Good evaluation practice guidelines have been developed through a consensus making process by a core team and the health informatics community. A set of 60 issues has been identified that is relevant for planning, implementation and execution of an evaluation study in the health informatics domain. These issues cover all phases of an evaluation study: Study exploration, first study design, oper...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a risk identification checklist for facilitating user companies to surface, organise and manage potential risks associated with the post-adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Design/methodology/approach – A desktop study, based on the process of a critical literature review, was conducted by the researchers. The critical review...

While abundant research deals with risks of ERP implementation, only a handful deal with ERP upgrades. This case study describes the first ERP upgrade project at the Dead Sea Works (DSW) chemical company. Whereas DSW succeeded in completing the initial ERP implementation project within budget and six months ahead of schedule, the first ERP upgrade project was fraught with difficulties in projec...

Here we consider a pragmatic sample-based motion planning approach for a robot operating in a fixed, rangeonly beacon field. We define and calculate entropy values for regions of interest and provide a method for finding “safe,” risk averse, low-entropy paths between these regions. We include an experimental, real-world assessment of the approach.

This study examines the multidimensional and mediating relationships between six Total Quality Management (TQM) practices, role conflict and role ambiguity. Survey data are collected from 422 employees from ISO certified firms in Malaysia. With the use of structural equation modelling, the findings indicate that higher levels of process management and information analysis lead to lower levels o...

According to the Resource Based View of the firm, strategic assets contribute to a firm’s competitive advantage. Strategic assets are characterized as Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, and they involve Organizational Support. These four characteristics have been theorized to result in competitive parity, temporary competitive advantage, or a sustainable competitive advantage for a company. This paper...

This paper is an experience report on the results of an industry-led collaborative project aimed at automating the control of traffic flowwithin a large city centre. A major focus of the automation was to deal with abnormal or unexpected events such as roadworks, road closures or excessive demand, resulting in periods of saturation of the network within some region of the city. We describe the ...

Traditional Decision Support Systems (DSS) provide strong data management, modelling and visualisation capabilities for the decision maker but they do not explicitly support scenario management appropriately. Systems that purport to support scenario planning are complex and difficult to use and do not fully support all phases of scenario management. We introduce scenario as a core component of ...

Operations research specialists at UPS and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) created a system to optimize the design of service networks for delivering express packages. The system simultaneously determines aircraft routes, fleet assignments, and package routings to ensure overnight delivery at minimal cost. It has become central to the UPS planning process, fundamentally transfor...

Copyright © 2003, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. ABSTRACT The events of September 11, 2001 have markedly increased the level of awareness in organisations of business continuity management (BCM). Businesses can choose to adopt a risk management (reactive), or the more expansive crisis management a...