1. Introduction
G: Link is a growing business but with its existing socio-technical complex system there are various issues that is arising. G:Link also known as the Trans Link in the Southeast Queensland is a network that has a reach far and wide. The focus point of this paper is the analysis of the Human Activity System that needs some improvements made to it and this can be done after implementing the new Information system to the G: Links existing HAS. The improvements are with regards to cultural differences with the environmental as well as the technical systems that needs to be upgraded. The paper focuses on different measures that can help increase the efficiency and the productivity of the business.
2. Part 1: G: Train’s overall analysis of the business.
2.1 Part 1- question a: Information of G: Train with the strategies followed, the operations and the competition in the market place.
Gold Coast Light Rail is also referred to the G:Link/train which serves the Gold Coast of Australia in Queensland with its railway network system. It has 19 stations and is a public transport network with a single 20 km line (12 mi) with the name Translink’s South-east railway. G:link was initiated in the year 2014 on 2oth of July with its extension reaching the Northwest. Two terminus of this railway system forms the main route of the G:Links railway lines and are Helensvale railway station which is the Northern terminus and Broad beach south which is referred to as the Southern terminus. On 17th of December in the year 2017 there was an expansion made to the railway system towards Helensvale from Gold Coast University Hospital.
Operations of G: Link/Train:
The operator was Keolis Downer and the operation began on the year 2014 on 20th of July. The average lengths of the trains are 43.5m that is 143 ft. 2trans and 18 Flexibly are the number of vehicles owned. The advancements of time is 70-30 minutes depending on the coast.
Strategies:
The strategies of the G:Train is following the responsibilities that includes safety for the passengers, timely services and maintenance of the train. Transportation and delivery are important tasks and requires a lot of planning that is precise with the right amount of investments to practice a safe, timely and comfortable transportation which also needs to be efficient. There are various domain of this railway network out of which one of the most important is the public domain transport which is responsible for the safe and precise public transportation with keeping in view all the infrastructure needs and systems that runs it. This led to a partnership with the City Gold Coast which is the strategy to get an outcome that is coordinated with the city. guided strategies of the transportation and the objectives which are, a positive experience of transportation, Providing efficient and safe travel options to the individuals using this mode of transportation, maintaining the legacy of the transportation which also needs to be sustainable and in an infrastructure that is new a complete balance of the investment that is targeted with the existing capacity of the infrastructure.
2.2 Part 1- question b: Using Mintzberg Classification organizational description form of G: Link:
An organization’s structure makes a great deal of difference in the way its functionality works.. Consideration of an organizational form should have certain things that need to be kept in mind and these are analyzing the environment, capacity and internal need assessing the capacity and needs with regards to the same and making sure of the strategy that is fit for the current situation at hand. The organizational form of G:link in accordance to the Mintzberg’s Classification structuring is The Machine Organization also known as bureaucracy. It is essential to have a comprehension of how the structure relates to the different types of functions that are appropriate in situations that are different in nature This is an appropriate structuring for the G:link , it is because this organization form is defined by its standardization. Machine organization follows a structure that is tight and vertical. The top managers maintain all the tasks because there is a functional line that goes to the top. The methodology uses the work that is done in a very formal manner with numerous procedures and routines that needs to be followed. The tasks are categorized based on their functionality and has a very centralized decision-making. The top managers maintain all the tasks because there is a functional line that goes to the top. Machine organization follows a structure that is tight and vertical.
2.3 Part 1- question c: Using Porter’s Value chain Model the value chain of the train with the description of Primary and secondary activities of the train.
A methodology used to analyze the primary activities with the secondary activities of an organization that can give a competitive advantage and value is the Value chain model. The generic activities of company activities that were interconnected to each other was made by Porter in the year 1998. The value chain has the Primary Activities with the support activities and are :
Primary Value Chain Activities: The Five main activities which describes the Primary Value Chain Activities and these are as follows:
- Inbound Logistics: Purchased inputs that are taken care of which enables inbound logistics to be in communication with the suppliers.
- Operations: Requirement gathering when done internally it is required by operations to convert these collected data into the product that is desired. Operations phase consists of activity that converts the requirements into the product that is final.
- Outbound Logistics: Operation related to the delivery of vehicle machinery. Product after its completion still needs to reach the market where people can use it so the activities or phases related to the outbound logistics are collecting these finished products and delivering it to the buyers.
- Sales and Marketing: A developed product is necessarily not a required product for this purpose Sales and marketing is required. The marketing and sales people need to make sure that the products advertisements reaches the potential customers so that the product can be sold.
- Services: Customer Centric services in an orderly manner after the consumer buys the product is as important as the promotions itself because in this vast era of internet reviews spread very fast. Hence providing after-sales service is a very important part.
Support Value Chain Activities: The activities can also be termed as the functions supporting activities and are divided into four categories and are:
- Procurement: Inputs that are purchased from the value chain of the firm that is required for every activity that is a value activity which constitutes the support activities too and is required to perform activities and support their functions.
- Technology Development: Includes departments like development and research complete improvements in the fallbacks of the processes and the products.
- Human Resource Management: HRM exists to train and recruit individuals that are exceptionally skilled and can give productive results to the firm, Development and training.
- Firm Infrastructure: Consists of different activities that performs as the backbone of the whole value chain activities and supports all the activities. Firm infrastructure has strategic management which engages the whole project from since the start and can impact all the other value chain functions.
2.4 Part 1- question d: Analyzing the strategies using the porters five forces model
The level of competition and the development of strategies related to the business is the analysis method in Porter’s Five Forces Model. There are clusters in regards with the five forces and these are attractive forces and unattractive forces, the attractive forces increases the profitability whereas the unattractive forces degrades the profitability. This has a tendency to reflect on the most notable aspects of the environment that is competitive and gives a full understanding of the structure of the firm that emphasizes the strategic possibilities that provides guide to compete with the forces that is the profitability of the industry. The strategies are developed after forces that shape the industry competition is recognized. Industry profitability is determined using the five forces which integrates the strategies of the industry condition.
Figure: Porter’s Five Forces Model and their interactions.
| HIGH IMPACT: | MEDIUM IMPACT: | LOW IMPACT: |
| Power of Buyer:Power of buyer has high impact because buyers are sensitive to costs and prefer cost effective methods | Substitute Threats:Threat of substitute is moderate because there are alternatives for transportation systems and substitutes cannot provide similar services. | Threats of New Entrants:Threat of new entry is low because there is a huge amount of capital requirements, few barriers that are legal protect the firm from new entrants, and products differentiation is based on the quality of engineering and design. |
| Rivalry based on competition:Competitive rivalry is high because competing firms are of various types but all compete for a certain type of customer base | Power of Supplier:Threat of new entry is low because the capital requirements are large, few barriers that are legal protect the firm from new entries, and differentiation is based on the quality of design |
3. Answer to Part 2: An Existing HAS analysis which has issues and is Problematic:
Statement of the Problem: There were some issues that was detected from G:Train’s analysis while inspections were done and these were related to the accuracy and efficiency of the network of G:Link. The distance of G:Train that it covers is very short and G:”Train has a very low passenger count as compared to the other railway across Queensland. G:Link doesn’t cover a major part and an extension of this needs to be done. Extending the Link would require a change that is major in the systems infrastructure because everything needs to be done through scratch again and it would also need additions to portions of the existing Human Activity System that would make the process of rebuilding and reshaping the infrastructure feasible.
A Human Activity System is a combination of personals with resources that are organized in order to have a possibility. The people in HAS are dependent on the system . This whole process enables them to gain a known common purpose. A systems model of the HAS describes;
- The purpose formulated by people in the system and interactions that formulates the environment.
- Functions that needs to be selected to carry out the components of HAS which is structured in the system. Sustainable relations among the components by processes that regulates the system for attaining the purpose.
- HAS is a whole set of functions and components integrated. The rules that sustain the system are relationships between the processes.
Figure: Problems related to the G:Link.
3.1 Part 2- question a: Identification of Human Activity System with respect to stakeholders and role definition of these stakeholders
Figure: Human Activity System mapping and the flow of direction of factors caused by different perspective level.
HAS factors are referenced using prompts and is traced in flows to see what causes are involved and their interactions and how it affects the outcomes Identification of the problems of G-Train in accordance to Human Activity System, mapping is done in which causes of problems are looked upon from different views. Human Activity System has the ability for identification of issues that are immediate for improvements as well as underlying key problems that are relevant for sustainable changes.
Stake holders Analysis:
Analysis of stakeholders ensures that all the relevant stakeholders are considered while making decisions and evaluation of existing system is done to evaluate the earlier version or a competitor system to check the usability problems and gain the usability measurements. With the use of soft systems analysis method for both the profit and non-profit. The work is broken down into key activities to better achieve them. This methodology involves the key activities breakthrough which is analyzed from top-level objectives of G-train and developed through discussion and debate.
Figure: General Activities structure of the Human Activity System.
Human Activity System’s Stakeholder’s responsibilities: The stakeholders are divides into two primary categories and are Internal Stakeholders and External Stakeholders.
External Stakeholders: Suppliers, the society, Government, Creditors, Shareholders and the customers.
Internal Stakeholders: Employees, Manager and Owners.
Stakeholders can also be employees, business partners who rely on the success to keep the supply chain going.The main role of the stakeholders is mostly the investments of the G-train and their actions decide the business decision outcomes.
3.2 Part 2- question b: Rich Picture showing the issues and concerns of the stakeholders identified:
Figure: Rich picture showing the stakeholders responsibilities.
Responsibilities include:
- Improvement actions
- Situations that are complex inspection
- Culturally feasible techniques implementations and Systematically desirable
- Expressing systems that are messy
- The relevant Human Activity System Building the root system
- Conceptual Models formulation
3.3 Part 2- question c: A process model using the BPMn notation for the process of the existing human activity system you have identified.
Figure: A process model using the BPMn notation for the process of the existing human activity system identified.
3.4 Part 2- question d: The DeLone-McLean Model of Information System Success to describe the existing Human Activity System which is not successful.
Figure: DeLone-McLean Model of Information System in which HAS is not successful
The Information System success is never defined well as there are complexity, interdependency and the quality of the Information System success was multi-dimensional. IS success tool is evaluated based on the effectiveness of its achievements to meet the organizational or individual goals.
3.5 Part 2- question e: Measures of success description.
To achieve the correlation there was sufficiency added to the system. There is an efficiency that is logical that is attainable once sufficiency is included. This is the adjudicator among one or more suffiency but conditions of desired effect. The connection of the model of conceptualized Information Systems success is restricted to the necessities.
Figure: Updated DeLone-McLean Model of Information System
4. Answer to Part 3: A new IS system to support HAS suggestion
There are various components to be kept in mind while designing the new IS and these are, Procedures and processes that define the specifications of the processed and analyzed data to achieve the goals, hardware’s for computer-based IS, Software’s like tools and programs that will enable the users to organize and analyze data, database that will enable the system to maintain everything into structured folders and tables and a Network that will connect different departments into one Information Systems. There is also a need of the Geographic Information System that should be included so that it can manage all the geographical data the train reaches up to. The new IS to support the Human Activity System of the G:Train should be a combination of the software and specific analysis tasks to support a particular task with the help of HAS.
4.1 Part 3- question a: A new IS identification using Porter’s Value Model (listing of stakeholders and creation of goals).
The Value Chain Model of Porter the new Information system will identify the measures that can be cost effective to the organization with opportunities listed. The model enables the organization to recognize goals that can economics of sales, learning methodologies, utilization of capacities of the network, linking Human Activity System with the value chain, Interconnections between the units the business follows, Geographical location and many more activities. The IS will represent all the interlinked activities with a weight that is equalized in every task and procedures. This also enables the firm to changes. There is an advantage to the IS if integrated with the Porter’s Value model because it can influence the competitive advantage to the firm and the HAS. These benefits can be, cost reduction, differentiation in the competition with new measures, increased business success and profitability, Increase in the efficiency, decreased degradation of resources and waste, higher value to the organization.
| LISTING OF STAKEHOLDERS: | GOALS: |
| Referential Level(Executives) | Systems related to Information |
| Senior Management | Systems that Support other systems |
| Managers who are in Middle | Information Systems that performs Management |
| Workers/Employees | Transmission Process System. |
4.2 Part 3- question b: Information and Data of a new system (type of knowledge creation and decision making information.)
Done with respect to the resolving issues in an environment that is enacted with the means of behaviors of processes related to each other. It can also be termed as processing of information to remove the equivocality from the informational inputs. This is done looking at the views of the information gathered in the IS with an insight that is creative and with the help of which the organization creates new innovation and processes to mitigate existing problems from the existing system. The strategies of the firms decision making and knowledge creation is the way the organization runs through the organizing processes.
4.3 Part 3- question c: Process model using the BPMn notation for the new information system you have identified
Figure: Diagram of a process model using BPMn notation for a new IS.
4.4 Part 3- question d: New IS Classification of G-train (front-end, back-end, customer facing) and explaining why it is being used
The new Information system within G-train is classified based on the information use hence can be divided into two modules namely, Management supporting system and Operations Supporting system. The aim of development of an operations supporting system is to ease the business negotiation, production controlling, upgrade the database that is central and support communication that is both external and internal. On the other hand the Management supporting system comprises of other subsystems that can be categorized as Information system related to accounting, management IS, decisions supporting system and systems for experts. The frontend is the operations supporting system that the user sees while the backend is the infrastructure supporting this system that is management supporting systems. This system gives the higher authorities access to the routine decision making procedures which facilitates specific solutions related to issues at hand.
4.5 Part 3- question e: Dimensions of impact of proposed new IS for identification of intended and positive effects and describe a new system.
The IS should be able to track the communications generated from all the departments including HAS. The new proposed IS can have a very significant impact on the G:train industry. It can restructure the organizational activities in an efficient manner and can help the firm to strengthen the position of competition and to change the process of the business and how it functions. The formulation to a successful IS and stakeholder management is to follow a constant set of protocols. There is a necessity to have a reporting and tracking of data from the initial phase of the new implementation to facilitate the employees and management departments.
4.6 Part 3- question f: Success measures Triple E- Efficiency, Efficacy and effectiveness of new proposed IS.
Success measures of proposed Information System with regards to Efficiency, Efficacy and Effectiveness are, Efficiency shows the performance level with the least amount of inputs and produces highest amount of output.
- Efficiency: Efficiency enables restructuring of resources and removal of unnecessary resources so as to increase the production which can save personal time and energy. Efficiency can be measured using the ratio of input and total output. This helps the reduction of waste such as resources, energy and time while getting the desirable outcome.
- Efficacy: Effectiveness of the proposed IS bridges the gap between the literature conceptualization and fulfillment of the variables of the earlier discussed models Delone and Mclean. This effectiveness assesses the performance between the traditional IS and the new IS proposed and it reveals the classification of the working environment.
- Efficacy: The success with regards to the efficacy of the IS revealed the impact of the context and conceptualization of the cultures decentralization of the IS. The efficacy reinforces the bridge between the operational systems and the detriment of system of IS.
5. Answer to Part 4: Recommendations:
- The new proposed IS activities should have a substantial history researched starting from the views of management systems and development units and also sourcing of technology.
- The opportunities for future has been highlighted and revealed. The patterns gathered from the literature study a framework that is very comprehensive is being presented.
- The study found out the opportunities, methodologies and an expansion in the control level of the management procedures.
6. Conclusion
From the discussion cited above it is clear that G-Link is an operations service that is very precise and functions with lots of domains merged together as one. The existing HAS needed an updating with the growth of the requirements. The rapid transport system had a significant impact in the business of the firm and workload increased with the increase in possibilities and opportunities. There are a lot of changes to be made in the IS. To bridge the gap between the operations a new system of IS needed to be created and implemented. The entire paper focuses on the development of new IS and its implementation.
