Value, Kaizen and Knowledge Management: Developing a Knowledge Management Strategy for Southampton Solent University

The process of development of the strategic plan for Southampton Solent University offered a vehicle for the development of kaizen and knowledge management (KM) activities within the institution. The essential overlap between the methods offers clear benefits in the HE environment. In consideration of the aspects of KM and kaizen, various potential opportunities were identified as targets for improvement, and clarified by knowledge audit as to value and viability. The derived outcomes are listed along with some of the principal factors and perceived barriers in the practical implementation of the outcomes. Knowledge audit applied here focused on the identification of where value arises within the business. Resource constraints and the practicalities of a people-centred system limit the permissible rate of innovation, so precise focus on the areas of business activity of most significance to the mission and client base is crucial. The fundamental question of whether such a strategy should be developed as a separate strand or embedded into existing strategies is discussed. In practice, Solent has chosen to embed, principally for reasons of maintenance of ownership and commitment. Confidence in the process has been built through prior success with trialled activities around retention, where an activity-based pedagogic framework was adopted to address issues with an access course. Other areas of early intervention include the development and reengineering of recruitment and admissions processes, and the development of activities and pedagogy based on the virtual learning environment as exemplars of the importance of cyclical feedback in continuous improvement. The inherent complexity of processes running across the university as an organisation offers opportunities for benefits from the through-process approach implicit in kaizen. The business value of the institution is in the skills of its employees and its deployed intellectual property, and thus the importance of the enhancement of both tangible assets and intangible processes is critical to future success

The potential for utilising disturbed and contaminated sites for the production of willow short rotation coppice forestry

The utilisation of disturbed and contaminated sites for the production of willow (Salix) short rotation coppice forestry is an area of opportunity that has not been fully addressed. The significant areas of contaminated and disturbed sites in the UK that require remediation represent an opportunity for exploring alternative low cost remediation strategies. Conventional approaches to site remediation have involved costly engineered solutions, solutions which clearly cannot be afforded on all contaminated and disturbed sites. As an alternative to hard engineered solutions this thesis considers the potential to utilise these areas for the production of willow short rotation coppice forestry. The planting of these sites with willow provides a potential income stream through the sale of the biomass produced. In addition willow short rotation coppice forestry provides many additional benefits to these sites such as their ability to absorb heavy metals, provide fast site enhancement and stabilisation, act as a carbon sink and as a potential route for the recycling of organic matter. Current knowledge and experience of willow short rotation coppice forestry has been gained from its production on agricultural land. As part of this research a field trial was established on a capped former steelworks site to quantify the ability of contaminated and disturbed sites to successfully establish and promote the growth of willow. The silvicultural practices employed to grow willow Short Rotation Coppice were considered to assess their impact upon the survival and biomass produced at the end of each growing season, and specifically to consider whether adopting different management techniques were beneficial in growth conditions associated with disturbed and contaminated sites. The silvicultural practices considered in this field trial were the addition of fertiliser, the use of herbicide, rotation length before coppicing (1, 2 or 3 Years) and planting density (0.5 m and 1.0 m). In addition a further 18 clones were screened to consider their ability to establish and survive in such harsh growing mediums. Results have indicated considerable variability within the field trial, which may be indicative of the heterogeneity of the growing medium. The main silvicultural practice in the field trial that influenced survival and growth was weed control. All other silvicultural practices used were considered to have less influence on the survival and growth of the willow. Yields obtained from willow short rotation coppice forestry grown on disturbed and contaminated sites fail to compare with those grown on the higher grades of agricultural land. On contaminated and disturbed sites however, survival rather than biomass yield is viewed as the key issue to ensure that ground cover is established. Work undertaken by the Water Research Council to assess the potential of a rapid screening technique for willow establishment and survival on metal contaminated sites is replicated and expanded to other clones of willow and heavy metals. The results obtained from this quick and simple leaf disc screening trial would in the first instance seem to indicate that the leaf damage suffered by leaf discs obtained from differing clones of willow to be consistently more pronounced amongst individual cultivars. Limitations are imposed upon this quick screening test by the lack of available information to allow comparison of these screening trials with information for willows established in growing mediums of a similar metal contamination. To fully appreciate the value of growing willow on disturbed and contaminated sites it is considered that the economic equation should be readdressed and that the value of additional opportunities/ benefits are included if the true value of utilising these sites for its production is to be demonstrated. Studies to identify the non-marketable benefits for woodlands and energy crops grown in Sweden are used to give an indication of the true economic value of growing willow SRC on disturbed and contaminated sites, and are used to provide an insight into the economic value that can be attributed to the social and environmental benefits of willow production

How to find MACHOs in the Virgo Cluster

We discuss the feasibility of finding extra-galactic MACHOs by monitoring quasars behind the Virgo cluster of galaxies. We show that with only a modest observing programme one could detect several MACHOs in the mass range 1 X 10^{-5} to 2 X 10^{-2} solar masses if they make a significant contribution to the mass of Virgo. The contamination by events from cosmologically distributed MACHOs is estimated and is negligible if either the MACHO mass is greater than about 10^{-4} solar masses or the quasar radius is greater than about 3 X 10^{15} cm.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, to appear in New Astronom

Data gathering for actor analyses: A research note on the collection and aggregation of individual respondent data for MACTOR

The augmentation of future studies with data on actors and their interactions is suggested as a means to reduce uncertainty and to account for extreme or unexpected future outcomes due to the involvement of multiple actors and their competing perspectives and options. In the context of New Zealand’s health workforce forecasting environment, this research note presents a systematic method to gather and aggregate actor data developed for a recent foresight study. The method identifies the issues encountered and solutions developed when gathering data from time poor respondents representing diverse and sometimes oppositional actors, and for the coding and aggregation of these data for use in LIPSOR’s actor analysis tool, MACTOR. Worked examples are provided to demonstrate the method’s application with the software

Evidence in Managing the Learning Experience

Quality systems in general rely on the availability of appropriate evidence to permit the development of continuous improvement schemes. Practical service in managing the learning experience has highlighted the rich variety of sources of information available to the HE manager. Time basis has a critical importance in control, and the cycles of evidence collection occurs across the year are of variable value in terms of critique and analysis. The importance of formal mechanisms for quantitative and qualitative data collection are well established, but some of the use of such data is open to question, particularly where statistics are applied for small samples. The informal mechanisms are no less important, and can offer both short cycle opportunities for practical intervention and long-term quality improvements based on professionalism and systematic developments that are often not captured in the formal reporting cycles. The implications of typical problems and the value of the evidence sources within the context of likely use are assessed, with corrective actions indicated. The role of perception, and particularly of the setting and meeting of expectations, and the complexities arising from prior beliefs, is emphasised. Quality evidence is a matter of signposts for investigation; successful improvement of correct interpretation