published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

<p>Nowadays, companies are facing several competitive pressures, which push them to seek for new and better ways to conduct their internal processes.</p><p>One of this ways is throughout processes innovations that allow the company to establish and maintain competitive advantages; one example of this new trend is the emergence of eProcurement, an electronic system aimed to automate purchasing processes in organizations, which, if it is properly implemented, will derive in processes cost reduction and efficiency improvement on those same procedures.</p><p>This study is focused on identifying the propeller factors that make companies to engage in this kind of ventures; as well as studying which are the outcomes generated inside the organizations once the electronic system has been implemented.</p><p><strong>Purpose</strong></p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to identify the elements that trigger automation of procurement processes in organizations; as well as describing the implications derived from automation during and after such implementation. The study was conducted through interviews with managers and final user from two Mexican companies which are currently using Oracle as their eProcurement tool.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong></p><p>The study found that depending on how well organizations prepare themselves and their staff for the upcoming change, different results may be obtained in terms of benefits and acceptability from final users.</p><p>In order to avoid potential pitfalls, firms must bear in mind that, both operational and social awareness are key factors for a successful implementation.</p><p>If a company takes into consideration their internal operational needs and staff opinions to base their decision of engaging on eProcurement, it will be more likely to obtain benefits related to cost reduction, improved efficiency and final user satisfaction.</p>

The Tendertips Company (TTC) is an asparagus growing a packing business which has a problem. Not enough New Zealanders are willing to manually harvest asparagus. Samoan workers are being employed through the recognised seasonal employer (RSE) scheme which incurs a large cost to TTC. This scheme is also susceptible to a change in government policy at any time. Automated asparagus harvesters have been designed in the past however they inflict too much damage to asparagus plants and the paddocks in which they grow. Several research projects have also been undertaken to minimise this damage while robotically harvesting asparagus however no solutions currently exist. In this project a low-cost system was designed and constructed to determine the feasibility of selectively harvesting asparagus without inflicting damage to asparagus plants or the paddock. The most technical component in this system was identified, accurately identifying and locating asparagus spears to be harvested. A camera and lighting system, along with an asparagus data logging system was designed and tested, with the assumption that if this system succeeded, the development of an automated asparagus harvester would have a very high chance of success. The system proved that individual asparagus spears can be located accurately enough so as not to inflict damage on other spears during the harvesting process: • 96.8% of asparagus spears were located. • Average location error of 3.0mm. The measurement of the size and height of asparagus spears was not very accurate due to the lighting system, however this is expected to be fixed with a design change. A global positioning system (GPS) successfully saved the calculated size of the asparagus spear with its global location to allow for analysis of the asparagus paddocks using the Google Earth application. The cost of robotically harvesting asparagus is forecast to be much less than manual harvesting: • Manual harvesting cost $1.40 per kilogram • Forecast robotic harvesting cost $0.41 per kilogram. If one other investor was obtained to create a new business, which developed an automated asparagus harvester before harvesting asparagus in New Zealand and California, the forecast financials are: • Net present value (NPV) of $1.613 million after ten years. • Internal rate of return (IRR) of 33% after ten years. • Maximum accumulated investment from TTC of $449,000 four years after development first begins. The forecast income is through harvesting asparagus only as selling the machines or leasing the intellectual property is not viable. A guiding document was created to guide TTC with the development of an automated asparagus harvester if it aligns with their business model. The development of an automated harvester: • Is technically viable. • Will lower harvesting costs. • Will ensure all of TTC’s asparagus is harvested when required. • Will return sustainable profits to the child business that TTC should create. The project management techniques adopted in this project ensured the project was completed on the planned day of completion, while remaining on budget: • Budgeted cost of work scheduled $24,478.21 • Budgeted cost of work performed $24,027.54

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The components involved in an immunoassay were investigated in order to improve the detection limits of the ELISA and to make the assay adaptable to a flow injection analysis (FIA) configuration. The goal being the total automation of the ELISA procedure which is long, tedious and has high standard deviation. The antibody purification and cleavage methods were studied with special emphasis on obtaining products with highest immunological activity. The antibody-enzyme coupling reactions using homobifunctional reagents and heterobifunctional reagents were studied in order to attempt the preparation of highly characterized reagents. The fragments of IgG were coupled to polymeric supports via the hinge thiol groups to retain the maximum immunological activity. This method was found to be superior to those methods involving coupling via amino group. These reagents were used in the development of a sandwich ELISA for bovine IgG. The range of assay was in the 20-1000 femtomole range with a linear dynamic range of 2 orders of magnitude and an accuracy of 2-5%. A competitive ELISA based on the use of immobilized anti-human IgG Fab' fragments was developed. The linear dynamic range for this assay was found to be less than one order of magnitude. The detection limit was in the low picomole range with an accuracy of 2-5%. Based on the principle used in the two assays an enzyme immobilization scheme was developed for the reversible immobilization of these enzymes. Which was subsequently utilized in the determination of substrate in the picomole range in a reagent less FIA technique. The goals of this research project were realized in that the FIA system utilized in this work was capable of carrying out totally automated ELISA assays with an accuracy far surpassing the conventional plate ELISA assays.

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No description available.

No description available.