Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Repacking'

With recent advances and cost reductions in next generation sequencing (NGS), the amount of genetic sequence data is increasing rapidly. However, before patient specific genetic information reaches its full potential to advance clinical diagnostics, the immense degree of genetic heterogeneity that contributes to human disease must be more fully understood. For example, although large numbers of genetic variations are discovered during clinical use of NGS, annotating and understanding the impact of such coding variations on protein phenotype remains a bottleneck (i.e. what is the molecular mechanism behind deafness phenotypes). Fortunately, computational methods are emerging that can be used to efficiently study protein coding variants, and thereby overcome the bottleneck brought on by rapid adoption of clinical sequencing. To study proteins via physics-based computational algorithms, high-quality 3D structural models are essential. These protein models can be obtained using a variety of numerical optimization methods that operate on physics-based potential energy functions. Accurate protein structures serve as input to downstream variation analysis algorithms. In this work, we applied a novel amino acid side-chain optimization algorithm, which operated on an advanced model of atomic interactions (i.e. the AMOEBA polarizable force field), to a set of 164 protein structural models implicated in deafness. The resulting models were evaluated with the MolProbity structure validation tool. MolProbity “scores” were originally calibrated to predict the quality of X-ray diffraction data used to generate a given protein model (i.e. a 1.0 Å or lower MolProbity score indicates a protein model from high quality data, while a score of 4.0 Å or higher reflects relatively poor data). In this work, the side-chain optimization algorithm improved mean MolProbity score from 2.65 Å (42nd percentile) to nearly atomic resolution at 1.41 Å (95th percentile). However, side-chain optimization with the AMOEBA many-body potential function is computationally expensive. Thus, a second contribution of this work is a parallelization scheme that utilizes nVidia graphical processing units (GPUs) to accelerate the side-chain repacking algorithm. With the use of one GPU, our side-chain optimization algorithm achieved a 25 times speed-up compared to using two Intel Xeon E5-2680v4 central processing units (CPUs). We expect the GPU acceleration scheme to lessen demand on computing resources dedicated to protein structure optimization efforts and thereby dramatically expand the number of protein structures available to aid in interpretation of missense variations associated with deafness.

This thesis is focused on the front and rear suspension of the off-road buggy. For the front suspension is compared the concept with and without pushrod with respect to the kinematics parameters and the damping parameters. For the rear axle, there are three concepts that is compared, especially multilink suspension, double wishbone, and swing axle. Finally, structural design and dimensioning for front axle is performed.

Mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial
A gestão de um armazém de componentes de uma qualquer empresa produtiva é uma das principais tarefas a desempenhar no seio desta, pois a mesma afecta toda a cadeia de abastecimento de entrega do produto final, sendo o armazém de componentes o início da cadeia interna. Qualquer dificuldade que surja no desenrolar das actividades associadas poderá causar impactos prejudiciais nos processos consequentes. A melhoria do principal processo do armazém, correspondente à satisfação dos pedidos de material dos processos a jusante, é algo que trará benefícios a toda a cadeia, ao mesmo tempo que são melhoradas as condições de trabalho, eliminando o desperdício e tornando o processo mais eficiente. Não obstante deste processo, ainda existe a necessidade de recolher e gerir informações referentes aos diferentes processos do armazém da maneira mais rápida possível, para actuar de acordo com as necessidades. A falta de informação relativamente ao estado de um processo também poderá influenciar os processos seguintes de forma negativa. O projecto aqui apresentado foi realizado no armazém de componentes da Bosch Termotecnologia S.A., em Aveiro, tendo como objectivo mostrar a importância da movimentação de material e também de informação dentro desta área, criando ao mesmo tempo a melhoria tanto dos fluxos de material como dos fluxos de informação. Serão apresentadas diferentes implementações que foram desenvolvidas com o intuito de criar melhoria nos fluxos: a criação de novos fluxos de informação para o processo de recepção de material, com o intuito de recolher informação que até agora não era perceptível, para depois actuar na melhoria do processo; a criação de áreas dedicadas dentro da área de picking, de modo a atingir uma redução no número de colaboradores afectos ao processo de picking; a implementação de uma célula de repacking, de modo a remover esta actividade do processo de picking; bem como todas as actividades realizadas com o objectivo de implementar as melhorias propostas.
The process of managing a components warehouse of a production company is one of the most critical activities within the company itself that will affect the whole supply chain of the final product, being the components warehouse the beginning of the internal chain. Any difficulty that may occur on the correspondent activities may cause damaging impact on the forward processes. The continuous improvement of the most important process in the warehouse, the picking of components to fulfill orders from the production process, will bring benefits to the whole supply chain, while the work conditions are improved and waste eliminated, improving the efficiency of the process. Despite the importance of this specific process, there is the necessity of gathering information for all processes in the fastest way, to know how to act according to the needs. The lack of information could also bring negative consequences on other processes. The project here presented was developed in the components warehouse in Bosch Termotecnologia S.A., in Aveiro, being its purpose to show the importance of material and information movement, while improving the material and information flows. Different activities developed with the objective to improve those flows will be presented. The creation of new information flows on the receiving process, to gather information until this point not noticeable, to later on improve the process; the creation of areas for zone picking, to achieve a reduction in the number of workers associated to the process; the implementation of a repacking cell, to remove this activity from the picking process; and also all the activities linked to the priors, with the objective of achieving the proposed improvements.

This thesis examines the frames used by three news organizations to cover the rescindment of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The rescindment of DACA was a pivotal transition period open to new immigration policy, and frames used in the news coverage of DACA are important as frames influence public opinion and possible future immigration policy. This study uses corpus linguistic methods and Van Gorp’s inductive framing analysis to explore how a complex political decision like DACA rescindment is covered in condensed news stories on Twitter as well as in full-length news articles. The Executive Critique frame, which places blame on President Trump as the problem of DACA rescindment, is the most common frame of both full-length news articles and Tweeted news articles. The Public Resistance frame, showing opposition to DACA rescindment by members of the public, is used more often in Tweeted news articles than in full-length news articles likely because of the salient visuals accompanying Tweeted news stories. Because visuals play a role in framing, journalists should capitalize on the potential of visuals in Tweeted news stories and balance using Human Interest frames and political frames like the Executive Critique frame. Using visuals to show DACA as human issue that promotes common ground, rather than as a divisive political issue, could be more productive in advancing comprehensive immigration reform, which failed in the six-month window President Trump gave to phase-out the DACA program.

In an attempt to have medicines available in patient-ready packs (PRPs) prior to the dispensing process, the provincial medicine depots in South Africa have, for many years, been repackaging bulk medicines into PRPs. Notwithstanding the fact that bulk medicine packages may have been the only packages available from the manufacturers to service the Primary Health Care (PHC) sector, the main aim of this process was to ensure that medicines were available in PRPs for dispensing to patients, thus, minimising the time spent on each prescription by the pharmacist, pharmacist’s assistant or Nurse. Currently, some medicines are being procured in PRPs from the manufacturers, whereas others are still procured in bulk packs which must be repackaged into PRPs. After a thorough literature search, it was established that, up until this point in time, no studies have been performed to compare costs of repackaged medicines from bulk packs with costs of medicines procured from manufacturers in PRPs. There was very scanty literature comparing the use of medicines procured either in PRPs or bulk packs. However, literature on cost comparison between repackaging and purchasing of commercially available manufacturer-prepared PRPs was not identified.

Introdução: A área Hospitalar vem sofrendo constantes mudanças organizacionais devido à introdução de novas tecnologias que incentivam a segurança do paciente. Aquelas aplicadas à distribuição de medicamentos podem abreviar o número de erros de distribuição, obter em tempo real um elevado nível de informação sobre todo processo e gerir melhor o tempo do profissional farmacêutico, de forma a aumentar a intervenção deste na prevenção de erros de medicações e consequentemente, os cuidados farmacêuticos ao doente internado. Objetivos: Avaliar o impacto da implantação de novas tecnologias que visam à maior segurança do paciente em um sistema de distribuição de medicamentos de um hospital universitário. A avaliação foi dividida em: 1) individualização de medicamentos por reembalagem, com o uso de código de barras na identificação dos medicamentos; 2) identificação dos pontos críticos no novo processo estabelecido para o Sistema de Distribuição de Medicamentos por Prescrição Individual; 3) identificação e análise de erros de medicação após implantação de sistema de controle por código de barras. Métodos: Foram realizados estudos de delineamento transversal. Para a avaliação do processo de individualização foi desenvolvido um instrumento de avaliação adaptado de recomendações internacionais e estudos anteriores, segundo as boas práticas de reembalagem. Aplicou-se o instrumento de avaliação na rotina escrita e, por meio da técnica de observação participante, verificou-se a adequação de sua execução, conforme o mesmo instrumento. Para a identificação dos pontos críticos do Sistema de Distribuição de Medicamentos foi analisada cada etapa e verificado onde poderia ocorrer erros de medicação. Para a avaliação do processo de Distribuição de Medicamentos por Prescrição Individualizada foi realizado um estudo transversal, no qual utilizou-se a técnica de observação participante e amostragem por conveniência. Foram avaliadas prescrições médicas vinculadas ao Sistema de Distribuição de Medicamentos por Prescrição Individualizada pela tecnologia do código de barras. Resultados: Para avaliação do processo de individualização foi observado o fracionamento de 42 formas farmacêuticas orais e injetáveis onde a rotina escrita do processo de individualização atendeu a 66% dos itens recomendados e a execução da mesma atendeu a 63%. Para a avaliação do processo de Distribuição de Medicamentos por Prescrição Individualizada foram analisadas 290 prescrições médicas vinculadas ao Sistema de Distribuição de Medicamentos por Prescrição Individualizada, destas, 25% apresentaram algum tipo de erro de medicação. O total de itens analisados foi de 2659, com 74 ocorrências de erros de medicação (2,78%). Comparados com os dados anteriores o número de erros por clínica ou em geral teve uma redução estatisticamente significativa. Conclusões: Os resultados obtidos mostram que a utilização de novas tecnologias aumenta a qualidade do serviço prestado prevenindo erros de medicação. Portanto, o sistema de leitura por códigos de barras, associado a mudanças na infra-estrutura e nos processos de trabalho, podem ser apontados como os principais fatores na diminuição nas taxas de erros de dispensação de medicamentos no hospital estudado.
Introduction: The field hospital has been undergoing constant organizational changes due to the introduction of new technologies that encourage patient safety. Those applied to the distribution of drugs can shorten the number of errors distribution, obtain real-time a high level of information about every process and better manage the time of the pharmacist in order to increase the intervention of the prevention of medication errors. A previous study found problems in the repackaging and an average of about 14% of medication errors in Distribution System for Prescription Drugs traveler at a university hospital. Objectives: To evaluate the impact of deployment of new technologies to the largest patient safety in a system of distribution of drugs in a university hospital. The evaluation was divided into: 1) individualization of medication by repackaging, using bar code identification of drugs, 2) identification of critical points in the new process established for the Distribution System for Prescription Drugs traveler, 3) identification and analysis of medication errors after implementation of control system by bar code. Methods: We performed cross-sectional studies. For the evaluation of the individualization process has been developed an assessment tool adapted from recommendations and previous studies, according to the practice of repackaging. We used the assessment tool in routine writing and, through the technique of participant observation, it was found the suitability of its execution, as the same instrument. For the identification of critical points of the Distribution System of Medicines was analyzed and verified every step which could occur from medication errors. For evaluation of the Distribution of Prescription Drugs Individualized was a transversal study, which used the technique of participant observation and convenience sampling. Were evaluated prescriptions linked to the Distribution System for Prescription Drug Individualized technology bar code. Results: To evaluate the process of individualization were observed fractionation of 42 oral dosage forms and injectables where routine writing process of individuation attended 66% of the items recommended and play the same 63% attended. For evaluation of the Distribution of Prescription Drugs Individualized analyzed 290 prescriptions linked to the Distribution System for Prescription Drug Individualized of these, 25% had some type of medication error. The total number of items analyzed was 2659, with 74 occurrences of medication errors (2.78%). Compared with earlier data the number of errors per clinic or in general had a statistically significant reduction. Conclusions: The results show that the use of new technologies increases the quality of service by preventing medication errors. Therefore, the system of reading bar codes associated with changes in the infrastructure and work processes can be described as the major factors in reducing the rates of errors in dispensing drugs in the hospital.

Depuis la fin des années 90, la plupart des animes n'arrivent en Europe qu’en DVD, alors qu’ils ont occupé largement les programmes pour enfants, il y a 30 ans. Rompant avec le circuit marketing habituel qui impose un passage à la télévision avant d'être éditées pour le marché de la vidéo, les animes édités en DVD illustrent une forme de « démédiation » des séries TV. De rendez-vous télévisuels, ils sont "re-conditionnés" en œuvres vendues directement au public pour qu'il les collectionne. Cette thèse étudie la manière dont les publics acceptent d’entrer dans cette logique de collection. L’hypothèse suivie a été celle de la ciné-vidéophilie qui postule une convergence entre des pratiques autrefois distinctes de cinéphiles et de vidéophiles. Cette recherche combine les études de réception et la sociologie des usages, permettant d'éclairer sous cet angle spécifique le développement des stratégies transmédia à l’œuvre dans les industries du divertissement audiovisuel
Since the end of the 1990’s, most Japanese animated TV series have been arriving in Europe as DVDs, even though they used to be the main content of children TV programs 30 years ago. Breaking away from the usual marketing circuit which usually imposes a television broadcasting of a series before it is edited for the video market, animes on DVD illustrate a form of TV series « demediation ». Through this “repackaging” process, they are turned from regular TV programs into collectibles, directly sold to consumers . This dissertation studies the ways anime publics accept or not this logic of collecting TV series. The hypothesis offered is that of cine-videophilie, based on the premisse of a convergence of formerly distinct cinephile and videophile practices. This research combines reception studies and sociology of technology, thus highlighting under this specific angle some present developments in the transmédia processes at work within the audiovisual entertainment industries

碩士
國立交通大學
資訊工程系
91
In mobile telecommunications operation, radio channels are scarce resources and should be carefully assigned. One possibility is to deploy the hierarchical cellular network (HCN). This thesis studies a HCN channel assignment scheme called repacking on demand (RoD). RoD was originally proposed for wireless local loop networks. We expend this work to accommodate mobile networks. Moreover, for non-speed-sensitive and speed-sensitive cases, we propose different channel assignment and repacking procedures for RoD. The simulation models are proposed to study the performance of HCN with RoD and some previously proposed schemes. Our study quantitatively indicates that RoD may significantly outperform the previous proposed schemes on call incompletion and call handoffs.

碩士
國立清華大學
資訊工程學系
97
Multihop relay (MR) technology is one of the most promising technologies that provide performance enhancement to the existing network systems. To achieve the maximal system performance, most current research allocates resources in a dynamic manner. However, in MR networks, the issues of path selection and spatial reuse will massively increase the complexity of resource scheduling. As a result, the majority of dynamic scheduling schemes might be not applicable in practical implementation due to high computation complexity. In this paper, to reduce the scheduling complexity while achieving near-optimal system throughput, we propose a constant-time repacking and borrowing-based resource scheduling (RBRS) algorithm for IEEE 802.16j MR networks. In the repacking phase of RBRS, the connection which served with high-cost path can be handed off to low-cost path and thus increase the number of available resources. In the borrowing phase, the overloaded cells are capable of borrowing resources from the under-loaded cells and thus the resource utilization can be further improved. Since both the repacking and borrowing processes are executed only with computation overhead of the selection operation, RBRS can make each scheduling decision in constant time. Simulation models are developed to investigate the performance of RBRS. The simulation results indicate that RBRS is at least 8.91 times faster than the state-of-the-art dynamic scheduling scheme while yielding near-optimal throughput. Even in the asymmetric environments, RBRS strikes an excellent balance between the system throughput and scheduling computation time.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
應用電子科技研究所
95
Since the traffic in mobile communication system increase rapidly, the radio channels are unable to meet the demand and must be assigned more accurately. It is possible to improve the channel allocation efficiency by upgrading the utility rate of spectrum. Further, the flexible application of hierarchical structure can be used to increase the coverage area and improve the utility rate of channels. In this thesis, Fuzzy Path Selector was developed to make path selection to meet the property of balanced-load cellular network. Fuzzy Cell Selector then was used to determine the cellular layer according to the velocity of MS and the resource state of cells to reduce the blocking rate. Third, Channel Assignment Evaluator was used to do adaptive repacking for reducing the dropping rate. The simulation results of proposed strategy in this thesis improved the blocking rate of 13.48% and the handoff rate of 56.48％ compared to traditional threshold controlling mechanism. It can be a better choice for improving channel allocation efficiency.

碩士
國立嘉義大學
資訊工程研究所
91
We propose Channel Partition with Repacking Scheme (CPR) for the users with full-rate calls, half-rate calls, and dual-mode mobile stations in GSM system. The scheme partitions the time slots of GSM radio frame into two parts, one is full-slot partition that provides full-time slots for the full-rate calls, another is half-slot partition that provides half-time slots for the half-rate calls. If the time slots of the full-slot partition are not available, the system allocates the full-time slots of the half-slot partition to the full-rate calls request. If the time slots of the half-slot partition are not available, the system allocates the half-time slots of the full-slot partition to the half-rate calls request. Furthermore, consider the requests of the dual-mode mobile stations, we propose CPR with Least Repacking scheme, CPR with Maximum QoS scheme, CPR with QoS Partition scheme to improve the system performance. We evaluate the system performance by computer simulations. In the simulation, we show that our schemes can improve the usage of the time slots, and reduce the probabilities of new call blocking and handoff call failure.

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial
O presente projeto de dissertação, realizado no âmbito do curso de Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial (MIEGI), teve como objetivo primordial a otimização dos processos de abastecimento aos supermercados na área de montagem final através de milk-run, na empresa Bosch Car Multimedia Portugal, S.A. A metodologia de investigação empregue neste projeto foi a Investigação - Ação, tendo este iniciado com uma descrição e análise crítica da situação atual dos processos na área de logística interna. Após análise detalhada dos processos de armazenamento do material no armazém de matéria-prima, de reembalamento e de transporte nos milk-run até aos supermercados da produção, verificou-se que grande parte dos problemas encontrados resultam da estratégia atual de armazenamento bem como da maneira como o material é atualmente reembalado antes de ser transferido para a produção. Neste seguimento, de maneira a melhorar e a ajustar os processos de acordo com o pretendido pela empresa, criaram-se algumas propostas de melhoria. Destacam-se as propostas relativas a um novo processo de reembalamento e da atribuição de um novo método de movimentação de material (dollies), que serão implementadas num futuro próximo. Estima-se que a proposta relativa ao processo de reembalamento permita a eliminação de erros arrumação de material em rampa/carruagem, as trocas de carruagens por parte dos colaboradores do reembalamento, as deslocações entre bancadas de reembalamento e zona de saídas do armazém 102 realizadas pelos colaboradores de dois milk-run, a segregação do material das rampas para as carruagens, as paragens em supermercados pelo facto de não haver certeza, por parte do colaborador, de ter material para abastecer. A alternativa em questão levou também a que o número de milk-run passasse de dois para um, proporcionando a eliminação dos custos logísticos de renting (4300€/ano), de consumo de energia, de manutenção e limpeza (3000€/ano) e da realocação de um colaborador a outra área (9100€/ano). A diminuição do Tempo de Ciclo do milk-run de 20 minutos para 15 minutos e o conhecimento dos locais onde o colaborador tem de parar e abastecer, são melhorias que advêm deste novo método. Por último, no que concerne ao novo método de movimentação de material, prevê-se que haja uma poupança de 87% em movimentos dos colaboradores dos milk-run, significando uma economia de 96 horas/mês.
The current dissertation project, carried out under the Integrated Master in Industrial Engineering and Management (IMIEM), had as the main goal the optimization of the supermarket's supply in the final assembly area through milk-run in the company Bosch Car Multimedia Portugal, SA.. The investigation methodology used on this project was Action research, which began with a critical description and analysis of the current situation of the processes in the internal logistics. After a detailed analysis of the material storage processes at the raw material's warehouse, of the repacking and transportation on the milk-run to the production supermarkets, checked that a big part of the problems found came from the actual storage strategy as well as the way that the material is currently repackaged before it is transferred for production. Afterwards, in order to improve and adjust the processes according to the company needs, some improvement proposals emerged. Are emphasized the proposals relative to a new process of repacking and attribution of a new material movement method, which will be implemented on a near future. It is estimated that the proposal relative to the repacking process allows the fix of errors in the ordering of the material in ramps/carriage, the exchange of carriage by the repacking collaborators, the movement between repacking benches and the exit zones from the warehouse 102 made by two milk-run collaborators, the segregation of the ramps material to the carriages; the stops in supermarkets by the fact that it isn't sure, by the collaborator, if he has the material to supply. The considered alternative also made possible the decrease of the milk-run from two to one, allowing the removal of the renting logistic costs (4300€/year), the energy consumption, maintenance and cleaning (3000€/year) and the relocation of a collaborator to another area (9100€/year). The decrease of the cycle time of the milk-run to 20 minutes to 15 minutes and the knowledge of the places where the collaborator has to stop and refuel are improvements which come from this new method. Lastly, that which concerns to the new method of material movement, it is estimated that an 87% saving is made in the movements of the milk-run collaborators, which means that there are 96 hours per month saved.

碩士
嘉南藥理科技大學
職業安全衛生系
102
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is one of the fuels with essential significance, which is used in houses, restaurants, and industries, and also is an eco-friendly green power. LPG repackaging company acts as filling processing between importers or manufacturers and customers and most local repackaging companies still use manual operation. LPG repackaging companies’ accidents still exist due to staff negligence. LPG is easily-flammable and easily-explosive when released. It would mix with air and cause Vapor Cloud Explosion (VCE) leads to explosions with heat source. It would also possibly lead to Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE) and cause severe damages to on-site staffs and its surroundings. As per Hazardous Work Place Review and Inspection Rules, LPG repackaging companies are classified as category C of work places and must be re-evaluated every five years as regulated. As repackaging companies are in lack of professional evaluation staffs, they are always authorized by professional engineers for risk assessment in this regard. Although the work places have passed the review, they are still unable to perform risk management for relevant procedures. With regard to risk management, there is no benefit from hazard evaluation without further practicing, monitoring, and improving. In this research, a LPG repackaging company in Tainan City was taken as a case study. Literature review, on-site observations, working standard procedures, recording charts, facilities’ safety evaluation charts based on hazardous evaluation results from LPG repackaging company were established followed by Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle to assure the continuity of system security and reliability. This research also uses consequence profile reconstruction software ALOHA (Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres) and perform leakage consequence analysis and risk evaluation for tanks in LPG repackaging company as a reference to emergency solutions and planning. The research results show that the implementation of high hazardous operation of LPG repackaging company into PDCA cycling management system would continuously improve hazard identification, enhancement of risk perception, and crisis management. It helps effective management not only increase cost-effectiveness but also decreases resource waste in repackaging companies. Risk management system, which contains recording sheet, safety evaluation sheet, and knowledge management content, determines lasting improvement for management system. System verification enhancement, improvement, feedback, and the establishment of the plan also help reliability of the management. The results of the ALOHA-based consequence analysis of LPG show that the flammable threat area is greater in summer than that in winter for all flammable LOCs. However, the thermal radiation threat area is greater in winter than that in summer for all thermal radiation LOCs.

I trace the transformation of two inner-city districts in London from semi-derelict industrial areas to emerging showcases of cultural enterprise, King's Cross, the site of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link terminus and Spitalfields, east of the financial district. By using a methodological melange that includes a host of interviews, first-hand observation and volunteer work at a community planning group over a year and a half, I explain how various efforts at historic preservation, community planning, economic development and, increasingly, promoting cultural activities have produced this transformation. Rather than focusing on gentrification or working-class displacement, I look at how these efforts have mobilized 'urbanist agency,' that is, of people such as architects, architectural historians, community activists, non-profit developers, planners and cultural entrepreneurs, who have become actively engaged in the production, preservation, and revitalization of inner-city spaces. Such agency not only recasts the popular image of the inner city. It also repositions it in a service economy led by explosive growth in the financial and cultural sectors. In fact, it is in repackaged inner city areas such as King's Cross and Spitalfields where we can most clearly discern the spatial effects of this increasingly global economy.

The purpose of this research was to establish the administrative professional's role in the processing, retrieval, dissemination and repackaging of digital information in the networked enterprise, and to determine how the administrative professional can add value to the organisation and enhance its competitive position in industry. The digital economy has changed business practices to such an extent that research of the digital office environment and the administrative professional’s role in this new world of work has become necessary. This research subsequently aimed to clarify the administrative professional’s role as an information specialist in the organisation. The following sub-questions were formulated for this project: · What is the current profile of the administrative professional in the organisation? · What changes have taken place in the digital environment? · What are the current technological and information systems skills of the administrative professional? · How can the administrative professional add value to the enterprise in the digital environment? The profile of the administrative professional in the organisation was discussed with specific reference to the history, duties and etymology of the administrative professional. The traditional methods of handling information flow were also investigated. The digital environment was also evaluated. It was found that due to rapid changes in the digital environment, employers’ key expectations of their administrative staff were also changing. Research conducted indicated that employers expect administrative iii professionals to be skilled in new and emerging technologies and show a high degree of information management skills. New Information management skills were evaluated within the framework of information systems available in the networked enterprise. These statements were evaluated and the following aspects amongst others discussed: · The way that the enterprise conducts business in the digital economy. · The latest information technology advances and trends. · Information infrastructure and architecture. · Management of information sources in the enterprise. · Strategic information systems necessary for competitive advantage. · The Web revolution. · Developments in electronic commerce (EC). · The different organisational applications. · Knowledge Management (KM). · Managerial systems and decision support systems (DSS). · Data management such as warehousing, analysing, mining, and visualisation. · Intelligent support systems. · The management of information resources and security. The statements that the administrative professional’s roles have changed through the use of computers, the Web, and other advanced office technologies to perform vital information management functions in the modern office, have been empirically studied and proven to be correct. Information and communications technology (ICT) has become the major launch pad of business activities in the world and causes fundamental shifts in the management structure and the operations procedures in enterprises. In the light of these changes, the researcher empirically justified the specific skills and abilities of the contemporary administrative professional. This was done through an emphasis on managerial perceptions about the role of the administrative professional. The importance of the administrative professional’s ability to provide the correct information in a context that aids decision-making was examined. The level of awareness iv of emerging information and communications technology tools and techniques that is regarded as necessary by the manager was evaluated.
Prof. P. A. van Brakel