Process and performance in international collaborative research

Motivated by policy goals to develop international research capability and our experiences of collaborative research, we wanted to learn more about the factors that influence success in collaborative research. This article presents a review of the academic literature on collaborative research, focusing on multinational teams doing international comparative research. We address the question ‘what accounts for variation in process and performance of collaborative research projects?’, through 11 themes: context; vision; reward and commitment; leadership; structure; contract; task capability; sociability; communication; finance; rhythm and pace. We then propose an agenda for future research with an analytic framework and, finally, our conclusions.

Business process orientated holonic (PrOH) modeling

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how the application of systems thinking to designing, managing and improving business processes has resulted in a new and unique holonic-based process modeling methodology know as process orientated holonic modeling. Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes key systems thinking axioms that are built upon in an overview of the methodology; the techniques are described using an example taken from a large organization designing and manufacturing capital goods equipment operating within a complex and dynamic environment. These were produced in an 18 month project, using an action research approach, to improve quality and process efficiency. Findings: The findings of this research show that this new methodology can support process depiction and improvement in industrial sectors which are characterized by environments of high variety and low volume (e.g. projects; such as the design and manufacture of a radar system or a hybrid production process) which do not provide repetitive learning opportunities. In such circumstances, the methodology has not only been able to deliver holonic-based process diagrams but also been able to transfer strategic vision from top management to middle and operational levels without being reductionistic. Originality/value: This paper will be of interest to organizational analysts looking at large complex projects whom require a methodology that does not confine them to thinking reductionistically in "task-breakdown" based approaches. The novel ideas in this paper have great impact on the way analysts should perceive organizational processes. Future research is applying the methodology in similar environments in other industries. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Building a holarchy using business process-oriented holonic (PrOH) modeling

The application of systems thinking to designing, managing, and improving business processes has developed a new "holonic-based" process modeling methodology. The theoretical background and the methodology are described using examples taken from a large organization designing and manufacturing capital goods equipment operating within a complex and dynamic environment. A key point of differentiation attributed to this methodology is that it allows a set of models to be produced without taking a task breakdown approach but instead uses systems thinking and a construct known as the "holon" to build process descriptions as a system of systems (i.e., a holarchy). The process-oriented holonic modeling methodology has been used for total quality management and business process engineering exercises in different industrial sectors and builds models that connect the strategic vision of a company to its operational processes. Exercises have been conducted in response to environmental pressures to make operations align with strategic thinking as well as becoming increasingly agile and efficient. This unique methodology is best applied in environments of high complexity, low volume, and high variety, where repeated learning opportunities are few and far between (e.g., large development projects). © 2007 IEEE.

The growing importance of inter-company collaboration

Guest editorial: This special issue has been drawn from papers that were published as part of the Second European Conference on Management of Technology (EuroMOT) which was held at Aston Business School (Birmingham, UK) 10-12 September 2006. This was the official European conference for the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT); the overall theme of the conference was “Technology and global integration.” There were many high-calibre papers submitted to the conference and published in the associated proceedings (Bennett et al., 2006). The streams of interest that emerged from these submissions were the importance of: technology strategy, innovation, process technologies, managing change, national policies and systems, research and development, supply chain technology, service and operational technology, education and training, small company incubation, technology transfer, virtual operations, technology in developing countries, partnership and alliance, and financing and investment. This special issue focuses upon the streams of interest that accentuate the importance of collaboration between different organisations. Such organisations vary greatly in character; for instance, they may be large or small, publicly or privately owned, and operate in manufacturing or service sectors. Despite these varying characteristics they all have something in common; they all stress the importance of inter-organisational collaboration as a critical success factor for their organisation. In today's global economy it is essential that organisations decide what their core competencies are what those of complementing organisations are. Core competences should be developed to become a bases of differentiation, leverage and competitive advantage, whilst those that are less mature should be outsourced to other organisations that can claim to have had more recognition and success in that particular core competence (Porter, 2001). This strategic trend can be observed throughout advanced economies and is growing strongly. If a posteriori reasoning is applied here it follows that organisations could continue to become more specialised in fewer areas whilst simultaneously becoming more dependent upon other organisations for critical parts of their operations. Such actions seem to fly in the face of rational business strategy and so the question must be asked: why are organisations developing this way? The answer could lie in the recent changes in endogenous and exogenous factors of the organisation; the former emphasising resource-based issues in the short-term, and strategic positioning in the long-term whilst the later emphasises transaction costs in the short-term and acquisition of new skills and knowledge in the long-term. For a harmonious balance of these forces to prevail requires organisations to firstly declare a shared meta-strategy, then to put some cross-organisational processes into place which have their routine operations automated as far as possible. A rolling business plan would review, assess and reposition each organisation within this meta-strategy according to how well they have contributed (Binder and Clegg, 2006). The important common issue here is that an increasing number of businesses today are gaining direct benefit from increasing their levels of inter-organisational collaboration. Such collaboration has largely been possible due to recent technological advances which can make organisational structures more agile (e.g. the extended or the virtual enterprise), organisational infra-structure more connected, and the sharing of real-time information an operational reality. This special issue consists of research papers that have explored the above phenomenon in some way. For instance, the role of government intervention, the use of internet-based technologies, the role of research and development organisations, the changing relationships between start-ups and established firms, the importance of cross-company communities of practice, the practice of networking, the front-loading of large-scale projects, innovation and the probabilistic uncertainties that organisations experience are explored in these papers. The cases cited in these papers are limited as they have a Eurocentric focus. However, it is hoped that readers of this special issue will gain a valuable insight into the increasing importance of collaborative practices via these studies.

Guest editorial:special issue on digitial enterprise technology

Full text This Proceedings volume contains selected papers from the Fourth International CIRP-sponsored, Conference on Digital Enterprise Technology (DET2007), which was held at the University of Bath, UK, 19–21 September 2007. All selected papers have been suitably enhanced for publication in the Journal and have undergone full review. Digital enterprise technology (DET) is ‘the collection of systems and methods for the digital modelling and analysis of the global product development and realization process, in the context of lifecycle management.’ The principal aim of the DET concept is to provide a coherent context for the development and integration of the various digital technologies that underpin modern design and manufacturing. These technologies can be classified according to the following five key areas. 1. Distributed and collaborative design. 2. Process modelling and process planning. 3. Advanced factory design and modelling. 4. Physical-to-digital environment integrators–verification. 5. Enterprise integration technologies. This special issue is representative of the wide breadth of the DET concept including; a comprehensive review of digital engineering, design processes, digital modelling of machine tools, forming, robotics and machining processes, verification and metrology, and dynamic networks. It is particularly pleasing to see the development of metrology as a key aspect of modern manufacturing technology, linking design intent to process capability. The papers published herein will facilitate the exploration of new and evolving research concepts by the international research community and will influence the development of international standards for the application of DET technologies.

Linking the witness simulation software to an expert system to represent a decision-making process

Expert systems, and artificial intelligence more generally, can provide a useful means for representing decision-making processes. By linking expert systems software to simulation software an effective means of including these decision-making processes in a simulation model can be achieved. This paper demonstrates how a commercial-off-the-shelf simulation package (Witness) can be linked to an expert systems package (XpertRule) through a Visual Basic interface. The methodology adopted could be used for models, and possibly software, other than those presented here.

Design and development of an agent-based information system for process improvement

To meet changing needs of customers and to survive in the increasingly globalised and competitive environment, it is necessary for companies to equip themselves with intelligent tools, thereby enabling managerial levels to use the tactical decision in a better way. However, the implementation of an intelligent system is always a challenge in Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, a new and simple approach with 'process rethinking' ability is proposed to generate ongoing process improvements over time. In this paper, a roadmap of the development of an agent-based information system is described. A case example has also been provided to show how the system can assist non-specialists, for example, managers and engineers to make right decisions for a continual process improvement. Copyright © 2006 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Older adults with AMD as co-designers of an assistive mobile application

In the UK, 20% of people aged 75 years and over are living with sight loss and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of sight loss in the UK, impacting nearly 10% of those over 80; regrettably, these fgures are expected to increase in coming decades as the population ages (RNIB, 2012). This paper reports on the authors' design activities conducted for the purpose of informing the development of an assistive self-monitoring, ability-reactive technology (SMART) for older adults with AMD. The authors refect on their experience of adopting and adapting the PICTIVE (Plastic Interface for Collaborative Technology Initiatives through Video Exploration) participatory design approach (Muller, 1992) to support effective design with and for their special needs user group, refect on participants' views of being part of the process, and discuss the design themes identifed via their PD activities.

Themed Issue on Mobile HCI @ iHCI

In the UK, 20% of people aged 75 years and over are living with sight loss and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of sight loss in the UK, impacting nearly 10% of those over 80; regrettably, these figures are expected to increase in coming decades as the population ages (RNIB, 2012). This paper reports on the authors' design activities conducted for the purpose of informing the development of an assistive self-monitoring, ability-reactive technology (SMART) for older adults with AMD. The authors reflect on their experience of adopting and adapting the PICTIVE (Plastic Interface for Collaborative Technology Initiatives through Video Exploration) participatory design approach (Muller, 1992) to support effective design with and for their special needs user group, reflect on participants' views of being part of the process, and discuss the design themes identified via their PD activities.

Large-scale production of secreted proteins in Pichia pastoris

The production of recombinant therapeutic proteins is an active area of research in drug development. These bio-therapeutic drugs target nearly 150 disease states and promise to bring better treatments to patients. However, if new bio-therapeutics are to be made more accessible and affordable, improvements in production performance and optimization of processes are necessary. A major challenge lies in controlling the effect of process conditions on production of intact functional proteins. To achieve this, improved tools are needed for bio-processing. For example, implementation of process modeling and high-throughput technologies can be used to achieve quality by design, leading to improvements in productivity. Commercially, the most sought after targets are secreted proteins due to the ease of handling in downstream procedures. This chapter outlines different approaches for production and optimization of secreted proteins in the host Pichia pastoris. © 2012 Springer Science+business Media, LLC.

Using accreditation criteria for collaborative quality enhancement

This paper describes a process to enhance the quality of higher education. At the heart of the process is a cross-sparring collaborative model, whereby institutions are critical friends. This is based on a prior self-evaluation, where the institution / programme identifies quality criteria it wants to improve. Part of the process is to ensure the documentation of best practices so that they can be shared with others in a so called market place. Linking the best practices to a criterion makes them searchable on a large scale. Optimal pairings of institutions can then take place for the cross-sparring activities.

Maximising the RFID benefits at the tyre distribution centre

In recent years the applications of radio frequency identification technology (RFID) in warehousing have gained a great amount of attention as it is a challenging and dynamic environment. Analysing a receiving operation of third party logistic (3PL) operator running a tyre distribution centre, this paper presents a case study of RFID application in the warehouse. The receiving process is enhanced with the RFID technology, which provides contactless identification, less manual data entry errors, instant stock management. Moreover, these benefits could be maximised by the proposed use of the RFID generated data in accounting of costs and services, which is a novel application of the RFID technology.

Low severity Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for the production of synthetic hydrocarbon fuels

Currently, the main source for the production of liquid transportation fuels is petroleum, the continued use of which faces many challenges including depleting oil reserves, significant oil price rises, and environmental concerns over global warming which is widely believed to be due to fossil fuel derived CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases. In this respect, lignocellulosic or plant biomass is a particularly interesting resource as it is the only renewable source of organic carbon that can be converted into liquid transportation fuels. The gasification of biomass produces syngas which can then be converted into synthetic liquid hydrocarbon fuels by means of the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis. This process has been widely considered as an attractive option for producing clean liquid hydrocarbon fuels from biomass that have been identified as promising alternatives to conventional fossil fuels like diesel and kerosene. The resulting product composition in FT synthesis is influenced by the type of catalyst and the reaction conditions that are used in the process. One of the issues facing this conversion process is the development of a technology that can be scaled down to match the scattered nature of biomass resources, including lower operating pressures, without compromising liquid composition. The primary aims of this work were to experimentally explore FT synthesis at low pressures for the purpose of process down-scaling and cost reduction, and to investigate the potential for obtaining an intermediate FT synthetic crude liquid product that can be integrated into existing refineries under the range of process conditions employed. Two different fixed-bed micro-reactors were used for FT synthesis; a 2cm3 reactor at the University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and a 20cm3 reactor at Aston University. The experimental work firstly involved the selection of a suitable catalyst from three that were available. Secondly, a parameter study was carried out on the 20cm3 reactor using the selected catalyst to investigate the influence of reactor temperature, reactor pressure, space velocity, the H2/CO molar ratio in the feed syngas and catalyst loading on the reaction performance measured as CO conversion, catalyst stability, product distribution, product yields and liquid hydrocarbon product composition. From this parameter study a set of preferred operating conditions was identified for low pressure FT synthesis. The three catalysts were characterized using BET, XRD, TPR and SEM. The catalyst selected was an unpromoted Co/Al2O3 catalyst. FT synthesis runs on the 20cm3 reactor at Aston were conducted for 48 hours. Permanent gases and light hydrocarbons (C1-C5) were analysed in an online GC-TCD/FID at hourly intervals. The liquid hydrocarbons collected were analyzed offline using GC-MS for determination of fuel composition. The parameter study showed that CO conversion and liquid hydrocarbon yields increase with increasing reactor pressure up to around 8 bar, above which the effect of pressure is small. The parameters that had the most significant influence on CO conversion, product selectivity and liquid hydrocarbon yields were reactor temperature and catalyst loading. The preferred reaction conditions identified for this research were: T = 230ºC, P = 10 bar, H2/CO = 2.0, WHSV = 2.2 h-1, and catalyst loading = 2.0g. Operation in the low range of pressures studied resulted in low CO conversions and liquid hydrocarbon yields, indicating that low pressure BTL-FT operation may not be industrially viable as the trade off in lower CO conversions and once-through liquid hydrocarbon product yields has to be carefully weighed against the potential cost savings resulting from process operation at lower pressures.

Sustainable energy systems for seawater reverse osmosis desalination

Desalination of seawater driven by solar and other sustainable energy sources could in principle fulfil the growing needs of the world's most water-stressed countries. Reverse osmosis (RO) has become the most efficient process for desalination, making it the technology of choice for use with solar energy, and photovoltaics (PV) has become the most successful technology for solar energy conversion. But despite recent gains in the efficiency of PV-RO, substantial improvements are still possible because of the numerous energy losses occurring between input of sunlight and output of freshwater. This chapter gives an overview of some of the research activities and recent advances that could ultimately result in solar-powered RO systems becoming more than 10 times efficient than today. It also describes advances in waste heat recovery for RO desalination that are yielding greatly improved performance over desalination processes based on distillation.

WSRF-based modeling of clinical trial information for collaborative cancer research

The CancerGrid consortium is developing open-standards cancer informatics to address the challenges posed by modern cancer clinical trials. This paper presents the service-oriented software paradigm implemented in CancerGrid to derive clinical trial information management systems for collaborative cancer research across multiple institutions. Our proposal is founded on a combination of a clinical trial (meta)model and WSRF (Web Services Resource Framework), and is currently being evaluated for use in early phase trials. Although primarily targeted at cancer research, our approach is readily applicable to other areas for which a similar information model is available.