Automotive Wiring Harness development with the use of „Follow the Sun” – teams located in different time zones

Demands of automotive industry is especially focused on new solutions. Nowadays, these needs are stronger than have ever been. Manufacturers are constantly looking for new ways to release their products in the shortest possible time. The research described in the paper concerns work organization and project management in automotive industry. It is a part of PhD project, dedicated to the implementation of remote team collaboration, and is focused on wiring harness development. The first part of the paper is devoted to the review of different forms of work organization with special attention paid to Follow The Sun approach. In the second part of the paper, the characteristic of the wiring harness production was described. Especially, the methodology and design processes. The third part of the article presents a proposition of transforming the currently existing development process with the use of remote teamwork solutions. The article concludes with a description of the implementation of the test projects. Selected indicators were introduced to determine the profitability of this implementation.

EFFECT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING-SCRUM ON IMPROVEMENT PHYSICS ACHIEVEMENT AND TEAM COLLABORATION ABILITY OF LOWER-SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT

Employers believe that people with the ability to work in teams can bring success to their business. Therefore, it is very essential to start cultivating students' teamwork skills in lower-secondary school to prepare students for the future. This study took "Physics in Bicycles" as an example to explore the effect of Teaching and Learning-Scrum (TL-Scrum) on students' physics achievement and team collaboration ability. It was conducted at a lower-secondary school in Changsha, China. "Physical Knowledge of Bicycles" Test and "Team Collaboration Ability" Measurement were applied to the two groups prior to and following the experiment. The experimental group (N=61) participated in TL-Scrum teaching, whereas the control group (N=58) participated without TL-Scrum teaching. The results revealed a significant difference between the two groups, with the experimental group learners performing better than the control group in the academic achievement. In addition, the results showed better positive effects of TL-Scrum on experimental group learners in team collaboration ability. Results suggested that learners achieved better academic achievements and team collaboration with the approach of TL-Scrum, which pointed to certain implications for physics teaching research, as well as in education of future physics teachers. Keywords: lower-secondary school students, physics education, team collaboration, TL-Scrum

“To be relied upon and trusted”: The centrality of personal relationships to collaboration in HE, in a successful cross-team institutional change project

The change to online delivery in March 2020 provided an opportunity as well as a requirement to change the way we work in Higher Education (HE), from a traditional stance focussed on hierarchy and roles to one that embraced individual core skills and competencies. The Transformation Academy (TA), Solent University's response led by the Solent Learning and Teaching Institute (SLTI), had as its goal the preparation of 1100 modules for online delivery in September 2020, delivered via institutional cross-team collaboration to ensure success within a narrow timescale. Collaboration is by necessity situated and dialogic, and most effectively driven by an affective and trust-based connection between collaborative partners as well as to the project goal. In bringing together previously disparate and siloed teams, the TA project’s success relied upon new collaborative partners quickly forming those connections, despite the prevailing neoliberal emphasis in UK HE on performativity and pressure from senior management to complete the work within 12 weeks. Adopting a qualitative empirical research design and single, local, exploratory case study approach, data is derived from 11 semi-structured interviews with project members who collaborated with colleagues outside of their usual team structures, to explore the personal value they perceived obtaining from the TA project. Preliminary findings suggest that Learning and Teaching (L&T) collaborations in a pressured environment benefit from authenticity in emotion and interpersonal affective connections, which in turn are engendered by openness and clarity in communication, a flattened hierarchy, and a sense of ownership for all participants.

Developing a team-based assessment strategy: direct observation of interprofessional team performance in an ambulatory teaching practice

Background: High functioning interprofessional teams may benefit from understanding how well (or not so well) a team is functioning and how teamwork can be improved. A team-based assessment can provide team insight into performance and areas for improvement. Though individual assessment via direct observation is common, few residency programs in the United States have implemented strategies for interprofessional team (IPT) assessments. Methods: We piloted a program evaluation via direct observation for a team-based assessment of an IPT within one Internal Medicine residency program. Our teams included learners from medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant and psychology graduate programs. To assess team performance in a systematic manner, we used a Modified McMaster-Ottawa tool to observe three types of IPT encounters: huddles, patient interactions and precepting discussions with faculty. The tool allowed us to capture team behaviors across various competencies: roles/responsibilities, communication with patient/family, and conflict resolution. We adapted the tool to include qualitative data for field notes by trained observers that added context to our ratings. Results: We observed 222 encounters over four months. Our results support that the team performed well in measures that have been iteratively and intentionally enhanced – role clarification and conflict resolution. However, we observed a lack of consistent incorporation of patient-family preferences into IPT discussions. Our qualitative results show that team collaboration is fostered when we look for opportunities to engage interprofessional learners. Conclusions: Our observations clarify the behaviors and processes that other IPTs can apply to improve collaboration and education. As a pilot, this study helps to inform training programs of the need to develop measures for, not just individual assessment, but also IPT assessment.

The feasibility of 'Building Performance Sketching' within the building design process

<p>This study investigated the question of whether or not the distributed model method (DMM) could be perceived by the New Zealand building industry’s architects and engineers as overcoming barriers which prevent them from implementing building performance sketching within their design processes. Current literature on the barriers to building performance simulation (BPS) have suggested a number of recommendations for tool developers to address, with little documented success to their impact on overcoming these perceived barriers. The recommendations suggested mainly improving tool interoperability for effective design team collaboration, and means to demonstrate model quality assurance. The DMM presented itself within literature as a new means to overcome the difficulties of interoperability faced by the central modelling method, commonly used in building information modelling (BIM), to meet requirements for design team collaboration. With the ability to provide high interoperability and parametric capabilities with detailed simulation programs, the DMM was hypothesised to address all recommendations from literature to overcome the barriers to implementing BPS within the design process. Furthermore, the study proposed the use of building performance sketching as an approach to assess the architectural sketch as a means to ensure quality assurance. The study concluded that DMM cannot currently address all wants and wishes of users established in literature, but has potential. Future research efforts are required to focus upon: creating industry specific templates for building types; developing these templates to be adaptable for the different modelling operators of the proposed workflow demonstrated to the participants within this study; and developing quality assurance standards for modelling and guidelines for model validation. Finally, the study concluded with future work required beyond tool development: improving education of architects; and introducing legislation.</p>

The feasibility of 'Building Performance Sketching' within the building design process

<p>This study investigated the question of whether or not the distributed model method (DMM) could be perceived by the New Zealand building industry’s architects and engineers as overcoming barriers which prevent them from implementing building performance sketching within their design processes. Current literature on the barriers to building performance simulation (BPS) have suggested a number of recommendations for tool developers to address, with little documented success to their impact on overcoming these perceived barriers. The recommendations suggested mainly improving tool interoperability for effective design team collaboration, and means to demonstrate model quality assurance. The DMM presented itself within literature as a new means to overcome the difficulties of interoperability faced by the central modelling method, commonly used in building information modelling (BIM), to meet requirements for design team collaboration. With the ability to provide high interoperability and parametric capabilities with detailed simulation programs, the DMM was hypothesised to address all recommendations from literature to overcome the barriers to implementing BPS within the design process. Furthermore, the study proposed the use of building performance sketching as an approach to assess the architectural sketch as a means to ensure quality assurance. The study concluded that DMM cannot currently address all wants and wishes of users established in literature, but has potential. Future research efforts are required to focus upon: creating industry specific templates for building types; developing these templates to be adaptable for the different modelling operators of the proposed workflow demonstrated to the participants within this study; and developing quality assurance standards for modelling and guidelines for model validation. Finally, the study concluded with future work required beyond tool development: improving education of architects; and introducing legislation.</p>

Team Collaboration Assessment Method in Marine Engine Room Simulator

Based on the fuzzy mathematics and set similarity theory an intelligent collaboration assessment method for engine room simulator was studied. First, an integrated weighting method using both subjective and objective information was designed to obtain the weight vector; second, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method was used to calculate the completion degree of team collaboration, then the Dice coefficient and the Tversky coefficient were adopted to quantify the sequence factor, interactivity factor, redundancy factor and unauthorized factor of team collaboration effectiveness; third, a comprehensive calculation was achieved by the completion degree and the four factors to get the team collaboration assessment result; finally, the influence of the collaboration factors on assessment result was analyzed by an example, and it was found that even if the team get a higher task completion degree, due to some factors, the score is still low. The research shows that the collaborative performance of a team can greatly influence the final assessment result, the quantitative analysis of team collaboration can more objectively reveal the impact on collaboration. It is an effective method to add the influence of team cooperation factors to the traditional individual evaluation.