Developing a prototype job evaluation expert system: A compensation management application

Compensation is a complex issue with broad ramifications for both employer and employee. The pivotal point in the establishment of a compensation system is job evaluation. An expert system, a rapidly emerging decision making technology, is applied to the job evaluation area. Various approaches to job evaluation are discussed. Recently published computer-assisted methods for job evaluation are reviewed. The complete process of designing and developing a Job Evaluation Expert System (JEES) and its limitations are discussed. Benefits offered by JEES are identified and future research opportunities are highlighted.     

Field evaluation of a prototype laser safety decision support system

A field evaluation of a decision support system prototype is described. The system is designed to aid the decision making of laser safety hazard assessors and laser manufacturers. The aims of the evaluation were to establish the usefulness and usability of the system, and to indicate where design changes might be needed. Three complementary methods namely observation evaluation, expert evaluation, and survey evaluation were used. Fifteen laser safety hazard assessors took part in the evaluation as subjects. Objective and subjective data were analysed and areas of user difficulty with the system were identified. The system was well-received although some pointers to modification for the eventual delivery system were identified. It is concluded that the aims of the evaluation were successfully met.     

A decision support system for real-time order management in a heterogeneous production environment

In today's competitive market, many companies are morphing from the traditional new build, single brand, and silo environments to facilities accommodating diverse business missions. The later are called heterogeneous production environments in which the different business channels share their final production stage (shipping) to enable competitive advantages. In these production environments, at the operational level, the critical success factors are customer satisfaction, on-time delivery, product complexities, supply allocation, and resource utilization. At the strategic level, the success factors are revenue, customer urgency, and sales impact. This study proposes an End-to-End Customer Order Management System (E2E COMS) focusing on effective utilization of individual and shared resources to support real-time order management and mitigate risk of managing diverse missions. The proposed system consists of three integrated tools: Order Prioritization Tool (OPT) to assess and prioritize customer orders for each business channel, Order Fulfillment Progress Projection Tool (OFPPT) to predict the expected remaining order completion time considering inventory and resource capacity constraints, and risk mitigation tool to assess the risk of missing an order shipment due to shipping constraints. A real-time dashboard is developed to visualize the prioritized customer orders, expected time to arrive at the shipping area, shipping instructions, and two-dimensional risk assessment charts. The proposed system can effectively be used for shipping capacity management as well as prompt decision making.     

A prototype of an integrated coordination support system

UTUCS is a system for supporting a group of people (an office, a team, etc.) interconnected through a communication network in handling conversations carried on through different communication media. It has been developed with the aim of providing a good coordination support system that pairs the best computer-based tool a group may have in any situation (dispersed versus non dispersed, synchronous versus non synchronous) with the ability to switch from one to another, maintaining integrated and linked the information it creates. As UTUCS is a general system devoted to integrating conversations independently of the communication media exploited, it has been designed in such a way that it can be enhanced by developing a module for any communication medium that can be effectively supported by a computer network. Up to now the Electronic Mail module, the Face to Face Couple Colloquies module, and the Face to Face Group Meetings module have been implemented.     

Developing a conceptual framework of smart work packaging for constraints management in prefabrication housing production

Constraints management is the process of satisfying bottlenecks to facilitate tasks assigned to crews being successfully executed. However, managing constraints is inherently challenging in prefabrication housing production (PHP), due to the fragmentation of processes and information during project delivery. Enlightened by the broadly accepted work packaging method and the smart construction objects (SCOs) model, this study aims to define and implement smart work packaging (SWP) for constraints management in PHP. Firstly, the framework of SWP-enabled constraints management (SWP-CM) with three primary functions, including constraints modeling, constraints optimization, and constraints monitoring, is established. In addition, this study develops a layered abstract model as a prototype representation to elaborate on the implementation of SWP for practitioners. Finally, a laboratory-based test is applied to validate the framework. It can prove that SWP indeed opens new avenues for smart constraints management for PHP.     

A fuzzy, knowledge-based decision support tool for production operations management

Abstract: Production operations managers frequently have to make decisions based on vague, imprecise knowledge. Any software tool developed to aid their decision making needs to take into account the approximate nature of the information available to them and the inexact knowledge to which individual facts are applied. Much of this knowledge is expressed as vague, linguistic articulations. A convenient framework for dealing with such approximate knowledge is fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory. As a specific example, a system was developed for providing decision support in the Just-in-Time area of production operations management.     

Developing a microprocessor-based energy management controller

This article is an account of a commercial study to develop a microprocessor-controlled water and space and water heating system. There are two control cycles, concerned with control of the source heating the transmission medium (water) and with the use of this heated medium according to the demands of the domestic environment. These control requirements are investigated in this article with a view to developing a system which would allow a range of energy inputs to be controlled and used.     

ConKMeL: a contextual knowledge management framework to support multimedia e-Learning

As the latest stage of learning and training evolution, e-Learning is supposed to provide intelligent functionalities not only in processing multi-media education resources but also in supporting context-sensitive pedagogical education processes. Towards providing an integrated solution for intelligent multimedia e-Learning, this paper presents a context-aware knowledge management framework named ConKMeL. Proposed framework features a semantic context-based approach for representing and integrating information and knowledge in e-Learning. Requirement analysis in university e-Learning environments shows that knowledge communications are usually in a hybrid mode across different conceptual levels. Based on the fact, a multi-layer contextual knowledge representation model called KG (knowledge graph) is presented. Corresponding key issues in development such as context-based knowledge retrieval and logical knowledge interpretation are discussed. On the application side, a scenario-based learning case study is shown to demonstrate the concepts and techniques developed in the ConKMeL framework.

Developing a decision support system for sustainable cage aquaculture

A decision support system to assist cage aquaculture managers is presented. The system enables managers to perform four essential tasks: (i) site classification, (ii) site selection, (iii) holding capacity determination, and (iv) economic appraisal of an aquaculture farm at a given site. Based on measurements of water and substrate qualities, hydrometeorology and socioeconomic factors, a cage aquaculture site is classified into three categories – poor, medium, and good. With this information, the AHP (analytical hierarchy process) tool is used to evaluate the best site from several alternatives. A simplified version of the Modelling-On growing-Monitoring (MOM), SMOM, is developed and applied to determine how much fish can be grown on site without harming the environment. The simplified model has been calibrated against MOM, compared with other carrying capacity models and validated with farm data. A break-even point–price and return on investment (ROI) are calculated using cage-holding density and volume, mean fish weight at harvest, feed conversion ratio (FCR), survival rate of seed, costs of feed, seed and cages, the interest rate on borrowed funds and the fish price. All model components are integrated seamlessly into a user-friendly interface implemented in Java^® called CADS_TOOL (Cage Aquaculture Decision Support Tool). The program with a user's guide is freely available.     

RF visualization to support airborne collection management

Visualization of radio frequency (RF) has myriad commercial and military applications, including airborne collection management (CM). In airborne collection, an aircraft is equipped with a receiver that detects radio signals in the high frequency (HF, 3 to 30 MHz), very high frequency (VHF, 30 to 300 MHz), and ultra high frequency (UHF, 300 MHz to 3 GHz) bands of the spectrum. The aircraft must navigate selected regions, lingering in certain areas to collect data while avoiding others because of electronic interference or physical threat. The problem is therefore to set the optimal flight path, or surface, to collect RF data     

Information management approach and support to decision-making

Linkages exist between the information management approach and support of the organizational decision-making process. The premise of this article is that utilization of the advanced forms of the information management approach is better suited to supporting the decision-making process. The research reported here confirms that subject program managers desire information management approaches that support rather than replace their own judgment. Organizational requirements most desired by managers from their data system support are highlighted. However, there are fundamental differences between the views of the top level managers and their operational managers.     

A microcomputer-based decision support system for the management of lumber mill production

Production management for a lumber mill includes the choice of saw patterns, as well as drying, sorting, grading and materials handling operations. The decision support system developed for an existing mill includes a linear programming (LP) model, data base software and a spreadsheet aid for detailed production scheduling. The LP model was structured to minimize total production cost subject to constraints on the available supply of raw material, the required output of timber, the available saw patterns and capacities on production facilities and materials handling operations. The LP solution is used by the spreadsheet support program to schedule product flow on a daily basis. The system was implemented on a microcomputer.     

Benchmarking enhancements to a decision support system for global crop production assessments

The Office of Global Analysis/International Production Assessment Division (OGA/IPAD) of the United States Department of Agriculture – Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) has been assimilating new data and information products from agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) into its operational decision support system (DSS). The FAS mission is to improve monthly estimates of global production of major agricultural commodities and provide US Government senior decision makers and the public the most accurate, timely, and objective assessment of the global food supply situation possible. These estimates are ultimately captured as the US governments’ official assessments of world food supply for the commodity markets and policy makers. The goal of this research was to measure changes in the quality and accuracy of decision support information resulting from the assimilation of new NASA products in the DSS. We gathered both qualitative and quantitative information through questionnaires and interviews to benchmark these changes. We used an interactive project lifecycle risk management tool developed for NASA mission spaceflight design and quality assurance (DDP – Defect Detection and Prevention) to do this. In this case, we used it to (1) quantify the change in DSS Objectives attained after assimilation of new products, and (2) evaluate the effectiveness of various Mitigation options against potential Risks. The change in Objectives attainment was considered the most important benchmarking indicator for examining the effectiveness of the assimilation of NASA products into OGA/IPAD’s DSS. From this research emerged a novel model for benchmarking DSSs that (1) promotes continuity and synergy within and between government agencies, (2) accommodates scientific, operational and architectural dynamics, and (3) facilitates transfer of knowledge among research, management, and decision-making agencies.     

A software inspection process definition language and prototype support tool

Software inspection is a widely used method for finding defects in all types of software development documents. Many process variations exist, each designed for use under certain circumstances or to address some perceived deficiency in other methods. A desirable attribute of inspection is rigour, allowing the use of historical data to predict future performance and to suggest process improvements. Recent work in tool support for inspection is designed to tackle the issue of enforcing rigorous inspection, but these tools concentrate on enforcing a single, usually proprietary, method. This paper investigates existing inspection methods and derives a generic inspection process which can be used to describe any of these methods. This process is then used to determine a notation for describing any inspection process, which can consequently be used as input to an inspection support tool, allowing the support of any inspection method. The paper also demonstrates a system which uses the language to provide support for multiple inspection processes, and describes other desirable features of such a tool. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

User interface evaluation and empirically-based evolution of a prototype experience management tool

Experience management refers to the capture, structuring, analysis, synthesis, and reuse of an organization's experience in the form of documents, plans, templates, processes, data, etc. The problem of managing experience effectively is not unique to software development, but the field of software engineering has had a high-level approach to this problem for some time. The Experience Factory is an organizational infrastructure whose goal is to produce, store, and reuse experiences gained in a software development organization. This paper describes The Q-Labs Experience Management System (Q-Labs EMS), which is based on the Experience Factory concept and was developed for use in a multinational software engineering consultancy. A critical aspect of the Q-Labs EMS project is its emphasis on empirical evaluation as a major driver of its development and evolution. The initial prototype requirements were grounded in the organizational needs and vision of Q-Labs, as were the goals and evaluation criteria later used to evaluate the prototype. However, the Q-Labs EMS architecture, data model, and user interface were designed to evolve, based on evolving user needs. This paper describes this approach, including the evaluation that was conducted of the initial prototype and its implications for the further development of systems to support software experience management.     

A methodology to support multidisciplinary model-based water management

Quality assurance in model based water management is needed because of some frequently perceived shortcomings, e.g. a lack of mutual understanding between modelling team members, malpractice and a tendency of modellers to oversell model capabilities. Initiatives to support quality assurance focus on single domains and often follow a textbook approach with guidelines and checklists. A modelling process involves a complex set of activities executed by a team. To manage this complex, usually multidisciplinary process, to guide users through it and enhance the reproducibility of modelling work a software product has been developed, aiming at supporting the full modelling process by offering an ontological knowledge base (KB) and a Modelling Support Tool (MoST). The KB consists of a generic part for modelling, but also parts specific for various water management domains, for different types of users and for different levels of modelling complexity. MoST's guiding component filters relevant knowledge from the KB depending on the user profile and needs. Furthermore, MoST supports different types of users by monitoring what they actually do and by producing customized reports for diverse audiences. In this way MoST facilitates co-operation in teams, modelling project audits and re-use of experiences of previous modelling projects.