Productivity improvement within the construction industry has addressed issues that are predominantly associated with activities and tasks on construction sites, and less so in the office work. The lack of an understanding of the proportion of productive time during working hours for designers, as well as the measurement method forms a significant gap in the knowledge of the design process. Productivity management cycle comprised of 4 phases: measurement; evaluation; planning; and improvement. Therefore, measurement becomes essential in productivity improvement. This study identifies the lack of defined duration for design task and measurement of design activity time as an essential gap in the productivity knowledge that relates to designers.

This dissertation examines the relationship between productivity growth and research activities of heterogeneous firms, and the contribution of firm heterogeneity to business cycle fluctuations. The first chapter uses a dynamic model to study firms' decisions on whether to conduct research in house, with external units or via both modes. Productivity is modeled to evolve endogenously according to Research and Development (R&D) modes, and the costs of starting and continuing research are random and mode specific. Model estimates from a panel of Chinese manufacturing firms show that in-house R&D is more effective and costs less to maintain, but smaller firms choose external R&D because of its lower startup cost. These estimates are consistent with the observed cross-sectional differences in firm size by research status, and can match the persistence and transition dynamics in R&D modes. Simulation exercises show that continuation cost reduction induces more changes in R&D decisions, but start up cost reduction leads to most of the aggregate productivity gain. The second chapter investigates the impact of innovation on firm level prices. This impact depends on how innovation affects quality and efficiency and how the firm passes these changes onto prices. Estimation results of the empirical model with a panel of Spanish firms show that firms take advantage of process innovations to enlarge markups by not completely passing onto prices the decrease in cost. Product innovations could increase or decrease cost but they do not affect markups, thus we do not find prices to change systematically with them. The third chapter examines the contribution of firm level shocks to output fluctuations for four OECD countries (US, Germany, Canada and the UK). Recent studies stemming from Gabaix (2011) show that when few firms account for a disproportionately large share of production, shocks to these firms can propagate to generate business cycle fluctuations. However, we find that while firm size distribution is highly skewed in these four economies, the ability of the largest firms to transmit shocks is not universal and thus should not be taken for granted.

The "Physical Distribution Concept" is being increasingly recognised as a vitally important business philosophy for those firms for which efficient physical distribution is critical to marketing success. Manufacturers of products which are perishable, easily substitutable; and/or quickly obsolescent are some which fall into this category. In a competitive business environment, factors such as the " availability" of the product, and not simply its price or quality, begin to exert a significant influence on the purchasing decision. The "Physical Distribution Concept" comprises three elements, namely, consumer orientation; organizational integration and profit orientation. "Physical Distribution Orientation" refers to the predisposition of the firm and its employees to these three elements. For the Physical Distribution Concept to serve as an effective guide to management action, a physical distribution orientation on the part of all those concerned with marketing and physical distribution-related activities in a firm, is a pre-requisite. The chief executive, in particular, should adhere to this business philosophy, regardless of the functional route he followed to his position. In his leadership role, theory holds that he exerts considerable influence on his subordinates, and consequently on his firm's way of doing business. This thesis is concerned with an analysis of the Physical Distribution Concept. It focuses on the chief executives of firms manufacturing consumer convenience goods, as well as consumer shopping goods. As such, it is primarily concerned with determining the extent to which the chief executives are physical distribution oriented and whether there is a statistically significant relationship between their extent of physical distribution orientation and their companies' performance. The thesis is also concerned with the extent to which any pattern of organizational arr angements for physical distribution exists.

The aim of this study is classification of production factors in company. Assess the possibility of evaluating the effectiveness of production factors and analyse the impact of the efficiency of production factors on business performance of selected business entity.Calculations are divided to years 2010 2014. The study is divided into practical and theoretical parts. The theoretical part deals with the factors of production in the enterprise, ways of measuring the effectiveness of factors of production and evaluation of the efficiency of utilization of production factors. Furthermore, the theoretical part deals with the influence of the efficiency of production factors on business performance. The practical part describes the development of production factors of chosen company. There are applied methods of evaluating the effectiveness of production factors and evaluated the effect of the use of production factors on the economic results of the company. For these purposes there are used indicators of efficiency and productivity. By calculations were detected irreplaceability of individual indicators of effectiveness. There was also found a high dependence on the performance of the enterprise in productivity. Indicator with the largest impact on company performance is the labour productivity 3.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Toni Hargraves, for the Master of Science degree in Behavior Analysis and Therapy, presented on April 2015, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: ASSESSMENT OF A METACONTINGENCY INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE FOR A REHABILITATION DAY TRAINING CLASSROOM MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Ruth Anne Rehfeldt The following study evaluated the effects of a metacontingency instructional package on interlocking behaviors by measuring the products produced by the interlocking behaviors of four adults attending a specialized rehabilitation center and working to obtain financial gain and community inclusion. The package was a manipulation of the environment of a day training classroom by incorporating a program where contingencies were available on an interrelated level and targeted as many individuals as possible to provide the largest societal gain. For 3 adults with mild to severe intellectual disabilities, task completion increased above task completion averages observed during baseline conditions where only individualized tasks were presented. For all participants, cooperative behaviors were only observed in the condition where tasks were interrelated with tasks of peers and returned to baselines levels once the package was removed. Producing the changes at this level may be socially relevant due to the potential gains of the participants, potential gain of the rehabilitation setting in relation to funding for productivity results, and the potential gain to the overall community through increased social skills of individuals who interact in that setting.

The purpose of this report is to generate the capacity for dialogue around the tenants of design thinking and strategy, the perceived systemic underpinnings of productivity and economic fortitude. This report contends that in order for the US economy to generate productivity growth, by way of a virtuous cycle of job growth and value added, organizations and individuals as well as the public sector must begin thinking through design. This report questions what it takes for organizations to make breakthrough productivity transformations that spark novel developments in customer value. Fieldwork was conducted on a variety of levels in effort to further the understanding of the way design strategy can take form at the personal, organizational, and societal levels. Primary insights were generated through an organizational ethnography of COMMON, a collaborative community and brand committed to accelerating social and economic innovation. Ultimately, a systemic framework is established that suggests strategic cultural alignment at an organizational level links individual wholeness to economic growth.

År 2017 befinner sig Sverige i en bostadsbrist och de kommande sju åren finns det ett behov av 600 000 nya bostäder. Samtidigt så är produktiviteten i byggbranschen låg jämfört med andra tillverkande branscher och kostnaderna för att producera en bostad i Sverige är högst i hela EU. Det finns därför ett behov av att öka produktiviteten i den svenska byggbranschen. Inom tillverkningsbranschen implementerades tidigt produktionsteorin Lean vilket har visat sig öka produktiviteten. Leankonceptet har sedan spridit sig till övriga branscher och däribland byggbranschen.   Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för hur svenska företag inom byggbranschen använder sig av och resonerar kring hur Lean kan bidra till en ökad produktivitet. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats. Respondenterna i studien kommer från olika delar av byggbranschen för att få ett bredare perspektiv av hur Lean används inom byggbranschen. Urvalet består av två större byggföretag, ett VVS-bolag och en materialleverantör/logistik-bolag. För att förstå hur dessa företag resonerar och arbetar med Lean har fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfört. Studien visar att inget av de intervjuade företagen arbetar fullt ut med Lean men att de använder sig av vissa verktyg eller modeller från Leankonceptet. Respondenterna hade en positiv uppfattning till Lean och dess implementering i byggbranschen sett till produktivitet.

Submitted by KAIO CÉSAR RAGGHIANTI null (kaioragghianti@hotmail.com) on 2016-01-13T17:02:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação final.pdf: 1290223 bytes, checksum: c3d7f8ada11adbfa971a4c172f7f9016 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-01-14T11:25:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ragghianti_kc_me_jabo_int.pdf: 1290223 bytes, checksum: c3d7f8ada11adbfa971a4c172f7f9016 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-14T11:25:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ragghianti_kc_me_jabo_int.pdf: 1290223 bytes, checksum: c3d7f8ada11adbfa971a4c172f7f9016 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Uma das alternativas para a redução da adubação mineral, sem o comprometimento da produção e produtividade da cana-de-açúcar é a utilização de adubos biológicos. O presente trabalho foi conduzido com o objetivo de determinar, em duas safras seguidas, a qualidade tecnológica, a produtividade agrícola e a rentabilidade da cana-de-açúcar, cultivada em solo que recebeu diferentes doses de fertilização minera,l associadas ou não a adubação biológica. As amostragens dos colmos de cana ocorreram na Fazenda de Ensino Pesquisa e Extensão da FCAV/UNESP- Jaboticabal, SP. As análises foram realizadas no Laboratório de Tecnologia do Açúcar e Etanol do departamento de Tecnologia da mesma universidade. A utilização do adubo biológico não influenciou a qualidade da cana-de-açúcar nas safras estudadas, independente do nível de fertilização mineral utilizado. A combinação de adubação biológica e doses menores de adubações minerais mostrou-se efetiva, com os tratamentos utilizando 75% da adubação mineral recomendada, safra 2013/2014, e o tratamento com 0%, na safra 2014/2015, na presença do adubo biológico, mostraram maiores produtividades de ATR e, consequentemente, maiores rentabilidades líquidas. / An alternative to the reduction of mineral fertilizer, without compromising sugarcane production and productivity is the use of organic fertilizers. This study was conducted in order to determine, in two consecutive crop seasons, the sugarcane technological quality, agricultural productivity and profitability, grown in soil that received different mining fertilization levels, associated with biological fertilization. Sampling of cane stalks occurred in Fazenda de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão of FCAV / UNESP Jaboticabal, SP. Analyses were performed in Laboratório de Tecnologia do Açúcar e Álcool of Technology department of the same university. The use of organic fertilizer did not influence the sugarcane quality in both crop seasons, regardless of the level of mineral fertilizers used. The combination of biological fertilizer and lower levels of mineral fertilizers proved to be effective, with treatments using 75% of the recommended mineral fertilization, during crop 2013/2014, and treatment with 0% in the, during 2014/2015 crop season, in the presence of biological fertilizer, showed higher productivity of ATR and consequently higher profitability.

Key factors in using variable renewable energy to sustain crop growth were investigated using the Isle of Lewis as a case study. Methods investigated sought to exploit plants' abilities to accommodate a variable solar input by supplementing it with variable renewable energy. The extant solar resource on Lewis was characterised. The mean ratio of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) to solar radiation (SR) (fE) recorded in 2010 was 0.458. fE was found to be significantly different between the first and last hour of daylight and 12:00 GMT (F, (2, 33) = 7.98, p<0.001) and between winter and summer months (F, (1, 10) = 20.86, p<0.001). This supports the suggestion that fE decreases as the atmospheric path length decreases. Significantly higher mean fE was also identified for the cloudiest days (F, (1, 22) = 6.22, p<0.05). Supplementing sunlight with intermittent, artificial illumination powered using wind energy significantly increased the growth of Brassica hirta. 53.26% of the additional dry weight produced using fixed diurnal illumination was achieved with 35% of the energy using this technique. The dry weight of B. hirta grown with illumination timed with tidal streams was not significantly different from that grown using fixed diurnal patterns. This is potentially important for the use of renewable energy for horticultural illumination. The possibility of using energy to prioritise lighting in well insulated growing structures and the compatibility of electricity production and horticultural demand on Lewis were considered. These findings support the direct use of variable renewable energy to sustain crop growth and promote the concept of using plants to store renewable energy. This is of potential benefit for problems of renewable energy intermittency, the predicted need to increase world food supply and providing economic opportunities for remote areas with a poor solar resource but good supplies of variable renewable energy.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:28:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-04-13Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:58:00Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 mendozacortez_jw_me_jabo.pdf: 811308 bytes, checksum: 12c4c8c25fd25d4f4e84f933f6a9154b (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / O trabalho foi realizado no município de Jaboticabal, SP (575 m de altitude, 21°15΄ 22˝ S e 48° 15΄ 58˝ W), tendo como objetivo verificar o efeito de doses de nitrogênio (uréia) e de esterco de bovino no estado nutricional, crescimento e produtividade de rabanete. O delineamento experimental foi blocos ao acaso, em esquema fatorial 2x4x4, com três repetições. Os tratamentos resultaram da combinação dos fatores cultivar (25 e 19), doses de esterco (0, 25, 50 e 75 t ha-1 em base seca) e doses de N (0, 60, 120 e 180 kg ha-1). O aumento nas doses de esterco e de N proporcionaram maiores altura de planta, área foliar, massa fresca e seca de raízes e produtividade comercial de ambas as cultivares, mas com maior contribuição do N do que do esterco. A máxima produtividade comercial da cv. 19 (20,3 t ha-1) foi obtida com 75 t ha-1 de esterco e 139 kg ha-1 de N, enquanto da cv. 25 (11,9 t ha-1) com 75 t ha-1 de esterco e 180 kg ha-1 de N. As doses de máxima eficiência econômica observadas para a cv. 25 foram 65,1 t ha-1 e 180 kg ha-1 de esterco e N, respectivamente, enquanto para a cv. 19 foram 63,6 t ha-1 e 144,7 kg ha-1 de esterco e N, respectivamente. / This work was carried out in Jaboticabal, SP (575 m of altitude, 21°15΄ 22˝ S and 48° 15΄ 58˝ W) aiming verify nitrogen (urea) and cattle manure doses effect in the radish nutritional status, growth and productivity. The experimental design used was the randomized blocks within a 2x4x4 factorial scheme, 3 replications. The treatments resulted from the following combination: cultivars (25 and 19), cattle manure doses (0, 25, 50, and 75 t ha-1 dry basis) and N doses (0, 60, 120 and 180 kg ha-1). The increasing cattle manure and urea doses provided higher plant height, leaf area, root fresh and dry mass and commercial productivity in both cultivars, N contributing more than the cattle manure though. The cv 19 maximum commercial productivity (20.34 t ha-1) was obtained using 75 ton ha-1 of cattle manure and 139 kg ha-1 of N. to the cv 25 (11.90 t ha-1) with 75 t ha-1 of cattle manure and 180 kg ha-1 of N. The maximum economic efficiency dose observed to cv 25 were 65.1 t ha-1 and 180 kg ha-1 of cattle manure and N, respectively, while to cv 19 were 63.6 t ha-1 and 144.7 kg ha-1 of cattle manure and N, respectively.