Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Manufacturing resource planning Data processing'

Thesis (MEng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Artificial intelligence has provided several techniques with applications in manufacturing. Knowledge based systems, neural networks, case based reasoning, genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic have been successfully employed in manufacturing. This thesis will provide the reader with an introduction and an understanding of each of these techniques (Chapter 2 & 3). The intelligent manufacturing process can be a complex one and can be decomposed into several components: intelligent design, intelligent process planning, intelligent quality management, intelligent maintenance and diagnosis, intelligent scheduling and intelligent control. This thesis will focus on how each of the artificial intelligence techniques can be applied to each of the manufacturing process fields. Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Knowledge based systems Neural networks Fuzzy logic Case based reasoning Genetic algorithms Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Manufacturing intelligence can be approached from two main directions: theoretical research and practical application. Most of the concepts, methods and techniques discussed in this thesis are approached from a theoretical research point of view. This thesis is also aimed at providing the reader with a broader picture of manufacturing intelligence and how to apply the intelligent techniques, in theory. Specific attention will be given to intelligent scheduling as an application (Chapter 11). The application will demonstrate how case based reasoning can be applied in intelligent scheduling within a small manufacturing plant.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Kunsmatige intelligensie bied 'n verskeidenheid tegnieke en toepassings in die vervaardigingsomgewing. Kennis baseerde sisteme, neurale netwerke, gevalle basseerde redenasie, generiese algoritmes en wasige logika word suksesvol in die vervaardigingsopset toegepas. Dié tesis gee die leser 'n inleiding en basiese oorsig van metodes om elk van die tegnieke te gebruik (hoofstuk 2 & 3). Die intelligente vervaardigingproses is 'n komplekse proses en kan afgebreek word in verskeie komponente: intelligente ontwerp, intelligente prosesbeplanning, intelligente gehaltebestuur, intelligente onderhoud en diagnose, intelligente kontrole en intelligente skedulering. Hierdie tesis sal fokus op hoe elk van die kunsmatige intelligente tegnieke op elk van die vervaardigingprosesvelde toegepas kan word. Hoofstuk 5 Hoofstuk 6 Hoofstuk 7 Kennis gebaseerde sisteme Wasige logika Neurale netwerke Gevalle baseerde redenasie Generiese algoritmes Hoofstuk 8 Hoofstuk 9 Hoofstuk 10 Vervaardigingsintelligensie kan vanuit twee oogpunte benader word, naamlik 'n teoretiese ondersoek en 'n praktiese aanslag. Die meeste van hierdie konsepte, metodes en tegnieke word in hierdie tesis vanuit 'n teoretiese oogpunt benader. Die tesis is daarop gerig om die leser 'n wyer perspektief te gee van intelligente vervaardiging en hoe om die intelligente tegnieke, in teorie, toe te pas. Spesifieke aandag sal gegee word aan intelligente skedulering as 'n toepassing (Hookstuk 11). Die toepassing sal demonstreer hoe gevalle baseerde redenasie toegepas kan word in intelligente skedulering.

POD (Point of Dispensing)-based emergency response plans involving mass prophylaxis may seem feasible when considering the choice of dispensing points within a region, overall population density, and estimated traffic demands. However, the plan may fail to serve particular vulnerable sub-populations, resulting in access disparities during emergency response. Federal authorities emphasize on the need to identify sub-populations that cannot avail regular services during an emergency due to their special needs to ensure effective response. Vulnerable individuals require the targeted allocation of appropriate resources to serve their special needs. Devising schemes to address the needs of vulnerable sub-populations is essential for the effectiveness of response plans. This research focuses on data-driven computational methods to quantify and address vulnerabilities in response plans that require the allocation of targeted resources. Data-driven methods to identify and quantify vulnerabilities in response plans are developed as part of this research. Addressing vulnerabilities requires the targeted allocation of appropriate resources to PODs. The problem of resource allocation to PODs during public health emergencies is introduced and the variants of the resource allocation problem such as the spatial allocation, spatio-temporal allocation and optimal resource subset variants are formulated. Generating optimal resource allocation and scheduling solutions can be computationally hard problems. The application of metaheuristic techniques to find near-optimal solutions to the resource allocation problem in response plans is investigated. A vulnerability analysis and resource allocation framework that facilitates the demographic analysis of population data in the context of response plans, and the optimal allocation of resources with respect to the analysis are described.

This project will be focusing on the business problem of integrating information systems within a M & A organization, in this case to a SAP platform. SAP is the platform the parent company uses to run its corporate business functions.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY in the Faculty of INFORMATICS AND DESIGN at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013
In this information age, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation simplifies complexities within organisational heterogeneous Information Systems (IS). Following the early era of computerisation, ERP systems were designed to provide a formal integration of the whole enterprise with a business focussed approach to the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). With the advent of ERP systems, organisations in industry have invested substantially in these systems to assist and augment their ability to form more effective management of their resources across corporate walls and business functions through an integration of information and operations. In the public sector, governments at all levels have also turned to ERP systems to address their needs. As such, ERP implementation has become a new solution that many public institutions are venturing into, based on the evidence of benefits in the commercial sector. However, in the public sector, ERP systems should not be focussed on just internal organisational benefits. Due cognisance must be given, during design and implementation, to the citizen, who is the key public sector beneficiary. The benefits from ERP systems implementation and utilisation are well researched and documented by various scholars. However research has mainly focused on the private sector. Given the growing importance of ERP systems in the public sector it has become imperative to advance understanding in the arena of government with regards to public ERP system implementation and utilisation. Thus, an important question that warrants investigation is: ―What are the benefits for the citizen when ERP systems are implemented by municipalities?‖ The empirical work reported in this research investigated, via an in-depth case study, how the citizen benefits from ERP implementations in municipalities. Fifteen respondents, who are employees the City of Cape Town Municipality, were interviewed. Their interview transcripts, together with the other supporting documents they supplied and information from the City‘s website, were analysed through hermeneutical analysis. The analysis of the data was facilitated by the use of Atlas.ti, a computer-aided qualitative analysis software tool. Four key findings emanated from the analysis.  Indirect ERP-system benefits: The benefits in this category denoted those benefits that are generically found in any ERP system regardless of it being implemented in a private or public enterprise setup.  Direct citizen benefits: These are the benefits that are noticeable and directly extended to the citizens even without the knowledge of the existence of the ERP system.  Effective ERP system benefits management: This finding elaborated how the ERP system can be sustainably managed to ensure that it delivers maximum benefits to the citizens in a long term.  Efficient and effective use of public money: This finding explained the outcomes of utilising the ERP system, specifically in public enterprises, such as municipalities. The findings of this study are important in that they would assist to articulate and improve the business cases when municipalities commence with planning for ERP system acquisition. This is especially important given the high cost related to ERP system implementation. More importantly, the findings provide a basis for the identification of citizen benefits which are related to ERP system implementation. This provides municipal management a frame within which to improve the on-going management of ERP systems. The findings thus support improved ERP system benefits management and which would in turn ensure improved service delivery to the citizenry.

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have a good reputation for automation and strength in the integration of business processes (BPs), therefore more and more organisations are adopting ERP systems. The City of Cape Town (CCT), a metropolitan municipality, is one of the organisations that have adopted an ERP system. CCT provides a wide range of services to residents and citizens in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The ERP system at CCT manages the Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes, among others, to ensure good service delivery. ERP systems are able to provide statistical reports on stock-outs; however, the information provided is insufficient to link a specific stock-out to its causes within the SCM process at CCT. This makes it difficult to select the most appropriate solution to minimise the causes and number of stock-outs. The study aims to explore the possible reduction of the causes of stock-outs at CCT stores, therefore the study has adopted a qualitative research methodology with a case study research strategy. It uses subjectivism to understand the truth, with an inductive approach applied to five different interviewee groups, namely the ERP Support Department consultants, the Procurement Department, the Inventory and Stores Management Department, the Master Data Maintenance Department, and the reservation creators. A purposive sampling method is used because the study targets knowledge and experience on the subject from the interviewees in the investigation of the problem. The case is the SCM division at CCT, the unit of analysis is the CCT stores, and the unit of observation is the employees who work for the SCM division of CCT. All ethical procedures and policies of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) are adhered to. For the data collection, in depth semi-structured questions have been developed, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. The leading causes of stock-outs were discovered by analysing the themes. The results revealed the themes, in descending order according to the causes of stock-outs, as follows: procedures, service delivery, suppliers, stock-outs, human resources, and systems. All the objectives were achieved, thereby answering the research questions.

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018.
The thesis aimed at exploring the role Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems play in an organization’s continuous auditing practices. Continuous auditing encourages innovation and improves the practice of traditional auditing through the use of automation and computerisation. Auditing specialists and researchers have begun to adopt a technology driven process as an approach to back up real time assurance. The rationale of the study is drawn from previous research where the findings argue that organizations employ the use of ERP systems because it enables seamless access to information and automation, which makes monitoring of controls easier. The study used Structuration Theory (ST) as the underpinning theory and drew on the concept of duality of technology (i.e., Enactment of Technology-in-Practice) as a lens to comprehend and deduced the social phenomenon of continuous auditing using ERP system. This research study investigated this social phenomenon and how it had influenced performance auditing of an organization. The study applied interpretivism as a research paradigm and as such adopted a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews were used to tease out the research objectives and questions. The outcome of the research validated a conceptual framework which has led to a proposed general framework for practicing continuous auditing using ERP system. All interviews data collected and accurately captured with informed consent were subject to the approval of the selected organization. This was not to violate the organization’s privacy and confidentiality policies. It did not reveal any information that could potentially adversely affect the reputation of the organization or reveal private information to its competitors.

Cutting and packing problems are combinatorial optimisation problems. The major interest in these problems is their practical significance, in manufacturing and other business sectors. In most manufacturing situations a raw material usually in some standard size has to be divided or be cut into smaller items to complete the production of some product. Since the cost of this raw material usually forms a significant portion of the input costs, it is therefore desirable that this resource be used efficiently. A hybrid general genetic algorithm is presented in this work to solve one and two dimensional problems of this nature. The novelties with this algorithm are: A novel placement heuristic hybridised with a Genetic Algorithm is introduced and a general solution encoding scheme which is used to encode one dimensional and two dimensional problems is also introduced.

An important requirement of a rational policy for provision of outdoor recreation opportunities is some understanding of natural processes and public concern and /or preferences. Computerized land use suitability mapping is a technique which can help find the best location for a variety of developmental actions given a set of goals and other criteria. Over the past two decades, the methods and techniques of land use planning have been engaged in a revolution on at least two fronts as to shift the basic theories and attitudes of which land use decisions are based. The first of these fronts is the inclusion of environmental concerns, and the second is the application of more systematic methods or models. While these automated capabilities have shed new light on environmental issues, they, unfortunately, have failed to develop sufficient intelligence and adaptation to accurately model the dynamics of ecosystems.The work reported proceeds on the belief that neural network models can be used to assess and develop resource management strategies for Mounds State Park, Anderson, Indiana. The study combines a photographic survey technique with a geographic information system (GIS) and artificial neural networks (NN) to investigate the perceived impact of park management activities on recreation opportunities and experiences. It is unique in that it incorporates both survey data with spatial data and an optimizing technique to develop a model for predicting perceived management values for short and long term recreation management.According to Jeannette Stanley and Evan Bak (1988) a neural network is a massively parallel, dynamic systems of highly interconnected interacting parts based on neurobiological models. The behavior of the network depends heavily on the connection details. The state of the network evolves continually with time. Networks are considered clever and intuitive because they learn by example rather than following simple programming rules. They are defined by a set of rules or patterns based on expertise or perception for better decision making. With experience networks become sensitive to subtle relationships in the environment which are not obvious to humans.The model was developed as a counter-propagation network with a four layer learning network consisting of an input layer, a normalized layer, a kohonen layer, and an output layer. The counter-propagation network is a feed-forward network which combines Kohonen and Widrow-Hoff learning rules for a new type of mapping neural network. The network was trained with patterns derived by mapping five variables (slope, aspect, vegetation, soil, site features) and survey responses from three groups. The responses included, for each viewshed, the preference and management values, and three recreational activities each group associated with a given landscape. Overall the model behaves properly in learning the different rules and generalizing in cases where inputs had not been shown to the network apriori. Maps are provided to illustrate the different responses obtained from each group and simulated by the model. The study is not conclusive as to the capabilities of the combination of GIS techniques and neural networks, but it gives a good flavor of what can be achieved when accurate mapping information is used by an intelligent system for decision making.
Department of Landscape Architecture

Orientadores: Claudia Maria Bauzer Medeiros, André Santanchè
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Computação
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Resumo: Sistemas de Gerenciamento de Workflows (WfMS -- em inglês) são usados para gerenciar a execução de processos, melhorando eficiência e eficácia de procedimentos em uso. As forças motrizes por trás da adoção e do desenvolvimento de um WfMS são aplicações científicas e de negócios. Esforços conjuntos de ambos resultaram em mecanismos consolidados, além de padrões e protocolos consensuais. Em particular, um WfMS científico (SWfMS -- \textit{Scientific WfMS}) auxilia cientistas a especificar e executar experimentos distribuídos. Ele fornece diferentes recursos que suportam atividades em um ambiente experimental, como prover flexibilidade para mudar o projeto de workflow, manter a proveniência e suportar reproducibilidade de experimentos. Por outro lado, apesar de poucas iniciativas de pesquisa, WfMSs não fornecem suporte apropriado à personalização dinâmica e baseada em contexto durante a execução; adaptações em tempo de execução normalmente requerem intervenção do usuário. Esta tese se concentra em superar essa deficiência, fornecendo a WfMSs um mecanismo de ciente do contexto para personalizar a execução de workflows. Como resultado, foi projetado e desenvolvido o DynFlow -- uma arquitetura de software que permite tal personalização aplicada a um domínio: planejamento de saúde. Este domínio foi escolhido por ser um ótimo exemplo de personalização sensível ao contexto. Procedimentos de saúde constantemente sofrem mudanças que podem ocorrer durante um tratamento, como a reação de um paciente a um medicamento. Para suprir a demanda, a pesquisa em planejamento de saúde desenvolveu técnicas semi-automáticas para suportar mudanças rápidas dos passos de fluxos de tratamento, de acordo com o estado e a evolução do paciente. Uma dessas técnicas é \textit{Computer-Interpretable Guidelines} (CIG), cujo membro mais proeminente é \textit{Task-Network Model} (TNM) -- uma abordagem baseada em regras capaz de construir um plano em tempo de execução. Nossa pesquisa nos levou a concluir que CIGs não suportam características necessárias por profissionais de saúde, como proveniência e extensibilidade, disponíveis em WfMSs. Em outras palavras, CIGs e WfMSs têm características complementares e são direcionadas à execução de atividades. Considerando os fatos citados, as principais contribuições desta tese são: (a) especificação e desenvolvimento do DynFlow, cujo modelo associa características de TNMs e WfMS; (b) caracterização das principais vantagens e desvantagens de modelos CIGs e WfMSs; (c) implementação de um protótipo, baseado em ontologias e aplicadas ao domínio da saúde e enfermagem
Abstract: Workflow Management Systems (WfMS) are used to manage the execution of processes, improving efficiency and efficacy of the procedure in use. The driving forces behind the adoption and development of WfMSs are business and scientific applications. Associated research efforts resulted in consolidated mechanisms, consensual protocols and standards. In particular, a scientific WfMS helps scientists to specify and run distributed experiments. It provides several features that support activities within an experimental environment, such as providing flexibility to change workflow design and keeping provenance (and thus reproducibility) of experiments. On the other hand, barring a few research initiatives, WfMSs do not provide appropriate support to dynamic, context-based customization during run-time; on-the-fly adaptations usually require user intervention. This thesis is concerned with mending this gap, providing WfMSs with a context-aware mechanism to dynamically customize workflow execution. As a result, we designed and developed DynFlow ¿ a software architecture that allows such a customization, applied to a specific domain: healthcare planning. This application domain was chosen because it is a very good example of context-sensitive customization. Indeed, healthcare procedures constantly undergo unexpected changes that may occur during a treatment, such as a patient¿s reaction to a medicine. To meet dynamic customization demands, healthcare planning research has developed semi-automated techniques to support fast changes of the careflow steps according to a patient¿s state and evolution. One such technique is Computer-Interpretable Guidelines (CIG), whose most prominent member is the Task-Network Model (TNM) -- a rule based approach able to build on the fly a plan according to the context. Our research led us to conclude that CIGs do not support features required by health professionals, such as distributed execution, provenance and extensibility, which are available from WfMSs. In other words, CIGs and WfMSs have complementary characteristics, and both are directed towards execution of activities. Given the above facts, the main contributions of the thesis are the following: (a) the design and development of DynFlow, whose underlying model blends TNM characteristics with WfMS; (b) the characterization of the main advantages and disadvantages of CIG models and workflow models; and (c) the implementation of a prototype, based on ontologies, applied to nursing care. Ontologies are used as a solution to enable interoperability across distinct SWfMS internal representations, as well as to support distinct healthcare vocabularies and procedures
Doutorado
Ciência da Computação
Doutor em Ciência da Computação

This research investigates the problem of constrained sequencing of a set of jobs on a conveyor system with the objective of minimizing setup cost. A setup cost is associated with extra material, labor, or energy required due to the change of attributes in consecutive jobs at processing stations. A finite set of attributes is considered in this research. Sequencing is constrained by the availability of two elements ??orage buffers and conveyor junctions. The problem is motivated by the paint purge reduction problem at a major U.S. automotive manufacturer. First, a diverging junction with a sequence-independent setup cost and predefined attributes is modeled as an assignment problem and this model is extended by relaxing the initial assumptions in various ways. We also model the constrained sequencing problem with an off-line buffer and develop heuristics for efficiently getting a good quality solution by exploiting the special problem structure. Finally, we conduct sensitivity analysis using numerical experiments, explain the case study, and discuss the use of the simulation model as a supplementary tool for analyzing the constrained sequencing problem.

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The 1990s demonstrated a growth of ERP (enterprise resource planning) adoption amongst organizations, and among scholars it has been studied in a series of aca-demic publications, that defined ERPs as a contributor to obtain competitive advan-tage and organizational performance. The present study encompasses the new ERP configuration, dedicated to support companies in its front end operations and value chain integration, so called ERPII model, and investigates the relationship with the Dynamic Capabilities during the post-implementation phase. In order to ac-complish this objectives, a conceptual Framework is developed, to articulate the construct variables with the level of market turbulence. Furthermore, a quantitative field research is executed, based on a survey, and the research results are interpreted under the Framework perspective, where the results are validated through statistical tests such as Spearman correlation, Mann-Withney and Kruskal-Wallis, in order to obtain an explicative analysis of the Dynamic Capabilities role in the sustenance of ERPII. The results, evidenced Dynamic Capabilities in all presuppositions articulated by the Framework, with positive impacts in reconfiguration of routines responsible for ERPII sustenance and its organizational performance contribution. In this sense, the major effects were identified in sensing and seizing of market opportunities focused on evolving ERPII, management initiatives to encourage tacit and explicit learning processes, coordination of ERPII quality and performance metrics, and level of uncertain of business market related to ERPII context.
Os anos de 1990 apresentaram um crescimento na ado????o dos sistemas de gest??o empresarial (ERPs) pelas organiza????es, e o tema foi estudado em um grande n??me-ro de publica????es acad??micas, que apontaram o mesmo como um impulsionador da obten????o da vantagem competitiva e desempenho empresarial. A presente disserta-????o aborda a configura????o contempor??nea dos sistemas ERPs, dedicada a suportar as empresas em suas opera????es de linha de frente e integra????o com a cadeia de valor, dentro do modelo conceitual chamado ERPII, e analisa suas rela????es com as Capacidades Din??micas em sua fase de p??s-implementa????o. Para tanto, um Fra-mework conceitual ?? proposto, com o objetivo de articular as vari??veis relativas aos constructos, agregando-as a indicadores concernentes ao n??vel de incerteza do am-biente. Em continuidade, o trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa de campo, executada por meio de um instrumento de pesquisa de natureza quantitativa. Por fim, sob a ??ti-ca do Framework desenvolvido, os resultados da pesquisa s??o validados estatisti-camente por meio de testes de correla????o de Spearman, Mann-Withney e Kruskal-Wallis, visando obter uma an??lise explicativa do papel das Capacidades Din??micas na sustenta????o do ERPII. Como resultados, observou-se a presen??a das Capacida-des Din??micas em todos os pressupostos articulados por meio do Framework, com impacto positivo na reconfigura????o de rotinas respons??veis pela sustenta????o do ERPII e consequente contribui????o para o desempenho organizacional. Nesse senti-do, os fatores que exerceram maior influ??ncia foram os relacionados a mecanismos de prospec????o e tratamento de oportunidades e atualiza????es do ERPII, seguidos por a????es gerenciais de incentivo ?? aprendizagem t??cita e expl??cita, coordena????o de in-dicadores de qualidade e desempenho, e n??vel de dinamicidade do mercado de ne-g??cios no contexto do ERPII.

The Small and Medium-size Enterprises are the key bone of the economy of many nations. The usual definition of SME’s, make up 99.8% of the approximately 19 million enterprises of the European Union (ISO, 2002) and Sweden is not an exception. That is why SME’s faces the strategic challenge of achieving sustained profitable growth. To meet this challenge, SME’s must develop capabilities to integrate their systems. Since ICT gives so many advantages to support the Supply Chain, and MRPII software’s have become a very popular tool in the last thirty years; Our purpose is to answer the following research question:

How can MRP II-type computer systems be used effectively to support the manufacturing and organizational integration?

The research started with on-site observations and interviews but the development of a model and a survey was needed. After, we linked the research with an already accepted model. The results show how important the human aspect and the accuracy are in the effective usage of an MRP II. It also demonstrates that the MRP II philosophy must be accepted to use the MRP II software profitably. Nevertheless, we modeled the vicious cycle that our case company might deal with, tried to find the root cause and give recommendations to break it.

Små och Mellan- stora företag är många nationers byggstenar. Den vanligaste definitionen av SME´s utgör 99,8% av de uppskattningsvis 19 miljoner företag inom Europeiska Unionen (ISO, 2002) och Sverige är inget undantag. Det är anledningen till att SME´s möter den strategiska utmaningen att uppnå ihållande och vinstgivande tillväxt. För att ta sig an denna utmaningen måste SME´s utveckla förmågor att integrera sina system. Eftersom ICT ger så många fördelar att stödja utbudskedjan, och eftersom MRP II mjukvaror har kommit att bli ett populärt verktyg de senaste trettio åren, kommer vårt syfte bli att svara på följande fråga:

Hur kan datasystem av typen MRP II användas för att på ett effektivt sätt underlätta integrering av tillverkning och organisation?

Undersökningen startade med observationer samt intervjuer på plats, men utförandet av en statistisk undersökning och en modell var nödvändig efter det att vi redan hade kopplat ihop arbetet med en redan accepterad modell. Reasultaten visar hur viktig den mänskliga faktorn samt exaktheten är i användandet av en MRP II. Den visar också att MRP II filosofin måste vara accepterad innan man kan använda MRP II mjukvaran på ett fördelaktigt sätt. Likväl har vi illustrerat den onda cirkeln som vårt företag måste försöka ta sig ur, försökt hitta den underliggande orsaken och slutligen att ge rekommendationer för att bryta den.

Mestrado em Gestão/MBA
A informação está ao centro de todas as actividades de gestão. No entanto, ela permanece muitas das vezes intangível e difícil de encontrar. A evolução das tecnologias da informação permitiram o desenvolvimento acelerado das Soluções de Negócio Integradas. A primeira parte da dissertação trata das diversas definições da informação e dos sistemas de informação, mostrando finalmente a importância estratégica da informação. A segunda parte apresenta as novas técnicas informáticas que permitem divulgar a informação e as soluções de negócio integradas (ou ERP). Para apresentar esta solução de futuro, três monografias são apresentadas sobre os maiores editores do mercado de hoje : SAP, Oracle e Peoplesoft. Esta apresentação permite obter uma visão prospectiva da evolução das soluções de negócio integradas e soluções para os sistemas existentes.
The Information is central to the full activities of Management. Nevertheless it stays intangible and very hard to define. The Information and Computer Technology evolution allowed the growth of the Enterprise Resource Planning. The first chapter deals with the different definitions of information and Information Systems showing actually the strategic importance of information. The second chapter describes the new data processing technologies and the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). To develop that firms proposal for the future three monographs of the ERP's market leaders are shown : SAP, Oracle and Peoplesoft. These presentations allow us to have a prospective sight and to establish improvements of the nowadays solutions
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

La planification sanitaire régionale consiste à répartir dans l'espace régional les ressources sanitaires rares (équipement lourd, personnel, ...) entre différentes structures sanitaires existantes ou non, afin d'"optimiser" la réponse aux besoins en soins de la population régionale. Cette répartition s'effectue dans un contexte décisionnel multidimensionnel, dont les dimensions médicale, économique et celles relatives à l'aménagement du territoire. Depuis une quarantaine d'années, la recherche de méthodes rationnelles applicables à la planification sanitaire a permis l'investigation de nombreuses voies de modélisation, et la proposition de méthodes variées. Malgré leur multitude, aucune d'entre elles n'a acquis de légitimité auprès des planificateurs. Trois motifs expliquent ce phénomène: le caractère restrictif de la définition donnée au système de santé, la complexité des techniques mathématiques utilisée, souvent obscures pour les non initiés, et le rôle passif réservé au planificateur. Le travail présenté dans ce mémoire propose la formalisation d'un outil interactif d'aide à la planification sanitaire. Cette formalisation s'appuie sur une approche globale du système de santé, à partir de laquelle nous avons établit une définition de la planification sanitaire. A l'issue de cette formalisation, nous proposons un outil HERO qui lie un Système d'Information Géographique (SIG) avec un outil de résolution multiobjectif. Via le SIG, l'outil informe le planificateur sur l'état de santé de la population ainsi que sur les mécanismes de production et de consommation de soins. L'outil de résolution multiobjectif assiste ce dernier dans l'élaboration d'un plan en lui fournissant un moyen d'évaluation de la pertinence de ses choix dans la répartition spatiale des ressources. Le fonctionnement de HERO est illustré sur un exemple utilisant des données du Bas-Rhin (France).

In this thesis, a framework for market-based resource allocation in manufacturing is developed and described. The most salient feature of the proposed framework is that it builds on a foundation of well-established economic theory and uses the theory to guide both the agent and market design. There are two motivations for introducing the added complexity of the market metaphor into a decision-making environment that is traditionally addressed using monolithic, centralized techniques. First, markets are composed of autonomous, self-interested agents with well defined boundaries, capabilities, and knowledge. By decomposing a large, complex decision problem along these lines, the task of formulating the problem and identifying its many conflicting objectives is simplified. Second, markets provide a means of encapsulating the many interdependencies between agents into a single mechanism—price. By ignoring the desires and objectives of all other agents and selfishly maximizing their own expected utility over a set of prices, the agents achieve a high degree of independence from one another. Thus, the market provides a means of achieving distributed computation. To test the basic feasibility of the market-based approach, a prototype, system is used to generate solutions to small instances of a very general class of manufacturing scheduling problems. The agents in the system bid in competition with other agents to secure contracts for scarce production resources. In order to accurately model the complexity and uncertainty of the manufacturing environment, agents are implemented as decision-theoretic planners. By using dynamic programming, the agents can determine their optimal course of action given their resource requirements. Although each agent-level planning problem (like the global level planning problem) induces an unsolvably large Markov Decision Problem, the structured dynamic programming algorithm exploits sources of independence within the problem and is shown to greatly increase the size of problems that can be solved in practice. In the final stage of the framework, an auction is used to determine the ultimate allocation of resource bundles to parts. Although the resulting combinational auctions are generally intractable, highly optimized algorithms do exist for finding efficient equilibria. In this thesis, a heuristic auction protocol is introduced and is shown to be capable of eliminating common modes of market failure in combinational auctions.

Layered manufacturing plays important role in industry. Conventional pro-cess planning takes polygon soup as input and has high quality requirements on these polygonal model such as no self-intersection, no degenerate polygon et al. A growing number of models, especially for those in complex shape are acquired from reverse engineering. Implicit representation always serves as intermediate representation and ¯nally need to be tesselated into polygonal mesh for layered manufacturing applications. However, the present tessellation techniques have difficulties to provide topologically faithful and self-intersection free polygonal mesh from implicit model. On the other hand, implicit representation are mathematically compact and robust, which is important for presenting complex freeform models.
I develop a robust and efficient approach to directly slicing implicit solids. Different from prior slicing techniques that reconstruct contours on the slicing plane by tracing the topology of intersected line segments, which is actually not robust, I generate contours through a topology guaranteed contour extraction on binary images sampled from given solids and a subsequent contour simplification algorithm which has the topology preserved and the geometric error controlled. The resultant contours are free of self-intersection, topologically faithful to the given r-regular solids and with shape error bounded; therefore, correct objects can be fabricated from them by layered manufacturing. Moreover, since I do not need to generate the tessellated B-rep of given solids, my direct slicing approach is memory efficient - only the binary image and the finest contours on one particular slicing plane need to be stored in-core. My method is general and can be applied to any implicit representations of solids.
Moreover, I also investigate techniques for support generation for layered manufacturing in image space. Region subtraction is a crucial operation for support generation. I develop a robust and reliable region subtraction method on implicit solid slicing. Compared with the conventional approach in which support regioncontours are produced from part slicing contours by polygonal operations, my approach calculates reasonable support region on binary image for each layer. I investigate a conservative growing-swallow technique to remove as much as possible the support material for self-support region while still guarantee the safety of building process. My region subtraction can serve as core technique for many layered manufacturing processes. In my research, I demonstrate region subtraction technique in both Fused Decomposition Modeling(FDM) and Stereolithography(SLA). A region cleaning technique which can reduce topology complexity of calculated support structure region is developed to fulfil specific requirement of FDM. With all the operations involved being discrete on binary image, my approach is more robust compared with the polygonal operations which are based on numerical computation. Moreover, processing on binary image makes my approach highly parallelizable. My self-intersection free contour extraction technique used in direct slicing can also be adopted to extract support structure contour on binary image if necessary.
Huang, Pu.
"October 2012."
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-84).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstract --- p.i
Chinese Abstract --- p.iii
Acknowledgements --- p.iv
List of Figures --- p.vii
List of Tables --- p.ix
Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- Contribution --- p.4
Chapter 1.3 --- Organization --- p.5
Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.7
Chapter 2.1 --- Direct Slicing on Implicit Solid --- p.7
Chapter 2.2 --- Slicing based Support Generation --- p.9
Chapter 3 --- Problem Definition --- p.10
Chapter 4 --- Topologically Faithful Slicing Contour Generation --- p.12
Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.12
Chapter 4.2 --- Sampling and Contour Generation --- p.15
Chapter 4.2.1 --- Sampling --- p.16
Chapter 4.2.2 --- Topologically faithful contouring --- p.17
Chapter 4.2.3 --- r-Regularity and Accuracy in Layered Manufacturing --- p.19
Chapter 4.3 --- Constrained Smoothing --- p.20
Chapter 4.4 --- Contour Simplification --- p.24
Chapter 4.4.1 --- Variational segmentation --- p.25
Chapter 4.4.2 --- Topology and distortion verification --- p.27
Chapter 4.4.3 --- Hausdorff Error Analysis --- p.31
Chapter 4.5 --- Results and Discussion --- p.33
Chapter 5 --- Reliable and Robust Region Subtraction for Support Generation --- p.43
Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.43
Chapter 5.2 --- Preliminary --- p.46
Chapter 5.3 --- Region Subtraction --- p.48
Chapter 5.3.1 --- Binary Image Grid-width and Self-support Feature Threshold --- p.48
Chapter 5.3.2 --- Conservative Growing-swallow Method --- p.50
Chapter 5.4 --- Region Cleaning Technique for FDM --- p.53
Chapter 5.5 --- Anchor Support Generation for SLA --- p.57
Chapter 5.6 --- Result and Discussion --- p.60
Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.71
Chapter 6.1 --- Summary and Discussion --- p.71
Chapter 6.2 --- Future Work --- p.73
Chapter A --- Inconsistent Contouring Problem Analysis --- p.76
Bibliography --- p.80

碩士
中原大學
電子工程研究所
89
Enterprise management follows the change of time; therefore, there are many different varieties of challenges and new creations in this period. To hold the key to success, enterprises should understand the needs and wants from consumers, providing new creations capability to adapt the multi competitive environment at the present stage. Enterprises will become very outstanding in the market during the competition if enterprises could combine the modern produce technologies, modern management skills and establishing the development strategies for enterprise itself. To emphasize the flow path resource in each process and providing the enterprise get their resource in speed (ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning) would be consider as most the important management tool to assist enterprises create their new flow path and integrated resource. The innate character of ERP would consider the online transaction process system. The difference in traditional information process system would be the instantly and the integration services. Thus, it also shows the importance on the exchange and process of information. For this research, the topic will be focusing on flow path of the work, instantaneously supply and the most suitable flow path…etc. By use these theories and practice them into Enterprise Resource Planning system, asynchronous data transferring and processing; through the system planning and creation process, research on the actual instantaneously and asynchronous data transferring process, also issues on heterogeneous network communication integrations; finally deep understanding user side’s interface, program level and database level in each other’s functional territory and situation of division management in the three-tier Client Server framework structure. According to the information on ARM market consulting from Unite State, the global ERP market scale was about 150 billion US dollars in the year 1998; the anticipation in year 2002 would reach to the market scale of 520 billion US dollars. ERP system combine with E-Commerce will make its goal on the territory of information products. For this reason above, the complete and integration of asynchronous data would become to a norm of the next generation, also a main key point for fully information integration.

In the last fifty years, process improvements in service and product based organizations have greatly improvement quality, decreased development time and reduced scrap by improving process efficiency. Terms such as Lean Engineering, Just in Time, Total Quality Management and certifications such as ISO 9000 have become commonplace. In support of these process improvements, Engineering Data Management is a toolkit for achieving a truly integrated environment within a technical business by allowing teams to work more closely together, improving speed and efficiencies within the organization. This report was created to introduce the reader to basic principles of EDM and how it can improve an organization’s ability to compete.
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Relatório de estágio do Mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial apresentado à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Numa Era cada vez mais informatizada, com o crescimento das empresas e o aumento da complexidade dos seus sistemas produtivos surgiram os sistemas de informação, com o objetivo de agregar todos os elementos relevantes da empresa numa única base de dados, de modo a efetuar uma gestão mais eficiente dos negócios. Baseado num destes sistemas de informação, surge o tema principal desta dissertação, que tem como principal objetivo a otimização e análise dos dados obtidos através do Manufacturing Execution System presente na Tridec, empresa que desenvolve e fabrica sistemas direcionais e suspensões para a indústria de transporte de mercadorias. Com o intuito de aumentar a fiabilidade dos dados obtidos foram identificadas as debilidades no processo de registo de dados e implementadas medidas de modo a que este seja feito de forma correta, permitindo efetuar uma análise de custos e de desempenho mais fiável e precisa. Um outro objetivo passou por fazer o ajuste do tempo padrão de produção das peças mais relevantes financeiramente para a empresa. Para tal foi necessário identificar as peças com maior peso na faturação da empresa, dividindo-as em classes, de modo a serem estabelecidas prioridades. Ao realizar esta análise teve-se em conta a Lei de Parkinson, pelo que esta foi feita de modo a ser estabelecido um tempo padrão considerando as tarefas realizadas com um bom desempenho. Com o ajuste de tempos padrão e uma maior fiabilidade dos dados registados torna-se possível fazer um planeamento minucioso. Nesse sentido, foi também efetuado um estudo de viabilidade para adquirir uma aplicação informática que permita fazer o balanceamento da produção de forma detalhada e eficaz, resultando em ganhos efetivos de rentabilidade.
In an increasingly computerized age, with the growth of the companies and the increasing complexity of their production systems emerged the information systems, with the aim to aggregate relevant data of the company in a single database, in order to make a more efficient business management. Based on one of these information systems, the main theme of this dissertation arises, witch the main goal is the optimization and analysis of data obtained through the Manufacturing Execution System present at Tridec, a company that develops and produces directional systems and suspensions for the transport industry goods. Aiming to increase the reliability of data obtained, the weaknesses in the data record process were identified, and measures implemented in order to be done in the correct way, thereby allowing accomplishing a reliable and accurate cost and performance analysis. Another goal passed through the standard time adjustment of the most financially important production parts of the company. To achieve this it was necessary to identify the parts with the highest weight in the company’s turnover, dividing them into classes, in order to establish priorities. By performing the analysis, the Parkinson’s Law was taken into account, so it was made in a manner to establish a standard time considering the tasks carried out with a good performance. With the standard times adjusted and a greater reliability of recorded data it is possible to make a more precise planning. In that direction, it was also conducted a feasibility study to acquire a software application that allows to do a detailed and effective production balancing, resulting in effective profitability gains.

M.Com. (Computer Auditing)
This study investigates the effects of the implementation and upgrade of financial Enterprise Resource Planning (hereafter ERP) systems, particularly the Oracle system, on financial reporting and audit. It also determines whether the independent external auditors play a vital role in the process of implementing internal controls in the implementation and upgrade of the Oracle system at a higher education institution (hereafter HEI). With the ever-evolving information technology, it is of utmost importance that the necessary controls be implemented. A sample of 18 Oracle system users from the HEI finance expenditure department and HEI independent external auditors is surveyed and the results of the survey are used to provide advice to organisational management on measures that should be implemented to ensure smooth systems implementation and post-implementation results. The empirical study indicates that the HEI had adequate measures and controls in place to ensure that the ERP implementation runs smoothly and threats are avoided, resulting in a successful implementation for competitive advantage in HEI.