From the article: "This article evaluates the application of blockchain technology to improve organic or fair-trade food traceability from “Farm to Fork” in light of European regulations. This study aims to shed light on the challenges in the organic food chain to overcome, the drivers for blockchain technology, and the challenges in current projects."
DOCUMENT
This study proposes a systematic value chain approach to helping businesses identify and eliminate inefficiencies. The authors have developed a robust framework, which food-sector entrepreneurs can use to increase profitability of an existing business or to create new profitable opportunities. The value chain approach provides win-win opportunities for players within the value chain. To test the robustness of the framework, the authors use food waste as an example of a critical inefficiency and apply it to two different food sector business cases, each operating in diverse conditions. Because the suggested framework addresses the core elements and parameters for the existence and competitiveness of a business, the model can be adapted to other sectors.
DOCUMENT
From the article: Abstract Since more and more business rules management solutions are utilized, organizations search for guidance to design such solutions. Principles are often applied to guide the design of information systems in general. Scientific research on principles for business rules management is limited. The purpose of this paper is to specify, classify, and validate design principles that can be applied to guide the design of a business rules management solution. We conducted a three round focus group and three round Delphi Study, which led to the identification of 22 principles. These 22 principles can be clustered into four categories: 1) deep structure principles, 2) physical structure principles, 3) surface structure principles, and 4) organizational structure principles. Our results provide a framework for the design and analysis of business rules management solutions.
LINK
Western-European consumers have become not only more demanding on product availability in retail outlets but also on other food attributes such as quality, integrity, and safety. When (re)designing food supply-chain networks, from a logistics point of view, one has to consider these demands next to traditional efficiency and responsiveness requirements. The concept ‘quality controlled logistics’ (QCL) hypothesizes that if product quality in each step of the supply chain can be predicted in advance, goods flows can be controlled in a pro-active manner and better chain designs can be established resulting in higher product availability, constant quality, and less product losses. The paper discusses opportunities of using real-time product quality information for improvement of the design and management of ‘AgriFood Supply Chain Networks’, and presents a preliminary diagnostic instrument for assessment of ‘critical quality’ and ‘logistics control’ points in the supply chain network. Results of a tomato-chain case illustrate the added value of the QCL concept for identifying improvement opportunities in the supply chain as to increase both product availability and quality. Future research aims for the further development of the diagnostic instrument and the quantification of costs and benefits of QCL scenarios.
DOCUMENT
Circularity and recycling are gaining increased attention, yet the amount of recycled plastic applied in new products remains low. To accelerate its uptake by businesses, it will be useful to empirically investigate the barriers, enablers, needs and, ultimately, requirements to increase uptake of recycled plastic feedstock for the production of new plastic products. During the six focus group sessions we conducted, a value chain approach was used to map the factors that actors face regarding the implementation of recycled materials. The identified factors were structured based on three levels: determining whether a certain factor acted as a barrier or enabler, identifying the steps in the value chain that the factor directly affected and the category it could be subdivided into. The results were then further processed by translating the (rather abstract) needs of businesses into (specific) requirements from industry. This study presented eight business requirements that require actions from other actors in the value chain: design for recycling, optimised waste processing, standardisation, material knowledge, showing possibilities, information and education, cooperation, and regulation and government intervention. The main scientific contributions were the value chain perspective and the applied relevance of the findings. Future studies may delve deeper into the individual factors identified.
MULTIFILE
Promotor Prof. dr. ir. J.M. Versendaal, Open Universiteit Co-promotoren Dr. ir. R.G. Slot MBA, Hogeschool Utrecht Dr. ing. M.M. Zoet, Zuyd Hogeschool Uit de Nederlandse samenvatting: "Het is voor organisaties van belang om besluitvorming en zogenaamde 'bedrijfslogica' goed in te richten. Organisaties in het algemeen, en zeker ook overheidsinstellingen, maken meer en meer gebruik van (semi-)geautomatiseerde besluitvormingsprocessen bij het leveren van hun producten en diensten. Organisaties krijgen grip op de nale-ving van wet- en regelgeving door de besluitvormingsprocessen goed te beheren. Een adequate vertaling van wet- en regelgeving naar producten en diensten is hierbij no-dig. Business Rules Management (BRM) maakt een en ander mogelijk. Het meeste onderzoek dat wordt uitgevoerd naar BRM kan worden geclassificeerd als technisch (vanuit een informatietechnologieperspectief). Echter, onderzoek naar de implementatie van BRM in de organisatie (vanuit een informatiesysteemperspectief), inclusief het beschouwen van allerlei organisatorische aspecten, ontbreekt groten-deels. Bovendien houdt het bestaande onderzoek naar BRM niet altijd voldoende re-kening met de praktische toepassing van onderzoeksresultaten; met andere woorden: kan een organisatie de voorgestelde theorie of het opgeleverde resultaat daadwerke-lijk gebruiken?"
DOCUMENT
The value of a decision can be increased through analyzing the decision logic, and the outcomes. The more often a decision is taken, the more data becomes available about the results. More available data results into smarter decisions and increases the value the decision has for an organization. The research field addressing this problem is Decision mining. By conducting a literature study on the current state of Decision mining, we aim to discover the research gaps and where Decision mining can be improved upon. Our findings show that the concepts used in the Decision mining field and related fields are ambiguous and show overlap. Future research directions are discovered to increase the quality and maturity of Decision mining research. This could be achieved by focusing more on Decision mining research, a change is needed from a business process Decision mining approach to a decision focused approach.
DOCUMENT
Since an increasing amount of business decision/logic management solutions are utilized, organizations search for guidance to design such solutions. An important aspect of such a solution is the ability to guard the quality of the specified or modified business decisions and underlying business logic to ensure logical soundness. This particular capability is referred to as verification. As an increasing amount of organizations adopt the new Decision Management and Notation (DMN) standard, introduced in September 2015, it is essential that organizations are able to guard the logical soundness of their business decisions and business logic with the help of certain verification capabilities. However, the current knowledge base regarding verification as a capability is not yet researched in relation to the new DMN standard. In this paper, we re-address and - present our earlier work on the identification of 28 verification capabilities applied by the Dutch government [1]. Yet, we extended the previous research with more detailed descriptions of the related literature, findings, and results, which provide a grounded basis from which further, empirical, research on verification capabilities with regards to business decisions and business logic can be explored.
DOCUMENT
This document combines four reports on existing regional business support programmes for inclusion or understanding of circular economy (CE) objectives, deliverable DT3.1.2 from the transform-CE project. Besides a general overview on national and regional level, the focus is on a selection of national and regional programmes aimed at the plastics industry. After explaining the format to structure the programmes, the results for the four regions are presented: Greater Manchester (UK), Rhineland Palatinate and North-Rhine Westphalia (DE), Wallonia (BE), Central Netherlands (NL).
MULTIFILE
Abstract Business Process Management (BPM) is an important discipline for organizations to manage their business processes. Research shows that higher BPM-maturity leads to better process performance. However, contextual factors such as culture seem to influence this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of national culture on the relationship between BPM-maturity and process performance. A multiple linear regression analysis is performed based on data from six different countries within Europe. Although the results show a significant relationship between BPM-maturity and process performance, no significant moderation effect of national culture has been found. The cultural dimension long term orientation shows a weak negative correlation with both BPM-maturity and process performance. Through a post-hoc moderation analysis on each dimension of BPM-maturity, we further find that long term orientation negatively moderates the relationship between process improvement and process performance. Three other moderation effects are also discovered. The results of this study contribute to insights into the role of culture in the field of BPM.
MULTIFILE
