BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS 7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL PDF

10-12th july, 2013
Spain
2013
&
7 th International Conference on Industrial
Engineering and Industrial Management
XVII Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin
XIX
2013
ICIEOM
www.cio2013.org
Managing Complexity: Challenges for

Industrial and Operations Management.
Book of Abstracts of the

Industrial Engineering
and Complexity Management
Book of Proccedings of the
Fundacin
General
INSISOC
S O C I A L S Y S T E M S
bpmsat Ctedra
ENGINEERING CENTRE
Business
Solutions & Project Management
Technologies UVa
ABEPRO
ASSOCIAO BRASILEIRA DE Asociacin para el Desarrollo
ABEPRO
INSISOC
ENGENHARIA DE PRODUO de la Ingeniera de Organizacin ENGENHARIA DE PRODUO de la Ingeniera de Organizacin ENGINEERING CENTRE
Industrial Engineering and Complexity
Management
BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS
7th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and

Industrial Management
XVII Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin.
Valladolid
July 10-12th, 2013
Tittle/Ttulo de la obra:
Industrial Engineering and Complexity Management. Book of Proceedings of
the 7th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Man-
agement - XVII Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin.
Executive Editors/Editores:
Cesreo Hernndez Iglesias
Jos M. Prez Ros
Editorial Management / Coordinacin editorial:

Cristina Ruiz Martn
David Jess Poza Garca
Ivn Velasco Jimnez
Grupo INSISOC
Universidad de Valladolid
Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales, sede Paseo del Cauce
C/ Paseo del Cauce 59
47011 Valladolid (Spain)
Printed / Imprimido
Copyright, by the authors
Legal Deposit/Depsito Legal:

ISBN: 978-84-616-5410-9
Not authorized for further reproduction or distribution of any kind without prior
permission from the authors.
No est permitida la reproduccin total o parcial, ni su tratamiento informtico, ni

la transmisin de ninguna forma o por cualquier medio, ya sea electrnico, foto-
copia, registro u otro, sin permiso previo y por escrito de los autores.
Book of Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and
Industrial Management - XVII Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin.
Foreword and Welcome

It is our honour to present the Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on
Industrial Engineering, XVII Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin (CIO2013)
and the XIX International Conference on Industrial engineering and Operations
Management (ICIEOM). The CIO&ICIEOM 2013 is being organized by the
INSISOC Group and the Industrial engineering School of the University of Val-
ladolid.
Following with the promotion of internationalization the Conference is the first
joint event of ADINGOR (Asociacin para el Desarrollo de la Ingeniera de Or-
ganizacin) and ABEPRO (Associao Brasileira de Engenharia de Produo) the
two main Spanish and Brazilian Scientific Societies in the field of Industrial and
Management Engineering.
The mission of the Conference is to promote links between researchers and
practitioners from different branches to enhance an interdisciplinary perspective of
industrial engineering and management. It is a forum to exchange ideas, academic
and professional experiences to all branches of industries, information on the most
recent and relevant research, theories and practices in Industrial Engineering,
Management and Operations.
The motto of the Conference Managing Complexity: Challenges for Industrial
and Operations Management underlies the fact that in an open and global world,
to handle complexity, cooperation is needed.
We want to thanks the support given by the Ctedra Michelin of Industrial Or-
ganization and the Industrial Engineering School of the University of Valladolid.
We also send our recognition to the keynote speakers for sharing with us their
wisdom and experience and to the authors that sent their work for revision. Last
but no least we gratefully acknowledge the hard and generous effort of those that
took part in the peer-review process to maintain the high scientific level of the
Conference series. And of course we do not forget the backstage work of the Sci-
entific and Organizing Committees.
We hope that the Conference will meet your expectations and will strength
your professional and personal relations. We invite you to enjoy Valladolid, a
name full of historical significance for the Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian citi-
zens, since the signing of the Tordesillas Treatry back in 1494.
Best wishes,
Valladolid, July 2013
Cesreo Hernndez Iglesias Jos M. Prez Ros

Chair of the Conference Chair of the Scientific Committee
i
Organizing Committee
Chair:
Cesreo Hernndez Iglesias, Universidad de Valladolid
Vice-chair:
Adolfo Lpez Paredes, Universidad de Valladolid
Support crew:
Fernando Acebes Senovilla, Universidad de Valladolid
Alberto Arazo Arazo, Universidad de Valladolid
Aldora Gabriela Gomes Fernandes, Universidad de Valladolid
Mnica Iglesias Sanzo, Universidad de Valladolid
Javier Pajares Gutirrez, Universidad de Valladolid
Jos M. Prez Ros, Universidad de Valladolid
Marta Posada Calvo, Universidad de Valladolid
David J. Poza Garca, Universidad de Valladolid
Mario Ramrez Ferrero, Universidad de Valladolid
Cristina Ruiz Martn, Universidad de Valladolid
Pablo Snchez Mayoral, Universidad de Valladolid
Ivn Velasco Jimnez, Universidad de Valladolid
Flix A. Villafez Cardeoso, Universidad de Valladolid
Secretariat:
Natividad Cabreros Martnez, Universidad de Valladolid
Webmaster:
Flix A. Villafez Cardeoso, Universidad de Valladolid
iii
Scientific Committee
Chair:
Jos M. Prez Ros, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Vice-chair:
Francisco Soares Msculo, Universidade Federal da Paraba, Brazil.
Members:
Segismundo S. Izquierdo Milln, Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Jose M. Galn Ordax, Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Angel Gento Municio, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Jess Gutirrez Cilln, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Juan Hernanagmez Barahona, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Adolfo Lpez Paredes, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Miguel ngel Manzanedo del Campo, Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Natalia Martin Cruz, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Gianni Mummolo, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Javier Pajares Gutirrez, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Marta Posada Calvo, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Heitor M. Quintela Unisys, Brazil
Alfonso Redondo Castn, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Ana Isabel Rodrguez Escudero, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Lourdes Saiz Brcena, Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Jos Ignacio Santos Martn, Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Luis Felipe Scavarda, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Markus Schwaninger, Univ. of St.Gallen, Institute of Management, Switzerland
Tom Taylor, President of Association for Project Management (APM), UK
Milton Vieira Junior, UNINOVE, Brazil
Referees:
Mara del Mar Eva Alemany Daz Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Rui Manuel Alves Silva Sousa DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Dilanthi Amaratunga University of Salford, UK
Antonio Andrade Dias President of APOGEP, Portugal
Carlos Andrs Romano Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Madalena Arajo DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Jos Dinis Arajo Carvalho DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Eugenia Babiloni Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Bopaya Bidanda University of Pittsburgh, USA
Andrs Boza Garca Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
v
Agostino Bruzzone University of Genova, Italy

Luis Camarinha Matos Uninova, Portugal
Francisco Campuzano Bolarn Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena, Spain
Manuel Cards Carboneras Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Javier Carrasco Arias Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Spain
Vagner Cavenaghi UNESP - Bauru, Brazil
Juan Gabriel Cegarra Navarro Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena, Spain
Ernesto Cilleruelo E.T.S. de Ingeniera de Bilbao, Spain
Jos A. Comesaa Benavides Universidad de Vigo, Spain
Ramn Companys Pascual Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Albert Corominas Subias Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Pablo Corts Achedad Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
Anna M. Coves Moreno Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Jos Crespo de Carvalho ISCTE, Portugal
Virgilio Cruz Machado Uninova, Portugal
Llus Cuatrecasas Arbs Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Llanos Cuenca Gonzalez Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Ricardo Chalmeta Rosale Universidad Jaume I, Spain
Jens J. Dahlgaard Linkping University, Sweden
Valrio de Carvalho DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Mara Victoria De la Fuente Aragn Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena, Spain
David Alfonso De la Fuente Garca Universidad de Oviedo (EPI GIJON), Spain
Carmen De Nieves Nieto Centro Universitario de la Defensa (CUD), Spain
Ricardo Del Olmo Martnez Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Pablo Daz de Basurto Uraga Universidad del Pas Vasco, Spain
Silvio do Carmo Silva DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Alfonso Durn Heras Universidad Carlos III, Spain
Enda Enda Fallon NUI, Ireland
Ander Errasti Opacua Centro de Estudios e Inv. Tcnicas de Guipzcoa, Spain
Sofa Estells Miguel Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Vicen Fernndez Alarcn Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Arturo Jos Fernndez Gonzlez Universidad de Vigo, Spain
Isabel Fernndez Quesada Universidad de Oviedo, Spain
Paulo Ferro Director do MIT Portugal, IST-Portugal
Adriana Ferreira de Faria UFV, Brazil
Rui Francisco M. Maral PUC-PR, Brazil
Jose M. Galn Ordax Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Jess Garca Arca Universidad de Vigo, Spain
Jos Pedro Garca-Sabater Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Angel Gento Municio Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Sergio Eduardo Gouvea da Costa PUC-PR, Brazil
Gonzalo Grau Gadea Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Gil Gutirrez Casas Universidad Carlos III, Spain
vi
Jess Gutirrez Cilln Universidad de Valladolid, Spain

Cesreo Hernndez Iglesias Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Antonio Hidalgo Nuchera Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Spain
Eloy Hontoria Hernndez Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena, Spain
M. Carmen Jaca Garca Universidad de Navarra, Spain
Segismundo S. Izquierdo Milln Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Tomasz Janowsky UNU-IIST, Macau
Kalle Khknen Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Franz-Josef Kahlen University of Cape Town, South Africa
Katja Klingebiel Technische-Universitt Dortmund, Germany
Francisco Cruz Lario Esteban Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Gilson Lima Universidad Federal Fluminense, Brazil
Rui M. Lima DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Adolfo Lpez Paredes Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Amaia Lusa Garca Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Julient Maheut Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Anna-Bella Manalang De La Salle University (DLSU), Philippines
Miguel ngel Manzanedo del Campo Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Juan A. Marin-Garcia Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Natalia Martin Cruz Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Eva Martnez Caro Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena, Spain
Carme Martnez Costa Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Francisco Soares Msculo Universidade Federal da Paraba, Brazil
Manel Mateo Doll Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Ana Mara Mejas Sacaluga Universidad de Vigo, Spain
Pedro Mondelo Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Josefa Mula Bru Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Gianni Mummolo Politecnico di Bari, Italy
Jess Muuzuri Sanz Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
Luis Onieva Gimnez Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
ngel Ortiz Bas Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Sergio Palomero Rdenas Universidad Jaume I, Spain
Javier Pajares Gutirrez Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Juan E. Pardo Frojn Universidad de Vigo, Spain
Edson Pinheiro de Lima PUC-PR, Brazil
Ral Poler Escoto Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Eva Ponce Cueto Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Spain
Marta Posada Calvo Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Jos Carlos Prado Prado Universidad de Vigo, Spain
Bernardo Prida Romero Universidad Carlos III, Spain
Goran Putnik DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Heitor M. Quintela Unisys, Brazil
Shahin Rahimifard Loughborough University, UK
vii
Alfonso Redondo Castn Universidad de Valladolid, Spain

Imma Ribas Vila Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Ana Isabel Rodrguez Escudero Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Carlos Rodriguez Monroy Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Spain
Luiz Felipe Roriz R. Scavarda do Carmo PUC-RIO, Brazil
Diego Ros McDonnell Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena, Spain
Lorenzo Ros McDonnell Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena, Spain
Patxi Ruiz de Arbulo Lpez Universidad del Pas Vasco / EHU, Spain
Rui Manuel S Pereira Lima DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Rashed Sahraeian Shahed University, Tehran, Iran
Lourdes Saiz Brcena Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Javier Santos Universidad de Navarra, Spain
Jos Ignacio Santos Martn Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Luis Felipe Scavarda PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Markus Schwaninger Univ. of St.Gallen, Institute of Management, Switzerland
M. Val Segarra Oa Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Pep Sim Guzmn Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Spain
Rui Sousa Universidade Catlica Portuguesa, Portugal
Ana Surez Snchez Universidad de Oviedo, Spain
Gursel A. Suer Russ College of Eng. & Technology, Ohio University, USA
Josu Takala University of Vaasa, Finnland
Tom Taylor President of Association for Project Management (APM), UK
Senhorinha Teixeira DPS - UMINHO, Portugal
Guilherme L. R. Vaccaro UNISONOS, Brazil
Jaume Valls Pasola Universidad de Barcelona, Spain
Ton van der Wiele Erasmus University, The Netherlands
Mario Vanhoucke Ghent University, Belgium
Mara Jos Verdecho Sez Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Eduardo Vicens Salort Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain
Milton Vieira Junior UNINOVE, Brazil
viii
Proceedings Index
English Tracks ..................................................................................................... 13
EN-01 Strategy and Entrepreneurship .............................................................. 15
A Valuation of SAREB, the Spanish Bad Bank, Upside Using the Real
Options Methodology .......................................................................................... 17
Roux Martnez F, Ruiz Lpez F, Eguren S
Corporate Entrepreneurship: Types and Determinant Factors. A Case Study

Based Analysis of Technology Based and R+D Active Companies. ................ 25
Onaindia E, Goyogana U, Ochoa Laburu C
The impact of innovation management techniques on radical innovation: An

empirical study .................................................................................................... 33
Igartua J.I, Errasti N, Ganzarain J
An Empirical Analysis of the Spanish Gas Price Structure ............................. 42

Cansado P, Rodrguez Monroy C
Capabilities Generation Mechanisms in Alliances. Case Based Analysis ....... 50

Morcillo Bellido J, Duran Heras A
Best Practices in Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Literature

Review .................................................................................................................. 59
Mejas A.M, Pardo J.E
State of the Art of Challenges on International Operations Management for

SMEs..................................................................................................................... 67
Martnez S, Mediavilla M, Errasti A, Santos J, Mula J
Economic and Financial Profile of High-Growth Firms vs. Normal Firms

from New Industry in the Basque Country: a Discriminant Analysis ............ 76
Ruiz de Arbulo P, Landeta B, Basaez A, Insunza G, Gonzalez X
High-growth Firms: Qualitative Analysis Via Case Study .............................. 85

Insunza Aranzeta G, Basaez Llantada A, Ruiz de Arbulo Lpez P, Landeta Manzano B, Gonzlez
Laskibar X
1
Analysis and Characterisation of the High-growth Firm in the Basque

Country ................................................................................................................ 94
Gonzalez X , Ruiz de Arbulo P, Landeta B, Basaez A, Insunza G
The Delphi Method Applied for Validates the Regional Innovation Model.
Case Study Applied in Central Region Romania. ........................................... 102
Moica S, Ganzarain J
Regional Strategic Development Method as a Tool for the Emergence of New

Industries at Regional Level ............................................................................. 111
Ganzarain J, Igartua J.I , Markuerkiaga L
Costing a Product by Old and New Techniques: Different Wines for Different
Occasions ............................................................................................................ 120
Ruiz de Arbulo Lpez, P, Fortuny-Santos, J, Vintr-Snchez, C
An Electric Taxi Fleet Charging System Using Second Life Electric car
Batteries Simulation and Economical Approach ............................................ 129
Canals Casals Ll, Amante B
Decision Tool Based on Cloud Computing Technology ................................. 137

Zabalza-Vivanco J, Rio-Belver R, Cilleruelo E, Acera-Osa F.J, Garechana G
Productivity in Knowledge Worker Teams ..................................................... 146

Moreno A, Varanki H, Mahou A.
Return of Equity Issues in the Spanish Stock Market from the Investors
Perspective, during the 1997-2012 Period ....................................................... 154
Parreo J, Ruiz F, Roux F
Sustainable Balanced Scorecard: Practical Application to a Services

Company ............................................................................................................ 163
Redondo A, Pascual J.A, Gento A, Muoz J
Applying Cluster Analysis to Renewable Energy Emergent Sector at Local

Level ................................................................................................................... 172
Larruscain J, Ro-Belver R, Cilleruelo E, Garechana G, Gavilanes-Trapote J
Application of Reverse Innovation in SMEs ................................................... 180

Garcia Miranda I, Duran Heras A, Giraldo Casado E
Analysis of the Electric Car Via Patents ......................................................... 189

Fernandez de la Bastida E, Gavilanes-Trapote J, Ro-Belver R, Cilleruelo E, Larruscain J
2
Quality in a Small Service Organization and its Relation with Sand Cone
Model .................................................................................................................. 197
Braga C, Migowski S, Libnio C, Spindler G, Duarte F
CBA and CEA Analysis on Occupational Safety and Health. A New Proposal
for Investment Decisions ................................................................................... 209
Cuervo MA
New Technologies and Entrepreneurial Intention .......................................... 221

Martin-Cruz N, Rodriguez-Escudero AI
EN-02 OR, Modelling and Simulation ............................................................. 233
Toward Various Exact Modeling the Job Shop Scheduling Problem for
Minimizing Total Weighted Tardiness ............................................................ 235
Namakshenas M , Sahraeian R
Two Simple Constructive Algorithms for the Distributed Assembly

Permutation Flowshop Scheduling Problem ................................................... 245
Hatami S, Ruiz R, Andrs Romano C
Set-up Continuity in Tactical Planning of Semi-continuous Industrial

Processes ............................................................................................................. 253
Prez D, Alemany M.M.E, Lario F.C , Fuertes V.S
Literature Review of Master Planning Models with Lack of Homogeneity in

the Product Characteristics under Uncertainty Context ............................... 262
Mundi I, Alemany M.M.E, Poler R, Fuertes V.S
A MILP Model for the Scheduling of Non-continuous Serial Multi-product

Multi-stage Batch Processes with Non-identical Machines. ........................... 271
Latorre F, Garca-Snchez A, Mndez C, Aguirre A, Ortega-Mier M
NTIGen: a Software for Generating Nissan Based Instances for Time and
Space Assembly Line Balancing ....................................................................... 281
Chica M, Cordn O, Damas S, Bautista J
Agent-based Modelling and Archaeological Complexity ............................... 289

Poza D, del Olmo R
Optimizing Stochastic Supply Chains via Simulation: What is an Appropriate

Simulation Run Length? ................................................................................... 297
Arreola-Risa A, Fortuny-Santos J, Vintr-Snchez C
3
Localization Based on Business Interactions through a Simulated Annealing

Algorithm ........................................................................................................... 306
Snchez R.M, Galn J.M, Santos J.I
Applications of the Lagrangian Relaxation Method to Operations Scheduling315

Lavis-Villahoz J.J ,Arauzo J.A, del-Olmo-Mrtinez R, Manzanedo-del-Campo M.A,
Methodology for the Strategic Capacity Planning in Universities ................ 324

de la Torre R, Lusa A, Mateo M
A MILP Event Based Formulation for a Real-world Multimode RCSP with

Generalized Temporal Constraints.................................................................. 332
Borreguero T, Garca A, Ortega M
A Model of Makespan Flow-shop Scheduling under Ergonomic

Requirements ..................................................................................................... 341
Asensio-Cuesta S, Gomez-Gasquet, P, Andrs C, Alemany M.M.E
Solving the Car Resequencing Problem with Mix Banks .............................. 354
Valero-Herrero M, Garcia-Sabater J.P , Vidal-Carreras P, Canos-Daros L
Gaia Analysis and Design of a Multi-agent-based Shop Floor Control System363

Arauzo J.A, del-Olmo-Mrtinez R, Labis-Villahoz J.J
Estimating Costs in the EOQ Formula ............................................................ 372

Vidal-Carreras P.I, Garcia-Sabater J.P, Valero-Herrero M, Santandreu-Mascarell C
Integrated Production and Simulation Scheduling Tool to Solve the Mix

Model Assembly Line Problem Considering Heijunka and Operational
Constraints: a Case Study ................................................................................ 381
Maheut J, Garcia-Sabater J.P, Garcia-Sabater J.J
Electrical Markets and Agent-Based Computational Economics: a Critical

Review of the Last Two Decades of Researching ............................................ 389
Ferrero R
The Inventory Routing Problem for the Mixed Car Model Assembly Line. 398
Pulido R, Garca-Snchez A, Ortega-Mier M
EN-03 Logistics, Production and Information Systems ................................. 407
4
Solving the Mixed Model Sequencing Problem with Workload Minimization

with Product Mix Preservation ........................................................................ 409
Bautista J, Cano A, Alfaro R, Batalla C
Enhanced Supply Chain Management Using SCOR and BPM. Application to

the Spanish Road Transport SME. .................................................................. 418
Franconetti P, Ortiz A
Incorporating the Work Pace Concept into the MMSP-W ............................ 427
Bautista J, Alfaro R, Batalla C, Cano A
Impact of Ergonomic Risk Reduction in the TSALBP-1 ................................ 436

Bautista J, Batalla C, Alfaro R, Cano A
Order Promising Process for Supply Chains with Lack of Homogeneity in the
Product ............................................................................................................... 445
Alemany MME, Boza A, Ortiz A, Poler R
Modeling the Master Plan for Supply Chains with Lack of Homogeneity in
the Products ....................................................................................................... 454
Alemany MME, Cuenca L, Ortiz A, Prez D
A Design Framework for Flexible Automated Warehouses .......................... 463

Marn L.F., Carrasco-Gallego R
Supplier Evaluation and Selection: a Review of the Literature since 2007 .. 472
Molin JI, Coves AM
A Collaborative Me Crossroad: Individual Beliefs and the Adoption of

Corporate Blogs ................................................................................................. 481
Fernndez-Cardador P, Hernndez-Garca A, Iglesias-Pradas S
Improving the Distribution Process in a Meat Company .............................. 490

Prez I,Ulabarry L. E, Moreno K,Parra C
A New Constructive Heuristic for the Fm|Block|T ...................................... 500

Companys R, Ribas I
A Roadmap to Establish Collaboration among SMEs belonging to Non-

Hierarchical Networks ...................................................................................... 508
Andres B, Poler R
5
Measures to Diagnose the Power Balance in a Non-hierarchical

Manufacturing Network ................................................................................... 517
Andres B, Poler R
New Tool for Aiding Warehouse Design Process ............................................ 526

Chackelson C, Errasti A, Santos J
Calculation of the Approaches to CSL in Continuous Review Policy (s,Q)

from an Analogy of a Periodic Review Policy (R,S). ...................................... 534
Estelles-Miguel S, Albarracin J.M, Cards M, Guijarro E.
Determining the Order-up-to-level Using the Normal Approximation in a

Discrete Context ................................................................................................ 543
Guijarro E, Babiloni E, Cards M, Palmer M
On the Selection of Customer Service Metrics in Inventory Control ........... 551

Guijarro E, Babiloni E, Cards M, Estells S
Analysing the Purchase Intention of Spanish Consumer: A Study about

Remanufactured Products ................................................................................ 560
Jimnez-Parra B, Rubio S, Vicente-Molina M A
Non Parametric Estimation of the Cycle Service Level of a Periodic Review

Policy in a Discrete Context .............................................................................. 568
Cards M, Babiloni E, Estells S, Guijarro E
Proposal of a Classification of the Different Data Models to Manage

Materials in Industry ........................................................................................ 576
Maheut J, Garcia-Sabater JP, Marin-Garcia JA
Packaging Logistics. A Case Study in Dairy Sector ....................................... 585

Garca Arca J, Prado Prado JC, Gonzlez-Portela Garrido A.T
Inter Enterprise Framework for Hierarchical Decisions ............................... 594

Vargas A, Boza A, Cuenca L, Ortiz A
Enterprise Resilience Assessment: A Categorisation Framework of

Disruptions ......................................................................................................... 603
Sanchis R, Poler R
Trajectory Analysis of the Valencian Automobile Industry Implementing

Lean Management ............................................................................................. 611
Valero-Herrero M, Marin-Garcia J , Garcia-Sabater J, Vidal-Carreras P
6
Long Term Capacity Planning with Products Renewal ............................... 620

Yilmaz G, Lusa A, Benedito E
Multiagent Model for Supply Chain Management ......................................... 630

Ponte B, Pino R, Fernndez I, Garca N, Monterrey M
Revisiting the SEC Classification Framework in Traditional and Electronic

Commerce .......................................................................................................... 639
Agudo-Peregrina AF, Chaparro-Pelez J, Pascual-Miguel FJ
Utilization of Tool Value Stream Mapping (VSM) for Improvement of

Welded Assembly Manufacturing Process ...................................................... 647
Guimares G, Muller M, Taffarel L, Lash M, Bechert T
Logistic Management in a Fresh Food Firm: A Case Study .......................... 655

Garca Mrquez F.P, Pea Garca-Pardo I, Trapero Arenas J.R
City Logistics: Are Sustainability Policies Really Sustainable? .................... 665

Grosso R, Muuzuri J, Cortes P, Carrillo J
A Model for Coordination of Production Planning, Forward and Reverse

Logistics Management in a Multi-product and Multi-plant Environment,
with Reusable Bottles Constraints ................................................................... 674
Parra Pea J, Vicens-Salort E, Ortiz Bas A
Neural Network Application for Risk Factors Estimation in Manufacturing

Accidents. ........................................................................................................... 683
Carrillo JA, Guadix J, Grosso R, Onieva L
EN-04 Quality and Product Management ....................................................... 691
Information Capability in Basque Country Quality Award Winners .......... 693

Zrraga-Rodrguez M, lvarez MJ
Market Oriented New Product Development Process: a Case Study ........... 702
Nunes M, Afonso P
The Logical Framework Approach and Worker Commitment .................... 720

Paipa-Galeano L, Jaca C, Viles E, Mateo R, Santos J
How to Choose the Best Order when Implanting HIWP in Operations Area728
Marin-Garcia JA, Perello-Marin MR, Canos-Daros L, Valero-Herrero M
7
EN-05 Knowledge and Project Management .................................................. 737
Competitive Intelligence Practices in Microenterprises and SMEs from the

Industrial Sector: the Case of Basque Country .............................................. 739
Aldasoro J C, Cantonnet M L, Cilleruelo E
Web 2.0 as a Key Tool for Sharing Knowledge in Basque Country SMEs .. 747
Alvarez Meaza I, Cilleruelo Carrasco E, Zamanillo Elguezabal I
Predisposition of Workers to Share Knowledge: an Empirical Study .......... 755

Siz L, Dez J I, Manzanedo, M A, Del Olmo, R
User Software and Information Systems in Engineering Project Management763

Arias J, Rubio R, Solana J
Application of Public Private Partnerships to the Spanish Airport System 772

Coello N, Rodrguez Monroy C, Calvo F
Towards Strategic Project Management ......................................................... 780

Hermano V, Martn-Cruz N.
Analysis of Common Maturity Models Applied to Project Management .... 788

Montero G
Patterns in Innovative Companies in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) ....................... 795

Cans-Dars L, Santandreu-Mascarell C, Marin-Garcia JA, Garca-Sabater JJ
How Organizational Cybernetics Can Help to Organize Debates on Complex

Issues................................................................................................................... 803
Prez Ros J, Velasco Jimnez I, Snchez Mayoral P
The M.A.G. Factor. Management, Administration and Guidance. Where and

How Much MAG Does Each Project Deserve and Need? A New, Original
Assessment and Scoring System ....................................................................... 813
Taylor T
EN-06 Service Systems ...................................................................................... 823
Tourism Destination Web Monitor: A Technological Platform for the

Acquisition of Tourist Information through the Web Presence of the DMOs825
Rebon F, Gerrikagoiti J.K, Ochoa Laburu C
8
Methodology for Analysis and Decision Making by Sampling in Buildings. 833

Aparicio P, Guadix J, Onieva L, Escudero A
E-Government Interoperability Frameworks: Administration to Business. 842

Andres B, Poler R
Economic Performance and Financial Profitability: Two Study Cases in F&B

Industry .............................................................................................................. 851
Santandreu-Mascarell C, Cans-Dars L, Vidal-Carreras PI, Valero-Herrero M
Appropriate Work Design in Lean Production Systems ................................ 858

Dombrowski U, Hellmich E-M., Mielke T.
Model of a Public Private Partnership in the Spanish Health Context ........ 867
Prez J
Complex Networks Applied to Communication Management in Emergency

Crisis ................................................................................................................... 876
Ruiz Martn C, Ramrez Ferrero M, Gonzlez lvarez J.L, Poza D
EN-07 Education................................................................................................ 885
Applying the LEGOstics Concept in Formal Education at Technical

University of Cartagena .................................................................................... 887
Bojan P, de la Fuente Aragn MV, Ros McDonnell L
Teaching Operation Management with GeoGebra. An example of Make-to-

stock Problem Solving ....................................................................................... 895
Calona Z, Santos J, Arcelus M
Factors Involved in the University-industry Collaboration; a Final

YearProject Approach ...................................................................................... 903
Errasti N, Ganzarain J, Markuerkiaga L, Martinez de Zuazo M
How to Assess the Innovation Competency of Higher Education Students . 912

Marin-Garcia JA , Perez-Pealver MJ, Vidal-Carreras PI, Maheut J
Using Rubrics for Monitoring and Evaluating Degree Projects in Industrial

Management Engineering ................................................................................. 921
Barbera-Ribera T, Estelles-Miguel S, Dema Perez C.M, Garrigos-Simon F.J.
Spanish Tracks .................................................................................................. 931
9
SP-01 Estrategia y Entrepreneurship .............................................................. 933
La Satisfaccin de Clientes como Estrategia de Marketing para la Venta... 935

Dalongaro R.C, Froemming L.M.S
La Importancia de las Innovaciones No Tecnolgicas en las Empresas

Espaolas ........................................................................................................... 943
Larrea Unzain A, Aldasoro Alustiza J.C, Cantonnet Jordi M L
Open E-Government y Cambios Organizativos en las Administraciones

Pblicas Espaolas ............................................................................................ 951
Martnez Nez M , Prez Aguiar WS, Martin-Fernandez L
Anlisis de Buenas Prcticas en Transferencia Tecnolgica en el Sector TIC966

Artal A., Sanchez Granados A.M., Gil Garcia E.
SP-02 Investigacin Operativa, Modelado y Simulacin ............................... 975
Comparativa de Heursticas Multiobjetivo Voraces y Poblacionales Aplicadas

a la Optimizacin Mono-objetivo en Entornos Industriales Flow Shop con
Permutacin ....................................................................................................... 977
Valledor P, Gmez A, Daz D, Priore P, Rosillo R
Estudio sobre el Efecto de la Complejidad e Incertidumbre en el ELSP ..... 986

Corts R, Garca-Sabater J.P, Molina P
SP-03 Logstica, Produccin y Sistemas de Informacin ............................... 997
Mejora del Sistema Productivo mediante Value Stream Mapping. Aplicacin

a una Empresa de Diseo .................................................................................. 999
De la Fuente MV, Alonso M, Hontoria E, Ros L
Sistema Integrado de Planificacin de la Produccin y Distribucin para la

Gestin de Excepciones ................................................................................... 1007
lvarez E, Villaln L, Osaba E, Daz F
Tcnicas de Prediccin Cuantitativas Aplicadas a la Cadena de Suministro.

Un Caso de Estudio ......................................................................................... 1016
Trapero Arenas J.R , Garca Mrquez F.P
Decisiones en el Diseo de Redes de Logstica Inversa: Propuesta de un

Modelo de Decisin. ......................................................................................... 1025
Ribas I, Rubio S
10
La Mejora Dinmica del Rutado de Vehculos: Eventos de Reoptimizacin1034

Escudero A, Muuzuri J, Corts P, Aparicio P
Sistemas de Ayuda a la Toma de Decisiones para la gestin de Incidencias1043

Valero R, Boza A, Vicens E
Sistema de Control y Reprogramacin de la Produccin basado en Captura

Inalmbrica de Datos en Planta ..................................................................... 1050
Eguizbal L, Lago A, Fernndez A
Planificacin y Control de la Produccin en la Mejora del Proceso de

Produccin de Fabricacin de Juegos Mesas: un Estudio de Caso ............. 1060
RaposoJ, Costa-de MatosAN, NunesA
SP-04 Calidad y Gestin del Producto ........................................................... 1069
Las Empresas de Servicios Energticos (ESE) en Espaa y su contribucin al

desarrollo de las Ciudades Inteligentes (Smart Cities) .................................. 1071
Morcillo Bellido J, Prida Romero B
El Anlisis del Ciclo de Vida en Espaa. Temas de Investigacin Principales y

Agentes Clave ................................................................................................... 1080
Basaez Llantada A, Martnez de Alegra Mancisidor I, Insunza Aranzeta G, Gonzlez Laskibar X
Un Sistema Integrado de Gestin como Elemento de Mejora Competitiva 1089

Fortea E, Mikeo I
Modelo para la Implementacin de Sistemas de Gestin Preventivos en

Sectores Singulares .......................................................................................... 1097
Solano Martos J, Maeso Gonzlez E
SP-05 Gestin del Conocimiento y de Proyectos ........................................... 1107
Estimacin de la Evolucin de Proyectos en el mbito de la Produccin

Industrial mediante la Parametrizacin de la Curva S del Coste Acumulado1109
Garca Escribano E
Aprendizaje Organizacional: Estudio de Caso Sector Turismo de Ciudad

Guayana, Venezuela ........................................................................................ 1118
DArmas M, Arzola M
11
Gestin de la Innovacin y el Papel de las TIC: El caso de SILK ............... 1128

Planuch Prats C, Salvador Valls R
La Intragestion Financiera a travs de las TIC Basada en la Auditoria de

Orden del Sector Universitario Venezolano .................................................. 1137
Guaido Suarez D
SP-06 Sistemas de Servicios ............................................................................ 1143
La Calidad de E-Servicio en Portales Web B2C: Evaluacin Mediante

Sistemas de Inferencia Borrosos .................................................................... 1145
Castro A, Puente J, de la Fuente D, Parreo J, Lozano J
SP-07 Educacin .............................................................................................. 1155
Tendencias y Aseguramiento de la Calidad en la Educacin Superior: Mapa

Europeo y Caso de Espaa ............................................................................. 1157
Gonzalez Lasquibar X, Ruiz de Arbulo Lpez P, Landeta Manzano B, Basaez Llantada A, Insunza
Araceta G
Satisfaccin en la Utilizacin del Video por el Discente en su Proceso Activo

de Aprendizaje. Una Experiencia en el Contexto de los Grados en Ingeniera
de Telecomunicacin. ...................................................................................... 1167
Prez-Aguiar W, Martnez-Nez M
Aplicacin de la Tecnologa BPMS en la Gestin de los Procesos Relacionados

con la Actividad Docente en un Centro Universitario .................................. 1178
Pardo JE , Mejas AM
12
English Tracks
13
EN-01
Strategy and Entrepreneurship
15
A Valuation of SAREB, the Spanish Bad

Bank, Upside Using the Real Options
Methodology
Roux Martnez F1, Ruiz Lpez F2, Eguren S3
Abstract This paper develops a model to analyze the upside potential of profita-
bility of the SAREB (Asset Management Company for Assets Arising from Bank
Restructuring), the Spanish Bad Bank. The model is based in the Real Options
methodology, that is especially adequate due to the convergence of two elements,
(i) depreciated assets with a high upside potential, and (ii) a highly volatile market
as it has shown to be the real estate Spanish market. Our results suggest that the
SAREB has a higher than expected profitability potential that would be dedicated
to increase the return to its shareholders, mainly private banks. Consequently we
also show that after the financial crisis are emerging two types of banks in Spain,
in one hand the losers who are transferring their real estate assets at a deep dis-
count, and in the other hand the winners, capturing the upside potential of those
assets as shareholders of SAREB, and consequently consolidating their strength in
the Spanish Real Estate Industry. It is worth to mention that Governments should
make an effort in properly redistribute the wealth generated by the real Estate in-
dustry.
Keywords: Bad Bank, Real Options, Valuation, Financial Crisis, Real Estate.
1FlixRoux Martinez ( e-mail: froux@etsii.upm.es)

Dpto. de Administracin de Empresas. Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales.
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. c/ Jos Gutirrez Abascal, 2. 28006 . Madrid
2FlipeRuiz Lpez ( e-mail: feliperuizlopez@gmail.com)
3Santos Eguren ( e-mail: santos.eguren@upm.es)
17
1 SAREB Overview and Background
1.1 Legal Structure
On 25 June 2012, Spain requested the Eurogroup financial assistance to recapital-

ize the Spanish banking industry. In accordance with this request, the Spanish
Administration created the SAREB to segregate impaired financial assets toxic
assets of those credit institutions receiving public funding.
The legal structure of the SAREB was defined in RDL 24/2012, now passed as
law 9/2012. The SAREB will be incorporated for a maximum period of 15 years,
and initially as a Public Limited Company (Spanish Sociedad Annima).
The purpose of the SAREB is the holding, management, acquisition and dis-
posal of assets to be transferred to it by credit institutions receiving public support.
These institutions receive debt securities issued by the SAREB with a State guar-
antee as payment for the assets transferred. (European Central Bank, 2012)
In a second phase starting by 2013, the SAREB eventually will set up a number
of funds and a management company, to create and finance portfolios of assets in
response to specific investor demand.
1.2 Funding Required, Capital Structure and Cost of Capital.
SAREB shareholders are mixed, Public and Private, Public ownership may not
exceed 50% (BOE, Ley 9/2012) to prevent SAREB debt to consolidate as public
debt increasing the total amount of Spanish debt outstanding. In any case the State
guaranteed debt of the SAREB should increase the overall risk of the Spanish
debt.
The equity mix is expected to be in the range of 45% Public vs. 55% Private.
Although when facing a banking crisis regulators are forced to improvise (Aghion
P et al, 1999) this private majority, could generate a conflict of interest (ECB,
2012) because private shareholders are banks and financial institutions that also
have significant interests in the Spanish real estate industry, as shown in Table1.
The total amount of assets to be transferred initially in December 2012 to
SAREB will include those of; BFA-Bankia (22,318 million ), Catalunya Bank
(6,708 million ), Novagalicia and Banco Gallego (5,097 million ) and Banco de
Valencia (1,964 million ), in total 37.110 million (El Pas, 2012)
The transfer of additional assets of other banks, such as Caja Espaa-Duero,
Liberbank, and BMN, will start in 2013 and will require further capital by current
or new shareholders, but as stipulated in Law 9/2012 the total amount of assets of
SAREB will never exceed 90.000 million Euros.
18
Table 1 SAREB ownership as at 28 December 2012
Institution Capital (million ) Stake (%)

Private Stake1 2,114 55%
Direct funds 524 14%
Subordinated Debt 1,590 42%
Public Stake 1,705 45%
Direct funds 432 11%
Subordinated Debt 1,273 33%
Total Equity 3,819 100%
1
Private shareholders include; Banco Santander, CaixaBank, Sabadel Popular, Bankinter, Ca-
jamar, Banca March, Deutsche Bank, CCS, Mutua Madrilea, Catalana Occidente, Asisa y Mu-
tua Pelayo. Source: Expansion, 2012.
Taking into account these numbers we can build an illustrative balance sheet of
SAREB, as shown in Figure 1, it shows that when matching the total amount of
assets transferred with the sources of funds, it can be seen at a glance that 91% of
funds comes from state guaranteed debt and only 9% is equity.
Assets (million Eur). Liabilities (million Eur).
From Bankia BFA 22,318 M
91%
From Novacaixa and Banco G. 6,122 M
Bonds issued by SAREB State Guaranteed
37,110 M
DEBT
From Catalunya Caixa 6,708 M
From B.Valencia 1,962 M

EQUITY (*)
Public S hareholer (FROB); 45% of equity, 1,705

Initial Cash and equivalents Shareholders M
9%
3,818 M Private S hareholers (Banks); 55% of equity,

2,114M
(*) Equity icludes shareholders funds and subordinated debt
Fig. 1 Illustrative Balance Sheet of SAREB by December 2012
This high proportion of debt will have a very low cost because is State Guaran-
teed, consequently leverages the stream of earnings to be paid to the equity, in fact
borrowing at a fixed low rate is increases sharply the rate of return of the firms
equity (Brealey Myers, 1996).
The estimation of the minimum expected return on equity (ROE) according to
the FROB (Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring) is at 14%. But more importantly
any increase on profitability on the total volume of assets goes to the equity, main-
ly controlled by Private banks.
19
1.3 Transfer Price of Real Estate Assets to SAREB
The transfer prices have been determined by Banco de Espaa, and were sharply
adjusted, they are based on the exercise performed by Oliver Wyman, a consultan-
cy firm, in 2012, as presented in table 2, and include additional discounts taking
into account some costs of SAREB such as administration and financial costs.
Table 2 Type of asset and haircut applied in the transfer price to SAREB according to FROB
Asset Type Average haircut Asset Type Average haircut

Loans1 45.6% Foreclosed assets2 63.1%
1
Loans include; loans on finished housing, land, projects, and other Real Estate assets.
2
Foreclosed assets include; new housing, developments in progress and land.
As a consequence of the haircuts applied, the final price of the assets ranges be-
tween 54% and 37% of their initial book value, depending if they are loans on as-
sets or physical real estate assets.
2 The Real Options Approach
2.1 Advantages of the Methodology
An increasing number of academics and corporate practitioners defend that tradi-

tional discounted-cash flow (DCF) approaches such as the standard net-present-
value (NPV) rule, cannot properly capture managements flexibility to adapt and
revise decisions in response to unexpected market developments (Trigeorgis,
1996). DCF approaches build expected scenarios based on assumptions. But
they are not able to capture the managements flexibility to make decisions
throughout the process changing the outcome of the project.
Real Options methodology is based on the financial options theory to value de-
rivatives, but instead of using a financial asset (e.g. a share) as underlying, uses a
real asset (e.g. a physical asset or a project), its advantage is that allows to value
investment decisions taking into account the flexibility to adapt to the changing
market conditions and make decisions throughout the life of a project.
An Option is conceived as a right but not an obligation to make a decision in a
period of time. There are two kinds of options, calls and puts, a call option
gives the right to buy an asset at a specified exercise price, and the put option
gives the right to sell the asset at that exercise price. Both calls and puts can
be European, if they must be exercised at a fixed date, or American if they
can be exercised at any time before a final date.
20
2.2 Numerical Methodology Application to Value the SAREB
To value the SAREB we take into account its flexibility to adapt to market condi-
tions, meaning that if Real Estate Market conditions improve it can gain the up-
side, and if they decline SAREB does not lose a lot because it can always sell all
or part of its assets that are valued at a low price vs. the market. Consequently the
assets of SAREB include an abandonment option, which is an American Put Op-
tion. To show the value of it, we build a base case and some sensitivities regarding
(ii) the standard deviation, and (iii) the abandonment price.
The valuation methodology applied is the simple discrete-time model presented
by Cox, Ross and Rubinstein in their famous article published in the Journal of
Financial Economics in 1979. As a starting point five variables must be defined:
The underlying assets; are the Real Estate assets transferred from the affected
banks. We take the value of the assets transferred until December 2012 amount-
ing 37,110 million . We assume that the haircut that they have suffered is
55%, a figure between 46% and 63% as presented in previous points, conse-
quently their initial book value was 82,470 million . We also treat the total
amount of assets as a whole and its evolution in percentage in order to show in
a simple manner the evolution of its value. Meaning that the 82,470 million
are 100% of the value before the haircut, and that 37,110 million are 45% of
the book value. One important element of the Real Options vs. Financial Op-
tions, is that the owner of a financial option can not affect the value of the un-
derlying asset (e.g. a share of Telefnica), but the manager of a real asset can
raise its value (Copeland Antikarov, 2003). Consequently the proper manage-
ment SAREB assets have a lot to do with the final value extracted from them.
The exercise price; the minimum price at which assets can be sold. Due to the
haircut suffered by the assets transferred to SAREB it can be assumed that it is
37,110 million .
Time to expiration of the option; fifteen years, equal to the life of SAREB. It is
worth to mention that this long life increases the value of the option because the
probability of price increase of the Real Estate underlying assets is also higher.
The standard deviation of the price of the underlying asset; is the standard devi-
ation of the price of the Real Estate assets. This industry traditionally has
shown higher volatility than the stock market, and it has grown sharply during
the last years, as shown in Table 3. In the base case it is assumed a standard de-
viation of 40%, showing the higher than the IBEX 35 volatility of the industry.
5. The risk-free rate over the life of the option; we assume it is the rate of the
Spanish Public Debt for an equivalent period of time of 15 years, of 6.5%.
21
Table 3 Annual Standard deviation of Real State Spanish quoted companies, average of them
and IBEX 35 as a reference
Company Name, average and Index Standard Deviation

(3 years period 2010 - 2012)
Reyal Urbis 96%
Colonial 69%
Sacyr y Vallermoso 59%
Realia 48%
Average 68%
IBEX 35 29%
Source: La Caixa, December 2012
Once the variables are identified, an event tree showing the paths that could be
followed by the value of the underlying asset is built, as shown in Figure 2.
Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
18154%
12169%
= 40% 8157% 8157%
5468% 5468%
3665% 3665% 3665%
2457% 2457% 2457%
Million % 1647% 1647% 1647% 1647%
Book Value 82,467 100% 1104% 1104% 1104% 1104%
740% 740% 740% 740% 740%
Haircut 45,357 55,0% 496% 496% 496% 496% 496%
333% 333% 333% 333% 333% 333%
223% 223% 223% 223% 223% 223%
149% 149% 149% 149% 149% 149% 149%
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Value of the Million % 67% 67% 67% 67% 67% 67% 67% 67%
assets 37,110 45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45%
transferred 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30%
20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 20%
14% 14% 14% 14% 14% 14% 14%
9% 9% 9% 9% 9% 9%
6% 6% 6% 6% 6% 6%
4% 4% 4% 4% 4%
3% 3% 3% 3% 3%
2% 2% 2% 2%
1% 1% 1% 1%
1% 1% 1%
1% 1% 1%
0% 0%
0% 0%
0%
0%
Fig. 2 Present Value event tree without abandonment option
After building the event tree, the real option to abandon is computed at each
node of the tree and calculated the present value of it. As shown in figure 3, the
flexibility has added value, enhancing the project upside in case of Real State
Price increases, and limiting the downside to a level close to the initial assets val-
ue. When taking into account the option to abandon, the value of the assets ob-
tained reaches 47,090 million , 9,980 million over the initial asset valuation of
37,110 million , representing a 12%.
22
Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
18154%
12169%
8157% 8157%
5468% 5468%
3665% 3665% 3665%
2457% 2457% 2457%
1647% 1647% 1647% 1647%
1104% 1104% 1104% 1104%
Value of assets transferred 225%

333%
496%
224%
740%
333%
496%
224%
740%
333%
496%
223%
Go
740%
333%
496%
223%
740%
333%
496%
223%
740%
333%
Including Real Option 152% 152% 152% 151% 150% 149% 149%
105% 105% 104% 104% 103% 102% 100%
Million % 75% 75% 75% 74% 73% 72% 71% 67%
47,090 57% 57% 57% 56% 56% 55% 54% 52%
48% 47% 47% 47% 47% 46% 45% 45%
45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45%
45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45%
45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45%
Increase in Value 45% 45% 45% 45% 45% 45%
Million
9,980
%
12%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
Abandon
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45%
45% 45% 45%
45% 45% 45%
45% 45%
45% 45%
45%
45%
Fig. 3 Real Option calculation including per node option and decisions
Finally a sensitivity analysis is done and presented in Table 4, showing that

even the most conservative case; an additional haircut of 25% in the value of as-
sets, and a low at 20%, well under the IBEX35 volatility, reaches a value of
38,018 million , over the initial value of assets of 37,110 million .
Table 4 Sensitivity analysis
Standard Deviation () Initial Value 37,110 million Additional haircut (-25%)1

20% 40,486 million 38,018 million
30% (close to IBEX35) 43,683 million 40,141 million
40% 47,090 million (base case) 42,694 million
50% 50,242 million 45,214 million
1
An additional haircut of 25% of the price would drive to an initial value of 27,833 million
On top of this valuation it is important to notice, that due to the high proportion
of State Guaranteed debt on SAREB funds (91%) the upside on profitability will
go directly to pay the equity, mainly controlled by private banks.
In fact the European Central Bank on its opinion published on 14 December
2012 recommends to impose limitations on the payment of dividends to ensure the
timely redemption of State guaranteed bonds, and that all cash held by the SAREB
could be applied to the early repayment of the State bonds (BCE, 2012).
23
3 Conclusions
Since the SAREB bears a real option that generates significant upside potential, it
should be taken into account. Our valuation of the upside is in the range of 10.000
million (+12% on the value of Real Estate assets transferred).
The high volume of State Guaranteed debt at a fixed low rate on SAREB funds
causes that all the upside goes to the shareholders that are mainly private banks.
This makes explicit that after the financial crisis are emerging two types of
banks in Spain, in one hand the losers who are transferring their real estate assets
at a deep discount, and in the other hand the winners, capturing the upside poten-
tial of those assets as shareholders of SAREB and consequently consolidating
their strength in the Spanish Real Estate Industry.
It is worth to mention that in this environment Governments should make a real
and proportionate effort to redistribute the wealth generated by the Real Estate in-
dustry.
4 References
Aghion, P., P. Bolton, and S. Fries (1999) Optimal Design of Bank Bailouts: The Case of Trasi-
tion Economies, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 155(1), 51-70
Brealey RA, Myers SC (1996) Principles of Corporate Finance. Fifth Edition, McGraw .Hill. In-
ternational.
Copeland T, Antikarov V (2000) Real Options, A practitioners guide. Cengage Learning, New
York, New York
Cox JC, Ross SA, Rubinstein M (1979) Option pricing: a simplified approach. Journal of Fi-
nancial Economics 7: 229-263
ECB (European Central Bank), Opinion of the European Central Bank of 14 December 2012 on
asset management companies (CON/2012/108).
El Pas, 26 December 2012. La banca nacionalizada traspasa al banco malo activos por valor de
37.110 millones. Available via
http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2012/12/26/actualidad/1356524351_995160.html
El Pas, 28 December 2012. Bancos y aseguradoras aportan 1.590 millones a la Sareb en deuda
subordinada. Available via
http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2012/12/28/agencias/1356706298_756836.html
Expansin, 13 December 2012. Sareb negocia contrarreloj la entra da de Pimco y Fortress en el
capital. Available via. http://www.clipmedia.net/ficheros/2012/12_dic/sq270.pdf
FROB Fondo de Restructuracin Ordenada Bancaria (2012). Press Release 13 December 2012,
Sareb increases capital to allow private investors to take a stake. Available via.
http://www.frob.es/notas/20121213%20SAREB%20INGLES%20PROT.pdf
Ley 9/2012, de 14 de noviembre, de reestructuracin y resolucin de entidades de crdito. Avail-
able via. http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2012/11/15/pdfs/BOE-A-2012-14062.pdf
Luehrman, Timothy A (1998) Investment Opportunities as Real Options: Getting started on the
Numbers. Harvard Business Review 76: 51-67.
Real Decreto-ley 24/2012, de 31 de agosto, de reestructuracin y resolucin de entidades de cr-
dito. Available via. http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2012/08/31/pdfs/BOE-A-2012-11247.pdf
Trigeorgis, L (1996) Real Options Managerial Flexibility and Strategy in Resource Allocation.
The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
24
Corporate Entrepreneurship: Types and

Determinant Factors. A Case Study Based
Analysis of Technology Based and R+D Active
Companies.
Onaindia E1, Goyogana U2, Ochoa Laburu C3
Abstract Based on the integrative model proposed by Narayanan V, Yang Y, Zah-

ra S (2009) as theoretical framework and using multiple case studies, we explore
in this paper the characteristics of new business, activities or ventures; created by
entrepreneurial companies and the cause-effect relationship of some context
agents, such as: external factors (industry, technological change) and internal or-
ganizational factors (capital structure, top management commitment, competitive
strategy, organizational structure, human resources management, use of public
funds and policies). We have selected six technology-based companies with medi-
um-high intensity in R+D, either small or medium-high companies, from very dif-
ferent industries, but all of them involved in Corporate Entrepreneurship. The pre-
liminary results confirm the thesis pointed out in scientific literature: the
implication of top management is critical, CE is a strategic issue with decisive in-
fluence for the survival of the company and the Intrapreneur has revealed to be a
key agent. Nevertheless, there is a wide range of possible combinations of factors,
mainly of internal ones, and their cause-effect relationships are very different.
Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship, Internal and External Factors, Multiple

Case Studies
1
Eneritz Onaindia Gerrikabeitia ( e-mail: eneritz.onaindia@ehu.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. EUITI-Eibar. UPV-EHU
Avda Otaola 29, 20600 Eibar.
2
Unai Goyogana Quesada ( e-mail: unai.goyogana@ehu.es)
Dpto. Organizacin de Empresas, UPV EHU. Escuela Politcnica. Universidad del Pas Vasco.
Plaza de Europa 1, 20018 San Sebastin.
3
Carlos Ochoa Laburu ( e-mail: carlos.ochoa-laburu@ehu.es)
Dpto. Organizacin de Empresas, UPV EHU. Escuela Politcnica. Universidad del Pas
Vasco. Plaza de Europa 1, 20018 San Sebastin.
25
1 Introduction and Approach of the Project
The interest in business creation (entrepreneurship) and its protagonists (entre-

preneurs) is a classic issue in economic literature and, specifically in literature
about management. This issue is specially recurrent and relevant in economic cri-
sis times. But, despite all the generated literature there is still a wide field of study
about the type of Corporate Entrepreneurship and how new ventures are de-
veloped, and specifically, about Internal Organizational Factors.
A group of technology-based and active in R+D companies which have experi-
ence on Corporate Entrepreneurship is studied in this work. Consequently, classic
questions about Entrepreneurial Orientation or about the results of that entrepre-
neurial activity are not proposed. The studied companies are proactive on entre-
preneurship and obtain economical and not economical results from it. We ques-
tion and attempt to analyze what do technology-based and R+D investor
entrepreneurial companies do? and how? so that results can be translated to other
companies.
2 Theoretical Models to Analyze Corporate Entrepreneurship
We have selected the model by Narayanan, Yang and Zahra (2009) as a theoretical
framework because it is focused on the entrepreneuring company, and specially
because a section about Characteristics of the new venture is included:
Internally or externally developed. It means, creating a new company or a new
activity line in the current company.
100% owned company or partnership as a major or minor shareholder.
Internal or external entrepreneur
Developed according to the strategy of the company or because of an opportun-
istic decision.
The model by Narayanan, Yang and Zahra (2009) is proposed as a synthesis of
the most relevant models: Guth-Ginsberg (1990), Covin-Slevin (1991) and Lump-
kin-Dess (1996).
A positive Entrepreneurial Orientation has a positive effect on the outcomes of
the company, especially in the economic outcomes (profitability, sales increase
and market share). The cause-effect relationship between them may be reversible.
Good outcomes may favour Entrepreneurship.
There is a set of External and Internal Factors/Agents of the company which
determine the characteristics of the new activities and, by extension, their out-
comes. The cause-effect relationship between them, as well as its intensity, are
contingent. In other words, they do not act always in the same way but their influ-
ence depends very much on their possible combinations.
26
In the same way, there is a set of factors, external and internal to the company
and to the new activities, which Moderate/Mediate in the entrepreneurship pro-
cess.
Moderators
Environment hostility
Context
External
Technology
Demand CV Characteristics
Strategy Orientation Outcomes
Entrepreneurial Economic Outcomes
Orientation Internal Finance
Organization Market Performance
Top Management
Intrapreneur Strategic Outcomes
Corporate Culture
Processes
Compensation/Incentives
Control
Mediators
Timing
Organizational Structure
Market Orientation
Controlled by the parent company Controlled by the new business
Fig. 1 Integrative model for Corporate Venturing by Narayanan, Yang, Zahra (2009)
3 Methodology: Multiple Case Study
The focus of this work is mainly exploratory. It means that the available theoreti-
cal basis for the research questions are considered inadequate or incomplete and
that is why new theoretical contribution is required to better understand the ana-
lysed phenomenon. Consequently, multi-case study methodology has been used
(Yin, 1984). As many authors have pointed out, (Yin, 1984; Eisenhardt, 1989; Vil-
lareal and Landeta, 2006; Toledano-Urbano, 2011) the main advantage is the po-
tential to research deeply complex phenomena, in which experience of participants
are specially important and the context is essential.
27
4 Characterization of the Companies in the Study
We have analyzed six companies with medium-high technological base: medium-

high rates of assets/employee, sales/employee and added value/employee.
These six companies work in very different industries. Four of them are mature
companies, more than 30 years old, so these companies are managed by the sec-
ond or third generation of owners. The other two are quite young, less than 10
years old, and these two companies are managed by the first generation of owners,
the entrepreneur.
Table 1 Characterization of the companies in the study
Company Industry Age Size

(Years) (No. of Employees)
Electric power generation
A 60 5.000
(Utilities design, construction & operation)
Buildings construction
B 40 70
(Structures design & construction)
C Computer interactive graphics 5 50
D Bicycle manufacturing 150 250

Engineering services
E 5 30
(Precision equipment for science design)
F Small and medium domestic appliances 90 80
Technology Intensity Low Medium High

Assets/employee () < 100.000 > 200.000
Sales/employee () < 100.000 > 200.000
Added value/employee () < 40.000 > 70.000
Company C, D, F A, B, E
R+D Intensity Low Medium High

University graduates < 10% > 50%
R+D (Sales, employees) < 5% > 10%
Patents
Company F D, B A, C, E
Internationalization Low Medium High

(< 10% sales) (>25% sales)
Company B, C, F A, D, E
28
5 Entrepreneurial Behaviour of the Companies in the Study
The duration of the life-cycle of product or activity lines is decreasing to less than
10 years and companies are forced to set up new activities, at least, every five
years. This is the reason why Corporate Entrepreneurship is so important for them
by two ways: new product development and new companies development based
on some of the former products. The features of the relationship between the En-
trepreneurial Behaviour of the analyzed companies with their External Factors are
summarized in table 2.
Table 2 Types of Corporate Entrepreneurship according to External Factors (Technology

change / Competitiveness of the industry)
Life-Cycle Product Way of the

Relatedness to main Origin of No.
of the life-cycle new
activities Entrepreneur cases
Industry strategy activity
Emergent technology
(2)
Emergent Same Technology/ Pioneer Spin off External
C,E
Different Market
Same Technology/
Different Market
Spin off
Emergent technology (2)
Mature Pioneer Strategic Internal
Emergent technology A,B
renewal
Different Technolo-
gy/ Same Market
Acquisition
Different Technolo- (2)
Mature Pioneer Strategic Internal
gy/ Same Market D,F
renewal
Source: elaborated by authors
The features of the relationship between the Entrepreneurial Behaviour of the

analyzed companies with their External Factors are summarized in table 3.
29
Table 3 Types of Corporate Entrepreneurship according to Internal Factors (Boost for Corporate
Entrepreneurship / Strategy)
Product Life-
Relatedness Way of the
life- Cycle of Origin of the No.
to main Boost for CE new
cycle the Entrepreneur cases
activities activity
strategy Industry
Different
Board/Management
Technology/
Pioneer Emergent Customers Spin off Internal (1) A
Different
R+D
Market
Board/Management
Same Tech- Customers
nology/ Dif- R+D (2)
Pioneer Emergent Spin off External
ferent Mar- Technology part- C, E
ket ners
Entrepreneur
Different
Corporation Acquisition
Technology/ (3)
Follower Mature Board/Management Strategic Internal
Same Mar- B,D,F
R+D renewal
ket
Source: elaborated by authors
6 Analysis and Discussion
Companies in mature industries are more follower than pioneer, despite

their R+D departments. Companies in emergent industries show an opposite be-
haviour. In this sample there is a similar number of both types.
There are more pioneer companies that launch technological innovations
which are very related to their current business. In other words, they adapt cur-
rent technologies and products to new markets and customers. Most of them create
ex-novo companies, but there are also some cases of acquisitions. Almost in every
case the entrepreneur is external to the original company. He or she usually comes
from a partner of the company or a partner in a R+D project. In fact, those collab-
oration projects are the main source of original ideas for future entrepreneurial
projects. But the Board of the company is always on its back. The role of the en-
trepreneur who pushes to make the new activity develop is more often in this
category
Companies in mature industries in our sample adopt mainly one type of in-
novation strategy: Related innovation. In other words, different technology for
same market - customers. It is executed mainly through internal development
though with technological partners. The boost comes more frequently from the
Management and the R+D department frequently in cooperation with technologi-
cal partners.
30
Why the new ventures are created with a 100% or a majority share of the capi-
tal in some cases and with a minority share in others? It is more usual the latter
than the former and the reason is not clear. It seems that the minority position is
more usual in not related innovations and in emergent industries in which the
company depends much more on technological partners.
Why some companies use intrapreneurs and others external entrepreneurs? It is
also not very clear. It seems that it is more related with the diversification to new
markets than with the development of new technologies. When intending to enter
in a new market it seems more appropriate to use someone with experience in
them, frequently technological partners or collaborators in R+D projects. When in-
tending to develop a new technology it seems more appropriate to rely on internal
R+D and intrapreneurs.
It is obvious that the Top Management role is decisive. Some of the companies
in our sample (A, E) are presidential. In D it is the Board of the corporation, not
the company who has the boost to promote innovation. In B it is the Executive
Management and not the Board. In C they are some of the partners and not the
CEO. In this same company, the entrepreneur was a main force in pushing for-
ward the decision to create a new venture.
In any case the role of the Board of the company is significantly moderated by
(or significantly moderates to) the R+D department, the technological partners or
the customers in the different cases.
The use of Risk Capital does not seem to be influenced by the technological
strategy (pioneering or follower) neither by the industry (emergent or mature), nor
the creation of a brand new company or the acquisition of an existing one. What
seems to have influence is again the destiny of the innovation. Activities created to
penetrate new markets use more Risk Capital than the ones devoted to the devel-
opment of new technologies. Anyway, this strategy has been used very few times.
Almost all the companies in this study have used some modality of public
funds: public calls for financing of R+D projects, establishments at Technology
parks or Innovation Poles, or assistance to create new enterprises from CEI (Inno-
vation and Enterprises Centres) or BIC (Business Innovation Centres).
7 References
Covin, J; Slevin, D. (1991) A conceptual model of entrepreneurship as firm behaviour. Entre-

preneurship: Theory and Practice, 16(1):7-25
Dess, G.; Lumpkin, G.; Mc. Gee, J.,(1999) Linking corporate entrepreneurship to strategy,
structure and process: suggested research direction. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice,
23(3):85-102
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989): Building Theories from Case Study Research, Academy of Man-
agement Review, Vol. 14, n 4, pp.532-550.
Guth, W.; Ginsberg, A (1990) Guest Editors Introduction: Corporate Entrepreneurship. Stra-
tegic Management Journal, 11:5-15
31
Lumpkin, G; Dess, G (1996) Clarifying the entrepreneurial orientation construct and linking it
to performance. Academy of Management Review, 21:135-172
Narayanan VK, Yang Yi, Zahra S.A (2009). Corporate venturing and values creation: A review
and proposed framework Research Policy 38; 58-76
Miles, M.; Covin, J. (2002) Exploring the Practice of Corporate Venturing: Some Common
Forms and Their Organizational Implications. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 26(3):
21-40
Urbano, David; Toledano, Nuria; Ribeiro-Soriano, Domingo. Socio-cultural factors and transna-
tional entrepreneurship: A multiple case study in Spain. International Small Business Jour-
nal 29. 2 (Apr 2011): 119.
Villarreal, O.; Landeta, J. (2007) El estudio de casos como metodologa de investigacin cient-
fica en economa de la empresa y direccin estratgica Empresa global y mercados locales:
XXI Congreso Anual AEDEM, Vol. 1, 2007 (Ponencias), pg. 34
Yin, R. K. (1994): Case Study Research. Design and Methods, Applied Social Research Methods
Series, Vol. 5, Second Edition, Sage Publications, London.
32
The impact of innovation management

techniques on radical innovation: An empirical
study
Igartua J.I1, Errasti N, Ganzarain J
Abstract While research in innovation management has provided many insights

into specific aspects of innovation, the encompassing problems confronting gen-
eral managers, especially managers of small and medium-size firms, have been
overlooked in the development of innovation management techniques and tools.
This paper analyses the way innovation management techniques (IMTs) influence
innovation in firms. Specifically, this paper focuses on studying the role of IMTs
on radical innovation. To this end, we propose a specific model of analysis, tested
in a sample of more than five hundred Spanish companies. Research results high-
light that different set of IMTs relate to radical and incremental innovation in dif-
ferent ways, and that therefore companies seeking for radical innovation look for
certain IMTs rather than others. This empirical study will help managers and prac-
titioners to understand the role of IMTs in structuring radical innovation strategy,
as well as to researchers to focus on the role of such IMTs on innovation.
Keywords: Innovation, Radical Innovation, Innovation Management Techniques,

IMTs
1 Introduction
The need for understanding innovation appears to be widespread, at business lev-

el. Some researchers have developed studies regarding the measurement of inno-
vative performance in enterprises (Mancebo Fernndez and Valls Pasola, 2005),
using instruments as the Community Innovation Survey instrument (CIS) trying to
discover the factors that influence that result (Arundel and Hollanders, 2006). On
1Juan Ignacio Igartua (e-mail: jigartua@mondragon.edu)

Departamento de Mecnica y Produccin Industrial. Escuela Politcnica Superior, Mondragon
Unibertsitatea, C/ Loramendi 4, 20500 Mondragon, Spain
33
the other hand, other scholars have investigate onto the role of innovation man-
agement and the analysis of its impact on innovation and innovation performance
of firms (Rigby and Bilodeau, 2007, Adams et al., 2006) (Prajogo and Ahmed,
2006), including the emphasis on the role of systems and tools (Chiesa and
Masella, 1996).
Finally another incipient research approach it has been orientated to analyse the
role of techniques and tools for managing innovation (Hidalgo and Albors,
2008).This approach highlights innovation as a fundamental process in organiza-
tion performance (Galanakis, 2006, Raymond and St-Pierre, 2010), a process that
requires setting up well-organized and well-run standardized set of tools (Igartua
et al., 2010).
In this direction, the aim of this paper focuses on understanding the influence
of innovation management techniques (IMTs) on innovation in firms. Specifically,
this paper focuses on studying the role of IMTs on radical innovation. Thus, the
main purpose of the study reported in this paper is to understand how companies
implementation of IMTs, affect innovation (product, service, process, and other
kind of innovations) and the specific role of certain IMTs when looking for radical
product or service innovation (McDermott and O'Connor, 2002). The aim of this
paper is to understand whether IMTs play a significant role on innovation and the
achievement of radical innovations.
After a brief introduction to innovation management techniques (IMTs), we
develop the methodology used in this study. Subsequently we show some empiri-
cal results of the investigation, including a conclusions section.
2 Innovation Management Techniques (IMTs)
The need to manage the innovation process and context, demands that managers
make effective and timely decisions based on multiple functions, inputs and disci-
plines (Brown, 1997); and therefore, management tools and techniques are needed
to support these complex decisions (Phaal et al., 2006a). Brady et al. (Brady,
1997) define a management tool as a document, framework, procedure, system or
method that enables a company to achieve or clarify an objective (p.418).
Innovation management techniques (IMTs) can be defined as the range of
tools, techniques and methodologies intended to support the process of innovation
and help companies to meet new market challenges in a systematic way (Phaal et
al., 2006a). Chiesa and Masella (Chiesa and Masella, 1996), in their audit model
of the process of technological innovation, identified the effective use of appropri-
ate tools and systems as one of three facilitators of innovation processes, in con-
junction with the deployment of human and financial resources and the leadership
and direction of senior management.
34
A research conducted in Europe (European Commission, 2000) affirmed that

IMTs allow a company to combine technology and business strategy, fostering in-
creased employee participation, and concluded that there is insufficient awareness
of the variety and range of IMTs available, as well as the potential benefits of their
use.
More recently, Hidalgo and Albors (Hidalgo and Albors, 2008) argue that
IMTs are critical to increasing competitiveness, showing that proper application of
IMTs facilitates a companys ability to introduce appropriate new technologies in
products or processes, as well as the necessary changes to the organization.
About the existing IMTs, several authors as Phaal et al. (Phaal et al., 2006a)
have worked towards the development of a catalogue of tools, as well as a series
of research programs. In this direction, some works have tried to summarize the
existing set of techniques (Hidalgo and Albors, 2008), an approach followed by
other researchers that focused on the role of certain tools (Igartua et al., 2010,
Lichtenthaler, 2011, D'Alvano and Hidalgo, 2012, Aagaard, 2012, Tipu, 2012,
Padilla-Melndez and Garrido-Moreno, 2012, Huang and Rice, 2012), or empiri-
cal studies (Graner and Miler-Behr, 2012, Barge-Gil et al., 2011, Chai et al.,
2010).
Thus, the present research focuses on the role of 17 groups of IMTs identify in
the literature (1.- creative development, 2.- technology management, 3.- strategic
management, 4.- people management, 5.- business intelligence, 6.- management
innovative projects, 7.- development of new products-services, 8.- techniques and
practices for collaboration and networking, 9.- design management, 10.-
knowledge management, 11.- new business development, 12.- financial resource
management, 13.- industrial property rights management, 14.- production man-
agement, 15.- marketing, 16.- organizational practices, and 17.- process improve-
ment) (Hidalgo and Albors, 2008 4261, Phaal et al., 2006b 1409).
3 Research Methodology
The research was conducted through a survey targeted to business managers, as

others research studies conducted in the field of innovation (O'Regan et al., 2006).
The research is based on survey focused on innovation management where top
managers, of more than five hundred companies over a defined universe of six
thousand companies, were asked to answer a structured questionnaire from De-
cember 2008 till April 2009.
The measurement instruments developed for the measurement of innovation
(product-service and process) were based on variables used in the literature and
based on the Community Innovation Survey (CORDIS, 2008). On the other hand,
the measurement of the implementation of IMTs in companies was developed
35
though a scale of 53 items from the identification of the former mentioned 17 IMT
groups identified in the literature (Cronbach's alpha for these scale was 0,948).
The gathered data has been analysed using SPSS16 and statistical methods as
T Student Test, ANOVA and regression analysis (simple linear and multiple line-
ar). Due to the fact that the sample meets the sampling criteria needed to ensure its
representativeness, the implications of the study are directly extrapolated to the
entire study population.
4 Results
In order to examine whether there are significant differences between the imple-
mentation of IMTs in companies and their innovation results, a Student's t-test
comparison of two means was developed. The results of this test are summarized
in Table 1.
Thus, in all cases the t-statistic takes a critical level of bilateral significance
lower than the critical value of 0.005 rejecting the null hypothesis of equality of
means, and therefore concluding that the use of IMTs in companies that innovate
is higher compared to those companies that do not innovate.
Table 1 IMTs use related to Innovation (Product, service, process and other innovations)
N Mean Std.D. Std. Err. N Mean Std.D. Std. Err.

Mean Mean
Prod Yes 362 2,4700 ,67465 ,03546 Proc Yes 378 2,4235 ,71159 ,03660
Inno No 186 1,7004 ,63001 ,04619 Inno No 176 1,7732 ,67540 ,05091
Serv Yes 327 2,4267 ,68541 ,03790 Other Yes 409 2,4319 ,69673 ,03445
Inno No 221 1,8741 ,73550 ,04948 Inno No 148 1,6291 ,62068 ,05102
It was also considered the fact that, when analyzing the use of IMTs by compa-
nies, those could be classified into four groups, depending on product-service and
process innovations (Table 2).
Table 2 Companies classification based on innovation
Prod-Serv Inno Process Inno Group N

YES NO 1 85
YES YES 2 332
NO YES 3 44
NO NO 4 93
Thus, when analyzing the use of IMTs on these four groups the statistical re-
sults based on ANOVA analysis (with a significance of 0.000 lower that the sig-
nificance lower than the critical value of 0.005), show that for all the IMTs groups
36
(excepted the group of techniques related to production management: Just-in-time,

ERP, Lean Management); the mean use of IMTs is higher for those companies
that do innovate in product-service and process altogether, than for those that only
innovate in product, process or do not innovate (Figure 1).
Fig. 1 Mean use of IMTs by companies innovation activity classification
Finally, when analyzing the use of IMTs related to the innovation radicalness,
two simple linear regression studies were developed, one for the radical innova-
tion of product-services and other for the incremental one (see Table 3). The
models take a very high R (0.596) for radical innovation and an also high R
(0.641) for incremental innovation; indicating that 35.5% of the variability of per-
formance in radical innovation of product-services depends on the use of IMTs,
while the 41.1% of the variability of performance in incremental innovation of
37
product-services depends on the use of IMTs. In addition, the F statistic shows for
both regressions a value below the critical level (Sig 0.05), so it can be argued that
variables are linearly related.
Table 3 Companies classification based on innovation
Radical Innovation Incremental Innovation

Model R R2 Adj. R2 Std.Err. of Model R R2 Adj. R2 Std.Err. of
Estimate Estimate
1 ,596a ,355 ,354 ,77389 1 ,641a ,411 ,410 ,78352

a. Predictors: (Constant), IMTs a. Predictors: (Constant), IMTs
Besides, and in order to identify the IMT groups that most related to the radical
innovation of product-services and to the incremental one, two multiple linear re-
gression analysis were carried out introducing variables step by step till the mod-
els was validated after five steps and six steps respectively (see Table 4 and Table
5).
Table 4 Multiple linear regression (step-by-step) relating IMTs and Radical Innovation
Radical Innovation: Model Summaryf

Model R R2 Adj. Std.Err. of Change Statistics
R2 Estimate R Square F df1 df2 Sig. F.
Change Change Change
5 ,606e ,368 ,361 ,75135 ,008 6,581 1 508 ,011
e. Predictors: (Constant), TRed, TFinan, TCrea, TProp, TIntel
f. Dependent variable: InnoRadical
So, the model of radical innovation was tested in five steps, after which the
proposed model included a constant, and the variables related to the use of IMTs
related to networking, economic and financial aspects, creativity techniques, tech-
niques related to industrial property management, as well as those related to busi-
ness intelligence and technological foresight.
Table 5 Multiple linear regression (step-by-step) relating IMTs and Radical Innovation
Radical Innovation: Model Summaryf

2
Model R R Adj. Std.Err. of Change Statistics
R2 Estimate R Square F df1 df2 Sig. F.
Change Change Change
6 ,647f ,418 ,411 ,77402 ,008 7,226 1 504 ,007
f. Predictors: (Constant), TEmpr, TLNP, TTec, TProy, TProp, TRed
g. Dependent variable: InnoIncremental
In contrast, the model of incremental innovation was tested in six steps, after
which the proposed model included a constant, and the variables related to the use
38
of IMTs related to new business development (business plan, transfer mecha-

nisms, and spin-offs), new product development techniques, technology manage-
ment, project management, industrial property management, and those relating to
the management of networking activities.
5 Discussion and Conclusions
The main purpose of the article was to identify the link between business innova-
tion and its radicalness and innovation management techniques (IMTS) imple-
mented by companies. The IMTs measurement was based on set of 17 group of
techniques taken from the literature, while the innovation measurement was based
on the already existing instruments.
Thus, based on the extended set of data and using statistical methods (Student's
t-test, linear regression and multiple linear regressions), the research has under-
lined the importance of IMTs and their differential role on the achievement of dif-
ferent kinds of innovations (product-service and process).
When analyzing innovation in companies, results indicate that the variability of
performance in innovation management depends on the implementation IMTs,
what underlines the importance of management techniques, coinciding with previ-
ous researchers (Phaal et al., 2006a, Hidalgo and Albors, 2008, Igartua et al.,
2010, Phaal et al., 2006b, Chai et al., 2010, Barge-Gil et al., 2011, D'Alvano and
Hidalgo, 2012, Graner and Miler-Behr, 2012).
Furthermore, the multiple linear regression analysis carried out also stress the
role of certain IMTs for the development of radical versus incremental innova-
tions. Thus, networking (open innovation and collaboration), as well as financing,
creativity techniques, IPR management and business intelligence (technology
watch) seem to be techniques that are important for the development of radical in-
novations, while new business development techniques, new product development
techniques, technology management and project management seem to influence
incremental innovation of product or services.
The limitations of this paper result from the research model and the variables
used. Further research and analysis would provide more detailed relationships. On
the other hand, the contributions of this study must be interpreted with a degree of
caution since it has focused on a regional context, which may have certain charac-
teristics that can affect the findings.
39
6 References
Aagaard, A. 2012. The Contribution of Innovation Strategy Development and Implementation in

Active Facilitation of Pharmaceutical Front End Innovation. Systemic Practice and Action
Research, 25, 457-477.
Adams, R., Bessant J. & Phelps, R. 2006. Innovation management measurement: A review. In-
ternational Journal of Management Reviews, 8, 21-47.
Arundel, A. & Hollanders, H. 2006. Searching the forest for the trees: Missing indicators of
innovation. 2006 Trend Chart Methodology Report. MERIT - Maastricht Economic Research
Institute on Innovation and Technology.
Barge-Gil, A., Nieto, M. J. & Santamaria, L. 2011. Hidden innovators: the role of non-RD activi-
ties. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 23, 415-432.
Brady, T., Rush, H., Hobday, M., Davies, A., Probert, D., Banerjee, S. 1997. Tools for technolo-
gy management: An academic perspective. Technovation, 17, 417-426.
Brown, D. 1997. Innovation Management Tools: A review of selected methodologies, Luxem-
bourg, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: Directorate-General XIII Telecommunications, Infor-
mation Market and Exploitation of Research.
CORDIS. 2008. Community Innovation Survey [Online]. Available:
http://cordis.europa.eu/innovation-smes/src/cis.htm.
Chai, S. N. C., Sun, H. Y. & Lau, A. K. W. The impact of innovation management techniques on
product innovation performance: An empirical study. 2010 Singapore. 432-437.
Chiesa, V. & Masella, C. 1996. Searching for an effective measure of R&D performance. Man-
agement Decision, 34, 49 - 57.
D'alvano, L. & Hidalgo, A. 2012. Innovation management techniques and development degree of
innovation process in service organizations. R and D Management, 42, 60-70.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION 2000. Promoting innovation management techniques in Europe.
Galanakis, K. 2006. Innovation process. Make sense using systems thinking. Technovation, 26,
1222-1232.
Graner, M. & Miler-Behr, M. 2012. The use of methods in new product development-A review
of empirical literature. International Journal of Product Development, 16, 158-184.
Hidalgo, A. & Albors, J. 2008. Innovation management techniques and tools: a review from the-
ory and practice. R&D Management, 38, 113-127.
Huang, F. & Rice, J. 2012. Openness in product and process innovation. International Journal of
Innovation Management, 16.
Igartua, J. I., Garrigs, J. A. & Hervas-Oliver, J. L. 2010. How innovation management tech-
niques support an open innovation strategy. Research Technology Management, 53, 41-52.
Lichtenthaler, U. 2011. Implementation Steps For Successful Out-Licensing. Research-
Technology Management, 54, 47-53.
Mancebo Fernndez, N. R. & Valls Pasola, J. 2005. El comportamiento innovador de la empresa
industrial. Un modelo de anlisis a partir de la encuesta del INE.
Mcdermott, C. M. & O'connor, G. C. 2002. Managing radical innovation: An overview of emer-
gent strategy issues. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 19, 424-438.
O'regan, N., Ghobadian, A. & Sims, M. 2006. Fast tracking innovation in manufacturing SMEs.
Technovation, 26, 251-261.
Padilla-Melndez, A. & Garrido-Moreno, A. 2012. Open innovation in universities: What moti-
vates researchers to engage in knowledge transfer exchanges? International Journal of Entre-
preneurial Behaviour and Research, 18, 417-439.
Phaal, R., Farrukh, C. & Probert, D. 2006a. Technology management tools: generalization, inte-
gration and configuration. International Journal of Innovation & Technology Management, 3,
321-339.
40
Phaal, R., Farrukh, C. J. P. & Probert, D. R. 2006b. Technology management tools: concept, de-
velopment and application. Technovation, 26, 336-344.
Prajogo, D. I. & Ahmed, P. K. 2006. Relationships between innovation stimulus, innovation ca-
pacity, and innovation performance. R&D Management, 36, 499-515.
Raymond, L. & St-Pierre, J. 2010. R&D as a determinant of innovation in manufacturing SMEs:
An attempt at empirical clarification. Technovation, 30, 48-56.
Rigby, D. & Bilodeau, B. 2007. Management Tools and Trends 2007. Bain & Company.
Tipu, S. A. A. 2012. Open innovation process in developing-country manufacturing organisa-
tions: Extending the Stage-Gate model. International Journal of Business Innovation and Re-
search, 6, 355-378.
41
An Empirical Analysis of the Spanish Gas Price

Structure
Cansado P1, Rodrguez Monroy C2
Abstract We can say without hesitation that in energy markets a throughout data
analysis is crucial when designing sophisticated models that are able to capture
most of the critical market drivers. In this study we will attempt to investigate into
Spanish natural gas prices structure to improve understanding of the role they play
in the determination of electricity prices and decide in the future about price mod-
elling aspects. To further understand the potential for modelling, this study will
focus on the nature and characteristics of the different gas price data available.
The fact that the existing gas market in Spain does not incorporate enough liquidi-
ty of trade makes it even more critical to analyze in detail available gas price data
information that in the end will provide relevant information to understand how
electricity prices are affected by natural gas markets. In this sense representative
Spanish gas prices are typically difficult to explore given the fact that there is not
a transparent gas market yet and all the gas imported in the country is negotiated
and purchased by private companies at confidential terms.
Keywords: Natural Gas, Gas Price, Oil Indexation, CCGT, Spark Spread.
1 Introduction
Probably the most visible link between gas and electricity prices is found when
analyzing operations by gas-fired power generation plants (CCGTs). In this re-
spect, for a CCGT the decision to generate electricity or not, will depend on the
spark spread, i.e. the difference between the cost of gas generating an extra
MWh of electricity and the revenue obtained from the sale of electricity at the
System Marginal Price (SMP). As we said, the report aims primarily to provide a
1Pablo Cansado Bravo ( e-mail: pablo.cansado@yahoo.es)

Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales de Madrid.
2Carlos Rodrguez Monroy ( e-mail: crmonroy@etsii.upm.es)
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. c/ Jos Gutirrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid.
42
detailed analysis of the available gas price references to understand and quantify
the essential features applying to the Spanish gas and electricity markets
2 Gas Pricing Fundamentals in Spain.
Perhaps the most crucial factor having a strong influence on the existing long term
contract gas prices in Spain, is the fact that the majority of those gas contracts
prices are determined by a formula referenced to oil and oil products evolution.
Moreover long term contracts are confidential by nature and therefore a precise
determination of wholesale gas prices is opaque. Not only are most contracts con-
fidential, but contracts are often limited to two or three years in length, and have
been struck at very different prices over time. As a result the average gas price
normally quoted as a reference is often significantly different from the current
contracts available in the market.
Additionally to the long-term purchasing strategy, Spanish traders actively seek
short term optimization opportunities which bring incoming gas of another nature,
named spot LNG. This opportunistic gas supply is normally priced with reference
to other benchmarks different from oil and oil products like National Balancing
Point (NBP), Transfer and Title Facility (TTF) or even to the recently devised
LNG spot indices.
Although a detailed analysis of Spanish natural gas price influencing factors is
far from the scope of this report, we will analyse those gas price formation drivers
through the resulting price structure. Furthermore this will help us to better under-
stand which would be the best option to analyze potential for forecasting gas and
electricity prices in the future.
The fact that gas coming into Spain is generally delivered through long-term
agreements, this structure covering at least 94% of the total expected annual de-
mand as of 2011 according to the Comisin Nacional de la Energa (CNE), creates
a solid framework to assess the Spanish gas price contracting structure. Moreover
a high proportion of these contracts use Brent oil and oil products as base price
reference for buyers and sellers.
It has to be said that, establishing a reference for end-user gas prices is also dif-
ficult. In the first place, the liberalization process in the gas market has significant-
ly widened up the range of gas suppliers in the country adding a certain variety of
gas price formulas and price levels. Furthermore the traditional regulated, i.e.
fixed price reference applicable to specific customers is today only a residual
share of the total gas market, i.e. the Last Resort Tariff (LRT) scheme for small
customers that sets a price benchmark only relative to the actual volumes sold in
that segment, around 20% of total volumes sold. Nonetheless the Ministrys pro-
cedures to establish a transparent LRT price formation scheme has helped substan-
tially to determine fundamentals of imported price, as we will see.
43
3 Gas Price Data Available in Spain
In order to perform the analysis, we have examined the main information pub-
lished ready available in Spain for wholesale gas prices, of which perhaps the
most relevant today is that collected by the CNE, directly processed from import-
ed gas price data by origin from Agencia Tributaria (AEAT) in www.AEAT.es,
similar to the information that AEAT provides to all Spanish Cmaras de Comer-
cio and that is available through the Comercio Exterior Data Base in
http://aduanas.camaras.org/ web site. We will nominate this reference as CNE_AT
gas price.
As the second gas price reference for Spanish import prices we will select the
base price benchmark described in the Last Resort Tariff (LRT) calculation meth-
odology developed by the Ministry of Industry in 2008 with the intention to reflect
existing long term contract prices into Spain for LRT calculation purposes. The
benefit of this price reference is that it gives in our view a very accurate represen-
tation of larger import volumes prices into Spain but also of expected oil-indexed
average price trends in the future, at least for the next four or five years. In this
sense we anticipate a significant alignment between the current cost of long-term
supplies into Spain (as per the CNE_AT gas price) and the LRT base price.
It has to be said that additionally, the LRT Ministrys calculation weights this
long term base gas price with gas prices resulting from regular auctions and also
with a percentage of NBP and Henry Hub (HH) prices. The introduction of exter-
nal price benchmarks into the resulting price formula had initially the intention to
take into account regular LNG spot purchases by traders at a liquid hub price. The
actual weighting determined by the Ministry is in our opinion somehow mislead-
ing as it does not consider that liquid markets, like NBP and HH do also structur-
ally fluctuate according to medium term supply/demand conditions. At this point
in time and with the depressing effect of shale gas production significantly lower-
ing HH index, we understand that a resulting weighted average of 80% LRT price
and 20% NBP price to construct a final LRT proxy price is more realistic. This
will be our second gas price reference.
Finally and in order to complete the picture we have also considered in the
analysis the NBP price benchmark to reflect trends and seasonality of global LNG
spot prices as a whole affecting Spanish traders price expectations under the cur-
rent market conditions.
44
4 Distribution Function of Spanish natural gas prices.
4.1 Objective
The objective in this section will be to understand the statistical properties of typi-
cal long term gas price benchmarks in Spain to prepare for an ulterior analysis of
effects into electricity prices formation. We start with an analysis of almost eight
years history (01/01/2004-01/07/2012) with price details on a monthly basis by the
different benchmarks, i.e. CNE_AT, LRT proxy and NBP to set up the picture of
wholesale gas price formation in Spain.
The main objective of the analysis will be to conclude on the distribution pat-
terns of the different gas price data as an essential starting point for building up
gas price factors into stochastic models to determine electricity prices in the fu-
ture. Modelling techniques, model testing and acceptance and finding the right pa-
rameters all depend in great extent on the choice of the relevant distribution. Alt-
hough there is a vast amount work devoted to empirical analysis of the properties
of gas price distributions in different markets, the Spanish gas market situation
under the rules of oil-indexed contracts, make the analysis of price distributions a
very challenging task.
Although the opening of the gas market in Spain is prior to 2004, we will con-
sider that a relative more stable picture for trading activities is starting around
2003 and 2004. We will try in the first place to test the hypothesis that log-returns
of these values are normally distributed. We will follow the traditional methodol-
ogy in finance, in particular the BlackScholes model, that considers changes in
the logarithm of energy price indices are assumed normal (these variables behave
like compound interest, not like simple interest, and so are multiplicative.
4.2 Statistical Properties of Spanish Natural Gas Prices
As discussed, we will start by analyzing the statistical properties of the data re-
ferred in previous sections that will allow us to examine the dynamics of the long
term gas price series. At a later stage we will present a model taking into account
previous observations in order to extract as much as possible significant character-
istics of the data. We anticipate that general work done on modelling crude oil and
their volatile will be essential for modelling identification and model selection.
In order to assure that there is not trend component and data are stationary to some
extent, we will analyze dynamics of returns series rather than price series them-
selves. We will calculate for each of the price references log returns as a sequence
of prices S1 as defined by the continuous compounding basis:
45
+1
= ln (1 + R t ) = ln

Here Pt denotes the price of natural gas at time t. In this way we will smooth out
existing trends, i.e., those arising from crude oil price evolution. Furthermore it
will allow us to test the hypothesis that log-returns of these values are normally
distributed in a more convenient form.
Figure 1 presents the history of the gas price benchmarks considered and Fig-
ure 2 returns of LRT Proxy and NBP from January 2004 until July 2012.
Fig. 1 Evolution of different gas price benchmarks and electricity prices since 2004
0,50 0,50
0,25 0,25
0,00 0,00
Jan 11
Jan 04
Jan 05
Jan 06
Jan 07
Jan 08
Jan 09
Jan 10
Jan 12
Jan 04
Jan 05
Jan 06
Jan 07
Jan 08
Jan 09
Jan 10
Jan 12
Jan 11
-0,25 -0,25
-0,50 -0,50
NBP
LRT base (80%)and NBP (20%) proxi
Fig. 2 Evolution of returns from LRT proxy and NBP since 2004
The behaviour of prices and returns in the case of the LRT proxy is unsteady
and although volatility is low compared to that of NBP, there is some evidence of
volatility clustering, i.e. periods of high volatility followed by periods of relatively
low volatility, what seems to be in line with typical crude oil returns characteris-
tics.
46
Figure 3 shows the resulting histogram of long term gas price benchmarks log-
returns. In the tables attached we can see the statistical parameters determining
each function characteristics.
LRT Proxy
10 Number Observations 101
8 Minimum -0,180
Density
Maximum 0,145
6
First Quartile -0,007
4 Median 0,015
2 Third Quartile 0,037
0 Average 0,008
Variance (n-1) 0,003
-0,25 -0,15 -0,05 0,05 0,15 0,25 Standard Deviation (n-1) 0,051
Var1 Skewness (Pearson) -1,084
Kurtosis (Pearson) 2,321
Var1 Normal(0,008;0,051)
CNE
Number Observations 101
Minimum -0,189
10
Maximum 0,122
Density
First Quartile -0,007

Median 0,016
5
Third Quartile 0,031
Average 0,010
0 Variance (n-1) 0,003
Standard Deviation (n-1) 0,051
-0,25 -0,15 -0,05 0,05 0,15
Skewness (Pearson) -1,076
Var1 Kurtosis (Pearson) 3,486
Var1 Normal(0,010;0,050)
Fig 3 Distribution functions of log-returns for LRT proxy and CNE data.
Kurtosis is greater than 3 for CNE price and around 2.5 for LRT Proxy, thus
density functions are characterized by the fatness of their tails comparing to the
density of the Gaussian distribution N(0,1) As it can be seen higher kurtosis
distribution have a sharper peak around the mean and longer, fatter tails, while
a low kurtosis distribution has a more rounded peak and shorter, thinner tails.
For Normal distributions excess kurtosis is cero. We can also say that this is an
indication of infrequent extreme deviations, as opposed to frequent modestly
sized deviations.
Coefficient of skewness is negative for prices of CNE and LRT Proxy indicat-
ing that there is an asymmetry of the probability distribution, namely data are
left skewed, i.e. left tail is longer and the mass of the distribution is concentrat-
ed on the right of the figure an indication that the market gives higher probabil-
ity to decreases than to increases in prices.
47
4.3 Test of Normality
In order to have a clearer picture of the nature of current distribution functions of

gas prices in Spain we will use a formal test of normality to provide the founda-
tion to accept o reject the normality distribution of the various functions being an-
alyzed. This material will be used to better assess hypothesis embedded into ener-
gy models.
To do this, we will be using the frequently used Jarque-Bera (JB) test as it is
possibly the most powerful test when a large number of observations is given.
The JB test uses the following statistic:
2 ( 3)2
= [ + ]
6 24
Where S and K are skewness and kurtosis respectively, i.e. the third and fourth
moments of the variance. For normal distributions S= 0 and K=3 and hence JB=0.
If the JB statistic is sufficiently large, i.e. greater than 6 at 5% significance level,
the null hypothesis is rejected.
The test interpretation is as follows:
H0: The variable distribution from which the sample was taken, follows a
Normal distribution.
H1: The variable distribution from which the sample was taken, does not fol-
low a Normal distribution.
As for both CNE_AT and LRT distributions the p value is higher than the one
at significance level of alpha=0.05, then the null hypothesis H0 needs to be reject-
ed and H1 accepted.
The results for CNE_AT, LRT proxy, NBP and SMP are shown below.
Table 1 Jarque-Bera test of normality.

LRT CNE
JB (Observed value) 42,446 JB (Observed value) 70,607
JB (Critical value) 5,991 JB (Critical value) 5,991
GDL 2 GDL 2
p-valor < 0,0001 p-valor < 0,0001
alfa 0,05 alfa 0,05
NBP SMP
JB (Observed value) 3,157 JB (Observed value) 0,514
JB (Critical value) 5,991 JB (Critical value) 5,991
GDL 2 GDL 2
p-valor 0,206 p-valor 0,773
alfa 0,05 alfa 0,05
In view of the results and as expected, we can conclude that both oil-indexed
distributions, i.e. LRT proxy and CNE, cannot be regarded as Normal distribu-
48
tions. Interestingly, both the NBP gas price distribution and the SMP function can
be accepted as following a Normal distribution reflecting a more variable pattern
typical from true liberalized and liquid markets.
This reveals in our understanding that although the oil-gas price link is possibly
the main determinant of electricity prices in Spain, its aggregated distribution
function is far from normal and therefore assuming normality for further price
modelling would be wrong. This is a result to be expected somehow as the process
of oil-indexed gas price formation is determined by a rigid set of oil and oil prod-
ucts linked formulas with little room for gas market driven price variations. It
has to be noted that on the contrary, NBP prices do reflect much better the true
fundamentals of a very liquid and deep gas market in which oil-indexed gas con-
tracts do not have until now a significant effect on resulting hub prices. Unfortu-
nately NBP price benchmark is not really a good proxy for the Spanish wholesale
price.
From this analysis it is also interesting to point out that the rigid structure of
oil-indexed gas contracts in Spain, as per analysis of LRT and CNE distributions,
show that there seems to be very little impact of liquid hub prices into the formal
Spanish gas price formation mechanisms. This result should be expected in a con-
text of last years low demand and structural oversupply conditions of Spanish
traders.
5 References
Balanda KP and MacGillivray HL (1988) Kurtosis: A critical Review Am. Stat. 111-119.
Black, Fischer and Myron Scholes, (1973) The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities,
Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 81, No. 3, (May/June 1973), pp. 637654.
Capitn Herriz,A and Rodrguez Monroy C. (2013) Analysis of the traded volume drivers of the
Iberian power futures market. Electrical power. Vol 44, p. 431-440, Jan 2013.
Capitn Herriz,A and Rodrguez Monroy C. (2012) Evaluation of the trading development in
the Iberian Energy Derivatives Market .EP, Vol.51, p.973-984, Dec 2012.
CNE. Informe mensual de supervisin del mercado mayorista de gas. June 2012.
Darlington, Richard B. (1970), "Is Kurtosis Really 'Peakedness'?", The American Statistician,
24:2, pp. 1922.
Eydeland A and Kzysztof W (2003) Energy and power risk management.. John Wiley.
Garca-Martos C. (2013).Modelling and forecasting fossil fuels, CO 2 and electricity prices and
their volatilities Applied Energy 101,p.363-375, Jan 2013.
Gileva T. (2010) Econometrics of Crude Oil Markets. Univertity Paris I Sorbone.
Hamilton James D.(2008) Short-term predictability of crude oil markets: A detrended fluctuation
analysis approach. National Bureau of Economic research.
Hull J. (2012)Options, Futures and Other Derivatives.. Pearson 8th Edition 2012.
Helyette G. (2008). Risk Management in Commodity Markets. Wiley.
E.,Rockinger M. (2000) Conditional Volatilty, Skewness and Kurtosis. Existence and Perver-
sion.HEC School OF Management.
Morgan Stanley Research. (2011). Global Gas. A decade in two halves. Morgan Stanley Blue
Paper. March 2011.
49
Capabilities Generation Mechanisms in

Alliances. Case Based Analysis
Morcillo Bellido J1, Duran Heras A2
Abstract This study aims to identify mechanisms used by three large companies
(Cisco, Philips and Eli Lilly) - leaders in their respective industries- to develop
their alliance capabilities as a key competitive tool. Alliance capability develop-
ment allows them to get successfully involved in a higher number of alliances; it is
being used by these companies to become more agile and competitive in the mar-
ket. This study attempts to infer a set of Best Practices on alliance management.
Keywords: Alliances Capabilities Development, Alliances Mechanisms, Allianc-

es.
1 Introduction
The use of alliances as a strategic priority in most dynamic companies has in-
creased during the last decades (Kale et al, 2009). Although the crisis has led to a
significant deterioration in the economic activity within Europe and the United
States, the interest in alliances has not ceased to grow; it is one of the practices al-
lowing companies to carry out innovative projects in many areas and increasing
companies sustainability (Shymko and Diaz, 2012). For instance, new projects de-
veloped to improve energy management by applying collaboration models be-
tween companies to significantly reduce energy costs (Hansen, 2009) through en-
ergy process management integration between a company and its dedicated
specialized supplier. Collaboration between organizations is not new phenomenon,
1JessMorcillo Bellido ( e-mail: morcillo@ing.uc3m.es)

Escuela Politcnica Superior. rea de Ingeniera de Organizacin. Universidad Carlos III de
Madrid. Avenida de la Universidad n 30, 28911 Legans (Madrid)
2Alfonso Durn Heras ( e-mail: duran@ing.uc3m.es)
50
but it is since the 1980s that accelerated development of the different types of re-
lationships that we consider alliances, grew faster.
Factors such as: i) market globalization and technological development (Porter
and Fuller, 1986), ii) the need to fulfill new customer requirements (Ohmae,
1989), iii) difficulties in being competitive on the entire organization value chain
(Garca Ochoa, 2003) and iv) also relevant, scarcity and limited access to re-
sources (Williamson, 1985; Cobianchi, 1994) are main launching factors for fast
alliance growth. Spanish economy has not been an exception in this growing alli-
ance relevance as shown in the studies by Menguzzato (1992), Casani (1995),
Garcia Canal et al (1998), Rialp and Rialp (1996) and Garca-Ochoa (2012).
However, studies show that between 30% to 70% alliances fail (Bamford et al,
2004); in other words, they do not achieve objectives they were created for and
authors like Das and Kumar (2011) have tried to understand root causes.
2 Methodology
In the current business environment, alliances are a valuable tool, widely used to
improve competitiveness. However they have a very significant failure rate.
It is thus particularly relevant to study cases involving companies that have de-
veloped a successful way to manage alliances and whose strategy is supported
by a large amount of these relations, most of them successful. The objective is to
identify the mechanisms underlying their alliance management, in such a way that
it may be possible to induce and propose some specific practices leading to a
higher success rate in alliances. However, their eventual adoption by other com-
panies would require a specific analysis of their suitability for their specific cir-
cumstances and the most suitable process of adaptation/dissemination (Duran et
al, 1998)
Case studies, according to Eisenhardt (1989) and Rialp (1998), are adecuate for
aspects that have to do with strategic corporate governance decisions. In fact, Yin
advises to use cases where there are not obvious limits between the context and
the phenomenon to be observed (1994). Since this paper describes the initial pro-
spective phase of a wider research the case-based approach is particularly appro-
priate.
Therefore, this study is based on the detailed analysis of alliance management
mechanisms on three cases: Philips, Cisco, and Eli Lilly. All three companies are
leaders in their respective sectors and are working on numerous alliances, which
they consider as a pillar of their strategy. They have achieved notable success in
this area. Therefore, determining the mechanisms they use may be highly valua-
ble, considering its potential application to other companies.
51
The study of these cases combines direct involvement in some of the projects
being analyzed (action research) (Coghlan and Coughlan, 2008), with personal in-
terviews and detailed review of the published information.
3 Alliance Capability Development
To some authors, alliance capabilities are skills developed to lead them (Draulans
et al, 1999) and are based on knowledge and experience accumulation system
which converts them into rules and formal procedures. According to Kale et al
(2002), alliance capabilities are defined as mechanisms or routines designed to ac-
cumulate, integrate and disseminate relevant information from current alliances to
improve efficiency and success of the future partnerships. For Draulans et al
(2003), those capabilities are defined as the generation of structures within an or-
ganization that establishing objectives, plan, control and evaluate each alliance, so
that future alliances can be improved based on previous experiences.
A study conducted by De Man (2005) - based on 1,390 companies both Ameri-
can and European - concludes that there were some very specific features in com-
panies with the highest level of success in alliances, as indicated in Fig 1:
Companies with higher success on alliances are those with an alliance capability
development system implemented (more than 20 points difference)
Formal alliance management systems is more frequently used in American than

in European companies
More innovative companies (like Cisco, Microsoft and Sun) have implemented an
alliance management formal structure as a part of their organization
Fig 1 Characteristics of successful companies regarding alliances. Source: De Man (2005)
For this author, the comparison between American and European companies
leads to the conclusion that the first ones are more successful as a result of the
availability of formal systems on alliance capability development.
52
4 Philips, Eli Lilly and Cisco Case Studies
It is worth highlighting the important number of alliances developed by the three

companies considered in this study. According to De Man (2005), just in the peri-
od 1998-2002, they carried out: Philips (61), Cisco (56) and Eli Lilly (40). Philips
entered into alliances with companies as diverse as those indicated in Table 2:
Table 1 Philips alliances examples.
Partner Alliance
ASML Semi-conductors for innovative applications/products
LG Electronics Joint venture to develop LCD technology
Nike Sportive range of products
Douwe Egberg Coffee machines (new range)
Beiersdorf (Nivea) New electric shaver range
TPV Joint venture for television integral business
Source: compiled by authors
An analysis of the wide range of alliances set up by this company shows that
alliances encompass most of its value chain, from new product development until
searching for partners to enter into new markets or alliances to reduce its exposure
to low profit businesses.
An example of this would be its joint venture with the Chinese company TPV
on television sets, where both have contributed with their assets and human teams
- Philips also provided the brand - with the common goal of achieving a higher
profitability through a very efficient approach in a very competitive market. Both
are convinced that results will be better than acting independently, as they did in
the past.
In 2003, Philips decided to create its Corporate Alliances Office with the aim
of achieving a more efficient management in order to improve alliance results.
With this purpose, three levels of alliances were identified: corporate, strategic
and business unit alliances, depending on the magnitude and impact in the organi-
zation. Thus, a strategic alliance involves several business units while a business
unit alliance involves only one specific business within the whole organization,
leaving the other business units unaffected. Those considered as corporate allianc-
es involve the whole company.
Corporate Office was created to support all types of alliances; it takes an execu-
tive role in those which are considered as strategic and corporate. When the com-
pany decides to enter into an alliance, a specific team is appointed and involved
from the very beginning. This team coordinates all the contacts between organiza-
tion and partner - or partners in the alliance. Among others, its main activities
are: i) to select the right partner, ii) initiate contacts for assessing the interest on
53
the deal by the partner, iii) formalize agreements, iv) appoint the head of the team,
v) support and control the alliance.
Alliances are so relevant to the company that the Corporate Office reports to a
member of the Board of Management. For each alliance, a full time coordinator is
appointed, who leads a team of specialists including people from all business areas
related to the alliance activity. As for the case of Eli Lilly, a leader in innovation
in the pharmaceutical area, the company itself indicates that a large part of its suc-
cess is based on their alliances, having helped to improve their competitiveness
through lower development and research costs and having shorter and faster de-
velopment cycles than the competition. As in the case of Philips, they carried out
alliances with organizations all around the world. Table 2 shows some alliances
which are particularly relevant for Eli Lilly:
Table 2 Some Eli Lilly alliances.
Partner Alliance
Research Group, Toronto University Insuline (initial product)
Genentech inc. New insuline (humalog)
Takeda Chemical Industries Pioglitazone
Alkermes Inc. Inhaled insuline
UK National Research and Development Council Antibiotics
In order to efficiently manage alliances, Eli Lilly had decided to create its Part-
nerships Office in 1999, which is proactively in charge of: i) identifying areas in
which alliances could be desirable, always in close cooperation with the people di-
rectly responsible to the specific business unit within the company, ii) finding po-
tential partners with high strategic and cultural fit (versus Eli Lilly), iii) develop-
ing agreements iv) monitoring results and taking corrective actions, if needed.
This alliance process is supported by certain tools:
3D analysis: a tool used to analyze compatibility with potential partners
through three pillars: partner strategic focus, working practices and cultural fit.
Comprehensive analysis of the alliance: many items are analyzed and dis-
cussed, with the future partner, mainly those having relevance in the future re-
lationship, ranging from the operating procedures to who takes decisions on
each issue.
Strategic analysis of the future alliance (supported by a specific tool): devel-
ops key alliance strategic plans, identifies predictable obstacles and establishes
rules that will govern solutions to problems - or conflicts- in the future
Voice of the alliance (VOA): this tool audits periodically the alliance situa-
tion adjusting any deviations and realigning it towards its objectives
54
The primary objective of all this is to increase the likelihood of success on each
alliance, reducing the risks that occur both in the start-up phase and in the day to
day alliances management. All of the above tools, plus others, have been integrat-
ed into a capabilities management model called LAMP (Lilly Alliances Manage-
ment Process). Eli Lilly believes that systematization is necessary for partnership
improvement and that these management principles can be applied in all kinds of
agreements, from those with large pharmaceutical companies to those carried out
with small biotechnology companies.
According to Eli Lillys director for alliances, most alliances fail because they
involve a lot of people from two or more organizations, with different experiences
and expectations, which tend to interpret agreements/objectives and the way to
achieve them in a very different way. Eli Lilly considers that only a highly struc-
tured organization can handle a virtual scientific collaborators network comprising
hundreds of people around the world.
To avoid these problems, Eli Lilly has clearly set out functions and responsibil-
ities within the alliances, as shown in Table 3:
Table 3 Functions on Eli Lilly alliances.
Function Responsabilities
Global Alliance leader Manager, from any of partners, with a results improvement target
Functional leader Specialized people to work on specific areas
Alliance Director Manager acting as supervisor and alliance lawyer, reporting to
Alliance Office
With regard to Cisco case study, as the company itself indicates, collaborative
services provide to their customers a wide range of excellent services, combining
Ciscos know-how with their partners strengths and resources. Customers benefit
from a wide alliances network, all under Ciscos coordination and control.
The main argument Cisco uses in support of for this approach is its business vi-
sion of extended enterprise or supply chain network. It argues that final results
achieved in a specific project depend, not only on the companys resources, but al-
so on those from customers and suppliers.
Cisco therefore believes that its competitive advantage is strongly based on its
ability to build up teams that collaborate as an extended enterprise in an efficient
manner thus solving their customers needs.
This new paradigm is allowing Cisco to develop - for its clients- strategic tech-
nology projects related to IT and communications integration. In the past, these
areas were independently managed and now, in Cisco's view, they should be inte-
grated with the aim of improving the productivity and reducing costs.
Among its strategic partners, some significant alliances are indicated in Table
4:
55
Table 4 Some references of Cisco alliances.
Partner Alliance
Accenture Accenture Cisco Business Group, to develop process engineer-
ing turn-key projects. It can include sub-contracting solutions
IBM Integrated solutions for specific sectors as financial services
and telemedicine
Microsoft Security, mobility and unified communications projects
Accenture & Personeta Joint venture to offer added value services to communications
companies
According to Cisco, no competitor is currently able to offer a range of solutions

as broad and complete as them, because they have made alliances with the best
partners in the market, thus establishing a competitive edge over the rest.
The company has established a top level organization (lead by Alliance Vice-
President), who has the mission to identify, organize, manage and control all type
of alliances.
To carry out its daily work, Cisco set up as many multidisciplinary teams as ex-
isting partnerships. Those teams, supervised by the Alliance Director, work in-
tensely on each project ensuring performance and identifying deviations, conflicts
or risk areas. These teams are specifically trained on alliance management tech-
niques and count on support from the central alliances group. Who supervises,
supports and controls the set of projects
5 Conclusions
The three companies have established a structure within their own organizations
whose specific mission is to identify, evaluate, negotiate, manage and control cur-
rent and future alliances. Their objectives are fully aligned with the business and
their results are evaluated according to the success of their partnerships.
This structure reports to top management and has broad responsibilities in alli-
ance management, from identification of alliance needs - along with the responsi-
ble person from the related business area - until its implementation and results
monitoring during the alliance life cycle.
The three companies have developed, with small differences probably attribut-
able to their own corporate culture, a set of procedures and activities that have
proved their added value in alliance generation and management. In addition the
structure has been endowed with a strict process control system.
Whenever an alliance opportunity is identified, it is evaluated by the above-
mentioned structure and when feasible - if it fits the strategy and culture of the
company- negotiation process is started with the potential partner.
56
The three companies have developed a mechanism that supports alliance capa-
bility development. This is a fundamental pillar to manage the important number
of alliances they successfully execute.
This is the usual way of working in all these three companies, allowing them to
carry out alliances without requiring an additional effort, which may stress the or-
ganization and distract organic business resources.
The remarkable parallelism and similarity observed in the approach adopted for
alliance management by the three companies analyzed, selected as Best of
Breed in their respective sectors and specifically in alliance development, sug-
gests that the common practices described here could be considered as Best Prac-
tices in this area. They could therefore be potential candidates for adoption by oth-
ers firms, however companies considering adopting them should carefully assess
their fit with their specific characteristics and circumstances.
6 References
Bamford J, Gomes-Casseres B, Robinson M (2004). Envisioning collaborating: Mastering alli-

ances strategies. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Casani F (1995). Una aproximacin emprica a la cooperacin inter-empresarial en Espaa, In-
formacin Comercial Espaola. Revista de Economa, octubre, n 746, pp. 104-117
Cobianchi T T (1994). Relationships among strategic alliance factors and strategic alliance suc-
cess. UMI Dissertation Service
Coghlan D, Coughlan P (2008). Action Learning and Action Research (ALAR): A Methodologi-
cal Integration in Inter-Organizational Setting. Systemic Practice & Action Research, vol. 21,
n 21, pp. 97-104
Das TK, Kumar R (2011). Regulatory Focus and Opportunism in the Alliance Development Pro-
cess. Journal of Management, vol. 37, n 3, May 2011, pp. 682-708
De Man A (2005). Alliance capability. Comparison of alliance strengths of european and ameri-
can companies. European Management Journal Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 315323
Draulans J, de Man A, Volberda H W (1999). Alliances: searching a different way, Benelux
Management Review, n 63 pp. 52-83
Durn A, De Mora C, Peire J, Castro M (1998) Diffusion of Information Technology Manage-
ment Capabilities in Global Business: a Comparison of Intra-and Inter-Company Experienc-
es. 4th World Conference International Federation of Scholarly associations of Management
(IFSAM).
Eisenhardt K M (1989). Building theories from case research. Academy of Management Review,
vol. 14, n 4, pp. 532-550.
Garca Canal E, Lpez Duarte C, Rialp Criado J, Valds Llaneza A (1998). Las estrategias de
cooperacin como medio de internacionalizacin. Experiencias de las empresas espaolas.
Barcelona: Ed. Del Centro de Economa Industrial.
Garca-Ochoa y Mayor M (2003). Estrategia competitiva y tipos de alianzas entre empresas, XIII
Congreso Nacional de ACEDE, Salamanca.
Garca Ochoa y Mayor M. (2010). Estudio emprico de la cooperacin empresarial en Espaa.
Direccin y Organizacin n 27, febrero 2012, pp. 139-147
Hansen, S (2009). ESCOs around the World. The Fairmont Press
57
Jimnez P y Snchez J D (2005). Tendencias de cooperacin en sectores maduros: el caso del

sector agroalimentario espaol. Ecos de Economa, n 20, pp. 50-92.
Kale P, Dyer J H, Singh H (2002). Alliance capability, stock market response and long term al-
liance success: the role of the alliance function. Strategic Management Journal, vol. 23, n 8,
pp. 747-767
Kale P, Singh H, Bell J (2009). Relating well: Building capabilities for sustaining Alliance net-
works. P Kleindorfer & Y Wind Eds., The network challenge: Strategies for managing the
new interlinked enterprise. Pearson Press, London
Menguzzato M (1992). La cooperacin: Una alternativa para la empresa de los 90.Revista de Di-
reccin y Organizacin, n 4, pp. 54-62
Ohmae K (1989): The global logic of strategic alliances. Harvard Business Review, March-April
Porter M E, Fuller M B (1986). Coalitions and global strateg. En M. E. Porter /Ed. Competition
in Global Industries. Harvard Business School Press.
Rialp A (1998). El mtodo del caso como tcnica de investigacin y su aplicacin al estudio de
la funcin directiva. IV Taller de Metodologa. Sesin: Tcnicas de la Investigacin Cualita-
tivas. Anlisis de casos. La Rioja
Williamsson O E (1985). The economic institutions of capitalism: firms, markets, relational con-
tracting. Nueva York: Free Press
Shymko Y, Diaz A (2012). A resource dependence, social network and contingency model of
sustainability in supply chain alliances. Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 5, n 5, pp. 502-520
Yin R K (1994). Case study research: design and methods. Berverly Hill, Sage.
58
Best Practices in Sustainable Supply Chain

Management: A Literature Review
Mejas A.M1, Pardo J.E2
Abstract On the basis of a content analysis, this paper explores the evolution of
the best practices from the traditional approach of cost efficiency in the supply
chain management to the current context of sustainability. In this sense, the paper
shows a comprehensive review of the best practices that supply managers will
need to engage in to crease a sustainable supply chain. Our analysis suggest that
the practices that lead to a more sustainable supply chain management are equal
parts best practices in traditional supply chain management or slight modifications
of existing practices and innovative practices.
Keywords: Best Practices, Literature Review, Logistics, Sustainable Supply

Chain Management (SSCM).
1 Introduction
As the new economic order unfolded, people recognized that profits and profita-
bility were only one element in the long-term success of companies and the econ-
omies. Also important are the future of people and the future of planet Earth
(Kleindorfer et al., 2005). These new legitimacy concerns are captured in
measures as the triple bottom line. According to Carter ad Rogers (2008), the tri-
ple bottom line suggest that at the intersection of social, environmental and eco-
nomic performance, there are activities that organizations can engage in which not
1Ana M Mejas Sacaluga ( e-mail: mejias@uvigo.es)

Grupo OSIG. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas y Marketing. Escuela de Ingeniera Industrial.
Universidad de Vigo. C/Maxwell 9, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, 36310 Vigo.
2JuanE. Pardo Frojn ( e-mail: jpardo@uvigo.es)
59
only positively affect the natural environment and society, but which also result in
long-term economic benefits and competitive advantage for the firm.
Those new trends of thinking suffered a great development in more recent
times. It was in the past decade of 2000 when concepts of Corporate Social Re-
sponsibility (CSR), Green or Sustainability and Supply Chain Management (SCM)
began to be dealt with a joint way in literature. In this paper, the term sustainabil-
ity (sometimes only green) is used as a synonym for corporate social responsi-
bility (Stokes and Harris, 2012). According with Seuring and Mller (2008), we
define sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) as the management of ma-
terial, information and capital flows as well as cooperation among companies
along the supply chain while taking goals from all three dimensions of sustainable
development (economic, environmental and social) into account which are derived
from customer and stakeholder requirements.
However, although the literature of SSCM has been evolving fast, the most of
the companies are still searching for the best way to implement sustainability prin-
ciples into their supply chain. Likewise, Andersen and Skjoett-Larsen (2009) point
out that despite many multinational corporations efforts to implement social and
environmental issues in their supply chains, a gap exists between the theoretical
application of sustainability in SCM in theory and the implementation in practice.
For other authors (Gold et al., 2010), the literature on SSCM is still limited, fo-
cused on the study of the concrete fields (for example, the research is very limited
on exploring the social dimension of sustainability), and scant in literature re-
views.
In this context, and taking into account that the question for companies has be-
come not whether to commit to a strong environmental, health and safety record,
but how to do so in the most cost-effective manner (Kleindorfer et al., 2005), the
aim of his paper is to explore the evolution of the best practices from the tradition-
al approach of efficiency in the SCM to the current context of sustainability. This
paper conducts a comprehensive literature review from a holistic perspective, in-
tegrating the triple bottom line with all the logistics activities along the SC: pur-
chasing, production, warehouse and transportation and reverse logistics.
2 Methodology
A literature review is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible design for identify-

ing, evaluating, and interpreting the existing body of recorded documents (Fink,
2005). Literature reviews usually aim at two objectives: first, they summarize ex-
isting research by identifying patterns, themes and issues; second, they may con-
stitute and initial step in the theory development process (Meredith, 1993).
From a methodological point of view, literature reviews can be comprehended
as content analysis. Content analysis is a method for the objective, systematic,
60
quantitative and reliable study of published information, i.e. a suitable method for
comprehensive literature reviews (Pasukeviciute and Roe, 2005). A process mod-
el for a content analysis is described in four steps (Seuring and Mller, 2008):
Material collection: the material to be collected is defined and delimitated.
Descriptive analysis: formal aspects of the material are assessed.
Category selection: structural dimensions and related analytic categories are
selected, which are to be applied to the collected material.
Material evaluation: the material is analyzed according to the structural di-
mensions. This should allow identification of relevant issues and interpretation
of results.
According to Spens and Kovcs (2006), content analysis can be used as an in-
strument for determining key ideas and themes in publications but also, according
with our case, for measuring comparative positions and trends in reporting.
2.1 Sample and Delimitations of the Research
The first step in content analysis is to determine the documents to be analyzed and
the units of analysis. As this literature review aims at study the evolution of best
practices in logistics activities that lead to a more SSCM, we selected logistics-
related journals for the sample. The logistics journals selected are perceived as of
highest quality and represent the state of the art of logistics research (in alphabeti-
cal order): European Journal of Purchasing & Logistics Management, Harvard
Business Review, International Journal of Integrated Supply Management, Inter-
national Journal of Logistics Management, International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logis-
tics Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International
Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Clean-
er Production, Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations
Management, Purchasing and Supply Management, Supply Chain Management:
an International Journal, Transportation & Distribution and other journals.
The time period of the literature review was defined between 1990 and 2011.
After a first quick content check, identified articles were included or excluded
from the analysis. This first phase involved using the preliminary keyword best
practices to guide the research by identifying the papers that explicitly included
that keyword in this title, abstract and/or full text. The papers that did not meet the
practical approach in conducting the literature review were excluded (i.e., mathe-
matical models of SSCM, theoretical approaches related to different organization-
al theories, technical issues minimizing CO2 emissions, -, or case studies fo-
cused in specific fields - energy, oil and gas industry, -).
61
Taken the stated delimitations into account, a total of 105 papers were identi-
fied. The list of revised papers is available on request.
2.2 Categorization in the Coding Scheme
Content analysis builds on a coding scheme that is developed on the basis of a

theoretical framework. In order to derive patterns in the presentation and reporting
of information, content analysis involves the codifying of information into pre-
defined categories (Guthrie et al., 2004).
The second phase of the research involved the application of the keywords
listed below and different combination of them:
Cost (reduction)
Efficiency
Environment (al)
Green
Lean (operations, manufacturing)
Logistics (management, network)
Manufacturing
Operations management
Performance
Production (management)
Purchasing (management)
Reverse logistics (or supply chain)
Social Responsibility
Supplier
Sustainability (or sustainable)
Supply chain management
Transportation
Vendor
Warehouse (management)
3 Frequency Analysis
As we stated before, 105 papers were identified in the literature review in the re-
search period (1990-2011). While 1991 is the first year where papers about tradi-
tional best practices (economic efficiency approach) in Logistics/SCM were
found, the greater number of publications of these practices is found for the time
period between 1995 and 2001. Instead, the greater number of publications of sus-
62
tainable best practices is found since 2006. The distribution of the papers in the re-
search period is shown in Figures 1 and 2.
4 Best Practices: from Cost Efficiency to Sustainability
As a result of the content analysis, the best practices identified were classified into
two broad categories: traditional (economic efficiency point of view) and sustain-
able. Then, for each category, the practices were sorted in four subcategories
based on their application: throughout the supply chain, in purchasing manage-
ment, in production management, in warehouse and transportation (W&T) man-
agement and in reverse logistics management.
We show a synthesis of our findings due to reduction reasons. First, we list the
traditional and sustainable best practices with general application throughout the
entire supply chain. Then, we show in Table 1 the evolution of the best practices
for each logistics area, identifying: traditional practices without and with continui-
ty in the context of sustainability (TP-Discontinuity, TP-Continuity), sustainable
practices which are modifications of existing practices (SP-Modification) and in-
novative sustainable practices (SP-Innovation).
This is the list of traditional and sustainable best practices with general applica-
tion:
Traditional practices:
Quality and environmental management systems implementation (under the
international standards ISO 9000, ISO 14000 and Eco-Management and
Audit Scheme of the European Union).
Coordination between buying and supplying organizations.
ICT implementation.
Sustainable practices:
Reporting on different standards (focused on codes of conduct, prod-
uct/process-related or management systems and initiatives).
Collaborative behaviors with suppliers and customers.
Collaborating with nontraditional chain members (NGOs, Competitors,
Trade groups,).
Designing and managing processes to achieve transparency and traceability.
Addressing the governance structure for SSCM.
Benchmarking in sustainability.
In Figures 1 and 2 the frequencies of the two broad categories occurrence are
displayed.
63
Fig. 1 Distribution of papers related to traditional best practices across the research period (Note:
three relevant papers were founded and 1988 and 1989 were added to the research period)
Fig. 2 Distribution of papers related to sustainable best practices across the research period
Table 1 shows the evolution of the best practices for each logistics area.
Table 1 Best practices: from efficiency to sustainability
TP-Discontinuity TP-Continuity SP-Modification SP-Innovation

Purchasing
Supplier requirements Supplier selection Long-term relationships Local suppliers devel-
to reduce cost annually with suppliers opment
Supplier requirements Supplier certification Codes of conduct Reward systems linked
of warehouses to sustainability
Collaborating with sup- Traceability and collab- Transparency and ethics
pliers oration with suppliers in purchasing
Supplier development Ensuring supplier con- Reducing supplier risk
tinuity
64
Table 1 (continued) Best practices: from efficiency to sustainability
TP-Discontinuity TP-Continuity SP-Modification SP-Innovation

Production
Relocation of facilities Just in time operations Sustainable products Environmnetal Conscious
(low labor cost) and process design Design (ECD) and Life-
Cycle Analysis (LCA)
Postponement Closed-Loop SC
Layout optimization Outsourcing
Green manufacturing Source-Reduction and
Waste Management Pollution prevention
and remanufacturing
Lean production
Lean-Green synergies Lean-Green operations
W&T
Inventory reduction
Reduction of the num- Inventory reduction and proper storage of Donation of excess or ob-
ber of warehouses hazardous materials solete inventory
Full truck deliveries Cross-docking Recyclable and reusa- Reverse logistics, mini-
ble packaging and con- mizing traffic and reduc-
tainers ing noise pollution
Intermodal transporta- Clean transporta- Reward systems linked to
tion tion/fuel efficiency sustainability
Efficient delivery Extending JIT/lean ap- Economic+environmental
(standardization in proach to warehouse +safety as a selection cri-
packaging and delivery and transportation teria of for-hire carriers
units, )
Reverse Logistics
Efficient management Just in Time in reverse Redesigning logistics Closed-Loop Supply
of returns logistics networks to accommo- Chains
date returns
Systems of selected ICT as support of RL To integrate the financial
collection of materials value measurement impact of RL strategies
The confluence of the core-competency and process management movements

caused many of the changes in the 1990s. As companies developed their core
competencies and included them in their business processes, the tools and con-
cepts of TQM and JIT, and afterward Lean approach, were applied to developing
new products and managing the supply chain (Kleindorfer et al., 2005). But, the
literature review of the best practices for effective SCM shows that inter-firm
competitive advantage has been mainly focused in profit criteria.
Over the past two decades, increasing pressures from governments, customers
and other stakeholders groups have prompted firms to incorporate sustainability
issues into their SCM schemes. However, these external pressures on a firm only
lead to sustainable supply and production if both the individual firms and the sup-
65
ply chain as a total entity develop the necessary relevant internal resources as pre-
requisites for implementing SSCM (Bowen et al., 2001). In this context, the most
of the companies are still searching for the best way to implement sustainability
principles into their supply chain. Our analysis shows that the practices that lead to
a more SSCM are equal parts best practices in traditional SCM or slight modifica-
tions of existing practices and innovative practices. However, to gain positive re-
sults, the firm must establish management systems and tools that integrate envi-
ronmental, health and safety metrics with other process metrics within the
company and across the SC. In this sense, Rothenberg et al. (2001) examined the
links between lean and green and found some synergies but also found that har-
vesting them is not simple. SCM researches and practitioners are just beginning to
face new challenges in integrating sustainability in their areas of interest.
6 References
Andersen M, Skjoett-Larsen T (2009) Corporate Social Responsibility in global supply chains.

Supply Chain Management: an International Journal, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 75-86
Bowen FE, Cousins PD, Lamming RC, Faruk AC (2001) The role of supply chain management
capabilities in green supply. Production and Operations Management, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 174-
189
Carter CR, Rogers DS (2008) A framework of sustainable supply chain management: moving
toward new theory. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management,
Vol. 38 No. 5, pp. 360-387
Fink A (2005) Conducting research literature reviews: from the internet to paper. Sage, Thou-
sand Oaks
Guthrie J, Petty R, Yongvanich K, Ricceri F (2004) Using content analysis as a research method
to inquire into intellectual capital reporting. Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp.
282-293
Kleindorfer PR, Singhal K, Van Wassenhove LN (2005) Sustainable operations management.
Production and Operations Management, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 482-492
Meredith J (1993) Theory building through conceptual methods. International Journal of Opera-
tions & Production Management, Vol. 13 No. 5, pp. 3-11
Pasukeviciute I, Roe M (2005) Strategic policy and the logistics of crude oil transit in Lithuania.
Energy Policy, Vol. 33 No. 7, pp. 857-866
Rothenberg S, Pil FK, Maxwell J. (2001) Lean, green and the quest for superior performance.
Production and Operations Management, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 228-243.
Seuring S, Mller M (2008) From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sustainable
supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 16, pp. 1699-1710
Spens KM, Kovcs G (2006) A content analysis of research approaches in logistics research. In-
ternational Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp.
374-390
Stokes P, Harris P (2012) Micro-moments, choice and responsibility in sustainable organization-
al change and transformation: the Janus dialectic. Journal of Organizational Change Man-
agement, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 595-611
66
State of the Art of Challenges on International

Operations Management for SMEs
Martnez S1, Mediavilla M, Errasti A, Santos J, Mula J
Abstract In the current global economy, the design and management of global
production and logistics networks has become a crucial issue for all type of com-
panies, especially for Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs). Consequently,
many researches have been done about this topic, but it is not clearly classified or
analyzed in depth. After reviewing the literature, it has been found that the most
important challenges related to global operations configuration and management
are: new facility implementation, global suppliers network development and mul-
ti-site production network configuration. This paper presents the state of the art
grouped by the three main challenges exposed.
Keywords: Facility implementation, suppliers development, multi-site, interna-

tionalization
1 Introduction
Until recently, the focus of Operations Management for SMEs was on domestic
markets or regional areas, i.e. most production processes were performed within
the borders of a country. Although some producers imported their raw materials,
all production and related finishing processes were executed within the same
country. Moreover, the majority of the products were consumed locally, which
meant managers were rarely involved in processes that went outside of their na-
tional borders.
1
Sandra Martnez Migulez ( e-mail:smartinez@tecnun.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas, Tecnun, Universidad de Navarra. Paseo Manuel Lardizabal,
13, 20018 San Sebastin
*This research is being funded by the Ministry of Science and Education of Spain project,
entitled Operations Design and Management in Global Supply Chains (GLOBOP) (Ref.
DPI2012-38061-C02-01).
67
But nowadays, in addition to the multinational companies (MNEs), the SMEs

are also engaging in international production. In this current global economy, with
an increased international presence of all type of organizations in order to take op-
portunities that exist in the markets worldwide, the design and management of
Global Operations Networks (GON) plays a vital role in organizational competi-
tiveness: the GON need to cover multiple regions and cope with higher network
complexity (Shi and Gregory, 1998), connecting markets to global supply and
manufacturing sources beyond any geographical border.
By the examination of the literature we found that the most important challeng-
es related to the GON configuration of the industrial companies (specifically
SMEs) could be summarized in the following three core issues: New facility im-
plementation (Barnes, 2002; Abele et al., 2008; Kinkel and Maloca, 2009; Azeve-
do and Almeida, 2011); global suppliers network development (Leenders et al.,
2002; Van Weele, 2005; Meixell and Gargeya, 2005); and multi-site production
network configuration (Ferdows, 1997a; Vereecke and Van Dierdonck, 2002; Shi
and Gregory, 2005; Vilana and Rodrguez, 2009; Rodrguez and Vilana, 2010;
Feldmann and Olhager, 2010; Mediavilla et al., 2012).
In order to contribute to the literature on the design and management of GON,
this paper will define some core concepts and then will review the literature on in-
ternational operations strategy and management, with a specific focus on the most
important findings and research gaps on the three presented challenges for SMEs.
The paper concludes by highlighting some future research opportunities and con-
clusions.
2 Literature Review
As a result of the internationalization trend and in order to take the opportunities

that exist in markets worldwide, companies have now a global presence (Veerecke
and Veerecke, 2007); in fact, the globalization could be defined as an emerging
trend of global markets for consumer goods with a significant and unexpected
magnitude (Levitt, 1983). Other authors have mentioned the reality of a global
competition (Prahalad and Doz, 1987) or (the) new globalization era (Barlett
and Ghoshal, 1989). Consequently, to respond to this homogenization of markets
worldwide, the internationalization is a strategic business decision (Root, 1994).
The main factors driving the internationalization phenomenon are (Ferdows,
1997a; Farrell, 2006): off shoring, entering new markets, disaggregating the value
chain and reengineering the value chain, and creating a new product and market.
Concerning operations, its internationalization is understood as the deployment
of enterprise resources beyond their home country, i.e. locating people and assets
in order to carry out primary activities of the value chain. Thus, the internationali-
zation of manufacturing networks means carrying out disaggregated value chain
68
activities (i.e. engineering, purchasing, manufacturing and distribution) beyond a

companys home country, which requires greater coordination in order to get ac-
ceptable levels of quality, flexibility and cost (De Meyer et al., 1989). Therefore, it
is important to take into account that increased commitment abroad does not only
promise opportunities, but it is also fraught with risk.
The internationalization of operations can take different forms and includes the
development of new configurations such as international distribution systems,
networks of global suppliers, and multi-site and/or fragmented manufacturing
networks. However, fragmentation of production processes and the multi-location
of activities have gained a great relevance, especially for SMEs which have lim-
ited resources, limited market knowledge and limited use of networks (Kalinic and
Forza, 2012).
2.1 New Facility Implementation
When starting up business and operations overseas, the business managers usually
try to reduce the implementation time, reduce one off expenses, reduce risk and
avoid entry barriers by establishing strategic alliances with local partners (Joint
Ventures). However, it is not always possible to find the suitable partners. In this
case, the company can opt to settle down value chain activities by its own, such as
the implementation of a new production plant starting up from scratch (Greenfield
approach) (Meyer and Estrin, 2001).
According to Barnes (2002), the implementation of a new production plant
starting from scratch is the strongest step of any organization that seeks to interna-
tionalize. Besides the obvious economic investment, the establishment and subse-
quent management of the production facilities require a broad range of knowledge
and skills related to operations management (Barnes, 2002): human resource man-
agement, purchasing and supply management, develop agreements with local lo-
gistics suppliers, post-sales services for local customers and global operations
management.
There is an alternative approach when establishing new productions plants
abroad, which consists of establishment through acquisition of existing resources
in the country of destination (Brownfield approach) (Hennart and Park, 1993;
Meyer and Estrin, 2001). This implies a previous scanning of the resources
through a process of Merger and Acquisitions (tasks such as audits, due diligenc-
es, etc.) and could involve the purchase of assets (buildings, means of production,
etc.), the acquisition of part, all existing commercial networks or even an existing
production unit (human resources included). In these cases, there might be a num-
ber of contingencies (Barnes, 2002): responsibility for agreements that may exist
before, integration into the operation practices of the organization, differences in
69
technology and production equipment purchasing practices and procedures, and

incompatibility of the acquired information systems.
As a consequence of all mentioned risks and contingencies, the implementation
of new facilities and the suppliers network development requires a careful plan-
ning coordination and also different adjustments which can be costly in time and
resources (Abele et al., 2008). Furthermore, the lack of coordination between in-
volved agents causes ramp-up delays in time and volume, and production losses
(Abele et al., 2008). In fact, companies, when assessing production locations
abroad both with Greenfield and Brownfield approach, tend to underestimate the
ramp-up times that are necessaries for securing process reliability, quality and
productivity (Abele et al., 2008; Martnez et al., 2012).
Moreover, new plants also need to take into account requirements as e.g. flexi-
bility, scalability or agility (Azevedo and Almeida, 2011) in order to cope with the
dynamic and volatile market environment.
To sum up, several authors (Vereecke and Van Dierdonck, 2002; Shi, 2003;
Kinkel and Maloca, 2009) stress the importance of: (1) managing accordingly the
numerous risks and different circumstances that appear during the entire facility
implementation in order to avoid disadvantages during the process; and (2) build-
ing models or frameworks should be a focus of researches on operations and sup-
ply chain management. It could help practitioners to design and manage their pro-
duction networks, especially when international operations are taking place.
2.2 Global Suppliers Network Development
The development of competitive raw materials and components markets causes

that the main producer must develop an outsourcing strategy. So, more and more
main producers have a fragmented production system, where the suppliers net-
work is composed by local or domestic suppliers and offshore suppliers. These
offshore suppliers need the coordination of quality control, delivery time with a
long lead-time gap between response time, and customer delivery time. Thus, just-
in-time (JIT) principles are not applicable in depth and a decoupling point could
be needed.
Furthermore, although the original suppliers networks where usually next to the
main producer locations, due to the internationalization operations tendency mul-
tiple configurations are possible. Meixell and Gargeya (2005) state that the raw
materials, components, manufacturing, and assemblies stages could be locally or
globally configured. Therefore, the following question arises: Which part of the
supply chain should be globalized or localized?
Regarding the sourcing, the purchasing function has changed from a passive
administrative role into a strategic function that contributes to creating a competi-
tive advantage as other business functions do (Alinaghian and Aghadasi, 2006).
70
Van Weele (2005) defined global purchasing as the activity for searching and ob-
taining goods, services and other resources on a possible worldwide scale, to com-
ply with the needs of the company and with a view to continuing and enhancing
the current competitive position of the company. Moreover, the global purchas-
ing management is one of the first steps to define and design a global supply chain
development (Leenders et al., 2002).
In the new purchasing function, it is necessary to provide a solution to the fol-
lowing challenges, risks and characteristics (Errasti, 2012): (1) define the purchas-
ing strategy for each product family in the supplier market, (2) collect suppliers
value-added proposals and develop appropriate suppliers, (3) define the contract
management in the contract life cycle, (4) centralized or decentralized structure (5)
relate supplier management to quality assurance in new product development, (6)
reduce total cost ownership, (7) face the different supply chain configurations.
2.3 Multi-site Production Network Configuration
Defining and managing the roles of individual plants is a critical component for
optimizing the performance of GONs because this enables the alignment of the
business strategy with operations across the network (Shi and Gregory, 2005; Vi-
lana and Rodrguez, 2009). The optimization of a GON is dependent on the spe-
cialization of activities and capabilities that individual plants within the network
develop (Ferdows, 1997a). It is therefore important to align the way in which each
plant is managed with the requirements of the entire network.
The questions that still remains unanswered in the multisite production config-
uration is how to deploy the operations strategy in a multi-location GON and, in
particular, how to balance the different competences and responsibilities of indi-
vidual plants within the network, taking into account that each plant could develop
specific capabilities or used by the whole GON.
Ferdows (1997a) proposed a model that identifies different strategic roles that
plants within a GON can fulfill and provided a development path to increase the
competencies of individual plants in pursuit of higher strategic roles. Whilst Fer-
dows work provides a useful starting point for designing or re-structuring the op-
erations of plants within a GON there is little evidence of the application of the
model beyond the work by Vereecke and Van Dierdonck (2002). This particular
study discusses the application of Ferdows model to the decision making process
of establishing and/or acquiring a new production unit. However, it does not look
into how the competencies of the production units within the existing network can
be developed to enable the adoption of a higher level strategic role. Then, Me-
diavilla and his colleagues (2012) made a contribution to current knowledge on
global operations by extending the model proposed by Ferdows (1997a) and oper-
71
ationalizing it to enable its application for the design and optimization of global
operations networks.
To generate new insights into the application of the model further empirical re-
search is required (Netland, 2011). Furthermore, it is clear that more research is
needed to understand the evolution and operations coordination of individual pro-
duction units within a network of manufacturing facilities (Shi and Gregory, 1998;
Shi and Gregory, 2005; Rodrguez and Vilana, 2010). Models and techniques to
aid practitioners formulating and developing operations strategy when designing
or restructuring a GON are lacking (Vereecke and Van Dierdonck, 2002) and the
study areas are dispersed (Corti et al., 2009; Laiho and Blomqvist, 2010), which
results in difficulties to renew competences and capabilities of individual facilities
(Sweeney et al., 2007).
In summary, the new paradigm in global operations strategy is the need for
continuous reconfiguration of the manufacturing systems and operations of a GON
to adapt to a dynamic environment. The questions that still remain unanswered in
these regards are (1) how to balance the strategic roles, competencies and respon-
sibilities of multiple plants within a GON and (2) how to deploy the operations
strategy within a GON where individual plants require to simultaneously and con-
tinuously develop their capabilities to remain competitive.
3 Discussion
The facility starting up process and the supply development are some of the most
difficult decisions to make (Barnes, 2002) because it implies many risks (Kinkel
and Maloca 2009) not only MNEs but also for SMEs which resources are usual-
ly more limited (Kalinic and Forza, 2012).
Almost every company is nowadays affected by at least some kind of interna-
tional challenge. However, the results on this process are not always successful, as
e.g. in 67% of the offshore facilities analyzed, the personnel rotation level is high-
er than in the headquarters and it depends on whether it is an emergent zone or not
(Errasti and Egaa, 2009).Then, facing the management of a production logistics
network in different countries requires a greater coordination.
Operations strategy has to gain more effectiveness and efficiency over opera-
tions resources through defining and implementing suitable decisions, managing
tangible resources, and developing operations capabilities to reach the perfor-
mance objectives of the market requirements (Slack and Lewis, 2002).
Whilst all type of organizations are facing significant challenges for managing
increasingly complex global operations, current literature on GON is still limited
in its scope (Corti et al., 2009; Laiho and Blomqvist, 2010). The question that still
remains unanswered is how to deploy the operations strategy in a multi-location
GON and, in particular during the new facility implementation, the global suppli-
72
ers network development and the multi-site network configuration (Ferdows,

1997a; Vereecke and Van Dierdonck, 2002, Shi, 2003; Kinkel and Maloca, 2009).
Models and techniques to aid practitioners formulating and developing opera-
tions strategy when designing or restructuring a GON are lacking (Vereecke and
Van Dierdonck, 2002) and the study areas are dispersed (Corti et al., 2009).
4 Conclusion
Even though there are many researches related to the international operations
management, it has not still found a specific state of the art about the main chal-
lenges that SMEs have to face. Hence, this study claims to be a reference in this
topic for future research, which should be focused on one of the tree above men-
tioned challenges: new facility implementation, global suppliers network devel-
opment, multi-site production network configuration. Moreover, to develop a
framework that helps to cope these challenges would be very useful for industrial
companies, especially for SMEs.
Regarding to future research, the main issues are: (i) Operations and Supply
Chain management researchers should pay attention to providing understandable
frameworks of international manufacturing systems, which could help managers to
design and manage their networks (Vereecke and Van Dierdonck, 2002; Shi,
2003); (ii) the frameworks for new production plants overseas should take into ac-
count the necessary requirements for the next generation of factories, which have
to be modular, scalable, flexible, agile and to be able to adapt, in real time, to the
continuously changing market demands, technology options and regulations (Kin-
kel and Maloca, 2009, Azevedo and Almeida, 2011); and (iii) more research is
needed to understand how to design and keep the coordination of the global sup-
ply network with different delivery times and procurement reliability (Meixell and
Gargeya, 2005; Abele et al., 2008).
5 References
Abele E, Meyer T, Nher U, Strube G, Sykes R (2008) Global production: a handbook for strate-
gy and implementation. Springer. Heidelberg, Germany
Alinaghian LS, Aghadasi M (2006) Proposing a model for purchasing system transformation.
Paper presented at the EurOMA 16th Conference, Glasgow, Scotland
Azevedo A, Almeida A (2011) Factory Templates for Digital Factories Framework, Robotics
and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 27:755-771
Barnes D (2002) The complexities of the manufacturing strategy formation process in practice,
International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 22(10):1090 1111.
Bartlett CA, Ghoshal S (1989) Managing across borders. The transnational solution, Harvard
Business School Press, Boston, MA
73
Corti D, Egaa MM, Errasti A (2009) Challenges for off-shored operations: findings from a
comparative multi-case study analysis of Italian and Spanish companies, Paper presented in
Proceedings 16th annualEurOMA Conference, Gothenburg
De Meyer A, Nakane J, Miller J, Ferdows K (1989) Flexibility: the next competitive battle the
manufacturing futures survey, Strategic Management Journal, 10:135-44
Errasti A (2012) Gestin de compras en la empresa, ediciones Pirmide, Grupo Anaya, p.280,
Madrid
Errasti A, Egaa MM (2009) Internacionalizacin de operaciones: estado del arte, Cluster de
movilidad, logstica y transporte, San Sebastin, Espaa
Farrell D (2006) Offshoring. Understanding the Emerging Global Labor Market, Mckinsey
Global Institute, Harvard Business School Press
Feldmann A, Olhager J (2010) Linking networks and plant roles: The impact of changing a plant
role. Paper presented in Proceedings of the 17th EurOMA conference, Porto, June 6-9
Ferdows K (1997a) Making the most of foreign factories, Harvard Business Review, March
April, pp.73-88
Hennart JF, Park, YR (1993) Greenfield versus acquisition:The strategy of Japanese investors in
the United States. Management Science, 39:1054-1070
Kalinic I, Forza C (2012) Rapid internationalization of traditional SMEs: Between gradualist
models and born globals, International Business Review, 21:694707
Kinkel S, Maloca S (2009) Drivers and antecedents of manufacturing offshoring and backshor-
ing. A German Perspective, Journal of Purchasing & Suppply Management, 15:154-165
Laiho A, Blomqvist M (2010) International Manufacturing Networks: a literature review. Paper
presented in17th Conference EurOMA, Porto
Leenders M, Fearon HE, Flynn AE, Johnson PF (2002) Purchasing and Supply Management.
McGraw Hill/Irwin, New York
Levitt T (1983) The globalization of markets, Harvard business review, 61(3): 92-102
Martnez S, Errasti A, Arcelus M (2012) Diseo de operaciones globales ayudado por herramien-
tas de simulacin: un estudio emprico, DYNA, 87(3):286-294
Mediavilla M, Errasti A, Mendibil K (2012) Value Chain based framework for assessing the stra-
tegic plant role and deploying an improvement roadmap in global operations networks: an
empirical study, Production Planning & Control Forthcoming 2013
Meixell M, Gargeya, V (2005) Global Supply Chain Design: A literature Review and A Critique,
Transportation Research Part E., 41:531
Meyer KE, Estrin S (2001) Brownfield Entry in Emerging Markets. Journal of International
Business Studies, 32(3):575-584
Netland T (2011) Improvement programs in multinational manufacturing enterprises: a proposed
theoretical framework and literature review, Presented in proceedings of Euroma 2011 con-
ference, Cambridge, UK
Prahalad CK, Doz Y (1987) The Multinational Mission: Balancing Local Demands and Global
Vision, Free Press, New York, NY
Rodrguez Monroy C and Vilana Arto JR (2010) Analysis of Global Manufacturing Virtual Net-
works in the Aeronautic Industry, International Journal of Production Economics 126(2):
314-323
Root F (1994) Entry strategies for international markets, Lexington Books, London
Shi Y, Gregory M (2005) Emergence of global manufacturing virtual networks and establish-
ment of new manufacturing infrastructure for faster innovation and firm growth. Production
Planning & Control. 16(6):621-631
Shi Y (2003) Internationalization and evolution of manufacturing systems: classic process mod-
els, new industrial issues, and academic challenges, Integrated, Manufacturing Systems,
14:385-96
Shi Y, Gregory MJ (1998) International Manufacturing Networks to develop global competi-
tive capabilities, Journal of Operations Management, 16:195-214
74
Slack N, Lewis M (2002) Operations Strategy. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall, 2nd Edition
Sweeney M, Cousens A, Szwejczewski M (2007) International manufacturing networks design -
A proposed methodology, Paper presented in EurOMA conference, Ankara
Van Weele AJ (2005) Purchasing and Supply Chain Management. Thompson Learning, London.
Vereecke A, Vereecke A (2007) Network relations in multinational manufacturing companies.
Flanders DC and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School
Vereecke A, Van Dierdonck R (2002) The Strategic Role of the Plant: Testing Ferdow's Model,
International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 22(5): 492-514
Vilana Arto JR and Rodrguez Monroy C (2009) Let Others Manufacture! Towards a New Man-
ufacturing Network, Intangible Capital, 5(4): 347-369
75
Economic and Financial Profile of High-Growth

Firms vs. Normal Firms from New Industry in
the Basque Country: a Discriminant Analysis
Ruiz de Arbulo P1, Landeta B2, Basaez A3, Insunza G4, Gonzalez X5
Abstract Gaining knowledge about the profile that defines high-growth firms and
distinguishes them from the rest is the purpose of this research work, in addition to
helping to understand their differences in relation to other normal firms in the
Basque Country (CAPV). To this end, an economic and financial analysis has
been carried out by comparing them with other normal firms and, by using a set of
quantitative variables that have a priori been considered potentially explanatory, a
predictive discriminant analysis has also been conducted.
Keywords: High-growth Firms, Discriminant Analysis, Economic and Financial

Structure, New Industry
1 Patxi Ruiz de Arbulo (e-mail: patxi.ruizdearbulo@ehu.es)
Business Organization Department, Faculty of Engineering Bilbao, University of The Basque

Country (UPV/EHU), Alda Urquijo s/n, 48013 Bilbao, Spain.
2 Benat Landeta Manzano

3Aitor Basaez Llantada
4Gaizka Insunza Araceta
5Xabier Gonzalez Lasquibar
*This work derives from the participation by its authors in the research project set in motion by
the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) titled "Determining features and factors of
high-growth innovation companies in the Basque Country" NUPV 11/08
76
1 Introduction
Throughout recent years, in-depth studies have been carried out into company
growth and, in this respect, those firms which are able to maintain markedly high-
er growth rates than the rest and the fact that they do so over an extended period
of time - prove to be of special interest. Moreover, they are large generators of
employment (ARDN, 2004) and provide high returns for investors and share-
holders, in addition to greater satisfaction and motivation for their workers (Hen-
rekson and Johansson, 2008).
The first work on the subject was already published in 1993 in the United
States (Birch and Haggerty, 1993). In Spain Espaa, Cabanelas and Vaamonde
published their work in 1995 for the Vigo Duty-free Zone Consortium, in which
they analysed the main features of young high-growth firms in Galicia. Other
works on a national level have emerged since then (Cabanelas and Vaamonde,
1996; Amat et al., 2000, 2010, 2011a, 2011b; ARDN, 2004; Galve and Hernn-
dez, 2007), using different selection criteria regarding this type of firm. The inter-
est shown in political, academic and business spheres of activity in learning about
those distinctive parameters which, combined specifically, determine the success
of such firms is, if possible, even greater in the times in which we are currently
living (Pea et al., 2009).
The aim of this research work is to characterise the type of high-growth firm
from New Industry in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country
(CAPV), based on a comparative analysis with other firms belonging to the latter,
taking into account investments, solvency, indebtedness, sales and profitability.
It has been agreed to confine research to the inclusive period between the years
2006 and 2009 the end of the last economic cycle and start of the recession in
Spain. The results should thus be deemed to be of special interest, insofar as they
refer to excellent firms which, despite the serious prolonged economic and finan-
cial crisis, have managed to adapt to the times and grow in terms of both size
(number of employees and amount of assets) and sales.
2 Source of Data used and Empirical Evidence
In the study, which is an eminently empirical one, the evolution of investment in

high-growth firms has been analysed based on their total assets, non-current as-
sets, stocks and debtors between the years 2006 and 2009, in order to compare
their evolution with other firms from New Industry in the Basque Country. These
include industrial manufacturing firms and those providing services to industry
(firms as a whole that provide services) (Bar and Villafaa, 2009). The economic
and financial profile of both groups has then been studied and, lastly, the econom-
77
ic and financial variables that have the most influence on the classifi-cation of
high-growth firms or normal firms via discriminant analysis.
On the other hand, as far as sources of information are concerned, a list of firms
has been obtained using the SABI data base (Iberian Balance Sheet Analytical
System) run by the company Informa, S.A., which contains the data deposited in
company registers in Spain and Portugal.
Thus, a register of 56,444 firms belonging to the CAPV has been used, of
which 2,131 are SMEs in accordance with Recommendation 2003/361/CE issued
by the European Commission (2003) and from what is referred to as New Industry.
Among these enterprises, 81 firms considered to be high-growth have been de-
tected in accordance with OECD guidelines (2007).
3 Results Obtained
3.1 Evolution of Investment
Table 1 shows how the composition of assets in high-growth firms has evolved in
relation to other firms. It is noted that high-growth firms evidence 35% growth of
total assets in contrast to the behaviour evidenced by other firms (6% growth). As
for the composition of non-current assets, both groups of firm evidence show
similar percentages. In contrast, high-growth firms show lower levels of stocks
than the rest, from which it may be deduced that their operative management is
better.
Table 1 Evolution of investment
Mean assets
Non-current assets Stocks Debtors
(thousands of Euros)
Year
High- High- High- High-
Normal Normal Normal Normal
growth growth growth growth
2006 10,761.49 8,850.75 46.40% 45.36% 7.50% 15.17% 36.00% 29.67%
2007 13,811.94 9,530.23 49.38% 43.75% 7.58% 15.44% 31.91% 29.96%
2008 14,584.48 9,973.14 40.71% 46.74% 9.16% 14.81% 29.85% 24.51%
2009 14.563.86 9,377.26 49.57% 49.72% 7.23% 13.71% 25.06% 21.71%
35% 6%
Source: put together by the authors
78
3.2 Financial Profile of High-growth Firms
In this section we analyse the financial profile of high-growth firms, taking into
account their solvency, turnover and profitability.
Table 2 shows the short-term solvency ratios of high-growth firms in relation to
other firms, measured as the quotient between current assets and current liabilities.
High-growth firms evidence ratios higher than 1, in no year reaching 1.5. Broadly
speaking, this ratio is considered to be an optimum value. If one takes into more
specific consideration the behaviour of manufacturing firms providing services to
industry, it can be ascertained that the solvency ratio in the case of the latter is
considerably higher values between 1.40 and 1.70 inclusive. Normal firms evi-
dence better solvency ratios over the years being analysed, although if one focuses
on industrial firms, these evidence better solvency than high-growth firms, unlike
the case of those providing services to industry, which evidence poorer solvency.
Table 2 Solvency ratio
Solvency = current as- Solvency of manufactur- Solvency of firms provid-

sets/short-term debts ing firms ing services to industry
Year High-growth Normal High-growth Normal High-growth Normal
2006 1.25 1.33 1.19 1.39 1.40 1.06
2007 1.22 1.41 1.12 1.44 1.50 1.28
2008 1.33 1.38 1.15 1.44 1.74 1.18
2009 1.21 1.48 1.09 1.51 1.41 1.37
Table 3 shows the evolution of indebtedness. The high-growth firms evidence

greatly restructured financing over the period 2006-09 (46% of shareholder equity
in 2009). The same occurs with the other firms. Both groups of firm would appear
to have had solid financial structures during the period in question, as they have
steadily reduced their short-term debts over the years (79% in 2006 as opposed to
76% in 2009). This is a high value, albeit not one to cause enough concern in prin-
ciple for firms to tend to increase their proportion of long-term debts, as there are
no liquidity problems as can be seen in the solvency table. Lastly, financial ex-
penditure in terms of sales in high-growth firms is not high around 1.9% - except
in 2008 when it increased up to 2.5%.
79
Table 3 Indebtedness ratios
Indebtedness = total Quality of debt Financial expenditure = fi-

debts/assets = short-term debts/total debts nancial expenditure/sales
High-
Normal High-growth Normal High-growth Normal
Year growth
2006 54% 56% 79% 73% 1.57% 1.48%
2007 53% 55% 78% 72% 1.87% 1.84%
2008 54% 54% 82% 72% 2.54% 2.65%
2009 54% 51% 76% 67% 1.88% 2.25%
Table 4 shows the maturity cycles and cash cycles of high-growth firms in rela-
tion to other firms. On the one hand, high-growth firms slightly increased their
stock periods, while on the other they improved collection and payment periods,
resulting in a more efficient maturity and cash cycle in 2009 than in 2006. In con-
trast, the other firms evidence a considerably poorer maturity and cash cycle in
2009 than in 2006, and poorer in comparison to high-growth firms.
Table 5 shows an analysis of turnover. The high-growth firms invoiced 891
million Euros during 2009. 58.3% refers to manufacture and the rest to firms
providing services to industry. Mean turnover was 11 million Euros, although it
should be taken into account that the mean turnover of manufacturing firms was
1.24 times greater than that of those providing services to industry. Mean turnover
of normal firms was 6.7 million Euros in 2009.
Table 4 Solvency ratio and indebtedness ratios
Stock period Collection Payment period Maturity cycle Cash cycle

(1) period (2) (3) (1) + (2) (1) + (2) (3)
High- High- High- High- High-
Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal
Year growth growth growth growth growth
2006 53 91 176 125 119 77 229 216 109 139
2007 52 100 149 123 114 81 201 223 87 142
2008 63 94 128 105 85 56 191 199 106 144
2009 62 126 123 114 94 69 185 240 90 170
80
Table 5 Total and mean turnover
2009 turnover 2006-09 turnover (% 2009 mean

(Millions of Euros) variation) Thousands of Euros
Year
High- High- High-
% Normal % Normal Normal
growth growth growth
Industry 519.8 58.3% 11,889.0 86.9% 109.2 84.3 12,088 6,829
Services to
371.3 41.7% 1,792.2 13.1% 187.3 95.8 9,771 5,800
industry
Total 891.1 100.0% 13,681.2 100.0% 132.2 85.6 11,001 6,674
Most high-growth firms had a turnover of less than 10 million Euros (63 out of
81) and five of them had a turnover of more than 50 million Euros. This means
that the mean turnover (11,000.91) was considerably higher than the average
turnover (4,346.07).
Table 6 shows an analysis of profitability. High-growth firms showed positive
profitability rates throughout the period analysed, although it should be pointed
out that there was a major drop in 2009 both in terms of profitability over assets
and in profitability over shareholder equity. In any event, all periods under analy-
sis evidence positive financial leverage, i.e. economic profitability was higher than
the mean cost of debt.
Table 6 Analysis of profitability
Profitability of share-
Economic profitability Financial leverage
holder equity
High- High- High-
Normal Normal Normal
Year growth growth growth
2006 2.09% 4.38% 8.45% 7.48% 3.67 2.10
2007 4.93% 5.19% 24.53% 11.90% 4.93 2.56
2008 6.53% 4.30% 25.07% 7.36% 3.82 2.01
2009 4.72% 2.07% 7.92% 2.44% 1.82 1.44
3.3 Discriminant Analysis
The following part of the study involves ascertaining which economic and finan-
cial variables have the greatest influence on the classification of a firm as being ei-
ther high-growth or normal. To do this, a discriminant analysis has been carried
out using the SPSS statistical programme. 81 high-growth firms have been taken
in the analysis and a sample of 166 firms in total from among normal firms has
81
been taken from New Industry, applying single random sampling. The first varia-
bles to be introduced have been those that would appear to enable the different
types of firm to be better discriminated. The variables initially used have been as
follows: seniority of the firm (in years), Napierian logarithm (ln) of corresponding
value added for the year 2009, ln (sales 2009), ln (total assets 2009), financial
profitability 2009, employment growth 2009-2008, ln (value added 2008), ln
(sales 2008), ln (total assets 2008), financial profitability 2008 and employment
growth 2008-2007.
Table 7 shows summarises the results of the ANOVA analysis, which shows
that all the variables chosen - except for financial profitability - have discriminant
power (p value < 0.05) and therefore must be introduced into the analysis. The
financial profitability variable has been removed from subsequent analysis.
Table 7 Tests for equality of group means
Wilks lambda F gl1 gl2 Sig.

Seniority .931 16.620 1 225 .000
Ln (value added 2009) .897 25.903 1 225 .000
Ln (sales 2009) .912 21.783 1 225 .000
Ln (assets 2009) .959 9.626 1 225 .002
Financial profitability 2009 .999 0.285 1 225 .594
Employment growth 2009/08 .946 12.822 1 225 .000
Ln (value added 2008) .936 15.291 1 225 .000
Ln (sales 2008) .946 12.897 1 225 .000
Ln (assets 2008) .969 7.131 1 225 .008
Financial profitability 2008 .996 .898 1 225 .344
Employment growth 2008/07 .778 64.300 1 225 .000
Below are shown the coefficients for the discriminant function (combination
function of those variables that best discriminate between high-growth and normal
firms).
Table 8 Tests for equality of group means
Group
High-growth Normal
Seniority .098 .026
Ln (value added 2009) 4.430 4.553
Ln (sales 2009) .708 1.250
Ln (assets 2009) -.145 .284
Employment growth 2009/08 -.004 .014
Ln (value added 2008) 3.861 4.028
82
Table 8 (continued) Tests for equality of group means
Group Group
High-growth High-growth
Ln (sales 2008) 3.245 3.350
Ln (assets 2008) -2.719 -3.319
Employment growth 2008/07 -.017 .010
(Constant) -35.462 -41.963
Lastly, table 9 shows the results of the classification based on the discriminant
function. In it can be seen the correct forecasts and errors obtained in the classifi-
cation made using the discriminant function that has been calculated. Of the 153
normal firms, 149 have been forecasted in that group (97.4% of correct forecasts),
whereas 30 of the high-growth firms have been erroneously classified as being
normal (59.5% of correct forecasts). In total, classification has been correct in 149
+ 44 = 193 cases, which represents 85.0% of the total and means that the discrimi-
nant power of the independent variables taken into consideration is very high.
Table 9 Results of the classification*
Forecasted group to which each

Group firm belongs Total
Normal High-growth
Normal 149 4 153**
Count
High-growth 30 44 74***
Normal 97.4 2.6 100.0
%
High-growth 40.5 59.5 100.0
*85.0% of originally-grouped cases classified correctly.
**13 out of 166 firms excluded owing to loss of at least one discriminant variable.
***7 out of 81 firms excluded owing to loss of at least one discriminant variable.
4 Conclusions
Research into high-growth firms is important because their performance is consid-

ered to be an indicator of business success. In this work we have tried to identify
those variables that best define the economic and financial profile of high-growth
firms in relation to other firms.
Following a descriptive analysis in the course of which it has been ascertained
that high-growth firms that obtain higher turnover and investment figures evidence
a better cash cycle and higher profitability, a discriminant analysis has then been
conducted in order to ascertain which economic and financial variables have the
83
most influence on the classification of high-growth or normal firms. It has been

noted that the potentially explanatory quantitative variables are as follows: seniori-
ty of the firm, ln (value added year x), ln (sales x), ln (total assets x), employment
growth (x x-1), ln (value added x-1), ln (sales x-1), ln (total assets x-1) and em-
ployment growth (x-1 x-2), with financial profitability being excluded.
5 References
Amat O, Hernndez JM, Fontrodona J, Fontana I. (2000) Las empresas gacela en Catalua: un
estudio centrado en el trienio 1995 1997. Economa Industrial. N 334, pp. 55-70.
Amat O, Fontrodona J, Hernndez JM, Stoyanova A (2010) Las empresas de alto crecimiento y
las gacelas. Profit Editorial.
Amat O (2011a) Empresas gacela: inductores del crecimiento y anlisis de su evolucin. Partida
doble. N 233, pp. 64-73.
Amat O, Campa F (2011b) Perfil econmico-financiero de las empresas de alto crecimiento.
Revista Internacional Legis de Contabilidad y Auditora. N 47 pp. 137-160.
ARDAN (2004) Claves del crecimiento empresarial. Las empresas gacela de Galicia. Del diag-
nstico a la accin. Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Vigo.
Bar E, Villafaa C (2009) La Nova indstria: el sector central de leconomia catalana. Papers
deconomia industrial, 26. Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament dInnovaci, Universitats i
Empresa.
Birch D, Haggerty AY, Parsons W (1993) Whos creating jobs?. Cognetics.
Cabanelas JY, Vaamonde A (1996) Las empresas gacela de Euskadi. Informe SPRI.
EUROSTAT, OCDE (2007) Manual on Business Demography Statistics. European Commission.
European Commission (2003) Recommendation of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of mi-
cro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Official Journal L 124, 20/05/2003 P. 0036 0041.
Galve C, Hernndez A (2007) Empresas gacela y empresas tortuga en Aragn. Fundacin Eco-
noma Aragonesa, FUNDEAR. Documento de Trabajo n37/07.
Henrekson M, Johansson D (2009) Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of the
evidence. Springer. Small Bus Econ. 35: 227244.
Pea I, Gonzlez JL, Martiarena A, Navarro M, Heras I, Larraza M, Irastorza N (2009) Actividad
emprendedora vasca de alto potencial de crecimiento (2000-2005). Instituto Vasco de Com-
petitividad Fundacin Deusto.
84
High-growth Firms: Qualitative Analysis Via

Case Study
Insunza Aranzeta G1, Basaez Llantada A2, Ruiz de Arbulo Lpez P3,
Landeta Manzano B4, Gonzlez Laskibar X5
Abstract This work, which forms part of more extensive research into high-
growth firms in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country during the
period 2006-2009, attempts to analyse the reasons for high growth firms by four
firms identified within it. This growth will be discussed from a qualitative stand-
point based on extensive literature regarding high-growth firms and using the case
study as the main methodology. Interviews with managers from these firms to-
gether with a partial analysis of the context within which they were found during
the period analysed (sectorial analysis, general economic context, etc.) enable us
to interpret the results obtained using the SABI (Sistema de Anlisis de Balances
Ibricos) data base in a more dynamic and contextualised way.
Keywords: High Growth Firms, Gazelles, Case studies.
1
Gaizka Insunza Araceta ( e-mail: gaizka.insunza@ehu.es)
3Patxi Ruiz de Arbulo
4Benat Landeta Manzano
5XabierGonzalez Lasquibar
85
1 Introduction
Company growth both in terms of results or turnover and in terms of employment

is a phenomenon that has aroused a great deal of interest among the firms them-
selves and among the scientific community and university. With a view to ap-
proaching this phenomenon within the sphere of activity of firms from the Auton-
omous Community of the Basque Country (CAPV), the authors of this work have
carried out a research project titled Determining Factors and Features of Innova-
tive High-growth Firms in the CAPV, one of whose parts is presented in this work.
This type of analysis started to gain momentum when D. Birch tried to point to
those factors that determined the survival and growth of firms by focusing on the
ratio between their initial size, age and growth rate (Birch, 1981). One of his main
contributions was his classification of firms according to age and their impact on
employment. Studies about industrial dynamics have proliferated since then,
providing quantitative and qualitative elements of the dynamics of the company
population, i.e. their birth, mortality and capacity for survival and growth, and also
their effect on economic performance and industrial structure.
Numerous studies carried out in developed countries point to the fact that the
typical profile of a high-growth firm corresponds to one which introduces product
or process innovations with high growth potential, as it is geared towards large,
non-local markets (Malizia et al., 1999; Moreno et al., 2000). Other studies main-
tain that highly-innovating environments characterised by a large number of com-
pany entries and exits are the ones which are most favourable to the setting-up of
high-growth firms (Audrestch, 1995; Doms et al., 1995). Others point out that it is
more common to find firms of this type in sectors based on knowledge and on
some services with high aggregate value (Schreyer, 2000). Where consensus exists
is in the fact that such firms are noteworthy for their high level of competitiveness
in relation to other organisations and are often indicators of competitiveness in a
given region or country (Segura, 1993).
From a theoretical standpoint, we can state that high-growth firms experience
major growth over short periods of time. Owing to the great scope of growth, we
might consider this to be a radical change a revolution in terms of organisational
life. Such rapid growth may take place under different circumstances. In the case
of firms that have been recently set up, the firm is immersed in a process that
seeks a minimum size so as to favour its survival (Barkham et al., 1996). In the
case of already-established firms, growth derives from changes in their strategy,
the courses of action they take and behaviour, etc. (Moreno et al., 2000). These
more radical types of change also make growth possible over and above normal
levels.
86
2 Objectives
The main aim of the work is to analyse the process pursued by those firms that ex-
perienced high growth during the period 2006-2009 from a qualitative standpoint
using case study methodology. In short, an attempt is made to ascertain the causes
of such growth in each case so as to then try and establish, where possible, some
type of pattern common to them. An attempt is also made to ascertain the main
features of the growth process pursued by each of the firms subject to study, and
to try and determine whether these processes fit into the theoretical models re-
ferred to previously.
3 Methodology
Although case study is a methodology that is becoming increasingly accepted by

the scientific community in general, it is also true to say that there were many who
questioned its validity until a few years ago. Below we refer to the definition giv-
en by Yin in 1989 which, in short, reflects on the importance of context when ana-
lysing the phenomenon in studies: Empirical research which researches a con-
temporary phenomenon within its real context, in which the limits between the
phenomenon and context are not precisely shown and in many sources of evidence
are used (Yin, 1989). Among the most common criticism of this we find the fol-
lowing: obtaining of inconsistent and biased results (Arias, 2003), fairly non-
objective and unreliable methodology (Bonache, 1999) and problems associated
with generalisation due to the limited number of cases studied (Bonache, 1999;
Arias, 2003; Gummerson, 1991; Hamel et al., 1999). However, this methodology
is useful when one wishes to try and understand a real phenomenon by taking all
the variables that have a bearing on it into consideration (Mc Cutcheon et al.,
1993). For this reason, it is becoming increasingly accepted within the area of
company management, in which an understanding of decision-making processes,
implementation and organisational change cannot be analysed in sufficient depth
via the quantitative study of a large number of observations (Rialp, 1998).
As far as the work itself is concerned, the first step was to identify those firms
subject to study for which the following criteria were used: Industrial firms and
firms providing services in the CAPV with 10 or more employees at the start of
the period under scrutiny and which had experienced an increase in annual turno-
ver over the aforementioned period of at least 20%. The list of firms was obtained
using the SABI data base, in which 81 firms were identified using these criteria.
Once the pool of firms subject to study had been identified, the data from the
SABI data base was then analysed. This work was followed up by a questionnaire
sent via email to each of them, in order to confirm some of the information that
had already been obtained and to complete other information.
87
Lastly, interviews were arranged with some managers from 5 firms selected
from among the 81 identified, so as to study them in greater depth and carry out a
study of each of them. We should draw attention to the fact that one of the cases
proved not to be valid, given that the growth experienced was the result of mer-
gers and takeovers of several firms something which is not reflected in the SABI
data base. In view of the fact that no growth had existed in absolute terms either in
employment or in turnover or results, this option was not taken into consideration
for the project.
4 Results
For reasons of confidentiality, as the firms themselves asked us to do, names are
not mentioned, although we do include some of their main features in Table 1 be-
low.
To complete this very brief description of the firms selected, we shall only
comment on their shareholding and age. As far as their shareholding is concerned,
mention should be made of the fact that diversity exists despite only 4 cases hav-
ing been studied: firm A belongs to a larger corporation, firm D is a family busi-
ness and firms B and C are the fruits of an initiative on the part of their managers
and owners. According to their age, it should only be pointed out that except for
firm D, which was set up in the 1970s, the other three have been in existence for
around 10 years. However, it is fair to say that firm A belongs to a group with a
longer tradition and therefore to a certain extent should not be considered as being
such a young company. We might therefore draw a distinction between two
groups of firm: the first could comprise the two that have been recently set up and
the other could be made up of the two firms that have been established for longer.
As we shall see below, this is reflected to a certain extent in the growth process
experienced by each of them.
Table 1 Firms selected for the case study
Number of employees at the

Firm Sector
end of the period
A Aeronautical Engineering 650
B Computer Engineering 320
C Biotechnology 75
D Machinery repairs in transport and construction 62
88
4.1 The Causes of Growth
Although there are certain similarities in some aspects, it is true to say that the rea-
sons for the success of these 4 firms over the period analysed can be considered
different. Nonetheless, attention should be drawn to the fact that the influence of
the economic situation in general or that of the sector in particular is a very im-
portant and common feature in the case of firms A, B and D, and therefore not so
in the case of C.
The case of aeronautical engineering can be summarised by the well-known
phrase of making a virtue of necessity in more business-like terms, we might say
that they were able to transform the threat into opportunity. According to the
firms own general manager, it had no alternative other than to grow if it wanted
to avoid going under. As the work load of the group to which they belong de-
clined, so did the orders that this provided to them. The only possible solution was
to obtain orders from outside the comfort zone of the group itself and target the
major international aircraft and helicopter manufacturers which they managed to
do. This case fits into the pattern of major growth associated with a strategic deci-
sion. The firm in question and its activity were already fully established prior to
the period subject to study, although the decision to risk taking on new projects
was the one that preceded the major growth experienced over the period 2006-
2009.
For its part, the growth of computer engineering was caused by the favourable
economic situation at the time, as its main customers were none other than differ-
ent public administrative bodies and major institutional clients such as universi-
ties, etc., whose investment budgets were genuinely significant during the period
subject to study. Although this period includes the years 2008 and 2009, the truth
of the matter is that the crisis had hardly got underway in the CAPV by then, to
which should be added the fact that investment projects were awarded many
months beforehand in some cases. This firm came into being a few years prior to
the period under study, meaning we can associate its growth with its search for the
optimum size that would enable it to carry out its activity efficiently.
The case of firm D, whose customers belong to the world of construction, is
easy to understand. This is a sector which, as is well-known, maintained extraor-
dinarily high growth rates during the past decade.
However, the case of firm C is different and can be considered a typical case of
a high-tech company in its first few years of operation. At the beginning it re-
ceived different public aid destined for the setting-up and development of innovat-
ing firms and its shareholding included a range of venture capital businesses. This
is therefore a firm in whose DNA is engrained the will to grow so as to sufficient-
ly remunerate the risk taken on by those investors who decided to place their trust
in the project.
89
4.2 Growth Strategies
It would seem logical to assume that different causes gave rise to different growth
strategies, although once again some similarities can be made out among the dif-
ferent cases.
Growth took place in firms A and B mainly via the expansion of their respec-
tive markets. This expansion was achieved by winning new customers for those
products and services they already offered rather than as a result of any variation
in the latter. However, there is a huge difference between these two cases. Com-
puter engineering, whose market chiefly comprised major institutional clients
from the CAPV, expanded its business to this same type of customer, but from
neighbouring autonomous communities such as Santander and Aragon, etc. and
the main cities in Spain such as Madrid and Barcelona.
For its part, aeronautical engineering channelled its efforts into internationalisa-
tion in order to meet the requirements of the main aeronautical constructors, mov-
ing to countries such as Brazil and the USA. Indeed and as its managers com-
mented to us, maintaining a presence in the countries of origin of these
manufacturers is almost mandatory. It should be taken into account that we are
talking of a small number of customers with projects that cover large amounts in
which trust is essential to even get the chance to supply. Added to this is the fact
that in some cases manufacturers include public shareholding, and terms and con-
ditions governing contracts involve contracting firms established in the countries
concerned.
However, attention should be drawn to the fact that the leap forward was to a
certain extent the fruits of a specific event, as the firm was given the chance to
take part in a technically very complex project in which the other competing firms
had already failed. Thanks to the attitude of managers who were able to take on
the risk and face up to the challenge, the project successfully took off to the extent
that the firm managed to get right to the core of all the manufacturers. Yet we
cannot attribute high growth to the fruits of a specific event that would be un-
derestimating the renewed strategy that was pursued despite the high risk in-
volved.
For its part, firm C attributes its growth to the continuous supply of new prod-
ucts with extremely high value added. To achieve this, it set aside a large propor-
tion of its human and financial resources to research, without overlooking collabo-
ration with other national and international agents. However, as in the case of firm
A, internationalisation has without doubt been a key factor in understanding its
success, even in setting up subsidiaries in Mexico and the United States. In the
words of one its managers: Specialisation and diversification of products has
been one of the keys alongside R&D this has enabled us to enter new markets
and force international expansion, reducing the level of risk of dependency on a
single product or single market.
90
Firm D represents a different case to the rest as, via a specific agreement en-
tered into with a major international lorry manufacturer, it became an Official Re-
pairs and Sale of Spare Parts Service Department for lorries made by the firm in
question in the province of Bizkaia, and also providing the same service to neigh-
bouring provinces. This provided them with a large volume of work, the fruits of
which brought growth and, even more importantly, if possible, affected the way of
doing things. Representing a well-known international trademark compelled them
to meet all the demands imposed on them by their partner in many aspects and, in
short, to maintain certain standards of high quality.
4.3 Human Resources
These are firms from a variety of sectors, albeit with one feature in common that
they are sectors in which the job factor has a predominant weight in cost structure.
Obviously, technology is an essential medium, although this does not prevent the
need to have a large number of employees at ones disposal to the extent that, as
we were told by several firms, 80% of the cost goes on manpower hours worked.
To this must be added staff skills which, except in the case of vehicle repairs, are
very high and specialised.
The four firms coincided in the importance of proper management of human
resources in order to be able to meet customer demands in terms of quality, relia-
bility and deadlines, etc. Obtaining skilled labour in sufficient amounts became
one of the main problems associated with growth, together with difficulties related
to the type of organisation and restructuring required.
4.4 Innovation
Innovation is without doubt the basic factor in the biotechnology firm and also
plays a major role in aeronautical engineering. In the other cases, although they
maintain that this is an aspect to be developed for the future, it would not seem to
have been a key factor in their growth. In the case of firm B, its managers admit
that it was only when things had stagnated that the need was understood to inno-
vate in all aspects, and the fruits of this can be seen in the fact that a spin off has
recently been created from the company that provides IT services of a highly in-
novative nature, with which they have entered into a major commercial agreement
and in which they have a shareholding.
91
5 Conclusions
The first conclusion of a methodological type to be drawn is that the data base
may prove misleading as it does not reflect the reality of the situation in many
cases, meaning that research needs to be continued.
Without doubt, 4 cases are too few to draw far-ranging conclusions regarding
the entire family of high-growth firms. Nonetheless, if some conclusions can be
drawn from this work, they are the following:
The importance of individuals in these types of firm: on the one hand, the 4
firms subject to study have proved to be very labour-intensive and, on the other,
mention should be made of the fact that the problems deriving from their man-
agement are the ones that most affect the firm and that finding specialist, skilled
labour in sufficient amounts is their greatest concern.
Working proactively by developing strategies that facilitate this is essential if
major growth rates are to be obtained. Growth would often seem to be the conse-
quence of a specific or even casual event, although we might dare to suggest that
this is not really the case. When a firm decides to devise a strategy aimed at attain-
ing growth, a specific situation often tends to arise from this via which the firm
starts to take off.
Lastly, something obvious should be pointed out when referring to business
growth the socio-economic context in general and sectorial context in particular.
It is no less true to say that there are firms that manage to grow in fairly unfavour-
able situations which would be worth studying in the future.
6 References
Arias M. (2003) Metodologas de investigacin emergentes en economa de la empresa, Papers

Proceedings 2003, XVII congreso nacional XIII congreso hispano-francs AEDEM, Univer-
sit Montesquieu Bordeaux IV, Bordeaux, pp.19-28.
Audretsch D. (1995): Innovation, growth and survival. International Journal of Industrial Or-
ganization , 13 (4): 441-457.
Barkham R., Gudgin G., Hart M. (1996): The determinants of small Firm Growth: An Inter-
Regional Study in the United Kingdom 1986-90, London, UK.
Birch D. (1981). Who Creates the Jobs? The Public Interest, 65, pp. 3-14
Bonache J. (1999) El estudio de casos como estrategia de construccin terica: caractersticas,
crticas y defensas, Cuadernos de Economa y Direccin de la Empresa, n 3 pp. 123-140.
Doms M., Dunne T., Roberts M.J. (1995): The role of technology use in the survival and growth
of manufacturing plants. International Journal of Industrial Organization, vol. 13, No 4.
Gummesson E. (1991) Qualitative Methods in Management Research. Sage Publications, New-
bury Park, California.
Hamel G. and Prahald C.K. (1993) Strategy as Street and Leverage. Harvard Business Review,
marzo-abril, pp. 75-84.
Malizia E. and Winders R. (1999): The prospects of High-growth enterprises: A retrospective
analysis of Georgia-based firms TVA Rural Studies Programme contractor paper 99-6.
92
Mc Cutcheon D. and Meredith J.R. (1993) Conducting case study research in operations man-
agement. Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 11, pp. 239-256.
Moreno A. y Casillas J. (2000): High-growth enterprises (Gazelles): A conceptual framework.
Departamento de Administracin y Marketing, Facultad de CCEE, Universidad de Sevilla.
Rialp A. (1998) El mtodo del caso como tcnica de investigacin y su aplicacin al estudio de
la funcin directiva. IV Taller de Metodologa ACEDE, 23-25 de abril, Arnedillo, La Rioja.
Schreyer P. (2000). High-growth firms and employment, OECD Science, Technology and Indus-
try Working Papers, 2000/3.
Segura J. (1993): Sobre polticas macroeconmicas de competitividad. Papeles de Economa es-
paola, N. 56, pp. 348-360.
Yin R.K. (1989): Case Study Research. Design and Methods, Applied Social Research Methods
Series, Vol. 5, Sage Publications, London.
93
Analysis and Characterisation of the High-

growth Firm in the Basque Country
Gonzalez X1 , Ruiz de Arbulo P2, Landeta B3, Basaez A4, Insunza G5
Abstract This work identifies those features that make the high-growth firm in the
Basque Country (CAPV) stand out above the others, with a view to creating a pro-
file or map of the best practices pursued by this type of firm. The results obtained
from our study provide us with data that enable us to classify the following types
of firm: young high-growth firm, small or medium size, job creator or not very in-
novating.
Key words: High-growth Firm, New Industry, Innovation, Employment.
1 Xabier Gonzalez Lasquibar ( e-mail: xabier.gonzalez@ehu.es )

2Patxi Ruiz de Arbulo
3 Benat Landeta Manzano

5Gaizka Insunza Araceta
* This work derives from the participation by its authors in the research project set in motion by
the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) titled "Determining features and factors of
high-growth innovation companies in the Basque Country" NUPV 11/08
94
1 Introduction
Firms tend to be viewed as main players in the economic development of society,

perhaps even more so in times of economic repression and depression.
The growth of the firm has been studied in depth over the past few years, and
continues to be studied now in these times of quite a major economic crisis when
the issue takes on even more importance among stakeholders (Freeman, 1994)
from the business community i.e. political leaders, academic agents, strategic
consultants and investment and entrepreneurial companies, among others (Pea et
al., 2009).
This research proposal attempts to pinpoint the features and factors that distin-
guish more dynamic firms from the rest from the standpoint of New Industry in
the Basque Country (CAPV) - i.e. industry comprising manufacturing firms and
those providing services to industry and that determine their competitive ad-
vantage. From this the aim is to draw conclusions that may enable references to be
provided about their strategies and thus help to improve the competitiveness of the
Basque industrial firm and, ultimately, of the Basque economy.
2 Conceptual Framework
The number of works that focus on company growth has increased in recent years.
Among firms that are growing, those that grow rapidly and continually have taken
on a special importance: namely, high-growth firms.
The study of high-growth firms is of vital importance as, according to many au-
thors (Birch, 1981 y 1987; Storey, 1994; Henkerson and Johansson, 2010; Amat,
O. et al., 2010) they promote the economic development of a region or country
and are a powerful source of employment. They are characterised by the fact they
are very dynamic and are indicators of competitiveness in a given region or coun-
try.
The notion of high-growth firm has been evolving since the time in the 1980s
when D. Birch (1981) developed pioneering research in which he attempted to
identify the determining factors of company survival and growth.
In his work titled Who creates jobs? D. Birch referred to the importance of new
firms in job creation. Using longitudinal data bases to study the birth, demise and
growth of firms of different sizes and age, he came to the conclusion that of all
jobs created between 1969 and 1976, two thirds were created by firms with less
than 20 employees and that 80% of new jobs were created by firms that were 4
years old or less (Birch, 1981: 7-8).
Another significant contribution from Birch was his classifications of firms ac-
cording to age and their impact on employment, via which he refers to gazelles.
According to Birch, the latter are responsible for most employment in the different
95
regions (Acs and Mueller, 2006). The term gazelle is used in business jargon to
refer to firms which grow exceptionally fast (Amat, et. al., 2000: 18).
Another work of note about gazelles, also by Birch, is the report published by
Cognetics in 1994. This firm used the terminology proposed by Birch in consider-
ing gazelles to be those that double their turnover over a 4-year period. In the
work, attention is drawn to the importance of gazelles in job creation (they are re-
sponsible for 70% of employment growth in the United States) and their involve-
ment in innovation processes as a source of improvement and the volatility of their
profits (Galve and Hernndez, 2007: 11).
Since then there have been numerous works that attempt to analyse the features
of gazelles both on a national level (Amat et.al., 2000, 2010; Cabanelas and
Vaamomde, 1996; Cabanelas, 2004; Checa, 2000; Galve and Hernndez, 2007;
Amat, et. al., 2000) and an international level (Malizia and Winders, 1999;
Schreyer, 2000, etc.). Despite the fact that the conceptualization of gazelles coin-
cides in all works on the subject, the selection criteria vary from one to the other,
making it difficult to carry out comparative analyses of the results obtained. None-
theless, consensus exists as to certain aspects of gazelles as follows:
They are young firms that are experiencing major growth rates in terms of in-
come and turnover over short periods of time.
They are the main source of net job creation.
They are noteworthy for the fact that they assume greater risks than the other
firms studied, increasing their size using internal growth as a strategy.
They make major investment in fixed assets in order to meet demand for their
products, financed via short and medium-term debt and stockholder equity.
They obtain higher levels of economic and financial profitability than those of
other companies, having less financial and staff expenditure in terms of income
(Galve and Hernndez, 2007: 14).
According to Amat et al (2000), one of the most important aspects of gazelles
is their great capacity to be self-sustaining, i.e. gazelles do not grow as a result of
capital contribution by partners (Galve and Hernndez, 2007: 15-16).
2.1 Problems when Defining High-growth Firms and Gazelles
One of the main problems noted in the works analysed about high-growth firms is
the selection of the variable that determines whether the company being analysed
is a high-growth firm or a gazelle. While some use inputs such as number of em-
ployees and their variation to explain growth, others prefer to measure this via the
evolution of assets or by measuring outputs from the firm including variables such
as sales or profits (Basaez et. al., 2012). Some establish a minimum number of
employees attained by a certain time in the firms lifespan (Malizia and Winders,
1999; Schreyer, 2000). Definitions also exist that use sales growth (Eckhardt and
96
Shane, 2006) and level of profit or earnings (Amat, et al., 2000) while, lastly, oth-
ers combine sales growth with employment (Delmar and Davidsson, 1998) or with
growth in wages (Badger and Schott, 2002).
The choice of variable via which growth is measured and the conditions estab-
lished for the purpose of considering whether a firm is high growth are of vital
importance, as they will determine the results obtained from the study. Such a re-
lationship may depend on the information available, the socio-economic context
or the objectives themselves set out by the study.
The most recent contributions with regard to the definition of high-growth
firms and gazelles have been led by Eurostat and the OECD (2008), and the main
aim has been to homogenize selection criteria on an international level. These con-
tributions establish a clear difference between concepts of high-growth firms and
gazelles that have indiscriminately been used in recent years.
In this study we have turned to the definition of high-growth firm provided by
Eurostat and the OECD. We consider this definition to be both rational and appro-
priate, as it highlights the importance of a unified criterion in order to be able to
compare different works.
2.2 Objectives
Starting with a new concept of industry which embraces activities involving the
provision of services to manufacturing firms and given the close technological and
economic inter-dependence between both, an attempt is made to obtain some ref-
erences on which management and entrepreneurs from the Basque business fabric
might base themselves when designing their competitive strategies. To this end,
the core objective of this work is to describe the features and factors that deter-
mine the success of firms classified as being high growth in the Basque Country
(CAPV).
Another of the objectives that emerge from the main objective is also to try and
create a profile of good practices pursued by these types of firm in order for this to
serve as an example for stakeholders within the business community, and as a
guide in strategic decision-making.
2.3 Methodology
The firms classified as being high growth have been identified by using the Iberi-
an balance sheet analytical system (SABI) and based on the definition provided by
Eurostat and the OECD (2008). These last-mentioned two transnational organisa-
tions define the high-growth firm as that which experiences job or turnover
97
growth rates of at least 20% a year over a period of three consecutive years and
has at least ten employees. They also define a gazelle as a high/growth firm that
has not been in existence for more than five years. This is the definition adopted
for the purpose of this work.
In this study we have turned to the last-mentioned definition, as we consider it
important for there to be a unified criterion to be able to compare different works.
As regards the variable chosen to measure growth, we have decided to opt for the
number of workers, as we consider this variable to be more explanatory than sales
or profit level within the context of crisis.
81 high-growth firms have been adopted using this first selection, and these
make up the sample for our study. In the first phase, a descriptive study will be
carried out of the features of such firms, ascertaining their size, age, number of
jobs, activity, turnover and geographic location.
Secondly, a qualitative study based on a structured questionnaire will be carried
out in order to identify key growth factors. By way of a stage prior to the conduct-
ing of interviews, each of the firms selected was contacted so as to explain to them
the scope and objectives of the diagnosis and to ensure that they take part in the
research project.
Once the process involving the compiling and review of data has been com-
pleted, the computerised processing of this data will then be carried out in order to
enable the information to be treated and for the data to be contrasted with that con-
tained in the literature reviewed.
3 Results obtained
3.1 Characterisation
As regards the description of the general and demographic features of the firms se-
lected, we have based out study on the data obtained from SABI.
The 81 high-growth firms represent 3.8% of industrial firms and those provid-
ing services to production in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Coun-
try (CAPV).
47% provide services to production and 53% to industry.
As for seniority, over 30% have been in existence for up to five years, in con-
trast to data from studies carried out along the same lines (Evans, 1987; Dunee
and Hughes, 1994; Amat et. al., 2010), which state that young firms are the
ones that grow the fastest.
The firms selected had a turnover of 891 million Euros during the year 2009.
58.3% are industrial firms and the rest are firms that provide services to pro-
98
duction. The fact should be taken into account that the average turnover of pro-
duction firms is 1.24 times greater than that in firms that provide services to in-
dustry, with the firms that make up our sample experiencing growth in turnover
of 132.32% over the period analysed.
The data shows that 58% of firms have less than 50 workers (small enterprises)
and the rest (42%) employ between 51 and 213 workers (medium-sized enter-
prises). This finding is in line with observations made by Birch (1994) and
Cabanelas (2004), that high-growth firms are noteworthy for their contribution
to job creation. The firms analysed employed an average 62.9 workers in the
year 2009. The number of jobs increased 2.21-fold over the period 2006-2009,
rising from 28.5 to 62.9.
As regards the geographic location of the firms studied, 64.2% maintain their
head offices in the historic territory of Vizcaya, 23.5% in Guipuzcoa and the
rest (12.3%) in Alava.
3.2 Determining Factors
The qualitative study carried out indicates that the 81 firms selected give priority
to proper company management, development of innovation, total quality assur-
ance and appropriate management of human resources as competitive factors.
As far as environmental factors that either positively or negatively affect the
firms competitiveness, from the data we conclude that those factors that hinder
competitiveness are as follows: competition, relocation of production, governmen-
tal legislation and the economic situation. According to the authors of this study,
the last-mentioned factor selected as an obstacle to competitiveness (economic cri-
sis) may be due to the current situation (2012).
In contrast, environmental factors that favour a firms competitiveness are as
follows: a diversified customer portfolio, a good network of distributors at their
disposal and a good pool of suppliers.
From among the six strategic decisions that needed to be chosen, differentiation
of product or service stood out over the rest. Likewise, attention should be drawn
to the importance given by firms to leadership in terms of costs, expansion poli-
cies and the diversification of products and markets.
As for investments, approximately half of the firms interviewed resorted main-
ly to self-financing (8 firms). The other half relied mainly on external funds (7
firms).
The main customers of the firms interviewed are industrial firms and those
providing services, followed by public administrative bodies. Most of the firms in-
terviewed concentrate the bulk of their sales on three main suppliers (7 firms be-
tween 41%-60%, 3 firms between 61%-80%, 4 firms between 81%-100%).
99
The most common commercial strategy among the firms interviewed has been
to establish a new positioning for the product or service on the market (9 firms).
Seven firms in turn highlight modification of design or presentation of the prod-
uct.
The firms analysed state that their operative market is concentrated on a re-
gional/autonomous level (36%), closely followed by the national market (30%),
with the provincial and European Union markets being the least used.
84% of firms point out that their sales depend on 25% exports, with the Euro-
pean Union being the most exploited area followed by the United States.
If we scrutinize the imports of these firms, we can see that 58% of firms make
25% of their purchases on a regional/autonomous level, while 21% of firms state
that 26%-50% of their purchases derive from local suppliers, and attention should
be drawn to the fact that 11% make all their purchases from local suppliers.
Most firms introduced some work organisation method for the first time during
the period subject to study, with work team management being the most wide-
spread among 60% of the firms interviewed. This is followed by the introduction
of new responsibility-sharing systems (50%), department restructuring (45%) and
the introduction of a rotation system (15%).
A noteworthy point is that only 10 of the firms interviewed have established a
proper R&D department, while 8 of them say they do not have one. However, on-
ly 6 firms say they have no workers who exclusively focus on these tasks. It has
been demonstrated that firms employ more than 10 workers devoted exclusively to
R&D in sectors in which this type of work is practically an obligation (biotech-
nology, aeronautics and electronics).
90% of the firms interviewed invest less than 10% of their turnover in R&D.
Only 2 firms confirm that they spend over 10%. Logically, these are two of the
firms that belong to the aforementioned sectors (specifically, biotechnology and
aeronautics).
As regards the result of research efforts, of the 18 firms interviewed only 4 ob-
tained their own patents over the period under consideration, with only 2 having
obtained international patents.
The fact that a third of the firms interviewed have not obtained any type of pub-
lic funding for their R&D activities should be deemed cause for concern.
4 Conclusions
Results obtained from previous works that describe the profile of the high-growth
firm have been referred to throughout this work.
We have come to the conclusion over the course of our study that the high-
growth firms analysed in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country tend
100
to share a major influence on job creation, be fairly young and small or medium-
sized (SMES) and, surprisingly, do not feature prominently in the area of R&D.
The results provided in our work thus confirm the predetermined profile of the
high-growth firm with which we were familiar.
5 References
Acs, Z.; Mueller, P. (2006). Employment effects of business dynamics: Mice, Gazelles and Ele-
phants. Max Planck Institute of Economics Discussion Paper 23.
Amat, O. et al., (2000): Las empresas gacela en Catalua: un estudio centrado en el trienio 1995
1997. Economa Industrial. nm. 334, pp. 55-70.
Amat, O. et. al., (2010). Las empresas de alto crecimiento y las gacelas. Profit Editorial.
Badger, T.y Schtt, T. (2002). Growth of young firms. Determinants revealed by analysis of reg-
istries in Denmark. Paper prepared to the LOK Research Conference.
Basaez Llantada, A et al., (2012). Las empresas de alto crecimiento. Un anlisis de los principa-
les trabajos en Espaa. CIO.Vigo.
Birch, D. (1981). Who Creates the Jobs? The Public Interest. Nm. 65, pp. 3-14.
Birch, D. (1987). Job Creation in America. New York. NY: The Free Press.
Birch, D. Haggerty, A. and Parsons, W. (1994). Corporate Almagnac, Cognetics Mimeo.
Cabanelas J (2004). Claves del crecimiento empresarial. Las empresas gacela de Galicia. Del
diagnstico a la accin. ARDN, Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Vigo.
Cabanelas, J. y Vaamonde, A. (1996). Las empresas Gacela de Euskadi. Informe, SPRI, Euskadi
Checa, A. (2000). Aproximacin al fenmeno de las empresas gacela en Andaluca. Boletn
econmico de Andaluca. Nm. 28-29.
Delmar, F., Davidsson, P., 1998. A taxonomy of high-growth firms. In: Reyonlds, P.D., Bygrave,
W.B., Carter,
N.M., Manigart, S., Mason, C.M., Meyer, G.D., Shaver, K.G. (Eds.), Frontiers of Entrepreneur-
ship Research.
Wellesley, MA7 Babson College, pp. 399 413
Dunne, P. y Hughes, A.A. (1994). Age, size, Growth and Survival: UK Companies in the 80s.
The Journal of Industrial Economics. Vol. 62, nm. 2, pp.115-140.
Eckhardt, J.; Shane, S. (2006). Innovation and small firms performance: Examing the relation-
ship between technological Innovation and the within industry distributions of fast growth
firms. SBA Small Business Research Summary. Nm. 272.
Evans, D.S. (1987).The Relationship Between Firm Growth, Size and Age: estimates for 100
Manufacturing Industries. The Journal of Industrial Economics. Vol. 35, nm. 4, pp. 567-581.
Freeman, R.E. (1994). The politics the stakeholder theory: some future directions. Business eth-
ics Quarterly. Vol. 4, nm. 4, pp. 409-421.
Galve, C. y Hernndez, A. (2007). Empresas gacela y empresas tortuga en Aragn. Fundacin
Economa Aragonesa, FUNDEAR. Documento de Trabajo nm. 37.
Henrekson, M. y Johansson, D. (2010). Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of
the evidence. Springer. Small Bus Economics. 35: 227244.
Malizia, E.; Winders, R. (1999). The prospects of High-growth enterprises: A retrospective anal-
ysis of Georgia-based firms TVA Rural Studies Programm contractor paper 99-6.
Pea, I et al., (2009). Actividad emprendedora vasca de alto potencial de crecimiento (2000-
2005). Instituto Vasco de Competitividad Fundacin Deusto.
Schreyer, P. 2000. High-growth Firms and Employment. STI Working Paper 2000/2, Paris:
OECD.
Storey, D. (1994): Understanding the Small Business Sector, London: Routledge.
101
The Delphi Method Applied for Validates the

Regional Innovation Model. Case Study Applied
in Central Region Romania.
Moica S1, Ganzarain J2
Abstract This paper takes as its starting point the model of innovation system that
was designed to build communication networks between the various factors in-
volved in the innovation process in Central Region Romania. The framework pre-
sents the Delphi method and was chosen based on the principle that forecasts from
a structured group of individuals are more accurate than those from unstructured
groups. (Rowe and Wright, 2001). This has been indicated with the term "collec-
tive intelligence"(Hiltz, Turoff, 1978). This study was realized in order to validate
the innovation model and the results revealed a triple imperative: it is necessary to
implement immediate actions that need support through a national strategy. Also
are welcomes the partnership, structured around three main areas: companies -
universities and research institutes; makers - experts in technological innovation;
government - strategic external partners.
Keywords: Innovation, Delphi Method, Region, Model
1 Introduction
The technological innovation model defined for the Central Region Romania re-
quires the validation of innovation experts in order to start the implementation ap-
proach. This is the reason why was chosen this interactive method called Delphi
with the objective of getting previsions from a group of experts in charge. These
1SorinaMoica ( e-mail: sorina.moica@yahoo.com)

Petru Maior University of Trgu Mures, Str. Nicolae Iorga, nr.1, Trgu Mures, 540088,
Romnia.
2JaioneGanzarain ( e-mail: jganzarain@mondragon.edu)
Departamento de Mecnica y Produccin Industrial, Goi Eskola Politeknikoa - Mondragon
Unibertsitatea, Loramendi 4 Aptdo. 23 - 20500 MONDRAGON
102
experts are answering to a set of questionnaires and are anonymous to each other
and independent of each other. This method provides more accurate results than
those offered by unstructured groups or even to quantitative methods.
According to the "European Innovation Scoreboard, the Central Region of Ro-
mania is positioned well below the European average, while in Spain, Bask Coun-
try Region is located near the European average, in general terms of innovation,
and on the leaders in Europe we find Finland. Given these positions, we determi-
nate a model of technological innovation for Romania, which is based on the anal-
ysis of different regional innovation systems in Finland and Spain (Moica, 2012).
Given these positions, the paper has defined the objective of validating a model
of innovation proposed for Central Region Romania.
2 Regional Innovation Model
It is common today to look at science and technology as a research or innovation

model. This model is said to be composed of four main elements or sectors uni-
versities, governments, industry and non-profit and their interrelationships. The
concepts of the Triple Helix and Regional Innovation Model have become popular
frameworks in the literature for discussing such a system approach.
Where did the frameworks come from? C. Freeman and B.-A. Lundvall, as pro-
lific writers on National Innovation System, have suggested that F. List (Das Na-
tionale System des Politischen Okonomie, 1841) was a pioneer of the approach.
However, one would have difficulty documenting a tradition of theoretical re-
search on the model approach arising out of Lists work.
In a recent paper, Godin has documented what the model approach in science
studies owes to national policy and the discussions conducted on this matter in in-
dustrialized countries beginning in the early 1960s. Over the same period, the
model approach found its way into official statistics, which helped solidify the
concept (Godin, 2009). However, we can go further back in time. And here na-
tional science policy is really at the heart of the matter again. The experience of
World War I led to mobilization of the totality of scientific resources on a nation-
wide basis, what the American historian A. H. Dupree called the great estates of
science in the country (Dupree, 1957), and to the demand to link universities with
industry.
In Great Britain, this started with efforts by the Board of Education (1915) to
strengthen and redirect educational resources toward industrys needs. The belief
in shortages of research scientists, particularly scientists with expertise in both
pure and applied science, and specifically industrial scientists, gave rise to the De-
partment of Scientific and Industrial Research.
103
3 Research Methodologies
Delphi, in contrast to other data gathering and analysis method, employs multiple
iterations created to develop a consensus of opinion concerning a specific topic.
Iterations refer to the feedback process. The process was viewed as a series of
rounds; in each round every participant worked through a questionnaire which was
returned to the researcher who collected, edited, and returned to every participant
a statement of the position of the whole group and the participants own position.
A summation of comments made each participant aware of the range of opinions
and the reasons underlying those opinions, indicates Ludwig (1994).
Specifically, the feedback process encourages the selected Delphi participants
to reassess their initial judgments about the information provided in previous
questioner.
In the original Delphi process, the key elements were (1) structuring of infor-
mation flow, (2) feedback to the participants, and (3) anonymity for the partici-
pants. The interactions among panel members are controlled by a monitor who fil-
ters out information that is not related to the purpose of the group. The usual
problems of group dynamics are thus completely bypassed. In this way Fowles
(1978) describes the following ten steps for the Delphi method:
Formation of a team to undertake and monitor a Delphi on a given subject.
Selection of one or more panels to participate in the exercise. Customarily, the
panelists are experts in the area to be investigated.
Development of the first round Delphi questionnaire.
Testing the questionnaire for proper wording (e.g., ambiguities, vagueness)
Transmission of the first questionnaires to the panelists.
Analysis of the first round responses.
Preparation of the second round questionnaires (and possible testing).
Transmission of the second round questionnaires to the panelists.
Analysis of the second round responses (Steps 7 to 9 are reiterated as long as
desired or necessary to achieve stability in the results.)
Preparation of a report by the analysis team to present the conclusions of the
exercise.
4 Innovation Model and its validation
The model of innovation propose a collaboration that would be an enabling

bodypromoting the learning and practice of enterprise and the exploitation of
our intellectual property and that the aim was to create an nationally renowned
centre of excellence, to study and understand enterprise and to stimulate entrepre-
neurial activity so that the region will be known throughout the world as a centre
104
for technology transfer at the forefront of knowledge. The centres first business
plan called for it to establish entrepreneurship education politics for students and
academic entrepreneurs, professional training programmer for aspiring entrepre-
neurs in the area business community, and a scholarly research agenda around en-
terprise.
The model consists of the following components:
People are central to the model, as the engine of the whole system;
Basic processes of innovation are composed of three elements:
Assimilation and application of knowledge,
Dissemination and knowledge transfer;
Generation of knowledge;
The support of the innovation process, which facilitates and promotes innova-
tion process, consisting of direct agents and agents such as companies and gov-
ernment support by the Structural Funds;
Universities, companies and government agencies are the main generators of
the innovation process, enabling them to generate knowledge chain movement;
The interaction between universities, companies and government agencies
may be technical, commercial, social, financial and legal;
Economic and social results are the output of the innovation system they
eventually leading to economic and social grow;
Regional networks, national and international link with other innovative re-
gions in Romania, and the global innovation system.
Fig. 1 The "Perpetuum symbiotic" model of innovation proposed for Central Region
105
The name of the model symbolizes the continuous movement of the innovation
system (perpetual) of the elements; they depend and interact with each other in a
perfect symbiosis.
It seeks the change of the solid boundaries and organizations are public and
private companies, University and government agencies in a semi-permeable
membrane, allowing easy movement between the innovation environment and in-
ternal processes Developed Research and Innovation. (Moica , 2012)
4.1 Delphi Method Implementation
We use the Delphi process as data collection method applying two iterations. The-
oretically, the Delphi process can be continuously iterated until consensus is de-
termined to have been achieved.
Individuals are considered eligible to be invited to participate in a Delphi study
if they have somewhat related backgrounds and experiences concerning the target
issue, are capable of contributing helpful inputs, and are willing to revise their ini-
tial or previous judgments for the purpose of reaching or attaining consensus (Pill,
1971; Oh, 1974).
Our groups of people that were well qualified to be subjects of a Delphi study
are divided in three categories:
Top management decision makers from the Central Region Romania;
The professional staff members from Regional Agencies
Teacher from the study field
The questionnaire was applied to each person interviewed face-to-face or by
mail a total of 24 subjects was answering. To centralize the answers was compiled
a database in Excel, and then was made the synthesis of the information.
Questions posed were used to predict and define innovation model and in total
was 16 for the first round.
Conducting a Delphi study can be time-consuming. Specifically, when the in-
strument of a Delphi study consists of a large number of statements, subjects will
need to dedicate large blocks of time to complete the questionnaires. For the first
round the allocated average of time use to answer to the question was 15 minutes.
Regarding data analysis, decision rules must be established to assemble and or-
ganize the judgments and insights provided by Delphi subjects. However, the kind
and type of criteria to use to both define and determine consensus in a Delphi
study is subject to interpretation.
In the Delphi process that we apply, data analysis can involve both qualitative
and quantitative data. Investigators need to deal with qualitative data which use
open-ended questions to solicit subjects opinions, are conducted in the initial iter-
ation. Subsequent iterations are to identify and hopefully achieve the desired level
106
of consensus as well as any changes of judgments among panelists. The major sta-
tistics used in Delphi studies are measures of central tendency (means, median,
and mode) and level of dispersion (standard deviation and inter-quartile range) in
order to present information concerning the collective judgments of respondents
(Hasson, Keeney, McKenna, 2000).
5 Results
In the study conducted to validate innovation model for the Central Region of
Romania, a prospective study on the general issue of the innovation system. The
study, based on consultation with expert opinion by the Delphi method, referred to
the following key issues reflected in the design of the questionnaire administered:
Definition of innovation system and the approach to its development in Romania;
Assessing the current state; Identify actions required immediate release. The fol-
lowing are the conclusions and recommendations for measures and actions result-
ing from the two stages of mediation responses.
5.1 Results after Round 1 of Responses
In the first round, the Delphi process traditionally begins with an open-ended
questionnaire. After receiving subjects responses, investigators need to convert
the collected information into a well-structured questionnaire. This questionnaire
is used as the survey instrument for the second round of data collection.
The information collected after the first round of response was classified in tree
main category:
The concept of innovation. Conclusions drawn are: The region need to imple-
ment a system of innovation in enterprises and institutions; Innovation is seen
as a source of wealth in society; Production processes based on innovation
strategies become priority for innovative companies; Vectors of technological
innovation system are collaborative processes, education and development, in-
telligent position on the market; Concern for lifelong learning and organiza-
tional knowledge is acknowledged and assumed by everyone: governments, cit-
izens, businesses; Interaction between the governed and those who govern
becomes operative and effective.
Choice of approach. The proposed model takes into account innovative ap-
proaches to European structures. The recommendation steps for compliance with
the EU structures innovation. Given the enormous gap towards European coun-
tries structures, it is possible that proposed model to require additions adjust-
ments.
107
Led aspects and emerging issues. The led aspects are: Creating a legal frame-
work consistent with the trends of European and Euro-Atlantic area to stimulate
creativity and develop innovative products and services; The reform and devel-
opment of education and research; Development of national innovation system
to achieve non-discriminatory access; Coherent policies to attract specific fund-
ing for innovation; Use consistent and effective social innovation. Emerging is-
sues resulted are: The emergence and development of new products and services
and changes in the structure of national income share for Innovation and Devel-
opment (to be more than 3% of GDP); Changes in individual consumption by
generating needs, leading to the necessity of new products; The emergence of
new intellectual elite in all development sectors; Motivate staff working in re-
search - development innovation.
5.2 Results after Round 2 of Responses
In the second round, each Delphi participant receives a second questionnaire and
is asked to review the items summarized by the investigators based on the infor-
mation provided in the first round. Accordingly, Delphi panelists may be required
to rate or rank-order items to establish preliminary priorities among items.
The study led to highlight, first, that the state has a decisive role and the im-
portance of collaboration with Romanian firms and R & D institutions, universi-
ties, and especially their connection with international innovation systems. Mani-
festation of the active role of the state in developing regional innovation system
aims to: Taking initiatives based on programs and projects; Provision of financial
resources; strengthening the legislative framework; State as a partner and mediator
in the development of the system of regional innovation, working.
Business sector organizations can bring important improvements in the eco-
nomic sector refurbishment projects and creating new products and services.
Companies should develop long term strategies on technological innovation. Stra-
tegic foreign partners may be required to contribute to the collaboration with edu-
cation, research and industry in the region, common interest objectives of the
strategy and relevant national programs. External institutional factors may con-
tribute to the development of regional innovation system in Romania through di-
rect consultation with partners in the country, loans, consulting, technical assis-
tance, monitoring, etc.
108
6 References
Adler M, Ziglio E (1996) Gazing into the oracle. Jessica Kingsley Publishers: Bristol, PA
Dalkey N C, Helmer O (1963) An experimental application of the Delphi method to the use of
experts. Management Science, 9 (3), 458-467
Delbecq AL, Van de Ven AH, Gustafson DH (1975) Group techniques for program planning.
Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, and Co.
De Propris L (2002) Types of Innovation and Inter-firm Co-operation, Entrepreneurship and Re-
gional Development
Dupree AH (1957) Science in the Federal Government, a history of policies and activities to
1940.
Dyker D, Radosevic S (2001)Building Social Capability for Economic Catch-up: The Experienc-
es and Prospectus of the Post-socialist Countries, Innovation.
Freeman C (1995) The national system of innovation in historical perspective, Cambridge
Journal of Economics, 5-24
Fowles J (1978) Handbook of futures research. Greenwood Press: Connecticut
Godin B (2009) National Innovation System: The System Approach in Historical Perspective,
Science, Technology and Human Values, 34 (4): 476-501
Gordon TJ, Hayward H (1968) Initial experiments with the cross-impact matrix method of fore-
casting. Futures, December, 1968, 1(2), pp. 100-116
Hasson F, Keeney S, McKenna H (2000) Research guidelines for the Delphi survey technique.
Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32 (4), 1008-1015
Helmer O (1977) Problems in futures research: Delphi and causal cross-impact analysis. Fu-
tures, February 1977, pp. 17-31
Henrekson M, Nathan Rosenberg (2001) Designing efficient institutions for science-based entre-
preneurship: lesson from the US and Sweden, Journal of Technology Transfer
Hiltz SR, Turoff M (1978) The Network Nation: Human Communication via Computer, Addi-
son-Wesley, ISBN 978-0-262-08219-8
Hsu, Chia-Chien, Sandford, Brian A (2007) The Delphi Technique: Making Sense of Consensus.
Practical Assessment Research & Evaluation, 12(10)
Hynes Briga, Ita Richardson (2007) Entrepreneurship education: A mechanism for engaging and
exchanging with the small business sector, Education +Training, 49, 732-44
Jacob Merle, Mats Lundqvist, Hans Hellsmark (2003) Entrepreneurial transformations in the
Swedish university system: The case of Chalmers University of Technology, Research Poli-
cy, 32, 1555-68
Keeble D, Wilkison F (2000) High -Technology Clusters, Networking and Collective Learning
in Europe, Ashgate, England
Kevles DJ (1971) The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America.
New York: Alfred K. Knopf
Levary RR, Han D (1995) Choosing a technological forecasting method. IM, pp. 14-18
Ludwig BG (1994) Internationalizing Extension: An exploration of the characteristics evident in
a state university Extension system that achieves internationalization. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, The Ohio State University, Columbus
Ludwig B (1997) Predicting the future: Have you considered using the Delphi methodology?
Journal of Extension, 35, 1-4
Lundvall B (1992) National Systems of Innovation; Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interac-
tive Learning, London, Pinter
Marks G, Scharpf F, Schmitter W, Streeck W (1996) Governance in the European Union, Lon-
don, Sage
109
Miller LE (2006) Determining what could/should be: The Delphi technique and its application.
Paper presented at the meeting of the 2006 annual meeting of the Mid-Western Educational
Research Association Columbus, Ohio
Moica S (2012) Modelul de inovare regional, Editura Universitatii Petru Maior, Targu Mures
Nelson R, Winter S (1982) An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Boston
Nystrm P, Starbuck W(1984) To avoid organizational crisis unlearn, Organizational Dynamics
Spring
Oh K H (1974) Forecasting through hierarchical Delphi. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The
Ohio State University, Columbus
Pill J (1971) The Delphi method: Substance, context, a critique and an annotated bibliography.
Socio-Economic Planning Science, 5, 57-71
Rescher (1998) Predicting the Future, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press
Rowe G, Wright G (2001) Expert Opinions in Forecasting. Role of the Delphi Technique. In:
Armstrong (Ed.): Principles of Forecasting: A Handbook of Researchers and Practitioners,
Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Turoff M, Hiltz SR (1996) Computer based Delphi process. In M. Adler, & E. Ziglio (Eds.).
Gazing into the oracle: The Delphi method and its application to social policy and public
health (pp. 56-88). London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Ulschak FL (1983) Human resource development: The theory and practice of need assessment.
Reston, VA: Reston Publishing Company, Inc
110
Regional Strategic Development Method as a

Tool for the Emergence of New Industries at
Regional Level
Ganzarain J1, Igartua J.I 2, Markuerkiaga L3
Abstract How the regional industrial network diversifies to meet the needs of a
new economy is one of the key issues for the longterm competitiveness of the re-
gion. Regions diversify into industries that make intensive use of the capabilities
in which they are specialized. Regional Strategic Development Method is
showed in this research as the innovative tool to develop the regional innovation
systems in order to diversify the region. The development of the tool RSDM is the
aim of this investigation study, which would allow us to define a Regional trans-
formation which is based on the local skills and competences-knowledge
Keywords: Innovation System, Regional Development, Regional System of Inno-

vation, Diversification.
1 Introduction
Innovations are widely seen as the driving force of economic growth and competi-
tiveness. The innovation environment is, however, facing remarkable challenges
where regions have to maintain and develop their well-being in global competition
1JaioneGanzarain Epelde ( e-mail: jganzarain@mondragon.edu)

Dpto. de Mecnica y Produccin Industrial. Escuela Politcnica Superior de Mondragon
Unibertsitatea. Loramendi 4, 20500 Arrasate-Mondragron.
2Juan Ignacio Igartua Lpez ( e-mail: jigartua@mondragon.edu)
3LeireMarkuerkiaga Arritola ( e-mail: lmarkuerkiaga@mondragon.edu)
111
under the rules of absolute competitiveness (Porter 1990; Camagni 2002, Pek-
karinen & Harmaakorpi, 2006).
The innovation processes are increasingly embedded in normal social and eco-
nomic activities (Kline and Rosenberg, 1986; Lundvall, 1988; Schienstock and
Hamalainen, 2001). The source of innovation is often the interaction of different
actor-networks comprising users, producers and related development organiza-
tions. Therefore, it seems a crucial task for regional innovation policies and strate-
gies to promote innovation in a multi-actor environment to take advantage of lo-
cally bounded spillovers (Pekkarinen & Harmaakorpi, 2006).
Depending on their context, they can be called national innovation systems
or regional innovation system (Lundvall, 1992;Freeman, 1987). Confessing the
importance of a regional innovations system, this study focuses on the concept of
a regional innovation system.
The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 briefly introduces the litera-
ture on regional innovations systems. Section 3 describes the Regional Strategic
Development Methodology. Section 4 presents the main conclusions.
2 Regional Innovation System
The theory of national innovation system is endebted to the evolutionary theory of

technological change (Moulaert &Sekia, 2003). The concept of the national sys-
tem, reflect that there are differences between nations regarding the structure of
the production systems and institutions. The historical experience, the language
and the culture make those differences in the next elements of the system: internal
organization of firms, interfirm relationships, role of the public sector, institutional
set-up of the financial sector and R&D intensity and R&D organization. Relation-
ships among these elements are crucial for the success of the innovation
(Lundvall, 1992).
Innovation has to do with long-term relationships and close interaction among
external agents of the firm, according to the Sappho-study made by Freeman in the
1970s (Rothwell, 1977). This constituted one important step toward national inno-
vation system. The second step was to realize that the relationships between
agents had to be non-price, being elements of power, trust and loyalty. The third
step was to realize the differences of national contexts offer a lot of possibilities to
establish organized markets and processes of interactive learning. However
(Lundvall et al., 2002) defined the fourth element in the combination: institutions
According to (Edquist, 1997) and (Lundvall, 1992), all the core elements of the
RSI have been accepted that they can also be applied to other types of systems that
operate at regional levels. As indicated (Doloreux, 2002) the accurate distinction
between them is difficult to establish. In fact, not all the authors make the differ-
ences between these ideas, because some categorize as different concepts whereas
112
others see regional systems as a subset of the national systems. (Cooke, Uranga &
Etxebarria, 1998) defined a RIS as a system in which firms and other organiza-
tions are systematically engaged in interactive learning through an institutional
milieu characterized by embeddedness.
As determined (Doloreux, 2002), RIS not only will be reproduced by the crea-
tion of knowledge by firms and institutions, but also it needs the interaction of
these organizations.
Three important facts should be noted about the concept of RIS. First, it is a so-
cial system. Second, it needs interactions between public and private sectors. And
third, it is created to enhance the localized learning capabilities of a region.
On the authority of (Doloreux, 2002) there are different mechanisms in Re-
gional Systems of Innovation, which are divided in two groups: the basic elements
and the relationships between them.
The Regional System of Innovation has four basic elements: firms, institutions,
knowledge infrastructures and innovative policy. Firms are the economic agents
that have an important role by taking responsibility for generating and diffusing
knowledge. Institutions are the next ones: governments, universities, industrial re-
search and development institutions, etc. The collaboration between these ele-
ments is key in order to diversify regions into industries that make intensive use of
the capabilities in which they are specialized in (Boschma, Minondo, and Navarro,
2013).
In this sense the Regional diversification is high on the scientific agenda. Actu-
ally many regions are facing a severe economic decline, there is an increasing
awareness that there is a need to develop new economic activities to compensate
for the decline and losses in other economic activities (Boschma, Minondo, and
Navarro, 2013). What determines regional diversification, and how do regions de-
velop new growth paths is a fundamental question (Simmie and Carpenter, 2007;
Fornahl, Henn, and Menzel, 2010).
3 Regional Strategic Development Method
Regional strengths and potentials play an important role in creating future innova-
tion for the region and sectorial strategies. In this study, the RSDM is presented as
an organizational innovation for a regional innovation policy (Harmaakorpi and
Pekkarinen, 2002; Harmaakorpi, 2004). The method helps to look for regional
business potentials on which it is possible to build the future competitive ad-
vantage of a region.
The idea of developing the RSDM has been the importance of the individual
regional development paths in designing development strategies. The strategies
are based on a thorough assessment of regional resources, capabilities and compe-
113
tencies, and future opportunities leading to business potentials, which can give a
region a competitive advantage.
The RSDM can be seen as a network leadership tool helping the regional actors
to interact during the development process, as well as helping to promote dynamic
capabilities and creative social capital in a region.
The RSDM uses the concept of a regional development platform as a tool for
seeking regional business potential. The method is a useful tool in exploring exist-
ing business potentials in regional resource configurations. The concept of region-
al development platforms is related to the concept of clusters. Regional Strategic
development method aim to describe the potentials that can form future regional
clusters of the existing resource base rather than describe existing clusters and it
can be defined as regional resource configurations based on the past development
trajectories, but presenting the future potential to produce competitive advantage
existing in the defined resource configurations (Harmaakorpi and Pekkarinen,
2003, pp. 89).
The RSDM consists of four phases:
Diagnosis of the Region: Background study of the industries and areas of ex-
pertise in the region.
Measurement of the capacity of development of the region.
Analysis of key variables for the future development of the region. (Analysis
of statistical and empirical information)
Assessment of future scenarios.
3.1 STEP 1: Diagnosis of the Region: Background Study of the

Industries and Areas of Expertise in the Region
A preliminary diagnosis was developed using Porters Diamond (Porter,2003), an-

alyzing the demand conditions of the region as a demanding client enable the
companies to discover needs in sight which promotes the innovation. The produc-
tive factors were also examined due to anticipate the needs of the region knowing
its hereditary legacy, natural resources, touristic attractions, etc. The related indus-
tries or clusters are very important as considering the region as a whole is what
will make each company successful. And finally the firms strategy, structure and
rivalry of the enterprises require an environment where competitiveness led to in-
novation. Furthermore, the government or politics can also affect the regions de-
velopment as the result of their work and conditionates the companies activities
having a bearing on the products competitiveness capacity and the services given.
The institutions for collaboration were also analyzed as their main aims are to im-
prove the regions productivity, its profitability and the companies contribution to
the added value for the clients, apart from providing information and technology
114
and promoting collaboration among different enterprises boosting joint initiative

and projects.
3.2 STEP 2: Measurement of the Capacity of Development of the

Region: Competency Tree Workshop
The objective of this phase was to describe the current situation developing a di-
agnosis of the region so key variables could be identified. Its necessary to know
how the region was in the past, how it is nowadays to forecast possible future sce-
narios. That analysis is carried out with the help of the competency tree workshop.
It consist on a basic analysis and assessment of the regions technological, indus-
trial, social, cultural, environmental, trading and productivity competences.
Theres going to be developed a tree for each era, one for the past and one for the
present. In both of them, the root represents the crafts, skills, resources and know-
how, the trunk represents the implementation, organization and applications of
them, and finally, the branches represent the product and services lines and the
market.
The Competency trees workshop was held to visualize the changes and devel-
opment in the area in terms of labour situation. The roots of the tree represent the
resources and competences a region has. The trunk shows the equipment and in-
frastructures of the region. And on the top of the tree, the branches display the
products or services sold in different areas along the World.
3.3 STEP 3: Analysis of Key Variables for the Future

Development of the Region. (Structure Analysis (MIC MAC
mation)
Structural analysis of the system is important from various points of view. Its an
opportunity for a thorough presentation of the system under study and reduces the
complexities of the system in simple understandable language. It can also be used
in decision making to achieving the desired objectives and in forecasting, which is
what prospective needs. The identification of key variables which could influence
the future dimensions is necessary to evolve appropriate policies and strategies.
The structural analysis is a tool that vertebrates the pooling of ideas. This form of
analysis describes a system using a matrix which combines the constituent com-
ponents of the system and identifies the main variables which are both influential
and dependent: those which are essential to the evolution of the system.
115
So, this phase consists in identifying the key variables, that is to say, those es-
sential to the system's development, first by using direct classification, then
through indirect classification (Godet ,2007).
The methodology for identification of key variables based on direct as well as
indirect inter-relationships (Impact Matrix Cross-Reference Multiplication Ap-
plied to a Classification -MIC MAC technique) which, often, may not be clearly
visible is explained below. The classification of the variables in different types of
roles being played by each one is also presented by using the driver-dependence
matrix.
Fig. 1 MIC MAC matrix
Those essential variables identified through MIC MAC keep the system going,
so it is relevant to identify them in order to identify actions that describr the new
scearios to diversify. As shown in the figure, Input variables are very influential
but not much dependent from the way the system works. Among them determi-
nant and environmental variables are defined.
The Output variables include the result and target variables. Finally the strate-
gic axis embraces autonomous and key variables and regulating and secondary
levers. It shows the variables that influence on the smooth running of the system
and the strategic challenges of the system. Changing these variables has an evolu-
tion effect on the other variables depending on their driving and dependence level.
So, depending on each variable result, a particular location on the driving pow-
er and dependence diagram and a particular characteristic on the region develop-
ment system will be given. These categories differ from each another depending
on the specific role the variables can play in the system's dynamics.
The strategy axis is composed by the variables that have a higher enough to be
important for the system operation combined with a dependency that make then
subject to alterations on them. The strategy axis analysis is complementary to the
one done on the subsystems, which clears up the relationship among the variables
and let us know the way to follow with some of them, starting from the ones in the
bottom-left till the ones on the right-top, the key ones.
116
Once the situation of the region and the potential on it its known, the structure
analysis started with direct related variables study and then the MIC-MAC method
for the analysis. It was defined the list of variables or factors most significant of
the system. On the questionnaires they were asked on the matters of demography,
social, socioeconomic, economic, tax system, environmental, health, technology,
energetic, transport, town-planning, territorial, infrastructure, educational, training
and political-administrative issues, which are explained below:
So, to find the regions key variables among the ones defined, the agents were
split in groups of three people. Each group had a list of ten variables that had to re-
late with all the rest to see the influence of them on the others. Using this tool, a
direct relationship between different variables is quantified but the the filling-in
must be qualitative.
But to understand how all these variables act in the development process of the
region its very important to know the non-direct relationship among them and this
filling-in phase helps to pose variables, some of which would have been evaded if
such a systematic and thorough investigation had not been carried out. This ques-
tioning procedure not only enables one to avoid errors, but also helps to organise
and classify ideas by creating a common language within the group and allows for
a redefinition of the variables and therefore tends to make a more accurate analy-
sis of the system.
3.4. STEP 4: Assessment of Future Scenarios.
Finally, after knowing who the region works and its results, possible future scenar-
ios can be developed and making them the basis, fix a strategy to follow for the
regions development. A scenario has to be coherent, credible transparent and per-
tinence so the ones involved can feel as a part of it and act to make it happen.
There are two types of scenarios: exploratory ones, which taking the past and pre-
sent tendencies as a starting point lead to a probable future, and the anticipation
one, which is based on different pictures of the future that could be desired or
feared.
But to set up a scenario the first thing to be defined is the basis. With all the re-
sults of the previous steps, competency trees and structure analysis the basis for
the scenarios is set as it determines where to start and all the characteristic of the
region.
Then, it is necessary to mark the possibilities and reduce the uncertainty. Hav-
ing the basis of the scenarios, and rounding it with some hypothesizes a big
amount of possibilities will be defined. Uncertainty can be reduced considering
probability of different futures combinations happening, in a subjective way, us-
ing some experts methods.
117
These different futures will be tuned in with the compatible development

mechanism and the system key variables will be steered towards the way the re-
gion has to follow from current situation to the represented future in a coherent
way.
So far, a tendency scenario will be defined, which will be the most probable
path to follow and then, two contrasted scenarios, one feared scenario and other
strong-willed so that all the possibilities are covered. The most important stage on
this point is to cover all possible fields of probable scenarios.
This phase should be effectuated in interaction between the main actors of a re-
gion using future research methods, like Delphi method.
4 Conclusion
Increasing innovative capability is a key factor in building regional competitive

advantage under the present techno-economic paradigm. Regional innovative ca-
pability is formed by the innovative capability of the regional actors and their co-
operation in innovation processes. In the present study, the RSDM was presented
as an innovative method to explore and exploit the best business potentials in a
networked regional development environment.
This methodology is orientated to promote regional diversification based on
key competencies of the different agents in the region.
5 References
Boschma, Minondo, and Navarro, 2013 The Emergence of New Industries at the Regional Level
in Spain:A Proximity", Economic Geography, 2013, vol.89,pp. 29-51 Approach Based on
Product Relatedness
Cooke, P., Uranga, M.G. & Etxebarria, G. 1998, "Regional systems of innovation: an evolution-
ary perspective", Environment and Planning A, vol. 30, pp. 1563-1584.
Doloreux, D. 2002, "What we should know about regional systems of innovation", Technology
in society, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 243-263.
Edquist, C. 1997, "Systems of innovation: Technologies, organisations and institutions", London:
Pinter, .
Fornahl, D.; Henn, S.; and Menzel, M., eds. 2010. Emerging clusters. Cheltenham, U.K.:
Edward Elgar.
Freeman, C., 1987. Technology Policy and Economic Performance: Lessons from Japan. Pinter,
London.
Godet, M. (2007). La Caja de Herramientas de la prospectiva estratgica. Espaa.
Kline S. and Rosenberg N. (1986) An overview on innovation, in Landau R. and Rosenberg N.
(Eds) The Positive Sum Strategy, pp. 275305. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
118
Lundvall B.-A . (1988) Innovation as an interactive process: from userproducer interaction to

the national system of innovation, in Dosi G., Freeman G., Nelson R., SilverbeRG G. and
Soete L. (Eds) Technical Change and Economic Theory, pp. 349
369. Pinter, London.
Lundvall, B.. 1992, "National systems of innovation: towards a theory of innovation and inter-
active learning", .
Lundvall, B.., Johnson, B., Andersen, E.S. & Dalum, B. 2002, "National systems of produc-
tion, innovation and competence building", Research policy, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 213-231.
Moulaert, F.&Sekia, F. (2003) Territorial innovationmodels: A critical survey, Regional Studies,
37(3), pp. 289302.
Pekkarinen & Harmaakorpi, 2006 "Building Regional Innovation Networks: The Definition of an
Age Business Core Process in a Regional Innovation System", Regional Studies, Vol. 40.4,
pp. 401413
Porter, M. 2003, "The economic performance of regions", Regional Studies, vol. 37, no. 6-7, pp.
545-546.
Rothwell, R. 1977, "The characteristics of successful innovators and technically progressive
firms (with some comments on innovation research)", R&D Management, vol. 7, no. 3, pp.
191-206.
Schienstock G. and Hamalainen T. (2001) Transformation of the Finnish innovation system. A
network approach. Reports Series No. 7. Sitra, Hakapaino Oy, Helsinki.
Simmie, J., and Carpenter, J., eds. 2007. Path dependence and the evolution of city regional
development.Working Paper Series No. 197. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Brookes University
119
Costing a Product by Old and New Techniques:

Different Wines for Different Occasions
Ruiz de Arbulo Lpez, P1, Fortuny-Santos, J2, Vintr-Snchez, C3
Abstract The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast four different costing
systems: Full costing, Activity-based Costing (ABC), Time-driven Activity-based
Costing (TDABC) and Value Stream Costing (VSC). Companies around the world
use different costing techniques for a variety of reasons and a particular plant may
wonder which approach would fit better its needs. Since TDABC and VSC are
new techniques, there are not many references in literature and not many compa-
nies have implemented them. For this reason, the comparison is done by means of
a case study. Results given by the four methods may be more or less similar de-
pending on the structure and organization of both the process and the company.
Keywords: Time-driven activity-based costing; lean manufacturing; value stream

costing.
1 Introduction
The need of companies for precise information on costs is out of question because
an adequate knowledge about costs is a key factor to assure the profitability of
businesses. In some industries, the selling price of their products is fixed by their
customers and manufacturers cannot influence prices: the only one variable that
1 Patxi Ruiz de Arbulo (e-mail: patxi.ruizdearbulo@ehu.es)

2JordiFortuny-Santos
Business Organization Department, Technical University of Catalonia, Avda. Bases de Manresa,
61-73 08242 Manresa, Spain.
3CarlaVintr Snchez
Business Organization Department, Technical University of Catalonia, Avda. Bases de Manresa,
61-73 08242 Manresa, Spain.
120
they can act upon is the manufacturing cost. This is especially important in the en-
vironment of international economic crisis that companies are currently facing.
Besides, the costing system has to be able of capturing the effects on cost of
the efforts placed on improving processes.
In practice, different cost-accounting methods are applied: traditional costing
systems such as full costing, more recent approaches like Activity-based Costing
(ABC), or 21th Century wannabes like Time-driven Activity-based Costing
(TDABC) or Value Stream Costing (VSC). Karmarkar et al. (1990) state that the
reasons why companies use one or another costing system are not well known,
but they, empirically, appear related to the manufacturing process (complexity,
layout, number of products, and so on).
In this paper, we try to shed light on that question by means of a comparison
among four cost-accounting methods (Full costing, ABC, TDABC and VSC) in a
case study. Different comparisons between accounting methods can be found in
Balakrishnan et al. (2012) and Li et al. (2012, but there is no other previous com-
parison among these four costing methods in literature.
2 Research Methodology: a Case Study
In order to facilitate the assessment on the major or minor complexity of applica-

tion and the goodness of their results, we introduce a practical case that depicts the
main differences among Full Costing, ABC, TDABC and VSC.
We know of companies, in Spain, that have evolved from full costing to ABC
and even TDABC (Ruiz de Arbulo et al., 2013a) but we do not know of any com-
pany that has implemented VSC so far. For this reason the research approach
could not be a massive survey. When little is known about an issue, a case study is
indicated due to its exploratory nature (Voss et al., 2002).
Our example is constructed on a case study in previous literature (Ruiz de Ar-
bulo and Fortuny-Santos, 2011) and it is complete enough to appreciate the tech-
niques used by the different costing systems but also short enough for an easy
comprehension.
Table 1 Average time and production schedule for each product type. Number of parts in each
type of knob
Knob A Knob B Knob C

Time (seconds) 140 100 80
Quantity
2,000 2,000 1,000 5,000
(knobs /month)
121
Table 1(continued) Average time and production schedule for each product type. Number of
parts in each type of knob
Cost per part

Parts Knob A Knob B Knob C
()
Part 1 1 1 1 0.25
Part 2 0 1 1 1.00
Part 3 1 0 1 1.20
Part 4 0 0 0 0.80
Part 5 0 1 0 0.60
The company manufactures and sells plastic parts for the automotive sector.
The manufactured products are booth locking knobs used to open the booth of the
car. The manufacturing process has three phases: Injection molding, painting and
assembly but here only the assembly process is considered. This process is per-
formed in a U-shaped cell where three different types of knobs (A, B, and C) are
assembled. Table 1 shows the production schedule and the standard time (derived
from work study) to assemble each knob. Knobs are made up of several parts
(numbered 1 to 5), depending on the model (Table 1). In consequence, the cost of
materials is different for every model.
3 Computing the Full Cost of the Products
Full Costing classifies manufacturing costs as either direct or indirect. Direct costs
are traced to manufactured products considering the consumption of each product.
Indirect costs (overhead) are assigned using a two-stage allocation process:
In the first stage, resources are allocated to cost centers (cost pools) and costs
accumulated in auxiliary departments are assigned to main departments on the
basis of the usage that main departments have of auxiliary departments.
In a second stage, overheads are allocated to products. Usually volume-based
cost drivers are used.
In our example, direct labor hours would be the common allocation basis (Ta-
ble 2 shows how indirect costs are allocated). This would entail that a greater pro-
portion of costs would be allocated to products with bigger labor content. The
overhead assigned to those products subsidizes (Cooper and Kaplan, 1988) the as-
sumed profitability of the rest of products. Table 3 shows the resulting cost of the
products. While products A and C are not much different, their costs are different
because more overhead is allocated to knob A than to knob C.
122
Table 2 Allocation of costs in the auxiliary departments
Material handling Quality control

Cost pool (/month) 3,000.00 4,000.00
Standard labor hours per month 155.56 155.56
Unit cost (/LH) 19.29 25.71
Costs will be unreliable whenever the allocation basis is unrelated to the nature
of the cost (in our case, there is no relation between quality inspection or replen-
ishment and the time needed for assembly of one product). Errors will be greater
in companies where overhead is greater than direct labor and material costs. This
distortion may lead to decisions such as considering knob A unprofitable. Distor-
tion caused by the allocation of indirect costs has been criticized since the 1980s
(Cooper and Kaplan, 1988). For this reason, ABC appeared as a model that might
overcome the pitfalls of traditional cost accounting.
Table 3 Costing products using full costing (including overhead allocation)
Manufacturing costs Knob A Knob B Knob C

Raw material () 2,900.00 3,700.00 2,450.00
Direct labor ) 12,444.44 8,888.89 3,555.56
Handling () 1,500.00 1,071.43 428.57
Quality control () 2,000.00 1,428.57 571.43
Manufacturing costs () 18,844.44 15,088.89 7,005.56
Manufactured units 2,000.00 2,000.00 1,000.00
Unit Cost (/knob) 9.42 7.54 7.01
4 Computing the Cost with ABC
The philosophy of ABC relies on the idea of performing activities. Resources

are assigned to activities and then activities to products. Manufacturing and some
non-manufacturing activities can be assigned to products (or other object costs
such as orders or clients) if there is a logic cause-effect relationship.
The process was examined in detail. People from different departments were
interviewed in order to obtain information on their tasks and the time spent in each
one. That allowed the definition of several activities. The cost of an activity in-
cludes all types of resources necessary to perform the activity (Table 4). Data refer
to one month.
123
Table 4 Costing activities using ABC: From resources to activities
Activity Cost Number Cost

Activity Part of time 1
cost Driver of drivers per driver
Taking parts Number of
18,75 /
to/from the as- 15% 3,000 times re- 1602
replacement
sembly cell plenished
labor-
Assembly 100% 24,960 156 160 / LH
hours
Assembled
Quality control 12.5% 4,000 5,000 0,8 / unit
units
1
Proportion of their working time spent in this cell by people devoted to replenishment, assembly
or quality control (the rest of their time is devoted to other tasks or departments). 2The parts of
knob A are replaced 10 times per month (50 times, knob B; 100 times, knob C).
From the information in tables 1 and 4, we compute the costs of the different
models of knobs (Table 5).
Now, the costs of products A and B are similar and C is the most expensive.
However, due to the detail it requires, ABC is difficult to apply (especially in large
companies) and, while the time figures indicated in table 4 are exact, in practice
they would be estimated and therefore they might carry a certain error. Besides, an
activity is just a cost pool and therefore, another way of allocating overhead to
products.
Table 5 Costing products using ABC: From activities to object costs
Costs Knob A Knob B Knob C

Material cost () 2,900.00 3,700.00 2,450.00
Direct labor () 12,444.44 8,888.89 3,555.56
Replenishment () 187.50 937.50 1.875.00
Quality control () 1,600.00 1,600.00 800.00
Manufacturing cost 17,131.94 15,126.39 8,680.56
Manufactured units 2,000 2,000 1,000
Unit cost (/knob) 8.57 7.56 8.68
5 Refining the Cost with TDABC
Kaplan and Anderson (2004) developed TDABC. There has been a certain debate
whether TDABC is a simplified version of ABC or a completely new approach.
In any case, TDABC may be more precise when ABC cannot model processes in
detail (or it would be too complicated). The method relies in estimating the cost
per time unit of capacity and them modeling tasks by means of time equations. In
124
our example, While ABC considered the replenishing activity equal for all the
three knobs, the replenishing process depends on the type of knob considered: For
knob A, the time is 15 minutes; for knob B, it is 10 minutes, and finally for knob
C, the time is 5 minutes. Equation 1.1 gathers all this information (where X 1
would be 1 for knob A or 0, otherwise. In a similar way, X2 and X3 would act for
knobs B and C).
Replenishment (in minutes) = 15 X1 + 10 X2 + 5 X3 (1.1)
The time for performing the quality control of each knob depends on the num-
ber of points that have to be checked. There are 10 points in knob A, 9 in knob B
and 8 in knob C. Equation 1.2 gathers all this information (where X is the number
of checkpoints: 10 in knob A; 9 in knob B, and 8 in knob C).
Time for quality control (in minutes) = 0.02 X (1.2)
TDABC computes the cost per unit of time (minute) for the group of re-
sources in charge of replenishment as shown in table 6. Following Kaplan and
Anderson (2004), we consider that on the basis of 40 working-hours per week, the
effective capacity is 80% of the theoretical capacity. In a similar way, not shown
here, the cost of quality control results to be 4.34 / min.
Table 6 Estimating the cost per time unit in replenishment
Capacity (per week) 40 h x 0.15 workers = 6.00 labor hours

Effective capacity (4 weeks per month) 0.8 x 6 x 4 = 19.20 labor hours
Total cost of resources 3,000.00 /month
Cost per minute 3,000 / (19.2 x 60) = 2.60 /min
According to table 4, the parts of knob A are replaced 10 times in one month,
50 times in knob B and 100 times in knob C. The coefficients in equation 1.1, en-
able us to determine the time for replacement in each knob and the cost of re-
placement per unit of product, by multiplying the time devoted to each knob and
the cost per unit of time and dividing by the production (units). Similarly (Table
7), using equation 2 we obtain the cost of quality control per unit of product
(knob). Finally, we add the cost of replenishment and inspection to the cost of as-
sembly in order to compute the total cost of production of each product in TDABC
(Table 8).
125
Table 7 Estimating the cost per knob (as a function of time) using TDABC
Time (minutes) for

Knob model Unit cost of replacement (/knob)
replacements of material
Model A 15 x 10 = 150 150 x 2.60 / 2,000 = 0.1953
Model B 10 x 50 = 500 500 x 2.60 / 2,000 = 0.6510
Model C 5 x 100 = 500 500 x 2.60 / 1,000 = 1.3021
Knob model Time (minutes) for inspection Unit cost of quality control (/knob)
Model A 0.20 x 2000 = 400 400 x 4.34 / 2,000 = 0.8681
Model B 0.18 x 2000 = 360 360 x 4.35 / 2,000 = 0.7813
Model C 0.16 x 1000 = 160 160 x 4.34 / 1,000 = 0.6944
Table 8 Computing the total cost per knob using TDABC
Knob Material Replenishment Assembly Quality Total

model (/knob) (/knob) (/knob) (/knob) (/knob)
Model A 1.45 0.1953 (140/3,600) x 160 = 6.22 0.8681 8.74
Model B 1.85 0.6510 (100/3,600) x 160 = 4.44 0.7813 7.73
Model C 2.45 1.3021 (80/3,600) x 160 = 3.55 0.6944 8.00
In our example, TDABC can capture the complexity of the operations easily
and better than ABC. This will be valid whenever the time is the right cost driver
and if the study is accurate, because the group of resources is nothing else than a
cost pool. Considering the shop floor as one single group of resources would have
led us to the conclusions in table 3.
6 Computing the cost by value stream
Since full costing motivates non lean behaviors such as overproduction and ABC
entails a lot of non-value added tasks, Maskell and Baggaley (2004) created VSC
to support lean companies. VSC assigns both direct and indirect costs to a value
stream (Table 9) on condition that the company is organized by value streams with
few shared resources amongst them, including non-manufacturing departments
(Ruiz de Arbulo et al., 2013b). Raw material (2,900 of material in product A,
3,700 in product B and 2,450 in product C in a month), labor, depreciation and
other conversion costs are included, while costs outside the value stream are not.
126
Table 9 Computing the cost of the value stream
Cost of Other Total cost

Labor Depreciation
Centers materials costs (/month)
(/month) costs (/month)
(/month)) (/month)
Replacement 1,000.00 1,000.00 1,000.00 3,000.00
Assembly 9,050.00 18,000.00 5,060.00 1,828.88 33,938.88
Quality 3,000.00 1,000.00 4,000.00
Total 9,050.00 22,000.00 6,060.00 3,828.88 40,938.88
VSC is different from other approaches because it focuses on the value stream
as a whole and is not interested in isolating the cost of a specific product. Its aim is
to see how each step contributes to the cost of the value stream and how continu-
ous improvement activities cut those costs. It is possible to compute the cost of
products one by one the basis of the characteristics of the flow of products through
the value stream chain. In Table 10, we consider that it would be possible to as-
semble 4,000 model A knobs in a month (155.6 working hours x 3,600 seconds
per hour /140 seconds per knob), 5,600 model B knobs and 7,000 model C knobs.
Since costing products with VSC only takes into account one feature of the prod-
uct, related to the assembly time, results are distorted as in Table 3.
Table 10 Costing each knob with VSC
Knob Material Capacity Conversion cost Total cost

type (/unit) (units/month) (/unit) (/unit)
A 1.45 4,000 31,889/4,000 = 7.97 9.42
B 1.85 5,600 31,889/5,600 = 5.69 7.54
C 2.45 7,000 31,889/7,000 = 4.56 7.01
7 Final Discussion and Concluding Remarks
The aim of this paper is to explore how different accounting systems can model
manufacturing processes and supply cost information. Full costing, accepted for
reporting purposes, gives an idea of all the necessary costs to make a product in
the long run, but overhead allocation distorts costs. ABC is considered a great in-
novation in the management accounting literature but it is difficult to implement
and sustain. It can be very accurate and reveal the causes of costs -although it was
not the case in our example-, which can be used for process improvement.
TDABC can model processes where time is the right cost drivers. Because the ac-
tivities of replenishment and quality control depend on the type of product, the
cost computed using TDABC is more accurate than the average value obtained us-
127
ing ABC. ABC could be as accurate by using multiple drivers but it would be real-
ly complicated. Results show that TDABC is the method that best fits our exam-
ple. VSC can only be implemented in lean plants. Because it is more concerned
with process improvement than with cost measurement, costing products with
VSC does not take into account all the characteristics of the products. In the fu-
ture, this preliminary research will be enriched by a survey on the application of
the new accounting approaches in (especially SME) Spanish firms.
8 References
Balakrishnan R, Labro E, Sikavramakrishnan K (2012) Product costs as decision aids: An analy-

sis of alternative approaches (parts 1 and 2). Accounting horizons 26(1):1-41
Cooper R, Kaplan RS (1988) How cost accounting distorts product costs. Management account-
ing 69(10):20-27
Karmarkar US, Lederer PJ, Zimmerman JL (1990) Choosing manufacturing production control
and cost accounting systems. In: Kaplan RS (ed). Measures for manufacturing excellence.
Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Kaplan RS, Anderson S (2004) Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing. Harvard business review
82(11):131-138
Li X, Sawhney R, Arendt EJ, Ramasamy, K (2012) A comparative analysis of management ac-
counting systems impact on lean implementation. International journal of technology man-
agement 57(1-3):33-48
Maskell B, Baggaley B (2004) Practical lean accounting. Productivity Press. New York
Ruiz de Arbulo Lopez P, Fortuny-Santos J (2011) Innovacin en gestin de costes: del abc al
tdabc. Direccin y organizacin, 43:16-26
Ruiz de Arbulo Lopez P, Fortuny-Santos J, Vintr Sanchez C, Basaez- Llantada, A (2013a).
Aplicacin de Time-Driven Activity-based Costing en la produccin de componentes de Au-
tomvil. Dyna Ingeniera e industria 88(2):234-240.
Ruiz de Arbulo Lopez P, Fortuny-Santos J, Cuatrecasas-Arbs L (2013b) Lean manufacturing:
costing the value stream. Industrial management and data systems 113(5).
Voss C, Tsikriktsis N, Frohlich M (2002) Case research in operations management. International
journal of management 22(2):195-219
128
An Electric Taxi Fleet Charging System Using

Second Life Electric car Batteries Simulation
and Economical Approach
Canals Casals Ll1, Amante B2
Abstract The industrial car manufacturers see in the high battery price an im-
portant obstacle for an electric vehicle mass selling, thus mass production. There-
fore, in order to find some cost relieves and better selling opportunities, they look
and push forward to find profitable second battery uses. This study presents a sim-
ulation and an economical approach for an electric taxi fleet charging system, us-
ing these old electric car batteries, implemented in the city of Barcelona. The
simulation was done in order to optimize the number of stations and batteries per
station according to the number of cars on the project. Even if its not economical-
ly reliable at the moment, it is an alternative to take into account if theres a truly
concern with the environment and the compromise to decrease the CO 2 and other
emissions.
Keywords: Electric Car, Taxi, Second Use, Battery, Li-ion.
1 Introduction
The automotive industrial world is slowly appreciating a change towards the elec-
tric car: the not so far to come European emission regulations expect a low limit
emissions level that seems hard to achieve by only using the actual or even im-
proved internal combustion motors and even suggest the use of electric or hybrid
vehicles as an alternative (ECR, 2009). But still, the two main problems for selling
1Lluc Canals Casals ( e-mail: lluc.canals@upc.edu)

GIIP. Dpto. Proyectos de Ingeniera. ETSEIAT (Escola Tcnica Superior dEnginyeries
Industrial i Aeronutica de Terrassa. UPC Edificio TR5. C. Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa.
2Beatriz Amante Garca ( e-mail: beatriz.amante@upc.edu)
GIIP. Dpto. Proyectos de Ingeniera. ETSEIAT (Escola Tcnica Superior dEnginyeries
Industrial i Aeronutica de Terrassa. UPC Edificio TR5. C. Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa.
129
these vehicles to most of population are the high price (mostly due to the battery
costs) and the not so long displacement range (about 200km max.) (Broussely M,
2007).
In order to solve the first one, the automotive industry is searching for second
uses of the already used batteries trying to have some extra revenue and decrease
the selling price (Kley F., 2011) , (Vilayanur et al, 2011). For the displacement
range, fast 15 to 30 minutes charging stations are considered (Botsford C. et al,
2009), (Muoa J.A. 2009) as first steps to permit longer drive trips. With this time,
the batteries are charged until an 80% of SOC which is, by the way, the normal
charge available for second use batteries (Kley F., 2011) .
2 Material and Methodology
The idea of a charging system for an electric taxi fleet using recovered old bat-
teries comes from unifying the two propositions in one project. The use of second
life batteries reports a money income to the car manufacturer, which is a must
considering the high prices from today (Broussely M, 2007) and the 15-30
minutes charge per taxi would permit the taxis to cover the whole day work medi-
um range of a Barcelona Taxi service with just one charge during the day.
It is considered that the medium km range per year of a Barcelona taxi is close
to 42.000km (Amat C. 2010), (Zamora B. et al, 2012). That is, divided by 230
working days, 183km per day. It is close to the maximal range defined by some
car manufacturers. For this simulation a 130km average range will be taken, con-
sidering that a 10-15% of security margin will be taken by the drivers before get-
ting out of energy. That means that each car will surely have to stop once during
working time and the next charge, in order to start the day with a full capacity,
will be done at home while the car is parked and the driver sleeping in a slow
charging mode.
The use of second use batteries (old batteries from now on) for this system is
thought because the normal fast charge stations presents enormous instant con-
sumption, power and high voltage installations that might come with legislative
and security impediments if implemented inside the city (Botsford C. et al, 2009).
What is presented here is a system that charges at a low velocity rate, with a
common 220V electricity installation, the old batteries. Then, when they are
charged, its energy is trespassed to the ones in the vehicle in a fast charge mode.
The interesting point is that this fast charge is done isolated from the grid, so no
high power demand is necessary.
The car batteries need a 6 to 8h charge (Botsford C. et al, 2009) on a slow
charging mode, and so will do the old ones. If they need 6h charge, it means that
almost four cars can be charged per day, on the contrary, if its close to 8h, that
will correspond to 3 charged cars per day. This is important for the economic and
130
volumetric issues, as more cars are charged per battery, less batteries have to be
placed per station.
As a fast charge takes over 30 minutes to conclude (see considerations below)
if a free spot is desired to be freed every 15 minutes, a minimum of two charging
spots per station should be installed. And as the second use batteries are supposed
to need 6h to be ready to transfer its energy to the taxis, and one should be ready
every 15 minutes, at least 24 batteries should be placed per station. In figure 1
theres a schema of what it has been just told. The black lines represent taxis en-
tering and leaving the charge station. The yellow ones represent the stages of the
second use batteries. When they are ready they are shown as entering into the
station with a taxi and they give their charge to the taxi in the 1 st or 2nd charging
spot for over 30 minutes. When the cars are charged the second use batteries are
discharged and they change to the 6h slow charge mode (which is represented as
the second use battery 6h charge box) until they are ready again to restart the cy-
cle.
Charged Second
use batteries
Taxi charging Second use bat-
Incoming taxi 1st spot. 30min tery 6h charge
Charged Sec-
ond use batteries Taxi charging
2nd spot. 30min Taxi goes back
Incoming taxi
to work and home
Fig. 1 Schema of a single 2 spot station.
The simulation was done as described in figure 1 for a single 2 spot station.
In order to eliminate queues, the taxi fleet should agree that each taxi should
start working at a scheduled time (each hour, half an hour or per quarter of an
hour). If all taxis start working at the same moment, the stations should be over-
dimensioned during most of the day in order to be able to have free spots when
almost all cars come to charge.
In all cases tested a whole week simulation was done in order to eliminate the
first steps transitory effects. Although some analyses were done taking the 8h low
charge rate, in this article only 6h will be discussed because it is considered that if
it does not work economically in this way nor will it do with a lower charge rate
(which is a worse optimized / optimistic model).
131
Since beginning 2013 therere no more working turns in Barcelona (taxibarce-

lona.cat, 2013), so the fleet can apply its own schedule in order to optimize the
availability of charging spots and batteries.
As it is impossible to apply a minute to minute schedule such as: a taxi will en-
ter into work at exactly every 8 minutes, it is suggested (simulations were done so
in this way) to establish a beginning to work timetable each every hour. A balance
between cost and waiting time was done in the analysis.
Considerations taken:
1. The average waiting time by taxis on the charging station for a free spot
should not exceed the 10 minutes,
2. Almost no time was considered as allowable in waiting for a battery to be
charged. Therefore, two extra second use batteries per station were added. It
will also be useful in case of damaged or degradation of too aged batteries.
3. No more than an hour waiting for a free spot was acceptable as a positive re-
sult.
4. Cars entered into the simulation every hour with a 5 minutes standard devia-
tion.
5. 6h with a 10 minutes deviation was considered as second use battery charge
time.
6. 30 minutes discharge (or car charge). Even if in most of the cases the expected
charging time would be less than 30 minutes (Botsford et al, 2009), some
minutes were added because of the drivers needed time to disconnect and leave
the spot free.
7. Because of the different driving characteristics (and electricity consumptions
in consequence) a deviation of half an hour is added to the system to make a
more realistic need to charge situation.
3 Results and Discussions
The less expensive solution encountered taking the previous considerations into
account was a 26 battery per 2 spots. The simulation result showed that each spot
was capable of providing energy to an average of 42 cars per day.
As the longest distance in Barcelona is from the airport to the other edge of the
city and it is no more than 20 km, it is considered that a taxi will always be able to
go to the next charging station without problems if the car gives an alarm when
15% of SOC is achieved (15% of 130km gives 19,5km).
Note: If the stations have more than 2 spots, having less than 2 extra batteries
per spot showed also good results. Anyhow, the extra cost of another battery per
spot is of 24/year per driver, so the money saved per year is not what makes de
difference.
132
With this disposal an 85% of the theoretically station capacity was used.
Even so, as it can be appreciated in table 1, the queues attained an average of 9
minutes waiting for a free spot and a maximum waiting time of 57 minutes (al-
most an hour). To this waiting time it has to be added the 30 minutes charging, so
the driver that took almost an hour and a half for refilling the battery will surely be
annoyed.
It can be also appreciable that sporadically some taxis have to wait for a battery
to be charged. As it is such a low percentage (average around 0 to 1 minute) it is
considered as a non-common situation and therefore not as relevant as to pay the
over-costs to eliminate it.
Table 1 Average and maximum queue waiting time
Average (min) Max. waiting time (min)

Total taxi queue 9 57
Waiting for battery 0-1 30
Waiting for a free spot 9 56
For the cost analysis, it was considered that the difference between the fuel cost
and the electricity cost for transportation use would be maintained during the 8
years to come.
Cost calculation assumptions:
Electricity cost: 0,1509/kWh, 1,822443kW/month(gasnatural, 2013).
Fuel (gasoil) cost: 1,36/l.
Consumptions: 0,7l/km for a common diesel car and 0,15kWh/km for the
electric taxi.
185km Km per day .
Price per kWh to buy a second use battery = 100/kWh (Neubauer J.S. et al,
2012), (Cready E, 2003).
Price per kWh to sell a second use battery = 75,5/kWh (Neubauer J.S. et al,
2012), (Cready E, 2003).
20kWh battery packs for the taxi fleet and second use batteries.
10.000 per spot installation
16.000 for a new diesel car. 3
28.000 for an electric car (without subventions).
With these assumptions, the cost analysis indicates that on consumption, the
savings per year are about 3.030 when using an electric vehicle against a com-
mon diesel one.
3 This car costs (points 8 and 9) are taken as an average of the market at the moment. The differ-
ence between one and the other is taken from the Renault Kangoo model, which is sold with both
technologies with a 12.000 difference (12.500 diesel vs 24.575 the electric version).
133
If we consider 2 stations with two spots each, its price goes around 40.000 to
be amortized in 10 years, there will also have 52 second use batteries that do the
main gross amount of money: 104.000 per year.
The second use batteries are expected to provide still 1000-1300 cycles before
its definitive retirement to recycle (Cicconi P et al, 2012). As the batteries are
working all year long doing 4 cycles per day, at the end of the year they will have
done more than 1300 cycles and they will be mostly unable to charge enough en-
ergy to the coming taxis. They should be removed and changed.
Per year, the total installation costs rises up to 108.000. This should be divid-
ed by all the taxi fleet. The results of the simulated case indicate that it was di-
mensioned for no more than 168 cars, so it gives a final amount of 643 per taxi
per year. This cost analysis does not take into account the financial expenses.
Including the system costs, the money saved has still a positive result by the
equation (1), were a is consumption saving and b is the whole system costs:
Year result = a b = 3.030 643 = 2.387 (1)
But then four more points should be considered:

The first one is the car amortization. There are 12000 difference to be distrib-
uted during its life-time. This will be referred as d in equation (2)
The car battery is supposed to last 160.000km or 8 years according to car man-
ufacturers or 2000 cycles at most (Cready E, 2003). As detailed at the begin-
ning, the taxis will charge twice per day. After 4 years theyll have already
achieved these two maximums (1.912 cycles and 170.200 km) and the battery
should be changed (or the whole car). But it is known that diesel vehicles are
able to do more than 300.000km. So that is 20.000 plus for a new battery. d
in (2)
The car battery could be sold at the end of its life, that makes something like
1.500 per battery and 3.000 after the 8 year comparison analysis. o in (2)
There are some incentives from the Spanish government for buying electric
cars (RD 648/2011 ), in our case, it is 6.000 discount. i in (2)
So, using the equation (2) and knowing that the year result from (1) should be
taken each year:
Final result = (year result *8) - d o + s + i (2)
Final result = (2.387 *8) 12.000 - 20.000 + 3.000 + 6.000 = -3.904 (2)
For this cost analysis, at the end of the 8 years use, both cars are considered as
retired.
134
4 Conclusions
The economical result is obviously negative, having a 3.904 loss per car at the
end of their useful time and a total amount of 655.872 loss with the 168 car fleet
project. It shows that, at the moment and not counting on institutional support for
the project it does not seem a suitable business.
There are some good points though, which might be interesting in the future to
come if new battery prices get lower (as it is expected (Neubauer J.S. et al, 2012)).
Indeed, this project can get bigger and bigger if the proportions of cars/stations
and batteries are main-tained without individual extra cost. Therefore, it can be
started with a small group of vehicles as a pilot project and grow if battery costs
decrease or their life expectancy achieves similar characteristics of diesel vehicles.
There is still one more positive point that might surely bring some interest in
similar projects such as a touristic city fleet for example. If the new project is done
comparing the results with gasoline internal combustion vehicles, because there is
no need to do so many km per year and the projected endurance is about more
than 6 years, the idea of using electric vehicles should really be studied. (Blzquez
J, et al, 2010).
5 References
Amat C. (2010) Anlisi de leficincia del servei de taxi a barcelona. propostes de millora. Tesis
UPC. http://hdl.handle.net/2099.1/9703
Blzquez J, Martn J.M. (2010) El vehculo elctrico, Eficiencia energtica en la automoci el
vehculo elctrico, un reto del presente. Economa Industrial-Vol.377. Pag. 76 85. ISSN
0422-2784
Botsford C, Szczepanek A. (2009) Fast Charging vs. Slow Charging: Pros and cons for the New
Age of Electric Vehicles. EVS24 International Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
Symposium.
Broussely M. (2007) Industrial application of batteries. From cars to aerospace and energy stor-
age. Chapter 4: Traction batteries. Elsevier B.V. ISBN: 978-0-444-52160-6
DOI:10.1016/B978-044452160-6/50005-X
Cicconi P, Landi D, Morbidoni A, et al (2012) Feasibility analysis of second life applications for
li-ion cells used in electric powertrain using environmental indicators. 2nd IEEE
ENERGYCON Conference & Exhibition / Sustainable Transportation Systems Symposium
DOI: 10.1109/EnergyCon.2012.6348293.
Cready E, Lippert J, Pihl J, et al (2003) Technical and Economic Feasibility of Applying Used
EV Batteries in Stationary Applications. Sandia National Laboratories SAND2002-4084
European Commission Regulation (CE) N 443/2009 from the European parliament and council,
23rd April 2009. CO2 emission requirements regulation.
Gas natural / Union fenosa & Endesa. Tarifas de electricidad 2013.
http://www.gasnaturalfenosa.es/es/inicio/hogar/gas+natural+y+electricidad/1285340342233/t
arifas+de+gas+y+luz.html
Kley F. (2011) New business models for electric carsA holistic approach. Energy Policy 39
pages 33923403 DOI:10.1016/j.enpol.2011.03.036
135
Muoa J.A. (2009) Las infraestructuras de recarga para el vehculo elctrico. Revista Ambiente.
Neubauer J. S, Pesaran A, Williams B., et al (2012) A Techno-Economic Analysis of PEV Bat-
tery Second Use: Repurposed Battery Selling Price and Commercial and Industrial End_User
Value. SAE World Congress and Exhibition. DOI:10.4271/2012-01-0349
RD 648/2011 Real decreto: Plan integral de impulso al vehculo elctrico en Espaa 2010-2014
BOE: http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2011/05/10/pdfs/BOE-A-2011-8125.pdf
Vilayanur V V, and Kintner-Meyer M. (2011). Second Use of Transportation Batteries Maximiz-
ing the Value of Batteries for Transportation and Grid Services. Transactions on vehicular
technology, vol. 60, N.7 DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2011.2160378
Zamora B., Oll E., Fornos S., et al (2012) El Sector del Taxi. UPF.
http://hdl.handle.net/10230/16128.
www.taxibarcelona.cat (2013)
136
Decision Tool Based on Cloud Computing

Technology
Zabalza-Vivanco J1, Rio-Belver R2, Cilleruelo E3, Acera-Osa F.J4,

Garechana G5
Abstract This article analyzes the design of a decision tool based on cloud tech-
nology whose main aim is to present different applications existing in the Soft-
ware as a Service (SaaS) market and how these applications can help business pri-
ority areas meet their challenges. This tool is intended to be a driving force for
cloud adoption, above all in Spanish Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
(SMEs).
Keywords: Cloud Computing, Technology Management, Decision Tool, Innova-

tion, SMEs, Spanish SaaS Market
1 Introduction
This paper describes the process of making a decision tool based on cloud compu-
ting technology. The article consists of five sections. Firstly, a definition of cloud
is outlined. Secondly, the current status of cloud in the world related to its eco-
nomic impact is presented. Thirdly, this section is devoted to the cloud situation
with regard to Spanish SMEs describing the main characteristics, benefits, barriers
1Juncal Zabalza-Vivanco ( e-mail: juncal.zabalza@ehu.es)

University of the Basque Country, SP-01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, calle Nieves Cano 12
2 Rosa Rio-Belver ( e-mail: rosamaria.rio@ehu.es)
University of the Basque Country, SP-01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, calle Nieves Cano 12

3Ernesto Cilleruelo ( e-mail: ernesto.cilleruelo@ehu.es)
University of the Basque Country,SP-48030Bilbao, Almed. Urquijo s/n
4Francisco Javier Acera-Osa ( e-mail: javier.acera@tecnalia.com)
Tecnalia, Parque Tecnolgico de lava, E-01510 Miano-lava, calle Leonardo Da Vinci 11
5 Gaizka Garechana ( e-mail: gaizka.garechana@ehu.es)
University of the Basque Country, SP48008 Bilbao, Elkano 21
137
and concerns as well as the upcoming trends. Fourthly, the design of the tool itself
is characterized. Moreover, the reasons for its creation and its design stages are
defined. Finally, the fifth section contains the most important conclusions.
Although there is no general definition of cloud computing (Grossman 2009,
Voas, Zhang 2009), one of the most used definition is from the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) which states: "cloud computing is a model
for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool
of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released
with minimal management effort or service provider interaction" (NIST 2011). In
cloud computing IT service providers offer their services grouped into three cate-
gories, Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Soft-
ware as a service (SaaS). In addition, there are four deployment models: Private,
Community, and Public (Zabalza-Vivanco et al. 2012, Miller, Veiga 2009, Sultan
2010, Talukder, Zimmerman & Prahalad 2010).
Globally, it is estimated that in 2014 cloud services will generate revenues of
US$ 55,500 million with growth rates close to 30% and a market share of approx-
imately 12% (IDC 2010). In addition, cloud is expected to be the main driving
force behind IT sector development and SMEs will be the strategic market. More-
over, it is forecasted that 13.8 million jobs will be created in the 2011-2015 period
(IDC 2012).
North America is the largest opportunity for SaaS, as well as being the most
mature of the regional markets (Gartner 2011). Furthermore, Gartner says that Eu-
ropean cloud adoption will lag behind U.S. by at least two years. The main rea-
sons for this statement are European privacy rules, multicountry business process-
es, a deep euro crisis and a lingering recession (Gartner 2012).
The economic impact in Europe and Spain during the 2010-2015 can be trans-
lated into: a total economic benefit of roughly 763 billion, the implementation of
new business development opportunities for existing companies (127,000 mil-
lion), the emergence of new businesses, especially SMEs (215,000 million), cost
savings (140,000 million) and the creation of 2.3 million jobs (CEBR 2010).
2 Cloud Computing in SMEs in Spain
Currently, Spanish SME competitiveness is achieved through enhancing key as-

pects such as marketing, internationalization, human resources recruitment, finan-
cial efficiency, level of technology implementation and so on. So cloud technolo-
gy seems to be the right way to manage this improvement in competitiveness
(ONTSI 2012).
For this reason, it is necessary to determine the situation of cloud in Spain. For
that purpose, ONTSI has conducted a survey with a sample of 1500 microenter-
prises and SMEs. The main results are presented below:
138
Characteristics of deployed cloud computing solutions

9.8 % of SMEs deploy some kind of cloud solution and 21% of enterprises
aware of the existence of cloud admit to using it. However, 54.9 % of en-
terprises admit having no knowledge about cloud computing.
The most common form of implementation is the private cloud with 59.9%.
Secondly, the public cloud accounts for 33.8%. Thirdly, the hybrid cloud
reaches 13.9%. Finally, the community cloud stands at only 1.7%.
The preferred service model is IaaS (76.1%) outdoing storage services at
68.5% followed by backup services with 22.4%. With regard to SaaS, over
half of SMEs deploy it. Finally, PaaS is the least used with only 18.8%.
47% of enterprises use the cloud services in a cross-cutting way, instead of
deploying them for a particular area. 35% of SMEs have used cloud in
sales and merchandising areas (e-commerce, websites, client management
solutions, and so on). Whereas 18% use it for production and 12% for fi-
nance management.
The significant benefits of using cloud services: time saving (71%), cost sav-
ings (63%) and the improvement of enterprise productivity (48%).
The main concerns related to cloud use: data security and confidentiality
(55%), the loss of control over the process (26%), acquired dependence on the
service provider (21%), problems with regard to availability (18%), and the in-
tegrity of the contracted services (17%).
The most important barriers when entering cloud computing: lack of
knowledge concerning its benefits (63.1%), budget restrictions (30.5%), high
costs with regard to recruitment (24.9%), difficulty of migration (18.2%), re-
sponsibility of the provider (17.8%), doubts about availability (14.2%), and
dependence on the provider (4.3%).
This introduction to cloud technology occurs in different ways and depends
largely on company size, for example 100 percent of large companies are forecast
to adopt it by 2015 (CB consulting 2012). Moreover, the largest increase occurs in
SMEs reaching 69% in 2015, up from 13.9% in 2011 (CB consulting 2011). All
experts agree on the fact that SMEs will focus on the public model and the de-
mand will be for SaaS applications (ONTSI 2012).
3 Design of a Decision Tool Based on Cloud Technology
It is clear that we can highlight that there is a huge lack of knowledge concerning
what cloud computing is as well as its most significant benefits. In particular,
54.9% of microenterprises and SMEs confess to having no knowledge of cloud
technology. This circumstance results in a loss of SME competitiveness, contrast-
ed with the fact that this technology model is particularly beneficial for SMEs
139
(Nabil 2011, Kloch, Petersen & Madsen 2011). Furthermore, the lack of
knowledge concerning its benefits (63.1%) is stressed as the greatest obstacle to
entry into the cloud (ONTSI 2012). However, the largest increase concerning
cloud adoption will happen in SMEs reaching 69% in 2015, up from 13.9% in
2011 (CB consulting 2012). For these reasons, a decision tool based on cloud
technology has been designed. The main purpose of this tool is to provide the
principal existing SaaS applications available on the market, which will help us in
the management and enhancement of the most decisive areas within a company.
Besides this tool, cloud knowledge in relation to SMEs can be complemented by
other information sources specifically geared towards the business world (Marston
et al. 2011, Hugos, Hulitzky 2010).
Turning to the question of methodology, it is clear that it is the section that de-
scribes the objectives of the experiment and the methods which are expected to
achieve. Consequently, the methods of data collection should be described. In ad-
dition, materials, participants, duration of the investigation and the procedures for
its implementation should be included.
The methodology used in the research summarized in the following flowchart:
Fig. 1 Methodology
Below we describe in more detail the elaboration phase of the decision tool it-
self, which can be divided into two distinct stages: the development of the deci-
sion tree and its implementation.
Stage one: the elaboration of a decision tree (Quinlan 1986, SPRI 2010) which
is a diagram that shows conditions and actions in a sequential fashion. Fur-
thermore, this method allows us to show the relationship between each condi-
tion and the set of possible actions associated with it. Moreover, it provides a
graphical view to aid the decision making process, indicates the variables that
are assessed and what actions should be taken as well as the sequence in which
decision-making must be executed. Additionally, decision tree is characterized
by only one path that will be followed depending on the variables value. In
this case, our decision tree is aimed at providing cloud solutions to develop
major business strategies particularly for SMEs. To this end, the decision tree
is made up of three levels. Firstly, the company type which refers to the num-
140
ber of employees and business sector, in addition to the identification of busi-

ness priority areas which is composed of two different approaches.
The former of which, business strategy, consists of the following aspects:
Cost reduction and Time Saving with regard to the current process.
Growth: New Clients and/or New markets
Differentiation: Meeting Customers Needs And Developing new products
and/or services
The latter, relationships, included among which:
Clients: Better Client Management.
Providers: Improve Provider Management.
Human Resources: Optimize Human Capital Management.
Other Agents: Government and/or banks and financial institutions.
Secondly, these actions must be carried out in order to improve the previous
business priority areas. What is more, this stage contains the decision tree con-
ditions which are constituted by three priority stages: high, medium and low
preference. Finally, the cloud tools allow SMEs to execute the preceding ac-
tions by means of their implementation. As a consequence, the expected bene-
fit is achieved. We would like to stress the fact that a key element of this deci-
sion tree was the creation of a collection of cloud tools which is known as
documentary database and that consists of a set of 51 SaaS applications that
were analyzed and classified (SaaSDirectory 2012). To this end, several cloud
applications available in the SaaS market were examined. The result was a set
of SaaS applications which are grouped into the subsequent sections: Online
Billing, Online Accounting, Personal Management, Project Management,
Backup and Storage, Document Management, Content Management System
(CMS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), e-commerce, eMailing
Marketing, Social Networking Management, Feeds Management, e-learning,
Event Organization, Collaborative Platforms, Web development, Video,
Communication, Business Intelligence, Production Management, Warehouse
Management, Diagrams, ERP, Quality Management, and Customer Service
and Support.
Stage two: the development of the decision tool using the decision tree. The
decision tool was implemented by deploying LimeSurvey which is a free,
open source online survey application written in PHP based on a MySQL,
PostgreSQL or MSSQL database, distributed under the GNU General Public
License. Designed for ease of use, it enables users to develop and publish sur-
veys, and collect responses (Schmitz 2012). The surveys include branching
(conditions), templates, token control and provide basic statistical analysis in
order to process the results. The tool is structured as follows: initially, the size
and sector of the company will be indicated. Then the company will have to
141
identify those areas which have high, medium or low priority in order to im-
prove the company situation. In the next step, some recommended actions will
be shown which will improve those areas that have been designated in the pre-
vious step. Finally, SaaS applications which allow the company to implement
these actions will be suggested. The following images show the whole process
graphically:
Fig. 2 Company size and sector, and the identification of priority areas
Fig. 3 Recommended actions to enhance priority areas
142
Fig. 4 The set of SaaS applications in order to implement the recommended actions
The resulting benefit of accomplishing this decision tool by SMEs relies on the
fact that companies obtain as a result, a number of cloud solutions or tools that
will enable them to improve their priority areas indicated in the initial phase. As a
consequence, by means of this set of cloud solutions, which fit the needs of each
company, SMEs can reduce costs, improve the management of their customers,
suppliers, employees and other agents such as the Administration and banks. Be-
sides being an aid for growth toward new markets as well as enhancing the task of
creating new products or services. Note that on the final screen the fundamental
features of each cloud tool is shown. In addition, if you click on any tools name,
you may be directed to its provider web page.
4 Conclusions
In Spain the rapid expansion of cloud will occur in the near future. Furthermore,
SMEs will be a strategic market for Cloud Service Providers. Although, it could
be argued that this is now a reality, it is also a fact that a large number of SMEs
are not yet aware of either the existence of cloud technology or its benefits for the
business sector. Therefore, it is necessary to implement mechanism to overcome
these problems which can be considered as impediments for cloud adoption. Con-
sequently, a decision tool based on cloud computing has been created , the main
objective of which is to show the different SaaS applications available on the mar-
ket and how these applications can enhance and manage the business priority are-
as.
It is clear that SaaS applications are deployed in a cross-cutting manner in the
whole company rather than in particular areas. Moreover, we can emphasize
commercial and sales areas along with others such as productive aspects, finance
management, quality, human resources and innovation.
On the other hand, the Spanish SaaS market is still in its infancy, particularly in
comparison with American one. Furthermore, there is a reduced service catalog
which is ill-adapted to solving specific business areas of the company. It is also a
143
fact that there are many bogus solutions within the cloud concept which create
confusion in the market. It is important to remember that SaaS service offerings do
not usually mention the migration process which they should be taken into account
because of the difficulty. Thus it must be analyzed carefully.
We can conclude by saying that cloud computing is especially beneficial for
startup companies, SMEs, entrepreneurs and companies that need to make new in-
vestments or do not have a stable infrastructure. For these companies this technol-
ogy leads to a significant saving, in addition to increasing flexibility and competi-
tiveness.
5 References
CB Consulting (2012). Cloud Computing y Virtualizacin en Espaa 2012 2015.

CB Consulting (2011). Informe sobre la situacin del cloud computing en Espaa.
CEBR (2010). the cloud dividend: Part One the economic benefits of cloud computing to busi-
ness en the wider EMEA economy France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Available via
DIALOG. http://uk.emc.com/collateral/microsites/2010/cloud-dividend/cloud-dividend-
report.pdf.
Gartner (2011). Forecast: Software as a Service, All Regions, 2010-2015.
Gartner (2012). Gartner Says Worldwide Software-as-a-Service Revenue to Reach $14.5 Billion
in 2012. Available via DIALOG. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1963815.
Grossman R (2009). The case for cloud computing. IT Professional, 11(2):2327
Hugos MH, Hulitzky D (2010). Business in the Cloud: What Every Business Needs to Know
About Cloud Computing. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 978-0-470-61623-9
IDC (2012). White paper: Cloud Computing's Role in Job Creation.
IDC (2010). Worldwide and Regional Public IT Cloud Services 2010-2014 Forecast.
Kloch C, Petersen E & Madsen O (2011). Cloud based infrastructure, the new business possibili-
ties and barriers. Wireless Personal Communications, 58(1):17-30. doi:10.1007/s11277-011-
0286-7
Marston S, Li Z, Bandyopadhyay S et al (2011). Cloud computing - the business perspective.
Decision Support Systems, 51(1):176-189. doi:10.1016/j.dss.2010.12.006
Miller H, Veiga GJ (2009). Cloud computing: Will commodity services benefit user long term?,
IT Professional, 11 (6):5759.
Nabil AS (2011). Reaching for the cloud: How SMEs can manage. International Journal of In-
formation Management, 31(3): 272-278. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2010.08.001
NIST (2011). The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing. Available via DIALOG.
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf. .
ONTSI (2012). Cloud Computing Retos y Oportunidades. Available via DIALOG.
http://www.ontsi.red.es/ontsi/sites/default/files/1-
_estudio_cloud_computing_retos_y_oportunidades_vdef.pdf.
Quinlan JR (1986). Induction of decision trees. Machine Learning, 1(1):81-106. doi:
10.1007/BF00116251
SaaSDirectory. Online Software and Applications. Available via DIALOG.
http://www.saasdirectory.com/. Accessed 2 Jan 2013.
Schmitz C (2012). LimeSurvey Project Hamburg, Germany. Available via DIALOG.
http://www.limesurvey.org.
144
SPRI (2010). Gua de Autodiagnstico para Pymes en la utilizacin de las TICs. Available via
DIALOG.http://www.emprender-en-
argon.es/medias/pdf/guia_de_autodiagnostico_para_pymes_en_la_utilizacion_de_las_tics.pdf
Sultan N (2010). Cloud computing for education: A new dawn? International Journal of Infor-
mation Management, 30(2):109116
Talukder AK, Zimmerman L & Prahalad HA (2010). Cloud economics: Principles, costs, and
benefits. In N. Antonopoulos, & L. Gillam (Eds.), Cloud computing (343-360) Springer Lon-
don. doi:10.1007/978-1-84996-241-4_20
Voas J, Zhang J (2009). Cloud computing: New wine or just a new bottle?. IT Professional,
11(2):1517
Zabalza-Vivanco J, Rio-Belver R, Cilleruelo E et al (2012). Benefits Related to Cloud Compu-
ting in the SMEs. Paper presented at the 6th International Conference on Industrial Engineer-
ing and Industrial Management XVI Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin.
145
Productivity in Knowledge Worker Teams
Moreno A1, Varanki H, Mahou A.
Abstract The use of Information and Communication Technologies in work pro-

cesses has not brought the expected productivity improvement. Some studies even
suggest that the always-on model decreases productivity. This article proposes
work teams as a new unit for knowledge worker productivity analysis in organiza-
tions. Organizations ability to adopt new analysis measures is analyzed in three
case studies.
Keywords: Knowledge Worker, Productivity, Team, Commitment
1 Knowledge Worker Productivity
Since Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management in 1911 (Taylor, 1911), organ-

izational theory has provided a systematic review of the methods that can be used
to arrange work activities. These methods have come to include psychological
processes, social changes and technological changes such as the rise of the net-
worked organization. As a discipline, the purpose of the organizational theory is to
improve the efficient utilization of resources and establish performance standards
regarding work activities. In fact, as the knowledge society has progressed the
need for the standardization of the work processes and resources has increased.
The traditional way of measuring productivity is based on the relationship be-
tween the input and the output, but when analyzing productivity of the knowledge
worker the main problem appears to be the difficulty of identifying what is the
output. It is impossible to create a standard way of measuring knowledge workers'
activities due to their highly specialized and specific task environment. Besides,
part of the knowledge workers' output is usually intangible which makes measur-
ing these activities even more difficult. (Mintzberg, 1989)
1Ana Moreno ( e-mail: ana.moreno.romero@upm.es)

Professor at the Department of Organization, Business Administration and Statistics at the
School of Industrial Engineering in the Technical University of Madrid.
146
As early as in 1999 Peter Drucker (Drucker, 1999) referred to knowledge

workers' productivity as the great challenge of this century, identifying it as the
true competitive advantage in a global economy. "The main economic priority of
the developed countries is to raise the productivity of intellectual work and work
in the service sector".
In the new development model that Castells (Castells, 1998) denominates "in-
formational", the source of the productivity lies in the technology for knowledge
generation as well as for information processing and communicating the
knowledge. In this environment the main problems for controlling the productivity
are the information overload and the difficulties to remain focused (Drucker,
1999).
On the other hand, the key to an effective management in knowledge networks
might be a balance between free access and defined procedures or even more rigid
workflows that limit workers' alternatives (Davenport, 2011).
Teamwork and the interdependence between workers have increased enor-
mously in the last decade, but, nevertheless, performance measurements are still
done on an individual basis. Companies still calculate organizational productivity
through economic data, industry ratios, through top management's goals and with
individual performance measures. This article suggests that the team should be-
come the unit for analysis, as the team can be seen as the link between the indi-
vidual and organizational frameworks.
2 Model for Knowledge Team Analysis
Traditionally the study of work has been centered on individual workers. The
Human Resources management measures knowledge worker's individual produc-
tivity with different variables such as commitment and competencies. (Gil et al.,
2008; Blumberg & Pringue, 1982 and Vroom, 1965) Commitment is one of the
most widely used concepts regarding the management of knowledge workers. Ac-
cording to Mathieu and Zajac (1990), it is defined as the bond that an individual
worker develops towards the organization and its members. Furthermore, the evo-
lution of organizational structure and workflow theories result in a model for
competence based management. Competencies can be defined as "parts of the un-
derlying characteristics that lead individual to achieve a higher or more effective
performance" (Boyatzis, 1982).
However, the ever increasing complexity of the environment forces companies
to find new ways of staying competitive. One response to these changes has been
the use of teams in order to solve complex problems the difficulties of which ex-
ceed a worker's individual capacity, when the work environment is unclear, am-
biguous or stressful, when quick and repeated decisions are required or when the
decision-making requires a more collective vision and approach. (Salas et al.,
147
2008 a) Therefore, the need to change the unit for analysis regarding the produc-
tivity measurements arises, and the knowledge team productivity must be consid-
ered as the base unit.
A change in the mindset in organizations is required in order to understand that
now it is important to measure the activities and tasks that contribute to the com-
mon goals and strategies, and realize that knowledge workers work with each oth-
er in an interdependent way and for that reason it is practically impossible to dis-
tinguish the contribution of each of them (Moreno, 2009). Furthermore, teams
respond better to the new needs of the environment because they are ubiquitous
and provide diversity in knowledge, skills and experiences (Salas et al., 2008 b).
In order to understand and analyze how teams work, it is necessary to under-
stand the context in which they are and take into consideration the diversity and
skills of the individuals that belong to the team. According to Kozlowski and Ilgen
(2006), teams are part of a multilevel system that consists of individual, team and
organizational levels.
Teams consist of individuals who possess different characteristics and behav-
iors. Then, the interaction between the team members creates new characteristics
and behaviors typical of that team. On the other hand, teams and the team mem-
bers belong to a wider context that is the organization. (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003)
The organization sets the boundaries and marks the pace for teamwork and in-
cludes the difficulties and complexity that affects it (Kozlowski & Ilgen, 2006).
Teams combine the factors affecting workers' individual productivity as well as
the opportunities and the restrictions determined by the organizational resources.
Therefore, teams can't be analyzed or studied in isolation. The individual influ-
ences affecting teamwork and the influences and rules set by the organizational
environment must be considered. However, most of the studies on teamwork don't
consider these multilevel aspects (Kozlowski & Bell, 2003).
3 Purpose and Methodology
The purpose of this study is to analyze the productivity in teams in which most of
the workers fit the profile of the knowledge worker.
There is no unique model for studying the productivity of knowledge worker
teams, so we propose a set of factors identified as relevant in the literature. Figure
1 gathers these factors.
148
Fig. 1 The multilevel structure in organizations.
These factors have been selected taking into consideration the factors identified
in literature as well as the indicators most commonly used in Human Resources
policies and management.
In order to study the impact of these factors for the team productivity, three
case studies have been developed. The case studies analyze the information avail-
able at the organization for evaluating the factors, the utility of the resources at a
group and individual worker levels as well as practices and tools used to improve
the productivity. The following tables display the study results and present the
model, which standardizes the mentioned factors.
The expected outcome of this theoretical analysis and case study is the defini-
tion of a model for analyzing the productivity in knowledge worker teams. The
model should include the identified key factors and allow a possible quantification
of the factors in the future.
4 Case Studies
The cases were chosen to cover different knowledge worker profiles, from those
who work in consultancy projects and are therefore used to control their working
hours since they are used as a billing unit, to those who have mainly procedural
tasks close to industrial processes but with a significant knowledge work compo-
nent. The chosen case studies include a small Spanish consultancy company dedi-
cated to organizational management and two large companies from the Spanish
energy sector. In one of the electrical companies the study was made in a group
belonging to the human resources department and in the other company the study
took place at the engineering project implementation department. This choice of
case studies has two criteria: first, the workers in the chosen teams have to be
149
knowledge workers, and second, the organizations needs to be varied in order to

be able to study different situations in terms of the organizational resources avail-
able in each company.
Information available about the organization, teams to be studied and their
members' activities and tasks were used in the study. The analyzed factors are: or-
ganizational resources for management by objectives (MBO), functional group
analysis, competencies, commitment and the leadership style. The study results
and the analyses are shown in the following tables.
Table 1 Analysis of the case A.
Description of the organization Company A is a SME with 35 workers dedicated to organi-

zational consultancy projects. The consultants profile fits
the knowledge worker profile 100% with a high degree of
flexibility.
Description of pilot case The pilot case was developed to evaluate the usefulness of
the consultants project control system in which 9 profes-
sionals took part. The project was developed under the
leadership of the companys partners.
Organizational resources for Management by objectives system 100% focused on quanti-
MBO tative data: billing, project profitability and future projects
portfolio. No Human Resources department involved.
Functional group analysis An internal project planning and control system. Computes
consultants working hours.
Competencies System for competence management doesn't exist.
Commitment Company As culture is very participatory and supportive
but there is no climate survey.
Leadership style The leadership style varies depending on which partner is in
charge of the department. Culture of support is created with
mutually agreed adjustment mechanisms.
Productivity Performance is measured through the financial profitability
of the projects. This system, knowing the consultants work-
ing on each project and in each department, produces rea-
sonably good estimate of the performance of each employ-
ee. The system is based on controlling the consultants
working hours.
Table 2 Analysis of the case B.
Description of the organization Company B is from the energy sector with over 1,500 em-
ployees. It has implemented a management by objectives
system, competence management system, their internal pro-
cesses are defined according to EFQM standards, they have
top level information and knowledge management systems,
and they are at the leading edge of the corporate social re-
sponsibility policies.
150
Table 2 (continued) Analysis of the case B.
Description of pilot case The Human Resources Department has a program oriented
to professional development in the organization. Five mem-
bers of this department took part in the pilot case with the
purpose of helping to improve the unit's productivity. The
project was developed under the leadership of the depart-
ment manager.
Organizational resources for They have an MBO system with annual evaluation.
MBO
Functional group analysis Functional-person analysis has been implemented on the
manager's initiative. However, the sum of all individual ob-
jectives reached does not give clear information on group
productivity.
Competencies They have a competence management system, which in-
cludes individual competence profiles.
Commitment Climate surveys are done but they don't provide information
on individual or group commitment.
Leadership style The companys management style is highly project-oriented
with traditional hierarchical relationships.
Productivity Workers performance is measured through individual ob-
jectives. The company possesses powerful organizational
resources and it could, therefore, be supposed that the
productivity equation has all the information for all of its
components. However, the workers had the feeling they
were overloaded but the department manager did not have
any specific tools to address this problem or to measure
team productivity and distinguish between the individual
productivities.
Table 3 Analysis of the case C.
Description of the organization Company C is a multinational in the energy sector with over
30.000 employees. It has implemented a management by
objectives system, a competence management system, their
processes follow the EFQM standards, they have infor-
mation and knowledge management systems and they have
highly developed CSR policies.
Description of pilot case The pilot case was carried out in a department for infra-
structure implementation with 54 workers, 9 of whom par-
ticipated in the study. The project's purpose was to analyze
the sizing of the human work force for the needs of the de-
partment's project. They also needed to adapt to a new work
process management platform, and they also wanted to test
whether the perceived work overload was due to erroneous
calculations in the job sizing.
Organizational resources for They have an MBO system with annual evaluations.
MBO
151
Table 3 (continued) Analysis of the case C.
Functional group analysis The department has five systems, which provide a detailed
flow of all the work activities under the study. The homo-
geneity of the activities enabled to analyze the fulfillment of
the team goals.
Competencies They have a competence management system linked to a
very detailed job descriptions and an internal job profile
control system.
Commitment No information available.
Leadership style The companys management style is highly oriented to en-
gineering projects with traditional hierarchical relationships
and a high degree of delegation at middle management lev-
els.
Productivity The data obtained from the personnel time estimate and
control form has provided useful information to the organi-
zation. However, its usefulness for the workers is limited by
the fact that their jobs are oriented to very standard proce-
dures.
Worker performance is measured through individual objec-
tives. The workflow tools limit any risks of deviation of the
tasks and the periodic job sizing helps to identify the exist-
ing time thieves.
The case studies show how companies measure productivity on an individual

basis rather than taking into account the work teams and their outputs. However,
especially the large corporations have means, such as information systems and
procedures, for team based analysis. Finally, the leadership style is decisive in
evaluating and implementing new approaches.
5 Conclusions
The study is based on cases of companies that are concerned about the productivi-
ty of their teams and want to improve their existing tools and processes to enhance
the team productivity. The model used in the study has allowed analyzing the sub-
ject from a different perspective, and it also has pointed out the importance for
studying productivity from a multilevel point of view (individual, team, organiza-
tion).
How workers use the resources and take advantage of the processes that the or-
ganization offers, as well as the role of the team leader in the "administration" of
these resources is the key to understanding the productivity. It is also manifested
that in the team the clarity of the goals and purpose, commitment and analysis of
competencies are key variables due to their impact on the individual and team
productivity.
152
Despite the recourses and tools the organizations have to improve the produc-
tivity in the multilevel structure, companies don't have productivity measures for
teams and they rely on individual performance measurement as well as on the
company's overall productivity measurement. This study highlights the importance
of the team productivity as one of the key variables for productivity analysis since
it considers the individual factor and also the organizational factor. The future re-
search on this topic should include a more detailed study of the multilevel struc-
ture in organizations in terms of productivity and identify the interrelationships of
the factors at these levels.
6 References
Boyatzis RE (1982) The competent manager: A model for effective performance. NewYork:
John Wiley & Sons.
Blumberg M, Pringue C (1982) The missing opportunity in organizational research: some impli-
cations for a theory of work performance. Academy of Management Review, 7-4: 560-569
Castells, M. (1998) La era de la informacin. Economa sociedad y cultura, 3. Fin del Milenio,
Alianza Editorial, Madrid
Davenport T (2011) Rethinking knowledge work: A strategic approach. McKinsey Quaterly,
February 2011
Drucker P (1999) Management Challenges for the 21st Century. Butterworth-Heinemann, Ox-
ford
Gil F, Rico R, Snchez-Manzanares M (2008) Eficacia de los equipos de trabajo. Papeles del
Psiclogo, 29, 1: 25-31
Kozlowski S, Bell B (2003) Work Groups and Teams in Organizations. Handbook of Psycholo-
gy, 12: Industrial and Organizational Psychology: 333-375
Kozlowski, B.; Ilgen, D. (2006) Enhancing the Effectiveness of Work Groups and Teams. Psy-
chological Science in the Public Interest, 7, 3: 77-124
Mathieu J, Zajac D (1990) A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and conse-
quences of organizational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 2: 171-194
Mintzberg H (1989) Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations,
The Free Press, New York, NY, 1989. ISBN 0-02-921371-1
Moreno A (2009) Adaptacin a las nuevas tecnologas organizativas del trabajo en enthrones de
red. Telos: Cuadernos de comunicacin e Innovacin, 81, ISSN: 0213-084X
Salas E, Cooke NJ, Rosen MA (2008 a) On Teams, Teamwork, and Team Performance: Disco-
veries and Developments. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonom-
ics Society, 50, 3: 540-547
Salas E, DiazGranados D, Klein C, Burke S, Stagl KC, Goodwin GF, Halpin SM (2008 b) Does
Team Training Improve Team Performance? A Meta-Analysis. Human Factors: The Journal
of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 50, 6: 903-933
Taylor F (1911) Principles of scientific management
Vroom VH (1965) Motivation in Management. New York, American Foundation for Manage-
ment Research
153
Return of Equity Issues in the Spanish Stock

Market from the Investors Perspective, during
the 1997-2012 Period
Parreo J1, Ruiz F2, Roux F3
Abstract Is it profitable for an investor, from a risk-return perspective, to acquire

a stake in a quoted company when a capital increase is announced? This paper
analyses the return obtained from the investment in equity issues with cash contri-
bution and pre-emptive rights, aimed at funding corporate activities: acquisitions,
investments in new facilities and/or strengthening the balance sheet of the compa-
nies undertaking the equity issue. During the 16 years covered by the study, the
results show a negative average excess risk-adjusted return of almost 5%, from the
moment that the equity offer is announced until the completion of the preferential
subscription period. To obtain this excess return, the difference between the nomi-
nal Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and the expected return, using the CAPM, is
computed for each equity issue. The intention behind this method is to eliminate
the effects of time and any other possible effect on the stock price during the peri-
od of the analysis. The results from this article are consistent with the Pecking Or-
der theory for the Spanish Stock Market also six months after the preferential sub-
scription period. However, there is a positive return after three months.
Keywords: Equity Issues Returns Pecking Order
1Javier Parreo ( e-mail: j.parreno@alumnos.upm.es)

Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales. Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. Jos
Gutirrez Abascal, 2, 28006. Madrid. Espaa
2Felipe Ruiz ( e-mail: fruiz@etsii.upm.es)
3FlixRoux ( e-mail: froux@etsii.upm.es)
154
1 Capital Structure and the Pecking Order Theory
The theory of capital structure has been widely studied by researchers and profes-
sionals, since it corresponds to one of the key financial decisions from the point of
view of both academics and practitioners. The modern starting point of this theory
was Modigliani and Millers 1958 paper which stated that, in perfect markets, fi-
nancing decisions with either external or internal resources are irrelevant to the
market value of companies. From this starting point, additional hypotheses to
make the model more realistic (influence of taxes, market behaviour, etc.) have
been included, resulting in more complete and explanatory theories to explain the
financial preferences of companies.
The Pecking Order theory of financing choices was originated some 25 years
ago by Myers (1977), Myers (1984) and Myers & Majluf (1984), who stated that
companies funding preferences are as follows: (i) firms prefer internal financing,
(ii) they adjust their dividend policies to their investment opportunities; (iii) when
external finance is required, they start with debt, followed by convertible securi-
ties and, as a last resort, using equity issues.
The rationale for the Pecking Order goes as follows: (a) the investor knows that
the management of the companys information is superior to her/his; (b) the inves-
tor also knows that the management can time the equity issue so that it does not
take place when the stock price, according to the managements superior infor-
mation, is undervalued; (c) therefore, the investor knows that when the manage-
ment proposes the equity issue, the price of the stock must be either right or over-
valued; and (d) a rational investor should then sell her/his shares at the issue price,
the consequence being a drop in the price of the shares when the issue is an-
nounced.
2 Financing Companies in the Spanish Stock Market through

Equity Issues with Cash Contribution and Pre-emptive Rights
This study provides new evidence of the Pecking Order theory within the Spanish
market. Numerous previous works have shown the hierarchy of financing re-
sources through different methodologies like, without claiming to be exhaustive:
Fernndez, de Rojas and Zuliani (2004), Pastor-Llorca, M.J. and Poveda, F.
(2004), Snchez-Vidal and Martn Ugedo (2004) and Aybar, Casino and Lpez
Gracia (2001).
As explained by Snchez-Vidal and Martn-Ugedo (2004), Myers and Majluf
(1984) analyses the North American stock market, where quoted companies main-
ly make equity issues on a firm basis, so they usually restrict pre-emptive rights
for existing shareholders. In the Spanish stock market, equity issues with mone-
tary contributions in which companies restrict pre-emptive rights are made when
155
an investor or an organized block of investors want to acquire a stake in the com-

pany, but this doesnt mean that the company is seeking funding for expansion.
The only type of equity issues whose aim is always funding corporate growth us-
ing the Spanish stock market are those with cash contribution and pre-emptive
subscription.
As a consequence, it seems reasonable to analyse for the Spanish market the re-
turn obtained by investors in this type of equity issue as a method of confirming
the potential negative impact of this corporate funding criteria, guided by all the
papers mentioned before and also in the paper published by Asquith and Mullins
(1986), which investigated the effect on stock prices of equity offerings on the NY
Stock Exchange.
To summarize, there are several major practical reasons for the analysis of this
type of equity issues: (i) the objective corporate purpose of the equity issue, (ii)
The ability of the entire investor community to subscribe the equity issue (both in-
stitutional and domestic investors), (iii) greater systematic follow-up by the stock
exchange commission (CNMV), (iv) longer periods to subscribe the equity issue,
and therefore to analyse it and (v) the possibility of avoiding shareholder dilution.
3 Methodology
The universe of equity issues analysed meet the following criteria:

All companies are quoted in the Madrid Stock Exchange Market when the
equity issue is made. Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) have not been considered.
The period of analysis is 16 years starting from the beginning of 1997. This
period involves two cycles of expansion and contraction of the Spanish econo-
my.
There is a monetary contribution in every equity issue considered.
The Board of the Company recognises the pre-emptive rights of the existing
shareholders.
The capital increases are registered in the Spanish Stock Market Commission
(CNMV).
The methodology used to obtain the investors return follows three steps:
Internal Rate of Return of the equity issue n (IRRn) is the IRR obtained by
that investor who, once they know of the intention of the company to proceed
with an equity issue, finally decides to invest in it. The stock price information
has been obtained from Bloomberg. In this sense, it is important to mention
that theoretical value of rights has been adjusted by Bloomberg in the stock
price history once the pre-emptive subscription period is completed. IRR has
been calculated for three different short term periods: (i) once the pre-emptive
subscription period is finished, (ii) three months, and (iii) six months after the
156
forementioned period has finished.

The main issue in calculating the IRR is the date of the first day the investor
decides to acquire shares. The day when enough information about the equity
issue is published in CNMV has been designated t=0. Usually, most of the in-
formation has been given when the Board of the Company announces the total
amount of the equity issue (nominal + premium issue). The next step would be
to schedule a General Meeting of the Shareholders in order to approve the eq-
uity issue and to delegate to the Board the faculty to carry out the issue.
During the analysis of the return obtained by the investor, all dividends earned
by the shareholder have also been considered as dividend cash flow.
i
Dj Si
0 = O0
j1
( tj t 0 ) ( ti t 0 )
(1 IRR) 365 (1 IRR) 365

(1.1)
Where:
O0: Outflow. Disbursement for the investor (t=0)
Dj: Dividend received by the investor on the day j
Si: Inflow. Sale of the investment on the day i
Expected return of the equity issue n (ERn) that the investor should have ob-
tained in each equity issue. It is calculated during the same period of time as
the calculated IRRn.
The expected return has been calculated with the Capital Asset Pricing Mod-
el CAPM method (Campbell and Viceira, 2002).
The risk-free rates of return considered are three months and six months inter-
est rates of the Spanish public debt, depending on the period analysed. The
market premium has been calculated considering the difference between the
real rate of return of IBEX with dividends Index (Bloomberg ticker:
IBEX35TR) and the risk-free rate of return.
Excess risk-return of the equity issue n (ERRn): it is obtained as the differ-
ence between the IRR and the expected return.
ERRn = IRRn - ERn (1.2)
By extracting the expected return from the IRR, the effect of time or any other
possible effect on the stock price during the period is eliminated.
The universe of stocks combined for this study implies 132 out of 137 (96%) of
the total equity issues with cash contribution and pre-emptive right made by 68
companies. According to the sector breakdown provided by the Spanish Stock Ex-
change (Bolsas y Mercados Espaoles, S.A.), 27% of the equity issues analyzed
comes from companies within the financial services and real estate sector, 24%
157
basic materials, industry and construction, 21% consumer goods, 14% technology
and telecommunications, 8% oil and energy and 8% consumer services.
14
13
12 12
12
10 10 10
10
8 8 8
8
7 7 7
6 6
6
0
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Financial services & Real Estate Basic materials, industry and construction Oil & Energy
Consumer goods Consumer services Technology & Telecommunications
Fig. 1 Equity issues per year considered by the analysis by sector
An average of 8 equity issues per year have been fully subscribed; 2001 was
the year with the fewest equity issues (3) and in 2009 13 companies issued new
shares.
In terms of nominal and total value, equity issues fully subscribed during 2010
represented 25% and 20% respectively of the total universe analyzed. On the other
side, 2001 was the least active year, representing less than 1% of the total analysis.
The most active years in terms of corporate financing through these types of
equity issues correspond with the most restrictive period on financing held by fi-
nancial institutions (2008-2012).
158
8,474,158
In Euros 000's
7,415,957
5,787,239
3,996,841
3,676,536
2,642,573 2,700,071
2,543,125
2,280,423
1,744,897
1,429,068
388,929 309,819
172,199 311,766
40,916
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Fig. 2 Total value (nominal + premium) of the equity issues analysed
4 Results Obtained
Those investors who have decided to buy shares in a company at the time that it
makes public its intention to issue equity in the market have obtained, on average,
a negative excess return, both at the end of the preferential subscription period and
six months after in terms of the mean and the median. However, the mean after
three months shows a positive return. When calculating the median value of the
excess returns, one can observe a negative figure for all periods.
15%
10%
11.50%
5%
0%
-0.52%
-5%
-4.93%
-10%
-10.71% -9.61%
-15%
-20%
-25%
-26.52%
-30%
Just ended the preferential 3 months after 6 months after
subscription period
Average Median
Fig. 3 Average and median excess returns (ERRn) of the equity issues analysed (for those equity
issues made during the second semester of 2012, only the first period has been taken into ac-
count)
159
If made a grouping of stocks according to their betas, the following average ex-
cess returns shown in fig.4 are obtained:
100%
80%
75%
60%
45%
40%
32%
29%
20%
19% 14%
15%
13%
0% -5% -2%
-3%
-18% -9% -4%
-20%
-19%
-32% -31%
-40% -32%
Just ended the preferential subscription period 3 months after 6 months after
0.1 < Beta 0.5 0.5 < Beta 0.75 0.75 < Beta 0.9 0.9 < Beta 1 1 < Beta 1.25 Beta>1.25
Fig. 4 Average excess returns (ERRn) according to different groups of betas
Those companies whose betas are between 0.75 and 0.9 higher than 1.25 obtain
an average positive excess return.
If a grouping of stocks according to the total amount funded in the stock ex-
change market (nominal + premium) is made, the following results shown below
are obtained.
120%
100% 102%
80%
60% 53%
47%
40%
29% 19%
20%
2% 5%
0% -4%
1%
-5%
-6%
-20% -26%
-28% -13% -21%
-40% -29%
-38%
-60%
Just ended the preferential subscription period 3 months after 6 months after
0 < Amount 20.000.000 20.000.000 < Amount 35.000.000 35.000.000 < Amount 90.000.000
90.000.000 < Amount 150.000.000 150.000.000 < Amount 250.000.000 Amount > 250.000.000
Fig. 5 Average excess returns (ERRn) according to the amount funded in the equity issues
Neither the total amount of the equity issue nor beta affect the excess return ob-
tained. There is no proven correlation between these two parameters and the ex-
cess returns obtained.
160
4.1 Industry Split
As shown in figure 6, one can observe the main differences between industry
weights in terms of average excess returns during the study period: Basic materi-
als, manufacturing and construction is the only sector that has a positive average
excess return from the moment that the equity issue is announced until its comple-
tion.
100%
88%
80%
60% 55%
40%
16%
20%
10%
9% 2%
0% 0%
-11% -1%
-21% -11% -12%
-20%
-23% -23%
-29%
-40%
-39%
-52%
-60%
-67%
-80%
Just ended the preferential subscription 3 months after 6 months after
period
Financial services & Real Estate Basic materials, industry and construction Oil & Energy
Consumer goods Consumer services Technology & Telecommunications
Fig. 6 Average excess returns (ERRn) according to sector
5 Conclusions
The results of this study demonstrate that the announcement of equity issues in the
Spanish stock exchange market destined for corporate growth provides a negative
excess return for those investors who decide to subscribe them from the moment
they are announced. The average excess return obtained by these investors is -5%
and is statistically significant.
Other significant results from this study include: (i) There is no relationship be-
tween betas and size of the equity issue and the return obtained for each offering;
(ii) according to the sector breakdown made by the Spanish stock market, the con-
sumer services sector is the most unprofitable sector for investors and the basic
materials, industry and construction sector is the only profitable sector.
161
6 References
Asquith, P. and Mullins, D.W. Jr. (1985) Equity issues and offering dilution. Journal of financial
economics. Harvard University, USA
Brealey, R.A., Myers, S.C. and Allen, F. (2011) Principles of Corporate Finance. 10th edition.
McGraw-Hill
Campbell, J.Y. and Viceira, L.M. (2002) Strategic Asset Allocation: Portfolio Choice for Long
Term Investors. Clarendon Lectures in Economics
Fama, E.F., and French K.R. (2005) Financing decisions: Who issues stock? Journal of Financial
Economics, 76(3), pp. 549
Fernndez Ramos, M.Y., de Rojas, M.C. and Zuliani, G.D. (2004) Verification of the Pecking
Order Theory: the case of the Spanish companies. Finance and accounting department, Uni-
versity of Valladolid, Spain
Moreira da Silva, C.A. and Rodrguez Sanz, J.A. (2006) Contrast Pecking Order vs. Trade-off
Theory for a sample of Portuguese companies. Faculty of Economics and Business, Universi-
ty of Salamanca, Spain
Myers, S.C. and Majluf, N.S. (1984) Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms
have information that investors do not have, Journal of Financial Economics 13, 187-222
Pastor-Llorca, M.J. and Poveda, F. (2004) Capital increases in Spain: an empirical study of equi-
ty issues rights. Department of Finance, Accounting and Marketing, University of Alicante,
Spain
Snchez-Vidal, J. and Martn-Ugedo, J.F. (2004) Financing Preferences of Spanish firms: New
evidence for the Theory of Hierarchy. Economics Analysis Working Papers, Vol.3, N 8.
Spain
162
Sustainable Balanced Scorecard: Practical

Application to a Services Company
Redondo A1, Pascual J.A2, Gento A3, Muoz J4
Abstract We have developed, in partnership with a consulting firm, a tool that

provides two basic goals: 1) The integration of the planning of Social Responsibil-
ity (CSR) with the strategic and operational planning of the company (BSC), in
our case based on a patented management model with 7+1 levels, and 2) Monitor-
ing the management of the CSR according to the activity carried out by the organ-
ization. This has allowed us to evaluate/test the quality and adaptability of the de-
veloped tool, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, areas for improvement
and future lines of research or work.
Keywords: Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR),

Strategy, Management.
1 Project Justification
Many are the changes that organizations are experiencing at the strategic and tac-
tical levels of management, whether those companies are public/private,
1Alfonso Redondo Castn ( e-mail: redondo@eii.uva.es)

Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas y CIM. Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales. Universidad de
Valladolid. Pso del Cauce 59, 47011 Valladolid.
2JosAntonio Pascual Ruano ( e-mail: pascual@eii.uva.es)
Valladolid. Pso del Cauce 59, 47011 Valladolid.
3Angel Manuel Gento Municio ( e-mail: gento@eii.uva.es)
Valladolid. Pso del Cauce, 59, 47011 Valladolid.
4JavierMuoz Sanz ( e-mail: msz.javier@gmail.com)
Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales. Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce, 59, 47011
Valladolid.
163
large/small, goods/services, etc.. And many organizations are questioning whether

it even makes sense to talk about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), or
whether, by contrast it should be another of their business pillars.
In this line, the crisis (economic/social/values/etc ...) presents an opportunity
for businesses. Our society highlights the need to build a more sustainable and re-
sponsible socioeconomic model, aligned with the concepts and vision pursued by
CSR: economic models which integrate business development and societal con-
cerns, searching for a balance between renovation and irresponsible consumption
of finite natural resources, aligning the interests of all "stakeholders" towards an
integral and supportive CSR, etc. By integrating this all, we will achieve a CSR
that becomes a competitive element within the business framework, and that is
able to generate greater profits for a company.
In this context, two years ago, a service company suggested us to collaborate in
developing a model that would allow the integration of the classical Balanced
Scorecard (BSC) with CSR: Responsible Scorecard. This project aims to know the
impact and the level of implementation and control of an existing CSR, through
the development of a tool that allows to strategically manage all CSR indicators.
2 Scope and Planning
According to the objectives stated on the abstract, the project was divided into
three phases:
First, we had to analyze the strategic management model implemented in the
company (7 +1 levels), emphasizing the identification of the most relevant in-
dicators.
Later, taking as starting point a work by Muumer, H (2011) which we had
previously directed, we set in context CSR in firms, from the strategic point of
view, and considering the intended development of a sustainable management
tool.
After the previous stages, we proceeded to develop and implement the sustain-
able management tool, characterized, strategically and from the point of view
of CSR, by the business management of the Consulting firm.
In this article we will focus on the latter stage, since it constitutes the central
and practical core of the developed work.
164
3 Development and Implementation of Sustainable Balanced

Scorecard
The design / development of the theoretical model, as a previous step before its
application in the consulting firm, was carried out in three phases that we summa-
rize below:
3.1 Phase I: Diagnostic
This is a critical and laborious phase, which consists in analyzing and measuring
the level of involvement, both for each of the dimensions of the CSR of the com-
pany, as well as for the indicators of each of the strategic perspectives (CMI) of
the company.
In order to carry out an internal scanning, the following steps were performed:
3.1.1 Classification of CSR Indicators Aligned with the Strategic Perspectives
In Fig.1 we can see the classification of CSR indicators aligned with the strategic
perspectives of the company.
Fig. 1 Classification of CSR indicators in strategic perspectives.
3.1.2 Diagnostic/Analysis of the State of the Indicators of the Company
The analysis/screening was performed based on a set of templates specifically de-

veloped for that purpose, involving a huge amount of hours and meetings. This
check / data capture allows us to know the level of commitment and the imple-
mentation status that each company may have with relation to its CSR, both in
165
dimensions as well as in prospects. Fig. 2, 3, and 4 shows, in "white": those indi-

cators that do not apply to the company; in "gray": those indicators that apply and
cannot be measured; and in "purple": those indicators that are currently applied
and measured.
Fig. 2 Analysis of the state of the CSR indicators in the company.
Fig. 3 General diagnostic of the CSR indicators by strategic perspectives.
Fig. 4 General diagnostic of the indicators by CSR dimension.
3.1.3 Identification of Critical Indicators
The preceding step is enriching, but unapproachable as a whole, so it is necessary

to make a selection of those indicators which are key to the firm, also named criti-
166
cal indicators. That is, those indicators which are vital both for CSR management
and for the management of the strategic perspectives.
The tool so designed, based on correlation tables between indicators, allows us
not only to select the critical indicators, but also to know their status, or, equiva-
lently, to determine the percentage of improvement both by strategic perspective
and by social dimension.
3.2 Phase II: Improvement Plan
Now, the tool allows us to analyze the indicators that could be applied and are not
currently measured by the company. Thereby demonstrating the capacity of im-
proving the firm on CSR and its location (perspective/dimension), facilitating thus
its Integral management (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5 Improvement Plan.
3.3 Phase III: Implementation and Monitoring
The role of this third and final phase is to monitor and to control all the critical in-
dicators, providing information about their evolution. This will allow us, on Phase
IV, its integration with the Operating Plan.
167
In short, it allows us to know the fraction of strategy goals effectively imple-

mented (the advance on the fulfillment of the objectives of the operational plan
that are related to CSR), as well as the advance achieved between different peri-
ods.
This last section of the tool uses red and green colors to distinguish between the
status of each perspective-dimension at a glance. Those indicators that do not meet
the objectives are highlighted in white (see Fig. 6).
Fig. 6 Table for managing and controlling indicators.
This analysis can be extended further, making the tool more effective for man-
agement, both by an integration into the company's operating plan, a process that
is developed later, as well as by the possible monitoring of each indicator. Fig 7
shows an example of the record sheet that can be performed for each indicator.
Fig. 7 Tracking card for indicator LA2.
3.4 Phase IV: Integration with the Operational Plan
The final process of this tool is the phase of integration with the company's operat-
ing plan. It is very versatile, with high adaptability and vital to the establishment
of relations with the previous phase of implementation and monitoring.
168
The aim is its practical application to a "Service Company: Consulting", mak-

ing evident not only its capacity for measuring and tracking, but also its ability to
be adapted when classifying CSR indicators for each management area of the
company, whatever the degree of complexity of its operational planning. The stud-
ied company uses a complex integrated management system based on a patented
model with 7 +1 levels. The result is shown in Fig 8.
Fig. 8 Integration of CSR indicators with the operational plan of the company.
After a thorough analysis (available in Muoz, J. (2012)), the conclusions

drawn from its integration into the operational plan are as follows in Fig. 9.
Fig. 9 Achieved goals for critical indicators.
4 Final Syntheses
The proposed model, which has been tested in a consulting firm, but which can be
applied/adapted to any other company, allows:
169
To perform an internal review of the company with relation to CSR, according

to its indicators of interest, and to integrate new indicators. This makes the
management of each individual indicator easier, providing information about
monthly and annual evolution, rate of progress towards objectives, trends, new
objectives, estimated cost and time, scope, etc.
To identify the strategic CSR indicators for the company, allowing it to focus
their strategic and operational efforts. Controlling the critical indicators for
each management area, and its corresponding margin for improvement.
To assess the monitoring of these indicators as currently undertaken by the
company, classifying them according to their CSR dimension or strategic per-
spective, and checking the improvement ratio for each dimension and perspec-
tive.
To evaluate the CSR by the desired level or perspective: by areas or corpora-
tive levels of the operational plan, by strategic lines or CSR dimensions; For
strategic or operational decisions, watching their evolution over time; it allows
the introduction of new critical or general indicators.
To diagnose the analysis and evolution of CSR in the company, checking the
degree of implementation of the strategy, and, thus, to establish corrective
measures.
A model adaptable to any type of operational planning in order to perform a
scanning of the effectiveness of CSR at each management level of the compa-
ny.
In conclusion, it is a tool that allows the introduction, implementation, analysis
and evolution of CSR in a company, facilitating the establishment of operational
and strategic CSR lines, and integrating the BSC.
5 Future Lines of Research and Development
Due to the scope of this study, the main future R & D lines are addressed towards
an integral automation of the tool, looking for its full integration into the enter-
prise. It is necessary to create an interface that allows managing the tool in harmo-
ny with the rest of applications implemented in the company, so that data treat-
ment can be carried out with the greatest possible traceability and integrity.
6 References
Garca Vlchez, Emilio Jos (2010) Desarrollo del modelo de Sostenibilidad Integrado (M.S.I.)
para la medida de la gestin sostenible de una industrial de procesos: Aplicacin al sector de
fabricacin de neumticos. Tesis Doctoral, Universidad de Valladolid.
170
Muumer, H. (2011) La Responsabilidad Social de la Empresa. Actualizacin del Sistema de

Gestin tica (SGE21:2008) e Integracin de los criterios de la Gua de Responsabilidad So-
cial ISO26000:2010 Proyecto Fin de Carrera, E.I. Industriales, Universidad de Valladolid
(Winner of the UVA RSU 2011).
Muoz Sanz, J. (2012) Cuadro de mando responsable: aplicacin prctica en la consultora 1A
Consultores. Proyecto Fin de Carrera, E.I. Industriales, Universidad de Valladolid (Awarded
with a special mention in the Organization section, in X Premios Michelin Valladolid a los
mejores Proyectos Fin de Carrera sobre Innovacin, Calidad Total y Organizacin (2012).
171
Applying Cluster Analysis to Renewable Energy

Emergent Sector at Local Level
Larruscain J1, Ro-Belver R2, Cilleruelo E3, Garechana G4, Gavilanes-

Trapote J5
Abstract This paper aims to provide a brief overview of state-of-the-art methods

of cluster analysis and to acknowledge their limitations when applied to local level
in renewable energies. This emergent sector is becoming increasingly important
within the field of Industrial Organisation, with technological and industrial inno-
vation being essential for the competitiveness of future smart cities. An under-
standing and analysis of the clusters formed by the different participating actors
(public administration, centres of research and knowledge, and businesses) will be
the key to safeguarding economic development, especially in their initial stage. As
a conclusion, Social Network Analysis (SNA) tools together with Competitive
Advantage Analysis (CAA) seem to be the most recommended methods.
Keywords: Cluster Analysis, Renewable Energy, Network Analysis, Collabora-

tive Networks, Management Models
1JasoLarruscain ( e-mail: jaso.larruscain@ehu.es)

Foresight, Technology and Management (FTM) Group. Department of Industrial Engineering,
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, calle Nieves Cano 12, 01006 Vitoria, Spain
2Rosa Ro-Belver ( e-mail: rosamaria.rio@ehu.es)
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, alameda Urquijo s/n, 48030 Bilbao, Spain
4Gaizka Garechana ( e-mail: gaizka.garechana@ehu.es)
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, calle Elcano 21, 48030 Bilbao, Spain
5JavierGavilanes-Trapote ( e-mail: javier.gavilanes@ehu.es)
172
1 Introduction
In the era of globalisation, the tendency to create local clusters is gathering

strength as the key factor for the economic development of smart cities. This is
particularly true in the renewable energy (RE) sector, not only in order to comply
with sustainability requirements imposed by government organisations, but also to
generate economic growth. The competitiveness of a sector can be measured by its
clusters. These clusters in turn can be analysed by the numerous methods used by
the scientific community. Whilst the majority of these methods are applied to geo-
graphical areas of nations or regions, there is a growing need to be able to apply
them to more restricted areas, such as cities.
The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of state-of-the-art
methods of cluster analysis applied to local level in renewable energy sector. For
that purpose, a research methodology is carried out based on three main steps:
gathering information about this specific sector, analyzing general identification
tools with specific network indicators, as well as highlighting limitations when
applying to local level.
1.1 Renewable Energies (Sub)Sector
The objective to increase the percentage of RE in the European energy mix to 20%
by 2020 (European Commission communication 2011) has caused the scientific
production in RE to double in size at European and worldwide levels between
2002 and 2007 (Romo-Fernandez et al. 2011) and also the boost of a new multi-
discipline industrial sector.
Nevertheless, the need to incorporate a greater percentage of different technol-
ogies (including not so well-developed ones such as wave, tidal and small wind
energies) within the new structures of energy generation and distribution in cities
makes local participation increasingly important in terms of industrial develop-
ment. Investments in this sector will generate a multiplying effect in the economy,
and the creation of new organisational structures such as local clusters will be-
come necessary (Marques and Fuinhas 2012).
1.2 Local Clusterisation
According to Porter (1998), an industrial cluster is defined as: a geographic con-

centration of interconnected businesses and institutions in a particular field, creat-
ing a matrix crucial for increasing productivity. Accordingly, clusters have a
competitive advantage due to their co-localisation (Doeringer and Terkla 1995).
173
Modern clusterisation theories affirm that the experience and know-how shared
by actors of a cluster are the greatest source of benefit, as a result of being close
by and maintaining local innovation networks (Porter 2000).
The type of industry is usually a factor that influences the typology of a cluster,
which changes from a temporary phase to another, going through the embryonic,
established, mature and declining stages. In the case of the RE sector at a local
level, they are currently in the first phase and have a mixed typology (He and Fal-
lah 2011) between the Marshallian, Hub-and-spoke, Satellite platform or State-
anchored form (Markusen 1996).
Whilst national and regional clusters have been studied in detail by the scien-
tific community, no specific studies have been carried out at a local level.
At local level, the success of a cluster is largely determined by the growth po-
tential of its small and medium sized industries. For instance, one of the main pri-
orities for policymakers is to promote local enterprise and to allow SMEs to bene-
fit from the availability of the clusters resources (He and Fallah 2011).
The extensive and speedy evolution of RE enterprises shows that local clusters
as well as industry based on knowledge will grow exponentially in the next few
years. Clusterisation in this emergent RE sector is an industrial hallmark.
Porter (1998) argued that although the role of localisation has been ignored in
the era of global markets, lasting competitive advantages are to be found in the lo-
cal characteristics that cannot be matched by far-off competition and that these
characteristics, among others the relationships, will have to be studied and ana-
lysed in detail, especially in local new clusters (see Table 1).
Table 1 Some examples of European Renewable Energy Local Clusters (2011)
Cluster Creation year Phase Members Comments

(companies) (Employment)
Hamburg 2010 Embryonic 163 Local: 14.563;
(Germany) expected growth
(2008-2015): 40%
Freiburg 2009 Established 107 Region: 12.000
(Germany)
Copenhagen 2010 Embryonic 36 Local expected
(Denmark) growth (2010-
2013): +1000
San Sebastian 2009 Embryonic 85 Local: 1.800
(Spain)
Source: http://en.erneuerbare-energien-hamburg.de/, http://www.greencity-cluster.de/,
http://www.cphcleantech.com/, and http://www.fomentosansebastian.org/
174
2 Cluster Analysis Tools
Cluster analysis is an essential tool in the identification of areas of local-regional

economy where there are comparable advantages in terms of the productivity and
economic growth of a cluster. Comprehensive analysis of a cluster requires paying
attention to concepts such as industrial structure, business strategy, competitive-
ness between industries and the relationship between knowledge and technology
(Iammarino and McCann 2006).
In general terms, most authors suggest an analysis that takes into account two
aspects. On the one hand, the impact indicator (to measure the impact of the net-
work on its members) (Newman 2001) and, on the other, the size of the network
and its average path length (the average number of links between its members).
It has been observed that businesses embedded in alliance networks, which
show a high clustering impact and reach (very short lengths of links between busi-
nesses), tend to show high innovation performance (Schilling and Phelps 2007).
With regard to its own growth, this will be directly related to the benefits obtained
from being a member of the network, such as economies of scale (Doeringer and
Terkla 1995).
2.1 General Methods
Although literature relating to methods is varied and extensive, the methods can
be grouped according to the origins of baseline data. Quantitative methods are
used in the generic analysis of the properties of the network, both at the general
and restricted levels (Bergman and Feser 1999). The most important methods in
this group are: input-output (analysing an approximation of interdependencies be-
tween different areas of the network), cluster dependency (analysing the depend-
ency ratios which can easily be visualised with the Fuzzy tool), and network anal-
ysis (together with the Graph theory used for visualisation only) (Stejskal and
Hajek 2011). Alternatively, qualitative methods, which provide greater sensitivity
regarding the relationship between the actors in the cluster (Doeringer and Terkla
1995), would be: expert opinion, surveys and industry research. A full analysis
requires the use of both types of method.
Social Network Analysis (SNA) will specifically provide information that ena-
bles possible actors to be aware of the existence, needs and ability requirements of
others, including help to develop new alliances (Gulati et al. 2000). This becomes
a key element in the study of relationships at an organisational level, inside and
outside the clusters (Johannisson 1995; He and Fallah. 2011).
Its objective is to detect and interpret patterns in the links between the different
actors in the network, which are represented as vertices (De Nooy et al. 2011). In
addition, attributes (characteristics of the actors, which are not based on their
175
structural position within the network, and calculated statistically) provide added
value to the interpretation of the structure.
The most important specific network indicators (De Nooy et al. 2011) calculat-
ed and visualised by means of certain types of software such as Pajek, Ucinet, Vi-
sone, Gephi or Vennmaker (Richards 2007), are:
Density: ratio between existing and possible relations
Cohesion: number of bidirectional choices in relation to the number of dyads
Multiplexity: share of multiplex relations on all possible relations
Degree of homophily: describes whether actors with similar attributes are more
connected with each other than to actors with different attributes.
The network typology of a cluster is critical from the first moment of its exist-
ence, as it will determine its success or failure during the later phase of expansion,
growth and development. Analysis of this first phase is essential, particularly to
identify the cluster potential (He and Fallah 2011).
2.2 Identification Methods and Limitations in RE Sector
The emergence of a cluster can be attributed to historical circumstances, even be-

fore the appearance of the contributing industries themselves, or could even be
due to chance or coincidence (Porter 1998). It may also be the result of a business
opportunity, of the presence of a unique added value, an increase in the influence
exercised by a business, an increase in the undertaking or even a change in the
policies of a given sector (Su 2009). The latter applies to most RE clusters.
There are numerous methods used in identification, such as: expert opinion, in-
put-output analysis (trade-based and innovation-based), network analysis, surveys
or Giniho coefficient of localization (Bergman and Feser 1999; Stejskal and Hajek
2011). However, the most widely used are explained below.
2.2.1 Location Quotients
This method compares the fraction of the regions variable in a particular industry
cluster to the fraction of the nations variable in the same industry (employment,
wages or other economic variable). An example is given in Fig. 1.
It is suitable for the RE sector only as a first approximation due to the fact that
although it provides local information, it uses only one analysis factor and it does
not allow to predict the behavior of emergent cluster.
176
Fig. 1 Tri-dimensional representation of the LQ method using data from 2001 to 2006 (Primont
and Domazlicky 2008) to identify emergent clusters in Southeast Missouri.
2.2.2 Shift-Share Analysis
It shows easily the influence of the industrial structure and changes in the regional
economy on a given variable, categorising the actual changes into three percent-
age-effect groups: national, industry cluster and regional (Stimson et al. 2006).
Although it is useful to compare a hypothesis of potential viability of an emerg-
ing RE cluster, it can not be corrected with factors dependent on economy (RE is
not currently stable) and it is necessary a 5 year time-window.
2.2.3 Ellison and Glaeser Index of Agglomeration
This establishes the degree of agglomeration of a specific industry within a region.

In industrial areas, agglomeration occurs in the form of a cluster. The distribution
of that industry and the size of the businesses within that sector are both taken into
consideration (Ellison and Glaeser 1997). The lack of detailed information of
companies inner field of activity (RE sector still remains very diversified in in-
dustrial activity since RE technology is not mature) complicates accurate results.
2.2.4 Competitive Advantage Analysis (CAA)
This is a mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) based on Porters Diamond,

which calculates the competitiveness of the cluster environment and its compo-
nents (Fig. 2) and requires the opinion of different managers of the most promi-
nent actors (Stejskal and Hajek 2012). It gives useful results in terms of demand,
sources, industrial branches and strategies, being sufficient to predict clusters be-
havior, but no specific studies have been carried out at RE local level.
177
Fig. 2 Competitiveness of RE industries in Germany compared with India and China, using Por-
ters Diamond model adapted to the RE sector. (Dgl et al. 2010)
3 Conclusions
In RE emergent sector, local clusters are currently in their first phases (embryonic,
established) being their success largely determined by the growth potential of their
small and medium sized industries. As concluded in this research, an analysis of
these clusters formed by the different participating actors will be the key to safe-
guarding economic development. Among the varied and extensive cluster analysis
methods studied and which can be grouped according to the origins of baseline da-
ta (Bergman and Feser 1999; Stejskal and Hajek 2011), identification methods ap-
pear to be essential and crucial (He and Fallah 2011) in RE sector where local
clusters births are becoming increasingly important. As a result, the order of ap-
plicability efficiency of these could be said to be CAA, Shift-Share analysis and
Ellison and Glaeser index of agglomeration (Stejskal and Hajek 2011).
However, limitations appear in two senses. On the one hand, regarding the
baseline data, there is still no consensus within the public administration on how
to define the sector itself (lack of official and standardised data at local level ow-
ing to multidisciplinary diversified industrial activities in no-mature technology),
no availability of long time windows (essential to accurate and comparable re-
sults) and a difficulty for companies managers to provide sensitivity information
such as their relationships with others within the cluster. On the other hand, apply-
ing methods which are used in regions analysis, inaccuracies in several result-
factors might appear.
To summarize, and taking into account these available tools and their limita-
tions in RE sector, Social Network Analysis (SNA) together with Competitive
Advantage Analysis (CAA) seem to be the most recommended methods.
178
4 References
Bergman EM, Feser EJ (1999) Industrial and Regional Clusters: Concepts and Comparative Ap-
plications. West Virginia: Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. A Roadmap For Moving
To A Competitive Low Carbon Economy In 2050, COM 2011; 112, Brussels, 8.3.2011
De Nooy W, Mrvar A, Batagelj V (2011) Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek.
Cambridge University Press, New York.
Doeringer PB, Terkla DG (1995) Business strategy and cross-industry clusters. Economic De-
velopment Quarterly 9:225-37
Dgl C, Holtbrgge D, Schuster T (2012) Competitive advantage of German renewable energy
firms in India and China: An empirical study based on Porter's diamond. International Journal
of Emerging Markets 7(2):191214
Ellison G, Glaeser EL (1997) Geographic concentration in U.S. manufacturing industries: A
dartboard approach. Journal of Political Economy 105:889-927
Gulati R, Nohria N, Zaheer A (2000) Strategic Networks. Strategic Manage. Journal 21:203215
He J, Fallah MH (2011) The typology of technology clusters and its evolution. Evidence from
the hi-tech industries. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 78(6):945-952
Iammarino S, McCann P (2006) The structure and evolution of industrial clusters: Transactions,
technology and knowledge spillovers. Research Policy 35(7):1018-1036
Johannisson B (1995) Paradigms and entrepreneurial networks some methodological challeng-
es. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 7(3):215232
Markusen A (1996) Sticky Places in Slippery Space: A Typology of Industrial Districts. Eco-
nomic Geography 72(3):293-313
Marques AC, Fuinhas JA (2012) Is renewable energy effective in promoting growth? Energy
Policy 46:434-442
Newman MEJ (2001) Scientific collaboration networks: I. Network construction and fundamen-
tal results. Phys. Rev. E 64 016131
Porter ME (1998) Clusters and the new economics of competition. Harvard Bus. 76(6):7790
Porter ME (2000) Location, Competition and Economic Development: Local Clusters in a Glob-
al Economy. Economic Development Quarterly 14(1):1534
Primont DF, Domazlicky B (2008) Inudustry Cluster Analysis for the Southeast Missouri Re-
gion. Center for Economic & Business Research. Missouri State University
Richards W (2007) Computer Programs for Social Network Analysis. http://www.insna.org/
Romo-Fernndez LM, Lpez-Pujalte C, Guerrero Bote VP et al. (2011) Analysis of Europes
scientific production on renewable energies. Renewable Energy 36(9):2529-2537
Schilling MA, Phelps CC (2007) Interfirm collaboration networks: the impact of large-scale
network structure on firm innovation. Manage. Sci. 53(7):11131126
Stejskal J, Hajek P (2012) Competitive advantage analysis: A novel method for industrial clus-
ters identification. Journal of Business Economics and Management 13(2):344-365
Stimson R, Stough RR, Roberts BH (2006) Regional Economic Development: Analysis and
Planning Strategy, 2nd edition. New York: Springer. 452 s. ISBN 978-3-540-34826-9
Su Y, Hung L (2009) Spontaneous vs. policy-driven: The origin and evolution of the biotechnol-
ogy cluster. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 76(5):608-619
179
Application of Reverse Innovation in SMEs
Garcia Miranda I1, Duran Heras A2, Giraldo Casado E3
Abstract Reverse innovations are typically originated in the developing countries

and later adopted in rich countries. This strategy is increasingly practiced by mul-
tinational enterprises (MNEs) that can access the market structure of the develop-
ing countries and can deploy all the company force to come up with innovations.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly face competition from
products by new entrants located in the developing world, often applying frugal
innovation, as well as from products developed by MNEs through reverse innova-
tion. It is therefore critical that they defend their position by developing products
using the techniques of reverse innovation; however, in doing so they face specific
challenges. In this article we discuss these challenges, and how the application of
reverse innovation in SMEs differs from that in MNEs.
Keywords: Reverse Innovation, Strategy, SMEs, Frugal Engineering.
1 Introduction
The phenomenon of Reverse Innovation was first described by Immelt et al. in

October 2009 in the article How GE is disrupting itself. Innovations are typical-
ly originated in rich countries and later downhill to the developing world. A re-
verse innovation is any innovation that is adopted first in the developing world
1Ivan Garcia Miranda( e-mail: igmirand@ing.uc3m.es)
rea de Ingeniera de Organizacin, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avda. De la Universidad,

30, 28911 Legans, Madrid, Spain.
2Alfonso Duran Heras ( e-mail: duran@ing.uc3m.es)
rea de Ingeniera de Organizacin, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avda. De la Universidad,
30, 28911 Legans, Madrid, Spain.
3Esmeralda Giraldo Casado ( e-mail: egiraldo@fen.uchile.cl)
Facultad de Economa y Negocios (Universidad de Chile). Escuela de Ingeniera Comercial
(Universidad Santo Toms). Santiago, Chile.
180
and after uphill to the rich countries. They are also known as Gandhian or Frugal
innovations (Sehgal et al. 2010, Prahalad et al. 2010).
Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, stated: If we dont
come up with innovations in poor countries and take them global, new competitors
from the developing world will. Affordability and sustainability replace abun-
dance and premium pricing as driver for innovation (Prahalad et al., 2010). Instead
of simply cutting costs and offering lower-end models with fewer features, true
innovations in terms of technology and process are necessary in order to satisfy
the demands of developing markets. Successful companies from these environ-
ments often excel in this process, known as frugal innovation. Many multination-
als establish R&D facilities in emerging countries. By 2007 nearly 70% of re-
search intensive Fortune 500 companies conducted at least part of their R&D in
India, a trend that is still increasing (Herstatt et al., 2008).
2 Background
The issues, problems and solutions described by Govindarajan (Govindarajan et

al., 2012) are going to permeate our home market. The so-called emerging giants
(companies based in the developing world) want to expand their products and ser-
vices in the well-established home markets, either with products with equivalent
features offered at lower prices or with a new price-performance proposition.
In this environment, it seems to be of high interest to study the processes and
strategies driving the success of reverse innovations and their transference to de-
veloped countries in order to extract the best practices followed by multinationals
and apply them in the SMEs.
Many companies are setting a glocalization strategy implying a compromise
between global scale and local responsiveness in order to achieve new markets in
the emerging countries. Corporations optimize their products for the developed-
world customer without sustainable competitive advantage. The reverse innova-
tion strategy, however, has another logic, which is trying to obtain the best solu-
tion for the emerging-market customer. Reverse innovation begins not with in-
venting but with unlearning. Such a strategy requires internal resources and
capabilities in the organization; however, SMEs often lack these requirements.
"SME" stands for small and medium-sized enterprises as defined in EU law:
EU recommendation 2003/361.
The main factors determining whether a company is an SME are number of
employees and either turnover or total assets in balance sheet.
According to the annual report on small and medium-sized enterprises in the
EU 2011/12, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of
the EU economy accounting for 99.8 per cent of non-financial enterprises in
181
2012, which equates to 20.7 million businesses. The overwhelming majority (92.2
per cent) are micro-enterprises, defined as those with fewer than ten employees.
In employment terms, SMEs provided an estimated 67.4 per cent of jobs in the
non-financial business economy in 2012, almost identical to 2011 (67,4 per cent)
but up from 66.9 per cent in 2010, although SMEs provided a slightly smaller
share of GVA in the EU in 2011 and 2012 (58.1 per cent).
Both multinationals and SMEs are responding to current globalization with
massive restructuring. Reverse innovation can be adopted by MNEs with interna-
tional presence in emerging markets, but SMEs usually lack that structure abroad.
The definition of SME inherently implies that SMEs have lesser human and finan-
cial resources at their disposal than MNEs. Developing new products and services
using reverse innovation best practices, adapted to SMEs specific characteristics,
could be considered as an effective line of defence. European SMEs usually oper-
ate under high overhead costs, such as labour costs, and find themselves faced
with strong price-oriented competition from low-cost producers from emerging
countries. Providing innovative products may help SMEs strengthen their com-
petitive position in home as well as in international markets.
3 Application of Reverse Innovation & Implications
3.1 Reverse Innovation in MNEs
To create a reverse innovation mind-set, MNEs must take three steps (Govindara-
jan et al. 2012):
They must shift the center of gravity of their organization to emerging mar-
kets.
They must bulk up on emerging market knowledge and expertise.
They must change tone by taking highly visible and personal actions.
All these actions imply an emerging country organizational structure, capital
and an experienced management team. Some of these pieces may not be available
in SMEs, who must therefore adapt the process as discussed below.
MNEs try to shift the center of gravity shifting people, power, money and at-
tention to where the growth is, rolling critical decision makers to emerging mar-
kets and increasing R&D spending in emerging markets focusing it on local needs.
Other measures to manage emerging market knowledge and expertise will include
changing the composition of the board of directors and the top management team
to include leaders with deep experience in emerging markets or assign individuals
to multiyear expatriate assignments in the developing world. In addition, MNEs
has to set the tone about criticality of winning in emerging markets.
182
Reverse innovation is not only a product innovation but also a business-model

innovation. Reverse innovation strategy requires new processes, new partnerships
and even a reinvented value chain. MNEs have considerable advantages: technol-
ogy, a global brand, supply networks, and manufacturing capacity.
3.2 Barriers to Innovation in SMEs
Barriers to innovation in SMEs have been studied in numerous national and inter-
national research projects, e.g. Rodenes et al. 2002 in a province of Spain,
Ylinenp (1998) in Sweden, Rammer et al. (2006) and Tiwari et al. (2007a) in
Germany. Comparing the findings of the above-mentioned references highlights
that SMEs often face similar barriers to innovation. The most prevalent ones are
listed in Table 2.
Table 2 Barriers to innovation in SMEs
Barrier category Barrier

External barriers Financial constraints
Availability of Skilled Labor
Bureaucratic Hurdles
Difficulties in cooperations/partnerships
Internal barriers Intellectual Property Management

Project Management
Internationalization
Conceptualization of innovative products
Marketing
Many SMEs have limited resources and lack know-how on international mar-
kets, which imply a significant barrier to innovation affecting international poten-
tial capacity. In this study we are focused on SMEs and their local markets, under-
standing that some of the SMEs have international outlook but not all of them.
Understanding and overcoming these barriers is critically important to accomplish
the reverse innovation strategy in SMEs.
3.3 Understanding Emerging Markets
In countries like China and India a new consumer middle class of hundreds of mil-
lions of people is emerging. When we analyse these markets, we appreciate a
183
structure which is very different from that found in Europe. If we consider the
market pyramid (Prahalad et al. 2003), at the top of the pyramid are a relatively
small number of consumers who are responsive to international brands and have
the income to afford them. Next, a much larger group of people who are less at-
tracted to international brands. Finally, at the bottom of the pyramid of consumers
is a massive group that is loyal to local preferences, habits and often to local
brands. Below that is another huge group who are unlikely to become active con-
sumers anytime soon. The extensive pattern of economic growth in these econo-
mies force MNEs to focus on satisfying new emerging middle class demands,
competing with the booming local giants either entrepreneurs or companies who
create more products with fewer resources. All these new entrants might spread
their products to our home market, particularly aiming stagnant middle class con-
sumer segments, which might be attracted by a new price-performance proposi-
tion.
Govindarajan (Govindarajan et al. 2012) stated that there are five enormous
gaps that separate emerging markets from rich countries: the performance gap, the
infrastructure gap, the sustainability gap, the regulatory gap and the preferences
gap.
Consumers in big emerging markets are getting bombarded with global stand-
ards, but they are often unwilling to pay global prices. Consumers in the big
emerging markets are far more focused on the price-performance proposition.
Even when consumers in emerging markets want to buy the same products sold
elsewhere, some adaptation is often necessary to reflect differences in use, distri-
bution, or selling. Customization is the first response of the MNEs to its expansion
to emerging countries strategy.
The rich world has extensive infrastructure deployed but emerging countries do
not. These infrastructure constraints can help developing creative products and
services. Most of these new products and services are based in green solutions be-
cause they can adopt the green solution as the new one without incurring in
change costs. In addition, innovation in the emerging countries enjoys the ad-
vantages of lower friction due to a regulatory gap with the rich countries.
These different gaps become the path of the dynamics of reverse innovation so
understanding them is crucial to SMEs to face the entrance of new competitors
and develop products and services for dodging the competence at home markets.
Eventually, outstanding SMEs with a brilliant price-performance proposition can
afford to capture market share in developing countries by venturing overseas.
3.4 Reverse Innovation in SMEs
For many managers of SMEs in rich countries, the answer to the entrance of new
products from competitors located in the developing world is calling on the gov-
184
ernment to instate trade barriers, providing some other form of grant, becoming a
subordinate partner to a multinational or selling out and leaving the industry. We
believe there are other options for SMEs, however these require them to innovate.
Not so many managers have posed several key questions to evaluate the risks:
How strong are the pressures to globalize in your industry? How internationally
transferable are your companys competitive advantage? By understanding these
answers, managers can better appreciate the actual risks.
There are SMEs in which success turns on meeting the particular demands of
local consumers with a well-established relationship with them. In some sectors,
high transportation costs needed may discourage a global presence. Also, SMEs
may have a local distribution network that would take years for a new competitor
to replicate. Or they may have long-standing relationships with government offi-
cials. In all of these cases, SMEs may continue by selling only in their local mar-
kets. Any such asset could form a barrier to entry to the home market but that will
only retard the demise of these SMEs, especially those oriented to middle-class
markets. MNEs can have the same barriers and even others because of their re-
sources availability. Their structure deployment in home markets let them intro-
duce without friction costs the new reverse innovative products.
Creating a reverse innovation mind-set in SMEs has to start by quelling fears
about losing the positioning of the brands or cannibalization of the current prod-
ucts. Developing new products and services based on reverse innovation could
partially cannibalize yourself, however if someone else comes with a new perfor-
mance-price proposition they anyhow do it
The innovation process can be simplified in 3 phases (Tiwari et al. 2007b):
conception, implementation and marketing. Conception includes requirement
analysis and idea generation. Implementation embraces development (prototype,
construction) and testing. The last phase includes production and market launch
and penetration. In this document we will focus in the first and second phases,
specifying reverse innovation characteristics.
After beating canibalization fears and overcoming innovation barriers, SMEs
should create a clean-slate innovation unlearning price-performance curve and try-
ing to determine a new proposition as MNEs achieve reverse innovation products.
SMEs have to estimate customer needs as if they were emerging markets customer
needs, similarly to the market research conducted by MNEs with overseas struc-
ture. Some marketing studies can be conducted within home markets but analyz-
ing real needs and not local preferences. Usually SMEs are guided by actual cus-
tomers requests about its actual products, which influence new developing process
by technology push. Not forgetting the actual customers, SMEs should innovate
for new consumption among noncustomers or the ones who would first change
their mind to new competitors products or services. Regarding the idea genera-
tion, SMEs can achieve the twin objectives of offering a new price-performance
proposition and a new idea conception by using open innovation networks (Tiwari
et al. 2012). Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should
185
use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to mar-
ket, as firms look to advance their technology (Chesbrough et al. 2008). The coop-
eration may take place at any stage of the innovation process as a replacement for
R&D resources shortage in comparison with MNEs.
By the second phase (implementation), SMEs should develop a new price-
performance proposition by starting from zero, questioning all the elements used
taking into account the infrastructure constraint experimented in emerging coun-
tries. In addition, they should explore the possibility of developing a new compo-
nent with a new cost model and using a green solution. SMEs can increase the
probability of offering an attractive price-performance proposition if they are able
to connect their product development process with global innovation networks.
MNEs will shift their resources on emerging markets, but SMEs have to manage
to establish collaborative forms of product development and testing in the global
network. This collaborative form can be taken place in the same country or be-
yond the national boundaries. This cooperation will also help to reduce the afore-
mentioned barriers to innovation in SMEs.
Most of the studies developed until now show MNEs examples of reverse in-
novation (Govindarajan et al. 2012) such as GE, P&G or PepsiCo, which prove
that reverse innovation is a recent and successful strategy, however the approaches
followed by these MNEs can not be directly applied by SMEs. SMEs can get more
directly applicable hints by analyzing start-ups and entrepreneurs who are rein-
venting the idea of radical price-performance equation and in social innovators.
One such example is Diagnostics for All (http://www.dfa.org), DFA is a non-
profit enterprise fusing biotechnology and development, dedicated to creating low-
cost, easy-to-use, point-of-care diagnostics designed specifically for developing
countries and hoping also to commercialize its idea in the rich countries. DFA has
relied on strategic partnerships to reach its success using paper technology to cre-
ate diagnostic devices. Another example (The Economist, 2012), Igloo Vision is a
small British company and has managed to disrupt the events installations and
projection solutions market. They have employed computer-games technology and
cheap projectors for playing 360 videos and simulation software. They are still
keen to develop formal partnerships with companies for new application deploy-
ment.
4 Conclusions
In this paper we have analyzed the possibility and challenges involved in the ap-
plication of a reverse innovation process in SMEs. The result of this analysis is
summarized in Table 3.
186
Table 3 Application of reverse innovation in MNEs and SMEs
Challenge MNEs SMEs

Strategy Center of gravity to emerging Center of gravity to competition with
markets. products from emerging markets.
Knowledge Emerging market knowledge and Basic needs of consumers and new
expertise. price-performance proposition.
Communication Criticality of winning in emerg- Criticality of competing with new far
ing markets. from home competitors and MNEs
applying reverse innovation.
SMEs should outline the criticality of the entrance of new competitors coming
from emerging markets and of products developed by MNEs through reverse in-
novation. In order to face this new scenario we propose tailoring MNEs reverse
innovation strategy and tools to SMEs specifics.
Regarding the process of innovation and applying reverse-innovation best prac-
tices we propose that SMEs adapt their first two stages as shown in Table 4.
Table 4 Application of reverse innovation in innovation process phases
Phase MNEs SMEs

Conception Using emerging market Extracting ideas based at home market
knowledge and expertise. Gener- eliminating all the unnecessary fea-
ating ideas in R&D centers of tures. Questioning every step and
emerging countries. simulating emerging countries gaps.
Implementation Development and testing in Testing non-costumers for feedback.
emerging markets. Using global innovation networks for
developing and testing.
5 References
Chesbrough H., Vanhaverbeke W., West J. (2008) Open Innovation: Researching A New Para-
digm, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Ecorys EU SMEs in 2012: at the crossroads. Annual report on small and medium-sized enter-
prises in the EU, 2011/12 Rotterdam, September 2012
Govindarajan V., Trimble C., Nooyi I.K. (2012) Reverse innovation: Create far from home, win
everywhere. Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN 978-1-4221-5764-0
Herstatt C., Tiwari R., Ernst D., Buse S. (2008) India's National Innovation System: Key Ele-
ments and Corporate Perspectives. East-West Center. January 2008. Working paper n 51
Immelt J.R., Govindarajan V., Trimble C. (2009) How GE is Disrupting Itself. Harvard Business
Review, October 2009, 56-65.
Prahalad C.K., Liberthal K. (2003) The end of corporate imperialism Harvard Business Review
(2003, 81 (8): 109-17, 142)
Prahalad C.K., Mashelkar R.A. (2010) Innovation's Holy Grail. Harvard Business Review July-
August 2010 132-141.
187
Rammer C., Zimmermann V., Mller E., Heger D., Aschhoff B., Reize F. (2006) Innova-
tionspotenziale von kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen, Centre for European Economic Re-
search (ZEW), Mannheim.
Rodenes Adam M., Montoro Rodrguez J., Onofre Montesa J. (2002) Anlisis de Barreras a la
Innovacin Tecnolgica en la PYME de la Comunidad Valenciana II Conferencia de Ingenie-
ra de Organizacin Vigo, 5-6 Septiembre 2002.
Sehgal V., Dehoff K., Panneer G. (2010) The Importance of Frugal Engineering. Economic
Times Mumbai. 25 may 2010 Issue 59
Tiwari R., Buse S. (2007a) Barriers to Innovation in SMEs: Can the Internationalizarion of R&D
Mitigate Their Effects? Proceedings of the First European Conference on Knowledge for
Growth: Role and Dynamics of Corporate R&D (CONCORD 2007) Seville Spain
Tiwari R., Buse S., Herstatt C. (2007b) Innovation via Global Route: Proposing a Reference
Model for Global Inovation Activities. Proceedings of the Second International Conference
On Management of Globally Distributed work, Bangalore, India, July 25-28.
Tiwari R., Herstatt C. (2012) Open Global Innovation Networks as Enablers of Frugal Innova-
tion: Propositions Based on Evidence from India. Die Unternehmung, 66(3): 245-274
The economist (2012) Shumpeter business and management blog: Frugal innovation Battle ig-
loo http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/05/frugal-innovation (last visited
March 8, 2013)
Ylinenp H. (1998) Measures to overcome Barriers to Innovation in Sweden, Paper EFMD Eu-
ropean Small Business Seminar in Vienna, 16.09.1998.
188
Analysis of the Electric Car Via Patents
Fernandez de la Bastida E1, Gavilanes-Trapote J2, Ro-Belver R3,

Cilleruelo E 4, Larruscain J 5
Abstract The automotive sector is one of the most relevant economic activities in
terms of generating prosperity and work. This activity is characterized by a strong
competition with the tendency of multiplication of business alliances. In 2030 it is
expected that the number of cars worldwide would double provoking a shortage
and high cost of the sources of energy. Taking this into consideration a technolog-
ical U-turn has to be made in order to guarantee the long term sustainability of
mobility. The systems of electric propulsion and the car battery seem to be the
most promising options. The present study tries to sketch the business and investi-
gation outlook of the electric car via patents giving information to the interest of
the Spanish agents involved.
Keywords: Patents, Innovation, Electric car, Citations.
1Endika Fernandez de la Bastida ( e-mail: efernandezde011@ikasle.ehu.es)

has obtained a degree in Industrial Management Engineering.
2Javier Gavilanes-Trapote ( e-mail: javier.gavilanes@ehu.es)
3 Rosa Ro-Belver ( e-mail: rosamaria.rio@ehu.es)

University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, alameda Urquijo s/n, 48030 Bilbao, Spain
5Jaso Larruscain ( e-mail: jaso.larruscain@ehu.es)
189
1 Introduction
The competitiveness of a nation is based on the capacity of its industry to innovate

and continuously improve its products, services and processes. (Porter 1990).
Nowadays one has to acknowledge that innovation does not exclusively come
from companies but that we can find its source in the interaction with other organ-
izations that present complementary resources: competitors, suppliers, clients, in-
vestigation centers or universities (Bayona et al. 2003), giving space to what is
called a Innovation and Development Network, a context in which institutions
the individual and the market collaborate creating a scientific technical knowledge
flow that results in a technological innovation (Cunningham et al. 2006).
The success, when it comes to innovation, is mainly dependent on the capacity
of a organization to transform information into knowledge and afterwards let this
knowledge circulate in a continuous flow through the whole organizational struc-
ture (Escorsa and Maspons 2001).
Summing up we can confirm that the competitiveness of a company depends to
a large part on its capacity to innovate and that innovation in the current context is
primarily based on adequate management of knowledge obtained through analyz-
ing information.
The data bases of patents, to pay for or for free, are a very good source of in-
formation, Dou (2004). These patents are the main channel to learn about scien-
tific progress that neither can be found in the form of publications nor anywhere
else. The benefits gained from studying patents in the sector of research and de-
velopment have been analyzed and demonstrated in several studies, Ernst (1998),
Acs et al. (2002). In scientific literature numerous empiric studies analyzing tech-
nical fields or sectors based on patent studies can be found: the analysis of the
sector of recycling of waste in order to find out about new technologies (Rio and
Cilleruelo 2010), the understanding of the knowledge flow between science and
technology in the Basque Country (Gavilanes-Trapote et al. 2011).
The aim of this study is to analyze the sector of the electric car via patents find-
ing out about the tendencies in the sector, the knowledge flow, the most important
companies and researchers as well as the existing network of collaboration and the
capacity of retaining and attracting knowledge from countries and facilitating the
opening of new ways of technical and industrial diversification in key sectors of
its activity.
2 Methods and Procedures
The source of the information selected is the database Esp@cenet of the European
Patente Office, one of the three most important databases in the world (Michael
and Bernd 2001), together with American and Japanese Patent Office among them
190
they process 86% of the Patent Applications of the world (Trilateral Co-operation
2005).
In order to search for the parameters we have done an advanced search with
key words, IPC codes and ECLA codes. The IPC codes or International Classifica-
tion Patent and ECLA codes or European Classification Patent help classify the
registers by technological areas.
First records which the search came up with and returned were exported to an
Excel sheet and there to the VantagePoint 7.0 program, which integrates all the
necessary steps for the analysis of patent and their graphic representation.
The indicators used in the study case are grouped under three criteria: that de-
termine the size and characteristics of the scientific and technological production,
that evaluate the impact of the publications by citation and that define the structure
of the Science, indicators in relation with first and second generation (Escorsa and
Maspons 2001). The indicators used are:
Number and distribution of patents by year application
Inventions productivity by country, applicants and researchers
Autocorrelation between applicants
Capacity indicators for retaining and attracting
Identification of technical knowledge flow between countries
3 Case Study
The electric car is a great opportunity for Spanish Industry. Its implementation in-
volves the development of new technologies, innovative activity, generating high
added value, quality employment, possibilities of increasing exports, improving
efficiency and energy savings, control of CO2 emissions and reducing dependence
on oil and its derivatives.
The technological development, the market development and policy support
aimed at increasing hybrid and electric vehicles in the mobility of the future. The
current market situation seems to confirm this outlook, still available in the market
several models of hybrid vehicles with a large-scale production. Also, the most car
manufacturers are developing electric vehicle models.
The new developments involve technological innovations, fact that will be re-
flected in the application for patent documents. In addition, the electric vehicle
will also favor an advance even of Information Technology and Communication
(ICT) sector, which will invest in the development of smart grids and meters and
other services.
The realization of a technological analysis of the electric car through patents
provides valuable information to the sectors involved, either to their current de-
velopments and to identify future research.
191
4 Data Analysis
A total of 105,167 patents were downloaded until October 31, 2012, of which
32,035 patents were taken through a word search, 21.109 by the ECLA codes and
52.023 records through a combined search of the IPC code B60L11/18 and differ-
ent ECLA codes.
Once all the information was imported to VantagePoint, the data was cleaned,
which means, eliminating the duplicated records, unify inventors or companies
and so on. Those patents which carry the words: Locomotive; Railway; Hydrogen;
Children; Bycicle; Trolley-Bus; Rail Road; Monorail are also eliminates. However
remain those with the word "train" in its title, and which do not relate to the train
as transportation but refers to the various devices making up the car. 56.506 rec-
ords were kept after these actions were made.
The first indicator was the activity that can be seen in the number of inventions
by application date. In the aforementioned figure a nearly nonexistent inventive
activity can be observed until 1992 as well as in the last two years when the num-
ber of patents decreased considerably due to the time passing from the application
to the publication of the patent, which can be up to 18 months. That is why the
analyses are limited to the time 1992-2010 and to the final sample to 50.852 pa-
tents.
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
Fig. 1 Total number of patents during the period of study
In the figure 1 we can divide the curve into three parts in function of its gradi-
ent: The first one between 1.992-2.003, coinciding with the impulse of Bill Clin-
tons government to buy green cars and with the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate
legislation that developed California obliging the manufacturers to develop elec-
tric vehicles. The second one in 2003, the year in which, due to pressure from the
automotive sector and the nearly nonexistent political strength of the Bush admin-
istration, the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate was changed into the Zero Emission
Vehicle Regulation, which was less restrictive and only obliged the manufacturers
192
to sell electric vehicles in case it was profitable for these companies. That is why
the EV-1 and other electric vehicles that were put up for leasing before disap-
peared.
The third period corresponds with the years 2.004-2.010. During this time the
number of applications increased considerably due to the coming into force of the
Kyoto protocol, the price of petrol as well as the sensitization of the public for
ecology and the development of renewable sources of energy. This in turn lead to
a change in the attitude of the automotive industry and governments again count-
ing on the electric car, giving rise to more autonomous batteries and better features
allowing the electric car to start becoming a reality.
The following chart shows the transformation of applications by nationality of
those countries represented most often including Spain.
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
Japan China United States Germany Republic of Korea Spain
Fig. 2 Total number of patents per country during the period of the study.
One can see how China overtook Japan as the country with the most applica-
tions for patents in the sector of electric vehicles worldwide reflecting the change
of the geography of innovation before the leading countries were Japan and the
USA. In Spain, however, the applications have stayed more or less the same over
the years, clearly beaten by Germany.
The following analysis gives information about the number of patents per ap-
plicant. The ranking shows the country of origin of the major automotive compa-
nies in Asia: Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co Ltd, Nissan Diesel Motor Co
and Mitsubishi Automotive Engineering, all of them Japanese. The Japanese com-
pany Hitachi Chemical Ltd does, however, appear too though it has no direct rela-
tions to the automotive sector but also offers solutions for the energy management
of electric motors.
193
The first European and German company, Bosh Corp. is to be mentioned here
too, as it is not a producer of cars but the main supplier of electric motors and bat-
teries for companies like Daimler Chrysler, BMW, GM and Ford.
As far as the national area is concerned the company Acumulador Tudor SA So
occupies the first place of the ranking with four patents. This company, located in
Guadalajara, devotes itself to producing batteries for automobiles, motorbikes and
industrial machinery and belongs to the group of companies called Exide Tech-
nologies (USA).
Next a technological auto-correlation map was created in which shows the ex-
isting relations between applicants of patents related to the electric car, specifical-
ly those who own more than fifty patents. Due to the size of the map and the space
limitations it could not be included.
The aforementioned map showed that there is a big group of companies that
works together especially the Toyota Motor Corp and the Nissan Diesel Motor
CO. Other companies as for example Ford Motor Co or GM Global Technology
Operations Inc hardly interrelate with each other. On the other hand important
companies as for example the group Peugeot&Citroen or the Siemens AG do not
develop any patents with any other company.
This same map on a national level shows how practically all patents are devel-
oped individually, except those specific cases in which there is a collaboration
with the Technical University of Madrid, the Technical University of Catalunya,
the Foundation Circe and the Foundation Robotiker.
The analysis of the origin and the destination of the inventions is essential to
determine the capacity, the retention and the attracting of knowledge of the coun-
tries (Escorsa and Maspons 2001). Spain has therefore a limited capacity of retain-
ing knowledge given that their own country protects only 17% of the patents ap-
plied for by Spanish companies. Japan on the other hand has the highest retention
rate, 90%, as well as high numbers of attraction, in Spain; there are 30% of patents
protected in Japan.
Finally the analysis of citations can show us the different flows of knowledge
between countries (Jaffe et al. 1993) or the measurement of the quality of the pa-
tents (Harhoff et al. 2002).
The Japanese patents have a high auto-citation rate that shows a good internal
transfer of knowledge. However, in the Republic of Korea one can observe a
higher diversification in the geographic origin of its sources of knowledge, domi-
nating Japan as far as patents registered by themselves are concerned.
Chinese patents stand out as regards to their nearly non-existing citations de-
spite their large number. This could be partly due to their novelty and quality,
which would show that its inventions are not of a high enough quality in order to
achieve a knowledge flow from China to other countries.
The Spanish patents are hardly ever cited by the other countries which show
that Spain is mainly an importer and not an exporter of knowledge.
194
5 Conclusions
A major increase in patents can be observed from the year 1992 onwards which
this is due to a change in legislation, the sensitization for the environment taking
place in society and the increase in the price of petrol.
Patent applications are mainly made to national offices as opposed to interna-
tional ones such as the WIPO, EPO and EAPO. This is mainly due to the lower
cost of translation, processing and validation of the documents. That is why it is
advisable to create a single European patent as it reduces the cost of translation to
German, English and French exclusively.
Most patent applications are being made to national offices in Japan, China and
the USA and the Republic of Korea being mainly due to the lower cost to be paid
in these countries and because of the presence of big automotive companies pro-
ducing electric batteries and motors (such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hitachi
Chemical in Japan; Hyundai and LG Chemical in the Republic of Korea; and
General Motors y General Electric in the USA) and the stimulus based economic
policy especially in China (Guangzhou et al. 2009).
The ability of investment in research and development can be found centralized
in only a few applicants mainly from big Asian companies, especially Japanese
ones as these companies from the automotive and electric motor producing sectors
are the leading organizations in research, development and innovation.
With the help of autocorrelation maps, networks of collaboration between dif-
ferent applicants, mainly Japanese, can be discovered due to their commercial re-
lations, the partaking of some companies in others or their country of origin. In
Spain, however, the collaboration between companies is rather an exception then
the rule and this is why it would be interesting to observe policies implemented by
countries such as Japan and to try finding collaboration and synergies between
companies and/or technological centers in order to improve innovative activities.
For Spanish applicants, the inventors are more than companies due to lack of
national companies in developing patents, so must find ways to effectively support
the protection of intellectual property developed in Spain, especially for compa-
nies or research institutions which is a key element in its strategy and that because
of its size have funding problems.
Asian countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea are those who patent
most in relation to their per capita GDP. One of the main reasons lies in the indus-
trial structures of the analyzed countries: Japan and the Republic of Korea dispose
of big industrial companies that have to make a tremendous effort in R&D in order
for them to survive, whereas in Spain for example this circumstance this is not the
case. A good example for this is the comparative effort made by the public and
private sector in the respective countries: in the Republic of Korea and Japan the
major part of the money spent on research comes from the private sector while in
Spain the share of the investment from private companies is far lower.
195
The countries cited most often are the USA, Japan and Germany which corre-
sponds to the extremely high level of industrial development of the electric car in
those countries and the culture of protection of intellectual property where the
USA and Japan are the major exporters of knowledge. Considering the retention
of knowledge it is surprising that there are not many auto-citations in Spain which
can be related to the lack of relevance of the patents or necessity to improve the
existing system of knowledge management.
6 References
Acs Z.J.; Anselin L.; Varga A. (2002). Patents and innovation counts as measures of regional
production of new knowledge. Res Policy, Vol. 31, pp. 10691085.
Bayona, C., Garca-Marco, T. and Huerta, E. (2003). Cooperar en I D? Con quin y para qu.
Revista de Economa Aplicada, Vol. 31, No. 11, pp. 103-134.
Cunningham, S.W.; Porter, A.L.; Newman, N.C. (2006). Special issue on tech mining. Techno-
logical Forecasting and Social Change. Vol. 73, No. 8, pp.915-922.
Dou H.J.M. (2004). Benchmarking R&D and companies through patent analysis using free da-
tabases and special software: a tool to improve thinking. World Patent Information, Vol. 26,
pp. 297-309.
Ernst H. (1998). Patent portfolios for strategic R&D planning. Eng Technol Manage, Vol. 15, pp.
279308.
Escorsa P, Maspons R (2001). De la vigilancia tecnolgica a la inteligencia competitiva. Pearson
Educacin, s.a.
Gavilanes-Trapote J, Rio-Belver R et al (2011). The connection between science and technology
in the Basque Country. Analysis of patents in literature. 6th International Conference on In-
dustrial Engineering and Industrial Management. Vigo.
Harhoff D, Scherer FM et al (2002). Citations, Family Size, Opposition and the Value of Patent
Rights. Research Policy, 32(8): 1343-1363.
Jaffe AB, Trajtenberg M et al (1993). Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evi-
dence by Patent Citations. Quartely Journal of Economics, 108: 577-598
Michael J, Bernd B (2001). Patente citation analysis: a closer look at the basic input data from
patent search report. Scienciometrics, 51(1): 185-201.
Porter, M.E. (1990). The competitive advantage of nations: with a new introduction. Harvard
Business Review.
Rio, R.M., Cilleruelo, E. (2010). Discovering technologies using techmining: the case of waste
recycling. The 6th International Scientific Conference Business and Management 2010.
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Publishing House Technika.
Trilateral co-operation (2005). Trilateral statistical report 2004. Edition Munich. Germany.
http://www.trilateral.net/tsr/tsr_2004/ch2/
196
Quality in a Small Service Organization and its

Relation with Sand Cone Model
Braga C1, Migowski S2, Libnio C3, Spindler G4, Duarte F 5
Abstract The present study is based on the analysis of economic and financial
sustainability of a small business, which overcame the average period of bank-
ruptcies of small companies in Brazil. For the study, it was tested the Sand Cone
Theory in Nostro Sabore Restaurant, located in Porto Alegre, with reference of the
competitive priorities pyramid suggested by the authors Ferdows and De Meyer
(1990), who relate quality as basis and main competitive priority, able to allow
sustainability or contribute with other priorities. In this sense, besides investigat-
ing what motivates the sustainability of the company, through a survey with the
costumers, it was possible to know their characteristics, motivations and prefer-
ences. Of the approximate eight thousand customers monthly, the sample size was
calculated to ensure a confidence level of 95% in the results and totaled 198 peo-
ple. The interpretation of the survey data was aided by the SPSS Statistics soft-
ware, version 18, which means the results can identify opportunities for improve-
ments in the company aiming at customer satisfaction and business continuity as
well as respond if quality is indeed the foundation of its sustainability, as proposed
by the Ferdows and De Meyer (1990).
Keywords: Sand Cone, Restaurant, Quality
1Caroline
Freitas Braga ( e-mail: ninabraga@hotmail.com)
Centro Universitrio UniRitter, Porto Alegre (RS) Brasil.
2SrgioAlmeida Migowski ( e-mail: sergio_migowski@uniritter.edu.br)
3Claudiade Souza Libnio ( e-mail: claudia_libanio@uniritter.edu.br)
4GiselleSpindler ( e-mail: giselle@uniritter.edu.br)
5Francisco Dias Duarte ( e-mail: francisco@serdil.com.br)
Fundao Saint Pastous, Porto Alegre (RS) Brasil.
197
1 Introduction
Small and medium sized businesses are considered the supporting pillars of the
Brazilian economy. These companies face, with greater difficulty, the obstacles
imposed by the competition. For this reason, it is essential to have and make use
of consistent and complete information from its sector for decision making. In
Brazil, more than 1.2 million new formal enterprises are registered annually. Of
this total, more than 99% include micro and small enterprises and Individual En-
trepreneurs (IE), according to SEBRAE (2011).
Micro and small enterprises have a significant role in the occupation of the
Brazilian population. They are responsible for more than half of the formal jobs in
the country. In addition, considering the occupation that entrepreneurs create for
themselves, it is noticeable that the companies of micro and small businesses are
responsible for two-thirds of all occupations in the private sector of our economy
(Center for Studies and Research of SEBRAE - October/2011).
Regarding to the economic aspect, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) play a
fundamental role in the development of the country and, when compared to large
organizations, present distinguished characteristics, such as versatility and flexibil-
ity, agility in business management and technology diversity. These are also re-
sponsible for absorbing most part of the formal labor force in the country, consid-
ered a strong alternative occupation, business opportunity, and besides, are
valuable providers of employment and income generation, according to current in-
formation from ABIA Brazilian Association of Food Industry (2012), which in-
dicates that the sector encompasses two million establishments and employs six
million people, with a revenue of R $ 65.2 billion in 2009.
According to a survey released on April 10th, 2012 by Serasa, from January to
March this year, the Serasa Experian Indicator for Bankruptcy and Recoveries
pointed 449 bankruptcies requests across the country, against 437 in the first tri-
mester of 2011. Considering the total requests in 2012, 253 were made by micro
and small enterprises, 116 by medium and 80 by large. Economists from Serasa
attribute the advancement of records bankruptcy to interest rates which are still
high, to high consumer delinquency and to fluctuations in economic activity.
Running a business in a sustainable manner way is certainly a difficult equation
to be solved not only by the meaning of its terms, but also for its strategic repre-
sentation in reducing unemployment rates, due to the increase in MSBs life expec-
tancy.
Within this scenario of high mortality, however, there are some small compa-
nies in the restaurants segment that remain sustainable by using different strate-
gies. The pursuit by Brazilian consumers for bars and restaurants is driven both as
a means of entertainment such as to meet the basic need, which is carrying out
their daily meals. According Chacon (2011, p. 1), "The IBGE (Brazilian Institute
of Geography and Statistics) and the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restau-
198
rants realize that 25% of Brazilians spending with food are out of their houses
and that this percentage may reach 40% in the next 15 year."
Wheelwright (1984) once defined as the basic purpose of a strategy is to devel-
op and support a durable competitive advantage, which may be able to answer the
questions about the continuing activities of some companies over others. Based on
the concept of Cone Sand Model, created by Ferdows and De Meyer (1990),
which contains quality as the support base, it seeks to respond: why some small
business segment restaurants are able to maintain their activities, while others do
not have the same success?
2 Literature Review
The food service industry is one that has shown significant rise, according to
ABRASEL (2012). This is due to the increasing trend in the number of meals out-
side the home, as well as the number of establishments that provide varied options
for lunch, happy hour and dinner, from the traditional "a la carte", self - service
buffet, bars, deliveries and others. The research informs approximately one mil-
lion food companies registered, distributed among bars, restaurants and similar ac-
tivities, accounting for approximately 2.4% of Brazilian GDP. In the same publi-
cation, in 2008 the revenue of the sector was close to 25 billion dollars, an
increase of 5% in the activities compared to the previous year and also indicates
that almost 26% of Brazilian spending are outside of households, therefore ap-
proximately one quarter of the population usually have their meals in restaurants,
bars and similar establishments.
In this context, SEBRAE (2012) reports that the food industry away from home
grew by 13.8% from 2007 to 2008 and according to the Household Budget Survey
(POF 2008/09) made by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE
(2012), "in six years, the urban share of outside the home food in spending on
food rose a quarter (25.7%) to one-third (33.1%), and the meantime rural in-
creased from 13.1% to 17.5%."
2.1 Entrepreneurship
In the last decades, in Brazil, the subject entrepreneurship has been frequently ad-
dressed by several authors that generate hypotheses related to natural aspects of
human beings, as well as development of professional skills. For Dolabela (2008),
the term entrepreneurship is known and referenced since many years, which
means that is not innovation anymore. Considered an upgrade to business models,
Dornelas (2005) argues that we are living in the era of entrepreneurship, while
199
other authors (Schramm and Litan, 2008) are limited to characterize the stage as
the beginning of an entrepreneurial capitalism. People are attracted to the venture
by numerous incentives or rewards that can be grouped basically into three catego-
ries: profit, independence and a joyful lifestyle (Longenecker, Moore and Petty,
2004).
Entrepreneurship originated "primarily in the United States, a country where
capitalism is the main feature (Dornelas, 2005, p.17). Dornelas (2005, p.15) de-
scribes entrepreneurship as "the involvement of people and processes that collec-
tively lead to the transformation of ideas into opportunities."
With an economic scenario that is constantly in motion, new needs arise all the
time, with strong appreciation to the ability of an entrepreneur to find opportuni-
ties and transforming ideas into business. The entrepreneur becomes a responsible
player for generating income, moving the economy through the absorption of hand
labor, innovating and diversifying the context in which it operates.
On the other hand, some studies suggest caution with the common stereotype of
the entrepreneur who usually emphasizes characteristics such as need for
achievement, willingness to take moderate risks, and a strong self-confidence.
Considering only these qualities, it should be noted that there is no scientific proof
of the importance of these traits and that individuals who do not fit this profile,
they can still succeed as entrepreneurs (Longenecker, Moore and Petty, 2004).
It is common for entrepreneurs to feel attracted to the food sector due to the
tradition of being a market that provides high short term profit and for being estab-
lishments able to provide service along with consumer items, taking advantage of
strong trend and need of people perform their daily meals away from home
(ABRASEL, 2012). In this sense, the concept of Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons
(2000) can be pointed out by considering that the services are at the center of eco-
nomic activity in any society. The authors also highlight the importance of restau-
rants because they belong to the group of social / personal services, which is es-
sential to attend one of the main human needs, food. The fact is that economically,
entrepreneurs are "eliminating trade and cultural barriers, shortening distances,
globalizing and renewing economic concepts, creating new working relationships
and new jobs, breaking paradigms and generating wealth for society (Dornelas,
2005, p. 6)."
In this search for breaking paradigms, many companies question themselves
over which area should be concerned about quality. Duran and Gryna (1991) stand
for the idea that each specialized department is responsible for implementing its
designated function, as well as the execution of certain business functions such as
human relations, finance and quality. Thus, it is understood that in addition to the
company intends to run, quality is a feature that should be inherent in any opera-
tion. So, the role of quality in business sphere enhances the concept that the quali-
ty of product and service is the gathering force of all departments, with a single
goal: to meet the needs and expectations of customers (Falconi, 1999).
200
2.2 Quality
According J.M Duran and Frank M. Gryna (1991, p. 11), "quality is the specifica-
tion of a product at the expense of customer needs, enabling satisfy them regard-
ing to the product." Companies providing services and care to offer a quality ser-
vice, measuring and exceeding customer expectations, are being effective in their
activity.
For Berry (1996), strategically, the role of quality services should support the
principles of: Credibility (offering reliable services); Surprise (surprise customers
and extrapolate their expectations); Recovery (if the service was poor, seek regain
customer) and Integrity (respect between company and customer). As long as well
defined, these fundamentals are important to strengthen the appreciation of service
by the customer, and can even affect the perceived cost-benefit ratio for the same.
For this, Las Casas (2000) aware of the need to set up a sequence of procedures
that involve research, creating organizational culture, continuous training, creating
an organizational climate, communication plan and process involved in the estab-
lishment of control mechanisms. For this reason, the fierce competition of opera-
tions has been characterized by the development of competitive priorities, driving
companies to develop superior skills in different aspects.
2.3 Competitive Priorities
Several studies have been developed to improve organizational performance.

Among them, the model of cumulative priorities proposed by Nakane (1986)
which provides a sequential development of competitive priorities in operations,
in order to improve priorities antecedents serve to further aid without causing
problems or limitations. Based on the practices of Japanese manufacturing com-
panies that showed competitive advantage in a large amount of variables against
their competition, Nakane (1986) proposed the following sequence for the devel-
opment of competitive priorities: quality, timeliness, cost and flexibility.
This model was reinforced by another very similar (Hall, 1987) which stated
that the best priority sequence was prioritizing the base as a form of guarantee
and improvement of improvements obtained in priorities near the top, like a pyra-
mid. Important studies were done by Ferdows and De Meyer (1990), concluding
data related to the European industrial organizations in 1988, but did not confirm
the sequence of priorities suggested by that model. However, the data analysis of
1988 on the U.S. portion of this segment, by Roth and Miller (1992), indicated the
following priorities: quality, delivery, market scope, flexibility and cost. This
study aimed to find differences involving the priorities of leading companies
(those that reach their full business goals) compared to companies that are follow-
ers (ones the part that reach just part of their business goals).
201
Contrary to the idea of focusing on a single gain competitive advantage or

competitive trade-offs, Ferdows and De Meyer (1990) found that static method,
compromising the monitoring of the dynamics of the external environment. To do
this, create a new concept or model and named the Earl of Sand (Sand Cone).
They have improved the study of competitive priorities cumulative model subse-
quently through a slightly different sequence. Ferdows and De Meyer (1990) be-
lieved that quality and punctuality should be based on priorities, serving as a start-
ing point and further flexibility (and in his study, meaning responsiveness) and
cost, as the latest improvement to be observed in operations. They called this py-
ramidal structure of competitive priorities Sand Cone.
In general, studies involving the cumulative model has always been linked to
tests that aimed to validate a sequence of development priorities, but without em-
pirical validation of success recorded so far, making it the subject of discussions
about its applicability due to noticeable stiffness that presents itself and its limita-
tions. It is also known that such studies were limited to validate the ability to de-
velop a set of two or more concurrent priorities in the same organization and is not
considered synonymous with sequential development test by the authors. About
rigidity aspect, Ferdows and De Meyer (1990) stated that unless a company is de-
veloping its operations below the levels of qualification in its field, it should main-
tain focus on priorities more problematic, in order to categorize these as para-
mount.
Fig. 1 Cone Sand (Sand Cone). Source: Carvalho, 2005, p. 32 adapted from Ferdows and De
Meyer (1990)
Despite the difficulty of validating a model of cumulative priorities, this study

aimed to find empirical evidence on the assumption that quality is the priority that
underpins all other improvements. Once chosen and tested, the model can oppose
or extend the model of competitive priorities Cone Sand Theory. This study may
also remain without conclusive findings, as others already tested or come to the
conclusion that more closely resembles a choice of this or that, with no trade-offs.
Therefore, these are the following are hypotheses of this research:
H1: the suggested sequence for the development of competitive priorities is the
one proposed by Ferdows and De Mayer (1990);
H2: quality is the first competitive priority to be developed, but does not follow
the model proposed by Ferdows and De Mayer (1990), and
202
H3: There is positive reflection of competitive priorities model on economic

performance and the sustainability of the company studied.
3 Methodology
This chapter discussed the methodology used to collect data from this study, that
according Thums (2000), should not be considered only a secondary knowledge,
but the condition instrument of accomplishing something. It is understood then,
that the method guides and facilitates the researcher to develop a search. For
Thums (2003), the methodology is the form or manner of accomplishing some-
thing. Therefore, it was defined the case study as a research strategy, the prepara-
tion and data collection, analysis of their evidence and prepare a roadmap where it
observes the need and relevance of large and deep issues, as proposed by Yin
(2010 ).
For the development of this case study, a qualitative study was carried out
based on a semi-structured questionnaire with closed questions. This research was
conducted through random interviews with customers of the restaurant, because
according to Malhotra (2005), qualitative research with small samples takes place
to able context understanding and comprehension in which it is inserted.
As a support tool in the analysis of correlation of data obtained from surveys,
the present study used the IBM SPSS Statistics software version 18, which is able
to suggest if there is an association between the questions and answer choices that
result in a Pearson coefficient of less than 5%.
According to Roesch (1999), in the case of small and medium businesses, the
definition of the target costumer, usually involves the entire organization in their
restructuring proposals. The purpose of this study was to develop a market re-
search, addressing the Nostro Sabore restaurant clients, aiming to know your main
preferences, needs and motivations. Therefore, the survey was conducted using a
sample of 198 respondents representing a population of 8,000 clients monthly ob-
ject of study, located in Porto Alegre (Brazil). The survey instrument used was a
questionnaire that consisted of 7 questions with several sub items seeking to relate
the respondents' answers to the reasons that led them to attend the object of study.
The sample size was calculated statistically inferred confidence level of 95% in
the results.
203
4 Results Presentation
The tables below present the results of some of the questions in the questionnaire:
Table 1 Correlation between questions 1 and 7 of the questionnaire
1 How often do you come to Nostro Sabore Restaurant?

x
7 Come for the quality e variety of the hot dishes?
Options No / Residual Adjust Yes / Residual Adjust
Once a week 38 / 0,2 36 / -0,2
Twice a week 13 / -1,5 21 / 1,5
Three times a week 11 / -1,6 19 / 1,6
Four times a week or more 37 / 2,3 22 / -2,3
Total 99 98
Table 2 Chi-square (2) de Pearson Test of Table 1
Value df Bi-lateral Test

Chi-square de Pearson Test 7,878 3 0,049
Probability Reason 7,964 3 0,047
Linear Association 1,227 1 0,268
Number of Valid Cases 197
a. 0 cells (,0%) count less than 5. The minimum value is 14,92
As the test of Pearson Coefficient shown in Table 2, there is an association be-

tween "How often come to the Nostro Sabore Restaurant and attend for quality
and variety of hot dishes" because the p-value resulted in 0.049, the indicates that
the association between the two variables. Even through the analysis of adjusted
residuals, you can check that customers, who frequent the restaurant 4 or more
times a week, do not do it based on the quality and variety of hot dishes.
Table 3 Correlation between questions 1 e 4.4 from questionnaire
1 - How often do you come to Nostro Sabore Restaurant?

x
7 Come for quality and variety of meat?
Once a week 61 / 3,1 13 / -3,1
Twice a week 18 / -2,3 16 / 2,3
Three times a week 16 / -2 14 /2
Four times a week 42 / 0,2 18 / -0,2
Total 137 61
204
Table 4 Chi-square (2) Pearson Test of Table 3

Pearson chi-square Test 13,856 3 0,003
a. 0 cells (,0%) count less than 5. The minimum value is 9,24
Table 4 shows the intersection between issues 1 and 4.4 dividing the results by
frequency band. The chi-square test presented in Table 29 was significant at 5%
(p-value = 0.003), demonstrating that there is an association between the ques-
tions: How often do you come to the Nostro Sabore Restaurant? Do you come for
the quality and variety of meat?
The direction of the association is observed through analysis of the residue ad-
justed suggesting that those who attend the restaurant two or three times a week,
they do so depending on the quality and variety of meats, while other attending
only once or four times or more per week, do not take this fact into account.
Table 5 Correlation between questions 1 and 4.8
1 How often do you come to Nostro Sabore Restaurant??

x
4,8 Come for nice and fast service?
Once a week 58 / 1,9 16 / -1,9
Twice a week 24 / 0,1 10 / -0,1
Four times a week or more 43 / 0,3 17 / -0,3
Total 139 59

Pearson chi-square Test 10,373 3 0,016
a. 0 cells (,0%) count less than 5. The minimum value is 8,94.
Table 6 lists the above questions 1 and 4.8, in order to verify whether there is
an association between the questions: How often do you come to the restaurant
Nostro Sabore? Do you come for nice and fast service? The Pearson coefficient
obtained in Table 31 (p-value = 0.016) suggests a relationship between people
205
who frequent the restaurant 3 times a week and the service friendly and respon-
sive, because the analysis of their respective adjustment waste.
Table 7 Correlation between issues 1 and 7.4
1- How often do you come to Nostro Sabore Restaurant?

X
7.4 Come for the easiness due the location?
Once a week 51 / 4,8 23 / -4,8
Twice a week 15 / -0,4 19 / 0,4
Four times a week or more 15 / -4,1 45 / 4,1
Total 93 105

Chi-square Pearson Test 26,636 3 0,00
a. 0 cells (,0%) count less than 5. The minimum value is 14,09.
The correlation between the questions: How often do you come to the Nostro
Sabore Restaurant? Come for the easiness due to the location? It can be seen in
Table 8, with the division schedules. According to the resulting p-value (0.000),
there is indication of a strong association between the location and frequency of
those going four or more times weekly, in Nostro Sabore.
5 Conclusion
This study was an opportunity to test a theory that values an important characteris-
tic which is quality, analyzed from the consumer point of view. In considering
whether there is a relationship between these features found in the questionnaire
responses and priority competitive Cone Sand Theory, one could suggest that the
base of the pyramid Cone Sand proposed by Ferdows and De Meyer (1999), find
similarity to the study conducted at Restaurant Nostro Sabore Restaurant. The
quality is perceived as relevant by customers who attend 2 to 3 times and appreci-
ate the quality and variety of meats and hot dishes. The competitive priority relia-
206
bility relates to the satisfaction of those who attend 1-2 times per week and high-
light satisfaction with meals.
The location is a major factor in deciding where to lunch, while cost efficiency
does not seem to be relevant in choosing this property for 64.6% (128 people in
the sample). There were no significant demands for fast delivery, in this case rep-
resented by the friendliness of the waiters and agility, as determinant of choice for
this organization for 70.2% (139 people). For reasons of space, several tables were
omitted from the analysis of this study.
Thus, no relationship was observed between the order of competitive priorities
(quality, reliability, speed and cost) established by the authors (Ferdows and DE
MEYER, 1990) and the continuity of this restaurant, and the quality factor im-
portant association with its sustainability. Therefore, the Sand Cone model is vali-
dated by this specific case study for this organization.
About the research hypotheses mentioned, we found that H2 and H3 were con-
firmed, and H2: "quality is the first priority competitive to be developed, but does
not follow the model proposed by Ferdows and De Mayer (1990)" and H3: "There
is a positive reflection of the model competitive priorities on economic perfor-
mance and the sustainability of the company researched." Both were coherent with
the results obtained in this work.
It is suggested to continue the study, by conducting further research on investi-
gative nature that enable monitoring and external market dynamics, opposed the
idea of gain competitive advantage through a single competitive advantage or
trade-offs, as encouraged by the authors Ferdows and De Meyer (1990) through
the theory of Sand Cone.
6 References
Abia (2012) Associao Brasileira Indstrias de Alimentao. Available at: <

http://www.abia.org.br/default.asp>. Accessed in: May, 2012
Abrasel (2012) Associao Brasileira de Bares e Restaurantes. Available at:
<http://www.abrasel.com.br/>. Accessed in: May, 2012
Berry, L (1996) Servios de Satisfao Mxima. Rio de Janeiro: Campus
Carvalho, R (2005) Estratgias de operaes na indstria metal-mecnica brasileira: formulao,
implementao e impactos sobre o desempenho empresarial. Business Dissertation, Universi-
dade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 2005
Chacon, L (2011) Agito na cozinha reflete movimento intenso da rua. Available at:
<http://www.abia.org.br/anexos/f1ec08e7-4b1b-4a35-af07-86667335f0b0.pdf.> Accessed in:
April, 2011
Dolabela, F (2008) O segredo de Lusa. Rio de Janeiro: Sextante
Dornelas, JCA (2005) Empreendedorismo: transformando idias em negcios. 2.ed. Rio de Ja-
neiro: Elsevier
Falconi, C (1999) Controle da qualidade total: no estilo japons. Minas Gerais: Fundao Cris-
tiano Ottoni
207
Ferdows, K; De Meyer, A (1990) Lasting improvements in manufacturing: in search of a new

theory. J. Operations Management. Vol. 9, n. 2, p.168-184
Fitzsimmons, JA; Fitzsimmons, M (2000) Administrao de servios operao estratgia e
tecnologia de informao. Porto Alegre, Bookmann
Hall, R (1987) Attaining Manufacturing Excellence. Homewood: Dow Jones-Irwin
Ibge (2000) Available at: <http://www.ibge.gov.br/>. Accessed in: May, 2012
Las Casas, AL (2000) Marketing de servios. 2ed. So Paulo: Atlas
Longenecker, JG; Moore, CW; Petty, JW (2004) Administrao de pequenas empresas. So Pau-
lo: Pearson
Malhotra, N et al (2005) Introduo pesquisa de marketing. So Paulo: Prentice Hall
Nakane, J (1986) Manufacturing Futures Survey in Japan, A Comparative Survey 1983-1986.
Tokio, System Science Institute
Paiva Jr, FG; Cordeiro, AT (2002) Empreendedorismo e o Esprito Empreendedor: Uma Anlise
da Evoluo dos Estudos na Produo Acadmica Brasileira. Anais do XXVI Encontro
Nacional da ANPAD. Salvador
Roth, AV; Miller, JG (1992) Success Factors in Manufacturing. Business Horizons, pp.73-81,
v.35, n.4
Schramm, C; Litan, RE (2008) The Growth solution. The American, july/august, 32-38.
Sebrae (2011). Available at: <http://www.sebrae-rs.com.br/default.aspx> Accessed in: Novem-
ber, 2011
Sebrae (2011) Como gerir uma empresa familiar. Available at:
<http://www.mundosebrae.com.br/2010/04/como-gerir-uma-empresa-familiar>
Thums, J (2000) Acesso realidade. Canoas: Ulbra
Thums, J (2003) Acesso realidade: tcnicas de pesquisa e construo do conhecimento. Cano-
as: Ulbra
Wheelwright, S (1984) Defining the Missing Link. Strategic Management Journal. V5, pp.77-91
Yin, RK (2005) Estudo de caso: planejamento e mtodos. Porto Alegre: Bookmann
208
CBA and CEA Analysis on Occupational Safety

and Health. A New Proposal for Investment
Decisions
Cuervo MA1
Abstract Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA)

are currently the two analysis techniques most widely used for making investment
decisions between alternative projects. However, results obtained from both types
of analysis occasionally can be disparate and complicate the final decision. Occu-
pational health and safety is an area where it is possible to apply CBA and CEA to
optimize reduction of accidents. Quality of results achieved depends on reliability
of the estimations of accidents cost and investment returns in terms of accidents
reduction. Adopting Brody graphic model of costs, this article criticizes CBA and
CEA methods and develops and tests an alternative way for decision analysis that
seeks to surpass the previous two.
Keywords: Accidents, Cost, CBA, CEA.
1 CBA & CEA in the occupational health area
In order to guide policy decisions about allocation of resources to projects to im-

prove health level in workplace, mainly two types of analysis have traditionally
been used: CBA and CEA. While there are other similar types of analysis, these
two are definitely the most widespread in health field (Polindera S et al., 2011).
The aim of both options is the most appropriate project selection, ie, more profita-
ble or efficient, to invest between different alternatives.
The CBA is a process for calculating and comparing economic costs and benefits
of different projects, thus achieving the economic efficiency information of each
one and providing the most cost-effective choice. On the other hand, CEA consists
1Miguel Angel Cuervo Blanco ( e-mail: macacuervo@gmail.com)

Grupo INSISOC. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas y CIM. Escuela de Ingenieras
Industriales. Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce S/N, 47011 Valladolid.
209
of obtaining for each project efficiency results in terms of reduced accidents rate
versus claims, choosing the most efficient one. For the application of CBA it is
unavoidable quantifying the economic benefits, that is, the reduction obtained in
costs associated with workplace accidents. The application of the CEA presents
fewer problems, as it only requires measuring relative reduction of workplace ac-
cidents.
In the particular case of CBA, results are conditioned by the method used for
measuring economic benefits associated with the reduction in accidents, so that
using different methods may yield different results. In this regard, numerous stud-
ies point to the difficulty of quantifying such costs as they include hard-to-
measure concepts such as the value of human life or health. Its noteworthy that
authors such as JT Hamilton and WK Viscusi highlight the lack of rigor in many
of the analysis conducted (Kuchler F, Golan W, 1996). So it seems indisputable
that performance results obtained from this type of analysis should be at least tak-
en with extreme caution. Consequently, conclusions drawn cannot determine
whether the more profitable project is the most convenient in relation to their ef-
fectiveness in reducing accidents, as it does not provide such information.
CEA does not suffer the problem of quantifying economic benefits associated
with accidents, but otherwise it doesnt determine which projects are economically
profitable, a crucial issue in an economy with limited resources.
Finally, it must be said that these analysis do not use to incorporate considera-
tions about time horizon and sustainability of investments made, or even if they
do, they do not take into account the variability over time of efficiency of the ac-
tion taken and ROI obtained.
In view of the disadvantages described is not surprising that conclusions drawn
from CBA and CEA can easily be mixed or, as we shall see, even antagonistic.
2 Brody Graphic Model for Company Accidents Costs
Most studies analyzing business costs involved in workplace accidents have simp-
ly tried to quantify them, assuming that reducing those costs is inevitably achieved
by reduction in accidents. This seemingly logical conclusion is derived from con-
sidering only those costs incurred ex - post, ie caused by consequences of the
claims incurred, regardless of ex ante costs, ie those aimed at preventing acci-
dents in the company.
Brody et al. (Brody B et al., 1990), based on previous models form other au-
thors (Oi W, 1986. Andreoni D, 1986), presented a graphical model for costs of
company claims in which both types of costs, ex - ante and ex post, were incor-
porated. Its main conclusion is that there is a non-zero level of claims for which
the overall cost to the company is minimized to an optimal value.
210
Brody graph model (Figure 1) has U-shaped curve representing total cost in re-
lation to level of risk. Its morphology is based on certain assumptions set out be-
low:
Ex ante costs curve is an exponential curve, asymptotical to both axes, be-
cause when company risk levels are very high, small investments are enough
to reduce them significantly and, conversely, when accidents rates are very
low, investments must be extremely high to keep on reducing risk.
Ex - post costs curve has a fixed component, which involves insurance of hu-
man and material consequences of mishaps, and a variable component, due to
indirect costs arising from the occurrence of claims (labor costs, property dam-
ages, lost production, etc.). Besides this variable component may present a
positive slope increasing with risk, although authors suggest the possibility
that it also may be constant.
As a result of this there is a theoretical optimal risk level in the companies that
explains in practical terms their reluctance to invest in preventing accidents
above a certain amount.
Fig. 1 Modelo grfico de costes de accidentes laborales de Brody y colaboradores.
For CBA and CEA purposes, it is reasonable to interpret the level of risk in the
horizontal axis as the accidents rate, as they are equivalent concepts at the aggre-
gate level and accidents rate is more appropriate to derive costs from it.
211
3 CBA and CEA over Brody Model: a Contradictory Results

Case
Company resources optimization management on prevention of occupational risks

requires employing these resources in those areas or issues where they are most
effective for reducing accidents. So, formally, the problem that arises is to deter-
mine the right allocation of resources over time among various areas in order to
obtain the maximum reduction in accidents.
To illustrate a practical application of CBA and CEA techniques on Brody
model, total and ex - ante costs curves for two business sectors are shown in Fig-
ure 2. A similar investment for risk prevention is applied for both sectors to verify
what the effects obtained are and to determine which one is most suitable for such
investment. It can be seen that, from the point of view of economic efficiency,
sector 1 generates a significant economic return while for sector 2 there is an in-
crease of the total cost, so according to CBA, sector 1 would be chosen as the re-
cipient of the investment. But, on the other hand, we see that the same investment
generates a significantly higher accident rate reduction in sector 2 than in sector 1,
so according to CEA analysis sector 2 would be selected.
It is clear that both assays are contradictory in their results. In addition, it must
be added that neither time horizon nor returns produced are considered. Therefore,
it is necessary to find an optimal solution which is consistent and takes into ac-
count time factor influence.
Fig. 2 CBA and CEA effects on two business sectors.
212
4 Formal Definition of Graphic Costs Model and Proposal on

Decision Analysis
This section presents the proposed investment decision analysis over a formally
defined Brody model. For the sake of clarity in the representation of the model
and in order to illustrate the problem statement, we will work on a model with on-
ly two elements, in this case business sectors. The aim is to properly allocate in-
vestments for a maximum reduction of accidents over time onto the two combined
sectors.
In order to achieve a further mathematical simplification of the model, it is as-
sumed that ex - post costs curves show quadratic forms for both sectors. This par-
ticularity does not affect the validity of final conclusions, which will be similar for
other forms of ex - post costs curves as long as their slopes are positive and in-
creasing.
Let it be a productive sector be and let y A be a curve relating the joint invest-
ment by companies belonging to this sector in prevention of occupational hazards
with the level of claims (ex ante costs). Let y B be a curve representing work
accidents associated costs for companies belonging to the sector (ex post costs).
The total costs curve yC for workplace accidents results from the sum of the two
mentioned curves. The mathematical formulation of curves can be expressed as
follows.

yA y B x 2
x

yC x 2
x
Suppose a set s of companies spread over two productive sectors a and b. Let
y a , yb be the total costs curves for workplace accidents in the two sectors. The
curve ys for total claims costs in s results from the sum of the two previous
curves. Accidents rates must be considered in absolute terms, so that overall rate is
the sum of business sectors accident rates.
a
ys ya yb ya a xa a
2
xa
b
yb b xb b
2
xb
213
Let N be the total number of periods for which its required to optimize the dis-
tributive calculation of investment for the two existing productive sectors. Let n =
1,2,3, ..., N be each period. Let Rn be the available investment budget over the
period n to reduce accidents on s. The goal is to reduce to an absolute minimum
the accidents ratios produced during the course of the N periods. To achieve this
aim the various Rn should be properly distributed among sectors a and b.
To address the problem raised, different considerations must be made:
It is necessary to define the total number of periods N, as it will determine the
final result of reduction of accidents and it will condition the distributive opti-
mal allocation of Rn between a and b.
It is possible to consider a constant budget allocation ratio between a and b for
all periods or to introduce the possibility of variation of this ratio between dif-
ferent periods in order to achieve optimum results.
In order to calculate the available budget to invest in period n+1, it is possible
to consider the return obtained in period n, or to consider a wider delay for ap-
plying the return.
Let Rna , Rnb be the allocated budgets in period n to a and b sectors respective-
ly, so that Rn Rna Rnb . Lets take sector a and let y nAai , ynAaf be the initial
and final investment levels for this sector in period n, so that the investment is
Rna ynAa ynAaf ynAai . Let xnai , xnaf be the initial and final accidents
rates of sector a in period n.
a a a a
y nAaf y nAai Rna
xnaf xnai xnaf xnai
From this it follows that:

xnai
xnaf
Rna
1 xnai
a
Developing equations previously raised over time, the following expressions
can be achieved, which determine accidents rate obtained after n periods and total
reduction in accidents.
214
x1ai
x naf
Rna
1 n x1ai
a
Rna 2
n x1ai
a
xna xnaf x1ai
Rna
1 n x1ai
a
In the above formula, a constant amount of investment Rna has been assumed
taking into account a global investment Rn also constant and a fixed inversion
distribution ratio between sectors a and b. Assuming a variation in the amounts
Rna invested, the formulas obtained are as follows.
x1ai
xnaf n
R na
1 1
x1ai
a
In a similar way, values for sector b could be obtained.

The problem becomes more complex and meaningful when it is stated that the
amounts Rn invested are dependent on returns coming from previous periods, as
it occurs when past surpluses are used for new investments in the future. In this
case, recursive equations are obtained since final level reached depends on in-
vestments made and, in turn, these investments depend on previously existing ac-
cidents rate.
To make a mathematical formulation of the above, sector a will be taken to an-
alyze how Rna are obtained based on investment returns achieved. These amounts
depend in turn on what happens in all sectors of activity, in this case only sectors a
and b, among which available budget is distributed each period.
For the purposes of this example, it will be checked if there is an optimal value
of the distribution ratio of investment between sectors.
It is posed that there is a constant budget allocation R0 to invest in each period
in occupational safety for the whole set of sectors, and that investment returns that
are payable in the immediately following period. To calculate these returns the
difference between initial and final cost of s must be known. This difference will
215
depend on the amount of investment in the period and the distribution ratio be-
tween sectors.
The cost value of the two sectors set is obtained according to the following
formula.
a b
y s y a yb a xa a b xb b
2 2
xa xb
And the difference in cost for each period or return on investment is as follows.
a
y ns y nsf y nsi a xnaf a b b xnbf b
2 2
xnaf xnbf

a a xnai a b b xnbi b
2 2
xnai xnbi
Operating the above equation and taking into account that
xnai
xnaf
Rna
1 xnai
a
It follows that
Rna Rnb
2 xnai 2 xnbi
Rna a Rnb b
y ns Rn a x b x
3 3
nai
a 1 Rna x nbi
b 1 Rnb x
a nai b nbi
Thus, the amount available each year for investment in risk prevention in the
set s consists of the fixed component R0 plus the investment return y s ( n1)
earned in the previous period.
Rn R0 y( n1) s
Depending on the distribution ratio, Rn will be distributed among the sectors a

and b ( Rna , Rnb ) and a new ROI will be yielded and applied to the next period.
Applying the following equations, a final value of accidents rate for sectors a and
b is obtained after n periods, and therefore for the whole set of sectors.
216
x1ai x1bi
xnaf n
xnbf n
R na R nb
1 1
x1ai 1 1
x1bi
a b
In summary, given the costs curves associated with accidents and the regular
amounts of investment in risk prevention for the whole set of sectors, the above
equations allow to search the optimal distribution of investment between the two
sectors that will lead to a maximum cumulative reduction of claims.
The example below shows the calculation of the optimal ratio for any couple N,
R0 so that the lowest possible total cumulative value of claims for all sectors is
achieved.
Let a and b be two sectors with the following cost curves.
54000 6750
ya xa 10 yb xb 50
2 2
xa xb
The following initial accidents rates are assumed.
x1ai 40 x1bi 30
Also, let N=100 be the number of periods considered to optimize the calculus.
Different initial budgets R0 are tested on the model. In the table below (Figure
3) the levels of claims accumulated over periods of 100 are shown.
x 100 f x100af x100bf
The respective optimal distribution ratios for the two sectors are also shown in
Figure 3. It is again, as in the theoretical approach, that investment returns earned
during a period are applied to the next exercise.
It can be seen that the higher the budget R0 , the more significant the reduction
in accidents is. Similarly it is noted that the optimum budget distribution ratio var-
ies as the budget R0 does.
A graph for R0 =50 included in Figure 4 shows the accidents rate evolution
along the N = 100 periods considering different budget distribution ratios. As not-
ed, different ratios (% a) imply different rates in reducing accidents. So that de-
pending on N it would be selected a particular ratio (% a). Consider in the graphic
in Figure 3 the series with assigned distribution ratios (% a) 0 and 95, respective-
217
ly. Initially and until n=45, first series provides a more rapid reduction in claims,
but from that point the second series is the more effective.
5 Conclusions
Throughout this article CBA and CEA techniques of analysis for making invest-
ment decisions have been criticized in occupational health area. Besides both
techniques have important intrinsic shortcomings, when applied onto Brody model
they may present even contradictory results. To overcome these difficulties it is
proposed a methodology for analysis with two main features: the consistency of
performance and the incorporation of timeline and foresight in the analysis. Once
the formal development of the method has been detailed, it has been applied to a
hypothetical case where two main points have been observed: the possibility of
calculating the distribution of resources to invest among the alternatives analyzed,
and the importance of considering timeline and investment returns in the analysis.
Thus, the exclusive selection of projects to invest advocated by CBA and CEA is
overcome by a distributive budgetary allocation between projects.
1) OPTIM AL BUDGET DISTRIBUTION RATIO
80
70
60
50
RATIO (%a)
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
SERIES
218
3) ACCIDENT REDUCTION
2) AGGREGATE ACCIDENT RATE
8000,00
7000,00 Ro=2
70 (%a)=0
(%a)=95
AGGREG. ACC. RATE
6000,00 Ro=5 (%a)=5

Ro=10
(%a)=10
5000,00 (%a)=15
Ro=20 (%a)=20
4000,00 (%a)=25
Ro=50 (%a)=30
3000,00 60 (%a)=35
Ro=100 (%a)=40
(%a)=45
2000,00 Ro=200 (%a)=50
(%a)=55
1000,00 Ro=500 (%a)=60
(%a)=65
0,00 Ro=100 (%a)=70
0 ACCIDENT RATES 50 (%a)=75
0 20 40 60 80 100 Ro=500 (%a)=80
(% a) 0 (%a)=85
(%a)=90
(%a)=100
4) AGGREGATE ACCIDENT RATES

Optimal 40
Series Ro Optimal acc. rate %a
1 2 5045,76 20
2 5 4846,88 30
3 10 4569,22 40
30
4 20 4129,54 50
5 50 3283,08 60
6 100 2529,93 65
7 200 1812,19 65
20
8 500 1058,59 70
100 0 20 40 60 80 100
PERIOD n
9 0 671,65 70
500
10 0 227,80 75
Fig. 3 Accident reduction results obtained for N = 100. 1) Chart of optimal budget distribution
ratio (% a) in relation to Ro. 2) Curves of the cumulative values of accident rates based on the ra-
tio (% a) for different Ro. 3) Total accident reduction curves with Ro=50 and different ratios (%
a). 4) Table of accident accumulated values obtained for different Ro.
6 References
Polindera S, Segui-Gomez M, Toet H, Belta E, Sethid D, Racioppid F, F. van Beecka E (2011)

Systematic review and quality assessment of economic evaluation studies of injury preven-
tion. Accident Analysis and Prevention
219
Kuchler F, Golan W (1996) Assigning values to life. Comparing methods for valuing health. Ag-
ricultural Economic Report No. 784: 37
Brody B, Letourneau Y, Poirier A. (1990) An indirect cost theory of work accident prevention.
Journal of occupational accidents.
Andreoni D. (1986) The cost of Occupational Accidents and Diseases. I.L.O., Geneva, Switzer-
land
Oi W. (1974) On the economics of industrial safety. Law and Contemporary Problems, 38: 538-
555.
220
New Technologies and Entrepreneurial

Intention
Martin-Cruz N1, Rodriguez-Escudero AI2
Abstract New technologies are considered a powerful tool to create, disseminate,

articulate and exploit knowledge. Recently, some technologies are being used to
promote the creation of new ventures. However, recent studies demonstrate that
new technologies are not enough to enhance the process of venture creation. We
use the fundamentals of the theory of planned behavior to understand the impact
of new technologies on entrepreneurial intention. Empirical literature related to
university students shows that entrepreneurial intention is depen-dent on attitude
towards entrepreneurship, social norms and self-efficacy. Our aim is to evaluate
an empirical model in a sample of students enrolled in the last academic year in
the University of Valladolid (Spain).
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial intentions, New Technologies,

Theory of Planned Behavior.
1 Introduction
New technologies are considered a powerful tool to create, disseminate, articulate

and exploit knowledge. Recently, they are being used to promote the creation of
new ventures (Field, Elbert and Moser, 2012; Martin, Platis, Malita and Ar-
deleanu, 2011). However, the effect of new tech-nologies on entrepreneurial inten-
tion is still lacking. In this paper, we use the fundamentals of the theory of planned
behavior to understand the impact of new technologies on entrepreneurial inten-
1NataliaMartin-Cruz ( e-mail: ambiela@eco.uva.es)

Grupo INSISOC. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas y CIM. Facultad de Ciencias Econmicas
y Empresariales. Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce S/N, 47011 Valladolid.
2AnaIsabel Rodriguez-Escudero ( e-mail: ana@eco.uva.es)
Grupo INSISOC Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas y CIM. Facultad de Ciencias Econmicas y
Empresariales. Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce S/N, 47011 Valladolid.
221
tion. In particular, we focus on two specific objectives: 1) verify the potential of

the planned behavior theory based on the three dimensions attitude towards en-
trepreneurship, social norms and self-efficacy- and some control variables, and 2)
verify the impact of a positive attitude towards new technologies on entrepreneur-
ial intention)
To reach those objectives, we use two models. The first model includes solely
the attitude to-wards new technologies, and in the second model, we add the rest
of the personal features of the individual, as the upper echelon characteristics, ed-
ucation, personality or the family business background (Choy, Kuppusamy y
Jusoh, 2005; Veciana, Aponte y Urbano, 2005; Li, 2007; Martin, Hernangomez,
Rodrguez y Saboia, 2009; Engle, Dimitriadi, Gavidia, Schlaegel, Delanoe, Al-
varado, He, Buame y Wolff, 2010). Once all those variables are controlled, we
claim that attitude towards new technologies maintain its significance, therefore,
that will mean this variable is important to identify individuals with a higher en-
trepreneurial intention. This observation will allow for promoting specific pro-
grams to those individuals from public and private institutions.
2 Theoretical Background
The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) has been applied to nearly all vol-
untary behaviors and it provides quite good results in very diverse fields (Azjen,
2011; Lian, Rodrguez-Cohard, and Rueda, 2011). Accordingly, a narrow rela-
tionship would exist between the intention to be an entrepreneur and its effective
performance. Therefore, intention becomes the fundamental element in explaining
behavior
Following this theory, three main elements constitute the explanatory variables
of intention: self-efficacy, social norms and attitude towards entrepreneurship.
Self-efficacy or entrepreneurial capabilities is defined as the perception of the eas-
iness or difficulty in the fulfilment of the behaviour of interest, that is, the sense of
capacity regarding the fulfilment of firm creations behaviours. Social norms
measure the social value attributed to entrepreneurial behaviour. Finally attitude
towards entrepreneurship refers to the degree to which the individual holds a posi-
tive or negative personal valuation about being an entrepreneur.
Besides the three variables commented, different authors have identified addi-
tional features that may also explain entrepreneurial intention. In this sense, some
demographic characteristics (such as gender and social class), the education (train-
ing, languages, academic performance), the existence of entrepreneurial tradition
in the family and personal traits have been widely considered in the literature
(Minniti and Nardone, 2007; Matthews and Moser, 1996; Kor et al., 2007; Rauch
and Frese, 2007). Although planned behaviour theory seems to prevail in recent
entrepreneurship research, other schools had an impact characterizing and explain-
222
ing why some individuals become entrepreneurs. The Great Person School focuses
on intuition of the individual, and his/her with unique values and attitudes such as
the need for self-fulfilment. From the psychological literature it has been argued
that entrepreneurs have a higher propensity to take. The management literature has
emphasized the capabilities for innovation and for organising re-sources, or the
ability for leadership (Cunningham and Lischeron, 1991).
Considering both streams of literature, the empirical analysis includes those
variables to verify which ones have a stronger influence on the intention to start-
up. The model proposed is shown in Figure 1.
Socio-demographic features
(gender, budget) Self-efficacy
Education
(Training, languages, academic
performance) Attitude towards Entrepreneurial
entrepreneurship intention
Entrepreneurial tradition in the
family
Personal traits
Social norms
Attitude towards new
technologies
Fig. 1 Model of the planned behavior theory considering the impact of new technologies on en-
trepreneurial intention
New technologies are included into the model by considering the attitude of the
individual to-wards those new technologies. In fact, institutional theory acknowl-
edges that certain new technologies come to be adopted widely, while other,
equally plausible, alternatives languish (Tushman and Anderson 1986; Utterback
1994). Munir and Phillips (2005) have tried to disentangle the role of entrepre-
neurial institutions to that choice. They developed, using the observation from dis-
course analysis, that technologies can become a type of institution through pro-
cesses of social construction, provides a very useful foundation for the
development of an institutional theory of technology that will strengthen both
technology and innovation research and institutional theory (Munir and Phillips,
2005, 1684). Moreover, the accumulated tacit knowledge and culture of the entre-
preneur are the resources essential to create wealth from research commercializa-
tion leading to technological innovation (Hindle and Yencken, 2004). We believe
that the development of a positive attitude towards new technologies could be the
starting point to initiate the entrepreneurial career as means to develop new tech-
nologies.
223
3 Methodology
Our aim is to evaluate the model presented in Figure 1 in a sample of students en-
rolled in the last academic year in the University of Valladolid (Spain). We col-
lected information by means of a questionnaire during the period February-March
2013. A total of 183 complete questionnaires were obtained. We focus on young
people since this group contains the largest proportion of entrepreneurs in the EU
(CEEDR, Middlesex University, 2000). In fact, there is a particular interest of the
European Union promoting entrepreneurship and policies as the Programme for
the Competitiveness of enterprises and SMEs (COSME) 2014-2020 is being dis-
cussed.
Table 1 summarizes a characterization of sample in terms of gender, age and
type of studies, social class, academic performance, entrepreneurial tradition in the
family, job experience, and previous entrepreneurial experience.
Table 1 Sample characteristics
Gender (%) Age (%) Type of studies (%)

Female 54.1 20 to 22 31.8 Business 47.5
Male 45.9 23 to 25 59.2 Business and Law 13.1
More than 25 9.0 Industrial Engineering 10.9
Organizational Engineering 28.4
Social class (budget) Academic performance Entrepreneurial tradition in the fam-
(%) (%) ily (%)
Low 0.5 Very low 0 No 48.1
Medium-low 14.3 Low 3.9 Yes 51.9
Medium 64.5 Medium 16.9
Medium- high 19.1 High 53.4
High 1.1 Very high 25.8
Work experience (%) Previous entrepreneuri- Entrepreneurship intention (%)
al experience (%)
No 56.3 No 95.1 No 43.7
Yes 43.7 Yes 2.2 Yes 56.3
At this moment 2.7
Observation of Table 1 allows verifying the equilibrium of the sample in the

majority of the variables. In fact, there are half of the students with family busi-
ness relatives, with previous experience in some jobs, and half are women. Relat-
ed to academic performance, half of the students have a high performance. Final-
ly, even though almost none of the students have previous entrepreneurial
experience, half of them have an intention to become entrepreneur.
224
With regards to the measurement of the variables (Table 2) we have used the
Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ) designed by Lian and Chen
(2009). Whenever possible, items have been built as 7-point Likert-type scales.
The exceptions to this norm are the gender, the social class and the entrepreneurial
traditional in the family that are dummy variables.
A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis has been used to test the re-
search hypotheses. Between the two alternative SEM approaches, we have select-
ed Partial Least Square (PLS) mainly because our variables are not normally dis-
tributed and because of the formative nature of some of the measures used in this
research. Our model includes both latent (measured with reflective indicators) and
emergent (formative) constructs.
Table 2 Construct definition and measures
Construct
name
Construct measurement1 Loadings Weights
(Alphas,
CR, AVE)
Entrepre- I am ready to do everything to be entrepreneur 0.916* -
neurial inten- Mi personal objective is to be entrepreneur 0.931 *
-
tion1
I am decided to create a business in the next future 0.916* -
I would want to create a business or keep working in

the family business 0.742* -
Attitude to-
Entrepreneurs are attractive to me 0.850* -
wards entre-
preneurship1 If I had the opportunity and resources, I would be
entrepreneur
0.872* -
To be entrepreneur would give to me a lot of satis-
factions 0.875* -
Entrepreneurial activity is very considered in the
culture of my country 0.882* -
Social
norms1 The role of entrepreneur in the economy is enough
considered
0.881* -
In my culture, it is an advantage to be entrepreneur
in comparison to other jobs
0.850* -
Creating a firm and keep it will be easy to me 0.833* -
Self- I can control the process of business creation 0.852* -
efficacy1 I know the practical details to create a business 0.798* -
I know how to develop a business project 0.807* -
*
If I create a firm, I will be successful 0.821 -
Gender (n.a) Female /male -
Social class Very low/low/medium/high/very high -
(n.a.)
225
Table 2 (continued) Construct definition and measures
Courses of specialization in business areas (market-

Training2 ing, finance, etc.) - 0.421*
Courses of developing managerial abilities - -0.259
Courses related to entrepreneurial activity - 0.722*
Knowledge English knowledge - 0.094
about foreign French knowledge - 0.125
languages2 German knowledge - 0.643*
Academic Level of academic performance -
performance2
(n.a.)
Entreprenu- Is there any family member who has been entrepre- -
rial business neur (parents/grandparents/siblings)?
tradition
(n.a.)
I am an outgoing person, I love chattering, having
contacts and be with other people - 0.155
I am a nice person and I try to know what the others - -0.032
need
I am very efficient at work, I am constant and I have
a previous plan - -0.151*
I am emotionally stable, I am usually not surpassed

by problems - 0.078
I am independent and I have my own ideas, I do not
Personal copy others ideas - 0.172*
traits1
I think that my results depend on me and not on the - 0.001
external factors
I am not afraid to assume financial risks is the entre-
- 0.595*
preneurial activity would need
I am always looking for new opportunities and new
ways of doing things - 0.270*
I regularly search for activities that make me happy - 0.005
When I am happy, I usually give good ideas - 0.200*
When someone does something good, I usually con- - 0.040
gratulate them
I love trying new communication technologies that
are launched to the market 0.742* -
Atittude to- I consider myself an innovator and I buy products as
wards new soon as those are launched to the market
0.850* -
technologies1 I have a great variety of new technological products
0.872* -
I consider myself to have a great understanding and
knowledge of new technologies 0.875* -
1
1= strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree.
2
1= very low to 7= very high.
226
In particular, training, knowledge about foreign languages and personal traits

are formative variables, and entrepreneurial intention, attitude towards entrepre-
neurship, social norm, self-efficacy and attitude towards new technologies are re-
flective variables. Variables that are measured using a single item have not been
included as this analysis has no sense.
For formative constructs, in Table 2 weights instead of loadings are reported.
Item weight represents its relative contribution in the formation of the correspond-
ing construct. It is necessary to bear in mind that neither is it assumed nor required
that formative indicators are correlated; therefore, traditional measures of internal
consistency and validity assessment are inappropriate and illogical (Bollen, 1989;
Chin, 1998; Hulland, 1999). This explains why the information about CR and
AVE in Tables 3 is not shown for this type of variables.
We estimated our model using SmartPLS (Ringle et al., 2005). Following the
two-step approach suggested by Anderson and Gerbing (1988), before the testing
and assessment of the structural model, we analyzed the reliability of individual
reflective items and the corresponding constructs, as well as the convergent validi-
ty and discriminant validity of our measures. As can be observed in Table 2, all
the reflective item loadings are significant and greater than 0.7, which is the gen-
erally recommended threshold. We evaluated composite reliability using the inter-
nal consistency measure (CR) developed by Fornell and Larcker (1981). A con-
struct is considered reliable if CR is at least 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978). We also
examined the average variance extracted (AVE) of each latent construct, which
should be greater than 0.5. All the reflective constructs exceed these conditions
(see Table 3).
Discriminant validity is established by comparing the square root of AVE (i.e.
the diagonals in Table 3) with the correlations among latent variables (i.e. the off-
diagonal elements in Table 3).
Table 3 Composite fiability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE) and correlations
CR AVE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
1. Entrepren. inten- .94 .85 .92
tion
2. Attitude entrpren. .93 .73 .79 .85
3. Social norms .92 .79 .15 .22 .89
4. Self-efficacy .91 .68 .59 .59 .22 .82
5. Gender - - -.12 -.11 .18 -.00 -
6. Social class - - .02 -.02 .11 .13 .04 -
7. Training - - .29 .32 .26 -.03 .05 .02 -
8. Foreign languages - - .01 -.02 -.09 .10 .10 .35 -.11 -
9. Academmic per- - - .02 .09 .09 .18 .11 .05 -.03 .20 -
formance
10. Family business - - .29 .27 .13 .29 .06 .12 .10 .07 -.05 -
tradition
11. Personal traits - - .65 .61 .13 .59 -.08 .18 .30 .12 .08 .22 -
12. Attit. new tech- .91 .73 .26 .21 .00 .30 -.23 .10 -.00 .07 .18 .11 .30 .85
nologies
227
For each reflective construct, the square root of its AVE should be greater than
its correlation with any other construct, which means that it shares more variance
with its own measures than with other constructs in the model. This condition is
met in all the cases. In addition, another test of discriminant validity can be ob-
tained by calculating the cross-loadings. It was verified that each reflective item
loads more on the construct it intends to measure than on any other construct, and
that each latent variable relates more to its own manifest variables than to the indi-
cators of other constructs.
4 Results
Figures 2a and 2b summarize the results of the PLS analysis performed to test two
structural models. In particular, Figure 2a shows the results of a model which in-
cludes the favorable attitude towards new technologies. Figure 2b, however, pre-
sents the same model, but now include the additional antecedents emphasize by
the literature. Specifically, the standardized path coefficients () the value of the
R2 of the dependent variables are shown. Since traditional parametric tests are in-
appropriate when no assumption is made about the distribution of the observed
variables, the level of statistical significance of the coefficients of both the meas-
urement and the structural models was determined through a bootstrap re-
sampling procedure (500 sub-samples were randomly generated).
The estimation of the first model (Figure 1) reveal that a positive attitude to-
wards new technologies favors the feeling of self-efficacy (=0.36) and this last
variables has an effect on the attitude towards entrepreneurship (B=0.57) and on
the entrepreneurial intention (B=0.15).

technologies =0.36
Self-efficacy
R2= 0.12
=0.15
=0.57
Attitude towards Entrepreneurial

R2= 0.38 =0.72
R2= 0.64
Social norms
R2= 0.00
Fig. 2a Model of the planned behavior theory considering the impact of new technologies on en-
trepreneurial intention
228

technologies
=0.14
Training
=0.14
Knowledge languages
Self-efficacy
2
Academic performance =0.14 R = 0.44 =0.13
=0.26
=0.44
Entrepreneurial family =0.45 Attitude towards Entrepreneurial
Personal traits R2= 0.50 =0.72 R2= 0.64
=0.18 =-0.14
Social class (budget) Social norms

R2= 0.07
Gender =0.18
Fig. 2b Model of the planned behavior theory considering the impact of new technologies and
other antecedents on entrepreneurial intention
The first model does not include the rest of the variables that literature consid-
ers having an effect on the entrepreneurial intention. However, when those varia-
bles are included in the model (Figure 2) the positive attitude towards new tech-
nologies remain significant and positive (B=0.14), and therefore the rest of the
effects on the attitude towards entrepreneurship (B=0.23) and on the entrepreneur-
ial intention (B=0.13). This attitude of the students is important in the entrepre-
neurial intention, even though some of its effect is captured by the personal traits
of the students see the correlation of both variables in Table 3- as we can observe
in the reduction of the size of the coefficient (B from 0.36 to 0.14). As a conse-
quence, we claim that the attitude toward new technologies could help to identify
those students with a higher entrepreneurial intention. Our objective is therefore
accomplished.
Other interesting results from the analysis are related to the variables of the
planned behavioral theory. In fact, attitude towards entrepreneurship is positively
related to entrepreneurial intention (=0.72). Moreover, self-efficacy has a posi-
tive effect on entrepreneurial intention (B=0.15) that is smaller than the one of at-
titude. This result means that students with higher capabilities to create a firm and
sustain over time have a higher entrepreneurial intention. This relationship could
be independent on the attitude towards entrepreneurship. One possible explanation
to those results could be the situation of some students that consider being entre-
preneur as an alternative to find a job in the marketplace. Finally, social norms
have not a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention. The personal traits of
students contribute creating social norms (B=0.18), as risk aversion or opportuni-
ties searching, however, this effect is not persistent on the relation between social
229
norms and entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, the intention to be entrepreneur is

not related to the way students environment is considering the entrepreneurial ac-
tivity. This result is consistent with previous literature, that is, variables of the
planned behavioral theory have an effect on entrepreneurial intention, even though
our data does not show a strong effect of the social norms.
The variable personal traits has the broadest and largest effects on the planned
behavior theory variables. In fact, the outgoing, risk-taking, leader, optimistic stu-
dents are the ones with higher attitude towards entrepreneurship (B=0.45), leave in
an entrepreneurial environment (B=0.18) and are self-confident about being entre-
preneur (B=0.44). Both, the variables training (B=0.14) and family business
tradition (B=0.14) have an impact on self-efficacy. In fact, self-efficacy is the
planned behavioral theory variable with more influences coming from the individ-
ual features of students compared to the other two variables (social norms and atti-
tude towards entrepreneurship). Gender is significant on social norms, meaning
that being women is positively related to the perception that those students have
about the entrepreneurial environment (B=0.18). Women feel that the environment
in which they leave is more entrepreneurial oriented. Finally, the social class has a
small effect on attitude towards entrepreneurship (B=0.14).
5 Conclusion
Attitude and perception about new technologies have been considered in different
streams of research (e.g. agricultural technology implementation, e-banking; tech-
nology adoption). The results of the empirical literature show that individuals
when new using or adopting a new technology are driven by their attitudes to-
wards this technology (Adesina and Baidu-Forson, 1995; Kai-Ming and Ender-
wick, 2000; Liao and Cheung, 2002).
In our study, we found in students a similar pattern; their intentions to be entre-
preneur are driven by their attitude towards new technologies, for instance, they
are innovation-drivers or consider themselves knowledge experts in new technol-
ogies. This relationship is important for our understanding of the drivers of entre-
preneurial intention, and designing the specific training programs to promote this
intention is students at the university (Fayolle, Gailly and Lassas-Clerc, 2006).
The model empirically tested and based on the theory of planned behavior is
still valid explaining entrepreneurial intentions. Those results are robust with pre-
vious literature (Krueger and Carsrud, 1993; Azjen, 2011; Kautonena, Van
Gelderenb and Tornikoskic, 2013), which means, previous teaching practices that
have been applied in Universities based on this theoretical approach could be still
used to promote entrepreneurial intentions.
Our study could be extended by adding other factors as the social networks in
which students are part and contribute to. In fact, social networks are considered a
230
powerful tool to create, disseminate, articulate and exploit knowledge. Recently,

some networks are being used to promote the creation of new ventures (Field, El-
bert and Moser, 2012; Martin, Platis, Malita and Ardeleanu, 2011). The inclusion
of those variables could be of interest to promote entrepreneurial intentions in stu-
dents at the University
6 References
Adesina, A.A. and Baidu-Forson, J. (1995): Farmers' perceptions and adoption of new agricul-
tural technology: evidence from analysis in Burkina Faso and Guinea, West Africa. Agricul-
tural Economics, 13, 1-9.
Anderson, J.C. and Gerbing, D.W. (1988): Structural equation modeling in practice: a review
and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411-423.
Azjen, I (1991): Theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes, 50, 179-211.
Azjen, I. (2011): The theory of planned behaviour: Reactions and reflections, Psychology &
Health, 26(9), 1113-1127.
Bollen, K.A. (1989): Structural Equations with Latent Variables, Wiley, New York.
CEEDR (2000): Young entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, co-entrepreneurs and ethnic mi-
nority entrepreneurs in the European Union and Central and Eastern Europe, Final report to
the European Commission, DG Enterprise, Middlesex University Business School, UK.
Chin, W.W. (1998): The partial least square approach for structural equation modeling. In Mar-
coulides, G.A. (Ed.), Modern Methods for Business Research, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
Hillsdale, NJ, 295-336.
Choy, C.S.; Kuppusamy, J.; Jusoh, M. (2005): Entrepreneurial careers among business gradu-
ates: match- making using theory of planned behavior. International Journal of Entrepre-
neurship, 9, 67-90.
Cunningham, J. B. and Lischeron, J. (1991): Defining entrepreneurship. Journal of Small
Business Management, 29(1), 45-61.
De Carolis, D.M. ; Litzky, B.E. and Eddleston, K.A. (2009): Why networks enhance the pro-
gress of new venture creation: The influence of social capital and cognition, Entrepreneur-
ship Theory and Practice, March, 527-545.
Engle, L.E.; Dimitriadi, N.; Gavidia, J.V.; Schlaegel, C.; Delanoe, S.; Alvarado, I.; HE, X.; Bu-
ame, S.; Wolff, B.; (2010): Entrepreneurial intent. International Journal of Entrepreneurial
Behaviour & Research, 16(1), 35-57.
Fayolle, A, Gailly, B. and Lassas-Clerc, N., (2006): Assessing the impact of entrepreneurship
education programmes: a new methodology. Journal of European Industrial Training, 30 (9),
701-720.
Field, J.A.; Elbert, D.J. and Moser, S.B. (2012): The use of social media in building interest in
wellness on a college campus, American Journal Of Business Education, 5(5), 515-524.
Fornell, C. and Larcker, D. (1981): Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable var-
iables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18 (February), 39-50.
Greve, A. and Salaff, J.W. (2003): Social networks and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship
Theory and Practice, March, Fall, 1-22.
Hindle, K. and Yencken, J. (2004): Public research commercialisation, entrepreneurship and
new technology based firms: An integrated model. Technovation, 24, 793-2003.
Hulland, J. (1999): Use of partial least squares (PLS) in strategic management research: A re-
view of four recent studies. Strategic Management Journal, 20, 195-204.
231
Kai-Ming Au, A. and Enderwick, P. (2000): "A cognitive model on attitude towards technology
adoption". Journal of Managerial Psychology, 15(4), 266-282.
Kautonena, T., Van Gelderenb, M. and Tornikoskic, E.T. (2013): Predicting entrepreneurial be-
haviour: a test of the theory of planned behaviour. Applied Economics, 45(6), 697-707.
Kor, Y.Y., Mahoney, J.T. and Michael, S. C. (2007): Resources, capabilities and entrepreneurial
Perceptions. Journal of Management Studies, 44(7), 1187-1212.
Krueger, N. F., Jr. and Carsrud, A.L. (1993): Entrepreneurial Intentions: Applying the theory of
planned behaviour. Entrepreneurship theory and practice. Entrepreneurship and Regional
Development, 5(4), 315-330.
Li, W. (2007): Ethnic entrepreneurship: studying Chinese and Indian students in the United
States. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 12(4), 449-466.
Liao, Z. and Cheung, M.T. (2002). Internet-based e-banking and consumer attitudes: An empir-
ical study. Information and Management, 39, 283295.
Lian, F. and Chen, Y.W. (2009): Development and cross-functional application of a specific
instrument to measure entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33
(3), 593-617.
Lin, F., J.C. Rodrguez-Cohard, and J.M. Rueda (2011). "Factors affecting entrepreneurial in-
tention levels: A role for education". International Entrepreneurship and Management Jour-
nal, 7(2), 195-218.
Martin, N.; Rodrguez, A.I.; Hernangomez, J. and Saboia, F. (2009): The effect of entrepreneur-
ship education programmes on satisfaction with innovation behaviour and performance.
Journal of European Industrial Training, 33(3), 198-214.
Martin, C.; Platis, M.; Malita, L. and Ardeleanud, M. (2011): The role of EMENTORING and
social media for developing the entrepreneurship competences. Procedia - Social and Behav-
ioral Sciences, 15, pp. 947951.
Mathews, C.H., and Moser, S.B. (1996): A longitudinal investigation of the impact of family
background and gender on interest in small firm ownership. Journal of Small Business Man-
agement, 34(2), 29-43.
Minniti, M., and Nardone, C. (2007): Being in someone elses shoes: The role of gender in nas-
cent entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 28(2-3), 223-238.
Munir, K. A. and Phillips, N. (2005): The birth of the 'Kodak moment': Institutional entrepre-
neurship and the adoption of new technologies. Organization Studies, 26(11), 1665-1687.
Nunnally, J. (1978): Psychometric Theory, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Rauch, A. and Frese, M. (2007): Lets put the person back into entrepreneurship research: A
meta-analysis of the relationship between business owners personality characteristics and
business creation and success. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology,
16(4), 353-385.
Ringle, C.; M, Wende, S. and Will, S. (2005), SmartPLS 2.0, Hamburg http://www.smartpls.de.
Sullivan, D.M. and Ford, C.M. (2013): How Entrepreneurs Use Networks to Address Changing
Resource Requirements During Early Venture Development. Entrepreneurship Theory and
Practice, forthcoming, 1-24.
Tushman, M.L. and Anderson, P. (1986): "Technological discontinuties and organizational envi-
ronments". Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 439-65.
Utterback, J. M. (1994): Mastering the dynamics of innovation: How companies can seize oppor-
tunities in the face of technological change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Veciana, J.M.; Aponte, M. y Urbano, D. (2005): University Students Attitudes Towards Entre-
preneurship: A Two Countries Comparison. International Entrepreneurship and Manage-
ment Journal, 1(2), 165-182.
232
EN-02
OR, Modelling and Simulation
233
Toward Various Exact Modeling the Job Shop

Scheduling Problem for Minimizing Total
Weighted Tardiness
Namakshenas M 1 , Sahraeian R2
Abstract In this paper, two different mixed integer programming (MIP) and one
constraint programming (CP) models are formulated for classical job shop prob-
lem with the aim at minimization of the total weighted tardiness as objective func-
tion. The proposed models are solved and compared with well-known benchmarks
in the job shop literature, using IBM ILog Cplex software. Examination and com-
parison of these exact models suggest that one formulation performs much more
efficiently than others, namely CP model, in triple criteria: First, number of gener-
ated variables; Second, solution time and Third, complexity scale.
Keywords: Job Shop, Total Weighted Tardiness, Mixed Integer Programming,

Constraint Programming
1 Introduction
The classical job shop problems are the most prevalent issues in scheduling pro-
cesses in factories in which high number of products should be produced each
with custom orders. The usage of job shop algorithms is not restricted to produc-
tion and manufacturing environment, but they can be implemented in services and
other applications, too. With the rapid development in computational technologies,
mixed integer programming (MIP) and other high-tech modeling concepts for
solving scheduling problems are significantly receiving attention from researchers.
Although, there is no efficient solution methodology due to the NP-hard nature of
1Mohammad Namakshenas ( e-mail: m.namakshenas@shahed.ac.ir )

Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran
2Rashed Sahraeian ( e-mail: sahraeian@shahed.ac.ir)
Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran
235
these problems, mathematical programming is the first step to develop an effective

heuristic or algorithm.
Contrary to job shops with makespan objective, literature on solution proce-
dures to the total weighted tardiness job shop scheduling problem (TWT-JS) is
very limited. Given the only branch-and-bound algorithm for this problem pro-
posed by (Singer & Pinedo, 1997) the remaining approaches mainly based on lo-
cal search (Essafi, et al., 2008; Mati, et al., 2011) and shifting bottleneck methods
(Pinedo & Singer, 1999).
In the widely used three-field notation of Graham, TWT-JS is written as:
J m || w jT j , where Tj = max (0, cj dj).
The assumptions made for the classic job-shop problem are summarized here.
The processing times are known, fixed, and independent of the sequence. All jobs
are ready for processing at time zero. No preemption is allowed, i.e. once an oper-
ation has started it must be completed before another operation may be started on
that machine. Also, recirculation is prohibited, i.e. all jobs should meet machines
only one time and each job should meet all machines. Only one job may be pro-
cessed on a machine at any instant of time. No restrictions are placed on the rout-
ings of jobs.
By this supposition, the problem can be declared as:
Given n jobs to be processed on m machines in a job shop with no restrictions
on the routing constraints of jobs, determine the optimal job sequence on each
machine in order to minimize the total weighted tardiness.
The rest of paper is organized as follows: In section (0), first we introduce our
notation used throughout the paper, then two integer-based formulation will be
discussed. In section (3) a constraint programming model will be developed in
OPL terms. Next section has to do with comparison and analysis of proposed for-
mulations and the last section concludes this study with a summary and conclu-
sion.
2 Mixed Integer Formulation
In this paper, we use the following notations for MIP formulation procedure:
Parameters & Sets:
n number of jobs (N: jobs set);
m number of machines (M: machines set);
pjh processing time of job j on machine h;
wj weight of job j;
dj due date of job j;
rjlh 1 if the lth operation of job j requires machine h;

0 o.w.
236
Decision variable:
cj completion time of job j;
sjh starting time of job j on machine h;
Zj wj.max (0, cj dj);
Ekh wk.max (0, ck dk) on machine h;
xjkh 1 if job j scheduled in position k on machine h ;

0 o.w.
yijh 1 if job j follows job i on machine h (not necessarily immedi-
ately);
0 o.w.
2.1 Disjunctive Approach
Disjunction based (DJ) formulation is closely intertwined with the disjunctive

graph representation of the job shop. However, the relationship between disjunc-
tions is implicit, which allows us to define the starting times sjh with combination
of a key binary variable, say yijh. Also, It suffices to work with these variables on
the basis of i < j.
Objective: Min Z
j N
j
(1)
Constraints:
w
h M
j rjmh (s jh p jh ) w j d j Z j , j N , (2)
s ih s jh p jh My ijh , i , j N , h M , with i j , (3)

s jh s ih pih M (1 y ijh ) , i , j N , h M , with i j , (4)
r
h M
jlh (s jh p jh ) r
h M
j , l 1, h s jh , j N , l M {n}, (5)
Z j , s jh nonnegative integers , y ijh binary, i , j N , h M .

Constraints set (2) is used for linearization of the max function in TWT-JS and
based on operational variable, namely rjlh. Constraints set (3) ensures that if the
starting time of job j precedes i on machine h, then there must be delay with dura-
tion of processing job j on machine h and it must relax the constraints set (4) and
vice versa. Also, Constraints set (5) imposes operational precedence of a job on
specified machine. To be precise, it declares that starting time of operation l+1
should occur after the completion of operation l for job j.
237
2.2 Hybrid Approach
An alternative formulation can be constructed by deploying both the sequence-

position variables and the precedence variables, namely hybrid formulation (HB).
In order to establish a consistent model using two sets of variables, we define a
variable vkh for declaration the starting time of the scheduled job in the kth position
for processing on machine h.
Objective: Min k N h M
E kh (6)
Constraints:
E kh x
j N t 1..k
jth p jhw j x jkh d jw j ,
j N
k N , h M , (7)
x
j N
jkh 1, k N , h M , (8)
x
k N
jkh 1, j N , h M , (9)
v kh v k 1 ,h x
j N
j , k 1 , h p jh , k N {1}, h M , (10)
M (2 r
h M
jlh x jth r
h M
j ,l 1 , h x jkh ) r
h M
v kh
j ,l 1 , h r
h M
v
jlh th r
h M
jlh p jh ,
j , k , t N , l M {m }, (11)
Z j ,v kh nonnegative integers , x jkh binary, j , k N , h M .
In hybrid formulation, the first set of constraints (7) is used to linearized the
expression wj.max (0, cj dj) and this allows to calculate the objective function
based on the position of jobs. The second (8) and third (9) set of constraints im-
pose position sequence for jobs, the fourth set (10) indicate that starting time of
consecutive position of jobs must have delay with duration of processing time of
the previously positioned job, and eventually last set (11) impose operational con-
straints of each job.
3 Constraint Programming Formulation
It is axiomatic that intrinsic difficulties of exact methods or algorithmic problems

in the context of combinatorial optimization often render large number of schedul-
ing problems as NP-hard. From the complexity viewpoint, representation of the
solution space in a specific algorithms plays an important role in dealing with such
NP class instances. Designed solution methods, even high-tech ones, which are
238
highly dependent on number of variables and solution space, might yield the op-
timum in exponential function of time in practice. In order to deal with such
drawbacks of conventional mathematical models, we tried and developed a con-
straint programming (CP) model.
CP has been proven very efficient for solving scheduling problems (IBM Ilog
CP, 2009). This approach is highly applicable in two cases: 1) A non-convex solu-
tion space that comprised myriad of locally optimal solutions, 2) Multiple disjunc-
tions or globally-defined constraints, which results in poor information retrieved
by a linear relaxation of the problem.
A pure disjunctive programming with interval variables sij (starting time of job
i on machine j in a directed graph) is represented as follows:
Objective: Min j N
Zj (12)
Constraints:
w j (s ij pij d j ) Z j , i N , j M , (13)
s ik s ij pij , i N , ( j , k ) M , with i , j i , k , (14)
(s ih s jh ) (s jh s ih ) p( jh ) (ih ) , (i , j ) N , h M , (15)
s ij , Z j 0 , i N , j M . (16)
In this formulation, the first set of constraints (13) is considered for lineariza-
tion of the objective function. The second set (14) ensure that operation (i,k) can-
not start before the completion of operation (i,j). The third set of constraints (15)
observe ordering among operations of different jobs that have to be assigned on
the same resource.
The CP model, in contrast to IP model, is highly contingent upon the CP pack-
age used for modeling the problem because of the discrepancies in functional
structures of various modeling languages (Edis & Ozkarahan, 2011). In this study,
ILOGs OPL Studio 11.1 is used as the modeling language. Also, Table 1 presents
the syntax definition of the constraints used in OPL model.
Table 1 Syntax definition for declared OPL local or global constraints
Syntax Definition
cum Accumulation over interval variables
precedes Declares precedence constraint on interval variables
requires Declares resource requirement
wait Declares precedence constraint on the assignment of resource variables
A basic OPL modeling framework involves a set of intervals (jobs) that need to
be assigned on a set of resources (e.g. machines, operators, etc.). An interval vari-
able is a decision variable with three components, i.e. a start and end time and a
239
duration, logically linked together. For interval variables, the search methodology
does not enumerate the values in the variables domain and the search space is usu-
ally independent of the problem domain size. The search space is estimated as the
number of possible orderings of the n interval variables and the complexity of
problem is estimated as n.log2 (n).
Then, the OPL formulation can be written as follows:
Objective: Min cum i N {w [i ]. max (C [i ] d [i ],0)} (17)

Constraints:
C [i ] assigns OPR [i , nb _ resource ].end , i N , (18)
OPR [i , nb _ resource ] precedes C [i ] , i N , (19)
OPR [i , j ] precedes OPR [i , j 1] , i N , j M {n}, (20)
OPR [i , j ] requires MAC [OPR [i , j ], j ] , i N , j M , (21)
MAC [OPR [i , j ], j ] waits MAC [OPR [i , j ], j 1 ] , (22)
i N , j M {n},
In this OPL formulation, we deployed two key variables, namely OPR as inter-
val variable and MAC as resource variable or machines. The objective allows the
solver to accumulate over sequences of interval variables and to select the mini-
mum value corresponding to that combination. The first set of constraints (19) de-
clares that jobs on their last operations cannot override C[i] interval. This auxiliary
variable helps the modeler to impose a global deadline constraint for the entire
planning horizon. The constraints set (20) adjusts the precedence conception, and
(21) indicates all interval variables should be dedicated to unary resource variable
(MAC). Note that there is no alternative resource for interval variables, therefore
they must be dedicated to only one source. The last set of constraints (22) suggests
that resource assignment should not be overlapped.
4 Test Problems and Experiments
In order to evaluate the capabilities of proposed models, it should be tested on dif-

ficult problem instances. Also, our attempt should be focused on conditions under
which the solution procedure is most severely challenged. Moreover, the ideal
condition for conducting such experiment could exist in usage of data which are
representative of real scheduling problems, but providing such pure data is almost
impossible.
We obtained our job shop problem benchmarks among well-known test prob-
lems in the literature, e.g. ABZ05, ABZ06, MT10, etc. This benchmarks initially
intended for makespan case are revised by adding a due date and a weight for each
240
of jobs. The latter are constructed following scheme of Pinedo & Singer (1999):
They suggested that 20% of the customers are very important, 60% of them are of
average importance, and the remaining 20% are of less importance. Therefore, we
assume that wj = (4,4,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,1) for a typical 1010 (jobmachine) instance.
According to following equation, the due date of job j is set to be equal to the floor
of the sum of the processing times of its operations multiplied by a due date tight-
ness factor .
m
d i . p ik , 1.3,1.5,1.6.
k 1
4.1 Computational Results and Analysis
Table displays the size of the MIP and CP formulations for all three alterna-
tives. As the table indicates, the CP formulation contains the smallest number of
constraints and variables in comparison with the other formulations. The hybrid
formulation (HB) has the highest number of variables. It can be immediately in-
ferred that the last set of constraints possess high portion of constraints in this
model, but it is obviously not a tight enough set to take advantage of this property.
The disjunction formulation (DJ) has a moderate number of constraints by a wide
margin, which seems to account for its efficiency to solve larger problems. In spite
of the fact that the HB formulation is conceived to be very tight, the size of the
formulation finally contributes to its longer computation times. Table 2 signals the
fact that number of binary variables in DJ and HB formulation almost tend to
grow exponentially by the rise of problem size. Moreover, solving the CP model is
roughly analogous to solving a pure integer model, because solution procedures
for facing with CP models only have been built and designed on the integer base.
Table 2 Model comparison based on the number of generated variables and constraints
Variables
Binary Integer or interval Non-negative Constraints
Problem DJ HB CP DJ HB CP DJ HB CP DJ HB CP
size (job
machine)
44 24 64 0 0 0 20 21 40 0 64 254 16
66 90 216 0 0 0 36 43 89 0 216 1230 36
88 224 512 0 0 0 72 73 133 0 512 3832 64
1010 450 1000 0 0 0 110 11 192 0 1000 9390 100
1212 792 1728 0 0 0 156 157 291 0 1728 19572 144
1515 1575 3375 0 0 0 240 241 453 0 3375 48135 225
241
Our experiments involved solving each test problem using ILog CPLEX 11.1
on a 2.66 GHZ Intel Core 2 Quad Processor (4 MB Cache) with 6 GB of memory.
We restricted the solver with a 3600-s time limit in order to terminate a specific
run if the optimal solution had not been verified in that period of time. The runs
information are summarized in Table 3. For each formulation, the table displays
the number of problems solved within the time limit for the full set of 30 prob-
lems, the average time (in second), and the maximum time. We also kept track of
the maximum and average gap for the cases in which an optimal solution was not
found by the solver and for better addressing the convergence of the model. (A
gap is the difference between the solution returned by truncated run and the opti-
mum, computed as a ratio to the optimum.) The results indicate that the HB for-
mulation is very weak, it is also inefficient compared to other formulations. The
CP formulation solves most of the benchmarks. Also, we found that DJ formula-
tion converges as fast as CP to the optimum in some cases, but it takes so much
time to prone and explore the branches and prove optimality. As the table dis-
plays, tightness factor has dramatic impact on average and maximum time to solve
a problem, because it restricts the search space and triggers fast convergence.
There remains no skepticism about the performance of CP: it outperforms other
formulations in all measures.
Table 3 Summary of computational results
Tightness Model Problem Average Maximum Average gap Maximum

factor () solved time (sec) time (sec) (%) gap (%)
1.3 DJ 27 985.13 3600+ 11.11 30.00
1.3 HB 11 2549.67 3600+ 46.25 100.00
1.3 CP 30 748.02 1985.22 0.00 0.00
1.5 DJ 21 2914.65 3600+ 73.12 97.01

1.5 HB 5 3600+ 3600+ 100.00 100.00
1.5 CP 22 2771.36 3600+ 25.97 43.12
1.6 DJ 17 3600+ 3600+ 100.00 100.00

1.6 HB 2 3600+ 3600+ 100.00 100.00
1.6 CP 23 2789.27 3600+ 65.74 100.00
Also, in order to intuitively validate the proposed models including MIP and
CP, we used a graphical chart similar to Gant chat (Fig. 1).
242
Fig. 1 Gant chart for ABZ06 instance optimal schedule; obtained by proposed CP (First and sec-
ond indexes respectively indicate the jobs number and operations number for processing that
job.)
5 Conclusions
That a scheduling problem can be formulated through mathematical programming

does not insinuate that there is an available satisfactory standard solution proce-
dure. TWT-JS is a very hard problem either based on enumeration or on heuris-
tics.
We conducted some computational experiments based on two integer model
and one OPL model, namely CP, using state-of-the-art software package,
CPLEX11.1. We tested the efficiency of our proposed formulations by well-
known job shop 1010 benchmarks each with different computational complexity.
The CP formulation solves nearly all difficult problems in a reasonable amount of
time, because search space is usually independent of the problem domain size.
Also, we found that formulation based on disjunction concept (DJ) provides a
highly consistent perspective. It produces least number of variables and con-
straints in comparison with HB formulation and yields a tight model. When it fails
to prove optimality after an hour of computation time, it preserves optimality gap.
For scheduling researchers, the implication is that standard optimization ap-
proaches are able to solve moderate-sized scheduling problems in a reasonable
amount of time. Specialized algorithms would seem to be preferable only for larg-
er problems in size. Furthermore, the attention paid to CP formulation may be jus-
tified if they provide insight into combinatorial perspective, but CP model are de-
sirable when mathematical models come to fail in description of highly complex
search spaces.
243
6 References
Edis, E. B. & Ozkarahan, I., 2011. A combined integer/constraint programming approach to a re-
source-constrained parallel machine scheduling problem with machine eligibility restrictions.
Engineering Optimization, 43(2), p. 135157.
Essafi, I., Mati, Y. & Dauzre-Prs, S., 2008. A genetic local search algorithm for minimizing
total weighted tardiness in the job-shop scheduling problem. Computers & Operations Re-
search, Volume 35, p. 25992616.
IBM Ilog CP, 2009. Detailed Scheduling in IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio with IBM
ILOG CPLEX CP Optimizer. [Online] Available at: http://cpoptimizer.ilog.com
Mati, Y., Dauzre-Prs, S. & Lahlou, C., 2011. A general approach for optimizing regular crite-
ria in the job-shop scheduling problem. European Journal of Operational Research, Volume
212, p. 3342.
Pinedo, M. & Singer, M., 1999. A Shifting Bottleneck Heuristic for Minimizing the Total
Weighted Tardiness in a Job Shop. Naval Research Logistics, Volume 46, pp. 1-17.
Singer, M. & Pinedo, M., 1997. A computational study of branch and bound techniques for min-
imizing the total weighted tardiness in job shops. IIE Transactions, 30(2), p. 109118.
244
Two Simple Constructive Algorithms for the

Distributed Assembly Permutation Flowshop
Scheduling Problem
Hatami S1, Ruiz R2, Andrs Romano C3
Abstract Nowadays, it is necessary to improve the management of complex sup-

ply chains which are often composed of multi-plant facilities. This paper proposes
a Distributed Assembly Permutation Flowshop Scheduling Problem (DAPFSP).
This problem is a generalization of the Distributed Permutation Flowshop Sched-
uling Problem (DPFSP) presented by Naderi and Ruiz (2010). The first stage of
the DAPFSP is composed of f identical production factories. Each center is a
flowshop that produces jobs that have to be assembled into final products in a sec-
ond assembly stage. The objective is to minimize the makespan. Two simple con-
structive algorithms are proposed to solve the problem. Two complete sets of in-
stances (small-large) are considered to evaluate performance of the proposed
algorithms.
Keywords: Distributed Assembly flowshop, Permutation Flowshop, Constructive

Algorithms
1Sara Hatami ( e-mail: hatami@alumni.uv.es)
Departamento de Estadstica e Investigacin Operativa, Facultad de Ciencias Matemticas,

Universitat de Valncia, Spain
2Rubn Ruiz ( e-mail: rruiz@eio.upv.es)
Grupo de Sistemas de Optimizacin Aplicada, Instituto Tecnolgico de Informtica, Ciudad

Politcnica de la Innovacin, Edifico 8G, Acc. B. Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Camino
de Vera s/n, 46021, Valncia, Spain.
3Carlos Andrs Romano ( e-mail: candres@omp.upv.es)
Departamento de Organizacin de Empresas, Universitat Politcnica de Valncia,Camino de
Vera s/n, 46021, Valncia, Spain
245
1 Introduction
Assembly systems have been widely studied in the last decade given their practi-
cal interest and applications. An assembly flowshop is a hybrid production system
where various production operations are independently and concurrently per-
formed to make parts that are delivered to an assembly line (Koulamas and Ky-
parisis, 2001). Tozkapan et al. (2003) considered a two-stage assembly scheduling
problem by minimizing the total weighted flow time as an objective function. Al-
Anzi and Allahverdi (2006) addressed the model presented by Tozkapan et al.
(2003) and minimized the total completion time of all the jobs by using metaheu-
ristics to solve their model. This is just a small extract of the many existing papers
in this regard.
From a manager's point of view, scheduling in these systems is more compli-
cated than in single-factory settings. In single-factory problems, the only objective
is to find a job schedule for a set of machines, while an important additional deci-
sion in the distributed problem is allocating jobs to suitable factories.
In this paper, flowshop scheduling is used as a production system for each fac-
tory or supplier in the distributed problem. The flowshop scheduling problem
(FSP) is composed of a set of M of m machines where each job of a set N of n jobs
must be processed in each machine. The number of operations per job is equal to
the number of machines. The ith operation of each job is processed in machine i.
Therefore, one job can start in machine i only after it has been completed in ma-
chine i-1, and if machine i is free. The processing times of each job in the ma-
chines are known in advance, non-negative and deterministic. In FSPs, a number
of assumptions are made (Baker, 1974).
In the FSP, there are n! possible job permutations for each machine. Therefore,
the total number of solutions for a flowshop problem with m machines is (n!)m. To
simplify the problem, it is assumed that all machines have the same job permuta-
tion. With this simplifying assumption the FSP is referred to as Permutation Flow-
shop Scheduling Problem (PFSP) with n! possible solutions. This problem is one
of the most researched topics in the scheduling literature (Pinedo, 2012; Pan and
Ruiz, 2012, etc.). The DPFSP can be viewed as a generalized version of the PFSP.
This paper studies the Distributed Assembly Permutation Flowshop Scheduling
Problem (DAPFSP). It is a combination of the DPFSP and the Assembly Flow-
shop Scheduling Problem (AFSP), and consists of two stages: production and as-
sembly. The first stage comprises of a set F of f factories or production centers
where a set N of n jobs has to be scheduled. All factories are capable of processing
all jobs and each factory is a PFSP with a set M of m machines. Factories are as-
sumed to be identical. Processing times are denoted by , i M, . The
second stage is a single assembly factory with an assembly machine, , which
assembles jobs by using a defined assembly program to make a set T of t different
final products. Each product has a defined assembly program. and are used,
respectively, to represent products h assembly program and the jobs that belong
246
to the products h assembly program, : { }, . Each product h has jobs

and job j is needed for the assembly of one product. Therefore, =1 | | = .
Product h assembly can start only when all jobs that belong to have been com-
pleted in the different factories. The considered objective is to minimize the
makespan at the last assembly factory.
Despite the innumerable literature related to PFSP and AFSP, it seems that
there are few studies about the DPFSP. Naderi and Ruiz (2010) presented the
DPFSP for the first time and developed six different MILPs , proposed two simple
factory assignment rules and 14 heuristics based on dispatching rules, effective
constructive heuristics and VND methods. To the best of our knowledge, no fur-
ther literature exists on DAPFSP, so this is the first effort that considers the as-
sembly flowshop problem in a distributed manufacturing setting.
The next section presents introduces two simple constructive algorithms, Sec-
tion 3 describes a complete computational evaluation of the proposed algorithms.
Finally, Section 4 offers conclusions, remarks and venues for future research.
2 Heuristic Methods
As mentioned in the paper of Naderi and Ruiz (2010), the DPFSP is an NP-
Complete problem (if > ); accordingly, the DAPFSP with an additional as-
sembly stage is certainly an NP-Complete problem (or rather, one should say that
the associated decision problem is). Therefore, it is necessary to develop a heuris-
tic approach to solve large-sized problems.
For the assignment of jobs to factories, the two rules (1 , 2 ), of Naderi
and Ruiz (2010) are used. Using these two factory allocation rules, two heuristics
are presented to schedule jobs.
2.1 Heuristic 1
We first introduce some necessary notation. An example with n=9, m=2, f=2 and
t=3, this is, 9 jobs, 2 factories with a flowshop of two machines each and three
products to assemble, is employed to explain expressions and heuristics in some
detail. The processing times of the 9 jobs on the first and second machines on fac-
tories are {1, 5, 7, 9, 9, 3, 8, 4, 2} and {3, 8, 5, 7, 3, 4, 1, 3, 5}, respectively. As-
sembly processing times of products on assembly machine are 6, 19 and 12 re-
spectively. The products assembly programs are: N1 = {3, 4, 6} , N2 =
{1, 2, 8, 9} and N3 = {5, 7}. represents a product sequence, e.g., = {1, 3, 2} is a
possible product sequence for the given example. As mentioned before, each
product h is made up of |Nh | jobs and h is the partial job sequence of product h,
247
e.g., 1 : {6, 4, 3}, 2 : {1, 9, 8, 2}, 3 : {7, 5}. A complete job sequence, T , is con-
structed by putting together all partial job sequences, following the product se-
quence , e.g., T : {6, 4, 3, 7, 5, 1, 9, 8, 2}.
The shortest processing time (SPT) is a well-known dispatching rule for the
PFSP. Hence the SPT is used to determine the product sequence in the assembly
machine.
Heuristic 1 begins by applying the SPT rule for the assembly operation times to
obtain , = {1, 3, 2}. A heuristic which is based on Framinan and Leisten (2003)
heuristic (FL) is applied on the jobs that belong to a given product.
The heuristic evaluates the completion times of the jobs that belong to product
h, for example if, h=1. Set R h is made by sorting jobs in ascending order of com-
pletion times, 1 = {6, 3, 4}. Where completion times for set of jobs of the prod-
uct 1, 1 = {3, 4, 6} are 23 = 12, 24 = 16, 26 = 7. The first two jobs of R h are
selected and inserted into Sh , 1 = {6, 3}. All jobs pairwise exchanges in Sh are
checked and it is updated with the one that results in the best makespan,
max ({6, 3}) = 15 and max ({3, 6}) = 16, 1 : {6, 3}.. The next step is removing
the third job of R h and inserting it in all possible positions of Sh , max ({4, 6, 3}) =
25, max ({6, 4, 3}) = 24 and max ({6, 3, 4}) = 26. The sequence with the best
makespan will be selected, 1 is updated to {6, 4, 3}. All possible sequences by
carrying out pairwise exchanges between jobs are evaluated again,
max ({4,6, 3}) = 25, max ({6, 3,4}) = 26, max ({3, 4, 6}) = 27. If a better
makespan is obtained, then is updated. The process continues until all jobs have
been considered. Sh is the partial job sequence for product h, (h ), 1 = {6, 4, 3}.
By following the same method, the partial job sequences for the other products
are: 2 = {1, 9, 8, 2} and 3 = {5, 7} with partial makespans of 20 and 18, respec-
tively. T is constructed by putting together all h and jobs are assigned to facto-
ries from T by using NR1 or NR 2 , which respectively result in the H11 or H12
heuristics. Hence is {6, 4, 3, 5, 7, 1, 9, 8, 2}. The final step is to assign jobs in
to factories by using 1 /2 to obtain the 11 / 12 . max of 11 and 12 are
55 and 53, respectively. The Gantt chart of the considered example after applying
11 is shown in Figure 1.
2.2 Heuristic 2
The idea of the second heuristic is to give priority to products whose jobs are
completed in the production stage sooner. This concept is noted as the earliest start
time to assemble product h, . The procedure that is used in 11 and 12 to find
partial job sequences of products ( ) also is used in heuristic 2. , is calculated
by using 1 or 2 to assign jobs in each partial job sequence to factories. For
example, the earliest start times for assembling products by considering 2 are
1 = 15, 2 = 15, 3 = 12. is built by sorting in ascending order.
248
6 3 5 8 2
6 3 5 8 2 Factory 1
4 7 1 9
4 7 1 9
Factory 2
Pro. 1 Pro. 3 Pro. 2 Assembly

factory
Fig. 1 Gantt chart of 11 for the example
3 Computational Evaluation
Two complete sets of instances have been generated to test the proposed heuris-
tics. Four instance factors (, , , ) are combined at the levels provided for small
and large instances. In small instances, number of jobs () is tested at 5 levels, 8,
12, 16, 20 and 24, number of machines () has 4 levels, 2, 3, 4 and 5, both factors
of number of factories () and number of products () have 3 levels, 2, 3 and 4. In
the large instances, all factors have 3 levels and are; = {100, 200, 500}, = {5,
10 20}, = {4, 6, 8} and = {30, 40, 50}.
Processing times in the production stage are fixed to [1, 99] as it is usual in
the scheduling literature. The assembly processing times depend on the number of
jobs assigned to each product h as U[1 | |, 99 | |]. The total number of
combinations in the small and large instances are 5 4 32 = 180 and 34 = 81,
respectively. There are five replications per combination for small instances and
ten replications for every large combination. Therefore, the total number of in-
stances is 900 and 810, respectively. All instances are available at soa.iti.es.
3.1 Heuristics Evaluation on Small Instances
The four proposed methods (11 , 12 , 21 , 22 ) are tested. A MILP model is con-
structed for the small instances are solved with two commercial solver packages
(CPLEX 12.3 and GUROBI 4.6.1). Serial (1 thread) and parallel (2 threads) and
two time limits (900 and 3600 seconds) are tested with the solvers.
As the proposed heuristics are not expected to find an optimal solution, the
Relative Percentage Deviation (RPD), is measured for comparisons. We measure
RPD as follows: using the optimal solution or the best known solution, ( )
249
and , which reports the makespan obtained by a given algorithm for a giv-
en instance:

= 100

Table 1 provides the summarized results of the MILP and the average algo-
rithm deviations from the best known solution for the small instances. They are
grouped by n and f.
Table 1 Relative Percentage Deviation (RPD) of MILP and proposed algorithms over the best
known solution for the small instances.
Algorithms
MILP 11 12 21 22
28 0.00 14.62 13.61 6.91 5.99
2 12 0.01 13.70 12.78 5.74 5.17
2 16 0.42 12.52 11.40 5.77 5.10
2 20 1.26 9.92 9.28 4.25 3.48
2 24 2.70 7.75 7.38 4.07 3.81
38 0.00 11.35 9.96 4.57 3.15
3 12 0.00 9.96 9.13 3.03 2.55
3 16 0.06 10.10 9.16 3.77 3.14
3 20 0.35 9.86 8.93 2.72 2.19
3 24 1.18 7.65 6.37 3.00 2.40
48 0.00 9.03 8.01 2.16 1.25
4 12 0.00 5.63 4.53 1.82 1.38
4 16 0.04 7.21 6.34 2.86 2.27
4 20 0.23 6.80 6.00 2.96 2.61
4 24 0.44 5.13 4.42 2.00 1.59
Average 0.45 9.41 8.49 3.71 3.07
MILP reports better results when compared to the proposed heuristics. CPU
times to solve small instances with the proposed algorithms are negligible while
most of the instances that are solved with the MILP. Therefore, the 3% average
deviation of 22 needs to be contextualized.
In order to identify the best algorithm, a means plot and Tukey's Honest Signif-
icant Difference (HSD) intervals (99% confidence) for the four simple construc-
tive heuristics is shown in Figure 2. The second heuristic performs better in com-
parison with the other simple constructive heuristic and there is no significant
difference between the rules used to assign jobs to factories.
3.2 Heuristics Evaluation on Large Instances
In this case, for calculating the RPD, only the best known solution is used as the
MILP cannot be employed. A summarized result of the average RPD, considering
number of factories, number of products and number of jobs, is shown in Table 2.
250
Figure 2 shows a means plot (99% confidence level Tukey's HSD intervals) of the
proposed algorithms for large instances.
Table 2 Relative Percentage Deviation (RPD) for the proposed algorithms over the best known
solution for the large instances.
Number of factories Number of products Number of jobs (n) Average

(f) (t)
Algorithms 4 6 8 30 40 50 100 200 500
11 5.39 3.72 3.07 3.66 4.20 4.31 6.21 3.69 2.27 4.06
12 4.91 3.24 2.65 3.23 3.76 3.80 5.53 3.21 2.06 3.60
21 0.14 0.06 0.02 0.10 0.06 0.07 0.09 0.09 0.04 0.07
22 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
The second proposed algorithm performs better than the first one also for the
large instances. 2 as a job assignment rule, reports better results on the first al-
gorithm while job assignment rule on second algorithms does not have any signif-
icant effect. It is clear on Table 2, generally when the number of factories and jobs
increases, finding a better solution becomes easier, while this trend has a reverse
effect when the number of products increases. Proposed simple constructive algo-
rithms use a very short time in order to solve problems (less than 0.01 seconds on
average), therefore the details are not reported.
10.5 4.8
3.8
8.5
RPD
RPD
2.8
6.5
1.8
4.5
0.8
2.5 -0.2
11 12 21 22 11 12 21 22
Fig. 2 Means plot and 99% confidence level Tukey's HSD intervals of the relative percentage
deviation for simple constructive heuristic methods for small instances on the left and for large
instances on the right.
4 Conclusion and Future Research
To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to generalize the Dis-
tributed Permutation Flowshop Scheduling Problem to the Distributed Assembly
251
Permutation Flowshop Scheduling Problem, where there is more than one produc-
tion center to process jobs and a single assembly center to make final products
from produced jobs. Two constructive algorithms are proposed.
Computational evaluations were performed with two groups of small and large
instances. Results show that in small instances MILP reported results perform bet-
ter than the proposed algorithms. On the other side, the proposed methods con-
sume very little CPU time in comparison with the MILP while they still produce
reasonable solutions.
For future works, the setup time and distinct production factories can be con-
sidered in the presented model to make it more realistic. Applying metaheuristics
like a Genetic Algorithm, Tabu Search, etc., may report better solutions if com-
pared to our proposed simple heuristics.
5 References
Al-Anzi F, Allahverdi A (2006) A hybrid tabu search heuristic for the two-stage assembly
scheduling problem. The International Journal of Operational Research, 3 (2), 109-119.
Baker K R(1974) Introduction to sequencing and scheduling. Wiley, New York.
Framinan J, Leisten R (2003) An efficient constructive heuristic for flowtime minimisation in
permutation flow shops. Omega, The International Journal of Management Science 31 (4),
311-317.
Koulamas C, Kyparisis G J (2001) The three stage assembly flowshop scheduling problem.
Computers & Operations Research 28 (7), 689-704.
Naderi B, Ruiz R (2010) The distributed permutation flowshop scheduling problem. Computers
& Operations Research 37 (4), 754-768.
Pan Q K, Ruiz R (2012) Local search methods for the flowshop scheduling problem with flow-
time minimization. European Journal of Operational Research 222 (1), 31-43.
Pinedo M (2012) Scheduling: Theory, Algorithms and Systems (fourth ed.). Springer, New
York.
Tozkapan A, Kirca O, Chung C S (2003) A branch and bound algorithm to minimize the total
weighted flowtime for the two-stage assembly scheduling problem. Computers & Operations
Research 30 (2), 309-320.
252
Set-up Continuity in Tactical Planning of Semi-

continuous Industrial Processes
Prez D1, Alemany M.M.E2, Lario F.C3 , Fuertes V.S4
Abstract In most of production planning models developed in a hierarchical con-

text at the tactical level setup changes are not explicitly considered. Its considera-
tion includes decisions about the allocation and lot sizing of production, known as
CLSLP problem. However the CLSLP problem does not account for set-up conti-
nuity, specially relevant in contexts with lengthy set-ups and where product fami-
lies minimum run length are almost are similar to planning periods. In this work, a
MILP model which accounts for this set-up continuity inclusion is modelled,
solved and validated over a simplified real-case example.
Keywords: Set-up Continuity, Semicontinuous Processes, Tactical Planning
1David Prez Perales ( e-mail: dapepe@omp.upv.es)

Centro de Investigacin en Gestin e Ingeniera de Produccin. Universitat Politcnica de
Valncia. Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia.
2
Maria del Mar Alemany Diaz ( e-mail: mareva@omp.upv.es)
3
Francisco-Cruz Lario Esteban ( e-mail: fclario@omp.upv.es)
4
Vicente Samuel Fuertes-Miquel ( e-mail: vfuertes@upv.es)
Dpto. de Ingeniera Hidrulica y Medio Ambiente. Universitat Politcnica de Valncia. Camino
de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia
* This research has been carried out in the framework of the project funded by the Spanish
Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ref. DPI2011-23597) and the Polytechnic
University of Valencia (Ref. PAID-06-11/1840) entitled Methods and models for operations
planning and order management in supply chains characterized by uncertainty in production due
to the lack of product uniformity (PLANGES-FHP)
253
1 Introduction
In the majority of the production planning models developed in a hierarchical con-

text at the tactical level, the capacities at each stage are aggregated and setup
changes are not explicitly considered. However, if at this level the setup times in-
volve an important consumption capacity and have been completely ignored, this
may lead to an overestimation of the real capacity availability which, in turn, may
lead to unfeasible events during the subsequent disaggregation of tactical plans.
Considerable savings may be also be achieved through optimum lot-sizing deci-
sions. However, accounting for setup times at the tactical level would mean simul-
taneously including decisions about the allocation and lot sizing of production.
This problem is known as the capacitated lot-sizing and loading problem (CLSLP)
(zdamar and Birbil 1998). Nevertheless, CLSPP does not consider the set-up
continuity over discrete periods of time, that is, it assumes that if a product family
is manufactured in two periods of time a double set-up should be considered, lead-
ing to an understimation of the real capacity availability. It becomes necessary to
model the set-up continuity in these cases so that only one set-up is considered,
and therefore saving one. This is particularly important in industrial sectors such
as ceramic (Alemany et al. 2011), food (Romsdal et al. 2011), textile, etc., since
they cope with very lengthy setup times in their manufacturing semicontinuous
processes and at the same time their product families minimum run length are al-
most or equal to the planning period.
In this article, a manner to model the former set-up continuity is proposed. It is
applied and validated in a one-stage production process of the ceramic sector, so it
may be adapted to a larger model for a specific situation. The rest of the paper is
arranged as follows. Section 2 describes the problem being studied. In Section 3, a
deterministic MILP model to solve the problem is presented. Section 4 reports a
numerical example to validate the model. Section 5 offers some conclusions.
2 Problem Description
Production in ceramic SCs usually includes several stages such as presses-glazing

lines, kilns and sorting-packing. In this work, only the first one is characterised,
although it may also be extrapolated to the second one, with similar characteris-
tics. This presses-glazing stage is made up of one or several production lines in
parallel with a limited capacity. Different product families can be processed by
each production line. Changeovers from one product family to the next incur setup
time and costs. Given the important setup times, when a certain product family is
manufactured on a specific line, it should be produced in an equal or greater
amount than the minimum lot size. At the tactical level, an Aggregate Plan (AP) is
defined for product families, while at the operational level, the Master Plan (MP)
254
is defined for finished goods. Tactical planning must account for two aspects, set-
up times and its continuity over consecutive planning periods, because the set-up
are lengthy and the product families run length (3 weeks) are similar to the plan-
ning periods (1 month). These aspects are crucial to get an accurate capacity avail-
ability estimation, which will constraint the MP.
3 Problem Modeling
A deterministic MILP model has been developed to solve the ceramic tactical
planning problem. This model has been simplified since the main objective is
formulate and validate the set-up continuity constraints. A supply chain-based ex-
tended version of this model may be found in Alemany at al. (2009), but without
accounting for the set-up continuity. The objective is to minimize the total cost
(set-up and inventory) over the time periods of the planning horizon. Decisions
will have to simultaneously deal with not only the allocation of product families to
production lines with a limited capacity, but also with the determination of lot siz-
ing. Another decisions regard to set-up continuity modelling. For example those
which allow to know the first and the last product family processed on a produc-
tion line in a planning period, so that one changeover can be saved if the last one
processed in t and the first one in t+1 are the same. Or those which allow to pro-
cess the minimum lot size between two consecutive periods with no change over.
All of them are later explained. The indices, parameters, and decision variables are
described in Tables 1-3, respectively.
Table 1 Indices
f Product families (F) (f = 1F)

l Production lines (L) (l = 1L)
t Periods of time (PT) (t = 1T)
Table 2 Parameters
dmdft Demand of F f in PT t.
costinvf Inventory cost of a F in a PT.
costsetuplfl Setup cost of F f on L l.
tfablfl Time to process a F f on L l.
tsetuplfl Setup time for F f on L l.
lminffl Minimum lot size of F f on L l.
capfabllt Production capacity available (time) of L l during PT t.
inv0f Inventory of F f at the start of the first PT.
M1, M2 Very large integres.
255
Table 2 (continued) Parameters
nfamilias Number of F.
betal0fl The L l is prepared to manufacture the F f at the start of the first PT.
Table 3 Decision Variables
Decisin Variables
INVft Inventory of F f in PT t.
PFLflt Amount of F f manufactured on L l in PT t.
YLflt Binary variable with a value of 1 if F f is manufactured on L l in PT t, and with
a value of 0 otherwise.
XLflt Binary variable with a value of 1 if L l is ready to manufacture the F f in PT t,
and with a value of 0 otherwise.
ZLflt Binary variable with a value of 1 if L l if a setup takes place of F f on L l in PT
t, and with a value of 0 otherwise.
WLlt Binary variable with a value of 1 if more than one F f is manufactured on L l in
PT t, and with a value of 0 otherwise.
ALFALflt Binary variable with a value of 1 if L l is prepared to manufacture the F f at the
start of PT t, and with a value of 0 otherwise.
BETALflt Binary variable with a value of 1 if L l is prepared to manufacture the F f at the
end of PT t, and with a value of 0 otherwise.
Min cos tsetupl fl * ZL flt cos tinv f * INV ft

t l f t f (1)
subject to:
INV ft inv 0 f PFL flt dmd ft , f, t = 1

l
(2)
INV ft INV ft 1 PFL flt dmd ft , f, t > 1

l
(3)
tfabl * PFL flt tsetupl fl * ZL flt capfabl lt , l, t 1

f
fl
f
(4)
PFL flt M 1 * XL flt , f, l, t (5)

PFL flt M 2 * YL flt , f, l, t (6)
l min f fl * ( ZL flt ZL flt 1 YL flt 1 ) PFL flt , l, f, t (7)
l min f fl * ( ZL flt ZL flt 1 YL flt YL flt 1 2) PFL flt PFL flt 1
, l, f, t (8)
YL flt PFL flt , f, l, t (9)
256
YL flt XL flt , f, l, t (10)

ZL flt YL flt , f, l, t (11)
ALFAL flt betal 0 fl ZL flt , f, l, t = 1
f
(12)
ALFAL flt BETAL flt 1 ZL flt , f, l, t >1

f
(13)
BETAL flt ALFAL flt ( XL flt ) 1 , f, l, t

f
(14)
ALFAL 1 , l, t
f
flt
(15)
BETAL 1 , l, t
f
flt (16)
ALFAL flt XL flt , f, l, t (17)

BETAL flt XL flt , f, l, t (18)
3 * XL flt XL flt ALFAL flt BETAL flt , f, l, t
f
(19)
2 * XL flt ALFAL flt betal 0 fl 2 * ZL flt , f, l, t (20)

2 * XL flt ALFAL flt BETAL flt 1 2 * ZL flt , f, l, t (21)
ZLflt nfamilias * (3 ALFAL flt BETAL flt betal 0 fl )
f
(22)
, f, l, t = 1
ZL flt nfamilias * (3 ALFAL flt BETAL flt BETAL flt 1 )
f
(23)
, f, l, t > 1
2 YL flt 2 * (1 WLlt ) , l, t
f
(24)
( YL flt ) 1 nfamilias *WLlt , l, t

f
(25)
ALFAL flt BETAL flt (2 WLlt ) , f, l, t (26)
The objective function (1) expresses the minimization of the setup costs of the FPs
on the Ls and the inventory costs of the Fs at the end of the manufacturing pro-
cess.
Constraints (2) and (3) are the inventory balance equations of in-process and
finished Fs, respectively. Constraint (4) ensures that the capacity required for the
setup of Fs and the manufacturing of the lots assigned to each L do not exceed the
capacity available on each L in each PT. Constraint (5) indicates that a F can only
257
be manufactured on a L in a PT if the L has previously be prepared to manufacture

the F in such a PT. Constraint (6) indicates that a F can only be manufactured on a
L in a PT if it has previously been decided to manufacture the F on the L in such a
PT. Constraint (7) guarantees that should a certain amount of a F be manufactured
on a L, it is equal to or above the minimum lot size established for the F on that
line. Constraint (8) allows not to manufacture the minimum lot size established for
a F on a L in a PT, if either the F was the last one manufactured in the previous PT
and the first one manufactured in the next PT, or the F is the only one manufac-
tured during two consecutive PTs. However, it guarantees in both cases that the
total amount of F manufactured will be superior to its minimum lot size. Con-
straint (9) establishes that if there is no amount of FP manufactured on a L in a PT
then it is not allowed to manufacture the F on the L in such a PT. Constraint (10)
establishes that if a F is manufactured on a L in a PT, then the L has been previ-
ously prepared to manufacture the L in such a PT. Constraint (11) establishes that
if a F is not manufactured on a L in a PT, then there is no setup on the L in such a
PT. Constraints (12) and (13) ensure that if a L status at the start of a PT is dif-
ferent from the status of the L at the end of the previous PT, then at least one
setup has to be made on the L in such a PT. Constraint (14) indicates that if a L
does not change its status during a PT, then the L is already prepared (either at
the start or the end of such a PT) to manufacture the same F. Constraints (15) and
(16) guarantee that a L can be only prepared to manufacture just one F, in the start
and in the end of a PT, respectively. Constraints (17) and (18) ensures that if a L is
not prepared to manufacture a F in a PT, then that F can not be either the first or
the last, respectively, for which the L was prepared in such a PT. Constraint (19)
indicates that if a L is only prepared to manufacture just one F in a PT, then the L
should be prepared either at the start or the end of such a PT to manufacture the
FP. Constraints (20) and (21) indicate that it is only possible to save a single
changeover on a L in a PT if the L is prepared at the start of the current PT to
manufacture the same F for which it was prepared at the end of the previous PT.
Constraints (22) and (23) indicate that if the status of a L at the start and the end
of a current PT is equal to the status at the end of the previous PT, then just one
or no F is manufactured. Constraint (24) assures that if one or no F is manufac-
tured on a L in a PT, then WL=0, although the contrary case does not imply
WL=1. For this it is implemented constraint (25). Constraint (26) guarantees that
if more than one F is manufactured on a L in a PT, no one of them can be the first
and the last at the same time in such a PT. Therefore, only in the case in which one
or no F is manufactured on a L in a PT is possible that ALFAL=1 and BETAL=1
for that F.
258
4 Validation
An example to validate the model is described. Data of product families demand

and production lines capacity in each TP and specific data of product families on
production lines (inventory cost, minimum lot size, etc) are respectively shown in
Figures 1-2.
dmdft capfabllt
F t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 L t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6
F1 100 125 135 140 150 130 L1 50 70 70 50 70 70
F2 125 110 135 150 125 115 L2 70 50 70 50 50 70
F3 140 125 110 130 115 125 L3 50 50 50 70 70 50
F4 100 125 135 140 150 130
F5 125 110 135 150 125 115
F6 140 125 110 130 115 125
Fig. 1 Data of product families (F) demand and production lines (L) capacity in each TP (t)
F L costinvf inv0f tsetuplf costsetuplf tfablf lminff beta0lf

F1 L1 0,1 50 2 35 0,1 160 0
F2 0,15 50 2,5 30 0,25 180 1
F3 0,2 50 3 40 0,2 175 0
F4 0,15 50 3.5 45 0,2 160 0
F5 0,25 50 2,5 30 0,1 180 0
F6 0,1 50 3 45 0,15 170 0
F1 L2 0,1 50 2 35 0,1 160 0
F2 0,15 50 2,5 30 0,25 180 0
F3 0,2 50 3 40 0,2 175 1
F4 0,15 50 3.5 45 0,2 160 0
F5 0,25 50 2,5 30 0,1 180 0
F6 0,1 50 3 45 0,15 170 0
F1 L3 0,1 50 2 35 0,1 160 1
F2 0,15 50 2,5 30 0,25 180 0
F3 0,2 50 3 40 0,2 175 0
F4 0,15 50 3.5 45 0,2 160 0
F5 0,25 50 2,5 30 0,1 180 0
F6 0,1 50 3 45 0,15 170 0
Fig. 2 Data of product families (F) on production lines (L)
Just a few representative values of the decision variables that lead to the opti-
mum solution and help to validate the set-up continuity are shown in Table 4.
259
Table 4 Amount (m2) of product families (F) manufactured on production line L1 in PT t
t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6
L1 PFL F1 70 165
F2 75
F3 125 110 130 140
F4
F5 75 145
F6 240 115 125
XL=YL F1 1 1
F2 1
F3 1 1 1 1
F4
F5 1 1
F6 1 1 1
Betal0=F2 ALFAL F2 F5 F3 F1 F3 F6
BETAL F5 F3 F1 F3 F6 F6
ZL F1 1
F2
F3 1 1
F4
F5 1
F6 1 1
WL 1 1 1 1 1
These results confirm that the described constraints are valid to model the setup
continuity and that the minimum lot size can be splitted between two consecutive
periods of time in case a F is the last to be manufactured on a L in a PT t and the
first to be manufactured on the same L in PT t+1.
A representative example may be seen in Table 4, for example for F5, which is
manufactured on L1 in PTs t=1 and t=2.
5 Conclusions
This work presents a deterministic MILP model to solve the tactical planning
problem for the production in the ceramic sector, although in may be extrapolated
to another semicontinuos production sectors.
Its main contributions are on one hand that the accounting for setup times at the
tactical level which implies including decisions about the allocation and lot sizing
of production (CLSLP problem). Not many works accounts for it in tactical plan-
ning. On the other hand the consideration of set-up continuity constraints, special-
ly important in contexts with lengthy set-ups and where product families mini-
mum run length are almost or equal to the planning period.
260
Both contributions help to achieve a more accurate capacity availability estima-

tion in the tactical level so it may lead to feasible and more efficient events during
the subsequent disaggregation into operational plans.
Since the main objective of this work is this set-up continuity validation, the
model has just been applied in a simplified real one-stage ceramic production pro-
cess and only some of the results are shown. These results show how this model
may be adapted to a larger model for a specific situation.
6 References
Alemany MM, Alarcn F, Lario FC, Boj JJ (2009). Planificacin agregada en cadenas de sumi-
nistro del sector cermico. III internacional conference on industrial engineering and industri-
al management.
Alemany MM, Boj JJ, Mula J, Lario FC (2011). Mathematical programming model for central-
ised master planning in ceramic tile supply chains. International Journal of Production Re-
search 48: 5053-5074.
zdamar L, Birbil SI (1998). Hybrid Heuristics for the capacitated lot sizing and loading prob-
lem with setup times and overtime decisions. European Journal of Operational Research 110:
525-547.
Romsdal A, Thomassen MK, Dreyer HC, Strandhagen JO (2011) Fresh food supply chains;
characteristics and supply chain requirements. 18th international annual EurOMA confer-
ence. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University.
261
Literature Review of Master Planning Models

with Lack of Homogeneity in the Product
Characteristics under Uncertainty Context
Mundi I, Alemany M.M.E1, Poler R, Fuertes V.S
Abstract Supply Chains (SCs) with lack of homogeneity in the products (LHP)
present particular inherent sources of uncertainty. The intent of this paper is to re-
view how LHP uncertainty is handled in master planning mathematical program-
ming models for different sectors SCs. The result will allow identifying addressed
issues and gaps as the base for defining a common body of LHP research.
Keywords: Master Planning, Uncertainty, Lack of Homogeneity in Products,

Mathematical Programming Models.
1 Introduction
Uncertainty refers to the unpredictability of environmental or organisational vari-

ables that have impact on corporate performance. A variety of uncertainty factors
affect different organisations in different ways. In fact, supply chains (SCs) with
lack of homogeneity in the product (LHP) have unique characteristics.
LHP appears in some production processes that incorporate raw materials (RM)
directly from nature and /or production processes that cause heterogeneity in the
characteristics of the products obtained, even when the materials used are homo-
geneous (Alemany et al. 2013). LHP is a problem when the customer requires
1 Maria del Mar Alemany Diaz ( e-mail: mareva@omp.upv.es)

Valncia. Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia
262
homogeneity between required units of the finished goods in regards to certain at-
tributes because they have to be used, shown, placed or consumed jointly. LHP
SCs are forced to classify items in different homogeneous subsets (subtypes)
based on certain criteria with the aim of accomplishing with the customer homo-
geneity requirement. However, the homogeneous quantities (subtypes) really
available to customers will not be known until manufactured and classified. LHP
introduces specific aspects related to materials, transformation activities and cus-
tomer order characteristics, which make SCs present unique characteristics with
sources of uncertainty that are different from others SCs. Thus, the main purpose
of this paper is to review and discuss how and what LHP characteristics have been
handled in master planning mathematical programming models under uncertainty
context with the aim of dealing with LHP in a unified way.
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the taxonomy to review
the literature. Section 3 presents the literature review according to this taxonomy.
Finally, section 4 reports the conclusions and the future research directions.
2 Taxonomy
The taxonomy of this paper adopts that proposed by Mula et al. (2010) and Peidr
et al (2009) as a base. As Mula et al. (2010), we identify in the analyzed papers the
environment block for which they are developed for. However, different dimen-
sions for the environment have been defined in our case: sector and LHP charac-
teristics. Then, we propose a new block named uncertainty within those environ-
mental characteristics that have been modeled in an uncertainty way. For the
purpose of this research we distinguish between no LHP inherent uncertainty and
LHP inherent uncertainty dimensions. As regards the model itself, we identify, as
Peidr et al. (2009), the modeling approach and the uncertainty approach. In the
following, each dimension of the taxonomy is more detailed.
ENVIRONMENT UNCERTAINTY MODEL

NO LHP INHERENT
SECTOR MODELING APPROACH
UNCERTAINT Y
LHP LHP INHERENT UNCERTAINTY

CHARACTERISTICS UNCERTAINTY APPROACH
Fig. 1 Taxonomy dimensions for LHP SC Master Planning under Uncertainty
263
Environment
The way in which the LHP occurs primarily depends on the sector and SC studied.
There are different sectors with LHP: horticulture, ceramic, marble, tanned hides,
meat, etc. But the aim of this review is to know in which sectors some LHP char-
acteristics have been modelled and what is more important, it have been modelled
under an uncertainty point of view.We refer to LHP characteristics as those as-
pects relevant to characterize LHP for planning purposes. LHP can be originated
by the lack of homogeneity in raw materials (LHRM) and/or transformation activi-
ties (LHP-activities) which confer heterogeneity to the characteristics of the out-
puts obtained, even when the inputs used are homogeneous due to some environ-
mental factors (LHP-factors). All these industries are obliged to include one or
several classification (sorting) stages whose localization along the process and
classification criteria depend on the specific industry. For each sorted item, the
classification attributes and the values they can take should be identified. This
sorted items causes the appearance of subtypes defined as a set of units of the
same LHP-item with the same value of attributes. These subtypes can have the
same or different economic value. Usually, different economic values imply the
existence of several qualities. Furthermore, it is possible that the value of the clas-
sification criteria (subtype state) remains unaltered over time (static) or can vary
over time (dynamic). For example, in the food sector, the freshness of food de-
creases over time (decay).Because LHP managerial problem arises due to the ho-
mogeneity requirement of customers, it is necessary to know the homogeneity
characteristics of customer demand in the forecasts. For instance, the forecast de-
mand can be expressed by subtype (e.g. varieties in fruits) or defined by customer
classes (e.g., based on customer size).
Uncertainty
LHP originates inherent sources of SC uncertainty. Van der Vost (2000) defines
the inherent sources of uncertainty as those originated by the SC natural physical
characteristics and identifies three possible causes:
Intrinsic product characteristics that are caused by the lack of homogeneity
in raw materials (LHRM) and the dynamic state of some LHP items (subtypes),
for instance the perishabilitity aspect.
Technological characteristics of the processes that are caused by the exist-
ence of LHP activities and LHP factors (like humidity, temperature, etc.)
Logistic actors characteristics: for instance due to eating habits of consumers
(preferences of customers in required subtypes)
The LHP inherent sources of uncertainty affects four main aspects of relevance
for planning purposes: the number of subtypes, the quantities of each subtype, the
subtype value and the subtype state. Furthermore, three main uncertainty types are
usually identified (Peidro et al 2009): a) Supply uncertainty, b) Process uncertain-
264
ty and c) Demand uncertainty. The result of combing the LHP uncertainty aspects
with the three main uncertainty types provides us with the twelve LHP inherent
uncertainty types (Figure 2). We named No LHP inherent uncertainty to other un-
certainty types different from these twelve LHP types.
Uncertainty Types/
LHP Uncertainty Suppy (Sp) Process (Pr) Demand (Dm)
Aspects
Uncertainty number of subtypes in
Uncertainty number of subtypes in Uncertainty in the subtypes (LHFG)
supplied raw materials or
Subtypes (ST) intermediate (LHIP) or finished goods required per customers/markets in
components (LHRM) in a specific
(LHFG) their orders
lot or among lots
Quantities per subtype of LHRM Quantity required for each subtype
Quantities per subtype of LHIP or LHFG(in
Subtype quantity (in the same lot or among lots) is (LHFG) and customer/market
the same lot or among lots) is variable and
(SQ) variable and not known with variable and not known with
not known with certainty
certainty certainty.
The value (cost) of produced LHIP subtypes
The value (cost) of supplied
can be equal or different but it is not known The value (price) of produced
subtypes can be equal or different
Subtype value with certainty (cost depends on the LHFG subtypes (LHFG) in the market can
but it is not known with certainty
(SV) subtypes demand, process (storage be equal or different but it is not
(cost depends on the availability
conditions) or the final availability of known with certainty.
and demand of LHRM subtypes)
subtypes)
The state of the subtype (LHRM) The state of the subtype (LHFG) is
The state of the subtype (LHIP or LHFG) is
Subtype state is dynamic and its evolution is not dynamic and its evolution is not
dynamic and its evolution is not known with
(SS) known with certainty known with certainty (perishability,
certainty (perishability, obsolescence)
(perishability, obsolescence) obsolescence)
Fig. 2 LHP inherent uncertainty types
Model
As regards the model block, we distinguish the same modeling approaches as Mu-
la et al. (2010): Linear Programming (LP), Non Linear Programming (NLP), Mul-
ti-objective Programming (MOP), Fuzzy Programming (FP) and Stochastic Pro-
gramming (SP). However, we have excluded heuristics algorithms, metaheuristics
and hybrid models because the focus of our analysis is on mathematical program-
ming models. Finally, the uncertainty approach dimension distinguishes the fol-
lowing cases (Lalmazloumian et al. 2012): distribution-based approach (DBA),
fuzzy-based approach (FBA), and scenario-based approach (SBA).
3 Literature Review
The search process was carried out through six scientific-technical bibliographic
databases based on different search terms. Focusing the analysis on mathematical
programming models and considering the limited extension of this paper, a total of
21 references were selected as more representative of different sectors (Table 1).
265
Table 1 Classification of reviewed papers according to the proposed taxonomy.
Environment Model Uncertainty

Authors Sector LHP Character- Modeling UncertaintyNo-LHP uncer- LHP un-
istic approach modeling tainty certainty
Ahumada et Agricultural (fresh quality products SP SBA crops prices None
al (2012) products) perishable and crops
product yields
Alem et al Wood (Furniture) trim-loss SP SBA production None
(2012) costs and/or
product de-
mands
Al- Petroleum quality LP SBA demands, sup- None
Shammari plies, prices,
et al (2011) and operations
costs
Amaro et al Remanufacturing quality of re- LP SBA products de- None
(2009) (Pharmaceutical) turns mand and pric-
es
Begen et al Food (Fish) perishability LP SBA Types, grades, None
(2003) quantity
Bohle et al Agricultural (wine quality loss SP SBA labor availabil- Pr-SS/SV
(2010) grape) function ity
Carneiro et Petroleum composition SP SBA crude oil sup- Sp-SQ
al (2010) crude oil supply ply, demand,
product and oil
prices
ChakrabortyCoal quality: raw FP FBA Composition Sp-SQ
et al (2005) coal grades RM (%Ash),
yield process,
cost RM
Denizel et Remanufacturing quality of re- SP SBA outcome of the Sp-SQ
al (2010) turns grading pro-
cess
Dong et al Remanufacturing quality of re- LP SBA quality , arriv- None
(2011) turns ing time, and
customer clas- process time of
ses returns
Ghasemy et Fashion goods perishable FP FBA unit costs and None
al (2012) product capacity levels.
profit of manu-
facturer and
profit of retail-
er
Guan et al Food (Dairy) perishable SP SBA milk supply None
(2011) product
266
Table 1 (continued) Classification of reviewed papers according to the proposed taxonomy.
Environment Model Uncertainty

Authors Sector LHP Charac- Modeling Uncertainty No-LHP un- LHP uncer-
teristic approach modeling certainty tainty
Leung et al Toys perishable SP SBA Demand None
(2007) product
Mundi et al Ceramic homogeneous LP SBA homogeneous Pr-SQ
(2013) subsets subsets
customer
classes
Peidro et al Ceramic first quality FP FBA gross margin, None
(2012) FG idle time,
backorder
quantities
Rong et al Steel raw materials FP FBA raw materials Sp-SQ
(2008) composition composition
and final
product com-
position
Schutz et al Food (Meat) splitting pro- SP SBA Demand None
(2011) cess
Shi et al Remanufactur- quality of re- NLP DBA Demand and Sp-SQ
(2011) ing turns quality of re-
turns
Wu et al film transistor- quality grades SP SBA price and de- None
(2010) liquid crystal in assemblies mand FG
display and FG
Zanjani et alWood raw materials SP SBA Yield of pro- Pr-SQ
(2011) (Sawmill) characteristics cess
Zeballos et Remanufactur- quantity and SP SBA quantity and Sp-SQ
al (2012) ing (glass) quality of re- quality of re-
turns with dif- turns
ferent eco-
nomic value
4 Conclusions and Future research
From the literature review it can be concluded, that LHP has been majority mod-
eled for the remanufacturing sector. Other sectors are food, agricultural, wood,
petroleum, ceramic, steel, fashion products and coal. The LHP characteristics
most modeled have been: quality of FGs (subtypes) and perishability. Only two
papers consider customer classes (Dong et al, 2011 and Mundi et al, 2013). Ze-
ballos et al (2012) takes into account the different economic value of subtypes. It is
267
remarkable the work of Schutz et al (2011) that address the subtype quantities by
means the so called reverse bill of materials, and Mundi et al (2013) that split the
produced lots into homogeneous sublots. Though the three main types of uncer-
tainty (supply, process and demand) are addressed, less than half of the analyzed
papers consider it from the point of view of the LHP Inherent Uncertainty. From
this point of view, three of them consider LHP Inherent Uncertainty in the pro-
cess: Bohle et al (2010) consider uncertainty in SS and SV; Zanjani et al (2011)
consider the process yield uncertain (SQ); Mundi et al (2013) split each lot into
homogeneous sub-lots of the same product to reflect the LHP characteristics (SQ).
The remaining six deal with the LHP Inherent Uncertainty from the perspective of
supply uncertainty: Carneiro et al (2010) consider that uncertainty properties of fi-
nal product must be within a range established by environmental regulations (SQ)
and this uncertainty in modeled through predefined scenarios; Chakraborty et al
(2005) investigate the amount of raw material from different coal seams (SQ)
through the fuzzy programming; Rong et al (2008) also use fuzzy programming to
examine the necessary amount of RM to achieve suitable composition of FG (SQ);
Denizel et al (2010) and Shi et al (2011) assume the total amount of returns in a
remanufacturing environment is known in advance, however, their quality levels
are uncertain (SQ). Finally, Zeballos et al (2012) propose also in remanufacturing
a stochastic programming model where not only quality is assumed to be uncertain
(SQ) but also quantity (ST) is assumed to follow a pre-defined probability distribu-
tion using scenario-based approach.
It can be stated that the most LHP features addressed in an uncertainty context
are the quantities per subtype of LHRM (Sp-SQ) meanwhile the remaining LHP
inherent uncertainty subtype have been either very scarcely or not addressed.
Therefore, it can be concluded that current planning models do not provide ade-
quate decision support for the uncertainty modeling of LHP characteristics. This
gap provide us with the opportunity of developing new research as regards refer-
ence models, modeling and solution techniques to properly handling LHP uncer-
tainty. This new research field will allow the development of more realistic mod-
els that significantly improve the practice of master planning.
5 References
Ahumada, O., Rene Villalobos, J., & Nicholas Mason, A. (2012). Tactical planning of the pro-
duction and distribution of fresh agricultural products under uncertainty. Agricultural Sys-
tems, 112(0), 17-26.
Alem, D. J., & Morabito, R. (2012). Production planning in furniture settings via robust optimi-
zation. Computers & Operations Research, 39(2), 139-150.
Alemany M.M.E., Lario Francisco-Cruz, Ortiz A., Gmez F. (2013) Available-To-Promise
modeling for multi-plant manufacturing characterized by lack of homogeneity in the product:
An illustration of a ceramic case. Applied Mathematical Modelling 37:33803398
268
Al-Shammari, A., & Ba-Shammakh, M. S. (2011). Uncertainty analysis for refinery production
planning. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 50(11), 7065-7072.
Amaro, A. C. S., & Barbosa-Povoa, A. P. F. D. (2009). The effect of uncertainty on the optimal
closed-loop supply chain planning under different partnerships structure. Computers &
Chemical Engineering, 33(12), 2144-2158.
Begen, M. A., & Puterman, M. L. (2003). Development of a catch allocation tool design for pro-
duction planning at JS McMillan fisheries. Infor, 41(3), 235-244.
Bohle, C., Maturana, S., & Vera, J. (2010). A robust optimization approach to wine grape har-
vesting scheduling. European Journal of Operational Research, 200(1), 245-252.
Carneiro, M. C., Ribas, G. P., & Hamacher, S. (2010). Risk management in the oil supply chain:
A CVaR approach. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 49(7), 3286-3294.
Chakraborty, M., & Chandra, M. K. (2005). Multicriteria decision making for optimal blending
for beneficiation of coal: A fuzzy programming approach. Omega-International Journal of
Management Science, 33(5), 413-418.
Denizel, M., Ferguson, M., & Souza, G. ". C. (2010). Multiperiod remanufacturing planning with
uncertain quality of inputs. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 57(3), 394-404.
Dong, M., Lu, S., & Han, S. (2011). Production planning for hybrid remanufacturing and manu-
facturing system with component recovery. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering.
Ghasemy Yaghin, R., Torabi, S. A., & Fatemi Ghomi, S. M. T. (2012). Integrated markdown
pricing and aggregate production planning in a two echelon supply chain: A hybrid fuzzy
multiple objective approach. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 36(12), 6011-6030.
Guan, Z., & Philpott, A. B. (2011). A multistage stochastic programming model for the new zea-
land dairy industry. International Journal of Production Economics, 134(2), 289-299.
Lalmazloumian, M., & Kuan Yew Wong. (2012). A review of modelling approaches for supply
chain planning under uncertainty. Service Systems and Service Management (ICSSSM),
2012 9th International Conference on, pp. 197-203.
Leung, S. C. H., & Ng, W. (2007). A stochastic programming model for production planning of
perishable products with postponement. Production Planning & Control, 18(3), 190-202.
Mula, J., Peidro, D., Daz-Madroero, M., & Vicens, E. (2010). Mathematical programming
models for supply chain production and transport planning. European Journal of Operational
Research, 204(3), 377-390.
Mundi, I., Alemany, M.M.E., Boza, A., & Poler, R. (in press). A Model-Driven Decision Sup-
port System for the Master Planning of Ceramic Supply Chains with non Uniformity of Fin-
ished Goods. Studies in Informatics and Control Journal.
Peidro, D., Mula, J., Poler, R., & Lario, F. C. (2009). Quantitative models for supply chain plan-
ning under uncertainty: A review. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing
Technology, 43(3), 400-420.
Peidro, D., Mula, J., Alemany, M. M. E., & Lario, F. (2012). Fuzzy multi-objective optimisation
for master planning in a ceramic supply chain. International Journal of Production Research,
50(11), 3011-3020.
Rong, A., & Lahdelma, R. (2008). Fuzzy chance constrained linear programming model for op-
timizing the scrap charge in steel production. European Journal of Operational Research,
186(3), 953-964.
Schutz, P., & Tomasgard, A. (2011). The impact of flexibility on operational supply chain plan-
ning. International Journal of Production Economics, 134(2), 300-311.
Shi, J., Liu, Z., Zhu, C., & Zhang, Y. (2011). Optimal prodcution planning for a closed loop sys-
tem with quality uncertainty of used product. Proceedings - 2011 4th International Confer-
ence on Information Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering, ICIII
2011, , 2. pp. 394-397.
Van der Vorst, JGAJ, (2000). Effective food supply chains: generating, modeling and evaluating
supply chain scenarios, doctoral thesis, Wageningen University.
269
Wu, C., Lin, J. T., & Wu, H. (2010). Robust production and transportation planning in thin film
transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industry under demand and price uncertainties.
International Journal of Production Research, 48(20), 6037-6060.
Zanjani, M. K., Nourelfath, M., & Ait-Kadi, D. (2011). Production planning with uncertainty in
the quality of raw materials: A case in sawmills. Journal of the Operational Research Society,
62(7), 1334-1343.
Zeballos, L. J., Gomes, M. I., Barbosa-Povoa, A. P., & Novais, A. Q. (2012). Addressing the un-
certain quality and quantity of returns in closed-loop supply chains. Computers and Chemical
Engineering, 47, 237-247.
270
A MILP Model for the Scheduling of Non-

continuous Serial Multi-product Multi-stage
Batch Processes with Non-identical Machines.
Latorre F1, Garca-Snchez A2, Mndez C3, Aguirre A4, Ortega-Mier M5
Abstract In this paper a mixed integer lineal programming (MILP) approach is

proposed for the scheduling of multiple dissimilar orders in a non-continuous seri-
al production environment. In this context, different products must be produced in
several stages, in which a single machine is chosen per stage to accomplish the
production of each order. This work has been carried out in a manufacturing com-
pany of garden decoration's products. The major complexity of this problem relies
on the possibility of considering a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes of prod-
ucts to be manufactured, commonly named as modes. The main aim of this math-
ematical model is to correctly schedule and synchronize different types of modes,
minimizing the total tardiness and the completion time of all production orders in
the system.
Keywords: MILP Scheduling, Serial Production, Multi-stage, Multi-product.
1 Francisco Latorre Dueas ( e-mail: franlatorreduenas@gmail.com)

Depto. de Ingeniera de Organizacin, Administracin de Empresas y Estadstica.
ETSI Industriales, (UPM), C/Jos Gutierrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Espaa.
2 lvaro Garca-Snchez ( e-mail: alvaro.garcia@upm.es)

3Carlos A. Mndez (e-mail: cmendez@intec.unl.edu.ar)
Centro Avanzado de Ingeniera de Procesos y Sistemas (CAPSE).
INTEC (UNL-CONICET), Gemes 3450, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina.
4Adrin M. Aguirre (e-mail: aaguirre@intec.unl.edu.ar)
Centro Avanzado de Ingeniera de Procesos y Sistemas (CAPSE).
INTEC (UNL-CONICET), Gemes 3450, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina.
5Miguel Ortega-Mier (e-mail: miguel.ortega.mier@upm.es)
271
1 Introduction
Production scheduling has become in a critical issue for decision makers in recent
years. Nowadays companies tend to increase their products portfolio in order to
satisfy a wide range of customers demands. This context pushes newest compa-
nies to improve their daily production schedule in order to gain flexibility without
losing production performance.
In other hand, batch scheduling problems have drawn growing attention from
research community over last decades. Several contributions have been proposed
to solve different issues in chemical process industry and then have been extended
to other research areas and application problems. As an example, Mendez et al.
(2006) presents a suitable survey of principal MILP formulations developed for
batch scheduling systems based on both discrete and continuous time representa-
tions.
A general mathematical model for a serial multi product multi-stage batch pro-
duction process is introduced. In this model, several orders (batches) must be
scheduled and delivered fulfilling specific due date times (see Mndez et al.,
2000). All the information about items and order features are known. In addition,
sequence-dependent set-up times and parallel non-identical machines are also con-
sidered in this problem (see Hui et al., 2000).
This work is based in the complex process appeared in the manufacturing of
fences used as a gardens decoration products. Fences are commonly made of
plastic and also have different shapes, colours and sizes. All possible combination
of these labels generates a wide range of fencing products which are usually
known as modes. The correct synchronization in the manufacturing of different
modes during the scheduling horizon represents a very complex issue for actual
manufactures.
Only few works are reported in this area. As an example, Halsall and Price
(1999) develop a DSS (Decision Support System) for the production planning
and control in small companies, such as fence manufacturing plants.
In this work, a real manufacturing facility of fencing products is presented to be
study. The main contribution is to provide a well description of fence manufactur-
ing process and then a full-space solution approach that allow scheduling certain
mixes of fencing modes minimizing the total tardiness and the completion time of
all orders in the system.
2 Fences Manufacturing Facility
Fences manufacturing facility is illustrated in order to explain the flow of task

processes. There are two types of fence family products: wind-breaks and trellis
panel. Each of those families has several kinds of shapes, colour measures which
272
makes hard to schedule several task. Each task is made up by only one product
and its quantity.
The production process is formed for both families by four main processes and
one relevant process which will be tackled in future researches. The relevant pro-
cess is the first stage which relies on make the raw material. An unlimited supply
is supposed for that first process or stage. The first relevant stage is extrusion,
which transform raw material in sticks for both wind-breaks and trellis panel
products. In that point there is a splitting up for each family. Next stage for wind-
breaks is sewed process which assembly sticks in order to make a wind-break roll.
Before that stage wind-break rolls are packed in packing process. Next stage for
trellis panel before extrusion process is trellis machine which assembly sticks in
order to make trellis panels. Packing trellis panels are made in that process. Figure
1 shows a schematic process flow.
Fig. 1 Flowchart of facility
There are a predetermined number of orders , where each order belongs to

a unique product and a given quantity. Each product is defined by its family,
shape, colour and measures. Each order must be processed in their corresponding
stages , furthermore each order must be processed in an allowed machine
for the corresponding order , . Notice that machines depends not only on
the stages, but also the order, because some orders cannot be processed in any ma-
chine in a given stage.
Since each order belongs to a unique product, that approach is a way to restrict
products and machines. That is, wind-break orders cannot be processed in trellis
process and vice versa. Furthermore some machines cannot make some type of
color or shape.
Processing time does depend on the speed production of the machine and the
amount of units given in the order. Quantity could be specifying as a customer or-
der or a kanban order. Rely on that parameters, processing time for each machine
is known.
273
It is important to take into account set-up time between products, that is, be-
tween orders. Changes between shapes, colors and measures can add a relevance
time to the lead times product that could make a delayed order. Set-up time not
only depends on products features but also depend on the machine.
A due date must be accomplished for each order and it is not easy to schedule
several order considering processing time and set-up time without optimization
tools.
2.1 Schedule Optimization
Optimal schedule for the whole plant use to permit weekly targets because WIP
(Work In Process) inventory levels remains low over the entire scheduling hori-
zon and there is a sizable reduction in labor and changeover costs (Mndez and
Cerd, 2002). Adopting those measures in a fencing-product manufacturing both
due date accomplishment and make-span minimization are compared.
2.2 Hypothesis and Assumptions
Several statements and assumptions must be considered in the model explained

below:
Customer orders or kanban order must be manufactured in its stages and its
available machines.
Processing time in each machine is known
Due date are known for each order.
Set-up time between each orders in a given machine is known
There is unlimited raw material. In that kind of manufacturing, raw material
are used at the first stage. Otherwise the order that have not required raw mate-
rial is not planned.
Unlimited inventory capacity between stages is allowed.
The main goal is to compare due date accomplishment and make-span minimi-
zation. In the case of due date accomplishment, every order must accomplish a
due date penalizing tardiness.
274
3 MILP-based Formulation
In this section a continuous time MILP-based model is presented. One of the main
features of the proposed mathematical model is to allocate the decision variable
,, . Thus, if this variables is equal one, the order () must be made in machine
, at the stage . On the other hand, the decision variable , ,, es-
tablishes the sequence between two dissimilar orders. Thus, if , ,, = 1, order
() precedes order () in a given machine and stage, otherwise, order () precedes
order (). According to this, only a single variable has been necessary to determine
all sequencing decision in the system.
3.1 Nomenclature List
Sets are described as follows. , Set of order. Indices , . , set of stages. Indices
s, s. , set of machines. Index . , subset of stage s of each production order .
, , subset of available machines in stage s for production order .
3.1.1 Parameters
,, Processing time of order in machine on the production stage .

, ,, Set-up time between orders i and i in machine k on production
stage s.
Due date of order .
Penalty tardiness of order .
3.1.2 Continuous Variables

, Start time of order in machine on production stage

, Finish time of order in machine on production stage
Delay time of order
Makespan
275
3.1.3 Binary Variables
,, 1 if order i is processed in machine k on production stage s. Other-

wise is zero.
, ,, 1 if order i is processed after order i in the production sequence of
machine k on production stage s. Otherwise is zero.
3.2 Model Constraints
Constraints and objective function are formulated and explained below.
||
, ,,
=1 , (1)
||
, = , + ,(,, ,, ) , (2)

, + , ,, , + (1 , ,, ) + (2 ,, ,, )

, , ( , , ), ( ), > (3)

, + ,,, , + (, ,, ) + (2 ,, ,, )

, , ( , , ), ( ), > (4)

, , , , > (5)

, + , : = || (6)
||
= (7)
Each order must be produced in each production stage by a single machine, as

is exposed in (1). The finish time of a particular order is calculated in (2) by using
the information of processing time and the start time of each order. The start time
of an order depends on the finish time of the previous order in the sequence and
also by the set-up between orders. The sequencing constraints of different orders
in the same production unit are presented in (3) and (4).
Equation (5) determines that the processing time of an order in a particular
stage begins when the activity in the previous stage is finished. The delay time is
derived from the information of due date time and the finish time of each order in
the final production stage, as is explained in (6).
276
Finally, the objective function of the problem is presented in (7), in order to

minimize the total delay time of all orders in the system. For this, a penalty cost is
proposed according to the relevancy of each order in the delivery schedule.
Alternative objective functions can be easily considered into the model for this
particular problem. According to this, equations (8) and (9) are proposed to com-
pute the minimum completion time of all production orders in the system, as the
Makespan criterion.
, , : = || (8)
min = (9)
Other strategies could be taken into account. For instance, the minimum manu-
facturing cost. May be every order can be accomplished without start every ma-
chines, so a fixed start cost could be added if at least one order is made in a ma-
chine. In addition a variable cost depending of the total processing time in a
machine could be added.
Index domain for variables have been defined so that decision variables only
refer to all possible combinations of orders, stages and machines.
4 Case Study: Problem Description
The model developed above was implemented and tested using data based on an
actual system, where a wide range of garden decoration products for concealment.
There are two product families, wind-break and trellis panel. Wind-breaks orders
have to be manufactured in their corresponding stages (extrusion, sewing and
packaging). In addition, trellis panels orders have to be manufactured in their cor-
responding stages (extrusion and trellis). Notice that either Wind-breaks orders or
Trellis panel orders share a common stage (extrusion).
Features of an order depends on it features and amount of product. Product
range has five main colours, three main shapes of cane, three heights and two
main widths. All of these features require a good scheduler. Notice that every
product cannot be produced in every machine, so the model must choose the right
machine in order to make every order using the less global time. Furthermore,
every set-up must be considered between orders. Set-ups depend on the change of
any feature of product (order), that is, a change in colour, or type of cane depend-
ing of the machine it makes the set-up time goes through zero to a great time
which makes non optimal a possible solution.
Main ranges of features of product are the following
Colours: green, white, cane colour (yellow), brown and silver.
Shapes: double sided, simple sided and rectangular
277
Sizes: it depends of the product

Wind-break has two kinds of sizes, width and length
Length: 1 metro, 15 metro and 2 metros
Width: 3 metros and 5 metros
Trellis panel has a size of 1 metro length and 2 metros width. But canes
have all of them the same measure.
Set-up depends on the numbers of changes in the features of the product we

want to take into account. Table 1 shows guidance times between changes.
If more than one feature changes between two orders, the corresponding set-up
is the addition of the set-up times corresponding to all of these feature changes, for
instance, if we have to change color, shape and length in extrusion, set-up is going
to be the addition of all of them, that is, 71 minutes. Furthermore set-up time de-
pends of each machine of the stage. Processing time depends on the speed of the
machine and the amount of items in the order.
Table 1 Set-up time (min.) for each feature of the product
Colour Shape Length Width

Extrusion 10 60 1 -
Sewing 220 5 10 1
Trellis 5 - - -
packaging - - - 5
4.1 Computational Analysis
Several instances are modeled. A maximum of ten orders were scheduled through
the proposed MILP-based approach. Stage extrusion is integrated by four extrud-
ers, stage sewing is integrated by four sewers, stage trellis is integrated by two
trellis machine and stage packaging is integrated by one packaging machine.
Orders 1,2,5,6, 7 and 9 have to be processed in the stages extrusion, sewing and
packaging. Orders 3, 4, 8 and 10 have to be processed in the stages extrusion and
trellis. Every order has similar processing time, but every order cannot be pro-
cessed in each machine. Set-up time depends on two orders in each machine. In
that case there is a wide range of set-up time due to the fact there are eleven ma-
chines and ten orders.
Every processing time and set-up time for each order, machine and stage can be
found in the next URL (http://goo.gl/Gi9wO).
Is important to take into account the solving time since a scheduler would not
be useful if it is very time consuming. Cases exposed has been implemented on
278
the modeler AIMMS 3.13 and solved with CPLEX v12.4. Computer used is a PC
Intel Core I3, OS Windows 7 and NVIDIA graphic card of 4 GB.
4.1.1 Results
Two alternatives are implemented in the model, minimizing make-span and ac-
complishing due date. Minimizing make-span, four instances have been consid-
ered with 8 to 10 orders and changing the quantity of machines (Table 2). Accom-
plishing due date, two instances have been considered (instance 5 and 6). In
instance 5, model is scheduled with the same due date for every order, then 3 due
date orders are advanced, so that, before a rescheduling, model must accomplish
news due dates. In instance 6, every order has the same due date but it is enforcing
to a delay, so that, one order is delayed. Then a great penalty for delayed order
(because order is considered as a relevant order) is added and rescheduled, so that,
there exists other delayed order less relevant.
Table 2 Instance characteristics and computational data
Instance Orders Machines Solving time in Optimal solu-

seconds tion in minutes,
makespan
Instance 1 10 4 Extruders, 4 sewers, 65 1497.5
2 trellis, 1 packaging
Instance 2 10 3 Extruders, 4 sewers, 5490 1698.14
Instance 3 first 8 orders 4 Extruders, 4 sewers, 1.68 1496.5
Instance 4 first 8 orders 4 Extruders, 4 sewers, 355 1518.18
Every empiric instance can be found in the next URL (http://goo.gl/Gi9wO).
4.1.2 Computational Experience
Make-span instances were solved in 3.199 to 38.130.055 iterations, spending a

solving time of up to 5.490 seconds. Due-date instances were solved in 125 to
4.609 iterations, spending a solving time of up to 094 seconds. Instances model
use 310 to 485 constraints, 221 to 316 variables (which 117 to 262 are integers).
For more details about this problem see also URL (http://goo.gl/Gi9wO).
As a summary, due date instances solve faster than make-span instances, also
due date is a good manufacturing politic, therefore, due date constraints is a good
implementation for the model.
279
5 Conclusions
A MILP-based model for the scheduling of different production orders in a non-

continuous serial manufacturing process of fencing products has been presented in
this work. This model considers, different processing times, sequence-dependent
set-up times, non-identical machines and delivery due dates.
Several objective functions have been implemented, such as minimum
makespan and tardiness. The model obtains optimal results for all problem in-
stances analyzed in very short computational time which demonstrate the effec-
tiveness of the solution method.
Extensions of this model will consider the consumption of raw materials at the
beginning production stage. Moreover further researches will look at the possibil-
ity to consider the scheduling and rescheduling of incoming orders when non-
finished orders have been in the system at the beginning of the scheduling horizon.
6 References
Halsall, D. N., Price, D. H. R. (1999). A DSS approach to developing systems to support produc-
tion planning and control in smaller companies.International journal of production re-
search, 37(7), 1645-1660.
Hui, C., Gupta, A., Van der Meulen, H. (2000). A novel MILP formulation for short-term sched-
uling of multi-stage multi-product batch plants with sequence-dependent constraints. Com-
puters and Chemical Engineering 24 (12), pp. 2705-2717.
Mndez, C. A., Cerd, J. (2002). An MILP-based approach to the short-term scheduling of make-
and-pack continuous production plants. Or Spectrum,24(4), 403-429.
Mndez, C. A., Cerd, J., Grossmann, I. E., Harjunkoski, I.,Fahl, M. (2006). State-of-the-art re-
view of optimization methods for short-term scheduling of batch processes. Computers and
Chemical Engineering 30 (6-7), pp. 913-946.
Mndez, C. A., Henning, G. P., Cerd, J. (2000). Optimal scheduling of batch plants satisfying
multiple product orders with different due-dates. Computers and Chemical Engineering 24
(9-10), pp. 2223-2245
280
NTIGen: a Software for Generating Nissan

Based Instances for Time and Space Assembly
Line Balancing
Chica M1, Cordn O2, Damas S3, Bautista J 4
Abstract The time and space assembly line balancing problem (TSALBP) is a re-
alistic multiobjective version of assembly line balancing industrial problems in-
volving the joint optimization of conflicting criteria such as the cycle time, the
number of stations, and the area of these stations. For this family of problems
there is not any repository where researchers and practitioners can obtain realistic
problem instances also containing information on mixed products plans. In this
contribution we introduce a new TSALBP instance software generator that can
produce problem instances having industrial real-like features. This generator is
called NTIGen (Nissan TSALBP Instance GENerator) since it is developed from
the information and real data of the assembly line and production planning of the
Nissan plant of Barcelona. The NTIGen software as well as some benchmark in-
stances are publicly available on Internet and could be used by researchers to carry
out general TSALBP experiments and to also discriminate between different as-
sembly line configurations when future demand conditions vary.
Keywords: Time and Space Assembly Line Balancing, Problem Instance Genera-
tor, Mixed Products, Nissan, Optimization
1Manuel Chica Serrano ( e-mail: manuel.chica@softcomputing.es)

European Centre for Soft Computing, Gonzalo Gutirrez Quirs s/n 33600 Mieres (Asturias).
2
scar Cordn Garca ( e-mail: oscar.cordon@softcomputing.es)
DECSAI and CITIC-UGR, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada
3
Sergio Damas Arroyo ( e-mail: sergio.damas@softcomputing.es)
4
Joaqun Bautista Valhondo ( e-mail: joaquin.bautista@upc.edu)
Dpto. Organizacin de Empresas, ETSEIB, UPC Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona.
* This work has been supported by Ministerio de Economa y Competitividad under project
SOCOVIFI2 (TIN2012-38525-C02-01 and TIN2012-38525-C02-02), and under PROTHIUS-III:
DPI2010-16759, both including EDRF funding.
281
1 Introduction
An assembly line is made up of a number of workstations, arranged either in series

or in parallel. Since the manufacturing of a production item is divided into a set of
tasks which require an operation time for their execution, a usual and difficult
problem, called assembly line balancing (ALB), is to determine how these tasks
can be assigned to the stations fulfilling certain restrictions such as precedence re-
lations. The final aim of ALB is to get an optimal assignment of subsets of tasks to
the stations of the plant (Boysen et al. 2007). A well-known family of ALB prob-
lems is the simple assembly line balancing problem (SALBP) (Baybars 1986,
Scholl and Becker 2006). The SALBP only considers the assignment of each task
to a single station in such a way that all the precedence constraints are satisfied
and no station workload time is greater than the line cycle time.
As a result of the observation of the ALB operation in an automotive Nissan
plant from Barcelona (Spain), Bautista and Pereira (2007) recently proposed a
SALBP extension aiming to design a more realistic ALB model. They considered
an additional space constraint to get a simplified but closer version to real-world
situations, defining the time and space assembly line balancing problem
(TSALBP). The TSALBP presents eight variants depending on three optimization
criteria: m (the number of stations), c (the cycle time), and A (the area of the sta-
tions). The multicriteria nature of the TSALBP favoured the application of multi-
objective meta-heuristics such as multiobjective ant colony optimization (Chica et
al. 2010), evolutionary multiobjective optimization (Chica et al. 2011), and me-
metic algorithms (Chica et al. 2012).
However, we noticed the absence of an available dataset with real-like instanc-
es for the TSALBP. And what is more, there is not any instance containing mixed
product plans when the demand is uncertain. Therefore, we have implemented re-
al-like Nissan TSALBP instance generator software (NTIGen) in order to let re-
searchers to validate their models and methods in a diverse set of TSALBP in-
stances and production plans. The design and implementation of NTIGen is done
with the use of real data and industrial features of the Nissan industry plant of
Barcelona. The software is freely available on-line to be used for future research
works. Using this tool, a set of eight instances has been generated as a benchmark
to show the different features of the instances.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In Section 2 the TSALBP formu-
lation is explained. The description of the NTIGen software is shown in Sections 3
and 4. A comparison of the eight instances generated by NTIGen is shown in Sec-
tion 5. Some concluding remarks are given in Section 6.
282
2 Time and Space Assembly Line Balancing Problem
The manufacturing of a production item is divided into a set J of n tasks. Each

task j requires an operation time for its execution tj > 0 that is determined as a
function of the manufacturing technologies and the employed resources. Each sta-
tion k (k = 1, 2,..., m) is assigned to a subset of tasks Sk (Sk J ), called workload.
Each task j can only be assigned to a single station k.
Each task j has a set of direct preceding tasks Pj which must be accomplished
before starting it. These constraints are normally represented by means of an acy-
clic precedence graph, whose vertices stand for the tasks and where a directed arc
(i, j) indicates that task i must be finished before starting task j on the production
line. Thus, task j cannot be assigned to a station that is ordered before the one
where task i was assigned. Each station k also presents a station workload time
t(Sk) that is equal to the sum of the tasks processing time assigned to the station k.
SALBP focuses on grouping tasks in workstations by an efficient and coherent
way.
In this simplistic model there is a need of introducing space constraints in as-
sembly lines design based on two main reasons: (a) the length of the workstation
is limited in the majority of the situations, and (b) the required tools and compo-
nents to be assembled should be distributed along the sides of the line. Hence, an
area constraint may be considered by associating a required area aj to each task j
and an available area Ak to each station k that, for the sake of simplicity, we shall
assume it to be identical for every station and equal to A = maxk=1,2,...,mAk .
Thus, each station k requires a station area a(Sk) that is equal to the sum of areas
required by the tasks assigned to station k.
This leads us to a new family of problems called TSALBP (Bautista and Perei-
ra 2007). It may be stated as: given a set of n tasks with their temporal tj and spa-
tial aj attributes (1 j n) and a precedence graph, each task must be assigned to a
single station such that: (i) every precedence constraint is satisfied, (ii) no station
workload time (t(Sk )) is greater than the cycle time (c), and (iii) no area required
by any station (a(Sk)) is greater than the available area per station (A).
TSALBP presents eight variants depending on three optimization criteria: m
(the number of stations), c (the cycle time) and A (the area of the stations). Within
these variants there are four multiobjective problems depending on the set of crite-
ria to be minimized (m, c and/or A). For more information about the problem we
refer the interested reader to Chica et al. (2010; 2012).
283
3 Basics of the Nissan TSALBP Instance Generator Software

(NTI-Gen)
The main goal of the NTIGen software is to create real-like TSALBP instances
with different features to serve as a benchmark for any future research work. Alt-
hough there are ALB instances available online and even a SALBP instance gen-
erator (Otto et al. 2011), there is not any existing source where TSALBP instances
can be generated and referred. Also, as pointed out in the Introduction section,
there is no instance containing production plans information.
Assembly lines in the automotive industry present a set of industrial features
which condition the task and graph distribution of the problem instance. The user
must be allowed to incorporate these industrial real-like features to the generated
instances and these instances should be similar to the original Nissan instance con-
text (Chica et al. 2012). Concretely, the developed NTIGen software includes the
following features, which are illustrated in Figure 1:
Checkpoints: They are assembly line points in which workers test the quality
and completeness of a set of operations previously finished. If we consider
these checkpoints as new tasks, the representation of a checkpoint in an as-
sembly line graph is given by a task having a high number of preceding tasks
(for instance, task 11 in Figure 1).
Tasks without precedence: In real industrial scenarios, such tasks are justified
if there are operations unconditioned by other operations. They are commonly
found in the engine and trim lines of the car manufacturing. In Figure 1, tasks
1, 3, 8, 7, and 10 have no precedence.
Final tasks: Tasks in an assembly line which are associated to the most exter-
nal and final operations of the product. They are represented as tasks with no
successors in the precedence graph (tasks 12, 13 and 14 in Fig 1).
Isolated tasks: They can be performed at any part of the assembly of an item.
An example of these kinds of tasks is this related with additional parts of a
product which can be incorporated to the global product at any station. Task 4
in Figure 1 is an isolated task as it has no precedence.
Fig. 1 A precedence graph with 13 tasks showing examples of different kinds of tasks in an in-
dustrial context: chains of tasks, initial and final tasks, isolated tasks, and checkpoints.
284
Operations aggregation: This process comes up when some operations need

the same tools or are done by the same worker. In this case, several tasks of the
same stage are put together in just one task.
Operations breaking up: If possible, it is used in the industrial context to detail
the implementation of an operation in different operating tasks. It is useful for
balancing an assembly line when the cycle time is reduced.
Chains of tasks: They appear when there are strongly linked operations, nor-
mally in the same station or stage. A chain of tasks represents natural sequenc-
es of operations within the assembly process (see tasks 1, 2, 5, and 6 in Figure
1).
4 Tuneable Parameters of NTIGen
The features introduced in the previous sub-section can be parameterized by the

NTIGen user to generate a customizable instance. NTIGen is also fed by a set of
stages with some initial tasks. By default, these stages and tasks correspond to the
original Nissan instance with 140 tasks and 21 workstations (Chica et al. 2012)
although they can be modified by the user before launching the application. The
user can set all the desired features by changing the parameters of an XML file.
The most important input parameters are the following:
Number of tasks (n). This is an important parameter of the instance that enor-
mously conditions its complexity. From the initial set of tasks, new operating
tasks are generated by breaking up them until reaching the user needs. If we
need fewer tasks than the original ones, they are merged at random. The new
generated tasks are required to belong to the same or close stages than their
original ones.
Processing times (tj). The processing time of each task tj is randomly disrupted
by a normal distribution within a user-defined interval. When creating or
merging tasks, the processing times for the resulting tasks are reduced or du-
plicated, respectively. This is done to maintain the original situation of the
Nissan instance.
Production plans. The production plans are always set to the NSIO original
plans. The processing times of the tasks for the different engine products are
created by randomly modifying the original processing time tj within the range
[0.9tj, 1.1tj].
Cycle time (c). It is also disrupted independently from the processing times of
the tasks. As done with tj, the disruption is created within a user-defined inter-
val. In our case, the new cycle time is set to a value within [0.75c, 1.25c].
Required operation area (aj). Task areas are specified by two-dimensional
units, i.e. length (aj) and width (bj). The first dimension, aj, is the truly useful
variable for the TSALBP optimization. In the original instance, bj is always set
285
to one distance unit. To generate a new instance, the squared area of each task
is always maintained by the generator but bj is randomly changed to a set val-
ue. In our case, the set is given by {0.5, 0.75, ..., 2.25}. This set of possible bj
values can be modified by the user of the NTIGen software. Therefore, the
length of each task aj, used for the optimization, is different for each generated
TSALBP instance. As done with the processing times, aj is reduced or dupli-
cated when increasing or decreasing the number of tasks to try to maintain the
original Nissan situation.
Apart from the operating tasks and their corresponding processing times and
areas, NTIGen generates the precedence graph of the instance. These precedence
relations are created between tasks of the same stage (generating chains) or
dierent stages within a maximum window, set by the user, in order to link tasks
which are industrially close. The minimum and maximum number of preceding
tasks for a checkpoint in a problem instance can be set prior the instance genera-
tion. The same definition can be done for the number of initial, final, and isolated
tasks.
NTIGen creates precedence relations until it reaches the required complexity of
the graph which is another important feature of an ALB instance (Bhattacharjee
and Sahu 1990). This complexity of the precedence graph is also a user parameter
and it is measured by the order strength (OS) of the graph (Dar-El 1975). The OS
is calculated from the graph in transitive closure. The transitive closure of a set of
direct precedences E is given by ET = {(i, j)|i V, j FiT }, with V being the set of
nodes and FiT the set of indirect successors of the task i. The OS represents the
number of ordering relations of the graph in a transitive closure with respect to all
|ET |
possible ordering relations: OS = n(n1) .
2
The OS varies between [0, 1]. If OS is equal to 0 the instance has no prece-
dence relations but if OS takes value 1, there is just one feasible sequence of tasks.
The result after running the NTIGen software is a structured text file describing
the generated instance with the list of tasks, their operating times and area, and
their precedence relations. The precedence relations form the transitive reduction
of the graph in order to minimize computational resources.
In addition, by changing the number of tasks, their processing time and area we
can generate instances having different time variability (TV) and area variability
(AV). Descriptors about the generated instance are listed after its creation to show
the complexity of the graph, TV, AV, and the number of checkpoints, isolated, ini-
tial, and final tasks.
286
5 Examples of some Generated TSALBP Instances
By using the NTIGen software, a set of eight new TSALBP real-like instances
have been created (Table 1). The NTIGen software and this set of TSALBP in-
stances are publicly available at http://www.prothius.com/TSALBP.
Table 1 Main characteristics of the generated TSALBP instances
Features P1 P2* P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8
Random seed 24151 N/A 117017 21277 113683 56399 5869 73553
No. of tasks 100 140 190 220 280 320 376 420
Cycle time 199.97 180 207.07 222.42 221.62 169.552 186.65 137.751
OS 0.5 0.9 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.6 0.25 0.95
Precedences 156 293 314 304 407 435 548 608
Precs. window 5 N/A 5 1 2 1 3 2
TV 35.95 24 41.75 151.45 224.29 2742.28 901.34 1003.77
AV 500 513.86 266.67 300 400 200 300 133.33
Initial tasks 14 1 6 33 59 32 87 6
Final tasks 8 5 7 20 42 31 49 8
Isolated tasks 2 0 5 3 0 5 0 3
Checkpoints 3 N/A 0 6 7 1 12 0
6 Concluding Remarks
The existing TSALBP formulation and previous ALB works do not cover an im-
portant real scenario where the same assembly line is devoted to produce mixed
products and their demand is not fixed. Furthermore, the TSALBP instances of the
literature were created by modifying ALB instances. The NTIGen software pre-
sented in this work allows researchers to create realistic TSALBP instances and
production plans for future research. The generated TSALBP instances contain
many real-like industrial features, e.g. checkpoints, isolated tasks, initial and final
tasks, chains of tasks, or stages, which make the NTIGen software a practical tool
for simulating the industrial conditions of an assembly line. Also, the NTIGen user
can generate instances with production plans, having different operation time for
each task of the assembly line.
287
7 References
Bautista, J., Pereira, J., 2007. Ant algorithms for a time and space constrained assembly line bal-
ancing problem. European Journal of Operational Research 177, 20162032.
Baybars, I., 1986. A survey of exact algorithms for the simple assembly line balancing problem.
Management Science 32, 909932.
Bhattacharjee, T.K., Sahu, S., 1990. Complexity of single model assembly line balancing prob-
lems. Engineering Costs and Production Economics 18, 203 214.
Boysen, N., Fliedner, M., Scholl, A., 2007. A classification of assembly line balancing problems.
European Journal of Operational Research 183, 674693.
Chica, M., Cordn, O., Damas, S., 2011. An advanced multi-objective genetic algorithm design
for the time and space assembly line balancing problem. Computers and Industrial Engineer-
ing 61, 103117.
Chica, M., Cordn, O., Damas, S., Bautista, J., 2010. Multiobjective, constructive heuristics for
the 1/3 variant of the time and space assembly line balancing problem: ACO and random
greedy search. Information Sciences 180, 3465 3487.
Chica, M., Cordn, O., Damas, S., Bautista, J., 2012. Multiobjective memetic algorithms for time
and space assembly line balancing. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 25,
254273.
Dar-El, E.M., 1975. Solving large single-model assembly line balancing problems - A compara-
tive study. IIE Transactions 7, 302310.
Otto, A., Otto, C., Scholl, A., 2011. SALBPgen - a systematic data generator for (simple) assem-
bly line balancing. Jena Research Papers in Business and Economics 5.
Scholl, A., Becker, C., 2006. State-of-the-art exact and heuristic solution procedures for simple
assembly line balancing. European Journal of Operational Research 168, 666693.
288
Agent-based Modelling and Archaeological

Complexity
Poza D1, del Olmo R2
Abstract This paper presents a brief overview of social simulation in the field of
Archaeology. It has been conducted from an agent-based modelling focus, a very
interesting and valid methodology for modelling prehistoric societies. The second
part of this work presents an application of this methodology in a specific model
that analyzes the emergence of ethnicity in a prehistoric society.
Keywords: Archaeology, Agent-based Modelling, Social Simulation, Ethnicity
1 Introduction
Social simulation is a methodology where the modelled system is a social pro-

cess. Its aim is to generate models of present or past realities that allow creating or
validating theories about their regularities and, of course, their exceptions.
Amongst all the modelling paradigms of Artificial Intelligence that allow social
simulation, we have opted for Agent-based Modelling (hereafter ABM), which is
defined by Gilbert (2007) as: a computational method that enables a researcher
to create, analyse and experiment with models composed of agents that interact
within an environment. The idea is to represent a human society by means of
software-objects (the so-called agents) that interact between one another in a vir-
tual environment. There exists a correspondence between the individuals in the re-
al society and the agents in the virtual environment in such a way that observing
1DavidJ. Poza ( e-mail: poza@insisoc.org)

INSISOC. E.I. Industriales. Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce s/n, 47011 Valladolid.
2Ricardo del Olmo ( e-mail: rdelolmo@ubu.es)
INSISOC. E.P.S. Universidad de Burgos. Avda. Cantabria s/n, 09006 Burgos.

* The authors acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation Project
CSD2010-00034 (SimulPast CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010) and by the Regional Government
of Castile and Leon (Spain) Project VA056A12-2.
289
the evolution of the simulation in our model allows us to draw conclusions on the
individuals in the modelled society.
ABM has some advantages that make it suitable for social research (Epstein
1999, Axtell 2000, Bonabeau 2002, Bousquet and Le Page 2004). We can summa-
rize them as follows: it permits a more natural and transparent description of the
modelled systems; it allows a realistic incorporation of explicit relationships from
a geographic environment; it permits modelling local interactions, which implies
considering the relationship between the micro-definition of the individuals and
the macroscopic behaviour of the system; it captures the emerging behaviour, i.e.
the appearance of new patters as a consequence of interactions at an elemental
level (Holland 1998); and the possibility of including other dimensions (e.g. eco-
nomical, social, geographical, technological, etc.) in a single model.
Social simulation is accepted in many scientific environments, including Ar-
chaeology, due to its versatility to simulate individuals birth and death, their ac-
tivities and their ways of interaction. As Barcel (2010a) puts it: This methodol-
ogy is considered fundamental in Prehistoric Archaeology, whose aim, human
action in a remote past is by definition non-observable. Artificial societies allow
us to represent hypothetical models of what could have happened, which facili-
tates the analysis and the comparison of those models.
This article is organized in two parts: First, we will analyze the relevance of so-
cial simulation in Archaeology, which will enable us to justify the importance of
ABM when modelling and simulating prehistoric societies. Secondly, we will de-
scribe an application of ABM in the study of Ethnicity in a prehistoric society.
2 Archaeology and Agent-based Social Simulation
Through the application of social simulation in Archaeology we can simulate the

behaviour of individuals in past societies. Archaeologists and historians have
started to transform social theories into computer programs by simulating social
beings obviously not humans that live in virtual environments that result
from the generalization of social theory or historic data. By means of the imple-
mentation of social events as computational agents and their mutual influences as
interactions we want to discover that collective action can be described and ex-
plained as something non-accidental and non-chaotic (Barcel 2010a).
In the following paragraphs we will cite some examples and applications of
ABM in this scientific domain that can be found in literature specialized in social
and historic simulation.
In their project EOS, Doran and Palmer (1995a, 1995b) studied the emergence
of social order in the Palaeolithic Age. Doran (1999) continued this work to ex-
plain some features associated with the increase of social complexity. Other works
related to hunter-gathering societies were conducted by Barcel (2010b, 2010c) to
290
study how local interactions facilitate cultural diffusion and ethnic differentiation,
and Del Castillo and Barcel (2012). De La Cruz et al (2010) developed a general
model of social behaviour of a fishing-hunting-gathering society with strict social
norms and no political institutions.
Dean et al (2000) use the model Sugarscape by Epstein y Axtell (1996) as the
basis for establishing the population dynamics in the Anasazi society (Arizona)
between centuries IX and XIV. Lake (2000) and Kohler et al (2000) studied spa-
tial processes and resource management in ancient societies. Other similar works
are: Gumerman et al (2003), Kohler et al (2007) and Johnson et al (2005).
To complete this brief review, we will cite the works by Christiansen and
Altaweel (2006) and Wilkinson et al (2007), related to the evolution and deca-
dence of the settlements in Mesopotamia during the Bronze Age.
The case of study by Barcel et al (2010c) that we describe in the following
section evidences ABMs capabilities to shed light on Archaeology research. Tra-
ditionally, ancient societies have been tackled through universal theoretical mod-
els. However, the use of Agent-based Modelling in the study of ancient societies
has recently increased. This tool allows researchers to create artificial societies
based on archaeological, ethnological and historical data and observe how they in-
teract in a virtual environment. By means of computer simulations, one can ana-
lyse the parameters that affect the outcome of the simulations, which may lead to
identify yet unknown social relationships.
3 A Case of Study: the Emergence of Ethnicity and Cultural

Differentiation in Patagonian Hunter-gatherer Societies
Ethnicity is the historical emergence of groups of people who share cultural char-
acteristics in such a way that members within a group regard themselves and are
regarded by others as truly distinctive (Cohen 2000). Ethnic differentiation is a
consequence of how social agents have interacted over a period of time. Particu-
larly, in the case of Patagonias hunter-gatherer societies - target of this study -
geographic separation among groups is believed to be crucial in the emergence of
cultural groups: the further the groups, the less interactivity between groups and
therefore, the more cultural differences between groups.
3.1 Description of the Model
The model consists of a population of a fixed number (N) of agents that move
randomly in a virtual space searching for economic resources and interacting with
291
other agents. Each agent represents a household in the Patagonian hunter-gatherer

society under study. All the agents are identical, except for two properties:
Capacity (cjN ): This parameter represents each agents ability to exploit natu-
ral resources: cjN [0,1].
Cultural identity (Axelrod 1997): an integer vector of k features (i.e. cultural
dimensions) that can take any value {1, 2, , r} within a set of r cultural traits.
In other words, each agent has k features each of which represent a cultural
dimension (e.g. language, religious beliefs, etc.) and, each cultural dimension
can take r different values (cultural traits).
The virtual space where the agents interact is a finite toroidal grid made up of
regular patches. The agents interact with other agents from their neighbourhood as
long as they belong to the same cultural group. The size of the neighbourhood is
given by the parameter .
In order to determine what agents belong to the same cultural group, the model
computes the cultural proximity within the agents. Cultural proximity is measured
by the relative number of shared cultural dimensions. That is to say, two house-
holds consider they belong to the same ethnical group if the number of cultural
dimensions they share is above a certain threshold , which is another parameter
of the model (cultural proximity). Therefore, an agents local group (i.e. the set of
agents with whom she will interact during the current simulation period) consists
of other culturally-close agents within her neighbourhood (see Figure 1).
The model considers increasing returns-to-cooperation (given by a parameter )
which means that families get more resources when they cooperate than when they
act individually (i.e. the fact that > 1 represents the fact that the amount of re-
sources collected by two agents that cooperate is more than twice the amount of
resources they would collect if they acted individually). Therefore, the output (i.e.
the amount of resources) that an agent j gets depends of her own capacity c j, the
sum of the capacities of the agents within her local group Gj(t) and the value of the
parameter return-to-cooperation according to equation 1:
1
Oj (t) = cj (kGj (t) ck ) with 1 (1)
Each agent j has a surplus Sj (t+1) that depends on three factors (equation 2):
The output obtained at the current period Oj(t) given by equation (1).
The remaining surplus from previous periods Sj (t) multiplied by a deprecia-
tion factor (1 )
The amount of resources each agent consumes every period S0:
( + 1) = + ()(1 ) (2)
292
Fig. 1 An example of a local group from household1s viewpoint for a given neighbourhood ra-
dius . We have considered k=5 cultural dimensions (which means that cultural identity vectors
have length 5) and r=5 cultural traits (i.e. each cultural dimension can take a value between 1 and
5). The parameter cultural proximity takes the value 0.4 which means that the agents within
agent 1s neighbourhood need to share, at least, 2 (out of 5) cultural traits to be considered a
member of her local group. This condition holds for agents 2, 3 and 4, but not for agent 5. There-
fore, agents 2, 3 and 4 will cooperate with agent 1 in the current simulation period. Agent 6 be-
longs to the same ethnic group as agent 1 (as they share, at least, a proportion of cultural traits),
but she is outside her local group and thus she will not cooperate in the current simulation period.
Culture diffusion and ethnical differentiation occurs through local interactions

within the population. On the one hand, culture diffuses within agents that interact
in the same local group by copying with certain probability pdiff the most fre-
quent trait in her cultural group. This process favours the emergence of culturally-
close groups. On the other hand, culture may evolve by means of a local mutation
process, in which an agent can mutate one of her cultural traits with certain proba-
bility pmut. When this occurs, the new cultural traits are copied by all the agents in
her local group.
Agents may die at some point during the simulation due to two reasons:
Dead by old age: agents have certain life expectancy: her maximum age fol-
lows a Poisson distribution with mean a particular life expectancy (another pa-
rameter of the model). The agents age increases at every simulation step.
Agents die when they reach their maximum age.
Death of starvation: At every simulation step, agents consume an amount of
surplus equal to S0. Agents die when they run out of surplus (Sj = 0).
Independently from the reason why an agent dies, she is replaced by another
agent in such a way the number of agents remains constant (and equal to N). The
293
new agent will inherit the cultural dimensions of an agent in the population chosen
through a roulette wheel (i.e. the probability that an agent is replicated is propor-
tional to her surplus).
The simulation takes place as follows: at a time period t the agents move ran-
domly to one of their neighbour patches. Then, they determine what their local is
(agents within a distance that are culturally-close that is to say - agents that
share at least a proportion of cultural traits). The cooperation of the agents that
belong to the same local group may result in an increasing return-to-cooperation,
according to equation 1. Then, the agents surplus at the current simulation period
is computed through equation 2. Afterwards, with probability pdiff, she copies a
trait (the mode of the traits of her local group); and, with probability p mut, she mu-
tates one of her traits and spreads it to her local group. Agents are replaced either
if they do not have enough surplus or if they reach their maximum age. Finally,
the number and the size of the ethnic groups (i.e. all the agents in the population
that share at least a proportion of cultural traits) at this period of the simulation
are computed.
3.2 Results
This relatively simple model is the first approach to a more complex model that
will permit Archaeology researchers to test different social theories by means of
computational simulation. The simulations performed revealed the influence of the
increasing returns-to-cooperation parameter () and the cultural proximity parame-
ter () on the emergence of ethnic groups3. In fact, it was found that both parame-
ters have a crucial effect on the outcome of the simulations (i.e. the number and
the size of the ethnic groups).
For low values of , the agents only need to share a few cultural traits to be
considered members of the same ethnical group. This gives rise to one simple eth-
nic group in which cultural mutation and local diffusion processes are not enough
to break the groups ethnic identity. However, when the value of is increased,
cultural mutation and local diffusion split the population into several ethnic
groups.
On the other hand, when the value of the parameter is low, the size of the
emergent ethnical groups is small. Low values of mean low returns-to-
cooperation. In fact, for 1, cooperating with the local group does not provide
more surplus than acting individually. Consequently, the replication process facili-
tates the reproduction of any emerged cultural differentiation and therefore we ob-
serve a higher number of ethnic groups. For larger values of , cooperating within
3 All the experiments were conducted with the following parameters: N=50; = 2; k=8; r=8;
pdiff=0.8, pmut=0.05; S0=0.4 and =0.5.
294
a local group yields more surplus and therefore agents who cooperate get more
replications in the future generations, which splits the population into a smaller
number of ethnic groups.
One of the conclusions we can draw from this brief study is that ABM is a real-
ly relevant burgeoning methodology in social simulation in general and in Ar-
chaeology in particular. A proof of that is the model by Barcel et al (2010c) that
we have described in this paper. It is an outstanding example of how ABM and
Archaeology can be jointly used in the study of the emergence of ethnicity and
cultural differentiation in ancient societies.
This model is currently being extended in order to simulate a more realistic be-
haviour. In fact, in the current version of the model, the agents always cooperate
with other agents (as long as they are culturally similar). However, being cultural-
ly similar might not be a sufficient condition to cooperate. In order to make the
agents decide whether to cooperate or not, the patches will be endowed with ran-
dom amounts of resource and different levels of accessibility to those resources.
This has an important implication: the agents will act by themselves unless they
cannot get enough resources to survive (because there are too little resources, they
are hard to collect, or the agents capacities are low). If this is the case, they will
ask other culturally-close agents for help. However, this demand for help might be
rejected by other agents if their capacity does not even let them collect the re-
sources they need to survive.
4 References
Axelrod, R. (1997) The dissemination of culture. J of Conflict Resolution, 41(2), pp.203226.

Axtell RL (2000) Why agents? On the varied motivations for agent computing in the social sci-
ences. In CM Macal and D Sallach (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Agent Simula-
tion: Applications, Models, and Tools, pp. 3-24. Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne.
Barcel JA (2010a) Sociedades artificiales para el anlisis de procesos sociales en la prehistoria.
CPAG 20:123-148.
Barcel JA, Cuesta F, Del Castillo F et al (2010b) Simulating social, economic and political de-
cisions in a hunter-gatherer group. The case of prehistoric Patagonia. Computer Applications
in Archaeology Conference. http://www.leidenuniv.nl/caa/caa_proceedings.htm, Leiden.
Barcel JA, Cuesta F, Del Castillo F et al (2010c) Simulating prehistoric ethnicity. The case of
patagonian hunter-gatherers. In Contreras F and Melero M (eds.), Fussion of Cultures. Com-
puter Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, (in press).
Bonabeau E (2002) Agent-based modeling: Methods and techniques for simulating human sys-
tems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA 99(2):7280-7287.
Bousquet F, Le Page C (2004) Multi-agent simulations and ecosystem management: A review.
Ecological Modelling 176(3-4):313-332.
Christiansen J, Altaweel M (2006) Simulation of natural and social process interactions: an ex-
ample from Bronze Age Mesopotamia. Social Science Computer Review, 24(2):209-226.
Cohen, A.P. (2000). Signifying Identities: Anthropological Perspectives on Boundaries and Con-
tested Values, London: Routledge.
295
Dean JS, Gumerman GS, Epstein JE et al (2000) Understanding Anasazi culture change through
agent-based modelling. In Kohler TA and Gumerman G (eds.), Dynamics in Human and Pri-
mate Societies, pp. 179-205. Oxford Univer. Pres, New York.
De La Cruz D, Estvez J, Noriega P et al (2010) Normas en sociedades cazadoras-pesacadoras-
recolectoras. Argumentos para el uso de la simulacin social basada en agentes. CPAG
20:149-161.
Del Castillo F, Barcel JA (2012) Why hunter and gatherers did not die more often? Simulating
prehistoric decision making. Proceedings of the Computer Applications and Quantitative
Methods in Archaeology Congress. Amsterdam University Press (in press).
Doran JE, Palmer M (1995a) The EOS project: integrating two models of palaeolithic social
change. In Gilbert N and Conte R (eds.), Artificial Societies: The Computer Simulation of
Social Life, pp. 103-125. UCL Press, London.
Doran JE, Palmer M (1995b) The EOS project: modelling prehistoric sociocultural trajectories.
Proceedings of First International Symposium on Computing and Archaeology, pp. 183-198.
Doran JE (1999) Prospects for agent-based modelling in archaeology. Archeologia e Calcolatori
10:33-44.
Epstein JM (1999) Agent-based computational models and generative social science. Complexity
4(5):41-60.
Epstein JM, Axtell R (1996) Growing artificial societies: social sciences from the ground up.
Brooking Institution Press. Washington.
Gilbert N (2007) Agent based model. Sage, London.
Gumerman G, Swedlund AC, Dean JS, Epstein JS (2003) The evolution of social behaviour in
the prehistoric American Southwest. Artificial Life 9(4):435-444.
Holland JH (1998) Emergence. From chaos to order. Addison-Wesley, Reading.
Johnson CD, Kohler TA, Cowan JA (2005) Modeling historical ecology, thinking about contem-
poraly systems. American Anthropologist 107:96-108.
Kohler TA, Kresl J, Van West CR, Carr E, Wilshusen R (2000) Be there then: A modelling ap-
proach to settlement determinants and spatial efficiency among late ancestral pueblo popula-
tions of the Mesa Verde region, U.S. southwest. In Kohler TA and Gumerman GJ (eds.),
Dynamics in Human and Primate Societies, pp. 145-178. Oxford U. Press, New York.
Kohler TA, Gumerman G, Reynolds RG (2005) Simulating ancient societies. Scientific Ameri-
can 293:77-84.
Lake MW (2000) MAGICAL computer simulation of mesolithic foraging. In Kohler TA and
Gumerman GJ (eds.), Dynamics in Human and Primate Societies pp. 107-143. Oxford U
Press, New York.
Wilkinson TJ, Christiansen J, Ur J et al (2007) Urbanization within a dynamic environment:
modelling bronze age communities in upper Mesopotamia. A.Anthropologist 109(1):52-68
.
296
Optimizing Stochastic Supply Chains via

Simulation: What is an Appropriate Simulation
Run Length?
Arreola-Risa A1, Fortuny-Santos J2, Vintr-Snchez C3
Abstract The most common solution strategy for stochastic supply-chain man-
agement problems that are analytically intractable is simulation. But, how can we
be sure that the optimal solution obtained by simulation is in fact the true optimal
solution? In this paper we try to shed light on this question. We report the results
of an extensive simulation study of a base-stock controlled production-inventory
system. We tried different values of base-stock levels (R) to determine, via simu-
lation, which was the value that minimized the total inventory holding and
backordering costs per period. For 25 different cases (and 100 replications each),
we compared the optimal solution obtained from simulation (Rs*) with the true
optimal base-stock level (Ra*) obtained from an analytical result, with the goal of
obtaining a lower bound of 95% matches. Results show that when the traffic in-
tensity increases, the run length necessary to achieve a minimum of 95% matches
increases too, and when the backorder cost increases, the number of matches de-
creases for each specific run length. In most of the cases simulated, 100,000 de-
mands were enough to achieve reasonably reliable results.
Keywords: Stochastic Supply Chains, Optimization, Simulation
1
Antonio Arreola-Risa
Mays Business School. Texas A&M University, College Station (TX), USA.
2Jordi Fortuny-Santos (e-mail: jordi.fortuny@upc.edu)
Business Organization Department, Technical University of Catalonia, Manresa, Spain.
3Carla Vintr-Snchez
Business Organization Department, Technical University of Catalonia, Manresa, Spain.
297
1 Introduction
There is a vast literature on inventory control in production-inventory systems.

Many models have been created in order to address issues such as lead time de-
mand, advanced information, or optimal policies. Nowadays, these issues have
gained relevance, because we now consider not an isolated company but a chain of
companies commonly called a supply chain.
Difficulties arise when one tries to solve the above-mentioned models for sup-
ply chains. Equations including convolutions and mixtures of random variables
soon become intractable and out of the reach of analytic tools. Consequently, these
intractable models are usually tested by means of simulation. Researchers develop
their own computerized simulators or use commercial applications such as
ARENA or PROMODEL. But, how can we be sure that the results yielded by the
simulator correspond to the true optimal solution? This question has been studied
by researchers in other settings for a long time, especially from the point of view
of Statistics, and different tools have been developed; however, those statistical
tools are not applicable to our problem setting because the decision variables of
interest are discrete. This question is also of interest for practitioners because sim-
ulation is widely used by companies in the real world. In fact, this research arises
from the needs of a global energy company that required frequent use of simula-
tion for decision making on a supply chain project. Optimization results had to be
reliable and accurate but the simulation run length had to be reasonably short. In
this paper, we try to shed light on the problem of finding a relationship between
simulation run length and the reliability of a simulation optimization results. We
have selected a stylized model of a supply chain studied by Arreola-Risa (1996),
where demand is a Poisson process, unit manufacturing times are exponentially
distributed, inventory is controlled by a base-stock level, and we are interested in
the steady-state behaviour of the supply chain. There are two reasons for our se-
lection of such model. First, the studied model is ergodic and hence a steady-state
is guaranteed to exist, and to the best of our knowledge, it is one of a few instanc-
es where the optimal value of the base-stock level has been determined analytical-
ly. Hence we can compare the optimal base-stock level obtained via simulation to
the truly optimal base-stock level. Second, given that Poisson demand and expo-
nential unit manufacturing times represent extreme cases of variability in real-
world situation (Knott and Sury 1987, and Buzacott and Shanthikumar 1993), our
results represent upper bounds for practical settings that researchers may study
and practitioners may find in practice.
298
2 Literature Review
The relation between simulation run length and accuracy of the results is qualita-
tively well known. Broadly speaking, the longer the simulation, the better results
we get. It is based on the fact that, in general, as sample size increases, estimates
improve in statistical accuracy and, when it comes to queuing problems, they have
a transient period and then a steady state which is necessary to reach to collect
meaningful statistics from the simulation. The longer the simulation run, the high-
er the probability that the steady state has been reached.
The problem of convergence for an M/M/1 system is analyzed by Fishman
(1978). Fishman (1971) had already set forth an autoregressive approach for esti-
mating the sample size of a process with a specified level of precision in simula-
tion experiments. That procedure was intended to determine when enough data
had been collected in ongoing experiments.
Whitt (1989) finds heuristics to be used to estimate run lengths before the simu-
lation starts. For the particular case of an M/M/1 model, results show that, with a
5% error and a 95% confidence, a length of 27,500 periods is enough for a traffic
intensity () of 0.8 while 592,000 periods are necessary for a level of equal to
0.95.
As stated above, in our research, we simulate a base-stock controlled produc-
tion-inventory system. Under this approach, we have a warehouse (or an inven-
tory supermarket in lean manufacturing) that has an amount, called base-stock
level, of inventory (Rs) of a certain item. Demand for that item, stochastic in na-
ture, is immediately served -if enough units are in stock, and a replenishment or-
der is immediately placed to the production system (i.e. by means of kanban
cards, or the equivalent, in lean companies where production is adjusted to de-
mand).
The behavior of a base-stock policy has been studied by Clark and Scarf
(1960), Zipkin (1991) and Veatch and Wein (1994) amongst others. And besides
the analytical approach, base-stock level has also been used in simulation. Li-
beropoulos and Koukoumialos (2005) determine the optimal base-stock level us-
ing simulation. In each experiment the authors used a simulation run length of 60
million time units. That yielded 95% confidence intervals on the estimated values
of cost and base-stock level with half width values of less than 0.5% or 4% of
their respective estimated values. Snyder and Schen (2006) test the supply and
demand uncertainty using base-stock level. They made 10 independent replica-
tions with 10,000 periods each and 100 warm-up periods.
299
3 Research Approach: a Simulation Experiment
In order to determine the necessary simulation run, we have carried out a simula-
tion experiment. We have designed our own computer simulator in C++ language.
Parameter input and data output are captured in EXCEL spreadsheets.
We have simulated a base-stock controlled production-inventory system where
a warehouse has an initial amount of inventory (R). Demand is stochastic and each
arriving demand is for one item. When a demand arrives, it is immediately served
-if possible- following the first-come first-served (FCFS) rule, and an order is
placed to the production system. After production is completed, the item is instan-
taneously delivered to the warehouse. Demands that cannot be fulfilled because
the warehouse is temporarily out of stock are backordered.
In this model, we change the value of R in order to find which one minimizes
the sum of inventory holding and demand backordering costs. That value is the
optimal base-stock level (Rs*). We have assumed that demand is a Poisson process
and unit manufacturing time is exponentially distributed. There are two main rea-
sons for these assumptions. The first one is that this problem has been solved ana-
lytically and therefore we know which is the optimal solution that should be ob-
tained via simulation. The second one is that the Poisson and exponential
distributions represent extreme practical cases of randomness and therefore if a
simulation run length is valid for such disperse results, it will be an upper bound
for other models with less variability.
We have considered different levels of backorder cost per unit at the warehouse
(p): 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 times the holding cost per unit per unit time (h). The rela-
tionship between supply and demand is modeled in terms of the traffic intensity
() defined as the average arrival rate () divided by the average service rate ( ).
Five traffic intensity values were used: 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9. The combination
of cost ratios (p/h) and traffic intensities () gives 25 different cases to be simulat-
ed (Table 1). For example, case 13 represents a product being manufactured in a
facility that operates at capacity utilization of 50% and with a backorder cost rate
that is 8 times the holding cost rate.
Table 1 Simulation cases
Traffic intensity ()
Cost ratio (p/h) 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9
2 1 6 11 16 21
4 2 7 12 17 22
8 3 8 13 18 23
16 4 9 14 19 24
32 5 10 15 20 25
300
The simulation experiment for each of the 25 cases included 100 independent
replications. The warm up period was set equal to 1,000 demand arrivals. Then,
cost data was collected for the following n demand arrivals, where n is the proxy
for simulation length and hence the control variable in our simulation experiment.
In order to gather information on the relationship between n and the accuracy
of the simulation results, for each of the 25 cases and each of the 100 runs per
case, the authors exhaustively tried different values of R in order to determine the
optimal base-stock level (Rs*) and compared it with the true optimal base-stock
level (Ra*) obtained from the analytical result, to know how many times (out of
100) Rs* is exactly equal to Ra* for each value of n. Values of n in the range 100 to
10,000,000 were tested with the aim of reaching Ra* in, at least, 95 replications.
Equation 1.1 is the analytical formula for the optimal base-stock level (Ra*),
where x denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x.
h
ln
h 1 p
Ra
*
(1.1)
ln

Table 2 summarizes the following two analytical results for the 25 simulated
cases: The optimal base-stock level (Ra*) and its associated expected total cost
E(TC)[h, p, Ra*], where E() is the expected value operator. The system decision
variable in the simulation experiment is the base-stock level R. Let E(OH) and
E(BO) respectively be the expected on-hand inventory and the expected number of
backorders per unit time (both functions of R). Equation 1.2 describes the systems
objective function as the sum of the expected inventory holding cost and demand
backordering costs.
E(TC)[h, p, R] = hE(OH) + pE(BO) (1.2)
Table 2 Analytical values of optimal base-stock level (Ra*) and the expected total cost (E(TC)[h,
p, Ra*)]) for each simulation case. The expected total cost is in parenthesis
Traffic intensity ()
Cost ratio (p/h) 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9
2 1 (1.100) 1 (1.300) 1 (1.500) 1 (1.700) 1 (1.900)
4 1 (1.300) 1 (1.900) 2 (2.250) 2 (2.770) 3 (3.477)
8 1 (1.700) 2 (2.330) 3 (3.125) 4 (4.148) 6 (6.035)
16 2 (2.050) 3 (3.015) 4 (4.063) 5 (5.748) 9 (9.686)
32 2 (2.210) 3 (3.447) 5 (5.031) 7 (7.494) 14 (14.380)
301
Next, by means of case 13 ( = 0.5; p/h = 8), we describe the procedure to de-
termine the rung length. The same procedure was applied to each one of the 25
cases.
Table 2 shows that when = 0.5 and p/h = 8, Ra* is 3 units of the item, with
an expected total cost of 3.125 monetary units. We set the simulation parameters,
including the simulation length (n = 100) and run the simulation (created the
queue). We computed the costs for different values of R (i.e. between 0 and 10).
For each run (one hundred independent runs were made), Rs* was selected as
the value of R that minimized the expected total inventory costs (results were be-
tween 2 and 5 units). Rs* matched Ra* in 63% of the runs. That result did not reach
the minimum bound of 95% hits. The experiment was repeated one hundred more
times for n = 1,000 periods .The number of hits improved to 93% but it was still
unsatisfactory. Finally, after one hundred more replications with n = 10,000 peri-
ods, Rs* matched Ra* in 100% of the runs. Figure 1 shows that the number of hits
(Rs* = Ra*) increases with the length of the simulation n.
100% Percentage of hits (R s* = R a*)

100
93%
90
80
Results (in percentage)
70
63%
60 n=100
50 n=1,000
40 n=10,000
32%
30
20
10 7%
4% 1%
0
2 3 4 5
Base stock level (Rs *)
Fig 1 Summary of the simulation experiment results for case where = 0.5 and p/h = 8
4 Results
The simulation experiment required more than 7,500 runs. The percentages of
runs in which Rs* = Ra* are presented in Table 3.
302
Note that we increased exponentially the number of periods to be simulated (n)

in order to reach at least 95% hits (Rs* = Ra*) in the simulation experiment. We
first defined the experiment with n = 100; 1,000 and 10,000 periods. Since the pre-
defined values of n were not enough for higher values of traffic intensity ( ), we
considered values of n up to 100,000 periods. In most of the cases simulated, we
reached a 100% of hits.
We do not include the values of Rs* nor the values of E(TC)[h, p, R] obtained in
the simulation since the aim of the experiment was to determine the minimum
number of runs needed to ensure that the simulation of the supply chain has
achieved steady state and consequently, that the optimal base-stock level obtained
in the simulation (Rs*) is in fact the optimal solution of the inventory system under
study (Ra*).
Table 3 Summary of the simulation experiment results (number of hits: Rs*= Ra*) for the 25 cas-
es considered
Periods (n)
Case p/h
102 103 104 105 106 107
1 0.1 2 100 100 100
2 0.1 4 100 100 100
3 0.1 8 99 100 100
4 0.1 16 100 100 100
5 0.1 32 100 100 100
6 0.3 2 100 100 100
7 0.3 4 76 100 100
8 0.3 8 99 100 100
9 0.3 16 54 66 81 100
10 0.3 32 82 99 100 100
11 0.5 2 99 100 100
12 0.5 4 99 100 100
13 0.5 8 63 93 100
14 0.5 16 41 75 94 100 100
15 0.5 32 35 64 69 96 100
16 0.7 2 100 100 100
17 0.7 4 92 100 100
18 0.7 8 70 99 100
19 0.7 16 66 94 100
20 0.7 32 51 93 100
21 0.9 2 100 100 100
22 0.9 4 100 100 100
23 0.9 8 60 90 100
24 0.9 16 95 99 99
25 0.9 32 85 100 100
303
5 Findings, Relevance and Concluding Remarks
This paper fills a void in the literature by providing supply-chain management re-
searchers and practitioners with a practical understanding of the necessary length
of a simulation run to achieve reasonably reliable results. We know of cases where
researchers had no choice but to perform simulations with more than one billion
demands in order to be sure that they had reached the steady state and hence relia-
ble results. Our simulation experiment suggests that in most practical situations,
simulating 100,000 demands should be enough, given that Poisson demands and
exponential unit manufacturing times represent upper bounds for most supply
chains that would be found in the real world.
An analysis of the results in Table 4 reveals the behavior of the system:
For each of the 25 cases, as expected, the number of hits (Rs*= Ra*) increases
with the length of the simulation n.
For each cost ratio p/h, when the traffic intensity ( ) increases, the run length
necessary to achieve a 100% of correct results increases too. For example, for
a cost of p/h = 32, when = 0.1, a simulation of 100 demands is enough, and
when = 0.9, a simulation of 1,000,000 is required. This is because the system
requires more time to achieve the steady state due to a higher congestion level.
In consequence, the results from a small n, do not correspond to the steady
state of the system and in consequence they do not correspond to the expected
value of Ra*, which is derived for the steady state.
For each level of traffic intensity ( ), when the backorder cost (p/h) increases,
the number of hits (the reliability in predicting the optimal value of the base-
stock level) decreases for each specific run length. For example, if we take
cases 16 to 20 in Table 4 (= 0.7) and look at the number of hits for one thou-
sand order arrivals (n = 1,000), they fall from 100 times (if p/h = 2) to 51
times (if p/h = 32). Therefore, the number of demands in the simulation must
go up to increase reliability.
The main limitation of our research is that it considers only one production-
inventory system configuration. It can be extended to other configurations, as long
as we have optimal analytical results to use.
6 References
Arreola-Risa A (1996) Integrated multi-item production-inventory systems. European Journal of

Operational Research 89(2):326-340
Buzacott JA, Shantikumar JG (1993) Stochastic Models of Manufacturing Systems. Prentice-
Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Clark AJ, Scarf H (1960) Optimal policies for multi-echelon inventory problem. Management
Science 6(4):475-490
304
Fishman GS (1971) Estimating sample size in computing simulation experiments. Management

Science 18(1):21-38
Fishman GS (1978) Principles of Discrete Event Simulation. John Wiley & Sons, New York:
219-237
Knott K, Sury RJ (1987) A study of work-time distributions of unpaced tasks. IIE Transactions
19:50-55
Liberopoulos G, Koukoumialos S (2005) Trade-offs between base stock levels, numbers of kan-
bans and planned supply lead times in production/inventory systems with advance demand
information. International Journal of Production Economics 96(2):213232
Snyder LV, Shen ZJM (2006) Supply and Demand Uncertainty in Multi-Echelon Supply Chains.
Working Paper. Online. http://www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~shen/papers/paper38.pdf. Cited 12
February 2013
Veatch MH, Wein LM (1994) Optimal control of a two-station tandem production/inventory.
Operations Research 42:337-350
Whitt W (1989) Planning Queuing Simulations. Management Science 35(11):1341-1366
Zipkin P (1991) Evaluation of base-stock policies in multiechelon inventory systems with com-
pound-Poisson demands. Naval Research Logistics 38(3):397-412
305
Localization Based on Business Interactions

through a Simulated Annealing Algorithm
Snchez R.M1, Galn J.M2, Santos J.I3
Abstract This work is aimed at presenting a simulated annealing algorithm as a

decision support tool for the localization problem of stores in metropolitan areas.
The approach is based on the empirical estimation of attraction and repulsive forc-
es that emerge as a consequence of the spatial interaction among businesses.
Quantification of these externalities is carried out by means of networks modelling
techniques. The methodology is illustrated with a case study in the city of Turin
(Italy).
Keywords: Simulated Annealing, Localization Problem, Complex Networks, Ex-

ternalities, Decision Support Tools
1 Introduction
Economic and industrial organization literature has analysed and postulated theo-
ries about the relationships that exist among the different types of business and
how they affect each other in their location decisions. Many of these models lack
of a formal formulation to quantify these interactions. Recently, some authors
have proposed methodologies to begin to understand quantitatively the nature of
1
Rosa M Snchez Saiz ( e-mail: rsanchez@ubu.es)
rea de Organizacin de Empresas. Departamento de Ingeniera Civil.EPS. UBU. C. Villadiego
S/N, 09001 Burgos.
2
Jos Manuel Galn Ordax ( e-mail: jmgalan@ubu.es)
S/N, 09001 Burgos.
3
Jos Ignacio Santos Martn ( e-mail: jisantos@ubu.es)
S/N, 09001 Burgos.
306
these phenomena (Duranton and Overman, 2005;Gmez et al., 2009;Jensen,

2006;Jensen, 2009).
Location patterns of firms do not seem the result of individual independent de-
cisions or purely random events, but they are, at least partly, consequence of re-
pulsive, attractive or mutual indifference forces among them (Hoover and
Giarratani, 1984).
Repulsive forces are usually found in business focused on input or customer
markets, and on those that do not work for profit, such as foundations, associa-
tions, schools, universities and health centres. In these cases, firms make produc-
tion and pricing decisions in response to how customers are spatially located,
which conditions spatial patterns. Some of the classical models of spatial competi-
tion, as Hotelling (1929), show that geographic concurrence can emerge as conse-
quence of competing stores trying to capture sales in central areas.
However, there are other activities characterized by agglomerative patterns, for
example:
Companies that produce differentiated products that may vary in several as-
pects, requiring that buyers inspect them in person. This applies to car dealers,
nightlife districts, advertising, clothing stores, etc. In these cases competitors
often locate close together creating clusters.
Companies in dynamic environments, in terms of products or production cy-
cles, which require the use of expensive specialized machinery. In these cases
concentration may make possible reducing production costs by means of shar-
ing input factors or the appearance of suppliers specialized in particular opera-
tions that improve the efficiency of the whole cluster.
In the most general cases there is a combination of repulsion and attraction
forces among competitors.
In this paper we briefly analyse the foundations of some methodologies that
capture empirically aggregation and dispersion phenomena, and the forces of at-
traction and repulsion. Those methodologies go beyond the relations between ac-
tivities of the same type and generalize the idea to interactions among different
types of businesses, e.g. searching for possible complementarities. We illustrate in
a particular case study the use of this formalization together with a fitness function
and a simulated annealing algorithm as a decision making tool to find candidate
locations that explicitly takes into account interaction externalities.
307
2 Method
2.1 Network-based Model of Attraction and Repulsion Forces
A recent attempt to study quantitatively the relationships of interaction between

businesses corresponds to Duranton and Overman (2005). Although they focus on
the spatial distribution of industries, and not on the distribution of commercial
stores in urban areas like our case, their approach is interesting because it makes
use of the statistical properties of the empirical data to infer agglomeration
measures. Inspired by Duranton and Overman work, Jensen et al (Gmez et al.,
2009;Jensen, 2006;Jensen, 2009) proposed an original network-based approach to
quantify empirically the intensity of the attraction and repulsion forces between
commercial stores.
Suppose an urban area with stores corresponding to a set of sites =
{ ; = 1, , } where they are placed. The subset = { ; = 1, , } is
formed by the sites occupied by stores of type A. For each site , we de-
fine the variables (, ) and (, ) as the number of respectively total and A-
stores, including S, whose distance from the site S is less than or equal to a radius
r. The spatial interaction between A-stores is quantified by an intra-attraction coef-
ficient () as follows:
1 ( ,)
() =
=1 (1.1)
( 1) (, ,)
The coefficient () is an average over the A-stores of the result of di-

( ,) 1
viding the local aggregation ratio and the total aggregation ratio .
(, ,) 1
When () > 1 we say that the type of stores A shows spatial aggregation,
i.e. the local aggregation average of A-stores is greater than the expected value if
they were randomly distributed in the set of sites T. On the other hand, when
() < 1 we say that the type of stores A shows spatial dispersion.
We can easily generalize the last measure to all sites and any pair of
types of stores A and B. Now, the spatial interaction between A-stores and B-
stores is quantified by an inter-attraction coefficient () as follows:
(, ,)
() =
=1 (1.2)
( ,) ( ,)
Where ( , ), ( , ) and ( , ) are the number of respectively total,

A-stores and B-stores whose distance from the site is less than or equal to the
radius r. In this case, when () > 1 we say that the type of stores A attracts
B-stores, i.e. the local aggregation average of B-stores around A-stores is greater
308
than the expected value assuming that B-stores were randomly distributed; and
consequently we say that the type of stores A repulses B-stores when () < 1.
The intra and inter attraction coefficients can be used to model the spatial inter-
action between commercial stores as a network (Gmez et al., 2009;Jensen, 2009).
It is not difficult to see the matrix of the attraction coefficients as an adjacency
matrix of a weighted directed network (Newman, 2003). The nodes of this interac-
tion network are the set of types of stores, and the weights of the links between
any pair of nodes A and B is defined as:
= log( ) (1.3)
The logarithmic transformation of the attraction coefficients makes easy the inter-
pretation of the link weights: a positive value means a relationship of attraction
and negative one a relationship of repulsion.
3 Localization Decision Making Using a Simulated Annealing

Algorithm
3.1 Case Study
To illustrate our approach we have considered interactions among 21 types of

business (see Fig. 1) located in the area of Turin, an Italian city in the north of the
country. Our database contains 3866 georeferenced stores ranging from 541 in the
case of the most numerous type, to 23 in the case of the less.
309
Fig. 1 Different types of business considered in our analysis and their spatial location
We have computed the attraction matrix among the different types of stores fol-
lowing the explained methodology. The results of the main types of interactions
are summarized in Fig. 2 as a graph, where each element AB of the matrix is rep-
resented as a link showing the interaction between A and B type of business.
310
Fig. 2 Interactions among the different types of business considered. Colour of nodes represents
different classes found after applying a community detection algorithm. Node sizes show the
number of stores of each type included in the analysis, green links represent positive associations
while pink links represent negative associations. The figure only contains the main significant in-
teractions, those in the range [-0.2, 0.2] are not included.
3.2 Search of Candidate Locations Using a Simulated Annealing

Algorithm
Once business interaction has been quantified by means of the attraction matrix,
Jensen (2006) proposes a mathematical index to measure the fitness of a candidate
place for a new store of a given type of business. This index is based on the as-
sumption that current store localizations correctly capture positive and negative in-
teraction externalities through the empirically estimated matrix. Jensen defines the
index as follows: Let be x, y the coordinates of a geographic point candidate to
hold a type of activity A, then the quality of this point is given by:
Q (x, y) = AB ( (, )
) (1.4)
Where (, ) represents the number of stores in the neighbourhood of

(x,y), and represents the average number of B stores around an A store
(again given a neighbourhood defined by a radius).
311
We modify this Q index proposing a fitness function to locate an A

store F (x, y). This function is minimum in those locations in which the new place
interacts with a neighbourhood in the same empirical average relation found in the
city, and it increases if the relation is different. While Q index optimizes consider-
ing that if an interaction between two businesses is positive, the more in the
neighbourhood the better, F implicitly assumes that average empirical relation is
an optimum, so it penalizes any type of deviations. Jensen reports correlation be-
tween Q and the success of retail stores in the case study of Lyon (Jensen, 2006),
but as far as we know there is not any study that compares correlation indexes of
Q versus F.
F (x, y) = ( (, )
)2 (1.5)
In order to find good candidates according to F index we use a simulated an-

nealing algorithm (Cern, 1985;Kirkpatrick et al., 1983), a probabilistic metaheu-
ristic for global optimization, considering F as fitness function. The method is
based on searching in the neighbourhood of a previous solution considering an
adaptive criterion to accept a new solution. Acceptance mechanism is controlled
by the temperature variable which determines the probability of acceptance of a
solution that is worse than the previous one. Temperature is initialized in high val-
ue, T0, and is being decreased according to an specified cooling schedule (.) until
a final temperature Tf is reached. The algorithm always accepts as new solution a
better solution, but it is also possible to accept a worse solution depending on the
following equation:

acceptance = () (1.6)
Where is the difference between the F index of the new and old solutions, and
T is the current value of the temperature. This strategy initially allows escaping
from local optima when temperature is high, and converging through an optimum
in the final iterations. A neighbour solution is generated selecting randomly a new
point (x,y) inside the radius r of the current solution (x,y) (see Fig 3).
312
Fig. 3 Panel a) sketches the mechanism to create a neighbour solution. Panel b) represents solu-
tions visited searching for a new bank location and considering F fitness function. Parameters
used are T0=200, Tf=0.2 following a Cauchy cooling schedule (Dave and Dave, 2008) and 10 so-
lutions for each temperature. Panel c) shows the best solutions found
4 References
Cern V (1985). Thermodynamical approach to the traveling salesman problem: An efficient

simulation algorithm. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 45: 41-51, doi:
10.1007/BF00940812.
Dave PH, Dave HB (2008) Design and analysis of algorithms. Delhi, India, Pearson Educa-
tion/Dorling Kindersley (India).
Duranton G, Overman HG (2005). Testing for localization using micro-geographic data. Review
of Economic Studies, 72(4): 1077-1106, doi: 10.1111/0034-6527.00362.
Gmez S, Jensen P, Arenas A (2009). Analysis of community structure in networks of correlated
data. Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 80(1), doi:
10.1103/PhysRevE.80.016114.
Hoover EM, Giarratani F (1984) An Introduction to regional economics. McGraw-Hill.
Hotelling H (1929). Stability in competition. Economic Journal, 39(153): 41-57
313
Jensen P (2006). Network-based predictions of retail store commercial categories and optimal lo-
cations. Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 74(3), doi:
10.1103/PhysRevE.74.035101.
Jensen P (2009). Analyzing the Localization of Retail Stores with Complex Systems Tools. Lec-
ture Notes in Computer Science, 5772: 10-20, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-03915-7_2.
Kirkpatrick S, Gelatt CD, Vecchi MP (1983). Optimization by Simulated Annealing. Science,
220(4598): 671-680, doi: 10.1126/science.220.4598.671.
Newman MEJ (2003). The structure and function of complex networks. SIAM Review, 45(2):
167-256, doi: 10.1234/12345678.
314
Applications of the Lagrangian Relaxation

Method to Operations Scheduling
Lavis-Villahoz J.J 1,Arauzo J.A2, del-Olmo-Mrtinez R3, Manzanedo-del-

Campo M.A4,
Abstract Lagrangian Relaxation is a combinatorial optimization method, which is

mainly used as decomposition method, so a complex problem is divided into
smaller and easier problems. Lagrangian Relaxation method has been applied to
solve scheduling problem in diverse manufacturing environments like single ma-
chine, parallel machine, flow shop, job shop or even in complex real-world envi-
ronments. We highlight two key issues on the application of the method: the first
one is about the method to solve the dual problem and second one is the choice of
the constraints to relax. We present the main characteristics of these approaches
and survey the existing works in this area.
Keywords: Lagrangian Relaxation, Scheduling, Combinatorial Optimization, In-

teger Programming
1Juan Jos Lavios Villahoz ( e-mail: jjlavios@ubu.es)
Grupo INSISOC. EPS. Universidad de Burgos. Av. Cantabria s/n, 09006, Burgos
2JosAlberto Arauzo Arauzo ( e-mail: arauzo@insisoc.org)
Grupo INSISOC. EII. Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce 59, 47011 Valladolid.
3Ricardo del Olmo Martnez ( e-mail: rdelolmo@ubu.es)
Grupo INSISOC. EPS. Universidad de Burgos. C/ Villadiego s/n, 09001, Burgos.

4Miguelngel Manzanedo del Campo ( e-mail: mmanz@ubu.es)
EPS. Universidad de Burgos. C/ Villadiego s/n, 09001, Burgos.
* The authors acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation Project
CSD2010-00034 (SimulPast CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010) and by the Regional Government
of Castile and Leon (Spain) Project VA056A12-2.
315
1 Introduction
The Lagrangian Relaxation method seeks the solutions of a complex optimization

problem from the solutions of an easier problem, which is obtained by relaxing the
complex constraints of the original problem. It is mainly used as a decomposition
method, where complex problems are divided into smaller and easier problems. It
has been applied to solve scheduling problems in diverse manufacturing environ-
ments like single machine, parallel machine, flow shop, job shop or even in com-
plex real-world environments. The two key points in Lagrangian Relaxation are to
decide which constraints are relaxed and to choose which method should be used
to solve the dual problem. These decisions determine the performance of the
method.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: in section 2 we introduce the
basic idea of Lagrangian Relaxation and discuss two of the main choices in the de-
sign of the method, which constraints to relax and which method apply to solve
the dual problem; in section 3, we review the main works that apply the Lagrangi-
an Relaxation to the scheduling problem in a manufacturing environment; in sec-
tion 4, the conclusions are presented.
2 Implementation of the Lagrangian Relaxation in a

Manufacturing Scheduling Problem
The basic idea of Lagrangian Relaxation is to remove some of the constraints and
add them to the objective function. Each of the relaxed constraints is added to the
objective function multiplied by a variable (Lagrange multiplier) that penalize the
violation of the constraints. The key is to relax the constraints such that the re-
laxed problem is easier than the original problem.
The Lagrangian Relaxation method has been applied to different scheduling
environments like single machine, parallel machine, flow shop, job shop, real-
world environments, projects and supply chain. Integer formulation can be used to
formulate these problems. Total weighted tardiness or total weighted earliness and
tardiness is used as objective function. As additive functions, they can be easily
decomposed into job dependent subfunctions.
In a manufacturing environment machine capacity constraints and task prece-
dence constraints are the main candidates to be relaxed. The relaxed constraints
will determinate the orientation of the problem decomposition. If capacity con-
straints are relaxed, the problem can be decomposed into job related subproblems,
but if precedence constraints are relaxed, the problem can be decomposed into
machine related subproblems. Wang et al (1997) and Chen et al (1998) indicates
that the relaxation of precedence constraints causes important oscillations in the
solution from iteration to iteration and prevent convergence of the algorithm.
316
When the number of machines is large enough the relaxation of the capacity con-
straints leads to better lower bounds (Baptiste et al 2008).
The Lagrangian Relaxation method transforms the solutions of the relaxed
problem into feasible solutions of the original problem, trying to obtain near-
optimal solutions. The optimal value of the relaxed problem is a lower bound of
the optimal objective of the original problem. The subgradient method iteratively
adjusts the Lagrangian multipliers to find the best lower bound of the optimal ob-
jective value of the original problem (Fisher 2004). However, the subgradient
method requires the optimization of all the subproblems. It has two main draw-
backs: first, in some environments it may be difficult to obtain the optimum of the
relaxed problem; and second, the optimization of large size problems can be very
time consuming.
To overcome these difficulties the surrogate subgradient method have been
proposed. The main advantage is that the minimization of all the subproblems is
not required. In this method only a near optimization is sufficient to converge, so
less computational effort is needed (Zhao et al 1997). The main drawback of this
method is that the updating direction is worse than in the subgradient method.
As is shown in Table 1 most researches relax capacity constraints rather than
precedence constraints and the surrogate subgradient method is preferred for com-
plex environments or in large problems.
Table 1 Problem environment, dual problem method and type of constraints relaxed
subgradient method surrogate gradient method

Relaxed Capacity Precedence Capacity Precedence
constraints constraints constraints constraints constraints
General Luh and Hoitomt (1993)

scheduling
problem
Single ma- Sun et al (1999); Jeong Jiang and
chine and Leon (2005); Tang et Tang
al (2007); (2008)
Parallel ma- Luh et al (1990); Edis et al
chine (2008); Tang and Zhang
(2009)
Flow shop Nishi et al 2007) Tang et al
(2006)
Job shop Chen et al (1995, 1998); Hoitomt et Wang et al Chen and
Wang et al (1997); Dewan al (1993) (1997); Luh (2003)
and Joshi (2002); Luh and Kaskavelis and
Feng (2003); Liu et al Caramanis
(2004, 2007); Baptiste et (1998); Zhao
al (2008); Jeong and Yim et al (1999);
(2009)
317
Table 1 (continued) Problem environment, dual problem method and type of constraints relaxed
subgradient method surrogate gradient method

Relaxed Capacity Precedence Capacity Precedence
constraints constraints constraints constraints constraints
Complex Masin et al (2007); Arau- Zhang et al
environment zo (2007) Arau- (2001); Chen
zo et al (2009) et al (2003);
Luh et al
(2003), Sun
et al (2006)
3 Applications of the Lagrangian Relaxation Method to

Different Manufacturing Environments.
In this section, we review the main works that apply the Lagrangian Relaxation to
the scheduling manufacturing problems, they are classified by the type of envi-
ronment.
General scheduling problem

Luh and Hoitomt (1993) propose a generic methodology that uses Lagrangian Re-
laxation to solve a scheduling problem. It is applied to three different scheduling
environments: individual operations to be scheduled in identical parallel ma-
chines; job orders consisting of multiple operations to be scheduled in identical
parallel machines; and tasks related with general precedence constraints which
have to be scheduled in different machines.
Single machine scheduling problem

Sun et al (1999) use Lagrangian Relaxation algorithm to solve the problem of
scheduling a single machine with sequence dependent setup time. Sequence de-
pendent setup times are modeled as capacity constraints.
Dewan and Joshi (2000) decomposes the problem into a local job problems and
the machine problem. The machine fixes the prices of time slots and jobs chose
the time slots that optimize their costs. This arises in a dynamic environment
where new job orders may enter at any time. Every time a job is entered into the
system the prices are recalculated, taking the last prices before the arrival of the
new order as initial prices.
Jeong and Leon (2005) apply a variation of the dual problem resolution to solve
the problem of scheduling a shared resource of three production subsystems with-
out using a central planning system. They search a fully distributed problem.
318
Tang et al (2007) deal with multiple immediate predecessors and successors. A

forward and backwards dynamic programming algorithm is developed to solve the
relaxed problem.
Parallel machines
Luh et al (1990) first apply the Lagrangian Relaxation method to schedule jobs on
several identical machines. They define an iterative algorithm. The feasible pro-
gram is obtained from the task sequence extracted from the relaxed problem.
Edis et al (2008) add machine eligibility restrictions. In these problems differ-
ent machines can do the same job with a different performance. They develop a
heuristic to build feasible programs from the relaxed problem.
Tang and Zhang (2009) apply Lagrangian Relaxation method to rescheduling
tasks on a parallel machine in a dynamic environment. Breakdown of machines is
considered. The goal is to reschedule tasks with minimal modifications to the orig-
inal problem, but taking into account the efficiency the obtained schedule.
Flow Shop problem

Lagrangian Relaxation is applied in Tang et al (2006) to the problem of schedul-
ing a hybrid flow shop system. This system comprises various stages of produc-
tion, and in each of these stages there are a number of machines working in paral-
lel.
In Nishi et al (2007) the Lagrangian Relaxation algorithm is iteratively applied
while new restrictions are progressively added. They make new proposals for im-
proving the dynamic programming step.
Job shop problem

Hoitomt et al (1993) relax the precedence and the capacity constraints. A list-
scheduling algorithm is developed to generate a feasible schedule.
The main contribution of Chen et al (1995) is the use of dynamic programming
techniques to solve the relaxed job shop problem at the job order level. This
avoids additional relaxation of the precedence constraints.
Wang et al (1997) minimize earliness and tardiness of job orders. They com-
pare several methods for solving the dual problem.
Chen et al (1998) propose to relax only the capacity constraints to decompose
the problem into several subproblems associated to job orders. These problems are
solved using dynamic programming technique. They apply it to real factory data.
Kaskavelis and Caramanis (1998) and Zhao et al (1999) apply the surrogate
dual method to a separable problem (interleaved subgradient method).
The main contribution of Dewan and Joshi (2002) is the study of the relation-
ship between the theory of auctions and Lagrangian Relaxation. The concept of
319
multi-agent systems is used as a basis for the implementation of distributed sys-

tems in planning and production control. They define the problem as combinatori-
al auctions where the items sold are the time slot in which the planning horizon is
divided. Liu et al (2004, 2007) also define a reactive scheduling system where
auctions are held in a machine whenever a time slot is free.
Chen and Luh (2003) solve the job shop problem using the Lagrangian Relaxa-
tion method and relaxing the precedence constraints, rather than capacity con-
straints. The resulting subproblems are equivalent to solving a problem of schedul-
ing a single machine or parallel machines.
Kutanoglu and Wu (2004) combine the stochastic analysis with the dynamic
adaptation of the system to improve the robustness of Lagrangian Relaxation
method.
Baptiste et al.(2008) compare precedence constraints and capacity constraints.
They improve the solutions by local search.
Jeong and Yim (2009) apply Lagrangian Relaxation to solve the job shop prob-
lem extended to the case of virtual enterprise with agents controlling one or more
job orders and machines. Each subsystem calculates its own schedule. They use
the protocol CICA, developed in Jeong and Leon (2002), as a framework to solve
the scheduling problem in a distributed manner using an agent-based environment
Scheduling in complex environments

Gou et al (1998) implement the problem of production scheduling in a real pro-
duction plant using a multi-agent system. They organize the system as a hierarchy
following a quasi-distributed holonic structure based on relaxation of the capacity
constraints and precedence of the job shop problem.
Zhang et al (2001) develop a macro-level scheduling method based on Lagran-
gian Relaxation method. Large problems are studied and assemblies and disas-
semblies are allowed. This makes the structure of the resolution process and the
subproblems complex. Surrogate subgradient method is proposed to reduce the
computation requirements.
Chen et al (2003) study a complex environment with multiple resources, setup
times and transfer lots. They use a dynamic programming method for solving the
subproblems related to transfer lots easier than in the previous work.
Luh et al (2003) apply Lagrangian Relaxation to a problem of supply chain as
an extension of a job shop problem. It uses a variation of the Contract Net protocol
for communication among agents and the surrogate gradient method to solve the
dual problem.
Sun et al (2006) study complex process structures with coupling assemblies and
disassemblies. They propose to relax only one of the precedence constraints to
avoid oscillation problems. They add an auxiliary function penalty to improve its
convergence.
320
Arauzo (2007) implements an auction mechanism for controlling flexible man-

ufacturing systems. The analogy between auction and Lagrangian Relaxation pro-
cess is applied in the definition of the auction. This provides a robust mathemati-
cal method in the updating prices step.
Arauzo et al (2009) propose a multi-agent system for project portfolio man-
agement. Projects negotiate the allocation of shared resources by an auction. The
analogy between the Lagrangian Relaxation method and auctions is used as a
modeling tool. This approach allows managing the company's current projects and
provides decision criteria for the acceptance or rejection of new projects.
4 Conclusions
We reviewed the studies that have applied the Lagrangian Relaxation method to
the resolution of scheduling operations in recent years. The scope has been diverse
and covers most types of problems. The application of the method has been per-
formed with two types of relaxation of constraints: capacity or precedence con-
straints. The choice of one or another implies respectively an approach towards a
job decomposition or a machine decomposition of the problem. The dual problem
has also been solved with two different methods: the subgradient method, the sur-
rogate gradient method. The objectives of these studies aim to improve the speed
of resolution, the stability of the method, and the ease of solving problems.
5 References
Arauzo JA (2007) Control distribuido de sistemas de fabricacin flexibles: un enfoque basado en

agentes. Thesis. University of Valladolid.
Arazo JA, Pajares J, Lopez-Paredes A, Pavn J (2009) Agent-based modeling and simulation of
multi-project scheduling. Multi-Agent Logics, Languages, and Organizations Federated
Workshops.
Baptiste P, Flamini M, Sourd F (2008) Lagrangian bounds for just-in-time job-shop scheduling.
Computers and Operations Research 35(3):906-915.
Chen H, Chu C, Proth J-M (1998) An improvement of the Lagrangean relaxation approach for
job shop scheduling: a dynamic programming method. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and
Automation 14(5):786-795.
Chen H, Chu C, Proth J-M (1995) More efficient Lagrangian relaxation approach to job-shop
scheduling problems. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
Automation 496-501.
Chen H, Luh PB (2003) An alternative framework to Lagrangian relaxation approach for job
shop scheduling. European Journal of Operational Research 149(3):499-512.
Chen D, Lut PB, Thakur LS, Moreno Jr, J (2003) Optimization-based manufacturing scheduling
with multiple resources, setup requirements, and transfer lots. IIE Transactions 35(10):973-
985.
321
Dewan P, Joshi S (2002) Auction-based distributed scheduling in a dynamic job shop environ-
ment. International Journal of Production Research 40(5):1173-1191.
Dewan P, Joshi S (2000) Dynamic single-machine scheduling under distributed decision-making.
International Journal of Production Research 38(16):3759-3777.
Edis EB, Araz C, Ozkarahan I (2008) Lagrangian-based solution approaches for a resource-
constrained parallel machine scheduling problem with machine eligibility restrictions. In
Proceedings of the 21st international conference on Industrial, Engineering and Other Appli-
cations of Applied Intelligent Systems: New Frontiers in Applied Artificial Intelligence. 337-
346. Springer, Wrocaw.
Fisher ML (2004) The Lagrangian relaxation method for solving integer programming problems.
Management Science 50(12_supplement):1861-1871.
Gou L, Luh PB, Kyoya Y (1998) Holonic manufacturing scheduling: architecture, cooperation
mechanism, and implementation. Computers in Industry 37:213-231.
Hoitomt DJ, Luh PB, Pattipati KR (1993) A practical approach to job-shop scheduling problems.
IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 9(1):1-13.
Jeong I-J, Leon VJ (2005) A single-machine distributed scheduling methodology using coopera-
tive interaction via coupling agents. IIE Transactions 37(2):137-152.
Jeong I-J, Leon VJ (2002) Decision-making and cooperative interaction via coupling agents in
organizationally distributed systems. IIE Transactions 34(9):789-802.
Jeong I-J, Yim S-B (2009) A job shop distributed scheduling based on Lagrangian relaxation to
minimise total completion time. International Journal of Production Research 47(24):6783.
Jiang S, Tang L (2008) Lagrangian relaxation algorithm for a single machine scheduling with re-
lease dates. In Second International Symposium on Intelligent Information Technology Ap-
plication 811-815.
Kaskavelis CA, Caramanis MC (1998) Efficient Lagrangian relaxation algorithms for industry
size job-shop scheduling problems. IIE Transactions 30(11):1085-1097.
Kutanoglu E, Wu SD (2004) Improving scheduling robustness via preprocessing and dynamic
adaptation. IIE Transactions 36(11):1107.
Liu N, Abdelrahman MA, Ramaswamy S (2007) A complete multiagent framework for robust
and adaptable dynamic job shop scheduling. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cyber-
netics Part C: Applications and Reviews 37(5):904-916.
Liu N, Abdelrahman MA, Ramaswamy S (2004) A multi-agent model for reactive job shop
scheduling. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Southeastern Symposium on System Theory
241-245.
Luh PB, Feng W (2003) From manufacturing scheduling to supply chain coordination: The con-
trol of complexity and uncertainty. Journal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering
12(3):279-297.
Luh PB, Hoitomt DJ (1993) Scheduling of manufacturing systems using the Lagrangian relaxa-
tion technique. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 38(7):1066-1079.
Luh PB, Ni M, Chen, H, Thakur LS (2003) Price-based approach for activity coordination in a
supply network. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 19(2):335-346.
Luh PB, Omt D, Max E, Pattipati KR (1990) Schedule generation and reconfiguration for paral-
lel machines. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 6(6):687-696.
Masi M, Pasaogullari MO, Joshi S (2007) Dynamic scheduling of production-assembly networks
in a distributed environment. IIE Transactions 39(4):395-409.
Nishi T, Hiranaka Y, Inuiguchi M (2007) A successive Lagrangian relaxation method for solving
flow shop scheduling problems with total weighted tardiness. In IEEE International Confer-
ence on Automation Science and Engineering 875-880.
Sun T, Luh PB, Min L (2006) Lagrangian relaxation for complex job shop scheduling. In Pro-
ceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 1432-1437.
Sun X, Noble JS, Klein CM (1999) Single-machine scheduling with sequence dependent setup to
minimize total weighted squared tardiness. IIE Transactions 31(2):113-124.
322
Tang L, Zhang Y (2009) Parallel machine scheduling under the disruption of machine break-
down. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 48(14):6660-6667.
Tang L, Xuan H, Liu J (2007) Hybrid backward and forward dynamic programming based La-
grangian relaxation for single machine scheduling. Computers and Operations Research
34(9):2625-2636.
Tang L, Xuan H, Liu J (2006) A new Lagrangian relaxation algorithm for hybrid flowshop
scheduling to minimize total weighted completion time. Computers and Operations Research
33(11):3344-3359.
Wang J, Luh PB, Zhao X, Wang J (1997) An optimization-based algorithm for job shop schedul-
ing. Sdhana 22(part 2):241-256.
Zhang Y, Lut PB, Narimatsu K et al (2001) A macro-level scheduling method using Lagrangian
relaxation. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 17(1):70-79.
Zhao X. Luh PB, Wang J (1999) Surrogate gradient algorithm for Lagrangian relaxation. Journal
of Optimization Theory and Applications 100(3):699-712.
Zhao X, Luh P, Wang J (1997) The surrogate gradient algorithm for Lagrangian relaxation
method. Proceedings of the 36th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control 1:310, 305.
323
Methodology for the Strategic Capacity

Planning in Universities
de la Torre R1, Lusa A2, Mateo M3
Abstract This paper introduces the Strategic Capacity Planning problem in uni-
versities and proposes a methodology for solving the problem. The methodology
includes the characterization of the problem, the design of a mathematical model,
the data collection and pre-analysis, the model solving and the introduction of un-
certainties. Besides the use for staff capacity planning, the methodology can be
used to assess the impact that different strategies may have on the personnel costs
and structure.
Keywords: Strategic Capacity Planning, Quantitative Methods, Staff Planning,

KIO/KIF, KIBS.
1 Introduction
The number of Spanish universities has increased considerably in the last decades
(Corominas and Sacristn, 2010; Llins-Audet et al., 2010). This growth has been
accompanied by changes in the European higher education (European Credit
Transfer and Accumulation System - ECTS), an increasing concern about the
quality of university tasks (teaching, research, technology knowledge transfer,
etc.), and financial problems in public universities. Moreover, the latter has been
1Roco de la Torre (e-mail: maria.rocio.de.torre@upc.edu)

Department of Management / ETSEIB. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya. Universitat
Politcnica de Catalunya. Av. Diagonal 647, planta 7, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
2Amaia Lusa (e-mail: amaia.lusa@upc.edu)
Department of Management / IOC / ETSEIB. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya.
3 Manel Mateo (e-mail: manel.mateo@upc.edu)
Department of Management / ETSEIB. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya. Universitat

Politcnica de Catalunya. Av. Diagonal 647, planta 7, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
* Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (project DPI2010-15614).
324
accentuated by the global economic crisis, and particularly, by the Spanish eco-
nomic crisis.
Apart from the external changes, there have been several substantial changes in
the structure of the university during the last years. Also, the academic staff has
been notably modified (Corominas and Sacristn, 2010). One of the most relevant
changes has been the importance given to the research and the knowledge and
technology transfer (KTT) tasks, apart from the teaching tasks. This, obviously,
has a great influence on the definition of the ideal structure of the university
(composition of the workforce and, in particular, of the academic staff).
The strategic management was first developed in universities as a result from
the experience gained in companies. According to Llins-Audet et al. (2010),
while the strategic management was adopted by some European universities dur-
ing the eighties of the last century, it was not introduced in Spanish universities
until the nineties.
Several studies show that the number of strategic practices in universities is in-
creasing (Clark, 1998, 2003, Lounsbury, 2001; Jarzabkowski, 2003; Shattock,
2003; Agasisti et al., 2008); these, of course, are highly influenced and constrained
by the legal and academic regulations of each university.
Llins-Audet et al. (2010) present an analysis about the current state of strate-
gic planning in the Spanish universities. Moreover, the authors discuss on the ef-
fectiveness of the management tools implemented to date. They state that there
are not definitive standard formalized procedures to guide higher education insti-
tutions in this process. In line, Corominas and Sacristn (2010) note that in the
literature predominates outline and repeated proposals that frequently are not a re-
sult of a rigorous analysis of reality or are unreasoned. Rowley et al. (1997) af-
firm that often strategic planning in universities is rather short term, or alternative-
ly, a schedule for the resolution of specific problems.
Thus, strategic capacity planning in Spanish universities is a hot topic and very
timely, as it will require changes in current funding policies, human resources pol-
icies (Santiago et al., 2009) and academic policies. Some authors, such as Hunt et
al. (1997), argue that the use of strategic planning allows universities a better use
of their resources, and therefore they achieve greater institutional success (most
internationally, creating a better and innovative academic environment, etc.).
Surprisingly, to the best of our knowledge, a formalized procedure for the stra-
tegic capacity planning in universities has not been previously proposed.
This paper presents a procedure for solving the strategic capacity planning
problem in universities, and a mathematical model (which is part of the procedure)
for one of the variants of the problem.
The organization of the rest of the paper is as follows: Section 2 contains a
brief description of a variant of the problem. Section 3 presents a methodology for
strategic capacity planning in universities. Section 4 includes a mathematical pro-
gram for the problem described in Section 2. Finally, conclusions and references
are detailed in Sections 5 and 6 respectively.
325
2 Strategic Capacity Planning in a University
The problem consists in determining the capacity (i.e., staff, both in quantity and
type) for a long time horizon. The required capacity (or a probabilistic distribution
of it) is assumed to be known and it refers only to the teaching capacity. Of
course, the cheapest way to cover the required capacity would be with part time
staff (they work in another company or organization and do some lectures at the
university, at a quite low cost). However, even if this was legal, it would be detri-
mental to the quality (teaching is not their main job) and to the overall activity of
the university (including, of course, research and KTT tasks). To avoid this, an
ideal academic staff structure should be defined.
The specific characteristics of the problem are detailed below:
The system should have a certain excess of capacity.
The problem is considered to be dynamic, i.e. the capacity can vary along the
horizon.
The resources in strategic capacity planning are human resources and, in this
case, only academic staff (and not administration staff) is considered.
Each worker belongs to a unit (e.g., department) and to a category. The capaci-
ty and the types of task that he/she is able to do may depend on the category.
There are two types of categories: temporary and permanent categories.
Regarding temporary categories, it is mandatory for a member of the staff to
progress to a top category once a certain period of time is completed.
Regarding permanent categories, it is considered that a member of the staff is
able to progress to another category once the merits required in the top catego-
ry are reached. A person can access to a category from a lower one or from
outside the organization.
The considered decisions that influence the variation of the capacity include
the creation of posts (in certain categories and units) and the non-renewal of
contracts.
There is a maximum budget for personnel costs.
The evaluation criteria of the solution include the personnel cost and the com-
position of the academic staff (according to a preferable structure).
Some data can be uncertain.
3 Methodology of Strategic Capacity Planning in Universities
The proposed methodology is developed to help the organization to:

Define the long-term workforce planning, considering uncertainties.
326
Evaluate the impact of strategic decisions taken prior to the capacity planning
decisions, as for example the implementation of specific personnel policies
(e.g., stabilization or promotion plans, collective dismissal, etc.), the creation
or elimination of degrees, changes in the units (e.g., departments) configura-
tion, among others.
The phases that make up the methodology are represented in Figure 1 and
briefly described after the figure.
Fig. 1 A methodology scheme for the strategic capacity planning problem in universities. Source:
authors.
Phase I: Problems characterization

A scheme of the most relevant characteristics of the strategic capacity planning in
Knowledge Intensive Organizations (KIOs) was presented in Martinez et al.
(2012). According to the different characteristics (organizational structure, work-
force, capacity decisions, demand, service level, costs associated to the capacity
decisions, financing, uncertainty, planning horizon, and evaluation criteria), the
problem gives rise to different variants. The first step is to identify the variant, de-
scribing the specific characteristics of the problem.
Phase II: Models formulation

Once the problem has been characterized, next phase consists in designing a
mathematical optimization model. Each characteristic of the problem carries an
associated set of variables and constraints. To illustrate this phase, Section 4 pro-
vides the model formulation for the particular case of the university described in
Section 2.
327
Phase III: Data collection and pre-analysis

The objective of this phase is to define the sources of information for each type of
data, and process the information as required by the model.
Phase IV: Model solving

In this phase the aim is to solve the mathematical model. The implementation and
test of the model are included in the phase.
Phase V: Add uncertainty and refine results.

This phase is applied if uncertainty is considered to be relevant (for example, in
the required capacity, which may have different scenarios; in the probability that a
member of the academic staff is able to progress to another category; or in the
available budget). Stochastic models and simulation may be used (or combined)
depending on the case.
4 Models formulation
The mathematical model for the problem described in Section 2 is presented.
Table 1 Data base description
Parameter Description
Set of categories.
Subset of temporary categories (kK|k ([1, 1 ][1 + 1, 2 ])).
Subset of permanent categories (kK|k > 2 + 1).
Cost in [mu/worker] associated to the category k in period t. [t; kK]
Cost in [mu/hour] associated to part time lecturers in period t. [t]
Required capacity for the unit u, in period t. [t; u]
Capacity associated to each worker in the category k in period t. [t; kK].
Expected personnel cuts (for instance, due to retirement) in the unit u, category k,
in period t. [t; u; kK]
+ Set of categories to which it is possible to access from the category k. [kK]
Set of categories from which it is possible to access to the category k. [kK]
Proportion of workers in unit u, that can promote, as maximum, from the category
s to the category k, in period t. [t]
, Preferable bounds for the proportion of academic staff that belongs to the category
k in the period t. This condition is not rigid, but non-compliance is penalized.
328
Table 1 (continued) Data base description
Parameter Description
Excess of capacity that should have, at least, the unit u in the period t [t]. Note
that, even if it is not usual, this parameter could be negative (if a shortage in the
capacity is allowed, this would mean a worsening in the service level).
Penalty associated to the discrepancy between the preferable and the actual com-
position of academic staff of the category k, in the period t. [t]
Penalty associated to the maximum discrepancy between the preferable and the ac-
tual composition of the academic staff, in the period t. [t]
Penalty associated to the maximum discrepancy between the preferable and the ac-
tual workforce.
Planned budged of the salaries of the academic staff for the period t. [t]
Table 2 Variables of the model
Variable Description
wukt Integer variable that indicates the number of workers of the unit u, category k
and period t. [t; u; kK]
Aut Integer variable that indicates the number of hours given by part time workers in
the unit u in period t. [t; u]
Quklt Integer variable that indicates the number of workers who access to the category
l from the category k, in the unit u, in the period t. [t; u; kK]
+
wukt Integer variable that indicates the number of new workers in the unit u and cate-
gory k, in the period t from the labor market. [t; u; kK]

wukt Integer variable that indicates the number of off workers (excluding the previ-
ously forecasted) in the unit u and the category k, in the period t. [t; u; kK]
+
kt , kt Positive and the negative discrepancy, respectively, between the preferable and
the actual composition of the academic staff in the category k in the period t.
[t; kK]
t Maximum discrepancy (positive or negative), between the preferable and the ac-
tual composition of the academic staff in all categories in period t (i.e. t =
(+
kt , kt )). [t]
Maximum discrepancy between the preferable and the real composition of the
academic staff (i.e. = (t )).
Model
+
[] = ,[ + ( )] + ,[ ( )]
+ +
+ (1)
+ (1 + ) , (2)

, ; , = {1, 1 } (3)
+
+ , ; , ; = {1, 1 } (4)
329
+
= 1 + + + , ; (5)
, ; |+ +
{}; (6)

( , ) ; (7)
+
+ ; (8)
+
; (9)

; (10)
t (11)
[ + ( )] (12)
+
, , , , 0 (13)
+
, , , 0 (14)
Equation (1) presents the objective function. The aim is to minimize the costs
associated to the salaries as well as the discrepancies between the ideal and the ac-
tual composition of the academic staff. Equation (2) limits the minimum available
capacity; (3) and (4) balances the number of temporary staff members of each
unit, category and time of the university; the permanent staff members of each
unit, category and time of the university are balanced in (5); (6) imposes an upper
bound to the number of workers to be promoted. Constraints regarding the ideal
composition of the academic staff are included in equations (7) and (8). Con-
straints (9) to (11) correspond to the maximum discrepancies between all catego-
ries and periods, to avoid, insofar as possible, that the discrepancy be concentrated
in few categories or periods (assuming that it is preferable a regular distribution of
the discrepancy). Constraint (12) limits the personnel costs per period. Finally,
(13) and (14) impose that variables are non-negative.
5 Conclusions
This paper presents a methodology to deal with the problem of the Strategic Ca-
pacity Planning in universities and illustrate one the steps by presenting a mixed
integer lineal programming model for a variant of the problem. The methodology
can be used not only for planning capacity, but also for assessing the impact of
different university strategies (personnel policies, studies offered by the universi-
ty, etc.). This can be done by changing some parameters of the model. For in-
stance, in case of assessing the impact of personnel policies, it is necessary to
modify the proportion of workers that can promote ( ), the preferable bounds
for the composition staff ( , ), and the planned budget of the salaries ( ).
330
6 References
Agasisti, T, Arnaboldi, M, Azzone, G (2008). Strategic management accounting in universities:

the Italian experience. Higher Education, 55(1):1-15.
Clark, BR (1998). Creating Entrepreneurial Universities: Organizational Pathways of Transfor-
mation. Oxford: IAU Press by Pergamon.
Clark, BR (2003). Sustaining Change in Universities: Continuities in Case Studies and Concepts.
Tertiary Education and Management, 9:99-116.
Corominas A, Sacristn V (2010). The strategic crossroads of Spanish public university. Revista
de Educacin, 355:57-81.
Hunt, CM, Oosting, KW, Stevens, R, Loudon, D, Migliore, RH (1997). Strategic Planning for
Private Higher Education. Binghamton, NY: Haworth.
Jarzabkowski, P (2003). Strategic Practices: An Activity Theory Perspective on Continuity and
Change. Journal of Management Studies, 40:1.
Llins-Audet X, Girotto M, Sol F (2010). University strategic management and the efficacy of
the managerial tools: the case of the Spanish universities. Revista de Educacin, 355:33-54.
Lounsbury, M (2001). Institutional sources of practice variation: Staffing College and university
recycling programs. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46(1):29-56.
Martinez, M, Lusa, A, Mas, M, De La Torre, M, Mateo, M (2012). Strategic Capacity Planning
in KIOs: A Classification Scheme. In 6th International Conference on Industrial Engineering
and Industrial Management, Vigo, Spain.
Rowley, D, Lujan, H, Dolence, M (1997). Strategic Change in Colleges and Universities: Plan-
ning to Survive and Prosper. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Santiago, P, Brunner, JJ, Haug, G, Malo, S, Pietrogiacomo, P (2009). OECD Reviews of Tertiary
Education: Spain. Paris: OECD.
Shattock, M (2003). Managing successful universities. London, UK: Society for Research in
Higher Education & Open University Press.
331
A MILP Event Based Formulation for a Real-

world Multimode RCSP with Generalized
Temporal Constraints
Borreguero T1, Garca A2, Ortega M 3
Abstract Scheduling is becoming much more important in every industry. How-

ever, the standard RCSP usually does not cover all the characteristics of real world
problems. In this work, we present an Event Based MILP formulation for a Mul-
timode Resource Constraint Problem of direct application for some industries, as
aeronautical assembly lines. Taking as a starting point of the last MILP formula-
tions for standard RCSP, our contribution is to provide a formulation which covers
the multimode case and more general temporal constraints than the ones usually
referred to in the literature.
Keywords: Scheduling, Multimode, Event Based Formulation, Temporal Con-

straints, MILP.
1 Introduction
Over the last years, the continuous changes on every industry have forced enter-
prises to explore new manufacturing methods in order to comply with the
OTOQOC paradigm (On time, On Quality, On Cost). Production systems based
on the Toyota Production System have spread worldwide as a means of reducing
1Tamara Borreguero Sanchidrin ( tamaraborreguero@alumnos.upm.es)
Grupo IOL. Dpto. Ingeniera de Organizacin, Administracin de Empresas y Estadstica -.

ETSII. UPM Madrid
2
lvaro Garca Snchez ( alvaro.garcia@upm.es)
ETSII. UPM Madrid.
3
Miguel Ortega Mier (miguel.ortega.mier@upm.es)
ETSII. UPM Madrid.
332
waste and optimizing manufacturing processes. The aeronautical industry, since

the 1990s has been including the lean techniques into its production systems. In
terms of Boeing, in a Lean production system the right resources and the right
tools must be applied to achieve three key Lean principles: Takt Paced Production,
One Piece Flow and Pull Production (Gastelum, 2002). Scheduling and line bal-
ancing have therefore become two main enablers for lean implementation.
Aeronautical Final Assembly Lines consist on different platforms or stations.
Each platform has a fixed team of workers with different skills. The line balancing
enables the distribution of the work tasks among the different platforms. After-
wards, the work tasks from each platform must be scheduled in order to complete
them within the required Takt Time using the minimum number of operators. We
will refer to the scheduling of the tasks as the Aeronautical Platform Scheduling
Problem.
This detailed scheduling has the structure of a Resource Constrained Schedul-
ing Problem (RCSP), which was defined by Brucker (Brucker, 1999) as the alloca-
tion of scarce resources to dependent activities over time. It is a NP Hard optimi-
zation problem and is actually one of the most intractable classical problems in
practice. For both its industrial relevance and its challenging difficulty, solving the
RCPSP has become a flourishing research theme. (Artigues, 2010).
There have been a wide range of studies on both heuristic and metaheuristic
methods for solving the RCSP, as well as different MILP models. Recently, Kon
(Kon et al, 2011) proposed the use of Event Based Formulations for the RCSP.
He provided a benchmark of different models (including MILP and an heuristic)
and concluded that event based formulations outperformed the previous MILP
models and performed even better than the heuristic for some instances.
However, Kons Event Based Formulations deals with the standard RCSP,
which includes some assumptions that are too restrictive for many practical appli-
cations (Hartmann, 2010). Therefore, it is of great interest to improve this kind of
formulations so that they can be used on industrial applications. On this work, we
have developed a new Event Based Formulation that covers the characteristics of
an aeronautical Assembly Platform scheduling problem. Actually, its main contri-
bution is the allowance of multiple modes per task as well as the use of more gen-
eral temporal constraints. Furthermore, the alternative objective approach, focused
on minimizing the cost is more suitable for nowadays industries where the total
Lead Time is usually fixed by the client Takt Time.
Section 2 provides the general classification of the Aeronautical Platform
Scheduling problem. Section 3 gives an overview of existing exact formulations
for the RCSP. In section 4 we propose the event based multimode formulation
with additional temporal constraints. Section 5 contains the results and conclu-
sions of tests performed on several instances and Section 6 some conclusions and
future research directions.
333
2 The Aeronautical Platform Scheduling Problem
The RCSP is a combinatorial optimization problem, defined by a 6-tuple (V,

p,E,R,B,b), where V is a set of activities, p a vector of processing times per activi-
ty, E the set of temporal constraints, R the set of resources, B the resource capaci-
ty vector and b the demand matrix (resource consumption per activity) (Kon,
2009). The objective is to identify a feasible schedule, which assigns a start
/completion time (Sj / C j) to each activity as well as a resource allocation, taking
into account the temporal constraints and minimizing the total project lead time.
Until 1999, there was not a common notation for RCSP. Brucker (Bruck-
er1999) proposed a notation based on the extension of the | | generalized
scheme for the machine scheduling literature. In this notation, refers to the re-
source environment, to the activity characteristics and to the objective func-
tion. According to this notation, the Aeronautical Platform Scheduling is classified
as MPSm, , r | temp | max (, ):
= MPSm, , r. This stands for a multimode resource constraint project where
each activity can be processed in several alternative modes and exists a set of
renewable resources available for each time period during the project execu-
tion: m being the resources, the units of each resource available and r the
maximum number of units of the resources demanded by an activity. For our
particular problem, the activities are the work tasks assigned to each platform.
The renewable resources are the number of operators (each of them belonging
to a particular skill) and the space on the working areas, as platforms are divid-
ed into smaller areas where a limited number of operators can work simultane-
ously. As well as this, each mode for an activity defines a combination of oper-
ator skills, number of operators and durations. All the operators assigned to an
activity must be from the same skill and the range of possible numbers of allo-
cated operators per tasks is independent of the chosen skill.
= temp. Among the temporal constrains, there are precedence constraints
(task w can not start until task w has been completed), non-parallel constraints
(tasks w and w cannot be in progress at the same time, but there is no prece-
dence relation between them), and maximal time lags between tasks (task w
must start within a maximal time after w has been completed).The maximal
time lag, if it exists, will be zero for all the pairs of activities. All the temporal
constraints are independent from the mode in which a task is executed.
= max (, ). The objective function is to minimize the resource in-
vestment. The total lead time is fixed by the assembly line Takt Time, as stated
on Section 1. Therefore, the objective function is to minimize the labor cost of
the assembly. The operators, once assigned to a platform stay working on it for
all the Takt Time and thus minimizing the labor cost is equivalent to minimiz-
ing the maximum number of operators needed throughout the Takt Time.
334
3 Exact Formulations for the RCSP
Most of the research on RCSP has focused on the core single-mode problem with
precedence and resource constraints. In this section, we will review MILP formu-
lations for this core problem. They can be divided on three main groups:
Discrete Time Formulations: In them, the time horizon is divided into time
slots. The basic discrete time formulation was proposed by Pritsker (Pritsker,
1969). Afterwards, Christofides (Christofides, 1987) proposed the Disaggregat-
ed Discrete Time formulation (DDT) that implies a larger number of con-
straints but, on the other hand, is a tighter formulation and therefore its linear
relaxation provides a better LB. The main drawback of discrete time formula-
tions is the increase in the number of variables as the time horizon grows.
Continuous time formulation: In this formulations, the time is represented by
continuous variables: Alvarez-Valds and Tamarit, (Alvarez-Valds and Ta-
marit, 1993) studied Forbidden Sets Formulations which involve a high num-
ber of constraints that grows exponentially and cannot be used in practice.
Flow-Based Continuous time constraints, described by Artigues. (Artigues et
al, 2003) provide a poor relaxation, compared to discrete time formulations,
although it can be preferable to them for instances involving large time scale.
Event Based Formulations: Event Based Formulations for the RCSP where de-
veloped by Kon in 2009 (Kon, 2009), from a model introduced by Zapata.
(Zapata , 2008). These formulations define a series of events which correspond
to the start or end of the different activities. They are based on the fact that for
the RCSP it always exists an optimal semi-active schedule in which the start
time of an activity is either 0 or coincides with the completion time of another
activity (Sprecher, 1995). Therefore, at most + 1 events have to be consid-
ered. They have the advantage of not depending on the time horizon, making
them especially relevant for long time projects, as is the case.
Among Event Based Formulations, the Start/End Event Based Formulation in-
volves two types of binary variables, and , that are equal to 1 if task
starts (in the case of ) or ends ( ) at event and 0 otherwise.
4 Model Formulation
The Start/End Event Based Formulation (SEE) has been used as a starting point
for an extended formulation that copes with the multimode problem and the addi-
tional maximal separating time and non-parallel constraints as explained on Sec-
tion 2. The resulting formulation uses four sets: O stands for the operator profiles,
W for the work Tasks, A for the Working Areas and E for the events. The model
parameters are defined in Table 1.
335
Due to the new characteristics of our model, we replace the original SEE varia-
bles and with variables and , to be set to 1 if task starts or
ends on event , using operators of profile . As well as this, we define the non-

negative variables to represent the amount of resource needed immediately

after event and non-negative variables to represent the number of operators
working on area immediately after event . A binary variable is defined for
tasks with non-parallel constraints (, = 1 < )
set to 1 if ends before starts and 0 vice versa. A continuous variable
0 defines the starting time of a task. This will be used for maximal time lag con-
straints, and defined , + > 0.
The continuous non-negative variable represents the time of event , and the

free variable is used for the total number of operators of profile needed.
Table 1 Parameters
Parameter Definition
Total amount of working hours for task , if assigned only to one
operator
Reduction coefficient to the work task s makespan when it is done

by operators, , < <
1 if task can be done by operators with profile , 0 other-
wise

Maximum number of operators that can work on task

Minimum number of operators that can work on task
1 if the precedence graph includes a precedence relationship between
work tasks and , ,
1 if the precedence graph includes a non-parallel constraint between
work tasks and : , and < .
1 if the precedence graph includes a maximal time lag constraint be-
tween and , , ( )
1 if work task is done on area , 0 otherwise
Maximum number of operators that can work on area ,
Lead time
Big enough number
The formulation can be written as follows (domain restrictions omitted):

min.( ) (1)
Subject to:
0 = 0 (2)
336
+1 0 <> () (3)
(4)
1 (5)
= 1 (6)
= 1 (7)
+ (1 ) 0 > ,

, (8)
= , (9)
= , / = 1 (10)
1
=0 + = 1 w, w / = 1, e E (11)

(1 ) , / + > 0 (12)
+ (1 ) , / + > 0 (13)

0, , / = 1 (14)
(1 ) , / = 1 (15)

0 0 = 0 (16)

1 + ( ) = 0 , (17)
=1

, (18)

0 0 = 0 (19)

1 + ( ) = 0 , (20)

, (21)
Equation (1) is the objective function: to minimize the total number of opera-
tors. Constraint (2) forces the first event to begin at t=0 and constraint (4) assures
337
that there is no delay in the task completion. The order of the events on time is
imposed by constraint (3). Constraint (5) states that the start event of a task must
precede its end event. Constraints (6) and (7) limit to one the start and end per
work task. Constraint (8) fixes the minimum time difference between the start and
the end events to the duration of the task. A single mode for performing the task is
imposed by constraints (9) and (10). As for the relations between tasks: (11) is the
multimode expression for the precedence constraints. Maximal time lags equal to
zero for consecutive events are expressed on constraints (12) to (14). Non-parallel
constraints are (15). Resource needs are expressed on equations (16) to (18) in the
case of operators and (19) to (21) for the available capacity per area.
5 Results
The computational results were obtained using CPLEX12.4 solver. The tests were
carried out on an Intel-Core i7-2630QM processor with 2GHz and 4 GB RAM,
running Windows 7. As the standard PSPLIB instances are not valid for the struc-
ture of the problem, four different sets of 8 task instances were used. Table 2
shows the main instance characteristics. Sets 3 and 4 were also extended in order
to create instances of up to 11 tasks.
All instances were solved up to optimality, taking times from seconds to fifteen
minutes. The solution time grew exponentially with the number of events, even
when solving the same set of instances, see Figure 1. Defining fewer events has
also a high impact on the first LP bound, which is tighter. There is always a opti-
mal solution with no more than a number of events equal to Card(W)+1. Howev-
er, all the tested instances had an optimal solution with fewer events than that min-
imum number.
For each of the eight-task instances, different lead times were tested. On aver-
age, the solution time also grew as the objective Lead Time approached to the
Critical Path Lead Time, see Table 3. Most of the instances require more solution
time with the same number of events when new tasks are added. Withal, some
were solved faster with more tasks. This shows that in some cases the structure of
the problem is more important than the number of tasks itself. The detailed in-
stances and computational results are available on (APSP).
Table 2 Instance Characteristics
Set Precedences MTL NONPL Op. Profiles Areas No.Modes

Set1 6 1 1 2 2 12
Set2 8 1 1 2 2 16
Set3 7 1 1 2 2 17
Set4 7 1 1 2 2 16
338
Table 3 Sample solving time for different Lead Times
Instance LT=31.5 LT=33 LT=34.75 LT=41

Set2_8 Tasks 10.2s 6,65s 1,79s 0.83s
1200
8Tasks_Set1_LT11.5
1000
8Tasks_Set1_LT15
Solving Time (seconds)
8Tasks_Set2_LT31.5
800
8Tasks_Set2_LT33
600 8Tasks_Set2_LT34.75
8Tasks_Set3_LT14
400 8Tasks_Set4_LT13
200
0
5 7 9 11 13
Number of Events
Fig. 1 Solution Time per instance with different number of events
6 Conclusions
This work provides a new MILP formulation for a real case of MRCSP. It is a first
insight on the problem and has helped us identify directions for a further research.
In order to extend it to bigger instances it is necessary to make a focus on the use
of pre-processing to calculate the needed number of events.
As well as this, the solution times have been different for each set of instances,
although they had the same task dimension. A characterization of Aeronautical
Scheduling Problem instances is required in order to improve the formulation and
develop pre-processing techniques suitable for both the formulation and the data
sets.
7 References
Alvarez-Valds, R., Tamarit, J.M. (1993): The project scheduling polyhedron: Dimension, facets
and lifting theorems, European Journal of Operational Research 67, 204220
Artigues, C., Michelon, P., Reusser, S. (2003): Insertion techniques for static and dynamic re-
source-constrained project scheduling, European Journal of Operational Research 149, 249
267.
Artigues, C., Demassey, S., Nron, E. (2008): Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling
Models, Algorithms, Extensions and Applications, ISTE Ltd and John Wiley
339
Brucker,P , Drexl. A, Mhring. R, Neumann. K, Pesch. E (1999). Resource-constrained project

scheduling: Notation, classification, models and methods. European Journal of Operational
Research, 112 (1): 3-11
Brucker P. and Knust S. (2011). Complex Scheduling. GOR-Publications. Springer
Gastelum V.E (2002) Application of Lean Manufacturing Techniques for the Design of the Air-
craft Assembly Line, Massachusets Institute of Technology. Master Thesis.
APSP: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9070da1dz6typ2o/V0jCAtR_8y
Christofides, N., Alvarez-Valds, R., Tamarit, J.M. (1987): Project scheduling with resource
constraints: a branch and bound approach,European Journal of Operational Research 29,
262273
Gastelum V.E (2002) Application of Lean Manufacturing Techniques for the Design of the Air-
craft Assembly Line, Massachusets Institute of Technology. Master Thesis.
Hartmann S. and Briskorn D. (2010) A survey of variants and extensions of the resource-
constrained project scheduling problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 207: 1-
14.
O. Kone (2009). Nouvelles approches pour la rsolution du problme dordonnancement de pro-
jets moyens limits. PhD thesis, Universit Toulouse III -Paul Sabatier
O. Kone, C. Artigues, P. Lopez, and M. Mongeau.(2011) Event-based MILP models for re-
source-constrained project scheduling problems. Computers and Operations Research,
38(1):3 13
Sprecher A, Kolisch R, Drexl (1995) A. Semi-active, active, and non-delay schedules for the re-
source-constrained project scheduling problem. European Journal of Operational Research;
80:94102.
Pritsker, A., Watters, L., Wolfe, P. (1969): Multiproject scheduling with limited resources: A ze-
ro-one programming approach, Management Science 16, 93107.
Zapata JC,Hodge BM, Reklaitis GV (2008) The multimode resource constrained multiproject
scheduling problem: alternative formulations. AIChEJournal;54(8):210119.
340
A Model of Makespan Flow-shop Scheduling

under Ergonomic Requirements
Asensio-Cuesta S1, Gomez-Gasquet, P2, Andrs C3, Alemany M.M.E4
Abstract This paper address the recent growing interest the industrial environ-
ment has put over the healthy work. The ergonomics studies workers fatigue and
muscular stress risks. It shows the need to measure and evaluate risks to improve
the efficiency and reduce the costs. Based on a literature review from the schedul-
ing and ergonomics point of view implications are highlighted. The paper presents
a MILP mathematical model to minimize makespan in an n-job flow shop problem
with sequence dependent setup times considering recovery times.
Keywords: Flow-shop, Setup Time, Makespan, Ergonomic, Recovery Time
1Sabina Asensio Cuesta ( e-mail: sasensio@dpi.upv.es)

Departamento de Proyectos de Ingeniera. Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingeniera de Diseo.
Universitat Politcnica de Valncia Cno. De Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain.
2
Pedro Gmez Gasquet ( e-mail: pgomez@cigip.upv.es)
Centro de Investigacin de Gestin e Ingeniera de la Produccin (CIGIP). Universitat
Politcnica de Valncia Cno. De Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
3
Carlos Andrs Romano ( e-mail: candres@doe.upv.es)
Research Group in Reengineering, Operations Management, Group Work and Logistics
Excellence, Industriales. Universitat Politcnica de Valncia Cno. De Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia,
Spain.
4
Mara del Mar Eva Alemany Daz ( e-mail: mareva@cigip.upv.es)
Centro de Investigacin de Gestin e Ingeniera de la Produccin (CIGIP). Universitat
Politcnica de Valncia Cno. De Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
* This research has been carried out in the framework of a project funded by the Spanish
Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Ref. DPI2011-23597) and two projects funded by
Universitat Politcnica de Valencia Program for the Support of Research and Development 2011:
Methods and models for operations planning and order management in supply chains
characterized by uncertainty in production due to the lack of product uniformity (Ref. PAID-06-
11/1840 ); Analysis of the interactions of ergonomic risk factors in the development of work
related musculoskeletal disorders and a predictive model design. (Ref. PAID-06-11/2063).
341
1 Introduction to Ergonomic Flow-shop Scheduling
Design decisions made in the production system design phase can affect both er-
gonomics and productivity in the resulting system (Neumannetal et al., 2002 ;
Neumann et al., 2006). It has been demonstrated how ergonomic risks at the
workplace cause a lot of damage to health and quality of life of workers, deterio-
rate economic results of employers and of the economy as a whole (Otto and
Scholl , 2011). An inadequate ergonomic work conditions are mainly associated
with work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), and those disorders are a
major cause of work-related illnesses (Asensio-Cuesta, 2012). MSDs are associat-
ed with maintenance of awkward postures, lifting loads, performing repetitive
movements, exposure to vibration, deficient psychosocial conditions (Bernard et
al., 1997; Diego-Mas, 2009; Asensio-Cuesta, 2012) and stress (Faragher et. al.,
2005). Moreover these risks factors worsen when there are not adequate rest peri-
ods for workers or, lack of recovery periods (Colombini et al. 2002). This lack
of recovery periods increase muscle fatigue and therefore workers probability of
suffer MSDs. Mathiassen (2006) states that the proper recovery of muscles is cru-
cial to prevent the occurrence of musculoskeletal injuries, breaks at work decrease
the likelihood of musculoskeletal pain (Rundcrantz et al., 91).
Work-related MSDs are a cause of concern not only because of the health ef-
fects on individual workers, but also because of the economic impact on organiza-
tions and the social costs. MSDs involve direct costs such as costs due to the man-
agement of identified musculoskeletal disorders and include insurance,
compensation, medical and administrative costs. MSDs also have indirect costs
such as costs attributed to sick leave, hiring and training of new employees, re-
duced productivity levels and the effects on production and quality of work (e.g.
possible loss of customers due to delays or dissatisfaction) (European Agency for
Safety and Health at Work, 2011).
From an economic perspective data related to MSDs that underline the im-
portance of avoiding mentioned illnesses exist. Thus, in the United States there
were 317,440 MSDs in 2008 requiring an average of 10 days away from work,
two more days than the average for all days-away-from-work cases (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 2009). Taking into account MSDs indirect costs the total yearly
cost of all workplace injuries at well over $1 trillion or 10% of United States
Gross Domestic Product (Melhorn et al., 2001). In Spain, according to the VII Na-
tional Survey of Working Conditions conducted in 2011, 77.5% of workers report
feeling a musculoskeletal disorder (National Institute for Safety and Health at
Work, 2011). Even some studies estimate that this problem involves a cost of
1.6% European Gross Domestic Product (Dez-of-Ulzurrun et al., 2007).
A relationship between modifiable health risk factors and health care costs is
supported by research. Health promotion interventions appear to provide positive
financial returns, most notably for health care costs and absenteeism reduction
(Golaszewski, 2001). Effective prevention at workplace of illnesses (musculoskel-
342
etal disorders) through active intervention is necessary and also decreases costs
significantly by reducing the disability experienced by the individual employee
(Melhorn et al., 2001). MSDs prevention can be done by re-designing the tasks to
eliminate potential risks, like lack of recovery periods, or when task re-design is
not possible due to production, technical or economic constraints organizational
strategy must be implemented. Winkel et al. (1992) demonstrated that the ergo-
nomic exposure risk of a worker depends on three factors: the magnitude of the
risk, exposure time and frequency. On these basis the correct workstation and
tools ergonomic design will decrease the amplitude of the risk, and an adequate
distribution of rest breaks in workers schedule will decrease the duration of their
exposure and fatigue.
The question of rest breaks and the determination of their duration and schedul-
ing has long been a focus of ergonomic studies in industry. Many studies have
been conducted to examine the optimal time period for breaks and the effects on
productivity and musculoskeletal discomfort symptoms. However, no univocally
defined criteria already exist to establish work-rest periods. Furthermore the dura-
tion of the recovery periods depend on ergonomic risk factors present in each
case: awkward or static postures, repetitive movements, lifting tasks, etc. Rohmert
(1973) suggested that with the exponential increase of fatigue during work the rule
for rest breaks is 'little and often'. Kogi (1982) recommended that to decrease fa-
tigue with repetitive work there must be brief intra-work pauses where the muscles
are rested from static load and there must be a break after a period of continuous
work. The Australian Health and Safety Commission (Victorian Occ. HSH, 1988)
indicates that working periods with repetitive movements exceeding 60 minutes,
without recovery periods (breaks, pauses, change or total rest muscle group previ-
ous by employed), cannot be considered acceptable. Colombini et al. (2002) estab-
lish that the ratio between working time (with repetitive movements) and recovery
time must be of at least 5:1 (50 minute work and 10 recovery). On the basis of
this optimal distribution of work-rest authors evaluates the risk due to the lack, or
inadequacy, of the distribution of recovery periods in case of repetitive tasks and
also calculate recovery periods for operations requiring isometric contractions (al-
beit occasional) by times and level of force required. The problem to establish an
adequate recovery period design changes when lifting tasks are involved, in lifting
tasks the risk level not only depends on duration of the task, it also depend on oth-
er factors such as weight of the load lifted, lift position, grip of the load and fre-
quency (Waters et al., 93). Therefore, a profound evaluation of the positions in-
volving lifting must be done to establish suitable recovery periods to achieve a
tolerable risk level for workers. For that assessment Niosh equation can be applied
(National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1991). On the other hand,
lack of physical activity can adversely affect musculoskeletal health (Bernard,
1997), for instance, work with visual display terminal VDT exposes workers to a
static charge, although low intensity can cause musculoskeletal disorders in the
neck and shoulders (Visser, 04). Dul et al (1991) developed a model to find the
343
optimum work-rest schedule for static work. Bystrom et al. (1991) proposed a
method for establishing the optimum work-rest ratios in cases where intermittent
static muscle actions are involved. The model predicted that for a given total work
time and total rest time, many short work-rest periods are better than fewer long
work-rest cycles. For 8 hour workday, Commissaris et al. (2007) recommend a re-
covery period after 1 hour continuous standing, and a recovery after 2 hour con-
tinuous sitting, and total time at this position does not exceed 4 hours. This rec-
ommendation is based on the ISO 11226 standard (International Organization for
Standardization, 00). On 8 hour work day workers should have a recovery period
of at least 7.5 minutes in the morning, and at least 10 minutes in the evening, after
each work shift of at most 1 hours. The micro-pauses, for example, every 20
minutes work 30 seconds pause, also limit the accumulation of fatigue in neck and
shoulders (McLean et al., 2001). In conclusion, to determinate the number, dura-
tion and time of recovery periods in a work scheduler to prevent MSDs a previous
and exhaustive ergonomic risk analysis should be done.
At this stage, it is important to highlight that repetitive tasks are very often re-
quired to be performed in industry working environments where work in flow-
shop configurations are performed. Design flow-shop scheduling considering
productivity and ergonomic criteria to prevent work related MSDs is the aim of
this paper. Many years have passed since the first paper about flow-shop was pub-
lished (Johnson, 1954), where an optimal solution for the case of two machines
and n jobs was presented. Since then many researchers have studied the different
possibilities of flow-shop problems which may involve. A comprehensive review
of flow-shop scheduling problems focus on makespan minimization was presented
in Hejazi and Saghafian (2005). Also Gupta and Stafford (2006) reviewed over the
last 50 years, where it is shown the wide scope of problems have been treated and
where they conclude that still exists a gap between the theoretical-abstract model-
ling and the development of models which are closer to real-life production sys-
tems. Some papers (Framinan et al., 2004), (Ruiz and Maroto, 2005) and (Gomez-
Gasquet et al., 2012) have contributed to reduce the gap. In-between different op-
erations in a flow-shop configuration, setup times to reconfigure each resource to
the next sublot; this sublot may be part of the same job or even from a different
one. To reduce the gap, setup concept has been widely tackled in flow-shop envi-
ronments (Allahverdi et al., 1999). In this paper, setup times will be sequence de-
pendent (SDST); setups depend not only on the job to be processed next, but also
on its immediately preceding job on the same resource. Other setup consideration
was published in Cheng et al. (2000) where an extend review of flow-shop prob-
lem with setup times.
Considering setup times in flow-shop is an approach to industrial environment
but some times is not enough. The establishment of work and rest periods in line
with ergonomic requirements have influence on the productive scheduling. Our
proposal is based on setup time sequence dependent on flow-shop where pro-
cessing and setup times could be increased due to the ergonomic requirements.
344
The ergonomic requirements, we are focused on, are workers adequate recovery
periods. Thus, ergonomic requirements modify the sequences scheduling, the best
no-ergonomic sequences could not be the best now. Moreover, rest periods are
added during a processing time the concept of sublot emerges, this means dividing
a job into a number of smaller sublots, but not overlapping operations between
successive machines. Whereby it cannot be considered lot-streaming (Reiter,
1966). Therefore, flow-shop scheduling designing under ergonomic work-rest re-
quirements should be taken into account sublots schedule. In scheduling sublots
can be addressed in different ways. A fashionable concept is Lot Streaming (LS)
that allows splitting jobs in smaller entities, sublots, what makes easier material
transfer between stages. In the flow-shop, LS makes possible makespan or Cmax
reduction (Sarin and Jaiprakash, 2007). Although it is a concept wich we will want
to apply in the future, has not been considered in this work, in order to avoid inter-
actions.
2 Approach to an Ergonomic Assessment in Flow-shop

Scheduling
As it has been introduced in the previous section, in a wide range of industrial sit-
uations companies usually work in flow-shop configurations, where there are m
resources in series. Each job has to be processed on each one of the m resources
(worker or machines). All jobs have to follow the same route, i.e., they have to be
processed rst on worker 1, then on machine 2, and so on. After completion on
one resource a job joins the queue at the next resource (Brucker, 2004). In order to
determine a quantitative ergonomic risk value in a flow-shop scheduling due to in-
adequate recovery periods for workers our proposal applied (Colombini et al.,
2002) approach. In (Colombini et al., 2002) two methods to assess ergonomic risk
level due to inadequate work-rest distribution are described. First method consid-
ers the optimal distribution ratio of repetitive tasks and recovery as 50 minutes
work and 10 recovery. Under those criterion, the maximum continued period that
can be spent carrying out repetitive task in condition defined as acceptable are
50 minutes. All extra minutes, continue with respect to those periods, which are
spent without significant recovery periods, are considered as periods of potential
overload. In proposed second method each hour is defined as being risk-free or
at risk. An overall risk is determined by the overall number of hours at risk. If
the ratio between time work-recovery periods is 5:1 to 6:1, the hour is considered
as being risk-free (risk 0). If ratio is between 7:1 and 11:1, the risk assessed is 0.5.
If the work-recovery ratio exceeds 11:1, the risk factor is 1, because the ratio is
judged as being unsatisfactory. Over an 8-hour shift, interrupted by lunch break,
but with no other pauses at all, the maximum score of 6 will be counted: in fact,
the hour of work which is followed by the lunch break and the last hour of work in
345
the sift, can be considered as not risk, because they are followed by sufficient
recovery periods. Figure 1 illustrate an example of task and breaks schedule and
Table 1 shows total work time, rest time and risk values.
1 h. 2 h. 3 h. 4 h. 5 h. 6 h. 7 h. 8 h. 9 h.
A A A A Lunch A A A A
Pause 10 min. (Setup) Pause 10 min. (Setup)
Fig. 1 Working scheduler with a single repetitive task is carried out (Adapted from Colombini et
al. (2002))
Table 1 Counting time respectively in good recovery or in potential overload and the risk level
due to lack of recovery for every hour (Adapted from (Colombini et al., 2002)).
Hour Work Recovery Risk Minutes spent Minutes spent in

after recovery potential overload
1 60 min 0 min 1 50 10
2 50 min 10 min (setup time) 0 - 50
3 60 min 0 min 1 50 10
4 60 min 0 min 0 - 60
5 0 min 60 min (lunch break) 0 - -
6 60 min 0 min 1 50 10
7 50 min 10 min (setup time) 0 - 50
8 60 min 0 min 1 50 10
9 60 min 0 min 0 - 60
Total 460 min 80 min 4 200 260
In figure 1 job A schedule lasts 460 minutes in that worker has 200 minutes of
recovery and 260 minutes are spent in conditions of potential overload.
In order to illustrate the complexity and the change of paradigm that is pro-
posed, an example is shown in Figure 2. In the upper part of figure jobs are sched-
uled without considering recovery periods, in the schedule 1 the sequence is A-B,
in the schedule 2 is B-A, where process and setup times are indicated in the figure.
The makespan of permutation sequence B-A is 225 minutes, the best. But at the
bottom, a rest period of 10 minutes is added every 50 minutes of work in both se-
quences. Considering ergonomic aspects the makespan A-B is the best option with
240 minutes. As it has been mentioned before, as a result of adding rest periods
during a processing time sublot appear, job A is divided into 3 sublots A(50),
A(30) and A(20) in schedule 1.e (Figure 2).
346
Fig. 2 An example of setup time sequence dependent flow-shop scheduled without consider rest
periods (Schdule 1 and 2) and considering ergonomic rest period (Schedule 1-e and 2-e)
Applying (Colombini et al., 2002) methods flow-shop schedules can be as-

sessed to determine ergonomic risk level due to inadequate work-rest distribution.
In Figure 3 that illustrates an example of flow-shop schedule without ergonomic
restrictions worker 1 (Wk1) spent 30 minutes in potential overload and the first
hour has Risk level 1 (50 minutes without recovery), worker 2 (Wk2) 20 minutes
with potential overload and there are not hours under risk. While in figure 4 after
ergonomic restriction added workers are not in potential overload any minute.
Fig. 3 Scheduler 1 ergonomic risk assessment due to work-rest distribution.
Fig. 4 Scheduler 1-e ergonomic risk assessment due to work-rest distribution.
Figure 5 shows a schedule with an makespan of 225 where a worker 1 is under

ergonomic risk 30 minutes because of not adequate rest periods are including and
a worker 2 is in the same situation 20 minutes. However in schedule 2-e (Figure 6)
347
designed with ergonomic work-rest satisfactory ratio (5:1) workers a not exposed
to overload due to lack of recovery period risk.
Thus, consider in the design of flow-shop schedules appropriate breaks is com-

patible with makespan optimization and also brings prevention of MSDs benefits.
3 Model Definition
In this section, a proposed MILP for a flow-shop scheduling problem is presented.

Sequence dependent setup time and operations standby for a recovery time when
exceeding the maximum recommend continuous working period considering the
ergonomic aspect are the main characteristics of the proposed problem. In the
problem modelled resources are worker or are worker-depended. The objective
function is minimizing the makespan and ergonomic work-recovery requirements
are included as model constraints.
Using the classical notation the model will be presented as
n/F/SRW,SDST/Cmax. This model consists in a flow-shop (F) of r stages (R), one
worker each stage, where n jobs (N) must be processed. The following assump-
tions are made: (1) all jobs are available at time zero; (2) the processing and setup
time of each item is known and deterministic; (3) no preemption is allowed; (4)
machines are available at any time; (5) each machine can process at most one job
at a time; (6) each job can be processed on one machine at a time; (7) sequence
dependent setup times (SDST) are considered; (8) and, job operation could be
paused, standby recovery worker (SRW).
In the MILP model jobs are divided in sublots if some recovery time is required
in order to avoid working periods larger than emax. In this case sublots are separate
by a fixed recovery period T R. The transfer unit between operations is the job, not
the sublot. In other case, one sublot by job is considered. Setup times are always
348
considered time for recovery the workers, so setup time are forced to be at least T R
period large.
The problem consists to decide the job schedule to minimize makespan. With
the aim of constructing a general mathematical model, the information will be pre-
sented using the following indexes:
i,t index set of jobs {1..n};
l, v index set sublots of i job in r stage {1..Zi}.
r index set of stages on the shop {1..R}
Parameters in the model are the data known beforehand:

Zi number of units in job i
Pi,r processing time for one unit of job i at stage r
St,i,r setup time for job i, preceded by a job t, at the stage r
TR recovery time for any worker after a working period
emax ergonomic working time. Maximum working time after a recovery
M a positive number larger than makespan
M a positive number larger than maximum processing time of any job in any
stage + TR
MILP model determines the following variables:

Xl,i,r (integer) number of units in sublot l of job i at stage r
Cl,i,r (integer) completion time of sublot l of job i at stage r
SXt,i,r (integer) extended setup time for job i, preceded by a job t, at the stage r
1, if job is performed before job at stage

qt,i,r = {
0, otherwise
,
,,, = {
,
1, if sublot of job at stage (,, > 0)

Yl,i,r = {
0, otherwise
With these notations, the problem can be formulated as the following MILP mod-
el. The objective is to minimize makespan (1):
. . = (1)
The constraints of the model are presented below in two sets, each representing
one type of system constraint. The model is subject to:
Precedence constraints: This set of constrains ensures the processing order of

jobs and sublots.
349
,, , , (2)

,, ,, + , ,, + ,, + (,, 1) , , , , (3)

,, ,, + , ,, + ,, ,, , , , , (4)
,, ,, + , ,, + ,, + (,,,
1) , , , > 1 (5)
,, ,, + , ,, + ,, ,,, , , , >
1 (6)
,, ,,1 + , ,, , , , > 1 (7)
,, , ,, , , (8)
The constraint set (2) determines maximum completion time or makespan.

Constraint (3) y (4) ensures that a job cannot start before the previous job at the
same stage r has been completely processed. Constraint (5) y (6) ensures that any
two sublots of any job are processed simultaneously and between both a recovery
time TR is added. Constraint (7) ensures that any sublot of a job can start in the
next stage before all sublots have been completed in the actual stage. Constraint
(8) ensures first sublot start time is not negative.
Constraints related to sublot sizes and duration of working and recovery peri-
ods:

=0

,, = , (9)
, ,, , , (10)

,, ,, , , (11)

,, , , (12)

,, ,, (1 ,,, ) , , , (13)
Constraint (9) ensures that all the units are processed for all jobs at all the stag-
es. Constraint (10) ensures that the processing time of each sublot will remain less
than ergonomic time for all jobs at all stages. Constraint (11) and (12) ensures set-
up time considered between two jobs includes at least a recovery time period. And
350
constraint (13) ensures that if a sublot v is processed (Xv,i,r=0) after a sublot l of

any job then the value of Yl,i,r let add a recovery time TR in constraint (5) and (6).
4 Conclusions
The proposed model is a suitable tool for designing of shop-flow schedules where
the makespan is minimized and, at the same time, ergonomic work-recovery peri-
ods are included in order to prevent work related MSDs. The suggested model
requires an initial effort for the evaluation of the ergonomics risks factors present-
ed in each machine (workstations) to establish the adequate relation between work
and recovery periods while preventive benefits outweigh the effort.
After the comparison between a flow-shop with and without considering ergo-
nomic aspect, we can conclude that the problem presented is, as it is highlighted in
section 2, an interesting challenge from research point of view, where further re-
search needs to be carried out in order to exploit this technic/concept properly.
This approach might improve companies efficiency it allows us to reflect reality
and thus include restrictions on models up often avoided. And we should not for-
get that these problems, once we introduce SDST combined with lot splitting, are
probably NP-hard.
In the introduction point the relevance of differentiating between the machine
and the operator resource has emphasized. New requirements based on health-
related and working conditions have emerged. Although the industrial reality is
complex, has shown an example that serves to illustrate some effects on the
makespan when considering new restrictions. However, its industrial application
needs to be validated using experimental analysis, cases studies, etc. But model-
ling is the first step on this path, and this work has helped to build it.
In the future two paths are open. On one hand, contribute with new methods
that should be capable of providing solutions in a reasonable time for realistic
problems. On the other hand, our research will introduce and consider more realis-
tic approaches such as Hybrid FS environments (HFS) or HFS/FS and lot stream-
ing combination.
Moreover, future research in this area could focus on an extended model to
minimize both makespan and ergonomic risk by means of introducing ergonomic
risk measures into the objective function. Also, another possible line of research
would be developed a method (model or metaheuristic algorithm) that provides
flow-shop scheduling where makespan is minimized and a workers rotation
schedule is proposed where the content of the jobs to be performed by workers in-
volve an effective change of activity. In this way, the risk of suffering musculo-
skeletal disorders may be reduced.
351
5 References
Allahverdi A, Gupta J N D Aldowaisan T (1999). A review of scheduling research involving set-

up considerations. Omega, 27(2), 219239. doi:10.1016/S0305-0483(98)00042-5
Asensio-Cuesta S, Diego-Mas J A, Cans-Dars L (2012). A genetic algorithm for the design of
job rotation schedules considering ergonomic and competence criteria. Int J Adv Manuf Te-
chnol, 60:11611174
Diego-Mas JA, Asensio-Cuesta S, Sanchez-Romero M A, Artacho-Ramirez MA. (2009). A mul-
ti-criteria genetic algorithm for the generation of job rotation schedules. Intl J Ind Er-
gon,39(1):23-33
Bernard B. (1997). Musculoskeletal disorders and workplace factors: A critical review of epide-
miological evidence for work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the neck, upper extremity,
and low back. Cincinnati, Ohio. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH),
Brucker, P. (2004). Scheduling Algorithms. 4th edition Springer. Berlin Heidelberg New York.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009). Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses requiring days
away from work, 2008. Economic news release.
Bystrom, S. (1991). Physiological response and acceptability of isometric intermittent handgrip
contrations. Arbete och alsa Niosh (Sweden)
Cheng, TCE., Gupta, JND., Wang, GQ. (2000). A review of flowshop scheduling research with
setup times, Production and Operations Management , 9 (3):262-
282 WOS:000167983500004
Colombini D, Occhipinti E, Grieco A. (2002). Risk Assessment and Management of Repetitive
Movements and exertions of upper limbs, Oxford: Elsevier.
Commissaris DA, Douwes M, Looze M P. (2007). Recommendations for sufficient physical ac-
tivity at work. C. Berlin and L-O. Bligrd (Eds): Proceedings of the 39th Nordic Ergonomics
Society Conference, Lysekil, Sweden.
Dez-de-Ulzurrun M, Garasa-Jimenez A, y Eransus-Izquierdo J, (2007). Work related musculo-
skeletal disorders. Navarro Institute of Occupational Health. Government of Navarre.
Dul J, Douwes M, Smitt P. (1991). A work-rest-model for static postures. In: Y.Queinnec and
F.Daniellou (Eds) Designing for Everyone: Proceedings of the 11th Congress of the Interna-
tional Ergonomic Association, volume 1, New York, Taylor and Francis, 93-95
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. (2011). OSH in figures: Occupational safety
and health in the transport Sector An Overview. European Risk Observatory Report
Faragher, E. B., Cass, M., Cooper C. L.(2005). "The relationship between job satisfaction and
health: a meta-analysis". Occupational Environent Medicine, 62, 105-112
Framinan JM, Gupta JND, Leisten R. (2004). A review and classification of heuristics for per-
mutation flow-shop scheduling with makespan objective. Journal of the Operational Research
Society, 55 (12), 12431255. Doi: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601784
Golaszewski T. (2001) Shining Lights: Studies That Have Most Influenced the Understanding of
Health Promotion's Financial Impact. American Journal of Health Promotion: May/June
2001, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 332-340.
Gomez-Gasquet P, Andres C,. Lario FC (2012). An agent-based genetic algorithm for hybrid
flowshops with sequence dependent setup times to minimise makespan. Expert Systems with
Applications. 39(9): 8095-8107, doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2012.01.158
Hammerschmidt DM. (2008). The Prevalence of Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders in
Certified Members of the National Athletic Trainers' Association. ProQuest.
Hejazi, SR Saghafian, S (2005). Flowshop-scheduling problems with makespan criterion: a re-
view, International Journal of the Operational Research, 43(14):2895-2929 DOI:
10.1080/0020754050056417
352
Hilla, W. (2006). Produktivitt und Ergonomie gemeinsam entwickeln. Erfahrungen aus der be-
triebsrztlichen Ttigkeit bei Audi AG. Presentation at MTM Bundestagung 26.10.2006,
Stuttgart.
International Organization for Standarization, (2000). ISO 11226, Ergonomics - Evaluation of
static working postures. ISO, Geneva, Swizerland,
Mark Melhorna JM, Larry KW, O'Malleyc MD. (2001). Successful Management of Musculo-
skeletal Disorders, Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 7(7):
1801-1810
Johnson, S. M. (1954). Optimal two and three stage production schedules with setup times in-
cluded. Naval Research Logistics Quarterly, 1(1), 6168. doi:10.1002/nav.3800010110
Kogi K (1982) Finding appropriate work-rest rhythm for occupational strain on the basis of
EMG and behaviour changes. In: P.A. Buser, W.A Cobb, T. Okuma (eds) Kyoto Symposium:
Electroencephanolography and clinical neurophysiology, Amsterdam, Elsevier, Biomedical
Press, 738-49
MacLeod D., Kennedy E. (2008). Job Rotation System. Available via:
http://www.lni.wa.gov/wisha/ergoideas/DocumentsFiles/idea719.pdf, last access date: May /
2008
Mathiassen SE. (2006). Diversity and variation in biomechanical exposure: What is it, and why
would we like to know?, App Ergon. 37:419-427
National Institute for Ocuppational Safety and Health. (1991). FL THorpe & CO. Innc:, Health
Hazard Evaluation, HETA 90-0273-2130 (Washington, DC: NIOSH)
National Institute for Safety and Health at Work. (2011). VII National Survey of Working Con-
ditions. Available via: http://encuestasnacionales.oect.es/enge/EngeCuestionarios.jsp, last ac-
cess date: March/ 2013
Neumann WP, Kihlberg S, Medbo P, Mathiassen SE, Winkel J. (2002). A case study evaluating
the ergonomic and productivity impacts of partial automation strategies in the electronics in-
dustry. Int J Prod Resh, 40(16):4059-75
Neumann WP, Winkel J, Medbo L, Magneberg R, Mathiassen SE. (2006). Production system
design elements influencing productivity and ergonomics: A case study of parallel and serial
flow strategies. Int J Oper Prodn Man. 26(8):904 923
Otto A, Scholl A. (2011). Incorporating ergonomic risks into assembly line balancing. Eur J
Oper Res 212: 277-286
Reiter S. (1966). A System for Managing Job-Shop Production. The J Business, 39(3):371-393.
Rohmert, W. (1973) Problems of determination of rest allowances. Part 2: Determining rest al-
lowances in different human tasks. Applied Ergonomics 4,3,158-162
Ruiz R, Maroto C (2005). A comprehensive review and evaluation of permutation flowshop
Heuristics. Eur J Oper Res, 165 (2), 479494, doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2004.04.017
Rundcrantz BL, Johnsson B, Moritz U. (1991). Occupational cervico-brachial disorders among
dentists. Analysis of ergonomics and locomotor functions, Swed Dent J 15(3):105-15.
Sarin SC, Jaiprakash P. (2007). Flow Shop Lot Streaming. Springer.
Victorian Occupational HSH (Australia). (1988). Draft code of practice. Occupational Overuse
Syndrome.
Visser B. (2004). Upper extremity in low-intensity tasks. Thesis. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Waters TR, Putz-Anderson V, Garg A, Fine LJ. (1993) Revised NIOSH equation for the design
and evaluation of manual lifting tasks, Ergon 7: 749-776
353
Solving the Car Resequencing Problem with

Mix Banks
Valero-Herrero M1, Garcia-Sabater J.P 2, Vidal-Carreras P3, Canos-Daros L4
Abstract Automotive industry has employed mixed-model assembly lines to ob-

tain efficient production flows. Although the sequence in which products appear
on the line is contemplated at the beginning of the process, perturbations in pro-
duction frequently occur in the sequence. Hence, resequencing is necessary. This
work addresses the resequencing version of car sequencing with mix-banks, where
the quality sequence is in-depth analysed. Buffer input and output algorithms are
proposed, which are verified by the simulation models implemented in SIMIO. A
sensitivity analysis is also done for the different operational factors.
Keywords: Mixed Model Assembly Lines, Car Sequencing Problem, Simulation,

In-depth Analysis, Dynamic Algorithm
1 Introduction
Mixed-model assembly lines, which are used in car manufacturing, allow the effi-
cient production of a large quantity of different models. The use of these lines re-
quires overcoming the sequencing problem, to which the literature has paid con-
1Maria Valero Herrero ( e-mail: mavaher@upv.es)
Grupo ROGLE - Departamento. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de

Valncia. Camino de Vera S/N, 46022 Valencia
2Jose P. Garcia-Sabater ( e-mail: jpgarcia@omp.upv.es)
3Pilar I. Vidal-Carreras ( e-mail: pivicar@omp.upv.es)
4Lourdes Canos-Daros ( e-mail: loucada@omp.upv.es)
* The work described in this paper has been supported by the project "Corsari Magic DPI2010-
18243" by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin del Gobierno de Espaa within the Program
"Proyectos de Investigacin Fundamental No Orientada". This paper also has been supported
from the Project PAID-06-12-SP20120717 of the Universitat Politcnica de Valncia and the
project TIN2008-06872-C04-02/TIN.
354
siderable attention (Boysen et al., 2009). The objective of the sequencing problem
is to determine the succession order of models appearing on the line by consider-
ing different objectives such as components consumption levelling, levelling the
appearance of models on the line, workloads on stations and total line stoppage
time (Xiaobo et al., 1999). The components levelling is important for both internal
(Valero-Herrero et al., 2012) and external logistics. In (Garcia-Sabater et al., 2008;
Garcia-Sabater et al., 2010) is showed the effects of suppliers sequence.
As suggested by Boysen et al. in (2010), the problem considered in practical
applications tends to be a resequencing problem in which reordering the appear-
ance sequence is sought rather than the sequencing problem as set out in most
works in the literature. On automobile assembly lines, resequencing is necessary
for two main reasons. Firstly, the different sections making up the process have
different sequencing objectives (Poler et al., 1999). Secondly, a series of unfore-
seen events may occur which amend the initial sequence considered. Other causes
can be given to the rupture of the sequence as the regulation buffers existence or
existence of parallel lines where products are branched and reintroduced on a line
later (Garca et al., 1999).
According to the classification established by Boysen et al. (2012) for rese-
quencing problems (Figure 1), the problem contemplated in the present work can
be considered physical operational and dynamic resequencing, because decisions
are made in real time. It can also be classified as reactive and proactive; proactive
because it is performed in a buffer situated between two sections requiring differ-
ent sequences; reactive because it may be due to perturbations in the sequence
caused by breakdowns in former sections, shortages of material, urgent orders and
defects. Regarding configuration, it is a parallel line buffer, and the objective
would be Car Sequencing, avoiding disregarding the constraints fixed by the as-
sembly line by employing sequencing rules.
Fig. 1 Graph depicting the resequencing problems classification (Boysen et al., 2012).
355
This work is arranged as follows: having presented the literature on the use of
parallel lines buffers, there is a description of how the buffer operates. Section 4
describes the model for resequencing by using the algorithms implemented in
buffer inputs and outputs. Section 5 presents the simulation model implemented in
SIMIO. Finally, Section 6 provides the results of the experimentation done for the
model performance study and the conclusions drawn from this work.
2 Resequencing by a Mix Bank
Mix banks, also called parallel line banks or selectivity banks in the literature,
consist in several parallel lines, with a limited capacity, which are used to store
products. Products are introduced into the lines with available capacity and prod-
ucts are extracted from those situated at the front (the first position) of each line.
The literature contains different applications of parallel line buffers which are
situated before the paints section where the objective is to minimize changes in
colour (Cicirello y Smith, 2004; Moon et al., 2005a; Spieckermann et al., 2004).
Nevertheless, there are very few works on resequencing by parallel lines before
the assembly line. The objective of the majority of works involves reordering
(Boysen y Zenker, 2013; Meissner, 2010); that is, reordering the sequence to ob-
tain the initial sequence. Very few authors (Choi y Shin, 1997; Moon et al., 2005b;
Valero-Herrero et al., 2011a; Valero-Herrero et al., 2011b) have set the objective
in sequencing of disregarding the constraints established by the assembly line as
little as possible.
Resequencing in such buffers with several lines in which to store products has,
in turn, two decision problems: buffer input and buffer output. In this sense, Moon
(2005b) selects the cars which exceed the maximum allowed time at the front of
the line, and the maximum storage time allowed. Of these, see if any car disre-
gards the constraints. Of those that do not, selects the one with the lowest smooth
ratio. Choi and Shin (1997) employ lines that are assigned to certain products. If
the product has no assigned line or if the corresponding line is full, the product is
introduced into the line whose last product is the least similar. For outputs, the in-
tention is to minimize the number of constraints.
356
3 Model for Resequencing CSP in a Mix Bank
3.1 A Detailed Description of the Problem
The buffer that is the object of this study is a parallel line buffer, which is situated
between the trim assembly lines and the final assembly line. This buffer is em-
ployed to compensate the stoppages that arise in various assembly line areas. As it
has parallel L lines, we can resequence because there are as many vehicles availa-
ble as the number of buffer lines at all times. Extraction candidates will be located
at the front of each line.
Each vehicle will be assembled according to customer specifications, who will
have previously defined them depending on whether or not a specific option (k) is
necessary. The Vijk property of a product located at position j on line i takes a val-
ue of 1 if it requires option k, and a value of 0 if not.
For each option, which assumes a spacing constraint, also known as physical
constraints (Garcia-Sabater, 2001), an Mk:Nk-type sequencing rule is available.
The usual way to express these constraints, this being a generalisation of the pro-
posal put forward by Monden (1993), is: No more k-type M cars for each con-
secutive N units. For all the rules, a Zk penalisation applies in accordance with
each rules restrictiveness.
3.2 Notation
The notation employed in developing the algorithms is presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Notation
Index
i (L) The index referring to buffer lines.
j (C) The index referring to the position within each line, with the first position being clos-
est to the output.
k (NR) The index referring to product properties.
Parameters
V0,j,k Value of property k of the product situated at position j of the line before the buffer. It
takes value 1 if it has this property, and 0 otherwise.
Vi,j,k Value of property k at position j of buffer line i. It takes value 1 if it has this property,
and 0 otherwise.
Bj,k Value of property k at position j of the buy-off, a line before the final assembly line. It
takes value 1 if it has this property, and 0 otherwise.
L Number of buffer parallel lines.
C Capacity of each buffer line.
R Number of constraints.
357
Table 1 (continued) Notation
Parameters
P Depth. Number of units used to make comparisons.
Zk Weight associated with disregarding constraint k.
Mk:Nk Sequencing rule. No more Mk products of the consecutive N k with option k.
MIXk Proportion of products whose k property is equal to 1. It is calculated in relation to the
total products. Data defined in the products input
Variables
qi Quantity of products on one line.
wi A value that quantifies the weight of each line to assign a product to a line.
sjk Value of property k at position j of the sequence to be evaluated.
ni Quantity of extracted product of one line during a simulation.
z Total penalisation of a sequence.
Zp Penalisation of a sequence with depth p.
zmin Penalisation of the sequence with depth 1, whose sequence with depth p has penalisa-
tion minimum.
zminp Minimum penalisation of one sequence with depth p.
s Sequence to be evaluated, with number line.
v Sequence to be evaluated, with buffer position.
l Line assigned
3.3 Input Algorithm
The input algorithm is executed when a product is situated at position V 01 after

deciding the line on which the product will be stored. To place products in the
buffer, the space available on each line and a criterion relating the line content
with the product to be inputted are taken into account. A weight per line is ob-
tained in accordance with the decision rule considered. Finally, the line with a
heavier weight will be assigned to the product:
Next, details of each rule are provided independently, although combinations of
them are possible.
Rule 1: The emptier line: The weight assigned to each line is inversely propor-
tional to the quantity of products already on this line.
Rule 2: The line more similar: The product about to be inputted is compared
with the last one on the line for each property. This rule can apply in-depth; that is
to say, by comparing not only with the last product on the line. For example, if
depth is considered to be 3, it is compared with the three last products on each
line. If on any line the number of products is less than the depth value taken, it is
compared with all the products on the line.
Rule 3: The more similar line by weighting according to the likelihood of dis-
regarding and/or penalisation: Weighting can be achieved by bearing in mind the
following variables and a combination of these variables (Penalisation; A product
mix with this property; A Space among Products according to Constraints). The
heavier the weight the higher the M/N quotient.
358
3.4 Output Algorithm

The output algorithm is executed every takt time, and it returns the line from
which the following product will be extracted. To extract buffer products, the
quality of the obtained sequence is taken into account. Sequence quality is meas-
ured according to the total penalisation obtained from disregarding constraints.
The lower the penalisation obtained (z), the better this sequence is considered.
The quality sequence is in-depth analysed, that is, the available sequences after
remove a product are also analysed. When depth is equal to 1, the sequences ob-
tained from the extraction of one product are only analysed. When P>1 is consid-
ered, the penalisation of a sequence would be also consider the penalisations of all
previous sequences. Also, the sequence with minimum penalisation is chosen. The
sequence obtained is evaluated applying for each constraint the equation (1):
Nk 1
S jk 1 M k Vi1k 1 zi zi Z k (1)

j 1
Now the logic of the output algorithm is described.
For each line (x), we see that there are enough pieces in the line, considering
the virtually extracted pieces and add a piece to the sequence to evaluate
Sequence (S) is evaluated and the penalty of that sequence is obtained (z).
If the penalty is lower than the minimum penalty obtained with a sequence
with p units, continue adding pieces to the sequence until to obtain a sequence
of p pieces.
Finally, take the sequence of p pieces with minimum penalisation and extract
the first piece of that sequence.
Output Algorithm
1 Initialization: Set zmin=M; zminp=M; S={B1,B2,, Bqb}
2 for x=1 to L do [nx=0; calcule qx; actualise Vxyk;]
3 for x=1 to L do
4 if (qx>nx) {Execute Evaluate(S) with S=S+vpx;vpx=Vxy; y=nx+1;
5 zp= z (z=result of Evaluate(S)); z = z1 + + zp
6 if (z<zminp) { nx= nx+1; p++;
7 if (p<P) {return to step 3}
8 else {l=x; zmin= z1}
9 }}return l; zmin;
4 Experimentation
Simulation was done in the SIMIO tool. The buffer configuration considered is
based on a buffer installed in a Spanish plant of an automotive manufacturer. This
359
buffer consists of 4 lines whose capacity is 20 vehicles to each line. The same
simulation was done for 6 and 8 lines.
The output algorithm has been run with different depths (since 1 to 3). The in-
put algorithms indicated in Table 2 were incorporated into the model according to
the rules set out in the previous section.
Table 2 Input algorithms
Algorithm Rule applied

A1 Emptier line
A2 More similar line P=1
A5 More similar line P=1 weighting by Z
A6 More similar line P=1 weighting by MIX
A7 More similar line P=1 weighting by M/
A8 More similar line P=2 weighting by Z
A9 More similar line P=2 weighting by MIX
A10 More similar line P=2 weighting by M/N
In the experimentation work done, the following stoppages were simulated:

Stoppages of 15 min each 100 in the trim A line and 30 min each 200 of holdups
due to shortages of some material.
5 Performance Analysis
The simulation results obtained show that, depending on the given situation and
the number of lines, the choice of the best input algorithm varies. Hence we ob-
serve that A1 and A3 perform better in normal situations when no unforeseen
events (stoppages or shortages of material) arise in small buffers (4 lines). In this
situation A9 performs better in 6 line-buffers. If the buffer have 8 lines, in normal
situations, algorithms A4, A6, A8 and A9 are appropriate. Similarly, algorithm A4
is the most appropriate for those situations in which a large quantity of products
accumulates the same property subject to a constraint. Generally, larger buffers (8
lines) allow better results. As for the in-depth analysis at the output buffer, the best
results are obtained by analyzing with depth = 1. Sometimes, the analysis with
depth 3 is better than the analysis with depth =2.
360
6 Conclusions
The automotive industry has utilised mixed-model assembly lines where a wide
variety of models is produced on the same assembly line. On this type of lines, se-
quencing systems dynamics substantially affects productivity on the line. Despite
the importance of resequencing dynamics, the literature in this domain is scarce.
This work presents a resequencing model for a mix bank where it is developed and
implemented.
The simulation results obtained show that, depending on the given situation, the
choice of the best input algorithm varies. Different scenarios have been simulated
with stoppages in former lines, a situation which actually occurs quite often.
Future works are proposed to evaluate more scenarios and other configuration
buffers. Furthermore, the in-depth analysis with higher depths would obtain dif-
ferent conclusions. Moreover, the development of a dynamic model is proposed
that amends the algorithm applied according to the situation in the buffer, caused
by stoppages or other unforeseen events, which vary the expected proportion of
models o the types of constraints of them.
7 References
Boysen, N.; Fliedner, M.; Scholl, A. (2009). Sequencing mixed-model assembly lines: Survey,
classification and model critique. European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 192, No. 2,
pp. 349-373.
Boysen, N.; Golle, U.; Rothlauf, F. (2010): The Car Resequencing Problem, Department of In-
formation Systems and Business Administration, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz.
Boysen, N.; Scholl, A.; Wopperer, N. (2012). Resequencing of mixed-model assembly lines:
Survey and research agenda. European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 216, No. 3, pp.
594-604.
Boysen, N.; Zenker, M. (2013). A decomposition approach for the car resequencing problem
with selectivity banks. Computers & Operations Research, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 98-108.
Choi, W.; Shin, H. (1997). A real-time sequence control system for the level production of the
automobile assembly line. Computers & Industrial Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 3-4, pp.
769-772.
Cicirello, V. A.; Smith, S. F. (2004). Wasp-like Agents for Distributed Factory Coordination.
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 237-266.
Garca, J., Rodriguez, A., Poler, R., & Lario, F. C. (1999). Cumplimiento de la secuencia previs-
ta y uso de almacenes reguladores, in III Jornadas de Ingeniera de Organizacin.
Garcia-Sabater, J. P. (2001). The problem of JIT dynamic sequencing. A model and a parametric
procedure, in 1st Operations Research Post-graduate Peripatetic Programme ORP3 2001, Par-
is, September 26-29.
Garcia-Sabater, J. P.; Garcia-Sabater, J. J.; Marin-Garcia, J. A. (2008). Optimizacin de los re-
cursos humanos a travs de las TICs. Resultados de la reorganizacin laboral de un proveedor
logstico. Economia y industrial, Vol. 370, pp. 143-151.
Garcia-Sabater, J. J., Garcia-Sabater, J.P., Vidal-Carreras, P. I., Maheut, J. (2010). Simulacin de
la entrega secuenciada de asientos en un proveedor de primer nivel del sector del automvil.
Meissner, S. (2010). Controlling just-in-sequence flow-production. Logistics Research, Vol. 2,
No. 1, pp. 45-53.
361
Monden, Y. (1993). Toyota Prduction System: An integrated approach. Second Edition. Industri-
al Engineering and Management Press
Moon, D. H.; Kim, H. S.; Song, C. (2005a). A Simulation Study for Implementing Color Re-
scheduling Storage in an Automotive Factory. SIMULATION, Vol. 81, No. 9, pp. 625-635.
Moon, D. H.; Song, C.; Ha, J. H. (2005b). A Dynamic Algorithm for the Control of Automotive
Painted Body Storage. SIMULATION, Vol. 81, No. 11, pp. 773-787.
Poler, R., Garcia-Sabater, J. P., Rodriguez, A., & Lario, F. C. (1999). Un algoritmo greedy para
la agrupacin de colores en la secuencia maestra de una empresa de automocin, in III Jorna-
das de Ingeniera de Organizacin.
Spieckermann, S.; Gutenschwager, K.; Voss, S. (2004). A sequential ordering problem in auto-
motive paint shops. International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 42, No. 9, pp. 1865-
1878.
Valero-Herrero, M., Garcia-Sabater, J. P., Coronado-Hernandez, J. R., Maheut, J. (2011a). Plan-
teamiento dinmico del problema de secuenciacin en lneas de montaje con mezcla de mo-
delos, in XV Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin // 5th International Conference on In-
dustrial Engineering and Industrial Management, pp. 288-296.
Valero-Herrero, M., Garcia-Sabater, J. P., & Maheut, J. (2011b). An approach to the real circum-
stances of the car sequencing problem, in 41st International Conference on Computers and
Industrial Engineering.
Valero-Herrero, M., Garcia-Sabater, J. P., Morell-Monzo, V. (2012). La alimentacin a una lnea
de montaje: Procedimientos y Costes, in 16th International Conference on Industrial Engi-
neering and Industrial Management. XVI Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin.
Xiaobo, Z.; Zhou, Z.; Asres, A. (1999). A note on Toyota's goal of sequencing mixed models on
an assembly line. Computers & Industrial Engineering, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 57-65.
362
Gaia Analysis and Design of a Multi-agent-

based Shop Floor Control System
Arauzo J.A1, del-Olmo-Mrtinez R2, Labis-Villahoz J.J 3
Abstract To achieve competitiveness in the todays manufacturing plants; many

researchers suggest agent based manufacturing systems, where scheduling and
control activities are distributed on several entities called agents. To develop this
kind of systems some promising agent-oriented software methodologies, as Gaia,
have been proposed. They provide the concepts and procedures to define the main
features of multi-agent systems. In this paper we show how we used the Gaia
methodology to analyze and design a multi-agent-based shop floor control system
that has been further implemented by JADE.
Keywords: Shop Floor Control, Scheduling and Control, Multi-agent Systems,

Software Engineering, Gaia Analysis and Design.
1 Introduction
Agent based manufacturing systems seek to exploit the concepts, methods and
techniques introduced from the multi-agent systems (MAS) computing paradigm,
with the purpose of developing more competitive production systems to the to-
days market.
From the point of view of this paradigm, an agent is an autonomous and flexi-
ble software entity that is situated in an environment, and is capable to act auton-
omously to achieve its design objectives (Wooldridge 1995). Also, since in the
environment more agents can exist, these will be capable interact to each other by
1Jos Alberto Arazo Arazo ( e-mail: arauzo@insisoc.org)
Grupo INSISOC. EII. Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce 59, 47011 Valladolid.
2Ricardodel Olmo Martnez ( e-mail: rdelolmo@ubu.es)
3JuanJos Lavis Villahoz ( e-mail: jjlavios@ubu.es)
363
means of communication, that is to say, they will possess social abilities. These
characteristics offer to the software developers the possibility to create collabora-
tive agent communities achieving a global objective.
Agent based manufacturing systems try to integrate the programming, execu-
tion and control activities, in a software system made up of several autonomous,
proactive and reactive entities (agents), which can interact using their social abili-
ties. So, the software adaptability to environment changes will be easy and the
system will improve its flexibility, scalability and reconfigurability.
In this paper we show the analysis and design of a multi-agent system for shop
floor control (SFC). The SFC is a manufacturing subsystem that refers to the pro-
duction planning (scheduling) and control decisions on the operational level. The
work involve to solve some questions as -what kinds of agents should the system
have?-, -which objective should each agent have?-, -how should their behaviours
be?-, or -how should their interactions be?-. We are going to show how we used
the Gaia methodology to solve those questions. Gaia has been selected because of
the following reasons: (1) it is quite easy to learn; (2) it proved to be flexible and
robust; (3) it is a general methodology that can be useful for any multi-agent-
based develop tool; and (4) it is quite accepted for the multi-agent developer
community.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: in section 2 we introduce the Gaia
methodology; in section 3 we provide our system requirements and the resulting
of the Gaia analysis phase; the resulting of the design phase is presented in the
section 4 and finally, the section 5 includes the conclusions.
2 The Gaia Methodology
Software development methodologies are frameworks to structure, plan, and con-

trol the process of developing information systems. They provide the concepts,
notations, techniques and guidelines to develop such systems.
Since the emergence of multi-agent systems, several methodologies have been
proposed specifically to develop them. Some of these methodologies are: MAS-
CommonKADS (Iglesias and Garijo 2008), AUML (Odell et al., 2001), Ingenias
(Pavn and Gmez-Sanz 2003) or Gaia.
Gaia, as most of the multi-agent-based methodologies, supports the two levels
of design in MAS: the individual agent structure and the agent society (Zambo-
nelli, Jennings and Wooldridge 2003). It defines the structure of MAS as a role
model: MAS are a set of autonomous and interactive agents that live in an orga-
nized society in which each agent plays one or several roles and interact with other
agents by means different protocols (Moraitis and Spanoudakis 2006).
364
The Gaia modeling methodology is a two-phase process: the analysis phase and
the design phase in which the global structure and the agent details are specified
(figure 1).
Fig. 1 Models and relationships in the Gaia methodology (Wooldridge et al. 2000)
In the analysis phase two models must be defined: the role model and de inter-
action model. The role model identifies the roles that agents play within the MAS.
Each role is characterized with four attributes: responsibilities, permissions, ac-
tivities and protocols. Responsibilities determine the functionality and they are of
two types: liveness properties that determine the activities the role has to do, and
safety properties that indicate something the role must prevent. Permissions repre-
sent the information the role can create, read or modify. Activities are a list of the
tasks that the role performs without interactions. Protocols are a list interaction
patterns. These protocols are detailed later in the other model of the analysis
phase: the interaction model, in which each protocol is described with four attrib-
utes (figure 2): the interaction initiator role, the responder role, the necessary in-
formation to initiate the interaction (input), and the resulting information (output).
Name
Initiator Responder Input
Description: Initiator intention,
responder activity. Output
Fig. 2 Protocol representation
The design phase concludes with three models: the agent model, the acquaint-
ance model and the services model. The agent model identifies agent types in the
system, the roles that each agent type plays, and the number of instances for each
agent type. The acquaintance model is a graph that represents the agent relation-
ship. Finally, the services model show service that are offered for each agent type.
A service can be viewed as a function that the agent can perform. They are derived
from the list of protocols, activities, responsibilities, and the liveness properties of
the agent played roles.
365
3 Analysis Phase
In this section we present the final models of the analysis phase. To reach them we
start with the requirements, and then, we followed the four steps proposed in
(Wooldridge et al. 2000): (1) identify the roles in the system, (2) for each role,
identify and document the associated protocols, (3) refine the role model using for
it the interaction model, and (4) iterate stages 1,2 and 3.
3.1 Requirements
Shop floor control (SFC) is a system of computers and/or control tools used to
schedule, dispatch and track the progress of orders through manufacturing system.
Our SFC has the following inputs: machine features (technological possibilities
and capacities), item production process (operations and precedence relationship
for each item) and manufacturing orders (item and due date). The SFC will be re-
sponsible for executing the manufacturing orders as efficiently as possible. To do
so, it must: allocate and schedule tasks on machines, dispatch the operation execu-
tion to the machines, and monitor the status of the plant. Furthermore, the system
has to react to the disturbances and must reschedule when necessary.
Unlike traditional approaches, in our manufacturing system, operations are not
initially allocated to any machine. The allocation is chosen by the system at
runtime, depending on the efficiency of the different machines and their availabil-
ity. The operation execution times are also calculated by the system for each ma-
chine in accordance with the operation parameters and the machine features.
Another feature of the proposed system is the scheduling procedure. In tradi-
tional systems, scheduling is done centrally, while in our system it will be done in
a distributed manner. We will use an auction-based method similar to that pro-
posed in Lavios et al. (2010). Under this method, each work order creates a local
program according to the prices of resource time units. These prices have been ob-
tained previously through an auction that is driven by an auctioneer. Finally, local
programs are integrated by the auctioneer.
3.2 Role Model
The analysis phase led to the identification of four external or user roles (Table 1)
and nine system roles. The last ones are those that are played by the software
agents and they will be detailed in the analysis process. There are described briefly
in the table 2.
366
Table 1 User roles
Role Description
MACHINEMANAGER It sets machine parameters: capacity and technical possibilities and speci-
fications
PROCESSDESIGNER It sets products can be manufactured in the system. For each product, it
designs their manufacturing processes (operations and precedence rela-
tionships).
PLANNER It defines and dispatches orders. Moreover, it analyzes the system effi-
ciency.
SHOPFLOORMANAGER It sets the system parameters and monitors the system.
Table 2 System roles
Role Description
MACHINEOPSPC (Machine Operation Specification). It assists the user MACHINEMANAGER
to set the machine. It also assists the role PROCESSDSASS for the process
specification by stating whether a machine is able to perform operations
and by calculating its duration.
PROCESSDSASS (Process Design Assistant). It assists the user to define the process manu-
facturing. It asks the role MACHINEOPSPC for information about the pos-
sibility of performing operations in the machines and the durations of
these operations.
PLANNERASS (Planer Assistant) It assists the user PLANNER to define the work orders. It
also calculates parameters for the system performance measurement.
ORDERDISPATCHER (Order Dispatcher) It dispatches the orders defined by the PLANNER.
DISPLAYER It displays de system state (orders and machine state) and its evolution.
PRICECALCULATOR (Order Manufacturing Manager). It calculates the price of resource usage
in each time unit of the planning horizon.
LOCALSCHEDULER It schedules the order operations according the prices that the role
PRICECALCULATOR has calculated.
ORDMANUFMANAGER(Order Manufacturing Manager). It manages the execution of operations
of each production order according to the schedule that is proposed by the
role LOCALSCHEDULER. When an operation has to be executed, this role
asks the role OPEXMANAGER for the execution. This role is also respon-
sible of the precedence constraints compliance during the execution
phase.
OPEXMANAGER (Operation Execution Manager). It is responsible of the operation execu-
tion in each machine. It controls the physical machine.
All these roles should be detailed with their permissions, responsibilities, activ-
ities and protocols. For reasons of space, we only detail the role MACHINEOPSPC
(figure 3) to illustrate the methodology. The complete role model can be found in
(Arauzo 2012).
367
Role: MACHINEOPSPC
Description: It assists the user MACHINEMANAGER to set the machine. It also assists the role
PROCESSDSASS to the process specification by stating whether a machine is able to perform operations
and by calculating its duration.
Protocols and Activities: ShowGUI (Show Graphic User Interface), RegisterSp (Register Specifica-
tions in DB), RegisterOp (Register operation in DB), RequestOpParam (Request to ProcessDsAss for the
operation parameters)
Permissions: create, read and modify Machine Specification List, Machine Operations List
Responsibilities
Liveness: REGISTERSPOP = (AIDMACHINEMANAGER | REGISTEROP) w
AIDMACHINEMANAGER = ShowGUI RegisterSp
REGISTEROP = RequestOpParam + RegisterOp
Safety: true
Fig. 3 Properties of the role MachineOpSpc. To distinguish activities and protocols, activities are
denoted by underlining. Liveness responsibilities are specified via a liveness expression (Zam-
bonelli, Jennings and Wooldridge 2003). They express the execution sequence of activities and
protocols by means of operators such as +, or w. In the figure, XY expresses X fol-
lowed by Y, X|Y expresses X or Y occurs, X+ expresses X occurs 1 or more times and
XW expresses x occurs infinitely often.
3.3 Interaction Model
In an organization with multiple roles, interactions occur inevitably. In the role

model these interactions or protocols already appeared as part of the liveness re-
sponsibilities of the initiator role. In the figure 4, the protocol RequestOpParam of
the role MACHINEOPSPC (figure 3) is described by using the special template
shown in the figure 2. The main protocols of the model are described briefly in the
table 3. For more information see (Arauzo 2012).
RequestOpParam
MACHINEOPSPC PROCESSDSASS Operation
Identifier
Initiator Intention: knowing the parameters that define an operation. With these
data the role can design the operation execution and calculate the process time. Operation
Responder activity: searching parameters in its database Parameters
Fig. 4 Representation of the protocol RequestOpParam
Table 3 Interaction model summary
Protocol Initiator/Responder Description (Initiator Intention)

RequestOpParam MACHINEOPSPC / Knowing the parameters that define an operation to
PROCESSDSASS design the execution and calculate the process time.
RequestOpProc PROCESSDSASS / Generating the operation execution process in a ma-
PROCESSDSASS chine and knowing the process time.
368
Table 3 (continued) Interaction model summary
Protocol Initiator/Responder Description (Initiator Intention)

RequestItems PLANNER / Knowing the items with a defined process to create
PROCESSDSASS manufacturing orders.
RequestOrManuf PLANNER / Creating the ORDMANUFMANAGER to manage the
ORDERDISPATCHER manufacturing order
RequestProcess ORDERDISPATCHER / Knowing the order manufacturing process to create
PROCESSDSASS the ORDMANUFMANAGER.
RequestOpEx ORDMANUFMANAGER / Execute an operation.
OPEXMANAGER
RequestLocSch PRICECALCULATOR / According to the proposed scheduling method, to
LOCALSCHEDULER calculate the prices of resource usage, it is neces-
sary to have the local programs of each order. With
this protocol, the role PRICECALCULATOR gets
those schedules.
RequestMachEv DISPLAYER / Knowing the state changes of the machines to mon-
OPEXMANAGER itor the system. The DISPLAYER has to know the
operation start time and conclusion time.
4 Design Phase
During this phase, the agent model, the acquaintance model and the services mod-
el was achieved. The agent model, in which the roles are assigned to the agents, is
presented in the table 4. To package several roles in a single agent, different crite-
ria can be used: the interaction with a single user role, same location in a network,
or access to the same information.
Table 4 Agent model
Agent Planner Process Coordinator Order Machine

Designer Manager Manager
Number of 1 1 1 Number of orders Number of
instances in the system machines
Roles PLANNERASS PROCESSDSASS DISPLAYER ORDMANUFMANAGER OPEXMANAGER
ORDERDISPATCHER LOCALSCHEDULER MACHINEOPSPC
PRICECALCULATOR
Figure 4 shows the acquaintance model, which is derived from the role model,
de interaction model and the agent model. It is the simplest model; it shows the
communication links that exist between agent types. Their purpose is to identify
potential communication bottlenecks.
369
The last model of the design phase is the service model. It identifies the ser-
vices associated with each agent. The services model is too detailed to be included
in this paper; it can be consulted in (Arauzo 2012).
Fig. 5 Acquaintance model. Arrows represent interaction protocols. They go from the initiator to
the responder.
5 Conclusions
In this paper we have presented the Gaia analysis and design process for a multi-
agent system for Shop floor control. This was the first phase of a develop process
that finished with a successful JADE implementation. In general, the process of
developing our system was agile and robust. Gaia allowed an incremental devel-
opment process, documenting the different models and facilitating the subsequent
JADE implementation.
6 References
Arauzo JA (2012). Anlisis y diseo Gaia de un sistema de fabricacin basado en agentes. Wor-
king paper. Departamento de Organizacin de Empresas y CIM, Universidad de Valladolid.
Iglesias CA, Garijo M (2008) The Agent-Oriented Methodology MAS-CommonKADS. Agent-
oriented methodologies. Idea Group Publishing: 47-78
Lavios JJ, Olmo-Martnez R, Arauzo JA, et al (2010) Price Updating in Combinatorial Auctions
for Coordination of Manufacturing Multiagent Systems. Trends in Practical Applications of
Agents and Multiagent Systems, Springer: 201-207.
Moraitis P, Spanoudakis NI (2006) The Gaia2Jade process for multi-agent systems development.
Applied Artificial Intelligence 20(2-4): 251-273.
Pavn J, Gmez-Sanz JJ (2003): Agent Oriented Software Engineering with INGENIAS. In 3rd
International Central and Eastern European Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, CEEMAS
2003 2003: 394-403.
Poggi A, Rimassa G, Turci P et al (2004) Modeling Deployment and Mobility Issues in Multia-
gent Systems Using AUML. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2935: 69-84.
370
Wooldridge M, Jennings NR (1995) Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice. The Knowledge
Engineering Review, 10/2: 115-152.
Wooldridge M, Jennings NR, kinny D. (2000) The Gaia Methodology for Agent-Oriented Anal-
ysis and Design. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 3: 285-312
Zambonelli F, Jennings NR, Wooldridge M (2003). Developing Multiagent Systems: The Gaia
Methodology. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 12/3: 317
337.
371
Estimating Costs in the EOQ Formula
Vidal-Carreras P.I1, Garcia-Sabater J.P2, Valero-Herrero M3, Santandreu-

Mascarell C4
Abstract The EOQ formula (Harris, 1913) provides a balance between setup costs
and holding costs in the system. This formula has been widely developed in the
literature. However, in the industrial reality is often difficult to know the exact
value of these setup and holding costs. In this paper we develop a formula to esti-
mate the lot size from the known values in the company. It is verified that the be-
havior of these formulas responds to expectations.
Keywords: EOQ, Inventory management, Setup cost, Holding Cost
1 Introduction
Defining an inventory management system in a company is to set the technique

employed (reorder point management, provisioning theoretical ...) and determine
its control parameters. Overall, the control parameters necessary to manage inven-
tory levels are minimum and maximum which would want to keep in the system.
1Pilar
Isabel Vidal Carreras ( e-mail: pivicar@omp.upv.es)
Grupo ROGLE. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universidad Politcnica de Valencia.
Camino de Vera S/N, 46022 Valencia.
2JosePedro Garcia Sabater ( e-mail: jpgarcia@omp.upv.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universidad Politcnica de Valencia. Camino de Vera S/N,

46022 Valencia.
4Cristina Santandreu-Mascarell ( e-mail: crisanma@omp.upv.es)
Grupo IGIC. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universidad Politcnica de Valencia. Camino

de Vera S/N, 46022 Valencia.
* The work described in this paper has been supported by the project "CORSARI MAGIC
DPI2010-18243" by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin del Gobierno de Espaa.
372
The theoretical resolution of this problem is based on the classic formula EOQ,
Economic Order Quantity (Harris, 1913). This formula EOQ provides a balance
between setup costs and holding costs in the system. The EOQ model requires
know the value of setup costs and holding costs of the products. However, apart
from the consideration that all the costs are costs of opportunity, it is that in gen-
eral and for various reasons, these costs are unknown for companies. Despite this,
it is still necessary to establish inventory levels, not as much to optimize the sys-
tem, but rather to keep it under control.
The EOQ model has been investigated in depth in the literature. For example
the topic that it is the joint pricing and inventory optimization. One of the earliest
papers on pricing and inventory is by Whitin (1955) who proposes a link between
pricing and inventory control. Lee (1993) presents a geometric programming ap-
proach to determine a profit-maximizing price and order quantity for a retailer.
Most recently, an EPQ inventory model that determines the production lot size,
marketing expenditure and products selling price is developed by Sadjadi et al
(2005).
As price is an obvious strategy to influence demand, researching on inventory
models with price-dependent demand have been received much attention (You and
Chen, 2007) developed an EOQ model of seasonal goods with spot and forward
purchase demands Recently, Mo et al (2009) developed an EOQ model with stock
and price sensitive demand.
Several researchers have studied the effect of delayed payments on the EOQ.
Goyal (1985) was the first to develop a model for a delay in payment to the sup-
plier, making all the usual assumptions of the classic EOQ model except for when
payment is due. More recently, Huang (2007) assumed the supplier would offer
the retailer a partial delay in payments when the order quantity is smaller than a
predetermined quantity. Jaggi et al (2008) proposed a model in which demand is
linked to the credit period offered by the retailer to the customers. In Taleizadeh et
al. (2013) an EOQ problem under partial delayed payment.
However, about the topic to consider the possible cost estimate of the EOQ
formula for a company that does not have them, only papers that assumed that the
setup cost is proportional of the time setup and holding cost are proportional to the
cost unit but without indicating on which this proportionality is based (Bomberger,
1966; Brander and Segerstedt, 2009; Vidal-Carreras et al., 2012). On the other
hand the number of characteristics and variables that are addressed by the models
and algorithms has been growing as the computational capacity signal equipment
has been developed. And nevertheless, a feature observed, and that is equivalent to
that of other authors (Meyer, 2004; Shirodkar and Kempf, 2006) is that most com-
panies are still using Excel spreadsheets for planning, scheduling and controlling
their operations. These tools, despite the costs associated with its management
manual, appear to be "more effective" in the daily management because they are
preferred.
373
Thus, in the present paper an alternative resolution to the problem of estimating

costs for inventory management in the industrial reality is presented. For this, in
section 2 the problem to analyze the information typically available in a company
is proposed. In section 3 some formulas EOQ's adapted to that information are ex-
plained. In section 4, these formulas are integrated into a simple Excel tool and
their behavior is checked. The conclusions and future works are commented in
section 5.
2 Statement of the Problem and Notation
The need to know the setup costs and holding costs can establish difficulties in the
actual inventory management systems. While the setup time is available in the
companies or otherwise it is easy to measure, to establish a priori setup costs is
not. This is so because the cost of setup really is an opportunity cost of use of in-
stalled capacity. Similarly, the holding cost is an opportunity cost of the storage
capacity available in the company.
Table 1 Notation
i Item index i = 1..n

Lot size of item i (units)
Demand of item i (units/unit of time)
Holding cost of item i (monetary units)
Setup cost of item i (monetary units)
Setup time of item i (time units)
Density of Value of item i (monetary units / packaging units)
Pallet equivalent of item i (monetary units/pallet)
In order to analyze clearly the problem is considered appropriate to focus on

the case of a machine of a manufacturer of goods. The machine required for each
change of production run needs a preparation, which consumes time and re-
sources. To make the change (setup) workers are available to prepare the machine
for the production but the company does not know the cost associated with this
setup. It can approximate this setup cost is proportional to the setup time (Bom-
berger, 1966). The notation used in the sequent sections is shown above in Table
1.
Regarding the holding cost of each product, it is not possible to define it a pri-
ori. The companies usually have a limited storage capacity and also a cash limit
that they are willing to maintain. Each product has specific characteristics of both
economic value and volume taken. If the financial constraint of the company is
important, it can be assumed that the costs associated with storage are proportional
374
to the amount of money in stock or equivalently, the unit cost of the products. If
the limitation of space in the company is important, one can assume that storage
costs are proportional to the number of locations used, which for example may
count the number of pallets used for each product. In both situations, as men-
tioned, these storage costs are not known at the exact value in the company. Thus,
generally in the actual practice of the company, the different departments involved
establish a maximum limit of storage, around which usually the inventory policies
are defined.
3 A Method of Calculating Costs
According to the classical EOQ of formula (Harris, 1913), shown in (1), the calcu-
lation of the economic lot manufacture of a product i, considering its demand di ,
requires consideration of a series of costs. On the one hand, it has been considered
a cost of setup, ,, in relation to change of production run, which is the process
of preparing the machinery for the production of product i. On the other hand, a
holding cost of product i manufactured, :
2
= (1)

However, as discussed in the industrial reality is not always known the value of
this cost of this setup and holding cost required in formula (1). Regarding the set-
up, so if time is generally known, tsi . So it is appropriate to assume that the cost of
setup, csi , will be proportional to the time of setup tsi according to a proportion-
ality constant that we will call cs, and whose units are ( monetary units / units of
time):
= (2)
The company should establish the value of the constant cs according to the val-
ue of the time spent by operators in the setup. If a company has highly automated
processes in which the workers only have direct participation in the process for a
specific fraction of time, this constant cs may have a very low value because it has
idle manpower for a period of time. On the contrary if a company demands high
manpower requirement or if this is very scarce, the value should be higher cs. This
constant cs is independent of the products and only depends on the characteristics
of the company.
Regarding the holding cost, , that appears in formula (1) also it is not an ex-
act data. However as mentioned it can be assumed that its value is proportional to
the unit cost of the product, the volume taken for the product in the warehouse or
the combination of both variables. It will develop the alternatives.
375
Firstly, the holding cost may be proportional to according to a proportional-

ity constant that we can call 1 :
= 1 (3)
The company should set the value of the constant 1 depending on financial
conditions they have. For example if the company has a mortgage loan with a high
interest rate constant should have a high value. Similarly happen if the goods are
perishable stocks. The constant value of 1 is usually different in the life cycle of
companies.
For the case where the cost is proportional to the storage space taken by the
product, there is a constant proportional named 2 . To pose the volume of the
product is defined the variable pallet equivalent, . This variable indicates what
percentage of the pallet occupies a unit volume of product. This value is known in
company as they know the number of product units that fit on a pallet. In the case
that the storage unit is outside the pallet employ different reference that storage
unit. So the holding cost is proportional to the space taken by the products, there is
a constant proportional named 2 . This is appropriate to assume that the cost of
storage ca i will be proportional to the pallet equivalent according to a propor-
tionality constant 2 and whose units are (monetary units / pallet).
= 2 (4)
But besides the holding cost should be considered inversely proportional to the
density value (5). The density value is called , and it is defined as the monetary
units included in each pallet equivalent (5). It is easy to get a variable in the com-
pany knowing units per pallet and the cost of these.

1 = 2 (5)

= (6)

Thus combining (4) and (6) the following formula for the case where the cost is
proportional to the storage space taken by the products are obtained (7):

= 2 (7)

In order to include both the consideration that the cost is proportional to the
storage unit cost of products (3) and the space occupied by the same (7) the fol-
lowing formula (8) is defined:

= 1 + 2 (8)

Through this formula the various combinations of storage costs in the company
are represented. The variable represents the weight of the financial condition of
the company, and the weight of represents the volume restrictions in the store.
Since it is a combination of both, the sum of variables is according to:
+ 2 (9)
376
These provide flexibility for the system in specific situations without

the need to rethink the value of 1 and 2 . If the value of setup costs (2) and the
value of the holding costs (8) are included in the lot size formula (1) the result is
(10):
2
=
(10)
1 + 2

It is a formula that allows for the lot size of a product from the company known
variables such as product demand, unit cost, and its equivalent pallet setup time
required for its production. The company should set the value of the constants
, 1 , 2 , cs, that are common to all products and allow adjusted to the
different circumstances. For example if the company warehouse is full is expected
to increase storage costs associated with the volume, this is the constant 2 . But
if the store was empty, the financial criteria would overlap and should increase the
value of the variable 2 .
At this point the value of the lot size for specific circumstances is posed:
If only attach importance to the financial limitations of the company and space
constraints would not supposed = 0 so that would not be necessary to speci-
fy the value of the constant ca 2, leaving the lot size formula as:
2 2
= = (11)
1 1
If only considered important space limitations in the company and had no sig-
nificant financial constraints, it is assumed = 0, so that would not be neces-
sary to specify the value of the constant ca1, leaving the lot size formula as
(4.12):
2 2
= = (12)
2 2

4 Analysis of the Behavior of the Formulas
The formulas exposed are supported on an Excel spreadsheet. Thus from introduc-
ing known values are obtained the lot sizes, as it is shown in Table 2.
377
Table 2 Numerical example

Data Result
alpha 1 ca1 (/day) 0,00042
beta 1 ca2(/palletda) 0,2
cs (/hour) 4
Setup
Demand Equivalent Value of
Item Unit cost () Time Units per pallet Lot Size
(uds/day) Pallet Density
(hour)
i di cui tsi udi/palet pei ni Qi
1 100 5 3 100 0,010 500 1072,28
2 150 4 1 150 0,007 600 847,96
3 200 3 1 200 0,005 600 1130,62
4 250 2 1,5 250 0,004 500 1895,55
(a)
(b) (c)
Fig. 1 Evolution of the lot size according to (a) cs, (b) 1 and (c) 2
It is analyzed the behavior of the formula 10 to be the most complete, for an

item, particularly item 1 of Table 2. Fig 1 shows the evolution of the lot size of
this item varying the different costs. Fig 1 (a) shows the growth of the lot size by
increasing the variable , as this is an increase in costs associated with the setup
for example restrictions on manpower. Fig 1 (b) shows the decrease in lot size to
increase the variable 1 . This decrease is suitable for the variable 1 affected
part of the holding cost. Fig 1 (c) shows much slower decrease in lot size of the
variable increasing 2 It is to be considered that in formula holding cost associ-
ated with volume restrictions has also considered its relationship with the density
value so its contribution in the formula is smaller. That is why it is necessary to
greatly increase the value of 2 to observe the expected decrease lot size. In the
378
case that in the formula 10 not considered density value and only the space occu-
pied by the products through the variable , the behavior of the formula against
2 small variations will be very similar that is shown in Fig 1. (c).
7 Conclusions
In this work, the classical formula EOQ of Harris (1913) is adapted to the indus-
trial reality, in which it is often complex to have cost values of setup and holding.
We propose simple formulas for the costs which can obtain these setup costs and
storage company based on values if known therein. So, it could define costs that
can easily be interpreted as having a meaning. How it has developed in the section
on behavior analysis of these formulas is as expected. The following work would
consist in integrating these formulas in a inventory-tool that could take more con-
siderations that exist in companies, such as: the available capacity, the average
level of warehouse that is desired, the average level of inventory, the inventory
limits maximum and minimum which are consider for some products This tool
should allow to define final lot sizes considering all the constraints and from these
lot size define the maximum and minimum levels for each product.
8 References
Bomberger, E. E. (1966). A dynamic programming approach to a lot size scheduling problem.

Management Science, Vol. 12, No. 11, p. 778.
Brander, P.; Segerstedt, A. (2009). Economic lot scheduling problems incorporating a cost of us-
ing the production facility. International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 47, No. 13, pp.
3611-3624.
Goyal, S. K. (1985). Economic order quantity under conditions of permissible delay in payments.
Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol. 44, pp. 785-795.
Harris, F. W. (1913). How many parts to make an once. Factory, The Magazine of Management,
Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 135-6-152.
Huang, Y. F. (2007). Economic order quantity under conditionally permissible delay in pay-
ments. European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 176, No. 2, pp. 911-924.
Jaggi, C. K.; Goyal, S. K.; Goel, S. K. (2008). Retailer's optimal replenishment decisions with
credit-linked demand under permissible delay in payments. European Journal of Operational
Research, Vol. 190, No. 1, pp. 130-135.
Lee, W. J. (1993). Determining order quantity and selling price by geometric programming: Op-
timal solution, bounds, and sensitivity. Decision Sciences, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 76-87.
Meyer, B. (2004). Value-adding logistics for a world assembly line Bonifatius Verlag, Paderborn
Mo, J.; Mi, F.; Zhou, F.; Pan, H. (2009). A note on an EOQ model with stock and price sensitive
demand. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, Vol. 49, No. 9, pp. 2029-2036.
Sadjadi, S. J.; Oroujee, M.; Aryanezhad, M. B. (2005). Optimal production and marketing plan-
ning. Computational Optimization and Applications, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 195-203.
379
Shirodkar, S.; Kempf, K. (2006). Supply chain collaboration through shared capacity models. In-
terfaces, Vol. 36, No. 5, pp. 420-432.
Taleizadeh, A. A.; Pentico, D. W.; Saeed Jabalameli, M.; Aryanezhad, M. (2013). An EOQ mod-
el with partial delayed payment and partial backordering. Omega, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 354-
368.
Vidal-Carreras, P. I.; Garcia-Sabater, J. P.; Coronado-Hernandez, J. R. (2012). Economic lot
scheduling with deliberated and controlled coproduction. European Journal of Operational
Research, Vol. 219, No. 2, pp. 396-404.
Whitin, T. M. (1955). Inventory control and price theory. Management Science, Vol. 2, No. 1,
pp. 61-68.
You, P. S.; Chen, T. C. (2007). Dynamic pricing of seasonal goods with spot and forward pur-
chase demands. Computers and Mathematics with Applications, Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 490-498.
380
Integrated Production and Simulation

Scheduling Tool to Solve the Mix Model
Assembly Line Problem Considering Heijunka
and Operational Constraints: a Case Study
Maheut J1, Garcia-Sabater J.P, Garcia-Sabater J.J
Abstract This article presents a tool based on a customised spreadsheet and a

simulator based on discrete events to solve the production scheduling problem of a
mix model assembly line type of a manufacturing firm in the electrical compo-
nents sector. The problem to be solved must consider the availability of some
products, setup times, manufacturing heterogeneous sized batches, and prioritisa-
tion of customers orders. The tool described herein has been implemented and
used in a multinational firm located in Spain.
Keywords: Mixed Model Assembly Line, Heijunka, Production Scheduling, Sim-

ulation, Algorithm, Case Study;
1 Introduction
One of the keys to fulfil major Lean implementation objectives is the so-called
Heijunka or Stability in the Plan. Heijunka, a Japanese term, is one of the keys
for any Lean system (Womack, 1990, Liker 2004). Although many associate it
with Stability in the plan in practice, Heijunka is a term that is associated with
production levelling. The intention of applying Heijunka is to attempt to produce a
balanced mix of production levels in products sets during a series of time periods
(Liker, 2004, Rother, 1999). To confer the plan stability, the Build-To-Schedule
(BTS) indicator tends to be associated to it. In general, plan stability is measured
1Julien
Maheut ( e-mail: juma2@upv.es)
381
by the indicator, which compares what has been planned, what was intended to be
done (the plan) and what has actually been done.
Any production system with predictable demand, which is more or less certain,
and which intends to work according to the Lean Manufacturing philosophy, must
have a production plan or schedule as a reference point. Nevertheless, attempts
made to apply some Lean principles, such as Heijunka, tend to imply considering
a unit flow of parts, and neither contemplates operational constraints, such as rele-
vant setup times because it is assumed a preliminary high level of SMED (Shingo,
1985), adjustable labour capacity in manual posts despite being a fundamental tool
of Lean Manufacturing (Baudin, 2007), nor priorities between the different batch-
es of products to be sequenced.
This article proposes the use of an integrated production scheduling tool based
on Excel and a simulator based on discrete events to solve the mix model assem-
bly line problem of a manufacturing firm which attempts to apply Heijunka on one
of its assembly lines. Given the complexity of some operational constraints, the in-
tegration between production scheduling and the simulator enables the firm to an-
ticipate not only the impact of the plan, but also operational decisions such as hu-
man resources mobility or anticipating customers orders, which will be served
with delays.
This article is arranged as follows: Section 2 describes the products, the pro-
duction process and the supply chain of this case study. Section 3 introduces the
developed tool. Finally, Section 4 presents the conclusions drawn from the case
study and identifies some future research lines.
2.1 Product Description
The products manufactured by the firm are electric and electronic components,
such as light switches, protection relays and surge protectors. These products are
small in size and complex, thus their assembly must be very accurate.
There are numerous manufactured references, which are grouped into families,
and families are grouped into ranges. For example on the line being studied, it is
possible to assemble up to over 250 different references. These references belong
to the set of different product families, and the latter can be grouped into products
ranges. The bill of materials (BOM) for each reference is different and does not
depend on the families or ranges, despite there being common components in cer-
tain cases. All the products are assembled products, so their BOMs take a type
A structure. Some feasible product classifications can be done depending on the
382
product characteristics. For example, products can be classified according to the

following criteria:
Bi-polar products and tetra-polar products
Differential chains
Packaging
Products could even be classified depending on the strategy selected to cover de-
mand, and two basic order types exist: (order fulfilment strategy) MTS (Make-To-
Stock) and MTO (Make-To-Order). The firm deals with different loading units:
Packaging with different capacities in the references depending on whether the
product is bi-polar (6) or tetra-polar (3)
Boxes with different capacities in the references depending on whether the
Pallets with different capacities in the references depending on whether the
2.2 Process Description
The considered plant has several production lines where items are transformed, as-
sembled and packed, and finished products are sent to its logistics centres. The
plant has five assembly lines. Each assembly line is capable of manufacturing a
series of references and has different work points (known as processes) where
manual or automated operations are done. Apart from the different assembly lines,
the plant has various U-cells (known internally as U-Lines) where kits are as-
sembled, which are the raw material for some of the various assembly lines. These
U-cells provide a warehouse, located on one side of an assembly line, with prod-
ucts.
Each process has different cycle times for the various references. Each products
batch is separated by a lure, a fictitious part that has an electromagnetic bar code
containing the product data matrix. Different coloured lures are placed between
each batch according to the product type to be made (e.g., bi-polar or tetra-polar).
In the various existing processes, there are setup times in each production batch
which are sequence-dependent and known. Between each process, there are inter-
mediate warehouses (known internally as lungs) and they have different capaci-
ties.
Some stages are manual, and others are completely automated; that is, they are
machine-processed. Each manual stage can involve a number of operators which
varies with time, some operators who can work in parallel with different process-
es, and thanks to operators training, some can change production line at any time,
if required.
383
2.3 Supply Chain Description
The production plants of the multinational firm are distributed in four continents.
Its production plant located in the province of Valencia assembles electric compo-
nents. This plant has different suppliers, and is supplied by the suppliers belonging
to either the Schneider group or external firms. These suppliers can be classified
according to how near they are to the plant as local suppliers or non-domestic sup-
pliers. There is also the possibility of supplying from a centralised platform (a lo-
gistic supply centre). A sketch presenting the supply chain outline is provided in
Figure 1.
Fig. 1 Diagram showing the supply chain
Having assembled and packed the different products, the plant sends deliveries
to the regional distribution centres (wholesalers), which distribute to local centres
(retailers) or deliver directly to some local centres if the distance is short. The end
consumers then buy these products in retailers. A description of the considered
supply chain topology is presented in Table 1.
384
Table 1 Supply chain topology for the considered supply chain
Functional attributes
Attributes Contents
Number and type of products procured Important, 2,500 references procured
Sourcing type Single (for non-domestic supplier); Multiple (for local
suppliers)
Supplier lead time and reliability Very short (hours) for the products supplied in JIT &
reliable; Short (days) for some local suppliers & Relia-
ble; Large (Months) and not reliable
Materials life cycle Medium (6 months) before small engineering changes
Organisation of the production process Mixed Model Assembly Line
Repetition of operations Small batches
Changeover characteristics Setup-Dependence
Bottlenecks in production Mix-dependence
Working Time flexibility Frequently used, additional shifts, multi-function oper-
ators
Distribution structure Two or three stages
Delivery Pattern Continuous LTL
Deployment of transportation means Unlimited
Availability of future demands Forecasted for external demand.
Demand curve Unstable, highly dependent on new product develop-
ment
Products life cycle Several months
Number of product types 200
Degree of customisation Standard products
Bill of Material (BOM) Type A and Alternative BOMS
Structural attributes
Attributes Contents
Network Structure Mixture
Degree of globalisation International
Location of decoupling point(s) Make to Stock / Make to Order
Major constraints Time Dependent setup; Non-Stock capacity; Limited
available capacity; Material Availability
Balance of power Customer
Direction of coordination Mixture
Type of information exchanged Forecasts & Orders
385
3 Production Scheduling Problem
The production scheduling process consists in determining: extracting available

data from the SAP; establishing levels of priorities for different production orders;
determining production batches and the order (the sequence) of launching produc-
tion; calculating labour resource levels.
On a daily basis, the flow manager obtains three data files from the information
system, SAP in this case:
Customer orders data
Production orders data
Products stockout data in the customers warehouse
By means of its information system, each customer generates MTO reference
orders in real time, and also informs about the consumption of MTS products.
Hence at all times, the assembly line has a portfolio of demanded products and
knows if a stockout occurs for any MTP products in its customers warehouses. In
the information system, each order has a single SAP transaction number corre-
sponding to a batch with a given reference in a certain quantity, a dispatch date
and an initial dispatch date.
Should physical stockouts occur for the MTS references or orders be delayed,
the order dispatch date will differ and will not have the same priority in the work-
shop.
In parallel and autonomously, the information system generates production or-
ders with a batching process that differs from the customers orders batching pro-
cess. The first step to solve the product scheduling problem consists, therefore, in
relating customers orders to production orders, and in also allocating a priority
level to each production order.
Having completed allocations and priorities, the products on the line can be se-
quenced in accordance with the kits availability at all times. Hence, the sequence
(that is, the order in which each reference batch is launched in production) must
consider the operation times, sequence-dependent setup times, availability and
mobility of the human resources on the line, employees polyvalency, and the lim-
ited capacity of the different intermediate warehouses and availability of kits at all
times.
4 Tool Description
Throughout the year 2012, a customised production sequencing tool has been de-
signed. This tool has been designed with MS Excel and with the Simio Simula-
tion Software.
386
It allows priority reports, and the analysis of poorly fitting data at both the or-
ders and production orders level, to be generated daily. It also schedules produc-
tion where the production orders on the line are sequenced in accordance with cus-
tomer order priorities in order to obtain high customer service levels. This
production scheduling considers: the components availability constraint, if neces-
sary; the number of operators at each manual post on the line; the operation times
in all the processes of the line; the associated setup times.
Every day, users download the three data files and copy them into an Excel
spreadsheet. The Excel tool proposes different production programmes, which are
based on distinct specific algorithms (by applying a pure Heijunka, by maximising
the Overall Equipment Efficiency Indicator, by maximising customer service lev-
els and the multi-objective optimisation of these objectives).
Having generated the plans, the impact that the plan has on the plants different
relevant indicators is assessed so that stakeholders can select the solution which
meets their expectations. Figure 2 provides the line layout, which was obtained
with SIMIO. Moreover, Figure 3 shows the production plan generated after exe-
cuting an algorithm in Excel.
Fig. 2 Line layout in Simio
Fig. 3 Example of a production plan
387
5 Conclusions
This article presents the case study of a firm that manufactures electric compo-
nents. It also introduces the integrated production scheduling and simulation pro-
gramme tool, which has been designed and implemented into an assembly line to
solve the mix model assembly line problem by considering operational con-
straints; e.g., production batches, mobility of human resources or sequence-
dependent setup times.
As future lines of work at the practical level, the authors are currently working
on extending this tool for the seven assembly lines in the production plant. Some
interesting future research lines have opened up: analysing the effect that hetero-
geneous batch sizes have on Heijunka by considering sequence-dependent setup
times; considering the polyvalency, efficiency and the mobility of human re-
sources in an optimisation algorithm.
6 References
Baudin, M (2007) Working with Machines: The Nuts and Bolts of Lean Opera-tions with Jidoka.
Productivity Press
Liker, J.K. (2004) The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manu-
facturer. Mc Graw Hill Professional
Rother, M. Shook, J. (1998) Learning to see. Lean Enterprise Institute, MA
Shingo, S., (1985) Revolution in Manufacturing: Single-minute Exchange of Die System.
Productivity Press
Womack, J, Jones, D y Roos, D. (1990) The machine that changed the world. Free press, NY
388
Electrical Markets and Agent-Based

Computational Economics: a Critical Review of
the Last Two Decades of Researching
Ferrero R1
Abstract Deregulation of electrical markets all over the world during last two
decades, intended basically to reach more efficiency during its usual performance.
Checking this fact was quickly the general subject of study. This research has
evolved, both the central concepts analyzed and the way to be tackled them, as
well as the first comparisons between uniform and discriminatory auction format
and the agents behaviour study, until new studies which optimize wind generation
bids. Everyone of this has been carried out with the help of the computational de-
velopment and the most popular and used technique: Agent-based Computational
Economics (ACE). This paper intends to be a general review about this last two
decades of research about this interesting topic, considering some final questions
as well.
Keywords: Electrical Market, Behaviour, Agent-based Computational Econom-

ics, Simulation, Validation.
1 Introduction
With the deregulation of electrical markets (in Europe, Directive 96/92), a new in-
terest in studying with detail this new scenario came up. After analyzing these re-
cent years of researching about electrical markets and agent-based, it has been
found that it encompasses four main ideas. The first one is the subject to study. At
first, it focused on the analysis of the influence of different variables into the price
settlement or market clearing price and the auction design (Bunn&Oliveira, 2001)
of the electrical market. Since the price was not the only main subject to study,
1Rubn Ferrero Snchez ( e-mail: rubfersan@gmail.com)

PhD Student at INSISOC Group. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas y CIM. Escuela de
Ingenieras Industriales. Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce S/N, 47011 Valladolid.
389
there was a quick evolution towards other parts of the electrical market, such as
the recent which consider the importance of transmission constraints in the model
(Sarica et al., 2012). The second idea is the global analysis that comprises the the-
ories of electrical markets modelling. The techniques used to model the perfor-
mance of the markets have changed along these years and the current and most
popular is Agent- based Computational Economics. ACE is the tool used to model
economic processes as systems of interacting agents and it is based on agent-based
modelling approach (Tesfatsion, 2005). In this context, agents is referred to every-
one who trades in the electrical market and interacts with the environment. The
third main concept is the development of behaviour theory that the agents adopt,
usually generation companies, within the auction. The fourth and last main group
is the one referred to packages and toolkits developed so as to model the electrical
markets.
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows: section two explains these
main groups detected along last years. The following section presents something
that recently has gained importance and will be discussed: robustness and con-
sistency of the models performed. Finally, some concluding remarks and reflex-
ions about the topics presented in previous sections.
2 Main Concepts and their Evolution
As said before, the different parts and performance of electrical markets have been
subject to study some decades ago. Due to its complexity, the way in which they
have been analyzed has evolved, from linear programming concept to those of au-
tonomy, adaptability, decision making and learning capacity. These ones, with the
increasing computational power, have provided a new methodology in order to in-
vestigate and analyze complex systems, it is called agent-based. ACE is one of the
first methods that investigated economics processes by using systems of autono-
mous agents, applied to the UK electrical market in so as to develop the agents
behaviour and comparisons of different auction formats. Some market models
have been created with simulators based on ACE as well.
Object to study
From the beginning of deregulation, one of the most interesting issues for re-
searchers has been the pricing rules strategies and related to it, the comparative be-
tween uniform and discriminatory auctions. It was principally caused by the
changes that occurred in the electrical market in UK (NETA), that they were
signed in march 2001. The principal change consisted of a new auction format,
from uniform to bilateral trading with balancing mechanisms in discriminatory
auctions. Most of authors conclude that the auction with discriminatory pricing
390
rule might be higher than with the uniform one, specially in the cases of power
market or with information asymmetry. There is another auction format, but not
very popular, the Vickrey auction. It has also been studied, but the different au-
thors do not like it too much. It seems to be that it is appropriate not to use truth-
revealing strategies, so it does not show a clear behaviour by the agents, unlike
other two auction rules. Referring to the auction format, there have been lots of at-
tempts to clarify which one is the most appropriate. It has been investigated with
agent-based and other approaches, such as Principle Component Analysis (PCA),
which splits correlated variables into linear uncorrelated variables. Unfortunately,
nothing has been ascertained on the best auction format.
Another important issue researched by means of agent-based is the power mar-
ket, usually embedded into other kind of analysis and comparatives of auction
pricing rules. Some power market analysis have been carried out by Game Theory
but most of them have been performed with agent-based. In general, authors con-
clude that fostering a change of auction format does not make disappear power
market, since participants bid repeatedly and might exert collusion, influencing the
price of energy auctioned. The way to hinder this is to have less information
among participants, but this fact is much more advantageous for large generators,
specially with the discriminatory auction. Since the electrical markets are not
equal among them, there is not an only solution to avoid power market. Some ex-
amples of electrical markets analyzed are the British, the German and the Spanish
one and the conclusion is that no one generation company exerts its full potential
power market. A vertically integrated one is also analyzed, the Korean market and
one conclusion is that this characteristic precisely has a market mitigation effect
(Bunn et al, 2010).
With the objective of simplifying the market modelling, in most of cases the
transmission network and technical constraints have not been take into account but
recent simulations point out its importance, since they might affect the way in
which generators bid.
Finally, renewable energies begin to gain relevance within the electrical market
performance, since there is a larger amount of this type of power installed in many
countries and its influence on the agents behaviour and hence, on the energy price,
it is obvious (Veit et al.,2009). Within the literature, there are different ways so as
to optimize wind power bids, so there are some thriving researching fields
(Li&Shi, 2012).
Analysis theories
First electrical market analysis were based on linear optimization, trying to attain
the maximum benefit with an economic load dispatch, but due to its simplicity, re-
sults have been proved few acceptable when there are several participants in-
volved.
391
With the aim to find the optimal solution for generators and consumers, Game
Theory was proposed. This approach consists of considering the operation of elec-
trical markets like a game with the purpose of seeking an equilibrium point among
all the players. Several versions intend to achieve this point by means of linear
complementary problems, but this perspective is not realistic because it must be
considered that all participants have enough information and perfect rationality. It
is possible to make some assumptions in order to use LCP and to find a solution
for complex systems but the outcomes become very influenced. In the case of
electrical markets, it is mandatory to consider perfect competition and all the par-
ticipants have information of their competitors, that is, there is hardly any infor-
mation asymmetry (Saguan et al., 2006). Of course, this is far from reality.
Therefore, the complexity concept came up and the rational behaviour of
agents turned into independent and adaptative. In this way, the agent-based ap-
proach became useful to model complex systems from little units called agents.
These agents are simple, autonomous, with own goals and strategy, self-learning,
capable of interacting with other agents, adapting themselves to the environment
and exploring and exploiting the information to attain their goals. The idea is to
handle reality with these simple units in order to understand the complexity of the
overall market.
There are other alternative methods that they rather estimate the price instead
of using an algorithm or other method, such as Mean Reverting Model (MRM).
Briefly, it is a stochastic method, by which prices vary around an average value,
usually historical prices. In the case of electrical markets, this value is the produc-
tion cost (Banal&Ruprez, 2011). The doubt is what is this average and objective
price? Production costs frequently depend on production mix, fuel prices, and reg-
ulatory changes. ACE looks like to be in an favourable position for being the pre-
ferred approach in order to model electrical markets in the near future.
Agents behaviour: decision making and learning

This is one of the topics most studied and analyzed together with market clearing
price. At the beginning, the attention focused on how agents, mainly generators,
made decisions, learned from situations and modified their behaviour according to
their bids each round. The first market models included their own learning process
and it simply was to attempt to maximize profits (Rassenti et al., 2003). With
Game Theory, agents were supposed to have a balanced behaviour and perfect ra-
tionality, but no one thinks this is really feasible to obtain. With the aim to find an
optimal and more realistic solution, an algorithm was discovered, which permitted
agents to practice self-learning in each bid: it is called Reinforcement Learning
(RL). It was introduced by Erev&Roth in 1998 and it currently has several ver-
sions and it is the most used with agent-based for electrical markets. RL is not an
exclusive concept of electrical markets and basically considers that the player is
able to learn from other players and the environment. It is an stochastic process in
392
which an option is chosen according to three parameters (propension, recency and

experimentation) that assesses the current state of the environment and what hap-
pened previously.
Other behavioural algorithms, most of them imported from artificial intelli-
gence, are Genetic Algorithms, Q-learning, SA-Q-learning, Experienced-
Weighted Attraction and Best Response. Q-learning is RL modified and it is also
very used and consists of keeping in mind possible future rewards when the agent
has to make a decision (Weidlich&Veit, 2008). Best Response has also variants
(Cournot and Fictitious Play) and, briefly, the decision that the agent must make is
based solely on the opponents decision. This method, along with RL and Q-
learning, is one of the most utilized (Banal&Ruprez, 2010).
One of the new approaches in this field is Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), a
probabilistic method which has been related to the learning and behaviours of par-
ticipants in the power market (Azadeh et al., 2010). Its origin comes from Nature
(ants), which behaviour has been copied. Ants find shortest path when they are
seeking food and leave a trail, which might be followed by other members of the
colony. This can be applied to agents behaviour in electrical markets. It is the first
study where ABM and ACO have been merged. It seems to be a quite interesting
new research field.
Economic science is in part the study and research of behaviour and decision
making, thus this part of agent-based is growing in importance. Some authors have
explored the consistency of some behavioural methods aforementioned but unfor-
tunately the approach is only theoretical and leave aside some techniques, like GA
and Q-learning. Moreover, it does not concludes about which one fits better,
though there is not universal rules for every markets, since each one of them has
specific characteristics.
Electrical market simulators

As seen, the study of the different aspects which affect the electric market has
been complemented with the development of ACE tools, packages that could be
classified into software and toolkits (Zhou et al., 2009). Software provides an in-
terface and functionality in order to develop a model for the electric market.
Toolkits are libraries design specifically to ACE about electric markets. The basic
structure of an electric market is: distribution, transport, generation, Independent
System Operator (ISO) and power exchange, even though some authors make
simplifications and there are different version of the models o and different ver-
sion of the models exist. The main software simulators are the following:
SEPIA: one of the first simulators created. Bilateral contracts might be estab-
lished and it has Q-learning behaviour and genetic classifier, but the remarka-
ble disadvantage is that it has not ISO and it is mostly oriented to US market.
EMCAS: popular and complete, it has a physical layer, bilateral and power
market, transmission and distribution companies and a regulator. It has six lev-
393
els of temporal planning. Two learning ways (observation y exploration) but

there is not adaptation. Mostly oriented to US market.
STEMS-R: it is addressed to the problem of real time and to solve the market
clearing and decision making. It does not join up adaptation either learning or
ISO.
AMES: it has tour main pillars: traders, transmission, market (day ahead and
real time) and ISO, with extended functions. Agents have reinforcement learn-
ing.
NEMSIM: the agents interact with other agents or the environment. It is made
up of six levels of temporal planning. Fully oriented to Australian electrical
market.
MASCEM: simulates the pool market and bilateral contract market using Game
Theory. It is similar a EMCAS, but with the advantage of possibility of scenar-
ios, which helps to agents to make the best decision.
Regarding to toolkits, some of them are Swarm, Mason, Repast and Starlogo, all
of them almost recommended for high level programmers, since they do not have
a friendly-user interface.
3 Removal of some Hypothesis, Are you Sure?
After almost two decades of agent-based, no one questions that this simulation ap-
proach has made it possible to move forward and expand the scope of the study of
electric markets. Some of the advantages of this approach reside in the fact that
they provide a description of the system, are flexible and are able to detect the ap-
pearance of emergent and not contemplated phenomena during the simulation.
As a consequence, the next step is to focus on the work done. An aspect left
aside, but no less important, is the one concerning the validation of this kind of
approach, since if the tool is not verified and contrasted, then it is no longer useful.
The validation tasks of the model are carried out in each simulation, however
there are not many details on how they were conducted. The advance of ACE
should be in parallel with the reliability of the approach, although nowadays there
are few exhaustive analysis of ACE particularized for the electric markets. Never-
theless, it is starting to become important and there are some studies which try to
validate and corroborate the sturdiness of the models bases on ACE, basically by
verifying the main supply bidding, demand representation and behavioral algo-
rithm.
After the review of the research on the electrical markets and ACE during the
last years, it has been detected that there might be some hypothesis that affects the
outcome of the simulation. Everything concerned to the Market and its internal
processes have been developed and modeled with no further problems, however in
the assumed hypothesis the influence on the environment or the external factors to
394
the electric Market have not been considered. Due to this, information on the fol-
lowing is missed:
It barely exists a separation between the Market Operator and the System Op-
erator, also the transmission and distribution network are not considered. It
does not exist an ISO that verifies the technical feasibility after the settlement,
when most of times the energy price changes.
There have been simulated periods of time to verify the functioning of the in-
ternal processes, but not wide enough to analyze what happens when external
factors affect.
No evidence has been found which rules out the relation and possible influence
of financial parameters that are also found in the markets: for instance, finan-
cial or risk coverage contracts.
Stakeholders influence, such as governments or environmental care groups.
Therefore, the proposed models are not prepared to react to a possible increase
of government taxes to the generation companies.
Influence of complex bidding conditions, such as indivisibility, gradient load
and scheduled stoppage, where applicable.
Others such as the effect of the increase on fuel price in situations of crisis (en-
ergetic or wars) or the influence of the installed renewable power.
Recent studies claim that the failure to consider some hypothesis has a great in-
fluence on the simulations result and these should not be easily removed. In any
case, the validation of an electric market model should rely on a wide set of fac-
tors to help to rule out or not its effects and later prove the validity of the simula-
tion.
4 Concluding Remarks
After almost two decades of ABM, no one questions that thanks to this simulation
approach, progress has been achieved and the scope of the study of the electric
markets has been expanded. Some advantages are that ABM provides a descrip-
tion of the system, are flexible and during the simulation the appearance of emer-
gent phenomena are detected. Therefore it is possible to represent complex behav-
iors of markets by means of autonomous and adaptative agents, included learning
capacity. It is important to mention that the computer breakthrough has influenced
a lot allowing the increase on the information and the number of processes mod-
eled.
The agent-based approach seems to work properly for some internal processes
(bidding and behaviour), within a rational but not real time span. Referring only to
this aspects and letting aside the global simulation, can be a mistake, since the sys-
tem has no answer to certain real input, like the ones mentioned above. It would
395
be convenient to analyze which external factors has each Market and try to include
them in order to have a more realistic model.
Moreover, an important issue which much has been written with ACE, but still
remains unresolved, it is about what the optimal design for an electrical market
auction is. There is no unanimity on this issue and it is not easy to solve, since
each market is different and there is no common method to be applied to all mar-
kets, even though most share common characteristics
From another perspective, the author raises the query on why hasnt he found
any article referring to a study that has been taken into consideration at the mo-
ment of designing an electric Market or to adopt regulatory measurements.
Breach/gap between theory and practice or just lack of interest in the research and
its practical applications?
The study of the electrical market through ACE has evolved considerably since
the simple mechanisms of price formation to the interaction with renewable ener-
gy, passing through the behavioral theory, but the next challenge lies in giving a
qualitative leap and try to incorporate the realities to the models of the electric
markets.
5 References
Azadeh A, Skandari MR, Maleki-Shoja B (2010), An integrated ant colony optimization ap-
proach to compare strategies of clearing market in electricity markets: agent-based simula-
tion, Energy Policy 38, 6307-6319
Banal-Estanol, A, Ruprez, A (2011), Behavioural simulations in spot electricity markets, Euro-
pean Journal of Operational Research 214, 147-159
Banal-Estanol, A, Ruprez, A (2010), Are agent-based simulations robust? The wholesale elec-
tricity trading case
J Rassenti S, L Smith Vand J Wilson B (2003), Discriminatory Price Auctions in Electricity
Markets: Low Volatility at the Expense of High Price Levels, Journal of Regulatory Econom-
ics 23, 109-123
J Veit D, Weidlich A, A Krafft J (2009), An agent-based analysis of the german electricity mar-
ket with transmission capacity constraints, Energy Policy 37, 4132-4144
Li G, Shi J (2012), Agent-based modeling on double-sided auction of wind power, Proceedings
of the 2012 Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference
Saguan M, Keseric N, Dessante P, Glachant JM (2006), Market power in Power Markets. Game
theory vs Agent-based approach, IEEE, doi 1424402883
Sarica K, Kumbaroglu G, Or I (2012), Modeling and analysis of a decentralized electricity mar-
ket. An integrated simulation optimization approach, Energy 44, 830-852
Tesfatsion L (2005) Agent-based computational economics. A constructive approach to econom-
ic theory. Economics Department, Iowa State University
W Bunn D, Martoccia M, Ochoa P, Kimb H, Sung Ahn N, Yoon YB (2010), Vertical integration
and market power: A model-based analysis of restructuring in the Korean electricity market,
Energy Policy, 3710-3716
W Bunn D, S Oliveira F (2001), Agent-based simulation-an application to the new electricity
trading arrangements of England and Wales, IEEE Transactions on evolutionary computation
396
Weidlich A, Veit D (2008), A critical survey of agent-based wholesale electricity market models,
Energy Economics 30, 1728-1759
Zhou Z, Kin Wand Chow JH (2009) Agent based simulation of electricity markets: a survey of
tools, Artif Intell Rev, 305-342, doi 10.1007/s104620099105
397
The Inventory Routing Problem for the Mixed

Car Model Assembly Line
Pulido R1, Garca-Snchez A2, Ortega-Mier M3
Abstract A car assembly line usually produces hundreds of cars every day; each
workstation in the assembly line needs car components to perform their task. The
replenishment of the components is a critical issue for the proper operation of the
assembly line. In a multi-model assembly line, this task becomes more complicat-
ed than in a single model assembly line. A lack of inventory could cause some
problems in the production line; excess inventory could also create it. The contri-
bution of this paper is a MIP for the feeding of the mixed model assembly line to
minimize the cost of the replenishment, keeping a proper inventory level.
Keywords: Integer Programming, Routing, Inventory
1 Introduction
Car Assembly lines are a way to mass produce cars quickly and efficiently. It re-
lies on the ability to assign easy tasks to humans and robots and moves parts from
one worker to another until the car is finished. These car manufacturers have
evolved from selling one model of one car as Ford did, with his Model-T, to offer
many options (Ghosh and Roger, 1989).
A high inventory level in the assembly line is a big cost contributor. Some of
the car manufacturers objectives are keeping low stock levels, performing the re-
plenishment of the production line, and providing the required components at the
1Ral Pulido Martnez ( e-mail: raul.pulido@upm.es, raul.pulido@polimi.it)
Escuela Superior de Ing.Industriales. UPM. Jos Gutirrez Abascal 2. 28006, Madrid, Espaa
Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale, via Lambruschini 4/b Milan.
2Alvaro Garca Snchez ( e-mail: alvaro.garcia@upm.es)
3Miguel Ortega Mier ( e-mail: miguel.ortega.mier@upm.es)
398
right time (Monden, 1983). The contribution of this paper is a mixed integer mod-
el for the inventory routing problem of the mixed car model assembly line.
Assembly lines are flow oriented production systems, which are still typical for
the production of high quantity, standardized commodities and even gain im-
portance in low volume production of customized product (Becker and Scholl
,2006). The different task requires certain equipment in terms of machines, skills
of workers, and components to be performed. For the single model line, this was
easy to anticipate because the requirements were periodic and homogeneous. As
the mixed model assembly line was adopted, the scheduling of the product became
more complex than with a single product. Consequently, the complexity of the re-
plenishment of the components for each station also increased.
The delivery of inventory to a workstation of the assembly lines involves the
use of transportation vehicles for which purchase or leasing agreements have an
impact in the cost. Additionally, the majority of these vehicles require a driver and
consume energy. It is necessary to try to minimize the size of the fleet vehicles,
keeping enough inventory levels for the operation of the assembly line until the
replenishment comes. The Oxford Dictionary denes replenishment as restore
(a stock or supply) to a former level or condition. The core issue is determining
what the former level was to avoid problems with the assembly line.
Inventory Routing Problem. To solve the question of which condition, along
with when and how to do it, the Inventory Routing Problem (IRP) deals with the
repeated distribution of products to a set of n stations during the planning horizon.
It is the starting point for studying the integration of different components of the
logistics value chain, i.e. inventory management and transportation (Campbell,
1998).
The replenishment of the production line is critical for the proper operation of
the assembly line. An excess of inventory induces an increase of the cost of inter-
est on working capital, space cost, and risk of material obsolescence. On the other
hand, if there is a lack of components, there is a risk of incurring rework costs or
even in the stoppage of the line.
There are several papers in the literature that deal with the integration between
production and logistics decisions at the strategic level, but almost nothing has
been done to integrate production and logistics problems at the operational level
for daily decisions (Jin, 2008). Kaminsky (2003) proposed a two-stage model of
manufacturing supply chain, which they call the 2 Stage Production Distribution
Problem (2SPDP). Eskigun (2005) considers the outbound supply chain as the
solution to minimize the fixed cost of facility location and transportation cost us-
ing a Lagrangian heuristic. The two key flows in such relationships are material
and information. Prajogo (2012) addresses the integration of the relationship of
material and information. Volling (2013) focus on the planning of capacities and
orders.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the
problem. Section 3 provides a mathematical formulation of the problem with a de-
399
tailed explanation of the assumptions. The computational experiments are present-

ed in Section 4. In Section 5, the conclusions and further direction for research are
given. Finally, the references are provided in Section 6.
2 Problem Statement
In this problem, the assembly line already exists and the production plan, for the
planning period, is already known. Each model has a set of characteristics, such as
types of wheels and tires, radio, sunroof, car seat, and so on. In every workstation,
a kit of components is installed; these components can have different trim levels.
The combination of components and trims give us the characteristics. To make it
clearer, in the case of the radio, High could mean radio MP3 and Low could
mean radio CD.
Table 1 Examples of the models with their equipment
Radio Tires GPS Sunroof Component n

Model A Low(CD) High High High Low
Model B High(MP3) High High High High

Model 5 High(MP3) Low Low Low High
The early arrival of the component causes space problems with the buffers of
the production lines; the late arrival causes several problems in the production
line. Dispatch only with a just-in-time policy increases the transportation cost and
the green impact of the production line. It is necessary to select the route and the
amount of required components to get the lower cost.
Assembly lines are complex production system with many interactions among
humans, machines, equipment, robots, transportation system, etc. In this paper, we
are focusing on the interaction of feeding the parts along the assembly line during
the car sequencing.
It is assumed that each component needed for the planning horizon is available
in a single warehouse from where all the routes depart. A route is defined as the
course taken by the transportation vehicles in order to get from the warehouse to
the stations. Each route will be attended by one transportation vehicle. This vehi-
cle may drive several trips in order to maintain the inventory during the planning
period.
The components needed for the operation of a station are delivered as a kit,
where all the pieces needed for the operation are in the warehouse one day before
the operation. Additionally, it is assumed that the model demand is known for the
planning period and all the costs are known. The solution consists in finding
400
routes for the transportation vehicles and the amount needed in order to replenish
the components. The model contemplates safety stock to mitigate the risk due to
any uncertainty; the level of the safety stock is determined by company policy and
can be set to zero.
3 Problem Formulation
In this section, we begin by introducing the objective function and then the re-
quirements that have to be accomplished.
Table 2 Sets, parameters, and decision variables
Index Set
R All routes operated by a transportation vehicle
L All locations
M All car model configurations
J Characteristic J all car components trim levels
Discretized production time
Parameters
ST js Safety stock corresponding to characteristic j J in the station s S
STo js Initial stock corresponding to characteristic j J in the station s S
A Amortization per transportation vehicle; it has to be paid if the transpor-
tation vehicle is used at least once
Y js 1 if component corresponding to characteristic j J is installed in sta-
tion s S , 0 otherwise
TC Traveling cost per distance unit
Unitary holding cost of component corresponding to characteristic j J
Hj
per time unit
T Number of cycles to be planned T=||
CAP Maximum capacity of kits in a transportation vehicle
Displacement time from l L to l L
'
TDIS ll
Variables
wr 1 if route r R attends l L; 0 otherwise
xr l' 1 if l L immediately precedes l' L, on route r R; 0 otherwise
tr l Discrete time in which the route r R arrives to the location l L
demj s Demand for component corresponding to characteristic j J in cycle
, at station s S
Accumulated demand for the component corresponding to characteristic
demac j s
j J at the beginning of cycle at station s S
401
Table 2 Sets, parameters, and decision variables
Variables
stj s Stock of component corresponding to characteristic j J in the station s
S at the beginning of cycle T
r 1 if the route r R is used for the replenishment; 0 otherwise
Amount of component required with characteristic j J in station l L
qjlr
in route r R
fj l l' r The ow of component corresponding to characteristic j J between l
and l ' L in route r R
The MIP problem minimizes the total cost of replenishment and inventory.
min. + + (3.1)
The model is subject to the routing constraints equation (3.2) to (3.7) and to the
inventory constraints equations (3.8) to (3.16).
Xrll = 1 l L \{WH}
'
(3.2)
Xrll = 1 l L \{WH}' (3.3)
Xrll - Xrll = 0 l L, r R '

'
(3.4)
Xrll ' M r r R (3.5)'
Xrll ' L r R (3.6)'
r r+1 r R (3.7)'
jll r CAP l, l L, r R
'

(3.8)
'
tr l' tr l + TDIS ll M(1 xr l l ) r R, l, l L (3.9)
fjll' r fjl' l'' r qjl' r M(1 xr l l' ) M(1 xr l' l'' ) (3.10)

= 1 + j J, l L, r R, T \{1}
'
(3.11)
ac

stj s = stj 0 s dem j s + j J, s S, T \{1} (3.12)
ac ac
dem j s = dem j1 + demj s j J, s S, T \{1} (3.13)
402
stj s ST js j J, T, s S (3.14)
demj s = Rm jYm s j J, s S, T (3.15)
stj s = SToj s j J, s S (3.16)
4 Computational Study
The number of vehicles to be produced during the planning horizon took the value
of 30. The assembly line can produce 5 types of models in 5 stations. Each station
can install a high or a low trim component, which have different holding costs (see
Table 3). Three transportation vehicles can be used.
The displacement time between locations is defined in the Table 4. It includes
time for transporting, loading, and unloading materials. Times have been discre-
tized into tack time length intervals.
Table 3 Trim Level per Model at Station Table 4 Displacement Time (Tack Time)
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 WH S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
Model 1 High High High High High WH 3 3 3 3 4
Model 2 Low High High High Low S1 3 3 3 3 3
Model 3 Low Low High High High S2 3 3 3 3 3
Model 4 Low High Low Low High S3 3 3 3 3 3
Model 5 Low Low Low Low Low S4 3 3 3 3 3
S5 4 3 3 3 3
The software AIMMS 3.13 and the standard solver Gurobi 5.0 were used to ob-
tain the solution for the problem. The computational experiment was performed in
a machine with a Intel Core i3-2350 M 2.30 GHz processor and 6 GB RAM, run-
ning under Windows 7. The solving time for this instance was 56 seconds.
The holding cost, as it was stated before, represents the cost of the opportunity
to have space used to keep inventory instead of production activities.
The sequence in Table 5 is produced in the next planning period, and then the
model finds the route and the amount of inventory to deliver to each station.
Table 5 Production sequence for the car assembly line
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
M3 M4 M5 M5 M4 M5 M5 M1 M5 M5 M3 M4 M2 M5 M5
M2 M5 M4 M3 M5 M5 M4 M5 M4 M5 M4 M5 M5 M4 M4
403
4.1 Inventory and Route Analysis
The output of the MIP is a route that minimizes the overall cost. The problem is
solved up to optimality. In Figure 1, the demand of the different components, the
stock, and the safety stock are graphed.
The safety stock has to be considered during the planning period, and at the
end of the planning period, the inventory level has to be the same as that of the ini-
tial inventory. Mixed integer programming provides us the following inventory
levels for Station 5.
Fig. 1 Demand, Stock, and Safety Stock at Station 5
The arriving times of the transportation vehicles are given in Table 6. Note that
Vehicle 3 is not used. Although it was possible to complete the routes before, the
model schedules the replenishment closest to when it is needed. The complete data
can be downloaded from the instance webpage
(http://iol.etsii.upm.es/arch/CIO2013.rar ).
Table 6 Arriving times to the Locations (Tack Time)
WH S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
Vehicle 1 11 8 5
Vehicle 2 14 4 7 10
The proposed route minimized the overall cost of distance traveled by the
transportation vehicles, the cost of vehicles used, and the Holding Cost of the
components.
404
5 Conclusions
In this work, the inventory and the routing problem have been solved jointly. The
routing model should consider more factors than just the transportation cost. The
main factor in the delivery of material should not only be the decrease of the
transportation costs but also the decrease of the holding cost of the components.
The cost of the space is an amplifier of the savings of the model. When there
are restrictions in the space closest to the assembly line, the model tries to keep the
lowest inventory along the planning period. The replenishment is made before the
inventory level reaches the safety stock. Following the Lean idea, it is possible to
decrease the safety stock until it reaches zero safety stock, always keeping in mind
the risk of any delay with the consequence of the stoppage of the assembly line.
5.1 Future research
As this is a NP hard problem, many research directions come up. The first one is
to try to change the sequence in order to create a joint algorithm to find a joint so-
lution; additionally, a metaheuristic has to be developed to solve bigger problems.
6 References
Becker C (2006), Scholl A, A survey on problems and methods in generalized assembly line bal-
ancing, EUR J OPER RES 168 (3) 694715.
Campbell A (1998), Clarke L, Kleywegt A, Savelsbergh M, The inventory routing problem,
Fleet management and logistics 1 95113.
Eskigun E (2005), Uzsoy R, Preckel P, Beaujon G, Krishnan S, Tew J, Outbound supply chain
network design with mode selection, lead times and capacitated vehicle distribution centers,
EUR J OPER RES 165 (1) 182 206.
Ghosh S (1989), Roger J, A comprehensive lit. review and analysis of the design, balancing and
scheduling of assembly systems, INT J PROD RES 27 (4) 637670.
Jin M (2008), Luo Y, Eksioglu S, Integration of production sequencing and outbound logistics in
the automotive industry, INT J PROD ECON 113 (2) 766 774.
Kaminsky P (2003), Simchi-Levi D, Production and distribution lot sizing in a two stage supply
chain, IIE Transactions 35 10651075.
Monden Y (1983), Toyota production system: practical approach to production management, In-
dustrial Engineering and Management Press, Institute of Industrial Engineers Norcross, GA.
Prajogo D (2012), Olhager J, Supply chain integration and performance: The effect of long-term
relationships, IT and sharing, and logistics integration, INT J PROD ECON 135 (1) 514-522.
Volling T (2013), Matzke A, Grunewald M, Spengler T, Planning of capacities and orders in
build-to-order automobile production: A review, EUR J OPER RES, 224 (2) 240-260.
405
EN-03
Logistics, Production and Information Systems
407
Solving the Mixed Model Sequencing Problem

with Workload Minimization with Product Mix
Preservation
Bautista J1, Cano A2, Alfaro R3, Batalla C4
Abstract We propose a hybrid procedure based on Bounded Dynamic Program-

ming assisted by linear programming to solve the Mixed-Model Sequencing Prob-
lem with Workload Minimization, with serial workstations, free interruption of the
operations and with production mix restrictions. We performed a computational
experiment with 7 instances from a case study related to the Nissan Powertrain
plant located in Barcelona. The results of our proposal are compared with those
obtained using a state-of-the-art Mathematical Programming Solver.
Keywords: Sequences, Overload, Dynamic Programming, Linear Programming
1Joaqun Bautista ( e-mail: joaquin.bautista@upc.edu)

Ctedra PROTHIUS. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya,
Avda. Diagonal 647, 7th floor, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
2Alberto Cano ( e-mail: alberto.cano-perez@upc.edu)
3 Roco Alfaro ( e-mail: rocio.alfaro@upc.edu)

4 Cristina Batalla ( e-mail: cristina.batalla@upc.edu)

* This work is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacin y Ciencia under Project
DPI2010-16759 (PROTHIUS-III) including EDRF fundings.
409
1 Introduction
In mixed-model manufacturing lines, which are common in Just-in-time (JIT) and

Douki Seisan (DS) ideologies, several variants of one or more products can be han-
dled. This flexibility determines the order in which the units are treated to drastically
reduce intermediate stocks and to capitalize on the time available for manufacturing.
The Mixed-Model Sequencing Problem with Workload Minimization (MMSP-W)
is one of the problems that appear on those environments (Yano and Rachamadugu,
1991). This problem consists of sequencing T products, of which di are of type i
i 1, ,| I | . A unit of product type i requires to each processor (operator, robot,
etc.) of the workstation k ( k 1, , K ) a standard processing time, pi, k . The standard
time assigned to each processor to work on any product unit is the cycle time c.
When a cycle ends at the workstation k , it can work on the product in progress in
an additional positive time l k c , being l k the time window. When it is not possible
to complete all of the work required by the demand plan, overload is generated. The
objective of the problem is to minimize the total overload. A review of the literature
about MMSP-W can be found at Bautista et al. (2012). Moreover, Boysen et al.
(2009) provided an up-to-date review of the literature on sequencing mixed model
assembly lines.
On the other hand, the Level scheduling problems class focuses on obtaining
regular sequences in production and consumption of components. Among them, one
of the related problems is the Product Rate Variation (PRV), which is used to pre-
serve the production mix (Miltenburg, 1989).
Our proposal contains: (1) a model for the problem (2); (2) a model to obtain
the overload of a given subsequence to use it as a part of the lower bound of the
problem (3 and 4); (3) reduction of the search space of the procedure through
theorems (5); (4) a dynamic programming procedure to solve this problem that
uses linear programming to obtain bounds (6); and (5) a computational experiment
with instances from a Nissan powertrain plant to compare the results offered by the
BDP procedure with those offered by integer linear programming (7).
2 Model for the Variant of the MMSP-W
For the MMSP-W with serial workstations, unrestricted interruption of the

operations and production mix restrictions (pmr), we take as reference the M4U3
model, proposed by Bautista et al. (2012). The proposed model M4U3_pmr is:
410
Table 1 Parameters and variables for the model M4U3_pmr.
Parameters
I, K Set of product types ( i 1,..., I ) and set of workstations ( k 1,..., K ).
di , di Programmed demand of product type i and ideal rate of production for product type
i, di di T ( i 1, , I ).
bk , l k Number of homogeneous processors at workstation k; and time window, the

maximum time that the workstation k is allowed to work on any product unit, where
lk c > 0 is the maximum time that the work in process is held at workstation k.
pi,k Processing time required by a unit of type i at workstation k for each homogeneous
processor (at normal activity).
t, T
i 1 di T
I
Position index in the sequence ( t 1, ,T ) and total demand.
c Cycle time, the standard time assigned to workstations to process any product unit
Variables
xi,t Binary variable equal to 1 if a product unit i ( i 1, , I ) is assigned to the position t
( t 1, ,T ) of the sequence, and 0 otherwise.
sk,t , sk,t Start instant of the operation in tth unit of the sequence of products at workstation k (
k 1,..., K ) and positive difference between the start instant and the minimum start

instant of the tth operation at workstation k. sk,t [sk,t (t k 2) c] (with
[x] max{0, x} ). sk, t 0 ( k, t ), s1,1 0 .
k,t , vk, t Processing time required by the tth unit of the sequence of products at workstation k
and processing time applied to the tth unit of the product sequence at station k for
each homogeneous processor (at normal activity). vk, t 0 ( k, t ).
wk, t Overload generated for the tth unit of the product sequence at workstation k for each
homogeneous processor (at normal activity); measured in time. wk, t 0 ( k, t ).
K K
T T
Min W k1 bk wk, t Max V k1 bk vk,t (1.1)
t1 t1
subject to:
Constraints (13) (23) from Bautista et al. (2012)
1 xi, t di
t
i 1, , I ; t 1, ,T (1.2)
1 xi, t di
t
i 1, , I ; t 1, ,T (1.3)
Objective function (1.1) and constraints (13) to (23) corresponds to the

mathematical program M4U3 proposed in Bautista et al. (2012), while the
constraints (1.2) and (1.3) are those that incorporate the preservation property of the
production mix desired in JIT (Toyota) and Douki Seisan (Nissan) philosophies.
411
Also, in this work we will use to measure the non-regularity of a sequence the next

2
quadratic function Q (X) t1 i 1
T I t
x t di .
1 i,
3 Graph Associated to the Problem
Similar to Bautista and Cano (2011), we can build a linked graph without loops or
direct cycles of T 1 stages. The set of vertices in level t t 0, ,T will be noted
as J(t) . J(t, j ) ( j 1, , J(t) ) being a vertex of level t, which is defined by the tuple
t, j , q t, j , t, j ,W t, j , LB_ Rt, j , X t, j , where:
Q

q(t, j ) (q1 (t, j ), , q I (t, j)) : vector of satisfied demand.
t, j 1 t, j , 2 t, j ,..., t t, j : partial sequence of t units of product associ-
ated to the vertex J t, j .
W t, j : partial overload generated by the sequence t, j .
LB_ R t, j : lower bound of the overload generated by the unsequenced
products, di qi t, j ( i 1, , I ).

Q X t, j : non-regularity of production generated by the sequence t, j .
The vertex J(t, j ) has the following properties:

i 1 qi t, j t
I
(1.4)
t di qi t, j t di , i I (1.5)
At level 0 of the graph, there is only one J(0) vertex. Initially, we may consider
that at level t, J(t) contains the vertices associated to all of the sub-sequences that
can be built with t products that satisfy properties (1.4) and (1.5). However, it is
easy to reduce the cardinal that J(t, j ) may present a priori, establishing the
following definition of pseudo-dominance ( ): given the sequences (t, j1 ) and
(t, j 2 ) associated to the vertices J(t, j1 ) and J(t, j 2 ) , then (t, j1 ) (t, j 2 ) if:
(1.6)
The reduction of J(t) through the pseudo-dominances defined in (1.6) cannot

guarantee the optimality of the solutions.
412
4 Bounds for the Problem
Given a vertex of the stage t, reached through a partial sequence

(t, j ) 1 (t, j ), 2 (t, j ),..., t (t, j ) , the overall bound for W and a partial bound for
the complement R(t, j) associated to the sequence or segment (t, j ) can be
determined according to the schema presented in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Bound scheme for a partial sequence (t, j )
To obtain the overloads associated to (t, j ) , in each stage of the procedure we

use a mathematical model. Given the subsequence (t, j ) of products, the pro-
cessing times for each workstation k and each cycle , p (t, j ),k , are known. We
can define a mathematical model without assignment variables, M _W( (t, j )) :
Min
K

W( (t, j )) k1 bk 1 wk,
t
(1.7)
Subject to:
k, p (t, j ),k k 1,..., K ; 1,..., t (1.8)
k, wk, 0 k 1,..., K ; 1,..., t (1.9)
sk, sk, 1 k, 1 wk, 1 c k 1,..., K ; 2,..., t (1.10)
sk, sk1, k1, wk1, c k 2,..., K ; 1,..., t (1.11)
sk, k, wk, l k k 1,..., K ; 1,..., t (1.12)
The result of the proposed mathematical model corresponds to W( (t, j )) .
Objective function (1.7) corresponds to the minimization of the partial work
overload associated with the subsequence of t product units. Constraint (1.8) assigns
the processing times of the t sequenced units. Constraint (1.9) prevents the
workoverload to be greater than the processing times. Constraints (1.10)-(1.12)
constitute the set of relative start instants of the operations at each workstation.
To obtain a bound of the overload associated to the complement R(t, j) , we use
the combination of two lower bounds, the first one oriented towards stations (1.13):
LB1(t, j ) k1 bk TPk (t, j ) TDk (t, j )
K
(1.13)
where TPk (t, j ) i1 pi,k di qi t, j and TDk (t, j ) (T t 1) c l k , k 1,..., K .

I
And the other bound (1.14) oriented towards products:
413
LB2(t, j ) i1 di qi t, j LB2(i)
I
(1.14)

where LB2(i) k1 bk pi,k c bK (l K c)
K

To determine LB_ R(t, j ) , we use LB_ R(t, j ) max{LB1(t, j ), LB2(t, j)} .
Moreover, we can obtain a global lower bound of the total overload associated to
vertex J t, j : LB_W(t, j ) W( (t, j)) LB_ R(t, j ) .
5 Properties Derived of the Production Mix Restrictions pmr
Let 1, 2 ,..., T as a sequence of products for the MMSP-W pmr, and Xi,t rep-
resents the total number of units of product type i sequenced during the first t pro-
duction cycles. In these conditions, the fulfillment of the pmr restrictions combined
with the demand variety results in the following properties:
Theorem 1: If t di Xi,t t di , i I ;t 1,...,T and t j with 2 t T , then
its satisfied: if i I : Xi,t 0 di d j Xi,t X j,t , t 2,...,T .
Proof: If we suppose i I : Xi,t 0 di d j such as Xi,t X j,t ; then we have
Xi,t X j,t 1 . On the other side, given t j , then must be satisfied: X j,t X j,t1 1
and Xi,t Xi,t1 , and we can write: Xi,t X j,t Xi,t1 X j,t1 1 1 Xi,t1 X j,t1 2
. Furthermore, given that Xi,t1 X j,t1 (t 1) di (t 1) d j
(t 1) d j (t 1) d j , then we have: (t 1) d j (t 1) d j Xi,t1 X j,t1 2 ,

that is absurd, so the hypothesis Xi,t X j,t is false and, consequently, must be ful-
filled Xi,t X j,t , t 2,...,T and i I : Xi,t 0 , when t j .
Theorem 2: If t di Xi,t t di , i I ;t 1,...,T and di d j , then Xi,t X j,t 1
i, j I;t 1,...,T .
Proof: On one hand: Xi,t X j,t t di t d j t di t di 1 . On the other:
Xi,t X j,t t di t d j t di t di 1 .
Then: 1 Xi,t X j,t 1 Xi,t X j,t 1 , i, j I;t 1,...,T .
414
6 The Use of BDP
The BDP procedure combines features of dynamic programming with features of

branch and bound algorithms. The procedure has the following stages:
The initial model to obtain W( (t, j )) is generated, for t=0.
The new constraints associated to the new stage t are added to the existing
model, in order to generate the model used to obtain the partial work overload
associated to the subsequence.
One of the vertices consolidated in stage t 1 is selected, following a
nondecreasing ordering of the LB_W(t, j ) values.
The selected vertex is developed by adding a new product unit with pending
demand. The vertices that do not satisfy the properties (1.4) and (1.5) or the
theorems 1 and 2 are not generated. The bound LB_W(t, j ) is obtained.
The vertices are filtered. From all the vertices developed in the previous
function, a maximum number H of the most promising vertices (according to
the lowest values of LB_W(t, j ) ) are chosen. Those vertices in which their lower
bound is greater than Z0 (known initial solution) or those pseudo-dominated as
defined in (1.6) are removed.
Finally, the most promising vertices in stage t ( H vertices as maximum) are
consolidated.
The procedure is described more in detail in Bautista and Cano (2011).
7 Computational Experiment
To analyze the validity of the BDP procedure for industrial applications, an assem-
bly line from the Powertrain plant of Nissan Spanish Industrial Operations (NSIO)
in Barcelona, Spain, was investigated. The line consists on 21 modules or work-
stations distributed serially in which nine types of engines ( p1,..., p9 ) were assem-
bled. The data associated to the demand plans and the processing times for each of
the nine types of engines can be found at Bautista and Cano (2011). For this manu-
script, we have selected 7 representative demand plans (instances 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12
and 18), corresponding each one to a representative situation of the demand.
The solutions offered by the BDP procedure proposed were obtained under the
following conditions and features: (1) BDP procedure programmed in C++ (gcc
v4.2.1), running on an Apple iMac (Intel Core i7 2.93 GHz, 8 GB RAM, MAC OS
X 10.6.7, no parallel code); (2) four windows width were used (H=1, 36, 81, 126);
(3) the initial solution Z0 for each window width was the solution obtained by BDP
415
with the previous window width, except in the case H 1 , where Z0 was estab-
lished as ; and (4) to calculate the lower bounds, LB_W(t, j ) , of the overload
associated to each vertex in the BDP procedure, the solver Gurobi v4.6.1 was used,
solving the linear program M _W( (t, j )) .
The best results for the 7 instances were obtained using the solver Gurobi (Bau-
tista et al., 2012) and the BDP procedure described in this document. To study the
behavior of both procedures we use the following relative percentage deviation:
f SolutionGurobi f SolutionBDP
RPD f
f SolutionGurobi
f W, Q X (1.15)
The minimum, maximum and average CPU times used by Gurobi and BDP
(H=1, 36, 81, 126) are collected in table 2.
Table 2 Minimum, maximum and average CPU times needed by Gurobi and BDP to obtain the
solutions for the 7 instances.
BDP
Gurobi
H=1 H=36 H=81 H=126
CPU min 7200.0 0.1 428.6 717.9 883.0
CPU max 7200.0 35.0 504.1 1055.9 1572.5
CPU 7200.0 5.3 471.6 967.0 1411.7
Table 3 collects the values for W and Q (X) of the solutions obtained using
Gurobi and BDP (H=1, 36, 81, 126). BDP outperforms to Gurobi respect to the
value for W, with the exception of instances 3 and 12. According to the values for
Q (X), BDP never was worst than Gurobi. The average improvements were 4.3%
and 14.3% in W and Q (X) , respectively.
Table 3 Values for W and Q (X) obtained by Gurobi and BDP (H=1,,126). Column Best
corresponds to the RPD obtained for W and Q (X) from the best solution of the BDP.
BDP
Gurobi
H=1 H=36 H=81 H=126 Best
Q (X) Q (X) RPD RPD
W W Q (X) W Q (X) W Q (X) W
W Q (X)
1 186 400.0 368 400.0 166 400.0 - - - - 10.8 0.0
2 383 423.5 - - 404 393.5 358 369.5 318 327.9 17.0 22.6
3 423 408.5 - - 444 340.7 - - - - -5.0 16.6
6 478 420.0 - - 467 385.0 451 344.0 447 324.3 6.5 22.8
9 751 411.2 - - 773 440.7 739 360.7 - - 1.6 12.3
12 287 410.2 - - 334 425.1 293 385.5 - - -2.1 6.0
18 619 419.6 - - 648 424.7 620 381.1 610 336.3 1.5 19.9
416
8 Conclusions
We presented a hybrid procedure based on BDP assisted by linear programming

(used to obtain bounds to solve the MMSP-W with pmr). This procedure is used to
solve 7 instances from a case study of the Nissan Powertrain plant, improving the
results on CPU times and objective function when compared with those obtained
previously using the Gurobi solver. Future research will focus on using faster me-
taheuristics to solve the problem and to establish new models that take into ac-
count operations with variable processing time.
9 References
Bautista, J, Cano, A (2011) Solving mixed model sequencing problem in assembly lines with se-
rial workstations with work overload minimisation and interruption rules. European Journal
of Operational Research 210(3), 495-513.
Bautista, J, Cano, A, Alfaro, R (2012) Modeling and solving a variant of the mixed-model se-
quencing problem with work overload minimisation and regularity constraints. An applica-
tion in Nissans Barcelona Plant. Expert Systems with Applications 39(12), 11001-11010.
Boysen, N, Fliedner, M, Scholl, A (2009) Sequencing mixed-model assembly lines: survey, clas-
sification and model critique. European Journal of Operational Research 192(2), 349-373
Miltenburg, J (1989) Scheduling Mixed-Model Assembly Lines for Just-In-Time Production
Systems. Management Science 35(2), 192-207.
Yano, C A, Rachamadugu, R (1991) Sequencing to minimize work overload in assembly lines
with product options. Management Science 37 (5), 572-586.
417
Enhanced Supply Chain Management Using

SCOR and BPM. Application to the Spanish
Road Transport SME.
Franconetti P1, Ortiz A2
Abstract New macroeconomic environment challenges forces road transport

companies to adopt new proven and robust management models, since it is a sec-
tor little professionalized. The process management implementation can increase
efficiency and effectiveness of enterprises and facilitate their integration into the
supply chain. In this work key business processes of road transport companies
have been designed, using the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR)
and the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) as a representation tool. In
addition, the basic attributes and metrics that are needed to measure the process
performance from the Key Performance Indicators suggested by SCOR have been
also defined.
Keywords: Road Transport, BPM, SCOR.
1 Introduction and Background
Road transport sector is a major industry in Spain due to its weight in the econo-
my, particularly in international transport, in the large number of commercial con-
nections generated and the impact on the labor market.
However, the current recessionary macroeconomic context forces the world-
wide industry to face new challenges. Among them it is important to emphasise
the need to increase efficiency, effectiveness and agility of the supply chain (SC).
Not only proprietary supply chain operations have to be improved but also the
1
Patricia Franconetti Rodriguez (e-mail: pfranconetti@gmail.com)
Universitat Politcnica de Valncia. Camino de Vera S/N. 46022 Valencia
2
Angel Ortiz Bas ( e-mail: aortiz@omp.upv.es )
Centro de Investigacin de Gestin e Ingeniera de la Produccin(CIGIP) Universitat Politcnica
de Valncia. Camino de Vera S/N. 46022 Valencia
418
services that are outsourced understanding them as part of the extended enterprise.
This is essential because some outsourced services, such as transport, can reduce
the SC performance.
Nowadays Spanish transport sector has modern and competitive infrastructure,
because during the period of macroeconomic growth in Spain the truck fleet was
modernized. However, it is generally an unprofessional sector and small business-
es abound which are unaccustomed to work in a turbulent and competitive envi-
ronment. It is therefore necessary to establish a more robust, tested and agile man-
agement model to take advantage of these productive resources.
This paper presents a preliminary study of four Valencian SME of the road
transport sector wishing to implement the business process management.
2 Findings
A SWOT analysis of SMEs of the transport sector has been carried out by means
of various industry reports (Consultrans, 2010) and (Fundacin CETMO, 2011),
see figure 1. The aim was to highlight the key skills to propose the future strategy
of these SMEs as a starting point for an adequate analysis of the key processes.
The results show the limitations of the current business model and suggest that the
future of business puts up with proposing a business model that would integrate
transportation service within modern, efficient and intermodal supply chains.
Four SMEs of the sector have been visited in order to contrast the information
with the sectorial SWOT analysis and the managers of these companies have been
also interviewed to find out about their current business model.
Companies have a functional, hierarchical and departmental structure and
mainly work as door to door transport enterprises. Although they have a fixed cus-
tomer base, they also serve any other client that allows grouping loads in larger
parcels or complete the return journey in domestic or international long distance
services. The high seasonality of some fresh products as well as the diversity of
international destinations to attend, favor some companies to act as agents for
transportation and subcontract to other carriers who may be interested in certain
services.
Although managers have a great knowledge about the order delivery process,
they usually do not make a medium-term of orders and capacity resources plan-
ning. It is argued that demand is totally unpredictable due to the nature of the
business and the absence of strategic contracts.
The new proposed process management strategy has been well received by all
interviewees as they highlight the need to increase the effectiveness and efficiency
of service. However, all managers emphasize economic investment and lack of
experience in innovation as the main barriers to make the change.
419
Weaknesses
Great enterprise atomization.
High offer growth, absence of differentiation.
High road network congestion.
Threats
Expected increasing of fuel price.
Absence of "culture" in intermodal techniques use.
Guvernamental support to maritime and railroad transport.
Strengths
Low tendence, but constant, to enterprise concentration.
Modern truck fleet.
Possibility to adapt the enterpise to new logistic trends.
Oportunities
Road transport dependence to door to door services
Development of new logistic platforms
Incentives for new technologies, quality and environmental certifications
Fig. 1 SWOT summary of Spanish road transport sector
Table 1 Key features of the analyzed road transport enterprises
Activity
National and international door to door road transport
Customers
Suppliers of fresh fruits and vegetables
Other minor clients of other sectors
Destinations
Wholesaler or Cooperatives warehouses
International fresh fruit and vegetables markets
Logistic platforms
Door to door orders
Trucks fleet
Generally less than ten non-specialized own or subcontracted trucks
Main concerns
Fuel price
Low turnover due to the global economic crisis
3 Conceptual Background
In recent decades there have been thousands of enterprise deployments of enter-

prise information systems (ERP), however to move towards a complete business
420
management model is not enough information integration, it is required a broader

vision of information to a process vision that allows greater coordination and
speed of response of the supply chain (SC)(Millet P. et al, 2009). In addition, ac-
cording to Ortiz et al (Ortiz A., 1999) real coordination and integration of business
processes across the extended Enterprise is required to enhance the effectiveness,
efficiency and reduce delivery times. And indeed, it is essential to develop inte-
grated and robust ERP, for this reason business processes modelling across the
supply chain is mandatory (De la Fuente M.V., 2010).
Therefore, road transport companies have no corporate culture to adopt the
process approach in a simple way. It requires a unified framework to address the
redesign of business processes (BPR) and the subsequent design of ERP. Among
all the existing frameworks, SCOR is an excellent candidate because it allows
comparing and evaluating the activities along the SC in a simple way. It links
business processes, metrics, best practices and human skills in a common structure
known as the four components of SCOR.
Basically SCOR business processes are grouped around five basic processes:
SOURCE, PLAN, MAKE, DELIVER, and RETURN to further disaggregate into
two categories and lower levels of processing elements (Supply Chain Council,
2010). Following this strategy, the SC can be modelled from the suppliers' suppli-
ers to end customers following best design practices. Subsequently, numerical
standards or metrics are defined to align the strategy of all the links.
To evaluate the performance of processes, SCOR defines five performance at-
tributes (Reliability, Responsiveness, Agility, Cost and Assets) and determines
numerical standards or metrics to measure each of these attributes in each type,
category or process element.
4 Basis of the Proposal
This paper proposes to model current business processes, using SCOR as a refer-
ence model and Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) as a modelling
tool, of a road transport SMEs which gives service to suppliers in order to
transport goods to end customers of a SC. From this "AS IS" model of existing
processes and taking into account the forward and reverse work and information
flows along the supply chain the new processes that are necessary will be design
and some current inefficient or incomplete processes will be redesigned (De la
Fuente M.V., 2010). The implementation of the new model and process control
are "out of scope".
In the design, it will be necessary to overcome an inherent limitation of the
SCOR model due to the important differences between the business structure of
the carrier and its customers. The road haulage lacks of SOURCE and MAKE
421
processes and it will require a deep development of both the DELIVER (direct
flow) and RETURN (reverse flow) and other associated processes like picking.
Currently, the process DELIVER and RETURN of the SC is virtually outsourced
to different carriers that have significant deficiencies in quality and speed of ser-
vice, see Figure 3 (AS-IS). This problem is mainly due to lack of planning and be-
cause they are not involved in planning the medium / long term because they are
external to the SC. Therefore, the carrier must implement a model capable of inte-
grating into the SC. It will be necessary to design the PLAN process and redesign
the DELIVER and RETURN to be able to integrate into the SC, as well as to de-
fine the metrics needed to evaluate the performance, see Figure 2 (TO BE).
Fig. 2 Scheme of the present business process model (AS-IS) and desired model (TO-BE)
5 Comparison between the Current Model "AS IS" and the

Proposed Model "TO BE"
According to R.G. Lee, to achieve successfully the BPM implementation, the first
step is to identify and design correctly the key processes as these are the processes
that create value (Lee R.G., 1998). Although the surveyed companies did not have
a process map, after the interviews it was found that the current key process
matched the SCOR sD2 process which represents "make to order" delivery.
All the selected companies have a clear know-how about sD2 process and some
notions about the process of short-term planning (sP4) necessary to meet customer
demand. With the formation of a multidisciplinary team it was able to identify 13
processing elements distributed in both categories. It was found that there was a
lack of metrics and they did not know the best practices related to sD and sP pro-
cesses. Project leaders have defined these key objectives for the new model:
Objective 1: To improve delivery planning to reduce rejected orders in periods
of high demand, increase the resource utilization and optimize maintenance.
422
Objective 2: To improve the product delivery to reduce lead time and enable
more comprehensive services that include picking and packing for distribution.
Taking into account the goal, the new process map TO-BE (figure 3) accord-
ing with BPMN has been designed. To achieve objective 1 it has been necessary:
To design the process sP4 for medium / long term planning
To improve sD2 process in order to link it to the validation of orders and rout-
ing shipments.
Throughout this design, the best practices detailed in the reference model have
been applied (Supply Chain Council, 2010). Maintenance operations, including
checking and cleaning of vehicles, are not explicitly referred in the SCOR refer-
ence model. To overcome this limitation, the maintenance has been considered as
a service provided by an external supplier through the process sS1 and is activated
through sP4 delivery plan.
Standardization and completion of the process sD2 were necessary to accom-
plish the second objective. Some essential basic support activities like sD2.1,
sD2.2 and sD2.4 and new ones to take into account new services like picking or
packing (sD2.9 and sD2. 10) were included. However, order fulfilment is linked to
the planning of the resources needed (sP2) and source (sS1) that is why both pro-
cesses have been design from scratch.
Process maps like figure 3 represents will be a reference model for distribution
and return (direct/reverse flow) functions to be developed by freight companies.
6 Development of Metrics to Measure Performance
SCOR defines some basic attributes of the process that have to be measured with
metrics. Then, key performance indicators or KPIs (level 1 SCOR) are derived
from attributes and disaggregated at levels 2 and 3 of SCOR to detail their nature.
In our case study, although the five attributes defined by SCOR performance are
important, it is impractical to try to implement them all in a BPM model designed
from scratch. So three key performance attributes have been used in this early
stage of the project, the other two will be included during the optimization stage.
The three SCOR attributes selected for transport companies were: Reliability, Re-
sponsiveness and Costs. These attributes were selected because they are precise,
simply disaggregated and they have a huge impact to tangible results, figure 4.
Process categories metrics
At configuration level (level 2) the proposed metrics are disaggregated from
KPIs. Operative metrics to measure the Reliability attribute have to explicit the
source that caused a non-satisfied order. In this case, the origin could be an unsuc-
cessful supply of raw materials for picking, a poor planning or a failure in the de-
livery process. Thus, percentage of not-fulfilled orders associated to each pro-
cess (i.e. sS1, sP2, sP4 and sD2) has been selected as candidate, see figure 5.
423
However, this simple concept of the metric, in practice could be difficult to define.
It will require a multidisciplinary team that defines what is considered a perfectly
fulfilled order in each candidate enterprise.
For the other two basic attributes, Responsiveness and Costs, the concept of
the metric has been decided to be extended. Initially, SCOR proposes to measure
the time and cost of execution, but the nature of these metrics do not represent the
delay on customer initial needs and the opportunity cost of non-fulfilled orders.
Fig. 3 To-Be categories process map of studied enterprises represented according with BPMN
notation and powered with BIZAGI software
424
Reliability adimensional
Percentage of not-fullfilled orders
Responsiveness days
Time to fullfill an order
Costs /(kgkm)
Unitary cost of delivered items
Fig. 4 Summary of selected SCOR attributes, associated KPIs and measurable unit for top level
process performance measurement (SCOR level 1)
For this reason, the time associated with each process category includes not on-
ly its execution but also the associated delay with respect to the date originally
proposed by the customer. This same idea has been applied to the costs of each ac-
tivity. It will not only be charged the cost of execution but also the cost of lost op-
portunity because of a non-fulfilled order.
The purpose of this extension of the concept of SCOR metrics is not only to
specify the added value to each service but also the value lost as a result of an un-
met need of the customer.
Process Attribute Metric

Percentage of not-fulfilled orders associated to each pro-
sS1, sP2, sP4, sD2 Reliability
cess
Total time resulting from execution plus delaying time of
sS1, sP2, sP4, sD2 Responsiveness
each process
Activity based plus lost opportunity cost associated to pro-

sS1, sP2, sP4, sD2 Costs
cess
Fig. 5 Summary of the defined operative metrics for process categories level (SCOR level 2)
7 Conclusions
There are a big number of threats in this sector and road transport SME have
common weaknesses as reduced fleet size and the inability to offer broader ser-
vices that threaten its long-term future.
Results show that firms have considerable knowledge about the order fulfill-
ment. But they have important shortcomings in PLAN process at strategic and op-
erational level.
The main areas for improvement are cooperation and coordination with cus-
tomers to increase transport productivity and offer a complete and cheaper service.
425
Using SCOR as a framework business processes have been redesigned and

synchronized. Furthermore, the critical attributes and related metrics were defined
in order to enable a success implementation of the new strategy.
Future studies will address the implementation phase and optimization of the
new proposed model in real companies to test the efficiency and effectiveness.
8 References
Consultrans (2010) Estudio socioeconmico sector transporte por carretera. Ministerio Fomento.
De la Fuente MV, Ros L, Ortiz A (2010) Enterprise modelling methodology for forward and re-
verse supply chain flows. Comput Ind 61:702710.
Fundacin CETMO (2011) Retos del transporte. Ministerio de Fomento.
Lee RG, Dale BG (1998) Business process management: review and evaluation. Bus Pro Manag
J 4:214 225.
Millet P, Schmitt P, Botta-Genoulaz V (2009) The SCOR model for the alignment of business
processes and information systems. Enterprise Information Systems 3: 393407.
Ortiz A, Lario F, Ros L (1999) Business Processes Integrated Management: a proposal for a
methodology to develop Enterprise Integration Programs. Comput Ind 40:155171.
Supply Chain Council (2010) Supply Chain Operations Reference Model, Overview of SCOR,
v10.0. www.supply-chain.org
426
Incorporating the Work Pace Concept into the

MMSP-W
Bautista J1, Alfaro R2, Batalla C3, Cano A4
Abstract This work proposes an extension for the MMSP-W (Mixed-Model Se-
quencing Problem with Work overload Minimization) with variable processing
times by the incorporation of the work pace or work speed concept. A computa-
tional experience, linked to a case study of Nissan Powertrain plant in Barcelona,
is carried out to compare the performance of the reference model with the new
model proposed.
Keywords: Mixed-model Assembly Line, Sequencing, Work Factor, Work Over-

load, Linear Programming
1 Introduction
The product variety, that is demanded today, forces manufacturers to have mixed-
product assembly lines. These lines are composed by a set of workstations () ar-
1
Joaqun Bautista ( e-mail: joaquin.bautista@upc.edu)
Ctedra PROTHIUS. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya.
Avda. Diagonal, 647, 7th floor, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
2
Roco Alfaro ( e-mail: rocio.alfaro@upc.edu)
3
Cristina Batalla ( e-mail: cristina.batalla@upc.edu)
4
Alberto Cano ( e-mail: alberto.cano-perez@upc.edu)
427
ranged serially. Each workstation is characterized by its workload, or set of task

assigned to it, and the available standard (normal activity or normal pace) time or
cycle time () to process these tasks.
Because of that type of assembly lines treat several product types and each one
may require different processing times and resources, it is necessary to sequence
the manufacturing order of the product unit to avoid (1) high stock levels in the
production system, and (2) the inefficiency of the line.
Thus, the sequencing problems (Boysen et al., 2009) can be focused on (A)
minimizing the work overload or lost work, and (B) minimizing the stock levels.
In this work, we study a problem focused in objective (A), the MMSP-W
(Mixed-Model Sequencing Problem with Work overload Minimization). That
problem consist of sequencing T products, grouped into a set of product types, of
which are of type ( = 1, , ||). Each product unit requires a processing time
at normal work pace, , , for each homogeneous processor at each workstation
( = 1, , ||). If the cycle time is not sufficient to complete the required work
by a product unit at the workstation , the product unit can be held at the station
for a time, called the time window, equal to , which is longer than the cycle time
( > ), reducing the available time of the workstation for processing the next
product unit.
When it is not possible to complete all of the work required, it is said that an
overload is generated. The objective of the MMSP-W is to maximize the total
work completed (Yano and Rachamadugu, 1991), or minimizing the total overload
generated (Scholl et al., 1998), being equivalent both objectives (see Theorem 1 in
Bautista and Cano, 2011).

Usually, deterministic and fixed operation processing times, , , are consid-
ered in sequencing problems. These times are initially determined, through the
MTM system (Methods and Time Measurement) in JIT (Just In Time) and DS
(Douki Seisan) manufacturing environments and correspond to the time required
by an average skilled operator, working at normal pace or normal speed, to per-
form a specified task using a prescribed method, allowing time for personal needs,
fatigue, and delay. Therefore, these operation processing times correspond to the
predetermined standard times (Zandin, 2001).
The present study aims the extension of reference models for the MMSP-W
considering variable processing times of the operations regarding the operator ac-
tivation or work pace. In particular, we focus on minimizing the work overload,
increasing the work pace at certain intervals of the workday, taking into account
the usual conditions of the automotive companies and the relationship between the
performance of the operator and his level of activation or stress level.
428
2 MMSP-W with Variable Work Pace
Large automotive companies negotiate with representative employees a set of

work conditions, once established the processing times of operations according to
the MTM system with a work speed 100, MTM_100. Among these conditions we
found the selection of work pace considered as normal for the company.
Typically, the processing times accepted are the corresponding to MTM_110,
which are obtained as follows:
100 100
(_110) = (_100) = (1.1)
110 110
Obviously, from the reference times determined with the normal work pace ac-
corded by the company, MTM_110, we can establish a correspondence between
the processing times regarding any pair of work paces. To do this, we define the
factor work pace, , of an operation as the division between the processing times
measured at normal work pace () and those at the work pace that is carried out
( ); that is: = .
Therefore, if we consider that the processing times obtained through MTM_100
correspond with the standard work pace and the times MTM_110 with the normal
pace, we can determine 0 = 0. 90 (standard) and = 1 (normal), respectively.
Similarly, the companies set an activity or optimum work speed, which typical-
ly corresponds to 20% above the normal work pace ( = 1.2, MTM_132). This
activity is considered the maximum work pace that a worker can develop without
loss of working life, working 8 hours a day.
Thus, considering that the work pace can vary throughout the workday and
therefore operations can expand or contract over time, we can establish a new
model for the MMSP-W from the reference model (Bautista et al. 2012). The pa-
rameters and variables of the model are:
Parameters
Set of workstations ( = 1, , ||).
Number of homogeneous processors at workstation .
Set of product types ( = 1, , ||)
Programmed demand of product type .
, Processing time required by a unit of type i at workstation k for each homogeneous pro-
cessor (at normal pace or activity).
||
Total demand; obviously, =1 = .
Position index in the sequence ( = 1, , ).
Cycle time, the standard time assigned to workstations to process any product unit.
Time window, maximum time that each processor at workstation is allowed to work
on any product unit, where > 0 is the maximum time that the work in progress
(WIP) is held at workstation .
429
, Work pace factor associated with the operation of the product sequence ( =
1, , ) at workstation ( = 1, , ||).
Work pace factor associated with the period ( = 1, , + || 1) of the extended
workday that includes manufacturing cycles (total demand) more || 1 additional
cycles needed to complete the required work by all the units at all workstations.
Note that if we associate the same factor to each moment of workday in all work-
stations, we have: , = +1 (, ).
If , = 1 (normal work speed) we will use the MTM_110 scale; for , = 1.1 and
, = 1.2 we will use MTM_121 and MTM_132, respectively.
Variables
, Binary variable equal to 1 if a product unit ( = 1, , ||) is assigned to the position
( = 1, , ) of the sequence, and to 0 otherwise
, Positive difference between the start instant and the minimum start instant of the
operation at workstation .
, Overload generated for the unit of the product sequence at station for each homo-
geneous processor (at normal activity); measured in time.
, Processing time applied to the unit of the product sequence at station for each
homogeneous processor at normal work pace or activity.
, Processing time reduced by a work pace factor , .
We impose here: , = +1 ,
Model _4 3_1:
|| ||
= =1( =1 , ) = =1( =1 , ) (1.2)
Subject to:
||
=1 , = ( = 1, , ||) (1.3)
||
=1 , = 1 ( = 1, , ) (1.4)
||
, + , = =1 , , ( = 1, , ||); ( = 1, , ) (1.5)
+1 , , = 0 ( = 1, , ||); ( = 1, , ) (1.6)
, ,1 + ,1 ( = 1, , ||); ( = 2, , ) (1.7)
, 1, + 1, ( = 2, , ||); ( = 1, , ) (1.8)
, + , ( = 1, , ||); ( = 1, , ) (1.9)
, , , , , , , 0 ( = 1, , ||); ( = 1, , ) (1.10)
430
, {0.1} ( = 1, , ||); ( = 1, , ) (1.11)
1,1 = 0 (1.12)
In the model, the equivalent objective functions (1.2) are represented by the to-
tal work performed () and the total work overload (). Constraint (1.3) requires
that the programmed demand be satisfied. Constraint (1.4) indicates that only one
product unit can be assigned to each position of the sequence. Constraint (1.5) es-
tablishes the relation between the processing times applied to each unit at each
workstation and the overload generated in each unit at each workstation. Con-
straint (1.6) reduces the processing times applied regarding the work pace factor.
Constraints (1.7) (1.9) constitute the set of relative start instants of the opera-
tions at each station and the processing times reduced to the products for each pro-
cessor. Constraint (1.10) indicates the non-negativity of the variables. Finally,
constraint (1.11) requires the assigned variables to be binary, and the equality
(1.12) fixes the start instant of the operations.
2.1 Function of the Work Pace Factor throughout the Workday
The relationship between an operators performance and his or her level of acti-
vation or arousal, reflected in his level of stress, can be considered curvilinear.
(Muse et al., 2003). The YerkesDodson law argues that it is an inverted-U.
From this idea in this work, we associate the operators efficiency with the
work pace, by a direct correlation between the work pace factor and the stress.
Thus, considering the Yerkes-Dodsons optimum stress curve, we determine a
function of the factor work pace throughout time (see figure 1). In this way, on
one hand, the first and last product-units sequenced will be processed with less ac-
tivation of stress and, therefore, with a work speed similar to normal work pace.
While, on the other hand, the time periods in which the operator reaches the rou-
tine, stress is increased by increasing the work pace factor until reach the fatigue
that is a characteristic of the end of the workday.
431
Fig. 1 Function of work pace factor.
In our case, we define a step function of work pace factor, where 0 is the ac-
tivity factor corresponding with the MTM_100, with MTM_110 (work pace
established as normal by companies) and with MTM_121. Thus we set the
values of the work pace factor over time. Specifically:
= 1.0, (1 0 ) ( + 1 + || 1)
= { (1.14)
= 1.1, (0 + 1 )
3 Computational Experience
To evaluate the influence of the incorporation of the work pace factor into the
MMSP-W on the total work overload generated, we compare the obtained results
by the new model _4 3_1 with the obtained results by the reference model
_4 3.
To do this, we use a case study that corresponds to an assembly line from Nis-
san's plant in Barcelona. That line has 21 workstations with an effective cycle time
of = 175 , a time window of = 195 , and an identical number of homo-
geneous processors = 1 . The line assembles nine types of engines
(1 , , 9 ) grouped into three classes: 4x4 (1 , , 3 ); vans (4 , 5 ); trucks
(6 , , 9 ). Each engine class has different processing times, therefore we use
several instances corresponding to different demand plans associated with a single
workday of 13.127 hours with 2 shifts. Each one of these instances has a total de-
mand of 270 engines with different production mixes. Specifically, for this manu-
script we have selected 7 instances that correspond, each one, to a representative
situation of the demand (see table 1).
432
Table 1 NISSAN-9ENG instances and demand plans.
Demand 4x4 Vans Trucks

plan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
2 30 30 30 45 45 23 23 23 23
3 10 10 10 60 60 30 30 30 30
6 50 50 50 30 30 15 15 15 15
9 70 70 70 15 15 8 8 7 7
12 24 23 23 45 45 28 28 27 27
18 60 60 60 30 30 8 8 7 7
In addition, considering the function of work pace defined in section 2 and the
conditions of Nissan, in the computational experience we fixed the values of work
pace factor as follows:
Fig. 2 Function of Nissans work pace factor.
To implement the two models, the Gurobi v4.6.1 solver was used on a Apple
Macintosh iMac computer with an Intel Core i7 2.93 GHz processor and 8 GB of
RAM using MAC OS X 10.6.7. The solutions from this solver were obtained by
allowing a maximum CPU time of 7200 for each model and for each of the 7
demand plans selected from the NISSAN-9ENG set. Table 2 shows the obtained
results by each model.
Table 2 Work overload (W) of the 7 NISSAN-9ENG instances selected given by Gurobi for
models _4 3 and _4 3_1 with a execution time of 7200 . Optimal solutions are
marked with *.
# instance #1 #2 #3 #6 #9 #12 #18

01 807,420 807,370 807,260 807,505 807,615 807,360 807,535
_43 228 384 425 477 782 326 678
_43_1 0* 12 0* 84 239 0* 198
(%) 100 96.88 100 82.39 69.44 100 70.80
1
The total work performed can be calculated as = 0 .
433
From Table 3, we can see how the incorporation of work pace factor decreases
the obtained value of overall work overload, regarding the obtained value by the
model _4 3, at all instances tested. In particular, we see that the fact of passing
from a factor of 1 to a factor of 1.1, in the second third of the work shift, reduces
the work overload a 96.88%, 82.39%, 69.44% and 70.80% in instances #2, #6, #9
and #18, respectively, and a 100% in instances #1, #3 and #12, reaching, in these
three cases, the optimal solution.
4 Conclusions
In this paper we have presented a new model, the _4 3_1, from the reference
model, _4 3, proposed by (Bautista et al., 2012). This new model for the
MMSP-W incorporates variable processing times of operations according to the
work pace factor or activity. Specifically, it has set a staggered function of this
factor throughout the workday, based on Yerkes-Dodsons optimal stress function.
This function sets the normal work pace, fixed by the company = 1 at the be-
ginning and end of the work shift, and increases this value to = 1 in inter-
mediate moments of the shift.
Defined the model and work pace function, we have performed a computation-
al experience linked to the assembly line of Nissan Powertrain plant in Barcelona.
We have selected 7 instances that are representative of different demand plans that
can be found and the results obtained by the new model have been compared with
those obtained with the reference model.
After computational experience, we have observed that an increase in the work
pace of 10%, for a third of the work, shift reduces the total work overload generat-
ed, on average, 88.5%, a maximum of 100% and a minimum of 69.44%. In addi-
tion, by the incorporation of work speed concept into the MMSP-W, we have
reached the optimal solution in three instances, the #1, #3 and #12, in which the
overload is 0.
Moreover, if we consider that the loss of an engine supposes a cost of
4000 , the cycle time is 175 and the work schedule contains 225 work-
days, we can obtain savings by a maximum of 2.79, a minimum of 1.17 and an av-
erage of 2.03 .
434
5 References
Bautista, J, Cano, A (2011) Solving mixed model sequencing problem in assembly lines with se-
rial workstations with work overload minimisation and interruption rules. European Journal
of Operational Research, 210(3), 495513.
Bautista, J, Cano, A, Alfaro, R (2012) Models for MMSP-W considering workstation dependen-
cies: A case study of Nissans Barcelona plant. European Journal of Operational Research,
223(3), 669-679
Boysen, N, Fliedner, M, Scholl, A (2009) Sequencing mixed-model assembly lines: Survey,
classification and model critique. European Journal of Operational Research, 192(2), 349
373.
Muse L A, Harris S G, Feild H S (2003) Has the Inverted-U Theory of Stress and Job Perfor-
mance Had a Fair Test? Human Performance, 16(4), 349-364.
Scholl, A, Klein, R, Domschke, W (1998) Pattern based vocabulary building for effectively se-
quencing mixed-model assembly lines. Journal of Heuristics, 4(4), 359381.
Yano, C A, Rachamadugu, R (1991) Sequencing to minimize work overload in assembly lines
with product options. Management Science, 37(5), 572586.
Zandin K B (2001) Maynards industrial engineering handbook. 5 th ed.
435
Impact of Ergonomic Risk Reduction in the

TSALBP-1
Bautista J1, Batalla C2, Alfaro R3, Cano A4
Abstract In this paper, we present an extension to the TSALBP problem (Time

and Space constrained Assembly Line Balancing) with ergonomic risk restrictions
and two models to aggregate elemental tasks. We perform a study linked to Nissan
to evaluate the impact that produces the ergonomic risk reduction on the number
of workstations required by the line in the particular case of TSALBP-1.
Keywords: Automobile Industry, Ergonomics, Task-Blocks, Assembly Line Bal-

ancing
1 Introduction
Assembly line in automobile industry is composed by different workstations ar-

ranged in series and connected by a transport system, which allows movement of
the work in progress at constant speed. At each workstation is assigned a subset of
1Joaqun Bautista ( e-mail: joaquin.bautista@upc.edu)

2Cristina Batalla ( e-mail: cristina.batalla@upc.edu)
3Roco Alfaro ( e-mail: rocio.alfaro@upc.edu)
4Alberto Cano ( e-mail: alberto.cano-perez@upc.edu)
436
tasks, called workload of the station, ( ), which requires a process time that can
not exceed a time, called cycle time ().
In the literature we find a problems family under the acronym TSALBP (Time
and Space constrained Assembly Line Balancing Problems) (Chica et al. 2010,
2011). These problems are focused on assign a set, , of task to a set, , of work-
stations, such that: (1) No area required by the station is greater than the available
area per station (A), (2) all the precedence constraints are satisfied and (3) no sta-
tion workload time is greater than the cycle time.
In addition, if we consider the need to attain the safety and welfare of the
workers assigned to workstations, we must understand and integrate the Ergonom-
ics. This discipline studies the relation between the human and different elements
of their environment. There are many methods that evaluate physical demands to
which a worker is exposed throughout the workday, as: postural load (Karhu et al.,
1977); repetitive movements (Colombini et al., 2002); manual handling (Waters et
al., 1997).
In this work we incorporate aspects related with the ergonomic risks, into the
TSALBP family, adding new constraints and a particular case of TSALBP-1 is
studied.
2 The TSALBP with Ergonomic
In literature we can find works that have incorporated the concept of ergonomics
in line balancing problems. Specifically, Otto and Scholl (Otto and Scholl, 2011)
employ two techniques to incorporate the ergonomic risks to the problem SALB-1.
In a first approximation, they establish, through new constraints (1.1), a maxi-
mum value for the ergonomic risk, Erg, associated to the workload, , of a work-
station ( = 1, , ||), taking into account the monotony property ( )
( {}) ( , : ).
( ) Erg ( = 1, , ||) (1.1)
The same authors proposed an alternative to the conditions (1.1), that is the
problem ErgoSALBP-1. In this case, they incorporate a new objective function
composed by two terms into the problem:
() = () + (( )) (1.2)
Where () is the number of workstations; is a nonnegative weight and

(( )) is a function that includes the ergonomic risk ( ), .
Similarly, we can incorporate the concept of ergonomics within TSALB prob-
lems. Therefore, from the TSALBP-1 model (Bautista and Pereira, 2007), we de-
437
fine a new model, the _1_, that considers somatic factors (Bautista et al.,
2012) and whose parameters and variables are the following:
Parameters
||, Maximum number of workstations ( = 1, , ).
Cycle time, the standard time assigned to workstations to process its workload.
Available space or area assigned to each workstation.
Set of ergonomic risk factors ( = 1, , ||).
Maximum ergonomic risk allowed to each workstation under the factor ( =
1, , ||)
Minimum ergonomic risk allowed to each workstation under the factor ( =
1, , ||)
Set of elemental tasks ( = 1, , ||).
Processing time required by the elemental task ( = 1, , ||).
Linear area required by the elemental task ( = 1, , ||).
, Category of the task ( = 1, , ||) associated to the risk factor ( =
1, , ||). It is a non-negative integer value.
, Ergonomic risk of task ( = 1, , ||) associated to the risk factor ( =
1, , ||). Here, , = , .
Set of direct precedent tasks of the task ( = 1, , ||).
Variables
, Binary variable equal to 1 if the elemental task ( = 1, , ||) is assigned to the
workstation ( = 1, , ), and to 0 otherwise.
Number of workstations.
Model _1_:
1 = (1.3)
Subject to:

=1

, 0 ( = 1, , ||) (1.4)
=1 , = 1

( = 1, , ||) (1.5)
||
=1 , ( = 1, , ) (1.6)
||
=1 , ( = 1, , ) (1.7)
||
=1 , , ( = 1, , ; = 1, , ||) (1.8)
=1 (,

, ) 0 (1 ; ||: ) (1.9)
, {0,1} ( = 1, , ||) ( = 1, , ) (1.10)
438
In the model, the objective function (1.3) to minimize the number of work-
stations (). Constraint (1.4) leads to determine the last no empty workstation.
Constraint (1.5) indicates that each elemental task only can be assigned to one
workstation. Constraints (1.6) and (1.7) indicates that the set of elemental task as-
signed to each workstation do not exceed the cycle time and the available area, re-
spectively. Constraint (1.8) limits the maximum and minimum ergonomic risk al-
lowed to the set of elemental task assigned to one workstation. Constraint (1.9)
forces the assignment of tasks to workstations satisfies the set of precedences. Fi-
nally, constraint (1.10) requires the assigned variables to be binary.
3 Models for the Aggregation of Elementary Tasks in Task-

blocks
Usually, hundreds and even thousands of elemental tasks ( ) are developed in

manufacturing and assembly lines used in automotive. Only, the assembly of en-
gines in line supposes 400 elemental tasks; that volume of information difficults
the aggregation of these task in workstations unless we have a reasonable-
aggregation method available.
In the object study environment, there are subsets of tasks that can be grouped
naturally, because they must or can be advisable to perform consecutively.
In any case, before balancing, a previous aggregation of the tasks would be use-
ful to simplify the present problem and thus solve it in two phases: (1) generation
of task-blocks and (2) line balancing from these task-blocks.
Obviously, not all aggregations will be possible. Therefore, we propose the fol-
lowing feasibility model that can be useful when no automatic procedure is avail-
able to create the task-blocks. The additional parameters and variables of the mod-
el are the following:
Parameters
Set of task-blocks ( = 1, , ||)
Maximum processing time allowed for the task-block ( = 1, , ||).

Maximum available area for the task-block ( = 1, , ||).

, Maximum ergonomic risk for the task-block ( = 1, , ||) associated to the
risk factor ( = 1, , ||).

, Assignment of the elemental task ( = 1, , ||) to the task-block ( =
1, , ||).
Variables
, Binary variable equal to 1 if the elemental task ( = 1, , ||) is assigned to the
workstation ( = 1, , ), and to 0 otherwise.
Model __:
439

, = , ( = 1, , ||; = 1, , ||) (1.11)
||
=1 , = 1 ( = 1, , ||) (1.12)
||
=1 , 1 ( = 1, , ||) (1.13)
||
=1 , ( = 1, , ||) (1.14)
||
=1 , ( = 1, , ||) (1.15)
||
=1 , , , ( = 1, , ||; = 1, , ||) (1.16)
||
=1 (, , ) 0 (1 ; ||: ) (1.17)
In the model the equation (1.11) sets the values of the variables from the prede-

termined assignment, , ( , ), of elemental tasks in task-blocks
which is desired to know the feasibility. Constraint (1.12) indicates that each ele-
mental task only can be assigned to one task-block. Constraint (1.13) establishes
that no task-block is empty. Constraints (1.14) (1.15) and (1.16) impose the limits
of time, area and ergonomic risk to each task-block. Finally, constraint (1.17)
maintains consistency in the order of precedence of the tasks.
Although with the previous model we can test whether a group of elementary
tasks is feasible or not, this does not guarantee that the resulting task-blocks are
balanced with respect to any reasonable criterion, such as ergonomic risk of each
task- block. For this reason, we propose another model, which aggregates ele-
mental tasks such that all blocks have a similar ergonomic risk.
The additional parameters and variables for the new model are:
Parameters
Medium ergonomic risk generated by the sets of assigned tasks to each task-
block, regarding the risk factor ( = 1, , ||).
1 ||
That is: = || =1 ,
, Ergonomic risk for the task-block ( = 1, , ||) regarding the risk factor
( = 1, , ||). That is: , = ,
Variables
+ ()
, Real variable that measures the positive difference between , and .
+ () +
, = [, ] ( = 1, , ||; = 1, , ||)
()
, Real variable that measures the positive difference between and , .
() +
, = [ , ] ( = 1, , ||; = 1, , ||)
Model __ :
|| + ||
() = =1[=1 [, () + , ()]] (1.18)
440
Subject to: (1.12) to (1.17) from __.
|| +
=1 , , , () + , () = ( ), ( ) (1.19)
, {0,1} ( = 1, , ||; = 1, , ||) (1.20)
In the model, the objective function () represents the overall discrepancy

of between the real and medium value of aggregate ergonomic risk by task-block
and is a scalar coefficient associated to the factor risk , satisfaying
= 1 and 0 ( ).
4 Computational Experience
A study has been realized on a Nissan engines plant in Barcelona with purpose to
analyze the impact that the reduction of the maximum allowed ergonomic risk
produces on the number of workstations of the line.
This reduction of the ergonomic risk, supposes an improvement at the job place
(workstation), which have a beneficial effect on workers, avoiding injuries, and to
the company, reducing absenteeism.
We begun with 140 operations of the line obtained from the 378 elementary
tasks, including fast test (Chica et al. 2011 and http://www.prothius.com) to create
two sets of 36 task-blocks, 1 (aggregation realized from result from to the con-
figuration of workstations for the best solution of TSALBP-1) and 2 (aggregation
realized through the __ ) (see table 1 and 2).
We solved the _1_, only considering the physical factor (|| =
1; _1_) for both sets, 1 and 2 , with the following parameters: (1) cy-
cle time equal to 180 s; (2) required area, A, at each workstation equal to 400 cm;
and (3) several maximum ergonomic risks (depending on the safety requirements),
= { 320, 325, 330, 335, 340, 345, 350, 355, 360 } (ergo-
seconds). Table 3 shows the results obtained by the two sets of task-blocks.
Table 1 Set of 36 task-blocks 1
h 1 h 1
1 1, 5, 9 19 68
2 3, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 20 20 69, 70, 71, 72, 73
3 7 21 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80
4 4, 15, 18, 19 22 81, 82, 83, 84, 86
5 6, 12, 16, 17, 21 23 85, 87, 88, 91
6 22, 26, 27 24 89, 90, 92, 99
441
Table 1(continued) Set of 36 task-blocks 1
h 1 h 1
7 23, 24, 25, 28 25 93, 94
8 29, 30, 31, 32 26 95, 96, 97
9 2 27 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 106
10 33 28 104
11 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40 29 105, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116
12 39, 42, 43 30 107
13 41, 59 31 117, 118, 119, 120, 128
14 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 60 32 121, 122
15 48, 51 33 131, 132, 134
16 50, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 34 123, 124, 125, 126
17 58, 63, 64 35 127, 129, 130, 133, 135, 136, 137
18 61, 62, 65, 66, 67 36 138, 139, 140
Table 2 Set of 36 task-blocks 2
h 2 h 2
1 1, 9, 10 19 67, 68, 71
2 5, 7, 8, 11, 13 20 69, 70, 72, 73
3 3, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 21 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79
4 17, 21 22 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85
5 4, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27 23 87, 88, 90
6 25, 28, 29, 30 24 86, 89, 91
7 6, 31, 32, 35, 36 25 92, 99
8 33, 34, 37 26 94, 98
9 2, 39, 40 27 93, 100, 101, 102, 103
10 38, 42, 43, 60 28 95, 104, 106, 108, 110, 113
11 41 29 105, 109, 112, 114, 115
12 44, 45, 46 30 107, 111, 116, 119
13 12, 48, 49, 59 31 117, 118, 131
14 47, 55 32 97, 120, 121, 132
15 52, 53, 56 33 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 134, 135
16 50, 51, 54 34 128, 129, 130
17 57, 58, 61 35 136, 137, 138, 139
18 62, 63, 64, 65, 66 36 96, 133, 140
For the experience we used the CPLEX solver v11.0 (single-processor license)
running on a MacPro computer with an Intel Xeon 3.0 GHz CPU and 2 GB RAM
using Windows XP without limit on the CPU time.
442
Table 3 Number of workstation obtained by _1_ for sets 1 and 2
F 360 355 350 345 340 335 330 325 320

(1 ) 24 24 25 -- -- -- -- -- --
(2 ) 27 27 28 28 32 32 33 35 36
From table 3 we can see that the number of workstations increases with the re-
duction of the maximum ergonomic risk allowed. In addition we observe that for
the first group of elemental tasks, 1 , aggregated without consider multi-criteria,
there is not possible solution when the ergonomic risk limitation is upper than
350e-s. However for the second set, 2 , we find solution for all values analyzed.
5 Conclusions
We presented an extension for the TSALBP models that incorporates the ergonom-
ic risk concept. In addition, we presented two models that allowed us to create
task-blocks from elementary tasks.
We have studied a case of line balancing in the Nissan engine plant in Barcelo-
na and we have observed that the impact of the ergonomic risk reduction on the
assembly line is very significant. If we want to improve the quality of jobs, the as-
sembly line must be reconfigured. If we considered that the loss of an engine sup-
posed a cost of 4000, the cycle time is 180s and there are two work shifts in a
day, this reconfiguration represented a cost of about 1.3 million euros for losses-
ramp, every time we made a new balance.
6 References
Bautista J, Batalla C, Alfaro R (2012) Incorporating Ergonomics Factors into the TSALBP, Co-
municacin, Proceedings(CD), International Conference on Advances in Production Man-
agement Systems (APMS 2012), Rodas (Grecia).
Bautista J, Pereira J (2007) Ant algorithms for a time and space constrained assembly line bal-
ancing problem. European Journal of Operational Research, 177/3: 2016-2032.
Chica M, Cordn O, Damas S, Bautista J (2010) Multiobjective constructive heuristics for the
1/3 variant of the time and space assembly line balancing problem: ACO and random greedy
search. Information Sciences, 180/18: 34653487
Chica M, Cordn O, Damas S (2011) An advanced multiobjective genetic algorithm design for
the time and space assembly line balancing problema. Computers & Industrial Engineering,
61: 103-117.
Chica M, Cordn O, Damas S, Bautista J (2011) Including different kinds of preferences in a
multiobjective and algorithm for time and space assembly line balancing on different Nissan
scenarios. Expert Systems with Applications, 38/1: 709-720.
443
Colombini D, Occhipinti E, Grieco A. (2002) Risk Assessment and Management of Repetitive

Movements and Exertions of Upper LimbsJob Analysis, Ocra Risk Indices, Prevention Strat-
egies and Design Principles. ISBN: 978-0-08-044080-4
Karhu O, Kansi P, Kuorinka L (1977) Correcting working postures in industry: A practical
method for anlisis. Applied Ergonomics, 8: 199-201
Otto A, Scholl A (2011) Incorporating ergonomic risks into assembly line balancing. European
Journal of Operational Research 212/2: 277-286.
Waters T R, Baron S L, Kemmlert K (1997) Accuracy of measurements for the revised NIOSH
lifting equation. Applied Ergonomics 29/6: 433-438.
444
Order Promising Process for Supply Chains

with Lack of Homogeneity in the Product
Alemany MME1, Boza A2, Ortiz A3, Poler R4
Abstract Traditionally, during the Order Promising Process (OPP), the homoge-
neity of different available units of the same finished good to be committed to cus-
tomers has been assumed. However, this homogeneity assumption is not valid for
manufacturing contexts with Lack of Homogeneity in the Product (LHP) like ce-
ramics. In this paper, special LHP-dimensions that affect the OPP are outlined.
Based on them, the specific LHP availability levels to consider during the OPP as
well as the definition of allocation rules for these availability levels are described.
Keywords: Lack of Homogeneity in the Product, Order Promising Process
1M Mar Alemany ( e-mail: mareva@omp.upv.es)

Centro de Investigacin de Gestin e Ingeniera de Produccin (CIGIP). Universitat Politcnica
de Valncia. Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia.
2
Andrs Boza Garca ( e-mail: aboza@omp.upv.es)
3
Angel Ortiz Bas ( e-mail: aortiz@cigip.upv.es)
4
Ral Poler Escoto ( e-mail: omp.upv.es)
445
1 Introduction
The OPP refers to the set of business activities that are triggered to provide a re-
sponse to customer order requests. During the OPP, when a new customer order
request arrives, it is necessary to compute whether there are enough uncommitted
real or planned FGs, materials and/or resources available to fulfill the new order
on time. Traditionally, the homogeneity of different available units of the same FG
to be promised to customers has been assumed. This homogeneity characteristic
has allowed the accumulation of uncommitted FG availabilities from different re-
sources and time periods to satisfy the same customer order.
However, this homogeneity assumption is not valid for manufacturing contexts
with Lack of Homogeneity in the Product (LHP). LHP contexts are characterized
by the existence of units of the same FG that differ in some characteristics (sub-
types) that are relevant for the customer. LHP appears in certain industries like
ceramics, textile, wood, marble, horticulture, tanned hides and leather goods (Al-
emany et al., 2013). These firms are obliged to include a classification stage
whose localization in the production process and the classification criteria depend
on each industry. The result is that the same FG originates different subsets of
homogeneous quantities (subtypes).
LHP has a direct impact on the OPP in several ways. On the one hand, classify-
ing one same FG into several subtypes increases the number of references and the
information volume to be processed, thus complicating system management. On
the other hand, the alternatives for allocating real or planned uncommitted sub-
types quantities to customer orders substantially increases and the homogeneity
requirement complicates the search for a feasible and optimal solution. This is due
to the fact that different subtypes of the same FG cannot be used to promise a spe-
cific customer order. Therefore, the typical way of calculating the accumulated
ATP will not be valid. Not accomplishing this homogeneity requirement can lead
to returns, product image and company deterioration, which may involve less cus-
tomer satisfaction and even loss of customers. Furthermore, the real homogeneous
quantities available of the same FG to be promised to customers are not known
until their production has finished. This aspect proves a problem when customers
orders have to be promised, reserved and served from the homogeneous units
available derived from the planned production. Therefore, it is necessary to antici-
pate as much as possible the future availability of homogeneous quantities (sub-
types) in order to serve customers with the required quantities and homogeneity
level required on time.
For this reason, the main purpose of this paper is to explicitly highlight the in-
herent characteristics of LHP manufacturing systems that impact the OPP by the
definition of the so called LHP-dimensions (section 2). Based on this dimensions
it will be possible to decide the most suitable way of considering the different
LHP availability levels during the OPP in order to made reliable commitments
446
with customers (section 3). Finally, the impact of allocation rules of uncommitted
homogeneous quantities to customers is analyzed (section 4).
2 LHP-Dimensions for OPP
Different dimensions should be analyzed in order to determine the impact of LHP

specific situation to the OPP. With the aim of better understanding the concepts,
the OPP in ceramic sector (Alemany et al., 2013) is taken as an example.
LHP Customer Order Characteristics Dimension
It is important to keep in mind that LHP becomes a managerial problem due to
the homogeneity requirements of customers. As in most companies it will be es-
sential to know from the customer order, the requested products (one, several or a
product-pack), the unit measure for each product (that can be dependent on the
customer class: units, pallets or trucks), the quantity and the due date. But LHP in-
troduces a new customized aspect in order proposals: the homogeneity type re-
quired by the customer among the ordered products. The customer may require
uniformity between components of a product (pearls on a necklace) or between
units of the same product (ceramic tiles) or between different products of a prod-
uct-pack (chairs and a dining table). In addition, the customer can specify the val-
ue of the homogeneity attributes required or, in case there are subtypes of the
same item with different value, the maximum price willing to pay. The homoge-
neity tolerance makes reference to the customer sensibility in the permissible
range of variation of LHP attributes to consider that two units of a subtype are
homogeneous. This order characteristic can be or not explicitly defined by cus-
tomers. For instance, in ceramic sector, customers specify the quality of the prod-
uct (value) but though for each quality, several subtypes exist (the same quality
tile with different tone and gage), they do not specify other homogeneity attributes
(like tone and gage). Note that the order size becomes a very relevant order pro-
posal aspect for LHP environments because the larger the orders size, the more
difficult will be to meet the uniformity requirement among all their units.
LHP origin Dimension: Raw Materials & Transformation Activities
LHP origin provides us with information about the inclusion or not of LHP
characteristics in the availability levels. LHP can be originated by the heterogene-
ous characteristics of raw materials and/or components, for instance when they
are directly originate from nature. LHP can also appear due to the own transfor-
mation activities (LHP-activities) or environmental characteristics (LHP-factors)
that introduce certain variability in the processed items even when the input mate-
rial is homogeneous. With the aim of being more exhaustive in the determination
of the LHP origin, we extend the LHP definition introducing the terms Lack of
447
Homogeneity in Raw Materials (LHRM), Lack of Homogeneity in Intermediate

Products (LHIP) and Lack of Homogeneity in Finished Goods (LHFG).
For instance, in the ceramic sector LHP is originated for the different character-
istics of the raw materials (clays) and components (glazes) but also for the produc-
tion lines and kilns (LHP-activities) due to temperature and humidity (LHP-
factors). Therefore, in ceramic sector, LHRM, LHIP and LHFG exist.
Subtypes Dimension: LHP Items & Classification Stages
In order to ensure that customers are served with the required homogeneity,
LHP supply chains are obliged to introduce one or several classification (sorting)
stages along their productive process. Figure 1 shows the relationship among cus-
tomer order characteristics and the definition of subtypes. The number and loca-
tion of classification stages can be influenced by the homogeneity type required by
customer (i.e. among components, among units of the same finished good or
among different finished goods). For each sorted item, the classification criteria
and the values they can take (discrete or continuous) should be identified. This
provides us with the number of subtypes of the same LHP-item. The classification
criteria maintains a closely relationship with the homogeneity attributes in FG re-
quired by the customer. At the same time, the possible values allowed of each at-
tribute depend on how exigent customers are (homogeneity tolerance). Finally, it
is important to know not only the existing subtypes but also their appearance in
the processed quantities by the SC transformation activities. This aspect provide
us information about if different subtypes can be found either in the same lot or
among lots of the same resource or among different resources at the same or dif-
ferent point of time. Furthermore, it will be interesting to found if the relation be-
tween the input quantity of a LHP-item and the subtype output quantities are con-
stant or variable. The subtype appearance jointly with the order size will
condition not only the units to be produced in planned lots (master plan) but also
the anticipation of future homogeneous quantities available (LHP availability
Levels) used during the OPP.
CUSTOMERS SUPPLY CHAIN

HOMOGENEITY REQUIREMENTS CLASSIFICATION (SORTING) STAGES
Homogeneity Type Location Classification Stages Number
Homogeneity Attributes Classification criteria

Subtypes Number
Homogeneity Tolerance Criteria values
Order Size Subtypes Appearance
Fig. 1 Relationship between homogeneity requirements and classification stages.
448
In ceramic sector, the homogeneity type is among tiles of the same model. Sub-
types are classified only once at the end of the manufacturing process based on
their surface defects, color and thickness. This classification criteria provide sub-
types of the same FG that differ in quality (first, second, third and waste), tone and
gage. Subtypes appear among lots processed in different resources and even in the
same resource at different points of time due to environmental conditions.
3 Characterizing LHP Availability Levels
The above LHP dimensions present a direct impact on the way of representing and
calculating the different LHP uncommitted availability levels to answer customer
requests. In this section traditional availability levels are first described in order to
better understand the differences with respect LHP availability levels.
Traditional Availability Levels
During the OPP, when a new customer order request arrives, it is usually to
check whether there are enough uncommitted quantities of different availability
levels for the due date requested. Three usual availability levels are defined: ATP
(Available-To-Promise), CTP (Capable-To-Promise) and MATP (Material-
Availability-To-Promise) (Figure 2).
PRODUCTION PRODUCTION
PROCESS SUPPLY FINAL ASSEMBLY
STAGE 1 STAGE -N
RAW
TEMS MATERIALS SUBASSEMBLIES CODP- TEMS FINISHED GOODS
COMPONENTS
AVAILABILITY
MATP CTP-MP ATP CTP-FAS
LEVELS
PLANS MRP CRP MASTER PLAN FAS
LEAD TIMES MANUFACTURING LEAD TIME of CODP-ITEMS LEAD TIME of FAS
Fig. 2 Availability levels for traditional OPP
Available-To-Promise (ATP) includes the calculation of the uncommitted

quantity, either real or planned, of the items stocked at the customer order decou-
pling point, which is based on the master production schedule. In principal ATP
can be represented on any stage of the supply chain, e. g. finished goods, compo-
nents, or raw materials. The decision where to represent ATP best for a certain
business is strongly linked with the location of the decoupling point (Kilger and
449
Meyr, 2008): finished goods for MTS, main component and subassemblies for
ATO and raw materials for MTO.
If there is not enough ATP to commit an order, the calculation of the Capable-
To-Promise (CTP) quantities can be required. CTP represents the uncommitted
available capacity, either real or planned, of those productive resources involved
in the product fulfillment of a customer order. CTP can be checked either to pro-
duce additional quantities of CODP-items or to ensure that there is enough re-
sources capacity to assembly CODP-items for obtaining finished goods. In the re-
viewed literature these two concepts are not clearly differentiate. For this reason, it
is our proposal to define two kinds of CTP: CTP-MP and CTP-FAS. CTP-MP rep-
resents the uncommitted capacity of productive resources upstream the CODP to
produce additional quantities of CODP-items. Consuming CTP-MP implies modi-
fy the Master Plan. CTP-FAS represents the uncommitted capacity of productive
resources downstream the CODP to carry out the Final Assembly Schedule. Final-
ly, there are authors (Meyr, 2004) that distinguish between uncommitted capacity
(CTP) and Material-Available-To-Promise (MATP). In this case MATP represents
the not yet assigned net capacities of materials.
LHP Availability Levels
Taking as the starting point the traditional availability levels defined to promise
orders, the impact of LHP in their definition and calculation is analyzed. The
question is to determine in which LHP situations make sense to compute LHP
availability levels with the aim of more precisely anticipating the future uncom-
mitted homogeneous quantities. When modeling future planned LHP availabilities
it is possible to define them in terms of specific subtypes or simply try to estimate
the future subsets of homogeneous quantities without anticipating the specific sub-
type. As it will be shown it strongly depends on the customer order characteristics.
The decision about defining availability levels taking into account the LHP aspect
is influenced not only by the CODP location, as usual, but also by its relative po-
sition as regards the classification stages. Figure 3 shows by column when makes
sense to express the uncommitted availability levels in LHP terms. Upstream the
CODP it is possible to consider MATP-LHP if LHRM and classification stages
upstream the CODP just at the supply activity exist. The ATP-LHP consideration
is recommendable when LHRM or LHIP and classification stages exist upstream
the CODP. Furthermore, the strong relationship existing between the Master Plan
and the ATP should be taken into account when modeling the ATP. If the Master
Plan is expressed in terms of specific subtypes or homogeneous quantities, the
ATP-LHP should be expressed in concordance. However, in certain circumstances
it is possible to disaggregate the Master Plan expressed in CODP-items to CODP-
LHP items if it is known the appearance of subtypes in lots and the splitting of
quantities.
Modeling MATP-LHP or ATP-LHP at the level of subtype will be necessary
when:1) customer not only requires homogeneity but also defines the required
450
subtype in the order, 2) different MATP-LHP or ATP-LHP subtypes once classi-

fied do not present the same value (qualities) 3) later transformation activities can
be dependent on the subtype and 4) it is known the way MATP-LHP or ATP-LHP
subtypes affect the ATP-LHP and LHP finished goods, respectively.
Modeling CTP-MP-LHP and CTP-FAS-LHP makes sense when there are LHP
activities upstream and/or downstream the CODP, respectively, and it is known
the LHP-factors and their impact on homogeneity. Along these lines, it is very im-
portant to keep in mind not only the existing subtypes but also their appearance in
the processed quantities by the SC transformation activities. This aspect provide
us information about if different subtypes can be found either in the same lot or
ferent point of time and helps us to determine the level of detail when calculating
the uncommitted capacity (per resource, group of resources, etc.) and its utiliza-
tion to produce additional uncommitted availability of items.
When using the above CTP-LHP levels to plan new production quantities, it
will be necessary to consider the constant or variable relation between the input
quantity of a LHP-item and the subtype output quantities.
PROCESS SUPPLY PRODUCTION CODP ASSEMBLY
CLASSIFICATION YES YES YES

STAGES
LHP ACTIVITIES YES YES
LHP-ITEMS LHMP LHIP CODP-LHP

LHIP LHFG
LHIP
AVAILABILITY
LEVELS MATP-LHP CTP-MP-LHP ATP-LHP CTP-FAS-LHP
LEAD TIMES MANUFACTURING LEAD TIME of CODP-ITEMS LEAD TIME of FAS
Fig. 3 LHP availability levels for OPP.
Ceramic sector mainly follows an MTS strategy with one classification stage at
the end of the process. Usually, customers only specify the FG quality within their
orders and they do not specify the subtype. The ATP-LHP is obtained for the first
quality quantities of the Master Plan and different lots produced by different ma-
chine or by the same machine in different periods of time are considered non ho-
mogeneous. In other words, ATP-LHP is not expressed in terms of subtypes but
only homogeneous subsets are anticipated based on the same lot, resource and
time period, not being possible to accumulate them to serve a customer order.
451
4 Allocation rules for ATP-LHP
When discrete ATP-LHP is defined in terms of subtypes, different ATP-LHP sub-

types cannot be mixed to serve the same customer order. When discrete ATP-LHP
is only defined by subsets of homogeneous quantities without differentiating the
subtype, the only constraint consists of not allowing accumulate discrete non-
homogeneous ATP-LHP quantities. Therefore, as it has been described, the ATP-
LHP existence restricts the possible ways of accumulating ATP-LHP. For in-
stance, in ceramic sector due to LHP it will impossible to accumulate ATPs from
different production lines or different time periods for the same FG. For this case,
the choice of reserving ATP from a specific homogeneous subset of a FG affects
subsequent promises, being necessary to define allocation rules.
As an illustrative example, let us assume for specific time period t for given FG
that there are two homogeneous ATPs, one with a value of atp1 = 800 units and
the other with a value of atp2 = 320 units. Let us also assume that the arrival of
three orders (o1, o2, o3) takes place one after another with due date ddo1 = ddo2 =
ddo3 = t, and that the first includes a requested quantity of 250 units (qo1), the
second has a requested quantity of 600 units (qo2) and the third a requested quan-
tity of 70 units (qo3), for all of which a real-time response must be given. In figure
4 two possible alternatives to assign ATP to the incoming orders are shown.
SOLUTION A Committed
qo1=250 qo2=600 qo3=70
orders= o1, o3
atp1=800 atp1=550 atp1=550 atp1=480
atp2=320 atp2=320 atp2=320 atp2=320
Committed
SOLUTION B qo1=250 qo2=600 qo3=70
orders= o1,o2, o3
atp1=800 atp1=800 atp1=200 atp1=200
atp2=320 atp2=70 atp2=70 atp2=0
Fig. 4 Impact of allocation rules of ATP-LHP on committed orders
When promising the first order, it is possible to reserve the ATP of both the
homogeneous quantities atp1 and atp2. Solution A assigns 250 units of atp1
meanwhile solution B assign 250 units of atp2 for the first order, being the updat-
ed atp equal to atp1=550 and atp2=70, respectively. Solution A cannot commit
the second order, meanwhile solution B assign ATP from atp1, being the updated
atp1=200. Finally, the third order can be committed in two cases. From the ex-
amples above, we may deduce that when there are several alternatives to assign
homogeneous ATPs of different subtypes to an order, the policy formulated to se-
lect one of these alternatives affects future commitments and, therefore, system
452
performance. Therefore, for maximizing customer service level and supply chain
performance, properly ATP-LHP allocation rules should be defined.
5 References
Alemany M.M.E., Lario Francisco-Cruz, Ortiz A., Gmez F. (2013) Available-To-Promise

modeling for multi-plant manufacturing characterized by lack of homogeneity in the product:
An illustration of a ceramic case. Applied Mathematical Modelling 37:33803398
Kilger C, Meyr H (2008) Demand Fulfilment and ATP. In: Stadtler H, Kilger C (ed) Supply
Chain Management and Advanced Planning. Concepts, Models, Software, and Case Stud-
ies.,4th edn. Springer, pp 191-198.
Meyr H (2004) Supply chain planning in the German automotive industry. OR Spectrum
26(4):447-470.
453
Modeling the Master Plan for Supply Chains

with Lack of Homogeneity in the Products
Alemany MME1, Cuenca L, Ortiz A, Prez D
Abstract Master Planning of Supply Chains (SCs) with Lack of Homogeneity in

the Products (LHP) strongly differs from other SCs. Although LHP affects SCs of
different sectors, an absence of a common research body exists. In this paper, the
characterization of LHP dimensions for Master Planning and their modeling is de-
scribed. To validate the proposal an application to the fruit SC is presented.
Keywords: Master Planning, Supply Chains, Lack of Homogeneity in the Prod-

uct, Model
1 Introduction
Supply chains (SCs) master planning is a complicated task due to the existence of
a huge number of decisions, constraints, objectives (sometimes conflictive), possi-
ble alternatives to be evaluated and the presence of uncertainties. For the case of
SCs with Lack of Homogeneity in the Product (LHP), this planning task becomes
even more complex as it can be described below. One of the main LHP conse-
quences is the existence of units of the same finished good that differ in some
characteristics originating the existence of subtypes. LHP becomes a managerial
problem when FGs are not homogeneous and customers require homogeneity in
the requested quantities. Though LHP is present in SCs of a variety of sectors (ce-
ramic, tanned hides, leather goods, ..) and some models have been developed
1Maria de Mar Eva Alemany Daz ( e-mail: mareva@cigip.org)

Centro de Investigacin en Gestin e Ingeniera de Produccin (CIGIP). Universitat Politcnica
de Valncia. Camino de Vera s/n Ed 8G -1 y 4 planta Acc D. Valencia, Spain.
454
(Mundi et al., 2013) there is not a common body of research that allows study the
relevant characteristics to take into account for properly define the SC Master
Planning. In this paper the LHP dimensions relevant for master planning (section
2) and their modeling (section 3) are described. To validate the proposed frame-
work and to clarify concepts, an application to the fruit supply chain is reported
(section 4).
2 LHP Dimensions for Supply Chain Master Planning
In this section, the different dimensions characterizing LHP that are relevant for
the Master Planning of Supply Chains modeling point of view are described. The
objective is to provide a guideline about what LHP characteristics are merely of
being considered during the Master Planning and then, how to model them. To
achieve this objective four dimensions are identified: 1) Transformation Activities,
2) Items, 3) Customers/Market and 4) the Customer Order Decoupling Point
(CODP). In figure 1, the different elements composing each dimension, their at-
tributes as well as the relationship among them are shown.
For LHP contexts, two types of transformation activities additional to the typi-
cal ones are crucial: the classification activities and the LHP activities. After clas-
sification activities different subsets of homogeneous items are obtained. In fact,
the key LHP element will be the location of classification stages along the SC as
well as items classified in each one of them. Furthermore, with the aim of antici-
pating the homogeneous quantities available in production plans, it will be neces-
sary to identify the transformation activities that introduce heterogeneity in the
process (LHP-activities) and the variables that cause it (LHP-factors). It will be
important to define the relationship between the heterogeneity origin and the pro-
ductive resources (on the same machine, between machines, in time). This helps
us to know the degree of detail for modeling resources in the master planning (see
section 3).
As regards Items, two kinds can be distinguished: LHP-items and NO-LHP-
items. LHP-items are those non homogeneous items that affect the lack of homo-
geneity in finished goods. We distinguished between the Lack of Homogeneity in
Raw Materials (LHRM), Lack of Homogeneity in Intermediate Products (LHIP)
and Lack of Homogeneity in Finished Goods (LHFG), respectively. Only LHP
items are classified in different subtypes based on certain classification criteria. A
subtype of an item presents a specific value of the aspects of the classification cri-
teria. Certain attributes are inherent to the subtypes like its number, status and val-
ue. The number of subtypes will depend on the classification criteria for sorting
LHP items and their possible values. If the value of all the attributes defining a
subtype remains the same along time, the status of the subtype will be static, oth-
erwise it will be considered as dynamic. Furthermore, different subtypes of the
455
same LHP-item can have the same or different economic value. Usually, different
economic values imply the existence of several qualities and the appearance of
undesirable stocks for subtypes with low economic value. Finally, it is important
to know not only the existing subtypes but also their appearance in the processed
quantities by the SC transformation activities. The subtype appearance provide us
information about if different subtypes can be found either in the same lot or
ferent point of time. Furthermore, it will be interesting to found if the relation be-
tween the input quantity of a LHP-item and the output quantities of each subtype
are constant or variable.
CODP
TRANSFORMATION
ACTIVITIES
CODP-LHP LOCATION VS CODP-LHP

CLASSIFICATION
CODP-LHP LOCATION
LOCATION PER
Determines
VS LHP ACTIVITIES
OTHER CLASSIFICATION LHP ACTIVITIES SUBTYPE
ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES
SC LOCATION
LHP FACTORS
HOMOGENEITY
COMPONENTS
VALUE OF THE
Determines
MAXIMUM
PRODUCTS
DIFFERENT
BETWEEN
BETWEEN
BETWEEN
UNITS
PRICE
CUSTOMERS
REQUIRED ORDER REQUIRED SPECIFIED HOMOGENEITY MARKET/CUSTOMERS
CLASSES PER
PRODUCTS SIZE HOMOGENEITY HOMOGENEITY TOLERANCE PER SUBTYPE
SUBTYPE
Classify
CUSTOMER ORDER MARKET/CUSTOMERS
LHP CHARACTERISTICS LHP DEFINITION
Originates Influence
Require
Define
Include Appear
SUBTYPES OF SUBTYPES
ITEMS
LHP-ITEMS QUANTITIIES
NUMBER
NO LHP- STATUS OF VALUE OF SUBTYPE INPUT-OUTPUT RATIO
LHP-ITEMS OF
ITEMS SUBTYPES SUBTYPES APPEARANCE OF SUBTYPES
SUBTYPES
VARIABLE
CONSTANT
POINT OF TIME
SAME OR DIFFERENT
AMONG RESOURCES
SAME RESOURCE
AMONG LOTS OF THE
IN THE SAME LOT
EACH CRITERION
POSSIBLE VALUES OF
CRITERIA
CLASSIFICATION
DYNAMIC
STATIC
DIFFERENT
THE SAME
LHRM,LHIP or LHFG
Fig. 1 Master Plan LHP-dimensions and their relationship.
As regards the customers, different SC Markets and Customers can exist de-
pending on the subtypes they require. Because LHP management problem arises
from the homogeneity requirement imposed by customers, it is crucial to identify
the customizable parameters of order proposals affecting LHP. As in most compa-
nies it will be essential to know from the customer order, the requested products
(one, several or a product-pack), the unit measure for each product (that can be
dependent on the customer class: units, pallets or trucks), the quantity and the due
date. But LHP introduces a new customized aspect in order proposals: the homo-
geneity type required by the customer among the ordered products. The customer
may require uniformity between components of a product (pearls on a necklace) or
between units of the same product (ceramic tiles) or between different products of
456
a product-pack (chairs and a dining table). In addition, the customer can specify
the value of the homogeneity attributes required or, in case there are subtypes of
the same item with different value, the maximum price willing to pay. The homo-
geneity tolerance makes reference to the customer sensibility in the permissible
range of variation of LHP attributes to consider that two units of a subtype can be
considered homogeneous. Note that the order size becomes a very relevant factor
for LHP because the larger the orders size, the more difficult will be to meet the
uniformity requirement among all their units.
The SC strategy for accomplishing with customer requirements will be defined
by the Customer Order Decoupling Point location. For LHP SC, different CODP
locations can exist depending on the subtypes. Furthermore, for modeling the mas-
ter plan it will be essential to know the relative position between the CODP and
the classification activities and the CODP and the LHP location activities. Figure
1 shows the main relationships among the different dimensions and their elements.
As it can be observed, LHP activities originate LHP-items that are sorted into dif-
ferent subtypes by classification activities. Subtypes of LHP items appear in pro-
cessed quantities. Customer order LHP characteristics influence the subtype defi-
nition. Indeed, subtypes classification criteria will be conditioned by the
homogeneity characteristics required by customers in products. The customer ho-
mogeneity tolerance is determinant for defining the number of subtypes, i.e. lower
the homogeneity tolerance, higher the number of subtypes to be defined. When de-
fining the quantities of subtypes to be obtained the required quantities of subtypes
become crucial. Finally, for LHP SC management, different CODP can be defined
depending on the subtype. Furthermore, for LHP manufacturing environments it is
crucial not only the CODP location but also its relative position as regards the
classification stages and LHP-Activities. This aspect represents the starting point
to analyze LHP implications in the master plan that, in turn, will constitute the ba-
sis for choosing the LHP characteristics relevant to be modeled.
3. Modeling LHP for SC Master Planning
The objective is to derive a master plan (MP) that anticipate the expected homo-
geneous quantities of each subtype (LHP Master Plan) and made properly deci-
sions in order to accomplish with the customer requirements in terms of homoge-
neity, quantity and due dates. For LHP MP modeling purposes we distinguish five
SC planning elements: Items, Transformation Activities (resources), LHP-factors,
Time and Market/Customers. The Time element (not previously considered in the
LHP dimensions) is included for introducing the own meaning of planning.
Two questions are of relevance when modeling the Master Plan: 1) what SC el-
ements of each dimension should be considered and 2) what is the level of detail
for representing them. To answer the first question, the CODP position in the SC
457
is crucial. As in the traditional SC Master Planning, only those SC transformation

activities upstream the CODP and their processed items are object of our analysis
and, therefore, are susceptible of being modeled. Additionally the LHP-factors af-
fecting the SC physical system upstream the CODP could be also taken into ac-
count in order to anticipate the different subtypes quantities and the subtype evolu-
tion in case dynamic state of subtypes.
As regards the second question, the level of detail for representing the different
SC elements in the Master Planning will be conditioned to a certain extent by the
LHP characteristics chosen to be modeled. In the following paragraphs we provide
with a guideline about what LHP characteristics are susceptible to be modeled in
the Master Plan for the different elements described above. The existence or not of
Classification and LHP Activities upstream the COPD provides us with the key
for answering the question about the level of detail for representing the different
SC elements (items, transformation activities, LHP-factors, Time and Mar-
ket/Customers) in the LHP Master Plan.
ITEMS: When to model the Master Plan in terms of subtypes? : Two kinds of
items are of relevance for Master Planning purposes: the items stored at the
CODP (CODP-items) and the other items belonging to the BOM of CODP-
items (i.e. items supplied or processed upstream the CODP).
If there are classification activities upstream the CODP, the Master Plan should be
expressed in terms of CODP-LHP items and other LHP items upstream the
CODP. This is equivalent to deal with subtypes of items in the Master Plan in-
stead of the typical items. The number of subtypes for each item will be known for
the LHP dimension. To deal with subtypes in the MP increases the number of ref-
erences and, therefore, increases the MP complexity. Therefore, to consider sub-
types in the MP makes sense if one or more of the following situations occurs:
CODP-LHP items forecasts anticipate some LHP customer order character-
istics like:
Forecasts are expressed in terms of CODP-LHP items. This will be the
maximum degree of detail.
Forecasts are expressed in terms of customer classes which will be de-
fined based on the order size, type of homogeneity and/or value of the ho-
mogeneity required.
To deal with LHP items helps better defining the lot sizes in order to serve
an integer number of the different customer orders classes with homogene-
ous quantities. In this case, the sizing of the planned subtype quantities will
allow a better balance between supply and demand, increasing customer
service level and SC costs.
There are data, objectives or constraints in the MP that strongly depend on
the subtypes. For instance different economic values for subtypes could
imply to consider different costs of supplied material or different revenues
for each subtype.
458
TRANSFORMATION ACTIVITIES: What Transformation Activities include in

the LHP Master Plan? Analogously to items, only those transformation activi-
ties upstream the CODP-LHP are candidate to be modelled. Traditionally the
bottleneck resources are considered in the MP. For LHP contexts, additional
considerations are made. It would be interesting to model the LHP Activities
and Classification Stages of this SC part if the impact of LHP activities on the
LHP items upstream the CODP is known: for instance, if there is some infor-
mation about the appearance of subtypes in planned production quantities in
order to anticipate them. It will be sense to model the divergent flow of items
at classification activities when it is possible to estimate the input-output ratio
of subtypes (i.e. subtype quantities in a lot or between lots, for instance, in
terms of percentages is known).
LHP-FACTORS: When to consider LHP factors in the Master Plan?: If there is
a known relationship about how certain factors, for instance, temperature or
humidity, affects the LHP appearance (subtypes), either in the static or dynamic
state, the MP could be taken these LHP factors into account. For this situation
some classification criteria could be expressed by a function of the LHP factors
for anticipating the appearance of the different subtypes.
TIME: Which is the time unit to be used in the Master Plan?: The time unit
used in the master plan, i.e, the planning period length is influenced by the pe-
riodicity of decisions considered. But when the subtype state is dynamic (per-
ishability, obsolescence,...) and it is known the magnitude of the time period
that influence its state (LHP-time unit), the MP can be expressed in this LHP
time unit depending on the level of detail to be achieved. If the LHP time unit
is higher than the MP horizon, it not will be sense to model the dynamic state
of the subtype.
CUSTOMER/MARKET ORDER: When to consider customer/market classes
based on the subtypes in the Master Plan?: If the location of the CODP de-
pends on the subtype, it will be necessary to express the MP in terms of sub-
types. Traditionally, the forecast demand of CODP-items has been expressed in
aggregate terms. However, to better match subtypes supply with demand it will
be interesting to model different customer classes based on the subtype, order
size and required homogeneity type. This is recommendable if we are able to
forecast the demand of customers in terms of subtypes. To model different cus-
tomer classes make sense when the profit heterogeneity of demand depends on
the subtype revenue (different values of subtypes), costs (different value of
LHP items of subtypes) and customer strategic importance.
459
3 Fruit Supply Chain Application and Conclusions
In order to better understand the described concepts and to validate them, an ap-
plication to the fruit supply chain is presented.
LHP Dimensions for Fruit Supply Chain: The basic transformation activities in
fruit supply chains are (Verdouw et al., 2010): a) growing and harvesting, b) pro-
cessing, c) washing, sorting and grading, d) packaging and labelling, e) storage
and distribution and f) retailing. There are several classification (sorting and grad-
ing) activities located in different points along the productive process with the aim
of eliminate waste and classify fruits into several qualities based on different at-
tributes. Blanco et al. (2005) distinguishes the following classification activities:
1) a pre-classification stage where non-tradable fruit (waste) is separated for juice
production, 2) a quality classification stage where tradable fruit is separated in
several categories, and some waste is also produced at this stage, 3) the different
qualities are further classified by size or weight (depending on the available tech-
nology) in several types at the gauge classification stage where some waste is also
produced. There are several LHP-transformation activities along the Fruit SC that
impact on the LHFG, especially on the decay and therefore, on the fruit quality:
harvesting, fruit treatment (washing and classification) and handling, storage and
transport. LHP-factors can be dependent on the resource (landscape), the time
(harvesting period) and the environmental conditions (temperature and humidi-
ty).The LHP origin in Fruit SC is mainly due to the lack of homogeneity in the
raw materials (LHRM), i.e. the fruit obtained directly from the nature. This
LHRM jointly with LHP-Activities originates the existence of LHIP and LHFG.
FGs in the fruit sector mainly differ in variety, quality, packaged and labeling.
The existing subtypes of LHP-items depend on the classification stage and the
classification attributes. There are several classification attributes in the fruit sec-
tor (Ahumada et al., 2011; Blanco et al., 2005; Mowat and Collins, 2000) that in
this work we have categorized into: inherent (fruit variety), sanitary (fungus pres-
ence), esthetic (color, shape, ripeness, imperfections, ) and functional (shelf life,
juice quantity, ) issues. The number of subtypes depends on the possible combi-
nations of the above attributes that originates different qualities for a specific fruit
variety. The worst values of these attributes define the non-tradable fruit (byprod-
ucts: separated for other purposes) and the waste fruit. The status of the fruit is
dynamic because quality depends on the time (perishable goods). Amorim et al.
(2012) distinct two perishable goods classes: those with fixed and random lifetime.
Obviously the value of subtypes (qualities) is different and dynamic. As regards
LHP subtype quantities, subtypes appears among different producers (fruit from
different landscapes), different production lots (fruit of collected from the same
landscape at different time), and among units of the same production lot. The in-
put/output relation is variable but can be estimated, for instance, by fixed percent-
ages (Blanco et al., 2005). In relation to the Market/customer LHP definition, the
high uncertainty in the quantities and qualities obtained of each fruit variety lead
460
to the market diversification (local, national and international) (van der Vorst,
2000). There is also a great importance of the spot market to face with the supply
uncertainty. Each market presents order characteristics that are different in terms
of quantities, subtypes, packaging, labeling, lead times, distribution modes and
sales price. Finally, multiple CODP-locations are possible for Fruit SCs. Van der
Vorst (2000) and Verdouw et al. (2010) indicates that there are several elements
that influence the CODP positioning upstream (perishability, decay, divergent
product flows, high demand uncertainty and high degree of customization). There-
fore, in the most general case, classification and LHP-activities exist upstream the
CODP.
Modeling LHP for Fruit Supply Chain Master Planning: There are several rea-
sons to define the Fruit SC Master Plan in terms CODP-LHP items (subtypes)
(Blanco et al., 2005): 1) independently of the CODP location, there will be always
CODP-LHP items because LHP Fruit SC is always originated from the raw mate-
rial, 2) several classification activities usually exist upstream the CODP, 3) cus-
tomer requires different fruit qualities and each quality has different value (cost
and selling price). Because different classification stages exist upstream the CODP
it is recommendable to consider them for properly modeling the subtypes flow by
taking into account the different balance equations at different classification stag-
es. Different approaches exist to model the perishability aspect and their associat-
ed LHP-factors. In case perishability exists two cases could be formulated: (1)
when the shelf-life is fixed beforehand, and (2) when the shelf-life is indirectly a
decision variable influenced by the environmental setting. For this last case manu-
facturers can estimate the shelf-life of products throughout the supply chain based
on external factors using the knowledge of predictive microbiology (see Amorim
et al., 2012). Different customer classes should be considered based on the re-
quired quantities and subtypes, and therefore, there is recommendable to express
demand forecasts based on customer classes.
This paper puts forward the relevant characteristics that it is necessary to take
into account for properly define the SC Master Planning.
4 References
Mundi I., Alemany MME, Boza A., Poler R. (2013) A Model-Driven Decision Support System
for the Master Planning of Ceramic Supply Chains with non Uniformity of Finished Goods
Studies in Informatics and Control Journal, in press.
Ahumada O., Villalobos J.R. (2011) Operational model for planning the harvest and distribution
of perishable agricultural products Int. J. Production Economics 133:677687
Amorim P., Gnther H., Almada-Lobo B., (2012), Multi-objective integrated production and
distribution planning of perishable products. International Journal of Production Economics,
doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.03.005
A.M. Blanco, G. Masini, N. Petracci, J.A. Bandoni (2005), Operations management of a packag-
ing plant in the fruit industry, Journal of Food Engineering 70, 299307Mowat and
461
Mowat A., Collins R. (2000) Consumer behaviour and fruit quality: supply chain management in
an emerging industry, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 5 (1): 45-54
van der Vorst, JGAJ, (2000). Effective food supply chains: generating, modeling and evaluating
supply chain scenarios, doctoral thesis, Wageningen University.
Verdouw C.N., Beulens A.J.M., Trienekens J.H., Wolferta J. (2010), Process modelling in de-
mand-driven supply chains: A reference model for the fruit industry. Computers and Elec-
tronics in Agriculture 73:174187
462
A Design Framework for Flexible Automated

Warehouses
Marn L.F.1, Carrasco-Gallego R2
Abstract Reducing operational costs in e-commerce logistics by having few dis-

tribution warehouses is a competitive approach that requires strategic investments
on automation. But this technology is usually highly specific and implies facing
the risk of running a warehouse unable to handle a shifting demand after a period
of time. This work addresses flexibility as an issue to be faced when designing au-
tomated warehouses. An approach to flexibility in this context and its relation with
throughput is given, to finally obtain an eight-step procedure that allows us to in-
clude this concept in automated warehouses design process.
Keywords: E-commerce, Automated Warehouse, Flexibility, Warehouse Design,

Material Handling
1 Background, Objectives and Methodology
Flexibility in distribution warehouses has become more important than ever. Cus-
tomer requirements are continuously changing while demanding low costs and
high-rate service in terms of quality and time. The range of products sold on-line
has widened to almost everything that we can need. All this makes e-commerce
business quite demanding for logistics, and automated distribution warehouses are
options to be considered due to their high throughput, fulfillment quality and
compact storage. Flexibility is an additional objective that has become increasing-
1Luis-FelipeMarn ( e-mail: lf.marin@alumnos.upm.es)

Department of Industrial Engineering, Management and Statistics. School of Industrial
Engineering (ETSII). Technical University of Madrid (UPM).
2RuthCarrasco-Gallego ( e-mail: ruth.carrasco@upm.es)
Department of Industrial Engineering, Management and Statistics. School of Industrial
Engineering (ETSII). Technical University of Madrid (UPM).
463
ly interesting, but seems to be difficult to achieve within the rigid, specific and
specialized world of automation.
Gaining insight to face the flexibility-throughput trade-off and including it in a
warehouse (re) design process are the aims of this research work, and thus two ob-
jectives are targeted: to develop a theoretical model to define flexibility and ex-
plain its sources within warehouses, and to translate it into a procedure to (re) de-
sign warehouses. The method applied is based on two pillars: one is the authors
professional experience on a real case of design of an automatic warehouse, the
other are the insights provided by the review of scientific papers. This combina-
tion of hands-on experience and scientific framework has enabled us to get the
best out of each approach.
This paper is organized as follows: in section 2, state-of-the art in academic re-
search is provided in a Literature Review which covered scientific databases
(IEEE Xplore, Web of Science ISI, Elsevier), leading to a gap identification after
comparing the needs of professional practice and the answers given by academic
literature. In sections 3 and 4 we propose our conceptual model for defining flexi-
bility and its relationship with throughput via items characteristics. In section 5 a
self-developed methodology for including the flexibility in warehouse design is
deployed, based on the previous framework. Finally, our conclusions and further
research are presented in section 6.
2 Literature Review and Gap Identification
We have reviewed academic papers dealing with the following issues: (1) litera-
ture devoted to flexibility in supply chains or specifically in warehouses, (2) refer-
ences that mention flexibility in the design process of warehouses, and (3) papers
that discuss automation and material handling selection. Information systems and
pure organizational issues that may not involve automation are excluded from this
study.
Christopher and Peck (2004), discuss the need to create resilient supply chains
and mention robustness and resilience as synonyms of flexibility and adaptability.
Resilience is defined as the ability of a system to return to its original state or
move to a new, more desirable state after being disturbed. On the other hand,
Brockmann and Godin (1997) define flexibility as the capability to easily adapt to
change, mentioning specifically warehouses. The idea of flexibility in a system in
general is then understood as the ability to cope with external changes keeping in-
tegrity, while adaptability is related to change internally in order to react to those
external changes. Manzini (2005) and Brockmann & Godin (1997) study the mul-
tiple, rapid external changes that warehouses face, that can take place in cost or in
customer demand, meaning shifting items, increasing the number of SKUs and in-
cluding high variability in products shape, dimensions and weight. Richardson
464
(1998) identifies new products, new customer demands or volume growth as

changes to be faced. Customization is a trend that impacts warehousing, especially
in e-fulfillment for business to consumer (B2C), as Lederer, Mirchandani and
Sims (2001) observe. The ability to cope with those changes is clearly conditioned
in the warehouse design process, which includes decisions about level of automa-
tion and selection of handling material. Rouwenhorst et al. (2000) present a refer-
ence framework and classification of warehouse design and control problems, in
which processes, resources and organization have to be defined. Brockmann and
Godin (1997) analyze and compare different options in material storage and han-
dling equipment and rank automated systems as the less flexible and more expen-
sive option, while offering the highest storage density and selectivity in case of
unit load or small items. Bartholdi and Hackman (2008) describe the equipment
that serves to automate warehouses and how it is linked with product characteris-
tics, and also point out the lack of flexibility as a main characteristic of automatic
devices. Naish and Baker (2004) study pros and cons of automation, and claim
that those systems can cope very well with changes within a limited range in
throughputs and order profiles, but there is a dramatic lack of flexibility out of the
set of scenarios considered during design. Related to the specifics of material han-
dling selection Eldemir, Graves and Malmborg (2004) identify a set of parameters
to be considered in developing APS, a sort of complex automation systems, and
Wong (2007) addresses how automated material handling systems (AMHS) can be
designed with reconfiguration features to maximize utilization and to enhance its
flexibility. Centered on specific configurations, Yu and De Koster (2008) study
the effects on performance of varying certain constructive parameters and opera-
tional alternatives in a so called pick-and-pass system composed by conveyor sys-
tems and pick stations.
After this literature review we concluded that, although flexibility is considered
a desirable characteristic of warehouses, the concept has not yet been clearly de-
fined in academic literature. However, we can identify different views of the flex-
ibility as the capacity to absorb products physical changes, accommodate varia-
tions in the volume of orders in the short and long term, deal with changes in the
scheduled inputs or outputs of products and re-organize internally the resources to
surmount system failures. Flexibility is considered to be related to performance,
and thus it is expected to be fairly conditioned at design stage, when the automa-
tion degree is determined and resources are selected. Nevertheless, we have not
found works that establish a measurement of the flexibility itself nor the relation
between this and other design parameters like performance or storage capacity,
thus regarding flexibility the following issues have to be addressed: what is flexi-
bility in automatic warehouses, what flexibility depends on and how are flexibility
and throughput inter-related.
465
3 A Proposal of a Conceptual Model to Study Systems

Flexibility
In this work we will face flexibility studying the response of a warehouse to

changes in inputs like products, order profiles and work volume, being focused on
the adaptation of a warehouse to specific product characteristics. This requires a
deep understanding of how item characteristics influence or condition processes
and systems3. Besides, the design task consists in deciding what processes, sys-
tems and organizational policies are to be implemented, thus the relations between
product, system and process have to be the driving forces in design and operation
of a warehouse. As a consequence, and as illustrated in Fig. 1, the guide for study-
ing a systems flexibility is a three-axis frame model of products, systems and
processes that helps us to cover all the relationships and interfaces between them.
Fig. 1 Model to analyze the impact of changes of products (self production)
Based on systems, we will consider that flexibility can be evaluated through

two quantitative aspects (feasibility and impact in throughput) and two qualitative
ones (adaptability and scalability):
3 We consider subsystems or modules as the basic working cells (i.e. a picking

station, a palletizer, an AGV) that can be arranged into systems on which
branch processes take place, being the warehouse a combination of systems.
466
Strict feasibility. Referred to the physical limits and maximum capacities of the
system, it is related to the question: Is the system able to decant/pick/store a
new item?
Impact in throughput due to changes in items or orders. It is related to the ques-
tion: How a new item or order profile will condition the throughput?
Scalability. It is the possibility to increase or decrease the capacities of the sys-
tem in the short term according shifting needs.
Adaptability: it means the easy re-configuration of the modules or elements of
the system which impact on scalability also. Pure element adaptation is close-
ly related to match tool parameters and item characteristics, as for example
could happen in a variable grip handling device.
4 Influence of Item Characteristics on Throughput
Changes in items characteristics may limit the path or branch of the process that
products can follow. Weight, dimensions, fragility or surface affect item handling
and may lead to operative decisions; each handling-related parameter has a specif-
ic contribution in the total time of the activity, affecting the throughput. Besides,
items in automated systems are generally moved on re-usable containers or pallets,
called transport elements, whose design will depend on items dimensions, weight,
fragility or rigidity. Certainly, the nature of items imposes various conditions on
the handling in basic processes and on the transport element definition.
Within this frame, warehouse operations can be classified according to two cat-
egories of basic activities: manipulation and transportation processes. Decanting,
picking or sorting are examples of manipulation processes, and imply the direct
handling of products by operators or machines leading to changes in the packing
entities. The relationship studied here is that between item (units, packs or cartons)
and handling process. Manipulation can also mean the transference of entities be-
tween source and target transport elements, studying the relationship that links
them (pallets, dollies, totes or cartons) with items characteristics. On the other
hand, transportation means transference of transport elements within sub-systems,
where the grip transport element system should be studied. Any process in a
warehouse can be then de-composed in a sequence of manipulation and transpor-
tation processes. In manipulation processes, changes in strict feasibility can be
measured evaluating if the item may be handled with the grip item-handling unit
(automatic or manual), and also if the item fits into the source and target transport
elements, while throughput could be measured as number of units processed in a
time period. This will condition the number of transport elements that are inducted
into the transportation system. A fictitious item representative of the whole order
can be defined (profile item), which is equivalent to assume that only one type of
item is managed in the order. With the average processing time per item, a total
467
processing time per order can be obtained, and having capacity constraints (i.e: to-
tal or maximum processing time per day) the throughput can be calculated. Then
providing a measurement of the impact of variations in item/order characteristics
on manipulation process throughput is feasible, and can be propagated down-
stream to transportation subsystems with a simple evaluation, reaching to a meas-
ure for the whole system.
5 Designing for Flexibility: a Framework Proposal
A flexibility-oriented design of systems starts in the evaluation of the possible

changes that the warehouse may suffer from the standpoint of items and orders.
Derived from the description of interactions between warehouses entities shown
in Fig. 1, we may think in propagating products changes impact on processes and
systems: traveling along the figure counter-clockwise it is possible to make a pre-
selection of systems, while a second round reviewing the interactions system-
product, product-process and process-system will lead us to know the impact of
product changes on throughput, and give us the basis to carry out what-if analysis
with different change scenarios. Fig. 2 depicts the steps proposed in our design for
flexibility framework.
Fig. 2 Complete evaluation process. Linked by letters and colors to the first and second round on
the three-axis model (self production)
468
(Step A) Order profile / item characteristics. The type of items to be managed,

the order profile and the number of orders per time period have to be clarified:
To develop a list of item characteristics and evaluate them in order to find
limitative properties that may branch the activity in different processes, as well
as to identify those ones that may impact on handling. Dimensions and weight
are ranged from minimum to maximum levels in order to pre-select suitable
systems and evaluate strict feasibility once we select the handling resources.
To have an average throughput as a design objective. Here a representative or
fictitious item with average dimensions and weight, plus variation ranges on
them is required to simplify calculations.
(Step B) Process branches. Deciding what items are handled automatically in
some or all parts of the flow, and what are to be derived to manual processes is
required. This deep impact decision will condition the flows in the warehouse,
but will also narrow the range of products inducted in the automatic system,
thus reducing variability.
(Step C) Sub-systems selection. Once we know what is expected to be handled
in the warehouse, the systems can be chosen from commercial catalogs and the
identification of manipulation and transportation modules is done.
(Step D) Transport element definition. Selected systems will limit the dimen-
sion and type of transport element to be used. With this and the requirements
imposed by items characteristics, the transport element should be defined. Be-
sides, it has to be looked for the suitability of the transport element for further
processes (i.e. the container may require to be stackable, to admit separators or
to allow ergonomic manual handling).
(Step E) Manipulation model. The throughput calculation can be done on the al-
ready identified manipulation processes, requiring a previous estimation or
measurement of the time impact of each item characteristic on this specific
handling process. The limitation in throughput for the process must be known.
(Step F) Transportation model. Transportation needs can be expressed as num-
ber of transport elements to be moved per time period, and are derived from the
results of manipulation model. Applying this with the aid of a net flow model,
bottlenecks can be identified.
(Step A) Order profile / item characteristics. What-if analysis. With reference
values for the order type and item type already calculated, scenarios of vari-
ation can be forecasted. Changes can be intended in volume or in the average
representative item (as a result of changes in the order profile), and may mean a
shift in the average manipulation time.
(Step A) Measure impact in throughput. The last step is to evaluate the
throughput again for every scenario generated in the previous point, comparing
the results with the reference ones. The impact on throughput and possible
shifts in bottlenecks can be calculated, leading to possible re-design decisions.
469
6 Conclusions and Further Research
The general aim of this research work was to set a methodology to include flexi-
bility within the (re) design process of automated warehouses, and has been de-
ployed after reviewing academic literature and developing a framework to under-
stand the meaning and sources of flexibility in warehousing. The drivers that led
us to address the flexibility issue were the interactions system-product-process in a
warehouse. We have concluded that flexibility in warehouses is the capacity to ab-
sorb external changes in products and orders with little or none internal re-
configuration and moderate impact in throughput. Flexibility is evaluable through
four dimensions: strict feasibility, impact in throughput, adaptability and scalabil-
ity. The first two ones are deeply dependent on item and order characteristics and
are closely related to the transport elements to be used. Changes in manipulation
times due to changes in characteristics of the items are propagated downstream on
the process and changes the number of circulation transport elements, thus affect-
ing the throughput. Based on all this, a procedure of eight steps has been proposed
to include and evaluate flexibility in warehouse design or re-design process.
New questions arise after this work opening complementary or new research
lines. Tools are needed to decide when to split the process into manual branches
and when to consolidate manual and automatic paths, looking for an impact in
throughput for the whole warehouse. To include item rotation or class categories
in the study could also help to split class categories in different parallel systems
or aggregation groups in order to improve flexibility. Adaptability and scalability
havent been addresses in this work, and could be assessed or benchmarked after a
wide comparative analysis of warehousing integrators portfolio and published
references of real installations.
7 References
Bartholdi, J. J. and S. T. Hackman (2008): Warehouse & distribution science. URL

http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/~jjb/wh/book/editions/wh-sci-0.95.pdf, 2011.
Brockmann, T. and P. Godin (1997): Flexibility for the Future in Warehouse Design. IIE Solu-
tions, 29 (7), pp. 22-25.
Christopher, M. and H. Peck (2004): Building the resilient supply chain. International Journal of
Logistics Management, The, 15 (2), pp. 1-14.
Eldemir F., R. J. Graves and C. J. Malmborg (2004): Conceptualizing automated palletizing sys-
tems. International Journal of Production Research, Vol 42, pp. 5119-5132.
Lederer, A. L., D. A. Mirchandani. and K. Sims (2001): The search for strategic advantage from
the World Wide Web. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 5, pp. 117-134.
Malmborg, C. J. and K. Al-Tassan (2000): An integrated performance model for orderpicking
systems with randomized storage. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 24 (2), pp. 95-111.
470
Manzini, R. (2005): Design and control of a flexible order-picking system (FOPS) a new inte-
grated approach to the implementation of an expert system. Journal of Manufacturing Tech-
nology Management, 16 (1), pp. 18-35.
Naish, S. and P. Baker (2004): Materials Handling Automation - when is it justified?
Richardson, H.L. (1998): Design warehouses for flexibility. Transportation & Distribution.
Rouwenhorst, B., B. Reuter, V. Stockrahm, G. Van Houtum, R. Mantel and W. Zijm (2000):
Warehouse design and control: Framework and literature review. European Journal of Opera-
tional Research, 122 (3), pp. 515-533.
Wong, M. M. (2007): On-line reconfiguration to enhance the routing flexibility of complex au-
tomated material handling operations. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 23
(3), pp. 294-304.
Yu, M. and R. De Koster (2008): Performance approximation and design of pick-and-pass order
picking systems. IIE Transactions, 40 (11), pp. 1054-1069.
471
Supplier Evaluation and Selection: a Review of

the Literature since 2007
Molin JI, Coves AM 1
Abstract Supplier selection is currently a subject of great importance to compa-

nies. Numerous articles have been published recently, recommending different
methods and/or procedures for evaluating and selecting the suppliers with whom
the purchasing company will work. The present article reviews a total of 39 arti-
cles dealing with this subject, published between 2007 and the present day, in
magazines indexed by Journal Citation Reports (in ISI Web of Knowledge). They
will be analyzed in order to determine: (i) procedures used in determining criteria,
(ii) identification and structure of the criteria under consideration, (iii) methods
used to evaluate and select the suppliers and (iv) aims in the selection of suppliers.
Keywords: Supplier Selection, Supplier Criteria
1 Introduction
Supplier selection is one of the strategic elements in managing purchases, as the

ability of a company to satisfy its clients, as well as its own continuity, depends to
a large extent on its suppliers.
Purchases have a direct and important impact on profits, as the acquired prod-
ucts and services (purchases), have a significant influence on the cost structure of
manufacturing companies, ranging from 42% to 79%. On the other hand, there is a
larger framework which defines the general policies of organizations with respect
to their relationships with suppliers, some examples being the establishment of
partnership deals or global supply chain management.
1Anna Maria Coves Moreno ( e-mail: anna.maria.coves@upc.edu)

Department of Management, Institute of Industrial and Control Engineering, Universitat
Politcnica de Catalunya, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
* The authors gratefully acknowledge the partial support of grant DPI2010-15614 (Ministerio de
Economia y Competitividad, Spain).
472
Supplier selection is basically determined by four decisions, which are: (1)

Having the appropriate procedure for determining the criteria and establishing
their structure and ranking. (2) Identifying the criteria with which the suppliers
will be evaluated. (3) Selecting the most suitable suppliers from those available.
(4) Obtaining a list of suppliers, the Suppliers Panel, with whom orders will be
placed.
This process involves different types of criteria (strategic, tactical, and opera-
tional) which are cohesive, as they originated in corporate strategy and are in con-
sonance with it.
The described situation has motivated the present article, which reviews a total
of 39 articles dealing with this subject, published between 2007 and the present
day, in magazines indexed by Journal Citation Reports (in ISI Web of
Knowledge). They all deal with the subject of supplier evaluation and selection.
This article is organized in such a way that the following section includes an
analysis of the principal aspects and, finally, Section 3 shows the conclusions
which can be drawn from this review of the latest developments.
2 Analysis of the Latest Developments (since 2007)
The most recent theories on supplier selection are organized according to the 4 de-
cisions mentioned in the introduction, in a way that Section (2.1) analyzes the pro-
cedures for determining the criteria, and Section (2.2) studies the criteria used for
supplier selection. Section (2.3) describes the methods used to evaluate and select
the suppliers, while section (2.4) analyzes the aims of the different works on the
subject of supplier selection.
2.1 Procedures for Determining Criteria
The criteria used for evaluating and selecting suppliers depend on the procedures
used for determining them. In this context it can be seen that the most frequently
used source is consultation with experts (19 articles, 57.5%), either as a unique
source (15 articles, 45.4%) or reinforced by a review of the available literature (4
articles, 12.1%). A detailed analysis shows that some articles described the meth-
odology used, whereas others do not specify how the information was obtained.
The experts may either be employees of the purchasing company or others who
are familiar with the industry.
The second most used source is the review of literature; 6 (18.2%) articles are
used as a unique source as well as the previously mentioned case of 4 (12.1%) in
473
conjunction with the experts. Not one article describes how the review was carried
out.
There is just one article (Ho et al, 2011) which describes a specific method, the
QFD (Quality Function Deployment) which translates shareholders needs into
criteria for supplier selection. There are 7 articles (21.21%) that do not specify the
procedure used.
2.2 Identifying the Criteria for Obtaining the Panel
The panel of suppliers is made up of those suppliers who have best satisfied the
criteria of the purchasing company. These criteria can be grouped and ranked ac-
cording to families. Analysis of the articles shows how each author opts for differ-
ent ways of structuring them, only coinciding in one case. The present study uses
the families proposed by Erdem and Gen (2012), "Assets and Infrastructure,
Costs, Logistics and Quality"; these authors propose an exhaustive classification
obtained from reviewing the literature and interviewing experts. The criteria can
also be grouped according to their typology: strategic, tactical and operational.
Table 1 classifies the criteria of the articles according to their family and typol-
ogy, taking each criterion as distinct (not counting the number of times it is re-
peated in different articles). Table 2 includes the repeats of each criterion, the
number of times it is cited in the different articles.
Table 1 Classification Family vs. Typology using distinct criteria
Typology
Strategic Operational Tactical Total general
Assets and infrastructure 78 10 18 106 56.4%
Cost 7 20 4 31 16.5%
Family
Logistics 1 9 7 17 9.0%
Quality 12 19 3 34 18.1%
Total general 98 58 32 188 100%
Table 2 Classification Family vs. Typology counting all repetitions
Typology
Strategic Operational Tactical Total general
Assets and infrastructure 124 12 50 186 48.9%
Cost 12 37 23 72 18.9%
Family
Logistics 1 13 35 49 12.9%
Quality 21 28 24 73 19.2%
Total general 158 90 132 380 100%
474
Tables 1 and 2 show that a total of 380 criteria were mentioned, of which 188
are distinct. Detailed analysis of the distinct criteria shows a very disparate level
of detail, some criteria being very generic (e.g. technique) and others which are
more specific (e.g. the number of Rejected items at entry quality level).
Regarding Typology, the most common are strategic criteria (98 criteria,
52.13%), although if the total number of articles citing them is taken into account
the number drops (158 criteria, 41.58%). There are 32 criteria (17%) of a tactical
nature, representing 34.74% of citations. Finally, there are 58 operational criteria
(30.85%) which make up 23.68% of all citations.
To determine the level of criteria standardization, the ratio between the number
of citations and the number of distinct criteria is determined, resulting in: "Assets
and Infrastructure" (1.75), "Cost" (2.32), "Logistics" (2.88) and Quality (2.15).
The family with the highest number of criteria is "Assets and Infrastructure" with
1.75 citations per criterion. This is due to the fact that 75 of the criteria have only
one citation; this family reflects the specific cases of the company concerned,
leading to fewer repeated criteria. The other three families have fewer distinct cri-
teria and higher levels of repetition, which indicates that their criteria are used by
different authors; there is more consensus and a certain standardization.
Table 3 shows the most mentioned criteria, a total of 11, which have 5 or more
repeats, and which show a high degree of concentration, as the 11 criteria (5.85%)
have a total of 123 citations (32.36%).
Table 3 Relation of criteria with most citations
Criteria Total Family

Delivery performance 21 Logistics
Price 20 Cost
Quality performance 19 Quality
Production capacity 16 Assets and infrastructure
General demand 10 Assets and infrastructure
Financial stability 8 Assets and infrastructure
Communication openness 7 Assets and infrastructure
Location 7 Assets and infrastructure
Transportation 5 Cost
Design capability 5 Assets and infrastructure
Quality management practices and systems 5 Quality
There are 156 criteria (82.97% of the total) that have two or more citations,
representing 49.47% of the criteria of all the articles.
475
2.3 Methods of Evaluating and Selecting Suppliers
The methods used to evaluate and select suppliers are very diverse, and Table 4
includes a correlation of all those found in the analyzed articles and the total num-
ber of times each one has been used.
Analysis of Table 4 shows that there is a great variety of methods, finding 25
different methods in a total of 35 articles. The principal ones are: Analytic Hierar-
chy Process (AHP) + mathematical programming (4 articles) and those based sole-
ly on mathematical programming (5 articles). A detailed study of those that in-
clude mathematical programming shows how the authors opted for different
procedures and so, as each one is practically unique; there are 34 different meth-
ods and only one repetition. It can also be seen that 17 of the articles (48.6%) use
the AHP or its variations (ANP, Fuzzy AHP, Fuzzy ANP).
Table 4 Methods/procedures used to evaluate and select suppliers
Methods/Procedures Total
AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) 1
AHP + Mathematical Programming 4
AHP + CFPR(Consistent Fuzzy Preference Relations) 1
ANP (Analytic Network Process) 1
ANP + Mathematical Programming 3
ANP + TOPSIS+ Mathematical Programming 1
FAHP 2
FAHP + Mathematical Programming 1
Fuzzy AHP + Fuzzy TOPSIS + DEA 1
FANP 1
FANP + Mathematical Programming 1
DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) 1
DEA + Decision Trees (DT) + Neural Network (NN) 1
Discret Choice Analysis (DCA) 1
Fuzzy logic 1
Grey ralational analysis (GRA) 1
Influence diagram + Fuzzy logic 1
MultiAlternative proposal 1
NN 1
Mathematical Programming 5
Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) 1
Stochastic programming model (SP) 1
Weighted additive fuzzy programming 1
Supplier evaluation system (utilitza PROMETHEE) 1
476
Table 4 (continued) Methods/procedures used to evaluate and select suppliers
Methods/Procedures Total
Vague sets theory 1
2.4 Objectives in Selecting Suppliers
The selection of suppliers, in general, has the aim of determining a number N of

suppliers and forming a panel of suppliers. An analysis of the current situation
shows that the articles suggest different methods:
Articles which recommend a ranking of suppliers (23 articles), normally in
descending order according to their weight. In general the values of their
weight show the degree to which each supplier satisfies the clients needs.
Their value is composed of the relative weight of the criteria for the client and
the degree to which each supplier satisfies each criterion.
Articles that classify the suppliers in binary fashion (3 articles), only includ-
ing those who are suitable in the panel. The result of the selection is as follows:
supplier selected/ not selected (Aksoy and ztrk, 2011), supplier efficient
/inefficient (Zeydan et al, 2011).
Articles that propose different solutions to the anterior:
3.1. Articles that select suppliers without creating a panel (8 articles); directly
assigning orders to the cloud of suppliers (Mendoza and Ventura, 2012), or ob-
taining a ranking which is not based on weight or binary classification; one ex-
ample is the classification of suppliers according to their partnership considera-
tion (Araz and Ozkarahan, 2007).
3.2. Two articles that analyze other aspects arising from the selection process: a
comparison of the weight of criteria in different countries (Van der Rhee, Ver-
ma and Plaschka, 2009) and the analysis to determine whether the relationship
with suppliers should be long or short term (Li, Murat and Huang, 2009).
3 Conclusions
Purchasing management is strategic and supplier selection one of the most deci-
sive processes. In this paper, a review of current thinking in selecting suppliers
demonstrates the inexistence of a general model for determining the panel of sup-
pliers, while showing a great diversity in the methods used for creating the panel.
477
Each proposal is almost unique, with those articles that use the AHP or its varia-
tions standing out.
There is no standardization in the criteria themselves nor in the ways of classi-
fying or ranking them. In general, the criteria are determined in two ways: consul-
tation with experts and reviewing the literature, and a detailed analysis shows the
wide variety of procedures used. Therefore it can be stated that there is a lack of
standards for determining and classifying criteria, which currently depends on the
decision-makers experience.
Almost all the articles deal with different industrial sectors (automobiles, elec-
tronics, ), and only one was found which dealt with the service sector (Feng,
Fan and Li, 2011), presenting a method of decision making, in the case of an air-
line company, to solve the problem of supplier selection in subcontracting ser-
vices.
Future research works may include: (i) expand the scope of the review focusing
on criteria and validate the lack of standards detected: (ii) implement the stages of
supplier selection in the area of services.
4 References
Aissaoui N, Haouari M, & Hassini E (2007) Supplier selection and order lot sizing modeling : A
review. Computers & Operations Research 34 (12), 3516-3540
Aksoy A, & ztrk N (2011) Supplier selection and performance evaluation in just-in-time pro-
duction environments. Expert Systems with Applications 38 (5), 6351-6359
Amin SH, Razmi J, & Zhang G (2011) Supplier selection and order allocation based on fuzzy
SWOT analysis and fuzzy linear programming. Expert Systems with Applications 38 (1),
334-342
Araz C, & Ozkarahan I (2007) Supplier evaluation and management system for strategic sourc-
ing based on a new multicriteria sorting procedure. International Journal of Production Eco-
nomics 106 (2), 585-606.
Ben-David A, Gelbard R, & Milstein I (2012) Supplier ranking by multi-alternative proposal
analysis for agile projects. International Journal of Project Management 30 (6), 723-730
Burke GJ, Carrillo JE, & Vakharia AJ (2007) Single versus multiple supplier sourcing strategies.
European Journal of Operational Research 182 (1), 95-112
Chen YH, & Chao RJ (2012) Supplier selection using fuzzy preference relations. Expert Systems
with Applications 39 (3), 3233-3240
Erdem AS, & Gen, E (2012) Development of a decision support system for supplier evaluation
and order allocation. Expert Systems with Applications 39 (5), 4927-4937
Feng B, Fan ZP, & Li Y (2011) A decision method for supplier selection in multi-service out-
sourcing. International Journal of Production Economics 132 (2), 240-250
Ferreira L, & Borenstein D (2012) A fuzzy-Bayesian model for supplier selection. Expert Sys-
tems with Applications 39 (9), 7834-7844
Gencer C, & Grpinar D (2007) Analytic network process in supplier selection: A case study in
an electronic firm. Applied Mathematical Modelling 31 (11), 2475-2486
Golmohammadi D, & Mellat-Parast M (2012) Developing a grey-based decision-making model
for supplier selection. International Journal of Production Economics 137 (2), 191-200.
478
Ho W, Dey PK, & Lockstrm M (2011) Strategic sourcing: a combined QFD and AHP approach
in manufacturing. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 16 (6), 446-461
Ho W, Xu X, & Dey KD (2010) Multi-criteria decision making approaches for supplier evalua-
tion and selection: a literature review. European Journal of Operational Research 202 (1), 16-
24.
Ho W, Xu X, & Dey KD (2010) Multi-criteria decision making approaches for supplier evalua-
tion and selection: a literature review. European Journal of Operational Research 202 (1), 16-
24.
Huang SH, Keskar H (2007) Comprehensive and configurable metrics for supplier selection. In-
ternational Journal of Production Economics 105 (2), 510-523
Kilincci O, & Onal SA (2011) Fuzzy AHP approach for supplier selection in a washing machine
company. Expert Systems with Applications 38 (8), 9656-9664
Kirytopoulos K, Leopoulos V, Mavrotas G, & Voulgaridou D (2010) Multiple sourcing strate-
gies and order allocation: an ANP-Augmecon meta-model. Supply Chain Management- an
International Journal 15 (4), 263-276
Kokangul A, & Susuz Z (2009) Integrated analytical hierarch process and mathematical pro-
gramming to supplier selection problem with quantity discount. Applied mathematical mod-
elling 33 (3), 1417-1429
Lee AHI (2009) A fuzzy supplier selection model with the consideration of benefits, opportuni-
ties, costs and risks. Expert Systems with applications 36 (2), 2879-2893.
Li, L., & Zabinsky, Z.B. (2011). Incorporating uncertainty into a supplier selection problem. In-
ternational Journal of Production Economics 134 (2), 344-356
Li S, Murat A, & Huang W (2009) Selection of contract suppliers under price and demand uncer-
tainty in a dynamic market. European Journal of Operational Research 198 (3), 830-847
Lin RH (2009) An integrated FANP-MOLP for supplier evaluation and order allocation. Applied
Mathematical Modelling 33 (6), 2730-2736
Lin CT, Chen CB, & Ting YC (2011) An ERP model for supplier selection in electronics indus-
try. Expert Systems with Applications 38 (3), 1760-1765
Mafakheri F, Breton M, & Ghoniem A (2011) Supplier selection-order allocation: A two-stage
multiple criteria dynamic programming approach. International Journal of Production eco-
nomics 132 (1), 52-57
Mansini R, Savelsbergh MWP, & Tocchella B (2012) The supplier selection problem with quan-
tity discounts and truckload shipping. Omega: The International Journal of Management Sci-
ence 40 (4), 445-455
Mendoza A., & Ventura JA (2012) Analytical models for supplier selection and order quantity
allocation. Applied Mathematical Modelling 36 (8), 3826-3835
Ng WL (2008) An efficient and simple model for multiple criteria supplier selection problem.
European Journal of Operational Research 186 (3), 1059-1067
Van der Rhee B, Verma R, Plaschka G (2009) Understanding trade-offs in the supplier selection
process: The role of flexibility, delivery, and value added services/support. International
Journal of Production Economics 120 (1), 30-41
Shaw K, Shankar R, Yadav SS, & Thakur LS (2012) Supplier selection using fuzzy AHP and
fuzzy multi-objective linear programming for developing low carbon supply chain. Expert
Systems with Applications 39 (9), 8182-8192
Toloo M, & Nalchigar S (2011) A new DEA method for supplier selection in presence of both
cardinal and ordinal data. Expert Systems with Applications 38 (12), 14726-14731
Ustun O, & Demirtas E A (2008) An integrated multi-objective decision-making process for
multi-period lot-sizing with supplier selection. Omega: The international journal of manage-
ment science 36 (4), 509-521
Vinodh S, Ramiya RA, & Gautham SG (2011) Application of fuzzy analytic network process for
supplier selection in a manufacturing organisation. Expert Systems with Applications 38 (1),
272-280
479
Wu D (2009) Supplier selection: a hibrid model using DEA, decision tree and neural network.
Expert Systems with Applications 36 (5), 9105-9112
Wu W Y, Sukoco BM, Li CY, & Chen SH (2009) An integrated multi-objective decision-
making process for supplier selection with bundling problem. Expert Systems with Applica-
tions 36 (2), 2327-2337
Xia W, Wu Z (2007) Supplier selection with multiple criteria in volume discount environments.
Omega: The International Journal of Management Science 35 (5), 494-504
Ycel, A, & Gneri AF (2011) A weighted additive fuzzy programming approach for multi-
criteria supplier selection. Expert Systems with applications 38 (5), 6281-6286
Zeydan M, olpan C, & obanoglu C (2011) A combined methodology for supplier selection
and performance evaluation. Expert Systems with Applications 38 (3), 2741-2751
Zhang D, Zhang J, Lai KK, & Lu Y (2009) An novel approach to supplier selection based on
vague sets group decision. Expert Systems with Applications 36 (5), 9557-9563
480
A Collaborative Me Crossroad: Individual

Beliefs and the Adoption of Corporate Blogs
Fernndez-Cardador P1, Hernndez-Garca A2, Iglesias-Pradas S3
Abstract Collaboration has become an essential process to improve business per-

formance. Firms need to enhance innovation, and this is where 2.0 collaborative
tools are expected to play a key role. Corporate weblogs are one of the main 2.0
tools which have raised more interest among managers, due to their ease of use
and potential to bring together employees and partners who have to collaborate in
order to achieve a common goal. However, individuals reactions to the use of
such new systems may differ, which in turn might lead to rejection of corporate
blogs. Thus, the objective of this exploratory research is to study the influence of
individuals beliefs in the adoption of corporate weblogs; more specifically, the
factors discussed in this research are self-efficacy, personal outcomes expectations
and anxiety. In order to assess predictive ability for the exploratory research mod-
el, we have developed a theory grounded model, which has been validated with
data from 70 employees from the Information Technology department of a large
industrial Spain-based company. Findings from the results show that perceived
usefulness is predicted by anxiety and personal outcomes expectation, perceived
ease of use is predicted by blog anxiety, and behavioral intention to use corporate
blogs is predicted by perceived usefulness.
Keywords: Corporate Blog, Technology Acceptance, Self-efficacy, Personal Out-

comes Expectations, Computer Anxiety.
1
Pedro Fernndez Cardador (e-mail: pedro.fernandez.cardador@alumnos.upm.es)
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid (PhD Candidate)
2
ngel Hernndez Garca (e-mail: angel.hernandez@upm.es, )
Departamento de Ingeniera de Organizacin, Administracin de Empresas y Estadstica
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid Av. Complutense 30, 28040 Madrid
3
Santiago Iglesias Pradas (e-mail: s.iglesias@upm.es)
481
1 Introduction
Collaboration is a fundamental process in knowledge creation and sharing which

takes place through interaction among individuals. Collaboration is also one of the
main drivers of change in organizations, and especially in knowledge-oriented or-
ganizations (Riemer and Frler, 2007). According to Prahalad and Ramaswamy
(2001), there is a strong link between collaboration within a company and firms
profitability, and this also holds true when considering collaboration with other
companies. However, adoption of collaborative technologies is not happening as
fast as expected (Palen and Grudin, 2002).
There are five major groups of characteristics influencing adoption of collabo-
rative tools; these characteristics are related to the technology, individual, group,
task, and context (Brown et al., 2010), respectively. In the mid-seventies, many
technology adoption processes were failing due to fear of new technologies (Ig-
baria and Iivari, 1995) and doubts of employees about their own ability to use a
new technology and obtain the expected results in return (Compeau and Higgins,
1995). In organizational contexts, these behaviors are user-specific, as different
users have different needs depending on their role (Brown et al., 2010).
Collaborative systems in corporate settings have undergone a radical change
with the introduction of 2.0 tools, such as wikis and weblogs (Chen et al., 2007).
Blogs allow readers and writers to express their opinions, offer different points of
view and add new complementary knowledge (Wattal et al., 2009). In the early
days of weblogging, their use was limited to personal journals; but later on, blogs
began to receive significant attention as useful knowledge sharing tools (Chai and
Kim, 2010) due to their potential to facilitate exchange of knowledge among peo-
ple (Jackson et al., 2007) with a significant cost reduction (Yu et al., 2010).
The fact that the beliefs which lead to adoption and rejection of technologies
highly depend on intrinsic characteristics of the individual has not been previously
addressed in the context of corporate blog adoption. Therefore, the main objective
of this exploratory research is to study the influence of individual characteristics
namely, self-efficacy, personal outcomes expectations and anxiety in the
adoption of 2.0 collaborative tools and, more specifically, in the adoption and use
of corporate blogs.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: section 2 presents the theo-
retical framework and research hypotheses; research methodology, procedures and
measures will be shown in section 3; section 4 will cover the data analysis tech-
nique and empirical results for the study, which will be followed by a discussion
of results and implications for theory and practice in section 5.
482
2 Theoretical Framework and Research Hypotheses
The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) explains how and why
individuals adopt and use a technology in our case, corporate blogs. According
to Davis, an individuals behavioral intention towards the use of a new technology
is the best predictor of actual use. In TAM, behavioral intention is influenced by
two beliefs: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use; in this study, PU and
PEOU refer to the users perception of their own performance when using corpo-
rate blogs and the degree to which a user believes that using a corporate blog is
free of effort (Hsu and Lin, 2008), respectively. Applying TAM relations to the
case of corporate blogs, we find that perceived ease of use (H1) and perceived
usefulness (H2) positively predict intention to use corporate blogs, and also that
perceived ease of use positively predicts perceived usefulness (H3).
Anxiety is a generalized emotional distress (Nietzel et al., 1988) experienced
by an individual. According to Bandura (1977), anxiety appears when individuals
try to carry out behaviors they do not feel competent to perform. There are two
kinds of anxiety: trait-based i.e. personality anxiety, and anxiety associated to a
specific situation; computer anxiety falls into the second category, and may be de-
fined as an irrational generalized emotional distress experienced by an individu-
al when using or considering the use of computers (Igbaria and Iivari, 1995,
p.592). Based on this concept, we have defined blog anxiety as the anxiety experi-
enced by individuals when they perceive themselves to be underperforming at us-
ing corporate blogs. Previous studies found that computer anxiety causes comput-
er use avoidance (Compeau and Higgins, 1995); following this rationale, we posit
that blogging anxiety negatively predicts perceived usefulness (H4) and perceived
ease of use (H5).
Personal outcomes expectations refer to prospective rewards and/or improve-
ments of perception of an individuals image by other members of the organiza-
tion (Compeau et al., 1999). This concept is based on the Social Cognitive Theory
(Bandura, 1989), which states that an individual will engage in a behavior if he
expects some kind of reward after performing it. We have adapted this concept
taking into consideration that users may post in corporate blogs when they expect
some pleasure such as enjoyment, organizational recognition or improvement of
their image in return. Previous studies about outcomes expectations are inconclu-
sive; for instance, Papadopoulos et al. (2013) found that people will continue to
share information on the internet if they expect praise or rewards and Kankanhalli
et al. (2005) found a positive relation between outcomes expectations and inten-
tion to use knowledge sharing systems, while Lu and Hsiao (2007) found that this
relation was non-significant in the case of blogs. Given this lack of consensus, we
will assess the nature of this relation in the case of corporate blogs, and therefore
posit that personal outcomes expectations positively predict perceived usefulness
(H6) and perceived ease of use (H7).
483
Self-efficacy is a human regulatory mechanism which affects individuals

judgments about their ability to perform a given task (Bandura, 1977). We will
adapt this concept to our research context by defining blogging self-efficacy as
the self-confidence in one's ability to collaborate using corporate blogs. Blogging
self-efficacy emerges thus as a barrier for corporate blog adoption i.e., if users
believe that they are not able to use blogs, they will most likely be reluctant to col-
laborate with their community via corporate blogs.
Prior research has found that computer self-efficacy may be an antecedent of
perceived ease of use (Agarwal and Karahanna, 2000). Moreover, previous studies
have found that computer self-efficacy may increase personal outcomes expecta-
tions (Compeau and Higgins, 1995) and perceived usefulness (Liu, 2010). Empiri-
cal studies have also found a negative correlation between self-efficacy and anxie-
ty (Sam et al., 2005) and other research has established that increasing levels of
self-efficacy cause anxiety reduction (Dwyer and Fus, 2002). Taking all this into
account, we find that blogging self-efficacy positively predicts perceived ease of
use (H8), personal outcomes expectations (H9) and perceived usefulness (H10),
and negatively predicts blogging anxiety (H11).
Following the hypotheses presented in this section, the complete research mod-
el for this study is presented in Figure 1.
Fig. 1 Research Model
For this study, we have selected a sample of employees from a Spain-based large
industrial company where 2.0 collaborative tools are currently being deployed as
part of a plan to establish a new collaborative culture. Data were gathered via
online survey during January and February 2013. Ninety employees from the IT
department were invited to participate in this study, and 70 valid answers 70 per-
cent from male and 30 percent from female respondents were collected, for a to-
tal response rate of 77.8 percent. The Likert-7 scales used have been validated in
prior literature, and were adapted to the context of corporate weblogs: blog-
anxiety scales were adapted from Heinssen et al. (1987); self-efficacy and person-
484
al outcomes expectations were taken from Kankanhalli et al. (2005); perceived

ease of use and perceived usefulness are based on Davis (1989); scales for inten-
tion to use corporate blogs were adapted from Oum and Han (2011).
4 Data Analysis
We used a partial least squares (PLS) technique in order to assess the structural
model and the software used was SmartPLS 2.0M3 (Ringle et al., 2005). Since
this was an exploratory research focused on prediction, PLS was chosen instead of
covariance-based structural equation modeling (Hair et al., 2011). Besides, PLS
does not need strict assumptions of sample size or measurement scales and allows
using smaller sample sets.
Item reliability was evaluated by observing the standardized loadings of latent
variable indicators all the indicators were defined as reflective. Indicators with
loadings not exceeding the ideal cutoff level of 0.7 (Nunnally, 1978) were dropped
for subsequent analysis. Item reliability results are shown in table 1. A bootstrap
resampling procedure was used to test the stability of the estimates, with signifi-
cance values of p<0.001 for all cases. To ensure convergent validity we calculated
the constructs' composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE). Values
were higher than 0.81 and 0.60 respectively see table 1, well over the acceptable
threshold values of 0.7 (Hair et al., 1998) and 0.5 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).
Discriminant validity was confirmed upon Fornell and Larckers (1981) recom-
mendation, as the square root of AVE was greater than bivariate correlations be-
tween each construct and the rest of constructs.
Table 1 Item reliability and convergent validity
Composite reli-
Constructs Item Outer loadings AVE
ability
BBA01 0.809
Blog anxiety BBA03 0.700 0.806 0.581
BBA04 0.774
Blogging self- BSE01 0.934
0.920 0.852
efficacy BSE03 0.913
Personal Outcomes BPO03 0.884
0.879 0.784
Expectations BPO04 0.887
BPU02 0.760
Perceived useful- BPU03 0.789
0.867 0.619
ness BPU04 0.812
BPU05 0.785
485
Table 1 (continued) Item reliability and convergent validity
Constructs Item Outer loadings Composite reliability AVE

BPE01 0.726
Perceived ease of
BPE03 0.901 0.893 0.737
use
BPE04 0.934
BBI01 0.883
Behavioral inten- BBI02 0.835
0.926 0.758
tion to use blogs BBI03 0.862
BBI04 0.901
Significance level: p<0.001 for all items
The results related to prediction of behavioral intention to use corporate blogs

showed that perceived usefulness had significant and large effect supporting H2
but perceived ease of use did not exert a significant effect and thus, H1 was not
supported. Moreover, perceived ease of use had no significant effect on per-
ceived usefulness, leading to rejection of H3.
Perceived usefulness is predicted by blog anxiety and personal outcomes ex-
pectations supporting H4 and H6 respectively, but not by self-efficacy thus,
not supporting H10. On the other hand, perceived ease of use was only predicted
by blog anxiety supporting H5 but not by blog self-efficacy and personal out-
comes expectations rejecting H7 and H8.
Blogging anxiety was significantly predicted by blog self-efficacy supporting
H11, blog self-efficacy did not exert a significant influence on personal outcomes
expectations and then H9 was rejected. As for variance explained, the model is
able to explain 42 percent of behavioral intention to use corporate blogs, a value
which stresses the relevance of individual beliefs in the process of corporate blog
adoption. We also calculated the Stone-Geisser (Q2) values to test predictive rele-
vance, and all values were positive, confirming predictive relevance. Figure 2
summarizes the structural model analysis results.
Fig. 2 PLS research results
486
5 Discussion
This study emphasizes the fundamental role played by anxiety in the adoption of
corporate blogs. From the results, when usual communication and collaboration
tools, such as e-mail, are replaced, employees may believe they will not be able to
catch up on new tools or to achieve an optimal use of their functionalities, which
may lead to a lower perceived usefulness, resistance and, ultimately, to rejection.
On the other hand, fear of making fatal errors, loss of information when using cor-
porate blogs, or fear of blogs itself, was not found to be a significant cause of anx-
iety, and nor did they exert significant influence on perceived usefulness.
As for blogging self-efficacy, the results consistent with previous studies re-
veal a negative relation with anxiety, but only explaining 10 percent of variance.
Some of the rest of variance might be explained by the traditional concept of self-
efficacy, which was omitted in this research. Therefore, the study of its effect on
anxiety is recommended for subsequent research.
We have also found that users are not expecting monetary rewards or promo-
tions in exchange for the use of blogs, but they do perceive that corporate blogs
may be useful inasmuch as they may lead to improvements in their image and
prestige within the organization.
Finally, the high value of R2 for perceived usefulness suggests that perceived
usefulness of corporate blogs for collaboration is mainly determined by individu-
als beliefs, stressing out the need to consider these factors in adoption processes.
In addition, perceived usefulness is the main driver of corporate blog adoption, as
expected, but perceived ease of use had no significant influence on behavioral in-
tention to use corporate blogs; a possible explanation for this finding is that the
sample was selected from IT-oriented professionals with high experience on the
use of collaboration tools; however, this finding should be confirmed by further
research.
6 References
Agarwal R, Karahanna E (2000) Time flies when you're having fun: cognitive ab-
sorption and beliefs about information technology usage. MIS Quarterly
24(4):665-94
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change.
Psychological Review, 84(2), 191215.
Bandura A (1989) Social cognitive theory. Annals of child development, Six theo-
ries of child development (Vol. 6, pp. 160). JAI Press, Greenwich
Brown S, Dennis AR, Venkatesh V (2010) Predicting Collaboration Technology
Use: Integrating Technology Adoption and Collaboration Research. Journal of
Management Information Systems 27(2):954
487
Chai S, Kim M (2010) What makes bloggers share knowledge? An investigation

on the role of trust. International Journal of Information Management
30(5):40815
Chen D, Hu N, Liu L (2007) Corporate Blogging and Firm Performance: An Em-
pirical Study. 2007 International Conference on Wireless Communications.
Networking and Mobile Computing (pp. 61526155)
Compeau DR, Higgins CA (1995) Computer self-efficacy: Development of a
Measure and Initial Test. MIS Quarterly 19(2):189211
Compeau DR, Higgins CA, Huff SL (1999) Social Cognitive Theory and Individ-
ual Reactions to Computing Technology: A Longitudinal Study. MIS Quarterly
23(2):145-58
Davis FD (1989) Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Ac-
ceptance of Information Technology. MIS Quarterly 13(3):31940
Dwyer KK, Fus DA (2002) Perceptions of communication competence, self-
efficacy, and trait communication apprehension: Is there an impact on basic
course success? Communication Research Reports 19(1):29-37
Fornell C Larcker DF (1981) Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unob-
servable Variables and Measurement Errors. Journal of Marketing Research
19(1):39-50
Hair J-F, Anderson RE, Tatham RL, Black WC (1998) Multivariate Data Analy-
sis. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New York
Hair JF, Christian M, Sarstedt M (2011) PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. Journal
of Marketing Theory and Practice 19(2):139151
Heinssen RK, Glass CR, Knight LA (1987) Assessing computer anxiety: devel-
opment and validation of the computer anxiety rating scale. Computers in Hu-
man Behavior 3:4959
Hsu C, Lin J (2008) Acceptance of blog usage: The roles of technology ac-
ceptance, social influence and knowledge sharing motivation. Information &
Management 45(1):6574
Igbaria M, Iivari J (1995) The Effects of Self-efficacy on Computer Usage. Ome-
ga 23(6):587605
Jackson A, Yates J, Orlikowski W (2007). Corporate Blogging: Building commu-
nity through persistent digital talk. 40th Hawaii International Conference on
System Sciences 15301605
Kankanhalli A, Tan BCY, Wei K (2005) Contributing Knowledge to Electronic
Knowledge Repositories: An Empirical Investigation. MIS Quarterly
29(1):113-43
Liu X (2010) Online posting anxiety: impacts on blogging. Chinese Journal of
Communication 3(2):20222
Lu H-P, Hsiao K-L (2007) Understanding intention to continuously share infor-
mation on weblogs. Internet Research 17(4):34561
Nietzel MT, Berstein DA Russel RL (1988) Assessment of anxiety and fear. In
Bellack AS, Herson M, Behavioral Assessment, A Practical Handbook 3rd edi-
tion. Pergamon Press, Toronto
Nunnally JG (1978) Psychometric theory. McGraw Hill, New York
488
Oum S, Han D (2011) An empirical study of the determinants of the intention to

participate in user-created contents (UCC) services. Expert Systems with Ap-
plications 38(12):15110121
Palen L Grudin J (2002) Discretionary Adoption of Group Support Software, In
Munkvold BE, Implementing Collaboration Technologies in Industry: Case
Examples and Lessons Learned. Springer, London
Papadopoulos T, Stamati T, Nopparuch P (2013) Exploring the determinants of
knowledge sharing via employee weblogs. International Journal of Information
Management 33(1):133-146
Prahalad CK, Ramaswamy V (2001) The Collaboration Continuum: Understand
the full goals and complexity of collaboration before moving forward. Infor-
mation Week, November(22)
Riemer K, Frler F (2007) Introducing real-time collaboration systems: devel-
opment of a conceptual scheme and research directions. Communications of the
Association for Information Systems 20:20425
Ringle CM, Wende S, Will A. (2005) SmartPLS 2.0 (beta). www.smartpls.de
Sam H, Othman A, Nordin Z (2005) Computer self-efficacy, computer anxiety,
and attitudes toward the Internet: a study among undergraduates. Unimas Edu-
cational Technology & Society 8(4):20519
Wattal S, Racherla P, Mandviwalla M (2009) Employee adoption of corporate
blogs: A quantitative analysis. System Sciences, 2009. HICSS 09. 42nd Ha-
waii International Conference, 1-10
Yu T-K, Lu L-C, Liu T-F (2010) Exploring factors that inuence knowledge shar-
ing behavior via weblogs. Computers in Human Behavior 26(1):3241
489
Improving the Distribution Process in a Meat

Company
Prez I1, Ulabarry L. E2, Moreno K3,. Parra C4
Abstract The vehicle routing is one of the most critical operational functions of
transport and one of the most common operational decisions is the design of
routes, which meets the demand of final customers. The company in which the
study was conducted, the routing of vehicles was empirically done creating very
inefficient routes which affected customer satisfaction and management
indicators. After diagnosis, the main problems were detected and a new method of
work was proposed, which included the redesign routing and logistics processes of
indoors operations.
Keywords: Routing, Logistic.
1 Introduction
(Ballou, 2004) Says Since transportation costs usually are between one third and
two thirds of the total logistics costs, to improve the efficiency through the maxi-
mum use of transportation equipment and its staff is an important issue.
An agile and flexible logistic system allows companies to increase their service
level, reduce costs and compete in an environment as complex as the current one
1
Ileana Gloria Prez Vergara ( e-mail: ileper@yahoo.com)
Grupo NTTG. Programa de Ingeniera Industrial. Universidad San Buenaventura Cali. Avenida
10 de Mayo, La Umbra, Va a Pance / PBX: 488 22 22 - 318 2200 / FAX: 488223 Cali,
Colombia.
2
Luis Eduardo Ulabarry ( e-mail: luisedu84@yahoo.es)
Empresa Alimentos Carnicos S.A.S. Carrera 40 # 12A -13, Cali, Colombia.
3
Katherine Moreno ( e-mail: ktmore75@hotmail.com)
ESTRUMETAL S.A. Carrera 25 # 13-117 Parcelacin La Y, Acopi Yumbo / PBX: 666 5150
Ext. 103 Cali, Colombia
4
Carlos Parra ( e-mail: andres_pl@live.co)
490
now days. However, although the companies are aware of this need and its bene-
fits, there is still a significant gap between needs and available resources or solu-
tions (Ruiz Garcia, et al., 2011).
Due to huge changes that global market has suffered overall and the existing
great competition, logistics plays an important key role in the management of eve-
ry or organization and distribution of products, and its proper planning can be the
key to success of any company and mean considerable savings. Other authors like
point out that "The problem of product distribution from certain deposits to their
end users plays a main role in the management of some logistics systems, and its
proper planning can mean considerable savings". These potential savings justify
largely the use of operative research techniques to ease planification, since it is es-
timated that transportation costs represent between 10% and 20% of the final costs
of goods.
It is also essential that companies coordinate all activities to add value to their
products and compete in the market showing high rates of customer satisfaction.
That is the reason why the problems associated with final deliveries should in-
clude the routing design and how orders are processed. The separation or picking,
aims to separate the products by routes either by a consolidated way or by client,
product packing, consolidation of physical routes and load of vehicles for dis-
patching (Charles G. Petersen, 2004).
The problem of business traveler (TSP) (Dantzing, et al., 1954), quoted in
(Olivera, 2004), its about just one vehicle that has to visit every customer in only
one route and with a minimum cost. There is usually no deposit (and if there is, it
is not distinguished from customers), there is no demand related to customers nei-
ther temporal restrictions.
According to (Vidal Holguin, 2009) the vehicle routing problem (VRP), is
much more complex than the TSP problem. Actually a VRP is made up of multi-
ple TSP problems, but with additional restrictions and features that can convert it
into an extremely complex problem.
The problem of routes allocation (VRP) has as the main target to minimize
routes costs which begins and ends in a deposit, for a set of customers with known
demands (Bermeo Muoz & Caldern Sotero, 2009).
According to (Olivera, 2004) heuristics are simple procedures that perform a
limited exploration of the search space and provide acceptable quality solutions in
a short period of time.
Several heuristics have been developed as a solution of this kind of problems,
among which highlights the Sweep method or the Savings Algorithm (Clarke &
Wright, 1964).
Due to economic and logistic conditions of Colombian operating companies,
few companies, medium and large, have acquired or developed software tools for
supply chain management, among which software of routes design is not common
(Gutirrez, et al., 2007), computer applications and software developments, that
involve the multiple components of the goods and service distribution system, al-
491
lowing support to decisions about designing of the vehicles routs in a practical

way. VRP Solver 1.3. software performs an adaptation of the savings in algorithm
for vehicle routing problems (Snyder, 2006).
2 Diagnosis of Route Object of Study
The company under study (Ulabarry, et al., 2012), of national character and in a
city, has found a significant commercial growth area in which the traditional
channel is the largest share of sales. This channel has 210 customers and 82.38%
of them are shops, representing 64.45% of total sales in the territory.
This channel is the one representing more refunds, making it a point of analysis
due to these refunds impacts indicators of area management, as shown in table 1.
Table 1. Fulfillment of management indicators of traditional channel
% of effectiveness Goal
Orders 98.51 99.01
$ Weights 98.84 99.60
Customers of across stores channel are retail customers, this type of client is
stipulated by the company as pre-sales, where business consultants come to estab-
lishments, review the products that they have on the exhibition fridges, make an
inventory with the client and take their order. In the city, for safety reasons, cus-
tomers open the establishments between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. and close be-
tween 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m., generating a restriction of 7 hours for the compli-
ance of deliveries, or wait for the opening hours in the afternoon between 3:00
p.m. and 3:30 p.m. for the visit, without guaranteeing the receipt of orders from
these, increasing the risk of losses by theft.
Order features
Orders for the channel are made jointly between the salesman and the customer.
Once the order is confirmed it is entered to the ERP system of the organization
through a portable device of RF, and they could be received until 6:00 p.m. when
begins the consolidating procedure by routes which are already predetermined
from the system to start the process of consolidating for release the day after.
492
Vehicles features
Being perishable meat products, the company uses a refrigerated lorry in order to
keep the cold of chain products and avoid these to be contaminated. The vehicle
has a capacity of weight of 800kg and 80 baskets of capacity in volume.
Separation or picking
This process is one of the most affecting performances of the route, since in the
city, products are consolidated in the CEDI and the separation is performed by
service ambassadors in each stop until reaching the customers.
Planning, programming and assigning routes.
Distribution is organized by frequency of visits. These are defined as follows:

Frequency 2: visits twice per week.
Frequency 3: visits three times per week.
Frequency 4: visits four times per week.
Frequency 6: visits six times per week (negotiation with some customers
of big corporations).
Data collection
During a three week period of time, a sampling to all the routes, this included 145
customers in 435 visits at all frequencies. The purpose was: taking delivery times,
recognition of routes for itineraries evaluation, reviewing itineraries of the routes.
Times were analyzed according to the expression:
T. Delivery (i.n) + T.Separation (i.n) + T. Routes (o,i ; n,o) (1.1)
The result of the sampling is shown in figure 1.
493
Fig.1 Current routing of the channel
Consolidated information shows:

Crosses between customers of the same frequency.
Visits to the same sector in different delivery frequencies.
Long displacements among customers with route time of 20.98% of the total
route time.
The delivery time for delivery takes up the average 57.42% of total route time.
The separating average, 21.72% of time of orders separating is converted into
time outs.
An analysis of possible solutions was made in order to counter the effects and
the following actions were evaluated:
Propose a routing model that allows generating more concentrated and effi-
cient routes.
Analyze actions to reduce the costs of transported kilogram, better use of the
vehicles capacity and reduce the percentage of freight over the sale.
Perform the separation order by order for the channel from CEDI, parame-
terizing from the ERP system of the company to reduce separating times on
route.
Proposed method
Taking into account possible actions to develop, it is proposed a procedure that

takes into account; the separation of orders in the source, the mapping of custom-
ers and a comparison between The Sweep Method and The Savings Method for
proposing the appropriate distribution for the channel features.
Results of customer mapping, using a geographic referencing system, is shown
on figure 2.
494
Fig. 2 Results of customer mapping
Based on these results, two routing methods are compared.
Sweep Method
With this method, the assignation of customers to a cluster was the first step, to
then start with the routing.
Assignation of customers to a cluster: A cluster is performed with the re-
striction of maximum 65 customers on the route. Results are shown at figure 3.
Fig. 3 Results of Cluster Sweep Method
20 simulations were performed for each frequency and the results obtained are
shown at table 2.
495
Table 2 Results of routing simulations
Frequency Customers Average Average Useful %

distance weight
travelled
Monday-Thursday 57 36.25 556.27 69.53
Tuesday-Friday 61 37.63 526.89 65.86
Wednesday-Saturday 55 36.82 790.98 98.87
You may observe that the three established frequencies are uniformly distribut-
ed according to number of customers. The frequency Wednesday-Saturday has the
biggest percentage of use with 98.87%, and it is the route that has assigned the
lowest number of customers. This is because it has three customers that have a
sales volume by order on average of 49.31% of the total of this route, as shown in
Table 3.
Table 3 Customers with the biggest volume of sales on average orders.
Visit order Costumers Average demand

6 10259642 135
7 10351316 192
10 10051028 63
Saving Method
For this method a plain text file was built with coordinates (x, y) and the average
demand by order, collected the last six months. 20 simulations were performed
and the results of statistical analysis did not provide significant differences, ob-
taining an average distance of 109.49km. The variables used on weight and vol-
ume showed similar results.
The obtained results are shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Simulations Results of Savings Method.
Frequency Customers Distances Weight Useful % Useful %

average Weight Vol
Monday- Thursday 30 31,37 614,36 76,80 40,00
Tuesday- Friday 100 43,29 799,45 99,93 133,33
Wednesday-Saturday 44 34,83 464,33 58,04 58,67
Total 174 109,49
496
3 Discussion of results
Results obtained with both methods are shown in table 5.
Table 5 Comparative of VRP methods
Model Saving Method Sweep Method

Freq. Cust. Dist. Weight Use. % Cust. Dist. Weight Use %
ave. ave.
Mon-Thu 30 31,37 614,36 76,80 57 36.24 556.27 69.53
Tue- Fri 100 43,29 799,45 99,93 61 37.63 526.89 65.86
Wed-Sat 44 34,83 464,33 58,04 55 36.82 790.98 98.87
TOTAL 174 109,49 626,05 78,26 173 110,69 624,71 78,09
As is shown in figure 4 and 5 and table 5, Sweep Method has more grouped
and balanced routes regarding to the number of customers and averages values of
distance and percentage of use are not much different to offered by Saving Meth-
od. The most convenient result for the company and its objectives is the one of-
fered by the Sweep Method.
Fig. 4 Mapping Savings Method Fig. 5 Mapping Sweep Method
The solution proposed was implemented during one month and the impacts on
effectiveness and efficiency indicators are shown in figures 6 and 7.
497
Fig. 6 Effectiveness performance indicators
Fig. 7 Efficiency performance indicators
The average route times were reduced 40.36% and delivery times 41.65%, as
well as the number of returns, rising competitiveness and customer satisfaction lev-
els. There are considerable improvements in Cost / kilo, the % of freight over the
sale and the % of utilization have been significantly improved.
Everything mentioned above allowed demonstrating the effectiveness of solu-
tion to the problem proposed.
4 References
Ballou, R., 2004. Logstica Administracin de la Cadena de Suministro. Quinta ed. Mxico:
Pearson.
Bermeo Muoz, E. A. & Caldern Sotero, J. H., 2009. Diseo de un modelo de optimizacin de
rutas de transporte. El Hombre y la Mquina, 32(1), pp. 52-67.
Charles G. Petersen, G. A., 2004. A comparison of picking, storage, and routing policies in man-
ual order picking. International Journal of Production Economics, 92(Issue 1, 8 ), pp. 11-19.
Clarke, G. & Wright, W., 1964. Scheduling of vehicles from a central depot to a number of de-
livery points. Operations Research, Volumen 12, p. 568581.
Dantzing, G. B., Fulkerson, R. & & Johnson, S. M., 1954. Solution of a large scale traveling
salesman problem. Journal of the Operations Research Society of America, 2 (4), pp. 393-
410.
498
Gutirrez, V., Palacio, J. D. & & Villegas, J. G., 2007. Resea del software dispo-nible en Co-
lombia para el diseo de rutas de distribucin y servicios. Revista Universidad EAFIT, 43
(145), pp. 60-80.
Olivera, A., 2004. http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/pedeciba/bibliote/reptec/TR0408.pdf. [En lnea]
Available at: http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/pedeciba/bibliote/reptec/TR0408.pdf
[ltimo acceso: 10 septiembre 2012].
Ruiz Garcia, R. y otros, 2011. Optimizacion logstica con Routing Maps. Revista del Instituto
Tecnolgico de Informtica, pp. 5-6.
Snyder, L. V., 2006. coral.ie.lehigh.edu/~larry. [En lnea]
Available at: http://users.iems.northwestern.edu/~lsnyder
[ltimo acceso: 8 septiembre 2012].
Toth, P. & Vigo, D., 2002. Models, relaxations and exact approaches for the capaci-tated vehicle
routing problem. Discrete Applied Mathematics, Volume 123,(Issues 13,), pp. 487-512.
Ulabarry, L. E., Moreno, K. & Parra, C. A., 2012. Diseo y estrucuracin del modelo de ruteo de
transporte para la distribucin de productos crnicos en un canal de distribucin tradicional
(Tienda a Tienda), Cali: Universidad San Buenaventura de Cali.
Vidal Holguin, C. J., 2009. Planeacin optimizacin y administracin de cadenas de abasteci-
miento. Cali: Universidad del Valle.
499
A New Constructive Heuristic for the

Fm|Block|T
Companys R1, Ribas I2
Abstract This paper deals with the blocking flow shop problem and proposes new
constructive procedures for the total tardiness minimization of jobs. The heuristic
has three-phases to build the sequence; the first phase selects the first job to be
scheduled, the second phase arranges the remaining jobs and the third phase uses
the insertion procedure of NEH to improve the sequence. The proposed proce-
dures evaluate the tardiness associated to the sequence obtained before and after
the third phase in order to keep the best of both because, we have observed, that
the insertion phase can worsen the result. The computational evaluation of these
procedures against the benchmark constructive procedures from the literature re-
veals their good performance.
Keywords: Flow Shop, Blocking, Tardiness
1 Introduction
In a flow shop, there are n jobs that have to be processed in m machines. All jobs
follow the same route in the machines. The processing time of job i {1,2,..., n}
on machine j, j {1,2,..., m}, is p j ,i 0 . In the traditional version of the problem,
it is assumed that there are buffers of infinite capacity between consecutive ma-
chines, where jobs, after being processed by the previous machine, can wait until
1Ramon Companys Pascual ( e-mail: ramn.companys@upc.edu)

Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Escola Tcnica Superior dEnginyers Industrials de
Barcelona. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech. Avda. Diagonal, 647, ed. H,
P.7 08028 Barcelona.
2Imma Ribas Vila ( e-mail: imma.ribas@upc.edu)

Barcelona Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech. Avda. Diagonal, 647, ed. H, P.7
08028 Barcelona.
500
the subsequent machine is available. However, in many industrial systems this

supposition cannot be made, since the capacity of buffers is zero, due to the char-
acteristics of the process (Hall and Sriskandarajah 1996). In this type of produc-
tive configuration, a machine can be blocked by the job already processed if the
buffer is full or absent. Therefore, an accurate scheduling is necessary to avoid or
to minimise the blocking time of machines. Some examples can be found in the
production of concrete blocks where storage is not allowed in some stages of the
manufacturing process (Grabowski and Pempera 2000); in the iron and steel in-
dustry (Gong, Tang, Duin 2010); in the treatment of industrial waste and the man-
ufacture of metallic parts (Martinez and others 2006); or in a robotic cell, where a
job may block a machine while waiting for the robot to pick it up and move it to
the next stage (Sethi and others 1992).
The tardiness criterion has been studied less than the makespan or total flow-
time criteria, despite the fact that scheduling according to this performance meas-
ure helps companies offer a high service level to their customers, which is essen-
tial for survival in the market. In particular, to the best of our knowledge, only
Armentano and Ronconi (2000) and Ronconi and Henriques (2009) dealt with the
blocking flow shop problem for total tardiness minimization. Armentano and
Ronconi (2000) propose a Tabu Search procedure that uses the LBNEH method
proposed in Armentano and Ronconi (1999) to obtain the initial solution. Alterna-
tively, in Ronconi and Henriques (2009), a constructive method (FPDNEH) and a
Greedy Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) is proposed for this problem.
In this paper we propose a new constructive heuristic which explores specific
characteristics of the problem. The comparison between the most popular con-
structive heuristic used in the literature reveals its efficacy to find a good solution
for the problem dealt with.
The paper is organized as follows: after this brief introduction, the problem is
formally defined in section 2. Section 3 describes the proposed constructive heu-
ristics, section 4 shows the computational evaluation and section 5 summarizes the
conclusions.
2 Problem Definition
The tardiness blocking flow shop problem denoted as FmblockT according to

the notation proposed by Graham et al (1979) can be formulated with the follow-
ing equations, where di denotes the due date of job i, e j , k the time in which the
job in position [k] starts to be processed on machine j and cj,k is the departure time
of this job:
ej,k + pj,k cj,k j=1, 2, ..., m k=1, 2, ..., n (2.1)
501
ej,k cj,k-1 j=1, 2, ..., m k=1, 2 ,..., n (2.2)
ej,k cj-1,k j=1, 2, ..., m k=1, 2, ..., n (2.3)
cj,k cj+1,k-1 j=1, 2, ..., m k=1, 2, ..., n (2.4)
n
TT max(cm,i di , 0) (2.5)
i 1
c j ,0 0 j , c0,k 0, cm1,k 0 k being the initial conditions.
If equations (2.2) and (2.3) are summarized as (2.6) and equation (2.1) and
(2.5) as (2.7), the schedule obtained is semi-active, which is interesting because an
optimal solution can be found in the subset of the semi-active set of solutions.
ej,k=max{cj,k-1; cj-1,k} (2.6)
c j ,k max e j ,k p j ,[ k ] , c j 1,k 1 (2.7)
3 Constructive Heuristics for the Fm | Block |T Problem
The most popular constructive heuristics used to deal with the tardiness criterion
consist of using the early due date (EDD) rule or slack (sl) rule to create an initial
sequence, which is then processed by the insertion phase of NEH (Nawaz, Enscore
Jr, Ham 1983) adapted to the tardiness criterion. We denote to these procedures
NEDD and Nsl. In both procedures, the creation of the initial sequence is done by
assigning an index to each job which is used for their prioritization. However,
Ronconi and Henriques(2009) proposed a method, named FPD, which can be seen
as a two-phase procedure; the first phase selects the job to be scheduled first and
the second phase sequences the rest of the jobs.
3.1 New Constructive Heuristics
The proposed procedures consist of two phases according to the philosophy of the
FPD method. We have implemented four alternatives to choose the first job in the
sequence (first phase) and three alternatives to sequence the remaining jobs (sec-
502
ond phase). The combination of them has led us to implement twelve methods for
creating a sequence which is then processed by the insertion procedure.
We denote as Pi, the sum of processing time of job i, and as sli the slack of job i
calculated as the difference between its due date and the sum of its processing
time. Next, we describe the rules used in the first phase:
A1: Select the job with minimum p1,i + (1 )di , if =0.5 this index is exact-
ly the same than the used in FPD.
A2: Select the job with minimum Pi / m + (1 )sli, to break ties select the
job with minimum di.
A3: Select the job with minimum Pi Pmin (1 ) sli slmin where Pmin
Pmax Pmin slmax slmin
and Pmax, are the maximum and minimum processing time and slmin and slmax
the maximum and minimum slack of jobs, respectively.
difi -dif min sl -sl
A4: Select the job with minimum (1 ) i min where
dif max -dif min slmax -slmin
m
difi | p j ,i Pi / m | , to break ties select the job with minimum di.
j 1
These procedures are variations of the used in FPD. A1 allows weighting the
two factors, A2 considers the important of the total processing time instead of the
processing time in the first stage and changes the due date for the slack of jobs, A3
is an evolution of A2 and A4 change the first factor in order to priory jobs with a
more regular processing time.
The implemented rules for the second phase are:
B1: the same rule than in FPD.
tmi tmmin dsli dslmin
B2: select the job with minimum (1 ) , in case
tmmax tmmin dslmax dslmin
of breaks choose the job with early due date. tmi is the idle time generated
when job i is scheduled at the end on the partial sequence , in position k+1,
m
tmi fj , k 1(i) fj , k ( ) pj , i ) and dsli is the dynamic slack of job i when is
j 1
scheduled at the end of , dsli di cm,i
dsli -dslmin
B3: Select among the jobs with the job with minimum tmi.
dslmax -dslmin
As it can be observed in the formulae, B2 changes the two terms of B1 in order

to precise their evaluation. The first term of B1, fiti, which is an approximation of
the idle time, is changed by the real idle time resulting from scheduling job i in
that position. The second term, dynamic slack of job i, is evaluated considering
503
that this job is scheduled at the end of the partial sequence. B3, instead, uses hier-
archical multicriteria decision to select a job.
During this research we have detected that, in some instances, the tardiness as-
sociated to the sequence given by FPD is smallest than the associated to the se-
quence obtained after the insertion. The same phenomenon has been observed by
the procedures here proposed. Therefore, the implemented procedures, included
NFPD, evaluate the sequence before and after the insertion procedure in order to
keep the best of both.
3.2 Experimental Parameter Adjustment of the Rules
The implemented procedures have two parameters, and , that should be adjust-
ed. The calibration of these parameters has been done with 480 instances generat-
ed ad hoc, 10 instances for each combination of n={20, 50, 100, 200} and m={5,
10, 20} and 4 ranges of due dates, which are named scenarios from now on. The
due dates of jobs were uniformly distributed between LB(1-T-R/2) and LB(1-
T+R/2) as in Potts and Van Wassenhove (1982), where T and R are the tardiness
factor of jobs and the dispersion range of due dates, respectively. LB is a lower
bound of the Cmax with unlimited buffer in the flow shop (Taillard 1993). There-
fore, each of the scenarios correspond to a combination of R={0.6, 1.2} and T={
0.2, 0.4}. The experiments were carried out on an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU,
with 3GHz and 2GB RAM memory. To analyze the experimental results obtained,
we measured the relative deviation index (RDI), calculated as (3.1) for each pro-
cedure:
Heurh, s Bests
RDI= (3.1)
Worsts Bests
where Heurh,s is the average of tardiness values obtained by heuristic h, in in-

stance s, and Bests and Worsts are the minimum and maximum value of tardiness
obtained for this instance, among all the combinations of parameters.
A preliminary test showed us that any A procedure (first phase) combined with
B2 outperforms the procedures that use B1 or B3 in the second phase, which led
us to discard B1 and B3. Hence, the adjustment of and has been done for those
procedures that use B2 in the second step, which have been denoted as N A1, NA2,
NA3 and NA4, to indicate the method used in the first step.
As an example, the calibration for the combination N A1B2 is shown in Fig. 1,
where the overall average of index RDI obtained, for several values of and can
be seen. Notice, that in this case the lower values of RDI are obtained when
=0.45 and =0.35.
504
RDI of NA1B2 for any combination of and
0,5 0.35
0,48 0.4
0,46
0,44 0.45
0,42
0.5
0,4
0,25 0,3 0,35 0,4 0,45 0.55
Fig. 1 Overall average of RDI obtained with NA1 procedure for any combination of and
The same experiment has been done for each procedure. The proposed values
are shown in table 1.
Table 1 best values of and per each procedure
NA1 NA2 NA3 NA4

0.45 0.1 0.1 0.15
0.35 0.35 0.30 0.35
4 Computational Evaluation
In this section we compare the proposed procedures with NFPD, NEDD and Nsl in
order to analyse their performance. This test has been done against the 480 in-
stances used in Ronconi and Henriques (2009). The comparison between proce-
dures has been done using index RDI as in (3.1), where Bests and Worsts are the
minimum and maximum value of tardiness obtained by any of the procedures
evaluated in this test.
Table 2 shows the average RDI values obtained and the number of best solu-
tions found by each procedure in each nxm set. The first observation is that the
new procedures have better performance than NFPD, NEDD or Nsl.. However, the dif-
ference between them is very poor. We can say that, N A3B2 performs slightly bet-
ter, but its behaviour is worse for n=20 and n=200, which dilutes the overall aver-
age value for this procedure. This can also be seen by means the number of best
solutions found by each procedure in each set. As the only difference between
these procedures is the selection of the first job, we can say that this decision has a
great influence in the obtained sequence. Therefore, one line of future research is
to explore the convenience of using one of these procedures to select the first job
according to the number of jobs to schedule.
Another interesting result is the performance of NEDD and Nsl compared to
NFPD. The obtained results in this test are much better than those reported in Ron-
505
coni and Henriques (2009). This fact can be due to the tie-break criterion used to
select the jobs. In NEDD, we break ties by selecting the job with higher Pi whereas
in Nsl the job selected is the one with less Pi. This observation indicates that can be
interesting to analyse several criteria to break ties because it has an appreciable ef-
fect in the obtained results.
Table 2 Average RDI value obtained and number of best solutions found by each procedure per
n and m combination
Average RDI Number of best solutions

nxm NA1 NA2 NA3 NA4 NEDD Nsl NFPD NA1 NA2 NA3 NA4 NEDD Nsl NFPD
20x5 0.47 0.31 0.49 0.31 0.44 0.41 0.48 11 14 7 14 11 16 12
20x10 0.47 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.43 0.57 0.43 7 9 9 9 15 2 14
20x20 0.56 0.41 0.45 0.41 0.42 0.43 0.60 5 12 8 12 12 8 8
50x5 0.37 0.38 0.33 0.38 0.42 0.49 0.65 11 10 10 10 10 8 3
50x10 0.51 0.54 0.41 0.54 0.49 0.48 0.59 6 6 12 6 7 5 8
50x20 0.51 0.54 0.47 0.53 0.46 0.42 0.56 2 4 10 4 5 14 6
100x5 0.29 0.27 0.22 0.27 0.34 0.30 0.74 10 9 11 9 11 12 6
100x10 0.33 0.32 0.37 0.32 0.34 0.33 0.68 13 8 4 8 6 4 11
100x20 0.44 0.46 0.42 0.46 0.45 0.46 0.56 3 6 6 6 7 6 13
200 x10 0.33 0.33 0.33 0.33 0.47 0.53 0.79 14 11 9 12 9 7 0
200x20 0.32 0.37 0.44 0.38 0.42 0.54 0.68 10 12 8 11 8 1 4
50 x20 0.27 0.42 0.34 0.42 0.51 0.50 0.73 18 14 7 13 3 5 2
All 0.41 0.40 0.39 0.40 0.43 0.45 0.62 110 115 101 114 104 88 87
5 Conclusions
In this paper we have proposed effective constructive heuristics procedures to deal

with the tardiness flow shop problem with blocking. The presented procedures
have three steps; step one selects the first job in the sequence, step two builds the
remaining sequence and step three uses the insertion procedure of NEH to try to
improve the sequence. It has been implemented four procedures for step one and
three for step two, which have been combined to build twelve heuristics. The best
method for step two was B2 which is focused on the precise evaluation of the idle
time and slack time of jobs; instead, the best procedure for the first step is not
clear because it seems to be dependent of the instance size. The computational
evaluation has reveal that the tie-break criterion used to select a job in the con-
structive procedures has a great influence in the quality of the obtained sequence.
506
Therefore, we recommend to the researchers a detailed analysis of the criterion

used to break ties.
6 References
Armentano VA, Ronconi DP (1999) Tabu search for total tardiness minimization in flowshop
scheduling problems. Comput Oper Res 26(3):219-35
Armentano VA, Ronconi DP (2000) Minimizao do tempo total de atraso no problema de
flowshop com buffer zero atravs de busca tabu. Gestao & Produao 7(3):352
Gong H, Tang L, Duin CW (2010) A two-stage flow shop scheduling problem on a batching ma-
chine and a discrete machine with blocking and shared setup times. Comput Oper Res
37(5):960-9
Grabowski J, Pempera J (2000) Sequencing of jobs in some production system. European Jour-
nal of Operational Research 125(3):535-50
Graham RL, Lawler EL, Lenstra JK, Rinnooy Kan AHG (1979) Optimization and approximation
In: deterministic sequencing and scheduling: A survey. Annals of Discrete Mathematics
5:287-326
Hall NG, Sriskandarajah C (1996) A survey of machine scheduling problems with blocking and
no wait in process. Operations Research 44(3):510-25
Martinez S, Dauzre-Prs S, Guret C, Mati Y, Sauer N (2006) Complexity of flowshop sched-
uling problems with a new blocking constraint. Eur J Oper Res 169(3):855-64
Nawaz M, Enscore Jr EE, Ham I (1983) A heuristic algorithm for the m-machine, n-job flow-
shop sequencing problem. Omega 11(1):91-5
Potts CN, Van Wassenhove LN (1982) A decomposition algorithm for the single machine total
tardiness problem. Operations Research Letters, 1(5):177-81
Ronconi DP, Henriques LRS (2009) Some heuristic algorithms for total tardiness minimization
in a flowshop with blocking. Omega 37(2):272-81
Sethi SP, Sriskandarajah C, Sorger G, Blazewicz J, Kubiak W (1992) Sequencing of parts and
robot moves in a robotic cell. International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems 4:331-
58
Taillard E (1993) Benchmarks for basic scheduling problems. European Journal of Operational
Research, 64(2):278-85.
507
A Roadmap to Establish Collaboration among

SMEs belonging to Non-Hierarchical Networks
Andres B1, Poler R2
Abstract The importance of collaboration has increased in supply networks; and

thus, the number of so called non-hierarchical manufacturing networks (NHN).
When establishing collaborative processes appear a number of barriers that com-
panies must face. This paper proposes a roadmap, NHNmap, to support research-
ers on the migration process towards the long-term vision to establish collabora-
tive relationships in NHN. This NHNmap phases are briefly described and
depicted in a chart in order to identify the roadmap time plan.
Keywords: Roadmap, Collaboration, Non-Hierarchical Networks, SMEs
1 Introduction
SMEs modus operandi is evolving towards complex value chains (Camarinha-

Matos et al., 2008). A variety of collaborative networks have emerged during the
last years, collaborative non-hierarchical networks (NHN) represent a network to-
pology evolved from the centralised view, in which a node makes the decision op-
timising the objectives of the entire network, (hierarchical networks - HN) towards
the decentralised decision making perspective, in which individual entities make
its own decisions to optimise their own objectives, requiring greater exchanges of
information and commitment of all companies (Andrs and Poler, 2012). Partici-
pation in NHN implies sharing responsibilities, organisations actively participa-
tion in the decision-making, jointly treatment of problems and equally considera-
1BeatrizAndres Navarro ( e-mail: beaanna@cigip.upv.es)

Research Centre on Production management and Engineering (CIGIP). Universitat Politcnica de
Valncia (UPV). Plaza Ferrndiz y Carbonell, 2, 03801 Alcoy, Spain.
2RaulPoler Escoto ( e-mail: rpoler@cigip.upv.es)
508
tion of partners. Many factors may cause failures when establishing collaborative
relations within networks (Shadi and Afsarmanesh, 2011). Andrs and Poler
(2012) highlight the problems SMEs face when they decide to participate in col-
laborative NHN, admitting that the participation in collaborative NHN brings new
challenges that SMEs have to overcome. In light of this, a roadmap to deal with
these SMEs challenges is developed. A literature review is carried out to identify
roadmaps addressing collaborative network issues. In the literature are developed
roadmaps facing collaborative problems focused on the centralised decision mak-
ing perspective, and specific issues, such as technology, interoperability, virtual
organisations, collaboration, alignment, etc. (see Table 2). The work proposed in
the literature is classified to obtain a better understanding in terms of the (i)
roadmap context, (ii) roadmap type and (iii) evaluation criteria (Table 1). Consid-
ering the classification criteria, Table 2 chronologically shows the roadmaps pro-
vided in the literature; each work is briefly described and analysed. From the liter-
ature review, it is concluded that the proposed roadmaps are not developed from
the NHN context; this highlights the need to develop a roadmap to specifically
deal with the establishment of collaborative relationships within NHN.
Table 1 Classification Criteria in the Literature Review

Criteria Description
Network Level The roadmap is developed at network level
Context
SME Level The roadmap is developed at enterprise level
Identification, evaluation and promotion of collaborative projects development within and between
Inter - Enterprise
industries. Goals are established in the network
Technological Identification of gaps to overcome and to exploit technological opportunities
Type of Description of the company product line. Introduction of new products and supports technology management
Product
Roadmap and planning within the company
Product- Tools to assess technology needs for future products are offered. Identification of technology opportunities
Technology and risks to develop a product. Alignment of decisions with technology trends for product development
Project Implementation of strategies during project planning. Enables the integration between projects
- It does not include features to support the development of collaborative relationships in SMEs
It includes in a weak way the particularity of supporting SMEs in establishing collaborative relationships in

the network
Evaluation
It includes in a moderate way features to support SMEs in the establishment collaborative partnerships

within the network
It includes features that directly support SMEs establishing collaborative relationships within the network
509
Table 2 Literature Review
Author Work Description Context Roadmap Type Evaluation

Roure et al. (2001) Provides the Semantic Grid roadmap focusing on e-Science and GRID infrastructure needs Network Level Technological
Chen and Doumeingts (2003) Roadmap to address interoperability of enterprise applications and software SME Level Technological
Onori et al. (2003) Assembly-net roadmap: discusses research challenges in advanced collaborative manufacturing systems Network Level Project
Schaffers et al. (2003) Roadmap focused on virtual communities and cooperative environments (COCONet) Network Level Project
Roadmap for advanced virtual organizations (VOmap). Identification of research challenges needed to fulfil the vision of
Camarinha-Matos and Project
the European initiative on collaborative dynamic virtual organizations. A modelling approach considering different Network Level
Afsarmanesh (2003) Inter-Enterprise
perspectives of environmental characteristics, life cycle modelling and collaborative networks
Brings together different partners of the collaborative network, giving the opportunity to exchange information and point Project
Phaal et al. (2004) Network Level
of views and provides a vehicle for holistic consideration of problems, opportunities and new ideas Technological
Reflects the inherent complexities in the innovation and development of new products and offers a view of the future Product-
Petrick and Echols (2004) Network Level
management tools. Includes technology roadmaps and the impact on decision making Technology
Product
Rinne (2004) Roadmap for planning support to integrate technology markets, products and technologies SME Level -
Technological
Roadmap to address the vision of extended enterprises from the centralized decision making context to integrate all
Hunt et al. (2005) Network Level Inter - Enterprise
processes to connect two supply chains
Rezgui and Zarli (2006) Integration of systems and interoperability to operate in virtual enterprises Network Level Technological
Spekman and Carraway (2006) Identification of critical elements associated with the transition from a not collaborative state to collaborative context Network Level Inter - Enterprise
Ku et al. (2007) Analysis for design concepts to address problems appearing in collaborative business processes Network Level Technological
Identification of SMEs capacities availability, skills and abilities of the system to establish collaborative relationships Project
Barton and Thomas (2009) SME Level
within the network Inter-Enterprise
Camarinha-Matos and
510
Strategic Research Plan covering social, organizational and technological perspectives in collaborative networks Network Level Project
Afsarmanesh (2010)
Roadmap for integrating the supply chain developed at SMEs level and network level in order to progress together towards Network Level
Hvolby and Trienekens (2010) Project
integrated business solutions, and propose a cultural changes SME Level
Shen et al. (2010) Comprehensive vision and roadmaps for the future construction of information technologies in the industry SME Level Technological -
Budweg et al. (2011) Evaluation and implementation to facilitate innovation in collaborative environments Network Level Technological
Camarinha-Matos (2011) Relate the SMEs needs and emerging models of collaborative networks discipline (GloNet project) SME Level Inter - Enterprise
Osrio et al. (2011a)
Multidisciplinary approach involving technological perspective to face collaboration Network Level Technological
Caetano and Amaral(2011)
Osrio et al. (2011b) Collaborative network approach to develop a business concept of integrated services in VO Network Level Inter - Enterprise
Perks and Moxey (2011) Roadmap for defining exchange of resources and capabilities and to develop behaviours Network Level Inter - Enterprise
Roadmap to identify conflicts, select collaborative members that best fit and assign roles and rights within collaborative Network Level
Shadi and Afsarmanesh (2011) Inter - Enterprise
supply network SME Level

Roadmap based on the establishment of web services system to provide interoperability. Change management systems that
Lin et al. (2012) Network Level Technological
provide information to support decision making
Gallardo et al. (2012) Roadmap to acquire teamwork knowledge and necessary knowledge regarding the tools for collaboration modelling SME Level Inter - Enterprise
2 Baseline and NHNmap Vision
With the emergence of NHN arises the need to establish the foundations for a new
investigation regarding the needs that appear in the establishment of new collabo-
rative relationships of SMEs within the same NHN. In order to guide researchers
in the transition path towards enterprises collaboration, the proposed roadmap al-
lows to identify SMEs needs and challenges when establish collaborative process-
es. Two important elements are considered in the roadmap development (i) the
SMEs current state characterised by establishing non-collaborative relationships
and (ii) the SME desired vision of establishing collaborative relationships and
processes in non-hierarchical manufacturing networks. Figure 1 represents the vi-
sion of the provided roadmap, NHNmap, which develops a guide for SMEs on the
transition path towards the future state of collaborative relationships establishment
in NHN. Participation in NHN enables SMEs to create new opportunities to be
more competitive and innovative. The NHNmap main contribution is to allow
SMEs to overcome the adaptation phase towards collaborative NHN.
Fig. 1 Roadmap background and vision
3 NHNmap Phases
The NHNmap implementation helps SMEs, who decided to participate in a NHN,

determine what to do to start decentralised collaborative relationships. NHNmap
allows the alignment of partners to propose common objectives and guiding, by
sharing information, the adaptation process towards collaborative NHN, continu-
ously evaluating and reviewing the results. The NHNmap is structured through
four focus areas (i) collaboration establishment, (ii) performance evaluation, (iii)
511
models, guidelines and tools proposals to address potential problems in collabora-

tive processes and (iv) Information Technology and Systems to support decentral-
ised decision making. NHNmap is multi-layered (i) at network level, where col-
laborative NHN requirements are defined, and (ii) at SMEs level, where SMEs
resources and capabilities are identified. The Roadmap consists on ten stages,
briefly explained below:
Phase 1 Defining the scope of collaboration. SME assignment of, at least, one
process in the NHN so that each of the NHN partners identifies responsibilities
and roles regarding collaborative processes. An agenda for future meetings is es-
tablished to collect information and undertake further stages.
Phase 2 Assess the current SMEs status. A questionnaire enables the assess-
ment of the current SMEs and partners status. The assessment is carried out
through identifying the SMEs preparation and readiness and considering the po-
tential benefits derived from the NHN participation.
Phase 3 Definition of objectives and economic activity. The collaborative
agreement is achieved by defining the global strategy, global objective and the
sub-objectives in which is divided. The performance measurement system is also
designed. The aim is to achieve the alignment of SMEs objectives and strategies.
Phase 4 SMEs needs identification. The degree of adaptation is the variable
used to identify how SMEs features fit into the requirements established to partic-
ipate in collaborative NHN. This phase allows networked partners to identify the
problems they have to overcome to fulfil the collaborative NHN requirements.
Phase 5 Preparing for collaboration. Potential partners are trained. Technolog-
ical change is promoted to meet the exchange of information (technology, plat-
forms, information management, visibility, standards, and synchronisation) and
the processes connection (reengineering, collaborative transactions, platforms).
Phase 6 Solutions Identification. Considering the analysis results of phase 2
and the identified needs in phase 4, this phase provides solutions to overcome a set
of defined collaborative problems. Solutions are proposed in form of models,
methodologies and tools.
Phase 7 Solution Implementation. Enables collaborative partners to identify the
extent to which the solution proposed in the literature can be particularly applied
to each SME, taking into account the resources and capabilities they have.
Phase 8 Collaboration Implementation. The start up process to participate in a
collaborative NHN is initiated. Initial results and feedback from NHN partners are
set out so that partners can discuss appropriate adjustments to be further per-
formed in the NHN. Future information and technology systems and software
modifications are identified to improve the collaborative processes.
Phase 9 Results Assessment. Relations within partners, business processes and
technologies used to achieve collaboration within the NHN are evaluated. The per-
formance evaluation loop is periodically repeated. Reporting the assessment re-
sults of collaboration is an opportunity to identify achieved progress.
512
Phase 10 Improvements Identification and Implementation. Improvements are

identified in order to establish future collaborative relationships. Following steps
regarding the collaborative NHN are agreed and the involved organisations plan to
deploy additional collaborative initiatives to be developed. A report with results is
distributed to NHN partners to contribute to recommendations for expansion.
3.1 NHNmap Chart
The generic roadmap is a time based diagram comprising a number of layers. The
NHNmap chart shows the time dimension to ensure that technology, products,
processes and organisational and collaborative agreements are synchronised.
NHNmap chart exemplifies the time line order and the interdependencies among
the different phases and subphases, it also illustrates the time-based transition
steps within each phase showing the interdependencies and links among different
subphases, as well as among different phases. The chart is inter related, consider-
ing the transition steps needed from different phases or subphases, due to most of
the subphases need the results of previous ones. In order to guarantee this inter-
linking, the subphases defined are to be accurately located in the timeline (Fig. 2).
513
Fig 2 NHNmap
514
*Sub-phases identification
SP.1.1. Identification of SMEs partners, SP.1.2. Definition of NHN collaborative partners, SP.1.3. Definition of responsibilities and
roles of NHN and each SME, SP.1.4. Setting Initial Goals, SP.1.5. Planning Meetings, SP.2.1.Questionnaire, SP.2.2. Current State
Assessment of NHN partners, SP.3.1. Collaboration Agreement, SP.3.2. Global strategy, SP.3.3. Global goal, SP.3.4. Sub
Objectives, SP.3.5. Performance Management design, SP.4.1. Degree of alignment amongst NHN partners, SP.5.1. Training
sessions for collaboration, SP.5.2. Technological change (Exchange of Information), SP.8.1. Collaborative Process, SP.8.2.
Collaborative Technology, SP.8.3. Review of the collaborative process of NHN, SP.10.1. Future Lines to perform within the
collaborative NHN, SP.10.2. Results Report
4 Conclusions
Collaborative networks are widely recognised by researchers for SMEs survival in

turbulent environmental periods. Thus, taking the opportunity to structure the evo-
lution towards collaboration among companies is a challenge for the associated
community research, specifically in collaborative NHN. Collaborative NHN in-
volve a significant activity due to the reached benefits. In spite of the benefits of
collaboration, the starting up process is difficult, because SMEs capabilities and
resources are sometimes insufficient. NHNmap has a great potential to support the
development and implementation of the strategy, product, technology and partners
relations from the collaborative perspective. NHNmap develops the migration path
to reach the desired future collaborative state in NHN considering different per-
spectives: collaboration, technology, performance measurement and solutions to
overcome SMEs weaknesses. The proposed roadmap, graphically represented en-
sures the synchronisation of all the dimensions. However, since the chart is syn-
thesised, the NHNmap is supported by a brief definition of each of the phases.
Research work, in collaborative NHN, has been launched only few years ago.
Therefore the most of the work has to be done in the next future, and we are in the
early stage of development, creating collaborative relationships. NHNmap is a dy-
namic construct that needs to be periodically revised taking into account new
trends. Future research is aimed at implement the NHNmap in order to complete
an external validation and demonstrate the roadmap potential benefits. The origi-
nal contribution of this work is that NHNmap is developed at both network and
SMEs levels and serves as a beginning of application to create collaborative NHN.
5 References
Andrs B, Poler R (2012) Relevant Problems in Collaborative Processes of Non-Hierarchical

Manufacturing Networks. In: Prado JC, Garca J, Comesaa JA, Fernndez AJ (ed.), 6th In-
ternational Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management, 90-97,Vigo
Barton R, Thomas A (2009) Implementation of intelligent systems, enabling integration of SMEs
to high-value supply chain networks. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 22:
929938
Budweg S, Schaffers H, Rulanda R, Kristensenc K, Prinz W (2011) Enhancing collaboration in
communities of professionals using a Living Lab approach. Production Planning & Control
22:594609
Caetano M, Amaral DC (2011) Roadmapping for technology push and partnership: A contribu-
tion for open innovation environments. Technovation 31: 320335
Camarinha-Matos, L., Afsarmanesh, H. (2003). A RoadMap for strategic research on Virtual Or-
ganizations. In: Camarinha-Matos, L.M., Afsarmanesh, H. (Eds). Processes and Foundations
for Virtual Organizations. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, pp. 316.
Camarinha-Matos LM, Afsarmanesh H, Galeano N et al (2008) Collaborative networked organi-
zations -Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises. Computers & Industrial Engi-
neering 57:4660
515
Camarinha-Matos, LM; Afsarmanesh, H (2010) Active ageing roadmap a collaborative net-

works contribution to demographic sustainability. In: Collaborative networks for a sustaina-
ble world, IFIP Adv in Inf and Com Tech. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer, 4659.
Camarinha-Matos LM, Afsarmanesh H (2011) Active Aging with Collaborative Networks. IEEE
Technology and Society Magazine 1225
Chen D, Doumeingts G (2003) European initiatives to develop interoperability of enterprise ap-
plications-basic concepts, framework and roadmap. Annual Reviews in Control 27:153162
Gallardo J, Bravo C, Redondo MA (2012) A model-driven development method for collabora-
tive modeling tools. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 35:10861105
Hunt I, Wall B, Jadgev H (2005) Applying the concepts of extended products and extended en-
terprises to support the activities of dynamic supply networks in the agri-food industry. Jour-
nal of Food Engineering 70:393402
Hvolby HH, Trienekens JH (2010) Challenges in business systems integration. Computers in In-
dustry 61:808812
Ku KC, Kaob HP, Gurumurthy ChK (2007) Virtual inter-firm collaborative framework-An IC
foundry merger/acquisition project. Technovation 27:388401
Lin HW, Nagalingam SV, Kuik SS et al (2012) Design of a Global Decision Support System for
a manufacturing SME: Towards participating in Collaborative Manufacturing. International
Journal of Production Economics, 136:112
Onori M, Oliveira J, Lastra J et al (2003) European Precision Assembly -Roadmap. Assembly-
Net. ISBN 91-7283-637-7
Osrio L, Camarinha-Matos LM, Afsarmanesh H (2011a) Cooperation Enabled Systems for Col-
laborative Networks. In: Camarinha-Matos LM, Afsarmanesh H, Koelmel B (eds). 12th IFIP
WG 5.5 Working Conferences on VE, PRO-VE 2011 263270. Sao Paulo, Brazil, Springer
Osrio L, Afsarmanesh H, Camarinha-Matos LM (2011b). A Service Integration Platform for
Collaborative Networks. Studies in Informatics and Control 20:1930
Perks H, Moxey S (2011) Market-facing innovation networks: How lead firms partition tasks,
share resources and develop capabilities. Industrial Marketing Management 40:12241237
Petrick IJ, Echols AE (2004) Technology roadmapping in review: A tool for making sustainable
new product development decisions. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 71:81100
Phaal R, Farrukh CJP, Probert DR (2004) Technology roadmapping-A planning framework for
evolution and revolution. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 71:5-26
Rezgui Y, Zarli A (2006) Paving the Way to the Vision of Digital Construction: A Strategic
Roadmap. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 767776
Rinne M (2004) Technology roadmaps: Infrastructure for innovation. Technological Forecasting
& Social Change 71:6780
Roure D, Jenning N, Shadbolt N (2001) Research Agenda for the Semantic Grid: A future e-
Science infrastructure. EPSRC/DTI Core e-Science Programme
Schaffers H, Ribak A, Tschammer V (2003) COCONET: a roadmap for context-aware coopera-
tion environments. Processes and Foundations for Virtual Organizations. Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Boston
Shadi M, Afsarmanesh H (2011) Addressing Behavior in Collaborative Networks. In: Camarin-
ha-Matos LM, Afsarmanesh H, Koelmel B (eds) 12th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conferences on
VE, PRO-VE 2011, pp. 263270. Sao Paulo, Brazil, Springer
Shen W, Hao Q, Mak H et al. (2010) Systems integration and collaboration in architecture, engi-
neering, construction, and facilities management: A review. Advanced Engineering Informat-
ics, 24:196207
Spekman, R.E.; Carraway, R. (2006) Making the transition to collaborative buyer-seller relation-
ships: An emerging Framework. Industrial Marketing Management, 35:1019
516
Measures to Diagnose the Power Balance in a

Non-hierarchical Manufacturing Network
Andres B1, Poler R2
Abstract Hierarchical structures and associated barriers limit decision making at

different levels of partners in a network. Non-hierarchical manufacturing networks
are characterised by equitable relationships among networked members without
any imposition of hierarchical power by any partner. However, in real networks,
partners with more power than others can be found. The aim of this paper is to
propose a first stage of a methodology through providing a set of measures and as-
sociated attributes to help defining relations established with network members
with the main aim of further compute the power distribution within a network.
Keywords: Non-hierarchical Networks, Power Measures, Power Attributes, Smes
1 Introduction
Collaboration within a network can be deployed from two different perspectives,

centralised or decentralised. In centralised approaches all nodes deliver infor-
mation to the coordinator who makes the best decisions for the entire network
(Schneeweiss, 2003); therefore, a single decision unit possesses all the power hav-
ing greater degrees of collaboration and hierarchy. Centralised models are associ-
ated with the concept of hierarchical networks (HN) where dominant nodes pos-
sess the power and authority and the secondary ones must adapt (Andrs and
Poler, 2012). Nevertheless, in todays highly dynamic market, it is important to
consider the objectives of both dominant partners and secondary ones as they may

517
belong to different networks. Thus, the decentralised approach is to be considered

to integrate all decisional independent units with different degrees of collaboration
and hierarchy (Andrs and Poler, 2012). The decentralised approach is character-
ised by the exchange of information among independent partners in which each of
them establish collaborative relationships with those considered more appropriate.
Non-hierarchical networks (NHN) emerge as networks with balanced power in
which there is no superiority or authority and all members are equally considered
(Andrs and Poler, 2012). However, this is not entirely sure due to in real world
power asymmetry among partners of NHN is evidenced. In NHN is possible to re-
strict some information to certain SMEs to avoid conflicts of interest, furthermore,
the task dependency also creates imbalanced structures of power (Converge,
2010). Therefore, in real NHN, the power asymmetry exists as there are members
more important than others because of their role in the network, their activities
in the product development and manufacturing, etc. So that, the power of each
member of the network influences the partner decisions, making interesting the
study to estimate the power distribution (Liu and Zolghadri, 2011).
Analysing the power balance/distribution of NHN partners is a key aspect to
understand the partners behaviour and achieve a sustainable network. Modelling
and analysing the individual power allows experts to identify or predict conflicts,
select potential members that best fit in the network and establish the correct as-
signment of partners so as to help researchers to define the power distribution and
suggest potential changes to establish more balanced networks. Being in the first
stage of the methodology, this paper proposes the start up of a methodology
through defining measures and attributes to be quantified by researchers in order
to use the results in further stages of power distribution diagnosis within a NHN.
2 Literature Review
The power of a partner within a network can be considered as the partner capacity
to influence on decisions of other partners or to impose others to do something
they would not have done otherwise (Brown et al., 1995; Goodman and Dion,
2001). The power exercise defines the extent to which a network node needs to
maintain a relationship with another member of the network in order to achieve
desired goals (Hald et al., 2009). Power in an organisation can be led through the
intrinsic bargaining capability, the propensity to exercise power (Cho and Chu,
1994) or through the dependence of other partners on resources (Emerson, 1962).
The Five Forces model of Porter (1979-2008) introduces the theory of power with-
in a supply chain and identifies five forces of power in the network: competitive
rivalry within an industry, threads of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers,
threads of substitutive products and bargaining power of buyers. On other hand,
French and Raven (1959) provide the basis for development of power between
companies through (i) expert power, (ii) referent power, (iii) legitimate power, (iv)
518
reward power, (v) coercive powerand (vi) legal-legitimate power. Other authors
distinguish among (i) coercitive/no-coercitive, (ii) mediated/no-mediated and (iii)
economic/non-economic (Etgar, 1978; Hunt et al., 1987; Johnson et al., 1993;
Molm, 1997) manifesting that power and its use may have a fundamental impact
on the network collaborative relationships.
The literature reviewed identifies the influence of power on network partners
(Meehan and Wright, 2011), the benefits or disadvantages (Bloom and Perry,
2001), the sources and consequences of power (Crook and Combs, 2007; Hald et
al., 2009; Hofer et al., 2012), the relationship between power and confidence (Ma-
loni and Benton, 2000; Handfield and Bechtel, 2001; Benton and Maloni, 2005;
Ireland and Webb, 2007; Van der Vaart and Van Donk, 2008; Yeung et al., 2009),
the evaluation of power (Zhao et al., 2008), the impact of power on the network
performance (Brown et al., 1995; Hofer et al., 2012) and the technological influ-
ence (Webster, 2005).
In the construction of a power dependence theory, Emerson (1962) develops a
simple theory of the relations among power, authority, legitimacy and power
structures allowing researchers to identify the properties of equilibrium and bal-
ancing operations in partners relationships. Another framework dealing with the
power distribution is proposed by Cho and Chu (1994), allowing experts to com-
pute the power, by distinguishing between the intrinsic negotiation capacity and
roles that influence on the propensity for power exercise. On other hand, Liu and
Zolghadi (2011) develop a methodology to analyse the power in networked mem-
bers focusing on the power evaluation of partners according to their activities and
the involvement on the product development. This paper goes further and provides
a wide variety of measures and associated attributes to consider in the evaluation
of power distribution taking into account that the power can evolve and change
through the long-term relations within a network.
3 Measures to compute the power distribution
The common understanding of the power concept is generally associated to au-

thority. Nevertheless, the power issue is far from a simple phenomenon and it is
not simply related with the size of the companies due to a SME can be stronger
than a large multinational company in a given situation. Furthermore, the power
distribution depends on the collaboration features, these features change and con-
sequently the degree of power also changes, therefore, a weaker company in a
given collaborative situation could become stronger in another collaborative situa-
tion resulting in different power distribution within a network.
As discussed in section 2, Liu and Zolghadri (2011) provide a methodology to
evaluate the power considering two variables (i) partners involved in the end
product where the power comes from the importance of components they provide
519
to the end product and (ii) partners involved in enabling product where the power
depends on the function criticality of enabling products they engage in and the ac-
tivities they perform. The approach we are developing follows this pattern but
goes further in order not to take into account only the importance of the end prod-
uct components or the function criticality of enabling products. In light of this,
two questions are raised: (i) what criteria to use when defining the power distribu-
tion within a network and (ii) how to use the criteria in order to compute the pow-
er distribution in a network. This paper focuses on the first question and provides
a set of measures and attributes researchers must use to establish a broad view of
power distribution.
Different behaviours can be seen in networked partners according to their rela-
tionships and the situations in which they are involved in. One type of behaviour
is called Individual Collaborative Behaviour, regarding the behaviour of each
partner in a network. Other behaviour is the Network Collective Behaviour that
shows the behaviour of a group of members as a whole and behaviours appearing
when different nodes establish relationships (Shadi and Afsarmanesh, 2011).
Therefore, two types of measures can be used in order to identify the partners
power in a network (i) measures regarding the specific features of a network node
figure 1- and (ii) measures regarding the relations between two nodes of the
network - figure. 2.
Due to the nature of the methodology to be developed further, measures to
compute the power within a network will be led to those related with the exchang-
es established between pairs of network nodes (Fig. 2). Thus, in order to identify
measures valid to compute the power degree within the network, network collec-
tive behaviour is considered.
520
Measures Definition Authors

Performed activities during the development and manufacture of products, Noordewier et al. (1990), Liu and Zolghadri (2011), Meehan
Activity
processes used, type of industry, market environment and market appeal and Wright (2011-2012)
Merli (1991), Liu and Zolghadri (2011), Meehan and Wright
Capabilities Distribution capabilities, service and process capacity, knowledge, skills
(2011-2012)
Perceived levels of commitment, commitments establishment, willingness to
Commitment Maloni and Benton (2000), Shadi and Afsarmanesh (2011)
adapt and establish improvements, reaction time to events
Competitors Competitive intelligence sharing, position against competitors Meehan and Wright (2011)
Conflict Ability on conflict resolutions, problems and conflicts solving Maloni and Benton (2000)
Provides an indication that a margin is generated above and beyond both the
Customer Equity Bermejo and Monroy (2010)
product costs and the costs to sell products
Influence on partners decisions and actions, decisions of the partners that
Decision Johnsen et al. (2008), Liu and Zolghadri (2011)
induce certain hierarchy
Finance Number of employees, share prices, profitability, turnover, market share, cash Stannack (1995), Bloom and Perry (2001)
Negotiation influence, negotiation skills, ability to persuade other partners to Porter (1980), Chu and Cho (1994), Johnsen et al. (2008),
Negotiation
do something that does not want to make Meehan and Wright (2012)
Workload, relationship conditions, collaborative processes involved,
Porter (1980), Meehan and Wright (2011), Shadi and
Partners responsibilities, roles, best practices, partner concentration, volume of partner,
Afsarmanesh (2011)
cost of partner change, integration threats, information on partners
Performance measured in the company, relationship strength, supplier,
Performance Liu and Zolghadri (2011)
manufacturer and supply chain performance
Power promotion Tendency to exercise power, coercive power French and Raven (1959), Chu and Cho (1994)
Pro-activities Number of collaborative networks in which it belongs, desire for growth Porter (1980), Shadi and Afsarmanesh (2011)
The impact of products differentiation, presence of substitute products,
Porter (1980), Merli (1991), Noordewier et al. (1990), Bloom
Products product type, innovation and technology issues, new product development,
and Perry (2001), Meehan and Wright (2011)
product position, use of a known brand
Quality Contribution to improve quality Porter (1980)
Reliability Perceived levels of reliability, cooperation and confidence level, trust Maloni and Benton (2000), Handfield and Bechtel (2001)
Reputation Number of years in business, number of customers, size/scale of the market Shadi and Afsarmanesh (2011)
Resistance Resistance considered from weaker partners Liu and Zolghadri (2011)
Distribution resources, resources importance, concentration of resources,
Resources Pfeffer and Salancik (1978), Liu and Zolghadri (2011)
magnitude of resources, resource criticality, monetary resources
Response Response to external actions, reward French and Raven (1959), Shadi and Afsarmanesh (2011)
Emerson, (1962), Johnsen et al. (2008), Liu and Zolghadri
Role of the partner in the network, business percentage, status perception and
Role in network (2011), Shadi and Afsarmanesh (2011), Meehan and Wright
responsibility of the company
(2011)
Status Hierarchical status, roles structure, rules, authority, identity in the network Emerson (1962), Ireland and Webb (2007)
Technology Reliance on technology, technology leadership, patents Porter (1980), Johnsen et al. (2008)
Fig. 1. Measures to quantify specific features of a network node
521
Measures Definition Authors Quantification (units to each partner)

N of contracts agreed (amount)
Contracts Contract terms and duration Meehan and Wright (2011)
Contract duration to each customer (time)
Customer
Alignment of business processes with customers Merli (1991), Bermejo and
relationships Strategy alignment to each customer (%) *
strategies, strategic compatibility , strategic alignment Monroy (2010)
management
Emerson (1962), Pfeffer and
Dependence between partners, degree to which a
Salancik (1978), Bloom and Perry
network node needs to maintain a relationship with
(2001), Handfield and Bechtel Extent to which a node needs to another (%) *
Dependence another member of the network in order to achieve
(2001), Johnsen et al. (2008), Liu Degree of dependence to each partner (%) *
desired goals, dependency ratio (technology, knowledge,
and Zolghadri (2011), Meehan
information, etc.), Relational approach
and Wright (2012)
Enabling Depends on the function criticality of enabling products Criticality of enabling products to generate
Liu and Zolghadri (2011)
product partners engage in and the activities they perform final products (%) *
N components manufactured for the end
Participation of the partner in the end product.
End Product Liu and Zolghadri (2011) product (amount)
Components importance provided to the end product
Component importance for end product (%) *
N of information exchanges (amount)
Information and Knowledge Importance of information exchange (%) *
Exchange of Transactions of data information and communication Emerson (1962) N information transactions (amount)
Information between partners. Number of communications with Meade and Sarkis (1998) Ncommunications between partners (amount)
partners Trust (%) *
Importance of data exchanged (%) *
N of transactions (amount)
Frequency Time between transactions - Time between transaction (time)
Frequency of transactions (time)
Emerson (1962), Merli (1991),
Human Personal relations, tacit knowledge, strategy of partner Degree of exchanges of HR knowledge (%) *
Benton and Maloni (2005),
Resources relations Degree of personal relations (%) *
Meehan and Wright (2012)
N of patents (amount)
Innovation Industrial Patents Shadi and Afsarmanesh (2011) N of selled patents (monetary units)
Value of selled patents (monetary units)
Sum of revenues gained from the companys customer
Live Time
over the life time of transactions after the deduction of
Value (LTV) LTV (monetary units)
the total cost of attracting, selling and servicing
Customer Bermejo and Monroy (2010) NPV (monetary units)
customer, taking into account the time value of money.
Lifetime Net profits (monetary units)
NPV (net profit value) generated by assets discounted at
(CLV)
the interest rates and adjusted by risks and inflation
N of products sent between nodes (amount)
Material Products sent from one node to another, volumes of
- Volume of material sent (amount)
Transactions materials transacted
Volume of material required (amount)
Porter (1980), Noordewier et al. Average delays to each customer (time)
Average delays in product delivery, punctuality, supply
(1990), Meehan and Wright N of offered Products (amount of items)
Orders and demand of products, buyer volume, seller volume,
(2011), Shadi and Afsarmanesh Request products (amount of items)
price
(2011) Buyer Volume (amount of items)
Porter (1980), Meehan and
Workload, number of collaborations in which it is Workload to a partner (amount)
Partners Wright (2011), Shadi and
wrapped N of collaborations (amount)
Afsarmanesh (2011)
Product Value Added value of the product - VAT (monetary units)
Porter (1980), Merli (1991),
Noordewier et al. (1990), Bloom Total sales Price (monetari units)
Products Total cost of products. Impact on product differentiation
and Perry (2001), Meehan and Total sales (amount)
Wright (2011)
N purchases (amounts)
Costs of purchases (monetary units)
Material costs (monetary units)
Items related with purchase costs, number, frequency, Switching costs (monetary units)
Purchase Porter (1980)
materials, manufacture, transport, administration, etc. Lead times (time)
Production time (time)
Deliver time and costs (time)
Administration cots (monetary units)
Transportation costs (monetary units)
Transportation Transported materials -
Volume of materials transported (amount)
*Quantifying through a questionnaire
Fig. 2 Measures to compute the network power distribution
The provided measures allow researchers to identify the network nodes rela-
tions and therefore to estimate the power distribution within the network. Specifi-
cally, the measures and associated attributes quantify transactions established be-
tween two partners of the network.
Most of the measures are directly extracted from the literature while others are
inspired from the works reviewed. The figure 2 provides the measures to compute
the power distribution from the network collective behaviour perspective. For each
of the measures a description of what is to be measured considering a transaction
522
between two nodes is provided, the authors from which the measures are taken are
listed the third column. Finally, the last column of figure 2 provides different ways
of how to compute the measure to properly determine the power of the network
nodes, i.e. in order to determine the power considering the material transactions
measure researchers should calculate the number of products exchanged between
two nodes or the volume of material sent from one partner to another.
For better understanding, if we decide to compute the power considering the
contracts measure, the number of contracts established between the partner i and
the partner j must be computed. In this case, the higher number of contracts has
the node i with the j, the more powerful will be the node i as regards j. Therefore,
the more powerful node will be associated with the node with higher number of
contracts agreed. On other hand, researchers can also consider the length of the
contract, and so the higher contract duration, the more powerful will be the node.
The selection of one or another measure will depend on the network, the avail-
able data, or even the way the researcher wants to estimate the power distribution.
Researchers will use one or more measures, what will give them an accurate in-
sight of the power allocation. Nevertheless, whatever the measure chosen, the re-
searcher will come to successfully know the power distribution within a network.
4 Conclusion
This paper focuses on the implicit power behind non-hierarchical manufacturing

networks. This implicitly is originated from the power of networked partners,
which influences the partners decisions or behaviours. This paper identifies a
group of measures allowing researchers to have the proper criteria to estimate the
power distribution within a network. This first step is aimed to identify measures
that allow researchers to compute relationships, connections and dependences be-
tween members of the network. Based on the measures provided, researchers are
able estimate the power situation between members. By applying the measures,
the power distribution is to be subsequently calculated to illustrate the unbalanced
or balanced power at network level. The proposed measures are generally consid-
ered therefore can be either used in hierarchical or non-hierarchical networks. The
main contribution is that measures and attributes consider more than one perspec-
tive of the network nodes relations (not only the financial view, technology view,
or product view, for example).
Considering the measures provided in this paper, further work is led to provide
a methodology to compute the power distribution within a network, and answer
the second question raised in section 3. The methodology will identify the power
taking into account the linkages between all the partners, allowing researchers to
compute the power through simplifying the measures between two nodes of the
network in order to then extrapolate to the whole network. One possible method of
power balance calculation is through the Markov Chain Models (MCM) as appro-
523
priate for modelling partners relationships. MCM can be used to model the part-
ners retention and partners migration situations; therefore those partners with
more probability to stay in a defined scenario could be identified with higher pow-
er (Pfeifer and Carraway, 2000; Zhang and Shi, 2003; Bermejo and Monroy,
2010; Netzer et al., 2008). Another approach to measure the distribution of power
can be led towards using quantitative causal models so that the power of one part-
ner can be compared with others (Shadi and Afsarmanesh, 2011).
5 References

Manufacturing Networks. In Prado JC, Garca J, Comesaa JA, Fernndez AJ (eds), 6th In-
ternational Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management, 9097,Vigo
Benton WC, Maloni M (2005) The influence of power driven buyer/seller relationships on sup-
ply chain satisfaction. Journal of Operations Management 23:122
Bermejo G, Monroy CR (2010) How to measure customer value and its relationships with share-
holder value in a business-to-business market. Intangible Capital 6(2):142161
Bloom PN, Perry VG (2001) Retailer power and supplier welfare: The case of Wal-Mart. Journal
of Retailing 77:379396
Brown JR, Lusch RF, Nicholson CY (1995) Power and Relationship Commitment: Their Impact
on Marketing Channel Member Performance. Journal of Retailing 71(4):363392
Cho DS, Chu W (1994) Determinants of Bargaining power in OEM Negotiations. Industrial
Marketing Management 23:343355
Converge (2010) Work Package: System Requirements & Reference Model Definition Collabo-
rative Communication Driven Decision Management in Non-hierarchical Supply Chains of
the Electronic Industry. D2.2 Decision-Making Model, Data Mapping and Integration
Roadmap
Crook TR, Combs JG (2007) Sources and consequences of bargaining power in supply chains.
Journal of Operations Management 25:546555
Emerson RM (1962) Power-dependence relations. American Sociological Review 27:3141.
Etgar M (1978) Selection of an effective channel control mix. Journal of Marketing 42 (3):5357
French JR, Raven B (1959) The Bases of Social Power, in Studies in Social Power, In: Dorwin
Cartwright, Arbor A (eds.) University of Michigan Press.
Goodman LE, Dion PA (2001) The determinants of commitment in the distributor-supplier rela-
tionship. Industrial Marketing Management 30(3):287300
Hald KS, Cordn C, Vollmann TE (2009) Towards an understanding of attraction in buyer-
supplier relationships. Industrial Marketing Management 38:960970
Handfield RB, Bechtel C (2001) The role of trust and relationship structure in improving supply
chain responsiveness. Industrial Marketing Management 31:367382
Hofer C, Henry JH, Swanson RD et al (2012) The Impact of Key Retail Accounts on Supplier
Performance: A Collaborative Perspective of Resource Dependency Theory. Journal of Re-
tailing 88(3):412420
Hunt KA, Mentzer JT, Danes JE (1987) The Effect of Power Sources on Compliance in a Chan-
nel of Distribution: A Causal Model. Journal of Business Research 15(5):377395.
Ireland RD, Webb JW (2007) A multi-theoretic perspective on trust and power in strategic sup-
ply chains. Journal of Operations Management 25:482497
Johnsen TE, Johnsen RE, Lamming RC (2008) Supply relationship evaluation: The relationship
assessment process (RAP) and beyond. European Management Journal 26:274287
524
Johnson JL, Sakano T, Cote JA et al (1993) The Exercise of Interfirm Power and Its Repercus-
sions in U.S. Japanese Channel Relationships. Journal of Marketing 57 (2):110.
Liu Y, Zolghadri M (2011) Power Interaction in Non-hierarchical Supply Chain Network. Pro-
ceedings of the 2011 17th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising, pp 18
Maloni M, Benton WC (2000) Power Influences in the Supply Chain. Journal of Business of Lo-
gistics 21(1):4973
Meade L, Sarkis J (1998) Strategic analysis of losgistics and supply chain management systems
using the analytical network process. Transp Res-E, Logistics and Transpn Rev 34(3):201
215
Meehan J, Wright GH (2011) Power priorities: A buyer-seller comparison of areas of influence.
Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 17, pp. 3241
Meehan J, Wright GH (2012) The origins of power in buyer-seller relationships. Industrial Mar-
keting Management 41 pp. 669679
Merli G (1991) Comakership: The New Supply Strategy for Manufacturing. Productivity Press,
Cambridge, MA
Molm LD (1997) Risk and power use: Constraints on the use of coercion in exchange. American
Sociological Review 62:113133
Netzer O, Lattin JM, Srinivasan V (2008) A Hidden Markov Model of Customer Relationship
Dynamics. Marketing Science 27(2):185204
Noordewier T, John G, Nevin J (1990) Performance outcomes of purchasing arrangements in in-
dustrial buyer - vendor relationships. Journal of Marketing 54:80 93
Pfeffer J, Salancik G (1978) The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence
Perspective. Harper and Row, New York
Pfeifer PE, Carraway RL (2000) Modeling customer relationships as Markov Chains. Journal of
Interactive marketing, 14(2):4355
Porter M (1979). How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy. Harvard business Review.
Porter M (2008) The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review
2441
Schneeweiss C (2003) Distributed decision making-a unified approach. European Journal of Op-
erational Research 150:237252
Shadi M, Afsarmanesh H (2011) Addressing Behavior in Collaborative Networks. In: Camarin-
ha-Matos LM, Pereira-Klen A, Afsarmanesh H (eds.) PRO-VE 2011, IFIP AICT 362:263-
270.
Skinner SJ, Gassenheimer JB, Kelley SW (1992) Cooperation in Supplier-Dealer Relations.
Journal of Retailing 68(2):174193
Stannack P (1995) Purchasing power and supply chain management power-two different para-
digms? A response to Ramsay's 'Purchasing power'. European Journal of Purchasing & Sup-
ply Management 2(1):4756.
Van der Vaart T, Van Donk DP (2008) A critical review of survey-based research in supply
chain integration. International Journal of Production Economics 111:4255.
Webster J (2005) Networks of collaboration or conflict? Electronic data interchange and power
in the supply chain. Journal of Strategic Information Systems 4(1):3142
Yeung JHY, Selen W, Zhang M et al (2009) The effects of trust and coercive power on supplier
integration. International Journal of Production Economics 120:6678
Zhang Y, Shi M (2003) A Method Describing the Cooperative Relationships Evolution of Virtu-
al Enterprise. The 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in
Design Proceedings.
Zhao X, Huo B, Flynn BB et al (2008) The impact of power and relationship commitment on the
integration between manufacturers and customers in a supply chain. Journal of Operations
Management 26:368388
525
New Tool for Aiding Warehouse Design Process
Chackelson C1, Errasti A, Santos J
Abstract Warehouse design is a highly complex task, due to both the large num-
ber of alternative designs and the strong interaction between all the factors in-
volved. Although some design methodologies and tools have been proposed, the
process leading to the identification of the specific design solutions is not clear in
literature. This paper addressed the steps followed for developing, improving and
validating a new tool that contributes to bridging that gap by supporting visualiza-
tion and selection of design alternatives. Delphi method has been used, and ex-
perts suggestions and comments have been taken into account in order to guaran-
tee the practical applicability of the proposed tool. Also, high-performance design
solutions have been gathered to be used as a guideline during design process.
Keywords: Warehouse Design, Configuration Tool, Delphi Method
1 Introduction
Warehouses play a key role aiding to supply chain effectiveness by supporting the
firms customer service policies, meeting changing market conditions, reducing
total logistics cost, and providing customers with a mix of products (Lambert et al.
1998,Baker and Canessa. 2009). Nowadays, warehouse design has become im-
portant and complex due to the increasing number items managed in the ware-
house, the reduction in delivery times (e.g. 24-48 hours), the increasing level of
customization in orders, and the reduction in order size (Rushton et al.
2010,Errasti et al. 2010). In addition, due to the high number of existing possibili-
ties and strong interactions between variables it is very difficult, and perhaps not
even possible, to identify the optimum solution (Baker and Canessa. 2009). Alt-
hough the elements and alternatives that need to be taken into account have been
1 Claudia Chackelson Lurner (e-mail: cchackelson@tecnun.es)
Tecnun, Engineering School at University of Navarra, Paseo Manuel Lardizbal, 13, 20018 San
Sebastin, Spain
* This work has been partially funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin (DPI2011-26653).
526
addressed (Goetschalckx and Ashayeri. 1989,De Koster et al. 2007), the process
leading to the identification of a specific design solution is not clear (Dallari et al.
2009). So far, there is no consensus on the exact nature of the tools and techniques
that need to be used in each design step (Gu et al. 2010), and the final design deci-
sions are made based on intuition, experience and judgment. Thus, the most com-
plex task when designing warehouses is to select one of the thousands of feasible
design solutions. In consequence, a systematic procedure to narrow design alterna-
tives is needed in order to guide the design process. Taking this statement into ac-
count, this work proposes a graphic tool for aiding warehouse design process,
helping managers to visualize, select and evaluate different alternatives.
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 exposes a state of the art where
main design decisions and complexity considerations are exposed. Section 3 pre-
sents a graphic tool that restructured all these alternatives in a novel way, and Sec-
tion 4 describes a Delphi study carried out to improve and validate this new tool.
Finally, Section 5 presents practical applicability of presented tool, and Section 6
includes principal conclusions and future research.
2 State of the Art
According to Rouwenhorst et al., two main problems have been identified when
designing a warehouse: dealing with the selection of systems and equipment, and
dealing with the design of the process flow and the selection of warehouse sys-
tems (Rouwenhorst et al. 2000). These decisions include:
Prepare possible layouts (warehouse zones).
Define storage systems.
Level of automation.
Storage equipment.
Define material handling equipment.
Determine operating procedures and methods.
Receiving.
Put-away.
Storage.
Order picking.
Shipping.
Receiving involves accepting material, unloading, verifying quantity and condi-
tion of the material and documenting this information as required. Put away
means removing the goods from the receiving dock, transporting them to a storage
area, locating in a specific place and identifying where the material has been
placed. Storage is the retention of products for future use or shipment. Order Pick-
ing means extracting products from storage in response to a specific customer or-
527
der, moving them to a packing area where the goods are placed into an appropriate
container, label with customer shipping requirements and moved the material to a
shipping area. Shipping involves checking quantity and condition of the material
and documents and loading (De Koster et al. 2007). The flow of items through the
warehouse is normally divided in these five processes (Rouwenhorst et al. 2000).
According to Rouwenhorst et al., literature provides useful tools for some
steps, but it tends to concentrate on a small numbers of specific areas within the
total warehouse design problem (Rouwenhorst et al. 2000). In real warehouses,
designers use a variety of tools during the design process. Baker and Canessa
gathered the most commonly used, highlighting the following ones (Baker and
Canessa. 2009):
Database and spreadsheet models for data analysis
CAD for preparing possible designs and zoning
Spreadsheet models for considering equipment types
Simulation software and formal spreadsheet models for selecting operations
In order to reveal warehouse design opportunities, Frazelle detailed that the
Warehouse Activity Profiling (Frazelle. 2002) needs to be measure. It allows
knowing the complexity of undertaking the warehouse processes by considering
the following profile components:
Storage unit vs. receiving and shipping units.
Zoning criteria (family, client, value, temperature, chemical, activity).
Lines per order.
Volume per order.
Storage unit inventory.
Storage unit.
3 Development Phase
The design alternatives related to preparing possible layouts, considering possible

equipment types and characteristics, and determining operating procedures and
methods have been restructured in a star-shaped tool. This format has been select-
ed because it allows the simultaneous visualization of several design alternatives,
as well as the comparison of different design configurations.
The developed tool was based on the Order Picking Complexity Diagram cre-
ated by Goetschalckx and Ashayeri (Goetschalckx and Ashayeri. 1989), in order
to show the most important aspect that need to be designed. Goetschalckx and
Ashayeri diagram has been extended for the five warehouse processes (receiving,
put-away, storage, order picking, and shipping), including also new operation-
al/technological options implemented by companies nowadays. The first version
of this tool, named Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram, has been developed
528
based on literature review. However, as this tool aims to be helpful during real de-
sign processes, improvement and validation with practitioners was needed. In or-
der to adjust the page limit, this document only includes Warehouse Design Alter-
natives Diagram final version (see Fig 1).
4 Improvement and Validation Phase
With the aim of improving and validating the new tool, Delphi method was select-
ed. It is an iterative process used to collect the judgments of experts using a series
of questionnaires interspersed with feedback (Skulmoski et al. 2007). A group of
ten experts was selected, taking into account the four requirements for expertise
exposed by Adler and Ziglio: knowledge and experience with the issues under in-
vestigation; capacity and willingness to participate; sufficient time to participate;
and effective communication skills (Adler and Ziglio. 1996). A two-round-
questionnaire was needed in order to reach consensus. Questionnaires were prin-
cipally oriented to verify the tool applicability and adequacy, order and clarity of
the concepts included, as well as to include missing alternatives.
The result of this process has been a new version of Warehouse Design Alter-
natives Diagram (see Figure 1), which includes design alternatives related to pre-
paring possible layouts, considering possible equipment types and characteristics,
and determining operating procedures and methods for the warehouse processes
(receiving, put-away, storage, order picking, and shipping). Design alternatives are
presented in a star-shaped Diagram and clustered into the following classes:
System characteristics and technology level alternatives: Order data exchange,
Physic reception/shipping, Logic reception/shipping, Loading pattern, Search
and verify location.
Organizational and operating policies: Origin and type of product, Track load
type, Stock control, Storage strategy, Zoning, SKUs (Stock Keeping Units),
Worker zone assignment, Order release mode, Routing, Batching and sorting.
Shared decisions Reception Shipping: Stock holding level, Docks and zones
scheduling, Outsourcing level.
Shared decisions Put-away Storage Picking: Automation Level, Handling
equipment, Outsourcing level.
At least two levels were included for each of these alternatives, organizing
them from less sophisticated alternatives in the stars center to most sophisticated
ones in the outside. Although the design alternatives are shown separately for each
warehouse activity, share decisions and combined solutions are color-coded. Fig.
1 shows the final version of Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram, including
an explanation for the code of colors used to identify shared decisions for two or
529
Reception Put-away
Automation Level
Routing
AUTOMATIC
Stock-holding
Logic reception/ level OPTIMAL
Reading PARTS TO PICKER
CROSS-DOCKING by AS/RS S-shape SKUs
order (NO STOCK AND Miniload Return
NO MANIPULATION) VLM REPACKAGING NEEDED
AUTOMATIC Mid-point
Carrousel Largest-gap
Artificial vision Worker zone
CROSS-DOCKING by Shuttles Combined
RFID SAME SKU FOR
Bar code article (NO STOCK BUT assignment HEURISTICS RECEPTION AND
WITH MANIPULATION) PICKER TO PARTS
Product Conventional STORAGE
Package Origin and type Narrow aisle
MANUAL Internal
External CLIENT (reverse Push-back
(Packing list) STORAGE logistic)
of product
SUPPLIER Dynamic
ONE ZONE Pallet truck
(direct logistic)
Outsourcing
Storage One worker Hand truck Reach trucks
Outsourcing Various Pallet jack Counterbalanced lift trucks
level level Waking stacker Order picker
INTERNAL WALKING VEHICLES Compact shuttle
INTERNAL EXTERNAL AGVs
EXTERNAL (Packing list) Automation Level WORKER
WORKER WORKER RIDING VEHICLES Conveyors
WORKER MANUAL
Own handling Artificial vision Own handling Cranes
DIRECT
equipment RFID AUTOMATIC equipment AUTOMATED VEHICLES
Full Rented handling NO
Rented handling Bar code DISCRETE
MANUAL SKUs equipment TECHNOLOGY
equipment INFORMATIC AIDED
Handling
PARTS TO PICKER
RECEPTION PALLET DIRECTED equipment
INDEPENDENT AS/RS TECHNOLOGY AIDED
(electronic EDI) Miniload
Search and
Put-to-light CONTINUOUS
AUTOMATIC PRE-RECEPTION VLM CONTAINER verify location Bar code
Carrousel RFID PUT-AWAY
Physic Shuttles BOX INDEPENDENT
Order data
reception KIT (single command) Put-away
exchange PICKER TO PARTS Order release
principles
Conventional Families mode
UNIT
Narrow aisle Turnovers JOINT PUT-AWAY AND
Push-back Safety PICKING (dual or
COMBINED
Dynamic UNIQUE ZONE FORWARD Clients multiple command)
DOCK AND
ZONES PICK AREA CLASS-BASED
Stock MANUAL DEDICATED
Fig. 1 Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram

Balanced docks and
Commands
zones control AUTOMATIC PICKING

Continuous CLOSEST OPEN LOCATION
Balanced Zoning INDEPENDENT
equipment and Periodic (single command)
RANDOM Automation Level
workers
FAMILY GROUPING
530
Docks and zones scheduling
FEFO, LIFO, FIFO criterion AUTOMATIC
Logic shipping / CLASS-BASED PARTS TO PICKER

Reading SHIPPING Clients Routing
AS/RS
INDEPENDENT COI volume Miniload S-shape OPTIMAL
Turnovers VLM Return
Stock-holding Diagonal
Worker zone Carrousel Mid-point
AUTOMATIC CROSS-DOCKING by Storage strategy Semicircle
level Within-aisle Shuttles Largest-gap
Artificial vision order (NO STOCK AND assignment
Across-aisle Combined
RFID NO MANIPULATION) PICKER TO PARTS
Conventional HEURISTICS
Bar code
CROSS-DOCKING by Narrow aisle REPACKAGING
article (NO STOCK BUT Push-back NEEDED
MANUAL WITH MANIPULATION) ONE ZONE Dynamic SAME SKU FOR STORAGE SKUs
Outsourcing One worker AND SHIPPING
(Packing list)
Mono-destination Various Discrete replenishment
level STORAGE Outsourcing Continuous replenishment
Multi-destination
LESS-THAN- Organizational and Operating level UNIQUE Picking zone
INTERNAL CONTAINER LOAD FULL TRACK
WORKER EXTERNAL Track Policies INTERNAL STORAGE AND without storage
EXTERNAL
WORKER load type WORKER PICKING ZONE Picking zone
Own handling WORKER Hand truck
(Packing list) Own handling with storage
equipment System Characteristics and Pallet jack
MANUAL equipment FORWARD PICK AREA
Rented handling NO Artificial vision Technology Level Waking stacker
equipment SOFTWARE RFID Rented handling WALKING VEHICLES
NO
gy level alternatives from organizational and operating policies.
Bar code equipment BY ORDER Picking

WITH BASIC SOFTWARE Shared Decisions Put-away TECHNOLOGY Pallet truck
INFORMATIC Storage - Picking AIDED zoning

(volume and loading MANUAL DISCRETE Reach trucks
pattern ) TECHNOLOGY AIDED BY ZONE Counterbalanced lift trucks
(electronic EDI) Search and
WITH ADVANCE Shared Decisions Reception - Pick-to-light Order picker
Loading PRE-RECEPTION verify location Pick-to-voice
SOFTWARE (loading CONTINUOUS Compact shuttle
Shipping Bar code BY ARTICLE
Pattern sequence and unloading AUTOMATIC RIDING VEHICLES
RFID Pick-and-pass
time)
Pick-and-sort AGVs
Order data Sort-while-pick Conveyors
exchange Navigation picking system Cranes
Batching and
AUTOMATED VEHICLES
Physic sorting
Order release
shipping mode Handling
equipment
Shipping Order Picking

more warehouse processes, and to distinguish system characteristics and technolo-
In multi-zone warehouses, the graphic tool should be duplicated as many times

as zones have been defined. This is because it could not be appropriate to integrate
all the logistic flows or all the stored items into a unique storage system, nor to use
the same handling equipment.
5 Practical Applicability of Warehouse Design Alternatives

Diagram
So far, Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram is useful to visualize design al-

ternatives, and to identify sheared decisions that need to be made simultaneously
for more than one warehouse process. It allows mapping AS IS systems for exist-
ing warehouses, helping to identify redesign opportunities. However, the main ob-
jective of this tool is to support warehouse design, so not only alternatives visual-
ization is important, but also selection and evaluation (mapping TO BE systems).
With this aim in mind, Warehouse Activity Profiling components suggested by
Frazelle (Frazelle. 2002) have been used to classify warehouses according to a
level of complexity. Storage unit vs. receiving and shipping units (1) and Zoning
criteria (2) are useful to identify the necessity of defining multiple zones. Then,
each zone could be designed as an independent warehouse using Lines per order
(3), Volume per order (4), Storage unit inventory (5), and Storage unit (6) to select
possible equipment types and characteristics, and operating procedures and meth-
ods. To do so, Lines per order (3), Volume per order (4), Storage unit inventory
(5), and Storage unit (6) were classified in three levels each:
Table 1 Complexity level classification based on Warehouse Activity Profiling components

(Frazelle. 2002)
Lines per day Volume per order line Storage unit inventory Storage unit
(items per line)
Less than 100 Less than 10 Less than 100 Units or small items
100-1000 10-50 100-1000 Cases
More than 1000 More than 50 More than 1000 Pallets
Taking this into account, 81 (34) possible levels of complexity could be defined
and used to classify design solutions. In this context, a group of design solutions
that provides high-performance in terms of productivity and quality were collected
and stratified measuring complexity level, with the aim of using them as a guide-
line during design process. To do so, experts that participated in the completed
Delphi panel ware asked to collaborate by providing design solutions that could be
catalogued as best practices. This contribution helps to develop a record of high-
performance design solutions, classified based on Warehouse Activity Profiling
531
components, and associated with the productivity and the quality level of real pro-
cesses that had implemented these solutions. To document design solutions pro-
vided by experts, Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram has been used (Fig. 2
shows an example).
Fig. 2 Example of high-performance design solutions provided by warehouse design experts,

mapped using Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram.
6 Conclusions and Future Work
Warehouse design alternatives were restructured in star-shaped graphic tool de-

nominated Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram. This tool is useful for both
characterizing the AS IS system and collecting high-performance design solutions
in order to guide selection of TO BE system. Thus, it helps visualization of design
alternatives, showing not only the decisions that need to be made for warehouse
processes (receiving, put-away, storage, order picking, and shipping), but also in-
cluding interactions among different factors involved.
Delphi method has been selected to improve and validate the first version of
Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram, guaranteeing its practical applicability.
A collection of best practices classified according to complexity level has
been identified as an interesting contribution to warehouse design procedures, as it
532
could be useful as a guideline for warehouse designers. In this context, Warehouse

Design Alternatives Diagram has been use to map these design solutions.
However, the major complexity when collecting these high-performance design
solutions is that there are 81 different complexity levels and thousands of design
solutions (combination of all design alternatives). In this context, the time needed
to collect all this information is extremely long. This is the reason why, initially,
only a few design solutions have been gathered.
Future work will look for adding new design solutions for not addressed com-
plexity levels, new technological advances, and more productive operating proce-
dures and methods. The mail objective will be to gather best practices in order to
guide practitioners, no matter which level of complexity presents the warehouse
they plan to (re)design.
Although Warehouse Design Alternatives Diagram does not provide an auto-
mated solution whereby the optimum combination of equipment and operations
is produced according to the requirements and characteristics of processes, it is a
valuable tool because it enriches the experience of a single practitioner with the
experience of warehouse design experts.
7 References
Adler, M., & Ziglio, E. (1996). Gazing into the oracle: the Delphi method and its application to
social policy and public health. Jessica Kingsley Pub: London.
Baker, P., & Canessa, M. (2009). Warehouse design: A structured approach. European Journal of
Operational Research, 193, 425-436.
Dallari, F., Marchet, G., & Melacini, M. (2009). Design of order picking system. The Interna-
tional Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 42, 1-12.
De Koster, R., Le-Duc, T., & Roodbergen, K. (2007). Design and control of warehouse order
picking: A literature review. European Journal of Operational Research, 182, 481-501.
Errasti, A., Chackelson, C., & Arcelus, M. (2010). Estado del arte y retos para la mejora de sis-
temas de preparacin en almacenes-Estudio Delphi. Direccin y Organizacin, 78-85.
Frazelle, E. (2002). World-class warehousing and material handling. McGraw-Hill Professional.
Goetschalckx, M., & Ashayeri, J. (1989). Classification and design of order picking. Logistics
Information Management, 2, 99-106.
Gu, J., Goetschalckx, M., & McGinnis, L. F. (2010). Research on warehouse design and perfor-
mance evaluation: A comprehensive review. European Journal of Operational Research, 203,
539-549.
Lambert, D. M., Stock, J. R., & Ellram, L. M. (1998). Fundamentals of logistics management.
Irwin/McGraw-Hill Chicago, IL.
Rouwenhorst, B., Reuter, B., Stockrahm, V., Van-Houtum, G. J., & Mantel, R. J. (2000). Ware-
house design and control: Framework and literature review. European Journal of Operational
Research, 122, 515-533.
Rushton, A., Croucher, P., & Baker, P. (2010). The handbook of logistics & distribution man-
agement. (4th ed.). Kogan Page.
Skulmoski, G. J., Hartman, F. T., & Krahn, J. (2007). The Delphi method for graduate research.
Journal of information technology education, 6, 1.
533
Calculation of the Approaches to CSL in

Continuous Review Policy (s,Q) from an
Analogy of a Periodic Review Policy (R,S).
Estelles-Miguel S1, Albarracin J.M2, Cards M3, Guijarro E4.
Abstract This paper presents two new approximations to compute the cycle ser-
vice level (CSL) in a continuous review policy (s, Q) not only for the backorder-
ing case but also for the lost sales one. In order to develop these approximations
we focus on transforming a (R,S) model to a (s,Q) model. As a result, the analogy
and the transformation proposed in this paper are different from Silver classical
model. Due to huge complexity of the exact CSL calculus the approximate meth-
ods are needed.
Keywords: Cycle Service Level, Management Stock Policy.
1Sofa Estells Miguel ( e-mail: soesmi@omp.upv.es)

Dpto Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Valencia (SPAIN)
Edificio 7D- Camino de Vera S/N 46022 Valencia
2Jos Miguel Albarracn Guillem ( e-mail: jmalbarr@omp.upv.es)
3Manuel Cards Carboneras Simn ( e-mail: mcardos@doe.upv.es)
4 Ester Guijarro Tarradellas ( e-mail: eguitar@upvnet.upv.es)

* This research is part of a project supported by the Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, with
reference number PAID-06-11/2022.
534
1 Introduction
One of the most usual measures of customer service is the cycle service level
(CSL) that indicates the specific probability of no stockout per replenishment cy-
cle. This definition can be applied to any stock policy and demand pattern, given a
known stock level at the beginning of the cycle ,(Cards et al. 2009). This paper
presents a general approach to compute the CSL in a continuous review policies
(s,Q) applying a model with analogies from the models used to calculate CSL in
periodic review policy (R,S). This paper calculates a CSL approximation for in-
ventory management policy (s,Q) when demand procces is stationary with discrete
probability function, independent and identically distributed, and replenishment
period L is constant. Analogy method is used due to huge complexity of the exact
CSL calculus.
The paper is organized as follow. A briefly inventory management policy (s,Q),
and CSL are introduced in Sections 2 and 3. Section 4 explains the periodic re-
view approximations we will use to implement our analogy. In Section 5 we de-
velop the analogy and develop the transformations proposed. The comparision be-
tween method and the analysis of the numerical results are carried out in Section
6. Finally, conclusions of the paper are found in Section 7.
2 Inventory Management Policy (s,Q)
Selection of inventory policy depends on how often is checked the inventory level
(Cards, Babiloni, Palmer, & Albarracn 2009). Inventory management policies
with random demand are divided into two main categories: periodical and contin-
uous review. If the status of the inventory is permanently reviewed, we talk about
continuous review policy. In the other case is periodical review policy.
The inventory management policy (s,Q) is called order point-order quantity or
reorder point system (Krajewski y Ritzman 2000), where s is reorder point and Q
quantity ordered. The model (s,Q) is an important model in literature production
and management in operations research and in practice. In inventory management
policy (s,Q) a fixed quantity Q is ordered whenever the inventory position reaches
reorder point s or falls below this (Silver, Pyke, y Peterson 1998). Order is re-
ceived L periods later and L can be constant or variable. It is defined as:
Inventory Position (IP), measure the items ability to satisfy future demand
(Krajewski & Ritzman 2000).
IP OH SR BO (1.1)
535
Where OH is on-hand, SR is scheduled receptions and BO is backorders. On

(Silver, Pyke, & Peterson 1998) in addition to subtract the commitment (C):
IP OH SR BO-C (1.2)
Fig. 1 Evolution of physical stock and the inventory position in a system (s,Q). Source: Own
3 Cycle Service Level as a Design Requirement
Once management policy is defined, we must establish design the criteria to de-
termine the policy parameters. Basically there are two methods:
1. Which minimize cost, and
2. Which minimize inventory average to a certain service level.
In the first case, inventory policies should be considered different types of costs
(Schneider 1981). In practice, these costs are difficult to establish and estimated,
they are discarded in favour of a focus on a predetermined service level view satis-
faction (Cohen, Kleindorfer, y Lee 1988) and (Larsen y Thorstenson 2008).
Most commonly used design requirements are those related to customer service
as CSL o P1 (Vereecke y Verstraeten 1994), (Cards, Babiloni, Palmer, &
Albarracn 2009) and (Cards y Babiloni 2011b), and percentage of demand satis-
fied with physical stock, called fill rate (FR) o P2 (Dunsmuir y Snyder 1989),
(Janssen, Heuts, y Kok 1998), (Segerstedt 1994), and (Strijbosch, Heuts, y Van
der Schoot 2000). Present paper focuses on CSL.
In literature there are two definitions of CSL. First, hereinafter referred to clas-
sical, defines CSL as the probability of not incurring stock-outs during the replen-
ishment cycle. This probability is equivalent to the safety factor used to calculate k
when demand is normally distributed (Silver, Pyke, & Peterson 1998). Therefore,
CSL is the fraction of cycles in which a stockout doesnt occur:
536
CSL 1 P(stockout in a replenisment cycle) (1.3)
(Axster 2006) defines CSL as probability of no stockout per order cycle.

According to (Cards & Babiloni 2011b), this definition and the corresponding
expression should be improved as follow:
Demand fulfilment is not taken into account and
There are a number of situations where this definition is scarcely useful.
(Cards, Miralles, y Ros 2006) propose CSL definition: fraction of cycles in
which having demand nonzero is been fully satisfied with physical stock. When
applied to continuous review policy, cycle demand is always positive so :
CSL P(cycle demand available stock cycle demand 0) (1.4)
(Chopra y Meindl 2001) propose an estimation method:
CSL P( Demand during lead time of L weeks s) (1.5)
4 Periodic Review Policy Approximations
4.1 Basic Notation and Assumptions
When a periodic review policy is applied every R units of time a replenishment

order is placed of sufficient magnitude to raise the inventory position to the order
up to level S (Silver, Pyke, & Peterson 1998). See Figure 2.
Table 1 Notation used in ecuations and figures.
S = Order up to level (units)

R = Review period and replenishment cycle corresponding to the time between two
consecutive deliveries (periods),
L = Lead time for the replenisment order (periods).
OHt = Physical stock in time t from the first reception (units).
D = Demand (units).
Ft() = Cumulative distribution functions of demand during t periods.
537
4.2 Approximation Models for Periodic Review
4.2.1 Approximate Method to calculate CSL in a (R,S) Policy with Backlogs
From (Cards, Babiloni, Palmer, & Albarracn 2009):
CSL P( DR OH R )=FL ( S ) (1.6)
4.2.2 Approximate Method to Calculate CSL in a (R,S) Policy without

Backlogs
The classical approximation used to compute the CSL in a (R,S) system is based
on assuming that there is a negligible chance of no demand between reviews and
backlog is not allowed (Silver, Pyke, & Peterson 1998), and consequently the CSL
is approximate with the following expression:
CSL P( Demand during R+L S)=FL R (S ) (1.7)
From (Cards, Babiloni, Palmer, & Albarracn 2009):
CSL P( DR OH R )=P(D R OH R L DL )=P(D R L OH R L )=

(1.8)
=FL R (OH R L ) FR L ( S )
5 Development of Analogies
We make a transformation in equations seen in Section 4. Equivalences can be

seen on Figure 2, explained and compared vs. Silver transformations in Table 2.
538
Stock
level
Q
OH0 DR-L OHR
OHR-L
s
DL
R-L L R time
Fig.2 Evolution of physical stock and the inventory position in a system (s,Q). Source: Own
Be:
d = Average demand
R = Time to consume the average demand where R = Q/d
Q = Order quantity
S = Order up to level, where S = s+Q
s = Order point
Table 2 Transformations proposes vs. Silver (Silver, Pyke, & Peterson 1998) transformations.
Transformation Proposes Silver Transformation

(s,Q) (R,S) (s,Q) (R,S)
s+Q S s S
1
Q/d R Q d*R
L L L L+R
1
This is analogal to the Silver transformations.
5.1 Approximate Method to Calculate CSL in a (s,Q) Policy with

Backlogs
Taking the ecuation (1.6) and doing the above transformations:
CSL FL ( s Q) (1.9)
The approximation obtained through this method is equal to the approximation

obtained by the author (Cards y Babiloni 2011a). So we can say that this analo-
gies method get developments consistent with other results obtained in this con-
539
text, as we got the same result using a different path. It should be noted that the
analogy here we used is different from that used (Silver, Pyke, & Peterson 1998).
5.2 Approximate Method to Calculate CSL in a (s,Q) Policy

without Backlogs
Taking the equation (1.7) and making the cited transformations:
CSL P( DQ OH Q )=P(D Q OH Q DL )=P(D Q OH Q )=

L L L
d d d d d d
(1.10)
=F Q (OH Q ) FQ ( s Q )
L L L
d d d
In this case, using the analogies method we obtain a more complex than:
CSL P(OHOP DL ) P( DL s)=FL ( s) (1.11)
We should check whether expression (1.10) provides better approximations to

the exact CLS that (1.11).
6 Illustrative Example
Comparation of exact method of CSL calculus, approximations methods for back-

log and lost sales from (Cards & Babiloni 2011b) and the new approximation
method are shown in Figure 3. In all these cases demand is assumed to be Poisson
distributed with a known demand rate.
540
Fig. 3 CSL vs. demand rate in a (s,Q) policy, (demand is Poisson distributed, s=15, Q=5, L=3).
Source: Own
7 Conclusions
Using a different path, the same result as the one develop by (Cards & Babiloni
2011b) for continuous review policy (s,Q) with backlog was found in Section
5.1.1. It could be assumed that the used analogy provides the same results ob-
tained using other approaches. After the transformations shown in Section 5.1.2.
we develop a more complex expression for continuous review policy (s,Q) with
lost sales than the one developed by (Cards & Babiloni 2011b). It seems that this
new approximation show performance similar to the above mentioned approxima-
tion, i.e. for higher demand rates decreases rapidly showing almost a step pattern
and increasing the gap between the exact one. Finally, the example show in the
Figure 1.3 reveals deviations from the other approximations and exact calcula-
tions. Therefore, based on the contributions included in this paper, for a future re-
search an extensive analysis should be done to characterize at least the cases with
the most important deviations including larger experiment, with a more extensive
number of distribution functions and an adequate number of cases for exploring
the different categories of demand and different parameter combinations of inven-
tory policy.
8 References
Axster, S. 2006, Inventory Control, Second Edition edn, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
541
Cards, M. & Babiloni, E. 2011a, "Exact and Approximate Calcultaion of the Cycle Service
Level in Periodic Review Inventory Policies", International Journal of Production Econom-
ics, vol. 131, no. 1, pp. 63-68.
Cards, M. & Babiloni, E. 2011b, "Exact and approximated calculation of the cycle service level
in a continuous review policy", International Journal of Production Economics pp. 251-255.
Cards, M., Babiloni, E., Palmer, M., & Albarracn, J. M. "Effects on Undershoots and Lost
Sales on the Cycle Service Level for Periodic and Continuous Review Policies", in Interna-
tional Conference on Computers & Industrial Engineering, 2009, CIE 2009., TROYES, pp.
819-824.
Cards, M., Miralles, C., & Ros, L. 2006, "An Exact Calculation of the Cycle Service Level in a
Generalized Periodic Review System", Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 57,
no. 10, pp. 1252-1255.
Chopra, S. & Meindl, P. 2001, Supply Chain Management, 2 edn, Prentice-Hall.
Cohen, M. A., Kleindorfer, P. R., & Lee, H. L. 1988, "Service Constrained (s,S) Inventory Sys-
tems with Priority Demand Classes and Lost Sales", Management Science, vol. 34, no. 4, pp.
482-499.
Dunsmuir, W. T. M. & Snyder, R. D. 1989, "Control of inventories with intermittent demand",
European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 16-21.
Janssen, F., Heuts, R., & Kok, T. 1998, "On the (R,s,Q) inventory model when demand is mod-
elled as a compound Bernoulli process", European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 104,
no. 3, pp. 423-436.
Krajewski, L. J. & Ritzman, L. P. 2000, Administracin de operaciones. Estrategia y anlisis., 5
Edicin edn, Pearson Educacin Company, Mxico.
Larsen, C. & Thorstenson, A. 2008, "A Comparison between the Order and the Volume Fill Rate
for a Base-Stock Inventory Control System under a Compound Renewal Demand Process.",
Jounral of Operational Research Society, vol. 59, no. 6, pp. 798-804.
Schneider, H. 1981, "Effect of Service-Level on Order-Points or Order-Levels in Inventory
Models", International Journal of Production Research, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 651-631.
Segerstedt, A. 1994, "Inventory control with variation in lead times, especially when demand is
intermittent", International Journal of Production Economics, vol. 35, no. 1-3, pp. 365-372.
Silver, E. A., Pyke, D. F., & Peterson, R. 1998, Inventory Management and Production Planning
and Scheduling, 3 edn, New York.
Strijbosch, L. W. G., Heuts, R., & Van der Schoot, E. H. 2000, "A Combined Forecast-Inventory
Control Procedure for Spare Parts", Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 51, no.
10, pp. 1184-1192.
Vereecke, A. & Verstraeten, P. 1994, "An Inventory Management Model for an Inventory Con-
sisting of Lumpy Items, Slow Movers and Fast Movers", International Journal of Production
Economics, vol. 35, no. 1-3, pp. 379-389.
542
Determining the Order-up-to-level Using the

Normal Approximation in a Discrete Context
Guijarro E1, Babiloni E, Cards M, Palmer M
Abstract Control parameters of stock policies are usually determined to satisfy a

target service level, being the fill rate the service measure most commonly used.
In this paper we analyze the traditional fill rate approximation when it is used to
determine the order-up-to-level in a periodic review stock policy. This expression,
originally developed for Normal demands, is widely applied by practitioner even
when the demand is discrete. Therefore, from a practical point of view, it is useful
to know under which conditions it is possible to use it in a discrete context. This
paper carries out a wide experiment that uses the classification and regression
trees as exploratory technique to give a response of that. As a result, this paper
identifies: (i) regions where the traditional fill rate presents a good performance,
and (ii) the risk of its use in terms of deviations of the exact order-up-to-level.
Keywords: Order-up-to-level, Periodic Review, Fill Rate, Discrete Demand
1 Introduction
The traditional problem of the inventory systems is on the determination of their

parameters. In the periodic review, order-up-to-level (R, S) policy, the review pe-
riod R is normally predetermined, so the real problem for managers consists on de-
termining the optimal order-up-to-level S such that total costs are minimized or
some target customer service level is fulfilled.
A considerable amount of research has proposed methods to compute the opti-
mal parameters based on the minimization of costs (e.g. (Schneider 1978); (Smits
1EsterGuijarro Tarradellas ( e-mail: esguitar@doe.upv.es)

Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Valncia. Camino de Vera s/n,
46022 Valencia.
* This research was part of a project supported by the Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, with
543
et al. 2004); (Silver et al. 2009); (Teunter et al. 2010)) however in real situations
these costs are difficult to know and estimate, particularly the costs incurred by
having insufficient stock to attempt the demand (Hadley and Whitin 1963); (Silver
1981). For this reason, practitioners use the service level criteria to establish the
order-up-to-level S, being the fill rate the service measure most commonly used.
In the literature, we find several works which suggest methods to estimate the
fill rate in different contexts, but these expressions usually assume continuous de-
mand patterns, generally normally distributed. The normality assumption is the
most often employed for modelling the demand since it is attractive from a theo-
retical perspective. Unfortunately, in real environments the demand rarely is con-
tinuous, being the discrete demand the most common in practice (Swaminathan
and Shanthikumar 1999). To the best of our knowledge, only (Babiloni et al.
2012) have proposed an expression of the fill rate for any discrete demand distri-
bution, periodic review system and backordering case. However the complexity of
such method makes difficult its implementations by practitioners who frequently
apply the known as traditional fill rate (FRTrad). Despite FRTrad is an approximation
and was developed for Normal demand, it is widely applied in practice due to its
ease of use and availability in classical Operations Management (O.M.) texts (e.g.
(Hadley and Whitin 1963); (Chase et al. 1992); (Silver et al. 1998); (Vollmann et
al. 1997) or (Axster 2000)). Then, from a practical point of view it seems useful
to know under which conditions the FRTrad provides an accurate enough estima-
tion of the order-up-to-level when the periodic review R is predefined and the de-
mand is discrete. The purpose of this paper is to answer this question. We design a
large experiment and analyze the results by means of the Classification and Re-
gressions Trees methodology (denoted CART in the rest), a data mining technique
that is used as an exploratory in this paper to find the regions where FRTrad pre-
sents a good performance in a discrete context.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the deri-
vation and literature review of the traditional fill rate estimation in a periodic re-
view (R, S) system. Section 3 is devoted to explain the experiment carried out in
this paper and Section 4 analyses the experimental results. Finally, conclusions
and further research are presented in Section 5.
2 The Traditional Fill Rate Expression in Periodic Systems
The fill rate (FR) is one of the service measures most used in practice since it con-
siders not only the possibility that the system is out of stock, but also provides in-
formation on the amount backlogged [(Tempelmeier 2007)]. This metric is de-
fined as the fraction of demand immediately met in the period of its occurrence
using the on hand stock and it is calculated as
544
E unfulfilled demand
FR 1 (1)
E total demand
We consider the periodic review, order-up-to-level (R, S) system which places

a replenishment order every R fixed units of time to raise the inventory position up
to the order-up-to-level S. The replenishment order is received L periods after be-
ing launched. In an (R, S) system with a constant lead time L, the key time period
over which protection is required is R+L. The reason for this is that once an order
is placed at time t, no other later orders can be received until time t+R+L. There-
fore, the order-up-to-level at time t must be sufficient to cover demand through the
period R+L. Following this reasoning, (Hadley and Whitin 1963) derive a simple
approximation to compute the expected shortage as
E (shortage) E DR L S

(2)
where X max X ,0 and Dt represents the accumulated demand during t

consecutive periods. Considering Normal demand distribution with mean and
variance 2, expression (2) leads to
E (shortage) R LG kR L S (3)
where R+L is the standard deviation of demand during R+L and G(kt(S)) is a
special function of the safety stock factor kt(S) and the standard normal distribu-
tion (see Appendix B of (Silver et al. 1998) for its derivation).
Note that in a backorder system, the expected shortage in a cycle is equal to the
expected unfulfilled demand per cycle. Then, substituting the numerator of ex-
pression (1) by expression (3), the fill rate can be computed as
R L G kR L S
FR 1 (4)
R
where the denominator represents the expected total demand per replenishment
cycle. Expression (4) is known as traditional fill rate (FRTrad) (Johnson et al.
1995) and it is presented in classical O.M. books to calculate the fill rate. Howev-
er, this expression has an important limitation: it assumes the normality of the de-
mand. This assumption is very common in the inventory research given that math-
ematical models are simplified when consider normal demands. Since classical
O.M. texts do not provide expressions for discrete contexts, practitioners apply
continuous expressions to discrete demand contexts (Swaminathan and
Shanthikumar 1999); (Babai et al. 2011). However optimal policies for discrete
545
and continuous demand distributions may be totally different. The aim of this pa-
per is to analyze the risks of using FRTrad in a discrete demand context to deter-
mine the order-up-to-level.
3 Experimental Design
This paper focuses on the estimation of the parameters of a periodic review policy
when the traditional fill rate is used and demand is discrete. Assuming a prede-
fined review period R and a target fill rate (FR*), the problem consists of calculat-
ing the smallest order-up-to-level S that guarantees the achievement of the target
fill rate. We design an experiment which combines an extensive range of values
for R, L, FR* and discrete demand distributions to consider as many different real-
istic contexts as possible. Table 1 presents the set of selected values, whose feasi-
ble combinations leads into 235,620 cases. The experiment is designed as follows:
(i) we combine a set of input parameters of inventory policy (R and L), demand
(distribution and parameters) and target fill rate (FR*); (ii) we calculate the mini-
mum S with the traditional fill rate expression (STrad); (iii) we calculate the mini-
mum S with the exact fill rate expression presented by (Babiloni et al. 2012) for
any discrete demand distribution (SExact); and (iv) we analyze and quantify devia-
tions which arise from using the traditional fill rate expression to design the inven-
tory policy instead of the exact one. To measure these deviations we calculate the
relative error (RE) expressed in terms of per 100 as
S Exact STrad
RE (5)
S Exact
Computing errors as expression (5) enables not only the magnitude of the error
to be measured but also the type of error by analyzing the sing. In this sense, we
classify the errors in two categories: (1) RE1, when the relative error is negative;
and (2) RE2, when the relative error is positive. When the relative error is RE1 the
STrad is greater than the exact one and then the system reaches the target fill rate,
although increasing the average stock level and the holding costs. If the relative
error is RE2, the STrad is lower than the exact one which means that the policy is
not reaching the target fill rate which is designed for. This typology of error has an
important impact because the system is less protected against stockouts than man-
agers believe.
For the purpose of the experiment, it is assumed that: (i) L is constant; (ii) ex-
cess demand is backordered; (iii) the replenishment order is added to the inventory
at the end of the period in which it is received, hence these products are available
for the next period; (iv) demand during a period is fulfilled with the on hand stock
546
at the beginning of the period; and (v) the demand process is assumed to be sta-
tionary with a known, discrete and i.i.d. distribution function.
Table 1 Experimental factors and values
Factor Values Total cases: 235,620

Demand distribution
0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5,
Poisson
7, 10, 15, 20
n 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20
Binomial
0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9, 0.95, 0.99
r 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.25, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.75, 0.9, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5,
Negative 4
Binomial
0.1, 0.15, 0.25, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 0.99
Inventory System
FR* 0.50, 0.55, 0.60, 0.65, 0.70, 0.75, 0.80, 0.85, 0.90, 0.95, 0.99
R 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20
L 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20
4 Analysis of the Results
To analyze the experimental results we use the CART methodology. CART are a
data mining technique which is used in this paper as an exploratory to identify un-
der which demand pattern and inventory characteristics the FRTrad is accurate
enough to estimate the order-up-to-level instead of using the exact method. With
this aim, we define a dependent variable of the model as a categorical variable that
indicates if the traditional fill rate leads to the exact S or not. This categorical vari-
able is defined as yes if STrad=SExact; and no if STradSExact. As independent var-
iables of the analysis we select: (1) the four categories of demand proposed by
(Syntetos et al. 2005), erratic, lumpy, smooth and intermittent; (2) the squared co-
efficient of variation of demand sizes, CV2; (3) the average inter-demand interval,
p; (4) the target fill rate, FRO; (5) the mean of the random variable during R, R;
(6) the mean of the random variable during R+L, R+L; and (7) the exact S,
S_Exact. Note that most of these variables are strongly correlated and therefore
regression models are not appropriate for the analysis of the experimental results
of this work. CART, however, can be used with correlated variables.
The resulting CART (Figure 1) has a total of 9 nodes, where 5 are final nodes.
Each node shows: an identity number (ID); the number of cases the node has; the
predicted dependent variable (yes or no); and the histogram of the cases where the
traditional fill rate leads to the exact S and the cases where not. Regarding the in-
547
dependent variables, CV2; p, FRO and S_Exact become segmentation variables.

Basically, the tree is split into two main parts: the left part (nodes 4 and 8) where
the FRTrad presents a good performance; and the right part (nodes 3, 7 and 9)
where the FRTrad falls into errors. Table 2 shows an interpretation of the CART ob-
tained.
Table 2 Interpretation of the CART
If The FRTrad provides an accurate estimation of S

CV2 0.306 and p1.367 yes
CV2 0.306; p>1.367; FRO0.97; S29 yes
CV2 0.306; p>1.367; FRO0.97; S>29 no
CV2 0.306; p>1.367; FRO>0.97 no
CV2 >0.306 no
Fig. 1 CART of the experimental results. Total cases: 235,620
The resulting CART points out the underlying model behind the performance of
the FRTrad in a discrete demand context. However, as a predictive model, it is im-
portant to know that, even in nodes 4 and 8 where the FRTrad presents a good per-
formance, there are some cases where STradSExact. Then, from a practical perspec-
tive, it is useful to know the classification errors that imply choosing the
traditional fill rate in every single node, even in those nodes where exact method
548
is more efficient. Furthermore it is not only important to know the percentage of

misclassified cases per node, but also the typology of the errors (RE1 or RE2) that
the misclassified cases fall into as well as its mean and variance.
The misclassified cases per node are summarized in Table 3, where Column 1
identifies the node, Column 2 shows the percentage of cases in this node that ob-
tains the exact value of S, i.e. RE=0; Columns 3 and 6 present the percentage of
cases in this node that falls into RE1 and RE2 respectively; Columns 4 and 7 show
the average error of the RE1, RE1, and RE2, RE2, respectively; and Columns 5
and 8 present the standard deviation of errors of the RE1, RE1, and RE2,RE2.
Table 3 Misclassified errors per node, identifying the typology or error (RE1 or RE2)
Node % cases % RE1 RE1 % RE2 RE2

identification RE =0 RE1 (%) (%) RE2 (%) (%)
CV20.306 and p1.367 85,5 11,5 -10,6 16,2 2,9 6,9 8,9
CV20.306; p>1.367
72,1 22,0 -35,1 30,9 5,9 29,8 16,2
FRO0.97 and S29
CV20.306; p>1.367
40,7 48,2 -3,6 4,1 11,1 1,8 1,5
FRO0.97 and S>29
CV20.306; p>1.367 and
21,8 0,2 -14,7 11,8 78,0 19,3 15,8
FRO>0.97
CV2 >0.306 33,5 43,5 -13,7 15,2 23,0 11,2 11,1
5 Conclusions and Practical Implications
In this paper, a wide experiment has been carried out to test the widely used tradi-
tional fill rate expression whenever it is used to compute the order-up-to-level S in
a periodic-review, order-up-to-level (R, S) policy with discrete demand. One of
first results shows that, obviously, the FRTrad does not always guarantee the
achievement of the target FR*, however we define some areas where the FRTrad is
accurate enough to estimate the order-up-to-level (Table 2).
The purpose of this paper is helping practitioners to know the risk of using the
FRTrad instead of the complex exact one. Since FRTrad is an approximation, it may
fall into errors. We provide in Table 3 the type and amount of errors for items de-
pending on their characteristic. The information of this table has an important
practical use. If managers know the characteristics of the item, they can know if
the traditional fill rate is an appropriate tool to establish the order-up-to-level or
they should use the exact expression. One of the main conclusions of this paper is
that seems to be a relationship between the category of the demand and the per-
formance of FRTrad. When demand is erratic or lumpy (node 5) the traditional fill
rate does not produce a good estimation of the S. However, when the demand is
549
smooth (node 1) the traditional fill rate obtains the exact value of S in 85.5% of
the cases. In the case of intermittent demand (nodes 2, 3 and 4) the performance of
FRTrad depends on the value of the target fill rate and the S. Surprisingly when the
FR*>0.97 the traditional fill rate only obtains the exact S in a 21.8% of the cases.
Table 3 can be also used as a corrective tool. In this sense, if a company is using
the traditional fill rate to determine the S, the results of this work provide infor-
mation about the risk of using it. Given the impact and practical implications of
these results in operational management, further research will focus on: (i) study-
ing other fill rate expressions and proposing a reference framework to choose the
most efficient method to compute the order-up-to-level; and (ii) extending these
results to the lost sales context.
6 References
Axster S (2000) Inventory Control. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, Massachusetts

Babai M Z, Jemai Z, and Dallery Y (2011) Analysis of order-up-to-level inventory systems with
compound Poisson demand. Eur J Oper Res 210:552-558
Babiloni E, Guijarro E, Cards M, and Estells S (2012) Exact fill rates for the (R, S) inventory
control with discrete distributed demands for the backordering case. Informatica Economica
16:19-26
Chase R B, Aquilano N J, Jacobs F R (1992) Production and operations management. Manufac-
turing and servicies.
Hadley G, Whitin T (1963) Analysis of Inventory Systems. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Johnson M E, Lee H L, Davis T, and Hall R (1995) Expressions for Item Fill Rates in Periodic
Inventory Systems. Nav Res Log 42:57-80
Schneider H (1978) Methods for Determining Re-Order Point of an (S,S) Ordering Policy when
a Service Level is Specified. J Opl Res Soc 29:1181-1193
Silver E A (1981) Operations-Research in Inventory Management - A Review and Critique. Op-
erations Research 29:628-645
Silver E A, Naseraldin H, and Bischak D P (2009) Determining the reorder point and order-up-
to-level in a periodic review system so as to achieve a desired fill rate and a desired average
time between replenishments. J Opl Res Soc 60:1244-1253
Silver E A, Pyke D F, Peterson R (1998) Inventory Management and Production Planning and
Scheduling. Wiley, New York
Smits S R, Wagner M, and Kok G d (2004) Determination of an order-up-to policy in the sto-
chastic economic lot scheduling model. International Journal of Production Economics
90:377-389
Swaminathan J M, Shanthikumar J G (1999) Supplier diversification: effect of discrete demand.
Operations Research Letters 24:213-221
Syntetos A A, Boylan J E, and Croston J D (2005) On the categorization of demand patterns. J
Opl Res Soc 56:495-503
Tempelmeier H (2007) On the stochastic uncapacitated dynamic single-item lotsizing problem
with service level constraints. Eur J Oper Res 181:184-194
Teunter R H, Syntetos A A, and Babai M Z (2010) Determining order-up-to levels under period-
ic review for Compound Binomial (intermittent) demand. Eur J Oper Res 203:619-624
Vollmann T E, Berry W L, Whybark D C (1997) Manufacturing planning and control systems.
McGraw-Hill,
550
On the Selection of Customer Service Metrics in

Inventory Control
Guijarro E1, Babiloni E, Cards M, Estells S
Abstract Customer service metrics have been largely studied in literature due to
their importance on the performance of the inventory systems. However selecting
the most suitable metric for a business environment is a difficult decision for man-
agers since each one has its advantages and disadvantages. To the best of our
knowledge, the literature does not offer suggestions on how to select the most
suitable metric. This paper reviews and discusses two of the service measures
most used in practice, the cycle service level (CSL) and the fill rate (FR), and pro-
poses some guidelines to help practitioners on the selection. We consider different
views such as customers expectations, demand data, the behavior of the demand,
computational complexity, importance of the item, purpose of the business deci-
sions, and efficiency of the inventory systems.
Keywords: Customer Service Metrics, Cycle Service Level, Fill Rate, Guidelines
1 Introduction
Customer service levels are a concern of every inventory systems. Generally, the
aim of inventory managers is to provide a high level of customer service. Howev-
er, an organization cannot assure that all demanded items will be available in the
proper quantity and moment. For example, when demand is probabilistic, there is
a chance of not being able to satisfy part of the demand. Furthermore, other exter-
nal causes (such as machine failure or late delivery) can affect the availability of
items when are demanded. Obviously, poor service levels may result in loss of
1EsterGuijarro Tarradellas ( e-mail: esguitar@doe.upv.es)

Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Valncia. Camino de Vera s/n,
46022 Valencia.
* This research is part of a project supported by the Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, with
551
customers, sales and extra costs of handling backorders. However, attempting to

offer a high level of service can also be counterproductive because excessive ser-
vice levels may result in large inventories and thus in a waste of money (Ronen
1983). For that reason, it is important for managers to have appropriate tools to
measure the customer service. Furthermore, customer service metrics are used in
inventory control not only to analyze the performance of the policies, but also to
establish the parameters of an inventory policy. Then, how to measure the custom-
er service is an important decision for inventory managers.
A considerable amount of research has proposed different metrics to compute
the customer service [see (Ronen 1983); (Silver et al. 1998) or (Tempelmeier
2000) among others]. The selection of one of them is a difficult decision since
each has its strengths and weaknesses and appropriate applications (Fogarty et al.
1991). The purpose of this paper is to propose some guidelines to help practition-
ers on the selection of the most suitable customer service measure according to the
aim of the organization and inventory characteristics.
Two of the service measures most used in practical environments are the cycle
service level (CSL) and the fill rate (FR). Both CSL and FR have been widely dis-
cussed in related literature, but customers service levels are more than adequate,
but are poorly defined (Sabath 1978). This paper focuses on them and reviews
the classical definition of CSL (Section 2) and FR (Section 3). We discuss that
these definitions may provide poor results under some inventory conditions. Fur-
thermore, we review the standard definition of CSL (Cards et al. 2006) and FR
(Guijarro et al. 2012) and highlight a number of advantages and disadvantages of
each one. Finally, Section 4 proposes guidelines to help practitioners on the selec-
tion of the most appropriate service measure. The conclusions of this paper are
presented in Section 5.
2 The Cycle Service Level
One of the most usual measures of customer service is CSL. This metric indicates
the probability of no stockout per replenishment cycle (Chopra and Meindl 2004),
considering a stockout as the situation when the on-hand stock drops to the zero
level (Silver et al. 1998). Therefore, CSL can be defined as the fraction of cycles
in which the on-hand stock does not drop to the zero level, and can be expressed
as
CSLClassic 1 P stockout in a replenishment cycle (1)
This definition, called classic in this paper (CSLClassic), can be applied to any
stock policy and demand pattern. Considering the specific case of periodic review
552
stock policy (R, S), CSL is the probability that the stock at the review is not ex-
ceeded by the demand during the review period R plus the lead time L, i.e.:
CSLClassic P DR L S (2)
where Dt represents the accumulated demand during t consecutive periods and

S represents the order-up-to-level. When demand follows any discrete demand dis-
tribution, expression (2) can be rewritten as
CSLClassic FR L S (3)
Note that this expression can be used both in the backordering case (unfulfilled
demand is backordered and met as soon as possible) and in the lost sales case (un-
fulfilled demand is lost).
One of the main advantages of this definition is that it is simple enough to be
used by practitioner in real environments. However it presents some limitations.
On one hand, it does not take into account demand fulfillment, since it only con-
siders the stock level at the end of the cycle. On the other hand, there are a number
of situations where this definition is scarcely useful. For example, under an inter-
mittent or slow movement demand context the probability of no demand when the
physical stock is equal to zero is not negligible, so a stockout situation and de-
mand fulfillment can be compatible. Furthermore, this definition leads to consider
that the CSL is equal to one if there is no demand during the replenishment cycle.
In order to overcome shortcomings explained above (Cards et al. 2006) pro-
pose a more general and appropriate CSL definition, referred as standard CSL
(CSLStnd) in the rest of the paper, as the fraction of cycles in which non zero de-
mand is completely satisfied with physical stock. According with this new defini-
tion, CSL can be expressed as
CSLStnd P demand during cycle on hand stock | demand during cycle 0 (4)
(Cards et al. 2009) propose two expressions to compute (4) in a periodic re-
view (R, S) when demand is discrete. The first one considers that the unfulfilled
demand in a replenishment cycle is backlogged, and then CSL can be computed as
FL S FR 0
CSLStnd _ Bk (5)
1 FR 0
where Ft() is the cumulative distribution function. The second one assumes
that the unfulfilled demand is lost. In this case CSL is
553
S F OH F 0
CSLStnd _ LS P OH 1 F 0
OH 0
0
R 0 R
(6)
R
where OH0 is the on-hand stock at the beginning of the replenishment cycle.
The main advantages of the standard definition are: (a) demand is explicitly
considered to measure the service level; and (b) it works properly even if there is
no demand during the replenishment cycle. However, calculating expressions (5)
and (6) may be quite complex, especially in the lost sales scenario. Computing the
probability vector of every on-hand stock level at the beginning of the cycle,
P OH 0 , requires the availability of appropriate tools as sound mathematical
background. Furthermore, from a practical point of view, expression (6) may be
time-consuming which makes the standard CSL an inappropriate procedure to be
used in some business contexts involving thousands of items.
3 The Fill Rate
The second customer service metric reviewed in this paper is FR, defined as the
fraction of demand that is completely fulfilled from available stock. The definition
and estimation of fill rate have been studied extensively in operation management
(OM) literature in the last sixty years. However, this definition may result ambig-
uous since it does not specify the time period referred to. This ambiguity causes
different interpretations of the FR definition. In this sense, (Silver et al. 1998)
suggest two possible generalizations: (i) considering FR as the fraction of demand
satisfied in each period, and (ii) considering FR as the fraction of demand satisfied
within a specified time, i.e. as a long run average.
Classical OM literature computes fill rate following the first generalization, i.e.
as the fraction of demand per replenishment cycle met from on-hand stock. Com-
mon approach to estimate it consists in computing the number of backorders per
replenishment cycle, i.e. the demand that is not satisfied, instead of computing di-
rectly the fulfilled demand per replenishment cycle [e.g. (Hadley and Whitin
1963); (Silver et al. 1998); (Silver and Bischak 2011)]. This approach, known as
the traditional approximation (FRTrad further on) calculates the complement of the
quotient between the expected unfulfilled demand per replenishment cycle and the
total expected demand per replenishment cycle, i.e.
E unfulfilled demand per replenishment cycle

FRTrad 1 (7)
E total demand per replenishment cycle
554
Recently, some authors as (Axster 2003); (Sobel 2004) or (Zhang and Zhang
2007) have presented a new approach based on the second generalization and they
define the fill rate as the long run average fraction of demand satisfied immediate-
ly from the on-hand stock, which can be expressed as
fulfilled demand in t periods

FR lim E (8)
t
total demand in t periods
(Chen et al. 2003) indicate that, applying the renewal theory, estimating the fill
rate following the long run definition (8) leads to the traditional approximation
(FRTrad) when demand is independent and identically distributed. Then the most
widely used method to estimate the fill rate is actually FRTrad, i.e. expression (7).
However, as (Guijarro et al. 2012) point out FRTrad is an approximation of the
fill rate. The authors find that computing the fill rate as expression (7) leads to
significant biases and deviations that cannot be neglected. These deviations are
especially important during the cycles without demand because in those cycles
FRTrad considers the fill rate equal to 1. However, from a practical point of view, it
is useless to consider a service metric when there is no demand to be served.
Therefore, cycles that do not show any demand should not be taken into account.
For that reason, (Guijarro et al. 2012) propose a new generalized definition of the
fill rate (named standard fill rate, FRStnd in this paper) as the fraction of demand
that is fulfilled with the on hand stock during a cycle with positive demand, which
is expressed as
fulfilled demand per replenishment cycle

FRStnd E | positive demand during cycle (9)
total demand per replenishment cycle
When the inventory is managed by a periodic review (R, S) inventory policy,

demand follows a discrete distribution and the unfulfilled demand is backordered,
expression (9) can be rewritten as
S
F NS F 0

NS0 f R DR
FRStnd _ Bk f S NS 1 F 0
L 0
R 0 R
DR NS0 1 DR
(10)
1 FR 0
NS0 1 R
being ft() the probability density function of demand during t consecutive peri-
ods and NS0 the net stock at the beginning of the cycle.
In the lost sales case, the standard fill rate can be computed as follows
555
S
F i FR 0 i f j
FRStnd _ LS P OH 0 i R R (11)
i 0 1 FR 0 j i 1 j 1 FR 0

As can be seen, expression (9) includes explicitly the condition of having posi-
tive demand during the cycle; thus it can be used over different demand patterns
including intermittent or lumpy demand. However, the computational effort need-
ed is substantial, especially to obtain the whole vector P OH 0 in the lost sales
scenario.
4 Guidelines on Selecting the Service Level Metric
Despite the metrics reviewed in previous sections have been largely studied, there
is not a consensus on their definition and estimation, so the selection of one of
them is a difficult task for managers. This section presents guidelines, summarized
in Table 1, to help practitioners on the selection based on the following views:
Customer expectations. Traditionally, in inventory literature the term customer
service refers to what the managers or the company understand about service.
Nevertheless, the first question that should be answered by inventory managers
is what customers perceive as service including if backlog is allowed or not.
For example, frequently when industrial customers are interviewed they indi-
cate that they can wait for some days if there is a stockout, so CSL with back-
log may be suitable.
Available demand data. Once a customer service is selected, it usually requires
some information concerning the demand for the managed item. Unfortunate-
ly, in a large number of cases, available data in companies is actually sales da-
ta which are not equivalent. Computing the service level using sales data in-
stead of demand can distort the picture especially in the lost sales case because
the demand of an item is not recorded when it is in stockout. A strength of the
CSLClassic is that it does not require demand data for its calculation since it only
considers the stock level at the end of the cycle. The other metrics, however,
need to record demand data to identify properly the demand distribution pat-
tern.
Demand category. The categorization of demand patterns is an essential tool to
choose the best forecasting and stock control policies. (Syntetos et al. 2005)
propose a method of categorization of demand patterns based on the squared
coefficient of variation (CV2) and the average inter-demand interval (p). The
categorization schemes distinguishes four demand categories: smooth (p1.32
and CV20.49), intermittent (p>1.32 and CV20.49), erratic (p1.32 and
CV2>0.49) and lumpy (p>1.32 and CV2>0.49). The average inter-demand in-
556
terval is directly related to the probability of no demand during a cycle. Then,

if there is a high probability of having cycles without demand, which corre-
spond to intermittent and lumpy categories, only the standard definitions of the
service measures (CSLStnd and FRStnd) work properly. On the other hand, if the
probability of zero demand is low, then classical definitions may fit.
Computational complexity and accuracy. As Section 2 and 3 explain, both
CSLClassic and FRTrad are simple enough expressions to be used in real environ-
ments, especially the classical CSL. However, these metrics present poor re-
sults in some situations.
ABC item classification. The importance of the managed item should be taken
into account as well as the specific business environment to decide if the risk
of using approximated metrics is acceptable. For example, for A items the aim
is usually to avoid unpredictable stockout situations. Then, the complexity of
the exact expressions (CSLStnd and FRStnd) seems to be justified. However, the
aim for C items is to ease its management, so CSLClassic and FRTrad can provide
a good performance and low impact on the business performance.
Business Purpose. As explained before, CSLClassic, CSLStnd and FRStnd are short
term metrics whereas FRTrad is a long run metric. The time window considered
is connected to the purpose of the decisions. For example, in the purpose is fi-
nancial, managers need long-range information, being the FRTrad the most ap-
propriate customer measure. On the other hand, if the purpose is operational,
the information should be short-term because managers make decisions for the
next period. In this case, either CSLClassic, CSLStnd or FRStnd may suit.
Inventory Systems Efficiency. While CSL is a more restrictive metric (when
just one unit is not served, CSL is equal to zero for that period), FR provides
more information since it computes the fraction of demand served. Therefore,
if the expected service level is high, CSL may lead to overestimate the stock
needed when it is used to determine the policy parameters.
Table 1 Guidelines for the selection of the service level metric
Views CSL classic CSL standard FR traditional FR standard

Customer expectations
Available demand data just stock
Demand category Smooth All Smooth All
Computational complex-
simple accurate simple accurate
ity and accuracy
Item class B or C A B or C A
Business purpose Operational Operational Financial Operational
Inventory systems effi- medium medium medium and medium and
ciency target target high target high target
557
5 Conclusions
Despite of the general consensus on the importance of the selected service metric
on the performance of inventory systems, the literature does not offer many clues
to help practitioners on selecting the most appropriate metric for a business envi-
ronment. That is the contribution of this paper.
It cannot be affirmed that any metric is better than others because each of them
focuses on different aspects of the delicate trade-off between the expectations of
the customers, availability of demand data vs. sales data, the behaviour of the de-
mand, computational complexity and accuracy of the service level measurement,
importance of the item, aim of the business decision focused on financial or opera-
tional goals, and efficiency of the inventory system avoiding overestimation of the
inventory needed. Therefore, the selection of the service metric has to be adopted
considering the impact on customers relationships, operations and business per-
formance aligned with the strategy of the organization.
6 References
Axster S (2003) Note: Optimal Policies for Serial Inventory Systems Under Fill Rate Con-
straints. Management Science 49:247-253
Cards M, Babiloni E, Palmer M E, and Albarracn J.M. (2009) Effects on Undershoots and Lost
Sales on the Cycle Service Level for Periodic and Continuous Review Policies. Ieee Transac-
tions on Information Forensics and Security 819-824
Cards M, Miralles C, and Ros L (2006) An exact calculation of the cycle service level in a gen-
eralized periodic review system. J Opl Res Soc 57:1252-1255
Chen J H, Lin D K J, and Thomas D J (2003) On the single item fill rate for a finite horizon. Op-
erations Research Letters 31:119-123
Chopra S, Meindl P (2004) Supply Chain Management. Pearson. Prentice Hall,
Fogarty D W, Blackstone J H, Hoffman T R (1991) Production and Inventory Management.
South-Western Publishing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
Guijarro E, Cards M, and Babiloni E (2012) On the exact calculation of the fill rate in a period-
ic review inventory policy under discrete demand patterns. Eur J Oper Res 218:442-447
Hadley G, Whitin T (1963) Analysis of Inventory Systems. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Ronen D (1983) Inventory service levels - comparison of measures. International Journal of Op-
eration and Production Management 3:37-45
Sabath R E (1978) How much service do customers really want? Business Horizons 21:26-32
Silver E A, Pyke D F, Peterson R (1998) Inventory Management and Production Planning and
Scheduling. Wiley, New York
Silver E A, Bischak D P (2011) The exact fill rate in a periodic review base stock system under
normally distributed demand. Omega-int J Manage S 39:346-349
Sobel M J (2004) Fill rates of single-stage and multistage supply systems. Manufacturing and
Service Operations Management 6:41-52
Syntetos A A, Boylan J E, and Croston J D (2005) On the categorization of demand patterns. J
Opl Res Soc 56:495-503
558
Tempelmeier H (2000) Inventory service-levels in the customer supply chain. OR Spektrum

22:361-380
Zhang J, Zhang J (2007) Fill rate of single-stage general periodic review inventory systems. Op-
erations Research Letters 35:503-509
559
Analysing the Purchase Intention of Spanish

Consumer: A Study about Remanufactured
Products
Jimnez-Parra B1, Rubio S, Vicente-Molina M A
Abstract Academic research on remanufacturing has turned to focus on the analy-

sis of activities from a supply perspective. Nevertheless, very little attention has
been paid to the demand side. Companies interested in fostering the demand for
remanufactured products need to be aware of the importance of knowledge of their
potential consumers in order to most suitably manage their remanufacturing and
marketing activities. Thus, the main goal of this work was to make a first approach
to determining the profile of remanufactured product consumers. To this end, an
empirical analysis of the determinants of the purchase intention of this kind of
consumer was conducted. The results revealed the main characteristics of the re-
manufactured-product consumer, and provide firms with useful information for
their consideration of closed-loop supply chains and for integrating marketing de-
cisions concerning remanufactured products into the development of end-of-life
strategies.
Keywords: End-of-life Strategies, Remanufactured Products, Purchase Intention,

Marketing Activities, Closed-loop Supply Chain.
1 Introduction
There is a broad consensus that one of the challenges for Closed-Loop Supply
Chain (CLSC) research in the coming years is the need to examine in depth its re-
1Beatriz Jimnez Parra ( e-mail: bjimenez@unex.es)
Dpto. de Direccin de Empresas y Sociologa. Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales. Universidad

de Extremadura. Avenida de Elvas, S/N, 06006 Badajoz.
*Beatriz Jimnez-Parra and Sergio Rubio thank the Department of Employment, Enterprise and
Innovation of Government of Extremadura for the funding they received through Financial
Support GR10070.
560
lationships with the market and consumers (Atasu et al, 2010; Guide and Van
Wassenhove, 2009; Ilgin and Gupta, 2012; Subramonian et al, 2009). In this spe-
cific area of research, most of the problems analysed in the literature have been
approached from the supply side of end-of-life (EOL) products. There have been
studies of the flow of goods from the consumer back to the producer or to the re-
covery agent, e.g., EOL collection, value recovery, 3-R (reduce, reuse, recycle),
inventory management, etc., (De Brito et al, 2003; Ferguson and Toktay, 2006;
Steinhilper, 1998). However, there has been little work on such issues as the mar-
keting of recovered products, their acceptance by consumers, the existence of new
markets for these products and how firms can promote these markets, what mar-
keting strategies are best suited for this purpose, or what type of consumer should
be targeted (Agrawal et al, 2012; Guide and Van Wassenhove, 2001: 3, 12;
Michaud and Llerena, 2011).
The present work is an attempt to contribute to the development of research in
the CLSC field from a marketing perspective. The aim is to identify the main
characteristics of remanufactured product consumers so that interested firms may
have a solid base of information on which to establish their policies for the devel-
opment and strengthening of these markets. Thereby, one will not only be endow-
ing the process of EOL recovery with the economic meaning (financial profit, re-
manufacturing to sell), but also actually closing the CLSC cycle by putting
recovered products back on the market. In a sense, one would also be contributing
to strengthening the academic links between marketing and operations manage-
ment by stimulating new joint lines of inquiry.
2 Methodology
2.1 The Purchase Intention Model
The proposed model (Figure 1) is based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour

(Ajzen, 1985; Ajzen, 1991; Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), which has been used suc-
cessfully in other studies to explain consumer behaviour in situations similar to
that considered here in the present work (among others, Arvola et al, 2008; Chan,
2001; Kalafatis et al, 1999; Smith and Paladino, 2010; Vermeir and Verbeke,
2007). Our objective will be to formulate a model capable of explaining what kind
of consumer would be willing to purchase a particular remanufactured product.
Thus, the proposed model tries to describe the Consumers Intention to Purchase
a Remanufactured Laptop (PI) on the basis of four variables that might influence
that intention: the Attitude towards the Purchase (AP), the Subjective Norm (SN),
the Motivations (M) and the Marketing Mix Variables (MMV).
561
The Purchase Intention (PI) refers to the greater or lesser likelihood that a con-
sumer will purchase this product rather than the original one, being aware of the
main characteristics of remanufactured products.
Fig. 1 The consumers purchase intention model
The Attitude towards Purchasing a Remanufactured Laptop (AP) refers to the

degree to which a person has a favourable or unfavourable evaluation of the pur-
chase of a remanufactured laptop. The corresponding hypothesis was:
H1: A favourable attitude towards purchasing a remanufactured laptop will positively in-
fluence the purchase intention for that class of remanufactured product.
The Subjective Norm (SN) is related to the social pressure perceived by the in-
dividuals as to whether or not to perform certain behaviour. In our case, it reflects
the individuals perception of what their closest referents (family, friends, class-
mates, workmates, etc.) think they should do about whether to purchase a remanu-
factured laptop. The corresponding hypothesis was:
H2: A favourable Subjective Norm towards purchasing a remanufactured laptop will posi-
tively influence the purchase intention for these remanufactured products.
The Motivations (M) indicate the reasons that may lead an individual to carry
out this particular behaviour (purchase a remanufactured laptop) at some time in
the future, such as the fact that the remanufactured laptop is marketed at a lower
price than the original. The corresponding hypothesis was:
H3: The level of Motivations towards purchasing a remanufactured laptop will positively
influence the purchase intention for this category of remanufactured product.
The Marketing Mix Variables (MMV), i.e., price, product, promotion, and dis-
tribution, are included in the model because we believe that they might influence
the consumers intention to purchase. They also constitute an effective tool for
firms in their effort to achieve more efficient marketing of these products. The
corresponding hypothesis was:
H4: There is a relationship between the Marketing Mix Variables for remanufactured lap-
top marketing and the purchase intention for theses remanufactured products.
562
2.2 Data Gathering
A sample of 1529 undergraduates of two Spanish universities was used in order to

gather the required information to test de model. They responded to a self-
administered questionnaire, during April and May 2011, which consisted of two
distinct parts. The first comprised items relating to the variables described above
that potentially influence the purchase intention of the remanufactured products
under study (Table 1). The second consisted of items relating to the respondents
demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Prior to application of the defini-
tive questionnaire, two pre-tests were conducted to ensure that all the variables
and their elements of analysis were correctly presented in the questionnaire and to
identify potential sources of error.
Table 1 Description of the measurement scale items
Items
Attitude towards Purchasing a Laptop (AP)

AP1: Assesses the respondents attitude if it were put to them that they were to purchase a laptop.
Subjective Norm (SN)
SN1: My friends and people whose opinion I value would agree with my buying a remanufactured lap-
top due to its lower price.
SN2: Most people who are important to me would think that I should not purchase a remanufactured
laptop because I would be forgoing important advances (latest technology, performance, etc.)
Motivations (M)
M1: Degree of importance that the remanufactured laptop should incorporate the latest technology.
M2: Degree of importance that the remanufactured laptop is cheaper, even if this means giving up the
most advanced technology.
M3: Degree of importance that the remanufactured laptop should provide me with personal satisfac-
tion in that it has less impact on the environment.
Marketing Mix Variables (MMV)
MMV1: Degree of importance that the remanufactured laptop should be available in conventional es-
tablishments.
MMV2: Degree of importance that the remanufactured laptop can be purchased through the Internet.
MMV3: Degree of importance of the design or appearance of the remanufactured laptop.
MMV4: Degree of importance of the brands reputation.
Purchase Intention (PI)
PI1: Intention to purchase a remanufactured laptop instead of an original laptop, taking into account
the price and type of remanufacturer (original manufacturer or independent remanufacturer).
PI2: Intention to purchase a remanufactured laptop instead of an original laptop.
563
3 Analyses of Main Results
3.1 Validation of the Purchase Intention Model
Before testing the hypotheses, the proposed model was evaluated in a two-step
procedure. First of all, the reliability and validity of the measurement scales were
assessed to ensure that the model was appropriate to measure the variables consid-
ered, i.e., AP, SN, M, MMV and PI. This evaluation was developed by the analy-
sis of the composite reliability index, the Cronbachs alpha, the average variance
extracted and the outer and cross loadings (Fornell and Larcker, 1981; Wets et al,
1974). The results revealed the measurement model to satisfy the requirement of
reliability and validity due to the values obtained in each case exceeded the refer-
ence value recommended by Bagozzi and Yi (1981), Barclay et al (1995), Chin
(1998) and Cronbach and Shavelson (2004).
Secondly, the explanatory power of the model for the variable PI was calcu-
lated by the R2 statistic (Falk and Miller, 1992) and the Q2 statistic (Geisser, 1975;
Stone 1974). In both cases, the results confirmed the model have explanatory
power for the Purchase Intention variable since the values of these two statistics
were greater than the recommended values.
3.2 Hypothesis Testing
In order to perform the hypothesis tests, the significance of the factor loading rela-
tionships was evaluated by the re-sampling technique known as bootstrapping
(Chin, 1998). As it can be observed in Table 2, all the coefficients were significant
at p < 0.01, so the four research hypotheses put forward earlier can be supported.
Table 2 Hypothesis Testing
Hypotheses Standardized (*** p < .01) t-Value (bootstrap) Test Results
H1: AP PI 0.233*** 8.92 SUPPORTED

H2: SN PI 0.191*** 7.98 SUPPORTED
H3: M PI 0.205*** 8.41 SUPPORTED
H4: MMV PI -0.108*** 2.63 SUPPORTED
564
3.3 Discussion
According to the results, it can be stated that the proposed model represents the
consumers intention to purchase a remanufactured laptop. It has been observed
that a favourable attitude towards these products positively influences the pur-
chase intention (H1), so that one can assume that there is a segment of consumers
who are favourably inclined to buying remanufactured computers, and that promo-
tional actions of firms in the sector clearly should be directed at them. As Atasu et
al (2008: 1732) observed, `the existence of a green consumer segment represents
an important marketing opportunity for remanufacturers.
The consumers main social referents (family, friends, workmates, etc.) were
shown to be key elements in the process of acquiring this type of products, at least
with respect to the intention to purchase (H2). Perhaps, firms should consider
marketing activities designed to engage these referents in the buying process, so as
to increase these consumers willingness to make a purchase.
The study has also shown that motivations play a significant positive role in
this purchase intention (H3). Overall, the respondents showed that price (item M2)
and environmental issues (item M3) constitute positive motivations for their inten-
tion to buy a remanufactured laptop, as has also been noted in other studies
(Agrawal et al, 2012; Atasu et al, 2010: 62-66; Guide and Van Wassenhove, 2001:
2, 9) Thus, they should be important elements in firms marketing policies so as to
positively motivate consumers in their intention to purchase these products. How-
ever, the technological aspects of remanufactured laptops (item M1) seem to have
a negative impact on the consumers motivation because this item showed a nega-
tive sign in the corresponding coefficient (-0.498). We might attribute this to the
idea that consumers of this sort of products are not looking for a computer with
the latest technology. If they were, they would probably opt for buying an original
product instead of looking for a machine with a good enough performance at an
attractive price.
The results pointed to the importance of the marketing mix variables in describ-
ing the consumers intention to buy a remanufactured laptop (H4). Nonetheless,
there stood out the negative sign of the corresponding coefficient ( = -0.108), as
it can be observed in Table 2. It is therefore interesting to consider the separate el-
ements integrating this set of variables: items MMV1 and MMV2, which are re-
lated to distribution, showed a negative sign in their corresponding coefficients (-
0.465 and -0.279, respectively), while items MMV3 and MMV4, which are related
to design and brand reputation, showed a positive sign (0.228 and 0.762, respec-
tively). The two distribution items describe the importance the respondents give to
the remanufactured product being marketed through conventional distribution
channels and the Internet, thereby sharing the point of sale with the original prod-
ucts. We believe that, for their process of deciding to buy a remanufactured laptop,
the respondents have evaluated negatively the fact of not having specific distribu-
tion channels for these products, in the sense that if two types of product, original
565
and remanufactured, share the same distribution channel, and are therefore availa-
ble at the same point of sale, the consumer might well lean towards buying an
original model rather than a remanufactured one.
4 Conclusions
The results allow us to infer some common characteristics of consumers of re-

manufactured computers. We believe that marketing Original Equipment Manu-
facturers (OEM) and remanufacturers campaigns could be directed not only at
consumers with a more positive attitude towards these products but also at their
closest social circles (family, friends, workmates, etc.), which we have found to be
an important referent in the intention to purchase. Other actions would be on the
variables identified as key drivers: the price and the OEMs or remanufacturers
reputation. Regarding product distribution, analysis about whether the proper way
of remanufactured product commercialization through specific retailers is neces-
sary, because our results show that traditional retailers and the Internet do not
meet the expectations of the remanufactured product consumer.
This is a novel study which addresses some of the gaps in research that have
been identified in the recent supply chain literature. Of course, there are still many
issues to be analysed, e.g., those relating to the potential commercial activities and
marketing policies that firms could establish. It nevertheless represents a further
step in the process of closing the loop in the supply chain by integrating the dis-
cipline of Marketing with that of Supply Chain Management in what we trust will
be a fruitful path to follow.
5 References
Agrawal VV, Atasu A, van Ittersum K (2012) Remanufacturing, third-party competition and
consumers perceived value of new products. Working Paper submitted to Management Sci-
ence.
Ajzen I (1985) From intentions to actions: a Theory of Planned Behaviour. In: Kuhl J, Beckmann
J (Eds.), Action-control: From cognition to behaviour, Heidelberg: Sprinter, 11-39
Ajzen I (1991) The Theory of Planned Behaviour. Organizational Behaviour and Human Deci-
sion. Processes 50: 179-211.
Arvola A, Vasallo M, Dean M et al. (2008) Predicting intentions to purchase organic food: The
role of affective and moral attitudes in the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Appetite 50: 443-
454.
Atasu A, Guide Jr VDR, Van Wassenhove LN (2010) So what if remanufacturing cannibalizes
my new product sales? California Management Review 52, 2: 1-21.
Atasu A, Sarvary M, Van Wassenhove, LN (2008) Remanufacturing as a marketing strategy.
Management Science 54, 10: 1731-1746.
566
Bagozzi RP, Yi Y (1988) On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Acad-
emy of Marketing Science 16, 1: 74-94.
Barclay D, Higgins C, Thompson R (1995) The partial Least Squares (PLS) approach to causal
modelling: personal computer adoption and use as an illustration. Technology Studies 2, 2:
285-309.
Chan RYK (2001) Determinants of Chinese consumers green purchase behaviour. Psychology
& Marketing 18, 4: 389-413.
Chin W (1998) The partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling. In: Marcou-
lides GA (Ed.) Modern methods for business research. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah NJ, 295-
336.
Cronbach JL, Shavelson RJ (2004) My current thoughts on coefficient alpha and successor pro-
cedures. Educational and Psychological Measurement 64, 3: 391-418.
De Brito MP, Dekker R, Flapper SDP (2003) Reverse logistics: A review of case studies. Eras-
mus Research Institute of Management, Rotterdam.
Falk R, Miller N (1992) A primer soft modelling. University of Akron Press. Akron, Ohio.
Ferguson ME, Toktay LB (2006) The effect of competition on recovery strategies. Productions
and Operations Management 15, 3: 351-368.
Fishbein M, Ajzen I (1975) Belief, attitude, intention and behaviour: an introduction to theory
and research. Addinson-Wesley, Massachusetts.
Fornell C, Larcker DF (1981) Evaluating structural equations models with unobservable varia-
bles and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research 18: 39-50.
Geisser S (1975) The predictive sample reuse method with applications. Journal of the American
Statistical Association 70: 320-328.
Guide Jr VDR, Van Wassenhove LN (2001) Managing product returns for remanufacturing.
Production & Operations Management 10, 142-155.
Guide Jr VDR, Van Wassenhove LN (2009) The evolution of Closed-Loop Supply Chain re-
search. Operations Research 57, 1: 10-18.
Ilgin MA, Gupta SM (2012) Remanufacturing. Modelling and analysis. CRC Press. Taylor $
Francis Group. Florida.
Kalafatis SP, Pollard M, East R et al. (1999) Green marketing and Ajzens Theory of Planned
Behaviour: a cross-market examination. Journal of Consumer Marketing 16, 5: 441-460.
Michaud C, Llerena D (2011) Green consumer behaviour: an experimental analysis of willing-
ness to pay for remanufactured products. Business Strategy & The Environament 20, 6: 408-
420.
Smith S, Paladino A (2010) Eating clean and green? Investigating consumer motivations towards
the purchase of organic food. Australasian Marketing Journal 18, 2: 93-104.
Steinhilper R (1998) Remanufacturing. The ultimate form of recycling. Fraunhofer IRB Verlag,
Stuttgart.
Stone M (1974) Cross validatory choice and assessment of statistical predictions. Journal of the
Royal Statistical Society. Series B, 36, 2: 111-113
Subramoniam R, Huisingh D, Chinnam RB (2009) Remanufacturing for the automotive after-
market-strategic factors: literature review and future research needs. Journal of Cleaner Pro-
duction 17: 1163-1174.
Vermeir L, Verbeke W (2007) Sustainable food consumption, involvement, certainly and values:
An application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Ecological Economics 64, 3:542-553.
Wets CE, Linn RL, Jreskog KG (1974) Intraclass reliability estimates testing structural assump-
tions. Educational and Psychological Measurement 34: 25-34.
567
Non Parametric Estimation of the Cycle Service

Level of a Periodic Review Policy in a Discrete
Context
Cards M1, Babiloni E, Estells S, Guijarro E
Abstract An exact method for the estimation of the cycle service level has been
proposed for periodic review stock policies in a discrete demand context for any
i.i.d. demand distribution. However, this is just a first step because the implemen-
tation of this method in real environments has to manage some important and
eventually difficult issues such as: (i) the identification of the appropriate demand
distribution and its validation; (ii) the estimation of the parameters of the demand
distribution; and (iii) the application of this demand distribution in the procedure
to estimate the expected service level. This paper explains some practical difficul-
ties linked to these issues and proposes an alternative approach based on the ob-
served demand frequencies, so that these issues are avoided.
Keywords: Periodic Review, Cycle Service Level, Demand Distribution
1 Introduction
Probably the most important and useful problem studied by inventory control is
the selection of the stock policy and the estimation of its parameters. In the period-
ic review (R, S) policy, the review period R is usually predetermined by factors
like the transportation schedule, so in practice managers see this problem as the
determination of the optimal base stock level S such that total costs are minimized
or some target customer service level is fulfilled. This paper focuses on the esti-
mation of S for fulfilling a target service constraint because it is by far the most
1Manuel Cards Carboneras ( e-mail: mcardos@doe.upv.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universidad Politcnica de Valencia. Cmno. De Vera S/N,

46022 Valencia.
* This research was part of a project supported by the Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, with
568
frequent approach in practice. Additionally, the service metric chosen is the cycle
service level (CSL) but probably the conclusions of this paper would also apply if
an alternative service metric would have been selected.
(Cards et al. 2009) propose a comprehensive set of procedures for the exact
calculation of CSL with backlog and lost sales, not only for the periodic review
policy but also for the continuous review one and approximate expressions in eve-
ry case. These expressions apply for any i.i.d. demand distribution being discrete
and known. In particular, this paper focuses on the case in which backlog is al-
lowed and whose exact estimation of the CSL, according to (Cards, Babiloni,
Palmer, & Albarracn J.M. 2009) can be obtained by the expression
FL ( S ) FR (0)
CSL (1)
1 FR (0)
being F() the cumulative distribution function of demand, S the base stock, R the
cycle and L the lead time. However the demand distribution pattern has to be
modelled from the available demand data. Continuous distributions are very used
for modelling the demand pattern (Dunsmuir and Snyder 1989), (Schultz 1987),
(Yeh et al. 1997) and normal distribution is especially frequent even for discrete
demand. Although normal distributions may provide acceptable results even in the
discrete demand case depending on its characteristics (average, variance, etc) it is
more accurate modelling the discrete demand with a discrete distribution (Janssen
et al. 1996), (Strijbosch et al. 2000), (Vereecke and Verstraeten 1994).
Poisson distribution is recommended by (Silver et al. 1998) for slow moving
class A items. Compound Poisson distribution is also used when the probability of
zero demand is significant but (Strijbosch, Heuts, & van der Schoot 2000) explain
that this compound distribution is the result of modelling the number of received
orders as Poisson and also the size of the orders, but this is often an unrealistic
starting point because data demand is usually aggregated on a daily basis becom-
ing into a compound Bernouilli distribution.
Negative binomial distribution can be used as an alternative to the Poisson dis-
tribution especially when the sample variance exceeds the sample mean. Not sur-
prisingly (Syntetos and Boylan 2006) point out that the negative binomial distribu-
tion is able to model demand patterns belonging to every demand category
(smooth, erratic, intermittent and lumpy).
Finally the parameters of the demand distribution have to be obtained using sta-
tistical inference. Then we are ready to apply expression (1) using the properties
of the sum of i.i.d. distribution functions to obtain the cumulative distribution in L
consecutive periods. It should be noted that the cumulative distribution of the de-
mand during the cycle has not to be calculated because we only need FR(0) that
can be calculated directly as
569
FR (0) F (0) R (2)
The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the practical difficulties esti-
mating CSL and proposes an alternative approach based on the observed demand
frequencies, so that these issues are avoided.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the most im-
portant practical issues related with the estimation of the CSL considering: (i) the
demand distribution selection and validation, (ii) parameters estimation alterna-
tives, and (iii) the calculation itself focused on the estimation of the base stock of
the stock policy. Section 3 is devoted to introduce our proposed approach based on
the sample demand data and show some illustrative examples. Finally, conclusions
and further research are presented in Section 4.
2 Practical Difficulties of the CSL Estimation
First of all, from a practical point of view, the most suitable distributions are Pois-
son and negative binomial. Usually the demand pattern is selected as Poisson
when the variance differs from the average in no more than 10 per cent; if not so a
negative binomial distribution is preferred. Bernouilli compound distributions are
rarely used because of the kind of difficulties explained below.
In order to illustrate the main difficulties related with the distribution function
selection, we consider the daily demands of three items of class A from the spare
parts of an airline company during 911 consecutive days (see Table 1). In these
three cases variance is much higher than the average, so a negative binomial dis-
tribution is selected and its parameters r and p are estimated. Last column shows
the results of the Pearsons chi-squared test.
Table 1 Data of three class A items from an spare parts system
Ranked Average Variance r p Pearson's test

Item A1 1 5,9550 11,9221 5,9429 0,4995 Pass
Item A2 13 0,2415 4,6251 0,0522 0,0133 Fail
Item A3 47 0,0549 0,3069 0,1789 0,0120 Fail
Item A1 is the first item of 941 based on the units demanded during this period.
Its demand histogram seems to fit to a negative binomial distribution (see Fig. 1)
confirmed by Pearsons chi-squared test.
Demand histograms of items A2 and A3 do not seem to fit a negative binomial
distribution (see Fig. 2 and 3) and obviously Pearsons chi-squared test fails in
both cases. Unfortunately usually the validity of the demand distribution is not
checked because: (i) the application of this test is quite cumbersome and impracti-
570
cal for large inventories; (ii) Poisson and negative binomial are usually the only
available options; and (iii) there is not a manageably distribution function able to
fit demand patterns with so many peaks. It could be argued that these peaks could
be anomalies in the demand but this is not the case for items A2 and A3.
Item A1
120
100
80
Frequency
60
40
20
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
data 18 53 81 95 88 105 107 92 76 60 42 37 21 11 8 8 3 3 0 1 0 2 0 0 0
NB fitted 15 44 76 101 113 112 102 88 71 55 41 30 21 15 10 7 4 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0
Fig. 1 Demand Histogram for item A1 and negative binomial expected frequencies
Item A2
50
45
40
35
30
Frequency
25
20
15
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
data 888 5 4 0 1 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0
NB fitted 727 37 19 13 10 8 7 6 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
571
Item A3
50
45
40
35
30
Frequency
25
20
15
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
data 901 1 1 0 0 1 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
NB fitted 413 73 42 30 24 20 17 15 13 12 11 10 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 3
Second, the estimation of the parameters of a demand distribution may be ob-

tained using maximum likelihood estimators which estimate the parameters in or-
der to make the observed data the most probable. These estimators have a number
of desirable properties, but in some cases the estimators are unsuitable or do not
exist. For example, the estimation of the parameters of a Bernouilli compound dis-
tribution requires the use of a computer to solve simultaneously two equations
nm 1
p
1 e n
n (3)
x i
(1 e ) i 1
nm
being p the probability of zero demand, the Poisson rate, n the size of the
sample, xi the demand data and m the number of non zero demands. This situation
also applies to the negative binomial distribution. Another option is the method of
moments which uses as many moments as parameters have to be estimated, re-
places the moments by the sample moments and derives the expressions of the pa-
rameters. For example, for the negative binomial distribution with parameters r
and p
572
x
p 1
s 2
(4)
1 p
r x
p
being x and s 2 the sample moments of first and second order. Maximum likeli-
hood estimators tend to offer better estimations than the moments method, but the
estimators based on moments can be quickly and easily calculated.
Once the demand distribution has been selected and its parameters have been
estimated, the last step is to apply expression (1). As explained in Section 1, we
only need to develop an expression for FL(S) in a convenient form to be used. This
is quite straightforward for Poisson and negative binomial distributions since both
maintain their own distribution and
PS ( ) PS ( L )
i 1
L
(5)
NB(r , p) NB( Lr , p)
i 1
However it is not so easy for many other distributions such as Bernouilli com-
pound that becomes into a binomial compound distribution and its parameters re-
quire quite complex calculation. Anyway, FL(S) can always be obtained as the
convolution of two discrete distributions
h f g
i
(6)
h(i ) f ( j ) g (i j ) i
j 1
3 Proposed non Parametric Approach
The difficulties explained below appear when demand data do not fit a convenient
distribution function such as Poisson or negative binomial. These problems are
difficult to manage when they occur, but there are also interactions among them
making it harder. For example, if you improve the fitting of the distribution func-
tion using a complex compound distribution, then it leads to an impractical analyt-
ical expression for the demand during the lead time. So we propose a different ap-
proach defining the demand distribution as
573
f (i) fri i (7)
being fri the sample relative frequency. This formulation avoids the need of identi-
fying and validating the demand distribution and has no parameters to be estimat-
ed. The performance of this approach can be illustrated with an example where we
know the demand distribution and we compare the performance of parametric and
non parametric approaches. First, the demand is the sum of a Poisson distribution
with =0.01 and three times a Bernouilli distribution with p=0.1 being p the prob-
ability of non zero demand. Second, we compute the exact CSL using expressions
(1), (2) and (6). Third, demand is simulated 30 times for 1,000 consecutive days
and parametric and non parametric estimations of CSL are obtained each time. Fi-
nally the average CSL estimation for each base stock and procedure is obtained
(see Fig. 4) resulting in better estimates from the non parametric one.
CSL vs. S
1,000
0,950
0,900
0,850
0,800
CSL
0,750
0,700
0,650
0,600
0,550
0,500
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
exact 0,566 0,567 0,969 0,977 0,977 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
non parametric 0,565 0,565 0,969 0,975 0,975 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
negative binomial 0,749 0,870 0,929 0,961 0,978 0,987 0,993 0,996 0,998 0,999
Fig. 4 Illustrative example to compare the parametric and non parametric procedures
4 Conclusions and Practical Implications
Although exact estimation procedures a available for computing CSL in discrete

contexts, its estimation remains being a challenge due to the practical difficulties
involved in identifying and validating the demand distribution, estimating the pa-
rameters of the distribution and applying the estimation procedure. Poisson and
negative binomial distributions are very useful and manageable but when they do
not fit we propose a non parametric approach that shows a promising perfor-
mance.
574
Given the impact and practical implications of these results in operational man-
agement, further research will focus on: (i) develop an extensive experiment in or-
der to check the influence of sample size and other factors including the demand
characteristics; and (ii) extending these results to the lost sales case.
6 References
Cards, M., Babiloni, E., Palmer, M.E., & Albarracn J.M. 2009. Effects on Undershoots and
Lost Sales on the Cycle Service Level for Periodic and Continuous Review Policies. Ieee
Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 819-824
Dunsmuir, W.T.M. & Snyder, R.D. 1989. Control of Inventories with Intermittent Demand 1 59.
European Journal of Operational Research, 40, (1) 16-21 available from:
ISI:A1989U671400002
Janssen, F., Heuts, R., & Kok, T. 1996. On the (R,s,Q) inventory model when demand is mod-
elled as a compound Bernoulli process. European Journal of Operational Research, 104, 423-
436
Schultz, C.R. 1987. Forecasting and Inventory Control for Sporadic Demand Under Periodic Re-
view 1
77. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 38, (5) 453-458 available from:
ISI:A1987H521100009
Silver, E.A., Pyke, D.F., & Peterson, R. 1998. Inventory Management and Production Planning
and Scheduling, Third Edition ed. John Wiley & Sons.
Strijbosch, L.W.G., Heuts, R.M.J., & van der Schoot, E.H.M. 2000. A combined forecast - in-
ventory control procedure for spare parts 1 50. Journal of the Operational Research Society,
51, (10) 1184-1192 available from: ISI:000089702100010
Syntetos, A.A. & Boylan, J.E. 2006. On the stock control performance of intermittent demand
estimators 1 81. International Journal of Production Economics, 103, (1) 36-47 available
from: ISI:000238785300005
Vereecke, A. & Verstraeten, P. 1994. An Inventory Management Model for An Inventory Con-
sisting of Lumpy Items, Slow Movers and Fast Movers20. International Journal of Production
Economics, 35, (1-3) 379-389 available from: ISI:A1994NZ26500050
Yeh, Q.J., Chang, T.P., & Chang, H.C. 1997. An inventory control model with gamma distribu-
tion 1 88. Microelectronics and Reliability, 37, (8) 1197-1201 available from:
ISI:A1997XF22800008
575
Proposal of a Classification of the Different

Data Models to Manage Materials in Industry
Maheut J1, Garcia-Sabater JP, Marin-Garcia JA
Abstract Operations planning in firms, and more generally in supply chains, is

supported by different data models known as Bills of Materials, Bills of Opera-
tions, etc. The practical activity and literature on Bills of Materials have been en-
riched in the last 60 years, and they now present new data models that adapt to the
requirements of different industry types, products and the production paradigm.
This article proposes a classification of different data models to represent bills of
materials. The novelty of the paper is to classify bills of materials in accordance
with their depth and relations, structure, flexibility, the operations carried out in
them, the nature of the materials, and the data aggregation level.
Keywords: Operations Planning, Data Model, Bills of Materials, Bills of Opera-

tions
1 Introduction
In the literature, Bills of Materials (BOM) take different names depending on the
industries considered: recipe, formula, ingredients list, parts list, packaging speci-
fications, to name but a few (Lee et al. 2012). These structure types appear to
cover the requirements of the two basic industry types: the process industry and
discrete manufacturing (Fransoo and Rutten 1994).
Since relying on a data model offers many advantages, BOM have been im-
plemented in firms in a consensual fashion. The overall trend has involved gener-
1Julien
Maheut ( e-mail: juma2@upv.es)
* The research leading to these results has received funding from the Spanish Ministry of
Science and Innovation within the Program "Proyectos de Investigacin Fundamental No
Orientada through the project "CORSARI MAGIC DPI2010-18243". Julien Maheut holds a
VALi+d grant funded by the Regional Valencian Government (Ref. ACIF/2010/222).
576
ating types of different bills depending on the industries and the products being
considered. Doubtlessly the origin of the various existing BOM types lies in the
very different requirements there are between the two main types of industries:
discrete manufacturing and the process industry (Crama et al. 2001). In dis-
crete manufacturing, the objective of BOM is to represent the structure of the
product. However, it also serves to represent the technical processes to, in turn,
represent the input and the output of the material in the process industry (Wu
2001).
In general terms, BOM is understood as the data model that defines the items or
raw materials that go into a product (Garwood 1988). Cox et al. (1995) extended
the definition by emphasising the relations between components and parent prod-
ucts by defining BOM as the bill of all the sub-assemblies, intermediate products,
parts and raw material that go into a parent assembly item and which offer a value
above the quantity required of each one to assemble the assembly product. Fur-
thermore, rather than focusing only from the materials viewpoint, authors like
Garcia-Sabater et al. (2013) propose structuring products by incorporating the
stroke (operation) concept to define the relation between parent items and child
items.
We were unable to find a clear proposal to classify different types of BOM. We
now put forward a BOM classification proposal in accordance with the following
criteria: the depth and relations of BOM; the structure of BOM; the flexibility of
the BOM; the operations carried out in the BOM; the nature of the BOM materi-
als; the data aggregation level.
2 Classification of the Different Data Models to Manage

Materials in Industry
2.1 The Depth and Relations of BOM
The depth of a BOM can be classified according to whether a BOM is mono-level

or multi-level. A mono-level BOM implies that a set of raw material is trans-
formed into a set of finished products. For instance, a mono-level BOM can be a
product that is injected into a press, such as a plastic cup. Generically speaking, a
mono-level BOM represents a structure of materials that considers only two levels
and it may well be a representation decision rather than the finished product struc-
ture.
A multi-level BOM contemplates more than two levels of products. In general,
the majority of assembled products are multi-level. A multi-level BOM implies at
577
least one raw material, a set of half-finished products, sub-assemblies or assem-

blies, and that a set of finished products exists.
A BOM can be characterised according to the relation there is between its
depth and its width (Lea and Fredendall 2002). According to Benton and Srivasta
(1985), depth is understood as the maximum number of levels of products, where-
as width is understood as the immediate quantity of different child items for each
parent item. Authors like Caridi and Sianesi (1999) define these parameters in the
BOM complexity concept. It is true that a flat or a deep BOM structure allows us
to know if a given product requires more support activities (e.g., planning, engi-
neering, supplies, etc.) than another product in accordance with what the work of
Lea and Fredendall states (2002).
2.2 Type A, Type V and Type X BOM Structures
The literature usually characterises a product in accordance with the structure of

its Gozinto graph or with the tree that is associated with a certain product
(Grubbstrm 1995). One of the possible classifications consists in characterising
BOM according to three structure types: type A BOM; type V BOM; type X
BOM. Some authors like Prez Pereales et al. (2002) propose this classification to
characterise plants without asserting its origin. Unlike these authors, who focus
on the automobile sector, the type of structure associated with a given set of fin-
ished products is characterised so that characterisation is more generic. The prod-
ucts with a type A BOM, also known as convergent BOM (Meyr 2004) are those
that obtain a single product based on many components. The products with type
A BOM are pyramid-shaped and are typical of assembled products. For exam-
ple, assembling firms working with automobiles or machines and tools tended to
have this type of bills. Nonetheless, with mass customisation, these bills have
evolved towards type X structures. The products with a type V BOM are those
with which the variants demanded in the market are generated, but with a very
small number of raw materials. As the production process advances, products are
transformed into different finished products. In industry, these types of BOM are
frequent in the agrofood industry, the iron and steel industry, the oil refinery in-
dustry, etc. These divergent structures may also emerge when the so-called co-
products and by-products appear (Segerstedt 1996). These bills structures tend to
be represented in the opposite manner to that of a conventional A-shaped struc-
ture (Inderfurth and Langella 2006). Spengler et al. (1997) introduced this phe-
nomenon for the building demolition process, and these authors proposes a data
model based on priorities for operations planning.
One variant of divergent bills is product binning (Lyon et al. 2001), where dif-
ferent product qualities are obtained while executing the same operation, but al-
ways after analysing the result. The products with a type X BOM are character-
578
ised for having a high degree of customisation as a result of combining a relatively

low number of sub-assemblies or components. In addition, these sub-assemblies
must be characterised for having a type A BOM. Rusk (1990) called this struc-
ture an hourglass because of its double trapezium shape. Kim (2007) defined this
structure as being typical of the automobile sector because the possible combina-
tions of configurations due to options, engineering changes and the fact that these
changes were unpredictable make it interesting.
2.3 BOM Flexibility
The most frequent structure type in discrete manufacturing is a fixed BOM. A

fixed BOM implies that an end product has a unique and fixed materials structure.
Unlike a fixed BOM, variants have appeared. In the literature, these alternative
BOM have different names. As no satisfactory classification has been found, in
order to characterise them, it has been proposed to classify them according to the
following: flexibility on the quantities of child items; flexibility to substitute one
item for another.
When considering a variable quantity of child items, the specific name of BOM
is the flexible BOM, which was introduced by Ram et al. (2006). According to
these authors, the NASA used the flexible BOM to solve problems involved in
preparing food for astronauts, where the quantity of child items to prepare a recipe
can vary depending on the availability of these items. Ram et al. (2006) applied
this flexible BOM concept to MRP by including the existence of minimum ranges
of child items quantity to be incorporated into a parent item. In this way, it was
possible to respond to unexpected stockouts when employing MRP to plan prod-
ucts with dependent demand. This type of BOM cannot be applied to all sectors.
For example, Lin et al. (2009) suggested that the existence of alternative products
can be the manufacturers decision, basically as the result of product binning.
The second type of alternative BOM can be characterised by the possible sub-
stitution of child items for others. Indeed, one of the first authors to introduce this
alternative BOM structure was Escudero (1994), who did so in the alternate (sic)
BOM concept in order to consider substitution components. Then, Balakrishnan
and Geunes (2000) introduced common components concepts and substitution
components to solve the planning problem by contemplating substituting some
products for others with greater functionality. According to Lang (2010), this sub-
stitution in the electronics industry is also known as upgrading. Another prob-
lem found in the literature comes under the name of Requirement Planning with
Substitution, RPS (see Balakrishnan and Geunes 2000; Geunes 2003). Within each
family of products, some components can be substituted for others, but these
works do no present a data model. Lyon et al. (2001) proposed another type of al-
ternative BOM in a module called Alternative BOM material-resource-planning.
579
In this module, a binning problem is considered for substitution downgrading and

an alternative BOM structure is contemplated because of the alternative produc-
tion processes for the same item. In parallel to the literature, ERP-selling firms
develop their own flexible BOM. In the case of SAP, the multiple BOM is a
technical object consisting in different combinations of material, which is repre-
sented for the number of alternative BOM. These alternative BOM are used, ac-
cording to help for production planning, and they only differ slightly as far as the
quantity of some materials in some of the items are concerned.
2.4 Pure and Mixed BOM
Bills of materials can be characterised according to the operations carried out to

obtain end products. For this reason, different types of BOM are characterised in
the literature depending on the type of processes involved. Probably the most fre-
quent bill is the so-called assembling BOM (ABOM). According to this concept,
the structure of the BOM is type A. Another type of bill that is associated with
disassembly and recycling appeared in the 1990s under the name of Disassembly
BOM (DBOM). DBOM are aggregate versions of ABOMs because not all the de-
tails about items are necessary for disassembly, rather information about the fixa-
tion structure and fixers is required (Das and Naik 2001). It is possible that Das
and Naik (2001) were the first to introduce DBOM, although the consideration of
disassembly stems from the former works of Wallace (1993) and Johnson (1995).
Furthermore, the literature considers Generic BOM (GBOM). GBOM are typi-
cal of process industries, like the chemical industry where processes frequently
generate co-products or by-products apart from the primary products manufac-
tured. Pantelides (1994) presents a structure, which takes a bipartite graph form,
known as the State Task Network (STN). The STN could also be called co-
product BOM because it is the natural extension of the traditional BOM in which
a co-product table linked to the parent item (the main product) is basically add-
ed. Later, the STN was extended to a Resource Task Network (RTN) in the work
of Barbosa-Pavoa and Pantelides (1997), and is of widespread use in works into
production programming in the chemical industry. Garcia-Sabater et al. (2013)
propose one variant in the GMOP problem called stroke, but its application is
limited to a specific operations planning tool.
Nevertheless, and despite being a specific subject matter for the process industry,
the discrete industry began to consider these subproducts. In the automobile indus-
try, bodywork parts are made in the stamping plant where many products can be
obtained with few raw materials, which can be co-products or by-products
(Deuermeyer and Pierskalla 1978). Other cases in which these products are char-
acterised are found in (Weidema 1999). However, Vidal Carreras et al. (Vidal-
Carreras et al. 2012) introduced the deliberate planning of these products.
580
The last theme about BOM relates to the use of packaging. Several packaging
types exist in accordance with their geometries, uses, weights, etc. Packaging,
such as containers used in port planning, tends to be increasingly considered to be
products that should also be planned.
With non-returnable packaging (e.g., cardboard packaging), the data models
used in most firms can consider, or not, these products. However, a packaging re-
circulation circuit does not exist. In some industries, like the automobile industry,
hard-wearing packaging is often employed to transport parts to either the customer
or to another of the firms plants. In the firms that sequence only products, the
practice of unpacking products from hard-wearing packaging to then pack them in
other loading units (another form of long-lasting packaging) to deliver the just-in-
sequence product is also frequent. In such cases, the product structure is cyclic as
packaging is reused. At the time this document was written, we were unable to
find a case of introducing a data model capable of representing these structures in
the literature.
2.5 The Nature of Products in the BOM
As previously defined, a BOM is a data model that represents relations among

products. However, the nature of the products can also characterise a BOM. A
BOM is normally associated with a product. This product is understood as a com-
ponent, assembly, sub-assembly, material or item that is physically located in a
given place. Probably for economic reasons, but also given the complexity due to
the quantity of products to be managed, BOM have also focused on physical prod-
ucts with added value.
Given the need to consider all possible materials, products which were not for-
merly considered have been introduced into BOM. For instance, Wu et al. (2009)
contemplated two types of BOM for supplies: the raw materials BOM and the
packing BOM. The latter, according to the authors, is necessary to plan the re-
quirements of the boxes, instructions, PVC, etc., used to pack the end product. De-
spite it having a different name, the authors consider that these products equal the
main product in the BOM, and they only take a different name in order to manage
them separately during the MRPII explosion.
There are other types of materials considered in BOM, which are phantom
items. According to Balakrishnan and Geunes (2000), in order to solve the RPS
when the number of alternative elements that can be simultaneously considered is
large, it is interesting to employ the phantom items concept. Clement et al. (1995)
defined phantom items as follows: Phantom items are never produced and are
never stored. In a work about the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 program,
Luszczak (2012) explained that phantom items can be planned, but that they do
not generate manufacturing orders themselves because they do not exist.
581
2.6 The Aggregation Level of BOM Data
In general, and as Stonebraker stated (1996), if limited competition comes into

play with little demand pressure, a traditional detailed BOM suffices. However,
when the life cycles of products are short, flexibility in processes becomes more
important and delivery times are cut. Thus, information systems need to migrate
from a traditional BOM view to an aggregate view called modular BOM. As
Stonebraker explained, unlike a detailed BOM where products are managed from
the highest-level item (end product), the products in modular BOM are managed
at an intermediate BOM level by using groupings. This type of BOM is particular-
ly necessary for mass customization. Thanks to such a BOM, the number of BOM
is cut by segregating common items, and the combinations of product characteris-
tics are eliminated (Stonebraker and Keong Leong 1994).
Beyond the modular BOM, products can, in some cases, be grouped into pseu-
do-items. Pseudo-items were first considered by Mather (1982) to denote a set of
physical parts which are always employed as a set in an assembling process.
3 Conclusions
This article reviews the literature on the different data models to structure BOM in
an attempt to propose support for materials planning and, more recently, for opera-
tions planning. This article proposes a novel classification to characterize BOM
according to the relation between products and components, and also depending
on existing feasible structures. The trend is to consider BOM as a data model used
to support material requirement planning and, more recently, operations planning.
As future topics, it would be convenient to survey the different types of bills used
in different planning domains, like procurement, distribution or sales, and to com-
pare each data structure in detail.
4 References
Balakrishnan A, Geunes J (2000) Requirements Planning with Substitutions: Exploiting Bill-of-

Materials Flexibility in Production Planning. Manufacturing Service Operations Management
2:166-185
Benton WC, Srivastava R (1985) Product structure complexity and multilevel lot sizing using al-
ternative costing policies. Decision Sci 16:357-369
Caridi, M, Sianesi, A (1999) Trends in planning and control systems: APS \ ERP integration.
In: International conference on Advances in production management systems, pp 105-111
Clement J, Coldrick A, Sari J (1995) Manufacturing data structures: building foundations for ex-
cellence with bills of materials and process information. Wiley
582
Cox, JF, Blackstone, JH, Spencer, MS (1995) APICS dictionary.

Crama Y, Pochet Y, Wera R (2001) Production planning aproaches in the process industry.
CORE discussion paper 01:1-31
Das, S, Naik, S (2001) The DBOM standard: a specification for efficient product data transfer
between manufacturers and demanufacturers. In: Electronics and the Environment,
2001.Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE International Symposium on, pp 241-246
Escudero LF (1994) CMIT, capacitated multi-level implosion tool. Eur J Oper Res 76:511-528
Fransoo JC, Rutten WGMM (1994) A typology of production control situations in process indus-
tries. Int J Oper Prod Man 14:47-57
Garcia-Sabater JP, Maheut J, Marin-Garcia JA (2013) A new formulation technique to model
Materials and Operations Planning: The Generic Materials and Operations Planning (GMOP)
Problem. European Journal of Industrial Engineering 7: 119-147
Garwood D (1988) Bills of Materials: Structured for Excellence. Dogwood Publishing Company
Geunes J (2003) Solving large-scale requirements planning problems with component substitu-
tion options. Comput Ind Eng 44:475-491
Grubbstrm RW (1995) Modelling production opportunities: an historical overview. Int J Prod
Eco 41:1-14
Inderfurth K, Langella I (2006) Heuristics for solving disassemble-to-order problems with sto-
chastic yields. OR Spectrum 28:73-99
Johnson MR, Wang MH (1995) Planning product disassembly for material recovery opportuni-
ties. Int J Prod Res 33:3119-
Kim DB (2007) An Enterprise-BOM for the Integration of Product Configuration and BOM Data
in the Automotive Industry. Pacific Science Review 9:72-82
Lang J, Domschke W (2010) Efficient reformulations for dynamic lot-sizing problems with
product substitution. OR Spectrum 32:263-291
Lea BR, Fredendall LD (2002) The impact of management accounting, product structure, prod-
uct mix algorithm, and planning horizon on manufacturing performance. Int J Prod Eco
79:279-299
Lee JH, Kim SH, Lee K (2012) Integration of evolutional BOMs for design of ship outfitting
equipment. Computer-Aided Design 44:253-273
Lin JT, Chen TL, Lin YT (2009) Critical material planning for TFT-LCD production industry.
Int J Prod Eco 122:639-655
Lyon P, Milne RJ, Orzell R et al (2001) Matching Assets with Demand in Supply-Chain Man-
agement at IBM Microelectronics. Interfaces 31:108-124
Mather H (1982) Bills of Materials, Recipes & Formulations. Wright Publishing Company, At-
lanta GA
Meyr H (2004) Supply chain planning in the German automotive industry. OR Spectrum 26:447-
470
Pantelides, CC (1994) Unified Frameworks for the Optimal Process Planning and Scheduling.
In: Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on the Foundations of Computer Aided Operations, pp
253-253
Perez Perales D, Lario FC, Garcia-Sabater JP (2002) Planificacin de Operaciones y Materiales
en una Empresa de Fabricacin y Montaje de Automviles. Cuadernos de Gestin de la Ca-
dena de Suministro 3:5-45
Ram B, Naghshineh-Pour MR, Xuefeng Y (2006) Material requirements planning with flexible
bills-of-material. Int J Prod Res 44:399-415
Rusk PS (1990) The role of the bill of material in manufacturing systems. Engineering Costs and
Production Economics 19:205-211
Segerstedt A (1996) Formulas of MRP. Int J Prod Eco 46-47:127-136
Spengler T, Pchert H, Penkuhn T et al (1997) Environmental integrated production and recy-
cling management. Eur J Oper Res 97:308-326
583
Stonebraker PW (1996) Restructuring the bill of material for productivity: A strategic evaluation
of product configuration. Int J Prod Eco 45:251-260
Wallace DR, Suh NP (1993) Information-Based Design for Environmental Problem Solving.
CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology 42:175-180
Wu DJ (2001) Software agents for knowledge management: coordination in multi-agent supply
chains and auctions. Expert Syst Appl 20:51-64
584
Packaging Logistics. A Case Study in Dairy

Sector
Garca Arca J1, Prado Prado JC, Gonzlez-Portela Garrido A.T
Abstract No many companies give importance to the impact of an appropriate

packaging design for achieving logistic efficiency and sustainability in the supply
chain. In this context, this paper sets out to illustrate how the adoption of Packag-
ing Logistics approach makes it possible to obtain competitive advantages
throughout the supply chain. To illustrate this statement, in this paper, not only the
conceptual field of this concept is developed, but also in its application, analysing
a case study in dairy sector.
Keywords: Packaging, Logistics, Supply Chain, Strategy.
1 Introduction
Nowadays, companies must deal with the challenges, not only in constant innova-
tion in terms of new products and processes, shorter life cycles or increased com-
mercial range, but also in terms of the demand for ever lower prices, with increas-
ingly improved quality standards and service. Thus, current markets could be
characterized as turbulent, volatile and global, so many organizations are search-
ing for a more efficient management of their supply chains as a source of competi-
tive advantages (Christopher, 2000).
In this context, in recent years there has been a double phenomenon of strong
impact on supply chains efficiency: first, globalization of supply chains and, sec-
ondly, the constant increased costs of raw materials, particularly, the oil. The
combination of these two phenomena is not a trivial issue because, strategically,
underscores the urgency of action in pursuit of maximum performance in logistics
activities undertaken across the supply chain (transport, handling, storage, produc-
tion, ...), eliminating "waste" or activities that do not add value to the market (in
1Jess Garca Arca (e-mail: jgarca@uvigo.es)

Grupo de Ingeniera de Organizacin (GIO). Escola de Enxeera Industrial, Campus Lagoas-
Marcosende, C/ Maxwell, 36310 Vigo, Spain
585
line with the Kaizen approach, "Just in Time" (JIT) or "Lean Manufacturing") but
also developing and implementing innovations in processes and products.
Likewise, the growing sensitivity in society as regards a responsible manage-
ment should imply that the supply chain management should be enlarged to take
in the concept of sustainability and its three axes associated: environmental, eco-
nomic and social (Ciliberti et al., 2008).
Beyond the individual framework of a company, this sustainability concept
should be extended to the other companies in the supply chain, whereby all their
organizations should take an active part in designing and implementing logistic
processes that can be considered as sustainable (Ciliberti et al, 2008; Carter and
Rogers, 2008; Seuring and Mller, 2008; Andersen et al. 2009). In this context,
sustainability and efficiency) should be considered as complementary (Mejas-
Sacaluga et al., 2011).
2 Packaging Logistics
In the conceptual framework commented in the previous heading, packaging is

one of the key elements that makes it possible to provide support for the combined
action of efficiency and sustainability strategies. Thus, beyond the traditional (but
nonetheless important) view of packaging as a means of protecting products, over
the last few years, new design requirements have been added for packaging: on the
one hand, to improve the differentiation capacity of the product, and on the other,
to improve the efficiency of the product at logistic level.
Furthermore, this contribution of packaging to efficiency in logistics should be
considered not only in terms of its direct view (in the processes of supplying,
packing, handling, storing and transport), but also reversely (re-use, recycling
and/or recovery waste from packaging). All this has, in practice, meant the devel-
opment of specific legislations (e.g., European Directive 94/62/EC; 1994).
In this context, authors such as Saghir (2002), Garca-Arca and Prado-Prado
(2008) or Bramklev (2009) identify in packaging three main functions: the com-
mercial function, the logistics function (direct logistics) and the environmental
function (reverse logistics). Also, in order to put these functions into practice, it is
essential to consider the packaging as a system comprising three levels (Saghir,
2002): the primary packaging (also known as the consumer packaging), the sec-
ondary packaging (a group of several primary packages; known as transport
packaging) and the tertiary packaging (involving several primary or secondary
packages grouped together on a pallet).
When contemplating packaging as a whole, the natural interaction among dif-
ferent levels would become manifest, depicting the dependence among them. In
fact, the adaptation of a set level of packaging should not be contemplated if the
integration of the set of all the levels of grouped form is not also considered.
586
Nowadays, the choice of the type of packaging is usually subject only to con-
siderations involving cost reduction. Thus, packaging design affects costs both di-
rectly (costs of purchasing and waste management) and indirectly (packing, han-
dling, storage and transport). It is precisely this indirect way that makes difficult
an adequate understanding of the repercussions of certain decisions in packaging
design (Garca-Arca and Prado-Prado, 2008).
With this broader view of packaging, over the last few years, the integration of
logistics and the packaging design has been conceptualized in the term packaging
logistics, particularly emphasizing the operational and organizational repercus-
sions (Hellstrm and Saghir, 2006; Garca-Arca and Prado-Prado, 2008). Shagir
considers packaging logistics as the process of planning, implementing and
controlling the coordinated packaging system of preparing goods for safe, efficient
and effective handling, storage, retailing, consumption and recovery, reuse or dis-
posal and related information combined with maximizing consumer value, sales
and hence profit.
As a result of the packaging logistics implementation, it is possible to deal with
the search for packaging able to meet the needs of the companies based on the
possibilities associated with the combinations in the packaging structure (primary,
secondary and tertiary packaging) and with the four main decisions to be taken in
design: selection of the materials, dimensions, groupings (the number of
packs/package) and graphic artwork (or the aesthetic design of the packaging).
After the justification and the conceptual development of the Packaging Lo-
gistics approach, the main objective of this paper is to illustrate the potential of
applying this approach in the dairy supply chain. Thus, for theory testing, the au-
thors have adopted the action research approach, directly participating in the
packaging logistics implementation process in a dairy company, leading and co-
ordinating the project. Thanks to this involvement, the researchers have the oppor-
tunity to witness the process, not only as mere observers, but also as real agents
of change in intervention and knowhow compiling processes (Maull et al., 1995;
Prado-Prado, 2000). Action research can be seen as a variant of case research
(Yin, 2002), but whereas a case researcher is an independent observer, an action
researcher . . . is a participant in the implementation, but simultaneously wants to
evaluate a certain intervention technique... (Coughlan & Coghlan, 2002).
The analyzed company, based in Galicia (Northwest Spain), is one of the most
important manufacturers in dairy Spanish market (among the 12 main manufactur-
ers), with an annual turnover of over 100 million euros and in its factory provides
jobs to over 250 employees. Currently markets various dairy products such as
milk, liquid yoghurts, cream and butter, milkshakes and cheeses.
To make the study, we have focused on the products packaged in milk briks
(the company packs more than 100 million liters/year). Particularly, we have stud-
ied the 1 liter milk brik with cap (primary packaging), grouped in packs of 6 briks
(secondary packaging) and palletized in EUR pallet (tertiary packaging). The
587
analysis was complemented by a literature review and a field study of dairy prod-
ucts (based on briks) in three supermarkets chains in Galicia (Northwest Spain).
3 Packaging Logistics in Action
The Brik was developed by Ruben Rausing in 1951 in Lund (Sweden). It can be
made for up to six different layers and for guidance, a brick pack would comprise
75% cardboard, 20% plastic (Polyethylene) and 5% of aluminum. Despite its use-
fulness to preserve perishable liquid foods (including milk) without refrigeration
and preservatives and its good logistical efficiency (volumetric occupation), this
package is still blames environmental misbehavior. However, this difficulty of re-
cycling has improved as technology evolves in separation of layers.
The logistics of milk briks has no special requirements of conservation (tem-
perature) as it happens with other milky products like cheese, yoghurt and cream
(with a specific supply chain). In this context, the supply chain of the dairy com-
pany selected can be represented in figure 1. In this figure, we have paid special
attention to the processes from packaging purchases, packing and physical distri-
bution to reverse logistics. Table 1 shows the costs associated with the studied part
of the chain and the level of packaging affected (Brik, pack and / or pallet).
Furthermore, in the analysis 4 milk brik formats were selected (see Figure 2,
A, B, C and D) as well as 5 of the most widely used formats of packs (see table 2,
A.1, A.2, B.1, C.1 and D.1). Among all these combinations the analyzed company
used brik A and pack A.1.

Other distributorssuppliers
Distributor
Warehouse
Raw materialssuppliers
Distributor
Warehouse

Factory
Distributor
Packaging Suppliers Warehouse
Packaging reverse
Small
logistics (Green Dot)
clients
Fig. 1 Supply chain of the dairy company
Regarding the packaging process purchases, indicating that the final price depends
on the type of brick format, material and weight (A, B, C and D), as well as pur-
588
chase volume (economies of scale). As a simplification for the analysis, it was

considered that for the same volume of purchase, the final cost of each carton de-
pends on its individual weight (see table 3), although, also would be affected by
the number of layers and the type of material of each layer.
Also, the cost of pack (secondary packaging) is determined by the type of ma-
terials, their weight and by the number of briks/pack. Furthermore, the packing
process is highly automated, although their flexibility and adaptation to different
formats of briks and packs is low (high impact of setup). This aspect limits, in
general, the coexistence of various formats of briks and packs in the same manu-
facturing line so that, in practice, these lines are specialized.
Table 1 Affected costs by packaging design decisions
Processes Units of cost Impact on supply chain

Packaging purchases Brik, pack (purchases) Manufacturer
Packing Brik, pack (setups, productivity) Manufacturer. Factory
Handling, storage and picking Pallet Manufacturers warehouse
Pack (picking)
Transport (mainly full truck) Pallet Manufacturer and distributors
Handling, storage and picking Pallet Distributors warehouses
Pack (picking)
Transport (mainly combined truck) Pallet Distributor and supermarkets
Handling Pallet, pack Supermarkets
Reverse Logistics Brik and pack waste (Green Dot) Manufacturer
Fig. 2 Different types of briks (from left to right: A, B, C and D)
With regard to the physical distribution (handling, storage and transport), the
efficiency of palletizing is conditioned by the type of brik but also by the part of
the supply chain that focuses on the analysis (see table 2). In this sense, the milk
briks pallet has a high density and high consumption. A priori, this product could
be distributed efficiently, optimizing the activities of handling, storage and
transport, looking for a larger number of liters per pallet, within the constraints of
strength of brik and pack. In this regard, the maximum number of layers per pallet
is conditioned not only by the type of brik, but also by the location of the cap (oth-
er formats without cap can withstand more layers).
589
However, the type of transport between manufacturer and distributors ware-

houses is full load truck" (maximum load limit of 33 EUR pallets and 24.4
tonnes). Traditionally, manufacturers have not paid much interest in improving the
volumetric efficiency of pallet (although there are significant differences as shown
in table 2), since the weight determines the maximum number of pallets per truck.
In fact, in the company analyzed, the number of pallets per truck does not exceed
30. All this significantly affects, not only to the efficiency of handling and storage
in the warehouses of the manufacturer, distributors and supermarkets, but also in
transport between distributors warehouses and supermarkets.
Table 2 Logistics analysis of alternatives of briks and packs
Type and Brik Type of pack and di- Palletization Pallet Pallet Transport
dimensions mensions (mm.; height weight efficiency
(mm.; W*L*H) L*W*H) (m., incl. (kg.; incl.
pallet) pallet)
Type A Type A.1 720 briks 1.33 807 30 pallets/truck
60*90*195 Cardboard b ox (wrap- 24 packs/layer; 5 21,600 briks/truck
around) layers/pallet (initial solution)
282*127*216
Type A Type A.2 720 briks 1.3 800 30 pallets/truck
60*90*195 Cardboard tray and plastic 24 packs/layer; 5 21,600 briks/truck
cover layers/pallet (no improvement)
282*128*210
Type B Type B.1 768 briks 1.31 848 28 pallets/truck
65*70*252 Plastic cover (+6.66%) 21,504 briks/truck
219*130*265 32 packs/layer; 4 (-0.44%)
layers/pallet
Type C Type C.1 864 briks 1.4 951 25 pallets/truck
71*75*204 Plastic cover and carboard (+20%) 21,600 briks/truck
sheet 24 packs/layer; 6 (no improvement)
227*150*205 layers/pallet
Type D Type D.1 816 briks 1.23 903 27 pallets/truck
62*70*239 Cardboard tray and plastic (+13.3%) 22,032 briks/trailer
cover 34 packs/layer; 4 (+2%)
228*128*245 layers/pallet
In particular, in the latter transport, the type of truck changes, not only in the
capacity (typically with less capacity vehicles), but also in the configuration of
goods, due to mill pallets are combined with other pallets of products food with
lower densities (mono-reference and / or multi-reference pallets). By combining
these different types of products, generally, the average weight in each pallet on
this new truck is reduced, enabling a priori a better pallet volume. This brings ad-
590
ditional advantages in supermarkets that have opted to present directly at the point
of sale the milk pallet (minor handling and better occupancy in supermarkets).
Even, company can adopt alternatives that reduce the weight of traditional
wooden pallet (25 kilograms per pallet) to gain useful load capacity on trucks.
Among these alternatives are (see Figure 3): the plastic pallet (6 kg.), the card-
board pallet (12 kg.) or the "loading ledge" (1.5 kg. approximately). In an initial
full load truck (30 pallets), the analyzed manufacturer could earn up to 800 kilo-
grams (option with loading ledge), equivalent to an additional pallet on each truck
(3.33%). In the rest of the options, also an additional pallet per truck is load except
in the option D. However, any of these alternatives would require a change in the
pool system (exchange of pallets or "loading ledge"). Besides, the loading ledge,
moreover, requires changes in the palletizing system at the manufacturer's premis-
es. Therefore, it has not been considered all these options in the final analysis
Fig. 3 Alternatives for configuration of an unit load. From left to right: wood pallet, cardboard
pallet, plastic pallet and loading ledge
Finally, at the level of reverse logistics, the Green Dot cost also depends on the
selection of the brik and the pack. Table 3 summarizes the total costs of Green Dot
per each alternative (Ecoembes fees in 2013 are: 0.323 / kg. Brik; 0.068 / kg.
cardboard; 0.472 / kg. plastic).
Table 3 Cost of Green Dot of each of brik and pack analyzed
TOTAL
Brik weight Brik Green Pack Green GREEN
Brik Pack Pack
(gr.; without Dot (million Type of pack Dot (millionDOT
model model weight
cap) euros/year) euros/year) (million eu-
ros/year)
Cardboard box
A 38 1.227 A.1 87 gr. 0.098 1.325
(wrap-around)
Cardboard tray (C) 44 gr. (C) 1.376
A 38 1.227 A.2 0.149
and plastic cover (P) 12 gr. (P) (+3.44%)
1.378
B 39 1.26 B.1 Plastic cover 15 gr. 0.118
(+3.90%)
Plastic cover (P) and 14 gr. (P) 1.297
C 36 1.162 C.1 0.135
carboard sheet (C) 22 gr. (C) (-2.11%)
Cardboard tray (C) 51 gr. (C) 1.322
D 36 1.162 D.1 0.160
and plastic cover (P) 13 gr. (P) (-0.23%)
591
As a final decision, it was decided to choose the most efficient brik format in
logistics (format D), since is the alternative with major level of total savings (see
tables 2 and 3). This alternative involves no substantial changes in the system of
packing in brik and pack and implies savings in handling and storage of over
16,000 pallets a year (a reduction of 11.7%). This improvement is also an annual
reduction in the number of full trucks to 92 trucks (2% reduction). Only in
transport between the manufacturer and distributors, this change should involve
saving of 60,000 euros/year (total savings with initial solution of at least 35,000
euros/year). Likewise, additional savings could be achieved thanks to the reduc-
tion of handling and storage in manufacturers, distributors and supermarkets, but
also of the transport costs between the distributors' warehouses and supermarkets.
4 Conclusions
In a competitive and global scenario, companies should improve their supply

chain from a sustainable and efficient perspective. The real challenge for compa-
nies is how to integrate, proactively and strategically, both concepts. In this con-
text, redesigning packaging by applying the Packaging Logistics concept is an
example of this integration as it was illustrated in the dairy company. As described
in this paper, the supply chain as a whole has also succeeded in making substantial
savings at logistics and environmental level.
5 References
Andersen, M. and Skjoett-Larsen, T. (2009), Corporate social responsibility in global supply

chains, Supply chain management: An International Journal, vol. 14, issue 2, pp. 77-87.
Bramklev C. (2009) On a proposal for a generic package development process, Packaging
Technology and Science, vol. 22, p. 171-186.
Carter, C.R and Rogers, D.S. (2008). A framework of sustainable supply chain management:
moving toward new theory, Int. J. of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 38 (5),
pp 360-387.
Ciliberti, F., Portrandolfo, P. and Scozzi, B. (2008), Logistics social responsibility: Standard
adoption and practices in Italian companies, Int. J. of Production Economics, N, 113, pp:
88-106.
Christopher M. (2005),Logistics and Supply Chain management strategies for reducing cost and
improving service, 3 edition, London: Financial Times Pitman Publishing.
Coughlan, P. and Coghlan, D. (2002). "Action research for operations management", Interna-
tional Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 22 Iss: 2, pp.220 - 240
Garca-Arca J. and Prado-Prado J.C. (2008) Packaging design model from a supply chain ap-
proach. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 13, nm. 5, p. 375-380.
Hellstrm D. and Saghir, M. (2006) Packaging and logistics interactions in retail supply chain,
Packaging Technology and Science, vol. 20, p. 197-216.
592
Maull, R. S., Weaver, A. M., Childe, S. J., Smart, P. A., and Bennett, J. (1995). Current issues in
business process reengineering. Int. J. of Operations and Production Management, 15(11),
3752.
Mejas-Sacaluga, A., Garca-Arca, J., Prado-Prado, J.C. and Fernndez-Gonzlez, A.F. (2011):
Modelo para la aplicacin de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa en la Gestin de la Ca-
dena de Suministro, Direccin y Organizacin, N 45, pp. 20-31.
Prado-Prado, J. C. (2000). El proceso de mejora continua en la empresa. Madrid: Pirmide.
Saghir, M., (2002), Packaging Logistics Evaluation in the Swedish supply Chain, Lund Uni-
versity.
Seuring, S. and Mller, M. (2008). From a literature review to a conceptual framework for sus-
tainable supply chain management, Journal of Cleaner Production, 16, pp 1699-1710.
Yin, R.K. (2002). Applications of Case Study Research, Thousands Oaks: Ed. Sage Publications.
593
Inter Enterprise Framework for Hierarchical

Decisions
Vargas A1, Boza A, Cuenca L, Ortiz A
Abstract Due to the condition of the current global environment, organizations

have to compete not only with single companies, but also with Supply Chains
(SC) or Collaborative Networks (CN). In this sense, companies that make up this
kind of organizations have to integrate their processes and must collaborate with
each other in order to be competitive. To achieve this goal, companies have to deal
with collaborative decision-making processes, which in this context are more
complex than in a single organization. Some of these collaborative networks have
a hierarchical structure, which means that each level in the structure has a different
role in the decision-making process. Enterprise Engineering through Enterprise
Architecture (EA) can be used by enterprises to facilitate the integration of all el-
ements and to analyse the complex hierarchical decision processes. Therefore, in
order to understand the decision-making process in a hierarchical inter enterprise
context using Enterprise Architecture concepts, this paper proposes a framework
for inter-enterprise architecture for supporting Hierarchical Decision.
Keywords: Inter-Enterprise Architecture, Collaborative Networks, Extended En-

terprise, Hierarchical Decision, Decision Support Systems
1 Introduction
In the current changing business environment, enterprises join forces with their
partners in Supply Chains (SC) in order to survive and be competitive. Collabora-
1Alix Vargas ( e-mail: alvarlo@posgrado.upv.es)
Research Centre on Production Management and Engineering (CIGIP). Universitat Politcnica

de Valncia (UPV). Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia Spain
* This research has been carried out in the framework of the project Sistema de ayuda a la toma
de decisiones ante decisiones no programadas en la planificacin jerrquica de la produccin
(ADENPRO-PJP) Ref. SP20120703 funded by the Vicerrectorado de Investigacin de la
Universitat Politcnica de Valncia.)
594
tive Networks (CN) arise as an evolved form of the SC, which are defined as a net
of autonomous organizations that are globally distributed and have a single strate-
gic plan with individual goals, but they collaborate synergistically to achieve bet-
ter common goals. This jointly generates value for each enterprise, and their in-
teractions normally are supported by new technologies and computer networks
(Camarinha-Matos and Afsarmanesh, 2008). An Extend Enterprise (EE) is a mani-
festation of a CN, where exists a dominant enterprise that increases its boundaries
to its network of suppliers imposing stringent contractual conditions, in terms of
quality, quantity, delivery times, capacity, technology tools, information systems
and methods to be used (Camarinha-Matos et al., 2009). The main goals in these
collaborative networks are to achieve efficient workflow, flexibility, effectiveness,
agility and coordination between chain links. Thus, every chain link must be pro-
vided with sufficient information and appropriate technology and information sys-
tems to achieve these goals.
Enterprise Engineering and Enterprise Architecture (EA) can be used as tools
that facilitate the design of these collaborative networks. This design might in-
clude business processes, systems information, organizational structure and tech-
nology infrastructure. In this way, the collaborative networks can be represented
in a holistic perspective, in order to achieve joint business objectives and to facili-
tate its decision-making process. On the other hand, some collaborative networks
has a hierarchical structure, as is the case of EE, this means that the decisions have
to be made according to a specific hierarchical process. In order to facilitate it, the
support of Information Systems (IS) is necessary, specifically regarding Decision
Support Systems (DSS). This way, EA can facilitate and support the modelling of
DSS in order to overcome the challenges imposed by these new business envi-
ronments. Thus, we propose an Inter Enterprise Framework for Hierarchical Deci-
sions that will be used as an analysis tool for modelling of a decisions support sys-
tem in this context.
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 introduces the field of Enterprise
Architecture; Section 3 introduces the field of Decision Support Systems and Hi-
erarchical Production Planning; Section 4 presents the Inter Enterprise Framework
for Hierarchical Decisions (IEFHD); finally, Section 5 presents the main conclu-
sions and future steps in this research.
2 Inter-Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture is a discipline that arises in the field of Enterprises Engi-

neering. Enterprise Architecture provides a set of principles, methods, models and
tools used for analysis, design and redesign of a company, thus allowing to repre-
sent and document the elements that form the company (such as organizational
structure, business processes, systems information and technology infrastructure)
595
and the relations, organization and joints between these elements, allowing the
company to be represented in a holistic and integrated perspective, in order to
achieve the business objectives and facilitate decision-making processes (Vargas
et al., 2011). In recent years, several researchers have proposed enterprise archi-
tectures, among which stand out: CIMOSA (Kosanke, 1996), GIM-GRAI (Chen et
al., 1997), PERA (Williams and Li, 1998); GERAM (IFIP, 1999), IE-GIP (Ortiz
et al., 1999; Cuenca et al., 2011a; Cuenca et al., 2011b); ARDIN (Chalmeta and
Grangel, 2003); ARIS (Scheer and Schneider, 2006) and TOGAF-ADM (THE
OPEN GROUP, 2011).
The common elements that bind these enterprise architectures are: methodolo-
gy, framework and language modelling (Vargas et al., 2011). These elements must
be provided by enterprise architectures for successful implementation within the
enterprise. The definition of a methodology facilitates the implementation of the
architecture (Bernard, 2005); the framework allows a graphic and simple structure
of the elements that make up the enterprise (Cuenca et al., 2011a) and how these
elements are related; furthermore, modelling language allows for modelling, or-
ganization and understanding of the relationships between elements of the enter-
prise (Vargas et al., 2011).
Vargas et al. (2013) propose the concept of Inter-Enterprise Architecture (IEA)
looking for applications of the tools and methodologies of EA, which have been
developed for the individual enterprise, but adapting them in a collaborative envi-
ronment between several enterprises that make up supply chains and networks.
IEA facilities integrate collaboration processes among enterprises with their in-
formation systems and technology systems, supporting joint processes, reducing
risks and redundancies and increasing customer service responsiveness. In the
context of collaborative networks, it is important to develop an IEA that facilitates
the decision-making in a hierarchical environment.
3 Hierarchical Decision
The hierarchical decision associated with the different levels of decision-making

in a single organization is extended in hierarchical collaborative networks (HCN)
where decisions are extended beyond the boundaries of the main enterprise. The
complexity of the decisions and the number of variables to be treated can produce
systems that are hardly affordable. In this sense, the analysis of hierarchical deci-
sion-making in the area of production has been amply addressed through the Hier-
archical Production Planning (HPP) systems. In these systems, the decisions are
split into sub-problems. Each sub-problem is referred to a decision-making level
in the organizational structure and an optimization model is constructed for solv-
ing each sub-problem (Alemany, 2003).
596
Thus, in order to ensure an effective decision-making process in a HCN, a

hierarchical set of decision models can be used, and each participating enterprise
can be required to provide the adequate information and to define the aggregation/
disaggregation processes of information between levels.
The decisions that are made at a high level impose restrictions on lower level
decisions. In response, the detailed decisions provide the necessary feedback to
evaluate the quality of the decision (Boza et al., 2009). Each hierarchical level has
its own characteristics, including length of the decision horizon, level of detail of
the required information and forecast, scope of the decision, and type of manager
in charge of executing the decision (Bitran and Hax, 1977; McKay et al., 1995;
Zolghadri et al., 2002). Information Systems are key tools for these hierarchical
decision systems, in which the decision system helps to reach the stated objectives
in the organizations.
A Decision Support System (DSS) is a computer technology solution that can
be used to support complex decision-making (Shim et al., 2002). DSS serves
management operations and planning levels of an organization and help make
decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance.
Therefore, it is really important for the DSS to be able to provide information in
real time.
Fig. 1 Framework for a Decision Support System in a Hierarchical Extended Enterprise decision
context (Boza et al., 2010)
Boza et al. (2009) propose a framework for a Decision Support System in a Hi-
erarchical Extended Enterprise (FDSSHEE) decision context, see Fig. 1. In this
sense, it is possible to use this framework in order to make a flexible DSS that can
be used in a variety of settings where a hierarchical approach allows an improve-
ment in the decision-making. Three main components have been identified: Data
597
modelling, Decision Modelling and Model Analysis and Investigation. However,

this framework could be extended considering elements from Enterprise Engineer-
ing and Enterprise Architecture.
4 Inter Enterprise Frameworks for Hierarchical Decision

(IEFHD)
In seeking to propose a useful reference framework for Inter Enterprise Architec-

ture for Hierarchical Decision, we propose the IEFHD, of which the structure and
elements are shown in Fig. 2. Previous works on enterprise architecture frame-
works referenced in Section 2 and the works of (Boza et al., 2009; Boza et al.,
2010) in Hierarchical DSS have been taken into account in this proposal which in-
cludes the following perspectives: modelling views, life cycle phases and model-
ling detail level.
Fig. 2 Inter Enterprise Framework for Hierarchical Decisions
Modelling views: Seven modelling views have been proposed, in order to as-
sure a complete and integral modelling of the IEFHD. The classical function
view (IFIP, 1999) has been split into two different views: business and pro-
cess, in order to facilitate the modelling, due to the fact that the business view
is focused on strategic issues and the process view is focused on tactical and
operational aspects. The knowledge view is an evolution of information and
data views. The main elements proposed in the FDSSHEE have been taken in-
598
to account in the IEFHD in the views of Decision, Knowledge and IS/IT, and
all of them are related to the process view. These elements have been high-
lighted in a different colour in the Fig. 2.
Here is a brief description of each view:
Business: This view represents the strategic aspects that must be taken into ac-
count in the EE, including negotiation, contract, objectives, KPI, monitoring,
and performance assessment. Organization: This view allows the representa-
tion and modification of the organizational and hierarchical structure and the
teams involved into the HCN and its decision-making (IFIP, 1999). Resources:
This view represents the capabilities and resources to complete business pro-
cesses and the roles and responsibilities of individuals and organizational units
within the HCN. This view includes physical and human resources (IFIP,
1999). Decision: This view refers to the decision-making system that has to be
adopted for the business process managers. This view is indispensable to de-
termine how the decisions are taken into the planning process (Chen et al.,
1997). It is included in this view the element Decision modelling in the con-
ceptualization phase, because this element has to be aligned with the joint busi-
ness strategy and the organizational structure. Process: This view represents
HCN processes, functionality, performance, inputs and outputs. This view in-
cludes a definition of the AS-IS Process and the TO-BE Process, as well as
process operation and process improvement. Knowledge: Data is information
for organizations. In the continuous learning process where organizations are
involved, the information that they handle becomes knowledge. Thus, it is a
differentiator asset to the HCN (Boza et al., 2010). It is included in this view
the element Data Modelling in definition and operation phases, because the
Data Modelling has to be designed in the definition phase and it has to work
when the process starts. Information Systems / Information Technology (IS/IT):
This view defines what kind of applications and technology are relevant to the
EE and what these applications need to manage data and present information
(Cuenca et al., 2011b). It is included in this view Analysis Decision Model-
ling in the operation phase, due the fact that in this phase the decision process
is executed taking into account the Data Modelling which is linked with the
Information Systems.
Life Cycle Phases: The life cycle phases are a state of development in the life
cycle of a HCN. IEFHD considers in its design the proposals of ARCON
(Camarinha-Matos and Afsarmanesh, 2008) and GERAM (IFIP, 1999) in this
aspect, due the fact that these two architectures are complementary with each
other.
A brief description of each phase for the HCN scope:
Creation: This phase represents the motivation of collaboration from stake-
holders and its incubation. In this phase are defined the teams the teams
evolved, structure and roles and responsibilities. Conceptualization: This
599
phase represents the strategic definition of the HCN and its implicit negotia-
tion. Definition: This phase represents the definition of business process, con-
tract, objectives, Re-engineer tasks, KPIs, individual knowledge, sensor ontol-
ogy and sensor behaviour system. Operation: This phase is surely the most
important; it occurs when the HCN operates directly towards achieving its
goals. Evolution: During the operation of a HCN it may be necessary to make
some changes to its membership, process, contract, structural relationships,
and roles of its members. Dissolution: A HCN will typically dissolve after ac-
complishing its goal. However, this network could evolve into a new structure
where the knowledge acquired could generate collective learning and trust in
the collaborative process.
Modelling detail level: This perspective has to do with the detail level of the
modelling, the general modelling being the most neutral that it could be for
any kind of HCN, partial modelling occurs when the model is developed for a
specific cluster and the particular modelling is developed for a specific EE.
Each cell in the IEFHD represents the intersection of a particular life cycle
phase with one modelling view. Not all views include all life cycle phases because
the views of process, knowledge and IT do not require the definition of elements
in the beginning of the life cycle due to the fact that their core is in the middle of
the HCN life cycle.
5 Conclusions
In this paper, we have proposed the IEFHD seeking to use Inter Enterprise Archi-
tecture to facilitate the modelling hierarchical decisions in HCN. This framework
allows to organizing in a structured way all the elements that represent a HCN
through its whole life cycle. This proposal allows for having a big picture of a
HCN that will facilitate understanding our current research about decision-making
process in hierarchical environments.
For future papers, we are going to continue working in this line of research in
order to propose a complete Reference Model for Inter Enterprise Architecture for
HCN, defining the Meta-Model of relationship between elements of the IEFHD
that allow validation of the correct gear of the framework, proposing a Inter En-
terprise Architecture Methodology for hierarchical decisions (IEAMHD) and
choosing the modelling language to use it. Also, it is important to validate different
HCN in order to propose specific and particular architecture models.
600
6 References
Alemany, M.E. (2003). Metodologa y Modelos para el Diseo y Operacin de los Sistemas de
Planificacin Jerrquica de la Produccin. Aplicacin a una Empresa del Sector Cermico,
Tesis, Universidad Politcnica de Valencia.
Bernard, S. (2005). An introduction to enterprise architecture. Bloomington: AuthorHouse.
Bitran, G. and Hax, A. (1977). On the design of hierarchical production planning systems. Deci-
sion Science, 8, 28-55.
Boza, A., Ortiz, A., Vicens, E., Poler, R. (2009). A Framework for a Decision Support System in
a Hierarchical Extended Enterprise Decision Context. In R. S. Poler (Ed.), Enterprise In-
teroperability. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (Vol. 38, pp. 113-124).
Springer.
Boza, A., Ortiz, A., Cuenca, Ll. (2010). A Framework for Developing a Web-Based Optimiza-
tion Decision Support System for Intra/Inter-organizational Decision-Making Processes. In
Balanced Automation Systems for Future Manufacturing Networks (Vol. 322, pp. 121-128).
Springer.
Camarinha-Matos, L., Afsarmanesh, H., Galeano, N., Molina, A. (2009). Collaborative net-
worked organizations Concepts and practice in manufacturing enterprises. Computers and
Industrial Engineering, 57, 46-60.
Camarinha-Matos, L., and Afsarmanesh, H. (2008). Collaborative networks: Reference Model-
ing. (S. S. Media, Ed.)
Chalmeta, R., and Grangel, R. (2003). ARDIN extension for virtual enterprise integration. The
Journal of Systems and Software, 67.
Chen, D., Vallespir, B., and Doumeingts, G. (1997). GRAI integrated methodology and its map-
ping onto generic enterprise reference architecture and methodology. Computers in Industry,
33, 387-394.
Cuenca, L., Boza, A., Ortiz, A. (2011a). An enterprise engineering approach for the alignment of
business and information technology strategy. Int. J. Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 24
(11), 974-992.
Cuenca, L., Ortiz, A., Boza, A. (2011b). Architecting Business and IS/IT Strategic Aligment for
Extend Enterprises. Studies in informatics and control, 20 (1), 7-18.
IFIP. (1999). GERAM: Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture and Methodology. Re-
trieved 2011 8-Abril from International Federation for Information Processing:
http://dl.ifip.org/index.php/index/index
Kosanke, K. (1996). CIMOSA Primer on key concepts, purpose and business value. Retrieved
2011 23-Abril from CIMOSA Association: http://cimosa.cnt.pl/
McKay, K., Safayeni, F., Buzacott, J. (1995). A Review of Hierarchical Production Planning and
its Applicability for Modern Manufacturing. . Production Planning and Control , 6, 384-394.
Ortiz, A., Lario, F., Ros, L. (1999). IE-GIP. A proposal for a methodology to develop Enterprise
Integration Programs. Computers in Industry, 40, 155-171.
Scheer, A., and Schneider, K. (2006). ARIS Architecture of Integrated Information. Handbook
on Architectures of Information Systems (3), 605-623.
Shim, J., Warkentin, M., Courtney, J., Power, D., Sharda, R., Carlsson, C. (2002). Past, present,
and future of decision support technology. Decision Support System, 33, 111-126.
THE OPEN GROUP. (2011). The Open Group. Retrieved 2012 23-April from
https://www.opengroup.org/index.htm
Vargas, A., Boza, A., Cuenca, L. (2011). Towards Interoperability through Inter-enterprise Col-
laboration Architectures. In R. Meersman, T. Dillon, and P. Herrero (Eds.), OTM 2011
Workshops. LNCS (Vol. 7046, pp. 102-111). Berlin: Springer.
601
Vargas, A., Boza, A., Cuenca, L., Sacala, I. (2013). Inter-Enterprise Architecture and Internet of
the Future. 4th Doctoral Conference on Computing, Electrical and Industrial Systems (Do-
CEIS13). Lisbon.
Williams, T. and Li, H. (1998). PERA and GERAM enterprise reference architectures in enter-
prise integration. Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing , 1-27.
Zolghadri, M., Lecompte, T., Bourrieres, J. (2002). Design of Decision Support Systems for Ex-
tended Enterprise. Studies In Informatics And Control With Emphasis on Useful Applications
of Advanced Technology, 11.
602
Enterprise Resilience Assessment: A

Categorisation Framework of Disruptions
Sanchis R1, Poler R2
Abstract Currently, enterprises are more exposed to vulnerabilities and threats

due to the recent context and this makes enterprises need the capacity to be ready
and prepared to face up to more and more disruptions. If a disruption impact on an
enterprise, it will have to adapt to this new situation and try to recover as soon as
possible to its normal state of operations. This ability has been defined as Enter-
prise Resilience. In order to assess how resilient an enterprise is, it is necessary to
firstly focus on the trigger that causes this lack of enterprise resilience: the disrup-
tions. This paper proposes a categorisation framework of disruptions which is the
starting point to evaluate the resilience capacity of enterprises.
Keywords: Enterprise Resilience, Disruption, Source, Consequences, Framework
1 Introduction
In this turbulent and changing environment, enterprises are exposed to a high

number of disruptions that alter its normal and daily operations. In order to face up
to this unstable context, enterprises and supply chains (SCs) should be resilient.
Enterprise resilience is the capacity to decrease the level of vulnerability to ex-
pected and unexpected disruptions, its ability to change itself and adapt to its
changing environment, and its ability to recover in the least possible time (Erol et
al., 2010). Disruptions appear in the definition of enterprise resilience as the trig-
ger that causes enterprises weakness. In order to assess how resilient an enterprise
1Raquel Sanchis ( e-mail: rsanchis@cigip.upv.es)

Centro de Investigacin Gestin e Ingeniera de Produccin (CIGIP). Universitat Politcnica de
Valncia. Plaza Ferrndiz y Carbonell 2, 03801 Alcoy Alicante Espaa.
2Ral Poler ( e-mail: rpoler@cigip.upv.es)
Centro de Investigacin Gestin e Ingeniera de Produccin (CIGIP). Universitat Politcnica de
Valncia. Plaza Ferrndiz y Carbonell 2, 03801 Alcoy Alicante Espaa.
603
or its SC is, it should be studied in detail what generates the lack of enterprise re-
silience: the disruptions. Section 2 reviews the literature about disruptions and de-
scribes its main elements. Section 3 proposes a categorisation framework of dis-
ruptions which is the starting point to evaluate the resilience capacity of
enterprises. Finally, section 4 highlights the main conclusions and further re-
search.
2 Disruptions
In the literature, there is no consensus on the term disruption. Some authors use
perturbance (Svensson, 2000 and Kleindorfer y Saad, 2005), others prefer to use
risk (Chopra y Sodhi, 2004), uncertainty (Mason-Jones and Towill, 1998), dis-
turbance (Barroso et al., 2008) and crisis (Natarajarathinam et al., 2009) to de-
note the term disruption.
Svensson (2000) and Kleindorfer and Saad (2005) define perturbance, what is
considered in this work as disruption, as an unexpected event that interrupts the
normal flow of products and materials in a SC. Barrroso et al. (2008) define dis-
turbance as a foreseeable or unforeseeable event, which affects directly the usual
operation and stability of an enterprise or its SC.
In this work, a disruption is considered to be composed by 3 elements (Fig. 1):
Source: source that causes and originate the disruption.
Disruptive event: event that causes an expected or unexpected perturbance that
have negative effects on the enterprise and its SC.
Consequence: Alteration of the normal flow of products and materials.
Disruption
Source Disruptive event Consequences
Level/Origin Perturban ce Initial Impact/Long-term

impact
Fig. 1 Summary of the disruptions elements
2.1 Disruptions Sources
Mason-Jones and Towill (1998) classify uncertainty sources into 4 categories: (i)
process uncertainty (affecting the internal processes of an enterprise to fulfil the
planned objectives); (ii) supply uncertainty (the supplier cannot provide the re-
604
quired products with the requirements specified by the focal company); (iii) de-
mand uncertainty (it is related to customers requirements, demand volatility,
products customization, etc.); and (iv) control uncertainty (it is related to the
flows of information, materials and/or finance and how an enterprise manage these
flows to provide products).
Christopher and Peck (2004) consider the same categories than Mason-Jones
and Towill (1998), however they subdivide these categories into three classes: i)
within an enterprise, ii) outside an enterprise but internal to the SC or iii) external
to the SC.
Cranfield (2002) explain that disruptions could arise from a number of sources,
such as: natural disasters, terrorist incidents, industrial or direct action and opera-
tional difficulties. They also consider that these sources could be also classified in-
to two types: those disruptions arising within the SC and those ones external to it
(Cucchiella and Gastaldi, 2006).
Kleindorfer and Saad (2005) differentiate uncertainty sources between internal
or external to the enterprise. Moreover, they consider three sources of disruption:
operational contingencies; natural hazards and terrorism; and political instability.
Wager and Bode (2006 and 2009) group the SC risk sources in demand; sup-
ply; catastrophic; regulatory, legal and bureaucratic; and infrastructure risk.
Hu et al. (2008) state that the disruptive events could range from natural events,
to accidents, transportation disruptions, or to man-made events. Barroso et al.,
(2008) explain that an enterprise could be affected by disturbances derived from
internal or external sources. And they classify human, equipment, energetic and
financial aspects as internal disturbance sources and supply, man made, nature and
customers as external disturbance sources.
Wagner and Neshat (2010) categorize SC vulnerability drivers into three
groups: supply side, demand side, and SC structure vulnerabilities.
After this literature review about disruptions sources, it has been confirmed
that there is a high degree of confusion with regards to the use of different termi-
nology to classify the disruptions sources: uncertainties, risks, disturbances, per-
turbances, vulnerability drivers, etc. Moreover, the literature does not differentiate
between the what causes the disruptive event and the level in which the dis-
ruptions have its origin.
2.2 Disruptive Event
Based on the definition of disruptive event of this study, a literature review has
been performed. As in the previous case, few references have been found that
enumerate the most common, regular and usual disruptive events that have oc-
curred in the last years in enterprises and SCs. Most of the resources found in the
605
bibliography are related to risk management and do not consider the enterprise re-
silience management perspective.
In the empirical study performed by Wagner y Bode (2006 and 2009), besides
identifying the disruption sources, they also list some habitual disruptive events.
However, as aforementioned, it is has been a complex task to find the most uni-
versal and regular disruptive events. Different institutions related to risk manage-
ment publish yearly reports that show a list of the most important and top risks
that enterprises and their SC have to face up to. Nevertheless, risk is a general
term that it is sometimes referred to disruptions sources, disruptive events and
disruptions consequences interchangeably. The typical definition of risk com-
monly accepted in the literature is variation in the distribution of possible out-
comes, their likelihoods, and their subjective values (March and Shapira, 1987).
For example, Aon Risk Solutionss (2011) yearly report classifies damage to repu-
tation/brand of an enterprise as a risk. However, based on the framework defined
in Fig. 1, damage to reputation/brand of an enterprise is a consequence of a disrup-
tive event (e.g. due to quality problems of products delivered).
Therefore, these enumerations of risks should be analyzed carefully in order to
separate what a disruptive event is and what has to be considered consequences in
order to provide a consistent and clear framework of disruptions which will be the
starting point to assess the capacity of enterprise resilience.
The studies analyzed in this work are: The Council on Competitiveness (2007)
based on Executive Risk Rankings, (2007); Insurance Risk Rankings, (2007) and
Mayors Risk Rankings, (2007); Ernst & Young Strategic Business (2010); Aon
Risk Solutions (2011) and World Economic Forum (2012) and several cases stud-
ies found in the literature.
2.3 Disruptions Consequences
A disruptive event affects directly the usual operation and stability of an enterprise
or SC. Therefore, in this study, the consequences of a disruptive event always
have a negative effect on an enterprise and for this reason it is considered to be as-
sociated with undesired consequences. Sheffi and Rice (2005) point out that any
significant disruptive event has an effect on enterprise performance, whether that
performance is measured by sales, production level, profits, customer service or
another metric.
Dalziel and McManus (2004) explain that the point at which a disruptive event
occurs is when a system, in this case, an enterprise, is pushed from one state of
relative stability or equilibrium into another.
Fig. 2 shows an example of two enterprises A and B which have been impacted
by a disruptive event. The negative consequences of enterprise B are higher than
in enterprise A, because the performance of B decreases more abruptly although it
606
seems that enterprise B will recover sooner than A. Therefore, the consequences
of a disruptive event should be analyzed in detail taking into account not only the
negative effect, also other factors such as the recovery capacity. Due to the fact
that assessing enterprise resilience is a very complex task, the starting point of en-
terprise resilience, which are the disruptions, have to be frameworked.
Disruptive event
Stability Normal operation

Performance
Performace
Decrease
Instability
Enterprise A
Enterprise B
Time
Fig. 2 Disruptions consequences (based on Sheffi and Rice, 2005 and Erol et al., 2010)
3 Framework to Categorise Disruptions
The research methodology used in this paper is based on an exhaustive literature

review (CRC ENGnetBASE, DIALNET, Emerald ScienceDirect, ISI Web of
Knowledge, SciELO, Scirus, Scopus and Uspto) to identify the most mentioned
and studied disruption sources, disruptive events and consequences of such events.
Moreover, other sources as risks rankings developed by insurance companies have
been taken into account. On the other hand, the categorisation methodology is
based on cases studies found in the literature, which are the inputs to develop the
categorisation framework of disruptions.
The categorisation framework of disruptions is defined based on three steps.
Categorisation of the disruptions sources.
This step is focused on distinguishing the different disruptions sources. Two
different disruptions sources have been defined:
The level in which the disruption have its origin. This type considers: (i) within
an enterprise, (ii) outside an enterprise but internal to the SC and (iii) external
to the SC.
The origin that causes the disruptive event. In this case, the different alterna-
tives are: accidental, customer, energetic, equipments, financial, Information
and Communications Technologies (ICT), infrastructure, man-made, natural,
political, product, regulatory, supplier and terrorism.
607
S ources Consequences
Level Primary origin Disruptive event Initial impact Long-term impacts
1 i, ii, iii Accidental Fire, gas leak, explosions Injury to workers I, III, V, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XVII
2 i, ii Customer Unanticipated or very volatile demand High inventories / Delays and failure of due dates V, IX, XV, XVII
Insuficient or distorted information from the customer about product
3 i, ii Customer Failure to meet customer needs II, III, V, VIII, IX
commitments
4 i, ii Customer Bad payment behaviour or payment defaults of customers Impossibility to pay personnel, supliers, taxes I, II
5 i, ii Customer Product demand changes/customization Failure to meet customer needs II, III, VIII, IX, XVI
6 i, ii, iii Energetic Energy/water interruption (electricity, gas) Business interruption II, III, V, XIII, XVI
7 i, ii, iii Energetic Changes in the prices of energy Increase of final products price IX
8 i, ii, iii Equipments Breakdown of machinery Delays and failure of due dates I, II
9 i, ii, iii Equipments Production technological changes Increase of production costs I, III, V, VIII, XV, XVII
10 i, ii, iii Financial Economic slowdown Sales decrease I, IV, VII
11 i, ii, iii Financial Increase of commodity price Increase of final products price XV
12 i, ii, iii Financial Innaccessibility of capital/credit Impossibility to pay personnel, supliers, taxes II, VIII, XV
13 i, ii, iii Financial Interest rate fluctuation Impossibility to pay personnel, supliers, taxes II, VIII, XV
14 i, ii, iii ICT Lack of technology infrastructure to support business needs Failure to meet customer needs XIII
15 i, ii, iii ICT Perturbation or breakdown of IT systems Loss of networked communication II, V, XII
Fig. 3 Categorisation framework of disruptions.

16 i, ii, iii Infrastructure Transportation infraestructure failure (e.g.rail disruptions) Delays and failure of due dates II
Categorisation of the disruptive events.
17 i, ii, iii M an-made Crime/Theft/Fraud/Employee Dishonesty Loss of intellectual property/data II, III, V, XVI
608
18 i, ii, iii M an-made Sabotage Business interruption II, III, V, XI, XII, XIII, XVI
19 i, ii, iii M an-made Kidnap and ransom/extorsion Understaffing IV, XI
20 i, ii, iii M an-made Absenteeism/strikes Understaffing I, II, III, V
21 i, ii, iii Natural Pandemic/diseases/health crises Understaffing I, II, III, V
22 i, ii, iii Natural Natural disasters (e.g. earthquake, flooding, tsunami, tornados) Business interruption III, V, XI, XIII, XIV, XVI
23 i, ii, iii Political Political instability or other socio-political crises Business interruption I, III, V, X, XI, XIII, XIV, XVI, XVII
24 i, ii, iii Political War Business interruption I, III, V, X, XI, XIII, XIV, XVI, XVII
25 i, ii, iii Product Products quality Damage to reputation/brand V, XV
26 i, ii, iii Product Nocive substances in products Damage to reputation/brand / Injury to end customers II, V, X, XV
27 i, ii, iii Regulatory Regulatory and legislative changes Delays and failure of due dates V, VIII, IX, XV
28 i, ii, iii Regulatory Introduction of road pricing schemes Increase of final products price XV
29 i, ii Supplier Natural resource scarcity/unavailability of raw materials Delays and failure of due dates I, II, V, VIII, XVII
based on yearly reports developed by risk management institutions.
30 i, ii Supplier Supplier quality problems Business interruption III, V, XVIII

31 i, ii Supplier Sudden demise of a supplier (e.g due to bankruptcy) Business interruption III, V, XVIII
32 i, ii Supplier Capacity fluctuations or shortages on the supply markets Delays and failure of due dates I, V, XVIII
33 i, ii, iii Supplier Supplier capacity constrains Delays and failure of due dates I, V, XVIII
34 i, ii, iii Terrorism Computer Crime/Hacking/Viruses/M alicious Codes Loss of networked communication II, V, XII
I, III, V, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI,
35 i, ii, iii Terrorism International terror attacks Business interruption
XVII
An enumeration of the top disruptive events identified is developed. This is
Moreover, the list of disruptive events is constantly being updated according to

the current characteristics of the surrounding environment.
Categorisation of consequences.
In the literature, a high amount of case studies related to disruptive events and
its consequences exists. These case studies provide a collection of the main conse-
quences: (I) Business interruption; (II) Damage to reputation/brand; (III) Delays
and failure of due dates; (IV) Failure to attract or retain top talent; (V) Failure to
meet customer needs; (VI) High inventories; (VII) Impossibility to pay personnel,
suppliers, taxes; (VIII) Increase of final products price; (IX) Increase of produc-
tion costs; (X) Injury to end customers; (XI) Injury to workers; (XII) Loss of intel-
lectual property/data; (XIII) Loss of networked communication; (XIV) Physical
damage; (XV) Sales decrease; (XVI) Understaffing; (XVII) Unfulfilled orders.
Sheffi and Rice (2005) divide a disruption into 8 different phases: preparation,
disruptive event, first response, initial impact, time of full impact, preparation for
recovery, recovery and long-term impact. The categorisation framework of disrup-
tions also distinguishes between initial impact and long-term impact.
The categorisation framework of disruptions is the skeleton that structures and
relates the 3 elements (sources, disruptive events and consequences) of disrup-
tions. and will be used to support the assessment of enterprise resilience capacity.
Fig. 3 shows a small part of the proposed categorisation framework of disruptions.
The categorisation framework of disruptions marks the beginning of the process to

assess enterprise resilience. In order to evaluate how resilient an enterprise is, it is
necessary to have a clear understanding and a deep knowledge of the origin/s,
characteristics and consequences that disruptions cause. Therefore, the first ver-
sion of this categorisation framework attempts to provide an understandable and
easy scheme to support enterprises to identify resilience gaps.
In general terms, further research will be focused on extending the framework.
This is possible because the framework is an open structure that could be updated
in any moment with new sources, disruptive events and consequences. To do so, it
is important to take into account the relationships and the different transactions
among the focal enterprise analyzed and its SC partners. Moreover, the extension
of this framework will also include in the consequences element, the main compo-
nents affected by the negative effects of the different disruptions (e.g. human re-
sources, product, processes, ). As next step to improve and validate the frame-
work, a Delphi study with experts in risk management will be launched. After this,
an enterprise will be able to study its degree of vulnerability to take the proper de-
cisions to improve its adaptative and recovery capacity if a disruption hits it.
609
5 References
Aon Risk Solutions (2011). Aons Global Risk Managements Survey 2011
Barroso AP, Machado VH, Machado VC (2008) A supply chain disturbances classifica-
tion. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engi-
neering Management, Singapore, 18701874
Chopra S, Sodhi MS (2004). Managing Risk to Avoid Supply-Chain Breakdown. Sloan Manage
Rev 46(1): 5361
Christopher M, Peck H (2004).Building the Resilient Supply Chain. Int J Logs Manage 15(2): 1
13
Council on Competitiveness (2007). The Resilient Economy: Integrating Competitiveness and
Security.
Cranfield (2002). Supply Chain Vulnerability (Executive Report) Department for Transport, Lo-
cal Government and the Regions. Cranfield University, Management School.
Cucchiella F, Gastaldi M (2006) Risk management in supply chain: a real option approach. J
Manuf Tech Manage 17(6): 700720
Dalziell EP, McManus ST (2004). Resilience, Vulnerability, Adaptive Capacity: Implications for
System Performance. Proceedings of the International Forum for Engineering Decision Mak-
ing (IFED), Stoos.
Ernst & Young Business Risk Report (2010). The top 10 risks for global business. A sector-wide
view of the risks facing businesses across the globe.
Erol O, Henry D, Sauser B, Mansouri M (2010). Perspectives on Measuring Enterprise Resili-
ence. Proceedings of 4th Annual IEEE International Systems Conference, San Diego.
Hu Y, Li J, Holloway LE (2008). Towards modeling of resilience dynamics in manufacturing en-
terprises: Literature review and problem formulation. IEEE International Conference on Au-
tomation Science and Engineering, Washington.
Kleindorfer P, Saad G (2005). Managing disruption risks in supply chains. Prod Oper Manag
14(1): 5368
Natarajarathinam M, Capar I, Narayanan A (2009). Managing supply chains in times of crisis: a
review of literature and insights. Int J Phys Ditr & Logs Manage 39(7): 535573
March JG, Shapira Z (1987). Managerial perspectives on risk and risk taking. Manage
Sci 33(11): 14041418
Mason-Jones R, Towill D (1998). Shrinking the supply chain uncertainty circle. IOM Contl
Magaz 24(7)
Sheffi Y, Rice Jr JB (2005). A Supply Chain View of the Resilient Enterprise. MIT Sloan
Mamane Rev 47(1): 4148
Svensson G (2000). Conceptual framework for the analysis of vulnerability in supply chains. Int
J Phys Ditr & Logs Manage 30(9): 731749
Wagner SM, Neshat N (2010). Assessing the vulnerability of supply chains using graph theo-
ry. Int J Prod Econ 126(1): 121129
Wagner SM, Bode C (2006). An empirical investigation into supply chain vulnerability. J Purch
and Supply Manage 12(6): 301312
Wagner SM, Bode C (2009). Dominant risks and risk management practices in supply
chains. Supply Chain Risk: 271290.
World Economic Forum (2012) Global Risks 2012: An Initiative of the Risk Response Network
610
Trajectory Analysis of the Valencian

Automobile Industry Implementing Lean
Management
Valero-Herrero M1, Marin-Garcia J 2, Garcia-Sabater J3, Vidal-Carreras P4
Abstract From the alternatives that can ensure the survival of enterprises, innova-
tion is one of the most relevant. Innovation can include aspects such as materials,
product, process, market, or management. Among the new ways of managing, lean
manufacturing tools have attracted significant interest. The purpose of this paper is
to show the evolution of Lean Management practices in the valencian automobile
companies in recent years.
Keywords: Lean Manufacturing, Management Innovation, Automobile Industry,

Auto-diagnostic, Benchmarking

Departamento. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Valncia. Camino de
Vera S/N, 46022 Valencia
2
Juan A. Marn-Garca ( e-mail: jamarin@omp.upv.es)
Grupo ROGLE- Departamento de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de
3
Julio J. Garcia-Sabater ( e-mail: jugarsa@omp.upv.es)
4
Pilar I. Vidal-Carreras ( e-mail: pivicar@omp.upv.es)
* The work described in this paper has been supported by the project "CORSARI MAGIC
DPI2010-18243" by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin del Gobierno de Espaa within the
Program de "Proyectos de Investigacin Fundamental No Orientada". This paper also has been
written with financial support from the Project (PAID-06-12-SP20120717) of the Universitat
Politcnica de Valncia.
611
1 Introduction
Innovation has become in recent years an essential element for the companies
survival. Innovation can be carried out in companies through introducing a new
product or a qualitative change in an existing product, presenting a new process,
opening new markets, or making changes in industrial organization through a new
management system.
Usually product, process and market innovation can be copied by the compe-
tence quite easily. The innovation which is the most difficult to be replicated is the
management innovation probably because the underlying culture established by
the company have to be understood (Klippel et al., 2008).
Perello-Marin et al. (2013) refer to management innovation as the introduction
of management practices that are new to the firm and intended to enhance perfor-
mance. Management Innovation can be also defined as a difference in the form,
quality, or state over time of the management activities in an organization, where
the change is a novel or unprecedented departure from the past (Birkinshaw et al.,
2008) Management Innovation include the concepts of Total Quality Manage-
ment, Learning Organization, customer orientation, or Lean Management
(Gebauer, 2011).
Lean Manufacturing is a Japanese manufacturing philosophy that emphasizes
business excellence through continuous removal of waste and improving produc-
tivity. According to Schonberger (1996), "Lean Manufacturing is the most im-
portant productive improvement in innovation management since the new centu-
ry."
In particular car manufacturers have transformed their production philosophy in
favour of lean production paradigm. In this way, they hope to improve efficiency
and better results in the markets in which they operate. This transformation must
take place not only in their plants but also their suppliers must change their pro-
duction systems according to the philosophy of Lean Manufacturing. The suppli-
ers can benefit from the implementation of lean manufacturing practices to satisfy
any of its strategic priorities such as the quality, the timing or the costs.
Otherwise the practices of human resource management play an important role
in the successful implementation and maintenance of lean production through the
creation of a continuous improvement culture that supports the rest of lean prac-
tices (Garcia-Sabater y Marin-Garcia, 2011).
This study describes how lean production practices have evolved over the past
10 years, in the valencian automobile industry. The study was carried out by a
self-assessment tool that has been used by the companies pertaining to the valen-
cian automotive cluster.
612
2 Lean Manufacturing
The environment of most industrial companies is characterized by increased rival-

ry with competitors, the speed of change and instability in demand. Therefore it is
recommended that companies position themselves and decide the priorities of their
operations strategy (Martn Pea and Diaz Garrido, 2007; Urgal Vazquez Gonza-
lez and Garcia, 2005).
Nowadays, to meet competitive pressures, it is necessary to complement the ef-
forts being made by companies from the 80s in search of continuous improvement
in productivity and quality (Suzaki, 1993; Vazquez-Bustelo and Avella 2006; Pry-
butok White, 2001). For that it is necessary to identify problems before they mani-
fest spontaneously consequences, analyze solutions for the removal of unneces-
sary activities, reduce manufacturing time, setting time and the size of the lots
(Garcia-Sabater y Marin-Garcia, 2011). These activities are the basis of a set of
practices that make advanced manufacturing systems. These systems have re-
ceived many names, including: Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality Management
or World Class Manufacturing. There are many similarities in these concepts
(Marin-Garcia and Carneiro, 2010a; Prado Prado, 2002, White and Prybutok,
2001). In short, these are different names to represent a set of practices aimed at
increasing the competitiveness of enterprises. The purpose of these practices is the
systematic elimination of all kinds of "waste" (Callen et al., 2000), considering as
waste anything that does not add value (Suzaki, 1993).
To implement lean manufacturing systems, a set of practices related to opera-
tions management (planning and production control, material flow, the mainte-
nance system, the quality system ...), the relationship with customers and suppli-
ers, product design or human resource management (participative management
implication operator) (Marin-Garcia et al., 2010) are often proposed. The most
common are: Visual Systems, Continuous Improvement, TQM, Process standardi-
zation, SMED, TPM, JIT, Supplier relations and Customer relations (Shah and
Ward, 2007; Carrasqueira and Machado, 2008; Gurumurthy and Kodali, 2008,
Jorgensen et al., 2008; Marin-Garcia, 2009; Prado Prado, 2002; Treville, 2006).
Various studies have shown that the application of these practices has benefi-
cial effects to the company. These effects are greater if broad sets of practices are
implemented and not just one in isolation, as it can take advantage of a synergy
between them (White and Prybutok, 2001).
Most experiences with lean production have been made in companies that
manufacture large quantities of the same product in repetitive processes (produc-
tion lines). These projects include the automotive industry and its subsidiary com-
panies or companies in the consumer electronics. However, there are also works
that justify the benefits of these systems in other sectors, such as business process
(food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, detergents ...) and other companies (textile, in-
dustrial machinery, metal components, compressors , hydraulic valves, electron-
ics, plastics ...) (Schonberger, 1996), even in companies that manufacture highly
613
differentiated products which are repeated a few units (James-Moore and Gibbons,
1997; Prybutok and White, 2001). However, it must be taken into account that the
use of these tools is more prevalent in companies with repetitive configurations
(line or process) than in non-repetitive configurations (projects or workshops)
(White and Prybutok, 2001). Moreover, the results obtained by the firms are rela-
tively better in repetitive settings where consumer products are manufactured and
standardized complex. However, other processes can also be improved with these
techniques, although to a minor extent (Lee, 1996).
Moreover, it seems clear that plants with less than 250 employees use less these
systems (Schonberger, 1996; White and Prybutok, 2001). For small businesses it
is better to make a sequential implementation of the tools available to them, start-
ing with the easiest and the cheaper. Maybe for large companies this tactic is also
more efficient to deploy lean production.
3 Study Methodology
The deployment degree of lean production practices has been analyzed using a
questionnaire that was distributed among a panel of companies belonging to Va-
lencia cluster of automobile manufacturers suppliers. Most of these companies
are small and medium (Table 1). The data of 2011 have been compared with the
historic of 2000, 2009 and 2010.
Table 1 Company distribution by size.
2000 2009 2010 2011

Less than 50 workers 39% 24% 35% 29%
Between 50 and 249 workers 48% 56% 41% 50%
More than 250 workers 13% 21% 23% 21%
N 31 33 17 14
The companies can also be classified according to their relationship with the
assembly company and the activity they are engaged (Chase et al. 2004). Provid-
ers may be defined as the first level (tier 1) as those involved in the manufacture
of modules which are assembled directly in the body. The second-tier suppliers
(tier 2) are those that supply components (such as ABS, ignition systems, etc.) to
the first-tier suppliers. The third level (tier 3) companies supply parts of the tiers 2.
Finally, the fourth level (tier 4) and subsequent levels involved in providing the
raw material and the following basic components. The traditional pattern has been
added provider Level 0.5 (tier 0.5) to accommodate emerging systems integrators.
In this sense, the sample of this study can be classified as shown in the Table 2.
This date, the supply level, is not registered in the first study in 200.
614
Table 2 Company distribution by supply level.
2009 2010 2011

Tier 1 48% 36% 50%
Tier 2 32% 23% 14%
Tier 3 13% 23% 36%
Tier 0.5 7% 18% -
N 33 17 14
In these 12 years has been a process of concentration has led to mergers, acqui-
sitions and company closures, generating an increase in the number of large com-
panies in the sector.
To measure the variables, we used a questionnaire validated by other authors
(Marin-Garcia and Carneiro, 2010a; Marin-Garcia and Carneiro, 2010b). The
questionnaire has been modified from year to year. For example in the 2010 ques-
tionnaire included a new dimension called Culture in order to compare the data
with those of other national clusters that use this dimension in their diagnosis. The
other dimensions have remained though some of them have had any change in the
questions that form it. The questionnaires of the 2010 and the 2011are exactly
equal. The questionnaire asked the degree of deployment of each tool with a range
of responses from 0: nothing, until 100: a lot.
Fig. 1 A question in the self-diagnostic.
615
4 Results
In the present study the common dimensions (Table 3) of the three questionnaires
are shown: TPM, Visual Management, TQM, Training, Continuous Improvement,
Standardization, SMED, Just-in-time.
Table 3 Common lean manufacturing practices.
Practice Definition
Attempt to establish routine preventive maintenance and replacement pro-
Total productive
grams, getting machine operator actively participating in the machine
Maintenance
maintenance functions in order to eliminate losses tied to equipment mainte-
(TPM)
nance.
The whole workplace is set-up with signs, labels, color-coded markings, etc.
Visual Manage- such that anyone unfamiliar with the process can, in a matter of minutes,
ment (VM) know what is going on, understand the process, and know what is being done
correctly and what is out of place.
Incremental improvement of products, processes, or services over time, with
Continuous Im-
the goal of reducing waste to improve workplace functionality, customer ser-
provement (CI)
vice, or product performance.
Establish quality as the top priority of the organization's business objectives.
Total Quality
This includes involvement in the quality effort by all functions and employ-
Management
ees and implementation of statistical quality control methods for defect pre-
(TQM)
vention is an integral part of the program.
Process Stand- Systematize how a part is processed, and includes man-machine interactions
ardization (SOP) and studies of human motion.
This practice would attempt to reduce the time and costs involved in chang-
Reduction of Set
ing from the tooling, layout, etc. required to produce one product to that re-
up time (SMED)
quired to produce other products.
Just in Time To make one piece at a time correctly all the time, without unplanned inter-
(JIT) ruptions and without lengthy queue times.
Figure 2 shows the evolution of the deployment degree of Lean Manufacturing

practices.
616
Fig. 2 Evolution of the degree of deployment of Lean tools.
Practically all practices have increased the degree of deployment in the sector
from 2000 to 2009. In 2010 they have remained at the same level or decreased.
This may be due to the small sample size and the change in its composition. The
degree of deployment between 2010 and 2011 is nearly the same excluding TPM
which has increased. The JIT was one of the least used in 2000 and remains one of
the most complicated to implement in 2010. In part because it requires prior to de-
ployment of other tools that have not yet reached the appropriate level of devel-
opment in the sector and in part because the second-tier suppliers are smaller
companies and resources that are many difficulties in implementing and maintain-
ing lean production in their companies. However, in 2011 the implementation de-
gree of JIT has increased.
Over the last 12 years the level of implementation of practices such as stand-
ardization or SMED has greatly increased. It could indicate that the sector has
grown from an initial stage through deployment of lean manufacturing practices.
Visual Management has regressed in their degree of use. Perhaps this is because in
2000 the company had just launched these practices (which are the first to begin)
and, over time, the practice has been marred by lack of discipline for maintenance
it. It may also be due to the increasingly frequent use of computers for data cap-
ture and processing, while not yet popularized the use of information screens
(touch or not) in the production lines, so that the information previously distribut-
ed on paper (and even filled by hand), is now transmitted electronically, without
having achieved the visual impact of traditional procedures.
In the dimension TPM also a decrease in the degree of implementation is de-
tected. This variation is due to variation in the content of the questions in the ques-
tionnaire. Both the 2000 and 2009 questionnaire this dimension was related to
preventive maintenance while in 2010 and 2011 this dimension is complete with
questions on Autonomous Maintenance, whose degree of implementation is gen-
erally lower.
617
5 Conclusions
In this paper we have analysed the different practices of Lean Production and the
evolution of the use degree in the Valencian automobile supplier industry between
2000 and 2011. As in any scientific study through surveys, it is necessary to as-
sume the hypothesis that respondents had sufficient knowledge to answer ques-
tions thoroughly and with greater accuracy. It has also been revealed by surveyed
the companies lack of diagnostic tools reliability, and the lack of usability for
identifying the most appropriate sequence in the tool implementation. Despite
these limitations this study contributes to a better understanding of the sector sit-
uation and evolution in recent years.
6 References
Callen, J.; Fader, C.; Kirnksky, I. (2000). Just-in-time: A cross-sectional plant analysis. Interna-
tional Journal o Production Economics n. 63, pp. 277-301.
Carrasqueira, M.; Machado, V. C. (2008). Strategic logistics: Re-designing companies in accord-
ance with Lean Principles. International Journal of Management Scienceand Engineering
Management, Vol. 3, n. 4, pp. 294-302.
Chase R.B., Aquilano N.J., Jacobs F.R. (2004). Operations management for competitive ad-
vantage. 10 edicin. Bogot: Mcgraw-hill.
Garcia-Sabater, J. J.; Marin-Garcia, J. A. (2011). Can we still talk about continuous improve-
ment? Rethinking enablers and inhibitors for successful implementation. International Journal
of Technology Management, Vol. 55, No. 1/2, pp. 28-42.
Gebauer, H. (2011). Exploring the contribution of management innovation to the evolution of
dynamic capabilities. Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 40, No. 8, pp. 1238-1250.
Gurumurthy, A.; Kodali, R. (2008). A multi-criteria decision-making model for the justification
of lean manufacturing systems. International Journal of Management Scienceand Engineering
Management, Vol. 3, n. 4, pp. 100-118.
James-moore, S. M.; Gibbons, A. (1997). Is Lean Manufacture Universally Relevant - An Inves-
tigative Methodology. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol.
17, n. 9-10, p. 899.
Jorgensen, F., Laugen, B., & Vujovic, S. (2008). Organizing for Continuous Improvement, in 9th
International CINet Conference.
Klippel, A. F.; Petter, C. O.; Antunes, J. (2008). Management Innovation, a way for mining
companies to survive in a globalized world. Utilities Policy, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 332-333.
Lee, C. Y. (1996). The applicability of just-in-time manufacturing to small manufacturing firms:
An analysis. International Journal of Management, Vol. 13, n. 2, pp. 249-259.
Liker, J. K.; Wu, Y.-C. (2000). Japanese automakers, U.S. Suppliers and supply-chain superiori-
ty. MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 42, n. 1, p. 81.
Marin-Garcia, J. A.; Carneiro, P. (2010a). Desarrollo y validacin de un modelo multidimensio-
nal de la produccin ajustada. Intangible Capital, Vol. 6, n. 1, pp. 78-127.
Marin-Garcia, J. A.; Carneiro, P. (2010b). Questionnaire validation to measure the application
degree of alternative tools to mass production. International Journal of Management Science
and Engineering Management, Vol. 5, n. 4, pp. 268-277.
618
Marin-Garcia, J. A.; Conci, G. (2009). Exploratory study of high involvement work practices:
Identification of the dimensions and proposal of questionnaire to measure the degree of use in
the company. Intangible Capital, Vol. 5, n. 3, pp. 278-300.
Marin-Garcia, J. A., Perello-Marin, M. R., Maheut, J., & Valero-Herrero, M. (2010). Relation-
ship between Lean Manufacturing and High Involvement Work Practices and perceived re-
sults, in IV International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management -
XIV Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin, pp. 1037-1047.
Martn Pea, M. L. & Daz Garrido, E. (2007). Impacto de la estrategia de produccin en la ven-
taja competitiva y en los resultados operativos, International Conference on Industrial Engi-
neering & Industrial Management - CIO, pp. 367-377.
Morris, M.; Bessant, J.; Barnes, J. (2006). Using learning networks to enable industrial develop-
ment - Case studies from South Africa. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, Vol. 26, n. 5-6, pp. 532-557.
Oliver, N.; Delbridge, R. (2002). The characteristics of high performing supply chains. Interna-
tional Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 23, n. 1-3, pp. 60-73.
Perello-Marin, M. R.; Marin-Garcia, J. A.; Marcos-Cuevas, J. (2013). Can we study management
innovation from the lens of complexity? Path dependence approach. Management Decision,
Vol. In Press.
Prado Prado, J. C. (2002). JIT, TQM , BPR (reingeniera),...Distintos enfoques para incrementar
la competitividad? Esic Market n. 112, pp. 141-151.
Schonberger, R. J. (1996). World Class Manufacturing: the next decade. Free Press.
Shah, R.; Ward, P. T. (2007). Defining and developing measures of lean production. Journal of
Operations Management, Vol. 25, n. 4, pp. 785-805.
Suzaki, K. (1993). The new Shop floor management: empoweing people for continuous im-
provement. Free Press.
Treville, S. d.; Antonakis, J. (2006). Could lean production job design be intrinsically motivat-
ing? Contextual, configurational, and levels-of-analysis issues. Journal of Operations Man-
agement, Vol. 24, n. 2, pp. 99-123.
Urgal Gonzlez, B.; Garca Vzquez, J. M. (2005). Anlisis estratgico de las decisiones de pro-
duccin estructurales desde un enfoque basado en las capacidades de produccin. Revista Eu-
ropea de Direccin y Economa de la Empresa, Vol. 14, n. 4, pp. 101-120.
Vazquez-Bustelo, D.; Avella, L. (2006). Agile manufacturing: Industrial case studies in Spain.
Technovation, Vol. 26, pp. 1147-1161.
White, R. E.; Prybutok, V. (2001). The relationship between JIT practices and type of production
system. Omega, Vol. 29, n. 2, pp. 113-124.
619
Long Term Capacity Planning with Products

Renewal
Yilmaz G1, Lusa A2, Benedito E3
Abstract Long Term Capacity Planning (LTCP) consists of deciding the type and
amount of capacity of the production system for each period of a long planning
horizon. It consists of decisions that are related to strategic planning such as buy-
ing or selling of production technologies, outsourcing, and making tactical deci-
sions regarding capacity level and configuration. Companies that produce short
lifecycle products also have to decide when to renew a product, taking into ac-
count the available production technologies and the impact on the demand of other
products (which can be cannibalized or not). Long term decisions are usually
solved by means of non-formalized procedures, such as generating and comparing
solutions, which do not guarantee the optimal solution. This paper aims to design
a model for solving a long term capacity planning problem with the following
main characteristics: (1) short-life cycle products and their renewal are considered;
(2) different capacity options are included (acquisition, renewal, updating, out-
sourcing and reducing); (3) some tactical decisions are included (integration be-
tween strategic and tactical decisions).
Keywords: Long Term Capacity Planning, Strategic Capacity Planning, Product

Renewal, Quantitative Methods
1Gorkem Yilmaz ( e-mail: gorkem.yilmaz@estudiant.upc.edu)

Management Department (DOE), School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB),
Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
2Amaia Lusa Garcia( e-mail: amaia.lusa@upc.edu)
Institute of Industrial and Control Engineering (IOC) / Management Department (DOE), School
of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB), Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya
BarcelonaTech (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
3Ernest Benedito Benet ( e-mail: ernest.benedito@upc.edu)
Institute of Industrial and Control Engineering (IOC) / Management Department (DOE), School
of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB), Universitat Politcnica de
CatalunyaBarcelonaTech (UPC), Barcelona, Spain.
* Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (project DPI2010-15614).
620
1 Introduction
Long Term Capacity Planning (LTCP), also called strategic capacity planning
(SCP), consists of determining the production capacity within a long term horizon.
LCTP includes deciding the amount of investment and selecting of resources as
equipment, facilities, systems, people, etc. to use in a manufacturing site (Uribe et
al, 2003). In LTCP, taking decisions in a right way is highly important: first, be-
cause usually involve a high investment; second, because once such a decision is
taken, it cannot easily be changed (they are highly irreversible); third, because
they completely affect the performance of the system and the decisions that will
be possible at a tactical level. If capacity is not enough, there will be lost demand
(present and, possibly future); if the system is oversized, there will be unused re-
sources, which may represent an economical loss (bad investment).The selection
of the production technology depends, among other things (costs, productivity,
etc.), on the products being offered by the company: when a product is renewed
(new version, new model, etc.), the production technology may not be capable of
producing it or, if it can, the productivity and/or the quality may be poor. Also, re-
newing a product will affect its demand and the demand (and value) of the old
products. Hence, it is very important to decide accurately the right time at which a
product must be launched.
LTCP must consider the needs of acquisition of production technology, dimi-
nution of capacity, renewal of existing production technology and the possibility
of updating existing production technology. Results must be economically viable
for what the investments will be done in a suitable form, considering the charac-
teristics of the available financial resources as well as the existing possibilities for
the placement of excessive funds. Financing needs and consequences in the per-
formance of the system must also be considered.
Capacity planning for the long-term is usually carried out by generating and
evaluating alternatives. These procedures do not guarantee the best solution (nei-
ther a feasible solution). The quality of the results often depends heavily on the
know-how of the person responsible for making the decision.
A system will be better if the design takes into account how it will work; that
is, if tactical decisions are considered. One aim of this paper is to consider the in-
tegration between strategic and tactical capacity decisions that should be included
in the LTCPP.
Former quantitative methods for solving the LTCPP fail to consider some of
the most relevant features of the problem, such as including products with a short
lifecycle and products renewal decisions, detailed capacity options, using a de-
tailed finance management, and including tactical decisions. It is necessary to de-
sign and develop models, tools and procedures for helping in the LTCP decision
process. Most of the solutions proposed in literature in capacity planning do not
take into account a dynamic design of the system (that is, that the capacity can be
changed from one period to another); the decision of renewing products is not in-
621
cluded and/or the effects on the demand of new and old products are not fully con-
sidered; financial implications are often considered in a very rudimentary way as
all the possibilities for financing and surplus disposal are not included.
The aim of this study is to design tools for Long Term Capacity Planning in
companies offering short-life cycle products, considering the products renewal as
a decision.
2 LTCP Problem Definition
The objective of this paper is to design and formalize tools to efficiently solve a
variant of the LTCP problem (LTCPP). The characteristics of the long term capac-
ity planning problem make it very difficult to solve, especially in cases in which
products have a short life cycle. LTCPP includes capacity level decisions, the pur-
chase or sale of production technologies for decreasing or reducing the capacity or
renewing and updating of production technology which affects the state of the
production technology in the long term. Also to give a quick respond to changing
demand, outsourcing decisions should be taken into the account. While taking the
decision of an investment, a detailed financial management analysis should be im-
plemented; economically feasibility for investment, availability of funding sources
and time value of money should be included. The problem cannot be sufficiently
tackled without tactical decisions that are the points that provide understanding of
the system in details. Shortening product life cycles and introducing the new
product in the planning horizon are other important factors that the problem con-
sists. The following characteristics will be included:
Products with a short life cycle: Shortening lifecycles lead products to be out-
dated just a little time after their launch, which directly affects management of
product portfolio and optimal timing of capacity investment (Wu and Chuang,
2010).
Introduction of new products and replacement of the old ones: Short product
life cycles lead to a rapid production technology obsolescence rate. In many
industries, new production technology can also be used to produce existing
products, but mainly requires newer production technology and long lead times
for new production prevent firms ability to respond demand in the market in
short time (Wu et al., 2006).
Acquisition, renewing, updating, outsourcing and reduction capacity options:
Shortening product lifecycle leads to high obsolescence in products and obso-
lescence in products or production technology that is no longer able to perform
its required function such as; availability for purchase or ability to be repaired
affordably (Wu and Chuang, 2010).
Financial planning, in detail (bank loans, interest and inflation): In order to
have an effective LTCP, financial decisions have to be taken together in capac-
622
ity planning. Financing in investments (e.g. cash movements, credits...) is an

important factor that should be taken into account in LTCP.
Tactical capacity decisions (aggregate planning in LTCP): A system will be
better if the design takes into account how it will work; that is, if tactical deci-
sions are considered. It is desirable to include some tactical decisions.
3 Modeling
Data
T Number of periods in the planning horizon

N Set of products (all existing and next and future products)
PT Set of production technologies (all existing and future production tech-
nology)
W Number of potential warehouses (all existing and future warehouse ca-
pacities)
Ri Set of product j that cannibalizes demand of product i ( i N ; j Ri ;
js is ).
Nm Set of products that production technology m is able to produce product (
m PT ).
dits Potential demand of product i in period t, being introduced in period s (
i N ; s ltMini ,...,ltMaxi ; t s,...,min(s LNi 1,T ) ).
pits Price of product i in period t, being introduced in period s ( i N ;
s ltMini ,...,ltMaxi ; t s,...,min(s LNi 1,T ) ).
ijslt Quantity that must be added to the demand of product i in period t, when
i has been introduced in period s and product j has been introduced in pe-
riod l. It can be positive or negative. ( i N Ri ;
j Ri ltMin j t ltMax j LN j 1 ;
s max(ltMini , t LNi 1),...,min(ltMaxi , t ) ;
l max(ltMin j , t LN j 1),...,min(ltMax j , t ) ;
t ltMini ,...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1,T ) ).

LNi Maximum life of product i( i N ).
623
P
vimt Variable unit production costs of product i which is produced in produc-
tion technology m, in period t ( i N ; m PT ;
t max(tMinm , ltMini ),...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T ) ).
W
v iwt Variable warehouse costs of product i, in warehouse w, in period t (
i N ; w 1,...,W ; t ltMini 1,...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T ) ).
s Number of periods between a sale and the moment in which payment is
received (an invoice issued at t is cashed at t s ).
p Number of periods between the acquisition of variable-cost resources and
the payment of the same (the resources used at t are paid at t p ).
itb , itd Respectively; interest rates that apply to the borrowed amount (the abso-
lute value of the balance of the account when it is negative) and the inter-
est rates that apply to the deposited amount (the balance of the account
when it is positive). It is assumed that interest is accrued and paid in the
same period in which it is calculated.
im
P
Manufacturing capacity required to manufacture one unit of product i
with production technology m ( i N m ; m PT ).
iW Units of warehouse capacity that are required to store a unit of product I
( i N ).
siw0 Initial inventory level of product i in warehouse w in period 0 ( i N ;
w 0...W ).
ltMini Minimum launching time of product i ( i N ).
ltMaxi Maximum launching time of product i ( i N ).
tMinm Minimum period in which product technology m can be acquired
( m PT ).
tMaxm Maximum period in which product technology m can be acquired
( m PT ).
IPTms Investment required to acquire production technology m in period s
( m PT ; s tMinm ,...,tMaxm ). This cost also includes the installation
cost of production technology.
SPTmts Sale price of production technology m acquired in period s and sold in
period t ( m PT ; s tMinm ,...,tMaxm ; t s,.,.,T ).
624
MPTmts Maintenance cost of production technology m for period t, paid in period

t, acquired in period s ( m PT ; s tMinm ,...,tMaxm ; t s,.,.,T ).
RPTmTs Residual value of production technology m acquired in period s and sold
in final period T ( m PT ; s tMinm ,...,tMaxm ; t T ).
IW jwt Investment required to increase warehouse capacity from C Wj to CwW
( j 0,...,w 1 ; w 1,...,W ; t 1,.,.,T ). This cost also includes the instal-
lation cost of warehouse.
MWwts Maintenance cost of warehouse w for period t, paid in period t, acquired
in period s ( w 1,...,W ; t 1,.,.,T ; s 1,...,t ).
RWwts Residual value of warehouse w for period t, paid in period t, acquired in
period s ( w 1,...,W ; t = 1 ,,T; s 1,...,t ).
CmP Capacity of one unit of production technology m in period t ( m PT ;
C0P 0 ).
CwW Capacity of warehouse w ( w 0...W ; C0W 0 ).
CFt Fixed costs (costs that are independent of capacity and level of activity)
for period t ( t 1,.,.,T ).
CIis Cost of introduction of product s in period t ( i N ;
s ltMini ,...,ltMaxi ).
h0 Initial cash balance.
B Maximum amount of the absolute value of a negative cash balance (ex-
pressed as an absolute value).
i Factor used to value inventories ( 0 i 1 ). The inventory value of
product i at t is i pit .
Variables
Real variables (all non-negative):
qimt Number of units of product i produced with production technology m in

period t ( t max(tMinm , ltMini ),...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T ) ; i N m ;
m PT ).
d it Demand for product i in period t ( i N m ;
t ltMini ,...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T ) ).
625
IN it Income of product i in period t ( i N ;

t ltMini ,...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T ) ).
siwt Inventory level of product i in warehouse w in period t ( i N m ;
w 0...W ; t ltMini 1,...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T ) ).
ht , ht Respectively, positive and negative bank account balances (in absolute
figures) at the end of period t ( t 1,.,.,T ).
Integer and binary variables:
z mts Number of units of production technology m used in period t, acquired in

period s ( m PT ; s tMinm ,...,tMaxm ; t s,.,.,T ).
y jwt 1 if warehouse capacities in periods t-1 and t are, respectively C Wj and
CwW ( j 0,...,W ; w j,...,W ; t 1,.,.,T ).
is 1 if product i is introduced in period s ( i N ; s ltMini ,...,ltMaxi ).
ijsl 1 if product i is introduced in period s and product j is introduced in peri-
od l ( i N Ri ; j Ri ; s ltMini ,...,ltMaxi ;
l ltMin j ,...,ltMax j )
Model:
T tMaxm
[MAX]Z = hT hT + INit + RPT mTs zmTs
t T s 1 iN ltMini t ltMini LNi 1 s tMinm mPT
W T w1 W ltMaxi
+ RW
w1 s 1 j 0
wTs y jws + i piTs
w1 s ltMini iN sT s LNi 1
siwT
T
- v imt qimt
P
-
t T p 1 mPT iN m max(ltMini , tMinm ) t ltMaxi LN i 1
T W
v iwt siwt
W
(1)
t T 1 w 1 iN ltMini t ltMini LN i 1
p
626
min(ltMaxi , t ) min(ltMaxi , t ) min(ltMax j , t )

d it dits
s max(ltMini , t LN i 1)
is
ijslt ijsl
jRi ltMin j t ltMax j LN j 1 s max(ltMini , t LN i 1) l max(ltMin j , t LN j 1)
i N t ltMini ,...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T ) (2)

min(ltMaxi , t ) min(ltMaxi , t ) min(ltMax j , t )
IN it dits is
s max(ltMini , t LN i 1)
pits ijslt ijsl pits
jRi ltMin j t ltMax j LN j 1 s max(ltMini , t LN i 1) l max(ltMin j , t LN j 1)
i N t ltMini ,...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T ) (3)
ijsl is jl 1
i N Ri ; j Ri ;
ijsl is (4)
s ltMini ,..., ltMaxi ; l ltMin j ,..., ltMax j
ijsl jl
ltMaxi

s ltMini
is 1 i N (5)
W W
w 1
siw, t 1 qimt
mPT iNmn max(ltMin i , tMinm ) t ltMaxi LN i 1
d it s
w 1
iwt
i N t ltMini ,...,min(ltMaxi LNi 1, T )

(6)
min(t , tMaxm )
iN m
im
P
qimt
max(ltMini , tMinm ) t ltMaxi LN i 1 s tMinm
CmP z mts m PT t 1,.,.,T (7)
zmts zm,t 1,s m PT t tMinm ,...,T s tMinm ,...,min(tMaxm , t 1) (8)

w
i siwt
W
iN m ltMini t tMaxi LN i 1 j 0
CwW y jwt w 1,.,W t 1,.,.,T (9)
W w
y
w0 j 0
jwt 1 t 1,.,.,T (10)
y
w0
0 w1 1 (11)
W j
k j
y jkt y
i 0
ij ,t 1 j 0...W t 2,.,.,T (12)
627
h0 h0 h0 (13)
1 1
ht ht = ht1 ht1 + (ht ht1 )itd (ht ht1 )itb +
2 2
min(t 1, tMaxm 1)
INi ,t s +
mPT
SPT z
s tMinm
mts m, t 1, s z mts -
iN ltMini t s ltMaxi LN i 1
W w 1 min(t , tMaxm )
CFt - IPTmt z mtt -
mPT tMinm t tMaxm

w 1 j 0
IW jwt y jwt -
mPT
MPT
s tMinm
mts z mts -
i N m
CI it it
ltMin i t ltMaxi
-
mPT iN m max(ltMin ,tMinm )t p ltMaxi LNi 1
P
vim ,t p
qim,t p -
i
W t w 1 W
w 1 s 1 j 0
MWw, t s ,t y jws - W
viw,t p
siw,t p t 1,.,.,T
w1 iN ltMini t ltMini LNi 1
p
(14)
ht B t 1,.,.,T (15)
The objective function (1) is to maximize the cash balance at the end of the
horizon, taking into account the final cash balance, sales income from the last s
periods (account receivable), residual of production technology and warehouse as-
sets in the final period, value of the final stock, variable production costs for the
last p periods, variable inventory holding costs for the last p periods; (2) ex-
presses the demand equation for product i (current product) that takes into account
cannibalization of sales of product k (previous generation product), as well as
product js (future next generation product) cannibalization of product i; (3) ex-
presses income of product i for period t, (4) links variables and ; (5) ensures
that only one product can be introduced in a single period; (6) expresses the inven-
tory and production balance; (7) ensures that production capacity is not exceeded;
(8) avoids using units of production that have been sold in previous periods and
ensures that used production technology is acquired in a previous period; (9) en-
sures that warehouse capacity is not exceeded; (10), (11) and (12) ensure that
changes in warehouse capacity are for expansion purposes; (13) expresses that ini-
tial bank account balance equals to initial cash balance; (14) expresses the bank
account balance in period t; balance from previous periods, credit interest and
628
debit interest, sales income from s previous periods, sales of production technol-
ogy, fixed production costs, costs for acquiring production technology, costs for
changing warehouse capacity, maintenance costs of production technology and
warehouses, variable costs of production and warehouses, new product introduc-
tion costs; (15) ensures that the negative bank account balance does not exceed the
limit established.
3 Conclusions
This paper presents a MILP model for long term capacity planning in a manufac-
turing that produces short lifecycle products. Future research includes dealing with
uncertainties that may affect the expected demand, the available production tech-
nologies and the different economic parameters.
4 References
Druehl, C. T., Schmidt, G. M., and Souza, G. C., 2009. The optimal pace of product updates.
European Journal of Operational Research, 192, 621633.
Geng, N., and Jiang, Z., 2009.A review on strategic capacity planning for the semiconductor
manufacturing industry. International Journal of Production Research, 47, 3639-3655.
Huh, W.T. and Roundy, R.O., 2005. A continuous-time strategic capacity planning model. Naval
Research Logistics, 52, 329-343.
Huh, W.T., Roundy, R.O., and Cakanyildirim, M., 2006. A general strategic capacity planning
model under demand uncertainty. Naval Research Logistics, 53, 137-150.
Karabuk, S. and Wu, S.D., 2003. Coordinating strategic capacity planning in the semiconductor
industry. Operations Research, 51, 839-849.
Qin, R., and Nembhard, D. A., 2012. Demand modeling of stochastic product diffusion over the
life cycle. International Journal Production Economics, 137, 201210.
Rastogi, A. P., Fowler, J. W., Carlyle, W. M., Araz, O. M., Maltz, A., and Buke, B., 2011. Sup-
ply network capacity planning for semiconductor manufacturing with uncertain demand and
correlation in demand considerations. International Journal Production Economics, 134, 322
332.
Wang, K.J. and Lin, S.H., 2002. Capacity expansion and allocation for a semiconductor testing
facility under constrained budget. Production Planning & Control, 13, 429-437.
Wu, C. H., and Chuang Y. T., 2010. An innovative approach for strategic capacity portfolio
planning under uncertainties. European Journal of Operational Research, 207, 1002-1013.
629
Multiagent Model for Supply Chain

Management
Ponte B1, Pino R2, Fernndez I3, Garca N4, Monterrey M5
Abstract There are several circumstances which, in the last two decades, have
granted the Supply Chain Management (SCM) a strategic role in the search for
competitive advantage. Thus, this paper applies multiagent methodology to opti-
mize the management. We represent the supply chain as a Global Multiagent Sys-
tem, composed of four Multiagent Subsystems, which replicate the behavior of the
different levels of the supply chain. Thereby, each member has its own decision-
making capacity and seeks to optimize the performance of the supply chain. We
will tackle the problem from two complementary perspectives: reducing the Bull-
whip Effect, which can be considered as one of the main sources of inefficiencies
in the SCM, and minimizing management costs, both from a non collaborative ap-
proach, where each level seeks the best solution for himself, and from a collabora-
tive approach, where each level negotiates with the rest looking for the best solu-
tion for the whole supply chain.
1Borja Ponte Blanco ( e-mail: borjaponte87@gmail.com)

Grupo de Ingeniera de Organizacin. Dpto. de Administracin de Empresas. Escuela Politc. de
Ingeniera de Gijn. Universidad de Oviedo. Campus de Viesques S/N, 33014, Gijn.
2Ral Pino Dez ( e-mail: pino@uniovi.es)

3IsabelFernndez Quesada ( e-mail: ifq@uniovi.es)
4 Nazario Garca Fernndez ( e-mail: ngarciaf@uniovi.es)
5 Manuel Monterrey Meana ( e-mail: manuelmonterrey@uniovi.es)
630
Keywords: Supply Chain, Bullwhip Effect, Multiagent Systems, Time Series

Forecasting.
1 Introduction
There have been several changes in the last two decades in the macro environment
of the companies that have set up a new competitive perspective, where the
production function is considered to have a strategic importance which it did not
have. From this perspective, practices related to the SCM currently represent one
of the main concerns of business.
This situation leads to talk about the Bullwhip Effect. Analyzing the supply
chain, Forrester (1961) noted that small changes in customer demand are ampli-
fied along the same, leading to larger variations in demand supported by the dif-
ferent levels, as they are further away from consumer. This is called the Bullwhip
effect and, according to Disney et al. (2005), it can be considered a major source
of inefficiency in the supply chain, as it causes a significant increase in labor,
stockout, storage, obsolescence, and transport costs.
In this context, this paper proposes the application of Artificial Intelligence
techniques to the SCM in order to create a tool oriented to optimize the manage-
ment. More specifically, Distributed Intelligence is applied to the problem through
a multiagent system that allows finding an optimal solution to the problem.
This document is divided into five sections, besides this introduction. Section 2
is a review of the most relevant and recent literature on the subject. Section 3 de-
scribes the model, with the different agents, the structure which includes them and
their relationships. Section 4 presents the results, after testing the model with time
series obtained from the literature. Section 5 describes the conclusions.
2 Background: Solutions for Supply Chain Management
Lee et al. (1997) demonstrated that the transfer of distorted information from one
end of a supply chain to the other is the reason for the generation of the Bullwhip
Effect. Thus, the authors identified four main causes: Errors in demand forecast-
ing; Order batching; Price Fluctuation; and Rationing for fear of stockout.
631
2.1 Traditional Solutions
To reduce the Bullwhip Effect and optimize the supply chain, it is necessary to in-
sist on the accuracy of the information transferred over the same. This fact deter-
mines that collaboration is the key to improving the SCM. However, the data
transfer is not free and those who facilitate it require compensations. This has cre-
ated a wide range of ways of collaboration. These are called the traditional solu-
tions to the Bullwhip Effect, and they are practices that take place in some compa-
nies for two decades: Use of Information Technologies and Communication,
Postponement, Efficient Consumer Response (ECR), Vendor Managed Inventory
(VMI) and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR).
2.2 Advanced Solutions
The SCM is a highly complex problem, conditioned by the interaction of multiple

agents, each of which has to serve a large number of variables. In turn, it tends to
develop in increasingly uncertain environments, marked by the difficulty of fore-
casting some parameters which affect it in a crucial way. For this reason, in recent
years, they have looked for different ways to optimize the SCM using techniques
based on Artificial Intelligence. They are called the advanced solutions to the
Bullwhip Effect.
Mainly, multiagent systems have been used. They simulate the behavior of
each one of the main members of a supply chain through an intelligent agent,
which interact among them. Fox et al. (1993) were piooners in the proposal of the
supply chain as a network of intelligent agents. Later, Shen et al. (1998) created
Metamorph, oriented to companies. With the turn of the decade, there was the de-
velopment of these tools. Thus, Moyaux et al. (2004) were based on the famous
"Beer Game" (Sterman, 1989) to devise the "Quebec Wood Supply Game". In
2008, Zarandi et al. introduced fuzzy logic. Other relevant are recent works are the
ones of Wu et al. (2011) and Saberi et al. (2012).
The work presented in this paper continues this line, using the multiagent
methodology not only to minimize the Bullwhip Effect, but also to minimize man-
agement costs, in order to analyze the relationship between the two alternatives.
3 Description of the Model
To prepare the base model, we have considered a traditional supply chain with lin-
ear structure, which consists of four main levels (Shop Retailer, Retailer, Whole-
saler and Factory) plus Consumer.
632
We modeled the supply chain as a Global Multiagent System (MAGS), which

consists of four main Multiagent Subsystems (MASS 1, 2, 3 and 4), each one of
them associated with one of the levels of the supply chain. Each MASS interact
with the next ones, and it is able to make intelligent decisions, aimed at optimizing
the SCM around predefined objectives. Figure 1 shows the general outline of the
proposed model. To implement it, we used NetLogo 5.0.1 (Wilensky, 1999).
Each MASS replicates the behavior of one of the main levels of the supply
chain. In turn, it will consist of several interconnected intelligent agents, as shown
in Figure 1. The four MASS have identical structure.
Fig. 1 Multiagent system model used
Information Agent contain the information issued by the other agents, and it
stores it in the database. It also responds to the information needs of the rest.
Communication Agent communicates the MASS with its environment. It
works, thus, as a spokesman, mainly to collect demand from the lower level, and
to transmit the order to the higher level.
Forecasting Agents are the core of the system. Each one of them will perform
the demand based on a different method. 1-1 Agent estimates the demand in a pe-
riod as the previous demand. MM Agent forecasts the demand as the average of
the last n demands (n from 2 to 15). Finally, AE agent is based on a weighted av-
erage with coefficient ( from 0.1 to 0.9) between the demand and the forecast
633
in the previous period. In the latter two cases, the system selects as the best fore-
casting these which generates lower Mean Square Error (MSE).
Planning Agent uses the three forecastings for processing three plannings,
through the calculation of four parameters for each period to consider: initial in-
ventory, final inventory, deliveries and orders to be made. Evaluation Agent com-
pares the three plannings, based on specified criteria from the following options:
Minimize the Bullwhip Effect in the level, understood it as the ratio between
the variance of demand transmitted and received by the level (equation 1).
2

= 2 (1)

Minimize the total cost of inventory management, stated as the sum of stockout
and storage costs (Equation 2), because, with the assumptions we have made,
all other costs would be independent of the forecasting method.
= + (2)
Negotiation Agent, finally, will be enabled or disabled by the user. When ena-
bled, it activates the information sharing between Shop Retailer and Retailer, on
one hand, and Wholesaler and Manufacturer, on the other.
4 Numerical Application
To evaluate the performance of the developed tool, we have used six series ob-
tained from databases typically used in forecasting models. Table 1 lists the main
data of each series.
Table 1 Time series data used for testing multi-agent model
Database Name Data Content

Abraham (1983) AL03 106 Electricity consumption
Abraham (1983) AL04 108 Car sales
Abraham (1983) AL11 106 Gas consumption
Box Jenkins (1976) BJ02 369 Price of IBM shares
Box Jenkins (1976) BJ06 100 Wolfer sunspots
Box Jenkins (1976) BJ08 144 Airline company passengers
4.1 Model Oriented to Minimize the Bullwhip Effect
First, we detail some tests carried out on the model when Evaluation Agent is
aimed at minimizing the Bullwhip Effect. Table 2 summarizes the results for each
serie: Bullwhip Effect generated if all the levels used 1-1 method (BW1) and a
634
three-period moving average (BW2) for demand forecasting; and Bullwhip Effect
generated with the developed multiagent model without activating Negotiation
Agent (BW3) and activating it (BW4).
Table 2 Results with the model oriented to the minimization of the Bullwhip Effect
Test Series BW1 BW2 BW3 BW4

A-1 AL03 65,90 26,29 1,54 1,22
A-2 AL04 48,70 12,41 1,32 1,11
A-3 AL11 13,74 7,42 6,00 2,88
A-4 BJ02 4,20 1,21 1,12 1,05
A-5 BJ06 15,41 7,54 4,18 3,35
A-6 BJ08 12,28 3,31 1,25 1,18
The results demonstrate the efficiency of the model in reducing the Bullwhip
Effect. In all cases, its solution (BW3) significantly improves the result if all the
levels used the 1-1 method (BW1) or a moving average (BW2). Thus, the use of
simple forecasting methods, coordinated by a multiagent system, allows a great
improvement in the SCM, minimizing the impacts of Bullwhip Effect. Finally, by
comparing the results when Negotiation Agent is active (BW4) and when it is not
(BW3), we can conclude the effectiveness of cooperation in improving the SCM.
By way of example, Figure 2 shows, with AL03 series, the different demands
along the supply chain if all levels use the 1-1 method and Figure 3 represents the
solution offered by the developed model. It is easy to observe the high perfor-
mance in mitigation the demands variability along the supply chain.
Fig. 2 Variations of orders for the test A-1 if all levels using the method 1-1
635
Fig. 3 Solution offered by the model to variations multiagent orders
4.2 Model Oriented to Minimize Management Costs.
Secondly, we have oriented Evaluation Agent to the minimization of management

costs and we have tested it with the same series. Table 3 presents the results, col-
lecting the solution provided by the model multiagent when it is oriented to mini-
mize the Bullwhip Effect (BW3), and when it is oriented to minimize management
costs if stockout costs and storage are equal (BW5), if the first are four times
greater than the second (BW6) and if the first are ten times higher (BW7).
The results show that the stockout costs contribute to generate the Bullwhip Ef-
fect. These costs motivate decisions in the different members of the supply chain
that, in view of the data, which tend to increase the variability of transmitted de-
mands.
Table 3 Results with the model oriented to the minimization of the management costs
Test Series BW3 BW5 BW6 BW7

B-1 AL03 1,54 4,20 4,20 4,20
B-2 AL04 1,32 2,85 8,32 48,70
B-3 AL11 6,00 6,47 6,47 13,74
B-4 BJ02 1,12 1,16 1,16 1,16
B-5 BJ06 4,18 4,22 7,07 15,41
B-6 BJ08 1,25 1,29 1,96 1,96
The results show that the stockout costs contribute to generate the Bullwhip Ef-
fect. These costs motivate decisions in the different members of the supply chain
that, in view of the data, which tend to increase the variability of transmitted de-
mands.
Analyzing the results in more detail, we can draw conclusions of great interest.
The consideration of stockout costs at each level, paradoxically, tends to increase
the average stockout generated in the supply chain. That is, if each level tends to
reduce its own stockout, the stockout generated in the supply chain tends to in-
crease. This occurs because, in this way, each level increases the distortion of the
636
information transmitted to the supply chain, generating a high Bullwhip Effect,

which hurts the other levels. This phenomenon is presented in Figure 4, which
summarizes the results of the BJ06 series.
Fig. 4 Detailed results of test B-5.
5 Conclusions and Future Research Lines
Tests performed on time series demonstrate the importance of minimizing Bull-

whip Effect in managing the supply chain, as a major source of inefficiency there-
of. The use of simple forecasting methods without clear coordination leads to a
large amplification of the variability of the demands transmitted along the supply
chain. In these circumstances, the application of the developed multiagent model
significantly reduces the Bullwhip Effect in the supply chain.
In another analysis, the model has been oriented to the minimization of man-
agement costs through different coefficients between stockout and storage costs.
We noted that the consideration of stockout costs tends to increase the Bullwhip
Effect in the supply chain, which may lead to, paradoxically, increased average
stockout in the same, because the transmitted loses veracity. This evidence, more-
over, that the search for the optimal solution for each agent does not lead to the
best solution for the global supply chain.
Thus, we emphasize in cooperation as an effective alternative to optimize the
SCM but it is also easy to understand the main barrier to implementation: each
participant is interested in taking decisions that do not benefit the overall chain.
As future research, we propose to use multiagent methodology for even closer
to reality, focusing on the Negotiation Agent. We also propose incorporating more
complex forecasting methods with the aim of further improving the management.
637
6 References
Abraham B, Ledolter J (1983) Statistical Methods for Forecasting. New York Weley.
Box GEP, Jenkins GM (1976) Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and Control. Holden Day, San
Francisco.
Disney SM, Farasyn I, Lambrecht M, Towill DR, Van de Velde W (2005) Taming the Bullwhip
Effect whilst watching customer service in a single supply chain echelon. European Journal
of Operational Research.
Forrester JW (1961) Industrial dynamics, MIT Press. Cambridge, MA.
Fox MS, Chionglo JF, Barbuceanu M (1993) The Integrated Supply Chain Management System.
Internal Report, Dept. of Industrial Engineering, Univ. of Toronto.
Lee HL, Padmanabhan V, Whang S (1997) The bullwhip effect in supply chains. Sloan Man-
agement Review. 38(3):93-102.
Moyaux T, Chaib-Draa B, D'Amours S (2004) An agent simulation model for the Quebec forest
supply chain. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. 3191:226241.
Saberi S, Nookabadi AS, Hejazi S (2012) Applying Agent-Based System and Negotiation Mech-
anism in Improvement of Inventory Management and Customer Order Fulfilment in Multi
Echelon Supply Chain. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering. 37(3):851-861.
Shen W, Xue D, Norrie DH (1998) An Agent-Based Manufacturing Enterprise Infrastructure for
Distributed Integrated Intelligent Manufacturing Systems. In Proceedings of the Practical
Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Systems PAAM'98, London, UK.
Sterman JD (1989) Modelling managerial behaviour: Misperceptions of feedback in a dynamic
decision making experiment. Management Science. 35(3):321-339.
Wilensky U (1999) NetLogo. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL: The Center for Connected
Learning and Computer - Based Modeling. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/
Wu SN, Gan WH, Wei FM (2011) Analysis on the Bullwhip Effect Based on ABMS. Procedia
Engineering. 15.
Zarandi MH; Pourakbar M; Turksen IB (2008) A fuzzy agent-based model for reduction of bull-
whip effect in supply chain systems. Expert systems with applications. 34(3):1680-1691.
638
Revisiting the SEC Classification Framework in

Traditional and Electronic Commerce
Agudo-Peregrina AF1, Chaparro-Pelez J2, Pascual-Miguel FJ3
Abstract The recent growth of e-commerce sales has its cause not only on the in-
crease of products sold, but also on the incorporation of new products which were
previously not selling well on the online channel. A significant example of these
products in Spain is clothing, which has rocketed from a marginal position in
online sales to the fifth place of the top selling products over the Internet. This is
an interesting case because clothing has conventionally been classified as experi-
ence product within the SEC (Search, Experience, Credence) classification
framework, which proposes product segmentation based on the ability of consum-
ers to identify the characteristics and attributes of the products before and after
their purchase and use. This situation raises the question whether the SEC classifi-
cation is still valid today and if there are changes in consumer perceptions about
which segment the different products are categorized into. In order to answer these
questions, a selection of 26 products was made by e-commerce experts; then, 204
undergraduate and graduate students were asked to classify those products within
the SEC framework, and to declare their purchase intentions and actual shopping
behavior for each product, both in the online and traditional channel. The findings
from this study suggest that the SEC classification is still valid in electronic com-
merce but not in traditional retail stores. Moreover, the study detected actual
changes in the customer perceptions of the nature of some products within the
SEC classification.
1
ngel F. Agudo Peregrina (e-mail: af.agudo@upm.es)
2
Julin Chaparro Pelez (e-mail: julian.chaparro@upm.es)
3
Flix J. Pascual Miguel (e-mail: felixjose.pascual@upm.es)
639
Keywords: e-commerce, product, segmentation, search, experience, credence, in-

tention, shopping behavior.
1 Introduction
Electronic commerce has experienced a strong growth in recent years in Spain.

Online sales have raised by 84.7 percent between 2007 and 2011(ONTSI, 2012).
This growth has been caused by an increase of total product units sales, but also
by a higher variety of products sold. A widely accepted classification of products
is the SEC (Search, Experience, Credence) classification framework introduced by
Nelson (1970). Within this classification, Search products are those whose attrib-
utes and characteristics can be identified by buyers before purchase; Experience
products are those whose attributes and characteristics can not be identified until
the buyer has bought the product; and Credence, those for which the buyer needs
to experience longer use before forming a complete opinion of the product (Darby
& Karni, 1973).
According to these definitions, the Internet channel has been considered partic-
ularly suitable for selling Search products, due to the lack of physical examination
when buying from web stores (Alba, Lynch, Weitz, & Janiszewski, 1997). On the
other hand, other products such as clothing, have traditionally been viewed as Ex-
perience products and not considered especially adequate for e-commerce, since
consumers place great value on the ability to touch and inspect the product (Levin,
Levin, & Heath, 2003).
However, according to data from the Spanish Telecommunications Market
Commission, since 2010 clothing are among the top ten best selling products
online, up to the fifth position in late 2011 (CMT, 2011). In fact, brands like Zara
or Mango, Spanish textile distribution giants, have focused their efforts on devel-
oping their online channels -with current sales between 2.5 and 5 percent of their
annual total sales, and annual growth rates of nearly 100 percent (Elizalde & Ruiz,
2012).
From these sales data, it is clear that online shoppers show a different behavior
than what could be expected according to the SEC framework, and this raises the
question whether this framework is still appropriate for classification of online
products. Moreover, given the changes in attitudes of shoppers since the original
proposition of the SEC framework, its suitability to traditional commerce should
also be assessed. On the other hand, should the framework still be proven valid, it
would be of high interest to evaluate whether there have been changes in shop-
pers perceptions of products attributes, so that some products may have shifted
from one classification group to another.
To achieve this research objective, the paper is organized as follows: section 2
makes a review of the literature on the SEC framework; research methodology,
640
procedures and sample description are shown in section 3, data analysis and re-
sults are presented in section 4, and in section 5 a discussion of the results and
findings from the experiment are presented.
2 Theoretical Background
One of the most accepted classifications for product segmentation is the SEC clas-
sification in which, initially, products were classified as Search and Experience
(Nelson, 1970); later on Darby (1973) added the category of Credence products.
Norton and Norton (1988) extended the framework by dividing experience prod-
ucts into durable and nondurable, and Klein (1998) proposed a division of Experi-
ence products into Experience 1 similar to the original definition of Experience-
and Experience 2 those in which the search cost is bigger than the experience
cost. Although the SEC-product classification framework was developed for the
traditional channel, it has also been used in electronic commerce (e.g. Girard &
Silverblatt, 2002; Girard & Dion, 2010).
In order to study the influence of product type differences in shoppers pur-
chase behavior, purchase intention has been usually considered a proxy for actual
purchase behavior, according to the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein &
Ajzen, 1975). Some studies have confirmed the existence of such behavioral dif-
ferences (Brown, Pope, & Voges, 2003), and others have found that, in fact,
search products are better suited for the online market than experience products
(Liang & Huang, 1998) due to reduction of search costs in Internet, and that
Search products show higher purchase intention than Experience products (Chiang
& Dholakia, 2003). Moreover, Credence and Experience-2 products have the
lowest online purchase intentions (Girard & Silverblatt, 2002; Korgaonkar,
Silverblatt, & Girard, 2006). For the traditional channel, there are differences in
purchase intentions between different types of products too, although these differ-
ences are smaller (Girard & Dion, 2010). It should be noted that consumer charac-
teristics, such as age (Bhatnagar & Ghose, 2004), education (Girard, Korgaonkar,
& Silverblatt, 2003) or experience (Klein, 1998; Shim, Eastlick, Lotz, &
Warrington, 2001) may also influence purchase intentions across product types.
However, some authors suggest that the SEC framework is not adequate for e-
commerce (Peterson, Balasubramanian, & Bronnenberg, 1997). Due to the reduc-
tion of the search costs (Hoffman & Novak, 1996) and the increase of new fea-
tures that improve how information is displayed on Internet 3D, high quality vid-
eos (Li, Daugherty, & Biocca, 2002), there are less differences between Search
and Experience products, and they are now based on the type of information need-
ed by buyers for final purchase decision (Huang, Lurie, & Mitra, 2009).
641
The empirical study has been divided in two stages. First, a group of ten experts in
e-commerce proposed a list of 105 representative goods and services from SEC
literature, and selected 26 based on differences between them according to other
segmentation classifications, in order to achieve higher product diversity.
Then, a survey was distributed among 370 Spanish graduate and postgraduate
students, for a total of 204 valid responses. Sample selection criteria responded to
assurance of sample homogeneity: all respondents were between 18 and 35 years,
99 percent of them used Internet more than 5 hours a week and only 1 percent of
them had never bought online. The survey was divided in two parts: in the first
one, students had to classify the 26 products within the SEC framework; in the
second part, respondents were asked about their purchase intention through virtual
and traditional retail stores, as well as their real shopping behaviors in both chan-
nels. The 5-point Likert scale used in the survey has wide acceptance in purchase
intention literature (Girard & Dion, 2010; Kiang, Ye, Hao, Chen, & Li, 2011).
4 Data Analysis and Results
First, we show the classifications of the selected products made by respondents in

the Search, Experience and Credence categories, as well as their purchase
intentions and shopping behavior in traditional and electronic commerce (Table
1). In 12 of the products 35 percent, marked with an asterisk in Table 1 the
opinion of the majority of respondents (Sur. column) does not match the
experts proposed product classification (Exp. column). In 8 products (30,8
percent), respondents did not even reach a consensus, since none of the categories
reached at least 50 percent of the responses.
Table 1 Search/Experience/Credence classification, purchase intention and shopping behavior.

Online Trad. Online Trad.
Product Exp. Sur. S (%) E (%). C (%)
Int. Int. Shop Shop
MP3 player S S 81,9 13,2 4,9 3,89 3,76 2,2 3,65
E-book S S 70,1 18,1 11,8 4,59 2,31 3,8 1,32
Clothing* E S 62,7 29,9 7,4 3,09 4,32 1,87 4,07
Online Music* E S 61,3 32,4 6,3 4,53 1,84 3,91 1,35
Insurance S S 59,8 19,6 20,6 3,82 3,28 3,13 2,02
Hosting S S 57,8 29,4 12,8 4,46 2,21 2,64 1,3
Flowers* E S 56,9 39,7 3,4 2,67 4,34 1,51 4,24
Car rental S S 55,4 33,8 10,8 4,04 3,32 2,79 2,05
Antivirus* C S 54,4 20,6 25 4,28 2,74 3,48 1,91
Game S S 50 40,7 9,3 4,52 2,2 3,51 1,72
Handicraft S S 49,5 41,2 9,3 2,2 4,31 1,23 3,75
Photoshop* S - 47,1 47,1 5,8 4,07 2,81 2,69 1,43
Photo retouch E E 23,5 65,7 10,8 3,59 3,03 2,09 1,59
Hotel lodging E E 21,6 63,7 14,7 4,44 3,15 3,93 2,07
Housekeeping E E 22,5 54,9 22,6 2,24 4,22 1,25 2,77
642
Table 1 (continued) Search/Experience/Credence classification, purchase intention and shop-

ping behavior.
Online Trad. Online Trad.
Product Exp. Sur. S (%) E (%). C (%)
Int. Int. Shop Shop
Fruit E E 40,2 52,9 6,9 1,77 4,51 1,28 4,56
Telemedicine* C E 15,2 48,5 36,3 3,37 2,74 1,27 1,3
Social Network E E 30,9 47,1 22 4,59 1,87 4,13 1,24
Astrology* C E 13,2 46,6 40,2 2,25 2,8 1,23 1,26
Web programming* S E 34,8 46,1 19,1 4,16 2,47 2,28 1,32
Crowdfunding* S E 28,4 41,2 30,39 4,08 2,3 1,59 1,23
Cream C C 6,9 10,3 82,8 2,46 3,91 1,21 2,4
Custom Medicine C C 29,4 17,6 53 2,24 4,04 1,3 2
Tutoring* E C 7,4 42,2 50,4 2,54 4,05 1,37 3,59
Physiotherapy* E C 6,9 43,1 50 2,48 4 1,42 2,84
Gym* E C 34,3 30,9 34,8 3,02 3,95 1,3 3,96
As it may be observed in Table 1, there are some changes in the categories in

which products have been traditionally classified. An ANOVA was performed to
test if SEC-products were different depending on consumer purchase intentions
and actual shopping behaviors, using consumer purchase intention and actual
shopping behavior as dependent variables and product class as the categorical
independent variable (see Table 2). In contrast to other studies where the opinion
of the majority was chosen as independent variable (Girard & Dion, 2010; Kiang
et al., 2011), and since we were measuring differences in individual perceptions,
the product classification stated by each respondent was considered the
independent variable for this study.
Table 2 ANOVA and Games-Howell post-hoc analysis results.
Class Mean SD N F-Sig Product (A) Product (B) Mean-diff Std.Err

Online S 3,74 1,29 2085 123,126** S E 0,34** 0,04
Purchase E 3,40 1,36 1992 S C 0,75** 0,05
Intention C 2,99 1,42 1227 E C 0,41** 0,05
Traditional S 3,15 1,38 2085 10,844** S E -0,12* 0,04
Purchase E 3,27 1,35 1992 S C -0,23** 0,05
Intention C 3,38 1,31 1227 E C -0,11 0,05
Online S 2,55 1,69 2085 94,884** S E 0,32** 0,05
Shopping E 2,23 1,59 1992 S C 0,78** 0,05
Behavior C 1,77 1,38 1227 E C 0,46** 0,05
Traditional S 2,34 1,61 2085 3,449* S E -0,04 0,05
Shopping E 2,38 1,66 1992 S C 0,11 0,06
Behavior C 2,23 1,69 1227 E C 0,15* 0,06
With regard to differences between groups, from the ANOVA analysis there is
a significant difference between groups in all cases at p<0.05 for actual purchase
in the traditional channel, and p<0.01 in all other cases. From highest to lowest,
the means of purchase intentions and actual shopping behavior in e-commerce
corresponded to Search, Experience and Credence products. However, in tradi-
tional commerce, the resulting order for purchase intention was the opposite
Credence, Experience and Search. Regarding actual shopping behavior in the
643
traditional channel, the order from highest to lowest was Experience, Search and
Credence.
After observation of the Levene statistic, homocedasticity of data distribution
could not be assured, and therefore a Games-Howell multiple comparisons proce-
dure was chosen for the post-hoc analysis. The results indicate that in the Internet
channel, for both purchase intention and actual shopping behavior, the three
groups are significantly different from each other (p<0.01). However, in the case
of purchase intentions in the traditional channel, there are significant differences
between Search and Credence (p<0,01) and Search and Experience (p<0,05). Re-
garding actual shopping behavior, significant differences were only between Ex-
perience and Credence products (p<0.05) in traditional stores.
From the results, the SEC classification would still be suitable for product
segmentation in the online channel all the groups were significantly different
from each other, both for purchase intention and actual shopping behavior.
However, the differences between products seem to have blurred in the case of
traditional channel, especially for actual shopping behavior, where only significant
differences between the Experience and Credence products were found.
5 Discussion of Results
The results of the study show that the SEC classification framework is still valid
for analysis purposes in e-commerce, but changes in shoppers perceptions of SEC
products classification in this channel should be taken into account in the future.
Furthermore, Search products are still more likely to succeed in the online market.
On the other hand, changes in perceptions about products types may have
impacted perceived differences in the traditional channel, where product type
seem to be no longer significant in terms of purchasing behavior.
We have found that some products which were previously seen as Experience
products e.g., clothing, online music and flowers, are now perceived by
consumers as Search products. In all three cases online sales have increased, as
well as the quantity and quality of online information available about these
products. This increase of information availability and the introduction of new
methods to display the information allow customers to access all the information
they need before they make their online purchase decisions giving them a high
degree of product experience without even having any physical contact with the
product (Huang et al., 2009).
Experience and Credence products have lower values of actual purchase
through Internet (Girard & Dion, 2010). This means that some barriers still exist
for certain products which prevent buyers to perform a thorough analysis of a
products characteristics based on the information received through the online
channel. Interestingly enough, this is not the case of two of the products on the list
644
social networks and hotel lodging which, although being identified as

Experience products, have good online sales performance; but nonetheless, social
networking is a digital service that can only be accessed via the Internet, and in the
case of hotel lodging, this service has generally achieved a high degree of
standardization and has been constantly improving the quality and quantity of
online information available, which has in turn contributed to increase their online
sales (Beldona, Morrison, & OLeary, 2005). These results suggest that there may
be a shift in customers perceptions of these services, which might become Search
products in the near future. However, even though the adequacy of SEC
classification framework has been previously confirmed (Girard & Silverblatt,
2002), it may require futher analysis in order not to group together products with
very different characteristics. Therefore, it is also recommended to take into
account other classification variables when using the SEC framework, such as
standardization (Peterson et al., 1997) or digitability (Kiang et al., 2011).
When comparing the traditional and the online channels, the findings from this
study contend previous results, where the SEC classification was considered
adequate for analysis of the traditional channel (Girard & Dion, 2010); the results
from this study suggest that the growth of e-commerce may be contributing to blur
the differences of individuals perceptions of the products in traditional shopping.
Thus, while there is still room for improvement and sales increases in the
online channel through a process of searchabilization of Experience products,
there seems to be no option to further differentiate products in the traditional
channel. This "searchabilization" process might require increases in quality and
quantity of information offering, implementation of multichannel strategies,
enhancement of transaction processing and product delivery, as well as focusing
on the intensification of other elements that contribute to products being perceived
as Search products (Kim & Kim, 2004).
6 References
Alba, J., Lynch, J., Weitz, B., & Janiszewski, C. (1997). Interactive home shopping: consumer,
retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate in electronic marketplaces. Journal of
Marketing, 61, 3853.
Beldona, S., Morrison, A. M., & OLeary, J. (2005). Online shopping motivations and pleasure
travel products: a correspondence analysis. Tourism Management, 26(4), 561570.
Bhatnagar, A., & Ghose, S. (2004). Segmenting consumers based on the benefits and risks of In-
ternet shopping. Journal of Business Research, 57(12), 13521360.
Brown, M., Pope, N., & Voges, K. (2003). Buying or browsing? An exploration of shopping
orientations and online purchase intention. European Journal of Marketing, 37(11/12), 1666
1684.
Chiang, K., & Dholakia, R. R. (2003). Factors Driving Consumer Intention to Shop Online: An
Empirical Investigation. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13(1-2), 177183.
CMT (2011). Informe sobre el Comercio Electronico en Espaa a travs de entidades de medios
de pago (IV Trimestre 2011).
645
Darby, M. R., & Karni, E. (1973). Free Competition and the Optimal Amount of Fraud. Journal
of Law and Economics, 16(1), 6788.
Elizalde, I., & Ruiz, R. (2012). Inditex duplicar las ventas de su negocio online el ao que vie-
ne. Expansin, p. 3. Available online:
http://expansionpro.orbyt.es/2012/10/14/tmt/1350234607.html (retrieved 1/03/2013).
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to
Theory and Research. MA: Addison-Wesley.
Girard, T., & Dion, P. (2010). Validating the search, experience, and credence product classifica-
tion framework. Journal of Business Research, 63(9-10), 10791087.
Girard, T., Korgaonkar, P., & Silverblatt, R. (2003). Relationship of type of product,shopping
orientations, and demographics with preference for shopping on the Internet. Journal of Busi-
ness and Psychology, 18(1), 101120.
Girard, T., & Silverblatt, R. (2002). Influence of Product Class on Preference for Shopping on
the Internet. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 8(October), 118.
Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P. (1996). Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Envi-
ronments: Conceptual Foundations Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environ-
ments: Journal of Marketing, 60(1), 5068.
Huang, P., Lurie, N. H., & Mitra, S. (2009). Searching for Experience on the Web: An Empirical
Examination of Consumer Behavior for Search and Experience Goods. Journal of Marketing,
73(March), 5569.
Kiang, M. Y., Ye, Q., Hao, Y., Chen, M., & Li, Y. (2011). A service-oriented analysis of online
product classification methods. Decision Support Systems, 52(1), 2839.
Kim, E. Y., & Kim, Y.-K. (2004). Predicting online purchase intentions for clothing products.
European Journal of Marketing, 38(7), 883897.
Klein, L. R. (1998). Evaluating the Potential of Interactive Media through a New Lens: Search
versus Experience Goods. Journal of Business Research, 41, 195203.
Korgaonkar, P., Silverblatt, R., & Girard, T. (2006). Online retailing, product classifications, and
consumer preferences. Internet Research, 16(3), 267288.
Levin, A. M., Levin, I. P., & Heath, C. E. (2003). Product category dependent consumer prfer-
ences for online and offline shopping features and their influence on multi-channel retail alli-
ances. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 4(3), 8593.
Li, H., Daugherty, T., & Biocca, F. (2002). Impact of 3-D Advertising on Product Knowledge,
Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Presence. Journal of Adver-
tising, 31(3), 4357.
Liang, T., & Huang, J. (1998). An empirical study on consumer acceptance of products in elec-
tronic markets: a transaction cost model. Decision Support Systems, 24, 2943.
Nelson, P. (1970). Information and Consumer Behavior. Journal of Political Economy, 78(2),
311329.
Norton, S.W., Norton, S. Jr., An economic perspective on the information content ofmagazine
advertisements, International Journal of Advertising 7 (1988) 138148.
ONTSI. (2012). Comercio Electrnico B2C 2012 (pp. 184).
Peterson, R. A., Balasubramanian, S., & Bronnenberg, B. J. (1997). Exploring the Implications
of the Internet for Consumer Marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,
25(4), 329346.
Shim, S., Eastlick, M. A., Lotz, S. L., & Warrington, P. (2001). An online prepurchase intentions
model: The role of intention to search. Journal of Retailing, 77, 397416.
646
Utilization of Tool Value Stream Mapping

(VSM) for Improvement of Welded Assembly
Manufacturing Process
Guimares G1, Muller M2, Taffarel L3, Lash M4, Bechert T5
Abstract This paper presents the mapping value stream of the production process
of a welded assembly, component present in agricultural tractors. Through this
tool we were able to detail the constituent stages of the manufacturing process of
the set, with the aim of identifying the steps to add value and waste. It was then
possible establish opportunities for improvement in the process, improving pro-
duction and thus increasing the company's competitiveness.
Keywords: Value Stream Mapping, Continuous Improvement, Process Improve-

ment, Lay-out, Lean Manufacturing
1 Introduction
Due to the globalization of markets and their consequent expansion, more and
more companies seek to increase the efficiency of their processes. Recently the
philosophy of lean manufacturing has been consolidated in the industry, spreading
the culture of waste elimination.
1GilGuimares ( e-mail: gil.guimaraes@unijui.edu.br)

Engenharia Mecnica DCEEng UNIJUI Campus Panambi RS - BRASIL
2Maiquel Muller ( e-mail: maiquel.muller@unijui.edu.br)

3Lucas Taffarel ( e-mail: lucas.taffarel@unijui.edu.br)
Engenharia Mecnica DCEEng UNIJUI Campus Panambi RS BRASIL

4MarceloLash ( e-mail: marcelo.lash@unijui.edu.br)
Engenharia Mecnica DCEEng UNIJUI Campus Panambi RS BRASIL
5 Tobias Bechert ( e-mail: tobias.bechert@unijui.edu.br)
647
Like any process of organizational culture change, the implementation of lean

thinking involves the training of the workforce, and especially the leadership exer-
cised by the strategic level of the organization, they need to see the company
through a systemic approach in order to deal in more efficient the forms of im-
provement.
This systemic thinking focuses on value-creating processes, from raw material
to finished product, involving all productive agents, from the most primitive sup-
plier to the end customer. In addition there is an extensive development of people
and not only of processes and / or products. Therefore, from the moment that the
whole supply chain involved, all companies that are part of this chain are bound to
fit the lean thinking.
The present work is an example of the actions that have been taken within the
company in order to identify opportunities to improve processes and increase
productivity.
2 Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
The perspective of the value stream was identified in the publication "Lean Think-
ing" by Womack and Jones, as fundamental to Lean transformation, but lacked a
tool able to look at the processes of adding value horizontally. This means break-
ing with the traditional perspective of examining departments or functions and
emphasizes the activities, actions and their connections in order to create value
and make it flow, from suppliers to end customers.
The mapping process is a communication and management tool that aims to
help improve existing processes or deploy a new structure oriented to processes.
The mapping also helps the company to clearly see the strengths and weak-
nesses (points that need to be improved such as: complexity in operation, reduce
costs, bottlenecks, failures of integration, redundant activities, tasks with low add-
ed value, rework, excess documentation and approvals), as well as being a great
way to improve understanding of the processes and increase business perfor-
mance.
3 Ten Steps to Map and Model a Process
Identify the process objectives

Identify the process outputs
Identify the customers of the process
Identify the inputs and process components
Identify the suppliers of the process
648
Determine the boundaries of the process

Document the current process
Identify needed improvements of the process
Consensus on the improvements to be applied to the process
Document the revised process
4 Current State Map
The design of the current state map includes information about the flow of ma-
terials and information in relation to customers, production and supply of raw ma-
terials, and aims to show how the production is occurring. This article will present
the current state map that shows the entire process, but how the improvement will
be made only in the process of welding assembly, data collection was done only
on this workstation. The current state map is shown in fig. 1.
PPCP
Compras Comercial
Fornecedor Cliente
MP John Deere
Produo
em lotes
Expedio
Posto de Posto de
Corte E Usinagem E Estampar E E E Acabamento E Mandrilar E Pintar E Montar E
E solda 1 solda 2
OP A OP B OP C OP D OP D OP E OP F OP G OP H
Fig. 1 Current state map (the red detail is shown in fig. 5)
The takt time is a reference number that provides a sense of rhythm (time) in
which each process should be producing a part or product, based on sales rhythm,
to cater customer demand. It is calculated by dividing the time available to work
per shift (in seconds) by the volume of customer demand (in units). [ROTHER
and SHOOK, 1998]
The calculation of takt time is shown below:
- The time shift is 528 minutes, and to know that the time available for produc-
tion was reduced 25% of the time shift (standard used by the company). These
25% represent all losses that occur during the work shift and may include: mainte-
649
nance, bathroom, unanticipated shifts the operator and so on. Therefore the time
available for production is 396 minutes.
- The takt time is then calculated by dividing 396 minutes by 130 pieces, so the
takt time is 3.04 minutes. Therefore any process can have a longer time than this
time.
Fig. 2 shows the layout of the sector, with the position of parts inventory and
movements that the operator must do to produce the assembly.
Fig. 2 Current state lay-out
In this work only was treated the welding of finish of the assembly, so these
workplaces are detailed in Fig. 3 for a better understanding.
The time line in Fig. 3 indicates the total time of each process and the waits be-
tween processes
Posto de Posto de
E E E Acabamento E
solda 1 solda 2
OP D 100un OP D 100un OP E
2:45:00 10:10:00
0:01:45 0:01:21 0:03:30
Fig. 3 Current State Map Detailed
650
4.1 Analysis of the Current State Map
Upon completion of the current state map, we can analyse some problems and
constraints. Table 1 shows the sum of the activities that add value (AV) and that
do not add value (NAV), which indicates the total time of the flow (lead time) in
these processes.
The Graphic 1 in figure 4 shows the percentages of time adding value (AV) and
not adding value (NAV).
Table 1 Current lead time
Activities AV NAV
Posto de solda 1 0:01:45
Estoque 2:45:00
Posto de solda 2 0:01:21
Estoque 10:10:00
Acabamento 0:03:30
Subtotal 0:06:36 12:55:00
Total 13:01:36
Fig. 4 Current time value adding
After analyzing the results, it was found that there is waste along the value
stream of the process studied. Most of the problems perceived by the current state
map are listed below:
- Stock high on the work station of welding: All parts are stocked in the sector,
which increases the need for physical space and makes it difficult inventory con-
trol.
- Standby time high in welding and finishing: The production is done by batch,
so parts need to wait for the entire batch to be ready to proceed to the next process.
- Disorganization of welding devices: The devices are arranged in a table,
without identification and appropriate locations.
- Layout of the work station of welding is inappropriate: The sector is not func-
tional because the welder should get the parts at distances up to 3 meters, the input
and output parts do not have a location set.
651
4.2 Suggested Improvements
1st - Reduced inventory of components in gas welding: All the inventory will
be transferred to the warehouse, where there is an appropriate place in the in-
dustry and the quantity of welding parts in the work station will only be for the
production of a day.
2nd - Develop continuous flow processes for welding and finishing: Create a
cell welding and finishing that allows the continuous stream and eliminate
stocks between processes.
3rd - Improvements in welding devices and welding processes: Restructure the
layout, improve the arrangement of devices and use a anti-spatter spray of
welding to decrease the time in the finishing operation.
4th - Definition of the areas in the assembly that should be free of weld spatter:
Make a study of the areas where it really necessary to remove weld spatter for
the finishing is made only where needed
5 Future State Map
The proposed layout is shown in Fig. 5, we included the concept of continuous

flow and the components distance of just one meter on each side, which brings a
reduction in waste due to unnecessary movements.
Fig. 5 Proposed layout
After the implementation of the suggested improvements, new times were

measured and are shown in Table 2.
652
Table 2 Time in future processes
Activities Process TC (minutes) Operator %

1 Posto de solda 1 0:01:45 D 100
2 Posto de solda 2 0:01:21 E 100
3 Acabamento 0:01:50 F 100
The future state map is shown in Fig. 6.

PPCP
Comercial
Compras
Fornecedor Cliente
MP John Deere
Produo
Contnua
Expedio
Clula
Corte E Usinagem E Estampar E E Mandrilar E Pintar E Montar E
E Pedais
OP A OP B OP C OP D,E,F OP G OP H OP I
Fig. 6 Future state map
Fig. 7 shows the future state map. In detail the cell of welding and finishing of
the assembly.
Clula
E Pedais E
OP D,E,F
0:04:56
Fig. 7 Detail of welding and finishing cell
Table 3 shows the lead time future and Graph 2 shows the percentage of time
adding value. As the flow of parts production continuous shows no time not add-
ing value.
Table 3 Future lead times
Activities AV NAV
Clula Pedais 0:04:56
Subtotal 0:04:56 00:00:00
Total 0:04:56
653
Fig. 8 Percentage of time adding value
6 Conclusion
The future state map showed very significant improvements, such as the elimina-
tion of non-value added activities.
It is evident, therefore, that with the application of value stream mapping
(VSM) in the process of the company there is a reduction in lead time, more than
13 hours for about 5 minutes, giving the company much more quickness in meet-
ing the demands of your client as well as a better use of its resources, which is
crucial in a globalized world in which the company operates.
7 References
Rother, M; Shook, J. (1998) Aprendendo A Enxergar: Mapeamento do fluxo de valor para agre-
gar valor e eliminar o desperdcio. So Paulo: Lean Institute Brasil
Womack, JP.; Jones, DT.; Roos, D. (1992) A mquina que mudou o mundo. Rio de Janeiro:
Campus.
Pereira, Paulo J.; Gonalves, Paulo R. (1995) A empresa enxuta. Rio de Janeiro: Campus.
Slack,N. et.al. (1999) Administrao da produo. So Paulo:Atlas.
Guimares, G.E; Paqualini, F; Siedemberg, D. Mapeamento do Fluxo de Valor em Empresa de
Pequeno Porte Brasileira. Instituto de Cincias Exatas e Aplicadas, Campus Joo Monlevade,
Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto. S/d.
Ferro, J.R.(2012). A essncia da ferramenta Mapeamento do Fluxo de Valor. So Paulo: Lean In-
stitute Brasil
Shimokawa, K; Fujimoto, T.(2011) O Nascimento do LEAN. So Paulo: Bookma
654
Logistic Management in a Fresh Food Firm: A

Case Study
Garca Mrquez F.P1, Pea Garca-Pardo I2, Trapero Arenas J.R3
Abstract An efficient and effective logistic system is a strategic objective in any

business. This paper presents a real case study of routing problem on a food indus-
try firm. The simplest case of route optimization is the traveling salesman prob-
lem. In this paper there are capacity restrictions and different demands at each
node. Then, the problem is classified as a capacity vehicle routing problem. In this
paper the Neural Network and Tabu Search algorithms, based on previous litera-
ture, are used to solve the problem.
Key words: CVRP, Neural network, Tabu Search, Logistic Management
1 Introduction
Logistic is an essential area in business competitiveness. The delivery of goods

from a warehouse to local customers is a critical aspect and therefore it can be
considered as a source of competitive advantage (Euchi and Chabchoub, 2010).
Logistics management has especially relevance in high competitive industries
such as food industry, where the logistics costs constitute an important percentage
of the total costs and the product requires to be served with severe punctuality
(Tarantilis and Kiranoudis, 2002). The food industry is interested in reducing
1Fausto Pedro Garca Mrquez ( e-mail: faustopedro.garcia@uclm.es)
Grupo INGENIUM. Dpto. de Administracin de Empresas. ETSI Industriales. Universidad de

Castilla-La Mancha. 13071 Ciudad Real.
2Isidro
Pea Garca-Pardo ( e-mail: isidro.pena@uclm.es). Dpto. de Administracin de
Empresas. Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. 13071
Ciudad Real.
3JuanRamn Trapero Arenas ( e-mail: juanramon.trapero@uclm.es)
Grupo INGENIUM. Dpto. de Administracin de Empresas. Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologas
Qumicas. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. 13071 Ciudad Real.
655
transport costs maintaining quality of the services, especially when dealing with
fresh and perishable products. An efficient and integrated system of activities is
involved in processing and transporting products from the supplier to the
consumer (Brito et al., 2012). For a range of goods labelled as perishables,
particularly food, their quality degrades with time is very high. It can be mostly
mitigated with lower temperatures, but takes time and coordination to efficiently
move a shipment and every delay can have negative consequences. An inefficient
distribution system causes that the products will not reach to their destinations on
time and the ordered volume reducing the storage and raising the cost
considerably because there are many products that are returned by traders, and it
complicates to set the optimal logistic decision (Tarantilis and Kiranoudis, 2001).
It is essential to determinate the optimal routes with the main objective of
minimizing the distance, costs and time, maintaining quality of services (Faulin et
al., 2011).
In this paper it has been considered a real case study of a Spanish firm leader in
the fresh meat industry. The main objective has been to improve the profit and the
competitiveness of the firm based on the logistic operations, minimizing
transportation cost employing optimization algorithms. The use of computerized
methods in distribution processes often results in savings ranging from 5% to 20%
of transportation costs (Toth and Vigo, 2002). Given a set of customers with
known geographical locations and demands, the problem consists of designing an
optimal number of routes that minimizes the total distance travelled. Each route
starts and finishes at the depot and each customer is visited exactly once. This is
the called travel salesman problem (TSP). This paper the TSP is expanded to a
vehicle routing problem (VRP) because there are different demand requirements at
each node, and different capacities for vehicles. In this paper is considered the
static and deterministic basic version of the problem, known as the capacitated
VRP (CVRP). In the CVRP all the customers correspond to deliveries,
deterministic known in advance demand, the vehicles are the same. It is also taken
into account a single central depot, where only the capacity restrictions for the
vehicles are imposed, and the objective is to minimize the total cost needed to
serve all the customers (Paolo, 2012).
The food industry has been considered previously by Hsu and Feng (2003). The
objective function of these problems usually involves distances, costs, number of
vehicles and delivery time (Faulin et al., 2011). The authors have not found in the
literature any research work that can solve the problem presented in this paper
taking into account the purchase volume, frequency of orders, type and prices of
the products demanded by the customers.
656
2 Case Study and Problem Description
This case study was conducted in an important firm in fresh food industry with a
large commercial structure, including a logistic department expanded and consoli-
dated throughout the Spanish market, with a relevant presence in the EU market,
principally Portugal, Italy and France. In the Spanish market, the firm has seg-
mented the market in the following areas in order to maximise the operations con-
trol: Central Area, North of Andaluca, West of Andaluca, East of Andaluca, Ex-
tremadura and Castilla y Len. This research has been focused in the region of
Extremadura.
Originally the routes design is done by the experience of the workers and they
do not use any formal mathematical method or specific software. The firm
chooses new customers without any logistical or economic criteria, only to
maximise the sales. The result is that there are a large number of customers based
on a politic of maximising the sales, but it generates a significant growth of
logistics costs. The transport costs are approximately 52% of total logistic costs
and 7% of the total costs, depending of the volume transported.
This work is focussed to reduce the total cost in order to maximise the profits,
analysing the customers that are not profitable for the company (Zeithaml et al.,
2001), and increasing the logistic effectiveness in order to reduce the transport
cost and maximise the flexibility of the routes.
An analysis of the sales distribution percentages of 421 customer shows that
approximately 20% of the total customers demand 80% of the total. The results
has been taken as reference for filtering and detecting the potential customers that
are important in terms of the total volume of sales, i.e. a complex and robust struc-
ture of customers does not increase the profitability of the firm because the prod-
uct requires to be distributed by the enterprise, and it generates important logistic
costs. A new scenario has been defined based on only 86 customers (Figure 1).
The new characteristics of the customers are: a) big volume of product demanded;
b) orders are done with the same frequency (twice a week); and c) large orders for
the same type of products. The percentage of wholesale customer is of 71% -11%
more than reference scenario, retailer customer 21% -10% less than the original
scenario, and the manufacturer customer has the same percentage of 8% in both
scenarios.
657
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20% SELECTED CUSTOMERS
10%
0% ELIMINATED CUSTOMERS
Customer %
Average served
Average number
volume ordered
Average of sales
(monthly)(kgs)
Average of
(kgs/route)
(monthly)
of orders
volume
Fig. 1 Characteristics of the customers selected and not selected.
Many managerial problems, e.g. routing problems, facility location problems,

scheduling problems, network design problems, etc., can be modeled as a VRP.
VRP is one of the most studied by the combinatorial optimization problems. VRP
expand TSP and requires finding a shortest Hamiltonian tour on n given cities
(Gutin and Punnen 2002). The CVRP consists of finding a collection of K simple
routes (corresponding to vehicle routes) with minimum cost, defined as the sum of
the costs of the arcs belonging to the circuits, and such that:
(i) each route visits the depot vertex.
(ii) each vertex is visited by exactly one route.
(iii) the sum of the demand of the vertices visited by a circuit does not exceed
the vehicle capacity.
The routing design process of the firm must optimize the number of vehicles to
involve and find out the routes of each vehicle. The problem to solve can be de-
scribed as a vehicle routing problem (VRP) (e.g. Faulin, 2003), with the following
characteristics: (a) unknown fleet size, (b) homogeneous fleet (refrigerator trucks
loading a fis volume of products), (c) single depot, (d) deterministic demand, (e)
goal: minimizing distances.
The problem is formulated as a Hamiltonian cycle, i.e. the problem is defined
by the graph G = (V, E), where V R2 is a set of n cities, and E is a set of arcs
connecting these cities. Under these conditions, the problem can be formulated as:
Minimize:
c x ,
i j
ij ij
where xij is the binary decision variable that in case of i < j has the following
values:
658
1 if the arc joining cities i and j is used in solution

xij ,
0 otherwise
And c is the associated cost matrix of E, composed by the elements cij that rep-
resents the distance (expressed as physical distance) between the cities i and j.
In this paper, cost matrix is asymmetric subject to the constraints:
x
i 1
ij 1, for all j V \ {0} (1)
x
j 1
ij 1, for all i V \ {0} (2)
x
j 1
0j K (3)
x
i 1
i0 K (4)
x
i 1 i 1
ij (S ) For all S V\ {0}, S (5)
The indegree and outdegree constraints (1)-(2) impose that exactly one arc en-
ters and leaves each vertex associated with a customer. Constraints (3)-(4) impose
the vehicles requirements from the depot. All available vehicles must be used in
one route. This number of vehicles is not smaller than the minimum number of
vehicles needed to serve all the customers demands. Constraint (5) imposes the
connectivity of the solution and the vehicle capacity requirements, i.e. each route
(V/S, S) defined by a vertex set S, is crossed by a number of arcs bigger than
(S) (minimum number of vehicles needed to serve customer set S) (Toth and Vigo
2002), see (6).
st
i j
k
i xijk tijk ij xijk Tk
i j
(6)
where st is the time to serve a customer, and tij the time needed to travel from
city i to city j. Both must be less than total time (T) for each vehicle k.
Finally, subtour elimination constraints (SECs; 7) are required in order to pre-
vent undesirable subtours that are degenerate tours formed between intermediate
nodes and not connected to the origin (Bektas, 2006). The restriction of Miller et
al. (1960) is used (7).
ui uj + Cxij C dj for all i, j V \ {0}; ij; s.t. di + dj C

(7)
659
di ui C for all i V \ {0};
where ui; i V \ {0}, is an additional continuous variable representing the load

of the of the vehicle after visiting customer, and di is the demand of each customer.
When xij =0 the constraint is not binding since ui C and uj dj, whereas when
xij=1 they impose that uj ui + dj (Toth and Vigo, 2002).
There are a large number of algorithms to find the routes, but no one are feasible
for large instances because they present exponentially in computational cost terms
(Ganesh et al., 2007)). In recent years several meta-heuristic algorithms have been
proposed for the VRP (Baldacci et al. 2007): Simulated Annealing (SA), Determin-
istic Annealing (DA), Tabu Search (TS), Genetic Algorithms (GA), Ant Systems
(AS), and Neural Networks (NN) (Gendrau et al. 2002). The problem has been
solved in this paper by TS and NN algorithms.
3 Results
3.1 Neural Network Algorithm
The origin of the Neural Network (NN) is usually employed in combinatorial op-
timization problems for calculating routes for the structure and characteristics of
the case study presented in this paper (Leung et al., 2004). NN is based on con-
cepts related to human brain mechanism, and they are inspired in the neuron sys-
tem. NN consists of processing units, called artificial neurons, organized in layers.
One of the advantages of NN is that requires a minimum computational cost com-
pared with the required by exact algorithms and other heurists algorithms. NN is
an algorithm that can learns from a reference solution set. This process is done by
an adaptive form where the connection between neurons to implement the desired
behaviour is adjustment. New advantages have been found in self organization,
where NN organizes the information received during training time, and it can
work online, i.e. the computational operations are carried on parallel minimizing
the information lost during the process, etc. (Sivanandam et al., 2006). The NN
can be single layered, with an input and output layer, or multiple layered, e.g. with
an input, hidden and output layer- net (Sivanandam, et al., 2006). In this paper is
employed a multiple NN because it leads to obtain consistent results and solves
this type of problems efficiently (Figure 2).
The number of neurons in the input and output is determined automatically.
However, the number of hidden layers and neurons in each hidden layer has been
defined by multiple combinations tested for NN. The NN approach in this paper is
based in the following functions:
660
Pdv Function: This function creates a weight matrix, which gives an im-
portance weight to the entries. It also creates a route pattern, generating a vec-
tor path or solution.
Geper Function: It generates the permutations necessary for the pdv function.
Dpdv function: It founds the path starting from the vector generated by a func-
tion called pos.
Fc Function: Fc does the learning to obtain the reference optimal solutions. fc
depends of (N, A), where N is the number of nodes and A represents the matrix
of distances between the different nodes.
Fig. 2 Neural Network with three layers
3.2 Tabu Search Algorithm
The tabu search (TS) algorithm is based on artificial intelligence using the concept
of memory. It has been implemented through simple structures. TS is one of the
most used algorithm in empirical researches in VRP with excellent results
(Brando, 2011). In this sense Courdeau and Laporte (2004) noted that: While
the success of any particular method is related to its implementation features, it is
fair to say that tabu search (TS) clearly outperforms competing approaches.
TS explores the solutions by moving in each iteration from a reference solution
to the best solution in its neighborhood. A neighborhood to a reference solution is
defined as any solution that is obtained by a pair wise exchange of any two nodes
in the solution. This always guarantees that any neighborhood to a feasible solu-
tion is a feasible solution. The new solution may be deteriorated when is moved
from one iteration to another (Ganesh et al., 2007). In order to avoid this, there is a
list that contains recent modification occurred during the transformation from the
current solution called tabu list. Tabu list allows new solutions only if the method
improves the best solution obtained. The TS approach in this paper uses the fol-
lowing two primary functions:
Tabu Function: This function is responsible for doing all the possible permuta-
tions for finding the minimum route.
661
List Function: This function contains the tabu list which includes the solutions
that have been explored in order to not consider these solutions.
TS also employ the tabu function (A, path), where path is a vector composed
by the initial solutions.
Table 1 presents the total distances corresponding to the routes defined by the
firm. The proposed algorithms provided reliable and practical solution with con-
siderable improvements in operational performance, reducing total distance and
time in comparison with previous scenario given by the company for the same
routes.
Table 1 Distances and runtimes found by NN and TS
Route 1 Route 2 Route 3

Distance Runtim Distance Runti Distance Runti
(Km) / e (Km) / me (Km) / me
Time (H) (s) Time (H) (s) Time (H) (s)
1237.3 / 1353.5 / 1442.6 /
Before - - -
20,15 21,23 20, 56
Neural 922 / 804 / 874.5 /
1.875 14.25 5.219
Network 15,45 13, 55 12,45
Tabu 925.8 / 804 / 874.5 /
0.187 0.125 0.110
search 14, 54 13,55 12,45
It can be seen that the solution generated by TS and NN methods is almost the
same, but solution given by NN is more feasible than that obtained by the TS
based on the location of populations. In both algorithm, time constrains are satis-
ficed (two work days, 16h), and allow delivery with actual vehicle availability and
capacity.
However, the computational cost is different due to the TS algorithm uses a
heuristic method that is fixed, however NN employs a learning process. NN algo-
rithm is much more useful than the TS algorithm when the number of nodes is big,
and the NN method generates possible solutions is the same to the number of en-
tries elevated, whereas in the method of the TS generated number of possible solu-
tions raised according to the input nodes.
4 Conclusions
This paper has shown that an uncontrolled number of customers causes an im-
portant increasing of logistics costs, reducing the profit of the firm. This paper
shows that implementing the Tabu Search and Neural Network algorithms for
solving various instances of CVRP can significantly reduce the transportation
costs that occur during the delivery process.
662
In accordance with the findings of this study, new opportunities for research are
presented. The first opportunity for research deals with the reconfiguration of cus-
tomer portfolio based on profitability criterion. Secondly, is possible to optimize
the transport costs minimising the distance covered using VRP algorithms.
5 References
Baldacci R., Toth P. and Vigo, D. (2007) Recent advances in vehicle routing exact algorithms,
4OR. Quarterly Journal Operation Research, Vol. 5, pp. 269-298.
Bektas, T (2006) The multiple traveling salesman problem: an overview of formulations and so-
lution procedures. Omega, Vol. 34, pp. 209-219.
Brando, J. (2011) A tabu search algorithm for the heterogeneous fixed fleet vehicle routing
problem. Computers & Operations Research, Vol. 38, pp. 140-151.
Brito, J., Martinez, F.J., Moreno, J. A. and Verdegay, J.L. (2012) Fuzzy optimization for distri-
bution of frozen food with imprecise times. Fuzzy Optimization and Decision Making, Vol.
11, pp. 337-349.
Cordeau, J.F. and Laporte, G. (2004) Tabu search heuristics for the vehicle routing problem. In
Metaheuristic Optimization via Memory and Evolution: Tabu Search and Scatter Search,
(eds). Rego, C. and Alidaee, B., pp. 145-163, Boston: Kluwer Academics Publishers.
Euchi, J. and Chabchoub, H. (2010) A hybrid Tabu Search to solve the heterogeneous fixed fleet
vehicle routing problem. Logistics Research, Vol. 2, pp. 3-11.
Faulin, J. (2003) Applying MIXALG procedure in a routing problem to optimize food product
delivery. Omega, Vol. 31, pp. 387-395.
Faulin, J., Juan, A., Lera, F. and Grasman, C. (2011) Solving the capacitated vehicle routing
problem with environmental criteria based on real estimations in road transportation: a case
study. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 20, pp. 323-334.
Ganesh, K., Nallathambi, A.S. and Narendran, T.T. (2007) Variants, solution approaches and ap-
plications for vehicle routing problems in supply chain: agile framework and comprehensive
review. International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, Vol. 2, pp. 50-75.
Gutin, G. and Punnen, A. (2002) The Traveling Salesman Problem and its variations, combinato-
rial optimization, Dordrech: Kluwer Academics Publishers.
Hsu, C.L. and Feng, S. (2003) Vehicle routing problem for distributing refrigerated food. Journal
of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol. 5, pp.22612272.
Leung, K.S., Jin, H.D. and Xu, Z.B. (2004) An expanding self-organizing neural network for the
traveling salesman problem. Neurocomputing, Vol. 62, pp.267-292.
Miller, C.E., Tucker, A.W. and Zemlin, R.A. (1960) Integer programming formulation of travel-
ing salesman problems. Journal of the Association of Computing Machinery, Vol. 7, pp. 326-
329.
Paolo, D.V. (2002) Models, relaxations and exact approaches for the capacitated vehicle routing
problem. Discrete Applied Mathematics, Vol. 123, pp. 487-512.
Sivanandam, S.N., Dumathi, S. and Deepa, S.N. (2006) Introduction to neural networks using
MATLAB 6.0, Delhi: McGraw Hill.
Tarantilis, C.D. and Kiranoudis, C.T. (2001) A meta-heuristic algorithm for the efficient distribu-
tion of perishable foods. Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 50, pp. 1-9.
Tarantilis, C.D. and Kiranoudis, C.T. (2002) Distribution of fresh meat. Journal of Food Engi-
neering, Vol. 51, pp. 85-91.
663
Tarantilis, C.D, Stavropoulou, F and Repoussis, P.P (2012) Template-based Tabu Search algo-
rithm for the Consistent Vehicle Routing Problem. Expert Systems with Applications, Vol.
39, pp. 4233- 4239.
Toth, P. and Vigo, D. (2002) Models, relaxations and exact approaches for the capacitated vehi-
cle routing problem. Discrete Applied Mathematics, Vol. 123, pp. 487-512.
664
City Logistics: Are Sustainability Policies Really

Sustainable?
Grosso R1, Muuzuri J2, Cortes P3, Carrillo J4
Abstract Road Freight transport is causing a number of social, environmental and

economic negative impacts in many cities around the world. Therefore sustainable
city logistics must be the solution to the problems of urban centers, with the main
objective of researchers reduce these impacts, without penalizing the needs of cit-
ies. Cause of this several sustainable initiatives and policies have been implement-
ed to help reduce them. But are the sustainable policies really sustainable? So this
paper aims to evaluate one of these policies in a quantitative way to answer the
question. Therefore be presented and implement a model based on VRP logic to
evaluate the differences between the distances traveled by vehicles of a logistics
company in a city with a policy regulating access and the distance traveled with-
out such regulation. And based on the results obtained attempt draw conclusions
to answer the question.
Keywords: City Logistic, Sustainable Policies, Vehicle Routing, Access Time

Windows, Genetic Algorithms, City Centers
1Rafael Grosso de la Vega ( e-mail: rgrosso@us.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin Industrial y Gestin de Empresas II. ETSI. Universidad de Sevilla.

Camino de los Descubrimientos, s/n. Isla de la Cartuja, 41092, Seville, Spain.
2Jesus Muuzuri Sanz ( e-mail: munuzuri@etsi.us.es)

3Pablo Cortes Achedad ( e-mail: pca@us.es)
4JesusCarrillo Castillo ( e-mail: jacarcas@gmail.com)
665
1 Introduction
Road Freight transport is causing a number of social, environmental and economic

negative impacts in many cities around the world (Anderson et al., 2005; Muuz-
uri et al., 2005). Some of these may be traffic congestion, air pollution, noise pol-
lution, and safety-related problems such as traffic accidents. In addition, these
transport systems contribute to emissions of greenhouse gases, and thus in a global
scale these negative externalities are important because contribute to climate
change effects. Also all towns and cities require the provision of goods and ser-
vices and the elimination of waste products, and therefore depend on urban freight
transport (Muuzuri et al., 2012). And these impacts have been increasing in re-
cent decades as a result of a growth in goods flows demand by consumers and
businesses (Cherrett et al., 2012). The determining factor in this increase is that
the urban population is growing at an exponential rate, and as a result of economic
development and urbanization is expected to continue the growth, by 2030 it is es-
timated that urban areas account for 56 per percent of the population of the less
developed regions, and 81 percent in the more developed regions (United Nations,
2006).
Therefore sustainable city logistics must be the solution to the problems of ur-
ban centers, with the main objective of researchers reduce the impacts of urban
freight transport, without penalizing the needs of cities (Chang and Yen, 2012;
May, 2013). Moreover, policy makers and decision makers aim to decrease the
above mentioned variety of negative social, environmental and economic impacts
of urban freight transport. Cause of this several initiatives and policies have been
implemented to help reduce them (temporal regulation of access, promotion of co-
operation between public and private sector, etc.). Some of the objectives of these
policies are to improve the environment (air and noise quality), securing pedestri-
ans space and the prevention of accidents. Definitely have sustainability as the ul-
timate goal (Dalkmann and Brannigan, 2007).
In this situation, and in City Logistics researchs, raises the question of the im-
pact of these policies on the different areas and interests of the stakeholders in-
volved in urban areas and its centers (citizens, residents, merchants, transporters,
local authorities, etc.). This is a field that has been investigated in recent years
(Quak et al., 2009; Gonzalez-Feliu et al., 2012; Stathopoulos et al., 2011 and
2012). As known the heterogeneity of the interests of these stakeholders makes
coordination very complicated, so generally act independently and without any
centralized control. But this paper seeks to answer a less particular issue; a ques-
tion witch captures the overall interests of all stakeholders involved (general inter-
ests should be above individuals): are sustainability policies really sustainable?
So this paper aims to answer the previous question, at least partially. To answer
this question should be starting from the concept of sustainability in all its scope
and all its implications. Subsequently assess the impact of one of the aforemen-
tioned policies in a European city in particular: Sevilla. This policy is being im-
666
plemented in some European cities lately. To end with the conclusions that may be
drawn from the results seen from the perspective of sustainability.
2 Sustainability and Sustainability Policies
To answer the goal question should be starting from the concept of sustainable de-
velopment. From the report of the Brundtland Commission on Environment and
Development in 1987 the concept of sustainable development has been attracting
worldwide attention. Sustainable development has proved an enduring and com-
pelling concept because points in a clear and intuitive political direction, and is al-
so flexible enough to adapt to new challenges, to the technological, economic and
social aspirations. It is appealing to the general public and the scientific communi-
ty in particular, as it implies a systemic view of the economy and ecology, and re-
quires solutions that protect the interests of future generations.
Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to do the same. Making a deeper analysis of this
concept emphasizes the fact that there are different systems, such as environmen-
tal, economic and social, interact for mutual benefit or detriment within different
scenarios and scales operation (TRB, 1997). And this representation of the "three
pillars of sustainability" (social, economic and environmental, see Figure 1) in-
clude the fact that the concept of sustainability itself is the result of interactions
between the three dimensions or pillars that overlap , which is why cannot be, or
rather must not be, analyzed separately (Rossi et al., 2012). This is a key concept
of sustainability, but not always taken into account when using sustainability as an
adjective.
Fig. 1 Representation of the "three pillars of sustainability"
Focusing on the concept of sustainability in the context of cities, particularly in

European cities, local authorities and municipalities are taking appropriate policies
to increase such sustainability. These measures are, above all, environmental sus-
667
tainability and social sustainability. Environmental sustainability seeks to reduce

emissions and pollution caused by vehicle traffic, increasing air quality in cities,
with measures such as promoting use of public transport or the creation of bicycle
lanes. And social sustainability seeks a set of purposes such as increasing the ac-
cessibility of cities, reducing noise, increasing quality of life of these, conservation
of historic centers, reducing the number of vehicles and so on.
These policies on urban logistics of goods tend to fall into six categories
(Stathopoulos et al, 2012), which exhibit some examples below:
Market-based policies: these aims to modify the market prices of goods whose
production and/or consumption arise negative external costs. The congestion
ecotax is a measure economically attractive and has a positive impact on traffic
congestion in city centers. However transport pricing policies requires a prior
understanding of the complementary, and sometimes contradictory, roles of
transporters and receptors.
Regulating policies: refer to the rules and regulations applied by a control sys-
tem or by local authorities. Times windows and access restrictions such as ac-
cess time windows are the most frequently used measures. The results of stud-
ies on various European cities suggest that the specific regulation on the
environment for the entry of transport is one of the most effective ways to re-
duce emissions.
Land use policies: these have a major impact on the logistics of the city, and
typically zoned economic and non-economic activities, as the concentration of
commercial activities that can facilitate the streamlining of the supply, thus
benefiting both operators and residents.
Infrastructural policies: are intended to promote the change of transport mode,
attempting to eradicate the domination of the road as the main means of trans-
porting goods. One of the most common policies to streamline the flow of
goods is the urban distribution centers, which are aimed at consolidating deliv-
eries and pickups. Although the sustainability of these distribution centers de-
pends on a delicate balance between private and public incentives, so that there
is a progressive decrease in the participation of private distributors, due to low
profitability and lack of support at the local politicians.
Policies based on information: these measures focus on the exchange of infor-
mation between agents, in order to support the programming and planning of
routes for goods vehicles.
Management policies: conducted by private and public actors, and are de-
signed to promote cooperation between operators.
668
2 Study Policy
These sustainability policies lead local authorities to increasingly restrict the

access of vehicles to the central area of cities by means of pedestrianisation
schemes, parking space elimination or access restrictions. One of the measures
imposed by the local authorities, which is one of the most used towards greater
sustainability of their cities, is the pedestrianization of the historical city centers or
imposing access time windows. The vehicle access restriction reduce the impact of
traffic in these places of cultural interest and increase livability, but also increases
the regulatory pressure on private motor vehicle. But besides the tourist, historic
city centers are often places where the concentration of commercial and office
buildings is high. It follows that these areas needs the goods supply highly, and
this makes city logistics continue to have the same importance in these places, if
not more, than before the imposition of restrictions. In addition, such restrictions
are imposed on accessibility normal business hours, this time being the only ones
that can receive goods retailers (Muuzuri et al., 2012a).
These access restrictions are often applied in the form of time restrictions, es-
tablishing time windows for passenger cars and delivery vehicles to access the re-
stricted area. This type of time window differs from the ones found in the VRPTW
in that it is not imposed by the customer, but the local authorities. Besides, the
time window is not only related to accessing the customers premises, but in gen-
eral to the overall restricted area, also forbidding delivery vehicles to cross it or
wait inside of it, even if no delivery operations are in progress. We will refer to
this planning process as a Vehicle Routing Problem with Access Time Windows
(VRPATW), which combines the zonal and the time factors affecting equally all
the customers established inside the restricted area (Muuzuri et al., 2012b).
We consider our vehicle routing problem defined on a graph: [, ], where is
the set of nodes and is the set of links communicating them. The set of nodes
contains one node with a positive level of supply (depot), a subset of nodes
with a positive level of demand (customers), and another subset of nodes with
zero levels of supply and demand, so that = ( ) . A number of ve-
hicles (where is a variable) will travel through the graph visiting all the different
customers, only one vehicle per customer. We do not consider capacity re-
strictions on vehicles, which is a realistic assumption in the case of less-than-
truckload urban freight deliveries, where vehicles are rarely full.
The problem is defined inside a predefined time horizon, corresponding to the
days working hours, and the objective is to minimize the number of vehicles that
need to be used and the cost (in time units) of transporting goods from the depot d
to the nodes of , crossing along the way the necessary nodes of the subset .
We also define a set of time costs associated to the different links in the
graph. These costs depend only on the transit of vehicles through links, and not on
the amount of freight carried by those vehicles. In general, we will incur in cost
when travelling from node to node . We will also compute the unloading
669
time at each customer as a time cost , incurred every time a vehicle visits one of
the customer nodes contained in .
Within the set of nodes , we also consider a subset of nodes that corre-
spond to the restricted zone, and which cannot be crossed or visited during a pre-
specified closed time window period (), which period will obviously be
smaller than the overall time horizon. We assume that and that
.
In terms of the solution approach, we have used a standard Genetic Algorithm
to determine the impact of the access time. Algorithmically, we believe the main
methodological contribution lies in the computation of the fitness function, specif-
ically designed for the characteristics of the VRPATW. We applied the aforemen-
tioned algorithm to the real case of a company operating in the city of Seville, in
the South of Spain, transporting less-than truckload deliveries to around 100 cus-
tomers daily from its premises located in an industrial area in the outskirts of the
city. Many of these customers are located inside or near the city centre, and the
companys operations are greatly affected by the access time window restriction
imposed by the local authorities. In order to prevent high pollution levels and to
avoid their interaction with passenger flows and with tourists visiting the monu-
ments located there, accessing, or remaining in, the centre is forbidden for deliv-
ery vehicles between 12.00 and 16.00 every day. And, within an intense campaign
of pedestrianisation and promotion of clean transport systems like bicycles, the lo-
cal authorities are considering to extend these forbidden hours, and even to extend
the restricted area on which the access time window is applied. But no actions
have been taken towards evaluating the effect of these policies on the costs of
transport operators and on the environmental cost in all over the city (Muuzuri et
al., 2012b).
3 Experiments and Results
For network simulation on Seville it was designed a battery of experiments based

on statistics derived from the company consulted. With these and some estimates
data was designing 30 different configurations intended to meet most of the real
situations in which you can find a freight delivery company in a city like Seville.
At first were designed generating the location of the depot and different clients
randomly, except that imposed a higher percentage of those in the restricted zone
to simulate the largest number of customers in the city center. Later were designed
10 different variants of each configuration. In search of the results that were ob-
tained were more general and not fall into wrong conclusions derived from partic-
ular outputs, which resulted in a total set of 300 problems.
Table 1 displays the excess costs forced upon the case study delivery company
with respect to the base scenario without access time window. These excess costs
670
are expressed in kilometers and then transformed to monetary values assuming

fixed costs for a van (105.06 /day) and average costs per km (0.163 /km) (Span-
ish Ministry of Public Works, 2011). The increases in the total distances covered
and the subsequent cost are obviously larger for larger restricted zones and closed-
window times, but are in any case significant for all the different scenarios consid-
ered.
Table 1 Average time and cost increases with respect to the scenario without access time win-
dow.
Average Time and Cost Increases

RZ = 2 RZ = 5 RZ = 9
TW=2 TW=4 TW=6 TW=2 TW=4 TW=6 TW=2 TW=4 TW=6
Km(%) 7.2% 7.1% 9.5% 10.5% 18.2% 53.6% 46.8% 112.8% 280.1%
50 C
(%) 23.4% 26.0% 29.6% 36.3% 68.8% 169.9% 69.5% 145.0% 311.7%
Km(%) 11.2% 13.1% 19.2% 19.6% 29.2% 103.0% 50.7% 137.3% 352.3%
100 C
(%) 15.2% 25.0% 40.1% 43.9% 75.6% 211.6% 62.9% 162.0% 370.2%
Km(%) 16.5% 19.2% 33.5% 36.8% 71.3% 209.8% 51.7% 115.7% 313.3%
150 C
(%) 19.3% 14.0% 26.2% 31.7% 60.5% 198.9% 40.0% 99.2% 277.5%
4 Conclusions
This problem provides several interesting findings:

The scenarios with the current size of the restricted zone (RZ=2) show small
cost increments with respect to the base (no-window) scenario, but these in-
crements grow larger as the length of the time window (TW) increases.
The scenarios with RZ=5 do show significant differences with respect to the
base scenario like a large increase in the number of vehicles required in the
fleet, which represents overall cost increments of up to 400%. As expected,
these differences increase with the length of the time window.
The influence of the RZ and TW parameters are larger when the number of
customers is larger, despite the possibility of having more options to configure
near-optimal routes, entering and leaving the restricted zone, when the number
of customers increases.
The scenario with RZ=5 and TW=4 shows better results than the scenario with
RZ=2 and TW=6. This indicates that the influence of the length of the time
window increases as the size of restricted zone grows.
Based on the results provided by the scenarios analyzed in the test problem, we
can conclude that the VRPATW algorithm constitutes a sound technique to assess
the introduction of access time window policies from the point of view of sustain-
671
ability. We have shown the influence of the three parameters considered (number
of customers to visit, size of the restricted zone and length of the time window)
and the fact that a small increase in one of them does not significantly affect the
results, but bigger increases in at least two of them causes relevant extra distance
traveled.
These conclusions cannot be considered obvious when these extra distance
traveled are neglected by local authorities when implementing access time win-
dow policies, while considering externalities like pollution, congestion or visual
intrusion. The contribution of Operations Research techniques provides a powerful
tool to evaluate the impact of these sustainable policies and incorporate them to
the analysis. The illustration of the model with the test problem shows the need for
more vehicles and more route time in the case of no time window scenario. The
implications of this fact in terms of extra cost and pollution suggest that, as con-
clusion and as answer to the question in the title, this policy in particular is no re-
ally sustainable even been calling like a sustainable policy. Since it only takes into
account the social dimension and not economic and environmental.
5 References
Anderson S, Allen J and Browne M (2005) Urban logisticshow can it meet policy makers sus-
tainability objectives?, Journal of Transport Geography 13:7181
Chang T, and Yen H (2012). City-courier routing and scheduling problems. European Journal of
Operational Research, 223(2), 489-498.
Cherrett T, Allen J, McLeod F, Maynard S, Hickford A and Browne M (2012) Understanding
urban freight activity - key issues for freight planning. Journal of Transport Geography
24:22-32
Dalkmann H and Brannigan C (2007) Module 5e.Sustainable Transport: A Sourcebook for Poli-
cy-makers in Developing Cities
Gonzalez-Feliu J, Ambrosini C, Pluvinet P, Toilier F, and JL Routhier (2012). A simulation
framework for evaluating the impacts of urban goods transport in terms of road occupancy.
Journal of Computational Science 3(4):206-215
May AD (2013) Urban Transport and Sustainability: The Key Challenges. International Journal
of Sustainable Transportation 7(3):170-185
Muuzuri J, Corts P, Guadix J, and Onieva L (2012a) City logistics in Spain: Why it might nev-
er work. Cities 29(2):133141.
Muuzuri J, Grosso R, Corts P, and Guadix J (2012b) Estimating the extra costs imposed on de-
livery vehicles using access time windows in a city. Computers, Environment and Urban Sys-
tems, in press
Muuzuri J, Larraeta J, Onieva, L and Corts P (2005) Solutions applicable by local administra-
tions for urban logistics improvement. Cities 22(1):1528
Quak H and De Koster MBM (2009) Delivering Goods in Urban Areas: How to Deal with Urban
Policy Restrictions and the Environment. Transportation Science 43(2):211-227
Rossi R, Gastaldi M and Gecchele G (2012) Comparison of fuzzy-based and AHP methods in
sustainability evaluation: a case of traffic pollution-reducing policies. European Transport
Research Review 1-16
672
Stathopoulos A, Valeri E. and Marcucci E (2012). Stakeholder reactions to urban freight policy
innovation. Journal of Transport Geography, 22, 445.
TRB (1997) Toward a sustainable future; addressing the long-term effects of motor vehicle
transportation on climate and ecology. TRB Special Report 251, National Academy Press,
Washington, DC
United Nations (2006) World urbanization prospects: The 2005 revisions. Department of Eco-
nomic and Social Affairs: Population Division. United Nations, New York
World commission on environment and development. Our common future. (1987) New York:
Oxford University Press.
673
A Model for Coordination of Production

Planning, Forward and Reverse Logistics
Management in a Multi-product and Multi-
plant Environment, with Reusable Bottles
Constraints
Parra Pea J1, Vicens-Salort E2, Ortiz Bas A3
Abstract. Integration of reverse logistics and forward logistics in closed loop sup-
ply chains is a recent tendency that look for achieve better global behavior
measures. Because supply chain management should consider all levels of the
supply chain and their relationships, we modeled it as an aggregate planning strat-
egy for a system that produces several kinds of beverages, some of them bottled in
returnable bottles. The model purposed can support decisions related with produc-
tion and inventories volumes, distribution volumes transported between facilities
and customers and collection volumes of bottles in the supply chain.
Keywords: Forward Logistics, Reverse Logistics, Supply Chain Management,

Mathematical Programming, Beverage Industry.
1Javier Parra Pea ( e-mail: japarpe1@posgrado.upv.es)
Universidad Distrital Francisco Jos de Caldas, Facultad Tecnolgica, Bogot, Colombia.

Doctoral student in Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
2Eduardo Vicens-Salort ( e-mail: evicens@cigip.upv.es)
Centro de Investigacin Gestin e Ingeniera de Produccin (CIGIP). Universidad Politcnica de
Valencia.
3Angel Ortiz Bas( e-mail: aortiz@cigip.upv.es)
Centro de Investigacin Gestin e Ingeniera de Produccin (CIGIP). Universidad Politcnica de
Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, Edificio 8B, Acceso L, Planta 246022 Valencia, Spain
674
1 Introduction
Logistics is an important function in the current enterprise, which should be con-

sidered as a fundamental part of the goods production enterprises. Today, it is not
possible to think in production management as isolated from logistics management
because logistics mediates the relationship between customers and production.
Currently, integrated logistics with production is a good alternative to improve
the global behaviour of an enterprise. So, decisions as how much to produce in an
industrial facility should also consider the transportation of products to the cus-
tomers and final disposition of materials after consumption. The application of in-
tegrated logistics in a bottled beverages industry is an opportunity to optimize the
supply chain cost, because of its complexity that implies both forward and reverse
flows (for returnable bottled beverages).
Our objective is to build a model that could be used as a tool decision support
to minimize the total costs of produce and distribute bottled beverage and recover
returnable empty bottles, as a part of a strategy to integrate production manage-
ment and logistics management. The purposed model was built using MathProg
language, which is a subset of Ampl language, using the Gusek as an interface for
GLPK (Andrew Makhorin, 2013; Luiz M. M. Bettoni, 2010).
Like Pochet and Wolsey suggest, there have been implementing computerized
manufacturing planning systems, some of them only transactional, as a response to
the increasing complexity on the business of large and medium sized enterprises,
they stated that significantly better results can be obtained by change these tools
into planning systems for coordination and optimization. Approaches of modelling
and optimization imply separation between building of models and solving them,
for making decisions (Pochet, 2006).
A integrated logistic network model, which considers production, distribution,
consumption, collection, transportation, recycling, disposal, reuse and redistribu-
tion was considered as a strategy by Zhou and Xu, to design a supply chain net-
work and establish localization of facilities, to a Chinese beer company(Zhou &
Xu, 2009).
There could be used several behaviour measures to evaluate the closed loop
cycle logistics system: total cost, total transportation cost, total of forward cost, to-
tal of reverse cost, total of environment costs, total cost in both forward network
and reverse network, total purchasing cost and total profit gained recycling; as
were purposed by Paksoy et al (Paksoy, Bekta, & zceylan, 2011).
Safaei, et al, modelled a multi-site production-distribution planning in a supply
chain. Their model considers forward flows and production and inventory vol-
umes; in an hybridization that uses mathematical programming and simulation
(Safaei, Moattar Husseini, Z.-Farahani, Jolai, & Ghodsypour, 2010).
The principal aim of this paper is to start the integration of reverse logistics
considerations in the making decision process in order to optimize enterprise
operation.
675
In section two the problem description is showed; in section three the proposed
model is described considering assumptions, sets, parameters, decision variables,
objective function and constraints. Finally, in section four, we present conclusions
of its application and future research ideas.
Firstly we made a review of a beverages production and distribution system,

whose supply chain structure is presented in the figure 1. There are some plants of
production, which produces beverages bottled in both returnable bottle and non-
returnable bottle, other plants produce bottled water or are used as a store of ex-
ternal products. There is a Logistics Distribution Center (LDC) in a second level,
there are store controllers in the third level, distributors in the fourth level and
there are customers in the fifth level.
4
Fig. 1 Supply chain for beverage commercialization
Some features of the system include:

The first level is composed by: production plants, they can produce returnable
bottled beverages and non-returnable bottled beverages. So, forward flows
among the plant and the other supply chain levels depend of the products made
in them.
Second level is a DCs, which stores non-returnable bottled beverages and bot-
tled water, and provides these products to the other levels.
Third level is composed by store controllers, that distribute all kind of products
4 Plants are represented separately in order to clarify it important level of the chain. There are not
reversal flows of bottles to and from DCs, but it is possible in a further analysis include pallets or
other transport material returns if proceed
676
Fourth level is composed by distributors of all kind of products.

Finally, there are customers. The customers in this system could be: Hotels,
restaurants and catering (HORECA), that are characterized by be returnable
bottled beverage customers; big areas characterized by a high level of demand
of non-returnable bottled beverages; and, other clients who demand all kind of
products. A customer will be served by an anterior level of the supply chain
(whatever) depending of the demand volumes. So, it is possible that a specific
big customer be attended by one of the plants, directly.
As a consequence of the supply chain structure, there are flows in forward and
reverse directions, the forward flow is products flow and the reverse one is empty
bottles flow.
3 Purposed Model
The aim of the purposed model is to make decisions in production, inventory, and
transport of finished products and empty bottles, to minimize total cost. These are
the model assumptions:
Transport costs only depend of distance between origins and destines, and kind
of product transported.
Only direct routes between facilities are considered, but it is desirable to in-
clude vehicle routing furthermore.
There are not a specific association between customers and providers; the con-
siderations of send products depend of availability to get the minimal total cost.
There are not considered vehicles in the transport decisions.
Demand of products and empty bottles returns are independent, it is possible to
identify a function to relation these parameters.
Arrives of bought bottles is considered instantly.
In order to build a general model, these are the established sets:
Products
, Products that use reusable bottles
, Products in a non-reusable bottles
, Reusable bottles
Time periods
Physical localization of locations
, Production plants available
, DCs
, Regulations
, Distributors
, Customers
, , , , Direct routes between locations
677
These are considered parameters:

>1 Planning periods
, , Distance between l and m points
, , Transport lead time to move products from l to m
, Processing capacity of l plant (in time units)
, Inventory capacity in location l (in product units)
, , , Processing time for a product i in plant l
, , , Set up time for a production of one lot of i product
, , Returnable bottles k that are required for i product
, , , Association of a product with a specific location. It is a
one when i product can be in the l location and cero in
other wise
,, , , External demand of i product, by the l client in t period
,
,, , , , i returned bottles to the l client in t period
,,0 , Initial inventory of i product in l plant
,, , , Programmed arrivals of i product to the l location in t
, period
, , Unitary cost of produce an i product in l plant.
, , Set up cost of produce a lot of i product in l plant
, , Holding cost of an i product in the l location for one
period.
, , Deficit cost of a i product
Unitary transport cost of i product by distance unit
Cost of a i bottle
, , Average of sales or dispatch of i product in l facility
Coverture days of inventory in l facility
= ,, Big value
,
,

, , Minimal volume transported between l and m
Decision variables about production volume, inventory levels, material flows,
procurement and deficits are the following:
,, Quantity of i product, made in l plant, in t period
,, Binary variable to represent setup presence.
,, Quantity of i product, stored in l installation, in t period
,, Deficit quantity of i product, in l installation, in t period
,,, Quantity of i product, transported from l to m, in t period
,, Quantity of i bottles, bought l in plant, in t period
1,, , 2,, Continuous variables to represent discontinues constraints
3,, Binary variable used to represent discontinues constraints
Purposed model:
678
679
Objective function, presented in equation 1, is total cost minimization, which re-

sults as sum of production, set up, inventory or deficit, forward and reverse trans-
ports and new bottles costs, respectively. The model, which integrates reverse lo-
gistics with production decisions, has constraints of capacity production, capacity
storage of products and product flows among installations.
There are two kinds of capacity constraints: in equation 2, the total time con-
sumption for both production and setup is lower than capacity of each plant; and,
in equation 3, total space of storage should be lower than available one; Setup
presence is modeled with equation 4. In it we use big M number and a binary vari-
able to represent the setup existence when there is a production volume.
Flow product constraints were modeled with the 5 to 9 equations; those con-
sider the flows among different levels of the supply chain and their respective
transport lead time. Equation 5 represents flows between plants and their respec-
tive next level in the supply chain (see in figure 1); the sum of inventory on hand
and production minus transported products to other installations is equal to final
inventory in each period. Equations 6, 7 and 8 represent the intermediate levels of
supply chain, for DCs, store controllers and distributors; and equation 9 shows the
flows to final customers. In those flow continuity is guaranteed as the sum of in-
ventory on hand at the start of period, previously programmed arrivals, arrivals of
transported products from anterior supply chain levels, minus products dispatched
to posterior supply chain levels (or demand) is equal to inventory or deficit at the
final of t period.
Reverse flow constraints are presented in equations 10 to 14. Equation 10 rep-
resents the flow of collected bottles between the customer and the previous level
of the chain, so: sum of inventory on hand at start of a period, bottles received by
the customer minus dispatched bottles to anterior levels is equal to final inventory;
equations 11, 12 and 13 represent the intermediate levels of supply chain flows
and equation 14 represents flows to the production plants. In those, sum of inven-
tory on hand at start, previously shipped bottles, bottles that arrives from posterior
levels of the supply chain, minus bottles dispatched to anterior levels is equal to
final inventory; equation 14 includes the procurement of new bottles and their use
in production system.
Equation 15 associates bottles and finished products, it let to establish bottle
consumption in the production process; Equation 16 is used to guarantee a safety
inventory level, which depends of average sales.
Equations 17 and 18 equations represent a discontinuous space for the flows
between plants and a specific customers; flows between plants and customers
should be bigger than a minimal parameter or cero and; equation 19 is used to give
the value cero to forbidden flows.
Type of variables constraints are in equations 20 to 22. It is possible to relax
some of integer variables constraints to reduce calculating time.
680
The model was tested in two instances composed by three plants, plant 1 and plant
2, which produce returnable bottled beverages and non-returnable bottled bever-
ages and plant 3, which produces bottled water, in the first level; a DC used for
non-returnable bottled products and water; two store controllers; two distributors
and six customers. Moreover, six products were considered: products 1 and 2 as
returnable bottled soda, 3 is a non-returnable bottled soda, product 4 is bottled wa-
ter, products 5 and 6 are empty bottles for products 1 and 2, respectively
It was possible to solve the aggregated planning problem for a supply chains
with returns modeled; model that was, written and tested in MathProg language,
shows global consistence with beverage bottled industry behavior, like was evi-
denced after testing it.
The model let to formulate production, distribution and procurement (distribu-
tion of finished goods and collection of empty bottles), that minimize total cost. It
is possible to include some different objectives in the future.
The further research includes the integration of production planning with dis-
tribution in a more detailed manner, in the operational level. It is important to sup-
port making daily complex decisions like include heterogeneous fleet of vehicles,
time windows for pickup and delivery and other situations. Other considerations
can be the evaluation of the allocation of geographic areas to the different Supply
Chain members, and the evaluation of product distribution and collect bottles us-
ing alternative transports. All of alternatives purposed have the objective to
achieve global minimal. It is important to observe that, as a consequence of the re-
al size of the system, it is required to evaluate strategies to solve them in a reason-
able time.
3 References
Andrew Makhorin. (2013). GNU Linear Programming Kit, Modeling Language GNU MathProg.
Moscow, Russia: Department for Applied Informatics, Moscow Aviation Institute. Recu-
perado a partir de http://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/
Luiz M. M. Bettoni. (2010). GUSEK (GLPK Under Scite Extended Kit). Recuperado a partir de
http://gusek.sourceforge.net/gusek.html#4
Paksoy, T., Bekta, T., & zceylan, E. (2011). Operational and environmental performance
measures in a multi-product closed-loop supply chain. Transportation Research Part E: Logis-
tics and Transportation Review, 47(4), 532-546. doi:10.1016/j.tre.2010.12.001
Pochet, Y. (2006). Production planning by mixed integer programming. New York; Berlin:
Springer.
Safaei, A. S., Moattar Husseini, S. M., Z.-Farahani, R., Jolai, F., & Ghodsypour, S. H. (2010).
Integrated multi-site production-distribution planning in supply chain by hybrid modelling.
International Journal of Production Research, 48(14), 4043-4069.
681
Zhou, X., & Xu, J. (2009). A class of integrated logistics network model under random fuzzy en-
vironment and its application to Chinese beer company. International Journal of Uncertainty,
Fuzziness & Knowledge-Based Systems, 17(6), 807-831.
682
Neural Network Application for Risk Factors

Estimation in Manufacturing Accidents.
Carrillo JA1, Guadix J2, Grosso R3, Onieva L4
Abstract In occupational safety, when a neural network is trained, it is possible to

predict the outcome given a combination of risk factors. Risk assessment is proba-
bly the most important issue in occupational safety. Risk assessment facilitates the
design and prioritization of effective prevention measures. Neural network were
applied for predicting the severity of accidents, which is an important to assess
risks. Data sets were obtained from the official accident notifications in the manu-
facturing sector of Andalusia in 2011. The results confirm that neural networks are
useful in risk factor estimation. Association analysis was used to identify the most
important risk factors within the predicting variables. Diagnostic array analyses
show that for preventive purposes it is better to use a reduced data set with a case-
control approach in order to improve the specificity and the sensitivity.
Keywords: Neural Networks, Occupational Accidents, Risk Factors, Sensitivity

Analysis, Manufacturing Sector
1Jess Antonio Carrillo Castrillo ( email: jcarrillo@io.us.es)

2
Jos Guadix Martn ( email: guadix@us.es)
3
Rafael Grosso de la Vega ( e-mail: rgrosso@us.es)
4
Luis Onieva Gimnez ( email: onieva@us.es)
Camino de los Descubrimientos, s/n. Isla de la Cartuja, 41092, Seville, Spain
683
1 Introduction
Occupational safety is a complex issue. The analysis of accidents deals with mul-
tiple causes and circumstances. In most cases, the accident occurrence implies
multiple failures in the preventive and protective barriers (Reason 2000). Models
of accident causation seek to explain the contribution of each risk factor.
Most of research has been focused on determining causal relationships ex-
pressed as injury rates, relative risk, odds ratios or quantitative risk estimation.
However, because of the socio-technical nature of accident causation, most of
those models have little predictive ability.
From a public policy perspective, the objective is to identify risk factors at the
macro level. For Public Administrations the main concern is identifying interven-
tion areas.
At the same time, safety practitioners need an initial estimation for the risk as-
sessment. Expected severity and likelihood of accidents based on the registered
accidents in small and medium companies is not feasible due to the low rate of oc-
currence, and quantitative risk analysis is an expensive and time consuming alter-
native (Aneziris et al. 2010).
Data mining is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science focusing on
the discovery of patterns in large data sets. Data sets of accidents are an excellent
candidate to test if data mining techniques can provide meaningful information.
Many data mining techniques are available, such as logistic regression, classifi-
cation trees, chi-squared automatic interaction detection, among others
(Bevilacqua et al. 2010). One of the most powerful tools for mining of complex
data is using neural networks. In fact, when comparing the predictive ability of the
different data mining techniques for risk analysis, neural networks show better re-
sults (Wang and Elhag 2007).
Previous studies have used neural networks for different purposes such as for
classification of industrial jobs in terms of the risk of low back disorders (Zuruda
et al. 1997), for the prediction of occupational injury risk (Bevilacqua et al. 2010)
or for prediction of the severity in traffic accidents (Delen et al. 2006).
In occupational safety, when a neural network is trained, the outcome of a
combination of risk factors can be predicted. Risk assessment may be considered
the most important issue in occupational safety, used to facilitate the design and
prioritization of effective prevention measures.
Previous studies in the manufacturing sector of Andalusia (Spain) have shown
that a number of individual worker characteristics can affect likelihood of occupa-
tional safety injuries (Carrillo et al. 2012) and in case of injury these characteris-
tics also affect the severity of injuries (Carrillo and Onieva 2012).
Prediction of the expected severity of accidents associated with certain expo-
sure variables is a quantitative tool that identifies risk factors at the macro level.
At the company level, depending on the prevention measures adopted, that initial
estimation at the macro level may need to be modified according to the real work-
684
ing conditions. However, from a public policy point of view, the initial estimation
of risk factors for the severity of accidents at the macro level is useful for design-
ing effective intervention programs.
2 Data and Methods
2.1 Accident Data
The Data used is from the accident notification database. Accident notification is
mandatory for every accident with at least one day of absence from work. Data is
coded according to the European Statistics on Accidents at Work Methodology
ESAW (ESAW). In every accident notification there are two separate types of var-
iables from the prevention point of view: the variables of exposure (before the ac-
cident); and the variables of result (after the accident).
Given the objective of this paper, to use the data to predict the possible acci-
dents and their severity, we will only use exposure variables to train the neural
network. Those exposure variables are presented in Table 1.
Exposure variables are those not related to the accident occurrence or results.
Because in the data set there is a very high proportion of slight accidents, an alter-
native data set was prepared using a case-control approach. In that approach, a
sample of slight accidents is randomly selected. Therefore in the second data set
there are a similar number of examples with slight and non-slight severity
2.2 Use of Neural Network for Severity Prediction
The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural networks, which are
composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Artificial neural network algorithms at-
tempt to achieve good predictive ability with a low generalization error.
During supervised error-back propagation training, input patterns are presented
sequentially to the system along with the correct response. The network learns by
comparing the targeted correct response with the actual response. This process is
continued until all examples from the training set are learned within an acceptable
error. Then the network is ready to operate in a feed-forward manner, attempting
to classify accurately situations not encountered in training. In order to validate
the usefulness of the network, examples with real output results are used. In mod-
ern software that process is integrated.
685
Table 1 Exposure (predicting) variables in the accident notification dataset: Categories and their
distribution
Variable Categories Abbreviation Number of examples

Sex Male S1 19.442
Female S2 2.181
Nationality Spanish N1 20.559
Foreign N2 1.064
Age Young (less 25 years) A1 7.804
Normal (from 25 to 54 years) A2 9.116
Senior (more than 54 years) A3 4.703
Job Non-manual J1 621
Qualified manual J2 16.513
Non-qualified manual J3 4.489
Experience in company Low (less than 4 months) E1 4.832
Medium (from 4 to 12 months) E2 4.695
High (more than 12 months) E3 12.096
Contract Permanent P1 11.656
Temporary P2 9.967
Company size Micro (less than 10 workers) C1 4.508
Small (from 10 to 49 workers) C2 8.385
Medium (from 50 to 249 workers) C3 6.367
Big (more than 249 workers) C4 2.363
Workstation Usual WT1 20.987
Unusual WT2 636
Working Environment Industrial P1 18.868
Non-industrial P2 2.755
Work in process Production W1 15.636
Construction W2 575
Agricultural W3 71
Services W4 300
Maintenance, auxiliary W5 3.852
Transport W6 451
Other W9 738
Physical activity Operating machines A1 1.902
Working with hand-held tools A2 4.061
Driving A3 369
Handling objects A4 7.276
Carrying by hand A5 2.786
Movements A6 4.550
Other A9 679
686
Finally, a separate set of real examples are used for querying. These are for
testing the accuracy of the predictions of the trained network.
2.3 Neural Network Design and Learning Process Development
The tool used in this paper allows the selection of networks with one, two or three
hidden layers. Once the network architecture is set, the learning process can start.
There are several controls for learning what needs to be set. As we want to
avoid over fitting, the learning stops when the average validating error increases
(Asensio-Cuesta et al. 2010). Other criteria for stopping are when average error is
less than 0.01 or when 100% of the validating examples are within the 50% of the
desired outputs.
2.4 Evaluation of the Predictive Ability of a Neural Network
The main evaluation parameter for the predicting purpose of the neural network is
the number of examples correctly classified. For that purpose, the best way of ex-
pressing the results is to use a diagnostic array (see Table 2).
Table 2 Diagnostic array1
Real examples
True False
True True positive (TP) False positive (FP)
Observed examples
False False Negative (FN) True negative (TN)
1
Results for a diagnostic array:
Sensitivity: TP/(TP+FN)
Specificity: TN/(TN+FP)
Positive prediction: TP/(TP+FP)
Negative prediction: TN/(TN+FN)
Efficiency: (TP+TN)/(TP+FP+FN+TN)
In relation to the analysis of the risk factors, there are two important parameters
for each variable: importance and sensitivity. Importance shows the sum of the ab-
solute weights of the connections from the input node to all the nodes in the first
hidden layer. Sensitivity indicates how much an output changes when the inputs
are changed. The inputs are all set to the median values and then each in turn is in-
creased from the lowest value to the highest value. The change in the output is
measured as each input is increased from lowest to highest to establish the sensi-
tivity to change.
687
3 Results
3.1 Neural Network Analysis Based on the Full Data Set
The first analysis looks at associations between variables. This analysis offers a
data mining initial pattern of the strength of the relationship between each pair of
variables (see Table 3). In terms of risk assessment, variables that have strong as-
sociation with the Severity outcome variable should be considered risk factors.
For the full data set, the Severity output variable only has association with one
predicting variable: Workstation. For the case-control data set, there is also associ-
ation with Nationality.
Table 3 Association rules
Variable1 Variable2 Strength Strength

Full data set Case-control data set
Severity Workstation 7.9 2.1
Severity Nationality -- 1.6
3.2 Neural Network Analysis Based on the Full Data Set
Two models were developed for the full data set, one with one hidden layer and
the other with two hidden layers. Both of them include the eleven variables of ex-
posure that are available. Errors and results are presented in Table 4 and diagnos-
tic array in Table 5.
Table 4 Neural networks based on the full data set
Heading Validating error Validating OK Cycles Hidden layers Hidden Nodes

Model 1 0.28% 99.6% 1.000 1 6
Model 2 0.25% 99.7% 1.000 2 6+8
688
Table 5 Diagnostic array for query examples of the neural networks based on the full data set
Real outcome
Predicted outcome Slight Severe
Model 1 hidden layer Slight 4983 14
Severe 0 3
Model 2 hidden layers Slight 4986 14
Severe 0 0
3.3 Neural Network Analysis Based on a Case-control Data Set
Two models were developed for the case-control data set, one with one hidden
layer and the other with two hidden layers. Both of them include the eleven varia-
bles of exposure available. Errors and results are presented in Table 6 and diag-
nostic array in Table 7.
Table 6 Neural networks based on the case-control data set
Heading Validating error Validating OK Cycles Hidden layers Hidden Nodes

Model 1 0.00% 86.2% 2.400 1 9
Model 2 0.93% 86.2% 2.560 2 9+6
Table 7 Diagnostic array for query examples of the neural networks based on the case-control
data set
Real outcome
Predicted outcome Slight Severe
Model 1 hidden layer Slight 13 2
Severe 4 11
Model 2 hidden layers Slight 14 3
Severe 3 10
4 Discussion
The neural networks were built with the variables that are available. Other risk
factors such as the level of training, protection measures implemented or risk level
of the task are not available. As previous researchers have proposed (Jacinto et al.
2009) the notification system in Europe should include other relevant data.
689
The use of these neural networks to assess the expected severity of accidents
for a set of exposure variables is a very useful practice and can provide safety
practitioners with an initial estimation of the severity of the accidents for a group
of tasks in the manufacturing sector.
The results of the neural networks based on the two data sets are very different.
In terms of efficiency, the full data set is higher, whereas in terms of specificity
the case-control is more precise. From de preventive point of view, what really
matters to safety practitioners understands the possible risk factors of severity, and
for that purpose the case-control approach is more useful (Sorock and Courtney
1997).
These neural networks can be easily applied by safety practitioners. Given the
levels of the variables in a specific job based on the real data from the enterprise,
it is possible to use trained neural networks based on the accidents notified to pre-
dict the severity of accidents. Ultimately, that initial estimation should be com-
plemented with the analysis of the prevention measures and the working condi-
tions in the risk assessment process in order to assess the risk of severe accidents.
5 References
Aneziris O, Papazoglou I, Doudakmani O (2010). Assessment of occupational risks in an alumi-

num processing industry. Int J Ind Ergon 40(3): 321-329.
Asensio-Cuesta S, Diego-Mas JA, Alcaide-Marzal J (2010). Applying generalised feedforward
neural networks to classifying industrial jobs in terms of risk of low back disorders. Int J Ind
Ergon 40(6): 629-635.
Bevilacqua M, Ciaparica FE, Giacchetta G (2010). Data mining for occupational injury risk: A
case study. Int J Reliab Qual Saf Eng 17(4): 351-380.
Carrillo JA, Gmez MA, Onieva L (2012). Safety at work and worker profile: analysis of the
manufacturing sector in Andalusia in 2008, in: Occupational Safety and Hygiene SHO
2012. Arezes et al. Portuguese Society of Occupational Safety and Hygiene, Guimaraes: 116-
120.
Carrillo JA, Onieva L (2012). Severity Factors of Accidents: Analysis of the Manufacturing Sec-
tor in Andalusia, in: Occupational Safety and Hygiene SHO 2012. Arezes et al. Portuguese
Society of Occupational Safety and Hygiene, Guimaraes: 111-115
Delen D, Sharda R, Bessonov M (2006). Identifying significant predictors of injury severity in
traffic accidents using a series of artificial neural networks. Accid Analys Prev 38(3): 434-
444.
Jacinto C, Canoa M, Guedes Soares C (2009). Workplace and organizational factors in accident
analysis within the Food Industry. Saf Sci 47(5): 626-635.
Reason J (2000). Human errors: models and management. Br Med J 320: 768-770.
Sorock, GS, Courtney, TK (1997). Advancing analytic epidemiologic studies of occupational in-
juries. Saf Sci 25(1-3): 29-43.
Wang Y-M, Elhag THS (2007). A comparison of neural network, evidential reasoning and mul-
tiple regression analysis in modelling bridge risks. Expert Syst Appl 32:336348.
Zuruda J, Karwowski W, Marras WS (1997). A neural network-based system for classification of
industrial jobs with respect to risk of low back disorders due to workplace design. App Ergon
28(1):49-58.
690
EN-04
Quality and Product Management
691
Information Capability in Basque Country

Quality Award Winners
Zrraga-Rodrguez M1, lvarez MJ2
Abstract Given the global environment that companies have to compete in nowa-
days, changes are so frequent that companies have to adopt a proactive attitude by
trying to anticipate those changes. Using quality information while making deci-
sions has become a critical factor for success, and nobody disputes the importance
of having this quality information, which comes from the efficient use and man-
agement of information. Companies that have such quality information will have a
competitive advantage and improve their results. Under the RBV theory, this effi-
cient use and management of information could be considered a capability of a
company. The aim of this paper is to explore the degree to which certain compa-
nies have developed this information capability. We focused the study on compa-
nies committed to Total Quality Management models because, due to the nature of
these information intensive models, such companies can be expected to have de-
veloped information capability. The findings confirm this fact, although there are
still opportunities for improvement.
Keywords: RBV, Information Capability, Information Practices, EFQM
1 Introduction
Nowadays companies compete in a changeable word. It is essential that organiza-

tions be aware of trends in order to be ready for new situations and, even better, to
anticipate them. In this scenario, having reliable and complete information is a key
factor in making the right decisions.
1MartaZrraga Rodrguez ( e-mail: mzarraga@unav.es)

ISSA-School of Management Assistants, Universidad de Navarra. Cuesta de Aldapeta n 49,
20009 San Sebastin.
2M.Jess lvarez
TECNUN, Universidad de Navarra. P Manuel Lardizabal, 13. 20018 San Sebastian.
693
In order to obtain this quality information, the efficient use and management of
information is critical, and its presence can be evidenced through a set of observa-
ble practices. In this study we present a list of information-related practices based
on a literature review. Then we explore whether there are practices common to
companies committed to TQM, which is considered an information intensive
management system.
2 Framework and Objectives of the Study
Companies need information when performing almost every activity, and it is a

necessary input when making decisions at the operational, tactical and strategic
level (Tee et al., 2006; Lin et al., 2007; Gorla et al., 2000; Wang, 2012). Infor-
mation is a strategic company resource, just as human and financial resources are,
but it is not always managed with the same degree of awareness and structure (Tee
et al., 2006).
Information can be seen as just a resource or as a capability. To the extent that
the efficient use and management of information provides a competitive advantage
to the company, the efficient use and management of information can be seen as a
capability under the Resource Based View (RBV) organizational theory.
The RBV organizational theory states that the key to the strategic success of a
company lies not only in the environment but also in the resources the organiza-
tion has and in the strategic use the company makes of them; that is, in its organi-
zational capabilities. Resources alone dont create value. A capability is a source
of competitive advantage for the company that allows the generation of value and
differentiation through the combined use of a series of resources (Peppard &
Ward, 2004; Ashurst et al., 2008).
We consider, therefore, that a company has information capability when the use
and management of information is so efficient that it is a source of competitive
advantage for the company.
It is difficult to observe capabilities, but we can detect practices that evidence
their presence. According to Ashurst et al. (2008), practices are more concrete and
observable than capabilities, and they are described as a set of socially defined
ways of doing things in order to achieve an outcome. To the extent that a practice
is defined in terms of its outcomes, it is easier to demonstrate the success of the
practice. The question becomes: what practices would be related to information
capability as we have defined it?
694
2.1 Information Practices
When defining information practices, we take as a reference the work by

Marchand et al. (2000). They point out several information practices that are
pooled into three major groups: practices related with the management of the in-
formation life cycle, practices related to the integration of information technology
into day-to-day business, and practices where behaviours and values assumed by
employees in relation to the use and management of information are shown. We
also take into account proposals by other authors (Chou et al, 2007, Choo et al,
2006, Sabherwal & Chan, 2001, Carmichael et al. 2011, Coltman et al., 2010,
Hwang, 2011, among others), and as a result we obtained a list of information
practices that serve as evidence of information capability development (Table 1).
We have assigned a code to each practice proposed, and we also show the ex-
pected outcomes of each practice in the table.
Table 1 Information practices (* Key to outcome Code, ILCM: information life cycle man-
agement practice outcomes, ITI: information technology integration practice outcomes, AIBVC:
assumed information behaviours and values convey practice outcomes )
Practice Outcomes Code*

Compilation of the information needed by stake-
ILCM1a
holders
Collect the information
Compilation of information to collect from the
ILCM1b
environment and the inner workings
Process for competitive and technology surveil-
ILCM2a
lance
Sense the information
Process to anticipate problems with suppliers and
ILCM2b
partners
Organize the information Process to ensure that the information is available ILCM3
Process the information Process to transform data into useful information ILCM4
Maintain the information Process to have updated databases ILCM5
Process that ensure the distribution and exchange
Disseminate the information ILCM6
of information
Employ information technol-
ogy to support daily opera- Daily operations supported by IT ITI1
tions
Management of business processes automated
ITI2a
and integrated using IT
Employ information technol-
ogy for business process sup- People management supported by IT ITI2b
port. Interaction and relationships with stakeholders
ITI2c
strengthened with IT
695
Table 1 (continued) Information practices (* Key to outcome Code, ILCM: information life
cycle management practice outcomes, ITI: information technology integration practice outcomes,
AIBVC: assumed information behaviours and values convey practice outcomes)
Practice Outcomes Code*

Employ information tech-
Development and exchange of new ideas supported
nology for innovation sup- ITI3
by IT
port
Employ information tech-
Monitoring and analysis of internal or external
nology for management ITI4
business aspects supported by IT
support
Anticipation of possible future scenarios supported
ITI5a
Employ information tech- by IT
nology for strategy support Competitive and technology surveillance supported
ITI5b
by IT
Employ information tech- Exchange of information supported by IT ITI6a
nology for information
sharing support Document location automation supported by IT ITI6b
Prevent manipulating or
Absence of handling information for personal gain AIBVC1
hiding information
Establish formal and relia- Embedded formal and reliable sources of infor-
AIBVC2
ble sources of information mation used by organizations members
Transmit information about
Information about the performance of the company
the performance of the AIBVC3
communicated to all employees
company to all employees
Exchange of sensitive and non-sensitive infor-
Exchange of sensitive and mation collaboratively among team components AIBVC4a
non-sensitive information and between areas
collaboratively Exchange of sensitive and non-sensitive infor-
AIBVC4b
mation in a collaborative way with outside
Failures discussions in an open and constructive
Trust in each other AIBVC5
manner and without fear of repercussions unfair
Have concern with obtain-
Quickly respond to changes and innovation pro-
ing and applying new in- AIBVC6
moted
formation
The objective of this exploratory study is to know whether or not these practic-
es are common practices in companies. We will focus on companies committed to
Total Quality Management (TQM) because TQM is an information intensive
management system (Matta et al., 1998). In this way, for instance, Fok et al.
(2001) explored the relationships between TQM and information systems; they
state that in order to implement quality systems successfully, an effective infor-
mation system could be expected to be in place at the company. Thus it seems rea-
sonable to expect that companies that have obtained quality awards have also
696
promoted information capability development and that information practices are

actually common practices in these companies.
Our empirical study was carried out in the Basque Country, and participants were
selected according to their commitment to quality management. This region in the
north of Spain is the European region with the highest density of EFQM awards
(Heras-Saizarbitoria et al., 2012).
The data were collected via questionnaire. Items were presented as statements
and respondents had to indicate their agreement on scale of 1 (strongly disagree)
to 10 (strongly agree). The statements aim to measure the outcomes of the practic-
es because this allows the success or the presence of the practices to be demon-
strated.
Statements were developed from a literature review and the instrument was
tested by faculty members, senior managers and Euskalit members in order to
make sure the items meanings were clear and that the questionnaire was easy to
answer. (Euskalit is the Basque Foundation for Excellence, a private non-profit
organization founded in 1992 by the Department of Industry and Energy of the
Basque Government, which supports the policy of promoting the quality of the
Basque Government).
The final instrument contained three main sections: outputs of practices related
to the management of the information life cycle (that is, the ILCM group), outputs
of practices related to the integration of information technology in day-to-day
business (the ITI group), and outputs of practices related to behaviours and values
assumed by employees and displayed when using information (the AIBVC group).
In the ILCM section, there were 8 statements related to 6 information practices,
in the ITI section there were 10 statements related to another 6 information prac-
tices, and in the AIBVC section 7 statements were developed in relation to 6 addi-
tional information practices. The questionnaire was administered via a web page,
which participants accessed with a link.
The participants were contacted by Euskalit. The link to the questionnaire was
sent to 292 companies that had received a quality award and 43 of them respond-
ed, which is a response rate of 15 per cent. The respondents were managers, who
reported their agreement with each statement. The Basque Government provides
quality awards according to the points obtained by the companies during external
evaluation, which employs the scoring system used by the European Model of Ex-
cellence.
697
4 Results and Discussion
Table 2 presents a summary of the scores given to each statement by the respond-
ents, separated by section. All the means are between 6 and 8.5, which implies that
a high level of information practices is commonly held.
) and deviation () of the questionnaire scores

Table 2 Quantitative results: mean (
ILCM1a ILCM1b ILCM2a ILCM2b ILCM3 ILCM4 ILCM5 ILCM6

x 8,05 7,42 6,47 7,00 7,49 7,40 7,42 7,56
1,23 1,59 2,00 1,91 1,45 1,50 1,58 1,39
ITI1 ITI2a ITI2ba ITI2c ITI3 ITI4 ITI5a ITI5b ITI6a ITI6b
x 8,23 7,98 7,72 7,47 7,30 8,23 7,49 6,37 7,84 7,74
1,07 1,22 1,49 1,71 1,49 1,00 1,50 1,84 1,19 1,35
AIBVC1 AIBVC2 AIBVC3 AIBVC4a AIBVC4b AIBVC5 AIBVC6
x 8,35 8,26 8,47 7,63 6,58 7,07 7,60

1,54 1,20 1,47 1,48 1,88 1,74 1,40
Figures 1, 2 and 3 also deal with the results pooled into three groups, showing
the level of agreement between the respondents and the presence of practice out-
comes.
Figure 1 displays the perceived level of practices associated with the manage-
ment of the information life cycle (ILCM). Notice that the outcomes related to the
practice defined as sense the information (ILCM2a and ILCM2b) are the ones
with the lowest scores in this group. Interestingly, these organizations do not per-
ceive the existence of competitive and technological surveillance processes when
they are understood to be a key element in setting strategy. On the other hand, one
of the outcomes related to the practice defined as collect the information has the
highest score (ILMC1a), revealing that these kinds of organizations seems to be
aware of the information that employees, customers, suppliers and other stake-
holders need and they gather it systematically.
698
Fig. 1 Mean scores for management of the in- Fig. 2 Mean scores for integration of infor-
formation life cycle practice outcomes mation technology in day-to-day business
(ILCM) practice outcomes (ITI)
Figure 2 displays the perceived level of practices related to the integration of

information technology in day-to-day business. It can be observed that according
to the scores these companies dont seem to use information technologies (TICs)
as support for competitive and technology surveillance (ITI5b), which is in ac-
cordance with the result pointed out in Figure 1. Moreover, higher scores corre-
spond to the use of TICs to support daily operations, improving individual produc-
tivity and the use of TICs to facilitate process monitoring and indicator analysis.
The use of TICs is, in general, an increasingly widespread practice in organiza-
tions and, in the case of the organizations that are committed to total quality and
thus, must monitor the processes having an information system that is supported
by new technologies is very helpful.
Figure 3 displays the perceived level of practices that convey behaviours and
values assumed by employees in relation to information use. According to the re-
sults shown in Figure 3, the free exchange of sensitive information in a collabora-
tive way with people outside the organization (customers, partners, suppliers, so-
ciety at large) is the set of practices with the lowest score (AIBVC4b). On the
other hand, the higher scores obtained by the AIBVC1, AIBVC2 and AIBVC3
outcomes emphasize that these organizations value people sharing sensitive in-
formation rather than manipulating or hiding it, that they have formal and reliable
sources of information that their members use and that information about the per-
formance of the company is revealed to all employees in order to influence and di-
rect individual performance and consequently the companys performance.
699
Fig. 3 Mean scores for behaviours and values assumed by employees in relation with infor-
mation use convey practices outcomes (AIBVC)
5 Conclusions
As a general conclusion, we see that the companies analysed seem to have devel-
oped information capability to the extent that many information practices are per-
ceived as common practices; this was to be expected since those companies were
committed to Total Quality Management and have even won a quality award.
Correctly applying the EFQM model involves establishing processes that must
be under control by using the right indicators. The monitoring of the whole per-
formance of the quality system would be allowed by using the appropriate indica-
tors that have to be produced and updated. An information system designed by
taking information capability into account would be the most suitable.
The study has allowed areas of improvement to be identified by pointing out
practices that, if they were commonly implemented, would improve the use and
management of information and make it more efficient, which would be reflected
in a companys results.
As for research limitations, the first one is that the questionnaires were an-
swered by managers, which could have introduced a bias. Given that information
flows throughout the company and involves everyones work, it would be better to
know the perception of all the employees. The second limitation is the small size
of the sample.
700
6 References
Ashurst C., Doherty N.F. & Peppard J. (2008) Improving the impact of IT development projects:
the benefits realization capability model, European Journal of Information Systems, 17: 352-
370
Carmichael F., Palacios-Marques D. & Gil-Pechuan I. (2011) How to create information man-
agement capabilities through web 2.0, The Service Industries Journal, 31(10);1613-1625
Choo C.W., Furness C., Paquette S., van den Berg H., Detlor B., Bergeron P. & Heaton L.
(2006) Working with information: information management and culture in a professional ser-
vices organization, Journal of Information Science, 32(6):491-510
Chou T., Chan P., Cheng Y. & Tsai C. (2007) A path model linking organizational Knowledge
attributes, information processing capabilities, and perceived usability, Information and Man-
agement, 44(4):408-417
Coltman T., Devinney T.M. & Midgley D.F. (2010) Customer Relationship Management and
Firm Performance, Journal of Information Technology. This journal article is available at Re-
search Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/commpapers/768
Fok L.Y., Fok W.M. & Hatman S.J. (2001) Exploring the relationships between total quality
management and information system development, Information & Management, 38: 355-371
Gorla N., Somers, T.M. & Wong B. (2010) Organizational impact of system quality, information
quality, and service quality, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 19:207-228
Heras-Saizarbitoria, I., Marimon, F. & Casadess, M. (2012) An empirical study of the relation-
ships within the categories of the EFQM model, Total Quality Management & Business Ex-
cellence, 23(5-6):523-540
Hwang Y. (2011) Measuring information behaviour performance inside a company: a case study,
Information Research, 16(2), paper 480. [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/16-
2/paper480.html]
Lin S., Gao J., Koronios A. & Chanana V. (2007) Developing a data quality framework for asset
management in engineering organizations, International Journal of Information Quality,
1(1):100-126
Marchand D.A., Kettinger W.J. & Rollins J.D. (2000) Information Orientation: People, Technol-
ogy and the Bottom Line, Sloan Management Review, 41(4):69-80
Matta K., Chen H.G. & Tama J. (1998) The information requirements of total quality manage-
ment, Total quality Management and Business Excellence, 9(6):445-461
Peppard J. & Ward J. (2004) Beyond strategic information systems: towards an IS capability,
Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 13:167-194
Sabherwal R. & Chan Y.E. (2001) Alignment between Business and IS Strategies: a Study of
Prospectors, Analyzers, and Defenders, Information System Research, 12(1):11-33
Tee S.W., Bowen P.L., Doyle P. & Rohde F.H. (2007) Factors influencing organizations to im-
prove data quality in their information systems, Accounting and Finance, 47:335-355
Wang W.T. (2012) Evaluating organisational performance during crises: A multi-dimensional
framework, Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, 23(5-6):673-688
701
Market Oriented New Product Development

Process: a Case Study
Nunes M1, Afonso P2
Abstract For many industries, the development of new products is the most im-
portant factor in sustaining the success once achieved. The emphasis on develop-
ment of new products has spurred researchers from strategic management, engi-
neering, marketing and other disciplines to study the process of new product
development. In recent years, new product development (NPD) process became
more strategic and market oriented. Market orientation is moving from the tradi-
tional market-driven to the new driving-market approach. Such approach asks for
a different leadership of the NPD process, higher coordination amongst depart-
ments (marketing, sales, accounting and engineering areas) that may share com-
mon concerns, objectives and tools during the NPD process. While these changes
often pose conflicting demands on the firm, there is a growing body of evidence
that the firm may employ strategies to successfully meet their objectives. The con-
ceptual framework presented in this article was tested through an exploratory case
study developed in a manufacturer of refrigerators and other refrigeration equip-
ment for domestic, commercial and professional use. Some findings were obtained
from the analysis of the data. Essentially, market-driven and driving-market ap-
proaches are different in terms of customer and competitor orientation as well as
inter-functional coordination.
Keywords: New product development, Market orientation, Case study
1Manuel Lopes Nunes ( e-mail: lnunes@dps.uminho.pt)

Department of Production and Systems. School of Engineering. University of Minho. Campus de
Azurm, 4800-058 Guimares, Portugal.
2PauloLima Pereira Afonso ( e-mail: psafonso@dps.uminho.pt)
Department of Production and Systems. School of Engineering. University of Minho. Campus de
Azurm, 4800-058 Guimares, Portugal.
702
1 Introduction
The role of the marketing function has evolved from only performing tactical
marketing tasks to infusing a marketing capability into the organizations core
business processes (Jaakkola et al., 2009). Extensive research shows that the in-
fused marketing function is an essential and natural part in the firms new product
development (NPD) today (Lewis, 2001; Narver et al., 2004; Ellis, 2006). Some
scholars hold the view that marketing function plays a positive role in NPD. Firms
that are better at the market orientation-related activities have better innovation
processes and greater success with NPD (e.g. Jaworski and Kohli, 2000; Song and
Montoya-Weiss, 2001; Baker and Sinkula, 2005). This could be referred to as the
market orientations influence on NPD in a firm.
Simultaneously, some scholars defined NPD as the transformation of a market
opportunity into a product as a result of the coupling of market assumptions with
technological possibilities (Krishnan and Ulrich, 2001). Based on this, NPD be-
comes a complex and multifunctional process, including concurrent marketing,
engineering, cross-functional working, advanced tools, early involvement etc.
(Baker and James, 2005). The general perspectives of NPD are often stated to be
R&D, marketing, and manufacturing (Kohn, 2006).
Although market orientation and NPD has attracted considerable attention in
the marketing literature, several important questions require further examination.
Firstly, apart from the previous understanding of market orientation, some new
concepts emerging in recent years, there is still no clear definition of market orien-
tation and the existing statement of these concepts are abstract, therefore it is am-
biguous how market orientation is carried out in NPD in a firm. Secondly, majori-
ty of prior research merely studies the relation between market orientation and
NPD through quantitative research, such as negative or positive, direct or indirect
relation. However, there is limited research on how market orientation affects
NPD. Accordingly, this research is devoted to helping fill these two gaps, in other
words, based on the previous research, authors will figure out how market orienta-
tion is carried out in NPD, besides, how market orientation affects NPD will also
be explored.
2 Market Orientation
Market orientation was first defined in literature as an organization-level culture

comprising values and beliefs about putting the customer first in business planning
(Kohli and Jaworski, 1990). Additionally, Some authors also emphasized that
market orientation is the set of beliefs that puts the customer's interest (or under-
stand the latent needs of customers) first (Deshpand. et al., 1993; Narver et al.,
2004), while not excluding those of all other stakeholders such as owners, manag-
703
ers, and employees, in order to develop a long-term profitable enterprise (Desh-

pand. et al., 1993). Since then, market orientation has been studied both as a cul-
tural phenomenon, and a set of behaviours and actives relating to (1) organization-
wide market intelligence (covers both customers and competitors) generation
through decision support systems, marketing information systems and marketing
research efforts, (2) market intelligence dissemination within the firm, and (3) ac-
tion-oriented responsiveness to the information (Gatignon and Xuereb, 1997;
Deshpande, 1999).
During the development of a market orientation, some scholars put the empha-
sis on certain perspective around cultural and behavioural approaches, e.g. they
view the market orientation from a market information processing perspective.
Hunt and Morgan (1995, p.11) define market orientation as: (1) the systematic
gathering of information on customers and competitors, both present and potential,
(2) the systematic analysis of the information for the purpose of developing mar-
ket knowledge, and (3) the systematic use of such knowledge to guide strategy
recognition, understanding, creation, selection, implementation, and modifica-
tion. Meanwhile, in a recent study, some researchers stated market orientation as
the process of obtaining information from the marketplace (customers, competi-
tors, supply chain partners, and environmental trends), analysing and evaluating of
market information, and using the information throughout the organization (take
response of the information) (Jaakkola et al., 2009; Song et al., 2009).
During the development of a market orientation, some scholars put the empha-
sis on certain perspective around cultural and behavioural approaches, e.g. they
view the market orientation from a market information processing perspective.
Hunt and Morgan (1995, p.11) define market orientation as: (1) the systematic
gathering of information on customers and competitors, both present and potential,
(2) the systematic analysis of the information for the purpose of developing mar-
ket knowledge, and (3) the systematic use of such knowledge to guide strategy
recognition, understanding, creation, selection, implementation, and modifica-
tion. Meanwhile, in a recent study, some researchers stated market orientation as
the process of obtaining information from the marketplace (customers, competi-
tors, supply chain partners, and environmental trends), analysing and evaluating of
market information, and using the information throughout the organization (take
response of the information) (Jaakkola et al., 2009; Song et al., 2009).
Nevertheless, to counter criticism that market orientation (conceptualized as
being market-driven) was too reactive, both Jaworski et al. (2000) and Beverland
et al. (2006) identified two forms of market orientation - market-driven and driv-
ing-market approaches. They proposed that firms that are truly market-oriented
combine both approaches (Ibid). When utilizing a market-driven approach, busi-
nesses adopt a reactive stance and focus on trying to learn, understand and respond
to stakeholder (customer, competitor, owners, managers and employees) percep-
tions and behaviour (Jaworski et al., 2000). Backman et al. (2007) stated that mar-
ket-driven concept is aimed towards a certain customer group or business oppor-
704
tunity. In contrast, a driving-market approach involves proactive strategies that

aim to change the structure of the marketplace or the rules of the game (Jaworski
et al., 2000). Driving-market involves leading customers rather than evolving the
offer in response to customers' on-going requests (Beverland et al., 2006). A com-
pany must have the imagination to envision markets that do not yet exist and the
ability to stake them out ahead of the competition (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994).
Organizations using a driving-market strategy in NPD do not only strive to meet
customer needs but also search for products that pioneer new markets. Market-
driven approach would focus on evolutionary product changes driven by feedback
from business buyers and end-consumers (Beverland et al., 2006). The strategy,
market-driven and driving-market would both include a competitor focus, deriving
ideas from the marketplace, and gaining access to distribution channels (Bever-
land et al., 2006).
Besides, according to Kumar et al. (2000), a firm whose success has been based
on radical business innovation indicates that such firms are better described as
driving-market. While market-driven processes are excellent in generating incre-
mental innovation, they rarely produce the type of radical innovation that under-
lies market-driving firms. Driving-market strategy entails high risk, but also offers
a firm the potential to revolutionize an industry and reap vast rewards (Kumar et
al., 2000).
People may confuse about technology push and driving-market. It is necessary
to clarify these two definitions and compare the differences between them. Tech-
nology push is a term used to describe a part of a business strategy of a firm. A
technology push implies that a new invention is pushed through R&D, production
and sales functions onto the market without proper consideration of whether or not
it satisfies a user need (Mavondo et al., 2005). In the technology push view; tech-
nologists or scientists carry out research in their laboratories in order to create new
knowledge. This new knowledge forms the basis for new products, processes or
services that are then handed over to the rest of the organization to produce, sell
and distribute. Technological advances push what goes into the marketplace
(Whittington et al., 2007). Compared with the definition of driving-market, it can
be seen that, driving-market focuses not only on searching for products that pio-
neer new markets, but also striving to meet customer preference.
An innovation based upon market pull has been developed by the R&D func-
tion in response to an identified market need (Mavondo et al., 2005). Compared
with the statement of driving-market and market-driven above, it can be seen that
market-driven and driving-market are both market pull since they both promote
the NPD in response to the market needs, either current or latent.
705
3 How Market Orientation Influences NPD
As Lafferty and Hult (2001) state, market orientation embraces four areas, when it
comes to the research question, these four areas can be seen as four areas of how
market orientation is carried out in NPD. Combining with NPD theories, these
four areas will be reviewed with the connection of NPD. Meanwhile, as reviewed
before, market orientation contains two approaches, market-driven and driving-
market. Therefore, they share the same four areas with market orientation. Ac-
cordingly, in this part, market orientations effect on NPD related with four areas
will be reviewed from market-driven and driving-market approaches.
3.1 Identifying Customers Needs
Narver and Slater (1990) stated that the customer orientation element requires a
sufficient understanding of the customer in order to create products or services of
superior value for them. Recent work suggests that customers have a crucial role
to play in understanding how and why innovation works. Close contact with cus-
tomers and effective communications of their needs leads to a better understand-
ing of the value of product features (Akgun et al., 2006). Besides, firms orienta-
tion towards customers is likely to influence how they respond to changes in the
marketplace, in particular, the extent to which firms develop and introduce new
products (Lewis, 2001).
In market-driven approach, firms respond to environmental changes as they
arise, but do not attempt to force change back into the environment (Narver et al.,
2000). Even in those instances where latent needs are uncovered by the firm, there
is still no active attempt to create or change behaviours among the customers
(Narver et al., 2000). This kind of firms would not step outside the immediate
voice of the customer and attempt to shape consumer preferences or modify them
(Jaworski et al., 2000). For driving-market approach, market orientation includes
development of capabilities in market sensing and customer linking (Day, 1994),
which led to a deeper insight into customers both expressed and latent needs.
Kohli and Jaworski (1990) also indicate that effective market intelligence involves
not just current needs but also future ones. Driving-market approach requires the
company has deep insight into the needs, lifestyles, and aspirations of today and
tomorrows customers will (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). Furthermore, firms using
driving-market approach tend to change the rules of the games, or create new
customers/ markets (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994).
706
3.2 Collecting Information
A firms capability of generating, disseminating and exploiting market infor-

mation strongly influences NPD and its outcomes (Han et al. 1998; Langerak et
al., 2007). Market-driven approach to NPD emphasizes close relationships with
entities both internal and external to the organization in order to get information
about customers needs and wants, competitors and changes in the market. Thus, a
market-driven product development management emphasizes the significance of
creating and exploiting market knowledge in designing and developing superior
products (Srivastava et al., 1999; Kohli and Jaworski 1990). Whats more, market
information processing capabilities and generative learning also permit to quickly
identify and respond to changing customer needs (Baker and Sinkula, 2005). In
order to develop the new product and make the NPD succeed, the organization
needs to understand the strengths and weaknesses of its competitors, monitoring
competitors' actions and investigate competitors supply chain partners (Laffery
and Hult, 2001).
For driving-market approach, as Jaworski et al. (2000) claim, this approach
shares the similar perspectives with market-driven, but contains more from other
sides. They stress the external activities, arguing that a firm using driving-market
approach can reshape the value chain through eliminating players (deconstruc-
tion), adding players (construction) or by changing their functions (re-
construction) (Ibid). Firms using market-driving approach may also shape the be-
haviour of key factors such as customers or competitors by educating them or in-
fluencing their incentives and preferences (Ibid). For instance, Sarasvathy (2001)
points out firms using driving-market approach may set up alliances and cooperate
with their competitors.
3.3 Inter-functional Coordination
Inter-functional coordination is the coordinated use of firm resources to create su-

perior value for target customers (Narver and Slater, 1990). This coordinated inte-
gration draws on the information generated and through the coordinated use of
firm resources, disseminates the information throughout the organization (Laffery
and Hult, 2001). Moye and Langfred (2004) stated that sharing information among
different departments might not only reduce different conflicts such as task con-
flict and relationship conflict but also create a common understanding. Moreover,
argument shows that marketing and manufacturing strategies and design inputs
should be closely integrated throughout the NPD effort (Narver and Slater, 1990).
The technical community either did not understand the customers underlying
needs or missed the appropriate price/performance target. Meanwhile, as many
companies are becoming more market-oriented, their world-class competitors are
707
using advanced technology to create new businesses that few marketers could
have imagined (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). Neither technology nor marketing can
be the sole departure point for creating new competitive space (Ibid). Consistent
with Narver and Slaters (1998) arguments that market orientation goes beyond
being customer led, a firms competitor orientation and inter-functional coordina-
tion are positively associated with its NPD creativity (Wei and Wang, 2010).
Creative new ideas and innovations usually come from interactions among people
(Leenders et al., 2003). Therefore, technology and marketing need to be well co-
ordinated within a firm. To blur organizational and career boundaries by ensuring
that both communities had a large base of shared experiences. The result was po-
tent mixture of market and technical imagination (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). In-
tegration leads to greater product design quality, where design quality is a holistic
concept comprised of both product performance and conformance attributes
(Swink and Song, 2007). The inter-functional coordination embedded in the mar-
ket-oriented culture (Narver and Slater, 1990) also provides a unifying focus of
creating superior value for customers (Baker and Sinkula, 2005) with a compara-
tive impetus with competitors activities, and helps to achieve a holistic approach
to NPD practices, thus improving new product performance (Langerak et al.,
2007).
The emphasis of inter-functional coordination differs for market-driven and
driving-market approach. As to the former, Kohli and Jaworski (1990) stress the
preference for market driven that it makes the marketing department take the re-
sponsibility of all departments in the organization. As the later, early manufactur-
ing inputs can squelch creative ideas (Swink and Song, 2007), technology depart-
ment plays much more important role in driving-market, successful market driving
firms have developed a unique internal business system that offers customers a
leap in the value proposition in terms of, for example, new price points or a supe-
rior service level (Kumar et al., 2000).
4 A Conceptual Framework of How Market Orientation is

carried out in NPD
In this part, based on the previous literature, a new conceptual framework of how
market orientation is carried out in NPD (see Figure 1) is built up. This model will
be used in the empirical part of the article. Following the model, authors will ex-
plicitly elaborate how the model is formulated and the interaction of different
parts.
708
Fig. 1 The conceptual framework of how market orientation is carried out in NPD
Lafferty and Hult (2001, p. 100) stated that four general areas constitute the
basic foundation of market orientation which are (1) an emphasis on customers;
(2) the importance of shared knowledge (information); (3) inter-functional coordi-
nation of marketing activities and relationships; and (4) being responsive to mar-
ket activities by taking the appropriate action. First area is the emphasis on cus-
tomers. As reviewed above, the cultural and behavioral approaches are the main
streams in market orientation. Meanwhile, as Mavondo and Farrell (2000) noted,
the cultural and behavioural approaches share the notion that the consumer is cen-
tral in the manifestation of market orientation. Second area is the importance of
shared knowledge (information). The information here contains customers, com-
petitors, supply chain partners, and environmental trends information (Jaakkola et
al., 2009; Song et al., 2009). Third area is the inter-functional coordination of
marketing activities and relationships. Forth area is being responsive to market ac-
tivities by taking the appropriate action. Narver and Slater (1990) considered that
the inter-functional coordination is essential for market orientation. Gatignon and
Xuereb (1997) and Deshpande (1999) put the emphasis on the action-oriented re-
sponsiveness to the information.
The authors have the consensus opinion with Jaworski et al. (2000) that market
orientation (conceptualized as being market-driven) was too reactive. Market ori-
entation should contain two forms: market-driven and driving-market approaches
(Ibid). These two approaches share the same four areas, but the content contained
in each area is different. As mentioned above, market-driven and driving-market
are different approaches to firms. That is to say, to answer the question, how
market orientation is carried out in NPD, it is very important for a firm to choose
one of them (either market-driven or driving market approach) before developing
one specific new product. After choosing, the firm may follow the four general ar-
eas to implement NPD. The sequence of these four areas is related to the NPD
process in which market orientation is carried out. Authors formulate a chain-
linked process with feedback loops to describe the sequence and interaction of
these four areas. The reason of adding feedback loops into the process is that when
it comes to the taking action area, if the firms found that the information is insuffi-
709
cient, they could go back to the first area identifying customers needs. In order to
help with in responding to how market orientation affects NPD, the authors for-
mulated one tool (see Table 1).
Table 1 Four areas effect on NPD related with driving market-driven and driving-market ap-
proaches
Two approaches
Four areas Market-driven Driving-market
Emphasizes the feedback from Emphasizes a deeper insight into both
Identifying customers and the response to the expressed and latent needs of cus-
customers current needs (Narver tomers (Narver et al., 2000), and
customers needs et al., 2000). gives rise to new customers (Hamel
and Prahalad, 1994).
Information based on the under- Requires further information by shap-
standing of the strengths and ing the behaviour of competitors (e.g.
Collecting weaknesses of firms competitors, firms set the alliances, and cooperate
and information from monitoring with competitors) (Sarasvathy, 2001),
information competitors' actions and investi- and by changing the structure of in-
gating competitors supply-chain dustry (Jaworski et al., 2000).
partners (Laffery and Hult, 2001).
Makes the market department Technology department plays a much
take the responsibility for all de- more important role (Kumar et al.,
Inter-functional
partments in the organization 2000). Early manufacturing inputs
coordination
(Kohli and Jaworski, 1990). could stifle creative ideas (Swink and
Song, 2007).
All departments need to be responsive, such as designing, producing, pro-
Taking action
moting and distributing products (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990).
As stated above, market orientation contains two approaches, market-driven

and driving- market. They share the four areas of market orientation. Nevertheless,
the content of each area under two approaches is different. Therefore, when it
comes to market orientations effect on NPD, each areas effect on NPD should be
explicitly stated under market-driven and driving-market approaches. Meanwhile,
the each content in the table is concluded from the previous study. At the follow-
ing discussion, authors will compare with the empirical data and further complete
the contents of the table. In this study, the unit of analysis is the product.
710
5 Case Study
5.1 Research Method
This study is trying to figure out how marketing orientation is carried out in NPD
and how marketing orientation affects NPD. Specifically, the indication of this re-
search is to dig deeper into the relationship between market orientation and NPD.
While a quantitative research is primarily aimed at providing statistical
knowledge, enabling predictions, a qualitative research emphasizes a broader
range of perspectives on complex interrelationships within a more limited number
of empirical entities (Yin, 1994). Therefore, this study draws on a qualitative re-
search.
Considering the one single company of this study, Freeze Industry SA, it is per-
tinent to speak of a case study. Case study is an approach that helps in exploring a
contemporary phenomenon in its real life context (Yin, 1994). Multi-case studies
facilitate a deeper understanding of soft variables and key relationships and are be-
lieved to be particularly valid for uncovering business-marketing practices (Eisen-
hardt, 1989). However, multi-case studies are often facing a problem of dealing
with the huge sum of the data, and decrease the possibility of having a deeper in-
sight into the company (Yin, 1994). Connected with the topic, one case is a proper
method to proceed since the limited time and the difficulty of collecting data.
More importantly, one single case can strengthen the depth of the study and meet
the objective of this paper. The selection of case is an important aspect when au-
thors are developing theory (Eisenhardt, 1989). The case company was selected
following a purposive sampling logic. Firstly, Freeze Industry SA is a small and
medium enterprise that has its own marketing department and NPD department.
Moreover, Freeze Industry SA used to develop new products based on market de-
mand and its own innovative capability. Secondly, the CEO of the company is
quite kind and generous. He is willing to do the research with authors, which will
improve the reliability of empirical data. Thirdly, authors had the successful coop-
eration with Freeze Industry SA before. The project that related to Freeze Industry
SA European market helped authors understand Freeze Industry SA and triggered
authors interest to do further research with Freeze Industry SA. Finally, since
Freeze Industry SA locates close to authors university, it is quite convenient to
make the interview and get more complementary information, if needed.
Data for this paper were obtained through two sources: primary and secondary
data. Semi-structured interview, which offers the interviewee freedom and flexi-
bility in answering question, was chosen to collect primary data (Bryman and Bell,
2007). According to Yin (1994), interviews will be the primary way, and it is one
of the most important sources for a case study. Therefore, authors developed an
interview guide based on the theoretical framework. The data was mainly obtained
711
from the interviewees with the Sales responsible, Marketing manager, I&D re-
sponsible and other managers. During the interview, authors share the work, one
focuses on asking the question, recording and making the questions easier for in-
terviewees, the other one pays attention to the body language and eye contact of
the interviewees, making short notes as well as making sure that all questions are
covered (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Besides, as the secondary data, the authors col-
lected data from the firms official website, as well as from the news and reports
about the company. After the interview, authors listen to the record several times
and transcribe all the data onto thirteen pages, then authors break down the data,
examine, compare, evaluate, conceptualize and categorize data, and discussed
with each other, and then the data is compiled into four pages of text. According-
ly, authors analyse the empirical data combined with the literature.
It is necessary to establish and assess the quality of research. Reliability and va-
lidity are the appropriate criteria for qualitative research (Bryman and Bell, 2007).
To ensure high reliability and validity, the interview guide was simplified so that
the interviewee can understand easily. Meanwhile, the interview guide was formu-
lated according to the theoretical review and conceptual framework, and it is cor-
responding with the research question. Moreover, the company was willing to do
the research with authors, which ensures the data that authors get can be highly re-
liable. In order to improve the reliability of data, authors transcribed and find the
coherence of the data. In addition, the paper was returned to the company for ex-
amination. Consequently, the reliability and validity in this study can be consid-
ered as acceptable.
5.2 Company Description
Freeze Industry SA is a Portuguese family company dedicated to the manufacture

of refrigerators and other refrigeration equipment for domestic, commercial and
professional use.
Freeze Industry SA was started in 2008 and resulted from two firms with twen-
ty years of experience which were leaders in their respective markets. Freeze In-
dustry SA fulfils all of the demands included in the ISO 9001:2008 Standard for
quality, and OSHAS 18001 for work safety, highlighting a high commitment to
product and service quality as well as the well-being of all collaborators.
This company aims to consolidate its leadership in the Portuguese market and
distinguishing itself as one of the principal manufacturers of refrigeration products
at European and World levels. Freeze Industry intends to be a reference in the re-
frigeration sector, through the recognition of its technical and service provision
capacity. Technically, production flexibility and reduced delivery time are strong
points in the service provided by the firm.
712
The companys strategy is focused on emerging markets, especially Africa,

through the creation of conditions for direct distribution to their clients. It also fo-
cuses on commercial and professional refrigeration and the ever-increasing projec-
tion of its brand, Freeze, in the markets where it is present; particularly, in their
main markets which are Africa, Europe and the Arab world. To support this strat-
egy, new and modern facilities (namely a new production plant) were constructed
in the North of Portugal.
Recently, Freeze Industry SA concluded an investment of 22.6 million Euros to
expand the production capacity. This expansion will allow the group to increase
exportations, reinforce sales of its own brand and launch new brands in the mar-
ket.
This investment is part of an operational restructuring of Freeze Industry SA,
which involved the closing of two factories, whose activity was transferred to the
new facility. The two companies produced 150 thousand units per year and this
new facility will produce between 640 to 650 thousand units per year.
5.3 Products
The company produces chest freezers, combined refrigerators/freezers, refrigera-

tors and upright freezers. Among others, the main products of this company are
the following: chest and upright freezers, refrigerators, wine coolers and other
cooling.
The design of new products and a constant strategic market analysis are fun-
damental to support Freezes strategy. The company offers products recognised
for their excellent value for money and technical service in the all markets were
they are present in. This implies an intense effort in the development of solutions
that are adapted to their clients needs and with performance characteristics that
should fit the diverse and demanding clients around the world.
On the other hand, beyond the common refrigerators and freezers, the company
develops, produces and commercializes more sophisticated products such as wine
coolers, refrigeration units for the pharmaceutical industry and commercial and
professional refrigeration systems. Recently, the company is focus on chest freez-
ers of high-energy efficiency. These new products should be recognized by their
high-energy efficiency associated with design. For example, minimalist but sturdy
lines influenced by the current tendencies are under development. All these are
very innovative products developed to provide a vast array of solutions anticipat-
ing market demand.
713
6 Analysis of Findings
In this company, the Strategic Marketing Manager is responsible for the market
analysis, competitor analysis, brand management and communication. According
to him Freeze Industry SA is a company dedicated to the manufacture of refrigera-
tion appliances for domestic, commercial and professional use with a very large
range of products like vertical refrigerators, chest freezers, upright freezers, ice
cream chest freezers and wine coolers. We have product files of all categories.
In the case of Freeze Industry, their efforts to design a new innovative product
of high-energy efficiency (an A+++ product) show how different the market-
driven and driving-market approaches are different. These differences are summa-
rized in Table 2 and they can be expressed in the abovementioned three domains:
customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination.
Table 2: Findings summary
Market-driven Driving-market
(The traditional approach) (The new A+++ product)
- Led by clients - Led by Marketing department/CEO
Identifying - Through the eyes of clients - Through direct data from consumers
and business partners and from market studies
customers needs
- Technologically and strategically
aligned
- Led by Sales department - Led by Marketing department
Collecting - Using common suppliers and - New sources of information are
common clients to obtain in- needed
information formation about competitors - Through a benchmarking exercise of
- Using free available data the competitors
- Led by I&D department - Leadership is not clear and it may be
- Reduced and late internal in- shared but I&D department remains
Inter-functional ter-functionality central
coordination - The NPD process turns more com-
- Reduced clients and suppli-
ers contribution plex with more and earlier contribu-
tions
6.1 Customer Orientation
The company has a geographic segmentation with its main markets in Africa, Eu-
rope and Arab World. The firm segments its products-markets in these terms be-
cause these markets have needs that are completely different. Traditionally, Freeze
Industry follows a market-driven approach. According to the Sales manager pro-
714
duction system is very flexible permitting several product combinations and they
are able to adapt easily their products to market needs. Thus, their NPD has
been essentially reactive and pushed by their clients suggestions and by clients
perceptions of customers needs. The firm makes some incremental improvements
in their products - usually the company reacts to the market (C&D Responsible).
Their clients have also suggested new product lines. For instance, the client asked
for a new line of products with 60 cm doors and we developed an entire line of
these products (C&D Responsible). Other examples can be given (e.g. a special
line of small freezers). Nevertheless, the new product (an A+++ freezer) intends to
anticipate market needs, clients requests and competitors solutions and it is pushed
in a different manner. Firstly, this a new product aligned with strategic and tech-
nological objectives and the CEO putted it in the NPD agenda. Thus it is pushed
by the inside of the company, the marketing department assumes the leadership in
terms of costumer analysis and intends to collect direct data and to use infor-
mation from market studies. It is a completely different approach.
6.2 Competitor Orientation
Freeze Industry SA makes a regular estimation of competitors costs and product

attributes through reverse engineering. Furthermore, they analyse competitors ac-
tivities according to mutual suppliers and mutual customers information. Compet-
itors strategies, technologies and market approaches recognized as cost-effective
are analysed, particularly competitors strategies and product technologies (Stra-
tegic Manager). Strategic Manager stated that they have a sales and marketing
department with that responsibility. [] We purchase competitor new products to
study their structure and technology. [] We have competitor monitorization in
world shows and exhibitions. According to the Strategic Manager, they consider
this competitor information when making product/service decisions very im-
portant for [] decisions [in terms of] costs and product structure. However, the
driving-market orientation asks for a different approach, internally pushed and
conducted. New sources of information are needed and consultants advice may be
important. The company recognizes that they must collect information directly
from their clients and that there is necessary a benchmarking exercise of the direct
competitors. On the other hand they consider important to collect information on
European and national programs for energy efficiency. The marketing department
now conducts all this process.
715
6.3 Interfunctional Coordination
Finally, inter-functional coordination has been led by the I&D department because
the NPD process is centred on the I&D department. Clients contribute in the be-
ginning of the process with their suggestions and the voice of the customer and
receive feedback just in the end of the NPD process (after product industrializa-
tion). Just a very few number of suppliers may contribute to the NPD (and those
are usually moulding and materials suppliers). The other departments of the com-
pany collaborate in the end of the NPD process (after product development). Pur-
chasing and production are asked to participate just in the product industrialization
stage, before the first production series.
Assuming a driving-market perspective, the leadership of the process is not
clear and it may be shared. Nevertheless, the role of I&D department remains cen-
tral. The NPD process turns more complex with more and earlier external and in-
ternal contributions, i.e. from suppliers and from the other departments. The CEO
approval is very important and he should validate the initial production cost esti-
mative. A target costing could be followed to deal with this augmented complexity
but it is not a possibility in this case.
7 Conclusion
Regarding how market orientation is carried out in NPD, the analysis shows that
when the firm develops the new product, it follows four steps after choosing the
market-driven or driving-market approach. These four steps are identifying cus-
tomers needs, collecting the information, inter-functional coordination and taking
action. These four steps move on sequentially.
How market orientation affects NPD in the enterprise is explored from these
steps towards two approaches. Under each step, the specific content in market-
driven product and driving-market product is different. For example, for the first
step, identifying customers needs, the market-driven product requires the firm re-
sponding to customers feedback and monitoring customers current needs. While
for the driving-market product, it needs the firms deeper insight into not only cus-
tomers current needs, but also customers latent needs in order to create new cus-
tomers.
A number of managerial implications arise from the findings either NPD is
market-driven or driving-market. Let this product follow the market trend or cre-
ate new needs for customers are two options. After the company has chosen one of
the two approaches, the way of how to perform market orientation needs to be
considered, specifically, from identifying customers needs, collecting infor-
mation, inter-functional coordination and taking action aspects. For market-driven
product, the company puts the emphasis on meeting customers current needs,
716
monitoring competitors' actions. While for driving-market product, it requires the

firm has a view of the future, to explore and create new needs of customers, to
change the rule of the market, to invest much more on technology and when tak-
ing action, new distribution channel might need to be changed because of the to-
tally new product. Whats more, for both market-driven product and driving-
market product, information should be collected in a wide range (such as custom-
ers, competitors, the other industries, and different policies in the market) and well
diffused among different departments in the whole organization, people in differ-
ent departments should be well communicated in order to obtain the maximum
cooperation.
Future researchers might enlarge the research range of market orientation and
NPD based on this research. They could do the research on comparison of market
orientation and NPD in different firms. Each firm may have different characters of
market orientation when they develop new products, do these characters relate
with the industries features, or do they only depend on the products features?
Are there some common characters of companies from one country, do they have
similar market orientation performance in NPD? Therefore, one direction for fu-
ture research could be conducted under a multi-industry or multi-culture back-
ground.
8 References
Akgun, A.E., Lynn, G.S. and Cengiz, Y., 2006. Learning process in new product development
teams and effects on product success: A socio-cognitive perspective. Industrial Marketing
Management, 35 (2), pp. 210-224.
Backman, M., Brjesson, S. and Setterberg, S., 2007. Working with concepts in the fuzzy front
end: exploring the context for innovation for different types of concepts at Volvo Cars. R&D
Management, 37, pp. 17-28.
Baker, W.E. and James M.S., 2005. Market Orientation and the New Product Paradox. Journal of
Product Innovation Management, 22, pp. 483-502.
Beverland, M.B., Ewing, M.T. and Matanda, M.J., 2006. Driving-market or market-driven? A
case study analysis of the new product development practices of Chinese business-to-
business firms. Industrial Marketing Management, 35, pp. 383 393.
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2007. Business Research Methods. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press.
Day, G.S., 1994. The capabilities of market driven organizations. Journal of Marketing, 58, pp.
3752.
Deshpande, R., 1999. Developing a market orientation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Inc.
Deshpand, R., Farley, J.U. and Webster, F., 1993. Corporate culture, customer orientation, and
innovativeness in Japanese firms: a quadrad analysis. Journal of Marketing, 57, pp. 23-37.
Ellis, P.D., 2006. Market Orientation and Performance: A Meta-Analysis and Cross-National
Comparisons. Journal of Management Studies, 43 (5), pp. 10891107.
Eisenhardt, K.M., 1989. Building Theories from Case Study Research. The Academy of Man-
agement Review, 14 (4), pp. 532-550.
717
Gatignon, H. and Xuereb, J.M., 1997. Strategic orientation of the firm and new product perfor-
mance. Journal of Marketing Research, 36, pp. 77-90.
Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C.K., 1994. Competing for the Future, Boston: Harvard Business
School Press.
Han, J.K., Kim, N., and Srivastava, R.K., 1998. Market orientation and organizational perfor-
mance: Is innovation a missing link? Journal of Marketing Research, 62, pp. 3045.
Homburg, C., Grozdanovic, M., and Klarmann, M., 2007. Responsiveness to customers and
competitors: The role of affective and cognitive organizational systems. Journal of Market-
ing, 71 (3), pp. 1838.
Hunt, S.D. and Morgan, R.M., 1995. The comparative advantage theory of competition. Journal
of Marketing, 59, pp.1-15.
Jaakkola, M., Santala, M. and Vassinen, A., 2009. Market orientation and business performance:
the mediating effect of core business processes. International Marketing Trends Congress,
January 16-17, pp. 1-22.
Jaworski, B., Kohli, A. K., and Sahay, A., 2000. Market-driven versus driving markets. Journal
of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28 (1), pp. 4554.
Kohli, A.K. and Jaworski, B.J., 1990. Market orientation: The construct, research propositions,
and managerial implications. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 54 (2), pp. 1-18.
Kohn, K. (2006). Managing the balance of perspectives in the early phase of NPD: A case study
from the automotive industry. European Journal of Innovation Management, 9 (1), pp. 44-60.
Krishnan, V. and Ulrich, K.T., 2001. Product development decisions: a review of the literature.
Management Science, 47 (1), pp.1-21.
Kumar, N., Scheer, L. and Kotler, P., 2000. From Market Driven to Market Driving. European
Management Journal, 18 (2), pp. 129- 141.
Lafferty, B.A. and Hult, G.T.M., 2001. A synthesis of contemporary market orientation perspec-
tives. European Journal of Marketing, 35, pp. 92-109.
Langerak, F., Hultink, E.J. and Robben, H.S.J., 2007. The mediating role of new product devel-
opment in the link between market orientation and organizational performance. Journal of
Strategic Marketing, 15, pp. 281 305.
Leenders, R.T.A.J., Engelen, J.M.L. and Kratzer, J., 2003. Virtuality, Communication, and New
Product Team Creativity: A Social Network Perspective. Journal of Engineering and Tech-
nology Management, 20, pp. 69-92.
Lewis, M.A., 2001. Success, Failure and Organizational Competence: A Case Study of The New
Product Development Process. Journal of Engineering Technology Management, 18, pp.
185206.
Mavondo, F.T. and Farrell, M.A., 2000. Measuring market orientation: Are there differences be-
tween business marketers and consumer marketers? Australian Journal of Management, 25,
pp. 223-244.
Mavondo, F.T., Chimhanzi, J. and Stewart, J., 2005. Learning orientation and market orientation,
relationship with innovation, human resource practices and performance. European Journal of
Marketing, 39, pp. 1235-1263.
Moye, N.A. and Langfred, C.W. (2004). Information sharing and group conflict: Going beyond
decision making to understand the effects of information sharing on group performance. In-
ternational Journal of Conflict Management, 15 (4), pp. 381410.
Narver, J.C., Slater, S.F. and Maclachlan, D.L., 2004. Responsive and proactive market orienta-
tion and new-product success. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 21, pp. 331-347.
Narver, J., Slater, N. and MacLachlan, D., 2000. Total Market Orientation, Business Perfor-
mance, and Innovation. MSI Working Paper, pp. 100-116, Marketing Science Institute.
Narver, J.C. and Slater, S.F., 1990. The effect of a market orientation on business profitability.
Journal of Marketing, 54, pp. 20-35.
718
Narver, J.C. and Slater, S.F., 1998. Additional thoughts on the measurement of market orienta-
tion: a comment on Deshpande and Farley. Journal of Market Focused Management, 2, pp.
233-236.
Song, M., Benedetto, C.A.D. and Parry, M.E., 2009. The impact of formal processes for market
information acquisition and utilization on the performance of Chinese new ventures. Interna-
tional Journal of Research in Marketing, 26, pp. 314323.
Song, M. and Montoya-Weiss, M., 2001. The effect of perceived technological uncertainty on
Japanese new product development. Academy of Management Journal, 44 (2), pp. 6180.
Srivastava, R., Shervani, T. and Fahey, L., 1999. Marketing, business processes, and shareholder
value: An organizationally embedded view of marketing activities and the discipline of mar-
keting. Journal of Marketing, 63, pp. 168-179.
Swink, M. and Song, M., 2007. Effects of marketing-manufacturing integration on new product
development time and competitive advantage. Journal of Operations Management, 25, pp.
203217.
Wei, Y.H. and Wang, Q., 2010. Making sense of a market information system for superior per-
formance: The roles of organizational responsiveness and innovation strategy. Industrial
Marketing Management, 40 (2) pp. 267-277.
Yin, R.K., 1994. Case Study Research Design and Methods. 2nd ed., Sage Publications.
719
The Logical Framework Approach and Worker

Commitment
Paipa-Galeano L1, Jaca C2, Viles E3, Mateo R4, Santos J5
Abstract The main objective of this paper is to present the logical framework ap-
proach (LFA) as a tool that prepares companies and workers to implement contin-
uous improvement programs. This methodology encourages worker participation
in different steps in order to reach consensus in the organization. In addition, the
application of LFA improves the capabilities of workers in areas such as participa-
tory analysis, problem analysis and objectives analysis. These capabilities are nec-
essary in any continuous improvement program. The paper also presents the re-
sults of applying LFA in two different companies.
Keywords: Participation, LFA, Improvement, Organizational Behaviour
1 Introduction
Many companies believe that continuous improvement programs will enable them
to survive in todays climate by improving their performance and results (Prado-
1Luis Paipa-Galeano ( e-mail:lpaipa@tecnun.es)
University of La Sabana, Cha, Cundinamarca, Colombia.

2Carmen Jaca ( e-mail: cjaca@tecnun.es)
Department of Industrial Management, School of Industrial Engineers, TECNUN, Universidad
de Navarra, Paseo Manuel Llardizbal, 13, 20018,San Sebastian, Spain.
3Elisabeth Viles ( e-mail: eviles@tecnun.es)

4Ricardo Mateo ( e-mail: rmateo@unav.es)
School of Economics and Business Administration, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.

5Javier
Santos ( e-mail: jsantos@tecnun.es)
720
Prado, 2009). Most current systems are based on the principles of the Toyota Pro-
duction System, where one of the core principles is to facilitate the participation of
workers and promote their autonomy (Hirano, 1989; Delbridge, Lowe, Oliver,
2000; Liker, 2004).
In recent years, many authors have suggested that the key to the different
methodologies and tools originated in Japan is that they are based on the participa-
tion and commitment of employees through training and behavioural change
(Surez-Barraza, Ramis-Pujol, Heras, 2010; Dahlgaard-Park, 2011). However, it
was found that the application of improvement tools in the West focuses on opera-
tive aspects, leaving aside the aspects that have to do with change management
and people (Ho, 1998; Douglas, 2002; Magaa-Campos and Aspinwall, 2003;
Gapp, Fisher, Kobayashi, 2008; Kobayashi, Fisher, Gapp, 2008). Organizations
commonly implement continuous improvement systems from top to bottom,
where worker motivation and participation is usually considered to result from
those improvement programs. However, it is necessary to have a strategy to sup-
port behavioural change in people (Jaca et al., 2012).
In fact, getting employees to be involved in and committed to Western compa-
nies is an unresolved matter. According to the prestigious consulting firm Gallup,
about 70% of U.S. workers are not committed to their work or are "actively disen-
gaged" from their work, meaning they are emotionally disconnected from their
workplaces and are less likely to be productive (Gallup, 2011). As a result, most
of the workers' potential is wasted and with it, the opportunity to improve business
results. These are the core principles of the continuous improvement methodolo-
gies: the autonomy of individuals and their participation in improvement through
their own opinions and ideas.
The objective of this paper is to present a tool used in donor organizations as a
way to increase the involvement and motivation of employees in continuous im-
provement processes. Using this tool, which is called the logical framework ap-
proach, the organization focuses first on the analysis of environmental comfort
and the development of the habits of the participants, and then improves processes
and operations.
2 Environmental Comfort as Motivational Factor
Over the past 35 years there has been a profusion of theories linking the workplace
with levels of job satisfaction and worker motivation and stress (Bjrklund, 2001;
Vischer, 2007). Several studies have shown that aspects such as spatial organiza-
tion, architectural details and environmental conditions (order, cleanliness, ambi-
ent conditions and resources, spatial organization, architectonic details, and view
or visual access from the work area), are associated with motivation, stress, per-
721
formance and even social interaction at work (Burke, 1988; Sullivan and Bhagat,
1992; Leong and Furnham, 1996; Fairbrother and Warn, 203).
As a result, some authors have coined the term environmental comfort, which
links the psychological aspects of workers environmental likes and dislikes with
concrete outcome measures, such as improved task performance, and with organi-
zational productivity through workspace support for work-related tasks. Environ-
mental comfort includes three categories: physical, functional and psychological
comfort. Together these categories make the work environment stimulate workers
so they will perform better as they carry out their tasks (Vischer, 2007).
In recent decades, several studies have attempted to explain the factors that af-
fect the success or failure of organizational change. Kristin Piderit (Piderit, 2000),
for example, proposes a new way of understanding employee response to changes.
The author maintains the idea that any change process needs both top-down and
bottom-up work. Meanwhile, Hodgson (Hodgson, 2007) proposes that the devel-
opment of an organization or a change in its strategy involves, even partially, the
development of habits that are agreed upon by employees. The same author also
stresses that the psychological mechanism of forming habits is something much
more specific than what is commonly denoted as "organizational culture". Thus,
he suggests the importance of focusing on processes of habit development as a
way to address organizational changes more successfully.
In order to establish a starting point for sustainable continuous improvements,
it is necessary to first focus on identifying the needs and interests of individuals
with regard to the workplace (environmental comfort) and then focus on improv-
ing processes and operations. To facilitate this process, we present a methodology,
the logical framework approach, which is useful for promoting logical thinking
and checking internal logic. The method also encourages people to consider what
their expectations are, while also improving communication between people who
are involved in the change (Aune, 2000).
3 The Logical Framework Approach Methodology
The logical framework approach (LFA) is a widespread methodology, particularly

in donor-assisted projects in developing countries (Aune, 2000; Dale, 2003). This
methodology proposes a procedure for the planning of a development project. The
different steps used by the LFA promote the participation of the different parties
involved, based on the identification of problems in order to reach the proposed
solutions. Thus, the methodology encourages participants to identify different vi-
sions regarding their particular interests, directives and resources that can be in fa-
vour of or against a proposal for a solution. Employees are then able to consider at
the same time how the problems are perceived and the expected solution or re-
722
sults. It is therefore ideal to create a shared vision from all stakeholders via con-
sensus building (NORAD, 1999).
This methodology has been adapted in order to encourage participation and con-
sensus, as mentioned above. For this purpose, the steps have been tailored to focus
on identifying and solving problems and concerns related to environmental com-
fort. Basically the adapted methodology applies steps adapted from LFA, follow-
ing the sequence suggested by the methodology, which are the following (see Fig.
1):
Participatory analysis: Environmental comfort is analysed by the different peo-
ple involved (workers, staff, supervisors, mid-level managers and directors,
among others), according to Vischers model.
Problem analysis: This consists of identifying the cause-effect relationships be-
tween the major problems found in the participation analysis step, thorough the
use of a problem tree. The objective of this phase is to be able to reach the
root of the problems.
Objectives analysis: In the objectives analysis the problem tree is transformed
into a tree of objectives (future solutions of the problems) and analysed. So, the
group is able to identify the future desired situations in each of the comfort cat-
egories and identify the means-ends relationships that allow the desired situa-
tion to be reached.
Alternatives analysis: The purpose is to identify possible alternative options,
assess their feasibility and agree upon the future desired solution. This is an
exercise in creativity and idea generation.
Project planning: This consists of preparing and presenting the activities, re-
sources and costs necessary to develop the proposal(s) for solving the prob-
lems. All the information is condensed into a single Logical Framework Matrix
or LFM
Fig. 1 The Logical framework approach methodology, adapted from NORAD, 1999
723
4 Application of the Logical Framework Approach in Two

Different Companies
The LFA was applied as part of an improvement program in two different compa-
nies as a first step toward making people aware of order and cleanliness in their
workplaces. The characteristics of both companies are shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1 Characteristics of the companies
Company Activity Location Turnover N employees Participants

A Manufacturing Spain 15M 120 24
B Food and agriculture Colombia 10M 70 70
The application of LFA allowed us to analyse situations of discomfort that

were not critical but that could be demotivating factors for employees. Such cir-
cumstances can act as a mental barrier for workers, creating a negative attitude
towards organizational changes, sometimes even unconsciously. The LFA meth-
odology brought to light these discomfort issues, and thus the employees were
heard and valued by their managers. In turn, the workers attitude relaxed and they
displayed a more positive attitude toward listening. In both situations, the applica-
tion of LFA led to improvements related to environmental comfort, as evidenced
in Tables 2 and 3, which includes some of the proposed improvements from the
implementation of the Logical Framework Approach. The methodology not only
encouraged employees to analyse the improvement opportunities, but also to pro-
pose and participate in the implementation of those improvements.
Table 2 Example of improvements resulting from the application of LFA in Company A
Area Improvements proposed by employees

Maintenance Improvements related to cleaning: Improved coolant leaks, cleaning program
establishment and renovation of certain elements
Repairs proposed: cranes, damaged glass in machines, heating system in
plant
Review of preventive maintenance guidelines: cranes, breakdowns reports
Machines Improvements related to order: Painting of floor space, relocation of current
materials, establishment of loading and unloading area
Ergonomic study
Health and Safety Management of safety: Safety audits, improve the use of PPE, create inci-
dents collection system, reactivate the committee to study incidents and ac-
cidents, be educated about occupational risks
Elements of prevention: Install emergency lighting, create per position plan,
close engine cowling
Training Create a competency management system, create a system of incentives for
improvement proposals, create interdisciplinary teams for improvement
724
Table 2 (continued) Example of improvements resulting from the application of LFA in Com-
pany A

Communication Create shift sheet, train people in assertiveness and social skills, implement
boards with production planning
Housekeeping Put spacers in lockers, perform housekeeping study in shifts, distribute lock-
ers
Table 3 Example of improvements resulting from the application of LFA in Company B

Logistics Pre-order programming, programme conveyors at different times, systematic
order platform
Google map for location of farms
Processes Create and communicate manual for office functions, worker training by func-
tion, define organizational chart
Define processes and participants with systematic template, modify mainte-
nance emergency procedures
Human Professional Development Plan, worker performance evaluation plan
Resources Open lines of credit supporting vehicle replacement, promote social activities
Social area for visitors
Corporate image Promote the dissemination of corporate image with employees via incentives
Establish routine exterior maintenance
Maintenance Improved parts store, control maintenance plans, maintenance training
Health and Safety Periodic training in risk prevention
As the above tables show, the proposed improvements will not only impact
matters directly related to the environmental comfort of workers. This methodolo-
gy has led to proposals and actions related to the productivity and performance in
both companies.
5 Conclusions
The application of logical framework approach combined with Vischers comfort

model is designed to promote the participation of people by attending first to their
needs and then to the overall improvement of the process. We argue that the em-
ployee's attitude is influenced by his perception of his work, and this perception
acts as an input for personal participation and motivation. The proposed method-
ology is based on organizational change management, which is founded on con-
tinuous improvement tools, and organizational behaviour principles, which is pro-
725
posed as a way of addressing improvement in an organization. Once the employ-

ees have had the opportunity to analyse and improve the aspects related to their
comfort, the program focuses on improving processes and operations.
The following benefits are expected from applying LFA:
a) Putting the organization on the path of continuous improvement
b) Increased employee morale by improving environmental comfort in its three
dimensions: physical, functional and psychological.
c) Reduction of absenteeism and staff turnover by improving environmental
comfort in all three dimensions.
d) Increased involvement in the organization by engaging employees in the
identification and resolution of problems from building consensus and a shared vi-
sion.
e) An increase in productivity through the development of training programs
oriented toward changing people's behaviour.
The application of this methodology in both companies shows that LFA is a
useful tool for fostering the commitment of workers by aligning their needs and
complaints with those of the company where they work.
6 References
Aune JB (2000) Logical Framework Approach and PRA - mutually exclusive or complementary
tools for project planning?. Development in Practice, 10(5), 687-90.
Bjrklund C (2001) Work Motivation - Studies of its Determinants and Outcomes, Stockholm
School of Economics.
Burke RJ (1988) Sources of managerial and professional stress in large organisations. Causes,
Coping and Consequences of Stress at Work. C. L. Cooper and R. Payne. Chichester: John
Wiley & Sons.
Dahlgaard-Park SM (2011) The quality movement: where are you going?. Total Quality Man-
agement, 22(5), 493-516.
Dale R (2003) The logical framework: An easy escape, a straitjacket, or a useful planning tool?.
Development in Practice, 13(1), 57-70.
Delbridge R, Lowe J, Oliver N (2000) Shopfloor responsibilities under lean teamworking. Hu-
man Relations, 53(11), 1459-79.
Douglas, A. (2002) Improving manufacturing performance, Quality Congress. ASQ's Annual
Quality Congress Proceedings, (56), 725-32
Fairbrother K, Warn J (2003) Workplace dimensions, stress and job satisfaction. Journal of Man-
agerial Psychology, 18(1), 8-21.
Gallup (2011) Majority of American Workers Not Engaged in Their Jobs. Available at:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150383/majority-american-workers-not-engaged-jobs.aspx%60
Accessed on 12/12. 2012.
Gapp R, Fisher R, Kobayashi K (2008) Implementing 5S within a Japanese context: an integrat-
ed management system. Management Decision, 46(4), 565-579.
Hirano H (1989) JIT Factory Revolution. Cambridge: Productivity Press.
Ho SKM (1998) 5-S practice: a new tool for industrial management. Industrial Management &
Data Systems, 98(2), 55-62.
726
Hodgson GM (2007) Institutions and Individuals: interaction and evolution. Organizational stud-
ies, 28(1), 95-116.
Jaca C, Santos J, Errasti A, Viles E (2012) Lean thinking with improvement teams in retail dis-
tribution. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23(4), 449-465.
Kobayashi K, Fisher R, Gapp R (2008) Business improvement strategy or useful tool? Analysis
of the application of the 5S concept in Japan, the UK and the US . Total Quality Management
& Business Excellence, 19(3), 245-262.
Leong CS, Furnham A (1996) The moderating effect of organizational commitment on the occu-
pational stress outcome relationship . Human Relations 49(10): 1345-1363. (1996)., 49(10),
1345-1363.
Liker JK (2004) The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manu-
facturer. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Magaa-Campos J, Aspinwall E (2003) Comparative study of Western and Japanese improve-
ment systems, 4(4).
NORAD (1999) The Logical Framework Approach (LFA): handbook for objectives-oriented
planning: NORAD: Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.
Piderit SK (2000) Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: a multidimensional view
of attitudes toward an organizational change. Academic of management Review, 25(4), 783-
794.
Prado-Prado JC (2009) Continuous improvement in the supply chain. Total Quality Management
& Business Excellence, 20(3), 301-309.
Surez-Barraza MF, Ramis-Pujol J, Heras MA (2010) Reflecting upon Management Systems:
Content analysis and synthesis, 1(2), 64-86.
Sullivan SE, Bhagat RS (1992) Organizational stress, job-satisfaction and job-performance -
Where do we go from here? Journal of Management, 18(2), 353-374.
Vischer JC (2007) The effects of the physical environment on job performance: towards a theo-
retical model of workspace stress. Stress and Health, 23(3), 175-184.
727
How to Choose the Best Order when Implanting

HIWP in Operations Area
Marin-Garcia JA1, Perello-Marin MR, Canos-Daros L, Valero-Herrero M
Abstract The aim of this paper is to provide a general methodology to help choos-
ing the set of practices in the field of HR management in the area of operations
(practices known as High involvement work practices) that will lead to the desired
mix of operational performance according to the previous state of the organization
(i.e. the practices it has already implanted). The results presented come from data
of the third tear suppliers in the Spanish automotive industry.
Keywords: High-Involvement Work Practices, Evolution, Management innova-

tion.
1 Introduction
In a world where global competitiveness is one of the main keys to organizations

success; where innovation, flexibility, responsibility and cooperation become par-
ticularly relevant to ensure organizational success, or even mere survival, the im-
portance of human capital, as a source of competitive advantage, is gathering es-
pecial significance.
It is becoming increasingly frequent, the introduction of new management prac-
tices to the organization, seeking to enhance performance, as a form of Manage-
ment Innovation (MI) (Perello-Marin et al. 2013; Paauwe and Boselie 2005). This
is so because such practices are usually difficult to replicate exactly from one
company to another, provided they are well rooted in the daily work in the organi-
1JuanA. Marin-Garcia ( e-mail: jamarin@omp.upv.es)

ROGLE-Departamento de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Valencia.
Camino de Vera s/n. 46022 Valencia.Spain.
* This paper has been partially supported by the project "CORSARI MAGIC DPI2010-18243"
by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin del Gobierno de Espaa within the Program de
"Proyectos de Investigacin Fundamental No Orientada" and project TIN2008-06872-C04-
02/TIN
728
zation, or in other words, they are part of their own identity (Thang et al. 2007)
(Mol and Birkinshaw 2009). If we look at other resources as a source of competi-
tive advantage, different HR, we can state that they are becoming more accessible
and easy to copy, and therefore, ephemeral sources of competitive advantage,
which does not happen with complex social systems {.
This paper deals with Human Resource Practices (HRM practices) geared to-
wards improving organizational effectiveness and hence better performance out-
comes, as opposite to traditional HR practices. Selection and implementation of
those programs and practices have been extensively studied by the body of re-
search called strategic human resource management (SHRM). Within these pa-
pers, myriad of programs and practices in HRM to be implanted for the firms to
increase its performance can be found; most of them from the perspective of indi-
vidual practices or on the other way around, as a whole system of practices (with-
out a clear identification of its composition). The pioneer studies appear twenty
years ago. There is quite a lot of literature, since then to date, dealing with the re-
lationship between HRM practices and improving organizational performance.
Some of the paper have focused on aspects such as market value, financial per-
formance , profitability, operational measures of performance or productivity, so-
cial climate and culture or turnover.
We have found that an increasing body of work contains the argument that the
use of certain practices (including comprehensive employee recruitment and selec-
tion procedures, incentive compensation and performance management systems,
and extensive employee involvement and training) can improve the knowledge,
skills, and abilities of a firms current and potential employees, increase their mo-
tivation, reduce shirking, and enhance retention of quality employees while en-
couraging nonperformers to leave the firm. These practices can be referred differ-
ently in the academic literature as for instance, high-performance work
practices, high-involvement work practices, high commitment practices or
innovative human resource practices or best practices, depending on the author.
Each term has little nuances that distinguish each other, but most of the authors
agree with the fact that when business capabilities are combined with employees
motivation, the resulting organization value is not a sum of its parts, but a multi-
plication (Ordiz Fuertes 2002; Combs et al. 2006; Guest et al. 2004).
In this paper, we study, as the engine of evolution and change, the introduction
of tools and practices that are new to a particular organization and intended to en-
hance its performance and success. We specially focus on practices at the opera-
tional level that firms implant to enhance performance and hence change from one
form of organization to another.There are many studies already published dealing
with the adoption of practices and tools at this level that make organization to
evolve from forms as for instance ancient manufacture system to other more ef-
ficient as mass producer, flexible manufacturing or lean producer (Akdere
2009; Albors and Hervs 2006; Anand and Kodali 2008; Collaine et al. 2002;
Doolen and Hacker 2005; Herron and Braiden 2006; Hipple 2005; Marin-Garcia
729
et al. 2011; Mol and Birkinshaw 2009; Pavnaskar et al. 2003).Scholars and practi-
tioners, alike, affirm that when organizations implant certain tools and practices
looking for a competitive advantage, not always achieve success on it. Moreover,
some practices succeed in one organization but fail in another, although they were
similar organization in comparable environments (Baxter and Hirschhauser 2004;
Bayo-Moriones et al. 2008; Corso et al. 2007; Doolen and Hacker 2005; Garcia-
Sabater et al. 2011). But, when analyzing the reason of success or failure in im-
plementation of tools and practices, we have found that there is no consensus by
scholars.
The aim of this paper is to provide a general method to help choosing the set of
practices that will lead to the desired mix of operational performance according to
the previous state of the organization (i.e. the practices it has already implanted).
We thus try to shed some light to the decision making process when implanting
HIWP by presenting a tool that can helps us to choose the order in with practices
are to be implanted. In doing so, we have used data from the third tear suppliers in
the Spanish automotive industry. We specially focus on High Involvement Work
Practices (HIWP). We do not try to explain the cause of success or failure on the
selection of HRM practices, but introduce a methodology to help in the decision
making process to choose an additional practices to be implanted according to the
pre-defined success criteria of the organization.
2 HIWP as Human Resources Practices in Area of Operations
Within the field of human resource management, selection and implementation of

programs and practices have been widely studied. The pioneer studies appear
twenty years ago. There is quite a lot of literature, since then to date, dealing with
the relationship between HRM practices and improving organizational perfor-
mance in different sectors. In this work, we have gone through the literature of
human resource management and related to improve organizational performance
by enhancing employee commitment and motivation, looking for the most com-
monly used HR practices. We have focused only in high involvement practices,
high commitment practices, or innovative HR practices, that lead to better perfor-
mance, but not in traditional Human Resources practices. A previous examination
of the literature concluded by a series of interviews with managers involved in the
third tier automotive industry identified on one hand the most common HIWP in
terms of increasing organizational and operational performance (see table 1), and
on the other hand, six dimensions of the operational performance in those organi-
zations: Quality, Cost-efficiency, reliable-delivery, absenteeism, voluntary turno-
ver and productivity.
730
Table 1 HRM Practices
Category Practice
Empowerment PART1. Suggestion system: A program that elicits individual employee sug-
gestions on improving work or the work environment
PART2. Survey feedback: Use of employee attitude survey results, not simp-
ly as an employee opinion poll (in motivation, satisfaction, training needs
and expectations), but rather as part of a larger problem solving process in
which survey data are used to encourage, structure, and measure the effec-
tiveness of employee participation
PART3. Job enrichment or redesign: Design of work that is intended to in-
crease worker performance and job satisfaction by increasing skill variety,
autonomy, significance and identity of the task, and performance feedback
PART4. Quality circles: Structured type of employee participation groups in
which groups of volunteers from a particular work area meet regularly to
identify and suggest improvements to work-related problems. The goals of
QCs are improved quality and productivity, there are no direct rewards for
circle activity, group problem solving training is provided, and the groups
only power is to suggest changes to management.
PART5. Employee participation groups other than quality circles: Any em-
ployee participation groups, such as task teams or employee work councils,
which do not fall within the definitions of either self-managing work teams
or quality circles. Usually these groups are formed by personnel from differ-
ent departments or even different level. Its mission is also to make sugges-
tions for improvement but with a broader scope.
PART6. Mini-business units: Relatively small, self-contained organizational
unit (perhaps smaller than the plant level) that produces its own product of
service and operates in a decentralized, partly autonomous fashion as a small
business.
PART7. SeIf-managing work teams: Also termed autonomous work groups,
semi-autonomous work groups, self-regulating work teams, or simply work
teams. The work group (in some cases, acting without a supervisor) is re-
sponsible for a whole product or service, and makes decisions about task as-
signments and work methods. The team may be responsible for its own sup-
port services such as maintenance, purchasing, and quality control and may
perform certain personnel functions such as hiring and firing team members
and determining pay increases.
Reward Comp1. Individual bonus based on skills and/or knowledge: employees have
a base salary plus an additional amount based on the amount of jobs he or
she can develop, or on his or her level of training.
Comp2. Share of profits of the organization: employees receive a certain
amount of money as a function of the profits of the organization.
Comp3. Share of profits based on suggestions made (Gainsharing,
Scanlon): The employee or employees perceive abonus proportional to the
savings achieved by improvements in productivity, quality or cost reduction.
Comp 4. Individual Bonus based on individual goals: employees perceived
an extra amount in their salary for achieving certain short-term objectives or
goals.
731
Table 1 (continued) HRM Practices
Category Practice
Comp5. Group bonus based on achievement of goals.
Comp6. Non-monetary awards related to performance: congratulations,
employee of the year, company awards
Comp7. Participation in the capital of the company: the employee per-
ceives as a part of the reward a certain amount of shares of the companys
capital.
Comp8. Flexible remuneration: the employee decides how to perceive the
extra salary. The most common alternatives are: in cash, through training,
travels, social benefits, extra vacations Employees do not decide the
amount, but they have full autonomy on how to receive it.
Comp9. Job security: company policies or clauses in contracts intended to
avoid layoffs.
Communication Comm1. Regularly share information with employees.
Training Train1. Training in decision making/ problem solving in groups skills.
Train2. Training in leadership, business administration and team manage-
ment skills.
Train3. Training in statistical analysis and quality.
Train4. Training for other areas or jobs within the company.
3 Methodology
We designed a questionnaire containing two different parts. The first one con-
cerned the potential interaction between each pair of practices (HIWP). Manager
and academics experts in the sector were asked to fill in the cells a number from -5
to +5 that expresses whether two practices are in strong conflict, or are strongly
synergetic. In essence, the first part of the questionnaire filled in a 21 x 21 matrix
expressing the supposed synergy or conflict between each pair of practices (see
figure 1)
732
Re For
Part Part Part Part Part Part Part Re Re Re Re Re Re Re Re m1 CO For m 2, For For
HIWP 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8 m9 0 M m1 3, 5 m4 m7
Part1 1
Part2 0 1
Part3 1 1 1
Part4 1 0 3 1
Part5 -2 1 2 -5 1
Part7 4 4 3 2 4 1
Part8 -2 4 3 -1 3 5 1
Rem2 0 0 5 1 1 4 5 1
Rem3 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 1
Rem4 3 0 2 5 3 5 5 3 0 1
Rem5 -3 0 4 -3 -4 -2 -5 0 0 -2 1
Rem6 -5 0 2 2 1 3 3 0 0 0 2 1
Rem7 1 0 0 5 5 1 3 0 1 1 -4 -3 1
Rem8 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 3 1 -2 0 0 1
Rem9 3 0 1 2 1 3 2 0 2 1 2 2 0 5 1
Rem10 2 1 3 3 0 4 4 0 0 1 0 1 1 5 0 1
COM 2 2 2 2 3 5 3 0 4 5 0 1 0 5 0 1 1
Form1 5 0 1 5 5 4 5 1 0 5 0 1 5 0 0 0 2 1
Form 2, 3,
5 0 0 1 3 2 4 5 0 1 1 0 2 1 4 0 0 4 2 1
Form4 2 0 0 5 3 2 5 1 0 3 2 2 3 0 0 0 0 5 3 1
Form7 1 0 1 1 2 4 5 5 0 2 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
Fig. 1 Response of the focus group for the Pair Interaction matrix
Cost- Reliable Voluntary

Practice Quality Efficiency delivery Absenteism turnover Productivity
Part1 8 10 8 5 5 10
Part2 0 0 0 8 10 3
Part3 10 2 5 9 6 3
Part4 8 10 10 7 5 10
Part5 8 10 10 7 5 10
Part7 10 3 10 10 3 7
Part8 10 5 8 10 5 7
Rem2 7 6 0 0 0 3
Rem3 0 2 0 1 1 2
Rem4 10 10 10 8 5 10
Rem5 2 2 0 7 3 10
Rem6 6 3 5 8 4 8
Rem7 5 5 4 2 3 3
Rem8 0 0 0 7 10 2
Rem9 0 0 0 0 3 0
Rem10 1 1 0 0 6 0
COM 1 1 0 2 2 0
Form1 4 8 3 0 0 9
Form 2,
3, 5 0 0 0 2 4 3
Form4 5 3 3 0 0 1
Form7 1 3 1 0 2 3
Fig. 2 Ratings of the different HIWP in terms of expected contribution to different dimensions of
performance
733
The second part of the questionnaire concerned the emergent properties that
they produce, which affects the competitive performance of the organization.
These were the effects on quality of production, the costs, the ability to deliver re-
liably, involve employees to decrease absenteeism, reduce turnover and increase
productivity. These performance factors clearly constitute the selection criteria
of the decision of implanting one practice or another. The pair interactions consti-
tute the internal synergies and conflicts that affect the trade offs involved in using
particular practices.
The 21 possible practices were rated in the second part of the questionnaire ac-
cording to their expected capacity to perform well in terms of each success criteria
factor as seen in figure 2.
We can represent the required dimension of performance by using a weight
sum of the six performance factors.
Using an evolutionary based computer model developed by Peter Allen (Allen
2001) we have made several simulations in order to find the best bundle of prac-
tice to achieve certain success factor. Initially, the agents in the model have no
knowledge of the effectiveness of the different practices, nor whether they are in
conflict or synergy with others. The simulations therefore proceed by an agent try-
ing some, essentially random sequence of innovation by attempting the introduc-
tion of a new practice. Each practice is supposed to have a cost in implementation
and so following the introduction of a practice if the performance does not in-
crease more than the cost of its introduction then it is considered a failure and its
withdrawn.
In this way, agents attempt to introduce successive practices in random se-
quences, and some, by luck, increase the performance of the organization faster
than others. The performance is measured by a weighted sum of the six criteria
mentioned above. The model proceeds by calculating it for the bundle of practices
initially present and adds a random practice. If the gain in performance is less than
the cost of the implementation, then the practice is removed again. In this way,
overall performance increases in steps given by matrices of performance, depend-
ing on the particular sequence that occurs.
Repeated runs with different random number seeds have ensure that the results
are robust. High performance is obtained by only including practices that provide
the right kind of performance and also are synergetic.
4 Results and Conclusions
In figure 3 we show the results of the practices maximizing successively the dif-
ferent dimensions of performance. We can identify which bundles fit better for
each success factor, and also that the order in choosing the practice to be implant
and the ones have been implanted before is relevant to the final results. This im-
plies that it is important to try out practices sufficiently fast, and also that luck will
still play a role in who is successful.
734
Fig. 3 Different practices retained for the different dimensions of performance
5 References
Akdere M (2009) The Role of Knowledge Management in Quality Management Practices:
Achieving Performance Excellence in Organizations. Advances In Developing Human Re-
sources 11: 349-361.
Albors J, Hervs JL (2006) CI practice in Spain: its role as a strategic tool for the firm. Empirical
evidence from the CINet survey analysis. International Journal of Technology Management
35: 380-396.
Allen PM (2001) A Complex Systems Approach to Learning in Adaptive Networks. Internation-
al Journal of Innovation Management 5: 149.
Anand G, Kodali R (2008) Selection of lean manufacturing systems using the PROMETHEE.
Journal of modelling in management 3: 40-70.
Baxter LF, Hirschhauser C (2004) Reification and representation in the implementation of quali-
ty improvement programmes. International Journal of Operations & Production Management
24: 207.
Bayo-Moriones A, Bello-Pintado A, Merino-Diaz-De-Cerio J (2008) The role of organizational
context and infrastructure practices in JIT implementation. International Journal of Opera-
tions & Production Management 28: 1042-1066.
Collaine A, Lutz P, Lesage JJ (2002) A method for assessing the impact of product development
on the company. International Journal of Production Research 40: 3311-3336.
Combs J, Liu Y, Hall A, Ketchen D (2006) How much do high-performance work practices mat-
ter? A meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance. Personnel Psychology
59: 501-528.
Corso M, Giacobbe A, Martini A, Pellegrini L (2007) Tools and abilities for continuous im-
provement: what are the drivers of performance. International Journal of Technology Man-
agement 37: 348-365.
Doolen TL, Hacker ME (2005) A Review of Lean Assessment in Organizations: An Exploratory
Study of Lean Practices by Electronics Manufacturers. International Journal of Manufactur-
ing Systems 24: 55-67.
Garcia-Sabater JJ, Marin-Garcia JA, Perello-Marin MR (2011) Is implementation of continuous
improvement possible? An evolutionary model of enablers and inhibitors. Human Factors and
Ergonomics in Manufacturing In Press.
Guest D, Conway N, Dewe P (2004) Using sequential tree analysis to search for 'bundles' of HR
practices. Human Resource Management Journal 14: 79-96.
Herron C, Braiden PM (2006) A methodology for developing sustainable quantifiable produc-
tivity improvement in manufacturing companies. International Journal of Production Eco-
nomics 104: 143-153.
735
Hipple J (2005) The Integration of TRIZ with Other Ideation Tools and Processes as well as with
Psychological Assessment Tools. Creativity & Innovation Management 14: 22-33.
Marin-Garcia JA, Miralles Insa C, Garcia-Sabater JJ, Perello-Marin MR (2011) Alternative tools
to mass production and human performance indicators in sheltered work centers of Valencian
community (Spain). Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management 4: 467-480.
Mol MJ, Birkinshaw J (2009) The sources of management innovation: When firms introduce
new management practices. Journal of Business Research 62: 1269-1280.
Ordiz Fuertes M (2002) Prcticas de alto rendimiento en recursos humanos. Concepto y factores
que motivan su adopcion. Cuadernos de economia y direccion de empresa 12: 247-265.
Paauwe J, Boselie P (2005) 'Best practices... in spite of performance': just a matter of imitation?
International Journal of Human Resource Management 16: 987-1003.
Pavnaskar SJ, Gershenson JK, Jambekar AB (2003) Classification scheme for lean manufactur-
ing tools. International Journal of Production Research 41: 3075.
Perello-Marin MR, Marin-Garcia J A, Marcos-Cuevas J (2013) Can we study management inno-
vation from the lens of complexity? Path dependence approach. Management Decision In
press.
Thang LC, Rowley C, Quang T, Warner M (2007) To what extent can management practices be
transferred between countries?: The case of human resource management in Vietnam. Journal
of World Business 42: 113-127.
736
EN-05
Knowledge and Project Management
Competitive Intelligence Practices in

Microenterprises and SMEs from the Industrial
Sector: the Case of Basque Country
Aldasoro J C1, Cantonnet M L2, Cilleruelo E3
Abstract We are finding ourselves in an increasingly competitive business envi-

ronment that is characterised by a shortening of life cycles for products and tech-
nologies and the globalisation of markets. Within this context, continuous innova-
tion and knowledge have become the most important strategy and resource for the
survival of organisations. The aim of this article is to show the results obtained
from a survey we have carried out on competitive intelligence practices in micro-
enterprises and SMEs from the industrial sector in the Basque Country. The re-
sults clearly show that competitive intelligence is a practice that is gaining im-
portance among these types of enterprise.
Keywords: Competitive Intelligence, SME, Microenterprise, Industrial Sector
1 An Increasingly Changing and Competitive Environment: the

New Economy
Technical advances have made the continual entry onto the market of new prod-
ucts possible, which in turn has meant that the life cycle of these products has
shortened, thus making previous ones obsolete very quickly (Escorsa P. and Valls
1
Juan Carlos Aldasoro Alustiza ( e-mail: juancarlos.aldasoro@ehu.es)
Management Dpt. Polytechnical College of San Sebastian. University of Basque Country
UPV/EHU. Plaza de Europa, 1; 20018 Donostia-San Sebastin. Spain.
2
Mara Luisa Cantonnet Jordi. ( e-mail: marialuisa.cantonnet@ehu.es).
Management Dpt. Polytechnical College of San Sebastian. University of Basque Country
UPV/EHU. Plaza de Europa, 1; 20018 Donostia-San Sebastin. Spain.
3
Ernesto Cilleruelo Carrasco. ( e-mail: ernesto.cilleruelo@ehu.es).
Management Dpt. Faculty of Engineering of Bilbao. University of Basque Country UPV/EHU.
c/ Alameda Urquijo s/n, 48013 Bilbao. Spain
739
P., 1997). In view of this situation, which is characterised by continuous innova-

tion and products entering the market to compete, firms can be surprised at any
time by the appearance of new products, new technologies, new competitors or
changes in customer tastes that may threaten their smooth running (Escorsa P.,
2003).
The mass dissemination of information and communication technologies has
led to a new situation that is referred to as the New Economy, which leaves indus-
trial society behind. This New Economy is characterised by the globalisation of
markets, a greater supply of products than demand, increasingly demanding cus-
tomers and continuous innovation as a source of competitive advantage (Escorsa
R. and Maspons R, 2001).
Within this genuinely competitive and open new context, enterprises that opt
for an optimization strategy in management and production, a reduction in costs
and an increase in quality are not necessarily more competitive, as both products
and technologies can be quickly imitated. Consequently, continuous re-invention
of the business model becomes a requirement in order to achieve competitiveness.
The milieu has become turbulent and complex permanent innovation is now the
main source of competitive advantage. Thus, the ability to identify new markets
and new requirements that need to be met becomes a more important competitive
advantage than company size, available resources or the history of the organisa-
tion (Gmez A. and Calvo J.L.; 2010).
Some authors think competitive intelligence (hereinafter referred to as CI)
helps strategists understand those forces that influence the business environment
and thus make it possible to develop suitable plans so as to successfully compete
(McGonagle and Vella, 2002). The most common benefit (Bose, R., 2008) provid-
ed by CI is the ability to design information profiles that help the enterprise identi-
fy competitors strengths, weaknesses, strategies, objectives, market positioning
and behavioural patterns. Such information profiles require data in for firms to
identify, classify and keep up with competitors. The organisation may establish
comparative aspects such as strengths and weaknesses in relation to its competi-
tors using these profiles.
2 Competitive Intelligence and its Implementation in

Organisations
There are many definitions of the concept of competitive intelligence, and it may
be described as "the use of the entire organisation and its networks to develop use-
able resources originating from within the milieu (customers, competitors, legisla-
tors, technology) that help the enterprise develop and sustain a competitive ad-
vantage. This process is applied systematically and ethically in planning, the
740
gathering of information, analysis, communication and management" (Calof

2008).
Different studies of an empirical nature show that most enterprises in Spain do
not carry out competitive intelligence activities systematically, as the results re-
flect the fact that three quarters of them view the competitive environment either
informally or sporadically (Postigo J., 2001). A study carried out by Cetisme (a
consortium comprising several public administrative bodies and private compa-
nies) in 2003 shows that a large number of European and Spanish enterprises have
the necessary guidelines at their disposal to gather strategic information, yet fail to
do so systematically. SMEs have greater difficulties in defining CI programmes
and, the smaller the enterprise, the more its CI activity will be limited. Many
SMEs resort to buying products from competitors and try to obtain information
from the sales team. The Internet is the source used most by small-sized firms
(Tena J. y Comai A., 2005).
There has not so far been information available regarding the number of firms
that carry out competitive intelligence activities systematically in Spain. Different
studies fail to describe the magnitude of CI practice in detail (Postigo 2001;
Cetisme 2003; Tena and Comai 2003), and show that Spanish enterprises are cur-
rently in the initiation phase of innovation activity (Tena J. and Comai A., 2004).
3 Design of the Study into the Carrying out of Competitive

Intelligence Practices in Industrial Microenterprises and SMEs
in the Basque Country
A survey was designed with a view to ascertaining the different types or practices
used to implement competitive intelligence activities, and also the main reasons
given for carrying them out. Furthermore, an attempt was made to ascertain which
organisational and external factors would contribute towards deciding as to their
implementation and what checks and balances or impediments there would be that
might delay or prevent this. Competitive intelligence is understood as referring to
a range of analytical techniques and treatment of information that can be applied
in order to obtain conclusions that might give value added to decision-making on a
tactical and/or strategic level within the organisation.
Table 1 Study population
Study population: 425 organisations

Selection criteria: - Beneficiaries of grants for innovation over the past 4 years
- Belonging to the industrial sector
- Microenterprises and SMEs
Geographic area: The Basque Country (Spain)
741
The microenterprise and SME classification criterion used by the European

Commission was applied in order to classify firms according to the size variable,
as established in Recommendation 2003/361/CE (Official Daily L 124, dated 20-
05-2003), whereby microenterprises are deemed to be those that have up to 10
employees and SMEs between 11 and 249 employees. As for the sector, firms
needed to belong to activities deemed to be industrial according to NACE-09 code
(National Standard Classification of Industrial Activities), such as the extractive
industry, manufacturing industry, electrical energy and gas supply, water supply,
clean-up/drainage activities, management of residue and decontamination, and the
building trade.
Table 2: Features of the questionnaire and way of administering it
Type of questionnaire: Structured, dichotomous scale-type and nominal questions

Sections: Company features and specific milieu
Planning of CI activities in the company
CI activities carried out
Distribution of CI results
Assessment and performance of CI activities
Way in which it is adminis- Self-administered
tered:
Field work: From May to October 2012
Channel used for sending it: Email (personal and/or corporate)
The questionnaire brought together 124 items or questions, in whose sections

an attempt was made to obtain information about company features (size, main ac-
tivity, market on which they focus and position on the market), and also their spe-
cific milieu (intensity of competition on the market, market share). In the Plan-
ning section, the aim was to ascertain whether the activities carried out are
planned by some managerial body, whether the enterprise has established a formal
procedure and whether there is staff specialising in intelligence-based activities. In
the Activities section, an attempt was made to establish what type of information
the enterprise seeks, the sources of information, the type of analysis and treatment
of information, and the techniques used to do so. In the Distribution section, the
aim was to find out to which company body the information was sent once the in-
formation had been analysed and in which format. Lastly, in the Assessment and
Performance section, the questionnaire tried to ascertain whether the intelligence-
based activities carried out have helped improve the organisation and whether
their effectiveness and efficiency are assessed.
The questionnaires received were treated in accordance with the criterion that
the survey needed to have 100% of questions from all sections completed, with
those that had not met this requirement therefore being rejected.
742
3 Results Obtained
The enterprises taking part in the research work give the following reasons for car-
rying out competitive intelligence activities:
Reasons given by enterprises for carrying out competitive intelligence activities. Percentages.
To keep up with trends in the

93
industrial sector
To develop new products 78
To lend support to the

72
strategic planning process
To identify new consumer

70
needs
To lend support to the tactics

56
implemented
To develop new technologies 54
To develop new marketing

43
strategies and tactics
To obtain feedback about the

41
strategies implemented
0 20 40 60 80 100
Fig. 1 Reasons given by enterprises for carrying out competitive intelligence activities
Figure 1 shows that most enterprises stress the fact that the main reason for car-
rying out competitive intelligence activities is to be enable them to keep up with
trends in the industrial sector (93%), followed by being able to develop new prod-
ucts (78%) and lending support to the strategic planning process (72% of enter-
prises).
In addition, the most used sources of information are mainly news in the press
and magazines attached to the sector, Internet search engines, visits to trade fairs
and competitions and company websites. The sources of information that prove
743
most difficult to access or use, such as data bases of patents and scientific journals,
are used by less than 50& of the enterprises consulted, as shown in the following
table.
Table 3 Sources of information used by enterprises
Sources of information used: Percentages

News in the press and magazines attached to the sector 96
Internet search engines 96
Visits to trade fairs and competitions 93
Company websites and/or news groups 89
Official bulletins 52
Data bases of patents 48
Purchase and analysis of competitors products 46
Data bases from scientific journals 33
Complaints and claims filed via Consumer Protection Offices 9
The results in terms of activities are reflected in the figure 2.

In figure 2 it can be seen that the analytical activities used in over 50% of cases
were: research into competitor technology and market research in 65% of cases, a
study of competitors profile in 59% of cases and a SWOT analysis in 57% of cas-
es. The least used techniques (less than 20%) were war games or simulation,
analysis of employee profile in competing firms and analysis of Porters Five
Forces.
744
ACompetitive intelligence activities carried out by industrial microenterprises and SMEs in the Basque
Country. Percentages.
The enterprise researched into

65
competitor technology
The enterprise carried out market

65
research
The enterprise carried out a survey of its

59
competitors profile
The enterprise carried out a SWOT

57
analysis
A benchmarking survey was carried out 39
The enterprise carried out an economic

37
and financial analysis of competitors
Visits were made to competitors

30
workplaces
A survey was carried out of social,

political and regulatory trends (PEST 26
analysis)
The enterprise carried out an analysis

20
using Porters 5 Forces model
Information was sought about employees

11
from competing firms
A war game or simulation was applied 2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Fig. 2 Competitive intelligence activities carried out by industrial microenterprises and SMEs in
the Basque Country
4 Conclusions
The results show that enterprises evidence a relatively high degree of interest in
obtaining information both from variables that affect both their general and specif-
ic milieu. However, the sources of information they use are low-level resources in
terms of cost and sophistication, which have certain limitations when analysing
745
the milieu in depth. The gap existing between the information they seek and its
subsequent analysis should also be mentioned, as they do not treat the information
with the same frequency.
Consequently, the conclusion can be drawn that industrial microenterprises and
SMEs in the Basque Country can still be found to be in an initial, developing
phase with regard to the competitive intelligence system, which is why it can be
stated that this coincides with studies carried out by some institutions and authors
(Tena J. and Comai A., 2004; Cetisme 2003).
5 References
Bose, R. (2008). Competitive intelligence process and tools for intelligence analysis. Industrial
Management & Data Systems, vol. 108, n 4, pp. 510-528).
Calof, J.L. (2008). Selling competitive intelligence. Competitive Intelligence Magazine, vol. 11,
n 1, pp. 39-42.
CETISME (2003). Inteligencia Econmica y Tecnolgica: gua para principiantes y profesiona-
les. Innovacin, Desarrollo y Transferencia de Tecnologa, S.A. Comunidad de Madrid.
Escorsa. P., (2003). La regin y el fomento a la innovacin y la competitividad: experiencias en
Espaa y Europa en la construccin de sistemas regionales de innovacin. Workshop on
Science, Technology and Globalisation. Organizacin de Estados Iberoamericanos OEI.
Escorsa P. y Maspons R.; (2001). De la vigilancia tecnolgica a la inteligencia competitiva. Ed.
Prentice Hall.
Escorsa P. y Valls J. (1997). Tecnologa e innovacin en la empresa: Direccin y gestin. Edi-
ciones UPC.
Gmez A. y Calvo J.L. (2010). La innovacin: factor clave del xito empresarial. RA-MA Edito-
rial. Madrid.
McGonagle, J.J. Jr. y Vella, C.M. (2002). A case for competitive intelligence. Information Ma-
nagement Journal, vol. 36, n 4, pp. 35-40.
Postigo J. (2001). La inteligencia competitiva en Espaa: una encuesta sobre su utilizacin por
parte de las empresas exportadoras. El profesional de la informacin, vol. 10, n 10, octubre.
Tena, J. and A. Comai. (2003). Cmo la inteligencia competitiva apoya a la innovacin. Puzzle
Revista Hispana de la Inteligencia Competitiva vol 2, n 8: 14-18.
Tena J. y Comai A. (2004). La Inteligencia Competitiva en las Mejores Prcticas Espaolas.
EMECOM Consultores S.L.
Tena J. y Comai A., (2005). El desarrollo de la inteligencia competitiva en Espaa: un recorrido
bibliogrfico. Revista Hispana de inteligencia Competitiva. Vol. 4, No. 16.
746
Web 2.0 as a Key Tool for Sharing Knowledge

in Basque Country SMEs
Alvarez Meaza I1, Cilleruelo Carrasco E2, Zamanillo Elguezabal I
Abstract Knowledge sharing has become an important variable in knowledge

management in enterprises, being the workplace not the best place for flowing
employees knowledge. That is why, is important to analyze what is the influence
of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and its development in
the last decade for trying to fill that gap. The bibliographic review illustrates that
Web 2.0 is a tool very close to knowledge management and can give us a solution
for improving the knowledge sharing. Therefore, this research study analyzes what
the current availability of technological tools in Basque Country small and medi-
um-sized enterprises (SMEs) is. More specifically, the use of Web 2.0 tool, in or-
der to evaluate whether the Basque SMEs give importance to knowledge sharing
process and what activity sector and size of SME, by number of employees, are
using it more intensely.
Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, ICT, Web 2.0, SME
1 Introduction
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a vital part of any regional econ-
omy. In the Basque Country, SMEs are the main source of wealth and employ-
ment of its industry, specifically, 99.82% of companies are SMEs. According to
EUSTAT (Statistics Institute of Basque Country) data, almost 90% of Basque
Country companies have less than five employees. However, the small size of the
1Izaskun Alvarez Meaza (e-mail: izaskun.alvarez@ehu.es)

Departamento de Organizacin de Empresas. Escuela Superior de Ingeniera de Bilbao,
C/ Alameda Urquijo s/n, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
2
Ernesto Cilleruelo Carrasco (e-mail: ernesto.cilleruelo@ehu.es)
Departamento de Organizacin de Empresas. Escuela Superior de Ingeniera de Bilbao,
C/ Alameda Urquijo s/n, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
747
company is not specific from Basque Country, but also is general in European
business model (Gobierno Vasco, 2010). European Commission has analyzed EU
SME in 2012, and has concluded that, throughout the downturn, SMEs have re-
tained their position as the backbone of the European economy, with some 20.7
million firms accounting for more than 98 per cent of all enterprises, of which the
lions share (92.2 per cent) are firms with fewer than ten employees. For 2012 it
estimated that SMEs accounted for 67 per cent of total employment and 58 per
cent of gross value added3 (European Commission, 2012). With this information,
management scholars cannot ignore SMEs as a viable and interesting research
space (Desouza and Awazu, 2006).
Over the past few decades, many parts of the global economy have moved to-
wards a knowledge base, in which wealth creation is associated with the challenge
of developing and managing knowledge resource (Coyte et al., 2012). A literature
review saw that knowledge management has been studied extensively. Even so,
there is a tendency to focus on large business and neglect SMEs (Durst and
Edvardsson, 2012). Prior relevant research suggests SMEs are different, not just in
size, but in practices around a wide range of management activities, including in
the management of knowledge (Hutchison and Quintas, 2008). Thereby, further
research is needed to better understand how SMEs manage knowledge resources
(Salojrvi et al., 2005, Ricceri et al., 2010).
In this context, the advancement and ever-growing of Information and Com-
munication Technologies (ICTs) developed within the past few decades has fa-
voured changes in SME management (Barba et al., 2007) (Cela, 2005). Nowa-
days, the use of ICTs by European SMEs is driving the way that enterprises run
their business and organise e-commerce. The statistical study made bay
EUROSTAT concludes that, in 2012, 97% of European SMEs had access to Inter-
net, 77% had a website and one in two enterprises provides staff with portable de-
vices for mobile Internet connection (EUROSTAT, 2012). ICTs play a vital role in
the global socio-technological realm through knowledge mobilization, network
externalities, alliances and cooperative relationships. The convergence of
knowledge management processes and ICTs infrastructure and architecture have
been enhanced by the recent advancements in technology ubiquity, semantics and
knowledge representation (Mohamed et al., 2010).
Particularly, ICTs have a valuable potential for developing SMEs through bet-
ter integration in business process; also, assisting them to make more efficient de-
cisions to their performance. ICTs have potential to generate changes among
SMEs and make them more competitive and innovative (Barba et al., 2007).
In this paper, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs),
as a tool for supporting knowledge management process, will be analyzed, with
3 Gross Value Added (GVA) includes depreciation, rewards to labour, capital and entrepreneurial
risk. GVA remains when the intermediate costs are deducted from the sales or turnover.
748
the purpose of describing the current situation of the use of them, and analyzing
the use of Web 2.0 for sharing knowledge in Basque Country SMEs.
2 Knowledge Sharing and Web 2.0
ICTs can enhance knowledge sharing by lowering temporal and spatial barriers
between workers. Knowledge sharing has been identified as a phase in the process
of knowledge management. At the same time that knowledge sharing is recognize
as an important pillar in knowledge management, in practice, it proves to be a sig-
nificant barrier for effective knowledge management (Hendriks, 1999). Various
factors have been identified as impediments for knowledge sharing, like inade-
quate organizational structures and sharing unfriendly organizational cultures,
among others (Davenport and Prusak, 2000) (Tissen et al., 1998). The needed
adaption to new scenarios results in a search for new organizational structures and
approaches. The management model change into an organization context which
promotes the exchange of knowledge by creating the appropriate environment,
abandoning the traditional hierarchical structures and giving flexibility to the or-
ganizations (Alvarez et al., 2012).
The adoption and implementation of ICTs can improve business cooperation,
business relationships, quality and diffusion of knowledge. Thus, ICTs are power-
ful strategic tools for SMEs (Barba et al., 2007). Despite the fact that, other re-
search studies conclude that there is a strong need to create, share and disseminate
knowledge within SMEs, this is clearly not related with the availability of ICT in-
frastructures (Nunes et al., 2006). In particular, when information systems such as
intranets, document management systems or groupware applications are intro-
duced to support knowledge sharing, reports show that often the introduction of
these systems does not result in significant improvements in knowledge sharing
(Hendriks, 1999). Hendriks concludes that ICT is an important instrument to share
knowledge, but not the only or most prominent one (Hendriks, 1999).Then, how
knowledge can be shared using ICTs?.
Internet maturity and development over the last decade, the large number of
people that have access to internet through desktop and mobile devices and the
evolution of software sector have resulted in what has been called phenomenon
Web 2.0 (Levy, 2009). According to Tebbutt, forcing people to encode their
knowledge in a formal manner is not easy. When people are socializing, even in a
work context, they are much happier to share their thoughts and their experiences.
Therefore, he puts the change needed for knowledge management on focusing on
people, allowing systems to be focused more into human needs (Tebbutt, 2007).
Web 2.0 focuses on people; hence, Web 2.0 is bringing a new trend that should be
adopted in knowledge management (Levy, 2009). But, why? Sharing its not easy.
Perhaps, sharing is something that happens after work time or outside the work-
749
place. The access to the Internet through mobile devices and the ICTs develop-
ment towards tools like Web 2.0 have given a potential solution to one of the
knowledge management challenges.
Levy has analyzed Web 2.0 principles in a knowledge management perspective
and has concluded that they are very close to those in knowledge management
(Levy, 2009).
3 Empirical Study: the Availability of Technological Tools to

Support Knowledge Management in Basque SMEs. Results
We will now introduce the methodology that will be used to analyze the availabil-
ity of technological tools to support knowledge management in Basque SMEs.
The studied targeted a group that is composed of 526 SMEs with headquarters
in the Basque Country that are associated with any of the following industrial
clusters: Machine- Tools, Electrical Appliances, Automotive, Environment, Elec-
tronics, Computing and Telecommunications, Energy, Aeronautics and Space, Pa-
per, Audiovisual, Transport and Logistics. The reason why these activities have
been selected for this study is that the sectors in which they operate have a high
index of industrial production, spend about 60% of expenditure on technological
innovation activities and have diversity in terms of their level technology. Moreo-
ver, clusters are a key element in competitiveness in the Basque Country and have
become the backbone of Basque economic structure, and have allowed to encour-
age the flow of knowledge and innovation and learning, thanks to the geographical
concentration of its enterprises activities. Consequently, the company associated
with these clusters takes place in an environment where the flow of knowledge is
abundant and gives more importance to knowledge management.
Table 1 Data sheet for research
Object of Study 526 SME associated with clusters

Associated Clusters Machine- Tools, Electrical Appliances, Automotive, Environment, Electron-
ics, Computing and Telecommunications, Energy, Aeronautics and Space,
Paper, Audiovisual, Transport and Logistics
Scope Basque Country
Data of implementa- June - July 2011
tion
Source for elaboration 1. Measuring Knowledge Management in the Business Sector: First Steps
of questionnaire (OCDE, 2003).
2. Estudio sobre la Gestin del Conocimiento en Espaa 2004 (Tena and
Ongallo, 2004). FUNDECYT y AENOR
750
To collect data, the survey was designed with questions about the availability
of technological tools to support knowledge management in order to make an in-
ventory of them. In the questionnaire, there are tools related to internet access,
website available, Intranet system, Extranet system, no computerized knowledge
supports (documentation centers, archives,...), Workflow/groupware systems,
document management systems, computer tools for information search, make use
of knowledge sharing applications, like WEB 2.0 and PLM software.
The analysis of the results, both quantitative and qualitative, about the availa-
bility of different tools to support knowledge management practices, can contrib-
ute to understand better the current situation of ICTs in regard to knowledge man-
agement practices in different types of companies classified by activity sector and
number of employees.
3.1 The Availability of Technological Tools to Support Knowledge

Management in Basque SMEs
In Table 2, obtained results related to the availability of technological tools to

support knowledge management in Basque Country SMEs proposed in this study
are represented.
Table 2 Percentage of Basque SME that has available technological tools
Technological Tools Available

Access to Internet 100%
Website 95%
Intranet system 73%
Extranet system 50%
No computerized knowledge supports (documentation centers, ar- 41%
chives)
Workflow/Groupware systems 45%
Document management systems 55%
Computer tools for information search 55%
Make use of knowledge sharing applications, like Web 2.0 59%
PLM software 0%
In Figure 1 and Figure 2, achieved results related to the availability of techno-

logical tools to support knowledge management in Basque SMEs, by activity sec-
tor and by number of employees, are presented.
751
10 7,14 5,82
5 5,5 5
2,67
5
0
Aeronautics and Space Automotive
Electronics, Comp. And Telcom Energy
Machine-tools Others
Fig. 1 The availability of technological tools to support knowledge management in Basque

SMEs, by activity sector.
10 6,67
5,25 5,43
0
1_9 10_49 50_249
Fig. 2 The availability of technological tools to support knowledge management in Basque

SMEs, by number of employees.
3.2 The Availability of WEB 2.0 to Support Knowledge Sharing in

Basque SMEs, by Activity Sector and by Number of Employees
In Figure 3 and Figure 4, obtained results related to the availability of to support

knowledge sharing in Basque Country SMEs proposed in this study are represent-
ed.
yes No
0%
25% 33%
50% 50%
100% 75% 100% 67%
50% 50%
0%
Fig. 3 The availability of Web 2.0 to support knowledge sharing in Basque SMEs, by activity
sector
752
yes No
25% 33%
50%
75% 50% 67%
1-9 10-49 50-249
Fig. 4 The availability of Web 2.0 to support knowledge sharing in Basque SMEs, by number of
employees.
4 Conclusions
The technological tools more present in Basque SMEs are: access to the Internet,
website, Intranet system and use of Web 2.0 tools. Looking for European statistics
about the access to the Internet in SME (97%), it can be concluded that the per-
centage of Basque SMEs that have access to Internet is higher than the European
ones. Furthermore, in general terms, terms Basque SMEs have a large availability
of technological tools in order to support knowledge management practices.
The Electronics, Computing and Telecommunications sector is the one that has
more availability of tools. Therefore, it can be concluded that the availability of
technological tools to support knowledge management is linked with technologi-
cal development of the sector. Moreover, the analysis of availability of tools ac-
cording to SME size (by number of employees) allows us to confirm the result of
other research study related to the use of ICTs in enterprises, claiming that the ca-
pacity to have technological tools to support knowledge management is directly
proportional to the capacity of technical and human infrastructure of SMEs.
Regarding to the use of knowledge sharing applications like Web 2.0, it can be
concluded that Basque Country SMEs have promoted the use of new ICT technol-
ogies to seek the improvement of knowledge sharing, in order to provide a solu-
tion to this important gap in knowledge management process. It is highlighted the
fact that Aeronautic and Space sector makes the most use of it. Also, it is observed
the fact that SMEs with fewer employees (between 1 and 9) are those that make
the most use of it. So, it can be concluded that knowledge sharing doesnt depend
on technical and human infrastructure, but thanks to new ICTs development the
solely requirement needed to achieve knowledge sharing is that employees are
motivated to do so.
753
5 References
Alvarez, I., Cilleruelo, E., Zamanillo, I. & Zarrabeitia, E. 2012, "Knowledge management prac-
tices in SME. Case study in Basque Country SME" in "Industrial Engineering: Overcoming
the Crisis. Book of Full Papers of the 6th International Conference on Industrial Engineering
and Industrial Management, eds. J.C. Prado, J. Garca, J.A. Comesaa & A.J. Fernndez,
Universidad de Vigo edn,Vigo, pp. 555-562.
Barba, V., Martnez, M.P. & Jimnez, M.I. 2007, "Drivers, benefits and challenges of ICT adop-
tion by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs): a literature review", Problems and Per-
spectives in Management, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 103-114.
Cela, J. 2005, "Sociedad del conocimiento y sociedad global de la informacin: Implantacin y
desarrollo en Espaa", Documentos de las Ciencias de la Informacin, vol. 28, pp. 147-158.
Coyte, R., Ricceri, F. & Guthrie, J. 2012, "The management of knowledge resources in SMEs: an
Australian case study", Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 789-807.
Davenport, T.H. & Prusak, L. 2000, Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School Press, Bos-
ton.
Desouza, K.C. & Awazu, Y. 2006, "Knowledge management at SMEs: five peculiarities", Jour-
nal of Knowledge Management, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 32-43.
Durst, S. & Edvardsson, I.R. 2012, "Knowledge management in SMEs: a literature review",
Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 879-903.
European Commission 2012, EU SMEs in 2012: at the crossroads. Annual Report on small and
medium-sized enterprises in the EU, 2011/12, ECORYS edn, Rotterdam.
EUROSTAT 2012, ICT usage in enterprises 2012, European Commission, European Union.
Gobierno Vasco 2010, Plan de Competitividad Empresarial 2010-2013, Servicio Central de Pu-
blicaciones del Gobierno Vasco, Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Hendriks, P. 1999, "Why share knowledge?The influence of ICT on the Motivation for
Knowledge Sharing", Knowledge and Process Management, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 91-100.
Hutchison, V. & Quintas, P. 2008, "Do SMEs do knowledge management?Or simply manage
what they know?", International Small Business Journal, vol. 26, pp. 131-151.
Levy, M. 2009, "WEB 2.0 implications on knowledge management", Journal of Knowledge
Management, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 120-134.
Mohamed, M., Murray, A. & Mohamed, M. 2010, "The role of information and communication
technology (ICT) in mobilization of sustainable development knowledge: a quantitative eval-
uation", Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 744-758.
Nunes, M.B., Annansingh, F., Eaglestone, B. & Wakefield, R. 2006, "Knowledge management
issues in knowledge-intensive SMEs", Journal of Documentation, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 101-119.
OCDE 2003, Measuring Knowledge Management in the Business Sector: First Steps, OCDE
edn, OCDE, Paris.
Ricceri, F., Guthrie, J. & Coyte, R. 2010, The management of knowledge resources with-
in organisational practices:some international best practices illustrations, O'Brien, E.;
Clifford, S.; southern, M.; edn, ISI Global, Pennsylvania.
Salojrvi, S., Furu, P. & Sveiby, K.E. 2005, "Knowledge management and growth in Finnish
SMEs", Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 103-122.
Tebbutt, D. 2007, "Breathing new life into KM", Information World Review, , no. Enero.
Tena, R. & Ongallo, C. 2004, Estudio sobre la gestin del conocimiento en Espaa, SETSI;
FUNDECYT; AENOR edn, FUNDECYT y AENOR, Madrid.
Tissen, R., Andriessen, D. & Lekanne, F. 1998, Value-based Knowledge Management: Creating
the 21st century company: knowledge intensive, people rich, Logman, Amsterdam.
754
Predisposition of Workers to Share Knowledge:

an Empirical Study
Siz L1, Dez J I2, Manzanedo, M A3, Del Olmo, R4
Abstract Our objective is to determine the factors and obstacles that either
contribute or complicate knowledge exchange between workers. This research
area is new in Spain, as only three references have been found for firms in China
and North America. In our approach to this topic, we apply concepts of a
sociological, psychological, and motivational nature, which affect knowledge
exchange and sharing and allow us to justify the theoretical basis of this study, as
well as its purpose and its organizational benefits. A detailed survey was prepared
for the empirical research with 21 questions given to a sample of 557 workers
from firms in Burgos. Among the positive factors that contribute to knowledge
sharing, the results highlight recognition and an appreciation of the workers
contribution, the work environment and reciprocity. The most important barriers
are the poor quality of employment contracts, fellow workers that do not wish to
learn, and unfair and disloyal behaviour.
Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, Assistance and Bar-

riers to Knowledge Exchange, Employment Contract, Work Environment, Moti-
vation Policies
1Lourdes Siz Brcena ( e-mail: lsaiz@ubu.es)
Department of Civil Engineering. Higher Polytechnic School. University of Burgos.

C/ Francisco de Vitoria, S/N, 09006 Burgos.
2JosIgnacio Dez Prez ( e-mail: ignacorreo@hotmail.com)
PhD student. Department of Civil Engineering. Higher Polytechnic School. University of
Burgos. C/ Francisco de Vitoria, S/N, 09006 Burgos.
3Miguel ngel Manzanedo del Campo ( e-mail: mmanz@ubu.es)
C/ Villadiego, S/N, 09001 Burgos.
4Ricardo del Olmo Martnez ( e-mail: rdelolmo@ubu.es)
C/ Villadiego, S/N, 09001 Burgos.
755
1 Introduction
Acceptable use of knowledge and its management within the firm is increasingly
gaining ground in the promotion of the strong points with which the organization
wishes to compete (Ndofor and Levitas, 2004). However, there are workers who
are more or less committed to exchange, in accordance with their personality, the
context and their motivation, be it intrinsic or extrinsic, that is provided by the
firm (van den Hooff and Huysman, 2009) (Martn et al., 2009). The firm is, there-
fore, committed to knowing about and taking action on all behaviour and attitudes
that favour the exchange of knowledge (Chen et al., 2012). Transfer, sharing and
management of knowledge within the firm has been considered a process or a
function that contributes to the success of the firm, for which purpose general
models for exchange have been designed and developed to support this activity
(Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), (Hedlund, 1994). Nevertheless, there are still peo-
ple and attitudes within the firm who are contrary to knowledge sharing, which is
evident from the barriers to the full application of knowledge management
(Connelly et al., 2012). On occasions, such barriers are raised because of the man-
agers and the management style of the firm. Hence, the directors and those re-
sponsible for decision taking are key elements, perhaps the most important, so that
all employees find their position and share knowledge in the posts where they can
best contribute (Yu and Chu, 2007), (Chow and Chan, 2008). In this work, as well
as studying the purpose and the elements that influence knowledge exchange be-
tween workers, an empirical study is conducted, the novelty of which stands out,
which has contrasted the positive factors that are likely to promote knowledge
sharing and transfer and the barriers that are likely to prevent such activities. The
results and conclusions that are reached will help us progress in this area of re-
search and will provide information to firm directors, so that they take more in-
formed decisions that will enable the effective application of knowledge manage-
ment.
2 Knowledge Exchange within the Firm
Knowledge sharing and exchange in the workplace is a complex task with all too
many links and consequences. Its fundamental objective is to transfer knowledge
from its generation to the different places in the firm that need it; it therefore
affects organizational survival, prosperity and growth, improving its capability to
respond and to take action and making it more competitive. Knowledge
management, of which this exchange forms part, bases its function on competitive
advantage that is gained with the improvement and the quality of the knowledge
of people that help to create new knowledge, in a permanent cycle (Erden et al.,
2008). Efficient knowledge management means that workers lose their fear of
756
sharing knowledge with other fellow workers (Cabrera and Cabrera, 2002), in an
environment where the system or management style provides and favours the trust
and the reciprocity needed for workers to perform their knowledge exchange
(Renzl, 2008).
The exchange of knowledge has beneficial effects for workers, given that
learning is quicker, workers learn what is necessary and gain further experience.
Even though it may not be completely assured, because there are other factors
with an influence, it also has a beneficial effect on the performance of employees
(Hsu, 2006). The creation of an environment of trust with acceptable behaviour
improves the exchange of knowledge, acting on the personal emotions,
minimizing destructive emotional conflict and assisting a work environment based
on mutual trust. All of this is supported by distribution of knowledge and
information that motivates exchange and mutual learning (Xia and Ya, 2012).
Nevertheless, tacit knowledge is the most difficult to capture and to transfer,
because it is non-explicit knowledge or because it can be intentionally concealed
by the person who holds it. This type of knowledge might imply a point of
negotiation or a guarantee to remain in the firm, because of the exclusivity that it
represents, which may even be used as a token for exchange (Yuqin et al., 2012).
Despite the beneficial effects of the exchange of knowledge, on occasions,
workers deliberately hide and even deny the existence of their knowledge
(Connelly et al., 2012), or raise seemingly insurmountable barriers that appear in
various forms (Lin et al., 2012). In some situations, when the worker does not
share knowledge, it is out of a fear of losing the status that the firm has and by
which it is valued. In these cases, if the work environment is not conducive to
knowledge exchange, the majority of workers will be fearful of doing so (Renzl,
2008). This fear brings to the surface the feeling of being replaceable in the firm,
when the exercise of sharing means that the worker loses any exclusive idea of
possessing knowledge (Renzl, 2008). In this context, a possible consequence, in
the workers view, is redundancy, with all of its very significant psychological and
social consequences (Raday, 1989), (Lpez, 2007), (Eguchi, 2007).
The disastrous economic situation at present means that redundancy is often
determined by the shorter employment record of the worker as much as by criteria
based on any corresponding compensation for loss of employment (Galdn-
Snchez and Gell, 2003). It generates an uneasy situation in which the youngest
or the most recently incorporated workers are unjustly disadvantaged (Malo and
Cueto, 2012) and not those who contribute least knowledge. Together with this,
the practice of early retirement may imply the loss of more expert workers, who
will be replaced by others at a lower level. This retirement is encouraged for
purely pecuniary reasons, as the new workers are on considerably lower salaries,
with no consideration of the knowledge that it contributes (Cremer et al., 2009),
(Messe, 2011).
Incentives and rewards, valuable allies for the correct application of knowledge
management, should therefore be offered to alleviate the consequences of these
757
practices in the workplace (Quigley et al., 2007). With an acceptable design, a

supportive and beneficial work environment may be created for knowledge
exchange and transfer. Organizations may provide various rewards in multiple
forms, such as salary increases, bonuses, stable contracts, opportunities for
promotion and other types of benefits for the workers (Bock et al., 2005).
Bearing in mind cultural, national and other factors linked to where the
incentive is created, it has been demonstrated that the organization is, on
occasions, more effective in the formation and teaching of its employees, when
there is an incentive that rewards that attitude towards learning (Hall, 2001).
However, research also exists that proves that the organizational response can
have a negative effect on the attitude of the individual towards the exchange of
knowledge (Bock et al., 2005).
3 Empirical Study: Methodology, Justification for the Study,

Sample and Questionnaire
The objective of this study is to survey the views and perceptions of workers
towards knowledge exchange and sharing within the firm. In other words, the aim
is not only to establish whether workers share knowledge in a natural way in their
jobs in the firm, but also to establish which, in their opinion, are the drawbacks
and barriers that complicate that exchange. The justification for this study is based
on the need to know some of the aspects that affect knowledge exchange, from the
work environment, the management style, the personality of the individual and the
social and interpersonal relations that are found in the workplace.
The sample consists of 557 workers from different firms in the city of Burgos
(northwest Spain) and the province of the same name, found in the automobile,
services, energy and agricultural and livestock sectors. Further data that are
representative of the sample are as follows: workers are contracted by firms with
over 10 workers and have, on average, 2 years service, for those within the 18-31
year-old age bracket, 10 years of service for those within the 31-45 year-old age
bracket, and 20 years service for those older than 46 years old.
An ad-hoc questionnaire was designed to gather the data, composed of 21
questions and structured into four sections: a) general data for the identification of
the participants; b) predisposition to exchange knowledge; c) human relations and
work environment; c) motivation and incentives to encourage exchange. The
questions were drafted with the help of two experts, knowledgeable of the reality
of these firms and of the challenges and trials that they have faced in the exchange
and sharing of their key knowledge.
Having completed the questionnaires, performed the data treatment and the
analysis of the information that had been gathered, the results and the conclusions
helped us to identify barriers to knowledge sharing and incorporated
758
recommendations of interest on how to increase and to improve the exchange of

knowledge in the firm.
Table 1 Research data sheet
Sample population 557 workers

Sectors of economic activity Automobiles, Services, Energy, Agriculture and Livestock
Field Burgos and province (Spain)
Date of survey June - October 2012
Design and Technical Direction J. I. Dez, L. Siz, M. A. Manzanedo
Sources for the preparation of (Lin et al., 2012), (Connelly et al., 2012), (Bures, 2003)
the questionnaire
4 Results and Conclusions
This study has summarised its results, in particular, those that refer to situations or
aspects that support knowledge sharing within the firm and equally those that
prevent it or complicate it. Moreover, it reflects the predisposition of workers to
share knowledge and the incentives that encourage behaviour that will support
knowledge exchange within the firm. The descriptive results are presented as
frequencies and percentages, to facilitate a clear understanding (Table 2).
Table 2 Aspects that support and that prevent knowledge sharing
Aspects that support sharing (%) Aspects that prevent sharing (%)
Recognition and appreciation 24.5 Unstable contract 17.2

Good work environment 14.2 Fellow workers who do not wish to learn 15.2
Reciprocity 16.1 Disloyal fellow workers 14.6
Stable contract 9.7 Lack of recognition and appreciation 14.5
Remuneration 8.9 Bad work environment 13.3
Labour responsibility 8.4 Bad relation with fellow workers 9.6
Business organization 7.1 Unfairness of salary or in decision-making 7.3
Comunication with 4.7 Pressure or bullying 4.2
management
Fair firm 3.3 Badly organized firm 4.1
Job security 3.1
With respect to the predisposition of the worker to share knowledge, the results
revealed that 80.3% would be willing to teach others, provided that the people
they teach do not appropriate their ideas, and 40.4% would not share it with fellow
759
workers unfairly assessed as better than them. If workers considered themselves

poorly valued or underused, which implies a lack of motivation, they would not
share their knowledge. Moreover, if the acquisition of such knowledge had
implied a significant effort, 29.4% of individuals would not share it. Reciprocity
in the transmission of knowledge emerged as an essential element for knowledge
exchange, given that 38.8% would not transfer their knowledge if others did not
do likewise.
The leading incentives for knowledge transfer were, for 72% of interviewees,
an organizational structure that promotes and facilitates sharing knowledge and
know-how; the existence of a stable contract in 65% of cases; and 34% responded
positively to the idea of additional remuneration for passing knowledge on to
others.
We may deduce from these results that the study has revealed some unknown
factors in relation to the exchange and the sharing of knowledge. By means of an
empirical study that used primary information (from 557 workers in different
firms), we tested the elements and opportunities that supported knowledge transfer
in the workplace, as well as its obstacles and limitations. The most prominent
aspects are recognition and appreciation of the worker by the firm, up to the point
that when this recognition is lacking, a highly demotivating situation is generated,
not only for knowledge sharing, but also to be efficient and to contribute value to
the function in question. Another relevant element is a work environment oriented
towards knowledge sharing, as in situations of conflict, there is a lack of clarity in
the assignation of tasks and objectives and little or no consideration of the worker,
which is demotivating and provokes passive attitudes with little or no involvement
in improvements made to the job. Mutual reciprocity is a further element that
favours exchange and notably influences human behaviour, it being a quality that
affects, in a significant way, not only the quantity, but also the quality of valuable
knowledge exchange.
In turn, the poor quality of employment contracts are found among the barriers
that, more than any other, complicate knowledge sharing between workers. A
direct tie between the quality of the contract and knowledge exchange has been
confirmed; fellow workers unwilling to learn or showing unjust and disloyal
behaviour represent an added problem given that it is an intentional attempt to
render the exchange inoperative, either by the negation to acquire more knowledge
or by not using what has been acquired.
This study has also served to establish certain factors that influence the
predisposition of the worker to share knowledge, which are maintenance of
knowledge ownership, fair valuation of the work carried out by everybody, and
the fact that others share and interact with their knowledge. The motivating
elements or most prominent incentives to achieve efficient exchange reside in an
appropriate organizational structure, stable contracts and specific remunerative
complements for those who share knowledge.
760
5 References
Bock GW, Zmud RW, Kim YG et al (2005) Behavioral intention formation in knowledge shar-
ing: Examining the roles of extrinsic motivators, social-psychological forces, and organiza-
tional climate. MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems 29(1): 87-111.
Bures V (2003) Cultural barriers in knowledge sharing. E+M Ekonomics and Management, Li-
berec 6(special): 57-62.
Cabrera , Cabrera EF (2002) Knowledge-sharing Dilemmas. Organization Studies 23(5): 687-
710.
Connelly CE, Zweig D, Webster J et al (2012) Knowledge hiding in organizations. Journal of
Organizational Behavior 33(1): 64-88.
Cremer H, Lozachmeur J-M, Pestieau P (2009) Use and misuse of unemployment benefits for
early retirement. European Journal of Political Economy 25(2): 174-185.
Chen S-S, Chuang Y-W, Chen P-Y (2012) Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing:
Examining the roles of KMS quality, KMS self-efficacy, and organizational climate.
Knowledge-Based Systems 31(0): 106-118.
Chow WS, Chan LS (2008) Social network, social trust and shared goals in organizational
knowledge sharing. Information & Management 45(7): 458-465.
Eguchi K (2007) Productivity loss and reinstatement as a legal remedy for unjust dismissal.
Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 21(1): 78-105.
Erden Z, Von Krogh G, Nonaka I (2008) The quality of group tacit knowledge. The Journal of
Strategic Information Systems 17(1): 4-18.
Galdn-Snchez JE, Gell M (2003) Dismissal conflicts and unemployment. European Econom-
ic Review 47(2): 323-335.
Hall H (2001) Input-friendliness: Motivating knowledge sharing across intranets. Journal of In-
formation Science 27(3): 139-146.
Hedlund G (1994) A model of knowledge management and the N-form corporation. Strategic
Management Journal 15(S2): 73-90.
Hsu IC (2006) Enhancing employee tendencies to share knowledge- Case studies of nine compa-
nies in Taiwan. International Journal of Information Management 26(4): 326-338.
Lin C, Wu J-C, Yen DC (2012) Exploring barriers to knowledge flow at different knowledge
management maturity stages. Information & Management 49(1): 10-23.
Lpez B. SA (2007) Efectos individuales del despido y la resilencia como facilitador en la bs-
queda del empleo. Panorama Socioeconmico. Redalyc 25 (035): 168-172.
Malo M, Cueto B (2012) Biografa laboral, ciclo econmico y flujos brutos en el mercado de
trabajo espaol. Panorama Social: 1-24.
Martn C. N, Martn P. V, Trevilla C. C (2009) Influencia de la motivacin intrnseca y extrnse-
ca sobre la transmisin de conocimiento. El caso de una organizacin sin fines de lucro.
CIRIEC-Espaa, Revista de Economa Pblica, Social y Cooperativa. Redalyc 66(octubre):
187-211.
Messe PJ (2011) Taxation of early retirement windows and delaying retirement: The French ex-
perience. Economic Modelling 28(5): 2319-2341.
Ndofor HA, Levitas E (2004) Signaling the Strategic Value of Knowledge. Journal of Manage-
ment 30(5): 685-702.
Nonaka I, Takeuchi H (1995) The Knowledge- Creating Company. Oxford University Press,
Inc., Oxford.
Quigley NR, Tesluk PE, Locke EA et al (2007) A multilevel investigation of the motivational
mechanisms underlying knowledge sharing and performance. Organization Science 18(1):
71-88.
Raday F (1989) Costs of dismissal: An analysis in community justice and efficiency. Internation-
al Review of Law and Economics 9(2): 181-207.
761
Renzl B (2008) Trust in management and knowledge sharing: The mediating effects of fear and
knowledge documentation. Omega 36(2): 206-220.
Van Den Hooff B, Huysman M (2009) Managing knowledge sharing: Emergent and engineering
approaches. Information & Management 46(1): 1-8.
Xia L, Ya S (2012) Study on Knowledge Sharing Behavior Engineering. Systems Engineering
Procedia 4(0): 468-476.
Yu CP, Chu TH (2007) Exploring knowledge contribution from an OCB perspective. Infor-
mation and Management 44(3): 321-331.
Yuqin Z, Guijun W, Zhenqiang B et al (2012) A Game between Enterprise and Employees about
the Tacit Knowledge Transfer and Sharing. Physics Procedia 24, Part C(0): 1789-1795.
762
User Software and Information Systems in

Engineering Project Management
Arias J1, Rubio R, Solana J
Abstract Project management is important and necessary for every organization,

as projects are required either for growing or adapting the organization to the envi-
ronment, and also because some organizations especially the project oriented
ones depend on the successful management and execution of projects for other
organizations in order to survive. That is why some software tools have been de-
veloped to assist the team of the project in the administration of the work to be ex-
ecuted. These software tools include user software and organizational platforms.
Although user software cannot be considered as an information system per se, it
can be used together with larger systems which can actually be considered infor-
mation systems which are knowledge sharing structures involving also the human
factor. The final aim of an information technology structure supporting such an in-
formation system would be to integrate that software with the underlying organi-
zational information system under which all the relevant information related to the
resources of the organization is contained.
Keywords: Information Systems, Knowledge Management, Project Management,

User Software, & Information Integration Strategies.
1 Information Systems and User Software
An information system can technically be defined as a set of interrelated compo-

nents that collect, process, store and distribute information to support decision-
making and control in an organization (Laudon & Laudon, 2012). On the other
hand, user software might be any kind of information technology based tool that is
1Jos Manuel Arias Calvo ( e-mail: jm.arias@alumnos.upm.es)
Grupo de Ingeniera de Organizacin. Dpto. de Organizacin, Administracin de Empresas y

Estadstica. Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicacin. Universidad
Politcnica de Madrid. Avenida Complutense 30, 28040 Madrid.
763
used by any user to carry out typical desktop tasks like writing a document or pre-
paring a presentation.
There is, therefore, a substantial difference between the two concepts. While
information system platforms may be based on hardware networks of information
technologies that involve the use of intranets or Internets, especially for collecting
and disseminating information, user software packages are usually supporting the
labor of each individual user of that software.
2 Engineering Project Management
On the one hand, system design has a focus on the problem itself, its delimita-
tions, the systemic objectives, the technical aspects of the design and structure of
the solution. On the other hand, project management has a focus on the man-
agement of the problem solving process, the planning and allocation of material,
personnel, finance and similar resources, the organization of the flow of infor-
mation, of the process of forming an opinion and the process of decision (de
Weck & Lyneis, 2011).
It is already clear from this definition that project management has a clear ten-
dency towards being supported by management information systems, which may
be able to support decision taking and control. This may appear to be clearer in
Fig. 1, where decision taking may be used within the project adapting phase in or-
der to establish effective control mechanisms based on the project execution moni-
toring status to be addressed.
Fig. 1 Project model (de Weck & Lyneis, 2011)
Apart from this feedback loop inside the project, there is a feedback loop be-
tween projects, which corresponds to double-loop learning organizational process-
es. This means that learning organization principles might be applicable when try-
764
ing to make different things in the future such that results are better than in previ-
ous projects (Argyris & Schon, 1996).
In the next sections, the way existing information systems and user software
packages can help in the development of engineering projects is discussed, as well
as the need for user software packages to transition into management information
systems in order to be more effective in the project management function.
3 User Software for Project Management
User software involves different software packages like Microsoft Project, Pri-
mavera Project Planner, OpenProj, DotProject, etc (Rubio, 2013). A brief descrip-
tion of each of them is provided below.
Microsoft Project is one of the tools most used in project management. It is ap-
plicable to all types of industries. This tool allows the project manager to program
all the project activities, allocate resources and people in charge to each of them,
follow up the progress of the project, administer the budget and analyze work-
loads. It is also possible to find the critical path by means of a Program Evaluation
and Report Technique (PERT) analysis and trace Gantt graphs. It applies the con-
cepts described by the Project Management Institute, and it can be said to be struc-
tured along the three great concepts of project management: Gantt, PERT and
Critical Path Method (CPM). The software also includes the possibility of simul-
taneously administering several projects, aggregating dependencies among them,
and managing shared resources.
Primavera Project Planner is a tool that is less extended than the previous one,
but also known in the area of project management, and used in all types of indus-
tries, although it was first developed for construction engineering projects. Some
recommend it as a tool more powerful than Microsoft Project, although less intui-
tive. For all of this the user is required to have previous knowledge in computing,
Gantt charts, critical path, CPM and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). As in the
previous case, it is also necessary to have a clear idea of the different activities
that constitute the project as a whole, the resources and the costs associated to
these activities. This knowledge allows the user to configure the WBS, so that all
the elements to enter the data into the software are available.
OpenProj is free software for project management designed as a complete sub-
stitute of Microsoft Project able to open project files native of Microsoft Project.
OpenProj is run in Java platform, which enables its execution in a variety of dif-
ferent operational systems. Compared to Microsoft Project, OpenProj has a similar
user interface and a similar focus for the construction of a project plan: create a
list of tasks or WBS, establish the durations, create links and allocate resources.
The fields and costs are the same as for Microsoft Project: work, time, material
usage and fixed costs. Therefore, a user of Microsoft Project should find it easy to
765
use OpenProj. It controls all the aspects referred to project management: planning
and programming, management and allocation of resources, simulation of alterna-
tives in critical processes, etc.
DotProject is built by means of open source applications and maintained by a
little group of volunteers. It is an application based in web. Free support is provid-
ed by volunteers in the community forums and by online documentation. It is a
tool with a simple user interface. DotProject is a tool oriented to project manage-
ment. Therefore, it is oriented to the administration of resources to develop a
product whose production requires of a set of activities or tasks carried out in par-
allel or independently. It enables the management and planning of projects in col-
laborative environments, the allocation of resources to a single or several projects,
and the decomposition into tasks. It also enables the classification and ordering of
projects according to their state. Some of the statistics that can be extracted are al-
located hours and hours incurred in reality. As it is based in a web platform, it al-
lows the members of a project to participate online.
4 Information Systems for Project Management
Information systems for project management involve different software platforms

like Planisware 5, Red Mine, Clocking IT, Lighthouse, Springloops, CreativePro
Office, No Kahuna, Basecamp, SAP, DOORS, etc (Rubio, 2013).
Planisware 5 is an Enterprise Project Portfolio Management solution or Corpo-
rate Portfolio Management, which supports the portfolio management of organiza-
tional projects. It is a tool designed as a project management information system
covering costs control, portfolio management, resources management, time plan-
ning and collaborative work. It is conceptually different from the software pack-
ages previously commented, as it can be actually understood as a work platform
for all the organization more than as user software. Project portfolio management
is useful to ensure the projects to implement are in line with the organization strat-
egy. Planisware 5 helps to develop and manage a product portfolio under devel-
opment in equilibrium with a sustainable number of projects.
Red Mine is a tool for project management including a non-conformances
tracking system. Other tools included are an activity calendar, Gantt diagrams for
the visual representation of the projects timeline, wiki, forum, versions control re-
pository viewer, workflow control based on roles, integration with e-mail, etc. It is
free software and open code. This tool is very useful for organizing the infor-
mation stored in the organization.
CreativePro Office offers online management tools and is totally free. It is
thought for autonomous and little teams of graphical designers and web develop-
ers. With this tool, any project manager might be able to administer his team in an
easy and intuitive way. Also, all the team can be aware of the project state.
766
No Kahuna is a simple tool for project management. It enables the creation,

distribution and tasks follow-up of all the project members. It is also possible to
delegate tasks, alerts and statistics, as well as visualize the advances of each phase,
percentages of the project and everything that might be necessary to warrantee that
the project will be finished in the required time. It is free until 30 tasks or 3 pro-
jects are open.
Many people consider Basecamp the best project management system and col-
laboration platform that exists. Its main functionalities are: task lists, file sharing
possibilities, time management, comments, calendar to see the projects to which
one belongs, and the last actions of the employees. Basecamp is under payment,
but there is a free version and 30 days trial versions.
SAP is divided into modules. Each of them carried out a different function but
is designed to work with other modules. It is integrated totally so that it is compat-
ible with all the functions of an organization. It also produces specialized modules
in different specific sectors. Some of these modules are: financial accounting, con-
trolling packages, project systems the one of interest for our work, human re-
sources, plant maintenance, quality management, production planning, materials
management, and sales.
Finally, IBM Rational DOORS is a requirements management application for
optimizing communication, cooperation and verification of requirements in the
organization and all the supply chain. It is a scalable solution that can help to
manage the scope and costs of a project as well as to reach the organizational ob-
jectives. The DOORS tool allows the user to capture, search, analyze and manage
changes in the information, as well as to show conformity with norms and stand-
ards.
5 Conclusions
The previous distinction between user software and information systems estab-
lishes a first idea of how a project management can be better supported by the use
of information technologies. In a first step, user software like Microsoft Project
would require the manual acquisition of information regarding the current status
of a project in order the compare it with the foreseen evolution. If there are mean-
ingful differences, then the original planning would have to be reworked. The
problem here would be how to gather all the information required so that an accu-
rate idea can be provided to us of how the project status is at a given moment in
time.
This task might be carried out more easily with the support of software tools
like the ones described in the last section. Integration with organizational re-
sources offers a more interesting way of dealing with the allocation of resources to
a given project, as well as the evolution analysis of the different activities involved
767
in a Gantt chart. This is especially demanding in an organizational environment

where there are multiple projects running simultaneously.
It is interesting to see that from a system information evolution point of view,
the firstly mentioned user software only represents a very primary contribution to
an information system, where most of the tasks would have to be carried out man-
ually. On the other hand, information systems like Planisware 5 or IBM Rational
DOORS enable the integration of the planning tools with the overall organization-
al system. Human intervention is always needed in an information system, but in
this last case, it is easier to accommodate, for the technology behind already co-
vers much of the work.
Therefore, big room for improvement is left for user tools like the well known
Microsoft Projector or Primavera Project Planner. It is then proposed from this
contribution that future evolutions of these products gradually evolve towards an
integrated information system solution like the ones described under the last sec-
tion.
In a greater context, it is clear that a good planning system is necessary to en-
sure the success of project management in the long run. By means of model simu-
lations like the one in Arias (2012), it can be shown how the influence of infor-
mation systems is determinant in the future resources consumption of a project. If
the information system in place is of high quality, then the planning will be good,
and the resources consumption will not increase dramatically during the develop-
ment phases of the project. The way information systems affect the planning of a
project is depicted below.
768
Raw Productivity
+
+
Base Productivity
Effect of Use Behavior +
+ Potential Work Rate Normal Staff

Minimum Time to Based on Staffing Levels +
Relative Use Finish a Task
-
Behavior +
Base Use Behavior +
+ - Staff
Maximum Work Rate + Work Being
+ Based on Tasks Available Accomplished +
+ Fraction Correct and

Complete + +
Actual Use Behavior + + Work Done
+
Correctly
+ + Cumulative
Normal Fraction Correct and
Effort Expended
Complete
R Effort Expended
+
Effect of User Satisfaction

Project Finished
+ Effect of Undiscovered Undiscovered +
Work to Do +
Rework on Fraction Correct Rework Work Done - -
-
Rework Generation
Relative User Fraction Complete to

R Finish
Satisfaction
- Initial Work to Do
+
<Initial Work to Do>
Base User
Satisfaction +
Fraction of Work Believed Rework Discovery

-
Fig. 2 Project dynamics model (Arias, 2012)

Done Correct and Complete
Maximum Time to
-
Discover Rework <Project Finished>
- +
+ +
Time to Discover +
Actual User +
+ Rework
Satisfaction Minimum Time to <Rework Generation>
+ Discover Rework Work Believed to Be
+
+ + Done
<Work Done> +
R
769
Cumulative Work
+ Done
Effect of System Quality Rate of Doing Work
Effect of Work Progress Fraction Really
+ - Complete + +
Effect of Perceived Productivity -
+ Fraction Reported <Work Done Correctly>
Complete
B
Effect of Information Quality
+ -
Relative System
Quality
+
- Relative Perceived
<Initial Work to Do>
Productivity B
Relative +
-
Information Quality
+
Actual System -
Quality
Base System Quality R
Base Information
Quality Actual Information
Quality +
-
Actual Perceived
+
Productivity
Unitary Task
Unitary Work Done
+
-
-
+
-
Unitary Task
Unitary Work Done
+
- Actual Perceived
Productivity 0
+-
Raw Productivity 0
+
Potential Work Rate
Minimum Time to Based on Staffing Normal Staff 0
+
Finish a Task 0 Levels 0
+
+
- Staff 0
Maximum Work Rate Work Being
+
Based on Tasks Accomplished 0 +
Available 0
Fraction Correct +
and Complete 0 +
+
+ + Work Done
Correctly 0 Cumulative
Normal Fraction + Effort Expended
Correct and
R 0
Complete 0 Effort Expended 0
+
Effect of Undiscovered Project Finished 0

Rework on Fraction + Undiscovered +
Work to Do 0
Rework 0 Work Done 0 --
770
Correct 0 -
Rework Generation 0
+
Fig. 2 (continued) Project dynamics model (Arias, 2012)

+ Fraction Complete
R to Finish 0
Initial Work to Do 0
<Initial Work to Do 0>
+
Fraction of Work
Believed Done Correct Rework Discovery
- 0
and Complete 0 Maximum Time to -
- Discover Rework 0 <Project Finished 0>
+ +
Time to Discover
+ Rework 0 + +
Minimum Time to <Rework Generation 0>
Discover Rework 0 Work Believed to
+ Be Done 0
<Work Done 0> R +

Cumulative Work
+ Done 0
Rate of Doing Work 0
Effect of Work Progress 0 Fraction Really
- Complete 0 +
+
-
Fraction Reported <Work Done Correctly 0>
B Complete 0
-
<Initial Work to Do 0>

6 Limitations
The research which has been previously presented constitutes a compared analysis
of a discretional number of software applications used in project management.
Further work would consist on identifying a set of criteria for establishing a more
extensive set of software applications under study. However, the intention of the
article is to establish a framework for the performance of additional research.
7 References
Argyris C, Schn DA (1996) Organizational Learning II. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company,

United States of America.
Arias JM (2012) The Influence of Information Systems in the Learning Organization within the
Context of Project Management. System Design and Management thesis, Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology.
Laudon KC, Laudon JP (2012) Management Information Systems. Pearson Education, Upper
Saddle River.
Rubio R (2013) Influencia de los Sistemas de Informacion en la Gestion de Proyectos de Inge-
niera. Proyecto Fin de Carrera, Universidad Politcnica de Madrid.
De Weck O, Lyneis J (2011) Successfully Designing and Managing Complex Projects. MIT
Press.
771
Application of Public Private Partnerships to

the Spanish Airport System
Coello N1, Rodrguez Monroy C2, Calvo F3
Abstract The current deficit situation of the Spanish airport system suggests the
need to manage this in a more efficient and profitable way. One of the possible op-
tions is through private management and being able to do this through Public Pri-
vate Partnerships (PPP). This study analyzes the situation of the sector and its
economic importance and the different possibilities for introducing private man-
agement in a public company, specifying the situation in the case of airports, pre-
senting the advantages and disadvantages of these possibilities, and aiming at re-
sults obtained in other places where it has been applied. It is proposed that the
ideal model for the introduction of private management would be through PPP
models tailored to each airport, but having common characteristics according to
the group they belong to. Finally, we observe that not all airports are commercial-
ly attractive, so that the PPP concept does not apply to all of them. In some cases
even the operability itself is not viable at all, and that should be considered sepa-
rately in order to avoid creating a private monopoly while trying to enhance com-
petition among them.
Keywords: Airport, Privatization, Efficiency, PPP, Management.
1 Nicols Coello ( e-mail: nicolas.coello.santos@gmail.com)
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. c/ Jos Gutirrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid.

2
Carlos Rodrguez Monroy ( e-mail: crmonroy@etsii.upm.es)
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. c/ Jos Gutirrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid
3
Flix Calvo ( e-mail: felix.calvo@upm.es)
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. c/ Jos Gutirrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid
772
1 Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to analyze more efficient options for managing the
Spanish airport system through the PPP approach in order to reach a sustainable
economic situation.
Given the difficult financial situation faced by many European countries, in-
cluding Spain, it is almost impossible to imagine that a public airport management
company may have a permanent budget deficit situation. An alternative to privati-
zation is the PPP pproach, which can provide economic management benefits
without losing control of the ownership of public assets. We begin by studying the
situation of the sector and what the PPP concept implies. The bases for these stud-
ies are all secondary data taken from research databases and reports from organi-
zations or government agencies. With these data we propose a possible model for
the different airports and we warn that some of them will not be possible to oper-
ate even under private management. We also warn of the dangers that may appear
by taking this action, including the possible creation of a private monopoly.
2 Situation of the Spanish Airport System
Currently the Spanish airport system is managed by a public company called

Aeropuertos Espaoles y Navegacin Area (AENA) which manages the provi-
sion of airport and air navigation services. AENA is responsible for providing air
navigation services in Spain and other parts of the world.
In this paper, the analysis will focus on the part related to AENA Aeropuertos
SA, which manages 47 airports and 2 heliports in Spain. Since the outset we can
consider separately air operations and ground operations, given the possibility of
having separate management, as it has been shown in the recent separation of Ae-
na Aeropuertos SA, as mentioned in Ley 9/2010 de 14 de Abril. Since the estab-
lishment as an independent company Aena Aeropuertos SA has allowed the entry
of private capital in its shareholding. In fact, in 2011 it was envisaged an IPO of
49% of the company, which has not been implemented, although it is still in the
ideology of the political management the flotation of the company in one or two
years, as stated by the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport and Hous-
ing, Rafael Catal in July 2012 (Preferente.com 2012).
Given the importance of tourism in Spain, which represents 10.2% of GDP and
11.5% of employment, according to 2010 data provided by the OECD, and ac-
cording to the Balance of Tourism 2011, conducted by the Instituto de Estudios
Turisticos, 80% used as transportation means the plane, and within that group
56.9% have made their displacement in a low-cost carrier, which represents a
growing trend. Thus, an efficient airport system is absolutely necessary in Spain,
for its heavy reliance on tourism, and the dependence on the low cost airlines. But
773
instead AENA approved an average increase rate of 19%, which represents at the
two busiest airports, Madrid Barajas and Barcelona El Prat, a maximum of 50%.
In previous years these airports have undergone a deficit, and the company has ac-
cumulated a debt for the whole system, of 14,000 million euros, while navigation
charges dropped by 7.5% (Galindo 2012).
Of all 47 Spanish airports managed by AENA, (AENA 2012b), and according
to a report by the Fundacin de Estudios de Economa Aplicada (Fedea 2012), on-
ly eight are profitable. These airports are: Fuerteventura, Alicante, Ibiza, Palma de
Mallorca, Sevilla, Valencia, Lanzarote and Mlaga. This report also indicates, that
more than half of the airports have another airfield within a radius of 130 kilome-
ters, and in some cases such as Galicia three airports are less than one and a half
hours by road, for a population of 2,778,913 inhabitants in 2012. Within the net-
work, there are airports those have no airlines operating in them, such as Ciudad
Real and Lleida, or have never operated such as Castelln.
To reach this efficiency at airports one of the measures that can be introduced
is private management. This can be attained from outsourcing the management of
a company, to the complete sale of the infrastructure, and a number of possible in-
termediate steps. Within this intermediate steps between full public ownership and
management, to complete private ownership is the PPP concept.
3 Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Privatization in

Transport Infrastructure Focus in Airports
There is no clear definition of what constitutes a PPP, as expressed by Carmona

(2010), beginning with the controversy for some authors of what partnership re-
ally means. PPP definitions given by various European bodies such as the Europe-
an Commission, can be found in the Green paper on public-private partnerships
and community law on public contracts and concessions that defines PPP as
forms of cooperation between public authorities and the world of business which
aim to ensure the funding, construction, renovation, management or maintenance
of an infrastructure or the provision of a service. For another institution as the
European Investment Bank, the term PPP covers a wide range of situations. It
should be taken as a generic term for the relationships formed between the pri-
vate and public sectors bodies often with the aim of introducing private sector, re-
sources and/or expertise in order to help provide and deliver public assets and ser-
vices. From the perspective of the latter organization the key feature of a PPP is
that it involves a risk sharing relationship between public and private promoters,
based on a shared commitment to achieve a desired public policy outcome.
Therefore as Carmona (2010) notes a factor to determining PPP project is consid-
ered a transfer of a sufficient amount of risk to the private partner on a long term
basis.
774
In these definitions the primary purposes for which it resorts to such alliances is
made evident, and as Graham (2011) points out and specifies in the case of air-
ports, it is based on a synthesis of the research done on the topic, besides being
studied in the country that led to partnerships and privatizations which was the
UK, with its large privatization in 1987.
In the same paper Graham (2011) states that the three main objectives of the
PPP approach have been improving efficiency, cover the needs for new invest-
ment and improved management and diversification. It also includes a possible
advantage if, as for the current political situation in the case of Spain, with strong
interference and manipulation, more so in public companies as the case of AENA,
we obtain the removal of state control over the company due to the transfer of risk
and responsibility to the private sector, and the elimination of corrupt practices
(Janecke, 2010).
An example of some of the existing models, and their acronyms can provide an
idea of the possibilities that this concept offers:
Build-develop-operate (BDO).
Design-construct-manage-finance (DCMF).
Buy-build-operate (BBO).
Lease-develop-operate (LDO).
Build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT).
Build-rent-own-transfer (BROT).
Build-lease-operate-transfer (BLOT).
Build-transfer-operate (BTO).
As it can be observed the main activities are design, build, develop, operate,
manage, finance, lease, rent and transfer. It may simply be managing or until full
license for a project as a private activity is granted, only at the end of a specified
time set forth in the previous contract, ownership to the public agency must be
transferred, i.e. long-term final possession should always be public. There are oth-
er modalities and some authors consider that the final possession can be left to the
private company. This is possible given the definitions given, since according to
the European Commission, providing a service, which can be seen as outsourcing,
could be considered PPP.
These partnerships, as Graham (2011) notes provide some diversification bene-
fits and development of non-aeronautical revenues, new areas for business, in-
creased competition among airlines, airports and increased financial benefits for
the state. In case of privatization, as a sale of shares, the greater benefits to be
gained are the prompt monetary income derived from the total sale. On the other
hand the drawbacks of this alliances and privatizations are the possibility of going
from a public monopoly to a private monopoly, changing criteria of increased so-
cial benefit to increase economic benefits, which can also lead to excessive airline
fees pricing, reduced service quality and under-investment. There is also a tenden-
775
cy to perceive this as a lack of control of a public asset considered of national in-

terest, which has a major impact on society and the environment.
One of the key factors to avoid these drawbacks is in the legislation, which is a
topic addressed in the efficiency and success of a PPP. Another point to prevent
private monopoly is granting different airports individually and not as a network.
Foster (1984) has studied the problems of network ownership compared to indi-
vidual ownership, and has emphasized the potential that the latter has to provide
competition among them. He even claims that the best type of possession is by lo-
cal organizations, and that this is preferable to possession by national organiza-
tions. Actual outcome is found in different studies such as those performed by
Vogel (2006) which prove the existence of significant differences when the owner
is a private company showing that there is a better performance. Furthermore Oum
et al. (2006) state that airports with private ownership majority reach higher levels
of operating margins, and that private minority models are less effective, even less
than when they are totally public.
4 Discussion on Improving the Spanish Airport System
In the case of the Spanish airport system it is essential to determine the main ob-
jectives to be achieved. It is clear that one of the main objectives is the efficiency
gain in airport management, in order to create a competitive system with no defi-
cit. There is also the possibility to combine other objectives that might be interest-
ing within what has been highlighted. For example, it could be important in the
Spanish situation, given the current financial crisis situation and the difficulties to
get involved in new high-value public infrastructure, to provide funding for certain
airports which are near their operational capacity limit, such as Madrid Barajas
and Barcelona El Prat, which may require operational enhancements or alternative
high capacity airports in the future. Given the characteristics of this sector these
funds should be planned for well in advance. These projects could be designed and
funded through a PPP approach.
The current situation of AENA with a debt of 14,000 million euros, is another
factor to be considered. The difficulty lies in the complexity of making the right
choice of model, which may also differ according to the type of airport, and adds
further complexity here given the large number of operating airports. It must also
be taken into account, as noted above, that the ownership of airports individually
is more effective than as a network. This is confirmed by the efficiency study of
Spanish airports, conducted by Tapiador and Matthew (2008) who, after measur-
ing the efficiency of all airports individually, concluded that there are major dif-
ferences between them and that different operating strategies for each should be
performed.
776
After seeing the different possibilities of PPP models, an attempt is made to

balance reasonably well the advantages and disadvantages that could lead to the
adoption of a specific PPP model. It is not possible to give an individualized solu-
tion for each airport given the size, but a proposed outline for airports with similar
characteristics is possible. Airports will be classified in eight categories according
to AENA, which considers factors such as size, geographic location and type of
traffic, as quoted by Ruiz de Villa (2011).
In the first place PPPs options will be chosen, since it does not seem interesting
to sell airports unless it is a majority sale, because as Oum et al. (2006) have ana-
lyzed it may result in greater inefficiency, and lack of control. Moreover, since
there is a possible opposition from various sectors of the population, PPP ap-
proaches provide the benefits of private management knowing that property re-
mains with the state.
Hub airports, major and middle island airports and regional airports, all with
over 2.5 million passengers, according to AENA (2012), international flights, with
great presence of tourist traffic and low cost operators are presented as the most
attractive for private management. Some of them, like the Madrid and Barcelona
hubs as shown in the Tapiador and Matthew (2008) study find that these airports
are working at very high efficiency, but the profitability according to the Fedea
study determines that they remain with a budget deficit. This confirms the need to
improve the non-aeronautical revenues. According to these same studies few of
them are profitable, but could be even more profitable since almost all of them do
not reach the operating efficiency peak. The best option would be an administra-
tive license agreement, or lease, operation and management for each airport, with
all kinds of operating income over a period of years, as this would generate many
profits to the state, which could charge a fee for the grant, and an annual rate on
income. It could also manage to reduce the cost of the operational fees at these
airports and create more traffic. This proposal was made for hub airports, but with
high prices, and companies interested in obtaining the administrative license were
not willing to pay such prices because of the difficulty of getting the expected fi-
nancial returns.
Minor airports have a small number of passengers, from 1.3 million to 0.2 mil-
lion, according to AENA (2012a). All of them have the characteristic of having al-
ternative airports within the radius of its range, as the case of Vigo and A Corua.
All of them present budget deficits and improvement possibilities for operational
efficiency as Tapiador and Matthew (2008) have noted. They seem to be ideal as
airports operated under a low-cost philosophy, as they are near major cities, are
not large enough to be interesting for the number of passengers managed in a tra-
ditional way, which would not be profitable. They also suit the needs of low-cost
airlines. This would be the only option for them to avoid a budget deficit situation.
so as before should be done by administrative licenses to operate and manage, and
perhaps in this case does not have to pay a high amount for the initial license fee,
and only a proportion of income, given that the low-cost airlines always avoid
777
fixed costs, but can take cost variables that are readily attributable to each passen-
ger. In this group of airports permissiveness to change must be greater, and cer-
tainly those interested in these airports are totally different from those of the pre-
vious group. Since they can compete with the closest regional airports they can be
a vital key to enhance market competition.
Minor island airports, with the exception of La Palma, have very few flights
and are fully deficient, but the service should be maintained as they are an essen-
tial means of communication for the population living in these areas. These ser-
vices should be guaranteed and protected by the state. Thus, the attraction posed to
private companies, which try to get some kind of profitability is negligible. In
principle, they should remain managed by AENA.
Finally those considered as other airports, which are those with fewer than
100,000 passengers per year, and which do not need any operation, since they
have nearby airports and other communications media. Management strategy
should be completely remodeled in this case since given their location they would
not be interesting even for low-cost carriers. Their main function would have to
change and instead of commercial aviation they would have to convert to cargo
airports or sport aviation. All of them have very high deficits because of the ser-
vices that need to be provided. Organizations that are interested in their exploita-
tion should sign contracts for maintenance and management which do not repre-
sent a cost to AENA. In a situation in which no company is interested in their
exploitation they should be considered as an infrastructure sunk cost and perform
operational closure. In case any local or regional entity is willing to finance them,
airport management should be transferred.
With this proposed remodeling, Aena Aeropuertos SA remains an airport oper-
ator primarily responsible for performing oversight and negotiation of agreements
with private companies, and a manager of airports where service must be guaran-
teed and cannot be operated privately. This could end the deficit problem and cre-
ate a more competitive and optimized airport system, which would ultimately ben-
efit the country as a whole.
5 Conclusions
There is an urgent need to avoid the budget deficit in the operational management
of airports, which is an option that may require private management which may
also eliminate political interference. Since airport management is an area of
particular importance it is not interesting to lose control and the best option to pri-
vatize management is reaching Public Private Partnerships agreements with com-
panies interested in the exploitation. The airport network is extensive and diverse,
so each airport has different levels of efficiency, and specific management strate-
gies for each airport should be made. Within the network there are airports which
778
are interesting from a commercial standpoint and others with low or no interest, so
different PPP arrangements should be made for each of them. Some may not even
be possible to exploit in a privately profitable way. Agreements should be granted
separately and to different organizations, in order to promote competition in the
sector and not turn them into a private monopoly.
6 References
AENA (2012a) Estadsticas de trfico. Available at http://www.aena-aeropuertos.es cited 16

Dec 2012
AENA (2012b) Informacin sobre Aena Aeropuertos SA. Available at http://www.aena-
aeropuertos.es cited 16 Dec 2012
Carmona M. (2010) The regulatory function in public-private partnerships for the provision of
transport infrastructure. Research in Transportation Economics 30 (2010): 110-125
Foster C. (1984). Privatising British airports: What's to be gained. Public Money 3(4): 1923
FEDEA, Fundacin de Estudio de Economa Aplicada (2012) Taxonoma de los Aeropuertos
Espaoles. Available at http://www.fedea.net/transporte/ cited 15 Dec 2012
Galindo C. (2012) AENA contempla ms subidas de las tasas aeroportuarias para aliviar la deu-
da. El Pais. 24 May 2012. Available at http://www.elpais.com cited 18 Dec 2012
Graham A. (2011) The objectives and outcomes of airport privatisation. Research in Transporta-
tion Business & Management 1 (2011) 314
Janecke H. (2010). Managing and delivering an airport privatization programme: Case study of
the Republic of Congo. Journal of Airport Management 5(1): 1018
Oum T., Adler N., Yu C. (2006) Privatization, corporatization, ownership forms and their effects
on the performance of the world's airports. Journal of Air Transport Management 12(2): 109
121
Preferente.com (2012) La salida a Bolsa de Aena se realizar en uno o dos aos. 26 Jul. 2012.
Available at http://www.preferente.com cited 18 Dec 2012
Ruiz de Villa A. B. (2012) Transporte Areo: Marco institucional. Publicaciones de la Escuela
Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronuticos, Universidad Politcnica de Madrid
Tapiador F.J., Mateos A., Mart-Henneberg J. (2008). The geographical efficiency of Spains re-
gional airports: A quantitative analysis. Journal of Air Transport Management 14 (2008):
205 212
Vogel H. (2006) Impact of privatization on the financial and economic performance of European
airports. The Aeronautical Journal 110 (1106): 197213
779
Towards Strategic Project Management
Hermano V1, Martn-Cruz N2.
Abstract This paper focuses on the application of the Dynamic Capabilities

framework to Project Management discipline. A review of project management
literature illustrates the new project and project managers conceptualization and
the shift towards a more strategic perspective. Commonalities and overlaps be-
tween project management and dynamic capabilities approach are highlighted
both from a theoretical and professional point of view. The findings indicate the
closeness between project management and dynamic capabilities by creating an
integrative framework useful both for top and project managers. Besides, we show
the potential benefits of the application of strategic management theories to Pro-
ject Management.
Keywords: Project Management; Strategic management; Theoretical framework;

Dynamic capabilities approach.
1 Introduction
Since the 1950s, when it was recognized as a distinct discipline, project manage-
ment has become a widespread practice in modern organizations (Whittington et
al. 1999). In todays turbulent and dynamic environments, traditional elements of
business success owning tangible assets, controlling costs, maintaining quality-
are necessary but appears to be insufficient to obtain sustainable abnormal results
(Teece 2007). In order to compete in this environment, organizations are increas-
ingly shifting towards more-flexible project-based structures instead of rigid tradi-
tional ones (Whittington et al. 1999, Nohria 1996). Based on the report New
1
Vctor Hermano Rebolledo ( e-mail: vhermano@eco.uva.es)
INSISOC Research Group. Department of Business Management and Marketing. Business
School of Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce S/N, 47011 Valladolid.
2
Natalia Martn Cruz (e-mail: ambiela@eco.uva.es)
INSISOC Research Group. Head of the Department of Business Management and Marketing.
Business School of Universidad de Valladolid. Pso del Cauce S/N, 47011 Valladolid.
780
challenges for a land on expedition, developed by the Deutsche Bank, in 2020,

the project economy delivers 15% of value creation in Germany (Hofmann,
Rollwagen & Schneider 2007). Moreover, project-based organizations (PBOs)
have been considered to obtain better results, especially in unstable and dynamic
environments (Huemann, Keegan & Turner 2007, Thiry, Deguire 2007,
Melkonian, Picq 2011).
This projectification process comes along with a paradigm shift in project
definition. As Turner and Mller (2003) claim, the traditional conceptualization of
project as an endeavor or task is unable to fully gather all roles, functions and lim-
its of projects, therefore, this definition is just not enough. Nowadays, projects are
conceived as organizations best drivers for change (Thiry, Deguire 2007, Turner,
Mller 2003). Even more, some authors perceive projects as powerful strategic
weapons initiated to create economic value and thus, being source of sustainable
competitive advantages (Shenhar et al. 2001, Meskendahl 2010). Therefore, pro-
jects are conceived as central element for implementing companies intended
strategy (Meskendahl 2010), and are nowadays defined as agencies for change,
and even, as temporary organizations (Turner, Mller 2003, van Donk, Molloy
2008). Therefore, a paradigm shift seems to be happening and projects are becom-
ing vectors of organizations strategy (Thiry, Deguire 2007).
Although project management theory has been frequently recognized as pre-
dominantly implicit and practitioner-driving, in the last years, project management
academics have increased their efforts in a new attempt to create a strong theoreti-
cal framework for project management discipline. Specifically, some authors
claim that a cross-fertilization among strategy and project management could cre-
ate great opportunities to enrich analysis and techniques in both disciplines (Mes-
kendahl 2010, Grundy 1998). However, although project and strategic manage-
ment have developed parallel, there is a gap between these disciplines both in
theory and in practice (Thiry, Deguire 2007, Turner, Mller 2003, Meskendahl
2010, Grundy 1998). A review of strategic management literature shows that Pro-
ject Management does not appear as a keyword for papers nor for conferences
(Thiry, Deguire 2007). Project management as a research topic is confined to spe-
cific project management journals such as the PMI Project Management Journal,
or the IPMA International Journal of Project Management.
This paper works, first, on the conceptualization of projects as temporary or-
ganizations, and the importance of PBOs as flexible organizational forms well
prepared for competing in todays turbulent environment. Therefore, the objective
of this paper is to close the gap between project and strategic management. Specif-
ically, we claim that project management constitutes a dynamic capability which
helps PBOs to adapt to rapidly changing environments. We seek to show the po-
tential convergence between dynamic capabilities and project management by
providing a framework for the consideration of project management as a dynamic
capability both from a theoretical and a professional point of view. Thus, we shed
781
light on the need to find the fundamentals that allow for an explanation of PBOs
as a superior form of organization.
2 From Project Management to Project-Based Organizations
Traditionally, organizations formed temporal project teams inside their functional

structure in order to deal with specially challenging operations (e.g. new products
development; commissioning of a new procedure; etc.) or to respond to rapidly
changing market conditions (Irja 2006). Projects were understood as temporal en-
deavours undertook to achieve a particular objective. Classic project management
literature was only concerned for the critical success factors in project operations,
while in a more professional side, the concerns focused on professionalizing pro-
ject management techniques (Melkonian, Picq 2011). All these efforts were ori-
ented to secure single project success. However, in a more and more complex and
uncertain environment, undertaking successful projects has been recognized as
necessary but no longer sufficient strategy to secure long term and sustainable per-
formance (Melkonian, Picq 2011).
Thus the focus has been shifted from individual projects to portfolios, and a
new area of practice, known as Project Portfolio Management, has appeared
(Melkonian, Picq 2011). The key point in project portfolio management is not to
secure single project performance but to create structures able to optimize the use
of resources among many projects and thus, allowing organizations to efficiently
coordinate collections of projects (Thiry, Deguire 2007). Furthermore, nowadays
project management literature has adopted an even more strategic perspective
since the focus has moved from project portfolio management to the organization-
al level -PBOs (Melkonian, Picq 2011). Scholars claim that organizations carrying
out their core operations mainly in project form -PBOs- could obtain better results
in dynamic environments (Thiry, Deguire 2007, Melkonian, Picq 2011).
Although profusely cited, the concept of PBO, also cited as project-oriented
company, project-based firm, and p-form organization; is not without controversy.
There is one literature stream emerging from Hobdays seminal paper (2000) that
identifies PBOs as those organizations executing projects in industries focused on
complex industrial products and systems. These PBOs are intrinsically innovative
as they continually reorganize their structure around the demands of each project
and to changing client needs. Thus, these PBOs are very flexible and able to cope
with project uncertainties and risks (Hobday, 2000). However, these PBOs suffer
when company projects are not independent from each other. Specifically, these
PBOs are weak in coordinating cross-project resources and promoting organiza-
tional knowledge and learning. Moreover, these PBOs could promote individual
project objectives over the overall organization goals.
782
Scholars have recently suggested that only PBOs capable of developing project
capabilities would we able to overcome the dichotomy among the individual na-
ture of projects and the long-term and stable objectives of the overall organiza-
tions strategy (Melkonian, Picq 2011). Project capabilities are defined as the in-
ternal ability of a PBO to create lasting performance based on multiple short term
projects (Davies, Brady 2000). Following Hobday (2000, p.874), a PBO is one in
which the project is the primary unit for production organization, innovation, and
competition, and project management is the main source for capabilities and
knowledge formation. For the purpose of this paper, we define PBOs through a
translation of Hobdays (2000) ideas into the dynamic capabilities approach. Un-
like earlier approaches (e.g. Porters competitive forces framework, or the re-
source-based view) which are static in nature, from the dynamic capabilities ap-
proach organizations obtain superior performance not just because of their assets
endowment but through their ability for reconfiguring their competences to ad-
dress rapidly changing environments dynamic capabilities- (Teece, Pisano &
Shuen 1997: 516). Drawing on the dynamic capabilities approach, we define
PBOs as those where project capabilities shape not just project management pro-
cesses but all internal and external competences of the organization. In a PBO,
project (dynamic) capability represents the mechanism for integrating, building
and reconfiguring organizational competences, so project (dynamic) capability
constitutes the main source for a competitive advantage.
3 Project Management and Dynamic Capabilities: Implications

from a Professional Perspective
The cross-fertilization between dynamic capabilities approach and project man-

agement can be extended to a professional perspective to give theoretical meaning
to the guidelines offered by the different global project management standards
such as the well-known PMBOK. In the following, we interpret the PMBOKs
processes and indications throughout the dynamic capabilities theoretical frame-
work. We focus on the main components and routines of dynamic capabilities and
the guidelines provided by the PMBOK for dealing with them.
PMBOK defines project management as the application of knowledge, skills,
tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements (Project
Management Institute 2008). Furthermore, it recognizes that project management
is accomplished through the appropriate application and integration of 42 process-
es. The observation of PMBOKs definition of project management as a collec-
tion of processes reminds to the definition of organizational capabilities given by
Winter (2003) -collection of routines that confers a set of decision options for pro-
783
ducing significant outputs -3. Although there are some authors claiming that the
temporary nature of projects makes it difficult to develop routines so making also
difficult to develop dynamic capabilities (Hobday 2000), recent research has
shown that PBOs have viable alternatives both individual (e.g. managers of com-
petencies) and collaborative (e.g. industry-wide social networks) by which they
can create routines and distribute social learning (Cacciatori 2008). Therefore, and
based on the work of Winter (2003) we consider organizational project capabili-
ties as collection of routines that can be clarified through the study of the 42 pro-
cesses (routines) contained in the PMBOK.
Regarding the components of dynamic capabilities and for the purpose of this
paper, we assume the framework established by Teece et al. (1997) in their semi-
nal paper where dynamic capabilities possess three different roles -
coordination/integration, learning, and reconfiguration/transformation (Teece et al.
1997). The first one, coordination/integration refers to the tasks managers perform
for coordinating and integrating activities inside the firm and also for the coordi-
nation of external activities and technologies (Teece et al. 1997, p.518). The
PMBOK possess a whole chapter (chapter four) dedicated to project integration
management in which the integration role is defined as the processes (routines)
and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify and coordinate the various
processes and project management activities within the Project Management Pro-
cess Group (Project Management Institute 2008). Processes in that chapter detail
how to develop the project management plan, how to direct and manage project
execution or how to monitor and control project work. Regarding the second role,
learning, is defined as a process (routine) by which repetition and experimentation
enable tasks to be performed better and quicker (Teece et al. 1997, p.520). By
learning, firms recognize dysfunctional routines and prevent strategic blind spots.
The learning role is a prevalent concept in the PMBOK. Practitioners claim that
after developing a project, the implementing organization and actors must have
learned something, and the PMBOK includes that idea by including document
lessons learned as a task to perform during project closing. Finally, the reconfigu-
ration/transformation role refers to the need to reconfigure the organizational asset
structure to address environmental changes (Teece et al. 1997, p.520). The
PMBOK establishes the concepts of rolling wave of planning and progressive
elaboration as two principles when developing project planning. Those two con-
cepts refer to the process of making the project plan in successive waves as the
project proceeds and later details become clearer. Moreover, PMBOK suggests
to create change requests as an output of almost all of its 42 processes. These
change requests refer to modifications in project procedures, policies or docu-
ments that are requested by the project team due to issues found while project
work is being performed. PMBOK also advise project managers to perform the
3
Zollo and Winter (2002) define routines as stable patterns of behavior that characterize or-
ganizational reactions to variegated, internal, or external stimuli (p.340).
784
task called integrated changed control by which project managers have to review
all change requests, and manage changes to deliverables, organizational process
assets, and project documents and plans.
Teece et al. (1997) recognizes that both the firm asset endowment position-
and the strategic decision history path- affect firms processes and so firms dy-
namic capabilities. In this sense, the PMBOK offers guidance for dealing with
both position and path of the firm. In almost all of its 42 processes (routines), the
PMBOK include two inputs called enterprise environmental factors and organi-
zational process assets which refer to firms heritage and firms asset endowment
respectively.
Finally, an important aspect of dynamic capabilities is the commonalities/firm-
specific duality. Dynamic capabilities are not exactly the same across firms even
though they present common features and can be understood as best practices (Ei-
senhardt, Martin 2000). This duality is recognized by project management practi-
tioners. On the one hand, the PMBOK identifies the processes (routines) config-
uring the subset of the project management body of knowledge generally
recognized as good practices. However, the PMBOK itself notifies that the
knowledge it describes, should not always be applied uniformly to all projects.
Delving into this idea, the Project Management Institute has developed extensions
of the PMBOK like the construction extension of the PMBOK or the govern-
ment extension to the PMBOK to provide more information on specific project
types or industry information.
4 Conclusions, Implications, and Direction for Future Research
This paper highlights that the new conceptualization of both projects and project
managers is imbued with strategic essence. Project management literature focus
on achieving success for the lonely project is being substituted by papers claiming
that projects should be understood in relation to previous projects, future plans and
the environment surrounding the implementing organization (Engwall 2003).
Drawing on the dynamic capabilities approach we consider a PBO as an organ-
ization where project capabilities shape not just project management processes but
all internal and external competences of the organization. By considering project
management as a dynamic capability we offer an explanation of the better results
PBOs are considered to obtain in dynamic and unstable environments (Thiry,
Deguire 2007, Melkonian, Picq 2011). Thus, we show that dynamic capabilities
and project management as well as project and top managers are much closer than
what professionals of both disciplines believe. We claim that project management
dynamic capability constitutes a source of competitive advantage for PBOs.
From the project management point of view, the cross-fertilization first pro-
vides a strong theoretical framework, the dynamic capabilities approach, for the
785
project management discipline. A strong theoretical foundation is recognized as

missing for the project management discipline (Turner, Mller 2003, Pollack
2007) and as one of the most important obstacles for the project management pro-
gress (Koskela, Howell 2002). Thus, we strengthen the incipient project manage-
ment theoretical framework with the explanatory power and theoretical founda-
tions of the dynamic capabilities approach.
We also claim that dynamic capabilities foundations could be useful to face
project management problems such as frequent project failures or slow rate of
methodological renewal (Koskela, Howell 2002, Kharbanda, Pinto 1996). Specifi-
cally, the issue of project failure has been studied through the traditional CSFs
typically attached to the iron triangle, and through single project case studies fo-
cused on technical aspects. However, recent studies have demanded to focus on
managerial aspects instead of technical ones, since for many cases, the root of
failure is constituted by issues such as the decision-making process (Shepherd,
Patzelt & Wolfe 2011).
Finally, this paper suggests wide-ranging opportunities for future research. First
of all, taking the dynamic capabilities as research background scholars could re-
search the conditions under which the project management processes become dy-
namic capabilities. Secondly, once recognized that project management could be
understood as a dynamic capability, the next step is to look empirically at the ben-
efits that project management dynamic capabilities provide to the organizations
possessing and developing it and their role as source of competitive advantages.
One possible stream of research, following the path initiated by Thomas and Mul-
laly (2008), could focus on the measurement of the value created by project man-
agement application.
5 References
Cacciatori, E. 2008, "Memory objects in project environments: Storing, retrieving and adapting
learning in project-based firms", Research Policy, vol. 37, no. 9, pp. 1591-1601.
Davies, A. & Brady, T. 2000, "Organisational capabilities and learning in complex product sys-
tems: towards repeatable solutions", Research Policy, vol. 29, no. 7-8, pp. 931-953.
Eisenhardt, K.M. & Martin, J.A. 2000, "Dynamic capabilities: what are they?", Strategic Man-
agement Journal, vol. 21, no. 10-11, pp. 1105-1121.
Engwall, M. 2003, "No project is an island: linking projects to history and context", Research
Policy, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 789-808.
Grundy, T. 1998, "Strategy implementation and project management", International Journal of
Project Management, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 43-50.
Hobday, M. 2000, "The project-based organisation: an ideal form for managing complex prod-
ucts and systems?", Research Policy, vol. 29, no. 7-8, pp. 871-893.
Hofmann, J., Rollwagen, I. & Schneider, S. 2007, "Deutschland 2020New challenges for a land
on expedition", Current Issues.Deutsche Bank Research.Frankfurt am Main, .
786
Huemann, M., Keegan, A. & Turner, J.R. 2007, "Human resource management in the project-
oriented company: A review", International Journal of Project Management, vol. 25, no. 3,
pp. 315-323.
Irja, H. 2006, "Project management effectiveness in project-oriented business organizations", In-
ternational Journal of Project Management, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 216-225.
Kharbanda, O.P. & Pinto, J.K. 1996, What Made Gertie Gallop?: Lessons from Project Failures,
Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Koskela, L. & Howell, G. 2002, "The underlying theory of project management is obsolete",
Proceedings of the PMI Research ConferencePMI, , pp. 293.
Melkonian, T. & Picq, T. 2011, "Building Project Capabilities in PBOs: Lessons from the French
Special Forces", International Journal of Project Management, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 455-467.
Meskendahl, S. 2010, "The influence of business strategy on project portfolio management and
its success A conceptual framework", International Journal of Project Management, vol.
28, no. 8, pp. 807-817.
Nohria, N. 1996, From the M-form to the N-form: Taking Stock of Changes in the Large Indus-
trial Corporation, Division of Research, Harvard Business School.
Pollack, J. 2007, "The changing paradigms of project management", International Journal of Pro-
ject Management, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 266-274.
Project Management Institute 2008, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge,
4th edn, Project Management Institute, USA.
Shenhar, A.J., Dvir, D., Levy, O. & Maltz, A.C. 2001, "Project success: a multidimensional stra-
tegic concept", Long range planning, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 699-725.
Shepherd, D.A., Patzelt, H. & Wolfe, M. 2011, "Moving forward from project failure: Negative
emotions, affective commitment, and learning from the experience", Academy of Manage-
ment Journal, vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 1229-1259.
Teece, D.J. 2007, "Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sus-
tainable) enterprise performance", Strategic Management Journal, vol. 28, no. 13, pp. 1319-
1350.
Teece, D.J., Pisano, G. & Shuen, A. 1997, "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management",
Strategic Management Journal, vol. 18, no. 7, pp. 509-533.
Thiry, M. & Deguire, M. 2007, "Recent developments in project-based organisations", Interna-
tional Journal of Project Management, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 649-658.
Thomas, J. & Mullaly, M. 2008, "Researching the value of project management", Project Man-
agement Institute, .
Turner, J.R. & Mller, R. 2003, "On the nature of the project as a temporary organization", In-
ternational Journal of Project Management, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 1-8.
van Donk, D.P. & Molloy, E. 2008, "From organising as projects to projects as organisations",
International Journal of Project Management, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 129-137.
Whittington, R., Pettigrew, A., Peck, S., Fenton, E. & Conyon, M. 1999, "Change and comple-
mentarities in the new competitive landscape: A European panel study, 1992-1996", Organi-
zation Science, , pp. 583-600.
Winter, S.G. 2003, "Understanding dynamic capabilities", Strategic Management Journal, vol.
24, no. 10, pp. 991-995.
Zollo, M. & Winter, S.G. 2002, "Deliberate learning and the evolution of dynamic capabilities",
Organization science, , pp. 339-351.
787
Analysis of Common Maturity Models Applied

to Project Management
Montero G1
Abstract The application of maturity models to the Project Management may help
organizations to integrate this methodology into their culture. This article tries to
show the main current models, identifying their relevant aspects. Due to the low
project management culture in most organisations, a mix of both of them is pro-
posed.
Keywords: Project Management, Maturity Models, Maturity Scales.
1 Introduction
Several organizations are realizing the importance of integrating Project Manage-

ment into their organizational culture. Project Management itself is constantly
evolving as a discipline of knowledge.
This article attempts to analyze the more usual project management maturity
models that currently organizations use.
2 Origin of Maturity Models and Its Application to Project

Management
The origin of process maturity concept was born into Total Quality frame (Cooke-
Davies et al., 2001), where application of process control techniques showed that
the increase of maturity had two consequences:
Variability reduction inherent in the process.
1Guillermo Montero Fernndez - Vivancos ( e-mail: gmontero@us.es)

Dpto. de Organizacin Industrial y Gestin de Empresas II. Escuela Superior de Ingeniera.
Universidad de Sevilla. Avenida de los Descubrimientos S/N, 41092 Sevilla.
788
Increase of the process performance.

Crosby (1979) presents a five increasing levels of maturity for the concept of
quality in organizations.
One of the best references about the maturity scale model is PPORF Method
(Practical Program Of Revolutions in Factories) and was created by Iwao Koba-
yashi (1995). This describes 20 Keys that are crucial to develop a world class
company.
Other example of the model application is the KCG 20 Keys (Lareau, 2002),
that considers maturity stages applied to any organizational area.
After the origin, for extension this idea spreads to software organizations
through Capability Maturity Models and developed by Software Engineering In-
stitute (SEI) of the Carnegie-Mellon University between 1986 and 1993 (Paulk et
al. 1993). This concept of process maturity progresses as the organizational pro-
cess maturity. The model, called Capability Maturity Model Integration
(CMMI), establishes a scale of five stages to maturity: initial level, repeatable
level, defined level, managed and optimized level. These five levels correspond to
an ordinal scale to measure process maturity and capability of software organiza-
tions.
In the 90, some of these models were developed, such as the Maturity Map cre-
ated by McCauley (1993), Microframe Technologies' Model, which provide the
framework for the capability analysis (Remy, 1997) or those developed by Ibbs
and Kwak (1997) or Kerzner (2001).
The Project Management Institute, PMI, created in 2001 a standard for the or-
ganizational maturity in the Project Management, named OPM3TM (Schlichter,
2001) and launched in December 2003.
Another example for the maturity model application in Project Management is
(PM)2, that integrates the previous project management practices and maturity
models to increase their effectiveness (Kwak et al., 2002).
The concept of project management maturity gained considerable traction in
the early 2000s.
Also the UKs Office of Government Commerce (OGC) developed two mod-
els: firstly, the Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model
(P3M3) in 2004 and then the PRINCE2 Maturity Model (P2MM) in 2005-
2006, that is a derivation from the first one.
3 Main Project Management Maturity Models
There are lots of models available that different organizations use. Herewith, five
core existing models are considered:
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)
789
PRINCE2 Maturity Model (P2MM)

Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3)
Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)
IPMA Project Excellence Model
The table 1 shows the main aspects related to this five models.
Table 1 Main aspects of Project Management Maturity Models.
Maturity Facilitator-
Sector Scope Levels Self-assessed Acreditation
Model led
CMMI Software and 22 process 5 levels Yes No Yes
Staged systems engi- areas
neering
CMMI Software and 22 process 5 levels Yes No Yes
Continuous systems engi- areas
neering
P2MM All PRINCE2 5 levels No Yes Yes
key aspects
P3M3 All 32 process 5 levels No Yes Yes
aspects
OPM3 All Best practices 4 levels Yes Optional No
for projects,
portfolios and
programmes
OPM3 All Best practices 4 levels No Yes Yes
ProductSuite for projects,
portfolios and
programmes
PEM Only projects 9 criteria and 100 points Yes Yes No
22 subcriteria
3.1 Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)
The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI ), owned by Software Engi-

neering Institute (SEI), is oriented to software and systems engineering. This
model probably is the most used, but with the drawback of the implementation
framework to this specific sector.
This model focuses on what needs to be done, rather than how it should be
done. It has three versions: for developers, for Acquisition and for services. In this
last one, it presents 24 process areas, and each process area has a set of goals and
practices associated with them.
In this case, the model presents two different representations: stages and con-
tinuous. The first one has five levels of maturity, from 1 to 5, in the process areas.
790
In the second representation, the model assess against a capability scale from 0 to
5.
3.2 PRINCE2 Maturity Model (P2MM)
The PRINCE2 Maturity Model (P2MM) is owned by the UKs Office of

Government Commerce (OGC) in 2005-2006, as a derivation from its other mod-
el, Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3).
P2MM does not itself contain detailed descriptions of the activities needed to
support project management processes, then the model needs for its application
that the PRINCE2 would be considered.
This model is a hierarchical one, which describes the key elements of the
PRINCE2 method that need to be embedded within an organization to achieve a
certain maturity level.
Each level focuses on a set of key process areas, each process area being
unique to a specific level of the model and underpinning achievement of higher
levels of maturity.
Probably the main benefit of this model for organizations the strength evalua-
tion within the PRINCE2.
3.3 Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity

Model (P3M3)
The Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3) is

owned by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and was developed in
2004 to build programme and portfolio maturity elements into an existing project
management maturity model.
The P3M3 is essentially a set of structured descriptions of some 32 processes
that span project, programme and portfolio management e.g. project definition,
risk management and quality management.
The process descriptions are allotted within the document structure to five dif-
ferent maturity levels from the lowest Initial Process through Repeatable Pro-
cess, Defined Process and Managed Process to the highest Optimised Pro-
cess.
791
3.4 Organizational Project Management Maturity Model

(OPM3)
The Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3 ) is a standard

owned by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and was launched in 2003 to
help organizations align diverse aspects of their operations with their overall busi-
ness strategy.
The standard defines globally developed and recognised industry best practic-
es that are necessary in each of these three domains, and the incremental capabil-
ities that are prerequisites to each best practice. Both the term best practice
and the term capability are defined within the standard. The degree to which
each capability is practiced is defined in terms of one of four stages of process
improvement: standardised, controlled, measured or improved. Also, the model
considers the PMBOK Guide in the implementation the project management ma-
turity.
One advantage of this model is its scalability, its relationship with PMBOK
and the number of organizations that use it.
3.5 IPMA Project Excellence Model
The Project Excellence Model is owned by the International Project Management

Association (IPMA) and was developed in 1996 by the German Project Manage-
ment Association from the European Foundation for Quality Management
(EFQM) Excellence Model.
The Project Excellence Model provides a framework for assessing how well a
project team is delivering, or has delivered a project. It has nine criteria related to
project excellence. Also, it has two different blocks: project management and pro-
ject results. Each criteria is divided into several sub-criteria, for a total of 22 sub-
criteria. Each of these is described in a way that allows actual activities and results
to be assessed.
In order to evaluate the excellence of the project, each sub-criteria is scored
from 0 to 100. Each sub-criteria is weighted within its criteria. The assessment is
completed by the individual analysis of each criteria and the weighted sum of all.
The great disadvantage of this model is its focus exclusively on individual pro-
jects, rather than penetration of project management in the corporate culture.
792
4 Conclusions to Be Considered in Organizations without

Project Management Culture
Most of organizations do not consider the Project Management in their own cul-
ture. In a first analysis, with a representative sample of SMEs, none uses any pro-
ject management methodology.
In order to apply a maturity model to implement project management, the five
previous ones are at a much higher level to develop a culture of project manage-
ment in this business structures.
Taken into account the CMMIs maturity scale for the staged representation,
the levels are:
Initial: Processes are ad hoc, unpredictable and reactive
Managed: Basic processes are in place but may be different by project
Defined: Processes are in place based on organisational standard models
Quantitatively Managed: Processes are measured and controlled
Optimising: Process improvement is a continual focus
The analyzed organizations, which have not adopted process improvement pro-
grammes, are at level 1 and progress through the levels of maturity by adopting
the goals and practices which are defined for the processes at each level.
This model CMMI, as well as P2MM, P3M3 and OPM3, are somewhat
complex to establish goals to implement the project management culture. Alt-
hough, the proposed scale can be used.
There is another model, called Programme Management Maturity Model
(PMMM) and developed by two of the APM Programme Management (ProgM)
specific interest group officers, Paul Rayner and Geoff Reiss, that can be used as
base for the scale application.
This model examines programmes using ten key aspects of programme man-
agement and is linked to the Programme Management Improvement Process that
provides a guide to improving maturity across these areas. An organization could
identify its strengths and weakness in programme management maturity in com-
parison with other ones.
The ten aspects of programme management covered by PMMM are:
Management organisation
Planning
Management of benefits
Management of stakeholders
Issue and risk management
Quality management and auditing
Configuration management
Internal communication
Programme accounting and finances
Scope and change
793
5 References
Cooke-Davies TJ; Schlichter F. et al. (2001), Beyond the PMBOK Guide, PMI Annual Semi-
nars and Symposium 2001, Nashville TS.
Crosby PB, (1995) Quality is free: The art of making quality certain. New York: Penguin, 1979.
Kobayashi, Iwao: 20 keys to workplace improvement. Portland, Ore: Productivity Press. 291 p.
Lareau W (2002) Office Kaizen: Transforming Office Operations into Strategic Competitive Ad-
ventage. Milwaukee: ASQ Press. 184 p.
Paulk M, Curtis C et al. (1993) Capability Maturity Model for Software (Version 1.1). Carnegie
Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute. Downloaded from
www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents on 10 April 2001.
McCauley, M (1993) Developing a project-driven organization PM Network, September,
1993, p. 26 30.
Remy, R. (1997) Adding focus to improvement efforts with PM3. PM Network, July, 1997,
p. 43 47.
Ibbs WC, Kwak, YH (1997). The benefits of project management. Financial and organizational
rewards to corporations. Philadelphia: PMI Educational Foundation.
Kerzner H (2001) Strategic planning for project management using a maturity model. New York:
John Wiley & Sons.
Schlichter J (2001) PMIs organizational project management maturity model: emerging stand-
ards. PMI 01 Annual Symposium, Nashville.
Kwak YH; Ibbs W (2002) Project Managemente Process Maturity (PM)2 Model. Journal of
Management in Engineering. July 2002.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE INC. (2010) PMBOK Guide. 5Th Edition. Newtown
Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute, Inc.
ASSOCIATION FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT (2007) Models to improve the management
of projects. APM. High Wycombe (UK). 55 p.
794
Patterns in Innovative Companies in Rio de

Janeiro (Brazil)
Cans-Dars L 1, Santandreu-Mascarell C, Marin-Garcia JA,

Garca-Sabater JJ
Abstract In this paper we present the relationship between the generation of ideas
and knowledge, organizational structure and information and communication
technologies existing in the company. First, we present an integrated model as a
basis to identify best practices that facilitate and encourage innovation. Then, we
use grounded theory methodology, applied to one region with innovative entre-
preneurial tradition and a service-based industry as Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
Keywords: Organizational Structure, Ideas and Knowledge Management, Innova-

tion, Grounded Theory, ICT.
1 Introduction: Innovative Capability and Flexibility
We can found several definitions of innovation in the literature. In this paper we

focus on innovative capability within the context of organizational agility, defined
as an organizational capability that enables companies to be "infinitely adaptable
and innovative without changing" (Dyer and Shafer, 1999:148). Moreover, Ama-
bile et al. (1996) assume that the organizational context influences on the level and
frequency of the innovative behavior of a company. Therefore, they define the in-
novative capacity as the ability to successfully implement new ideas in the com-
pany; they measure it according to the mechanisms that stimulate the flow of in-
novative ideas, for example, organizational structure and knowledge management.
1Lourdes Cans-Dars ( e-mail: loucada@omp.upv.es)

* This paper has been partially supported by the projects CORSARI MAGIC DPI2010-18243 -
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin del Gobierno de Espaa, TIN2008-06872-C04-02/TIN
Ministerio de Educacin y Ciencia del Gobierno de Espaa and PIME2013-A16 and PAID-05-
12-SP20120480 Universitat Politcnica de Valncia.
795
This concept includes flexibility as a dynamic capability (Damanpour, 1991; Li

and Atuahene-Gima, 2001).
Flexible practices act both on people while maintaining and increasing their
value and specificity, as on organizational capabilities (Lado and Wilson, 1994;
Lepak and Snell, 1999). In that sense, flexible companies are those that change
their internal structures without undergoing traumatic changes. Internal flexibility
is associated with the search for new organizational structures that, in general, are
characterized by hierarchical designs switch to more decentralized designs (Ba-
logun and Johnson, 2004; Barkema et al., 2002). Therefore, this kind of flexibility
is associated with the concept of functional flexibility that allows a company to
change its structure and the nature of work to better respond to new contingencies
(Atkinson, 1984; Lepak et al., 2003).
In this vein, authors such as Van den Bosch et al. (1999) argue that the scope,
flexibility and efficiency of the assimilation of knowledge depends on the compa-
ny's organizational structure (functional, divisional or matrix). Others consider a
flexible organizational structure as a strategic factor in the field of knowledge
management (Fors and Camisn, 2008; Mas and Martinez, 2008). However,
there are few studies that specify how this organizational structure affects the sub-
sequent exploitation of knowledge generated by people, based on the information
and the development of ideas that can lead to innovations. Therefore, our interest
is in determining what forms of work or good practices based on the organization-
al structure allow the company to be agile and flexible. Information and Commu-
nication Technologies (ICT) complement and promote this, facilitating the neces-
sary flow of information for the outcrop of ideas that will be transformed into
knowledge. In this context, innovation is the final result of the creative activity of
individuals in the organization (Perry-Smith and Shalley, 2003; Taggar, 2002;
Tang, 1998), so that the kind of skills of workers conditions the companys inno-
vative capacity. High levels of competences and knowledge are required for these
employees (Li et al., 2009).
Consequently, we ask the following questions: What is the relationship be-
tween organizational structure, ICT and ideas and knowledge management in an
innovative company? Are they a source of innovation?
1.1 Innovation, Organizational Structure, Ideas and Knowledge

Management and ICT
Organizational structure can be defined as the way in which the set of relation-
ships (jobs, tasks, authority and decision flows) are ordered in a company by tak-
ing into account an appropriate level of communication and coordination between
the people; evidently, this influences in information flows. It requires a continuous
learning. This implies organizational changes that result in the coordination of
796
new ways of working, to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. An organi-

zational structure should facilitate and enhance the selection, formulation and im-
plementation of innovation strategies. Thus, organizational designs have evolved
and changed from linear to network models (Velasco and Zamanillo, 2008). We
want to point out that there is not a unique organizational structure that encourages
innovation because this fact depends on other factors as the type of company, size,
industry configuration and access to resources (Mintzberg, 1989). In this sense,
business strategy should be focused on the identification and satisfaction of cus-
tomers needs. This process has to be conceived from an intelligent organizational
structure to acquire, create, develop, build and share continuous ideas and new
knowledge in a dynamic process (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995).
Also the generation of ideas and knowledge management has become critical
factors for achieving and maintaining competitive advantage (Grant, 1996; Nona-
ka, 1994). An optimal use of ICT facilitates the flow of ideas and knowledge. ICT
is a set of techniques, developments and advanced devices that integrate functions
of storage, processing and transmission of data to be transformed into information
(Baskerville et al., 2013). Both organizational structure and ideas management
system have to be integrated through information systems based on ICT. We de-
fine information system as a set of procedures to manage the companys infor-
mation (Baskerville et al., 2013). It allows the collection of relevant data to pro-
cess them properly in order to transform them into information, store information
that can be useful and provide it to the decision makers in due time.
Keep in mind that the distribution of ideas and knowledge is a central criterion
in organizational design. Information is the key for good decision making, so it is
necessary to consider its importance, nature, where and how it is produced, trans-
fer costs, etc. Development of ICT has overcome, at least partially, the problem of
the information location in different places. Moreover, ICT allow information to
be available on line and at a relatively low cost (Laud and Thies, 1997; Tsoukas,
1996), what leads to some authors to identify new organizational design trends
linked to ICT. However, there are multiple matches in many of these proposals,
which may denote the possibility that different terms have being used to describe
the same or similar organizational form (Hodge et al., 2002). What is clear is the
existence of a change in the coordination activities mechanism, moving from di-
rect supervision to normalization of results. Thus, it can be said that the debate on
the efficient degree of centralization is enhanced by studying the impact of ICT
(Malone, 1997; Wilson, 1999). As we can see, the development of ICT is affecting
the way to work in companies, resulting in people the need to uncover new abili-
ties, skills and competences. ICT affect jobs and communication and coordination
relations. They also boost new information circuits to create and share ideas and
knowledge, a main step for innovation.
Ideas and knowledge management causes information flows, their analysis and
the distribution to people who need it at the due time to be useful for decision
making. Then, organizational structure design should focus on the collection, pro-
797
cessing and effective use of information to contribute to company performance.

Consequently, companies and employees have to accept changes. In addition,
some authors justify how competences and human resource management practices
are related to the possession of certain organizational capabilities (Barney and
Wright, 1998; Pfeffer, 1994), and how innovation and management tools are used
to increase benefits (Albaladejo et al., 2009; Libaers et al., 2009).
1.2 Integrated Model of Organizational Structure and

Management of Ideas (IMOSMI)
In this context, we define an integrated model that relates information flows with
generation of ideas and knowledge management under the organizational struc-
ture. The information and the knowledge are possessed by the persons who trans-
form them into capacities and competences from which ideas arise to give place to
innovations for improving the competitiveness and managerial productivity in the
company. (see Figure 1).
Fig. 1 Integrated Model of Organizational Structure and Management of Ideas (IMOSMI)
This model aims to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and competitiveness

of companies by implementing different good practices (concreted in the next sec-
tion of this paper) that leads to innovation. The basis of this model is that compa-
nies must have an organizational structure and an ideas and knowledge manage-
ment system that facilitate and encourage innovation by using ICT to share
information between people (Santandreu and Cans, 2010). Their characteristics,
which we can also consider as ways of working practices, can be synthesized in a
flexible organizational structure.
798
2 Innovative Companies in Rio de Janeiro region
To identify good practices arising from ideas and knowledge management covered
in the organizational structure and in the information systems of the company, we
use a qualitative methodology: grounded theory. This methodology is appropriate
in this case since the subjects themselves are part of the object of study and be-
cause both variables and results have to do with the behavior and the human rela-
tionship. Grounded theory generates a conceptual inductive model; that is, from
the observation of the real world, some hypotheses are developed to construct the
theory. Thus, the researcher reaches general conclusions from a particular envi-
ronment, from the experience of the studied subjects (Glaser, 2002).
Thus, the process of grounded theory can be summarized as follows (Murillo
and Lozano, 2006): 1. Collection and analysis of data are concurrent; 2. Data de-
termine processes and products of research rather than preconceived theoretical
frameworks; 3. Analytical processes give rise to the discovery and new theoretical
development, not only verify already known theories; 4. Sampling is based on par-
tial results emerging from the data. It is called theoretical sampling and is useful to
refine, develop and complete categories; 5. The systematic use of analytical pro-
cedures leads to more abstract levels of analysis.
A key feature is the circularity of the process. According to Glaser and Strauss
(1967), although this method is a continuous growth process (each stage after a
while turns into the next), previous stages remain operational throughout the anal-
ysis and provide ongoing development at the following stadium until the analysis
is completed. This means that in this method there is an entanglement of data col-
lection, coding, analysis and interpretation of information throughout the process,
which, in some way reflects the holistic nature of qualitative research.
Following this methodology, individual results are compared to each other and
see if there are matches that allow the generalization of results to all individuals.
Then, some categories or patterns can be established, in our case, they can be con-
sidered as good practices emerging from organizational structure, ideas and
knowledge management, and ICT, leading to innovation. This exploratory study
can be stated in three steps: 1) data collection; 2) sample selection; 3) data pro-
cessing.
To collect data we designed a semi-structured interview based in the literature
revision, consisting of five parts comprising three objectives: 1) to determine the
organizational structure to identify what type of structure is used; 2) to know if in-
novation is developed in the company, what type and how to determine if any in-
novation process exists; 3) to know how information, ideas and knowledge are
managed and if a model exists. The interview was conducted with the CEOs of 14
innovative companies from different industries located in the region of Rio de
Janeiro (Brazil). In this sense, and according to Bierly and Daly (2007), the inclu-
sion of companies from different industries provides a global view, which is very
convenient since this is an exploratory research.
799
A feature of grounded theory is that the sample is not known at the beginning
of the analysis (Garca-Sabater and Marn-Garca, 2009). This is because the con-
stant comparative method implies that as the interviews are conducted, and data
are processed, in our case, by using Atlas.ti software. The process finishes when
information is saturated, that is, when new data add no additional value. In the
case of Rio Janeiro 14 interviews in total were conducted. In the experiment, in-
terviews took two hours on average. They were recorded and transcribed into a
text file, used in Atlas.ti software as a primary document. Then, codes are individ-
ually generated by searching for patterns that emerge from the study data. Atlas.ti
groups those repeated codes, matching the ones common to the sample. The codes
are categories or patterns, where theory is generated from, establishing possible
relationships between them.
Thus, we have identified common good practices to these innovative compa-
nies. Brazilian results show 34 good practices related to the organizational struc-
ture, ideas and knowledge management, and ICT, being all of the areas potential
sources of innovation. Categories, patterns or good practices are 34 in total: con-
stant search of information, external partners, organizing committee, share
knowledge, share information, competitiveness, communication, confidence, crea-
tivity, quality, culture, clear definition of objectives, strategy, experience, adminis-
trative flexibility, training, intranet, investment and development, continuous im-
provement, mission, motivation, multidisciplinary, patents, workers profile,
publication, HR recognition, social networking, regular meetings, information sys-
tems, innovation systems, sustainability, differentiated work, group work, project
work, technology transfer and vision. As we can see, all are related with the or-
ganizational structure, ideas and knowledge management and/or ICT.
3 Contributions and Future Research
The first contribution of this presentation is the creation of an integrated model

(IMOSMI) considering organizational structure and management system of ideas
and knowledge, all connected by a correct use of ICT, taking into account agility,
flexibility, or innovative capabilities, among other corporative characteristics.
The second contribution is the development of an experiment in some innova-
tive companies in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) to identify good practices included in
IMOSMI. For this, grounded theory has been used.
A deeper reflection about these results and its relations has to be made in future
papers. In this sense, the implementation of some or all the identified good prac-
tices by managers who want to innovate would be proposed to contrast the results.
Moreover, we want to analyze the financial statements of innovative companies in
order to see how they reflect results or follow any particular model that can be
found in the literature. In this context, diagnosed good practices competences in
800
business become the link with the University. Today, European Higher Education
Area is moving to a teaching-learning process based on competences. Students
will be competent professionals who have adequate ideas, knowledge, skills and
attitudes to practice a profession. An example about the match between compe-
tences described in study plans and the real demand of employees can be found in
Santandreu et al. (2011).
4 References
Albaladejo M, Cans L, Maur J, Ramn F (2009) Classification of the Innovation Management

Tools in Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship: from University to Industry. Editorial UPV,
Valencia.
Amabile TM, Conti R, Coon H, Lazanby J (1996) Assessing the Work Environment for Creativi-
ty. Academy of Management Journal 39:1154-1184.
Atkinson J (1984) Manpower Strategies for Flexible Organizations. Personnel Management Au-
gust:28-31.
Balogun J, Johnson G (2004) Organizational restructuring and middle manager sensemaking.
Academy of Management Journal 47(4):523-549.
Barkema MG, Baum JAC, Mannix EA (2002) Management Challenges in a New Time. Acade-
my of Management Journal 45(5):916-930.
Barney JB, Wright PM (1998) On Becoming a Strategic Player: the Role of Human Resources in
Gaining Competitive Advantage. Human Resource Management 37(1):31-46.
Baskerville R, De Marco M, Spagnoletti P (2013) Designing organizational systems. Springer.
Bierly P, Daly P (2007) Alternative Knowledge Management Strategies, Competitive Environ-
ment, and Organizational Performance in Small Manufacturing Firms. Entrepreneurship The-
ory and Practice July:493-516.
Damanpour F (1991) Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis of Effect of Determinants and
Moderators. Academy of Management Journal 34(3):555-590.
Dyer L, Shafer RA (1999) From Human Resource Strategy to Organizational Effectiveness: Les-
sons from Research in Organizational Agility. Research in Personnel and Human Resource
Management 4:145-174.
Fors B, Camisn C (2008) La capacidad de absorcin de conocimiento: factores determinantes
internos y externos. Direccin y Organizacin 36:35-50.
Garca-Sabater JJ, Marin-Garcia JA (2009) Facilitadores y barreras para la sostenibilidad de la
mejora continua: Un estudio cualitativo en proveedores del automvil de la Comunidad Va-
lenciana. Intangible Capital 5(2):183-209.
Glaser B (2002) Conceptualization: On theory and theorizing using grounded theory. Interna-
tional Journal of Qualitative Methods 1(2):1-31.
Glaser B, Strauss A (1967) The discover of grounded: strategies for qualitative research. Al-
dine:Chicago.
Grant RM (1996) Prospering in dynamicallycompetitive environments: Organizational capabil-
ity as knowledge integration. Organization Science 7:375-387.
Hodge B, Anthony WP, Gales LM (2002) Organization theory: a strategic approach. Prentice
Hall.
Lado AA, Wilson MC (1994) Human Resource Systems and Sustained Competitive Advantage:
A Competency Based Perspective. Academy of Management Review 19:699-727.
Laud RL, Thies PK (1997) Great Expectations: Structuring IT Organizations that Really Deliver.
Business Horizons 40:25-36
801
Lepak DP, Snell SA (1999) The Human Resource Architecture: Toward a Theory of Human
Capital Allocation and Development. Academy of Management Review 24(1):31-48.
Lepak DP, Takeuchi R, Snell SA (2003) Employment Flexibility and Firm Performance: Exam-
ining the Interaction Effects of Employment Mode, Environmental Dynamism and Techno-
logical Intensity. Journal of Management 29(5):681-703.
Li H, Atuahene-Gima K (2001) Product Innovation Strategy and the Performance of New Tech-
nology Ventures in China. Academy of Management Journal 14:1123-1134.
Li JM, Yang JS, Wu HH (2009) Analysis of competency differences among frontline employees
from various service typologies: integrating the perspectives of the organisation and custom-
ers. Service Industries Journal 29(12):1763-1778.
Libaers D, Hicks D, Porte A (2009) A taxonomy of small firm technology commercialization,
Woks.bepress.com
Malone TW (1997) Is empowerment just a fad? Control, decision making and IT. Sloan Mana-
gement Review 38:23-36.
Mas M, Martnez C (2008) Anlisis del factor estratgico para alcanzar el xito de un proyecto
de gestin del conocimiento. Aplicacin al sector de la consultora. Direccin y Organizacin
37:52-59.
Mintzberg H (1989) Mintzberg on Management: inside our strange world of organizations. Free
Press, Chicago.
Murillo, D, Lozano, J (2006) SMEs and CSR: An approach to CSR in their own words. Journal
of Business Ethics, 67(3):227240.
Nonaka I (1994) A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science
5(1):14-37.
Nonaka I, Takeuchi HA (1995) The Knowledge Creating Company. How Japanese Companies
Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Oxford University Press, New York.
Perry-Smith JE, Shalley CE (2003) The Social side of Creativity: A Static and Dynamic Social
Network Perspective. Academy of Management Review 28(1):89-106.
Pfeffer J (1994) Competitive advantage through people: Unleashing the power of the work force.
Harvard Business School Press.
Santandreu C, Cans L (2010) An integrated model of organizational structure and ideas.
INBAM 2010: Creativity and Innovation in an International Context, Valencia, 1-9.
Santandreu C, Cans L, Pons C (2011) Competencies and skills for future Industrial Engineers
defined in Spanish degrees. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management 4(1):13-30.
Taggar B (2002) Individual Creativity and Group Ability to Utilize Individual Creative Re-
sources: A Multilevel Model. Academy of Management Journal 45(2):315-330.
Tang HK (1998) An Integrative Model of Innovation in Organizations. Technovation 18(5):297-
309.
Tsoukas H (1996) The firm as a distributed knowledge system: a constructionist approach. Stra-
tegic Management Journal 17:11-25
Van Den Bosch FAJ, Volberda HW, De Boer M (1999) Coevolution of firm absorptive capacity
and knowledge environment: Organizational forms and combinative capabilities. Organizati-
on Science 10:551-568.
Velasco E, Zamanillo I (2008) Evolucin de las propuestas sobre el proceso de innovacin: Qu
se puede incluir de su estudio? Investigaciones Europeas de Direccin y Economa de la Em-
presa 14(2):127-138.
Wilson F (1999) Cultural control within the virtual organization. The Sociological Review
47:672-694.
802
How Organizational Cybernetics Can Help to

Organize Debates on Complex Issues
Prez Ros J1, Velasco Jimnez I2, Snchez Mayoral P3
Abstract In this paper we expose how concepts taken from the Systems Thinking
field, and in particular Organizational Cybernetics (OC), can help decision makers
to study complex issues with the help of the information and communication tech-
nologies (ICT). We present some software tools developed within the Systems
Thinking and Organizational Cybernetics Research Group (STOCRG) of the Uni-
versity of Valladolid that based on OC concepts use ICTs to help groups of people
to study complex issues in a collaborative way through Internet. We discuss some
uses of OC to help collective decisions making and we show two international pi-
oneering experiences in which the ICTs have been used in combination with OC
concepts. In the first case the purpose was to create a collective scientific book by
a group of scientists working at distance and, in the second case, to organize a ma-
jor academic international event. We end the paper showing an example of specif-
ic software (Debates Organizer) developed in the STOCRG through the last 15
years to facilitate any size of groups of people through Internet the organization of
debates on complex issues.
Keywords: Organizational Cybernetics, Team Syntegrity, Debates Organizer
1Jos Prez Ros ( e-mail: rios@uva.es)
Grupo INSISOC. Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas y CIM. Escuela Tcnica Superior de

Ingeniera Informtica. Universidad de Valladolid. Campus Miguel Delibes S/N, 47011
Valladolid.
2IvnVelasco Jimnez e-mail: ivan.velasco@uva.es
Valladolid.
3Pablo Snchez Mayoral e-mail: mayoral@uva.es
Valladolid.
* This work has been supported in part by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin (Plan Nacional
de I+D+i) of Spain. Ref.: CSO2010-15745.
803
1 Introduction
In the last few decades the world has changed dramatically. Many are the interre-
lated factors involved in that change (socio-economic crisis, globalization, demo-
graphic, etc.). The consequence is that we live in a very complex social system. To
qualify the level of complexity of a system (or a situation) Ashby (1956) proposed
the concept of variety (number of possible states of a system) and set in his Law of
Requisite Variety that only variety can destroy variety. At the start of the seven-
ties, Conant and Ashby (1970) had argued, in the famous theorem that bears their
name, that a good regulator of a system must be a model of the system and that
the variety of the regulator must be at least equal to the variety of the system that
it pretends to regulate. If we think in the role of managers of organizations as
governors of them then they need models adequate to the task, that means mod-
els with requisite variety. The Systems Thinking field and in particular Organiza-
tional Cybernetics (OC) provide some models like the Viable System Model
(VSM) and tools like Team Syntegrity (TS)4 that can help decision takers to
tackle the complex problems facing them.
If we focus our attention in how to facilitate the decision-making and commu-
nication processes we should consider that, as Prez Ros (2008, 2012) expressed
it: The new frontier of humanity is, at the start of the XXIst century, not so much
scientific or technological development as an understanding of the complex social
systems in which we are immersed. Such understanding is fundamental for our be-
ing able to deal effectively with the problems of social tension facing mankind.
We must explore new ways to organize and engage in relations that will enhance
the processes of communication and decision-makingcertain fundamental chal-
lenges which still have not been resolved in a satisfactory way: for example, the
development of group-decision processes which are at the same time democratic,
creative and efficient, or the replacement of hierarchical organizational structures
by other more democratic ones in which all points of view can be effectively taken
into consideration. (Prez Ros 2012, pp. 201-202).
But, at the same time that the world changed and experienced an increase in its
dynamic complexity, a whole new set of technological tools related to information
and communication technologies (ICT) became available. Also the interest about
the role that these can play as a support to higher levels of people participation in
discussions and decision-making kept increasing. Examples of those technologies
can be found in what is generally known as groupware, which includes software
for planning and programming in groups, computer-assisted cooperative undertak-
ings, and the whole arsenal of tools that have appeared within the so-called Web
2.0 (Almuia, Perez Rios et al., 2008, pp. 253-265). The conjunction of these two
4
Team Syntegrity and Syntegration are registered trademarks by Team Syntegrity Inter-
nacional Inc. and Malik Management Zentrum St. Gallen.
804
cornerstonesnamely, on the one hand, the new conceptual framework for the
design of organisational structures and decision processes, and, on the other, the
availability of a technological support allowing remote collective inter-
communicationopens up new horizons for relations between individuals and in-
stitutions. (Prez Ros 2012, pp. 202).
In this paper we focus our attention on the application of concepts taken from
the Systems Thinking field and in particular Organizational Cybernetics (Beer
1979, 1981, 1985; Prez Ros 2012) to help decision makers to study complex is-
sues with the help of the information and communication technologies. In it we
present some software tools developed within the Systems Thinking and Organi-
zational Cybernetics Research Group (STOCRG- INSISOC) of the University of
Valladolid (UVA) that based on OC concepts use ICTs to help groups of people to
study complex issues in a collaborative way through Internet. The paper is struc-
ture as follows. First we make reference to how OC has been applied to help col-
lective decisions making. Next we show two international pioneering experiences
in which ICTs have been used in combination with OC concepts. The first case
purpose was to create a collective scientific book by a group of scientists working
at distance and, in the second case, to organize a major academic international
event. In the last part of this paper we show an example of specific software de-
veloped in the STOCRG through the last 15 years with the aim of helping any size
of groups of people to organize debates on complex issues through Internet.
2 Organizational Cybernetics and Group Decision Making
Among the diversity of conceptual tools that OC can provide to help collective
decision-making we will focus our attention on Team Syntegrity5 due to its val-
ue to facilitate those decision processes. Team Syntegrity consists basically of a
methodology developed by Stafford Beer (1994) with the aim of offering a crea-
tive, synergetic and participative platform for studying complex problemswhich
we might regard as a structured means of creating and communicating a group
awareness (Prez Ros 2012, pp.203).
The goals of the TS application can be summarized as follows: 1) To generate
a high level of participation among the individuals concerned 2) To provide a
structure and a system of communication that guarantee the non-hierarchical na-
ture of the process 3) To benefit from the variety and wealth of knowledge sup-
plied by each individual within the group, putting into practice the synergies de-
rived from the interaction among all its members 4) To create a collective
5
A detailed description of the Team Syntegrity protocols can be found in Prez Ros (2000,
2008) and in chapter five of the book: Prez Ros (2012) Design and Diagnosis for Sustainable
Organizations. The Viable System Method, Springer.
805
awareness, if possible shared among all the members of the group, regarding the
central issue being considered and analysed (Prez Ros 2012, pp.205).
The main phases in which is structured the process of application of TS are the
following: a) Opening question. The TS application process starts when a question
is asked concerning the issue to be studied or discussed. This question is normally
(though not necessarily) of a general, open nature; b) Explosion of variety (State-
ments). In this stage, each participant prepares statements he/she considers rele-
vant to the central question. The only requirements regarding these statements are
that they can be refuted and are not very extensive; c) Reduction of Variety and
grouping. After issuing and grouping the statements, we go on to generate Aggre-
gated Statements; d) Assigning topics to people. When the topics for discussion
have been identified, it is necessary to determine which persons among the group
are going to take part in the debate on each of them. We need therefore to find out
their preferences. Once these preferences have been ascertained, this information
is processed with the aid of a computerised assignment algorithm 6, which tries to
maximise the degree of satisfaction in the group; e) Generation of content. In this
phase the different teams which debate each of the main topics generates the in-
formation that clarifies the topic.
In the next section we will see some examples of how TS was used to help two
different groups of people to work collaboratively through Internet.
3 Communication and Information Technologies and Group

Decision-Making: Two cases
The fast development and diffusion of ICTs opened new ways to apply elements
of the OC to help people to debate complex issues without having to be necessari-
ly in the same place. Two pioneering examples of this are the Stafford Beer Fest-
schrift Project (SBFP) and the Horizonte 2000 Project.
The Stafford Beer Festschrift Project (SBFP) is the first application in the
world of TS, using ICTs. The purpose of the project was to set up a collective
study in which over 30 cyberneticians (among them J. Prez Ros, co-author of
this paper) from four continents and sixteen countries could create a scientific
work, revealing the usefulness of S. Beers different theories for all kinds of or-
ganisations and for society in general. This work would be presented to Beer to
celebrate his 70th birthday. The presentation in fact occurred on September 25 th
1996, at John Moores University in Liverpool. The undertaking was carried out
between October 1995 and July 1996. Almost all of the work, consisting of both
identifying the chapters it would include (12) and drawing up the content (more
6
The Systems Thinking and Organizational Cybernetics Research Group at the University of
Valladolid developed a set of optimizing algorithms for various TS configurations.
806
than 600 pages), was done remotely via Internet. This scientific work has been
published under the title: To be and not to be that is the system: A tribute to Staf-
ford Beer, CD ROM (Espejo, Schwaninger et al., 1997). In the book Intelligent
Organizations, M. Schwaninger, co-director of the project writes about the elabo-
ration process (Schwaninger, 2006, pp. 123-128).
The second example is the Horizonte 2000 Project. The aim of this project was
to promote the cooperation among the universities from Iberoamrica, Filipinas
and those of Spanish influence in the U.S.A. The project was presented in the
event named "I Encuentro de Rectores de Universidades Hispano-Americano-
Filipinas" which, organized by the University of Valladolid, took place in Val-
ladolid (Spain) on 23-27 march 1998. Its purpose was expressed as: To identify
and to start new ways of relationships among the various Spanish speaking univer-
sities. It intends, from 1998 on, to open a new historical period of relationships
based upon the equality, democracy and mutual trust. To make it possible and to
foster this process the new information and communication technologies will be
used. (Almuia, Prez Ros et al, 2000, pp.14-15). The debates system created to
make this possible was based on OC principles and it used a new software tool
created for this event (Iberforo-98 Project). We will comment some details of this
tool in the next section.
4 Group Decision-Making Software Tools. Debates Organizer
Based on OC principles and in some elements of the first phases of the TS ap-
proach we initiated in 1997 within the ST and OC Research Group of the UVA the
development of two groups of software tools to support several phases of the pro-
cess of knowledge capturing and organization of debates. The first group included
software tools that helped the application of TS protocols. The second group in-
cluded software tools oriented to facilitate the collective knowledge capturing and
study of complex issues, as well as the realization of debates through Internet.
These set of tools were presented in the Fourth Metaphorum Conference in Liver-
pool in 2006 (Prez Ros, 2006).
The first group of tools (based in TS) includes: 1) Software to configure and
organize groups sessions in different size options (number of persons: 30, 24, 28,
12, 6); 2) Software to optimize (maximize participants satisfaction) the assign-
ments (persons to issues) in the physically organized sessions; 3) Software to fa-
cilitate through Internet the visualization in 3D of the various TS configurations
(view of Topics and Participants, as vertex and struts respectively, in figures cor-
responding to various groups sizes/configurations as represented by the icosahe-
dron-30, octahedron-12, tetrahedron-6, etc.).
The second group of tools was oriented to help decision makers to study com-
plex issue through Internet. Here we include two different software applications.
807
The first of them (Col-KCap) was created to help the members of a group to gen-
erate through Internet a causal map of the complex problem object of study (Prez
Ros 1999). It allowed the incorporation of all kind of information both to the var-
iables and to the relations between them, as well as the realization of a MIMAC
study (cross-impact analysis) and classification of variables in four main groups
(active, passive, critical and inert). The second set of software application (De-
bates Organizer) was oriented to facilitate the organization of debates of complex
issues to any number of persons through Internet (www.debatesorganizer.org).
The advantage of using this Internet modality of debates versus the physical
meetings (i.e.: the meetings organized with TS, as mentioned in the previous para-
graph) is that the persons who compose the group can be located anywhere in
space and can intervene at the time that best fits their needs or availability. Anoth-
er advantage is that a person is not limited to belong only to two specific teams
(Topics), as happens in the physical applications of the TS (the two vertex con-
nected by a strut). A person can participate virtually in as many Teams/Topics
as she/he likes. Of course there are practical limitations about its number (time
availability etc.).
The first version of this software was used in the above-mentioned Project
Horizonte 2000 (Prez Ros 1998, 2000) to organize the I Encuentro de Rectores
de Universidades Hispano-Americano-Filipinas mentioned in the Section 3 (See
Almuia, Prez Ros et al. 2000). This project financed in part by the BSCH, was
the precursor of the Universia project created in 2000 by the BSCH. The infor-
mation and communication based software tools used in this project constituted
the Iberforo-98 project, later called Iberfora-2000. One of its components was the
software to facilitate the organization of debates whose functioning we describe
below. The initial version of this software which was used by the rectors who par-
ticipated in the I Encuentro de Rectores included these three main phases of the
Internet based debate: a) Formulation of the Issue to be studied b) Expansion of
Variety and c) Reduction of Variety and Aggregation of Ideas. An advanced ver-
sion of this software was presented in the Metaphorum Conference in Liverpool
(Prez Ros, 2006). Since then we have been using it continuously in our teaching
activity in the UVA with engineering students (Information Science, Telecommu-
nications etc.). Let us see briefly how it works.
The application of the Debates Organizer to study of a complex issue follows
the steps that we describe next.
The organization of a debate starts with the identification of the people who is
going to intervene in the process (can be located anywhere because their activity
will be done through Internet) and the configuration of the debate. In Figure 1
(screenshots from the software Debates Organizer) we can see some of the menu
options for the administrator to configure the application.
Once created the debate the first step is the launching of the question that ex-
presses the issue to be clarified/answered. This question is presented to the group
as a debate kick-off in the form of a manifesto to the group. For example in the
808
case of the "I Encuentro de Rectores de Universidades Hispano-Americano-

Filipinas" the question was: How to organize (now and in future) the relation-
ships between the various Universities Hispano-Americano-Filipinas, based on a
common language and culture, in order to get the maximum benefit for our socie-
ties? Another example is the issue/question proposed to students of Information
Science Engineering: What do you think are the effects of the current financial
crisis for society and what role ICTs can play in this new scenario? Once known
the question the members of the group have a period of time to generate the state-
ments/ideas that each of them considers it relates to answering the issue/question
proposed (Figure 2).
Fig. 1 Debates Organizer main screens (Administrator and Users options)
Fig. 2 Debates Organizer (List of Statements/ Ideas)
809
In the next step the members of the group propose the aggregation of state-
ments (see Figure 3). The purpose of this phase is to consolidate related ideas into
a more elaborated Aggregated Statement. Each of the Aggregated Statement fi-
nally agreed would constitute the Final topics which condense the answer of the
group to the question/issue under study. This process (generation of ideas, aggre-
gation and final consolidation) is enriched with the comments (visible to the
group) to all ideas made by the group members through time. The final step is the
Generation of Content for each of the Final Topics. This is done typically in phys-
ical meetings but some research is in process about its realization at least partially
with the help of Internet.
Fig. 3 Debates Organizer (Example of Comment to a Statement and List of Aggregated State-
ments)
Fig. 4 Debates Organizer (Example of Aggregated Statements)
810
5 Conclusions
In this paper we presented some examples of applications of OC concepts and

tools to help managers to study complex issues in a collaborative way. We com-
mented two international projects (SBFP and Horizonte 2000) in which these have
been applied in combination with ICT tools. We exposed as well several software
developments done at the STOC research group with the aim of facilitating the or-
ganization of debate sessions through Internet. We provide also some information
about how one of those -the debates organizer software- works. This application
can be used not only to help managers of private companies to make group deci-
sions but to all kind of organizations, no matter if they are public, private, big or
small, for profit or non-profit etc. In fact one of our current lines of research is to
explore how evolved version of this tools can provide support to a more collabora-
tive and efficient citizens participation in public affairs.
7 References
Almuia C, Martn R. y Prez Ros J (eds.) (2000) Las Universidades iberoamericanas en la so-
ciedad del conocimiento. Universidad de Valladolid. Valladolid, ISBN: 84-8448-03-3.
Almuia C, Prez Ros J et al. (2008) La relevancia de los medios de comunicacin en Castilla y
Len. Consejo Econmico y Social de Castilla y Len. ISBN: 978-84-95308-37-5.
Ashby WR (1956) An Introduction to Cybernetics,Vol. 2, Chapman Hall, London.
Beer S (1979) The Heart of Enterprise. Wiley. Chichester.
Beer S (1981) Brain of the Firm, 2nd edn. Wiley. Chichester.
Beer S (1985) Diagnosing the System for Organizations. Wiley. Chichester.
Beer S (1994) Beyond Dispute. The Invention of Team Syntegrity. Wiley. Chichester.
Conant RC and Ashby WR (1970) Every good regulator of a system must be model of that sys-
tem, Int. J. Systems Science, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 89-97.
Espejo R, Schwaninger M et al. (1997) To be and not to be that is the system: A tribute to Staf-
ford Beer. CD ROM, Wiesbaden; Carl Auer-Systeme Verlag.
Prez Ros J (1998) La sintegracin en equipos y el aprendizaje en las organizaciones. El caso
de IBERFORO-98. Key note speech. I Reunin de Rectores de Universidades Hispano-
Americanas-Filipinas. Marzo 1998, Valladolid, Spain.
Prez Ros, J. (1999) MODELADO INTEGRADO DE SISTEMAS: Combinacin de metodolo-
gas cualitativas y cuantitativas para el estudio de sistemas dinmicos. III Jornadas de Inge-
niera de Organizacin, Barcelona. ISBN: 84-95355-00-0
Prez Ros J (2000) Nuevas formas organizativas en sociedades complejas. In Almuia C, Martn
R, Prez Ros J (eds.). Las Universidades Iberoamericanas en la sociedad del conocimiento.
Universidad de Valladolid: Valladolid, Spain; 291317.
Prez Ros, J. (2006) Information and Communication Technologies And Organizational Cyber-
netics. The Fourth Metaphorum Conference. Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool,
U.K., MAY, 4th-5th, 2006
Prez Ros J (2008) Diseo y diagnstico de organizaciones viables. Un enfoque sistmico.
IBERFORA 20000. ISBN: 978-84-612-5845-1.
Prez Ros J (2012) Design and diagnosis for sustainable organizations: The viable system meth-
od. Springer: Heidelberg, London, New York, NY.
811
Schwaninger M (2006) Intelligent Organizations. Powerful Models for Systemic Management.

Springer Berlin: Heidelberg.
812
The M.A.G. Factor.

Management, Administration and Guidance.
Where and How Much MAG Does Each Project
Deserve and Need?
A New, Original Assessment and Scoring
System
Taylor T1
Abstract This paper explains in outline a new and original assessment and scoring
system to assist project managers in assessing the areas and levels of Manage-
ment, Administration and Guidance (MAG) that clients may require when being
involved in projects. The development of this system arose from consideration of
client: project manager relationships on a variety of projects; and in particular the
amounts of assistance and help that may need to be provided. A number of possi-
ble criteria, circumstances and influences were identified; and these have contin-
ued to be refined through project activities and by undertaking exercises with stu-
dents on post graduate courses. Research and applications are continuing.
Contributions, comments and corrections are welcome.
Keywords: Clients, Project Managers, Help and Assistance, Management, Ad-

ministration and Guidance, Score System and analysis.
1Tom Taylor ( e-mail:ttaylor@dashdot.co.uk )

Tom is a principal of dashdot; a joint founder of Buro Four and a retained advisor; and President
of the Association for Project Management. Further information on all three of these
organisations may be found on their websites. A profile on Tom is available on
www.tomtaylorinfo.co.uk.
813
1 Introduction
This short paper seeks to introduce the MAG factor a new original assessment
and scoring system for a whole range of projects. A MAG factor assessment will
greatly assist addressing the following conundrums:
Why is it that some Clients appear to need more help than others with the
management, administration and guidance (MAG) for their projects?
Why is it that projects which seem to be similar, even identical, in fact require
different MAG contributions and workloads?
When there is only a limited MAG expertise and resource available where
should they be applied most effectively?
When there are particular MAG concerns what should be done about them?
What type, style and ethos of project management are needed and available?
2 What is MAG? Management, Administration and Guidance
When a client / customer identifies a project or is landed with a situation to which

a project approach is most appropriate then they will at some point consider how
the project is to be organised. From a clients perspective the project management
requirements may be broken down into three groups of: Management, Administra-
tion and Guidance hence MAG.
Management is the management of the project, programme or collection of pro-
jects. This will involve determining the project, devising the course to deliver it,
selecting the team and driving all aspects of the project forward to achieve its
goals. Leadership is involved and the strategic aspects are established and priori-
tised. Some Clients (or their internal managers) may want and feel able and will-
ing to undertake this role throughout the project. Others may feel that they are in
need of MAG help overall, or for some aspects and/or some stages. The question
is: How much Management help in the MAG Factor does the Client require?
Administration covers the more technical and tactical aspects of projects. Inev-
itably there is some administration involved in all projects sometimes a lot
covering secretarial, accountancy, budgeting, payments, arranging events and
meetings, keeping records, monitoring, analysing and reporting, etc. Much of this
activity and data supports the people and organisations who are managing as
above. Some clients have experienced in-house resources who are available and
willing to undertake all or most or only some of these tasks. The project activities
and administration needs usually grow as the project progresses. The question is:
How much Administration help in the MAG Factor does the client require for
this project?
814
Guidance even when a client has confidence in their own Management and
Administration there may be circumstances when they need Guidance in the defi-
nition or delivery aspects of a project. Whilst most clients have reasonable
knowledge of the legal system, accountancy, human relations, property, etc. they
still retain or go to specialist advisors for guidance. This may extend even to rep-
resentations by such people but will not necessarily replace the overall manage-
ment, decision making and ownership which will remain with the client or their
designated project or operational representatives. Such guidance if required may
be provided by mentors, advisors, gurus, friends, managers as above, administra-
tors as above. So the question is How much Guidance help in the MAG Factor
does the Client need?
3 Timing and Plans of Work
Most projects can be broken down into discrete stages. For example for construc-
tion/building projects there are usually three key stages:
Feasibility: when the brief and scheme solution are established, key approvals
and funding sought and go ahead received.
Pre-Construction: when the main detail design, procurement and orders are
completed.
Construction: when the main works are executed with any remaining design
and procurement through to completion and probably a bit beyond to deal
with settlement of accounts and any outstanding issues.
And then there is:
Post Completion: this stage is vital in securing the original outcomes, benefits
and more for the client that justified the resources and efforts in the first place.
Therefore it is possible to undertake a MAG Factor review at the start of each
of these stages, as well as any single time on a project when such matters are be-
ing addressed.
In addition there are two other circumstances that a MAG Factor review might
take place:
At times of difficulty/problems/crisis this is when a review might address if
the appropriate levels of client contribution and MAG help are being applied
and to appropriate aspects of the project.
At the end of a project as part of the project debrief or lessons learned to ascer-
tain where the pressures and problems occurred and how they were handled.
815
4 Outputs
From experience, research and application ten key criteria have been identified to
establish the MAG factor plus some further other optional criteria.
It is possible to apply these criteria to any project to establish:
the overall and average MAG Factor scores in comparison with other pro-
jects and benchmarks,
the aspects on which low scores have been established and how they are to be
maintained,
the aspects on which high scores have been established - and the consequential
efforts and attention that are required on these aspects to deal with them or to
endeavour to lower their scores
a common understanding within the client body on the likely MAG needs and
solutions.
a common approach on how naturally limited MAG efforts are to be expended
and prioritised.
5 Mag Scoring
The recommended approach to scoring is to use a 1 to 10 approach; with 1 being

low and 10 being high; not applicable , if really true, can score 0/zero/nil.
The scores can be allocated in relation to the resource efforts to be applied to
each criteria in a reasonable time period of say a week, month or period for a stage
within a plan of work.
In cases where the team can not agreed on a single score then they can record
the range under consideration, move on and return on conclusion of the exercise.
Similarly if some circumstances for a criteria would score high while others
would score low then record circumstances, assumptions and scores for both and
place their resolution in the recommendations.
6 MAG Criteria
Ten criteria have been identified as consistent influences which affect the amount
and foci of MAG required on projects. The ten selected criteria with a brief de-
scription of each are as follows:
816
Same or Different Sector

Clients who operate within the same sector as the project will probably need
less help. For example a bank might need less help bringing in revised banking
regulations but might need more help in setting up Health and Safety arrange-
ments.
First Time Type / Volume
Clients who are undertaking this type or size of project for the first time will
probably need more help.
For example a retailer who has previously acquired and fitted out their shops on
an individual basis would need more help for say a national acquisition and make-
over of fifty units.
First Time Contract / Procurement
New, different or complex contract and procurement will probably need more
help. For example in understanding and applying the first design and build ar-
rangement or multi packaged contracts or foreign sourced services or products.
Similarly assembling suitable component tender lists with sourcing, assessing
and selecting in a new market place or against new requirements will require more
effort.
In Occupation / Use
Clients with premises in occupation or ongoing operations will need more help
with their capital projects. Also for example places adjacent to day-to-day use
road widening; airport facilities; railway track, signalling and stations these all
requires more help, than a green field situation.
Individual or Committee Culture (double edged)
Single headed clients probably need less help then say large complex commit-
tees possibly. Except sometimes the individual client can be quite demanding
and/or distant; while the experienced committee can be effective, authoritative and
prompt possibly.
Funding
Externally funded projects probably need more help to secure monies, satisfy
funders, deal with payments, etc. compared with internally, simple or self funding.
For example projects with Lottery backing and/or the need for public fundraising
will need help with financial expertise and fund raising resourcing.
Own Occupations / Use
Projects for self occupation probably need more help. Owner occupiers have
been known to demonstrate characteristics of being fussy, multi headed, have dif-
ficulties making decisions, and wish to change their minds to achieve perfection
817
while at the same time they may work on projects for others without these fea-
tures.
In Relationships (double edged)
Clients in established satisfactory partnering, technical staff employed or other
relationships will need less new help possibly.
However it may be that not all the team members are in such relationships with
the client and/or the relationships have become causal and not consistent with the
formal agreements or reasonable expectations possibly.
Stakeholders
Projects with diverse or multiple stakeholders will probably need more help.
Management, coordination and liaison of stakeholders and participants can be
underestimated as soft skills, compared with the other more tangible hard tasks.
Availability (double edged)
Clients with predominant day jobs and distractions will need more help with
their additional projects or will they?
However some clients with busy schedules can be quite decisive and hands off,
whilst clients with time on their hands can become over involved(?)
Other Criteria
There may be other circumstances in which clients require more help with the
management, administration and guidance (MAG) of their projects which can be
individually recognised.
For example Health Safety and Welfare requirements are a high priority and
require extra attention in power generation and transmission projects as well as
other sectors. Additional help may be required when these are particular is-
sues.
Diverse Locations such as in manufacture at various plants of the compo-
nents which constitute modern aircraft compounded by language, culture,
time zone differences.
Unknowns, Uncertainties and Complexity cover situations where there are
likely to be a greater number of changes than usual on a project; or there are
more unknowns at a stage then might reasonably be expected (these circum-
stances should also be reflected in higher than usual budget contingencies to
deal with them as well as aspects of Agile Management and Complex Project
Management).
818
7 Way Forward
The recommended way forward for the first time is on the following lines:
Read over and become familiar with the criteria.
Select all or some of the case study projects as trials below.
Select a team including the client for a workshop set of exercises which hope-
fully will include quite experienced and less experienced people working in
mixed sets of two or three or individually.
Undertake the case studies and complete their MAG Factor scores and prepare
the recommendations discuss the outcomes use a sample score sheet. [In-
evitably there are ranges of interpretations for each case study and how to apply
each criteria and as a group. There are no right answers. Some sample model
answers are available to aid discussions of the outcomes.]
Now the real thing! Provide a brief summary of your project to hand, add some
assumptions, including for whole project duration or a stage only, assess the
project against the criteria and any other criteria that may be pertinent calcu-
late the scores and make recommendations for the organisation of the project.
Discuss the project, the assumptions, the scores and recommendations to decide
what is to be done to clarify any issues, make decisions, implement decisions
and set date or circumstances to monitor the MAG criteria and undertake fur-
ther review(s).
It is advisable to identify, consider and record any further assumptions the team
may wish to adopt from the outline project description and the application of
criteria.
8 Case Studies
The following case studies, all with construction sector content, are offered to test
readers approach to the MAG Factor. Readers can add their own case studies as
previous or hypothetical projects with other features or from other sectors.
Road Signs in Blobshire
To replace all road signs in Blobshire UK with miles and kilometre measure-
ments to new European standards within eighteen months
More Housing
Phase 3B of a housing estate for a further 120 semi-detached and detached two
and three bedroom units on previously agricultural land by Top Ten House
Builders Co. Ltd
819
Rejuvenated Theatre
Demolition of 50% of community theatre premises, rebuild, refurbish, extend
as part of urban regeneration with European, regional, local and public funding
contributions to correspond with 100 year anniversary while continuing theatre
productions elsewhere.
Mixed Development at Transport Interchange
First new, privately-developed mainline railway station in a city centre on con-
taminated railway land, 800m from existing station, with specially assembled con-
sortium covering commercial offices, property, construction with design, retail
operator, railway company and local authority with some social residential,
some leisure, some public space and link to adjacent separate bus/coach station
and tram terminus.
Improved Security to Retail Units
Following a series of break ins and robberies on security and insurance advice
it has been decided to improve security to 1000 shop units throughout the country
and 20 in North America with replacement locks throughout, internal CCTV sys-
tems to half and internal or external shutters to about quarter - to be undertaken in
evenings and Sundays over a concentrated four week period as soon as possible.
9 Conclusions
In all project situations there is a need for competent, good practice, helpful Man-
agement, Administration and Guidance. The reverse is not appropriate or helpful
e.g. inexperienced or remote or very light management; or bureaucratic or burden-
some or inadequate administration; or inappropriate or mistimed or self-servering
guidance.
The MAG Factor is a fairly simple concept to understand. It provides a consid-
ered and measured way to deal with a range of issues which otherwise can be
vague and difficult and on which possibly only intuition and good/bad experi-
ence would otherwise be used.
However despite the simplicity developing skills in applying and using the
MAG Factor approach takes some time and effort hence the inclusion of case
studies and suggestions of a joint workshop approach to bring out understanding
and assist applications.
Skills in use will be improved by being organised in the approach, carefully
considering criteria (and changing or adding other criteria), by keeping previous
score profiles, and observing the influences of refining project descriptions or as-
sumptions.
820
This approach can also be of assistance to or be combined with risk reviews,

benefits management, governance contributions etc.
Persons and organisations who have a structured view concerning Manage-
ment, Administration and Guidance by using the MAG Factor or similar will be
able to provide leadership and efficiency to projects and have advantages over
persons who do not have such outlooks or information.
Good Luck with your projects.
10 References
T.Taylor (2008) How to Select the Right Project Manager. Published by Dashdot
T.Taylor (2010) Sustainability Interventions for managers of projects and programmes with
some serious opportunities, challenges and dilemmas Published by CEBE and Dashdot
T.Taylor (2011) Leadership in Action. Published by Dashdot
821
EN-06
Service Systems
823
Tourism Destination Web Monitor: A

Technological Platform for the Acquisition of
Tourist Information through the Web Presence
of the DMOs
Rebon F1, Gerrikagoiti J.K2, Ochoa Laburu C3
Abstract In order to measure, analyze and model the behavior of visitors to the
different virtual spaces, CICtourGUNE (Centre for Cooperative Research in Tour-
ism) has created a pioneer platform, Tourism Destination Web Monitor. This arti-
cle describes the platform, its structure and its potential as a support for possible
subsequent research.
Keywords: Tourism Destination Web Monitor, Tourist Destination Image, Web

Analytics, User Behavior
1 Introduction
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO 2012) foresees that world tourism
will continue to grow between 2% and 4% in 2013, and is expected that by 2030
the tourism industry will generate 9.6% of world GDP with 300 million direct jobs
(OMT 2012).
Before the current situation of economic crisis, Governments were aware of the
importance of tourist economic activity and the crucial role that tourism plays in
1
Fidel Rebn ( e-mail: fidelrebon@tourgune.org)
CIC Tourgune. Paseo Mikeletegi 71 - 3.planta, Parque Tecnolgico de Miramn, 2009 San
Sebastin
2
Jon Kepa Gerrikagoitia ( e-mail: jonkepagerrikagoitia@tourgune.org)
CIC Tourgune. Paseo Mikeletegi 71 - 3.planta, Parque Tecnolgico de Miramn, 2009 San
Sebastin
3
Carlos Ochoa Laburu ( e-mail: carlos.ochoa-laburu@ehu.es)
Escuela Politcnica, UPV/EHU, Plaza de Europa 1, 20018 San Sebastin
825
the development of regions (Wanhill et al. 1998). Today, it is vital to make efforts
in this sector; since it has a great capacity of influence in the social and economic
development.
To have great tourist resources is not enough to attract visitors to a destination.
It is the image that tourists have and their attitude toward that destination, the two
factors that trigger their choice (Ahmed 1996).
Baloglu & McCleary (1999) defined the image as the mental representation of
beliefs, feelings, and the overall impression of the individual on a destination.
Bulnes (2008) offers us a more precise definition: "is the individual or holistic
perception of the individual on a specific destination, highlighting its functional
and psychological components". This image is created by means of stimulation
and personal factors. The first relate the amount and nature of the information to
which individuals are exposed and the seconds to the motivations, the sociodemo-
graphic characteristics and its cultural geographic origin (Santana et al. 2004).
There are several works that demonstrate the variety and the type of infor-
mation that have to be used in order to have significant effects on the image of a
destination (Andrade 2010).
In recent years there have been modifications on the habits of information con-
sumption by tourist consumers when they plan their tourist activities. There has
been a shift from traditional consultation sources towards the employment of new
technologies. It is here where the study of destination web sites emerges as a
source of information and its significant influence on the perceived image.
The creation and management of a distinct and attractive image of tourist desti-
nations is a key component in the process of positioning a tourist destination in the
minds of individuals (Calantone et al. 1989 and Kotler et al. 1993). Therefore, the
DMO, Destination Management Organization, should act as a "promoter of desti-
nation", facilitating and catalyzing the tourism development from the competitive
and sustainable point of view (Presenza 2006).
CICtourGUNE has created a pioneer platform, Tourism Destination Web Mon-
itor with the compromise of measure, analyze and model the behavior of visitors
to the different virtual spaces. This article defines the platform, its structure and its
potential as a support for possible subsequent research.
2 Tourism Destination Web Monitor
Nowadays the study of tourism cannot be based only on data generated by statisti-
cal institutes or the traditional studies of collecting census data or samples in
place. The digital fingerprint left by companies, institutions, visitors, tourists and
travelers interested in any potential destination allow the approach to the
knowledge of the tourism phenomenon from a new and long rang point of view.
The content generated by users on the web through social media, the access to
826
websites of destination and the brokerage websites, as well as another activities in

a virtual environment, allow to know patterns of behavior, consumption or par-
ticular circumstances, to analyze the creation of brands and carry out analysis of
impacts or the opinions expressed spontaneously among others.
This way, the knowledge about customers or consumers and tourism markets
can be improved, as well as the way the different actors of the tourism sector in-
teract with them more efficiently and effectively.
The aim of the platform is to measure, analyze and model the behavior of visi-
tors in different virtual areas (region, territories, tourist brands, associations, capi-
tals, districts, municipalities) in which a destination is promoted. To do this, there
is a tool of tracking that captures the interaction of visitors to websites, getting au-
tomatically the information of the digital fingerprint that they are leaving.
The platform helps to know the network system comprising the various sites
and the relationships between them through visitor interactions. So that we can
achieve a holistic understanding of the destination as a whole and in a disaggre-
gated way. The holistic positioning of the destination will depend on the traffic
that the network it is capable to capture. And the monitor will help to define strat-
egies to capture it.
In Fig.1 we show the general stages of the process that the Tourism Destination
Web Monitor perform. First the user's data are acquired through different plat-
forms available on the market. This will depend on which the user is using at that
time to interact with the website of the tourist destination: a desktop PC, a smart
mobile, a tablet or a pda. The collected data are processed on external servers to
later convert them into useful information that will be monitored. Once that the
monitored results are available, we proceed to analyze and evaluate the in order to
draw conclusions about the consumer profile of those destinations.
Fig. 1 General stages of Tourism Destination Web Monitor
827
With the availability of analytical data from different target sites in a

disaggregated way, we can compare them and make joint policies between
different DMOs. Also, this is a scalable solution that it can evolve over time as the
DMOs generate new questions to the platform.
2.1 Architecture of Tourism Destination Web Monitor
The technical platform (Fig. 2) begins to capture data before the visitor enters the
web page of the destination, recording the search engine and the web searched
word that has led to the destination, in the case that the entry is not direct. It is
possible by means of the incorporation of a small code that must be hosted on
each destination website.
User data are obtained using an open source web analytics platform and stored
in a MySQL4 database.
Once data are stored in the MySQL database, they are processed and stored in a
SQL5 Server database through an ETL (Extract, Transform and Load). This is a
daily process, although it could be adapted to any temporality, where data are rec-
orded the previous day not to saturate the server.
In order to interact with the data, a cube with dimensions and fact tables is gen-
erated through an Analysis Services6 project. The project will provide the design,
creation and management of multidimensional structures that contain data aggre-
gated from the SQL Server database where we have located our data.
This information is displayed in a simple and clear way through reports and / or
graphics that are incorporated into a Sharepoint 7 solution. This solution allows fast
web access from any place and platform.
Once the information is accessible, it will be treated using indicators to answer
to the questions that we formulate. In Fig. 3 we collect a series of those questions.
4 It is database of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates

5 It is database of Microsoft Corporation
6 It delivers online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining
7 It is the business collaboration platform to manage content through the Office interface
828
Fig. 2 Architecture Tourism Destination Fig. 3 Some of the questions you should reply
Web Monitor Tourism Destination Web Monitor
2.2 Indicators
With this the platform we can design a series of basic indicators as well as a series
of complex indicators resulting from a more elaborated and deep study of data ex-
tracted from the digital fingerprint of the visitor. These indicators provide an
overview that allows us to compare indicators across different web sites of desti-
nations becoming possible to implement benchmarking processes.
Simple indicators:
Total visits: the number of visits which has received a tourist website in a giv-
en period
Unique visitors: the number of different visitors who have accessed the web-
site in a given period
Bounce rate: the percentage of visitors who access the web, which does not
perform any additional action and remain on it less than 15 seconds
Total of actions: the total number of actions within a page
829
Total visit time: it is the sum of the duration of all visits made by visitors on
the website in a given period. The unit of measurement is seconds
Complex indicators:
Inputs URL versus outputs URL: area through which the user enters and ar-
ea through which the user exits the Web
Number of links between DMOs: the total of visits coming from other DMOs
in a specific period
Ratio of image perception: ratio that valued the image of the destination with
respect to the culture of the visitor in a specific period
Economic valuation of the destination: ratio that valued economically the web
site of the DMO in a specific period
Visitor profile: category of consumer's web site during a time slot
Other indicators
3 Implementation of Tourism Destination Web Monitor
The implementation of the technological platform has detected four major levels
of complexity: a) it has a large number of actors. There are many virtual spaces
which should attend the Tourism Destination Web Monitor and each of them with
their particular vision (region, territory, tourist marks, associations, capitals, dis-
tricts, municipalities), b) the interactions and influences between different DMOs.
These virtual spaces are set up hierarchically in an explicit or in an implicit way c)
the dynamics of the relationship of the parties concerned. It is a very fragmented
sector, with little cohesion which must work to recognize the parties and maxim-
ize joint profits, d) the interactions between different levels of Government. Cur-
rently there is not a proper interpretation about what administrative models, cen-
tralized or decentralized, can be the most effective in managing the complex
interactions between different organizations.
Currently the platform is in the implementation phase; therefore we cant pro-
vide the scientific community with results. We can anticipate that the Tourism
Destination Web Monitor will be implemented in the Basque Tourism Observato-
ry and in Medellin (Colombia), through an international project of technology
transfer.
If the data are integrated with Social Media Monitor, the platform can study
jointly the image projected, perceived and shared. We must not forget that tourism
is "a powerful collective imaginability creator" (Ruiz & Menero 2011), and that it
is there that the real revolution occurs in the conception of a tourism destination
brand. That image is often in the memory even when products have disappeared
(Costa 2004).
830
In the future, within the lines of research of this monitor, we should contem-
plate the capability to analyze the association between culture and the influence on
the perceived tourist image, the impact of the internet as a source of information
induced, if the investment made over the image of the destination is profitable or
be able to contribute in the comparison of the perception of the image between dif-
ferent media: web, social media, brochures, surveys,... In addition to being, a self-
learning expert system that allows the creation of destinations websites dynami-
cally adapting to consumer profile.
4 Conclusions
At the current juncture, as a strategic sector of the economy, tourism should be a

priority commitment by its cross-cutting nature and its ease to be oriented toward
markets that show the first signs of recovery.
Manage and communicate a positive image of a destination generates three
basic benefits: (1) increased future demand based on communication, (2) an in-
crease of tourist satisfaction and loyalty to the destination, facilitating the identifi-
cation of improvement aspects of the destination, and (3) allow the correct posi-
tioning of the destination, identifying its competitive position relative to other
competing destinations (Moreno Gil et al. 2012).
Virtual spaces are an important channel of marketing for institutions and busi-
ness network of the destinations, providing enormous volumes of information ac-
cessible for potential tourists (Wang & Fesenmaier 2006). Its emergence as an in-
tercommunication tools has allowed tourists and resident population to amplify
their traditional channels of influence as prescriptors of the benefits or shortcom-
ings of products, business entities or tourist destinations (Buhalis & Law 2008).
The Tourism Destination Web Monitor will help us to develop a good man-
agement and communication of the image, because it allows to know what the us-
ers want, what pages are they looking for, what products or contents are those that
most interest them and what their behavior is.
Finally, it enables us to stimulate the consumption of the site by showing con-
tents aligned with the real needs of potential visitors and digital surveys focused
on strategic objectives and segments.
831
5 References
Ahmed, Z.U., (1996). The need for the identification of the constituents of a destinations tourist
image: A promotion segmentation perspective. Journal of Professional Services Marketing,
14(1), pp.3760.
Andrade, M.J., (2010). La imagen del destino turstico. La imagen percibida del turismo rural en
Galicia. Universidad de la Corua.
Baloglu, S. & McCleary, K.W., 1999. A model of destination image formation. Annals of tour-
ism research, 26(4), pp.868897.
Buhalis, D. & Law, R., (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20
years on and 10 years after the Internet. The state of eTourism research. Tourism manage-
ment, 29(4), pp.609623.
Bulnes, D.M., (2008). La imagen del destino turstico La Habana. Diseo de un instrumento de
medicin. p.85.
Calantone, R.J. et al., (1989). Multiple multinational tourism positioning using correspondence
analysis. Journal of travel research, 28(2), pp.2532.
Costa, J., (2004). La imagen de marca. Un fenmeno social. Barcelona: Editorial Paids. Col.
Diseo.
Kotler, P., Haider, D.H. & Rein, I., (1993). Attracting Investment, Industry, and Tourism to Cit-
ies, States and Nations-Marketing Places.
Moreno Gil, S., Beerli Palacio, A. & Len Ledesma, J., (2012). Entender la imagen de un destino
turstico: factores que la integran y la influencia de las motivaciones. Criterio Libre, (16),
pp.115142.
OMT, (2012). El turismo internacional mantiene su pujanza a pesar de la incertidumbre econ-
mica., Available at: http://www2.unwto.org/es/press-release/2012-11-08/el-turismo-
internacional-mantiene-su-pujanza-pesar-de-la-incertidumbre-econ.
Presenza, A., (2006). EL DESEMPEO DE UN DESTINO TURSTICO?. QUIN
GESTIONA EL DESTINO?. QUIN REALIZA EL ROL AUDITOR? Revista de anlisis
turstico, 2(2), pp.4355.
Ruiz, M.P. & Menero, E.M.O., (2011). Procesos de re-imageneering turstico: el eclipse de la
identidad local de Valencia. Cuadernos de Turismo, 28, pp.191214.
Santana, M., Delia, J. & Beerli Palacio, A., 2004. Cmo influyen las fuentes de informacin en
la imagen percibida de los destinos tursticos. Revista espaola de investigacin de marke-
ting, 8(2), pp.734.
UNWTO, (2012). World Tourism Barometer.,
Wang, Y. & Fesenmaier, D.R., (2006). Identifying the success factors of web-based marketing
strategy: An investigation of convention and visitors bureaus in the United States. Journal of
Travel Research, 44(3), pp.239249.
Wanhill, S. et al., (1998). The economic aspects of location marketing. Economic and manage-
ment methods for tourism and hospitality research., pp.159195.
832
Methodology for Analysis and Decision Making

by Sampling in Buildings
Aparicio P1, Guadix J2, Onieva L3, Escudero A4
Abstract The sampling of the users comfort, allows observing and predicting the
level of comfort on the HVAC system. The development of online sampling sys-
tems assists in the recognition of the behaviour patterns that occur in the offices.
This paper presents a methodology specially designed and developed in order to
make easier knowledge extraction and representation, in this way it possible to
make decisions about the comfort in buildings. The users are evaluated by using a
standard set of key questions in order to measure the level of satisfaction respect
to environmental factors, thanks to a questionnaire of imprecise answers. We seek
an improvement in the building users, regardless of their particularities.
Keywords: Comfort, HVAC, Expert System, Occupant, Sampling
1 Introduction
Efficient design tools for the thermal performance of buildings have a huge poten-
tial to slow down the profligate use of energy and reduce global environmental
and housing problems. Consequently, a new philosophy is proposed which will
ensure the development of efficient design tools in future, while also taking into
account the interests of our occupants. Based on this philosophy, a new design
tool was proposed a new model of decision for the parameters in the building
(Aparicio, 2011).
1Pablo Aparicio Ruiz ( e-mail: pabloaparicio@us.es)
Grupo IO. Departamento de Organizacin Industrial y Gestin de Empresas II. Escuela Tcnica
Superior de Ingenieros. Universidad de Sevilla. Camino de los Descubrimientos s/n 41092.
2Jos Guadix Martn ( e-mail: guadix@us.es)
3
Luis Onieva Gimnez ( e-mail: onieva@us.es)
4Alejandro Escudero Santana( e-mail: alejandroescudero@us.es).
833
Many human comfort models were developed in the last years attempt to pre-
dict a better approximation to reality, such as a human feels in a given environ-
ment. In general, the patterns of thermal comfort models are based on studies car-
ried out on specific populations in a specific space, which are often analysed using
models that follow the idea that these can be used in all building types in the same
manner.
An HVAC system in which is poorly selected operating parameters may cause
reduced productivity, because thermal comfort is known to have a significant in-
fluence on the productivity and satisfaction of occupants in a building environ-
ment (Akimoto, 2009).
These systems obviously need to have sufficient decision-making ability to be
able to take action on the level of comfort while saving as much energy as possi-
ble. Due to differing perceptions of what is comfortable, that occur because
some people are more tolerant to broader climatic conditions than others. Obvi-
ously, whether the standard is accepted or not clearly depends on the place's
weather and the building's conditions. Therefore, without questioning the stand-
ard, comfort systems whose ventilation and air-conditioning is based on personal-
ised comfort models must be developed.
There are different examples both in printed or internet-based studies, where
the sampling was based on surveys using sampling methods. The aim of these sur-
veys was to obtain the staffs general level of comfort at the start or end of the
day. These studies, that included many different types of buildings, used infor-
mation on the physical characteristics of the buildings and the work spaces. How-
ever, comfort values associated with the room were not taken into account in these
studies (Huizenga, 2002). But as Brager says An important premise of the adap-
tive model is that the person is no longer a passive recipient of the given thermal
environment, but instead is an active agent interacting with the person-
environment system via multiple feedback loops.(Brager, 1998).
2 Methodology
The methodology is presented in Fig. 1, for making decision of the parameters of

an HVAC system. First, it is performed comfort samplings of the occupants, and
at the same time it is obtained the space parameters of study. This data is stored
and processed. With this information processed, the system obtains the decision
criteria to be applied to the search for a solution that will improve comfort and
save energy in the building. Once this information is made available (Phase 1), it
must make a study of the cost of modifying the parameters of temperature and
humidity respect to the variation of comfort for the users, based on the information
stored. The system must select the value that satisfies (Phase 2), in the best way
834
possible, the criteria selected in the previous phase. Finally, we must apply the set-
tings in the system.
Sampling
Data processing Decision criteria
Space parameters
Phase 1
Decision making in the Phase 2

HVAC system Cost and comfort analysis
Fig. 1 Methodology
2.1 Sampling, the Online Comfort Survey
It has been shown that there is often an acute discrepancy between the comfort ob-
jective and subjective comfort (Meir et al., 2009). In view of the objective of com-
fort presented by ASHRAE thermal comfort in this methodology is used the sur-
vey as a fundamental element of subjective data collection (Ashrae, 1997).
The survey allows knowing the different perceptions of the users about indoors
comfort levels. The system stores information relating to the comfort related to the
temperature and humidity at the moment when the survey data are collected. It is
selected the international standard ISO 10551:1995 which looks at the ergonomics
of the thermal environment as a basis employing subjective judgment scales. Even
so, in spite of the requests of those surveyed, all systems must be limited to certain
norms whether determined by the ergonomics expert or by the laws or regulations
of a country. The survey was performed using seven judgment values: three based
on personal thermal condition (perceptual and emotional evaluation and tempera-
ture preferences), two based on the thermal environment (personal acceptance and
tolerance) and two based on emotional state (level of stress and workers mood).
The information from the perceptual evaluation was used in the system developed
and the main questionnaire is shown in (Aparicio, 2011). The users filled in a sec-
ond survey in addition to these questions, which was performed at the same time
as the first one. Both surveys were performed only once during the day. The sec-
ond survey contained questions which focused on personal information, sex, age,
height, weight and type of clothing.
835
2.2 The System Architecture
The structure of the system is being investigated, as shown in the Fig. 2, it is based
on the user's response to the surveys, rather than being controlled by a remote con-
trol to select the set-point of the temperature. This allows to control the humidity,
which generally could not be chosen by users.
Tempera-
USER INTERFACE ROOM ture and
humidity
Communication sensor
networks Light sensor
Subjective answers Microcontroller

Surveys Result
External and
internal data
Knowledge
base
HR(%)
Costs
Comfort
T(C)
Criteria
Phase 2 Fuzzy Result Phase 1
HVAC
Fig. 2 The system architecture
The survey information together with the data of temperature, humidity and oc-
cupation given by the sensors are stored in a database. The fuzzy logic system gets
the information to examine the criteria for selecting the proper temperature and
humidity in this first phase.
The reasoning of fuzzy logic (FL) are very simple and flexible, the "natural-
ness" of its approach and not its far-reaching complexity. FL is suitable with im-
precise data as comfort, this is used in everyday language, but the same vocabu-
lary to different people may have different values, these values are known thanks
to a questionnaire of imprecise answers. The fuzzy logic allows to ensure the reac-
tion of the system on based to the experience of people. The design provides an
online reliable pattern detection system but at the same time, an easy implementa-
tion. The situational patterns search permit to obtain useful information in takes
decision.
836
Through sensors and thanks to the current technological tools with Internet ac-
cess, the users could be assessed and their comfort could be personalized, in all
situations and wherever. In addition, they can register the desired changes about
the room states.
The objective of the model is to provide a reliable system with an easy imple-
mentation, hence the simplicity of the inputs required (variables): percentage and
variation of occupancy, the evaluation may be dissatisfied by heat, satisfied and
dissatisfied by cold. During the process, the system applied the fuzzy logic to con-
vert the variables to fuzzy variables (fuzzification). Once the components of each
variable are obtained, a set of logical rules is calculated considering the variation
from the previous period (inference process). An example of rule is, "The prefer-
ence that should be given to the saving energy if the occupation of the building is
low, its variation is negative (the users are leaving the rooms), the number of users
dissatisfied by heat is decreasing and its variation is also negative". The answers
of the fuzzy rules (comfort, neutral and savings) are used to show that a significant
change in global level exists of comfort and represents the configuration to which
the system must give preference. Finally, to make a decision about which demand
that must prevail (the user comfort or saving into a central system), it is necessary
to transform the previous results of the inference process into a single interpretable
result mathematically in the form of probability (defuzzification).
Furthermore, as not only the flow size is considered but also this variation in a
period before, through the careful preparation of the rules, not only the pattern of
comfort can be detected, but also the error in next period can be predicted with a
very small probability. All this, using a little amount of possible information and
independently of temperature or the particularities of each user. The decision
logics rules, in case that several types would be detected, the answer would be
given with greater probability value. This analysis is always made after a specific
time period and a subsequent decision is made with regard to the climate setting
type.
In a second phase of the system, taking into account the outcome of the fuzzy
logic system, and information stored in the comfort of each individual, together
with the data or cost function of the change of condition, the change value is the
value at which the change in the measurement result is considered desirable due to
the comfort and saving criterias. This second system takes the decision on the
HVAC, it must be preserved and implemented in the following periods of time.
Individual user values are grouped in the system, generating rates of states of
comfort regarding different climatic conditions of the rooms (after training the
system). In Fig. 2, based on these values, it is known the difference of comfort re-
garding the current room status. Furthermore, if it is known the consumption dif-
ferential for a temperature change in a room. The most interested change is select-
ed with respect to the criterion given by the fuzzy logic system.The survey
responses are stored individually for each user, the system learns the individual re-
sults, and these can be compacted into a general model or for each room.
837
It is stored for each interval of temperature and humidity, the average ac-
ceptance by the user group. After the first day, we find temperature and humidity
ranges for which we would not know any data, in (Fig. 3) is represented by cross-
es.
Fig. 3 First Day
But over time, we will found similar comfort models which will follow the
Fanger comfort curve (Fig. 4a), but certainly more real to user comfort (Fig. 4b).
As shown in Fig. 4b, assuming that we are at a point (22C, 50% RH) only has
to calculate the differential of comfort with respect to the closest points. The
amount of energy that must be applied, must be lower due to evaporative systems,
those systems can significantly reduce the energy consumed to a change in the de-
gree of comfort. This kind of systems has shown around 15% savings in annual
energy consumption of the building, while maintaining the comfort most of the
hours in the year. (Khandelwal, 2011).
The architecture of this system aims to bring new decisions to be taken on such
systems, where users are aware of the humidity, but they will not be able to con-
trol their changes.
TOO HOT
HOT
COMFORT
ZONE
COOL
TOO COOL
Fig. 4 (a) The figure at left shows the comfort curve of Fanger (Mondelo, 1995). (b) The figure
at right shows a possible degree of comfort in a building.
838
3 Experiment and Discussions
The model has been checked in one real case scenario in two work spaces of the
Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville. The area was
heated by two fan-coil units which were part of a central heating system and the
same temperature decision was taken for all the equipment of the different areas.
In (Aparicio, 2011) could be seen an example of survey result as comfort condi-
tion, personal and thermal condition or the emotional condition, and an example of
one of the response to one of the questions on the comfort. Besides, you can see
the temperature and humidity along the day. This system reflects the need to look
for savings and comfort, although the tendency leant more towards comfort due to
the high occupation of the space, which was modified according to the users' an-
swers to the questionnaire.
Fig. 5 (a) The figure at left shows the core body temperature waveforms averaged with respect to
time of day for young and older subjects (Duffy, 1998). (b) The figure at right shows the rectal
temperatures in men, women taking hormonal contraceptives, and women in the phases of their
menstrual cycles (Backer, 2001).
The trend in the system, allows you to be away from specific situations, due to
psychological factors, health (body temperature), the menstrual cycle in women
(Fig. 5b), etc. For these reasons, some people may require a specific temperature
due to the difference in the corporal temperature as you can see in (Fig. 5a). How-
ever, in the building the user should adapt to the group. The needs of comfort are
related to the body thermal curve, and at the beginning in the morning, the results
in (Aparicio, 2011) is shown needs of comfort which are reduced in the same way
as body temperature increases.
This methodology is developed to create an automatic own model of comfort in
each building. A dynamic comfort model is developed as alternative to the com-
fort based on fixed values.
In the future we plan to show that this approach is better suited to the reality;
however, attention also must be shown in the adaptive comfort models, though the
adaptive comfort model is not design to be applied in buildings with HVAC sys-
tems.
839
The corpus of this other research line is based in the idea of the human body
maintains thermal equilibrium with its environment by means of physiological
thermoregulation. But beyond these automatic processes, there is a suite of re-
sponses which enable building occupants to adapt to indoor and outdoor climates
by means of behavioural adjustments (clothing, windows, fans, etc.), physiological
adaptations (acclimatisation), and psychological adjustments (expectations). This
idea is included in the methodology shown by means of sampling by survey, with
which this information is captured. It is therefore necessary to study, as the adap-
tive model can help improve this methodology.
4 Conclusion
The methodology proposed to control system allows easier evaluation of the in-
door climate by using surveys. It is expected that the outcome of this project will
show that the control based on thermal comfort surveys provides better comfort at
a lower cost than that provided by thermostatic control techniques.
There is a need to assure that the saving energy consumption perspective is ex-
plicitly present, without prejudice to the comfort in the building occupants. Nowa-
days, these two perspectives are not connected. This research is an opportunity to
balance comfort and energy.
The HVAC systems efficiency and flexibility need to be balanced with consid-
erations of users. A new methodology and HVAC control strategy and decision
criteria that regulates thermal comfort levels was presented.
The system will dynamically adapt to changes in comfort, will store the user
responses dynamically to meet your individual comfort. This allows knowing the
effect of changes in the decisions of the system.
Logically, we are developing a technique in order to prevent the problems and
infighting for the selection of temperature within a workspace, where the air con-
ditioning is not to everyone's taste. However, this decision problem can be solved
by this system, by obtaining a decision criterion based on sampling, in order to
create indoor comfort and energy savings that the EU requires us for the year
2020.
5 References
Akimoto, T., Tanabe, S., Yanai, T., Sasaki, M. Thermal comfort and productivity - Evaluation of
workplace environment in a task conditioned office, Building and Environment, Volume
45(1) (2010) 45-50.
840
Aparicio, P., Guadix, J., Muuzuri, J., Onieva, L. Detecting Comfort-Based Climate Settings Us-
ing Surveys. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2011. Journal Lecture Notes
in Engineering and Computer Science, 2191(1) (2011) 1021-1026.
Ashrae handbook-fundamentals. American Society of HRAC Conditioning Engineers (1997).
Baker, F.C., Waner, J.I., Vieira, E.F., Taylor, S.R., Driver, H.S., Mitchell, D. Sleep and 24 hour
body temperatures: a comparison in young men, naturally cycling women and women taking
hormonal contraceptives. Journal of Physiology, 530-3 (2001) 565-74.
Brager, G.S., Dear, R.J. Thermal adaptation in the built environment: a literature review, Energy
and Buildings, 27 (1) (1998) 83-96.
Duffy, J.F., Dijk, D.J., Klerman, E.B., Czeisler, C.A. Later endogenous circadian temperature
nadir relative to an earlier wake time in older people. Am. J. Physiol., 275 (1998).
Huizenga, C., Laeser, K., Arens, E. A web-based occupant satisfaction survey for benchmarking
building quality. Indoor Air, (2002) 1-6.
Khandelwal, A., Talukdar, P., Jain, S. Energy savings in a building using regenerative evapora-
tive cooling. Energy and Buildings, (2011) 43 581591.
Meir, I.A., Garb, Y., Jiao, D., Cicelsky, A. Post Occupancy Evaluation: An Inevitable Step To-
ward Sustainability. Advances in Building Energy Research, 3 (2009) 189-220.
841
E-Government Interoperability Frameworks:

Administration to Business
Andres B1, Poler R2
Abstract Interoperability has been show as a problem to solve when enterprises

establish collaborative relationships and it is widely studied when relations are es-
tablished between enterprises. This paper goes further and focuses on frameworks
that e-Government agencies have drawn up for achieving interoperability between
public administrations and business. A comparative study on different interopera-
bility frameworks is developed, particularly United States, European Union and
United Kingdom e-government initiatives are analysed.
Keywords: E-Government, Collaboration, Interoperability, Smes, G2B
1 Introduction: Interoperability and e-Government
Current manufacturing industrial environments require an intensive exchange of

information among enterprises and administrations and a strong support of infor-
mation technology (IT) in order to deal with common goals and achieve integrated
solutions for providing interoperability within the network (Ortiz and Hawa,
2002). Interoperability facilitates the transfer of information flows at data, pro-
cesses and services level. Despite the advantages, there are a number of conceptu-
al, organisational and technological barriers that affects interoperability (Boza et
al., 2008) being a notable limitation when collaborative processes are established
(Andrs and Poler, 2012). Regarding the relations among enterprises (B2B), in-
teroperability problem is widely studied in the literature. Architecture solutions,

842
such as LISI (Architecture Working Group, 1998), IDEAS (IDEAS, 2002), Euro-
pean Interoperability Framework (EIF) (IDABC, 2004), INTEROP (Chen y Das-
sisti, 2006), E-health (NEHTA, 2005) and ATHENA (ATHENA, 2006) are identi-
fied to overcome interoperability. Solutions regarding conceptual frameworks
(Bnaben et al., 2010) and platforms (Poler et al., 2007) are also identified. On
other hand, technological tools are the most used solution alternatives to deal with
interoperability, including service oriented architectures (SOA), enterprise service
business (ESB) and web services among others (Franco et al., 2009; Bnaben et
al., 2010).
This paper is focused on the study of frameworks to achieve interoperability at
Business to Administration level considering the e-Government concept. Table 1
provides definitions of concepts used hereafter for better understanding.
Table 1 Concepts definition

Concept Definition
The ability to exchange interpretable information among software entities and use it
Interoperability (IEEE, 1990). The ability of a system to exchange information and services in a
heterogeneous organizational and technological environment (Chen et al., 2006).
The use of ICT in public administration, combined with organizational change and new
e-government skills, in order to improve public services and democratic processes and strengthen
support to public policies (European Commission, 2003)(Cegarra Navarro et al., 2007)
The ability of ICT systems and business processes to support the sharing of information
Interoperability and knowledge (IDABC 2004). The concept of interoperability goes beyond technical
in e-Government standards for data exchange, and includes issues such as legal constraints, inter/intra-
context organizational workflows amongst organizations and understand the data ontology
(Fairchild and de Vuyst, 2007)
Refers to the basic technical specifications e-government agencies should adopt.
Interoperability
Enables the interoperability between information systems from different agencies in
Framework
order to provide services to citizens and business in an integrated way (Guijarro, 2007)
Regarding e-Government, different stakeholder categories are identified (Row-

ley, 2011): Government-to-Government (G2G), Government-to-Citizen (G2C)
and Government-to-Business (G2B). This paper is focused on G2B in order to
identify frameworks that treat interoperability issues when collaborative relation-
ships are established between administrations and enterprises. A comparative
analysis is established in order to contrast the same characteristics of different e-
Government interoperability frameworks considering the G2B context.
2 Background
INTEROP-VLab (International Virtual Laboratory for Enterprise Interoperability,

2013) pursues to support Enterprise Interoperability (EI), Enterprise Systems Ap-
plications (ESA) and Future Internet (FI) domains. INTEROP-VLab is a net-
worked association whose members are pooled in autonomous Poles in a same
geographical area; the Spanish Pole is represented by INTERVAL Association in
843
the Universitat Politcnica de Valncia. In accordance to the INTEROP-VLab re-

search, this paper focuses on the G2B interoperability point of view involving the
collaboration of public and private entities in the provision of services (Guijarro,
2009).
E-Government has become one of the key factors for the public sector guaran-
teeing transparency, accountability and interface with citizens, businesses and ad-
ministrations. Few studies have treated the factors contributing to the integration
or implementation of e-Government in companies (Cegarra et al., 2007). Public
organisations such as United Nations and the OECD (Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development) have generated comparative studies analysing the
e-government initiatives. Nevertheless, these studies do not focus in a comparative
analysis on frameworks to deal with interoperability problems in G2B context,
thus this study is focused to do it.
Administrations are committed to provide accessible and cost-effective public
services through the use of ICT, acknowledging the significance of e-government
for social inclusion and economic growth. Table 2 identifies six major initiatives
on e-Government to deal with the interoperability.
Table 2 e-Government Interoperability Frameworks (Guijarro, 2007)

Country Framework Based on
eGovernment Unit eGU Specifications and policies for any cross-agency collaboration
United
eGovernment Interoperability eGIF and for e-government service, covering interconnectivity, data
Kingdom
Framework integration, e-services access and content management.
Le Cadre Commun Strength public electronic systems coherence and enables
France CCI
dInteroperabilit multi-agency electronic service delivery
Standards and Architectures
Guideline to orientation aid for decisions makers in the e-
Germany for e-government SAGA
government teams in German administrations
Applications
Danish eGov interoperability Guideline to public agencies as they develop IT plans and
Denmark DIF
Framework projects
Interoperable Delivery of
Supporting tool for European Parliament and Council
European eGovernment
interoperability and access to Trans-European Networks for
services to Public IDABC
the data exchange between European Institutions, Agencies
Administrations, Business and
and governments in Member States.
European Citizens
Union Common framework about interoperability issues that should
be addressed when implementing pan-European e-Government
European Interoperability IDABC
services. Has strong influence on national interoperability
Framework EIF
frameworks developing join working programs together with
the e-Government agencies of the Member States
United Enterprise Architecture Procurement guideline for government departments to ensure
EAG
States Guidance that systems separately acquired would be able to interwork
An important aspect is that e-government may better meet the needs of the pri-
vate sector increasing the competitiveness of the economy. E-government can par-
ticularly benefit SMEs, which often face difficulties when dealing with admin-
istrations. Thus, the development of quality e-government services allows to
overcome such barriers (Tzikopoulos et al., 2012).
844
2.1 European Interoperability Framework (EIF)
Approximately 80% of economic growth comes from SMEs and 95% of business-
es in Europe are SMEs, therefore governments strategies on supporting SMEs
readiness and acceptance of e-government services are becoming more important
(Adeshara et al., 2004). The European initiative for e-government consists of (i)
the development of internet-based services to improve access to public infor-
mation and services, (ii) the improvement of transparency of public administra-
tions, (iii) full exploitation of information technology within public administra-
tions and (iv) establish e-procurement (Strejcek and Theil, 2002). The European
Interoperability Framework (EIF) was developed as the reference document on in-
teroperability for the IDABC program, and supports the pan-European delivery of
electronic government services with a set of policies, standards and guidelines de-
scribing the way in which organisations should agree to do business with each
other (IDABC, 2004). The main objective of the EIF is to support the EU strategy
for providing user-centred eServices and interoperability between public admin-
istrations, citizens and business (Fairchild and Vuyst, 2007). EIF allows Europes
citizens and enterprises to move freely between Member States and allows firms
to do cross-border trade across Europes borders, to transact business electronical-
ly with European administrations and companies (IDABC, 2004).
3 Interoperability Frameworks: a Comparative Study
The e-government initiatives are treated in this section due to organisations need
to integrate their IT infrastructures to support the integration, both at administra-
tions and enterprise level, to increase their efficiency. SMEs lack of expertise and
financial resources to invest in the necessary technologies makes the government
support fundamental (Chen et al., 2011). A common theme in e-government con-
text is the use of open standards to promote interoperability. A comparison on e-
Government interoperability in US, EU and UK frameworks is shown regarding
standardisation and interoperability e-government deployment (table 3); a set of
nine areas are identified in order to compare the different e-Government Interop-
erability Frameworks (Guijarro, 2007). Besides considering the US, EU and UK
frameworks, the eGIF4M, developed in Mozambique is also considered in order to
have a broader view. Provided characteristics are considered in order to compare
different standards among the interoperability frameworks and identify which are-
as are more developed in each one (see table 4).
845
Table 3. Comprehensive comparison on e-Government policies regarding interoperability (US,

EU, UK) based on Guijarro (2009)
Interoperability
Framework EAG (United States) IDABC EIF (European Union) e-GIF (United Kingdom)
(Cuntry)
National standards bodies (NSBs)
European Committee for
American National Standards Standardisation (CEN)
Institutes (ANSI) European Committee for
Document: United States Electrotechnical Standardisation
Standards Technical Standard Catalogue
Standards Strategy (USSS) (Cenelec)
National Standards Strategy European Telecommunications
(NSS) Standards Institute (ETSI)
European Standards
Organisations (ESO)
More coercive powers than does
Public and private sector interests ANSI as a result of his authority The criteria for selecting
Federal government is not to eliminate conflicts among standards that will be part of the
expected to cast an influence on national standards e-GIF are the following:
Devoted to
the choice of technologies in e- Neither public nor private interoperability, market support,
STANDARDISATION
government systems and services standards are excluded, but a scalability, openness and
deployment preference for standards international standards
developed by the ESOs is implicit
For a standard to be European, it
Only under special circumstances
has to be adopted by one of the
government-unique standards are
ESOs and be publicly available
allowed
Non-coherent implementation of
Federal agencies establish
the standardisation and public
voluntary consensus standards
procurement regulations in e-
that are identified as the Appropriate international
government deployment
alternative and mandatory choice standards will take preference
EU-wide regulations exhibit
Employment Standardisation is coherently over European standards, and
preference to the European
applied in e-government European standards will take
standards over any other sort of
deployment preference over UK standards
standard, some governments often
Voluntary consensus standards
implement practices in e-
are prioritised against
government deployment that are
government-unique standards,
not aligned to those regulations,
although any other sort of
and in some cases those practices
industry standards may be chosen
are opposed to them
Government regulations
Government participation
Implications - -
Standards development
Government procurement
Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) has executed its guidance Avoids prescribing any concrete
through the Federal Enterprise architecture or standard catalogue,
Architecture Project Management which is to be the main objective of -
Office (FEAPMO) and in successive releases of the
E-GOVERNMENT DEPLOYMENT
cooperation with the Federal Chief Architecture Guidelines

Information Officer (CIO) Council
Alignment of all Departments and The EIF does not aim to replace e-GIF mandates sets of standards
cross-agency architectures with a national interoperability guidance and policies for joined-up and web-
Federal Enterprise Architecture. but focuses on supplementing them enabled government. It covers four
The FEA consists of basic reference by adding the pan-European areas: interconnectivity, data
Interoperability
models, namely: Business, Service dimension. Anyway, the influence integration, e-services access and
Component, Technical, Data and of EIF over national interoperability content management
Performance Reference Model frameworks is important.
In spite of the clear stage defined by
Common business processes, both the Architecture Guidelines
common components, common and the EIF, the European
technologies and common data Commission sometimes makes an
-
assets across different governmental incoherent application of its own e-
departments and to eliminate government interoperability
redundancy guidelines outside the IDABC
funded projects
846
Table 4 e-Government Interoperability Frameworks comparison regarding interoperability areas and standards around services
e-Government Interoperability Frameworks

Areas eGIF4M
EAG IDABC EIF eGIF
(Mozambique)
IP, LDAP, FTP, HTTP, SMTP,
Interconnection - TCP/IP, HTTP and S/MIME IPv4, HTTP, S/MIME
POP, DNS, NTP, SOAP, SIP
XML family of standards, UML or ASCII, UTF, XML, SAX, DOM,
Data Integration - XML, XSL, UML, RDF
RDF for data modelling, XSLT XSLT, Xpath, SQL, RSS, UBL, HL
Content UML, ER, RDF, OWL, SAWSDL,
Interoperabilit
management - Dublin Core XML, e-GMS DTD, XMLS, SQL DDL, xNAL,
y Areas
metadata xCRL, xBRL, URI, URL
DOC, RTF, PDF, ODF, GIF, PNG,
World Wide DTV, mobile phone, PDA, smart card,
JPEG, BMP, WAV, mp3, OGG,
Access - Web Consortium, kiosks, Internet, public kiosks, digital
DivX, mpeg, avi, HTML, XHTML,
web-TV, mobile connectivity TV, WAP phones
ZIP, RAR
Human
HTML, Business
computer
HTML Symbian Interoperability Interfaces (BII), World Wide Web, HTML, WS-I, -
interface
847
Interface design principles
services
e EU IDA (Interchange of Data between
Data electronic interchange of data Administrations) programme as bases for
WAP, J2EE, .NET, web
interexchange between administrations (IDA), European standards, XML, GovTalk, Web -
services
services web service services based on SOAP and WSDL,
Organises
UDDI
standards
Network
around MIME, T.120, H.323 - - -
Services
Services
Security Standards for Smartcards, Issue
Data
1.1, December 2003, namely CC, ETSI,
management JDBC, WebDAV - -

FIPS and EMVCo, which is located on
services
GovTalk
Council's security regulations
WSS, SAML, xACML, Enc XML,
Security (2001/264/EC), Security services,
s/mime, SALM Government Secure Intranet (GSI), OASIS HTTPSS, SSL, S/MIME,
services PKI, Web service security,
RFC2527, ISO/IEC
Firewalls, Protection against viruses
Voluntary consensus
Technical Specifications Open standard Open -
standards
The European Interoperability Framework (IDABC EIF) is characterised by es-

tablishing interoperability in e-government services and it is initially aimed on in-
teroperability areas with inclusion of standards around services but this inclusion
is still at early stages (Guijarro, 2009). On the other hand, the approach in the
United States (EAG) is more comprehensive, because it focuses on the adoption of
semantic technologies in e-government more solid and clearer focused than the
considered in European initiatives (Guijarro, 2009). Given the results derived from
the comparative analysis, both the US and the EU present risks to fulfil the in-
teroperability envisioned by their respective e-government strategies. E-
government deployment would end up in systems that fail to provide interoperable
services because they do not adhere to either voluntary consensus standards in the
US or European standards in the EU.
4 Conclusions
Considering the importance on interoperability when establishing collaborative

processes, this paper focuses on the treatment of interoperable frameworks regard-
ing the collaborative relations SMEs establish with public administrations (G2B).
As regards of public administrations the e-Government is an important issue so as
to achieve integration processes in G2B.
Two comparative studies are developed in order to have an insight of the cur-
rent situation in e-Government Interoperability Frameworks (eGIFs) regarding in-
teroperability and standards, both in Europe and United States, besides this, a
comparative analysis is also determined regarding the situation in Mozambique to
have a broad view. Through comparing the EU and US eGIFs we can observe that
several gaps are found, especially within the EU eGIF, concluding that US frame-
works are more advanced and developed.
The provided analysis allows to firstly identify common variables in order to
make a comparison among e-Government Interoperability Frameworks. Secondly,
it is concluded that the given e-Government Interoperability Frameworks are con-
sidered as useful tool to solve the interoperability problem between enterprises
and public administration in one hand to apply interoperability to exchange data
and on other hand to interpret the exchanged information to exploit the knowledge
in G2B relations. In the development of this paper we have identified a lack of re-
search in G2B perspective (occasionally named Public-private partnership, PPP)
due to most work and reports on the study of e-Government readiness is focused
towards the G2C (government to citizen) point of view.
848
5 References
Adeshara P, Juric R, Kuljis J, Ray Paul R (2004) A Survey of Acceptance of e-Government Ser-
vices in the UK. Journal of Computing and Information Technology - CIT 12(2)143-150
Manufacturing Networks. In Prado JC, Garca J, Comesaa JA, Fernndez AJ (eds.) 6th In-
ternational Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management, 90-97,Vigo
Architecture Working Group (AWG) (1998) Levels of Information Systems Interoperability
(LISI), March 30. C4ISR
ATHENA, 2006. ATHENA Integrated Project
Bnaben F, Boissel-Dallier N, Lorr JP, Pingaud H (2010) Semantic Reconciliation in Interoper-
ability Management through Model-Driven Approach. In: Camarinha-Matos LM, Boucher X,
Afsarmanesh H (eds). Collaborative Networks for a Sustainable World. 11th IFIP WG 5.5
Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2010. Saint-Etienne, France, October
11-13 2010: Springer. 705-712
Boza A, Navarro R, Vicens E (2008) La Vista De Informacin En El Modelado Del Proceso De
Planificacin Colaborativa De Una RdS/D: Diseo De Un Modelo Informacional Genrico
Integrado, 22-28, Burgos
Cegarra Navarro JG, Dewhurst FW, Briones Pealver AJ (2007) Factors affecting the use of e-
government in the telecommunications industry of spain. Technovation 27:595-604
Chen D, Dassisti M, Elvester B (2006) INTEROP Deliverable DI. 1b Interoperability
Knowledge Corpus. Intermediate Report
Chen H, Papazafeiropoulou A, Wu Ch (2011) An E-Government Initiative to Support Supply
Chain Integration for Small to Medium Sized Enterprises: Successes and Challenges. Ad-
vances in Information Systems Volume 42(4):63-80
European Commission (2003), The Role of E-government for Europes Future, Communication
from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and
Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, European Commission, Brussels
Fairchild A, de Vuyst B (2007) Governmental Collaboration and Infrastructural Standards in
Belgium. The Electronic Journal of e-Government 5(2):145 - 152
Franco RD, Ortiz A, Lario F (2009) Modeling Extended Manufacturing Processes with Service-
Oriented Entities. Service Business 3(1)31-50
Guijarro L (2007) Interoperability frameworks and enterprise architectures in e-government ini-
tiatives in Europe and the United States. Government Information Quarterly 24:89-101
Guijarro L (2009) Semantic Interoperability in eGovernment initiatives. Interfaces 31:174-180
IDABC (2004) European Interoperability Framework for pan-European e-government Services.
Luxembourg, European Communities
IDEAS: Interoperability Development for Enterprise Application and Software (2002) Thematic
Network, IDEAS: Interoperability Development for Enterprise Application and Software-
Roadmaps, Annex 1
IEEE (1990) Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE Standard Computer Diction-
ary: A Compilation of IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries. New York
International Virtual Laboratory for Enterprise Interoperability (2013) http://www.interop-
vlab.eu/
NEHTA, National E-Health Transition Authority, 2005. Towards an Interoperability Framework,
Version 1.8
Ortiz A, Hawa M (2002) Extended Enterprise for Supply Chain Management. Why, when and
how to Apply it. A Reference Model for Collaborative Planning in the Automative Sector
Poler R, Ortiz A, Lario FC, AlbaM (2007) An interoperable platform to implement collaborative
forecasting in OEM supply chains. In: G. Doumeingts, J. Mller, G. Morel and B. Vallespir,
eds. Enterprise Interoperability - New Challenges and Approaches. London: Springer
849
Rowley J (2011) e-Government stakeholdersWho are they and what do they want? Interna-
tional Journal of Information Management 31:53-62
Strejcek G, Theil M (2012) Technology push, legislation pull? E-government in the European
Union. Decision Support Systems. 34:305-313
Tzikopoulos A, Manouselis N, Kastrantas K, Costopoulou C (2012) An online information sys-
tem to support blended training of rural SMEs on e-government. Program: electronic library
and information systems 46(1):123-143
850
Economic Performance and Financial

Profitability: Two Study Cases in F&B Industry
Santandreu-Mascarell C1, Cans-Dars L, Vidal-Carreras PI, Valero-

Herrero M
Abstract In this paper we describe some economic and financial ratios in order to
reflect about the need to introduce some standards in annual account about innova-
tion and intangible assets. For this, we compare two innovative companies with
data from Food & Beverage (F&B) industry, and we show some differences that
have to be explained.
Keywords: Food and Beverage Industry, Economic Performance, Financial Prof-

itability, Innovation, Intangible Assets.
1 Introduction
KPMG performed for the first time an economic-financial study about Food and
Beverage industry (F&B) in Valencia (Spain) using as a base the ranking business
in 2010 of the 21 companies with higher sales. Criteria for selecting companies
were the performance and the availability of information from managers. Infor-
mation is based in 2009 and 2010 balance sheets. This report presents main eco-
nomic and financial ratios, together with aggregated assets and liabilities. Data can
be seen in kpmg.es.
As it is well known, the objective of financial statements is to represent the true
image of the company, its real value. Economic-financial ratios give information
about profitability and financial returns obtained on the basis of investments made
1Cristina
Santandreu-Mascarell ( e-mail: crisanma@omp.upv.es)
IGIC-Departamento de Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Valencia.
C/Paranimf, 1, 46730 Grau de Gandia (Valencia).Spain.
* This paper has been partially supported by the projects CORSARI MAGIC DPI2010-18243 -
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin del Gobierno de Espaa and TIN2008-06872-C04-02/TIN
Ministerio de Educacin y Ciencia del Gobierno de Espaa.
851
by the company to produce goods or services, and from funding sources used for
this (information shown in annual accounts). The result is useful for making deci-
sions about investment, but it have to be compared with those of other similar
companies and with the industry average. In this paper we use KMPG ratios as in-
dustry benchmark.
Moreover, we note that selected companies in KMPG study were considered as
innovative companies, and all of them present information related with this topic
in their web pages. The list of selected companies is: Compaia Levantina de Be-
bidas Gaseosas, S.A.; Embutidos F. Martnez R., S.A. Importaco, S.A; La Espao-
la Alimentaria Alcoyana, S.A.; Maiceras Espaolas, S.A.; Miguel Aguilar, S.L.;
Producciones Agropecuarias del Turia, S.A.; Roquette Laisa Espaa, S.A.; Re-
fresco Iberia, S.L.; Sada S.A.; Valencia, S.A.; Martnez Loriente, S.A.; Font Sa-
lem, S.L.; Jess Navarro, S.A.; Asociacin de Industrias Alicantinas del Helado y
Derivados, S.A.; Desarrollos Alimentarios Frescos, S.A.; Grefusa, S.L.; Lactalis
Restauracin, S.L.; Natra Cacao, S.L.; Chocolates Valor, S.A.; Verdifresh, S.L.;
Dulcesol.
Nowadays, it is very complex to show true value of the company in annual ac-
counts because there are many variables in the environment very difficult to quan-
tify, such as different types of intangibles. In addition, accounting standards are
rigid.
Our study case is an economic and financial analysis of two companies belong-
ing to F&B industry that are not considered in KPMG report. We want to compare
them with F&B industry economic and financial data. Companies under study,
that we name JM and BG because of confidentiality, have been selected from the
results of a qualitative research about innovative companies developed by using
grounded theory methodology (Cans and Santandreu, 2010). Both the study of
the economic and financial performance of JM and BG has been made based in
balance sheets and accounting data from 2003 to 2010. Presented ratios have been
calculated based on the available information (not only accounting) to make it as
real as possible.
2 Economical and Financial Analysis of Companies BG and

JM: Comparison with F&B Data
Given that the objective of the finance function is to maximize the value of the
company to its owners, and shareholder returns is measured by the return on equi-
ty (economic study), also known as financial returns (financial study), it can be
summarized that financial returns is based, among others, in: a) The returns of the
companys assets, i.e. both the short and long term investments; and b) Financing
ways, therefore, financial needs and costs. Moreover, we have to consider taxes or
an analysis of the stock exchange market, but they are not included in the aim of
852
this paper. We will discuss these topics always from the perspective of risk and
profitability. All this is the result of the management of the company. It comes
from a good information and knowledge management, ways of working, integra-
tion by coordination to achieve the same goals, just to produce goods and services
required by the customer.
2.1 Economical Analysis
Economic profitability measures the generation of benefits in proportion to assets

regardless of financing. Difference between companies accounts lies in how each
one establishes the assets structure related to non-current and current profits. We
could discuss many ratios that give important information such as the balance
sheet or annual accounts of the company, but we will discuss only those we con-
sider interesting for this paper (Weill, 2008). In this sense, we are going to show
the F&B industry reference and the 8-years average data (from 2003 to 2010) of
JM and BG, and ratios of the last year (2010).
Table 1 Economical analysis.
JM (average) BG (average) F&B JM (2010) BG (2010)

industry
Economic
0.038 0.138 0.083 0.064 0.153
profitability
Asset rota-
0.961 1.001 1.544 1.04 1.022
tion
Noncurrent
1.839 2.609 3.361 2.507 2.783
asset rotation
Current asset
2.101 1.634 2.685 1.777 1.614
rotation
The profitability of JM company during the period of study was a 3.8%, rang-
ing from 1.4% to 6.4%. In the last year, it was almost two points lower than the
profitability of the studied companies accepted as industry benchmark.
Meanwhile, the average of BG is 13.8%, ranging between 11% and almost
19%, being on the last year 15%, well above the industry.
Then, we have two different cases. In 2010 the economic profitability of F&B
is 8.3%. By comparing JM and BG companies to the industry, we can see that JM
has a lower profitability, so that, the industry takes greater return on its asset com-
position, while BG assets generate a much higher return than the sector. This fact
indicates that we should study more in depth the composition and valuation of as-
sets when decision making.
853
In both companies , JM and BG, we can see a lower asset rotation, hovering
around 100%, than the industry, in average as well referred to 2010 (154% in F&B
industry). Nowadays, these data should be better analyzed differentiating profita-
bility generated by noncurrent assets tan current assets returns.
2.2 Financial Analysis
Financial profitability measures the ability of the company to reward shareholders.

For them, it represents the opportunity cost of the funds held in the company. It
enables the comparison with the returns to be gained in other investments (Gonz-
lez et al., 2002). In financial analysis is discussed, among others, liquidity, solven-
cy, the liability structure and coverage. These data provide information on how the
company is in a particular time and it is used to make decisions.
Following the same structure as in the previous section, we use data from F&B
industry for comparison in order to get results as realistic as possible. We consider
these data as referent in the sector. About companies JM and BG, we use the aver-
age of the ratios of the studied period (2003-2010) and data from balance sheet
and annual accounts in 2010. We can see this information in Table 2.
Table 2 Financial analysis.
JM (average) BG (average) F&B JM (2010) BG (2010)

industry
Financial
0.059 0.139 0.093 0.141 0.162
profitability
Liquidity
Current ratio 1.286 2.261 1.593 1.494 2.482
Acid test 0.690 1.497 1.231 0.895 1.625
Cash ratio 0.062 0.177 0.143 0.016 0.090
Solvency 1.612 3.338 2.316 1.619 3.479
Charge peri-
77.338 109.277 40 108.913 93.037
od
Payment pe-
224.462 160.537 53 113.828 188.25
riod
Liability structure
Indebtedness
ratio 2.060 0.475 0.765 1.818 0.417
Indebtedness
structure 0.578 0.911 0.811 0.634 0.887
854
As we can observe, company JM has a financial profitability of 5.9% in aver-

age. This figure is not so much representative, because in 2003 it had a return of
2%, and it increased to 14% in 2010; the evolution is dramatic. 14% is higher than
the average of F&B (9%) in this year. In consequence, shareholders consider the
company has a positive status about its business.
The liquidity current ratio stands at almost 129%, that is, the company amply
covers short-term debts (current liabilities) with current assets.
Nowadays, acid test is equal to 69%, since this ratio does not take into account
stocks. Ignoring the stocks the company could not cover its short-term liabilities
with its current assets. This indicates the company has a high level of stocks.
In this case, JM should review its stock management policy. Because cash ratio
is 6.2%, JM would not be able to face its short-term liabilities with liquid re-
sources only. Note that cash ratio for F&B industry is 14% and JM ratio is 6.2%
(less than half).
Solvency of the company remains around 161%, thus covering their total debts
to third parties with their assets, but below the industry with 213%.
Although all these data are seen as favorable by the meaning of results, also
serve as an evidence to think questions as: How could I face my debts? Could I get
more return by changing liability structure?
Charge and payment periods are on average more or less 77 days and 224 days.
This data would indicate that JM follows a correct policy because it charges much
before paying, but really the evolution of the studied period (2003-2010) shows
that the charge period has increased from 70 to 108 days and the payment period
has decreased from 221 to 113 days. Then, the gap has decreased a lot. JM should
review this policy and analyze the reason to be in this situation, as it could lead to
solvability problems because they gap is lower than 5 days between charge and
payment.
About indebtedness ratio, its average is 206%. JM has a constant average in the
period observed. It means that, for each 2 euro of borrowings, JM has 1 euro of
equity. Indebtedness structure is about 60%; more than half of the resources are in
the short term according to last year data.
F&B industry has a much lower indebtedness ratio (76%) and a indebtedness
structure slightly higher around 81%. Should JM change equity ratio of and debt
capital? Should it change the liability structure as suggested above?
On the other hand, BG has an average of 13.9% financial profitability, return
after taxes; in 2010 it was 14%, still higher than F&B average: 9,3%.
Current ratio stands at 226%. So, the company covers short-term debts (current
liabilities) with its assets. This figure remains in 2010 near F&V average and
above (248%).
Acid test or decreases to 150% of average, since this ratio does not take into
account stocks. Still, BG could meet its current liabilities with its current assets;
this large difference indicates that BG has a high level of stocks. However, BG ac-
id test in 2010 is 163% and F&B is 123%, the distance is not so far.
855
BG cash ratio average is 17.7% and industry cash ratio average is 14%.
In BG current asset more representative items are stock and commercial debts.
It would not be able to face its short-term liabilities only with its liquid assets.
Solvency of the company remains around 334%; assets cover total debt. Aver-
age in 2010 was 348%, standing well above the sector.
Charge and payment periods respectively are, on average, 109 and 160 days.
This data would indicate a correct policy. From 2003 to 2010, charge period has
decreased from 104 to 93 days and the payment period has increased to 188 days,
contrary to what happened in JM. This is a very positive advantage from the in-
dustry point of view, but a deeper review is needed because, for instance, its im-
age can be damaged if BG pressures too many the customers or delay a lot the
payment to suppliers.
Indebtedness ratio remains constant from 2003 to 2010 at an average of 47.5%,
that is, per 47.5 euro from borrowings BG has 1 euro of equity, similar to 2010 da-
ta (42%). It has a structure whose liabilities are greater than borrowings.
Indebtedness structure, 91%, indicates the majority of short term borrowings,
and it is very close to the industry.
3 Should Innovative Companies Annual Account Show more

Data?
Users of accounting and financial information periodically issued by companies

can hardly found in annual accounts quantitative references to concepts associated
with innovation, because intangible assets are not on the balance sheet (if we iden-
tify them with their costs). Financial information, as shown in the study of the ra-
tios, is useful to current and future investors, creditors and other users to make de-
cisions about investment, credit and similar. Therefore, because intangibles have
become a key determinant of corporate value in new knowledge and information
economy, companies should give information in financial statements. Then, there
is no alternative to rethink used criteria for their preparation (Moreno and Rico,
2002).
However, given the great difficulty of modifying the current locked and com-
plex structure of accounting, other proposals aimed towards addressing intangibles
in the management report (Caibano et al ., 2000).
In any case, clearly highlights the need to provide external users of accounting
information a better measure of the value of organizations to reduce, where possi-
ble, the distance between the market value of the companies and the value in fi-
nancial statements, i.e. to create statements that reflect the true image of the com-
pany. The problem arises when valuing these intangibles and how they may or
may not be included in the information provided by traditional financial state-
ments (Craig and Dribell, 2006).
856
In conclusion, more information should be shown in annual account, complet-

ing financial statements with information about intangibles and other innovation
ratios. This is justified by some papers that determine that intangible assets, ways
of working or the university level (competencies), make an innovative company
(Cans et al., 2011; Moreno and Rico, 2002; March and Yage, 2009).
Companies need an instrument enabling them to measure their performance in-
dicators that are not limited to economic and financial, but a step forward and tak-
ing into consideration such characteristics. Then, the performance of such organi-
zations should be quantified; intangible and innovation ratios have to be
determined whether they are assets, liabilities, income or expenses. In this case,
the difficulty is that what is measured is the performance of people providing a
view of the situation of human resources in the organization to be included in the
economic-financial ratios allowing financial statements fairly reflect its goal: the
true image of the company, its real value.
4 References
Caibano L, Garcia-Ayuso M, Snchez P (2000) La valoracin de los intangibles: estudios de

innovacin vs informacin contable financiera. Anlisis financiero 80:6-24.
Cans-Dars L, Santandreu-Mascarell C (2010) An integrated model of organizational structure
and ideas. INBAM Conference, Valencia.
Cans-Dars L, Santandreu-Mascarell C, Garcia-Sabater J, Marin-Garcia JM (2011) Five infor-
mation-based key factors for innovative companies in Sethi SP, Bogataj M, Ros-McDonnell
L. Industrial Engineering: Innovative networks.
Craig J, Dibrell C (2006) The Natural Environment, Innovation, and Firm Performance: A Com-
parative Study. Family Business Review 19(4): 275.
Gonzlez AL, Correa A, Acosta M (2002) Factores determinantes de la rentabilidad financiera de
las PYMES. Revista Espaola de Financiacin y Contabilidad 112:395.
March Jord I, Yage RM (2009) Desempeo en empresas de economa social. Un modelo para
su medicin. Revista de Economa Pblica, Social y Cooperativa 64:105-131.
Moreno I, Rico JM (2002) Los activos humanos como factores de competitividad de la empresa
y su tratamiento contable. Revista universidad EAFIT 125.
Weill L (2008) Leverage and corporate performance: Does Institutional Environment Matter?
Small Business Economics 30(3):251.
857
Appropriate Work Design in Lean Production

Systems
Dombrowski U1, Hellmich E-M.2, Mielke T.3
Abstract The demographic change has a substantial impact on the age structure of
manufacturing enterprises. The specific needs of older employees have to be con-
sidered thoroughly in the design of future work systems. Today, many enterprises
organize their processes according to the principles of lean production systems. In
order to achieve a sustainable implementation of age and aging appropriate work
design, the existing lean production systems need an appropriate modification.
The paper presents an analysis of todays work design concerning age and aging.
Furthermore, it introduces four approaches for age and aging appropriate work in
lean production systems.
Keywords: Lean Production System, Demographic Change, Age and Aging Ap-
propriate, Ergonomics, Occupational Health and Safety
1 Introduction
The demographic change is one of the key challenges that the European Union
needs to overcome. Indicators for a demographic change are found in all EU-27
countries but some of them are affected more severely. For example, compared to
the other EU-27 countries Germany shows one of the lowest fertility rates, one of
1Uwe Dombrowski( e-mail: u.dombrowski@tu-bs.de)
Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Industrial Management. Technische Universitt

Braunschweig. Langer Kamp 19, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.
2Eva-Maria Hellmich ( e-mail: e-m.hellmich@tu-bs.de)
Research Assistant, Institute for Advanced Industrial Management. Technische Universitt
3Tim Mielke ( e-mail: tim.mielke@tu-bs.de)
Research Assistant, Institute for Advanced Industrial Management. Technische Universitt
858
the highest life expectancies and the oldest population which is already declining.
(European Commission, 2011)
At the moment, about 50 million people in Germany are in an employable age.
In 2060, it might be only 33 million. (BMI, 2011) A second important develop-
ment in this context is the rising labor participation of older workers. In 2000,
38% of employees aged 55-64 were in gainful employment. Only ten years later,
this share rose to 58%. (BMAS, 2012) Therefore, enterprises have to cope with
these unprecedented challenges. In this context, health and especially occupational
health and safety will gain in importance. Enterprises have to assure the achieve-
ment potential during the whole working life. In order to cope with the changing
abilities of older workers, especially manufacturing enterprises have to improve
the age and aging appropriate (A) work design.
Todays manufacturing industry designs its processes according to lean produc-
tion systems (LPS), which represent state of the art manufacturing. (VDI, 2012)
LPS are also called holistic production systems, which aim at the comprehensive
and sustainable design of production. (Dombrowski, et al., 2010) However, practi-
cal experience shows that these systems focus on the improvement of quality, time
and costs. The demographic change and the thereby rising importance of A work
design have not been regarded so far. For a sustainable consideration of the
changes due to an older workforce, A work design should be integrated in the
widely spread lean production systems. Therefore, the principles, methods and
tools of existing LPS have been analyzed to assess the actual significance of A
work design in LPS. Based on the results, four strategies were derived that show
possibilities for further development of LPS towards A work design.
2 Work Design in Lean Production Systems
In modern manufacturing enterprises, lean production systems specify the details

of each and every work process. LPS claim to consider the three aspects technolo-
gy, organization and people. (Spath & Braun, 2003)
A lean production system (LPS) is an enterprise-specific compilation of rules,
standards, methods and tools, as well as the appropriate underlying philosophy
and culture for the comprehensive and sustainable design of production. An LPS
enables an enterprise to meet the requirements of todays business environment,
taking into account technological, organizational, work-force-related and econom-
ic aspects. (Dombrowski & Schmidt, 2008)
The superior goal of all LPS is the sustainable elimination of waste in all pro-
cesses. (VDI, 2012), (Ohno, 1988) In this context, waste is determined from a cus-
tomers point of view and includes all activities that do not add value to the prod-
uct. As waste elimination is a basic approach in LPS, many descriptions exist. The
most common are the following seven types of waste (VDI, 2012), (Ohno, 1988),
859
(Liker, 2004), (Womack & Jones, 1996): Overproduction, Waiting, Transporting,

Over-processing, Inventories, Unnecessary motion and Defects. Some authors
name an eighth type, the waste of unused employee creativity. (Liker, 2004)
Several methods and tools support the avoidance and elimination of waste.
These methods and tools are embedded in a superior structure that links the enter-
prises strategy to the principles, methods and tools of the LPS. Despite the enter-
prise-specific compilation of LPS, a general structure was identified, which is
shown in Fig. 1. The fundamental elements of LPS are the enterprises targets,
processes, principles, methods and tools. (VDI, 2012).
One of the main differences between LPS and traditional mass production sys-
tems is the improvement process. In contrast to mass production, LPS use the con-
tinuous improvement of all processes in small but frequent steps. This improve-
ment needs various decentralized steps that contribute to the superior goal of zero
waste. (VDI, 2012)
The LPS principles are based on an enterprise-specific collection, which causes
a variety of principles. Most of them can be traced back to the same eight basic
principles that have been described in the LPS guideline of the German associa-
tion of engineers (VDI, 2012). These basic principles will be described in the fol-
lowing.
targets
Enterprise
processes
principles
methods
tools
Fig. 1 Organization and structure of a lean production system
The elimination of waste is a fundamental principle that has already been men-
tioned above. Since waste is everything that does not contribute to customer value.
The second principle is the continuous improvement process (CIP). Its aim is to
question all current practices all the time and to improve them frequently. Stand-
ardization of processes is an important condition for the waste elimination and
continuous improvement process. Standards help to sustain the improved state and
show deviations from the desired process. The fourth principle, zero defects, con-
tains methods and tools to prevent the appearance and identification of defects.
The flow principle helps to avoid excess inventory, which results in shorter lead
times. In ideal state, the lead time equals the processing time. The pull principle
focuses on the material flow as well. According to this principle, every product
860
has to be linked to customer demand. Visual management is used to illustrate the

actual state and the current standards. Thereby, deviations from standards can be
recognized at a glance. The principle of employee orientation and management by
objectives includes methods and tools for leadership in LPS.
3 Age and Aging Appropriate Work
Due to the demographic change, enterprises have to adapt their future work design
to an older workforce. One response to the increasing age of the workforce is the
age and aging appropriate (A) work design. The A work design should ensure
that the processes in enterprises are designed for assuring the achievement
potential during the whole working life. Therefore the A work design contributes
positively to health, motivation and qualification of the employees across their
entire working life. (Buck, et al., 2002)
The age appropriate work design is aimed at adopting special measures for the
group of older employees, whose performance has already changed in the course
of their working lives. In comparison, the aging appropriate work design regards
preventive measures. These preventive measures are supposed to maintain the
achievement potential over the whole working live. Thereby false strains are
avoided directly. (Kistler, et al., 2006)
A lot of different measures can be attributed to the A work design. In
particular, these measures can be allcoated to six different aspects. (Buck, et al.,
2002): Ergonomic work design, Promotion of occupational health and safety, Job
enrichment, Reduction of time pressure at work, Implementation of exculpatory
working time models and Job rotation
4 Analysis of A Work Design in Lean Production Systems
A recent study of the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
shows that only 5.1 % of the examined enterprises design their processes under
age and aging appropriate work aspects. Thereby enterprises have to focus on an
A work design to cope with changing conditions. (BMAS, 2012) Based on these
findings, the Institute for Advanced Industrial Management conducted a further
analysis regarding A work design. Since LPS represent state of the art
manufacturing, it was investigated how A work design is integrated in LPS.
The LPS were analyzed in terms of their direct impact on age and aging appro-
priate work design. Furthermore, it was of interest whether the different LPS could
at least positively influence the A work design if they do not have a direct impact.
861
The analysis was based on the LPS guideline of the German association of en-
gineers (VDI 2870) and the LPS of 22 enterprises. The considered enterprises op-
erate in ten different industry sectors. Thus, it was a heterogeneous group. Most
frequently represented were the automotive original equipment manufacturers
(OEM) (four enterprises) and suppliers (OES) (seven enterprises). Each of the 22
enterprises have a specific LPS considering their individual requirements. So, the
LPS did not only vary in their number of levels of detail, design principles and
methods. They also differed in terms of content.
For comparability, all of the LPS examined were normalized to the structure of
the VDI 2870. Based on this standardization, the targets, principles and methods
of the various LPS were analyzed concerning their consideration of A work de-
sign. As shown before, the A work design can be divided into six aspects. In this
analysis, only the aspects of ergonomic work design and promotion of
occupational health and safety were examined. As regards the promotion of
occupational health and safety, the focus was on the consideration of occupational
safety.
At the target level, no direct consideration of ergonomic work design and
occupational safety could be identified. The enterprise targets rather aim at
involving the employees in the enterprise processes. They focus on increasing the
employees satisfaction, identification with the enterprise, motivation and
longterm employment. These aspects, however, do not lead directly to an
improvement of A work design in terms of ergonomic work design and
occupational safety. At least, they increase the motivation of employees and thus
have a positive impact on the aging appropiate work design.
Furthermore, it was found that ergonomic work design is not considered in any
of the analyzed LPS on the principle-level. However, occupational safety is fixed
in five enterprises on this level.
Fig.2 A Analysis of LPS
In the next step, the LPS methods have been regarded. The analysis of the
methods has shown that overall 21.1% of the 805 considered methods could have
a positive impact on ergonomic work design and occupational safety if they were
862
applied with this aim. Therefore, they are improving the A work design potential-
ly or directly. As shown in Fig. 2, 5.2% of the methods may improve the ergo-
nomic work design. An exemplary method is the job rotation. Job rotation means
that employees change their jobs in regular intervals, which avoids a one-sided
strain. Direct improvement of the ergonomic work design is included in only 0.6%
of the methods. One exemplary method for direct improvement in terms of the
LPS is ergonomic work analysis tools. The further analysis showed that 15.9%
of the methods could have a positive impact on occupational safety, such as the
method 5S. Result of 5S is a well-organized workplace based on standardization.
This leads to an improvement in occupational safety because of avoiding accidents
due to misplaced items. Only 1% of the 805 methods directly affect occupational
safety. An exemplary method for this is "Visualized Safety".
Corresponding results have come out in a second analysis. Thereby, workshops
and projects of a German automotive manufacturer were evaluated. It was checked
whether aspects for improving the ergonomic work design were part of the pro-
jects and workshops or not. The analysis of a total of 52 workshops and nine pro-
jects showed that only 5.7% of the workshops and 22.2% of the projects have fo-
cused on an improvement in ergonomics.
In summary, it can be said that especially ergonomic work design is still not
well enough considered in the examined LPS. In particular, it should be noted that
no principle of the observed LPS directly improves the ergonomic work design.
Also the consideration of ergonomic work design at the method level is very low.
Only 0.6% of the examined methods take aim at direct improvement of ergonomic
work design. At the moment, occupational safety is considered in five out of 23
LPS at the principle level. Just 1% of the methods have a direct impact on occupa-
tional safety. But the analysis has also shown, that many LPS methods could have
a positive impact on A work design.
5 Strategies for A Work Design in LPS
The previous analysis of present LPS has shown that A work design has not been
considered consistently. As the results indicate, several methods already existing
offer possibilities to improve A work design. Many methods just have to be refo-
cused on the specific topic and do not need much adaption. In summary, enterpris-
es could use the potential of LPS for A work design in order to cope with the new
requirements due to the demographic change. Four strategies will be described in
the following, which show four different ways to integrate A work design into ex-
isting LPS. The strategies consider the causalities in the above described LPS
structure and the findings from recent analyses of existing LPS. This is necessary
to achieve the desired effects and to change the LPS sustainably. The four strate-
gies are shown in Fig. 3.
863
The structural integration describes an additional principle that regards A

work design. The principle has to refer to a strategic goal of the enterprise in order
to ensure a consistent structure. This strategy allows clustering of particular meth-
ods and tools and assures their systematic use. If the LPS follows an A principle,
it will most likely be part of the visual LPS depiction. These depictions often serve
as a logo or symbol of the LPS and are widely used in slideshows, brochures and
other marketing material. Thereby, the structural integration supports the degree of
awareness for A work design. The most common depictions of LPS are a house, a
circle and the enterprises product. (Dombrowski, et al., 2006)
The second strategy is based on a systemic integration of A work design.
Therefore, the principle of waste elimination can be adapted. This principle repre-
sents the foundation for other principles and is a key element of every LPS. In
general, this principle has the goal to eliminate activities that do not increase cus-
tomer value. (VDI, 2012) Waste elimination could also contribute to eliminating
activities that compromise the employees health and safety. Waste would then be
defined from the customers and employees point of view. Consequently, the de-
scription of waste should be improved by adding non-ergonomic work, mental
pressure, hazardous material, noise or other unsafe working conditions.
1
A work design is linked to the
Structural
enterprieses strategy and represented by
integration a particular principle.
2
The definition of waste is adapted to A.
Systemic New types of waste could be non-
integration ergonomic work, mental pressure,
hazardous material, noise
3
Specific methods and tools for the
Integration of new improvement of ergonomics or
methods and tools occupational health and safety are
integrated.
4
Modification of
Established principles, methods and tools
existing principles,
methods and tools are modified to support A work design.
Fig. 3 Strategies for A work design in LPS (Dombrowski & Mielke, 2012)
The shop floor implementation of A Work design requires the integration of

A methods and tools in the existing LPS. This allows to continuously integrate A
work design into daily routines. The previously introduced analysis has shown a
lack of methods that support A work design in LPS. Especially methods and tools
for the assessment and improvement of ergonomic work conditions should be in-
tegrated. Such methods are already widely known but are not part of the LPS and
due to that, not part of work design. Many enterprises already use the ergonomic
864
assembly worksheet (EAWS). (MTMaktuell, 2011) If the EAWS would be inte-

grated in LPS, a comprehensive application could be achieved. Another benefit
would be the early ergonomic assessment during the design of the process. Be-
sides EAWS, other methods have to be integrated. Especially the so called screen-
ing methods should be used. Their results are less detailed but easy to use and no
special training is necessary.
The fourth strategy uses a modification of existing principles, methods and
tools. Therefore, the systemic integration should have been applied. With the new
understanding of waste, several basic LPS methods can contribute to A work de-
sign. For example, PDCA, five whys or benchmarking are easily deployable on
the improvement of ergonomic work conditions or occupational health and safety.
Other methods might need a little adjustment. Poka yoke could not only be used to
achieve failure-proof processes, it could also provide malposition-proof processes.
The well known 5S method could be extended to a 6S method: sorting, set in or-
der, sweep, secure, standardize and sustain. Besides individual methods, also prin-
ciples could be modified. The principle of standardization would be very suitable
for A work design. Thereby, not only quality, time and costs would be regarded,
the best processes in terms of occupational health and safety would be standard-
ized as well. Another possibility is the implementation of a zero disease principle,
derived from the zero defects principle. It could cluster methods and tools that re-
duce absenteeism due to employee illness.
6 Conclusions
Many industrial countries already show significant symptoms of a demographic

change. The low fertility rate and high life expectancy result in a higher average
age of workforces. Enterprises have to adapt their processes to the age specific
requirements of their employees. The age and aging appropriate (A) work design
combines approaches of occupational health and safety, ergonomics and age
specific solutions like better lighting. The A work design should be integrated in
already existing and well established lean production systems (LPS) in order to
achieve a sustainable application. An analysis has shown that A work design is
not suficiently regarded in presently existing LPS. Some LPS have implemented
individual methods for ergonomics or safety but lack a comprehensive integration.
Therefore, four strategies were introduced that show solutions to integrate A
work design in future LPS.
865
7 References
BMAS, 2012. Fortschrittsreport "Altersgerechte Arbeitswelt", Berlin: Federal Ministry of La-

bour and Social Affairs.
BMI, 2011. Demography Report, Berlin: Federal Ministry of the Interior.
Buck, H., Kistler, E. & Mendius, H.-G., 2002. Demographischer Wandel in der Arbeitswelt.
Stuttgart: Broschrenreihe: Demograpghie und Erwerbsarbeit.
Dombrowski, U., Palluck, M. & Schmidt, S., 2006. Strukturelle Analyse Ganzheitlicher
Produktionssysteme, ZWF Zeitschrift fr wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb, pp.553-556, No. 10.
Dombrowski, U. & Schmidt, S., 2008. Framework for the Planning and Control of Lean Produc-
tion System Implementation., International Journal of Agile Manufacturing.
Dombrowski, U., Mielke, T. & Schulze, S., 2010. Impact of Lean Production Systems Imple-
mentation on Labor Conditions, Cernobbio, Italy: Accepted for APMS 2010.
Dombrowski, U. & Mielke, T., 2012. Entwicklungspfade zur Lsung des Demografieproblems
in Deutschland. Berlin: GITO-Verlag.
European Commission, 2011. Demography Report 2010: Older, more numerous and diverse Eu-
ropeans, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Kistler, E. et al., 2006. Altersgerechte Arbeitsbedingungen. Dortmund: BAuA.
Liker, J. K., 2004. The Toyota Way. New York: McGraw-Hill.
MTMaktuell, 2011. Instruktoren aus fnf Lndern. EAWS. MTMaktuell, 1, pp. 24-25.
Ohno, T., 1988. Toyota Production System. N. Y.: Productivity Press.
Spath, D. & Braun, M., 2003. Menschengerechte Arbeitsgestaltung als Fhrungsaufgabe. wt
Werkstattstechnik online, Issue H. 1/2, pp. 75-79.
VDI, 2012. VDI 2870 - Lean production systems. Berlin: VDI, Beuth Verlag.
Womack, J. P. & Jones, D. T., 2003. Lean Thinking. New York: Free Press.
866
Model of a Public Private Partnership in the

Spanish Health Context
Prez J1
Abstract The actual economic-financial crisis in Europe and specifically in Spain,

and the present and future consequences associated, are endangering one of the
most important achievements of democratic societies. Public Private Partnerships
(PPPs), or any other ancestors or extensions, are associations between public pow-
er and private initiative, emphasize different aspects depending on the time (in fif-
ties to develop public services, in sixties the urban renewal, in nineties the great
infrastructures), but the new way of organizing the public services, can be the
most ideal and effective expression to develop them. Its intended align the PPPs,
with terminology and skills of Project Management, so as simulate the start up in-
side a Business Case. Its included too, some innovative elements, which they are
inside National Health Services, but no integrated like a whole. The standard of
PPP, and Good Governance Policies are a second stage to implement it, always
using to improve the benefits of citizens. The bad or incomplete use means a dan-
gerous way to impoverish the most of people.
Keywords: Property and Risk, The Bests of Private Sector, Legitimize Depart-
ments, Learned Lessons Register, Complex Process
1 What We Need to Build The Model
When a great problem come to light, or rather, when exists some threat endanger-
ing our well-being, the seeking of solution must be a whole solution, a complex
solution and a seriously solution.
In these moments, the genial ideas beginning to wake up, the great and efficient
ideas arise, and all the people think oddly, that they are coherent and convincing
solutions. However, nobody hadnt noticed before.
1Jess Prez ( e-mail permarje@gmail.com)

INSISOC Group. Universidad de Valladolid.
867
But moreover, in the present moments come into the play actors who take ad-
vantage of the special situation. Its sure that these actors will play to obtain the
maxim earnings from their investments; Its legitimate!!
This is the mission of private sector, and its what the Governments needs to
collaborate with them. The private sector offers us the competence, the skills to do
the tasks more efficient than the public sector. But, well ( the citizens )accept it,
only if the rules of the match include a free competition system, its the same, a
system than works with the best companies competing to achieve their goals and a
referee (the government) would worry of the requirements.
Then, were going to use some keys given by a various fields of knowledge, to
obtain a model valid to start an integration.
To use the whole integration concept, I thought that the better was to seek a
framework to set ideas.
Framework
Before set in making of this Alive Document, its important to define the con-
cept of Business Case from Prince2.
1. Its an iterative document with a permanent trading, which must demonstrate
the viability.
2. It must answer, Why?
3. It must demonstrate too, why the Project has to continue (hasnt to leave).
We could go on telling interesting issues, to argue why its the reason to use
this document (BC), but the most important its the useful to persuade at funder
what we are doing and why we are doing, and in this case the funders are every-
body, from individual taxpayers to great fortunes, which we want to achieve at-
tract.
Now, its divide this point so:
1. Summary of inputs given by the environment
2. Use the terminology that provides PPP knowledge to make simulations
3. Learned lessons given by other countries and other sectors
1.1 Summary of Inputs Given by the Environment
Many of inputs which need to be known to set an initial design of a PPP to pro-
vide health services, are received by World Health Organization (WHO).
Another source of knowledge and provider of ideas its Health at a Glance
Europe 2012, an annual publication realized by Organisation for Economic Co-
operation & Development and funded by European Union.
868
Moreover, the first world (in economic terms) has another play rules, dictated
by social networks, which shown all aspects that are hidden before. This great
window, called Internet and social networks, oblige to the governments to explain
the reasons to implement or no implement an reform, a cut or a resources re-
allocation.
Its the first stage that the most of people become aware of the needed of
changes, and only can be achieved by a legitimated leadership. Here starts the
success of this great project.
We are going to use these premises to start the simulation:
1. Primary Care like a Red Line, the transfer isnt let
2. Universality its an untouchable concept
3. Its danger to finance the Local Health with External Founds (which must be
returned)
4. Re-allocating resources to Prevent Medicine
5. Be Careful with missing epidemics and healthy conditions
6. The demographic curve makes no sustainable the actual system
Aged Rate = People 65 years older / Total People *100
OverAged Rate = People 85 years older / People 65 years older * 100
7. The people is awareness with the problem, and accept logical changes
8. The estimations are more clears in lack of money times
9. All the parties need health services. It involves a lot of votes
10.The private health can not be profitable, too
11.The troubles in Spain are associated with The Underfinancing, the health as-
sets are enough
12.The construction sector and the great purchases in state assets have obtained
and managed too much resources, mortgaging future incomes
Furthermore, we need a couple of ideas to demonstrate the suitability of a
planned model. In Europe exists a key concept to measure the quality of the
health system, named Healthy Life Years, that means Number of years of life
free of activity limitation (62 years the women & 61 years the men).
If we want to focus in this ratio, and besides, maintaining or increasing the tra-
ditional ratio of Life Expectancy (that has increased 6 years between 1980 &
2010 in EU), we should provide ourselves a new model to maintain our achieves
without endangering the Public substance.
In fact, the medical advances from 1940 are majority destined to old people,
its the same, to extend the life.
Finally, a few ideas of Current Health Expenditure. Its composed of Personal
Health Care (curative care, rehabilitative care, long-term care, ancillary services
& medicine goods) + Collective Services (public health services + health admin-
istration).
869
These costs are financed by Public Coverage (taxations + payroll taxes) and
Private Complement (Cost-sharing, Pay-out-of-pocket & Duplicate markets).
What is the way to maintain the system?
How we marry Healthy Life Years and Life Expectancy?
Are the citizens willing to pay more?
1.2 Use the Terminology that Provides PPP Knowledge to make

Simulations
Its presents the PPPs like the main ingredient of this model.
Its pretend to show a few theory features of PPP, and incise the good govern-
ance in PPP applications.
The motive to use PPP is the assistance to finance a commercially viable infra-
structures when there are a financing gap or when the government policies are tra-
ditional, but it isnt possible when these state is considered like insolvent.
Concepts of PPP
A contractual agreement between the government and private sector paves the
way for delivery for public infrastructure and/or public services
Long-Term contracts between a private party and a government agency, for
providing a public asset or service, in which the private party bears significant
risk and management responsibility
PPP Value Drivers

Risk Transfer-Risk Retained
Full Integration incentivizes whole of life costing
Innovations to seek solutions of specifying outputs
Reduce costs to use public assets
Focus on service delivery
Transparency of costs and funding
Mobilization to additional funding
Accountability
Stages
1 / Infrastructure Assets are New or Exist? We are going to work with existent as-
sets, its the same Brownfield, for upgrading & managing existing infrastructure to
a private company, that could include rehabilitating & maintaining.
870
2 / What functions we transfer to the private responsibility? Here, we must fo-

cus in the operate function, whom can making in various ways: providing a bulk
service, providing services directly to users or providing support services.
3 / What PPP payment mechanism we use? There are two classic types of
payment; collecting fees from service users or by government, or a mix of both.
The suitable type of payment to a model like the proposed is Availability Pay-
ment, by contractually defined quality. This stage introduce the term Value for
Money, that in this case, must let what services can be exploited by private sec-
tor, and in what quality rate must be delivered to the citizens.
Finally, and clearly, its understood in this time the public role. The public sec-
tor has the following roles, which arent delegable;
Decision-makers.
Referees. The public sector must to choose the best offers of tenders.
Supervise the private sector in the best interest to the citizens.
Particularly, the governments be guided putting the people first, looking for ne-
cessity, with economic criteria and involve stakeholders.
Furthermore, the public sector will try maintain the property of assets, and if it
isnt possible will allocate the property in relation to avoid or mitigate risks.
In summary, an approach to Good Governance Principles in PPPs.
1.3 Learned Lessons: another Countries another Sectors Help us

to Begin the Business Case v0.
In this point we are going to identify some learned lessons in the application of
PPPs in other countries and /or other type of PPPs. I prefer present them like a list,
instead a redaction form because theyre very intuitive ideas.
The PPP Contract Management will consider long periods of time to set dura-
ble strategies, but not overmuch to miss the essence for that there was created.
The economic crisis can break a PPP based in collecting fees from service us-
ers.
Involve with private partners to identify which projects can be financed for
PPPS.
The PPP design ought to proactively be controlled by the public sector, even
when the private sector execute it.
The stages of PPPs Control & Monitoring of the Financing will be done by
public sector.
Two of the main causes of PPP failures are an undefined transfer of risks and
delays in the start date.
Its very common identifying a lot of risks, but no update all of them.
871
Creating of a Public Department of PPPs, that would be the link between all
actors.
Besides, we will collect some applications given by specialized press.
For example, in Sweden exists the SAINT GORANS hospital, which is one of
the better examples of public private partnerships in the practice. Its a paradig-
matic case, because use the VALUE FOR MONEY, in all operative decisions, and
is so because the hospital is organised on the twin lean principles: flow & quality,
its the same, the principles that identify Value for Money.
Another examples are given in Spanish press, because the public sector have
come to realize of the strength of the private companies, if they act in a competi-
tion framework. So, the health media is talking of public private partnership in
chronically ill patients, whom occupy beds and other resources in hospitals and
would be treated by other means.
Finally, we are facing with a little changes in the form of contract or develop
technological advances, which are costly to taxpayers.
2 How we Use the Inputs to Obtain a Model
In the first point, we identified a lot of inputs of various sources of knowledge.

These were named and well-identified, but without placing.
Besides, we established like framework, like a work paper a Business Case.
Finally, we suggested a couple of examples of the application a PPP in the real-
ity, in two different countries (one Latin and other Nordic).
The Project Management can help us, in this paper, for rationalize the whole in-
formation, setting in a document, starting to act and controlling and monitoring in
order to correcting deviations.
In this chapter will see a couple of tools to modeling, but, the most important
aspect is WHO IS WORKING AND FOR WHOM IS WORKING.
All the attempts will be wrong and costly for the citizens, if the actors arent
the betters. This is one of the main mission of the project manager, think about the
better.
Both Ipma and Pmi or Prince2 reinforce the leadership concept and the ethic
principle is essential condition of a successful project. If the Project consists in a
great PPP related to health, this aspect increases exponentially.
We use the approach of Value for Money to demonstrate the feasibility and/or
adequacy, its the same, to answer Is the better for the citizens?
872
2.1 Establishment of Business Case v0 and Transformation in

Business Case v1
In order to follow the mandate of European Union, we are going to modelling a

PPP based in Fall the Hospital Admissions for uncontrolled chronic conditions.
This is the main objective to improve the system.
A second objective should be a better allocate of resources to make it.
The motivation for using a Business Case consists in the justification to go on
with the procedure. So, its a flexible and dynamic document with several stages
to have a glance.
To set an initial BC, we need an Organization Chart, a complete table of stake-
holders and place them.
Besides, we need building a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to place all the
activities related in the previous point.
Furthermore, its necessary use the templates relating with Risks and Integrated
Changes Control.
Integrated Changes
Control
Risk Management Organization Chart
BC v0
Stakeholders WBS
Value For Money Ex

Ante
Fig. 1 BC v0 in Construction
873
2.2 Risk Management Plan & Integrated Changes Control
There are two tools, two templates that shown the dynamism of this modelling.
In the previous point, we have identified the importance of risk concept, spe-
cially linked at transfer of them.
Both learned lessons and theoretical knowledge of PPP emphasise in the allo-
cate responsibility and risk like one the most important aspect in this process.
So, we need a template which includes as an initial situation so the changes, the
several situations of these identified risks. For example, if these risks have been
mitigated or avoided.
Besides, new risks will be added.
The last tool that I would want refer is Integrated Changes Control.
We are choosing this template because we need a document to be validated by
a legitimated organism. This document will contain all the information necessary
that will help in decision-making.
However, to consider useful this template and specially a document valid to
continue the project or leaving this one, only should be contain value information.
Another function of I.C.C. is to become in a permanent and numbered docu-
ment that the most important stakeholder can see.
2.3 Value for Money to measure the Adequacy of PPP procedure
Finally, its presented a figured term named Value for Money Ex Ante, like a con-
cept to convert a lot of qualitative data in a number to help in decision-making.
To arrive at this approach, we have taken a very serious study of Corporacin
Nacional para el Desarrollo, an organization of Government of Uruguay, who
has identified various variables that they are keys to a successful project.
Then, the numeric conversion consists in choose the main variables and do an
easy formula to arrive a Definitive Figure. If its inside range accepted the proc-
ess can continue.
Variable Weighting Score Result

X1 ( Part of a Strategic Plan) 20 5 1
X2 ( Size Over 40MM) 25 4 1
X5 ( Graat Number of Stakeholders) 15 4 0,6
X10 ( Create Competition) 30 3 0,9
X16 ( No Urgent Process) 10 3 0,3
TOTAL 3,8
Fig. 2 VfM, Toward a Numeric Value
874
3 Conclusions
In the presentation of this paper, Im trying to add value to the role of Project
Management in the field of Health Management.
A second conclusion that I have pretended include, its show the PPPs like a
powerful weapon to build and/or to manage the most important issues to the citi-
zens. Its basic to implant and to apply the PPPs with methodology, without relax
the controls and indicators and specially its critical choosing the most appropriate
leaders.
The last reflexion that I would refer its to take like complex the goal, no the
means to achieve it. The main objective is meet the expectations of the citizens, in
the whole meaning, that is as patient or user and like taxpayer. As we have seen in
the point number 2, the framework can be easy if the ideas are well worked.
Currently, we have seen a lot of news related with various fields of health man-
agement, like constructions or health process. In my opinion, many of them are
opposite what I have pretended, because they are implanted for restrictions in the
short term. What is to be achieved, is the belief in PPPs for guarantee the well be-
ing of the people, not only of few people.
4 References
UNECE, Guidebook on Promoting Good Governance in PPP

OECD (2012), Health at a Glance: Europe 2012, OECD Publishing
PPIAF and World Bank Institute (2012) Public-Private Partnerships REEFRENCE GUIDE
The World Health Report 2008-primary Health Care (Now more Than Ever), World Health Or-
ganization
Gayle Allard & Amanda Trabant: The third way: on the border between the public and private
(2008), Center of Innovation of the Public Sector of the Price & Waterhouse Foundation & IE
Repullo, Jos R. e Iniesta, Antonio (2008) Systems and Health Services. Dez Santos Editions.
PMI (2008). Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). 4 Edition
Dombkins, David (2012) PPP Contract Management, How To Manual. UNECE (United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe)
Alimarket Articles, 2012 & 2013
The Economist Articles 2013
Prez Martnez, Jess (2012) Integration of PPPs in the National Health Services University of
Valladolid
AEIPRO-IPMA (2009). NCB- National Competence Baseline. V 3.1. Editorial UPV
Corporacin Nacional para el Desarrollo (2011). ndice de Elegibilidad para seleccionar proyec-
tos de Asociaciones Pblico-Privada en infraestructuras y servicios.
875
Complex Networks Applied to Communication

Management in Emergency Crisis
Ruiz Martn C1, Ramrez Ferrero M2, Gonzlez lvarez J.L3,

Poza D4
Abstract The Nuclear Emergency (NE) influence domain spreads over a large
number of systems of different nature. Nuclear Emergency Plans (NEPs) are usu-
ally designed using a top-down approach, establishing a hierarchy working as a
command chain. Although this provides advantages in terms of control, it might
not be flexible enough to face unpredicted emergent behaviours due to complex
interactions among the systems involved. Using a real case study, this work dis-
cusses the results of the communication and command chain network analysis to
facilitate the assessment of key indicators to improve the NEP: resilience, adapta-
bility and responsiveness.
Keywords: Nuclear Emergency, Nuclear Emergency Plan, Complex Networks,

Communication
1
Cristina Ruiz Martn ( e-mail: cruiz@insisoc.org)
2
Mario Ramrez Ferrero ( e-mail: mario@insisoc.org)
Grupo INSISOC. Universidad de Burgos.
3 Jos Luis Gonzlez lvarez ( e-mail: jlsmithbarrett@gmail.com)
Unidad de Proteccin Civil y Emergencias. Delegacin del Gobierno en Castilla y Len.
Valladolid.
4
David J. Poza ( e-mail: poza@insisoc.org)
* Authors have been supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CONSOLIDER
CSD2010-00034), Regional Government of Castilla y Len (VA056A12-2), BPMSat and
University of Valladolid. Special thanks to Delegacin del Gobierno en Castilla y Len and
INSISOCs colleagues.
876
1 Introduction
NEPs have to be designed for the compliance of a framework of laws, regulations

and directives. Traditional approaches to warrantee this compliance use a top-
down perspective to establish a hierarchical structure similar to a military com-
mand chain. This approach is focused on providing a quick, organised and effec-
tive response. It has advantages in terms of control and lack of behaviour uncer-
tainty and information ambiguity. However, it makes more difficult to analyse the
systems involved in the emergency because it does not allow management mecha-
nisms to handle emergence due to complex interrelations among these systems.
Unexpected or unmanaged emergent behaviours can modify the designed work of
the system.
This NEP case study (Spanish Government Gazette, 1985 and 2009) deals with
the NE assuming the existence of an error-free command chain, the lack of unde-
sired behaviours such as identity theft and that the countermeasures planed will be
enough to control and mitigate the emergency. Nevertheless, after the accident at
TEPCOs Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), the International Atomic En-
ergy Agency (IAEA) stated the needed of improvements to strengthen manage-
ment systems, response arrangements and transparency and effectiveness of com-
munication mechanisms (Langlois, 2012).
In other works, information systems for emergency response have been pro-
posed (Turoff et al., 2003), multi-criteria decision making mechanisms have been
published for radiological disasters (Parlak et al., 2012) (Geldermanna et al.,
2009) or other scenarios such as e-government (Shan et al., 2012), methods for
evacuation management support has been defined (Lv et al., 2013), studies about
task time prediction have been carried out (Park et al., 2007), but they do not
tackle the problem under an organizational and communication management point
of view. Knowledge management has to be considered during a NE because of its
socio-technical dimension; understanding information and communication man-
agement is a prerequisite to solve the crisis (Dogan et al., 2011).
Following the work at (Ramirez et al., 2013) and (Ruiz et al., 2013), the aim of
this paper will be to discuss the results of the NEP Communication Network (CN)
and Command Chain Network (CCN) analysis with several purposes: to propose
resilience improvements, and to identify imprecisions, complementarities and syn-
ergies to develop a better comprehensive plan, taking into account that the role of
people involved in higher levels of the hierarchy is more a coordinating than a di-
recting one.
To present these objectives the following structure will be applied: section 2
will describe the modelling and analysis methodology used; section 3 will de-
scribe the NEP; section 4 will discuss the results of the CN & CCN analysis on the
basis of complex networks methodology; eventually, section 5 will exhibit the
conclusions and future lines of this work.
877
2 Modelling and Analysis Methodology
The methodology currently used in the roadmap to conceptualise and build the
NEP model is based on Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) techniques, and it is
summarised in Figure 1 (Galn et al., 2009).
MODELLING PROCESS
NUCLEAR EMERGENCY PLAN

THEMATICIAN
Abstraction
Analysis
NUCLEAR EMERGENCY Interpretation
PLAN NON-FORMAL Application
MODEL
Design
NUCLEAR NUCLEAR
MODELLER
EMERGENCY PLAN EMERGENCY PLAN Inference RESULTS

FORMAL MODEL NETWORK MODEL
Approximation
COMPUTER
SCIENTIST
NUCLEAR
EMERGENCY PLAN
EXECUTABLE MODEL
Coding
PROGRAMMER
Inference
COMPUTER
PROGRAM
Fig. 1 Modelling process.
The first step was to build a theoretical model with the information provided by
one of the responsible for the emergency plan (Spanish Government Gazette, 1985
and 2009). The people involved in the plan (agents), the communications among
them (distinguishing the different media), the messages and the actions to be taken
and the resources to be committed were identified.
Then, as a starting and reference point, the model was formalised assuming that
only those communications and actions specified in the NEP exist. Communica-
tions not specified in the NEP could be an important source for unpredictable
emergent behaviour, so they will be taken into account in future scenarios.
Once the formal model was developed, before building an executable model
and carrying out dynamic analysis taking into account the interrelations among
agents by actions (future works will tackle this issues), an initial study of the char-
acteristics and properties of CN & CCN on the basis of complex networks was
878
carried out. It provided metrics to extract important information at this first stage.
The result discussion is explained in section 4.
It is worth mention that, for this work, according to Figure 1 scheme, the mod-
eller, computer scientist and programmer roles have been handled by the same
person. The inference process in the modeller role consists of obtaining the differ-
ent parameters from the network.
3 Nuclear Emergency Plan Description
The NEP establishes 3 control zones around the nuclear power plant. Its location
is such that these zones extend over 77 municipalities in 3 provinces of 3 autono-
mous regions of the country, each one with its own regional/local administration
and organisms.
The NEP defines the organisational structure of the bodies involved, the re-
sources to be committed, communication channels, situations and actions to be
taken before (preventive), during (control and mitigation) and after (recovery) the
emergency.
3.1 Organisational structure
Depending on the implication of each organism in the emergency, two types of

bodies are considered: competent and concerned. While competent bodies have di-
rect action on the NE, concerned ones only act in some cases but may be required
to inform or take some actions, so the NEP Director has to inform them about the
emergency evolution.
Government Presidency
NSC PENCRA
President NEP Director Director
NSC Inspector
at the NPP Concerned Bodies
Executive Information and Advisory

Body Communication Cabinet Committee
Fig. 2 Head Structure of the NEP
879
Figure 2 represents the head structure of the NEP. The chair is delegated on the
NEP Director, which is the overall responsible for the decisions taken, although
higher National Government ranks can relieve him and assume control if neces-
sary. Every single order must come from the NEP Director and be communicated
following the hierarchy. No member accepts orders that do not come directly from
any of his superiors or from the Public Security and Order Group, since they are
also considered as authorities.
Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC) President and PENCRA Director are at the
same level as NEP Director. They have to be informed about every action taken to
solve the crisis and its evolution. NSC Inspector at the NPP communicates the
measures taken to solve the incident at the nuclear power plant to NEP Director
directly, but he is a member of the NSC. The Advisory Committee has to advise
NEP Director in decision making. Information and Communication Cabinet is
charge with the media. The Executive Body has to materialise the actions com-
manded by the NEP Director to solve de crisis, and it is constituted by several
groups, (Radiological, Health, Logistical Support, Public Security and Order and
Technical Assistance and Coordination) each one with its own predefined struc-
ture. The Team Leaders of these groups are included in the head structure of the
NEP. Additional Team Leaders from other institutions can be invited to join the
Executive Body at the discretion of the NEP Director.
3.2 Resources and Communications
Depending on their nature, three kinds of resources are considered in the NEP:
specific resources (only used in NEs, such as radiation measurement and surveil-
lance equipment); not-specific resources (also used for other emergencies); and
general use resources (used for a general purpose but also needed during a NE).
These resources can also be classified distinguishing between those already avail-
able since the emergency beginning (radiological protection equipment, etc.) and
those the NEP Director has to request and that will be available after a period of
time (CBRN equipment, buses, etc.).
Two types of communications can be considered: those due to the NEP, mainly
related to the command chain and information requests and reports, and those not
planned but still appearing among or inside the systems. Focused on the first ones,
it can be distinguished between the whole communication network, analysed at
(Ramirez et al., 2013), and just the Command Chain Network (CCN) analysed at
(Ruiz et al., 2013).
880
3.3 States and Actuations to Overcome the Emergency
Different situations to be declared at the discretion of the NEP Director are identi-
fied at the NEP. Within them, sets of actions are described relating to emergency
declaration or conclusion, deployment and repositioning of teams, protection, in-
formation request, reporting, resolution of conflicts, and request of resources. It
also details the operational behaviour to be followed during the whole emergency.
The NE will always be governed centrally; teams may operate independently, but
subordinated to the central government.
4 Discussion and Analysis of the Nuclear Emergency Plan
To build the NEP model used in this research, the people involved in the nuclear
emergency (agents), their hierarchy, the messages and commands, the senders and
receivers and the actions to be developed by the agents have been identified.
At this step we detected that one of the groups of the Executive Body (Logisti-
cal Support Group) has not documented its structure and each members responsi-
bility. Inside the group, this fact can cause that the adaptation time for new hires
will be longer. Between the remaining groups, it carries out that other stakeholders
dont know the way they work and they would not be able to detect possible inef-
ficiencies.
The assumptions made to build the NEP were very restrictive. It was developed
assuming that there would not be contradictory or incompatible commands, eve-
ryone involved in the nuclear emergency will abide the commands as soon as pos-
sible without undesirable behaviours. Due to the great number of agents involved
in the emergency, the implementation of a management communication system
would reduce the probability of receiving contradictory or incompatible orders and
the probability of communication channels collapse. Furthermore, it would facili-
tate the information managing. The functional requirements to this system are: (1)
a data base implementation (with different query and write permissions) with the
orders and actions assigned to the teams. (2) An auto-confirmation system for the
information reception or action developed that writes this information on the data
base.
Once the model was built, a Communication and a Command Chain Network
analysis has been done on the basis of complex networks. Figure 3 show the CN
once the emergency has been declared, the executive body is assembled but no
further action has been taken (Ramirez et al., 2013), (Ruiz et al., 2013). These
analyses have provided metrics to evaluate and improve the NEP.
It has been detected that the CN is not resilient enough. There are some ser-
vices (Health Group & Logistical Support Group) whose CCN is handled by a
single communication channel, so a failure in this channel can cause the isolation
881
of some agents, services or groups. To improve the NEP resilience is necessary to

implement communication redundancies to avoid problems caused by a single
communication channel breakdown.
Fig. 3 NEPs Communication Network once the emergency has been declared, the executive
body is assembled but no further action has been taken.
The centrality and prestige analysis has shown that in general, the most impor-
tant nodes are the ones expected from the NEP design. There is an exception. The
PageRank (a measure of how important is a node taken into account its connec-
tions number of agents a node can command and number of nodes he can be
commanded by) in the CCN in the deployed scenario (once all teams have been
positioned) points out the most important node is the Local Emergency Plan Head
of one municipality as he is the only one with a PageRank value higher to 75% of
the maximum, but the design indicates the most important node should be the NEP
Director. The explanation for this result is that this municipality is comparatively
big and the Local Emergency Plan Head has a relatively high number of agents
following his commands. On the other hand, he can be commanded by all the
workers at Coordination and Technical Assistance Group and by two teams from
Security and Public Order Service located at his municipality.
There are several workers at Coordination and Technical Assistance Group
who can order all the Local Emergency Plan Heads. This has revealed the possible
existence of authentication problems of the personnel when an order is edict.
882
5 References
B.O.E. (Spanish Government Gazette). January, 1985. Law 2/1985, 21 January, on Civil Protec-
tion.
B.O.E (Spanish Government Gazette). September, 2009. Royal Decree 1428/2009, September
11th, on the modification of the Nuclear Emergency Basic Plan approved in the Royal Decree
1546/2004.
Dogan H, Henshaw M, Ragsdell G, 2011 The Risk of Information Management Without
Knowledge Management: A Case Study, Journal of Information & Knowledge Manage-
ment, vol. 10, n 4, pp. 393-408.
Galn J.M, Izquierdo L.R, Izquierdo S.S, Santos J.I, del Olmo R, Lpez-Paredes A, Edmonds B,
2009 Errors and artefacts in Agent-Based Modelling, Journal of Artificial Societies & So-
cial Simulation 12(1)1
Geldermanna J., Bertscha V., Treitza M., Frenchb S., Papamichailb K. N., Hmlinenc R. P.
2009. Multi-criteria decision support and evaluation of strategies for nuclear remediation
management. Omega. The International Journal of Management Science 37: 238-251.
Langlois L. Accepted November 26th 2012, unpublished. IAEA Action Plan on nuclear safety.
Energy Strategy Reviews.
Lv Y., Huangb G.H., Guob L., Li Y.P., Daid C., Wange X.W., Sunb W. 2013. A scenario-based
modeling approach for emergency evacuation management and risk analysis under multiple
uncertainties. Journal of Hazardous Materials 246-247: 234-244
Newman M. E. J. 2003. The structure and function of complex networks, SIAM Review 45:
167-256
Park J., Jung W. 2007. A study on the development of a task complexity measure for emergen-
cy operating procedures of nuclear power plants. Reliability Engineering and System Safety
92: 11021116
Parlak A. I., Lambert J. H., Guterbock T. M., Clements J. L. 2012. Population behavioral sce-
narios influencing radiological disaster preparedness and planning. Accident Analysis and
Prevention 48: 353-362.
Ramirez M., Ruiz C., Gonzalez J. L., Lopez A. 2013 Modelling of a Nuclear Emergency Plan:
A Systems of Systems Engineering Approach 8 th International Conference on System of
Systems Engineering (SoSE) (in press, available at:. http://www.insisoc.org/SoSE2013/ )
Ruiz C, Gonzalez JL, Ramirez M, Lopez A. 2013 Modelling of a Nuclear Emergency Plan:
Command Chain Network Analysis Intelligent Systems and Decision Making for Risk
Analysis and Crisis Response: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Risk Anal-
ysis and Crisis Response, Istanbul, Turkey, 27-29 August 2013
Shan S., Wang L., Li L., Chen Y. 2012. An emergency response decision support system
framework for application in e-government. Information Technology and Management 13:
411-427.
Turoff M., Chumer M., Van de Walle B., Yao X. 2003. The Design of a Dynamic Emergency
Response Management Information System (DERMIS). Journal of Information Technology
Theory and Application 5 (4).
883
EN-07
Education
885
Applying the LEGOstics Concept in Formal

Education at Technical University of Cartagena
Bojan P, de la Fuente Aragn MV1, Ros McDonnell L
Abstract The LEGOstics training programs are under continuous development in

Industrial Management Laboratory at UPCT (Spain), working together with
Szab-Szoba R&D Laboratory at Szchenyi University (Gyr, Hungary). The
main purpose of these innovative simulation projects is to construct special real-
life environments for modeling logistics systems and phenomena (the nature of
product and information flow in a supply chain, the meaning of delivery in time
shipments, material handling and order picking processes of a warehouse or a fac-
tory, flexible manufacturing, work-in-process inventory management, lean think-
ing, etc). During the learning-by-doing LEGOstics trainings participants can get
practical knowledge and develop many innovative skills to be able to construct,
design and re-engineer sustainable and efficient logistics processes, and feel the
responsibility of making decisions. In our paper we present how we implemented
LEGOstics concept into the formal education focusing on the experiences we got
during 2011-2013 at Technical University of Cartagena (Spain).
Keywords: Logistic Processes Simulation, Learning-by-doing, LEGOstics.
1 LEGOstics Modelling of Logistics Processes
The collective noun LEGOstics is coming from the LEGO and LOGISTICS
words: LEGO products are very suitable for modeling such semi-virtual (in most
cases non-semi, but real) logistics environments.
The bricks and parts are very popular, and considered as high quality innova-
tive products to help in development of constructive skills.
1MVictoria de la Fuente Aragn ( e-mail: marivi.fuente@upct.es)

Grupo GIO. ETSII. Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena. C/Dr. Fleming, s/n, 30202 Cartagena
(SPAIN)
887
It is important to highlight that we are using these products in totally new ap-
plications. What is really innovative in LEGOstics Laboratory: How to use?, not
Which type of products to use?, so in education environments we can use also
metal construction boards or any other wood-bricks the reason why LEGO
products were chosen was: the students are very familiar with, and these modelled
environments are also mobile applications (Bajor and Bdis, 2011).
The goal is to develop different environments on the same platform: analyzing
and developing the processes according to the technology and real nature of logis-
tics systems (warehousing, material handling, production and transportation).
(Haapasalo and Hyvnen, 2001; Holweg and Bicheno, 2002).
The present work shows the two projects developed at present course in UPCT:
the GRETA and the TRUDI project.
2 The GrEta Project
GrEta is a self-developed, non-official LEGO product, based on our intention to

construct a relatively simple model, what is possible to build with many and to-
tally flexible ways. The result is a nice car: GrEta.
Fig. 1 The GrEta standardized production management training
At the GrEta BoardGame there are four participants around the plotting board,
each of them are assembly workers, responsible to fulfil a given assembly process
and manage the material flow. During the game, the students are working together
on the same model, assembling a few parts of the model, and usually there is a
master place for final assembling.
GrEta car has 8 separate functional parts: chassis, wheels, engine, engine hood,
seat, computer unit, cabin, lamps. Inside the parts there are several ways again to
construct, so constructing GrEta for four people has a lot of possible strategies and
888
production system structures, according to the decisions of the team based on the
different personal attributes. (Haapasalo and Hyvnen, 2001; Holweg and
Bicheno, 2002).
They can get experience in production teamwork (allocate procedures accord-
ing to different features of a given workstation speed, accuracy, quality check-
ing, etc.), and also in process analysis (after a round they discuss their observa-
tions, make some changes, do it again, evaluate the consequences, etc.)
The main questions are:
1. What is the real meaning of efficiency at a given case?
2. How to improve capacity utilization?
3. What to measure and how to measure?
4. How to fit different processes following each other on the best way?
Using GrEta with many types of groups (students, logistics experts, assembling
workers, etc.), the participants dont compete with each other, because their job is
to improve productivity and provide high-level quality checking at the same time.
Our experience is during the round by round optimization results in fast time re-
duction (initial average is 15 minutes, then gradually lowers to 8 and finally 3-5
minutes). The discussions generally considering:
initial strategy better sharing of the assembling tasks
flow control better managing of material flow (prior actions, match-
mismatch of concurrent tasks)
improving the individual assembling speed, parallel assembling
During spontaneous discussions a lot of theoretical knowledge is coming into
practice:
Controlling viewpoint not just financial, but time-based indicators
Sensing viewpoint automatic detection of bottlenecks and inactive times
Performance measurement with comparing the current strategy to the previous
solutions
3 The TRUDI Project
The Trudi LEGOstics plotting board initially was constructed to help in the selec-
tion of new employees at a hungarian manufacturer company. With the Trudi Pro-
ject the research group is developing a special mass-production system, focused
on several functions: bottleneck problem analysis approach, work-in-process in-
ventory management viewpoint, lean philosophy implementation problems, etc.
(Szander et al., 2012).
The plotting board is separated for 4 parts as work-stations, each sector has an
operator. The 4 types of roles as system operators are: Picking, Parts assembling,
889
Final assembling, Disassembling and Selection. The system architecture is modu-

lar and convertible. The materials easily flow across the workstations. The shelv-
ing system is infinitely variable and can be placed anywhere on the table. Between
the work places we use boxes for material handling.
Fig. 2 The TRUDI plotting board in operation
3.1 Measurements and Scientific Aspects of TRUDI LEGOstics

Simulation
Measurement of logistics performance is one of the critical factors for being able
to develop a well-balanced supply chain (Holweg and Bicheno, 2002; Lewis and
Maylor (2007). It is possible to measure the takt-time of each operator, and build-
up a systematic and coherent performance measurement system. We realized that
its not enough to synchronize the different processes based on their time requests.
Its a possible direction of development and new results can come if we apply bar-
codes on the boxes so we can automatically monitor the products and perfor-
mance of the operators during the process.
As concluded during the trainings, LEGOstics simulations have many promis-
ing insights for scientific research as we can highlight in Table 1:
Table 1 LEGOstics simulations promising insights for scientific research
Inventory management Production system re-engineering

Bullwhip-effect MRP
WIP inventory problems JIT
Order policy KANBAN
Lean thinking (different colours of product
Outsourcing: Make or Buy decisions
parts can stay in the same box!)
890
4 Preparation for Implementation Create a LEGOstics

Classroom
Our goal was to implement the LEGOstics method into the formal education in the
frame of an international collaboration between the Szchenyi Istvn University
(Gyr, Hungary) and the Technical University of Cartagena UPCT (Spain).
The UPCT provided the classroom and the necessary equipments. For the first
step the interactive environment was created, where we prepared the plotting
boards and elaborated the course of the trainings together with the teachers of
UPCT and a couple of UPCT students. When everything was prepared (trainings,
trainers, and infrastructure) we integrate the LEGOstics trainings into the schedule
supplementing the theoretical teaching with some practical aspects.
5 Scenario of a Lesson
The lessons start with a short introduction about the learning-by-doing method and
the LEGOstics, presenting the plotting boards, working processes, what the train-
ings are representing. Later, the participants start playing the GrEta or Trudi simu-
lations.
During the trainings, students discuss their experiences round-by-round, they
describe the problems appeared. They have to make decisions and search for pos-
sible solutions: how to organize the working processes, arrange the layouts, assign
the time and allocate the tasks.
On each lesson, the trainers or some voluntary observers filled the report; all
data of the processes (time, ideas, and problems) was registered.
5.1 Scenario of the Trudi Training
The Trudi plotting board itself is rather flexible than the GrEta Board. In this sim-
ulation it is difficult to recognize the task of the operators for external observers
and also for the participants.
According to individual skills the bottleneck can appear at different work sta-
tions, they can get the experience about the mechanism of push and pull systems
this way.
891
Fig. 3 The visual guides, playing and measurement of TRUDI
There is no need for central control, the process automates itself. The operators
have to communicate and collaborate, they can use visual signs to help each other
and handle the system.
The steps of the Trudi training are the following:
Presenting the work stations tasks (selection, order picking, assembling, disas-
sembling)
Playing one or two sample round, being familiar with the process
Playing, measuring, evaluating, optimization
5.2 Further Direction of Development in Trudi Model
Next stage of development in the Trudi plotting board is automatic measurement,

or measurement with informatics support. On the trainings we realised that regis-
tering the details of the processes may get too complicated. Using some electronic
devices can be an effective solution: the electronic devices with the proper pro-
grams can collect and analyze the data from this LEGOstics environment.
The bests are barcodes or QR codes. The QR code can store more data and eas-
ier to read it. So we chose to use tablets, because it has the features we need: a
camera, being mobile, with rechargeable batteries, appropriate screen, input possi-
892
bilities, and a proper operation system, software for reading QR codes and collect
the data. We will put the codes to the boxes of Trudi, and use the tablet to read
them, during the game. The software will save the time of reading, and the code of
the item. It will be saved to the memory, in a .csv file, we can export for further
use. The operators task consists only two easy steps: first read the codes, than
save. Take much less time than the old type paper based administration.
6 Experiences
The LEGOstics method was implemented in the formal education from first grade
of Bachelor and final grade of Master level. In that period in Cartagena (Spain)
there were more than 10 trainings, with the participation of about 100 students.
We experienced that the students were really motivated to learn the logistics phe-
nomena in practice; they were opened for collaboration and communication.
During the GrEta part of the lesson, it was interesting to realize cultural, habital
aspects of work organization. In our previous Hungarian experiences we conclud-
ed that the so called general manager usually owns the initial parts of assem-
bling. Spanish participants usually preferred the finishing procedure and quality
checking in this position. We intend to organize trainings in international groups.
When the students made the Trudi part of the class, they discussed more. It was
a great experience, than the operators concluded the importance of real-time
communication during the process. The biggest problems were, that in the plotting
board the boxes has fixed place, but they wanted to send the boxes also with the
items. The visual guides gave them an inevitable help during the game.
Fig. 4 Measurement and paper-based administration
The observers measured the time, but the administration was not sufficient.
First we just gave them a paper to register the times, but it was not in the manage-
able form for analysis. We made a documentation form and their task got easier,
just fulfilling it - than discussion of results got faster.
893
6.1 Students Opinions
The students enjoyed the trainings, they were interested about every aspects of it,
and they made a huge effort to reach better result in the games. They communi-
cated and worked together, so in this way they were able to optimize the proc-
esses. Generally the students said they had a good time, during and after lessons.
They told us it was very interesting to utilize in practice what they learned in the
courses about different logistics processes, and most of the times its better to see
and experience theoretical things in practice. They also told that in this way, they
can understand better the importance of communication and process optimization.
7 Conclusions
The implementation of the LEGOstics method into the formal education was suc-
cessful. Many students took part in the lessons, despite it was not compulsory. The
students enjoyed the trainings; they had fun and study a lot at the same time. They
could use most of their theoretical knowledge and use them during the games.
They understood why it is so important to work as a team, why we put the empha-
sis on the communication. They were able to realize the problems and trough the
discussions they tried to find the solutions. The students measured the times, and
they could decide what worth to measure, what measurement points and data can
be good for the further analysis, focusing on the performance. The LEGOstics in
the formal education is a necessary practical part of the classes.
8 References
Bajor P, Bdis T (2011) Quality thinking in LEGOstics laboratory innovations, in Quality 2011
Conference Proceedings, pp. 351-356, Neum-BIH 2011.
Haapasalo H, Hyvnen J (2001) Simulating business and operations management a learning
environment for the electronics industry. International Journal of Production Economics,
73:261-272.
Holweg M, Bicheno J (2002) Supply Chain Simulation a tool for education, enhancement and
endeavor. International Journal of Production Economics, 78:163-175.
Lewis MA, Maylor HR (20007) Game playing and operations management education. Interna-
tional Journal of Production Economics, 105:134-149.
Szander N, Makrai Z, Bajor P (2012) Development of Legostics environments in Szab-Szoba
laboratory, 2nd international Students Symposium, Bremen-DE, Dec 2012.
894
Teaching Operation Management with

GeoGebra. An example of Make-to-stock
Problem Solving
Calona Z1, Santos J2, Arcelus M 3
Abstract Improving classroom effectiveness is a major challenge for professors.

Students abilities need to be nurtured, and integrating dynamic mathematics into
teaching can enhance both professor and student performance. This paper presents
GeoGebra as an alternative to solving make-to-stock problems in inventory man-
agement. This model has the advantage of being interactive and user-friendly, al-
lowing students to experiment with different values and draw conclusions on their
own.
Keywords: Teaching Innovation, Operation Management, Inventory Manage-

ment, Geogebra, Make-to-stock
1 Introduction
Professors are facing a major challenge when it comes to improving classroom ef-
fectiveness, such as creating situations that will foster students mental abilities
and making students interact with the instructor and each other to solve a problem
(McKeachie, 1999). The main tools developed to create these situations (puzzles,
cognitive analogies, case studies, role-playing, problem-based learning) are called
Active Learning Techniques (McCarthy and Anderson, 2000).
1Zeyda Calona
Tecnun Universidad de Navarra. P Manuel Lardizbal 13, 20018 San Sebastin
2Javier Santos Garca (e-mail: jsantos@tecnun.es)
3Mikel Arcelus Alonso
895
One of the new challenges in Active Learning Techniques consists of integrat-

ing the use of technology, especially when a technology allows students to dynam-
ically interact in the proposing and solving of problems. Using these new tech-
niques, which are usually based on computer software, students can understand
topics better and learn faster, thereby improving their overall academic success.
Active Learning Techniques are useful in recapturing students attention when
dealing with topics where what-if scenarios can be used to analyze the impact of
certain variables on the results of the problems under study or when the concept
explained is complex, as is the case with mathematical concepts.
At the university level, integrating dynamic mathematics into teaching can en-
hance the performance of both professors and students. Moreover, professors are
encouraged to use and assess technology and interactive mathematics, which con-
tributes to overall classroom effectiveness.
Dynamic Mathematics Software (DMS), which supports constructions with
points, lines and all conic sections, could be used as an Active Learning Tech-
nique (Hohenwarter and Preiner, 2007) that provides the typical features of a
Computer Algebra System (CAS), such as function plotting, root finding, deriva-
tives and integrals.
The ability to represent functions dynamically is used by teachers of mathemat-
ics to propose a bottom up approach (Llobet, 2011). This approach does not use
a formal and structured methodology; instead, it proposes a visual and interactive
environment where students experiment before learning the concepts.
Many DMS applications like Capri, Sketchpad, Microsoft Mathematics and
GeoGebra are becoming popular among high school teachers, but they have not
been deployed in management and engineering education (Soman, 2012) except
for in the teaching of mathematics (Velichova, 2011), (Wurnig, 2008) or linear
programming. Soman demonstrates the pedagogical use of GeoGebra in Operation
Management, reporting that it helps students feel the implication of the decision
they take.
This paper presents a practical case that applies GeoGebra, a free software, to
Operation Management (more specifically in production planning and scheduling
problems), particularly to make-to-stock strategies. In make-to-stock problems,
decisions regarding the manufacturing period affect the management total cost.
GeoGebra contributes to the dynamic analysis of the effect and helps determine
the optimum value for the manufacturing period.
2 GeoGebra
GeoGebra emerged in 2001 as Markus Hohenwarters Masters thesis

(Hohenwarter and Borcherds, 2012), and since then it has become increasingly
popular with teachers and researchers around the world because of its easy-to-use
896
dynamic mathematics software that combines many aspects of various mathemati-

cal packages. In addition, GeoGebra is free, and due to its open-source nature an
extensive user community has developed around it.
Designed specifically for educational purposes, GeoGebra can help students
grasp experimental, problem-oriented and research-oriented learning in mathemat-
ics, both in the classroom and at home. Therefore, GeoGebra can be used as a tool
to better explain concepts and to help students understand and learn faster.
2.1 GeoGebra Applications
Although GeoGebra has been designed to solve algebraic and geometric problems,
it offers a wide range of applications. For example, nowadays it is being used in
various approaches to solving and explaining engineering problems such as
Mohrs Circle (Figure 1) and standard deviation (Figure 2).
Fig. 1 Example of the dynamic calculation of Mohrs Cycle in GeoGebra (GeoGebra, 2013)
Fig. 2 Example of the dynamic study of standard deviation (GeoGebra, 2012)
897
3 Make-to-stock Problems
In the Make-to-stock (MTS) strategy, a family of products must be manufactured

based on demand forecasts. It can be considered push-type production, and the
main objective is to determine the lot size for each product and consequently the
production period for the family.
Traditional inventory management systems can be used to solve make-to-stock
problems (Stevenson, 1998). According to inventory theory, the yearly demand
for a product (D) can be produced in optimum batches (Q*), taking into account
the resource production rate (P), production costs (p), setup costs (C) and invento-
ry costs (H). Figure 3 summarizes the equations required to determine optimal cy-
cle time (T*) and, consequently, optimal total cost (CT*).
I
Q 2CD D
Q*
H(1 ) P
QM
Q* 2C
T*
-D P-D D HD(1 )
D Q
t CT* D p C H M
tp Q* 2
T
Fig. 3 Optimum cycle time according to traditional inventory problem
The difference between the production cycle (T) and the production time for
the product (tp) is known as idle time, and it must be minimized in order to in-
crease resource effectiveness. Normally, more than one product is produced with
the same set of resources, and according to the above formulas, T* will be differ-
ent for each product. The challenge for Make-to-Stock strategies is to set the best
cycle time for the family of products. One of the approaches to solving this prob-
lem is known as the Common Cycle Approach, where the same cycle time is set
for the family (Figure 4).
I Qi Di T tpi Pi Pi i T
n
1 n T n
CT Di pi Ci 2 Hi Di1 i
tp t i1 T i1 i1
i T
CT 2C
= 0 T* n
T
H D (1 )
i i i
t i1
Fig. 4 Optimum cycle time according to the Common Cycle Approach
898
3.1 Make-to-Stock in Excel and GeoGebra
This section describes how to implement the Common Cycle Approach using
GeoGebra. For a better understanding, an example is explained and solved using
Microsoft Excel and GeoGebra.
3.1.1 GeoGebra vs Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is the tool that is usually employed by professors to explain

mathematics or operation management. It allows them to solve formulas, interact
with cell values, and combine columns. In order to add some dynamism to the
worksheet, it is necessary to program using Visual Basic. Furthermore, the dynam-
ic graphical representation in Excel is limited to charts.
GeoGebra has a reduced range of formulas and spreadsheets, a clearly limited
number compared to Excel. In GeoGebra it is not simple to include new rows
maintaining the formula structure and looses information when detecting or mov-
ing values. As a result is necessary to know in advance how to arrange tables, val-
ues and formulas in the template.
Fig. 5 GeoGebras Interface
However, GeoGebra offers a dynamic worksheet (Figure 5) that is more user-

friendly and an easy-to-use interface. The combination of algebra, spreadsheets
and graphics allows values, points and graphs to be changed dynamically. Its as
simple as dragging and dropping a variable and checking the behavior of its vari-
ous values and its impact on spreadsheet cells. As a consequence it is easy to pre-
pare a template to help student understanding and play dynamically with problem
values and answer what-if questions in a simple way.
899
3.2 A practical example
A company produces three different products in the same facility. The compa-
ny works 250 days a year, 5 days a week. Currently, it produces yearly one cycle
of each product to satisfy the demand shown below. The table also provides in-
formation about the production, set up and inventory cost. The task is to calculate
the total cost based on the Common Cycle Approach.
Table 1 Example data
Product Di (u/year) pi(/u) Pi(u/day) Hi(/u year) Ci()

A 10000 10 200 5 1000
B 5000 40 200 20 150
C 20000 20 200 10 150
3.2.1 Microsoft Excel solution
Figure 7 shows the solution using Microsoft Excel, where each cell includes a
formula for solving the problem dynamically.
Fig. 7 Case study solution in Microsoft Excel
900
Students can interact with the Excel model, but they are limited to changing
numbers or formulas. In addition, it is not possible to plot inventory levels for the
products.
3.2.2 GeoGebra solution
With GeoGebra (Figure 8), the user can play with the results by changing val-
ues and analyzing how they affect the final solution, an approach that is clearly
more dynamic.
Fig. 8 Case study solution in GeoGebra
The GeoGebra model allows interaction without programming by directly mov-

ing the variable to the graphics. It is also possible to combine a variable value with
the value of a cell in the spreadsheet. However, the spreadsheet in GeoGebra is
more limited compared to Microsoft Excel. Figures 7 and 8 show the formula for
the calculation of the optimum cycle (T*) using Excel and GeoGebra, respective-
ly.
By using GeoGebra, different what-if scenarios can be easily analyzed without
changing the model. Furthermore, it is possible to study the impact of an increase
901
in demand, a change in production rate, the economic impact of any change in

working cycle, etc.
4 Conclusions
In this paper, a new proposal for teaching Operation Management based on

GeoGebra is presented. The suggested alternative for Make-to-Stock problems
helps students learn more efficiently by allowing them to manipulate values via a
dynamic interface. The papers main contributions are: (1) the integration of the
new software GeoGebra in the field of operations management, not only for solv-
ing inventory problems but also for dealing with continuous improvements activi-
ties; (2) the presentation of a valuable free tool for professors, thereby improving
classroom efficiency; and (3) the presentation of a valuable training methodology
for students to better understand inventory concepts.
5 References
GeoGebra (2012) http://www.geogebratube.org/student/m5983

GeoGebra (2013) http://www.geogebratube.org/material/show/id/26706
Hohenwarter M., Preiner J. (2007). Multiple Representations. The Journal of Online Mathemat-
ics and Its Applications, (7). Available online.
Hohenwarter, M. & Borcherds, M. (2012). Geogebra software (version 4) [software]. Available
from http://www.geogebra.org/cms/
Llobet, JC. (2011). Mathematization platform in a GeoGebra environment within a didactic ap-
proach from bottom to top. Enseanza de las ciencias, Vol 29 (1). pp 101-114
McKeachie, W. J. (1999). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and univer-
sity teachers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Patrick, J. Anderson, L. (2000). Active Learning Techniques Versus Traditional Teaching Styles:
Two Experiments from History and Political Science. Innovative Higher Education, 24 (4)
Soman, CA. (2012). GeoGebra: A tool for improving operations management teaching at MBA
level. Proceedings of the 4th World Conference P&OM
Stevenson, WJ. (1998). Production Operations Management. 6th edition. Irwin Professional Pub-
lishing
Velichova, D. (2011). Dynamic Tool in Mathematical Education. 14th International Conference
on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL). pp. 24-29
Wurnig O. (2008), Some Problem Solving examples of Multiple solutions using cas and dgs,
Proceedings of the Discussing Group 9 : Promoting Creativity for All Students in Mathemat-
ics Education, The 11th International Congress on Mathematical Education, Monterrey, Mex-
ico.
902
Factors Involved in the University-industry

Collaboration; a Final YearProject Approach
Errasti N1, Ganzarain J, Markuerkiaga L, Martinez de Zuazo M
Abstract There have been numerous calls for effective collaboration and more
meaningful engagement between universities and industry. University-industry
partnerships have long been realized as critical component for the successful de-
velopment of a good university. This interaction between an academic institution
and business and industry sector can occur through students, teachers and the ad-
ministration itself. The concept "Final Year Project" (FYP) is a clear example of a
relationship between the two aforementioned parties. Its main objective is to pro-
vide the opportunity for students to develop and demonstrate their abilities per-
forming tasks individually in an efficient and well-organized way inside the indus-
try sector. This research focuses on observations over the past 10 years
experience of the Polytechnic School of Mondragon Unibertsitatea. The paper
presents a general overview of the 4792 final projects developed during this period
in all engineering specialties offered. The aim of this investigation is to analyze
the main themes of the projects and check their evolution according to the needs
of different organizations. Thus, the results of this analysis will help in managing
the identification of the competences and skills that students need to develop, as
well as choosing the tasks that must be carried out by the university researchers.
Keywords: Final Year Projects, University-industry Collaboration, Trends Analy-

sis
1 Introduction
Mondragon Goi Eskola Politeknikoa (henceforth MGEP) has a wide experience

conducting final year projects, both in business and university. Therefore there is
1Nekane Errasti Lozares ( e-mail: nerrasti@mondragon.edu)

903
enough information to conduct a detailed analysis of how these projects have

evolved their themes, the applied technologies, etc. So far, MGEP has conducted
an investigation of the evolution of the final year projects developed during the
last 10 years (2000-2010) in the fields of Mechanical (Production Systems) and
Industrial Organization Engineering. An article entitled "Final Year Projects as a
means of University-Industry relationship measurement" (Errasti, 2012) shows the
results of this analysis. Therefore, and taking into account the example of the
aforementioned article, the objective of this article is to go one step further and
complete the previous analysis by showing the evolution of the final year projects
developed during the last 10 years, but in this case, all engineering specialities of-
fered in MGEP will be considered.
2 University industry Collaboration through FYPs
In the last years, effective participation and collaboration between universities and
industry has grown. The university-industry connection has been for a long time
the key component for a successful development of a good university. Moreover,
in the recent decades these interactions have steadily increased. This relationship
allows effective communication with "customers," thereby promoting means for
continuing improvements in university quality (Baharom et al., 2009, Zunaira,
2005) and creating benefits and profits for the nation, company and university.
The objective of this work is to further analyse an important but previously
poorly studied field between university-industry relations: students and their final
year project (onwards FYPs) as a way of measuring university-industry interac-
tion.
For MGEP, the FYPs are viewed as the culmination of engineering studies
(Ortiz-Marcos et al., 2010, Jawitz et al., 2002) where students develop a project
according to their professional future, as well as it being a great opportunity to
have their first experience as engineers (Martinez et al., 2010) under a professional
tutor. They acquire knowledge in areas such as team working and management
skills that are difficult to obtain in class (Bikfalvi et al., 2007, Bovea and Gallardo,
2006).
The FYPs can be carried out both at university and in companies, always with
the constant involvement of industry. The aim is to establish a student-company
relationship according to the characteristics of the professional profile of the stu-
dents(Vaezi-Nejad, 1993). In this way, students can see the real work of an engi-
neer (Ortiz-Marcos et al., 2010).
The aim of MGEP is that every student should have the experience of spending
a year in a company or institution where they can develop their own project
(Hasan, 2009). The proposed project is provided by the company, which clearly
defines the objectives that must be achieved. During this year two people are
904
aware of its development: one belongs to the company itself and has direct contact
with the student, as well as supervising his/her work thereby ensuring the correct
implementation of the objectives defined; the other person belongs to the univer-
sity and deals with the academic development and the academic issues of the FYP.
Therefore, this document tries to gather the last 10 years experience of MGEP
where 4792 projects have been carried out within 700 organizations.
The analysis has centred on all the engineering degrees taught at MGEP, that
makes 14 different degrees in all. The time scope used for the analysis is 10 years,
referring to FYPs developed from 2000 to 2010. During this period, a total amount
of 4792 FYP have been developed in 700 organizations. Data for the analysis is
contained in the data base used for FYP management.
The percentage of FYPs that are carried out with involvement of industry is
nearly 100%. This means that even if there is a percentage of projects that are de-
veloped at university, every project is developed within a research project where
the customer is a company, so that even in those cases, there is a clear involve-
ment of industry. Around 83% of the projects are developed outside university,
and this percentage is even higher when referring to the titles of mechanical engi-
neering (welding systems and production systems) or industrial management en-
gineering degrees. In these cases, almost every student develops its FYP in a com-
pany (Table 1).
Table 1 % of FYP developed outside the university (data correspond to period 2000-2010)
Technical Engineering degrees % Engineering degrees %

First cycle 84,27 Second cycle 81,74
TOTAL 83
In order to prepare the information for the analysis, both the projects and the
companies have been categorized. The projects have been categorized according
to the degree they belong to and the companies using the National Classification
of Economic Activities.
Once the information is ready, the statistical analysis begins. First a descriptive
analysis using bar charts is carried out, and this is followed by a correlation analy-
sis where the existence of relationships among the different variables is studied.
905
4 Results
At this point, the results obtained from the research are presented in graphic and
table form. As has been stated before, two types of analysis have been done, a de-
scriptive analysis first, and a correlation analysis afterwards.
4.1 General Descriptive Analysis
The following figure shows the percentages of the projects developed in each spe-
cialty during the last 10 years. Most projects are carried out in the Organization
Engineering specialty (with 14%) and this is directly related to the Production
Systems (11%) because they share the same areas of knowledge.
Automatic
2% 1% Industrial Design
1% 9%
14% Electronics
10%
Fabrication
11% Industrial
9% Computing
Computer Engineering
1%
7% Telecommunications
Mechanics
9% Polymers
Production
2% 12% Organization
6% 8% Systems
Welding Systems
Telematics
Fig. 1 Percentages of each specialty projects developed during the past 10 years.
In the table below we can see the evolution of the number of projects under-
taken by specialty and year.
906
Table 2 Projects evolution by specialty.
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Total
Automatic 29 57 32 32 52 30 30 33 39 40 36 410
Ind. Design 10 39 31 44 46 55 36 68 47 53 49 478
Electronics 58 45 48 54 45 33 34 30 29 29 39 444
Fabrication 26 53 27 37 36 43 25 39 21 20 13 340
Industrial 0 33 42 41 65 64 64 76 41 58 70 554
Computing 32 28 31 25 34 32 35 50 34 34 35 370
Computers 0 24 11 24 32 31 23 29 29 49 29 281
Telecoms. 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 19 16 26 22 99
Mechanics 45 42 45 51 39 38 30 34 37 33 33 427
Polymers 0 0 0 0 0 4 5 12 3 0 1 25
Production 76 84 78 58 44 35 33 34 32 29 18 521
Organiz. 67 88 51 60 98 67 48 58 52 39 37 665
Systems 0 0 0 0 6 13 5 9 3 3 4 43
Welding 0 0 0 0 9 11 17 17 19 13 12 98
Telematics 0 0 0 0 3 8 8 6 3 4 5 37
343 493 396 426 509 464 409 514 405 430 403 4792
Figure 2 shows the percentages evolution of the different specialties proposed

to the MGEP from 2000 to 2010.
100%
Telematics
90% Welding Systems
80% Systems
Organization
70%
Production
60% Polymers
50% Mechanics
Telecommunications
40% Computer Engineering
30% Computing
Industrial
20%
Fabrication
10% Electronics
0% Industrial Design
Automatic
Fig. 2 Percentages evolution of the different specialties.
907
Looking at the graph you will notice that not all the degrees offered in 2010
were operative in 2000, and they have progressively been incorporated into the
FYP process.
Another point to take into account has been the type of company where FYPs
have been developed, all of them classified by their size 2. The Table 3 shows the
type of enterprises that have asked for FYPs in the last ten years.
Table 3 Evolution of the number of FYPs by firm size and year.
COMPANIES
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total
Micro 8 11 5 8 14 14 18 21 14 25 15 153
Small 65 102 75 84 102 67 81 107 73 75 74 905
Medium 5 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 13
Big 244 355 285 305 351 310 248 323 259 224 204 3108
N/A 21 22 29 30 41 73 60 63 59 106 109 614
Total 320 470 367 398 468 391 347 451 346 324 300 4792
As has been mentioned before, 700 different companies have collaborated with
MGEP in the last 10 years, and as can be seen from Table 3, most of the FYPs are
developed in big firms, namely those with more than 250 employees. And accord-
ing to Figure 3, the kind of activities that are most common within these compa-
nies are those related to number 28 and 85 that belong to Manufacture of machin-
ery and Education respectively. These are followed by Research and development
(number 72) and Manufacture of electrical equipment (number 27) related activi-
ties.
Fig. 3 Percentage of FYPs related to the economic activity hold in the company (classification
according to CNAE).
2 Micro enterprise <10 workers; Small<50 workers; Medium<250 workers; Big>250 workers.
908
4.2 General Correlational Analysis
In order to analyze the existence of possible correlational relationships among dif-

ferent factors, the following model has been defined.
E_LOCATION
FYP
E_SIZ Typology
E
E_ACTIVITY
Fig. 4 Theoretical model used in the statistical analysis.
Attending to the model shown in Figure 4, three correlational analyses have

been run. The first one tries to see whether the relationship between the enterprise
activity (E_ACTIVITY) and the FYP typology requested by the enterprise are re-
lated. In the following table, it can be seen that with a significance level of 0, and
a Pearsons coefficient of -0.282, there is a lineal dependency between these two
variables at a 0,01 level. According to the variable E_ACTIVITY, the most com-
mon ones are those for numbers 28, 72 and 85, and according to FYP typology,
they are mostly related to production or organizational management issues.
The second analysis is oriented to testing the possible relationship between
E_LOCATION and FYP Typology. As can be seen in Table 4, in this case, with a
bilateral significance of 0 and a correlation index of -0,093, it is possible to say
that there is a meaningful relationship between these two variables at level 0,01.
The third and last correlational analysis has been oriented towards the possible
relation between the size of the enterprise (E_SIZE) and the type of FYP (FYP
Typology) it is asking for. The results confirm the statistical relationship at 0,05
level between the two variables, with a Pearsons index of 0,036. In this case,
most of the FYP participating companies are big size companies.
Table 4 Correlational analyses results resume.
E_LOCATION E_SIZE E_ACTIVITY

FYP_Typology
Pearsons index -,093** ,036* -,282**
Bilateral Sig. ,000 ,021 ,000
**Correlation is significant at 0,01 level (bilateral)
*Correlation is significant at 0,05 level (bilateral)
909
This articles aim was to study more deeply than usual the relationship between
FYPs demand, and the characteristics of the participating companies. With this
goal in mind, and based on the literature review related to university-business col-
laboration and the FYP management process at Mondragon University, a statisti-
cal analysis has been developed.
The main conclusions are that in the last ten years, the number of FYPs re-
quested by companies has decreased a lot. However, the characteristics of the par-
ticipating companies havent evolved in such a way. They are still big companies,
located in Gipuzkoa and with business activities related to Manufacture of ma-
chinery, Education and Research and development. In reference to the FYP typol-
ogy, even though the number of the requested FYPs has suffered an important de-
crease, the top subjects that still concern companies are those related to production
or organizational management issues.
So it seems important to remain aware of what happens around the university
and, to this end, this kind of statistical study can help for two reasons: the first one
is that it gives the university an insight into what has happened in the previous
years, and how its evolving year by year, so that it can be used to predict what
will happen in the next years in reference to the number of FYPs requested; and
the second one is that this kind of study helps us to understand the topics-subjects
of interest to the surrounding companies, so that it allows the university to align
academic and research efforts with the needs of the companies, creating a value
adding offer for both them and for society in general.
6 References
Baharom, M. N. R., Salleh,Rr. & Idrus,H. 2009. University-industry partnerships towards pro-
ducing quality graduates. Conference of the International Journal of Arts and Sciences.
Bikfalvi, A.,Pages, J. L., Kantola, J., Gou, P. M. & Fernandez, N. M. 2007. Complementing edu-
cation with competence development: an ict-based application. International Journal of Man-
agement in Education, 1, 231-50.
Bovea, M. D. & Gallardo, A. 2006. Work placements and the final year project: a joint experi-
ence in the industrial engineering degree. International Journal of Engineering Education, 22,
1319-1324.
Errasti, N., Zabaleta, N., Igartua, J.I. Final year projects as a means of university industry
relionship measurement. 5th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industri-
al Management. XV Congreso de Ingenieria de Organizacion, 2012 Cartagena.
Hasan, Z. 2009. Enhancing student's hands-on learning experience through final year project in
industry: implementations and challenges. 2009 International Conference on Engineering
Education, ICEED 2009 - Embracing new challenges in Engineering Education, 29-33.
Jawitz, J., Shay, S. & Moore, R. 2002. Management and assessment of final year projects in en-
gineering. International Journal of Engineering Education, 18, 472-478.
Martinez, M. L., Carretero, A., Romero, G. & Mera,J. M. Evaluation and use of the standards in
of the technical drawings in the final year project. 2010 Istanbul. 4239-4244.
910
Ortiz-Marcos, I., Snchez Naranjo, M. J. & Cobo Benita, J. R. 2010. Evolution of final degree
projects at the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. International Journal of Engineering Edu-
cation, 26, 162-168.
Vaezi-Nejad, S. M. 1993. Final year project as an important component of the electrical and elec-
tronic engineering degree course at the University of Greenwich. International Journal of
Electrical Engineering Education, 30, 296-302.
Zunaira,M. 2005. The internet for value innovation. Proceedings of 2005 International Confer-
ence on Innovation & Management, 1301-1305.
911
How to Assess the Innovation Competency of

Higher Education Students
Marin-Garcia JA 1, Perez-Pealver MJ, Vidal-Carreras PI, Maheut J
Abstract Starting with the definition of innovation, for this paper we selected the
INCODE-ICB-v5 questionnaire as the measurement instrument for individual in-
novation. Given that said questionnaire has not yet been specified or validated in
scientific publications, we showed that its measurement model is formative. The
measurement model was subsequently validated, so that it can be used in the fu-
ture to collect data from dependent or independent variables of causal models. It
also provides a tool for teaching professionals interested in measuring the innova-
tion competency levels of their students.
Keywords: Innovation, Competences, Higher Education, Validation, Question-

naire
1 Introduction
Innovation is one of the more popular concepts in business management. It is con-

sidered one of the essential ingredients of competitive advantage given that it is an
intangible component that is difficult for competitors to replicate. This explains
why during the current economic crisis, many people look to the innovative capac-
ity of companies as a potential lifeline, and to some, the only one for European
business. Broadly speaking, innovation is considered to be of key importance
when improving the productivity or efficiency of companies, increasing the quali-
1Juan A. Marin-Garcia ( e-mail: jamarin@omp.upv.es)

* This research was supported by Grant 518132-LLP-1-2011-1-FI-ERASMUS-FEXI "INCODE-
Innovation Competencies Development" from European Union, and project PIME A13/11-2012
form UPV
912
ty of products, decreasing production costs and reducing manufacturing times

(Bessant et al. 2001; Cerinek and Dolinsek 2009).
The definition of innovation is a well-developed concept for which there is a
considerable consensus amongst researchers. Innovation is regarded as a process
that facilitates the implementation of a new product or service, production method,
the opening-up of new markets, a change in suppliers, business and management
models that are perceived as developments within the organization and that aim to
improve its performance (Schumpeter 1934; Vaccaro et al. 2012; Goffin and
Mitchell 2010; Marin-Garcia et al. 2011; Lehto et al. 2011).
Appearing less frequently however in academic publications is research focus-
ing on the innovative capacity of individuals, how to measure it and how to further
develop it (Cerinek and Dolinsek 2009). And this is the whole focus of our paper.
We review the concept of innovation competency of individuals, describing cer-
tain models used to measure their degree of development, we select an instrument
to measure the innovative competency of university students, specifying the
measurement model, and we then validate the measurement instrument using a
sample of 332 Spanish university students.
2 Innovation Competency and its Components
According to Villa & Poblete (2007), competency can be defined as, Good per-
formance in diverse, authentic contexts based on the integration and activation of
knowledge, standards, techniques, procedures, abilities and skills, attitudes and
values. Recommendations by the European Qualifications Framework for Life-
long Learning (2008) add the terms responsibility and autonomy to the meaning of
competency, defining it as the proven ability to use knowledge, skills and per-
sonal, social and/or methodological abilities, in work or study situations and in
professional and personal development.
Competency can also be defined as complex knowledge resulting from the in-
tegration and adaptation of capacities and skills to situations that share common
characteristics. Capacity is moderately complex expertise, which incorporates
skills that require procedural and conditional knowledge. A skill, on the other
hand, is straightforward know-how (Bessant et al. 2001; Drejer 2001).
Although there are alternative classifications to group the different skills to-
gether, we have used a model that specifically focuses on innovation competency
(Lehto et al. 2011; Penttil and Kairisto-Mertanene 2012; Watts et al. 2012). Ac-
cording to said model, the capacities and skills that comprise innovation compe-
tency can be broken down into three categories: individual, teamwork and net-
working.
Individual capacity is linked to creativity, persistence, risk taking and personal
outlook (See Table 1). These aspects relate to innovation (Ferrari et al., European
913
Union 2009). The process of generating new ideas is not the same as applying
them in practice, and calls for dealing with different critical incidents, problems
and tasks that require innovative thinking and responses so as to overcome any
difficulties that might arise (Cerinek and Dolinsek 2009; Berdrow and Evers
2010). The ability to work as part of a team is one of the foundations of communi-
cation and team leadership. Communication is an essential part of the process of
the collective construction of ideas (Marin-Garcia et al. 2010; Marin-Garcia et al.
2011), as well as for its subsequent processing, assessment and arguments
(Berdrow and Evers 2010). The final category, networking, implies a process of
transformation, which, once carried out, has an immediate and medium-term ef-
fect on society. Innovation must go hand in hand with ethical values and social re-
sponsibility, and this includes sustainability (Hamzah and Abdullah 2009;
Waychal et al. 2011; Mulder et al. 2007).
Due to limitations of space, we are unable to list the items of the INCOD-ICB-
v5 questionnaire in this paper, but requests can be made via email for a copy of
the questionnaire in either Spanish or English, as well as for statistical descrip-
tions, correlations, detailed lists of the PLS analysis and the percentage tables of
the scales constructed.
3 Specification of a Measurement Model for the Innovation

Construct
The relationship between the items and the construct to which they are associated
can be described as reflective (the value of the items change reflecting a change in
the latent construct whereby all the items will have a high correlation with each
other and are interchangeable) or formative (a change in any of the items is what
changes the value of the latent construct, the significance of which is defined by
the items that comprise it). A single construct can be measured using reflective or
formative items. The specification of the measurement model consists of stating
explicitly that one has opted for a formative or reflective operationalization of the
items used to measure the construct (Petter et al. 2007). The measurement model
of the INCODE-ICB-v5 questionnaire (Watts et al. 2012; Marin-Garcia et al.
2011) measures the innovation construct with a series of 25 questions, grouped in-
to three categories (Individual, Interpersonal teamwork and Networking). Re-
sponses were given a score of between 1 and 5 (1= major improvement needed;
5= excellent).
A group of decision rules allows researchers to decide what type of association
exists between the latent variable and its items, and in doing so they can correctly
specify the measurement model (Jarvis et al. 2003; Petter et al. 2007). The items
included in the INCODE-ICB-v5 questionnaire to measure each of the competen-
cies are clearly formative. Furthermore, the three competencies are in turn a form-
914
ative definition of the second-order construct to measure the innovation compe-

tence, creating a type 4 multidimensional model: specified as formative for both
the first order constructs and the second-order construct (Jarvis et al. 2003).
4 Methodology
Given that we have established the formative measurement model specification,

the main goal of the paper is to validate said model. During the analysis of the sta-
tistical descriptions, special attention is given to missing values, skip patterns,
range of responses, skewness and kurtosis. We also analyze the inter-item correla-
tion to see if any of them are greater than 0.4 (Petter et al. 2007). We check the
collinearity, regressing the items on a construct and checking that VIF values are
below 3.3 and condition indices below 30. To assess the formative constructs, we
use PLS (Ringle et al. 2005) using non-parametric bootstrapping (300 cases, 5000
samples and individual sign changes) and we analyze the weights for the outer
model (>0,1) and bootstrap significance (>1.66).
The population comprises 506 university students from 3 centers: a Faculty of
Business Administration and two university schools (Industrial Engineering and
Design Engineering). To get students to complete the web questionnaire, invita-
tions were sent out via email to students enrolled in the 2012-13 academic year
studying a series of six different first-semester subjects. The average response rate
was 66%, ranging between 56% and 100% depending on the subject. The size of
the sample complies with the requisite that the number of cases should be at least
ten times the number of items of the construct. In our case, the individual con-
struct has 12 items, therefore the sample was required to have more than 120 cas-
es.
5 Results and Discussion
Practically all the individuals responded to all 25 items on the questionnaire, so

any missing values are not due to the characteristics of an item, nor do they pre-
sent a problem for the data collected as a whole. For the majority of the items, the
response distribution average is located in the medium to high part of the scale.
The standard deviation is not very high, for a scale with 5 response levels, the
asymmetry is low for all items and are moderately platykurtic. In other words, the
majority of responses are spread out across the scale (more uniform than a normal
one), with a slightly higher concentration in the upper levels of the scale. Items
ICB15, ICB16, ICB17, ICB18 and ICB23 have a floor effect (second value of
915
the scale), although none have a ceiling effect, whereby the range of answers
remains at 5 for the majority of items (20 of the 25).
The correlations of the items are, for the most part, significant and positive alt-
hough moderate or very low. The maximum correlation value is 0.55 (between
ICB18 and ICB19) with only 7 correlations registering a value greater than 0.40
(in addition to the one already mentioned, the correlations between ICB01-ICB02;
ICB14-ICB15; ICB15-ICB17; ICB16-ICB17; ICB16-ICB18; ICB19-ICB20;
ICB21-ICB22). The majority of these high correlations occur in the teamwork cat-
egory (although these only account for 5 of the 26 correlations). The collinearity
statistic values are lower than the cut-off values. All items have VIF values of be-
low 1.75 and the condition indices are 23.16 for the individual, 22.18 for team-
work and 10.53 for networking. Furthermore, the VIF values for the constructs are
below 1.30 with a condition index of 12.37.
Following analysis of the Partial Least Squares, for individuals, 9 of the 12
items have weights of greater than 0.1 while 8 of them are significantly different
from zero. For teamwork, 6 of the 8 items have a significant weight with 4 of them
significantly different from zero. In the case of networking, 4 of the 5 items are
relevant with 3 of them significantly different from zero. Lastly, the weights of the
latent variables in the second-order construct, which represent the innovation
competency of students are all relevant and significant.
Figure 1 represents the measurement model of the second-order innovation
construct, comprising three categories: individual, teamwork and networking. It
includes the weights of the items and constructs.
916
Fig. 1 Weights of the measurement model
6 Conclusions
This paper sets out the specification and subsequent validation of a formative
measurement model to measure the innovation competency of university students.
It can generally be regarded that the proposed model adequately complies with the
content validity and validation test criteria for formative models. Items relating to
teamwork have been the most problematic, probably due to the correlations that
exist between them, as well as certain special characteristics in the definition of
item ICB16 and more importantly ICB17. These will require additional detailed
917
analysis in the future. In the individual category, it would be advisable to review

items ICB05, ICB07 and above all ICB12 to determine if these are essential for
defining the construct and if they can be substituted, modified and added to a mul-
tidimensional index (Petter et al. 2007; Jarvis et al. 2003; Diamantopoulos et al.
2008). It might also be useful in future research to increase the sample to include a
wider variety of qualifications, courses and universities, thereby overcoming the
current limitation, namely the fact that the proposed scale can not be extrapolated
to all Spanish universities given the limited population of the original study.
Nevertheless, and taking into account the logical precautions in the initial stage
of developing and validating measurement scales, one could consider that this pa-
per brings with it a number of contributions to the academic community.
This work provides contributions to researches in the fields of innovation,
business and human resource management as it fills a void by providing a valid
and reliable instrument for measuring the degree of innovation of individuals. This
instrument can then be used to measure dependent and independent variables in
research that aims to test explanatory and causal models. Furthermore, we provide
an explicit specification of the measurement model at the design stage of the ques-
tionnaire a stage frequently overlooked in articles published on validating meas-
urement instruments.
For university teachers too, it provides a valuable contribution by providing a
simple yet satisfactory instrument for assessing a group of transversal sub-
competences, customary in Spanish university curricula, although teachers do not
have the support tools to be able to measure them. In the future, our aim is to fur-
ther expand the work to develop training and the use protocol for this instrument,
at which point there will be a standardized questionnaire and a corresponding ref-
erence scale allowing university teachers to be able to measure the innovation
competence of their students.
7 References
Berdrow I, Evers FT (2010) Bases of competence: an instrument for self and institutional as-
sessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 35: 419-434.
Bessant J, Caffyn S, Gallagher M (2001) An evolutionary model of continuous improvement be-
haviour. Technovation 21: 67-77.
Cerinek G, Dolinsek S (2009) Identifying employees' innovation competency in organisations.
International Journal of Innovation and Learning 6: 164-177.
Diamantopoulos A, Riefler P, Roth KP (2008) Advancing formative measurement models. Jour-
nal of Business Research 61: 1203-1218.
Drejer A (2001) How can we define and understand competencies and their development?
Technovation 21: 135-146.
Goffin K, Mitchell R (2010) Innovation management. Palgrave-MacMillan, New York
Hamzah MSG, Abdullah SK (2009) Generic skills needed to produce human capital with "first
class mentality". European Journal of Social Sciences 10: 102-110.
918
Jarvis C-B, MacKenzie S-B, Podsakoff P-M (2003) A Critical Review of Construct Indicators
and Measurement Model Misspecification in Marketing and Consumer Research. Journal of
Consumer Research 30: 199-218.
Lehto A, Kairisto-Mertanene L, Penttil T (2011) Towards innovation pedagogy. A new ap-
proach to teaching and learning for universities of applied sciences. Turku University of
Apllied Sciences, Turku
Marin-Garcia JA, Aznar-Mas LE, Gonzlez-Ladrn-de-Gevara F (2011) Innovation types and
talent managment for innovation. Working Papers on Operations Management 2: 25-31.
Marin-Garcia JA, Marin-Garcia T, Perello-Marin MR, Garcia-Sabater JJ (2010) Seleccin de
plataformas para el trabajo colaborativo en grupos deslocalizados: formulacin del problema.
Working Papers on Operations Management 1: 41-45.
Marin-Garcia T, Martn Andrs JJ, Villar Prez R (2011) Emergencias colectivas. Mapa de
vnculos de actividades artsticas (autogestionadas) en la Comunidad Valenciana (2001-
2011). Archivo de Arte Valenciano XCII: 505-524.
Mulder M, Lans T, Verstegen J, Biemans H, Meijer Y (2007) Competence development of en-
trepreneurs in innovative horticulture. Journal of Workplace Learning 19: 32-44.
Penttil T,.Kairisto-Mertanene L (2012) Innovation competence barometer ICB - a tool for as-
sessing students' innovation competences as learning outcomes in higher education. In
INTED2012 Conference. 5th-7th March 2012., Valencia, Spain.
Petter S, Straub D, Rai A (2007) Specifying formative constructs in information systems re-
search. Mis Quarterly 31: 623-656.
Ringle CM, Wende S, Will A (2005) SmartPLS 2.0 (beta). available at http://www.smartpls.de.
SmartPLS. Hamburg, Germany.
Schumpeter J (1934) The Theory of Economic Development. Harvard University Press, Cam-
bridge, MA
Vaccaro IG, Jansen JJP, Van Den Bosch FAJ, Volberda HW (2012) Management Innovation and
Leadership: The Moderating Role of Organizational Size. Journal of Management Studies 49:
28-51.
Villa Snchez A, Poblete M (2007) Aprendizaje basado en competencias. Una propuesta para la
evaluacin de las competencias genricas. Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao
Watts F, Marin-Garcia JA, Garcia-Carbonell A, Aznar-Mas LE (2012) Validation of a rubric to
assess innovation competence. Working Papers on Operations Management 3: 61-70.
Waychal P, Mohanty RP, Verma A (2011) Determinants of innovation as a competence: An em-
pirical study. International Journal of Business Innovation and Research 5: 192-211.
919
Annex
Innovation competence in the INCODE- ICB-v5 questionnaire (Spanish ver-

sion)
Capacity Cod Skill

Individual ICB01 Hago propuestas adecuadas a las exigencias de la tarea
ICB02 Ofrezco ideas que son originales en contenido
ICB03 Ofrezco nuevos modos de materializar las ideas
Evalo crticamente los fundamentos bsicos de las tareas y accio-
ICB04
nes
ICB05 Identifico las relaciones entre los diferentes aspectos de las tareas
ICB06 Exploro diferentes puntos de vista
ICB07 Utilizo hbilmente los recursos disponibles
ICB08 Anticipo cmo se pueden desarrollar los acontecimientos
ICB09 Muestro entusiasmo
ICB10 Soy perseverante
ICB11 Tomo riesgos inteligentes
ICB12 Oriento las tareas hacia el objetivo final
Interpersonal ICB13 Transmito ideas de manera efectiva
ICB14 Escucho a las otras personas del grupo
Utilizo el dilogo para establecer relaciones constructivas en el
ICB15
grupo
ICB16 Colaboro activamente
ICB17 Contribuyo a que el grupo funcione bien
ICB18 Tomo iniciativas
ICB19 Muevo a los otros a actuar
ICB20 Afronto los problemas constructivamente para alcanzar consenso
Network ICB21 Aplico valores ticos en las decisiones del grupo
ICB22 Intento que las tareas tengan un impacto en la sociedad
Puedo trabajar cooperativamente en entornos multidisciplinares o
ICB23
multiculturales
ICB24 Soy capaz de comunicarme usando idiomas extranjeros
Establezco relaciones bsicas con personas que participan en ini-
ICB25
ciativas a nivel local, regional o institucional
920
Using Rubrics for Monitoring and Evaluating

Degree Projects in Industrial Management
Engineering
Barbera-Ribera T1, Estelles-Miguel S2, Dema Perez C.M3,

Garrigos-Simon F.J4.
Abstract This paper presents an experience developed during three academic

years in the Industrial Management Engineering, in the School of Design Engi-
neering at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV). The main aim has been
to deepen on the role of the director of the Degree Project (PD), in order to im-
prove the effectiveness and efficiency in carrying out this last step before the stu-
dent can face the labor market and demonstrate its professional capabilities. To do
this, we have modified the traditional methodology by introducing objective tools
1
Teresa Barber Ribera ( e-mail: mabarri@upvnet.upv.es)
Grupo de Investigacin e Innovacin Educativa en Metodologas Activas para el Desarrollo y
Evaluacin de Competencias Genricas Interpersonales (MACGI).
Proyecto PIME : Innovaciones Tecnolgicas en el aula: uso del Crowdsourcing.
Dpto Organizacin de Empresas. Universitat Politcnica de Valencia (SPAIN). Edificio 7D-
Camino de Vera S/N 46022 Valencia
2
Sofa Estells Miguel ( e-mail: soesmi@omp.upv.es)
3
Fernndo Garrigos Simn ( e-mail: fgarrigos@omp.upv.es)
4 Jos Onofre Montes Andrs( e-mail: jomontes@omp.upv.es)
921
(rubrics) that have been implemented over the entire duration of the DP, in order
to evaluate the development and acquisition of competences, highlighting the
transversal or generic ones. In addition, several questionnaires have been de-
signed, with Liket scales and open-ended questions, with the purpose that students
could assess competences, their evolution throughout the process, and also the ru-
brics in their own process of continuous improvement.
Keywords: Degree Project, Transversal Competences, Evaluation, Rubrics.
1 Introduction
The DP, belonging to the oldest degrees of engineering, is actually the last subject
after having already passed all the other subjects of the engineering degree. On the
other hand, it has to be understood as a mainly personal work, corresponding to a
type of experiential learning, where the project manager performs a formation that
has important similarities with the called as coaching. In fact, the directors mis-
sion is to lead the learning process, by supporting students and directing them to
the sources of information. The director will be the one that will decide if DP is
ready to present and will assign the qualification that deserves.
In the field of Engineering Schools there is a long tradition in performing DPs.
The natural professional activity of the engineer is making projects, that is, to
conceive, design, implement, maintain and improve products or processes, giving
to the term Project a meaning very specific in the Engineering context
(Valderama 2008). Thus, in the Engineering field, it should be refined the sen-
tence of RD 1393/2007 concerning the purpose of the DP. DP will have between
6 and 30 credits, must take place in the curriculum final stage and it will be aimed
at assessing the degree associated skills through performing a job that is similar to
a real professional project. DP is not the place to practice something for the first
time, but it is the final test (Valderama 2008).
Among scholars, the DP is seen as the culmination of a degree program
(Todd, Banniser & Clegg 2004) or a pinnacle of undergraduate studies (Calvert
and Casey 2004). From students point of view, it is the single most substantial
and autonomous work of all those developed at the university (Webster, Pepper &
Jenkins, 2000).
922
2 Design and Description of Experience
2.1 Contextualization
The present educational innovation must be contextualized at the School of De-

sign Engineering in the Universitat Politcnica de Valncia. Specifically we focus
on the Industrial Management Engineering (2 nd cycle), and during the last three
academic years. In total, 21 DC have implemented this methodology.
2.2 Objectives
The objectives of this experience are as follows:

Find out the perception that students have about the introduction and use of the
rubric in the preparation and monitoring of the DP.
Identify the difficulties observed in the implementation process of the rubrics.
Collect suggestions for an improved use of the rubric as a resource for learning,
assessment and mentoring.
Determine the number of advisable tutorials to make a good direction of DP.
And finally, check whether there is a relation between the assessment given by
the director/s of DP, the self-assessment done by the students, through the ru-
brics, and the mark assigned by the examining board of DP.
2.3 Tutorials
DP carries associated a tutoring work, understood as an educational space for re-

flection where students can express their perceptions, thoughts, problems and
goals, and the tutor can guide their process. Minimum numbers of tutorials were:
1. Topic selection and choice of director and co-director, if necessary. Then, the
Presentation Guide of the DP is given to the student. This guide is made by the
authors of this paper. We provide and explain also in this tutorial the different
rubrics to be used throughout the process.
2. Presentation of the proposed objectives of the project and index. Generally
this is an online tutorial.
3. Submission, online or in person, of the different sections that the student will
develop, and also of the rubrics that he/she is filling. These rubrics will be con-
trasted with those evaluated by the project manager.
923
4. Full presentation of the draft project of DP. At this time the rubrics are filled
together, and the latest proposals are performed for necessary improvement.
5. Final presentation of the DP Document and slides in PowerPoint (or similar
program), which will be used for oral defense of the DP. The student gives a
score to his document of DP and the director also qualifies it.
6. Running of one or more trials or essays of the oral presentation of the DP to
the director, who will do questions about it. Together with the student, we
qualify the DP that is going to be presented and explained or defended.
2.4 Evaluation
To define continuous evaluation process, we have taken into accounts those given
by different authors. Some, like (Rulln et al. 2010), specify three time points:
starting, follow-up and final. On the other hand, (Mateo et al. 2009) distinguish
five phases, by incorporating a first choice and justification of the subject by stu-
dents, and other where the student is asked to undertake a critical analysis of the
learning process followed in preparing the DP. We have chosen the second pro-
posal, by considering it the most suitable type for the DP that we conduct.
2.5 Evaluation Tools Used
The main instruments used were: rubrics to assess transverse competences, ques-
tionnaires with Liker scales, and open questions.
2.5.1 Rubrics
The rubric is a versatile tool that provides, on the one hand, of a reference point
that gives him/her feedback on how to improve his/her work and, secondly, pro-
vides teachers with the opportunity to express their expectations about the learning
objectives set (Mertler 2001; Roblyer & Wiencke 2003). Its use, according to
(Kan 2007) permits the internalization of the evaluation criteria, promote activities
under quality criteria, as well as a reflection on performance and errors. They ena-
ble students' self-assessment, being this process of the greatest importance for the
student to manage, organize and edit his performance effectively (Zimmerman &
Moylan 2009). Due to its versatility and teaching' potentiality, the assessment ru-
bric allows conducting an authentic assessment (Blanco 2008). The generic com-
petences evaluated are:
Ability to organize and work planning.
924
Capacity for analysis and synthesis.

Ability to review and critisize the own work.
Written communication skills.
Oral presentation.
For instance, we present the latest versions of the rubrics used for assessment
of the next competences that we have elaborate: Ability to organize and work
planning (table 1) and oral presentation in the defense of the DP (table 2).
Table 1 Rubric: Ability to organize and planning the DP
Indicators Evaluation of the director and other

faculty / student self-assessment
The student is able to structure the stages of DP 1 2 3 4 5
The student is able to define the most appropriate methodolo- 1 2 3 4 5
gy for developing the stages of the work.
The student is able to correctly temporalize phases of DP 1 2 3 4 5
The student analyze the degree of final fulfillment of the ini- 1 2 3 4 5
tial planning, the causes. deviations and their consequences
Table 2 Rubric: Oral presentation in the defense of the DP
Criteria / Achievement level 1 2 3 4 5

Presentation
Introduction
Structured exposure of the content
Posture, gestures, movements and eye contact
Clarity and Fluency
Volume, Intonation and Speed
Use of technical language
Audiovisual resources employed
Use of the time allotted
Conclusions
Response to questions formulated
2.5.2 Questionnaire with Likert Scale and Open-ended Questions
In order to know the student opinions about the degree of usefulness, satisfaction,
difficulties and suitability in implementing the rubrics for the preparation of their
DP, a short questionnaire with a Likert-type scales was designed (scale 1 to 5,
with 1-Totally disagree and 5-Strongly agree). The questionnaire also included
open-ended questions so that students could express their opinions.
925
Table 3 Liker scale and open-ended questions to elicit the views of students on the usefulness of
rubrics for the preparation of the DP
1. In the following statements, indicate your opinion by marking an X

It was helpful to ... 1 2 3 4 5
Understand the criteria of valuation
Develop accurate expectations about what was demanded
Plan the preparing and presentation of the DP
Guide the development of the project
Assess the progress of my work
Reduce my anxiety in the defense of the DP
Confirm the level of competence acquired
2. What do you think about the fact of being assessed by rubrics? Justify your answer
3. About the format of rubrics used (, Was it comfortable for you? Justify your answer
4. What difficulties have you encountered in applying your self-assessment?. Justify your answer
5. Do you think it is suitable in the preparation and monitoring of your DP? Why?
6. Other comments and suggestions you want to suggest
3 Results
The objectives achieved, according to the proposed, have been the following:
Find out the perception that students have about the introduction and usefulness
of the rubric in the preparation and monitoring of the DP.
Table 4 Liker scale and open-ended questions to elicit the views of students about DP rubrics.
1. In the following statements, indicate your opinion by marking an X

This was helpful for. Mean Deviation
Understand the criteria of valuation 4 (0.80)
Develop accurate expectations about what was demanded 4 (0.83)
Plan the preparing and presentation of the DP 4,4 (0.61)
Guide the development of the project 3.9 (0.89)
Assess the progress of my work 4.1 (0.75)
Reduce my anxiety in the defense of the DP 2.7 (0,98)
Confirm the level of competence acquired 3,5 (0.79)
Valuations are higher than the theoretical mean of the response scale (3.0) on
all items except "reduce my anxiety in the defense of the DP" (mean 2.7). Stu-
dents especially highlight its usefulness to "plan the preparing and presentation
926
of the DP "(mean 4.4)," assess the progress of my work "(mean 4.1)," and un-
derstand the valuation criteria "(mean 4).
The main difficulties were: 29.4% reported the lack of time to self-evaluate
themselves by rubrics, 27.93% reported having some difficulty for performing
a critical analysis of their own work and 11.5% found little initial difficulties in
understanding the rubrics.
The suggestions proposed were: reducing the number of criteria (31.4%) and
study the possibility of grouping some of them (21.5%).
Most students (83.7%) believe that the optimal number of tutorials is 6.
(82.5%) consider adequate a combination of face to face and online tutorials.
The Table 5 reflects the scores assigned by the three evaluation agents (student,
director/s and board) for each project, starting with the most recent projects.
Table 5 Punctuations or scores assigned by the three evaluation agents
N er Student Director Tribunal N er Student Director Tribunal N er Student Director Tribunal

1 9 9 9 8 8,5 9 9,3 15 8,5 9 9,3
2 9 9,5 9 9 8 8,5 9 16 8,5 9 9
3 8,5 9 9,5 10 9 9,5 9,5 17 8,5 9,5 9,8
4 8,5 9 9 11 8 8 8,5 18 8,5 9 8,5
5 8,5 9 9,5 12 9 9 9 19 8,5 9 9
6 8,5 9 9,5 13 8,5 9 9 20 8 8 8,5
7 8,5 9 9,5 14 9 9,5 9,8 21 7,5 8 8.5
One can see that the self-evaluation scores of students, in most cases is slightly
below that the ones granted by the director of the project and by the tribunal. This
difference is larger in some of the projects better rated by the tribunal. For in-
stance, in the case of the project with the highest rated by the court (9.8) is where
there is a major difference with the self-assessed point of the student (8.5). The di-
rector of the project, except in one case, granted a score equal to or slightly less
than that granted by the tribunal.
4 Conclusions
The experience obtained with the use of the rubrics in the orientation and monitor-
ing of the DP reveals an amount of conclusions about the goodness of this re-
source. First of all, we have demonstrated that it is a useful tool for providing
feedback to students during tutorial sessions, as they can be provided with detailed
information on its level of performance in the preparation of their DP. Moreover,
the director of the project is provided with the opportunity to express its expecta-
tions about the learning objectives established. Secondly, the implementation has
927
revealed that, between rubrics and the tutorials, there is a bidirectional and inter-
dependent relationship. Thirdly, one has to highlight the excellent perception
showed by students in the use of evaluative rubrics. Apart from this, the instru-
ment narrows and clarifies the general framework of the work performed. It also
helps to the guidance and assistance in monitoring, and refines the conversations
and divergences of students with their project manager.
Moreover, we have corroborated that both, the students and the director of DP,
coincide, to a large degree, on the assessments issued by the rubrics. There is also
a close match with the assessment by the examination board of the DP.
In addition, and according to the opinion of the students, it is considered as a
very useful tool for evaluation, although they are conscious of the extra effort they
assume with their fulfillment.
We think that this experience is relevant, as it can be useful to any director who
wishes to carry out an evaluation process of their students. In this sense, it enables
being aware of their own learning process for the acquisition of transferable skills
or competences throughout the development of the DP.
Finally, we have to highlight the high relation between the scores assigned by
students, directors, and the examination board of the DP.
After this experience, we suggest its continuous implementation. In this vein
we maintain our purpose of developing and refine our research in the development
of the next DPs.
We are conscious of the limitations of our work, mainly because of the re-
duced sample and methodology used to contrast our statements. However, the ex-
perience has shown us the high potentiality of the use of rubrics. A further step
would be refining its development, extending this pilot experience, and improving
this research with new methodology tools. We suggest also the improvement of its
use, with the combination of this tool with new techniques, which could efficiently
apply and implement the use of new technological advancements.
5 References
Blanco, A. 2008, Las rbricas, un instrumento til en la evaluacin de competencias. In L. Prieto

(coord.). La enseanza universitaria centrada en el aprendizaje: estrategias tiles para el
profesorado (p. 171-188). Barcelona: Octaedro-ICE de la Universidad de Barcelona.
Calvert, B. & Casey, B. 2004, Supporting and assessing dissertation and practical projects in
media studies degrees: towards collaborative learning, Art Design and Communication in
Higher Education 3(1), p. 47-60.
Kan, A. 2007, An Alternative Method in the New Educational Program from the Point of Per-
formance-based Assessment: Rubric Scoring Scales. Educational Sciences: Theory & Prac-
tice: 7 (1), p. 144-152.
Mateo, J. et al. (coord.) 2009, Gua para la evaluacin de competencias en el trabajo de fin de
grado en el mbito de las ciencias sociales y jurdicas. Barcelona: AQU Catalunya.
928
Mertler, C.A. 2001, Designing scoring rubrics for your classroom. Practical Assessment, Re-
search y Evaluation, 7 (25). http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=25. Cited 15 Sep 2007.
Real Decreto 1393/2007, de 29 de Octubre, por el que se establece la ordenacin de las ensean-
zas universitarias oficiales. BOE 29 de Octubre de 2007.
Roblyer, M.D. & Wiencke W.R, 2003, Design and Use of a Rubric to Assess and Encourage In-
teractive Qualities In Distance Courses. American Journal of Distance Education 17(2): 77
97.
Rulln, M., Fernndez-Rodrguez, M. Estap, G. & Mrquez, M.D. 2010, La evaluacin de com-
petencias transversales en la materia trabajos de fin de grado. Un estudio preliminar sobre la
necesidad y oportunidad de establecer medios e instrumentos por ramas de conocimiento.
Revista de Docencia Universitaria, 8(1), p. 74-100
Todd, M. Bannister, P. & Clegg, S, 2004, Independent inquiry and the undergraduate disserta-
tion: perceptions and experiences of final-year social science students. Assessment and Eva-
luation in Higher Education 29(3), p. 335-355.
Valderrama, E. (coord.), 2008 Gua para la Evaluacin de las competencias en los Trabajos Fin
de Estudios de las Ingenieras. Barcelona: AQU Catalunya.
Webster, F., Pepper, D. & Jenkins, A. 2000, Assessing the undergraduate dissertation. Assess-
ment & Evaluation in Higher Education 25(1), p. 71-80.
Zimmerman, B.J. & Moylan, A.R., 2009 Self-regulation: Wherw metacognition and motivation
intersect. In D. Hacker; J. Dunlosky, A. Graesser (Eds.) Metacognition in educational theory
and practice (p. 299-315). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
929
Spanish Tracks
931
SP-01
Estrategia y Entrepreneurship
933
La Satisfaccin de Clientes como Estrategia de

Marketing para la Venta
Customer Satisfaction as a Marketing Strategy for the Sale
Dalongaro R.C1, Froemming L.M.S2
Abstract Maintain the customer loyalty can provide differentials, contributing

significantly to the survival of an organization. This article aims to identify the
profile of the consumer who buys at the companys retail, in order to support the
decision making process in defining strategies for customer satisfaction. To this
end, a descriptive, exploratory and quantitative survey was conducted. The sample
included 100 clients who were interviewed using a structured questionnaire at two
different times compared with each other: August 2010 and May 2012.
Resumen Mantener la lealtad de los clientes puede proporcionar diferenciales,

contribuyendo significativamente para la supervivencia de una organizacin. Este
artculo tiene como objetivo identificar el perfil del consumidor del comercio al
por menor de la compaa, con el fin de apoyar el proceso de toma de decisiones
en la definicin de estrategias para la satisfaccin de clientes. Para ello, se realiz
un estudio descriptivo, exploratorio y cuantitativo, en forma de encuesta. La mues-
tra incluy a 100 clientes entrevistados mediante un cuestionario estructurado en
dos pocas distintas comparadas entre s: agosto de 2010 y mayo de 2012.
Keywords: Marketing, Satisfaction, Customer, Sales Strategy

Palabras clave: Marketing, Satisfaccin, Cliente, Estrategia de Venta
1
Roberto Carlos Dalongaro ( e-mail: robertocarlosad@hotmail.com)
Mster en Gestin Estratgica de Organizaciones de la URI/Campus de Santo ngelo. Graduado
en Administracin de Empresas por la PUC/RS Campus de Uruguaiana.
2
Lurdes Marlene Seide Froemming ( e-mail: lurdesf@unijui.edu.br)
Doctora en Administracin de Empresas por la UFRGS. Profesora del PPGEO de la
URI/Campus de Santo ngelo.
935
1 Introduccin
En el contexto actual, donde la competitividad feroz determina la supervivencia de

las organizaciones, surge la necesidad latente de estrategias que promuevan la sos-
tenibilidad y continuidad del negocio. Por lo tanto, la fidelizacin de los clientes
como una herramienta estratgica de marketing cumple un papel importante y re-
levante para las empresas.
En este sentido, las estrategias de ventas son clave para ganar y retener clientes.
Ms especficamente, como estrategia de venta en el marketing de relacin entre
el cliente y el producto, el servicio, la divulgacin y varios otros factores que for-
talecen los lazos comerciales entre la empresa y su clientela.
Invertir en la lealtad del consumidor tiene su propia importancia para el xito de
las organizaciones a largo plazo. La continua retroalimentacin de los clientes pa-
ra comprar impulsa el crecimiento.
Visando la sostenibilidad de su negocio en el largo plazo, el comercio al por me-
nor, caso estudiado en este trabajo, trata de desarrollar tcnicas que permitan a sus
clientes el retorno continuo. El estudio de los esfuerzos empresariales en este sen-
tido tiene por objeto contribuir al proceso de toma de decisiones sobre la base de
los resultados encontrados en estudios de sus clientes.
Desde esta perspectiva, el mbito central de la obra que aqu se presenta es el an-
lisis de los factores relevantes y determinantes de la satisfaccin de los clientes
como un diferencial para la competitividad y la continuidad del negocio, basado
en la identificacin del perfil de los consumidores para la seleccin de estrategias
de venta.
El artculo consta de seis secciones. Seguido de la introduccin, se exponen los
aspectos conceptuales involucrados; se expone la metodologa utilizada; se pre-
sentan los principales resultados de los dos perodos de estudio analizados; y se
concluye con consideraciones y propuestas, presentando, por fin, las referencias
utilizadas en el trabajo.
2 Aspectos Conceptuales
2.1 El Marketing como Estrategia de Relacin
Sobre la base de Segal (1979), se justifica que la estrategia de venta tiene que ver
con la planificacin de un programa de ventas orientado al cliente, teniendo en
cuenta lo que se debe vender, a qu precio y cules son los objetivos, preguntas
diseadas de acuerdo con las tcnicas de comercializacin aplicables.
936
Para Porter (1992), la estrategia es la posicin con respecto a algunos productos

en determinados mercados.
Ya, Drucker (1995) cree que la estrategia es la perspectiva, es decir, de qu
manera acta la organizacin.
Las compaas perciben que el mundo de los negocios se vuelve cada vez ms
competitivo y la competencia feroz los hace buscar nuevas formas de negociar,
muchas de ellas basadas en estructuras de mercado de hecho complejas.
Estn aumentando las diferencias entre los consumidores. Los mercados com-
petitivos y heterogneos crecen. Ya no es plausible concebir la comercializacin
desde la perspectiva de slo hacer la venta, "vender", sino como un instrumento
para satisfacer las necesidades del cliente. Frases como "el cliente siempre tiene la
razn" o "nuestro cliente es nuestro jefe" pueden llevar a graves malentendidos.
Para cambiar de estrategia o accin, es necesario, primeramente, conocer a fondo
la opinin de la colectividad de los clientes. Giuliani (2003).
Como ha indicado Giuliani (2003, p. 61), el costo de mantener un cliente anti-
guo es aproximadamente cinco veces menor que el de ganar uno nuevo. Las em-
presas, por lo tanto, deben darse cuenta de que sus clientes no son slo comprado-
res de producto, es importante incorporar el concepto de marketing relacional que
implica la creacin de vnculos duraderos con los consumidores para, as, satisfa-
cerlos y garantizar su permanencia en el futuro.
La relacin debe existir para que los clientes no abandonen la empresa ante la
primera oferta interesante, adems, es ms barato mantener al cliente en relacin a
buscar nuevos clientes. El cliente no compra solamente productos, sino tambin
los beneficios de estos, por lo que no se debe vender productos, sino entender
cul es la percepcin de los beneficios que tiene el individuo y sorprenderlo con el
servicio. Esta actitud no es meramente la de una venta, es la de encantarle. (Giu-
liani, 2003, p. 61).
Cuntas empresas son generadas por un cliente satisfecho? Se conjetura que
un cliente satisfecho le cuenta a otras cinco personas acerca de su satisfaccin, y
que un cliente insatisfecho revela sus descontentos a 15 personas (Giuliani, 2003).
2.2 Fidelizacin de Clientes
Cuanto ms fiel, ms vida til de la cartera de clientes, menor ser el costo de re-
cuperacin de los mismos y mayor cada valor financiero agregado a la marca. La
fidelidad de los clientes de la compaa ofrece defensas contra la competencia por
precio. La lealtad da a la compaa un diferencial y crea barreras de confianza, por
lo que la migracin a un competidor se torna incmoda, ya que envolvera el co-
mienzo de cero de una nueva relacin, sin ningn conocimiento entre ambas par-
tes Majeau (2010).
937
Segn Santos (2008) la lealtad del cliente es medir, gestionar y crear valor. Es
transformar la fidelizacin de clientes para miembros de la misin de la empresa,
integrando sistemas de informacin, creando valor superior, es decir, convirtiendo
clientes satisfechos en clientes leales. Medir la lealtad es necesario, como tambin
el impacto del sistema de gestin de relaciones con el cliente en fidelizacin.
Es ms fcil y ms barato mantener que conquistar nuevos clientes. Empresas
brasileas tambin han encontrado en la prctica que el mantenimiento de una au-
diencia cautiva significa retorno ms rpido y significativo. Esto no quiere aban-
donar la perspectiva de nuevos negocios, lo cual es crucial para cualquier empresa,
de cualquier sector, en cualquier mercado; por el contrario, las estrategias de fide-
lizacin basadas en la planificacin y creatividad instituyen beneficios para el
pblico - mientras se mantiene estable la base de clientes -, proporciona valor
agregado a las marcas de la empresa, por lo que es fuerte y bien posicionada y
preparada para seguir estudiando Santos (2008).
2.3 Enfoque en el Cliente
La participacin, colaboracin y ajuste armonioso de todas las funciones impor-

tantes de la empresa, con el fin de satisfacer a los clientes, garantizan el equilibrio
constante de la produccin y las ventas con las exigencias financieras, las ventas
son la cara visible de la comercializacin, en la cual los miembros de la compaa
se encuentran frente a frente con los compradores y perspectivas Rogers (1993).
Segn este autor, los gerentes de ventas y vendedores se enfrentan a la respon-
sabilidad de hacer ventas, pero con el apoyo del marketing. La tarea del gerente de
ventas es incrementar las ventas, aumentar las ganancias. El cliente tiene toda la
importancia y la forma de pensar de los lderes empresariales debe ser la de fabri-
car los productos que los clientes quieren comprar, en lugar de vender los produc-
tos que fabrican.
Jones (2012, p. 1) establece que "la llave para la lealtad a largo plazo es expan-
dir valor para el cliente con base en su definicin individual de valor."
Aadir valor al producto es darle caractersticas que no le son comunes. Trasladar-
lo al cliente es la estrategia adecuada en el segmento de ventas. La forma en que
ser recibido dicho aumento de valor, sin embargo, puede variar mucho de un
cliente para otro (por ejemplo, descuentos en los precios) a otro (por ejemplo,
atencin personal) y, todava, a otro (por ejemplo, el acceso a la informacin).
An en las palabras de Jones (2012, p. 1), las empresas que suceden en mantener
altos niveles de lealtad de los clientes presentan algunas lecciones importantes pa-
ra garantizar la fidelidad: Desarrollar la lealtad del cliente debe ser un compromiso
de toda la empresa y todas las actividades de la organizacin deben servir al
propsito de crear valor para el cliente.
938
Para el autor, el impacto econmico de la atencin de la empresa en la lealtad

del cliente es un factor que es evidente slo a largo plazo, por lo que la evaluacin
del comportamiento de los clientes en el largo plazo es esencial para entender el
retorno de la inversin en iniciativas de fidelizacin. Sin esta evaluacin, una
compaa puede perder prematuramente su enfoque en la lealtad del cliente. Nin-
guna empresa debe perder de vista las actividades de sus competidores.
3 Metodologa
En el diseo Roesch (1996, p. 123), la investigacin cuantitativa es apropiada para

evaluar los cambios organizacionales. Cuando se trata de enfoques integrales, con
expresin de resultados, involucrando sistemas participativos y programas de in-
centivos, se recomienda introducir cambios a modo de prueba.
Por lo tanto, la metodologa adoptada en la presente investigacin, se vale
completamente de delimitaciones cuantitativas y calificativas para evaluacin
formativa y obtencin de resultados, profundados con datos obtenidos mediante
entrevistas de los clientes. Es un campo de investigacin de carcter aplicado y
configurado como estudio descriptivo (encuesta) con un cuestionario para recoger
datos primarios que permitan una mayor evaluacin de los resultados.
En la concepcin de Carvalho (2011), las entrevistas son una tcnica alternativa
para recoger datos no documentados sobre un tema en particular, pero el autor
tambin seala la necesidad de tener en cuenta que la entrevista puede tener sus
limitaciones, dependiendo de la tcnica utilizada.
En cuanto al cuestionario Carvalho (2011, p 196) hace su declaracin: Los
cuestionarios son instrumentos de recoleccin de datos que se rellenan por los in-
formantes, con o sin la presencia del investigador.
El presente estudio consta la circulacin de cerca de 500 clientes al da en la
tienda. El muestreo realizado cubre las respuestas de 100 clientes en cada perodo
del estudio, entrevistados personalmente por el investigador en agosto de 2010 y
mayo de 2012 en la sede de la empresa a travs de un cuestionario estructurado
cerrado de opcin mltiple.
939
4 Resultados
4.1 Cuestiones Relativas al Perfil del Consumidor
Tabla 1 Perfil del Consumidor
Perfil 08/2010 05/2012

Genero Masculino Femenino Masculino Femenino
21% 79% 41% 59%
Remuneracin Hasta 2 Sueldos A patir de 3 Hasta 2 Sueldos A patir de 3
Sueldos Sueldos
46% 54% 57% 43%
Fuente Datos de la Investigacin.
En el primer perodo, se observa la mayora del pblico femenino entre la

clientela de la empresa, ya que los hombres representan apenas el 21% del total de
los encuestados, y, consecuentemente, las mujeres, el 79%.
Ya en el segundo perodo aparece un descenso del pblico femenino, pasando de
un prolongado a un ligero predominio de las mujeres entre la clientela, represen-
tando el 59% del total de los encuestados, cuando los hombres han alcanzado el
41%.
Cuanto a los ingresos, en el primer perodo, se nota una tenue diferencia del 8%
a favor de los consumidores que cobran a partir de 3 sueldos mnimos.
En el segundo momento se presenta una situacin opuesta a la primera: los
clientes que tienen renta hasta 2 sueldos mnimos pasan de la mitad de los encues-
tados llegando al 57% del total, dejando con 43% a los que cobran de 3 sueldos
para arriba, o sea, un 14% a ms para el lado de la clase menos favorecida.
4.2 Cuestiones Relativas a la Satisfaccin del Cliente
Tabla 2 Satisfaccin del cliente
Servicios 08/2010 05/2012

Atencin al cliente Poco Satisfecho Satisfecho Poco Satisfecho Satisfecho
04% 96% 06% 94%
Precios de los productos Poco Satisfecho Satisfecho Poco Satisfecho Satisfecho
08% 92% 31% 69%
Marketing de relacin Poco Satisfecho Satisfecho Poco Satisfecho Satisfecho
37% 63% 52% 48%
Fuente Datos de la Investigacin.
940
Solamente el 4% afirmaran estar poco satisfecho con la atencin. La expresiva

mayora de los clientes estn satisfechos con la atencin, sumando el 96% del to-
tal.
En l segn perodo de anlisis, una pequea diferencia del 2% se sumo al gru-
po del los poco satisfechos con la atencin, llegando al 6%. Los que confirman sa-
tisfaccin con el servicio de atencin al cliente sumaran la gran mayora con 94%
del total, con una sencilla baja en relacin al primer perodo.
Haba un 8% de consumidores poco satisfechos con los precios de la tienda y
los dems, corresponden el 92% con satisfaccin confirmada de los precios.
En 05/2012 el 31% dijeron que estn poco satisfechos con los precios, ya el
69% respondern satisfecho con los precios de los productos ofrecidos. Se nota un
aumento considerable del 8% para el 31%, algo que representa una diferencia de
23% a ms de los poco satisfechos con los precios.
Una gran cantidad, el 37% de los consumidores cae en lo poco satisfechos con
el marketing de relacionamiento de la tienda, quedando 63% satisfecho con esa re-
lacin en el primer perodo de la investigacin.
Ya en el segn perodo ms de la mitad, el 52% estn poco satisfechos con el
marketing de relacionamiento de la tienda con sus clientes, dejando el 48% satis-
fecho con el marketing practicado por el negocio, hubo aumento de un 15% con
los poco satisfechos con el marketing de relacionamiento practicado por la empre-
sa.
5 Consideraciones y Propuestas
Los resultados obtenidos de la encuesta constituyen una rica coleccin de datos e

informacin como ayuda para la toma de decisiones, a fin de que prospere la em-
presa en relacin con la satisfaccin y lealtad del cliente. En consecuencia, se pro-
pone la formulacin de un plan estratgico, cuya accin principal se dirige, en par-
ticular, a:
A) el pblico masculino, que evoluciona en el segundo perodo de anlisis, pe-
ro las mujeres se mantuvieran con el puntaje a su favor en los dos momentos com-
parados;
B) los consumidores clasificados de acuerdo a su ingreso con dos sueldos, au-
mentaron en 11 puntos porcentuales entre el 1 y el 2 perodo, revelando que la
clase menos favorecida compra ms en las tiendas populares que ofrecen produc-
tos a bajo precio de venta;
C) La atencin al cliente debe ser mantenida a un porcentaje cerca del revelado;
D) la prctica de precios ms atractivos y mejora de la calidad en todas las lne-
as, teniendo en cuenta que el porcentaje de clientes poco satisfechos aument del
8% al 31% entre ambos perodos, revelando un descontentamiento mayor con los
clientes de la tienda;
941
E) En relacin al marketing de relacionamiento de la empresa con sus clientes,

se observ una baja percepcin del pblico con los medios de comunicacin que
la empresa utiliza para divulgar su negocio y sus productos, el resultado de la en-
cuesta muestra en el primer perodo un 37% de ellos poco satisfechos con eses
medios de divulgacin, adems, en el segundo perodo ese porcentaje aumenta en
15%, llegando a 52%, o sea, muchos clientes de la empresa no estn enterados de
su publicidad. Podra la empresa invertir ms recursos en publicidad, como tam-
bin ampliar los medios de comunicacin para cambiar eses resultados negativos
de satisfaccin de su pblico en relacin al marketing de relacionamiento practi-
cado.
Por lo tanto, hacemos hincapi en la colocacin de Grnross (1995), que sos-
tiene que el objetivo del marketing de transaccin es conquistar clientes, mientras
que el objetivo del marketing relacional es el de mantenerlos. Es fundamental
comprender esta diferencia para darse cuenta de que las acciones de marketing re-
lacional deben montarse con el fin de mantener al cliente en el medio / largo pla-
zo, adems debe buscar aumentar el grado de satisfaccin y lealtad con clientes
que an no estn suficientemente satisfechos ni leales.
6 Referencias
Carvalho Maria Ceclia M (2011) Construindo o saber: metodologia cientfica fundamentos e

tcnicas. Papirus, Campinas/SP
Drucker Peter F (1995) Administrando em tempos de grandes mudanas. Pioneira, So Paulo
Giuliani Antnio Carlos (2003) Marketing em um ambiente globalizado. Cobra Editora e Marke-
ting. So Paulo
Grnross Christian (1995) Marketing. gerenciamento e servio. Campus, Rio de Janeiro
Jones Thomas O (2012) Fidelizao de clientes medindo, gerenciando e criando valor. Artigo.
Do livro Putting The Service Chain to Work. http://www.guiarh.com.br/p64.htm. Cited 07
Nov 2012
Majeau Pedro Mizcci (2010) Fidelizao de Clientes. http://www.negocios-de-
valor.com/fidelizacao_de_clientes.asp. Cited 15 Mar 2010
Porter Michael (1992) Vantagem Competitiva. Criando e sustentando um desempenho superior.
Campus, Rio de Janeiro
Roesch Sylvia Maria Azevedo (1996) Projetos de estgio do curso de administrao. Atlas, So
Paulo
Rogers Len (1993) Administrao de vendas e marketing. Makron Books, So Paulo
Santos Daniela (2008) Fidelizao de clientes. http://www.administradores.com.br/informe-
se/artigos/fidelizacao-de-clientes/20882/. Cited 11 Nov 2011
Segal Mendel (1979) Administrao de vendas. Atlas, So Paulo
942
La Importancia de las Innovaciones No

Tecnolgicas en las Empresas Espaolas
The importance of non-technological innovations in Spanish companies.
Larrea Unzain A1, Aldasoro Alustiza J.C2, Cantonnet Jordi M L 3
Abstract This article expose the importance of non-technological innovations

both organizational and marketing in the new market that is characterized by high
competitiveness and analyzes which are the main targets for the companies who
choose new strategies and implement them together with usual technological in-
novations.
Resumen El presente artculo expone la importancia de las innovaciones no tec-

nolgicas tanto de organizacin como de comercializacin en el nuevo mercado
que se caracteriza por su alta competitividad y analiza cules son los principales
objetivos de las empresas por el que deciden implantarlas como nuevas estrategias
y poderlas combinarlas as con las innovaciones tecnolgicas habituales.
Palabras clave: innovacin no tecnolgica, competitividad, Nueva Economa

Keywords: non-technological innovation, competitiviness, new economy
1
Ainara Larrea Unzain (e-mail: ainara.larrea@ehu.es)
Departamento de Organizacin de Empresas. Escuela Universitaria Politcnica de San Sebastin.
Plaza de Europa, 1. 20008 San Sebastin. Spain.
2
Juan Carlos Aldasoro Alustiza (e-mail: juancarlos.aldasoro@ehu.es)
3
Mara Luisa Cantonnet Jordi. (e-mail: marialuisa.cantonnet@ehu.es)
943
1 Introduccin
La economa actual se caracteriza por su fuerte competencia en la que las empre-

sas han tenido que introducir fuertes innovaciones para poder seguir compitiendo
en los mercados. El entorno al que diariamente se enfrentan las empresas est re-
cibiendo el nombre en esta literatura emergente de hipercompetitivo. Tal entor-
no, tiene un alto ndice de cambio y discontinuidad, lo que requiere de las organi-
zaciones una respuesta flexible y rpida (Hannssen-Bauer y Snow, 1996). La
competitividad de una nacin depende de la capacidad de su industria para innovar
y mejorar, y que las empresas consigan ventajas competitivas mediante innova-
ciones continuas (Porter M.E., 1987). Tanto la innovacin como los descubrimien-
tos cientficos y tecnolgicos son factores esenciales para incrementar la producti-
vidad y asegurar el crecimiento econmico, la creacin de empleo y el aumento de
los ingresos familiares del siglo XXI, que se caracteriza por la tecnologizacin
(Chu S. 2009).
Las innovaciones tecnolgicas han sido y son un claro potencial para que las
empresas compitan en el mbito internacional pero son las innovaciones no tec-
nolgicas, de tipo organizativo y de comercializacin, las que actualmente pode-
mos considerar como un fenmeno importante y moderno. En los ltimos aos,
varios estudios han analizado la existencia de una relacin de complementariedad
entre la adopcin de las nuevas tecnologas y la adopcin de las innovaciones or-
ganizativas (Bresnahan, T.; Brynjolfsson, E.; Hitt, L. M., 2002; Brynjolfsson and
Hitt, 2000; Hollenstein, 2004). Por lo que la adopcin de unas favorece la adop-
cin de otras siendo la relacin bidireccional.
La Organizacin para la Cooperacin y el Desarrollo Econmicos (OCDE,
2005) ampla en la ltima versin del manual de Oslo el concepto de innovacin
incluyendo adems de las innovaciones tecnolgicas (de proceso y de producto)
las no tecnolgicas: de tipo organizacional y de marketing.
Segn Lam (2004, p.3) cuando en la literatura organizacional se habla de inno-
vacin organizacional, se hace referencia a tres grandes reas de estudio:
1. La innovacin en s
2. Los diferentes tipos de innovacin en las organizaciones
3. Los cambios en la estructura de la organizacin
Afuach (1999, p. 21-23) enfoca de dos formas diferentes la innovacin. En la
primera, relaciona la innovacin con la capacidad de la organizacin teniendo en
cuenta si la organizacin crea un nuevo conocimiento o si por lo contrario incre-
menta o mejora el conocimiento actual y en segundo lugar, el enfoque de este au-
tor es el de la visin econmica de la organizacin que est relacionada con la
competitividad que a su vez est relacionada con menor costo, mejores atributos o
nuevos atributos. Para este autor, la innovacin organizacional (administrativa)
pertenece a la estructura organizacional y los procesos administrativos.
944
Por lo tanto, podemos decir que la innovacin organizacional hace referencia a

las nuevas maneras en las que el trabajo puede ser organizado y ejecutado con el
objetivo de fomentar la ventaja competitiva. Favorece una mayor eficiencia en la
direccin de personas, permite anticipar la demanda y las tendencias del mercado,
logrando un incremento de la productividad de la organizacin (Pavit, K., 1984).
2 Objetivos y Metodologa
Sobre la base de estas consideraciones, la presente investigacin intenta avanzar

en estos aspectos plantendose varios objetivos. En primer lugar, analizar la im-
portancia de las innovaciones no tecnolgicas en las empresas espaolas y en con-
creto en el sector industrial. En segundo lugar, estudiar cules son los motivos por
los que deciden implantar las innovaciones mencionadas y en tercer lugar, realizar
una comparacin de dichas innovaciones respecto al sector industrial y las empre-
sas espaolas en general.
Para alcanzar estos objetivos, el trabajo est estructurado de la siguiente mane-
ra: en primer lugar, se realiza una revisin de la literatura que permita enmarcar
tericamente la investigacin. Seguidamente, a partir de la informacin recogida
en la Encuesta realizada por el INE se determina la muestra de 40.000 empresas
espaolas en el periodo 2009-2011. En el apartado siguiente se presentan los prin-
cipales resultados alcanzados. Y por ltimo, se exponen las conclusiones del es-
tudio.
La base de datos que se ha empleado en este trabajo de investigacin proviene
de una encuesta realizada el ao 2011 por el Instituto Nacional de Estadstica
(INE). La encuesta se realiza siguiendo las directrices metodolgicas definidas en
el Manual de Oslo de la Organizacin para la Cooperacin y el Desarrollo
Econmicos (OCDE) quien llev acabo la encuesta mencionada por vez primera
en Espaa en 1994. La encuesta va dirigida a las empresas agrcolas, industriales,
de la construccin y de los servicios de 10 o ms asalariados, cuya actividad
econmica principal se corresponde con las secciones de la A a la N, la P (excepto
la rama 854), Q, R, y la S (excepto la rama 94) de la Clasificacin Nacional de
Actividades Econmicas CNAE-2009.
La encuesta de innovacin tecnolgica facilita informacin sobre la estructura
del proceso de innovacin (I+D y otras actividades innovadoras) y permite mos-
trar las relaciones entre dicho proceso y la estrategia tecnolgica de las empresas,
los factores que influyen (o dificultan) en su capacidad para innovar y el rendi-
miento econmico de las empresas.
Este estudio se realiza de forma coordinada con la Estadstica sobre actividades
en Investigacin Cientfica y Desarrollo Tecnolgico (I+D). El directorio est
formado por una parte exhaustiva compuesta por las empresas que potencialmente
pueden desarrollar actividades de I+D y por las empresas de ms de 200 emplea-
945
dos; y por otra parte aleatoria extrada del Directorio Centralizado de Empresas
(DIRCE), obtenindose una muestra final de ms de 40.000 empresas.
El mtodo de recogida de la informacin es un sistema mixto que comprende la
realizacin de envos por correo y la participacin de entrevistadores, con un im-
portante apoyo telefnico en la recogida de la misma. La informacin solicitada se
refiere a adquisicin de nuevas tecnologas, innovaciones tecnolgicas, activida-
des de I+D, gastos en innovacin, regionalizacin de los gastos de innovacin,
impacto econmico de la innovacin tecnolgica, objetivos de la actividad inno-
vadora, fuentes de ideas innovadoras, obstculos a la innovacin y otras innova-
ciones no tecnolgicas.
3 Resultados
A raz de los resultados obtenidos en la encuesta realizada por el INE, podemos

observar que entre las empresas espaolas que consideran importante la implanta-
cin de tcnicas de innovacin no tecnolgicas, la mayora de ellas optan por las
innovaciones organizativas frente a las de comercializacin y el 37,50% de las
empresas que implantan innovaciones no tecnolgicas, se decantan por la implan-
tacin de ambas innovaciones.
Total Empresas Nacionales
50000
40191
40000
33738
30000 Total
21630 Empresas
20000 Nacionales
15177
10000
0
Empresas con Empresas con Empresas con Empresas con
innovaciones no innovaciones innovaciones de innovaciones
tecnolgicas organizativas comercializacin organizativas y de
comercializacin
Fig. 1 Unidades de empresas que utilizan innovaciones no tecnolgicas (organizativas y/o de

comercializacin).
En cuanto al objetivo por el cual deciden las empresas espaolas implantar las
innovaciones no tecnolgicas podemos decir que entre aquellas que favorecen la
innovacin organizativa, tienen por principales objetivos poder obtener mayor ca-
lidad en sus productos o servicios y poder reducir el periodo de respuesta a las ne-
cesidades del cliente. Esto se debe a la creciente competitividad existente en los
946
mercados actuales en los que el ciclo de vida de los productos cada vez es menor y
tanto la calidad de los productos y servicios como la rpida respuesta a los clientes
son factores esenciales para poder mantener la cuota de mercado de las empresas y
poder as capturar nuevas oportunidades en el mercado. Tal y como podemos ob-
servar en la figura nmero 2, quedaran en un segundo plano, pero no por ello me-
nos importantes, la mejora de intercambio de informacin o comunicacin, los
menores costes por unidad producida y la mejora de la habilidad para desarrollar
nuevos productos o procesos. Estrategias ineludibles para cualquier empresa ac-
tual.
En cuanto a los objetivos de implantacin de las innovaciones no tecnolgicas
de comercializacin, podemos decir que el 45,98% de las empresas buscan mejo-
rar o aumentar la cuota de mercado de las mismas, el 37,21% intentan introducir
los productos en nuevos clientes y el 23,97% intentan introducir los productos en
nuevos mercados.
60%
53,41% 55,63%
50% 45,98%
39,07% 37,21%
40%
35,02%
29,31%
30%
23,97%
20%
10%
0%
Reduccin del Mejora de la Mayor calidad Menores costes Mejora del Aumento o Introduccin de Introduccin de
periodo de habilidad para de sus bienes o por unidad intercambio de mejora de la productos en productos en
respuesta a las desarrollar servicios producida informacin o de cuota de nuevos grupos nuevos
necesidades de nuevos la comunicacin mercado de clientes mercados
un cliente productos o
procesos
Fig. 2 Objetivos por los cuales deciden las empresas espaolas implantar innovaciones no tec-
nolgicas.
En cuanto al anlisis realizado sobre el sector industrial, podemos concluir que

prcticamente se mantienen las prioridades de los motivos de implantacin de las
innovaciones no tecnolgicas. Existe una ligera diferencia en la prioridad de las
empresas con ms de 250 trabajadores en las que objetivos de las innovaciones de
comercializacin superan a las innovaciones organizativas. En concreto, el aumen-
to o mejora de la cuota de mercado pasa a ser uno de los objetivos prioritarios y la
mejora de intercambio de la informacin o comunicacin baja considerablemente.
Son las innovaciones no tecnolgicas de comercializacin las que cobran fuer-
za en las empresas de ms de 250 trabajadores en el sector industrial y se equipa-
ran con las innovaciones de organizacin.
947
Varios autores aportan teoras sostenidas con anlisis y estudios empricos, que
relacionan la realizacin de actividades de innovacin y el tamao de la empresa,
determinado por nmero de empleados. No hay duda de la existencia de una rela-
cin lineal positiva entre las dos variables, pero tambin es cierto que tanto peque-
as como medianas empresas han reducido las diferencias frente a las grandes
empresas, como parte de su estrategia de supervivencia. Podemos observar en la
encuesta de 1998-2000 realizada por el INE que un 77,33% de las empresas de
ms de 250 trabajadores manifiestan que han realizado innovaciones no tecnolgi-
cas, porcentaje que disminuye a medida que se reduce el tamao. El concepto es
menos frecuente pero no ajeno en caso de las PYMEs, que tienen una serie de ca-
ractersticas que juegan a favor de las innovaciones organizativas, ms concreta-
mente en lo que se refiere a los cambios de la estructura organizativa o flexibili-
dad.
SECTOR INDUSTRIAL
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Reduccin Mejora de la Mayor calidad Menores Mejora del Aumento o Introduccin Introduccin
del periodo de habilidad para de sus bienes costes por intercambio de mejora de la de productos de productos
respuesta a desarrollar o servicios unidad informacin o cuota de en nuevos en nuevos
las nuevos producida de la mercado grupos de mercados
necesidades productos o comunicacin clientes
de un cliente procesos
<250 trabajadores >250 trabajadores Total
Fig. 3 Objetivos por los cuales deciden las empresas espaolas del sector industrial implantar in-
novaciones no tecnolgicas.
4 Conclusiones
Podemos concluir de este estudio que las empresas espaolas estn obligadas a in-
novar constantemente para poder ser competitivas en el mercado y que tal es la
competitividad en los mercados que adems de las innovaciones tecnolgicas son
esenciales las innovaciones no tecnolgicas de organizacin y de comercializa-
cin.
948
Por otro lado, la conclusin ms relevante derivada de este trabajo establece

que las empresas del sector industrial de menos de 250 trabajadores son ms favo-
recedoras de las innovaciones no tecnolgicas que las pequeas o medianas em-
presas. Bien es cierto que en la Nueva Economa cada vez se est reduciendo ms
esta diferencia y que tanto las PYMES como las grandes empresas introducen in-
novaciones no tecnolgicas como estrategia para poder competir en los nuevos
mercados caracterizados por su fuerte competitividad.
5 Referencias
Afuach, A. (1999). La dinmica de la innovacin organizacional: un nuevo enfoque para lograr

ventaja competitiva. Mxico. Oxford University press, Mxico, 492 p.
Black, S. E.; Lynch, L. M. (1996): Human capital investments and productivity, American Eco-
nomic Review, Vol. 86, N. 2, pp. 263-267.
Black, S.; Lynch, L. (2001): How to compete: The impact of workplace practices and infor-
mation technology on productivity, Review of Economics and statistics, Vol. 83, pp. 435-
445.
Black, S.; Lynch, L. M. (2004): What's driving the new economy?: the benefits of workplace in-
novation, The Economic Journal, Vol. 114, N. 493, pp. 97-116.
Bresnahan, T.; Brynjolfsson, E.; Hitt, L. M. (2002): Information technology, workplace organi-
zation and the demand for skilled labor: Firm level comments Firm level evidence, Quarterly
Journal of Econonics, Vol. 117, N. 1, pp. 339-376.
Brynjolfsson, E.; Hitt, L. M. (2000): Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organiza-
tional Transformation and Business Practices, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 14, N.
4, pp. 23-48.
Chesnais, F. (1986). Science, technologie et comptitivit. STI Revue, n1, Paris.
Chu, S. (2009). Statement of Steven Chu, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy, Before the Sen-
ate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Re-
lated Agencies, FY 2010 Appropriations Hearing. U.S. Department of Energy: Washington,
DC.
Gmez A. y Calvo J.L.; (2010). La Innovacin: factor clave del xito empresarial. Ra-Ma Em-
presa. Madrid
Hannssen-Bauer, J.Y Snow, CH. (1996): Responding to Hypercompetition: The Structure and
Processes of a Regional Learning Network Organization, en Organization Science, Vol. 7,
No. 4, 413-427.
Hollenstein, H. (2004): The decision to adopt information and communication technologies
(ICT): firm-level evidence for Switzerland, in OECD, The Economic Impact of ICT. Meas-
urement, evidence and implications, Paris.
Lam, A. (2004). Organizational Innovation.Brunel Business School, Brunel University, BSBM
Working Papers, Uxbridge, Vol. 1, No. 2, 8-45.
Malecki, E. (1997). Technology and Economic Development: the dynamics of local, regional
and national competitiviness. 2nd edition Addison-Wesley, Logman. London.
Moen, J. (2000). Is mobility of technical personnel a source of R&D spillovers?. National Bu-
reau of Economic Research. Documento de trabajo n W7834, agosto.
OECD (2005): Oslo Manual: guidelines for collecting and interpreting innovation, 3 ed., Paris.
OECD Publications, 167 p.
Pavit, K. (1984). Sectorial patterns of technical change: towards an taxonomy and a theory. Re-
search Policy, vol. 3, n. 6.
949
Porter, M.E. (1980), Competitive Strategy: Techniques of Analyzing Industries and Competitors,
The Free Press, New York, NY.
Porter, M.E. (1987). From competitive advantage to Corporate-Strategy. Harvard Business Re-
view, vol. 65, n 3, pp. 43-59.
Stiroh, K. J. (2002): Information Technology and the U.S. Productivity Revival: What do the In-
dustry data say?, American Economic Review, Vol. 92, N. 5, pp. 1559-1576.
Veciana, J.M. (2007). Las nuevas empresas en el proceso de innovacin en la Sociedad del Co-
nocimiento: evidencia emprica y polticas pblicas. Economa Industrial, n 363, pp. 103-
118.
950
Open E-Government y Cambios Organizativos

en las Administraciones Pblicas Espaolas
Open E-Government and Organizational Changes in the Spanish Public Ad-
ministrations.
Martnez Nez M 1, Prez Aguiar WS, Martin-Fernandez L
Abstract The crisis and the declining confidence in Public Administrations (PA)
are leading Governments to promote new governance and management methods
of the Pas. Social media has opened up innovative and unprecedented opportuni-
ties for public participation in governments activity and the concept Open E-
Government has arisen. Laws to promote greater transparency and citizens partic-
ipation are being proposed in Spain as a way to improve confidence in public or-
ganizations. But Social Media still are a new technology that needs to be better
understood in terms of benefits, risks, barriers and strategic use. This study has
two objectives: Firstly, to provide an overview of the social media use in the dif-
ferent levels of the Spanish public administration. Secondly, to identify the organ-
izational changes that are taking place assessing in-depth the Social Media real
impact through the analysis of barriers and organizational efficiency. Results show
that social media are improving transparency, but not the concept of collective
dialogue. The main organizational barriers in implementing an Open E-
Government lie in the reluctance to change of a part of employees and that the in-
creasing complexity of the tasks carried out are not accompanied by incentives to
increase production nor by the training required.
Resumen La crisis y la disminucin de confianza en las Administraciones Publicas

(AAPP) estn produciendo que los gobiernos estn apostando por nuevos sistemas
de gobernanza y organizacin de las AAPP. Los medios sociales han abierto nue-
vas posibilidades sin precedentes de participacin del pblico en la labor del go-
bierno obtenindose el concepto Open E-Government. En Espaa se empiezan a
promover leyes de transparencia y mayor participacin de los ciudadanos como
1 Margarita Martinez Nuez (e-mail: margarita.martinez@upm.es)
Departamento de Ingenieria de la Organizacion, Administracion de Empresas y Estadistica

Escuela Universitaria de Ingenieria Tecnica de Telecomunicacion. Universidad Politecnica de
Madrid Ctra de Valencia, km 7. 28031 Madrid, Spain
951
una forma de mejorar la confianza hacia las organizaciones pblicas. Pero los me-
dios sociales an son una tecnologa nueva que necesita ser mejor comprendida en
trminos de beneficios, riesgos, barreras y uso estratgico. El objetivo de este es-
tudio es doble: primero, dar una visin general del uso de los medios sociales en
los distintos niveles de la administracin pblica espaola. Y segundo, determinar
los cambios organizativos que se estn produciendo evaluando en mayor profun-
didad el impacto real mediante el anlisis de las barreras y eficiencia de las Orga-
nizaciones. Los resultados muestran que los medios sociales estn mejorando la
transparencia, pero no el concepto de dialogo colectivo. Los principales obstculos
organizativos en la implantacin de un gobierno electrnico 2.0. radican en el re-
chazo al cambio por parte de los empleados y que la creciente complejidad de las
tareas llevadas a cabo no vaya acompaada de incentivos para aumentar la pro-
duccin ni la formacin requerida.
Keywords: Organizational Barriers, Open E-Government, Social Media, Public

Administrations
Palabras clave: Barreras organizacionales, Gobierno Electrnico Abierto, Medios
Sociales, Administraciones Pblicas
1 Introduccin
Las organizaciones pblicas y privadas estn utilizando los medios sociales para
comunicarse con los ciudadanos y clientes con resultados diferentes, y no necesa-
riamente como componente de una estrategia a largo plazo. En el sector privado,
las organizaciones utilizan los medios sociales para construir relaciones con los
clientes, generando nuevos modelos de negocios, o maneras de crear ventajas
competitivas (Anderson, 2006, Surowiecki, 2004). En el Sector Pblico estas apli-
caciones facilitan la apertura, la transparencia y la democratizacin ( Lathrop y
Ruma, 2010; Noveck, 2009 ).
Los medios sociales se refieren a un conjunto de herramientas en lnea que
estn diseados para la interaccin social. Las redes sociales incluyen a un con-
glomerado de tecnologas basadas en Internet y servicios como son: blogs, micro-
blogs (Twitter), los servicios sociales para compartir (YouTube, Flickr), foros de
discusin, herramientas colaborativas de edicin (wikis), mundos virtuales (Se-
cond Life), y servicios de redes sociales (Facebook). Estas herramientas varan
drsticamente en sus propsitos y enfoques, pero comparten un nfasis en permitir
a los usuarios comunicarse, interactuar, editar y compartir contenidos en un entor-
no social (Porter, 2008; Tepper, 2003).
Por otro lado, la crisis que vive Espaa marca completamente la situacin pol-
tica, econmica y social de Ciudadanos, Empresas, Administraciones Pblicas y
952
Gobierno. En los ltimos aos se est incrementando una desconfianza de los ciu-
dadanos en el gobierno de las Administraciones Pblicas de los distintos estamen-
tos en Espaa. El 63,2% de los ciudadanos espaoles no confan en las AAPP
(barmetro CIS 2012). Esta desconfianza se puede basar en la existencia de una
jerarqua burocrtica rgida y la falta de flexibilidad de los procesos y regulaciones
que no estn permitiendo la posibilidad de respuestas adecuadas a los nuevos pro-
blemas encontrados un entorno caracterizado por la globalizacin de los merca-
dos. Adems, existe una tendencia de reproduccin de la burocracia aumentando
sus propias reglas de funcionamiento (a nivel estatal, autonmico, local), junto con
altos costos y mala gestin asociados a ella. Estos cambios acentan el desconten-
to ciudadano y la necesidad de buscar nuevas opciones (Welp et al. 2007).
Las caractersticas comunes de estos medios sociales como son la participacin
del usuario final toman relevancia apareciendo los conceptos de co-creacin de
contenidos, la evaluacin, colaboracin orientada a la solucin de problemas a
travs de las actividades de redes y el intercambio de contenidos. As, dan a las
Administraciones Pblicas (AAPP) nuevas herramientas para generar nuevas so-
luciones y oportunidades ante los problemas actuales. Con la incorporacin de es-
tas herramientas, las AAPP buscan mejorar casi en tiempo real las interacciones
con los ciudadanos, transformar su comportamiento al intercambiar informacin y
prestar servicios, cambiar los patrones de la toma de decisiones en el gobierno ba-
sados en la interaccin con los ciudadanos. Sin embargo, la entrada a travs de una
mayor participacin ciudadana plantea varios desafos en esta nueva forma de la
AAPP. Los supuestos beneficios no son fciles de medir y es difcil ver si los me-
dios de comunicacin sociales implementadas en el gobierno han sido efectivas.
Los medios sociales son todava una tecnologa nueva que necesita ser mejor
comprendida en trminos de sus beneficios, riesgos, barreras y uso estratgico.
Muchas organizaciones han adoptado las redes sociales con un enfoque de ensayo
y error, y sin generar nuevos recursos de la organizacin, con escasa financiacin.
Por ejemplo, las instituciones necesitan entender las cuestiones relacionadas con la
tecnologa y la cultura como un factor clave de innovacin y no como un obstcu-
lo crtico ( Luna-Reyes et al, 2005 ).
Surgen por tanto distintas preguntas que han de ser analizadas para tratar de
medir el xito de un modelo de AAPP basado en los medios sociales:
Cul sera marco para evaluar el xito de la transparencia, la participacin y
colaboracin dirigida por las iniciativas de innovaciones abiertas dentro de las
organizaciones pblicas?
Cules son las barreras que se estn produciendo en las organizaciones para la
incorporacin de esta innovacin social gubernamental basada en los medios
sociales?
Cmo podra medirse la eficiencia de las iniciativas de gobierno abierto?
Cules son las estrategias de aplicacin de los medios de comunicacin social
basados en la participacin ciudadana?
953
El objetivo de esta ponencia es contestar a estas cuestiones examinando la si-

tuacin actual en Espaa para determinar los cambios organizativos que se estn
produciendo y evaluar en mayor profundidad el impacto real mediante el anlisis
de las barreras, la eficiencia y las distintas estrategias de las Organizaciones Pbli-
cas.
2 Open E-Government y Cambios Organizativos
Impulsado por el aumento de las expectativas de los ciudadanos y la necesidad de

innovacin gubernamental, los medios sociales se ha convertido en un componen-
te central del E-Gobierno en un perodo muy corto de tiempo (Bertot et al, 2012 ).
Existe una corriente cientfica donde ven en estos nuevos canales interactivos el
potencial de repensar las fronteras tradicionales entre los individuos, los ciudada-
nos, las comunidades y los niveles de gobierno, de manera que alteran dramtica-
mente cmo el pblico y el gobierno interactan, desarrollan soluciones y prestan
servicios (Bertot et al, 2010 ).
El concepto Open Government se basa en un gobierno que pone a disposi-
cin de la sociedad toda la informacin pblica obtenida en la gestin de los asun-
tos pblicos, de conformidad con los procedimientos legalmente establecidos, el
alcance, los mtodos y perodos de tiempo, para facilitar la recuperacin y el uso
prctico de la sociedad en su conjunto.(Snead 2013). El concepto de gobierno
abierto no es nuevo ya que los esfuerzos para proporcionar ms informacin sobre
los asuntos de gobierno han persistido durante mucho tiempo (Chapman y Hunt,
1987; Cross, 1953). La Ley de Libertad de Informacin (FOIA 1966) en EEUU ya
tena como objetivo la transparencia y la rendicin de cuentas a los ciudadanos. La
participacin de los ciudadanos, la colaboracin y una mayor trasparencia de la in-
formacin es la gran promesa de las nuevas leyes de gobernabilidad (Obama,
2009). Desde ese ao, los movimientos Open Government han irrumpido en las
agendas polticas de Europa y Estados Unidos con fuerza. A nivel internacional,
mucha actividad gubernamental se est centrando en la actualidad en los medios
sociales, convirtindose en un componente significativo de los gobiernos en un
perodo muy corto de tiempo (Bertot et al, 2010 ,Chang y Kannan, 2008, Drapeau
y Wells, 2009). Los pases anglosajones (Estados Unidos, Nueva Zelanda, Austra-
lia, Reino Unido) han sido los pioneros en proponer nuevos modelos menos jerr-
quicos, poniendo nfasis en la eficiencia y la eficacia, y en una orientacin hacia
el ciudadano (Hughes, 2001). En Espaa, la Ley de Transparencia y Acceso a la
Informacin Pblica todava se encuentra en trmite parlamentario y plantea nue-
vos retos en la redefinicin de la organizacin de las AAPP sus conexiones e in-
teracciones. Sin embargo, en el mbito del medio ambiente y a nivel europeo, el
Convenio de Aarhus sobre acceso a la informacin, participacin pblica en la
toma de decisiones y acceso a la justicia en materia de medio ambiente, introduce
954
el concepto de la Administracin pblica abierta y transparente en el mbito del

medio ambiente. El pblico goza as del derecho a acceder a la informacin am-
biental que las autoridades pblicas poseen. En Espaa ha sido transpuesto me-
diante la Ley 27/2006, de 18 de julio, por la que se regulan los derechos de acceso
a la informacin, de participacin pblica y de acceso a la justicia en materia de
medio ambiente.
El concepto de E-Government se define como el empleo de Internet para
compartir informacin gubernamental y servicios a los ciudadanos (Naciones
Unidas, 2006). El objetivo final que persigue es implementar electrnicamente las
transacciones e interacciones con los ciudadanos, empresas y otros gobiernos. Los
medios sociales han abierto nuevas posibilidades sin precedentes de la participa-
cin del pblico en la labor del gobierno obtenindose un nuevo concepto Open e-
Government (Gannapati y Reddit 2012) o Gobierno Abierto Electrnico como
fusin de los conceptos de Open Government y E-Government.
El Gobierno Abierto Electrnico est ntimamente ligado a las nuevas tecno-
logas y a las oportunidades que ofrece Internet y en particular los medios sociales
virtuales. La aplicacin de estas herramientas social media en el Open E-
Government busca una mejora en la eficiencia y eficacia de los procesos internos
y de vinculacin con la sociedad. Su uso facilita la operacin de gobierno y la dis-
tribucin de la informacin y los servicios del mismo. El modelo de Gobierno de
las AAPP pasa a ser un modelo colaborativo centrado en el ciudadano comprome-
tido con transparencia de la informacin mediante la comparticin de datos en
tiempo real. La difusin de las redes sociales y el crecimiento del Open E-
Government brinda nuevas oportunidades de transparencia. (Lathrop y Ruma,
2010 ).
Dependiendo de los actores presentes en las interacciones se puede realizar la
siguiente clasificacin en el Open E-Government:
(Government to Citizens - (Government to Employees -
G2C: G2E: C2G: (Citizens to Govern-
Gobierno a Ciudadanos) Gobierno a Empleados)
ments - Ciudadanos a
(Government to Business - (Government to Governments -
G2B: G2G: Gobiernos)
Gobierno a Empresas) Gobierno a Gobiernos)
Si bien est aumentando el uso de tecnologas de medios sociales en las distin-
tas Administraciones como una forma de extender los servicios gubernamentales,
cabe analizar si lo estn realizando a travs de estructuras organizativa anticuadas
para establecer los parmetros de los flujos de informacin, acceso y difusin o
por el contrario se estn presentando soluciones organizativas donde se transfor-
man en instituciones ms flexibles con nuevas comunidades virtuales en lnea,
equipos de autogestin, las organizaciones en red, etc
En el contexto de gestin organizacional la primera decisin para adoptar una
determinada tecnologa se realiza una vez identificado los objetivos de cambio de
negocio (Gallivan, 2001). En segundo lugar, la aceptacin de esta tecnologa est
relacionada con la capacidad de los empleados para incorporarla a su trabajo dia-
rio (Fichman y Kemerer,1997). El personal de las Administraciones representa a
stas en la interaccin con el pblico y el pblico busca informacin a travs del
955
uso de los medios sociales. La adopcin de estas capacidades puede ser obligatoria
o voluntaria dependiendo del contexto y es fundamental en el desarrollo de una
buena implementacin.
3 Metodologa y Datos
En este estudio se entiende que la introduccin de estas herramientas social media

son transversales y afectan a toda la AAPP, sus relaciones y procesos en el contac-
to con los ciudadanos y otros agentes, dando origen a cambios en las organizacio-
nes. El enfoque de este anlisis lleva a la eleccin de un estudio en dos etapas:
En primer lugar, la adopcin de estas tecnologas dentro del gobierno es com-
plicada por la naturaleza poltica y la estructura de gobierno (Warkentin et al,
2002). En nuestro estudio se analizan las pginas Web gubernamentales y las dis-
tintos medios sociales asociadas a ellas, tomando como muestra en la Administra-
cin General del Estado (14 ministerios), en las distintas Comunidades Autno-
mas (19 incluidas las ciudades autnomas). En una segunda etapa para conocer la
penetracin en las Administraciones Locales, y dado el gran nmero de estas enti-
dades, se analizaron a nivel provincial 50 entidades correspondientes con las dipu-
taciones provinciales. A nivel municipal se han analizado 179 municipios slo de
la Comunidad de Madrid. Este primer anlisis se realiz entre los meses de enero
y marzo del 2012.De este modo, se estudia si las organizaciones estn utilizando
estas plataformas de modo homogneo segn su nivel jerrquico, analizando cu-
les son los distintos mecanismos y la retroalimentacin utilizados. Para ello se
llev a cabo un anlisis exploratorio comparativo, la recopilacin de datos para
hacer frente a este fin incluyen:
1) Monitoreo de medios sociales para determinar la participacin del pblico
con los medios
2) Anlisis de actividad de tipo de mensajes que se utilizan en este tipo de co-
municacin
En segundo lugar, se ha elegido realizar un estudio en mayor profundidad de
los procesos de Open E-Government teniendo en cuenta no slo el diseo y las
herramientas utilizadas por una AAPP sino cules estn siendo los procesos de
transformacin de la gestin y la vinculacin de la cultura organizacional del per-
sonal involucrado con la eficiencia a las barreras organizativas para la incorpora-
cin del modelo Open E-Government.
Se ha aplicado el modelo de Denison y Mishra (1989) que identifica los valores
y rasgos culturales asociados a la eficiencia. Estos rasgos culturales y valores se
organizan en cuatro dimensiones: adaptabilidad, participacin, misin y consisten-
cia. En este modelo se distinguen en dos niveles: la integracin interna y la adap-
tacin externa. El primer nivel se refiere a la identificacin positiva de las perso-
nas de la organizacin con intereses de la organizacin. El segundo nivel se refiere
956
a la capacidad de las organizaciones a cambiar en respuesta a las condiciones ex-

ternas y expectativas. Denison y Mishra (1989) tambin se refieren a la estabilidad
y flexibilidad.
Las organizaciones utilizan las dimensiones de misin y consistencia para crear
estabilidad, lo que desempea un papel importante tambin en el logro de la efi-
ciencia (Nurdin et al, 2011). Mientras que la misin proporciona a las personas en
la organizacin el significado y la consistencia establece normas que faciliten su
conformidad. Sin embargo, no se ha adoptado esta ltima dimensin organizativa.
Basndonos en revisin bibliogrfica la consistencia ha sido renombrada como bu-
rocracia. Desarrollamos los factores de la burocracia, identificados por Wallach
(1983) que se refieren a normas explcitas, las regulaciones y las jerarquas en una
organizacin, tpicas del Sector Pblico. Por otro lado, el nivel de flexibilidad de
la organizacin le permite adaptarse a factores externos, que conducirn a un
cambio en el conocimiento y el comportamiento de la organizacin.
En un anlisis de las barreras organizativas que impiden la eficiencia de las ini-
ciativas de Open E-Government, se han identificado varias caractersticas que
guardan similitudes con las dimensiones culturales y de valor de Denison y Mishra
(1989). Dado que estas dimensiones se asocian con eficiencia se propone que
usando el modelo se mejora la comprensin de los aspectos que rodean la adop-
cin y aplicacin de Open E-Government a nivel estatal. La inclusin de factores
internos y externos en su modelo permiten la exploracin de la complejidad de los
diferentes contextos constitucionales en la implementacin y adopcin de Open E-
Government relacionndolo con los dos tipos de tecnologas en las que se basan
las redes sociales, internas y externas. Estas complejidades incluyen el papel de las
personas y su compromiso con su organizacin y el papel de presiones externas
que afectan la capacidad de la organizacin para lograr eficiencia. Hasta ahora no
existe ningn estudio que identifique las barreras generadas por los empleados y
que las pueda relacionar con el modelo. En la figura 1, se presentan las dimensio-
nes organizativas y los factores a estudiar en el anlisis de los procesos de Open
E-Government entre el personal de la administracin.
FACTORES
DIMENSIONES ORGANIZATIVAS
CLAVE
Colaboraci
Implicacin Participacin Compromiso Responsabilidad
n
Cambios de Aprendizaje
Adaptabilidad Gestion
Transparencia Veracidad
organizacional
Misin Vision Objetivos Estrategia
Burocracia Estructura Regulacion Coordinacin
Fig. 1 Dimensiones organizativas y factores clave
Para este estudio se ha utilizado una combinacin de mtodos cualitativos y

cuantitativos que incluyen:
957
1. Las entrevistas a los actores involucrados en estos procesos, los funcionarios

responsables del sistema de informacin, (Entrevistas realizadas entre octubre
2012 y enero 2013)
2. El acceso a la documentacin que se genera en relacin a estas iniciativas y
los canales de atencin al ciudadano
Dado nuestro inters en evaluar el grado en que puede ser un proceso de transi-
cin hacia una nueva estructura organizativa, hemos optado por centrarse en un
gobierno, en nuestro caso el Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentacin y Medio
Ambiente (MAGRAMA). Esta eleccin ha sido debida a la relacin directa de este
organismo con la citada Ley 27/2006, que regulan los derechos de acceso a la in-
formacin, de participacin pblica en materia de medio ambiente. Con el fin de
comprender la escala y el alcance de la transicin hacia un modelo de Open E-
Government en el Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentacin y Medio Ambiente, se
estudia cules han sido las tendencias en el cambio de gestin en el trabajo de los
empleados pblicos implicados, si ha pasado de ser guiado por las instrucciones
jerrquicas a ser guiado por un estilo ms plano y ms dinmico. La estructura or-
ganizativa se analiza mediante encuesta telefnica a 23 personas de las Subdirec-
ciones Generales de Silvicultura y Montes, de Sistemas Informticos y Comunica-
ciones, de Anlisis, Prospectiva y Coordinacin y de Estadstica del Ministerio
cuyo trabajo est relacionado con la atencin al ciudadano, empresas, medios de
comunicacin y otras administraciones.
4 Resultados y Discusion
En este apartado se presenta el resumen de las revisiones y monitorizaciones reali-

zadas. Las Tablas 1 y 2 recogen los resultados de este estudio exploratorio. Como
se observa en la Tabla 1, en todos los niveles de la Administracin (Estatal, Auto-
nmico y Local) Twitter es la principal eleccin como plataforma para compartir
informacin, siendo la plataforma seleccionada si nicamente est incorporado un
medio social. La combinacin de las plataformas Facebook + Twitter + YouTube
es predominante cuando se eligen tres o ms plataformas para la difusin de la in-
formacin (Tabla 2) y da una medida de la adaptacin de las Administraciones
Pblicas al uso de las plataformas sociales. En algunos casos tambin hacen uso
de otros medios sociales menos habituales, pero no dejan de ser casos aislados,
como algunos de Tuenti o Google+ con difcil penetracin.
958
Tabla 1 Plataformas utilizadas por las Administraciones Pblicas
AGE CCAA PROVINCIAL MUNICIPA

L
Medios N % N % N % N %
Sociales
Twitter 10 71% 12 67% 22 44% 22 12%
YouTube 7 50% 10 56% 18 36% 16 9%
Facebook 3 21% 9 50% 21 42% 25 14%
Flickr 2 14% 6 33% 10 20% 4 2%
Tuenti 1 7% 1 6% 1 2% 4 2%
Friend Feed 0 0% 1 6% 1 2% 0 0%
iVoox 0 0% 2 11% 0 0% 0 0%
diigo 0 0% 1 6% 0 0% 0 0%
Google + 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 1 1%
Tabla 2 Combinaciones de uso de plataformas sociales en las Administraciones Pblicas
AGE CCAA PROVINCIAL MUNICIPAL

N % N % N % N %
Ningn medio social 3 21% 7 39% 25 50% 149 83%
Un medio social 3 21% 2 11% 4 8% 8 4%
Dos medios sociales 6 43% 0 0% 5 10% 9 5%
Tres medios sociales 2 14% 3 17% 6 12% 7 4%
Cuatro medios 0 0% 4 22% 9 18% 6 3%
sociales
Cinco medios 0 0% 3 17% 1 2% 0 0%
sociales
N 14 100% 18 100% 50 100% 179 100%
Como ciertos estudios presuponen (Bonsn et al 2012, Welp et al. 2007) cabra
considerar que aquellas organizaciones ms prximas al ciudadanos, como son las
administraciones locales, tendran un mayor grado de penetracin de estas herra-
mientas 2.0. Los resultados obtenidos no corroboran esta hiptesis, ya que es la
AGE, la que tiene una distribucin proporcional ms destacable. Las organizacio-
nes vinculadas a la AGE estn presentes en un 43% de los casos en los que se usan
al menos dos medios sociales. En lo que coinciden todas las organizaciones es en
que el tipo de mensaje no est modificado sustancialmente por el tipo de platafor-
ma en que se presenta. La funcin fundamental es la de transmitir una informacin
mejorando la transparencia pero el dialogo colectivo no se ha introducido. En el
caso de las CCAA la incorporacin ha sido en un mayor nmero de plataformas,
aunque, en el ao 2012, un 39% an no haban introducido este tipo de herramien-
959
tas, son las organizaciones que usan un mayor nmero de plataformas. Las Admi-
nistraciones locales presentan un alto grado de heterogeneidad en el uso de los
medios sociales. Cabe destacar que slo el 50 % de las diputaciones provinciales
utilizan al menos uno medio social disminuyendo a un 27% en los ayuntamientos.
En este ltimo nivel la temtica presentada en todos los casos es muy homognea
y versa en temas de turismo. Por tanto, la adopcin de estas tecnologas est sien-
do implementada en los niveles jerrquicos superiores de las Administracin, si
bien cabra esperar lo contrario. En este primer anlisis es tan solo una instantnea
de la prctica de la Administracin en un momento especfico en el tiempo (enero
y marzo del 2012). Pero estos medios sociales evolucionan rpidamente, se nece-
sita analizar de manera continuada para poder generar un estudio longitudinal ms
enriquecido.
En el contexto de las organizaciones pblicas, una medida de la eficiencia del
funcionamiento de las mismas es el resultado de la capacidad de adoptar nuevos
mecanismos de administracin electrnica (Nurdin et al, 2011). Dada la proximi-
dad de este concepto al Open E-Government se puede entender que suceda lo
mismo. En el contexto organizacional, la intensidad y el tipo de barrera hacia la
adopcin de las tecnologas 2.0, hacia la implementacin de sistemas de transpa-
rencia, participacin y colaboracin nos explican cules son las dimensiones orga-
nizativas ms influyentes y que factores son necesarios mejorar en cada una de las
dimensiones para la incorporacin de manera ms eficiente.
Los resultados de la encuesta realizada a personal del MAGRAMA, para la identifi-
cacin y el anlisis de las barreras organizativas se muestran en la Tabla 3:
Tabla 3 Encuesta de identificacin de barreras organizativas relacionadas con el Open E-

Government
Participacin % De Acuerdo (N
de contestaciones)
Los usos y servicios que se ofertan para la participacin ciudadana 78,26 % (18)
son reducidos
Implicacin
Los usos y servicios que se ofertan para la participacin dentro de 95,65 % (22)
la institucin son reducidos
Compromiso
Si los procesos no son cmodos para el ciudadano o no le ayudan 91,30 % (21)
en lo que necesita hay que eliminarlos o cambiarlos
En general no encuentro que exista un claro compromiso de los di- 82,61 % (19)
rigentes por este tema
960
Tabla 3 (continuacin) Encuesta de identificacin de barreras organizativas relacionadas con el

Open E-Government
de contestaciones)
Colaboracin
Se utilizan ya herramientas sociales para presentar la informacin, 69,57 % (16)
pero se usan muy poco para ponerse en contacto con el usuario o
para realizar trmites
No se han introducido todava estas herramientas en la comunica- 91,30 % (21)
cin interdepartamental ni interinstitucional
Responsabilidad
No hay una clara responsabilidad entre los empleados para un uso 91,30 % (21)
activo y continuo de estas herramientas
Gestin del cambio estratgico
Convendra que existiera una estandarizacin de los contenidos pa- 86,96 % (20)
ra homogeneizar estas iniciativas
No existe un cambio estratgico para introducir alguna de las partes 91,30 % (21)
de Open E-Government
Se utiliza algn medio abierto para la discusin de cualquier tema 4,35 % (1)
(nivel interno/ externo) 21,74 % (5)
Se pueden encontrar el contenido de las discusiones del pasado en
los foro en lnea (nivel interno/ externo)
Existen mecanismos no-formales de consulta en lnea para poder 8,70 % (2)
evaluar distintas cuestiones (nivel interno/ externo)
Transparencia
Actualmente no estoy involucrado en la incorporacin de nuevos 60,87 % (14)
servicios relacionados con el gobierno abierto
Adaptabilidad
Si bien considero que la accesibilidad, y la utilidad de la informa- 91,30 % (21)

cin mejoran con las redes sociales no lo veo as con la seguridad y
la complejidad de informacin
No existe compromiso, de manera formal o informal, para incorpo- 95,65 % (22)
rar los resultados de la e-participacin en la toma de decisiones
Confianza (empleados e instituciones inter gubernamentales)
Actualmente, las herramientas existentes, mtodos y sistemas no 73,91 % (17)
me permiten trabajar conjuntamente en todos los niveles de mi ad-
ministracin, ni con los ciudadanos, organizaciones no guberna-
mentales y sector privado
Organizacin / empleado aprendizaje
La utilizacin de las redes sociales a nivel personal es normalmente 60,87 % (14)
para leer y visualizar videos (actitud pasiva) aunque se utilizan de
manera habitual
No se estudian las experiencias de otras AAPP como resultados de 86,96 % (20)
aprendizaje
No se imparten cursos a los empleados para la formacin en la ges- 100,00 % (23)
tin de medios sociales
961
Tabla 3 (continuacin) Encuesta de identificacin de barreras organizativas relacionadas con el

Open E-Government
de contestaciones)
Visin
Existe una falta de liderazgo o verdadero compromiso poltico de- 78,26 % (18)
ntro de la propia organizacin
Meta
Misin
Todava no se entiende que estas iniciativas ayudan al objetivo del 65,22 % (15)
empleado pblico que es servir al ciudadano
Estrategia (para lograr la misin)
No existe una estrategia clara de comunicacin bidireccional entre 95,65 % (22)
los equipos encargados de estas iniciativas y el resto de agentes in-
volucrados
Reglamento
Actualmente no existe un marco regulatorio claro que aplicar, si 86,96 % (20)
bien existe una legislatura estatal no est claramente desarrollada.
Organizacin jerarqua / estructura
Burocracia
La participacin y colaboracin de todos los niveles directivos en 95,65 % (22)

Open e-gobierno es inusual.
En mi organizacin es necesaria una reestructuracin para que se 91,30 % (21)
pueda generar un servicio de desarrollo de estas iniciativas
Coordinacin (vertical y horizontal)
Sera necesario un organismo independiente que centralice, coordi- 47,83 % (11)
ne y evalu las distintas iniciativas
Un retraso en el desarrollo del gobierno electrnico abierto puede ser causado

por muchos factores como un bajo compromiso de las autoridades, la ausencia de
coordinacin y apoyo del nivel central en las distintas etapas de implementacin
del gobierno electrnico (Welp et al. 2007). Se identifican varios rasgos organiza-
tivos internos relacionados con el desarrollo del gobierno electrnico abierto con
fuertes barreras para la implementacin del mismo segn los factores definidos
para este estudio (Ver Figura 1).
En relacin al factor Implicacin, se ha detectado un bajo nivel de compromiso
y de responsabilidad de los dirigentes en la implantacin de iniciativas de Open E-
Government, aunque las herramientas sociales se estn usando para presentar o
trasmitir informacin, pero sin aprovechar estas herramientas para ponerse en con-
tacto con el usuario y recabar su opinin, informacin o apoyo. En cuanto a la
Adaptabilidad, casi un 40 % de los consultados estn involucrados en la incorpo-
racin de nuevos servicios relacionados con el gobierno abierto. Se ha detectado
que la seguridad y la complejidad de la informacin que se difunde a travs de las
iniciativas son una barrera para su desarrollo (91%). La mayora de los encuesta-
dos tiene una actitud pasiva ante las herramientas 2.0 aunque las usa habitualmen-
962
te. Otra gran barrera en este factor es que no se imparten cursos a los empleados
para la formacin ni se estudian las experiencias de otras Administraciones Publi-
cas en esta materia como resultados de aprendizaje.
En el factor Misin, se vuelve a identificar una falta de liderazgo y de compro-
miso en la organizacin en los temas de gobierno electrnico abierto. Tambin es
de destacar la ausencia de una estrategia de implantacin y desarrollo del gobierno
electrnico abierto que haga entender que estas iniciativas ayudan al objetivo del
empleado pblico que es servir al ciudadano. Por ltimo, en el factor Burocracia
la mayora de los encuestados demandan haya una reestructuracin que permita
generar un verdadero servicio de integracin y desarrollo de las iniciativas de go-
bierno electrnico abierto, que cuente con la financiacin necesaria y la colabora-
cin, impulso y participacin de todos los niveles directivos de la organizacin.
5 Conclusiones
Los resultados obtenidos en los distintos anlisis y seguimientos realizados en las

diferentes AAPP espaolas nos dan una visin general del uso que estn realizan-
do de las herramientas 2.0. para comunicarse con los ciudadanos. Un estudio en
mayor profundidad de una entidad de la AGE nos ha identificado los problemas
clave dispuestas como barreras organizacionales para la introduccin de estos sis-
temas sociales.
Aunque el Open E-Government se aproxima a un nuevo enfoque de gobernan-
za, no parece factible que las herramientas Web 2.0 vayan a dar lugar, por el mo-
mento, a una revolucin importante en las relaciones de las Administracin Pbli-
cas espaolas con los ciudadanos. Hoy en da, slo significan un paso adelante
para proporcionar informacin y servicios al pblico externo, aunque cada ao van
creciendo el nmero de entidades y organizaciones pblicas que dan este paso. Sin
embargo, dado que el desarrollo del Open E-Government es muy reciente, tal vez
las Administracin Pblicas espaolas estn todava experimentando con l o no
han tenido tiempo suficiente para adaptarse a la demanda ciudadana y evolucionar
hacia un verdadero gobierno electrnico 2.0.
El Open E-Government tiene aspectos tecnolgicos y organizativos que estn
estrechamente conectados. Adems de los requisitos tecnolgicos, un verdadero
gobierno electrnico 2.0. exige cambios administrativos que deben ser liderados,
fomentados e impulsado por los niveles directivos e incidir principalmente en los
empleados que sern los verdaderos artfices del cambio y la implantacin del
Open E-Government. Los principales obstculos organizativos en la implantacin
de un gobierno electrnico 2.0. radican en el rechazo al cambio por parte de los
empleados y que la creciente complejidad de las tareas llevadas a cabo no vaya
acompaada de incentivos para aumentar la produccin ni la formacin requerida.
Tambin es necesario que el control de la informacin pase de considerarse un
963
aumento de poder, y se utilice como una herramienta de colaboracin, de innova-

cin y de gestin eficaz de los recursos de las Administraciones Pblicas.
Con los resultados de este estudio se puede concluir que todava no se ha im-
plantado un verdadero Open E-Government en las Administraciones Pblicas Es-
paolas. Adems, las propias Administraciones deben realizar los cambios organi-
zacionales detectados en los mbitos de implicacin, adaptabilidad, misin y
burocracia, para que el Open E-Government sea una realidad en Espaa.
Por ltimo, se quiere volver a insistir en que las interacciones entre el personal
de las Administraciones Pblicas y el pblico en general a travs de las herramien-
tas 2.0. y un verdadero gobierno electrnico 2.0. sugieren que el uso gubernamen-
tal de las herramientas sociales son un medio potencialmente viables para aumen-
tar la participacin y la implicacin del pblico con el gobierno
Dada la rpida y progresiva evolucin e implantacin de las herramientas 2.0.
por parte de las Administraciones Pblicas, los resultados de este trabajo preten-
den ser actualizados para analizar el avance del gobierno electrnico 2.0. en Espa-
a
6 Referencias
Anderson, C. 2006. The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more Hyperion,
New York
Bertot, J.C., Jaeger, P.T., Hansen, D. 2012. The impact of polices on government social media
usage: Issues, challenges, and recommendations. Government Information Quarterly, 29 (1),
pp. 3040. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2011.04.004
Bertot, J.C., Jaeger, P.T., Munson. S., Glaisyer, T. 2010. Engaging the public in open govern-
ment: Social media technology and policy for government transparency. Computer, 43 (11),
pp. 5359.
Bonsn, E.. Torres, L., Royo. S., Flores, F. 2012. Local e-government 2.0: Social media and cor-
porate transparency in municipalities. Government Information Quarterly 29, pp 123132.
doi:10.1016/j.giq.2011.10.001
Centro de Investigaciones Sociolgicas, (CIS), 2012. Barmetros.
http://www.cis.es/cis/opencm/ES/11_barometros/index.jsp
Ganapati, S., Reddick, C.G. 2012. Open e-government in U.S. state governments: Survey evi-
dence from Chief Information Officers Government Information Quarterly, 29 (2),pp. 115-
122. doi: 10.1016/j.giq.2011.09.006
Chang, A., Kannan, P.K. 2008. Leveraging Web 2.0 in government. IBM Center for The Busi-
ness of Government, Washington DC.
Chapman. R.A., Hunt, M., 1987. Open government, Croom Helm, New York.
Cross, H. 1953. The people's right to know; legal access to public records and proceedings, Co-
lumbia University Press, New York.
Denison D. R , Mishra A. K, 1989. Organizational culture and organizational effectiveness: A
theory and some preliminary empirical evidence. University of Michigan. Michigan.
Drapeau, M., Wells L. 2009 Social software and national security: An initial net assessment.
Center for Technology and National Security Policy, National Defense University. Available:
http://www.ndu.edu/ctnsp/Def_Tech/DTP61
964
Fichman R. G., Kemerer C. F. 1997. The assimilation of software process innovations: An or-
ganizational learning perspective, Management Science, 43 (10) pp. 1345-1363.
Gallivan, M. J. 2001. Organizational adoption and assimilation of complex technological innova-
tions: Development and application of a new framework, The Data Base for Advances in In-
formation Systems, 32 (3), pp. 51-85.
Hughes, O. 2001. The Way Ahead for New Public Management. Working Paper 55/01. Depart-
ment of Management, Monash University.
Lathrop D., Ruma L. , 2010 Open government: Collaboration, transparency, and participation in
practice.O'Reilly Media,Sebastopol, CA
Luna-Reyes L.F., Zhang J., Gil-Garca J.R, Cresswell A.M., 2005. Information systems devel-
opment as emergent socio-technical change: A practice approach. European Journal of In-
formation Systems, 14 (2005), pp. 93105
Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentacion y Medio Ambiente (MAGRAMA). 2011. Agricultura,
Alimentacin y Medio Ambiente en Espaa 2011. Madrid
Noveck B.S., 2009. Wiki government. Brookings Institution Press, Washington DC
Nurdin, N., Stockdale, R., Scheepers, H., 2011. Understanding Organizational Barriers Influenc-
ing Local Electronic Government Adoption and Implementation: The Electronic Government
Implementation Framework. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Re-
search, 6, (3) pp.13-27
B. Obama, B. 2009. Transparency and open government. Memorandum for the heads of execu-
tive departments and agencies. Federal Register, 74 (15) pp. 46854686
Snead, J.T. 2013. Social media use in the U.S. Executive branch. Government Information Quar-
terly 30 (2013) 5663.
Surowiecki J. 2004. The wisdom of crowds. Doubleday, New York.
Porter J., 2008, Designing for the Social Web. New Riders Press, Thousand Oaks, CA
Tepper M. 2003. The rise of social software. NetWorker, 7 (3), pp. 1823
Wallach E. J., 1983. Individuals and organizations: The cultural match, Training & Development
Journal, 37 (2) pp. 29-36
Warkentin M., Gefen D., Pavlou P.A., Rose G.M. 2002. Encouraging citizen adoption of e-
government by building trust. Electronic Markets, 12 (3) pp. 157-162,
Welp, Y., Urgell, F., Aibar, E. 2007. From Bureaucratic Administration to Network Administra-
tion? An Empirical Study on E-Government Focus on Catalonia. Public Organization Review
7, 299316. DOI 10.1007/s11115-007-0038-z
965
Anlisis de Buenas Prcticas en Transferencia

Tecnolgica en el Sector TIC
Analysis of Best Practices in Technology Transfer in the ICT
Artal A.1, Sanchez Granados A.M.2, Gil Garcia E.3
Abstract Technology transfer between research organizations and companies is

always a complex process that depends on multiple factors, one of them, the pro-
ductive sector in which it takes place. This paper performs a theoretical analysis of
the Spanish innovation system and the agents that are part of it, emphasizing the
particularities of the ICT sector, and performs an empirical analysis on companies
of that sector. A set of best practices is presented so as to promote the creation and
increase of technology transfer relationships in the ICT sector, leading to an im-
provement of the competitiveness of this sector and the promotion of economic
development.
Resumen La transferencia de tecnologa -TT- es un proceso complejo que depen-

de de mltiples factores. En el presente estudio se realiza un anlisis terico sobre
el sistema de innovacin espaol y los agentes que lo conforman, resaltando las
particularidades del sector TIC, por medio de un anlisis emprico en empresas de
ese sector. Los obstculos a la TT desarrollada entre organismos de investigacin
y empresas es vista de distinta manera dependiendo del agente. Las mejoras a la
competitividad e impulso del desarrollo econmico pueden englobarse entre otras,
en que la TT se realice de forma dinmica, gil y continua. Es por ello que se
plantean una serie de buenas prcticas que pretenden favorecer la creacin o au-
mento de relaciones de transferencia en el sector TIC.
1Alba Artal ( e-mail: alba.artal@gmail.com)

Itimes Advisers. Gran Capit 2-4. Nexus I, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
2Anna Sanchez Granados ( e-mail: annasanchez@itimes.es)
Itimes Advisers. Gran Capit 2-4. Nexus I, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
3Ester Gil Garcia ( e-mail: estergilgarcia@gmail.com)
Universidad Politcnica de Catalunya. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
966
Keywords: Technology Transfer, ICT, Innovation

Palabras clave: Transferencia de Tecnologa, TIC, Innovacin, Adquisicin-
cesin de Tecnologa
1 Antecedentes
La transferencia de tecnologa ha permitido en los ltimos 20 aos un mayor di-

namismo en el mercado gracias a las continuas innovaciones empresariales. Una
transferencia de conocimiento ms fluida entre los distintos agentes de la sociedad
comporta una mayor disposicin de tecnologa al servicio de usuarios y consumi-
dores. Desde instituciones pblicas se ha sealado la importancia del mtodo de
transferencia de tecnologa. Se han analizado la compra-venta de patentes, la ce-
sin de intangibles, la cooperacin abierta, o los contratos de colaboracin, entre
otros. La OCDE se ha preocupado de la difusin y la implantacin de polticas en
materia de I+D+i, estableciendo estndares en el Manual de Frascati o el Manual
de Oslo. En Espaa se recogen los datos de la ltima dcada en el INE y en la UE
en EUROSTAT. Se presentan tambin algunos informes como el de la Fundacin
COTEC a travs del Panel PITEC, que aporta datos objetivos sobre la evolucin
de las empresas en materia de transferencia de tecnologa desde el ao 2003. La
revisin de las fuentes de informacin sobre mtodos de transferencia de tecnolog-
a concluye que, en la mayora de los casos, los estudios son difcilmente compa-
rables y los resultados deben considerarse con extrema cautela.
En la revisin de la bibliografa existente encontramos mltiples estudios que
analizan la relacin de los distintos agentes involucrados en la transferencia de
tecnologa. Considerando como agentes los centros de investigacin, las empresas,
los organismos intermediarios y la Administracin Pblica. Siendo de gran impor-
tancia la relacin que se establece entre las empresas y las universidades, dado que
ests ltimas estn consideradas como una de las principales fuentes de conoci-
miento de la sociedad. Varios autores consideran vital que se establezcan frmulas
de conveniencia que permitan la correcta transferencia de tecnologa entre ambos
agentes.
Desde el punto de vista de la Universidad/OPI, encontramos que los factores
que afectan a las relaciones entre ambos agentes segn Siegel et al. (2004) son ta-
les como: la burocracia y las diferencias culturales, la remuneracin de los inves-
tigadores o los derechos de propiedad intelectual. Bercovitz & Feldman (2004)
destacan la trayectoria de los investigadores en la institucin que trabajan, los aos
de experiencia en investigacin y las acciones de otros individuos. Mora et al.
(2004) sealan la experiencia previa, la comunicacin, el compromiso, la confian-
za, y la reputacin de los colaboradores. Decter el al. (2007) sealan la motivacin
y las diferencias culturales/comunicacin. Landry et al. (2007) destacan el enfoque
del proyecto, el tamao de la universidad, o si la TT es comercial o no. Nuez et
967
al. (2010) sealan la experiencia previa de colaboracin con empresas, el grado de

compromiso de la empresa, la gestin de la propiedad intelectual y la comunica-
cin.
Para las empresas, independientemente del tamao, la motivacin para colabo-
rar con otras organizaciones es la misma: acceso a tecnologas complementarias y
reduccin del tiempo de innovacin, aunque su forma de llevarlas a cabo difiere
sustancialmente. Si bien las PYMES son ms reacias a colaborar o establecer
alianzas con otras empresas y prefieren establecer relaciones de outsourcing con
universidades y centros tecnolgicos, las grandes empresas son ms propensas a
aliarse con sus competidores, quizs porque cuentan con ms recursos para prote-
ger sus derechos. Se resumen los factores que afectan a las relaciones de TT entre
las empresas y los organismos de investigacin, esta vez desde el punto de vista de
los socios empresariales en: estructura organizacional de la empresa, confianza y
situacin geogrfica; segn Santoro & Gopalakrishnan (2000). Segn Siegel et al.
(2004) en burocracia y diferencias culturales, comunicacin, derechos de propie-
dad intelectual, y segn Mora et al. (2004) implicacin, situacin geogrfica y de-
finicin de objetivos.
Nos hallamos ante una gran variedad de opiniones y objetivos, y surge la pre-
gunta sobre cules son los factores que facilitan una mayor TT hacia la sociedad.
Para analizar el problema en profundidad se ha planteado el anlisis de sectores
innovadores, tomando el sector TIC. Uno de los factores decisivos que se han to-
mado para poder determinar el sector objeto de estudio ha sido la financiacin pri-
vada que recibe la Universidad. Segn el INE la mayor financiacin privada que
recibe la Universidad en actividades de I+D est destinada a los campos de inge-
niera y tecnologa, siendo prcticamente del 40% en 2011 (ms de 121 millones
de Euros). Reflejando as los principales intereses de las empresas. Segn datos
del INE, tanto las empresas TIC del sector industrial como las del sector servicios
destacan por su actividad innovadora por encima de la media del total de empresas
PYMES o Grandes Empresas. Por otra parte, la intensidad de innovacin para
cualquiera de los sectores es, como mnimo, ms del doble que la media del total
de empresas, destacando las PYMES de la industria TIC, cuyos gastos en innova-
cin casi alcanzan el 6% de su cifra de negocio.
968
2 Estudio Emprico sobre la Transferencia de Tecnologa en el

Sector TIC en Espaa
2.1 Grandes Cifras del Sector TIC Espaol
El sector TIC es uno de los sectores que ha experimentado unos niveles de inver-
sin en I+D ms elevados y mayor crecimiento durante la ltima dcada (INE,
EUROSTAT). Sin embargo desde 2008, particularmente en Espaa, se ha reduci-
do la inversin de las administraciones pblicas en modernizacin e introduccin
de las TICs en los sistemas de comunicacin. El sector TIC representa el 1,5% del
PIB a Espaa, muy lejos del 2,54% de la media de los pases de la Europa de los
27. A pesar de la cada del 2,2% segn AMETIC (2011), el sector TIC espaol ha
generado empleo. En 2012 la inversin en I+D es superior al 1,39% del PIB espa-
ol. En nuestro pas uno de los grandes problemas del sector es el dficit de la ba-
lanza comercial debido al diferencial entre importaciones y exportaciones (en par-
te por la elevada importacin de productos electrnicos e informticos). Al no
existir grandes industrias TIC en Espaa, la produccin se basa principalmente en
la comercializacin de servicios. Muchas de las innovaciones derivadas de las ac-
tividades de I+D son aplicaciones software. Dado que el software no es patentable
en Europa, encontramos que en muchas ocasiones se descarta la va de licencia-
miento de patentes como vehculo de transferencia.
2.2 Pautas de Colaboracin Pblico-privada
Las relaciones de colaboracin pblico-privada, universidad y centros de investi-

gacin por una parte y PYMES y grandes empresas por otra, son complejas y ms
si tratan temas de investigacin que pueden dar lugar a derechos comerciales sobre
el resultado obtenido.
El organismo investigador, como por ejemplo la universidad, ve el proceso de
transferencia de tecnologa a la empresa del modo siguiente: a) Universidad, agen-
te que transfiere; b) Objeto a transferir; c) Medio de transferencia, ya sea asesora-
miento tcnico, intercambio de personal, contrato de I+D, cesin de derechos de
explotacin mediante licencias o incluso creacin de spin-off; d) Empresa como
receptor de la transferencia, cuya actitud frente al proceso depende de factores
como su tamao, el sector al que pertenece, la formacin de su personal, etc.; e)
Entorno, en qu contexto se enmarca la transferencia, tanto en el mbito de mer-
cado como en el marco legal e institucional.
969
En definitiva, la complejidad en la gestin de los proyectos de colaboracin

pblico-privados depende en gran parte de la visin que los distintos agentes ten-
gan del proceso.
2.3 Objetivo, Hiptesis y Metodologa de Trabajo
Las empresas objeto de estudio han sido escogidas en funcin de: la tasa de creci-
miento en los ltimos 2-4 aos; sectores estratgicos (TIC); start ups; independen-
cia del tamao; facturacin en nuevos productos; n de empleados en I+D+i, to-
mando como referencia algunas de las conclusiones obtenidas en el estudio del
COTEC (2010) Panel Pitec.
La inexistencia de estudios sobre el tema ha determinado que esta investigacin
sea exploratoria y facilite la realizacin de trabajos futuros.
Se han seleccionado empresas con ctedra en las escuelas de telecomunicacin
de las tres universidades citadas por la OEPM como las ms influyentes en trmi-
nos de TT en Espaa: UPM, UPC y UPV; empresas que colaboran con alguno de
los centros tecnolgicos espaoles ms importantes del sector TIC o que forman
parte de su patronato; empresas integrantes de los consejos regionales de la aso-
ciacin AMETIC; y empresas que mantienen convenios de transferencia de tecno-
loga con la UPC. Las empresas objeto de estudio cumplen adems los siguientes
criterios: realizar su actividad principal y actividades de innovacin en el sector
TIC, y realizar dichas actividades de innovacin en Espaa, descartando as algu-
nas multinacionales que no tienen ningn centro de investigacin en nuestro pas.
Y presencia en internet. As se obtuvo una muestra de 117 empresas.
Se ha diseado un cuestionario siguiendo las directrices de encuestas sobre in-
novacin establecidas por el Manual de Oslo. El cuestionario incluye 62 preguntas
y se divide en tres apartados: 1) Informacin general: n de trabajadores, tipo de
empresa, sector de actividad segn CNAE, y financiacin. 2) Actividades de inno-
vacin: I+D interna, n de personas que las realizan y cualificacin. Gastos de in-
novacin, objetivos y resultados de sta. 3) Transferencia de tecnologa: fuentes
de transferencia, duracin de los vnculos de transferencia, y obstculos. Se inclu-
ye tambin una pregunta abierta para recabar sugerencias de mejora o incremento
de la cooperacin entre organismos pblicos o privados. La muestra obtenida es
de 30 cuestionarios vlidos, lo cual garantiza que se trata de una distribucin nor-
mal con validez estadstica. Se han validado los resultados mediante entrevistas a
los distintos responsables de I+D+i de las empresas objeto de estudio. Se ha reali-
zado un primer anlisis de variables simples que ha permitido construir variables
correlacionadas.
970
2.4 La Visin Empresarial, Resultados del Estudio
Lo que ms valoran las empresas son las fuentes internas de transferencia de tec-
nologa, los conocimientos adquiridos por los propios empleados. Se sitan las fe-
rias y congresos del sector al mismo nivel que la universidad. Y la difusin de pa-
tentes como la menos valorada. La colaboracin ms estable de las empresas es la
establecida con la universidad, y la menos duradera, con las empresas competido-
ras. En cuanto a los obstculos se sitan todos al mismo nivel. A continuacin se
detallan algunas de las sugerencias para facilitar la TT: investigacin orientada al
mercado; favorecer el intercambio mutuo de informacin (como por ejemplo con
plataformas abiertas de conocimiento); mayor iniciativa por parte de los centros de
investigacin a la hora de establecer una primera aproximacin a la empresas; e
intercambio de personas.
El anlisis factorial ha permitido construir nuevas variables. En cuanto a los ob-
jetivos de la innovacin se han denominado crecimiento, costes y organiza-
cin. Crecimiento: ampliacin de los productos, aumento cuota de mercado y
expansin hacia nuevos mercados. Es decir la innovacin como instrumento de
crecimiento. Costes: calidad de los productos, sustitucin de productos, y dis-
minucin de costos de personal y material. Organizacin: mejoras organizativas,
de comercializacin y distribucin. En cuanto a las fuentes de transferencia cabe
citar la vigilancia competitiva o sea bsqueda, captacin y anlisis de informacin
como difusin de patentes, publicaciones, ferias y congresos, y asociaciones em-
presariales. Y tambin la cadena de valor. En relacin a los obstculos a la coope-
racin se cita la distancia cultural cognitiva.
Se destaca la correlacin negativa entre exportacin y financiacin pblica y se
observa una correlacin positiva entre las variables SpinOff y Exportacin.
Destaca la elevada correlacin (con un valor de significatividad menor del 1%)
entre el objetivo de crecimiento y la componente de fuente de transferencia que se
describi como cadena de valor por englobar a clientes y proveedores. Esto quiere
decir que las empresas que consideran muy importante el crecimiento como obje-
tivo de la innovacin tambin consideran muy importante a sus empresas clien-
te/proveedor como fuente de transferencia.
Otra correlacin a destacar, en este caso, por su valor significativamente nega-
tivo es la relacin entre organismos de investigacin como fuente de transferencia
y distancia tecnolgica-geogrfica como obstculo, eso significa que las empresas
que dan gran importancia a las universidades y centros tecnolgicos como fuentes
no perciben que la tecnologa o la ubicacin del organismo representen un pro-
blema para cooperar con ellos.
Destaca tambin la correlacin entre financiacin pblica y vnculo con compe-
tidores o empresas del mismo sector. Esto se puede deber a que algunas de las
subvenciones otorgadas por la administracin pblica van dirigidas a consorcios
de empresas, proyectos en los que deben participar un nmero determinado de
empresas y, a veces, organismos de investigacin.
971
Tambin se observa una correlacin positiva entre ser una gran empresa y tener
algn vnculo con la universidad. Se puede deber a que es ms fcil para una gran
empresa colaborar con la universidad que para una PYME en tanto que disponen
de ms recursos para gestionar esas relaciones. Y es que, normalmente, las univer-
sidades suelen tener un tamao y una organizacin que las hace ms parecidas a
una gran empresa que a una PYME. De hecho uno de los obstculos que se aa-
dieron a la lista ya predefinida, fue el de Tamao de la empresa. Este obstculo
surgi en una de las entrevistas argumentando que para la empresa era ms fcil
cooperar con un centro tecnolgico debido a su tamao ms reducido que con una
universidad, a las que vean como entes demasiado grandes a los que no saban
cmo acceder.
Dada la importancia que las empresas han dado a las empresas cliente y a las
empresas proveedoras como fuentes de transferencia, se observa una gran correla-
cin entre la cadena de valor y los vnculos con la empresa cliente o proveedora.
Es curioso que el factor organismos de investigacin como fuente est relacionado
claramente con los vnculos con centros tecnolgicos y OPIs, pero no con univer-
sidades. Se necesitara una muestra mayor para averiguar si finalmente pudiera
haber relacin.
Por ltimo, cabe destacar, en este caso, por mantener una correlacin negativa,
los dos factores de obstculos (distancia cultural-cognitiva y distancia tecnolgica-
geogrfica) y el vnculo con la universidad. Parece que cuando una empresa se de-
cide a establecer un vnculo con una universidad no percibe como obstculo nin-
guno de los enumerados en el cuestionario.
Destaca, por ser preocupante, la relacin existente entre financiacin pblica y
orientacin de objetivos a disminucin de costes. Es de suponer que cuando la
administracin pblica impulsa planes con fondos pblicos destinados a proyectos
de empresas privadas, estos planes tienen como objetivo fomentar el crecimiento
de las empresas, lo que a su vez generar empleo y riqueza para el pas, no reducir
sus costes, entre los cuales est el de personal.
Es interesante observar que existe una relacin positiva entre el hecho de ex-
portar y considerar importante como fuente de transferencia las Redes (que in-
cluyen fuentes de empresas competidoras y los contactos informales). Parece ser
que el conocimiento de empresas competidoras, posiblemente mediante contactos
informales, favorece la exportacin.
Los datos obtenidos con el cuestionario y la posterior validacin de los resulta-
dos a travs de entrevistas personalizadas con distintos responsables de I+D+i,
permiten presentar algunas recomendaciones agrupadas en 5 grandes bloques, con
el objetivo de favorecer la creacin de vnculos de transferencia de tecnologa en-
tre empresas y organismos de investigacin del sector TIC. Estos bloques son: ge-
neracin de confianza (comunicacin adecuada, gestin transparente), tecnologa
prctica (orientacin de la investigacin al mercado), informacin accesible (difu-
sin de proyectos de investigacin acadmicos) distincin entre grandes empresas
972
y PYMES (sobretodo, en cuanto a su capacidad de absorcin de nuevas tecnolog-

as), y Spin-offs (creacin de nuevas empresas surgidas de la investigacin).
3 Conclusiones
El estudio sectorizado del sector TIC muestra de forma breve y sinttica todos
aquellos factores determinantes de la transferencia de tecnologa del sector. Por
ltimo, haciendo referencia a las buenas prcticas propuestas anteriormente y dado
el sector que ha sido objeto de estudio, el hecho de que Barcelona haya sido de-
signada como Mobile World Capital albergando el congreso mundial en mltiples
ediciones, representa un excepcional reconocimiento y una excelente oportunidad
para el sector TIC espaol. Esta eleccin debera actuar como el elemento dinami-
zador que haca falta para fomentar y favorecer la investigacin y el desarrollo de
tecnologas TIC en todos los mbitos, empresariales y acadmicos.
4 Referencias
Bercovitz, Janet & Feldman, Maryann.. Academic enterpreneurs: social learning and participa-
tion in university technology transfer. Available via DIALOG http://www.academia.edu/.
AMETIC (2012) Las Tecnologas de la Informacin en Espaa 2011.
COTEC (2010) Transferencia de tecnologa en las empresas espaolas Identificacin de patro-
nes segn datos del panel PITEC.
COTEC (2008) Colaboracin pblico-privada en innovacin.
COTEC (2007) Las relaciones en el sistema espaol de innovacin
COTEC (2002) para la Innovacin Tecnolgica, Empresas y Administraciones Pblicas.
Decter, M.; Benett, D.; Leseure, M. (2007) . University to bussines technology transfer: UK and
USA comparisons. Technovation, 2007, vol. 27, pp. 145-155.
FECYT (2010) Fundacin Conocimiento y Desarrollo, Informe CyD.
Mora-Valentn, E.; Montoro Snchez, A; Guerras-Martn, L. (2004). Determining factors in the
success of R&D cooperative agreements between firms and research organizations. Research
Policy, vol. 33, pp 17-40.
Nez-Snchez, R.; Barge-Gil, A.;Modrego-Rico, A. (2010). Performance of knowledge interac-
tions between public research centres and industrial firms in Spain: a project-level analysis>.
Journal of Technology Transfer,
OCDE (2002). Manual de Frascati - Propuesta de Norma Prctica para Encuestas de Investigaci-
n y Desarrollo Experimental. Traducido por FECYT, 2002.
OCDE (2006) y Eurostat. Manual de Oslo Gua para la recogida e interpretacin de datos sobre
innovacin. Traducido por Grupo Tragsa.
Ortn, P.; Salas, V.; Trujillo, M. V.; Vendrell, F. (2008) La creacin de Spin-off universitarios en
Espaa: Caractersticas, determinantes y resultados. Economa industrial, 2008, vol. 368, pp.
79-95.
Siegel, D.S.; Waldman, D.A.; Atwater, L.E.; Link, A.N. (2004). Toward s model of the effective
transfer of scientific knowledge from academicians to practitioners: qualitative evidence from
973
the commercialization of university technologies. Journal of Engineering and Technology

Management, 2004, vol. 21, pp. 115-142.
Santoro, M.; Gopalakrishnan, S (2000).; The institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities
within industry-university collaborative ventures. Journal of Engineering and Technology
Management, 2000, vol. 17, pp. 299-319.
UPC. UPC el soci tecnolgic de confiana (UPC el socio tecnolgico de confianza), Abril 2011.
974
SP-02
Investigacin Operativa, Modelado y
Simulacin
975
Comparativa de Heursticas Multiobjetivo

Voraces y Poblacionales Aplicadas a la
Optimizacin Mono-objetivo en Entornos
Industriales Flow Shop con Permutacin
Comparison between Multiobjective Greedy and Population Based Tech-
niques Applied to Monoobjective Optimization in Permutation Flow Shop
Environments
Valledor P1, Gmez A2, Daz D3, Priore P4, Rosillo R5
Abstract Nowadays multiple techniques can be applied to solve the permutation

flow shop scheduling problem with single or multiple objectives. In real world
multi-objective problems can be converted to single objective situations when
sudden changes occur in the market or in the industrial processes modifying the
priority of the objectives to reach. This work analyses the behaviour of a new
population-based technique proposed (MA-NSGAII) and an existing greedy algo-
rithm (RIPG), designed a priori for multi-objective problems, on flow shop mono-
objective optimization with the target of minimizing the makespan.
1Pablo Valledor Pellicer ( e-mail: pablo.valledor@gmail.com)

Escuela Politcnica de Ingeniera de Gijn. Campus de Viesques, s/n. Universidad de Oviedo.
33204 Gijn. Asturias.
2Alberto Gmez Gmez ( e-mail: albertogomez@uniovi.es)
Dpto. de Administracin de Empresas. Escuela Politcnica de Ingeniera de Gijn. Campus de
Viesques, s/n. Universidad de Oviedo. 33204 Gijn. Asturias.
3Diego Daz Fidalgo ( e-mail: valthalion@gmail.com)
Escuela Politcnica de Ingeniera de Gijn. Campus de Viesques, s/n. Universidad de Oviedo.
33204 Gijn. Asturias.
4Paolo Priore ( e-mail: Priore@uniovi.es)
5Rafael Rosillo Camblor ( e-mail: rafarrcc@gmail.com)
977
Resumen Existen mltiples tcnicas aplicadas a la resolucin del problema de la

planificacin de trabajos en entornos flow shop con permutacin con una o varias
funciones objetivo. En el mundo real problemas multiobjetivo pueden pasar a ser
mono-objetivo cuando se dan cambios de prioridades en los objetivos a alcanzar,
en funcin de la situacin del mercado o del proceso industrial. Este trabajo anali-
za el comportamiento de un nuevo algoritmo gentico (MA-NSGAII) y de una
tcnica voraz existente (RIPG), desarrolladas a priori para solventar problemas
multiobjetivo, aplicadas a un entorno de planificacin flow shop con el nico ob-
jetivo de minimizar el tiempo mximo de completitud de las tareas.
Keywords: Optimization, Flow Shop, Metaheuristics, Multiobjective

Palabras clave: Optimizacin, Flow Shop, Meta-heursticos, Multiobjetivo
1 Introduccin
La bsqueda de la mejor planificacin de una secuencia de trabajos es una tarea

muy compleja para ser realizada manualmente debido a su complejidad no-
polinmica (Garey, 1976). Mltiples factores y combinaciones hacen imposible
que todos los parmetros puedan ser tenidos en cuenta por una operador humano a
la hora de buscar la mejor secuencia.
Adems de la existencia de mltiples combinaciones, existen distintas funcio-
nes objetivo, con diferentes unidades de medida, que podran ser optimizadas si-
multneamente, dando lugar al denominado problema multiobjetivo, o de forma
independiente, tratndose como un problema monoobjetivo. Por nuestra experien-
cia, es interesante analizar si las tcnicas multiobjetivo responden de forma ade-
cuada a cambios puntuales en la funcin objetivo, al convertirse el problema a
mono-objetivo, debido a una variacin en las prioridades de los objetivos existen-
tes.
En este artculo proponemos una nueva tcnica poblacional multiobjetivo, de-
nominada MA-NSGAII, aplicada a la bsqueda de la secuencia ptima con el ni-
co objetivo de minimizar el tiempo mximo de completitud de las tareas en siste-
mas flow shop.
Este trabajo est organizado de la siguiente manera: En la seccin 2 hablamos
de la estructura de los sistemas de planificacin flow shop y hacemos una breve
revisin de los estudios monoobjetivo y multiobjetivo existentes. La seccin 3
describe el funcionamiento de la tcnica voraz RIPG, sobre la que compararemos
nuestra meta-heurstica. La seccin 4 presenta la estructura de la tcnica MA-
NSGAII. En la seccin 5 mostramos los resultados experimentales. Finalmente, en
la seccin 6 comentamos las conclusiones del estudio.
978
2 Sistemas de Planificacin Flow Shop
En un entorno de produccin flow shop se disponen de n trabajos {j1, j2,, j n} a

ser procesador por m mquinas {m1, m2,, mm}, donde el objetivo principal con-
siste en encontrar la secuencia ptima de dichos n trabajos a ser procesados por las
m mquinas.
Cada trabajo consiste en m operaciones, donde la jth operacin debe ser proce-
sador en la mquina j. Cada mquina nicamente puede procesar un trabajo en un
determinado intervalo de tiempo. Por tanto, para que un trabajo pueda ejecutarse
en la mquina j, debe haber completado su procesamiento en la mquina anterior
(j-1) y adems la mquina j tiene que estar disponible.
Cuando la secuencia de trabajos a procesar es la misma para cada mquina, en-
tonces nos encontramos ante la variante de flow shop con permutacin (PFSP),
descrita mediante la notacin de Graham (Graham, 1979) F/permu/Cmax (en el
caso de que la funcin objetivo sea la minimizacin del Makespan), variante de
aplicacin en este artculo.
2.1 Flow shop con Permutacin Mono-objetivo
Existen heursticos sencillos para obtener una buen solucin en funcin del objeti-
vo a tratar. Siguiendo esta lnea de investigacin, Eric Taillard (1990) compar las
heursticas clsicas CDS, RA (Rapid Access procedure) y NEH (Nawaz, 1983),
aplicadas a la minimizacin del tiempo mximo de completitud de las tareas, me-
jorando la heurstica NEH implementando un mecanismo ms eficiente de inser-
cin de trabajos. Rajendran y Ziegler (1997) propusieron una heurstica eficiente
con el objetivo de minimizar el TWFT (total weighted flowtime).
Adems de los heursticos anteriormente citados, han surgido diversas meta-
heursticas aplicadas a la optimizacin monoobjetivo del problema flow shop. As,
Sttzle (1998) present un ACO (ant colony optimization) de tipo MAX-MIN pa-
ra minimizar el makespan, Eliana (2006) present una adaptacin de la tcnica
PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) aplicada a la secuenciacin de tareas o Ruiz
(2007) present un algoritmo voraz (Iterated Greedy) dividido en 2 fases (destruc-
cin y construccin basada en la insercin del NEH) aplicadas a cada secuencia.
2.2 Flow shop con Permutacin Multi-objetivo
En cuanto a tcnicas multiobjetivo aplicadas al problema PFSP, Mohamed (2010)

propuso una bsqueda Tab con el objetivo de obtener el mejor compromiso entre
los objetivos de minimizacin del makespan, total tardiness y total flowtime. Mi-
979
nella y Ruiz (2011) propusieron un algoritmo voraz, denominado RIPG, con el ob-
jetivo de minimizar el makespan (Cmax) y el total flowtime (TFT). Sha (2009) des-
arroll un algoritmo PSO con el objetivo de minimizar el makespan, mean flow-
time y el tiempo de inactividad de las mquinas. Pei-Chann (2008) propuso una
adaptacin del algoritmo gentico NSGA-II, integrando la generacin de cromo-
somas artificiales en funcin de conocimiento previo, denominado ACNSGA-II.
En otros trabajos Tsung-Che (2011) propuso un algoritmo memtico integrando la
tcnica NSGA-II con el heurstico NEH como algoritmo de mejora local de las so-
luciones obtenidas por el algoritmo gentico, con el objetivo de minimizar el ma-
kespan y el total flow time.
3 Algoritmo RIPG (Restarted Iterated Pareto Greedy)
Con el objetivo de evaluar la tcnica MA-NSGAII propuesta en este artculo,

hemos seleccionado e implementado el algoritmo RIPG, propuesto por Ruiz y Mi-
nella (2011), como tcnica voraz multiobjetivo utilizada en la comparacin de re-
sultados. Dicha tcnica consta de las siguientes fases (figura 1):
1. Inicializacin del conjunto inicial de soluciones empleando los heursticos
NEH (Nawaz, 1983) y Rajendran (1997).
2. Seleccin de la solucin a mejorar en funcin del procedimiento MCDA
(Modified Crowding Distance Assignment), donde se asigna un valor de fitness
a cada una de las soluciones en funcin del criterio de no-dominancia de solu-
ciones.
3. Fase voraz: Se eliminan d trabajos consecutivos de la solucin seleccionada
en la fase anterior, para posteriormente insertar cada uno de esos d trabajos,
uno a uno, en todos las posiciones posibles de la secuencia. Despus se selec-
ciona una solucin a ser mejorada en la siguiente fase mediante el operador
MCDA.
4. Bsqueda local sobre la solucin seleccionada: Se selecciona de forma aleato-
ria un trabajo de la solucin seleccionada y se inserta en las nneigh posiciones
adyacentes a la izquierda y derecha de la posicin original. Al finalizar la
bsqueda nicamente se mantienen las soluciones no-dominadas encontradas.
5. En la ltima fase del algoritmo se chequea si es necesario reiniciar el conjunto
de soluciones de forma aleatoria cuando el algoritmo se estanca en un ptimo
local (detectado cuando el tamao del conjunto de soluciones no ha variado en
un nmero de iteraciones prefijado).
980
Seleccin (basado Seleccin (basado

Inicio RIPG Inicializacin Fase Greedy Bsqueda Local Reiniciar?
en MCDA) en MCDA)
No
Si
Terminar
No Fase de Reinicio
algoritmo?
Si
Retornar Soluciones no-dominadas
Fig. 1 Diagrama de flujos de la tcnica RIPG
4 Algoritmo MA-NSGAII (Memetic Adaptation of NSGA-II)
El algoritmo MA-NSGAII propuesto se basa en el algoritmo evolutivo multiobje-

tivo NSGA-II, desarrollado por Deb (2002) y considerado uno de los mejores al-
goritmos de este tipo.
La tcnica NSGA-II es un algoritmo gentico, basado en el criterio de no-
dominancia a la hora de evaluar los individuos de la poblacin y del empleo del
operador crowding distance para asegurarse la exploracin de nuevas zonas en el
espacio de bsqueda del problema tratado.
Al comienzo del algoritmo, el NSGA-II inicializa la poblacin de forma alea-
toria. En una primera fase en cada iteracin, se combinan la poblacin padre con
la poblacin de descendientes, unindolas. Seguidamente se ordenan los indivi-
duos de la poblacin en base al criterio de no dominancia y se asigna un ranking a
cada uno de ellos (a mayor nmero de individuos dominados menor ranking).
Despus se seleccionan los individuos que estn en el ltimo frente pareto de la
poblacin (individuos con mayor ranking), se ordenan mediante el mtodo de
crowding distance y se combinacin con los individuos de menor ranking hasta al-
canzar el tamao de la poblacin. Posteriormente se procede a seleccionar los in-
dividuos a cruzar y mutar mediante una seleccin binaria por torneo. Por ltimo se
une la nueva generacin con la poblacin padre y se comienza una nueva itera-
cin.
En el algoritmo propuesto en este artculo MA-NSGA-II (figura 2) hemos
hecho las siguientes modificaciones al NSGA-II original:
La inicializacin de la poblacin inicial se realiza mediante un algoritmo
GRASP (Greedy Randomized Adaptative Search Procedure). La mitad de la
poblacin se obtiene generando individuos con GRASP aplicado sobre la solu-
cin obtenida por NEH. La otra mitad se inicializa mediante un GRASP apli-
cado sobre la solucin obtenida con Rajendran (1997).
El operador de cruce utilizado es el One Point Order (OP).
981
El operador de Mutacin utilizacin es por Inversin, donde se seleccionan 2

posiciones aleatorias del individuo y se invierten los trabajos situados entre
ellos.
Despus de cruzar y mutar individuos se ejecuta una bsqueda local sobre los
descendientes de la poblacin, especializando y mejorando la nueva genera-
cin (incorporando una bsqueda memtica iterada), basada en una bsqueda
en nneigh posiciones adyacentes a partir de una posicin aleatoria de la secuen-
cia.
Fast Non Crowding Binary

Inicializacin de la Crossover (One
Inicio MA-NSGAII Dominating Distance Tournament
Poblacin Point Order)
Sorting Assignment Selection
No
Terminar Reemplazo en la Mutacin

Bsqueda Local
algoritmo? poblacin (Inversin)
Si
Retornar Soluciones no-dominadas
Fig. 2 Diagrama de flujos de la tcnica MA-NSGAII
5 Resultados Experimentales
Para demostrar el comportamiento de los algoritmos, se ha evaluado cada una de

las tcnicas sobre 100 instancias de la base de datos de Taillard (1993), incluyendo
problemas desde 20 trabajos con 5 mquinas hasta 200 trabajos con 10 mquinas.
Como mtrica de rendimiento se calcula el error relativo del resultado de cada
tcnica con respecto a la mejor solucin conocida para cada uno de los problemas
con fecha de Abril 2005 (Taillard 2005).
En la parametrizacin de los algoritmos hemos utilizado en el caso del MA-
NSGAII, una poblacin de tamao 100 individuos, una probabilidad de cruce del
90% y un 10% de probabilidad de mutacin. En el caso de la bsqueda local, apli-
cada a la poblacin descendiente, utilizamos una bsqueda de 5-vecinos. En el ca-
so de RIPG hemos utilizado la configuracin indicada en el artculo de Ruiz
(2011), donde se eliminan bloques de 5 trabajos consecutivos en la fase greedy y
se utiliza una bsqueda 5-vecinos en la mejora local de las soluciones.
El criterio de finalizacin de los algoritmos es temporal (criterio empleado en
Minella y Ruiz, 2011): se detiene la ejecucin cuando el tiempo de procesamiento
es mayor que n*m/2*t milisegundos, siendo n el nmero de trabajos, m el nmero
de mquinas y t una constante que en este trabajo hemos establecido a 100.
Los resultados empricos (figura 3) muestran la mejora de los meta-heursticos
(MA_NSGAII, RIPG) con respecto a las soluciones obtenidas mediante la heurs-
tica NEH. Ambas tcnicas alcanzan incluso la mejor solucin conocida para ins-
982
tancias de pequeo nmero de trabajos (ta001, ta002, ta008, ta010 o ta033), in-
crementndose el error respecto a la mejor solucin a medida que se incrementa el
tamao de problema.
El error medio relativo de la tcnica MA-NSGAII es de 1.41%, mientras que el
RIPG alcanza un error de 1.09%.
Relative Error (%) Relative Error (%)
Best Known Best Known
Instance NEH MA-NSGA-II RIPG NEH MA-NSGA-II RIPG Solution Instance NEH MA-NSGA-II RIPG NEH MA-NSGA-II RIPG Solution
ta001 1286 1278 1278 0.63 0.00 0.00 1278 ta051 4082 3968 3959 6.03 3.06 2.83 3850
ta002 1365 1359 1359 0.44 0.00 0.00 1359 ta052 3921 3820 3806 5.86 3.13 2.75 3704
ta003 1159 1091 1089 7.22 0.93 0.74 1081 ta053 3927 3783 3759 7.88 3.93 3.27 3640
ta004 1325 1297 1301 2.47 0.31 0.62 1293 ta054 3969 3896 3813 6.61 4.65 2.42 3723
ta005 1305 1235 1236 5.67 0.00 0.08 1235 ta055 3835 3728 3725 6.20 3.24 3.16 3611
ta006 1228 1210 1202 2.76 1.26 0.59 1195 ta056 3914 3802 3785 6.33 3.29 2.83 3681
ta007 1278 1251 1239 3.57 1.38 0.41 1234 ta057 3952 3837 3808 6.70 3.59 2.81 3704
ta008 1223 1206 1206 1.41 0.00 0.00 1206 ta058 3938 3811 3817 6.69 3.25 3.41 3691
ta009 1291 1255 1233 4.96 2.03 0.24 1230 ta059 3952 3869 3843 5.58 3.37 2.67 3743
ta010 1151 1108 1108 3.88 0.00 0.00 1108 ta060 4079 3889 3868 8.60 3.54 2.98 3756
ta011 1680 1585 1586 6.19 0.19 0.25 1582 ta061 5519 5495 5493 0.47 0.04 0.00 5493
ta012 1729 1660 1673 4.22 0.06 0.84 1659 ta062 5348 5290 5268 1.52 0.42 0.00 5268
ta013 1557 1500 1508 4.08 0.27 0.80 1496 ta063 5219 5205 5179 0.85 0.58 0.08 5175
ta014 1439 1386 1379 4.50 0.65 0.15 1377 ta064 5023 5018 5018 0.18 0.08 0.08 5014
ta015 1502 1433 1420 5.85 0.99 0.07 1419 ta065 5266 5255 5253 0.30 0.10 0.06 5250
ta016 1453 1400 1410 4.01 0.21 0.93 1397 ta066 5139 5139 5135 0.08 0.08 0.00 5135
ta017 1562 1486 1489 5.26 0.13 0.34 1484 ta067 5259 5256 5252 0.25 0.19 0.11 5246
ta018 1609 1548 1557 4.62 0.65 1.24 1538 ta068 5120 5098 5108 0.51 0.08 0.27 5094
ta019 1647 1608 1604 3.39 0.94 0.69 1593 ta069 5489 5489 5454 0.75 0.75 0.11 5448
ta020 1653 1604 1603 3.90 0.82 0.75 1591 ta070 5341 5328 5328 0.36 0.11 0.11 5322
ta021 2410 2305 2300 4.92 0.35 0.13 2297 ta071 5846 5812 5805 1.32 0.73 0.61 5770
ta022 2150 2105 2101 2.43 0.29 0.10 2099 ta072 5453 5414 5403 1.94 1.22 1.01 5349
ta023 2411 2338 2328 3.65 0.52 0.09 2326 ta073 5824 5745 5698 2.61 1.22 0.39 5676
ta024 2262 2234 2224 1.75 0.49 0.04 2223 ta074 5929 5867 5873 2.56 1.49 1.59 5781
ta025 2397 2298 2296 4.63 0.31 0.22 2291 ta075 5679 5552 5531 3.88 1.55 1.17 5467
ta026 2349 2236 2229 5.53 0.45 0.13 2226 ta076 5375 5325 5327 1.36 0.41 0.45 5303
ta027 2362 2293 2280 3.92 0.88 0.31 2273 ta077 5704 5684 5643 1.95 1.59 0.86 5595
ta028 2249 2212 2208 2.23 0.55 0.36 2200 ta078 5760 5709 5693 2.55 1.64 1.35 5617
ta029 2320 2242 2237 3.71 0.22 0.00 2237 ta079 6032 5940 5930 2.74 1.18 1.00 5871
ta030 2277 2192 2178 4.55 0.64 0.00 2178 ta080 5918 5903 5903 1.25 0.99 0.99 5845
ta031 2733 2724 2724 0.33 0.00 0.00 2724 ta081 6541 6445 6443 5.47 3.92 3.89 6202
ta032 2843 2838 2838 0.32 0.14 0.14 2834 ta082 6523 6448 6394 5.50 4.29 3.41 6183
ta033 2640 2621 2621 0.72 0.00 0.00 2621 ta083 6639 6473 6444 5.87 3.22 2.76 6271
ta034 2782 2768 2753 1.13 0.62 0.07 2751 ta084 6557 6444 6409 4.59 2.79 2.23 6269
ta035 2868 2864 2863 0.17 0.03 0.00 2863 ta085 6695 6619 6505 6.03 4.83 3.03 6314
ta036 2850 2832 2829 0.74 0.11 0.00 2829 ta086 6664 6614 6558 4.71 3.93 3.05 6364
ta037 2758 2732 2728 1.21 0.26 0.11 2725 ta087 6632 6520 6497 5.81 4.02 3.65 6268
ta038 2721 2683 2688 1.42 0.00 0.19 2683 ta088 6739 6682 6658 5.28 4.39 4.01 6401
ta039 2576 2564 2561 0.94 0.47 0.35 2552 ta089 6677 6563 6476 6.41 4.59 3.20 6275
ta040 2790 2783 2782 0.29 0.04 0.00 2782 ta090 6677 6599 6571 3.78 2.56 2.13 6434
ta041 3135 3064 3061 4.81 2.44 2.34 2991 ta091 10942 10942 10942 0.74 0.74 0.74 10862
ta042 3032 2927 2940 5.76 2.09 2.55 2867 ta092 10716 10674 10571 2.25 1.85 0.87 10480
ta043 2986 2935 2918 5.18 3.38 2.78 2839 ta093 11025 11025 11017 0.94 0.94 0.87 10922
ta044 3198 3102 3096 4.41 1.27 1.08 3063 ta094 11057 11010 10939 1.54 1.11 0.46 10889
ta045 3160 3046 3054 6.18 2.35 2.62 2976 ta095 10645 10597 10575 1.15 0.69 0.48 10524
ta046 3178 3156 3066 5.72 4.99 2.00 3006 ta096 10458 10430 10387 1.25 0.98 0.56 10329
ta047 3277 3188 3156 5.95 3.07 2.04 3093 ta097 10989 10943 10949 1.24 0.82 0.88 10854
ta048 3123 3077 3058 2.83 1.32 0.69 3037 ta098 10829 10828 10828 0.92 0.91 0.91 10730
ta049 3002 2940 2948 3.62 1.48 1.76 2897 ta099 10574 10528 10477 1.30 0.86 0.37 10438
ta050 3257 3182 3141 6.26 3.82 2.48 3065 ta100 10807 10773 10727 1.24 0.92 0.49 10675
Fig. 3 Resultados empricos NEH, RIPG y MA-NSGAII
6 Conclusiones
Un nuevo algoritmo memtico basado en bsqueda poblacional y en la adaptacin

de la tcnica multiobjetivo de referencia, NSGAII, se ha propuesto en esto trabajo,
demostrando su efectividad en problemas mono-objetivo, a pesar de haber sido di-
seado para problemas multiobjetivo.
Basndonos en los resultados experimentales, la tcnica voraz existente RIPG
se comporta en promedio ligeramente mejor en un entorno mono-objetivo que el
algoritmo MA-NSGAII desarrollado.
En el futuro vamos a observar el comportamiento de MA-NSGAII en un entor-
no multiobjetivo y la mejora de la tcnica con nuevos enfoques basados en la utili-
zacin de informacin extrada durante bsquedas en generaciones anteriores, co-
983
mo propone Yuh-Min en 2012 utilizando algoritmos de estimacin de distribucio-

nes (EDAs) combinados con genticos.
7 Referencias
Garey MR, Johnson DS, Sethi R (1976), The complexity of flowshop and job shop scheduling,
Mathematical Operational Research 1(2):117129, 1976.
R. L. Graham, E. L. Lawler, J. K. Lenstra, and A.H.G. Rinnooy Kan (1979). Optimization and
approximation in deterministic sequencing and scheduling: a survey. In Annals of Discrete
Mathematics, volume 5, pages 287-326. 1979.
Nawaz (1983). A heuristic algorithm for the m machine, n job flowshop sequencing problem.
Omega-International Journal of Management Science, 11(1):91-95. 1983.
E. Taillard (1990), Some efficient heuristic methods for the flow shop sequencing problem. Eu-
ropean Journal Of Operational Research. Vol 47, no 1, pages 65-74. 1990.
E. Taillard (1993), Benchmarks for Basic Scheduling Problems, European Journal of Operational
Research, Volume 64, Issue 2, 22 January 1993, Pages 278285.
Chandrasekharan Rajendran (1997), Hans Ziegler, An efficient heuristic for scheduling in a
flowshop to minimize total weighted flowtime of jobs, European Journal of Operational Re-
search 103 (1997) 129-138.
Thomas Sttzle (1998), An Ant Approach to the Flow Shop Problem, In Proceedings of the 6th
European Congress on Intelligent Techniques & Soft Computing (EUFIT'98).
Kalyanmoy Deb, Samir Agrawal, Amrit Pratap, and T Meyarivan (2002), A Fast Elitist Non-
Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm for Multi-Objective Optimization NSGA-II, IEEE
Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Volume: 6, Issue: 2, Page(s): 182 - 197, April
2002.
http://mistic.heig-vd.ch/taillard/problemes.dir/ordonnancement.dir/flowshop.dir/best_lb_up.txt.
Pgina Web de Eric Taillard (13 de Abril de 2005).
Eliana M Toro (2006) Adaptacin de la tcnica de Particle Swarm al problema de secuencia-
miento de tareas. Scientia et Technica Ao XII, No 32, Diciembre de 2006. UTP. ISSN 0122-
1701.
Rubn Ruiz, Thomas Sttzle (2007). A simple and effective iterated greedy algorithm for the
permutation flowshop scheduling problem. European Journal of Operational Re-
search, 177(3), 2033-2049.
Pei-Chann Chang, Shih-Hsin Chen, Chin-Yuan Fan, Chien-Lung Chan (2008). Genetic algo-
rithm integrated with artificial chromosomes for multi-objective flowshop scheduling prob-
lems. Applied Mathematics and Computation 205 (2008) 550561.
D. Y. Sha (2009) A particle swarm optimization for multiobjective flow-shop scheduling. The
International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology December 2009, Volume
45, Issue 7-8, pp 749-758.
Bessem Kordoghli, Mohamed Jmali, Seifeddine Saadallah, Noureddine Liouene (2010), Multi-
Objective Scheduling of Flow-Shop Problems in Finishing Factories Using Genetic Algo-
rithms, Journal of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Managemenet, Volume 6, Issue 3,
Spring 2010.
Mohamed Anis Allouche (2010), Managers Preferences Modeling within Multi-Criteria
Flowshop Scheduling Problem: A Metaheuristic Approach, International Journal of Business
Research and Management ISSN 2180-2165.Volume: 1; Issue: 2; Start page: 33; Date: 2010.
Gerardo Minella, Rubn Ruiz, Michele Ciavotta (2011). Restarted Iterated Pareto Greedy algo-
rithm for multi-objective flowshop scheduling problems. Computers & Operational Research
Journal. 2011.
984
Tsung-Che Chiang, Hsueh-Chien Cheng, Li-Chen Fu (2011). NNMA: An effective memetic al-
gorithm for solving multiobjective permutation flow shop scheduling problems. Expert Sys-
tems with Applications Volume 38, Issue 5, May 2011, Pages 59865999.
Yuh-Min Chen, Min-Chih Chen, Pei-Chann Chang, Shih-Hsin Chen (2012), Extended artificial
chromosomes genetic algorithm for permutation flowshop scheduling problems, Computers
& Industrial Engineering 62 (2012) 536545.
985
Estudio sobre el Efecto de la Complejidad e

Incertidumbre en el ELSP
On the Effect of Complexity and Uncertainty in the ELSP
Corts R1, Garca-Sabater J.P, Molina P
Abstract The Economic Lot Scheduling Problem, ELSP, has been extensively
studied in the literature since the early twentieth century. This work forms part of
a research line that aims to describe the effect of two circumstances, which usually
affect on costs under normal industrial working conditions: the level of uncertain-
ty in the input parameters on the one hand and the particular complexity of an in-
stance of the problem according to a different data set on the other hand. For this
purpose, and by starting from the basic problem described by Bomberger in 1966,
we simulate instances of the same problem, and we describe the relationship be-
tween theoretical and real costs based on the variation of the drivers described.
Resumen El problema ELSP (Economic Lot Scheduling Problem) ha sido am-

pliamente analizado en la literatura desde comienzos del siglo XX. El presente
trabajo forma parte de una lnea de investigacin que pretende describir el efecto
de dos circunstancias que se dan en condiciones normales en la industria y que
tiene un efecto directo sobre el coste de gestin: La incertidumbre en los datos de
entrada al problema por un lado, y la complejidad de un caso particular del pro-
blema en funcin de los datos de partida por otro. Para ello, partiendo del proble-
ma bsico descrito por Bomerger en 1966, se han lanzado simulaciones de dife-
rentes casos del mismo problema, y se analiza el comportamiento de los costes
resultantes frente a los costes tericos en funcin de los drivers descritos.
1Ral Corts Fibla ( e-mail: racorfi@omp.upv.es)

Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Universidad Politcnica de Valencia. Con. De Vera s/n,
Valencia, Spain.
* El presente trabajo se ha desarrollado gracias a la ayuda DPI2010-18243 del Ministerio de
Ciencia e Innovacin del Gobierno de Espaa dentro del programa de Proyectos de Investigacin
Fundamental no orientada, con el ttulo "COORDINACION DE OPERACIONES EN REDES
DE SUMINISTRO/DEMANDA AJUSTADAS, RESILIENTES A LA INCERTIDUMBRE:
MODELOS Y ALGORITMOS PARA LA GESTION DE LA INCERTIDUMBRE Y LA
COMPLEJIDAD"
986
Keywords: Scheduling, ELSP, Complexity, Uncertainty, Simulation

Palabras clave: Secuenciacin, ELSP, Complejidad, Incertidumbre, Simulacin
1 Introduccin
El estudio del problema ELSP se ha centrado habitualmente en la generacin de

modelos matemticos para su descripcin y en la definicin y anlisis del compor-
tamiento de procedimientos de resolucin. En este trabajo se pretende analizar si
existe una relacin entre los costes totales obtenidos para la resolucin del modelo
terico y los obtenidos mediante simulacin. Nuestra hiptesis es que esa relacin,
de existir, depende del grado de complejidad y de la incertidumbre en la informa-
cin de partida en cada caso concreto. Conocer dicha relacin puede servir para
introducir nuevos elementos de anlisis al disear los algoritmos de control ade-
cuados para cada versin particular del ELSP.
Es importante destacar que en el presente trabajo utilizamos el trmino comple-
jidad en relacin con la dificultad para alcanzar e implementar una solucin facti-
ble para una situacin concreta del mismo problema marco, en funcin de los da-
tos de partida, y no en lo relacionado con la complejidad algortmica del problema
matemtico planteado, que es NP-Hard (Hsu 1989). En este sentido, hablaremos
de complejidad esttica o estructural del problema (Frizelle, 1996).
Es evidente que trabajar con un mayor n de tems aade dificultad al problema
marco, ante una situacin estable del resto de parmetros del problema, que se re-
fleja en un incremento de los costes totales. El n de tems es, en este sentido, un
driver de complejidad, que tendr un efecto directo sobre los costes para un mismo
problema. Del mismo modo afecta a la complejidad del problema el nivel de
homogeneidad de los productos respecto a algunas de sus caractersticas (niveles
de demanda, tiempos de setup, ratios de produccin, etc.). Tambin, como ya ana-
liz Bomberger 1966, el nivel de utilizacin o saturacin tiene un efecto directo
sobre la complejidad del problema, como se refleja en el incremento de costes to-
tales. Otros drivers de complejidad que tiene efecto sobre los costes son, por
ejemplo, la existencia de fechas de caducidad en los tems o la existencia de mar-
cada estacionalidad en la demanda.
En cuanto a la incertidumbre, es habitual que en las situaciones reales en las
que se da el ELSP en la industria, exista incertidumbre respecto al comportamien-
to de algunos de los datos a lo largo del horizonte de planificacin. De hecho, es
frecuente en la literatura la distincin entre el problema ELSP clsico (determins-
tico) y el problema ELSP estocstico (SELSP), (vase Sox et al.1999 y Winands
2011). Habitualmente se consideran sujetos a procesos estocsticos el comporta-
miento de la demanda, pero tambin los tiempos de proceso y de setup.
987
En el presente trabajo, se han considerado como drivers de complejidad el n de

tems y el nivel de utilizacin, mientras que como driver de incertidumbre del pro-
blema se ha considerado el efecto de la incertidumbre en la demanda.
2 Descripcin del Problema
El problema clsico ELSP consiste en la programacin de varios tems en una ni-

ca mquina, en la que slo un producto puede ser producido al mismo tiempo.
Para ello, es preciso determinar el ciclo de produccin para cada item tal que se
minimicen simultneamente costes de almacenamiento y de setup para el conjunto
de tems, adems de definir una secuencia en la que van a ser producidos. Se con-
sidera para cada tem, un tiempo de setup y un coste de setup, que en el problema
clsico (Bomberger 1966, Madigan 1968) son independientes de la secuencia. Se
conocen los ratios de produccin y de demanda para cada tem, que igualmente se
consideran constantes durante el horizonte de planificacin. A lo largo del texto se
emplea la siguiente notacin:
nice para artculo i=1..g
Tasa de demanda
Tiempo de proceso
Coste de setup
Coste de almacenamiento
Tiempo de setup
Tiempo de ciclo
Coste Total
En la literatura se encuentran diferentes aproximaciones para resolver el pro-
blema de lotificacin del ELSP. En el presente trabajo emplearemos los mtodos
de Solucin Independiente (IS), (Harris 1913) y de Ciclo Comn (CC) (Hanss-
mann, 1962). Otros mtodos descritos son: Periodo Bsico (PB), Periodo Bsico
Extendido (EPB) y Variacin del Tamao de Lote (TVL).
Para la resolucin al problema de la definicin de una secuencia de produccin
en el ELSP, se han definido mltiples heurticas (Delporte y Thomas, 1977, Ga-
llego y Moon, 1992; Zipkin, 1991). En cualquier caso, la regla ms comnmente
empleada es la planteada por (Segerstedt, 1999), que se basa en el ratio de cober-
tura o Run Out, definido como:
(1)
Con respecto al comportamiento de la demanda, Vergin y Lee, 1978, introdu-

cen polticas de programacin dinmica ante un escenario de demanda estocstica
estacionaria. El trabajo de Brander et al. 2005, analiza el comportamiento de un
988
modelo determinista ante una demanda estocstica estacionaria. Gascon et al.

1994, consideran demanda estocstica no estacionaria o dinmica, y analizan el
comportamiento de heursticas diseadas para el problema determinista.
En el presente trabajo, se emplean como mtodos para la determinacin del ci-
clo ptimo las tcnicas de solucin independiente (IS) y ciclo comn (CC), y una
heurstica basada en ROI para la determinacin de la secuencia. En las simulacio-
nes, se introduce el comportamiento estocstico de la demanda.
3 Mtodos
Para el problema descrito, se han generado diferentes conjuntos de datos, constru-

yendo diferentes casos para el mismo problema, y para los que, en cada uno de
ellos, se han evaluado los costes totales, como costes de setup y costes de almace-
namiento, correspondientes al modelo terico, y por otro, los costes obtenidos tras
el un proceso de simulacin.
En cada experimento, se ha ejecutado la simulacin de 224 casos del pro-
blema. Para ello se ha trabajado con conjuntos de problemas con n=10, 20, 30, 40
tems, y cuatro niveles de demanda con el correspondiente nivel de utilizacin
0.22;0.44;0.66;0.88. Como procedimiento de resolucin para la determina-
cin del ciclo econmico se han empleado los procedimientos de ciclo comn
(CC) y solucin independiente (IS). Adems, en cada caso se ha empleado coefi-
cientes de variacin de la demanda desde 0 hasta 0.3 en intervalos de 0.05.
Deliberadamente, para el conjunto de problemas generados, se ha tratado de
mantener una estructura anloga al problema de Bomberger para 10 tems. Se han
utilizado los mismo ratios de demanda y de produccin para cada tem, los mis-
mos tiempos de setup, as como los mismos costes de almacenamiento y setup.
Para introducir el driver de complejidad n de tems, se ha optado por multi-
plicar por n=1, 2, 3 y 4 el n de tems respecto al problema con n=10 items, redu-
ciendo la demanda de cada uno de ellos en funcin del mismo factor. De esta for-
ma para un mismo nivel de utilizacin, en el problema de 20 tems, la demanda de
cada artculo es la mitad que la del mismo artculo en el problema de 10 items.
Del mismo modo, para que exista una solucin factible al problema es exigi-
ble la condicin de factibilidad
(2)
Para evaluar la solucin de los diferentes escenarios, se ha desarrollado un mo-

delo de simulacin de eventos discretos con el software SIMIO. La arquitectura
del modelo est formada por la estructura ms simple, Source Server Sink.
Para la secuenciacin de los trabajos en la simulacin, se ha operado segn dos
procedimientos. Fija + tiempo de ciclo dinmico, mediante el cual los trabajos se
989
lanzan slo cuando, siendo su turno en la secuencia, alcanzan su stock de reorden.

Dinmica, por el que se lanza una orden de trabajo siempre que un artculo alcan-
ce su stock de reorden. En caso de que en un mismo periodo dos artculos se en-
cuentren en esta situacin, se lanza segn la regla de menor ratio de cobertura, de-
finida por Segersteed, 1999, descrita en el capitulo 2. En el caso de que ningn
producto cumpla las dos condiciones iniciales, no se lanzar ninguna orden. Este
algoritmo es evaluado una vez al inicio de la simulacin, cada vez que finaliza la
produccin de una orden y al final de cada da.
La tcnica empleada para evaluar de los costes totales tras el proceso de simu-
lacin frente a los del problema terico, es clave para la comprensin de los resul-
tados del presente trabajo. Es evidente que el proceso de simulacin arrojar cos-
tes diferentes a los tericos, en funcin de los parmetros del problema, no
considerados en el modelo, tales como stocks iniciales, reglas de secuenciacin y
lanzamiento, y costes de no entrega. En el presente trabajo, se ha empleado una
tcnica que elimina el efecto de los costes de no entrega, mediante el reclculo una
vez terminada la simulacin, del nivel de stock necesario para cada artculo que
evita incurrir en rotura de stock. De esta forma, la simulacin vuelca sobre los cos-
tes de almacenamiento, a travs del stock base mnimo necesario que evita la
eventual rotura de stock en el experimento, la diferencia entre situacin terica, y
la situacin simulada. En la diferencia de costes de almacenamiento queda por
tanto reflejada exactamente el efecto de correr el experimento de simulacin frente
a la solucin ideal.
La tabla 1 muestra los conjuntos de experimentos lanzados, en las condiciones
descritas anteriormente, en funcin de diferentes criterios para el Stock inicial,
stock mnimo de reorden y secuencia:
Tabla 1 Conjunto de experimentos
4 Resultados
El experimento 1 consiste en el lanzamiento del conjunto de casos descrito en la

seccin 3, con el criterio de secuenciacin Dinmica descrito. Como stock mnimo
de reorden para cada artculo se ha definido el stock correspondiente a la demanda
990
terica consumida en el tiempo de fabricacin de un lote tpico, tal como muestra

la tabla 1.
Efecto del incremento de la utilizacin sobre los costes totales

El incremento de la demanda tiene un efecto directo sobre los costes totales, que
viene dado por la expresin:
(3)
para el caso de resolucin mediante SI, siendo esta una cota inferior al proble-
ma y para la resolucin mediante CC por la expresin:
(4)
Para el modelo terico, en el caso concreto de 10 items, este comportamiento es

el representado en la figura 1.
En las condiciones descritas para el experimento 1, se han definido las condi-
ciones de stock inicial para que los lanzamientos de los lotes de cada artculo de-
ntro del ciclo comn (CC) queden acompasados. En este caso, el stock inicial de
un artculo viene dado por la demanda correspondiente al tiempo de proceso acu-
mulado hasta alcanzar dicho artculo en la lista (incluyendo tiempos de proceso y
setups), de manera que cada artculo alcance su stock de reorden exactamente en
el instante en que existe un hueco en mquina (bajo condiciones de demanda de-
terminista). Para esta situacin, considerando este caso de 10 items, sin tener en
cuenta incertidumbre en la demanda (Coef. Variacin =0), se constata que, el cre-
cimiento de los costes totales frente al nivel de utilizacin es exponencial. Incluso
a saturaciones relativas bajas .
Se comprueba que aparecen costes de almacenamiento (en forma de stock ba-
se), muy superiores a los tericos, desde utilizaciones bajas, con un crecimiento
exponencial que es funcin del ndice de utilizacin (21%, para una saturacin de
88,24%) para los experimentos en CC. Este efecto, como era de esperar, es mucho
ms acusado con este ajuste de los stocks iniciales para el procedimiento de reso-
lucin mediante SI.
En conclusin, en los experimentos descritos, el incremento de la saturacin
provoca un incremento exponencial en los costes totales. El efecto se mantiene
an en el caso de emplear tcnicas heursticas de secuenciacin ajustadas (como
en el caso de CC), aunque en ese caso se reduce y retrasa su aparicin en funcin
del nivel de utilizacin.
991
Coste ($) Coste ($)

12000 12000
Coste Setup (IS) Coste Setup(CC)

10000 Coste Almacenamiento (IS) 10000 Coste Almacenamiento(CC)
Coste Setup (Sim) Coste Setup (Sim)
Coste Almacenamiento (Sim) Coste Almacenamiento (Sim)
8000 8000
6000 6000
4000 4000
2000 2000
22,06 44,12 66,18 88,24 22,06 44,12 66,18 88,24
Fig. 1 Comportamiento de los costes frente a la demanda (Modelo y Exp2)
Efecto del incremento del n de tems sobre los costes totales

El efecto del n de tems sobre los costes totales viene dado por la expresiones 3 y
4 en funcin del procedimiento empleado para la determinacin del tiempo de ci-
clo. Tras lanzar la simulacin en las condiciones del experimento 1, que mediante
los stocks iniciales favorecen el de acompasamiento de los lanzamientos mediante
ciclo comn, se obtienen los resultados mostrados en la figura 2 (por simplicidad,
se muestran nicamente valores para ).
Costs ($) Setup cost (IS) Costs ($)

12000 Holding cost (IS) 12000
Setup cost (CC)
Setup cost (SIm) Holding cost (CC)
Holding cost (sim) Setup cost (SIm)
10000 10000
Holding cost (sim)
8000 8000
6000 6000
4000 4000
2000 2000
10 20 30 40 No. Items 10 20 30 40 No. Items
Fig. 2 Comportamiento de los costes ante el n de tems (Modelo y Exp 1)
Como se puede comprobar el comportamiento de los costes tras la simulacin

sigue una regla similar ante el incremento del n de tems, que no cambia ante in-
crementos en la utilizacin. nicamente aparece un desfase en los costes de alma-
cenamiento (de nuevo en forma de stock base) pero que es prcticamente cons-
tante en cada nivel de saturacin, y por tanto decreciente en proporcin al coste
total. Este desfase, como se puede apreciar en la figura 2, es adems funcin de la
idoneidad de la regla de secuancicin empleada.
992
Efecto del incremento del nivel de utilizacin sobre los costes unitarios
Es evidente que en las condiciones de definicin del problema ELSP, un incre-
mento en la demanda implica un incremento de los costes totales, en relacin con
., tal como se ha visto al considerar el efecto del nivel de utilizacin, en las
expresiones (3) y (4). Sin embargo, si se considera el comportamiento de los cos-
tes totales por unidad de producto, ante incrementos de la demanda, tiene lgica-
mente el comportamiento inverso (segn ). As el comportamiento esperado
ante incrementos del nivel de saturacin es el mostrado en la figura 3 (se muestran
datos para 10 items).
Costs ($) Total cost per demand unit (IS) Costs ($) Total cost per demand unit (CC)
Total cost per demand unit (Sim) 24000 Total cost per demand unit (Sim)
24000
22000
22000
20000
20000
18000
18000
16000
16000
14000 14000
12000 12000
10000 10000
8000 8000
22,06 44,12 66,18 88,24 22,06 44,12 66,18 88,24
Fig. 3 Comportamiento del coste unitario frente a la demanda (Modelo y Exp1)
Este comportamiento, en teora podra ser extensible hasta alcanzar la satura-

cin mxima del sistema, que viene limitada por la condicin de factibilidad defi-
nida en la seccin 3. No obstante, se comprueba que al lanzar las simulaciones de
los experimentos descritos, el sistema alcanza su saturacin considerablemente an-
tes de lo previsto, lo que se refleja en la aparicin de un punto de inflexin en la
curva de costes unitarios.
Realmente, la aparicin de este punto de inflexin, indica exactamente el nivel
de utilizacin para el cual, en las condiciones de lanzamiento actuales, el sistema
alcanza su saturacin mxima. Este efecto se reduce con el empleo de tcnicas pa-
ra la secuenciacin ms ajustadas, como se ha descrito a lo largo de la presente
seccin y se puede apreciar por la diferencia de comportamiento entre la simula-
cin de la resolucin por SI y frente a CC.
Efecto del nivel de incertidumbre en la demanda sobre los costes totales

Para comprobar el comportamiento de los costes en condiciones de demanda es-
tocstica, se han lanzado las simulaciones en las condiciones descritas para los ex-
perimentos 1, 2 y 3. En los experimentos 2 y 3 la secuencia se mantiene fija, aun-
993
que el tiempo de ciclo es dinmico en funcin del momento en el que cada tem
alcanza el stock de reorden. En el experimento 3, se ha aumentado el stock mni-
mo de reorden de todos los artculos excepto el primero, de manera que una vez
que el primer artculo de la lista alcanza su stock de reorden, los dems lotes se
lanzan en cadena, tan pronto como hay un hueco en mquina, independientemente
de su nivel de stock, hasta alcanzar el ltimo de la lista, tras el cual de nuevo la
mquina queda en espera de que el artculo 1 alcance su stock mnimo de reorden.
En estas condiciones, se comprueba que ante mayor incertidumbre en la demanda,
el coste total crece tal como se muestra en la figura 4.
Costs ($)
Holding cost (CC)
8000
Holding cost (Sim Exp 1)
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Demand Coeff. Var.
Fig. 4 Comportamiento de los costes frente incertidumbre en la demanda
En particular, tras lanzar las simulaciones de los experimentos descritos no es

posible confirmar que, en condiciones con considerable incertidumbre en la de-
manda, un programa de produccin con secuencia fija presente necesariamente un
peor comportamiento respecto a costes.
4 Conclusiones
En el presente trabajo se presenta una metodolga para el anlisis del comporta-

miento de los costes totales en la simulacin de diferentes casos de una versin
concreta del problema ELSP, ante variaciones de diferentes drivers de compleji-
dad e incertidumbre que afectan al problema.
En concreto, mediante el empleo de esta tcnica, se describen los resultados ob-
tenidos respecto al comportamiento del problema ante variaciones en los niveles
de utilizacin, n de tems e incertidumbre en la demanda. Por otro lado, se intro-
duce el anlisis del comportamiento de los costes por unidad de demanda, como
herramienta para identificar el nivel de utilizacin real del sistema ante incremen-
tos de la demanda. Mediante este anlisis es posible identificar el nivel de utiliza-
994
cin lmite para unas determinadas condiciones de trabajo (heurstica de secuen-

ciacin, stocks de reorden, etc.) ante incrementos de la demanda.
En la lnea de este trabajo se pretende profundizar en el empleo de la metodo-
loga descrita, para el anlisis de otros drivers de complejidad e incertidumbre, an-
te diferentes variantes del problema y diferentes procedimientos de resolucin.
5 Referencias
Bomberger, E. E. (1966) A dynamic programming approach to a lot size scheduling problem.

Management Science, Vol. 12, n. 11, p. 778.
Brander, P.; Leven, E.; Segerstedt, A. (2005). Lot sizes in a capacity constrained facility - a sim-
ulation study of stationary stochastic demand. International Journal of Production Economics,
Vol. 93-94, pp. 375-386.
Delporte, C. M.; Thomas, L. J. (1977).Lot Sizing and Sequencing for N-Products on One Facili-
ty. Management Science, Vol. 23, n. 10, pp. 1070-1079.
Frizelle, G.D.M.. (1996) Getting the measure of complexity. Manufacturing Engineer, 75, (6)
268-270
Gallego, G.; Moon, I. (1992).The Effect of Externalizing Setups in the Economic Lot Scheduling
Problem. Operations Research, Vol. 40, n. 3, pp. 614-619.
Gascon, A.; Leachman, R. C.; Lefrancois, F. (1994).Multi-item, single-machine scheduling prob-
lem with stochastic demands: a comparison of heuristics.International Journal of Production
Research, Vol. 32, n. 3, pp. 583-596.
Hanssmann, F. (1962).Operations-Research in Production and Inventory Control. J. Wiley.
Harris, F. W. (1913).How many parts to make an once. Factory, The Magazine of Management,
Vol. 10, n. 2, pp. 135-6-152.
Hsu, W. L. (1983).On the General Feasibility Test of Scheduling Lot Sizes for Several Products
on One Machine, Management Science, Vol. 29, pp. 93-105
Madigan, J. G. (1968).Scheduling A Multi-Product Single Machine System for An Infinite Plan-
ning Period. Management Science, Vol. 14, n. 11, pp. 713-719.
Segerstedt, A. (1999).Lot sizes in a capacity constrained facility with available initial invento-
ries. International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 59, n. 1-3, pp. 469-475.
Sox, C. R.; Jackson, P. L.; Bowman, A.; Muckstadt, J. A. (1999). A review of the stochastic lot
scheduling problem. International Journal of Production Economics,Vol. 62, n. 3, pp. 181-
200.
Vergin, R. C.; Lee, T. N. (1978).Scheduling Rules for Multiple Product SingleMachine System
with Stochastic Demand. Infor, Vol. 16, n. 1, pp. 64-73.
Winands E.M.M., Adan I.J.B.F., Van Houtum G.J., (2011) The stochastic economic lot schedul-
ing problem: A survey, European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 210, pp 1-9,
Zipkin, P. H. (1991).Computing Optimal Lot Sizes in the Economic Lot Scheduling Problem.
Operations Research, Vol. 39, n. 1, pp. 56-63.
995
SP-03
Logstica, Produccin y Sistemas de
Informacin
997
Mejora del Sistema Productivo mediante Value

Stream Mapping. Aplicacin a una Empresa de
Diseo
Manufacturing performance improvement using Value Stream Mapping, ap-
plication to a design company.
De la Fuente MV1, Alonso M, Hontoria E, Ros L
Abstract The objective of this paper is to apply the technique Value Stream Map-
ping in a manufacturer of logos. This sector demands high innovation in its prod-
ucts and manufacturing processes, forcing companies to concentrate large human
and financial efforts to improve those areas. The application of this technique in
the company has achieved the reorganization of the processes, reducing cycle
times (25%) and lead times (46%).
Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo es la aplicacin de la tcnica Value Stream

Mapping en un fabricante de logos. Se trata de un sector que demanda gran inno-
vacin en sus productos y procesos productivos, obligando a que se concentren
grandes esfuerzos humanos y econmicos en mejorar dichas reas. La aplicacin
del VSM en la empresa bajo estudio ha logrado la reorganizacin del proceso pro-
ductivo, reduciendo los tiempos de proceso (25%) y de servicio al cliente (46%).
Keywords: Value Stream Mapping, Process Improvement, Cycle-time, Lead-time

Palabras clave: Value Stream Mapping, Mejora de procesos, Tiempo de Ciclo,
Tiempo de Proceso
1MVictoria de la Fuente Aragn ( e-mail: marivi.fuente@upct.es)

Grupo GIO. ETSII. Universidad Politcnica de Cartagena. C/Dr. Fleming, s/n, 30202 Cartagena
(SPAIN)
999
1 Introduccin
Actualmente uno de los principales problemas de las empresas europeas son sus
altos costes productivos, lo que supone una desventaja a la hora de competir en el
actual mercado global. Por ello, las empresas deben centrar sus esfuerzos en opti-
mizar sus procesos productivos y eliminar todos aquellos desperdicios que no
aadan valor al producto.
Las herramientas que engloba la filosofa Lean Manufacturing son muy ade-
cuadas para este tipo de problemas. En concreto, la tcnica Value Stream Mapping
ayuda a la identificacin de despilfarros y a la reorganizacin de los procesos.
En este trabajo se presenta como una empresa fabricante de logos publicitarios
aplica la tcnica Value Stream Mapping con el objetivo de descubrir los desperdi-
cios y proponer mejoras en la organizacin de los procesos, analizando el estado
productivo actual y presentando unas propuestas de rediseo de sus procesos.
2 Value Stream Mapping. Metodologa
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) es una herramienta Lean que ayuda a visualizar los
procesos y a representar los flujos de material e informacin que existen en el pro-
ceso actual y que podran ser mejorados mediante esta herramienta (Rother y Sho-
ok, 1998; LERC, 2004). La aplicacin del VSM se realiza con el fin de apoyar a
las empresas manufactureras en el proceso de rediseo de sus entornos producti-
vos, buscando mejorar la agilidad y capacidad de respuesta de las empresas, de ca-
ra a desarrollar cadenas de valor ms competitivas, eficientes y flexibles con las
que afrontar las dificultades de la economa actual (Womack y Jones, 1994; Sulli-
van et al., 2002; Shah y Ward, 2007; Mo, 2009).
La metodologa para una correcta utilizacin del VSM es la siguiente:
Seleccionar la familia de productos. Se elige un grupo de productos que pasan
a travs de procesos similares y equipos comunes durante su produccin.
Dibujar el estado actual del sistema de produccin. En esta fase se recoge toda
la informacin necesaria de la planta. Adems de los procesos se debe recoger
informacin sobre las siguientes variables: Tiempo de Ciclo, Tiempo de Prepa-
racin, Tiempo Disponible, y Lead Time.
Dibujar el sistema futuro de produccin. En base a los defectos detectados en
la representacin de la fase anterior se plantean acciones para la mejora del sis-
tema productivo actual.
Plan de trabajo e implementacin. En esta fase se empieza a preparar un plan
de implementaciones que describa de un modo breve como debe ser alcanzado
el estado futuro.
1000
3 Aplicacin de la Herramienta Value Stream Mapping a una

Empresa Fabricante de Logos
Kibsgaard es una compaa danesa con ms de 50 aos de experiencia en el desa-

rrollo de logos y rtulos para equipos de televisin, de msica, ordenadores y tele-
fona. Actualmente la produccin de esta empresa se divide en dos grandes fami-
lias, los logos y los rtulos, con procesos productivos totalmente diferentes segn
el material a utilizar, aluminio o plstico.
La fabricacin de los logos de plstico posee una tecnologa pionera y nica lo
que hace que su produccin sea muy rentable. Los logos de aluminio tienen una
tecnologa de fabricacin mucho ms convencional y extendida, de forma que la
nica manera de conseguir alguna ventaja competitiva es mediante la mejora de
esta parte del sistema productivo.
3.1 Anlisis del Estado Actual de la Produccin
Las etapas del sistema productivo actual para los logos de aluminio son:
1. REDUCIDO. La materia prima inicial son planchas de aluminio de 2x1m 2 que
deben ser cortadas en chapas de un tamao 10x20 cm2 para su procesado.
2. ESTAMPADO. Las chapas cortadas son estampadas en prensas hidrulicas
3. CORTE. Las chapas estampadas son colocadas en un bastidor para que con la
prensa se corte la chapa en los artculos estampados con anterioridad.
4. LIMPIEZA. Mediante una serie de tratamientos qumicos y mecnicos se con-
sigue que los logos, ya divididos individualmente, queden limpios de aceite.
5. PREPARACION PARA PINTADO. Los logos, ya limpios, son montados en ti-
ras adhesivas. Este proceso lo hacen los empleados en sus propias casas, por lo
que no aaden tiempo al proceso, pero se ver reflejado en el stock intermedio.
Los logos con sus tiras adhesivas son colocados sobre las bandejas.
6. PINTADO de los logos con el color correspondiente en cada caso.
7. REDUCIDO CON DIAMANTE. En este proceso los logos son colocados por
los operarios en bases metlicas para ponerlos sobre el bastidor de las mquinas
que realizan el proceso de pulido de la superficie del logo mediante diamante.
8. INSPECCION DE LA CALIDAD. Es el ltimo paso del proceso productivo,
en el que el operario realiza la inspeccin visual de los logos terminados.
En el proceso productivo se diferencia entre logos pequeos y logos grandes.
Para el anlisis de procesos y toma de datos, se ha determinado la bandeja como
unidad de produccin a utilizar en el estudio de productividad, debido a su tamao
fijo, y permite referenciar los tiempos medidos en cualquier proceso a dicha medi-
da establecida. La capacidad de las bandejas depende del tamao de los logos,
siendo de 340 logos pequeos y de 108 logos grandes.
1001
En la figura 1 se muestra el flujo de produccin que siguen los productos desde

que entran en fbrica hasta que son entregados al cliente. Se puede observar que
las etapas descritas son realizadas de forma secuencial. En la figura tambin se re-
cogen los flujos de informacin, centralizados por el control de produccin, ya que
es aqu donde se reciben todas los pedidos de los clientes. En base a estas rdenes
se realizan los pedidos a los proveedores. Adems, el control de la produccin es
el encargado de la supervisin de todos los trabajos en los diferentes procesos me-
diante un programa de control semanal as como del control del programa diario
de inspeccin.
Tras el anlisis del proceso productivo se calcul el tiempo de ciclo de los lo-
gos grades y pequeos, as como el lead time de ambos casos (ver tabla 1).
En el escenario actual se han descubierto los siguientes desperdicios:
Sobreproduccin, como resultado de cumplir los programas de produccin tra-
dicionales tericos, a partir de datos basados en previsiones.
Inventario en curso, como consecuencia de un layout funcional.
Sobreprocesamiento, originado por actividades que no aaden valor al producto
(p.e. control de calidad final).
Unidades defectuosas, originadas por la no responsabilidad de los operarios so-
bre la calidad de los productos.
Fig. 1 Mapa del Estado actual del proceso productivo de los logos de aluminio
1002
3.2 Estado Futuro de la Produccin. Propuestas
La sobreproduccin es la fuente de desperdicio mas importante, no slo por el ex-

ceso de inventario en curso sino tambin por la cantidad de producto acabado al-
macenado, por los trabajos dobles realizados y por la necesidad de personal y de
maquinaria. Para que la empresa implante el concepto Lean mediante la tcnica
VSM se han adoptado las siguientes polticas de actuacin:
1. Producir segn el Takt-time de cada producto, (o frecuencia con la que debe
ser producido un determinado producto, basndose en su ndice de ventas).
2. Desarrollar un flujo de produccin continuo donde sea posible .
3. Usar Supermarkets para controlar la produccin donde el flujo no se pueda
extender. (El concepto de supermarket se basa en la tcnica de produccin y re-
tirada de Kanban sistema pull).
4. Enviar el programa de produccin a un nico proceso Proceso regulador-,
que controlar la produccin en todos los procesos anteriores a l.
5. Distribuir la produccin de los diferentes productos equitativamente en el
tiempo desde el proceso regulador.
6. Desarrollar la habilidad de hacer every part every day en los procesos de
fabricacin anteriores al proceso regulador.
En base a estas directrices, se plantean dos propuestas de mejora para el sistema
productivo. Las mejoras introducidas en la Propuesta de Mejora 1 son:
Se sita un Supermarket a la salida del proceso de reducido, ya que se ha de-
tectado que esta etapa es un cuello de botella. De este modo, el proceso si-
guiente (estampado) retirar la cantidad que necesite cuando la necesite.
Los procesos de estampado y corte pueden ser combinados debido a que am-
bos poseen tiempos de ciclos muy parecidos. Esta configuracin permitir te-
ner flujo continuo en esta zona.
En la etapa de montaje de adhesivo y pintado se han planteado dos posibles so-
luciones de mejora:
Mtodo 1. Involucrar a los trabajadores que montan los logos sobre el ad-
hesivo para que simultneamente realicen el control de calidad de los mis-
mos, ya que la inspeccin no supone un esfuerzo adicional. Despus, el
pintado de los logos se realizar de forma automatizada.
Mtodo 2. En esta opcin se apuesta por la automatizacin de los tres proce-
sos: montaje del adhesivo, preparacin para la pintura, y pintado.
Las etapas de reducido con diamante y empaquetamiento tambin se han com-
binado, ya que los operarios del proceso de reducido con diamante pueden ir
formando paquetes con los logos que son acabados. Adems, de este modo se
elimina el control de calidad final, ya que los empleados son los responsables
de detectar los defectos de los productos.
1003
Otro posible estado futuro de la produccin actual de la compaa es planteado

en la Propuesta de Mejora 2. Esta nueva propuesta slo supone un cambio frente a
la Propuesta de Mejora 1: la eliminacin del sistema inicial de Supermarket, (ya
que es el nico punto de todo el proceso productivo en el que existe una disconti-
nuidad de flujo), e implantar un proceso conjunto de reducido, estampado y corte.
4 Anlisis de los Resultados
La implantacin de cualquiera de las propuestas de mejora planteadas supondra

una reduccin considerable del lead time del proceso productivo, pasando de 15
das (actualidad) a 8 das.
Tabla 1 Anlisis de tiempos para la situacin actual y la propuestas planteadas.
FASES DEL (s/bandeja) Estado actual Propuesta 1 Propuesta 2

PROCESO
T ciclo T prep T ciclo1 T ciclo 2 T prep T ciclo 1 T ciclo 2 T prep
REDUCIDO Logos grandes 36 900 36 36 900 85 85 600
Logos pequeos 42,5 900 42,5 42,5 900 72 72 600
ESTAMPADO Logos grandes 144 1800 108 108 600
Logos pequeos 170 1800 127,5 127,5 600
CORTE Logos grandes 108 1800
Logos pequeos 128 1800
LIMPIEZA Logos grandes 48 48 48 40
Logos pequeos 48 48 48 40
PREPARADO Logos grandes 900 2020 1860 300 2002 1860 300
PARA PINTADO Logos pequeos 900 2350 1860 300 2350 1860 300
PINTADO Logos grandes 1850
Logos pequeos 1850
REDUCIDO CON Logos grandes 540 3600 540 540 900 540 540 900
DIAMANTE
Logos pequeos 450 3600 450 450 450
Logos grandes 600
INSPECCION DE
LA CALIDAD Logos pequeos 540
LEAD TIME (das) 15 8 8

TIEMPO DE
PROCESO Logos grandes 6518 5086 4944 5027 4885
TIEMPO DE
PROCESO Logos pequeos 6540 5370 4880 5272 4782
1004
El tiempo de procesado tambin se ve reducido con cualquiera de las propuestas.

Analizando los tiempos de ciclo de ambas propuestas (y los dos posibles mtodos
que incluyen), los mejores resultados se obtienen con la propuesta de mejora 2 y el
mtodo 2 (Tciclo 2), tanto para logos pequeos como grandes, tal como se muestra
en la tabla 1. Se ha reducido el tiempo del proceso de los logos grandes de 6518 a
4885 s/bandeja, y de 6540 a 4.782 s/bandeja para los logos pequeos. Consiguien-
do reducciones de un 25% para los logos grandes y un 27% para los logos peque-
os.
En la figura 2 se muestra la propuesta optima para el sistema productivo de los lo-
gos de aluminio.
Fig. 2 Propuesta de mejora 2.
1005
5 Conclusiones
Existen diferentes posibilidades de mejorar el proceso productivo actual de la em-

presa. Segn el mapa de situacin actual de la compaa se han identificado cuatro
de los siete tipos de desperdicios posibles; sobreproduccin, inventario, sobrepro-
cesamiento y artculos defectuosos.
El xito o el fracaso de la organizacin para alcanzar estas mejoras depender
de la necesaria cooperacin entre los directores y los trabajadores de la compaa,
para lo cual ser esencial formar una cultura de compaa que abarque a todos los
trabajadores. Adems una mejora del proceso productivo no proporcionar por si
misma un aumento de los beneficios, sino que se necesitar un trabajo de lideraz-
go por parte de los directores de la compaa y un compromiso de los empleados
para que todo lo que se reorganice funcione adecuadamente y se alcancen los re-
sultados previstos. La intencin de la direccin de la empresa es llevar a cabo la
implantacin de la propuesta 2 a lo larga del ao 2013.
6 Referencias
LERC (2004) Lean Enterprise Research Centre. Cardiff Business School.

www.cf.ac.uk/carbs/lom/lerc , consultada en diciembre 2012
Mo JPT (2009) The role of lean in the application of information technology to manufacturing.
Comput Ind, 60:266276
Rother M, Shook J (1998) Learning to see: value stream mapping to add value and eliminate
muda. Lean Enterprise Institute
Shah R, Ward PT (2003) Lean manufacturing: context, practice bundles, and performance. J
Oper Manag, 21:129149
Shah R, Ward PT (2007) Defining and developing measures of lean production. J Oper Manag,
25:785805.
Womack JP, Jones DT (1994) From lean production to the lean enterprise. Harvard Bus rev,
72:93-103
1006
Sistema Integrado de Planificacin de la

Produccin y Distribucin para la Gestin de
Excepciones
An Integrated Production and Distribution Planning System for Exceptions
Handling
1 2 3
lvarez E , Villaln L , Osaba E , Daz F4
Abstract In an international competitive environment, where companies can sell

their products all over the world, communication and information exchange with
other companies is of utmost importance. Nevertheless, most businesses are reluc-
tant to share demand information or future plans with others. This paper describes
an integrated production and distribution planning system in a supply chain with
three stages: a manufacturer, its suppliers and customers. This system tries to pro-
vide solutions to improve the performance of the supply chain by identifying the
information that must be exchanged between nodes and developing methodologies
for production and distribution planning and scheduling in a coordinated manner.
Moreover, a number of exceptions have been considered to make the model as re-
alistic as possible.
Resumen En un entorno internacional tan competitivo, donde las empresas pue-

den vender sus productos por todo el mundo, la comunicacin y el intercambio de
1Esther lvarez de los Mozos ( e-mail: esther.alvarez@deusto.es)
Deustotech. Grupo de Organizacin industrial y logstica. Universidad de Deusto. Avenida de las

Universidades, 24, 48007, Bilbao.
2LuisVillaln de las Heras ( e-mail: lvillalon@deusto.es)
3Eneko Osaba Icedo ( e-mail: Eneko.osaba@gmail.com)
4Fernando Daz Martn ( e-mail:Fernando.diaz@deusto.es)
1007
informacin con otras empresas adquiere la mxima importancia. Sin embargo, la

mayora de las empresas son reacias a compartir informaciones sobre su demanda
o sus planes futuros con otras empresas. Este artculo describe un sistema integra-
do de planificacin de la produccin y de la distribucin para una cadena de sumi-
nistro con tres etapas: un fabricante, sus proveedores y sus clientes. Este sistema
trata de proporcionar soluciones para mejorar la gestin de la cadena de suministro
mediante la identificacin de la informacin a intercambiar entre los nodos y me-
diante metodologas de planificacin de produccin y distribucin que operan de
forma coordinada. Adems, se han considerado una serie de excepciones para
hacer el modelo lo ms realista posible.
Keywords: Exceptions Handling, Supply Chain Management, Coordination in the

Supply Chain
Palabras clave: Gestin de Excepciones, Integracin de la Cadena de Suministro;
Coordinacin en la Cadena de Suministro
1 Introduccin
Hasta hace poco tiempo, las empresas solan centrar sus esfuerzos en mejorar las
tareas propias de su negocio, buscando una ventaja competitiva en el mercado al
margen de otras empresas con las que trabajaban. Hoy en da, debido a factores
como la gran competitividad entre empresas de todos los sectores y la globaliza-
cin de los mercados, es preciso buscar fuentes de diferenciacin y reducciones de
coste no slo en los procesos propios, sino tambin en los de los proveedores y
clientes. Sin embargo, en la prctica, las empresas no suelen ser muy proclives a
trabajar conjuntamente con otros miembros de las cadenas de suministro a las que
pertenecen por miedo a revelar y compartir sus datos con otras empresas.
2 Alcance del Problema
Este artculo describe la arquitectura de un sistema integrado de planificacin de la

produccin y distribucin de una cadena de suministro integrada por tres niveles:
suministradores, fabricante y clientes. Este sistema trata de ofrecer soluciones que
beneficien a la cadena de suministro en su conjunto mediante la identificacin de
informacin que a intercambiar entre los diferentes nodos y mediante el desarrollo
de metodologas para la programacin de la produccin y la planificacin de la
distribucin de forma coordinada. A este respecto, este artculo estudia en profun-
didad las implicaciones que un cambio en la cadena de suministro tiene en otras
1008
entidades relacionadas. As, el objetivo es conectar la programacin de la produc-

cin y la planificacin de la distribucin de las diferentes entidades de la cadena
de suministro para lograr una mejor solucin global. Esta investigacin forma par-
te del proyecto PRODIS (Referencia PI2011-58, financiado por el Gobierno Vas-
co).
Por lo que a la programacin de la produccin se refiere, tradicionalmente cada
compaa ha generado su propio plan de produccin de forma esttica e indepen-
diente. Igualmente, con respecto a la distribucin de pedidos a clientes, se ha ana-
lizado en profundidad el problema de asignacin de rutas a vehculos, del ingls
Vehicle Routing Problem, VRP. No obstante, los problemas de produccin y dis-
tribucin de forma dinmica atraen cada vez ms inters por su cercana con las si-
tuaciones reales y sus potenciales beneficios para las empresas. La integracin de
los problemas de produccin-distribucin apenas se ha analizado en la literatura
(Park y Hong, 2009), (Safei et al., 2010 ), (Bilgen y Gnther, 2010). En general,
estos modelos usan supuestos simplistas y trabajan nicamente de forma esttica,
lo que significa que no son fcilmente aplicables en las empresas.
Esta investigacin propone un sistema para la programacin de la produccin y
la planificacin de la distribucin integrada, con los siguientes objetivos:
Identificacin de la informacin a transmitir entre los distintos eslabones de
la cadena.
Coordinacin con los proveedores y los clientes para asegurar tanto la dis-
ponibilidad de las materias primas como para ajustar la produccin y la dis-
tribucin a las necesidades no planificadas.
Manejo de excepciones en tiempo real.
3 Marco General del Sistema
La empresa fabricante consta de mltiples plantas de produccin funcionando de

forma autnoma e independiente, pero capaces de compartir informacin y traba-
jar de forma conjunta si algn evento imprevisto as lo requiere. A su vez, la em-
presa dispone de mltiples almacenes autnomos e independientes entre s, que
tambin comparten informacin entre ellos y pueden trabajar conjuntamente con
otros almacenes si fuera necesario.
Los subsistemas de comunicacin que se han definido en este marco son:
El subsistema de comunicacin intra-planta, en el que se gestionan los
eventos imprevistos que pueden ocasionar una reprogramacin parcial o to-
tal del plan de produccin. De la misma forma, el subsistema de comunica-
cin intra-almacn, en el que se gestionan los eventos imprevistos que pue-
den ocasionar una replanificacin parcial o total del plan de distribucin.
1009
El subsistema de comunicacin inter-planta, en el que se gestionan los

eventos producidos en una planta que pueden afectar a otra u otras plantas.
Paralelamente, el subsistema de comunicacin inter-almacn, en el que se
gestionan los eventos producidos en un almacn que pueden afectar a otro
u otros almacenes.
El subsistema de comunicacin produccin-distribucin, en el que se ges-
tionan los eventos imprevistos ocurridos en las plantas que pueden afectar a
los almacenes, o los eventos imprevistos en los almacenes que puedan afec-
tar a las plantas.
El subsistema de comunicacin con la cadena de suministro, en el que se
gestionan los eventos producidos en una planta que pueden afectar a pro-
veedores y/o clientes.
El marco general de comunicacin del sistema se muestra a continuacin (ver
fig. 1).
Fig. 1 Esquema de una empresa multi-planta con mltiples almacenes
4 Excepciones
Uno de los puntos ms importantes que aporta este sistema es el tratamiento de

excepciones en tiempo real, dando respuesta prcticamente inmediata a cualquier
evento imprevisto que ocurra. Concretamente, las excepciones se han clasificado
1010
en dos grupos: internas, que son las relacionadas con la propia empresa y pueden
tener su origen en la produccin o en la distribucin, y externas, las cuales hacen
referencia a eventos que tienen su origen en los proveedores o en los clientes.
Tabla 1. Tipos de excepciones
Excepciones internas Excepciones externas

Relacionadas con la Relacionadas con la Relacionadas con los Relacionadas con
Produccin Distribucin Proveedores los Clientes
Devolucin de mate- Adelanto de fecha
Mquina averiada Vehculo averiado
rial de pedido
Retraso de fecha
Operario Ausente Conductor ausente Entrega parcial
de pedido
Orden suspendida Retrasos por trfico Entrega defectuosa
Nuevo pedido ur-
Repeticin de piezas Pedido entregado por gente
Entrega cancelada
defectuosas error
4.1 Tratamiento de Excepciones
En este punto, se va a proporcionar una breve explicacin sobre cmo un evento

inesperado o excepcin es tratado por el sistema.
En particular, se va a explicar una excepcin interna relacionada con la distri-
bucin, concretamente la que hemos denominado Pedido Entregado por Error.
Esta excepcin se produce cuando se entrega al cliente un pedido que no se co-
rresponde con el suyo, bien debido a un error del conductor del vehculo o del eti-
quetado del pedido.
Dependiendo del acuerdo que se alcance con el cliente para tratar este error
pueden darse tres casos:
1. Dejar el pedido pendiente e incluirlo en los planes futuros.
2. Entregar el pedido de forma urgente.
3. Cancelar el pedido, por deseo del cliente.
En cualquier caso, habr que recoger el pedido entregado por error. Para ello,
el pedido a recoger se considerar como uno ms dentro de la ruta de reparto, con
la peculiaridad de que este se recoger una vez se terminen de entregar los pedidos
al resto de los clientes.
1011
5 El Problema de la Distribucin
Como se ha explicado anteriormente, en este proyecto existen dos fases: produc-

cin y distribucin. La etapa de produccin es la encargada de poner a disposicin
de la etapa de distribucin los materiales necesarios para abastecer a los clientes
que solicitan la entrega de pedidos. En este problema contaremos con mltiples
almacenes de distribucin, a los cuales se asignan pedidos de clientes en funcin,
entre otros, de criterios de proximidad. Esto quiere decir que se trabajar con el
supuesto de que un cliente tan solo podr ser abastecido por los vehculos asigna-
dos a un solo almacn.
5.1 Especificaciones del Problema
El problema de distribucin que se va a tratar es el denominado Dynamic Vehicle

Routing Problem with Backhauls y Time Windows, el cual es un hibrido entre tres
problemas distintos de asignacin de rutas a vehculos. A continuacin se expli-
carn por separado las tres caractersticas del problema: Dinamismo, Backhauls y
Ventanas de Tiempo.
Dinamismo: El dinamismo en problemas de asignacin de rutas a vehculos es un
campo relativamente nuevo en el que muchos investigadores estn haciendo hin-
capi en los ltimos aos (Pillac et al., 2011). El dinamismo supone que las rutas
previamente planificadas requieran una replanificacin. En este caso, el dinamis-
mo se va a producir debido a la aparicin de ciertas incidencias o excepciones, va-
rias de las cuales estn recogidas en la tabla 1. Una vez se produzca alguna de es-
tas incidencias, ser preciso decidir si conviene replanificar alguna de las rutas
(para evitar en la mayor medida posible el incumplimiento de la ruta afectada), o
dejar que los clientes implicados se queden sin servicio. Para ello, se calcularn
los posibles costes en que la empresa incurrir para cada una de las opciones y se
elegir la decisin menos cara.
Backhauls: Estos hacen referencia al retorno de mercancas, lo cual supone que
los clientes podrn demandar la entrega o la recogida de mercancas (Toth y Vigo,
2000). En este problema, la capacidad de los vehculos se convierte en un factor
de extrema importancia. La Interstate Commerce Commission estim que, gracias
al backhauling, en Estados Unidos el ahorro dentro de la industria de comestibles
haba alcanzado los 160 millones de dlares (Golden et al., 1985). En este proyec-
to, los clientes podrn solicitar la recogida o la entrega de mercancas, pero nunca
las dos de forma simultnea. Adems, de forma obligatoria, se realizarn primero
las entregas de los materiales para dar paso despus a las recogidas. La razn de
trabajar de esta manera es que, de lo contrario, a menudo sera necesario reacondi-
cionar los materiales dentro de la unidad mvil, lo cual podra ser contraproducen-
te. En este caso, el retorno de mercancas se produce cuando algn cliente no que-
da satisfecho con el pedido recibido y decide devolverlo a la empresa
1012
Ventanas de tiempo: Esta caracterstica permite que cada cliente tenga una venta-
na temporal asociada . Este rango temporal posee un lmite inferior y un
lmite superior que las unidades mviles tienen que respetar, es decir, que tienen
que atender la demanda del cliente dentro de esa ventana. De esta forma, una ruta
no ser factible si un vehculo llega a un cliente despus del lmite superior del in-
tervalo. Este problema ha sido ampliamente estudiado a lo largo de la historia
(Condeau et al., 1999). Una de las razones por las que ha suscitado tanto inters ha
sido su doble naturaleza, ya que puede considerarse como un problema de dos fa-
ses, una fase referente a la planificacin de cargas y otra relativa a la programa-
cin de rutas. Otra razn aparte es la fcil adaptacin al mundo real, ya que en la
gran mayora de las empresas los clientes presentan fuertes restricciones tempora-
les que han de ser cumplidas.
5.2 Funcin Objetivo
Teniendo en cuenta las caractersticas del problema mencionadas en el apartado

anterior, los clientes pueden demandar la entrega o la recogida de mercancas, de-
ntro de unas ventanas temporales. Aparte de esto, el problema cuenta con el dina-
mismo que ofrece el tratamiento de eventos imprevistos. La funcin objetivo a
minimizar que se ha planteado para este D-VRPBTW (Dynamic Vehicle Routing
Problem with Backhauls and Time Windows) es la siguiente:
Tabla 2 Trminos de la funcin objetivo
Coste de utilizacin por vehculo: Por cada vehculo que se haya utiliza-
do se suma a la funcin su coste fijo. La variable es el coste fijo de
cada vehculo, los cuales vienen agrupados en es una variable bi-
naria que indica si el vehculo ha pasado por el arco Todos los no-
dos vienen agrupados en
Coste de distancia recorrida: El coste es igual a la distancia total reco-
rrida por cada una de las rutas multiplicado por el coste variable del
vehculo. La variable indica el coste variable de un vehiculo mientras
que es la distancia que hay entre los clientes y .
Penalizacin por desocupacin: Por cada vehculo se examinar la carga
que lleva y se aadir cierta penalizacin en caso de que est poco ocu-
pado. Esta penalizacin se aplicar a los vehculos que vayan cargados
por debajo del 75% de su capacidad y aumentar a medida que la des-
ocupacin crezca.
1013
Tabla 2 (continued) Trminos de la funcin objetivo
Penalizacin por cliente no servido: En caso de que debido a alguna in-

cidencia algn cliente quede desabastecido, se impondr una penaliza-
cin a la funcin objetivo, la cual variar en funcin de la importancia
del cliente y de la cantidad de mercanca que demande entregar o devol-
ver.
Coste de exceso de tiempo: Este coste se produce si la duracin de la ru-
ta supera las horas totales de trabajo que puede realizar el conductor. Pa-
ra ello, se multiplica el exceso de horas por el coste de cada hora extra.
5.3 Tcnicas de Resolucin Propuestas
Para el tratamiento del problema se ha propuesto la utilizacin de dos diferentes

meta-heursticas, que corresponden con algunas de las ms utilizadas para pro-
blemas de optimizacin combinatoria a lo largo de la historia. En concreto, se trata
de la bsqueda tab (Basu y Ghosh, 2008) y el algoritmo gentico (Holland,
1975).
6 Conclusiones
La sincronizacin de la informacin entre los distintos eslabones que constituyen

la cadena de suministro y su reaccin ante posibles eventos imprevistos resulta
una potente ayuda para que las empresas puedan ser ms competitivas.
En este artculo, se ha propuesto un sistema de planificacin de produccin y
distribucin de forma integrada. Este sistema trata de proporcionar soluciones para
gestionar los eventos imprevistos aportando beneficios a la cadena de suministro
gracias a la identificacin de la informacin que debe ser intercambiada entre los
diferentes nodos y al desarrollo de metodologas para la planificacin de la pro-
duccin y la distribucin de manera coordinada.
7 Referencias
Basu S, Ghosh D (2008) A review of the tabu search literature on traveling salesman problem.
IIMA Working Papers. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. 1-16.2008.
Bilgen B, Gnther HO (2010) Integrated production and distribution planning in the fast moving
consumer goods industry: a block planning application, OR Spectrum, 2010. Flexible Auto-
mation and Intelligent Manufacturing, FAIM2013
1014
Condeau F, Desaulniers G, Desrosiers J, Solomon M, Soumis F (1999) The VRP with time win-
dows. Technical Report Cahiers du GERAD G-99-13, cole des Hautes tudes Commercia-
les de Montral.
Golden BL, Baker E, Alfaro J, Schaffer J (1985) The vehicle routing problem with backhauling:
two approaches. In R. Hammesfahr, Proceedings of the XXI Annual Meeting of S.F. TIMS,
Myrtle Beach, SC. 90-92.
Holland JH (1975) Adaptation in natural and artificial systems: an introductory analiysis with
applications to biology, control, and artificial intelligence. Oxford, England: University of
Michigan Press.
Park Y, Hong S (2009) Integrated production and distribution planning for single-period invento-
ry products. International Journal of Computer, Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 22, No. 5,
443457.
Pillac V, Gendreau M, Guret C, Medaglia AL (2011) A review of Dynamic Vehicle Routing
Problem. Industrial Engineering: 0-28.
Safaei AS, Moattar Husseini SM, Farahani RZ, Jolai F, Ghodsypour SH (2010) Integrated multi-
site production-distribution chain by hybridmodeling. International Journal of Production Re-
search, Vol.48, No. 14, 40434069, 2010.
Toth P, Vigo D (2000) VRP with backhauls. Monographs on Discrete Mathematics and Applica-
tions. In Toth P. and Vigo D. The Vehicle Routing Problem. SIAM: 195-224. 2000.
1015
Tcnicas de Prediccin Cuantitativas Aplicadas

a la Cadena de Suministro. Un Caso de Estudio
Quantitative Models for Supply Chain Forecasting. A Case Study
Trapero Arenas J.R 1, Garca Mrquez F.P2
Abstract Demand forecasting is a complex topic due to different factors like

promotions. Generally, promotions may be forecast by using an univariate
statistical approach (system forecast) that is judgmentally adjusted by company
experts. The present work reports an analysis of the managerial adjustments
accuracy when promotions are taking place. Additionally, quantitative models will
be assessed as an alternative to judgmental adjustments when referring to forecast
promotions. The results show that judgmentally adjusted forecasts on promotion
periods may enhance system forecasts, but not systematically and more
importantly, multivariate models based on past promotions information might
achieve lower forecasting errors than system and judgmentally adjusted forecasts.
Resumen Las ventas sujetas a promociones se pueden pronosticar mediante una

tcnica estadstica univariante (prediccin del sistema), que posteriormente se mo-
difica de acuerdo a la opinin de los expertos de la compaa. Este trabajo tiene
dos objetivos: en primer lugar, se pretende analizar la precisin de los expertos
cuando predicen las ventas y en segundo lugar, se investigan modelos cuantitati-
vos que puedan reducir o sustituir el ajuste realizado por los expertos. Los resulta-
dos muestran que bajo ciertas condiciones los expertos consiguen mejorar las pre-
dicciones automticas del sistema. No obstante, la utilizacin de modelos
1Juan Ramn Trapero Arenas ( e-mail: juanramon.trapero@uclm.es)
Grupo INGENIUM. Dpto. de Administracin de Empresas. Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologas

Qumicas. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. 13071 Ciudad Real.
2Fausto Pedro Garca Mrquez ( e-mail: faustopedro.garcia@uclm.es)
Grupo INGENIUM. Dpto. de Administracin de Empresas. ETSI Industriales. Universidad de

Castilla-La Mancha. 13071 Ciudad Real.
* Los autores agradecen el apoyo proporcionado por la Unin Europea mediante el proyecto
FP7-ENERGY-2012-2: 322430.
1016
cuantitativos estimados en base al histrico de promociones consigue mejorar tan-

to los resultados de los ajustes de los expertos como las predicciones del sistema.
Keywords: Forecasting, Transfer Functions, Judgmental Forecasting, Marketing,

Promotions.
Palabras Clave: Prediccin, Funciones de Transferencia, Prediccin experta,
Marketing, Promociones.
1 Introduccin
La prediccin de demanda es un tema clave a la hora de reducir los gastos de

inventario, mejorar la satisfaccin del cliente y optimizar las operaciones de
distribucin. Normalmente, la prediccin de demanda utiliza un Sistema de Apoyo
a la Prediccin (SAP) (Fildes et al, 2009), que integra una tcnica estadstica
univariante junto con los ajustes manuales de los expertos de la organizacin. En
principio, la prediccin finalmente utilizada por la compaa es el resultado de dos
fuentes de informacin. Por un lado, el SAP proporciona un prediccin de ndole
estadstica que se le conoce como prediccin del sistema. Por otro lado, se
organizan varias reuniones entre los responsables de las predicciones y el personal
de ventas, marketing y produccin para incorporar aquella informacin que no
est includa en el modelo estadstico. Por tanto, la prediccin del sistema se
modifica de acuerdo con las decisiones del grupo para as obtener una prediccin
final.
Un ejemplo de estas tcnicas univariantes es la familia de mtodos de
suavizado exponencial (Gardner, 1985). Esta tcnica es adecuada para compaas
que necesitan predecir la demanda de cada producto de una forma automtica. No
en vano, estos mtodos no son aptos para predecir las ventas cuando hay
promociones y por tanto, se espera un aumento de las mismas. Para mejorar las
predicciones, los expertos basados en sus experiencias y en el histrico de
promociones anteriores modifican las predicciones automticas proporcionadas
por el SAP.
Dada la relacin entre estas modificaciones de los expertos y las promociones,
el primer objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la precisin de dichas modificaciones
cuando hay una campaa promocional. Este anlisis es til de cara a formar a los
expertos para que mejores sus ajustes. Hay que destacar que en el presente caso de
estudio, el software utilizado por esta compaa ofrece la posibilidad de modificar
las previsiones automticas pero no analiza la precisin de las mismas.
El problema de predecir las ventas promocionales tambin se puede estudiar
mediante el uso de modelos economtricos que utilizan la informacin
almacenada acerca de las promociones anteriores para formular modelos causales
1017
en forma de regresin lineal mltiple. En este tipo de modelos las variables

exgenas o independendientes sulen estar relacionadas con las caractersticas de
la promocin (descuento del precio, posicin en las estanteras, tipo de publicidad,
etc.). En este sentido se han desarrollado varios tipos de software, por ejemplo
TM
SCAN*PRO (Leeflang et al, 2002), PromoCast (Cooper et al, 1999) y
CHAN4CAST (Divakar et al, 2005). Sin embargo, llama la atencin que dichas
metodologas no se hayan comparado con su competencia natural: las predicciones
realizadas por los expertos. Esta pregunta es esencial para una compaa que se
plantee invertir en uno de estos sistemas, es decir, lo primero que se preguntara es
si dichos programas son capaces de mejorar las predicciones que hacen sus
expertos. Cabe destacar que los autores no han encontrado ninguna referencia
donde se compare los modelos economtricos a las predicciones de los expertos en
presencia de promociones. Por tanto, el segundo objetivo de este trabajo es
desarrollar un modelo economtrico para determinar el grado en el que los
modelos cuantitativos pueden mejorar las predicciones proporcionadas por los
expertos. Se propone un modelo de prediccin a nivel de SKU (Stock Keeping
Unit) con las siguientes caractersticas: i) El nmero de variables independientes
se reduce mediante el uso de Anlisis de Componentes Principales. De esta forma
tambin se evita un posible problema de multicolinealidad; ii) Para aquellos
productos que no dispongan de suficientes observaciones sujetas a promociones,
el modelo utiliza la informacin de otros productos (Pool regression) para realizar
las estimaciones de los parmetros; iii) La dinmica de las promociones se modela
mediante la introduccin de retardos en las variables explicativas; iv) El trmino
de error se modela mediante modelos ARIMA automticamente identificados
mediante la minimizacin del Criterio de Informacin de Schwartz.
Para elaborar este trabajo se han recopilado datos muestreados semanalmente
acerca de las ventas y promociones de una empresa perteneciente a la industria
qumica localizada en el Reino Unido.
Los resultados muestran que los expertos pueden llegar a mejorar las
predicciones proporcionadas por el SAP, no obstante cuando los ajustes son
relativamente grandes, dichos ajustes pueden ser contraproducentes. Adems, se
muestra que el modelo economtrico propuesto, basado en la identificacin de
patrones utilizando promociones anteriores, mejora las predicciones del SAP y de
los expertos cuando hay alguna campaa promocional.
2 Anlisis de la Precisin de los Expertos
Los datos se han obtenido de una empresa fabricante de detergentes y otros

productos de limpieza. Los datos estn compuestos por: i) Ventas; ii) predicciones
proporcionadas por el SAP una semana hacia delante, las cuales las llamaremos
Predicciones del Sistema (SF); iii) predicciones proporcionadas por los expertos
1018
una semana hacia delante. Citaremos estas predicciones como Predicciones de los
Expertos (FF).
Los datos previamente descritos contienen 145 SKUs. En total, se dipone de
unos 10,000 registros desde Octubre del 2008 hasta Junio del 2010. La literatura
que estudia los ajustes de los expertos seala que dichos ajustes suelen estar
sesgados. En (Trapero et al, 2010) se apunta al tamao y signo de los ajustes como
variables explicativas, de forma que pequeos ajustes se espera que sean menos
efectivos y que los ajustes positivos, es decir aquellos que aumentan el valor de
prediccin proporcionado por el sistema, suelen ser menos precisos que los
negativos.
En esta seccin, se lleva a cabo un anlisis descriptivo de los datos para
averiguar la precisin obtenida por el sistema de prediccin (SF) o por los
expertos (FF). Siguiendo las publicaciones hasta la fecha se investigar el efecto
del tamao y signo de los ajustes, pero adems este trabajo aade como aspecto
novedoso el anlisis del efecto de las promociones. Dado que la base de datos
analizada posee productos con diferentes propiedades estadsticas (media y
varianza) es conveniente normalizar los datos. Para ello se ha elegido normalizar
las variables con respecto a la desviacin tpica de las ventas. Se ha procedido de
esta manera de acuerdo a publicaciones anteriores, (Fildes et al, 2009) y (Trapero
et al, 2010).
La normalizacin nos permite tratar a las observaciones como conjunto de
datos de seccin cruzada. Esto implica que se puede reordenar los datos en
funcin del tamao y del signo. Si definimos el error absoluto medio tal que:
(1)
Donde representa el error normalizado en el tiempo t, tal que:
(2)
Donde, es el valor real de ventas normalizado y es la prediccin. N son

las observaciones disponibles en total. La Fig 1 muestra el MAE ordenado de
acuerdo al signo y al tamao de los ajustes. Con respecto a los ajustes positivos
(ajustes normalizados mayores que cero), los expertos (FF) consiguen errores de
prediccin menores cuando el tamao del ajuste normalizado es inferior a 4
aproximadamente, para ajustes ms grandes el SF funciona mejor.
1019
0.85
0.8
MAE
0.75
SF
FF
0.7
0.65
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10
Ajustes normalizados
Fig. 1 MAE vs. ajustes normalizados
En relacin a los ajustes negativos en la Fig. 1 se pueden extraer las siguientes

conclusiones: i) el MAE es inferior al obtenido con los ajustes positivos; ii) el ta-
mao de los ajustes tambin es menor; y iii) FF obtiene menores errores de pre-
diccin que SF.
Este mejor comportamiento del FF para ajustes positivos se debe a que los ex-
pertos conocen de antemano cuando va a haber una determinada promocin y por
tanto elevan el valor proporcionado por el SF. Para analizar dicha hiptesis, la Fig.
2 representa los errores de prediccin slo cuando hay activa alguna promocin.
En este grfico se observa claramente como los expertos mejoran las predicciones
del sistema cuando los ajustes son positivos, que son la mayora cuando hay pro-
mociones. No obstante, si los ajustes normalizados son muy grandes, los expertos
cometen errores mayores que el SF. Es importante destacar la importancia de este
tipo de grficos porque si no se hubiera analizado el tamao del ajuste lo nico
que se observara seran los valores promedios finales, cuya conclusin sera que
el SF es ms preciso que el FF y dicha conclusin es incompleta.
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1
MAE
0.9
0.8
SF
0.7 FF
0.6
0 2 4 6 8
Fig.2 MAE del SF y FF frente a los ajustes normalizados cuando hay algn tipo de promocin.
1020
El grfico en la Fig. 3 muestra el MAE frente a los ajustes normalizados cuan-

do no hay promociones. Se puede observar que los ajustes positivos no mejoran
significativamente con respecto el SF. No obstante, hay que sealar la precisin
alcanzada por los ajustes negativos que mejoran considerablemente a las predic-
ciones del sistema (SF). Una posible explicacin a esta notable mejora es el hecho
de que una vez acabada la promocin el SAP seguir produciendo unas previsio-
nes ms altas de lo normal ya que sus modelos no incluyen informacin acerca de
cundo empieza o acaba una promocin. Este defecto del SAP es conocido por los
expertos, los cuales reajustan a la baja esas previsiones.
3 Modelado de los Efectos de las Promociones sobre las Ventas
En la seccin anterior se mostr que los expertos pueden incorporar informacin

en sus predicciones que el sistema no es capaz de procesar. Esta conclusin abre la
puerta a la siguiente cuestin: se basaron los expertos en los resultados de
promociones anteriores para realizar los ajustes? En otras palabras, los expertos
pudieron haber analizado los efectos que tuvieron promociones parecidas en el
pasado e intentar proyectar esos patrones para las promociones futuras. En tal
caso, modelos multivariantes como una regresin lineal mltiple es posible que
mejoren los resultados obtenidos por los expertos ya que las mentes humanas son
buenas para identificar patrones pero no lo son tanto para trabajar con grandes
cantidades de informacin como la que manejamos en este caso de estudio.
0.8
0.78
0.76
0.74
0.72
0.7
SF
0.68 FF
0.66
0.64
-2 0 2 4 6 8
Fig. 3 MAE del SF y FF frente a los ajustes normalizados cuando no hay promociones.
Adems de las variables definidas en la seccin anterior, se han incluido las

siguientes variables que dan informacin particular sobre las promociones: i)
Descuento; ii) Tipo de publicidad; iii) Lugar de exposicin y iv) Categora.
1021
Con el fin de comprobar si las tcnicas cuantitativos pueden mejorar las

predicciones de los expertos, se propone la siguiente Regresin Dinmica (RD):
(3)
Donde las variables son los componentes principales que resumen la in-
formacin sobre la promocin. N es el nmero de componentes principales que in-
cluimos en el modelo. En general, una o dos componentes principales han sido su-
ficiente para estimar los modelos. El efecto dinmico de las promociones se ha
incluido en el modelo mediante la incorporacin de diferentes retrasos en las va-
riables originales utilizadas antes de realizar el anlisis de componentes principa-
les. Ft+1 son las predicciones de ventas un paso hacia delante que corresponden al
SKU i.
Para poder utilizar el modelo (3) es necesario conocer de antemano cundo la
empresa va a realizar las promociones. En nuestro caso de estudio las promocio-
nes son negociadas con antelacin entre el fabricante y el distribuidor. En el caso
que no haya suficientes promociones para el SKU sujeto a estudio, se utiliza la in-
formacin sobre promociones procedentes de otros SKUs en la muestra. Por lti-
mo el trmino de error , no se supone ruido blanco sino que se modela utilizando
la metodologa ARIMA, cuyos rdenes se identifican minimizando el Criterio de
Informacin de Schwartz.
Para analizar el modelo propuesto, vamos a reducir la muestra a aquellos SKUs
con demanda continua, y que dispongan de 20 semanas de observaciones con al
menos una promocin en la muestra. En total, de los 145 SKUs pasamos a 60
SKUs con un tamao cada uno que vara entre 53 y 148 observaciones, resultando
una muestra de 7,790 casos.
El modelo descrito en (3) se va a comparar con otros modelos de prediccin
tpicamente utilizados en este contexto como son el suavizado exponencial simple
(SES), el mtodo ingenuo (Nave) y el last like promotion (LL). Este ltimo se
aplica comnmente cuando hay que realizar previsiones de demanda sujetas a
promociones. Generalmente consiste en aumentar las previsiones obtenidas por un
suavizado exponencial simple de acuerdo al ltimo aumento que se obtuvo en la
ltima promocin con caractersticas similares.
El ejercicio de prediccin propuesto va a consistir en un experimento rolling
origin, donde una vez que la prediccin se ha realizado, el origen se mueve una
semana hacia delante hasta completar la muestra de validacin. En este caso la
muestra de validacin se fija en las ltimas 30 semanas, de forma que el 21% de
las promociones se encuentran en dicha muestra de validacin.
1022
Tabla 1 MAE calculado en la muestra de validacin por las diferentes tcnicas consideradas.
SF FF Nave SES LL RD
1.069 1.327 1.092 0.904 1.122 0.868
En la Tabla 1 se muestra el error de prediccin (MAE) obtenido por cada uno

de los mtodos de prediccin considerados en la muestra de validacin. En dicha
tabla se puede observar como la regresin dinmica propuesta (RD) consigue
obtener los menores errores de prediccin en ventas en comparacin con el resto
de tcnicas e incluse consigue una reduccin del 19% con respecto a la precisin
de los expertos. El MAE se ha calculado solamente sobre las ventas en las que hay
algn tipo de promocin activada.
Estos resultados sugieren que los ajustes que los expertos realizan para modelar
las promociones pueden ser sustituidos por modelos multivariantes estadsticos,
los cuales consiguen mejorar las predicciones y a su vez reducir la carga de trabajo
de los expertos.
4 Conclusiones
Los modificacin de las predicciones por parte de los expertos es un mtodo

commnmente empleado para modelar las promociones. Sin embargo, los autores
no han encontrado casos de estudio en la literatura que analice la eficiencia de
dichas modificaciones. Este trabajo investiga la precisin alcanzada por los
expertos para predecir la demanda de los clientes cuando hay activa una campaa
promocional. El primer resultado encontrado muestra que efectivamente los
expertos pueden mejorar las predicciones pero no sistemticamente, ya que si los
ajustes son relativamente grandes, estos ajustes pueden no ser aconsejables.
En base a que los expertos ajustan las predicciones analizando los resultados
obtenidos en promociones anteriores, este trabajo plantea otra alternativa que
utiliza un modelo cuantitativo para predecir las ventas promocionales. Los
resultados indican que este modelo mejora en promedio las predicciones
realizadas tanto por el sistema como por los expertos para nuestro caso de estudio.
5 Referencias
Cooper LG, Baron P, Levy W et al (1999) PROMOCAST Trademark: A New Forecasting

Method for Promotion Planning. Marketing Science, 18(3):301.
Divakar S, Rachford BT, Shankar V (2005) CHAN4CAST: A multichannel, multiregion sales
forecasting model and decision suppor system for consumer packaged goods. Marketing Sci-
ence, 24:334-350.
1023
Fildes R, Goodwin P, Lawrence M et al (2009). Effective forecasting and jugdmental adjust-

ments: an empirical evaluation and strategies for improvement in supply-chain planning. In-
ternational Journal of Forecasting, 25:3-23.
Gardner ES (1985) Exponential smooothing: The state of the art. Journal of Forecasting, 4:1-28.
Leeflang PSH, van Heerde HJ, Wittink D (2002) How promotions work: SCAN*PRO-Based
evolutionay Model Building. Schmalenbach Business Review, 54:198-220.
Pedregal DJ, Contreras J, Sanchez A (2010) Handbook of Networks in Power Systems, chapter
ECOTOOL: A general MATLAB forecasting toolbox with applications to electricity mar-
kets, pages 69-104. Springer Verlag.
Trapero JR, Fildes R, Davydenko A (2010) Nonlinear identification of judgmental forecasts ef-
fects at SKU level. Journal of Forecasting, 30:490-508.
1024
Decisiones en el Diseo de Redes de Logstica

Inversa: Propuesta de un Modelo de Decisin.
Decisions on the Design of Reverse Logistics Networks: a Proposal for a Deci-
sion Model.
Ribas I1, Rubio S2
Abstract A configuration of reverse logistics network for end-of-use products is

considered in order to establish a decision model that can help to design the net-
work according to the characteristics of the product to be recovered. The proposed
model comes from an extensive review of the literature, which proposes to con-
sider the combination of product residual value and marginal value time of the
product with the type of recovery option to design the structure.
Resumen Se considera el problema del diseo de las redes de suministro inversa

para la recuperacin de productos usados, con el objetivo de establecer un modelo
que permita configurar la red en funcin las caractersticas del producto a recupe-
rar. El modelo propuesto es el resultado de una extensa revisin de la literatura y
propone el diseo de la red en funcin del valor residual del producto, de su de-
preciacin durante el periodo de recuperacin y del proceso de recuperacin
econmica requerida (reutilizacin, reciclaje, refabricacin).
1Imma Ribas Vila ( e-mail: imma.ribas@upc.edu)

Barcelona. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech. Avda. Diagonal, 647, ed. H,
P.7 08028 Barcelona.
2
Sergio Rubio Lacoba ( e-mail: srubio@unex.es)
Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales. Universidad de Extremadura. Avda. de Elvas S/N, 06006
Badajoz.
* Esta investigacin se ha desarrollado con la financiacin del proyecto PLACYRES DPI2010-
15614 financiado por el Ministerio de Economa y Competitividad. S. Rubio agradece la
financiacin de la Consejera de Empleo, Empresa e Innovacin del Gobierno de Extremadura a
travs de la ayuda ref. GR10070
1025
Keywords: Reverse Logistics, Product Recovery Value, Marginal Value Time,

EOL Product.
Palabras clave: Logstica Inversa, Valor de Recuperacin, Tiempo de Recupera-
cin, Producto Fuera de Uso.
1 Introduccin
El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer un sistema de apoyo a la decisin que per-

mita identificar el tipo de sistema o red que resultara ms adecuado para la recu-
peracin econmica del valor de los productos fuera de uso (End-Of-Life products,
EOL) en el mbito de la gestin de la cadena de suministro.
Con este propsito, se ha realizado una amplia revisin de la literatura sobre di-
seo de redes inversas de suministro (redes de logstica inversa) intentando encon-
trar elementos comunes que permitan identificar caractersticas esenciales de estas
redes relativas al proceso de toma de decisiones sobre su diseo e implantacin.
No se trata de una cuestin sencilla ya que adems de la abundante cantidad de
aportaciones a la literatura sobre el diseo de redes de logstica inversa o redes de
distribucin inversa (reverse logistics network, RLN), se une la propia compleji-
dad inherente al proceso de diseo de las mismas debido, entre otras cuestiones, a
que no todas las redes de logstica inversa son idnticas, ni tienen por qu ser-
lo(Daniel, Guide & Van Wassenhove 2002).
Parece existir cierto consenso entre la comunidad acadmica acerca de la rele-
vancia que tiene el diseo de redes de logstica inversa en el mbito de la gestin
de la cadena de suministro, y as, por ejemplo, (Fleischmann et al. 2001) afirman
que en las cadenas de suministro tradicionales, el diseo de la red logstica tiene
el reconocimiento de aspecto estratgico de mxima importancia, y de manera
anloga, desarrollar una adecuada red logstica tienen un impacto fundamental so-
bre la viabilidad econmica de la cadena de suministro inversa. Por su parte,
(Akal, etinkaya & ster 2009) tambin destacan la relevancia del tema, subra-
yando que dos de los retos ms interesantes y relevantes en el diseo estratgico
de las redes de logstica inversa son (i) Cmo disear una red de logstica inver-
sa partiendo de cero? y (ii) Cmo disear una red de logstica inversa cuando ya
existe una red logstica tradicional (forward)?. Se trata, por tanto, de una cuestin
relevante tanto en el mbito acadmico, como desde el punto de vista de las em-
presas interesadas en promover y desarrollar sistemas para la recuperacin de pro-
ductos fuera de uso, para las cuales las decisiones sobre el diseo de estos siste-
mas adquieren un carcter estratgico.
En este trabajo tratamos de describir los aspectos ms relevantes a considerar
en el diseo de redes de logstica inversa, poniendo de relieve las decisiones a to-
mar. Para ello, a continuacin se revisan algunas de las principales aportaciones
acadmicas realizadas en los ltimos aos y que sirven de referencia para este tra-
1026
bajo. En el apartado 3 se describen las decisiones que caracterizan los sistemas de

logstica inversa, sobre las que realizamos nuestra propuesta de modelo de deci-
sin para su diseo. Seguidamente, en el apartado 4, presentamos la estructura
propuesta y finalizamos este trabajo con las conclusiones ms relevantes.
2 Revisin de la Literatura
Nuestro inters al revisar los trabajos previos sobre el diseo de RLN persigue ca-
racterizar, de una manera genrica, los elementos bsicos de dichas redes, ms all
de examinar qu tcnicas de anlisis o metodologas se han empleado para resol-
ver una determinada propuesta de RLN especfica para una empresa, mercado o
producto en particular, las cuales no siempre resultan generalizables a otros entor-
nos.
Trabajos como los de (Thierry et al. 1995), (Fleischmann et al. 2000),
(Fleischmann et al. 2001) y (Flapper, Van Nunen & Van Wassenhove 2005) han
contribuido de manera significativa en este campo, proporcionando una descrip-
cin bsica de redes de logstica inversa, identificando aspectos comunes entre las
mismas, y sealando elementos crticos en el diseo e implantacin de estos sis-
temas. As (Thierry et al. 1995) clasifican las RLN en funcin de la opcin de re-
cuperacin que se le da al producto fuera de uso: 1) uso directo y reventa, 2) repa-
racin, refabricacin, restauracin, canibalizacin y reciclaje, y 3) eliminacin de
residuos. (Fleischmann et al. 2000) emplean una clasificacin de acuerdo a las ca-
ractersticas observadas en distintos casos de estudio, clasificando las RLN en 1)
redes para la reutilizacin, 2) redes para la refabricacin, y 3) redes para el recicla-
je. Por su parte, (Flapper, Van Nunen & Van Wassenhove 2005), tambin descri-
ben distintas redes de logstica inversa a travs de business cases, en los que
adems se aportan otros elementos referidos a aspectos organizativos, medioam-
bientales, tcnicos y econmicos. En el mbito concreto de la refabricacin, (Sa-
vaskan, Bhattacharya & Wassenhove 2004) estudian cuatro configuraciones para
redes inversas de suministro, clasificndolas en funcin de su grado de centraliza-
cin, y en las que el objetivo es detectar ineficiencias en el proceso de toma de de-
cisiones descentralizadas en la red de suministro. Se entiende por redes descentra-
lizadas las que dedican varias ubicaciones (nodos de la red) a una misma
actividad, frente a las redes centralizadas en las que una misma actividad suele
desarrollarse en una nica instalacin.
Todos estos trabajos, sin embargo, aun siendo fundamentales para el estudio
del diseo de las RLN, se centran principalmente en la descripcin de las carac-
tersticas de dichas redes pero no proponen mtodos o procedimientos para el di-
seo de tales redes. Es en este mbito en el que se desarrolla nuestro trabajo y
donde cabe sealar alguna contribucin como (Barker, Zabinski 2011) quienes
1027
proponen un modelo AHP de toma de decisiones para el diseo de redes de logs-

tica inversa a partir del anlisis de diferentes casos de estudio.
En esta comunicacin se propone un sistema que permita identificar el tipo de
sistema o red que resultara ms adecuado para la recuperacin econmica del va-
lor de los productos fuera de uso (EOL) y tomas las decisiones oportunas sobre el
diseo de la red.
3 Decisiones en el Diseo de Redes de Logstica Inversa
Probablemente, la primera cuestin que cabe plantearse a la hora de afrontar el di-

seo de una red de logstica inversa sea la decisin de integrar esta red con la red
de suministro existente constituyendo as una red de suministro cerrada (Closed-
Loop Supply Chain, CLSC), o disear una red independiente para la recuperacin
de los productos fuera de uso. (Flapper, Van Nunen & Van Wassenhove 2005)
afirman que integrar los flujos directos e inversos de la cadena de suministro
puede tener consecuencias para la estructura interna de la organizacin, en cuanto
a su diseo, ventas, compras, sistema de produccin, distribucin, servicios post-
venta, contabilidad, etc., as como en sus relaciones con proveedores, distribuido-
res y clientes. Igualmente, (Akal, etinkaya & ster 2009) analizan tambin
estas dos posibilidades en el diseo de redes para la recuperacin de productos,
sealando que el diseo de RLN se relaciona con el establecimiento de una infra-
estructura para gestionar nicamente el canal inverso, mientras que el diseo de la
CLSC considera la transformacin de la cadena de suministro para la gestin co-
ordinada de los canales directo e inverso. Otros trabajos (por ejemplo, (Fleisch-
mann et al. 1997); (Verter, Aras 2008)) tambin identifican como un aspecto bsi-
co del diseo de RLN la decisin relativa a si la red debe ser una estructura
independiente de la red existente (forward) o bien debe integrarse en ella, por lo
que podemos considerar este aspecto como un elemento crucial en el proceso de
decisin.
En cualquier caso, tanto una RLN como una CLSC se configuran en torno a
tres actividades crticas, a saber: 1) la recogida de EOL, 2) inspeccin y clasifica-
cin, 3) recuperacin del valor (refabricacin, reutilizacin, reciclaje). Trabajos
como el de (Aras, Boyaci & Verter 2010) sealan tres decisiones estratgicas que
debern tomarse en el diseo de RLN relativas a su estructura (integrada o inde-
pendiente), la estrategia de recogida ms adecuada (pick-up, drop-off), y el esta-
blecimiento de incentivos financieros o subsidios para la recogida de los productos
EOL. En este sentido, (Boyac et al. 2008) sealan que el establecimiento de in-
centivos para incrementar el acopio de EOL se relaciona directamente con el sis-
tema empleado para su recogida, de manera que un rgimen de incentivos para los
clientes implicara, en una estrategia drop-off, una red ms centralizada, con pocos
centros de recogida que abarquen zonas ms amplias de clientes, ya que estos es-
1028
tarn dispuestos a desplazarse a una distancia mayor para retornar el EOL; por su
parte, bajo una estrategia pick-up, mayores incentivos a los clientes para el retorno
de EOL requieren el establecimiento de un mayor nmero de centros de recogida,
con un rea de clientes menor, con el fin de minimizar el coste de transporte; es
decir, una estructura ms descentralizada.
Como ya hemos apuntado, y como tambin remarcan (Alumur et al. 2012) la
configuracin de una RLN es un problema complejo que requiere la determina-
cin de la localizacin ptima y la capacidad de centros de recogida, centros de
inspeccin, instalaciones de refabricacin, y/o plantas de reciclaje. En (Aras, Bo-
yaci & Verter 2010) se pueden observar mltiples configuraciones de redes de
logstica inversa, aunque la naturaleza del producto fuera de uso y el tipo de recu-
peracin que se le aplica tienen una relacin muy importante con el diseo de la
red, y ese ser el punto de partida para desarrollar nuestra propuesta.
4 Una Propuesta de Modelo de Decisin para el Diseo de

Redes de Logstica Inversa
Como hemos venido sealando, el diseo de sistemas de logstica inversa guarda

una relacin muy estrecha con el tipo de producto retornado y con el proceso a
travs del cual se recuperar el valor que dicho producto an incorpora tras finali-
zar su vida til o cuando ste deja de satisfacer las necesidades del consumidor.
Para el desarrollo de nuestra propuesta, consideramos muy relevante el trabajo de
(Blackburn et al. 2004) en el que se propone un modelo de diseo de RLN basado
en el concepto de Marginal Value of Time, MVT, que los autores identifican
con la existencia de un valor del producto retornado asociado al tiempo requerido
para recuperar su valor. As, por ejemplo, productos electrnicos como los orde-
nadores tienen un alto MVT porque su valor econmico es muy sensible al tiempo
que se tarda en recuperarlo (cuanto mayor es el tiempo de recuperacin, menor va-
lor tendr) mientras que productos como las cmaras fotogrficas desechables o
las mquinas-herramienta tienen un MVT inferior ya que el paso del tiempo no
afecta significativamente a su valor de recuperacin. Esta distincin entre produc-
tos con alto y bajo MVT lo relacionan con el esquema de diseo de redes de sumi-
nistro propuesto por (Fisher 1997) en el que se identifican redes Responsive
frente a redes Efficient. En el caso de RLN, las redes responsive son las que
permitiran una recuperacin del valor del producto rpida mientras que las redes
efficient seran las que se disearan en funcin de criterios de coste, lo que a la
prctica lleva a redes ms centralizadas en las que el plazo de recuperacin del
producto es mucho ms largo. Estos autores emplean esta clasificacin para consi-
derar que, en el caso de productos con un alto MVT, la red ms apropiada sera
una red responsive de diseo descentralizado, mientras que para productos con
bajo MVT la red inversa tendra un enfoque efficient de carcter centralizado.
1029
Recientemente, (Gobbi 2011) ha analizado a travs de distintos casos de estu-

dio el diseo de la red de logstica inversa, utilizando para ello los conceptos de
MVT y de PRV (Product Residual Value), y el esquema de redes efficient vs res-
ponsive, concluyendo que las redes efficient son adecuadas para productos con ba-
jo PRV, mientras que las efficient lo son para productos con bajo PRV. Sin em-
bargo, este trabajo no permite concluir acerca de las ventajas de la centralizacin
de operaciones en este tipo de redes, independientemente del nivel de PRV y de
MVT del producto en cuestin.
Integrando el esquema de (Fisher 1997) con los trabajos de (Fleischmann et al.
2000) , (Blackburn et al. 2004, Fleischmann et al. 2000) y (Gobbi 2011) podra-
mos sealar elementos bsicos en el proceso de toma de decisiones relativas al di-
seo de RLN, de acuerdo a tres niveles. En el primer nivel se clasifica el producto
fuera de uso de acuerdo con su PRV (alto o bajo), mientras que en el segundo ni-
vel se considera su tiempo de recuperacin (MVT). Las diferentes configuraciones
de estos dos niveles (PRV-MVT) se relacionan con el tipo de red de suministro
(responsive o efficient). As, productos con altos niveles de PRV y MVT suelen
requerir una configuracin de red que permita recuperar el producto en un plazo
de tiempo corto (responsive), mientras que si el valor del producto no es tan sensi-
ble al tiempo (bajo MVT), la agilidad de la red no ser una caracterstica tan crti-
ca (efficient). El tercer nivel clasifica el producto en funcin de la opcin de recu-
peracin econmica que se le aplicar al producto (reutilizacin, refabricacin,
reciclaje), de acuerdo con la tipologa propuesta por (Fleischmann et al. 2000). Un
producto con altos niveles de PRV y MVT suelen estar sujetos a operaciones de
refabricacin para la recuperacin de su valor; en cambio, las operaciones de re-
utilizacin y reciclaje para la recuperacin econmica de los productos fuera de
uso suelen corresponder con productos con bajo PRV, independientemente de su
nivel de MVT (Tabla 1).
Tabla 1 Caractersticas de las RLN
Valor PRV Alto Bajo

Valor MVT Alto Bajo Alto / Bajo
Tipo de red Responsive Efficient Efficient
Estructura de red Descentralizada Centralizada Centralizada
recogida Pick-up Drop-off Drop-off
Claificacin- inspeccin Centralizada Centralizada Centralizada
Proceso Refabricacin Refabricacin Reuso Reciclaje
Objetivo de la red Economic0 Economic0 Legislacin
Ejemplos Laptops Electrodomsticos Papel, cristal,
Los productos con bajo valor residual no quedan diferenciados por su MTV, ya
que si el producto tiene bajo PRV no parece tener demasiada importancia lo rpi-
do o lento que se deprecie, siendo su caracterstica esencial la de responder a un
1030
modelo efficient, de estructura centralizada, cuyo objetivo es alcanzar economas

de escala con el fin de minimizar costes.
5 Conclusiones
El objetivo principal de esta comunicacin ha sido describir las caractersticas

bsicas de las redes de logstica inversa para la recuperacin de productos fuera de
uso, con el propsito de mejorar el proceso de toma de decisiones en cuanto al di-
seo de las mismas, ya que ste, el diseo de las RLN, se viene sealando en la li-
teratura como una cuestin estratgica en los procesos de recuperacin de produc-
tos fuera de uso, y por tanto un aspecto clave para en el xito de las mismos.
Con este fin hemos revisado las principales aportaciones en este sentido, identi-
ficando un conjunto de trabajos que aunque necesarios para conocer y delimitar el
alcance del problema, en general, no dejan de ser trabajos que fundamentalmente
describen las caractersticas de la red pero que no permiten tomar decisiones acer-
ca de cmo disear e implantar este tipo de redes de distribucin inversa. Este tra-
bajo se presenta como trabajo en curso, que se encuadra dentro de un proyecto de
mayor dimensin sobre el diseo de redes de suministro, por lo que algunas cues-
tiones no se han considerado en esta ponencia y otras se encuentran en desarrollo
en estos momentos. No obstante, de la revisin bibliogrfica realizada hemos po-
dido obtener varias ideas relativas al diseo de las RLN que nos permiten sealar
las siguientes conclusiones al respecto:
Probablemente, la primera decisin relativa al diseo de RLN hace referencia a
su integracin o no dentro de la cadena de suministro ya existente (forward).
Las decisiones relativas al diseo de la RLN pueden analizarse a travs de
conceptos como el PRV y el MTV, y en todo caso, la opcin de recuperacin
del valor econmico del producto fuera de uso suele quedar definida por la
combinacin de estos valores. De esta forma, podemos considerar tres niveles
(PRV, MVT, Opcin 3-R) que describen la estructura de la red y las decisiones
a tomar en su diseo.
La recuperacin de productos con altos niveles de PRV y MVT suelen requerir
redes responsive de carcter descentralizado, en las que prima la rapidez en la
recuperacin del valor que an incorpora el EOL; mientras que los productos
con bajo PRV suelen responder a configuraciones centralizadas de tipo effi-
cient, con el objetivo de minimizar los costes de recogida, maximizando las
cantidad de producto retornado.
Las decisiones relativas a las actividades bsicas en las RLN comprenden la
recogida de productos fuera de uso, su inspeccin y clasificacin y las opera-
ciones de recuperacin del valor econmico de estos productos (refabricacin,
reutilizacin, reciclaje). As, en las redes para productos con altos PRV y MVT
las operaciones de recogida suelen ser realizadas a travs de sistemas pick-up,
1031
su clasificacin se realiza de manera centralizada, recuperando su valor a

travs de operaciones de refabricacin. Por su parte, las redes para recuperar
productos con bajo PRV suelen utilizar sistemas drop-off para su recogida, los
cuales se clasifican de manera centralizada para su posterior reciclaje o reutili-
zacin.
Naturalmente, quedan cuestiones que an deben desarrollarse para completar el
modelo de decisin que debe incorporar aspectos relativos a las tareas que apoyan
el desarrollo de las actividades bsicas de estas RLN como, por ejemplo, decisio-
nes relativas al transporte de los productos a travs de la red, la eliminacin de
productos no recuperables, as como cuestiones organizativas, de relaciones con
los distintos agentes de la cadena, medioambientales, comerciales, etc, que se ire-
mos incluyendo en posteriores trabajos.
6 Referencias
Akal, E., etinkaya, S. & ster, H. 2009, "Network Design for Reverse and Closed-Loop Sup-
ply Chains:An Annotated Bibliography of Models and Solution Approaches", Networks, vol.
53, no. 3, pp. 231-248.
Alumur, S.A., Nickel, S., Saldanha-da-Gama, F. & Verter, V. 2012, "Multi-period reverse logis-
tics network design", European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 220, pp. 67-78.
Aras, N., Boyaci, T. & Verter, V. 2010, "Designing the Reverse Logistics Network" in Closed-
Loop Supply Chain: New Developments to Improve the Sustainability of Business Practices,
eds. M.E. Ferguson & G.C. Souza, Auerbach Publications CRC Press, , pp. 67-97.
Barker, T. & Zabinski, Z.B. 2011, "A multicriteria decision making model for reverse logistics
using analytical<br />hierarchy process", Omega, vol. 39, pp. 558-573.
Blackburn, J.D., Guide, J.V.D.R., Souza, G.C. & Van Wassenhove, L.N. 2004, "Reverse Supply
Chains for Commercial Returns", . California Management Review, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 6-22.
Boyac, T., Verter, V., Toyasaki, F. & Wojanowski, R. 2008, "Collection System Design, Strate-
gy Choice and Financial Incentives for Product Recovery", working paper. Desautels Faculty
of Management, McGill University, Montreal, Canada., .
Daniel, V., Guide, J. & Van Wassenhove, L.N. 2002, "The reverse supply chain", Harvard Busi-
ness Review, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 25-26.
Fisher, M.L. 1997, "What is the Right Supply Chain for your Product?", Harvard Business Re-
view, vol. 75, pp. 105-116.
Flapper, S.D.P., Van Nunen, J.A.E.E. & Van Wassenhove, L.N. (eds) 2005, Managing Closed-
Loop Supply Chains, Springer Berlin-Heidelberg, Germany.
Fleischmann, M., Beullens, P., Bloemhof-Ruwaard, J.M. & Wassenhohve, L.N. 2001, "The im-
pact of product recovery on logidstics network design", . Production and operations Man-
agement, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 156-176.
Fleischmann, M., Bloemhof-Ruwaard, J.M., Dekker, R., van der Laan, E., van Nunen, J.A.E.E.
& Van Wassenhove, L.N. 1997, "Quantitative Models for Reverse Logistics: A Review", Eu-
ropean Journla of Operational Research, vol. 103, pp. 1-17.
Fleischmann, M., Krikke, H.R., Dekker, R. & Flapper, S.D.P. 2000, "A characterization of logis-
tics network for product recovery", Omega, vol. 28, pp. 653-666.
1032
Gobbi, C. 2011, "Designing the Reverse Supply Chain: The impact of the product residual val-
ue", . International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, vol. 41, no. 8,
pp. 768-796.
Savaskan, R.C., Bhattacharya, S. & Wassenhove, L.N. 2004, "Closed-Loop Supply Models with
Product Remanufacturing", Management Science, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 239-252.
Thierry, M., Salomon, M., Van Nunen, J. & Van Wassenhove, L.N. 1995, "Strategic Issues in
Product Recovery Management", California Management review, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 114-135.
Verter, V. & Aras, N. 2008, "Designing Distribution Systems with Reverse Flows", Desautels
Faculty of Management, McGill University, Montreal, Canadar, vol. working pape.
1033
La Mejora Dinmica del Rutado de Vehculos:

Eventos de Reoptimizacin
The Dynamic Improvement of Vehicle Routing: Reoptimization Events
Escudero A1, Muuzuri J, Corts P, Aparicio P
Abstract The static environments of optimization are not efficient when there is
Uncertainty. The vehicle routing is a common case of it. For example, there usual-
ly is uncertainty in the transit time due to the congestion, traffic jam, etc. Dynamic
optimization has been more efficient in these environments. To determinate when
a reoptimization have to be run is fundamental.
Resumen Los entornos estticos de optimizacin no son todo lo eficientes que se

esperara en situaciones donde existe incertidumbre. El rutado de vehculos es una
caso comn donde existe incertidumbre, por ejemplo en el tiempo de trnsito, mo-
tivado principalmente por los diferentes niveles de congestin existentes. La reop-
timizacin dinmica se ha mostrado ms eficaz en este tipo de sistemas. Determi-
nar en que momentos realizar la reoptimizacin es fundamental en la eficiencia de
este tipo de sistemas.
Keywords: Uncertainty, VRP, Drayage, Dynamism

Palabras clave: Incertidumbre, VRP, Acarreo, Dinamismo
1 Introduccin
En trabajos previos (Escudero et al. 2011a, Escudero et al. 2011b, Escudero et al.
2013) se demostr que las metodologas tradicionales de optimizacin de rutas de
1Alejandro Escudero Santana ( e-mail: alejandroescudero@etsi.us.es)
Grupo Ingeniera de Organizacin. Dpto. de Organizacin Industrial y Gestin de Empresas II.

Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingeniera. Universidad de Sevilla. Camino de los Descubrimientos
S/N, 41092 Sevilla.
1034
vehculos no son todo lo eficientes que se deseara cuando se desarrollan en entor-

nos reales, donde diferentes elementos de incertidumbre aparecen.
La forma clsica de optimizar estos procesos se ha desarrollado desde una
perspectiva esttica; al principio de la jornada, el decisor presenta las rutas que los
diferentes vehculos debern desarrollar durante la jornada. Si se presenta algn
tipo de incidente en el trfico de los vehculos puede que las rutas planteadas al
principio de la jornada no puedan llevarse a cabo segn las restricciones tempora-
les comprometidas.
Mltiples estudios ponen de manifiesto el valor de la informacin a la hora de
elegir rutas por los usuarios (Levinson, 2003; Chorus et al., 2006). Sin embargo
esa obviedad no haba sido llevada a la forma de optimizacin de las rutas. Adb-
del-Aty et al. (1997) sealan que esta informacin puede ahorrar tiempo, estudiar
la forma y el momento en el que esta informacin es suministrada es importante
para que esta sea realmente til (Koutsopoulos y Xu, 1993).
Este trabajo propone la optimizacin de la jornada, del problema del acarreo te-
rrestre (Escudero et al. 2012), desde una perspectiva dinmica, de manera que la
solucin va evolucionando a lo largo del da, adaptndose a las circunstancias que
vayan aconteciendo. Esto proceso se realiza ayudado por el conocimiento en tiem-
po real de la posicin de los vehculos.
Numerosos estudios sobre problemas de rutado dinmico pueden encontrarse
en la literatura (Psaraftis, 1995; Pillac et al., 2013), aunque estos suelen estar cen-
trados en la incertidumbre que presentan que un determinado cliente requiera el
servicio, y no en la incertidumbre en el tiempo de trnsito.
El siguiente epgrafe, seccin 2, comienza presentando la estructura del sistema
planteado. Seguidamente, seccin 3, se enumeran posibles eventos que pueden
llevar al lanzamiento de una reoptimizacin. Por ltimo, seccin 4, se mostrarn
algunos resultados alcanzados y se enunciaran una serie de conclusiones, seccin
5.
2 El Sistema Dinmico
La arquitectura del sistema dinmico diseado se muestra de modo esquemtico

en la Figura 1. Este sistema recibira diversos tipos de informaciones, que seran
posteriormente utilizadas como datos para la ejecucin del algoritmo dinmico de
asignacin (Escudero et al. 2011a, Escudero et al. 2011b, Escudero et al. 2013):
Solicitudes de tareas, que podran ser directamente incorporadas al sistema por
parte de los clientes del mismo.
Informacin sobre la posicin de los vehculos en el viario. Esta posicin puede
ser determinada segn diferentes tecnologas existentes. En la Figura 1 se
ejemplifica a travs de dos posibles sistemas: GPS o Galileo.
1035
Informacin sobre la complecin de tareas, proporcionada por los conductores

de los vehculos al sistema a travs del correspondiente interfaz de comunica-
ciones.
Por ltimo, y de manera opcional, el sistema podra contar con informacin ac-
tualizada sobre el estado del viario (fundamentalmente el grado de congestin y
la velocidad media en los diferentes tramos del mismo), en caso de que esta in-
formacin estuviera disponible. De esta manera, el sistema, adems de reorga-
nizar las rutas asociadas a las tareas basndose en estimaciones de las velocida-
des medias en el viario, podra recalcular las rutas atendiendo a valores mucho
ms cercanos a la realidad.
Fig. 1 Sistema global de optimizacin dinmica
La metodologa dinmica que se plantea va mejorando la solucin iterativa-

mente. Al principio de la jornada, se lanza una optimizacin inicial al problema,
que permitira poseer una solucin de partida. Sin embargo, dado que el tiempo de
trnsito es incierto, se hace imposible conocer a priori el tiempo exacto requerido
para completar una tarea; y por lo tanto, aparecen desajustes entre la realidad y lo
esperado segn la solucin planteada al principio.
1036
Para corregir dichos desajustes se ha planteado una metodologa dinmica de

optimizacin. En ciertos momentos se lanzan reoptimizaciones en bsqueda de
Capt ulo 6 Asignaci
una
96 solucin que se adapteonmejor
din a las circunstancias reales existentes, y que pue-
amica a t raves del conocimient o en t iempo real de la
den corregir los previsibles retrasos, o incluso adelantos, en la ejecucin de las ta-
posici
reas. Esta reoptimizacin habr tenido en cuenta las circunstancias on dereales
la otque
a
acontecen y slo considerar las tareas pendientes de ejecutar. La nueva solucin
podr cambiar
previsibles la asignacin
ret rasos, de tareas
o incluso adelant a vehculos,
os, en la ejecuci teniendo en cuenta que los
on de las t areas. Est a reopt imiza-
vehculos que se encuentran ejecutando tareas en ese momento debern terminar-
ci
lasonantes
habrde poder empezar con una nueva.
a t enido en cuent a las circunst ancias reales que acont ecen y s
Un esquema de todo este proceso es representado en la Figura 2, donde se
olo considerar
aprecia que el sistema siempre est informado de la posicin en la que se encuen- a las
tran lospendient
t areas vehculos.
es de ejecut ar. La nueva soluci
ehculos y sobre las posibles t areas que est aran
on podr
ejecut ando.
a cambiar la asignaci
on de t areas
a vehculos,
POSICIN
DE LOS
t eniendo en
Estado cuent
de los culos que se encuent ran ejecut ando t areas en
vehculosa que los veh
VEHCULOS Localizacin
ese moment o deber
FREE | ASSIGNED | BUSY
DEPOTVEH | NOMDEPOTVEH
an t |erminarlas
USEDVEH NONUSEDVEH ant es de poder empezar con una nueva. Para ayudar
a solvent ar t oda la casust ica en la que pueden encont rarse los vehculos se han denido
SOLICITUD DE
ALGORITMO
TAREAS
unas tareas cticias, verde las
Estado epgrafe
tareas
PENDING | IN PROCESS | FINISHED
6.4, queSEGUIMIENTO
cont ienen informaciDE SOLUCIN
DINMICO on sobre la posici
OPTIMIZACIN
on de los
v INFORMACIN
DE LA RED
VIARIA Estado de la red
Distribucin de la velocidad por reas
Fig. 2 Esquema de seguimiento

Figur a dinmico
6.2: Esquema del seguimient o dinamico
Un esquema de t odo est e proceso es represent ado en la Figura 6.2, donde se

3aprecia
Eventos deema
que el sist Reoptimizacin
siempre est
a informado de la posici
ehculos. on en la que se encuent ran los
Las
v reoptimizaciones comentadas se lanzan cuando ocurren algunas circunstancias
Como ejemplo se puede considerar un caso con dos vehculos y seis t areas;
destacables, llamadas eventos de reoptimizacin. Cuatro eventos distintos han sido
cuat ro de dichas t areas se t rat an de t areas de export aci
propuestos: on y dos de ellas son t areas de
import aci
Un tiempo on. Losfijo.
vehculos comienzan la jornada en el dep
Al terminar una tarea. osit o y deben complet ar t odas
Cuando un vehculo se desva de su
las t areas, ret ornando nuevament e al dep posicin deseable un determinado factor.
osit o. Con la informaci
En un instante crtico. on disponible al principio
de la jornada,
erse el sistde
ema considera como mejor soluci
El en los enlaces
procedimiento la Figura
iterativo 6.3.mejora
de no tiene por qumost
on la tener
radaena cuenta todos los
cont inuaci
eventos de reoptimizacin sealados; ser necesario establecer una solucin on yde
t ambien
compromiso
VEH en 1:
laentre
Figura 6.3a;
) la1 misma
capacidad
Ini(Depot se encuent
de2 adaptacin
4 6y raelatnmero
endiendo
End(Depot a las
) de rest ricciones t empo-
reoptimizaciones.
Los
rales dosradas
most primeros eventos
en la Tabla 6.1 yson
los sencillos
t iempos dede comprender.
desplazamient os En el primero
esperados, la reop-
que pueden
VEH 2:
timizacin
v se Ini(Depot
lanza cada) cierto
3 5tiempo,
End(Depot
cuando ) ha transcurrido un tiempo desde la
En el caso que los t iempos de desplazamient o a lo largo de la rut a coincidieran

1037
con los t iempos esperados1, las dist int as t areas seran at endidas en los inst ant es que se
muest ran en la Tabla 6.2.
1
Se ha considerado t iempos de servicio nulos
anterior reoptimizacin. Este tiempo es fijado a priori, por ejemplo 15 minutos. En

el segundo tipo de evento la reoptimizacin se lanza al concluir la ejecucin de
una tarea; de ese modo, antes que el conductor que acaba de terminar la tarea se
dirija a la siguiente tarea, se examina si las condiciones del entorno han cambiado,
y por tanto pueden existir mejores alternativas.
El tercer evento de reoptimizacin lanza la misma cuando los vehculos se re-
trasan de las posiciones esperadas, intentando buscar soluciones que no tengan di-
ficultades en alcanzar determinadas tareas. Una explicacin del lanzamiento puede
verse en la Figura 3. La Figura 3a muestra la asignacin inmediata de un determi-
nado vehculo, las tareas 1 y 2 en el ejemplo; y la Figura 3b muestra el esquema
espacio-temporal para el cumplimiento de las ventanas temporales de las dos tare-
as que el vehculo tiene asignadas a priori. Si un vehculo se encuentra dentro de
las franjas marcadas por lneas discontinuas para una determinada ventana tempo-
ral, entonces se encuentra dentro de una posicin esperada para completar la tarea
a tiempo; si el mismo se encuentra por encima de la lnea discontinua superior y
por debajo de la lnea continua entonces el vehculo se encuentra retrasado respec-
to a su situacin esperada, pero su desviacin respecto a la posicin esperada est
dentro de un factor de tolerancia; si el vehculo se encuentra por encima de dicha
lnea continua, se hace necesaria una reoptimizacin, en bsqueda de soluciones
ms fiables. Las tareas que se analizarn de las asignadas al vehculo sern las que
se encuentran dentro de una distancia de anlisis. Siguiendo con el ejemplo de la
Figura 3b un vehculo en la situacin de a se encuentra dentro de su posicin espe-
rada para cumplir a tiempo la tarea 1 y la tarea 2; si el mismo se encontrara en la
situacin de b podra cumplir las restricciones temporales de la tarea 1, sin embar-
go es previsible que tenga dificultades para cumplir las restricciones temporales de
la tarea 2, por lo que atendiendo a la distancia de anlisis se lanzara una reoptimi-
zacin; en la situacin c el vehculo se encuentra en una situacin esperada para
desarrollar la tarea 2; un vehculo en d se habra desviado y estara algo retrasado,
pero se encontrara dentro la ventana de tolerancia; por ltimo, un vehculo en la
situacin e estara retrasado para poder completar a tiempo la tarea 2, y se produ-
cira una reoptimizacin, con la espera de poder encontrar una solucin mejor del
problema.
El ltimo de los eventos indicados lanza una reoptimizacin cuando se alcanza
el instante crtico de una determinada tarea. Este instante se define como el mo-
mento en el que un vehculo necesitara salir del depsito para poder realizar a
tiempo la tarea correspondiente. Este tipo de evento de reoptimizacin ser siem-
pre un complemento de los anteriores, y nunca el algoritmo dinmico funcionar
con l slo.
1038
Fig. 3 Reoptimizacin por desviacin de la posicin esperada.
4 Test y Resultados
Este epgrafe va a intentar comparar los eventos de reoptimizacin mostrados an-

teriormente. La reoptimizacin al terminar la tarea y la reoptimizacin en un ins-
tante crtico se realizarn siempre. Testendose las otras dos reoptimizaciones co-
mo complemento de las anteriores. Este planteamiento se sustenta en el hecho de
que la reoptimizacin no puede perder la oportunidad de cambiar la asignacin de
tareas sin necesidad de que el vehculo se vea afectado en mitad de la ruta; por
tanto no se ha considerado oportuno dejar de usar la reoptimizacin en el momen-
to que una tarea es finalizada.
En el caso de reoptimizaciones cada cierto intervalo de tiempo, una importante
cuestin sera determinar dicho intervalo temporal. Se diseo para tal fin un expe-
rimento que, sobre un mismo problema (instancia R1.1 para 25 tareas), iba varian-
do dicho intervalo de reoptimizacin, ReOptTime. De este modo se pretenda ver
cmo se comportaba la solucin (ver Figura 4a) y cunto tiempo de ejecucin en
la CPU consuma (ver Figura 4b).
Los resultados muestran cmo por norma al disminuir el intervalo de reoptimi-
zacin aumenta la calidad de la solucin (ver Figura 4a), aunque aumenta el tiem-
1039
po de computacin consumido (ver Figura 4b). A la vista de los resultados, un in-

tervalo de reoptimizacin de unos 10 minutos se ha considerado el ms apropiado,
dado que aumenta la calidad de la solucin sin aumentar excesivamente el tiempo
de computacin.
Fig. 4 (a) Coste total de la solucin y (b) tiempo computacional consumido dependiendo del in-
tervalo de reoptimizacin.
La Tabla 1 muestran una comparativa de los diferentes eventos de reoptimiza-

cin testeado para diferentes tamaos de problemas. En la misma se muestra el
porcentaje de mejora respecto al caso de no aplicar reoptimizacin. FinT significa
que existe reoptimizacin al finalizar una tarea, FixT significa que se han aadido
reoptimizaciones cuando pasa un cierto tiempo fijo, y por ltimo DEP significa
que se han aadido reoptimizaciones cuando existe desviacin de los vehculos
sobre la posicin esperada.
Las tablas muestra varios detalles a destacar. El primero que, por norma gene-
ral, aadir nuevos eventos de reoptimizaciones mejora la calidad de las soluciones;
de media la opcin de reoptimizar cada cierto tiempo y cuando termina una tarea
es la que mejores prestaciones presenta.
Cuando se habla de casos particulares el comportamiento no es siempre as; re-
optimizar ms veces no tiene necesariamente que implicar mayor mejora. Este
hecho es lgico; dado que las reoptimizaciones cambian asignaciones de tareas a
vehculos ante circunstancias adversas, los vehculos cambian sus rutas; sin em-
bargo estos cambios no garantizan que el trfico vaya a ser fluido en la nueva ruta.
Otra consideracin a tener en cuenta es el tiempo de computacin que ocupa
cada una de las alternativas mostradas; los tiempos para todos los tipos de reopti-
mizaciones por nmero de tareas se presentan en la Tabla 2.
1040
Tabla 1 Comparacin de diferentes eventos de reoptimizacin Mejora
Nmero Tareas Clase Mejora (%)

FinT FixT DEP
25 R1 5,88 6,41 6,19
C1 1,76 1,92 1,83
RC1 4,38 4,97 4,97
Total 4,18 4,62 4,50
50 R1 4,96 5,25 5,07
C1 3,96 3,74 3,97
RC1 4,30 4,66 4,46
Total 4,47 4,62 4,56
100 R1 8,05 8,61 8,37
C1 7,66 7,34 7,44
RC1 5,66 5,75 5,76
Total 7,27 7,43 7,36
Tabla 2 Comparacin diferentes eventos de reoptimizacin Tiempo computacional (seg.)
Evento Nmero de tareas

25 50 100
FinT 0,63 2,05 12,97
DEP 1,27 3,82 21,24
FixT 2,12 6,92 35,15
5 Conclusin
La reoptimizacin como bsqueda dinmica de mejores soluciones se ha presenta-

do como un proceso eficaz para la mejora de procedimientos donde existe incerti-
dumbre. Sin embargo, es necesario se cuidadoso en que momentos se realizan di-
chas reoptimizaciones, para de este modo conseguir adems un proceso eficiente.
Un aumento del nmero de reoptimizaciones trae consecuentemente ligado una
mejora media en las soluciones encontradas, pero esta mejora no se comporta de
modo proporcional al aumento del tiempo computacional.
Este trabajo a testeado diferentes eventos de reoptimizacin, para demostrar
que no slo es necesario realizar este proceso iterativo de mejora, sino que adems
es conveniente elegir adecuadamente el momento en el cual realizarlo.
1041
6 Referencias
Adbdel-Aty MA, Kitamura R y Jovanis PP (1997). Using stated preference data for studying the
effect of advanced traffic information on drivers route choice. Transportation Research Part
C - Emerging Technologies, 5(1), pp. 3950.
Chorus CG, Arentze TA, Molin EJE, Timmermans HJP y van Wee B (2006). The value of travel
information: Decision strategy-specific conceptualizations and numerical examples. Trans-
portation Research Part B - Methodological, 40(6), pp. 504519.
Escudero A, Muuzuri J, Arango C y Onieva L (2011). A satellite navigation system to improve
the management of intermodal drayage. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 25(3), pp. 427
434.
Escudero A, Muuzuri J, Guadix J y Arango C (2011) Heurstica de asignacin en tiempo real de
vehculos a tareas de acarreo intermodal. Direccin y Organizacin, Revista de Ingeniera de
Organizacin, 45, 32-37.
Escudero A, Muuzuri J, Guadix J y Arango C (2013). Dynamic approach to solve the daily
drayage problem with transit time uncertainty. Computers in Industry. doi:
10.1016/j.compind.2012.11.006.
Escudero A, Muuzuri J, Onieva L, Arango C (2012) Oportunidades del daily drayage problem
en la optimizacin del transporte de mercancas europeo. 6th International Conference on In-
dustrial Engineering and Industrial Management. XVI Congreso de Ingeniera de Organiza-
cin (CIO 2012), Vigo.
Koutsopoulos HN y Xu H (1993). An information discounting routing strategy for advanced
traveler information systems. Transportation Research Part C - Emerging Technologies, 1(3),
pp. 249264.
Levinson D (2003). The value of advanced traveler information systems for route choice. Trans-
portation Research Part C - Emerging Technologies, 11(1), pp. 7587.
Pillac V, Gendreau M, Guret C y Medaglia AL (2013). A review of dynamic vehicle routing
problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 225(1), pp. 111.
Psaraftis HN (1995). Dynamic vehicle routing: Status and prospects. Annals of Operations Rese-
arch, 61(1), pp. 143164.
1042
Sistemas de Ayuda a la Toma de Decisiones

para la gestin de Incidencias
Decision Support Systems for Incident Management.
Valero R, Boza A1, Vicens E
Abstract This article talks about how the DSS (Decision Support Systems), work-
ing in support of decision making when these incidents are given by the company.
The incidence is an event not expected by the company, which may have a nega-
tive impact in the company. So, it is necessary developing methods to act on its
resolution quickly and efficiently. The main thing is to define the types of deci-
sions by way of resolution, both being guided by the policies and rules of the
company, as the decision maker, creating a hierarchy in decision-making in the
company, and giving importance a good collection of information and the most ef-
fective treatment of this for use in the company.
Resumen Este artculo aborda los DSS, sistemas de ayuda a la toma de decisio-
nes, cuando estas deben tomarse por incidencias en la empresa. La incidencia no
es ms que un evento no programado por la empresa, que puede repercutirnos ne-
gativamente en la empresa. Con lo que tenemos que crear mtodos para actuar en
su resolucin de forma rpida y eficaz. Lo principal es definir los tipos de decisin
por su forma de resolucin, tanto por estar guiadas por las polticas y las normas
de la empresa, como por quien toma las decisiones, creando una jerarqua en la
toma de decisiones en la empresa, y dando importancia a una adecuada recogida
de informacin y un tratamiento efectivo de la misma por la organizacin.
1Andrs Boza ( e-mail: aboza@omp.upv.es)
Centro de Investigacin Gestin e Ingeniera de la Produccin (CIGIP). Universitat Politcnica

de Valncia. Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia. Spain
* Esta investigacin se ha llevado a cabo en el marco del proyecto financiado por el
Vicerrectorado de Investigacin de la Universitat Politcnica de Valncia titulado Sistema de
ayuda a la toma de decisiones ante decisiones no programadas en la planificacin jerrquica de la
produccin (ADENPRO-PJP) Ref. SP20120703.
1043
Keywords: Decision Support Systems, Incident Management

Palabras clave: Sistemas de Ayuda a la Toma de Decisiones, Gestin de Inciden-
cias.
1 Introduccin
La toma de decisiones en un entorno empresarial implica decidir qu hacer frente

a un problema que tenga la empresa o simplemente elegir una opcin en algn te-
ma en el que tengamos esa capacidad. Esto nos lleva a plantearnos, que decisin
es la buena y cual la mala, aunque quizs sera ms correcto hablar sobre qu deci-
sin es la mejor de todas las posibles que tenemos o las ms adecuada segn sus
circunstancias. Y cmo lo sabemos?
Los DSS son herramientas de TI (Tecnologas de la Informacin) que ayudan
aportando informacin y dando posibles soluciones, segn sea el caso, a la toma
de decisiones. Esto aplicado a la gestin de incidencias produce beneficios, al me-
jorar los tiempos de repuesta y evitar sobrecostes.
Para intentar explicar esto mejor tenemos que hablar de los distintos niveles de
la empresa y el tipo de decisiones que toman. Las decisiones que se toman en los
distintos niveles de la organizacin no son siempre estructuradas, y en ocasiones
se requieren tomar decisiones semi-estructuradas, donde se tiene informacin par-
cial y donde el decisor participa introduciendo sus propios criterios. Segn subi-
mos en la cadena de mando las decisiones se van haciendo cada vez ms difciles
porque son cada vez ms abstractas.
Esto lleva a disear programas especializados en la toma de decisiones, los cua-
les tienen como funcin principal la de mejorar el proceso de toma de decisiones
intentando obtener toda la informacin que necesita el decisor para tomar la deci-
sin, de forma rpida, y de exponer esta informacin de manera que sea fcil y
rpida de entender. Pero este tipo de programas se han especializado segn el tipo
de decisor, porque la informacin necesaria en cada caso es distinta y lo que afec-
ta la decisin a la empresa tambin. Una decisin operativa tiene una importancia
menor y causa un dao menor en la empresa si se toma mal, que una decisin es-
tratgica.
Segn los distintos tipos de decisiones posibles existen distintos programas de
ayuda a la toma de decisiones como son MIS (Management Information Systems-
Sistema de Ayuda Gerencial), DSS (Decision Support Systems-Sistema de Apoyo
a las Decisiones) y EIS (Executive Information Systems-Sistema de Informacin
Ejecutiva). Cada uno de los cuales est diseado para dar servicio a un nivel de la
empresa distinto, con lo que tratan la informacin de forma distinta y las decisio-
nes que se toman en cada uno de ellos afectan en distinto nivel a la empresa.
La gestin de incidencias es un sistema para el que los DSS tienen mucha im-
portancia, porque hay que decidir cmo actuar ante un evento no programado en la
1044
empresa. Esto puede ser un evento bueno o malo, aunque siempre se hace hincapi
en lo malo, porque causa perjuicio econmico, aunque no actuar en el momento
adecuado en un evento bueno puede hacer que este se convierta en malo. Pero lo
importante aqu es la importancia del evento, un pequeo problema en produccin,
puede ser solucionado en un momento sin afectar a nada ni a nadie, con lo que la
incidencia se ha resuelto sin producir perjuicio. Pero puede ser, que un problema
de produccin no se pueda resolver a su nivel y tengamos que subir al nivel si-
guiente (mandos intermedios) o incluso llegar hasta la direccin de la empresa. Es
en este punto donde los DSS ganan importancia.
2 Anlisis de la Literatura
Ahora se ver como tratan este tema otros autores, donde dan una visin de la
aplica la gestin de incidencias en los sistemas de ayuda a la toma de decisiones.
Los DSS son importantes en produccin porque son efectivos en los problemas
de produccin, tanto en la programacin como en el balanceo. En la programacin
solucionan problemas de programacin o de flexibilidad de horarios y en balanceo
equilibran el trabajo por lnea (Guo et al., 2009).
Para Boza et al. (2009), es muy importante que la jerarqua de la empresa y del
DSS se integren la una en la otra para mejorar y flexibilizar la toma de decisiones
dentro de la empresa.
Entrando ya en el tema de las incidencias, Barash et al. (2007) nos comenta
que es una ayuda muy importante la utilizacin de TI en la gestin de incidentes,
es bueno para dar un servicio normal y minimizar los efectos de estos. Las inci-
dencias tienen distinta importancia dentro de la empresa y hay que analizar su
complejidad y a qu grupo de personas es conveniente asignarlas para su buena
resolucin.
Para Asghar et al. (2008), el DSS hay que adaptarlo a las necesidades que te-
nemos, lo cual tiene una gran importancia, porque esto nos dar una ventaja com-
petitiva. As, Ibrahim and Allen (2012) indican que existe un sistema de roles en la
cadena de mando y cada miembro de esta tiene que realizar la funcin que tiene
asignada, y que la informacin a compartir tiene que ser la ltima conseguida para
poder actuar con mayor eficacia sobre el incidente.
El problema en la toma de decisiones es conseguir buena informacin (Allen,
2011; Kim et al., 2007), pero en situaciones donde el tiempo es crtico la intuicin
es la primera recogida de datos, y despus se puede tomar las decisiones de forma
racional, casi racional o intuitiva, segn sean las necesidades. Esto hace que las
experiencias, elementos cognitivos, objetivos, valores y prioridades de cada per-
sona sean fundamentales en la recogida de informacin inicial (intuicin) y en la
toma de decisiones.
1045
Segn Pavanasam et al. (2010), la toma de decisiones requiere tener conoci-

miento de mltiples contextos o dimensiones, y para ello es bueno crear una base
de conocimiento, polticas y requerimientos necesarios para una buena toma de
decisiones.
Para la gestin de incidencias Bartolini et al. (2010), explican que se requiere
para el buen funcionamiento del proceso de toma de decisin, crear un modelo re-
alista, lo que necesita una gran cantidad de parmetros, lo cual genera unos pro-
blemas que no se pueden optimizar analticamente y que generan una gran com-
plejidad computacional.
Por ltimo Bartolini et al. (2009) argumenta que hay que reducir el impacto de
la incidencia crtica, porque reducir tiempo de respuesta reduce los costes, lo cual
es muy beneficioso y una ventaja competitiva.
En la figura 2 podemos apreciar cuales seran los pasos que tendramos en un
DSS para tomar una decisin y como funciona cada uno.
Fig. 1 Flujo de un DSS (Bartolini et al., 2009)
En la figura 3 se puede apreciar como es el ciclo de vida de un incidente, como

una vez creado entra en un bucle que se realimenta hasta que se resuelve, pudien-
do estar un tiempo en espera para su futura reactivacin y nueva bsqueda de so-
lucin.
Fig. 2 Ciclo de Vida de un Incidente (Bartolini et al., 2010)
1046
3 Anlisis
Despus de todo lo expuesto, lo que se puede deducir como fundamental en el

proceso de toma de decisiones para la gestin de incidencias es:
El tiempo de respuesta es fundamental para evitar sobrecostes.
Que la informacin con la que trabajamos en una incidencia no es la misma
que tenemos del trabajo normal de la empresa, sino que tiene que ser relevante
para esa incidencia.
Que tenemos que conseguir trabajar con la informacin ms reciente posible y
de mejor calidad, con todos los problemas que eso aporta.
Que el DSS tiene que estar adaptado a nuestras necesidades. Debe ser un sis-
tema amigable y que aporte toda la informacin que necesitamos y que nos de
las posibles soluciones o nos permita en todo caso realizar previsiones de posi-
bles soluciones.
Que existe un importante factor humano en la toma de decisiones, sobre todo
como subimos jerrquicamente en la empresa.
Definido esto nos encontramos que con un ordenador de gran capacidad de
clculo), y un DSS que se adapte perfectamente a nuestra empresa, con un modelo
lo ms exacto posible a la realidad, podemos tener una gran ventaja competitiva,
porque la resolucin de problemas ser rpida y eficaz de forma que nos permitir
ahorrar en la empresa.
Pero podemos decir que el punto ms importante de todos es que hay que defi-
nir correctamente la jerarqua de la empresa e integrarla con la jerarqua del DSS,
y definir como se toman las decisiones dentro de esta, quin toma las decisiones
estructuradas, que suelen estar automatizadas. Quin toma las decisiones semies-
tructuradas, que se estn automatizando cada vez ms y que necesitan dentro del
DSS un tipo de informacin ms concreta que global. Y por ltimo quin toma las
decisiones no estructuradas que son manuales y tienden a ser semiautomticas, y
que necesitan una informacin ms global.
El impacto que tiene la incidencia sobre un nivel de decisin debe ser abordado
desde una perspectiva amplia de la jerarqua de decisin, ya que una adecuada de-
cisin para una nivel puede generar problemas en otros niveles debido a la exis-
tencia de dicha incidencia.
En resumen una buena recogida de datos, una base de datos con la que trabajar
alineada con los objetivos de la empresa, y en el caso de las incidencias con in-
formacin relevante para la resolucin de la incidencia, y un DSS que sepa gestio-
nar la informacin de la base de datos de forma amigable, rpida y econmica pa-
ra ayudar a la toma de decisiones dentro de la empresa permiten mejorar el
presente y el futuro de la empresa.
1047
4 Lneas Futuras
El futuro en este campo se puede decir que ya se est aplicando en las empresas
ms punteras, y lo siguiente que vendr solo se puede prever por la evolucin que
tenga la informtica, la cual cambia a una velocidad impresionante, y la gestin
que realice la empresa sobre la misma.
DSS que trabajen va web son ya una realidad, por ejemplo Bartolini et al.
(2010, 2009) trabajan sobre un sistema apoyo a la toma de decisin gestionado
por grupos y que funciona va web.
Otras nuevas propuestas y herramientas nos abren nuevas posibilidades, Bry-
nielsson (2007) indica que el ejrcito utiliza tambin este tipo de tcnicas, pero las
lleva ms all, hasta el punto de utilizar en un juego de guerra Teoras de Juego e
Inteligencia Artificial.
Por ltimo, Trappey et al. (2007) trata la gestin de incidencias en las distintas
partes del proceso productivo donde, por ejemplo, la utilidad de los DSS en el de-
sarrollo de nuevos productos genera una gran ventaja competitiva, al reducir los
tiempos en la solucin de problemas que tenemos en el diseo de estos nuevos
productos, lo cual genera un ahorro econmico.
El trabajo en el campo de la automatizacin de la toma de decisiones y del pro-
cesado de informacin ms potentes est permitiendo crear mtodos en los que los
ordenadores cada vez tienen ms peso en las decisiones o facilitan en mayor me-
dida la labor del decisor, lo cual, en el caso de gestin de incidencias alcanza a
mltiples mbitos de la organizacin.
5 Conclusin
Un DSS es un sistema que ayuda a la toma de decisiones y es una herramienta

fundamental para la gestin de incidencias en la organizacin. La gestin de inci-
dencias puede requerir de la toma de decisiones en diferentes niveles de toma de
decisin de la organizacin.
Para ello, se debe definir 1) el proceso de toma de decisin para gestionar la in-
cidencia y las etapas en las que participa el DSS. 2) la informacin relevante para
buscar la solucin de esa incidencia, la cual debe ser lo ms reciente posible, 3) un
interfaz amigable y fcil de usar por el decisor de la incidencia y 4) el modelo de
resolucin de la incidencia.
Un DSS capaz de facilitar la gestin de incidencias puede mejorar el proceso
productivo, por ejemplo reduciendo tiempos de inactividad, reduciendo los daos
fsicos, mejorando la calidad del producto o la flexibilidad del proceso, lo que al
final es una ventaja competitiva.
1048
6 Referencias
Allen, D., 2011. Information Behavior and Decision Making in Time-Constrained Practice: A
Dual-Processing Perspective. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 62, 21652181.
Asghar, S., Alahakoon, D., Churilov, L., 2008. Categorization of disaster decision support needs
for the development of an integrated model for DMDSS. Int. J. Inf. Technol. Decis. Mak. 7,
115145.
Barash, G., Bartolilli, C., Wu, L., 2007. Measuring and improving the performance of an IT sup-
port organization in managing service incidents. Ieee, New York.
Bartolini, C., Stefanelli, C., Tortonesi, M., 2009. Business-impact analysis and simulation of crit-
ical incidents in IT service management. Ieee, New York.
Bartolini, C., Stefanelli, C., Tortonesi, M., 2010. SYMIAN: Analysis and performance im-
provement of the IT incident management process. IEEE Transactions on Network and Ser-
vice Management 7, 132 144.
Boza, A., Ortiz, A., Vicens, E., Poler, R., 2009. A Framework for a Decision Support System in
a hierarchical extended enterprise decision context. Enterprise Interoperability 113124.
Brynielsson, J., 2007. Using AI and games for decision support in command and control. Decis.
Support Syst. 43, 14541463.
Guo, Z.X., Wong, W.K., Leung, S.Y.S., Fan, J.T., 2009. Intelligent production control decision
support system for flexible assembly lines. Expert Syst. Appl. 36, 42684277.
Ibrahim, N.H., Allen, D., 2012. Information sharing and trust during major incidents: Findings
from the oil industry. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 63, 19161928.
Kim, J.K., Sharman, R., Rao, H.R., Upadhyaya, S., 2007. Efficiency of critical incident man-
agement systems: Instrument development and validation. Decis. Support Syst. 44, 235
250.
Pavanasam, V., Subramaniam, C., Mulchandani, M., Parthasarathy, A., 2010. Knowledge Based
Requirement Engineering Framework for Emergency Management System. Ieee Computer
Soc, Los Alamitos.
Trappey, A.J.C., Chiang, T.-A., Chen, W.-C., Kuo, J.-Y., Yu, C.-W., 2007. A DEA benchmark-
ing methodology for new product development process optimization. Springer-Verlag Lon-
don Ltd, Godalming.
1049
Sistema de Control y Reprogramacin de la

Produccin basado en Captura Inalmbrica de
Datos en Planta
Control System and Rescheduling of Production Based on Wireless Data
Capture at Floor
Eguizbal L1, Lago A2, Fernndez A3
Abstract This paper presents a manufacturing control system that allows combine
information from the planning of the production, generated from the ERP, with
real-time information collected from the manufacturing plant situation. Thus, the
control system can reprogram the production based on the current state of produc-
tion workshop and new events that occur day by day (rush orders, machine break-
down, and so on.). This application of production control is based on an innova-
tive data capture system in workshop, based radio frequency identification
(RFID). To increase the versatility of the capture system, have combined the use
of RFID readers, with the implementation of a wireless data network based on the
ZigBee protocol. The use both technologies enables the development of an easy
implantation systems and low cost. The solution developed is useful for compa-
nies with low degree of automation, which require reliable data in real time, to
perform tasks such as: asset management, queue management of manufacture, real
calculations of costs and manufacturing time measurement. Throughout this work
will be described in detail, the data capture system and the application to control
the production developed.
1Luis Eguizbal Gndara ( e-mail: eguizaba@uvigo.es)

Dpto. de Tecnoloxa Electrnica. Escola de Enxeera Industrial. Universidade de Vigo.
C/ Torrecedeira 86, 36208 Vigo.
2
Alfonso Lago Ferreiro ( e-mail: alago@uvigo.es)
Dpto. de Tecnoloxa Electrnica. Escola de Enxeera Industrial. Universidade de Vigo.
Campus Universitario Lagoas-Marcosende, 36310 Vigo.
3
Arturo Fernndez Gnzalez ( e-mail: ajfdez@uvigo.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas y Marketing. Escola de Enxeera Industrial. Universida de
de Vigo. Campus Universitario Lagoas-Marcosende, 36310 Vigo.
1050
Resumen Este artculo presenta un sistema de control de la produccin que permi-

te combinar la informacin procedente de los planes de fabricacin, generada des-
de el sistema de gestin empresarial (ERP), con la informacin recogida en tiempo
real de la situacin de la planta de produccin. De esta manera el sistema de con-
trol permite reprogramar la produccin basndose en el estado actual de los talle-
res de produccin y nuevos eventos que se producen en el da a da (pedidos ur-
gentes, avera en mquinas, etc.). Esta aplicacin de control de la produccin est
basada en un innovador sistema de captura de datos en planta, que emplea la iden-
tificacin por radio frecuencia (RFID). Para incrementar la versatilidad del siste-
ma de captura se ha combinado el uso de lectores RFID, con la implementacin de
una red de datos inalmbrica basada en el protocolo ZigBee. El uso de ambas tec-
nologas permite el desarrollo de un sistema de fcil implementacin y bajo coste.
La solucin desarrollada es til para empresas con bajo grado de automatizacin,
que requieran datos fiables en tiempo real, para realizar tareas como: gestin de
activos, gestin de colas de fabricacin, clculos reales de coste y tiempos de fa-
bricacin. A lo largo de este trabajo se describirn en detalle, el sistema de captura
de datos y la aplicacin para el control de la produccin desarrollada.
Keywords: Production Management, Production Scheduling and Rescheduling,

Enterprise Resource Planning, Asset Management, Workshop Data Capture, Ra-
dioFrequency IDentification (RFID).
Palabras clave: Gestin de la Produccin, Programacin y Reprogramacin de la
Produccin, ERP, Gestin de Activos, Captura de Datos en Planta, Identificacin
por Radio Frecuencia.
1 Introduccin
El sistema de control de la produccin que se presenta en este artculo est pensa-

do para empresas organizadas en talleres funcionales (Job-Shop) con bajo grado
de automatizacin. Este tipo de centros de produccin se caracterizan por atender
una fabricacin bajo pedido, con poco grado de estandarizacin en sus productos y
con lotes pequeos de fabricacin. Otro aspecto que destaca en este tipo de empre-
sas es la dificultad de elaborar la programacin de la produccin (Scheduling) de-
jando la complicada tarea de gestionar las rdenes de Trabajo (OT) al encargado
del taller.
Como resultado de esta situacin los talleres con distribucin por proceso, tie-
nen la gran ventaja de ser muy verstiles a la hora de abordar distintos tipos de ta-
reas y productos, pero presentan el inconveniente de ser difciles de gestionar.
Blazewicz J (1996) analiza en detalle la problemtica de realizar la planifica-
cin de la produccin en talleres de tipo Job Shop. Con la finalidad de obtener me-
1051
joras en la productividad en talleres de fabricacin con distribucin de este tipo y

bajo grado de automatizacin, se pens desarrollar un Sistema de Captura de Da-
tos en Planta (SCDP), que ofrezca al departamento de produccin, datos fiables y
en tiempo real de la situacin del taller. Esta informacin permitir la reprograma-
cin de la produccin y, en general, la toma de decisiones para incrementar su efi-
ciencia de los procesos de fabricacin. Hasta la fecha, la toma de datos en la ma-
yora de las empresas de tipo Job Shop se realiza, en el mejor de los casos,
mediante terminales tctiles de comunicacin hombre-mquina o con PCs. Este
mtodo tiene el inconveniente que los operarios tienen que introducir la informa-
cin de las tareas realizadas manualmente, aspecto que provoca la baja fiabilidad
de los datos recogidos, tanto por los posibles errores como por la posibilidad de al-
terar los datos a conveniencia del trabajador. La aparicin de la tecnologa RFID,
ha permitido implementar SCDP semiautomticos, aspecto que incrementa la cali-
dad de la informacin aportada y reduce los tiempos improductivos de los opera-
rios.
En este trabajo se presenta tanto la parte hardware con el software para imple-
mentar un Sistema de Control de la Produccin (SCP) basado en un SCDP con
tecnologa RFID. Con este objetivo se ha organizado este artculo de la siguiente
forma. En la seccin 2 se analizan las dos tecnologas principales que se emplean
para implementar el SCDP: el RFID y las redes de datos inalmbricas. En la sec-
cin 3 se explica en detalle el SCDP desarrollado, describiendo la configuracin
de los lectores y la estructura de la red desarrollada. En la seccin 4 se presenta el
software realizado para implementar el sistema de control de la produccin pro-
puesto, se presentarn la distintas aplicaciones software desarrolladas. Por ltimo,
En la seccin 5 se dedicar al anlisis de las conclusiones y las lneas de investi-
gacin futuras.
2 Tecnologas Utilizadas para la Implementacin del Sistema de

Captura de Datos en Planta
Con la finalidad de implementar un sistema de control y reprogramacin de la

produccin adecuado para empresas de tipo Job-shop, se ha desarrollado un nove-
doso SCDP que proporcionase datos fiables y de la forma automtica. Para ello se
seleccionaron dos tecnologas: el RFID y las redes de datos inalmbricas.
2.1 Identificacin por Radio Frecuencia
El RFID permite identificar artculos, sin contacto ptico entre el lector y la eti-
queta, mediante radiofrecuencia. Presenta otra gran ventaja respecto a otros mto-
1052
dos de identificacin como los cdigos de barras, y es que permite la lectura si-
multnea de mltiples etiquetas. Estas dos caractersticas hacen al RFID de una
herramienta idnea para la recogida de datos en planta. Existe numerosa literatura
donde se analizan la aportacin del RFID a la gestin empresarial, en aspectos
desde la cadena de suministro Xiaowei A (2012), hasta los procesos de produccin
Duncan M (2003) y Kurt H (2008).
En toda aplicacin RFID existen tres componentes bsicos: las etiquetas, los
lectores-escritores de etiquetas y el software de gestin de datos. En la figura 1, se
muestra la estructura ms habitual de los sistemas RFID.
Fig. 1 Estructura sistema RFID
Los parmetros ms importantes que se debe de analizar a la hora de abordar

una implantacin RFID son:
Eleccin de la frecuencia de funcionamiento del sistema RFID. La frecuencia
marcar la distancia de lectura entre el lector y la etiqueta.
Otro aspecto a seleccionar es el tipo de etiquetas. Se pueden clasificar: en pasi-
vas (muy sencillas, baratas y sin batera) y las activas (ms complicadas, con
bateras, pero cuya distancia de lectura es mucho mayor). Entre ambas existe la
variante de las semiactivas.
Otro parmetro importante a considerar es el tipo de productos que se van a
etiquetar en la aplicacin: artculos, herramientas o simplemente los papeles.
Para la implementacin de nuestro SCDP, se emplearn etiquetas HF de bajo
coste e imprimibles con impresoras RFID convencionales, que se pegarn en las
rdenes de Fabricacin (OF) para controlar la evolucin de los procesos de pro-
duccin. Los lectores sern tambin de bajo coste de tipo embebidos (Embedded
RFID Readers).
1053
2.2 Redes de Datos Inalmbrica. Red ZibBee
A la hora de implementar la red de datos se busc una opcin que permitiese su

fcil implementacin y un coste reducido. Adems el sistema de captura no va a
generar un grado volumen de datos. Despus de analizar distintas posibilidades se
decidi emplear la red ZigBee, basada en el estndar IEEE 802.15.4.
Este estndar define dos tipos de dispositivos:
Dispositivos de funcionalidad completa (Full Function Device, FFD).
Dispositivos de Funcionalidad Reducida (Reduced Function Device, RFD).
Un FFD puede funcionar como coordinador PAN (Personal rea Network),
como router o como dispositivo final (End device). Los FFDs pueden comunicar-
se con cualquiera de estos tres tipos de dispositivos. Sin embargo un RFD suele
ser un dispositivo ms simple, con menor capacidad para realizar tareas complejas
o de larga duracin.
En la figura 2, se indica la estructura de tres posibles configuraciones de las re-
des ZigBee.
Fig. 2 Estructuras ms habituales de redes ZigBee
El rango mximo entre nodos de la red depende de la potencia de los mismos,

pero la distancia est comprendida entre 100m y 1Km. La utilizacin de los Rou-
ter permite ampliar el tamao de la red. Este tipo de comunicacin ofrece cami-
nos redundantes por toda la red, de modo que si falla un camino, otro se har car-
go del trfico.
En Callawy E (2002) se presenta una descripcin detallada de las redes bajo la
norma IEEE 802.15.4.
Actualmente existen cerca de una veintena de compaas dedicadas a la fabri-
cacin de chips para el protocolo ZigBee, entre las ms importantes estn: Texas
Instruments, Microchip Technology, Digi International. En este trabajo despus de
1054
estudiar, el hardware y el entorno de desarrollo de estos tres fabricantes, se ha op-

tado por la solucin planteada por Digi International, debido a la cantidad de in-
formacin disponible, a su robustez y su amigable entorno de trabajo.
3 Implementacin de la Red de Captura de Datos en Planta
Tal como se indic en las secciones anteriores, el SCDP que se presenta en este
trabajo est basado en dos tecnologas novedosas: las redes ZigBee y el RFID. La
primera de ellas se ha empleado para la implementacin de la infraestructura de la
red de captura de datos, y la segunda, como elemento de lectura de informacin. A
continuacin, se describe el desarrollo del sistema de captura de datos.
Para este trabajo se ha desarrollado una red ZigBee en configuracin en estre-
lla; es decir, con un coordinador de red Access Point (AP) y un total de cinco de
dispositivos finales (Router/End Device) uno por mquina. En estos dispositivos
finales es donde se implementarn los lectores RFID. Por lo tanto, sern los pun-
tos donde se recoger la informacin de las etiquetas. El AP se conectar directa-
mente al puerto USB del PC y se encargar de recopilar la informacin de toda la
red. A continuacin, se describe la estructura de los elementos de la red y cul es
su configuracin.
Access Point. Para el envo de informacin a los Router/End Device se ha se-
leccionado una comunicacin de tipo Broadcast, de tal manera que los paque-
tes de datos enviados por el AP sern recibidos por todos los elementos de la
red. En las peticiones de informacin enviada a los Router se enviar el nme-
ro de nodo (n de mquina) al que se le realiza la peticin, de tal manera que
solo responder al que pertenezca el identificador enviado.
Estructura de los Router/EndDevice. Este tipo de nodos son los elementos de
captura de datos. En este apartado se describir cul es el hardware y software
desarrollado para implementar los dispositivos finales de la red, basados en
lectores RFID. Para la implementacin de los End Device son necesarios tres
elementos:
1. El lector RFID. Lo primero que se hizo fue seleccionar un lector adecuado que
tuviera posibilidad de comunicacin, adems de un precio asequible. Despus
de analizar distintos lectores de varios fabricantes, se opt por los lectores em-
bebidos del fabricante Skyetek. stos, adems de tener varias salidas de comu-
nicacin (UART, SPI, USB) tienen un robusto protocolo anticolisin, que per-
mite leer varias etiquetas simultneamente, aspecto este ltimo necesario para
esta aplicacin. El lector empleado dispone de una antena integrada.
1055
2. El modem ZigBee. Se seleccion el mismo modelo que para el AP, del fabri-
cante Digi. stos, se programaron en modo AT, y con direccin de destino la
del AP.
3. Un microcontrolador. Para comunicar el lector RFID con el modem ZigBee es
necesario implementar un circuito interface entre ambos. Para la realizacin de
las primeras pruebas se seleccion la plataforma de hardware libre Arduino, ba-
sados en los microcontroladores de Atmel AVR. Este entorno permite desarro-
llar aplicaciones, bajo lenguaje C++, de forma rpida y a bajo coste. Una vez
depurada el hardware se desarroll la placa lectora que se muestra en la figura
3.
Fig. 3 Detalle del Router/EndDevice con todos sus componentes
4 La Aplicacin para Control de la Produccin
El sistema de control de la produccin desarrollado est basado en tres aplicacio-

nes software:
1. El programa para la gestin del SCDP. Esta aplicacin ha sido desarrollada en
C# y tiene por misin la exploracin de sistema de captura, para determinar que
etiquetas RFID se encuentran en cada uno de los lectores. El SCDP est basado
en la colocacin en las OF, de unas etiquetas RFID pasivas de HF. Estas eti-
quetas se pueden imprimir con impresoras RFID, para ser pegadas con las OFs.
En empresas de tipo Job-Shop estudiadas, las rdenes de fabricacin se mueven
por el taller con sus materiales. El SCDP que se presenta en este artculo est
pensado para una planta en la cual se disponen de cinco mquinas, en cada una
de stas se colocarn dos bandejas archivadoras, con sus respectivos lectores de
RFID. En la primera de las bandejas se colocar la OF que est en ejecucin,
junto con la etiqueta que identifica al operario que va a realizar la tarea, y en la
segunda, se ubicarn las OFs, que se encuentran en espera para ser procesadas
en la mquina. La informacin recogida se grabar en una BBDD.
1056
Fig. 4 Consola de gestin del SCDP
2. Una aplicacin realizada en Access que permite tratar los datos suministrados
por el SCDP. Este software acta como Middleware, filtrando la cantidad de
datos que se recogen del SCDP. Para ello se han definido varias tablas donde se
almacenarn las OFs que se encuentran en ejecucin y en espera en cada una de
las mquinas, que forman el taller de produccin. Estas OFs una vez ejecutadas
se pasan a otras tablas, donde se almacenan histricos de los tiempos de ejecu-
cin y de espera de las mismas. Esta base de datos permite realizar:
Gestin de activos. Conociendo en todo momento qu OF se est ejecutando
en cada mquina, que materiales se estn y qu operario est trabajando con
dicha OF. Tambin informa sobre que OFs estn en espera en cada mquina,
cundo se recepcionan las materias primas, o cundo llegan materiales de ope-
raciones externas, etc.
Medicin de tiempos, clculo de indicadores y costes de fabricacin. Con el
sistema de captura de datos basado en tecnologa RFID, se podr medir de
forma automtica e inmediata tiempos de inactividad y actividad de una OF, en
su totalidad o en un centro de trabajo determinado, y/o un tiempo de referen-
cia (p.ej. un turno, una semana, etc). Estos datos permitirn calcular asimismo
indicadores de productividad como, la disponibilidad (relacin entre tiempo
productivo real descontando paradas por setups, esperas o averas- y tiempo
total destinado a produccin), la eficiencia o rendimiento (relacin entre tiem-
po terico para la produccin obtenida y tiempo real invertido). Los indicado-
res anteriores servirn para la determinacin de la OEE (Overall Equipment
Efficiency).
En la figura 5, se puede observar un sinptico de la planta estudiada, en la que
se pueden apreciar las mquinas que estn en marcha (color verde, se detecta OF y
1057
operario), en espera (color amarillo, slo se detecta OF) y paradas (color rojo, no
se detecta ni OF, ni operario).
Fig. 5 Sinptico de la planta de produccin
3. Software planificador de recursos empresariales (Enterprise Resource Planning

ERP). Con la finalidad de realizar un reprogramacin en tiempo real de la pro-
duccin del taller, se ha unificado la informacin proveniente de la planta, con
el programa de produccin elaborado con ayuda de un sistema ERP. Para la
implantacin del ERP se ha seleccionado la aplicacin integrada de cdigo
abierto OpenERP. Tomando como base el programa de produccin obtenido de
una empresa del sector del metal del rea de Vigo y de los lectores ubicados en
sus cinco talleres de produccin, se optimiza la gestin de colas de produccin
en cada una de las mquinas. Esta optimizacin se consigue analizando par-
metros como: fechas de entrega, prioridad de clientes, disponibilidad de mate-
riales para la ejecucin de una orden. En la figura 5, se puede observar las OF
en espera y la secuencia de ejecucin propuesta por el sistema.
5 Conclusiones y Lneas Futuras de Investigacin
En este artculo se ha presentado un novedoso sistema de control de la produccin

para empresas con grado bajo de automatizacin, que necesiten informacin en
tiempo real con la finalidad de mejorar la gestin de sus talleres de fabricacin.
El sistema que se muestra en este trabajo presenta como novedad la utilizacin
de un SCDP basado en lectores RFID inalmbricos, que permite que la recogida
1058
de informacin se realice con una mnima intervencin por parte de los operarios,
los cuales se limitan a ubicar las OFs en los lugares predeterminados para ello, sin
necesidad de teclear datos ni tan siquiera utilizar pantallas tctiles. Esta caracters-
tica hace que los datos recogidos sean inmediatos y ms fiables.
Partiendo de la informacin adquirida, se ha desarrollado una aplicacin soft-
ware que permite mejorar la gestin de los talleres de tipo Job-Shop, proporcio-
nando informacin para:
1. Gestionar los activos
2. Conocer en tiempo real la situacin de la planta de fabricacin.
3. Medir los tiempos de ejecucin y de parada, espera, avera, etc.
4. Realizar clculos reales de indicadores y costes de fabricacin
5. Optimizar la gestin de colas de fabricacin.
Despus de la realizacin de este trabajo se ha observado la posibilidad de inte-
grar todas las aplicaciones software desarrolladas en una nica. Para ello se pre-
tende desarrollar todo el sistema, como un mdulo integrado en el OpenERP, lo
cul facilitara el manejo del sistema de control de la produccin. Otra lnea de
trabajo futuro es la definicin de un algoritmo que automatice la reprogramacin
en tiempo real de la produccin de la planta. Finalmente, tambin se estudia la po-
sibilidad de mejorar el SCDP, de tal manera que ste aporte informacin sobre los
tipos de paradas producidas, con la finalidad de poner en marcha un sistema de
mejora para obtener mayores ndices de OEE.
6 Referencias
Bazewicz, J., Domschke, W., and Pesch, E. (1996). The job shop scheduling problem: Conven-
tional and new solution techniques. European Journal of Operational Research, 93:130.
Duncan McFarlanea, Sanjay Sarmab, Jin Lung Chirna, C.Y. Wonga (2003) Auto ID systems
andintelligent manufacturing control. Pergamon, Engineering Applications of Artificial In-
telligence 16 365376.
Ed Callaway, Paul Gorday, and Lance Hester (August 2002) Home Networking with IEEE
802.15.4: A Developing Standard for Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks. IEEE
Communications Magazine.
Kurt Hozak, David A. Collier (2008) RFID as an Enabler of Improved Manufacturing Perfor-
mance. Decision Sciences, Volume 39 Number 4 November 2008.
Xiaowei Zhu a, Samar K. Mukhopadhyay b, Hisashi Kurata (2012) A review of RFID technolo-
gy and its managerial applications in different industries. Journal of Engineering and Techno-
logy Management, 29 (2012) 152167.
1059
Planificacin y Control de la Produccin en la

Mejora del Proceso de Produccin de
Fabricacin de Juegos Mesas: un Estudio de
Caso
Planning and Control of Production in the Improvement Manufacturing Pro-
cess of Production Tables Games: A Case Study
RaposoJ1, Costa-de MatosAN2, NunesA3
Abstract This study aimed to identify and implement the planning and control of
production (PCP) in a manufacturing company of board games in order to describe
and analyze the phases of PCP. To achieve the above objective, it became a litera-
ture on the chosen topic, and parallel to this was done to collect data for the devel-
opment of the case study. This collection was mainly based on direct observation,
made in the factory of the company, monitor the whole production process of its
products, as well as conducting brainstorming. In then determined the need for de-
ployment of PCP in the company under study. Therefore, it was possible to gather
company management, some activities distributed in the five phases of PCP men-
tioned, so that it provides an improvement in the production process as a whole.
Resumen Este estudio tuvo como objetivo identificar y ejecutar las actividades de
planificacin y control de produccin (PCP) en una empresa de fabricacin de
juegos de mesa con el objetivo de describir y analizar las fases de PCP. Para al-
canzar el objetivo citado, se hizo una literatura sobre el tema elegido, y en paralelo
a esto se hizo para recoger datos para la elaboracin del estudio de caso. Esta co-
leccin se bas principalmente en la observacin directa, realizada en fbrica de la
compaa, el seguimiento de todo el proceso de produccin de sus productos, as
1Jacintade Ftima Perreira Raposo ( e-mail: jacintakd@hotmail.com)

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco- CAA, Brasil
2Ana Nery de Matos Costa ( e-mail: ananerydematos@gmail.com)
Universidade Federal de Campina Grande- Brasil
3Andr Miranda Dourado Nunes ( e-mail: andre.m.dourado@gmail.com)
Universidade Federal de Campina Grande- Brasil
1060
como en la realizacin de lluvia de ideas. En continuacin se determin la necesi-

dad de despliegue de PCP en la empresa objeto de estudio. Por lo tanto, fue posi-
ble reunir gestin de la empresa, algunas actividades distribuidas en las cinco fa-
ses del PCP mencionado, de modo que se proporciona una mejora en el proceso de
produccin en su conjunto.
Keywords: Production Planning and Control, Production Process, Process Im-

provement
Palabras clave: Planificacin y Control de Produccin, Proceso de Produccin,
Mejora de Proceso
1 Introduccin
Actividades del PCP son desarrolladas por un departamento de apoyo a la produc-

cin dentro de la gestin de una empresa. El PCP es responsable de la coordina-
cin y ejecucin de los recursos productivos para satisfacer de la mejor manera
posible a los planes establecidos en los niveles estratgico, tctico y operativo. En
otras palabras, el PCP determina lo que se produce, cunto se produce, cmo se
produce, lo que se produce, quin va a producir y cundo va a ser producido. De-
ntro de este contexto, el presente estudio tuvo como objetivo identificar y ejecutar
las actividades de planificacin y control de produccin (PCP) en un pequea em-
presa Paraibana, cuya jurisdiccin la fabricacin de juegos de mesa, con el objeti-
vo de describir y analizar las fases PCP segundo Machline (1986): Programacin;
Hoja de Ruta; programacin y puesta en libertad; control. Sin embargo, de acuer-
do con los anlisis, fue posible rastrear las actividades que se adapten a estas fases
para mejorar el uso de PCP en la empresa.
Para ello, se aplic una metodologa basada en una revisin de la literatura de
carcter descriptivo, utilizando un marco terico de autores clsicos que describen
el PPC y Russomano Machline, y se clasifica como una investigacin explorato-
ria porque da lugar a un estudio de caso. Los datos fueron obtenidos a travs de
observaciones directas sobre el piso de la fbrica, el seguimiento de todo el proce-
so productivo de la empresa y tambin la participacin de una lluvia de ideas con
la gestin de los mismos.
1061
2 Planificacin y Control de Produccin (PCP)
Segn Tubino (1997) actividades PCP se llevan a cabo en tres niveles jerrquicos
de planificacin y control de las actividades de produccin de un sistema de pro-
duccin, donde
a) En el plano estratgico, donde se definen las polticas estratgicas a largo
plazo del negocio, PCP participa en la formulacin de la Produccin Planificacin
Estratgica, la generacin de un plan de produccin
b) En el plano tctico, donde se establecen planes de mediano plazo para la
produccin, el PCP desarrolla la planificacin de la produccin principal, obte-
niendo el Plan Maestro de Produccin (PMP).
c) A nivel operativo, donde los programas son preparados a corto plazo de la
produccin y llev a cabo el seguimiento de los mismos, la elaboracin de inven-
tarios PCP el programa de produccin, la gestin de secuenciado, emisin y libe-
racin de rdenes de compra, fabricacin y montaje, as como realiza vigilancia y
control de la produccin.
2.1 Programacin
Programacin y planificacin de la produccin es el primer paso y que para de-

terminar los tipos y cantidades de productos que se fabrican sobre la base de las
rdenes recibidas de los clientes y / o previsiones de ventas. Es en esta etapa que
el PCP realiza la gestin de inventario, emisin de rdenes de produccin y pro-
gramacin de rdenes de produccin, donde:
a) En la gestin de inventario PCP administra materia prima, siempre se man-
tiene inventario surtido. Siempre debe estar en contacto con el rea de emisin de
rdenes, no para inmovilizar recursos financieros.
b) La expedicin de las rdenes de produccin se utiliza generalmente para
crear un programa de produccin, gestin de tiempo, as que no se pierda la mate-
ria prima para el programa que se ha estipulado.
c) En la programacin de las rdenes de fabricacin se realiza un anlisis, es
decir, en qu ocasin se realizar la operacin de fabricacin.
2.2 Plan de Trabajo
En la segunda etapa del PCP segundo Machline (1986) es el tiempo para determi-
nar quien har operaciones, en las que se realizan y la unidad de tiempo de la fa-
bricacin de productos para cada operacin
1062
2.3 Programacin
En esta etapa se determina que la produccin comenzar y cundo terminar, por

diferencia, el tiempo que tomar. Con la finalizacin de esta fase, es posible de-
terminar el patrn de tiempo de las operaciones y de este modo establecer un con-
trol de tiempo y aun as asegurar el servicio al cliente final en el perodo de pre-
guntas de manera ptima.
2.4 Aplicacin
Segn Russomano (1979), en sistemas de PPC ms complejo, la liberacin o el

paso de las rdenes de fabricacin se encarga de todos los trmites para hacer: la
eliminacin de almacn de materia prima, contando partes, traslado y entrega de
las piezas producidas etc.
Es por esta fase de la aplicacin:
a) Verifique la disponibilidad de materiales, herramientas e instrucciones tcni-
cas para las rdenes de fabricacin para ser iniciado, y ponerlos a disposicin de
los trabajadores;
b) La decisin sobre la secuencia de procesamiento de rdenes de fabricacin
c) la distribucin ordenada de los componentes de las vas de los pedidos y de
fabricacin;
d) La recopilacin de datos para el control.
2.5 Control
La quinta fase se corresponde con el control de la produccin, que en realidad se

debe aplicar desde la primera fase. Es responsable de la supervisin de todos los
aspectos de la produccin, con vistas a garantizar que los planes sean implementa-
dos, pero que est debidamente modificada si es necesario
Seguimiento y control de la produccin se hace una recopilacin y registro de
datos sobre el empleo y el consumo de maquinaria, hombres y material, y los
tiempos de operacin. Esta informacin debe estar disponible tan pronto como el
programa de produccin se libera, lo que acelera la identificacin de las desvia-
ciones entre planeadas y ejecutadas.
1063
3 La Empresa
El objeto social del estudio de caso es el de Fox Sports dedicada a la fabricacin,

venta y distribucin de juegos de mesa, en la ciudad de Campina Grande, Paraba.
Fue creado en 1993 con un inicio de la produccin de juegos de mesa destinados a
arrendamiento.En el ao 2012, la direccin de la empresa decidi trabajar slo en
el negocio de la venta y distribucin de sus productos, dejando a la ubicacin de
las mesas en el exterior de sus objetivos. Desde entonces, Fox Sports est conquis-
tando el mercado, la compaa ha tratado de mejorar su gestin y estrategia y la
bsqueda de satisfacer mejor la demanda.
De acuerdo con la caracterizacin adoptado en esta investigacin, una micro-
empresa se define como tener nueve empleados, cinco trabajadores en la lnea de
produccin, ms carga / supervisor, quien es responsable de la gestin de produc-
cin, un auxiliar administrativo, un vendedor de las ventas al por menor y tambin
tenemos el propietario quien asume el papel de director general. Los productos fa-
bricados por la empresa son: Billar, Mesa de ping pong (tenis de mesa); mesa de
futboln (Toto), Mesa y / o la bandeja botn de ftbol, mesa de domin, mesa de
ajedrez, dama escritorio, tabla tarjetas y accesorios para juegos como el cepillo de
piscina, pelotas snico, taqueiras, redinhas, etc.
3.1 Proceso de Produccin
El proceso de produccin de la empresa es la de recibir la solicitud, recibir patria

prensa (MP) y almacenarlo, orden de produccin cuestin y luego sigue las opera-
ciones realizadas en el planta de produccin: Cortar la materia prima, partes del
arns; Llevar a cabo una con salida y llegada en el monte paralelo / enmarcar al-
gunas piezas del proceso de los productos; Pintar las piezas enmarcadas; Realizar
un acabado final y ensamblar el producto final; Colocar el producto sobre la cica-
trizacin, o esperar hasta que est listo para empacar: empaquete y el producto, si-
no que enviemos.
Los procesos de recepcin de la solicitud, la recepcin de materias primas
(MP), tienda de MP y POS cuestin son funciones del sector administrativo de la
empresa, de forma ms directa y general director general a cargo de la produccin,
las operaciones ya cortadas, equipar y finales / home montaje son realiza en com-
paa de carpintera sector, la operacin de pintura en una industria que lleva el
mismo nombre, las operaciones terminar / ensamblar curado final, el embalaje y el
envo se realizan en el sector de montaje y acabado.
1064
4 PCP en la empresa
4.1 Diagnstico General
Segn el estudio identificaron que la compaa no utiliza la herramienta de plani-

ficacin de la produccin y de control - PCP en su proceso de produccin, y no
tiene conocimiento de tal herramienta. An as, fue posible verificar las fases del
PCP que se celebra en su actividad, aun de manera informal.
En la primera fase de la programacin de PCP, se encontr que la produccin
de la carga constantemente global determinado que tipos de productos y cantida-
des de los mismos se han fabricado en un perodo determinado, basndose en las
anteriores solicitudes de los clientes, sin embargo, no se ha utilizado para cual-
quier registro, o hecho previsin adecuada. Adems, la accin fue suministrada de
acuerdo con esta estimacin informal de la demanda.
Otro problema identificado que deben ser parte de esta primera fase de PCP,
fue la falta de normalizacin de los productos, es decir, la empresa ofrece una va-
riedad de productos sin clasificacin, as, no tiene las mediciones de partes de
productos a fabricar, haciendo de este trabajar bajo la responsabilidad y experien-
cia de sus trabajadores.
La produccin guion (segunda fase del PCP) se determin diariamente. Con el
pedido del cliente en la mano, se determin que los trabajadores se encargaran de
cada producto. El proceso de produccin no funcionara en una lnea continua, ca-
da trabajador es responsable de un producto.
Para un guion de produccin produce adecuadamente las necesidades de nego-
cio de las mquinas y herramientas que se preparan y se realiza el mantenimiento
necesario. Por lo tanto, se concluy que la empresa no cuenta con un plan para el
mantenimiento de las mquinas, sino una especie de mantenimiento correctivo, es
decir, reparar rompi.
Para la tercera fase de PCP, se observ que la administracin de la compaa no
tiene datos sobre los tiempos de produccin de cada producto, de modo que no
hay tiempo establecido programacin estndar de produccin, slo para saber
cmo muchos productos, por ejemplo, mesas de ping pong que la compaa podra
producir en un da o una semana.
En la cuarta etapa, la liberacin, se observ que hay una persona responsable de
llevar a cabo las actividades de esta fase como: liberacin de materiales del al-
macn, recepcin de materias primas y llevar a cabo el recuento de los productos
fabricados en el final de cada da.
Finalmente en la ltima fase, el control, se sabe que no hay forma en que la
empresa lo hace porque su herramienta de administracin hace uso de PCP, y ha
establecido un responsable para el control del sistema de produccin mismo. Sin
embargo, la empresa puede cumplir con la demanda de forma proactiva.
1065
4.2 Programacin y Planificacin de la Produccin
Para la primera fase de PCP, se estableci primero para estandarizar los productos
de la compaa. Los productos se clasifican en categoras y lneas. Despus de eso,
con la ayuda de dos carpinteros (trabajadores) empresa se estableci medidas para
cada producto y est disponible en formato de tabla en la hoja de la planta. Por lo
tanto, se determin que el general a cargo de la produccin ser responsable junto
con el director general para la aplicacin de la PCP. Por lo tanto, estaba disponible
en hoja de clculo de Excel para el control de los pedidos del cliente y a travs de
l, ser posible calcular una estimacin de la demanda futura en meses.
Con los datos de previsin de la demanda ser posible mejor compaa de ges-
tin de inventario. Sin embargo, tambin hizo un control de inventario de hoja de
clculo de materias primas y almacn de piezas, por lo que el administrador de la
hoja de trabajo para alimentar la hoja que indica la cantidad de material que va a
salir todos los das a producir a finales del mes sabr cunto material se deja en
acciones y cunto se gast en la produccin, mientras que tambin ayuda la ges-
tin financiera de la empresa.
4.3 Plan de Trabajo
En la fase 2, la produccin de guion, neg que el sistema de produccin de la em-

presa tiene caractersticas de un proceso de produccin continua, es decir, ese tipo
de produccin con grandes volmenes y variedad bajo de secuencia lineal, produc-
tos estandarizados y los pasos de produccin en una secuencia programado un tra-
bajo a otro.
Sin embargo, la compaa trabaj aparato de unin por la colocacin de cada
uno responsable de un producto, es decir, cada uno realizado con un aparato de
corte diferentes actividades y montaje inicial, por lo tanto, los productos de pintura
y luego seguido para el montaje final y envasado ms colaborador en cada sector.
En esta lgica de produccin hubo una secuencia de actividades en una lnea con-
tinua, como tambin se dio cuenta de la prdida de tiempo en las operaciones y re-
trasos en las actividades posteriores en la pintura y la industria assembly \ meta.
En este contexto, se propuso que se divide y reubicacin de las actividades en-
tre todos los operadores, por lo que el proceso de produccin ms gil y continuo.
Las actividades se dividieron de la siguiente manera: Un carpintero realizar las ac-
tividades de corte y el aparejo, la otra partes de recepcin equipado carpintero rea-
liza el montaje inicial, un ayudante de los dos carpinteros realiza ajustes menores
de las partes y ayuda en el manejo de mquinas de materias primas y los otros dos
trabajadores de la empresa en la fbrica recibir las piezas montadas en la industria
se divide entre la pintura y lijado actividades, pasar masiva y barniz y pintura, ya
1066
que las piezas se secan uno o dos empleados se desplazan Asamblea \ acabado y
empaquetado.
La compaa fabric antes del cambio de dos mesas de ping pongo por da, con
la nueva distribucin de las actividades productivas que se duplic as a obtener
una mayor agilidad en la fabricacin de otros productos principalmente en la pis-
cina (producto que requiere ms tiempo de produccin).
4.4 Programacin
Para la fase de planificacin se determin los requisitos de tiempo de los tiempos

de produccin de cada producto en cada una de las lneas de produccin (aparato
de corte, mecanizado / montaje inicial de la pintura de acabado / montaje final y el
paquete de curacin). El momento fue hecho para algunos de los productos dispo-
nibles y de gestin de datos debido al clculo del tiempo de produccin. Debajo de
los datos correspondientes al tiempo de produccin de los productos que la empre-
sa fabrica Con estos datos en la mano ser ms fcil para la produccin de pro-
gramas, as como controlar la misma.
4.5 Aplicacin
Para su publicacin fase se increment slo por el uso de hojas de clculo para un
mayor control, as como la participacin de la general a cargo de las actividades
productivas relevantes para esta fase.
4.6 Control de la Produccin
Para el control de fase se determin que este cargo se llevar a cabo por el gerente
general y general de la empresa, as como por los propios trabajadores, ya que
estn directamente vinculados a la produccin.
El control se realizar durante todas las fases del PCP discutidos previamente,
es decir, el control de la previsin de la demanda, gestin de inventario, la calidad
de los productos elaborados en la programacin establecida y se reuni, entre otras
observaciones que hacer constantemente.
Tambin puede incluir la necesidad de implementar un plan de mantenimiento
de maquinaria y equipo. Para ello, la compaa ha lanzado un pequeo marco (que
puede ser modificado segn sea necesario), a las mquinas y equipos que requie-
1067
ren mantenimiento constante, las actividades que se deben hacer, plazo y respon-
sables de cada
5 Consideraciones finales
Al final del estudio se puede concluir que la empresa (Fox Sports) no haga uso de
la herramienta PCP, se justifica por el desacuerdo o falta de inters por parte de su
gobierno. A pesar de ello, la empresa puede cubrir su demanda, pero no obtuvo
ninguna perspectiva de mejora de su proceso de produccin. As, a travs del es-
tudio de caso fue posible romper con la cultura de la gestin conservadora de esta
empresa y mostrar la importancia de esta herramienta de gestin para su negocio
como un todo. La empresa abri sus puertas para la investigacin a desarrollar, y
por medio de bibliografas, y una coleccin de datos consistentes, fue posible no
slo para identificar las fases del PCP en el proceso de produccin de la empresa,
sino tambin distribuir estas actividades fases de contribuir a la mejora sistema de
produccin continua de la empresa.
Sin embargo, es claro que dentro de una empresa / organizacin, un sistema de
produccin debe funcionar de forma continua y el PCP se preocupa por esto, des-
de la produccin hasta el consumidor final. Se concluye entonces, que el uso ade-
cuado de los PCP hace que la empresa funcione de manera ms ptima, busca la
mejora continua y proporciona mayores procesos de seguridad y por lo tanto para
el consumidor final.
Finalmente, se espera que la gestin de la empresa poner en prctica las activi-
dades asignadas fases de PCP y se muestra en este estudio de caso .
6 Referencias
Gil, Antnio Carlos, (1987), Mtodos e Tcnicas de Pesquisa Social, Atlas, So Paulo
MACHLINE, Claude et al. Manual de administrao da produo. V.1 7. Ed. Rio de Janeiro;
Fundao Getlio Vargas, 1984.
Machline, Claude et al. Manual de Administrao da Produo . Rio de Janeiro: Ed. da FGV,
1986, vol. 2. Cap. VI, pp. 247-269.
Russomano, Vitor Henrique. Planejamento e Acompanhamento da Produo. So Paulo: Ed.
Pioneira, 1979. Cap. 3, pp. 37-47.
Tubino, Dalvio Ferrari. Manual de Planejamento e Controle da Produo. So Paulo: Atlas,
1987. Cap. 1, pp. 23-32.
Tubino, D. F. Manual de planejamento e controle da produo. 2. Edio. So Paulo: Atlas,
2000.
Zacarelli, Srgio Baptista. Programao e Controle da Produo. So Paulo: Pioneira, 1987. Cap.
1 e 2, pp. 21-34.
1068
SP-04
Calidad y Gestin del Producto
1069
Las Empresas de Servicios Energticos (ESE) en

Espaa y su contribucin al desarrollo de las
Ciudades Inteligentes (Smart Cities)
Energy Service Companies (ESCO) in Spain and its contribution to Smart
Cities development
Morcillo Bellido J1, Prida Romero B2
Abstract This study analyze current trend towards more efficient and livable cit-
ies development which are being recognized as Smart Cities and new collabo-
rative models start up and development - within those cities - between organiza-
tions involved on integral energy management projects, as key factor for higher
efficiency
Resumen: El estudio analiza la tendencia actual haca el desarrollo de ciudades

ms eficientes y habitables que estn siendo reconocidas como Ciudades Inteli-
gentes (Smart Cities) as como la formacin y desarrollo - dentro de ellas - de
nuevos modelos de colaboracin entre organizaciones involucradas en proyectos
para la gestin integral de la energa, como factor clave para una mayor eficiencia.
Keywords: Smart Cities, Energy Efficiency Companies, ESCO, Collaborative Re-

lationship, Services Management
Palabras claves: Ciudades Inteligentes, Empresa Servicios Energticos, ESE, Re-
laciones De Colaboracin, Gestin De Servicios
1JessMorcillo Bellido ( e-mail: morcillo@ing.uc3m.es)

2Bernardo Prida Romero ( e-mail: bprida@ing.uc3m.es)
1071
1 Introduccin
El siglo XXI ha supuesto la consolidacin de la tendencia haca la concentracin

de los habitantes del planeta en las ciudades. La mitad de la poblacin mundial
habita en las ciudades y a modo de ejemplo, se estima que slo en China unos 350
millones de personas emigrarn de las reas rurales a las mismas en los prximos
20 aos, lo que supone una cifra superior a la poblacin actual de los Estados Uni-
dos. Concretamente en la Unin Europea (UE), durante las ltimas dcadas del si-
glo XX, se ha pasado de una situacin en la que 50 por ciento de la poblacin re-
sida en ciudades en 1950, a que sea ms del 77 por ciento en el ao 2010, con una
estimacin del 85 por ciento en el ao 2050 (Caragliu et al. 2011). Por otra parte,
en las ciudades se consumen ms de las tres cuartas partes de la energa mundial y
en ellas se sitan las principales reas de desarrollo econmico del planeta.
A partir de esta situacin, han surgido muchas iniciativas que, aunque un tanto
dispersas, estn todas ellas relacionadas con la calidad y la eficiencia en la gestin
de los servicios que las personas y las empresas reciben en el entorno de las ciu-
dades.
En este estudio se desarrollar el concepto de Smart Cities y se analizar, a
modo de ejemplo, una de las prcticas que est ganando importancia rpidamente:
la aparicin de nuevas formas de relaciones de colaboracin entre organizaciones,
con el fin de optimizar la gestin de la energa.
2 Metodologa de la Investigacin
Para llevar a cabo esta investigacin de prospectiva, en un rea an poco conocida

y desarrollada, se han utilizado principalmente mtodos de investigacin cualitati-
va (entrevistas y estudio de buenas prcticas), que autores como Gummeson
(1991) Eisenhardt (1989) y Rialp (1998) aconsejan como la adecuada para la
prospeccin sobre aspectos innovadores en gestin empresarial.
La informacin se ha obtenido principalmente a travs de:
Informacin publicada en revistas especializadas en temas de sostenibilidad
medio ambiental, eficiencia energtica y desarrollo de estrategias de gestin
pblica-privada
Entrevistas en profundidad con altos responsables corporativos de organiza-
ciones estratgicamente orientadas a la eficiencia energtica de Endesa (Espa-
a), Telvent (Espaa) y Philips (Holanda y Espaa)
Identificacin y anlisis de buenas prcticas consideradas como referencias,
obtenidas con informacin facilitada por los responsables de organizaciones
innovadoras en este mbito, que son miembros de la Asociacin Nacional de
Empresas de Eficiencia Energtica (ANESE)
1072
3 El concepto de Smart Cities
El trmino de Smart City se ha utilizado con frecuencia en los ltimos aos para
denominar proyectos relacionados con la mejora de las infraestructuras de comu-
nicaciones y tecnologas de la informacin en las ciudades. La relacin entre el
desarrollo de las redes de comunicaciones y los indicadores de crecimiento
econmico ha sido estudiada, desde hace ms de una dcada, por autores como
Roller y Wavermann (2001). Otros autores enfatizan la importancia del papel del
capital humano y la educacin como palancas para el desarrollo de las ciudades
(Glaeser y Berry, 2005/2006). A continuacin se presentan diferentes estudios que
caracterizan las Smart Cities
Tabla1: Caracterizacin de las Smart Cities.
1. Utilizacin de infraestructuras de redes para mejorar los Hollands, 2008

servicios, la economa y la gestin pblica.
2. nfasis en el enfoque de desarrollo urbano de los nego- Holland, 2008

cios, con la creacin de ciudades atractivas y agradables que Shapiro, 2006
sean capaces de atraer nuevos negocios
3. Enfoque al rol de la alta tecnologa en la ciudad con la Florida, 2002, Glaeser, 2005
atraccin de industrias de alto nivel tecnolgico, creando Nijkamp, 2008, Hollands,
entornos altamente sofisticados capaces de atraer a empre- 2008
sas y personas
4. Atencin al desarrollo del capital relacional y social como Cohen y Levinthal,1990
base del desarrollo de la ciudad Coe, et al., 2001
5. Una Smart City ser un lugar donde la comunidad apren- Abreu et al., 2008
de e innova
Caragliu y Nijkamp, 2011
6. Las personas usan la tecnologa para mejorar su calidad
de vida
7. La sostenibilidad social, medioambiental y econmica Caragliu. et al, 2011
son el mayor componente de la estrategia a largo plazo de la
Smart City
Fuente: elaboracin propia
Entre todas las aportaciones, cabe destacar a Caragliu et al (2011), que define
como ciudad inteligente a aquella que invierte en capital humano y social, ad-
ministrando eficaz y eficientemente sus servicios pblicos (como transporte, red
de comunicaciones, etc) y soporta un crecimiento econmico equilibrado a travs
del uso correcto y eficiente de los recursos, tanto en el mbito de las administra-
ciones pblicas como de las entidades privadas. Cabe destacar que un nmero cre-
ciente de ciudades quieren ser reconocidas como Smart Cities, por lo que resulta
preciso establecer criterios de valoracin que permita reconocerlas como tales.
1073
Una de las clasificaciones ms aceptada fue desarrollada por Giffinger y Gudrun

(2010), que proponen los criterios indicados a continuacin.
Tabla 2: Criterios para la evaluacin de las Smart Cities. Fuente: basado en Giffinger y Gudrun,
2010
COMPETITIVIDAD PERSONAS ( capital humano)

Innovacin, productividad y flexibilidad la- Nivel de cualificacin, participacin en la vida
bor pblica y formacin
PARTICIPACIN TRANSP. Y COMUNICAC.
Participacin poltica, servicios pblicos y Accesibilidad, infraestructuras, transporte
foros de participacin pblico, etc
MEDIO AMBIENTE CALIDAD DE VIDA
Eficiencia energtica, nivel de contamina- Nivel de atencin sanitaria, educacin y cali-
cin, tratamiento de residuos dad de vivienda
Desde principios del siglo XXI, los proyectos relacionados con el objetivo de
las ciudades de conseguir ser clasificadas como inteligentes han surgido en di-
ferentes partes del mundo y Espaa no es una excepcin. Entre los proyectos ms
representativos destacan los indicados en la Tabla 3.
Tabla 3: Relacin de proyectos relevantes de Smart Cities. Fuente: Elaboracin propia, en base a
informacin del Instituto para la Diversificacin y Ahorro de la Energa (IDAE)
Pas Ao Objetivos
Japn 1997 Objetivos de reduccin entre el 50-70% de la energa en
2050
Amsterdam 2002 40% de reduccin de CO2 en 2025 vs 1990
(Holanda) 25% de reduccin de energa en 2025 vs 1990
Abu Dhabi (UAE) 2006 Ahorro de 30% electricidad en reas universitarias
Ohio (USA) 2007 Proyecto ahorro 10% en electricidad
Mlaga (Espaa) 2009 20% de ahorro energtico. Uso de fuentes renovables, mode-
los de micro gestin y vehculo elctrico
Singapur 2009 Piloto de redes inteligentes (Smart grids)
Songdo (Corea del 2009 Nueva ciudad planificada para un uso eficiente de los recur-
Sur) sos. Cogeneracin central para la ciudad (100% electricidad).
Reciclaje del 75% de los residuos de la construccin
Valladolid y Palen- 2010 Incluye reas de energa, gestin de residuos y transporte,
cia (Espaa) entre otras
Paredes (Portugal) 2011 Nuevo proyecto para la construccin de una ciudad muy efi-
ciente y alto nivel de reciclaje
Proyecto OutSmart 2011 Proyecto de la Unin Europea. Incluye: gestin de residuos,
(Santander (Espaa) agua, transporte e iluminacin
y otras)
1074
Durante estos aos el desarrollo de los proyectos era ms consecuencia de las

iniciativas locales que de una estrategia coordinada. Sin embargo, la Comisin Eu-
ropea en su informe Smart Cities: European Innovation Partnership de julio de
2012, establece tres reas claves (gestin eficiente de la energa, transporte y sis-
temas de informacin/comunicaciones) y pretende que estas prcticas sean no solo
consecuencia de una serie de proyectos aislados, sino parte de una estrategia de
gestin eficiente en las ciudades de la UE.
As, la forma en la que las ciudades manejan la energa es un pilar clave para
que sean realmente Smart dentro del captulo medio ambiente, segn se indica
la Tabla 2. Para la Comisin Europea, es parte de su estrategia de competitividad.
4 La Energa como Factor de Competitividad en las Ciudades y

las Empresas de Servicios Energticos
Como se ha comentado, las personas que habitan y desarrollan sus actividades en

las ciudades consumen el 75% de la energa mundial y dicho consumo no hace si-
no acelerarse.
El rpido crecimiento del consumo de energa en los pases emergentes es un
problema particularmente grave para los pases, cmo Espaa, con una fuerte de-
pendencia de fuentes exteriores de suministro
A modo de ejemplo, segn un informe publicado recientemente por McKinsey
(Mohr, 2012), la energa representa un 45% del coste de produccin para los fa-
bricantes de televisiones LCD por lo que al aumentar su precio estos deben de
volver a definir sus procesos operacionales, incluyendo el diseo del producto, de
forma que el impacto en el coste del producto no deteriore gravemente su margen.
Otro ejemplo, en este caso de una experiencia prometedora, es el relacionado con
la industria de embalajes para artculos de consumo en Estados Unidos, que ha re-
ducido a la mitad el consumo de energa en tres aos (Dobbs, 2012) a travs de la
colaboracin entre los diferentes miembros de la cadena de suministro en la
bsqueda de materiales, tecnologas y formas de trabajar ms eficientes.
Es precisamente en este mbito de colaboracin en la Cadena de Suministro
donde se enmarca la oportunidad para aquella compaa que sea capaz de gestio-
nar eficientemente los procesos energticos de sus clientes. As en los ltimos
aos han surgido empresas que aceptan acuerdos con otras organizaciones con el
objetivo de optimizar la gestin total o parcial de su energa, garantizando el nivel
de servicio acordado, con un ahorro de costes integral - respecto a la situacin ini-
cial- superior al que el cliente hubiera podido conseguir aisladamente. A estas
compaas se las denomina Empresa de Servicios Energticos (ESE)
Para lograr los objetivos de eficiencia, la Empresa de Servicios Energticos in-
vierte en tecnologas ms eficientes, las instala, las financia en algunos casos y las
mantiene durante el nmero de aos incluidos en el contrato, buscando la mxima
1075
eficiencia en los costes y garantizando un nivel de servicio acordado con el cliente

en el proyecto concreto (Vine, 2005).
No cabe duda que, como seala Hartley (2005), este tipo de prcticas constitu-
yen un tipo de innovacin colaborativa horizontal, ya que esta nueva forma de
trabajar busca mejorar simultneamente tanto el coste como el servicio a travs de
la integracin en el manejo de la informacin, el uso de tecnologas y en el modelo
de colaboracin.
5 Servicios Ofrecidos por las Empresas de Servicios

Energticos en Espaa
En Espaa, el Real Decreto Ley 67-2010 regula las empresas tipo ESE estable-
ciendo las normas y las condiciones para su operacin. Hasta esta fecha haban
surgido algunos proyectos promovidos principalmente por las Agencias de la
Energa de las Comunidades Autnomas en su afn de desarrollar proyectos pilo-
to, que mostrasen que el concepto de Empresa de Servicios Energticos (ESE) era
factible como modelo de organizacin para llevar a cabo los proyectos de eficien-
cia energtica.
Sin embargo, cabe sealar que si bien este modelo empresarial basado en la co-
laboracin entre organizaciones es algo relativamente nuevo, su origen en Espaa
podra remontarse a finales de la dcada de los 80 del pasado siglo, cuando an sin
reglamentacin legal especfica, comienzan los primeros proyectos en torno a la
oportunidad de la cogeneracin energtica, segn se muestra en la Fig 1.
2015 en
adelante
(estimaci
2006 - n)
2014
Genera
Proye lizacin
ctos Proye de los
cogen ctos modelo
eracin climati s ESE en
zacin Espaa
Proye
ctos
1985 - 2010 de
ilumina
cin
Fig 1 Evolucin de los modelos de gestin energtica (ESE) en Espaa. Elaboracin propia a
partir de expertos
En general, la Empresa de Servicios Energtico factura sus servicios en funcin

de los rendimientos, es decir, en funcin de la eficiencia energtica conseguida.
En este caso, hablar de rendimiento es una medida ms adecuada para establecer
el xito de la gestin, puesto que el ahorro tambin depende de la propia activi-
1076
dad del cliente o incluso de factores exgenos como la climatologa. De los casos
estudiados en nuestra investigacin, los servicios ofrecidos en Espaa incluyen
iluminacin, climatizacin, operaciones de equipos (mquinas, ordenadores,) y
cogeneracin. Estos proyectos se han extendido en todo tipo de mbitos, segn se
muestra en la Fig.2.
iluminacin (20%), equipos
(35%) y climatizacin (40%)
Oficinas
potencial de ahorro: 25-
40%
Iluminacin (10%) y
Hospitales climatizacin (36%)
Potencial: 20-40%
ACS (30%), climatizacin
(30%) e iluminacin (12%)
Hoteles
Potencial de ahorro: 15-
40%
reas: iluminacin (20%)
climatizacin(65%)
Universidades
potencial de ahorro: 25-
35%
Alumbrado Iluminacin (100%)
urbano Potencial: 40-60%
Iluminacin (25%) y
Centros climatizacin (48%)
comerciales Potencial de ahorro: 20-
40%
Fig 2 Principales actuaciones de ESE en el sector privado. Fuente: Asociacin Espaola de

Agencias de Energa y Asociacin Nacional de Empresas de Servicios Energticos
En esta figura se indica los objetivos de ahorro potencial, estimados - mnimo y

mximos previsibles - a partir de la comparacin entre la situacin actual de las
instalaciones y los niveles conseguibles con la aplicacin de i) integracin de pro-
cesos integrados, como proponen las empresas de servicios energticos, incluyen-
do cambios en la forma de gestionar la energa ii) utilizacin de nuevas tecnolog-
as. Es de destacar que los potenciales ahorros van del 15% al 40%, dependiendo
tanto de la situacin de partida, como de las acciones de mejora aplicables. Estas
ltimas dependern del periodo de recuperacin de la inversin, lo que hace que a
medida que crece el precio de la energa, los ahorros potenciales aumentan
haciendo que los proyectos tengan menor periodo de recuperacin y sean ms
atractivos. En la actualidad, los proyectos ms frecuentes se realizan en alumbrado
pblico, hospitales y centros comerciales. Tambin existen varios proyectos en or-
ganismos de la Administracin Central y de las Comunidades Autnomas, que en
cierta medida buscan ser los pilotos para su extensin generalizada al sector pbli-
co a partir del uso de contratos de colaboracin pblico privada.
1077
6 Conclusiones
Del anlisis realizado, se puede inferir que los modelos de colaboracin en la ges-
tin de la energa son una buena herramienta en la consecucin de los objetivos de
eficiencia energtica. El desarrollo en Espaa de los proyectos de colaboracin de
gestin energtica est siendo gradual. Sin embargo, las reas de aplicacin son
amplias y existen importantes ahorros potenciales.
En las instituciones pblicas como ayuntamientos - la necesidad de ser muy
eficientes en la gestin de la energa se ha convertido en un tema prioritario y este
tipo de acuerdos con empresas capaces de gestionarla y conseguir ahorrar entre un
20 y un 40 por ciento del consumo es crtico en un momento de reduccin de in-
gresos. En el sector privado, aquellas empresas que se distinguen por sus buenas
prcticas en la gestin de procesos, estn comenzando a darse cuenta que las me-
joras en sus procesos operacionales (diseo, fabricacin, transporte, etc) pueden
tener un lmite, por lo que algunas de ellas comienzan a aplicar estas prcticas a
otros recursos no tan relevantes hasta ahora - como la energa- a travs proyectos
de colaboracin en la cadena de suministro.
El inters que muestra la UE en el desarrollo de las Smart Cities, puede consti-
tuir una importante palanca para acelerar la velocidad de implantacin de proyec-
tos de Smart Cities y como consecuencia, de eficiencia energtica. De hecho, sera
muy difcil llegar a ser una Smart City sin conseguir ahorros significativos en esta
rea, los cuales son ms alcanzables con la colaboracin de Empresas de Servicios
Energticos.
Todo ello puede significar, en breve, importantes mejoras en trminos de efi-
ciencia energtica que podra ser observable y medible, tanto a travs de un mayor
nivel de competitividad (reduccin de costes, mejora medio ambiental, etc), como
por unos servicios a los ciudadanos ms eficientes y baratos (caso de instituciones
pblicas).
7 Referencias
Abreu, M. et al. (2008) Absorptive capacity and regional patters of innovation. Research Report
8/11 London: Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills
Asociacin Espaola de Agencias de la Energa (2011) Manual de Promocin de ESE. Madrid
Asociacin de Empresas de Servicios Energticos (2012) Presentacin Asociacin. Madrid
Bertoldi, P. et al. (2006) Energy service companies in European Countries: current status and
strategy to foster their development. Energy Policy 34: 1818-1832
Caragliu, C. et al. (2011) Smart Cities in Europe. Journal of Urban Technology, vol. 18, n 2,
April 2011: 65-82
Coe, G. et al (2001) E-Governance and smart communities: a social learning challenge, Social
Science Quarterly 35:1
Cohen, W. y Levinthal, D.(1990) Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and inno-
vation, Administrative Science Quarterly 35:1: 80-93
1078
Dobbs, R. et al. (2012) Mobilizing for a resource revolution. McKinsey Quarterly, Sustainability
& Resource Productivity Practice, January 2012: 4-12
Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989) Building theories from case research. Academy of Management Re-
view, vol. 14, n 4: 532-550.
European Commision (2012). Smart Cities and communities- European innovation partnership
Florida, R. (2002) Bohemia and Economic Geography. Journal of Economic Geography, 2: 55-
71
Giffinder, R. y Gudrun, H. (2010) Smart Cities: an effective instrument for the positioning of cit-
ies. Architecture, City and Environment, 2010: 7-25
Glaeser, E.L. (2005) A review of Richards Floridas: the rise of the creative class, Regional Sci-
ence and Urban Economics 35:5: 593-596
Glaeser, E.L. y Berry, C. R. (2006) Why are smart places getting smarter, Taubman Center Poli-
cy Brief 2006-2. Cambridge, M.A.: John F. Kennedy School of Government
Gummesson, E. (1991) Qualitative methods in management research. London: SAGE Publica-
tions Ltd.
Hartley, J. (2005) Innovation in governance and public services: past and present. Public Money
and Management, 25(19): 27-34
Hollands, J. R. (2008) Will the real smart city please stand up. Intelligent, Progressive, or Entre-
preneurial?, City 12:3: 303-320
IDAE (2012) Mapa tecnolgico Ciudades Inteligentes. Observatorio Tecnolgico de Energa.
Madrid
Mohr, S. et al. (2012) Manufacturing resource productivity. McKinsey Quarterly, June 2012: 20-
25
Nijkamp, P (2010) E Pluribus unum, Region Direct 2:3: 56-65
Roller, L-H. y Wavermann, L. (2001) Telecommunications Infrastructure and economic devel-
opment: A Simultaneous Approach, American Economic Review: 91:4
Shapiro, J. M. (2008) Smart Cities: quality of life, productivity, and growth effects of human
capital, The Review of Economics and Statistics: 304-335
Vine, E. (2005) An international survey of energy service company (ESCO) industry, Energy
Policy 33: 691-704
1079
El Anlisis del Ciclo de Vida en Espaa. Temas

de Investigacin Principales y Agentes Clave
LCA in Spain. Main research topics and key agents.
Basaez Llantada A1, Martnez de Alegra Mancisidor I2, Insunza Aranzeta

G3, Gonzlez Laskibar X4
Abstract Since 2001, when the European Union published its Green Paper on In-
tegrated Product Policy, LCA has received a further institutional boost, given that
the European Commission itself has singled out LCA as one of the pillars for the
development of this policy. Nevertheless, little is still known about this tools ef-
fective deployment in Spanish businesses or about the level of knowledge they
have of it. This paper seeks to provide a starting point for subsequently addressing
these unresolved issues. Through an analysis of the scientific papers published by
Spanish authors in the main international journals on the matter, the aim is to pro-
vide a snapshot of the Spanish scenario in research into LCA.
Resumen Desde la publicacin en 2001 por parte de la Unin Europea del Libro
Verde sobre la Poltica de Productos Integrada (PPI), el ACV ha recibido adems
un impulso extra institucional, debido a que la propia Comisin Europea identifica
el ACV como uno de los pilares de cara a desarrollar dicha poltica. Sin embargo,
poco se sabe aun de la implantacin real que esta herramienta tiene en las empre-
1
Aitor Basaez Llantada (e-mail: aitor.basanez@ehu.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieria de Bilbao
(UPV/EHU), Alameda de Urquijo s/n, 48013 Bilbao.
2 Itziar Martnez de Alegra Mancisidor

3Gaizka Insunza Aranzeta
4Xabier Gonzlez Laskibar
1080
sas espaolas o sobre el nivel de conocimiento que de ella se tiene en las mismas.
Este trabajo quiere aportar un punto de partida que permita abordar posteriormente
estas incgnitas. A travs del anlisis de los artculos cientficos publicados por
autores espaoles en las principales revistas internacionales, se pretende realizar
una radiografa del panorama investigador espaol sobre el ACV.
Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Management (LCM) Sus-
tainability, Integrated Product Policy (IPP)
Palabras clave: Anlisis del Ciclo de Vida (ACV); Gestin del Ciclo de Vida
(LCM); Sostenibilidad, Poltica de Productos Integrada (PPI)
1 Introduccin
En un contexto como el actual, de gran preocupacin por el binomio ahorro

energtico-cambio climtico, es innegable el inters que todo lo relacionado con el
medioambiente suscita entre consumidores, fabricantes y legisladores. Por una
parte las empresas necesitan herramientas que les ayuden a mejorar el desempeo
medioambiental de sus procesos y productos y por su parte los organismos pbli-
cos necesitan criterios fiables y objetivos de cara a establecer polticas pblicas
que impulsen la sostenibilidad. En este sentido, son diversos los autores que han
identificado el ACV como una herramienta de apoyo al proceso de toma de deci-
siones para gobiernos, empresas, organizaciones de consumidores y grupos am-
bientales (Wenzel et al., 1997; Krozer et al., 1998; Field et al., 1999). Los mbitos
de decisin en los que el ACV puede servir de ayuda incluyen desde la gestin
general de empresas e instituciones y el anlisis de alternativas para polticas
pblicas, hasta la eleccin en fase de diseo de caractersticas especficas de pro-
ductos y procesos (Tan et al., 2008). Ahora bien, en qu medida aplican las em-
presas espaolas esta metodologa? Antes de contestar a esta pregunta cabra pre-
guntarse es el ACV suficientemente conocido por las empresas espaolas? Este
trabajo pretende arrojar algo de luz sobre estos interrogantes.
2 Objetivos
El objetivo principal de este trabajo es conocer la situacin en Espaa de la inves-

tigacin sobre el ACV a travs del estudio de las aportaciones que los autores es-
paoles han realizado al desarrollo de esta metodologa.
Mediante el anlisis de los artculos cientficos publicados en las revistas inter-
nacionales claves sobre el tema, se pretende descubrir cul ha sido la evolucin en
1081
el tiempo del nmero de artculos publicados por investigadores espaoles y cono-

cer las reas de investigacin ms desarrolladas en dichos artculos. Por ltimo, se
pretende conocer tambin algunas de las caractersticas de los autores espaoles,
como las empresas o instituciones a las que pertenecen.
3 Metodologa de la Investigacin
Para lograr los objetivos definidos se ha realizado la bsqueda, para su posterior

anlisis, de aquellos artculos que incluyen las frases "evaluacin del ciclo de vi-
da" o "anlisis del ciclo de vida, en su ttulo, abstract o palabras clave, y hayan
sido publicados en alguna de las publicaciones referidas en la tabla 1 durante el
periodo comprendido entre los aos 1995 y 2010.
4 El Anlisis del Ciclo de Vida. Definicin y Objeto
El ACV es una metodologa que intenta identificar y cuantificar los diferentes

impactos ambientales potenciales, asociados a cada una de las etapas del ciclo de
vida de un producto o proceso. Por ello, el ACV recibe tambin la denominacin
de Anlisis de la Cuna a la Tumba. De acuerdo a la definicin de la Society for
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), el ACV es una tcnica que
permite evaluar las cargas ambientales asociadas a un producto o proceso produc-
tivo (Krozer et al. 1998). Por su parte la norma ISO 14040, Gestin Ambiental.
Anlisis del Ciclo de Vida Principios y Estructura, lo define como una tcnica
para evaluar los aspectos medioambientales y potenciales impactos asociados con
un producto o proceso (Tan et al., 2008). Un estudio de ACV implica tomar en
consideracin el ciclo de vida completo del producto o actividad en estudio, es de-
cir, se deben analizar las etapas de adquisicin de materias primas, procesado y
manufacturado, distribucin y transporte, uso, reutilizacin y mantenimiento, reci-
clado y la gestin de residuos.
El ACV proporciona informacin til de cara tomar decisiones dirigidas a
mejorar el desempeo ambiental de sus productos y/o servicios. As mismo, resul-
ta de utilidad a la hora de decidir entre varias alternativas, al proporcionar infor-
macin sobre los impactos ambientales de cada opcin.
1082
Tabla 1 Publicaciones seleccionadas para la realizacin del estudio
Factor de Impacto
Ttulo de las Revistas Primera edicin
2010
International Journal of Life cycle Assessment, IJLCA 3.148 1996
Journal of Cleaner Production, JCP 2.425 1993
Journal of industrial ecology, JIE 2.446 1997
Environmental Science and Technology, ES&T 4.827 1967
5 El ACV Elemento Clave de la Poltica de Productos Integrada
Hoy en da, las industrias utilizan el ACV para comparar alternativas en el desa-
rrollo de productos, en el mbito comercial para informar sobre su desempeo
ambiental, y como herramienta en el proceso de toma de decisiones sobre la ges-
tin ambiental. Los gobiernos por su parte, lo utilizan para analizar alternativas
sobre diversos sistemas sociales, como los sistemas de gestin de residuos, y como
pilar de la Poltica de Productos Integrada en los sistemas de eco etiquetado y de
compra pblica verde (Hauschild et al., 2005). De hecho en Europa el ACV reci-
bi un impulso por parte de las instituciones en febrero de 2001, cuando la Comi-
sin Europea public el Libro Verde sobre la Poltica de Productos Integrada (PPI)
(European Commission, 2003). El ACV es reconocido en el contexto de la PPI
como el mejor marco disponible en la actualidad' para evaluar los posibles im-
pactos ambientales de los productos (Nissinen et al., 2007).
El trmino PPI surgi durante la dcada de 1990, la primera investigacin
sobre el tema en la UE fue un proyecto financiado por la DG XII, dentro del pro-
grama 'Medio Ambiente y Clima" (Oosterhuis et al., 1996; Rubik et al., 2002).
Posteriormente otro estudio proporcionara la siguiente definicin: "La poltica
pblica que explcitamente aspira a modificar y mejorar el desempeo ambiental
de los sistemas producto" (Ernst & Young/SPRU, 1998). Un estudio publicado en
2002 (Rubik et al., 2002), comparaba el desarrollo de la PPI en varios pases de la
UE. Dicho estudio situaba a Espaa en el vagn de cola junto a pases como Irlan-
da, Luxemburgo o Portugal, mientras que pases como, Holanda, Dinamarca, Sue-
cia o el Reino Unido aparecan en cabeza. Aunque no es la nica herramienta para
implementar la PPI, parece evidente la necesidad de que el ACV se desarrolle y
sea abrazado por las empresas e instituciones espaolas de cara a lograrlo.
1083
6 Antecedentes del ACV en Espaa
En Espaa los primeros pasos serios en la investigacin del ACV se dieron en Ca-
talua a principios de los aos 90, de hecho, se puede afirmar que el primer evento
celebrado en Espaa en este mbito fue el Seminario Internacional Producte i
embalatge que tuvo lugar en Sitges en junio de 1993 (Fullana et al., 1997). En
marzo de 1995 se cre la Asociacin Espaola para la Promocin del Desarrollo
del Anlisis de Ciclo de Vida (APRODACV), primera asociacin espaola dedica-
da en exclusiva al ACV (Domnech et al., 1996). Un hito importante para
APRODACV en particular, y para el desarrollo del ACV en Espaa en general, lo
constituy sin duda el primer taller de trabajo sobre ACV que se celebr en Barce-
lona bajo el nombre LCA 2000 en noviembre de 1997, organizado por
APRODACV (Ayuso et al. 1997). Durante los aos siguientes, el desarrollo de ac-
tividades en el campo del ACV aument significativamente como lo demuestran
los siguientes hechos: La publicacin en 1997 del libro Anlisis de Ciclo de Vi-
da, primera gua prctica de aplicacin del ACV en espaol (Fullana et al.,
1997), la celebracin en Madrid en mayo de 2001 del SETAC Europe 11th An-
nual Meeting y en diciembre de 2002 en Barcelona, el X SETAC Europe LCA
Case Studies Symposium. Pero fueron sin duda las dos iniciativas que se citan a
continuacin, las que ayudaron a consolidar en Espaa esta metodologa: En el
ao 2000 se cre la Red Catalana del Ciclo de Vida que en cierta medida tom el
relevo a APRODACV. En ella, participan junto a otras instituciones pblicas y pri-
vadas, la prctica totalidad de las universidades catalanas, si bien, su coordinacin
corre a cargo de la Universidad Autnoma de Barcelona. Poco despus, en 2002,
se cre la Red Temtica de Anlisis de Ciclo de Vida, coordinada desde la Univer-
sidad de Santiago de Compostela, con los mismos objetivos que su antecesora ca-
talana pero de mbito nacional. Merece la pena resaltar que sobre estas dos aso-
ciaciones recay la responsabilidad de organizar el segundo congreso
internacional sobre gestin del ciclo de vida en Barcelona en el ao 2005 bajo el
ttulo LCM 2005 Innovation by Life Cycle Mangement.
7 Resultados
Dado su carcter monogrfico, no es extrao que la revista International Journal

of Life Cycle Assessment haya publicado prcticamente el 70% de los artculos
considerados para el estudio tal y como se muestra en la tabla 2.
1084
Tabla 2 Distribucin de artculos en el periodo 1993-2010
Revistas consideradas para el estudio N de artculos

International Journal of Life cycle Assessment, IJLCA 47
Journal of Cleaner Production, JCP 10
Journal of industrial ecology, JIE 5
Environmental Science and Technology, ES&T 6
Total 68
En la figura 1 se detalla la evolucin en la publicacin de dichos artculos.
21
n de Artculos
14
8
4 4 4 5
2 2 3
1
Fig. 1 Evolucin en el nmero de artculos
La produccin de los investigadores espaoles en el siglo pasado se limit a

unos pocos artculos publicados en 1997 y 1998, a partir del ao 2002 su nmero
creci lentamente hasta despegar definitivamente en el ao 2007. Es de suponer
que los investigadores espaoles se vieron animados a publicar por la celebracin
de los congresos ya mencionados, en Madrid en 2001 y Barcelona en 2002 y 2005.
Dado que el problema del cambio climtico sigue ms vigente que nunca, se pue-
de afirmar que el ACV mantendr su inters a corto y medio plazo cuando menos.
A la hora de clasificar los artculos segn su temtica, surgieron mltiples op-
ciones dado que no existe ninguna normativa especfica al respecto. A ello se le
une el hecho de que algunos artculos abordan ms de un tema, y que otros, estn
en la frontera entre los denominados desarrollos metodolgicos y las aplicaciones
industriales. Finalmente se opt por considerar las categoras de la tabla 3.
Los temas ms trabajados por los investigadores espaoles adems de los as-
pectos metodolgicos, han sido la agricultura la pesca y la alimentacin y los rela-
cionados con el agua. Las tres categoras representan en conjunto la mitad del to-
tal de los artculos. Tras ellos, la gestin de residuos, la industria maderera y
papelera, la construccin y el sector qumico son los ms tratados.
Aunque como veremos ms adelante las empresas no aparecen entre las princi-
pales agentes investigadores, la realidad del tejido empresarial espaol s parece
tener relacin con los temas escogidos por los investigadores. No parece casuali-
dad que sectores econmicos de especial relevancia en Espaa sean motivo de es-
1085
tudio por los investigadores espaoles: El peso de los artculos que tratan temas
relacionados con la agricultura, la pesca o la alimentacin refleja la importancia
que el sector primario mantiene aun hoy da en la economa espaola, lo mismo se
puede decir de la industria forestal y papelera y en menor medida del sector textil
y calzado, el sector qumico, la construccin o los temas energticos.
Tabla 3 reas de actividad estudiadas
Categoras: reas de Actividad N de Artculos

Metodologas y otros Desarrollos 14 20,59%
Gestin Tratamiento y Uso del Agua 11 16,18%
Agricultura, Pesca, Alimentacin Bebidas y Tabaco 9 13,24%
Gestin y tratamiento de Residuos (Excepto agua) 6 8,82%
Industria Forestal y Papelera 6 8,82%
Sector Qumico y Plsticos 4 5,88%
Edificacin y Construccin y Hormign 4 5,88%
Transporte y Automocin 3 4,41%
Sector Textil y calzado 3 4,41%
Electricidad Generacin, Transporte, Distribucin y Uso 2 2,94%
Otros 6 8,82%
TOTALES 68 100%
Tal y como muestra la tabla 4 casi el 60% de los artculos son obra de autores
espaoles exclusivamente mientras que el resto cuenta entre sus autores al menos
con algn autor de otra nacionalidad diferente. El nmero total de investigadores
que han participado en la elaboracin de los 68 artculos analizados, asciende a
166, de los cuales 101 son espaoles y los 65 restantes, extranjeros. Se ha consta-
tado que en general, los diferentes autores de un mismo artculo pertenecen tam-
bin a organizaciones distintas, lo que refleja una inclinacin hacia el trabajo co-
operativo y en red, caracterstica muy positiva en trabajos de investigacin. En
este mismo sentido, resulta tambin positivo que el 41% de los artculos analiza-
dos haya sido realizado por autores de diferentes nacionalidades.
En cuanto a los organismos a los que pertenecen los autores, los resultados de
la tabla 5 son elocuentes: Casi el 80% de los autores pertenece al mundo de la
universidad, 14 trabajan en diversos organismos pblicos, asociaciones sectoria-
les, y centros de investigacin privados y pblicos y slo 7 desempean su activi-
dad en el mbito de la empresa. Aun siendo un nmero pequeo y por tanto poco
significativo para sacar conclusiones definitivas, merece la pena analizar la tipo-
loga de dichas empresas. Las empresas que ofrecen servicios de consultora e in-
geniera medioambiental o servicios relacionados con la gestin del agua y los re-
siduos urbanos son las ms abundantes, mientras que las pocas empresas de
1086
sectores productivos o con carcter ms industrial pertenecen a los sectores de au-

tomocin, energas renovables y la minera y materiales de construccin.
Tabla 4 Nacionalidad de los autores
N de artculos con autores espaoles exclusivamente 40 58,82%

N de artculos con autores espaoles e internacionales 28 41,18%
Nmero total de artculos 68 100%
Autores Espaoles 101 61%
Autores del resto de nacionalidades 65 39%
Nmero total de autores 166 100%
Quiere esto decir que las empresas no utilizan la metodologa del ACV? No
necesariamente, algunos autores coinciden al sealar que los trabajos de investiga-
cin realizados en las empresas rara vez acaban siendo publicados ya que a la hora
de utilizar los resultados en foros pblicos se mostraban muy cautelosas (Curran
MA, 1999). Por su parte, la norma ISO 14044 impone requisitos rigurosos sobre el
uso publicitario de los resultados para comparacin de alternativas (ISO, 2006).
Tabla 5. Organismos a los que pertenecen los autores espaoles
Universidades 80 79,2%
Organismos y asociaciones pblicas y privadas 14 13,9%
Empresas 7 6,9%
Total 101 100%
7 Conclusiones
El estudio revela que la investigacin en Espaa sobre ACV discurre en paralelo a

la investigacin realizada a escala mundial pero con un desfase de casi diez aos,
mientras que el despegue mundial del ACV se produjo hacia el ao 1995 (Peters
GM, 2009), en Espaa, esto no ocurre hasta el ao 2002. En cuanto a los temas es-
cogidos por los investigadores, adems de los aspectos meramente metodolgicos,
se aprecia cierta conexin entre estos y la realidad industrial espaola.
Sin embargo la conclusin ms relevante, y preocupante, es el aparente escaso
inters que el mundo empresarial demuestra de momento por el ACV. Los resul-
tados muestran que nicamente algunas pocas empresas del mbito de la asesora
y consultora medioambiental estn publicando sus experiencias. Aun consideran-
do que algunas empresas que realizan estudios de ACV deciden no hacerlos pbli-
cos y que evidentemente existen muchas revistas no consideradas en este trabajo,
lo cierto es que cabe suponer que el ACV no es an muy conocido entre las em-
1087
presas. Algunos de los motivos podran encontrarse en los programas acadmicos

ya que en Espaa el ACV no se encuentra plenamente extendida y nicamente se
imparte en algunos casos especializados.
Es de esperar que el inters por el ACV aumente a medida que la legislacin a
fin de impulsar el desarrollo sostenible, vaya incorporando la exigencia de realizar
estudios de este tipo a productos y procesos. De hecho, estos estudios son ya re-
quisito para la obtencin de certificados de ecodiseo, declaraciones medioam-
bientales y etiquetas ecolgicas. Dado la positiva aceptacin que algunos esque-
mas certificables, (calidad y medioambiente principalmente) han tenido en Espaa
(Marimn et al., 2006), cabe esperar que en este mbito tambin ocurra lo mismo.
8 Referencias
Ayuso S, Fullana P, Mil Ll, Rieradevall J (1997) First LCA Workshop in Spain LCA 2000:
Preliminary Results. Int J Life Cycle Assess 2(4):250
Curran MA (1999) The status of LCA in USA. Int J Life Cycle Assess 4(3):123124
Domnech X, Fullana P (1996) LCA association in Spain. Int J Life Cycle Assess 1(4):207
Ernst & Young/SPRU 1998. Integrated product policy. London: Study on behalf of DG Envi-
ronment.
European Commission, (2003) Integrated Product Policy - Building on Environmental Life Cy-
cle Thinking. Commission of the European Communities. IPP COM(2003) 302 final.
Field FR and Ehrenfeld JR (1999) Life-Cycle Analysis: The Role of Evaluation and Strategy. In:
Schulze, P.C., ed. Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition. Na-
tional Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
Fullana, P., Puig, R., 1997. Anlisis de Ciclo de Vida. Cuadernos de Medio Ambiente, pub.
Rubes Editorial,S.L., Barcelona.
Hauschild M, Jeswiet J, Alting L, (2005) From Life Cycle Assessment to Sustainable Produc-
tion: Status and Perspectives. CIRP Annals - Manuf Technol 54(2):1-21
ISO 14044, 2006. International Standard. Environmental management- Life-cycle assessment -
Requirements and guidelines; ISO: Geneva, Switzerland.
Krozer J and Vis JC (1998) How to get LCA in the right direction? J Clean Prod 6(1):53-62
Marimon F, Casadess M, Heras I (2006) ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards: an international
diffusion model. Int J Oper Prod Manag 26(2):141-165
Nissinen A et al. (2007) Developing benchmarks for consumer-oriented life cycle assessment-
based environmental information on products, services and consumption patterns. J Clean
Prod 15(6):538-549
Oosterhuis F, Rubik F, Scholl G., 1996. Product Policy in Europe: New environmental perspec-
tives. Kluwer Academic Publishers. AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands
Peters GM (2009) Popularize or publish? Growth in Australia, Int J Life Cycle Assess 14(6):503-
507
Rubik F and Scholl G (2002) Integrated Product Policy (IPP) in Europe - a development model
and some impressions. J Clean Prod 10(5):507-516
Tan R and Culaba A (2008) Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment: A Tool for Public and Cor-
porate Policy Development. De la Salle University Manila (Philippines).
http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/library/webliography/fpub/alvin_culaba.asp. Cited March 2012
Wenzel, H., Hauschild, M. and Alting, L. (1997). Environmental Assessment of Products. Vol.
1: Methodology, Tools and Case Studies in Product Development. Chapman & Hall.
1088
Un Sistema Integrado de Gestin como

Elemento de Mejora Competitiva
An Integrated Management System as a Competitive Improvement
Fortea E1, Mikeo I2
Abstract The article then develops, recounts how a company Elevators Goian SL,
identifies the need for the design, development and implementation of an integrat-
ed management system for quality, environment and risk prevention. And how
identical this methodology to improve business excellence following the EFQM
excellence model.
Resumen El artculo que a continuacin se desarrolla, relata el modo en que una

empresa Elevadores Goian S.L, identifica la necesidad de realizar el diseo, desa-
rrollo e implantacin de un sistema integrado de gestin de calidad, medio am-
biente y prevencin de riesgos laborales. Y cmo idntica esta metodologa para
mejorar en excelencia empresarial siguiendo el modelo de excelencia EFQM.
Keywords: Systems Management, Systems Integration, Process Management.

Palabras clave: Sistemas de Gestin, Integracin de Sistemas, Gestin por Proce-
sos.
1EiderFortea Mndez ( e-mail: efortea@mondragon.edu)

Departamento de Mecnica y Produccin Industrial. Escuela de Ingeniera. Universidad
Mondragn. C/Loramendi, 4, 20500 Mondragn.
2Imanol Mikeo Aizkorbe ( e-mail: imanol545@hotmail.com)
Alumno en proyecto final de Grado en Ingeniera en Organizacin Industrial. Escuela de
Ingeniera. Universidad Mondragn. C/Loramendi, 4, 20500 Mondragn.
1089
1 Introduccin
Llevamos ya aos implantando en las empresas sistemas de gestin con objeto de

conseguir una gestin ms eficiente en el mbito en el que se implantan. Y los re-
sultados de tales implantaciones confirman efectivamente, la bondad de dichas ac-
tuaciones. Entrando concretamente en el mbito de la seguridad y salud laboral, el
medio ambiente y la calidad, tenemos la posibilidad de utilizar especificaciones
tcnicas internacionalmente reconocidas: ISO 9001:2008 de sistema de gestin de
calidad (ISO 2008) e ISO 14001:2004 de sistema de gestin ambiental (ISO,
2004), y una especificacin tcnica reconocida y adaptada por la mayora de las
empresas para ayudarles al diseo y desarrollo de un sistema de gestin de la se-
guridad y salud laboral (OHSAS 18001:2007) (BSI, 2007).
Como en el caso que nos ocupa, la gran mayora de empresas (hablamos del
Pas Vasco) tienen ya y desde hace tiempo implantado y certificado un sistema de
gestin de calidad segn la ISO 9001; menos son las certificadas en medio am-
biente, y an menos las certificadas en seguridad y salud laboral, aunque mante-
nemos unos ndices altos en lo referente al resto de Espaa en cuanto al nmero de
certificaciones. Tal y como Aenor expres en una nota de prensa en el ao 2007,
el Pas Vasco ocupaba el tercer lugar en el conjunto del Estado espaol por nme-
ro de certificaciones, tanto segn la norma ISO 9001 de calidad, como ISO 14001
de medio ambiente (AENOR, 2007).
Una de las circunstancias de las que ms se han quejado las empresas a la hora
de implantar la norma de gestin de la calidad (normalmente la primera en im-
plantarse) es la cantidad de papeleo que se tena que hacer; primero para im-
plantarla y luego para mantenerla. La exigencia de firmas requeridas, registros y
documentos para todo haca que los trabajadores fueran poco a poco saboteando
su mantenimiento y finalmente dejara de poder gestionarse de esa manera. Se sue-
le culpar a esta normativa de ser una moda, un factor de rigidez, una fuente de
descalificacin para el trabajador, un retorno al taylorismo, de no garantizar la ca-
lidad del producto, de tener un costo elevado, y de ser un factor que aumenta el
papeleo y la burocracia (Casadess y Heras, 1999).
Por otra parte, si adems la empresa decida implantar tambin un sistema de
gestin ambiental segn la ISO 14001:2004, las exigencias de registros y el pape-
leo se multiplicaban y la situacin se complicaba an ms si la empresa decida
certificarse tambin contra la OHSAS 18001:2007 de seguridad y salud laboral.
Vista esta situacin se comenz a disear sistemas de gestin integrados que
cumplieran con los requisitos de las tres normas mxime cuando las tres estn
predispuestas a ser integradas ya que todas estn diseadas siguiendo un ciclo de
mejora continua o rueda de Deming (Deming,1989 ). Asimismo, para llevar a cabo
fcilmente esta integracin las propias normas comenzaron a incorporar en su par-
te final una tabla en la que se relacionaban los captulos de una y otra norma (ISO
9001:2008 e ISO 14001:2004).
1090
Cierto es que ya existe una norma UNE 66177:2005 (AENOR, 2005) de siste-
mas de gestin: gua para la integracin de los sistemas de gestin, sin embargo, la
integracin que propone de los tres sistemas de referencia se contradice con las
sugerencias lgicas de integracin que las normas ISO 9001:2008 e ISO
14001:2004 hacen en sus ltimas ediciones. Por otra parte tenemos la NTP 576
(Norma Tcnica de Prevencin) (INHST, 2001) que propone las posibilidades de
integracin en funcin a la similitud de los diferentes captulos o artculos de las
normas de calidad ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001:2004, OSHAS 18001:2007 y UNE
EN 81900 EX. Esta NTP qued obsoleta en el momento en que desapareci la
UNE 81900 de sistema de gestin de prevencin de riesgos laborales y la ISO
9001:2000 que se actualiz en la edicin de 2008.
Pero vayamos al concepto, qu significa integracin?. Existen numerosas de-
finiciones en la literatura, pero por considerarla la ms completa nos haremos eco
de la establecida por el Grupo Mondragn cuando an era MCC: Integracin es el
proceso a travs del cual la organizacin aprende a introducir criterios y especi-
ficaciones en sus procesos de modo que satisfagan a todos sus clientes (internos,
externos, institucionales, partes interesadas, etc.) de forma simultnea, ahorrando
costes y esfuerzos, con un espritu innovador, autocrtico y comprometido con la
mejora continua (MCC, 2000). Por tanto, cubrir las necesidades de la empresa en
su gestin, significa tener en cuenta su gestin particular, los elementos a los que
les da ms o menos importancia, identificar y evaluar los indicadores que necesita
esa empresa y no otra, establecer la frecuencia y el tipo de auditoras que esa em-
presa necesita y valora y no otra.
Un proceso de integracin de sistemas de gestin no es sencillo, y en muchas
ocasiones nos podemos encontrar con una no implicacin del personal en el desa-
rrollo y documentacin de los procesos y procedimientos; podemos caer en la ten-
tacin de redactar instrucciones muy largas y ridas que realmente nunca se lean y
mucho menos se apliquen; podemos caer en la no implicacin de toda la plantilla,
incluyendo a los directivos, en el cumplimiento de procedimientos y normas (Phi-
llips, A.W, 2004).
2 Motivos para la Certificacin. Motivos para la Integracin
Los motivos que pueden llevarle a una empresa a la certificacin de una norma de
gestin pueden ser muy variados: lo pide el cliente mejoramos la imagen
demostramos que creemos en la gestin, etc. Sin embargo, cuando hablamos de
que existen estudios que demuestran que las empresas certificadas en un sistema
de gestin son ms competitivas que las que no lo estn, la cosa cambia. El estu-
dio realizado por Mann y Kehoe (1994) (Mann y Kehoe, 1994) sealaba que la
implantacin de ISO 9000 estaba asociada con la mejora de los resultados de la
empresa a nivel operativo.
1091
Igualmente, el estudio realizado por Casadess, Heras y Ochoa (Casadess,

Heras y Ochoa, 2000) en 500 empresas certificadas en esta norma, llegaba a la
misma conclusin. Tambin es cierto que existen estudios muy rigurosos que no
llegan a constatar una relacin positiva entre la certificacin y la mejora del ren-
dimiento empresarial, como es el caso de Terziovski, Samson yDow, 1997, en
empresas de Australia y Nueva Zelanda (Heras, I, Arana, G, Casadess M; Mari-
mon, F, 2002). Sin embargo, en lo que s parecen estar de acuerdo gran parte de
todos los estudios realizados en relacin a la mejora de la competitividad y la cer-
tificacin es que se puede predecir el grado de mejora obtenido en funcin de los
motivos que les llevaron a la bsqueda de la certificacin. Y si uno de los motivos
que les llevaron a ello es la mejora del modelo EFQM, podemos afirmar que la in-
tegracin de los sistemas de gestin es una herramienta que ayuda a la consecu-
cin de dicho modelo de excelencia empresarial (hiptesis que se lanza en el estu-
dio de caso).
Pero, son los mismos los motivos para la certificacin que para la integra-
cin?. Obviamente, no. La integracin de los sistemas de gestin de la calidad, el
medio ambiente y la seguridad y salud laboral permite a la empresa evaluar com-
pletamente la viabilidad y la salud de la organizacin, revisando todos los datos
que puedan afectar a su xito continuado. Los objetivos de negocio se revisan y
evalan y se ponen en marcha las acciones necesarias para asegurarse de que se
cumplan. Por otra parte, permite reducir la repeticin y redundancia de las auditor-
as y ahorra tiempo y recursos. Adems genera una mentalidad de proceso en
toda la organizacin que facilita la mejora continua y permite identificar los xitos
a travs del sistema de gestin (Phillips, A.W, 2004).
3 La Gestin por Procesos
Partiendo de un modelo de excelencia empresarial, EFQM, por ejemplo, una orga-

nizacin que quiere iniciar o mantener su carrera particular hacia la excelencia,
necesita orientar y dirigir sus esfuerzos a aplicar las practicas que le permitirn
desarrollar y consolidar una cultura de gestin por procesos dentro de la organiza-
cin (Orero G, A, Gonzlez D, F, 2007).
En la literatura pueden encontrarse diferentes definiciones de proceso: Proceso:
conjunto de actividades mutuamente relacionadas o que interactan, las cuales
transforman elementos de entrada en resultados ISO 9001:2000; El modelo
EFQM lo define como secuencia de actividades que van aadiendo valor mien-
tras se produce un determinado producto o servicio a partir de determinadas apor-
taciones; y Hammer y Champy (Hammer y Champy, 1993) como conjunto de
actividades que, coordinadas, crean un valor para el cliente. Los procesos son
posiblemente el elemento ms importante y ms extendido en la gestin de las
empresas innovadoras, especialmente de las que basan su sistema de gestin en la
1092
Calidad Total (Zaratiegui, 1999). El gestionar por procesos prepara a la empresa

para el entorno actual, incierto y cambiante, es decir, la preocupacin creciente de
la empresa por la adecuacin de los procesos a las exigencias del mercado ha ido
poniendo de manifiesto que una adecuada gestin, que tome los procesos como
base organizativa y operativa es imprescindible para disear polticas y estrategias
que luego se puedan desplegar con xito (Zaratiegui, 1999). La gestin por pro-
cesos permite asegurar una excelente calidad del producto o servicio, tiempos de
respuesta ms cortos y la minimizacin de costos como aspectos clave para un
buen posicionamiento en el mercado que cada vez exige mayor flexibilidad y va-
riedad. Los modelos de excelencia, para los que la gestin por procesos es un paso
previo, permiten evaluar, a travs de la consideracin de mltiples criterios, si una
determinada empresa alcanza ese ideal o perfeccin empresarial (Nnez, L.I;
Vlez, M; Berdugo, C, 2004). Teniendo en cuenta, por tanto, la importancia de la
gestin por procesos, la empresa ha de comenzar por identificar cules son sus
procesos, tipificndolos en funcin de su relevancia para la estrategia empresarial
(misin y visin), su relacin con la funcin principal de la empresa (cadena de
valor) y su relacin con las actividades de apoyo. A continuacin se muestra el
nuevo mapa de procesos de la empresa GOIAN S.L
Fig. 1 Nuevo Mapa de procesos Elevadores Goian S.L.
4 Estudio de Caso: Diseo, Elaboracin e Implantacin de un

Sistema Integrado de Gestin en Elevadores Goian S.L.
Elevadores GOIAN S.L tiene ms de 40 aos de experiencia en el diseo, fabrica-

cin y comercializacin de maquinaria de elevacin. El objetivo de su constitucin
fue ampliar la gama de equipos de elevacin para el sector de la construccin con
mquinas tales como montacargas, elevadores y plataforma elevadoras pin cre-
mallera, as como para otros sectores industriales, centrndose inicialmente en el
sector elico.
1093
En la actualidad, Goian est encaminando su gestin hacia la gestin de la Ca-

lidad Total y, para conseguirlo ve la necesidad de dar una serie de pasos. Prime-
ramente, han comenzado a basar su gestin en una gestin por procesos, lo que
permite a todo el personal el conocimiento y la informacin global de la empresa
necesaria para poder satisfacer las necesidades del cliente en toda su amplitud.
Asimismo, lleva a cabo una forma de gestin de la calidad basada en la norma ISO
9001:2008, por lo que efecta peridicamente la revisin del Sistema de Gestin
que garantiza la conformidad de los productos y servicios. Cuenta hasta el mo-
mento con un sistema de gestin de calidad, basado en la norma internacional ISO
9001:2008, certificada por la entidad TV Rheinland el 19/12/2008.
Sin embargo, Goian empez a darse cuenta de que por circunstancias derivadas
principalmente de requisitos legales y exigencias de clientes, tena la necesidad de
comenzar a gestionar a modo de sistema de gestin, su seguridad y salud laboral y
todos los aspectos relacionados con el medio ambiente (identificacin y gestin de
residuos, emisiones, vertidos, consumos energticos, etc). Por una parte, es la pro-
pia ley de prevencin de riesgos laborales 31/95 la que obliga a la empresa a dis-
poner de un sistema de gestin de prevencin del riesgo laboral y por otra, los
nuevos requisitos legales en torno a la gestin de residuos, vertidos, emisiones, etc
obligaban a Goian comenzar con una gestin ms frrea de dichas situaciones.
Asimismo, debido tambin al incremento de la concienciacin social dentro y fue-
ra de la empresa, en cuanto a la seguridad y salud laboral y al medio ambiente na-
ce la motivacin de la empresa a embarcarse en la aventura de disear e implantar
un sistema de gestin de seguridad y salud laboral y uno medio ambiental.
Finalmente tambin se buscaba una gestin basada en el modelo de excelencia
empresarial EFQM y se entendi que un modelo integrado de gestin ayudara a la
implantacin ms fcil del mismo.
4.1 Objetivos y Desarrollo del Proyecto
Teniendo en cuenta la problemtica de Goian, se definieron dos mbitos de actua-

cin: por una parte el diseo, desarrollo e implantacin de un sistema integrado de
gestin que permita su certificacin; y por otra la medicin del impacto de dicho
sistema en el modelo de excelencia empresarial EFQM. La consecucin de dichos
objetivos se fue desarrollando partiendo de la revisin inicial y diagnstico de la
situacin de la empresa, estudiando las normas de referencia y viendo su posible
adaptacin a Goian en un modelo integrado, estudiando la legislacin relacionada,
tanto la relativa a seguridad como a medio ambiente, rehaciendo el mapa de pro-
cesos existente as como los procedimientos de actuacin, por una parte, y reali-
zando una autoevaluacin de la empresa basndose en el cuestionario de autoeva-
luacin elaborado por EUSKALIT (Fundacin Vasca para la Calidad) con objeto
de medir el impacto de la integracin del sistema de gestin.
1094
4.2 Resultados y Conclusiones
Como conclusin principal podemos decir que la empresa entiende que la integra-
cin de las tres normas es una buena herramienta para la mejora de productos y
servicios y la satisfaccin del cliente; para reducir la repeticin y redundancia de
las auditoras y ahorrar tiempo y recursos; para generar una mentalidad de proceso
en toda la organizacin que facilite la mejora continua y permita identificar los
xitos a travs del sistema de gestin; y para la integracin de elementos clave
como la seguridad laboral y la gestin ambiental en el sistema general de gestin.
Y por otra parte, que el hecho de haber realizado una autoevaluacin EFQM les
ha permitido identificar aqullos mbitos de gestin donde estn ms dbiles,
identificndolos como puntos dbiles e introducindolos como posibilidades de
mejora desde direccin. Se espera repetirlo el prximo ao y estudiar su resultado.
En lo referente a resultados, se ha diseado un sistema integrado de gestin y se
ha elaborado un manual integrado. El 80% ha sido revisado y aprobado por la di-
reccin y se est comenzando su implantacin, que est alrededor del 30%. Se
prev la realizacin de una auditora interna para el mes de junio en la que ya est
todo el sistema revisado. A continuacin se muestra uno de los resultados ms
evidentes de este proyecto que es la modificacin de uno de sus procesos estrat-
gicos: Gestin integrada. En color amarillo se pueden ver las modificaciones
realizadas.
Responsable Responsable de Calidad

Implantar, mantener y mejorar todos los aspectos relacionados con el Sistema
Objeto Integrado
de la empresa.
Gestin documental del sistema
Descripcin Medicin del sistema: no conformidades, auditorias, indicadores
Gestin de la mejora continua
Departamentos Gerencia; Calidad; I+D+i; Produccin; Comercial; Posventa; Finanzas,
Implicados Administracin y RRHH;
Puntos de las - 4.1 Requisitos Generales / 4.1 Requisitos Generales / 4.1 Requisitos
generales
ISO/OHSAS - 8. Medicin, Anlisis y Mejora / 4.5.1 Seguimiento y medicin del
referente desempeo / 4.5.1 Seguimiento y medicin
- PR-03-4.2-01 Control de los Documentos y Registros
- PR-03-7.6-01 Calibracin de Equipos de Control
- PR-03-8.2-01 Auditoras Internas
Procedimientos - PR-03-8.3-01 No Conformidad / Incidencia de Producto
- PR-03-8.5-01 Acciones Correctivas y Preventivas
- PR-03-X Gestin del Servicio de Prevencin ajeno
- PR-03-X Coordinacin de Actividades Empresariales
Normas - Las referencias de las Normas se incluyen en la Matriz Control de la Documentacin
- D-30-4.1-01 Mapa de Procesos

- D-30-4.2-01 Manual Integrado
- D-30-4.2-02 Matriz Control de la Documentacin
Documentos
- D-30-7.6-01 Inventario de Equipos de Medicin
- D-30-8.2-01 Programa de Auditora Interna
- D-30-8.2-02 Tabla de Indicadores
- Las referencias de los Registros/Impresos se incluyen en la Matriz Control de la
Registros/Impresos Documentacin
- pagados en las No Conformidades
- Emisiones CO2/Ahorro energa en % o /n de clientes ganados por esta
Indicador ventaja competitiva / ganados por esos clientes Con intencin de
motivar al personal
- N de accidentes/incidentes / que provocan los accidentes/incidentes
La suma de los pagados en las No Conformidades
Desarrollo La suma del ahorro de energa / La suma del n/ de clientes
Indicador La suma de n de accidentes/incidentes / La suma de que provocan los
accidente/incidentes
Control 3 meses
Fig.2 Nuevo proceso de gestin integrada
1095
Finalmente podemos mostrar la matriz Reder utilizada para autoevaluarse en

excelencia empresarial en su apartado relevancia y utilidad y ver el impacto de
la implantacin de un sistema de gestin integrado. La conclusin a la que se llega
es que Goian est en el camino hacia la excelencia, pero an le falta mucho por
recorrer (25% realizado).
Relevancia y Utilidad 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
mbito y Relevancia:
El mbito de aplicacin de los resultados:
Aborda las necesidades y expectativas de los
grupos de inters relevantes.
de las reas implicadas de las reas implicadas de las reas implicadas Todas las reas implicadas
Es coherente con la estrategia y sus polticas de Relevancia no establecida
(aprox.) tienen resultados y (aprox.) tienen resultados y (aprox.) tienen resultados y tienen resultados y son
apoyo. o informacin anecdtica.
son relevantes. son relevantes. son relevantes. relevantes.
Los Resultados Clave estn identificados y
priorizados.
Las relaciones entre los resultados relevantes se
entienden.
Integridad: de los resultados (aprox.) de los resultados (aprox.) de los resultados (aprox.)
Los resultados son oportunos, fiables y precisos Ninguna evidencia o
son oportunos, fiables y son oportunos, fiables y son oportunos, fiables y
Todos los resultados son
informacin anecdtica. oportunos, fiables y precisos.
precisos. precisos. precisos.
Segmentacin: Segmentacin til en
Los resultados se han segmentado de forma Sin segmentacin. aproximadamente de los
Segmentacin til en Segmentacin til en Segmentacin til en todos los
adecuada. aproximadamente . aproximadamente . resultados.
resultados.
Total para Relevancia y Utilidad* 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
*Nota: El total no debe exceder la puntuacin de mbito y relevancia.
Rendimiento 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Tendencias:
Fig. 3 Matriz REDER de resultados
Las tendencias son positivas y/o el rendimiento es
Sin resultados o
de los resultados (aprox.)
con tendencias positivas y/o
Todos los resultados con
tendencias positivas y/o buen
bueno y sostenido. informacin anecdtica buen rendimiento sostenido buen rendimiento sostenido buen rendimiento sostenido al rendimiento sostenido al menos
al menos 3 aos. al menos 3 aos. menos 3 aos. 3 aos.
Objetivos:
Se han establecido para los Resultados Clave. Establecidos, adecuados y Establecidos, adecuados y Establecidos, adecuados y Establecidos, adecuados y
Son adecuados. Sin objetivos o informacin
alcanzados en (aprox.) de alcanzados en (aprox.) de alcanzados en (aprox.) de alcanzados en todos los
Se alcanzan. anecdtica.
los Resultados Clave. los Resultados Clave. los Resultados Clave. Resultados Clave.
5 Referencias
Comparaciones:
de los Resultados Clave de los Resultados Clave de los Resultados Clave Todos los Resultados Clave con
Se comparan los Resultados Clave. Sin comparaciones o
(aprox.) con comparaciones (aprox.) con comparaciones (aprox.) con comparaciones comparaciones favorables y
Son adecuadas. informacin anecdtica.
favorables y adecuadas. favorables y adecuadas. favorables y adecuadas. adecuadas.
Son favorables.
AENOR (2005), UNE 66177:2005 Gua para
Causas:
Se comprende la relacin entre los Resultados
la integracin
La relacin con los Agentes
es visible en de los
de los sistemas
La relacin con los Agentes
es visible en de los
de
La relacin con gestin.
los Agentes es La relacin con los Agentes es
Las causas no generan visible en de los resultados visible en todos los resultados y
AENOR (2007) Nota de prensa
alcanzados y sus Agentes Facilitadores.
confianza o informacin
Segn las evidencias presentadas hay confianza en
resultados (aprox.) y hay
alguna evidencia de que el
resultados (aprox.) y hay
alguna evidencia de que el
(aprox.) y hay alguna evidencia hay alguna evidencia de que el
anecdtica de que el rendimiento seguir rendimiento seguir siendo
Casadess M, Heras I (1999) ISO 9000 obstculos
que el rendimiento siga siendo positivo en el futuro. y beneficios.
rendimiento seguir siendo
positivo.
rendimiento seguirForum
positivo.
siendo Calidad.
siendo positivo. Madrid positivo.
Casadess M, Heras I, Ochoa C (2000)

Total para Rendimiento: 0 5 10 The15 20 benefits
25 30 35of 40 the45 implementation
50 55 60 65 70 75of 80 the85ISO 90 9000 95 100 nor-
mative. Empirical research in 0the5 Spanish

Valoracin Total 10 15 20 companies.
25 30 35 40 45 First 50 55 Work 60 65Conference
70 75 80 85 on 90 Production
95 100
and Opetations Management. POM. Sevilla

Deming W (1989) Calidad, productividad y competitividad: la salida de la crisis. Ediciones Daz
de Santos. Madrid.
Heras I, Arana G, Casadess M, Marimon F (2002) Incidencia de la gestin de la calidad en el
rendimiento econmico empresaial: un estudio emprico en las empresas vascas. XII Congre-
so Nacional de ACEDE. Palma de Mallorca
INSHT (2001) NTP 576 Integracin de sistemas de gestin: prevencin de riesgos laborales, ca-
lidad y medio ambiente.
Mann R, Kehoe D (1994) An evaluation of the effects of quality improvement in manufacturing.
International Journal of quality and reliabililty management 11, n 7
Nuez L, Vlez M, Berdugo C (2004) Aplicacin de una metodologa de mejora de procesos ba-
sada en el enfoque de gestin por procesos en los modelos de excelencia y el QFD en una
empresa del sector de confecciones de Barranquilla. Ingeniera & Desarrollo. Universidad del
Norte. Colombia
Orero G, Conzlez D (2007) Las claves de una organizacin orientada a procesos. Forum calidad
n 179.
Phillips A W (2004) Beneficios de la gestin integrada: calidad, seguridad y medio ambiente
Zaratiegui J R (1999) La gestin por procesos: su papel e importancia en la empresa. Economa
Industrial, n 130
1096
Modelo para la Implementacin de Sistemas de

Gestin Preventivos en Sectores Singulares
Modelling for Implantation of the Systems Preventive Management in the
Singular Sectors
Solano Martos J1, Maeso Gonzlez E2
Abstract The fundamental aim of this study has been the development of a Sys-
tem of Management of the Safety Risks of general application to business sectors
of singular activity. The study proposes, the necessary tools for the modelling of
the tending systems to the implantation of the tools of applicable preventive man-
agement in the singular sectors. Conscious of the existence of specific models cen-
tred in the strict fulfillment of the valid legislation, these can suffer from of the
sufficient level that provide the suitable results of in accordance with the problem-
atic that really pose in preventive matter in the singular sectors. At the same time,
it pretends develop a scientific methodology that allow the identification and cor-
rect business classification of the singular sectors with the end to give an effective
preventive treatment of the intrinsic risks to the activities that in them develop,
taking into account the specific legislation that affects them in preventive matter
and of industrial safety, and in base to a correct identification of the dangers and
evaluation of the risks that allow subsequently exert the pertinent preventive ac-
tions tending to the effective management of said risks, with the end to delete
them and/or reduce them to acceptable levels.
Resumen El objetivo fundamental de este estudio ha sido el desarrollo de un sis-

tema distribuido de Gestin de la Prevencin de Riesgos Laborales de aplicacin
1 Jos Solano Martos ( e-mail: jsolano@uma.es).
Dpto. de Ingeniera Civil, Materiales y Fabricacin. Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros

Industriales. Universidad de Mlaga. C/Doctor Ortiz Ramos s/n, Campus Teatinos, 29071
Mlaga
2 Elvira Maeso Gonzlez ( e-mail: emaeso@uma.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales.

Universidad de Mlaga. C/Doctor Ortiz Ramos s/n, Campus Teatinos, 29071 Mlaga
* Destacar nuestro agradecimiento a la Universidad de Mlaga. Campus de Excelencia
Internacional Andaluca Tech por su apoyo en todo momento.
1097
general a sectores empresariales de actividad singular. El estudio propone, las

herramientas necesarias para la modelizacin de los sistemas tendentes a la im-
plantacin especfica de las herramientas de gestin preventiva aplicables en los
sectores singulares. Conscientes de la existencia de modelos especficos centrados
en el estricto cumplimiento de la legislacin vigente, stos pueden adolecer de la
suficiente eficacia que proporcionen los resultados adecuados de acorde con la
problemtica que realmente se plantean en materia preventiva en los sectores sin-
gulares. Al mismo tiempo, se pretende desarrollar una metodologa cientfica que
permita la identificacin y correcta clasificacin empresarial de los sectores singu-
lares con el fin de dar un tratamiento preventivo eficaz de los riesgos intrnsecos a
las actividades que en ellos se desarrollan, teniendo en cuenta la legislacin es-
pecfica que les afecta en materia preventiva y de seguridad industrial, y en base a
una correcta identificacin de los peligros y evaluacin de los riesgos que permita
con posterioridad ejercer las acciones preventivas pertinentes tendentes a la ges-
tin eficaz de dichos riesgos, con el fin de eliminarlos y/o reducirlos a niveles
aceptables.
Keywords: Singular Sectors, Minoritary Sectors, Group of Risk, Model of Pre-

ventive Management, Elements of the System of Management.
Palabras clave: Sectores Singulares, Sectores Minoritarios, Grupo de Riesgo,
Modelo de Gestin Preventivo, Elementos del Sistema de Gestin.
1 Introduccin
Es indudable el avance experimentado en los ltimos aos en materia preventiva;

disponemos de una completa normativa y legislacin laboral adaptada al entorno
europeo, utilizamos novedosos programas informticos de prevencin de riesgos,
realizamos un completo seguimiento estadstico de la siniestralidad laboral de
nuestras empresas, ya sea a nivel local, autonmico estatal. El avance en materia
de formacin preventiva en consonancia con la aplicacin de las nuevas tecnolog-
as de la comunicacin nos ha permitido llegar a sectores empresas antes inal-
canzables. Las empresas han implantado sistemas de gestin preventiva basados
en una mejora continua e integrable con otros sistemas existentes en pro de una
mayor competitividad, convirtindose la prevencin de los riesgos laborales en un
factor estratgico empresarial. Sin embargo, a la hora de abordar la existencia de
modelos de gestin preventivos en sectores singulares refirindonos a sectores
minoritarios aqullos a los que por sus caractersticas especiales se denominan
sectores singulares. Resulta curioso saber, que a pesar de los avances tecnolgi-
cos y del conocimiento experimentado en los ltimos aos, coexistan todava em-
presas pertenecientes a sectores de especial peligrosidad de los que apenas se tiene
1098
conocimiento alguno y que carecen en gran medida de los medios y de los recur-
sos necesarios para poder desarrollar su actividad laboral con la suficiente garanta
de proteccin y de seguridad para sus trabajadores.
El smil ms comprensible al hablar de estos sectores singulares, es sin lugar
a dudas, el que podemos establecer comparativamente con el trmino de enfer-
medades raras enfermedades poco comunes, minoritarias enfermedades po-
co frecuentes. Con dificultades similares a las indicadas con anterioridad en el
smil propuesto, nos encontramos cuando tratamos con empresas pertenecientes a
sectores singulares. Se trata de sectores que tienen muy poco impacto en el con-
junto de la sociedad; todos somos conocedores de su existencia y de la peligrosi-
dad que entraa la actividad que en ellos se desarrollan, pero no disponemos de
herramientas eficaces para una correcta aplicacin de la metodologa de control y
gestin de sus riesgos, limitndose, en ocasiones, si procede, al estricto cumpli-
miento legislativo.
La carencia de informacin y de recursos presente en la mayora de los sectores
singulares junto con la necesidad de prestar toda nuestra experiencia para la mejo-
ra de las condiciones de seguridad y de salud laboral de los profesionales que tra-
bajan en sus empresas, han sido los principales factores que han motivado el aco-
meter un estudio de estas caractersticas. Es de sealar que el modelo propuesto en
este estudio se ha refrendado en el sector de las actividades subacuticas, ya que
por las caractersticas singulares de dicho sector, la influencia del medio en el que
se trabaja y la falta de informacin estadstica de incidentes con dao que afectan
a la seguridad y la salud de sus profesionales, su regulacin preventiva, la reciente
publicacin de su convenio colectivo, supone un importante reto hacia la mejora
de las condiciones de trabajo de los profesionales del sector.
2 Factores de Clasificacin de un Sector Singular
A la hora de determinar la pertenencia de la empresa a un determinado sector sin-

gular, el modelo define cuatro factores considerados fundamentales:
El tamao de la organizacin
El riesgo potencial
La normativa y la legislacin preventiva que le aplica
La siniestralidad laboral
Los diversos factores que intervienen en una clasificacin empresarial no son
excluyentes, lo que significa que el modelo se basa en una interaccin combina-
cin de factores que confieren a la empresa un determinado carcter singular.
1099
MODELO DE CLASIFICACIN SECTOR SINGULAR
Actividad Prevencin
Evaluacin de riesgos Seguridad Industrial
Peligrosidad sustancias Medio Ambiente
Productos qumicos Otras disposiciones
Maquinaria/Equipos
Procesos
RIESGO NORMATIVA
POTENCIAL LEGISLACIN
TAMAO SINIESTRALIDAD
ORGANIZACIN LABORAL
Organizacin Histrico de Accidentes e

N de empleados Incidentes
ndices estadsticos
Fig. 1 Clasificacin de un sector singular segn factores que afectan (Fuente: Autores)
El modelo de clasificacin sectorial atendiendo al cdigo de actividad empresa-

rial define sin lugar a dudas de forma directa la pertenencia de ciertas empresas a
un determinado grupo de riesgo. Segn define el propio INE.
MODELO DE CLASIFICACIN SECTORIAL POR CDIGO DE ACTIVIDAD EMPRESARIAL
CNAE CNO NACE
EMPRESA CLASIFICADA?
RIESGO
BAJO
SECTOR DE
NO SI RIESGO
RIESGO MEDIO
RIESGO
ESPECIAL
CUESTIONARIO DE
CLASIFICACIN
Fig. 2 Clasificacin sectorial por cdigo de actividad empresarial (Fuente: Autores)
1100
Si la empresa o profesional ha procedido a la realizacin de la evaluacin de

sus riesgos laborales, pero no se dispone de CNAE CNO, ste no aportara in-
fomacin alguna acerca de su pertenencia a un determinado grupo de riesgo, el
modelo propone la realizacin de un cuestionario con la siguiente informacin:
Datos bsicos de la empresa

N de trabajadores en plantilla
Actividad econmica principal de la empresa
N de centros de trabajo con los que cuenta la empresa
Sector de actividad al que pertenece:
Agrario
Industrial
Servicios
Construccin
Actividades que desarrolla

Con el fin de verificar de forma directa su pertenencia a un determinado grupo de
riesgo, el cuestionario relaciona aqullas actividades consideradas de riesgo espe-
cial en funcin de la normativa y legislacin aplicable.
Evaluacin de riesgos laborales

El cuestionario establece una metodologa especfica para la clasificacin del ries-
go empresarial en funcin de los resultados ponderados de las evaluaciones de
riesgos realizadas. Para la clasificacin sectorial del riesgo empresarial el modelo
toma como referencia la metodologa de evaluacin de riesgos laborales desarro-
llada por el INSHT en su Gua de Evaluacin de Riesgos Laborales adaptando
dicha metodologa de forma que agrupa y pondera los resultados de las evaluacio-
nes realizadas.
De esta manera el modelo presenta tres categoras del riesgo empresarial:
BAJO, MEDIO y ESPECIAL.
Table 1 Clasificacin de riesgos (Fuente: adaptada INSHT. Mtodo simplificado de Evaluacin)

NIVEL DE RIESGO TRIVIAL TOLERABLE MEDIO
TOLERABLE MEDIO IMPORTANTE
MEDIO IMPORTANTE INTOLERABLE
% RIESGO BAJO = % RIESGO TRIVIAL + %RIESGO TOLERABLE

% RIESGO MEDIO = % RIESGO MEDIO
% RIESGO ESPECIAL = % RIESGO IMP. + % RIESGO INTOLERABLE
1101
Table 2 Agrupacin de riesgos (Fuente: Autores)
RIESGO BAJO RIESGO MEDIO RIESGO ESPECIAL

% TRIVIAL % TOLERABLE % MEDIO % IMPORTANTE % INTOLERABLE
Para determinar con posterioridad a la evaluacin de riesgos laborales el nivel

de intervencin mediante la aplicacin de elementos de gestin preventiva basados
en OHSAS 1800:2007, se ha tomado como referencia la NTP330/1993 del
INSHT que agrupa los diferentes niveles de riesgo y de intervencin en categoras.
Nivel de Riesgo = Nivel de Probabilidad x Nivel de Consecuencias
Nivel I: Situacin Crtica. Correccin urgente

Nivel II: Corregir y adoptar medidas de control
Nivel III: Mejorar si es posible. Sera conveniente justificar la intervencin
Nivel IV: No intervenir salvo que un anlisis ms preciso lo justifique
Table 3 Determinacin del nivel de riesgo y de intervencin (Fuente: Adaptada de NTP

330/1993, INSHT)
2-4 6-8 10-20 24-40

10 IV III III II
25 III II
60 II I I
100 II I I
Clasificacin del riesgo ponderado:
Riesgo BAJO: Si al menos el 75% de los puestos de trabajo evaluados han sido
clasificados como riesgos TRIVIALES TOLERABLES.
Riesgo MEDIO: Si al menos el 50% de los puestos evaluados han sido clasifi-
cados de RIESGO MEDIO.
Riesgo ESPECIAL: Si al menos el 25% de los puestos evaluados han obtenido
una calificacin de IMPORTANTE INTOLERABLE
Resultado ponderado de la Evaluacin de Riesgos Laborales
RIESGO BAJO RIESGO MEDIO RIESGO ESPECIAL
75% 50% 25%
1102
CLASIFICACIN SECTORIAL POR NORMATIVA Y LEGISLACIN AFECTADA
NORMATIVA Y LEGISLACIN PREVENTIVA QUE LE AFECTA
INTERNACIONAL
1
0TRAS
DISPOSICIONES
EUROPEA
2 PREVENCIN DE SEGURIDAD Convenios colectivos
MEDIO AMBIENTE
RIESGOS LABORALES INDUSTRIAL
Agentes de riesgo
ESTATAL
3 Especfica de equipos
SECTORIAL
4 Ley
Real
Decreto
Orden
Ministerial
Fig. 3 Clasificacin sectorial segn normativa y legislacin preventiva (Fuente: Autores)
CLASIFICACIN ESTADSTICA SECTORIAL
M de
Trabajo
Clasificacin
Estadstica
Asociaciones
Sectoriales INSHT
IF
II
IG
CC.AA.
Provincia
Fig. 4 Clasificacin estadstica sectorial (Fuente: Autores)
1103
ACTIVIDAD EMPRESARIAL DE DIFCIL CLASIFICACIN AFECTADA POR NORMATIVA DE CARCTER

INDUSTRIAL Y MEDIO AMBIENTAL
POTENCIAL DE RIESGO ALTO
CLASIFICACIN COMO ACTIVIDADES PELIGROSAS
POCO ESTUDIADAS
TAMAO < 250 EMPLEADOS
- Autnomos INDICADORES DE FRECUENCIA Y DE GRAVEDAD
- Microempresas DESCONOCIDOS
- Empresa pequea
- Empresa mediana ALTA SINIESTRALIDAD LABORAL
Fig. 5 Caractersticas de una empresa singular (Fuentes: Autores)
3 Modelo Sectorial Sistema de Gestin Preventivo: Elementos
Dado el objetivo de simplicidad que perseguimos no emplearemos valores absolu-

tos del riesgo en funcin de su probabilidad y consecuencia, sino sus niveles de
riesgo ponderados en una escala de tres posibilidades.
A MAYOR Nivel de Deficiencia MAYOR Nivel de Intervencin
MATRIZ MODELO DE GESTIN EN FUNCIN DEL RIESGO EMPRESA SINGULAR
Modelo de Gestin Modelo de Gestin Modelo de Gestin

BSICO MEDIO AVANZADO
Nivel de Nivel de Nivel de

Riesgo Riesgo Riesgo
Bajo Medio Especial
Fig. 6 Matriz asociada de modelo de gestin (Fuente: Autores)
El modelo propone cumplir con una serie de elementos que conforman el Sis-
tema de Gestin Preventivo de SST. Estos elementos preventivos se han desarro-
llado tomando como referencia el estndar OHSAS 18001 adaptado y ampliado a
las peculiaridades de las empresas del sector singular.
1104
A medida que vamos subiendo en la clasificacin de la empresa en funcin de

su riesgo se adoptan ms requisitos del estndar de referencia. El modelo ha sido
validado en el sector del buceo profesional.
MODELO SECTORIAL SISTEMA DE GESTIN PREVENTIVO
ELEMENTOS DEL SISTEMA DE GESTIN PREVENTIVO BSICO MEDIO AVANZADO
POLTICA Poltica de Seguridad y Salud Laboral MEDIO AVANZADO
Identificacin de Peligros y Evaluacin de riesgos

Identificacin de requisitos legales y otros requisitos
PLANIFICACIN
Objetivos de Seguridad y Salud Laboral
Planificacin de la accin preventiva
Formacin, entrenamiento y capacitacin en materia preventiva
Comunicacin, participacin y consulta
Control de la documentacin y registros
Control Operacional
Seguridad para contratistas/subcontratistas
IMPLEMENTACIN
Seguridad en compras y adquisicin de bienes y equipos

Vigilancia peridica de la salud de los trabajadores
Control peridico de las condiciones higinicas de trabajo
Preparacin y respuesta ante emergencias
Inspecciones de seguridad y observaciones preventivas
Notificacin, investigacin y anlisis de accidentes e incidentes
VERIFICACIN
No conformidad, accin correctora y preventiva
Auditoras
REVISIN
Revisin del Sistema
Fig. 7 Modelo sectorial sistema de gestin preventivo empresas singulares (Fuente: Autores)
4 Referencias
AENOR (2007): Sistemas de gestin de la seguridad y salud en el trabajo. OHSAS 18001:2007.

Asociacin Espaola de Normalizacin y Certificacin. Madrid.
BRITISH STANDARS INSTITUTION (2008): OHSAS 18002:2008. Occupational health and
safety management systems Guidelines for the implementation of OHSAS 18001:2007.
British Standars Institution. Londres.
INSHT (1975): Nota Tcnica de Prevencin NTP 330. Sistema simplificado de evaluacin de
riesgos de accidente. Instituto Nacional de Seguridad e Higiene en el Trabajo (INSHT).
Solano Martos, J. (2011): Tesis doctoral Modelizacin para el estudio, anlisis y prevencin de
riesgos intrnsecos en sectores singulares. Universidad de Mlaga.
1105
SP-05
Gestin del Conocimiento y de Proyectos
1107
Estimacin de la Evolucin de Proyectos en el

mbito de la Produccin Industrial mediante la
Parametrizacin de la Curva S del Coste
Acumulado
Estimation of the Projects Evolution in the Field of Industrial Production by
Parameterization the Cumulative Cost S Curve
Garca Escribano E1
Abstract We aim to design a project control mechanism based in the parameteri-

zation of the cumulative cost S curve to applied it to projects in the field of indus-
trial production. In this way, we will complement the earned value technique by
helping in the estimation of the different stages evolution of these projects, so that
we will increase control and cost estimation efficiency.
Resumen Se pretende disear un mecanismo de control de proyectos basado en la

parametrizacin de la curva S del coste acumulado para aplicarlo a proyectos en el
mbito de la produccin industrial. As, se complementar la tcnica del valor ga-
nado ayudando en la estimacin de la evolucin de las diferentes etapas de dichos
proyectos, de forma que se aumentar la eficiencia en el control y en la estimacin
de costes.
Keywords: Control, Earned Value, Industrial Production, S Curve

Palabras clave: Control, Valor Ganado, Produccin Industrial, Curva S
1Eduardo Garca Escribano ( e-mail: edu947@hotmail.com / egarcia@connectia.es)

Connectia Solutions Factory. Avd Colada de Pozuelo, 20, 28925 Alcorcn (Madrid)
1109
1 Introduccin
Controlar un proyecto significa seguir su evolucin estudiando las posibles des-

viaciones entre los costes y plazos reales, los costes presupuestados y los plazos
planificados (PMI, 2008).
La multiplicidad de tipos de empresas, tipos de proyectos y tipos de tareas que
pueden existir dificultan la obtencin de un patrn de control de proyectos global.
Se va a particularizar el estudio para proyectos desarrollados en el mbito de la
produccin industrial con una secuencia de actividades que se extiende sobre un
largo perodo de tiempo, y que representan una importante dedicacin de capita-
les, recursos materiales y personal. Este enfoque permitir validar la base terica y
la metodologa que se describir a continuacin.
El artculo se estructura comenzando por enumerar los objetivos que se quieren
alcanzar. Despus, se particularizar el modelo continuo de la funcin logstica
definiendo las etapas que forman los proyectos de mbito industrial. A continua-
cin, se validarn los resultados obtenidos simulando para ello un nmero sufi-
cientemente alto de proyectos, y se terminar con las conclusiones extradas de es-
te trabajo de investigacin.
2 Objetivos
La metodologa del valor ganado (Anbari, 2003) aporta desviaciones temporales,

ndices de rendimiento, porcentajes de avance y estimaciones del coste final de un
proyecto (Christensen, 1999 y Henderson, 2003), pero no puede indicar cmo ser
la evolucin de dicho proyecto desde el estado actual de ejecucin del mismo has-
ta su cierre (Lipke, 2005 y Taylor, 2009), es decir, utiliza estimadores para realizar
predicciones aproximadas, utilizando las variaciones que est sufriendo un proyec-
to y anticipar las variaciones en la finalizacin del mismo.
En este trabajo se pretende mejorar la capacidad predictiva en los proyectos de
mbito industrial, complementando este tipo de tcnicas usadas habitualmente
(Garca, 2010 y Vanhoucke, 2009), y utilizando para ello la parametrizacin como
una funcin continua de la curva que representa el coste planificado acumulado
del proyecto, conocida como curva S, resultando as una aproximacin ms real
que simula el comportamiento del proyecto hasta su cierre.
La funcin continua parametrizada ser una estimacin de la evolucin del
proyecto hasta su finalizacin, la cual podr ser usada como mecanismo de control
de proyectos comparando el progreso del proyecto con las previsiones dadas por la
curva, que ser la referencia que el director del proyecto utilizar durante la ejecu-
cin del mismo para corregir las desviaciones. As, se mejora el seguimiento, anti-
cipando los ajustes necesarios para llegar al cierre del proyecto con xito y aumen-
tando la eficiencia en el control y en la estimacin de costes.
1110
3 Etapas de un Proyecto de Produccin Industrial
Los proyectos de produccin desarrollados en el mbito industrial se caracterizan

principalmente por una larga duracin y una gran cantidad de recursos utilizados.
Para el desarrollo de la investigacin propuesta se va a suponer que sus etapas se
presentan secuencialmente en cinco grandes grupos con el fin de dividir el domi-
nio del tiempo en cinco segmentos, lo cual es suficiente para representar la
aproximacin de la curva S del coste acumulado (Noori, 2008).
1. Etapa de Definicin
Es aqulla en la que la idea se concreta y se realizan los estudios preliminares.
Por lo general, los proyectos comienzan con una pequea cantidad de tareas ini-
ciales, por lo que el coste acumulado ser prcticamente constante en esta etapa.
E1 (t ) cte [- < x t1 ] (3.1)
2. Etapa de Concepcin
Su propsito es determinar las especificaciones tcnicas, el coste, el alcance, el
programa y las necesidades de recursos. Se comienza a hacer frente a un gran
nmero de actividades al mismo tiempo, lo que aumenta considerablemente el
gasto en comparacin con el trabajo inicial (Cioffi, 2005 y Weisstein, 2004). As,
el coste acumulado se puede simular mediante una ecuacin de segundo grado.
E2 (t ) ax 2 bx c [t1 < x t 2 ] (3.2)
3. Etapa de Construccin
Es la ms larga y costosa en la mayora de los casos, donde se hace real lo que
se ha definido anteriormente, ejecutando y controlando los elementos del producto
o sistema segn las especificaciones desarrolladas en las etapas precedentes. El
coste acumulado aumenta rpidamente y se puede simular con una funcin lineal.
E3 (t ) ax b [t 2 x t 3 ] (3.3)
4. Etapa de Puesta en Marcha

El presupuesto suele ser limitado y el gasto tiende a disminuir en las etapas fi-
nales. Adems, muchas de las tareas dependen unas de otras y no pueden terminar
todas simultneamente, sino que van terminando poco a poco (Vitner, 2006), lo
que se puede simular con una ecuacin de segundo grado de signo negativo.
E4 (t ) ax 2 bx c [t 3 < x t 4 ] (3.4)
1111
5. Etapa de Cesin
La organizacin del proyecto va finalizando sus funciones, bien porque el pro-
ducto o sistema se ha integrado en la estructura organizativa regular, bien porque
el producto se ha entregado al cliente que lo solicit, o bien porque el proyecto ha
terminado en un fracaso y debe cancelarse. En esta etapa, al igual que en la pri-
mera, el coste acumulado ser prcticamente constante en el periodo.
E5 (t ) cte [t 4 x ] (3.5)
De esta forma, se puede representar cada segmento por una funcin simple,
obtenindose la figura del coste acumulado de un proyecto en funcin del tiempo
mediante una curva tipo S (Cioffi, 2006). Su adaptacin permitir simular diferen-
tes escenarios para ver diferentes alternativas sobre los costes reales, el gasto pre-
visto y el coste presupuestado.
Segmentos de la funcion logistica

1
0.9 E5(t)
E4(t)
0.8
0.7
0.6 E3(t)
E(t)
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
E2(t)
E1(t)
0.1
0
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
tiempo
Fig. 1 Segmentos de la funcin logstica
4 Parametrizacin de la Curva S mediante la Funcin

Logstica
Cuando se muestra el valor ganado como una funcin del tiempo, los costes de un
proyecto suelen tener una forma determinada, descrita como curva de S. Podremos
simular la planificacin de los costes dentro de un sector especfico comparando la
lnea base obtenida mediante la tcnica del valor ganado y las aproximaciones ob-
tenidas mediante parametrizacin de la funcin logstica. A continuacin se expo-
ne la solucin a la ecuacin diferencial logstica (Cioffi, 2005 y Meyer, 1999). Lo
que se pretende es aprovechar las propiedades de una funcin continua como es la
funcin logstica, en vez de usar valores discretos (Garca, 2012). La solucin a la
1112
funcin logstica se puede expresar en funcin de los parmetros , y (Garca,

2012 y Meyer, 1999).

E (t ) E0 (4.1)
1 e t
El parmetro representa la pendiente de la curva y se suele representar como
una variable t que es el tiempo necesario para llegar del 10% al 90% de , siendo
t=ln(81)/ (Cioffi, 2005). El parmetro es el instante en que se alcance 1/2 .
As, se puede representar la curva S en funcin los siguientes parmetros: el
lmite mximo de crecimiento de la curva (Ef), el tiempo de crecimiento (t) y el
punto medio (tm) en el que la curva alcanza de Ef.
Ef
E (t ) ln(81)
( t t m )
1 e t
(4.2)
Es posible estimar numricamente estos tres parmetros para calcular la fun-

cin de la curva S (Garca, 2012) y as estimar la evolucin del coste acumulado
mediante el perfil de curva deseado que ms se adapta a este tipo de proyectos.
5 Simulacin y Validacin de los Resultados
Para la validacin experimental de la funcin propuesta se ha dispuesto de una

cantidad de datos suficientemente amplia (20 proyectos). Los proyectos analizados
son reales, y todos desarrollados en el mbito objetivo de este trabajo.
Se ha realizado la media de los costes acumulados de todos los proyectos, en
trminos de porcentaje, en tres puntos equidistantes temporalmente en cada una de
las etapas, con el fin de poder trazar la curva en S a lo largo de las mismas. Las ca-
ractersticas de los proyectos reales analizados se muestran en la siguiente tabla.
Tabla 1 Caractersticas de los proyectos reales analizados para la validacin de los resultados
Entorno Industrial
Tipo de proyectos Produccin
Nmero de proyectos analizados 20
Duracin media de los proyectos 52,5 semanas
Suma de la duracin de los proyectos 1.050 semanas
Proyecto de mayor duracin 61 semanas
Proyecto de menor duracin 45 semanas
Desviacin estndar de la duracin de los proyectos 5,43
1113
Representando la media de los costes acumulados de los proyectos analizados,

y realizando una aproximacin mediante una regresin logstica, se obtienen las
curvas en S de la Fig. 2.
Coste acumulado(%). Media de los proyectos en cada etapa analizada

1
WD5-C
WD5-B
0.9 WD5-A
WD4-C
0.8 WD4-B
WD4-A
0.7
Coste Acumulado (%)
0.6 WD3-C
0.5
0.4
WD3-B
0.3
WD3-A
0.2
WD2-B
0.1 WD1-C WD2-C
WD1-A WD1-B
WD2-A
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Tiempo (semanas)
Coste acumulado(%). Aproximacin a la funcin logstica

1
0.9
0.8
0.7
Coste Acumulado (%)
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Tiempo (semanas)
Fig. 2 Media de los proyectos en cada etapa analizada. Aproximacin a la funcin logstica
Mediante simulaciones (Miranda, 2002) en funcin del tiempo con los diferen-
tes valores de Ef, tm y t de la ecuacin 4.2, se obtienen diferentes gamas de cur-
vas. Ajustando dichos parmetros en Ef = 1, tm = 30 y t = 25, se obtiene una cur-
va superpuesta a la obtenida realmente con los datos del coste acumulado. Se
puede ver la superposicin de dichas curvas en la Fig. 3., donde se muestra a su
vez una prediccin real de la curva S.
1114
Coste acumulado(%) de los proyectos analizados

1
E(t)
0.5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
tiempo (semanas)
Parametrizacin de la funcin logstica. Ajuste de parmetros
1
E(t)
0.5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
tiempo (semanas)
Fig. 3 Parametrizacin de la funcin logstica. Ajuste de parmetros
En la Fig. 4 se puede observar que ajustando los parmetros de la ecuacin 4.2

se puede obtener una buena aproximacin de la curva logstica que se adapta a los
parmetros de la curva real. As, tras una muestra de 20 proyectos, todos ellos del
mismo entorno, queda demostrado que se pueden utilizar dichos parmetros para
obtener una estimacin del coste planificado acumulado del proyecto.
Comparacin entre la curva real y la curva parametrizada ajustada

1
Curva parametrizada ajustada
0.9
Curva del coste acumulado real
0.8
0.7
0.6
E(t)
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
tiempo (semanas)
Fig. 4 Comparacin entre la curva real y la curva parametrizada ajustada
1115
6 Conclusiones
Se ha construido un modelo matemtico aplicando las propiedades continuas de la

funcin que representa el coste planificado acumulado del proyecto, obtenindose
as una estimacin de la evolucin del proyecto hasta su finalizacin.
Mediante el anlisis de los proyectos llevados a cabo en la investigacin se ha
demostrado como se puede complementar la tcnica del valor ganado mejorando
la capacidad predictiva y de seguimiento de los proyectos de mbito industrial,
ajustando los parmetros que definen la funcin logstica para representar la curva
del coste acumulado del proyecto, reduciendo as la incertidumbre desde la etapa
actual del proyecto hasta su finalizacin.
Con este enfoque, la modelizacin de la curva de S pasa de ser una mera des-
cripcin a una definicin matemtica completa, pasando de los valores discretos
utilizados en la tcnica del valor ganado, a una funcin continua con caractersti-
cas propias, lo que permite aumentar la eficiencia en el seguimiento de cada pro-
yecto, facilitando as al director de proyectos que pueda representar y particulari-
zar cualquier escenario de prediccin mediante la seleccin de los parmetros Ef,
t y tm, adecuados.
7 Referencias
Anbari FT (2003) Earned value project management method and extensions. Project Manage-
ment Journal, 34 (4):12-23.
Christensen D (1999) Using the Earned Value Cost Management Report To Evaluate the Con-
tractors Estimate At Completion. Acquisition Review Quarterly.
Cioffi D (2006) Designing project management: A scientific notation and an improved formal-
ism for earned value calculations. International Journal of Project Management, 24: 136-144.
Cioffi, D.: A tool for managing projects: an analytic parameterization of the s-curve. Interna-
tional Journal of Project Management. Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 215222 (2005).
Garca EE (2010) Specific Project Portfolio Management Techniques for monitoring and control-
ling Enterprise Project Portfolios. Best Practices in Project Management. CEPMaW 2010. In-
sisoc Ed.
Garca EE (2012) Control y monitorizacin de un proyecto mediante el clculo de estimaciones
obtenidas a travs de la parametrizacin de la curva S del coste acumulado. Best Practices in
Project Management. CEPMaW 2012. Insisoc Ed.
Henderson K (2003) Earned Schedule: A Breakthrought Extension to Earned Value Theory? A
Retrospective Analisys of Real Project Data. The Measurable News.
Kim EH, Wells WG, Duffey MR (2003) A model for effective implementation of Earned Value
Management methodology. International Journal of Project Management, 21: 375-382.
Lipke W (2005) A Re-examination of Project Outcome Prediction using Earned Value Man-
agement Methods. Meas News. pp. 1426.
Meyer PS (1999) A Primer on Logistic Growth and Substitution: The Mathematics of the Loglet
Lab Software. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 61, No. 3, pp. 247271.
Miranda MJ, Fackler PL (2002) Applied Computational Economics and Finance. The Ohio
State University & North Carolina State University. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
1116
Noori S, Bagherpour M, Zareei A (2008) Applying Fuzzy Control Chart in Earned Value
Analysis: A New Application. World Applied Sciences Journal 3 (4): 684-690. ISSN 1818-
4952.
PMI (2008) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. PMBOK Guide, Fourth
Edition, PMI Publications, p.16.
Tylor, J (2009) Project Scheduling and Cost Control (Planning, Monitoring and Cost Control).
E.U.A.: J. Ross Publishing, Inc.
Vitner G, Rozenes SH (2006) Using data envelope analysis to compare project efficiency in a
multi-project environment. International Journal of Project Management, 24: 323-329.
Weisstein E (2004) Gompertz curve. MathWorld. A Wolfram Web Resource, accessed 3.
1117
Aprendizaje Organizacional: Estudio de Caso

Sector Turismo de Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela
Organizational Learning: A Case Study of Tourism Sector of Guayana City,
Venezuela.
DArmas M1, Arzola M2
Abstract In the present study, the dimensions that determine the organizational
learning of the Tourism Sector in Guayana City, Venezuela, were identified by
statistical methods multivariants. An instrument consisting of 33 items, was de-
signed from the conceptual literature review. The items were associated with three
levels of learning and five conditions for learning to take place. The instrument
was applied to 125 workers of the Tourism Sector. The dimensions of Tourism
Sector of Guayana City were identified, after demonstrating the adequacy of the
data, index KMO = 0.873: learning orientation, retention and application of
knowledge, mutual collaboration; learning group, shared vision, and individual
learning. These six dimensions explained 75% of the total variance.
Resumen En el presente estudio se identificaron mediante mtodos estadsticos

multivariantes las dimensiones que determinan el aprendizaje organizacional del
Sector Turismo de Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. A partir de la revisin de la litera-
tura conceptual se dise un instrumento conformado de 33 tems. Los tems se
asociaron a tres niveles de aprendizaje y a cinco condiciones para que el aprendi-
zaje se lleve a cabo. El instrumento se aplic a 125 trabajadores del Sector Turis-
mo. Previa demostracin de la adecuacin de los datos, ndice KMO= 0.873, se
identificaron las dimensiones del Sector Turismo de Ciudad Guayana: orientacin
al aprendizaje; retencin y aplicacin del conocimiento; colaboracin mutua;
1Mayra DArmas Regnault ( e-mail: mdarmas@unexpo.edu.ve)

Centro de Desarrollo Gerencial. Dpto. de Ingeniera Industrial. UNEXPO. Edif. de Mecnica.
Urb. Villa Asia. Final Calle China. Puerto Ordaz. Estado Bolvar. Venezuela.
2Minerva Arzola Hamilton ( e-mail: marzola@unexpo.edu.ve)
Centro de Desarrollo Gerencial. Dpto. de Ingeniera Industrial. UNEXPO. Edif. de Mecnica
Urb. Villa Asia. Final Calle China. Puerto Ordaz. Estado Bolvar. Venezuela.
1118
aprendizaje grupal; visin compartida; y aprendizaje individual. Estas dimensio-

nes explican el 75% de la varianza total.
Keywords: Organizational Learning, Tourism Sector, Factor Analysis, Case Stu-

dy
Palabras clave: Aprendizaje Organizacional, Sector Turismo, Anlisis de Facto-
res, Estudio de Caso
1 Introduccin
El principal soporte de la economa venezolana es la industria petrolera seguida

por las industrias bsicas y minera. En Venezuela la actividad turstica como fuen-
te de ingreso siempre ha quedado relegada a un segundo plano, a pesar de poseer
un gran potencial para desarrollar el Sector Turismo, debido a su favorable posi-
cin geogrfica, la variedad de paisajes, la riqueza de la flora y fauna, y su clima,
los cuales son recursos fcilmente aprovechables para el desarrollo de este sector.
Las condiciones tursticas de Ciudad Guayana no escapan a las realidades del pas,
de hecho a pesar de ser una regin donde convergen atractivos naturales importan-
tes de inters mundial, el turismo no ha sido bien gestionado para sacarle el mayor
provecho.
En los ltimos aos en la regin se ha venido impulsando el desarrollo del sec-
tor turismo trabajando conjuntamente gobierno y empresas privadas, sin embargo,
los esfuerzos realizados no han sido suficientes por lo que es importante promover
y apoyar todas las iniciativas que ayuden a mejorar el turismo local aprovechando
su potencial y contribuyendo en el crecimiento regional.
La actual sociedad del conocimiento plantea un reto para las organizaciones,
desde la perspectiva de la asimilacin de toda la informacin disponible, seleccin
de aquella til para cumplir con los objetivos y que realmente contribuya con la
ventaja competitiva (Arzola, 2011). En una poca de cambios y de informacin
como la actual, el nico factor permanente de ventaja competitiva de una empresa
es el aprendizaje organizacional, pues ste es la base del mejoramiento y la inno-
vacin, los dos pilares de la competitividad contempornea. Considerando la im-
portancia del Sector Turismo para la economa venezolana, el objetivo de este tra-
bajo fue identificar las dimensiones del aprendizaje organizacional en dicho
sector.
El aprendizaje organizacional es un campo de investigacin acadmica y de
prctica profesional con un desarrollo relativamente reciente. Desde 1997 se han
realizado publicaciones con cuatro caractersticas: (1) asociadas al desempeo
competitivo de las organizaciones; (2) la relacin aprendizaje en las organizacio-
nes y cultura organizacional; (3) temas de menor frecuencia de asociacin como
1119
liderazgo, procesos interpersonales y conflictos; y (4) el uso de los trminos ms

usados por los investigadores de aprendizaje organizacional, aprendizaje indivi-
dual, organizaciones de aprendizaje, memoria organizacional y aprendizaje de
equipo que buscan avalar el estado del arte en trminos tericos o empricos.
(Garzn y Fisher, 2008)
Son muchas las definiciones de aprendizaje organizacional, las cuales ofrecen
una aproximacin distinta. De acuerdo con Castaeda y Fernndez (2007), dentro
de la perspectiva de cambio existen dos corrientes. La primera entiende el apren-
dizaje organizacional como los cambios que la entidad hace con el propsito adap-
tarse a su entorno. La segunda, como las acciones que las entidades hacen para
transformarse y cambiar su entorno. Las organizaciones del primer tipo estn pre-
ocupadas por sobrevivir y sus mayores esfuerzos se dirigen a resolver los proble-
mas del da a da, de tal forma que se garantice su permanencia en el mercado. Las
del segundo, estn interesadas en intervenir su entorno de manera innovadora, pa-
ra posicionar nuevos productos o nuevos servicios, primero que la competencia.
Para efecto de la presente investigacin se entiende por Aprendizaje Organizacio-
nal como un proceso de adquisicin de nuevos conocimientos con la finalidad de
alcanzar mayores niveles de competitividad a travs de agregar valor a las perso-
nas y a los grupos que conforman la organizacin.
2 Metodologa
El estudio se desarroll con el objetivo de identificar mediante mtodos estadsti-

cos multivariantes las dimensiones del aprendizaje organizacional en el Sector Tu-
rismo de Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. El presente proyecto se realiz mediante de
una investigacin no experimental del tipo exploratoria y evaluativa, e incluy
tcnicas de ndole cualitativa, ya que se utiliz el estado del arte para la compren-
sin, revisin terica e interpretacin del aprendizaje organizacional en el Sector
Turismo.
A partir de la revisin de la literatura conceptual en cuanto a la medicin del
aprendizaje organizacional se dise un instrumento conformado de 33 tems. Los
tems se asociaron a tres niveles de aprendizaje: individual, grupal y organizacio-
nal; y a cinco condiciones para que el aprendizaje se lleve a cabo: cultura organi-
zacional, distribucin de la informacin, adiestramiento, fuentes del aprendizaje y
direccin estratgica. Los tems se presentan en la escala graduada de Likert, per-
mitiendo al encuestado posicionarse en opciones que van desde el 1 al 5, donde 1
representa total desacuerdo y 5 total acuerdo.
El instrumento se aplic en los hoteles y posadas de Ciudad Guayana, mediante
un Muestreo Casual donde nicamente se determina el tamao de la muestra, pero
los integrantes se seleccionan sin ningn criterio establecido. Se tom como mues-
tra el 30% de las empresas del sector y se aplic el instrumento a 125 trabajadores.
1120
El anlisis de los datos se realiz con ayuda de los paquetes EXCEL y SPSS.
Adems, se realizaron las respectivas pruebas de adecuacin muestral de los datos
disponibles y las pruebas para determinar la fiabilidad y validez de la encuesta pa-
ra el caso en estudio.
3 Instrumento de Medicin del Aprendizaje Organizacional
El aprendizaje organizacional ha sido estudiado desde diferentes perspectivas, ni-

veles y condiciones. El Modelo de Crossan, Lane y White (1999) plantea que el
aprendizaje organizacional consta de tres niveles: individual, grupal y organiza-
cional; y en dos vas: del individuo a la organizacin y de la organizacin al indi-
viduo. Senge (1992) plantea que el aprendizaje organizacional es un proceso co-
lectivo que requiere de condiciones para que ocurra; y que para que tal aprendizaje
se produzca es necesario contar con: dominio personal, modelos mentales, visin
compartida, trabajo en equipo y pensamiento sistmico.
De acuerdo con la revisin de la literatura conceptual en la medicin del apren-
dizaje organizacional Garzn y Fisher (2010), Castaeda y Fernndez (2007),
Mayorca y Viloria (2007), Prez et al (2005), Lloria et al (2004), Ordoez (2002),
Goh (2001), Martnez et al (2001), se puede concluir que a pesar de la diversidad
de enfoques existe un relativo acuerdo en que ste se da en tres niveles: individual,
grupal y organizacional. Sin embargo, sobre las condiciones para que el aprendi-
zaje ocurra se encontr que los planteamientos son distintos y que no existe con-
senso. De esta manera, mediante la pertinente adaptacin de algunos tems de las
escalas estudiadas y de la generacin de unos nuevos, y despus de varias revisio-
nes el instrumento qued conformado de 33 tems. Los tems estn asociados a
tres niveles de aprendizaje: individual, grupal y organizacional; y a las condicio-
nes para que el aprendizaje se lleve a cabo.
Para efectos de esta investigacin, las condiciones que deben ser consideradas y utiliza-
das en el Sector Turismo para impulsar el aprendizaje organizacional se clasificaron en
cultura organizacional, distribucin de la informacin, adiestramiento, fuentes del
aprendizaje y direccin estratgica.
La dimensin Cultura Organizacional expresa el esfuerzo de la organizacin
para incentivar el aprendizaje y el propsito que las personas tienen sobre el logro
del aprendizaje organizacional. La dimensin Distribucin de la Informacin ma-
nifiesta los medios que utiliza la empresa para gestionar el conocimiento, as como
la difusin del conocimiento a todos los empleados de la organizacin. La dimen-
sin Adiestramiento muestra el inters de la empresa en crear oportunidades para
el aprendizaje continuo para todos sus empleados. La dimensin Fuentes del
Aprendizaje refleja el esfuerzo de la empresa para establecer y mantener sistemas
de tecnologa para obtener conocimiento de manera eficiente y compartir el cono-
cimiento y el aprendizaje. La dimensin Direccin Estratgica indica el grado en
1121
el cual los dirigentes de la empresa utilizan de manera estratgica el aprendizaje

para el logro de los objetivos propuestos y se constituyen en modelos a seguir.
4 Resultados
4.1 Anlisis de Fiabilidad
La fiabilidad se refiere a la estabilidad de las mediciones cuando no existen razo-

nes tericas ni empricas para suponer que la variable a medir haya sido modifica-
da diferencialmente por los sujetos, por lo que se asume su estabilidad mientras no
se demuestre lo contrario. Para realizar el anlisis de fiabilidad del instrumento
usado, se utiliz el modelo de consistencia interna de Cronbach, el cual asume que
la escala est compuesta por variables homogneas que miden la misma carac-
terstica y que la consistencia interna de la escala puede evaluarse mediante la co-
rrelacin existente entre todas sus variables. El Alfa de Cronbach obtenido fue de
0,961 lo cual indica una alta homogeneidad y equivalencia de respuesta entre to-
dos los tems a la vez y para todos los encuestados.
4.2 Anlisis Factorial
Como primer paso del Anlisis Factorial se obtuvo la matriz de correlaciones me-
diante el SPSS. Uno de los requisitos que deben cumplirse para que el anlisis fac-
torial tenga sentido es que las variables estn altamente correlacionadas. Los de-
terminantes prximos a cero indican que las variables utilizadas estn linealmente
relacionadas, lo que significa que el anlisis factorial es una tcnica pertinente pa-
ra analizar esas variables. Para el caso en estudio, el valor del determinante es
1,32.10-6 este valor es pequeo, lo cual es un buen dato desde el punto de vista de
la idoneidad del anlisis. Del test de esfericidad de Bartlett, con un valor de
3625,99 con un nivel de significancia =0,05, se rechaza la hiptesis nula de au-
sencia de correlacin significativa entre las variables; lo que permite la aplicacin
del anlisis factorial. El ndice KMO Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin es muy til cuando el
tamao muestral es pequeo, segn las salidas del SPSS se obtuvo un KMO=
0,873 por lo que existe un nivel meritorio de calidad para el ndice, lo que es sufi-
ciente para continuar con la aplicacin del anlisis factorial a los datos en estudio.
1122
4.2.1 Anlisis de los Componentes Principales
Una vez demostrada la adecuacin de los datos para la aplicacin de dicho anli-
sis, se procedi a buscar los factores mediante el mtodo de extraccin de compo-
nentes principales para representar los datos originales. Se utiliz el criterio de
Kaiser el cual indica conservar solamente aquellos factores cuyos valores propios
son mayores a la unidad. El SPSS versin18, utiliza este criterio por defecto. En la
Tabla 1, se muestra que existen seis (6) componentes con valores propios mayores
a uno, entre los cuales se acumula un 75,08% de la varianza total explicada.
Tabla 1 Varianza total explicada, seis (6) factores
Autovalores iniciales
Componente
Valor Propio Total % Varianza Total % Acumulado
1 15,276 46,291 46,291
2 3,989 12,088 58,379
3 1,860 5,636 64,015
4 1,414 4,284 68,300
5 1,193 3,615 71,915
6 1,045 3,166 75,080
4.2.2 Matriz de Componentes Extrados
Como resultado inicial del anlisis factorial, se obtuvo la matriz de correlaciones

entre variables y componentes. Los resultados del modelo experimental obtenido
por el SPSS, arrojaron una distribucin de variables que no obedeca a lo mostrado
por el modelo propuesto de Ocho (08) dimensiones. Adems, se encontr una sa-
turacin de todas las variables en el primer factor, y que el tercer y el cuarto factor
no agrupaban ninguna variable. Debido a esto se aplic una rotacin Varimax, que
es un mtodo de rotacin ortogonal que minimiza el nmero de variables que tie-
nen saturaciones altas en cada factor y simplifica la interpretacin de los mismos
optimizando la solucin por columna. Se puede observar en la Tabla 2, que la Ma-
triz de componentes rotados Varimax posee una agrupacin particular de Seis (06)
factores, con variables que saturan significativa en diferentes factores.
El primer factor agrupa las variables: V13, V16, V20, V22, V25, V26, V27,
V28, V30, V32, V33 (conocimiento de los trabajadores, colaboracin mutua, los
medios de informacin son eficientes, existencia de prcticas operativas, informes,
manuales, normas y otros, cursos de induccin al ingresar a la empresa, se utiliza
soporte tecnolgico, acceso a la tecnologa computarizada, acceso a fuentes exter-
nas de informacin, buenas oportunidades de aprendizaje) y es identificado como:
Orientacin al aprendizaje.
El segundo factor agrupa las variables: V10, V11, V19, V24, V29, V31 (se
1123
aplica el conocimiento con que cuenta la empresa, la empresa aprende en el tiem-

po requerido adaptndose a los cambios del entorno, los jefes informan sobre las
reuniones y eventos, los jefes brindan el apoyo para las oportunidades de aprendi-
zaje y entrenamiento, la capacitacin recibida se aplica al trabajo, existen prcticas
operativas, manuales, normas y procedimientos) y es identificado como: Reten-
cin y aplicacin del conocimiento.
Tabla 2 Resultados de la Matriz de Componentes rotados VARIMAX

Componente
Variable
01 02 03 04 05 06
V01 Se aprende de las experiencias. 0,043 0,511 0,563 -0,182 0,031 0,243
V02 Se aprende observando a los compaeros de trabajo. 0,287 0,297 0,438 0,597 0,201 0,044
V03 Se produce conocimiento ensayando y probando. 0,067 0,576 0,075 0,504 0,025 0,516
V04 Se aprende de la documentacin disponible en la empresa. 0,055 0,428 0,195 0,004 0,085 0,817
V05 Se recibe ayuda de las personas en la empresa. 0,359 0,096 0,722 0,249 0,016 -0,157
V06 Se aprende mediante el dilogo con otros trabajadores. 0,417 0,216 0,245 0,602 0,131 0,023
V07 Se intercambia conocimiento libremente en grupo. 0,530 0,301 0,059 0,553 -0,029 -0,042
V08 Todos se ayudan en el proceso de aprendizaje. 0,209 0,328 0,740 0,189 0,166 0,114
Las ideas se generan como resultado de las discusiones en
V09 0,171 0,178 0,655 0,318 0,330 0,167
grupo y por la informacin recogida por el grupo.
V10 Se aplica el conocimiento con que cuenta la empresa. 0,134 0,809 0,117 0,144 -0,025 0,287
La empresa responde a los cambios del entorno aprendien-
V11 0,129 0,653 0,432 0,291 0,138 0,116
do en el tiempo requerido.
Se mejoran los procesos con base en el conocimiento de
V12 0,186 0,426 0,588 0,219 0,037 0,157
los trabajadores.
Se generan nuevos productos o servicios en base al cono-
V13 0,605 0,180 0,464 0,303 -0,079 0,022
cimiento de los trabajadores.
La empresa promueve situaciones para que los trabajadores
V14 0,468 0,047 0,471 0,386 0,388 0,225
intercambien conocimiento.
V15 La empresa reconoce a los trabajadores que son proactivos. 0,358 -0,042 0,395 0,469 0,461 0,221
Colaboracin mutua de forma voluntaria aunque no forme
V16 0,736 0,031 0,320 0,295 0,253 0,042
parte de las funciones.
La empresa acta segn las recomendaciones de los traba-
V17 0,191 0,571 0,014 -0,011 0,652 0,062
jadores
Acceso a la informacin en cualquier momento rpida y
V18 0,272 0,207 0,222 0,137 0,742 0,011
fcilmente.
V19 Los jefes informan de las reuniones y los eventos 0,135 0,838 0,113 -0,115 0,157 0,109
V20 Los medios para compartir la informacin son eficientes. 0,756 0,089 0,267 0,081 0,158 0,164
Cuando se solicita informacin laboral a otro compaero
V21 0,468 0,056 0,621 0,046 0,076 0,267
de trabajo sta se obtiene en el tiempo requerido.
Disponibilidad de prcticas operativas, informes, manua-
V22 0,511 0,204 0,486 0,453 0,098 -0,034
les, normas y procedimientos.
V23 Todos los trabajadores reciben cursos de adiestramiento. 0,345 0,306 0,729 -0,054 0,143 -0,045
V24 La capacitacin recibida en la empresa se aplica al trabajo. -0,024 0,739 0,416 0,244 -0,010 0,027
V25 Siempre se recibe induccin de la empresa al ingresar. 0,741 -0,066 0,360 -0,061 0,036 0,079
Se utiliza soporte tecnolgico para procesar y consultar la
V26 0,675 0,143 0,462 0,295 0,222 -0,016
informacin de los clientes y de la competencia.
Existe acceso a tecnologa computarizada para enviar y re-
V27 0,741 0,226 0,206 -0,130 0,272 0,120
cibir informacin.
Las fuentes externas (informes, consultores, peridicos,
V28 0,664 0,095 0,283 0,225 0,365 -0,172
etc.) son muy importantes para las operaciones.
1124
Tabla 2 (continued) Resultados de la Matriz de Componentes rotados VARIMAX

Componente
Variable
01 02 03 04 05 06
Existen prcticas operativas, informes, manuales, normas y
V29 0,234 0,683 0,286 0,075 0,171 -0,056
procedimientos, etc.
Los dirigentes comparten informacin sobre la competen-
V30 0,738 0,196 0,099 0,407 0,133 -0,149
cia, tendencias y lneas directrices de la empresa.
Los dirigentes brindan el apoyo necesario para las oportu-
V31 0,115 0,729 0,031 0,291 0,155 0,006
nidades de aprendizaje y entrenamiento.
Los dirigentes buscan oportunidades de aprendizaje tanto
V32 0,852 0,247 0,007 0,153 -0,025 0,073
para ellos como para los trabajadores.
Los dirigentes de esta organizacin consideran el impacto
V33 0,871 0,069 0,076 0,186 0,099 -0,004
de las decisiones en la moral de los trabajadores.
El tercer factor agrupa las variables: V01, V05, V08, V09, V12, V21, V23 (se
aprende de las experiencias, se recibe ayuda de las personas en la empresa, todos
se ayudan en el proceso de aprendizaje, las ideas se generan como resultado de las
discusiones en grupo, e mejoran los procesos con base en el conocimiento de los
trabajadores, cuando se solicita informacin laboral a otro compaero de trabajo
sta se obtiene en el tiempo requerido) y es identificado como: Colaboracin mu-
tua.
El cuarto factor, agrupa las variables: V02, V06, V07 (se aprende observando a
los compaeros, se aprende mediante el dilogo con otros trabajadores, se inter-
cambia conocimiento libremente en grupo) y es identificado como: Aprendizaje
grupal.
El quinto factor agrupa las variables: V17 y V18 (confianza en que la empresa
acta segn las recomendaciones de los trabajadores, la informacin que se nece-
sita se consigue en cualquier momento rpida y fcilmente) y es identificado co-
mo: Visin compartida. Finalmente, el sexto factor agrupa las variables: V03 y
V04 (en la empresa se produce conocimiento ensayando y probando, se aprende
de la documentacin disponible en la empresa) y es identificado como: Aprendiza-
je individual.
4.3 Nivel de la Aprendizaje Organizacional
Para conocer en qu nivel se encuentra el Aprendizaje Organizacional del Sector

Turismo de Ciudad Guayana, el resultado que se debe extraer de los datos, es el
promedio total de las treinta y tres (33) variables que miden el Aprendizaje tal y
como se muestra en la siguiente expresin, donde n 33 y Vi es el promedio de
la variable i:
N
Vi
Nivel i 1
N
1125
Este promedio arroj un valor de 3,39 aproximadamente; en una escala que va

del uno (1) al cinco (5). Este valor se encuentra por encima de la mediana de la es-
cala que es igual a tres (3), valor que seala un nivel aceptable de aprendizaje.
5 Conclusiones
En este trabajo se identificaron mediante mtodos estadsticos multivariantes las

dimensiones que determinan el aprendizaje organizacional en el Sector Turismo
de Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. Se dise un instrumento, el cual se aplic a una
muestra constituida por 12e trabajadores del Sector Turismo de Ciudad Guayana,
determinado para una poblacin infinita, desviacin estndar desconocida, nivel
de confianza de 95 % y una precisin de un 8%. Tcnicamente el procedimiento
de seleccin de la muestra se realiz de manera no aleatoria e intencional, deter-
minndose que es adecuada, lo que queda demostrado en los resultados de las
Pruebas de Validez y Fiabilidad realizadas al mismo (alfa de Cronbach= 0,961).
El anlisis de factores permiti identificar seis (6) dimensiones de inters en el
aprendizaje organizacional: (1) Orientacin al aprendizaje; (2) Retencin y aplica-
cin del conocimiento; (3) Colaboracin mutua; (4) Aprendizaje grupal; (5) Vi-
sin compartida; y (6) Aprendizaje individual. Finalmente, los resultados indican
que el nivel de aprendizaje organizacional del Sector Turismo de Ciudad Guayana
es de 3.39, en una escala del 1 al 5, lo cual demuestra un nivel aceptable de apren-
dizaje.
6 Referencias
Arzola M. (2011) Evaluacin del Aprendizaje en el Sector de Consultora de Ciudad Guayana,

Venezuela. Revista Ingeniera Industrial. Actualidad y Nuevas Tendencias. Vol. II, N 5, p.
23-36.
Castaeda D. y Fernndez M. (2007) Validacin de una escala de niveles y condiciones de
aprendizaje organizacional. Universitas Psicolgicas, Vol. 6, N 2, p.245-254
Crossan, M., Lane, H. y White, R. (1999). An organizational learning framework: From intuition
to institution. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 24, N3, p. 522-537.
Garzn M. y Fisher A. (2010) El aprendizaje organizacional, prueba piloto de instrumentos tipo
Likert. Forum Empresarial. Vol. 15, N 1, pp. 65-101
Garzn M. y Fisher A. (2008). Modelo Terico de Aprendizaje Organizacional. Revista Pen-
samiento y Gestin. N 24, p. 195-224
Goh S. (2001). The learning organization: an empirical test of a normative perspective. Interna-
tional Journal of Organization Theory an Behavior. Vol. 4, N 4, p. 329-356
Lloria M., Moreno M. y Persis F. (2004). Diseo y validacin de una escala para medir el apren-
dizaje en las organizaciones. Universidad de Valencia. 23p
Martnez I., Ruiz J. Ruiz C. (2001) Aprendizaje organizacional en PYMEs. XI Congreso Nacio-
nal de la Asociacin Cientfica de Economa y Direccin de la Empresa (ACEDE). Zaragoza.
1126
Espaa. p. 1-22.
Mayorca R., Ramrez J., Viloria O. y Campos J. (2007) Evaluacin de un cuestionario sobre or-
ganizaciones que aprenden: adaptacin, validez y confiabilidad. Revista Venezolana de An-
lisis de Coyuntura. Vol. 13, N 2, p. 149-164
Ordoez P. (2002). Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning: Typologies of
Knowledge Strategies in the Spanish Manufacturing Industry from 1995 to 1999. Journal of
Knowledge Management, Vol. 6, p. 52-62.
Prez S., Montes J. y Vsquez C. (2005). Human Resources Practices, Organizational Learning
and Business Perfomance. Human Resource Development International, Vol. 8, p. 147-164.
Senge, Peter M. (1992): La quinta disciplina. El arte y la prctica de la organizacin abierta al
aprendizaje; Trad. Carlos Gardini; Buenos Aires, Arg.; Coed. Juan Granica y Javier Vergara.
1127
Gestin de la Innovacin y el Papel de las TIC:

El caso de SILK
Crowdsourcing Influence in the Processes of Organizations
Planuch Prats C1, Salvador Valls R
Abstract This paper analyzes the impact of information and communication tech-
nologies (ICTs), and particularly the Web 2.0 tools, on innovation and processes
in the company SILK (CaixaBank Information Systems).
Resumen Este artculo analiza la incidencia que, sobre la innovacin y los proce-
sos en la empresa SILK (Sistemas Informticos de CaixaBank), tienen factores
como las tecnologas de la informacin y comunicacin (TIC) y las herramientas
Web 2.0.
Palabras clave: Web 2.0, Innovacin Abierta (IA), Procesos, Tecnologas de la

Informacin y Comunicacin (TIC).
Keywords: Web 2.0, Open Innovation, Business Processes, Information and
Communication Technology (ICT).
1 Introduccin
En un entorno econmico complejo, en 2011 se complet el proceso de reorgani-

zacin de La Caixa, por el cual CaixaBank ha pasado a ejercer la actividad fi-
nanciera del grupo. SILK, la empresa tecnolgica del grupo, juega un papel de-
terminante para los objetivos de la entidad. El propsito del trabajo es analizar la
influencia de las herramientas Web 2.0, y el rol de las TIC en SILK, durante el
perodo 2007-2012.
1Carles Planuch Prats ( e-mail: carles.planuch-prats@upc.edu)
Dpto. de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informticos. Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Barcelona.
1128
El presente trabajo se estructura de la forma siguiente: en primer lugar, se des-

cribe la metodologa aplicada en el punto 1. Posteriormente, se presentan las prin-
cipales caractersticas de la organizacin a analizar en el punto 2. En el punto 3 se
plantean las hiptesis sobre la influencia de las herramientas Web 2.0 en la inno-
vacin y en los procesos de SILK (una empresa del sector de servicios TIC), y por
ltimo, se propone un breve comentario de los resultados obtenidos en el punto 4.
Finalmente se presentan las conclusiones ms importantes obtenidas a partir del
anlisis de la informacin.
2 Metodologa
La metodologa aplicada en la investigacin relacionada con el presente trabajo es

de tipo cualitativo. Ms concretamente, se utiliza la estrategia del estudio de caso,
debido a las grandes posibilidades que presenta en la investigacin y explicacin
de fenmenos contemporneos ubicados en su entorno real (Yin, 1989; Eisen-
hardt, 1989).
2.1 Ventajas e inconvenientes del estudio del caso
Kingsley y Bozeman (1997) resumen las principales ventajas del estudio de casos
como tcnica de investigacin:
Los estudios de casos proporcionan al investigador una gran cantidad de in-
formacin sobre el fenmeno analizado, caracterstica que ha sido destacada
tambin por Platt (1992), entre otros.
Aunque los estudios de casos pueden ser utilizados en cualquier fase de cono-
cimiento del fenmeno a analizar, no es menos cierto que son especialmente
adecuados cuando nuestro conocimiento es escaso, o cuando se desea llegar a
una teora explicativa del fenmeno.
El estudio de caso se considera una herramienta muy til para el aprendizaje de
un determinado fenmeno.
Es una tcnica enormemente flexible, al permitir que el investigador modifique
sus procedimientos de investigacin a lo largo del estudio, como consecuencia
de la interaccin con quien est siendo investigado.
Frente a este amplio abanico de ventajas, sus detractores han concentrado sus
crticas en los problemas de objetividad y generalizacin. Con independencia de la
aplicacin de tcnicas especficas de anlisis, la mayora de los autores han expli-
cado de modo convincente temas como: la investigacin cualitativa (Gephart,
2004), la construccin de la teora fundamentada (Suddaby, 2006), el valor de la
1129
riqueza (Weick, 2007), y el poder persuasivo del nico caso (Siggelkow, 2007)
mediante dicha metodologa.
2.2 Justificacin de la Metodologa
El estudio del caso se ha utilizado para desarrollar investigacin en aspectos tan

diversos como el proceso en grupo (Edmondson, Bohmer, y Pisano, 2001), la or-
ganizacin interna (Galunic y Eisenhardt, 2001; Gilbert, 2005) y la estrategia
(Mintzberg y Waters, 1982). Estudiosos clsicos como Chandler (Chandler, 1962;
Whyte, 1941), as como los autores de gran prestigio que han publicado artculos
en la AMJ (Academy of Management Journal), y Dutton (Dutton y Dukerich,
1991; Sutton y Rafaeli, 1988) han utilizado dicho mtodo. En efecto, los docu-
mentos que construyen la teora de los casos se consideran a menudo como los
ms interesantes de la investigacin (Bartunek, Rynes, e Ireland, 2006). Adems,
se encuentran entre los artculos ms citados en AMJ (por ejemplo, Eisenhardt,
1989; Gersick, 1988), con un enorme factor de impacto. No es de extraar enton-
ces, que los autores ganadores del premio al mejor artculo en la AMJ (Ferlie,
Fitzgerald, Wood, y Hawkins, 2005; Gilbert, 2005) se basaran en este mtodo. En
definitiva, el estudio de caso es la tcnica de investigacin ms adecuada cuando
intentamos responder a las preguntas cmo y por qu ocurre un determinado
fenmeno, cuando el investigador no tiene control sobre el fenmeno a estudiar y
cuando ste es actual.
En el presente trabajo, nos centramos en la estrategia de investigacin relacio-
nada con la construccin de la teora de los casos, concretamente en el caso de
SILK.
3 SILK e Hiptesis de Investigacin
Serveis Informtics La Caixa S.A. (SILK) es una empresa del grupo CaixaBank,
S.A., creada para convertirse en la empresa de tecnologa del grupo, y para posi-
cionarlo a la vanguardia de sta, contribuyendo a la excelencia de los servicios
ofrecidos a sus clientes. La empresa ha sido constituida aprovechando aos de ex-
periencia de profesionales del rea tcnica de canales electrnicos de CaixaBank.
Esta experiencia, unida a la innovacin que caracteriza a la entidad y a la incorpo-
racin de nuevos profesionales del sector, ha dado como resultado a SILK, una
empresa puntera dentro del sector de la tecnologa.
Con unos 50 colaboradores, la misin principal de SILK consiste en dar soporte
a la consecucin de los objetivos estratgicos de CaixaBank, mantener los mayo-
res niveles de calidad y servicio al negocio. Asimismo, pretende mejorar la efi-
1130
ciencia y la productividad en el uso de la tecnologa, especialmente las TIC, me-

diante una gestin eficaz de los recursos.
Los objetivos de SILK se basan en resolver las necesidades de CaixaBank me-
diante TIC e innovacin. El nico cliente de SILK es CaixaBank, quien tras la in-
tegracin de Banca Cvica (con fecha 3/8/2012, y constituida por Caja Navarra,
Caja Canarias, Caja Burgos y Cajasol), se ha consolidado como la entidad lder
del mercado espaol con unos activos de 348.294 millones de euros. Adems, po-
see una cuota de penetracin de clientes del 26,1% en banca de particulares
(22,2% de penetracin como primera entidad), unos 13 millones de clientes, y
muestra una marcada vocacin por la innovacin, para ofrecer los servicios ms
punteros a los clientes de CaixaBank.
3.1 Caractersticas e hiptesis del estudio.
Uno de los retos de la empresa 2.0 es la gestin de la informacin que todos sus
colaboradores pueden volcar, desde intranets sociales hasta la creacin de wikis y
blogs. Esto es posible, ya que tienen a su alcance una gran diversidad de aplica-
ciones y herramientas Web 2.0 con las que pueden generar conocimiento para la
empresa, as como mejorar en aspectos como:
Gestin de la innovacin
Desarrollo de productos
Mejora de procesos
Nuestras hiptesis se basan en que las aplicaciones Web 2.0 permiten la crea-
cin de comunidades virtuales donde se acumula conocimiento. Por tanto:
H1a: El aumento del grado de utilizacin de herramientas Web 2.0 mejora la
gestin de la innovacin de la empresa.
H1b: El aumento del grado de utilizacin de herramientas Web 2.0 incrementa
el desarrollo de productos de la empresa.
H1c: El aumento del grado de utilizacin de herramientas Web 2.0 optimiza
los procesos de la empresa.
Las ventajas de la cooperacin van en aumento en la era de la innovacin abier-
ta. La comunidad acadmica comenz haciendo hincapi en que las empresas de-
ben estar abiertas a la innovacin desde fuera de la empresa (por ejemplo, Rigby y
Zook, 2002; Christensen et al, 2005). Por otro lado, No todas las personas inteli-
gentes trabajan para nosotros. Nosotros necesitamos trabajar con gente inteligente
dentro y fuera de nuestra empresa (Chesbrough, 2003). Por todo ello podemos
afirmar que:
H2: El aumento del grado de utilizacin de nuevas tecnologas propicia un in-
cremento de la innovacin tcnica.
1131
Desde la perspectiva del efecto sobre los procesos (Chesbrough et al, 2007.)
podemos pensar en que:
H3: El grado de utilizacin de las nuevas tecnologas propicia un incremento
de la innovacin en los procesos internos y/o externos.
El presente trabajo pretende validar las hiptesis citadas anteriormente median-
te un estudio cualitativo, en el perodo 2007-2012, obteniendo la informacin ne-
cesaria tras diversas entrevistas a los responsables de los departamentos de inno-
vacin y de gestin multicanal de SILK, S.A.
4 Estudio del Caso SILK
Tratando de validar las hiptesis planteadas en el apartado anterior, referentes al

efecto que sobre la innovacin en SILK tienen factores como las herramientas
Web 2.0, la influencia sobre la innovacin en sus procesos y las propias mejoras
en los procesos, se han organizado las entrevistas orientadas a los tres mbitos si-
guientes, mencionados en 2.1:
1. Herramientas y aplicaciones TIC (Web 2.0)
2. Influencia sobre la innovacin
3. Mejoras en los procesos
El grado de utilizacin de herramientas y aplicaciones TIC (Web 2.0) en SILK
es actualmente elevado, y si consideramos a CaixaBank, la empresa cliente, el
grado de utilizacin es an mayor, con un incremento muy significativo de uso de
herramientas, como blogs corporativos y comunidades de clientes. Es el caso de
Club ARA, que consiste en una red social de clientes mayores de 65 aos para re-
lacionarse entre s y compartir contenidos con otros miembros de la comunidad. El
principal objetivo del Club ARA es elevar la atencin sobre dicho colectivo, muy
importante para la entidad, ya que actualmente CaixaBank cuenta con 1,8 millones
de clientes mayores de 65 aos. Segn un estudio de mercado del comportamiento
financiero de los particulares 2011, realizado por la consultora especializada FRS
Inmark, CaixaBank tiene una cuota de mercado del 13,7% de clientes mayores de
65 aos. El objetivo de la entidad es alcanzar una cuota de mercado del 20% en
2014.
La utilizacin de la tecnologa implementada en SILK va dirigida a la gestin
multicanal dentro de CaixaBank, de modo que el cliente puede realizar todas las
operaciones en cualquier momento (ya sea a travs de la red de cajeros, presen-
cialmente en las oficinas, por videoconferencia va RDSI, telfono mvil, tablet o
smart tv o mediante la web Lnia Oberta). De modo que se ha conseguido que el
cliente sea autosuficiente, y por tanto se minimizan costes para la compaa. Aun-
que tambin cuenta con la implantacin pionera a nivel mundial de la tecnologa
1132
Contactless para cajeros, situando Barcelona como la primera ciudad europea

donde se pueden operar pagos contactless.
La influencia sobre la innovacin en SILK es realmente significativa. Prueba
de ello es el volumen de inversin en I+D en SILK, que es de unos 300.000 euros
anuales. De nuevo, si observramos el volumen para CaixaBank, estaramos por
encima de los 600.000 euros anuales, de modo que se trata de un grupo donde la
inversin en I+D es un factor clave para su modelo de negocio. El modelo de ges-
tin de la innovacin de SILK consiste, bsicamente, en un modelo de innovacin
abierta (Chesbrough, 2003) con HP e IBM, sus proveedores tecnolgicos. Se basa
en la creacin de un fondo econmico de I+D, alimentado por el 2% de la factura-
cin de todos los proyectos tecnolgicos colaborativos. Adems, este modelo le ha
permitido desplegar ms de 100 nuevos productos a CaixaBank, y desarrollar nu-
merosas patentes en el diseo de cajeros automticos va Fujitsu, la empresa pro-
veedora a tal efecto.
De todo lo citado, se deduce que las TIC juegan un papel realmente relevante
en la innovacin de la compaa. Un papel nicamente limitado a nivel econmico
por los recientes movimientos estratgicos de CaixaBank, citados anteriormente
en referencia a Banca Cvica.
En el mbito concreto de la innovacin en los procesos, el efecto de la utiliza-
cin de herramientas Web 2.0 en los procesos internos de la empresa ha sido muy
importante. Por ejemplo, antes de la llegada de la Web 2.0 a SILK era el departa-
mento de calidad, dentro de organizacin y mtodos el responsable de gestionar
las incidencias de CaixaBank. Actualmente, se ha desarrollado e implementado la
aplicacin GIC (Gestin de Incidencias y Consultas) con HP como proveedor tec-
nolgico que, basado en la metodologa ITIL (Information Technology Infrastruc-
ture Library). Se trata de un conjunto de conceptos y prcticas para la gestin de
servicios de TIC, el desarrollo de tecnologas de la informacin y las operaciones
relacionadas con la misma en general. ITIL proporciona descripciones detalladas
de un extenso conjunto de procedimientos de gestin, ideados para ayudar a las
organizaciones a lograr calidad y eficiencia en las operaciones TIC. Estos proce-
dimientos son independientes del proveedor y han sido desarrollados para servir
como una gua que abarque toda infraestructura, desarrollo y operaciones de TIC.
Adems, permite un control exhaustivo de la gestin incidental, controlando y
monitorizando la duracin de la resolucin de una incidencia desde el programa,
servidor, aplicacin y/o proveedor afectado en la resolucin de la misma. Permite
incluso establecer un horario de actuacin para no influir en los procesos batch
(procesos diferidos) de CaixaBank o con la actividad diaria de la entidad.
Otro proyecto de I+D, con un importante contenido Web 2.0, desarrollado en
colaboracin con IBM ha sido el Fes-te client (Hazte cliente). Es un proyecto
para la captacin de nuevos clientes va Internet, basado en la metodologa BPM
(Business Process Management Gestin de Procesos de Negocio: se trata de un
conjunto de disciplinas empresariales, basadas en enfoques metodolgicos, aplica-
das con el fin de mejorar la eficiencia a travs de la gestin de los procesos, reglas
1133
y servicios del negocio, que se deben modelizar, automatizar, integrar, monitorizar

y mejorar de forma continua). En este caso, la mecanizacin del proceso ha con-
sistido en controlar miles de millones de transacciones anualmente. No se ha deja-
do ninguna posibilidad o alternativa del cliente potencial al azar, y permite certifi-
car el xito del proceso al dar de alta a un nuevo cliente a travs de la web de
CaixaBank. Se trata adems, de una aplicacin auditable por el Banco de Espaa
(quien evala a las entidades financieras por el nmero de incidencias), y consul-
table por el cuerpo de Polica Nacional para controlar los ataques por parte de los
hackers a que se ve sometida la web corporativa. Por todo esto, ha llegado conver-
tirse en un brillante exponente del efecto de las tecnologas web 2.0 en Caixa-
Bank.
5 Discusin
Una vez realizadas las entrevistas, resulta evidente pensar que tanto en SILK, y
por extensin en CaixaBank, la innovacin es un punto fuerte. Son empresas don-
de la I+D con el soporte de las TIC, constituye una de las core competences del
grupo. Se ha observado que el aumento del grado de utilizacin de las TIC, duran-
te el periodo 2007-2011 ha propiciado el desarrollo y la implantacin de la tecno-
loga contactless para cajeros, donde se pueden operar pagos contactless validan-
do H1a. La creacin de ms de 100 nuevos productos financieros, confirma la
validez de H1b. Adems, se ha producido un incremento de la innovacin tcnica.
Por un lado, por la implementacin de proyectos creativos llevados a cabo dentro
de SILK para aumentar el volumen de conocimientos y su posterior utilizacin pa-
ra idear productos nuevos o mejorados, incluyendo el desarrollo de software. Por
otro, por las mejoras continuas en el servicio web de Lnia Oberta por ejemplo,
confirmando as la hiptesis H2. Adems, el incremento de las inversiones en tec-
nologa en SILK que se han realizado durante el ltimo quinquenio, se han corres-
pondido con mejoras en los procesos citados (BPM, Fest-te Client, GIC), confir-
mando las hiptesis H1c y H3.
6 Conclusiones
Las herramientas Web 2.0 contribuyen de manera significativa en el modelo de

negocio de SILK, mejorando la gestin multicanal con el cliente, favoreciendo la
creacin de comunidades de clientes, el Club ARA, e implementado la tecnologa
contactless para los cobros en cajeros y comercios. La I+D constituye un factor
clave para el grupo CaixaBank y, asimismo, ha permitido desarrollar ms de 100
nuevos productos financieros, numerosas patentes en cajeros automticos (Fujitsu)
1134
y proyectos de innovacin abierta con HP. Desde el punto de vista de los proyec-
tos, la implantacin de la aplicacin GIC para la gestin de incidencias y la meca-
nizacin del proceso de captacin de clientes, Fes-te client, basado en la meto-
dologa BPM, completan las aportaciones tanto de la herramientas Web 2.0 como
de la innovacin y los procesos para SILK.
La nica limitacin para SILK no procede de aspectos organizativos ni tec-
nolgicos, sino que resulta de aspectos econmicos derivados del proceso de res-
tructuracin del sistema financiero espaol. En concreto, del llevado a cabo por
CaixaBank, con la reciente integracin de Banca Cvica que, unida a las previas de
Caixa Girona y Bankpime, limitan el presupuesto de SILK en relacin a la inver-
sin en TIC y su influencia en la innovacin.
7 Referencias
Bartunek JM., Rynes, SL., Ireland, RD. (2006) What makes management research interesting
and why does it matter? Academy of Management Journal, 49: 915.
Chandler AD. (1962) Strategy and structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chesbrough, HW. (2003) Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from
Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Chesbrough, HW. Vanhaverbeke W West J (2007) Open Innovation. Researching a New Para-
digm. Oxford: University Press.
Dutton, JE., Dukerich, JM. (1991) Keeping an eye on the mirror: The role of image and identity
in organizational adaptation. Academy of Management Journal, 34: 517554.
Dittrich K. Duysters G. (2007) Networking as a means to strategy change: the case of open inno-
vation in mobile telephony. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 24, 6, 510521.
Edmondson AC., Bohmer, RM., Pisano, GP. (2001) Disrupted routines: Team learning and new
technology implementation in hospitals. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46: 685716.
Eisenhardt KM. (1989), Building theories from case study research, Academy of Management
Review, Vol.14, No, 4, 532-550.
Ferlie E., Fitzgerald, L., Wood, M., Hawkins C. (2005) The nonspread of innovations: The me-
diating role of professionals. Academy of Management Journal, 48: 117134.
Galunic DC., Eisenhardt, KM. (2001) Architectural innovation and modular corporate forms.
Academy of Management Journal, 6: 12291249.
Gephart RP. (2004) Qualitative research and the Academy of Management Journal. Academy of
Management Journal, 47: 454462.
Gersick CJG. (1988) Time and transition in work teams. Toward a new model of group devel-
opment. Academy of Management Journal, 31: 941.
Kingsley G; Bozeman B. (1997) R&D value-mapping: a new approach to case study based eval-
uation. Journal of Technology Transfer, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 33-42.
Mintzberg H., Waters, JA. (1982) Tracking strategy in an entrepreneurial firm. Academy of
Management Journal, 25: 465499.
Platt, J. (1992) Case study in American methodological thought. Current Sociology, Vol 40,
No.1, spring, pp. 17-48.
Siggelkow, N. (2007) Persuasion with case studies. Academy of Management Journal, 50: 20
24.
Suddaby, R. (2006) What grounded theory is not. Academy of Management Journal, 49: 633
642.
1135
Sutton, RI., Raphaeli, A. (1988) Untangling the relationship between displayed emotions and or-
ganizational sales: The case of convenience stores. Academy of Management Journal, 31:
461487.
Weick, KE. (2007) The generative properties of richness. Academy of Management Journal, 50:
1419.
Whyte, WF. (1941) Corner boys: A study in clique behavior.American Journal of Sociology, 46:
647 664.
Yin, R. (1994), Case study research. Design and methods (second edition). Sage Publications.
Newbury Park, CA.
1136
La Intragestion Financiera a travs de las TIC

Basada en la Auditoria de Orden del Sector
Universitario Venezolano
The Financial Intragestion through ICT Audit Based on Order of a Venezue-
lan University Sector
Guaido Suarez D1
Abstract University institutions forming and organizing the knowledge required

to be pioneers in the application of innovative ideas, the use of ICT is required to
simplify and control and optimize resources. The order provides audit assessment
and improvements to optimization. Com-parative diagnosis national and interna-
tional university processes in human Intragestion comprehensive knowledge with
ICT systems. Field research and project, interview technique, qualitative non-
directive until data saturation. Training consists of three levels, implementation
and optimization. Your application has been effective organizations and universi-
ties co first level has begun to bear fruit.
Resumen Las instituciones universitarias formadoras y organizadoras del conoci-

miento requieren ser pioneras en la aplicacin de ideas innovadoras, el uso de las
TIC se requiere para simplificar y controlar los recursos y optimizarlos. La audito-
ria de orden provee evaluacin y mejoras hasta la optimizacin. Diagnostico com-
parativo nacional e internacional de procesos universitarios en Intragestion del co-
nocimiento integral humano con sistemas TIC. Investigacin de campo y
proyecto, tcnica de la entrevista, cualitativa no directiva, hasta la saturacin de
datos. Consta de tres niveles formacin, aplicacin y optimizacin. Su aplicacin
en organizaciones ha sido efectiva y en las universidades su primer nivel ha co-
menzado a dar frutos.
1Dacmile Guaido Suarez ( e-mail: dacmile@hotmail.com)
Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Espaa. Universidad Nacional Experimental Politcnica

Antonio Jos de Sucre Av. Corpahuaico con Av. Rotaria y Av. La Salle Barquisimeto,
Venezuela
1137
Keywords: Intragestion, Finance, Audit, ICT

Palabras clave: Intragestion, Finanzas, Auditoria, TIC
1 Introduccin
La crisis financiera que invade a un gran nmero de organizaciones y personas a

nivel mundial, ha tocado igualmente el sector universitario, la lucha por obtener
una ptima base financiera preocupa a la humanidad. Sin embargo el fraude y/o
los errores voluntarios o involuntarios del ser humano han trado como conse-
cuencia la prdida de recursos en las empresas, Arancibia (2004). La respuesta a la
mejora del ambiente financiero se encuentra en el mismo ser humano como parte
de esos recursos que posee la organizacin y por ser el recurso ms importante.
Gestionar es administrar y parte de la administracin es la organizacin, como uno
de los pilares de la buena gerencia y, cuando una institucin ha fallado en la orga-
nizacin, ha de buscar mecanismos para salir del desorden o reorganizar. En base
a ello nace la intragestion o gestin interna, para llevar nuevamente a la organiza-
cin a un nivel estable y optimo, Arzola (2004). La intragestion requiere de
herramientas para ordenar lo desordenado y es la auditoria de orden, propuesta en
la presente investigacin.
Las instituciones universitarias formadoras y organizadoras del conocimiento
requieren ser pioneras en la aplicacin de ideas innovadoras, es por ello que el uso
de las TIC en todas las reas de las instituciones es requerida para simplificar y
controlar cada uno de los recursos y optimizarlos, Rodriguez (2004). El rea fi-
nanciera por su importancia "informativa necesita de mecanismos que agilicen y
comprueben la veracidad de los recursos que maneja la institucin y tambin re-
quieren de agilidad del recurso humano que los manipula, Chiavenato (2002). Los
resultados de la auditora de orden aplicada como parte del sistema de procedi-
mientos de control provee no solamente una evaluacin de la adecuacin del pro-
grama que sobre proteccin de los recursos institucionales existan, sino que de
igual manera compara los resultados contra las mejoras que puedan ser desarrolla-
das, implantadas o evaluadas para el mejor aprovechamiento de dichos recur-
sos. Los objetivos se logran a travs de la elaboracin de diagnostico de la situa-
cin actual en el sector universitario comparando mbito nacional e internacional,
determinacin de la situacin financiera aplicando auditoria de orden e implantan-
do la intragestion financiera a travs de las TIC.
1138
2 Metodologa
Se realiza un diagnstico comparativo a nivel internacional de los procesos uni-

versitarios en intragestin del conocimiento del rea financiera y sus sistemas TIC,
utilizando Auditora de Orden Aplicada. Se identifica y analizan las actividades y
normativa nacional que rigen sus sistemas financieros y tecnolgicos (TIC), al
igual que fortalezas, oportunidades, debilidades y amenazas en la intragestin del
conocimiento financiero en las universidades. Se determina la situacin actual en
la interaccin y funcionamiento sistemtico, aplicando auditora de Orden.
Es una investigacin de campo y tambin es un proyecto, aplica la tcnica de la
entrevista, cualitativa no directiva, se efectan en la comunidad universitaria hasta
llegar a la saturacin de los datos. Se considera la poblacin como la totalidad del
recurso humano en cada una de las reas y segn entrevistas que se realizan en los
diferentes niveles de la organizacin; se implementa el proceso estadstico SPSS
para determinar el tamao de la muestra de procesos que sern postulados para
proceder a su jerarquizacin y se constituye as el orden en que se implementa la
gestin sistemtica unificada del conocimiento financiero en la organizacin uni-
versitaria, Navarro (2004).
Definida y estratificada la poblacin, se determina la muestra de los procesos
que cumplen un subgrupo de la poblacin que incide directa o indirectamente en
los procesos potentes de la organizacin, prioritariamente financiero, en primer
lugar y tomando en consideracin que los expertos a los que se le enva el cuestio-
nario de auto-evaluacin de procesos es muy numerosa, se infiere que el muestreo
adecuado a aplicar es el Muestreo Aleatorio Simple, el cual plantea que al selec-
cionar una muestra de tamao (n) de una poblacin de N unidades, cada elemento
tiene una probabilidad de inclusin igual y conocida de n/N.
El Estudio implica tomar herramientas cualitativas y cuantitativas que permiten
la generacin de ideas, se inicia con una revisin bibliogrfica, informes y trabajos
realizados en el rea en estudio, as como de sites de Internet relacionados con la
temtica planteada, fundamentando de una manera difana y objetiva los diversos
aspectos que inciden directa e indirectamente en la investigacin, la recoleccin de
datos implica:
2.1 Recoleccin de Datos
Seleccin de instrumentos de medida.

Aplicar esos instrumentos de medicin.
Preparar las mediciones obtenidas.
1139
2.1.1 Instrumentos de Recoleccin
Por lo tanto, cada instrumento aplicado describe los tres pasos anteriores:
1. Observacin directa
2. Entrevistas
a) Entrevistas de todas las reas.
b) Entrevistas en las divisiones.
Matriz de rea versus equipos
Matriz de ponderacin de criticidad de reas
c) Entrevistas Generales.
2.1.2 Informantes
La seleccin de los informantes son las unidades de observacin, se efectan de

acuerdo a su relacin y su desarrollo en el campo de control del recurso humano y
financiero, seleccionados al azar, con el propsito de conocer la concepcin de
ellos referente a su desarrollo en el rea de gestin integral e intragestin, entre los
que sern seleccionados:
a) Comunidad Universitaria.
b) Organismos pblicos competentes a los asuntos universitarios.
c) Comunidad general universitarios adscritos.
El proceso de anlisis se efecta de forma sistemtica y ordenada, usando la
auditoria de orden con un programa de auditora elaborado con cada uno de los
pasos o procedimientos a seguir.
Para reducir los datos cualitativos generados por las entrevistas aplicadas, se
necesitan elaborar cdigos que faciliten el proceso; considerando que Cdigos: es
una abreviacin o smbolo que aplicamos a unas frases o prrafos de las respuestas
de las entrevistas. Con tales cdigos o categoras se clasifican o codifican los da-
tos. La elaboracin de cdigos est orientada a los objetivos de la investigacin.
2.1.3 Resultados Alcanzados
La investigacin consta de tres niveles, un ABC, el primer nivel de formacin, un

segundo nivel de aplicacin e auditoria junto a las TIC, tercer nivel de implanta-
cin y optimizacin financiera. En el primer nivel se constituye la unidad para fo-
mentar la calidad del ambiente interno e implantar la intragestion en la organiza-
cin, la cual ha de realizarse en todas las unidades, involucrando al personal con
programas y tareas. Elaboracin y aplicacin de auditora de orden interna utili-
zando la red de programas a travs de las TIC para asegurar su objetividad, se rea-
liza sobre bases peridicas, segn la importancia del ambiente en las actividades y
1140
los resultados de auditoras previas. Reuniones con la gerencia, estableciendo pol-

ticas de conducir sus actividades hacia el resto de las unidades, conservacin del
ambiente o cultura organizacional en el cumplimiento de los principios desarrolla-
dos. Hallazgos, metas logradas y fallas encontradas en las diferentes unidades
orgnicas que integran la institucin. Estudio y evaluacin de los diferentes proce-
sos y actividades que generan algn impacto negativo en la organizacin y los
efectos nocivos que afectan el ambiente en las unidades existentes. Estudio y revi-
sin constante en la adquisicin de la materia prima utilizada para elaborar el pro-
ducto final y determinar el tipo de componentes que contiene. Comportamiento
ambiental y prcticas de los contratantes, sub-contratantes y proveedores junto con
la prevencin y limitacin de accidentes que desestimulan o desmotivan el recurso
humano en las diferentes reas. Seleccin del equipo lder, en cada unidad, de co-
ordinar la educacin de intragestion financiera al resto del personal, elaborar pre-
supuestos a corto y a largo plazo para la consecucin de objetivos planteados por
la unidad creada. Repartir los costos obligatorios que puedan ocasionarse, segn
las peticiones que realicen la unidad creada, en varios perodos. Informa externa-
mente a consumidores, clientes, amigos, sobre actividades de intragestion finan-
ciera realizadas utilizando las TIC. El segundo y el tercer nivel o B y C se encuen-
tra en el proceso de implantacin, el primer nivel o A ha Sido aplicado en
organizaciones distintas a las universidades donde se ha observado efectivos resul-
tados a quien ha realizado paso por paso la Gestin sistemtica unificado financie-
ro.
3 Referencias
Arancibia, Sergio (2004). Innovacin y Desarrollo en una Economa Formal. Barquisimeto, Ve-
nezuela. UNExPo Antonio Jos de Sucre.
Arzola Hamilton, Minerva. (2004). Economa, Organizacin y Direccin de la Innovacin Tec-
nolgica: Gestin del Conocimiento. Barquisimeto, Venezuela. UNExPo Antonio Jos de
Sucre.
Azkoul Nasser. (2004). Estrategias Comerciales de la Empresa. Barquisimeto, Venezuela.
UNExPo Antonio Jos de Sucre.
Balestrini, M. (2001). Como se Elabora el Proyecto de investigacin. Venezuela, BL
Consultores Asociados.
Byme, Jhon. (2000). Gerencia por el WEB- Revista Business Week, en: Revista Gerente Ve-
nezuela. N 166.
Chiavenato, Idalberto (2002). Gestin del Talento Humano. Colombia, Mc Graw Hill.
Daz Barrigas. (2000). Teora Constructivista. Caracas. Venezuela.
Dubric R., H. (2003). Nacimiento de un Nuevo Ejecutivo. Venezuela. Textografa Jamer, C.A.
Escalona A., Lenny. (2005). Anlisis de la eficiencia tcnica y econmica de las empresas
hidrolgicas venezolanas. Universidad de Zaragoza. Espaa
Gates, William. (2000). Los Negocios en la Era Digital. Cmo Adaptar la Tecnologa Informti-
ca para Obtener el Mayor Beneficio. Barcelona, Espaa. Traduccin de J.A. Bravo. Editorial
Plaza & Jans Editores, S.A.
1141
Gonzlez H., Jorge. (2004) Neurobiologa de la Inteligencia Emocional. http:// escue-

la.med.puc.cl/paginas/publicaciones/neruologa/cuadernos/1999/pu_10_99.html.
Granderson, G and Linvill, c. (2002). Regulations, efficiency and granger causallitys. Interna-
tional Journal of Industrial Organization. Volume 20. N 9. November. Pgs. 1225-1245.
Guaid S. Dacmile. (2008) Auditoria de Orden en la Gestin de las instituciones de educacin
superior en Venezuela. Puerto Ordaz. D.E.A. Universidad Politcnica de Madrid
Hernndez, R.; Fernndez, C. y Baptista, P. (1997). Metodologa de la Investigacin. Segunda
Edicin. Editorial Mc Graw- Hill. Mxico.
Martnez, M. (2003). La medicin de la eficiencia en las instituciones de educacin superior.
Bilbao. Fundacin BBVA.
Maxwell, John C. (2006). Developing the Leader Within you. Nashville, EE.UU. Thomas Nel-
son Publishers.
Mercado, S. (2003). Cmo hacer una tesis? Mxico. Tercera edicin. Editorial Limusa, S.A. de
C.V. Noriega Editores.
Masifern, Esteban. (2001). Empresas del Siglo XXI. Disponible:
http://www.uah.cl/diplomados/2001/dge/docs/cursos/gestion21/ii/02doc.
Mochn, F. (2000). Economa. Teora y Poltica. Madrid. Editorial Mc Graw Hill Interamericana
de Espaa.
Navarro V., Arturo. (2004). Metodologa y Documentacin Cientfica. Madrid. Universidad Po-
litcnica de Madrid Material de Apoyo.
Nieto, J. (2001). Decisiones y Mercados. Una introduccin a la Economa. Madrid. Ediciones
Pirmide.
Nuez Bottini. (2004). Ingeniera de la Productividad. Venezuela UNExPo Antonio Jos de Su-
cre
Periodismo.com. En estos das de Crisis Mundial. 09 de octubre 2008
Repblica Bolivariana de Venezuela. (2000). Constitucin. Gaceta Oficial N 5.453 Extraordina-
ria. Editores- Distribuidores DISCOLAR, S.A. Caracas.
Repblica de Venezuela. (1999). Ley Orgnica de Administracin Central. Gaceta Oficial N
36.775. 30 de agosto de 1.999. Caracas.
Repblica Bolivariana de Venezuela. (2004). Ley Orgnica de la Administracin Pblica. Gace-
tas Oficiales N 37.305 del 17 de octubre del 2.001 y N 37.963 del 18 de junio del 2.004. Ca-
racas.
Rincn, D. y M. Romero. (2002) Tendencias Organizacionales de las Empresas. Revista Venezo-
lana de Gerencia. Volumen 7. Maracaibo. Venezuela
Rodrguez Monroy, Carlos. (2004) El Impacto de las TIC en la Externalizacin. Barquisimeto.
UNExPO Antonio Jos de Sucre.
Sabino, C. (2000). El Proceso de la Investigacin. Caracas. Editorial Panapo.
Salazar, Renzo. (2010) Gerencia para la Vida. Barquisimeto. Conceptos Financieros Crown.
Schmidt, Eduardo. (2001) tica y negocios. Per. Universidad del Pacfico.
Surez, A. (2001). Nueva Economa y Nueva Sociedad. Madrid. Prentice Hall.
Szlaifsztein, Gabriel. (2000). Hiptesis y Teoras de la Organizacin. Disponible:
http://www.lafacu.com/apuntes/empresas/teo-organic/default.htm.
Tamayo, M. (2000). El Proceso de Investigacin Cientfica. Mxico. Editores Noriega.
Thierauf. (2000) Auditoria Administrativa. Mxico. Limusa Noriega Editores.
Valera Ibarra, Rafael. (2005) Manual de Estadstica Bsica. Venezuela. IMPREUPEL.
Vence, X. y Gonzlez, M. (2002). Los servicios y la innovacin. La nueva frontera regional en
Europa. Economa Industrial. N 347. V. p. 41.
Zrimsek, Brian, et al. Estimating the Time and Cost of ERP and ERP II Projects: A 10-Step
Process. Gartner Research, 26 Sept. 2001.
1142
SP-06
Sistemas de Servicios
1143
La Calidad de E-Servicio en Portales Web B2C:

Evaluacin Mediante Sistemas de Inferencia
Borrosos
The E-Service Quality in B2C Websites: Evaluation by means of Fuzzy Infer-
ence Systems.
Castro A1, Puente J2, de la Fuente D3, Parreo J4, Lozano J5
Abstract The present paper proposes a model to evaluate B2C websites. It has
been considered a set of dimensions that have influence in the evaluation accord-
ing to the literature review and a study of reliability. Once validated the model, it
makes use of fuzzy inference systems in order to reduce the uncertainty associated
with the decision-making process. As a result of this research, a model capable of
designing a simple and intuitive knowledge base is obtained (experts I users) in
the evaluation of B2C websites, thus allowing a further optimization of the results
obtained.
Resumen El presente artculo propone un modelo para evaluar la calidad de e-

servicio en portales web B2C. Para ello, se ha considerado un conjunto de dimen-
1
Adrin Castro Lpez ( e-mail: adriancastrolopez@gmail.com)
Grupo de Ingeniera de Organizacin de Gijn. Dpto. Administracin de Empresas. EPI Gijn.
Universidad de Oviedo. Campus Viesques s/n, 33204 Gijn.
2
Javier Puente Garca ( e-mail: jpuente@uniovi.es)
3
David de la Fuente ( e-mail: david@uniovi.es)
4
Jos Parreo Fernndez ( e-mail: parreno@uniovi.es )
5
Jess Lozano Mostern ( e-mail: lozano@uniovi.es)
1145
siones relevantes en la evaluacin de acuerdo con la revisin de la literatura y un

estudio de fiabilidad. Una vez validado el modelo, se hace uso de sistemas de infe-
rencia borrosos con el fin de reducir la incertidumbre asociada a los procesos de
decisin. Como resultado de este estudio, se obtiene un modelo capaz de disear
de forma sencilla e intuitiva la base de conocimiento (expertos y/o usuarios) en la
evaluacin de portales B2C, permitiendo as una mayor optimizacin de los resul-
tados obtenidos.
Keywords: Fuzzy Inference Systems, E-service, Quality Service, B2C Websites

Evaluation
Palabras clave: Sistemas de Inferencia Borrosos, E-servicio, Calidad de E-
servicio, Evaluacin de Portales B2C.
1 Introduccin
El crecimiento de las actividades comerciales online est siendo particularmente

rpido debido a las nuevas oportunidades de negocio entre empresas y consumido-
res que este tipo de negocio supone. Este canal permite llegar a colectivos y reas
geogrficas impensables hace unos aos para algunas empresas (Pires and Aisbett,
2003).
Entre los diferentes tipos de E-commerce, el comercio B2C (Business to Con-
sumer) cubre aquellos portales web y transacciones a travs de los cuales las em-
presas venden bienes y servicios a clientes directamente por Internet. La eficiencia
y la rentabilidad de este tipo de comercio electrnico ha transformado la web en
un entorno global para las empresas. Sin embargo, los consumidores encuentran
muchas dificultades en los procesos de compra online relacionadas con la bsque-
da y navegacin en el portal web, con la evaluacin y comparacin de productos o
con el proceso de pago, entre otros. Todos estos inconvenientes afectan determi-
nantemente a la satisfaccin de los clientes con los sitios web B2C (Kuo et al.,
2011).
El presente trabajo propone inicialmente un anlisis exhaustivo de las variables
influyentes en el diseo y evaluacin de sitios web B2C. Una vez validado el mo-
delo propuesto se realiza una propuesta metodolgica basada en la teora de con-
juntos borrosos. sta metodologa, permite mejorar la interpretacin de la base de
conocimiento inducido en el sistema de decisin, mejorando as el comportamien-
to del modelo frente a otros sistemas ms simples.
1146
2 Estado del Arte
En el presente apartado se detallan aquellas variables ms utilizadas para evaluar

la calidad del e-servicio en portales web B2C, segn la bibliografa consultada
(ver Tabla 1).
Tabla 1 Variables relevantes en la evaluacin de la calidad de e-servicio
DISEO. El diseo web es una actividad que consiste en la planificacin, modelado e implementa-
cin de portales web. Autores: Rangathan y Ganapathy (2001), Alpar (2001), Melin y Padrn
(2005), Brown y Jayakody (2008), Lin (2009), Oppenheim y Ward (2010), Stefani y Xenos (2011).
INFORMACIN. La informacin, en su sentido ms general, se define como un conjunto organi-
zado de datos procesados, que constituyen un mensaje que permite mejorar el estado de conoci-
miento del sujeto o sistema que recibe dicho mensaje. Autores: Chang y Sangjae (2002), DeLone y
McLean (2003), Evanshitzki et al. (2004), Melin y Padrn (2005), Cao et al. (2006), Meziane y
Nefti (2006), Nielsen (2006), Joia y Barbosa (2008), Bauernfeind et al. (2009), Lin (2009), Sun y
Lin (2009), Oppenheim y Ward (2010).
GARANTA. La garanta suele referirse a la accin que una persona o empresa despliegan con el
objeto de afianzar aquello que se haya estipulado. A travs de la concrecin o presentacin de una
garanta, se pretende dotar de una mayor seguridad al cumplimiento de una obligacin o al pago de
una deuda, segn corresponda. Autores: Santos (2003), Melin y Padrn (2005).
OFERTA. En trminos generales una oferta es aquella propuesta realizada para ejecutar o cumplir
algo. Autores: Yang et al. (2000), Melin y Padrn (2005), Cao et al. (2006).
PERSONALIZACIN. La personalizacin consiste en la adaptacin de los productos o servicios a
las necesidades del cliente, de tal forma, que ste se sienta exclusivo, especial, nico y diferen-
te.Autores: Melin y Padrn (2005), Koutsabasis et al (2008) Adjei y Clark (2009), Bauernfeind et
al (2009), Oppenheim y Ward (2010).
SEGURIDAD PAGOS. La seguridad en los pagos se define como la garanta de proteccin con res-
pecto a las transacciones realizadas y los medios de pago utilizados durante el proceso de compra.
Autores: Madu y Madu (2002), Francis y White (2002), Venkataiahgari et al. (2006), Oppenheim y
Ward (2010).
PRIVACIDAD. La privacidad del servicio se define como la garanta de proteccin de los datos de
inters suministrados por el cliente en relacin con su archivo, tratamiento y conservacin. En el
caso del comercio electrnico se refiere nicamente a los datos de carcter personal del cliente. Au-
tores: Ranganathan y Ganapathy (2001), Oppenheim y Ward (2010), Stefani y Xenos (2011).
CONFIANZA. La confianza se define como la esperanza que se tiene en algo o alguien. En el caso
concreto del comercio electrnico, hace referencia a la esperanza que tiene el cliente online en que
la compra realizada a travs de un portal web se realice bajo sus expectativas. Autores: Kaplan y
Nieschwietz (2003), Oppenheim y Ward (2010), Hong y Cho (2011).
1147
3 Modelo de Evaluacin Propuesto
El modelo propuesto ha sido resultado de una exhaustiva revisin bibliogrfica y

de un Mtodo Delphi realizado por expertos en Marketing Online en Espaa. Adi-
cionalmente, se ha realizado un pre-test para conocer el sentir de los usuarios de
portales de moda online. La Figura 1 ilustra el modelo de evaluacin propuesto.
La recogida de informacin se ha llevado a cabo a travs de encuestas persona-
les realizadas a compradores habituales en Internet. Las escalas para la evaluacin
de portales web fueron sometidas a un pre-test con 50 clientes habituales en la
compra de artculos por Internet, con la finalidad de poner a prueba la correcta
comprensin de las preguntas y aadir, eliminar o modificar en su caso, la compo-
sicin del cuestionario final. El universo objeto de estudio ha sido definido como
el conjunto de individuos mayores de 18 aos que son compradores habituales en
Internet y que pertenecen al entorno geogrfico de Espaa.
Fig. 1 Modelo de Evaluacin Calidad del Servicio en Portales Web B2C.
Para determinar la utilizacin del modelo de evaluacin de portales web B2C

se ha evaluado la unidimensionalidad, fiabilidad y validez de las escalas de medi-
da. En la primera fase de validacin se han considerado las variables estudiadas
con todos los tems que figuraban en el cuestionario, manifestando este anlisis
exploratorio la necesidad de eliminar algunos de ellos para optimizar la composi-
cin de las escalas. Para ello, se ha utilizado el paquete estadstico SPSS versin
19 para Windows. Como resultado de este pre-test se ha realizado un anlisis fac-
torial exploratorio de componentes principales con rotacin Varimax y un anlisis
de fiabilidad mediante coeficiente de de Cronbach. En la Tabla 2 se muestran
los resultados obtenidos de este estudio.
1148
Tabla 2 Resultados obtenidos Anlisis Factorial y Crombach
DIS INF GAR OFE PER SPA SES CON

% Informacin Explicada 59,3 68,4 65,7 54,4 52,5 65,1 90,6 82,1
Crombach 0,83 0,90 0,87 0,75 0,63 0,81 0,89 0,79
El coeficiente de de Cronbach, indicador utilizado para determinar la fiabili-

dad de las escalas, tal como se puede ver en la tabla anterior, supera el valor um-
bral 0,6 recomendado en estudios exploratorios (Hair et al. 1999) en todas las va-
riables propuestas. Adems, en todos los casos, dichas variables presentan un
porcentaje acumulado de varianza explicada superior al 50%.
4 Metodologa
La metodologa utilizada en esta investigacin se basa en los sistemas de inferen-

cia borrosos de ayuda a la decisin. stos, se fundamentan en la Teora de conjun-
tos borrosos desarrollada por Zadeh (1965), permitiendo incorporar la incertidum-
bre asociada a los procesos de decisin, haciendo que stos se aproximen mejor a
la realidad (Martin y Sanz, 2005).
En los sistemas de inferencia borrosos, las variables, de tipo lingstico, permi-
ten procesar informacin tanto cualitativa como cuantitativa dado que toman como
valores etiquetas asociables a conceptos del lenguaje comn. Esto contrasta con
las variables numricas tradicionales cuyos valores son exclusivamente nmeros
(Ponce, 2011).
En nuestro caso, la evaluacin de la calidad de e-servicio percibida -por exper-
tos o usuarios- presenta un alto nivel de subjetividad. Por este motivo, el uso de
etiquetas de tipo lingstico permitir una mejor adaptacin de los criterios de cali-
ficacin dados en la evaluacin de portales web B2C. Adems, se probar que el
diseo de un sistema borroso en el mbito del comercio electrnico B2C, y ms en
concreto en la evaluacin de sus portales web, permite una mejor interpretacin de
la base de conocimiento insertado en el sistema de decisin, mejorando as los re-
sultados obtenidos en la salida del modelo propuesto.
4.1 Sistemas de Inferencia Borrosos
En nuestro caso, para poder aplicar los sistemas de inferencia borrosos, hemos uti-
lizado la aplicacin Matlab fuzzy logic toolbox versin 2.0. (Mamdani and
Gains, 1981).
1149
Para realizar la inferencia se requiere una base de conocimiento constituida a

partir del saber hacer de un experto en el problema, capaz de explicar el funcio-
namiento del sistema a travs de un conjunto de reglas lingsticas construidas con
las variables de entrada y de salida. As, en primer lugar, es necesario definir el
rango y la forma de las etiquetas en que se particionan los dominios de las varia-
bles del sistema para poder definirlas de forma borrosa. Los sistemas de decisin
borrosos de tipo Mamdami, apoyados en lo anterior, permiten realizar inferencias
de este tipo en un proceso que consta de cinco etapas (Chen & Klein, 1997): Bo-
rrosificacin, Aplicacin de componentes borrosos a los antecedentes, Implicacin
al consecuente de cada regla, Agregacin de consecuentes y Desborrosificacin.
Adicionalmente se establecer la adecuada secuenciacin de los subsistemas
borrosos integrantes del modelo y se incorporar el conocimiento de evaluacin en
forma de reglas condicionales para cada subsistema de calificacin (de modo que
permita la asignacin intuitiva de etiquetas lingsticas en todas sus variables).
La Figura 2 representa las etiquetas empleadas para las variables de entrada y
de salida, respectivamente:
Fig. 2 Definicin de etiquetas.
Posteriormente, se definen las cuatro bases de reglas a utilizar para cada

subsistema de evaluacin acudiendo al conocimiento del experto: Calidad Web,
Servicio Ofertado, Seguridad en el Servicio, y Evaluacin Final (ver Fig. 3).
Fig. 3 Bases de reglas para cada uno de los subsistemas parciales y final.
A modo de ejemplo, la celda sombreada de la tabla relativa a la seguridad ex-

presara la regla: si la valoracin de la seguridad en los pagos es media, la privaci-
dad es baja y la confianza es alta, entonces la calificacin final de la seguridad
ser media.
Tras disear un sistema borroso, puede inferirse la valoracin de un portal web
segn los valores crisp de sus variables de entrada. Los mapas de inferencia da-
dos por el modelo permiten analizar fcilmente la congruencia de las evaluaciones
obtenidas (en ellos las valoraciones de las variables de salida vienen dadas por la
1150
altura de la superficie en cada punto). As por ejemplo, en la Figura 4 se muestra

el mapa de soluciones de evaluacin del subsistema Calidad Web.
Informacin Diseo
Fig. 4 Mapa de soluciones del subsistema Calidad Web.
Al analizar la evaluacin de la calidad de la web en funcin de la informacin

recibida por el usuario y del diseo, se puede observar que debido al conocimiento
insertado en las reglas, si el diseo es bajo y la calidad de la informacin no es la
adecuada, se obtendr una mala calificacin de la calidad web. Esta disconformi-
dad sobre la calidad del portal web puede deberse a una falta de adaptacin del di-
seo e informacin al cliente debido a: la dificultad para navegar en el portal, el
uso de excesiva informacin o poca precisin sobre el producto requerido o que la
informacin se encuentre en un idioma diferente al del cliente potencial. Sin em-
bargo, se observa cmo al crecer la valoracin dada al diseo y a la informacin,
la calificacin de la calidad web sube notoriamente (en mayor grado para la varia-
ble Diseo).
Este anlisis de podra extender al resto de variables (tanto de entrada como de
salida) del modelo de evaluacin propuesto.
5 Conclusiones y Ampliaciones Futuras
En el presente estudio se ha realizado un anlisis de las principales variables utili-

zadas en la evaluacin de portales web del sector textil. Para ello, se ha realizado
una revisin bibliogrfica exhaustiva, junto con un mtodo Delphi y un pre-test.
Una vez considerada la adecuacin de las diferentes variables, se ha realizado un
estudio de mercado a usuarios habituales en la bsqueda/compra de artculos de
moda a travs de Internet, consiguiendo as la validacin del modelo propuesto.
Una vez validado el modelo propuesto, se ha analizado la incertidumbre aso-
ciada a los procesos de evaluacin de este tipo de portales web. Como resultado,
se ha conseguido un modelo, fundamentado en los sistemas de inferencia borro-
sos, capaz de mejorar la interpretacin de la base de conocimiento inducido en el
sistema de decisin, mejorando as el comportamiento frente a otros sistemas ms
simples.
Como futuras lneas de investigacin se pretende fusionar los sistemas borrosos
con redes neuronales a fin de lograr una base de conocimiento ms dinmica.
1151
6 Referencias
Adjei M, Clark M (2010) Relationship marketing in a B2C context: the moderating role of per-
sonality traits. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 17:73-79.
Alpar P (2001) Satisfaction with a web site: Its measurement, factors and correlates. Working
Paper No. 99/01. Philipps-Univesitt Marburg, Institute fr Wirtschaftsinformatik.
Bauernfeind U, Mayr T, Zins A (2006) A conceptual model for quality dimensions for B2C rec-
ommender systems. ECIS Proceedings, 1007-1018.
Brown I, y Jayakody R (2008) B2C e-Commerce success: a test and validation of a revised con-
ceptual model. Electronic Journal Information Systems Evaluation. 11:167-184.
Cao M, Zhang Q,Seydel J (2006) B2C e-commerce web site quality: an empirical examination.
Industrial Management & Data Systems, 105:645-661.
Chang L, Sangaje L (2002) A cognitive map simulation approach to adjusting the design factors
of the electronic commerce web sites. Expert Systems with Applications, 24:1-11.
Chen, CB, Klein CM (1997) An efficient approach to solving Fuzzy MADM Problems. Fuzzy
Sets and Systems. 88:5167.
Evanschitzy H (2004) E-satisfaction: a re-examination. Journal of Retailing. 80:239-247.
Francis J, White L (2002) PIRQUAL: A escale for measuring customer expectations and percep-
tions of quality in Internet retailing. In K.Evans and L. Scheer (Eds), 2002. Marketing educa-
tors conference: Marketing theory and applications. 13:263-270.
Hong IB, Cho H (2011) The impact of consumer trust on attiutdinal loyalty and purchase inten-
tions in B2C marketplaces: Intermediary vs seller trust. International Journal of Information
Management. 31:469-479.
Joia LA, Barbosa de Oliveira LC (2008) Development and testing of an e-commerce web site
evaluation model. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations. 6:37-53.
Kaplan SE, Nieschwietz RJ (2003) A Web assurance services model of trust for B2C e-
commerce. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems. 4:95-114.
Koutsabasis P, Stravraskis M, Viorres N, Darzentas JS, Spyrou T, Jarzentas J (2008) A descrip-
tive reference framework for the personalization of e-business applications. Electron Com-
merce Res. 8:173-192.
Kuo HM, Chen CW, Chen CW (2011) A study of merchandise information and interface design
on B2C websites. Journal of Marine Science and Technology. 19:15-25.
Lin HF (2009) An application of fuzzy AHP for evaluating course website quality. Computers &
Education. 10:1016.
Madu CN, Madu AA (2002) Dimensions of e-quality. InternationalJournal of Quality & Reliabil-
ity Management. 19:246-258.
Mamdani EH, Gaines BR (1981) Fuzzy reasoning and its applications, NY. Academic Press.
Martin B, Sanz A, Garca A (2005) Redes Neuronales y Sistemas Borrosos. 3 Ed.. RA-MA.
Melin L, y Padrn V (2005) Quality in e-commerce B2C: perceptions and expectations.
Conferencia IADIS Ibero-Americana.
Meziane F, Nefti S (2006) Evaluating E-commerce trust fuzzy logic. School of Computing, Sci-
ence and Engineering. University of Salford. United Kingdom.
Nielsen J, Loranger H (2006) Prioritizing Web Usability. New Riders. Berkeley.
Oppenheim C, Ward L (2010) Evaluation of web sites for B2C e-commerce. Aslib Proceedings.
58:237-260.
Pires, GD., Aisbett J (2003) Relationship between technology adoption and strategy in business-
to-business makets. The case of e-commerce, Industrial Marketing Management. 32:291-300.
Ponce, P (2011) Inteligencia Artificial con aplicaciones a la ingeniera. Marcombo. Barcelona.
Ranganathan C, Ganapathy S (2001) Key dimensions of business-to-consumer web sites. Infor-
mation& Management. 39:457-465.
1152
Santos J (2003) E-service quality: a model of virtual service quality dimensions. Managing Ser-
vice Quality. 13:233-246.
Stefani A, y Xenos M (2011) Weight-modeling of B2C system quality. Computer Standards &
Interfaces. 33:411-421
Sun C, Lin G (2009) Using fuzzy TOPSIS method for evaluating the competitive advantages of
shopping websites. Expert Systems with Applications. 36:11764-11771.
Venkataiahgari AK, Atwood JW, Debbabi M (2006) A survey of secure B2C commerce for mul-
ticast services. IEEE CCECE/CCGEI. Concordia University. Montreal.
Yang Z, Peterson R, Huang L (2000) Taking the pulse of Internet pharmacies. Marketing Health
Services. 21:4-10.
Zadeh, Lofti A. (1965) Fuzzy Sets. Information and control. 83:338-353
1153
SP-07
Educacin
1155
Tendencias y Aseguramiento de la Calidad en la

Educacin Superior: Mapa Europeo y Caso de
Espaa
Trend and Quality Assurance in Higher Education: European Map and Case
of Spain.
Gonzalez Lasquibar X1, Ruiz de Arbulo Lpez P2, Landeta Manzano B3,
Basaez Llantada A4, Insunza Araceta G5
Abstract This paper discusess how higher education institutions are facing the
quality management. At the end of the last decade of the twentieth century a num-
ber of trends emerged that caused great concern about the quality in the field of
European higher education. It also exposes a simple of tems or tools quality con-
trol employees in different European higher education systems, including the
higher education system in Spain.
1
Xabier Gonzalez Lasquibar (e-mail: xabier.gonzalez@ehu.es)
Dpto. de Organizacin de Empresas. ETS de Ingeniera de Bilbao, Universidad del Pas Vasco
(UPV/EHU), Alda Urquijo s/n, 48013 Bilbao, Spain.
2
Patxi Ruiz de Arbulo
3
Beat Landeta Manzano
4
Aitor Basaez Llantada
5
Gaizka Insunza Araceta
* Este trabajo se deriva de la participacin de sus autores en el proyecto de investigacin de la
Universidad del Pas Vasco UPV/EHU titulado Determinantes y caractersticas de las empresas
innovadoras de alto crecimiento en la CAPV NUPV11/08
1157
Resumen En el trabajo se analiza la gestin de las instituciones de educacin su-

perior centradas en el mbito de la calidad. A finales de la ltima dcada del siglo
XX emergieron una serie de tendencias que provocaron una gran preocupacin
sobre la calidad en el sector de la educacin superior Europea. Adems se expone
una muestra de los elementos o herramientas de control de calidad ms comunes
en los diferentes sistemas de educacin superior europeo, incluido el sistema de
educacin superior de Espaa.
Keywords: Trends, Quality Assurance, Assessment, Accreditation, High Educa-

tion.
Palabras clave: Tendencias, Aseguramiento De La Calidad, Evaluacin, Acredi-
tacin, Educacin Superior.
1 Introduccin
La Universidad Europea, desde su origen, la primognita universidad de Bolonia,

creada en el siglo XI (Teichler, 2007), pasando por las universidades tradicional-
mente conocidas (Oxford y Cambridge) se esfuerza por ofrecer a sus alumnos una
enseanza de calidad. Una calidad que tradicionalmente solo era accesible para la
lite.
A finales de la dcada del siglo pasado se ha apreciado una obsesin por intro-
ducir la cultura de la calidad en las universidades actuales. Agentes involucrados
en este sector, como el gobierno, las propias instituciones, organismos como la
UNESCO, el BANCO MUNDIAL, y agencias involucradas han contribuido a esta
difusin.
El trabajo presente muestra las tendencias emergentes a finales del siglo XX,
tendencias que son efecto de la globalizacin y que provocan profundas transfor-
maciones en la gestin y estructura de los diferentes sistemas de educacin supe-
rior. Tendencias que han favorecido la emergente aparicin y preocupacin por la
calidad. Este trabajo recoge las diferentes actividades a desarrollar dentro del pro-
ceso de aseguramiento de la calidad. Actividades que son consideradas herramien-
tas de control de calidad y son comunes en algunos pases europeos. Por lo que a
lo largo del texto se ver como el aseguramiento de la calidad y la Educacin su-
perior forman una estrecha relacin.
1158
2 Metodologa
En este trabajo se ha realizado una bsqueda literaria de los aspectos centrales del
trabajo, como son, tendencias, sistemas de aseguramiento y sistemas de evalua-
cin. Para ello, se ha acudido sobre todo a las pginas de los organismos referentes
u/o involucrados en el tema como son la ENQA, ANECA, UNESCO. Adems
tambin nos hemos ayudado de trabajos realizados por expertos en el tema como
Lpez Segrera, Bernhard, Olaskoaga y Barrenetxea.
3 Tendencias
A nivel mundial, con excepcin de los pases menos desarrollados (Trow, 1974),
la educacin superior se enfrenta a problemas similares y sufre cambios en una di-
reccin comn. En la dcada de los 90, efecto de la globalizacin, emergen una
serie de tendencias en el sistema de educacin superior europeo:
Masificacin: Este fenmeno mundial consiste en el crecimiento o expansin
cuantitativa de la masa estudiantil y emerge en Europa en la dcada de los 60. Se
produce a consecuencia del efecto provocado por la globalizacin, reduccin de la
financiacin pblica y la emergente aparicin de las TICs (Lpez Segrera, 2005;
2008; Bernhard, 2012); Trow, M (1974).
La UNESCO para la medicin de este fenmeno emergente, emplea un indica-
dor; la tasa bruta de matrcula (TBM), que mide el nmero de estudiantes en edad
de universitaria. La tasa bruta de matrcula (TBM) a nivel mundial pas de 13 mi-
llones de estudiantes universitarios en 1960 a 137 millones en el 2005, 159 millo-
nes en 2008, siendo superiores las previsiones de la Unesco para 2020 (UNESCO,
2007; 2010).
En la siguiente tabla se muestran datos relativos a la TBM (tasa bruta de matr-
cula), variable que mide la masa estudiantil en los pases considerados referentes
por el enfoque que estos pases emplean en su gestin de la calidad (UNESCO,
2010):
Tabla 1 Masificacin estudiantil
Matrcula total 2008 TBM 1999 TBM 2008

Austria 285.000 54% 55%
Finlandia 310.000 82% 94%
Reino unido 2.329.000 60% 57%
Espaa 1.781.000 57% 71%
Fuente: Elaboracin propia adaptado de UNESCO 2010.
1159
En la tabla se puede apreciar que en el periodo estudiado (1999-2008), perodo

anterior a la crisis actual que sufrimos, la mayora de los pases han sufrido un
crecimiento de la tasa cuantitativa estudiantil en edad universitaria, siendo el cre-
cimiento ms destacado en Espaa.
El sistema de educacin superior convive con la emergente aparicin de un
nmero creciente de proveedores, estudiantes, programas y redes de colaboracin.
Esto es debido a las fuerzas globales del mercado; fuerzas sociales, econmicas y
polticas. Las universidades pblicas tradicionales no cubren con la demanda total,
por lo que surgen nuevas instituciones ante esta oportunidad de mercado. Las uni-
versidades tradicionales y las de nueva creacin deben de satisfacer las necesida-
des de una masa estudiantil heterognea por lo que la universidad debe de ade-
cuarse a las demandas del mercado. Como consecuencia de esta tendencia nacen
las prximas tendencias descritas.
Diversificacin: Las fuerzas globales dan lugar a la aparicin de instituciones
con ofertas educativas diversificadas (Lpez Segrera, 2005; 2008). Emerge una
educacin superior especializada. El sector de la educacin superior se oferta en
diferentes tipos de instituciones (pblicas, privadas), especializadas en (docencia,
investigacin), de diferentes reas (administracin de negocios, humanidades,
ciencias), de diferente audiencia (estudiantes jvenes, a tiempo parcial, educacin
a distancia, educacin de adultos, educacin permanente) (Lemaitre y Pires,
2008), etc.
Tabla 2 Diversificacin de instituciones
Pblico Pblico subvencionado Privado subvencionado

x gobierno
Austria 84,1% 15,9% Sin datos-
Alemania 91,1% 8,9% Sin datos-
Finlandia 86,1% 13,9% Sin datos-
Reino Unido - 100% Sin datos-
Espaa 85,9% 2% 12%
Fuente: Elaboracin propia basado en UNESCO, 2010.
Los datos de la tabla indican que en la mayora de los pases analizados desta-
can la presencia de las instituciones pblicas, excepto en el Reino Unido, donde
todas las instituciones universitarias son privadas. En el caso de Espaa sealar
que existen instituciones concertadas, es decir, instituciones privadas ligeramente
subvencionadas, como la universidad VIC de Barcelona.
Privatizacin: Como consecuencia de la crisis de los 70 y 80 los gobiernos ini-
cian una desinversin en las instituciones de educacin superior, lo cual dio lugar
a una diversidad de soluciones financieras emergentes demandadas a los diferentes
beneficiarios involucrados en el rea analizada (Lpez Segrera, 2005); tasas de
matrcula, cuotas, etc.
1160
En opinin de Lpez Lamarra (2012) estas instituciones privadas se caracteri-

zan por su falta de criterio de calidad y pertinencia institucional.
Internacionalizacin: El crecimiento de estudiantes universitarios que cursan
sus estudios fuera de su pas de origen ha crecido a finales del siglo XX y princi-
pios del siglo XXI; pasaron de 1 milln en 1995 a 1 milln 900 mil en 2005
(Lpez Segrera, 2005).
Tabla 3 Internacionalizacin.
Estudiantes del pas Provenientes del Tasa de estudiantes

dado estudiando en el extranjero %
extranjero
Austria 10.241 53.396 18,7%
Alemania 83.524 189.347 Sin datos-
Finlandia 6.502 11.303 3,7%
Reino Unido 21.992 341.791 14,7%
Espaa 21.607 37.726 2,1%
Fuente: Elaboracin propia basado en UNESCO, 2010.
La tabla muestra que el pas europeo con mayor nmero de estudiantes es el

Reino Unido, favorecido por la lengua anglosajona.
Todas estas tendencias obligan a las instituciones de Educacin superior a ac-
tualizarse mediante el rediseo de sus estructuras y modelos de gobierno y ges-
tin, teniendo como objetivos, la competitividad (Brunner, 2011) y la adecuacin
a las exigencias sociales y econmicas existentes.
4 EEES y Aseguramiento de la Calidad.
Las tendencias descritas han provocado una presin por establecer mecanismos
para asegurar la calidad. En la dcada de los 90 la calidad adquiere gran protago-
nismo, inicialmente en la industria pero expande su protagonismo al sector de la
educacin superior Matseleng Allais (2009), por ello, autores como Bernhard
(2011) y Olaskoaga et. al. (2012), califican la ltima dcada del siglo XX como la
dcada de la calidad o dcada del discurso de la calidad respectivamente. Los
Stakeholders (Freedman, 1994) o agentes del sistema de educacin superior; las
propias instituciones, agencias de calidad, el propio gobierno, etc. toman medidas
o iniciativas para adecuarse a los cambios producidos. La iniciativa ms destacada
es el proceso convergente Europeo que arranca en Bolonia (1999). Este proceso
formado por una serie de reuniones bianuales entre los Ministros de educacin Eu-
ropeos, fijan como objetivos a alcanzar para el 2010 la comparabilidad, la compa-
1161
tibilidad, la transparencia y la flexibilidad de los diferentes sistemas de educacin

superior (Gins Mora, 2003).
Para poder culminar con xito este proceso desarrollan una serie de planes,
acuerdos y acciones alcanzados en las reuniones ministeriales celebradas a lo lar-
go del proceso de Bolonia (Barrenetxea, 2005). Estas iniciativas se desarrollan a
travs del empleo de varias herramientas; en las siguientes lneas slo se mencio-
nan aquellas relacionadas con la tesis del trabajo (ENQA, 2013):
Promover la cooperacin europea en el mbito de la garanta de calidad
(Berln, 2003).
Desarrollo de la garanta de la calidad en los niveles institucional, nacional y
europeo (Berln, 2003).
Introduccin de los estndares y directrices de garanta de la calidad (Bergen,
2005).
Creacin del Registro Europeo de Garanta de Calidad (EQAR) (Londres,
2007).
4.1 Gestin de la Calidad
En las universidades europeas conviven dos enfoques de gestin de calidad opues-

tos, el aseguramiento de la calidad y la mejora de la calidad. Biggs (2001) analiza
los dos enfoques. El aseguramiento de la calidad se entiende como el conjunto de
actividades planificadas y aplicadas para el cumplimiento de una serie de objeti-
vos perfectamente tasados y basados en las necesidades demandantes de los clien-
tes. El segundo de los enfoques, la mejora de la calidad, trata de establecer una se-
rie de condiciones favorables para las universidades, y a los docentes que trabajan
en ellas (Mijangos, et.al., 2011). Consiste en una reflexin constitucional con el
objetivo de corregir debilidades identificadas.
Cada uno de los enfoques se basan en diferentes principios, emplea diferentes
herramientas o mecanismos de control de calidad y cuentan con diferentes objeti-
vos (Mijangos, et. al., 2011). El enfoque retrospectivo (aseguramiento de la cali-
dad) calificado por Biggs (2001), debe de rendir cuentas y debe de cumplir una se-
rie de requisitos predeterminados por las agencias externas, y su principal
herramienta es la evaluacin externa.
El segundo de los enfoques, calificado por Biggs (2001) como prospectivo
(mejora de la calidad), consiste en una reflexin constitucional encaminado a con-
seguir el objetivo de calidad. Su principal herramienta es la auto-evaluacin, aun-
que tambin emplee la revisin externa en un sentido ms consultivo (Mijangos et.
al., 2001).
Como resultado de las presiones ejercidas por los stakeholders, un significativo
nmero de pases han adoptado sistemas de aseguramiento de la calidad. El asegu-
ramiento de la calidad, conlleva una serie de procedimientos a emplear. En este
1162
epgrafe se citan los diferentes procedimientos o mecanismos de control de calidad

existentes a nivel europeo. La ENQA (2003, citado en Barrenetxea, 2005: 387)
realiza una clasificacin de los diferentes tipos de evaluacin segn el mtodo y
objeto a analizar:
Tabla 4. Mtodos de evaluacin
Mtodos de evaluacin Objetos

Evaluacin Materia
Acreditacin Programa
Auditora Institucin
Benchmarking Tema
Fuente: Elaboracin propia en base a la ENQA (2003) y Barrenetxea (2005).
De la tabla se puede deducir que si combinamos ambas variables en la prctica

existen 16 posibles combinaciones de tipos de evaluacin (Barrenetxea, 2005:
387), pero realmente son 8 los principales tipos de evaluacin empleados en Euro-
pa (ENQA, 2013).
En este epgrafe se recogen datos empricos (Bernhard, 2011; ENQA, 2013)
sobre los diferentes procedimientos de aseguramiento de la calidad empleados en
algunos pases de Europa. En la siguiente tabla se muestra la foto actual de los en-
foques adoptados actualmente por las diferentes agencias de calidad de los pases
estudiados.
Tabla 5. Tipos de enfoques
Indicadores Enfoque
comparativos
Austria AAQA : Acreditacin
Alemania ACQUIN: Consejo de acreditacin: meta-acreditacin
Finlandia FINHEEC: Auditorias
Reino Unido QAA: Evaluacin (antes de 2001/2002) A partir de 2001/2002 Revisin-
evaluacin externa y auditora institucional Inglaterra e Irlanda del norte (au-
ditora institucional); Escocia (evaluaciones institucionales); Pas de Gales
(revisiones institucionales).
Espaa ANECA: Evaluacin externa e interna institucional, programas y materia.
Acreditacin ttulos.
Fuente: adecuado desde Bernhard 2011 y ENQA, 2013.
En la tabla se puede apreciar que los diferentes pases estudiados difieren en al-
gunos aspectos especficos de su sistema de aseguramiento de la calidad. El mode-
lo centro europeo desarrollado por Alemania y Austria tiende a una nica agencia
y hacia la acreditacin; Finlandia como modelo referente en los ltimos aos tien-
1163
de a la auditora de procesos de calidad, Reino Unido tiende haca la evaluacin,

existiendo diferencias entre los pases miembros y Espaa tiende a la evaluacin.
4.2 Caso de Espaa
La primera experiencia espaola fue a inicios de los 90, despus de diversos pro-
yectos pilotos exitosos, tanto a nivel nacional como a nivel de Europa, se estable-
ci el I Plan Nacional de Evaluacin de la Calidad de las Universidades (PNECU)
en 1995, vigente hasta el 2001. Este plan contena la metodologa de los proyectos
pilotos exitosos desarrollados con anterioridad:
Una auto-evaluacin seguida de una evaluacin externa a travs de peer review
(visita externa de colegas de profesin) y la publicacin de un informe final. El
xito de este plan provoc la extensin de la cultura de la calidad por las universi-
dades espaolas.
A mediados del 2001 se inici el II Plan de Calidad de las universidades
(PCU), el cual bajo la administracin de la nueva Ley de Universidades (LOU) es-
tableci que los planes de estudio deban someterse a evaluacin, certificacin y
acreditacin por la nueva Agencia Nacional de Evaluacin de la Calidad y Acredi-
tacin (ANECA) (Gins Mora, 2005), agente ms representativo de la calidad en
el sistema de educacin superior espaol, creada el 19 de Julio del 2004: se trata
de una fundacin estatal cuyo objetivo es contribuir a la mejora de la calidad de la
educacin superior a travs de la evaluacin, certificacin y acreditacin de ense-
anzas, profesorado e instituciones (ANECA, 2012).
Este organismo cuenta con una serie de programas a travs de los cuales realiza
sus funciones reguladoras:
Programa AUDIT: Orienta a los centros universitarios en el diseo de sistemas
de garanta interna de calidad.
Programa VERIFICA: Evala las propuestas de los planes de estudio de ttulos
diseados en consonancia con el Espacio Europeo de Educacin Superior
(ANECA, 2013).
Programa MONITOR: realiza un seguimiento del ttulo oficial para comprobar
su correcta implantacin y resultados.
Programa DOCENTIA: Valoracin de la garanta de la calidad del profesorado.
Programa PEP: Evala el Curriculum Vitae de los solicitantes para el acceso a
las figuras de profesor universitario contratado.
Programa ACADEMIA: Evala el Curriculum Vitae para acceso a los cuerpos
de funcionarios docentes universitarios.
Programa MENCIN: Evala a los programas de doctorado que optan a una
Mencin hacia la Excelencia.
1164
5 Conclusiones
Se aprecia una preocupacin sobre la calidad a finales del siglo XX. Consecuencia
de las fuerzas del mercado. Esta preocupacin se ve reflejada en el comportamien-
to por parte de las IES quienes se ven obligados a realizar cambios estructurales y
de gestin, as como la presin ejercida por los diferentes stakeholders.
Los sistemas de aseguramiento difieren en aspectos especficos, aunque existen
elementos comunes que configuran un modelo internacional:
El sistema de aseguramiento de la calidad es gestionado por una agencia ms o
menos autnoma de carcter pblico.
El proceso de evaluacin o acreditacin se inicia con la auto-evaluacin y se
complementa con una visita de pares externos.
El proceso es cclico.
Tambin se aprecia elementos comunes ms controvertidos:
El procedimiento se focaliza en los programas o instituciones o, en ambos.
Los resultados de la evaluacin o acreditacin sirven para el gobierno como
criterio para la asignacin de recursos pblicos.
6 Referencias
Barrenetxea, M (2005). Modelos de calidad y evaluacin de la educacin superior en la Unin

Europea (Tesis doctoral).
Bernhard, A. (2011). National Quality Assurance Systems in Comparison. International Journal
for Cros-disciplinary Subjects in Education(IJCDSE).vol2.Issue4.
Bernhard, A. (2012). Quality Assurance in an International Higher Education Area. Humanities,
social sciences and law.
Biggs, J. (2001). The reflective institution: assuring and enhancing the quality of teaching and
learning. Higher Education. 41, pp. 221-238.
Brunner, J.J. y Pea, C. (2011). El conflicto de las universidades entre lo pblico y lo privado.
Ediciones Universidad Diego Portales. Santiago, Chile.
ENQA. (2009). Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Educa-
tion Area.
ENQA. (2012). Quality procedures in the European Higher Education Area and Beyond- visions
for the future.
Fernndez Lamarra, N. (2012). Universidad y Calidad en Amrica Latina en perspectiva com-
parada. Interrogantes y desafos. Avaliacao. V. 17, n. 3, pp. 661-688
Gins Mora, J (2003). Trends in Quality Assurance in the Bologna Context. Guest editor Euro-
pean Journal of Education, 38, 3.
Lemaitre,M y Pires, S.(2008).Sistemas de acreditacin y evaluacin de la Educacin Superior en
Amrica Latina y Caribe. www.iesalc.unesco.org
Lpez Segrera, F. (2005). Posibles escenarios mundiales de la educacin superior. Perfiles edu-
cativos.vol. XXVII (109-110). pp 140-165.
Lpez Segrera, F (2008). Tendencias de la educacin superior en el mundo y en Amrica latina y
el Caribe. Sorocaba
1165
Matseleng Allais, S. (2009). Quality assurance in education. Centre for Education Policy De-
velopment.
Mijangos, J. et. al., (2011). Enseanza Universitaria de Calidad: Profesorado, Alumnado e Insti-
tucin. Proyecto de Investigacin UPV/EHU.
Olaskoaga, J. e Intxaurburu, G. (2000). Iniciativas y experiencias europeas en la configuracin
de espacios regionales de colaboracin Universidad-empresa. Revista de Estudios Regiona-
les.209-226
Olaskoaga, J; Marm, E.; Rosario, V y Prez, D. (2012). Universidades en Movimiento. Una re-
visin de la literatura emprica sobre las opiniones y las actitudes de los docents antes de las
transformaciones recientes de las organizaciones universitarias.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2010). Programme on In-
stitutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE). Testing student and university perfor-
mance globally.www.oecd.org.
Teichler, U (2007). Higher Education Systems. Sense Publishers.
Trow, M. (1974). Problems in the Transition from Elite to Mass Higher Education. OECD,
pp.51-101.
UNESCO (2007) Global Education Digest. UIS. Montreal.
UNESCO. (2010).Compendio mundial de la educacin 2010. Instituto de estadstica de la Unes-
co. Canad
1166
Satisfaccin en la Utilizacin del Video por el

Discente en su Proceso Activo de Aprendizaje.
Una Experiencia en el Contexto de los Grados
en Ingeniera de Telecomunicacin.
Satisfaction in the Use of Video by the Learner in Active Learning Process.
An Experience in the Context of Telecommunication Engineering Degrees.
Prez-Aguiar W1, Martnez-Nez M2
Abstract The use of video among university lecturers is increasing with the de-
velopment of the European Higher Education Area. This paper argues that it is
time to also be a tool used by the learner to achieve their learning purposes. From
this perspective, we discuss the advantages that this technology may have for our
students and we propose two hypotheses for verification, the first related to the
development of social networks, the second has to do with empathy that develops
in the workgroup. Then, we present and discuss the results.
Resumen El uso del video entre los docentes universitarios est aumentando con
el desarrollo del Espacio Europeo de Educacin Superior. En este trabajo se man-
tiene que ha llegado la hora de hacer que tambin sea una herramienta utilizada
por el discente para conseguir sus fines de aprendizaje. Desde esta perspectiva, se
discuten las ventajas que esta tecnologa pueda tener para nuestros alumnos y se
proponen dos hiptesis para su verificacin, la primera relacionada con el desarro-
llo de las redes sociales; la segunda, tiene que ver con la empata que se desarrolla
en el grupo de trabajo. Seguidamente, se presentan y discuten los resultados obte-
nidos.
1Waldo Prez-Aguiar ( e-mail: waldo.perez@upm.es)

Departamento de Ingeniera de Organizacin E.U.I.T de Telecomunicacin, Universidad
Politcnica de Madrid Crta. Valencia km. 7, 28031 Madrid (Espaa)
2Margarita Martnez-Nez ( e-mail: margarita.martinez@upm.es)
Departamento de Ingeniera de Organizacin E.U.I.T de Telecomunicacin, Universidad
Politcnica de Madrid Crta. Valencia km. 7, 28031 Madrid (Espaa)
1167
Keywords: Video, Teacher education, Empathy, Learning achievement, Customer

satisfaction
Palabras clave: Video, Educacin, Empata, Aprendizaje, Satisfaccin del cliente
1 Introduccin
En este trabajo se pretende valorar la satisfaccin del estudiante en la realizacin

de actividades audiovisuales, en particular, la grabacin de videos en grupos de
trabajo, como parte de su proceso de aprendizaje.
La satisfaccin del estudiante en el proceso de aprendizaje va cobrando un in-
ters creciente en la literatura sobre innovacin educativa, pues se han realizado
estudios tanto de carcter general (Chien, 2007) como circunscritos a determina-
das reas del saber (Ropponen, 2009) o contextos educativos y tecnolgicos es-
pecficos, como la TV interactiva (Pool, 1996) o e-learning (Lee et al, 2007; Bo-
lligery y Wasilik, 2009), o aspectos concretos, como el espacio fsico en que se
imparte la clase (Hill y Epps, 2010). As, conseguir aumentar la satisfaccin de
los alumnos se ha convertido en una tarea importante, tanto para los profesores
como para los gestores de la educacin (Chien, 2007), mxime si tenemos en
cuenta que existe una fuerte correlacin entre la satisfaccin percibida y otros as-
pectos muy relevantes del proceso de aprendizaje, como la motivacin por apren-
der (Chen y Chih, 2011) o los factores que inciden en la calidad de la enseanza
(Guolla, 1999).
La preocupacin por la satisfaccin obtenida en el proceso de aprendizaje su-
pone conceptualmente equiparar a la institucin educativa con una empresa de
servicios, en la que el estudiante es el consumidor y cliente, aunque tambin pro-
ductor y producto (Guolla, 1999). Para el trabajo que aqu se presenta, es relevante
la concepcin del estudiante en su rol de productor, o co-productor de su propia
educacin, mediante la participacin en un conjunto de actividades (Kotz y Ples-
sis, 2003); ahora el estudiante toma una conciencia activa y responsabilidad de su
proceso de aprendizaje, a la vez que l es, en gran medida, constructor de su pro-
pia satisfaccin, calidad y valor en el proceso educativo (Bitner et al, 1997). Desde
esta perspectiva, el profesor se concibe como un recurso en este proceso.
Precisamente con la implantacin del Espacio Europeo de Educacin Superior,
la docencia en las Universidades est incorporando metodologas, tcnicas y
herramientas que sitan, ms que nunca, al discente en el centro del proceso edu-
cativo, lo que supone, precisamente, potenciar su rol de productor. Ahora se espe-
ra que el alumno adquiera el protagonismo de su propio aprendizaje; paralelamen-
te, los docentes nos vemos en la obligacin de arbitrar los mecanismos que
faciliten su implicacin en este proceso. Programar la realizacin de actividades
en las que el alumno deba grabarse y explicar su trabajo a sus compaeros y / o al
profesor supone avanzar varios niveles en su grado de participacin. Por ejemplo,
1168
Fritschner (2000: 354) ha identificado en su estudio seis niveles de participacin

de los estudiantes en las aulas de grado: Nivel uno: los estudiantes asisten a clase,
se mantienen despiertos y ocasionalmente prestan atencin. Nivel dos: los estu-
diantes asisten a clase, tomar notas y realizar tareas. Nivel tres: los estudiantes to-
man apuntes reflexivamente. Nivel cuatro: los estudiantes hacen preguntas y co-
mentarios, a la vez que participan en las discusiones en clase. Nivel cinco: los
estudiantes hacen trabajos o preguntas adicionales. Nivel seis: Los estudiantes
hacen presentaciones orales, es decir, se convierten en profesores de s mismos.
Por tanto, la utilizacin del video para explicar el trabajo realizado supone avanzar
en su grado de participacin hasta el nivel 6, simplemente, por el propio diseo de
la actividad.
Sin embargo, aunque el video se est convirtiendo en una herramienta de ense-
anza muy utilizado entre los educadores de Ingeniera de Organizacin y Direc-
cin de Operaciones en el mbito acadmico y empresarial, siempre se analiza
como recurso del docente, no como actividad del discente. En efecto, la literatura
cientfica sobre educacin se ha ocupado del efecto y consecuencias de su incor-
poracin en la actividad del docente; sin embargo, poco o nada se ha estudiado
hasta la fecha sobre la utilizacin del video por el discente, como complemento
para afianzar sus conocimientos tericos y profundizar en la adquisicin de com-
petencias.
Ciertamente, diversos estudios se ocupan de los factores de xito, de la satis-
faccin y de la empata del alumno ante la incorporacin del vdeo por parte del
docente en el proceso educativo en general (Cennamo, 1993; Cennamo et al, 1991;
Choi et al, 2010) o sobre algunas disciplinas en particular, como educacin fsica
o medicina.
Aunque Clark (1983, 1994) mantiene que el medio utilizado, ya sea video o
texto, no afectan al aprendizaje ni a la satisfaccin obtenida, planteamiento repli-
cado por Kozma (1994), la evidencia aportada, entre otros por (Cennamo, 1992),
indica que los medios utilizados para el aprendizaje presentan una dificultad dife-
rente, que en orden decreciente son: libros, ordenadores, televisin y video inter-
activo.
Sin embargo, la utilizacin del video por parte del alumno como una actividad
ms en sus asignaturas ha recibido muy poca atencin. La incorporacin del video
utilizado por el alumno puede entenderse como la evolucin natural, resultado del
avance tecnolgico en el que toda la sociedad se ve afectada. Un primer salto en
esta evolucin fue puesto de manifiesto por Gioia y Bass (1985-1986) cuando
afirmaron que dado que los estudiantes universitarios "se han criado en un am-
biente intensivo en televisin, pelculas y videojuegos" han desarrollado estilos de
aprendizaje donde la comprensin se produce principalmente a travs de imgenes
visuales. Es en este contexto donde la utilizacin del video por el profesor, en las
aulas y fuera de ellas, como parte del proceso de aprendizaje cobra todo el sentido.
El segundo salto ha venido de la mano de la reciente incorporacin de las redes
sociales (tuenty, facebook) y las plataformas de contenidos audiovisuales (you-
1169
tube, flickr) a los hbitos culturales y cotidianos de los estudiantes, como forma
habitual de relacionarse entre amigos, conocidos y tambin, desconocidos, permite
incorporar el video a la docencia desde una perspectiva distinta. Igual que hace
veinte aos, el estudiante estaba muy familiarizado, va televisin, con los conte-
nidos audiovisuales, en nuestros das es habitual la grabacin y subida a Internet
de escenas y momentos cotidianos. En la mayora de los casos, estas grabaciones
quedan en abierto, visibles para el resto del mundo.
Desde esta perspectiva, cabe distinguir dos estados del alumno que denotan di-
ferente grado de asimilacin e interiorizacin del nuevo paradigma audiovisual y
social: el inmigrante digital y el nativo digital. Para el primero, las redes sociales y
plataformas digitales se han convertido en parte esencial de su vida, pues pasa
mucho tiempo al da comunicndose con quien le interesa e informndose de lo
que necesita, disfrutando de su ocio, viendo videos y fotos, leyendo blogs, etc. El
nativo digital tiene estos comportamientos mucho ms arraigados, hasta el punto
de sustituir a otros ms clsicos; adems, crea contenidos, escritos o audiovisuales
que sube a las correspondientes plataformas.
Los aspectos positivos de estos cambios culturales y de hbitos deben ser apro-
vechados por el docente e integrarlos en el proceso educativo. Ahora, no se trata
de que el alumno reciba diversos contenidos en formato audiovisual, si no que ms
bien debe utilizarlos para generar contenidos, y as, de una manera proactiva,
asentar sus conocimientos, a la vez que acreditar y consolidar determinadas com-
petencias transversales.
En la actualidad, grabar contenidos de todo tipo es muy accesible, cualquier
smartphone dispone de una cmara con la calidad mnima aceptable. As, ahora es
posible incorporar a las guas de las asignaturas de los ttulos de grado actividades
en las que el discente deba grabarse a s mismo, de manera individual o por equi-
pos, mientras realiza la presentacin de un trabajo en el que se ponen en juego
destrezas y habilidades adquiridas durante el curso.
2 Cuestiones a Investigar
Las cuestiones relevantes en este estudio son las siguientes:

1. El grado de familiaridad del alumno con la actividad en redes sociales, blogs
y plataformas de contenidos audiovisuales repercute favorablemente en el gra-
do de satisfaccin obtenido en la actividad de grabarse una presentacin en vi-
deo, dentro de la asignatura de Economa y Direccin de Empresas.
2. La empata que el alumno ha desarrollado con sus compaeros de equipo re-
percute favorablemente en el grado de satisfaccin obtenido en la actividad de
grabarse una presentacin en video, dentro de la asignatura de Economa y Di-
reccin de Empresas.
1170
3 Metodologa
En las lneas que siguen se presentan los resultados del estudio realizado en la
EUIT de Telecomunicacin de la UPM a los estudiantes de la asignatura de Eco-
noma y Direccin de Empresas, que se cursa en el quinto semestre sobre la satis-
faccin que les ha producido la realizacin y presentacin de un video acadmico.
Aqu se presentan los resultados de tres ttulos de grado: Sonido e Imagen, Te-
lemtica y Electrnica de Comunicaciones.
A lo largo del curso, los estudiantes, agrupados en equipos de cuatro personas,
deben ir realizando diversas actividades acumulativas que dan lugar a un trabajo
de curso, el cual culmina con una presentacin oral que debe grabarse en video y
cuya evaluacin forma parte importante de la nota final. Una vez entregado el tra-
bajo se les ha pasado una encuesta sobre la satisfaccin obtenida con la actividad.
Cada pregunta se contesta con 5 respuestas, escala Likert, desde Nada de Acuerdo
hasta Muy de Acuerdo.
Se trata de un estudio exploratorio, en que se han tratado solo dos cuestiones,
siendo intencin de los autores la posterior ampliacin de la investigacin a otros
aspectos relevantes que de momento no han sido abordados.
4 Diseo de la Investigacin y Procedimiento de Recoleccin de

Datos
El nmero de alumnos participantes en la encuesta fue de 60. Dos personas deja-

ron de contestar a algunas preguntas, por lo que el nmero de casos vlido ascien-
de 58. Se realiz en horario de clase, haciendo que coincidiera con la preceptiva
encuesta sobre el profesorado y la asignatura, el ltimo da de clase.
Se quiso determinar, en primer lugar, la satisfaccin producida por la actividad
de grabarse a s mismos en video como una ms de las actividades de la asignatu-
ra. Para ello se les hizo contestar a un primer bloque de 9 preguntas, todas relacio-
nadas con la satisfaccin o la afinidad de dicha actividad.
Table 1 La actividad de grabacin de un vdeo en la asignatura Economa y Direccin de Empre-

sas
1 Me ha parecido muy til

2 Me ha permitido aprender cosas nuevas
3 Ha aumentado mi capacidad para transmitir mis conocimientos a terceros
4 Me ha permitido descubrir aspectos desconocidos sobre mi persona
5 Me ha permitido descubrir aspectos desconocidos sobre mis compaeros
6 Me ha resultado positiva en algunos aspectos
7 No me ha servido para aprender nada
8 Me ha gustado
9 No me ha aportado nada interesante
1171
Seguidamente se necesitaba conocer la empata, definida como ''la capacidad

afectiva dentro de la socializacin en el desarrollo o la comprensin de otro estado
emocional o condicin, que es idntica o muy similar a lo que la otra persona se
siente o se espera que se sienten'' (Choi, 2010: 553), que a lo largo del curso se ha
generado entre los miembros del equipo.
Las preguntas del segundo bloque fueron las siguientes:
Table 2 En la actividad de grabacin de un vdeo en la asignatura Economa y Direccin de Em-

presas, mis compaeros/as
10 Me han ayudado mucho
11 Se negaron a dedicarle ms tiempo
12 Han puesto problemas inexistentes
13 Han corregido mis defectos
14 Son un motivo para que yo lo haga mejor
Un tercer bloque trata de medir el grado de afinidad a la utilizacin de redes

sociales, blogs y plataformas de contenidos multimedia. Las preguntas fueron las
siguientes:
Table 3 Sobre mi actividad en Redes Sociales, blogs y plataformas digitales

15 Entro con frecuencia en mis perfiles en Redes Sociales (Facebook, Tuenti, etc.)
16 Hago comentarios con frecuencia en mi perfil en redes sociales (Facebook, Tuenti, etc.)
17 Consulto y leo con frecuencia blogs sobre los temas de mi inters
18 Hago comentarios en los blogs sobre temas de mi inters frecuentemente
19 Soy responsable de un blog o participo habitualmente en l
5 Tratamientos
Antes de comenzar los clculos se transpusieron los valores de aquellas preguntas

que, por estar en negativo, su significacin iba en sentido contrario al general.
Se analiz en primer lugar la fiabilidad de la escala. Los bloques primero, se-
gundo y tercero obtuvieron respectivamente un de Cronbach de 089, 078 y
080 respectivamente.
Seguidamente, se realiz una reduccin de las dimensiones de cada bloque, lo
cual se hizo mediante conglomerados jerrquicos, en los que se utiliz la distancia
euclidea al cuadrado para definir las distancias iniciales y el mtodo de Ward para
establecer la posicin de cada nuevo conglomerado.
Los resultados arrojaron la existencia de tres conglomerados en el primer blo-
que, los cuales se han definido como: el renegado, el moderado y el entusiasta. La
siguiente tabla informa de las medias y error tpico de cada pregunta:
1172
Table 4 El grupo de afinidad a la actividad de video
Renegado Moderado Entusiasta

La actividad de grabacin de un vdeo
Med. E.tip. Med. E.tip. Med. E.tip.
1 Me ha parecido muy til 1,2 0,13 2,45 0,13 3,67 0,159
Me ha permitido aprender cosas nue-
2 1,2 0,13 2,18 0,13 3,80 0,145
vas
Ha aumentado mi capacidad para
3 1,4 0,22 2,82 0,16 3,73 0,22
transmitir mis conocimientos a terceros
Me ha permitido descubrir aspectos
4 1,8 0,33 1,85 0,17 3,67 0,32
desconocidos sobre mi persona
Me ha permitido descubrir aspectos
5 2 0,36 2,30 0,22 3,33 0,29
desconocidos sobre mis compaeros
Me ha resultado positiva en algunos
6 1,6 0,22 3,09 0,11 3,73 0,18
aspectos
7 No me ha servido para aprender nada 2 0,29 3,82 0,15 4,47 0,16
8 Me ha gustado 1,1 0,1 2,64 0,16 3,87 0,215
9 No me ha aportado nada interesante 2,90 0,379 3,76 0,16 4,60 0,131
El renegado responde con un patrn negativo a todas las preguntas, sin llegar a
vislumbrar un solo aspecto positivo de la actividad. El entusiasta es justo lo opues-
to, le ha gustado la actividad y considera que ha sido muy interesante. El modera-
do, entre los dos grupos anteriores, aprecia las virtudes, pero tambin denuncia los
puntos dbiles de la actividad.
Tambin al segundo bloque se le someti a una reduccin de dimensiones. Se
encontr:
Table 5 El grupo de empata a sus compaeros de equipo
En la actividad de grabacin de un vdeo en la Empata baja Empata alta

asignatura Economa y Direccin de Empresas,
mis compaeros/as Media Error tip. Media Error tip.
10 Me han ayudado mucho 2,51 0,16 4,17 0,15
11 Se negaron a dedicarle ms tiempo 4,11 0,18 4,57 0,12
12 Han puesto problemas inexistentes 4,35 0,17 4,74 0,09
13 Han corregido mis defectos 2,16 0,16 3,48 0,15
14 Son un motivo para que yo lo haga mejor 2,38 0,16 4,26 0,13
Como puede comprobarse, aunque existe un ambiente generalizado de cama-

dera en nuestra Escuela, el estudiante con poca empata siente una menor ayuda
que quien tiene una empata alta, no se sienten ayudados por los compaeros y
tampoco piensan que es un motivo para mejorar.
La reduccin de dimensiones de la afinidad social tambin llev a la identifica-
cin de tres grupos, de afinidad baja, media y alta respectivamente:
1173
Table 6 El grupo de orientacin a las redes sociales
Sobre mi actividad en Redes Sociales, blogs y Baja Media Alta

plataformas digitales Med E.tip. Med. E.tip. Med. E.tip.
Entro con frecuencia en mis perfiles en
15 3,14 0,24 4,27 0,19 4,69 0,15
Redes Sociales (Facebook, Tuenti, etc.)
Hago comentarios con frecuencia en
16 mi perfil en redes sociales (Facebook, 1,64 0,15 3,09 0,271 3,94 0,23
Tuenti, etc.)
Consulto y leo con frecuencia blogs so-
17 2,36 0,20 4 0,19 4,31 0,22
bre los temas de mi inters
Hago comentarios en los blogs sobre
18 1,32 0,10 2,27 0,19 3,38 0.26
temas de mi inters frecuentemente
Soy responsable de un blog o participo
19 1,05 0,45 1,09 0,91 3,63 0,30
habitualmente en l
Vemos que cada grupo indica, esencialmente, una utilizacin ms espordica o

intensiva de las redes y plataformas.
6 Anlisis de datos
Dado que se trata de un estudio exploratorio, para verificar la primera hiptesis,

se ponen en comn los conglomerados obtenidos en el apartado anterior, la afini-
dad a la actividad de video con la afinidad al social media.
Table 7 Afinidad a la actividad de video y al uso social media

Afinidad al uso social media
TOTAL
Baja Media Alta
Renegado 4 5 1 10
Afinidad a la actividad de
Moderado 15 12 6 33
video
Entusiasta 2 5 8 15
Total 21 22 15 58
A simple vista no parece detectarse una relacin entre ambas variables.

Adems, el estadstico chi-cuadrado de Pearson con un valor de 9.578 y 4 grados
de libertad tiene un nivel de significacin de 0,048, sera precipitado aceptar o re-
chazar la hiptesis nula de independencia de las variables.
Sin embargo, los valores del estimador d de Somers pueden ser ms esclarece-
dores:
1174
Table 8 d de Somers
T Sig.
d de Somers Error tp.
Valor aproximad aproximad
asint.a
ab a
Simtrica 0,288 0,106 2,651 0,008
Afinidad a la actividad de video depen-
0,271 0,101 2,651 0,008
diente
Afinidad uso social media dependiente 0,308 0,113 2,651 0,008
Dado que el nivel crtico de las tres versiones del indicador (Sig. aproximada)
estn por encima de 0,05 se puede aceptar la hiptesis nula de independencia entre
la satisfaccin que produce la grabacin de un video como actividad de clase y la
actividad que los estudiantes mantienen en redes sociales.
La segunda hiptesis a contrastar presenta la siguiente tabla de contingencia:
Table 9 Afinidad a la actividad de video y empata con los compaeros de grupo
Empata con los compaeros de grupo

Afinidad a la actividad de video TOTAL
Baja Alta
Renegado 8 2 10
Moderado 21 12 33
Entusiasta 8 7 15
Total 37 21 58
En esta ocasin, el estadstico chi-cuadrado de Pearson ofrece resultados ms

claros. Con un valor de 1.848 y 2 grados de libertad, presenta un nivel de signifi-
cacin de 0,397, muy superior al 0,05 por lo que tenemos que concluir que las va-
riables estudiadas no estn relacionadas.
7 Conclusin y Discusin
Los dos resultados obtenidos parecen ser cuanto menos chocantes. Por un lado, la
mayor familiarizacin del alumno con las tecnologas relacionadas con el video y
su incorporacin al da a da merced a la masiva utilizacin de las redes sociales y
plataformas de contenidos audiovisuales no cambian su posicin frente a la incor-
poracin de esta herramienta en el aula.
Por otro lado, la mayor empata que surge entre los miembros del grupo tampo-
co es un factor que intervenga en la predisposicin del alumno a acometer este ti-
po de actividades.
Ambos resultados pueden calificarse de paradjicos. Sin embargo, son muchas
las ocasiones en que la ciencia ha avanzado tras cierto periodo de tiempo detenida
1175
parcialmente, en ocasiones durante cientos de aos, hasta que surge la clarividen-

cia que permite resolver la paradoja.
Estas conclusiones quiz no aportan respuestas contundentes, pero s plantean
muchas incgnitas que sealan nuevos caminos. As, por una parte surge la duda
sobre la replicacin, es decir, si al repetir la investigacin con las mismas o muy
parecidas conclusiones los resultados tambin se repetirn. Por otro lado, se re-
quiere conocer qu aspectos o factores determinan la predisposicin del alumno
ante esta actividad, con carcter previo, como los que inciden en la percepcin que
tenga sobre su utilidad, ya en el momento de la realizacin.
8 Referencias
Bitner, Mary Jo; Faranda, William T; Hubbert, Amy R; Zeithaml, Valarie A., (1997) Customer
contributions and roles in service delivery, International Journal of Service Industry Man-
agement 8. 3: 193-205.
Bolliger, D.U.; Wasilik, O.( 2009) Factors influencing faculty satisfaction with online teaching
and learning in higher education, Distance Education, 30: (1) 103-116.
Cennamo, K.S. (1992) "Students' perceptions of the ease of learning from computers and interac-
tive video: an exploratory study", Journal of Educational Technology Systems, Vol. 21, pp.
251-63.
Cennamo, K.S. (1993) "Learning from video: factors influencing learners' preconceptions and
invested mental effort", Educational Technology Research and Development, Vol. 41 No. 3,
pp. 33-45. DOI: 10.1007/BF02297356
Cennamo, Ks; Savenye, Wc; Smith, Pl (1991) Mental Effort And Video-Based Learning - The
Relationship Of Preconceptions And The Effects Of Interactive And Covert Practice, Educa-
tional Technology Research And Development Volume: 39 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-16 Doi:
10.1007/Bf02298103
Chen, P.S.; Chih, J.T. (2011) The Relations between Learner Motivation and Satisfaction with
Management Training: An Empirical Study in Taiwan, International Journal of Management,
28 (1): 77-90.
Chien, T.K. (2007) Using the learning satisfaction improving model to enhance the teaching
quality, Quality Assurance in Education, 15 (2): 192-214, DOI 10.1108/09684880710748947
Choi, H. (2007) College students perceptions of learning and knowledge transfer in problem-
based video instruction: A case study. Journal of Learning Design, 2(2), 105115.
Choi, H., & Johnson, S. D. (2005) The effect of context-based video instruction on learning and
motivation in online courses. The American Journal of Distance Education, 19(4), 215227.
Choi, H., & Johnson, S. D. (2007) The effect of problem-based video instruction on learner satis-
faction, comprehension and retention in college courses. British Journal of Educational Tech-
nology, 38(5), 885895.
Clark, R. E. (1983) Reconsidering research on learning from media. Review of Educational Re-
search, 53(4), 445459.
Clark, R. E. (1994) Media will never influence learning. Educational Technology Research and
Development, 42(2), 2129.
Fritschner, L.M. (2000): Inside the undergraduate college classroom: Faculty and students differ
on the meaning of student participation, The Journal of Higher Education 71, (3): 342-362.
1176
Guolla, M. (1999) Assessing the teaching quality to student satisfaction relationship: applied
customer satisfaction research in the classroom, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice,
Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 87-97.
Gioia, D. and Brass, D. (1985-1986) "Teaching the TV generation: the case for observational
learning", Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 11-18.
Hill, M.C.; Epps, K.K. (2010): The impact of physical classroom environment on student satis-
faction and student evaluation of teaching in the university environment, Academy of Educa-
tional Leadership Journal, 14 (4): 65 79.
Kotze, T G; u Plessis, P J,. (2003) Students as co-producers of education: A proposed model of
student socialisation and participation at tertiary institutions, Quality Assurance in Education;
11, 4, pp. 186 201.
Kozma, R.B. (1991) "Learning with media", Review of Educational Research, Vol. 61, pp. 179-
211.
Kozma, R.B. (1994) "Will media influence learning: reframing the debate", Educational Tech-
nology Research and Development, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. -19.
Marx, R.D; Frost, P.J. (1998): Toward optimal use of video in management education: examin-
ing the evidence, The Journal of Management Development 17. (4): 243-250.
Pool, P. (1996) Teaching via interactive television: An examination of teaching effectiveness and
student satisfaction, Journal of Education for Business; Nov/Dec; 72, 2: 78-80
Proserpio, L.; Gioia, DA (2007) Teaching the virtual generation, academy of management learn-
ing & education volume: 6 issue: 1 pages: 69-80 Published: MAR 2007
Ropponen, A. (2009) Experiences of learning and satisfaction with teaching of basic courses of
ergonomics over Internet--the Ergonetti program, Education and Information Technologies,
14 (1): 81-88.
Shyu, H. C. (2000) Using video-based anchored instruction to enhance learning: Taiwans ex-
perience. British Journal of Educational Technology, 31(1), 5769.
1177
Aplicacin de la Tecnologa BPMS en la Gestin

de los Procesos Relacionados con la Actividad
Docente en un Centro Universitario
Application of BPMS Technology in Process Management Related to Educa-
tional Activity in a University Center
Pardo JE1 , Mejas AM2
Abstract This paper presents a research project that is developing in order to ana-
lyze and foster the use of technology BPMS in processes management related to
educational activities that involve a University School. It is intended to briefly
reengineering management process through this technology in the management
and maintenance tasks in the computer rooms. The aim is to achieve increased ef-
ficiency and improve the perception of those agents involved, whether they should
develop these processes as those that are the recipients services offered through
them.
Resumen En esta comunicacin se presenta el proyecto de investigacin que est

desarrollando con el objeto de analizar y fomentar el uso de la tecnologa BPMS
en la gestin de los procesos relacionados con la actividad docente a los que tiene
que hacer frente un centro universitario. A travs de esta tecnologa, se pretende
realizar una breve reingeniera del proceso de gestin de las aulas informticas. El
objetivo es de conseguir incrementar su eficiencia y mejorar la percepcin de los
agentes implicados, tanto los que deben desarrollar estos procesos como aquellos
otros que son los receptores de los servicios que se ofrecen a travs de los mismos.
1JuanE. Pardo Frojn ( e-mail: jpardo@uvigo.es)

2Ana M Mejas Sacaluga ( e-mail: mejias@uvigo.es)
1178
Keywords: Business Process Management System (BPMS), Process Reengineer-

ing, Modeling.
Palabras clave: Procesos de Negocio, Reingeniera de Procesos, Herramientas
BMPS, Modelizacin.
1 Introduccin
La actividad empresarial, en particular la industrial, se caracteriza por la existencia

de dos clases de procesos fundamentales: los productivos y los relativos al nego-
cio. Durante mucho tiempo los procesos productivos han ocupado el foco de aten-
cin principal en sus estrategias, al considerar que en stos reside una buena parte
de su productividad. En este escenario, no es de extraar el auge que han tenido
las herramientas orientadas hacia esta actividad, como ha ocurrido con los siste-
mas ERP. Sin embargo, es importante reflexionar sobre uno de los principales
problemas de la economa espaola, la incapacidad para lograr el crecimiento
econmico a travs de mejoras en la productividad. Esto se debe, en gran parte, a
la poca importancia que se ha dado a los procesos de gestin o de negocio. Cada
vez ms, las empresas son conscientes de que los procesos de gestin consumen
una gran cantidad de recursos y son poco eficientes y, por tanto, repercuten de
forma negativa en sus resultados. Otra realidad que se detecta es que existe un
gran desconocimiento en las organizaciones de qu se hace, cmo se hace, por qu
se hace, quin lo hace,
Este aspecto, si cabe, se presenta en mayor medida en aquellas organizaciones
o instituciones, como las universitarias, con una clara orientacin al desarrollo de
procesos, lo que no deja de ser una aparente contradiccin.
En los ltimos aos, la gestin de los procesos se ha convertido en un enfoque
indispensable en la estrategia de las empresas/organizaciones al considerarse co-
mo un factor clave para la innovacin y para el aumento de la productividad de su
actividad. Por dicha razn, la aparicin de la tecnologa BPMS representa una
gran oportunidad para la consecucin de estos dos objetivos. La visibilidad que se
tiene de los procesos, la automatizacin de los mismos y el control y seguimiento,
son algunas de las claves que permiten a las empresas innovar y desarrollar proce-
sos eficientes (Fingar et al., 2003). Los beneficios no son solamente de carcter
econmico, sino que adems consiguen una mayor implicacin del personal; saber
lo que se hace, para qu sirve y qu consecuencias tiene en el resto de la organiza-
cin supone un gran estmulo para cualquier trabajador. Por otra parte, la imagen
que proyecta una empresa que desarrolla sus procesos de una manera gil y efi-
ciente le confiere un plus que diferencia a las empresas lderes.
1179
2 Objetivos del Trabajo
El objetivo de este trabajo es aplicar la tecnologa BPMS en algunos de los proce-

sos relacionados con la actividad docente de un centro universitario. La realidad
de los centros educativos, en particular los de enseanza universitaria, se caracte-
rizan por una gran diversidad de procesos, algunos con una enorme complejidad, y
por una falta generalizada de recursos para acometer dichos procesos de una forma
satisfactoria. No es de extraar que, ante este escenario, algunas instituciones uni-
versitarias vean en las herramientas BPMS un gran potencial para mejorar la efi-
ciencia de sus procesos y se hayan marcado una estrategia orientada hacia el uso
de estas herramientas. Otro aspecto, sin duda de gran inters, es la necesidad de
visualizar los procesos de una manera clara para llegar a comprender el alcance de
los mismos. Existe una percepcin generalizada de que las tareas que se llevan a
cabo dentro de las instituciones educativas no estn bien definidas y que consu-
men una cantidad enorme de recursos, con unos resultados y un nivel de eficiencia
muy bajos, sin entrar en el bajo nivel de satisfaccin que generalmente manifies-
tan los usuarios de estos servicios.
Para alcanzar este objetivo es necesario entender el alcance de la orientacin
hacia los procesos de negocio y los beneficios que sta pueden suponer para la ins-
titucin. Por ello, dada la enorme cantidad y diversidad de procesos a los que se ve
sometida la actividad docente propia de un centro universitario (configuracin del
plan de horarios, calendario de exmenes, organizacin de grupos, gestin de re-
cursos tales como laboratorios y aulas informticas,) es necesario elegir, en una
primera fase, aquellos procesos que permitan entender claramente las ventajas de
este enfoque y la utilidad de la tecnologa BPMS, para luego extenderlo al resto de
los procesos de la organizacin.
2.1 mbito del Trabajo
Este proyecto de lleva a cabo en un centro universitario con ms de cuatro mil

alumnos, lo que hace que la dimensin de los procesos sea de una gran compleji-
dad ya slo por el importante nmero de agentes que suelen intervenir en ellos y la
enorme variedad de situaciones que se presentan. Una de las caractersticas de este
centro, al tratarse de una Escuela de Ingeniera industrial, es la existencia de una
considerable actividad relacionada con la docencia en su acepcin prctica, es de-
cir, aquella que se realiza al margen de las sesiones magistrales. La docencia
prctica presenta, de forma resumida, dos tipologas: aquella que desarrolla en la-
boratorios propios de las materias bsicas de corte experimental y, las segundas,
las que tienen lugar en aulas informticas apoyadas por programas generales y/o
especficos, donde los alumnos aprenden a manejar herramientas que les permiten
1180
aplicar aquellas conocimientos desarrollados en las clases de teora. Es en la ges-

tin de estas ltimas donde se centra este trabajo.
El Centro cuenta con 15 aulas informticas, con una capacidad media de 30
puestos, que debe gestionar para atender las necesidades de los contenidos desple-
gados en las titulaciones que se imparten en la misma de forma satisfactoria aten-
diendo todas las peticiones demandas de los docentes que van a hacer uso de las
mismas a lo largo del curso acadmico.
2.2 Caractersticas del Proceso
Si bien el Centro cuenta con una dotacin de equipos y de programas que estable-
ce en funcin de unas necesidades, a lo largo del curso se presentan peticiones
particulares por parte de los docentes para que se lleve a cabo la instalacin de
ciertos paquetes o programas informticos que van a utilizar en el desarrollo de
sus prcticas. Estas peticiones son canalizadas a travs de un responsable que las
analiza y determina la viabilidad y la aprobacin de las mismas. En ltimo trmi-
no, la instalacin de los programas se lleva a cabo a travs del personal destinado
a las labores de mantenimiento de las aulas (generalmente becarios informticos).
Debido al importante nmero de peticiones y al elevado nmero de equipos, es
imprescindible disponer de un enfoque que sea adecuado pero, adems, es necesa-
rio contar con un cierto soporte que permita su puesta en prctica. Por otra parte,
adems de las peticiones de software, estn las incidencias que se producen a dia-
rio como consecuencia de la actividad que en ellas se desarrolla. La enorme carga
que se tiene de peticiones a lo largo de todo el curso se ve agravada por dos cues-
tiones: el responsable de estas tareas es un miembro del equipo directivo que tiene
que compatibilizar esta tarea con otras de la direccin y con las docentes. Por otra
parte, el personal que atiende en ltimo trmino las tareas a realizar es personal
con una dedicacin parcial y de alta rotacin. Por ello, es muy importante definir
un modelo de funcionamiento que sea gil y que las personas puedan entender de
forma rpida para que el proceso de adaptacin sea lo ms reducido posible.
3 La Tecnologa BPMS. Caractersticas Principales
Los sistemas BPM (Business Process Management), tambin conocidos como

Sistemas para la Gestin por Procesos, constituyen un enfoque moderno de la
tecnologa de software empresarial para abordar la automatizacin y optimizacin
del funcionamiento de las organizaciones de toda ndole, ante la necesidad de do-
tarse de una eficacia que permita sobrevivir, prosperar y dar el adecuado servicio
en un contexto de intensa competencia y constantes cambios.
1181
La finalidad de un BPM es descomponer la actividad global de una empresa u

organizacin en un conjunto de Procesos (entidades de funcionamiento relativa-
mente independiente, aunque conectadas con las dems) que pueden ser analiza-
das con detalle y cuyas acciones repetitivas puedan ser automatizadas, tanto en lo
concerniente a los sistemas como a las personas que intervienen, para optimizar
tiempos, oportunidades y costes, sin perder la capacidad de adaptacin constante y
rpida a los cambios y conservando la coexistencia de mtodos seguros con la ne-
cesaria flexibilidad para facilitar la intervencin activa y fundamental de las per-
sonas en los procesos (Freund et al., 2011).
Sin entrar demasiado en el detalle de lo que es la tecnologa BPMS, en este
apartado y para situar nuestro escenario, daremos unas breves referencias sobre los
aspectos ms relevantes de estas plataformas de trabajo utilizadas para dar soporte
a la gestin de los procesos y permitir su automatizacin. Generalmente, estas
herramientas se caracterizan por disponer de un modelizador o workflow que per-
mite la construccin del diagrama que define un determinado proceso (construir el
mapa del proceso). Conviene sealar que la gran mayora de los BPMS ha adopta-
do para la modelizacin de sus Clases de Procesos el estndar internacional, lla-
mado BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) definido por la organizacin
OMG (Object Management Group). Esta notacin permite ser mapeada a
BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Lenguaje for Web Sevices), tambin lla-
mado BPEL, que es el lenguaje XML estndar para la ejecucin de procesos. Esta
cuestin es muy importante ya que permite exportar/importar el modelado de los
procesos de unos sistemas a otros evitando as una atadura a una determinada
herramienta.
3.1 Principales Alternativas. Solucin Adoptada
Aunque el Centro Universitario donde se lleva a cabo este trabajo ha materializado

un acuerdo de colaboracin con una de las principales compaas de desarrollo de
esta tecnologa a travs de su producto Sistema Empresarial AuraPortal (uno de
los ms valorados por la prestigiosa consultora Gatner), dado el escenario actual
de importantes restricciones presupuestarias en el que se mueven las universidades
espaolas, parece ms idneo un planteamiento basado en la utilizacin de siste-
mas de perfil libre. Para este trabajo se ha realizado una breve revisin de este tipo
de herramientas encontrndonos con algunas soluciones de gran alcance. Sin pre-
tender ser exhaustivos, entre los principales sistemas existentes encontramos tres
que podran encajar en el desarrollo de este trabajo: BonitaSoft, Intalio y BizAgi.
Conviene matizar que las alternativas de software libre no son, en general,
completamente gratuitas. Si bien suele existir una versin comunitaria (con pres-
taciones ms limitadas, o alguno de los componentes sin ningn coste), las versio-
nes de corte ms empresarial estn sujetas al pago de un licenciamiento o de algn
1182
tipo de abono, aunque con unos costes bastante asequibles. Para este proyecto se
ha optado por la suite de BizAgi. Este sistema ofrece el componente modeler de
forma libre. Este componente es bsico dentro de un proyecto de estas caracters-
ticas, una de las principales razones por la que se ha seleccionado. Otra de las ra-
zones es que BizAgi utiliza la notacin estndar para Gestin de Procesos de Ne-
gocio (BMPN) a la que anteriormente nos referimos. Adems, el modelado de sus
procesos es relativamente sencillo y a partir de esta notacin se puede definir un
diagrama de procesos de negocio sin necesidad de ser un experto en tecnologas
de la informacin. Por ltimo, dentro de la complejidad que presentan estos siste-
mas, BizAgi muestra un entorno de trabajo, en general, bastante amigable.
3.2 Principales Caractersticas de la Herramienta
Al margen de poseer un buen modelizador basado en la notacin estndar BPMN,

el software BizAgi presenta otras caractersticas que le confieren una gran versati-
lidad y lo colocan en una buena posicin dentro de las soluciones existentes en el
mercado. El concepto BPM de Bizagi consiste en generar automticamente una
aplicacin Web partiendo del diagrama de flujo del proceso sin necesidad de co-
nocimientos de programacin. BizAgi maneja el ciclo de vida completo de los
procesos de negocio: Modelizacin, Ejecucin y Mejora Continua. Cada una de
estas etapas es administrada mediante distintos componentes que permiten, me-
diante un entorno grfico y dinmico, construir una solucin basada en procesos.
Fig. 1 Ciclo de Vida de los Procesos contemplado por BizAgi.
Entre las principales caractersticas cabe sealar las siguientes:

Las reglas de negocio se manejan en base a un estndar xPath basado en XML.
Este lenguaje permite el manejo de tareas complejas.
1183
Potente manejo de expresiones. Condiciones o reglas que se deben cumplir de-

ntro de la organizacin.
Manejo de polticas. Las polticas son las reglas empresariales que se aplican
para los procesos de negocio.
Definicin de vocabulario. Se pueden ir agregando de forma dinmica todas
las expresiones que se requieren para el funcionamiento de los procesos de la
organizacin, construyndose su propio vocabulario.
Se puede establecer la estructura jerrquica de la empresa, se pueden dar de
alta las reas, la ubicacin geogrfica, la posicin dentro del organigrama y los
roles que desempea una persona en la organizacin (cada usuario puede tener
una o ms posiciones).
Existen validaciones para asegurarnos que los datos introducidos sean los co-
rrectos.
Adems, la solucin BiZagi presenta una serie de ambientes que permiten ir
dando los pasos de una manera estructurada. El primer ambiente es el de desarro-
llo, en el que se define el modelado del proceso. Tras esta primera etapa, se pasa al
siguiente nivel, el de prueba, donde se puede visualizar el resultado del proceso de
modelizacin anteriormente realizado. Una vez superado el nivel de prueba, el si-
guiente paso es pasar al ambiente de produccin, donde realmente est preparado
para funcionar en toda su extensin con todas las funcionalidades.
Fig. 2 Diagrama del modelado de un proceso a travs del modeler de la herramienta BiZagi.
1184
4 Enfoque metodolgico
Para llevar a cabo la aplicacin de la tecnologa BPMS al proceso de gestin de

las aulas informticas de un centro universitario, cuyas caractersticas han sido
descritas en epgrafes anteriores, es necesario contar con un planteamiento meto-
dolgico adecuado. Para este trabajo se han seguido, teniendo en cuentas las re-
comendaciones de los expertos en este campo (Jeston and Nelis, 2008), las etapas
que se recogen en los siguientes apartados:
Anlisis detallado del proceso a desarrollar.
Construccin del Diagrama de Procesos basndose en la notacin estndar
(BPMN).
Datos del Proceso. Debe identificarse de una manera clara y precisa toda la in-
formacin que afecta al proceso estudiado.
Identificacin y creacin de formas.
Establecimiento de las Reglas de Negocio que afectan al proceso.
Asignacin de recursos (qu se va a hacer, quin, cundo y cmo lo va a des-
arrollar).
Posible Interconexin con otros sistemas (SOA).
Verificacin del proceso. Comprobacin del modelo en un ambiente de prue-
ba.
Puesta a punto del proceso.
Realizar el paso de la etapa de produccin.
Aplicacin Web de Implementacin.
Establecimiento de Indicadores de Gestin del Proceso.
5 Primeros Avances y Conclusiones
A pesar de que el proyecto todava se encuentra en fase de desarrollo y, por tanto,

debemos ser prudentes, los resultados obtenidos hasta el momento permiten poner
de manifiesto una serie de aspectos que consideramos muy interesantes.
Todava existe un gran desconocimiento de este tipo de herramientas en los entor-
nos de las instituciones universitarias donde, paradjicamente, el volumen de pro-
cesos que se desarrollan es muy elevado. Adems, con el nuevo marco al que se
ven sometidos los centros universitarios por los procesos de acreditacin, hacen
necesario desarrollar un enfoque orientado hacia los procesos.
Tras la construccin de un primer modelo se ha podido comprobar como los
usuarios entienden mejor las tareas que hacen y el sentido de las mismas. Quizs
la mayor aportacin de este trabajo es que ha puesto la primera semilla para crear
una cultura de trabajo orientada hacia los procesos y se ha despertado la sensibili-
zacin hacia estos temas. Fruto de este proyecto de han derivado una serie de acti-
1185
vidades formativas que est previsto acometer en el futuro con el objeto de mane-
jar estas herramientas.
6 Referencias
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) Information. OMG & BPMI.

http://www.bpmn.org/
Fingar H, Smith H (2003) Business Process Management. The Third Wave. Meghan-Kiffer Press
Freund J, Rcker B, Hitpass B (2011) BPMN 2.0. Manual de Referencia y Gua Prctica. BPM
Center. Edicin Hispana
Jeston J, Nelis J (2008) Business Process Management. Practical Guidelines to Successful
Implementacions, 2th Edition, Elsevier
1186
10-12th july, 2013
Spain
ISBN 846165410-2
9 788461 654109
2013
&
7 th International Conference on Industrial
Engineering and Industrial Management
XVII Congreso de Ingeniera de Organizacin
XIX
2013
ICIEOM
www.cio2013.org
Managing Complexity: Challenges for

Industrial and Operations Management.
Book of Abstracts of the

Book of Proccedings of the
Fundacin
General
INSISOC
bpmsat Ctedra
ENGINEERING CENTRE
Business
Solutions & Project Management
Technologies UVa
ABEPRO
ABEPRO
INSISOC
ENGENHARIA DE PRODUO de la Ingeniera de Organizacin ENGENHARIA DE PRODUO de la Ingeniera de Organizacin ENGINEERING CENTRE

BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS 7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS 7th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

10-12th july, 2013

Managing Complexity: Challenges for

Book of Abstracts of the

7th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and

Editorial Management / Coordinacin editorial:

Copyright, by the authors

Legal Deposit/Depsito Legal:

No est permitida la reproduccin total o parcial, ni su tratamiento informtico, ni

Foreword and Welcome

Cesreo Hernndez Iglesias Jos M. Prez Ros

Agostino Bruzzone University of Genova, Italy

Jess Gutirrez Cilln Universidad de Valladolid, Spain

Alfonso Redondo Castn Universidad de Valladolid, Spain

EN-01 Strategy and Entrepreneurship .............................................................. 15

Corporate Entrepreneurship: Types and Determinant Factors. A Case Study

The impact of innovation management techniques on radical innovation: An

An Empirical Analysis of the Spanish Gas Price Structure ............................. 42

Capabilities Generation Mechanisms in Alliances. Case Based Analysis ....... 50

Best Practices in Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Literature

State of the Art of Challenges on International Operations Management for

Economic and Financial Profile of High-Growth Firms vs. Normal Firms

High-growth Firms: Qualitative Analysis Via Case Study .............................. 85

Analysis and Characterisation of the High-growth Firm in the Basque

Regional Strategic Development Method as a Tool for the Emergence of New

Decision Tool Based on Cloud Computing Technology ................................. 137

Productivity in Knowledge Worker Teams ..................................................... 146

Sustainable Balanced Scorecard: Practical Application to a Services

Applying Cluster Analysis to Renewable Energy Emergent Sector at Local

Application of Reverse Innovation in SMEs ................................................... 180

Analysis of the Electric Car Via Patents ......................................................... 189

New Technologies and Entrepreneurial Intention .......................................... 221

EN-02 OR, Modelling and Simulation ............................................................. 233

Two Simple Constructive Algorithms for the Distributed Assembly

Set-up Continuity in Tactical Planning of Semi-continuous Industrial

Literature Review of Master Planning Models with Lack of Homogeneity in

A MILP Model for the Scheduling of Non-continuous Serial Multi-product

Agent-based Modelling and Archaeological Complexity ............................... 289

Optimizing Stochastic Supply Chains via Simulation: What is an Appropriate

Localization Based on Business Interactions through a Simulated Annealing

Applications of the Lagrangian Relaxation Method to Operations Scheduling315

Methodology for the Strategic Capacity Planning in Universities ................ 324

A MILP Event Based Formulation for a Real-world Multimode RCSP with

A Model of Makespan Flow-shop Scheduling under Ergonomic

Gaia Analysis and Design of a Multi-agent-based Shop Floor Control System363

Estimating Costs in the EOQ Formula ............................................................ 372

Integrated Production and Simulation Scheduling Tool to Solve the Mix

Electrical Markets and Agent-Based Computational Economics: a Critical

EN-03 Logistics, Production and Information Systems ................................. 407

Solving the Mixed Model Sequencing Problem with Workload Minimization

Enhanced Supply Chain Management Using SCOR and BPM. Application to

Impact of Ergonomic Risk Reduction in the TSALBP-1 ................................ 436

A Design Framework for Flexible Automated Warehouses .......................... 463

A Collaborative Me Crossroad: Individual Beliefs and the Adoption of

Improving the Distribution Process in a Meat Company .............................. 490

A New Constructive Heuristic for the Fm|Block|T ...................................... 500

A Roadmap to Establish Collaboration among SMEs belonging to Non-

Measures to Diagnose the Power Balance in a Non-hierarchical

New Tool for Aiding Warehouse Design Process ............................................ 526

Calculation of the Approaches to CSL in Continuous Review Policy (s,Q)

Determining the Order-up-to-level Using the Normal Approximation in a

On the Selection of Customer Service Metrics in Inventory Control ........... 551

Analysing the Purchase Intention of Spanish Consumer: A Study about

Non Parametric Estimation of the Cycle Service Level of a Periodic Review