Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-05-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:29:54Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 vieira_am_me_bauru.pdf: 954856 bytes, checksum: 77ed8fc0cea886a483add805e88b0aa2 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O processo de melhoria contínua nas organizações é uma premissa para a sobrevivência e competitividade no mercado atual. Neste contexto, os Sistemas de Gestão da Qualidade surgem como importantes instrumentos para o desempenho das empresas e dos Arranjos Produtivos Locais (APLs). O objetivo principal desta dissertação é desenvolver uma proposta de diretrizes para desenvolvimento coletivo de melhoria contínua em Micro, Pequenas e Médias Empresas (MPMEs) industriais que atuem em APLs. A proposta foi desenvolvida por meio do referencial teórico e subsidiada com elementos de um estudo de caso, o que permitiu seu desenvolvimento com conceitos que podem influenciar de forma positiva sua efetiva implantação. Como resultado, a proposta de diretrizes está estruturada em seis etapas: Preparação, Diagnóstico do APL, Diagnóstico das empresas, Implantação, Auditoria e Avaliação / The process of continuous improvement in organizations is a precondition for the survival and competitiveness in the market today. In this context, the Quality Management Systems emerge as important tools for the performance of business and Local Productive Arrangements (APLs). The main objective of this dissertation is to develop a proposal guideline for developing collective of continuous improvement in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that act on APLS industrial. The proposal was developed through theoretical and subsidized with elements of a case study, which allowed her to develop concepts that can positively influence their effective implementation. As a result, the proposal guidelines is structured in six steps: Preparation, APL Diagnostics, Diagnostics enterprises, Implementation, Audit and Evaluation

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<p> In regulated rivers, reservoir operation decisions largely determine downstream river temperature and flow. Computational methods can minimize the risk and uncertainty of making regrettable environmental release decisions and aid operations planning and performance prediction. Mathematical modeling in particular can optimize the timing and magnitude of reservoir release decisions for downstream benefit while accounting for seasonal uncertainty, water storage impact, and competing water demands. This dissertation uses optimization and modeling techniques, modifying traditional optimization modeling to include temporal correlation in outcome variables and incorporating long-term planning and risk management into prescribed reservoir operations. The proposed method is implemented in one case, a) with a state variable that tracks outcome benefits over time (fish population size) and, in another case, b) with a maximin stochastic dynamic program solution algorithm that maximizes net operational benefit and minimizes worst-case outcomes (for cold water habitat delivery). This method is particularly useful for environmental flow management, when the water quality and quantity of the river and reservoir in one time step affect the quantity and quality in the reservoir and the river for later periods. Better solutions with these methods internalize risk and hedge releases at the beginning of an operating season to maximize downstream benefit and reduce the probability of catastrophe for the season and future years. Maximizing the minimum cold-water habitat area over months of a season or multiple years, or maximizing a river indicator variable explicitly, could likely help, for example, maximize an out-migrating salmon smolt population downstream. The method is demonstrated with a case study optimizing environmental releases from Folsom Dam and another optimizing temperature management from Shasta Dam in northern California. These results inform general rules for environmental flow management and temperature management of reservoirs, with specific policy recommendations for both Folsom and Shasta reservoirs. In both cases, the added value from employing hedging rules help reservoir operations minimize the risk of environmental catastrophe and conserve storage both within an operating season and across years.</p><p>

University of Technology, Sydney. School of Management, Faculty of Business. / This study investigated how selected Australian universities evaluated and adopted various learning management systems in their teaching and learning programs, given claims of uncritical evaluation, problems and cautions in the Australian (1998: 13; Brabazon, 2002; Yetton, Forster, Hewson, Hughes, Johnston, Nightingale, Page-Hanify, Vitale and Wills, 1997) and North American (Berg, 2002; Noble, 1998b) higher education literatures. Ironically, universities charge large amounts of money teaching their students to develop competence in critical analysis, yet some studies have claimed that they were deficient in critically analysing their own decisions (Brabazon, 2002; Yetton et al., 1997). This important question has received little attention in the higher education literature, despite the high visibility and costs of these decisions. Although limited theoretical explanations have been proposed by various researchers, such as Yetton et al. (1997) and Brabazon (2002), these matters have not been the subject of published empirical research to date. A grounded theory methodological framework, validated by the insights of institutional theory, was employed throughout to promote broader sociological explanations than other studies constrained by functionalist theoretical frameworks (Yetton et al., 1997). Qualitative case studies utilising semi-structured interviews and document analysis were conducted at three Australian universities. The findings of this analysis were written up in three case study narratives and an analytic cross-case analysis. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis at the field level were undertaken as an additional source of data to verify emergent grounded theory. A grounded theory of uncritical decision making (Figure 57) was ultimately developed in response to this study’s research problem. The core category around which this model was developed (‘falling behind’) appeared in all three cases, in interviews with experts from the Australian higher education sector, and was also found in both the Australian and overseas higher education literatures. This grounded theory also represents a minor contribution to the institutional theory literature as a new institutional change process model which links the activities of key individuals with broader field developments, and integrates the constructive and reproductive assumptions of old and new institutional theory.

This research was set out to understand the underlying causes for the lack of knowledgeregarding the environmental field in Hong Kong and South China and get a basic view of thedifficulties Environmental Management Systems (EMS) encounter when being put intopractice. Interviews and factory visits were used to collect data needed to build this report.The interviews had the aim to understand how companies in Hong Kong and China managetheir environmental related work. An EMS is a set of processes and practices that enable anorganization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency, buthow was the use of such systems affecting the environmental work in reality.A total of eight persons from six different companies were interviewed. With the aim tounderstand how EMS were implemented and used from their point of view. The maindifficulty for the companies asked was the task of understanding and documenting theprocesses of ones own company. With differences such as language, culture, etc present thereis a need for a mutual ground. In the environmental field EMS are used as the commonground. Western companies are, because of the use of EMS, able to attain a picture of theenvironmental work and processes of their industrial partners in the China and Hong Kong.The result of this research shows that there still are many obstacles, for environmentalmanagement systems used by SME, left to address. There are cultural as well asinfrastructural problems that need to be addressed. It is therefore important to alter EMS inco ordinance with the Chinese social environment that it will be used in.

<p>This research was set out to understand the underlying causes for the lack of knowledgeregarding the environmental field in Hong Kong and South China and get a basic view of thedifficulties Environmental Management Systems (EMS) encounter when being put intopractice. Interviews and factory visits were used to collect data needed to build this report.The interviews had the aim to understand how companies in Hong Kong and China managetheir environmental related work. An EMS is a set of processes and practices that enable anorganization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency, buthow was the use of such systems affecting the environmental work in reality.A total of eight persons from six different companies were interviewed. With the aim tounderstand how EMS were implemented and used from their point of view. The maindifficulty for the companies asked was the task of understanding and documenting theprocesses of ones own company. With differences such as language, culture, etc present thereis a need for a mutual ground. In the environmental field EMS are used as the commonground. Western companies are, because of the use of EMS, able to attain a picture of theenvironmental work and processes of their industrial partners in the China and Hong Kong.The result of this research shows that there still are many obstacles, for environmentalmanagement systems used by SME, left to address. There are cultural as well asinfrastructural problems that need to be addressed. It is therefore important to alter EMS inco ordinance with the Chinese social environment that it will be used in.</p>

The main purpose of this report is to identify and describe the type of behaviors that should be promoted in a matrix organization. This report shows how the performance management system is a very important tool in promoting these behaviors. The report starts with an introduction to the relationship between the success of a matrix structure and the appropriate performance management system followed by the definition of important concepts in this topic. Next, the report provides general recommendations to the leaders of matrix organizations with respect their performance management system. Finally, a case study of a company with this type of structure is analyzed. / text

Database Management Systems (DBMSs) are an integral part of many applications. Web-based applications, such as e-commerce sites, are faced with highly variable workloads. The number of customers browsing and purchasing items varies throughout the day and business managers can further complicate the workload by requesting complex reports on sales data. This means the load on a database system can fluctuate dramatically with a sudden influx of requests or a request involving a complex query. If there are too many requests operating in the DBMS concurrently, then resources are strained and performance drops. To keep the DBMS’s performance consistent across varying loads, a load control system can be used. This thesis investigates the concept of a load control system based on regulating individual resource usage in a predictive manner. For the purpose of this proof-of- concept study, we focus on a specific resource; namely, the sort heap. A method of estimating sort heap usage based on the query execution plan is presented and several scheduling methods based on these estimations are proposed. A prototype load control system is used to evaluate and compare the scheduling methods. Experiments show that it is possible to both estimate sort heap requirements and to control sort heap usage using our load control system. / Thesis (Master, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2011-06-09 11:02:31.595

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