Karina Hauser

Defining the intellectual structure of information systems and related college of business disciplines: a bibliometric analysis

Information systems permeate every business function, thereby requiring holistic Information Systems (IS) approaches. Much academic research is still discipline specific. More interdisciplinary research is needed to inform both industry and academe. Interdisciplinary research has been positively associated with increased levels of innovation, productivity and impact. IS research contributes to the knowledge creation and innovation within IS and other College of Business (COB) disciplines. This research defines the intellectual structures within IS and between IS and other COB disciplines. We use a large scale, diachronic bibliometric analysis of COB journals to assess reciprocal knowledge exchange and also to identify potential intra- and interdisciplinary publication outlets. Our findings show an increase in IS knowledge contributions to other COB disciplines, which supports the discussion that IS is a reference discipline. Our research also visually depicts the intellectual structures within IS and between IS and other COB disciplines. Anyone exploring research in IS and allied COB disciplines can peruse the proximity maps to identify groups of similar journals. The findings from this research inform decisions related to which journals to read, target as publication outlets, and include on promotion and tenure lists.

Genetic algorithms for layout optimization in crossdocking operations of a manufacturing plant

In this study, we use genetic algorithms to optimize the lane layout associated with the crossdocking operation at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, USA. A genetic algorithm solution can be obtained within seconds, whereas an exhaustive search would require a computing time of over five days on a 1 GHz Intel Pentium III. The results of this study show that a simple rearrangement of the lanes will lead to a decrease in workload of nearly 34% in the crossdocking area and ultimately result in an overall reduced lead time.

Work in Progress: An Innovative Interdisciplinary Lean Manufacturing Course

This paper introduces preliminary developments of an NSF-funded on-going educational project. The project goal is to enhance student technical and professional skills and business knowledge by integrating lean manufacturing education into a traditional manufacturing engineering program. A group of faculty members with complementary background and expertise in engineering and business co-taught a new lean course that attracted student enrollments from five departments across campus. In addition to plant tours, guest lectures, and real-world industrial projects, we particularly designed an innovative and unique experience, Lean Lego Simulation (LLS), which has proven valuable for students to better understand lean principles and applications. Course survey shows student feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Evaluation is also being carried out to measure how well the project is working from the viewpoint of all participants especially faculty collaboration and student achievements

Team projects in a Systems Analysis and Design class: elements of success

An essential part of many Systems Analysis and Design capstone courses is the development of operational, meaningful and real-world information systems. The development of such systems typically takes place in a small group setting to realistically simulate the future work environment of Management Information System (MIS) students. We investigated how previous work experience, time spent on the project, project complexity, and the relationships among project team members and between team members and project stakeholders affected the outcome of the system development projects. Our findings indicate that three factors: prior work experience in information technology; experience with project management; the ability to select relatively simple projects positively affected the project outcome. While difficulties among team members showed a negative impact on the outcome of the projects, difficulties in the relationships with the stakeholders and total time spent on the project did not have significant effects.