Sähkökemiallisten mittausmenetelmien hyödyntäminen optimaalisessa kunnossapidossa

Sähkökemiallisia korroosionopeuden mittausmenetelmiä, yhdistettynä rakennema-teriaalien ohenemaseurantaan, on edelleen harvoin hyödynnetty toimilaitteiden ja rakenteiden elinkaarihallintaan liittyvässä kunnossapidossa. Tässä diplomityössä selvitetään sähkökemiallisten korroosiomittausten käyttöä optimaalisen kunnossapidon apuvälineenä. Työssä selvitetään erityisesti sähkö-kemiallisten mittausjärjestelmien soveltuvuutta voimalaitosten tulistinalueen kor-roosion sekä kylmäpään happo- ja vesikastepisteen mittaamiseen ja kriittisen kas-tepistelämpötilan määrittämiseen. Lisäksi selvitetään mittausten soveltuvuut-ta voimalaitosten polttoainehallinnan optimointiin sekä teknis-taloudellisuuteen perustuvaan prosessin säätämiseen. / Electrochemical corrosion rate measuring methods have been used years in indus-trial maintenance research. Still electrochemical corrosion rate measurement methods are rarely used in the industrial maintenance work related to the life cycle of equipment and structures. This work will study the suitability and use of electrochemical corrosion meas-urements in the optimum maintenance. The work will specifically address the suitability of electrochemical measuring systems for power plants super heater and the cold end corrosion monitoring. Study focus on acid and water dew point monitoring and the determination of the critical dew point temperature. In addi-tion, study the suitability of measurements of power plant fuel management as well as techno-economics based on the process of adjustment.

Collectiveness within startup teams – Leading the way to initiating and managing collective pursuit of opportunities in organizational contexts

While traditional entrepreneurship literature addresses the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities to a solo entrepreneur, scholars increasingly agree that new ventures are often founded and operated by entrepreneurial teams as collective efforts especially in hightechnology industries. Researchers also suggest that team ventures are more likely to survive and succeed than ventures founded by the individual entrepreneur although specific challenges might relate to multiple individuals being involved in joint entrepreneurial action. In addition to new ventures, entrepreneurial teams are seen central for organizing work in established organizations since the teams are able to create major product and service innovations that drive organizational success. Acknowledgement of the entrepreneurial teams in various organizational contexts has challenged the notion on the individual entrepreneur. However, considering that entrepreneurial teams represent a collective-level phenomenon that bases on interactions between organizational members, entrepreneurial teams may not have been studied as indepth as could be expected from the point of view of the team-level, rather than the individual or the individuals in the team. Many entrepreneurial team studies adopt the individualized view of entrepreneurship and examine the team members’ aggregate characteristics or the role of a lead entrepreneur. The previous understandings might not offer a comprehensive and indepth enough understanding of collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams and team venture performance that often relates to the team-level issues in particular. In addition, as the collective-level of entrepreneurial teams has been approached in various ways in the existing literatures, the phenomenon has been difficult to understand in research and practice. Hence, there is a need to understand entrepreneurial teams at the collective-level through a systematic and comprehensive perspective. This study takes part in the discussions on entrepreneurial teams. The overall objective of this study is to offer a description and understanding of collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams beyond individual(s). The research questions of the study are: 1) what collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams stands for, what constitutes the basic elements of it, and who are included in it, 2) why, how, and when collectiveness emerges or reinforces within entrepreneurial teams, and 3) why collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams matters and how it could be developed or supported. In order to answer the above questions, this study bases on three approaches, two set of empirical data, two analysis techniques, and conceptual study. The first data set consists of 12 qualitative semi-structured interviews with business school students who are seen as prospective entrepreneurs. The data is approached through a social constructionist perspective and analyzed through discourse analysis. The second data set bases on a qualitative multiplecase study approach that aims at theory elaboration. The main data consists of 14 individual and four group semi-structured thematic interviews with members of core entrepreneurial teams of four team startups in high-technology industries. The secondary data includes publicly available documents. This data set is approached through a critical realist perspective and analyzed through systematic thematic analysis. The study is completed through a conceptual study that aims at building a theoretical model of collective-level entrepreneurship drawing from existing literatures on organizational theory and social-psychology. The theoretical work applies a positivist perspective. This study consists of two parts. The first part includes an overview that introduces the research background, knowledge gaps and objectives, research strategy, and key concepts. It also outlines the existing knowledge of entrepreneurial team literature, presents and justifies the choices of paradigms and methods, summarizes the publications, and synthesizes the findings through answering the above mentioned research questions. The second part consists of five publications that address independent research questions but all enable to answer the research questions set for this study as a whole. The findings of this study suggest a map of relevant concepts and their relationships that help grasp collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams. The analyses conducted in the publications suggest that collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams stands for cognitive and affective structures in-between team members including elements of collective entity, collective idea of business, collective effort, collective attitudes and motivations, and collective feelings. Collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams also stands for specific joint entrepreneurial action components in which the structures are constructed. The action components reflect equality and democracy, and open and direct communication in particular. Collectiveness emerges because it is a powerful tool for overcoming individualized barriers to entrepreneurship and due to collectively oriented desire for, collective value orientation to, demand for, and encouragement to team entrepreneurship. Collectiveness emerges and reinforces in processes of joint creation and realization of entrepreneurial opportunities including joint analysis and planning of the opportunities and strategies, decision-making and realization of the opportunities, and evaluation, feedback, and sanctions of entrepreneurial action. Collectiveness matters because it is relevant for potential future entrepreneurs and because it affects the ways collective ventures are initiated and managed. Collectiveness also matters because it is a versatile, dynamic, and malleable phenomenon and the ideas of it can be applied across organizational contexts that require team work in discovering or creating and realizing new opportunities. This study further discusses how the findings add to the existing knowledge of entrepreneurial team literature and how the ideas can be applied in educational, managerial, and policy contexts.

Ajankäytön hallinnan yhteys kiirekokemukseen ja työhyvinvointiin

Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kiirekokemuksia ja työhyvinvointiin liittyviä kuormitustekijöitä Nordea Private Banking –henkilöstön keskuudessa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää kohdeorganisaation henkilöstön kokemuksia kiireestä ja sen vaikutuksista koettuun työhyvinvointiin. Tutkimuksessa lähdettiin hakemaan vastausta kysymykseen, miten ajankäytön suunnitelmallisuudella voidaan saada aikaan kiireen tunnetta helpottavat olosuhteet ja tätä kautta parantaa henkilöstön työhyvinvointia. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisena eli kvalitatiivisena tapaustutkimuksena. Aineistonkeruumenetelmänä käytettiin teemahaastatteluita. Tutkimuksen empiirinen aineisto on kerätty haastattelemalla kohdeorganisaation henkilöstöä kolmessa eri liiketoimintayksikössä marras-joulukuussa 2015. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella saatiin viitteet siihen, että ajankäytön hallinnalla ja työn suunnitelmallisella toteuttamisella voidaan vaikuttaa positiivisesti työssä koettuun kiireeseen ja sen kautta työn henkiseen kuormitukseen. Työhön liittyvä autonomia ja sen suunnitelmallinen hyödyntäminen johtaa vähäisempiin kiirekokemuksiin ja luo tunteen omasta ajanhallinnasta. Hyvän ajanhallinnan tunne puolestaan johtaa työn henkisen kuormituksen vähentymiseen.

Organisational purchasing of service design – Agency and client perspectives

There has been an increase in the interest in service design, as companies have become more customer-centric and their focus has shifted to customer experiences. The actual organisational purchasing of service design has been given little attention, until recent years. The purpose of this study is to explore the purchasing of service design from the perspectives of sellers (service design agencies) and buying clients (business organisations). In order to understand the phenomenon, also agencies and clients’ approaches to service design discipline, purchasing processes, challenges related to purchasing and ways of facilitating the purchasing are explored. The research follows qualitative research method and utilises abductive reasoning. A proposition framework was formed by combining services marketing, design and organisational buying behaviour literatures, and was tested against real-life business cases. Empirical data was gathered by interviewing eight service design agency representatives and five client representatives in Finland. The results of semi-structural interviews were analysed by finding repetitive themes. The proposition framework was updated according to interview findings. There were both similarities and differences in service design agencies and clients’ approaches to service design. Service design represents a strategic activity to both parties, and it helps in clients’ business development and in discovering opportunities. It is an ideology; a way of thinking and working. The driving force for purchasing service design seemed to be something else than service design itself. Projects have been bought for 1) change and innovation related development, 2) channel related development or for 3) customer experience related development. Seven purchasing challenge themes were recognised: 1) poor or differing service design understanding, 2) selling of service design, 3) varying expectations, 4) difficulty of pre-evaluation, 5) buyers and buying companies, 6) project process and nature and 7) unclear project results. These all can be considered to cause challenges in organisational service design purchasing. Challenges can be caused by either participant, the agency or the client, and take place at any point of the purchasing process. Some of the challenges could be considered as barriers to purchasing or they play a role in an unsuccessful service project – and therefore, result in an unsuccessful organisational purchase. Purchasing could be facilitated in various ways by either participant; some ways are more attitude based, others actionable improvements. Thesis’s theoretical and managerial findings can be utilised to both improve the selling and purchasing of service design services.

Leveiden keskimerkintöjen liikenneturvallisuusvaikutusten arviointi

Tämän raportin tavoitteena oli käsitellä leveiden keskimerkintöjen liikenneturvallisuusvaikutuksia, toteuttaa mielipidekysely kantatie 54 kokeiluosuuden vaikutusalueella sekä esitellä aiemmin tehdyt tutkimukset ja leveiden keskimerkintöjen taustaa. Raportin on laatinut Eino Lahtinen Hämeen ammattikorkeakoulusta opinnäytetyönään. Työn taustateoriaksi syvennyttiin leveiden keskimerkintöjen historiaan Suomessa ja ulkomailla sekä Suomessa tehtyihin tutkimuksiin aiheesta. Suomessa ja ulkomailla on havaittu jo vuosikymmenten ajan korkealuokkaisten teiden liikenneturvallisuuden heikentyneen liikenteen lisääntyessä. Kohtaamis- ja ohitusonnettomuuksien jäljet ovat usein raakaa katseltavaa ja luettavaa. Huoli kohtaamis- ja ohitusonnettomuuksien määristä ja niiden vakavuuksista painostaa etsimään ratkaisuja tämän kaltaisten onnettomuuksien vähentämiseksi. Tästä syystä on 1980-luvulta lähtien aktiivisesti etsitty liikenneturvallisuutta parantavia kustannustehokkaita ratkaisuja. Visuaalisia vaikutuksia arvioidessa havaittiin jo varhain kaistan leveyden visuaalisen kaventamisen johtavan ajonopeuksien laskuun, joka vähentää onnettomuuksia ja niiden vakavuuksia. Yhdeksi ratkaisuksi esitettiin leveää keskimerkintää, josta on ollut erilaisia kokeiluja ulkomailla 1996 ja Suomessa 2009 lähtien. Työn tuloksena voidaan esittää, että leveiden keskimerkintöjen vaikutukset ajokäyttäytymiseen ovat melko vähäiset, sillä lähes puolet kyselyyn vastanneista ei havainnut muutosta omassa tai muiden ajokäyttäytymisessä. Työn perusteella arvioidaan, että leveät keskimerkinnät vähensivät henkilövahinkoon johtaneita ohitus-, kohtaamis- ja vasemmalle suistumisonnettomuuksia 17 – 21 %. Tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan todeta, että leveitä keskimerkintöjä käytettäessä on varmistuttava riittävästä piennarleveydestä (vähintään 1 m). Leveää keskimerkintää voidaan käyttää alueilla, jossa tien päällysteen leveys on vähintään 10 m, KVL vähintään 1500 ajon/vrk ja tiejakson pituus vähintään 10 km. Leveän keskialueen tulisi olla metrin levyinen.