THE TECHNOLOGY MAPPING METHODOLOGY FOR BENCHMARKING THE CONSTRUCTION PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT Globalization and increased international competitiveness point at the need for on-going improvement of the effectiveness of the industries in terms of the achievement of the quality and quantity of the required production output and the efficiency of the production processes. The Technology Status and Technological Capabilities are indicated to play an important role in the production performance of industries in literature of the last decade. Adequate management and policy plans that should be formulated to enhance an improved production performance in industries require insight in the actual status of technologies and technological capabilities in the production sector. This insight forms the basis for the development of new products and production systems. Benchmarking the performance -including the state of art of technologies and technological capabilities-enables the management of firms and the policy makers in industries to compare their performance with industry norms and market expectations and improve the major factors that have an impact on this. A proper methodology to benchmark the construction performance and to map the essential elements that have an impact on this is not readily available. This paper describes the principles of the so-called Technology Mapping Methodology that was developed and the results of its application in the construction industry. The key-elements in the theoretic framework that forms the basis for this methodology includes the market requirements and expectations, the status of technological capabilities, the technology status and the production performance and the socio-economic development status of the country. The last element is useful for international comparisons of the production performance which enhances the value of the benchmarking in the perspective of the increasing international competitiveness. The studies rendered a considerable amount of valuable data that could serve to support Construction Management and Policy Making with the objective to improve the Construction Performance. It also discusses the need for further research to establish a technology database similar to the existing socioeconomic databases in the countries

Electronic and Structural Properties of a 4d-Perovskite: Cubic Phase of SrZrO3_3

First-principles density functional calculations are performed within the local density approximation to study the electronic properties of SrZrO$_3$, an insulating 4d-perovskite, in its high-temperature cubic phase, above 1400 K, as well as the generic 3d-perovskite SrTiO$_3$, which is also a d^0-insulator and cubic above 105 K, for comparison reasons. The energy bands, density of states and charge density distributions are obtained and a detailed comparison between their band structures is presented. The results are discussed also in terms of the existing data in the literature for both oxides.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Pressure-independent Brillouin Fiber Optic Sensors for temperature measurements

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