Computers and coordination in manufacturing

Effectiveness of Organizational Communication (Organizational Structure and Technology) in Education System of Iran

Information technology has led to the development of virtual organizations and workplaces in the last ten years. The virtual workplace is as different from the industrial workplace as the latter was from the family farm it replaced a century ago. This chapter explores human resources strategics necessary to make the virtual workplace work. First we discuss how we got to virtual organizations and workplaces. We will show how advances in information technology have created demands for changes in organizational structure, process and culture. Next, we define three successive models of the virtual workplace, telecommuting, front-line, and cyberlink, showing how they work and what they require. Third, we will explore how the virtual workplace differs from more traditional organizational arrangements. Finally, we will provide recommendations for getting to the virtual workplace.

Abstract:This paper describes the results of a recent field study of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) adoption strategies in U.S. manufacturing firms. The purpose of the study was to identify the extent to which CIM technologies are in use in U.S. firms, the impact of a facility’s process characteristics on the CIM development process, and the adoption policy being followed implicitly or explicitly. The survey focused on manufacturing process characteristics, the CIM development process, the CIM architecture, and perceived value and benefits. Our results indicate that CIM implementations follow a definite temporal pattern with respect to the adoption of certain information technologies. We also find evidence of labor substitution through CIM, although the direct labor jobs that are lost are partially replaced by engineering and design tasks. While most CIM users find that their CIM projects successfully meet their initial operational goals, the technology seems to be poorly integrated in most sites...

Since the middle of the 20th century, multinational companies have experienced great development on the quantity and the trade scale under the dual influence of globalization and informationization. As the main body of international business, multinational companies' foreign direct investment led to large flow of the final products, intermediate products, technology and services on a global scale and the flow takes its internal trade as medium. Internal trade of the multinational company lead to international trade transfer and international industry restructuring, which played a very important role in accelerating economic globalization.

In today's business environment, where competition is increasing every day, effective leadership becomes a key aspect of success for any enterprise. The use of cutting-edge technologies in the development and implementation of strategic management decisions is crucial in this process, providing leadership with the necessary tools for analysis, planning, and execution of strategic tasks. The application of advanced software products, analytical tools, and intelligent systems helps increase management productivity, reduce risks, and optimize costs. Moreover, these technologies facilitate improved interaction between enterprise departments and the implementation of innovative strategies. The application of advanced management technologies can encompass a wide range of tools, from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to business analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. CRM systems enable the collection, analysis, and utilization of customer information to improve service and increase sales. Business analytics provides the ability to gain deep insights from large volumes of data, aiding in making informed strategic decisions. Artificial intelligence is used for process automation, forecasting, and decision optimization. The decision-making process may involve several stages, starting from gathering and analyzing information, formulating alternative courses of action, assessing risks and potential benefits, making decisions, implementing them, and finally, monitoring and evaluating the results. An important component of decision-making is also involving relevant stakeholders and considering their perspectives and interests. The main forms of implementing management decisions may vary depending on the specific situation and organizational goals. This could involve the implementation of new strategies, changes in organizational structure, launching new products or services, optimizing production processes, and so forth. Therefore, the use of advanced technologies and effective decision-making and implementation are important components of successful leadership in today's business environment, where the speed and accuracy of decision-making play a crucial role in achieving competitive advantages.

IntroductionThe challenge for land use management in the nineties is to initiate a people- centered development process which creates opportunities for local people to make their own choices about which development strategy to follow. This need is felt in particular for upland areas where government initiated blue- print programmes for land use management have a record of failure. The major reason is that these programmes are often not adjusted to cope with the complexity and diversity of the uplands. Land use management encompasses both short-term and longterm benefits and is confronted with rapid changes. The differing role of private, state and communal lands in combination with a complex system of control and utilization makes land use management difficult to fully understand. This study responds with the development of an alternative strategy for planning sustainable land use programmes at local level and has the following objectives:- to develop a strategic model for people-centered planning of sustainable land use programmes;- to develop a flexible planning method that can serve as land use management tool at local level;- to test the feasibility of the strategy for the uplands of East Java, Indonesia.Strategic modelThe two major principles of the strategic model are:- Programmes are planned and implemented through a learning process in a local and organizational dimension. The local dimension includes a learning process of planning, implementing and monitoring of small scale programmes. The planning process is short, but planned interventions are regularly adjusted based on new insights and changing conditions. In the organizational dimension the learning process proceeds through three different phases of trial, development and expansion. In this dimension, the government can learn how to manage the strategy of implementing local level planning and how to change attitudes, norms and organizational competence of organizations in order to do so. This dimension embraces local, regional and national governments.- Three major variables have to be considered in programme planning: land use system; interventions and organizations. Sustainable land use programmes are only possible if a good fit between these variables is achieved.In the strategic model these two principles are combined; a fit between the variables is achieved through a learning process. Because achieving a fit between the three variables is a complicated matter, it requires a phased approach which consists of the following three steps: a trial phase, a development phase and an expansion phase. In the trial phase, the focus is on achieving a fit between interventions and land use system in the local dimension. This is achieved through the implementation of trial cases in local level planning in which villagers, field workers of organizations and local leaders become acquainted with this new approach of planning sustainable land use programmes at a local level. In the development phase, attention is focused on achieving a fit between organizations and land use system. Through the development of human resources and extension processes the skills and attitudes of those involved may gradually change to become more people-oriented. In the expansion phase the focus is on achieving a fit between interventions and organization. In this phase the planning approach is accepted and applied at a national level. Changes in government structures and procedures, such as decentralization and strengthening of local leadership need to be achieved. By dividing the process into phases, the complex problems associated with planning sustainable land use become manageable, and step by step the ultimate goal of achieving a fit between all three variables can be reached.Planning methodIn order to reach an optimal fit between the three variables of the strategic model in the trial phase, a planning method should be applied to collect and analyse data that can be transformed into the design of effective programmes. No 'off-the-peg' planning method is available, instead a combination of existing approaches, methods and techniques is needed.Three development approaches can be distinguished to this end: planning of land use development; extension approaches and project management approaches. Generally speaking, each approach covers a different side of the strategic model. Land use development focuses on achieving a fit between interventions and land use system; extension processes can be used in achieving a fit between land use system and organizations; and the fit between interventions and organizations can be accomplished with the help of project management techniques.For planning land use development in the trial phase a number of current methods and techniques are discussed. These are Farming System Analysis, Land Evaluation, Agroecosystem Analysis, Landscape Planning, Rapid Rural Appraisal and Gender Analysis. The criteria set by the strategic model determine which aspects of these present planning methods and techniques are useful for the development of a new planning method. None of these methods and techniques as such are ideal as an operational planning method for realizing the first phase of the strategic model. A synthesis of all useful features into a new land use planning method is proposed.For the trial phase the focus is on planning land use development while opportunities to develop extension processes and to influence project management are limited. Therefore plans should basically be tailored to the existing competence of organizations. Within these limitations some attention can be paid to extension processes and management techniques by introducing an additional step to land use planning, called programming which includes the preparation of a detailed design and a programme planning matrix.Planning environment on JavaThe environment for the planning of land use development programmes is diverse and complex in the uplands of East Java. Farmers react to the wide diversity in the land use system by developing a large number of different land use strategies. By contrast, government organizations use standardized programmes with uniform and mostly inflexible procedures for planning and implementation. Village development planning procedures exist, but do not yet function properly. Local organizations responsible for village development planning do not yet possess the skills and capability to develop such plans, and centrally organized sectoral agencies still dominate this 'bottom-up' planning process. The dominance of the central government can be explained by the incorporation of a number of socio-cultural features in their policy, such as the principles of 'sole authority', consensus, and harmony. The government uses these principles to encapsulate autonomous local organizations in the government administration, orienting the local leaders more to government rules and procedures than to the needs of the local population.This orientation towards government administration has two major implications for the current planning of interventions. Firstly, the interventions are adjusted to the competence of implementing organizations rather than letting the organizations develop their competence to implement the tasks of locally planned interventions. Secondly little more than lip-service is paid to the participation of villagers in planning.Notwithstanding these shortcomings in the present village development planning process, official government policy has some room for improvement. This may allow for a more balanced planning process new approach.Secondly, constraints which can be expected while applying the model on Java are described. The feasibility of the trial phase of the strategy is evaluated based on experiences with implementing the trial cases on Java. In this evaluation the question is raised as to what extent the results of local level planning on Java can respond to the research objectives as formulated at the start of this study. No experience has been gained as yet with implementing the development and expansion phase. One programme that provides some valuable lessons for the feasibility of the phased learning process of the strategic model is the Java Social Forestry Programme (JSFP). This programme has followed a comparable phasing strategy and has already reached the expansion phase.Conclusions and policy recommendationsThis evaluation results in a number of conclusions on conditions to be fulfilled for successful implementation of the strategy. To sum up:- although the strategy is aimed at the local level, it cannot be realized at local level only as it requires involvement of regional and national government organizations to deal with changing communication processes and organizational structure;- objectives in village development planning should be set realistically in the knowledge that short term results will always dominate long term benefits, tangible results will get higher priority than social changes, while top-down influences from sectoral agencies will prevail;- in addressing the organizational dimension a choice should be made between following an approach of 'decentralized trial cases' versus 'centrally guided bottom-up process'. Whichever strategy is chosen it needs careful management to avoid difficulties in institutionalization or a too rapid expansion respectively;- it is necessary for the government to be shown better results in terms of sustainable land use development programmes at local level implemented by highly committed villagers. Only then may they be motivated to accept such a participatory approach at the cost of losing some power or consensus;- implementing a participatory planning process is an initially slow process, to which government agencies need to be committed.These conditions are translated into a number of policy recommendations for donor agencies and governments pertaining to: long-term and continuous commitment; development of the management capacity and motivation of people involved; and strengthening the competence of a government organization for responsive governance.Experiences in Java have illustrated the importance of congruence between the design of land use interventions; the development of communication processes and the development of organizational competence. The whole range of actors involved who strive for sustainable land use - from villagers to programme managers - will have to contribute to achieving this fit. They will only be able so when they view PLANNING AS A LEARNING PROCESS.

Government support of computer integrated manufacturing in Germany: first results of an impact analysis

This paper explores if and how electoral defeats affect the changes in organisational structure of political parties and investigates whether party characteristics, such as being in a government or in an opposition, its country of origin affect how parties respond to defeat in terms of the party organizational structure. For the purposes of this article, three elements were considered for the scope of organisational structure change: party decomposition, change of power balance and the appearance of new organs or bodies in the party. Analysis is based on the examination of 73 parties from 28 countries, and of the consideration of party efforts to change their organization. The conclusion, however, was unclear. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of 12 selected political parties representing three different party systems and electoral systems was also conducted. The study of the Polish, Belgian and British systems facilitate explanation of the reasons why parties take some selective corrective structural actions after electoral defeat. Nevertheless, they are mostly not to be fundamental and have some relation to a specific conditions affecting concrete parties in different party systems.

This study examines how employees with strong versus weak person-organization (P-O) fit respond to transformational changes in organizational structure or culture. P-O fit, defined as the alignment between an individual’s values, goals, and beliefs with those of the organization, significantly influences workplace behavior and adaptability. Drawing on a sample of employees from diverse industries undergoing structural or cultural transformations, this research employs a mixed-methods approach. Findings reveal that employees with strong P-O fit demonstrate higher adaptability, engagement, and resilience, while those with weak P-O fit are more prone to resistance, stress, and turnover intentions. These findings offer practical implications for change management strategies and organizational alignment initiatives.

This article describes a valid and current research area, which is the formation of organizational learning ability, perceived as a condition necessary for the survival and development of modern organizations. It refers to the issue of organic organizational structure as a factor shaping this ability. Many researchers emphasized that the organizational structure plays a key role in determining the processes of organizational learning. However, only in recent years, these views have been verified empirically-demonstrating the importance of organic structures in this area. Therefore, determination of what may contribute to the development of organic structural solutions in the context of developing learning capacity of the company appears to be a significant research problem. This article discusses what is the organic organizational structure role in shaping the learning ability of organization. It was empirically verified, using confirmation factor analysis, that among other factors organic structure determines organizational learning capability (OLC). Next part of article describes information technology (IT) and knowledge management (KM) as two important factors influencing structure reorganization and facilitating introduction of organic-type structure in organization. Discussion concerning the problem of their influence on various organizational structure dimensions is included. After that, research results are presented. First part of these researches concerns IT and KM influence on organizational structure and provides conclusions based on correlation and stepwise regression analysis. The empirical results show that IT and KM are two important factors influencing structure reorganization and facilitating introduction of organic-type structure in organization. Research has shown that these factors are complementary in terms of their impact on the organizational structure (they have a statistically significant impact on various structural dimensions). Therefore, IT and KM may be considered as intermediate factors influencing OLC and should be closely observed in those organizations, which are trying to enhance their learning capability.

Information technologies have great influence on the performance of organization. They are related with the changes in organization activities and structure of organization. A view to organization as a three-layer system where information flows connect material flows with decision makers is presented in this article. Three criteria (time, cost and path) are used in a formal model that evaluates organizations information flow effectiveness. This article pre-sents a methodic for choosing information technologies that fit organization needs by performance and cost. Petri nets are used for modeling.

The introduction and enhanced application of new information and communication technologies will lead to — quantitative reductions of labour — alterations in the quality of labour — modified qualification requirements for the employees — changes in organizational structures.

Within the current information technology revolution, the middle management system is being forced to make large changes. The results of a survey of Japan's large corporations show that due to organizational flattening and the transfer of authority to lower-level employees, status promotion levels are more intricate, status promotion requirements focus more on knowledge and ability than on the number of years of experience, and the importance of on-the-job training is increasing. Therefore, this appears to indicate a reform in the personnel management paradigm from one which has normally focused on seniority to one which focuses on the effective use of individual knowledge and ability.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how product‐centric businesses (PCBs), operating in a business‐to‐business environment, configure their organizations to align services strategy with structure. PCBs are companies whose businesses were historically based on the products, rather than services, they sold.Design/methodology/approachA UK‐based study was undertaken which comprised 40 interviews with managers in 25 PCBs from 11 sectors.FindingsThe main parameter which determines the appropriate organizational configuration for services within the PCB's structure is strategy. A new framework is developed from the empirical research which identifies a number of PCB configurations, based on PCBs' services strategies (services engagement, extension, penetration and transformation) and organizational structures aligned to strategic business units (SBUs), i.e. combined product and services, independent services and customer‐focused. The framework is used to show how organizational structure changes in response to changes in strategy. For certain strategies, the degree of product differentiation (services engagement) and future product sales potential (services transformation) also plays a part in determining strategy/structure configurations.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could confirm and compare the effectiveness of the identified structural configurations.Practical implicationsManagers in PCBs can identify appropriate organizational structures based on their services strategies and products. They can configure organizational design in light of evolving strategies that enable services‐led growth.Originality/valueThe paper presents a large pan‐sector study of organizational design for services as it related to PCBs, providing a new framework through which appropriate strategy/structure configurations can be identified and investigated as services‐led growth takes place.

The application of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) to one-of-a-kind heavy engineering industries is one of today's most challenging tasks for industry and information technology (IT) vendors. Because of the complexity of the shipbuilding process, as a typical representative of this kind of industry, available solutions are not yet satisfactory. Even the basic theory of current CIM systems does not fit many aspects of requirements for the shipbuilding industry. The application of CIM tools, which are based on ideas of line production and have a strict sequence for all tasks, has very often failed in the past, mainly because of a lack of flexibility. Therefore, basic work needs to be performed, starting with a detailed analysis of today's situation and leading to a careful development for the real requirements of tomorrow. This paper deals with the problems resulting from the exceptional nature of shipbuilding for the application of CIM elements. The approach chosen for modeling of the production process, illustrated by some examples from actual research and development (R + D) projects, is described. An evaluation of the benefit of structured shipyard modeling and a look at complementary R + D actions conclude the paper.