Operation Process Management Research Articles

Economic and social perspectives of implementing artificial intelligence in drinking water treatment systems for predicting coagulant dosage: A transition toward sustainability

The traditional determination of optimum coagulant doses in drinking water treatment plants (WTPs) using the jar test technique is time-consuming, expensive, significantly influenced by variations in raw water quality, and susceptible to human error. Therefore, this study employed an artificial intelligence (AI) technique, namely, artificial neural network (ANN), to predict the coagulant dosage and explore the economic and social perspectives of its implementation in waterworks. Data on raw water quality parameters obtained from a drinking WTP were utilized to develop prediction models. The results show that the proposed ANN model performed slightly better than the multiple linear regression (MLR) model regarding coagulant dosage prediction. With test data, the ANN model provided the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE), and coefficient of determination (R2) values of 5.59, 2.49 mg/L, and 0.94, which were improved by 52.1%, 44.2%, and 17.1%, in comparison to the MLR model. The economic benefits from AI implementation in coagulation-flocculation operations could produce total savings of US$ 8036.44 per year, net present value (NPV) of US$ 18,154.81, and a discounted payback period of 3.4 years. Moreover, social benefits included safeguarding human health, decent job creation, and reliability and resilience of water production infrastructure. The adoption of AI in WTPs showed a strong linkage with multiple technological- and water-related sustainable development goals (SDGs) and associated targets. Identifying SDG correlations would aid in the sustainable planning and management of operational processes in WTPs worldwide.

ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕ ЦИФРОВЫХ ДВОЙНИКОВ ДЛЯ ЭКОЛОГИЗАЦИИ ХИМИЧЕСКОЙ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОСТИ

The article describes the potential benefits of implementing and using a digital twin of petrochemical plants as a virtual representation of the production process, including its technological parameters and real-time analytics to ensure an environmentally responsible approach to production. The authors point out the possibility of optimizing production by using sensors and automatic control systems, as well as using the digital twin for testing and refining assumptions. In addition, the implementation of a digital twin in a chemical plant, including with elements of AI, will allow for operational process management. The decision tree proposed by the authors allows a chemical enterprise to reduce its impact on the environment by using a decision support system to manage wastewater treatment at a petrochemical plant. Laborious calculations for forecasting modernization taking into account production, economic, and environmental factors can be obtained using a digital twin not only promptly but also with a specified degree of variation and reliability.

Analysis of Light Utility Vehicle Readiness in Military Transportation Systems Using Markov and Semi-Markov Processes

This paper presents the issues of modeling the operation process of light utility vehicles operating in military transport systems. The required condition for the effective operation of the system is to maintain the means of transport at the appropriate level of technical readiness. For this purpose, it is necessary to equip the technical system with appropriate resources enabling the efficient implementation of fuel refilling, maintenance and repair processes. Each failure of the means of transport causes a significant reduction in transport capacity, which then results in the inability to perform the planned tasks. Quality control and vehicle operation process management require advanced mathematical methods and tools. Three indicators have been proposed as quantitative characteristics for assessing and optimizing the availability of military vehicles: functional readiness, technical efficiency and airworthiness. To determine their value, a stochastic exploitation model was developed based on the application of the theory of Markov processes. Based on the collected empirical data, a nine-state phase space of the studied process was identified. Operating states were distinguished relating to the implementation of the transport task, refueling, parking in the garage, as well as maintenance and repairs. As part of the considerations for the continuous time, verification of the distributions of time characteristics led to the development of a semi-Markov model. The ergodic probabilities calculated based on the conditional probability matrix of interstate transitions and the expected values of the time spent in the states were used to determine the indicators of functional availability, efficiency and technical suitability. In order to determine the possibility of optimizing the process, a sensitivity analysis was performed. Reducing the amount of time the vehicles must wait for repair by about 50% can improve the values of the indexes from 0.91 to 0.95.

Digital Twin-Driven Approach for Process Management and Traceability towards Ship Industry

The digital twin (DT) approach has risen in popularity for applications in many industrial process managements. By applying the “Shipyard 4.0” digital transformation trend, the ship industry is developing techniques able to reduce risks by improving operation process management. This study proposes a combination of a DT approach and practical experiment as part of a five-tier framework for DT-driven process management in the ship industry. This study focuses on the characteristic scenarios and crucial parameters within the ship engine system and shipping cargo container in operation procedures. DT-based models and platforms are established in this study based on the basic modeling of Maya and scene rendering of Unity 3D. To address the fusion issue of multi-source heterogeneous data in the ship operation process, a Bayesian neural network (BNN) method is introduced into DT’s virtual model layer and data support layer. By integrating an improved BNN-based algorithm into DT-based models, the collected data can be extracted and aggregated accordingly. In the ship engine room, the operating temperature is selected as a critical parameter, with the best mean percentage deviation (MPD) between DT-driven predictions and test value of 3.18%. During the shipping cargo container process, the results indicate that DT-based models have acceptable performances under different conditions, with optimal MPDs of 5.22%.

Operational Process Management and Operational Dispatching Management in Electrical Energy Industry: Practical Issues of the Correlation of Concepts

Operational Process Management and Operational Dispatching Management in Electrical Energy Industry: Practical Issues of the Correlation of Concepts

Development of a method of coordination of project and operational activities in the process of manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive products

It is shown that the production processes of project-oriented enterprises focused on manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive products combine project and operational activities. Analysis of project management methodologies in terms of their suitability for managing the activities of project-oriented enterprises engaged in manufacturing these products was conducted. It was found that project management methodologies do not address this issue, remaining outside the scope of project managers. To eliminate this shortcoming of the project management methodology, it was proposed to supplement it with the concept and method of coordination of project and operational activities in the process of manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive products. The concept of integration of project and operational activities in the process of manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive products was proposed. A method of coordination of project and operational activities in the process of manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive products was developed. The following criteria were proposed: management of operational processes as processes depending on the progress of projects; evaluation of the success of projects taking into account the assessment of their provision with products of operational activities. A model for calculating the number of components to be produced during the implementation of projects of manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive piece products was developed. The method of multiple simulations of project and operational processes in projects of manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive products was proposed. The developed concept and method passed practical testing at enterprises engaged in manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive products, in particular, Karbon Invest, LLC (Ukraine), and showed high efficiency of managing projects of manufacturing complex knowledge-intensive products. The developed tools allow creating integrated management systems for project and operational production of complex knowledge-intensive products.

Hazard Analysis of Traditional Post-Harvest Operation Methods and the Loss Reduction Effect Based on Five Time (5T) Management: The Case of Rice in Jilin Province, China

Traditional post-harvest operation methods applied in rice fields lack advanced management knowledge and technology, which has led to post-harvest losses. We proposed the concept of Five Time (5T) management for the first time. 5T management divides the whole life cycle of rice into different growth time interval to complete process management. This paper mainly introduces the management of rice grain period, that is, the post-harvest management period, including the operation process management of harvesting, field stacking, drying, warehousing, and storing. In 2019, our research team formulated the 5T management method, which considers the entire post-harvest process, and carried out a pilot application of this method at the Jilin Rice Industry Alliance of Jilin Province. Moreover, to promote the 5T management method, our research team carried out follow-up experiments in rice production enterprises and found severe post-harvest rice losses. This paper combined a large number of literature and the basic theory research of rice post-harvest to analyze the traditional methods for post-harvest processing and the associated rice losses. By implementing the 5T management method, 4.33% of losses incurred during the T1 harvesting period could be recovered. In the T2 field period, drying rice within 48 h after harvesting could reduce losses by 2.5%. In the T3 drying period, the loss rate could be reduced by 1.6% if traditional drying methods were replaced by mechanical drying and by 0.6% if cyclic drying was implemented to prevent over-drying. In the T5 storage period, the loss rate of 7% could be reduced by adopting advanced grain storage technologies such as low-temperature storage. Overall, the rice loss rate could be reduced by 15.43%, which is equivalent to a yield of 32.68 million tonnes of rice. The important factors in each period are strictly controlled in the 5T management method to prevent the post-harvest losses caused by flawed concepts and improper management and to increase the amount of usable fertile land.

Intellectual Capital and Operational Excellence: An Influential Assessment

Competent intellectual capital is one of the most essential wealth that an organization requires in the present era of cutthroat competition. Operations management is nothing but management of operational processes in every big and small organization, and such activities constitute a major chunk of all organizational activities. Therefore, the present work targets to explore the association between intellectual capital and operational excellence, review of already conducted studies in the said area, and future directions through systematic literature review process. A total number of 165 articles provided by Scopus database (2010 to 2019) is used for analysis and interpretation. Bibliometric analysis and network analysis deliver significant clusters (operations management and optimization; intellectual capital and intellectual investment; knowledge management and decision support system; strategic planning and resource allocation; sustainable operations management and performance standards; behavioural research and change management), which is in turn a novel contribution of this article. The study concludes with a proposed conceptual model and key take away for researchers, academicians, and managers.

Operational Management of Flexible Production of Machine-Building Enterprises Using the Analytical Method for Optimizing Work Order Planning Services

The analytic method of optimization of production process models is developed in this article. The purpose is the optimization of work schedule based on using mathematic methods in operational management of operational processes of flexible production systems in machine-building enterprises. The task of constructing an optimal production schedule for jobs is being considered (work modules or centers), which is the systems of operational management of flexible production’ core. The author offers a model of the dynamics of the intellectual potential of the enterprise, which will improve the efficiency of its use and can be used as a tool for analysis and management of the company's intellectual capital in the process of innovative development. Theoretical and methodological base of researching the problem is the mathematic modeling and systematic approach, on the basis of which the specific features of interrelated factors are analyzed, which define the complex nature of flexible engineering, which are essential for development and realization the effective system of operational management. The proposed method can be used in improving operational management systems during the organization of flexible production and in the process of its functioning under various external and internal changes.

Effective electrical equipment operation process management based on automated information decision making support

The article studies the issues of ensuring electrical equipment operability during operation process, as an indicator of reliable and efficient power supply of heterogeneous consumers. The problem of electrical equipment operation process managing is considered from the point of view of many technical and economic factors that affecting decision making and the priority of taking measures to emergency prevention. The concept of information decision-making support, aimed at controlling the electrical equipment actual condition and planning work to ensure its operability in the short and long term, was proposed. An example of the information decision-making support implementation when choosing objects with the maximum risk of operability loss was given.

Comparative analysis of models of organization of providing accounting services: outsourcing, insourcing, co-soursing

The organizational structure of an enterprise should provide a system of effective management of operational processes, which can not function without optimal organization of accounting, which is a set of interacting units aimed at the holistic activity and development of the entity. The urgent issue is to study the qualitative and effective organization of accounting at the enterprise, to find alternative models of accounting organization through the use of services of external providers, to identify the relationship between them and differences in their application. The article focuses on such models of accounting organization as the organization of accounting by internal units and on a contractual basis by an external provider, i.e. the transfer of the maximum possible number of accounting processes and procedures to crowd technology (outsourcing, intsourcing, co-sourcing) in terms of accounting transactions’ organization. The essence of the concepts of outsourcing, offshoring, insourcing, outstaffing, co-sourcing is defined. A comparative analysis of these crowd technologies is conducted and their advantages and disadvantages for the purposes of qualitative organization of accounting transactions in the structure of the enterprise are determined. It is emphasized that the choice of any model of organization of accounting processes (outsourcing, insourcing, co-sourcing) is a strategic decision for the enterprise, since this decision is directly related to all aspects of enterprise management. In terms of digital economy formation, by means of information technologies and platforms, business models are dramatically changing. The use of an outsourcing/insourcing/co-sourcing strategy enables the company not only to reduce costs and increase the company’s capitalization, but to grow and develop at a faster rate.

Repair Process Models Containing Non-Free-Choice Structures Based on Logic Petri Nets

Process mining is an important technique for complex operational process management. It aims to extract valuable process-related information and build process models from event logs of enterprise information systems. Process models can describe the characteristics and verify the correctness of the system with the function of providing feedback to system designers. However, there may be some deviations between the activities in event logs and a process model because of the system upgrade and business process improvement. Thus the original model needs to be repaired because it does not describe the real business process well. For the models with non-free-choice structures, event logs can be replayed by the existing repair methods, but their repaired models are quite different from the business processes. Therefore, a new model repair method is proposed based on logic Petri nets in this paper. First, the concept of transition pairs and successor relationship is proposed. A successor relationship matrix is constructed. Then, the position to be repaired can be determined by traversing the transition pairs. Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method are illustrated in our experiments.

CAPITAL ESTRUTURAL NA GESTÃO DAS ENFERMEIRAS EM HOSPITAIS

RESUMO Objetivo: descrever como os componentes do capital estrutural são utilizados na gestão de enfermeiras em organizações hospitalares. Método: estudo exploratório, descritivo, com abordagem qualitativa. A coleta de dados foi realizada em cinco hospitais públicos, quatro hospitais privados e três hospitais filantrópicos, no período de outubro de 2014 a maio de 2015. Foi utilizado um roteiro de entrevista semiestruturada com 12 gestoras de enfermagem, que ocupavam cargos de coordenação, gerência, direção e assessoria dos serviços de enfermagem. Os dados foram analisados segundo a análise de conteúdo e organizados na categoria Gestão de Processos Operacionais, com duas subcategorias: Tecnologia Assistencial e Tecnologia Administrativa. Resultados: os componentes do capital estrutural foram utilizados pelas enfermeiras para criar a Tecnologia Assistencial, ao aplicar novas ideias e ao aperfeiçoar processos, modelos e protocolos. Para produzir a Tecnologia Administrativa, foi necessário englobar plano de ação estratégico, comissões diversas, construção e utilização de indicadores nos processos assistenciais e administrativos. Ainda, a valorização de ideias para inovação no serviço, manutenção de relação com fornecedores, gestão de custos, utilização do sistema informacional e reuniões para compartilhar conhecimentos foram igualmente citadas. Conclusão: as gestoras utilizam e elaboram novas ações gerenciais para o desenvolvimento do capital estrutural das organizações. Para aperfeiçoá-las, são necessários investimentos e estratégias que identifiquem os componentes que precisam ser otimizados quanto a sua utilização e ao seu desenvolvimento, uma vez que um componente, para ser efetivo, precisa ter alto nível de alinhamento e integração com os demais.

ВПЛИВ ТА ЧИННИКИ ФОРМУВАННЯ МЕХАНІЗМІВ ДЕРЖАВНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ РИЗИКАМИ У БУДІВЕЛЬНИХ ПРОЄКТАХ

The issues of economic development in conditions of high risks are becoming highly relevant. Modern trends in the development of the construction industry, as a multiplier of the economic development of the state, form a new system of requirements for the management of operational processes and strategic vectors of the construction industry, both at the macroeconomic level and at the level of individual regional systems and individual enterprises. The trend in the development of society and their influence on the formation of trends in the construction industry were analyzed in the article, taking into account their significant impact on the formation of risk management mechanisms for construction projects. Technologization processes were identified among the main trends in the development of the economy. They directly affect not only the operational work on the implementation of the construction project, but also form the need for personnel of appropriate qualifications, a decrease in the need for labor and an increase in the need for highly qualified specialists with the skills of working in the information technology system and automated construction management systems. The technology of commissioning modular housing, its advantages and disadvantages is considered in detail. The development of green construction is highlighted as a separate trend, which is an important factor in sustainable development and ensuring the competitiveness of construction enterprises. A new trend in the development of regional construction systems has been identified, namely, entry into the traditionally segmented regional markets of foreign investment construction companies, which create additional competitive factors for domestic enterprises. Accordingly, according to certain trends, risk systems were formulated, which are relatively new for the construction market, respectively, an analysis of the mechanisms for their minimization and avoidance was developed. The article analyzes the risks of the construction sector in accordance with the analysis of trends and tendencies in the development of the construction industry. For each block of risk elements, possible forms of response and warning have been identified. According to the analysis, recommendations are given for managing the risks of construction companies. The analyzed risks are considered from the point of view of the formation of mechanisms of state regulatory policy in order to form an effective construction system at the state and regional levels.

Processes Meet Big Data: Connecting Data Science with Process Science

As more and more companies are embracing Big data, it has become apparent that the ultimate challenge is to relate massive amounts of event data to processes that are highly dynamic. To unleash the value of event data, events need to be tightly connected to the control and management of operational processes. However, the primary focus of Big data technologies is currently on storage, processing, and rather simple analytical tasks. Big data initiatives rarely focus on the improvement of end-to-end processes. To address this mismatch, we advocate a better integration of data science , data technology and process science . Data science approaches tend to be process agonistic whereas process science approaches tend to be model-driven without considering the “evidence” hidden in the data. Process mining aims to bridge this gap. This editorial discusses the interplay between data science and process science and relates process mining to Big data technologies, service orientation, and cloud computing.

The Research on New Urbanization and Green Building Technology-Taking Nanjing as an Example

Taking Nanjing as an example, this paper has analyzed the connotation of Nanjing new urbanization. It has been pointed out that promoting green building technology is one of the important paths to achieve Nanjing new urbanization. And the countermeasures of developing green building techniques have been put forward at the respect of standard formulation and execution, improving the green building design technology, strengthening the promotion application of green construction technology, constructing management, strengthening the construction of energy-efficient management, and strengthing the operation process management. All of above aim to explore a new urbanization path which not only conforms to the law of development of urbanization but also conforms to the city case of Nanjing, so that we can build a resource-conserving and environment-friendly beautiful new Nanjing which is rich, harmonious, wise and green.