Utilization of Knowledge Management in Business Process Modeling and Process Improvements

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia telekommunikaatioalalla toimivan kohdeyrityksen ohjelmistojen toimitusprosessia° Tutkimus keskittyy mallintamaan toimitusprosessin, määrittelemään roolit ja vastuualueet, havaitsemaan ongelmakohdat ja ehdottamaan prosessille kehityskohteita. Näitä tavoitteita tarkastellaan teoreettisten prosessimallinnustekniikoiden ja tietojohtamisen SECI-prosessikehyksen läpi. Tärkein tiedonkeruun lähde oli haastatteluihin perustuva tutkimus, johon osallistuvat kaikki kohdeprosessiin kuuluvat yksiköt. Mallinnettu toimitusprosessi antoi kohdeyritykselle paremman käsityksen tarkasteltavasta prosessista ja siinä toimivien yksiköiden rooleistaja vastuualueista. Parannusehdotuksia olivat tiedonjaon kanavoinnin määritteleminen, luottamuksen ja sosiaalisten verkostojen parantaminen, ja tietojohtamisen laajamittainen implementointi.

Absorptive capacity and the effect of social integration mechanisms in knowledge utilization

Tiedosta on tullut määräävä tekijä yrityksensuorituskyvylle. Yritykset hankkivat aktiivisesti uutta tietoa ulkoisesta ympäristöstään ja tallentavat sitä tietokantoihinsa. Uusi tieto on innovaatioiden ja uusien ideoiden peruselementti. Uudet ideat pitää myös kaupallistaa, jotta niiden avulla voidaan hankkia kilpailuetua. Absorptiivisen kapasiteetin malli yhdistää tiedon prosessointiin liittyvät kyvykkyydet, jotka vaikuttavat yrityksen kykyyn hyödyntää tietoa tehokkaasti. Ennen kuin tietoa voidaan käyttää uusien tuotteiden ja palveluiden luomiseen, täytyy sitä jakaa yrityksessä ja muuttaa se yrityksen toimintaa palvelevaksi. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa innovaatiot ovat vahvasti liitetty yrityksen kykyyn uudistua. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma tutkii sosiaalisten integraatiomekanismien vaikutusta potentiaalisen absorptiivisen kapasiteetin muuttamiseen toteutuneeksi absorptiiviseksi kapasiteetiksi. Yksilöiden ja osastojen välisen yhteistyön sekä luottamuksen vaikutus tiedon sisäistämiseen tutkittiin. Tutkielma pohjautuu monikansallisessa yrityksessä keväällä 2006 suoritettuun uudistumiskyky-tutkimukseen. Tutkielma keskittyy yrityksen kykyyn uudistua uuden tiedon ja innovaatioiden avulla. Tutkielma on kvantitatiivinen tapaustutkimus. Tutkielmassa tehtyjen havaintojen mukaan sosiaaliset integraatiomekanismit ovat tärkeitä uuden tiedon hyödyntämisessä. Tiedon eksplisiittyyden havaitaan vaikuttavan tiedon muuttamiseen yritykselle hyödylliseksi resurssiksi.

Design for Customer Needs: Utilization of Quality Function Deployment in Product Development

Kansainvälisen kaupan kiristyessä yrityksien kyky täyttää asiakasketjunsa lailliset, sosiaaliset ja toiminnalliset asiakastarpeet tulee punnituksi. Globaalisuuden lisääntyessä asiakasketju voi sisältää toimintoja samanaikaisesti yli sadassa maassa. Jotta asiakasketjun tarpeet voidaan sisällyttää tuotteeseen tehokkaasti yhä useammat yritykset ovat siirtyneet käyttämään Quality Function Deployment nimistä projektijohto- ja laatutyökalua. Quality Function Deployment työkalu auttaa yritystä muuntamaan sisäisten ja ulkoisten asiakkaittensa tarpeet, tuotefunktioiksi ja tuotespesifikaatioiksi. Näin tehdessä voidaan uuden tuotteen kehitysaikaa ja hintaa alentaa merkittävästi suunnittelmalla tuote alunalkaen paremmin. QFD:tä on käytetty useissa yrityksissä Aasiassa, Pohjois-Amerikassa ja Euroopassa, sen kehittämisen jälkeen Japanissa 1960 luvulla. Tämä diplomityö antaa teoreettisen ja käytännön kuvauksen siitä miten QFD:tä kannatta käyttää ja mitä sen avulla voidaan saavuttaa vastaten kysymykseen "miten minä, ja yritykseni hyötyy jos käytän QFD:tä".

Optimised Utilization of Bioenergy in Poland

The aim of the study was to ford out the availability of biomasses, which are available for energy production, in Poland. Biomasses which were examined were forest residues and surplus straw. Availability was examined by 16 Polish voivodeships, which are provinces in Poland. After fording out the amounts of biomasses for energy production was examined the need of biomass in the biggest CHP plants in Poland. It was expected that all the plants uses 15 % of biomass as the fuel. In the first parts of the report are explained the legislation which effects to biomass use in energy production in EU level and in Polish level. Also the combustion methods best for biomasses are explained by examples. After this, is studied the general situation of renewable energy use in Poland and the facts about the country. In the last parts it's explained the calculations and is shown the example cases. When it was found out the needs and supply of biomass it was examined by examples how it could be transported to the plants from the producers. Also was examined costs effected, if there were logistical terminals between the producer and the end user. The estimation was done by setting prices for the biomass, and fording out average costs for producing and transporting biomass. There are a lot of surplus biomasses in Poland which could be used for energy production, and this is a one way to reach the goals that EU has set of renewable energies. But because biomasses doesn't have such a good calorific value, it isn't worth able to transport it very long distances. In the research was set the prices for producer 9€/MWh and for end user 15€/MWh, the maximum transportation distance for forest residues was 52 km and for straw 56 km. These are example estimations and it has to be remembered that there are a lot of factors that makes inaccurate. The model is really sensitive and by changing one parameter the results change a lot.

Fate of peat utilization

Peat is an organic substance with the maintenance of a mineral part, what shows it as interesting object for studying. Both organic and mineral parts of peat find application in various fields of activity of the people. Antibacterial properties of peat are known since an antiquity. Today people have expanded a spectrum of application of peat to use of by-products of its processing for reception of rather ecologically harmless fuel. The master theses are focused on peat, as on ambiguous raw materials for processing and fuel manufacture. The purpose of theses to show how much widely applied peat, technologies on its processing and its influence on environment at all stages of its working out.

Determining the location for a mobile device by utilization of local resources of the environment

The subject being analyzed of this Master’s Thesis is a development of a service that is used to define a current location of a mobile device. The service utilized data that is obtained from own GPS receiver in some possible cases and as well data from mobile devices which can be afforded for the current environment for acquisition of more precise position of the device. The computation environment is based on context of a mobile device. The service is implemented as an application for communicator series Nokia N8XX. The Master’s Thesis presents theoretical concept of the method and its practical implementation, architecture of the application, requirements and describes a process of its functionality. Also users’ work with application is presented and recommendations for possible future improvements are made.

Utilization of retention chemicals in non-wood containing furnishes

The usage of the non-wood pulps in furnishes for various paper grades is the real alternative for substitution of wood fibres in the papermaking. This is especially important now, when the prices for wood are increasing and forest resources are depleting in many regions of our planet. However, there are several problems associated with utilization of such pulps. In terms of the papermaking process one of the main problems is the poor dewatering of the non-wood pulps. This problem can be partially solved by means of retention aids. In the literature part were described technological features of the non-wood pulps as the raw materials for paper production. Moreover, overviews of the retention chemicals and methods for retention measurement were done; special attention was paid to the mechanisms of retention and drainage. Finally, factors affecting on the drainage and retention of non-wood pulps were considered holistically. Particular emphasis was put on the possibility of enzyme treatment for drainage improvement. It was stated that retention aids can significantly improve dewatering of non-wood pulps. In the experimental part the goal was to investigate influence of various microparticle retention aids on the drainage, retention and formation of furnish containing wheat straw pulp, obtained by novel pulping process (Formico™Fib). The parallel test were performed with reference furnish containing only wood pulps. It was found that Bentonite-CPAM retention aid can significantly improve drainage and retention; however formation seems be suffer from such additives. It was stated that performance of the Silica-Starch retention aid significantly depends on the starch dosing sequence and wet-end conditions; this system have shown better formation than other tested retention aids. Silica-CPAM retention aid have provided comparable results in retention and drainage with Bentonite-CPAM, while Silica-starch did not improve dewatering and yielded in lowest filler retention among other aids. Ultimately, optimal dosages for the tested retention chemicals have been suggested.

Utilization of non-wood pulp in different fibers products

The correct utilization of non-wood raw material allows reducing tree cutting and reduces emissions of carbon dioxide from burning of non-wood plants on farmers fields. Also it allows increasing economical situation in regions that non-wood plants are grown and where they are converted into pulp and paper. Also it gives positive effect on population pressure of work by addition of working place. In the literature survey included an overview of the historical meaning of non-wood pulp on developing paper production and structure of non-wood pulps. Moreover, anatomical and chemical composition of straw, reed and bamboo were studied more detailed. Also, an overview of the utilization of non-wood pulp in papermaking was made. Especially tissue, tree-free and release papers were reviewed. In the experimental part the goal was to investigate suitability of non-wood pulp like wheat straw pulp and bamboo pulp for different fiber products. Finally release and tree-free paper products were selected for experimental studies. It was discovered that wheat straw, especially screened wheat straw, showed good results for release paper. Also utilization of wheat straw and bamboo pulp in tree-free paper showed good results and suitability of these non-wood pulps for tree-free paper production. Also it was noticed that addition of wheat straw pulp gave positive effect on initial wet strength for release and tree-free paper.

Utilization of a Time Domain Simulator in the Technical and Economic Analysis of a Wind Turbine Electric Drive Train

The amount of installed wind power has been growing exponentially during the past ten years. As wind turbines have become a significant source of electrical energy, the interactions between the turbines and the electric power network need to be studied more thoroughly than before. Especially, the behavior of the turbines in fault situations is of prime importance; simply disconnecting all wind turbines from the network during a voltage drop is no longer acceptable, since this would contribute to a total network collapse. These requirements have been a contributor to the increased role of simulations in the study and design of the electric drive train of a wind turbine. When planning a wind power investment, the selection of the site and the turbine are crucial for the economic feasibility of the installation. Economic feasibility, on the other hand, is the factor that determines whether or not investment in wind power will continue, contributing to green electricity production and reduction of emissions. In the selection of the installation site and the turbine (siting and site matching), the properties of the electric drive train of the planned turbine have so far been generally not been taken into account. Additionally, although the loss minimization of some of the individual components of the drive train has been studied, the drive train as a whole has received less attention. Furthermore, as a wind turbine will typically operate at a power level lower than the nominal most of the time, efficiency analysis in the nominal operating point is not sufficient. This doctoral dissertation attempts to combine the two aforementioned areas of interest by studying the applicability of time domain simulations in the analysis of the economicfeasibility of a wind turbine. The utilization of a general-purpose time domain simulator, otherwise applied to the study of network interactions and control systems, in the economic analysis of the wind energy conversion system is studied. The main benefits of the simulation-based method over traditional methods based on analytic calculation of losses include the ability to reuse and recombine existing models, the ability to analyze interactions between the components and subsystems in the electric drive train (something which is impossible when considering different subsystems as independent blocks, as is commonly done in theanalytical calculation of efficiencies), the ability to analyze in a rather straightforward manner the effect of selections other than physical components, for example control algorithms, and the ability to verify assumptions of the effects of a particular design change on the efficiency of the whole system. Based on the work, it can be concluded that differences between two configurations can be seen in the economic performance with only minor modifications to the simulation models used in the network interaction and control method study. This eliminates the need ofdeveloping analytic expressions for losses and enables the study of the system as a whole instead of modeling it as series connection of independent blocks with no lossinterdependencies. Three example cases (site matching, component selection, control principle selection) are provided to illustrate the usage of the approach and analyze its performance.

Utilization of Incident Reporting in The Finnish Maritime Industry

Marine traffic is expected to increase rapidly in the future, both in the Baltic Sea and in the Gulf of Finland. As the number of vessels in the area increases, so does the risk of serious marine accidents. To help prevent such accidents in the future, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has put forth the International Safety Management Code (the ISM Code), which aims to improve the safety of the vessels. The second work package of the Development of maritime safety culture (METKU) project investigates the effects of the ISM Code and potential areas of improvement in maritime safety. The first phase in the work package used a literature review to determine how maritime safety culture could be improved. Continuous improvement, management commitment and personnel empowerment and motivation were found to be essential. In the second phase, shipping companies and administrators were interviewed. It was discovered that especially incident reporting based on continuous improvement was felt to be lacking. This third phase aims to take a closer look at incident reporting and suggest improvements based on the findings. Both the IMO and national legislation encourage shipping companies in incident reporting, and on the national level a shared incident reporting system (ForeSea) is being pushed forward. The objective of this research project was to find out the IMO’s attitude towards incident reporting, to establish a theoretical framework of reference in incident reporting, and to observe how reporting is actually being employed on the seas. Existing incident reporting systems were also researched. The study was carried out using a literature review and the results previously gathered in interviews. The results of phase two were elaborated further for themes relating to incident reporting. According to the findings of this research, the theoretical background of incident reporting dates back to the early 20th century. Although some theories are widely accepted, some have also received criticism. The lack of a concise, shared terminology poses major difficulties in maritime incident reporting and in determining its efficiency. A central finding is the fact that existing incident reporting focuses mostly on information flow away from the ship, whereas the backward information flow is much less planned and monitored. In incident reporting, both nationally and internationally, stakeholders are plenty. The information produced by these parties is scattered, however, and thus not very usable. Based on this research, the centralizing of this information should be made a priority. Traditionally, the success of incident reporting has been determined statistically, from the number of reported incidents. Yet existing reporting systems have not been designed with such statistical analysis in mind, so different methodologies might yield a more comprehensive view. The previous findings of seafarers and management (including shipping companies and administration) having differing views on safety work and safety management were backed up by the results of this study. Seafarers find seamanship and storytelling important, while management wants a more systematic and broad approach on safety matters. The research project was carried out by the Centre for Maritime Studies of the University of Turku, in the Kotka unit (Maritime Logistics Research), with coordination by the Kotka Maritime Research Centre. The major financiers of the project were the European Union and the city of Kotka. The financing authority was the Regional Council of Päijät-Häme. Partners in the project were the shipping companies Finnlines Oyj, Kristina Cruises Oy, Meriaura Oy and VG-Shipping Oy, and the ports of Helsinki, Kotka and Hamina. The partners provided both funding for the project and information for the research.

Utilization of Automatic Meter Reading in the Improvement of a District Heating System

A district heating system comprises production facilities, a distribution network, and heat consumers. The utilization of new energy metering and reading system (AMR) is increasing constantly in district heating systems. This heuristic study shows how the AMR system can be exploited in finding optimization opportunities in district heating system. In this study, the district heating system is mainly considered from the viewpoint of operational optimization. The focus is on the core processes, heat production and distribution. Three objectives were set to this study. The first one was to examine general optimization opportunities in district heating systems. Second, to figure out the benefits of AMR for general optimization opportunities. Finally, to define a methodology for process improvement endeavors. This study shows, through a case study, the usefulness of AMR in specifying current deficiencies in a district heating system. Based on a literature review, the methodology for the improvement of business processes is presented. Additionally, some issues related to future competitiveness of district heating are concerned. As a conclusion, some optimization objectives are considered more desirable than others. Study shows that AMR is useful in the specification of optimization targets in the district heating system. Further steps in optimization process were not examined in detail. That would seem to be interesting topic for further studies.

Utilization of Meat and bone meal for energy production

At the end of the 1990s the stock breeding in the Europe was suffering from the animal disease epidemics such as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and foot –and mouth disease. The European Union (EU) tackled to this problem by tightening the legislation of animal by-products. At this point, rendering and fat producing industries faces new challenges, which they have to cope with in a way of trying to find alternatives to their products (animal fats and meat and bone meal). One of the most promising alternatives to utilize these products was to use them in energy production purposes. The purpose of the Thesis was to examine the utilization possibilities of Meat and bone meal (MBM) for energy production. The first part of the Thesis consists of theory part. The theory part includes evaluation of basic properties of MBM as a fertilizer and as a fuel, legislative evaluation and evaluation of different burning techniques. The second part of the Thesis consists of burning tests in Energy laboratory of LUT with different mixtures of peat and MBM. The purpose of the burning tests was to identify co-firing possibilities of peat and MBM and emission- and ash properties for peat and MBM.