Simulation process templates for e-business modelling

This paper argues the use of reusable simulation templates as a tool that can help to predict the effect of e-business introduction on business processes. First, a set of requirements for e-business modelling is introduced and modelling options described. Traditional business process mapping techniques are examined as a way of identifying potential changes. Whilst paper-based process mapping may not highlight significant differences between traditional and e-business processes, simulation does allow the real effects of e-business to be identified. Simulation has the advantage of capturing the dynamic characteristics of the process, thus reflecting more accurately the changes in behaviour. This paper shows the value of using generic process maps as a starting point for collecting the data that is needed to build the simulation and proposes the use of reusable templates/components for the speedier building of e-business simulation models.

Assessing the business risk of technology obsolescence through enterprise modelling

The problem of technology obsolescence in information intensive businesses (software and hardware no longer being supported and replaced by improved and different solutions) and a cost constrained market can severely increase costs and operational, and ultimately reputation risk. Although many businesses recognise technological obsolescence, the pervasive nature of technology often means they have little information to identify the risk and location of pending obsolescence and little money to apply to the solution. This paper presents a low cost structured method to identify obsolete software and the risk of their obsolescence where the structure of a business and its supporting IT resources can be captured, modelled, analysed and the risk to the business of technology obsolescence identified to enable remedial action using qualified obsolescence information. The technique is based on a structured modelling approach using enterprise architecture models and a heatmap algorithm to highlight high risk obsolescent elements. The method has been tested and applied in practice in two consulting studies carried out by Capgemini involving three UK police forces. However the generic technique could be applied to any industry based on plans to improve it using ontology framework methods. This paper contains details of enterprise architecture meta-models and related modelling.

The capability-affordance model: a method for analysis and modelling of capabilities and affordances

Existing capability models lack qualitative and quantitative means to compare business capabilities. This paper extends previous work and uses affordance theories to consistently model and analyse capabilities. We use the concept of objective and subjective affordances to model capability as a tuple of a set of resource affordance system mechanisms and action paths, dependent on one or more critical affordance factors. We identify an affordance chain of subjective affordances by which affordances work together to enable an action and an affordance path that links action affordances to create a capability system. We define the mechanism and path underlying capability. We show how affordance modelling notation, AMN, can represent affordances comprising a capability. We propose a method to quantitatively and qualitatively compare capabilities using efficiency, effectiveness and quality metrics. The method is demonstrated by a medical example comparing the capability of syringe and needless anaesthetic systems.

Media Brokerage: Agent-Based SLA Negotiation

Media content personalisation is a major challenge involving viewers as well as media content producer and distributor businesses. The goal is to provide viewers with media items aligned with their interests. Producers and distributors engage in item negotiations to establish the corresponding service level agreements (SLA). In order to address automated partner lookup and item SLA negotiation, this paper proposes the MultiMedia Brokerage (MMB) platform, which is a multiagent system that negotiates SLA regarding media items on behalf of media content producer and distributor businesses. The MMB platform is structured in four service layers: interface, agreement management, business modelling and market. In this context, there are: (i) brokerage SLA (bSLA), which are established between individual businesses and the platform regarding the provision of brokerage services; and (ii) item SLA (iSLA), which are established between producer and distributor businesses about the provision of media items. In particular, this paper describes the negotiation, establishment and enforcement of bSLA and iSLA, which occurs at the agreement and negotiation layers, respectively. The platform adopts a pay-per-use business model where the bSLA define the general conditions that apply to the related iSLA. To illustrate this process, we present a case study describing the negotiation of a bSLA instance and several related iSLA instances. The latter correspond to the negotiation of the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for a specific end viewer.

Plano estratégico “Empowering Lab ESEIG”

Os jovens ao longo do seu percurso escolar têm aspirações e expetativas elevadas quanto ao valor de empregabilidade dos diplomas a que tiveram acesso em todos os graus de ensino. Contudo, no recente contexto de crise económica, essas aspirações e expetativas socialmente nutridas pela escola e pela família têm sido em grande medida frustradas pelas crescentes dificuldades que os jovens portugueses de hoje têm vivido nos seus processos de inserção profissional. A nível individual, um jovem que passe um longo período inativo tem grandes probabilidades de sofrer de baixa autoestima, exclusão social ou de um “wage scar”, isto é, de no futuro ter um rendimento abaixo do rendimento médio de pessoas com formação e experiência equivalentes além de desenvolverem uma atitude passiva e falta de participação social, o que no longo prazo acaba por ter implicações negativas para a sociedade como um todo. Conscientes desta realidade e sabendo que as incubadoras de negócios podem transmitir confiança à comunidade financeira e apoiar as startups, promovendo uma cultura de empreendedorismo e agindo como um catalisador para o desenvolvimento de estruturas de suporte de negócios mais amplas, partimos para o estudo da incubação de negócios com o intuito de traçar um plano estratégico para a Escola Superior de Estudos Industriais e de Gestão (ESEIG) que permitisse desenvolver a cultura empreendedora da sua comunidade e por esta via dar o seu contributo para a resolução da crise económica que o país atravessa. Começamos por fazer um enquadramento teórico da incubação de negócios e rapidamente percebemos que, sendo a ESEIG uma instituição de ensino superior, era importante incluir no estudo os conceitos de empreendedorismo e inovação e perceber ao nível teórico como funciona a relação Universidade-Empresa. De seguida, fomos para o “terreno” e percebemos que a solução para este desafio passaria por capacitar os alunos da ESEIG com as competências empresariais e empreendedoras necessárias para o desenvolvimento de qualquer empreendimento autonomamente. Faltava agora perceber qual a melhor forma de concretizar este ambicioso objetivo. Após um pouco mais de estudo, percebemos que, a paixão está no centro de empreendedorismo juntamente com outras dimensões afetivas e emocionais e pode estimular a criatividade e o reconhecimento de novos padrões de informação fundamental para a descoberta e exploração de oportunidades promissoras. Por sua vez, a alegria local (escolas, cidades, regiões, países) está associada a uma maior atividade empreendedora, o humor e sentimentos positivos, bem como a satisfação de vida geram efeitos benéficos, como melhor desempenho nas tarefas e produtividade, evolução na carreira e sucesso pessoal e maior propensão para assumir riscos. Percebemos então que é necessário desenvolver uma cultura de positividade, pelo que, sugerimos a implementação do novo quadro conceptual PROSPER (Positivity; Relationships; Outcomes; Strengths; Purpose; Engagement; Resilience) que tem o potencial de ser usado como uma ferramenta organizacional para a implementação dos sete principais componentes de bem-estar. Cientes de que o objetivo final é aumentar a intenção empreendedora dos estudantes, bem como o número efetivo de empreendedores, definimos como objetivos, promover o valor do empreendedorismo na criação de oportunidades e no desenvolvimento das competências dos estudantes (Engaging), fornecer aos estudantes oportunidades de aprendizagem empresarial (Empowering) e apoiar os estudantes na criação e no desenvolvimento de negócios (Equipping). Neste sentido, sugerimos diversas ações que materializam estes objetivos. Para finalizar, utilizamos um Lean Canvas com o intuito de concretizar a nossa proposta estratégica para ESEIG, que culmina com a criação do Empowering Lab ESEIG.

Puutuoteteollisuusyrityksen tilaus-toimitusketjun liiketoimintamallien kehittäminen

Tämä diplomityö on osa Puutavaralogistiikan läpinäkyvyyden kehittäminen – hanketta (PuLK-hanke), joka tähtää puutuoteteollisuudessa toimivan yrityksen tilaus-toimitusketjun läpinäkyvyyden lisäämiseen. Hanke on aloitettu kohdeyrityksen tarpeesta parantaa tilaus-toimitusketjun toimintaa uusien toimintaympäristön haasteiden edessä. Tämän työn tavoitteena oli selvittää kohdeyrityksen tilaus-toimitusketjun nykytila sekä tuottaa hankkeessa myöhemmässä vaiheessa toteutettavan systeemiteoreettisen mallinnuksen alkutiedoksi sopiva ylätason liiketoimintamalli. Nämä tehtiin kolmella eri lähestymistavalla, joiden avulla saatiin muodostettua kattava kuva nykytilasta sekä selvitettyä tarvittavalla tarkkuudella liiketoiminnan ylätason malliin vaaditut tiedot. Tärkeimmät käytetyt menetelmät olivat liiketoiminnan mallinnus, swot-analyysi kyselytutkimuksen tuloksista ja kirjallisuustutkimus tuettuna haastatteluilla, tutustumiskäynneillä ja yhteistyöosapuolien resurssien käytöllä. Liiketoiminnan mallinnus osoittautui hyödylliseksi työkaluksi paljastaen toiminnan epäkohdat koko ketjun tasolla niin, että korjaavien toimenpiteiden toteutus helpottui. Systeemiteoreettisen simulointimallin muodostaminen aloitettiin liiketoiminnan mallinnuksen tuottaman informaation pohjalta.

Disseny, layout i planificació d'una empresa de producció d'equips foraborda elèctrics

Aquest projecte es basa en l'aplicació de models de simulació de processos a un exemple d'empresa de producció i la seva adaptació en dimensió i recursos al mercat en un entorn de poca capacitat d'inversió i finançament, de forma que l'entorn de simulació digital aporti valor a la presa de decisions emmarcada en l'estratègia de l'empresa en cada escenari de mercat en que aquesta es trobi. Es realitza el treball sobre el cas d'una empresa, INNOVANAUTIC, dedicada a la innovació, desenvolupament i producció de sistemes de propulsió d'embarcacions. La simulació es una tècnica que permet optimitzar els processos, representant-ne i comprovant el funcionament dels processos, tant entorns físics, de producció com dels serveis associats o subcontractacions de diferents processos i els seus impactes en la disponibilitat de recursos, espais i terminis d'entrega, sense haver de recórrer a procediments de prova i error sobre sistemes reals que impliquen costos a tots nivells en l'empresa. Aquestes metodologies son habitualment emprades en d'altres països o també en el nostre país però en empreses de gran tamany. El present treball, emmarcat dins un entorn socioeconòmic convuls, amb grans limitacions financeres i de recursos per les empreses, demostra com la utilització d'eines de simulació és útil per a PIMES en aquest entorn i permet el dimensionament i la modelització dels processos de forma que es permeti trobar els punts òptims en els que l'empresa ha de donar un pas de creixement en alguns dels paràmetres. La metodologia amb que s'elabora el present treball es la de plantejar una simulació complerta del procés, i definir diversos escenaris de mercat per als productes fabricats, cercant els punt òptims de canvi de dimensió de l'empresa atenent a espai físic, sotscontractació de processos, personal i recursos.

Exploring invention capability

Research on invention has focused on business invention and little work has been conducted on the process and capability required for the individual inventor or the capabilities required for an advice to be considered an invention. This paper synthesises the results of an empirical survey of ten inventor case studies with current research on invention and recent capability affordance research to develop an integrated capability process model of human capabilities for invention and specific capabilities of an invented device. We identify eight necessary human effectivities required for individual invention capability and six functional key activities using these effectivities, to deliver the functional capability of invention. We also identified key differences between invention and general problem solving processes. Results suggest that inventive step capability relies on a unique application of principles that relate to a new combination of affordance chain with a new mechanism and or space time (affordance) path representing the novel way the device works, in conjunction with defined critical affordance operating factors that are the subject of the patent claims.

Flipped classroom and learning strategies

This paper seeks to answer the research question "How does the flipped classroom affect students’ learning strategies?" In e-learning research, several studies have focused on how students and teachers perceive the flipped classroom approach. In general, these studies have reported pleasing results. Nonetheless, few, if any, studies have attempted to find out the potential effects of the flipped classroom approach on how students learn. This study was based on two cases: 1) a business modelling course and 2) a research methodology course. In both cases, participating students were from information systems courses at Dalarna University in Sweden. Recorded lectures replaced regular lectures. The recorded lectures were followed by seminars that focused on the learning content of each lecture in various ways. Three weeks after the final seminar, we arranged for two focus group interviews to take place in each course, with 8 to 10 students participating in each group. We asked open questions on how the students thought they had been affected and more dedicated questions that were generated from a literature study on the effects of flipped classroom courses. These questions dealt with issues about mobility, the potential for repeating lectures, formative feedback, the role of seminars, responsibility, empowerment, lectures before seminars, and any problems encountered. Our results show that, in general, students thought differently about learning after the courses in relation to more traditional approaches, especially regarding the need to be more active. Most students enjoyed the mobility aspect and the accessibility of recorded lectures, although a few claimed it demanded a more disciplined attitude. Most students also expressed a feeling of increased activity and responsibility when participating in seminars. Some even felt empowered because they could influence seminar content. The length of and possibility to navigate in recorded lectures was also considered important. The arrangement of the seminar rooms should promote face-to-face discussions. Finally, the types of questions and tasks were found to affect the outcomes of the seminars. The overall conclusion with regard to students’ learning strategies is that to be an active, responsible, empowered, and critical student you have to be an informed student with possibilities and mandate to influence how, where and when to learn and be able to receive continuous feedback during the learning process. Flipped classroom can support such learning.

D9.5 – Exploitation Plan (version 1 of 3)

The RAGE Exploitation Plan is a living document, to be upgraded along the project lifecycle, supporting RAGE partners in defining how the results of the RAGE RIA will be used both in commercial and non-comercial settings. The Exploitation Plan covers the entire process from the definition of the business case for the RAGE Ecosystem to the creation of the sustainability conditions for its real-world operation beyond the H2020 project co-funding period. The Exploitation Plan will be published in three incremental versions, due at months 18, 36 and 42 of the project lifetime. This early stage version 1 of 3 is mainly devoted to: i. Setting-up the structure and the initial building blocks to be populated and completed in the future editions of the Exploitation Plan and to ii. providing additional guidance for market intelligence gathering, business modelling definition and validation, outreach and industry engagement and ultimately providing insights for the development, validation and evaluation of RAGE results across the project´s workplan execution. These tasks will in turn render suitable inputs to enhance the two future editions of the Exploitation Plan.

A reference business process for ecological niche modelling

Ecological niche modelling combines species occurrence points with environmental raster layers in order to obtain models for describing the probabilistic distribution of species. The process to generate an ecological niche model is complex. It requires dealing with a large amount of data, use of different software packages for data conversion, for model generation and for different types of processing and analyses, among other functionalities. A software platform that integrates all requirements under a single and seamless interface would be very helpful for users. Furthermore, since biodiversity modelling is constantly evolving, new requirements are constantly being added in terms of functions, algorithms and data formats. This evolution must be accompanied by any software intended to be used in this area. In this scenario, a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an appropriate choice for designing such systems. According to SOA best practices and methodologies, the design of a reference business process must be performed prior to the architecture definition. The purpose is to understand the complexities of the process (business process in this context refers to the ecological niche modelling problem) and to design an architecture able to offer a comprehensive solution, called a reference architecture, that can be further detailed when implementing specific systems. This paper presents a reference business process for ecological niche modelling, as part of a major work focused on the definition of a reference architecture based on SOA concepts that will be used to evolve the openModeller software package for species modelling. The basic steps that are performed while developing a model are described, highlighting important aspects, based on the knowledge of modelling experts. In order to illustrate the steps defined for the process, an experiment was developed, modelling the distribution of Ouratea spectabilis (Mart.) Engl. (Ochnaceae) using openModeller. As a consequence of the knowledge gained with this work, many desirable improvements on the modelling software packages have been identified and are presented. Also, a discussion on the potential for large-scale experimentation in ecological niche modelling is provided, highlighting opportunities for research. The results obtained are very important for those involved in the development of modelling tools and systems, for requirement analysis and to provide insight on new features and trends for this category of systems. They can also be very helpful for beginners in modelling research, who can use the process and the experiment example as a guide to this complex activity. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.