Thesis (M.S. in Contract Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): James Suchan, Wade Wilhelm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49). Also available online.

Stuttgart, Univ., Diplomarb., 2000.

Chemnitz, Techn. Univ., Diplomarb., 2003.

Diss. Techn. Univ. München, 1999.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-143).

No description available.

No description available.

M.Tech. (Operations Management) / In the banking sector, the delivery of impeccable service is one of the main and focal drivers to maintain and increase the customer-based. Therefore, the banks cannot afford to overlook examining their internal structures and processes. Incremental upgrade of a management information system or alignment of processes may prove in the long-term to have a minimal impact upon customer value. Organisations may need to employ business process reengineering (BPR) for the radical redesign of processes to improve performance dramatically in terms of cost, quality, service, flexibility and speed. Process reengineering is about reinvention, rather than incremental improvement. The purpose of this research is the study the role of BPR within the banking environment. To determine the gaps that restricts performance and the address these through process reengineering. The key elements would be to adopt a continuous improvement process, a team-learning culture and the need for strong leadership influence to support the changes. This would place the area of focus on a competitive platform within the industry. Based on the key success factors of process management in terms of process challenges, regulatory compliance was dominate (29.4%), while customer experience was the lowest (3.8%). Participants lacked knowledge of the technical and behavioural aspects of business process reengineering. The leadership style that management has adopted, contradict the staff’s view. Likewise, with communication management has rated their communication with staff much higher compared to how staff receives the message from management. The positive finding is the good level of team effectiveness within the bank. 88.5% of participants agreed to a need to change and/or improve. This reflects that a greater part of the workforce wants to achieve more. Services of a reputable consultant may be employed to educate and guide the bank through the change effort to foster solution-based thinking and client-centric approach. The implementation of a change management process and a communication process is recommended. Through a continuous improvement approach, cross-functional and high performing teams are created that leverage off talents and skills from experience staff. The efforts of BPR would place the bank on a more competitive platform with a sustainable competitive edge.

M.Phil. / Company XYZ is a marginal copper and nickel mine relying on emergency funding from the government in order to make it through difficult cash-flow periods. Previous change initiatives within the organisation have failed dismally. Changes within the organisation are however inevitable in order to prevent Company XYZ from closing down. This research proposes to study certain management philosophies and methodologies being used within Company XYZ, with a view to implementing change initiatives in order to ensure survival of the organisation. This was done by, comparing current management practices found in Company XYZ with literature. Topics include the direction in which the organisation is moving, the vision, management philosophies, reliability/quality and the restructuring of the organisation. A literature review of business process re-engineering was performed and a comparison to total quality management was made. Management philosophies were investigated and it is recommended that Company XYZ adopt Demings management philosophy as it focuses on quality, continuous improvement and employee involvement. Demings' 14 points were highlighted and the benefits were related to Company XYZ. The smelter is maintenance intensive and suffers from breakdown maintenance. As a result, it is recommended that reliability centred maintenance principles are implemented. Company XYZ further need to introduce design review meetings in order to improve the quality in which modifications are implemented. Along with business process re-engineering, four organisational designs were investigated, i.e. the functional organisation, the product organisation, the matrix organisation and the network organisation. Due to the size and complexity of the organisation and the need to focus on business objectives, it is recommended that Company XYZ adopt the network organisational structure and it is further recommended that the smelter focus on processes. Therefore the smelter is to be viewed as a business unit and based on the advice of BPR practitioners it is recommended that the smelter focus on processes. In order to ensure that the proposed changes are implemented successfully, the issue of change management and the importance thereof was investigated. Factors that can affect the change process were highlighted.

In recent years the field of Business Process Modelling (BPM) has gained increasing attention from both the business and research communities. One of the primary drivers for BPM is the improved understanding of Business Processes (BPs) and the competitive advantage gained over competitors. In addition, BPM can improve communication in an organisation and facilitate increased support for change management. BPM is a collaborative activity that needs to be carried out in a team environment, and Collaborative Business Process Modelling (CBPM) promotes improved readability, accuracy and quality of process models as well as a reduced workload for modellers. In spite of the increased popularity of CBPM, there is limited research related to the collaborative nature of the modelling tasks performed by modellers and specifically to the synchronisation of shared process models. In addition, tools and techniques to support CBPM do not support this synchronisation effectively or efficiently. This study proposes a conceptual framework for CBPM using touch technologies in a colocated collaborative environment. The main research problem addressed by this study is that modellers experience difficulties conducting BPM activities in a co-located collaborative environment. In order to address the research problem and clarify and elaborate on the problems of CBPM, a two-fold approach was undertaken. Firstly, after an in-depth literature review, a BPM survey was designed and then sent to modellers in South African Information Technology (IT) consulting companies in order to provide a more in-depth understanding of the status and challenges of CBPM in IT consulting organisations. The results revealed that available BPM software do not adequately cater for CBPM and software tools do not enforce versioning and synchronisation. In addition, hardware constraints were reported as well as problems with integrating different parts of the process model that the modellers were working on. The results of the survey also showed that the positive aspects of CBPM are that ideas could be shared and overall there is a better understanding of the BPs being modelled. The second part of the problem elaboration consisted of usability field studies with participants from both education and industry using a traditional popular BPM software tool, Enterprise Architect (EA). Whilst several benefits of CBPM were confirmed, several challenges were encountered, particularly with regard to the integration and synchronisation of models. To overcome the problems of CBPM, a framework was developed that allows for co-located CBPM using tablet PCs. The framework includes a developed prototype of the BPMTouch software which runs on tablet PCs, as well as some theoretical aspects of CBPM. The BPMTouch software supports effective and efficient CBPM and the synchronisation of process models since it allows multiple modellers to work together on one BP model, with each modeller using his/her own tablet. If one modeller makes changes to the model, the changes are immediately reflected on the tablets of the other modellers since the changes to the model are updated in real time. Modellers cannot draw on the same model simultaneously, however, everyone can see what the active modeller (active participant with the green flag) is doing. Other participants can then become the active modeller and make changes to the model once the flag has been released and re-allocated. The results from the field studies, industry surveys and usability evaluations were all incorporated into the BPMTouch software tool design and into the aspects of CBPM in order to assist with the process of co-located CBPM using touch technologies. Usability evaluations were carried out in which industry and student participants used BPMTouch to create an integrated model and simultaneously and synchronously create a process model. The evaluations of the BPMTouch prototype revealed that participants prefer this system over traditional BPM software since the BPMTouch removes the need for post modelling integration. The theoretical contribution of the framework consists of aspects proposing that organisations should take the potential benefits and challenges of CBPM into consideration and address the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) before embarking on a CBPM project. These aspects can help with decisions relating to CBPM. The use of this framework can improve the quality of process models, reduce the workload of modellers and in this way increase the success rate of CBPM projects.