Ramesh Marasini

Assessment of e‐business adoption in SMEs: A study of manufacturing industry in the UK North East region

Purpose – Internet technologies are increasingly being adopted by UK businesses to facilitate collaboration, trade, learn, manage company business processes and deliver services. Most manufacturing small to medium enterprises (SMEs), who are low investors in the technology, have not benefited from its application. The purpose of this paper is to identify ways of removing the barriers for SMEs and the change approaches used by SMEs to implement internet and information technologies.Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of 32 companies assisted in the internet technology adoption initiative under government funding was carried out. Tailored ICT solutions were recommended and implemented. Information was collected before the start assistance and at the completion of 10 or 25 days of assistance to the companies. Each company case was analysed to generalise the findings. Two change models: classic three step change model and improvisational model were used to analyse the approaches taken by the SMEs in the...

Visualisation of a stockyard layout simulator "SimStock": A case study in precast concrete products industry

Abstract The demand for the concrete products is seasonal and huge stock is built in winter for dispatch in summer. As 1000–2000 products with different sizes, weights, handling and stacking requirements are involved, the process of deciding appropriate locations to stock the products and track them while loading into lorries for dispatch becomes complex. Stockyards in the precast concrete products industry are experiencing space congestion, and long vehicle waiting times for both the storage and retrieval of concrete products due to lack of a proper methodology to manage stockyard layouts and their operations. This paper describes an ongoing research that addresses the stockyard layout management problem through the development of an integrated simulation and visualisation model. The paper focuses on the development of the visualisation and simulation element of the stockyard management system “SimStock”. The simulation model has been developed using ARENA/SIMAN, a general-purpose simulation language. The simulation model integrates production and forecast schedules, evaluates “what-if” scenarios with different layouts, products allocation to storage locations and order picking policies. The output of the simulation model is recorded in a database (Ms Access). The visualisation model was developed through integrating AutoCAD2000 with the database of the simulation model such that the simulated layouts can be studied in greater details and validated in a simpler manner. The visualisation module is used to assist managers in designing stock layouts (one of the major inputs to the simulation model) and visualise the simulation process in 2D (and 3D) perspectives, and manage real time implementation of proposed stockyard solutions.

Stockyard layout planning in precast concrete products industry: a case study and proposed framework

Management of the stockyard layout in the precast concrete products industry is very important for efficient storage and dispatch of the concrete products. The industry uses the make-to-stock principle in production to meet the seasonal demand (high in summer and low in winter) from the construction industry. In order to stabilize production output and cater for the huge demand in summer, stock is built up during the winter and spring period. The concrete products are kept in stock for 4–5 months. As 2000≈3000 different precast concrete products are produced, and the products have different size, weight and handling requirements, determination of appropriate stockyard location for the products constitutes a complex process. This paper describes some ongoing research that is focused on identifying the appropriate methodology for designing and managing the stockyard layout that ensures efficient storage and dispatch of products, and provides ease of rotation of products within the yard. An integrated simulation model employing artificial intelligence methods has been proposed to evaluate ‘what-if’ scenarios and recommend a suitable methodology for the management of stockyard space for precast concrete products. This paper presents the findings from a case study, which includes work-study, frequency analysis of historical order data. The paper also introduces the specifications, processes and outline prototype of the proposed model. A general purpose simulation language (SIMAN) based software, ‘Arena 4.0’ (Systems Modelling Corporation), has been selected to develop the prototype simulation model and ILOG views and rules have been considered to generate a knowledge-based stockyard layout.

Stockyard layout planning and management for the precast concrete products industry

The concrete building products manufacturing industry supplies 2,000‐4,000 precast concrete building products to the construction industry. Owing to seasonal demand, the industry builds up stock in winter to meet the high demand in summer. As concrete products are heavy and vary in shape and size, proper stocking in terms of layout and methods of stocking of products on the yard is essential. Industrial practice suggests that stockyard space management gets less attention during strategic and budget planning as it is left to the stockyard manager. The industry experiences space congestion for both the storage and dispatch of products. During dispatch process, greater retrieval time is required, long queues of lorries (shipping vehicles) are formed and desired level of service cannot be maintained. Presents a review of stockyard operations, analysis of parameters affecting loading and dispatch process on the yard and strategies to optimise the stockyard layout. It is expected that proper layout planning will reduce the cost of delivery of products by 5‐10 per cent in the industry where profit is less than 5‐8 per cent.

Innovative managerial control system (IMCS): an application in precast concrete building products industry

The monitoring and control of business processes and their variables have strategic importance in order to respond to the dynamics of the world of business. Many monitoring processes are focussed on controlling time and cost and the overall performance is evaluated through a standard set of key performance indicators. These passive approaches do not consider a holistic/system view and therefore ignore the interrelationships between various external and internal variables impacting a business process. This paper investigates an application of multivariate statistical process control techniques [mainly principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS)] which have been successfully used in process and chemical industries, to model, monitor, control and predict business process variables. A prototype, innovative managerial control system (IMCS), was developed to investigate the application of PCA and PLS techniques to monitor, control and predict business process performance. Data was collect...

APPLICATION OF VISUALISATION TOOLS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: INNOVATION AND CHALLENGES

The advancement of information technology has resulted in the development of new visualization and planning tools that offer major improvements when compared to the use of traditional planning tools such as Gantt charts and Critical Path Method. Despite their limited capability for planning and monitoring projects, these tools are still almost universally used by the construction industry. Two case studies managed using traditional techniques, one construction of an apartment block and other installation of a new high technology production facility in the Precast Concrete Industry have been reviewed in the paper from a viewpoint of how the application of new 4D (3D+time) and visual planning/simulation techniques would have improved the management and control of the projects. Widespread use of visualization and simulation techniques in the Aerospace and Car Industries is compared with the limited use in the Construction Industry. The paper examines the barriers to the introduction of the technology based on the experience gained from the presentation and demonstration of the visualization technology to six major construction companies operating in the UK construction industry and the means of breaking down the barriers to the implementation of the new IT innovation are discussed.

Application of Multivariate Statistical Process Control technique to monitor and control construction processes

In order to evaluate the status of the project at any particular point of time, identify problems and enable project managers to make the correct decisions and control the project effective performance measurement and analysis systems should be used on construction sites. This paper presents application of multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) techniques to monitor the construction site variables. Multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) has found growing applications in recent years for controlling processes in chemical plants and other manufacturing processes. The MSPC combines a large number of variables into few independent variables, which then can be monitored and any process deviations from the normal operating conditions can be identified with corrective actions suggested. Utilising MSPC technique construction process variables can be modelled using historical data and establishes patterns of correlated variables. The current on site variables can be analyse and report to project management in order to make effective future decisions. The statistics of external variables and internal variables influencing construction site operations were identified using a real life case study. The results of modelling the variables and conducting experiments with MSPC are analysed and discussed in this paper.