Process tracing as a method in comparative politics usually aims at reconstructing socio-political macro processes. This entails the risk of structuralist or functionalist short-circuiting, i.e. the results-driven ascription of actors' preferences and strategies. To avoid this, one has to take actors and their particular logics of thought and action seriously. The article presents the cognitive map as a way to ground macro-political process tracing via actor-centered micro analyses. Two cognitive maps taken from an analysis of the indigenous movement in Ecuador are used to discuss the added value, the possibilities and the limits of this methodological tool.
In this article we draw on a recent, six-year ethnographic study of community music therapy and mental health to highlight strategies and techniques for documenting music's role in processes of change. We place these strategies in dialogue with the ethnographic work on arts and crafts by Paul Atkinson. In tandem with Atkinson, we propose a 'slow' approach focused on micro-processes of musical/para-musical bricolage whereby things are made and transformed over time. A three-cornered strategy in support of this approach is described: (1) a focus on musical-practical tinkering, (2) a focus on the modification and contention or testing of idiocultural musical space and, (3) two specific techniques for tracing music-related change, the music therapy 'index' and the 'musical event' schema.
Despite collaborative governance's popularity, whether collaboration improves policy performance remains uncertain. This study assesses the link between collaborative decision making and licensed environmental management protocols in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) process for licensing hydropower facilities in the United States. Using results from a previous study of FERC relicensing (Ulibarri, forthcoming), one high-, one medium-, and one low-collaboration case were selected. Using documents including meeting minutes, public comments, and issued licenses, I assessed collaboration and license outputs, then conducted process tracing to examine whether and how differences in collaboration produced differences in license quality. High collaboration resulted in jointly developed and highly implementable operating regimes designed to improve numerous resources, while low collaboration resulted in operating requirements that ignored environmental concerns raised by stakeholders and lacked implementation provisions. These results support the hypothesis that collaboration can improve environmental outcomes, revealing the pragmatic value of collaboration. [Correction added on 13 January 2015, after first online publication: the occurrences of '0' in the abstract were erroneous and have now been corrected.
An important surge in recent years has emerged in quality management initiatives in the public sector. Numerous techniques and tools are available to organizations looking to implement change through quality management. However, some organizations are unable to make informed choices using these options. Describes quality process analysis (QPA), a technique which enables the establishment of a comprehensive system for managing business processes. Seeks to answer the question "Is there a management strategy to strengthen the delivery of services in the public sector?" Presents a solution to strengthen the capacity of management to implement quality strategies to achieve organizational objectives and finally discusses the benefits of using the QPA approach.
In: International review of the Red Cross: humanitarian debate, law, policy, action, Volume 10, Issue 111, p. 326-327
ISSN: 1607-5889
Mr. Nicolas Burckhardt, Director of the International Tracing Service, will be leaving his post at the end of June 1970. The position, which he has occupied since 1955, will immediately be taken over by Mr. Albert de Cocatrix, who is at present Assistant Director.
Examines the problems, and the limitations, of the use of process mapping techniques in the light of sociotechnical experience in systems analysis. To do this, first, the fundamental characteristics of the various process mapping techniques are illustrated, highlighting how these can be characterised by a conception of business processes based on the notion of "technology" which has been developed within modernist organisation theory. Then, the contribution of sociotechnical theory to office work analysis and design is presented, with particular reference to the work of Calvin Pava on the relationship between the method of analysis and the nature of work. Concludes with some reflections on the residual role attributed to social aspects within process mapping and on the problem of artificial rationality and linearity linked to an acritical use of modelling languages.
In: Maruster , L & van Beest , N R T P 2009 , ' Redesigning business processes : a methodology based on simulation and process mining techniques ' , Knowledge and Information Systems , vol. 21 , no. 3 , pp. 267-297 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10115-009-0224-0
Nowadays, organizations have to adjust their business processes along with the changing environment in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Changing a part of the system to support the business process implies changing the entire system, which leads to complex redesign activities. In this paper, a bottom-up process mining and simulation-based methodology is proposed to be employed in redesign activities. The methodology starts with identifying relevant performance issues, which are used as basis for redesign. A process model is "mined" and simulated as a representation of the existing situation, followed by the simulation of the redesigned process model as prediction of the future scenario. Finally, the performance criteria of the current business process model and the redesigned business process model are compared such that the potential performance gains of the redesign can be predicted. We illustrate the methodology with three case studies from three different domains: gas industry, government institution and agriculture.
In: International review of the Red Cross: humanitarian debate, law, policy, action, Volume 12, Issue 139, p. 571-572
ISSN: 1607-5889
Maintaining contact between captives and their families; seeking persons who are missing; reuniting families dispersed by events (international conflicts, civil wars, internal disturbances)—such are the main duties of the ICRC Central Tracing Agency in Geneva, where it maintains its principal working instrument, a card-index system of more than 45 million entries. The Agency also sets up, when circumstances require, offices which act as its correspondents in other countries.
In: International review of the Red Cross: humanitarian debate, law, policy, action, Volume 16, Issue 182, p. 249-251
ISSN: 1607-5889
The year 1975 was a twofold anniversary year for the International Tracing Service (ITS). Not only was it the thirtieth year of that unique international Service's existence; it was also the twentieth year of the ICRC's presence in Arolsen. To mark the thirtieth anniversary a short ceremony took place on 6 May in the main hall of the ITS. Each member of the staff was presented with a copy of the booklet published for the occasion.
ÖZETSİMÜLASYON TEKNİĞİ İLE İŞ SÜREÇLERİNİN YENİDEN TASARIMI VE BİR UYGULAMA ÇALIŞMASI Küreselleşme ve artan rekabet pek çok organizasyonu yaratıcı ve yenilikçi olmaya ve değişime dayalı yaklaşımlar benimsemeye zorlamaktadır. İş Süreçlerinin Yeniden Tasarımı veya diğer adıyla Değişim Mühendisliği, bu değişim dünyasında son zamanlarda oldukça dikkat çeken en popüler değişim yönetimi yaklaşımlarından birisidir. Literatürde başarılı ve başarısız örnekleri görülse de, değişim mühendisliği iş çevrelerince doğru ve dikkatli uygulandığında, dramatik gelişme ve organizasyonel rekabet avantajı elde etmeyi sağlayan önemli bir yönetim aracı olarak görülmektedir.Bu tez çalışmasında, simülasyon tekniği kullanılarak özel sektörde faaliyet göstermekte olan bir firmanın, mevcut iş süreçleri üzerinde çarpıcı gelişmeler yaparak iş süreçlerinin yeniden tasarlanması amaçlanmaktadır.Bu bağlamda, öncelikle konuyu iyice kavrayabilmek için literatür araştırması yapılmıştır. Sonrasında, literatürdeki farklı yeniden yapılanma metodolojileri ve süreçlerde değişim aracı görevi gören ve değişimi mümkün yeniden yapılanma katalizatörleri irdelenmiştir.Uygulama kısmında, özel sektörde faaliyet göstermekte olan bir firmanın simülasyon aracılığı ile tedarik zinciri süreci incelenmiş ve buna istinaden Micro Saint Sharp simülasyon programında ilgili sürecin modeli oluşturulmuştur. Mevcut durumda ve yeniden yapılanma sonrasında performansı izleyebilmek amacıyla birtakım performans ölçütleri belirlenmiştir. Bunlardan başlıcaları, talepleri karşılama yüzdesi ve siparişin alınmasıyla verilmesi arasında geçen süredir.Talep değişkenliği, firma tarafından sistemin temel problemi olarak bilinmektedir. Bu nedenle, talep değişkenliğinin sistem üzerindeki etkisi araştırılmıştır. Yapılan değerlendirmeler sonucunda, talep değişkenliğinin sanılanın aksine sistemin performansına önemli ölçüde etki etmediği görülmüştür. Esas problemin, sistemin işleyişindeki operasyonel süreç/lerden kaynaklandığı tespit edilmiş ve bu yönde bir çözüme gidilmiştir.Çözüm aşamasında, sistemin en kritik süreçlerinden biri olan sipariş planlama süreci otomatize hale getirilerek yeniden yapılandırılmıştır. Bu aşamada temel, pratikte uygulanması kolay bir çözüm önerisi sunulmuş ve model üzerinde uygulanmıştır. Yeniden yapılanma sonrasında talepleri karşılama yüzdesinde , siparişin alınmasıyla verilmesi arasında geçen sürede ise oranında bir iyileşme elde edilmiştir. BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING VIA SIMULATION TECHNIQUE AND A CASE STUDYGlobalization and increased competition compels most organizations to become innovative and adopt approaches based on change. Business Process Reengineering is one of these most popular change management approaches which have attracted great attention in this world of change recently. Even though there have been successful and unsuccessful cases stated in the literature, Business Process Reengineering has been touted as a vital management tool in order to achieve dramatic improvements and organizational competitiveness by business circles if it is implemented properly and carefully.In this thesis study, by using simulation technique, business process reengineering is aimed by achieving dramatic improvements on the available business processes of a company in private sector. In this context, first of all in order to grasp the topic completely, literature research was done. Then, different Business Process Reengineering methodologies from the literature as well as enablers of Business Process Reengineering which make change feasible and act as vehicles for processes to change were studied.In the application section, supply chain process of a company operating in the private sector has been investigated by means of simulation and based on this, modeling of the related process has been created using Micro Saint Sharp simulation program. In the current state and after reengineering, several performance measures have been defined in order to be able to monitor the system performance. Major ones of those are the percent of responding demands, and the lead time, which is the time between the placement and receiving of the order. The demand change is known as the fundamental problem of the system by the company. So, the effect of the demand change has been investigated on the system. After the assessments made, it has been seen that the demand change, contrary to the assumptions made, does not have significant effect on the system performance. It has been determined that the main problem arises from the operational process/es in the system and solution toward this direction has been created. At the solution stage, order planning, which is one of the most critical processes of the system has been automized and so redesigned. At this stage, a fundamental and easy to apply solution proposal practically has been presented and implemented on the model. After reengineering, improvements of 91% and 56% have been achieved in responding demands and in the time between the placement and receiving of the order respectively.
