Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

The Effectiveness Of Virtual R&D Teams In Smes: Experiences Of Malaysian Smes, Nader Ale Ebrahim, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid, Zahari Taha

Nader Ale Ebrahim

The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have a high potential for SMEs growth. Due to the fast growing complexity of the new product, coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs virtual R&D teams. An online questionnaire emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires …

Virtual R&D Teams: A Potential Growth Of Education-Industry Collaboration, Nader Ale Ebrahim, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid, Zahari Taha

Nader Ale Ebrahim

In this paper, we present our more than two years research experiences on virtual R&D teams in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and draws conclusions, giving special attention to the structure of virtual teams required to support education-industry collaboration. We report the relevant results of an online survey study. The online questionnaire was emailed by using a simple random sampling method to 947 manufacturing SMEs. The findings of this study show that SMEs in Malaysia and Iran are willing to use virtual teams for collaboration and the platform for industry-education collaboration is ready and distance between team members or differences …

Closing The Gap Between The Industry And Higher Education Institutions- Case Examples From East African Region, Deogratias Harorimana Mr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

Much complained about is the quality of graduates Universities put on the labour market. Less talked about however is why knowledge institutions seems to be bad knowledge managers. In this presentation I argue that DIRECT collaborative relationship between Industry,Governments and Higher Education Institutions is a per-requisite.Good relationship is key to building such a successful knowledge transfer strategies between Industries and Educational and Research Institutions. This paper explores what makes a good Knowledge Transfer Partnership Strategy and highlights some key lessons for businesses, Universities and Government bodies. This paper was a Key note presentation to the Annual International Conference on Building …

Rwanda National Customer Satisfaction Survey: Results And Conclusions, Deogratias Harorimana

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

It can be said that development practice requires more than financial and manpower inputs. Rwanda, in 1994 suffered a Genocide. The Society,collectively and under the leadership of His Excellence Paul Kagame the current elected President of Rwanda came together and designed strategies that would propel Rwanda to a Middle-Income, Private Sector Led Economy by the Year 2020.

In 2009, a client seating in one of the Hotels in a Suburb of Remera, in Kigali City, complained about poor service delivery he was experiencing from the waitress staff.Using his Blackberry message, the client forwarded an email to some of the RDB …

Gerber Project For Lockheed Martin, Andrew Callahan, Sean Lawyer

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Lockheed Martin, the world’s premier aerial combat vehicle manufacturer was pressed to find an eco-friendly way to package their impregnated epoxy. In the current system, the epoxy would be cut on the Gerber table to a pre-determined length and then sandwiched inside of two corrugated fiberboard sheets for storage inside of a freezer. The current process was not only labor intensive, but the corrugated fiberboard had to be disregarded after one use. In conjunction with the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Packaging program and Melmat Incorporated, we were able to find a corrugated plastic substrate to replace the currently non-reusable …

Benefits And Pitfalls Of Virtual R&D Teams: An Empirical Study, Nader Ale Ebrahim, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Zahari Taha

Nader Ale Ebrahim

In this paper, advantages and drawbacks of virtual teams in research and development (R&D) are studied. With the globalization of commercial practices and advances in information and communication technologies, increasing numbers of enterprises are establishing cross-functional, geographically distributed virtual teams. Virtual teams in R&D are designed to access external resources and knowledge to maximize the competitive advantage from limited labor and resources. A survey has been conducted on 210 Malaysian and Iranian manufacturing companies, aimed to investigate the characteristics of R&D collaborations and extract the main advantages/disadvantages’ factors of virtual teams. These factors can be a guide line for R&D …

Enterprise Development Policies And Capacity-Building In Science, Technology And Innovation (Sti)-Response To The Issue Note, Deogratias Harorimana

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

Enterprise Development, Investment and Business Climate are all important for economic growth. But what policies, strategies are needed to make economic growth a reality. The author has followed one of the World's fastest reformer and emerging nation in the Heart of Africa-Rwanda. The paper shares lessons and practical aspects related to building an entrepreneurial population, and building a government which is a facilitator of business climate

From Automatic Identification And Data Capture (Aidc) To “Smart Business Process”: Preparing For A Pilot Integrating Rfid, S. F. Wamba, E. Lefebvre, Y. Bendavid, L.. A. Lefebvre

Dr Samuel Fosso Wamba

This paper examines the underlying logic behind the rules configured in a RFID middleware to support “smart business processes” in one retail supply chain. Through a detailed investigation of the underlying business processes, we will demonstrate how businesses rules can be defined, configured and refined in a RFID middleware. The results confirm that RFID technology is not a “Plug and Play” solution. RFID middleware configuration will require a high level of customization. Finally, this study allows the improvement of our understanding of the real potential of RFID technology in the supply chain context.

Survey Report On Training And Spending On Customer Care Services, Deogratias Harorimana Sr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

In a bid to promote and develop good customer care service in various sectors of Rwandan economy, a survey was conducted to assess progress and trends on customer service capacity building. Although shortcomings are there, there have been efforts and registered trends across the country on service delivery front. Investment in Capacity Building IS happening in certain sectors but this is unevenly distributed. In 2008 companies had started recognizing the significance of good service and cultivate a good working environment and training. From 2009, there was a decline in investment in capacity building in front office and key service delivery …

The Preliminary Insight Of Internal-External Npd Practices Integration And Product Development Time In Geographically Distributed Environment, Amlus Ibrahim, Geraldy Dadriyansyah, T Ramayah

Geraldy Dadriyansyah

Global competitiveness is one of the most important issues in manufacturing industry nowadays. Almost every company in this business industry is affected by it and they are looking for new ways to remain aligned and competitive. In recent years, the long term success of some manufacturing firms and organizations has been enhanced by their ability to bring new products onto the market at regular and shorter intervals. In order to achieve that, effective new product development requires a good integration and collaboration between internal and external participants. Moreover, in current circumstances, issues on how to effectively integrate NPD constituents in …

Virtual Integration As A Predictor For Product Innovation: A Preliminary Insight, Geraldy Dadriyansyah, Amlus Ibrahim

Geraldy Dadriyansyah

The intense competition in manufacturing industry has forced manufacturing firms to switch their product development approach from traditional to concurrent engineering in order to stay competitive in term of product differentiation and innovation. In order to support concurrent engineering practice, both internal and external participants contributing to product development should be located into close proximity; therefore physical integration of team becomes the key enabler of concurrent engineering. However, as the paradigm has been shifted from adopting “centralized integrated product development”, physical integration is no longer efficient and should be replaced by virtual integration. This conceptual paper intends to explore ways …

Virtual Integration As An Approach To Engender Product Innovation And Accelerate Product Development Time: A Literature Analysis, Geraldy Dadriyansyah, Amlus Ibrahim, Mohamad Ghozali Hassan

Geraldy Dadriyansyah

Global competitiveness has forced manufacturing firm, as an internal constituents, to work closer with their suppliers and customers in order to produce highly innovative product in shorter time interval. However as the business trends in manufacturing industry have evolved, centralized integration has become obsolete and no longer be efficient. Concurrent engineering methodology allows manufacturing firms to adopt a new collaboration approach called virtual integration. With the aid of computer-mediated communication, virtual integration is believed to be a promising solution to NPD collaboration issues. Therefore, this conceptual paper is aimed to seek for a new approach to engender product innovation which …

Towards A Center For Modeling And Simulation: The Case For Jordan, Ghaith Rabadi, Hazem Kaylani, Joseph Barjis (Ed.), Murali Mohan Narasipuram (Ed.), Ghaith Rabadi (Ed.), Jolita Ralyt (Ed.), Pierluigi Plebani (Ed.)

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Modeling and Simulation (M&S) has recently become an important area that is pursued by many researchers and practitioners due to the role it plays in understanding complex systems and problems. We have therefore witnessed the establishment of many M&S organizations in the last two decades especially in the more developed world. Less developed countries are starting to recognize the need for such capability especially that the problems they face are not less complex. In this paper, we present a preliminary study towards a business plan for establishing a scientific center for Modeling, Analysis, Simulation and Animation in Jordan (JoSAMA) and …