How middle managers contribute to strategy formation process: connection of strategy processes and strategy practices

The role of middle management is essential when managing integrative and emergent strategy formation processes. We stand out the importance of its role connecting micro and macro organizational level offering a very important contribution when examining the strategy-as-practice perspective and integrative strategy formation process. The main goal of this research is to analyse the relationship between the integrative strategy formation process and the roles of middle management under the strategy-as-practice perspective. To check it out we adopted a qualitative methodology droving a case analysis in a Spanish University. Data was collected by means of personal interviews with members of different levels of the Institution, documents analysis and direct observation. In advance of some results we find out that the University develops an integrative strategy formation process and confers to middle management an important role extended all over the organization.

The process of implementing answerability in contemporary Brazil

Abstract: The aim of this study was to characterize the trajectory of answerability in Brazil. In the light of studies based on the historical neo-institutionalism approach, formal institutional changes adopted at federal level between 1985 and 2014, and which favor the typical requirements of answerability - information and justification - were identified and analyzed through the content analysis technique. The conclusion is that the trajectory of answerability in contemporary Brazil can be characterized as continuous, primarily occurring through the layering strategy, and whose leitmotif, since its origin, has consisted of matters of financial and budgetary nature. Nevertheless, a recent influence of deeper democratic subjects on it has been observed.

The portuguese insurance industry: basis for strategic process decision

Nowadays, the Portuguese insurance industry operates in a market with a much more aggressive structure than a few decades ago. Markets and the economy have become globalised since the last decade of the 20th century. Market forces have gradually shifted – power is now mainly on the demand side. In order to meet the new requirements, the insurance industry must develop a strong strategic ability to respond to constant changes of the new international economic order.One of the basic aspects of this strategic development will focus on the ability to predict the future. We introduce the subject by briefly describing the sector, its organisational structure in the Portuguese market, and challenges arising from the development of the European Union. We then analyse the economic and financial structure of the sector. From this point of view, we aim at the possibility of designing models that could explain the demand for insurance, claims and technical reserves evolution. Such models, (even if based on the past), would resolve, at least partly, one of the greatest difficulties experienced by insurance companies when estimating the budget. Thus, we examine the existence of variables that explain the previous points, which are capable of forming a basis for designing models that are simple but efficient, and can be used for strategic planning.

Aplicação de ferramentas associadas à filosofia lean

A competitividade entre as empresas e a busca por modelos de gestão e organização cada vez mais eficientes, tem dominado a actualidade. A filosofia de gestão Lean vem dar resposta a essas necessidades de aumento dos níveis de competitividade e eficiência, através de uma mudança da cultura organizacional, que assenta na redução ou eliminação de desperdícios e na melhoria contínua dos processos de fabrico de bens ou do fornecimento de serviços. A gestão Lean é suportada e implementada pela aplicação de um conjunto de ferramentas correctamente seleccionadas e adaptadas ao contexto organizacional da empresa ou organização. A presente dissertação visa caracterizar as ferramentas mais comuns da filosofia Lean, tendo em consideração a sua aplicabilidade na indústria e no sector dos serviços. É igualmente abordada a forma de aplicação das ferramentas Lean de maneira a que não constituam um acto isolado que conduz seguramente ao fracasso da implementação Lean na organização. Por essa razão são discutidas algumas regras e critérios, com base na proposta de um método de aplicação das ferramentas Lean que evite erros cometidos no passado e que levaram ao insucesso da aplicação do Lean em algumas organizações. Recorreu-se a um estudo de caso do ramo dos serviços, cujos resultados permitiram verificar a aplicabilidade do método proposto na aplicação de ferramentas Lean ao ramo dos serviços. O estudo de caso revelou a existência de uma elevada percentagem de desperdícios no processo em análise e permitiu melhorar o funcionamento desses mesmos processos. As melhorias alcançadas foram realizadas com base na eliminação dos desperdícios, na resolução de problemas e consequente uniformização de processos que melhoraram a qualidade e eficiência do serviço prestado, evidenciando que a organização alvo do estudo se encontra no bom caminho para atingir com sucesso a alteração da cultura organizacional para a filosofia Lean.

Eliminação do Cr(VI) na fase de neutralização de um efluente industrial proveniente de processos de galvanoplastia

A presente tese teve por base a identificação e resolução de um problema existente no tratamento de efluentes provenientes dos processos de tratamento de superfícies por galvanoplastia, na OGMA – Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal S.A.. Observou-se a ocorrência, esporádica, de crómio hexavalente, (Cr (VI)), em valor superior ao valor limite de emissão (VLE). Os resultados foram monitorizados e os dados recolhidos no decorrer da actividade de tratamento de efluentes, durante o período de, aproximadamente, 5 anos (2006 a 2011). A recolha de resultados decorreu no âmbito da actividade profissional da mestranda, que, para além da responsabilidade técnica dos processos de galvanoplastia na empresa, é também responsável pelo suporte técnico ao processo de tratamento de efluentes resultantes da actividade de tratamento de superficies por processos de galvanoplastia. A empresa OGMA – Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal S.A., é uma empresa de actividade aeronáutica dedicada à Fabricação e Manutenção de aeronaves, nomeadamente a prestação de serviços de Manutenção, Revisão e Modernização de, Aeronaves, Motores e Componentes, bem como Fabricação e Montagem de Aeroestruturas. Integrada na OGMA, S.A. encontra-se a área de tratamentos electroquímicos, onde são realizados processos de tratamento de materiais metálicos por electrodeposição, deposição química e conversão química. Desta actividade resulta uma quantidade considerável de efluentes líquidos que necessitam de tratamento adequado previamente à sua descarga em cursos de água. Devido ao tipo de contaminantes que estes efluentes possuem, o tratamento dos mesmos é realizado em várias etapas, passando pela oxidação de cianetos, a redução de cromatos e a neutralização. Posteriormente segue-se uma sedimentação e a remoção de lamas. De modo a garantir um controlo dos parâmetros de descarga dos efluentes tratados, de acordo com a legislação ambiental em vigor, o efluente obtido é analisado periodicamente em laboratório acreditado. Na perspectiva de solucionar o problema em questão, procedeu-se à realização de ensaios experimentais utilizando os efluentes provenientes dos tanques de reacção da redução de cromatos e da oxidação de cianetos da linha com cádmio, com especial incidência na variação dos intervalos de pH recomendados para cada uma das fases do tratamento de efluentes, e observação do comportamento das misturas em termos de presença de Cr (VI), quando sujeitos a variações de pH. Após análise dos dados disponíveis e realização de todos os ensaios, conclui-se que, o processo de oxidação de cianeto da linha com cádmio e o processo de redução de cromatos na mesma linha estão a funcionar adequadamente. Concluiu-se que o reaparecimento de Cr (VI) ocorre devido à existência de hipoclorito de sódio, em excesso, no tanque de oxidação de cianeto que, quando passa para o tanque de neutralização e entra em contacto com o efluente proveniente do tanque de redução de cromatos, oxida parte do crómio trivalente, (Cr (III)), existente, a Cr (VI). Para impedir a ocorrência deste fenómeno separou-se todo o efluente contendo crómio que passou a ser tratado na linha de tratamento de efluentes isenta de cádmio, não entrando assim em contacto com o efluente que contém hipoclorito não reagido, evitando a oxidação do Cr (III) a Cr (VI).

RF Receiver Front End for 28.5 GHz Applications on a 70 GHz F-T SiGe BiCMOS Process

This article presents the design and test of a receiver front end aimed at LMDS applications at 28.5 GHz. It presents a system-level design after which the receiver was designed. The receiver comprises an LNA, quadrature mixer and quadrature local oscillator. Experimental results at 24 GHz center frequency show a conversion voltage gain of 15 dB and conversion noise figure of 14 5 dB. The receiver operates from a 2 5 V power supply with a total current consumption of 31 mA.

RFID together with multi-agent systems to control global value chains

Nowadays, the cooperative intelligent transport systems are part of a largest system. Transportations are modal operations integrated in logistics and, logistics is the main process of the supply chain management. The supply chain strategic management as a simultaneous local and global value chain is a collaborative/cooperative organization of stakeholders, many times in co-opetition, to perform a service to the customers respecting the time, place, price and quality levels. The transportation, like other logistics operations must add value, which is achieved in this case through compression lead times and order fulfillments. The complex supplier's network and the distribution channels must be efficient and the integral visibility (monitoring and tracing) of supply chain is a significant source of competitive advantage. Nowadays, the competition is not discussed between companies but among supply chains. This paper aims to evidence the current and emerging manufacturing and logistics system challenges as a new field of opportunities for the automation and control systems research community. Furthermore, the paper forecasts the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies integrated into an information and communication technologies (ICT) framework based on distributed artificial intelligence (DAI) supported by a multi-agent system (MAS), as the most value advantage of supply chain management (SCM) in a cooperative intelligent logistics systems. Logistical platforms (production or distribution) as nodes of added value of supplying and distribution networks are proposed as critical points of the visibility of the inventory, where these technological needs are more evident.

Innovation through virtual communities of Practice: motivation and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

Communities of Practice are places which provide a sound basis for organizational learning, enabling knowledge creation and acquisition thus improving organizational performance, leveraging innovation and consequently increasing competitively. Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP‟s) can perform a central role in promoting communication and collaboration between members who are dispersed in both time and space. The ongoing case study, described here, aims to identify both the motivations and the constraints that members of an organization experience when taking part in the knowledge creating processes of the VCoP‟s to which they belong. Based on a literature review, we have identified several factors that influence such processes; they will be used to analyse the results of interviews carried out with the leaders of VCoP‟s in four multinationals. As future work, a questionnaire will be developed and administered to the other members of these VCoP‟s

CVD of CrO(2): Towards a lower temperature deposition process

The deposition of highly oriented a-axis CrO(2) films onto Al(2)O(3)(0001) by atmospheric pressure (AP)CVD at temperatures as low as 330 C is reported. Deposition rates strongly depend on the substrate temperature, whereas for film surface microstructures the dependence is mainly on film thickness. For the experimental conditions used in this work, CrO(2) growth kinetics are dominated by a surface reaction mechanism with an apparent activation energy of (121.0 +/- 4.3) kJ mol(-1). The magnitude and temperature dependence of the saturation magnetization, up to room temperature, is consistent with bulk measurements.

The (well) informed piano : internalization and growth process

The subject matter of this book is about piano methodology, including technical, musical, artistic, ethical and philosophical issues and reflections. The purpose of this work is to share a personal professional experience insight in the field of piano performance. This text assumes a certain continuity to the major contributions of artists like Ludwig Deppe, Tobias Matthay, Grigory Kogan, Heinrich Neuhaus and George Kochevitsky. At the same time, it tries to integrate and complement this selected literature, bringing new ideas and hints to specific professional issues.

A Service Integration Platform for Collaborative Networks

Integrated manufacturing constitutes a complex system made of heterogeneous information and control subsystems. Those subsystems are not designed to the cooperation. Typically each subsystem automates specific processes, and establishes closed application domains, therefore it is very difficult to integrate it with other subsystems in order to respond to the needed process dynamics. Furthermore, to cope with ever growing marketcompetition and demands, it is necessary for manufacturing/enterprise systems to increase their responsiveness based on up-to-date knowledge and in-time data gathered from the diverse information and control systems. These have created new challenges for manufacturing sector, and even bigger challenges for collaborative manufacturing. The growing complexity of the information and communication technologies when coping with innovative business services based on collaborative contributions from multiple stakeholders, requires novel and multidisciplinary approaches. Service orientation is a strategic approach to deal with such complexity, and various stakeholders' information systems. Services or more precisely the autonomous computational agents implementing the services, provide an architectural pattern able to cope with the needs of integrated and distributed collaborative solutions. This paper proposes a service-oriented framework, aiming to support a virtual organizations breeding environment that is the basis for establishing short or long term goal-oriented virtual organizations. The notion of integrated business services, where customers receive some value developed through the contribution from a network of companies is a key element.

Intelligent Bio-Inspired system for manufacturing scheduling under uncertainties

A novel approach to scheduling resolution by combining Autonomic Computing (AC), Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), Case-based Reasoning (CBR), and Bio-Inspired Optimization Techniques (BIT) will be described. AC has emerged as a paradigm aiming at incorporating applications with a management structure similar to the central nervous system. The main intentions are to improve resource utilization and service quality. In this paper we envisage the use of MAS paradigm for supporting dynamic and distributed scheduling in Manufacturing Systems with AC properties, in order to reduce the complexity of managing manufacturing systems and human interference. The proposed CBR based Intelligent Scheduling System was evaluated under different dynamic manufacturing scenarios.