‘Domain-specific’ patent analytics: Focus on company's technology priorities

This paper aims to depict a new usage of patent analytics on a corporate level mitigating the gap between strategy (technology policy making) and operational activities (R&D program development and actualisation).The approach proposed for such mitigation is based on three techniques enriching patent analytics practical implementation:1) knowledge modelling techniques;2) deep technical analysis based on knowledge model;3) ‘insight-driven analytics’ approach.Such three techniques aim to facilitate the implementation of PL in the company's technology management processes.The paper contains examples related to oil & gas, transport, and water treatment industries.     

Dissertation Review

Abstract:

This research article provides valuable insights for practicing engineering managers on improving a firm's performance by applying a knowledge management (KM) based approach to quality management (QM). Traditional quality management systems do not provide sufficient knowledge management and knowledge creation opportunities for manufacturing firms to stay competitive in today's fast paced, unpredictable, complex, and rapidly changing global business environment. The world's body of knowledge does not include a quality management strategy where KM is integrated in QM, and where the effectiveness of such a KM/QM strategy is determined through quantitative empirical research over a defined time frame, thus omitting important performance improvement opportunities for manufacturing firms. The objective in addressing this research topic is to present a KM/QM strategy and to demonstrate its effectiveness. Engineering management areas, such as knowledge management and quality management, are leveraged throughout this research. Systems engineering aspects, such as operational efficiency improvement and system performance, are leveraged by integrating knowledge management and quality management to form an enhanced quality management system. The research demonstrates that a company with a KM/QM strategy is more effective than a company which does not have a KM/QM strategy, that the implementation of a KM/QM strategy contributes to product quality improvements over KM/QM strategy application time, and presents a framework that can be applied by practicing engineering managers.     

Knowledge elicitation for risk mapping in concurrent engineering projects

Concurrent Engineering aims to incorporate the overlapping of processes in order to reduce its time-to-market and thereby sustain the existence of organizations in increasingly competitive times. Although faster product design, development, and delivery are the intended outcomes of concurrent engineering, one of the undesirable by-products is an increase in risks as a consequence of uncertainties between interdependent processes. Hence, the risks need to be identified, assessed, and mitigated together with concurrent engineering considerations for the elimination of the ‘domino-effect’ within risk management. This paper concentrates primarily on knowledge elicitation techniques that were used to provide information to the Intelligent Risk Mapping and Assessment System (IRMAS?) to identify, prioritise, analyse, and assist project managers to manage perceived sources of CE risks. Techniques such as expert interviews, brainstorming, the Delphi technique, and the analogy process are discussed in relation to compiling the knowledge used for this expert system. A total of 589 risk items were identified for different project types, and information on 4372 items and 136 lessons learned were collected from experts at HdH. The core of the research is a reasoning methodology used for Knowledge Elicitation of a Risk Mapping and Assessment System which will not only support the decision-making process of the user but also aid the knowledge retrieval, storage, sharing, and updating process of manufacturing organizations. This research provides a systematic engineering approach to risk management of concurrent product and process development.     

Impact of visual performance management systems on the performance management practices of organisations

The purpose of this paper was to explore how visual strategy and performance management techniques impact performance measurement and management practices of organisations. A novel visual performance management approach is developed and implemented in qualitative case studies with seven manufacturing SMEs across Europe. The implementation cases demonstrate that visual management systems serve to support ongoing strategy development and implementation, facilitate performance measurement and review, enable people engagement, improve internal and external communication, enhance collaboration and integration, support the development of a continuous improvement culture and foster innovation. Additional explorative and longitudinal research is required to understand the long-term impact of such approaches in both small and larger organisations.     

Regional and Global Technological Knowledge Search Strategies and the Innovative Performance of Large Multinational Corporations

This study focuses on the innovative performance implications of large MNCs' regional and global technological knowledge search strategies. In networked MNCs, the parent can still offer valuable knowledge to subsidiaries. The parent's and a subsidiary's knowledge becomes complementary if an MNC appropriately adopts a global strategy at the parent level and a regional strategy at the subsidiary level. An analysis of the world's largest firms in the Electrical Equipment industry shows that, in general, a global strategy improves the innovative performance of the MNC. Meanwhile, only the combination of a global strategy at the parent level and a regional strategy at the subsidiary level is positively associated with the innovative performance of the MNC. This study contributes to the literature on networked MNCs and the debate of globalization and regionalization. Managerial implications are discussed as well.     

A quantitative approach for measuring process innovation: a case study in a manufacturing company

Process management and innovation arguably remain among the concepts under focus of recent researches since there is no significantly outstanding method to measure and monitor the level of innovation in the manufacturing processes over a particular time period taking the fundamental activities of manufacturing processes into account. Although there are various studies relevant to process improvement, manufacturing processes are not focused on in the literature. This paper presents a novel performance indicator, called degree of process innovation, for monitoring and measuring innovation in manufacturing processes based on the four most important components among the fundamental activities of a manufacturing system. The components are namely Average Labour Utilisation, Cumulative Bottleneck Ratio, Unit Production Time and Unit Production Cost. The idea behind this approach has flourished on the basis of an indicator proposed in the literature to measure the general organisational improvements. The scope of that indicator has been narrowed down to manufacturing processes to accurately reflect the state of the manufacturing processes. The proposed approach has been verified with a case study in manufacturing industry, where each of the four sub-indicators was calculated based on the data provided and aggregated into the degree of process innovation. The innovation degree is successfully indicated.     

Project planning and risk management as a success factor for IT projects in agricultural schools in Serbia

Enterprises and business systems are introducing modern information and communication technologies into their organizations to improve their business processes and gain a competitive advantage. Theoretical research, as well as research carried out in practice, unambiguously indicate that companies take this step without the necessary professional analysis of business processes and insufficient knowledge of the project management methodology. Also, in this area there is a lack of adequate literature, especially in the field of information technology (IT) project management. This paper provides a new approach for research in the field of project management throughout a studious analysis of risk management in IT projects. To confirm hypotheses, this paper examines and outlines concrete IT management solutions in business systems with emphasis on education organizations, which leads to business improvement and achievement of positive business results.     

Empowering production workers with digitally facilitated knowledge processes – a conceptual framework

Recent digital advancements, including social software, mobile technologies and augmented reality, offer promising opportunities to empower knowledge workers in their production environment by leveraging their knowledge processes, decision-making skills and social interaction practices. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for empowering workers in industrial production environments with digitally facilitated knowledge management processes. The framework explores four concrete facets of digital advancements that apply to a wide range of knowledge processes and production strategies in manufacturing companies. Each of these advancements are capable of supporting one specific facet of the individual knowledge management processes of workers; knowledge transfer, discovery, acquisition and sharing. The study contributes to the production research community by aligning emerging digital technologies and current trends in advanced manufacturing environments to benefit workers and improve job satisfaction, efficiency and productivity. The paper also contains suggestions about developing innovative solutions for production environments that support workers with digital technologies for flexible production.     

Knowledge sharing over the network

This paper addresses an overview of “knowledge management” from business management/social science perspectives and information technology perspectives, including ongoing research of “knowledge sharing approach towards information retrieval”. We usually use various knowledge when facing practical problems, and transfer it to others for re-use. Such features are investigated for long-time period, and some are characterized and understood by terms such as “SECI model”, “the wisdom of crowds”, “knowledge-centric” and so forth. Information technology provides several functionalities to enhance knowledge management methodology from usable computer system points of views. Through research on knowledge sharing, some hints are provided this research area.     

An Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management Approach to Project Management

Abstract

Few research studies investigate the relationship between enterprise knowledge management (KM) and project management (PM). These studies have shown that today’s PM approaches do not sufficiently include the required KM processes to derive the highest value from project investment. This research highlights the potential benefits of implementing an enterprise-wide KM approach to project management. The relationship between the four KM pillars, as defined by Stankosky, and the PM knowledge areas, as defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI), are investigated. A survey questionnaire reveals significant positive relationships between the KM pillars and PM knowledge areas. The significance and the nature of this association support the study’s assertion that the management of projects improves as enterprise-wide KM processes and activities are increasingly used.     

Managing distributed manufacturing knowledge through multi-perspective modelling for semantic web applications

The development and maintenance of semantic web (SW) means that collaborative manufacturing systems are faced with increasing challenges caused by the growing difficulty in managing distributed manufacturing knowledge. This paper presents a multi-perspective modelling approach to systematically manage distributed manufacturing knowledge on the SW. Considering knowledge engineering as a cyclic and constructive modelling process, a multi-perspective knowledge modelling process is proposed to evolve along knowledge elicitation, engineering modelling, UML-based object modelling, OWL-based ontology modelling, knowledge formalisation and OWL-QL assisted knowledge verification activities. The proposed approach is viewed as a promising knowledge management method that facilitates the implementation of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) in distributed manufacturing for SW applications by integrating the industrial, UML enabled software engineering techniques into recent ontology-based knowledge engineering process. The feasibility of knowledge management through multi-perspective modelling is manifested using the manufacturing ontology for manufacturing electronic connectors.     

Building Agility for Developing Agile Design Information Systems

Agile manufacturing relies heavily on the quality of information that organizations have and on their ability to organize and reuse it. Constant inflow of information and knowledge is the fuel of agile manufacturing. In the process of forming virtual enterprises, these new organizations have to be equipped with information systems that integrate their present legacy technology and improve upon it. To support the quick formation of virtual organizations, one must have the ability to develop such systems quickly. Over the past few years we have evolved, through collaborative projects with industry, an approach composed of methods and an information infrastructure called n-dim that improves the ability of becoming agile manufacturers of information systems, by responding quickly to information needs of new and evolving organizations. Following an analysis of the requirements of information systems for agile design, we discuss this approach; describe some of the infrastructure features; and present several examples of simple applications that illustrate them. We summarize by discussing the advantages and limitations of our approach.     

提升台湾IC制造业竞争力之策略选择

首先介绍台湾IC产业之发展状况,然后进一步分析IC制造之竞争力,接着根据制造策略相关文献及业界专家意见访查,找出提升台湾IC制造竞争力之策略：设备利用率、先进制造技术、供货商关系、品质管制、人力资源,这些策略造就了台湾IC制造之竞争优势,也提供半导体制造管理之新典范。     

船舶焊接工艺评定专家系统的研究与开发

焊接工艺评定是控制船舶焊接结构质量不可缺少的重要环节.本系统引入知识管理和专家推理,建立了基于网络环境的焊接工艺评定专家管理系统,实现了船舶焊接工艺评定过程中的数据和流程的全过程管理,对提升船舶焊接工艺评定的技术水平和推动企业的信息化建设都有着十分重要的意义.本文基于船舶焊接工艺评定专家管理系统的开发,论述了系统的总体...     

与企业竞争战略相适应的管理机制的构建

着重分析了实施不同战略的企业如何绕战略的制定、实施和控制三个方面构建相应的管理机制。我们的观点是：如果管理机制在战略制定、战略实施和战略控制三个方面都是优秀的,那么这个企业的管理机制就是具有价值的,因为它为战略管理提供了合适的制度保障,最终也为企业价值目标的实现提供了保障。     

Management of sustainable manufacturing systems-a review on mathematical problems

The ever-growing awareness of environmental protection has significantly influenced the method of manufacturing products. Due to the introduction of new processes, the management of sustainable manufacturing shows different characteristics to those of traditional systems. Sustainable manufacturing systems have attracted a great deal of attention in the past 20 years as an emerging manufacturing approach. Particularly in the last 10 years, the number of papers focusing on the topic of sustainable manufacturing systems’ management has increased rapidly. More and more practical factors have been considered and integrated into this area which makes it more complex, but closer to reality. This paper aims to classify the mathematical problems dealing with the management of sustainable manufacturing systems. More than 100 related papers mainly from 1994 to 2015 have been selected and reviewed and divided into three categories according to the main elements in a manufacturing system: production planning and control, inventory management and control and manufacturing network design. The development of each category is summarised and the corresponding mathematical problems are discussed to provide a general overview of the relevant research fields and identify future research directions.     

Application of interpretive structural modelling for analysing the factors influencing integrated lean sustainable system

The modern manufacturing systems recognize the importance of adopting lean and sustainable manufacturing principles. Especially, Indian automotive component manufacturing organizations are interested in adopting the integrated lean sustainable manufacturing system. An appropriate methodology is required for enabling the organizations to identify the dominant factors. In this context, this article presents the interpretive structural modelling approach for identifying the mutual relationship among factors influencing the integrated lean sustainable manufacturing system. From the literature study and survey conducted among Indian automotive component manufacturing organizations, 25 influencing factors have been identified. Based on the study, top-management commitment in adopting integrated lean sustainable manufacturing and environmental knowledge occupy the bottom level of model which shows that it has more driving power. Efforts are being taken to implement the factors in the surveyed organizations.     

企业生产管理模式的变迁与对策

分析了企业生产管理模式的发展历程，总结了敏捷制造的内涵和特点，认为敏捷制造系统是实现顾客化大生产的理想企业组织结构，提出了我国发展敏捷制造应采取的相应对策。     

Examining the effects of green supply chain management practices and their mediations on performance improvements

Environmental pressures have caused green supply chain management (GSCM) to emerge as an important corporate environmental strategy for manufacturing enterprises. For manufacturers to fully realise the performance potentials of GSCM, they need to integrate internal GSCM practices emphasising functional coordination with external GSCM practices such as cooperation with suppliers and customers in the implementation. Using coordination theory, this article examines three models used to evaluate the mediation relationships between the external and internal practices of GSCM with respect to environmental, economic, and operational performance. We posit that the strategic stance of manufacturing enterprises in improving their overall performance and competitive position requires a joint coordination of internal and external GSCM practices. Survey data collected from 396 Chinese manufacturing enterprises are used to validate our arguments by testing the mediation effects of two categories of GSCM practices. Our empirical results show support for the mediation effects, which indicates the importance for manufacturers to coordinate between the internal and external aspects of implementing GSCM practices to reap the performance benefits. Coordinating internal and external GSCM practices to seek performance improvements is an important aspect of the manufacturing operations strategy. The dynamics of implementing GSCM practices and the performance contingencies are worthwhile topics to pursue in future research.     

Innovation capability: The impact of e-CRM and COVID-19 risk perception

The e-CRM application has currently offered benefits for companies in different business sectors, especially in hospitality industry. The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of e-CRM components (i.e. technology-based CRM, knowledge management and customer orientation) on firms’ innovation capabilities. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire survey conducted in Vietnam. The dataset consists of 213 valid responses by managers. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to examine the causal relationships among technology-based CRM, knowledge management, customer orientation, long-term relationships and innovation capability. The results show that knowledge management, customer orientation and technology-based CRM have positively influence on long-term relationships and innovation capability. Covid-19 risk perception has the role in enhancing the link between long-term relationships and innovation capability. From these findings, this study provides an improved understanding of how knowledge management, customer orientation and technology affect on innovating activities. This study also provides several implications for practice.