How to Teach Mechanical Engineering Design Using Industry Methods While Still Assessing to University Criteria

There is a growing demand from industry for qualified design engineers. Many design engineers are trained in industry at vast expense in time and money, while many more are trained at universities and colleges. This thesis will explore how to maintain the training by universities and colleges to be as up to date and relevant as possible. It will look at the modern techniques and methods such as design teams, use of computer software, communication, use of the internet, and methods to solve design problems. All these techniques and methods are used by world-leading industries during the 21st century; this century, known also as the Third Industrial Revolution, or the Information Technology Revolution. It will show how appropriate techniques and methods can be applied in academia. A challenge is highlighted, and a solution found, how to get students to design to modern industry standards but at the same time make it possible to assess their work to satisfy the needs of academia and achieve the awarding criteria. Modern techniques and methods will be applied to university students and an assessment made of the results. Use of group working will be explored, and an algorithm developed to grade the completed work. What do students need now, to equip them to become competent designers, and how do lecturers support these students in these new methods? A knowledge gap between full-time students and part-time students in their final year of a degree programme was identified. This gap was reduced by reviewing the curriculum from earlier years and specifically targeting improving the student’s knowledge. To reduce the gap further, the development of a new teaching theory based on reverse engineering and a reversed application of Bloom’s Taxonomy was developed. This new teaching theory was applied to engineering student in their final year of a BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering Degree. The above methods and theories were validated by experienced industry design engineers from world leading companies

The role of entrepreneurial orientation in the South African food manufacturing sector

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, February 2018This study set out to evaluate and assess the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), manufacturing capabilities and organizational performance in the South African Food Manufacturing industry (SAFM). The SAFM industry is a highly concentrated sector that is key to the growth of the South African economy. This study suggests that EO is the mechanism through which manufacturing capabilities are linked to market needs. Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) represents the processes and practices that provide a basis for entrepreneurial decisions and actions in an organisation. The related dimensions of EO are: innovativeness, risk taking, proactivity, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy. Manufacturing capabilities are measured with reference to the cost, flexibility, quality, and delivery of production goals, while organisational performance is measured in reference to market and financial goals. EO and manufacturing capabilities are well established concepts in entrepreneurship and operations management literature. Both constructs along with their impacts on organizational performance, have historically been studied independently, and little research has been performed to bridge the knowledge gap between operations management and entrepreneurship research. Further knowledge gaps exist around understanding how EO is manifested in concentrated markets as well as, insights on research techniques for highly concentrated industries. The majority of current studies that focus on the South African food manufacturing sector are either technical government strategy reports, or reports that focus on food as a commodity and not on the manufacturing of food. Limited empirical research is characteristic of highly concentrated environments as they are usually closed and secretive environments. Furthermore, there are limited empirical studies that focus on the manufacturing in South Africa let alone the African continent. This study has contributed in addressing these gaps. The conceptual framework in this study has been tested using quantitative research methods (survey) based on a positivist approach. 75 senior, middle and executive managers from the top ten revenue generating companies in the SAFM iii industry were surveyed. Secondary data on industry performance collected from Statistic South Africa online repository. The hypotheses were tested by performing Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA).The reliability and validity of the survey results assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Multiple regression analysis - ordinary least square (OLS) and correlation analysis were used to test the hypothesized relationships. This study has three key findings. Firstly, this study found that the manufacturing capabilities of quality and cost are entry conditions for market participation in the South African food manufacturing industry, and that the capabilities of delivery and flexibility have a negative correlation on financial performance. Secondly, the study found that entrepreneurial orientation as a multidimensional construct had a moderate positive relationship with financial performance in the South African food manufacturing industry. Thirdly, it found that a negative co-relationship correlation exists between manufacturing capabilities and the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation. The findings of this study, suggest that the food manufacturing industry in South Africa lacks competitiveness and that the drivers of performance in the entire industry are subsector specific. When investigating the specific subdivisions of the food manufacturing industry, descriptive analysis offered different insights i.e. firms that perform well in quality and delivery, perform poorly in flexibility and cost. Due to limited data, these relationships were not analysed further. Research on entrepreneurial orientation and manufacturing capabilities in the SAFM, could be improved through studies focusing on particular subdivisions e.g. milk, grain etc., using non-linear regression techniques.MT 201

Hide and seek on complex networks

Signaling pathways and networks determine the ability to communicate in systems ranging from living cells to human society. We investigate how the network structure constrains communication in social-, man-made and biological networks. We find that human networks of governance and collaboration are predictable on teat-a-teat level, reflecting well defined pathways, but globally inefficient. In contrast, the Internet tends to have better overall communication abilities, more alternative pathways, and is therefore more robust. Between these extremes the molecular network of Saccharomyces cerevisea is more similar to the simpler social systems, whereas the pattern of interactions in the more complex Drosophilia melanogaster, resembles the robust Internet.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Communities of Practice and the Role of Location: Revealing Limits of Virtuality and Knowledge

Communities of practice provide a lens for understanding how knowledge develops and flows in organizations. This perspective highlights how, as a result of shared practice, knowledge flows more easily within a community than across community boundaries. Most prior empirical studies identify communities of practice whose members have similar occupations and thus emphasize knowledge boundaries that are congruent with occupational boundaries. In this paper, we argue that location also shapes practice and thus plays a critical role in defining knowledge boundaries. We use a case from a multinational organization to show that the common work practices, perspectives, and knowledge operational within one organizational location were not shared by employees at other locations. We suggest that, by reemphasizing the often overlooked unity of work, knowledge, and identity existing among functionally diverse, collocated organizational members, while simultaneously drawing attention to knowledge differences emerging between functionally similar members in different locations, this use of the communities of practice lens reveals the limits of virtuality when knowledge creation is at stake