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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 04-07, 1991 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Telemetry Test Station has been developed at the Digital Systems Division, ISRO Satellite Centre, to test the housekeeping telemetry packages which will be flown onboard satellites. The heart of the test procedure is the decommutation, display and processing of the telemetry output format. The decommutation has been achieved by designing a simple plug in card to an IBM PC/XT compatible computer and writing the related assembly language software. The card and the software have been extensively tested and found to work satisfactorily upto 60 Kbps PCM data rate. To make the hardware and software flexible and truly general purpose, the acquisition should be independent of the modes of operation and data formats. All the parameters which define acquisition display and processing are therefore programmable and can be changed at any time. The parameters which influence acquisition are bit rate, word rate, frame rate, length of word, length of frame and frame synchronous code. The bit rate is transparent, i.e., need not be set by the user. The word length is assumed to be 8 bits or multiples of 8 bits. The other parameters are programmable at any time during the test session. Similarly, the parameters which affect display are the display rate, and positioning of the format including highlighting, alarm signals, related information etc. This gives a user the facility to tailor the display to his liking. The storage is also flexible and independent of display. All these modes are in real time and have therefore been coded in assembly. It has been found that a large part of the software is needed for user interface alone and user requirement is far more changeable than expected. The software is therefore designed for change. The problems and solutions in achieving these features are discussed in this paper.

Interface management (IM) in its many forms (physical, contractual and organisational) has not received the management research it warrants in the construction sector. Offsite bathroom construction is seen as a sector of offsite construction that can aid the interface problems that are common in construction. However, interface problems that occur when using offsite bathrooms are considered to be as detrimental, if not more to the overall process when compared to traditional bathroom construction. This research will focus on organisational IM, through research into the relevant process and people factors required to mitigate potential IM problems in the offsite bathroom process. A literature review of IM, offsite construction and traditional construction was conducted which identified 16 factors that could have an influence on the organisational IM of offsite bathroom construction. A further literature review was carried out for each factor to establish its connectivity to the holistic process of the IM of offsite bathrooms. A proforma was constructed which gathered quantitative and qualitative data from 82 interviewees, associated with eight case study projects. The methodology adopted was based on the pragmatism philosophical stance, which concurs with a mixed method approach to the collection and analysis of the data. The quantitative data was analysed using frequency tables and the Wilcoxon sign rank test. The quantitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. The analysis identified nine of the 16 factors as main contributors to the IM of offsite bathroom construction. These nine factors consisted of six process factors: procurement, design management, supply chain management, health and safety, tolerance and quality. Three people factors were: communication, client/design team and the role of the project manager. A conceptual model was constructed to encapsulate each of the nine factors and their sub-factors. Important findings from the research identified the procurement route as both an enabler and a constraint, depending on its ability to allow early input from the main contractor and manufacturer to the uptake of offsite bathrooms. The cross-cutting importance of the people factors to the successful implementation of the process factors identified the importance of the main contractor maintaining supervision of the manufacturer and the interface problems created from incomplete design. Further analyses of all the findings identified communication and the role of the project manager as the two most influential factors, with early and informal communication and strong leadership from the project manager relevant to all factors that affect the successful IM of offsite bathroom construction.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Alley Stoughton / This thesis covers the process leading up to the release of eXene 2.0, a User Interface Management System (UIMS) toolkit. Since its inception, eXene has provided a unique way to create meaningful graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for Standard ML applications. Additionally, it has gone through several quality revisions which have both enhanced the toolkit and corrected many deficiencies that were present. Even with these improvements, however, the full potential of eXene has become increasingly difficult for developers to utilize. That is, in spite of the natural innovation that eXene brings to GUI construction, its current lack of extensibility, usability, and functionality has caused Standard ML developers to choose simpler, more familiar UIMS toolkits, despite their limitations, for the creation of their applications. In light of this fact, eXene needs an internal and cosmetic overhaul to extend its usage and appeal. First, to improve its extensibility, formerly weakened by organic growth, eXene requires some restructuring of its architecture. Second, to improve its overall usability, previously stifled by sparse documentation, eXene requires the implementation of an interactive electronic document for its API. Finally, to improve its functionality, several new multi-purpose widgets need to be introduced. It is the author's hypothesis that the revised structure, improved documentation, and additional multi-purpose widgets detailed in this thesis sufficiently elevate eXene's extensibility, usability, and functionality such that eXene can be considered a fully featured UIMS toolkit. With these changes and the release of eXene 2.0, eXene is more likely to be adopted as the primary UIMS toolkit for Standard ML developers.

Large battery production facilities, often referred to as Gigafactories, are a complex design task that involves a lot of working disciplines. This requires good capabilities for communication and planning to be able to integrate the building, machines, and operators in the factory. This project is made within the Factory Layout and Modelling team in Blueprint at Northvolt, which is responsible for designing and scaling up the next generation of battery Gigafactories. The purpose of this thesis is to increase knowledge and further enhance a standardized workflow for how to manage machine interfaces. The empirical findings from the study are based on a qualitative study where 16 interviews were held with people working as Factory Layout Engineers, Utility Engineers, Automation Engineers, and Design Leaders. The empirical findings confirm there is a need for having a standardized way of marking up interfaces early in the design phase to mitigate the risk of design errors to occur in later stages. Based on the empirical findings the most important interfaces are the utility interfaces, material flow interfaces, the human-machine interfaces, and the civil, structural, and architectural interfaces. It is also important to mark up the operator’s movement around the machine and the areas where repair and maintenance is needed. This creates an understanding of the machine’s effective footprint area and shows the total workspace area needed around the machine. In this project, specific design guidelines and a new drawing template have been proposed to facilitate the visualization and handling of machine interfaces. Interface management is an emerging topic for production companies. During the last decade, this area has been developed as a management discipline within some large companies. In conclusion, the usage of interface management is necessary to increase communication of system boundaries and to decrease the cost when building new factories. / Stora batteriproduktionsanläggningar, ofta kallade Gigafabriker, är en komplex designuppgift som involverar många arbetsdiscipliner. Detta kräver goda förmågor för kommunikation och planering för att kunna integrera byggnaden, maskinerna och operatörerna i fabriken. Detta examensarbete genomfördes i Factory Layout and Modelling-teamet i Blueprint på Northvolt, som är ansvariga för att designa och skala upp nästa generations batterifabriker. Syftet med examensarbetet är att öka kunskapen och vidareutveckla ett standardiserat arbetsflöde för att hantera maskingränssnitt. De empiriska resultaten från studien baseras på en kvalitativ studie där 16 intervjuer genomfördes med personer som arbetar som fabriksdesigningenjörer, system-distributionsingenjörer, automationsingenjörer och projektledare. De empiriska resultaten bekräftar att det finns ett behov av ett standardiserat sätt att märka upp gränssnitt tidigt i designfasen för att minska risken för att designfel uppstår i senare skeden. Baserat på de empiriska resultaten är de viktigaste gränssnitten system-distributionsgränsnitten, materialflödesgränssnitten, människa-maskin-gränssnitten och byggnadsgränssnitten. Det är också viktigt att märka upp operatörens rörelse runt maskinen samt de områden där reparation och underhåll utförs. Detta skapar en förståelse för maskinens effektiva fotavtryck inom fabriken och visar den totala arbetsytan som behövs runt maskinen. I detta projekt har specifika designriktlinjer och en ny ritningsmall föreslagits för att kunna underlätta visualisering och hantering av maskingränssnitt. Gränssnittshantering är ett framväxande ämne för produktionsföretag. Under det senaste decenniet har detta område utvecklats som en egen ledningsdisciplin inom vissa stora företag.svis är användningen av gränssnittshantering nödvändig för att öka kommunikationen av systemgränser och för att minska kostnaderna när nya fabriker byggs.

行銷／研發／製造三部門之間的互動影響新產品研發的績效，從眾多文獻的實證研究看來已是無庸置疑的事。本研究以五家具代表性的監視器個案公司從橫斷面做單一產業的研究，希望能對行銷／研發、研發／製造之間的互動與新產品研發績效關係做比較精確的描述。 　　本研究對成功新產品發展的定義為：(1)產品規格定位正確，上市後能廣被市場接受。(2)產品可靠度良好，沒有品質問題。(3)產品材料成本及製造成本低於同級競爭者。 　　本研究從個案廠商在行銷／研發及研發／製造介面上的作為，並比較觀察其新產品發展績效，發展出四項命題建構： 　　1. 當研發與行銷的互動內容，以產品技術為主時，則其互動程度愈高，其新產品發展績效較佳；而不以產品技術為主時，則其互動程度，與新產品發展績效無顯著差異。 　　2. 當企業業務型態偏重於OEM/ODM時，研發與行銷之間的互動，由研發部門主導時，其新產品發展績效較佳。而當企業業務型態偏重於自有品牌(Own Brand Manufacturing)的銷售時，研發與行銷之間的互動，由行銷部門主導時，其新產品發展績效較佳。 　　3. 當研發與製造的組織地位與技術能力相當時，研發與製造的互動方式，採同步作業方式較採順序作業方式，其新產品發展績效較佳。 　　4. 製造對研發的逆向溝通（製程技術的擴散）程度愈高，則新產品發展績效較佳。 　　本研究並根據命題內容對實務上的運作提出三點建議：(1)藉著將技術人員調往行銷部來提升行銷人員技術專業知識的程度，以加強研發／行銷人員在新產品研發中，基於技術內容的互動水準。(2)提升生技的地位和技術層次使之能達到研發部的水準。(3)以雙向性的互動關係來看待研發／製造的關係。研發對製造的技術移轉固然重要，製造對研發的回饋，對新產品研發的可製性(Manufacturability)也有很大的幫助。

In recent years, Interface Management (IM) practices have been emerging to address the challenges of managing complex capital projects. These challenges include the added complexity and scale of these projects, globalization, geographical distribution and various working cultures, and different internal and external risks. Oil sands, off-shore and nuclear are examples of this class of projects. Despite an emerging consensus on the effectiveness of IM for facilitating complex projects delivery, IM definitions, elements, and the way it has been implemented varies widely across the construction industry. Furthermore, identifying key interface points, integrating IM with the project schedule, and the relationship between IM implementation and project performance are significant questions that owners and contractors wish to have addressed. Therefore, the objectives of this thesis are to develop a workflow driven process for IM, study its current status in the industry, develop an algorithm to identify key interface points and integrate IM with project schedule, and investigate the relationship between IM implementation and project performance. This research is mostly focused on industrial construction, though some data from other sectors is included. In this thesis, the elements and fundamental definitions of Interface Management are proposed. Then, a workflow driven Interface Management System (IMS) is developed, which lays out a strategy to systematically identify and manage stakeholders’ interfaces with the objective of more effective risk management in capital projects. Once the IMS ontology is defined, the current state of IM in the construction industry is studied through data collection on 46 projects by conducting questionnaire based interviews. The interviewed projects are from different sectors of the industry, with various sizes and geographical locations. This study aims at identifying the project characteristics that lead to formal IM implementation in a project, current common IM practices in the industry, and criteria to assess the status and effectiveness of IM. Furthermore, the relationship between IM implementation and project performance in terms of cost and schedule growth is investigated by employing descriptive and statistical analysis tools. One observation was that those projects that implemented IM at a high level experienced lower cost growth and less variation in the cost growth. This thesis also proposes a methodology to identify key interface points by recognizing the interdependency relationships between them and creating the Interface Points Network. By analyzing the network, two types of high impact and risk prone interface points are identified. Once the key interface points are recognized, they are linked to the interface milestones on the project schedule, to integrate the cyclic information of IMS with the conventional, sequential planning, scheduling and control paradigms (e.g. CPM). The proposed algorithms are validated on a representative offshore model project. In summary, the proposed algorithms in this thesis provide a framework to improve project performance through better alignment between stakeholders, enforcement of contract terms, and effective sharing and distribution of risk-related information within formalized interface management framework. The empirical analysis also sets a foundation for construction organizations to assess their IM with regard to the current practices in the industry and a roadmap to improve their IM practices to more mature levels.

Interfaces, joints and connections between different elements or sections cause more problems than most of the rest of the building. There are challenges during design, manufacture and construction as well as implications throughout the life of the building. These challenges are particularly relevant for the building envelope. Here the joints must perform at the same level as the main areas of wall or roof, but the pressures on them are invariably much greater. They must keep out the weather but, at the same time, accommodate tolerances. and inaccuracies and cater for movements both during construction and for as long as the building lasts. Managing construction interfaces is an important part of delivering a construction project without time delays or cost additions. However the lack of written publications on how to manage interfaces within construction is a problem discovered by the author very early in the research. Therefore the main aim of the research was; to improve the management of interfaces within the construction industry, with particular reference to interfaces within the building facade. The research was based on an EPSRC funded project entitled CladdISS "A standardised strategy for window and cladding interfaces". The methodology included industrial workshops, interviews, regular steering group meetings and a questionnaire. The strategy proposed to increase productivity, quality, reduce waste and reduce costs in design, manufacture, installation, and the building life cycle. The research highlighted a wide range of interrelated problems. However, the two main issues were: Poor communication between the design team and specialist contractors and poor interface detailing. The following situations typically exist: The interface responsibility is assigned too late if at all; the term 'by others' often leads to the interfaces being poorly managed; the design team does not have a good enough understanding of the construction and manufacturing tolerances of materials at the interfaces; often the design team does not have appropriate understanding of the cladding system they are designing; the specialist cladding contractors do not have enough input to the design of the cladding and interfaces early enough. Using the CladdISS strategy will enable the supply chain to be organised and provide a template for effective interface management.