Integrated approach to materials management:a case study

The materials management function is always a major concern to management of any industrial organization, since high inventory and an inefficient procurement process significantly affect profitability. Problems multiply due to the current dynamic business environment in many countries. Hence, existing materials planning and procurement process and inventory management systems require a review. This article shows a radical improvement in the materials management function for an Indian petroleum refinery through business process re-engineering (BPR) by analyzing the current process, identifying key issues, deriving paradigm shifts and developing re-engineered processes through customer value analysis. BPR has been carried out on the existing processes of "material planning and procurement" and "warehousing and surplus disposal.

"Customer" knowledge management in healthcare

This paper reports on a work-in-progress project on the management of patient knowledge in a UK general hospital. Greater involvement of patients is generally seen as crucial to the effective provision of healthcare in the future. However, this presents many challenges, especially in the light of the ageing population in most developed countries and the consequent increasing demand for healthcare. In the UK, there have been many attempts to increase patient involvement by the systematisation of patient feedback, but typically they have not been open to academic scrutiny or formal evaluation, nor have they used any knowledge management principles. The theoretical foundations for this project come first from service management and thence from customer knowledge management. Service management stresses the importance of the customer perspective. Healthcare clearly meets the definitions of a service even though it may also include some tangible elements such as surgery and provision of medication. Although regarding hospital patients purely as "customers" is a viewpoint that needs to be used with care, application of the theory offers potential benefits in healthcare. The two main elements we propose to use from the theory are the type of customer knowledge and its relationship to attributes of the quality of the service provided. The project is concerned with investigating various knowledge management systems (KMS) that are currently in use (or proposed) to systematise patient feedback in an NHS Trust hospital, to manage knowledge from and to a lesser extent about patients. The study is a mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) action research investigation intended to answer the following three research questions: • How can a KMS be used as a mechanism to capture and evaluate patient experiences to provoke patient service change • How can the KMS assist in providing a mechanism for systematising patient engagement? • How can patient feedback be used to stimulate improvements in care, quality and safety?

Development of Database for Distributed Information Measurement and Control System

The purpose of this work is the development of database of the distributed information measurement and control system that implements methods of optical spectroscopy for plasma physics research and atomic collisions and provides remote access to information and hardware resources within the Intranet/Internet networks. The database is based on database management system Oracle9i. Client software was realized in Java language. The software was developed using Model View Controller architecture, which separates application data from graphical presentation components and input processing logic. The following graphical presentations were implemented: measurement of radiation spectra of beam and plasma objects, excitation function for non-elastic collisions of heavy particles and analysis of data acquired in preceding experiments. The graphical clients have the following functionality of the interaction with the database: browsing information on experiments of a certain type, searching for data with various criteria, and inserting the information about preceding experiments.

Application of Service-Oriented Architecture in Software Quality Management

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): D.2.5, D.2.9, D.2.11.

Assessing the impact of management concerns in e-business requirements planning in manufacturing organizations

This paper describes the application of a model, initially developed for determining the e-business requirements of a manufacturing organization, to assess the impact of management concerns on the functions generated. The model has been tested on 13 case studies in small, medium and large organizations. This research shows that the incorporation of concerns for generating the requirements for e-business functions improves the results, because they expose issues that are of relevance to the decision making process relating to e-business. Running the model with both and without concerns, and then presenting the reasons for major variances, can expose the issues and enable them to be studied in detail at the individual function/ reason level. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2013.

Implementing a knowledge management system within an NHS hospital:a case study exploring the roll-out of an Electronic Patient Record (EPR)

This research aims to contribute to understanding the implementation of knowledge management systems (KMS) in the field of health through a case study, leading to theory building and theory extension. We use the concept of the business process approach to knowledge management as a theoretical lens to analyse and explore how a large teaching hospital developed, executed and practically implemented a KMS. A qualitative study was conducted over a 2.5 year period with data collected from semi-structured interviews with eight members of the strategic management team, 12 clinical users and 20 patients in addition to non-participant observation of meetings and documents. The theoretical propositions strategy was used as the overarching approach for data analysis. Our case study provides evidence that true patient centred approaches to supporting care delivery with a KMS benefit from process thinking at both the planning and implementation stages, and an emphasis on the knowledge demands resulting from: the activities along the care pathways; where cross-overs in care occur; and knowledge sharing for the integration of care. The findings also suggest that despite the theoretical awareness of KMS implementation methodologies, the actual execution of such systems requires practice and learning. Flexible, fluid approaches through rehearsal are important and communications strategies should focus heavily on transparency incorporating both structured and unstructured communication methods.

Performance management and high performance work practices in emerging markets

In this chapter, we discuss performance management systems (PMSs) and high performance work systems (HPWSs) in emerging economies. We start by discussing PMSs, with specific emphasis on PMSs in global organizations. We follow this up with an introduction of HPWSs, and then discuss PMSs and HPWSs in emerging economies. While the list of emerging economies keeps changing, and is rather long, as one might expect, in this chapter we have concentrated on five key emerging economies – China, India, Mexico, South Korea, and Turkey. Performance management is the process through which organizations set goals, determine standards, assign and evaluate work, coach and give feedback, and distribute rewards (Fletcher, 2001). In this connection, organizations all over the world face the challenge of how best to manage performance, including finding ways to motivate employees to sustain high levels of performance. In other words, organizations must develop and implement PMSs that are appropriate for their environment in such a way that high levels of performance can be achieved and sustained over time (DeNisi, Varma and Budhwar, 2008). While all organizations need to address these issues, the way a firm decides to go about addressing these issues is dependent on its location and context. In other words, differences in local norms, culture, law, and technology, make it critical that organizations develop and/or adapt techniques, policies and practices that are appropriate to the setting (see for example, Hofstede, 1993).

Human resource management in emerging markets:an introduction

The shifting of global economic power from mature, established markets to emerging markets (EMs) is a fundamental feature of the new realities in the global political economy. Due to a combination of reasons (such as scarcity of reliable information on management systems of EMs, the growing contribution of human resource management (HRM) towards organisational performance, amongst others), the understanding about the dynamics of management of HRM in the EMs context and the need for proactive efforts by key stakeholders (e.g., multinational and local firms, policy makers and institutions such as trade unions) to develop appropriate HRM practice and policy for EMs has now become more critical than ever. It is more so given the phenomenal significance of the EMs predicted for the future of the global economy. For example, Antoine van Agtmael predicts that: in about 25 years the combined gross national product (GNP) of emergent markets will overtake that of currently mature economies causing a major shift in the centre of gravity of the global economy away from the developed to emerging economies. (van Agtmael 2007: 10–11) Despite the present (late 2013 and early 2014) slowdown in the contribution of EMs towards the global industrial growth (e.g., Das, 2013; Reuters, 2014), EMs are predicted to produce 70 per cent of world GDP growth and a further ten years later, their equity market capitalisation is expected to reach US$ 80 trillion, 1.2 times more than the developed world (see Goldman Sachs, 2010).

Strategic Human Resources Management Performance Metrics for Unit-Level Managers: An Exploratory Study of U.S Casual Restaurants

Many restaurant organizations have committed a substantial amount of effort to studying the relationship between a firm’s performance and its effort to develop an effective human resources management reward-and-retention system. These studies have produced various metrics for determining the efficacy of restaurant management and human resources management systems. This paper explores the best metrics to use when calculating the overall unit performance of casual restaurant managers. These metrics were identified through an exploratory qualitative case study method that included interviews with executives and a Delphi study. Experts proposed several diverse metrics for measuring management value and performance. These factors seem to represent all stakeholders’interest.

Systems Engineering Perspective of the Cruise Industry

The maturation of the cruise industry has led to increased competition which demands more efficient operations. Systems engineering, a discipline that studies complex organizations of material, people, and information, is traditionally only applied in the manufacturing sector; however, it can make significant contributions to service industries such as the cruise industry. The author describes this type of engineering, explores how it can be applied to the cruise industry, and presents two case studies demonstrating applications to the cruise industry luggage delivery process and the information technology help desk process. The results show that this approach can make the processes more productive and enhance profitability for the cruise lines.

Yield Management: Where We've Been, Where We Are, Where We're Going

The author describes yield management and the technology used to implement yield management in hotels, issues in usefulness, and legal issues concerning the use of yield management. A look into the future is provided, along with a critique of what further research may be needed in order to raise the level of usefulness of yield management systems in the hotel industry to that found in the airlines.

SLA-Based Guidelines for Database Transitioning

Component-based Software Engineering (CBSE) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) became popular ways to develop software over the last years. During the life-cycle of a software system, several components and services can be developed, evolved and replaced. In production environments, the replacement of core components, such as databases, is often a risky and delicate operation, where several factors and stakeholders should be considered. Service Level Agreement (SLA), according to ITILv3’s official glossary, is “an agreement between an IT service provider and a customer. The agreement consists on a set of measurable constraints that a service provider must guarantee to its customers.”. In practical terms, SLA is a document that a service provider delivers to its consumers with minimum quality of service (QoS) metrics.This work is intended to assesses and improve the use of SLAs to guide the transitioning process of databases on production environments. In particular, in this work we propose SLA-Based Guidelines/Process to support migrations from a relational database management system (RDBMS) to a NoSQL one. Our study is validated by case studies.

The paradoxes of risk management in the banking sector

This paper uses empirical evidence to examine the operational dynamics and paradoxical nature of risk management systems in the banking sector. It demonstrates how a core paradox of market versus regulatory demands and an accompanying variety of performance, learning and belonging paradoxes underlie evident tensions in the interaction between front and back office staff in banks. Organisational responses to such paradoxes are found to range from passive to proactive, reflecting differing organisational, departmental and individual risk culture(s), and performance management systems. Nonetheless, a common feature of regulatory initiatives designed to secure a more structurally independent risk management function is that they have failed to rectify a critical imbalance of power - with the back office control functions continuing to be dominated by front office trading and investment functions. Ultimately, viewing the 'core' of risk management systems as a series of connected paradoxes rather than a set of assured, robust practices, requires a fundamental switch in emphasis away from a normative, standards-based approach to risk management to one which gives greater recognition to its behavioural dimensions.

Social Skills Training in Flight Schools: A Proactive Tool for Management of Threats and Risks

Safety Management Systems in aviation generate training programs that develop skills needed to perform safety functions. The objective of this study is to show that, in groups, individuals need to have interpersonal skills and, in particular, ability to communicate with others, to listen, and to influence. It is for this reason that Social Skills Training is important in Aviation. Professionals trained in social skills are more likely to identify threats and risks caused by interpersonal situations, be assertive, and take appropriate action. As a contribution, this paper suggests a set of policies, procedures and practices for educating and training future professionals who will work in aviation safety.

Adapting the social-ecological system framework for urban stormwater management: the case of green infrastructure adoption

Stormwater management has long been a critical societal and environmental challenge for communities. An increasing number of municipalities are turning to novel approaches such as green infrastructure to develop more sustainable stormwater management systems. However, there is a need to better understand the technological decision-making processes that lead to specific outcomes within urban stormwater governance systems. We used the social-ecological system (SES) framework to build a classification system for identifying significant variables that influence urban stormwater governance decisions related to green infrastructure adoption. To adapt the framework, we relied on findings from observations at national stormwater meetings in combination with a systematic literature review on influential factors related to green infrastructure adoption. We discuss our revisions to the framework that helped us understand the decision by municipal governments to adopt green infrastructure. Remaining research needs and challenges are discussed regarding the development of an urban stormwater SES framework as a classification tool for knowledge accumulation and synthesis.