90,085 research outputs found
Elenco delle pubblicazioni di Palmira Cipriano (1978-2006)
No full textibliography of Palmira Cipriano, Professor of Linguistics in Rome University 'La Sapienza'
Iterazioni archeografiche: narrare la materia, incidere i corpi. Arte e filosofia in Franco Cipriano
No full textPrinciples for efficient and effective sales configuration design
No full textWhen customers are offered multiple product or service options, they confront an opportunity as well as a challenge. More options, in fact, mean higher changes to find exactly what customers need, but at the same time, imply that more effort has to be put into the product selection process. Such effort can become such a burden that customers ultimately end up preferring more standardised items. Sales configurators offer an opportunity to help the customer reduce the complexity of the product selection process. Yet, to turn this opportunity into a reality, it is fundamental to identify what principles could be followed to effectively design such sales configurators and, ultimately, part of the customer-company sales interaction process. The present paper formalises the underlying principles through which a firm's product assortment can be efficiently and effectively presented to the customer
Product Information Management for Mass Customization: Connecting Customer, Front-office and Back-office for Fast and Efficient Customization.
No full textThere are twelve chapters in this book divided into four sections. The first section introduces the subject of product configuration. In particular, Chapter 1 highlights the field where the concept of product configuration is applicable. Chapter 2 defines the process of product configuration and configurable products. Finally, in Chapter 3 “traditional” approaches to product configuration are discussed, describing their advantages and disadvantages.
The second section illustrates the structures and functional mechanisms of configuration systems supported by product configurators. Chapter 4 explains how to integrate organization and information system, distinguishing situations characterized by different degrees of automation. Chapters 5 and 6 analyze in detail the logic applied to formalize the knowledge needed to carry out product configuration, respectively from the commercial and technical-production points of view. Chapter 7 offers a general view of the models underlying the automatic generation of codes, costs, prices and graphic outputs for configurable products.
The third section deals with the selection of a product configurator, its implementation and links with other parts of the company information system. In particular, Chapter 8 analyzes how the configurator interfaces with the production planning system and the advanced information system, especially useful in the presence of customized products, such as Product Data Management and Customer Relationship Management. Chapter 9 offers a detailed vision of the various aspects which differentiate product configurators while Chapter 10 presents a structured approach to the implementation of the product configuration system.
Finally, the fourth section analyzes the impact of configuration systems on the company as a whole. Chapter 11 presents a detailed case study of an enterprise that successfully implemented a configuration system, describing the changes in operational processes and in the relative services. Chapter 12 describes how the implementation of a configuration system affects the whole organization, and how “to customize using configuration” requires an integrated action on the product, the organization and the information systems that support product knowledge management
Configuring products to address the customization-responsiveness squeeze: A survey of management issues and opportunities
No full textMany companies are currently facing the "customization-responsiveness squeeze", i.e. the need to simultaneously offer their customers tailored products while ensuring short delivery times. A possible approach proposed by design theory and artificial intelligence research is one of configuring products, i.e. to constrain the set of potential product variants offered to the customer to the possible combinations of pre-designed components. While product configuration has been widely explored from a strictly technical standpoint, we have only anecdotal evidence of the managerial issues arising when the customization-responsiveness squeeze is addressed by configuring products. The present study pursues this research opportunity by means of a hybrid quantitative-qualitative research design. The quantitative part of the research explores he issue under investigation by means of a survey on a sample of 122 companies located in Northern Italy and facing the customization-responsiveness squeeze. The qualitative part of the research consists of a set of inter-views with key informants performed ex post in selected companies within the sample. The findings indicate that, although responding companies tend to rely on product configuration to customize their products, they are presented with a set of related difficulties as well: inadequate product information supply to the sales office, excess of repetitive activities within the technical office and high rate of configuration errors in production. Theoretical elaboration of the empirical evidence suggests that, in order to reap the full potential advantages of product configuration, changes in the organization and support systems to the order acquisition and fulfillment process are needed
Configurazione di prodotto
No full textIl libro è articolato in dodicii capitoli, raggruppati in quattro sezioni. Nella prima sezione viene impostata la tematica della configurazione di prodotto. Nella seconda sezione si illustrano la struttura e i meccanismi di funzionamento dei sistemi di configurazione assistiti da configuratori di prodotto. Nella terza sezione viene illustrato il problema della selezione di un configuratore di prodotto, dell'implementazione e del collegamento con le altre parti del sistema informativo aziendale. Nella quarta sezione, infine, si analizza l'impatto dei sistemi di configurazione sull'azienda nel suo complesso
Managing variety in the order fulfillment and acquisition process: the contribution of product configurations systems
No full textFlexible production is not enough to offer the customer variety without compromising company profitability. In conditions of product proliferation, in fact, the order acquisition and fulfilment process can turn out to be a serious bottleneck, as the multiplication of the product features induces an exponential growth in the volume of information exchanged between the firm sales organisation and its customer base. Furthermore, this information has to be fed back in appropriate formats to manufacturing, with the risk of errors and delays due to the variability and complexity of product information. This study, through the discussion of a case example, reports the first results from a research on a class of information systems that support the order acquisition and fulfilment process in high product variety environments, called product configuration systems. The research indicates that the implementation of a product configuration system significantly contributed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency with which the studied company translates the customer's needs into product documentation. Moreover, the benefits pertaining to product configuration system stretch beyond operational performance, as it offers the company a way to incorporate into organisational memory product knowledge otherwise retained by individual employees. However, the introduction of a product configuration system may require significant and potentially painful changes in the way the order acquisition and fulfilment activities are organised, and necessitate a high initial investment in terms of man-hours
Information flows for high performance manufacturing
No full textThe successful implementation of many management best practices (just-in-time, total quality management, concurrent engineering, etc.) heavily depends on proper organisational communication and information management. In this paper, we address the issue of how these best practices, labelled as high-performance manufacturing (HPM) practices, can affect a firm's communication structure. The paper firstly develops a reference framework for the analysis of information hows in operations. This reference framework integrates research in operations management and in organizational communication. The paper then applies the proposed framework to investigate how information flows lend to be characterised in HPM. In doing so, the proposed framework relates cost, time and quality performances to three operational processes (physical transformation, product development and material flow management) and to three classes of information flows: vertical, horizontal and external information flows
KEY PRINCIPLES FOR SALES CONFIGURATION DESIGN
No full textBy offering differentiated products a firm may be able to increase product price or market share because of the better fit of its products with what customers demand. However, the decision to proliferate the product offer, or to just allow customers to define more and more product features does not automatically lead to greater customer satisfaction. In fact a wide assortment of product variants and options may end up confusing the customer. Ultimately, while trying to please its customers by offering increased product variety, a firm may end up confusing or annoying its customers, thus loosing potential sales. In other words, the firm faces a “product variety paradox”.
Recent developments in Information and Communication Technology made available a class of software products, often termed as “product configurators”, which appears to offer new solutions not only to the back office – automatically generating technical product documentation – but to the front office as well – supporting the interaction with the customer when custom products are offered. To date, however, we still know very little of the potential of such class of software products to reduce the “product variety paradox”.
The present paper analyzes the underlying principles on which successful sales configurators have been built. In doing so, the paper attempts a formalization of the mechanisms through which a firm’s product assortment can be efficiently and effectively presented to the customer. Furthermore discuss how these mechanisms, as a whole interact and how they can increase a firm’s commercial success. Finally, the paper speculates about the possibility of considering the proposed mechanisms as general principles to describe efficiently and effectively a firm’s product assortment
La configurazione di prodotto: il caso SIDECO spa
No full textMolte aziende di piccole dimensioni sono costrette, per sopravvivere, ad offrire un’elevata varietà di prodotto e, in molti casi, a rispondere al mercato con delle soluzioni personalizzate. Contemporaneamente, la rapidità di consegna è diventato un fattore chiave per assicurarsi gli ordini. Di conseguenza, una sfida vitale per queste aziende consiste nel superare il trade-off tra varietà di prodotto e tempi di consegna, senza compromettere la struttura dei costi. Recenti sviluppi nel campo dell’Information Technology hanno reso disponibili, anche per le piccole aziende, una classe di strumenti software – definiti configuratori di prodotto – che promettono di ridurre questo trade-off.
Il presente lavoro riporta un caso studio dell’implementazione di un software di configurazione in una piccola azienda manifatturiera. L’articolo evidenzia come l’impresa abbia ottenuto significativi benefici dall’implementazione del software, specialmente in termini di tempi di consegna e di servizio al cliente. In aggiunta, il caso mostra come il sistema software di configurazione possa essere usato proattivamente come strumento per migliorare il coordinamento inter ed intra-aziendale
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