Abstract
The paper reports on the final results of the European DELLIISS project (www.delliiss.eu) which objective was to establish an Executive Master degree in Innovative Service Systems (EMISS) targeting professional people. The paper explains the systematic process that has been followed for building the content of the EMISS curriculum, including: (1) the collection of the requirements, their prioritization through Think Tanks with professional attendance, and the identification of the associated skills card for this new service systems architect job profile; (2) the elaboration of a knowledge map structuring the components of knowledge available in the ICT, service science, and innovation scientific domains; and finally (3) the definition of the learning trajectories and the associated program content proposed for the EMISS Executive Master, a new diploma that is offered from January 2011 by 6 European Institutions. © 2011 IEEE.

Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the implementation of a web-based platform integrating benchmarking and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the Portuguese secondary schools. Design/methodology/approach: The benchmarking platform is designed around a set of key performance indicators that are displayed using benchmarking graphs. These indicators are also aggregated through the methodology of DEA to provide a summary measure of performance. Findings: The benchmarking platform developed enables schools to perform internal and external evaluation through a standard model that is based on indicators of school activities. It encourages schools' efforts of continuous improvement and increases society awareness regarding schools' context and results obtained. Practical implications: The benchmarking platform can be useful for schools and general public. For the general public, there is a tool that allows the construction of user-defined rankings online and benchmarking tools that allow the comparison of performance of a specific school with others. In addition to these features, schools have in the BESP platform a repository of historical data, and the possibility to see a set of graphs that show for some indicators their evolution over time. Originality/value: This paper describes a breakthrough in the Portuguese education context. The BESP platform is the first in this context to combine DEA and benchmarking tools in a web-based environment, designed to enable real-time performance assessments. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Abstract
This paper explores the possibilities presented by DEA to assess quality of life and evaluate the performance of city managers in what concerns the promotion of urban quality of life. Using the data provided by the Urban Audit program, from the European Union, we defined the city profile regarding quality of life for 206 cities. Two approaches are presented: the construction of a composite indicator of quality of life and the assessment of local management performance, contextualised by the GDP per capita to measure the ability of local authorities to promote quality of life given the economic condition of the country. The results identify the cities with urban best practices and present a model of intervention for the cities considered inefficient, based on benchmarking principles.

Abstract
The territory alignment problem is part of a bigger procedure, the territory design, which consists of assigning small geographic regions to larger areas following the most relevant criteria for planning. This chapter aims to briefly update the review of the existing literature on the territory alignment problem, its applications and solution approaches, and to illustrate the most recent tendencies by means of a hybrid meta-heuristic developed by the authors. The approach is based in GRASP and Tabu Search meta-heuristics. The algorithm was integrated in an interactive and user-friendly Geographic Information System application, named MultiACE, also developed in the context of this study. This application was embedded in the ArcGIS software. This chapter also illustrates the potential of the proposed approach as a practical and readily implementable management decision aid in the context of a current case that involved the maintenance team of a Portuguese regional office of a worldwide equipment company. © 2012, IGI Global.

Abstract
The performance of a company depends on its strategic decisions but also on the efficiency of how those decisions are implemented by all of its sectors. In any company there are different sectors or groups, probably physically distributed, with different levels of autonomy, each one controlling local resources and interacting with the others. Many companies use simulation software to analyze critical sectors based in a number of scenarios, in order to estimate the efficiency of the different configurations. The process of simulate alternative solutions can be time consuming. Depending on the software used it may be necessary to generate new simulation models for each solution, develop new applications or change existing ones. This paper describes a simulation framework where each element is modelled using the discrete-event approach and interoperability between elements is achieved by the combination of web services and Agent-based modelling and simulation (ABMS). The use of ABMS in this framework provides an easier way to evaluate alternative solutions. Each sector or group is an agent that can be added or removed from the model to build different configurations. A multi-hierarchical simulation executive is proposed in order to enable the use of different time intervals in each level. This increases the autonomy of the simulation agents and promotes the use of parallel or distributed solutions.

Abstract
The evolution in demand is leading industry market to seek for product orders in smaller lots and shorter deadlines. A need therefore arises to adapt industry production to these market changes. A portuguese plumbing and bath accessories company decided to study a new organization layout for its multi-site production plant. The objective was to evaluate different organization scenarios in order to rationalize the floor layout and reduce costs. This Paper presents a study to evaluate different scenarios for a multi-site production plant using the Arena simulation software tool. The simulation model uses VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to dynamically generate the simulation model. The product data is read from Excel spreadsheets or text files. Autocad is used for defining the plant layout and generating the working center coordinates. The Autocad drawing is used as the simulation background allowing the display of a realistic scaled animation.