The role of lean management principles in achieving successful water management: the case of Harry Gwala District Municipality

Water is life and a basic human need. It is a scarce resource which must be managed in a sustainable way. Empirical evidence suggests that globally the current supply systems will not satisfy the demand. Some of the challenges include depleted water resources due to uneven and inadequate rainfall, effects of climate change, poor asset management, water losses and poor water quality. Since there is a universal need for water, without water life would cease to exist; moreover, water is limited in quantities and hence sustainable management of this resource remains a global imperative. This research sought to investigate and understand the role of lean management in ensuring successful water management at Harry Gwala District Municipality, located in KwaZulu-Natal. To achieve the above goal, the research sought to investigate the efficiency of the production processes, strategies to conserve water and manage the demand, human resources and organisational development, as well as financial planning and management. The research adopted a qualitative research design and interpretivism research paradigm. The research findings acknowledged the strides made by the Municipality in relation to extending the infrastructure footprint to the communities that previously did not have water. The research further revealed that Harry Gwala District Municipality is challenged in relation to providing an uninterrupted and efficient water supply to consumers. This is due to poor project planning, project management and monitoring, poor maintenance of infrastructure, ageing and dilapidated infrastructure, illegal connections and high water losses. The workforce is inadequate with concerns about ill-discipline and lack of productivity by some employees. The organisational culture does not allow for innovation and has a bearing on ill-discipline and productivity. The research noted that the Municipality is unable to provide successful water management, owing to infrastructural challenges, wastage, lack of continuous improvement and the organisational culture. It was further noted that these challenges can be addressed using lean management principles with particular focus on waste elimination, continuous improvement, employee involvement, promoting efficiency in the production processes and the use of catalytic technology.Thesis (MBA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, Business Administration, 202

The role of lean management principles in achieving successful water management: the case of Harry Gwala District Municipality

Water is life and a basic human need. It is a scarce resource which must be managed in a sustainable way. Empirical evidence suggests that globally the current supply systems will not satisfy the demand. Some of the challenges include depleted water resources due to uneven and inadequate rainfall, effects of climate change, poor asset management, water losses and poor water quality. Since there is a universal need for water, without water life would cease to exist; moreover, water is limited in quantities and hence sustainable management of this resource remains a global imperative. This research sought to investigate and understand the role of lean management in ensuring successful water management at Harry Gwala District Municipality, located in KwaZulu-Natal. To achieve the above goal, the research sought to investigate the efficiency of the production processes, strategies to conserve water and manage the demand, human resources and organisational development, as well as financial planning and management. The research adopted a qualitative research design and interpretivism research paradigm. The research findings acknowledged the strides made by the Municipality in relation to extending the infrastructure footprint to the communities that previously did not have water. The research further revealed that Harry Gwala District Municipality is challenged in relation to providing an uninterrupted and efficient water supply to consumers. This is due to poor project planning, project management and monitoring, poor maintenance of infrastructure, ageing and dilapidated infrastructure, illegal connections and high water losses. The workforce is inadequate with concerns about ill-discipline and lack of productivity by some employees. The organisational culture does not allow for innovation and has a bearing on ill-discipline and productivity. The research noted that the Municipality is unable to provide successful water management, owing to infrastructural challenges, wastage, lack of continuous improvement and the organisational culture. It was further noted that these challenges can be addressed using lean management principles with particular focus on waste elimination, continuous improvement, employee involvement, promoting efficiency in the production processes and the use of catalytic technology.Thesis (MBA) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, Business Administration, 202

Analysis of costs and delivery intervals for multiple-release software

Project managers of large software projects, and particularly those associated with Internet Business-to-Business (B2B) or Business-to-Customer (B2C) applications, are under pressure to capture market share by delivering reliable software with cost and timing constraints. An earlier delivery time may help the E-commerce software capture a larger market share. However, early delivery sometimes means lower quality. In addition, most of the time the scale of the software is so large that incremental multiple releases are warranted. A Multiple-Release methodology has been developed to optimize the most efficient and effective delivery intervals of the various releases of software products, taking into consideration software costs and reliability. The Multiple-Release methodology extends existing software cost and reliability models, meets the needs of large software development firms, and gives a navigation guide to software industrial managers. The main decision factors for the multiple releases include the delivery interval of each release, the market value of the features in the release, and the software costs associated with testing and error penalties. The input of these factors was assessing using Design of Experiments (DOE). The costs included in the research are based on a salary survey of software staff at companies in the New Jersey area and on budgets of software development teams. The Activity Based Cost (ABC) method was used to determine costs on the basis of job functions associated with the development of the software. It is assumed that the error data behavior follows the Non-Homogeneous Poisson Processes (NHPP)

Release engineering processes, their faults and failures

textRelease processes form an important, if overlooked, part of the complete software development life cycle. Many organizations implement the roles of release engineering and release management in different ways, with a wide amount of variance within the software industry. Ill-designed processes can lead to a higher number of software faults and costly delays. Failures in release engineering can have negative implications, yet the causes of release process failures are not well understood within in the software engineering research community. This dissertation addresses the questions of what the common release process structure is, what the common failure modes are, and how organizations recover from and prevent these failures. We address these questions through a series of case studies with practicing release engineers at commercial software companies. The live interviews with these individual companies provide insight into the state of the practice in release engineering today across a broad spectrum of organization and software domains. The results of these studies indicate four areas of theory in release engineering which future researchers can probe in more depth. These areas center around process organization, social causes of release process failure, the relationship between software architecture and the release process, and how organizations attempt to improve release processes. For practicing release engineers, these results show that most organizations would benefit from three primary improvements: increased process automation, more modular software design, and improved organizational communication and support of release engineering groups. By implementing these improvements, software development companies and the release engineering processes they support will avoid the most common process failures in this critical phase of the software life cycle.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Availability and Reliability Analysis of Computer Software Systems Considering Maintenance and Security Issues

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Realising Global Water Futures: a Summary of Progress in Delivering Solutions to Water Threats in an Era of Global Change

Canada First Research Excellence FundNon-Peer ReviewedOver the past six years the Global Water Futures program has produced a wide range of scientific findings and engagements with multiple types of potential users of the research. This briefing book provides a snapshot of some of the science advancements and user engagement that have taken place to date. Annual reports to the funding agency are the most up to date source of information: this compilation has been created from reports submitted by projects in 2022, representing both completed and current project work. The briefing book aims to provide quick access to information about GWF projects in a single place for GWF’s User Advisory Panel: we hope that knowing more about the research being produced will spark conversations about how to make the best use of the new knowledge in both policy and practice

Structuring NPD processes: advancements in test scheduling and activity sequencing

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen