Since its foundation, Lean practices have played crucial role in reduction of wastes in a given process to maximize efficiency. Adoption of Lean practices in several industries have opened wide scope to study its impact on many fields such as agricultural sector. Post-harvest stage within agricultural supply chain is known to have gaps in terms of assuring good storage practices. The losses at post-harvest level have significantly impacted the availability of sufficient food for global population. These losses occur due to lack of compliances with good management practices. The literature of this study identifies shortfalls in the management practices of the grain storage containers in United States. The grain elevators are most common technology in use which assures the security of the raw food grains after harvest stage and right before its transfer to next stage. Adoption of good management practices by grain elevators thus becomes crucial to secure the safety of the nutritional quality of the grains which is vital to ensure food security and keep food losses low.<div><br></div><div>The thesis considers the shortfalls associated with the management practices of grain elevators and propose to adopt Lean as a solution. The outcomes of this research present a descriptive analysis of the lean readiness survey completed by the superintendents of the grain elevators in corn belt region of United States (primarily in Illinois and Indiana). The lean readiness results reveal the extent to which the elevators are ready to adopt lean practices.The research also identifies the readiness level which indicates highest as well as lowest level of readiness levels towards lean adoption. The conclusion presents the summary of final outcomes of lean readiness level based on the surveyed elevator superintendents.<br></div>

The growing interest in pavement management systems (PMSs), both in South Mrica and internationally, has been in response to a shift in importance from the construction of new roads to the maintenance of the existing paved network coupled with increasingly restrictive road funding. In order to develop a balanced expenditure programme for the national roads of South Africa there is a need to predict the rate of deterioration of a pavement and the nature of the changes in its condition so that the timing, type and cost of maintenance needs could be estimated. Internationally these expected changes in pavement condition are predicted by pavement deterioration models, which normally are algorithms developed mathematically or from a study of pavement deterioration. Since no usable pavement deterioration models existed locally, it was necessary to evaluate overseas literature on pavement deterioration prediction models with the aim of identifying models possibly applicable to the national roads of South Africa. Only deterioration models developed from the deterioration results of inservice pavements under a normal traffic spectrum were evaluated. Models developed from accelerated testing were avoided since these models virtually eliminated long·term effects (these are primarily environmental but also include effects of the rest periods between loads), and that the unrepresentative traffic loading regimes can distort the behaviour of the pavement materials, which is often stress dependent. Models developed from the following studies were evaluated: • AASHO Road Test • The Kenya study • Brazil-UNDP study (HDM-ill models) • Texas study Of all the above models studied that were developed from major studies it was concluded that the incremental models developed during the Brazil study, were the most appropriate for further evaluation under South African conditions. A sensitivity analysis was conducted on the HDM-III models to evaluate their sensitivity to changes in the different parameters comprising each model. The results obtained from the sensitivity analysis indicate that the incremental roughness prediction model incorporated into the HDM-III model tends to be insensitive to changes in most parameters. Accuracy ranges for input data were, however, also identified for parameters which indicated an increase in sensitivity in certain ranges. The local applicability of the HDM-III deterioration models were finally evaluated by comparing HDM-III model predictions with the actually observed deterioration values of a selected number of national road pavement sections. To enable the above comparison, a validation procedure had to be developed according to which the format of existing data could be transformed to that required by the HDM-ill model, as well as additional information be calculated. From the comparison it was concluded that the HDM-III models are capable of accurately predicting the observed deterioration on South African national roads, but that for most models calibration is needed for local conditions. Guidelines regarding recommended calibration factor ranges for the different HDM-ill models are given. Finally it is recommended that the HDM-III models should be considered for incorporation into a balanced expenditure programme for the national roads of South Africa. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 1993. / gm2014 / Civil Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted

Practicing engineers need an integrated building, HVAC and control simulation tool for optimum HVAC design and retrofit. Various tools are available to the researchers, but these are not appropriate for the consulting engineer. To provide the engineer with a tool which can be used for typical HVAC projects, new models for building, HVAC and control simulation are introduced and integrated in a user-friendly, quick-to-use tool. The new thermal model for buildings is based on a transfer matrix description of the heat transfer through the building shell. It makes provision for the various heat flow paths that make up the overall heat flow through the building structure. The model has been extensively verified with one hundred and three case studies. These case studies were conducted on a variety of buildings, ranging from a 4m2 bathroom, to a 7755 m2 factory building. Eight of the case studies were conducted independently in the Negev Desert in Israel. The thermal model is also used in a program that was custom-made for the AGREMENT Board (certification board for the thermal performance of new low-cost housing projects). Extensions to the standard tool were introduced to predict the potential for condensation on the various surfaces. Standard user patterns were incorporated in the program so that all the buildings are evaluated on the same basis. In the second part of this study the implementation of integrated simulation is discussed. A solution algorithm, based on the Tarjan depth first-search algorithm, was implemented. This ensures that the minimum number of variables are identified. A quasi-Newton solution algorithm is used to solve the resultant simultaneous equations. Various extensions to the HVAC and control models and simulation originally suggested by Rousseau [1] were implemented. Firstly, the steady-state models were extended by using a simplified time-constant approach to emulate the dynamic response of the equipment. Secondly, a C02 model for the building zone was implemented. Thirdly, the partload performance of particular equipment was implemented. Further extensions to the simulation tool were implemented so that energy management strategies could be simulated. A detailed discussion of the implications of the energy management systems was given and the benefits of using these strategies were clearly illustrated, in this study. Finally, the simulation tool was verified by three case studies. The buildings used for the verification ranged from a five-storeyed office and laboratory building, to a domestic dwelling. The energy consumption and the dynamics of the HVAC systems could be predicted sufficiently accurately to warrant the use of the tool for future building retrofit studies / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 1997. / gm2014 / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to explore in-depth, the role of Integrated Quality Management System coordinators and the role of subject advisors in the professional development of educators in the Tshwane South district and Northern Gauteng district of the Gauteng Department of Education. This qualitative research study used a case study design - the case being the role of two sets of district officials in educator professional development. This study was framed by the four main roles of the district officials as stipulated by the Personnel Administration Measures (1996), namely planning, support, supervision and educator engagement. These four main concepts were not just a point of reference but the conceptual framework underpinning the study. Altogether, eight district officials took part in this study. Semi-structured interviews were employed as data collection strategy in this study. The findings of this study were that the role of officials in planning EPD is varied and often overlaps, that support is mainly provide through school visits, but other means of support are also employed when required, that supervision and oversight is not always developmental in nature, and finally that educator engagement is often insufficient and does not always engage educators in the processes and planning of EPD. The study put forward recommendations that advance planning, advocacy and training for the implementation of IQMS be done, that professional development activities endorsed by SACE be adopted throughout the system, that a change of focus from monitoring and accountability methods in educator professional development to developmental supervision be adopted, and consultation and engagement with educators in designing and planning professional development activities be prioritised. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

An increasing number of libraries and information centers are using content management (CM) applications to develop, redesign, and maintain their websites. the purpose of this research was to provide understanding of attitudes of academic librarians about how their utilization of CM technology influences the information services they provide at the academic library’s website and to examine their perceptions of how using CM affects the creation of the web content. This research applied a qualitative research design (electronic survey and in-depth semi-structured interviews of academic subject librarians) with elements of a quantitative approach. the study discussed the concept of web authorship and supplied fundamentals for future theoretical research about authorship in web content development at academic libraries. the study provided an overview of CM at academic libraries and explored characteristics of dynamic content and semantic web applications at their websites. It discussed librarians’ opinions about issues of migration to the new content management system (CMS), factors affecting its efficient employment, and roles of librarians in web content management. Results of this study will serve to future research on management behavior of academic librarians authoring web content with the help of CM. the findings about the difficulties observed in the use of CMS and solutions, influence of training and learning, importance of cooperation and communication, adjustment of the CMS to the users’ needs, qualifications and skills needed in application of CM, distribution of responsibilities in the use of CMS, features of the CMS, and requirements to its functionality will have implications for academic and other libraries applying CM.

Orientador: Maria Helena Moraes / Banca: Kátia Luciene Maltoni / Banca: José Eduardo Corá / Banca: Sandro Roberto Brancalião / Banca: Maria de Fátima Guimarães / Resumo: As modificações antrópicas, causadas por atividades como cultivo e tráfego de máquinas, afetam diretamente a estrutura do solo, causando diminuição da estabilidade de agregados, aumento da densidade, alterações na porosidade e menor disponibilidade de água e aeração e, conseqüentemente, diminuição do desenvolvimento normal das plantas. A observação da morfologia do solo possibilita visualização da estrutura e do espaço poroso do solo em sua forma natural, tornando a micromorfologia e a análise de imagens ferramentas importantes na interpretação dos efeitos do manejo. O trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar o efeito dos sistemas de uso e manejo sobre os atributos de um Nitossolo Vermelho distroférrico, com auxílio da micromorfologia do solo. O delineamento experimental foi o inteiramente casualizado, com quatro repetições, com os seguintes tratamentos empregados por 19 anos consecutivos: arado de discos com atuação até a profundidade de 0,20 a 0,25 m + duas gradagens niveladoras, grade pesada com atuação até a profundidade de 0,15 a 0,18 m + duas gradagens niveladoras, semeadura direta, pousio com vegetação espontânea e mata. Foram determinados os seguintes atributos: curva de retenção de água, infiltração de água no solo, matéria orgânica, fracionamento químico da matéria orgânica, densidade do solo, porosidade, resistência do solo à penetração, argila dispersa em água, distribuição de agregados por tamanho e diâmetro médio ponderado. Além disso, foi realizada a análise de imagens dos blocos, para a determinação da macroporosidade, e a análise de âminas delgadas para o estudo da porosidade e estrutura do solo. As amostras indeformadas e deformadas foram coletadas nas camadas de 0,0-0,10 m e 0,10-0,20 m. A análise micromorfológica... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The anthropogenic changes caused by activities such as farming and machinery traffic directly affect soil structure, causing a decrease in aggregate stability, increased in soil bulk density, changes in porosity, permeability, lower availability of water and aeration and, consequently, the decrease in the normal development of plants. The observation of soil in its natural form provides better visualization of the structure and behavior of the soil pore space, making the micromorphology and image analysis tools important in interpreting effects of management. This study had as objective to evaluate the effect of the use and management systems on the attributes of a dystroferric Red Nitosol, with the aid of soil micromorphology. The experiment was analysed as a completely randomized design with four replications, and the following treatments employed for 19 consecutive years: disc plow acting to a depth from 0.20 to 0.25 m + two soft harrowings, heavy disc harrow acting to a depth from 0.15 to 0.18 m + two soft harrowings, no tillage, fallow with natural vegetation and forest. The following soil attributes were determined: water retention curve, water infiltration, organic matter, quantification of the humic fractions, bulk density, porosity, resistance to penetration, dispersed clay, distribution of aggregates by size classes and mean weight diameter. The block image analysis were performed to determine the macroporosity, and the analysis of thin sections to study the porosity and soil structure. The undisturbed and disturbed samples were collected in two layers, between 0.0 to 0.10 m and 0.10-0.20 m. The soil micromorphological and micromorfometric analysis allows to characterize the effect of soil use and management... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

The energy consumption of the use phase of buildings accounts for almost 30 per-cent of the global energy consumption and is expected to increase in the coming years (Santamouris and Vasilakopoulou, 2021). Furthermore, increasing demand for energy-efficient buildings can be expected due to the introduction of legislative frameworks, such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive (European Commission, 2022b). With the use of building management systems, the energy use of a building can be monitored and optimized (Joseph, 2018). However, it is important not to shift the saved energy use of the building onto the large number of electronic devices needed in the systems. This can be prevented by using ecodesign, which refers to the integration of environmental aspects into the product development process (ISO, 2002).  This thesis aims to find solutions for reducing the environmental impact of electronic products in building management systems, both by finding redesign improvement options and improvement areas within the product development processes of the products. This involved a case study, conducted together with the R&amp;D department at a multi-national company within the electrical equipment industry. Improvement options for four products within the building management system category were generated by using Quality Function Deployment for Environment, where normalized results from life cycle assessments of each product were used for environmental inputs. A total of six improvement options were developed, and the reduction in environmental impact that these would imply was quantified using life cycle assessments. For Product A, the prioritized option was to extend the lifetime of the product from 10 to 15 years. For Product B, changing the production country from Romania to Sweden would reduce the impacts the most. For Product C and Product D, introducing a power-saving mode was the most preferable option. Furthermore, improvement suggestions for environmental sustainability in the product development process at the company were developed by using a four-step method inspired by Charter and Tischner (2001), and ecodesign success factors identified by Johansson (2002). This resulted in nine improvement suggestions within the areas of management, customer relationships, development processes, and competence. Two aspects were considered to be of higher importance; 1. to specify the value and benefits of implementing ecodesign together with relevant stakeholders, and to identify activities and resources needed to achieve that; 2. to consider environmental aspects already at the first step of the product development process. It was also shown that it is of importance to create ecodesign implementation strategies and tools that are customized to the specific company considered for successful integration of environmental aspects in the product development process.

Many of our most important and debated environmental problems of today have a tight relationship to the built environment. Examples are energy use, diffusion of chemical compounds through building materials and products and negative health impacts caused by emissions to indoor environments. Systematic work with such issues practiced in environmental management systems has become more and more common in companies, also in real estate companies. A series of studies have been exploring whether the application of environmental management systems also effectively ascertain reduced environmental impact. It has turned out that in many cases, this was not even possible to evaluate, since follow-up procedures often are insufficient. The purpose of this project was to study environmental management in real estate companies and to come up with ideas on how this practice could benefit from improved follow-up of environmental impact. In the first part of the project, nine real estate companies of different types were studied through deep interviews and document analysis. The companies were primarily chosen because they were considered to have an ambitious environmental management practice. And even though many of the companies also were very ambitious, the results indicate that it is difficult to draw conclusions concerning improvements in terms of reduced environmental impact. The formulation of targets and objectives with unclear relation to reduced environmental impact is an important reason. A result is that follow-up of improvements is pursued in diverse ways and this is mainly due to the difficulties of relating company activities to environmental impact. In the second part of the project a case study of a real estate unit (a housing unit with 900 apartments) was pursued. Large amounts of quantitative data on environmentally influencing flows were collected in order to explore the possibilities to account for the environmental impact of such a unit. Based on these data, a few environmental indicators with as clear relationship to environmental impact as possible were suggested and calculated, mainly through LCA-methodology. The amount of CO2-equivalents per year caused by the energy use and transports of the unit is one example of an indicator, which is expressing the unit’s contributions to the global problem of climate change. Both the flow’s extent and significance are then expressed in contrast to traditional measurements of energy use, like the amount of kWh/sqm and year. Indicators of this type may be used in order to develop environmental management in real estate companies, for example to formulate objectives and targets with a higher degree of relationship to environmental impact and to follow-up the efficiency of the environmental management system more clearly. For energy use, this is possible today. For other aspects in real estate management, indicators need to be developed further. Concerning availability of data from real estate for calculating environmental impact, structural difficulties to find data is a problem for some activities. However, routines for data collection are possible to develop. Clear, quantitative target formulations and benchmarking are examples of situations that support the introduction of routines for such data collection. / <p>QC 20100601</p>

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This thesis explores the components of the MCSs in use by two Albanian Mobile Operators AMC and Eagle. The methodology used is that of multiple case studies; the study is interpretative, analyzing qualitative data, and has an inductive approach. There are three MCS frameworks used the Object of Control (Merchant and Van der Stede 2007), Control Package (Malmi and Brown 2008) and Performance Management Systems (Otley and Ferreira 2009). The empirical findings were gathered by using semi-structured interviews. Both managerial and non-managerial staff were interviewed according to their areas of expertise in MCSs. The findings suggest that the MCSs used by the two operators are highly structured as per the three frameworks, that AMC does not use any well known model (such as BSC, Tableau de Bord, Performance Prism etc.), whereas Eagle uses a customized BSC, and that the strategies of each of the companies are translated into action through the respective MCSs.