Managing without measuring: A study of an electricity distribution company

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an exception to the common belief "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it". It aims to show how in certain situations particular practices, attitudes and cultures can remove the need for individual performance measurement. Design/methodology/approach: First, the paper identifies the usual roles of performance measurement in managing individual employees as described by control and motivation theorists. Second, it identifies a market-leading organisation where managers deliberately refuse to use their top-level performance measurement system to manage the performance of individual employees. A case study is carried out to test what non-measurement mechanisms fulfil the roles of individual performance measurement in this organisation. Findings: Building on situations observed at this company, a set of possible characteristics of companies that do not require formalised individual performance measurement systems in order to achieve high performance standards is put forward. Practical implications: Managers should not always assume that individual performance measurement is the only way to achieve excellent performance. This study shows that, by granting responsibilities and providing appropriate support, managers can channel workers' enhanced motivation towards meeting wider organisational goals. Originality/value: This work broadens the understanding of how excellent performance can be achieved. It shows that excellence can be achieved through practices based on shared values linked to motivation, trust, and a common sense of mission, without the need to install individual performance measurement systems based on cybernetic principles. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Simulating intertwined design processes that have similar structures: A case study of a small company that creates made-to-order fashion products

The authors use simulation to analyse the resource-driven dependencies between concurrent processes used to create customised products in a company. Such processes are uncertain and unique according to the design changes required. However, they have similar structures. For simulation, a level of abstraction is chosen such that all possible processes are represented by the same activity network. Differences between processes are determined by the customisations that they implement. The approach is illustrated through application to a small business that creates customised fashion products. We suggest that similar techniques could be applied to study intertwined design processes in more complex domains. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

An investigation into the information exchange between a consultant and client company: a case study

This report deals with collaborations of engineering consultants and clients in the automobile industry.

In these relationships three main challenges have been identified which have to be addressed by the consultancies. Therefore, the research takes the viewpoint of the consulting side. The challenges are

(i) the appropriate project goal definition;

(ii) achieving client satisfaction; and

(iii) dealing with international clients.

An investigation of such a relationship carried out on a case study shows that improvements can be achieved through communication support. The ways to do that are proposed.

Collapse mechanism maps for the hollow pyramidal core of a sandwich panel under transverse shear

The finite element method has been used to develop collapse mechanism maps for the shear response of sandwich panels with a stainless steel core comprising hollow struts. The core topology comprises either vertical tubes or inclined tubes in a pyramidal arrangement. The dependence of the elastic and plastic buckling modes upon core geometry is determined, and optimal geometric designs are obtained as a function of core density. For the hollow pyramidal core, strength depends primarily upon the relative density ρ̄ of the core with a weak dependence upon tube slenderness. At ρ̄ below about 3%, the tubes of the pyramidal core buckle plastically and the peak shear strength scales linearly with ρ̄. In contrast, at ρ̄ above 3%, the tubes do not buckle and a stable shear response is observed. The predictions of the current study are in excellent agreement with previous measurements on the shear strength of the hollow pyramidal core, and suggest that this core topology is attractive from the perspectives of both core strength and energy absorption. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spinning off a semiconductor company from University premises -The story of Camsemi

The spinning off of Cambridge Semiconductor Ltd (Camsemi) from the High Voltage Microelectronics Lab at Cambridge University is discussed. The technology originated from Cambridge University and was subsequently developed and commercialized as PowerBrane by Camsemi. The paper also discusses the business model and the enabling financial factors that led to the formation of Camsemi as a fables IC company, including access to seed funding from University and the subsequent investments of venture capital in several rounds. © 2011 IEEE.

The use of an MgB2 hollow cylinder and pulse magnetized (RE)BCO bulk for magnetic levitation applications

Both MgB2 and (RE)BCO bulk materials can provide a highly compact source of magnetic field when magnetized. The properties of these materials when magnetized by a pulsed field are potentially useful for a number of applications, including magnetic levitation. This paper reports on pulsed field magnetization of single 25 mm diameter (RE)BCO bulks using a recently constructed pulse magnetization facility, which allows an automated sequence of pulses to be delivered. The facility allows measurement of force between a magnetized (RE)BCO bulk and a bulk MgB2 hollow cylinder, which is field cooled in the field of the magnetized (RE)BCO bulk. Hysteresis cycling behavior for small displacement is also measured to extract the stiffness value. The levitation forces up to 500 N were obtained, the highest ever measured between two bulks and proves the concept of a bulk-bulk superconducting bearing design. © 2002-2011 IEEE.

Shielding efficiency and E(J) characteristics measured on large melt cast Bi-2212 hollow cylinders in axial magnetic fields

We show that tubes of melt cast Bi-2212 used as current leads for LTS magnets can also act as efficient magnetic shields. The magnetic screening properties under an axial DC magnetic field are characterized at several temperatures below the liquid nitrogen temperature (77 K). Two main shielding properties are studied and compared with those of Bi-2223, a material that has been considered in the past for bulk magnetic shields. The first property is related to the maximum magnetic flux density that can be screened, Blim; it is defined as the applied magnetic flux density below which the field attenuation measured at the centre of the shield exceeds 1000. For a cylinder of Bi-2212 with a wall thickness of 5 mm and a large ratio of length over radius, Blim is evaluated to 1 T at T = 10 K. This value largely exceeds the Blim value measured at the same temperature on similar tubes of Bi-2223. The second shielding property that is characterized is the dependence of Blim with respect to variations of the sweep rate of the applied field, dBapp/dt. This dependence is interpreted in terms of the power law E = Ec(J/Jc)^n and allows us to determine the exponent n of this E(J) characteristics for Bi-2212. The characterization of the magnetic field relaxation involves very small values of the electric field. This gives us the opportunity to experimentally determine the E(J) law in an unexplored region of small electric fields. Combining these results with transport and AC shielding measurements, we construct a piecewise E(J) law that spans over 8 orders of magnitude of the electric field.

Magnetic shielding properties of a superconducting hollow cylinder containing slits: Modelling and experiment

This paper deals with the magnetic properties of bulk high temperature superconducting cylinders used as magnetic shields. We investigate, both numerically and experimentally, the magnetic properties of a hollow cylinder with two axial slits which cut the cylinder in equal halves. Finite element method modelling has been used with a three-dimensional geometry to help us in understanding how the superconducting currents flow in such a cut cylinder and therefore how the magnetic shielding properties are affected, depending on the magnetic field orientation. Modelling results show that the slits block the shielding current flow and act as an entrance channel for the magnetic flux lines. The contribution of the slits to the total flux density that enters the cylinder is studied through the angle formed between the applied field and the internal field. The modelled data agree nicely with magnetic shielding properties measured on a bulk Bi-2212 hollow cylinder at 77K. The results demonstrate that the magnetic flux penetration in such a geometry can be modelled successfully using only two parameters of the superconductor (constant J c and n value), which were determined from magnetic measurements on the plain cylinder. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.