361 research outputs found
Window of Palestine: Performance number 7.
No full textThe "Window of Palestine" episode at Unitec offered a poignant exploration of Palestinian experiences through the lens of architecture, art, and storytelling. Held in the Event Kitchen at Te Puna, this performance transformed the space into a platform for cultural exchange and dialogue. Through a captivating blend of poetry, music, and theatrical elements, the performance illuminated the resilience and struggles of the Palestinian people. Unitec has responded proactively by adopting Te Noho Kotahitanga and welcoming the 'Window of Palestine' performance in the Eid Celebration, demonstrating a commitment to fostering cultural understanding and inclusivity.
ROLES: Sameh Shamout was author director main perfromer and singer & Abigail Spence was co-author
Modelling large scale enterprises : A distributed simulation approach.
No full textDistributed simulation provides an alternative solution when today's highly complicated systems including manufacturing are to be simulated. Complexities involved in implementation, the need for more expertise, high development cost and long implementation time etc. along with a lack of guidelines for developing distributed simulation, and the complexity of tools and techniques used to implement schemes, resulted in the lack of acceptance for distributed simulation among the general simulation community. In order to address some of these issues, a new approach is proposed for modelling and simulating large scale enterprises using distributed simulation. The proposed approach which includes a comprehensive methodology for distributed enterprise simulation, developed by combining activities required for traditional sequential simulation with additional activities required for distributed simulation. The thesis elaborates the additional activities required for distributed simulation in different chapters with simplified approaches for carrying out these activities. These include an approach to decide the appropriate simulation strategy (SimSS process), a simplified approach to modelling and model partitioning, a synchronization mechanism that approximately synchronizes the distributed enterprise simulation and an approach for developing distributed simulation using tools and technologies which are popular, well accepted and also cost effective. The differences between the traditional distributed simulation approaches and the proposed methodology include: partitioning of the conceptual model into logical processes before transforming them into computer simulation models, use of commercial simulation software to implement the distributed simulation, and use of cost effective and popular middleware and programming languages. Illustration of the proposed approaches focuses on distributed manufacturing applications
Reference architecture for configuration, planning and control of 21st century manufacturing systems.
No full textToday's dynamic marketplace requires flexible manufacturing systems capable of cost-effective high variety - low volume production in frequently changing product demand and mix. Several new paradigms, e.g. holonic, fractal, biological and responsive manufacturing, have recently been proposed and studied in the academic literature. These 'next generation of manufacturing systems' have been especially designed to meet the requirements of an unstable and unpredictable marketplace. However, very little in-depth research of the configuration, planning and control methodologies of these new concepts has been conducted. This research aims to improve the comprehension and implementation of these 21st century manufacturing systems by developing an integrated reference architecture from the combination of their distinctive features that would enable manufacturing enterprises to handle successfully the configuration/reconfiguration, planning and control activities under the conditions of uncertainty and continuous change.In the course of the research, a detailed investigation into the fractal, biological and responsive manufacturing systems is conducted in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each concept. The common and distinctive features of the paradigms are then used to merge them to create an integrated reference architecture. The fractal configuration, biological scheduling and 'resource element' representation of resource capabilities and product processing requirements are selected as the major elements of the new system. A detailed study of fractal layout design resulted in seven distinctive methods for structuring and managing fractal cellular systems. A design methodology that supports three types of dynamic scheduling is developed for biological manufacturing systems. Resource elements are used with fractal layouts and biological scheduling to enhance performance and to enable an integration of the concepts. The proposed reference architecture is modelled and evaluated using object-oriented programming, computer simulation and heuristic algorithms. The research results indicate that the performance of systems that employ biological scheduling and fractal layouts can be improved by using the concept of resource elements to utilise any hidden capabilities of resources and to achieve an optimal distribution of resources on the shop floor
An integrated framework for optimisation of oil field production area.
No full textCrude oil separation processes involve many high-profile control-systems and equipment costing many millions of pounds including the maintenance of, and resources for, all facilities. Mistakes made in decision-making will have serious consequences. This makes the management of decision-making in oil production more challenging as to how the productivity as well as the profitability can be increased. This project focuses on developing an integrated framework to optimise crude oil production area which includes oil wells area such as crude oil transportation and production area (crude oil separators). Mathematical programming and simulation modelling are used to investigate these issues and examine how they could be improved. The crude oil produced from different oil-wells of different capacities in different locations is of different quality. This crude oil is collected in a place called the manifold, then distributed to different separators. This environment is represented mathematically using linear programming which will help to improve the decision-making in crude oil-well selection. The nature of an oil-production system is categorised as a continuous environment and simulation models proposed in this work represent a step forward in modelling technique, as it is rare to find such types of models in the literature. The results from the simulation experiments are documented and presented graphically. This enabled the decision-making to be more effectively carried out through analysis. In addition, a full commentary of the proposed simulation model is provided to help practitioners and users in the ways of modelling such an environment using a systematic approach with animation. An integrated, user-friendly interface is developed for variable set-ups, enabling different experiments to be carried out and factors to be explored more easily
Evaluating and Prioritising Supply Chain Management Strategies in The UK Textile Industry
No full textArea of PhD: The textile industry is segregated based on three specified markets: technical textiles, home, and apparel. This study focuses on the textile industry since this industry is highly important and certainly its volume.
Problem Description: There is a dearth of supply chain management (SCM) strategies and practices integrated in UK textile industries as managers found it complex to select an appropriate strategy and practice based on the situation and their type of product. Previously, it was noticeable that SCM strategies and practices differ per company's production and purchase policies.
Methods: A mixed-method consists of questionnaires of the practitioners and manufacturers and a Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to clarify what SCM approaches are being operated by their firms and, what components led to the adoption of a particular approach and how and why they plan to change the SCM strategy approach.
Results: The intense global competition, reduced product life cycle, and increasingly demanding customers shape the current business environment. One of the main aspects of supply chain management is strategic procurement management, which entails both production and purchasing aspects. These strategies assure better utilisation of resources and cost control. The proposed SCM strategy for production and purchasing and its components in the textile industry is provided in the following section. Challenges to reducing the cost while enhancing the service level and promoting sustainable sourcing in the UK are the most important features of the proposed strategy
Maintenance scheduling and inventory control policy in aviation industry : An integrated framework.
No full textAirlines seek to minimise operating costs, in all aspect of business areas. Some of these areas are the aircraft maintenance and inventory control policies associated.Maintenance is one of the essential operations in aviation industry. Any shortcoming in maintenance causes reducing in the income rate.In addition, there is a direct relationship between maintenance and inventory department in any company is a vital to guarantee the availability of spare parts to carry out the required maintenance.Therefore, this research presents an integrated framework for maintenance scheduling and inventory control policies in aviation industry, aiming to minimise the maintenance cost by addressing a models for determining the optimum maintenance scheduling for aircraft components and its inventory control policy. The interval between maintenance for the components is optimised by minimising the total cost. This consists of labour cost, spare parts cost and delay cost etc.A decision to replace a component must also be taken when a component cannot attain the minimum reliability.Mathematical models are developed to calculate the expected costs based on the cost of corrective, preventive maintenance and the probability of failure. The maintenance scheduling mathematical model is developed to act as a maintenance decision making model to determine the optimum preventive maintenance interval of the expensive aircraft components. A decision making inventory control model to balance the cost of repair and purchase cost is developed and will be integrated with the scheduling maintenance to guarantee the availability of the required components and act as an integrated framework, this would facilitate the decision making process in aviation industry in relation to scheduling and inventory policies
Leadership best practice for sustaining business excellence in innovative organisations.
No full textInnovative organisations are facing exceptional changes and challenges. To meet such changes and challenges, it is recognised that appropriate leadership is essential. This leadership organises and encourages thoughts and good intentions by putting the interests of others as the top priority, energises positive thoughts; loyalty, integrity and determination, and facilitates creative thinking by using all creative methods to solve problems and think outside of the box. Leadership best practices are the basis and driver for "innovative organisations and excellence" across the world. However, achieving best practice is almost impossible without defining a common understanding of leadership and sustainable business excellence within organisations. For five decades, scholars almost failed to agree on one common definition. This has led to the need for new, agreeable leadership roles to ensure that organisational excellence is sustainable, innovative, and valid for all. The aims of this research include, firstly, to provide a framework for understanding leadership. Secondly, it aims to provide a methodology to build and validate "business excellence" and "leadership" models and theories. Thirdly, this research will develop a sustainable business excellence framework that integrates quality management and the majority of the necessary components for considering the performance of enterprises in today's environment, taking into consideration the creativity and sustaining excellence in innovation by organisations in this 21st century. The research methodology used in this thesis includes a literature review of approximately 1000 articles and definitions that were collected from different sources, interviews of carefully selected experts in the field of leadership and business excellence, and different sets of questionnaires. Moreover, a validation tool has been developed, which is a combination of well-known management tools (Deming Cycle, RADAR logic, and Structural Equational Modelling (SEM)). In addition, statistical software (SPSS) and AMOS have been used to carry out the necessary statistical analysis and to facilitate the development of the proposed leadership framework and validation model. There are four major new outcomes of this thesis: 1) developing a framework for understanding leadership, 2) developing the six essential elements of leadership, 3) developing a model to validate business excellence models, 4) developing a new leadership framework for the 21st Century that is characterised by innovative principles and sustainable business excellence within an organisation
Development of Total Quality Management framework for Libyan health care organisations
No full textPrimary health care is the first stage for the national health. As such it is considered as the first stage of communication between the citizen, family and the society. The main objective for any primary healthcare is to meet the need of the individual at high quality, and improve the performance of the healthcare system. The quality here is what the patient receives with regard to excellent and safe medical and health services.
According to the available literature and based on the author’s many visits and preliminary investigation regarding Libyan healthcare sector in general and Tripoli healthcare sector in particular, itjjas been proven that the reality of government hospitals in Libya is that: these hospitals are facing many problems opposing their improvement, continuity and ability to compete.
Based on a series of comprehensive questionnaires, the weakness in the current system are identified, and also found that Total Quality Management (TQM) would provide the solution for Libyan Healthcare system. TQM is a way of managing to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, flexibility, and competitiveness of a business as a whole. The literature illustrated that there are many models and frameworks in the field of TQM. However, the quality gurus have never agreed about a specific fiamework or implementation procedure. In addition, there is lack of a general model in health care, and there is no clear agreement as to the way in which TQM should be implemented in a health care sector. Therefore, the focus of this study is to identify an appropriate TQM framework for Libyan Jiealth care, organisations and benchmarking them and distinguish their competitive advantage, in order to achieve performance excellence.
A comprehensive literature review related to TQM is carried out to have a clear insight into the TQM and its application in health service, ^questionnaire survey method is adopted to gather the data and information, which form the basis for the development of the proposed TQM framework. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS and Analytical Hierarchy Process AHP are utilised to analyse the collected data and views frommanagers. and employees in the organisations under investigation. In addition, in order to achieve the aim of this study two models are developed and TQM framework that covers most aspects of TQM starting from top management awareness until even promoting continuous improvement is developed.
The verification and validation process of the proposed TQM framework and its implementation stage implied that the proposed framework factors and stages are important for improving the quality performance of healthcare service in the organisation under investigation
Development of a framework for configuring fractal supply networks and logistics capabilities
No full textThe contemporary, dynamic marketplace requires a flexible supply network capable of achieving an effective and efficient logistics operation in order to provide a high level of logistical service and customer satisfaction. A fractal supply network is a reconfigurable supply network which has the ability to present many different problem-solving methods under the terms of the various situations. It has been only proposed and studied recently in the academic literature. However, when the overall number of research works available on this topic is taken into consideration, more work is still needed to, holistically, cover some of the related issues. Therefore, this research presents a framework for configuring/reconfiguring a fractal supply network and its logistical capabilities, with the aim to provide a systematic approach which enables practitioners to measure and optimise the logistics capabilities within the network. Configuration/reconfiguration is started by developing conceptual models based on changes in the environments with respect to the capabilities of the fractal supply network. Conceptual models for measurement or optimisation problems are developed. A multi-criteria decision-making model is, then, developed to prioritise the logistics capability in the fractal supply network where also questionnaire is used. Quantitative models and simulations with regards to the selected problems are developed and tested hypothetically. A simulation is used for verification and validation. Experimental factorial design and statistical techniques are used to generate and analyse the results. The research results proved that the proposed framework and developed models in this thesis provide systematic methods through which practitioners should be able to specify high-priority logistics capabilities for further investment planning, introducing a unique dynamic sustainability control system and an inventory control system to increase both collaboration and integration and improve the process of sharing information across the network, which have proven to be a problematic area for industrialists and provides a foundation for further research development
An integrated framework for maintenance optimisation with petroleum industry.
No full textMaintenance concerns abound as companies strive to increase production while guaranteeing safety, flow assurance and equipment reliability. Therefore, optimisation of the maintenance process is essential to increasing the productivity of the equipment as well as decreasing the maintenance expenditure. Thus, this research is aimed at proposing an integrated framework to optimise the major maintenance activities at strategic and operational levels including spare parts control and risk assessment within the petroleum industry.In this research, the selection of the maintenance optimum policy for equipment within petroleum industry is dealt with at strategic level through multi criteria decision making techniques (classic and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process FAHP). At the operational level, a cost optimisation mathematical model is proposed to balance the costs of failure of a unit during operation against the cost of preventive maintenance to ensure preventive maintenance activities are kept at minimum possible cost without compromising the utilisation of equipment's performance.Furthermore, an integrated approach between spare parts management and preventive maintenance activities is developed to create a cost effective method and ensuring the availability of parts in the stock while carrying out preventive maintenance. A risk assessment model for equipment within the petroleum industry is developed to handle the likelihood of risk and its consequences. A mathematical equation is developed to predict the likelihood of risks and identify the optimum inspection interval. In addition, set of modified mathematical equations to evaluate consequences of risk and weighing the severity of risks in specific areas is developed.The findings of this research indicate that the proposed FAHP will clearly guide the practitioners in selecting the optimum maintenance policies at strategic level by the consideration of the related criteria and the possible alternatives for petroleum equipment. The results from the proposed mathematical model for scheduling preventive maintenance activities showed promising results in terms of cost effectiveness, reliability and availability of equipment without compromising the Inherent safety of the equipment. The integration between preventive maintenance intervals and the control of spare parts provided the petroleum companies with predictable movement of parts at the right time and hence minimises the cost of inventory. The developed equation for the consequences of risk can be used to evaluate the level of risk under different combination of sets of weight which suit the situation under consideration
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