Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Customer Management Analysis Of Irish Plumbing & Heating Distribution System: A Simulation Study, Amr Arisha, Amr Mahfouz, John Crowe, Finbarr Bennett

Conference papers

The sudden burst of the property bubble, coupled with current global economic conditions has resulted in a huge decrease in demand for plumbing and heating fixtures in the Irish construction industry. Moreover, inefficient supply chain management policies have imposed further pressures on companies resulting in more system bottlenecks and unnecessary costs. Inventory management is seen as a functional area that can ease such bottlenecks and in turn increase supply chain efficiency, decrease costs and increase customer satisfaction. The challenge is to predict the balance of on-hand inventory and order quantity to optimise customer satisfaction and minimise inventory cost. It is …

The Analysis Of Rush Orders Risk In Supply Chain: A Simulation Approach, Amr Arisha, Amr Mahfouz

Conference papers

Satisfying customers by delivering demands at agreed time, with competitive prices, and in satisfactory quality level are crucial requirements for supply chain survival. Incident of risks in supply chain often causes sudden disruptions in the processes and consequently leads to customers losing their trust in a company’s competence. Rush orders are considered to be one of the main types of supply chain risks due to their negative impact on the overall performance. Using integrated definition modeling approaches (i.e. IDEF0 & IDEF3) and simulation modeling technique , a comprehensive integrated model has been developed to assess rush order risks and examine …

The Analysis Of Rush Orders Risk In Supply Chain: A Simulation Approach, Amr Mahfouz, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

Satisfying customers by delivering demands at an agreed time, with competitive prices, and in satisfactory quality level are crucial requirements for supply chain survival. The incident of risks in supply chain often causes sudden disruptions in the processes and consequently leads to customers losing their trust in a company’s competence. Rush orders are considered to be one of the main types of supply chain risks due to their negative impact on the overall performance. Using integrated definition modelling approaches (i.e. IDEF0 & IDEF3) and simulation modelling technique, a comprehensive integrated model has been developed to assess rush order risks and …

Web-Based Supply Chain Simulation: An Integrated Approach, Amr Arisha, Ayman Tobail, John Crowe

Conference papers

This is an era marked by rapid technology development in all different educational arenas. Alongside this growing demand of technology, learning process is getting new forms and hence traditional teaching approaches tend to struggle and lack the requisite qualities to meet new generation expectations. In third level education, this problem is increasing in magnitude and new dimensions, especially when it comes to teaching difficult subjects such as supply chain management. Understanding the complexity of supply chain networks and how to manage them create a considerable level of difficulty for students and professionals. Collaboration between supply chain members is now recognised …

Supply Chain Simulation: Experimentation Without Pain, Amr Arisha, Ayman Tobail, John Crowe

Conference papers

Bridging the gap between theory and practice has always been a key issue for students and graduates. The magnitude and scope of subject areas that students at third level institutions have to learn in theory means that visualising them without any practical experience can be very difficult. Understanding the complexity of supply chain networks and how to manage them create a considerable level of difficulty for students and professionals. Theories and applications included in supply chain management subjects are the key to empathise the real challenges. Nevertheless, teaching these theories needs substantial efforts and new innovative approaches to deliver the …

Perspectives On Church Tourism In Ireland, Kevin Griffin

Conference papers

This paper presents some thoughts on Pilgrimage and Church Tourism in Ireland, with a particular emphasis on Knock, pilgrimage for the Irish Travelling Community, and some thoughts on Genealogy, all with a view to informing the audience of research being undertaken in Ireland.

Implementation Of The Dit-Achiev Model For Sustainable Tourism Destination Management: Killarney, Ireland, A Case Study, Kevin Griffin, Maeve Morrissey, Sheila Flanagan

Conference papers

The DIT-ACHIEV Model is a model of sustainable tourism indicators developed in a previous research project undertaken by the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, Dublin Institute of Technology. The indicators represent six fields of interest – Administration, Community, Heritage, Infrastructure, Enterprise and Visitor (Flanagan et al, 2007). This current research addresses the implementation of the DIT- ACHIEV model in an Irish tourism destination, with the objective to assess whether it can be implemented by the local community in any tourism destination.

The methodology used to implement the model is based on recommendations by Goodey (1995) and Denman (2006). Goodey …

Critical Success Factors And Performance Management And Measurement: A Hospitality Context, Detta Melia

Conference papers

This paper reports on research carried out in the hotel sector of the Irish hospitality industry on critical success factors and their impact on performance management and measurement. The paper outlines the industry context and reviews the literature on critical success factors. This literature presents a discussion of the concept of critical success factors (CSFs) in the context of performance measurement and the hospitality industry, which are considered necessary for organisational prosperity because of the impact they have on the organisation’s potential performance. Critical success factors are those factors capable of providing the greatest competitive leverage upon which resources should …

Simulation Model To Investigate Flexible Workload Management For Healthcare And Servicescape Environment, Michael Thorwarth, Paul Harper, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

High demand and poor staffing conditions cause avoidable pressure and stress among healthcare personnel which results in burnout symptoms and unplanned absenteeism which are hidden cost drivers. The work environment within an emergency department is commonly arranged in a flexible workload which is highly dynamic and complex for the outside observer. Using detailed simulation modeling within structured modeling methods, a comprehensive model to characterize the nurses' time utilization in such flexible dynamic workload environment was investigated. The results have been used to derive a generalized analytic expression that describes certain settings that lead to an instable queuing system with serious …

Enabling Rfid Technology In Irish Hospitals, Khaled Ismail, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

Hospitals represent a significant part of healthcare systems and account for no less than 60% of the entire healthcare service in most of developed countries. Therefore, improving service in hospitals is an important element to the process of healthcare reform. Better use of resources, more consistent quality, and a higher service level are the keys to rationalise the huge expenditure in healthcare systems due to higher growth in demand. Even though massive spending has been directed towards hospital improvement in Ireland, services provided in Irish hospitals are ranked relatively low comparing to the other European countries. Growth of population, aging, …

Risk Assessment Model For Emergency Departments In Dublin Hospitals, Michael Thorwarth, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

The internal dynamics of emergency departments (ED) in Irish hospitals represent complex non-linear stochastic systems with an environment of uncertainty, variability and limited resources. Planning and managing such systems pose overwhelming demands. To improve operations, patient service, resource planning, and real-time reaction to unexpected events, sophisticated tools to efficiently achieve these goals must be applied.

Advanced solution techniques (e.g. simulation and optimisation) have been successfully applied in manufacturing operations to improve the delivery, cost-effectiveness and service quality. Yet, random arrival of patients, limited resources and multitasking are challenges in EDs that add more complexity to this critical area. This study …

Optimisation Methods In Supply Chain Applications: A Review, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo Hamad

Conference papers

The competitiveness and dynamic nature of today’s marketplace is due to rapid advances in information technology, short product life cycles and the continuing trend in global outsourcing. Managing the resulting supply chain networks effectively is a complex and challenging task which is imputable to high level of uncertainty in supply-demand, conflict objectives, vagueness of information, numerous decision variables and constraints. With such level of complexity in the environment, supply chain optimisation has a potential to make a significant contribution to resolve the challenges. In this paper, a literature review – based on more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles – of …

Seaport Management Aspects And Perspectives: An Overview, Amr Arisha, Amr Mahfouz

Conference papers

Ireland occupies the northern part of the western European coast which has a 70,000 Kilometres coasting along two oceans and four seas. These coasts are Europe’s lifeblood and represent the trade routes, climate regulator and source of food, energy and resources. Seaports and shipping are key maritime activities which allow European coast countries to benefit from the rapid growth of international trade. Therefore, port management became the centre of governments’ interest and the focal point of research to improve the efficiency. This research aims to summaries past publications of seaport systems to highlight challenges and reveal relevant research gaps. Having …

A Comparative Study Of Organisational Commitment Of Bank Employees In Ireland And China, Helen Chen

Conference papers

Organisational commitment has been extensively researched in the Western and non-Western contexts. However, little has been conducted to approach it from a cross-cultural perspective. This paper sets out to fill in the gap by examining bank employees’ organisational commitment in Ireland and China. Data was collected in two American banks, one in Ireland and the other one in China in June 2008. Research results showed interesting and dynamic differences of the three dimensions of the Irish and Chinese bank employees’ organisational commitment with regards to the effects of income, gender and tenure. Implications for managers in Ireland and China are …

The Role Of 3pl Internet Technology In Supporting Extended Enterprise Integration: An Exploratory Survey, Pietro Evangelista, Emilio Esposito, Edward Sweeney, Erica Staller

Conference papers

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is widely regarded as a key integration enabler in contemporary supply chain configurations. Additionally, as increasing numbers of manufacturers and retailers outsource significant parts of their supply chain functionality, the world has seen the vertical disintegration of supply chains. As a result of these and other developments, the extended enterprise (EE) business model has become more widely adopted in a range of sectors. In this environment, third party logistics (3PL) providers (the majority of which are small companies) may play a pivotal role in integrating physical and information flows in new business models through the …

Exploring The Digital Supply Chain: Implications And Models For Online Software Distribution, Edward Sweeney, Colm Ryan

Conference papers

As a discipline, supply chain management (SCM) has traditionally been primarily concerned with the procurement, processing, movement and sale of physical goods. However an important class of products has emerged - digital products - which cannot be described as physical as they do not obey commonly understood physical laws. They do not possess mass or volume, and they require no energy in their manufacture or distribution. With the Internet, they can be distributed at speeds unimaginable in the physical world, and every copy produced is a 100% perfect duplicate of the original version. Furthermore, the ease with which digital products …

Integrating Sustainability Into Tourism Education And Training In Ireland: Current Reality And Future Actions, Kevin Griffin, Sheila Flanagan, Jane Stacey, Anna Tottle

Conference papers

The focus of this paper is to provide an overview of the current sustainability content in Irish tourism programmes and the identification of key trends in this regard. It is based on extensive research of secondary and tertiary education sectors across tourism and hospitality programmes in Ireland, undertaken by the Tourism Research Centre at the Dublin Institute of Technology. The research considers a range of programmes, including tourism, hospitality, culinary arts, event management, leisure and business programmes with a tourism component.

Interaction Of The Legitimate System And The Shadow System In Organisations, Caroline Halpin, Philomena Hanlon

Conference papers

This research examines the relationship between the Legitimate and the Shadow Systems in organisations: an interaction that can result in bringing an organisation into a state of bounded instability, and therefore increased creativity and innovation. The Legitimate System consists of the formal hierarchy, bureaucracy, rules, controls and communication patterns in an organisation. A properly functioning Legitimate System is vital for the conduct of business in an organisation in order to ensure its survival and efficiency. The Shadow System is a term coined by Stacey (1997) to describe the informal network of relations within the organisations that are evident in casual …

Logistics Innovation In Small 3pls: What Is The Role Of Ict?, Pietro Evangelista, Alan Mckinnon, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Supply Chain Management Diffusion Among Firms In The Republic Of Ireland, Edward Sweeney, Claudia-Maria Wagner, Bernd Huber

Conference papers

The changing business environment has sharpened the focus on the need for robust approaches to supply chain management (SCM). This is particularly the case for Ireland which has a natural disadvantage of a location peripheral to significant markets and sources of raw material which result in higher transport costs. Therefore, in order to gain unique insights of current levels of awareness / diffusion of SCM and the potential impact SCM could have on the competitiveness, a survey was conducted among 776 firms in the Republic of Ireland. The empirical results suggest that there is a need for more widespread adoption …

A Case Study Analysis On Information And Communication Technology Usage In Small Logistics Service Companies, Edward Sweeney, Pietro Evangelista

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Integrated Logistics And Supply Chain Management: The State Of Practice In Ireland, Austin Smyth, Bernd Huber, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were provided with aid to offset locational disadvantages in the run up to the Single European Market. Since then the Republic has emerged as the fastest growing member of the E.U. Success has not been underpinned by the transport system, suggesting that business has had to overcome locational disadvantages by strong performance elsewhere in the supply chain. The evidence indicates that there are Irish firms operating supply chain management techniques at a truly international standard. The problem is that there are so few in that category Meeting Ireland’s competitiveness challenge means closing the …

An Examination Of The Role Of Intuition In Individual Decision Making In Organisations, Rory Martin, Philomena Hanlon

Conference papers

The feeling of knowing without knowing has often been described as listening to your heart, trusting your gut, or using your intuition. As decision makers face more turbulent and complex environments, rational analysis may not always be able to assist in yielding optimal results. In cases where sufficient data is not available or the situation is one that the decision maker or the organisation has not faced before, the decision maker may utilise intuition to guide them through uncertainty (Lank & Lank 1995:19). This paper looks at the role that intuition plays in individual decision making in organisations. The primary …

Outsourcing In Ireland: A Literature Review, Survey And Case Study Perspective, Edward Sweeney, Aoife O'Riordan

Conference papers

This paper investigates what is happening in Ireland at the moment regards outsourcing. It
looks into the literature review and the survey conducted. The research took place over a period
of two years, initially as a literature review, and then the survey was conducted through the
mediums of e-mail and the postal service. The survey analysis found that Ireland was the most
likely place for Irish companies to outsource to, and that nearly 40 percent of the companies that
have been surveyed have started on their latest outsourcing initiative since 2004. This indicates
that outsourcing is still important on the …

Bar Raising Or Navel-Gazing?:The Effectiveness Of Self-Study Programmes In Eading To Improvements In Institutional Performance, Deirdre Lillis

Conference papers

Higher Education Institutes worldwide are investing significant resources in self study programmes to improve institutional performance, to enhance quality and to meet external stakeholder demands. The institutional impacts of both internally and externally mandated self study programmes is an area where little empirical research exists. A key question is whether self study programmes are effective (or otherwise) in leading to improvements in institutional performance and the reasons why. Covering an eight year period, from 1997–2006, this paper reports on the use of systematic evaluation methodology (Rossi et al., 2003) to evaluate the effectiveness of three self study programmes in leading …

Outsourcing: A Theoretical Viewpoint, Aoife O'Riordan, Edward Sweeney, Austin Smyth

Conference papers

Outsourcing or offshoring as it is now known has been around for many decades. In the
beginning, it was only very peripheral activities that were outsourced, i.e. blue-collar (lower skilled)
work but this is now all changing with the outsourcing of white-collar jobs. The digital revolution, the falling costs of transport and telecom costs and the opening up of the global economy helped the outsourcing market. For companies going down or contemplating the road of outsourcing there are both potential benefits and challenges, for example, the type of outsourcing they want to get involved in, and the country they want …

Outsourcing: A Way To Improve The Responsiveness And Agility Within The Organisation, Aoife O'Riordan, Edward Sweeney, Austin Smyth

Conference papers

Outsourcing or offshoring as it is now known has been around for many decades. In the beginning it
was only very peripheral activities that were outsourced, blue collar (lower skilled) work but this is now all changing with the outsourcing of white-collar jobs. Historically, outsourcing was used when
organisation could not perform to world-class excellence in all sectors of the organisation due to
incompetence of staff and/or management, lack of capacity, financial pressures, and/or technological
pressure. The research currently underway is initially focusing on a literature review of current outsourcing applications in the market place. From the literature review, a …

An Exploratory Study Of Ict Usage In Small Logistics Service Providers, Pietro Evangelista, Laura Cioffi, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

Information and communication technology (ICT) developments have strongly affected supply chain management (SCM) in recent years. ICT has had a great impact on all supply chain processes including planning, purchasing, production management, stock management, physical distribution and related integration management. Technology has become an important dimension of third party logistics (3PL) service supply as competitive advantage increasingly depends on the ability to create value for customers through the effective application of ICT. Within this process, while large 3PLs are gaining substantial benefits from technology usage and implementation, the magnitude of changes spurred by ICT dissemination in small logistics service providers …

Challenges For Corporate Foresight: Towards Strategic Prospective Through Scenario Thinking, John Ratcliffe

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Designing And Implementing A Blended Learning Approach To Executive Scm Education: A Case Study From Ireland, John Mee, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

The National Institute for Transport and Logistics (NITL) is Ireland’s centre of excellence for supply chain management (SCM). As part of its mission to promote the development of supply chain expertise in Irish business, it designs and delivers executive modular learning programmes. In 2004, as part of a drive to create more flexible learning opportunities for course participants, NITL designed and implemented an eLearning programme, which involved converting traditionally tutored modules to online modules. This paper describes the rationale behind this initiative and the significance of technology as an enabling tool for executive education, as well as detailing the design …