Claims:1. A computer implemented system for realizing divestiture, said system comprising:
at least one processor configured to receive predetermined set of rules from a rules repository and further configured to generate system processing commands sequentially;
at least one user node;
a set of interfaces comprising a first discovery interface, an analysis and findings interface, a first program planning interface, a second discovery interface, a second program planning interface;
a data repository for storing pre-determined data related to tools, users, member inventory, and responses to survey and questionnaires generated in the system;
a document repository for storing pre-determined documents related to divestiture templates, program documents, analytical reports, and survey and questionnaire forms;
a transition services repository for storing pre-determined data and documents related to transition services and agreements associated with divesting a member from an apparatus;
a data and document capturing component operating under said system processing commands and configured to retrieve pre-determined data and documents from said data repository and said document repository and provide them to said at least one node via said first discovery interface along with instructions for populating user determined surveys and responses to questionnaires with user determined data; said data and document capturing component further configured to retrieve pre-determined data and documents related to transition services from said transition services repository and transmit said retrieved data and document related to transition services to said node via said second discovery interface to enable a user to populate said documents relating to transition services;
an analytics component configured to receive : (a) data of a member to be divested from an apparatus and said populated documents related to said member from said user node via said first discovery interface and (b) populated documents related to transition services from said node via said second discovery interface, and further configured to analyze on the basis of said system processing commands said populated documents and further configured to compute risk factors, cost factors, complexity factors and criticality factors;
a recommendation engine under said system processing commands configured to read the computed factors in relation to said member and generate a plurality of recommended strategies for divesting said member from said apparatus and provide said recommended strategies via said analysis and findings interface to said user node for enabling the user to select a user determined strategy from the recommended strategies;
a phases and activity repository, pre-populated with various activities associated with divesting a member, in each of four phases of divestiture in relation to each of said strategies;
a best practices and guidelines repository pre-populated with practices and guidelines associated with divestiture of a member in relation to each of said strategies;
a program office repository pre-populated with rules and guidelines to provide a standard and structured office setup for the purpose of divesting a member in accordance with each of said strategies;
a resource repository comprising details of resources available in an organization to perform divestiture activity along with details of their roles, their experience and their expertise;
an analyzer configured to receive under said system processing commands : (i) a user determined strategy via said analysis and findings interface, (ii) pre-populated activities in relation to said selected strategy from said phases and activity repository associated with divesting said selected member, (iii) pre-populated best practices and guideline in relation to said selected strategy from said best practices and guidelines repository associated with divesting said selected member, and (iv) pre-populated rules and guidelines in relation to said selected strategy from said program office repository associated with divesting said selected member; said analyzer further configured to generate a plan template using said received activities data, best practices and guidelines data in respect of said selected strategy for divesting said member; and
a manager and reporting sub-module equipped with a receiver configured to receive under instructions of said system processing commands, said generated plan template in accordance with said selected strategy, a selector configured to select appropriate resources from said resource repository, an assigner configured to assign tasks to each of said selected resources in accordance with said phases of said plan template and in accordance with the roles, experience and expertise of each of said resources to generate an executable plan for effecting said divestiture of said member, and a transmitter to transmit said generated executable plan to said node via said first and said second program planning interface for effecting said divestiture.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said data and document capturing component includes a first retriever selected from an index based retriever or a crawler and an extractor set configured to, under the process commands, retrieve members related data and documents from said data repository and said document repository, and a second retriever selected from an index based retriever or a crawler and an extractor set configured to, under the process commands, retrieve members related data and documents associated with transition services.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1wherein each of said interfaces equipped with a transceiver, configured to enable a user to interact with said system discreetly and provide inputs to said data and document capturing component, said analytics component and said analyzer and to receive inputs from said data and document capturing component, said analytics component and said manager and reporting sub-module.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1wherein said system includes a parameter repository comprising pre-stored information related to parameters like risk, cost, complexity and criticality factor and further comprises a set of computational rules and guidelines that are applied on inputed data related to said member while computing said factors for said member.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1wherein said recommendation engine houses a reader adapted to receive said computed factors and feeds said computed factors to a strategy generator, said strategy generator configured to generate a plurality of strategies corresponding to the member to be divested, pre-defined strategy pathways and pre-defined threshold limits of said factors.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1wherein said analyzer includes a phase setter configured to set phases for performing divestiture activities depending upon the selected member for divesting, the factors associated with divestiture and the strategy selected by the user.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1wherein said analyzer includes a plan template generator equipped with a third retriever selected from an index based retriever or a crawler and an extractor set configured to retrieve data related to the strategy selected by the user from said phases and activity repository, said best practices and guidelines repository and said program office repository for divesting said member from said apparatus.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1which includes an editor configured to edit: (i) said pre-determined rules from said rules repository; (ii) data in said data repository; (iii) documents in said document repository; (iv) data and documents in said transition services repository; (v) activities in said phases and activity repository; (vi) best practices and guidelines in said best practices and guidelines repository; (vii) rules and guidelines in said program office repository; (viii) details of resources in said resource repository; (ix) pre-stored information related to decision parameters and the pre-stored set of computational rules and guidelines in said parameter repository.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1 which includes a customizer configured to customize the rules, guidelines, templates in accordance with the context of the divestiture and the industry in which the divestiture takes place.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1 which includes an updater configured to update said generated plan periodically based on the completion of the activities during the phases and periodically providing updated generated plan to said node.

11. A computer implemented method for enabling the divestiture of a member from an apparatus, said method comprising:
providing at least one processor;
configuring the processor to receive predetermined set of rules from a rules repository; and further configuring said processor to generate system processing commands sequentially;
providing at least one user node;
providing a set of interfaces comprising a first discovery interface,
an analysis and finding interface, a first program planning interface, a
second discovery interface, a second program planning interface;
equipping each of said interfaces with a transceiver;

configuring each of said interfaces to enable a user to interact with
said system discreetly;
providing a data repository;
storing pre-determined data related to tools, users, component
inventory, and responses to survey and questionnaires generated in the
system in said data repository;
providing a document repository;
storing pre-determined documents related to divestiture templates,
program documents, analytic reports, and survey and questionnaire forms
in a document repository;
providing a transition services repository;
storing, in said transition services repository, pre-determined data
and documents related to transition services and agreements associated
with divesting a member from an apparatus;
providing a data and document capturing component;
commanding said data and document capturing component to retrieve pre-determined data and documents from said data repository and said document repository;
transmitting said retrieved data and documents to said at least one node via said first discovery interface along with instructions;
prompting a user to populate said surveys and questionnaires with responses comprising user determined data;
configuring, said data and document capturing component to retrieve pre-determined data and documents related to transition services from said transition services repository and transmit said retrieved data and document related to transition services to said node via said second discovery interface;
directing the user to populate said documents relating to transition services with user determined data;
providing an analytics component;
configuring the analytics component to receive : (a) data of a member to be divested from an apparatus and said populated documents from said user node via said first discovery interface (b) populated documents relating to transition services from said node via said second discovery interface, and further commanding the analytics component to analyze said populated documents and compute risk factors, cost factors, complexity factors and criticality factors relating to divesting of said member from said apparatus;
providing a recommendation engine;
commanding said recommendation engine to read the computed factors and then generating a plurality of recommended strategies for divesting said member and providing said recommended strategies via said analysis and findings interface to said user node;
prompting said user node to select a user determined strategy from the recommended strategies;
providing a phases and activity repository, pre-populated with various activities associated with divesting a member in each of four phases of divestiture in relation to each of said strategies;
providing a best practices and guidelines repository, pre-populated with practices and guidelines associated with divestiture of a member in relation to each of said strategies;
providing a program office repository pre-populated with rules and guidelines associated with guiding of the resource requirement for divestiture of a member in accordance with each of said strategies;
providing an analyzer;
configuring said analyzer to receive: (i) a user determined strategy via said analysis and findings interface, (ii) pre-populated activities in relation to said selected strategy associated with divesting said selected member from said phases and activity repository, (iii) pre-populated best practices and guideline in relation to said selected strategy associated with divesting said selected member from said best practices and guidelines repository; and (iv) pre-populated rules and guidelines in relation to said selected strategy associated with divesting said selected member from said program office repository;
commanding said analyzer to generate a plan template using said received activities data, best practices, rules and guidelines data in respect of said selected strategy for divesting said member;
providing a manager and reporting module equipped with a receiver, selector, assigner and transmitter; and
commanding, said receiver to receive said generated plan template in accordance with said selected strategy, said selector to select appropriate resources from a resource repository, said assigner to assign tasks to each of said selected resources in accordance with said phases of said plan template and in accordance with the roles, experience and expertise of each of said resources to generate an executable plan for effecting said divestiture of said member, and said transmitter to transmit said generated executable plan to said node via said first and said second program planning interface for effecting said divestiture. , Description:TECHNICAL FIELD
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of divesting an asset.
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED IN THE COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
The expression ‘divestiture’ used hereinafter in the complete specification refers to an act of an organization to divest an asset. Typically, the asset to be divested maybe an organization as a whole or a member of an organization, and in one embodiment the asset to be divested maybe a member of an apparatus, equipment or of a system and the member may be an integral part of the equipment or the system.
The expression ‘divestiture framework module’ used hereinafter in the complete specification refers to a module comprising a framework of a system that includes various repositories to provide pre-determined rules and guidelines, pre-determined data and documents, information related to activities and resources and pre-determined decision parameters.
The expression ‘divestiture tools module’ used hereinafter in the complete specification refers to a module comprising tools of a system that enable divestiture planning, management and execution. The planning, management and execution of divestiture includes, but is not limited to, preparing a strategy for separation of a member from an apparatus, generating technical and analytical report and executing transition steps required to implement the divesting of the member from the apparatus.
The expression ‘divestiture interfaces module’ used hereinafter in the complete specification refers to a module that comprises a user node/nodes and several interfaces to help the users to interact with the framework and tools of divestiture system regarding selection of the member to be divested, selection of the strategy to be adopted for divesting the said member, transition services requirements, service level agreement requirements and the like.
The expression ‘divestiture phases’ used hereinafter in the complete specification refers to at least four sequentially occurring stages during the process of divestiture. The four phases are, a separation scoping phase, a separation planning phase, an interim separation execution phase, and a transition and cut-off phase.
The expression ‘Transitional Services Agreement (TSA)’ used hereinafter in the complete specification refers to an agreement made between a first organization/entity that is divesting a member from an apparatus and another organization/entity, to whom they divested the concerned member is transferred to or from whom services are taken to assist the divesting of the member from the apparatus, and contemplates having the first organization/entity provide infrastructure support such as the research and development department, IT, structural engineering department and the like during the transition services and after the transition ends.
The expression ‘Service Level Agreement (SLA)’ used hereinafter in the complete specification refers to a service contract between a service provider, either internal or external, and a service user that defines the level of service expected from the service provider for divesting a member from an apparatus.
These definitions are in addition to those expressed in the art.
BACKGROUND
Today, organizations are competing in an era of economic uncertainty and frequent technological advancements and changes. Since the world is continually changing, organizational learning is necessary to protect an apparatus from becoming uneconomical and not saleable. Further, customers also expect apparatus to adapt quickly to the technological advancements and the economic uncertainty and that leads to unrealistic global pressure. Thus, organizations seek to continuously evaluate, restructure and rebalance the apparatus to remain competitive and maximize overall profit. The evaluation done by organizations amidst global pressure may result in decisions such as divesting a non-core member of an apparatus from the apparatus, which makes the units to refocus on the core members of the apparatus.
Hitherto the process of divestiture was fragmented, empirical and unstructured. The decisions during the divestiture process were being taken empirically and not in a sequential and organized manner. Also the decisions are completely taken by humans and therefore, a sense of dependency in decision making exists. The impact of such decisions during the divestiture process could be complex, and failure to effectively manage the divestiture and its implication on retained apparatus may not only lead to loss of value realized from the divestiture, but may also severely impact the core apparatus in terms of customer alienation, brand image as well as debilitating operational capability gaps.
Such separation of members from an apparatus require an effective and a partially automated system that can facilitate decoupling of tightly integrated industry operations within transaction timelines, while at the same time; minimize risk to retained apparatus, minimize cost of divestiture and its impact on customers. Hence, there is a need for organizations to look at divestiture as a strategic initiative and to adopt a structured and standardized framework and tools that enable effective planning, management and execution of divestiture.
SUMMARY
The present disclosure envisages a computer implemented system and a method for realizing divestiture, wherein the system comprise at least one processor configured to receive predetermined set of rules from a rules repository and further configured to generate system processing commands sequentially. The system also comprises at least one user node and a set of interfaces constituting the divestiture interfaces module that consists of a first discovery interface, an analysis and findings interface, a first program planning interface, a second discovery interface, a second program planning interface.

The system further comprises of a divestiture framework module that consists of various repositories including a data repository for storing pre-determined data related to tools, users, member inventory, and responses to survey and questionnaires generated in the system, a document repository for storing pre-determined documents related to divestiture templates, program documents, analytical reports, and survey and questionnaire forms, a transition services repository for storing pre-determined data and documents related to transition services and agreements associated with divesting a member from an apparatus, a phases and activity repository pre-populated with various activities associated with divesting a member in each of four phases of divestiture in relation to each of the strategies, a best practices and guidelines repository pre-populated with practices and guidelines associated with divestiture of a member in relation to each of the strategies, a program office repository pre-populated with rules and guidelines to provide a standard and structured office setup for the purpose of divesting a member in accordance with each of the strategies, and a resource repository comprising details of resources available in an organization to perform divestiture activity along with details of their roles, their experience and their expertise.

The divestiture tools module of the system comprises a data and document capturing component operating under the system processing commands and configured to retrieve pre-determined data and documents from the data repository and the document repository and provide it to the user node via the first discovery interface along with instructions for populating user determined surveys and responses to questionnaires with user determined data. The data and document capturing component is further configured to retrieve pre-determined data and documents related to transition services from the transition services repository and transmit the retrieved data and document related to transition services to the node via the second discovery interface to enable a user to populate the documents relating to transition services.

The divestiture tools module of the system also comprises an analytics component configured to receive the data of a member to be divested from an apparatus, to receive the populated documents related to the member from the user node via the first discovery interface and also receives the populated documents related to transition services from the node via the second discovery interface. The analytics component is further configured to analyze the populated documents and compute risk factors, cost factors, complexity factors and criticality factors.The analytics component comprises a recommendation engine which is configured to read the computed factors in relation to the member and generate a plurality of recommended strategies for divesting the member from the apparatus. The recommendation engine also provides the recommended strategies to the user node for enabling the user to select a user determined strategy from the recommended strategies via the analysis and findings interface.

The divestiture tools module of the system further comprises an analyzer configured to receive: (i) a user determined strategy via the analysis and findings interface, (ii) pre-populated activities in relation to the selected strategy from the phases and activity repository associated with divesting the selected member, (iii) pre-populated best practices and guideline in relation to the selected strategy from the best practices and guidelines repository associated with divesting the selected member, and (iv) pre-populated rules and guidelines in relation to the selected strategy from the program office repository associated with divesting the selected member. The analyzer is further configured to generate a plan template using the received activities data, best practices, rules and guidelines data in respect of the selected strategy for divesting the member.

The divestiture tools module comprises a manager and reporting sub-module equipped with a receiver configured to receive the generated plan template in accordance with the selected strategy, a selector configured to select appropriate resources from the resource repository, an assigner configured to assign tasks to each of the selected resources in accordance with the phases of the plan template and in accordance with the roles, experience and expertise of each of the resources to generate an executable plan for effecting the divestiture of the member, and a transmitter to transmit the generated executable plan to the node via the first and the second program planning interface for effecting the divestiture.

A method for computer implemented system to realize divestiture of a member from an apparatus is also disclosed in the present disclosure.
OBJECTS
Some of the objects of the framework of the present disclosure are aimed to ameliorate one or more problems of the prior art or to at least provide a useful alternative and are listed herein below.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide an organization with a computer implemented system and a method that performs in an optimal manner from time and cost perspective.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a partially automated computer implemented system that will reduce human effort.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a flexible computer implemented system and a method that is industry agnostic.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a computer implemented system and a method that addresses diverse transition services.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a computer implemented system that is easy to understand and access.
Still another object of the present disclosure is to provide a computer implemented system that will make the separation of a member from an apparatus less vulnerable to human error.
Other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying figures, which are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWING
A divestiture system and a method of the present disclosure will now be described with the help of accompanying drawing, in which:
Fig. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computer implemented system with the modules of the system, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
Fig. 2 illustrates another block diagram of the computer implemented system of fig. 1 for realizing divestiture;
Fig. 3 illustrates a descriptive flow chart diagram of divestiture phases of the computer implemented system, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and
Fig. 4 illustrates a method for realizing divestiture, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any block diagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative systems embodying the principles of the present subject matter. Similarly, it will be appreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, and the like represent various processes which may be substantially represented in computer readable medium and so executed by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Many modern day apparatus, machinery or devices have thousands of members. Some of these members are vital to the operation of the apparatus, machinery or the device. Others, although important, maybe dispensed with or divested depending upon the market conditions and customer preferences. Take the example of a car, which is designed in Europe or the U.S.A. A standard member of such a car is a sunroof which slides in and out depending on the weather conditions. Such a car, if it has to be exported to bright sunlight countries may require the manufacturer to dispense with this sunroof as it is a redundant item in the tropics. It may therefore be necessary to perform a divestiture operation on the vehicle to divest the vehicle of the sunroof for marketing the vehicle in the tropics. This exercise can be very complicated because, if the sunroof is a standard item and an integral part of the vehicle and vehicle design, divesting the sunroof will require alterations in overall controls, electronic circuitry, software controllers, roof design, assembly line processes, dashboard controls and various other controls and equipment in the car. Since many of the components are interrelated, the divestiture of the sunroof can be very complex, require planning and if left into the hands of human decision making, lead to costly and disastrous results. The present disclosure relates to a system and a method that formulates the divestiture strategies and provides a plan to successfully manage and execute the divestiture strategies. Further, the present disclosure discloses an automation system by which the divestiture process can be partially automated and an integral technical solution and strategy is obtained in the implementation of the system.
The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained with reference to the non-limiting embodiments in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
Figure 1 and Figure 2 illustrate block diagrams depicting a computer implemented system 100, hereinafter referred as a divestiture system 100 or a system 100, and a method 200 of the present disclosure. The system 100 is constituted of three modules, a divestiture framework module 50, divestiture tools module 60 and divestiture interfaces module 70. Further, the divestiture framework module 50 comprehends the following divisions including a data repository 102, a document repository 104, a transition services repository 106, a parameter repository 108, a phases and activity repository 110, a best practice and guidelines repository 112, a program office repository 114 and a resource repository 116. Also, the divestiture tools module 60 hereinafter referred as divestiture tools comprises a data and document capture component 120 that contains a first retriever 122 and a second retriever 124, an analytics component 130 that contains a recommendation engine 132, a reader 134 and a strategy generator 136, an analyzer 140 that contains a phase setter 142, a third retriever 144 and a plan template generator 146, and a managing and reporting sub-module 150 that contains a receiver 152, a selector 154, an assigner 156 and a transmitter 158. The third module of the system 100 is the divestiture interfaces module 70 that comprises a first discovery interface 162, a second discovery interface 164, an analysis and findings interface 166, a first program planning interface 168, a second program planning interface 170 and a user node/nodes 180. The computer implemented system 100 also comprises a processor 185 and a rules repository 190. The processor 185 is configured to receive predetermined set of rules from the rules repository 190 and further configured to generate system processing commands sequentially that guides the functioning of the modules of the system 100. The divestiture framework module 50 provides a standard and structured framework to the system 100 which facilitates the planning, managing and execution of the divestiture by an integrated set of tools of divestiture tools module 60. The divestiture system 100 is further described in the subsequent paragraphs.
As stated earlier, the divestiture system 100 comprises the divestiture framework module 50, which includes various repositories such as the data repository 102, the document repository 104, the transition services repository 106, the parameter repository 108, the phases and activity repository 110, the best practice and guidelines repository 112, the program office repository 114 and the resource repository 116. The data repository 102, the document repository 104 and the transition services repository 106 are a part of a training phase in which the repositories of the system 100 are fed with data and documents related to all the apparatus of a particular industry where this system 100 is being implemented. The data repository 102 contains information related to the tool configuration, the user, the member inventory, the survey and questionnaire responses and the like. Take for example, in an automobile industry, if the sunroof of an automobile is to be divested, information related on how to operate the divestiture tools, information about the automobile, the organization/company, the roof design, the materials used in manufacturing the sunroof, the availability and requirement of resources during divestiture, and the like, should be available in the data repository 102. Similarly, the document repository 104 comprises all the documents including, but not limited to, templates, costing and pricing documents, divestiture program documents, bill of material documents, asset and member inventory related documents, analytic reports, technical reports, images and data room content that will be required during the divestiture. Take an example of a car which has thousands of members. The document repository 104 comprises the aforementioned documents related to all the members of the automobile, the system, the final product, the sales data, the assembly line data, the company/organization and the like. In one embodiment, the member can be a sunroof, where documents related to roof design, material of the sunroof, cost of assembling a sunroof, and the like is made available in the document repository 104. The transition services repository 106 contains data and documents related to transition services agreements and service level agreements that include agreement between an organization or an entity divesting a member and another organization or entity which can provide transition services in relation to the divestiture. The data repository 102, the document repository 104 and the transition services repository 106 are updated continually by an editor 192, with data and documents gathered during the training phase of the computer implemented divestiture system 100 and later during the learning phase of the system 100 that is either during or after the divestiture activity is performed, in accordance with the present disclosure.
The data and document capture component 120 present in the divestiture tools module 60 under the system processing commands generated by the processor 185,retrieves the pre-determined data and documents related to all the members of the apparatus from the data repository 102 and the document repository 104 respectively, with the help of the first retriever 122 selected from an index based retriever or a crawler and an extractor set and retrieves the pre-determined data and documents related to transition services from transition services repository 106 with the help of the second retriever 124 selected from an index based retriever or a crawler and an extractor set. A link is established in the system 100 between the data and document capture component 120 and the repositories including data repository 102, document repository 104 and transition services repository 106, so as to facilitate the movement of data and documents back and forth. The retrieved pre-determined data and documents from the data repository 102 and document repository 104 respectively, is provided to the user node/nodes 180 via the first discovery interface 162 along with instructions for populating user determined surveys and responses to questionnaires and other associated documents related to members that may be divested by the user, with user determined data. Further, the retrieved pre-determined data and documents from the transition services repository 106, is provided to the user node/nodes 180 via the second discovery interface 164 along with instructions for populating user determined surveys and responses to questionnaires and other documents related to transition services associated with members that can be divested by the user, with user determined data. The user then selects a member to be divested and fill in the surveys and questionnaires and other documents related to the member of an apparatus that is selected to be divested.
The analytics component 130, one of the tools of the divestiture tools module 60, is configured to receive the data of the member that is selected to be divested from an apparatus and also receives the populated documents associated with the member of the apparatus from the user node/nodes 180. The populated document from the user node/nodes 180 is received by the analytics component 130 via the first discovery interface 162. Similarly, the analytics component 130 also receives the data and populated documents related to the transition services associated with divesting of the member, from the user node/nodes 180 via the second discovery interface 164, wherein the analytics component 130 analyses the data and documents related to the transition services, and generates the identification and definition of transition service requirements, transition service cost estimation, TSA terms and contract, and resources for transition services, transition services timeline and delivery, for the member to be divested. The analytics component 130 further fetches pre-determined data and documents like filled surveys and questionnaires and old analytical and technical reports of the selected member from the data and document capture component 120.The analytics component 130 is configured to analyze the data and populated documents so received, under the system processing commands and further configured to compute decision parameters like risk factor, cost factor, complexity factor and criticality score for divesting the member from the apparatus. The divestiture system 100 comprises the parameter repository 108, which contains pre-stored information related to parameters like risk, cost, complexity and criticality of divesting a member from an apparatus. The parameter repository 108 also comprises a set of computational rules and guidelines that are incorporated by the analytics component 130 while computing the decision parameters like risk factor, cost factor, complexity factor and criticality factor for the member to be divested. The analytics component 130 comprehends the recommendation engine 132 wherein the recommendation engine 132 houses the reader 134 and the strategy generator 136. The reader 134 under the system processing commands is adapted to receive the computed decision parameters in relation to the member that is to be divested, and feeds the computed decision parameters to the strategy generator 136, which is configured to generate a plurality of recommended strategies in accordance with and corresponding to the member to be divested, pre-defined strategy pathways, and pre-defined threshold limits in relation to the computed parameters. In another strategy the divesting can be done by redesigning the roof or by simply welding the sunroof with the roof. The recommendation engine 132 provides the computed decision parameters and the recommendation strategies generated in accordance with the computed decision parameters to the user node/nodes 180 via the analysis and findings interface 166 for enabling the user to select a user determined strategy from the recommended strategies for divesting the member from the apparatus.
The divestiture system 100 comprises a knowledge management repository (not shown exclusively in the figures). The knowledge management repository comprises three repositories that include the phases and activity repository 110, the best practices and guidelines repository 112 and the program office repository 114. The phases and activity repository 110 is pre-populated with various activities associated with divesting a member and is divided in each of the divestiture phases in coordination with every possible strategy that could be selected by the user to divest a member from an apparatus. The divestiture phases includes 4 phases (shown in figure 2) such as separation scoping phase, separation planning phase, interim separation execution phase, and transition and cutoff phase, which are sequential and are completely incorporated in the divestiture system 100. These phases are further explained in conjunction with figure 2 later in subsequent paragraphs. These phases comprise various perspectives that cover all the activities of the divestiture system 100. The activities involved in the divestiture system 100 are accumulated together to form various projects and a group of these projects together form a program. The best practices and guidelines repository 112 is pre-populated with examples of best practices and guidelines associated with divesting a member in relation to every possible strategy that could be selected by the user to divest a member from an apparatus. The program office repository 114 is pre-populated with rules and guidelines that are required for setting up a standard and structured office for the purpose of divesting a member in relation to each of the possible strategy that could be selected by the user to divest a member from an apparatus. The standard and structured office comprises following core divisions: strategic divestiture committee, divestiture project office and program and project support offices. These core structures drive the divestiture activities and bring in the technology heads, business heads, all the stakeholders and a dedicated divestiture director to take the responsibility of managing and executing the projects and programs, which takes into account activities such as coordinating resources, issuing resolution, providing team direction, validating achievement of objectives and synergies, managing the cross-functionality issues, delivery coordination, program planning, tracking and reporting, executing integrated activities and the like. The phases and activity repository 110, the best practices and guidelines repository 112 and the program office repository 114 are updated continually by an editor 192, with data related to activities, rules, guidelines and examples of best practices gathered during the training phase of the computer implemented divestiture system 100 and later during the learning phase of the system 100 that is either during or after the divestiture activity is performed, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.
The divestiture tools module 60 comprises the analyzer 140 which is configured to receive the strategy selected by the user, from the user node/nodes 180 via the analysis and findings interface 166. The analyzer 140 comprises the phase setter 142 and the plan template generator 146, wherein the phase setter 142 is configured to read the inputs from the analysis and findings interface 166 and set phases in accordance with the activities that are to be performed, the decision parameters and the strategy selected by the user, for divesting the selected member. The plan template generator 146 is equipped with the third retriever 144 selected from an index based retriever or a crawler and an extractor set, which is configured to retrieve data related to the strategy selected by the user from the phases and activity repository 110, the best practices and guidelines repository 112, and the program office repository 114 for divesting a member from an apparatus. The plan template generator 146 is configured to generate a plan template by fetching and incorporating the information related to activities from phases and activity repository 110 and applying the rules, best practices, guidelines, office structure so received from the best practices and guidelines repository 112 and the program office repository 114, on the data received from the analysis and findings interface 166 using fuzzy logic and neural networking. The plan template so generated consists of an outer structure of the plan and associated activities that are to be enacted upon sequentially by the employees of the organization/company to execute the selected strategy for divesting the selected member from the apparatus.
The divestiture framework module 50 includes a resource repository 116 comprising details of resources available in an organization to perform divestiture activity along with detail of their roles, their experience and their expertise. The divestiture tools module 60 includes a manager and reporting sub-module 150 equipped with a receiver 152 configured to receive under instructions of the system processing commands, the generated plan template from the plan template generator 146 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The manager and reporting sub-module 150 is also equipped with the selector 154 configured to select appropriate resources from the resource repository 116, the assigner 156 configured to assign tasks to each of the selected resources in accordance with the activities present in the plan template and in accordance with the roles, experience and expertise of each of the resources to generate an executable plan for effecting the divestiture of the selected member, and the transmitter 158 to transmit the generated plan to the user node/nodes 180 via the first program planning interface 168 and the second program planning interface 170 for effecting the divestiture. The manager and reporting sub-module 150 is an enabler for the plan template generator 146 that is configured in the analyzer 140. The plan generated by the manager and reporting sub-module 150 enables and supervises the divestiture projects and programs and thereby ensures that the divestiture objectives as well as TSA commitments are met without impacting the usual functioning of the industry/organization. Taking the example of the car and the sunroof, while the car is being redesigned to divest the sunroof for a particular territory, this module will ensure that the resources that are required for cars meant for other territories continue to be utilized for manufacturing the car with the sunroof and that the assembly line and resource allocation will not be affected for the change envisaged as a result of the divestiture. Therefore the planning may suggest that cars without sunroof be manufactured along an independent dedicated assembly line and the conventional cars where the divestiture has not taken place shall be continued to be manufactured across the existing assembly lines so that there is no confusion between the two assembly lines.
The user receives the generated plan via the user node/nodes 180 and performs the activities in accordance with the plan. The user may daily update the status of the activities configured in the plan and then provide the updated status of the activities of the plan to the analyzer 140 via the first program planning interface 168 and the second program planning interface 170. An important function of the analyzer 140 is to provide the status of the divestiture projects, milestones, cost and schedule in the form of reports, during the divestiture of a member from an apparatus. These reports are then transferred and stored in the document repository 104 during the learning phase of the divestiture. The analyzer 140 includes an updater 148 which is configured to restart or revise the analyzing process or the plan template making process if required. The inputs from all these resources regarding the sunroof will be collected, coordinated and fed to the analyzer 140. If in case the plan to divest the sunroof needs to be restructured, user can use the reset 148 provided in the analyzer 140, which is configured to restart or revise the analyzing process or the plan making process of divestiture.
In the computer implemented system 100 of the present disclosure, all the repositories may be subjected to the dynamic learning phase where the editor 192 in the system 100 edits the information stored in the respective repositories in the form of data, documents, rules, guidelines, and the like, in accordance with the inputs received from the user during the divestiture of a member from an apparatus. The initial training phase and the dynamic learning phase of the system ensures that the divestiture system 100 of this disclosure is continuously improving itself organically and provides the system 100 with artificial intelligence. The analyzer 140 includes a customizer 149 configured to customize the rules, guidelines, templates in accordance with the context of the divestiture and the industry in which the divestiture takes place. The analyzer 140 also includes the updater 148 which configured to update the generated plan periodically based on the completion of the activities during the phases and periodically providing updated generated plan to said node. The divestiture interfaces module 70 of the system 100 includes at least five interfaces, wherein each and every interface of the system 100 uses a transceiver (not shown in the figure) to transmit the data, documents and generated plan to the user so as to guide them with the steps and activities that are to be acted upon to realize divestiture.
Fig. 3 illustrates a block diagram that describes the computer implemented divestiture system 100 configured to operate in four sequential phases, in accordance with a pre-determined set of rules and guidelines. The structure and the guidelines of these phases are incorporated in the phases and activity register 110. The plan template that is generated by the analyzer 140 is formulated in accordance with the four phases and the activities that are configured in these phases. The four phases that drives the execution of the divestiture activity are separation scoping 100-A, separation planning 100-B, interim separation execution 100-C, and transition and cut-off 100-D. The structure of the aforementioned phases 100-A, 100-B, 100-C, 100-D covers all the modules of the divestiture system 100 including divestiture framework module, divestiture tools module and divestiture interfaces module. During each phase of the sequence of phases several distinct activities are executed either within the phase itself or their execution overlaps one or more phases. The knowledge management repository (not shown in the figure) includes pre-determined templates, guidelines, rules, information related to activities that are applied on the inputs received by the analysis and findings interface 166 (disclosed in figure 1) to generate a plan template. Figure 3 also represents the correlation of the four phases and the activities taking place during the four phases of the divestiture process. For instance, in the separation scoping phase 100-A one of the activities is separation scoping, risk and complexity assessment 104. The enabler that is the manager and reporting sub-module 150 (disclosed in figure 1) enables this activity by assigning appropriate resources relating to risk and complexity assessment. Similarly, other applications like divestiture program management office setup 102, separation cost and timeline estimation 106, divestiture program management 108, separation strategy definition 110, separation program planning 112, TSA planning and setup 114, day one readiness assessment and planning 116, operational and functional separation 118, technology dis-entanglement that is logical separation 120, communication and change management 122, TSA monitoring and exit planning 124, transition services delivery 126, services transition 128 and technology and infrastructure cut-off 130 are enabled by the manager and reporting sub-module 150 by assigning a set of resources for enabling the individual applications respectively.
Figure 4A, 4B and 4C illustrate the method 200 of the present disclosure by the means of a block diagram. Block 202 depicts a processor that receives predetermined set of rules from a rules repository and generates system processing commands sequentially that commands the actions of all the components of the system 100.
Block 204 depicts a user node/nodes that enables a user to interact with the system 100 discreetly via various interface like the first discovery interface, the second discovery interface, the analysis and findings interface, the first program planning interface and the second program planning interface.
Block 206 depicts various repositories like the data repository, the document repository and the transition services repository that are stored with pre-determined data and documents during training phase of the system 100.
Block 208 depicts a data and document capture component that retrieves the pre-determined data and documents from the data repository, the document repository and the transition services repository and transmits them to the user node/nodes via the first discovery interface and the second discovery interface along with instructions to populate said surveys and questionnaires with responses comprising user determined data.
Block 210 depicts an analytics component that receives data related to a member that is to be divested and the populated documents related to the member from the user node via the first discovery interface, and populated documents relating to transition services from the user node via the second discovery interface. Block 212 depicts the analytics component to analyze the populated documents and compute risk factors, cost factors, complexity factors and criticality factors relating to separation of the member from the apparatus.
Block 214 depicts a reader and a recommendation engine housed inside the analytics component, wherein the reader reads the computed factors and the recommendation engine generates a plurality of recommended strategies for divesting the member and provides the recommended strategies to the user via the analysis and findings interface node to let the user select a user determined strategy from the recommended strategies.
Block 216 depicts various repositories, including the phases and activity repository, which is stored with pre-populated data related with various activities that are to be performed during divestiture, the best practices and guidelines repository, which is stored with pre-populated best examples of divestiture and guidelines, and the program office repository, which is stored with rules and guidelines related to office structure.
Block 218 depicts an analyzer that receives a user determined strategy and retrieves pre-populated activities from the phases and activity repository in relation to the selected strategy, pre-populated best practices and guideline from the best practices and guidelines repository in relation to the selected strategy and pre-populated rules and guidelines for office structure from the program office repository in relation to said selected strategy and further depicts the analyzer analyzing the inputs to generate a plan template.
Block 220 depicts a manager and reporting sub-module comprising a receiver that receives the generated plan template in accordance with the selected strategy, a selector that selects appropriate resources from a resource repository, an assigner that assigns tasks to each of the selected resources in accordance with the phases of the plan template and in accordance with the roles, experience and expertise of each of the resources while generating an executable plan for effecting the divestiture of the member.
Block 222 depicts the manager and reporting module comprising a transmitter that transmits the generated executable plan to the user node for the user to realize divestiture by performing activities in accordance with the plan.
TECHNICAL ADVANCES AND ECONOMICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The semi-automated computer implemented system 100, in accordance with the present disclosure described herein above has several technical and economic advantages including but not limited to providing a system and method that:
performs in an optimal manner from time and cost perspective;
reduces human effort;
is industry agnostic;
is easy to understand and access; and
is less vulnerable to human error.
Throughout this specification the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.
The use of the expression “at least” or “at least one” suggests the use of one or more elements or mixtures or quantities, as the use may be in the embodiment of the disclosure to achieve one or more of the desired objects or results.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like that has been included in this specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the disclosure. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the disclosure, as it existed anywhere before the priority date of this application.
The systems and methods are not limited to the specific embodiments described herein. In addition, components of each system and each method can be practiced independently and separately from other components and methods described herein. Each component and method can be used in combination with other components and other methods.
While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the specific features of the preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated that many additional features can be added and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiment without departing from the principles of the invention. These and other changes in the preferred embodiment of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation.