Showing papers on "Enterprise software published in 1995"

Methodology for the Design and Evaluation of Ontologies

Abstract: As information systems play a more active role in the management and operations of an enterprise, the demands on these systems have also increased. Departing from their traditional role as simple repositories of data, information systems must now provide more sophisticated support to manual and automated decision making; they must not only answer queries with what is explicitly represented in their Enterprise Model, but must be able to answer queries with what is implied by the model. The goal of the TOVE (TOronto Virtual Enterprise) Enterprise Modelling project is to create the next generation Enterprise Model, a Common Sense Enterprise Model. By common sense we mean that an Enterprise Model has the ability to deduce answers to queries that require relatively shallow knowledge of the domain. We are taking what can be viewed as a `second generation knowledge engineering' approach to constructing our Common Sense Enterprise Model. Rather than extracting rules from experts, we are `engineering ontologies.' An ontology is a formal description of entities and their properties, relationships, constraints, behaviours. Through interaction with our industrial partners, we encounter problems that arise in their particular enterprises. Our approach to engineering ontologies begins with using these problems to de ne an ontology's requirements in the form of questions that an ontology must be able to answer. We call this the competency of the ontology. The second step is to de ne the terminology of the ontology its objects, attributes, and relations. In this way the ontology provides the language that will be used to express the de nitions in the terminology and the constraints required by the application. The third step is to specify the de nitions and constraints on the terminology, where possible. The speci cations are represented in First Order Logic and implemented in Prolog. Lastly, we test the competency of the ontology by proving completeness theorems with respect to the competency questions. Our initial e orts have focused on ontologies to support reasoning in industrial environments. The tasks that we have targeted to support are in `supply chain management' which extends MRP (Manufacturing Requirements Planning) to include logistics/distribution [Fox

The Role of Competency Questions in Enterprise Engineering

Abstract: We present a logical framework for representing activities, states, time, and cost in an enterprise integration architecture. We define ontologies for these concepts in first-order logic and consider the problems of temporal projection and reasoning about the occurrence of actions. We characterize the ontology with the use of competency questions. The ontology must contain a necessary and sufficient set of axioms to represent and solve these questions. These questions not only characterize existing ontologies for enterprise engineering, but also drive the development of new ontologies that are required to solve the competency questions.

The Great Transition: Using the Seven Disciplines of Enterprise Engineering to Align People, Technology, and Strategy

Abstract: This guide explains how to combine the forces of information technology, culture and strategies, to create an enterprise which constantly evolves, adapts to fast-changing demands, and continually learns at all levels. The book also: explains how to integrated the three critical aspects of an organization - culture, strategy and technology - into an "intimate partnership; and presents the author's approach - "enterprise engineering" - a sophisticated provess for creating a unique "family" of change-methods tailored to meet each company's needs. Using the enterprise engineering approach, readers learn how to: comprehend the enormous power of information technology, which is both creating this new dimension and enabling companies to make the trasition; and to understand and distinguish all the major change methods, such as TQM, radical reinvention of business process, enterprise redesign and strategic visioning. James Martin is the author of "The Wired Society" for which he won a the Pulitzer Prize nomination.

The Industrial enterprise and its environment : spatial perspectives

Abstract: Part I Business organization, management and new strategic behaviour: the dynamics of business, the business environment and the organization of industrial space spatial dimensions of alliances and other strategic manoeuvres. Part II Towards understanding the organization-environment relationship: four paradigms of the enterprise system the business enterprise, power and patterns of geographical industrialization economic theory, entrepreneurship and new economic dynamics organizations and environments - linking industrial geography and organization theory. Part III The enterprise and the milieu: the innovation process and local environment global network and local milieu - towards a theory of economic space. Part IV Industrial geography and the challenge of complexity: enterprises, systems and network dynamics - the challenge of complexity.

What Machines Can't Do: Politics and Technology in the Industrial Enterprise

Abstract: The article reviews the book “What Machines Can't Do: Politics and Technology in the Industrial Enterprise,” by Robert J. Thomas.

Industry Requirements and Associated Research Issues in the Extended Enterprise

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the difficulties faced by manufacturing companies and their response in terms of the emergence of the Extended Enterprise. We argue that the Extended Enterprise represents the context within which manufacturing systems research must be conducted and we identify what we consider to be the key topics for future manufacturing systems research and development.

Re-engineering the Enterprise

Abstract: The definition of tasks and functions as well as their relationships is one of the main tasks of organising an enterprise. Usually, this is done step by step. This means the complexity of an enterprise's overall task is broken down. The resulting subtasks must be assigned to individual task performers. Only if the task is adequately broken down, task performers will be able to execute it properly. Starting from present-day requirements, this paper explains fundamental organisational patterns to reduce the complexity in enterprises. As point of departure these patterns are used to derive the conception of planning centres. Afterwards, the way down to planning centres-i.e. the enterprise's re-engineering-is lined out and experiences gained in an industrial project are explained.

Enterprise Objects Framework: a second generation object-relational enabler

Abstract: Today's information system executives desperately need to improve programmer productivity and reduce software maintenance costs. They are demanding flexibility in frameworks and architectures in order to meet unforeseen changes (see [Yankee 94]). Adaptability is a major requirement of most company's information systems efforts. Management of change is one of the key computing concepts of the 1990s.Object-oriented tools and development frameworks are starting to deliver the benefits of increased productivity and flexibility. These next-generation products now need to be combined with relational databases to leverage investments and facilitate access to business data. Object-Relational Enablers automate the process of storing complex objects in a relational database management system (see [Aberdeen 94]).The Enterprise Objects Framework product is a second generation product bringing the benefits of object-oriented programming to relational database application development. Enterprise Objects Framework enables developers to construct reusable business objects that combine business logic with persistent storage in industry-standard relational databases. Enterprise objects are first class citizens in the NEXTSTEP and OpenStep developer and user environments. They can be geographically distributed throughout heterogeneous servers within an enterprise using the Portable Distributed Objects product (see [NeXT-DO 94]).In this extended abstract we first describe the enterprise object distribution model and then give a brief synopsis of how relational data is mapped into objects. We then present an outline of the system architecture, explain how objects are mapped to multiple tables, and summarize the transaction semantics as well as the application development life-cycle. We conclude with an outlook on future development.

Enterprise Flexibility Agreements in Small Business: Rhetoric or Reality?:

Abstract: The federal government's industrial relations reforms have aimed to decentralize industrial relations to the enterprise level. In order to encourage enterprise bargain ing in all Australian workplaces, division 3 of part VIB of the Commonwealth Industrial Relations Act 1988 enabled constitutional corporations to obtain a non- union enterprise agreement. This type of agreement is known as an enterprise flexibility agreement'. It was expected that enterprise flexibility agreements would act as a mechanism to extend enterprise bargaining to the small business sector. However; research reveals that fourteen months after the introduction of the legisla tion, only sixteen of the sixty-eight enterprise flexibility agreements approved by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission applied to small businesses. This find ing supports the argument that the formal system of (federal) industrial relations has little impact on the manner in which industrial relations are conducted and regulated in small businesses. ...

The Extended Enterprise — A Context for Benchmarking

Abstract: In his introduction to the 1992 European Manufacturing Futures Survey, De. Meyer suggests that manufacturing must “see itself as a link in an integrated value added chain, whose goal is to serve the customer” (my emphasis). Coming from a very different perspective, namely that of environmentally benign production, Tipnis (1993) also suggests a similar view when he subtitles his paper “How to design products that are environmentally safe to manufacture/assemble, distribute, use, service/repair, discard/collect, disassemble, recover/recycle and dispose?”.

An enterprise modeling approach to organizational decision support

Abstract: A novel and comprehensive framework is outlined at a mostly conceptual level for future enterprise modeling systems. We discuss some major design issues and indicate the direction future research could take to support enterprise wide problem formulation and problem solving. The focus of the paper is chiefly on investigating the question of how to better do model building, and how to extract the relevant parts of the model to support specific analyses of corporate issues in an enterprise wide environment. Conceptually, we are looking for an enterprise modeling system (EMS) which automatically builds and executes task specific models as needed in response to queries posed by the user. EMS is especially aimed at supporting strategic decision making such as predicting the effects of changes in business policies, analyzing possible reactions to internal and external threats, and exploring new business opportunities. >

Structuring and configuration of CIM systems for branch-specific medium-sized enterprises

Abstract: Strong international competition makes it necessary for an enterprise to reduce organizational overhead and costs. This goal can be reached by integrating of the available islands of automation. This integration would be facilitated greatly if there were a generally agreed upon architectural structure in which the software modules of the various vendors could operate. CIMOSA (computer integrated manufacturing—open system architecture) aims at providing such an architectural structure and strives to become a European standard. An important part of CIMOSA consists of the enterprise model. In this article the results of a project are described which is aimed at the validation of CIMOSA in a typical SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) environment. In a first step, the CIMOSA partial and particular models for SMEs were developed. The authors developed a coarse model of the order management and a detailed model of the future concept of the CAD/PPC interface. In order to master the increasing complexity of the planning of software systems of an enterprise, new planning methods and tools are required. Thus in the second part, an integrated approach to software system planning and selection based on CIMOSA enterprise models was developed. The underlying idea of the approach is the conversion of the planning problem into an equivalent constraint satisfaction problem. The conversion process can be accomplished fully automatically. To interconnect a real system, in a lot of cases, it is required to configure data conversion modules. In the third part, the article focuses on a configuration system which allows a straightforward configuration of the data conversion modules.

A Software Engineering Paradigm as a basis for Enterprise Integration in (Multi-) Client/Server Environments

Abstract: The ability to build and execute enterprise models including data, service and process models is a topic of growing importance for industry. It addresses the problem to develop reasonable models of the enterprise but has to cope also broadly with implementation and execution issues in heterogeneous environments. With respect to implementation and execution, client/server architectures, request broker mechanisms and distributed data and applications are emerging as the future state-of-the-art. In this context, the existing heterogeneity of technological frameworks as well as coping with legacy systems is a crucial fact. Existing methodologies and tools are not overwhelming these problems. They often do not integrate aspects of enterprise- or process-modelling, CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering), workflow management and client/server execution. As a consequence, new kinds of architectures are needed. This paper outlines an approach, developed at FAW for the described scenario. The main objective of this solution is to cope with heterogeneity by a neutralizing approach instead of standardization The described software engineering paradigm supports a model-oriented development of distributed data, services and processes in a uniform way towards a neutralizing execution environment. The FAW software engineering paradigm complies with the specifications of CIMOSA and accomplishes the requirements of the CORBA architecture.

Public Enterprise Reform and The Use of Performance Contracts

Abstract: There are multiple ways of improving the management efficiency of public enterprises, one of which is the mechanism of performance contracting. Performance contracts represent negotiated agreements between governments as “owners” of public enterprises and the management of the enterprise itself. This paper presents an example of a hypothetical performance contract between a central government and an electric power generating/transmitting public enterprise. Introduction Improving the productive and management efficiency of public enterprises is a goal on which there is universal agreement. The approach which has been increasingly adopted worldwide has been some form of privatization in all its permutations and combinations, with the spectrum running the gamut from simple liquidation, outright sale to the private sector, and/or management contracts to administer one phase of the operations of the enterprise. Various forms of privatization have been carried out or are in the process of being implemented in the case of Puerto Rico. Recent examples are the sale of the public shipping line (Navieras) and the management contract with the Aqueduct and Sewers Authority (Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados) which went into effect at end-1994. This paper will begin with an introductory section briefly summarizing the concept of performance contracts and country experiences with their application. Section II then offers an example of a performance contract (hereafter PC) using the case of an electric Public Enterprise Reform and The Use of Performance Contracts 2 power generator/distributor. In Section III alternative performance indicators for other types of enterprises are defined, and in the concluding Section IV some general guidelines for drafting a PC are presented. I. The Setting Performance contracts are “negotiated agreements between governments, acting as owners of a public enterprise (hereafter PE), and the enterprise itself” in which the “intentions, obligations, and responsibilities of the two parties are freely negotiated and then clearly set out” (Nellis, 1989). The contractual clauses include both the financial and physical indicators which will be used to measure performance, and may even establish a “carrot and stick” bonus and penalty system applicable to management. The contracts were first implemented in France in the early 1970s, and eventually spread to eight of France’s most important public corporations; in the early 1980s 13 additional contracts were signed between the pertinent ministries and industrial state enterprises. The mechanism began to be used in francophone Africa in the 1980s, and was utilized in some Latin American and Asian countries during the same decade. However, the decade of the 1990s has witnessed an overriding preference for outright divestiture via sales to the private sector in lieu of the PC alternative. Inefficiencies especially within commercially-oriented public enterprises (e.g., electricity, water, telephones) have clear national financial and fiscal implications, for their activities impact directly on overall public sector expenditures and revenues, thereby affecting a country's fiscal/economic health. Around the world a diversity of approaches has Public Enterprise Reform and The Use of Performance Contracts 3 been used in attempts to inject enhanced standards of efficiency into these often bureaucratic and poorly-administered enterprises, which even more often have become the repositories, for political and social reasons, of redundant personnel. These approaches have encompassed measures ranging from the outright liquidation of non-viable enterprises, to divestiture (partial or complete), and/or to restructuring. What will be taken up in this paper is the restructuring option in the form of performance contracting between the central government and the PE. A concrete example regarding the provision of electric power will be provided. To be clarified is that performance contracts can be eventually developed between other central government ministries/entities and the respective PEs. Each contract will vary in detail according to the nature of the PE, and provides a method of PE restructuring without having to resort to complete privatization. Of course, this in no way precludes the liquidation and privatization alternatives, for the restructuring generated by the PC can certainly be used to facilitate eventual divestiture. Enterprise efficiency is greatest when the principal goal of the firm is profit maximization under competitive market conditions and managerial autonomy. Due to public ownership, the PEs rarely confront such a situation. Thus, the goal of performance contracting is to generate a more efficiency-inducive operative framework. The managers in PEs often adopt objectives that greatly vary from maximization objectives: price setting and/or employment-creation for social or political reasons, unwillingness to “rock-the-boat” for personal reasons, a procedural as opposed to an outcome orientation, operations in Public Enterprise Reform and The Use of Performance Contracts 4 sheltered (monopolistic) markets, government reluctance to liquidate or force changes in behavior, access to preferential credits, etc. Therefore, the overriding objective of performance contracting is to force management in the PEs to better respond to market signals and to be subject to greater competitive pressures and financial discipline. This is done via a contract which specifically delineates the obligations of both signatory parties to it: the central government and the management of the PE. The purpose of the contract is to clarify objectives and reconcile priorities ex-ante so that managers can be held unambiguously accountable ex-post for achieving results. Ideally, commercial PEs should be profit-maximizers, and noncommercial objectives should be pursued by other transparent means (e.g., direct taxation or explicit subsidies). Specifically defined performance indicators form part and parcel of the contract, and management is given the autonomy to respond to market signals. Most importantly of all, management is held acountable for outcomes and is rewarded or penalized accordingly. These outcomes are measured by using the performance indicators which are developed during the process of contract negotiation, and it is therefore of utmost significance to pay very close attention to the content of the indicators. No matter what indicators are incorporated and what their content may be, it is customarily argued that the bottom line should be that there is no alternative to profitability as the basis of a performance evaluation system for public enterprises (Jones, 1991). However, this dictum assumes that the PE is free of all political and social constraints to be a profit-maximizer (e.g., all input and final product prices are market-determined) and, as stated above, that its non-commercial goals are transparently pursued and it operates under Public Enterprise Reform and The Use of Performance Contracts 5 competitive market conditions. Such ideals often do not exist in the real world in many developing countries. In such a policy context it becomes necessary to incorporate quantitative indicators into the PC, since the standard financial income (profit and loss) statement will poorly reflect profitability. The role of government is supervisory, not controlling. It sets objectives, appoints (and fires) managers, evaluates performance, approves investment decisions, rewards and penalizes management, and does sectoral planning and coordination. It stays completely out of day-to-day operations. If feasible and pertinent, this regulatory role should be assigned to a government agency different from the one that has the ownership function. The contracts are necessarily incomplete in that they cannot specify in detail what each side is supposed to do under all conceivable circumstances. From here arises a tradeoff. The more completely a contract attempts to specify reciprocal commitments, the higher will be the transaction costs of negotiating, monitoring, and enforcing. Nellis (1989) provides an evaluation of inter-country experiences with performance contracting, concluding that the mechanism “is of value but its benefits have been a bit oversold”. The agreements themselves have been well designed, but have run into difficulties in the implementation phase. They represent no panacea. An ailing public enterprise must first undergo a rehabilitation process prior to submitting to a PC agreement; the PC process “requires a strong, well-placed supervisory agency to assist in the preparation of the agreement, review implementation, and especially push for the proper fulfillment of the contract”; they have not proven to be legally enforceable, as persistent non-compliance from both sides has arisen. Nevertheless, where divestiture or the contracting out of Public Enterprise Reform and The Use of Performance Contracts 6 management functions is not politically viable, the device can be useful by merely holding management up to pre-established criteria. II. An Example of a Performance Contract In the subsequent performance contract example, it will be assumed that the contractual agreement is negotiated between the Puerto Rico Treasury Department and the Electric Energy Authority (EEA, or Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica). The general form of and main ideas contained in such a contract will be laid out, but what follows does not pretend to fill in all the necessary details. This point must be recognized at the outset, for the contract which is presented here is in generic form; i.e., the clauses of a PC applicable to a specific electric enterprise have to be worked out on a case-by-case basis. This caveat applies to the performance indicators subsequently delineated as well as to the quantification provided in Annex II of the contract. Moreover, both explicitly and implicitly the ass

Introduction to Information Systems: An End User/Enterprise Perspective

Abstract: Part 1 Introduction: introduction to information systems in business. Part 2 Technology: introduction to computer hardware introduction to computer software introduction to database management. Part 3 Networking the enterprise: introduction to business telecommunications the Internet and electronic commerce intranets, extranets and electronic collaboration. Part 4 Applications: information systems for business operations information systems for managerial decision support information systems for strategic advantage. Part 5 Development and management: developing business solutions with information technology enterprise and global management of information technology security and ethical challenges of information technology.

CEN activities on enterprise modelling and enterprise model execution and integration services

Abstract: Today’s manufacturing enterprise needs both increased integration of its processes and resources, while at the same time retaining the ability to respond rapidly to an ever changing market requirements. Enterprise modelling aims to meet these potentially conflicting objectives. The paper describes CEN’s work to establish the standards that are needed to support Enterprise Modelling for manufacturing, in particular on a framework of concepts, an evaluation of and preliminary standards for modelling constructs, and a statement of requirements for the environment in which model constructs are to be developed and executed (EMEIS).

An agent-based distributed multimedia service environment

Abstract: This paper describes our experiences in using agent-based technology for the design of distributed multimedia service environments. These new systems must be able to operate in a constantly evolving enterprise and to adapt to unexpected contingencies or failures in hardware, software and even human resources. Our Multi-Agent-Architecture for Networked Applications (MANA) is based on the notion of an organizational network of agents that cooperate to provide services to internal and external customers of the enterprise. Key to the approach is the decoupling of service definition and provisioning through a declarative model of the enterprise.

Geschäftsprozeßorientierte Einführung von Standard-Software am Beispiel des SAP-Systems "R/3".

Abstract: Many companies are confronting the problem of reorganizing the organizational structure and processes of their organizations and installing the state of the art information technology. The adequate design of business processes plays an essential role in dealing with this problem and in reaching the strived-for business goals of conversion. In this article, the starting point for a business process-oriented introduction of off-the-shelf software will be described in three separate sections : requirement analysis, software implementation and system maintenance. This approach uses a reference model during the requirement analysis phase as a backdrop for analyzing a company's business processes to create an enterprise model. The implementation phase is then based on this enterprise model. The task- and problem descriptions within the process of implementation make up the focal point of this article.

Managing the dynamic environment

Abstract: We all live in a complex and dynamic world. The last 20 years have seen, particularly in Europe and North America, the relentless shift from manufacturing-based to knowledge-based industries. I propose that enterprise modelling provides some support for managing knowledge and information, but not enterprise modelling as people might already know it. I propose a holistic approach: understanding the whole and the interdependencies of all the component parts. The emphasis is less on information engineering and more on information management, ensuring that information is shared, reused and easily accessible. There are already many simple software tools available which help people understand and communicate the complexity of their environments. I maintain that systems thinking and a more scientific approach to management can and should contribute to an enterprise model. (3 pages)

A practical application of object-oriented enterprise modeling

Abstract: As the Air Force and Navy look forward to replacing outdated resources, it became apparent that a better understanding of and an accurate analytic model for, the existing process of training pilots and navigators was essential Object oriented analysis (OOA) was selected to make use of the perceived advantages it offers such as data modeling, encapsulation of objects and their behavior, the potential for reuse, and its ability to scale-up to huge systems The goal of the analysis was to create a set of OOA models that describes: (1) the implementation of the current (physical) enterprise; (2) the essential (logical) enterprise requirements of a combined Air Force and Navy integrated training management system; and (3) the essential (logical) enterprise requirements of an enhanced combined Air Force and Navy integrated training management system The enterprise models will be used as a springboard for the development of requirement specifications for a training integration management system (TMS) TMS will be an automated system that manages all undergraduate flying/aviation training It will support the Ground Based Training System We present the steps taken in the analysis and modeling process for the creation of these enterprise models including: (1) object-oriented methodology, CASE tool and database selection; (2) user-driven paradigm mix and migration, (3) data collection process; (4) classification and development of class/object views: 5) development of information (functional) flow views; (6) development of dynamic (time dependent views; (7) user validation of current enterprise views; (8) future system enhancements and improvements; and (9) lessons learned

Managing the New Enterprise: The Proof, Not the Hype

Abstract: From the Publisher: Transitioning to a distributed client/server environment involves more than mastering a new paradigm. This practical companion to the best-selling Rightsizing the New Enterprise: The Proof, Not the Hype describes in detail the key technology support infrastructures, including networking, data centers, and system administration that are critical to building and managing the New Enterprise. What is the New Enterprise? It's what businesses or corporations must do to survive in the 1990s. Businesses are changing and IT (Information Technology) must change to meet the new business requirements. Global competition is becoming more intense; profit margins are falling. To remain competitive, the New Enterprise must diversify and focus on products and services that provide a competitive advantage, all the while reducing costs. The goal is to "rightsize" the enterprise; to get the right information to the right people to support business requirements in the '90s. This book not only provides the proof that it can be done, it tells you exactly how to do it.