A Conceptual Framework for the Process System Synthesis and Design Congruent with Corporate Strategy

A Tabu search-based algorithm for mixed-integer nonlinear problems and its application to integrated process and control system design

A plant alarm system is one of important elements in a third layer of an independent protection layers (IPLs). Management of the plant alarm system has become identified as one of key issues because of disasters caused by alarm floods. The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society (ISA) has proposed an alarm management standard. And some methods of alarm limits setting or nuisance alarms reduction obtained through each plant improvement activities have been proposed. But, explicit definition of a plant alarm system design process to properly manage the plant alarm system has not been proposed. Plant alarm systems are not always designed using whole information about their plants, because a concreteness and quantity of information is varied along with stages of their plant design. Requirements for each safety instrumented system may not be satisfied if the design of the plant alarm system was started after all stages of the plant design had been completed. The stages of the plant alarm system design should be carried out concurrently with the stages of the plant design. Therefore, the design process of the plant alarm system should be clarified corresponding to available information at each stage of the design. To clarify the design process of the plant alarm system, a framework is necessary to express design activities with tools, available information and output. So, a business process model (BPM) as the framework for the plant alarm system design will be developed. In this paper, we tried to express a BPM for the design of a plant alarm system. Even if the developed BPM is incomplete, the BPM approach has following merits; design rationale for the plant alarm system can be specified and stored, and the plant alarm system can be designed logically. The stored design rationale and the logically designed plant alarm system are very useful for management of change of the plant alarm system and ensuring consistency with other safety instruments. In future work, a BPM for a plant alarm system design will be improved to properly manage the plant alarm system throughout the plant lifecycle.

In this paper we develop an integrated framework for intelligent computer aided design of chemical processes. First we propose a task-structure for design. The task-structure for a problem solving activity characterizes it in terms of various information processing tasks which underlie that activity and methods that can accomplish those tasks (Chandrasekaran, 1989a). The task-structure for process design is a hierarchy consisting of ten tasks and subtasks, and reasoning methods to accomplish them. The framework for process design is based on this task-structure and it integrates the various tasks delineated in the task-structure by specifying the control flow among them. By making the structure of knowledge and inference required for process design explicit, this framework facilitates the design and development of automated process design systems. We also propose an information structure called a Design History to record all design choices made during a design episode and their justifications. The generation of the Design History within the framework and its utility are described. The design of a process for ethanol production is used as an example to illustrate the framework's applicability.

Boeing is the largest export manufacturer in the United States and has been the world's leading aerospace company since 2012, with overseas sales accounting for more than half of its revenues. Boeing's successful internationalization strategy, studying and learning its management strategy is of tremendous practical significance. What kind of company is Boeing? What are the significant milestones in Boeing's international journey? What is Boeing's value-creating strategy? What are the positive and negative elements of these strategies, and what are their preconditions? What should Boeing do to strengthen its value creation over the next five years? This report will use theoretical models in International Business Management, such as Robinson's six-stage theory, SWOT analysis, Boston matrix, Michael Porter's value chain model, and RBV model, to answer these five questions.

Service oriented architecture (SOA) enables organizations to easily integrate systems, data, and business processes. Implementation of SOA solution in private sector is widely used and successfully proven to increase their profit. But there are different challenge in public sector which is not profit oriented and has different business model. In public sector, user satisfaction on government agencies is one of common indicator to measure quality of public service. This paper presents SOA solution for public sector using SOMA to conduct a service integration for optimizing public satisfaction. We also combined SWOT and Porter's Value Chain to support business modelling analysis. The result shows that there is a simplicity and feasibility for users to access the service after SOA integration, which improves user satisfaction.

Health care delivery is moving toward a value-based environment, which calls for increased integration between physician groups and health systems. Health executives sit at a key nexus point for determining how and when physician-system integration occurs. The objective of this study was to identify the organizational factors that health executives perceived to have made physician-system integration successful. We used a multiple-case study research design. We conducted semistructured, qualitative interviews with 25 health executives in the roles of CEO, chief medical officer, chief financial officer and physician group chief executives from eight of Washington State's largest integrated delivery systems. To guide our analysis, we employed open systems theory and Porter's Value Chain to identify physician group and hospital factors that were integral to successful integration. Using the executives' perspectives, the factors grouped into three themes: (1) organizational structure-a mix of integration contracts united by common structural characteristics between physician groups and hospitals); (2) organizational culture-alignment of leadership between physician groups and hospitals; and (3) strategic resources-designated resources to establish and support care coordination activities. Our work indicates that health systems should focus on the pathway to integration success through the alignment of structure (not just the integration contract), culture, and resources and not on an end goal of the physician employment model. Health system executives are key drivers for when and how physician groups are integrated into health services organizations. This article provides executives with an evidence-based model to aid in formulating integration approaches that combine elements of organizational structure, organizational culture, and strategic resources.

In the present context of digitalization across all industries, most of the organizations are investing in that equipment, tools, and solutions which will help their procedures, employees, apparatuses, and also the goods to integrate into the solitary system. This single network will be helpful for data collection, analyzing data, and also evaluating the development of the company and its performance as well. In this chapter, authors have tried to understand the impact of 4.0 on the company using the Porter's value chain model, which is quite crucial for the area which is primarily concerned with the value creation with the customers. It has been analyzed that 4.0 primarily influence the process of value creation, and so far had a larger impact in this area. The main aim of the learning is to explore how corporations functioning in India understand the occurrence of 4.0, what equipment and tools they are using for Internet of Things for supporting the process and challenges faced by them during the adaptation. At the end of this chapter, it has been identified that due to real-time data spreading across companies—probably all the necessary tools and methods are available, it can surely have a larger impact on the company. Additionally, it has been concluded during the study that the majority of the companies have moved toward the evolution in a digital way, and they have already started investing in this area.

The nontraditional export (NTE) sector promises to be the antidote to Africa's economic woes in the face of dwindling traditional exports. Adopting the Porter's Value Chain Framework and a case study design, we explore how alcoholic beverage companies in the African NTE sector could create value in their upstream, midstream, and downstream value chain activities through effective governance and digitization. In exploring these intricacies of governance and digitization within African global value chains (GVCs), we draw on two major case studies, Diageo South Africa and Kasapreko Ghana Limited. Our study shows that the NTE sector can contribute to both economic and social upgrading activities, contribute to industrialization and create international competitiveness for African firms. Second, GVC governance and digitization, even though still at its infant stages in Africa, has the potential in propelling economic value through the NTE sector.

Batubara Regency, North Sumatra, has significant potential for developing palm oil-based MSMEs through the downstream processing of palm sap into brown sugar. This study analyzes innovations in production processes and business management practices in palm sap brown sugar MSMEs in the region, focusing on two MSMEs in Lautador District. Using a qualitative single-case study approach based on Local Economic Development (LED) Theory and Porter's Value Chain model, primary data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions (FGDs) with 10-15 business actors and stakeholders. Results show that the innovation of a semi-automatic steamer increased production efficiency by 105% (from 22% to 45%), monthly revenue increased by 132% to IDR 5.8 million per unit, and the share of digital sales reached 75% (a 1400% increase). Key obstacles include the lack of halal certification and village road infrastructure. Recommendations include facilitating BPDPKS (Indonesian Palm Oil Development Agency) for production equipment and certification, as well as establishing a joint production house. This study contributes to the literature on palm oil downstreaming and sustainable LED strategies.

Can firms and coevolutionary groups suffer from too much interdependent complexity? Is complexity theory an alternative explanation to competitive selection for the emergent order apparent in coevolutionary industry groups? The biologist Stewart Kauffman suggests a theory of complexity catastrophe offering universal principles explaining phenomena normally attributed to Darwinian natural selection theory. Kauffman's complexity theory seems to apply equally well to firms in coevolutionary pockets. Based on complexity theory, four kinds of complexity are identified. Kauffman's “NK[C] model” is positioned “at the edge of chaos” between complexity driven by “Newtonian” simple rules and rule-driven deterministic chaos. Kauffman's insight, which is the basis of the findings in this paper, is that complexity is both a consequence and a cause. Multicoevolutionary complexity in firms is defined by moving natural selection processes inside firms and down to a “parts” level of analysis, in this instance Porter's value chain level, to focus on microstate activities by agents. The assumptions of stochastically idiosyncratic microstates and coevolution in firms are analyzed. Competitive advantage, as a dependent variable, is defined in terms of Nash equilibrium fitness levels. This allows a translation of Kauffman's theory to firms, paying particular attention to (1) how value chain landscapes might be modeled, (2) assumptions underlying Kauffman's models making them amenable to firms, and (3) a delineation of seven of Kauffman's computational experiments. As part of the translation, possible parallels between the application of complexity catastrophe theory to coevolutionary pockets and studies by institutional theorists and social network analysts are discussed. The models derive from spin-glass microstate models resulting in Boolean games. Kauffman's Boolean statistical mechanics is introduced in developing the logic underlying the somewhat simplified NK[C] model. The model allows the use of computational experiments to better understand how the dependent variable—value chain fitness—is affected by changes in the number of internal interdependencies K, the number of coevolutionary links with opponents C, the size of the coevolutionary pocket S, and the number of simultaneous adaptive changes, among other things. Various computational experiments are presented that suggest strategic organizing approaches most likely to foster competitive advantage. High or low Nash equilibrium fitness levels are shown to result from internal and external coevolutionary densities as a function of links among value chain competencies within a firm and between a firm and an opponent. Complexity phenomena appear to suggest a number of expected (and thus validating) and surprising strategies with respect to complex organizational interdependencies. For example, moderate complexity fares best and external coevolutionary complexity sets an upper bound to advantages likely to be gained from internal complexity. Various complexity “lessons” are discussed. Models such as the NK[C] could offer insights into strategic organizing.

As the knowledge drain in virtual organisations is much more significant than in traditional companies, an 'experience gap' between virtual corporations and traditional organisations may emerge over time. Hence, the often postulated advantage of the 'best-of-everything' organisation turns to a disadvantage. As a consequence, virtual corporations have to develop strategies to minimise the drain of experience in between their different projects. On an analytical base, this contribution depicts a new organisational concept for efficient project-based collaboration among value-creation partners to cope with problems such as knowledge drain, financial drain and inefficient learning processes in virtual organisations. Referring to the theoretical concepts of virtual corporations, Porter's value chain and the approach of the resource-based view, a new approach for the collaboration among business partners can be derived, which combines the advantage of loosely coupled organisations with traditional forms of collaborations. The new organisational concept is named 'Strategic Virtual Organisation'.

A computer aided engineering system for development of catalytic processes

Discussed the hardware design and implementation of the image processing system with Virtex-XC5VSX95T as the algorithm processing chip. The large-capacity data storage chip XCF128X is selected to store the program flow. The user clock, DDR2 clock, SATA clock and other clock modules are designed. Designed LVDS and SATA as a high-speed data interface for image data transmission. Designed RS-422 as a communication interface for parameter, command and status data transmission. DDR2 memory modules and NAND Flash are as memory for image data caching. Dedicated voltage regulator chip is selected to meet the requirements of each module of the system for DC voltage. The test proves that the hardware design of the image processing system is correct and can realize the expected function.

This study is concerned with the design and implementation of a real-time processing system of full resolution quick-look image of HJ-1 environmental satellite C SAR based on high-performance clusters. The system processes the first quick-look SAR image on December 9, 2012. The results show that the design and implementation of the quick-look processing system satisfies the real-time SAR image processing performance requirements at full resolution. Moreover, this system is the first real-time business system of full-resolution quick-look spaceborne SAR images in China.

This paper introduces a new approach named Design for Patentability (DFP) and presents the preliminary formulation of a formal methodology to attempt consideration of patentability aspects during the early stages of design including conceptual design and initial implementation of detailed design and manufacturing. Design for Automation (DFAM) approach formulated earlier by the first author based on Axiomatic Design Theory originated by Suh et. al. at MIT is adapted, suitably modified and customized for inclusion of patentability aspects such as anticipation, functionality, utility, and obviousness. Highlighting the complexity in incorporation of legal aspects in an engineering methodology, the paper presents the possibilities of improving the patentability of a design by a systematic and considered approach. The proposed methodology introduces a Patentability Evaluation phase in-between the Product Design, Process Design and Automation System Design phases of DFAM. The paper reviews mapping of parameters between different domains, namely, Functional Requirements Domain, Design Parameters Domain, Process Requirements Domain, and Design Automation Parameters Domain encompassed in the DFAM methodology and includes Patentability Parameters Domain in parallel to the last three domains to enable possible consideration of patentability aspects during Product Design, Process Design, and Automation System Design. Further, the paper briefly discusses the relevance of the Information Axiom of the Axiomatic Design Theory in the context of preparation of preliminary drafts of invention disclosure and potential claims for perusal by patent agents or attorneys. The approach reported in the paper is expected to have broad applications in the growing field of innovation based entrepreneurship in which design for patentability is an essential requirement for success of a business venture.