Mauricio Uriona Maldonado

Managing Innovation in Small High-technology Firms: A Case Study in Brazil

Evaluating innovation competence and practices is a significant and complex issue for many contemporary organizations and it presents itself as a challenge for forthcoming initiatives. In this article, we present the case study of a small hightechnology firm. Cianet Networking is a digital communication solutions manufacturer in Brazil that went through the implementation of an innovation management assessment system. This article reports the challenges the firm faced through the diagnosing/benchmarking and action plan proposal phases as well as the challenges facing the implementation phase. This system helped the firm to understand their strengths and weaknesses as well as to establish action plans in order to achieve higher performance. Since the beginning of the implementation, the results have corroborated the

Gestão da terceirização no setor brasileiro de distribuição de energia elétrica

Outsourcing activities have been expanded through the whole value chain in the Brazilian electric energy distribution sector, including services which are part of the firm’s core business. This work has as the objective of analyzing two service outsourcing models developed by Brazilian electricity distribution companies. Interviews in situ with stakeholders from both companies and from the outsourcing companies were made along with visits. The main contribution is that outsourcing activities require more sophisticated management models, suggested by the need to increase technical and managerial capabilities in the firms.

Process improvement for professionalizing non-profit organizations: BPM approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for process improvement at the Department of Social Responsibility of a Colombian process-based organization, called CAJASAN. The department has four main processes: Foninez (children fund), Fosfec (unemployment fund), Project Management and International Cooperation and Network Management and Alliances. The objective of this paper is to suggest an improvement in these processes through BPM application. Design/methodology/approach – The authors followed the BPM method proposed by Dumas et al. (2013) for process improvement composed by process identification; process discovery; process analysis; process redesign; process implementation and process monitoring and controlling. The authors modeled the processes by using the software Bizagi®. Findings – The actual processes work in an independent way and with no communication. Moreover, the department experiences short-term problems solutions and process inefficiency. It was possible to suggest chang...

Some reasons to implement reverse logistics in companies

This article aims to present a reflexion on some of the main reasons for companies to implement reverse logistics processes. Companies have difficulties in implementing reverse logistics as part of their business processes due to high cost of implementation and due to difficulties in measuring material returns. However, companies that have succeeded in implementing it have increased their competitiveness and improved their corporate image. This paper proposes six critical success factors for the implementation of reverse logistics: good income control, standardised and mapped processes, reduced time cycle, information systems, planned logistic grid and collaborative relations between customers and suppliers. Well-structured and implemented reverse logistics process brings up benefits and advantages to companies, beyond environmental ones.

Efeito Chicote em Redes de Logística Reversa: um Modelo de Simulação Dinâmica

Enquanto as industrias de manufatura ingressam na era da sustentabilidade, mudancas dramaticas sao evidenciadas nas suas cadeias de suprimento, a mais importante, que alem do fluxo tradicional de materiais desde os fornecedores ate os consumidores finais, existem tambem, fluxos reversos de materiais, conhecidos como logistica reversa. O objetivo do artigo e visualizar os efeitos de amplificacao (efeito chicote) em cadeias de suprimento com logistica reversa. Para isto, um modelo de dinâmica de sistemas e desenvolvido. O modelo servira para comparar o efeito chicote entre cadeias de suprimento com e sem logistica reversa.

Aplicações de Dinâmica de Sistemas na Logística Reversa: Uma análise bibliométrica

Este artigo tem como objetivo realizar um levantamento do desenvolvimento de modelos e aplicacoes de dinâmica de sistemas no dominio da logistica reversa e areas afins, por meio da bibliometria. O levantamento bibliografico apresentou 25 artigos relevantes e alinhados com o tema de pesquisa. As informacoes coletadas incluem: artigos mais relevantes, os principais autores, as palavras-chave mais relevantes e os periodicos que mais publicaram sobre o assunto em questao. Como resultado apresenta-se os artigos que mais se destacaram na relacao entre dinâmica de sistemas e o processo de logistica reversa. Conclui-se que os autores com maior numero de artigos produzem conhecimento em coautoria, parecendo existir um nucleo comum de investigacao voltados para o estudo de estrategias, metodologias, planejamento e sustentabilidade da cadeia de suprimentos, principalmente na producao de equipamentos eletroeletronicos.

Managing outsourcing in the Brazilian electric energy distribution sector

Outsourcing activities have been expanded through the whole value chain in the Brazilian electric energy distribution sector, including services which are part of the firm’s core business. This work has as the objective of analyzing two service outsourcing models developed by Brazilian electricity distribution companies. Interviews in situ with stakeholders from both companies and from the outsourcing companies were made along with visits. The main contribution is that outsourcing activities require more sophisticated management models, suggested by the need to increase technical and managerial capabilities in the firms.

Gestión de la externalización de servicios en el sector brasileño de distribución de energía eléctrica

Outsourcing activities have been expanded through the whole value chain in the Brazilian electric energy distribution sector, including services which are part of the firm’s core business. This work has as the objective of analyzing two service outsourcing models developed by Brazilian electricity distribution companies. Interviews in situ with stakeholders from both companies and from the outsourcing companies were made along with visits. The main contribution is that outsourcing activities require more sophisticated management models, suggested by the need to increase technical and managerial capabilities in the firms.

ENGENHARIA DO CONHECIMENTO APLICADA AO SERVIÇO DE ATENDIMENTO AO CLIENTE NA INDÚSTRIA DO SOFTWARE

Knowledge representation supports management tools and techniques and must possess a substantial comprehension of the business in which is inserted. This paper describes the first phase construction of a knowledge system for a Brazilian software-houses customer service. The method applied is knowledge engineering and specifically the context-layer models of CommonKADS. First, a literature review is presented regarding the CommonKADS Methodology, focusing in the Organization, Tasks and Agent Models. Next, the development phases for the knowledge system are described as well as the company where the study was made. It concludes with the business implications of the knowledge system for the software-house as well as the next steps of application for CommonKADS.