Smart Enterprise: Intelligent Real-Time Resource Management System

Purpose and Application

The proposed Smart Enterprise system is designed for planning and monitoring results of daily activities of employees in all enterprise units.

Smart Enterprise is a complex solution, including new management methodology, as well as software systems, which implies introduction of modern management approaches and principles into the work of an enterprise, together with new models, methods and algorithms for decision-making support in resource management focused on effective achievement of results in each workplace.

Our users usually include all the main employees of the enterprise, whose coordinated work directly affects success in business: from top-managers to entry-level employees.

System Description

Unlike well-known counterparts (usually foreign ones) that automate the enterprise accounting loop and work with data, our system is designed to work with the knowledge base that allows its users to tune in to the «model» of the enterprise structure and performance and only then — automate the decision-making processes for enterprise resource management, including rapid reaction to events, distribution, planning and optimization of resource use for order execution. Our system also monitors and controls implementation of the created plans in real time, as the quality and efficiency of the enterprise work depends on the very moment of decision-making and any delay can lead to idle time or shortage of resources and thus — loss of efficiency.

The proposed Intelligent Real-Time Resource Management System is a general management system that combines all corporate systems existing in the enterprise, its knowledge base and the proposed resource planning systems within departments into a single «system of systems».

The architecture of the proposed solution includes the following systems or modules. Their configuration depends on the needs of the enterprise:

Central control panel — allows users to display the current state and decisions made to manage the activities and resources of the enterprise or any of its divisions or simulate important decisions related to acceptance of a large order, expansion of the existing pool of resources, etc.;
Internet portal for entering orders for products or services — allows the enterprise customers to set new orders and receive an estimate of manufacturing terms and costs, as well as remotely monitor execution of their orders with any degree of detail (by subscribing to events);
Automated subsystem for decision-making support in management of contracts and projects for orders — allows users to create maps and directive schedules for order execution (projects), maintain main contract documents (contracts, cost sheets, acts, etc.), calculate the planned and actual economy on orders (projects), as well as to display performance indicators of managers;
Intelligent project management system “Smart Projects” — includes strategic and operational resource scheduler for projects and departments that automatically build up initial plans and adaptively rebuild these plans in response to real-time events, taking into account requirements and interdependencies of project tasks, competencies and work load of employees, etc.;
Intelligent production management system Smart Factory — includes strategic resource scheduler of the whole enterprise and operational planners of workshops, which also automatically build up initial plans and adaptively rearrange them according to real-time events, taking into account requirements and interdependencies of operations and manufacturing processes, competencies and work load of employees, as well as availability of materials in the enterprise warehouses;
Intelligent management system Smart Trucks — provides management of long-distance and intercity freight traffic;
Intelligent management system Smart Field Services — designed to manage mobile teams for maintenance of electricity, water and gas supply networks;
Intelligent management system Smart Supply Networks — designed to manage supply chains in real time;
Corporate knowledge base of the enterprise — includes ontology of the subject area and a set of specific facts about the enterprise (organizational structure, composition of manufactured products, technological processes and operations, competencies of employees, etc.);
Network-centric platform — designed to support distributed management with of «system of systems» on the basis of the common enterprise bus.
Automated workstations based on i-pads and mobile terminals for managers and employees of the enterprise.

System Functionality

The key functionality of the system includes:

Set up of knowledge base with classifiers of objects, types of technological and business processes, classes of tasks and working with their labor intensity, competencies and experience of employees;
Input of orders via the web interface and monitoring their execution by events;
Volume-scheduling according to the enterprise capacity for any time horizon;
Operational planning of work in departments, including their adaptive change taking into account events in real time;
Evaluation of quality and prime cost of work, execution of orders in time;
Advance assessment of risks of delays in order execution;
Support of interaction with users for coordinating decisions on planning and input of work performance, informing on order execution progress, etc.;
Generation of performance indicators for managers and employees of the enterprise;
Visualization of plans in the form of Gant charts, tables and lists of tasks and operations;
Support of business radars for users in real time;
Integration with existing systems for importing and exporting data;
Generation of reports at all levels;
Maintaining an archive of completed orders.

System Architecture

The System architecture integrates previously developed and successfully implemented intelligent management systems for various static and mobile resources, and can also presuppose development of new systems in the interests of the enterprise.

The key feature and know-how in development of these systems is adaptive planning according to events in real time, down to the level of individual employees.

The network-centric approach in these systems means that changes in plans that occur in one of the systems can influence plans in any other system through a chain of coordinated changes, ensuring correctness in decision-making and self-synchronization of interdependent processes over time.

At the same time, interaction of the systems is built through the network-centric platform and the common data bus of the enterprise and involves coordinating decisions according to special protocols supporting vertical and horizontal negotiations of planners of all levels.

User Interfaces

General information about enterprise performance at the current time can always be seen on the Central Control Panel of the system.

An example of the plasma screens of the Enterprise Management Center

Here the user can see the following, constantly changing, arrays of data:

Input data for continuous adaptive planning and control, including department resources, current orders, log of important events (both external and internal), and a list of problem situations with risk assessment;
Current state of the enterprise, including the model of the physical world (for example, a map of the region with locations of service requests), the model of the mental world (will show distribution of requests among executors), as well as the current plans of departments for a given time horizon;
Output results of the system, including a log of decisions taken on allocation of resources, changes in performance indicators of the enterprise as a whole and its individual departments, as well as other data specific to the enterprise.

Such a panel can be placed both in the offices of managers of all levels, and in the open space of the enterprise or on a mobile tablet (i-pad) of any employee.

Possible placement of information panels in the enterprise

Information panels reflecting the progress in order execution for each division for the previous day can be placed at the entrance of the enterprise.

Below are some examples of screens for enterprise employees of different levels.

Examples of screens: day plans and key performance indicators

Examples of screens: contract management

Examples of Smart Projects screens according to the project plan

Examples of screens of automated workstations: volume-calendar plan (detailization by the type of work)

Expected Results of the Project

As a result of the project implementation, a reform in enterprise management will be carried out, and the Intelligent Real-Time Resource Management System will be finalized and implemented.

The proposed approach, models, methods and tools will guarantee achievement of the following results:

increasing the efficiency of the enterprise by 20-40% due to introduction of the most modern management principles with result-oriented motivation;
openness and adaptability of the management system for dynamic on-the-fly inclusion of new orders and prompt reaction to events;
flexibility in execution of accepted orders, often changing due to real-time events;
high performance and scalability of the system (due to distributed architecture with parallel and asynchronous processes);
reliability and survivability: breakdown of one resource will cause only redistribution of tasks between the remaining resources;
ability to accumulate and adjust knowledge for decision-making and to reduce dependence on the human factor (through the knowledge base).

The developed and implemented system will be entirely Russian and highly innovative, superior in its capabilities and advantages to the nearest national and world counterparts.

Return on investment for an average enterprise (workshop) of 400 people, with a 10% increase in efficiency, is about 6-9 months.

Solution