FAIMA Business & Management Journal – volume 5, issue 4, December 2017

FAIMA Vol 5 - Issue 4 [Decembrie 2017]

CONTENTS

The Future Begins Today                                                                   3

Gheorghe Militaru

The MPS.BR Model                                                                            5

Ticiane de Andrade Silva, Marciano Furukava

The QC-STORY Method                                                                     17

Nadia Belu, Gina Mihaela Sicoe, Iuliana Grecu

Ways to Improve the Performance of the Company                       26

Dana BeĮakova, Inese Ziemele

Predictive Decisions Based on Mimetic Models                              35

Mihai-Vladimir Pascadi, Cezar Scarlat, Cristian Niculescu

Effective Business Informatics Management                                   45

Alena Buchalcevova, Jan Pour

The Impact of Software Mass Customization                                  54

Larisa Gavrilă, Sorin Ionescu, Bogdan Ţigănoaia,

Gheorghe Militaru, Antonín Pavlicek

The Principle of Diversity in Management                                       65

Cristina Elena Bîgioi, Adrian Doru Bîgioi

EDITORIAL

The Future Begins Today

All field of management asks managers to do more with less and to see change rather than stability as a rule. Managers work at different levels in the hierarchy and perform different tasks for achieving high performance. Many managers need to understand where their companies are, where they need to go, and how to get there. Today, companies do not have to compete only with costs or prices they have to insist on creativity, innovation, and creating value for customers so that they are willing to pay. For example, integration of customer support process is vital for any organization.

Many of the key trends focus around technology because management is a rapidly evolving field and the pace of change is influenced of technological advancement. Tech­nology is the key driver behind the business development. Technology advances re-shape value chains and create a better experience for customers because of digital tools rich customer experiences. Social business applications rely on robust search functionality increase productivity and minimizing variability in business processes. Thus, management trends favor agile, interactive processes that stimulate the innovation, and social impact.

As organizations become more digital and need to adapt more quickly, they need to develop digital capabilities in which a company’s culture and activities are aligned toward organizational goals. Technological innovation is happening at a faster rate than ever be­fore. In addition, technology changes faster than organizations can adopt it. Thus, managers face with respect to digital disruption. In this case, the big problem is the uneven rates of assimilation of the technologies into different levels of organizations.

Digital transformation is focused on cooperation and col­laboration and the use of new digital technologies such as mobile analytics or social media and creating new business models. Digital has transformed operational processes, and business models, customer experience and how organizations create business value and establish a competitive ad­vantage. Deploying digital technologies and capabilities to improve processes, attract and engage the best talent, and drive new value-generating business models can transform organizations into flexible and agile entities that can rapidly respond to changes and improve their performance and com­petitiveness. Talented employees are the strategic assets of a competitive advantage. A heavy emphasis is placed on the hiring remote workers especially in the field of services.

Digital transformation is based on cooperation and collaboration. Ad­vances in machine learning have im­proved business performance because the organization can learn about con­sumer behavior and preferences. Di­gi­tal technologies are changing the rules of competition by using tools to support operations activities and in­crease the efficiency and reduce costs. Thus, big data offers the possibility to translate the knowledge into im­proved decisions making and performance. The use of big data has the potential to transform traditional businesses and offer greater opportunities for competitive advantage. The manager can make better predictions and smarter decisions. They can extract the intelligence from data and translate that into business advantage and improve business performance. Its focuses on using data to understand every part of a business operation because data in real-time makes possible for a company to be much agiler than its competitors.

A leader can also infuse stability and certainty in uncertain context and leadership is crucial for improving human behavior. Weak leadership can be one of the big barriers that limit the high performance of organizations. A trend in this area is the neurosci­ence-based leadership. This kind of leadership focuses on neural patterns to unleash the brain agility, and creativity emotions and cultural diversity, collaboration change facilitation improve the effectiveness of human interactions using the cognitive sciences to improve personal and leadership performance in organizations using concepts and tech­niques deriving from brain research and psychology that can improve individual or team leadership performance.

Gheorghe Militaru

Deputy Chief Editor

ARTICOL 1

The MPS.BR Model

Ticiane de Andrade Silva, Marciano Furukava

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil

ABSTRACT: This study was carried out to describe and analyze how the process of implementation of a quality model in a small software industry in Brazil improved its level of development production. Based on the literature review of quality models and the needs of the company, the most suitable model was chosen and applied to the situation – the Brazilian Software Process Improvement (MPS.Br). The process was presented and then applied in the industry, in which the scenario was described and the before and after situations were compared. Among other factors, the rate of performance was improved, showing the success of the quality model. The present research considers the applicability of a quality model in the process of software development which is still limited in the literature. The study concentrates on the quality model that suits the needs of the company, improving the development processes and showing what was necessary to implement in order to get the desired results. It also aims to contribute with future references for the companies and enthusiasts who desire to know more about this model.

Keywords: quality, certification, process, MPS.BR model, implementation

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ARTICOL 2

The QC-Story Method

Nadia Belu (1), Gina Mihaela Sicoe (1), Iuliana Grecu (2)

(1) University of Pitesti, Romania,

(2) University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania

ABSTRACT: The Quality Control Story (QC Story) method represents, for the automotive industry companies, a problem-solving method based on considering the facts and data, without speculation, for a problem caused by several factors. QC Story method is applicable not only to quality problems, but also to problems of productivity, costs, logistics, and energy. This paper presents the improvement in the customer complaints process achieved by an effective use of the QC Story methodology. It is presented the QC Story methodology and its performance in influencing the customer complaints management process throughout a case study in the automotive industry.

Keywords: QC Story, IATF 16949, customer complaints, problem-solving, quality improvement

ARTICOL 3

Ways to Improve the Performance of the Company

Dana BeĮakova, Inese Ziemele

Technical University Riga, Latvia

ABSTRACT: The research objective was to show practical application of traditional work and time study methods to improve company’s productivity. The paper describes a pilot project that was implemented at a furniture manufacturing company finding the causes of the problems and showing the ways of solving them.

Keywords: work measurement, methods and time study, human factor

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ARTICOL 4

Predictive Decisions Based on Mimetic Models

Mihai-Vladimir Pascadi (1), Cezar Scarlat (2), Cristian Niculescu (2)

(1) Avantera Bucharest Romania,

(2) University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania

ABSTRACT: „Management of tomorrow” will be characterized by higher quality decisions; then new models, methods and instruments should be continuously developed, under the signs of higher complexity; big and extremely dynamic data; information and communication technology support. On the background of a proposed decision typology – and in concert with several studies on time series analysis and their applications – this paper presents the results of a recent doctoral research work on mimetic modeling of industry sub-systems. The aim of the paper is to solve the prob­lem of predictability in nonlinear dynamic systems by a new approach (mimetic modelling). Two practical case examples are presented. The results are important for both theorists (as academia, researchers’ community) and practitioners (business people as well as strategists and decision makers at all levels – micro- and macro- levels alike). Equally conceptual and applicative, based on strong mathematics and IT-supported, the paper offers a novel managerial instrument – of high quality potential impact on the decision making process.

Keywords: nonlinear dynamic systems, mimetic models, prediction, predictive decisions, long-term versus short-term decisions, macro- versus micro- level decisions

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ARTICOL 5

Effective Business Informatics Management

Alena Buchalcevova, Jan Pour

University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT: The aim of this article is to present the Management of Business Informatics (MBI) model that assists enterprises in managing their business informatics. First, current issues in business informatics management are outlined as well as the results of several surveys conducted worldwide and in the Czech Republic. Then, the motivation behind the MBI model development is presented followed by the MBI model architecture and content description. For the purpose of an effective MBI model demonstration, evaluation and usage, the MBI model was implemented as a web application is free of charge.

Keywords: Business Informatics, Management, Governance, Evaluation, Management of Business Informatics Model

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ARTICOL 6

The Impact of Software Mass Customization

Larisa Gavrilă (1), Sorin Ionescu (2), Bogdan Ţigănoaia (2), Gheorghe Militaru (2),
Antonín Pavlicek (3)

(1) Vodafone Romania Technologie, Bucharest, Romania,

(2) University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania,

(3) University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT: Software customization and configuration are common practices in all software companies, and they are very often delivered to customers. The extent to which a company is offering software personalization services, it depends on the nature of the software and its flexibility, customer demands, the need to gain a certain market share or the need to be awarded on a certain bid regardless profit margin and enquired costs. The scope of this paper is to look into the impact of software personalization activities on companies that provide this services. An additional purpose consists in verifying if software personal­ization activities are activities with a positive impact on the overall financial statements.

Keywords: software personalization, software customization, impact on software companies

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ARTICOL 7

The Principle of Diversity in Management

Cristina Elena Bîgioi (1), Adrian Doru Bîgioi (2)

(1) University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania,

(2) University of Economic Studies, Bucharest Romania

ABSTRACT: The issue debated in various articles, the gender inequality is an old problem, con­sidered in corporate governance. The business world is dominated by men, despite women’s progress. The purpose of this article is to analyze the principle of diversity, more exactly the inequality among people who form the board of directors of com­panies listed on the stock exchange in Romania. The inequality is monitored for 30 companies on three levels: nationality, age, and gender. The research is based on analysis of documents published on the website of the sample companies that refer to August 31, 2016. Study results show that the structure of governing bodies in the number of women is less than men, there are very few people over the age 60 years and in foreign owned companies dominate people of foreign nationality. The principle of diversity in terms of a balance between men and women, Romanian and foreigners, young and old, is not respected by selected companies.

Keywords: performance, board of directors, directorate, inequality