Information intensity

With rapid advances in hardware, database management and information processing systems, efficient and competitive manufacturing has become an information-intensive activity. The amounts of data presently collected in the field on a routine basis are staggering, and it is not unusual to find plants where as many as 20,000 variables are continuously monitored and stored (Taylor, 1989). 

The shift in the U.S. economy from energy-intensive activities such as steel manufacturing to information-intensive activities such as computer... 

The conventional proof of efficacy is still the key to product registration and market entry, but in the new, information-intensive environment it brings no competitive advantage. Those responsible for the purchase of pharmaceuticals have begun to demand proof of value, which is to be found in information on the medical and economic outcomes of treatment, and the best means to those ends. Proof of efficacy can usually suffice as proof of value if it applies to the first curative medicine for a hitherto untreatable disease, but hardly so when the choice is among multiple, like-indicated, differently priced agents. 

Another change is the diminishing role of the individual physician in pharmaceutical purchasing. Increasingly, decisions are being taken by a formulary committee —experts from pharmacy, medicine and other fields. With this transition, the traditionally information-sparse ( infopenic ), 5-7-minute detailing of individual physicians is fading from the scene, replaced by information-intensive ( infotensive ) presentations to a com-... 

JN Weinstein, TG Myers, PM O Connor, SH Friend, AJ Fomace Jr, KW Kohn, T Fojo, SE Bates, LV Rubinstein, NL Anderson, JK Buolamwini, WW van Osdol, AP Monks, DA Scudiero, EA Sausville, DW Zaharevitz, B Bunow, VN Viswanad-han, GS Johnson, RE Wittes, et al. An information-intensive approach to the molecular pharmacology of cancer. Science 275 343-349, 1997. 

The business of the FDA is extremely information intensive. In recognition of this fact and of the potential benefits offered by information technology for assisting with the management of information, the FDA has undertaken a number of projects supporting the electronic submission of text and data from the industries it regulates. 

Advantages include speed, accuracy, versatility, and a large potential size range. Disadvantages include limited shape information, intensity-weighted results, and difficult data analysis for broad distributions. 

Weinstein JN, Myers TG, O Connor PM, Friend SH, Fornace AJ Jr, Kohn KW, Fojo T, Bates SE, Rubinstein LV, Anderson NL, Buolamwini JK, van Osdol WW, Monks AP, Scudiero DA, Sausville EA, Zaharevitz DW, Bunow B, Viswanadhan VN, Johnson GS, Wittes RE, Pauli KD. An information-intensive approach to the molecular pharmacology of cancer. Science 1997 275 343-9. 

Weinstein JN, Myers TG, O Connor PM et al. An information-intensive approach to the molecular pharmacology of cancer. Science 1997 275 343-9. 

The different but complementary strategies for redesigning natural enzyme can be approached from the perspective of how rational the strategy could be. Thus, the existing biocatalyst can be fine-tuned by rational design, being information intensive and computer assisted. In other words, the more rational the desired approach, the more knowledge is necessary to exactly interplay protein sequence and function. 

Cunningham AR, Cunningham SL, Consoer DM, Moss ST, Karol MH. Development of an information-intensive structure-activity relationship model and its application to human respiratory chemical sensitizers. SAR QSAR Environ Res 2005 16 273-285. 

Even the use of loose couplers is now on the verge of a major transition as it expands from the network and data layers to the application layer. Service-oriented architectures (SOAs) are today one of the most talked-about technical approaches for building large complex, information intensive systems. Such architectures are designed to produce reusable, loosely coupled services that enable users to access the functions encapsulated in the application layer. In this context as well, loosely coupled services minimize the a priori knowledge needed by unanticipated users. 

This method of calculating costs gets companies into trouble in implementing supply chain improvements. Like Acme, they base the feasibility of a labor-saving project in the factory or warehouse on 2.80, not 1.00, of savings. This could be in error by a factor of almost three In High Tech and Process, the situation is more extreme. Process is capital intensive High Tech is information intensive. There, each 1 of direct labor could absorb up to 5 of overhead. In these companies, direct labor costs 6 with the cost allocations we described for Old Line in place. And this is not an unusual situation. 

Manufacturers have long emphasized cost reduction in their improvement efforts — particularly on shop floor directed at labor activity. But today s supply chains are increasingly information intensive, as demonstrated by the list of information types above. Supply chain partners are information... 

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