Simon Dalmolen

Coordination as a service to enable agile business networks

This paper surveys the current organizational requirements of agile business networks and then studies how emerging ICT are addressing the needs. The paper concludes that while several requirements are covered by novel cloud and Saas offerings, several requirements related to service coordination, collaboration, risk management and relation management are not properly addressed by ICT offerings yet. The paper proposes coordination as a service (CAAS) to fill this gap and outlines the key characteristics of CAAS.

Semantic technology for enabling logistics innovations – towards Intelligent Cargo in the Physical Internet

Supply visibility is a prerequisite for increased capacity utilization, avoiding unnecessary bottlenecks, supply chain resilience, and compliance. Capacity utilization is both on the level of transport means such as trucks, trains, and barges, as well the optimal usage of the underlying infrastructure. Hubs like terminals, railway stations, locks in inland waterways, and warehouses, have to accommodate a potential large number of transport means and cargo thus increasing turnaround times and delays. Utilizing infrastructure, capacity, distribution, and movement data in planning is commonly denominated as synchromodal planning. Supply chain resilience implies predictive actions on handling exceptions like accidents and (major) incidents. Compliance implies timely access to data to assess potential risks and take corrective measures. In such a complex environment, data sharing has to be configured dynamically. Semantics is a prerequisite to address these issues. It requires the support of an infrastructure. To enable, to increase, and to improve the level of cooperation between enterprises, the ability to share data between organizations is crucial. Ontologies can lower the semantic barriers between organizations and enable IT infrastructures to support new business relations faster at lower cost.

Agent-Mining of Grid Log-Files: A Case Study

Grid monitoring requires analysis of large amounts of log files across multiple domains. An approach is described for automated extraction of job-flow information from large computer grids, using software agents and genetic computation. A prototype was created as a first step towards communities of agents that will collaborate to learn log-file structures and exchange knowledge across organizational domains.

Real-time context aware reasoning in on-board intelligent traffic systems: An Architecture for Ontology-based Reasoning using Finite State Machines

In-vehicle information management is vital in intelligent traffic systems. In this paper we motivate an architecture for ontology-based context-aware reasoning for in-vehicle information management. An ontology is essential for system standardization and communication, and ontology-based reasoning allows context-awareness, inference and advanced reasoning capabilities. However, the amount of computational power it requires often conflicts with the computational limitations of on-board units, as well as the high demand for timeliness and safety. Our approach uses ontology-based reasoning and a finite state machine (FSM). By combining ontology and FSM, we illustrate how a heavy-weight reasoning-solution could be applied in a light-weight computational environment.

Building a Supply Chain Ecosystem: How the Enterprise Connectivity Interface (ECI) Will Enable and Support Interorganisational Collaboration

This chapter proposes a model how to setup IT supported interorganisational collaboration in the current world where IT and business collaboration is intertwined. Businesses have been struggling to achieve supply chain integration for both technical and organizational reasons. This hinders effective collaboration with partners: vertical collaboration with suppliers and customers, as well as horizontal collaboration with competitors. This paper gives a literature overview of the current challenges within supply chain collaboration. The suggested Enterprise Connectivity Interface approach is inspired on the popular API model that enables connectivity between software systems. We reflect how such quick connectivity can be applied also on a business level.

Transportation Performances Measures and Metrics: Overall Transportation Effectiveness (OTE): A Framework, Prototype and Case Study

Transportation is essential to global economy. Nevertheless, Logistic Service Provisioning (LSP) is an industry with typically low margins. Competition is fierce and processes often inefficient, one example being a high percentage of empty miles (for trucks) resulting in unnecessary costs. Collaboration and better information exchange between LSPs and their supply chain partners are perceived to be essential in reducing empty miles. As a basis for collaboration initiatives, it is important to identify how LSPs currently perform. There is an urgent need for performance measurement. Business Intelligence (BI) matured over recent years and provides methods and tools for the construction of performance measurement dashboards. Still, LSPs struggle to identify accurate and effective performance indicators and face difficulties to implement these in a BI dashboard. To address this problem, we follow a design science approach to develop an Overall Transportation Effectiveness (OTE) framework using an extensive literature analysis and an analysis of current performance measurement practices. The OTE framework is implemented in a BI dashboard, which we piloted and evaluate in the Dutch branch of one of Europes largest LSPs. The paper concludes with a discussion of our findings and an outlook on potential future work.