Lors d'une crue, la défaillance d'une digue fluviale est susceptible d'avoir des conséquences en vies humaines et économiques lourdes. Dans ce contexte, la réglementation sur la sécurité des ouvrages hydrauliques a récemment été renforcée (décret du 11 décembre 2007). Elle impose dorénavant aux gestionnaires la réalisation de diagnostics périodiques et encourage l'évaluation probabiliste de la sécurité des digues. De part leur caractère à grand linéaire, la complexité de leurs mécanismes de rupture et la grande variété de données nécessaires à leur diagnostic, les digues induisent des problématiques de diagnostic particulières, nécessitant l'intervention d'un ingénieur expert. Celui-ci doit procéder à l'analyse spatiale de l'information, l'interprétation des données disponibles et la prise en compte de leurs incertitudes. Il procède ensuite, par expertise, à l'évaluation qualitative de la performance des ouvrages. L'objectif de la thèse est l'élaboration d'un modèle d'aide à la décision probabiliste pour l'évaluation de la performance des digues. Ce modèle a vocation à être utilisé par un ingénieur spécialisé, en situation de diagnostic rapide ou approfondi et en valorisant toutes les données disponibles. Le modèle apporte une aide à l'ingénieur pour : identifier les tronçons homogènes d'un linéaire de digue, évaluer la performance des ouvrages pour les différents mécanismes de ruptures et préciser les niveaux d'incertitudes des résultats produits en fonction de l'imperfection des données disponibles. Notre démarche de recherche comporte trois étapes :- le développement d'un modèle fonctionnel des mécanismes de rupture des digues, bâti à partir de méthodes issues de la Sûreté de Fonctionnement et du Raisonnement Qualitatif ;- le développement d'un modèle d'aide à la décision déterministe comprenant des indicateurs de performance pour chaque mécanisme de rupture des digues, suivant une méthode de construction de critères uniques de synthèse ;- le développement d'un modèle d'évaluation probabiliste de la performance incluant une méthode de prise en compte des incertitudes des informations d'entrée et des résultats du modèle dans le cadre des probabilités subjectives. Les résultats de nos recherches sont illustrés par des applications du modèle à des études de cas, sur des digues fluviales et torrentielles / Levee risk control is crucial, as flood defense failures may seriously affect human life or economics issues. The regulation in France relating to the safety of the hydraulic structures is recently evolved (decree of December 11, 2007) and henceforth envisages for levees the realization of regular diagnoses and studies of dangers and encourages a probabilistic evaluation of levees safety. A levee safety evaluation currently consists in appraising the work, including taking into account data stemming from various prior investigations: historical records, visual inspections, hydraulic modeling, geophysical explorations, geotechnical explorations, etc. Such investigations may be performed to a more or less comprehensive extent, according to the resources available. Levee diagnostic studies will first split the alignments into several homogenous construction and loading sections, then complete an expert quality assessment of their performance levels. The goal of our research is to develop a probabilistic model for performance assessment of river levees, for a quick or comprehensive diagnosis. The model give support for engineer and make possible to determine how much an evaluation may be trusted and will help decide which levee sections should be primarily subjected to action or investigations. This will also facilitate the decision making process regarding technical actions to be taken to improve a levee section performance. Our approach contains three main steps:- analyzing and modeling levees failure mechanisms with a functional model build up from risk analysis methods ;- construction of deterministic decision aid model including levees performance indicator, using unicriterion decision support methods ;- construction of a probabilistic-based model for evaluating levees performance. Such model taking into account the input data uncertainty by using subjective probabilities. Our research results are illustrated by model application on cases studies

O emprego de práticas Lean pode apoiar melhorias no que se refere a aumentar a eficiência e a qualidade de processos em sistemas de produção. Sistemas como hospitais vêm empregando o chamado Lean Healthcare para criar mais valor aos serviços entregues aos pacientes, reduzir os desperdícios dos processos e aumentar a qualidade nos tratamentos e atendimentos. Nesses ambientes, destacam-se as oportunidades de melhoria em centros cirúrgicos e salas cirúrgicas, responsáveis pelo relevante volume de atendimentos hospitalares e grande parte da receita e estrutura de custos de hospitais. Nesse contexto, a medição de desempenho, assim como a gestão dos indicadores, tem se mostrado uma árdua tarefa, e estudos destacam a relevância dessas práticas para iniciativas Lean Healthcare, as quais podem apoiar a melhoria dos processos e prover tomadas de decisão baseadas em informações confiáveis e precisas. A partir disso, a presente pesquisa propõe a estruturação de um Sistema de Medição de Desempenho (SMD) para apoiar a introdução de práticas Lean em centros cirúrgicos. Esse SMD foi construído a partir de um modelo conceitual baseado em oito requisitos sobre aspectos teóricos advindos de revisões da literatura acerca da relação da gestão de centros cirúrgicos com práticas Lean e de medição de desempenho. O modelo conceitual possibilitou exemplificar os requisitos em um estudo de caso no centro cirúrgico de um hospital brasileiro. Por meio do caso, aspectos práticos foram observados e utilizados para formalizar o SMD, a exemplo do desenvolvimento de cinco classes de indicadores de desempenho (volume de cirurgias, processos cirúrgicos, sustentabilidade financeira, gestão de recursos e stakeholders) e o teste de ferramentas <i\\>Lean (como o mapeamento do fluxo de valor e quadros de gestão visual). Assim, um framework para SMD pode ser estruturado, unindo aspectos teóricos e práticos da pesquisa, de modo a alinhar e promover a medição, melhoria e gestão das operações e estratégias de um centro cirúrgico. Além do framework, um roteiro de seis fases para sua implementação foi desenvolvido, de modo a apoiar futuras replicações do SMD. Espera-se que a presente pesquisa apoie novos estudos teóricos e práticos sobre a gestão de operações na área da saúde, em especial no centro cirúrgico, de forma a aprimorar as práticas atuais e promover benefícios para pesquisas futuras. / The use of Lean can improve production in order to increase process efficiency and quality. Systems, such as hospitals, have been using an approach named Lean Healthcare to create more value to their services delivered to patients, to reduce process wastes and to increase quality of care. In this setting, improvement opportunities in surgical centers and operating rooms, which are responsible for a relevant volume of hospital procedures and a significant share of revenue and costs structure, can be identified. In this context, performance measurement, as well as performance indicators management, have been shown as a tough task, and studies highlighted its relevance in Lean healthcare initiatives, which could support process improvement and provide relevant decision making based on precise and reliable information. From this premise, this research proposes the structuring of a Performance Measurement System (PMS) to support Lean practices introduction in surgical centers. This PMS was supported by a conceptual model based on eight requirements coming from theoretical aspects, such as literature reviews about the relationship of surgical centers management with Lean and performance measurement practices. The conceptual model made it possible to exemplify the requirements through a case study in a surgical center of a Brazilian hospital. Based on this case, practical aspects were observed and used to ground the proposed PMS, such as the development of five performance indicators categories (surgical volume, surgical processes, financial sustainability, resource management and stakeholders) and Lean practices tests (such as value stream mapping and visual management boards). Then, a PMS framework was structured, joining theoretical and practical aspects of the research, in order to align and to promote measurement, improvement and management of a surgical center\'s operations and strategies. Besides the framework, a six-phase implementation guide was developed, in order to support future replications of this PMS. It is expected that this research supports theoretical and practical studies in healthcare operations management, in order to improve the current practices and promote benefits for future research.

Background: Business process compliance management has recently attracted a lot of attention in both business and academia as it enables organizations to not only control and monitor their business processes from a legal point of view but also to avoid financial penalties and undesirable consequences to their reputation. Objective: This thesis aims to provide a framework that would enable organizations to: 1- Discover business processes that violate regulations, laws and policies; 2- Discover the importance level of business processes based on the organization’s goals; 3- Determine the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals, including conflicting goals between stakeholders, and on policies; and 4- Enable organizations to measure the level of business process compliance for one or multiple policies. Methodology: A systematic literature review in the area of goal-oriented business process compliance management and measurement has been conducted, which showed that balancing legal compliance obligations with business objectives remains a difficult challenge. A new Indicator-based Policy Compliance Framework (IPCF), which combines policy and rule models together with models capturing business goals (with their relative importance to the organization) and business processes, has been proposed. This framework builds on the User Requirements Notation (URN), which is the first international standard to combine goal modeling with scenario modeling. The intents and objectives of policies have been modeled, as well as the goals and business processes of organizations, and indicators are used to measure the compliance level of policies. This enables the detection of non-compliant business processes and the evaluation of the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals. Human resource policies and business processes are used as an example to illustrate the method. Aerodrome security regulations and business processes are then used to validate the method in a real-life environment. Comparisons to related work, evaluation against different sets of criteria, and tool support complement the framework validation. Results: The Indicator-based Policy Compliance Framework enables organizations to discover business processes that violate policies as well as other types of rules, regulations, and laws. Guidelines for modeling legal text with URN’s Goal-oriented Requirement Language (GRL) are proposed. Furthermore, IPCF helps determine the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals, including conflicting goals between stakeholders, and on policies. In addition, as policies sometimes apply differently to different types of organizations, a new profile for GRL, with suitable stereotypes, well-formedness constraints, and a modified analysis algorithm defined for GRL model families is used to evaluate the satisfaction level of individual goal models that are members of a larger family model. Finally, the proposed IPCF enables organizations to measure the level of business process compliance for one or multiple policies, and such measures can be visualized directly in URN models but also through interactive Business Intelligence portals, for a wider diffusion.

Introduction and background: The 1990s crisis and the global financial crisis year 2008 shows the same indications that the property market was affected negative. The Swedish Property companies had a difficult time on the market when the crisis led to decreased property trade and financing problems for the Property companies. The Swedish property companies became less attractive on the market and contributed to a drop in prices on investment property. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any relation between the Swedish Property companies impairments on their investment property and the global financial crisis year 2008. Method: The essay is based on a quantitative study where we examined Swedish Property companies’ annual reports. We answered our questions and our purpose from the empirical data that we collected from the annual reports. Conclusions: The study resulted in that we found a correlation between the Swedish Property companies’ impairments on their investment properties and the global financial crisis year 2008. However, we found that the Swedish Property companies’ impairments were lower than market indications prove.

Today’s fast-paced global economy has intensified the demand for manufacturing companies to make their products more quickly and with higher quality to meet heightened consumer expectations while reducing costs. This competitive environment requires small to medium enterprise’s (SMEs) to implement well-designed business processes and leverage information technology (IT), such as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, within their facilities to become more agile, flexible, and integrated to meet changing market demands. Issues emerge when facility managers lack reliable data on performance and costs, which subsequently impairs even basic decisions for resource allocation or process improvement. Although the benefits of a successful ERP implementation in large firms are recognized, there is a general lack of empirical IT productivity literature focusing on SMEs. This research is expected to contribute to a framework for performance measurement, providing facility decision-makers with important metrics for analyzing their firm’s ability to improve upon competitive priorities. Employing the Delphi process, key performance indicators (KPIs) including time, speed, quality, and cost, and corresponding performance measurement metrics, investigations are conducted between traditional manufacturing processes in SMEs and processes enhanced through ERP adoption. In this longitudinal case study, significant improvements are observed in production operations relative to time following ERP implementation including a reduction in the defect rate, total manufacturing cost, and scrap rate along with increases in on-time delivery and flexibility.

Hur vet man att ett projekt är på banan? Vad ska man driva och följa upp mellan gaterna för att nå gaternas specificerade kriterier i tid och med rätt resultat? Vilka mätpunkter behövs? Med vilka intervall ska framdriften mätas? Och hur visar projektledaren framdriften för intressenterna så att rätt åtgärder för att styra rätt kan sättas in om det är på väg att gå fel? En huvudfaktor för att lyckat leda projekt mellan faser och gater torde ligga i förmågan att se hur uppgifter fortskrider mellan gaterna. Syftet med denna uppsats är att bidra med kunskap kring hur en sund framdrift mellan gaterna i projekt kan erhållas så att man vid gaterna uppfyller de kriterier som specificerats samt söka besvara hur framdriften kan kommuniceras till dess intressenter på ett framgångsrikt sätt. Följande forskningsfrågor ställdes: 1. Vilka indikatorer är enligt forskning och ledande praktik lämpliga att använda för att följa framdriften i projekt mellan gaterna i projektledningsprocessen? 2. Hur kommuniceras framdriften så att det är lätt för ett projekts alla intressenter att förstå hur projektet framskrider mellan gaterna? 3. Med vilka intervall mäts lämpligen framdriften mellan gaterna? 4. Hur kan indikatorer formuleras/utvecklas utifrån en specifiks verksamhets behov? En hermenuistisk kvalitativ studie med induktiv ansats genomfördes. Studien genomfördes delvis på det företag författaren själv arbetar på varför metoden innehåller stora delar av aktionsbaserade forskningselement. Sammanställning av rekommendationer från forskning och ledande praktik jämfördes med resultat hämtade från benchmarkingstudie och fallstudie ur vilken slutsatser dragits. Under benchmarkingstudien och fallstudien genomfördes totalt 23 semistrukturerade djupintervjuer med avsikt att förstå behov och framgångsfaktorer. Processen för arbetet kan liknas med en explorativ designprocess där författaren succesivt sökt ta fram och forma lämpliga framdriftsindikatorer utifrån en specifik verksamhets behov. Studien visade att det, sedan de tre framdriftsindikatorerna "Scope, time och cost" befästes i begynnelsen av användandet av projekt som arbetsform, numer finns insikter om att det är många faktorer som tillsammans leder ett projekt framåt. Olika faser i projekt kräver olika insatser, olika intressenter kräver olika information, olika nivåer i projektet har olika behov av uppföljning varför en väl avvägd kombination av ett 15-tal olika indikatorer så kallade Key Performace Indicators (KPI’er), designade för respektive projekts och verksamhets unika behov rekommenderas. Studien visade vidare att en framgångsfaktor för kommunikation av projektframdrift ligger i hur samarbete i projekt sker. Rekommendationen är att design av kommunikationstruktur utformas så att helhetsperspektiv och röd tråd i forum och dialog erhålls. Visualisering av framdriften och samtliga intressenters deltagande vid möten och framdriftskommunikation konstaterades vara en grundförutsättning för framgångsrika resultat. Avseende lämpliga intervall drogs slutsatsen att även dessa rekommenderas att sättas utifrån behov eftersom behoven av dialog av respektive indikator varierar under projektens gång. Kommunikationsprincipen "hellre ofta och lite, än sällan och mycket" rekommenderades. Grundat i studiens resultat rekommenderades slutligen lämpliga indikatorer, lämplig kommunikationsstruktur och lämpliga intervall designade unikt för den specifika verksamheten i uppsatsens fallstudiedel. / How does one know that a project is on track? What criterias should be monitored between the Gates so that specified criterias is obtained at the Gate? Which measuring points are needed? At what intervals should the progress be measured? How does the project manager present the progress to its stakeholders in a successful manner so that the stakeholders understand the status and decide upon corrective actions if needed? A key factor in successfully managing projects between phases and Gates would most presumably lie in the ability to see the progress of tasks between the gates. The objective of this Master thesis is therefore aimed to contribute with knowledge regarding how to achieve a sound progress between the Gates of the project so that specified gatecriterias will be obtained at the Gate. This Master thesis will also seek to contribute knowledge about how to communicate the progress to its stakeholders in a successful manner whereupon the following questions where put: 1. What indicators are suitable to use in the project management process when following the project progress between the Gates in accordance to previous research and leading practice findings? 2. How can the progress be communicated to its stakeholders so that it will be easy to follow the progress of the project between the Gates? 3. What measurement intervals are considered to be suitable when following the progress between Gates? 4. How can indicators be designed/developed based on a specific business requirements? A hermenuistic qualitative study with an inductive approach was conducted. Since the author of this thesis works at the company where the study was conducted the method contains many elements of action research. A summary of recommendations from research and leading practice were compared with results obtained in the benchmarking study and the case study from which conclusions were drawn. A total of 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted during the benchmarking study and the case study with the intention of understanding the needs of information at the specific business and to understand which factors that could be considered as success factors. The progress of the work can be considered as an explorative design process in which the author successively have designed and developed suitable Key Perfomance Indicators, KPI’s based on a specific business requirements. The results shows that modern research has come to an insights that the progress of a projects consists of more factors than the three indicators "Scope, time and cost" recommended at the early stages of using project as a working method. The different phases of the project require different actions and efforts and interventions, various stakerholders requires different information, different levels of the project management has different needs for follow-up and require different levels of detailed information, why a balanced combination of some 15 different Key performace Indicators (KPI's), designed for the unique needs of each project and activity is recommended. The study shows that the success of communicating project progress lies in the way cooperation is based in the project. It is recommended that the communication structure is designed so that a holistic perspective and a "red thread" in forum and dialogue are obtained. Visualization of progress and participation of all stakeholders at pulsmeetings were found to be a prerequisite for successful results. Regarding an appropriate interval, it is concluded that each interval are recommended to be set on the basis of need since the needs of dialogue for each indicator varies with the progress of the projects. However, communication using the principle "rather babysteps - often and short, than elephant paces - seldom but long" is recommended. Based on the results from the study, the thesis ends with recommending suitable indicators, suitable communication structure and suitable intervals designed uniquely for the specific business in the case study.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:32:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriano Roberto Pelaquim.pdf: 1550902 bytes, checksum: 9adc89fe2c49aaae7125a582e406a1b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-23 / This research has studied the implementation model of performance indicators developed by Neely et al. (2002) in order to use it in a national business organization from retail sector, through an interventionist approach. In general, the model identifying key customer groups by product correlating them with the business goals of which are balanced under Balanced Scorecard perspectives (BSC) (KAPLAN, NORTON, 1997). And then it defines performance indicators with initiatives and activities to be developed by managers to provide the achievement of targets. The organization that allowed the case study realization was the Padaria Brasileira, a chain of bakeries from Santo André city in an organic growth where incitement to answer the research question was through semi-structured and structured interviews, collection of documents and record content observatory resulting from meetings and regular visits to the units of the organization. The collected data were tabulated and compiled in accordance with the methodology described by the model, each in a specific form and pre-defined. The data analysis has followed the criteria suggested by the author and others specific to the type of business. Despite the organization already have a number of performance indicators, the study has allowed the formalization of undeclared official indicators and the inclusion of new indicators, especially of non-financial focused on customer perspective, suppliers and criteria for learning and growth. At the end, it was concluded that the model applied had adherence to business, except minor adjustments due to some limitations encountered in the organization as the level of formality still in process improvement and centralization of command. The study has also referred to a modest contribution to the improvement of the implementation model, because it could identify and map potential gaps, grip levels, assumptions and constraints between the reference model applied and feature company plus segment studied. It is important to mention that the framework was developed and tested, according to Neely et al. (2002), in multinational organizations in the Industrial and Manufacturing sector. / A presente pesquisa estudou o modelo de implementação de indicadores de desempenho desenvolvido por Neely et al. (2002) com o objetivo de empregá-lo em uma organização empresarial nacional do setor de varejo, através de uma abordagem intervencionista. Em linhas gerais, o modelo parte da identificação dos principais grupos de cliente por produto correlacionando-os com os objetivos de negócio dos quais são balanceados sob as perspectivas do Balanced Scorecard (BSC) (KAPLAN; NORTON, 1997). Na sequência leva à definição dos indicadores de desempenho juntamente com as iniciativas e atividades a serem desenvolvidas pelos principais gestores com o objetivo de proverem o alcance das metas definidas. A organização que permitiu a realização do estudo de caso foi a Padaria Brasileira, uma rede de padarias da região do ABC paulista em franco crescimento orgânico, onde a questão da pesquisa foi respondida por meio de entrevistas estruturadas e semiestruturadas, além de coleta de documentos e registro do conteúdo observatório resultante de reuniões e visitas periódicas às unidades da organização. Os dados coletados foram tabulados e compilados de acordo com a metodologia descrita pelo modelo, cada qual em um formulário específico e pré-definido. A análise dos dados seguiu os critérios sugeridos pelo autor e outros específicos em função do tipo do negócio. A despeito da organização já possuir uma série de indicadores de desempenho, o estudo possibilitou a formalização dos indicadores não declarados oficiais e a inclusão de novos indicadores, sobretudo de cunho não financeiro inclinados à perspectiva da visão cliente, dos fornecedores e dos critérios de aprendizado e crescimento. Ao final, foi possível concluir que o modelo aplicado teve aderência ao tipo de negócio, salvo pequenas adaptações em razão de algumas limitações encontradas na organização como o nível de formalidade ainda em processo de aperfeiçoamento e a centralização de comando. O estudo também remeteu a uma modesta contribuição para o aprimoramento do modelo de implementação, pois pôde identificar e mapear potenciais gaps, níveis de aderência, premissas e restrições entre o modelo de referência aplicado e as especificidades da empresa e do segmento estudado. Vale ressaltar que o framework foi desenvolvido e testado, segundo Neely et al. (2002), em organizações multinacionais do setor Industrial e de Manufatura.

No description available.

Background: Business process compliance management has recently attracted a lot of attention in both business and academia as it enables organizations to not only control and monitor their business processes from a legal point of view but also to avoid financial penalties and undesirable consequences to their reputation. Objective: This thesis aims to provide a framework that would enable organizations to: 1- Discover business processes that violate regulations, laws and policies; 2- Discover the importance level of business processes based on the organization’s goals; 3- Determine the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals, including conflicting goals between stakeholders, and on policies; and 4- Enable organizations to measure the level of business process compliance for one or multiple policies. Methodology: A systematic literature review in the area of goal-oriented business process compliance management and measurement has been conducted, which showed that balancing legal compliance obligations with business objectives remains a difficult challenge. A new Indicator-based Policy Compliance Framework (IPCF), which combines policy and rule models together with models capturing business goals (with their relative importance to the organization) and business processes, has been proposed. This framework builds on the User Requirements Notation (URN), which is the first international standard to combine goal modeling with scenario modeling. The intents and objectives of policies have been modeled, as well as the goals and business processes of organizations, and indicators are used to measure the compliance level of policies. This enables the detection of non-compliant business processes and the evaluation of the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals. Human resource policies and business processes are used as an example to illustrate the method. Aerodrome security regulations and business processes are then used to validate the method in a real-life environment. Comparisons to related work, evaluation against different sets of criteria, and tool support complement the framework validation. Results: The Indicator-based Policy Compliance Framework enables organizations to discover business processes that violate policies as well as other types of rules, regulations, and laws. Guidelines for modeling legal text with URN’s Goal-oriented Requirement Language (GRL) are proposed. Furthermore, IPCF helps determine the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals, including conflicting goals between stakeholders, and on policies. In addition, as policies sometimes apply differently to different types of organizations, a new profile for GRL, with suitable stereotypes, well-formedness constraints, and a modified analysis algorithm defined for GRL model families is used to evaluate the satisfaction level of individual goal models that are members of a larger family model. Finally, the proposed IPCF enables organizations to measure the level of business process compliance for one or multiple policies, and such measures can be visualized directly in URN models but also through interactive Business Intelligence portals, for a wider diffusion.

Pay per click (PPC) advertising over the past few years has gained importance and companies invest larger amounts of money into it. There are more PPC systems in the market from which to choose for advertising. Which PPC system is appropriate to use for a specific campaign? This thesis consists of four chapters (excluding introduction and conclusion). The first chapter clarifies terms, talks about the basic characteristics of the subject and gives an idea of the importance of the topic (position of pay per click in the market of internet advertising). The second chapter characterizes three PPC systems (and their principles) which the author considers to be the most important in the Slovak market. The third chapter is important for the characterisation of different types of PPC campaigns. In it the author used his own classification of PPC campaigns. Two case studies are analysed in the fourth chapter. According to them an evaluation of the suitability of selected PPC systems is made (using induction method). The first three chapters are based on an analysis of available literature, the fourth part on the author's own experiences.