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Value Engineering - An Opportunity for Consulting Engineers to Redefine Their Role
Get PDFThe motivation for this research stems from the authors experience as a resident engineer spanning two decades, the observation of significant value engineering opportunities persistently remaining available at construction stage and the belief that the engineer’s role could be enhanced significantly if these were grasped.
At present clients are increasingly dissatisfied with the service they receive from design professionals. Contractors are no longer covering up the failures of engineers and are developing stronger ties with clients. This development risks alienating the consulting engineer who must deliver improved performance or risk becoming redundant.
Value engineering has potential to fill this gap and redefine the consultant’s role. This research explores the opportunities it can bring to the engineer in meeting the changing needs of clients with particular emphasis on the critical design phase.
The methodology was to combine a wide-ranging and comprehensive survey with an in-depth case-study of a specific ACEI firm. This enabled the researcher to cross-check “macro” results against a “micro” environment. The research did not envisage evaluating the merits of different value engineering techniques however if successful, the research will bring the concept of value engineering into the main stream of the Irish construction industry.
The literature review did not uncover any studies concerning the adoption by consulting engineers of a value engineering role and this paper is unique in this regard.
The sample group comprised all consulting civil/structural engineering firms on the ACEI register. More than 97% of respondents held director positions with 70% having over 20 years experience. Given the 39.3% response rate the results are significant.
The findings hold much significance for consulting engineers: a widespread resistance to value engineering, the negative effect of competitive tendering, engineers own recognition of their ability to a better service, the concept of value engineering is poorly understood. The recommendations include: the establishment of a Government taskforce to explore policy and legislative solutions to the problems the research has brought to light; pilot studies should be introduced to investigate the potential of value engineering in an Irish context; the negative effects of competitive fee tendering on the application of value engineering should be addressed; value engineering should be incorporated in relevant engineering syllabi
In Search of the Entremanager
Get PDFBelieving that there may be a misperception as to the true
nature of the managerial entrepreneur (the ‘entremanager’)
and that, as a result, entrepreneurs may be supported in
inappropriate ways by enterprise support agencies, financial
and academic institutions, policy-makers and business
advisers, the current research was conducted to test whether
the founders of businesses change from being entrepreneurs
into managers as their businesses grow.
Successful entrepreneurs require significant management
skills to enable them to grow their businesses, which
represents a change from the entrepreneurial attributes
required to start the business initially.
A survey questionnaire, based on key growth development
models, was administered in February 2007 to 500-plus
entrepreneurs who had completed specific start-up courses in
the period 2004 to 2006, with a response rate of just over
20% (105 responses). A second virtually identical
questionnaire was administered two years later, to
respondents to the first survey, thus providing opportunity
for a longitudinal study. There were 31 respondents (56%) to
this second survey.
When the results of the two surveys were compared, growth
clearly had taken place, although whether this resulted in a
transition from entrepreneur to manager is less clear-cut.
One possible reason is that the extent of growth recorded may not have been sufficient to display the effects posited by the models underlying the survey questionnaire.
Although five areas of potential further research were
identified as part of this research study, it is believed
that the most useful direction for further research is a
larger, and longer-term, longitudinal study, replicating and
extending the current study
Think 'on' the box: delivering engaging library database training to first year undergraduate students
Get PDFMicrowave Sintering of Multilayer Integrated Passive Devices
Get PDFMicrowave sintering of multilayer capacitor/varistor-based integrated
passive devices (IPDs) has been investigated for the
first time. The sintered samples were characterized for density,
microstructure, composition, and electrical performance. It was
found that IPDs with varistor/capacitor formulations could be
microwave sintered to fully dense device components within 3 h
of total cycle time, which is o1/10th of the time required by
conventional methods. Microwave sintering resulted in products
with a finer grain structure and without delamination or significant
interdiffusion between the ceramic/electrode and varistor/
capacitor interfaces. The microwave method also completely
eliminated the need for a separate binder burnt-out step. The
electrical properties of the microwave-sintered samples were
found to better or match those obtained by conventional, industrial
processing. In general, the simplicity, rapidity, and superior
product performance make the microwave technique an attractive
sintering methodology for the processing of IPDs
The Design/Development of Automated Programmable Orientation Tools For Vibratory Bowl Feeders
Get PDFThe success of Automated Assembly in Mass Production hinges on the effective performance of automated high speed part positioners. One such parts presenter is the conventional Vibratory Bowl Feeder (VBF). There is a need to extend this success of assembly automation in Mass Production into Batch Production. However, the lack of flexible part positioners to facilitate the handling of different batches of components is a major obstacle in this. A need for a flexible production feeder in batch production processes is therefore clear.
This project attempts to make progress in the development of a flexible VBF, the main problems being the inflexible nature of the orientation tools as currently employed. The project tackles the design, development and manufacture of a range of automated programmable orientation tools which, in combination, make up a typical orientation system for the VBF. Three prototype tools were developed: the Wiper Blade, Narrow Ledge and the Edge Riser Tools. These tools were focused for the purpose of the project on the feeding of a specific target component. Seven further orientation tools were designed with the intention of future development and implementation/inclusion into the feeding research process at a later stage.
As well as the tool automation programming, a programme was developed to drive the system automatically through a sequence of settings, whilst logging the data related to each. An algorithm was developed to establish the performance at each setting and establish the overall optimum. A design of experiment approach could be incorporated at a later stage to establish combined optimum settings (optimum taking into account the interdependencies). For the purpose of developing and demonstrating a prototype flexible VBF in the time scale available, the optimisation of each variable independently of the others only, was tackled in this project.
The outcome of this research was a prototype of a system of modular, programmable, interchangeable and self-optimisation orientation tools for the development of a fully flexible VBF system
An empirical evaluation of a Shim6 implementation
Get PDFSeveral solutions are proposed to enable scalable multihom- ing over IPv6. One of these proposals is Shim6, a host-based multihoming solution based on the modification of the Internet Protocol stack of the host. This modification adds a layer below the transport protocols but above the forwarding layer. As this approach makes the modifications to the network stack transparent, existing applications automatically ben- efit from Shim6 functionality.
In this paper we investigated aspects of the performance of the LinShim6 implementation from Universit ́e Catholique de Louvain. We also outline our modifications of the LinShim6 implementation to allow external soft- ware to control the locators used between hosts
Reigniting the Regional Proposition
Get PDFThis report examines what is involved for the South East of Ireland to re-energise its community in order to develop a market proposition as basis for economic and social development. It is based on the conference held at waterford Institute of technology in September 2010. Inputs were provided by practicing business executives, local authorities, community groups, government departments, researchers and academics.
The report draws on the relationship with Newfoundland in Canada, a province with which there are deep rooted social and cultural connections.
It makes observations with respect to resource maps, development architecture, innovation, education and respinsibilities
The composition of dirty water on dairy farms in Ireland
Get PDFConsiderable quantities of dirty water, composed of milking parlour wash-water, milk spillages, runoff from cattle yard areas and, possibly, effluent from silage and manure, are produced on dairy farms In Ireland, dirty water from dairy farm facilities is normally managed by spreading on, or irrigation to, land It has considerable potential to cause water pollution due to its high pH, 5-day biochemical oxygen demand and its N and P concentrations The objective of the present study was to contribute to better management of dirty water on dairy farms by providing estimates of its composition using rapid methods that can be easily used on farms During the experiment, 34 samples were collected from the facilities on the dairy farm at Teagasc, Johnstown Castle (Wexford), between 27 January and I May, 2006 Dry matter and specific gravity provided the best indicator of biochemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen and phosphorous, and micro and macro nutrients The nutrient concentration of dirty water can be determined rapidly using either dry matter concentration or specific gravity, enabling farmers to Include this information in the nutrient management plan for their far
Induced absorption dynamics in quantum dot based waveguide electroabsorbers
Get PDFTwo-color pump-probe measurements are used to study the carrier dynamics of InAs/GaAs quantum dots in a waveguide structure under reverse bias conditions. For the case of initially populating the ground state (GS), we find relaxation dynamics that include both absorptive and bleaching components in the excited state (ES) wavelength range. We reproduce the main features of this induced absorption dynamics using a simple model with an additional term for induced absorption at the ES due to carriers injected at the GS. The induced absorption dynamics includes multiple recovery timescales which can be attributed to phonon-assisted processes of GS/ES interaction. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3491805
Enhanced biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in the mycorrhizosphere of sub-boreal forest soils
Get PDFPetroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) contamination is
becoming more common in boreal forest soils.
However, linkages between PHC biodegradation and
microbial community dynamics in the mycorrhizosphere
of boreal forest soils are poorly understood.
Seedlings (lodgepole pine, paper birch, lingonberry)
were established in reconstructed soil systems, consisting
of an organic layer (mor humus, coarse woody
debris, or previously oil-contaminated mor humus)
overlying mineral (Ae, Bf) horizons. Light crude oil
was applied to the soil surface after 4 months;
systems were destructively sampled at 1 and 16
weeks following treatment. Soil concentrations of
four PHC fractions were determined using acetone–
hexane extraction followed by gas chromatography –
flame ionization detection analysis. Genotypic
profiles of root-associated bacterial communities
were generated using length heterogeneity-PCR of
16S rDNA. Most plant–soil treatments showed significant
loss in the smaller fraction PHCs indicating an
inherent capacity for biodegradation. Concentrations
of total PHCs declined significantly only in planted
(pine-woody debris and birch-humus) systems (averaging
59% and 82% loss between 1 and 16 weeks
respectively), reinforcing the importance of the mycorrhizosphere
for enhancing microbial catabolism.
Bacterial community structure was correlated more
with mycorrhizosphere type and complexity than with
PHC contamination. However, results suggest that
communities in PHC-contaminated and pristine soils
may become distinct over time