The reality of design process planning

Most companies struggle with the efficiency of their processes. One contributory factor is the lack of efficient process planning. This paper describes current planning practise in industry, which uses a multitude of different plans in parallel. The units of planning and their resulting plans roughly fall into product plans considering cost, bill of material and procurement considerations; process plans including different milestone, task and activity plans and quality plans. This paper maps out the ownership of these plans, and establishes that organisations work because individuals use more then one plan and have a tacit understanding of the relationships between these plans. The lack of effective plans affects the company through a lack of understanding of process connectivity and in consequence bad communication

Foreword

Industrins energianvändning medför koldioxidutsläpp som bidrar till klimatförändringar. Inom EU och Sverige eftersträvas en konkurrenskraftig industri. För att uppnå båda delarna förespråkas det att företag energieffektiviserar och minskar sin energianvändning. Trots att energieffektivisering ofta är kostnadseffektivt existerar det ändå ett energieffektiviseringsgap där kostnadseffektiva åtgärder inte implementeras av olika anledningar. Energinätverk kan då vara ett potentiellt arbetssätt som medför energieffektivisering och bidrar till företagsutveckling. I EU och Sverige ges redan finansiellt stöd som kan medföra att energinätverk bildas för såväl små och medelstora företag som för stora företag. Det existerar otaliga projektvarianter på energinätverk med olika uppbyggnad och utförande. Kunskapen om dessa nätverk inriktade mot energieffektivisering och energianvändning är begränsad. Arbetets syfte är därför att kartlägga svenska energinätverk för att kunna avgöra om de fungerar väl genom att utvärdera dem från ett samhällsperspektiv. För att identifiera energinätverk skedde insamling av dokument och intervjuer där slumpmässiga val tilläts i form av snöbollsmetoden. En bakomliggande förstudie har också genomförts där 8 energinätverk identifierats, vilka integrerats som en del i arbetets kartläggning. Sammantaget resulterade det i att identifiera 35 nätverksprojekt som kan bestå av enstaka nätverk, flera nätverk eller utgöra etapper för ett enskilt nätverk. De identifierade energinätverken är indelade efter större nätverk samt övriga nätverk som delats in i fyra generella nätverksformer: kluster, industridistrikt, regionala strategiska nätverk och strategiska nätverk samt alternativa nätverksformer för nätverk som inte kunde placeras in. En utvärdering har utförts med hjälp av programteori på det bakomliggande styrmedlet ”Ansökan om stöd till informations-, utbildnings- och samverkansprojekt 2013-2014” där det framkom att stödet tillåter en rad olika energinätverk och kan egentligen inte ses som särskilt styrande när det gäller utformning och genomförande av ett energinätverk. Vidare rekommenderas det att en separering görs för samverkansprojekt i form av energinätverk då det kan medföra mer riktade och konkreta energinätverk med tydligare mål och uppföljning. Detta tillåter fortfarande en variation på nätverkens uppbyggnad. Energinätverk med ett effektivt informations- och kunskapsutbyte har potentialen att medföra en innovativ företagsutveckling. Energinätverk utan en offentlig finansiering verkar inte initieras i Sverige. Avsiktsförklaringar eller avtal i de strategiska nätverken tros leda till att konkreta resultat har redovisats för nätverksprojekten i större grad än för de regionala strategiska nätverken. För de större energinätverken rekommenderas en fortsatt branschinriktning eftersom deras energianvändning är mer komplicerad att kartlägga. De övriga energinätverken bör istället prioritera intresserade deltagare som har möjlighet att träffas och sedan branschanpassa om möjligt. Detta då flera nätverksprojekt har vittnat om problem med nätverksbildandet som går ut över projektets genomförande. Vidare framstår skapandet av effektiva energinätverk som en mognadsprocess där flera bakomliggande projekt kan vara en anledning till ett kartlagt nätverksprojekt. Slutligen behövs det forskning på hur deltagande företag ser på energinätverk som ett stödjande och utvecklande styrmedel.The industrial energy use causes carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Simultaneously within EU and Sweden a competitive industry is pursued. In the aim to achieve both aspects energy efficiency and a reduced energy use is advocated for companies. Although energy efficiency often is cost-effective there exists an energy efficiency gap where cost-effective measures remain unimplemented for different reasons. Energy efficiency networks can in this case be a potential approach for increasing the degree of implementation, resulting in energy efficiency and company development. Financial support is already given from EU and Sweden that could lead to energy efficiency networks, for both small and medium-sized enterprises as well as for large enterprises. There exist numerous projects variations in energy efficiency networks with different structures and designs. The knowledge of these networks aimed towards energy efficiency and energy use is very limited. The aim of this work is therefore to identify Swedish energy efficiency networks in order to determine whether they work well by evaluating them from a public perspective. To identify energy efficiency networks documents where collected and interviews were held in which random selection was allowed in the form of snowball method. An underlying study has previously been carried out in which a number of networks was identified, which are integrated as a part of the work identification. Overall, this resulted in the identification of 35 different networks projects, which may consist of a single network, multiple networks or stages of a single network. The identified energy networks are divided by larger networks and other networks that have been split into four general networks forms cluster, industrial districts, regional strategic networks and strategic networks as well as alternative network forms for the networks that could not be associated. An evaluation has been performed on the underlying policy instrument “Application for financial support to information, education and collaborative projects 2013-2014” which stated that the support allows a wide range of energy efficiency networks and cannot be seen as a particular ruling in the design and implementation of an energy efficiency network. Furthermore it is recommended that a separation is made for collaborative projects in the form of energy efficiency networks in the support system since it would likely lead to more target and specific energy efficiency networks with clearer objectives and follow up. This would still allow a very large variety of network constructions. Energy efficiency networks with an efficient information and knowledge sharing has the potential to make enterprises more innovative. However, energy efficiency networks without an initial public financing does not seem to be initialized spontaneously in Sweden. Letters of intent or agreements in the strategic networks are believed to lead into reports with concrete results unlike for the regional strategic networks with no agreements. For the larger energy efficiency networks there is a point with being branch-specific because their energy use is more complex to audit. The other energy efficiency networks should instead find interested participants primarily. In combination with this, the participants should have the opportunity to meet and later on branch adapt if possible. This is because several network projects have stated problems with network formation that affects the projects. Furthermore, it appears that the creation of an efficient energy efficiency network sometimes is a maturation process in which several underlying projects can be a reason for an identified network project. Finally, we need further research on how the participating enterprises see energy efficiency networks as a supporting and developmental instrument

Galaxy correlations and the BAO in a void universe: structure formation as a test of the Copernican Principle

A suggested solution to the dark energy problem is the void model, where accelerated expansion is replaced by Hubble-scale inhomogeneity. In these models, density perturbations grow on a radially inhomogeneous background. This large scale inhomogeneity distorts the spherical Baryon Acoustic Oscillation feature into an ellipsoid which implies that the bump in the galaxy correlation function occurs at different scales in the radial and transverse correlation functions. We compute these for the first time, under the approximation that curvature gradients do not couple the scalar modes to vector and tensor modes. The radial and transverse correlation functions are very different from those of the concordance model, even when the models have the same average BAO scale. This implies that if void models are fine-tuned to satisfy average BAO data, there is enough extra information in the correlation functions to distinguish a void model from the concordance model. We expect these new features to remain when the full perturbation equations are solved, which means that the radial and transverse galaxy correlation functions can be used as a powerful test of the Copernican Principle.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, matches published versio

Model granularity and related concepts

Models are integral to engineering design and basis for many decisions. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehend how a model’s properties might influence its behaviour. Model granularity is an important property but has so far only received limited attention. The terminology used to describe granularity and related phenomena varies and pertinent concepts are distributed across communities. This article positions granularity in the theoretical background of models, collects formal definitions for relevant terms from a range of communities and discusses the implications for engineering design

ROC and the bounds on tail probabilities via theorems of Dubins and F. Riesz

For independent $X$ and $Y$ in the inequality $P(X\leq Y+\mu)$, we give sharp lower bounds for unimodal distributions having finite variance, and sharp upper bounds assuming symmetric densities bounded by a finite constant. The lower bounds depend on a result of Dubins about extreme points and the upper bounds depend on a symmetric rearrangement theorem of F. Riesz. The inequality was motivated by medical imaging: find bounds on the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC).Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-AAP536 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Towards a change process planning tool

The relationship between a product and its design process is generally complex and not fully understood. When modifying a product, industry still rarely considers the implementation process and its consequences for other design activities in the company, which is hard to assess with conventional planning methods. Although change processes are highly constrained, product and process constraints are not usually considered together or traded off against each other when planning the change. Inadequate assessment and planning of the change implementation process can lead to costly knock-on effects across the product and the design process. This paper argues for a combination of change and process research and discusses requirements for a change process planning tool. It proposes a system for the analysis of the impact of change on the product as well as other company activities. Then, a more informed selection between change alternatives is possible

Vegetation restoration plan, New Plymouth Fitzroy to Bell Block coastal walkway extension

In 1999, the New Plymouth District Council began construction of its award winning coastal walkway. Along with providing an area for recreation, this new walk and cycle path serves as an alternate route for commuting along the city away from arterial roads. The New Plymouth District Council is in the process of extending this walkway a further three kilometres from Fitzroy Motor Camp to Ellesmere Avenue, Bell Block. This will encompass Peringa Park, Hickford Park and the Mangati Walkway, with completion expected by mid 2010. As part of this $4.2 million project, the District Council aims to restore the surrounding native duneland vegetation. The Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research (University of Waikato) was contracted by the New Plymouth District Council to provide a vegetation restoration plan for the Fitzroy to Bell Block section of the coastal walkway. This report considers the current vegetation of this three km section of the walkway, based on a rapid qualitative assessment undertaken in June, 2010. The target ecosytems Spinifex sandfield, flax-taupata shrubland and coastal forest vegetation types once dominant in the area are described in detail. Restoration recommendations are included to assist in the recreation of these ecosystems, including planting zones, weed control strategies and ongoing monitoring objectives