Keeping the Momentum: Driving Continuous Improvement After the Large-Scale Agile Transformation

2021 ◽  
pp. 66-82
Author(s):  
Josefine Bowring ◽  
Maria Paasivaara
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Large Scale

scholarly journals Taming the Beast of Biology: Synthetic Biology and Biological Systems Engineering

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 402-406
Author(s):  
Sven Panke
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Directed Evolution ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Strain Engineering ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
Omics Technologies ◽  
Molecular Systems ◽  
Genome Wide

Despite the availability of a variety of ' -omics ' technologies to support the system-wide analysis of industrially relevant microorganisms, the manipulation of strains towards an economically relevant goal remains a challenge. Remarkably, our ability to catalogue the participants in and model ever more comprehensive aspects of a microorganism's physiology is now complemented by technologies that permanently expand the scope of engineering interventions that can be imagined. In fact, genome-wide editing and re-synthesis of microbial and even eukaryotic chromosomes have become widely applied methods. At the heart of this emerging system-wide engineering approach, often labelled ' Synthetic Biology ' , is the continuous improvement of large-scale DNA synthesis, which is put to two-fold use: (i) starting ever more ambitious efforts to re-write existing and coding novel molecular systems, and (ii) designing and constructing increasingly sophisticated library technologies, which has led to a renaissance of directed evolution in strain engineering. Here, we briefly review some of the critical concepts and technological stepping-stones of Synthetic Biology on its way to becoming a mature industrial technology.

scholarly journals Modeling of Railway Wheels Made of Austempered Ductile Iron

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 1833-1838
Author(s):  
T. Giętka ◽  
K. Ciechacki
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Ductile Iron ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Air Transport ◽  
Austempered Ductile Iron ◽  
Rolling Stock ◽  
Railway Engineering ◽  
Time Of Travel ◽  
Railway Wheels ◽  
Railway Rolling Stock

Abstract A person is forced to travel constantly throughout its entire life. The more modern the society, the greater the pace of life, and the greater the need to be present in many places that are distant from each other. Rail transport occupies second place in this regard, after air transport. This means of transportation has many advantages, however the time of travel requires continuous improvement, in particular, to match the competition. One factor limiting the speed of travel is inter-operation between the wheels – rail kinematic pair. When rolling on a rail, a wheel is subject to wear, which unavoidably leads to its degradation. Frequent damage to both the wheel and the rail necessitates consideration of this problem. Because any changes to the rail are very expensive and time-consuming, this paper focuses on possible changes to the wheel. This paper is of an analytical nature and is based on sources in the literature, as well as on own simulations. The objective of the paper is to indicate the advantages of using ADI (Austempered Ductile Iron) as a material for the wheel of a railway rolling stock through analysis of available scientific materials and analysis based on a conducted simulation. The application of ADI on a large scale would certainly make a large impact on the development of railway engineering, significantly reducing the costs of manufacturing the product and its future exploitation.

scholarly journals Generic Engineering Competencies Required by Engineers Graduating in Australia

2012 ◽  
pp. 41-63
Author(s):  
Sally A. Male
Keyword(s):  
Program Evaluation ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Program Accreditation

Continuous improvement of engineering education is achieved through curriculum development, program evaluation, and program accreditation processes. This chapter is based on the view that one of the criteria for design of these should be alignment with the competencies required by engineers in the workplace. The chapter provides an 11-factor competency model developed in Australia to help achieve this alignment. The model describes the generic engineering competencies required by engineers graduating in Australia. The competencies embed inter-related technical and non-technical components. An advantage of this model over others is the concise and relatively distinct nature of the 11 factors due to the statistical rather than conceptual method of grouping the competencies. The chapter outlines the theoretical framework, the model, and its development. The research methods employed to develop the model include a literature review, a panel session, two large-scale surveys of engineers, and a focus group. Implications for curriculum design, accreditation, and program evaluation are discussed.

scholarly journals Analysis and Experiments of Embedded Gripping Mechanism Used in Large-scale Tools Holding Up Pile Foundation in Ocean

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Zhuo Wang ◽  
Bo Zhang ◽  
Tao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Pile Foundation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Influence Factors ◽  
Profile Angle ◽  
Offshore Engineering ◽  
Marine Economy ◽  
Foundation Pile ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract With the rapid development of the marine economy and continuous improvement of the industry, the scale of the offshore engineering is increasing. This raises interest in studying, theoretically and experimentally, gripping and bearing mechanisms for large-scale holding and lifting tools used in foundation pile installations. In this paper, the embedded gripping mechanism is studied based on the theory of elastic-plastic mechanics. The embedded and bearing performance of the tooth is simulated and the influence factors are studied. In addition, the device used in the simplified embedded experiment on the tooth of the embedded block is designed. The relationship between embedded depth, load, and tooth profile angle is identified and validated. Meanwhile, the embedded performance of linear and ring type teeth is compared experimentally in order to select the suitable type of tooth for various situations. This comparison makes the basis for designing an upending gripper for the marine pile foundation, which can realize the operation of holding the pile to prevent its falling.

The implementation of a digital service approach to fostering team autonomy, distant collaboration, and knowledge scaling in large enterprises

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-588
Author(s):  
Alexander Poth ◽  
Mario Kottke ◽  
Andreas Riel
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Effective Utilization ◽  
Digital Service ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Working Environments ◽  
Expert Team ◽  
High Scalability ◽  
Self Service ◽  
Specific Project

BACKGROUND: Autonomous acting of individuals and as teams are key elements of agile, distributed, and partly or entirely distant working environments. The availability of relevant processes, methods, tools, and guidelines is key to leveraging team autonomy. OBJECTIVE: This article presents the design and implementation of a digital self-service kit (SSK) approach featuring high scalability, as well as a quality assurance and continuous improvement mechanism. As consumers, the teams within an organization can use these SSK’s anytime and on-demand without any constraints in location, time, or quota. As producers (of knowledge and experience), they can also assume active roles in the extension and continuous improvement of the SSK’s. METHODS: This has been achieved in open community networks where feedback is actively leveraged and constantly integrated in the SSK’s design. Such open Communities of Practices (CoP) ensure that all interested parties can contribute to the adequateness of both the content and the provision of the SSK’s in both local and distant corporate settings. Both the design and implementation have been done and evaluated in a large-scale international corporate environment where high cultural diversity, as well as distant collaboration are of key importance. RESULTS: The results presented in this article include a generic digital self-service approach to distance learning and coaching of teams in the particular context of the agile transformation of large corporate organizations. Key elements include a strong and systematic expert team involvement in the process of the setup and design of such digital SSK’s, as well as a well-explained and understood kit structure for efficient and effective utilization and re-contextualization of the contained knowledge into team-specific project contexts. This contributes to team autonomy as a major prerequisite for the agile transformation, as well as knowledge scaling across the organisation. CONCLUSIONS: The key insights gained from this experiment confirm the high relevance and effectivity of the approach especially during periods where distant collaborations are essential (e.g. during a pandemic crisis).

scholarly journals Research on Continuous Improvement: Exploring the Complexities of Managing Educational Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 403-433
Author(s):  
Maxwell M. Yurkofsky ◽  
Amelia J. Peterson ◽  
Jal D. Mehta ◽  
Rebecca Horwitz-Willis ◽  
Kim M. Frumin
Keyword(s):  
Educational Change ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Formal Knowledge ◽  
What Works ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Theories Of Action ◽  
Political Dimensions

As a result of the frustration with the dominant “What Works” paradigm of large-scale research-based improvement, practitioners, researchers, foundations, and policymakers are increasingly embracing a set of ideas and practices that can be collectively labeled continuous improvement (CI) methods. This chapter provides a comparative review of these methods, paying particular attention to CI methods’ intellectual influences, theories of action, and affordances and challenges in practice. We first map out and explore the shared intellectual forebears that CI methods draw on. We then discuss three kinds of complexity to which CI methods explicitly attend—ambiguity, variability, and interdependence—and how CI methods seek a balance of local and formal knowledge in response to this complexity. We go on to argue that CI methods are generally less attentive to the relational and political dimensions of educational change and that this leads to challenges in practice. We conclude by considering CI methods’ aspirations for impact at scale, and offer a number of recommendations to inform future research and practice.

scholarly journals Specific running practices of certain regions of the East: the experience of philosophical analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 33-46
Author(s):  
Stanislav Vladimirovich Kannykin
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
Training Techniques ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Modern Context ◽  
Evil Spirits

The subject of this research is the sociocultural conditionality of specific running practices of certain regions of the ancient and modern East, which reflect the basic worldview attitudes of the authentic religious-philosophical traditions and social patterns that are characteristic to the Eastern type of civilizations. In light of the crisis of Coubertin's Olympism as a social movement and ideology, civilization of the East vividly demonstrates the importance of comprehensive spiritual development, which prompts the extraordinary physical achievements. The running experience of the Buddhist monks proves that namely in the sphere of higher ideal values is the elevating source of the need for physical perfection, and the existential goal of a human lies in continuous improvement of own capabilities, development of spiritual and bodily unity, “enlightenment”, and pursuit of harmony with the cosmos. The following conclusions were made: 1. Specific running practices of the ancient East are not competitive in nature, being just one of the means for achieving spiritual liberation. 2. Running in the ancient East was often considered as a type of dynamic meditation, which defines its uniqueness. 3. The unique training techniques of the Buddhist monks were the true methods for fulfilling the higher levels of spiritual and physical potential, which proves their universal humanistic value. 4. The social significance of specific running locomotion found its reflection in performing by bhikkhu of the secular function of heralds and religious-magic functions of personal confirmation of attainability of moksha and incantation of evil spirits. 5. The peculiarity of running in the East in the modern context is substantiated by its large-scale involvement, nonreligious motivation, capability to unite cultural principles of the Western and Eastern civilizations, serve as the means of consolidation of people, as well as express the national spirit and be form of women's emancipation.

Some comments about observations and image processing of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1

1999 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 243-248
Author(s):  
D. Kubáček ◽  
A. Galád ◽  
A. Pravda
Keyword(s):  
Image Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Harvard College ◽  
Oak Ridge ◽  
Large Scale Structures ◽  
Short Period Comet ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Scale Structures ◽  
Harvard College Observatory ◽  
Period Comet

AbstractUnusual short-period comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 inspired many observers to explain its unpredictable outbursts. In this paper large scale structures and features from the inner part of the coma in time periods around outbursts are studied. CCD images were taken at Whipple Observatory, Mt. Hopkins, in 1989 and at Astronomical Observatory, Modra, from 1995 to 1998. Photographic plates of the comet were taken at Harvard College Observatory, Oak Ridge, from 1974 to 1982. The latter were digitized at first to apply the same techniques of image processing for optimizing the visibility of features in the coma during outbursts. Outbursts and coma structures show various shapes.

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