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Publications

Publications by SYSTEM

2018

On the Use of Digital Platforms to Support SME Internationalization in the Context of Industrial Business Associations

Authors
Costa, E; Soares, AL; Pinho de Sousa, J;

Publication
Advances in Business Information Systems and Analytics - Handbook of Research on Expanding Business Opportunities With Information Systems and Analytics

Abstract
The digital economy is creating disruptions in traditional industries and markets. Industrial business associations (IBAs) may face serious challenges in a near future to meet the needs and requirements of their members, particularly in supporting their growing international trade activities and internationalization processes. Digital platforms are already transforming different types of businesses across all markets. An IBA may use a digital platform, not only to keep up with the current technological trends of markets, but also to improve the internationalization support provided to their associate small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to present the view of these potential digital platforms' managers, by presenting the results of an exploratory field research based on 24 interviews with IBAs from Portugal, France, and the UK. Another goal is to identify current digital platforms that are being used by IBAs and to critically evaluate their potential for supporting internationalization processes of SMEs. By using these findings, a set of requirements and features for digital platforms supporting SME internationalization in the context of IBAs are derived in this chapter. These results can be used by platform designers and by IBAs for designing and developing more effective digital platforms that can meet the specific internationalization needs of their users and managers.

2018

An Ontology Based Semantic Data Model Supporting A Maas Digital Platform

Authors
Landolfi, G; Barth, A; Izzo, G; Montini, E; Bettoni, A; Vujasinovic, M; Gugliotta, A; Soares, AL; Silva, HD;

Publication
2018 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (IS)

Abstract
The integration of IoT infrastructures across production systems, together with the extensive digitalisation of industrial processes, are drastically impacting manufacturing value chains and the business models built on the top of them. By exploiting these capabilities companies are evolving the nature of their businesses shifting value proposition towards models relying on product servitization and share, instead of ownership. In this paper, we describe the semantic data-model developed to support a digital platform fostering the reintroduction in the loop and optimization of unused industrial capacity. Such data-model aims to establish the main propositions of the semantic representation that constitutes the essential nature of the ecosystem to depict their interactions, the flow of resources and exchange of production services. The inference reasoning on the semantic representation of the ecosystem allows to make emerge nontrivial and previously unknown opportunities. This will apply not only to the matching of demand and supply of manufacturing services, but to possible and unpredictable relations. For instance, a particular kind of waste being produced at an ecosystem node can be linked to the requirements for an input material needed in a new product being developed on the platform, or new technologies can be suggested to enhance processes under improvement. The overall architecture and individual ontologies are presented and their usefulness is motivated via the application to use cases.

2018

Navigating in a sea of project supporting apps: how to get acceptance for managerial needs

Authors
Costa, JS; Soares, AL;

Publication
CENTERIS 2018 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS / PROJMAN 2018 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT / HCIST 2018 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES, CENTERI

Abstract
Organizations are nowadays more and more structured in projects in the so-called project-based organizations (PBO). The advantages of PBOs - operational and managerial focus and effectiveness - are counterweight by difficulties in information / knowledge sharing and overall coordination. Project management (PM) applications have been adopted by PBOs with success, mostly at the project level. More innovation-oriented PBOs are keen to experiment and adopt a range of different project supporting applications to optimize several aspects of project management, resulting in “ecosystems” of PM related applications. This paper addresses the problems arising from the implementation of a global project coordination and collaboration application in a research center whose ecosystem of PM applications is extensive. The main challenge has been managing change. An action-research approach was followed to successfully implement the new application while reflecting theoretically on the process and results. The main conclusion is that the requirements elicitation and negotiation are as important as the management of change regarding processes and individual practices. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd..

2018

Decision Support Tool for Dynamic Scheduling

Authors
Ferreirinha, L; Santos, AS; Madureira, AM; Varela, MLR; Bastos, JA;

Publication
HIS

Abstract
Production scheduling in the presence of real-time events is of great importance for the successful implementation of real-world scheduling systems. Most manufacturing systems operate in dynamic environments vulnerable to various stochastic real-time events which continuously forces reconsideration and revision of pre-established schedules. In an uncertain environment, efficient ways to adapt current solutions to unexpected events, are preferable to solutions that soon become obsolete. This reality motivated us to develop a tool that attempts to start filling the gap between scheduling theory and practice. The developed prototype is connected to the MRP software and uses meta heuristics to generate a predictive schedule. Then, whenever disruptions happen, like arrival of new tasks or cancelation of others, the tool starts rescheduling through a dynamic-event module that combines dispatching rules that best fit the performance measures pre-classified by Kano’s model. The proposed tool was tested in an in-depth computational study with dynamic task releases and stochastic execution time. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the model.

2018

Understanding Customer-Focused Supply Chain Management: A Set-Based Concept Framework

Authors
João Augusto de Sousa Bastos;

Publication

Abstract

2018

Observability of power systems with optimal PMU placement

Authors
Carvalho, M; Klimentova, X; Viana, A;

Publication
COMPUTERS & OPERATIONS RESEARCH

Abstract
Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are measuring devices that, when placed in electrical networks, observe their state by providing information on the currents in their branches (transmission lines) and voltages in their buses. Compared to other devices, PMUs have the capability of observing other nodes besides the ones they are placed on. Due to a set of observability rules, depending on the placement decisions, the same number of PMUs can monitor a higher or smaller percentage of a network. This leads to the optimization problem hereby addressed, the PMU Placement Problem (PPP) which aims at determining the minimum number and location of PMUs that guarantee full observability of a network at minimum cost. In this paper we propose two general mathematical programming models for the PPP: a single-level and a bilevel integer programming model. To strengthen both formulations, we derive new valid inequalities and promote variable fixing. Furthermore, to tackle the bilevel model, we devise a cutting plane algorithm amended with particular features that improve its efficiency. The efficiency of the algorithm is validated through computational experiments. Results show that this new approach is more efficient than state-of-the-art proposals.

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