Niclas Bodin, Filip Cronberg · Lund University Publications Student Papers (Lund University) · 2006
Problem: The corrugated board industry is highly affected by customer uncertainty, various demands and short delivery times. In combination with a complex multi-step production process managers have to be able to identify bottle-necks and gain knowledge and understanding of how different changes in process will affect the production output. <br/><br/> Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is twofold, (1) to examine applicability of complexity theory through agent-based modelling on a production process (2) to identify improvement areas in order to increase the production output at SKS production site in Eslöv, by modelling and simulating the production process through an agent-based model. <br/><br/> Method: The chosen method of this study is a combination of a case study and a complex system approach. The empirical data was collected through interviews, observation and document studies which were analysed through an agent-based simulation model. <br/><br/> Conclusions: Through the holistic complex system approach and by iteratively exploring the SKS production process’s components the authors were able to distinguished essential factors of the production process wherefrom the complexity emerged. The production process exhibited several internal complex properties whereby the authors consider that SKS production process can undoubtedly be consider as a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). By mapping and utilising agent-based modelling the complexity of the system could be transferred to an agent-based model. Through analysis of the agent-based model the authors identified and simulated four improvement areas which provide possibility of an increased capacity utilisation and production output. Based on the results the authors recommend a higher individual freedom for the machines and a greater interaction both within the company and with the customer.
Cited by 0Open access
2016
Explaining the uptake of paediatric guidelines in a Kenyan tertiary hospital – mixed methods leadership.
Cited by 0
Alex Bennet, David Bennet · Elsevier eBooks · 2004
Cited by 16
Eric D. Schwab, Kenneth J. Pienta · Medical Hypotheses · 1996
Cited by 86
2004
Cited by 0
Francisco Gomes de Matos · DELTA Documentação de Estudos em Lingüística Teórica e Aplicada · 2010
Americanae nace como un proyecto conjunto que surge dentro de la Red Europea de Información y Documentación sobre América Latina (REDIAL), y que ha afrontado la Biblioteca de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID). Esta nueva biblioteca virtual hace más accesibles los libros digitales de tema americanista a los investigadores y usuarios interesados de cualquier parte del mundo.
Cited by 168Open access
Walter Buckley · 2008
Originally published as Buckley, W. (1 968). Society as a adaptive system, in W. Buckley (ed.), Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist, Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing Company. Reprinted with kind permission. Although the phrase complex adaptive is one usually thought to have been coined at the Santa Fe Institute sometime during the 1990s, we can see by the title of this classic paper that the systemsoriented social thinker Walter Buckley had already been using the phrase complex adaptive as early as 1968 and with pretty much the same connotations as it is used today. Thus, similar to how the phrase is contemporarily employed, Buckley explicitly crafted complex adaptive to counter an equilibriumbased, closed view of systems which he felt was endemic at the time of his writing this paper. The idea that the dynamics of social systems were dominated by an equilibriumseeking tendency had become entrenched in social thought ever since the great economist Vilfredo Pareto (who, interestingly enough, had also introduced early speculations on power-law type distributions which are so popular today in complexity circles) had enunciated it strongly in his early version of sociology in the late nineteenth century. For Pareto, as was true among most economists at the time (and, as hard to believe as it is, is still so), equilibriumseeking dynamics were at the core of economic theory (for a discussion of the idea of equilibrium-dominating in social and psychological systems, see Goldstein, 1990, 1995). According to Laurence Henderson (1935), himself an early general systems theorist from within the discipline of physiology (and from which Walter Cannon had derived his own notion of physiological homeostasis), Pareto's thesis at the Polytechnic School of Turin was on the mathematical theory of equilibrium in elastic solids. Pareto had it that a social system was bound by equilibrium, as in any mechanical system so constructed, which meant that the system would automatically return to its former state after any sort of perturbation of its key variables (within a certain amount; see the Appendix below for Henderson's mathematical formulation of this understanding of equilibrium). Henderson also indicated how close Pareto's equilibrium model of social systems was to the equilibrium model of physical chemistry put forward and made a keystone of that discipline Le Chatelier. It was against interpretations of social dynamics as being dominated by equilibrium that Buckley offered his inspired exposition of adaptive systems. Unlike a system governed by a propensity to return to equilibrium after being disturbed, and in so doing losing structure as entropy increased, Buckley's adaptive systems built-up structure as they adapted in the face of new internal and external interactions. Buckley's classic paper Society as a Complex Adaptive System (Buckley, 1968) can be seen as providing a useful bridge between the interests of complexity scientists and those of social entrepreneurs as they struggle to apply the concepts of adaptive systems to societal (social) change and innovation. The paper exemplifies the early sociological formulation of the concepts of complexity and system-adaptation in the context of social value creation and societal change. Buckley's career as an American sociologist spanned the micro-meso-macro social divides by bringing a pragmatic understanding to social contexts that both social entrepreneurs and complexity scientists will appreciate. In general, Walter F. Buckley (1922-2006) is considered a pioneer in the field of modern social systems, sociology, and sociocybernetics. His early academic career resulted in the publication of Sociology: A Modern Systems Theory (1967) in which he constructed a foundation for a very contemporary-sounding dynamic, morphogenic conceptualization of coevolving social structures that was not dependent on the ideas of equilibrium- or homeostasis-seeking processes. …
Cited by 122
Mark Turner · 2001
Subject Psychology Psycholinguistics Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online
Cited by 0
Joseph Engler · 2009
Cited by 3
Hicham Assoudi, Hakim Lounis · 2015
Many algorithms and approaches were proposed to deal with the problem of automatic schema matching and mapping. Yet, managing uncertainty and complexity for Schema Matching still remains as an open question. The challenges and difficulties caused by the complexity characterising the process of Schema Matching motivated us to investigate how the application of a bio-inspired emerging paradigm can lead us to understand, manage and ultimately overcome the inherent uncertainty in this process. The central idea of our work, is to consider the process of matching as a complex adaptive system and model it using the approach of agent-based modeling and simulation. The aim being the exploitation of the intrinsic properties of the agent-based models, such as emergence, stochasticity and self-organization, to help provide answers to better manage complexity and uncertainty of Schema Matching.
Cited by 0
Khaled Haris, Ci̇han H. Dağli · Procedia Computer Science · 2011
In this paper, an approach for adaptive reconfiguration of architecture of a complex system using computational intelligence techniques is proposed. This paper establishes that the simulated change in the relative importance of rules reflecting the significance of customer's key performance attributes could be used to affect architectural evolution. The proposed approach was demonstrated on a sample system. It was also extended to a general system. The evolving system architecture gave the system an adaptive feature in the sense that it accepted alternative components based on the simulated changes in the environment. Architecture alternatives were generated through genetic algorithms (GA), while fuzzy logic was used to determine the fittest architectures based on the ambiguous multi-dimensional performance attributes provided by the customer modeled in quality function deployment (QFD). The weights of fuzzy associative memory (FAM) rules were randomly changed to simulate results of environmental effects and demonstrate how the system would self-adapt.
Cited by 14Open access
Meghan Carmody‐Bubb · 2023
This chapter provides an overview of complex adaptive systems, including conceptual definitions, theoretical developments, and criticisms.
Cited by 1Open access
2021
Integrated systems of societies and environments can be viewed as complex adaptive systems, described by Gunderson and Holling as systems “in which components adapt and change with their environments, leading to unpredictable outcomes”. Their study corresponds to the more general theoretical frameworks of complex systems and self-organization, which are also used in archeogeography and geography, providing a bridge and an area of common interest between these disciplines and ecology. The recurrence of different morphological principles reveals regularities in landscape forms, making it possible to differentiate between an organization and its environment; these principles suggest that the structure of a self-organized network is the result of interconnections between different elements. In archeogeography, transitions are marked by the disappearance of the morphological characteristics that indicate the reproduction of plot and road networks over time. In archeogeography and geography, reorganization is considered as the appearance of a new system, marked by a new phase of morphogenesis and systemogenesis.
Cited by 0
Richard M. Smith, Mark A. Bedau · 2000
Cited by 0
Edward J. Oughton, Will Usher, Peter Tyler et al. · Complexity · 2018
National infrastructure systems spanning energy, transport, digital, waste, and water are well recognised as complex and interdependent. While some policy makers have been keen to adopt the narrative of complexity, the application of complexity‐based methods in public policy decision‐making has been restricted by the lack of innovation in associated methodologies and tools. In this paper we firstly evaluate the application of complex adaptive systems theory to infrastructure systems, comparing and contrasting this approach with traditional systems theory. We secondly identify five key theoretical properties of complex adaptive systems including adaptive agents, diverse agents, dynamics, irreversibility, and emergence, which are exhibited across three hierarchical levels ranging from agents, to networks, to systems. With these properties in mind, we then present a case study on the development of a system‐of‐systems modelling approach based on complex adaptive systems theory capable of modelling an emergent national infrastructure system, driven by agent‐level decisions with explicitly modelled interdependencies between energy, transport, digital, waste, and water. Indeed, the novel contribution of the paper is the articulation of the case study describing a decade of research which applies complex adaptive systems properties to the development of a national infrastructure system‐of‐systems model. This approach has been used by the UK National Infrastructure Commission to produce a National Infrastructure Assessment which is capable of coordinating infrastructure policy across a historically fragmented governance landscape spanning eight government departments. The application will continue to be pertinent moving forward due to the continuing complexity of interdependent infrastructure systems, particularly the challenges of increased electrification and the proliferation of the Internet of Things.
Cited by 86Open access
(:Unkn) Unknown · Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin) · 2022
The ASLAN labex - Advanced studies on language complexity - brings together a unique set of expertise and varied points of view on language. In this volume, we employ three main sections showcasing diverse empirical work to illustrate how language within human interaction is a complex and adaptive system. The first section – epistemological views on complexity – pleads for epistemological plurality, an end to dichotomies, and proposes different ways to connect and translate between frameworks. The second section – complexity, pragmatics and discourse – focuses on discourse practices at different levels of description. Other semiotic systems, in addition to language are mobilized, but also interlocutors’ perception, memory and understanding of culture. The third section – complexity, interaction, and multimodality – employs different disciplinary frameworks to weave between micro, meso, and macro levels of analyses. Our specific contributions include adding elements to and extending the field of application of the models proposed by others through new examples of emergence, interplay of heterogeneous elements, intrinsic diversity, feedback, novelty, self-organization, adaptation, multi-dimensionality, indeterminism, and collective control with distributed emergence. Finally, we argue for a change in vantage point regarding the search for linguistic universals.
Cited by 0Open access
Intellect eBooks · 2023
Cited by 0
Jianrong Shen, Hongzhi Liao · 2002
Base on the complex systems, we establish the evaluation model, in which we bring the variable weight in the model to adjust indices which affect the whole systems. The results for system evaluation are multipurpose, including the degree of operation expansion, harmonisation, stabilization and flexibility between subsystems. Also, the parameters in the models are discussed.
Cited by 0
Timothy M. Lenton, Marcel van Oijen · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2002
We define the Gaia system of life and its environment on Earth, review the status of the Gaia theory, introduce potentially relevant concepts from complexity theory, then try to apply them to Gaia. We consider whether Gaia is a complex adaptive system (CAS) in terms of its behaviour and suggest that the system is self-organizing but does not reside in a critical state. Gaia has supported abundant life for most of the last 3.8 Gyr. Large perturbations have occasionally suppressed life but the system has always recovered without losing the capacity for large-scale free energy capture and recycling of essential elements. To illustrate how complexity theory can help us understand the emergence of planetary-scale order, we present a simple cellular automata (CA) model of the imaginary planet Daisyworld. This exhibits emergent self-regulation as a consequence of feedback coupling between life and its environment. Local spatial interaction, which was absent from the original model, can destabilize the system by generating bifurcation regimes. Variation and natural selection tend to remove this instability. With mutation in the model system, it exhibits self-organizing adaptive behaviour in its response to forcing. We close by suggesting how artificial life ('Alife') techniques may enable more comprehensive feasibility tests of Gaia.
Cited by 114Open access
Thow Yick Liang · Institutional Knowledge (InK) - Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University (Singapore Management University) · 2005
Cited by 1Open access