Decisions on capacity are often treated separately from those of production and inventory. In most situations, capacity issues are longer-term, so capacity-related decisions are considered strategic and thus not part of supply planning. This research focuses on optimal supply planning with emphasis on variable capacity to meet uncertain demand. It also defines three levels of capacity change: operating hours, labor availability and production hardware availability. The work presented here deals with the fundamental decisions to determine capacity, production, and inventory to meet customer demand while optimizing revenue and costs over a planning horizon (typically the life of the product). With the Lagrangian technique for constrained optimization, it can be shown that the optimal supply capacity has upper and lower bounds. The optimal feedback policy prescribes increasing the supply capacity when at the beginning of the planning interval it is below the lower bound. Similarly, the supply capacity should be decreased to the upper bound when it is above the upper bound. This paper will present arguments for characterizing forecast evolution and information sharing in the supply chain to obtain a predictor-corrector approach to supply chain control. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Den omgivning organisationer idag ställs inför blir alltmer krävande. En allt hårdare reglering, hot från nya teknologier, samt de företagsskandaler som härjat i media, har lett till att dagens organisationer ser på risk på ett nytt sätt. En utveckling som nyligen skett inom riskhantering är Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). Denna uppsats undersöker den roll ERM, och i synnerhet ett nyutvecklat ramverk som används för att implementera ERM, har i en organisations riskarbete. Ramverket, COSO:s ERM, består av åtta kontrollpunkter som enligt ramverket bör finnas i en organisation som utför sitt ERM-arbete på ett korrekt sätt. Studiens syfte är att undersöka likheter och olikheter mellan en organisations riskarbete och COSO:s riskhanteringsramverk samt den teoribildning som skapats kring Enterprise Risk Management. En fallorganisation studerades med hjälp av intervjuer och analyseras efter förekomsten av ramverkets kontrollpunkter samt ERM-teori. Författarna fann att ramverkets alla kontrollpunkter till viss mån kunde utläsas i fallorganisationens riskarbete, men inte fullt ut. Under varje punkt kunde element utläsas som var i likhet med ramverket, men även element där fallorganisationen arbetade annorlunda. De största olikheterna mot ramverket var att en integrering mellan riskaptit och strategisättning inte kunde utläsas, att fallorganisationen inte använde sig av ramverkets fyra målområden samt att kommunikationen av risk inte förmedlades ut i organisationen. Förutom de olikheter som uppmärksammats anser författarna att fallorganisationen till stor del skapat ett riskarbete präglat av ERM. En implementering av COSO-ramverket skulle inte nödvändigtvis resultera i bättre riskhanteringsrutiner, men skulle däremot kunna bidra till en tydligare struktur i arbetet.

The Excellent Enterprise's successful secret is always an important subject discussed by the enterprise operators and the managerial educational field.The scholars used to mention that the ¡§Intangible Resources " have great influence to the organization, and suggest that the characteristic of successful enterprise should contain soft variable such as culture, leadership and so on. Among them, some of the text books and publication of entrepreneur emphasized that the mission is one of the key factors for organizational management.In the past research of how mission influences organization effectiveness, researcher used interview and statistical analysis as major research methods, however, if we use System Dynamics as another approach of research method to establish the enterprise model could present the process of how mission Influence organization effectiveness more specifically. The merit of System Dynamics Model is that all of organizational issue of the management process is dynamical complexity, non-linearity, however, System Dynamics Model simulation process may help the modeler understand the relationship between system structure and behavior, and the static system feedback diagrams will become dynamical ¡§future laboratory". However, because of the soft variable lacking for specific index and method for measurement, it is still a challenge to put the soft variables in the Enterprise Model. This paper adopt System Dynamic as the research method to study how loyalty for mission of a leader in excellence enterprise influence organizational performance ¡V taking Japanese Matsushita Electricity industrial Ltd. Company as the case company to analyze how the mission loyalty affect the soft variables of organization and produce the indirect influence to the organization. By collecting researches of Excellence Enterprise and information of Matsushita Electric Ltd. Company, we constructed the Matsushita Electric Ltd. Company¡¦s System Dynamics Model, and put the soft variables in to model and run the simulation, find out the relationship between Excellence Mission and organizational performance. By discussing how the leader¡¦s Mission loyalty affects the organizational performance indirectly, we can prove that soft variables in organizational business and the System Dynamics modeling cannot be neglected.

The data delivery architectures in most enterprises are complex and under documented. Conceptual business models and business analytics applications are created to provide a simplified, and easy to navigate view of enterprise data for analysts. But the construction of such interfaces is tedious, manually intensive to build, requiring specialized technical expertise, and it is especially difficult to map exactly where data came from in the organization. In this paper we investigate how two aspects (lineage and requests for data i.e. semantics and new reports) can be addressed by tying metadata documentation to a systematic data delivery architecture in order to support business analytics applications. We propose a tool framework that includes a metadata repository for each step in the data delivery architecture, a web based interface to access and manage that repository and mapping tools that capture data lineage to support step by step automation of data delivery.

The purpose of this research was to empirically examine the impacts that the presence of a state trading enterprise (STE) has in the international wheat market. There are numerous types of STEs that function in different ways to achieve many different types of policy objectives which are often unique to a particular STE. Although the existence of a STE is justified by the countries involved using numerous policy rationales, the fear that they are used as a front for trade protectionism is a prevalent concern. One specific aspect of a STE that often brings this concern to the forefront is whether or not the STE has the exclusive privilege of monopoly status.<p>The empirical objective of this thesis was to determine specifically if the use of a STE exporter has had a positive impact on world wheat trade over the 1970 2005 period and if the use of a STE importer has had a negative impact. In addition, the marginal impact of the STE having monopoly status was tested. In all cases, the designation of STEs and their monopoly status is based on WTO notification documentations. To secure econometrically robust results, a modified conventional gravity model was chosen. This model was estimated using pooled OLS and fixed effects, the latter consisting of both time and country pair fixed effects. The data that was constructed was a large panel data set of bilateral wheat trade spanning from 1970 to 2005. The model was also tested on a number of subsamples representing countries at different stages of development and in different income categories to isolate potential differences in STEs objectives and impacts.<p>In virtually all models, the presence of a STE exporter had a strongly significant and positive effect on the value and volume of wheat exports from the country with the STE exporter. The fact that a STE had monopoly status did not have any additional impact on wheat trade. The impact of STE importers was insignificant.

The data delivery architectures in most enterprises are complex and under documented. Conceptual business models and business analytics applications are created to provide a simplified, and easy to navigate view of enterprise data for analysts. But the construction of such interfaces is tedious, manually intensive to build, requiring specialized technical expertise, and it is especially difficult to map exactly where data came from in the organization. In this paper we investigate how two aspects (lineage and requests for data i.e. semantics and new reports) can be addressed by tying metadata documentation to a systematic data delivery architecture in order to support business analytics applications. We propose a tool framework that includes a metadata repository for each step in the data delivery architecture, a web based interface to access and manage that repository and mapping tools that capture data lineage to support step by step automation of data delivery.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been widely talked about over decades. CSR is a concept proposed in Western Countries firstly and it asks for business to contribute sustainable economic development and to improve the quality of life by involving other stakeholders at the same time. The CSR among countries in Asia has beenspreadingin recent years. This thesis takes a closer comparison on the CSR between China and Sweden. As a case study with qualitative strategy, its main aims are to compare the driving forces, barriers, activities and deliverables in implementation of CSR in a Sweden-China context. Two Swedish enterprises and one Chinese enterprise are used as examples here in this study and both of their primary data by interview and secondary data by CSR or Sustainability Report are utilized. Theories refer to the implementation of CSR, the CSR in China and Sweden are used to establish the conceptual framework of this study. Empirical findings show that Chinese and Swedish enterprises both implement CSR in a similar way while the differences still exist. For instance, the Swedish enterprises stress the work on philanthropic responsibility to participate in local activities, while the Chinese enterprises contribute to the society by donation in natural disaster. Their activities, driving forces, barriers and deliverables are summarized in a model, respectively. Base on this fact, this thesis argues that the difference is due to the influence of cultural and political factors. Consequently, it leads to a situation that the Swedish enterprises have an advantage in implementation on caring of employees while the Chinese enterprises are good at making contributions to the larger society. This thesis can hopefully provide insightful comparison between the implementation of CSR in both Swedish and Chinese enterprises. As a conclusion, the study recommends that the future research should focus on CSR implementation of political influence.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects, a type of complex information technology project, are very challenging and expensive to implement. Past research recognizes that escalation, defined as the commitment to a failing course of action, is common in such projects. While the factors that contribute to escalation (e.g., project conditions, psychological, organizational, and social factors) have been extensively examined, the literature on deescalation of projects is very limited. Motivated by this gap in the literature, this research examines deescalation, that is, on breaking the commitment to the failing course of action with a particular focus on ERP projects. This study is organized as a single-case study of a complex ERP project that was undertaken after a merger of two organizations. It examines how the project team members’ sensemaking is implicated in deescalation. Applying sensemaking as a theoretical lens, this engaged scholarship research contributes to practice by providing recommendations on how to better manage ERP project deescalation. It contributes to theory by providing a nuanced understanding of ERP project deescalation through project team members’ sensemaking activities.

The three essays that comprise my dissertation are drawn from a longitudinal field study of the work process innovation of sourcing professionals at a large multinational paper products and related chemicals manufacturing firm. The focus of this study is an examination of how characteristics of the work process innovation context impact enterprise system (ES) acceptance, rich ES use behavior and the resulting individual-level job outcomes realized by knowledge workers in a strategic business process. The ES, an enterprise sourcing application, was introduced to innovate the work processes of employees who perform the sourcing business process. Over a period of 12 months, we collected survey data at four points in time (pre-implementation, immediately following training on the new system; following six months of use; and, following 12 months of use) to trace the innovation process as it unfolded. The three essays that comprise my dissertation focus on three key gaps in understanding and make three corresponding key contributions. The first research essay focuses on the transition from an emphasis on behavioral intention to mental acceptance in mandatory use environments. This essay contributes to the technology acceptance literature by finding that work process characteristics and implementation characteristics are exogenous to beliefs about the technology and that these beliefs are important to understanding mental acceptance as well in mandatory use contexts. The second and third research essays emphasize the transition from lean use concepts to conceptualizing, defining and measuring rich use behaviors and show that use must be captured and elaborated on in context. This is pursued through the development of two rich use constructs reflective of the sourcing work context and the complementary finding of countervailing factors in the work process that may impede the positive impact of rich use behaviors on job benefits.

This study is about to see whether the two models representing the strategies of lean production is to use and apply in different companies. The models are structured in two different ways in which one of them is checking the softer elements of lean production in the form of leadership and strategies. This model is called Lesat and is based on interviewquestions. The second model, called "learning to see" is about identifying flows. This, together shall then give an idea of how mature companies are when it comes to a whole in the concept of lean production, and susceptibility to use these models to their respective companies.   The study is conducted in two companies, SKF couplings systems and AQ parkoprint. SKF is a company that makes connections through a special method called the oil injection method. Parkoprint produces mainly parking meters of all kinds, this is done in close cooperation with customers and their preferences.   The study has been carried out by means of interviews of individuals in leadership positions in each business. We also interviewed operations personnel and has developed facts through observation and computer systems to make the flow surveys.   The results show that the models themselves are useful and functional. However, it became more difficult to use the Lesat showing soft data, rather than "learn to see" that focuses mostly on flows. This is for several reasons. One of the reasons was that the companies examined were not quite at the level existing strategies and leadership that Lesat calls, this makes it difficult to estimate where in the assessment firms ports when the people interviewed do not really are in line or understand how the model or concept works in some areas. In addition to this we experienced it difficult to make a fair assessment when the model in any way based on subjective assessments from companies and then marked in a way that also tends to be of subjective nature. From this perspective, we believe that Lesat model fit better in a study of the companies that has made more of work on lean production and has achieved a higher degree of maturity, and thus become a little easier to rate and provide a more realistic sense.   It appears that the models worked with different conditions and also with different results. However, the two worked so well that it clearly has been able to see the potential strengths, weaknesses and possible improvements in the respective organization. This means that the combination of the two satisfactory to achieve a whole, and that any use, ie organization, can help to improve and lead organizations to more effectively work with and against the lean production.