Model based Information Management in Collaborative Settings: Emerging Trends and Research in Virtual Enterprises

Transcription

1 Model based Information Management in Collaborative Settings: Emerging Trends and Research in Virtual Enterprises Abdul Samad (Sami) Kazi VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

2 What we do for Companies Business environment Organisation/enterprise Ideas & opportunities Management priorities Management vision Resources Development phases Prototypes (applications and services) Solutions (applications and services) Impact New opportunities (Source: Modified concept from Kazi, Puttonen, Valikangas, Sulkusalmi, Hannus, 2001)

3 Reality: IT in our Industry

4 Reality: Standards and Application Integration 480% of IT budgets are spent on applicationapplication integration (Sergio Giacoletto, EMEA Oracle) 4Despite this 8Everyone stores information in different formats 8Application application integration takes too long 8Lack of compliance with standards

5 The Reality Today 4 The construction industry involves a dynamic work process rather than a sequential or deterministic one as in other industrial sectors (Levy, 1994). 4 This dynamism is a consequence of multiple activities which are logically and partially interlinked with one another and may be unique to each construction project being concurrently implemented (Hegazy, Zaneldin, and Grierson, 2001). 4 These activities and the decisions governing their implementation are amongst the key factors governing the success of a construction project (Cox, Issa, and Ahrens, 2003). 4 The construction industry is highly fragmented, involving many participants engaged in complex contractual relationships (Aouad, Sun, and Faraj, 2002).

6 Fact: Construction 4Complex one of a kind production setting with multiple organisations working in parallel or sequential mode 4Lack of homogeneity between not only software of different organisations, but even software within organisations 4Being a project based business, valuable knowledge and experience gained is lost when a project is completed

7 Your View My View

8 Visualisation Dilemmas: Your View My View

9 Concept: Construction Today User Architect Str Strengr VE Information flow BS engr Facility mgr Client Contractor Contract network Sub contractor Sub contractor Supply chain BS sub contractor 4 temporary relationships 4 some participants are not known in advance 4 complementary competence is provided by distinct companies 4 absence of a dominant actor 4 disparity between contractual relationships and information flows 4 participation of some actors in other distributed engineering settings concurrently

10 Organisational Typologies (Forms) Supply chain: Clear chain of command Static Extended enterprise: One dominant actor Static Virtual enterprise: No dominant actor Dynamic

11 Concept: Virtual Enterprise Receives Customer Delivers Contributes to Interacts with Enterprise (legal entity) Initialises Leads Participates in Product or service Support delivery of Implements, complies with & uses Coordinates co delivery of... Standards ICT platform Procedures VE Shares, collaborates using Prepares / agrees Network

12 Example: VE in Healthcare Receives Patient Delivers Contributes to Interacts with Physician Initialises Leads Participates in Treatment and Cure Support delivery of Implements, complies with & uses Coordinates co delivery of... Standards Equipment Procedures Shares, Operation Team collaborates using Prepares / agrees Doctors Network

13 Example: VE in Construction Receives Delivers Contributes to Client (Owner) Interacts with Contractor Initialises Leads Participates in Building Support delivery of Implements, complies with & uses Coordinates co delivery of... Standards Equipment Procedures Project Consortium Shares, collaborates using Prepares / agrees AEC/FM Network

14 Definitions: Virtual Enterprise 4 a Virtual Enterprise is a temporary consortium or alliance of companies formed to share costs and skills and exploit fast changing market opportunities (NIIIP, 1996) 4 the Virtual Enterprise consists of a series of cooperating 'nodes' of core competence which form into a supply chain in order to address a specific opportunity in the market place (Walton and Whicker, 1996) 4 Virtual enterprises materialize by selecting skills and assets from different firms and synthesizing them into a single business entity. (Camarinha Matos et al., 1998)

15 Definition: VE in a Nutshell 4Geographically distributed, functionally and culturally diverse, dynamic and agile organisational entities sharing competencies (not capacity) and linked through ICT

16 Characteristics of VEs 4Salient features: 8Not (necessarily) a legal entity 8Some members not known in advance 8Absence of dominant actor to set up the rules of the game 8Members participate in several other concurrent VEs 8Information flows non aligned with contract relationships 4Key ICT requirements 8Quick set up 8Standards 8Ease of use 8Integration with legacy tools 8Non intrusive working processes

17 Examples: Some VEs 4Construction projects 4Healthcare 4The Olympics 4International Research Projects 4Project team collaboration at VTT 4Your examples:

18 Challenges in VEs 4Clients today need customised products and services that one organisation cannot deliver 8There is a need to consolidate the competence of different organisations and individuals to deliver smart one of a kind products and services 4For organisations participating in a VE setting, the challenge is information integration in a transparent and controlled manner 8How for example can I as an individual or organisation access and integrate information from multiple (external) sources whilst only exposing relevant parts of my own information.

19 Changing Trends and Priorities

20 Changing Trends & Priorities Centralised planning Enterprise resource planning Document management In house operative systems Supply chain management Work flow management Scheduling Management information systems Reporting Electronic commerce Access control Integrated systems Ł Ł Ł Ł Ł Ł Ł Ł Ł Ł Ł Ł Transparency of information Inter enterprise co ordination Object management Inter enterprise collaborative systems Demand chain management Groupwork support Schedule synchronisation Decision and negotiation support Forecasting & co ordination Elimination of ordering Knowledge sharing Flexible interfaces

21 Comparison: Intra vs. Inter enterprise Contractual coverage Legal responsibility Technology Control of ICT solutions Set up time Training Application user interface Integration Target users Co ordination Information updating Intra company Inter company No Yes No Yes Proprietary Industry standards High Low / none Long (~ months...years) Very short (~ days) Yes No Yes (~ bells and whistles ) Hidden (~ Save as ) Integrated applications Culture, ontology, & databases interfaces, standards, data warehouses, Own staff Unknown future partners Resource & workflow mgt Deliverable mgt Synchronous Asynchronous

22 Trend: Information Exchange File exchange Project servers Links between enterprise systems Past situation: person to person data exchange Current situation: person to server data exchange Future situation: company to VE server data exchange

23 Concept: Intelligent Information Exchange App. Y Hub App. X Interface Access Mechanism (API) Storage

24 Concept: Inter enterprise Collaboration Organisation A Interface A Organisation D Interface D Shared Repositories and Services Interface B Organisation B Interface C Organisation C

25 Architecture for VEs Enterprise systems Network standards VE server ˇ N Presentation Application Interoperability Communication Access Service Personal desktop. Application software of the enterprise. Mapping to VE standards, release management etc. Internet, TCP/IP, XML,... Access control. Management of shared information. Support to VE coordination. Storage Databases; backups,...

26 System Components for VEs Uploading documents & objects Use project objects in in legacy applications Project information navigation & visualisation In house working environment of a company VE interface Internet Plugged In External Services Document mgt module: Project mgmt. module: Groupware tools Commercial EDM/PDM Primavera Expedition Service Manager Actor/Rights Manager VE environment VE server Object Repository

27 Simple Lessons 4Internet enabled applications 4From standard applications to personalised workspaces 4Data and information exchange in transparent form 4Compliance with standards 4Quick set up of VE platforms and interfaces From Applications Built to Last to Applications Built to Change (transparently) using flexible interfaces and relying on data exchange standards

28 For More Information 4Visit: 8CIC at VTT gateway: 4Read material: 8GLOBEMEN: 8VOSTER: 8ROADCON: 8Strat CON: con.org 4Contact: 8Sami Kazi