Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 2004. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-118).

Thesis (M.S. in mechanical engineering)--Washington State University, December 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 23, 2008). "School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering." Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-76).

Two trends are currently driving the need for supply chain firms to form closely integrated relationships: collaboration and digitisation. One of the ways to achieve digitisation of supply chain operations is to implement Inter-Organisational Information Systems (IOIS) with selected supply chain partners for a much more efficient, streamlined and orchestrated supply chain operations. Whilst IOIS can be implemented to support various cross-functional business processes (ranging from operational information exchange to pursuing strategic initiatives such as sharing ideas, identifying new market opportunities, and pursing a continuous improvement approach), in the context of this thesis, the purpose of IOIS implementation is to facilitate the inter-firm procurement-related operations with downstream supply chain firms. The study undertaken in this research project was initiated in response to an industry requirement to investigate the implementation of IOIS against a backdrop of improved Supply Chain Management and integration practices by large contractor organisations. A case study research strategy was adopted to investigate the IOIS project related, IOIS (system) related issues encountered in ex-ante and ex-post implementation stages of the IOIS. The study concludes that it is the non-technical factors that are critical to the successful delivery of IOIS projects and provides a guideline on IOIS implementation by large contractor organisations. The findings of this research project have been published in a number of peer-reviewed papers.

Reducing the carbon footprint of domestic properties is, due to global warming and social impact of increased energy costs, an ever increasing priority. Although the compulsive building standards are set by the building regulation part L1, The Code for Sustainable Homes have set more stringent requirements above the requirements of Building Regulations to achieve zero carbon emissions during occupation. This Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) requires all new homes to be zero carbon by 2016. Land scarcity and lower number of people per household forces developers to develop compact apartment-based dwellings on brown field sites, constraining the design. The aim of this research is to understand the effect of practical constraints on real building design and technology on achieving zero carbon performance in compact urban dwellings in a maritime northern European climate. In this work, currently commercially implementable renewable generation technologies are evaluated for their suitability in a compact urban setting. A model-based approach is developed to evaluate the energy consumption (both regulated and unregulated) and energy balance under the specific constraints of compact urban buildings. Graphical representation enables the introduction of a demand envelope, which shows the boundaries of the minimum and maximum expected thermal and electrical energy consumption over one year period. The research has three key findings: 1. Due to variations in energy consumption by the occupants, mainly by the unregulated energy consumption, multiple renewable energy technologies would have to be implemented to achieve the lowest possible carbon emission. 2. Although the combination of PV, CHP and HP is the generation option with the lowest carbon emissions, it is not completely carbon free when producing the required electrical and thermal energy. This suggests that there is a high likelihood that zero-carbon energy generation can not be achieved in this case study of a compact urban dwelling with the currently available technology. 3. The simulations show that with highly insulated dwellings the amount of space heating required is less than 10% of the overall energy consumption, as opposed to the 60% generally achieved in the building industry. Subsequent on-site measurements showed an estimation of just under 30% of the total energy consumption was used in space heating, which is higher than the simulated value, but still less than half that of a conventional dwelling. The main academic recommendation resulting from this research is a requirement for further ongoing research into new generation technologies as they become mature. Recommendations for the sponsoring company include continuation of measurements at the case study building to enable confirmation of energy consumption/generation findings so far.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed Feb. 4, 2010). Additional advisors: Barrett R. Bryant, Chittoor V. Ramamoorthy, Jeffrey H. Kulick, Gary J. Grimes, Gregg L. Vaughn, Murat N. Tanju. Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-183).

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-46).

The construction industry has inherent problems due to its structure and fragmentation. Its poor performance has been challenged by its client base and it has been forced to seek ways to deliver improved performance. This project was initiated as a response to this challenge and represents one organisation's attempt to deliver improvements. This organisation provides both design and construction solutions, offering ‘total life of asset support' from business consultancy through to decommissioning, in a neutral contractual environment. Initial investigations of the integration of design and construction and of the use of the EFQM Excellence Model concluded that a holistic view of the organisation's performance was needed. Most organisations use traditional, easily quantifiable measures, such as time and cost, whilst neglecting the softer cultural issues, as a way of assessing overall business performance. This prompted further research into the use of performance measurement and also a review of the culture that existed within the organisation. It became clear that many performance initiatives failed because of the lack of ‘Change Action driven by Results (CAR)'. The failure to initiate change or implement action based on the results achieved, means that performance measures are not being integrated into the management systems of the organisations. Based on the conclusions of this work, this project has developed and implemented the Integrated Business Improvement System (IBIS) within the primary case study unit and also two other organisations, all of which are part of AMEC Plc. The project details the barriers that were experienced during the development and implementation of the system and concludes that it is the human component that is critical for the successful implementation and use of any improvement system. The findings of this work have been presented in five peer- reviewed papers.

[pt] Sistemas de Monitoração de aplicações e serviços na Internet são, atualmente, fonte de informação e tomada de decisão ágil para Administradores de Sistemas. Em ambientes com grande volume de acesso e infraestrutura de centenas de servidores, comunicar eventos com problemas em uma interface acessível para navegadores Web é um grande desafio de design de interfaces e interação, principalmente, em situações nas quais informação e decisão sejam críticas. Nesse sentido, o foco desta dissertação é o estudo de sistemas de monitoração em uma grande empresa de Internet. Sobre eles, é feita inicialmente uma avaliação criteriosa e, em seguida, é elaborada, implementada e avaliada a proposta de um modelo de design para sistemas de monitoração. Este modelo demonstra como a Engenharia Semiótica, uma teoria semiótica de IHC, pode ser combinada com elementos de uma teoria da área de fatores humanos e psicologia ecológica, o Design de Interfaces Ecológicas, para elaborar a comunicabilidade e interação no projeto de sistemas de monitoração. A combinação destas abordagens agrega certas características de representação e comunicação às interfaces, sugerindo que, conforme avaliações realizadas nesta pesquisa, o suporte à decisão torna-se mais eficiente e ágil para usuários inseridos no domínio estudado. / [en] Monitoring Systems of both Internet applications and services are, nowadays, a rich source of information and an agile decision support tool for System Administrators. In environments with a high access volume and hundreds of servers, to communicate abnormal events in an interface accessible through a Web browser is considered a big interface design and interaction challenge, particularly in situations where information and decision-making are critical. Given that, the main focus of this work is to study monitoring systems in a big Brazilian Internet company. We begin with a detailed evaluation of systems used in the company and then we elaborate, implement and evaluate a new design model that we propose for similar monitoring systems. This new model demonstrates how the Semiotic Engineering, a semiotic theory of HCI, can be combined with elements of a human-factor and ecological psychology design theory, the Ecological Interface Design, in order to elaborate the communicability and build interaction for monitoring systems. The combination of both approaches provides certain characteristics of representation and communication that, according to the evaluations conducted in this research, the decision-making support becomes both increasingly efficient and agile for the users in such domain.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Integration ist eine fortwährende Aufgabe in betrieblichen Informationssystemen. Durch den Einsatz verschiedener personeller und maschineller Aufgabenträger kommt es zu wiederkehrenden Integrationsproblemen, die vorrangig durch externe Dienstleister gelöst werden. Das zentrale Problem dieser Arbeit ist, dass in der Wissenschaft diskutiertes Lösungswissen in Form von Mustern existiert, aber keinen Eingang in die Praxis findet. Um dieses Problem zu untersuchen, wurde eine qualitative empirische Untersuchung durchgeführt, welche erstmals im deutschsprachigen Raum Wirkungszusammenhänge und Entscheidungsmechanismen in Integrationsprojekten analysiert. Als Ergebnis der qualitativen Erhebung kann festgehalten werden, dass dem Dienstleistungscharakter der Integration bisher zu wenig Beachtung geschenkt wurde und dass Integrationsmuster nicht eingesetzt werden, weil der Abstraktionsgrad des so konservierten Lösungswissens nicht zum Abstraktionsgrad der Problemstellungen passt. Deshalb definiert die Arbeit zunächst ein Dienstleistungsmodell der Integration, welches sich auf die empirische Untersuchung stützt. Danach wird auf der Grundla-ge einer eigenschaftsbasierten Definition von Integrationsmustern eine Grundmenge an Mustern aus der Literatur extrahiert, die weiter abstrahiert werden. Als Abstraktionsprinzipien werden die Klassifikation und die Generalisierung eingesetzt. Abstrakte Integrationsmuster können als Ressourcen in ein Dienstleistungsmodell eingehen. Für die Klassifikation wurde ein erweiterbares und flexibles Klassifikationsverfahren – die Facettenklassifikation – gewählt. Diese ermöglicht jederzeit das Hinzufügen weiterer Facetten. Die Einordnung eines Musters muss nur innerhalb einer Facette disjunkt sein, es kann aber in andere Facetten eingeordnet werden. Die verwendeten Facetten entstammen sowohl dem Problem als auch dem Lösungsbereich. Jeder Facette liegt eine umfassende Analyse zugrunde. Die Klassifikation bildet den Ausgangspunkt der erneuten Generalisierung. Muster mit ähnlichen bzw. identischen Ausprägungen werden erfasst und auf ein gemeinsames Konzept untersucht. Diese Generalisierung wurde exemplarisch für zwei Mustergruppen durchgeführt. Dabei wurden die beiden abstrakten Integrationsmuster „zusätzlicher Zugriffspunkt“ sowie „Vermittler“ identifiziert. Die entwickelten Konzepte flossen in eine umfangreiche Evaluation ein, welche am Beispiel einer konkreten Dienstleistung im Bereich der E-Procurement-Integration durchgeführt wurde. Die Unabhängigkeit der Bewertung konnte dadurch sichergestellt werden, dass weder der Dienstleister noch der Kunde an der zuvor durchgeführten empirischen Untersuchung beteiligt waren. Der erarbeitete Lösungsvorschlag wurde in einer Laborumgebung implementiert. Das vollständige Integrationsszenario ist dabei auf der Basis einer Virtualisierungsumgebung realitätsnah nachgebildet worden. Neben Instanzen der Kundensysteme mit identischem Versions- und Patch-Stand kamen auch Datenbestände aus Produktivsystemen zum Einsatz. Die Integrationshilfsmittel wurden ebenfalls in der Laborumgebung eingerichtet. Durch abstrakte Integrationsmuster verbessert sich die Dienstleistungserbringung. Auf der Kundenseite bewirkt dies eine Verbesserungen der Integrations- und Unternehmensarchitektur sowie die Erschließung weiteren Verbesserungspotenzials. Für den Dienstleister ergibt sich neben einem veränderten Dienstleistungsmodell vor allem die Möglichkeit, einmalige Angebote in ein konfigurierbares Standarddienstleistungsangebot zu überführen. Zusätzlich kann eine verbesserte Ressourcennutzung (vor allem der Humanressourcen) anhand des veränderten Dienstleistungsmodells nachgewiesen werden. Im Rahmen der Arbeit konnte so ein Ansatz entwickelt werden, der die empirisch belegten Abstraktionsprobleme behebt und die Einsetzbarkeit von bestehendem Lösungswissen verbessert. Gleichzeitig werden die Wirkungsmechanismen und Entscheidungszusammenhänge durch das Dienstleistungsmodell besser erfass-, erklär- und vor allem planbar.