Assessing e-procurement System for Improving the Purchasing Operations

Diplomityön tavoitteena oli luoda suunnitelma elektronisen hankintatoimen aloittamiseksi, analysoimalla nykyisiä ostoprosesseja ja konsernin laajuista elektronista hankintajärjestelmää. Työ pohjautuu yritysten väliseen elektroniseen kauppaan, elektroniseen hankintatoimeen ja systeemisuunnitteluun liittyvään kirjallisuuteen. Työssä tehdyn suunnitelman tarkoituksena on auttaa Siemens Oy:tä siirtymään uuteen elektroniseen ostotoimintaan. Elektroniselle ostotoiminnalle suunniteltiin tavoitteet ja näitä vastaavat vaatimukset. Elektronisen hankintajärjestelmän analysointi perustuu kirjallisuudessa esitettyihin järjestelmän elinkaari-mallin vaiheisiin. Analysoinnin tarkoituksena oli saada selville järjestelmän soveltuvuus Siemens Oy: n liiketoimintaympäristöön, prosesseihin ja vaatimuksiin. Elektronisen hankintatoiminnan etuja ovat liiketoiminta prosessien johtamisen parantuminen, kustannusten väheneminen sekä taloudellisen suorituskyvyn lisääntyminen. Elektronisen hankintatoiminnan aloittaminen vaatii kuitenkin huolellista suunnittelua. Työssä tehdyt suunnitelmat ja analysoinnit auttavat arvioidessa järjestelmän sopivuutta Siemens Oy: n vaatimuksiin. Oikean ja toimivan järjestelmän valinta ei kuitenkaan takaa elektronisesta hankintatoiminnasta hyötymistä. Tärkeimpiä jatkotoimenpiteitä onkin suorittaa kustannus/hyöty analyysi ja arvioida toimittajien halukkuutta ja kykyjä osallistua markkinapaikkaan.

State of Logistics and Operations Management in Finnish and Swedish Companies – Survey Research Findings

In this research we are examining what is the status of logistics and operations management in Finnish and Swedish companies. Empirical data is based on the web based questionnaire, which was completed in the end of 2007 and early 2008. Our examination consists of roughly 30 answers from largest manufacturing (highest representation in our sample), trade and logistics/distribution companies. Generally it could be argued that these companies operate in complex environment, where number of products, raw materials/components and suppliers is high. However, usually companies rely on small amount of suppliers per raw material/component (highest frequency is 2), and this was especially the case among Swedish companies, and among those companies, which favoured overseas sourcing. Sample consisted of companies which mostly are operating in an international environment, and are quite often multinationals. Our survey findings reveal that companies in general have taken logistics and information technology as part of their strategy process; utilization of performance measures as well as system implementations have followed the strategy decisions. In the transportation mode side we identify that road transports dominate all transport flow classes (inbound, internal and outbound), followed by sea and air. Surprisingly small amount of companies use railways, but in general we could argue that Swedish companies prefer this mode over Finnish counterparts. With respect of operations outsourcing, we found that more traditional areas of logistics outsourcing are driving factors in company's performance measurement priority. In contrary to previous research, our results indicate that the scope of outsourcing is not that wide in logistics/operations management area, and companies are not planning to outsource more in the near future. Some support is found for more international operations and increased outsourcing activity. From the increased time pressure of companies, we find evidence that local as well as overseas customers expect deliveries within days or weeks, but suppliers usually supply within weeks or months. So, basically this leads into considerable inventory holding. Interestingly local and overseas sourcing strategy does not have that great influence on lead time performance of these particular sourcing areas - local strategy is anyway considerably better in responding on market changes due to shorter supply lead times. In the end of our research work we have completed correlation analysis concerning items asked with Likert scale. Our analysis shows that seeing logistics more like a process rather than function, applying time based management, favouring partnerships and measuring logistics within different performance dimensions results on preferred features and performance found in logistics literature.

Means and challenges in international operations for a Finnish mobile application provider

Master’s Thesis concentrates to means and challenges in international operations for a Finnish mobile application provider Small Planet Oy during its various company stages from founding till maturing and during macro economical phases between year 1998 and 2008. Small Planet has just celebrated its 10 year anniversary and is therefore quite an extraordinary company which has survived all the highs and lows during past ten years and which has operated in the market as long as the whole mobile application industry has existed. Master’s Thesis describes possibilities for a company’s internationalization with different entry modes like exporting, licensing, investment entry and co-operative operations which are suitable for a mobile application provider. Unsuitable entry modes like franchising or contract manufacturing are not explained. The goal has been to analyze Small Planet’s international operations and to make conclusions from the practical experiences. Analysis and conclusions shall help Small Planet in its international operations in the future and should give insight to other mobile application companies and their managers who are in the situation of planning their own international operations. Results show that the best ways for Small Planet to internationalize its operations has been the co-operation with a big domestic client and the co-operation with Finnish operator infrastructure providers which have complementary products with Small Planet. Through these co-operations Small Planet has got lot of new international clients. Same time financial risks and investment need for international operations have been low. Co-operative international sales can be the most efficient international entry mode for a mobile application provider.

L’aprenentatge de càlcul mental a través de jocs a un aula d’educació primària

Aquest treball es basa en identificar les estratègies de càlcul mental que fan servir alumnes de quart de primària. Aquesta identificació es realitza a partir de la resolució d’operacions per part dels alumnes i el seu posterior anàlisi. A partir de les estratègies que hagin sorgit, es realitzarà una intervenció didàctica basada en jocs matemàtics per tal de descobrir i treballar noves estratègies matemàtiques. Finalment, amb una nova prova es comprovarà si els nens i nenes coneixen i apliquen diferents estratègies pel càlcul mental. Amb aquesta intervenció es pretén comprovar si a partir de jocs els nens i nenes milloren les estratègies de càlcul mental.

Un análisis comparativo del papel del bucle fonológico versus la agenda visoespacial en el cálculo en niños de 7-8 años = A comparative analysis of the phonological loop versus the visuo-spatial sketchpad in mental arithmetic tasks in 7-8 y.o. children

En esta investigación se ha estudiado la relación entre dos subsistemas de la memoria de trabajo (buclefonológico y agenda viso-espacial) y el rendimiento en cálculo con una muestra de 94 niños españolesde 7-8 años. Hemos administrado dos pruebas de cálculo diseñadas para este estudio y seis medidassimples de memoria de trabajo (de contenido verbal, numérico y espacial) de la «Batería de Testsde Memoria de Treball» de Pickering, Baqués y Gathercole (1999), y dos pruebas visuales complementarias.Los resultados muestran una correlación importante entre las medidas de contenido verbaly numérico y el rendimiento en cálculo. En cambio, no hemos encontrado ninguna relación con las medidasespaciales. Se concluye, por lo tanto, que en escolares españoles existe una relación importanteentre el bucle fonológico y el rendimiento en tareas de cálculo. En cambio, el rol de la agenda viso-espaciales nulo

El papel de la memoria de trabajo en el cálculo mental un cuarto de siglo después de Hitch = The role of working memory in mental arithmetic a quarter of century after Hitch

Desde que Hitch (1978) publicó el primer estudio sobre el rol de la memoria de trabajo en el cálculo han idoaumentando las investigaciones en este campo. Muchos trabajos han estudiado un único subsistema, pero nuestroobjetivo es identificar qué subsistema de la memoria de trabajo (bucle fonológico, agenda viso-espacial o ejecutivocentral) está más implicado en el cálculo mental. Para ello hemos realizado un estudio correlacional en el quehemos administrado dos pruebas aritméticas y nueve pruebas de la “Bateria de Test de Memòria de Treball” dePickering, Baqués y Gathercole (1999) a una muestra de 94 niños españoles de 7-8 años. Nuestros resultadosindican que el bucle fonológico y sobretodo el ejecutivo central inciden de forma estadísticamente significativa enel rendimiento aritmético

Sales and Operations Planning Implementation

The master’s thesis focused on implementing a sales and operations planning process. The main objectives were to create planning methods and tools for the implementation. The ultimate goal of the process, beyond this master’s thesis, is to balance the supply of products with customer demand, with optimized profitability. The theoretical part focused on giving a thorough view on the sales and operations planning process. The basis for a monthly planning cycle was identified. Methods, tools, and metrics for demand forecasting and operations planning were also introduced. Based on the theoretical part, a method for forecasting, a forecast spreadsheet, and a forecast accuracy metric were designed. A spreadsheet tool and methods were also designed for the monthly planning of production volumes, capacity, and inventory. The implementation progress was reviewed for two product families for three months. The sales and operations planning process was able to successfully identify a demand peak for the product families. Suggestions for the future of sales and operations planning were also made.

The intrinsic mechanisms of softwood fiber damage in brown stock fiber line unit operations Lappeenranta 2010

The effects of pulp processing on softwood fiber properties strongly influence the properties of wet and dry paper webs. Pulp strength delivery studies have provided observations that much of the strength potential of long fibered pulp is lost during brown stock fiber line operations where the pulp is merely washed and transferred to the subsequent processing stages. The objective of this work was to study the intrinsic mechanisms which maycause fiber damage in the different unit operations of modern softwood brown stock processing. The work was conducted by studying the effects of industrial machinery on pulp properties with some actions of unit operations simulated in laboratory scale devices under controlled conditions. An optical imaging system was created and used to study the orientation of fibers in the internal flows during pulp fluidization in mixers and the passage of fibers through the screen openings during screening. The qualitative changes in fibers were evaluated with existing and standardized techniques. The results showed that each process stage has its characteristic effects on fiber properties: Pulp washing and mat formation in displacement washers introduced fiber deformations especially if the fibers entering the stage were intact, but it did not decrease the pulp strength properties. However, storage chests and pulp transfer after displacement washers contributed to strength deterioration. Pulp screening proved to be quite gentle, having the potential of slightly evening out fiber deformations from very deformed pulps and vice versa inflicting a marginal increase in the deformation indices if the fibers were previously intact. Pulp mixing in fluidizing industrial mixers did not have detrimental effects on pulp strength and had the potential of slightly evening out the deformations, provided that the intensity of fluidization was high enough to allow fiber orientation with the flow and that the time of mixing was short. The chemical and mechanical actions of oxygen delignification had two distinct effects on pulp properties: chemical treatment clearly reduced pulp strength with and without mechanical treatment, and the mechanical actions of process machinery introduced more conformability to pulp fibers, but did not clearly contribute to a further decrease in pulp strength. The chemical composition of fibers entering the oxygen stage was also found to affect the susceptibility of fibers to damage during oxygen delignification. Fibers with the smallest content of xylan were found to be more prone to irreversibledeformations accompanied with a lower tensile strength of the pulp. Fibers poor in glucomannan exhibited a lower fiber strength while wet after oxygen delignification as compared to the reference pulp. Pulps with the smallest lignin content on the other hand exhibited improved strength properties as compared to the references.

Quality and analysis of administration processes in server operations

IT outsourcing refers to the way companies focus on their core competencies and buy the supporting functions from other companies specialized in that area. Service is the total outcome of numerous of activities by employees and other resources to provide solutions to customers' problems. Outsourcing and service business have their unique characteristics. Service Level Agreements quantify the minimum acceptable service to the user. The service quality has to be objectively quantified so that its achievement or non-achievement of it can be monitored. Usually offshoring refers to the transferring of tasks to low-cost nations. Offshoring presents a lot of challenges that require special attention and they need to be assessed thoroughly. IT Infrastructure management refers to installation and basic usability assistance of operating systems, network and server tools and utilities. ITIL defines the industry best practices for organizing IT processes. This thesis did an analysis of server operations service and the customers’ perception of the quality of daily operations. The agreed workflows and processes should be followed better. Service providers’ processes are thoroughly defined but both the customer and the service provider might disobey them. Service provider should review the workflows regarding customer functions. Customer facing functions require persistent skill development, as they communicate the quality to the customer. Service provider needs to provide better organized communication and knowledge exchange methods between the specialists in different geographical locations.

Possibilities and challenges of longitudinal studies in operations management

Longitudinal studies are quite rare in the area of Operations Management. One reason might be the time needed to conduct such studies, and then the lack of experience and real-life examples and results. The aim of the thesis is to examine longitudinal studies in the area of OM and the possible advantages, challenges and pitfalls of such studies. A longitudinal benchmarking study, Made in Finland, was analyzed in terms of the study methodology and its outcomes. The timeline of this longitudinal study is interesting. The first study was made in 1993, the second in 2004 and the third in 2010. Between these studies some major changes occurred in the Finnish business environment. Between the first and second studies, Finland joined the ETA and the EU, and globalization started with the rise of the Internet era, while between the second and third studies financial turmoil started in 2007. The sample and cases used in this study were originally 23 manufacturing sites in Finland. These sites were interviewed in 1993, in 2004 and 2010. One important and interesting aspect is that all the original sites participated in 2004, and 19 sites were still able to participate in 2010. Four sites had been closed and/or moved abroad. All of this gave a good opportunity to study the changes that occurred in the Finnish manufacturing sites and their environment, and how they reacted to these changes, and the effects on their performance. It is very seldom, if ever, that the same manufacturing sites have been studied in a longitudinal setting by using three data points. The results of this study are thus unique, and the experience gained is valuable for practitioners.

A decision support system for cost determination in grain storage facility operations

Many research works have being carried out on analyzing grain storage facility costs; however a few of them had taken into account the analysis of factors associated to all pre-processing and storage steps. The objective of this work was to develop a decision support system for determining the grain storage facility costs and utilization fees in grain storage facilities. The data of a CONAB storage facility located in Ponta Grossa - PR, Brazil, was used as input of the system developed to analyze its specific characteristics, such as amount of product received and stored throughout the year, hourly capacity of drying, cleaning, and receiving, and dispatch. By applying the decision support system, it was observed that the reception and expedition costs were exponentially reduced as the turnover rate of the storage increased. The cleaning and drying costs increased linearly with grain initial moisture. The storage cost increased exponentially as the occupancy rate of the storage facility decreased.