Production Flow Analysis - cases from manufacturing and service industry

Production flow analysis (PFA) is a well-established methodology used for transforming traditional functional layout into product-oriented layout. The method uses part routings to find natural clusters of workstations forming production cells able to complete parts and components swiftly with simplified material flow. Once implemented, the scheduling system is based on period batch control aiming to establish fixed planning, production and delivery cycles for the whole production unit. PFA is traditionally applied to job-shops with functional layouts, and after reorganization within groups lead times reduce, quality improves and motivation among personnel improves. Several papers have documented this, yet no research has studied its application to service operations management. This paper aims to show that PFA can well be applied not only to job-shop and assembly operations, but also to back-office and service processes with real cases. The cases clearly show that PFA reduces non-value adding operations, introduces flow by evening out bottlenecks and diminishes process variability, all of which contribute to efficient operations management.

Audit report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) - Program of Competitive Grants for Worker Training and Placement in High Growth and Emerging Industry Sectors program for the Iowa Green Renewable Electrical Energy Network Inc. (IGREEN) for the year ended June 30, 2012

Audit report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) - Program of Competitive Grants for Worker Training and Placement in High Growth and Emerging Industry Sectors program for the Iowa Green Renewable Electrical Energy Network Inc. (IGREEN) for the year ended June 30, 2012

Firm's network capability and innovation performance: evidences from China hi-tech industry

ABSTRACT : A firm's competitive advantage can arise from internal resources as well as from an interfirm network. -This dissertation investigates the competitive advantage of a firm involved in an innovation network by integrating strategic management theory and social network theory. It develops theory and provides empirical evidence that illustrates how a networked firm enables the network value and appropriates this value in an optimal way according to its strategic purpose. The four inter-related essays in this dissertation provide a framework that sheds light on the extraction of value from an innovation network by managing and designing the network in a proactive manner. The first essay reviews research in social network theory and knowledge transfer management, and identifies the crucial factors of innovation network configuration for a firm's learning performance or innovation output. The findings suggest that network structure, network relationship, and network position all impact on a firm's performance. Although the previous literature indicates that there are disagreements about the impact of dense or spare structure, as well as strong or weak ties, case evidence from Chinese software companies reveals that dense and strong connections with partners are positively associated with firms' performance. The second essay is a theoretical essay that illustrates the limitations of social network theory for explaining the source of network value and offers a new theoretical model that applies resource-based view to network environments. It suggests that network configurations, such as network structure, network relationship and network position, can be considered important network resources. In addition, this essay introduces the concept of network capability, and suggests that four types of network capabilities play an important role in unlocking the potential value of network resources and determining the distribution of network rents between partners. This essay also highlights the contingent effects of network capability on a firm's innovation output, and explains how the different impacts of network capability depend on a firm's strategic choices. This new theoretical model has been pre-tested with a case study of China software industry, which enhances the internal validity of this theory. The third essay addresses the questions of what impact network capability has on firm innovation performance and what are the antecedent factors of network capability. This essay employs a structural equation modelling methodology that uses a sample of 211 Chinese Hi-tech firms. It develops a measurement of network capability and reveals that networked firms deal with cooperation between, and coordination with partners on different levels according to their levels of network capability. The empirical results also suggests that IT maturity, the openness of culture, management system involved, and experience with network activities are antecedents of network capabilities. Furthermore, the two-group analysis of the role of international partner(s) shows that when there is a culture and norm gap between foreign partners, a firm must mobilize more resources and effort to improve its performance with respect to its innovation network. The fourth essay addresses the way in which network capabilities influence firm innovation performance. By using hierarchical multiple regression with data from Chinese Hi-tech firms, the findings suggest that there is a significant partial mediating effect of knowledge transfer on the relationships between network capabilities and innovation performance. The findings also reveal that the impacts of network capabilities divert with the environment and strategic decision the firm has made: exploration or exploitation. Network constructing capability provides a greater positive impact on and yields more contributions to innovation performance than does network operating capability in an exploration network. Network operating capability is more important than network constructing capability for innovative firms in an exploitation network. Therefore, these findings highlight that the firm can shape the innovation network proactively for better benefits, but when it does so, it should adjust its focus and change its efforts in accordance with its innovation purposes or strategic orientation.

Iowa Animal Industry News, 2014, Vol. 15, no. 1

Newsletter produced by Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship about the animal industry in Iowa. Previously titled Animal Industry News.

The TREAT-NMD Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Registries: Conception, Design, and Utilization by Industry and Academia.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked genetic disease, caused by the absence of the dystrophin protein. Although many novel therapies are under development for DMD, there is currently no cure and affected individuals are often confined to a wheelchair by their teens and die in their twenties/thirties. DMD is a rare disease (prevalence <5/10,000). Even the largest countries do not have enough affected patients to rigorously assess novel therapies, unravel genetic complexities, and determine patient outcomes. TREAT-NMD is a worldwide network for neuromuscular diseases that provides an infrastructure to support the delivery of promising new therapies for patients. The harmonized implementation of national and ultimately global patient registries has been central to the success of TREAT-NMD. For the DMD registries within TREAT-NMD, individual countries have chosen to collect patient information in the form of standardized patient registries to increase the overall patient population on which clinical outcomes and new technologies can be assessed. The registries comprise more than 13,500 patients from 31 different countries. Here, we describe how the TREAT-NMD national patient registries for DMD were established. We look at their continued growth and assess how successful they have been at fostering collaboration between academia, patient organizations, and industry.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module I - Basic Introduction to the Use of International Units of Measure, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 1 - Basic Introduction to the Use of International Units of Measurement. This module is designed for use by all levels of personnel, primarily office staff, and provides a basic background in the use of metric measurements in both written and oral communications.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module II - Construction and Maintenance Operations and Reporting, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 2 - Construction and Maintenance Operations and Reporting. This module provides hands on examples of applications of metric measurements in the construction and maintenance field operations.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module III - Road and Bridge Design, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 3 - Road and Bridge Design. This module provides hands on examples of how to use metric measurements in the design of roads and structures.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module IV - Transportation Planning and Traffic Monitoring, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 4 - Transportation Planning and Traffic Monitoring. Hands on examples of applications of metric measurements in the development of planning reports and traffic data collection are included in this module.

Metric Training for the Transportation Industry Module V - Motor Vehicle Licensing and Enforcement, HR-376

"Metric Training For The Highway Industry", HR-376 was designed to produce training materials for the various divisions of the Iowa DOT, local government and the highway construction industry. The project materials were to be used to introduce the highway industry in Iowa to metric measurements in their daily activities. Five modules were developed and used in training over 1,000 DOT, county, city, consultant and contractor staff in the use of metric measurements. The training modules developed deal with the planning through operation areas of highway transportation. The materials and selection of modules were developed with the aid of an advisory personnel from the highway industry. Each module is design as a four hour block of instruction and a stand along module for specific types of personnel. Each module is subdivided into four chapters with chapter one and four covering general topics common to all subjects. Chapters two and three are aimed at hands on experience for a specific group and subject. This module includes: Module 5 - Motor Vehicle Enforcement. Examples from Iowa and Federal Motor Vehicle Codes are used as examples for hands on training for the vehicle enforcement type personnel using this module.

Chemodiversity and molecular plasticity: recognition processes as explored by property spaces.

In the last few years, a need to account for molecular flexibility in drug-design methodologies has emerged, even if the dynamic behavior of molecular properties is seldom made explicit. For a flexible molecule, it is indeed possible to compute different values for a given conformation-dependent property and the ensemble of such values defines a property space that can be used to describe its molecular variability; a most representative case is the lipophilicity space. In this review, a number of applications of lipophilicity space and other property spaces are presented, showing that this concept can be fruitfully exploited: to investigate the constraints exerted by media of different levels of structural organization, to examine processes of molecular recognition and binding at an atomic level, to derive informative descriptors to be included in quantitative structure--activity relationships and to analyze protein simulations extracting the relevant information. Much molecular information is neglected in the descriptors used by medicinal chemists, while the concept of property space can fill this gap by accounting for the often-disregarded dynamic behavior of both small ligands and biomacromolecules. Property space also introduces some innovative concepts such as molecular sensitivity and plasticity, which appear best suited to explore the ability of a molecule to adapt itself to the environment variously modulating its property and conformational profiles. Globally, such concepts can enhance our understanding of biological phenomena providing fruitful descriptors in drug-design and pharmaceutical sciences.

Iowa Historic Property Study of the Zeman Barn, 2009

The Zeman Barn (86-00028) is an early twentieth-century example of a gothic roofed barn and is part of the Zeman Farmstead located along U.S. Highway 30 in Otter Creek Township (Township 38N, Range 14W), Tama County, Iowa (Figures 1 and 2). The farmstead was initially evaluated in a reconnaissance architectural survey conducted in 1998 by The Louis Berger Group, Inc (Berger). An intensive architectural survey of the property by Berger’s Principal Architectural Historian, Martha H. Bowers, evaluated the farmstead as not being eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (National Register) but noted that the barn appears to be eligible for listing in the National Register under Criterion C (Bowers 1998). At the request of the Iowa Department of Transportation, Berger completed the recordation project to provide a documentary record of the Zeman Barn in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office regarding historic property studies for barns. Background research for this project was conducted in September 2008 and April 2009. The property was inspected and photographed in May 2008. Information on the property was gathered through background research, interviews with Zeman family members, field investigation, and photo documentation. Historical maps of the project area were used to collect data necessary for developing regional and local historic contexts. The research for this report was conducted at the Tama County Courthouse and the Tama County Historical Museum Genealogical Library, both in Toledo. Much of the background research for the project was conducted by Camilla Deiber and Michael Dulle. Ms. Deiber also prepared the photographic documentation, plan drawings, and the graphics used in this report. Mr. Roger L. Ciuffo conducted interviews with Zeman family members and wrote this report.

Crystal engineering studies: polymorphs and co-crystals

We review the key topics of one of the areas with the biggest impact of the last years in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry that is Crystal Engineering. The relevance of polymorphs and co-crystals from different points of view is been highlighted and broadly illustrated by means of several recent examples of studies carried out in this field. In addition, the most suitableinstrumental techniques and the intellectual property implications are reviewed.

Emerging Threats to Iowa's Forests, Communities, Wood Industry and Economy, 2013

Iowa’s three million acres of forest land provide environmental benefits to all Iowans in terms of soil erosion control, air quality, and water quality. In 2013, more than 6.5 million trees died. Within those trees there were more than 125 million board feet of wood, compared to 98 million board feet of wood harvested. This level of mortality is the highest level reported from US Forest Service inventories in twenty years. This is disturbing when considering more than 18,000 Iowans are employed in the wood products and manufacturing industry, generating nearly $4 billion in annual sales, more than $900 million in annual payroll and more than $25 million to private woodland owners annually from the sale of timber.