Binding time: Harold Innis and the balance of new media

Much has been made of the impacts of digital media on the experience of space: new modes of perception and action at a distance: accelerating globalisation; shifting boundaries between work and home life; and so on. It is less common to read about the impacts of digital media on the experience of time. Yet, the digitisation of cultural practices and artefacts has significant implications for structuring our relationships with both the future and the past. In the theoretical traditions concerned with technology and time, the work of Harold Innis, a Canadian economist and communications theorist, offers an approach to understanding the social significance of all kinds of media. He analysed how different media relate to space and time: space-binding media extend influence and meanings over distances, helping to build empires and develop cohesion across space; while time-binding media influence cultural patterns in duration. For Innis, civilisations can be measured by their balance between managing time and controlling space. If this remains the case today, how has the computer changed this balance in our own culture? This paper examines the extent to which Innis’s concepts about media still apply today

Design of Closed Loop Supply Chains

Increased concern for the environment has lead to new techniques to design products and supply chains that are both economically and ecologically feasible. This paper deals with the product - and corresponding supply chain design for a refrigerator. Literature study shows that there are many models to support product design and logistics separately, but not in an integrated way. In our research we develop quantitative modelling to support an optimal design structure of a product, i.e. modularity, repairability, recyclability, as well as the optimal locations and goods flows allocation in the logistics system. Environmental impacts are measured by energy and waste. Economic costs are modelled as linear functions of volumes with a fixed set-up component for facilities. We apply this model using real life R&D data of a Japanese consumer electronics company. The model is run for different scenarios using different parameter settings such as centralised versus decentralised logistics, alternative product designs, varying return quality and quantity, and potential environmental legislation based on producer responsibility.supply chain management;reverse logistics;facility location;network design;product design

'No one in the driver's seat' : an agent-based modelling approach to decentralised behaviour in supply chain co-ordination

As decentralised supply chain networks become the norm and vertically integrated firms the exception, there is a need to better understand decentralised co-ordination in such supply chains. However, contemporary research in supply chain management proceeds under the assumption that there is always a dominant actor in the supply chain network who is ‘in the driver's seat’. This article describes a study that investigates situations in which effective industrial supply chain co-ordination is achieved by multiple, independent actors where ‘no-one is in the driver's seat’. It introduces a formal modelling method to investigate such issues, called agent-based modelling. In this, we build on the notion of complex adaptive systems. The article shows the application of this method in three experiments with an simple supply chain model in one specific agent-based simulation environment. Exploratory findings are discussed and promising areas for further research are indicated

A comparative study of university administrative systems

Student administrative systems swing between being decentralised or centralised with a number of benefits being put forward for each scenario, including economy, consistency, customer service and control. This study makes a comparison of these systems in English universities, particularly looking at the factors which influence the centralisation or decentralisation of student administration in order to identify the factors involved, so that informed decisions can be made by university management. The research was undertaken in two main phases: firstly a questionnaire survey of university registrars (the macro study) was carried out in order to identify the current structures and systems in place for student administration; secondly case studies of four universities were undertaken. The latter mainly involved questionnaire surveys of academic and administrative staff at each institution, together with semi-structured interviews to chart the different student administrative systems and structures in place and obtain qualitative and quantitative data to assess them. From the results of the first survey, it was possible to assess the degree of the centralisation or decentralisation of the student administrative functions and cross-reference the data to examine whether certain factors were influencing the design of these structures. The results of this analysis are documented in Chapter 4, and it was noticeable that the majority of the respondents favoured the “midway” structure for student administration. Four universities were identified from the macro study to form the focus of more detailed case studies: one with a centralised student administration, one with a decentralised system, and two with hybrid systems. Key administrative functions were examined closely to determine the effectiveness, efficiency and motivational influences involved for each case study university. The research concludes that a blanket centralisation or decentralisation of student administration does not maximise the resources and gain the optimum efficiency. By being selective in which processes are centralised or decentralised, the university can gain in economy and also ensure a supportive infrastructure to enhance the student experience.University of Derby/University of Nottingha

Public sector research and industrial innovation in Norway: a historical perspective

This paper analyses the historical role of public research organisations for industrial growth and innovation in Norway – and the changes in this role over time. Public research organisations include research institutes and higher education institutions, and we go back in time to the 19th century. Like many other countries, Norway has a large number research institutes involved in innovation, and these organisations have an equally long history as higher education institutions. Public sector research has co-evolved with the national industrial structure, and institutes and universities have played central roles in developing high technology sectors and activities as well as in modernisations of traditional industries.

Machine diagnosis based on artificial immune systems

Nowadays, many of the manufactory and industrial system has a diagnosis system on top of it, responsible for ensuring the lifetime of the system itself. It achieves this by performing both diagnosis and error recovery procedures in real production time, on each of the individual parts of the system. There are many paradigms currently being used for diagnosis. However, they still fail to answer all the requirements imposed by the enterprises making it necessary for a different approach to take place. This happens mostly on the error recovery paradigms since the great diversity that is nowadays present in the industrial environment makes it highly unlikely for every single error to be fixed under a real time, no production stop, perspective. This work proposes a still relatively unknown paradigm to manufactory. The Artificial Immune Systems (AIS), which relies on bio-inspired algorithms, comes as a valid alternative to the ones currently being used. The proposed work is a multi-agent architecture that establishes the Artificial Immune Systems, based on bio-inspired algorithms. The main goal of this architecture is to solve for a resolution to the error currently detected by the system. The proposed architecture was tested using two different simulation environment, each meant to prove different points of views, using different tests. These tests will determine if, as the research suggests, this paradigm is a promising alternative for the industrial environment. It will also define what should be done to improve the current architecture and if it should be applied in a decentralised system

The Role of R&D in Industrial Policy: Rise and fall of a research driven strategy for industrialisation

R&D has played a central role in Norwegian public industrial policy for only a relatively short period. Before 1963, there was little interest in linking technological research policy to a wider national industrial strategy. During the mid 1960s, attempts were made to link public research more closely to industrial development, and the state became more engaged in funding industrial R&D. During the 1980s, governments increased public industrial R&D funding substantially, and for a short period of time research became a core element in national industrial policy. However, from the early 1990s the situation again changed. Public research policy lost its significance in wider national industrial strategies.

Semantic model-driven development of service-centric software architectures

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a recent architectural paradigm that has received much attention. The prevalent focus on platforms such as Web services, however, needs to be complemented by appropriate software engineering methods. We propose the model-driven development of service-centric software systems. We present in particular an investigation into the role of enriched semantic modelling for a modeldriven development framework for service-centric software systems. Ontologies as the foundations of semantic modelling and its enhancement through architectural pattern modelling are at the core of the proposed approach. We introduce foundations and discuss the benefits and also the challenges in this context