- Email: [email protected]
Constraint Management Based Decision Engineering
CONSTRAINT MANAGB'lENT BASED DECISION ENGINEERING
Joscf Basl
Westbohemian University. Pi/sen, C::ech Republic
Abstract: The paper describes socioinformatics approach derivated from constraint management that author applied in his research of collaborative decision engineering. The ariicle explains characteristics of the main four stages of decision-making process. The experience with the application of own methodology is mentioned in the conclusion of this paper. Copyright © 2002 fFAC Keywords: decision making, decision support, constraints, management system, theory of constraints.
I. INTRODUCTION
similarity of problems are known. The reason can be the general attitude of people to changes and their ability to change behavior or the set of rules how they act. It concerns the top managers on the one hand and the end users on the other.
Many of the manufacturing enterprises in the Middle Europe have invested into the information technology (IT) during the last decade. The ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Systems) have been widely implemented and they created very efficient platform for better decision making based on common integrated database. The process of ERP systems implementation demanded relatively high sum of money, time and human resources.
The author of this article therefore has oriented his attention on the human and socio aspects of the IS/IT and especially on the decision engineering for couple last years. In order to making decision smarter the relevant decision support systems have to be enhanced. They have to include the relevant support from such domains as: cost engineering, knowledge engineering, business intelligence, risk analysis, and so on. Moreover, the software tools have to cope with a growing size of systems causing a combinatorial explosion of alternative solutions, while to follow requirements of an on-line and accurate decision-making.
But the development of the IS/IT has not stopped and management of the enterprises has permanently to deal with new tasks. After the solving of the Y2K problem the new trends have appeared - among them for example Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS). These new software applications ask for further investment but on the other hand they can help managers, cmployee, partners and customers by doing crucial decis ion to be better, faster - generally better survive under current global market conditions.
Those issues are objectives of the decision engineering that focuses on developing tools and techniques for informed operational as well as business decision making within industry by utilizing distributed organizational knowledge and human expeliise. The last two factors are the subject of the socioinformatics, i.e. the methods and computer based means supporting man-to-man and man-tomachine communication as well as knowledge management (including data mining, and reasoning automation); within holistic framework enabling human-machine synergy.
The fast growing potential of the IT tools and their rapid penetration into the business processes is the reasons for rethinking of models used for the infom1ation systems in enterprises. The finding new paradigms and approaches in this environment is the current goal for the research works. The experience with ERP systems implementations in the East Europe shows that even the different historical background compared with West Europe, the high
279
The described approach has been named socioinformatics approach and it is oriented on the decision engineering. The main basis of it is philosophy of Theory of Constraints by E. Goldratt. The Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) is another typical feature for this approach and it suits good for the European conditions. Champy and Hammer were the first who drew attcntion in the early 90's towards the weakness of the IT implementation when IT were applied into the old-fashioned and traditional processes. They started the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) wave (Obolenski, 1996). The contribution of their process paradigm has become the beginning of the modem and holistic understanding of the business activities and their relations. The aim of this effort is generally improving the output of the whole enterprise. It is not been possible without the visualization of the business processes known as process modeling.
:vlethod
Kaizen
Place of Japan origin Key feature Small changes Aspects solution
BPR
CPI
(Business Process Reengineeri ng) USA
(Continues Process Improvemen
radical changes operation of Slow selfwith high treatment level of with a risk and risk of side effects serious disease
informatics. also called socio-informatics, opposes this view. (2) It is a modem study of information technology from the point of view of the social and cultural sciences, with web sociology as a specialty. (3) A holistic perspective on social informatics and web sociology may be based on the premises of Gestalt philosophy. psychology and logic. From this point of view, the borders between the cultural, social and natural sciences are open, permitting the crossing of professional barriers. The author of this paper is convinced that the term socioinformatics is the best way to describe the current process in optimization of business processes supported by ICT (information and communication technology) and the current decision making process as well. Its existence is quite natural, and the rest of this paper brings evidence for such opinion. Socioinformatics represents the further development stage m decision engmeenng. It offers the opportunity to cover all interdisciplinary aspects, attributes and in fluences. It represent the shift from the level of technology towards (especially information technology) the social level. The main aspect of this movement displays the following table:
t)
Europe
Informa tics smart changes health living style
Fig. I Main methods for process improvement
Although the BPR approach has become less radical later, the Continues Process Improvement (CPI) is closer to the reality. It seems that the CPI suits better to European mentality and generally to business environment.
Basic term Basic element Process of elements connection Condition of common understanding way of connection of elements
information IT components integration
proper protocols interface solution
Sociohformatics knowledge Partners communication
proper terminology and communication Conflict solution
Fig. 2 Movement from informatics to socioinformatics
The arti ficial intelligence or learning systems that have their own "longer" history belong to this filed as well.
2. SOCIOINFORMATICS APPROACH 3. EVOLUTION OF DECISION ENGINEERING The word socioinformatics sounds has been rarely used so tire. Department of Sociology and Social geography in Oslo University offers the definition of this term:. (I) Information technology has traditionally been conceived as a concern and an outcome of the natural and logic-mathematical sCiences only. Social
Socioinformatics is the next evolutional step of optimization efforts within decision-making processes. This process can be divided into four stages. Each stage has its own paradigm and methods, and concentrates on its own aspects. The first stage represents the traditional approach:
280
3.1 Traditional decision making.
users who share actual right information at the moment.
The traditional approach has been applied in praxis for a longer time. It represents until now a part of the creative classical engineering approach. It works in the following steps:
This stage has brought the discovering that the nonproduction (administrative) processes must be optimized with the same effort as manufacturing ones. We can mention, for example. the BPR movement in the early 90s.
analysis of problem - synthesis uf sollllion (lIslIalll' in dijlere/1/ I'arianls) - oplimisaliol/- l'isllaltsalion.
This stage can be called information engineering and its solution is very similar to the industrial engineering approach:
The traditional approach is oriented mainly on technological, time and cost aspects of production process. It is still part of the education process at technical universities. The practical results of this approach can be the dcsign of new products, the way of its realization (routines sheet), and the layout of new manufacturing systems.
\'iSllaltsalion - jollol\'ing oplimisalion (rather looking .101' beller reslllls. nol Ihe besl one)
However, the main difference is in the first step, e.g. visualization. It is not so easy to make a photo of reality on the shop floor. Information engineering describes the information flow that sometimes hasn't been visualized yet. Many facts are only in the heads of people, workers and managers. This frequent absence of the written form of information flow (through, for example, contract preparation) is crucial for further optimization of business processes based on the information systems/information technology (IS/IT).
The most significant method from this stage usable In the socioinformatics approach is "function analysti" (value analysis) that was very popular in the 80s. But it seems to have fallen a little bit into oblivion now. Its main advantage is the ability to find and formulate the principle (core) features of processes with two words.
3.2 Industrial Engineering decision making.
There are many software tools (Scheer, 1998) to help capture the information flow and processes in a company, but one thing is clear - such a support tool for visualization is not enough. It must be used together with the right techniques, such as how to ask questions and here we can recognize the beginning of socioinformatics that is more about communication among people than about technology and only information.
Industrial Engineering has come up with a different idea. It struggles for optimization or at least improvement of the decision in the production systems and processes. It concentrates on the shop floor mainly. Most of the applied methods with Japanese origin concentrate on the material flow through a shop floor. It begins with getting a reliable picture of the real systems (photography of the workplace, the results of measurements of activity length, etc). Then the process of improvement follows. The steps of a solution look like:
The optimization steps are often based on the experience of people. Very often they emphasize the power of their own visualization and the so-called "oh yes" effect. Without any doubt the existence of a quality reference model of different branches is very useful in this activity.
I'isllaltsation- jollol\'ing oplimisaliol/ (ralher jinding oj' a beller sollllion than Ihe current slatlls ofters)
Although the Industrial engineering methods have come from the shop floor and are oriented primarily on the material flow, they are useful for information flow as well.
3.4 Constraint based decision making.
However, it is not possible to build the solution or proposal only on experience and intuitive findings. The turning point in this approach brings up the philosophy of the Theory of Constraint (TOC) by E. Goldratt, which plays a significant role in modem management. The influence of this theory and the constraint management on the socioinformatics approach will be discussed later in this paper.
3.2 In/ormation engineering decision making.
The development of IT has helped to bring a holistic technical scope to a company. It means that the concentration has moved from material flow on the shop floor to information flow and customer orders. The information is in this stage not only important condition for decision-making but in the same time is the key part of product or services. It helps for all
Most of [S implementation has shown that the key constraint of effective using of the new IT tools is not technology but people. These are really social aspects and the problem of different groups in a company
281
~
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Cat:BT.*J1
the business entity as a whole to focus changes to be made on constraints that are directly limiting the better total-system profitability. The producer's aim is to increase profits and not to assure the satisfaction of manufacturing as such.
thT
i'tnrumlbv \\j'ilh:UlJ1i.'
annuD1i.Jl
~dU1Cj"
l:DrlllS il h,
adr
-.ok
bV'arnf
puidin mnJfuuig
a:8.JIU
mnhnfte
am
nm:rk(d-m)
rot
a:nlbiY
~
s:m:'.di - vac frbv"'1ln:
m:reo>Jre pn:(crevel
In this approach, the socioinformatics can be understood as the implementation of the manager knowledge about the systems constraints and his/her intuition to the solution searching procedure creating. Intuitively it is quite obvious that each system has at least one constraint that limits performance of the system relative to its goal. The next intuition is that the consideration of system's quantitative features makes sense only if assumed qualitative requirements of the system functioning hold. A constraint may be lack of market, policy imposed internally, or a resource internal to the company.
gre(aevm nue)fm-
bvcrpilo)
~
rJ~N,
rrq:>
=its
111"....",,1;
virUlI reility, 5:lmD;
The TOC has been applied to a wide range of things including operations, finance, projects, distribution, supply chain, marketing, people, strategy and tactic. While observing a production system it is easy to note that machine tools as well as storage and buffers capacity can cause a bottleneck in the system. So, the material flows are limited by the efficiency of the machine tools (processing items) as well as customer constraints (due time realisation, batch size). In turn those are limited by logistics constraints of the available transportation/storage facilities. Moreover, besides of such material-nature constraints synchronizing production flow the other ones including financial and human-factor-based (related to capability of an operator, dispatcher, and so on) constraints have to be considered as well.
Fig. 3 Optimization in decision engineering
(from the project team through end users to managers). Therefore emphasis in this described approach is put on the "socio" methods that help: • • • •
communication analysis of thinking process getting knowledge working with motivation and emotion.
For all of these methods are on the other hand typical that they are acceptable by "technical" educated people in company. The basic scheme of this approach is:
The TOC defines its goal by looking for the constraints and finally is dealing with their elimination. The following principles and techniques are used: The Socratic method •
Visualisation - jol1owing op/imisa/ion (ra/her looking jar hel/er resul/s. nor/he bes/ one)
The emphasis is put on the communication and effective realization with respect to motivation and emotional needs of the participant. The following table gives the overview of all stages of decisionmaking optimization:
•
The Effect-Cause-Effect methodology
•
Five focusing steps
From the business perspective the decision engineering is very important step of process and human behavior optimization. The acronym of BPO can be used for this activity. It is based on three key words:
When we summarize the main characteristics of socioinformatics approach then we can say that there are three main steps (analysis, modeling, optimization and realisation) in the three domains:
• • •
business, process, optimization
The TOC understands the process like a chain using the proper metrics should be applied on. Instead of the effort of getting the local optimum, it is necessary to see all aspects and look for global optimum. It is generally true but on fue other hand there are so many decisions done in firms in favorite of local
3. CONSTRA1NT BASED PARADIGMA
The theoretical background of socioinformatics is in the TOC that is also methodology for performing systems thinking using the concept of Throughput on
282
The methodology has been applied till now in the three different types of firms:
optimization (TOC mentioned example of a "cost world").
• • •
When we are looking for throughput it is similar like to find the strength of the chain. Then it is not a sum of strength of each clement but it depends on the weakest part of the chain. This approach is called like ·'throughput world". The weakest part of the chain (process) prevents from the higher strength tthroughputl. It is called constraint.
manufacturing company utility company public sector organisation
Although all three cases are relatively different (in the sense of their core business. number of employees and customers) some common features of successful implementation was identified: the firms culture has to be on high level • the process of change is relatively slow and • last long time the support of management is needed. • • The system of metrics is absolutely necessary during the project and at its final stage.
Socioinformatics represents the logical results of business proccss optimization efforts. This represents already the fourth stage of the process optimization. Lets try to bring the main features (characteristics) of each of them for better understanding of own socioinfornlatics. Each stage has its own paradigm and methods, and concentrates on its own aspects. But for the purpose of this paper. methods usable for the informatics stage are only mentioned 111 the following description.
The next area of application of this methodology will be the area of small and medium enterprises.
REFERENCES Banaszak Z., J6zefczyk J.: Constraint-Based Coordination of Distributed Production Flows. In: Modeling Techniques Supporting Strategic Manufacturing. Eds. Marco Garetti, Marco Taisch, ISBN 87-89867-91-2, Aalborg University, Aalaborg, 2001, pp.I-I4. Blackstone J.H .. Theory of constraints- a status report, International Journal f production Research. vol.39, No.6. 2001, pp.] 053-1 080. Goldratt, E.M.: The Goal. The North River Press. Great Ban·ington. MA, USA, 1983 Lepore, D., Cohen, 0.: Deming and Goldratt - The Theory of Constraint and the System of Profound Knowledge, The North River Press, Great Barrington. MA, 1999. Obolenski, A.: Practical Business Reengineering. Kogan Page Limited, London, 1996 Sheer, A.W.: ARIS - Yom Geschatfsprozess zum Anvendungssystem., Springer Yerlag, New York, 1998 Skolud B.: Planning of the multiassortment repetitive production (in Polish).
CONCLUSION The author has created own methodology and applied it in praxis. It is based on holistic system approach and IT plays the key role for effective decision engineering. It consists of 3 main steps: • step of understanding of reality in our case a firm structure and its limits. A firm is understood and described like system of people, technology and processes. A firm consists mainly from customers. partners and employees and relationships among them. Analyzing and understanding of goals and limits of a finn is crucial for god decision making • step of decision making. This improvement means effective decision-making process based on the discovering and eliminating of a constraint preventing from gaining goal • step of a realisation of decision in a firm with solving of all obstacles and necessary steps and conditions. The important part of methodology is the set of proper metrics and system of continuous education of employee. The changes of their behavior are mandatory. The whole methodology is applied via process decomposition of the firm. The business processes arc described first. The optimisation of them followed. The process owners have the key role for good decision. ll1eir O\\'n motivation is important as \\·ell. The adequate motivation of these persons that has to be in relation ,,·ith the firm strategy. goals and politics arc necessary conditions as \\·ell.
283
Joscf Basl
Westbohemian University. Pi/sen, C::ech Republic
Abstract: The paper describes socioinformatics approach derivated from constraint management that author applied in his research of collaborative decision engineering. The ariicle explains characteristics of the main four stages of decision-making process. The experience with the application of own methodology is mentioned in the conclusion of this paper. Copyright © 2002 fFAC Keywords: decision making, decision support, constraints, management system, theory of constraints.
I. INTRODUCTION
similarity of problems are known. The reason can be the general attitude of people to changes and their ability to change behavior or the set of rules how they act. It concerns the top managers on the one hand and the end users on the other.
Many of the manufacturing enterprises in the Middle Europe have invested into the information technology (IT) during the last decade. The ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Systems) have been widely implemented and they created very efficient platform for better decision making based on common integrated database. The process of ERP systems implementation demanded relatively high sum of money, time and human resources.
The author of this article therefore has oriented his attention on the human and socio aspects of the IS/IT and especially on the decision engineering for couple last years. In order to making decision smarter the relevant decision support systems have to be enhanced. They have to include the relevant support from such domains as: cost engineering, knowledge engineering, business intelligence, risk analysis, and so on. Moreover, the software tools have to cope with a growing size of systems causing a combinatorial explosion of alternative solutions, while to follow requirements of an on-line and accurate decision-making.
But the development of the IS/IT has not stopped and management of the enterprises has permanently to deal with new tasks. After the solving of the Y2K problem the new trends have appeared - among them for example Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS). These new software applications ask for further investment but on the other hand they can help managers, cmployee, partners and customers by doing crucial decis ion to be better, faster - generally better survive under current global market conditions.
Those issues are objectives of the decision engineering that focuses on developing tools and techniques for informed operational as well as business decision making within industry by utilizing distributed organizational knowledge and human expeliise. The last two factors are the subject of the socioinformatics, i.e. the methods and computer based means supporting man-to-man and man-tomachine communication as well as knowledge management (including data mining, and reasoning automation); within holistic framework enabling human-machine synergy.
The fast growing potential of the IT tools and their rapid penetration into the business processes is the reasons for rethinking of models used for the infom1ation systems in enterprises. The finding new paradigms and approaches in this environment is the current goal for the research works. The experience with ERP systems implementations in the East Europe shows that even the different historical background compared with West Europe, the high
279
The described approach has been named socioinformatics approach and it is oriented on the decision engineering. The main basis of it is philosophy of Theory of Constraints by E. Goldratt. The Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) is another typical feature for this approach and it suits good for the European conditions. Champy and Hammer were the first who drew attcntion in the early 90's towards the weakness of the IT implementation when IT were applied into the old-fashioned and traditional processes. They started the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) wave (Obolenski, 1996). The contribution of their process paradigm has become the beginning of the modem and holistic understanding of the business activities and their relations. The aim of this effort is generally improving the output of the whole enterprise. It is not been possible without the visualization of the business processes known as process modeling.
:vlethod
Kaizen
Place of Japan origin Key feature Small changes Aspects solution
BPR
CPI
(Business Process Reengineeri ng) USA
(Continues Process Improvemen
radical changes operation of Slow selfwith high treatment level of with a risk and risk of side effects serious disease
informatics. also called socio-informatics, opposes this view. (2) It is a modem study of information technology from the point of view of the social and cultural sciences, with web sociology as a specialty. (3) A holistic perspective on social informatics and web sociology may be based on the premises of Gestalt philosophy. psychology and logic. From this point of view, the borders between the cultural, social and natural sciences are open, permitting the crossing of professional barriers. The author of this paper is convinced that the term socioinformatics is the best way to describe the current process in optimization of business processes supported by ICT (information and communication technology) and the current decision making process as well. Its existence is quite natural, and the rest of this paper brings evidence for such opinion. Socioinformatics represents the further development stage m decision engmeenng. It offers the opportunity to cover all interdisciplinary aspects, attributes and in fluences. It represent the shift from the level of technology towards (especially information technology) the social level. The main aspect of this movement displays the following table:
t)
Europe
Informa tics smart changes health living style
Fig. I Main methods for process improvement
Although the BPR approach has become less radical later, the Continues Process Improvement (CPI) is closer to the reality. It seems that the CPI suits better to European mentality and generally to business environment.
Basic term Basic element Process of elements connection Condition of common understanding way of connection of elements
information IT components integration
proper protocols interface solution
Sociohformatics knowledge Partners communication
proper terminology and communication Conflict solution
Fig. 2 Movement from informatics to socioinformatics
The arti ficial intelligence or learning systems that have their own "longer" history belong to this filed as well.
2. SOCIOINFORMATICS APPROACH 3. EVOLUTION OF DECISION ENGINEERING The word socioinformatics sounds has been rarely used so tire. Department of Sociology and Social geography in Oslo University offers the definition of this term:. (I) Information technology has traditionally been conceived as a concern and an outcome of the natural and logic-mathematical sCiences only. Social
Socioinformatics is the next evolutional step of optimization efforts within decision-making processes. This process can be divided into four stages. Each stage has its own paradigm and methods, and concentrates on its own aspects. The first stage represents the traditional approach:
280
3.1 Traditional decision making.
users who share actual right information at the moment.
The traditional approach has been applied in praxis for a longer time. It represents until now a part of the creative classical engineering approach. It works in the following steps:
This stage has brought the discovering that the nonproduction (administrative) processes must be optimized with the same effort as manufacturing ones. We can mention, for example. the BPR movement in the early 90s.
analysis of problem - synthesis uf sollllion (lIslIalll' in dijlere/1/ I'arianls) - oplimisaliol/- l'isllaltsalion.
This stage can be called information engineering and its solution is very similar to the industrial engineering approach:
The traditional approach is oriented mainly on technological, time and cost aspects of production process. It is still part of the education process at technical universities. The practical results of this approach can be the dcsign of new products, the way of its realization (routines sheet), and the layout of new manufacturing systems.
\'iSllaltsalion - jollol\'ing oplimisalion (rather looking .101' beller reslllls. nol Ihe besl one)
However, the main difference is in the first step, e.g. visualization. It is not so easy to make a photo of reality on the shop floor. Information engineering describes the information flow that sometimes hasn't been visualized yet. Many facts are only in the heads of people, workers and managers. This frequent absence of the written form of information flow (through, for example, contract preparation) is crucial for further optimization of business processes based on the information systems/information technology (IS/IT).
The most significant method from this stage usable In the socioinformatics approach is "function analysti" (value analysis) that was very popular in the 80s. But it seems to have fallen a little bit into oblivion now. Its main advantage is the ability to find and formulate the principle (core) features of processes with two words.
3.2 Industrial Engineering decision making.
There are many software tools (Scheer, 1998) to help capture the information flow and processes in a company, but one thing is clear - such a support tool for visualization is not enough. It must be used together with the right techniques, such as how to ask questions and here we can recognize the beginning of socioinformatics that is more about communication among people than about technology and only information.
Industrial Engineering has come up with a different idea. It struggles for optimization or at least improvement of the decision in the production systems and processes. It concentrates on the shop floor mainly. Most of the applied methods with Japanese origin concentrate on the material flow through a shop floor. It begins with getting a reliable picture of the real systems (photography of the workplace, the results of measurements of activity length, etc). Then the process of improvement follows. The steps of a solution look like:
The optimization steps are often based on the experience of people. Very often they emphasize the power of their own visualization and the so-called "oh yes" effect. Without any doubt the existence of a quality reference model of different branches is very useful in this activity.
I'isllaltsation- jollol\'ing oplimisaliol/ (ralher jinding oj' a beller sollllion than Ihe current slatlls ofters)
Although the Industrial engineering methods have come from the shop floor and are oriented primarily on the material flow, they are useful for information flow as well.
3.4 Constraint based decision making.
However, it is not possible to build the solution or proposal only on experience and intuitive findings. The turning point in this approach brings up the philosophy of the Theory of Constraint (TOC) by E. Goldratt, which plays a significant role in modem management. The influence of this theory and the constraint management on the socioinformatics approach will be discussed later in this paper.
3.2 In/ormation engineering decision making.
The development of IT has helped to bring a holistic technical scope to a company. It means that the concentration has moved from material flow on the shop floor to information flow and customer orders. The information is in this stage not only important condition for decision-making but in the same time is the key part of product or services. It helps for all
Most of [S implementation has shown that the key constraint of effective using of the new IT tools is not technology but people. These are really social aspects and the problem of different groups in a company
281
~
aprly
peDIBB
FEtld
paid
n:rest
rrrtrill tiM i1IOmfu1 mrrnri3l:n !km fb.v
SIpJin
~
d:umn;
ITttIDlIb.v
(ruJiB
atiril~h:p
dav\1-g;.9ftl. <2:)
~Eirre1
pain
rtilamm
qwlity
Q.S:ne-
t-ijuq.B!iy
~
rrgre,m
M3nid
D-""Tg RoJi-es
cnTTlUfu cf~
llermfu1
Cat:BT.*J1
the business entity as a whole to focus changes to be made on constraints that are directly limiting the better total-system profitability. The producer's aim is to increase profits and not to assure the satisfaction of manufacturing as such.
thT
i'tnrumlbv \\j'ilh:UlJ1i.'
annuD1i.Jl
~dU1Cj"
l:DrlllS il h,
adr
-.ok
bV'arnf
puidin mnJfuuig
a:8.JIU
mnhnfte
am
nm:rk(d-m)
rot
a:nlbiY
~
s:m:'.di - vac frbv"'1ln:
m:reo>Jre pn:(crevel
In this approach, the socioinformatics can be understood as the implementation of the manager knowledge about the systems constraints and his/her intuition to the solution searching procedure creating. Intuitively it is quite obvious that each system has at least one constraint that limits performance of the system relative to its goal. The next intuition is that the consideration of system's quantitative features makes sense only if assumed qualitative requirements of the system functioning hold. A constraint may be lack of market, policy imposed internally, or a resource internal to the company.
gre(aevm nue)fm-
bvcrpilo)
~
rJ~N,
rrq:>
=its
111"....",,1;
virUlI reility, 5:lmD;
The TOC has been applied to a wide range of things including operations, finance, projects, distribution, supply chain, marketing, people, strategy and tactic. While observing a production system it is easy to note that machine tools as well as storage and buffers capacity can cause a bottleneck in the system. So, the material flows are limited by the efficiency of the machine tools (processing items) as well as customer constraints (due time realisation, batch size). In turn those are limited by logistics constraints of the available transportation/storage facilities. Moreover, besides of such material-nature constraints synchronizing production flow the other ones including financial and human-factor-based (related to capability of an operator, dispatcher, and so on) constraints have to be considered as well.
Fig. 3 Optimization in decision engineering
(from the project team through end users to managers). Therefore emphasis in this described approach is put on the "socio" methods that help: • • • •
communication analysis of thinking process getting knowledge working with motivation and emotion.
For all of these methods are on the other hand typical that they are acceptable by "technical" educated people in company. The basic scheme of this approach is:
The TOC defines its goal by looking for the constraints and finally is dealing with their elimination. The following principles and techniques are used: The Socratic method •
Visualisation - jol1owing op/imisa/ion (ra/her looking jar hel/er resul/s. nor/he bes/ one)
The emphasis is put on the communication and effective realization with respect to motivation and emotional needs of the participant. The following table gives the overview of all stages of decisionmaking optimization:
•
The Effect-Cause-Effect methodology
•
Five focusing steps
From the business perspective the decision engineering is very important step of process and human behavior optimization. The acronym of BPO can be used for this activity. It is based on three key words:
When we summarize the main characteristics of socioinformatics approach then we can say that there are three main steps (analysis, modeling, optimization and realisation) in the three domains:
• • •
business, process, optimization
The TOC understands the process like a chain using the proper metrics should be applied on. Instead of the effort of getting the local optimum, it is necessary to see all aspects and look for global optimum. It is generally true but on fue other hand there are so many decisions done in firms in favorite of local
3. CONSTRA1NT BASED PARADIGMA
The theoretical background of socioinformatics is in the TOC that is also methodology for performing systems thinking using the concept of Throughput on
282
The methodology has been applied till now in the three different types of firms:
optimization (TOC mentioned example of a "cost world").
• • •
When we are looking for throughput it is similar like to find the strength of the chain. Then it is not a sum of strength of each clement but it depends on the weakest part of the chain. This approach is called like ·'throughput world". The weakest part of the chain (process) prevents from the higher strength tthroughputl. It is called constraint.
manufacturing company utility company public sector organisation
Although all three cases are relatively different (in the sense of their core business. number of employees and customers) some common features of successful implementation was identified: the firms culture has to be on high level • the process of change is relatively slow and • last long time the support of management is needed. • • The system of metrics is absolutely necessary during the project and at its final stage.
Socioinformatics represents the logical results of business proccss optimization efforts. This represents already the fourth stage of the process optimization. Lets try to bring the main features (characteristics) of each of them for better understanding of own socioinfornlatics. Each stage has its own paradigm and methods, and concentrates on its own aspects. But for the purpose of this paper. methods usable for the informatics stage are only mentioned 111 the following description.
The next area of application of this methodology will be the area of small and medium enterprises.
REFERENCES Banaszak Z., J6zefczyk J.: Constraint-Based Coordination of Distributed Production Flows. In: Modeling Techniques Supporting Strategic Manufacturing. Eds. Marco Garetti, Marco Taisch, ISBN 87-89867-91-2, Aalborg University, Aalaborg, 2001, pp.I-I4. Blackstone J.H .. Theory of constraints- a status report, International Journal f production Research. vol.39, No.6. 2001, pp.] 053-1 080. Goldratt, E.M.: The Goal. The North River Press. Great Ban·ington. MA, USA, 1983 Lepore, D., Cohen, 0.: Deming and Goldratt - The Theory of Constraint and the System of Profound Knowledge, The North River Press, Great Barrington. MA, 1999. Obolenski, A.: Practical Business Reengineering. Kogan Page Limited, London, 1996 Sheer, A.W.: ARIS - Yom Geschatfsprozess zum Anvendungssystem., Springer Yerlag, New York, 1998 Skolud B.: Planning of the multiassortment repetitive production (in Polish).
CONCLUSION The author has created own methodology and applied it in praxis. It is based on holistic system approach and IT plays the key role for effective decision engineering. It consists of 3 main steps: • step of understanding of reality in our case a firm structure and its limits. A firm is understood and described like system of people, technology and processes. A firm consists mainly from customers. partners and employees and relationships among them. Analyzing and understanding of goals and limits of a finn is crucial for god decision making • step of decision making. This improvement means effective decision-making process based on the discovering and eliminating of a constraint preventing from gaining goal • step of a realisation of decision in a firm with solving of all obstacles and necessary steps and conditions. The important part of methodology is the set of proper metrics and system of continuous education of employee. The changes of their behavior are mandatory. The whole methodology is applied via process decomposition of the firm. The business processes arc described first. The optimisation of them followed. The process owners have the key role for good decision. ll1eir O\\'n motivation is important as \\·ell. The adequate motivation of these persons that has to be in relation ,,·ith the firm strategy. goals and politics arc necessary conditions as \\·ell.
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