MASPLIT
Scheda del progetto
Università della Valle d'Aosta - Université de la Vallée d'Aoste
Following the pandemic, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have developed forms of remote work and agile work (which we call flexible remote work). After the pandemic phase, many SMEs have opted for hybrid forms of work, where employees have the opportunity to work remotely typically up to 2 or 3 days a week. This change has required new organizational forms and weekly goal setting. However, due to complexity and costs, only a few SMEs have equipped themselves with suitable management tools to measure and evaluate the effects of this organizational change. This critical issue particularly affects businesses located in mountainous regions.
The project aims to refine the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) methodology and develop a prototype of a low-cost cloud-accessible application that enables SMEs to evaluate work performance by breaking down activities into processes, considering hybrid work modes.
The project is structured in 4 phases:
- In the first phase, the ABC methodology is adapted to account for flexible remote work.
- In the second phase, a new methodology called Activity Multidimensional Performance (AMP) is developed to comprehensively assess activity performance: this includes parameters such as efficiency, output quality, recipient satisfaction, and completion times.
- The third phase develops a new methodology called Process Performance Management (PPM), which combines the results of the previous two methodologies (ABC and AMP) to measure and design or redesign the allocation of different activities between flexible remote work and in-person work.
- In the final phase, an application is developed that allows for the collection, processing, analysis of data, and reorganization of activities based on these new methodologies.
The project aims to create an effective methodology to govern processes in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness, and thus, more broadly, enhance company performance. This methodology is expected to gain increasing importance and centrality within the organizational framework, especially following the growth in the use of remote work (including in hybrid forms) across many business functions.
The significance of this methodology also stems from the observation that there are currently no similar proposals, models, or methodologies at the international level. Indeed, an analysis of the state-of-the-art literature in this field highlights a clear gap that appears far from being filled, despite the growing importance and criticality of the topic.
The project goes beyond proposing a methodology; it translates into the creation of a prototype (alpha version of an application) that allows the company to assess work performance by decomposing the activities performed by the worker into processes and measuring them. This will enable the company to better organize work activities and evaluate the benefits or costs of different modes of on-site and remote work.
The final output of the project consists of the development of a prototype of a computerized management system designed to implement the three described methodologies. The prototype will already include all data collection forms, processing algorithms, and reporting tables necessary to apply the three methodologies.
The prototype will allow the user to:
- upload the list of activities and the necessary data to feed the dashboard;
- choose the level of application of the three methodologies, stopping at the first or proceeding to the third, depending on their needs and data availability;
- access information in the cloud through password-protected credentials for the dedicated platform section;
- save data to the cloud for future querying or integration at any time and/or perform new analyses.
The new methodology and the application can bring significant benefits to companies from an organizational perspective. The PPM system can be of great help to companies looking to capitalize on the opportunity offered by the cultural change characterizing this historical moment, partly as a result of the experience gained during the pandemic.
Companies are rethinking traditional office-based work methods, characterized by hierarchical oversight and the measurement of time spent entering and leaving the workplace (the company headquarters). The PPM system allows companies to simulate, based on multidimensional parameters, the optimal way to assign each person tasks to be performed on-site versus remotely, define the weighting of work on-site versus remote, determine which activities should be carried out individually and which in teams, and so on. This aims to optimize company organizational processes while respecting and even enhancing the predispositions and needs of the workers.