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B222A Managing Technologies and Innovation (Part A)
TMA SPRING 2018
1. Instructions
2. Concept to reflect on: Prepare Your Workforce for the Automation Age
3. Questions
4. Grades deduction
5. AOU policy on plagiarism
6. AOU policy on late submissions
7. Referencing and Harvard Style
8. PT3 form
I- INSCTRUCTIONS:
Cut-off date: Submit this assignment no later than the due date mentioned on your LMS/Moodle as per the university academic calendar. ALL late submissions require approval from the branch course coordinator and will be subject to grade deductions.
Learning outcomes: The purpose of this assignment is to support students understanding and application of different concepts learned in B222A, mainly: technology advantages and disadvantages, automation, workforce, adoption speed.
Word count: you should discuss the questions in no more or less than the number of words mentioned for each question (plus or minus 10%).
Referencing: You must acknowledge all your sources of information using full Harvard Style Referencing (in-text referencing plus list of references at the end). Use E-library: to get journal articles on the topic (Emerald, EBSCO, Proquest). Use at least 2 articles.
Plagiarism: Remember that you should work the information from references into your own original thoughts and INTO YOUR OWN WORDS. Plagiarism will lead to a significant loss of marks. Extensive plagiarism could mean that you failed your TMA. (Refer to AOU definitions of cheating and plagiarism at the end of this document)
Essay guidance: Your response to each question should take the form of a full essay format. Avoid using subheadings and bullet points. Use B222A textbook and slides, the case, and E-Library. Plan what you will write, and have a well-organized outline.
Using PT3 form: When you have completed your TMA, you must fill in the assignment form (PT3) posted on your moodle account, taking care to fill all information correctly.
Moodle upload: A soft copy of your TMA and PT3 form should be uploaded to your LMS account via the link posted there, within the cut-off date.
This TMA is 20% of B222A Grade.
II- CONCEPT TO REFLECT ON
ur Workforce for the
Prepare Your Workforce for the Automation Age
By Christoph Knoess, Ron Harbour and Steve Scemama, November 2016
The internet has dramatically changed the way companies operate. Massive data storage capacity, super-fast data transmission and mobility devicesalong with slick application program interfaceshave left companies scrambling to adapt.
Today, innovations in digitization and robotization are quickly laying the foundation for another disruptive corporate transformation. For example, Anheuser-Busch, working with Uber (and Otto), just delivered 2,000 cases of Budweiser in a self-driving truck. Commerzbank has announced plans to digitize 80% of its processes within three years. We estimate that robotization, digitization, digital self-services, distributed digital advice and sales, and robo-advisors could result in a 60-70% reduction in the workforces of service providers, from financial services to telecom. Manufacturers have already seen reductions, albeit at lower levels. The pace of robot adoption may surprise us, just as the internet spread more quickly than many anticipated.
But companies will only be able to realize productivity gains from these new operating models if they skillfully manage the soft side of their automation transformationthe people in what will be a vastly different organization. As companies introduce software bots and digital self-service, and as they transform assembly lines, they must bring along their key employees, leaders, and customers as they redefine jobs, career paths, workforce management, and social contracts. Executives must think carefully about how to best match people and machines, bearing in mind that many of the decisions they make today will have a long-tail effect on workforce composition, productivity, and profits for years to come.
As workforces hollow out, the remaining employees will be highly specialized and experienced business/technology hybridsa new breed of professional who can work in highly distributed environments and shift from managing people to managing experiences and technology. In the back-office, the lights will dim, as work is shifted to the customer or other parts of the value chain. In the middle office, risk and compliance management will largely watch bots that are not prone to human error or fraud, supported by sophisticated models to predict quality and compliance issues. In the front office, automation based on predictive analytics will leave only managers who can control sophisticated robo-advisors trusted by customers. Salespeople will be disrupted as customers link with algorithmic bots to obtain products contextually presented at the (digital) point of needoften dominated by the global platforms that link retail, financial services, entertainment and communications in sticky ways.
Will this happen overnight? No. Disruption rarely occurs as soon as expected. Freeways full of driverless cars and beer trucks are still far off, because of technological and regulatory limitations. But the inflection point always happens faster than expected. As always with technology adoption, there is an S-curve, already being scribbled by early adopters; when the inflection point is reached, expect sudden acceleration. So early preparation is needed.
Lessons from automakers
To figure out how to effectively integrate software robots and digitization, executives can take some cues from the automotive industry. After decades of introducing physical robots and automation, some automakers factories require three to six months to launch an entirely new vehicle, while others need no more than a day. But the most automated carmakers are not necessarily the most efficient.
Instead, the nimblest factories have been pragmatic about integrating automation so that new processes can run smoothly, with continuous improvementso that only the simplest, most repetitive processes are automated. Over the past two decades, leading automakers have automated their paint and body shopswhere they see the greatest gainsbut have also retained and retrained the people required to quickly redesign products and processes on more complex tasks. Automakers have used automation gains to configure and fund increased customization; assembly lines are run by humans who build customized vehicles, choosing from as many as 55,000 parts.
The lesson: Change needs to be evolutionary, even if the impact of automation is ultimately revolutionary. Dont throw away your core capability, until you are sure automation is better, faster, cheaper. As you prepare for the inflection point, be pragmatic about cost-benefit tradeoffs. Think about the overall organization in an automated world. Be mindful of the critical skills you need to retain, and the skills you need to build up. Take a full end-to-end view. Think both short term and long term. Build strategic advantage through the gains you achieve, beyond cost.
Parallel work streams
The lessons to date on driving digitization and robotics suggest operating on a dual track. Strike the right balance between implementing short-term automation fixes and opportunities, while seeking solutions to problems that will determine success in the long run. It takes time for clients and employees to adapt to monumental change. Thus, it is as important to get long-term organizational change underway as it is to rapidly exploit near-term efficiency.
To that end, managers should develop a list of 10 to 15 processes that bots can quickly improve. Test and learn, both in the application of the right bots to the right problem, and how to redesign processes end-to-end to maximize results. Simultaneously test and learn on the soft side of automation. Blueprint the broader impact on roles, skills, controls, leadership, workforce and talent management, and social contracts.
By doing so, managers can move critical employees and clients closer to their longer term automation ambitionswhich can be funded at least in part with returns from the earlier automation of simpler tasks.
Mold the organization
As more processes are digitized in every part of an organization, executives must think at a macro level about the entire enterprise, even as the organization is changing. How do you hire today for a diminished workforce 10 years out? When more and more of your people are replaced by bots, how do you lead, enforce quality control, and audit? The key to navigating through the coming automation age will be identifying and retaining the employees who can make one transition after another.
Companies will experience huge changes as physical infrastructure disappears, offshore capabilities are repatriated, more services become self-service and virtual, and customers begin to interact more with robots. Automation will transform not just production, but operating models. Start early to shift the leadership mindset. Actively drive customer adoption by adjusting your pricing and loyalty incentives to encourage early adopters, while simultaneously having your own employees co-service them with the same tools. Initially, customers should be allowed easy and seamless access to people as a fallback to self-service and other digital offerings. Assess the impact on your social contracts to both your employees and the communities you serve. Engage local stakeholders and unions early in discussions of how you can continue to give back to the community with a smaller workforce. Build a picture of the future state and work backwards.
There is time before the inflection pointtime to prepare with purpose and pilots. Focus not just on the technology and analytics, the shiny object, but on people and a new form of leadership.
Available at:
https://hbr.org/2016/11/prepare-your...automation-age
III- QUESTIONS
1- According to the passage above and to your own knowledge, reflect on the impact of automation on workforce and HR functions explaining its current and future advantages and drawbacks. (300 words 35 marks)
2- Search on examples for some disruptive innovation and explain how it has re-shaped companies and affected the workforce in it. (350 word 35 marks)
3- Choose a company in the technology industry and elaborate on the following:
- A brief description of the company profile (sector, profit, market share, main products/services, spending in R&D, number of employees)
- A description of its latest invention and how it will impact businesses and societies. (350 words 30 marks)
IV- GRADES DEDUCTION:
TMA Presentation: (up to 5 marks)
Up to 5 marks should be deducted for poor presentation or poor organization of the TMA outline and discussion or TMA presented without PT3.
Proper referencing: (up to 5 marks)
Referencing should be both in-text referencing, plus a list of references at the end using Harvard style. Up to 5 marks should be deducted for poor referencing.
Use of E-Library: (up to 5 marks)
A minimum use of 2 articles from AOU e-library is required to support the discussions. Up to 5 marks should be deducted for no use or poor use of e-library.
Word count: (up to 5 marks)
The answers should be within the specified word count. A deviation of 10% is acceptable; if more, a deduction up to 5 marks will be applied.
V- AOU POLICY ON PLAGIARISM:
Arab Open University Definitions of cheating and plagiarism:
Plagiarism means copying from internet, from unreferenced sources, from other students TMAs or any other source. Penalties for plagiarism range from failure in the TMA or the course, to expulsion from the university.
According to the Arab Open University By-laws, the following acts represent cases of cheating and plagiarism:
Verbatim copying of printed material and submitting them as part of TMAs without proper academic acknowledgement and documentation.
Verbatim copying of material from the Internet, including tables and graphics.
Copying other students notes or reports.
Using paid or unpaid material prepared for the student by individuals or firms.
Utilization of, or proceeding to utilize, contraband materials or devices in examinations.
Penalty on plagiarism: The following is the standard plagiarism penalty applied across branches as per Article 11 of the university by-laws was revisited and modified to be more explicit with regard to plagiarism on TMAs. Penalties include the following:
1) Awarding of zero for a TMA wherein more than 20% of the content is plagiarized.
2) Documentation of warning in student record.
3) Failure in the course to dismissal from the University.
VI- AOU POLICY ON LATE SUBMISSIONS:
As per the terms stated in the Late Submission Policy for Tutor Marked Assignments-TMAs, sent by the deanship on 10/11/2016, TMA late submission is subject to grades deduction according to the following:
1- Late submission Within the 6 days after the due date: reduction of 10% (of the total TMA grade) for each day late.
2- Late submission After day 6: the necessity to submit a late submission justification form and decision will be taken by the respective BCC and PC.
3- No submission: a zero grade will be attributed to the TMA in case of non submission
VII- REFERENCING AND HARVARD STYLE:
There are various ways of setting out references / bibliographies for an assignment.
Harvard Style is a generic term for any referencing style which uses in-text references such as (Smith, 1999), and a reference list at the end of the document organized by author name and year of publication.
In this guide, we are using a Harvard Style which is based on the author-date system for books, articles and non-books.
NOTE: When you write your list of references/bibliography, please keep in mind the following points:
Your bibliography should identify an item (e.g. book, journal article, cassette tape, film, or internet site) in sufficient detail so that others may identify it and consult it.
Your bibliography should appear at the end of your TMA with entries listed alphabetically.
If you have used sources from the Internet, these should be listed in your bibliography.
- For a BOOK:
The details required in order are:
1. name/s of author/s, editor/s, compiler/s or the institution responsible
2. year of publication
3. title of publication and subtitle if any (all titles must be underlined or italicized)
4. series title and individual volume if any
5. edition, if other than first
6. publisher
7. place of publication
8. page number(s) if applicable
One author
Berkman, RI 1994, Find it fast: how to uncover expert information on any subject, Harper Perennial, New York.
Two or more authors:
Cengel, YA & Boles, MA 1994, Thermodynamics: an engineering approach, 2nd ed, McGraw Hill, London.
Cheek, J, Doskatsch, I, Hill, P & Walsh, L 1995, Finding out: information literacy for the 21st century, MacMillan Education Australia, South Melbourne.
- For an ARTICLE
The details required, in order, are:
1. name/s of author/s of the article
2. year of publication
3. title of article, in single quotation marks
4. title of periodical (underlined or italicised)
5. volume number
6. issue (or part) number
7. page number(s)
Journal article
Huffman, LM 1996, Processing whey protein for use as a food ingredient, Food Technology, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 49-52
Newspaper article
Simpson, L 1997, Tasmanias railway goes private, Australian Financial Review, 13 October, p. 10
- For WEB SITES and OTHER ELECTRONIC SOURCES
The basic form of the citations follow the principles listed for print sources (see above)
1. name/s of author/s
2. date of publication Note: If you cannot establish the date of publication, use n.d. (no date).
3. title of publication
4. edition, if other than first
5. type of medium, if necessary
6. date item viewed
7. name or site address on internet (if applicable)
Weibel, S 1995, Metadata: the foundations of resource description, D-libMagazine, viewed 7 January 1997, <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/July95/07weibel.html>.
ASTEC 1994, The networked nation, Australian Science, Technology and Engineering Council, Canberra, viewed 7 May 1997, <http://astec.gov.au/astec/net_nation/contents.html>
If no author is given, the title is used as the first element of a citation.
VIII- PT3 FORM
Use of PT3 form is mandatory as a cover page for your TMA. This form is provided to you by your tutor or posted on LMS. TMA presented without PT3 form is subject to grades deduction. This PT3 form will be used by your tutor to add comments and marks and will be returned to you with the annotated work.
-
KSA-Kuwait - Bahrain -Oman - Jordon -Lebanon -Egypt-Sudan
(.turnitin./ )
: - OO966542495275
: 00966542495275+
: [email protected]
00966542495275
: [email protected]
: OO966.5.4.2.4.9.5.2.7.5
[/SIZE]