Sundaravalli Narayanaswami is a multi-disciplinary researcher and faculty in Higher eduction. She has taught a wide range of courses in Computer Science and Management. Her current research interests are towards Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence in selected applications.
Abstract: Scheduling is the process of resource allocation to task demands; a schedule includes resource allocation times to speciï¬c tasks and sequences in which tasks are processed by resources to obtain certain performance objectives. Heuristic and computational means are employed to develop schedules. When a planned schedule gets disrupted, the same schedule and dispatch sequence may not still provide the intended objective. In this paper, we present a novel method for deciding dispatch sequence of disrupted tasks pertaining to job shop
scheduling problems. Our approach is based on simple computations on dynamic system parameters at the disrupt instance. We describe our dispatch decision-making process and validate performance of our procedure in achieving the intended objective. We verify applicability of our method to real-life problems as in railway rescheduling. Performance evaluations with other comparable procedures, managerial insights and problem characteristics where our framework is employable are reported.
Abstract: Railway operations are planned in four levels of hierarchy: (i) Strategic, (ii) Tactical, (iii)
Operational control and (iv) Real-time control. Scheduling is an initial time allocation of
resources to meet demands in completing a task and rescheduling is a later
modification of such resource allocations. An extensive set of some major railway
scheduling and rescheduling operations as published in literature is analyzed in this
paper. We observe that many authors consider scheduling as a strategic or tactical
operation and rescheduling as an operational or real-time control. Several unexplored
issues that are strategic or tactical per se, but hold considerable rationale for
operational and real-time control (and vice-versa) of railway operations are brought
out. It is interpreted that (i) In practice, both scheduling and rescheduling are
inadvertently performed at all hierarchical levels and (ii) Operational feasibility at a
hierarchical level is dependent on effectiveness of modeling at other hierarchical
levels. Finally we present an array of potential research issues that are significant in
practical railway operations. Our discussions are based on an understanding of
objectives, modeling details, approaches and issues arising from the diversity in
railway operations and to a less detail on solution methods and techniques.
Abstract: Knowledge Management is the collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge. It includes a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. An effective knowledge management is empowered by cutting-edge technology, robust management principles, cooperative personnel and strong work ethos. There is a discernible drive in several organizations to achieve all together and to be leading among the competitors. In this paper, we discuss Knowledge Management initiatives in a few public sector organizations in Dubai. The five organizations that are considered belong to diverse and key services, viz., Public utility (DEWA), Transportation (RTA), Legal (DC), Law and order (DP) and Human resources and planning (KHDA). We present the enablers, strengths, weaknesses and challenges of their attempts and also some of the evaluation mechanisms adopted in those organizations. We finally conclude our paper with our observations and insights on the principles and strategies adopted for transformation to a knowledge society in the organizations taken up for discussion.
Abstract: Managing an organization requires access to information in order to monitor activities and assess performance. Trying to understand what information an organization has can be challenging because the information systems collect and process vast amount of data in various forms. To flow in the running stream of rapidly changing, increasingly competitive global market scenario and increasingly volatile consumer and market behavior and rapidly shortening product life cycles, business enterprises today are necessary to analyze accurate and timely information about financial operations, customers, and products using familiar business terms, in order to gain analytical insight into business problems and opportunities. Enterprises are building business intelligence systems that support business analysis and decision making to help them better understand their operations and compete in the marketplace. This paper describes the life cycle comprising various phases in the development of a BI system. The paper elaborates the implementation issues of BI in an organization focusing a case study
