Maize germplasm enhancement and productivity improvement for tropical Australia

Maize productivity improvement for tropical and subtropical Australia.

Productivity improvement through employee incentives.

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Wood residue : productivity improvement report : challenge, opportunity, risk, value.

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Indoor environments : design, productivity and health

In a typical large office block, by far the largest lifetime expense is the salaries of the workers - 84% for salaries compared with : office rent (14%), total energy (1%), and maintenance (1%). The key drive for business is therefore the maximisation of the productivity of the employees as this is the largest cost. Reducing total energy use by 50% will not produce the same financial return as 1% productivity improvement? The aim of the project which led to this review of the literature was to understand as far as possible the state of knowledge internationally about how the indoor environment of buildings does influence occupants and the impact this influence may have on the total cost of ownership of buildings. Therefore one of the main focus areas for the literature has been identifying whether there is a link between productivity and health of building occupants and the indoor environment. Productivity is both easy to define - the ratio of output to input - but at the same time very hard to measure in a relatively small environment where individual contributions can influence the results, in particular social interactions. Health impacts from a building environment are also difficult to measure well, as establishing casual links between the indoor environment and a particular health issue can be very difficult. All of those issues are canvassed in the literature reported here. Humans are surprisingly adaptive to different physical environments, but the workplace should not test the limits of human adaptability. Physiological models of stress, for example, accept that the body has a finite amount of adaptive energy available to cope with stress. The importance of, and this projects' focus on, the physical setting within the integrated system of high performance workplaces, means this literature survey explores research which has been undertaken on both physical and social aspects of the built environment. The literature has been largely classified in several different ways, according to the classification scheme shown below. There is still some inconsistency in the use of keywords, which is being addressed and greater uniformity will be developed for a CD version of this literature, enabling searching using this classification scheme.

Economic fluctuations and productivity in the Malaysian construction sector

Growth in productivity is the key determinant of the long-term health and prosperity of an economy. The construction industry being one of major strategic importance, its productivity performance has a significant effect on national economic growth. The relationship between construction output and economy has received intensive studies, but there is lack of empirical study on the relationship between construction productivity and economic fluctuations. Fluctuations in construction output are endemic in the industry. In part they are caused by the boom and slump of the economy as a whole and in part by the nature of the construction product. This research aims to uncover how the productivity of construction sector is influenced in the course of economic fluctuations in Malaysia. Malaysia has adopted three economic policies – New Economic Policy (1971-1990), National Development Policy (1991-2000) and the National Vision Policy (2001-2010) since gaining independence in 1959. The Privatisation Master Plan was introduced in 1991. Operating within this historical context, the Malaysian construction sector has experienced four business cycles since 1960. A mixed-method design approach is adopted in this study. Quantitative analysis was conducted on the published official statistics of the construction industry and the overall economy in Malaysia between 1970 and 2009. Qualitative study involved interviews with a purposive sample of 21 industrial participants. This study identified a 32-year long building cycle appears in 1975-2006. It is superimposed with three shorter construction business cycles in 1975-1987, 1987-1999 and 1999-2006. The correlations of Construction labour productivity (CLP) and GDP per capita are statistically significant for the 1975-2006 building cycle, 1987-1999 and 1999-2006 construction business cycles. It was not significant in 1975-1987 construction business cycles. The Construction Industry Surveys/Census over the period from 1996 to 2007 show that the average growth rate of total output per employee expanded but the added value per employee contracted which imply high cost of bought-in materials and services and inefficient usage of purchases. The construction labour productivity is peaked at 2004 although there is contraction of construction sector in 2004. The residential subsector performed relatively better than the other sub-sectors in most of the productivity indicators. Improvements are found in output per employee, value added per employee, labour competitiveness and capital investment but declines are recorded in value added content and capital productivity. The civil engineering construction is most productive in the labour productivity nevertheless relatively poorer in the capital productivity. The labour cost is more competitive in the larger size establishment. The added value per labour cost is higher in larger sized establishment attributed to efficient in utilization of capital. The interview with the industrial participant reveals that the productivity of the construction sector is influenced by the economic environment, the construction methods, contract arrangement, payment chain and regulatory policies. The fluctuations of construction demand have caused companies switched to defensive strategy during the economic downturn and to ensure short-term survival than to make a profit for the long-term survival and growth. It leads the company to take drastic measures to curb expenses, downsizing, employ contract employment, diversification and venture overseas market. There is no empirical evidence supports downsizing as a necessary step in a process of reviving productivity. The productivity does not correlate with size of firm. A relatively smaller and focused firm is more productive than the larger and diversified organisation. However diversified company experienced less fluctuation in both labour and capital productivity. In order to improve the productivity of the construction sector, it is necessary to remove the negatives and flaws from past practices. The recommended measures include long-term strategic planning and coordinated approaches of government agencies in planning of infrastructure development and to provide regulatory environments which encourage competition and facilitate productivity improvement.

Improving productivity - Opening the black box

Hourly productivity levels in the UK still remain behind those in some competitor countries. The government devotes much policy attention to enhancing productivity and continues to emphasise its five drivers - investment, innovation, skills, enterprise, and competition. This article argues that it is investment broadly defined that is the key to sustained productivity improvement. The emphasis should be on improving productivity simultaneously with improving the quality of production. Only thus will the gains be widely shared. In achieving these aims there are two prerequisites for policy-makers. The first is to ensure better coordination of policy than appears to be currently achieved by the present departmental structures in Whitehall. The second is to recognize fully the long and complex chain of causation that can be triggered by pulling on one policy lever. Such complexity can only be fully understood by more research on what actually goes on inside the black box of the organization. © 2006 Oxford University Press.

New evidence on trade liberalization and productivity growth

Although the subject of a large number of studies, the debate on the links between trade reform and productivity growth is still unresolved and most studies at the micro level have not been able to establish a relationship between the two phenomena. Brazil provides a natural experiment to study this issue that is seldom available: it was one of the closest economies in the world until 1988, when trade reform was launched, and intra-industry data are available on an annual basis before, during and after liberalization. Using a panel of industry sectors this paper tests and measures the impact of trade reform on productivity growth. Results confirm the association between the former and the latter and show that the magnitude of the impact of tariff reduction on the growth rates of TFP and output per worker was substantial. Our data reveal large and widespread productivity improvement, so that the estimations in this paper are an indication that liberalization had an important effect on industrial performance in the country. Cross-sectional differences in protection are also investigated.

FDI inflows and outflows, intellectual property rights, and productivity growth

Using panel data of 57 countries during the period of 1995-2012, this study investigates the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) processes on productivity growth. The IPR processes are decomposed into three stages, innovation process, commercialization process, and IPR protection process. Our results suggest that better IPR protection is directly associated with productivity improvement only in developed economies. In addition, the contribution of IPR processes on growth through foreign direct investment (FDI) appears to be very limited. Only FDI inflows in developed countries which help to create a better innovative capability lead to a higher growth. And in connection with FDI outflows, only IPR protection and commercialization processes are proven to improve productivity in the case of developing countries, particularly when the country acts as the investing country.

Productivity in Knowledge Worker Teams

The use of Information and Communication Technologies in work pro- cesses has not brought the expected productivity improvement. Some studies even suggest that the always-on model decreases productivity. This article proposes work teams as a new unit for knowledge worker productivity analysis in organizations. Organizations? ability to adopt new analysis measures is analyzed in three case studies.

Using data mining to improve building life cycle

The building life cycle process is complex and prone to fragmentation as it moves through its various stages. The number of participants, and the diversity, specialisation and isolation both in space and time of their activities, have dramatically increased over time. The data generated within the construction industry has become increasingly overwhelming. Most currently available computer tools for the building industry have offered productivity improvement in the transmission of graphical drawings and textual specifications, without addressing more fundamental changes in building life cycle management. Facility managers and building owners are primarily concerned with highlighting areas of existing or potential maintenance problems in order to be able to improve the building performance, satisfying occupants and minimising turnover especially the operational cost of maintenance. In doing so, they collect large amounts of data that is stored in the building’s maintenance database. The work described in this paper is targeted at adding value to the design and maintenance of buildings by turning maintenance data into information and knowledge. Data mining technology presents an opportunity to increase significantly the rate at which the volumes of data generated through the maintenance process can be turned into useful information. This can be done using classification algorithms to discover patterns and correlations within a large volume of data. This paper presents how and what data mining techniques can be applied on maintenance data of buildings to identify the impediments to better performance of building assets. It demonstrates what sorts of knowledge can be found in maintenance records. The benefits to the construction industry lie in turning passive data in databases into knowledge that can improve the efficiency of the maintenance process and of future designs that incorporate that maintenance knowledge.

Smart Measures for Sustainable Outcomes: Integrated Considerations for Sustainable Refurbishment of Office Buildings

The increasing stock of aging office buildings will see a significant growth in retrofitting projects in Australian capital cities. Stakeholders of refitting works will also need to take on the sustainability challenge and realize tangible outcomes through project delivery. Traditionally, decision making for aged buildings, when facing the alternatives, is typically economically driven and on ad hoc basis. This leads to the tendency to either delay refitting for as long as possible thus causing building conditions to deteriorate, or simply demolish and rebuild with unjust financial burden. The technologies involved are often limited to typical strip-clean and repartition with dry walls and office cubicles. Changing business operational patterns, the efficiency of office space, and the demand on improved workplace environment, will need more innovative and intelligent approaches to refurbishing office buildings. For example, such projects may need to respond to political, social, environmental and financial implications. There is a need for the total consideration of buildings structural assessment, modeling of operating and maintenance costs, new architectural and engineering designs that maximise the utility of the existing structure and resulting productivity improvement, specific construction management procedures including procurement methods, work flow and scheduling and occupational health and safety. Recycling potential and conformance to codes may be other major issues. This paper introduces examples of Australian research projects which provided a more holistic approach to the decision making of refurbishing office space, using appropriate building technologies and products, assessment of residual service life, floor space optimisation and project procurement in order to bring about sustainable outcomes. The paper also discusses a specific case study on critical factors that influence key building components for these projects and issues for integrated decision support when dealing with the refurbishment, and indeed the “re-life”, of office buildings.

Outsider board activity, ownership structure and firm value : evidence from Korea

Using a sample of publicly listed firm in Korea from 2002 to 2006, this article examines the impact of board monitoring on firm value and productivity. We use outsider's attendance of board meetings as a proxy for board monitoring. Consistent with the commitment hypothesis, we find that outsider's attendance rate increases firm value, suggesting that attending board meeting itself is a strong signal that reflects outsider's intention to monitor insiders. While ownership of controlling shareholders negatively affects firm value, this relationship is not moderated by increased monitoring by outsiders. Our findings provide further evidence that the outside director system is less effective in chaebol-affiliated firms. Results also indicate that the effect of outsider's board monitoring activity on investor's valuation of the firm is greater than on productivity improvement of the firm. Our conclusions are robust for possible endogeneity in the relationship between firm value and board attendance by outside directors.

A taste of best practice in engineering sustainable solutions

This paper asks the question to what scale and speed does society need to reduce its ecological footprint and improve resource productivity to prevent further overshoot and return within the ecological limits of the earth’s ecological life support systems? How fast do these changes need to be achieved? The paper shows that now a large range of studies find that engineering sustainable solutions need to be roughly an order or magnitude resource productivity improvement (sometimes called a Factor of 10, or a 90% reduction) by 2050 to achieve real and lasting ecological sustainability. This marks a significant challenge for engineers – indeed all designers and architects, where best practice in engineering sustainable solutions will need to achieve large resource productivity targets. The paper brings together examples of best practice in achieving these large targets from around the world. The paper also highlights key resources and texts for engineers who wish to learn how to do it. But engineers need to be realistic and patient. Significant barriers exist to achieving Factor 4-10 such as the fact that infrastructure and technology rollover and replacement is often slow. This slow rollover of the built environment and technology is the context within which most engineers work, making the goal of achieving Factor 10 all the more challenging. However, the paper demonstrates that by using best practice in engineering sustainable solutions and by addressing the necessary market, information and institutional failures it is possible to achieve Factor 10 over the next 50 years. This paper draws on recent publications by The Natural Edge Project (TNEP) and partners, including Hargroves, K. Smith, M. (Eds) (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance for the 21st Century, and the TNEP Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program - Critical Literacies for Engineers Portfolio. Both projects have the significant support of Engineers Australia. its College of Environmental Engineers and the Society of Sustainability and Environmental Engineering.

Pre-emptive breeding to combine superior eating quality in tropical super sweet corn with resistance to major diseases

This report presents the process and outcomes of a five year project, which employed genetics and breeding approach for integrating disease resistance,agronomy and quality traits that enhances sustainable productivity improvement in sweet corn production. The report outlines a molecular markers based approach to introgress quantitative traits loci that are believed to contribute to resistance to downy mildew, a potentially devastating disease that threatens sweet corn and other similar crops. It also details the approach followed to integrate resistances for other major diseases such as southern rust (caused by Puccinia polysora Underw), Northern Corn Leaf Blight (Exserohilum turcicum) with improved agronomy and eating quality. The report explains the importance of heterosis (hybrid vigour) and combining ability in the development of useful sweet corn hybrids. It also explains the relevance of parental performance to predict its breeding value and the performance of its hybrids.