Development of a universal enterprise model for multi-country manufacturing systems analysis
Creators: name: Chattopadhyay, Sekhar
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: The shortcomings of the existing Enterprise Architectures (EAs) observed during the field studies in Australia, China and India is the primary motivation for this research. Each organisation is unique in its own way. A universal enterprise model needs to capture the commonalities at the core and provide the flexibility to allow differences to exist. EA’s are fundamentally driven by the People and their sphere of influence. This thesis presents five such different micro-architectural views (sometimes called sub-models) of EAs and integrates them into a macro-architecture with the given name – “Pentatomic Organisations” that can be used to describe enterprises in the 21st century universally. These five micro-architectural views are unified and universal with People in their core that manifests different attributes and characteristics to the organisations. Pentatomic organisations (PO’s) have a simple, flexible and dynamic EA understood by, and can be communicated to, all in the organisation using common language. A strategy driven organisation creates, maintains, improves and/or decommissions an enterprise during its lifecycle phases for governance and to satisfy its customers. The first and the foremost micro-architectural view of the PO is the People-Centric Model (PCM) that recognises the pervading presence of people at all levels of the organisation irrespective of their roles, functions and relationships. This sub-model has got a layered and flexible architecture pivoted on people skills flanked by resource and information on either side. The EA in PCM is a closed-loop feedback system with customer and strategy. The second micro-architectural view in PO is the Molecular Model (MM). It describes how individual outputs are created by combining skills, resources and information. By drawing an analogical comparison between humans to atoms this sub-model shows how a human atom interacts with another in a business transaction. The third sub-model is the Kaizen-Lean Six Sigma Model (KLSSM). This micro-architectural view demonstrates how ‘Continuous Improvement’ as a philosophy is so vital for any organisation intending to survive under the turbulent business environment today. The fourth micro-architectural view is the Globally Dispersed Model (GDM). This micro-architectural view represents the typical features of a truly geographically dispersed manufacturing outfit in a globalised world. This sub-model also subscribes to the principles of a human-centered and eco-friendly approach to addresses sustainable manufacturing. The fifth and the last micro-architectural view is the Disaggregated Value Chain Model (DVCM). It describes how a value chain is getting disaggregated into a human network of networks in a flat world today. It also demonstrates how individual sphere of influence interacts in a dynamic business environment. The thesis also provides a process by which an industry, manufacturing or service, may choose to adopt any of the five new EA micro-architectural views, or a combination thereof to address and embrace change that is inevitable in today’s business environment. The Pentatomic Organisation could help industries to “sense and respond” to complex external business environment as a vehicle to change people’s roles and functions by allocating timely resources to them and utilising information/data driven decision making process in lightning speed.