Waste management : relevance to environmental sustainability

Waste generation and its management present universal challenges related to negative impacts on the environment. Municipal solid waste generation in large quantities on daily basis constitutes serious environmental problems. This paper presents a review of extant literature in the management of municipal waste across a range of countries alongside waste management hierarchy that guide legislations and policies for developed and developing countries. This paper assesses the environmental consequences emanating from the influence of either the presence or absence of contaminants-based diverse management options for municipal solid waste; thereby facilitating policy makers and waste management companies informed choice(s) for the management of municipal waste sustainably. The outcome from the evaluation of environmental effect reveals that incineration; the most common waste-to-energy implementation for municipal solid waste is accompanied with the emission of greenhouse gases, Nitrogen oxides, ammonia, sulphur dioxide contributing to climate change and air acidification. Environmental concern is a critical indicator for determining the best appropriate waste management option(s). The need to encourage the increasing recycling of municipal solid waste to facilitate a global sustainable environment as well as boosting the circular economy and green cities is recommended.© 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Brain Drain in Finland; A Real Threat or a Myth and its Impact on Finland's R&D Capabilities

The phenomenon of ‘Brain Drain’ or ‘Human Capital Flight’ is actively discussed in Finland recently. It is the phenomenon in which highly educated and skilled people leave the country where they attained their education and skills. The official statistics and data show that it is an alarming situation with every passing year in Finland. The phenomenon is widely observed in all sectors, but the most affected sectors are research-based fields, natural sciences, biosciences, humanities, anthropology, psychology, statistics, and core-engineering fields. However, is this really a brain drain phenomenon or something else? The focus of this paper is to explore the brain drain phenomenon’s existence in Finland based on officially available data. The paper also investigates the main causes of brain drain, its future effects on Finland’s R&D capabilities and the Finnish economy. This is a review article about the brain drain phenomenon based on previous studies and official quantitative data from Statistics Finland. This paper serves as the basis for the development of a research instrument to further analyze the situation in future research. ; Zjawisko „drenażu mózgów” (ang. brain drain lub human capital flight) stało się ostatnio przedmiotem intensywnie dyskutowanym w Finlandii. Jest to zjawisko, gdy wysoko wykształceni i wykwalifikowani ludzie opuszczają kraj, w którym zdobyli wykształcenie i umiejętności. Oficjalne statystyki i dane pokazują, że w tym zakresie sytuacja w Finlandii staje się coraz bardziej alarmująca z każdym rokiem. Zjawisko to jest powszechnie obserwowane we wszystkich sektorach, ale najbardziej nim dotknięte są sektory, których działanie opiera się na badaniach, nauki przyrodnicze, biologiczne, humanistyczne, antropologiczne, psychologiczne, statystyczne oraz techniczne. Jednak czy to naprawdę zjawisko drenażu mózgów czy coś innego? Celem artykułu jest zbadanie istnienia zjawiska drenażu mózgów w Finlandii na podstawie oficjalnie dostępnych danych. W artykule przeanalizowano również główne przyczyny drenażu mózgów oraz jego skutki dla fińskiego potencjału badawczo-rozwojowego i fińskiej gospodarki. Jest to artykuł przeglądowy, dotyczący zjawiska drenażu mózgów na podstawie wcześniejszych badań i oficjalnych danych ilościowych z fińskiego urzędu statystycznego (Statistics Finland). Niniejszy artykuł posłuży jako podstawa do opracowania instrumentu badawczego i przyszłych badań w celu przeanalizowania rzeczywistej sytuacji w przyszłości.© 2019 The Author(s). The article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Review of Industry 4.0 in the Light of Sociotechnical System Theory and Competence-Based View : A Future Research Agenda for the Evolute Approach

This paper reviews the concept of Industry 4.0 related challenges and basic requirements for successful implementation of it. It proposed that sociotechnical system theory (STS) and competence-based view (CBV) are best approaches towards implementation of industry 4.0 in the organizations. STS theory leads to such systems, which are more acceptable to end users and deliver better value. While competence-based view prepares those users to interact efficiently with new systems. To support competence-based view for industry 4.0 we argue that competence models of the Evolute approach need to be revised and updated, as well as, there is need for new competence models for emerging new job profiles. The combination of these three approaches will result into successful implementation of new industry 4.0 systems in the organizations.© 2019 Springer. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Society. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94709-9_12fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Proactive Vision for Strategy Making

Strategy makers have expressed the need for computer support systems, which they can readily use to monitor, diagnose, analyze and synthesize the current performance of their organization and estimate its future potential, direction and performance. The computer software industry has attempted to meet this demand for many years; however, in this context, the computer-based executive support and decision support systems developed so far have provided only partial solutions. These systems have supported either specific processes or specific activities. They have not provided executives with the kind of support that would enable them to acquire a holistic understanding of the constructs, concepts, variables, specific issues, and also the relations and interrelationships that must be monitored and mastered in strategic planning and implementation. In this paper, we present a new way to analyze the current and future states of company strategy. We have used the Continuous Strategy ontology as a basic construct that incorporates many current strategic constructs, concepts, and ideas, culminating in an application that contains an ontology in which we have fixed linguistic statements. Through these statements, users can analyze the current strategic situation as well as future possible improvements to the current strategy. The system operates on the Internet and this is the first prototype application constructed for this purpose. The first test runs are only to demonstrate the ideas. In the future, this application will be tested in real strategy work in business life.© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Taxonomy of Knowledge Management in Open Innovations

This paper discusses knowledge management in an open innovation context. Open innovation is one of the most popular topics in innovation literature at the moment. Knowledge management is needed to enable inbound and outbound knowledge flows that define open innovation and to make sure that knowledge provided byan open innovation process can be used for successful business. The importance of knowledge is highlighted in the open innovation literature but the majority of the current literature only takes a narrow viewpoint of the issue and does not deal with knowledge management on the whole. The objective of this paper is to present a taxonomy of knowledge management in open innovation to provide an encompassing depiction of the phenomenon. The taxonomy was built on the basis of a broad literature review. The taxonomy will enrich academic discussion on the topic and could help companies to better design their open innovation strategy and process.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Valmistalokauppa : Toimintatapa ja omavalvonnan kehitystarpeet Muurametalot Oy:ssä

Valmistalokauppa on kehittynyt paljon viimeisten vuosien aikana. Taloja valmistavia yrityksiä on perustettu runsaasti ja valmistalojen kysyntä on kasvanut. Työn tarkoituksena oli päivittää Muurametalot Oy:n omavalvontajärjestelmä vastaamaan paremmin tämän päivän tarpeita. Tavoitteena oli muokata omavalvonnassa käytettävät tarkastuspöytäkirjat nykypäivän asetusten tasolle. Ideaalitilanne olisi, että jokainen työntekijä osallistuu omavalvonnan käyttöön. Järjestelmän periaatteena on tarjota asiakkaalle käsitys laadukkaasta rakenta-misesta. Uusien tarkastuspöytäkirjojen laatimisen apuna toimivat vanhat asiakirjat sekä yrityksen toimihenkilöiltä saatu tieto. Asiakkaiden laatutietoisuus ja vaatimustaso näyttävät kasvaneen, joten Muurametalot Oy:ssä tehtävä laatu on ensisijaisen tärkeää. Työssä kuvattiin valmistalon valintaprosessi ja talopaketin tilaaminen Muurametalot Oy:ltä. Sen jälkeen esitettiin talokaupasta tehtävät sopimusehdot, joita pohdittiin sekä asiakkaan että myyjän näkökulmasta. Opinnäytetyössä Muurametalot Oy:lle kehitettyjen uusien omavalvonnan tarkastuspöytäkirjojen avulla on tarkoitus parantaa käytössä olevaa omavalvontajärjestelmää. Alkuperäiset asiakirjat muokattiin selkeämmiksi ja ymmärrettävämmiksi sekä joidenkin osioiden sisältöön ja rakenteeseen tehtiin korjauksia. Omavalvonnan käyttö on toiminnan jatkuvaa kehittämistä, jolloin uudistetut pöytäkirjat toimivat järjestelmän testauksen apuvälineenä yrityksessä.The theme of this thesis was to describe the changes in prefabricated house construction. The number of companies manufacturing prefabricated houses has increased. Also the interest in prefabricated houses has changed. The aim was to modify the self-monitoring system of Muurametalot Ltd. to meet today’s needs better. The content of inspection protocols will need to change. The ideal situation would be that each employee would use the self-monitoring system. The self-monitoring system shows the customer the quality of work in the company. The information from old documents and information received from the employees were used to develop the new inspection protocols. Selecting and ordering a prefabricated house is described in this thesis. Also, the terms of a house deal in Muurametalot Ltd. are listed. Ecological and a house providing current standards seem to be self-evident today. Customers’ quality standards and the requirement level have increased. So, the quality made in Muurametalot Ltd. is a priority. The new self-monitoring system was developed for Muurametalot Ltd. Inspection protocols are supposed to improve the use of an internal monitoring system. The new documents are clearer and more readable, and improvements were made in some sections of the content and structure of the document. The self-monitoring system is under continuous development and the new inspection protocols work as a testing tool in the company.Liitteitä ei julkaista Muurametalot Oy:n toivomuksesta

Exploratory vs. Model-based Mobility Analysis

In this paper we describe and analyze a visual analytic process based on interactive visualization methods, clustering, and various forms of user knowledge. We compare this analysis approach to an existing map overlay type model, which has been developed through a traditional modeling approach. In the traditional model the layers represent input data sets and each layer is weighted according to their importance for the result. The aim in map overlay is to identify the best fit areas for the purpose in question. The more generic view is that map overlay reveals the similarity of the areas. Thus an interactive process, which uses clustering, seems to be an alternative method that could be used when the analysis needs to be made rapidly and utilizing whatever data is available. Our method uses visual analytic approach and data mining, and utilizes the user knowledge whenever a decision must be made. The tests carried out show that our method gives acceptable results for the cross-country mobility problem, and fulfills the given requirements about the computational efficiency. The method fits especially to the situations in which available data is incomplete and of low quality and must be completed by the user knowledge. The transparency of the process makes the method suitable also in situations when results based on various user opinions and values must be made. The case in our research is from the crisis management application area in which the above mentioned conditions often take place

Competence portfolio assessment of research and development center for regional development

Digitalization is rapidly increasing and enterprises must find new ways to innovate for business advantage. Engineering industry is currently living in the middle of co-evolution from being the product provider to offering smart services and even to being the provider of customer value. The right way of digitalization can lead to business differentiation by smart services. But to transform themselves, the companies must have the right digital assets, suitable organizational capability and culture, right competence structure and individuals with right mindset to succeed in co- evolution. This article concentrates on analysing the role of research and development unit HAMK Smart Services. Its mission is to support co-evolution of municipal and industrial enterprises as well as value networks and through that increasing the competitiveness of the region. For that purpose, it is important to know the overall capabilities of the HAMK Smart Services unit. In our article we categorize the competence and capability into three layers: human competence and capability, organizational capability and content management capability. This article introduces a new interrelated three layer competence portfolio model and results of survey done with Smart Services research and development unit. Case study analysis has been executed within the customer segment of Industrial digitalization and life cycle care.©2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Reviewing Pakistan's investment potential as a foreign investor

This analytical review aims to introduce Pakistan, a land, capable of offering and extending investment opportunities to the foreign investors. On the basis of a detailed investigation regarding investment possibilities in Pakistan, the paper highlights the key areas including, the determinants of investments in Pakistan. The determinants of investment possibilities in Pakistan are described in the form of strengths and weaknesses attached to the international investment venture for the foreign investor's foresight.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Quick guide for Industrial Management thesis works

Conducting a Master's thesis project requires a systematic approach and capability to conduct independent work. This guidebook aims to help on answering the questions which may popup on different stages of thesis. The booklet has been developed from frequently asked questions document and been expanded to this size. The topics covered include: (1) starting a thesis work, (2) thesis proposal, (3) Structure of thesis, (4), Literature review, (5) Choosing a method, (6) Research methods in industrial management, and a set of (7) Practicalities. This document is not intended to replace any book on specific research methods or layout guides provided by the university, but to give some hints and tips how to navigate through the process together with a company, your supervisor and yourself.fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed