Industry modelling

Industry models are used for a variety of purposes including: forecasting markets for strategic planning, providing a basis for directing investments by financial institutions and governments and the development of contingency plans by companies. This paper assesses industry models along two different dimensions, that of the missions fulfilled by the model and that of the problems encountered in the construction of the model: in effect a market and a production orientation respectively. An attempt is made to identify potentially fruitful directions for further developments.     

Some trends in corporate modelling

This paper reviews the evidence of a number of surveys and case studies of corporate modelling in the U.K. Some general conclusions as to trends are drawn. Thus corporate models will display increasing modularity; will be more likely to include probabilistic elements; will more often incorporate physical flows; and will be generally linked to a greater number of other models in organisations. Micros are making a substantial impact as tools for running decision support systems both of the corporate model and the ad hoc model variety. Forecasting techniques are still greatly underutilised in many organisations. Although most corporate models are currently of the deterministic financial simulation type, the influence of management education will help the adoption of more advanced models by more numerate senior managers and accountants. Indeed there is already evidence that this is happening in some organisations.     

On approaches to OR modelling

The paper examines the various relationships between theory and practice of OR Models in developed and developing economies. Relationships between theory and practice are classified into three sets: (i) during model construction stage, (ii) during the decision-making stage and (iii) in the implementation stage. Various case studies from U.K. and India are analysed to get an insight into these relationships. Various factors responsible for divergence of practice from theory are critically examined and drawing from the lessons of the case studies, ways and means of making models which are implementable in practice are suggested. Environments, the nature of the problems and objectives vary between developed and developing economies. However, in spite of these variations the basic nature of the relationships and the scientific method of problem solving are the same in both.     

Some thoughts on enterprise modelling

Enterprise management is highly value conscious, trying to determine and guide the activities of the company so as to be competitive (improve profits, reduce costs and time to market, etc.) and to build future capability to remain competitive. It is necessary to demonstrate why enterprise modelling is necessary to attain business objectives. We then discuss the role of interfaces in enterprise engineering and why enterprise modelling will play an even more significant role in the future enterprise. Finally, we discuss three research questions: model interoperability, the development of a reference model for global virtual enterprise, and plug-and-play, or 'component-based' enterprise engineering.     

和谐管理理论的实践性模型

和谐管理理论经过近20年的发展,其理论框架日臻完善。基于前人的研究成果,对和谐管理理论进行深入分析和思索,结合企业管理实践,提出和谐管理理论的实践性模型,包括和谐管理理论的总体实践性模型、和谐主题的辨识模型、环境和组织的关键问题检索清单、和谐主题形成过程模型、和谐主题或和谐状态的漂移模型以及双规则运用模型,为企业进行和谐管理实践提供帮助。     

论办实事

办实事,是各级党组织的一贯要求,也是每一名党员干部的应尽职责。在新的时期新的形势下,坚持从理论和实践的结合上去深刻认识和把握办实事问题,对于每名党员干部和党的各级组织来说,都是非常适时、十分必要的。一全心全意为人民服务是我们党的根本宗旨。只有真正尊重群众,真情关怀群众,真诚服务群众,为群众把实事办好、把好事办实,才能赢得民心,获得实效,取得成功。办实事是中国革命、建设和改革取得成功的重要经验。我们党85年的光辉历程昭示:什么时候切实为群众办实事,我们就会战胜困难走向成功;什么时候丢掉办实事的好传统,我们的事业就…     

Classification hierarchies for product data modelling

Abstraction is an essential element in data modelling that appears mainly in one of the following forms: generalisation, classification or aggregation. In the design of complex products classification hierarchies can be found product families that are viewed as classes of product types, while product types are seen as classes of product instances. So far data models, if they support levels of classification, do not support the inheritance of product properties the way product family hierarchies are supposed to. This paper proposes an interpretation of the member of construct that enables one to define inheritance in classification hierarchies. Unified modelling language (UML) static structures are used as data modelling language. A textual notation is added that enables the introduction of data structures and corresponding data contents in the course of an analysis.     

Practical implications of the resource-based view

Managers use many decision making tools when developing a firm’s strategic direction. Ideally, such tools yield a good solution for an acceptable amount of application effort. This paper presents the results of an experimental research project that compares the effectiveness of a theory-based strategic decision making tool, theVRIO-framework, with two alternative decision making heuristics for predicting the stock-market performance of different companies. First, we assess how the predictions of theVRIO-framework contrast with decisions based on “gut feeling” using the forecasts derived from a recognition-based decision making tool, theRecognition Heuristic. Secondly, theVRIO-framework’spredictive power is compared to predictions derived fromAnalyst Ratings. Our results suggest that the predictions of theVRIO-framework are superior to those of theRecognition Heuristic and theAnalyst Ratings, supporting the practical usefulness of resource-based theory. We conclude that resource analysis is important to strategic decision making and discuss the implications of our findings for future research and management practice.     

Enhancing the Practical Relevance of Research

This article seeks to encourage scholars to conduct research that is more relevant to the decisions faced by managers and policymakers, and addresses why research relevance matters, what relevance means in terms of a journal article, and how scholars can increase the relevance of their research. I define relevant research papers as those whose research questions address problems found (or potentially found) in practice and whose hypotheses connect independent variables within the control of practitioners to outcomes they care about using logic they view as feasible. I provide several suggestions for how scholars can enhance research relevance, including engaging practitioners in on‐campus encounters, at managerial conferences, and at crossover workshops; conducting site visits and practitioner interviews; working as a practitioner; and developing a practitioner advisory team. I describe several ways that scholars can convey relevant research insights into practitioners, including presenting at practitioner conferences, writing for practitioners in traditional crossover journals and in shorter pieces like op‐eds and blogs, and attracting the interest of those who write columns, blogs, and articles about research for practitioners. I conclude by describing a few ways that academic institutions can encourage more relevant research, focusing on journals, professional societies, and doctoral programs.     

The modelling of supply in the shipping industry

This paper considers the way in which certain variables in the shipping industry fluctuate. Factors such as supply and demand for cargo carrying capacity, freight rates, laid-up tonnage, are shown to form a number of interacting feedback loops, and it is demonstrated that it is possible to construct a dynamic model of the system.     

An agent-based approach to modelling virtual enterprises

This paper describes how virtual enterprises (VEs) can be modelled using the AGORA multi-agent architecture, designed for modelling and supporting cooperative work among distributed entities. The model consists of a structure of AGORAs and agents, where AGORAs are facilitators of cooperative work for agents and the agents represent the partners of the VE, the cooperative mechanisms and the service providers. The distributed and goal-oriented nature of the VE provides a strong motivation for the use of agents to model VEs. The main advantages of this approach are that the structure of AGORAs provides a homogeneous modelling environment throughout the life cycle of the VE, traceability of the VE activities and a history of the VE. In addition to these, it is important to point out that, agents being computational entities, the resulting model provides an easy and efficient passage from the model to the computational support that is required by the VE.     

Discrete simulation modelling for corporate manpower planning

Manpower planners within South African companies have very few, if any, decision support tools at their disposal to assist them in the formulation of their manpower strategies. Such quantitative tools as do exist are mathematically too sophisticated to be easily understood and implemented by manpower managers who are, on the whole, non numerate. The approach proposed in this paper, namely simulation modelling, discusses and demonstrates a powerful quantitative method which is conceptually easy to understand and whose results are easily interpreted. This particular simulation model examines the impact on organisational staffing levels over time as a result of specific present/proposed manpower policies in the areas of procurement and promotion. Through manipulating the inputs, the manpower planner can, with relative ease, examine the consequences of a range of alternative policies within a very short period of time.     

领导的实践本质给我们的启示

对领导本质的界定,在西方领导学研究中至今众说纷纭,传统的界定主要经历了权力说和权威说两大阶段。然而,随着时代的发展,新的理论层出不穷,把领导的本质界定为实践就是人们在新的历史条件下对于这一问题认识的深化。本文在剖析传统界定局限性的基础上,进一步阐释领导实践本质的内涵,并从中挖掘出理论的变迁给我们带来的启示。     

World energy resources and the limitations of computer modelling

The views of Meadows and the Club of Rome are challenged in the first part of this article, which reviews available information on world energy reserves. Here the conclusion is reached that the real nature of the energy ‘crisis’ is not one of impending resource exhaustion, but of economic, social and political problems stemming from rising prices and the uneven distribution of world reserves. Part Two takes up the question ‘How far are large computer models likely to be relevant for the formulation of energy policy?’ It concludes that they can be a useful tool for analysing complex relationships and portraying future scenarios, but they should not be seen as a substitute for policy choices.     

Practical scheduling for call center operations

A practical spreadsheet-based scheduling method is developed to determine the optimal allocation of service agents to candidate tour types and start times in an inbound call center. A stationary Markovian queueing model with customer abandonment is employed to determine required staffing levels for a sequence of time intervals with varying call volumes, handling times, and relative agent availabilities. These staffing requirements populate a quadratic programming model for determining the distribution of agent tours that will maximize the fraction of offered calls beginning service within a target response time, subject to side constraints on tour type quantities. The optimal distribution is scaled to reflect the total number of scheduled agents, and a near-optimal integer solution is derived using rounding thresholds found by successive one-dimensional searches. This novel approach has been successfully implemented in large service centers at Qwest Communications and could easily be adapted to other operational environments.     

Practical Human-Machine Identification over Insecure Channels

Human-machine identification is an important problem in cryptography that has applications in network access, electronic commerce, and smart-card design. It is a hard problem largely because human users have a very limited capacity in memorizing secrets and in performing protocols. Therefore, in addition to the requirement that a human-machine identification scheme must be provably secure, the scheme has to be practical in the sense that it must be feasible for a human user to participate. In this paper, we develop a new scheme for this problem. Our scheme improves upon some of the previously proposed human-machine identification schemes. We present a vigorous security analysis of our scheme. We also present some attacks to show previously proposed schemes could be vulnerable.     

Kanban-based operational planning and control: simulation modelling

Selected published research on Kanban-based operational planning and control in assembly and flow lines is reviewed. The article focuses on simulation models and distinguishes between explorative and comparative type research. Operational and experimental design features reported are summarized in tabular format. Features of each study are discussed, findings are compared and ideas for research directions are given.