The North East Productivity Alliance (NEPA) has disseminated selected lean manufacturing tools and techniques into companies in the North East of England. The aim of NEPA is to help companies improve ...productivity through applying lean manufacturing management practices and knowledge. The Industry Forum's master class methodology is being used to transfer technology into local companies. This paper considers the process in terms of Lillrank's model of innovation transfer.
Initial results obtained from 15 companies show that the savings are eight times greater than total costs. It has been found that the commitment of management and the ability of the change agents are the key determinants of success.
Integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been central to water governance and management worldwide since the 1990s. Recognizing the significance of an integrated approach to water management ...as a way to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), IWRM was formally incorporated as part of the SDG global indicator framework, thus committing the UN and its Member States to achieving high IWRM implementation by 2030 and measuring progress through SDG indicator 6.5.1. This paper examines the extent to which the implementation of IWRM improves the sustainable management of water and the health of water-related ecosystems—a first-of-its-kind in terms of quantitative analysis on a global scale. To achieve this objective, we conducted regression analyses between SDG 6.5.1 (both IWRM (total score) and the dimensions of SDG 6.5.1) and key water-related environmental sustainability indicators: SDG 6.2.1a (access to basic sanitation), 6.3.1 (treated wastewater), 6.4.1 (water-use efficiency), 6.4.2 (water stress), 6.6.1 (freshwater ecosystems, although here the trophic state and turbidity variables were used) and 6.3.2 (ambient water quality). Our analysis covers 124 countries for all these SDGs, with the exception of SDG 6.3.1 and SDG 6.3.2, which cover 112 and 85 countries, respectively. Results show that IWRM—to different degrees—is mainly associated with the good status of water-related sustainability indicators, with the exception of water stress, water quality, and turbidity. We observe a strong impact of control variables such as governance arrangements, economic situation and environmental and geographical conditions. Lagged effects and the scope of the framework may also explain some observed variations in the degree of association. Our study highlights the importance of further uncovering the interlinkages between IWRM implementation and the achievement of water-related environmental sustainability. Overall, the results suggest that although IWRM implementation is primarily linked to sustainable water management and the health of water systems, context-specific factors should be taken into account when evaluating its effectiveness, to enable policy- and decision-makers to make the necessary adjustments to optimize its outcomes.
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•Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) aims for sustainability of water systems.•We study the association between IWRM and water-related environmental sustainability.•The quantitative analysis of IWRM on a global scale is a first-of-its-kind.•Results show that IWRM is mainly associated with the good status of SDG 6 indicators.•We found a strong impact of control variables calling for more in-depth studies.
This paper describes a model which has been developed to direct and generate productivity improvement in a group of manufacturing companies. The companies are of all sizes including Small and Medium ...Enterprises (SMEs) and form a cross-section of industries and abilities with regard to manufacturing. There is a wide range of manufacturing efficiency improvement methods available to the companies, such as Just in Time (JIT), or a range of lean manufacturing tools. The selection of appropriate tools for manufacturing improvement, together with their applicability, incorporation and acceptance within operations is a major problem for many companies. A methodology has therefore been developed which consists of three clearly defined steps, starting with a Productivity Needs Analysis (PNA), which gives an overview of the current manufacturing condition of the company, identifies the key productivity measures for the plant and forms the basis for a detailed study of production efficiency. The plant processes and problems are defined and are associated with the appropriate tools and metrics in a Manufacturing Needs Analysis (MNA), which generates an initial 1-year improvement plan for a particular manufacturing unit. The output from the procedure is obtained as a numerical ranking. In order to ensure that the tools which are found to be efficacious are fully embedded within the company, the PNA and MNA are combined with a Training Needs Analysis (TNA). The paper describes the approach and the results obtained from 15 companies plus an identified exemplar, Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK Ltd. (NMUK).
The UK has been one of the most advanced countries in Europe for the demonstration of electric vehicles (EV) and the introduction of the supporting recharging infrastructure. Much of the UK’s EV ...recharging estate was created and is operated under public subsidy, in order to seed the marketplace for further EV and recharging equipment adoption. This paper addresses the fact that subsidies for the operation of this infrastructure are coming to an end, which is likely to affect EV drivers’ recharging behaviour. As the public funding ceases the infrastructure owners must find other ways to cover the on-going costs of operation and recover capital investments made, in order to provide a continuing and viable service to EV drivers. However, actual uptake of EVs and therefore demand for recharging has been lower than the arguably over optimistic predictions made in 2010 when the subsidies began. The difficulty of covering operating costs with inaccurate EV forecast figures is compounded by factors including asset life and ownership costs, recharging locations, vehicle and charging specifications, vehicle usage patterns and regional demographics. The introduction of fees for recharging at a level which EV drivers are willing to pay is unlikely to enable infrastructure owners to recoup their full costs using conventional business models. A Social and Environmental accounting model could be developed to help inform decision making for the public recharging business case. This paper gives an overview of the findings from the UK supplemented by experience from Republic of Ireland, and comments on the impact of inaccurate EV sales predictions and early changes in recharging behaviour resulting from reduction in subsidies.
Within the UK there is a transition from internal combustion engines to ultra-low-emission vehicles (ULEV) with an expectance that by 2040 these will be the only vehicles sold. The UK's Office for ...Low Emission Vehicles defines ULEV as: Cars/vans emitting less than 75g of CO2 from the tailpipe per km driven, based on the current European type approval test. An electric vehicle owner has the choice of charging at home, at work or at a public charge point. This article provides a figure of power delivered from a given rapid charger (a rapid), in the space of one hour, over a 24-hour period with a nominal 10-minute change over time.
Presents a collection of slides covering the following topics: electric vehicle; political aspect; economical aspect; sociological aspect; technological aspect; legal aspect; environmental aspects; ...OLEV(office of low emission vehicles). (16 pages)
49,999 electric car journeys and counting Hubner, Yvonne; Blythe, Phil; Hill, Graeme ...
2013 World Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition (EVS27),
11/2013
Conference Proceeding
The North East of England has been one of the most advanced regions for the demonstration of electric vehicles. So far, over 1100 charging points have been installed in the region through the ...Government funded Plugged in Places scheme and more than 49,999 electric vehicle journeys have been recorded since 2010 through the Switch EV trial. This paper gives an overview of the findings from this trial.
Governance, innovation and performance Wilson, David; Herron, Colin; Coleman, Shirley
Intelligent Production Machines and Systems - 2nd IPROMS Virtual International Conference 3-14 July 2006,
2006
Book Chapter
This chapter describes a new method for investigating the role of workplace culture in innovation and performance. A manager intuitively recognizes the need to invest in the workforce; however, it is ...difficult to measure any expected gains. Spending limited resources on employees is therefore often considered risky, resulting in underinvestment. The locked-in value in a workforce, which economists call human capital, is now established as having a key role in growth but the mechanism generating this growth is still unknown. Indicators of cultural factors have been demonstrated to be significant to growth; however, the lack of a consistent definition of culture means that the concepts cannot be applied practically. It is likely that measurement of influence techniques actually captures unconsidered underlying factors, which really cause the growth. Influence techniques are a likely candidate to provide a useful mechanism and framework. This chapter presents an industrial case study testing the hypotheses that influence and authority structures both improve and include standard measures of cultural factors. The most effective influence factors are considered and the implications and uses are highlighted. The chapter suggests that understanding the influence structure in a company provides a sound basis for improving management investment strategies to increase innovation and growth.
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