Thesis (M.Eng.(Industrial Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 1999. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Include bibligraphical references.

As an engineering discipline within the United Kingdom, fire engineering is relatively young. It has been accepted as an alternative to traditional prescriptive means of meeting the functional requirements of the Building Regulations since the publication of the 1985 edition of Approved Document B, which was one of a series issued to provide practical guidance on the requirements of the Building Regulations for England and Wales. It deals specifically with fire safety requirements for building work. Performance-based fire engineering design methods have facilitated architectural design freedoms and supported creative construction. This research has established that for a successful and holistic fire engineering strategy to be developed; The end-user client should describe from the outset what they want their building or facility to achieve, and there should be an agreed process for this to happen; Commercial property insurers should be consulted and exploited as a useful and intelligent resource to the design team; and Fire engineering practitioners should fulfil their role as advisers to the architect, or building design team, in order to achieve the agreed objectives. However, it has become evident that since fire engineering has become more established, it is clear that we are far from this ideal situation. Significant concerns have been raised regarding various elements of the design process including the ability to consider aspects other than life safety. Within this discourse, the author has outlined their research investigating how performance-based fire engineering techniques are used within building design. The literature review explores key concepts of fire engineering including definitions and benefits etc., and also describes concerns regarding the motivations for applying fire engineering techniques to building design. Survey-based research suggests that greater input is required from commercial property insurers at the building design stage in order to champion property protection and business resilience objectives. A case-study investigation, however, concluded that for a number of reasons, it is impractical to expect the insurer to influence the design team to the extent desired. Therefore, in response to these various research activities, the concept of business impact analysis has been introduced and developed by the author to ensure that property protection and business continuity objectives are at the forefront of new building design, whether the insurer is involved in the process or not. In order to help consulting fire engineers and architectural design teams incorporate business protection objectives in their fire safety designs, there is a requirement for the established British Standard, which defines a fire engineering procedure, to be enhanced. The author was instrumental in acquiring support from the Technical Committee within BSI responsible for maintaining the Standard, and PD 7974-8 Application of fire safety engineering principles to the design of buildings- Part 8: Property protection, mission continuity and resilience (British Standards institution, 2012) has been developed and published, led by the author. This significant new Standard embeds the use of a business impact analysis as an integral part of the qualitative design review process. Without following the BIA process as described in the draft document PD7974-8, business resilience objectives may be missed within the building design phase, allowing an inferior package of fire protection measures to be incorporated into building developments. For the first time, this new document will enable the building designer to be fully cognisant of their client's critical processes and the resources required to support these processes. It will therefore enable the appropriate fire safety measures to be incorporated into the building design to enhance business resilience. Initial evaluations of this guide though various stakeholder dissemination activities and a public consultation process has been positive. The potential concerns that the evaluations have raised regarding the role of the fire engineer throughout the building design phase, and regarding the prevalence of BIA within organisations will be addressed in the guide and the way it is publicised upon its launch.

Industries want to add value to their offerings but to do this, rather than just accepting customer requirements, they now need to know how their products and/or services have been embedded within their customer’s process to achieve a goal that the customer has; any gaps within the process then present an opportunity for the provider to fill these gaps. The System-In-Use (SIU) Methodology presented in this thesis facilitates customer issues in “pulling” the supply chain into creating new solutions as well as the supply chain “pushing” new value propositions into improving customer processes. It does this by drawing on a detailed theory of value and capability which was developed as part of this research. The method has been applied in five industries in processes encompassing high value-assets with very positive outcomes for each of the stakeholders involved: notably, three solutions have been adopted in industry for which a KT-Box award was granted by Cambridge University. Cont/d.

Increasing economic, social and environmental problems around the world have shown that current models of economic development cannot be sustained. Thus, new patterns of consumption are needed. According to the literature, global companies are well placed to attempt leveraging sustainable consumption, as their production lines; supply chains; products and services extend across many continents, and as such the cumulative effect of their actions are wide reaching. This research sets out to better understand the intertwined factors that companies in two different contexts (Mexico and the UK), need to consider in order to leverage sustainable consumption. Through the literature review it was seen that sustainable consumption requires a multitude of changes, which have to occur at a systems level. In response to this, user-centred design (UCD) principles were seen as a valuable approach to give a broader account of the complexities around consumption and consumer's behaviour that could be communicated to higher management. A series of interviews, a focus group and a document analysis was undertaken to collect qualitative data. The findings led to the construction of a theoretical framework supported by UCD principles. The theoretical framework was then translated into the Sustainable Consumption Leveraging (SCL) Model and its toolkit. The SCL Model is a mechanism that takes into account the interaction of elements in a specific business context to identify areas of opportunity to leverage sustainable consumption through a consumer-focused approach. During a series of workshops, the SCL Model and its toolkit were tested to distinguish further opportunities of improvement and to understand where global companies stand with regards leveraging sustainable consumption. The research concludes by saying that companies need to work in collaboration with other actors to build a strong sustainability and innovation strategy that could help them to find new ways of doing business that can enhance more sustainable lifestyles.

The idea of rhythm as applied to interior space is the basis for this thesis. The site is an old warehouse with a structure that contains a repetitive rhythm in the form of a columnar grid and a corresponding fenestration pattern, yet the building also has an atypical wedge shape. The program is a design business incubator, a place where design business startups, recent graduates of Virginia design programs, can begin their design careers and find their rhythm in a cooperative and supportive environment, a collage of design businesses, if you will. Rhythm is essential in our lives, from the beating of our hearts to the rising and setting of the sun. Rhythm is also essential to spatial design. Our built environments require some form of pattern in order to help create a sense of stability and familiarity with our surroundings. Whether in music or painting, poetry or design, rhythm starts with simple repetition. But rhythm moves beyond mere repetition to include a diverse assortment of elements. The more complex a rhythm, the more we can become involved with that rhythm and consequently with the object that provides the rhythm. How does rhythm translate into space and time? How is it possible to develop a more complex and expressive rhythm in a particular space? What might be considered more expressive? How can this old warehouse function as a design business incubator while new rhythms are introduced into the mix of old rhythms through the fulfillment of this program and thereby create a collage of space?

The thesis focuses on businnes plan of a newly started up company ArtBe Ltd. The theoretical part looks at the importance of a business plan for businessmen and companies. The emphasis is on the structure of the business plan, upon which the business plan is based in the practical part. The practical part is a business plan of ArtBe Ltd., which is a company that runs an internet portal selling handmade products of Czech and Slovak authors. The business plan also evaluates possibilities of the companie´s future expansion.

In recent years, new regulatory guidance has spurred organizations to replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives. The factors and influences that shape decisions to transition to safer chemicals are of interest to decision scientists. Previous studies have examined the role that various factors, such as regulation, health impacts, and environmental impacts, have played in shaping such decisions. However, two key research gaps have been identified. First, existing semi-quantitative-based studies do not adequately capture the complexity of decision-making. Second, no in-depth qualitative study of a current substitution process, elucidating decision-making mechanisms at various stages of the design process, has yet been performed. The current research addresses these gaps. The first component of the study is an extensive survey of product and chemical manufacturers to elicit potential tradeoffs concerning final product design and redesign decisions. Such tradeoffs are characterized by a set of six factors affecting product design, which are further disaggregated into thirty-three attributes distributed across these factors. Statistical methods including Bayesian Dirichlet modeling and Principal Component Analysis were used to show: 1) two factors were statistically significantly different than other factors, 2) how features such as company size and time of decision affected factor weighting, and 3) that nine principal components explain 79% of the variance in the attribute scores. The second component of the study was a phenomenological assessment of a current substitution process: replacement of cadmium with Zn-Ni for aircraft components, undertaken by the U.S. Navy and Air Force. This study synthesized existing research in cognition, decision-making, and knowledge management. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants representing engineering, environmental, safety, and management disciplines. Qualitative analysis was used to identify and characterize the underlying mechanisms guiding the decision process, including external/internal influences, organizational structure and inertia, and innovative team problem solving. The results from this research contribute to theoretical knowledge in decision-making and cognition, as well as practical knowledge for organizations and policymakers. The broader implications of this research study include a realization that decision tradeoffs vary based on decision contexts, indicating that sector-specific future policy and guidance efforts are needed.

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