Effective monitoring and control with intelligent products

PhD ceremony: Mr. G.G. Meyer, 16.15 uur, Doopsgezinde Kerk, Oude Boteringestraat 33, Groningen

Dissertation: Effective monitoring and control with intelligent products

Promotor(s): prof. J.C. Wortmann

Faculty: Economics and Business

 

Besides planning activities, the monitoring and control of everyday operational plans is an important activity in many organisations. This is due to the fact that disturbances can occur during plan execution, which in turn often require human intervention. Many organisations however face difficulties with the monitoring and control of their operations during plan execution. One main reason is that planners lack the timely and accurate information on the state of the plan execution.

The main goal of this thesis is to provide a contribution in overcoming these difficulties. The focus is on organisations which are engaged in the transformation or transportation of physical goods. This thesis investigates the use of intelligent products. Therefore, it is presented how intelligent products can be applied in both the design and the implementation of new information systems for monitoring and control. These intelligent products extend individual physical products, enabling local and real-time monitoring of products. When a disturbance occurs, intelligent products can directly inform the planners about it. Furthermore, they can collaboratively propose solutions on how to reduce the severity of problems caused by the disturbance.

Various performed evaluations have shown that these information systems based on intelligent products are very effective in handling disturbances. This leads to more effective monitoring and control of operations and thereby to a more robust plan execution.