Using bricolage to facilitate emergent collectives in SMEs

Starting a new business is often done in a realm of improvisation if resources are scarce and the business horizon is far from clear. Strategic improvisation occurs when the design of novel activities unite. We conducted an investigation of so called ‘emergent collectives’ in the context of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Emergent collectives are networks of information nodes with minimal central control and largely controlled by a protocol specification where people can add nodes to the network and have a social incentive to do so. We considered here emergent collectives around an enterprise resources planning (ERP) software and a customer relation management (CRM) software in two open source software (OSS) communities. We investigated how the use of bricolage in the context of a start-up microenterprise can facilitate the adoption of an information system (IS) based on emergent collectives. Bricolage is an improvisational approach that allows learning form concrete experience. In our case study we followed the inception of a new business initiative up to the implementation of an IS, during a period of two years. The case study covers both the usefulness of bricolage for strategic improvisation and for entrepreneurial activity in a knowledge-intensive new business. We adopted an interpretative research strategy and used participatory action research to conduct our inquiry. Our findings lead to the suggestion that emergent collectives can be moulded into a usable set of IS resources applicable in a microenterprise. However the success depends heavily on the ICT managerial and technological capabilities of the CEO and his individual commitment to the process of bricolage. Our findings also show that open ERP and CRM software are not passing delusions. These emergent collectives will not take over proprietary ERP and CRM software all of a sudden, but clearly the rules of the game are slowly changing due to the introduction of new business models. The study contributes to the research of OSS as emergent collectives, bricolage and IS adoption in SMEs

Narratives of an outsourced information systems failure in a small enterprise

In this study we investigate a case of an outsourced information systems (IS) failure (OISF) within the collaborative partnership among asymmetric partners. A small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is dealing with an independent software vendor (ISV) conducting a project of implementing an IS that fails. We used a narrative research methodology for our enquiry. In the construction of our narrative we followed the OISF framework as a theoretical touchstone. As a major conclusion we found that asymmetric collaborations with partners with inadequate managerial and technical IT capabilities are extremely prone to OISF’s. We showed that an outcome-based and fixed price contract is not an adequate instrument to conduct such a partnership and to avoid a failure

IT governance in SMEs: trust or control?

It is believed by many scholars that a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) cannot be seen through the lens of a large firm. Theories which explain IT governance in large organizations and methodologies used by practitioners can therefore not be extrapolated to SMEs, which have a completely different economic, cultural and managerial environment. SMEs suffer from resource poverty, have less IS experience and need more external support. SMEs largely contribute to the failure of many IS projects. We define an out-sourced information system failure (OISF) as a failure of IT governance in an SME environment and propose a structure for stating propositions derived from both agency theory and theory of trust. The theoretical question addressed in this paper is: how and why do OISFs occur in SMEs? We have chosen a qualitative and positivistic IS case study research strategy based on multiple cases. Eight cases of IS projects were selected. We found that trust is more important than control issues like output-based contracts and structured controls for eliminating opportunistic behaviour in SMEs. We conclude that the world of SMEs is significantly different from that of large companies. This necessitates extra care to be taken on the part of researchers and practitioners when designing artefacts for SMEs

Alternative line delivery strategies support a forklift free transition in a high product variety environment

Forklift transport fails when it comes to efficiency. As a result, more and more attention is going to alternative transport systems that automate or further structure the material flow; such as line deliveries by train and conveyor technology. Only substituting the transport system itself is not cost-effective. The resulting improvements are rather low compared to the high investment cost. Therefore, in this paper alternative material flow and line delivery strategies are taken into consideration. Within a high product variety environment a combination of materials kitting and line stocking is proposed. This approach has some important benefits on top of the pure forklift free transition. A basic model is constructed to calculate the kitting area and transport system requirements. A truck assembly company is used as case study. A feasibility study is carried out, to give a rough indication of the cost-effectiveness of the model

An improved largest gap routing heuristic for order picking

The largest-gap policy is a routing heuristic for order picking systems. In this paper we develop an improved largest gap routing method. A simulation approach is used to demonstrate the superior performance of the improved largest gap routing over traditional largest gap. Moreover, this paper tests the performance impact of storage assignment rules on largest gap routings. Several scenarios with various order sizes and different item popularity proportions are tested. Monte-Carlo simulation is used to carry out the experiments. The numerical results from the computational analysis show that our improved largest gap routing always outperforms the traditional largest gap routing, i.e. for all order sizes. The effect is the most distinct when the order size is smaller. Finally the study demonstrates that the optimal storage assignment rule to be combined with largest gap routing is within-aisle storage

Event based text mining for integrated network construction

The scientific literature is a rich and challenging data source for research in systems biology, providing numerous interactions between biological entities. Text mining techniques have been increasingly useful to extract such information from the literature in an automatic way, but up to now the main focus of text mining in the systems biology field has been restricted mostly to the discovery of protein-protein interactions. Here, we take this approach one step further, and use machine learning techniques combined with text mining to extract a much wider variety of interactions between biological entities. Each particular interaction type gives rise to a separate network, represented as a graph, all of which can be subsequently combined to yield a so-called integrated network representation. This provides a much broader view on the biological system as a whole, which can then be used in further investigations to analyse specific properties of the networ

Alternative Transport in Mining

Abstract Investigating the 2D-T 2-T 2-relaxation exchange of inter-stitial water in a packing of sedimented Stöber-silicate spheres, we come the conclusion that contrary to its behaviour in macro-pores, water confined in nano-pores of silica exhibits enhanced diffusivity. The 2D-experiments, performed at different temperatures, reveal a temperature-dependent bimodal relaxation distribution and two-site relaxation exchange. Our recently introduced kinetic multi-site exchange model is applied to derive the according exchange rates. The resulting Arrhenius plot produces an exchange activation energy of 7 kJ/mol, which is well below the hydrogen bond energy or the activation energy for self-diffusion of water in the bulk. A possible hopping-mechanism as the source of enhanced proton-diffusion in nanoporous silica is discussed, as well as its significance to mass transfer in porous media.</jats:p

Sensitivity of multi-product two-stage economic lotsizing models and their dependency on change-over and product cost ratio's

This study considers the production and inventory management problem of a two-stage semi-process production system. In case both production stages are physically connected it is obvious that materials are forced to flow. The economic lotsize depends on the holding cost of the end-product and the combined change-over cost of both production stages. On the other hand this 'flow shop' is forced to produce at the speed of the slowest stage. The benefit of this approach is the low amount of Work In Process inventory. When on the other hand, the involved stages are physically disconnected, a stock of intermediates acts as a decoupling point. Typically for the semi-process industry are high change-over costs for the process oriented first stage, which results in large lotsize differences for the different production stages. Using the stock of intermediates as a decoupling point avoids the complexity of synchronising operations but is an additional reason to augment the intermediate stock position. The disadvantage of this model is the high amount of Work-In-Process inventory. This paper proposes the 'synchronised planning model' realising a global optimum instead of the combination of two locally optimised settings. The mathematical model proves (for a two-stage single-product setting) that the optimal two-stage production frequency corresponds with the single EOQ solution for the first stage. A sensitivity study reveals, within these two-stage lotsizing models, the economical cost dependency on product and change-over cost ratio‟s. The purpose of this paper is to understand under which conditions the „joined setup‟ or the „two-stage individual eoq model‟ remain close to the optimal model. Numerical examples prove that the conclusions about the optimal settings remain valid when extending the model to a two-stage multi-product setting. The research reveals that two-stage individually optimized EOQ lotsizing should only be used when the end-product stage has a high added value and small change-over costs, compared to the first stage. Physically connected operations should be used when the end-product stage has a small added value and low change-over costs, or high added value and large change-over costs compared to the first production stage. The paper concludes with suggesting a practical common cycle approach to tackle a two-stage multi-product production and inventory management problem. The common cycle approach brings the benefit of a repetitive and predictable production schedule

People driven productivity : Lean for small businesses

Lean as structured method to improve productivity has earned its undisputed place during the last 10 years. The combination of a people-oriented philosophy, combined with simple but effective methods, has led to considerable improvements in almost all industry sectors. However it becomes increasingly clear that introducing Lean requires knowledge and efforts that are outside the possibilities of small businesses. The paper reports on the preliminary results of a concerted research effort towards an effective method to introduce Lean in small production enterprises (SME‟s). Anticipated results are operational and practical findings for improving success rates of adoption. This should widen considerably the range of businesses that can benefit from this structured improvement process. It would also allow policymakers to better target support measures to small businesses