a service for handling the information flows concerning the movements of railway wagons and a service for handling the information flows between Finnish ports and Finland-Russian border. The study also showed that port community systems can be used to improve the environmental aspects of logistics in two different ways: 1) PCSs can bring direct environmental benefits and 2) PCSs can be used as an environmental tool in a port community. On the basis of the study, the development of the Finnish port community system should be continued by surveying other potential applications for the Finnish PCS. It is also important to study if there is need and resources to extend the Finnish PCS to operate in several ports or even on a national level. In the long run, it could be reasonable to clarify whether there would be possibilities to connect the Finnish PCS as a part of Baltic Sea wide, European-wide or even worldwide maritime and port-related network in order to get the best benefit from the system

Immigration Strategy for Northern Ostrobothnia 2015

A strategy process was completed in the ESF project “Promotion of Work-related Immigration”, which was implemented at Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for North Ostrobothnia, and an immigration strategy was drawn up for Northern Ostrobothnia on the basis of the process. Information was collected about the situation in Northern Ostrobothnia from the point of view of immigration and the future availability of labour. The intention was to use the information as background material for the strategy. Employers’ need for support in recruiting foreign labour was investigated with a broad inquiry, to which 1000 respondents replied. The strategy process was carried out together with an outside consultant (Net Effect Oy) by arranging three workshops and a seminar where the workshop results were summarised. A large number of companies, authorities, municipalities, associations, project actors and immigrants engaged in immigration issues participated in the workshops. The draft strategy is based on their experiences about immigration and on statistical data, background inquiries and surveys. To ensure the accuracy of the draft strategy, comments were requested from several parties and received from 64 organisations. The core of the immigration strategy consists of an initial analysis, values, a vision and priorities. The strategy is composed of three priorities. The key aim of the priority Internationalisation and Supporting Diversity is to support diversity in schools, workplaces and people’s everyday lives e.g. through attitude development and by promoting internationalisation in companies and education institutions. The aim of the priority Supporting Entrepreneurship and Recruiting Foreign Labour is to promote entrepreneurship among immigrants and the recruitment of foreign labour and to develop the forecasting of educational needs. The priority Developing Integration Services, Regional Cooperation and Networks, in turn, seeks to develop the service structure and policies of immigrant integration and to increase cooperation and exchange of information between regional actors engaged in integration issues. The aim is to use the strategy as a guideline document for immigration issues in Northern Ostrobothnia. The strategy is used to coordinate the existing organisations and operations dealing with immigration issues. In addition, it contains a future-oriented focus and underlines the management of new immigration projects and operations. The main party responsible for the implementation of the strategy is the Immigration Committee. In addition, responsible parties have been assigned to each measure. The implementation of the immigration strategy will be monitored annually on the basis of indicators.

Helsingin kaupungin tilakeskuksen kiinteistökannan energiatehokkuusnäkökohtien toteutumisen kehittäminen investointihankkeissa

Työssä tutkitaan Helsingin kaupungin tilakeskuksen kiinteistöjen energiatehokkuusnäkö-kohtien toteutumista ja niiden kehittämistä. Työn tavoite on tunnistaa kiinteistöjen energia-tehokkuuskriteeristö, jonka avulla energiatehokkuus voidaan ottaa järjestelmällisesti ja yh-denmukaisesti huomioon tilakeskuksen investointihankkeissa. Kriteerit tunnistetaan tila-keskuksen henkilöstön ja yhteistyökumppaneiden haastattelujen sekä lähdekirjallisuuden avulla. Tutkimus osoittaa, että kriteeristössä on huomioitava myös hankkeiden vastuurajat, sillä hiljattain tehdyn organisaatiomuutoksen vuoksi vastuurajoissa on epäselvyyttä, mikä vai-kuttaa haitallisesti tilakeskuksen toiminnan ja etenkin energiatehokkuuden kehittämiseen. Työssä esiteltyä kriteeristöä täytyy pyrkiä käyttämään tilakeskuksen hankkeiden osana jat-kossa. Työssä esitetään tilakeskuksen kannalta merkittävät kriteerit.

0-visio - teoriasta käytännöksi : Varsinais-Suomen ja Satakunnan maakuntien liikenneturvallisuussuunnitelma 2012-2016

Liikenneturvallisuus syntyy eri osapuolten toiminnan ja yhteistyön tuloksena. Poliitikot päättävät yhteiskunnan suunnittelusta ja liikennejärjestelmästä, suunnittelijat toteuttavat poliitikkojen tekemiä päätöksiä, virkamiehet laativat lakiehdotuksia ja sääntöjä, ELY-keskus ja kunnat vastaavat teistä ja niiden kunnosta, poliisi valvoo liikennesääntöjen noudattamista, Liikenneturva tiedottaa ja kouluttaa, yritykset, yhteisöt ja yksityiset ihmiset tilaavat ja käyttävät kuljetuspalveluja ja kaikki kuntalaiset osallistuvat liikenteeseen. Liikenneturvallisuussuunnitelma toimii työkaluna Varsinais-Suomen ja Satakunnan liikenneturvallisuustyössä. Alueellisen liikenneturvallisuustyön nollavisio ja tavoitteet asetettiin valtakunnallisen liikenneturvallisuussuunnitelman, alueen nykytila-analyysin sekä suunnitelman laadinnan aikana sidosryhmien kanssa käydyn keskustelun pohjalta. Nollavision mukaan kenenkään ei tarvitse kuolla tai loukkaantua vakavasti liikenteessä. Lisäksi visiona on vastuullinen liikkuminen, joka myös koetaan turvalliseksi. Seitsemän kohdan ohjelmaan nollavision toteuttamiseksi on tiivistetty tärkeimmät toimet. Yksilöityihin toimenpiteisiin on kirjattu maankäytön suunnitteluun, kestävään liikkumiseen, liikenneympäristöön ja liikennekäyttäytymiseen liittyviä toimenpiteitä. Lisäksi liikenneturvallisuusyhteistyöhön kohdistuvia toimenpiteitä sisältyy suunnitelmaan. Toimenpiteiden toteuttamisen vastuu- ja yhteistyötahoja on useita. Toimenpiteet kohdistuvat alueen tielläliikkujiin, organisaatioihin ja päätöksentekijöihin. Pitkän aikavälin ja valtakunnallisen tason toimenpiteet edesauttavat liikenneturvallisuuden kehittymistä toivottuun suuntaan. Vaikutustarkastelu osoittaa, että asetettujen tavoitteiden saavuttaminen vaatii laajaa keinovalikoimaa, usean toimijan välistä yhteistyötä sekä resursseja liikenneturvallisuustyöhön. Tämä liikenneturvallisuussuunnitelma haastaa eri hallinnonalat, viranomaiset, järjestöt ja yritykset omalta osaltaan toteuttamaan toimia, jotka vievät kohti nollavisiota. Suunnitelman toteutuminen edellyttää, että sillä on kuntien ja päättäjien tuki. Varsinais-Suomen ja Satakunnan liikenteen tulevaisuus kehittyy suunnitelman mukaisesti, jos liikenteen vastuunkantajat sitoutuvat suunnitelman vision periaatteisiin ja pitävät elämää suojelevia arvoja toimintansa perustana.

Cross-cultural knowledge transfer within a multinational company

The ability to share knowledge efficiently is vital in day-to-day operations of multinational companies. Therefore, the tools for the effective knowledge sharing along with the transfer knowledge models are of a primary interest for the companies. Knowledge transfer often involves participants of different cultural background. The purpose of this research is to investigate how the cross-cultural knowledge transfer in a multinational corporation takes place and how the successful knowledge transfer is ensured. The four sub-questions will help to answer the research question. Firstly, the author will try to identify what difficulties might occur while transferring knowledge in a multicultural environment. Secondly, the cultural differences’ impact on cross-cultural communication will be explored. Thirdly, the tools and models for effective tacit knowledge transfer will be covered by the author. Lastly, the methods of assessing if a knowledge transfer was successful or not will be discussed. The focus of this thesis is on knowledge transfer within a multinational setting. A multinational corporation is used as a practical example for this study; namely the Training Centre of the multinational corporation. The study was carried out by using a qualitative research approach. The four employees of the Training Centre were interviewed in order to obtain the answers to the research questions. The complete idea of the data gathering process can be obtained by reading through the first part of the methodology section Furthermore, the matters of transferability, confirmability, trustworthiness and objectivity were discussed in the methodological section. The study indicates that in order to carry out the successful and efficient knowledge transfer several requests have to be met. Mutual motivation, e.g. the motivation of both knowledge sender and knowledge receiver is one of the most important determinants of knowledge transfer. Sufficient and bearable workload for the knowledge senders is important to ensure the quality and involvement of the knowledge sender into knowledge transfer process. Course contents, infrastructure and other matters will be discussed further on in relation of successful knowledge transfer. Influences of cultural differences on knowledge sharing were studied in this thesis. At the end of the empirical study- a model used to transfer knowledge in Training Centre will be presented. The model created proves to be functional and appropriate for transferring knowledge to representatives of different cultures.

Yhdessä tuumin kohti turvallisempaa liikkumista : Loimaan seudun liikenneturvallisuussuunnitelma

Loimaan seudun liikenneturvallisuussuunnitelma on laadittu seudun kuntien ja Varsinais-Suomen ELY-keskuksen yhteistyönä. Liikenneturvallisuussuunnitelman tavoitteena on edistää kokonaisvaltaisella tavalla nykyistä vastuullisempaa ja turvallisuushakuisempaa liikkumista seudulla. Suunnitelmassa esitetyillä toimenpiteillä pyritään merkittävästi vähentämään seudulla tapahtuvien liikennekuolemien ja liikenteessä loukkaantuneiden määrää. Tavoitteena on myös edistää nykyistä kestävämpää liikkumista, jolla terveys- ja ympäristövaikutusten ohella on myönteinen vaikutus myös liikenneturvallisuuskehitykseen. Loimaan seudulla tapahtuu vuosittain keskimäärin viisi kuolemaan ja 70 loukkaantumiseen johtanutta onnettomuutta. Asukaslukuun suhteutettuna Loimaan seudulla tapahtuu selvästi enemmän henkilövahinko-onnettomuuksia kuin maakunnassa tai koko maassa keskimäärin. Myös liikenneonnettomuuksien vakavuusaste on maakunnan ja koko maan keskitasoa korkeampi. Kulkutavoittain tarkasteltuna korostuvat erityisesti henkilöauto-onnettomuudet. Liikennekuolemista peräti kolme neljäsosaa on tapahtunut autoilijoille. Ikäryhmittäin tarkasteltuna suurin onnettomuusriski on 15–24-vuotiailla, jotka muodostavat seudun liikenteen uhreista 39 prosenttia (ikäryhmän osuus seudun väestöstä on 11 prosenttia). Liikenneonnettomuuksista aiheutuu seudun kunnille vuosittain lähes kahdeksan miljoonan euron kustannukset – yli 200 euroa asukasta kohden. Nykytilan kuvausten pohjalta ja valtakunnalliset linjaukset huomioiden seudun liikenneturvallisuustyölle on asetettu pitkän aikavälin visio, määrälliset liikenneonnettomuuksien vähentämistavoitteet sekä lähivuosien toimintaa suuntaavat kärkitehtävät. Tavoitteiden mukaan seudun liikennekuolemien määrän tulee vähentyä nykyisestä viidestä hengestä1-2 henkeen vuoteen 2020 mennessä. Loukkaantumisten määrän tulee vähentyä nykyisestä 95 henkilöstä vähintään 71 henkilöön vuoteen 2020 mennessä (-25 %). Suunnitelmassa asetettujen tavoitteiden saavuttamiseen pyritään monipuolisen ja toimien vaikuttavuuden perusteella kohdennetun toimenpidejoukon keinoin sekä kehittämällä eri toimijoiden välistä yhteistyötä ja työnjakoa toimenpiteiden edistämisessä. Suunnitelmassa on esitetty 14 kärkitehtäväkokonaisuutta, joihin toiminta tulee vaikuttavuuden perusteella ensisijaisesti kohdistaa. Suunnitelman vaikutustenarvioinnin perusteella voidaan todeta, että keinot asetettujen tavoitteiden saavuttamiseksi ovat olemassa, mutta tavoitteisiin pääseminen edellyttää erittäin suuria panostuksia kaikilla liikenneturvallisuustyön osa-alueilla, ja erityisesti liikennekäyttäytymiseen ja yhteistyöhön kohdistuvien toimenpiteiden osalta. Liikennekuolemien puolittamisen tavoite nykytasosta vuoteen 2020 on tehtyjen tarkastelujen perusteella mahdollista. Myös loukkaantumisten määrän vähentäminen on saavutettavissa esitetyin toimenpitein.

Local Embeddedness and Knowledge Acquisition and How They Affect Finnish Business Operations in Russia

This pilot project aims examine the factors of the Finnish subsidiaries local embeddedness, their knowledge creation capabilities and the transfer mechanisms of new practices in the context of the Russian market. The research is designed as a multiple case study conducted with a qualitative approach. The empirical data consists of the interviews of the four Finnish case companies operating in the Kaluga region and three local partner companies. The deductive and inductive approaches were employed to conduct the analysis of the data. The propositions for the future study were developed in the conclusive chapters of the research, where we propose that the factor of the economy growth and industrialization matters in terms of subsidiaries’ role dedication, their knowledge creation capabilities, and direction of the knowledge flow within the local environment.