Tussen Blauwdruk en Kristallen Bol

Engineering Systems Design in Energy and IndustryTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Process Design in a Changing Environment - Identification of Quality Demands Governing the Design Process

Technology, Policy and Managemen

Governing the challenges of climate change in cities

Organisation and GovernanceEnergy & Industr

System and Actor Perspectives on Sociotechnical Systems

This paper addresses the complexity of analyzing and designing sociotechnical systems: systems that involve both complex physical-technical systems and networks of interdependent actors. It is shown that, although a hard system perspective and an actor perspective differ greatly in terms of terminology, methods, and applicability, they also show surprisingly many similarities. By building upon the similarities and differences of the two dominant perspectives, this paper then goes on to show that the modeling and intervention possibilities in both perspectives differ to a great extent. The emerging systems-of-systems discipline generally calls for an ldquointegrationrdquo of both perspectives in order to model and design these complex sociotechnical systems, but in this paper, it is argued and shown that full integration is not the preferred way to go. Instead, the emerging discipline should strive to facilitate the use of both perspectives alongside each other in a sensible way and, thereby, not discard the strengths of either perspective.Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Het Alphabutolproces: Selectieve dimerisatie van etheen naar 1-buteen

Document(en) uit de collectie Chemische ProcestechnologieDelftChemTechApplied Science

A method for designing minimum-cost multisource multisink network layouts

Systems engineers are equipped to design complex networked systems such as infrastructures. A key goal is cost minimization over a vast solution space. However, finding a minimum-cost system while comprehensively satisfying different stakeholders is challenging and lacks proper methodological support. Stakeholders often employ their own expert estimations for lack of suitable decision-support methods. In these settings, systems engineers typically require mid-fidelity, easy-to-use methods. We present a rigorous method that quickly finds minimum-cost solutions for networks with multiple sources and sinks, focusing on pipeline topology, length, and capacity. It can serve as a discussion tool in multiactor design processes, to demarcate the design space, indicate sources of uncertainty, and provoke further analyses, different designs, or contractual negotiations. It is applicable to a wide variety of cases, including many prominent infrastructures needed to mitigate CO₂. We prove that the optimal layout is a minimum-cost Gilbert tree, and develop a heuristic based on the Gilbert-Melzak method. We demonstrate the method's efficacy for a case set regarding solution quality, computational time, and scalability. We also show its efficiency and usefulness for systems engineers in real-world settings. Systems engineers can use the generated cost-optimal system designs to benchmark any design changes in real-world negotiation processes.Energy & Industr

Governing Asset Management Data Infrastructures

Organizations are increasingly looking to trusted data to drive their decision making process. Trusted data has a clear, defined and consistent quality which meets the expectations of the user. Data infrastructures which produce trusted data and provide organizations with the capability to make the right decisions at the right time are socio-technical networks, consisting of technical infrastructures and actor networks, and as such they are often complex and adaptive. Critical issues, challenges, and dilemmas can be identified while looking at data infrastructures as a socio-technical systems. This paper explores conditions and factors for effective and sustainable development of data infrastructures in organizations and suggests that the inherent complexity of data infrastructures requires a multi-faceted way of data governance. Several predefined components of data infrastructures which contain the behavior of agents through various coordination mechanisms have been developed to model the effect of data governance on data infrastructures. These components can be further customized to model an empirical situation more closely. Finally, the paper suggests institutionalization of data governance within an organization as a unifying concept towards the effectiveness and sustainability of data infrastructures, recognizing their inherent complexities. The approach is illustrated with a case study in the asset management domain.Information and Communication TechnologyEnergy & Industr

Commoning toward urban resilience: The role of trust, social cohesion, and involvement in a simulated urban commons setting

In this paper, we investigate the potential of urban commons for building community resilience. We focus on the issue of adaptability to socio-ecological issues, which depends on the social capital built by the local community of practice. We measure this capital through the variables of volunteer involvement, perceived trust, and social cohesion in an agent-based model, which simulates the dynamics of participation in collective activities. We anchor our model with the case of KasKantine in Amsterdam, a cooperative and restaurant run by volunteers. Our model shows that both trust and social cohesion emerge from the interactions in the cooperative, especially when group sizes are kept small. This contributes to the adaptability of such social-ecological systems, helping their communities build social resilience.Energie and IndustrieChemE/Chemical Engineerin

Next Generation Data Infrastructures: Towards an Extendable Model of the Asset Management Data Infrastructure as Complex Adaptive System

Organizations are increasingly looking to adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) to collect the data required for data-driven decision-making. IoT might yield many benefits for asset management organizations engaged in infrastructure asset management, yet not all organizations are equipped to handle this data. IoT data is collected, stored, and analyzed within data infrastructures and there are many changes over time, resulting in the evolution of the data infrastructure and the need to view data infrastructures as complex adaptive systems (CAS). Such data infrastructures represent information about physical reality, in this case about the underlying physical infrastructure. Physical infrastructures are often described and analyzed in literature as CASs, but their underlying data infrastructures are not yet systematically analyzed, whereas they can also be viewed as CAS. Current asset management data models tend to view the system from a static perspective, posing constraints on the extensibility of the system, and making it difficult to adopt new data sources such as IoT. The objective of the research is therefore to develop an extensible model of asset management data infrastructures which helps organizations implement data infrastructures which are capable of evolution and aids the successful adoption of IoT. Systematic literature review and an IoT case study in the infrastructure management domain are used as research methods. By adopting a CAS lens in the design, the resulting data infrastructure is extendable to deal with evolution of asset management data infrastructures in the face of new technologies and new requirements and to steadily exhibit new forms of emergent behavior. This paper concludes that asset management data infrastructures are inherently multilevel, consisting of subsystems, links, and nodes, all of which are interdependent in several ways.Information and Communication TechnologyEnergy & Industr

The dual effects of the Internet of Things (IoT): A systematic review of the benefits and risks of IoT adoption by organizations

The Internet of Things (IoT) might yield many benefits for organizations, but like other technology adoptions may also introduce unforeseen risks and requiring substantial organizational transformations. This paper analyzes IoT adoption by organizations, and identifies IoT benefits and risks. A Big, Open, Linked Data (BOLD) categorization of the expected benefits and risks of IoT is made by conducting a comprehensive literature study. In-depth case studies in the field of asset management were then executed to examine the actual experienced, real world benefits and risks. The duality of technology is used as our theoretical lens to understand the interactions between organization and technology. The results confirm the duality that gaining the benefits of IoT in asset management produces unexpected social changes that lead to structural transformation of the organization. IoT can provide organizations with many benefits, after having dealt with unexpected risks and making the necessary organizational changes. There is a need to introduce changes to the organization, processes and systems, to develop capabilities and ensure that IoT fits the organization's purposes.Information and Communication TechnologyEnergy & Industr