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The rapid development and globalization of the economy, as well as the increasingly stringent safety and environmental regulations, including in the field of new product development, require manufacturers to constantly adapt and change. Various global associations and/or multinational companies impose additional requirements in their supply chains in the form of minimum standards that must be met in order to work together in a particular business field. For manufacturers, tracking and meeting the changing requirements for managing data and information about products throughout their lifecycle is one of the priorities that often causes them many problems. In this paper, we therefore focus on outlining possible actions to adapt the process of new product development through standardization

Strategic management of a portfolio of processes, projects, and tasks is understood as a constant focus of a company or institution's limited resources on implementing a business strategy using all available business capabilities and technological support. Suppose the company intends to manage the portfolio uniformly. In that case, it is first necessary to understand the different forms of processes similarly. In addition, it is essential to design the organization accordingly and adapt the technological support accordingly. This is highly complex, and an individual cannot fully understand and control the portfolio at once. In practice, therefore, new approaches are emerging that make this possible. They contain digital transformation methods and use modern technological enablers. Of course, the approaches are more than technological. Most approaches are organizational and only involve technology. This paper provides a systematic review and description of these approaches, their potential, and the obstacles to implementation.

Projekti se redko izvajajo samostojno in izdvojeno od okolja. Projekti so enkratni, neponovljivi poslovni procesi, ki so med seboj prepleteni in povezani z ostalimi procesi v poslovnih sistemih. Vsakič zahtevajo pripravo in šele potem izvedbo. Ob pripravi se oblikujejo aktivnosti, dodelijo resursi, zagotovijo finančna sredstva in drugo. Ob tem projekti ne smejo ovirati rednega dela. Za vodenje in upravljanje je nujna razvita organizacijska kultura. Vse to lahko povzamemo z izrazom »multiprojektno okolje«. To okolje pa je izredno kompleksno. Posameznik ga ne (z)more v celoti in naenkrat razumeti in obvladovati. V praksi se zato pojavljajo novi pristopi, ki to omogočajo. Vsebujejo metode digitalne transformacije in uporabljajo podobne tehnološke omogočevalce. Seveda so pristopi več kot tehnološki. Večina pristopov je organizacijskih in tehnologijo le vključujejo. Digitalno transformacijo multiprojektnega okolja postavljamo v kontekst obvladovanja projektov v projektnem sistemu. V raziskavi podajamo sistematičen pregled in opis teh pristopov, njihove potenciale in tudi ovire za implementacijo.

Over 50 approaches, methods, and techniques have been developed in recent decades to achieve more efficient business systems operations. Due to the increasingly rapid changes in the business and social environment, the question of which method or technique will have the most significant impact on increasing its competitive advantage is becoming increasingly important. In the presented research, due to the scope of the issue, we focused on an overview of the most often used methods and techniques and their similarity. For this purpose, we prepared an overview of the frequency of particular methods and techniques in the sources collected in multidisciplinary databases. We were also interested in which phases of business process improvement a particular method or technique is used. Based on the knowledge gained in this way, we designed a set of appropriate methods and techniques for improving business processes. The performed research can serve as a starting point for solving this problem. It would be necessary for its integrity to check other properties of methods and techniques and their practice efficiency.

An essential characteristic of the new product development process is to develop a new marketable product in the shortest possible time with the lowest reasonable costs. Therefore, the key factor of the process is efficiency. The paints and coatings industry development process contain numerous laboratory tests to determine the appropriateness of new formulation. It is proven that digital transformation can reduce the number of laboratory tests and consequently shorten the throughput time of the development process. This raised the question of whether the faster development process also reduces the process&rsquo, cost, or they even increase due to information and communication technology implementation. Therefore, the research&rsquo, s purpose was to determine whether reducing the number of laboratory tests, based on the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT), affects reducing costs in the paints and coatings development process. The conventional process and the redesigned process of paints and coatings development were used as the basis of the research. The comparative analysis of the costs incurred during the development process was made. The analysis compares the types and amount of incurred costs. The article proves that digital transformation has a significant impact on up to 48% on reducing costs of the paints and coatings development process.

Prispevek obravnava študij primera transformacije mikro podjetja v malo podjetje, pri čemer je bila uporabljena metoda primerjalne analize. Izziv tovrstnih transformacij je vselej pomanjkanje organizacijskih izkušenj in znanja v rastočem podjetju, kar je mogoče rešiti z uporabo izkušenj drugih podjetij. V obravnavanem projektu smo zato kot osnovo za primerjalno analizo uporabili poslovni repozitorij virtualnega malega podjetja (LIPPS – Laboratorij za inženiring poslovnih in produkcijskih sistemov). Prenovo smo simulirali na realnem mikro podjetju, ki je v procesu rasti. Rezultat študije primerja je pokazal, da je mogoče modele procesov, struktur in informacijske podpore v poslovnem repozitoriju obstoječega podjetja koristno uporabiti pri oblikovanju organizacije rastočega podjetja. Ugotovili smo, da je pristop lahko dobra osnova za druga podjetja, ki bi se lotila tovrstne transformacije.

V prispevku obravnavamo možnost preverjanja učinkovitosti predlagane prenove poslovnih procesov z uporabo orodja ARIS, konkretneje modulom za simulacijo izvajanja procesa. Z ustreznim modelom poslovnega procesa in podatki o izvajanju procesa lahko vpliv predlaganih sprememb na učinkovitost izvajanja procesa preverimo s pomočjo simulacije izvajanja le-tega. Na osnovi zbranih podatkov smo tako preverili vpliv sprememb iz naslednjih vidikov: stopnje zasedenosti izvajalcev aktivnosti procesa, odkrivanja oz. odpravljanja ozkih grl procesa, deleža pripravljalno-zaključnih in čakalnih časov v izvajanju procesa, trajanja prehodnega časa izvajanja procesa, stroškov povzročenih z izvedbo procesa. Rezultati opravljene simulacije na izbranem primeru procesa so potrdili uporabnost predstavljene metode v praksi.

The aim of this article is to establish how different authors approach the calculations, what calculation models are available, and how these models take into consideration the specifics of the field in the individual production of welded structures. As an approach, we have used a review of the references in the WoS (“Web of Science” [1]) database, keywords from the period 1970–2018, and the case study method. We have established that the universal nature of the calculations for the contract individual production of welded structures can only be achieved on the economic calculation level. For every specific product and an actual production process, there are numerous perimeter conditions that prevent setting up a universal model. Industry-specific solutions that depend on the production type (individual, small series, mass production), the design of the actual production line, as well as the complexity and structural design of a product are all acceptable. We have established that in certain cases, the “intuitive method”, which requires little invested time compared to the analytical method, provides the same calculation accuracy. With a case study, the article shows the application of the intuitive and analytical approach to a calculation.

In this paper, we discuss some available methods for assessment of business process redesign efficiency. Business process efficiency can be assessed with operational (e.g. time, cost or quality) as well as structural indicators (on the basis of business process model’s structure). The use of operational or structural indicators depends on the context: operational indicators can be used only when the process has already been established or implemented in the company, where structural indicators can be used already in the phase of business process model design. The advantage of structural indicators is their possibility to assess business process efficiency before the process starts and costs increase (e.g. with implementation). In literature, many various structural indicators are presented, which give different efficiency assessment for the same business process model. Here, we propose a uniform assessment method for measuring business process model structural efficiency. The process redesign and the way of uniform structural efficiency assessment is presented using as a case study selected core processes in one of the most successful Slovenian health services organization.

Numerous laboratory tests are used to determine the appropriateness of new formulations in the development process in the paint and coatings industry. New formulations are most often functionally inadequate, unacceptable for environmental or health reasons, or too expensive. Formulators are obliged to repeat laboratory tests until one of the formulations fulfills the minimum requirements. This is cumbersome, slow, and expensive, and can cause ecological problems, wasting materials on tests that do not produce the desired results. The purpose of this research was to find out if there might be a better way forward to increase efficiency and free up formulators to focus on new products. In this experiment, a new paints and coatings development process was redesigned based on the potential benefits of formulation digitalization. Instead of laboratory testing, a digital platform was used that has been developed and stocked with relevant, up-to-date, and complete, usable data. This study found that, by going digital, developers could vastly reduce non-value-added activities in the development process (by as much as 70%) and significantly shorten the entire process throughput time (by up to 48%). Using digital tools to facilitate the development process appears to be a possible way forward for the paint and coatings industry, saving time, materials, and money and protecting the environment.

This paper describes a case study of an innovative approach to teaching at an engineering school. The postgraduate course Project Work and Communication in Research and Development (R&D) was developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. The main aim of the course was to make the entry of young engineering graduates into the business environment as easy as possible. Currently, engineers are facing more and more interdisciplinarity and project work in their daily assignments. The course was designed to remedy any deficiencies in the multidisciplinary professional skills and knowledge of the graduate-level students, and it covered the topics of innovation management, communication in R&D, project management, and problem solving in teams. An end-of-course survey showed positive feedback from participating students. The empirical data (enrollment ratio of students, session attendance ratio, and average student grade) proves that the course met its goal of honing the professional skills of postgraduate engineering students.

V prispevku predstavljamo ocenjevanje učinkovitosti izvajanja poslovnih procesov s pomočjo kazalnikov strukturne učinkovitosti. To metodo lahko uporabimo kot alternativo ocenjevanju učinkovitosti izvajanja poslovnih procesov s kazalniki operativne učinkovitosti. Z vidika porabe časa in/ali vidika nastalih stroškov lahko učinkovitost procesa ocenimo, ko je proces že vzpostavljen oz. implementiran v podjetje, s predstavljeno metodo pa lahko učinkovitost izvajanja poslovnega procesa preverimo že v fazi oblikovanja modela novega ali prenovljenega procesa. V tem primeru je za oceno učinkovitosti namreč potreben le ustrezen model prenovljenega poslovnega procesa. Uporabnost metode smo prikazali na primeru prenove procesa v enem izmed slovenskih podjetij. Ključne besede: prenova procesov, kazalniki strukturne učinkovitosti, kazalniki operativne učinkovitosti, učinkovitost prenove procesov.

Process Reengineering and Innovation of Remaking Soapsuds This article uses a business process renovation method to address an environmental protection problem. The presented case, studied in factories which remake crude vegetable oil (soapsuds remake), focuses on reengineering one of the business processes which is classified as an obligatory process. This process has to be performed to comply with the requirements of the existing ecology legislation. Therefore, it is reasonable to take a radical approach - business process reengineering. Soapsuds with oil remnants are a secondary product in the vegetable oil refining process. According to the legislation, secondary products as waste are not acceptable for the environment. Soapsuds remake as it is currently carried out produces technical fatty acids and, as a side product, calcium sulphate. Calcium sulphate is listed as special waste; therefore it must be deposited in a special waste landfill site. In the course of searching for a solution to this ecological problem, a new idea came up, namely that soapsuds are taken to the biogas plant. At the biogas plant, they can be decomposed into biogas, which is then used to generate electric energy, for heating or to supplement municipal gas. Thus, the reengineering of the process is upgraded into process innovation and environmental innovation. Using data obtained from the available literature, we managed to prove that process reengineering, which is simultaneously process innovation and ecological innovation, can be applied in practice. Side products resulting from the anaerobic digestion of soapsuds in the biogas plant comply better with the requirements of the Slovenian ecological legislation than those occurring in the process used up to now.

We developed a process-knowledge allocation model (PKA) of allocating company available knowledge on company new product development process (NPD) knowledge requirements. Our model is based on two optimization functions. We are searching for best alignment of employee knowledge structure on NPD process knowledge requirements. Second, we are splitting NPD process activities and measuring process structural indexes to find even better knowledge alignment. This PKA model is useful in case of new business opportunity without having time to re-educate employees. That means that the structure of proposed project activities among NPD process and the structure of project team depend on optimization of available and required knowledge structure at a specific time.

Product development is one of a company’s key processes for meeting customer demands, providing long-term market share growth, revenues and company value. The main question we are addressing in this paper is how the professionals with more and better developed competencies (polyvalence professionals) increase efficiency of the product development process. We presume that the efficiency of the product development process is significantly influenced by the matching rate between the competencies of professionals and the task requirements of the process. The hypothesis was tested in an international study in which five footwear companies from three European countries participated. By analysing variances and using correlation and regression analyses, we prove the influence of polyvalence professionals on the product development process efficiency. We also prove that polyvalence professionals are the strategic resources who provide a company’s long-term competitive advantage, allowing efficient development of new products thus having high response rate to customer demands.

This article touches upon the problems and opportunities that emerge in modernising projects in Central and East European countries as part of the process of their approximation to the European Union. A new approach is described that enables the effective monitoring (and therefore management) of large-scale modernisation projects in public/national administration. The key element of this approach is the merger of computer-supported project management with the Internet. The synergy of the advantages of both technologies enables the optional decentralisation of implementation, at the same time as offering effective monitoring of the realisation of the planned work. It is possible to introduce the described method of project monitoring in a very short space of time by employing existing technology and know-how, all at very low cost. This article aims to describe the multistage process of the introduction of the approach, and the experience gained in using it.

Film tourism as a modern tourist trend expands rapidly summarizing cultural, fair and visual appearance. The paper’s purpose is a multidisciplinary analysis of film tourism from economic, socio-cultural and legal aspects referring to the Istrian region. Film tourism is manifested through three forms of appearance: 1) as cultural tourism of film festivals, 2) as fair tourism of promotive films and 3) as film induced tourism featuring films’ scenes. Recognizing the division, the most common form of Istria's film tourism is fair tourism. Istria has been positioning itself as a destination of film festivals, while film induced tourism, due to objective factors, is not so developed. Regarding the forms of a film tourism appearance, there are three kinds of legal relations: 1) in festival tourism there is a contract on “film viewing” with the provision of additional services, 2) in fair tourism hotel-keepers conclude a contract with travel agencies on the sample basis (promotive film), and 3) in film induced tourism there is no specific relation between the provider and the guest. The final remark is that the film tourism in Istria should be developed and planned systematically regulating the relations between providers and guests in all forms of appearance of film tourism, as well as regulating the same in the Croatian legislation.

Pojmu „menadžment“ sve češće se u literaturi pridružuje pojam „uspješan menadžment“ kako bi se uspješan menadžment distancirao od neuspješnog. Ali ostaje pitanje, da li je uspješan menadžment uvijek uspješan? Pod kojim uvjetima i kako? To nam implicira potrebu određivanja pojma „uspješnog menadžmenta“ i objašnjenja uspješnosti u objektivnim i aktualnim poslovnim uvjetima i okruženju. Sve je jasnije da uspješan menadžment nije jednoznačan pojam koji je neovisan od okruženja. Posebno u aktualnom poslovnom objektivitetu kojeg nazivamo i „doba krize“ pitanje definiranja uspješnog menadžmenta postaje veoma aktualno. Realizirati plan i ostvariti bolje rezultate nego lani, kriterij je koji je ostao u prošlosti. Tržišna orijentacija svake ekonomije koja je razvojno usmjerena otvara niz kriterija uspješnosti koji potenciraju utakmicu među gospodarskim subjektima. Kakve se tu mogućnosti osjene uspješnosti menadžmenta otvaraju svrha je ovoga rada. Cilj rada je ponuditi neka prihvatljiva rješenja kojima bi se mogao ocjenjivati uspješan menadžment i u tome ćemo se poslužiti najnovijim metodama primjernim controllingu vrijednosno orijentiranog menadžmenta i controllinga. Pritom ćemo koristiti niz metoda primjerenih vrijednosno orijentirano orijentiranog menadžmenta i controllinga, sa posebnim osvrtom na EVA modelu po Stern/Stewartu kao jednom od lako primjenljivih vrijednosno orijentiranih modela.

Although public-private partnerships (PPP) are widely acknowledged to have a better record of asset delivery than conventional approaches to public-sector procurement, their successful delivery remains dependent on a number of critical prerequisites. PPPs are increasingly employed globally for the procurement of essential public-sector infrastructure assets. Financing needs are dominated by substantial upfront capital-expenditure requirements for asset refurbishment, enhancement, extension, or new build. There is, however, limited published empirical evidence from which the true nature, extent, and prevalence of construction risk associated with PPPs can be gauged. Exposure to construction risk remains highly contingent on the specific characteristics of a project, its contractual provisions and its associated transaction structuring. Market experience so far suggests that the performance gap between PPPs and alternative procurement approaches narrows considerably. Assessments of project bankability based simply on the “ acceptability” of certain asset classes, and the “ unacceptability” of others, have not been proved correct. Market experience suggests weak, if any, correlation between investor exposure to construction risk and the type of project to be financed. Rather, lenders should look to the particular attributes of a construction mandate, and the specific contexts of works that have previously exposed lenders to PPP construction risk. Many of these attributes cut across all asset classes. Starting point to PPP project risk management is establishment of a risk index and than defining a score for each of the risk categories in the Index using the low-risk/high-risk spectrum. Establishment of a risk index allows for focused consideration of risk prevention, reduction, transference, acceptance, or contingency. The article describes construction risk in PPP project and risk index technique for risk assessment and mitigation.

As required by the legislation of the Republic of Croatia (and also according to the laws of the European Union member countries), every major investment requires the elaboration of an Environmental Impact Assessment Study. An important part of such study is the presentation of the relation of socially-economic and ecologic indicators through a costs-benefit analysis. Every investment has both useful and harmful impacts on the environment. Direct implications (in the literature referred to as: measurable, financial, economic or market impacts) can be determined more or less exactly. The problems arise in the assessment and evaluation of the indirect impacts (in the literature referred to as: immeasurable, non-economic, ecological, non-market impacts). This paper presents some of the indirect costs assessment and evaluation methods as well as of the short-term and long-term impacts on the environment depending on whether we analyze the situation during the construction phase, or the situation in the phase of the utilization of the investment. Sustainable development requires productive investments that generate profit from which a part should be invested into the environmental protection as a condition for sustainable development, which, all together, constitutes a closed circle.

After reengineering and reorganization, managers became more aware that for company’s success, strategy and human resource management need to be associated. From 1990’s Croatian companies started reorganization and preparation for global market. Research presented in this paper shows that HR departments should be more involved in strategic planning and implementation of those plans. Results also show that HR specialists are lacking some knowledge in the field of the business economy. One question which needs more research in this field is finding out are managers and decision makers aware of the importance of HRM and HR specialists for the company and company’s competiveness.

The subject of the paper is the controlling of management functions, in particular, the functions of management in running a port of nautical tourism. The authors point to the importance that continuous information analysis, performance indicators, and eliminating deviations from indexes and strategic plans have in controlling procedures and in the efficient outcome of plans. The communication between the management of ports of nautical tourism in Croatia and lower-ranking employees is still at an inadequate level, often resulting in their unresourcefulness in decision-making. Controlling makes it possible to study, identify and improve these relationships to achieve concrete advancements in business processes and to enhance performance. This calls for a new way of thinking and the development of a learning culture within the organisation, based on an understanding of the need to continuously rethink business and the willingness to relearn the basics of all types of operations. The system of managing a port of nautical tourism involves managing quality, the environment, development and safety, and it makes clear demands on communication, responsibilities and economics. The authors have studied the work of managers in marinas (Marina Punat, Marina Veruda, Marina Frapa) where controlling is a recognised asset in the internal, as well as external, environmental of the nautical port. This is also evident in the market value reflected in the fulfilled expectations and satisfaction of nautical tourists and other stakeholders, and in the efficient way legal obligations are met. The result of the authors’ research is an organisational model of strategic management and controlling for marina, aimed at enhancing the efficiency of marina management.