Marcelo T Okano

Fernando A S Marins

Oduvaldo Vendrametto

How information systems assist the management of the supply chain in an emerging country like Brazil

Keywords: IT, SCM, information systems

IT has an important role in the performance of companies, provides a flow of information that makes the supply chain become more robust and resilient, without compromising efficiency. Most companies are applying IT systems, mainly in Supply Chain Management (Supply Chain Management -SCM) to enhance their performance in competitive global markets. The research is important because it will provide a study of what are the IT systems used to manage the supply chain and likely future trends. To achieve the objective of this work was carried out a survey with consultants and professionals in IT and supply chain who work in large companies. To collect the data needed for analysis, we used the exploratory research of a qualitative nature. Thus, we can conclude that the use of IT in the supply chain directly impacts in the areas of planning, manufacturing suppliers, customers and delivery.

Introduction

Rapid technological change and the need for information are always available to customers and suppliers, practically, is mandatory that all companies involved in any supply chain, use the Information Technology (IT). Companies seek to adapt to this scenario focusing on performance, seeking to improve the level of service and reduce costs in an attempt to differentiate and increase the perceived value of their customers [START_REF] Bandeira | Information technology in supply chain management: the case of the industry of gases[END_REF]. IT has an important role in the performance of companies, provides a flow of information that makes the supply chain become more robust and resilient, without compromising efficiency. Most companies are applying IT systems, mainly in Supply Chain Management (Supply Chain Management -SCM) to enhance their performance in competitive global markets [START_REF] Kuo-Jui | Information technology in supply chain management: a case study[END_REF]. According Prajogo & Olhager [START_REF] Prajogo | Supply chain integration and performance: The effects of long-term relationships, information technology and sharing, and logistics integration[END_REF] IT can assist the SCM in the following aspects. First, it allows companies to increase the volume and complexity of information that needs to be communicated with its trading partners. Secondly, it allows companies to provide real-time information in the supply chain, including inventory levels, delivery status, and production planning and scheduling which enable companies to manage and control their supply chain activities. Third, it also facilitates the alignment of forecasting and scheduling operations between enterprises and suppliers. The research is important because it will provide a study of what are the IT systems used to manage the supply chain and likely future trends.

Literature Review

SCM has always been a challenge for information integration. The idea is to allow everyone involved in the flow of goods can make decisions based on the latest information and better than all others, both upstream and its downstream. The company manages its supply chain better get your product from point of origin to point of consumption in the shortest amount of time with the lowest cost [START_REF] Davenport | Enterprise systems and the supply chain[END_REF]. According to Patterson et al. [START_REF] Patterson | Adopting new technologies for supply chain management[END_REF] a variety of factors can affect the decision of an organization to adopt and implement a technology that provides supply chain. The authors classify them into five broad categories: individual, related to task characteristics related to innovation, organizational and environmental. The authors also suggest that these factors may be important to different degrees, depending on the context or technology. Information systems (IS) are combinations of technologies and people's activities using that technology to support operations, management, and decision--making [START_REF] Iguider | Toward Next Generation E-Marketplace for Small Business[END_REF].

IS provide many different solutions for almost all areas of business, the SCM uses some. Patterson et al. [START_REF] Patterson | Adopting new technologies for supply chain management[END_REF], point 18 IT systems applied to SCM. Table 1 shows the description and associated applications of various software, hardware and management systems. Allows the realization of industrial designs on the computer screen that can be stored, manipulated and updated electronically. BI Set of applications that organizes and structures the transaction data of an organization, facilitating the analysis in order to benefit the operations and decision support. EDI It is the electronic transfer of data between business partners. The data is structured according to standards agreed in advance between the parties. Divided into two categories: traditional EDI, using services of value--added network, and WebEDI with access forms online (Internet). Fleet tracking Can be based on satellite transmission or by cell phone for tracking and monitoring of vehicles, being applied to control performance and safe transport. The data generated by this system feeding the TMS and WMS. AQC Responsible for monitoring the processes of quality assurance, inspection, specifications and calibration of measuring instruments.

MES

Planning systems that aim to optimize and synchronize their use. Supports the exchange of information between production planning and control of the production process through the monitoring and tracking of raw materials, equipment, personnel, instruction and production facilities.

TMS

Responsible for controlling the transport of loads, determining the modal, freight consolidation managing and coordinating the efforts of transport.

WMS

Optimizes operating activities (material flow) and administrative (information flow) in the process of storage, tracking and controlling the movement of inventory in the warehouse. Its use is restricted to operational decisions, such as: definition of collection routes, addressing products, etc.. CRM Tool to unify customer information and create a single, centralized interactions and anticipating customer needs. It also provides control of promotional activities and their impact on demand as well as the control of activities of product warranty. PDM Manages information related to products, serving as an integration tool that connects different areas of product development.

RF

Facilitates communication, providing essential information on the status of the products. Support tool that automates and improves the management of operations, eliminating human error. SCP Assists in the planning, execution and measurement of processes, including modules for demand forecasting, inventory planning and distribution.

DFS

Uses mathematical methods that manipulate historical data and external data to forecast demand for products and services. In general, integrated systems, such as ERP and SCP. WIS Facilitates internal and external processes of enterprises, integrating enterprise information systems. In SCM, the WIS more presents are e-procurement and e--market place, which are systems of process automation corporate purchases.

B2B

Electronic marketplaces where suppliers and buyers interact to conduct transactions. It is an e--business, that is, relations between companies. ERP Unified system that integrates departments and functions of the company. Improves the flow of information chain in such a degree that it has become a standard operation.

Morais and Tavares [START_REF] Morais | Use of information technology in managing supply chain in São Luís do Maranhão and opportunities for the development of local suppliers. Interações[END_REF] highlight several benefits provided by IT systems, as shown in table 2:

SCP

Obtaining the real data demand, time and inventory.

ERP

Integrating and efficient flow of information in organization and / or between it and its partners.

Other authors reported the following benefits of the integration of IT and SCM: Sanders et al. [START_REF] Sanders | IT applications in supply chain organizations: a link between competitive priorities and organizational benefits[END_REF] showed a direct relationship between the use of technology in SCM and it was reported that organizations use IT more than normal in your industry, to achieve more operational benefits such as reduced costs and cycle times.

Levary [START_REF] Levary | Better supply chains through information technology[END_REF] suggests that the benefits include: 1. Minimizing the bullwhip effect, 2 . Maximize the efficiency of conducting activities along the supply chain, 3 . Minimize inventory throughout the supply chain, 4 . Minimize cycle times along the supply chain, 5 . Achieve an acceptable level of quality throughout the supply chain. Dias et al. [START_REF] Dias | Integrated management of the supply chain[END_REF] list the following benefits achieved by the use of IT in SCM: ( i ) sharing instant information , (ii ) sharing programs that increase operational efficiency , ( iii ) real--time monitoring of the consumer load ; ( iv ) development of global sales channels (v ) reduction of inventories , and ( vi) greater flexibility .

These benefits can be obtained as the level of installation and use of IT systems, which directly affects the performance of the supply chain.

Methodology Type of Research

To achieve the objective of this work was carried out a survey with consultants and professionals in IT and supply chain who work in large companies. To collect the data needed for analysis, we used the exploratory research of a qualitative nature. For Gil [START_REF] Gil | How to develop research projects[END_REF], the exploratory research aims to provide greater familiarity with the problem in order to make it more explicit . Zikmund [START_REF] Zikmund | Business Research Methods[END_REF] considers that exploratory studies are conducted to clarify ambiguous problems, research is needed to better understand the dimensions of the problems . The qualitative approach presents a reality that can not be quantified or measured items and involves subjective reality research. You can work with the data without specific statistical treatment, seeking understanding of reality [START_REF] Costa | Research Methodology -Concepts and Techniques[END_REF] . The research can be categorized as "survey" as it involves the question directly to respondents, members of a significant sample of the research universe and whose behavior you want to know, because their results can lead to conclusions corresponding to the data collected [START_REF] Gil | Methods and Techniques of Social Research[END_REF].

Sample and Actors Research

The actors of the research are:

• IT Consultants • Supply Chain Consultants.

• Employees of companies working with IT and Supply Chain. Questionnaires were sent to 60 companies and 14 responded and, of these, most opted not to disclose the name or corporate fantasy for strategic reasons.

Research Instrument

For Gil [START_REF] Gil | How to develop research projects[END_REF] , most cases of exploratory research involves literature review and interviews. The interview, at Gil [START_REF] Gil | Methods and Techniques of Social Research[END_REF], is a technique in which the researcher has investigated against him and asks questions, the objective of obtaining the data of interest to research. The research instrument of this work consists of a questionnaire with closed and open questions. Some of the responses were directed by the interviewer, in the form of performance notes which aim to detect the degree of importance, according to the intensity of perception for that aspect. 2) Legacy systems, CAD, BI and WMS, had a use of 11 of the companies surveyed (71.4%) as noted in Figure 02. Legacy systems provide operational benefits as accesses to data and legacy systems, but are still used by companies. The BI organizes and structures the transaction data of an organization, facilitates the analysis in order to benefit the operations and support their decisions. To Morais e Tavares [START_REF] Morais | Use of information technology in managing supply chain in São Luís do Maranhão and opportunities for the development of local suppliers. Interações[END_REF], the benefits obtained with CAD are creating movements in design allows testing before production, reduced time for product development, design creation of better quality to facilitate communication with partners , greater flexibility and faster responses in the design modifications and offer input to the computerized manufacturing, whereas for the WMS, the benefit is the improvement of the distribution process. 3) The EDI and its use, as demonstrated in Figure 03, was reported by 9 of the 14 companies surveyed (64.2%). The main benefit presented is the possibility of integration between organizations in applications like accounts payable, inventory control, shipping and production planning. 04, are present in half of the companies surveyed (50%). Halves of the companies answered "No", this may indicate that these companies have caution in using these systems, or are not convinced about the benefits that they can provide since some benefits are geared more for planning than for operating as satisfaction and loyalty through CRM, obtaining the real data demand, time and inventory by SCP and forecast demand for products and services obtained from the DFS, as shown Morais and Tavares [START_REF] Morais | Use of information technology in managing supply chain in São Luís do Maranhão and opportunities for the development of local suppliers. Interações[END_REF].

Figure 04 --Use of CRM, SCP and DFS 5) Among the seven fleet tracking systems, AQC, MES, TMS, WIS, PDM and RF, shown in Figure 05, five of the 14 companies surveyed -- (35%) -- answered "Yes" Tracking fleet, AQC, MES, TMS, WIS and 6 companies (42%) answered "Yes" to PDM and RF. Research has shown that the benefits offered by these systems as fleet management and cargo, flexible manufacturing process and high--quality, cost reduction and efficient management of freight, reducing expenses distribution warehouses, etc., relate to processes and management and not with the operational benefits, which does not make them attractive for use by all companies. 6) In both B2B and RFID systems, shown in Figure 06, we note that the systems were less used by 14 companies surveyed, 4 for B2B companies (28.5%) and 3 companies for RFID (21.5%). It can be deduced that the low utilization is on the point that the two systems need specific equipment for deployment and the benefits are not operational.

Conclusions

The research achieved the objectives of verifying the main IT systems used in the supply chain and what are the most commonly used by businesses. All systems surveyed in the literature are used by respondents, and the most used are those that offer operational benefits such as ERP, barcode, legacy systems, CAD , BI and WMS . New technologies also " scare " companies which leads to them not adopt these technologies more quickly when launched, as found in research with B2B and RFID. It was noticed that the systems for planning and management of SCM, and their usage in enterprises are increasing. Thus, we can conclude that the use of IT in the supply chain directly impacts in the areas of planning, manufacturing suppliers, customers and delivery. As a future project, expected to use these items for review and creation of indicators in order to measure the level of impact in different areas of the company. The matter does not end here, is a contribution to future discussions on the subject and quest for improvement of systems analysis of information technology in supply chain management .

Acknowledgment

CNPq, for making it possible and funded this research.

Figure 01 -

 01 Figure 01 --Use of Barcode and ERP

Figure 02 -

 02 Figure 02 --Use of legacy systems, CAD, BI and WMS

Figure 03 -

 03 Figure 03 --Use of EDI

Figure 05 -

 05 Figure 05 --Use of fleet tracking, AQC, MES, TMS. WIS, PDM and RF.

Figure 06 -

 06 Figure 06 --Use of B2B and RFID

Table 1 --IT systems applied to SCM Technology Description

 1

	Legacy	Legacy Systems are mainframe--based systems that operate at the operational
	Systems	level in only one stage. They are constructed as independent blocks, which
		hinders their communication with other systems. Systems were first used in
		SCM.
	Barcode	Technology for the allocation of computer readable codes on items, boxes and
		containers. Employed to improve the data transmission speed and precision of
		the information. It is used in managing inventory, warehouses, supermarkets
		and so on.
	CAD

Table 2 -

 2 -Benefits of IT systems applied to SCM

	Technology		Benefíts
	Barcode	--Replaces the process of collecting and exchanging information paper, with
		risks of error and rework constant.
		--Rapid deployment,
		--Easy to use
		--Compact Equipment
	CAD
		--Creation of movements in the drawing, allowing testing before production.
	Fleet tracking --Contribute to the management of the fleet and cargo and to control the hours
		of service of drivers
	MES	-Flexible manufacturing process and high quality.
	TMS	--Reduction of costs.
		--Efficient management and coordination of freight transportation efforts.
	WMS	-	Improvement of the distribution process.
	CRM	-	Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty
	RF	Reduction of the costs of distribution warehouses, retail and handling
		stockouts.

--Reduced time for product development --Creating better quality drawings to facilitate communication with partners --Greater flexibility and faster responses in the design modifications --Offer data entry for computerized manufacturing EDI --Possibility of integration between organizations in applications like accounts payable, inventory control, shipping and production planning.

Analysis of results

The survey showed that all IT systems reported by Patterson et.al. [START_REF] Prajogo | Supply chain integration and performance: The effects of long-term relationships, information technology and sharing, and logistics integration[END_REF], are used by some of the companies surveyed. The systems that are most commonly used by companies are those that provide greater operational benefits, as Sanders et.al. [START_REF] Sanders | IT applications in supply chain organizations: a link between competitive priorities and organizational benefits[END_REF], including: 1) Barcoding and ERP, shown in Figure 01, were the most used systems in 11 of the 14 companies surveyed (78.5%). The companies surveyed confirmed the operational benefits that offer the use of the barcode as ease of use and elimination of paper in data collection and integration and efficiency in the flow of information in the organization and / or between it and its partners in the case of ERP [START_REF] Morais | Use of information technology in managing supply chain in São Luís do Maranhão and opportunities for the development of local suppliers. Interações[END_REF].


Dr Susanne Altendorfer-Kaiser
email: susanne.altendorfer@unileoben.ac.at

Information flow management as cornerstone for streamlining business processes

Keywords: information flow, information systems, streamlining business processes, business software

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of an information flow management (IFM ) and to show a way how IFM can streamline business processes. First a definition of relevant terms is given. Then the paper demonstrates how IFM can be applied to an industrial case in order to streamline and support the business processes.

Introduction

Information flow management (IFM) and In formation systems (IS) are crucial factors for co mpanies in all lines of business. Within the years the requirements to do bus iness have changed and got more co mplex. [START_REF] Hacker | Informationsflussgestaltung als Arbeits-und Organisationsoptimerung[END_REF] Thus the companies' structures have to respond to these new situations with changing the way they are doing business. Traditional structures are no longer appropriate. New technologies and services, like location-based services, Internet of Things, Cloud Logistics and new technologies in the area of auto-ID technologies urge companies to adapt their processes and the way they do business. This change leads towards the introduction of Informat ion flow management to optimize the effectiveness of companies. [START_REF] Hacker | Informationsflussgestaltung als Arbeits-und Organisationsoptimerung[END_REF] Here, knowledge becomes an integral production factor. And knowledge is based on information. This paper describes how IFM can be regarded as cornerstone for streamlining business processes. Therefore the paper sketches the value of IFM for companie s described with a use case example from the automotive near industry.

Terms and Definitions

The competitiveness of companies in the future is strongly influenced by the way they do business. Here, knowledge becomes an integral production factor. And knowledge is based on informat ion. Nowadays informat ion is omn ipresentit is the time of the so-called information society. Not only in our private lives we are co nfronted with informat ion also the daily business is formed by an informat ion overload.

Especially for co mpanies the right in formation at the right time is nowadays a crucial asset. Barney 3 defines information as one resource (among others) that enables "the firm to conceive of and implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness". Nevertheless it is not the quantity that is important. It is the quality of information that comes into value.

In order to talk about the quality of informat ion in general and for logistics in pa rticular, it is important at this point to define the terms data, information and knowledge, to connect information and logistics in a more appropriate way.

─ Data: The noun data is defined as facts and statistics collected together for refe rence or analysis. The term itself comes from the Latin plural of "datum". ─ Information: For this paper the relevant definition of informat ion is defined as something that is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence.

The term informat ion origins in the Latin verb "informare" (in English" to inform"), wh ich means 'to give fro m' or 'to form an idea of'. Furthermore the Lat in noun "informatio" had already had the meaning of concept and idea". ─ Knowledge: Knowledge comes fro m the verb "to know", wh ich is of Germanic origin Erreur ! Source du renvoi introuvable. Knowledge means facts, informat ion, and skills acquired through experience or education and can refer to theoretical and practical understanding of a s ubject. Furthermore it can be div ided between implicit and explicit knowledge.

After having defined the terms it is furthermore relevant to bring these terms in a context, which is shown in Fig. 1. Floridi defined the general definition of information (GDI) as a tripartite way: σ is an instance of information, as semantic context, if: ─ (GDI.1) σ consists of one or more data; ─ (GDI.2) the data in σ are well-formed; ─ (GDI.3) the well-formed data in σ are meaningful Erreur ! Source du renvoi introuvable..

For this definit ion "well-formed" means, as also shown in Figure 1, that the data are clustered together correctly, according to the syntax (o rder). And "meaningfu l" means that the data complies with the semantics (meanings). Referring to the Art.No. example, the single characters are meaningful in co mbination with the adden dum of 'Art.No.'. And this mean ingful informat ion with relevance can then be defined as knowledge, which again is relevant for companies. Knowledge is not only relevant it is an essential factor for co mpanies. Surveys state that the percentage of knowledg e at the value creation within a co mpany is above 60 % Erreur ! Source du renvoi introuvable.. Nevertheless, surveys also reveal that employees use more than 40 % of their working time looking for the right information 1.

These circu mstances lead to the necessity that an efficient information flow is ne cessary for every co mpany nowadays. Out of the production point of viewas especially the production is dependent on the right info rmation at the right timethe need for an informat ion flow management, which can be subsumed to informat ion logistics, comes up. Here the focus of information logistics is strongly on data and information, as shown in Erreur ! Source du renvoi introuvable..

Fig. 2. Importance of the term 'information' for IFM

Especially data, its generation, storage and use in form of in formation is essential for the material flow. Thus the link between in formation and business processes can be set up.

Information Flow Management

Nowadays information is o mnipresentit is the time of the so-called information society. Especially for co mpanies the right information at the right time is nowadays a crucial asset (That is what an efficient IFM is about). Barney [START_REF] Barney | Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage[END_REF] defines information as one resource (among others) that enables "the firm to conceive of and imp lement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness". Nevertheless it is not the quantity that is impo rtant. It is the quality of information that co mes into value. But it is not only the quality of information that matters. What's even as important is that the information is at the right time at the right place. Here the six R's of logistics ma tter for the proper information flow management.

The following table shows the six R's of logistics applied on information. [ To support the realisation of an adequate IFM within the company, t he concept of IT as enabler of process change is still on the forefront although dates already back to [START_REF] Davenport | Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology[END_REF] and [START_REF] Hammer | Reengineering the Corporation: A M anifesto for Business Revolution[END_REF]. A change in information systems is possible as the technological progress over the years has opened new possibilities to support the organizational reenginee ring. However, informat ion system aspects have often been left out of consideration in reengineering projects. In formation systems often have had and still have the status of being a matter of course and therefore their integration is often not thoroughly considered [START_REF] Kawalek | Rethinking Information Systems in Organizatons. Integrating Organisational Problem Solving[END_REF]. Thus companies are far too often behind in their informat ion technologies. Software systems are often out-dated and poorly structured. The need for agile software architecture to support IFM becomes evident when the need for more flexib ility and reduced costs in the daily business urges companies to restructure.

Martin [START_REF]Transport-und Lagerlogistik.Planung, Struktur, Steuerung und Kosten von Sy stemen der Intralogistik[END_REF] defines a co mpany as an open, socio-technical system with an organis ation that has the goal to supply its customers in a satisfactorily way and by doing so making profit . As open system it has a lot of interfaces to the outside world, as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Interfaces of a Company [translated to English based on [11]]

Highlighted in this figure is the information flow, which runs in parallel to the mater ial flow. This already shows the importance of a defined informat ion flo w and a well established information flow management. And an IFM is not only necessary for intra-company flows but also for the whole supply chain. Vogt puts a lot of weight on the importance of information along the supply chain: "Informat ion regarding the demand for, quality of the products, and other factors such as financing, and guara ntees, will flow up and down the supply chain to keep every member info rmed of the current state of affairs pertaining to their products. This in formation must be t imely and accurate as the manufacturing of the products must be adjusted to th e demand as quickly as possible" [START_REF] Vogt | de Wit PWC: Business Logisitics M anagement: Theory and Practice[END_REF]. This is just one statement pointing out the importance of the information flow. Thus the demand for information flow management and appropriate Informat ion Systems is obvious. IFM has a great potential to support the processes of a company and the whole production area. Especially init iatives like "Cyber-physical Systems", "Internet of Things" and "Industry 4.0" are strongly heading in the direction of smart factory and horizontal and vertical integration along the supply chain. At this point IFM will be an essential cornerstone. And as technologies enable new software architectures, it makes sense to introduce not only standalone software systems but business software to support a proper IFM. In this context Sundblad [1 3] states that business software is often introduced for exactly one reason: "It should support the bus iness and its activities to increase the productivity and efficiency of the bus iness". The advantage of business software lies in the fact that business software can be integrated in all relevant business processeslike sales, production, after sales -to get a higher scale effect.

The following chapter will illustrate a use case where IFMbased on business software integrationis used to streamline business processes.

Use Case Domain

The research area for this use case is the automotive-near industry with a research partner that develops and sells engine test bed systems. These products are examples of automation systems. A test facility system basically measures, records, and visua lizes numerous values provided by sensors according to test plans. The test facility requires appropriate parameterizat ion for that purpose. Due to the various different use cases of test facilities, test facility systems have to be adapted according to customer-specific requirements. Typical test facilit ies consist of hundreds of thousands of components. According to Martyr "an engine test facility is a complex of machinery, instrumentation and support services, housed in a building adapted or built for its purpose. For such a facility to function correctly and cost -effectively, its many parts must be matched to each other wh ile meet ing the operation al requirements of the user and being compliant with various regulations" [START_REF]Engine Testing: Theory and Practice[END_REF].

A typical business process chain in the do main of this use case, shown in Fig. 4 as coarse-grained overview, covers aspects from product management, sales and order fulfillment (equal to production) to the customer service.

All processes are considered as a separate phase with several sub -processes, each having separate handover breaks and requirements. Taking a closer look however on the software systems in use along the process chain it beco mes obvious that many different systems are used and many interfaces are needed to enable an information flow. Nevertheless all handover breaks and interfaces, even if they are automated, are a potential risk for informat ion loss: These gaps cause a significant informat ion loss and cause ext ra manual conversion and transfer efforts. Moreover relevant informat ion might be lost throughout the process chain, and information needed in the progression of the project might not be available, as the importance of these data might not be clear upfront.

However, implementing an efficient information flo w management that is supported by an integrated informat ion system can streamline th e business processes. This requires an information flow management that is implemented by integrated business software along all processes.

Benefits of an IFM approach

Through the integration of a software system as business software, indicated as a constant banner in Fig. 5, an efficient IFM can be established. Thus all essential processes will be supported and it will have predefined interfaces to other tools, wh ich are relevant for the processes. While the new business software is the technical bac kbone for the information flo w, the other tools, indicated as tool 1 t ill tool n, are main ly used for individual matters.

Fig. 5. IFM supported process chain

The application of this concept has individual benefits on the different processes within an organisation. Therefore all relevant informat ion has to be added gradually to the software system. This constant informat ion flow also enables a better fault manag ement as the information flow is integrated along all processes.

Business Sof tware

An IFM achieves not only benefits through an integrated information flow along the processes. IFM has also effects on the processes themselves. In general there are two relevant points where first savings can be achieved:

1. a reduction of cycle times can either be achieved with an elimination o f process steps or with 2. the shift of process steps to upstream processes.

The first one can be achieved, as the system offers the possibility that process steps are done automatically. The latter one enables a cost reduction as several process steps can be done earlier in the process for less costs.

Fig. 6. Business Process Streamlining

First analyses show that savings between ten and fourteen per cent can be achieved. This first analysis, however, is only based on scenarios where the business software usage to enable IFM is main ly concentrated on the project execution phase. With a process-wide implementation, as shown in Fig. 6, even mo re savings can be achieved. Costs savings in a two-digit percentage range are expected.

Conclusion and future work

In this paper the benefits of an information flow management, realised by the use of integrated business software are described in the context of the automotive industry. It described the effects of a business software usage on the processes and on the company as a whole. Generally speaking it can be stated and also proven with first results, that an integrated business approach with IFM can have an enormous effect on the business process within an organisation. The applied research in the area of industrial automation systems proves applicable and undermines the positive effects of IFM. This approach promises to overcome information loss along the value chain and most important it supports business processes.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Definition of the term 'information' 1

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Schematic Process Chain

Table 1 .

 1 2] 6 R's of Logistics applied on Information[START_REF] Augustin | Informationswirtschaft und Informationslogistik im Industrieunternehmen[END_REF]

	Right Information	Necessary for the user
	Right Time	Decision-supportive
	Right Quantity	As much as necessary
	Right Place	Accessible for the user
	Right Quality	Detailed enough and usable
	Right Costs	Reasonable PRice


Inger Gamme
email: inger.gamme@hig.no2catrine.larsson@hig.no

Catrine Eleonor Larsson

Enablers and Disablers for Operational Integration in a Craft Oriented-versus a Mass Production Enterprise

Keywords: Craft, mass production, operational integration, information sharing, collaboration

de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction

The increasing challenges that production companies are facing nowadays must be met by corresponding improvement in the efficiency of the supply chain. To be able to cope with the complexity that continuous changes cause, it is important not only to focus on improving each process step, but also to ensure that there is integration between the process steps. Under these conditions, optimization of collaboration and information sharing could provide a competitive advantage [START_REF] Zhou | Supply chain practice and information sharing[END_REF]. In existing research there are few empirical studies focusing on antecedents to integration [START_REF] Basnet | Nurturing Internal Supply Chain Integration[END_REF].This article focuses on the similarities and differences in operational integration between internal process steps in the production line of a craft-oriented manufacturer versus an industrialized mass producer (hereafter referred to as "CP" and "MP", respectively). Therefore, the overall aims of this article are as follows:

 What are enablers and disablers for operational integration?

 Is there a difference between these two sectors? 2 Theory

Craft oriented vs mass production

Five different production paradigms are in use in modern times: Craft Production, Mass Production, Flexible Production, Mass Customization and a paradigm that has become relevant in recent years, sustainable production [START_REF] Jovane | Present and Future of Flexible Automation: Towards New Paradigms[END_REF]. In this article we focus on Craft and Mass production.

Craft oriented enterprises are typically organized in a more informal way than larger companies and are characterized by the use of tacit knowledge and, typically, a flat organizational structure with few resources [START_REF] Nonaka | The knowledge-creating company[END_REF]. They often have a fire-fighting mentality with an emphasis on ad hoc decision making [START_REF] Garengo | Performance measurement systems in SMEs: A review for a research agenda[END_REF], and tend to have different needs and decision making process than larger firms [START_REF] Shrader | Strategic and Operational Planning, Uncertainty, and Performance in Small Firms[END_REF]. Operational processes seem to be more acknowledged than managerial processes. Craft production can be defined as: "Skilled workers, using general purpose machines, making exactly the product that the customer paid for, one product at a time " [START_REF] Koren | The global manufacturing revolution: product-process-business integration and reconfigurable systems[END_REF].

Mass production can be defined as manufacturing a very large amount of identical products, and selling them to customers that the company is sure will be there to buy them. An increase in production volume requires more standardization of the processes. At the same time, an increase in production volume also makes it possible to reduce prices, thereby making it possible for more customers to buy the products [START_REF] Jovane | Present and Future of Flexible Automation: Towards New Paradigms[END_REF] .

Operational integration

Many authors have focused on the interdependencies between two different process steps, but the content and framing varies, and many authors refer to the topic of operational integration without presenting a specific definition [START_REF] Pagell | Understanding the factors that enable and inhibit the integration of operations, purchasing and logistics[END_REF]. The term "coordination" has been used to describe managing dependencies between activities, meaning arranging the work tasks of two or more groups so that the groups can work together efficiently and hence achieve a common understanding of the work done by each of the groups [START_REF] Malone | The interdisciplinary study of coordination[END_REF]. The common goals for the groups are aligned, but the groups are separately responsible for performing their own work tasks [START_REF] Cao | How are supply chains coordinated?: An empirical observation in textileapparel businesses[END_REF].

In the literature there has been considerable emphasis on the "why" of integration, but comparatively little focus on how to achieve good integration [START_REF] Basnet | Nurturing Internal Supply Chain Integration[END_REF][START_REF] Pagell | Understanding the factors that enable and inhibit the integration of operations, purchasing and logistics[END_REF]. Promoting a positive attitude towards other departments is one way in which line managers can enhance integration [START_REF] Basnet | Nurturing Internal Supply Chain Integration[END_REF]. In addition, when departments are equally responsible for achieving their aligned company goals, this circumstance tends to improve operational integration. Degree of operational integration can depend on elements such as reward systems, amount of formal and informal communication, organizational structures, and even different company cultures might [START_REF] Pagell | Understanding the factors that enable and inhibit the integration of operations, purchasing and logistics[END_REF][START_REF] Braunscheidel | Investigating the impact of organizational culture on supply chain integration[END_REF]. Job rotation is also shown to be effective, and has been found to be mildly connected to integration in small companies, and strongly connected to integration in make-to-order companies [START_REF] Basnet | Nurturing Internal Supply Chain Integration[END_REF]. Different companies may have different needs with respect to integration [START_REF] Turkulainen | Managing cross-functional interdependencies-the contingent value of integration[END_REF]. Aiming towards full integration is not always the answer, and as argued by Katz and Kahn [START_REF] Katz | The social psychology of organizations[END_REF], integration can be pushed too far.

Method and material

The data presented in this article represent two different research initiatives. The two companies were chosen because they represent two different production paradigms, and the aim of this study was to examine the question of whether operational integration varies according to the type of organization.

The first case study was funded by the Norwegian Research Council, and was undertaken with the primary objective of developing effective, competitive and profitable production within a leisure boat and craft-oriented industry in Norway. The goal of preserving the craft tradition while moving towards industrialization was emphasized. The case company used primarily manual manufacturing processes.

The second case study was an independent research initiative by two PhD Candidates whose projects were funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The aim was to study mechanisms for operational integration in the production line. The company chosen was a car component producer for commercial vehicles, one that produced a high volume of products. This company was also located in Norway, but was part of a larger group with operations on four continents.

A case study is one of various ways of doing science. It is a useful approach to understand complex social occurrences and to achieve understanding of organizations [START_REF] Eisenhardt | Theory Building from Cases: Opportunities and Challenges[END_REF]. Table 1 lists the essential characteristics of the two case companies. This research is based on two single case studies. The use of fewer cases facilitates more in-depth analysis, but affords less opportunity to draw generalized conclusions. To increase the robustness of the research [START_REF] Patton | Qualitative evaluation and research methods[END_REF], data triangulation was used. It can be achieved by the use and combination of different methods such as surveys, interviews, observations and content analysis of documents to study the same phenomenon [START_REF] Yin | Case Study Research. Design and Methods[END_REF]. Prior to both studies a research protocol with an interview guide was worked out. Several semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify the operational integration for the production lines and its enablers and disablers. Semi-structured interviews are defined as planned interactions for which some predefined guidelines are outlined, so the informant can provide important insight into facts in addition to their opinions on a desired topic [START_REF] Yin | Case Study Research. Design and Methods[END_REF]. The informants were given the possibility to answer freely and to offer additional information. In addition to the interviews, content analysis of documents, formal and informal meetings and direct observations were performed. Most of the time at both companies was spent on the shop floor interacting with the workers. Typically the focus of these meetings was on clarifying questions and discussing findings and special issues.

The collected data were recorded on a dictation machine, analyzed and coded into main categories [START_REF] Yin | Case Study Research. Design and Methods[END_REF][START_REF] Tjora | Kvalitative forskningsmetoder i praksis[END_REF] to identify the mechanisms for operational integration.

Findings and discussion

To organize the data, categories are developed on the basis of previous work by different researchers who have found the overall mechanisms for integration to be culture at the plant, degree of vertical integration and formalization, facility and layout, degree of use of information systems, consensus on integration and measurements and rewards [START_REF] Basnet | Nurturing Internal Supply Chain Integration[END_REF][START_REF] Pagell | Understanding the factors that enable and inhibit the integration of operations, purchasing and logistics[END_REF][START_REF] Turkulainen | Managing cross-functional interdependencies-the contingent value of integration[END_REF][START_REF] Bowersox | 21st century logistics: making supply chain integration a reality[END_REF]. The mechanisms from the different researchers are combined and further developed to form the basis for the organization of our data. These categories and findings are shown in Table 2. It should be mentioned that some of the enablers and disablers could fit into more than one group.'  Not adequately maintained.  Team board meeting, foremen/management meeting,  Self-made system for production planning  Few KPI's, not decomposed into functional measures  Some visual systems established Table 2 continued. Enablers and disablers for integration in the MP and the CP

Culture, Social mechanisms and creation of lateral relations.

Company culture is found to affect integration. Thus, when problems arise in achieving integration, it might be helpful to try to change the culture [START_REF] Braunscheidel | Investigating the impact of organizational culture on supply chain integration[END_REF].

The culture at the two plants was experienced as quite similar, despite the different structures. At both plants the operators called for more information from the management. In contrast, few of them saw the need for sharing/receiving information beyond their own process step, saying; "I have too much to do with my own work". The foremen played a superior role in information sharing, but even more at the CP than at the MP. This could make the foremen a bottleneck for information sharing.

Job rotation is found to contribute to achieving integration [START_REF] Basnet | Nurturing Internal Supply Chain Integration[END_REF].At both plants there had occasionally been a rotation of workers, and this was experienced as providing more knowledge of the rest of the value chain.

Vertical integration.

Both companies had an informal culture with respect to interaction between operators and management. However, the MP had more formal systems for this interaction.

The CP had one team board located in the molding department. Each morning the foreman and the operators met at the board to plan what was going to be produced. Prior to this meeting, the management and the foremen had their daily morning meeting, and the meeting in the molding area was based on output from this meeting. The MP had one team board at each department, and the team leader participated in both these meetings. In this way the team leader acted as a connecting link between the team boards. The CP did not have the same degree of driving force for integration.

Formalization and standardization.

Standardization is one mechanism that drives integration [START_REF] Bowersox | 21st century logistics: making supply chain integration a reality[END_REF], and this was found to differ between the two companies. As a result of its decades of experience with certified quality systems, the MP had several standardized procedures for information sharing. Each department used a team board and several visual systems. Despite this, there seemed to be different perceptions among some of them in terms of how information should flow.

The CP had little bureaucracy. They had earlier been ISO 9001 certified, but the systems lacked updating. A visual system for material handling was established in the previous year. The overall impression was that information sharing was more verbal than written, and that information flow was mainly single sourced, where the foremen was referred to as the person primarily responsible for information sharing.

In both companies it was experienced that the operators lacked trust in systems and found it necessary to double check information. Some called to check if emails had been received, and some verbally verified the content of operation formulas as they perceived them as insufficiently trustworthy. To achieve integration it is essential that employees comply with established and standardized systems [START_REF] Bowersox | 21st century logistics: making supply chain integration a reality[END_REF].

Facility & Layout.

Both companies had small facilities, with short distances, but had separators between the process steps. The MP had a minor wall with an open connection, while the CP had a separation with a door. The presence of these partitions led to functional silos with separate cultures on each side of the partitions, and little understanding of each other's daily challenges. None of the companies had routines for job rotation, which could have contributed to increasing the understanding of the problems that occurred at the other stations and further contributed to a more holistic view of the company [START_REF] Basnet | Nurturing Internal Supply Chain Integration[END_REF].

Information systems.

The CP made little use of IT systems, and those that existed were uses primarily by the management. Some of the operators had earlier been responsible for updating the process descriptions, but in more recent years the production manager had updated them. At the MP, the operators used tools such as e-mail and registration of production data in the ERP system. But, according to one of the operators, approximately 90% of the communication was verbal. An explanation of why operators had mistrust of the IT systems at the MP could be, as claimed by one of the informants: "The IT strategy does not correspond with the overall company strategy". Use of information systems does not necessarily affect the integration positively, since how and if the information is being processed also is of importance [START_REF] Galbraith | Competing with flexible lateral organizations[END_REF].

Consensus / integration. To achieve the overall company goal, it is important to decompose the strategy into "subtasks" relevant for the employees [START_REF] Malone | The interdisciplinary study of coordination[END_REF]. At the CP the overall strategy was well known to all workers. However, there was little translation of this strategy into functional measures. At the MP some overall goals were decomposed into functional tasks at the production level and visualized on the team boards. Despite this, it did not seem as though the overall strategy was clear enough to all.

Measurement and rewards.

Both companies used common rewards for the departments in their value chains. The CP had bonuses per boat produced, while the MP used verbal acknowledgements per number of improvement proposals. These practices are in accordance with research that notes the importance of having aligned goals for the departments [START_REF] Cao | How are supply chains coordinated?: An empirical observation in textileapparel businesses[END_REF].

Summary of findings

Table 3 summarizes the similarities and differences from the findings in the study.

Conclusion

The aim of this study has been to enable a better understanding of similarities and differences in mechanisms for operational integration in a craft-oriented versus a mass production enterprise. Although these companies belong to different production paradigms, they had several common enablers for integration: little hierarchy, informal culture, little distance between process steps, mutual rewards. The differences was found in degree of standardization and formalization, foremen functioning as connecting links between team boards and the fact that overall strategy is well known in CP, while departmental strategy is more known in MP. The common disablers for integration were found to be related to culture and physical hinders in location.

The study has focused on creating new insight into enablers and disablers for operational integration in two different production paradigms and how these differ. The experiences from this study could also contribute to providing operational guidance to similar types of companies who want to improve their operational integration. Generalization from only two single studies can of course be open to critique, but this study should contribute to building a theory of operational integration. Future research should focus on attaining more empirical results to gain knowledge of mechanisms that contributes to achieving operational integration.

Table 1 .

 1 Case Company Characteristics

	Characteristics	Craft Producer	Mass Producer
	Years of study	2008-2012	2012-2013
	Main product	Leisure boats	Commercial vehicle components
	Number of employees	20	37
	Formal interviews	12	11
	Part of value chain	Molding, pre-assembly,	Injection molding, assembly
	included	assembly
	Type of informants	Operators, foremen, manager,	Operators, production manager,
		production manager.	foremen, planner, tool manager,
			quality technician

Table 2 .

 2 Enablers and disablers for integration in the MP and the CP

	Categories developed from	Findings at Mass Producer	Findings at Craft Producer
	literature
	Culture
	 Values, understandings, way	 Used to standardized work	 Little information sharing
	of thinking	 Some lack of confidence in systems	mentality
		 Main focus on own work station,	 Ad hoc culture
		minor focus on overall value chain.	 Lack confidence in systems
		 Prefers verbal communication	 Standards rarely used
	 Informal communication	 Informal culture	 Informal culture
	 Connecting links	 Foreman connects team boards	 Foremen main source for
			information
	 Cross functional teams	 On higher levels	 Not standard procedure
	 Job rotation	 Not standard procedure
	Vertical integration
	 Informal culture between	 Informal culture, little hierarchy	 Small organization, little
	management and operators	 Foreman connects team boards	hierarchy
	 Small organization and little	 Departmental meetings each week,	 Informal culture
	hierarchy	separate days per dept.	 Meeting with all employees
			 Management not driving
			force to attain integration
	Formalization
	 Policies, rules, certification	 ISO/TS 16949, ISO 14001, lean	 ISO 9001 -not maintained.
	 Job descriptions	 Standardized work descriptions
	 Standard procedures, tech-	 Shift log, mail, verbal communica-
	nical reports	tion etc.
	 Charts, information process	 Department meetings, team board
	practices etc.	meetings, shift overlap meetings
		 SAP, Excel sheets
	 Strategic planning, functional	 KPI's established, some decom-
	plans, scheduling	posed to functional measures
	 Performance control	 Kanban, visual logistics planning,
	 Visual systems	visual tool status

Table 4 .

 4 Summary of similarities and differences from the findings in the study.

	Characteristics	Similarities	Differences
	Culture	 Lack confidence in systems	 Experience with standardized
		 Prefer verbal communication	work
	Vertical Integration	 Little information sharing mentality  Foremen main source for information	 Foremen connecting link between
			team meetings
	Formalization	 Informal culture  Little hierarchy	 MP more standardized than CP
		 Little distances.
	Facility & Layout	 Physical hinders
		 Functional silos
	Information systems Consensus integra-tion	 Lack of trust in IT systems  Several operators focus mainly upon their own process step	 Different use of IT systems  Company strategy well known in CP less in MP  Departmental strategy well
	Measurement, re-	 Rewards includes more than one	known in MP minor in CP
	wards	department


Nikos Papathanasiou

Dimitris Karampatzakis

Dimitris Koulouriotis

Christos Emmanouilidis

Mobile Personalised Support in Industrial Environments: Coupling Learning with Context -Aware Features

Keywords: NFC, mobile support, e-maintenance, context awareness

The human response time to events in a manufacturing environment depends both on the available skills and competencies of technical staff but also on the extent to which actionable and task-relevant content is readily available when and where is needed. Relevance itself is determined by the task situation context, which in turn is influenced by many factors. This paper presents the development of a context-aware mobile support system for personalised assistance in industrial environments. Combining the individual strengths of learning and content management systems with the ubiquity of delivering relevant content to users carrying NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled mobile devices, the system aims at both enhancing personnel competences as well as their work efficiency. The developed solution is customised to serve an industrial maintenance-support application scenario, wherein the relevant context is determined through location and asset identification, as well as through task and user profiling, offering practical on the spot mobile support.

Introduction

The continuous increase in the inherent complexity of modern industrial production environments exerts greater pressure on personnel, required to operate in a safe and efficient manner to meet overall production and task-specific goals. This is especially the case for personnel involved in maintenance tasks, where high technical skills and competences are sought. Specific sectors, involving safety critical processes, such as aerospace or nuclear industries, have reached a level of maturity which is not tolerant to human errors or unforeseen events. But while safety concerns can be of paramount importance in such cases, a much wider potential impact on improving technical personnel response time in most typical manufacturing sectors has been less well explored [START_REF] Ab-Samat | Reduction of response time during machine breakdown: a case study in semiconductor industry[END_REF]. Maintenance staff is required to possess a wide, multi-disciplinary and constantly up-todate skill set in order to efficiently perform their everyday work tasks. On the individual worker level, a steadily updated set of competences can improve work opportunities in a global volatile job market. Technology-enhanced solutions should support agile production and work roles so as to meet challenges in a fast changing manufacturing environment [START_REF] Meixner | User interaction evolution in the SmartFactory[END_REF].

The complexity of modern production lines may be overwhelming for both new employees and older generation ones, thus preventing them from unfolding their true capacities. An obvious improvement would be the provision of on-site support for their work activities, providing the right supporting content to the right personnel at the right time. The appropriate alignment of supporting content and services to the real needs of a specific situation would be a key enabler for making a mobile support solution to be of practical use. This paper presents a context-aware mobile support system, which employs NFC identification and performs basic context data acquisition, such as location, time and user information, as well as a Learning Management System (LMS) for content handling and user roles management. The developed solution provides personalised support to industrial maintenance personnel, thus enabling them to improve their task response time, while also supporting their overall job-related skills development.

The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 outlines the need for providing documentation support in industrial environments, highlighting past efforts and challenges. The importance of involving context identification and context-aware adaptation mechanisms is then discussed and the incorporation of Near Field Communication (NFC) is identified as an indirect method for supporting context identification in industrial settings. Section 3 presents an integrated solution that fuses the benefits of Content Management Systems (CMS) and LMS with NFC-enabled context identification mechanisms, in order to provide fast, intuitive and on the spot support to technical teams, thus supporting their work efficiency. Finally, Section 4 presents the main conclusions of the present work and highlights further research and development directions.

Contextualised Documentation Support in Industrial Environments

The readily access to technical documentation and practical guidelines is considered critical in order to support maintenance technicians during their job. This information is equally important to be accurate and closely related to the task assigned to technical staff. Employing mobile computers, wireless networks and identification-supporting technologies can facilitate the integration and delivery of task-relevant content on the spot, by applying context adaptation based on different context parameters. A key requirement for this context-driven adaptation is a method to acquire and fuse context information.

The concept of context was introduced in computing to provide an abstraction of the factors that need to be taken into account in delivering content to users, thereby personalising service delivery. An application can be considered as context-aware if it uses context to provide relevant content and services to the user [START_REF] Abowd | Towards a Better Understanding of Context and Context-Awareness[END_REF]. What is deemed to be relevant depends on several factors, which may be classified in broad categories, such as user, system, environment, service and even social context [START_REF] Emmanouilidis | Mobile guides: Taxonomy of architectures, context awareness, technologies and applications[END_REF]. In handling context, many issues can be taken into account. A basic context management loop includes acquisition of primary context data, their fusion for context identification or reasoning, and finally the dissemination of the identified context to the respective context-aware applications [START_REF] Perera | Context Aware Computing for The Internet of Things: A Survey[END_REF], which are responsible for the contextually-relevant presentation of content and services to the user. Context data acquisition and processing can be supported by a modelling abstraction, a form of context-widget or context engine that persistently collects and fuses context information, in order to disseminate it to any application that has been declared as interested for this context [START_REF] Dey | Understanding and Using Context[END_REF]. This continuous data acquisition on a hardware level is usually performed by networked sensors, which collect raw data from the environment and transmit them to the aforementioned widget to extract useful context information. An alternative to this continuous context information acquisition is to trigger this procedure based on user actions. This explicit initiation of context data acquisition has the benefits of lower power consumption and reduced volume of unprocessed context data [START_REF] Bravo | From implicit to touching interaction: RFID and NFC approaches[END_REF].

Context-aware service delivery presupposes an efficient way of acquiring and understanding context. In the simplest case, context is often linked to localisation and identification, both which can be served by NFC technology. NFC is a wireless communication technology between coupled inductive devices which is regulated by standards such as ISO/IEC 14443 and ISO/IEC 18092. According to these standards, the range of the antenna is short, usually less than 10 cm and the operational frequency is 13.56 MHz. The NFC standardized data rate of 424 kbps is limited compared to other protocols but it is still an efficient means of transferring credentials, short messages or initiating relationships [START_REF] Trottmann | NFC-Possibilities and Risks[END_REF]. The format of the NFC exchanged data is the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF), which is common to all NFC devices. An NFC message contains one or more records of the following types: simple text, URIs, smart posters or signatures [START_REF] Igoe | Beginning NFC: Near Field Communication with Arduino, Android, and PhoneGap[END_REF]. NFC communicating devices can be active or passive. An active device can act as initiator, whereas a passive device that can emulate a NFC card, using the RF field of an active device to communicate [START_REF] Vauclair | NFC[END_REF]. NFC identification offers a deterministic input modality as opposed to the probabilistic sources such as speech recognition which makes it appropriate for a deterministic and usually time-crucial industrial environment. NFC identification poses little overhead on the power consumption of the mobile device, thus rendering it suitable to be continuously executed. Embedded in low-cost mobile devices, NFC is essentially the evolution of short range RFID technology and has become a de facto standard, facilitating the emergence of new, context-aware applications [START_REF] Garrido | A Model for the Development of NFC Context-Awareness Applications on Internet of Things[END_REF].

Certain industrial sectors with relatively high demands in human technical expertise and relatively complex maintenance procedures were the first which attempted to introduce technology-enhanced support for personnel. In the aerospace sector, the replacement of workcards containing detailed guidelines on how to perform each maintenance task, with computer-based documentation systems was one of the first e-maintenance applications [START_REF] Drury | Relative advantage of portable computer-based workcards for aircraft inspection[END_REF]. Part of their initial concerns was to verify the quantitative and qualitative benefits of the new systems. A method to offer digital support material to technical staff operating at the shop floor that has been suggested by many authors is the use of Augmented Reality (AR) to superimpose computer-generated information on top of the real world environment. A major issue with AR is tracking, namely the accurate determination of the user's location, gaze direction, proximity and head pose estimation in reference to the surrounding objects and environment. Two prevalent solutions that have been proposed for this problem are either pre-applied tracking markers, or pre-built CAD models of the machinery positioning. Other methods that can be used for tracking but demand highly specialized hardware are strapped down systems with accelerometers and gyroscopes, ultrasonic pulse acoustic trackers or electromagnetic trackers. AR implementations require complex equipment and hardware intensive procedures, a substantial amount of preparatory work, requiring previous knowledge of the exact machinery placement [START_REF] Zhu | An authorable context-aware augmented reality system to assist the maintenance technicians[END_REF] and/or sophisticated image processing and rendering capabilities.

While AR usage is well-justified in certain cases, when generic supporting solutions with minimal customisation requirements are sought, there is a considerable potential in investing in the development of technician-centric applications that employ mobile devices and exploit the NFC identification technology coupled with content management offered by a customised Learning Management System, in order to provide on-the-spot context-aware learning and support to maintenance technicians. This work outlines the development of a mobile and context-aware supporting solution that instead of traditional workcards, employs e-support entries that are able to combine different interfacing options offered by modern mobile devices, as tablets, to provide an intuitive and interactive experience. The innovative point of the developed solution is the use of a Learning Management System as the base for the development of a new module that takes advantage of the offered user management and content editing capabilities and combines it with NFC identification for basic level context data acquisition, so as to provide context-adaptive mobile learning and task support. In previous research [START_REF] Papathanasiou | Context Aware E-Support in E-Maintenance[END_REF], the structure of the LMS based e-support system was described. The present work focuses on the context-awareness capabilities that are realized by processing stored knowledge and information acquired by NFC identification.

Building Context-Aware Mobile Support for Asset Management

In order to provide any kind of context-adaptive service it is necessary to receive some input from the environment that when appropriately fused can guide this adaptation. An industrial setting may impose particular limitations in relation to non-industrial environments. For example, GPS is rarely supported inside a building that may be shielded against electrical interference and noise levels may be too high to support voice recognition. Conversely, the developed solution involves specific identification capabilities, either for machine parts or for the involved technicians, combined with an LMS as the base platform for learning and content management (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Schematic Representation of E-Support Functionality.

A simple format for the stored information is considered sufficiently flexible and easy to process; therefore the selected NFC record type for this implementation is "Simple Text". The native mobile support application scans this information and parses the data. For the deployment of the mobile application an Android Nexus device was selected mainly due to the open-source tools available and NFC identification capabilities. An example of an NFC tag that is used is "asset:246" where the number 246 refers to the code of an asset. The information within the tag is transferred through web services to a Learning Management System on a Web Server that is mainly responsible for:

• Authenticate users and authorize user requests, • Locate the right support content to send to the mobile device,

• Provide an environment for editing and handling this content.

The selected LMS is Moodle (www.moodle.org), known for customization and expandability flexibility. Aiming to reduce power consumption on the mobile device, a lightweight NFC identification component with minimal processing requirements is developed, instead of a comprehensive context-widget. Thus, a large part of reasoning and processing is being delegated to the corresponding web server component. The latter is a custom-built Moodle module, responsible for handling content delivery service requests through web services and storing information derived from the mobile device such as new photos, voice comments, user bookmarks and interactions. This material can be used by authorized users to further enrich the system's content. The support information is delivered to the technician through intuitive and user-friendly mobile application interfaces, employing a simple and intuitive interaction model, as shown in Fig. 2. The communication between the mobile native application and the Moodle module is bi-directional, offering a two-fold benefit. First, the technician's feedback, acquired as annotated photos and voice comments, is stored to the server and can be used to further enrich the e-support content by the creation of new support entries. Second, the technician's profile is constantly updated, so as to have an integrated overview of all the tasks that have been dealt with when relevant support is requested. The coupling of a native mobile esupport application with a Learning Management System for the handling of all the recorded support content has some unique benefits. The LMS is literally a fully functional content management system dedicated to learning, which provides also a full set of user management capabilities. It is easy and intuitive to consider technicians as trainees with different levels of access to the learning content and the e-support entries as e-learning objects. These objects follow a predefined structure, enabling easier support information recording and retrieval. The following sequence diagram shows the basic NFC identification, web service requests and content retrieval actions (Fig. 3). The structure of the stored e-support data was designed to meet industrial requirements, based both on personal meetings with the industrial project partner, namely a Lifts manufacturing industry (Kleemann Lifts SA, http://www.kleemannlifts.com) and on a subset schema of the MIMOSA standard [15]. The internal requirements set by Moodle for the development of new plug-ins were followed so as to be able to install and communicate with other Moodle components. The structure was completed with the aim to be flexible for future content additions, regarding new technical documentation or input from authorised staff with expertise on a specific type of machinery. A critical design factor was the ability to integrate the mobile e-support system to larger comprehensive e-maintenance systems, providing a wide spectrum of web-service-based interconnectivity capabilities both on the Moodle module and on the native mobile application.

The diagram in Fig. 4 depicts the overall information model. The e-support table stores the e-support component installation data, the user comments table stores information provided by the technicians and the entries table stores all the basic support content, which may be accompanied by relevant files, such as images, pdf files or videos. The FMECA (Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis) table stores input from an external processing application enhancing the module interconnectivity within an integrated emaintenance platform [START_REF] Pistofidis | Modeling the Semantics of Failure Context as a means to offer Context-Adaptive Maintenance Support[END_REF]. The remaining tables target the categorization and easier extraction of the content. The many-to-many relation between entries and other tables enables content reusability. The actual implementation required some extra tables, ensuring compatible with Moodle component installation and future platform upgrades.

Conclusions and Further Work

The complexity of modern industrial asset facilities and the rapid adoption of technological changes require from technical personnel to maintain an up to date often multi-disciplinary skills-set. To reduce staff response time to events occurring at the shop floor, methods for the storage, management and delivery of task-relevant support content and services are needed. In this paper, the provision of context-aware maintenance support though mobile devices is presented. The mobile support system utilizes NFC identification to acquire basic location and asset information and employs a customized module within a Learning Management System for user and content management. Information acquired via NFC suffices to cover explicitly three out of five minimum parameters that are necessary to understand context, namely who, where and when [START_REF] Perera | Context Aware Computing for The Internet of Things: A Survey[END_REF]. The other two, namely why and what, are derived from the user interaction with the mobile device. The processing of such information along with task profiling are performed by a dedicated LMS-customized module. A joint benefit of the LMS-based content management and the NFC-based context-awareness approach is the overall concealment of the technical communication and context processing details from the end-user, facilitating system acceptance, through the use of simple and user-friendly interfaces. Another benefit is the enrichment of the stored data about learners and their context, which is a key step for the implementation of Learning Analytics as part of further research. A mobile support system that combines an LMS, NFC identification and context-awareness, is an efficient and cost-effective basis to offer on-thespot maintenance support, assisting maintenance personnel to improve their competencies as well as their work speed and efficiency.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. E-support mobile application and Interaction overview diagram.

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Mobile e-Support with NFC Identification Sequence Diagram.

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Mobile e-Support Database Schema.

Acknowledgements

Mobile support requirements and relevant content were offered by Kleemann Lifts and Mr Aggelos Papadopoulos contribution to this end is gratefully acknowledged. The project received financial support through GSRT grant 09SYN-71-856 (WelCOM project).


laterals in Tibetan. 1

The laterals in Classical Tibetan

The structure of the syllabe in CT is implicitely described in the writing system. Tibetan is famous amongst Sino-Tibetan languages for its unusually complex consonant clusters, that are paralleled only in the rGyalrongic languages within the family. Traditionally, the Tibetan grammarians distinguish four positions in initial consonant clusters :

1. sngon-'jug སྔ ོ ན་འཇུ ག་(g-d-b-m-'-ག་ད་བ་མ་འ་) 2. mgo-can མགོ ་ཅན་(r-l-s-ར་ལ་ས་)

ming-gzhi མི ང་གཞི ་(radical)

4. 'dogs-can འདོ གས་ཅན་(w-r-l-y-ཝ་ར་ལ་ཡ་)

The only position that must be filled with a consonant is the ming-gzhi, the other positions can be left empty. It is possible for both the sngon-'jug and the mgo-can positions to be filled at the same time, but then the sngon-'jug must be b-(groups such as *grt-are not found). Following the terminology used in Jacques (2004) for the rGyalrongic language Japhug, we will call preinitials both sngon-'jug and mgo-can, initial the ming-gzhi and medial the 'dogs-can. In Tibetan, unlike rGyalrongic languages, we do not find any process of partial reduplication that could help us to analyse the syllable structure. We must rely on the distribution of the phonemes to analyse the syllabe.

A basic constraint on the CT syllabe is that syllable with the same phoneme in the preinitial position and the medial position are not permitted (*rgr-, *lbl-): a similar constraint is found in Japhug (Jacques 2004: 72).

In CT, we find only two laterals, l-and lh-. The lateral l-appears in two kinds of clusters, as a preinitial, and as a medial. We find l-as a preinitial in the groups presented in

- (lk-) lkug-pa ལྐ ུ ག་པ་ lkog ལྐ ོ ག g- (lg-) lga ལྒ ་ lgang-pa ལྒ ང་པ་ ng- (lng-) lnga ལྔ ་ lnga-pa ལྔ ་པ་ c- lc- lca-ba ལྕ ་བ་ lci-ba ལྕ ི ་བ་ j- lj- ljags ལྗ གས་ ljid-pa ལྗ ི ད་པ་ t- lt- lta ལྟ ་ ltung ལྟ ུ ང་ lteb ལྟ ེ བ་ (blt-) bltams བལྟ མས་ « be born » 3 d- ld- ldab ལྡ བ་ lding ལྡ ི ང་ldug ལྡ ུ ག་ (bld-) only past / future tense forms p- (lp-) lpags ལྤ གས་ b- (lb-) lba-ba ལྦ ་བ་ lbu-ba ལྦ ུ ་བ་
Table 1 : The groups with l-mgo-can in CT.

From Table 1 it is obvious that l-occurs as a preinitial only before stops, and that examples are fairly rare with grave initials (labials and velars). There is no l-prefix in CT. Finally, the lpreinitial is incompatible with any medial: groups such as *lgr-or *lby-are unfound in the language.

The phoneme l-also occurs in the 'dogs-can position; these cases have been summarized in The implicit analysis given by the Tibetan script is that in these groups -l-is always medial. However, as we have already mentioned, b-/ g-can fill the sngon-'jug position and r-/ s-can fill the mgo-can position : in the four groups gl-, bl-, rl-, sl-we could assume that g-, b-, r-, s-are preinitials when -l-is initial. In Japhug [START_REF] Jacques | The laterals in Archaic Chinese[END_REF]Chen 2004, Jacques 2004), the patterns of partial reduplication allow us to disambiguate this kind of clusters: in partial reduplication, the medial consonnant is dropped, but no such morphological process exists in CT. Beyer (1992 : 74-78) has argued that in all these clusters except zl-, -l-is the real initial, his main reason being that no preinitial but b-can be added before these clusters : *skl-, *rgl-are unfound in the language. This insight comes from Tibetan grammarians.

The consonant lh-is analysed as a group l + h, l being mgo-can, but most researchers believe that this represents only a voiceless lateral [START_REF] Sun | Phonological Profile of Zhongu: A New Tibetan Dialect of Northern Sichuan[END_REF]: 787 presents a divergent view).

Historical reconstruction of Tibetan laterals.

In order to reconstruct the proto-system of Tibetan lateral, we have two sets of data at our disposal : firstly, the internal data, consisting of the alternations observed in word families containing laterals and internal reconstruction based on the distribution of the phonemes, and the external data, in particular the comparison with closely related languages such as Tamang or Bumthang.

If we exclude the groups with l-or hl-as a medial / initial in CT, there are many other series of group coming from laterals : zh-, lc-, lj-, rj-, md-, 'd-, lt-, ld-, phy-and by-.

The origins of zh-and lj-

The lateral origin of zh-is proven by external comparison. This fricative comes from a palatalized lateral. This has been noted earlier by [START_REF] Benedict | Sino-Tibetan: a Conspectus[END_REF]), Gong (1977), Coblin (1986) and [START_REF] Michailovsky | Preliminary notes on the languages of the Bumthang group[END_REF].

The first to propose that zh-comes from a lateral was [START_REF] Benedict | Sino-Tibetan: a Conspectus[END_REF] 33 -footnote 104), but only for the numeral "four". His interpretation was that *lyi > lji in CT, but that *blyi became *blji then bzhi because either *blji or *bji are impossible syllables in CT. Gong (1977[START_REF] Kwang-Jie 全广镇 - | 《汉藏语同源词综探》 ,台北:台湾学生书局 Jin Lixin 金理新[END_REF] : 391) proposed a similar rule according to which *ly-becomes zh-before preinitials b-and g-(*gly-> gzh-, *bly-> bzh-). Coblin (1986 : 15) Michailovsky and Mazaudon (1994 : 553), based on data from Bumthang, suggest that "the conditioning of the differential treatment *l > lj and *l > zh in WT might have been the presence / absence of a voiceless prefix, as reflected by the high/low tone of the Kurtoep reflexes". They present the data in Table 4 These comparisons are quite convincing, but it is not necessary to suppose that the prefix was voiceless to explain the high tone in Bumthang languages. In some Tibetan dialects that lost preinitials, sonorant preinitials of CT yield high tone, as in the Lhasa dialect (syllables coming from etyma with clusters like mn-, mng-, rl-in CT have high tone in this dialect). Our solution is to reconstruct *ly > lj-when preceded by a sonorant: *n-ly > lj-, *m-ly-> mj-and *r-ly-> rj-. We can add the following examples to those of The group brj-comes from *m-rly-in « to forget », the *m being denasalised in this position (there is no group *mrj-in CT). For the word rje "lord", we must reconstruct different prototypes in proto-Tibetan and proto-Tamangic, one with preinitial *r-, and the other with *g-. Also, Simon (1930 : 30) suggested that j-becomes zh-when preceded by b-and g-: *g-dy-> gzh-as in gzhom, future of 'joms "to destroy, to conquer" (where *dy-> j-, following Koerber's law).

In the present work, we will reconstruct *ly-in proto-Tibetan for all the zh-coming from a lateral, regardless of whether they are prefixed or not. This reconstruction is possible since no group *ly-exists in CT.

The reconstruction of lc-

There is little controversy on the reconstruction of this group in proto-Tibetan. All authors from Benedict (1972 : 39, We will adopt this reconstruction. However, not all cases of lc-come from *lhy-, eg : bltams-pa "to give birth to a child" / lcam "wife (hon.)", with a honorific -y-infix (*lt-y-am > lcam), as shown by Gong 1977Gong [2002 : 391] : 391] (for *ty > c-in CT, see [START_REF] Koerber | Morphology of the Tibetan language[END_REF].

The reconstruction of 'd-/ md-

It was recognized in Benedict (1972 : 111) that the Tibetan word mda "arrow" corresponded to words with laterals in other languages; such as Burmese mra:; but the explanation as a fortition of the lateral was not explicitely given : *ml-> md-.

Gong (2001 [2002: 198]) provides more evidence for this change in word families: mdan-pa མདན་ cheek ldan-pa ལྡ ན་ id.

Table 8 : Examples of md-< *ml-Since no cluster *ml-exists in CT, this explanation fits very well. As we have another nasal preinitial written with '-in CT, it is possible to reconstruct a group *nl-. Li (1933) proposed that this *n-l-(*'l in his notation) yields ld-through *d-l-in CT. This hypothesis was accepted by Gong (2000Gong ( , 2001) ) and Coblin (1986). However, we notice that the group 'd-also corresponds to laterals, as can be seen in Table 9. Therefore, we suggest that 'd-comes from *nl-in some cases, and this change is fully parallel to md-< *ml-. Another reconstruction will be necessary for ld-.

The reconstruction of lt-and ld-

The group lt-seems to come very rarely from a group with initial. The only clear example from word families is ltung, ltungs to fall » that is related to lhung, lhungs of same meaning.

The comparative evidence is not clear. The comparison of bltabs "to fold" with Chinese 摺 tsyep < * b was proposed by Simon (1929 : 240) and Gong (1980 : 146) and the related word ldab, blabs "to repeat" with Chinese 疊 dep < * a lip by Shafer (1966 : 14.12), Benedict (1972 : 184), Coblin (1986 : 124). Though it is not sure that this comparison is acceptable, given the discrepancy in vowels and the fact that we do not find laterals in cognates from others languages (eg.: Burmese thap), this family could provide an example of lt-coming from a group with lateral initial (the Chinese data suggest *t-l-> lt-).

On the other, it is widely acknowledged that ld-comes from a group with lateral origin. Li Simon (1930 : 30-31) proposed the change *d-l-> ld-, and Fang-kuei (1933) proposed to reconstruct ld-as *n-l-> *d-l-. Li's view is also held by Coblin (1986) and Gong (1980Gong ( , 2000Gong ( , 2001)). There are many pieces of evidence from word families: Given that *n-l-> 'd-in our reconstruction, we suggest to adopt *d-l-> ld-. As for lt-, we follow Li (1933: 149) in reconstructing *d-lh-> lt-to explain to word family ltung / lhung. Some groups lt-come from older *lt-with a real l-preinitial, for instance lta bltas "see" which is probably cognate to Chinese * a taʔ 睹 (Gong 1980 #16, Yu 1989 #5.21). (1977 [2002: 392] Gong's solution to explain these word families is to suppose two parallel changes *phl-> land *phly-> phy-. For example, *phlak > lag and *phlyak > phyag). Since the group *phl-do not exists in CT, this explanation is consistent with the data. However, a simpler approach seems preferable : a change *pl-> phy-. In this view, phyag and lag differ not by a *-y-infix, but by a *p-prefix. We also disagree with Gong's later view (2001 [2002: 205]) that *pl-> lp-in the word lpags "skin".

The reconstruction of phy-

Gong

Unlike *pl-, the group bl-is attested in Tibetan. However, there is no syllable beginning in *bli (*bli, *blig, *blid etc.). We found one example of the group by-having word family relationship with word having lateral initial.

by-Meaning lateral Meaning

byings-po བྱ ི ངས་པོ ་ completely, entirely lings-po ལི ངས་པོ ་ id.

Table 12 : One example of *bli-> byi-

We reconstruct therefore a change *bli > byi. These two changes probably took place after *ly-> zh-, otherwise it would be difficult to explain why *bli-> byi-while *blyi-> bzhi-: if the changes had happened at the same time, we would have expected *bly-to change to by-also.

Conclusion

The reconstructions of Proto-Tibetan proposed in this paper can be summarized in Table 13. Table 13 : Evolution of groups with laterals from Proto-Tibetan to Classical Tibetan

The reconstruction proposed here differs slightly from previous works : in particular, the rules *n-l-> 'd-, *n-ly-> lj-and *pl-> phyi-have not been proposed elsewhere.

The status of the reconstructed *-y-medial might be further investigated. Benedict (1972: p.33 footnote 104, also p.107) suggested that *li > *lyi > lji in Tibetan, in other words, that laterals palatalised before -i. This idea is interesting, especially where we consider that other dental consonants seem to have been through a similar change6 . However, the origin of words where ldid not palatalise before -i needs to be explained: Table 14 : Non-palatalised laterals before the vowel -i in Tibetan.

One clue might be that palatalisation is hindered by a preinitial r-, so that *rli-cannot change

  blind ldong-pa ལྡ ོ ང་པ་ long ལོ ང་ id.

  li ལི ་ "bronze" li-ba ལི ་བ་ "curled (of hair)" ling-ling ལི ང་ལི ང་ "waving back and forth" lings-pa ལི ངས་པ་ "hunter" lings-po ལི ངས་པོ ་ "entire" gling གླ ི ང་ "continent" glings-pa གླ ི ངས་པ་ "felt rug" rlig-pa རླ ི ག་པ་ "penis" rlid-bu རླ ི ད་བུ ་ "skin of animal" rlings-po རླ ི ངས་པོ ་ "wide" rlibs རླ ི བས་ "wear" brling-po བརླ ི ང་པོ ་ "stable, solid" lhing-ba ལྷ ི ང་བ་ "calm" lding ལྡ ི ང་ "to fly"

  Table 1 ; the groups with only few examples are written in parenthesis, and the examples given for these groups are exaustive.

	l-	examples	bl-	examples
	k

Table 2 .

 2

		0-	example	b-	example
	k-	kl-	klad ཀླ ད klu ཀླ ུ ་ klog ཀླ ོ ག་	(bkl-)	only past / future tense forms
	g-	gl-	glang གླ ང་ gling གླ ི ང་ glu གླ ུ ་
	b-	bl-	bla བླ ་ blug བླ ུ ག་ blo བླ ོ ་
	z-	zl-	zla ཟླ ་ zlug ཟླ ུ ག་ zlog ཟླ ོ ག་	(bzl-)	only past / future tense forms

Table 3 :

 3 This is in fact the implicit reason why Gong did not extend his rule *ly-> zh-to examples without a preinitial: one cannot give two outcomes for one reconstruction in proto-Tibetan.A lateral origin for zh-is confirmed by word families within Tibetan : Examples of zh-coming from a lateral (word families).

	zh-	Meaning	lateral	Meaning	Reference
	gzhogs གཞོ གས་	side	logs ལོ གས་	side	Gong 1977 [2002 : 391]
	bzheng བཞེ ང་	construct; establish (hon.)	lang ལང་	rise	Gong 1977 [2002 : 394]
	bzha བཞའ་	humidity	rlon རླ ོ ན་ brlan བརླ ན་	wet	Jacques 2004 : 144
	gzhongs གཞོ ངས་	region 4	ljongs ལྗ ོ ངས་	region

also proposed that *ly-become zh-in CT, but his proto-Tibetan *ly-also becomes lj-in other examples (ljags "tongue hon.").

  to support their hypothesis, comparing CT to the Bumthang dialect Kurtoep and other related languages such as mTsho-sna mon-ba (Lun 1986).

	Tibetan	Meaning Kurtoep	mTsho-sna Chinese	Reference
	bzhi བཞི ་	four	ble	pli 53	四 * b s-lij	Benedict 1972 : 94
	gzhu གཞུ ་	bow	L limiʔ	li 13
	zhing-ka ཞི ང་ཀ་	field	L leŋ	leŋ 13	田 * a liŋ
	zhim-po ཞི མ་པོ ་	tasty	L lembu	lim 13 po 53	甜 * a lim	Coblin 1986 : 145
	lji-ba ལྗ ི ་བ་	flee	H lija	liu 55
	ljid-po ལྗ ི ད་པོ ་	heavy	ɟit	li 55 po 53

Table 4 :

 4 The origin of lj-and zh-in CT (comparison with Bumthang).

Table 4 :

 4

	Tibetan	Meaning	Burmese	Tamang	Reference
	rje རྗ ེ ་	exchange	lây		Benedict (1972 : 64, f. 205)
	rje རྗ ེ ་	lord		4kle « king »
	brjed བརྗ ེ	forget		2mlet-pa
	mjing མཇི	neck	laɲɲ		Benedict (1972 : 33)

Table 5 :

 5 Examples of lj-/ rj-/ mj-coming from clusters with lateral initials.

Table 6 :

 6 Not all zh-, though, come from laterals, as some of these belong to word families with stops or fricatives. Many examples can be found in Gong 1977: Examples of zh-not coming from laterals.

	zh-	Meaning	stop / fricative Meaning	Reference
	bzhugs བཞུ གས་	to remain (hon.)	'dug འདུ ག་	to remain, to stay	Gong 1977 [2002 : 390]
	bzhed བཞེ ད་	to wish (hon.)	'dod འདོ ད་	to wish, to like	Gong 1977 [2002 : 390]
	bzhes བཞེ ས་	to take (as of food, clothe), food	za ཟ་	to eat	Gong 1977 [2002 : 391]

Table 7 :

 7 footnote 127) have agreed that *hly-> lc-. Examples of lc-corresponding to laterals in other languages.

	Tibetan	Meaning	Chinese	Tamang	Reference
	lcags ལྕ གས་	iron	铁 * b lhik		Chang 1972
	ལྕ ང་མ་	willow	* b laŋ
	lci-ba ལྕ ི ་བ་	excrement	屎 * b hlijʔ	1kli	Benedict (1972 : 185)

Table 9 :

 9

	Tibetan	Meaning	Chinese	Other	Reference
				languages
	'dab-ma འདབ་མ་ leaf (also ldebs ལྡ ེ བས་lheb ལྷ ེ བ་)	叶 * b lap		Jin 142)	(2001 :
	'dom འདོ མ་	two outstreched arms	寻 * b sləm	Bur. lam

Examples of 'd-< *nl-

Table 10 :

 10 Examples of ld-coming from groups with lateral initial.

	ld-	Meaning	lateral (medial / initial)	Meaning
	ldong-ba ལྡ ོ ང་བ་	blind people	long ལོ ང་ longs ལོ ངས་	to be blind
	ldug ལྡ ུ ག་ ldugs ལྡ ུ གས་	to pour in	blug བླ ུ ག་ blugs བླ ུ གས་	id.
	ldob ལྡ ོ བ་ ldobs ལྡ ོ བས་	to know, to understand	slob སླ ོ བ་ bslabs བསླ བས་	teach
	ldang ལྡ ང་ ldangs ལྡ ངས་	to get up, to rise, to be enough	lang ལང་ langs ལངས་	to rise

Table 11 :

 11 ) noticed three examples of word families where phy-alternates with l-, and we can provide here some more examples. Examples of phy-< *pl-

	phy-	Meaning	lateral	Meaning	Reference
	phyag ཕྱ ག་	hand (hon.) lag ལག་	hand	Gong (1977 [2002: 392])
	phyogs ཕྱ ོ གས་	side	logs ལོ གས་	id.	Gong (1977 [2002: 392])

The Archaic Chinese reconstruction follow Sagart 1999, the Middle Chinese transcription is fromBaxter (1992), and the Tamang data is from[START_REF] Michailovsky | Preliminary notes on the languages of the Bumthang group[END_REF]Mazaudon ( -2003)).

This work was supported by a postdoctoral grant from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, ref. PD007-U-03.

This verb is the only genuine root with this cluster, the rest being past and future tense of verbs in lt-such as blta, bltabs, bltos etc.

These words are unrelated to gshongs « narrow valley », a deverbal noun (caused by -s suffix) from the verb gshong-ba « to hollow out ».

This word has been compared to Chinese 富 * b puk(Simon 1929 : #46; Shafer 1966 : 4; Coblin 1986 : 158), but this comparison is most certainly incorrect given the discrepancy in initial (*pluk vs. * b puk) ; besides, it is not sure which meaning, of "cattle" and of "wealth", is the oldest. Gong (1995) also rejected this comparison on other grounds (the vocalism of the rime in Chinese).

The initial *n has been almost systematically palatalised before -i (*ni > nyi), the only exceptions being ni "focus particle" and na-ning "last year". With *t-and *d-, the change occurred in some words, like gcig "one" coming from *g-tyik, with *ty-> c-/ ch-as proposed by[START_REF] Koerber | Morphology of the Tibetan language[END_REF], bu not in many others, like mthil "middle".


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