ERP data sharing framework using the Generic Product Model (GPM)

Nowadays, all product life cycle processes are investigated deeply in order to get an advantage over competitors. To support these processes, several software applications are available. However, this wide range of heterogeneous applications leads to a large variety of hardware and operating systems, data management software, data models, schemas, and data semantics that hinder the information sharing process. To tackle this problem, Hitachi Company has developed a modeling language called Generic Product Model (GPM) in addition to several translators from native formats to GPM for storing, sharing and visualizing product data in a single data warehouse. In order to broaden the range of application data able to be stored and shared using the GPM data warehouse, this paper presents a methodology and a translator that allow management data to be included in a GPM data warehouse. Given the fact that most management data are stored in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, and that the latter allows extraction of database contents into Excel files, we propose a translator that handles Enterprise Resource Planning management data that are already extracted into Excel Format.The proposed framework enables data management contained in flat Excel Files to be translated into structured GPM data. Translation methodologies are given for the translation of mass production and customized product data through two case studies, one in the computer retail sector and the other in the extrusion machine industry.     

Using semantic web technologies to access soft AEC data

Building related data tends to be generated, used and retained in a domain-specific manner. The lack of interoperability between data domains in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry inhibits the cross-domain use of data at an enterprise level. Semantic web technologies provide a possible solution to some of the noted interoperability issues. Traditional methods of information capture fail to take into account the wealth of soft information available throughout a building. Several sources of information are not included in performance assessment frameworks, including social media, occupant communication, mobile communication devices, occupancy patterns, human resource allocations and financial information.The paper suggests that improved data interoperability can aid the integration of untapped silos of information into existing structured performance measurement frameworks, leading to greater awareness of stakeholder concerns and building performance. An initial study of how building-related data can be published following semantic web principles and integrated with other ‘soft-data’ sources in a cross-domain manner is presented. The paper goes on to illustrate how data sources from outside the building operation domain can be used to supplement existing sources. Future work will include the creation of a semantic web based performance framework platform for building performance optimisation.     

基于规则的软件体系结构层性能优化模型

针对大多数基于规则的软件体系结构层性能优化方法在优化过程中未充分考虑规则的使用次数和使用顺序而导致搜索性能改进空间受限,难以获取最优性能改进方案的问题,设计一种规则序列执行框架,并进一步将软件体系结构层性能优化抽象为求解最优规则序列的数学模型,以精确刻画规则的使用次数、使用顺序与最优性能改进方案之间的数学关系,为搜索更大的性能改进空间、提高优化质量提供支持。     

A framework to assess the factors affecting success or failure of the implementation of government-supported regional e-marketplaces for SMEs

Regional electronic marketplaces (REMs) have been used to promote e-commerce uptake by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, the community and regional economic development motives underpinning REM creation can cause complexities. While REM development and management can be informed by existing theoretical frameworks, there is no comprehensive framework that can be used to examine the factors affecting the success or failure of government-supported SME-REMs. The objective of this paper is to construct such a framework that can be used to examine these factors. The literature on e-marketplaces and IT/IS/e-commerce adoption by SMEs is examined to determine the appropriateness of existing theoretical frameworks, the key constructs of which are synthesised to form an integrated theoretical framework. The value of the framework is confirmed by content analysis of published case studies and empirical results from in-depth case studies of two SME-REMs. The most significant factors affecting success or failure of government-supported SME-REMs are as follows: SME-owner innovativeness; REM ownership structure and governance that engender trust and build critical mass by including SMEs in REM development and management; matching REM focus and structure with regional profile by leveraging community ties and existing business relationships; adopting a staged approach to REM development; and ensuring REM benefits are understood by SMEs.     

Detecting mutual configurations of applied planning strategies and performances in small and medium sized businesses with kernel based machine learning methods

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of strategic planning on service small and medium size enterprises’ (SMEs) performance. A machine learning methodology, based on an alternating diffusion process, is applied for organizing the SMEs into a network/graph, and generating management profiles. The method relies on ideas from non-linear dimensionality reduction, where a data-set is parameterized by a small number of intrinsic parameters. Recent advances in this field allow for the construction of a common intrinsic representation for two related dataset by using kernel multiplication. In this work, the method is applied to two related datasets that describe a business from two angles: strategic planning and performance. The goal is to reveal underlying hidden strategic patterns that influence SMEs’ performance.The proposed methods are applied to a dataset containing planning and performance measures of 467 businesses. The obtained model yields an SME graph, where SMEs that share similar planning strategies and performances are located close to each other. Thus, the model generates typical strategic planning and performance profiles, describing distinct groups of SMEs. The study reveals two different planning strategies emphasizing different management approaches that lead to successful performance. Thus, in service SMEs there is more than one way to enhance performance via management strategy. Differentiating between various planning strategies was enabled by utilizing kernel based machine learning methods, thereby overcoming limitations of linear methods that cannot provide such sensitive profile configurations.     

计算机互连网络性能管理体系结构模型研究

综述了计算机网络体系结构模型的发展现状,在借鉴现有体系结构模型思想的基础上进行拓展,设计了能够全面指导大型计算机互连网络性能管理的体系结构模型,并从管理周期,管理层次和管理３个方面详细描述了该体系结构的设计。该体系结构模型主要针对网络性能管理,但其基本思想同样适用于整个网络管理体系结构。     

Towards a new approach to secure database design

The problem of designing and managing a secure database system is considered in this paper. The approach which is proposed is primarily concerned with the security information definition and management in a database environment. A multiphase design methodology is presented reflecting current proposals of database design methodology. In particular four design phases are proposed: requirements analysis of the security system, conceptual, logical and physical design of security information. The content and the solution techniques of each phase are examined. A database management system architecture is also presented which is suitable to control access rights to the database.     

Integration techniques in intelligent operational management: a review

Until recently the concept of an integrated framework for coordinating operational tasks in industrial plants has not been possible due to technological limitations. Integration of functions within an intelligent system architecture would result in improved plant performance, safety and an increase in production. As a result of increased computing power and powerful memory systems, a fully computer integrated system is now possible, however, achieving an integrated framework for operational tasks is quite complex. Problems of task integration include not only the consideration of information flow and timing for a continuously changing environment, but the integration of various problem-solving methodologies. Integration frameworks proposed in the past fail to provide for a fully integrated system. A new approach to accommodate the changing dynamics of a plant's operation is now possible with the Coordinated Knowledge Management method.This paper reviews the components that need to be integrated to encompass intelligent process operation. It also reviews various integration frameworks outlining limitations and presents a proposed method of integration based on knowledge management.     

Frameworks: How to Build One?

Frameworks are useful guides to the thought processes of information security professionals for building their solutions. These frameworks are not solutions, only guides. They ensure that nothing is left out and that the work is done thoroughly and well. The quality of frameworks unfortunately is not consistent. Following a framework that is not fitting to the business requirements can create false assurance. A methodology is discussed in this paper about building a fitting framework. Asking pertinent questions forms the basis for such framework. The questions and the process of asking those questions determine the quality of the solution. A set of questions are described as examples, and explained how they define the areas that are necessary to enable a sound solution development. Some common errors and misconceptions are highlighted together with pointers to how they can be avoided or overcome. The methodology for developing those areas identified by the questions completes the paper.     

A framework for measuring the performance of service supply chain management

Despite the increasing attention to the service supply chain management by both practitioners and academics, the performance measurement of service supply chains still remains unexplored. Most service firms realize that, in order to evolve an efficient and effective service supply chain, service supply chain management needs to be assessed for its performance. A literature review was conducted on performance measurement issues of service supply chains. This paper develops a framework of service supply chain performance measurement. Based on the strategic, tactical and operational level performance in a service supply chain, measures and metrics are discussed. The emphasis is on performance measures dealing with service supply chain processes such as demand management, customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, capacity and resource management, service performance, information and technology management and service supply chain finance. And to prioritize service supply chain performance measurement indicators to improve service supply chain performance, a methodology based on the extent fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is stressed. The developed framework of service supply chain performance measurement is applied to the hotel supply chain. The results of this study are useful both to practitioners in the service supply chain and to researchers carrying out further studies in the field.     

Factors affecting the adoption of information and communication technology in small and medium enterprises: a perspective from rural Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can play an important role in the national economy of developing countries. The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) has enabled local SMEs to participate in the international market. However, little research has addressed issues related to SMEs adopting ICTs, especially in rural areas of Middle Eastern developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. Using the extended technology-organization-environment framework with personal innovativeness, this study examined the factors that influence the adoption of ICTs among SMEs in rural areas of Saudi Arabia. The study found that relative advantages, top management support, culture, regulatory environment, owner/manager innovativeness and ICT knowledge had a significant relationship with ICT adoption among SMEs in Saudi Arabia, whereas compatibility, complexity and a competitive environment had no significant relationship with ICT adoption. The findings of this study will potentially help SME managers/owners and the Saudi government in the successful adoption and diffusion of ICT in SMEs located in rural areas in Saudi Arabia.     

An integrated infrastructure for monitoring and evaluating agent-based systems

Driven by the urging need to thoroughly identify and accentuate the merits of agent technology, we present in this paper, MEANDER, an integrated framework for evaluating the performance of agent-based systems. The proposed framework is based on the Agent Performance Evaluation (APE) methodology, which provides guidelines and representation tools for performance metrics, measurement collection and aggregation of measurements. MEANDER comprises a series of integrated software components that implement and automate various parts of the methodology and assist evaluators in their tasks. The main objective of MEANDER is to integrate performance evaluation processes into the entire development lifecycle, while clearly separating any evaluation-specific code from the application code at hand. In this paper, we describe in detail the architecture and functionality of the MEANDER components and test its applicability to an existing multi-agent system.     

Organizational Characteristics Influencing SME Information Security Maturity

In the current business environment, many organizations use popular standards such as the ISO 27000x series, COBIT, and related frameworks to protect themselves against security incidents. However, these standards and frameworks are overly complicated for small to medium-sized enterprises, leaving these organizations with no easy to understand toolkit to address their security needs. This research builds upon the recent Information Security Focus Area Maturity (ISFAM) model for SME information security as a cornerstone in the development of an assessment tool for tailor-made, fast, and easy-to-use information security advice for SMEs. By performing an extensive literature review and evaluating the results with security experts, we propose the Characterizing Organizations’ Information Security for SMEs (CHOISS) model to relate measurable organizational characteristics in four categories through 47 parameters to help SMEs distinguish and prioritize which risks to mitigate.     

Information tools for the shop-floor

New production and work practices set new proficiency requirements for employees in operative organisations. Most of these requirements involve information and communication. We can train and educate people to meet with these challenges and design their physical and information environments to support and facilitate them in their work. New information tools play a central role in this development. But what kind of tools? How to apply these tools to enhance employees’ learning by reflection. In this article we will discuss the emergency of shop-floor information environment from the sociotechnical point of view. In addition, the possibilities and limitations of electronic performance support as a solution are evaluated. Shop-floor information artifacts are tools used to produce, organise, store and distribute work related information in a shop-floor environment. They may be very simple like handwritten notes or user interfaces to extremely complex data management systems.     

A portable interceptor mechanism for SOAP frameworks

An interceptor is a generic architecture pattern, and has been used to resolve specific issues in a number of application domains. Many standard platforms such as CORBA also provide interception interfaces so that an interceptor developed for a specific application can become portable across systems running on the same platform. SOAP frameworks are commonly used platforms to build Web Services. However, there is no standard way to build interceptors portable across current SOAP frameworks, although, some of them provide proprietary interceptor solution within individual framework, such as Axis, XFire, and etc. In this paper, we propose the portable interceptor mechanism (PIM) consisting of a set of application programming interfaces (API) on SOAP engine, a core component of a SOAP framework. An interceptor is able to receive messages passing through the SOAP framework from the SOAP engine via these APIs. Furthermore, the proposed PIM facilitates run-time lifecycle management of interceptors that is a crucial feature to many application domains but is not fully supported by CORBA standard. For concept proving, we implement the proposed PIM on two popular SOAP frameworks, namely, Axis and XFire. We also discuss a number of implementation issues including the performance and reliability of PIM.     

Designing OP2 for GPU architectures

OP2 is an “active” library framework for the solution of unstructured mesh applications. It aims to decouple the specification of a scientific application from its parallel implementation to achieve code longevity and near-optimal performance through re-targeting the back-end to different multi-core/many-core hardware. This paper presents the design of the current OP2 library for generating efficient code targeting contemporary GPU platforms. In this we focus on some of the software architecture design choices and low-level optimizations to maximize performance on NVIDIA’s Fermi architecture GPUs. The performance impact of these design choices is quantified on two NVIDIA GPUs (GTX560Ti, Tesla C2070) using the end-to-end performance of an industrial representative CFD application developed using the OP2 API. Results show that for each system, a number of key configuration parameters need to be set carefully in order to gain good performance. Utilizing a recently developed auto-tuning framework, we explore the effect of these parameters, their limitations and insights into optimizations for improved performance.     

Data management of green product development with generic modularized product architecture

Many manufacturers are facing a complex situation in the mixed production environment, in which green and non-green products are fabricated simultaneously. They are losing competitiveness as a downstream supplier due to lacking of a cost-effective approach to managing product variations compliant with different green directives. This paper presents a methodology based on generic modularized product architecture that facilitates data management of green product development. The four-level architecture allows one unified representation for multiple product models. An option control mechanism enables a quick generation of their BOMs (bills of material). A procedure consisting of seven steps is proposed to accomplish this. PDM functions are implemented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology using a real LCD TV family as an example. This work complements the past studies on green product development, which mainly tackled the problem from design, process, and supply chain improvement. In contrast, from a management perspective, the proposed methodology provides a simple but useful tool for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to perform green product development in an economical manner.     

The analytic network process for managing inter-enterprise collaboration: A case study in a collaborative enterprise network

In the last years, collaboration among enterprises has gained attention in the business environment as a means to remain competitive. Enterprises that are collaborating look for improving their performance but, in real assessments, they often do not establish efficient frameworks to structure and manage the enterprise association/inter-enterprise performance. In addition, there are many factors that act as barriers to effective collaboration and have to be also properly managed as they impact on the inter-enterprise performance. This paper provides a methodology based on the analytic network process (ANP) to identify and measure, under an integrated approach, both factors and inter-enterprise performance considering their reciprocal impact. With this innovative approach, enterprises will obtain significant information for the decision-making process regarding which are the factors and inter-enterprise performance elements that generate a higher impact and therefore have a high priority within the specific collaborative relationship. Thus, enterprises can focus their efforts on improving those most important factors and performance elements, and consequently, enhancing their competitiveness.     

Development of a knowledge-based self-assessment system for measuring organisational performance

Effective performance measurement is an important task in the discipline of engineering management. With the support of City University of Hong Kong, a research project was initiated to develop a knowledge-based expert self-assessment (KES) training toolkit on measuring and assessing organisational performance based on the evaluation criteria of a renowned Business Excellence Model—the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). This paper explains the development of and elaborates the system framework, requirements, design and validation of the toolkit. The project results shows that the toolkit could facilitate the teaching of students of engineering management courses by providing a stimulating learning environment and practical experiences in measuring and assessing enterprise performance. Incorporating the KES model and toolkit into the engineering management curriculum can provide students and industrial users with hands-on experience and insights of organisational PM.     

A system framework for OKP product planning in a cloud-based design environment

Nowadays, one-of-a-kind (OKP) companies, which generally operate in an 'engineer-to-order' business mode, strive to deliver individualized products with quality to achieve customer satisfaction. Thus, an accurate and prompt analysis of customer requirements (CRs) in the early design stage is critical to its success. However, most OKP companies are small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Due to the limited resources and low product planning budget, they often cannot obtain abundant CR information nor can they afford the expense of complicated planning process. To address these issues, a system framework is proposed in support of OKP product planning process in a cloud-based design (CBD) environment. The challenges and future market niches of OKP companies are presented. The comparison of typical distributed systems shows that CBD, which utilizes advanced information technologies and business model, has advantages in providing sufficient resources, decreasing product development time span for OKP companies in a cost-efficient way. This article describes the proposed system architecture, the business interaction process and the information communication among customers, designers and marketing analysts at the product planning stage. To validate the proposed framework, a prototype system module MyProduct is under development in the CBD environment with an illustrative example.