Research Korner

Chapter I: Introduction for the project   Background for the project   Public utilities like piped water, power, gas, telephone and rail services need physical networks which it would usually be uneconomic to duplicate. Rival water pipes down every street would benefit nobody but the pipe makers. The elements of monopoly may change with changing technology. For example telecommunications can become more competitive as they cease to depend on copper wire or fiber-optic networks (Stretton 1999). But wherever a single network is the most economical provision, there is said to be a natural monopoly Some American utilities are publicly owned but many are not. Where they are not, private operators typically get their monopoly rights and routes from government, and have their rates and services regulated by government. Their problems vary from industry to industry, but some of the most troublesome have been those of the railroads (Stretton 1999).  Various companies sell public utilities like gas. One company that sells gas is Towngas. To provide their clients gas risers are used. Risers are pipelines that supply gas to the company’s various clients. The pipelines are made of metal and may deteriorate over time. If the gas pipelines are corroded, maintenance/replacement will be needed. There is a need for a system that will make sure that the risers will be maintained and inspected thoroughly. This system will be web based so that it can be used alternatively as a way for clients to order gas and its products. This paper is a dissertation on the streamline process flow along the riser inspection and maintenance process to achieve higher productivity and enhance overall effectiveness.   Company Profile The oil industry is regarded as one of China's pillar industries. The restructuring of the oil industry is significant for the reform of China's large State owned Enterprises (SOE) and for the country's effort to construct competitive modern companies. Following the nation-wide restructuring of the industry, he company-wide restructuring for flotation created two giant integrated companies, PetroChina (PetroChina Company Limited) and Sinopec (China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation). The two companies have been successfully listed on the international market and have entered the league of top ten publicly-traded oil companies in the world. In China, the oil sector is held up as a beacon for other sectors to study in restructuring to face the challenge of globalization and consolidation. China's oil industry is of great importance for the global political economy, with major implications both for the main supplying regions, for the high-income countries, and for the firms based in those countries. Each of the global leading oil companies has major investment commitments in China and has formed various partnerships with the Chinese majors (Zhang 2004).    The global leading firms must recognize that the transformation of the business capabilities of the Chinese majors is not easy to predict. It is necessary for them to keep in mind the fact that large Chinese companies operate in a different political-economic environment from theirs. China's political leaders have to consider the huge difficulties that stem from the existence of around one billion poor people within their boundaries, and the complexities involved in the reform of China's political system. Locking China into the world economic system by agreeing to accept the rules of the WTO does not guarantee a politically stable and economically rational environment for investment. China still has a long way to go in its transition. China's large firms were to experience widespread defeat, especially in key 'strategic industries', in the battle on the global level playing field of the WTO, that would raise deep issues not only for the Chinese government, but also for international relations, and, ultimately, for the large firms headquartered in the high-income countries (Zhang 2004).  One major oil company in Hong Kong and China is Hong Kong and China gas Co. Ltd.  Hong Kong and China gas Co. Ltd. (Towngas) was the first public utility in Hong Kong. Currently, with more than 3,000 km of pipeline network and an 85% economic reach, the Company supplies town gas to over 1.5 million customers in the territory. The core business comprises production and distribution of gas, marketing of gas and appliances, and comprehensive after-sales services. In recent years, Towngas has diversified into various green businesses including LPG filling stations and utilization of landfill gas. There are about 16,000 residential buildings using Towngas in Hong Kong. As service risers are installed at the same time when building constructed, their ages are about the same as their buildings ages. Among all the buildings, 24.9% of buildings are between the ages of 20-30 years, while 19.6% of buildings are over 30 years old. Since the aging problem of service riser increase, workflow management system was considered not only to improve their performance, but also to create a platform for better management.   Project management process Triple constraint of project management Projects are fraught with risks of many kinds. When the project contract is finalized, many factors will have been considered and an agreement about the risk assumption will have been reached. There are three prime risks associated with project construction and completion. Generally, they are described as cost overrun risk, risk of delay, and technical risk. Cost overrun risk refers to the fact that many projects are finished significantly over estimated cost (Hines 1997). One constraint for the project is the scope or reach of the project. This involves what aspect of the business will be changed. The scope determines the boundaries of the project.  Another constraint for the project is the time that will be used to finish the project. Time is important because it will determine which aspect of the project needs more focus. This constraint needs to be balanced thoroughly so that the project can achieve all of its purpose.  Lastly a constraint for the project is the budget. The budget is the one used to finance all that will be needed to finish the project.  The budget is important because without it the project cannot move on to its other aspects.   Aim, objectives and Scope Aim The goal of this project was to design an efficient workflow management system in Riser inspection and maintenance. The recommendation aimed to simplify and smooth out the various processes that involved the operation in regular safety inspection section.   Objectives 1.            Propose solutions to the existing problems in the section. 2.            Design a simple and efficient process flow, make good use of resources 3.            Propose regulation and guidelines to standardize the riser inspection and maintenance processes. 4.            Increase performance level while creating a more desirable working system for the employee. 5.            Better management over the information in the section. The leader for the project and their skills   Project leader The leader for the project will be the manager of the company’s maintenance team. He will closely work with the top management and the administration staff. The project manager needs to have perseverance and diligence in making sure that all aspects of the project will push through.  The project manager needs to have the drive that will help them finish the project no matter what happens.   The project manager needs to make sure that he can relate well with all the personnel that will be involved in the project. The project manager needs to have enough patience in dealing with various kinds of personnel.  The project manager need to make sure that he is responsible and is willing to do the best they can to finish the project.  He needs to plan wisely the actions that will be taken and take full responsibility once the project fails. The Project manager should be prepared for the criticisms and intrigues that will be hurled towards him.  He needs to be ready for all people that will try to discredit them or the improvements he has done in the project.   Stakeholders for the project The stakeholders for the project include the management team of Towngas, the clients of the company, the company’s employees and the lawmakers of the country. The management team of Towngas is a stakeholder because the success of the project will depend on how well they supervise the planning and implementation of the project. The clients are stakeholders because the success of the project and the improvements of the system used in the gas risers will give them satisfaction. The employees are stakeholders because improvements in the risers can help improve their effectivity and efficiency. The lawmakers are stakeholders in the case because they are that ones that will create or change laws pertaining to the use of gas risers      Scope The scope of this project includes the development of a web-based workflow management system for productivity monitoring, process lead time measurement and outstanding order notification. Aside from the development of such web-based system, there is a need for a system that will standardize the riser inspection and maintenance workflow so that the time and human resource for the process are reduced for better performance.   Structure of dissertation There are different chapters for this project. Each chapter has a different focus for a specific course of action that will benefit the study. The different chapters will contribute to the success of the study and it can be used as a starting point for further studies. The first chapter was the introduction part wherein general ideas and goals of the study were discussed.  The second chapter will be the literature review part. The second chapter used various resources to gather necessary data. The literatures presented will come from books and other sources that are deemed to be helpful in the advancement of awareness concerning the subject. The third chapter will focus on discussing the instruments and methods used for the study to be a success. The fourth chapter will focus on the identification of the problems. In this chapter the issues with the project will be discussed. The barriers of the project will also be given attention at this chapter. The last chapter will focus on the progression of the project and the changes it has created.   Chapter 2 Literature Review   This section of the study primarily focuses on the different researches and other literatures that focused on several aspects that will help with the progression of this study. The study will put its focus on determining web based systems that will create better means to inspect and maintain gas pipelines or risers. The literatures presented will come from books, journals, and reports that are deemed to be helpful in the advancement of awareness concerning the subject.   Information systems The early stage of development of an information system is called systems analysis. An information system development project is divided up into a number of different stages. This is called the system life cycle. There are a number of different approaches to the development of computer-based information systems, but the principles behind each are similar. After a number of years in operation, business needs will have changed, so that there is a fundamental need for change and therefore the cycle will start again. By adopting this life cycle approach the project can be better managed (Tansey 2002). Information systems are not created for their own sake. They serve or support people engaged in what for them is meaningful action. Now, when one system is thought of as serving another, it is a fundamental principle of systems thinking that in order to think carefully about, and conceptualize the system which provides the support, it is first necessary to define carefully the nature of the system served. This is necessary because how people see the system served will define what counts as support to it. The information systems needed to support a manufacturing operation will be very different if it is conceptualized as a system to optimize the use of a production facility rather than as a system to meet a market need (Currie & Galliers1999).   Any information system will deliver output which is meaningful in the way the designers of the system defined, users of the system will, as autonomous human beings, still be free to assign their own meanings to it. The output from the organizational information system which consists of collated information about sales of the new product will mean different things to the managing director concerned with the company's share price, the salesmen on the road seeking bonus payments, the production planner working on raw material requirements, and the director whose private agenda is to subvert the whole project (Currie & Galliers1999). Information systems are designed to create reports, report-generating systems, decision systems, work flow systems, group systems, and enquiry systems of all sorts. The categories, classifications, measurements, codings, and summarizing techniques employed by a particular information system are a function of its design, and the direction of research in information systems is towards making the possibilities for creating representations as open ended and flexible as possible (Currie & Galliers1999).   The article by Currie and Galliers illustrated what information systems can do to change the procedure of providing service. The article by Currie and Galliers provided an insight on how the use of information system can create changes to society. Information systems were developed from various desires to improve service and improve the life of people in a certain region. Information systems process the data and information in a certain company. It provides value to users through the interchange of messages. It makes information be accessible to people in an organization when such need arises.  The information systems have helped businesses improve their services, it made life easier for businesses and their clients.    Growth of Information systems Change management consultants will need to be there with the appropriate interventions to help both old and new organizations become more streamlined and flexible. Additionally, they must become more capable of improving themselves continuously in response to trends in the economy, the work force, and the technology (Hart & Prakash 2000). There is, however, every indication that many organizations are not aware of these practices; still others will resist the help that change management consultants can offer them. For example, despite the attention given to the growth of e-commerce in an economy that knows no boundaries, many organizations have not begun to prepare themselves to be active players in e-commerce and are not prepared to organize into networks or to successfully manage strategic alliances. But these are the organizations of the future, and they will, with the assistance of change management specialists, invent entirely new entrepreneurial structures capable of exploiting new ideas and technologies quickly (Hart & Prakash 2000).   The full impact of the ICT revolution clearly has some distance to go and a fourth phase of global integration is now visible in the growth of electronic commerce. Reflective of the underlying movement in the technology trajectory from hard to soft, and the growing importance of network markets, especially telecommunications, this new world of cyberspace literally eliminates borders so that the term domestic policy could become an oxymoron (Hart & Prakash, 2000). Convergence-harmonization of domestic policies and institutions and the erosion of national sovereignty-will be fed by locational competition for investment and regulatory arbitrage by MNEs; global rivalry for finance and markets; and rapidly changing communications modes which are transforming market power dynamics and creating newly empowered global actors. These are all natural forces for convergence. But, of course, governments are part of the game and international economic policy in both multilateral and regional forum reflects the deeper-integration momentum (Hart & Prakash 2000).   The growth of e-commerce has been one of the most exciting developments in the competitive intelligence (CI) profession in recent history. This growth has benefited CI professionals by improving access to myriad sources of public information. To wade through all of this information, however, a CI professional must be e-commerce savvy and practice effective electronic competitive intelligence (E-CI). There is much hidden information available on networks such as the Internet and various tools and services can help CI professionals navigate through the vast amounts of data available (Blenkhorn & Fleisher 2003).  The researcher agrees with Hart and Prakash’s article that pertains to the information systems and related technologies as creating a huge impact to how people live.  Information systems are something that is constantly evolving and being improved over the course of time. Information systems are currently being used in all kinds of business transactions. It grows and adapts to the changes in the society Information systems can be in the form of Internet and E-commerce technologies.   Impact of the internet The merger between the Internet, corporate and co-operative networks introduced changes in all three. This must be kept in mind when assessing the nature of cyberspace that develops with the Internet, as many find it easy to dismiss the Internet because of its origins in military funding. There are two main social forces that have driven the Internet to its present position. The first is the military-industrial complex, which has provided the main funding for some of the more grandiose projects that make up cyberspace and which provides an important cultural background to certain technological choices that have been made (Jordan 1999). The second influence is a grassroots and populist attempt to create networks and computers that place the power of computers in the hands of individuals, precisely so that the establishment and elites can be undermined. Here can be found the enthusiasts who created the personal computer, the programmers who have created and shared free software and an ethic of free and open use of networks that still dominates many parts of cyberspace. It is impossible to predict precisely the future of the Internet and the cyberspace it supports (Jordan 1999).   The success of a packet-switching distributed network of computers is undoubted and will form the basis of future networks. Those on the Internet use it extensively, usually at least once a day, and use it for a range of activities that include work and entertainment in equal measure. Internet and Web users are, then, not only from the most privileged sections of society; they are also committed to cyberspace and use it extensively. A world-wide computer network that allows people to communicate with each other exists. It has been created not in fiction but in fact through the efforts of governments, individuals and corporations. Its users have a clear and now largely stable demographic profile, with the sole exception of some uncertainty over whether gender equality lies in the future. This is a world not of disembodied consciousnesses having access to the sum total of human information, but of myriad acronyms, corporate rivalries and gradually growing sources of information and opportunities to communicate with other humans (Jordan 1999). An enterprise might be very strongly affected by the Internet through other institutions even though it itself did not connect or utilize the technology. If competitors use the Internet to obtain advantages in input and output markets and to increase productivity, a firm not using the Internet may find itself at a severe competitive disadvantage, and indeed be forced out of business. Institutions are seen as permeable. Each person participates in many institutions, and the experience with the Internet in one institutional role can affect other institutional roles (Nicholas & Rowlands 2000). Jordan and Nicholas and Rowlands provided their ideas on how the internet impacted society. The researchers agree with the three authors on their ideas of how the internet created changes in the environment and what is the value of the internet to society.  The internet has created an impact to almost everything in this world. Although it is believed that internet is being used by individuals to gain power and prestige, it cannot be ignored that the internet made sure that services can be done on a faster time.   E-commerce All estimates concerning the growth of e-commerce have one thing in common. They point to phenomenal growth over a very short period of time. Categories such as cars or flowers ordered over the Internet and delivered physically may be included in wider estimates. Companies that adapt and exploit the new opportunities will gain competitive advantage and others will be left behind. On a larger scale, existing indications show a widening gap between developing and developed economies in terms of competitiveness in this area. The absence of important and far-reaching policies in the developing economies could lead to the loss of existing industry and failure to attract new industries. This would mean a reduction in employment and tax revenue, with obvious negative consequences for overall economic performance in these countries (Karake-Shalhoub 2002).   Just as the internal combustion engine and jet engine have radically changed people's lives, the Internet is beginning to do the same. In the short time of its existence the Internet has greatly affected business and society. The Internet’s evolution and future development are set to continue. The Internet has fundamentally changed business activity. The buying and selling of products and services, market making, the forging of relationships between companies and customers or between two or more organizations; all these activities are increasingly being digitized (Eckersley, Harris & Jackson 2001).  Although the success of these efforts is not guaranteed, the business landscape is now truly digitized. Some types of e-Commerce are not likely to succeed. The digital technology that enables e-Commerce is progressing and will continue to offer companies opportunities for further changing their business activities. Firms looking to remain competitive in the e-Business arena have to be prepared to reorganize and restructure themselves more or less continuously. If the restructuring of traditional businesses really is so central to their development of successful e-Business strategies, it is essential to understand how to manage change effectively in order to sustain competitive advantage (Eckersley, Harris & Jackson 2001).While there are undoubtedly many firms that have an established tradition of successful inter-organizational networking, Internet developments have made such initiatives increasingly central to e-Business strategy. One of the first challenges companies face when attempting to embrace e-Business and its corresponding technologies is how to move from being a physical or bricks and mortar organization to being a digital or virtual organization (Eckersley, Harris & Jackson 2001). The researchers agree more with the article of Karake-Shalhoub since it discussed more about e-commerce and what will happen once e- commerce technology grow and develop. The researchers agree with Karake-Shalhoub in how they explained what triggered how the internet and its related systems developed. The internet and e-commerce or web based systems can be used not only to monitor and inspect the pipelines that will be used to deliver gas products, it can also be used as an advanced ordering system wherein clients can give the details of their order, personal information about them and how they intend to pay for the gas ordered.   Workflow management Knowledge management is focused on providing employees with the information and tools they need to perform their jobs in the most effective manner. This could include the text of e-mail messages, instant messaging, chat sessions, remote conferences, white boarding, traditional documents, and other pieces of knowledge created by employees. Ideally this information is captured, classified, and stored in the background by the system, not directly by the employee (Alderman Jr.  & Barritt 2004).  Overall, a knowledge management system can assist decision makers in making better informed decisions that affect all aspects of a company’s operations. By increasing the capabilities of decision makers, a KMS environment improves the chances that an organization will achieve its goals of increased sales, higher profits, and so forth by placing knowledge and related information in the hands of decision makers at the proper time and place and by providing flexibility in their choice and sequence of analysis and in the final presentation of results. From this enlarged perspective, knowledge management systems provide essential knowledge and related information to decision makers so that they can better cope with changing times (Alderman Jr.  & Barritt 2004).    Essentially, a knowledge management system (KMS) is capable of making comparisons, analyzing trends, and presenting historical and current knowledge. But more importantly, such a system enables decision makers to analyze and understand the patterns quickly and identify the most significant trends. As such, it is an accurate predictive method for decision makers. In addition, a knowledge management system can track and evaluate key critical success factors for decision makers, which are valuable in assessing whether or not the organization is meeting its corporate objectives and goals (Alderman Jr.  & Barritt 2004).    Knowledge management makes use of different practices to identify create, represent and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning. Knowledge management intends to introduce to a firm shared intelligence. It also intends to improve performance, build competitive advantage and create higher levels of innovation. A part of knowledge management is the use of workflow systems. Currently, workflow is used to help a firm acquire, store, and catalog content. Although there are a lot of different ways of getting things done, they are combined through workflow techniques in order to be able to acquire content. Thus, there is an architecture that has a centralized infrastructure but decentralized content management, and the firm combines those two to put the management of each of those in the right place. Workflow helps the firm connect them (Thierauf 1999).   Today’s collaboration by computer or groupware aids in the three C’s—communication, collaboration, and coordination. Groupware allows users to interact with both people and databases. It facilitates collaboration, let users better manage workflow, and allows them to interact with stores of information, such as a calendar on an executive’s desktop PC (Thierauf 1999). The IT industry finds a close association between groupware and workflow computing. Where groupware supports the activities of teams and collective decision making, workflow computing is directed instead towards supporting clearly structured processes, with easily identifiable sequences of predetermined steps. Workflow is also at its best where there are teams operating together but here the technology goes beyond workgroup computing in that it controls the order in which tasks are conducted, alerting users to key milestones, generating documents, and allocating tasks across groups. Workflow computerizes procedural tasks (Susskind 1998). Workflow management is proactive in its approach to progressing a series of procedural tasks. These systems make sure that all tasks are presented to the appropriate participants in the correct order and accomplished within defined time-scales. Groupware products differ in not being as proactive and leaving more of the initiative to users (Susskind 1998). Workflow management systems are used to define and in some instances track varying processes so that the company can increase efficiency and effectivity. Workflow management system can help the company to organize the job description of each personnel. This would speed up some of the processes and would help in making sure that only the best personnel would be assigned to answer a specific need of the client. The system would help the clients who want to ask question during the delivery of petroleum products. The clients would not have second thoughts on asking the person that coordinates with them as the product is delivered.   Maintenance and inspection of Oil and gas products Product differentiation in the crude oil market is basically the different oil qualities. These differences are expressed in the price differentials set by the extra costs of refining heavier crude oil. The margins can change somewhat due to differences in demand for different qualities. The simple rule is that the main quality indicator is the API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity the higher the gravity, the higher the price. But the demand for different qualities changes, seasonally and over time. Also, different sectors of consumption can experience different demand paths, causing the composition of demand for oil qualities to change (Claes 2000). More important for the cooperative bargaining between the oil producers is that quality differentials can be an effective way to cover price discounts. If a higher-priced oil quality is discounted, the price can in nominal terms be higher than prices of heavier oil types but still be valued as cheaper by the refiners. It thus imposes pressure on the price of the other oil qualities. Different oil regions have different compositions of oil qualities, making prices vary across regions. There are obviously levels of technological skills among oil producers (Claes 2000).    In particular, when oil is first discovered in an area, the countries concerned usually lack the ability to develop the resources on their own. However, in the present situation, with the international oil companies operating globally, the owner of the resource can buy the necessary expertise from them as long as it also provides sound investment condition. As long as oil prices are well above development costs, other producers' behavior has little effect on development decisions of new potential producers. Given the existence of oil resources on their territory, states tend to encourage the development of them. The concentration of oil production makes the crude market central to the understanding of the total oil industry. The demand elasticity is important for the success of oil-producer cooperation, as it determines the relationship between price and consumed volume. If demand is inelastic, small changes in production create large price changes (Carrillo & Jorge 1997). If demand is more elastic, the price effect from regulation of production is smaller. Thus, in a situation of demand inelasticity, oil producer cooperation more easily creates large benefits for the producers than a situation of elastic demand. The recent history of the international oil market suggests that demand for crude oil is inelastic in the short run and more elastic in the longer run. The reason for this is the lag between increased oil prices and consumers' adaptation through conservation and substitution. This suggests that oil producers cooperating by limiting output are able to reap substantial benefits in the short term, but the strategy can be less profitable in the longer term (Carrillo & Jorge 1997).   There is a need to make sure that materials used to deliver oil products particularly gas will be well maintained and inspected. The pipelines used in delivering gas products need to be directly controlled by the company through advanced systems to ensure that it will not create other problems and concerns. There is a danger in keeping and transporting such products thus the need for fool proof systems and technologies.   Chapter 3: Methods and Procedures   This chapter will give a discussion of the different methods and procedures used and done in the study; this chapter will discuss the research method; this chapter will also give a description of the research method, the different techniques used in the research method will be discussed to give explanation of its purpose and application to the study.   Research methods This study employed the qualitative research method, since this research intends to find theories that would explain the relationship of one variable with another variable through qualitative elements in research. The qualitative research method will make use of studies and literatures to determine the available means or systems that will help in the inspection and maintenance of risers. Qualitative research designs in the social sciences stem from traditions in anthropology and sociology, where the philosophy emphasizes the phenomenological basis of a study, the elaborate description of the meaning of phenomena for the people or culture under examination. Often in a qualitative design only one subject, one case, or one unit is the focus of investigation over an extended period of time. Qualitative research is multi method in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical material such as case study, personal experience, introspective, life story, interview, observational, historical, interactions, and visual texts on the described routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals' lives. Observation is the most frequent data-collection method used in qualitative research. Observation has greater face validity than a second-hand account gathered either through interviewing or document study (Benz & Newman 1998).   Observation is the technique of gathering data through direct contact with usually another human being. The researcher watches the behavior and documents the properties of the object. It is a very important method of data collection used by both qualitative and quantitative researchers. Quantitative scholars usually have an a priori highly structured plan that directs them to remain aloof and observe certain behaviors. In contrast, qualitative researchers usually observe from a phenomenological perspective; they immerse themselves in natural environments and watch a situation as a diffuse, ambiguous entity and allow themselves to be struck with certain peculiarities or interesting happenings. In many examples of qualitative research, the researcher goes into the field to observe and interview people. This raises an important concern about how the researcher is to present him or herself in the community being studied. One option is that researchers could be anonymous so no one in the situation being studied would know the researcher is there to gather data. The interpretive nature of qualitative research does indeed present a real problem to scholars who attempt to explain the process. This is why most theoreticians do not explicate the process of analysis as a set of steps. Rather, they talk about the analysis process as an organic whole that begins in the data-gathering stage and does not end until the writing is completed. The process allows for multiple iterative passes back and forth from data gathering to writing and back to data gathering (Potter 1996).   Reliability refers to consistency in measurement. In common terms the reliability of a test is the extent to which subsequent administrations would give similar results. A test which is not reliable will give different results every time it is taken. Accepted practice uses such measures as test-retest reliability coefficients to indicate reliability. In qualitative research, reliability suggests that different qualitative researchers would come to the same conclusions given exposure to the same situations. The extent to which data relate to objective criteria will improve reliability. When the data are based on personal impressions they tend not to be reliable. However, when they relate to counts or physical measurements or the number of correct math problems, they are generally reliable (Anderson 1998). There are two basic approaches to defining qualitative research problems, open and focused. It entails collecting a broad spectrum of data and is typically used to discover the nature of the phenomenon, often leading to hypotheses as well as conclusions. Qualitative and quantitative researchers alike define problems, select research designs, develop methodologies, collect, analyze and interpret data, and report findings. There is, however, one significant difference between the two. In qualitative research, the researcher is the principal data collection instrument; whereas in quantitative research, scientifically designed data collection tools are developed (Anderson 1998). Qualitative research intends to find theories that would explain the relationship of one variable with another variable through qualitative elements or components in research. The qualitative research is described as multi-method in focus, involving an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that a qualitative researching procedure acts on studying things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of situations, or interpret events in terms of the meanings people bring to them. Qualitative research makes use of written and recorded sources of information.   Research Design The research process onion of Saunders et al (2003) will be used in the entirety of the study in order to formulate the most suitable research approaches and doable strategies for this study. The first layer raises the question of the research philosophy to adopt, the second considers the subject of research approach that flows from the research philosophy, the third examines the research strategy most applicable, the fourth layer refers to the time horizon a researcher applies to his research, and the fifth layer is the data collection methods to be used (Saunders et al., 2003). The research process onion assists the study in gathering detailed information on the different methods used to know the means or the systems that can be used in inspection and maintenance of risers. The research process onion will act as a guide and it will provide the step by step procedure that will make sure that the goals of the study will be met.   Chapter 4: Problem Identification Project success can be due to external factors like assistance from the government, community, and others.  It can be due to proper financing, having a sense of balance or use of appropriate timing. Project success can also be due to proper planning and wise use of strategies. Without the use of good information systems and the guidance of a good manager the factors in project success will not be enough.   For the project to be a success it needs to identify the point in time when the project finishes. The project needs to have an end point so that participants in project making will know their time limitations. This will also force the project making team into budgeting well their time. The end point will give the project stakeholders idea on how long will they have to wait for the project to be completed. Project success can be determined by looking at the potential problems in the progress of the project.  The current customer relationship management system Siebel provides support to front office business process only. It store customer, order and quote information. It does not support statistical information and analytical function.   Problem 1 The productivity of the section cannot be measured by using this system, the staffs need to collect the data manually, and this process is very time-consuming. Also it is difficult to ensure the data accuracy and integrity. Due to lack of information, the management level would be difficult to have a precise decision and forecasting. Problem 2 There are many service and work orders in one month. Unfortunately, Siebel does not provide a tool that can give the needed statistics. Also, some technician carried the service before an order was created. The front line technician workload cannot be determined, the manager cannot estimate the technician daily workload, and their performances were difficult to track. The strategic workforce planning cannot be executed to achieve higher profitability for the future.   Problem 3 Regarding the communication mechanism with EMSD, the lead time of the entire process would be the key factor concerned, but it is difficult to monitor due the limitation of existing system. Also, there are no clear guideline of document flow to the engineer and clerk, it made many inaccurate data, and thus the critical path cannot be determined precisely.   Problem 4 The current system does not fit the section operation; the staffs always do the analysis monthly by using Microsoft Office, wherein the share level of the file is low. This in turn made some problems on information security and integrity. The data decentralization system being developed made the data inconsistent and disorganized. It did not help the company be efficient and it caused other problems for the firm.   Chapter 5 Project Progress   Proposed System   In the heady days of business the pressure was on speed and flexibility. Getting new web-based products, services, and channels to market quickly seemed to be critical in the quest for first mover advantages, grabbing customer share and brand recognition, attracting further capital, and winning races to learn. Second, as learning occurred, adaptability and flexibility was the key. Launch and learn were followed by respond and revise. So time replaced cost as the currency of information technology (IT) and entrepreneurialism and fun displaced formality and structure (Luftman 2003).  In particular, conventional information systems planning processes were challenged. Rolling IT plans were one interesting response to this new context. Then, as e-commerce became serious, another realization occurred; IT in many senses was the business. If the system went down, the channel was down and thus the product was unavailable and the customer may have switched to another provider. The operational mantra was 24–7. And, if business grew, the system and infrastructure had to be scalable, preferably in a seamless way. So speed and responsiveness had to coexist with robustness and scalability which are two opposites seen by most IT professionals in the past as tradeoffs. Three-tier architecture was a response to these pressures (Luftman 2003).    Architecture is the conceptual framework for IT infrastructure. Its main purpose is to strive for and satisfy the objectives of systems integration, technology interoperability, platform reliability, application maintainability, and IT cost management. Architecture therefore guides technical decisions and supplier choices on computing configurations, telecommunications topologies, data standards and schemas, and application interdependencies and interfaces. Architecture planning is helped if overarching business principles can be agreed. Indeed, they are required not only to drive architecture, but also to justify and defend it.  Experts advocated the crafting of maxims at the corporate or enterprise level to drive a more strategic and enabling architecture rather than doing deals and employing tactical sophistry, which tends to end up producing an architecture supportive of the business, but only in a short-term, business as usual fashion (Bullinger & Ziegler 1999). This grand view of architecture however does face two recurring problems. The first is that it works better under conditions of business certainty, which in reality is rare. This is why the maxims versus deals school becomes expressed in organizational politics as blue sky techies versus myopic business managers. The second is that it works better under conditions of technological certainty (Bullinger & Ziegler 1999).   By contrast, most businesses also have the need, as discussed earlier, for large-scale, robust, efficient, and scalable transaction processing systems, data warehouses, and networking. Furthermore, incumbent companies will have trusted legacy systems that they wish to build on and certainly not abandon. The emerging approach to resolving the tension between quick-build and volatile front-end applications and robust and scalable back-end foundations is three-tier architecture. In essence, this is the pursuit of both speed and stability. Tier one of three-tier architecture comprises the front-end web-based/portal/user view of the product (Thierauf 2001). Tier three comprises the back-end engines of IT and the middle tier comprises middleware and technical wrapping, which translates data messages between the two. The middle layer stores processing logic, data objects, and translation rules. The endowment from this commerce discovery of three-tier architecture is that it provides a more practical and sustainable praxis than former ideas. All firms and all IT departments face some degree of business and technological uncertainty and architecture planners always were challenged by the speed and flexibility need versus the robust and efficiency need. The three-tier model has the potential to make IT architecture a practical reality. Performance of client-centric tools degrades further when they are used to access large corporate databases, execute complex queries/reports, or serve a large number of users. The solution is a three-tiered architecture (Thierauf 2001). Three-tier is a client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules, most often on separate platforms. Apart from the usual advantages of modular software with well defined interfaces, the three-tier architecture is intended to allow any of the three tiers to be upgraded or replaced independently as requirements or technology change. Currently, the database was developed by access and followed entity-relationship modeling. And the program is on the design phase. Some system pages have been coded, it is used for test the end-user requirement. If the testing is completed, the system will be coded, and go to implementation phrase.   The need for productivity in the firm The employment skills of the twentieth century are not necessarily critical for organizational innovation in the information and electronic age. In fact, the ones people have known as marketable skills from their success in the management of traditional organizations, especially the ones of the twentieth century, are of little use in knowledge organizations (Amar 2002). Skills that will be the most important for knowledge organizations are those that are associated with the intellect of the individual. Presently, these skills are hard to teach and harder to assess. The challenge that institutions of higher learning worldwide will face will be their ability to equip their pupils with these creativity skills. Those universities around the world that will succeed in devising and revising curricula emphasizing these skills will be able to take over the leadership of the education for the twenty-first century and beyond (Amar 2002).   Employees possessing much needed skills will enable knowledge organizations to engage in ingenious actions to bring about innovation and productivity.  As the size of organizations expanded and required recruitment of outside help, managers continued to uphold the family model as the way to organize and manage ventures with outside members. In such organizations work is designed so that almost everyone in the organization is able to perform, without any concern for efficiency, any and all types of work needed to run the organization. As the workforce changes and encompasses a wider variety of employee backgrounds, it is imperative that organizations entail more flexibility and labor interchangeability so that production may be maximized.  The gains in productivity rise not because people switch jobs frequently but because of the satisfaction people feel in having selected a job they like and the power they have to pick another task if they do not like what they are doing(Amar 2002). Productivity is an important topic. National economies, industries, individual organizations, and parts of individual organizations are all concerned about productivity. Concern about productivity is not limited to profit-making organizations. Government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and the military are all interested in productivity and its improvement (Häcker et al. 1990). It is easy to understand why productivity, especially productivity improvement, is so important. If market-based economies, industries, or individual organizations become more productive, they provide better products and services at lower cost and thus remain competitive, increase their market share, and in general have more resources to work with (Häcker et al. 1990). Productivity is important in all aspects of living, not only in business. Productivity helps in making sure that the organization will offer a much better product or service. It will help the organization maintain its internal or external competitiveness since more products or services are given at a much faster time and with lesser instances of errors.  Productivity helps in improving an organization’s image to the public. To make sure that productivity would be maintained in the company, the system would be often updated to speed up processes. The proposed system would make sure that the personnel would not have difficulty in doing various processes thus they will attain higher levels of productivity and effectiveness.   Effective delivery of service The essence of the quality movement is meeting or exceeding customers' expectations; and those expectations are largely established with the customers by salespeople. Sales and service are the front and back of the same hand, and salespeople must take responsibility for the total customer experience, whether they are the service person as well, or serving as a liaison and advocate for the customer for another person or department (Baunchalk et al. 1998). Effective salespeople will pay the price to gain significant product and service knowledge so they can set appropriate expectations with customers. Effective sales professionals go for no deal the minute they suspect that mutual benefit is in question. This not only preserves the relationship and possible future business, but it sends a rare message to the customer that the relationship and mutual benefit are more important to the organization than any mere transaction. Another benefit to salespeople is that it keeps them out of the obsolete linear numbers game, a quantity paradigm created by investing only serious quality time with customers whose needs are clear and current, and where there is high probability of a long-term relationship (Baunchalk et al. 1998).   This is further enhanced by identifying in advance the characteristics of the company's ideal long term customers and targeting only those that meets their criteria. Think what the company's personal satisfaction level for sales would be if most lengthy interactions led to a strong, lifelong customer relationship. This approach eliminates the stressful burnout of battling objections with marginally qualified prospects in win-lose situations. Managing a customer relationship strategy that covers the full range of collaborative-to-transactional customers is difficult. Segment and account within-segment priorities must be clearly articulated to, and accepted by, key personnel. Strategic partners are the strategic priority, with a goal of penetrating and differentiating the business and selling model to achieve 100-percent customer satisfaction and joint profit improvement (Baunchalk et al. 1998).   An organization may grab at diverse opportunities that happen to look good in the present without tying them into a long-term strategy for planned growth consistent with the organization's mission. When this happens, the organization becomes diversified beyond its strength, placing a strain on resources. After a while, it is attempting to do so many things, it becomes less effective at doing them, and frequently even less effective at doing what it originally set out to do (Mercer 1991). When organizations that are funded solely by generated income fail to satisfy clients, they feel it. That is why most good organizations spend a substantial amount of time and money on trying to find out exactly what it is that their customers need and what their level of satisfaction is regarding current offerings (Mercer 1991). The need to satisfy clients is eminent in every business.  The clients and their satisfaction with the company is an important measure of the business’ success. If one client is dissatisfied with the company, it has to reconsider its performance and productivity, losing more than one client due to dissatisfaction can be a reason for panic within the company.   Program of work for Project A. Initial stages of the project -       Find out the issues of the project -       Gather needed resources B. Project implementation -       Research about how durable the project will be -       Know the boundaries of the project -       Research about other similar projects and its weakness. C. Final stage of the project -       Determine whether the project is feasible or not -       Know the problems that might be encountered   Project leader The leader for the project will be the general manager. He will closely work with the top management and the administration staff. The project manager needs to have perseverance and diligence in making sure that all aspects of the project will push through.  The project manager needs to have the drive that will help them finish the project no matter what happens.   The project manager needs to make sure that he can relate well with all the personnel that will be involved in the project. The project manager needs to have enough patience in dealing with various kinds of personnel.  The project manager need to make sure that he is responsible and is willing to do the best they can to finish the project. The Project manager should be prepared for the criticisms and intrigues that will be hurled towards him.    Stakeholders for the project The stakeholders for the project include the management team of the company, the clients of the company, and the company’s employees. The management team of Towngas is a stakeholder because the success of the project will depend on how well they supervise the planning and implementation of the project. The clients of the company are stakeholders because the project will ease their concern on the delivery of products they ordered.  The employees are stakeholders because improvements in the company’s service can help improve their efficiency.   Time needed The first stage of the project will take around 1 to 2 weeks. The first stage focuses on the initiation on the project. This part focuses on the initial part of the project.  The resources for this activity includes different sources that can provide information on how the business can grow and achieve its goals; the other resource for this stage includes different notes and information  that will provide the different changes that needs to be done with regards to the employees and the initiation process. In this stage the project manager will gather the needed resources. The second stage of the project includes the planning stage. The second stage of the project will take one week so that proper planning, testing and analysis of the new project can be made. In this stage the budget, human resource, and job responsibilities have been known and are ready to be used in the use of a new system.  The third stage of the project will take three to four weeks for proper adjustments. In this stage the project is on the full implementation stage wherein the goal is to slowly use the new system in the local market. The resources for this stage are proper information and training tools for employees. The fourth stage of the project will involve the control, validation and evaluation of the project. The resource for this stage included informative materials that will be distributed to the different project managers that will be used to understand the changes the project has done to the company and what are the current problems of the initiated project. The fourth stage will check how the project succeeded in its goal and how the project should change. The last stage of the project will take around one to two weeks.   Project control and validation The first of factors for success is a group of External ones like government, community, general economic conditions, ecology, and so on. The second set of factors affecting the viability of project definition is that the project offers a sense of cost-benefit relationship and that the terms of the Financing of the project make sense (Earl 1998). The last factor affecting the project definition is the project's Timing. Curiously, this aspect is often totally ignored in the project management literature which tends instead to dwell on scheduling methodologies. Timing means the pace at which the project is developed: its urgency, its phasing, and the placing of the strategic review points (Earl 1998).The project itself must then be implemented using a range of concepts, tools, and techniques which have traditionally been thought of as the province of project management. These include matters of organizational structure responsibility and contract strategy, terms and conditions; issues of personal leadership and management style, resourcing, systems, and procedural conflict management and industrial relations, team-working, and matters of control and communication (Earl 1998).  The project will be constantly monitored to check its effect on the company and the changes it has done on the new region. The initial problems on the project will be known fixed to reduce the emergence of other problems. To control the project communication systems will be used between the members of the organization. The communication systems will assist in monitoring the project. The project will be validated via its effect on the company and the industry.   Project evaluation In a business setting there is a chance that projects might fail. Projects are not perfect it will contain certain flaws. If these flaws merge wit forces within the environment the result would be the failure of the project. Project failure can be due to the lack of preparation or planning wherein the manager became too concentrated on the end result rather than the specifics of the project. Project failure can also be due to lack of cooperation between the manager and his subordinates. When there is no teamwork between the manager and the subordinates’ aspects of the project will not be completed. Another cause of project failure is when the manager does not take risks. The risk may have given the project a better chance for success. Moreover a cause of project failure is the lack of alternative strategies that should be used whenever there are small problems or irregularities seen when the project is being undertaken.  Lastly a cause of project failure is the inability to use the approved strategies. There are certain times that project managers fail to make use of strategies set by the organization, this results to an altered direction for the project and in the end failure of the project.  To avoid project failure, the project should be constantly checked and evaluated to see if it still performs according to standards. Evaluation will focus on checking how the firm has adjusted to the new system and how the firm has grown after changing its riser system. Evaluation will be used to determine the things or issues that should be changed within the project and determine the next courses of actions that should be taken to achieve success.   Probable problems for the project One constraint for the project is the barriers to the scope or reach of the project. The scope determines the boundaries of the project. Once the barriers prevent the company from reaching the scope the project would be a total waste. Another constraint for the project is the lack of time that will be used to finish the project. Time is important because it will determine which aspect of the project needs more focus. This constraint needs to be balanced thoroughly so that the project can achieve all of its purpose.  Lastly a constraint for the project is the lack of budget. The budget is the one used to finance all that will be needed to finish the project.  The budget is important because without it the project cannot move on to its other aspects.   References Alderman Jr & Barritt, C 2004, Creating a reusable learning objects strategy: leveraging information and learning in a knowledge economy, Pfeiffer, San Francisco.   Amar, AD 2002, Managing knowledge workers: Unleashing innovation and productivity, Quorum Books, Westport, CT.   Anderson, G 1998, Fundamentals of educational research, Falmer, London.   Baunchalk, MS, Bauer, GJ, Ingram, TN & LaForge, RW 1998, Emerging trends in sales thought and practice, Quorum Books, Westport, CT.   Benz, CR & Newman, I 1998, Qualitative-Quantitative research methodology: Exploring the interactive continuum, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale   Blenkhorn, D.L. & Fleisher, C.S. (Eds.). (2003). Controversies in competitive intelligence: the enduring issues. Westport, CT: Praeger.   Bullinger, H & Ziegler, J (eds.) 1999, Human-Computer interaction: Communication, cooperation, and application design, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.   Carrillo, S & Jorge, A (eds.) 1997, Price policies and economic growth, Praeger, Westport, CT   Claes, D 2000, The politics of oil-producer cooperation, Westview Press, Boulder, CO   Currie, W & Galliers, B (eds.) 1999, Rethinking management information systems: an interdisciplinary perspective, Oxford University Press, Oxford.   Earl, MJ 1998, Information management: the organizational dimension, Oxford University Press, Oxford.   Eckersley, PM, Harris, L & Jackson, P (eds.) 2001, E- Business fundamentals: managing organizations in the electronic age, Routledge, New York.   Frame, JD 2003, Managing Projects in organizations: how to make the best use of time, techniques, and people, Jossey- Bass, San Francisco.      Frame, JD 2002, The new project management: tools for an age of rapid change, complexity, and other business realities, Jossey-Bass,   Hart, JA & Prakash, A (eds.) 2000, Coping with globalization, Routledge, London.   Häcker, H, Kleinbeck, U, Quast, H & Thierry, H (eds.) 1990, Work motivation, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.   Hines, MA 1997, The development and finance of global private power.  Quorum Books, Westport, CT.   Jordan, T 1999, Cyberpower: The culture and politics of cyberspace and the internet, Routledge, London.   Karake-Shalhoub, Z 2002, Trust and loyalty in electronic commerce: an agency theory perspective, Quorum Books,  Westport, CT.   Luftman, JN (ed.) 2003, Competing in the information age: align in the sand, Oxford University Press, New York.    Mercer, JL 1991, Strategic planning for public managers, Quorum Books, New York.   Nicholas, D & Rowlands, I (eds.) 2000, The internet: its impact and evaluation, Aslib/IMI, London.   Potter, WJ 1996, An analysis of thinking and research about Qualitative methods, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.   Saunders, M, Lewis, P & Thornhill, A 2003, Research method for business students, 3rd edn, Prentice Hall Financial Times, London.   Shojai, S (eds.) 1995, The new global oil market: Understanding energy issues in the world economy, Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT.   Stretton, H 1999, Economics, a new introduction, NSW Press, Sydney, N.S.W.   Susskind, R 1998, The future of law: Facing the challenges of information technology, Oxford University Press, Oxford.   Tansey, SD 2002, Business, information technology and society, Routledge, New York.   Thierauf, RJ 2001, Effective business intelligence systems, Quorum Books, Westport, CT.   Thierauf, RJ 1999, Knowledge management systems for Business, Quorum Books, Westport, CT.   Zhang, J 2004, Catch-up and competitiveness in China: The case of large firms in the oil industry, RoutledgeCurzon,  New York.

DISSERTATION ON STREAMLINE PROCESS FLOW ALONG THE RISER INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE PROCESS TO ACHIEVE HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY AND ENHANCE OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS

Chapter I: Introduction for the project Background for the project Public utilities like piped water, power, gas, telephone an...

The Theory of Democracy

DISSERTATION ON STREAMLINE PROCESS FLOW ALONG THE RISER INSPECTION AND MAINTENANCE PROCESS TO ACHIEVE HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY AND ENHANCE OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS