Systems practice in engineering: reflections on doctoral level systems supervision

The Industrial Doctorate Centre (IDC) in Systems, a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the University of Bath, offers an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Systems Programme which is aimed at high-calibre engineers from graduate level to early/mid-career stage with the purpose of developing the systems-thinking capabilities of future leaders in industry. Research Engineers on this programme are based ~75% of their time in industry and focussed on a research project defined by their sponsoring company. This paper presents a personal reflection on the role of the systems supervisor on this programme with a focus on four areas of particular interest to the author i) alignment of industry needs and academic research, ii) developing an appreciation for the need for systems thinking, iii) navigating the systems literature, and iv) teaching research methods for doctoral research in systems. The purpose is to encourage and engage in debate on the development of systems practice in engineering

Improving performance through HEI–industry engagements in the built environment

The poor performance and inefficiencies of the construction industry are well recognized and documented. Through a variety of combined industry and government initiatives there has been a continual expression in the UK over the last decade of the urgent need to address the fragmented nature of the industry to improve its performance. A major challenge is for education and industry stakeholders to create closer and more effective relationships with each other to facilitate greater mutual understanding. ‘Accelerating Change in Built Environment Education’ (ACBEE) is a sponsored initiative designed to encourage the closer working together of industry, education and professional bodies to provide more relevant training and education. This paper introduces ACBEE, along with an evaluation framework for measuring the performance of engagements at various levels. This is followed by an analysis of the application of this performance measurement framework through case studies of industry–education engagement. A number of case studies were identified as operating at the grades of ‘strategic alliance’ and ‘partnership’ (as classified in the ACBEE evaluation framework). The analysis of these cases focuses on the drivers behind and the purpose of the engagement, and how these are aligned with the business strategy of the collaborating organizations and measurement of the activity. Evidence of meeting the explicit business needs and strategic objectives and the contribution to good practice knowledge are also discussed

Management in engineering consultancies: with special reference to the Carl Bro Group and Peter Deer and Associates: executive summary

In my portfolio I have attempted, through projects and post module work in both a large and a small start up company, to examine consulting engineering firms as businesses. Firstly identifying the key issues then developing a framework of ideas that could be used by others. Because of the lack of literature directly related to the practice of consultipg engineering in construction I have looked outside that industry for references to guide me. In this summary I have attempted to consolidate the information gained. This would be useful as a starting point when assessing an existing businesses or as guidance for start-up firms

A general moment NRIXS approach to the determination of equilibrium Fe isotopic fractionation factors: application to goethite and jarosite

We measured the reduced partition function ratios for iron isotopes in goethite FeO(OH), potassium-jarosite KFe3(SO4)2(OH)6, and hydronium-jarosite (H3O)Fe3(SO4)2(OH)6, by Nuclear Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering (NRIXS, also known as Nuclear Resonance Vibrational Spectroscopy -NRVS- or Nuclear Inelastic Scattering -NIS) at the Advanced Photon Source. These measurements were made on synthetic minerals enriched in 57Fe. A new method (i.e., the general moment approach) is presented to calculate {\beta}-factors from the moments of the NRIXS spectrum S(E). The first term in the moment expansion controls iron isotopic fractionation at high temperature and corresponds to the mean force constant of the iron bonds, a quantity that is readily measured and often reported in NRIXS studies.Comment: 38 pages, 2 tables, 8 figures. In press at Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Appendix C contains new derivations relating the moments of the iron PDOS to the moments of the excitation probability function measured in Nuclear Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scatterin

Advanced manufacturing industrial doctorate centre : engineering doctorate students collaborating with industry within an academic and industrial environment

The University of Strathclyde (UoS) acknowledged the importance and need for an Advanced Manufacturing Industrial Doctorate Centre (AMIDC) which is jointly supported by the University's department of Design Manufacture and Engineering Management (DMEM) and their industry-focused research centre, the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC). The Engineering Doctorate (EngD) students work with both Industry and academia during the four year programme giving students an unparalleled opportunity to engage with these companies in an academically accredited manner. This presents the students with a unique learning opportunity and further adds an important element of experience of working in the Design and Engineering industry both at the strategic high level and at the operational day-to-day level. So far, the industrial partner companies have all been large Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's), these companies all are engaged in the design and production of highly specified technologically complex products that are sold around the world, these companies are in some cases world leaders in their market place. It could be argued that because of the high value and manufacturing complexity these companies must invest in research and can see the long term benefits in investing in the EngD programmes. These large companies all have their own well-managed research design and engineering methods and procedures, these methods and procedures are sometimes at variants with the EngD programmes running within the university. It is therefore critical to match the company, the needs of their intended research, the EngD programme as run within the university and importantly the skill set and interest areas of the EngD students. This paper will describe in principal the organisation and implementation of EngD programmes to suit a variety of OEM's and the particular management differences that have to be considered to ensure a successful outcome for the company, the student and the university. The unique aspect of this approach is to facilitate high-level design activity with industrial partners within a high technology research centre located in a University. The University is offering access to state of the art complex manufacturing technology to industrial partners when they engage in design engineering projects through the EngD programme

Large-scale Complex IT Systems

This paper explores the issues around the construction of large-scale complex systems which are built as 'systems of systems' and suggests that there are fundamental reasons, derived from the inherent complexity in these systems, why our current software engineering methods and techniques cannot be scaled up to cope with the engineering challenges of constructing such systems. It then goes on to propose a research and education agenda for software engineering that identifies the major challenges and issues in the development of large-scale complex, software-intensive systems. Central to this is the notion that we cannot separate software from the socio-technical environment in which it is used.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Operationalising luxury in the premium automotive industry

This thesis presents an Action Research project investigating the use of customers’ perceptions of premium and luxury cars within the premium automotive industry. The research was sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), a UK-based automotive manufacturer. An inductive, phenomenological approach was adopted in which JLR’s Premiumness Research Programme (PRP) was used as a case study to build an understanding of the consumer’s perception of luxury, to discover how to communicate this understanding within the business, and to determine how it could be integrated into the NPD process. A passive exploratory study was conducted to understand JLR’s PRP work, to seek new insights about the nature of customer’s reactions when evaluating luxury and premium cars, and to assess JLR’s approach in conducting the PRP. An interventionist descriptive study was conducted to probe for deeper insights into how successful JLR’s research and dissemination process had been within the company, to establish how the wider NPD community interacted with the data, and to develop and test new ideas and tools that enhanced the utility and accessibility of the PRP data. The research generated 58 Research Observations and 36 individual insights that challenged conventional wisdom about how the voice of the customer (VoC) can be captured and used in the NPD process. JLR’s PRP methodology was revealed as a powerful multi-method technique for acquiring data about consumers’ expectations of luxury automotive brands and products, their reactions when evaluating luxury and premium vehicles, and their emotional satisfaction with features and attributes of luxury and premium vehicles. Limitations in JLR’s ability to process and operationalise such data lead to the development of a Premiumness Verbatims Database tool which enabled the wider NPD community to access the PRP knowledge in a safe and meaningful way by considering the translation and utility of subjective VoC data

Performance Measurement in the Product Development Process

The intention of the programme was to evaluate Product Development (PD) strategies within the automotive industry and to identify areas in which improvements could be made in PD project performance that would also provide a business opportunity for the author’s employer RLE INTERNATIONAL (RLE). The research is principally concerned with the automotive industry but also has broader applications within similar industries. The research was undertaken via three projects. Project 1 involved a study of the structure, drivers and trends within the automotive industry. The aim was to assess the implications for PD in the automotive industry and identify significant issues where opportunities for improvement existed. The outcome was a portrayal of an industry under extreme competitive pressure and waiting for something to change but without a clear future state. What was apparent was that the competitive pressures, and thus the need to deliver more products without significantly increased resources, were not going to abate in the near future. PD has to ‘deliver more with less’ but a definition of success and its associated measures in terms of the PD process is difficult to frame. Therefore, the aim of project 2 focused on performance measurement of the PD process by assessing four internationally diverse development projects carried out by the author’s employer with four discrete customers. The projects were all different in their content and were carried out in different countries, i.e. USA, Germany, India and Sweden. Whilst customer specific and cultural aspects of the projects differed, the significant issue identified via the research was common across all the projects. Traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of cost, time and scope were used but failed to predict issues in project delivery. The key finding was that if project information did not flow as originally planned then resources were wasted resulting in time and cost over-runs. Project 3 researched alternative solutions to the issue of monitoring information flow and proposes a specific method of indicating the likelihood of success in a project by identifying new PD measurement techniques to be used within the automotive PD process. This new measurement criterion of information flow provides a predictive tool that significantly enhances the project control process. The predictive method of information flow tracking developed is new to the automotive PD profession. It was trialled on an existing project and was shown to identify specific issues with the Work-in-Progress (WIP) not found by traditional project management methods. The resulting indication of issues enabled the organisation’s management to have a substantially different insight and understanding of project performance at a given point in time and therefore enabled immediate changes in resource allocation to improve project performance. The implementation of these changes as a result of the adoption of information flow monitoring resulted in significantly improved project KPI performance. The contribution of this new PD management method has the potential to significantly impact the competitiveness of any company involved in the design and development process. Its benefits include improved understanding of project performance indicators, powerful predictive attributes resulting in better utilisation of company resources and reductions in both project costs and lead times