106 research outputs found

    Investigating the ecological efficiency of widely utilized bio-sourced insulation materials in the building lifecycle

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    Because of rising pollutant emissions, potential global warming results, and rising energy demands, environmentally friendly and renewable building insulation materials are increasing in popularity. The changes in fossil-based energy resource prices, climate variation, and ecological menaces have resulted in important requisitions for bio-sourced and renewable materials, with building products accounting for an important volume. The building sector has important social, environmental, and financial effects. C-footprint of 15 insulating materials was investigated to compare the ecological efficiency of a building over its entire lifecycle. The values calculated were crosschecked with the thermal insulation’s real impact. The benchmark was made with the ecological effect evaluation rating by accounting for each material’s density and also variances in thermal conductivity degree. This research characterizes how to choose the most environment-friendly construction insulating material from the present alternatives based on a series of qualitative and quantitative parameters. It is suggested that the analytic hierarchy process be used to evaluate options and select the best option. The article presents the findings of a search for the most environmentally friendly bio-sourced thermal insulating material for buildings

    A process based approach software certification model for agile and secure environment

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    In today’s business environment, Agile and secure software processes are essential since they bring high quality and secured software to market faster and more cost effectively. Unfortunately, some software practitioners are not following the proper practices of both processes when developing software. There exist various studies which assess the quality of software process; nevertheless, their focus is on the conventional software process. Furthermore, they do not consider weight values in the assessment although each evaluation criterion might have different importance. Consequently, software certification is needed to give conformance on the quality of Agile and secure software processes. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to propose Extended Software Process Assessment and Certification Model (ESPAC) which addresses both software processes and considers the weight values during the assessment. The study is conducted in four phases: 1) theoretical study to examine the factors and practices that influence the quality of Agile and secure software processes and weight value allocation techniques, 2) an exploratory study which was participated by 114 software practitioners to investigate their current practices, 3) development of an enhanced software process certification model which considers process, people, technology, project constraint and environment, provides certification guideline and utilizes the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for weight values allocation and 4) verification of Agile and secure software processes and AHP through expert reviews followed by validation on satisfaction and practicality of the proposed model through focus group discussion. The validation result shows that ESPAC Model gained software practitioners’ satisfaction and practical to be executed in the real environment. The contributions of this study straddle research perspectives of Software Process Assessment and Certification and Multiple Criteria Decision Making, and practical perspectives by providing software practitioners and assessors a mechanism to reveal the quality of software process and helps investors and customers in making investment decisions

    Configuration and Change Maturity Optimization - The Case of Complex Engineering Environments

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    Im derzeitigen globalen Wettbewerbsmarkt, in dem Unternehmen durch die Bereitstellung anspruchsvoller, aber kundenorientierter Lösungen einen höheren Marktanteil erreichen, ist das Management und der Schutz von Produktinformationen über verschiedene Phasen seines Lebenszyklus (von der Erfassung der Kundenanforderungen bis hin zum Prototyping und Start) von bedeutende Bedeutung. Die Disziplin, die Sicherheit für das Produktinformationsmanagement bietet, ist das Konfigurationsmanagement und erfordert je nach Umfang und Komplexität der Anwendungsumgebung mehrere Aktivitäten und Maßnahmen, die ordnungsgemäß implementiert werden müssen. Diese Arbeit zielt darauf ab, einen Optimierungsrahmen für die Industrie zur Verfügung zu stellen, um ihre Kompetenz in dieser Disziplin zu bewerten und ihre Prozesse zu stärken und somit einen Wettbewerbsvorteil unter ihren Konkurrenten zu erlangen. Dieses Ziel wurde erreicht, indem zuerst die kritischen Erfolgsfaktoren des Configuration Managements identifiziert und ein Reifegrad-Modell entwickelt wurde, das die Basisreife von Organisationen im Hinblick auf ihre Konfigurationsmanagementbemühungen bewertet und einen Fahrplan für weitere Verbesserungen liefert. Das entwickelte Reifegradmodell wurde dann durch eine branchenübergreifende Bewertung validiert und die Ergebnisse legten die Grundlage für die Identifizierung des aktuellen Reifegrads in verschiedenen Branchen, Möglichkeiten zur Verbesserung der Verwendbarkeit des Reifegradmodells für Evaluierungszwecke sowie die möglichen Forschungsmöglichkeiten für Lösungen die Verbesserungen in den Prozessfähigkeiten der Disziplin bieten. Das Hauptpotenzial für die weitere Entwicklung des Modells wurde Durch das Fehlen quantitativer Schlüsselleistungsindikatoren (KPIs) identifiziert, und es wurde durch Identifizierung relevanter KPIs, die eine quantitative Messung der Reife von Organisationen ermöglichen, adressiert. Gleichzeitig wurde eine Möglichkeit zur Konzeption eines Entscheidungshilfesystems für den Prozess des Änderungsprozesses identifiziert, das historische Kenntnisse früherer Konfigurationsänderungen nutzen kann, um die Entscheidungsträger bei der Analyse ihrer Auswirkungen durch die Einbeziehung mehrerer Variablen zu unterstützen

    A Methodology to Select an Enterprise Resource Planning System for a Small or Medium Sized Enterprise

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    Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are software programs designed to integrate the functional requirements, and operational information needs of a business. Pressures of competition and entry standards for participation in major manufacturing supply chains are creating greater demand for small business ERP systems. The proliferation of new offerings of ERP systems introduces complexity to the selection process to identify the right ERP business software for a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The selection of an ERP system is a process in which a faulty conclusion poses a significant risk of failure to SME’s. The literature reveals that there are still very high failure rates in ERP implementation, and that faulty selection processes contribute to this failure rate. However, the literature is devoid of a systematic methodology for the selection process for an ERP system by SME’s. This study provides a methodological approach to selecting the right ERP system for a small or medium-sized enterprise. The study employs Thomann’s meta-methodology for methodology development; a survey of SME’s is conducted to inform the development of the methodology, and a case study is employed to test, and revise the new methodology. The study shows that a rigorously developed, effective methodology that includes benchmarking experiences has been developed and successfully employed. It is verified that the methodology may be applied to the domain of users it was developed to serve, and that the test results are validated by expert users and stakeholders. Future research should investigate in greater detail the application of meta-methodologies to supplier selection and evaluation processes for services and software; additional research into the purchasing practices of small firms is clearly needed

    Rethinking the risk matrix

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    So far risk has been mostly defined as the expected value of a loss, mathematically PL (being P the probability of an adverse event and L the loss incurred as a consequence of the adverse event). The so called risk matrix follows from such definition. This definition of risk is justified in a long term “managerial” perspective, in which it is conceivable to distribute the effects of an adverse event on a large number of subjects or a large number of recurrences. In other words, this definition is mostly justified on frequentist terms. Moreover, according to this definition, in two extreme situations (high-probability/low-consequence and low-probability/high-consequence), the estimated risk is low. This logic is against the principles of sustainability and continuous improvement, which should impose instead both a continuous search for lower probabilities of adverse events (higher and higher reliability) and a continuous search for lower impact of adverse events (in accordance with the fail-safe principle). In this work a different definition of risk is proposed, which stems from the idea of safeguard: (1Risk)=(1P)(1L). According to this definition, the risk levels can be considered low only when both the probability of the adverse event and the loss are small. Such perspective, in which the calculation of safeguard is privileged to the calculation of risk, would possibly avoid exposing the Society to catastrophic consequences, sometimes due to wrong or oversimplified use of probabilistic models. Therefore, it can be seen as the citizen’s perspective to the definition of risk

    Optimal Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) revamp project management : the execution phase model development

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    In a bid to realise production targets and operational efficiency from ultra-deep offshore areas where the world’s oil and gas reserves are situated, the Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) asset is deployed in many parts the world, being the most efficient production means. Judging, especially, from health safety environment performance indicators, the major multinational oil and gas producing organizations is perceived to pursue operational excellence, yet there are indications of unsatisfactory revamp project management performance in the literature. Revamp projects are sanctioned to assure asset lifecycle and improve production performance. Some major multinational oil and gas producing companies have customised the stage-gate project management approach from theory for revamp projects realisation. However, the stage-gate framework, which is generic, tends essentially towards major, capital, or new built projects from the contractor perspective. Since the theoretical approach is not tailored specifically to revamp project development, the application of the stage-gate approach by the oil and gas producing organizations (client or sponsor) perspective therefore does produce optimal results.The aim of this study is to develop an optimal FPSO revamp project management model from the oil and gas operating company perspective at the execution phase. To address the problem of underperformance in this research, pragmatism research philosophy and the mixed research method, comprising five case studies, four from major multinational oil and gas corporations operating in Nigeria, and a group of oil and gas revamp project experts from across the world was utilised. A panel of experts with over 15 years of experience in revamp projects were purposively selected from each case study. Questionnaire and interview feedback from the respondents were screened for optimality with the use of the Delphi technique to avoid bias in predicting the future revamp project management performance.The research findings identified four critical criteria for revamp projects - engineering, pre-fabrication and construction, site installation and pre-commissioning and commissioning; nine sub criteria comprising project scope, procurement, cost and schedule, risk, human resources, Health Safety Environment Quality (HSEQ), integration, knowledge, and stakeholder management as well as two compensatory project management options - Lean and Agile project management approaches that can be infused into identified critical knowledge areas within the stage-gate project management model for attaining optimal FPSO revamp project development. A four level, three steps Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis of the research data obtained from the respondents in this research was used to make group decisions concerning FPSO revamp project management for the execution project phase. The study confirms that project management within FPSO asset revamp projects often fail due to uninformed decision making, rather than the hitherto suggested non-compliance with project management theory. It is also revealed that Lean is preferred to Agile Project Management which, seemingly, is the most appropriate from contemporary perspective but with little acceptance in actual practice for revamp project performance improvements.The research has developed, validated, and tested the proposed optimal project management model from AHP – multi criteria decisions by expert professionals working for major multinational oil and gas companies operating within and outside Nigeria. The research also demonstrated that most of these operating companies and revamp project experts from all over the world are guided by the same ethics, procedures, and theoretical project management frameworks. The findings from this research are reflections of global rather than regional perspective of the industry and therefore, the case studies selected from major multinational oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria does not invalidate the outcomes of the research
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