Value added logistics in supply and demand chain. Smile. Part 2. eBusiness in a service business. Case: A maintenance and operations network in forest industry

VVALOSADE is a research project of professor Anita Lukka's VALORE research team in the Lappeenranta University of Technology. The VALOSADE includes the ELO technology program of Tekes. SMILE is one of four subprojects of the VALOSADE. The SMILE study focuses on the case of the company network that is composed of small and micro-sized mechanical maintenance service providers and forest industry as large-scale customers. The basic principle of the SMILE study is the communication and ebusiness in supply and demand networks. The aim of the study is to develop ebusiness strategy, ebusiness model and e-processes among the SME local service providers, and onthe other hand, between the local service provider network and the forest industry customers in a maintenance and operations service business. A literature review, interviews and benchmarking are used as research methods in this qualitative case study. The first SMILE report, 'Ebusiness between Global Company and Its Local SME Supplier Network', concentrated on creating background for the SMILE study by studying general trends of ebusiness in supply chains and networks of different industries. This second phase of the study concentrates on case network background, such as business relationships, information systems and business objectives; core processes in maintenance and operations service network; development needs in communication among the network participants; and ICT solutions to respond needs in changing environment. In the theory part of the report, different ebusiness models and frameworks are introduced. Those models and frameworks are compared to empirical case data. From that analysis of the empirical data, therecommendations for the development of the network information system are derived. In process industry such as the forest industry, it is crucial to achieve a high level of operational efficiency and reliability, which sets up great requirements for maintenance and operations. Therefore, partnerships or strategic alliances are needed between the network participants. In partnerships and alliances, deep communication is important, and therefore the information systems in the network also are critical. Communication, coordination and collaboration will increase in the case network in the future, because network resources must be optimised to improve competitive capability of the forest industry customers and theefficiency of their service providers. At present, ebusiness systems are not usual in this maintenance network. A network information system among the forest industry customers and their local service providers actually is the only genuinenetwork information system in this total network. However, the utilisation of that system has been quite insignificant. The current system does not add value enough either to the customers or to the local service providers. At present, thenetwork information system is the infomediary that share static information forthe network partners. The network information system should be the transaction intermediary, which integrates internal processes of the network companies; the network information system, which provides common standardised processes for thelocal service providers; and the infomediary, which share static and dynamic information on right time, on right partner, on right costs, on right format and on right quality. This study provides recommendations how to develop this system in the future to add value to the network companies. Ebusiness scenarios, vision, objectives, strategies, application architecture, ebusiness model, core processes and development strategy must be considered when the network information system will be developed in the next development step. The core processes in the case network are demand/capacity management, customer/supplier relationship management, service delivery management, knowledge management and cash flow management. Most benefits from ebusiness solutions come from the electrifying of operational level processes, such as service delivery management and cash flow management.

Molluscan radiations and landscape evolution in Miocene Amazonia

This PhD study aims to exploit the rich archive provided by the Miocene mollusc fauna of the Pebas Formation and other inland Miocene Amazonian formations to reconstruct landscape evolution and biotic development in lowland Amazonia during the Neogene. Over 160 samples from more than 70 Pebas Formation outcrops mostly collected by the author were processed for this study. Additional samples were collected in Andean areas of Colombia and Venezuela and further material from other northwestern South American basins was studied in museums. Pebas Formation samples and well log data made available by Occidental Peru from three wells in the Marañon Basin in Peru were also investigated. During this study four genera and 74 species from the Pebas Formation have been described and a further 13 species have been introduced in open nomenclature, and several species were reported for the first time. The number of mollusc species attributed to the Pebas fauna has increased from around 50 to 156. The Pebas fauna is characterised as aquatic, endemic and extinct, and is a typical representative of a long-lived lake fauna. Fluvial taxa are not common, (marginal) marine taxa are rare. An additional molluscan fauna from the Miocene Solimões Formation of Brazil, containing 13 fresh water species was also described. The newly documented fauna was used to improve biostratigraphic framework of Miocene Amazonian deposits. Twelve mollusc zones were introduced, the upper eleven of which cover a time interval of approximately seven million years covered previously by only three pollen zones. An age model calculated for the borehole data indicates that the Pebas Formation was deposited between c. 24 and 11 Ma. The areal distribution of the outcropping mollusc zones uncovered a broad dome structure, termed here the Iquitos-Araracuara anteclise in the study area. The structure appears to have influenced river courses and also contributed to edaphic heterogeneity that may have been in part responsible for the current high biodiversity in the study area. The Pebas system was a huge system (> one million km2) dominated by relatively shallow lakes, but also containing swamps and rivers. The system was fed by rivers draining the emergent Andes in the west and lowlands and cratons to the east. The Pebas system was located at sea level and was open to marine settings through a northern portal running through the Llanos Basin and East Venezuela Basin towards the Caribbean. Cyclical baselevel changes possibly related to Mylankhovitch cycles, have been documented in depositional sequences of the Pebas Formation. The composition of the Pebasian mollusc fauna implies that the system was mostly a fresh water system. Such an interpretation is matched by strontium isotope ratios as well as very negative δ18O ratios found in the shells, but is at odds with oligohaline and mesohaline ichnofacies found in the same strata. The mollusc fauna of the Pebas Formation diversified through most of the existence of the lake system. The diversification was mostly the result of in-situ cladogenesis. The success of some of the Pebasian endemic clades is explained by adaptation to fresh water, low oxygen, common unconsolidated lake bottoms (soup grounds) as well as high predation intensity. Maximum diversity was reached at the base of the late Middle to early Late Miocene Grimsdalea pollen zone, some 13 Ma. At the time some 85 species co-occurred, 67 of which are considered as Pebasian endemics. A subsequent drop in species richness coincides with indications of elevated salinities, although a causal relation still needs to be established. Apparently the Pebas fauna went (almost) entirely extinct with the replacement of the lake system into a fluvio-tidal system during the Early Late Miocene, some 11 Ma.

Long-term nutrient load management and lake restoration: Case of Säkylän Pyhäjärvi (SW Finland)

Eutrophication caused by anthropogenic nutrient pollution has become one of the most severe threats to water bodies. Nutrients enter water bodies from atmospheric precipitation, industrial and domestic wastewaters and surface runoff from agricultural and forest areas. As point pollution has been significantly reduced in developed countries in recent decades, agricultural non-point sources have been increasingly identified as the largest source of nutrient loading in water bodies. In this study, Lake Säkylän Pyhäjärvi and its catchment are studied as an example of a long-term, voluntary-based, co-operative model of lake and catchment management. Lake Pyhäjärvi is located in the centre of an intensive agricultural area in southwestern Finland. More than 20 professional fishermen operate in the lake area, and the lake is used as a drinking water source and for various recreational activities. Lake Pyhäjärvi is a good example of a large and shallow lake that suffers from eutrophication and is subject to measures to improve this undesired state under changing conditions. Climate change is one of the most important challenges faced by Lake Pyhäjärvi and other water bodies. The results show that climatic variation affects the amounts of runoff and nutrient loading and their timing during the year. The findings from the study area concerning warm winters and their influences on nutrient loading are in accordance with the IPCC scenarios of future climate change. In addition to nutrient reduction measures, the restoration of food chains (biomanipulation) is a key method in water quality management. The food-web structure in Lake Pyhäjärvi has, however, become disturbed due to mild winters, short ice cover and low fish catch. Ice cover that enables winter seining is extremely important to the water quality and ecosystem of Lake Pyhäjärvi, as the vendace stock is one of the key factors affecting the food web and the state of the lake. New methods for the reduction of nutrient loading and the treatment of runoff waters from agriculture, such as sand filters, were tested in field conditions. The results confirm that the filter technique is an applicable method for nutrient reduction, but further development is needed. The ability of sand filters to absorb nutrients can be improved with nutrient binding compounds, such as lime. Long-term hydrological, chemical and biological research and monitoring data on Lake Pyhäjärvi and its catchment provide a basis for water protection measures and improve our understanding of the complicated physical, chemical and biological interactions between the terrestrial and aquatic realms. In addition to measurements carried out in field conditions, Lake Pyhäjärvi and its catchment were studied using various modelling methods. In the calibration and validation of models, long-term and wide-ranging time series data proved to be valuable. Collaboration between researchers, modellers and local water managers further improves the reliability and usefulness of models. Lake Pyhäjärvi and its catchment can also be regarded as a good research laboratory from the point of view of the Baltic Sea. The main problem in both of them is eutrophication caused by excess nutrients, and nutrient loading has to be reduced – especially from agriculture. Mitigation measures are also similar in both cases.