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Social network analysis
Social network analysis is a set of survey methods and statistics that reveal the hidden connections between people and provides a useful tool for understanding how these connections develop over time and their impact on employee productivity and job satisfaction.
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A major global investment banking and securities firm
A major international financial services institution uses the information gleaned from IBM's social network analysis solution to streamline its IT support and infrastructure operations.
A major global investment banking and securities firm
A major international financial services institution works with IBM Global Business Services to leverage the information gleaned from IBM's social network analysis solution to devise a knowledge management "road map" for its Legal and Compliance group.
A major healthcare insurance company
This solution applied the tools and methods of IBM’s Model-Driven Business Transformation capability to the needs of a major insurance company. IBM developed new models and linkages that helped enhance the company’s ability to monitor its business processes and make modifications in response to changes in the external environment.
A major steel manufacturer
A steel manufacturer was dealing with a changing business environment and needed to cut costs and be more efficient to stay competitive. Learn how IBM helped the manufacturer optimize four production areas and achieve efficiency gains and cost reductions.
A major U.S. financial services company
IBM helps major financial institution re-engineer its IT architecture to improve operational performance and flexibility.
A national food wholesaler
To meet its five-year growth and profitability targets, a national food wholesaler needed new strategies for pricing, account management and customer profitability. IBM combined industry experts from IBM Global Business Services, world-class analytic skills from IBM Research and client specialists to do a discovery study identifying initiatives with high potential impact. The in-depth analysis helped the client pinpoint strategies and pricing methods for improved business results and develop a business case for implementing the initiatives.
An international airline
An international airline wanted to reduce costs by making the processes of assigning aircraft to parking slots and scheduling engine maintenance more efficient. To help with parking, IBM built a user-friendly application that contains advanced mathematical models and algorithms that find the optimal solution for parking any set of aircraft over a specific period of time. To help with maintenance scheduling, IBM developed an engine management application that reduced the time needed to create a schedule and helped reduce operational and rule violation costs by 30%.
Bayer HealthCare Research
This collaborative research project was designed to help Bayer tackle challenges that face decision makers in pharmaceutical research facilities and, indeed, across industries: streamlining activities among key players – in this case, biologists and chemists, as well as specialized research facilities, such as high-throughput screening laboratories.
BostonCoach
BostonCoach needed to increase fleet utilization, reduce service refusals, increase same-day business, rapidly vary capacity up or down to meet demand and quickly bring in affiliates when necessary. IBM developed a dispatch optimization system to optimize drivers’ schedules and enable the client to respond to changing conditions. The new system resulted in improved fleet utilization and allowed the company to maintain its 99% on time pickup record.
El-Al Israel Airlines
An international airline wanted a more efficient way to build schedules that would reduce the variable cost of flight crews and crew utilization as much as possible. IBM developed an optimizer that uses advanced mathematical models and algorithms, paired with parallel processing, to consider billions of possible combinations and find the optimal solution to meet all criteria.
NIBCO
NIBCO looked to IBM for ways to streamline its inventory control process without a significant integration effort in deploying a new standalone system and to better meet customer needs, The solution – natively integrated to NIBCO’s existing solutions – not only helped reduce inventory levels and save time and money, it also capitalized on the company’s previous technology investment.
POSCO
Customer demands for shorter fulfillment cycles were having a negative effect on profitability because of the higher production costs associated with increased surplus (partly used steel slabs). IBM helped POCSO to lower production costs and respond to new customer demands by applying IBM Research’s production design and operations optimization capabilities.
Swiss Post
Recognizing the need to optimize its automated coding process, Swiss Post engaged IBM to develop system enhancements that significantly improved its parcel sorting. The solution increased accuracy and speed of address recognition, resulting in more efficient, cost-effective parcel handling.
Zhe Jiang Mobile Communications Corporation
A subsidiary of one of the world’s largest mobile telecommunications operators. Zhe Jiang Mobile Communications (ZMCC) recently worked with IBM Research Services to enhance employee collaboration and knowledge sharing.
IBM Research Constraint Solver
The IBM Research Constraint Solver models and solves complex problems through the examination and prioritization of myriad variables and constraints.
Inventory optimization with SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence
Supply chain design and optimization can be a cost-efficient way to add value across an enterprise, and IBM has developed a solution that can help trim costs, improve customer service and boost cash flow.
Pharmaceutical production refactoring tool
IBM scientists, business consultants and software specialists have developed a new tool that applies scientific and systems-based approaches to help manage complexities and reduce risks in pharmaceutical production.
Risk and Compliance
IBM Research uses a systematic approach to assess, measure and manage operational risk in various dimensions: people, process and technology.
Changrui Ren
Changrui Ren is working to develop process-centric supply chain transformation tools.
Nathaniel Mills
IBM Researcher Nat Mills is applying his expertise in advanced analytics to help improve performance monitoring and maintenance scheduling for complex systems.
Sheng Lu
With network performance a key component of successful e-commerce businesses, HiPODS engineer Sheng Lu is helping develop network performance analysis tools that can pinpoint problems that hamper Web operations and slow down network performance.
Workforce Analytics
Efficient workforce management is a key strategy in streamlining operations and reducing costs in a highly competitive global market.
Xing Fang
With user experience a prime differentiator for e-commerce businesses, HiPODS engineer Xing Fang is helping develop performance improvement methodologies that can be shared across industries and platforms.
Improving operational resiliency and efficiency
IBM Research Services helps companies survive in an on demand environment by enabling them to quickly adapt their operations and make smarter decisions on how to use their resources.
More on the issue
Becoming an On Demand Business: Innovation New Ground
Innovative approaches to building an On Demand Business can directly improve operational performance – enhancing employee productivity, reducing cycle time or elevating customer retention rates.
Related research
IBM Research: Operations Research
Operations Research's current application areas include: supply chain modeling and optimization, manufacturing planning and scheduling, and forecasting, among others.