业务过程再造(第九讲)

通常意义上的质量管理 ,包括我们在前几讲讨论过的六西格玛管理、标高超越活动等在内 ,一般来说倾向于渐进性的变革。大多数情况下 ,是针对既有的过程进行改良性的活动 ,通过持续不但的改进 ,集腋成裘 ,实现绩效的显著提高。但在组织的过程本身存在着较大问题的场合 ,仅仅局限在既有的过程框架中进行渐进性的改进便显得无济于事。这时所需要的是对组织的业务过程的彻底的变革 ,这便是我们要讨论的业务过程再造或企业再造 (ＢｕｓｉｎｅｓｓＰｒｏｃｅｓｓＲｅｅｎｇｉｎｅｅｒｉｎｇ ,ＢＰＲ)。业务过程再造是 80年代末以来兴起的一场深刻的…     

Aligning business process reengineering in implementing global supply chain systems by the SCOR model

As supply chains continue to replace individual companies as the management arena for value-adding from the beginning of the twenty first century, understanding the supply chain management practices in a globalisation context becomes increasingly important. The Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model, which was developed by the experts and practitioners of the Supply Chain Council, is a major framework for supply chain planning that features supply chain management practices and business process reengineering. Despite being an integrative guide with many merits, it only provides a ‘top-down’ approach that requires the comparative analyses of post- and pro-performance indices as a basis of business process modification. This study discusses the limitations of current SCOR analysis and provides a mapping technique—Causes/Effects, the SCOR Standard, and Mutual Solution (CESM)—for gap mapping, problem prioritisation, and business process modification in a supply chain setting. As such, it is one of the early empirical studies combining BPR and SCM disciplines. The research results can facilitate the implementation processes of multinational supply chain projects by identifying the gaps and linking them to the channel entities.     

企业如何实施流程再造

流程再造(BPR)是上世纪90年代由美国MIT教授迈克尔·哈默(Michael Hammer)和CSC管理顾问公司董事长詹姆斯·钱皮(James Champy)提出的,其定义是:"为了飞跃性地改善成本、质量、服务、速度等现代企业的主要运营基础,必须对工作流程进行根本性的重新思考并彻底改革。"它的基本思想是必须彻底改变传统的工作方式,即彻底改变自工业革命以来,按照分工原则把一项完整的工作分成不同部分、由各自相对独立的部门依次进行工作的方式。随着时代的发展,企业面临着意想不到的挑战,管理专家用3C理论阐述了这种全新的挑战,即顾客(Customer)、竞争(Competition)和变化(Change)。面对这些挑战,企业只有在更高层次上进行一场根本性的改革与创新,才能在低速增长时代增强自身的竞争力,凸显出流程再造给企业带来的好处。本期特约侯昌志和刘飞两位嘉宾对这一主题进行讨论。     

Modelling and analysis of a business model to offer energy-saving technologies as a service

In this study, we present a stochastic model to analyse a business plan that is based on offering energy-saving technologies as a service. In this arrangement, the total differential cost of replacing an existing technology with a more efficient one is financed from the future energy savings that are shared between a service provider that installs the more efficient technology and its customer. The model we present captures improvements in energy efficiencies and costs of technologies with time, variation in energy consumption, uncertainty in energy prices and useful life of a technology, and revenue from carbon offsets. By using an analytical model, we analyse the feasibility of this business model using expected cost and also value-at-risk criteria. We show that when the service provider selects the contract parameters in a right way, the business plan brings financial benefits. The customer also benefits financially from reduction in energy usage and replacement costs, and also from additional revenue obtained through selling carbon offsets. Furthermore, since this business plan is based on increasing energy efficiency, the proposed approach decreases energy consumption, and therefore carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, using an analytical model, we show that offering energy-saving technologies as a service is a win–win–win situation for the service provider, its customer and for the environment.     

Modelling, analysis, and acceleration of a printed circuit board fabrication process

Product design and fabrication constitute an important business activity in any manufacturing firm. Designing an optimized product fabrication process is an important problem in itself and is of significant practical and research interest. In this paper, we look into a printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication process and investigate ways in which the fabrication cycle time can be minimized. Single class queueing networks constitute the modelling framework for our study. The model developed in this paper and the analysis experiments carried out are based on extensive data collected on a PCB fabrication company located in Bangalore, India. This is a representative PCB fabrication company involving multiple, concurrent fabrication works with contention for human/technical resources. Our model seeks to capture faithfully the flow of the fabrication process in this company and such other organisations, using queueing networks. Using the model developed, we explore how the cycle times can be reduced using input control, load balancing, and variability reduction. The model presented is sufficiently generic and conceptual; its scope extends beyond that of a PCB fabrication organization.     

Modelling and analysis of the sugar cataract development process using stochastic hybrid systems

Modelling and analysis of biochemical systems such as sugar cataract development (SCD) are critical because they can provide new insights into systems, which cannot be easily tested with experiments; however, they are challenging problems due to the highly coupled chemical reactions that are involved. The authors present a stochastic hybrid system (SHS) framework for modelling biochemical systems and demonstrate the approach for the SCD process. A novel feature of the framework is that it allows modelling the effect of drug treatment on the system dynamics. The authors validate the three sugar cataract models by comparing trajectories computed by two simulation algorithms. Further, the authors present a probabilistic verification method for computing the probability of sugar cataract formation for different chemical concentrations using safety and reachability analysis methods for SHSs. The verification method employs dynamic programming based on a discretisation of the state space and therefore suffers from the curse of dimensionality. To analyse the SCD process, a parallel dynamic programming implementation that can handle large, realistic systems was developed. Although scalability is a limiting factor, this work demonstrates that the proposed method is feasible for realistic biochemical systems.     

BPMN-based business process model feasibility analysis: a petri net approach

Business process modelling has been widely applied by many companies to support the projects such as BPR or enterprize integration. In general, business modelling technique plays the role of pre-designing and evaluating the business flow before the final implementation. However, due to certain improper situations, the developed model might not be appropriate for the final analysis and evaluation. Therefore, model feasibility should be confirmed before the formal evaluation. This research proposed a Petri-net-based approach to evaluate the feasibility of a model defined by BPMN (business process modelling notation). Two kinds of invalid situations, deadlock and infinite loops, will be defined and analysed. There are four phases in the proposed approach. In problem analysis phase, a modified business process development approach would be proposed first. Then, the invalid model would be defined and classification. In the design stage, the developed BPMN model will be transferred to Modified BPEL4WS, which is an XML based language. By applying XSLT and Java, the transferred BPEL4WS will be translated to a Petri-net model specified as CPNXML (Colored Petri-net XML). In the simulation phase, the CPNXML file can be imported into a graphical simulation package CPN Tools for further analysis. Finally, in the implementation phase, the three kinds of property analysis (deadlock, infinite loops and execution time) will be evaluated in terms of the ‘liveness’, ‘reachability’ and ‘consumed time’ of the converted Petri net model.     

Beyond business process redesign: redefining Baxter's business network

Business process redesign has focused almost exclusively on improving the firm's internal operations. Although internal efficiency and effectiveness are important objectives, the authors argue that business network redesign--reconceptualizing the role of the firm and its key business processes in the larger business network--is of greater strategic importance. To support their argument, they analyze the evolution of Baxter's ASAP system, one of the most publicized but inadequately understood strategic information systems of the 1980s. They conclude by examining whether ASAP's early successes have positioned the firm well for the changing hospital supplies marketplace of the 1990s.     

Modelling and optimisation of hull erection process

Due to the low efficiency of hull erection, this paper applies fuzzy-timed place Petri net (P-FTPN) to model the process of hull construction. Triangular Fuzzy Number (TFN) is utilised to denote the uncertain duration. A rule of setting dummy place and a reformative Minkowski subtraction are presented. According to the model, the low efficiency attributes to the time-consuming disequilibrium of each parallel branch and the complicated interrelations within tasks. Thus, we adjust the Orientation Block, eliminate the Hatch Coaming Blocks and combine them with corresponding Compartment Blocks, repartition the complicated Bow Blocks and reduce the construction difficulty. On this basis, modularisation building and preliminary group erection are applied for partial blocks. The parallel erection strategy is achieved on the whole from serial erection strategy. The result shows the efficiency has been enhanced greatly. Finally, whether a given construction state is in rational construction scheme(s) can be identified immediately from the Reasonable Marking Graph (RMG) of the model. Then, the dynamic supervisory control to the hull erection process can be realised.     

Modelling and process optimization for functionally graded materials

We optimize continuous quench process parameters to produce functionally graded aluminium alloy extrudates. To perform this task, an optimization problem is defined and solved using a standard non‐linear programming algorithm. Ingredients of this algorithm include (1) the process parameters to be optimized, (2) a cost function: the weighted average of the precipitate number density distribution, (3) constraint functions to limit the temperature gradient (and hence distortion and residual stress) and exit temperature, and (4) their sensitivities with respect to the process parameters. The cost and constraint functions are dependent on the temperature and precipitate size which are obtained by balancing energy to determine the temperature distribution and by using a reaction‐rate theory to determine the precipitate particle sizes and their distributions. Both the temperature and the precipitate models are solved via the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method. The energy balance incorporates non‐linear boundary conditions and material properties. The temperature field is then used in the reaction rate model which has as many as 10⁵ degrees‐of‐freedom per finite element node. After computing the temperature and precipitate size distributions we must compute their sensitivities. This seemingly intractable computational task is resolved thanks to the discontinuous Galerkin finite element formulation and the direct differentiation sensitivity method. A three‐dimension example is provided to demonstrate the algorithm. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling of fracture process zones and singularity dominated zones

Models for fracture process zones and singularity characterizing zones are developed and their interrelation is studied on the basis of two-dimensional stress analysis concepts for brittle materials. Effects of specimen geometry and loading conditions on the stability of fracture initiation and progressive fracturing is investigated and compared with recent experimental results.     

Modelling and analysis of autonomous micro-cantilever oscillations

Tapping mode atomic force microscopy provides good resolution in imaging applications, but it still requires a time-consuming initial configuration and features quite low scanning velocity. In this paper we present a new dynamic mode in which the cantilever gets excited by a feedback loop containing a saturation function. The proposed scheme is then analysed in the frequency domain and simulated against the standard set-up, showing good performance and elimination of some of the known drawbacks. Preliminary results in experiments confirm the effectiveness of this operating mode.     

Manufacturing supply chain modelling and reengineering

The first-wave of reengineering, during the first half of the nineties, focused on making organizational changes and used primarilyinformation models of supply chains to integrate business processes.Quantitative models are expected to have a significant impact in the second-wave of reengineering through the deployment of performance and optimization models, economic analysis, and decision support systems. In this paper, we focus on the vital role that quantitative modelling techniques such as those founded in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering can play in reengineering supply chains. These quantitative models can extend the business process reengineering concepts to provide a concurrent reengineering framework for modelling the supply chain processes, identifying reengineering opportunities, evaluating design alternatives, guiding the selection of the best alternative, and deploying tools to implement the design. We illustrate such use by surveying current industrial practice and introducing real world examples based on our practical experience in solving supply chain and reengineering problems.     

Modelling vacuum cooling process of cooked meat—part 1: analysis of vacuum cooling system

A mathematical model is developed to analyse the performance of a vacuum cooler. The model is based on the mass conservation of air and vapour in the vacuum chamber. In the chamber, the vapour evaporated from foods under the vacuum and the vapour removed by the vapour-condenser and vacuum pump contribute to the variation in the vapour partial pressure, and the ingress air and the air released by the pump cause the change of air partial pressure. Experiments were carried out on vacuum cooling of water to validate the model. The predicted vacuum pressure and temperature histories are compared with the measured values. The maximum deviation between the predicted and measured vacuum pressure is within 110 Pa (for the chamber pressure between 12,000 and 2200 Pa), while the maximum deviation between the predicted and measured temperature of water is less than 2 °C. The model can, therefore, be used to predict the transient vacuum pressure profiles for analysing the vacuum cooling process of foods such as cooked meat.     

Modelling of foam degradation in lost foam casting process

In this investigation a new model was developed to calculate gas pressure at the melt/foam interface (Gap) resulting from foam degradation during mould filling in the lost foam casting (LFC) process. Different aspects of the process, such as foam degradation, gas elimination, transient mass, heat transfer, and permeability of the refractory coating were incorporated into this model. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code was developed based on the numerical technique of the SOLution Algorithm-Volume of Fluid (SOLA-VOF) utilizing model, for the simulation and prediction of the fluid flow in the LFC process. In order to verify the computational results of the simulation, a thin plate of grey iron was poured into a transparent foam mould. The mould filling process was recorded using a 16 mm high-speed camera. Images were analysed frame by frame, in order to measuring foam depolymerization rate and the gap volume during mould filling. Comparison between the experimental method and the simulation results, for the LFC filling sequence, has shown a good agreement.     

Modelling and analysis of a cooperative production network

In this study, we examine the cooperative production business model for a group of producers serving their own customers and also have access to external customers who can make an agreement to buy products at a lower price if a desired service level can be guaranteed. When the producers cannot meet the desired service level requirement of the external customers at the offered price on their own, they participate in a cooperative network. The network consolidates the external customers for its members and routes an arriving external customer to one of the participants. We determine the optimal production and rationing policies for each participating manufacturer as well as the optimal routing policy for the network. We also propose an accurate approximate method to analyse a network with a high number of homogeneous producers using a single queue approximation method. We show that, based on the parameters of the producers and the external market, the network can provide the desired service level for the external customers at the offered price and makes all the members increase their profit by better utilising their capacity and serving more external customers.     

Modelling quality dynamics,business value and firm performance in a big data analytics environment

Big data analytics have become an increasingly important component for firms across advanced economies. This paper examines the quality dynamics in big data environment that are linked with enhancing business value and firm performance (FPER). The study identifies that system quality (i.e. system reliability, accessibility, adaptability, integration, response time and privacy) and information quality (i.e. completeness, accuracy, format and currency) are key to enhance business value and FPER in a big data environment. The study also proposes that the relationship between quality and FPER is mediated by business value of big data. Drawing on the resource-based theory and the information systems success literature, this study extends knowledge in this domain by linking system quality, information quality, business value and FPER.