Toward Critical Intervention in Small and Medium—Sized Enterprises: A Case Study

The mainstream systems literature has so far paid little systematic attention to the small business arena, despite this being potentially a very significant sector for the systems community, given its importance in the UK economy. Small, growing enterprises experience particular managerial problems. This paper provides an example of the practical benefits of a systems approach in a small company experiencing growth. It examines the process of an intervention which took place over a 2-year period in a small manufacturing company as part of the UK government's Teaching Company Scheme. An attempt to extend critical systems thinking into the small company environment is discussed, identifying the challenges and opportunities presented by the setting to researchers. The paper draws on Habermas' theory of communicative action to explore the extent to which the intervention was inclusive and critically reflective. Strategies adopted to support inclusive practice are explored and general lessons are drawn out.     

A LAGRANGIAN RELAXATION APPROACH FOR SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING WITH ORDER／SETUP COSTS AND CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS

A heuristic approach is developed for supply chain planning modeled as multi-item multi-levelcapacitated lot sizing problems. The heuristic combines Lagrangian relaxation(LR) with local search.Different from existing LR approaches that relax capacity constraints and/or inventory balanceconstraints, our approach only relaxes the technical constraints that each 0-1 setup variable must takevalue 1 if its corresponding continuous variable is positive. The relaxed problem is approximatelysolved by using the simplex algorithm for linear programming, while Lagrange multipliers are updatedby using a surrogate subgradient method that ensures the convergence of the dual problem in case ofthe approximate resolution of the relaxed problem. At each iteration, a feasible solution of the originalproblem is constructed from the solution of the relaxed problem. The feasible solution is furtherimproved by a local search that changes the values of two setup variables at each time. By taking theadvantages of a special stru     

Systemic solutions for systemic problems

The systems sciences and cybernetics emerged in the years after World War II. These fields created many new approaches to engineering and management and contributed new ideas to existing academic fields. The new fields also identified similar concepts across a range of fields and began to create a general theory of systems. In addition the systems sciences created a variety of methods for managing complex systems, for example logistics, operations research and computer simulations. In the 1970s there was concern about population and environment balance. Currently there is increasing concern with governance, since the rate of presentation of problems seems to be greater than the ability of our institutions to manage them. This paper will discuss the history of systems science and cybernetics, the questions formulated and the solutions proposed, the difficulties encountered in finding a home within contemporary universities and some exciting lines of research now underway.     

Survey of the research on dynamic weapon-target assignment problem

1 .INTRODUCTIONThe nature of modern war has been changed withthe advent of long-range and precision weapons ,together with advanced sensors and informationsystems[1].Compared with the traditional warfareinindustrial age , great revolution has taken placein the modern war in the information age ,in suchfields as the operational theory ,structure of armyand the way of command and control (C2) . Withthe development of newtechnology ,the operationstyle of modern warfare has been changing from…     

探析活系统模型:发展、模型及系统方 法简

斯塔福德·比尔成功汲取系统论、控制论、信息论领域的研究成果，并将这些成果成功引入组织管理之中，成功的创建了活系统模型，本文力求厘清活系统模型的发展脉络，探讨活系统模型的萌芽与创立的历史进程，并在此基础上分析该模型及其系统方法，旨在更全面地了解和研究活系统模型。     

基于倾向性的直觉模糊相似度量方法

针对现有直觉模糊相似度量所存在的不足,提出一种基于倾向性的直觉模糊相似度量方法。首先,基于直觉指数所表征的中立证据中支持与反对的程度呈均衡状态假设,揭示了影响直觉模糊集相似性大小的3个相互作用因素之间的内部关系,给出了相似度量的几何表示。其次,对现有部分相似度量方法在某些情况下无法表述的问题进行了分析,定义了满足直觉模糊相似性的直观约束条件,给出一种直觉模糊相似度量的公理化定义。再次,揭示了直觉指数对证据的倾向性影响,提出了一种基于倾向性的直觉模糊相似度量方法。最后,通过算例分析比较,验证该方法的正确性、合理性、有效性。     

LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION PLANNING UNDER ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES

1. Introduction The world food economy is increasingly being driven by a shift of diets towards livestock products. In the developing countries, consumption of meat has been growing at 5-6 percent p.a., and that of milk and dairy products at 3.3-3.5 percent p.a. in the last few decades. Much of the growth is taking place in China (Huang and Zhang et al. 2003a, Huang and Liu 2003b, Keyzer and van Veen 2004, Ma and Huang et al. 2004, Simpson and Cheng et al.1994, USDA Economic Research Se…     

Big Data: Unleashing information

At present,it is projected that about 4 zettabytes(or 10**21 bytes)of digital data are being generated per year by everything from underground physics experiments to retail transactions to security cameras to global positioning systems.In the U.S.,major research programs are being funded to deal with big data in all five sectors(i.e.,services,manufacturing,construction,agriculture and mining)of the economy.Big Data is a term applied to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of available tools to undertake their acquisition,access,analytics and/or application in a reasonable amount of time.Whereas Tien(2003)forewarned about the data rich,information poor(DRIP)problems that have been pervasive since the advent of large-scale data collections or warehouses,the DRIP conundrum has been somewhat mitigated by the Big Data approach which has unleashed information in a manner that can support informed-yet,not necessarily defensible or valid-decisions or choices.Thus,by somewhat overcoming data quality issues with data quantity,data access restrictions with on-demand cloud computing,causative analysis with correlative data analytics,and model-driven with evidence-driven applications,appropriate actions can be undertaken with the obtained information.New acquisition,access,analytics and application technologies are being developed to further Big Data as it is being employed to help resolve the 14 grand challenges(identified by the National Academy of Engineering in 2008),underpin the 10 breakthrough technologies(compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2013)and support the Third Industrial Revolution of mass customization.     

基于模糊贴近度的企业生命周期判定方法

在分析企业生命周期理论现有研究结果的基础上,提取了企业生命周期各阶段的特征。针对企业生命周期各阶段特征本身的模糊性,通过基于模糊贴近度的TOPSIS综合评判方法给出了一个具体企业属于生命周期某一阶段的判定,其结果对于企业生命周期理论在企业诊断和战略管理等领域的广泛应用具有重要的支持作用。     

资源、环境与产业转型的复合生态管理

中国环境污染与生态破坏问题的症结在于管理问题 ,其实质是资源代谢在时间、空间尺度上的滞留或耗竭 ,系统耦合在结构、功能关系上的破碎和板结 ,社会行为在经济和生态管理上的冲突和失调 .生态管理科学旨在运用系统工程的手段和生态学原理去探讨这类复合生态系统的动力学机制和控制论方法 ,协调人与自然、经济与环境、局部与整体间在时间、空间、数量、结构、序理间的系统耦合关系 ,使资源得以高效利用 ,人与自然高度和谐 ,环境经济持续发展 .为解决国家、地区及部门重大生态环境问题提供决策支持、科学依据和管理方法 .复合生态系统管理的热点是生态资产、生态健康和生态服务功能管理 .应用生态管理学包括产业生态管理 ,城镇生态管理和区域生态管理 .综述了当前国内外区域生命支持系统管理和产业转型的生态管理方法 ,如生命周期分析、生态足迹分析等 .     

基于控制论的计算机生成兵力实体对象行为模型

实体行为建模是计算机生成兵力(CGF)研究的重要内容。基于控制论的基本思想，提出适应虚拟战场需求的虚拟实体对象行为模型ESCP。ESCP行为模型由感受器、效应器和控制器三部分组成，感受器感知虚拟战场环境信息和内部反馈事件，效应器反映CGF实体对象对虚拟战场环境的作用，控制器对感知的虚拟战场环境信息进行处理，并对实体的行为进行控制。ESCP支持复合行为、协同行为以及行为并发，行为可重用。     

WTO 框架下我国农业国内支持水平优化模型

运用局部均衡的原理,按照6位协调商品名称和编码体系的产品分类标准,分析了农业国内支持水平的变动对国家社会福利的影响;并利用非线性规划法,基于国家年度财政预算和WTO农业协议的约束,以最大化国家社会福利为目标,构建我国农业国内支持水平优化模型,寻求我国最优农业国内支持水平.     

Adaptive Numerical Approach for Optimal Control of a Single Train

This paper considers the optimal control problem of a single train, which is formulated as an optimal control problem of nonlinear systems with switching controller. The switching sequence and the switching time are decision variables to be chosen optimally. Generally speaking, it is very difficult to solve this problem analytically due to its nonlinear nature, the complexity of the controller,and the existence of system state and control input constraints. To obtain the numerical solution, by introducing binary functions for every value of the control input, relaxing the binary functions, and imposing a penalty function on the relaxation, the problem is transformed into a parameter optimization problem, which can be efficiently solved by using any gradient-based numerical approach. Then, the authors propose an adaptive numerical approach to solve this problem. Convergence results indicate that any optimal solution of the parameter optimization problem is also an optimal solution of the original problem. Finally, an optimal control problem of a single train illustrates that the adaptive numerical approach proposed by us is less time-consuming and obtains a better cost function value than the existing approaches.     

约束空间近似正交的空间填充试验设计方法

试验设计空间存在约束是一种广泛存在的实际工程问题, 针对现有的约束空间试验设计方法存在生成设计点数不灵活, 算法优化时间长、效率低, 适用约束类型有限, 设计准则单一等问题, 提出一种约束空间近似正交的空间填充试验设计方法。基于设计点之间的距离和相关系数值构造试验设计准则, 通过改进的随机坐标交换算法进行方案求解。所提算法适合凸约束、非凸约束、解析约束、非解析约束等多种类型的约束, 而且适用于多维度的不规则试验设计空间。示例分析表明, 与现有方法相比, 所提算法具有优良的空间填充特性和较好的正交性。     

基于约束的单舰纯方位跟踪算法

提出一种把运动目标舰艇的航速约束以及对陆地岛礁规避的约束加入修正增益推广卡尔曼滤波器的方法 ,对目标观测方程和目标状态方程分别进行修正 ,用于单舰对海上运动舰艇辐射源进行纯方位跟踪。航速约束可以当作输出为 0的增加的观测数据来处理 ;另外 ,根据当前估计的目标位置和航速 ,当下一个周期目标将航行到陆地岛礁或即将航行到陆地岛礁时 ,用规避因子矩阵来修正目标舰的航向和航速 ,以避免目标航行到陆地岛礁。计算机模拟结果表明 ,该方法能提高对海上运动舰艇辐射源的无源定位精度。     

A QUANTIFIER-ELIMINATION BASED HEURISTIC FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING INDUCTIVE ASSERTIONS FOR PROGRAMS

A method using quantifier-elimination is proposed for automatically generating programinvariants/inductive assertions.Given a program,inductive assertions,hypothesized as parameterizedformulas in a theory,are associated with program locations.Parameters in inductive assertions arediscovered by generating constraints on parameters by ensuring that an inductive assertion is indeedpreserved by all execution paths leading to the associated location of the program.The method can beused to discover loop invariants-properties of variables that remain invariant at the entry of a loop.Theparameterized formula can be successively refined by considering execution paths one by one;heuristicscan be developed for determining the order in which the paths are considered.Initialization of programvariables as well as the precondition and postcondition,if available,can also be used to further refinethe hypothesized invariant.The method does not depend on the availability of the precondition andpostcondition of a program.Constraints on parameters generated in this way are solved for possiblevalues of parameters.If no solution is possible,this means that an invariant of the hypothesizedform is not likely to exist for the loop under the assumptions/approximations made to generate theassociated verification condition.Otherwise,if the parametric constraints are solvable,then undercertain conditions on methods for generating these constraints,the strongest possible invariant of thehypothesized form can be generated from most general solutions of the parametric constraints.Theapproach is illustrated using the logical languages of conjunction of polynomial equations as well asPresburger arithmetic for expressing assertions.     

改进的软件项目度量框架

将度量技术应用于软件项目的开发中,经常会出现一些问题,其中一个很重要的问题就是组织策略同项目之间的度量不一致。针对这种情况,在分析现有的两种软件项目度量框架(B和W框架)的基础上,结合两者优点提出了一种网格状的改进框架。改进框架具有严格的定义和特定的实施过程,具有比较强的操作可行性。同时,它也可以解决软件度量中的一些其它问题。     

基于TOC的项目管理技术模型

项目进度制约因素管理的核心思想为"项目必须遵守整体优化而非局部优化",它主要运用关键链技术解决了资源冲突和不确定因素对项目进度的负面影响。本文运用数学工具围绕这两个方面展开,并提出了解决资源冲突的定量分析方法和有关缓冲区的定量处理。     

Embodiments of organizational fitness: The Viable System Model (VSM) as a guide

Managers are facing new problems in their quest for organizational fitness. With environments of growing complexity, foresight, adaptability, and learning become critical features for a social system to survive and develop. Established models of organizational control are insufficient to cope with this proliferating complexity. The science of cybernetics provides powerful models to master this key challenge to management. The present article offers a synthesis of Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) and a multilevel concept of organizational fitness, based on recent progress made in the field of planning theory.     

群决策支持系统的理论与应用评述

本文首先探讨了群决策支持系统的一般概念、组成结构及其支持模式，然后从决策群体、技术支持、任务特征和对决策的影响四个方面综合评述了群决策支持系统的有关研究成果，最后指出了这一领域有待进一步研究解决的问题。