A critical success factors model for enterprise resource planning implementation

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are integrated enterprise-wide standard information systems that automate all aspects of an organisations’ business processes. The ERP philosophy is that business systems incorporating sales, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, personnel and finance modules can be supported by a single integrated system with all of the company’s data captured in a central database. The ERP packages of vendors such as SAP, Baan, J.D. Edwards and Intentia represent more than a common systems platform for a business. They prescribe information blueprints of how organisation’s business processes should operate. In this paper, the scale and strategic importance of ERP systems is identified and the problem of ERP implementation is defined. Five company examples are analysed using a Critical Success Factors (CSFs) theoretical framework. The paper offers a framework for managers which provides the basis for developing an ERP implementation strategy. The case analysis identifies different approaches to ERP implementation, highlights the critical role of legacy systems in influencing the implementation process, and identifies the importance of business process change and software configuration in addition to factors already cited in the literature such as top management support and communication. The implications of the results and future research opportunities are outlined.

Beyond enterprise resource planning projects : Innovative strategies for competitive advantage

ABSTRACT A rapidly changing business environment and legacy IT problems has resulted in many organisations implementing standard package solutions. This 'common systems' approach establishes a common IT and business process infrastructure within organisations and its increasing dominance raises several important strategic issues. These are to what extent do common systems impose common business processes and management systems on competing firms, and what is the source of competitive advantage if the majority of firms employ almost identical information systems and business processes? A theoretical framework based on research into legacy systems and earlier IT strategy literature is used to analyse three case studies in the manufacturing, chemical and IT industries. It is shown that the organisations are treating common systems as the core of their organisations' abilities to manage business transactions. To achieve competitive advantage they are clothing these common systems with information systems designed to capture information about competitors, customers and suppliers, and to provide a basis for sharing knowledge within the organisation and ultimately with economic partners. The importance of these approaches to other organisations and industries is analysed and an attempt is made at outlining the strategic options open to firms beyond the implementation of common business systems.

Mission path planning of aerial survey tasks using hybrid game evolutionary algorithm

The work presented in this report is aimed to implement a cost-effective offline mission path planner for aerial inspection tasks of large linear infrastructures. Like most real-world optimisation problems, mission path planning involves a number of objectives which ideally should be minimised simultaneously. Understandably, the objectives of a practical optimisation problem are conflicting each other and the minimisation of one of them necessarily implies the impossibility to minimise the other ones. This leads to the need to find a set of optimal solutions for the problem; once such a set of available options is produced, the mission planning problem is reduced to a decision making problem for the mission specialists, who will choose the solution which best fit the requirements of the mission. The goal of this work is then to develop a Multi-Objective optimisation tool able to provide the mission specialists a set of optimal solutions for the inspection task amongst which the final trajectory will be chosen, given the environment data, the mission requirements and the definition of the objectives to minimise. All the possible optimal solutions of a Multi-Objective optimisation problem are said to form the Pareto-optimal front of the problem. For any of the Pareto-optimal solutions, it is impossible to improve one objective without worsening at least another one. Amongst a set of Pareto-optimal solutions, no solution is absolutely better than another and the final choice must be a trade-off of the objectives of the problem. Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) are recognised to be a convenient method for exploring the Pareto-optimal front of Multi-Objective optimization problems. Their efficiency is due to their parallelism architecture which allows to find several optimal solutions at each time

Value management in design planning : a systems-based framework for multi-disciplinary team involvement

This thesis investigates the Value Management processes used by construction project clients that effects project team involvement in VM workshops during the design stage of the projects. It is based on five case studies of the Malaysian international airport construction project packages. The focus of the research is on how issues related to infrastructure design that can improve construction processes on-site are being identified, analysed and resolved through multi-disciplinary team participation. The degrees of interaction, diversity of visualisation aids, certain cultural dimensions and the system thinking approach are found to have significant influence in maximizing participation among project team members during the entire VM workshop process.

The automation of radiotherapy treatment planning assessment

Aim The assessment of treatment plans is an important component in the education of radiation therapists. The establishment of a grade for a plan is currently based on subjective assessment of a range of criteria. The automation of assessment could provide a number of advantages including faster feedback, reduced chance of human error, and simpler aggregation of past results. Method A collection of treatments planned by a cohort of 27 second year radiation therapy students were selected for quantitative evaluation. Treatment sites included the bladder, cervix, larynx, parotid and prostate, although only the larynx plans had been assessed in detail. The plans were designed with the Pinnacle system and exported using the DICOM framework. Assessment criteria included beam arrangement optimisation, volume contouring, target dose coverage and homogeneity, and organ-at-risk sparing. The in-house Treatment and Dose Assessor (TADA) software1 was evaluated for suitability in assisting with the quantitative assessment of these plans. Dose volume data were exported in per-student and per-structure data tables, along with beam complexity metrics, dose volume histograms, and reports on naming conventions. Results The treatment plans were exported and processed using TADA, with the processing of all 27 plans for each treatment site taking less than two minutes. Naming conventions were successfully checked against a reference protocol. Significant variations between student plans were found. Correlation with assessment feedback was established for the larynx plans. Conclusion The data generated could be used to inform the selection of future assessment criteria, monitor student development, and provide useful feedback to the students. The provision of objective, quantitative evaluations of plan quality would be a valuable addition to not only radiotherapy education programmes but also for staff development and potentially credentialing methods. New functionality within TADA developed for this work could be applied clinically to, for example, evaluate protocol compliance.

BIM-based lifecycle planning and specifications for sustainable cities of the future: A conceptual approach

Annually, several million tonnes of waste are produced from reworks, demolition, and use of substandard materials. Building Information Modelling (BIM), a digital representation of facilities and their constituent data, is a viable means of addressing some concerns about the impacts of these processes. BIM functionalities can be extended and combined with rich building information from specifications and product libraries, for efficient, streamlined design and construction. This paper conceptualises a framework for BIM-knowledge transfer from advanced economies for adaptation and use in urban development works in developing nations using the Sydney Down Under and Lagos Eko Atlantic projects as reference points. We present a scenario that highlights BIM-based lifecycle planning/specifications as agents of sustainable construction (in terms of cost and time) crucial to the quality of as-built data from early on in city development. We show how, through the use of BIM, city planners in developing nations can avoid high, retrospective (and sometimes wasteful) maintenance costs and leapfrog infrastructure management standards of advanced economies. Finally, this paper illustrates how BIM can address concerns about economic sustainability during city development in developing countries by enriching model objects with specification information sourced from a product library.

Learned stochastic mobility prediction for planning with control uncertainty on unstructured terrain

Motion planning for planetary rovers must consider control uncertainty in order to maintain the safety of the platform during navigation. Modelling such control uncertainty is difficult due to the complex interaction between the platform and its environment. In this paper, we propose a motion planning approach whereby the outcome of control actions is learned from experience and represented statistically using a Gaussian process regression model. This mobility prediction model is trained using sample executions of motion primitives on representative terrain, and predicts the future outcome of control actions on similar terrain. Using Gaussian process regression allows us to exploit its inherent measure of prediction uncertainty in planning. We integrate mobility prediction into a Markov decision process framework and use dynamic programming to construct a control policy for navigation to a goal region in a terrain map built using an on-board depth sensor. We consider both rigid terrain, consisting of uneven ground, small rocks, and non-traversable rocks, and also deformable terrain. We introduce two methods for training the mobility prediction model from either proprioceptive or exteroceptive observations, and report results from nearly 300 experimental trials using a planetary rover platform in a Mars-analogue environment. Our results validate the approach and demonstrate the value of planning under uncertainty for safe and reliable navigation.

BIM, specifications and cost planning: establishing the connections

The overarching research work is based on two approaches: - Conceptual Analysis, Extraction and Linking - Experimentation with Product Libraries - Conceptual Analysis, Extraction and Linking: This aspect of the research has been achieved through the development of a conceptual framework for facilitating the understanding of the constituting components of BIM, Specifications and Cost Planning under investigation. The framework builds on theories spanning the constituent research themes and was used as a basis for justifying the elected approaches adopted throughout the research work. By means of tags and codes, a system for classifying building specification information has been developed as a differentiator between the chosen research approach and existing classification strategies in industry. Furthermore, syntactic links between extracted classes of specification information and cost planning have been established and will be adopted as a basis for authenticating the impact of specification information within BIM models. - Experimentation with Product Libraries Following the extraction and classification of BIM, Specifications and Cost Planning information, early experimentation on linking specifications to BIM models by means of a raas-based product library have been successful. A comparative analysis between a range of existing product libraries has also been realised. The outcomes have been amply documented in papers, all of which have received positive reviews. Ongoing experiments and analysis with the product library involve integrating the cost planning component for authenticating the completeness, relevance and impact of embedded specification within BIM models.

Branding and planning urban knowledge precincts : insights from Brisbane, Australia

Purpose: The paper aims to investigate urban knowledge precincts from the angle of urban planning and place branding. Scope: The paper focuses on urban knowledge precinct development experiences of Brisbane, Australia. Method: The paper uses literature review, policy and content analyses and field observation methods to explore Brisbane’s urban knowledge precincts. Results: The paper reveals insights from Brisbane’s urban knowledge precincts development journey. Recommendations: The paper suggests further research on the topic of branding and planning urban knowledge precincts. Conclusions: The paper reveals that urban knowledge precincts are the nexus of knowledge-based urban development and Brisbane’s precincts potentially provide a competitive edge to the city in the global knowledge economy era.

Can social resilience inform SA/SIA for adaptive planning for climate change in vulnerable regions?

Social resilience concepts are gaining momentum in environmental planning through an emerging understanding of the socio-ecological nature of biophysical systems. There is a disconnect, however, between these concepts and the sociological and psychological literature related to social resilience. Further still, both schools of thought are not well connected to the concepts of social assessment (SA) and social impact assessment (SIA) that are the more standard tools supporting planning and decision-making. This raises questions as to how emerging social resilience concepts can translate into improved SA/SIA practices to inform regional-scale adaptation. Through a review of the literature, this paper suggests that more cross-disciplinary integration is needed if social resilience concepts are to have a genuine impact in helping vulnerable regions tackle climate change.

Form-based planning and liveable urban environments

This review article discusses form-based planning an din details analise the following books: Stepehn Marshall (2012) Urban Coding and Planning (Routledge, New York, USA, 272pp. pISBN 1135689202). Emily Talen (2012) City Rules: How Regulations Affects Urban Form (Island Press, Washington DC, USA, 254 pp. ISBN 9781597266925). Richard Tomlinson (2012) Australia’s Unintended Cities: the Impact of Housing on Urban Development (CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia, 194pp. ISBN 9780643103771). The history of the city has been written and rewritten many times: the seminal works of Benevolo (1980) and Mumford (1989) reconstruct how settlements, particularly their urban form, have changed over centuries. Rowe and Koetter (1978), Kostof (1991, 1992), Krier (2003), and Rossi and Eisenmann (1982) address instead the components that shape the urban environment: the architect can aggregate and manipulate squares, streets, parks and public buildings to control urban design. Generally these studies aim to reveal the secret of the traditional city in contraposition to the contemporary townscape characterized by planning and zoning, which are generally regarded as problematic and sterile (Woodward, 2013). The ‘secret rules’ that have shaped our cities have a bearing on the relationship of spaces, mixed uses, public environments and walkability (Walters, 2011)...

Victorian Public Libraries: Our Future, Our Skills. Research Report

This research study represents a key part of the program of Statewide Public Library Development Projects delivered by the State Library of Victoria between 2011 and 2014 in partnership with Public Libraries Victoria Network (PLVN), the peak body for Victoria’s 47 public library services. The overarching objectives of this project were: - to develop a framework to articulate the core competencies required by the public library workforce for the 21st century - to conduct a skills audit of Victorian public library staff in order to collect evidence of the current skills and to anticipate future skills requirements - to deliver a report that analyses the audit findings and makes recommendations on training needs and strategies to prepare for the future delivery of public library services in Victoria. The study built on the 2008 report Workforce sustainability and leadership: Survey, analysis and planning, developed for the State Library of Victoria and PLVN, in which three types of workplace skills were delineated: cognitive (or Foundation), technical (or Professional) and Behavioural skills. Following industry discussion and review, a framework comprising 59 skill-sets within the three distinct skills areas was finalised in October 2013. The skills audit, which comprised an Individual survey and a Management survey with questionnaires directly based on the skills framework, was undertaken between late November and December 2013. This report presents the analysis and interpretation of the data collected through the two surveys.

Day in the Lab : Urban Informatics Research Lab, Queensland University of Technology

The Urban Informatics Research Lab brings together a group of people who focus their research on interdisciplinary topics at the intersection of social, spatial, and technical research domains—that is, people, place, and technology. Those topics are spread across the breadth of urban life—its contemporary issues and its needs, as well as the design opportunities that we have as individuals, groups, communities, and as a whole society. The lab’s current research areas include urban planning and design, civic innovation, mobility and transportation, education and connected learning, environmental sustainability, and food and urban agriculture. The common denominator of the lab’s approach is user-centered design research directed toward understanding, conceptualizing, developing, and evaluating sociotechnical practices as well as the opportunities afforded by innovative digital technology in urban environments.

Emerging Planning Frameworks for Climate Adaptation

This chapter focuses on the more strategic activities that lead people in the regional community to decide how they want to respond to climate change. Such strategic activities include analysing, prioritising and deciding upon the best course of action. Planning for climate adaptation (usually seen to include the setting of visions and objectives, the determination of key strategies and the monitoring of broad outcomes) encompasses the strategic activities involved in the system of governance for climate adaptation. Planning occurs at all scales from global to the business, property, family and even individual scales. Applying a rapid appraisal technique, this chapter analyses the system of planning for climate adaptation as it relates to the achievement of adaptation outcomes within the Wet Tropics Cluster. It finds that some aspects of the system are healthier than others, and identifies several actions that regional NRM bodies may consider (either collectively or individually) to enhance adaptation outcomes by improving the planning system within the cluster.

Promoting youth participation in communities through youth master planning

A number of communities across the United States are creating visionary documents called youth master plans (YMPs) to promote youth participation, and to focus on youth needs. This article presents an analysis of 38 YMPs from communities across the United States. This multiple methods research included a questionnaire, interviews, and an extensive document analysis. Four key YMP ingredients which enable youth participation were revealed: valuing youth voice through an asset-based approach; providing specific and meaningful participation opportunities for youth in both everyday life and community governance; the presence of a community champion alongside the collaboration of multiple entities within a community; and specific implementation strategies to ensure participation occurs in meaningful ways. Recommendations for YMP improvement and suggestions for future research are also presented.