Master Thesis Defense - December 11, 2019: Modeling Business Process Workflow of SMEs Using Environment Based Design with a Case Study of Valtech Fabrication Incorporation

Mojtaba Niazalizadeh Moghadam

Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at 10:00 a.m.
Room EV003.309

You are invited to attend the following M.A.Sc. (Quality Systems Engineering) thesis examination.

Examining Committee

Dr. C. Wang, Chair
Dr. Y. Zeng, Supervisor
Dr. F. Mafakheri, CIISE Examiner
Dr. A. Akgunduz, External Examiner (MIAE)

Abstract

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) account for over 95% of firms in most countries. In Quebec, SMEs account for 96 percent of all businesses. SMEs are important for economic growth and they are strong contributors to productivity. Some of the challenges of SMEs are lack of financing, difficulties in using technology, constrained managerial capabilities, or inefficient productivity.

Among Challenges of Small and Medium Size Companies (SMEs), finance and inefficient productivity can be considered as two of the most important issues that slowdowns their growth. Finance issues can be referred to as lack of money in investing in new technology, hiring competent resources, investing in new equipment, and etc. that all have an impact on the productivity and efficiency of the company. To improve the financial status of a company and increase the profit that is necessary for their growth, we can either increase the revenue or decrease the expenses. The objective of this project is to target the finance issue as well as inefficient productivity of the SMEs and improve both of them by developing a workflow model. Workflow refers to a method for improving business process management, and an effective workflow can help the decision-makers in an enterprise to develop pathways leading to the reduction of costs and wastes. It employs the Environment Based Design (EBD) methodology which not only designs an effective workflow but also analyses the environment of the business to find the root causes of the issues to help the SMEs improve their finance issue by increasing the operation and production efficiency and effectiveness.