Factory shop floors of the future will see a significant increase in interconnected devices for monitoring and control. However, if a Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) is implemented on all such devices then this will result in a large number of permutations of services and composite services. These services combined with other business level components can pose a huge challenge to manage as it is often difficult to keep an overview of all the devices, equipment and services. This thesis proposes an SOA based novel assimilation architecture for integrating disparate industrial hardware based processes and business processes of an enterprise in particular the plastics machinery environment. The key benefits of the proposed architecture are the reduction of complexity when integrating disparate hardware platforms; managing the associated services as well as allowing the Micro Injection Moulding (µIM) process to be monitored on the web through service and data integration. An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) based middleware layer integrates the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based environmental and simulated machine process systems with frontend Google Gadgets (GGs) based web visualisation applications. A business process framework is proposed to manage and orchestrate the resulting services from the architecture. Results from the analysis of the WSN kits in terms of their usability and reliability showed that the Jennic WSN was easy to setup and had a reliable communication link in the polymer industrial environment with the PER being below 0.5%. The prototype Jennic WSN based µIM process monitoring system had limitations when monitoring high-resolution machine data, therefore a novel hybrid integration architecture was proposed. The assimilation architecture was implemented on a distributed server based test bed. Results from test scenarios showed that the architecture was highly scalable and could potentially allow a large number of disparate sensor based hardware systems and services to be hosted, managed, visualised and linked to form a cohesive business process.

Les troubles neuropsychologiques sont très répandus et posent de réels problèmes de santé publique. En particulier, dans notre société moderne où la communication écrite est omniprésente, la dyslexie peut s’avérer excessivement handicapante. On remarque néanmoins que le diagnostic et la remédiation de cette pathologie restent délicats et manquent d’uniformisation. Ceci semble malheureusement inhérent à la caractérisation clinique par exclusion de la dyslexie, à la multitude de praticiens différents impliqués dans une telle prise en charge ainsi qu’au manque d’objectivité de certaines méthodes existantes. A ce titre, nous avons décidé d’investiguer les possibilités offertes par l’informatique actuelle pour surmonter ces barrières. Effectivement, nous avons supposé que la démocratisation des systèmes informatiques et leur puissance de calcul pourraient en faire un outil de choix pour pallier les difficultés rencontrées lors de la prise en charge de la dyslexie. Cette recherche nous a ainsi mené à étudier les techniques, aussi bien logicielles que matérielles, pouvant conduire au développement d’un système bon marché et évolutif qui serait capable d’assister un changement bénéfique et progressif des pratiques qui entourent cette pathologie. Avec ce projet, nous nous plaçons définitivement dans un courant innovant au service de la qualité des soins et des aides apportées aux personnes souffrant d’un handicap. Notre travail a ainsi consisté à identifier différents axes d’amélioration que l’utilisation de l’outil informatique rend possible. Chacun de ces axes a alors pu faire l’objet de recherches exhaustives, de modélisations et de développements de prototypes. Nous avons également réfléchi à la méthodologie à mettre en œuvre pour concevoir un tel système dans sa globalité. En particulier, nos réflexions et ces différents accomplissements nous ont permis de définir un framework logiciel propice à l’implémentation d’une plate-forme logicielle que nous avons appelée la PAMMA. Cette plate-forme devrait théoriquement pouvoir disposer de tous les outils permettant le développement souple et efficace d’applications médicales intégrant des processus métiers. Il est ainsi attendu de ce système qu’il permette le développement d’applications, pour la prise en charges des patients dyslexiques, conduisant à un diagnostic plus rapide et plus précis ainsi qu’à une remédiation plus adaptée et plus efficace. De notre effort d’innovation ressortent des perspectives encourageantes. Cependant, ce type d’initiative ne peut se concrétiser qu’autour de collaborations pluridisciplinaires disposant de nombreux moyens fonctionnels, techniques et financiers. La constitution d’un tel consortium semble donc être la prochaine étape nécessaire à l’obtention des financements pour réaliser un premier prototype fonctionnel de la PAMMA, ainsi que de premières applications. Des études cliniques pourront être alors menées pour prouver indubitablement l’efficacité d’une telle approche dans le cadre de la prise en charge de la dyslexie, ainsi qu’éventuellement d’autres troubles neuropsychologiques. / Neuropsychological disorders are widespread and generate real public health problems. In particular in our modern society, where written communication is ubiquitous, dyslexia can be extremely disabling. Nevertheless we can note that the diagnosis and remediation of this pathology are fastidious and lack of standardization. Unfortunately it seems inherent to the clinical characterization of dyslexia by exclusion, to the multitude of different practitioners involved in such treatment and to the lack of objectivity of some existing methods. In this respect, we decided to investigate the possibilities offered by modern computing to overcome these barriers. Indeed we have assumed that the democratization of computer systems and their computing power could make of them a perfect tool to alleviate the difficulties encountered in the treatment of dyslexia. This research has led us to study the techniques software as well as hardware, which can conduct to the development of an inexpensive and scalable system able to attend a beneficial and progressive changing of practices in this pathology field. With this project we put ourselves definitely in an innovative stream serving quality of care and aid provided to people with disabilities. Our work has been identifying different improvement areas that the use of computers enables. Then each of these areas could then be the subject of extensive research, modeling and prototype developments. We also considered the methodology for designing this kind of system as a whole. In particular our thoughts and these accomplishments have allowed us to define a software framework suitable for implementing a software platform that we called the PAMMA. This platform should theoretically have access to all the tools required for the flexible and efficient development of medical applications integrating business processes. In this way it is expected that this system allows the development of applications for caring dyslexic patients thus leading to a faster and more accurate diagnosis and a more appropriate and effective remediation. Of our innovation efforts emerge encouraging perspectives. However such initiatives can only be achieved within multidisciplinary collaborations with many functional, technical and financial means. Creating such a consortium seems to be the next required step to get a funding necessary for realizing a first functional prototype of the PAMMA, as well as its first applications. Some clinical studies may be conducted to prove undoubtedly the effectiveness of such an approach for treating dyslexia and eventually other neuropsychological disorders.

Um Sistema de Gestão Integrado (SGI) pode ser entendido como uma abordagem que visa o aprimoramento no desempenho de uma organização por meio do ciclo PDCA, e cujos requisitos podem ser baseados em normas mundialmente conhecidas. Apesar do grande volume de pesquisas que abordam formas de se implantar o SGI, uma minoria o relaciona com a abordagem de processos de negócio, que é também um requisito normativo. Neste contexto, esta pesquisa defende que a abordagem de Gerenciamento por Processos de Negócio (Business Process Management - BPM) pode contribuir significativamente para a implantação efetiva e manutenção de um SGI, já que é uma abordagem que apoia a análise e melhoria dos processos de negócio, aspectos essenciais para a estruturação e gerenciamento de um Sistema de Gestão. Diante deste contexto, este trabalho visa propor um guia com etapas, recomendações e instrumentos de apoio para a implantação e manutenção de um SGI por Processos de Negócio, por meio de revisão da literatura (exploratória e sistemática) e avaliação de especialistas. Para esta pesquisa, considerou-se SGI como a integração das normas ISO 9.001:2015 (Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade) e ISO 14.001:2015 (Sistema de Gestão Ambiental), dada a relevância de ambas no cenário atual dos negócios. Os resultados da Revisão Bibliográfica Sistemática (RBS) mostraram que as pesquisas que abordam a integração entre SGI e BPM ainda são preliminares e que há oportunidades de aprofundamento no tema. Este trabalho visa contribuir para a compreensão, implantação e manutenção dos requisitos do SGI pelas organizações com base na abordagem de Gerenciamento por Processos de Negócio, sob o ponto de vista prático. / An Integrated Management System (IMS) can be understood as an approach that aims to improve organization\'s performance through the PDCA cycle, and whose requirements may be based on globally recognized standards. Despite the large volume of research that addresses ways of implementing an IMS, a minority relates it to the business process approach, which is also a normative requirement. In this context, this research argues that the Business Process Management (BPM) approach can contribute significantly to the effective implementation and maintenance of an IMS, since it supports the analysis and improvement of business processes, essential aspects for the structuring of a Management System. In this context, this work aims to propose a guide with steps, recommendations and support instruments for the structuring and maintenance of a Process-based IMS, through literature review (exploratory and systematic) and expert assessment. For this research, IMS was considered as the integration of ISO 9.001: 2015 (Quality Management System) and ISO 14.001: 2015 (Environmental Management System) standards, given the relevance of both in the current business scenario. The results of the systematic literature review (SLR) have shown that research that addresses the integration between IMS and BPM is still preliminary and that there are opportunities for further study. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding, implementation and maintenance of IMS requirements by organizations based on the business process management approach, in a practical view.

No description available.

Virtuelle Unternehmen, welche die Ressourcen verschiedener selbständiger Leistungsanbieter in einer zeitlich befristeten, hybriden Organisationsstruktur bündeln, sehen sich der Herausforderung gegenüber, heterogene Kommunikations- und Anwendungssysteme zu integrieren und die von einzelnen Teilnehmern benötigten Informationen zur Verfügung zu stellen. Vor dem Hintergrund zunehmender Komplexität von Wertschöpfungsarchitekturen hat vor allem die Bedeutung von Informationen über Informationsressourcen und den Zugriff auf sie zugenommen. Ein geeignetes Anwendungssystem zur strukturierten Verknüpfung und Bereitstellung solcher Informationen ist ein sog. Business Repository.

Submitted by Lukas Riehl Figueiredo null (lukas_rf@hotmail.com) on 2018-06-05T16:44:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao-Lukas-Riehl-Figueiredo.pdf: 2667513 bytes, checksum: ea70d94af0366189c71508909d5f3ba7 (MD5) / Rejected by Elza Mitiko Sato null (elzasato@ibilce.unesp.br), reason: Solicitamos que realize correções na submissão seguindo as orientações abaixo: Problema 01) Na folha de aprovação deve constar a data(dia, mês e ano) da defesa, no seu arquivo está somente o ano. Lembramos que o arquivo depositado no repositório deve ser igual ao impresso, o rigor com o padrão da Universidade se deve ao fato de que o seu trabalho passará a ser visível mundialmente. Agradecemos a compreensão. on 2018-06-06T15:51:03Z (GMT) / Submitted by Lukas Riehl Figueiredo null (lukas_rf@hotmail.com) on 2018-06-06T21:57:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao-Lukas-VF.pdf: 2667598 bytes, checksum: 032e5b83677ed9c2b780bd1c8401aa2e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Elza Mitiko Sato null (elzasato@ibilce.unesp.br) on 2018-06-08T13:33:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 figueiredo_lr_me_sjrp.pdf: 2667598 bytes, checksum: 032e5b83677ed9c2b780bd1c8401aa2e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-08T13:33:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 figueiredo_lr_me_sjrp.pdf: 2667598 bytes, checksum: 032e5b83677ed9c2b780bd1c8401aa2e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-01 / Modelos de processos de negócio têm sido utilizados em ambientes organizacionais para o entendimento da cadeia de processos, visando melhorias técnicas, gerenciais e estratégicas. Esses modelos abrangem variadas informações sobre os recursos utilizados e interações entre diferentes setores e pessoas, evidenciando interdependências entre os processos. Contudo, esses modelos podem apresentar problemas de legibilidade e dificuldades de navegação à medida em que se tornam extensos. A representação do conhecimento implícito é complexa e não está padronizada; as interdependências nem sempre são fáceis de serem compreendidas. O uso de ontologias tem aberto uma perspectiva complementar para mitigar esses problemas e prover processos com semânticas acessíveis por máquina. As ontologias contribuem para a conceituação e organização da informação embutida e desestruturada que se encontra presente nos processos de negócio e que deve ser explorada. As ontologias são utilizadas para estruturar o conhecimento implícito que está presente nos processos de negócio, possibilitando a compreensão desse conhecimento por máquina. As ontologias também contribuem para o alinhamento das visões das equipes de negócio e de Tecnologia da Informação da organização. Nesse contexto, este trabalho apresenta um processo sistemático para gerar uma ontologia a partir de um modelo de processos de negócio em BPMN v2.0, permitindo consultar informações sobre o modelo. Uma ferramenta denominada PM2ONTO foi então desenvolvida, visando gerar a ontologia em OWL automaticamente e disponibilizar uma interface para consultas predefinidas, elaboradas na linguagem SPARQL. Os modelos de processos de negócio devem ser exportados para arquivos em XPDL v2.2, os quais serão as entradas do sistema PM2ONTO. As ontologias resultantes ficam disponíveis em um banco de dados para consultas e também podem ser manipuladas por outras diferentes ferramentas. A avaliação do processo sistemático apresentado neste trabalho foi feita com base em estudos de caso, usando modelos de processos de negócio de diferentes áreas e diferentes níveis de complexidade. / Aiming technical, managerial and strategic improvements, business process models have been used in organizational environments to understand the process chain. Although these models may present readability problems and navigation difficulties as they become extensive, they can cover many information about resources and interactions between different sectors and people, showing interdependencies among the processes. Interdependencies are not always easy to understand because of its complex and not standardized knowledge. The use of ontologies has opened a complementary perspective to mitigate these problems and to provide processes with machine-accessible semantics. Also, they contribute in the conceptualization and organization of the embedded and unstructured information that is present in the business processes and that must be explored. In order to ease machine knowledge, ontologies are used to structure the implicit knowledge in business processes. They also contribute to the alignment of the organization's business and IT teams. In this context, this work presents a systematic process to generate an ontology from a business process model in BPMN v2.0, allowing to query information about the model. In this way, PM2ONTO tool was developed aiming to generate the ontology in OWL automatically and to provide an interface for predefined queries elaborated in the SPARQL language. Business process models should be exported to files in XPDL v2.2, which will be the inputs of the PM2ONTO system. The resulting ontologies stay available in a database for queries and can also be manipulated by other different tools. The systematic process evaluation presented in this work was made based on case studies, using business process models of different areas and different levels of complexity.

Submitted by Rosana de Almeida (professorarosana@gmail.com) on 2017-03-16T22:23:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 REDAÇÃO TESE v 15_03_17_ entrega final FGV.pdf: 16617291 bytes, checksum: 983f31273a0a4adb5f81475f05d0c5b9 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Pamela Beltran Tonsa (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2017-03-17T10:43:10Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 REDAÇÃO TESE v 15_03_17_ entrega final FGV.pdf: 16617291 bytes, checksum: 983f31273a0a4adb5f81475f05d0c5b9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-17T11:05:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 REDAÇÃO TESE v 15_03_17_ entrega final FGV.pdf: 16617291 bytes, checksum: 983f31273a0a4adb5f81475f05d0c5b9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-22 / Gradually, increasingly seek to improve the relationship with its external customers and internal, increase productivity and collaboration. With the rise of Web 2.0, the use of social technologies, especially social networks, has favored the knowledge exchange, agility in communication, the informations sharing and resources, the process internal and external and customers approchement. Considering these aspects, this study aims to identify the impact of Corporate Social Network in process and business models on an organization. The corporate social networks can promote the internal processes, especially the business processes and, from change in these processes with Social Network can deliver the emergence of new business models, thus creating value for the organization. This study contributes by presenting a new approach on Corporate Social Network, in relation to the processes and business models. It provides subsidies for the implantation projects and use of Social Net Corportiva of organizations, advances in the concepts of its use as social software and attainment of results for the managers. Presented the aspects on the use and the benefits of the use of the Technology of Information; the Social Nets and the Corporative Social Nets, its infrastructure, environment and functionalities. One identifies the types of business processes and argue aspects of the Social BPM - Business Process Management, beyond the business-oriented Models that conceptualized and characterized. The change and its importance in the enterprise environment and the creation of value for the organization from the processes and of the models of business also are treated. Research based on the qualitative approach. This is a case of study of a Brazilian business group, based in the state of Minas Gerais. The data constructed by means of the technique of semistructuralized interview. In the analysis of the empirical phase the content analysis technique was used to examine the data, supported by qualitative data analysis software. It verified in 568 references that the Corporative Social Net (CSN) could be use as social software in the business processes and, still, it can enable the emergence of new MN from its use. The creation of value by CSR is evidenced in the internal processes of the commercial area, generating value to the organization. The results showed that the implementation and use of CSR in business processes impact the business group here studied. The agility, the co-creation in the processes, creates value and positive results for the organization. / Cada vez mais as empresas buscam melhorar o relacionamento com seus clientes externos e internos, aumentar a produtividade e a colaboração. Com a ascensão da Web 2.0, o uso das tecnologias sociais, principalmente as redes sociais, tem favorecido a troca de conhecimento, a agilidade na comunicação, o compartilhamento de informações e recursos, os processos internos e externos e a aproximação com clientes. Considerando esses aspectos, este estudo tem por objetivo identificar o impacto do uso da Rede Social Corporativa nos processos e nos modelos de negócios de uma organização. As redes sociais corporativas podem favorecer os processos internos, principalmente os processos de negócio e, a partir da mudança nesses processos pelo uso da Rede Social Corporativa pode propiciar o surgimento de novos modelos de negócio, criando assim, valor para a organização. Este estudo contribui apresentando nova abordagem sobre Rede Social Corporativa, em relação aos processos e os modelos de negócio. Oferece subsídios para os projetos de implantação e uso de Rede Social Corportiva de organizações, avança nos conceitos da sua utilização como software social e obtenção de resultados para os gestores. Apresentam-se os aspectos sobre o uso e os benefícios do uso da Tecnologia de Informação; as Redes Sociais e as Redes Sociais Corporativas, sua infraestrutura, ambiente e funcionalidades. Identifica-se os tipos de processos de negócio e discuti-se aspectos da Social BPM – Business Process Management, além dos Modelos de Negócios que são conceituados e caracterizados. A mudança e sua importância no ambiente empresarial e a criação de valor para a organização a partir dos processos e dos modelos de negócio, também são tratados. A pesquisa se alicerça pela abordagem qualitativa. Trata-se de estudo de caso de grupo empresarial brasileiro, sediado no estado de Minas Gerais. Os dados foram construídos mediante a técnica de entrevista semiestruturada. Na análise da fase empírica utilizou-se técnica da análise de conteúdo para examinar os dados, com apoio de software de análise de dados qualitativos. Constatou-se em 568 referências que a Rede Social Corporativa pode ser usada como software social nos processos de negócio e, ainda, pode possibilitar o surgimento de novos modelos de negócio a partir da sua utilização nestes. A criação de valor pela RSC está evidenciada nos processos internos da área comercial, gerando valor à organização. Os resultados evidenciaram que a implantação e o uso da RSC nos processos de negócios impactam o Grupo empresarial estudado. A agilidade, a co-criação nos processos, criam valor e resultados positivos para a organização.

Organisations and job content will continually change irrespective of the employee or job context. The ability to understand, initiate and manage change is therefore, an essential skill for any change agent. The general aim of this research was to investigate the impact of change management on role conflict, role ambiguity and job satisfaction. "Change management", "role conflict", "role ambiguity" and "job satisfaction" were conceptualised. This change process was described and the effect of change management on role conflict, role ambiguity and job satisfaction was determined. Instruments for measuring these concepts were administered among 116 employees who have been subjected to extensive organisational change within a large transport organisation. It was found that change management has a significant impact on role conflict, role ambiguity and job satisfaction. The change management process used in this research potentially enables Human Resources managers and change agents to reduce role conflict, role ambiguity and job satisfaction during large scale organisation change. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Comm. (Industrial Psychology)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6487.pdf: 4389000 bytes, checksum: edf86e96bdd00fe803ba1a23f55f6484 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-11-17 / Business Process Management emerged as a means for managing and improving business processes. However providing efficient business processes can demand high costs due to the need of software, hardware, and technical support. Cloud Computing emerged as a means for providing a fast and cheap way of acquiring computational resources in a pay-per-use manner, and can be employed for achieving efficient business processes with low costs. However, due to safety requirements, certain data or activities of a business process should be kept within the user premises, while others can be allocated to a cloud. This master dissertation presents a generic approach for decomposing business process taking into account costs, performance and safety requirements, thus granting greater reliability in the use of cloud resources. This approach is illustrated by means of a case study in the Healthcare domain. / Gerenciamento de Processos de Negócio emergiu como um meio para gerenciar e aperfeiçoar processos de negócio continuamente. Entretanto, fornecer tais processos de maneira eficiente pode demandar altos investimentos devido às necessidades de software, hardware e suporte técnico. Computação em Nuvem emergiu como um meio para prover uma forma rápida e barata de adquirir recursos computacionais com pagamento sob demanda, e pode ser aplicada para disponibilizar processos de negócio eficientes e com baixo custo. Entretanto, devido a requisitos de segurança, certos dados ou atividades de um processo de negócio devem ser mantidos na premissa do usuário, enquanto outros podem ser alocados em uma nuvem computacional. Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta uma abordagem genérica para a decomposição de processos de negócio, que leva em conta custos, desempenho e requisitos de segurança, outorgando assim uma maior confiabilidade no uso de recursos de nuvens computacionais. Essa abordagem é ilustrada através de um estudo de caso no domínio da Saúde.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:50:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3532.pdf: 2375674 bytes, checksum: 8220f9b2a43401bf9ab683fd67209099 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-23 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / From the Supply Chain Management (SCM), the logistic function expands its scope within the company, going to exert or support the management and operation of key business processes. Its performance leaves to reduce only the functional sphere ( silo or vertical area ), passing to reach horizontal sphere in such processes. Various sources of literature indicate changes in the logistic function but not characterize precisely or discuss the changes in its scope within the company. In particular, the benefits generated by the involvement of the logistic function on key business processes of SCM have been identified in the literature, but were not identified logistic activities that must execute in each of the processes so that these benefits are achieved. In front of this theoretical gap, the objective of this doctorate thesis was to propose logistic activities necessary for the efficacious operation of key business processes of SCM, generating a conceptual framework that assists in implementing these activities. Such a framework is a guide that can help companies identify, characterize and select the activities that the logistic function can develop in their key business processes. More specifically, this conceptual framework presents, besides the own logistics activities, a way of characterizing these activities, according to four criterions: a) obligatoriness of existence in the company (basic or optional), b) impact on the generation of value (efficiency, efficacy and/or differentiation), c) impact on the dimension of logistic service, d) the integration and coordination with other areas or processes. This thesis used the approach of qualitative research, of descriptive character, of exploratory nature and with experimental study of field. The research method was the multi-case study and the mechanism of data collection was the personal interview realized by a semi-structured questionnaire. This research is also of theoretical-conceptual nature, because it developed a conceptual framework generated from the theoretical review. In three case studies realized, observed consistency in the proposed logistic activities and in its form of characterization. Among the 25 proposed activities, the Company 1 realizes 21 of them, the Company 2 realizes 23 activities and the Company 3 realizes all 25 activities, and all interviewed declared that the set of these proposed activities was complete and consistent. / A partir da Gestão da Cadeia de Suprimentos (Supply Chain Management, SCM), a função logística expande seu escopo dentro da empresa, passando a exercer ou dar apoio à gestão e operação dos processos-chave de negócio. Sua atuação deixa de se reduzir somente à esfera funcional ( silo ou área vertical ), passando a alcançar também a esfera horizontal de tais processos. Várias fontes da literatura apontam mudanças na função logística mas não as caracterizam precisamente nem discutem as modificações no seu escopo dentro das empresas. Em particular, os benefícios gerados pelo envolvimento da função logística nos processoschave de negócio da SCM já foram levantados na literatura, mas não foram identificadas as atividades que a logística deve executar em cada um dos processos para que esses benefícios sejam alcançados. Diante desta lacuna teórica, o objetivo desta tese de doutorado foi de propor atividades logísticas necessárias à operação eficaz dos processos-chave de negócio da SCM, gerando uma estrutura conceitual que auxilia na implementação destas atividades. Tal estrutura é um guia que pode auxiliar as empresas na identificação, caracterização e seleção das atividades que a função logística pode desenvolver nos seus processos-chave de negócio. Mais especificamente, esta estrutura conceitual apresenta, além das próprias atividades logísticas, uma forma de caracterização destas atividades, de acordo com quatro critérios: a) obrigatoriedade de existência na empresa (básica ou opcional), b) impacto na geração de valor (eficiência, eficácia e/ou diferenciação), c) impacto na dimensão do serviço logístico prestado, d) integração e coordenação com outras áreas ou processos. Esta tese utilizou a abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa, de caráter descritivo, de natureza exploratória e com estudo experimental de campo. O método de pesquisa foi o estudo multi-caso e o mecanismo de coleta de dados foi a entrevista pessoal realizada por meio de um questionário semi-estruturado. Esta pesquisa também é de natureza teórico-conceitual, pois desenvolveu uma estrutura conceitual gerada a partir de revisão teórica. Nos três estudos de caso realizados, observou-se consistência nas atividades logísticas e na sua forma de caracterização propostas. Dentre as 25 atividades propostas, a Empresa 1 realiza 21 delas, a Empresa 2, 23 atividades e a Empresa 3, todas as 25 atividades, sendo que todos os entrevistados declararam que estava completo e consistente o conjunto proposto dessas atividades.