Industry-oriented enterprise resource planning

General purpose enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have problems such as complex configuration processes, low adaptation to specific industries, and an extensive implementation time period. In order to alleviate these issues, this paper proposes the concept of industry-oriented ERP (IERP) and a component-based approach to IERP development. This paper also presents the framework of developing IERP in which business process modelling and software reuse are employed as primary methods to improve the operability of component-based IERP. The framework consists of five layers including server layer, team work supporting layer, IERP construction and customisation layer, reusable assets and toolset layer, and the IERP system instance layer. These layers as well as their relationship with each other are also discussed.     

Business process re-engineering in the logistics industry: a study of implementation,success factors,and performance

As business process re-engineering (BPR) is an important foundation to ensure the success of enterprise systems, this study would like to investigate the relationships among BPR implementation, BPR success factors, and business performance for logistics companies. Our empirical findings show that BPR companies outperformed non-BPR companies, not only on information processing, technology applications, organisational structure, and co-ordination, but also on all of the major logistics operations. Comparing the different perceptions of the success factors for BPR, non-BPR companies place greater emphasis on the importance of employee involvement while BPR companies are more concerned about the influence of risk management. Our findings also suggest that management attitude towards BPR success factors could affect performance with regard to technology applications and logistics operations. Logistics companies which have not yet implemented the BPR approach could refer to our findings to evaluate the advantages of such an undertaking and to take care of those BPR success factors affecting performance before conducting BPR projects.     

The adaptive approach for storage assignment by mining data of warehouse management system for distribution centres

Among distribution centre operations, order picking has been reported to be the most labour-intensive activity. Sophisticated storage assignment policies adopted to reduce the travel distance of order picking have been explored in the literature. Unfortunately, previous research has been devoted to locating entire products from scratch. Instead, this study intends to propose an adaptive approach, a Data Mining-based Storage Assignment approach (DMSA), to find the optimal storage assignment for newly delivered products that need to be put away when there is vacant shelf space in a distribution centre. In the DMSA, a new association index (AIX) is developed to evaluate the fitness between the put away products and the unassigned storage locations by applying association rule mining. With AIX, the storage location assignment problem (SLAP) can be formulated and solved as a binary integer programming. To evaluate the performance of DMSA, a real-world order database of a distribution centre is obtained and used to compare the results from DMSA with a random assignment approach. It turns out that DMSA outperforms random assignment as the number of put away products and the proportion of put away products with high turnover rates increase.     

A literature review on business process modelling: new frontiers of reusability

Business process modelling (BPM) has become fundamental for modern enterprises due to the increasing rate of organisational change. As a consequence, business processes need to be continuously (re-)designed as well as subsequently aligned with the corresponding enterprise information systems. One major problem associated with the design of business processes is reusability. Reuse of business process models has the potential of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of BPM. This article critically surveys the existing literature on the problem of BPM reusability and more specifically on that State-of-the-Art research that can provide or suggest the ‘elements’ required for the development of a methodology aimed at discovering reusable conceptual artefacts in the form of patterns. The article initially clarifies the definitions of business process and business process model; then, it sets out to explore the previous research conducted in areas that have an impact on reusability in BPM. The article concludes by distilling directions for future research towards the development of apatterns-based approach to BPM; an approach that brings together the contributions made by the research community in the areas of process mining and discovery, declarative approaches and ontologies.     

A service governance mechanism based on process mining for cloud-based applications

ABSTRACT

With the widely use of cloud computing in enterprise information systems, service governance becomes critical for an enterprise to adapt to a changing business environment. In order to provide a dynamic strategy for continuous service governance, in this paper a comprehensive service analysis solution is proposed to address both design time and run-time requirements for cloud applications. First, a process-centric Semantic Scene Model is composed to combines static business requirements with dynamic execution information. Then service analysis is conducted referring both to the business process mining results from event logs and the Semantic Scene Model given by business model designers. Service governance strategies are generated from the service analysis results and are performed to qualitatively classify the Quality of Service (QoS) of the services. Finally the approach is verified with a transportation logistics service application in a cloud platform. The result shows that our method can get continuous service governance through combining business processes with run-time service analysis.     

Doing Business in Vietnam

Abstract

As Vietnam opens up its economy through a series of economic reforms, entrepreneurs from both Western and Asian economies are flocking to the country to share in its rapid growth. In view of the growing foreign interest in conducting businesses in Vietnam, this paper attempts to provide an overview of the political, economic and business environments in the country. Although the country is full of opportunities, it may pose several problems and challenges to new players as well. Thus, this paper will further discuss the possible investment issues and challenges facing foreign companies which are considering venturing into Vietnam. Some cultural characteristics and operating rules during business interactions in Vietnam are discussed. Common mistakes committed by foreign companies entering the country are also highlighted. It is hoped that this paper will provide an in-depth understanding of the Vietnamese business environment and help improve the likelihood of the successful venture performance of international investors, thus benefiting both the foreign investor and the growth of Vietnam in the global marketplace.     

The role of Spanish local development and employment officers in human resource management

The aim of this study is to contrast the existence of a significant relation between good human resource practices and business results. The empirical analysis is applied to strategies implemented by Local Development and Employment Officers (LDEOs) with regard to the management of social integration and job placement programs within the context of Local Development in Spain for both the universalist and contingent perspectives of Human Resource Management. The novelty of this study lies in the impact local development programs are having on social integration and job placement, and, in particular, the effects of project management.     

Examining the link between skill shortages,training composition and productivity levels in the construction industry: evidence from Northern Ireland1

One of the key questions in international research addresses the tensions arising from international co-ordination and local adaptation of multinational companies' (MNCs) policies and practices. The German business system encourages MNCs to have a long-term, high-investment orientation, to practise intensive management-labour cooperation and to pursue developmental human resource management (HRM). This study analyses six major German MNCs operating in both Britain and Spain and outlines their reasons for the international co-ordination of HRM. It addresses the issue of central control versus local adaptation by looking at the transfer of German HR policies and practices. The cases show that the MNCs were able to preserve substantial ‘German-ness’ abroad. However, the results of the transfer of German HRM were not always positive due to a variety of endogenous and exogenous causes. Barriers to transfer from institutionally strong to weak environments are discussed and possible internal HR approaches are suggested to counterbalance the national business system effect. Their success will depend on head office-foreign affiliate relations shaped by factors such as cross-border communication, trust and power distribution.     

法国、英国的水务管理模式

对水资源等稀缺自然资源的合理利用和有效管理是可持续发展的重要前提.合理利用和有效管理自然资源在很大程度上有赖于相关的法律制度和科学管理模式的构建.欧盟国家以市场为基础,配置以法律和行政的手段,建立了行之有效的水法体系和现代水务管理模式.通过对法国和英国水务管理的实证研究,从立法和管理的角度解析欧盟国家现代水务管理模式,有助于中国城市化进程中现代化的水务管理理念、综合化的水资源管理、市场化的公共服务以及法制化的社会监管等的建立.     

小微企业供应链融资问题研究——基于宁波企业的调研

通过对1 000家宁波中小微企业的调研发现,宁波小微企业众多,但这些企业很难通过传统融资方式获得银行信贷,供应链融资成为缓解宁波小微企业融资难问题的新手段。调查发现小微企业资金需求旺盛,但小微企业实现供应链融资仍面临诸多问题,如供应链聚集风险高,小微企业高分散和高成本性与银行资本逐利性之间存在矛盾,缺乏完整的信用保障体系等。因此解决小微企业融资难问题政府应进一步出台加大对小微企业供应链融资的扶持政策,银行要加强供应链融资产品的设计,小微企业要加强自身信用体系建设。