The strategic function of quality in the management of innovation

Quality management can be used to support strategically the management of innovation. Tools in strategic quality management can be useful in: creating the organizational conditions in which innovations can be developed; supervising and initiating innovation processes; producing innovation content; and implementing innovations in the primary processes of the organization. This conclusion is based on the results of a research project in the Dutch construction industry. In a large-scale house-building project the supportive use of quality tools in the management of innovation was studied. The study indicates that quality tools are used implicitly and sometimes explicitly to manage innovation processes

The identification and analysis of making-do waste: insights from two Brazilian construction sites

Making-do has been pointed out as an important category of waste in the construction industry. It refers to a situation in which a task starts or continues without having available all the inputs required for its completion, such as materials, machinery, tools, personnel, external conditions, and information. By contrast, the literature points out that improvisation is a ubiquitous human practice even in highly structured business organizations, and plays an important role when rules and methods fail. The aim of this paper is to provide some insights on the nature of making-do as a type of waste, based on two exploratory case studies carried out on construction sites. The main contributions of this research work are concerned with the identification of different categories of making-do and its main causes. This paper also discusses some strategies for reducing making-do on construction sites

Evaluation environnementale des matériaux et des procédés de construction : application de l'analyse du cycle de vie à la construction d'un hall industriel

Methodologies based on Life Cycle Assesment (L.C.A) give the opportunity to realise a global and complete evaluation of the environmental effects of products from their production to their use and elimination (from craddle to grave); methods used for analysis are internationally wellknown and standardised. These methods are rarely used in construction materials area, although materials flows and energy consumption are important and constructions have a long way of life. A calculation methodology, based on ecofactors/ecopoints, has been used for the analysis of industrial hall made of concrete, steel, or concrete/wood structure; materials but also construction process are compared at the point of view of their environmental impact. This analysis completes the technical and economical approaches for the construction owner and designer and gives a global view of the interaction between construction and civil engineering, and environment

Bronchoalveolar Lavage Enzyme-linked Immunospot for a Rapid Diagnosis of Tuberculosis: A Tuberculosis Network European Trialsgroup Study

Rationale: The rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is difficult when acid fast bacilli (AFB) cannot be detected in sputum smears