PRODUCT DATA MANAGEMENT FOR FINNISH SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES - Towards a viable information system concept

Product Data Management (PDM) systems have been utilized within companies since the 1980s. Mainly the PDM systems have been used by large companies. This thesis presents the premise that small and medium-sized companies can also benefit from utilizing the Product Data Management systems. Furthermore, the starting point for the thesis is that the existing PDM systems are either too expensive or do not properly respond to the requirements SMEs have. The aim of this study is to investigate what kinds of requirements and special features SMEs, operating in Finnish manufacturing industry, have towards Product Data Management. Additionally, the target is to create a conceptual model that could fulfill the specified requirements. The research has been carried out as a qualitative case study, in which the research data was collected from ten Finnish companies operating in manufacturing industry. The research data is formed by interviewing key personnel from the case companies. After this, the data formed from the interviews has been processed to comprise a generic set of information system requirements and the information system concept supporting it. The commercialization of the concept is studied in the thesis from the perspective of system development. The aim was to create a conceptual model, which would be economically feasible for both, a company utilizing the system and for a company developing it. For this reason, the thesis has sought ways to scale the system development effort for multiple simultaneous cases. The main methods found were to utilize platform-based thinking and a way to generalize the system requirements, or in other words abstracting the requirements of an information system. The results of the research highlight the special features Finnish manufacturing SMEs have towards PDM. The most significant of the special features is the usage of project model to manage the order-to-delivery –process. This differs significantly from the traditional concepts of Product Data Management presented in the literature. Furthermore, as a research result, this thesis presents a conceptual model of a PDM system, which would be viable for the case companies interviewed during the research. As a by-product, this research presents a synthesized model, found from the literature, to abstract information system requirements. In addition to this, the strategic importance and categorization of information systems within companies has been discussed from the perspective of information system customizations.

Integration of Logistics Systems across Companies’ Borders

The growth of the companies working in the Logistics area has raised the need for using several Logistics systems that can meet the increased requirements in business processes. Different companies may use one or more Logistics systems internally and may use different Logistics systems that other collaborated companies use. Furthermore, these Logistics systems are required to communicate with each other in order to process and manage the flow of the information. Integrating the Logistics systems is beneficial as it allows interaction between the whole systems and services instead of the need to replace them. In addition, it improves the efficiency, lowers the possible errors in the supply chain, reduces the costs and facilitates the access of suppliers and customers to the information. This in turn leads to better relationships with both suppliers and customers. Usually local integration of several Logistics systems is not very difficult, especially that mostly the companies buy their system from a single source. However, the case is different for integrating several logistics systems across the companies’ borders. In this case, there are many factors play major roles in limiting the integration, such as using different systems and different output. This thesis highlights these factors and challenges, demonstrates some solutions for the logistics inter-organizational integration from the perspective of information systems and presents some approaches for integrating these systems. There are many studies about the integration inside a company but fewer studies focused about the technical side and the information systems integration across company’s borders or what is called inter-organizational integration. This study is a literature review that aims at illustrating the challenges, the requirements and some approaches in inter-organizational logistics information systems integration of logistics systems across the companies’ borders.

Étude du rôle des professionnels de l'information dans les systèmes d'information Web du Gouvernement fédéral canadien

Les professionnels de l'information traversent actuellement une période de redéfinition de leur profession provoquée par la transformation de l'information et des processus informationnels vers un mode de plus en plus électronique. Les systèmes d'information Web (SIW) — c'est-à-dire des systèmes d'information basés sur les technologies Web tels que les sites Web externes, les intranets, les systèmes de commerce électronique et les extranets — font partie des technologies à l'origine de ces changements. Ces systèmes sont de plus en plus adoptés par les organisations et, en particulier, par les gouvernements dans leur volonté de devenir électroniques. Le gouvernement fédéral canadien est reconnu comme un des plus innovateurs en matière de SIW et doit adapter son environnement informationnel, dont font partie les professionnels de l'information, à l'introduction de ces systèmes. Malgré l'innovation que les SIW représentent, peu d'études empiriques ont été menées pour identifier quels sont les intervenants nécessaires à leur mise en place. Aucun consensus n'émerge de la littérature quant à la nature de l'intervention des professionnels de l'information dans ces systèmes. Cette recherche vise à accroître les connaissances sur l'intervention des professionnels de l'information dans les SIW. Pour les besoins de cette recherche, les professionnels de l'information sont définis comme les personnes ayant une maîtrise en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l'information ou toute autre formulation équivalente. Cette recherche étudie quatre questions de recherche qui portent sur : (1) les rôles des professionnels de l'information décrits dans les politiques d'information pan-gouvernementales liées aux SIW ainsi que ceux des autres intervenants mentionnés en lien direct avec les SIW, (2) les types de SIW dans lesquels les professionnels de l'information interviennent, (3) les tâches des professionnels de l'information dans ces SIW, et (4) les autres intervenants qui travaillent dans ces systèmes. Une approche qualitative a été utilisée pour répondre à ces questions et implique quatre modes de collecte des données : (1) des entrevues en profondeur en personne avec des professionnels de l'information impliqués dans des SIW, (2) une analyse des SIW où interviennent ces professionnels de l'information, (3) une analyse des politiques pan-gouvernementales liées aux SIW, et (4) la documentation pertinente. Les professionnels de l'information rencontrés proviennent de sept ministères du gouvernement fédéral canadien, ministères retenus pour leur implication dans les SIW. Les résultats indiquent que les professionnels de l'information rencontrés interviennent dans les SIW aux niveaux micro et macro, c'est-à-dire dans des SIW spécifiques ainsi que globalement au niveau de l'ensemble des SIW d'un ministère ou du gouvernement fédéral. Ces professionnels de l'information sont impliqués dans toutes les dimensions et les phases de développement des SIW. Les tâches liées au contenu sont prédominantes mais les tâches technologiques sont aussi très présentes. Trois variables se dégagent de cette étude qui ont un impact sur l'intervention des professionnels de l'information dans les SIW : les types de SIW, les types de postes occupés par les professionnels de l'information et les types de gouvernance.

Semiotic modelling for complex enterprise systems

An enterprise is viewed as a complex system which can be engineered to accomplish organisational objectives. Systems analysis and modelling will enable to the planning and development of the enterprise and IT systems. Many IT systems design methods focus on functional and non-functional requirements of the IT systems. Most methods are normally capable of one but leave out other aspects. Analysing and modelling of both business and IT systems may often have to call on techniques from various suites of methods which may be placed on different philosophic and methodological underpinnings. Coherence and consistency between the analyses are hard to ensure. This paper introduces the Problem Articulation Method (PAM) which facilitates the design of an enterprise system infrastructure on which an IT system is built. Outcomes of this analysis represent requirements which can be further used for planning and designing a technical system. As a case study, a finance system, Agresso, for e-procurement has been used in this paper to illustrate the applicability of PAM in modelling complex systems.

Single Synapse Information Coding in Intraburst Spike Patterns of Central Pattern Generator Motor Neurons

Burst firing is ubiquitous in nervous systems and has been intensively studied in central pattern generators (CPGs). Previous works have described subtle intraburst spike patterns (IBSPs) that, despite being traditionally neglected for their lack of relation to CPG motor function, were shown to be cell-type specific and sensitive to CPG connectivity. Here we address this matter by investigating how a bursting motor neuron expresses information about other neurons in the network. We performed experiments on the crustacean stomatogastric pyloric CPG, both in control conditions and interacting in real-time with computer model neurons. The sensitivity of postsynaptic to presynaptic IBSPs was inferred by computing their average mutual information along each neuron burst. We found that details of input patterns are nonlinearly and inhomogeneously coded through a single synapse into the fine IBSPs structure of the postsynaptic neuron following burst. In this way, motor neurons are able to use different time scales to convey two types of information simultaneously: muscle contraction (related to bursting rhythm) and the behavior of other CPG neurons (at a much shorter timescale by using IBSPs as information carriers). Moreover, the analysis revealed that the coding mechanism described takes part in a previously unsuspected information pathway from a CPG motor neuron to a nerve that projects to sensory brain areas, thus providing evidence of the general physiological role of information coding through IBSPs in the regulation of neuronal firing patterns in remote circuits by the CNS.

Volunteered Geographic Information For Water Management: A Prototype Architecture

Driven by Web 2.0 technology and the almost ubiquitous presence of mobile devices, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is knowing an unprecedented growth. These notable technological advancements have opened fruitful perspectives also in the field of water management and protection, raising the demand for a reconsideration of policies which also takes into account the emerging trend of VGI. This research investigates the opportunity of leveraging such technology to involve citizens equipped with common mobile devices (e.g. tablets and smartphones) in a campaign of report of water-related phenomena. The work is carried out in collaboration with ADBPO - Autorità di bacino del fiume Po (Po river basin Authority), i.e. the entity responsible for the environmental planning and protection of the basin of river Po. This is the longest Italian river, spreading over eight among the twenty Italian Regions and characterized by complex environmental issues. To enrich ADBPO official database with user-generated contents, a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) architecture was designed which allows not only user field-data collection, but also data Web publication through standard protocols. Open Data Kit suite allows users to collect georeferenced multimedia information using mobile devices equipped with location sensors (e.g. the GPS). Users can report a number of environmental emergencies, problems or simple points of interest related to the Po river basin, taking pictures of them and providing other contextual information. Field-registered data is sent to a server and stored into a PostgreSQL database with PostGIS spatial extension. GeoServer provides then data dissemination on the Web, while specific OpenLayers-based viewers were built to optimize data access on both desktop computers and mobile devices. Besides proving the suitability of FOSS in the frame of VGI, the system represents a successful prototype for the exploitation of user local, real-time information aimed at managing and protecting water resources.

A logical approach to the management of object identifiers in non-conventional database management systems

Non-conventional database management systems are used to achieve a better performance when dealing with complex data. One fundamental concept of these systems is object identity (OID), because each object in the database has a unique identifier that is used to access and reference it in relationships to other objects. Two approaches can be used for the implementation of OIDs: physical or logical OIDs. In order to manage complex data, was proposed the Multimedia Data Manager Kernel (NuGeM) that uses a logical technique, named Indirect Mapping. This paper proposes an improvement to the technique used by NuGeM, whose original contribution is management of OIDs with a fewer number of disc accesses and less processing, thus reducing management time from the pages and eliminating the problem with exhaustion of OIDs. Also, the technique presented here can be applied to others OODBMSs. © 2011 IEEE.

Molecularly designed layer-by-layer (LbL) films to detect catechol using information visualization methods

The control of molecular architectures has been exploited in layer-by-layer (LbL) films deposited on Au interdigitated electrodes, thus forming an electronic tongue (e-tongue) system that reached an unprecedented high sensitivity (down to 10-12 M) in detecting catechol. Such high sensitivity was made possible upon using units containing the enzyme tyrosinase, which interacted specifically with catechol, and by processing impedance spectroscopy data with information visualization methods. These latter methods, including the parallel coordinates technique, were also useful for identifying the major contributors to the high distinguishing ability toward catechol. Among several film architectures tested, the most efficient had a tyrosinase layer deposited atop LbL films of alternating layers of dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide (DODAB) and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-3-glycero-fosfo-rac-(1-glycerol) (DPPG), viz., (DODAB/DPPG)5/DODAB/Tyr. The latter represents a more suitable medium for immobilizing tyrosinase when compared to conventional polyelectrolytes. Furthermore, the distinction was more effective at low frequencies where double-layer effects on the film/liquid sample dominate the electrical response. Because the optimization of film architectures based on information visualization is completely generic, the approach presented here may be extended to designing architectures for other types of applications in addition to sensing and biosensing. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

The Influence of Enterprise Systems on Business and Information Technology

Business strategy is important to all organizations. Nearly all Fortune 500 firms are implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to improve the execution of their business strategy and to improve integration with its information technology (IT) strategy. Successful implementation of these multi-million dollar software systems are requiring new emphasis on change management and on Business and IT strategic alignment. This paper examines business and IT strategic alignment and seeks to explore whether an ERP implementation can drive business process reengineering and business and IT strategic alignment. An overview of business strategy and strategic alignment are followed by an analysis of ERP. The “As-Is/To-Be” process model is then presented and explained as a simple, but vital tool for improving business strategy, strategic alignment, and ERP implementation success.

The German business and information technologies project

The Business and Information Technologies (BIT) project strives to reveal new insights into how modern IT impacts organizational structures and business practices using empirical methods. Due to its international scope, it allows for inter-country comparison of empirical results. Germany — represented by the European School of Management and Technologies (ESMT) and the Institute of Information Systems at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin — joined the BIT project in 2006. This report presents the result of the first survey conducted in Germany during November–December 2006. The key results are as follows: • The most widely adopted technologies and systems in Germany are websites, wireless hardware and software, groupware/productivity tools, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The biggest potential for growth exists for collaboration and portal tools, content management systems, business process modelling, and business intelligence applications. A number of technological solutions have not yet been adopted by many organizations but also bear some potential, in particular identity management solutions, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), biometrics, and third-party authentication and verification. • IT security remains on the top of the agenda for most enterprises: budget spending was increasing in the last 3 years. • The workplace and work requirements are changing. IT is used to monitor employees' performance in Germany, but less heavily compared to the United States (Karmarkar and Mangal, 2007).1 The demand for IT skills is increasing at all corporate levels. Executives are asking for more and better structured information and this, in turn, triggers the appearance of new decision-making tools and online technologies on the market. • The internal organization of companies in Germany is underway: organizations are becoming flatter, even though the trend is not as pronounced as in the United States (Karmarkar and Mangal, 2007), and the geographical scope of their operations is increasing. Modern IT plays an important role in enabling this development, e.g. telecommuting, teleconferencing, and other web-based collaboration formats are becoming increasingly popular in the corporate context. • The degree to which outsourcing is being pursued is quite limited with little change expected. IT services, payroll, and market research are the most widely outsourced business functions. This corresponds to the results from other countries. • Up to now, the adoption of e-business technologies has had a rather limited effect on marketing functions. Companies tend to extract synergies from traditional printed media and on-line advertising. • The adoption of e-business has not had a major impact on marketing capabilities and strategy yet. Traditional methods of customer segmentation are still dominating. The corporate identity of most organizations does not change significantly when going online. • Online sales channel are mainly viewed as a complement to the traditional distribution means. • Technology adoption has caused production and organizational costs to decrease. However, the costs of technology acquisition and maintenance as well as consultancy and internal communication costs have increased.

Soil and land information: How to support decision-making?

Soils are fundamental to ensuring water, energy and food security. Within the context of sus- tainable food production, it is important to share knowledge on existing and emerging tech- nologies that support land and soil monitoring. Technologies, such as remote sensing, mobile soil testing, and digital soil mapping, have the potential to identify degraded and non- /little-responsive soils, and may also provide a basis for programmes targeting the protection and rehabilitation of soils. In the absence of such information, crop production assessments are often not based on the spatio-temporal variability in soil characteristics. In addition, uncertain- ties in soil information systems are notable and build up when predictions are used for monitor- ing soil properties or biophysical modelling. Consequently, interpretations of model-based results have to be done cautiously. As such they provide a scientific, but not always manage- able, basis for farmers and/or policymakers. In general, the key incentives for stakeholders to aim for sustainable management of soils and more resilient food systems are complex at farm as well as higher levels. The same is true of drivers of soil degradation. The decision- making process aimed at sustainable soil management, be that at farm or higher level, also in- volves other goals and objectives valued by stakeholders, e.g. land governance, improved envi- ronmental quality, climate change adaptation and mitigation etc. In this dialogue session we will share ideas on recent developments in the discourse on soils, their functions and the role of soil and land information in enhancing food system resilience.

A Mathematical Model for Simplifying Representations of Objects in a Geographic Information System

The study of operations on representations of objects is well documented in the realm of spatial engineering. However, the mathematical structure and formal proof of these operational phenomena are not thoroughly explored. Other works have often focused on query-based models that seek to order classes and instances of objects in the form of semantic hierarchies or graphs. In some models, nodes of graphs represent objects and are connected by edges that represent different types of coarsening operators. This work, however, studies how the coarsening operator "simplification" can manipulate partitions of finite sets, independent from objects and their attributes. Partitions that are "simplified first have a collection of elements filtered (removed), and then the remaining partition is amalgamated (some sub-collections are unified). Simplification has many interesting mathematical properties. A finite composition of simplifications can also be accomplished with some single simplification. Also, if one partition is a simplification of the other, the simplified partition is defined to be less than the other partition according to the simp relation. This relation is shown to be a partial-order relation based on simplification. Collections of partitions can not only be proven to have a partial- order structure, but also have a lattice structure and are complete. In regard to a geographic information system (GIs), partitions related to subsets of attribute domains for objects are called views. Objects belong to different views based whether or not their attribute values lie in the underlying view domain. Given a particular view, objects with their attribute n-tuple codings contained in the view are part of the actualization set on views, and objects are labeled according to the particular subset of the view in which their coding lies. Though the scope of the work does not mainly focus on queries related directly to geographic objects, it provides verification for the existence of particular views in a system with this underlying structure. Given a finite attribute domain, one can say with mathematical certainty that different views of objects are partially ordered by simplification, and every collection of views has a greatest lower bound and least upper bound, which provides the validity for exploring queries in this regard.

AN OCCUPATIONAL INJURY MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT HOUSTON

The purpose of this research and development project was to develop a method, a design, and a prototype for gathering, managing, and presenting data about occupational injuries.^ State-of-the-art systems analysis and design methodologies were applied to the long standing problem in the field of occupational safety and health of processing workplace injuries data into information for safety and health program management as well as preliminary research about accident etiologies. The top-down planning and bottom-up implementation approach was utilized to design an occupational injury management information system. A description of a managerial control system and a comprehensive system to integrate safety and health program management was provided.^ The project showed that current management information systems (MIS) theory and methods could be applied successfully to the problems of employee injury surveillance and control program performance evaluation. The model developed in the first section was applied at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSCH).^ The system in current use at the UTHSCH was described and evaluated, and a prototype was developed for the UTHSCH. The prototype incorporated procedures for collecting, storing, and retrieving records of injuries and the procedures necessary to prepare reports, analyses, and graphics for management in the Health Science Center. Examples of reports, analyses, and graphics presenting UTHSCH and computer generated data were included.^ It was concluded that a pilot test of this MIS should be implemented and evaluated at the UTHSCH and other settings. Further research and development efforts for the total safety and health management information systems, control systems, component systems, and variable selection should be pursued. Finally, integration of the safety and health program MIS into the comprehensive or executive MIS was recommended. ^

Gi2MO: Interoperability, Linking and Filtering in Idea Management Systems

This thesis proposes how to apply the Semantic Web tech- nologies for the Idea Management Systems to deliver a solution to knowl- edge management and information over ow problems. Firstly, the aim is to present a model that introduces rich metadata annotations and their usage in the domain of Idea Management Systems. Furthermore, the the- sis shall investigate how to link innovation data with information from other systems and use it to categorize and lter out the most valuable elements. In addition, the thesis presents a Generic Idea and Innovation Management Ontology (Gi2MO) and aims to back its creation with a set of case studies followed by evaluations that prove how Semantic Web can work as tool to create new opportunities and leverage the contemporary Idea Management legacy systems into the next level.

Dynamics in the governance of collective irrigation systems: Evidence from field experiments in Nicaragua.

In this paper, we investigate the real demand for climate protection when the purely individual perspective of existing revealed preference studies is relaxed. This is achieved in two treatments; first, we determine the information subjects receive about the demand revealed by other subjects in a similar decision making situation, second, collective action is implemented whereby all subjects are required to purchase the group?s median quantity at a given price. Participants in the experiment were offered the opportunity to contribute to climate protection by purchasing European Union Allowances. Allowances purchased were withdrawn from the European Emissions Trading Scheme. In our experiment, information about other subjects? behaviour has no treatment effect on the demand for climate protection. Under collective action however, the probability of purchasing allowances is higher compared to the reference treatment situation, an individual contribution mechanism. Furthermore, we observe a strong correlation between subjects? demand and their expectations about other participants? behaviour. When collective action is not available, subjects? e xpectations are consistent with free rider behaviour.