Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Production support'

This thesis presents work from a three-year PhD project within the research program SFI Norman: Centre for Research-based Innovation – Norwegian Manufacturing Future. SFI Norman is an eight year research program with the vision to develop new and multi-disciplinary research on next-generation manufacturing, and create theories, methods, models, and management tools that enable Norwegian manufacturers to thrive in global competition. SFI Norman has two main research partners – NTNU and SINTEF – and also consists of a number of industrial partners, including Kongsberg Automotive, Benteler Aluminium, and Pipelife Norway. This research project began in 2009 as part of the SFI Norman research area “Demand Driven Value Chains” (DRIVE). After the mid-term evaluation of Norman, the research areas were reclassified, and in 2011 this project became part of the new research area “Operations Management in Norwegian Manufacturing”. A major research topic in this research area is the relationship between lean production and information technology (IT). For example, though the lean principles are nowadays well understood, the relationship between IT and lean production remains a controversial and far less explored topic. Some would even suggest that the two approaches are contradictory in nature, stating that whilst lean is often characterized by decentralized coordination and control, IT is typically best suited to support centralized production planning. This thesis aims to provide illustrative frameworks in order to explore the topic in more detail. Lean production and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have for many years been recognised in the scientific literature and industrial trade journals as enablers of world-class manufacturing operations. Though many companies have undertaken the implementation of either or both of these approaches in order to achieve greater competitive advantage; in the traditional sense, IT such as ERP has often been viewed as a contributor to waste within lean production, for example through the generation of excessive data and unnecessary transactions, and by encouraging overproduction and excessive safety stocks, resulting in high inventory levels. However, as the business world changes and competition from low-cost countries increases, new models must be developed which deliver competitive advantage by combining modern-day technological advances with the lean paradigm. This PhD project set out to investigate the “contradictory” nature of ERP systems and lean production. Having first carried out an extensive literature review, it was identified that contrary to the traditional view, there appeared to be a potential synergy to be realised in combining both approaches. Therefore, the support functionality of ERP systems for lean production was subsequently evaluated by closely examining the capabilities of a contemporary ERP system in the context of lean production principles. This work was carried out by applying an action research methodology over a twelve month period at a Norwegian SME located in Trondheim, Norway. The company was involved in a concurrent implementation process – applying both a new ERP system and lean production practices. This resulted in two outcomes for the project – a framework for ERP support for lean production; and a model for an ERP-based lean implementation process. One of the fundamental reasons for the contradictory view of lean and ERP has been the discussion of pull vs. push. Whilst it is common knowledge that lean manufacturing intends to function as a pull system, environments which use ERP- and its associated material requirements planning (MRP) logic have typically been classed as push systems. Therefore, in order to strengthen the validity of this research and to mitigate any bias from the action research, the real-time, participatory research was supplemented by retrospective case study research, and four case studies were carried out in the Netherlands in order to investigate specific ERP support for pull production. This resulted in the development of a capability maturity model (CMM) for ERP support for pull production, which not only identifies the support mechanisms of an ERP system for pull production, but categories them into various levels of maturity. The outcomes of this project have implications to both theory and practice. The results of the investigation indicate a trend towards the combination of lean and ERP in manufacturing organisations. This has led to a number of contributions to theory and to practice. For example, the framework for ERP support for lean production can be used by researchers and practitioners in applying ERP systems and lean production together in order to increase the competitiveness of manufacturing companies. Secondly, the capability maturity model for ERP support for pull production makes a contribution to knowledge in that it identifies the functionality of ERP systems that can be applied to support pull production, and to practice, allowing manufacturers to benchmark the level of integration between its ERP- and pull systems, providing incentives to continuously improve. These contributions suggest a movement away from the traditional viewpoint of the contradictory nature of lean and ERP, and offer a solution to the recurring debate in the scientific literature as to whether or not lean and ERP are complementary technologies. Thirdly, the framework for an ERP-based lean implementation process also contributes to the field of knowledge within lean and ERP, and can be used by practitioners for the concurrent and synergetic application of lean and ERP.

Proefschrift--Rotterdam--Erasmus universiteit, 1991.
Mention parallèle de titre ou de responsabilité : Beslissingsondersteunende systemen voor korte termijn produktieplanning. Résumé en néerlandais, 4 p. Ill. par l'auteur. Bibliogr. p. 151-165. Index.

Due to the increase of the market demand, Senseair needs to increase the throughput from 4,000 to 10,000 and to 100,000 in the future. The market is expanding greatly, which requires production line to be improved at a faster pace. To seize the opportunity, effective improvements need to be implemented. But the complexity of the production line makes it particularly difficult to predict the performance of the production line. Hence, computer simulation tool, Plant Simulation, is utilized to simulate the performance of the production line. Based on the collected data from the actual production system, a digital twin is built in Plant Simulation. Various experiments are conducted to examine how to increase the throughput in an effective and efficient manner. The result shows the possibilities to reach 10,000 throughput goal but the extreme difficulties to reach 100,000 throughput goal. Consequently, an automated assembly production line is designed based on the manual assembly production line. After tests, the automated production line is proved to be able to meet the higher demand. Improvement suggestions are provided to Senseair for both the current manual assembly production line and the new automated assembly production line.
På grund av den ökande efterfrågan på marknaden måste Senseair öka kapaciteten, först från 4 000 till 10 000 och därefter upp till 100 000. Marknaden expanderar kraftigt, vilket kräver att produktionslinan förbättras i snabbare takt. För att ta till vara möjligheten måste effektiva förbättringar genomföras. Komplexiteten i produktionslinan gör det dock särskilt svårt att förutsäga produktionslinans prestanda. Datorsimuleringsverktyget, Plant Simulation, används därför för att simulera produktionslinans prestanda. Baserat på insamlade data från det faktiska produktionssystemet byggdes en digital tvilling i Plant Simulation. Olika experiment genomfördes för att undersöka hur man kan öka genomströmningen på ett optimalt och effektivt sätt. Resultaten visar att det är möjligt att nå genomströmningsmålet på 10000 men att det är extremt svårt att nå genomströmningsmålet på 100 000. En automatiserad produktionslina baserad på den manuella monteringsproduktionslinan konstrueras därför. Efter tester har den automatiserade produktionslinan visat sig kunna möta den högre efterfrågan. Förslag på förbättringar presenteras för Senseair för både den aktuella manuella produktionslinan och den nya automatiska produktionslinan.

The purpose of greenhouse crop systems is to generate a high quality product at high production rates, consistently, economically, efficiently and in a sustainable way. To achieve this level of productivity, accurate monitoring and control of some processes of the entire biophysical system must be implemented. In addition, the proper selection of actions at the strategic, tactical and operational management levels must be implemented.Greenhouse management relies largely on human expertise to adjust the appropriate optimum values for each of the production and environmental parameters, and most importantly, to verify by observation the desired crop responses. The subjective nature of observing the plant responses, directly affects the decision-making process (DMP) for selecting these `optimums'. Therefore, in this study several decision support systems (DSS) were developed to enhance the DMP at each of the greenhouse managerial levels.A dynamic greenhouse environment model was implemented in a Web-based interactive application which allowed for the selection of the greenhouse design, weather conditions, and operational strategies. The model produced realistic approximations of the dynamic behavior of greenhouse environments for 28-hour simulation periods and proved to be a valuable tool at the strategic and operational level by evaluating different design configurations and control strategies.A Web-based crop monitoring system was developed for enhancing remote diagnosis. This DSS automatically gathered and presented graphically environmental data and crop-oriented parameters from several research greenhouses. Furthermore, it allowed for real-time visual inspection of the crop.An intelligent DSS (i-DSS) based on crop records and greenhouse environment data from experimental trials and from commercial operations was developed to characterize the growth-mode of tomato plants with fuzzy modeling. This i-DSS allowed the discrimination of "reproductive", "vegetative" and "balanced" growth-modes in the experimental systems, and the seasonal growth-mode variation on the commercial application.An i-DSS based on commercial operation data was developed to predict the weekly fluctuations of harvest rates, fruit size and fruit developing time with dynamic neural networks (NN). The NN models accurately predicted weekly and seasonal fluctuations of each variable, having correlation coefficients (R) of 0.96, 0.87 and 0.94 respectively, when compared with a dataset used for independent validation.

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores
Ontologias são cada vez mais um conceito fundamental no suporte à interoperabilidade. Além disso, elas também são fundamentais no suporte aos sistemas evolutivos de produção por duas razões principais. A primeira está relacionada com o facto de a clara identificação e formalização dos processos ser importante para a criação de módulos inteligentes. A segunda razão está relacionada com o facto de os sistemas evolutivos de produção (SEP) serem baseados em sistemas multi-agente que depende em muito, da construção das ontologias de modo a permitir a comunicação entre os agentes pertencentes ao sistema. Os principais conceitos por detrás da ontologia aqui desenvolvida serão os conceitos de processos, tarefas, produto e componentes de manufactura. Esta tese pretende mostrar não só a criação de uma ontologia, mas também de um agente de modo a ser possível a integração da ontologia num sistema multi-agente, no âmbito da manufactura inteligente respondendo às questões envolventes ao paradigma dos sistemas evolutivos de produção. Sabendo que os SEP são baseados em sistemas multi-agente, será também mostrado um agente que irá ter todo o controlo da ontologia e irá pertencer ao sistema de manufactura.

Nowdays an efficient production is critical to achieve for companies competing on the market for steel cutting tools. One of such companies is Halmstad based Tooling Support Halmstad AB that manufactures threading-taps, threading-dies and parting off tools, towards a centralized warehouse in Schiedam, Holland.

The large amount of different products, approximately 2500 is a big contributor to the problem along with a new order system that creates a demand of low setup times. Previously the company was forwarded orders through quarter based prognoses which enabled planning of the production over a longer time span. Currently the newer order system ZENIT is in use and the company thereby gets their orders weekly. This type of customer orders effects the production in terms of weekly orders having a variety of different products, which in turn creates a larger amount of setup work that prolongs the lead times even further. The purpose of this project has been to survey the present production in the end manufacturing state of the thread taps in order to come up with improvement proposals which will lead to a more flexible production and less sensitive to irregular demand.

The factory consists of several production lines. Our work has been limited to the end manufacturing state of the thread taps in one of the 9 production lines, line 435. Based on the limitation our work has followed the production and order use of thread taps from the local storage to precisely before the wash.

Value stream mapping and the SMED-method has been useful during the work process. With these tools proposals have been generated towards a production flow with a divided lead time compared to the current state and a decreased setup-time by 26%

In this project relational and Lotus Notes database technology are evaluated with regard to their suitability in providing computer-based support in plant breeding in general and specifically in the production of doubled haploids. The two developed databases are compared based on a set of requirements produced together with the DH-group which is the main users of the databases. The results indicate that both Lotus Notes and the relational databases are able to fulfil all needs documented in this project, although both systems have their limitations. An often expressed opinion is that it is difficult to combine biology and databases. The experience gained in this project however suggests that it does not need to be the case in instances where data is not as complicated as often discussed. Observations made during this project indicate that data warehousing with integrated data mining and OLAP tools are surprisingly similar to how the DH-group at Svalöf Weibull works and could be a suitable solution for the production of doubled haploids.

This thesis suggests that there is a problem with technology transfer in crop production. The nature of the problem and the mechanisms available to the agricultural research sector for solving it are examined. As a consequence it is argued that Decision Support Systems (DSS) technology is an extremely useful mechanism for encapsulating and delivering scientific knowledge to the industry. The thesis then poses the question of why this technology is not currently being taken up by farmers and farm consultants, hypothesising that the current lack of user involvement in design is a major contributing factor. The hypothesis is supported by a survey of DSS development and use in agriculture and it is concluded that a user-centred design (UCD) approach is important to the successful adoption of these systems by the industry. The thesis then asks what methods the agricultural DSS developers should employ to ensure a user-centred design approach. It is suggested that it is not sufficient merely to point DSS producers in the direction of user centred design but to furnish them with adequate methods and tools to achieve this goal, bearing in mind their specific requirements and limitations and the nature of the decision support task. A review of currently available methods reveals that none of the standard methods meets this requirement and that a new approach is therefore needed. An approach supported by work from management science is introduced. This approach identifies the user's questions to the system as a means of defining its function and features. Its use in the context of workshops is developed into a user centred design method to meet all of the requirements for the designer stakeholders. The question approach is also used as the basis of ä method for identifying DSS interface requirements and collating design solutions. Both methods are presented as mechanisms for improving the acceptance of DSS in the sector. The document concludes by discussing the contribution made by the thesis to its originating disciplines and looks forward to the future of DSS technology in crop production.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references.

Pastes or gels are used in injection moulding to produce ceramic items. An important aspect is the expansion of the paste or gel from a entry of small cross-section to fill a larger cavity downstream. Flow visualisation during expansion has been performed. Non-uniform flow patterns were found and these can cause fractures, such as voids and laminations. Uniformity was favoured by a larger plate separation, a stiffer paste or gel and a decreasing divergent angle. The pressure drop can be predicted using an established flow model and gives good agreement if the expanding flow pattern is uniform. The addition of a straight channel to the outlet of a divergent die allowed the production of a uniform tape. A method for imaging the gel structure by measurement of the water distribution of gels and fired pellets has been developed using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. This facilitated an understanding of the formation of lamination in wet gel and its effect on the structure of the final ceramic item. The structural weaknesses caused by lamination have been linked to a lower strength in a ceramic item by use of a mechanical break test. It is shown that a break if it has no further processing in the extrusion flow path can weaken the final ceramic item. Phase migration in pastes and gels has been investigated and two methods of predicting phase migration have been used. A numerical solution gives a fair prediction while a similarity solution predicts moisture ratio as a function of position and time only for an initial time period. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance images gave much greater detail of the liquid distribution than experiments based on splicing, weighing and drying. A parameter based on theory from the similarity solution has been used in a simple test to assess phase migration in paste or gel. For example the parameter can rank the phase migration rates with changing formulation, thereby optimising paste or gel formulation, to control liquid movement. Catalyst surface area and catalyst porosity have been found to be independent of processing conditions and formulation for boehmite gels.

This study presents a methodology for planning log purchases, production strategies and market policies in a radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) veneer and plywood plant in New Zealand. It develops resource, production and marketing-oriented linear programming (LP) models (LOGPLY, logs to plywood model and VENPLY, veneer to plywood model) that can be used as real time decision support systems in a microcomputer (PC) environment. These models address the global decision-making needs for strategic, tactical and operational planning horizons in veneer and plywood operations. The modelling also encompasses veneer recovery of radiata pine by log source, type and small end diameter (SED) class and by veneer thickness. These factors are necessary to structure an efficient LOGPLY modelling system that can evaluate the effects of log type proportions and SED classes in relation to the economic profitability of the operation. Total veneer recovery yield, according to log source, log type, SED class and veneer peel thickness have been modelled using multiple linear regressions that incorporate dummy variables. Time studies for new material categories (e.g. SED class, type of corestocks, panel thickness, etc.) in major machine centres to measure appropriate production have also been conducted in order to best capture the effect of production aspects of the operations in the models. Maximum and minimum sales constraints by panel grade and thickness are included to reflect fully the importance of the market impact on veneer and plywood operations and to demonstrate the concept of market-oriented manufacturing. LOGPLY and VENPLY are formulated in consistent standards of measurement to ease validation and interpretation of results. The models have special constraint structure sets manifested by a nested (multicoupled) angular coefficient structure that accommodates the de novo programming approach or soft optimisation to design optimal systems rather than merely optimising a specified fixed system. VENPLY acts as a complementary model to LOGPLY and as a second-stage optimiser. LOGPLY and VENPLY working models are implemented in a spreadsheet environment (Quarttro Pro 3.0) and an add-on LP package, Beeline on PC (at least 1 Mb of RAM and 80286). This provides real time systems that managers and decision makers can use to simulate production and market conditions routinely, by updating the technological and resource coefficients of the models without the help of operations research personnel. The user-friendliness of the system for people familiar with spreadsheets is emphasised. Five LOGPLY case studies and four VENPLY case studies are investigated using de novo optimisation or a soft optimisation approach by way of demonstration of a real plant. The LOGPLY case studies reveal that: i) designing an optimal system from an already optimised base case with the same product mix can result in increased revenue by 5 percent; ii) optimising a given system with market demand variation (± 50 % of individual product grade and thickness of the base case product mix) can result in increased revenue by 3.5 percent over optimised base case; iii) designing an optimal system with product (A and B veneer sales) and market demand variation from the optimised base case has increased the revenue by 13.6 percent; and iv) designing for the ideal system from the optimised base case has increased the revenue by 43 percent. The VENPLY case studies reveal that: i) designing an optimal system with the same machine time availability as the base case has increased the revenue by 6.7 percent over the base case; ii) designing an optimal system without production (machine) constraints has increased the revenue by 28.7 percent over the base case; iii) designing an optimal system with market variation has increased the revenue by 37 percent over the base case. The study also demonstrates the capabilities of the models to address the global needs and problems of decision-making in veneer and plywood operations in the area of: i) log allocation \ procurement using LOGPLY; ii) veneer allocation using LOGPLY and VENPLY; iii) layup options and product mix determination using both models; iv) veneer downgrading using both models; v) machine performance and production bottlenecks evaluation using both models; vi) production scheduling and control using both models; and vii) production and market coordination using both models. Furthermore, the study reveals that veneer and plywood operations do not need to be fed 100 percent pruned logs as claimed in a recent study, but a combination of pruned and unpruned logs. The log mix proportion varies from 40:60 (pruned:unpruned) down to 21:79. The results Indicate that veneer and plywood production in New Zealand can be one of the most profitable investments for the nation's radiata pine resource contrary to findings of the recent Forest Industries Strategy Study 1992 conducted by New Zealand Forest Industries Council, but log type proportions must be properly identified to suit the intended or planned product mixes for the markets. One should apply the concept of market-oriented manufacturing as demonstrated in this study. This study shows new approaches and dimensions which have not been done before in modelling veneer and plywood operations: i) the modelling considers fully the log resource, production and marketing aspects of the operations which makes the models fully effective to address the global needs of decision-making in veneer and plywood operations; ii) the models are formulated in consistent standard of measurement to ease valuation and interpretation of the results; iii) the concept of soft optimisation which has not been applied before in this operation, enhances the utility of the models to address the needs in strategic planning by designing an optimal log procurement strategy in the case of LOGPLY and an optimal veneer allocation without veneer downgrading in the case of VENPLY; iv) the technique of two-stage optimisation using LOGPLY and VENPLY creates opportunities and new perspectives on how to manage the veneer and plywood operation effectively; v) the implementation of LOGPLY and VENPLY in a spreadsheet environment provides real time decision support systems to respond to the needs of solving problems of production scheduling and control in the least possible time; and vi) the study disproves the traditional view point that veneer and plywood operation should be fed with 100 percent pruned logs to be profitable.

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores
De forma a tornar os sistemas de produção evolutivos uma realidade, devem ser elaboradas formas de implementar capacidades de auto-organização. Os sistemas de produção evolutivos são compostos por módulos do sistema agentificados, os quais necessitam de interagir e colaborar entre eles. A aproximação de “Plug&Play” significa que a reprogramação desses módulos face às possíveis alterações deve ser evitada. Em vez disso os agentes organizar-se-ão entre eles de forma a conseguirem responder a todas as acções de montagem solicitadas. Para tal os agentes necessitam de conhecer informação sobre o módulo que representam: funcionalidades, geometrias, dimensões, interfaces, limitações, entre outras. Também as partes que irão compor o produto final, as instruções de montagem, e os processos, devem ser definidos de uma forma abstracta e genérica para que o sistema tenha o máximo de liberdade para se auto-reconfigurar em caso de necessidade. Esta tese visa mostrar como é que se pode definir as características sobre os módulos de uma forma genérica, e que possam facilmente ser interpretadas pelo computador ou pelo utilizador. Por fim serão mostradas e detalhadas as interacções que mostram como é que a auto-organização surge.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2007.
Thesis Advisor(s): Nussbaum, Daniel ; Mislick, Gregory K. "September 2007." Description based on title screen as viewed on October 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-70). Also available in print.

The increased demand for biofuels is expected to put additional strain on the available agricultural resources while at the same time causing environmental degradation. Hence, new energy policies need to be formulated and implemented in order to meet global energy needs while reducing the impact of biofuels farming and production. This research focuses on proving a decision support system which can aid the formulation of policies for the sustainable biofuel production. The system seeks to address policy formulation that requires reconciliation of the qualitative aspects of decision making (such as stakeholder’s viewpoints) with quantitative data, which often may be imprecise. To allow this, based on: Fuzzy logic and Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) in the form of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Using these concepts, three software functionalities, “Options vs. Fuzzy Criteria Matrix”, “Analytical Hierarchy Process” and “Fuzzy AHP” were developed. These were added within the framework of pre-existing base software, Compendium (developed by the Open University, UK). A number of case study based models have been investigated using the software. These models made use of data from the Philippines and India in order to pinpoint suitable land and crop options for these countries. The models based on AHP and Fuzzy AHP were very successful in identifying suitable crop options for India by capturing both the stakeholder viewpoints and quantitative data. The software functionalities are very effective in scenario planning and selection of policies that would be beneficial in achieving a desired future scenario. The models further revealed that the newly developed software correctly identified many of the important issues in a consistent manner.

New technologies have been developing rapidly in the last decades. Enterprises require incorporating these technologies in the development of new products. That creates a high pace of new product flow with an increasingly small life cycle. In order to support the fast pace, manufacturing lines have to adapt to the new product requirements as fast as possible. Production ramp-up is a phase in the manufacturing line that has a significant role on the required time to market but currently constitutes a bottleneck in the manufacturing process. Studies have focused on analysing ramp-up and defining its requirements to make the process more efficient. Literature shows that the key for improvement is to enhance the awareness and understanding of human operators and carry out the process more efficiently. Research studies are limited on the analysis without providing solutions on how to improve awareness. This thesis proposes an integrated approach to support decision making during production ramp-up. The work is composed of three main parts. First, a formal model is defined in order to capture the process followed on the shop floor. The model is designed as a Markov Decision Process reflecting the sequence of actions and their effect during the process. The model is composed of and defined through three main elements, namely a state space, a list of actions, and a reward formed as measure of performance during ramp-up. The second contribution of this work delves into the requirements and development of a decision support system for a more efficient ramp-up process. A decision support system is designed to operate complementary to the ramp-up process and support human operators. It captures ramp-up experience in a structured manner through a ramp-up model, processes it through a learning mechanism and communicates the extracted knowledge to human operators. The proposed system operates in two modes and supports the two identified ramp-up cases. Finally, a reinforcement learning algorithm is proposed, to extract the most effective policy for ramp-up and with a limited number of episodes. The algorithm is an outcome of a comparison study between model-based and model free algorithms. The proposed algorithm shows efficiency under the limitations of ramp-up and lack of data.

Every day national power system networks provide thousands of MW of electric power from generating units to consumers. This process requires different operations and planning to ensure the security of the entire system. Part of the daily or weekly operation system is the so called Unit Commitment problem which consists of scheduling the available resources in order to meet the system demand. But the continuous growth in electricity demand might put pressure on the ability of the generation system to sufficiently provide supply. In such case load shedding (a controlled, enforced reduction in electricity supply) is necessary to prevent the risk to system collapse. In South Africa at the present time, a systematic lack of supply has meant that regular load shedding has taken place, with substantial economic and social costs. In this research project we study two optimization problems related to load shedding. The first is how load shedding can be integrated into the unit commitment problem. The second is how load shedding can be fairly and efficiently allocated across areas. We develop deterministic and stochastic linear and goal programming models for these purposes. Several case studies are conducted to explore the possible solutions that the proposed models can offer.

In music production, along with other creative endeavors, there is a recurring phenomenon of loss of motivation during the process of creating. Within the community of music producers, there is no unified picture of what leads to lack of motivation, and little academic research has been done on motivation in music production specifically. However, when it comes to motivation in creativity, there is some research which suggest that intrinsic motivators are the primary regulators of motivation in creativity. Whether extrinsic motivators are detrimental to intrinsic motivation or can be used to facilitate intrinsic motivation, as well as what kind of extrinsic motivators that may facilitate intrinsic motivation, is still debated. This thesis sets out to discover what facilitators and barriers to motivation can be found in the music production process of electronic music producers, and whether this knowledge can be applied to products for music production. To examine facilitators and barriers in music production, a phenomenology-inspired, bottom-up methodology of semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis is employed on professional and enthusiast music producers. The results show that while baseline intrinsic motivators such as the will to create are vital for motivation, there are a lot of extrinsic factors at play in sustaining motivation through music production as well. This thesis is presented with product companies that make products for electronic music production in mind, and through the results of this thesis, numerous suggestions on what to think about when designing for motivation in music production are presented.

Expository text writing is a task that demands high-level cognitive and linguistic skill in order to produce well-written texts. Individuals who have cognitive-communicative impairments following mild closed head injury often display difficulty in organization, recall and attention when writing texts. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that facilitate production of coherent expository texts by two unimpaired adults, with the ultimate goal of applying the results to work with head-injured individuals. These factors were: type of texts and type of support found in the text elicitation context. It was hypothesized that Description texts would be easiest to produce, followed by Comparison, Sequence, and Response texts. It was also hypothesized that texts that were supported in the elicitation context by explicit information regarding text structure would result in more coherent texts than those written without such support. Furthermore, texts that were supported by structure plus content information were hypothesized to result in texts that were most coherent. Finally, it was questioned whether texts that were produced in the absence of support, but after the two support conditions had been completed, would exhibit a learning effect. Therefore, the effect of four elicitation contexts and four text types were examined. Each subject wrote sixteen texts. Text adequacy was measured using cohesive harmony analysis (Hasan, 1984, 1985) and a reader rating scale that was intended to measure perceived coherence. Results from Subject One were consistent with the hypothesized order of text difficulty. As well, the conditions in which text structure was provided generally resulted in more coherent texts than the texts produced without support. Evidence for a learning effect in the last condition was not found. Because the addition of content did not appear to increase text coherence when compared to texts produced with structural support alone, particularly for easier text types, it was suggested that a ceiling effect may have occurred for this subject, so that additional reduction of processing demands did not result in improved text production. The results from Subject Two were inconclusive, particularly for the effect of elicitation context. Order of text type difficulty differed from the expected order for this subject's texts. This demonstrates the variability that occurs among unimpaired writers in both text coherence and how writing tasks are approached, as well as the need for further studies using larger samples. Text ratings by a group of Speech-Langauge Pathologists did not match the results of the cohesive harmony analysis for text type. It was suggested that this disparity may be due to: inadequacies in cohesive harmony analysis that make it insensitive to features of texts readers use in order to determine coherence; or differences among texts in the readers' ability to construct text structure as they read. Texts produced in contexts with support generally received higher perceived coherence ratings than those written without such support. Inter-rater variability was marked, especially for texts low in cohesive harmony. Modifications to the procedures used in this study for both further research and clinical application are discussed.
Medicine, Faculty of
Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of
Graduate

Energimyndigheten har från Regeringen blivit tilldelad 100 miljoner kronor att fördela som investeringsstöd för att främja en effektiv och utökad produktion, distribution samt användning av förnybara gaser såsom biogas. Myndigheten har samtidigt fått i uppdrag att utveckla en sektorsövergripande biogasstrategi och föreslå åtgärder som på kort och lång sikt kan bidra till ökad användning av biogas. Denna strategi ska också tjäna som ett underlag för fördelning av olika former av stöd inom sektorn.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att sammanställa information som kan bidra som underlag vid upprättandet av den sektorsövergripande biogasstrategin. Ett annat syfte är att bidra med underlag för Energimyndighetens bedömning av var ett investeringsstöd kan ge störst effekt för den fortsatta utvecklingen inom biogasområdet. Detta stöd avser den senaste, ovan nämnda, utlysning som Energimyndigheten gjort inom området. Examensrapporten innehåller bland annat en sammanställning av gjorda insatser inom forskningsområdet biogas de senaste åren, finansierat av framför allt Energimyndigheten, men även en inblick i vilka biogassatsningar som är gjorda av andra nationella aktörer. Ett antal personer från bland annat branschorganisationer har intervjuats för att ta del av deras syn på den framtida biogasmarknaden, vilka satsningar som bör göras och vilka hinder som har störst inverkan. Organisationerna är valda utifrån kriteriet att de ska representera olika delar av biogasbranschen och att olika synvinklar därigenom ska framkomma. Rapporten innehåller slutsatser som dragits av tidigare biogassatsningar hos Energimyndigheten och identifiering av biogasområden där det föreligger stort behov av framtida satsningar för utökad produktion, distribution och användning. 

Ett område som i detta examensarbete har identifierats ha stort behov av framtida biogassatsningar är bland annat framtagande av alternativa rötningssubstrat, eftersom mängden tillgängligt substrat nuläget inte är tillräcklig. Detta utgör idag en begränsning för biogasproduktionen. Det bör även satsas mer på förbehandling av substrat innan rötning, vilket ökar gasproduktionen och förbättrar substratutnyttjandet i större utsträckning. Mer satsningar behövs också kring hur biogasprocessens slutprodukt, rötresten, kan bli en mer attraktiv produkt så att återcirkulering av växtnäring kan ske i större grad genom rötrestspridning på åkermark. Detta är av stor vikt eftersom en ökad volym rötningssubstrat ger upphov till större mängd rötrester som ska hanteras. Andra områden som är i behov av framtida stöd är utveckling av befintliga anläggningar för att öka och effektivisera produktionen. För att optimera processerna bör framför allt mer medel satsas på kunskapsuppbyggnad och spridning av den vetenskap som finns tillgänglig. Att länka samman universitet, högskolor och naturbruksgymnasium med anläggningar i drift kan vara det mest effektiva sättet att nå ut med relevant information och kunskap. Ur ett samhällsekonomiskt perspektiv bör mer medel läggas på att öka gödselrötning då detta minskar metanläckage.

Swedish Energy Agency has been allocated SEK 100 million from the government to distribute as investment grant to promote efficient and expanded production, distribution and use of renewable gases such as biogas. The Agency has also been given the task to develop a multidisciplinary strategy for biogas and propose measures which can contribute to increased use of biogas in the short and long term. This strategy will also serve as a basis for the allocation of various forms of support in the biogas sector. 

The purpose of this study is to compile information which can be used as input for the establishment of the multidisciplinary strategy for biogas. Another purpose is to provide information to support the Swedish Energy Agency in the assessment of which areas an investment grant will have the greatest impact for the future development of biogas. This grant refers to the latest call of Swedish Energy Agency in the sector. This report includes a summary of what areas grants have been given for research of biogas in recent years, mainly financed by the Swedish Energy Agency, but also an insight into efforts made by other national operators. A number of people from professional biogas organizations have been interviewed to share their views on the future biogas market. Which efforts should be made and the main obstacles to be overcome are other questions discussed. The report contains conclusions from the experience of previous support from the Swedish Energy Agency as well as identification of areas in which there is great need for future efforts in order to expand the production, distribution and use of biogas.

Some areas which have been identified in this thesis for need of future efforts in the biogas sector is for example the development of alternative substrates for anaerobic digestion, because the amount of available substrate is at present not sufficient. This is currently a limitation for the biogas production. There is also a need to further develop the pre-treatment of the substrate before digestion, in order to increase the gas production and improve substrate utilization to a greater extent. More focus are also needed on how the end product from the biogas process, the digestion residues, can become a more attractive product to the recycling of plant nutrients by use as a bio fertilizer on farmland. This is of great importance because larger volume of digestion will result in greater volume of digestion residues to be managed. Other areas in need of future investments are the development of existing facilities to increase and optimize the production. In order to optimize the production processes, more resources should be devoted to capacity building and dissemination of the available knowledge. Linking universities and colleges together with operating biogas plants could be the most effective way to reach out with relevant information and knowledge. From a socioeconomic perspective more resources should be spent on increasing the volume of manure digestion then it is today, which also will result in reduced methane leaks.

A new economic model for the evaluation of integrated Design, Production, and Logistic Support Systems (DPLSSs) is designed and developed in this thesis. The DPLSS model was created after a survey of Life Cycle Costing (LCC) applications revealed that no models for assessing integrated design, production, and logistic support systems were available. The evaluation technique the model is based on is called Life Cycle Value Assessment (LCVA). LCVA differs from LCC in that it emphasizes consideration of life cycle revenues as well as costs.

The system addressed by the DPLSS model has a life cycle which includes product design, production capability design and construction, production, product distribution, logistic system support and maintenance, and system disposal. The baseline production capability assumed when developing the DPLSS model involves batch processing, forming the base material into individual units, and performing detailed processing operations. It has also been assumed that items produced are non-repairable.

The DPLSS model facilitates the evaluation of new DPLSSs by leading managers through the new LCVA methodology, A Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS) which is compatible with the DPLSS life cycle has been developed as a basis for the model. This CBS is used to address DPLSSs descriptively and nonnatively during LCVA evaluations.

A menu-driven computer program has also been developed to implement the DPLSS model on an IBM PC. This program leads users through the new LCVA-based methodology, performs economic and sensitivity analyses on their inputs, and then allows "what-if?â analyses on varying system configurations to be performed.

Master of Science

La production par trichoderma harzianum de la 6-pentyl--pyrone (6-pp) qui possede un arome fort de coco a ete etudiee et comparee en milieu liquide et en fermentation en milieu solide (fms). Le milieu liquide de la culture submergee a ete utilise pour impregner un support solide de bagasse de canne a sucre en fms. La concentration maximale de 6-pp produite par t. Harzianum en fms a ete de 0,9 g/l, soit 17 fois plus qu'en milieu liquide. L'influence de la source de carbone, d'azote et du rapport carbone sur azote (c/n) sur la production de 6-pp en fms a permis de definir un milieu compose de glucose et de glycine dont le rapport c/n est de 14. L'atmosphere gazeuse (teneurs en o#2 et/ou en co#2) a influence l'initiation de la conidiogenese de t. Harzianum et la production de 6-pp. La culture du champignon dans une atmosphere riche en co#2 a permis une meilleure production de 6-pp qu'une culture dans une atmosphere identique a celle de l'air ambiant. La sporulation de t. Harzianum a ete retardee dans cette atmosphere modifiee. La production de 6-pp peut donc etre reliee negativement a la sporulation. La limitation de la croissance de t. Harzianum est le facteur le plus important pour favoriser la production de 6-pp. Le controle du metabolisme du champignon a ete possible en jouant sur le taux d'aeration des cultures. La limitation de croissance imposee par l'utilisation d'un taux d'aeration variable au cours de la culture a permis la production de 6-pp a environ 1,2 g/l. L'extrapolation de la production de 6-pp en fms d'un facteur 100 x a ete realisee efficacement en utilisant une geometrie de reacteur similaire comme critere d'extrapolation et le maintien d'une atmosphere gazeuse a 3% de co#2 comme strategie de culture. Sur 5 kg de substrat humide, le rendement de la 6-pp par rapport au glucose a ete de 40 a 45 mg/g. La fms pourrait donc representer a l'echelle industrielle une technique interessante pour la production de composes d'aromes et en particulier de la 6-pp.

Le world wide web est un environnement de travail qui permet aux utilisateurs d'accéder à l'information maintenue sur des sites qui peuvent être fort éloignés. Cependant, les problèmes inhérents à cette technologie et aux aléas des communications, ainsi qu'au manque en supports de réplication et d'actualisation de l'information dupliquée, limitent le web en tant qu'infrastructure d'exécution d'applications coopératives. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier les besoins des applications coopératives du web, et de proposer des fonctions adaptées à leur support. Plus précisément, les problèmes de la désignation des co-auteurs, distribués et potentiellement nomades sur l'internet, ont fait l'objet d'une étude/réalisation toute particulière. Utilisant les technologies du web (scripts cgi, extension de serveurs web), nous avons conÇu et proposé les bases d'un système de réplication/actualisation des entités partagées et ainsi répliquées entre les sites des coopérants.

This research shows that a model that concurrently determines product, production, and capacity can provide better results than a model that makes these decisions sequentially. Three versions of a life-cycle complete concurrent model and corresponding sequential model that solve product, production, and capacity planning problems are mathematically formulated and compared through an hypothetical example. All versions of the concurrent and sequential models consider three types of work centers and corresponding types of capital budgeting projects. Each version of the concurrent and sequential models considers a specific type of capital budgeting project. These are: (1) projects that may be partially accepted with no upper limit, (2) projects that may be partially accepted with an upper limit of one, and (3) projects restricted to values of zero and one. An hypothetical example spanning twelve fiscal periods that included five products, two product sub-groups, one pre-production/post-support project, three production projects, and one support project was developed to enable comparison of the models. Nine comparisons between each of the three versions of the concurrent and sequential models were conducted resulting in a total of 27 comparisons. Comparisons of the models required the development of five computer programs. Four of these programs provided Mathematical Programming System (MPS) formatted mixed integer linear programs (MIP) that were solved using the LINDO/386 optimization program. The fifth program read output from LINDO/386 and provided the future worth of the sequential model. Results obtained from tests of the concurrent and sequential models were compared based upon future worth, capital budgeting projects funded, products funded, production and inventory quantities, and regular and overtime labor levels. For every combination of product sub-group demand and capital budgeting constraint type, the concurrent model always provided the highest future worth. In addition, while both models funded the same set of products, the concurrent model provided more level labor, production and inventory quantities, and support for products. Following these comparisons, it was concluded that, for any capital budgeting constraint type and product sub-group demand, a concurrent model can provide better planning results than a sequential model.
Ph. D.

This investigation examined the adequacy of the forage base to meet current demand of piscivores in Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia. Surplus production, or the maximum sustainable supply, of alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) were determined using data on the biomass, growth, and mortality of each species. Mean hydroacoustic alewife biomass from 1993-1998 was 37 kg/ha and mean gizzard shad cove rotenone biomass from 1990-1997 was 112 kg/ha. Mean annual alewife surplus production was determined to be 73 kg/ha and mean annual gizzard shad surplus production totaled 146 kg/ha.

Bioenergetics modeling and population density estimates were utilized to derive the annual food consumption (realized demand) of the two most popular sport fish in the system, striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). The striped bass population consumed 46 kg/ha of alewife and 27 kg/ha of gizzard shad annually. Largemouth bass ate 9 kg/ha of alewife and 15 kg/ha of gizzard shad annually. Annual consumption by ancillary predators was estimated to be 13 kg/ha of alewife and 35 kg/ha of gizzard shad.

Prey supply to predators is limited by morphology, behavior, and distribution. The cumulative effect on prey availability of these three factors, in addition to consumption by other predators, was quantified. For largemouth bass, available supply of alewife and gizzard shad exceeded demand by 20% and 53% respectively. For striped bass, available supply of gizzard shad surpassed demand by 30% but available alewife supply was only 4% greater than demand. Annual demand of all predators was 94% of total available clupeid supply.

Striped bass stockings were increased by 50% in 1998 and will remain at this level in the near future. A predator-prey simulation model of alewife and striped bass populations was developed to explore the consequences of increased predator demand. This model incorporated dependencies between alewife abundance and mortality and the mortality, abundance, and growth of striped bass. Model output showed that a 50% stocking increase has a near-zero probability of increasing the mean annual number of legal and citation striped bass in Smith Mountain Lake.
Ph. D.

Avec l'émergence des techniques d’IoT, les industries manufacturières adoptent de nouvelles technologies d'analyse de données afin d’améliorer la qualité de leurs systèmes de production. Les méthodes de classification offrent diverses solutions aux problèmes de management de la qualité, comme la détection des défauts et la prédiction de la conformité. Cependant, les données de production sont entachées d’incertitudes qui affectent les performances de ces méthodes. Ces travaux visent à étudier l'impact des incertitudes de mesure sur les performances des machines à vecteurs supports (SVM). Deux groupes d'approches sont proposés, le premier visant à quantifier l'impact des incertitudes de mesure sur la précision de prédiction des SVM via des techniques de propagation d’incertitudes et d’analyse de données, et le second visant à améliorer la robustesse de la SVM via des approches d’optimisation robuste intrusives et non intrusives. Les différentes approches permettent de mieux appréhender la robustesse de la SVM et la manière de l'améliorer. Ces approches proposées ont été évaluées à l'aide d'études de cas avec des partenaires industriels
With the emergence of the IoT paradigm, manufacturing industries are opting for new technologies for data collection and analysis to evaluate the quality of their manufacturing systems. Machine learning and classification methods provide various solutions to quality management such as defect detection and conformity prediction. However, manufacturing data are affected by uncertainties, which affect the performances of classification techniques. Accordingly, the thesis aims to study and manage the impact of measurement uncertainties on the predictive performances of support vector machine (SVM). Two groups of approaches are thus proposed: the former aiming to quantify the impact of measurement uncertainties on the prediction accuracy of SVM using several propagation techniques and data mining techniques, and the latter aiming to improve the robustness of SVM to uncertainties using robust optimization techniques. The various approaches provide a better understanding of the SVM robustness and how to improve it. The proposed approaches are evaluated through case studies with industrial partners

This thesis will divide the concept of member feedback in online communities into three types, namely conversational-, behavioural feedback and content analysis. During this thesis we will argue for the advantages with user involvement in design and how the three types of feedback listed above together with members could be introduced into the design process. We argue that by combining traditional methods such as personas and focus groups with the different kinds of feedback in the design and evaluation process supports usability in online communities.
Denna uppsats kommer att dela på konceptet medlems-feedback i online communities i tre olika typer, nämligen feedback genom konversation, beteende och community innehåll. Vi kommer att argumentera för fördelarna med att involvera användarna i design processen och hur de tre olika typerna av feedback kan användas i denna process. Genom att kombinera traditionella metoder som tex. personas och fokus grupper med dessa typer av feedback kan ett användbarhets mål uppnås.
Hannes Persson 0702-229542 Christian Toft 070-7981770

Les travaux de la thèse se focalisent sur la protection des réseaux de distribution HTA en présence des générateurs distribués (éoliennes, fermes solaires,...). Dans un premier temps, un état de l’art a été réalisé sur les comportements des générateurs en creux de tension, leurs impacts sur le système de protection et les pistes de solution proposées pour y remédier. L’étape suivante est la mise au point d’algorithmes directionnels de détection de défauts, sans mesure de tension. Ces algorithmes s’appuient sur la décomposition en composantes symétriques des courants mesurés. Ces relais doivent empêcher le déclenchement intempestif de protections de surintensité dû au courant de défaut provenant des générateurs distribués. Ils sont moins coûteux par rapport à ceux traditionnels car les capteurs de tension, qui sont indispensables pour ces derniers, peuvent être enlevés. Après détection d’un défaut sur critère de seuil simple (max de I ou max de I résiduel), la direction est évaluée à l’aide d’un algorithme en delta basé sur les rapports courants inverse-homopolaire ou inverse-direct, selon le type de défaut (monophasé ou biphasé). En se basant sur ces rapports, un classifieur SVM (Support Vector Machines), entrainé préalablement à partir des simulations, donne ensuite l’estimation de la direction du défaut (amont ou aval par rapport au relais). La bonne performance de ces algorithmes a été montrée dans la thèse pour différents paramètres du réseau et en présence de différents types de générateurs. Le développement de tels algorithmes favorise la mise en œuvre des protections en réseau, qui pourraient être installées dans les futurs Smart Grids
This research focuses on the protection of MV distribution networks with Distributed Generators (DGs), such as wind farms or photovoltaic farms, etc. First, the state of art is carried out on fault behaviour of DGs, their impacts on protection system and the mitigation solutions. Next, algorithms are developed for directional relays without voltage sensors. Based on the symmetrical component method, these algorithms help the overcurrent protections to avoid the false tripping issue due to fault contribution of DGs. With the suppression of voltage sensors, such directional relays become cheaper in comparison with the traditional ones. Following the fault detection (the phase or residual current reaches the pick-up value) and depending on fault type (line-to-ground or line-to-line fault), the ratios between the variation (before and during fault) of negative-zero sequence or negative-positive sequence currents are calculated. From these ratios, a SVM (Support Vector Machines) classifier estimates the fault direction (upstream or downstream the detector). The classifier is trained beforehand from transient simulations. This survey shows good performances of the directional algorithms with different network parameters and different kinds of DGs. Such algorithms could be implemented in protections along the feeders in the future smart grids

As a result of the technical breakthrough of modern age, manufacturing organisations are put through immense pressure to continually improve their internal processes with the purpose of economic growth in order to stay competitive in the global market. Thus, making trial and error obsolete in the real world systems, in relation to calculated decision making. This thesis aims to facilitate the decision making basis for the partner companies’ future production design by measuring its expected productivity with the purpose to further strengthen the collaboration with the customer, by the use of discrete-event simulation.AB Furhoffs Rostfria is a family-owned company with its base in Skövde that manufactures and pro-cesses stainless steel products and specialises in three central departments, plumbing, kitchen, and subcontracting products. This thesis focus is within the production of heat shields in the department of subcontracting products as they are projecting an annual increase of 20%.The project was initialised with a pre-study phase that includes the theoretical framework, covering all main subjects to be presented along with analysing relevant literature studies for valuable insight into previous studies within the same field. Following a method and execution phase was carried out coher-ently with creating a simulation model and data collection. Different scenarios in the simulation model have been presented to the partner company along with wastes that have been observed within the production flow during Gemba.The different scenarios in the simulation model included, for instance, the production of both bigger and smaller batch sizes for each variant to analyse how that factor correlates with the product lead time and to also find out what the most optimal batch sizes would be for the respective variant in order to build full pallets. The future state production was evaluated and the results reduced the mean lead time by roughly 59% compared to the current state production.

In manual and semi-automation production systems, flexibility and adaptability are affected by the shop-floor operators’ skills, abilities and knowledge. Such dependencies highlight the vital importance of developing and utilising the knowledge, achievements and abilities of the operators working with production on the shop-floor. Teamwork, including both novice and highly experienced shop-floor operators, in a production environment with a high level of automation, is essential already today and is predicted to increase, when the complexity and demands of future production systems intensify. This trend is confirmed in both the research literature and by specialists within industry. The key to future competitiveness and effectiveness of the manufacturing industry is the shop-floor operators who handle the production systems. In addition, the future information intensive working environment, with its increasing complexity and less time available for decision-making, demands adaptive decision support and adaptive control systems that facilitate collaborative work on the shop-floor. It is therefore important to emphasise how decisions are supported in the time-limited working environment of the shop-floor, because this has a large impact on production output and quality and is vital to the success of the company. Consequently, this dissertation presents a framework for an adaptive decision support system that concentrates on shop-floor operators, in order to enhance their development and future contribution to leading edge production systems. The overall aim of the research presented is to define a framework for an Adaptive Decision Support System, to address the scope and demands of the future shop-floor, as indicated in the research literature, and confirm its relevance, as well as further elaborate it on the basis of interviews with production managers and HR specialists The research presented uses the design science research process. In parallel, decision support systems and the industrial shop-floor have been studied in the research literature and the current state of industrial practice has been assessed. These areas together form the basis for the research on adaptive decision support for shop-floor operators. A framework enabling adaptive decision support and adaptive system control, based on event-driven function block technology and Augmented Reality technology, is formulated. The gap of research on decision support for shop-floor operators, indicated in the research literature is addressed by the research preformed.  Adaptive and dynamic decision support and system control able to process vast amounts of information in real time demonstrates utility for shop-floor operators. The research presenting the Adaptive Decision Support System has demonstrated its utility for shop-floor systems and production operatives in two extensive studies using demonstrators based on real-life production environments. A methodology, the ‘User group’, has been formulated for research collaboration and bi-directional knowledge transfer between academia and the industrial partners. It provides tools that enable cooperation between the experienced research partner and the novices, despite their different levels of engagement in the same project, without dividing them into separate groups. The ‘user group’ case study presented describes how both the inexperienced and the research mature companies gain new knowledge and engage in ongoing research. By doing so, the industrial project partners have extensively supported the research presented and will subsequently be the expected beneficiaries.

Master’s dissertation in Production Engineering
Cyber-Physical Production Systems are widely recognized as the key to unlock the full potential benefits of the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Cyber-Physical Production Systems Design, Development and Deployment methodology is a systematic approach in assessing necessities, identifying gaps and then designing, developing and deploying solutions to fill such gaps. It aims to support and drive enterprise’s evolution to the new working environment promoted by the availability of Industry 4.0 paradigms and technologies while challenged by the need to increment a continuous improvement culture. The proposed methodology considers the different dimensions within enterprises related with their levels of organization, competencies and technology. It is a two-phased sequentially-stepped process to enable discussion, reflection/reasoning, decision-making and action-taking towards evolution. The first phase assesses an enterprise across its Organizational, Technological and Human dimensions. The second phase establishes sequential tasks to successfully deploy solutions. Is was applied to a production section at a Portuguese enterprise with the development of a new visual management system to enable shop floor management. This development is presented as an example of Industry 4.0 technology and it promotes a faster decision-making, better production management, improved data availability as well as fosters more dynamic workplaces with enhanced reactivity to problems.

A stochastic simulation model of a dairy farm was, developed to allow the investigation of the effects of varying manage~ent decisions in dairy herds. The primary purpose of this model is to quantify the economic effects of different calving patterns with respect to production and reproductive performance. The revenues and costs associated. with dairy cows with different calving patterns were calculated. The feed costs were calculated according to the consumption of forage (silage or grass) and concentrate, as estimated from energy requirements. Furthermore, the replacement price, calf revenue and the financial loss associated with involuntary culling were considered. The economic value of fertility was estimated using this model; the change in gross margin as a result of an increase in fertility in the herd was estimated by changing the servicing and conception rates in the simulated herd. These changes had consequences for the culling rate and replacement costs. The. change in gross margin resulting from a 10% absolute change in servicing and a 5% change in conception rate was estimated to be between £50 and £90 per cow per year. Through improvement of both conception and servicing rates, careful management of reproduction can greatly improve profitability in a dairy herd. The model was also used to examine the economic consequences of relaxing fertility culling in an all-year calving herd. Model validation was conducted using data from National Milk Records; the validation was based on a comparison between the model and two contrasting real herds. The real herds were chosen by looking at the key performance indices within the Herd Companion tool. The model was then parameterised to simulate each of the contrasting real herds in turn.

This thesis stems from the future scenario that as additive manufacturing (AM) technologies become cheaper and more readily available, consumers without formal design training will begin to customise, design and manufacture their own products. Much of this activity is likely to infringe on brands' intellectual property. The research explores the feasibility of a situation in which, rather than attempting to prohibit such activity, manufacturers engage with consumers to facilitate it, thus retaining control (albeit reduced) over their brand's image and the quality of products offered. The research begins with a literature review encompassing AM technologies and their adoption by consumers; mass customisation (MC) and the management of variation in product offering; and traditional models of industrial design (ID), including user-centred design and co-design. It finds that conventional definitions of MC and ID are unable to provide for the possibility of consumer intervention in the shape and non-modular configuration of products. Further research was then conducted in the areas of Open Design (including crowdsourcing, open sourcing and 'hardware hacking') as well as bespoke customisation, which were found to be much more accommodating of the scenario proposed. A new term, 'consumer design', is introduced and defined, together with the hypothesis that in future, the role of the industrial designer may be to design 'unfinished' products. An original classification of consumer involvement in ID is presented. Empirical research, undertaken with consumers using an iterative design software package (Genoform), demonstrated a preference for designing within pre-determined boundaries. Action research was conducted to assess consumer-oriented 3D CAD software, and compare its capabilities with that of MC toolkits. A survey of senior designers and brand managers revealed strategies for implementing and managing a brand's product design language, and a guide was created to show the relative importance of designed features. Using these findings, a prototype toolkit was created to demonstrate how a brand might facilitate consumer interaction with the shape design of a complex consumer electronics product (in this case a mobile phone). The toolkit was tested with both consumers and experienced designers to assess its viability. The research finds that it is possible to create a consumer-design toolkit which enables untrained users to change the form of a product, whilst maintaining brand equity and ensuring the product's functionality and manufacturability.

Background: The last 35 years have seen a proliferation of systematic reviews seeking to synthesise the best available and most relevant evidence to inform policy. In response to a growing interest in the process of generating policy relevant evidence, I conducted further which investigated the perspective of policy makers and academics about producing systematic reviews to inform health systems policymaking. We found that models for producing reviews can be distinguished in terms of their starting point and their purpose. For example, reviews could start with or without a wide agreement about their key concepts and with the purpose of addressing common problems for multiple audience or to inform policy decisions within a specific jurisdiction and timescale (Oliver and Dickson, 2016). As the models were developed in a health systems policy context, the next step was to test their applicability with reviews commissioned in other fields. Aims: This thesis aims to demonstrate, with an analysis of my publications, how my approach to conducting systematic reviews contributes to an understanding of the institutional mechanisms and social interactions required to produce policy-relevant evidence across broader policy areas. Methods: Case example of four reviews were used to explore the utility of models for producing policy relevant reviews. This was achieving by taking an analytical framework of institutional mechanisms previously developed and operationalising the higher order themes into questions to interrogate our approach to producing systematic reviews. This ‘analytical interrogation’ was an iterative and interpretive process which required drawing on our ‘use of self’ to reflexively generate new insights and understanding of producing each review (Finlay and Gough 2008). The focus of our analysis was to explore institutional mechanisms informing review production. These were framed according to themes representing the overlapping social worlds of policy and research: harnessing motivations, engagement between policy and research, and the structures and procedures for producing policy-relevant reviews and their resulting impact. Findings: My analysis in this thesis has contributed to an understanding of producing policy-relevant systematic reviews in several ways. By exploring the literature on this topic I have discovered that while there is research on the barriers to policy research use and mechanisms to increase uptake, an understanding of the process of producing reviews to address the range of policy needs is disparate, cutting across different fields of inquiry (e.g. methods, technology, stakeholder engagement) and is yet to be systematically drawn together. I have attempted to elucidate that producing policy-relevant reviews is both a technical and social enterprise requiring a range of institutional mechanisms and social competencies to navigate the policy-research interface. I have also shown that the production of reviews in broad policy areas has implications for the quality of reviews, which requires addressing the relationship between accountability and ensuring the coherence of the review, alongside the use of rigorous and explicit methods.

The current manufacturing business environment becomes more dependent of digital tools to increase business opportunities and customer value. The organizations ability to embrace the digital tools is dependent of a its digital maturity position. The organization structure, information systems, and communication are variables affecting the position and enables or disables possibility of data-based decisions-making (DBDM). To determine the ability information system and information flow is analyzed through a case study at one of the production departments. The areas studied in the case study are information flow of metal powder and compression tools.  The case study is performed to study the organizations ability to connecting information, study information flow and assess potential information disruption. It is assessed by using digital maturity assessments. This result provides an insight of how it affects the DBDM abilities within the department. These areas are common in a general production setting. The metal powder area is analyzed by an experiment where the metal powder containers is manually measured and evaluate the real weight compared to the depreciated weight in the information system. The compression tool analysis is performed by extracting and analyzing structured- and unstructured machine data from the production. This analytical angle is dependent of reliable data, and information disruption between the production processes and the servers is noticed during the extraction of data. This extraction process and analysis resembles the need when implementing machine learning and other automatic applications.  The 360DMA assess a general view of the organizations position and follow up with a method how to reach certain goals to increase one of the five levels. The Acatech-model is used to assess two structural areas, resources and information systems. The metal powder container analysis shows that there is a problem between the information stored in the systems regarding weight of the metal powder containers. The compression tool analysis result is that the stored data about the compression tools and the count of the different components is not correct. This and difficulties with manually- and automatically extracting data from server’s cause information disruptions and decrease the production process information reliability and validity. This decrease the ability to use the production data to make data driven decisions and gain insights about the production. The digital maturity assessment position the organization on a connectivity level (Acatech model) regarding information systems and resources means that data is unreliable and once its reliable the next level is in reach. The varying position within the 360DMA model call for management to synchronize development between processes by introducing strategies, define responsibilities and understand the information flow.