Software for dynamic reconfigurable order picking systems

Some efforts to streamline and accelerate product-level life cycle assessments (LCA) with regards to greenhouse gas emissions (product carbon footprinting, PCF) rely on first grouping products into categories and then building simplified LCA models around emission hotpots. This requires, among others, fundamental understanding of how much such hotspots can vary from product to product, across brands, and country of origin. Here, we apply a novel fast LCA methodology to first quantify and then analyze PCFs of 3,335 stock keeping units (SKUs) of a global food snack and beverage company. We find that the often cited dominance of the supply chain's contribution to the total footprint is valid for large portfolios of products in aggregate (75%-93% contribution). However, this does not remain universally valid when analyzing individual brands and SKUs: At SKU level, the metric varies widely, from 9% (smallest supply chain contribution) to nearly 100%. For 254 of the 3,335 SKUs, less than 50% of overall emissions originate in the supply chain. SKU-level carbon intensity (PCF divided by net SKU weight) varies widely as well, in our sample from 0.1 to 70. It also varies within brands, indicating a design challenge for stream-lined models. SKU-average carbon intensityvaries between ~0.4 (beverages) to ~4 (some baked snacks). The portfolio-level footprint (3,335 SKUs in our sample) is highly concentrated: 4% of SKUs contribute 50% of annual GHG; 2.5% of the 6,040 acquired individual raw materials contribute 40% of annual GHG from all raw materials, the majority of the 2.5% being agricultural ingredients.

Modeling class-based storage assignment over life cycle picking patterns

The WHO FCTC is a critical component for the implementation of tobacco control legislation. Progress varies across countries and policy domains. This study identified and explored ‘Challenges of the Implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’ using Ghana as a case. A qualitative case study involving stakeholder identification, documentary analysis, focus group discussions, and in-depth interviews was used. The study sampled officials of government agencies, multi-lateral and bilateral partners, civil society organizations, and research institutions. The conceptual framework used combined components of two health policy frameworks. Tobacco control remains a significant issue lacking sufficient political will in LMIC.

The innovation ecosystem concept has been widely used as a framework to explain innovation activities within different industries. Despite the usefulness of this approach, the concept is under-theorized, especially with regard to the methodological issues. This article presents a new approach in assessing the effectiveness of innovation industrial ecosystems, allowing to take into account the peculiarities of the life cycle stages of individual innovative projects and an ecosystem as a whole. We illustrate our assumptions on the example of two industrial ecosystems’ projects assessments with appropriate explanations, which help from the academicians, researchers, and readers to receive a comprehensive understanding on how to form a knowledge-intensive ecosystem project portfolio and make managerial decisions on further actions of ecosystem actors regarding project development. The presented methodology has been tested on the example of projects implemented by research centers and laboratories of National University of Science and Technology (MISIS; Moscow, Russia). The propositions arising from this analysis provide information to help academics, policymakers, government, and individual enterprises with a more adequate understanding of the practical mechanisms and tools that help implement the ecosystem model for industrial development.

As observed from the reviewed literature, the execution of research and development (R and D) projects in Nigeria is challenged by many social, political and economic factors interacting in complex and dynamic ways. This interaction is reflected in the history of science and technology in Nigeria, its culture, legal systems, institutional frameworks and social capital. The economic and social development of Nigeria is critically dependent upon the ability to establish a competitive, productive and efficient industrial sector built on a strong technology base. This implies that her natural resources must be developed and utilised as inputs to industrial production and as direct products to improve the life of the population. Public research organisations (PROs) are considered to be critical to the survival of industries and to the achievement of self-reliance through the use of locally available raw materials. This thesis explores the application of strategic project management (SPM) practices in the execution of R and D projects in PROs in Nigeria. The research employed a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative research in order to capture the experiences of project management practitioners with SPM practices in PROs in Nigeria. Although areas of variations in practice were identified, the major findings highlighted that there was a gap in the practical implementation of SPM. The findings also revealed key determinants associated with the implementation of SPM and the factors that affected its application in PROs in Nigeria. The research findings were further synthesised into a framework, capturing ten key dimensions that must be taken into account in the execution of research and development projects. The determinants include having a project-based organisational structure, top management involvement in the project execution, strategic project leadership style, the appointment of a project team, the project team's competence, project alignment with organisational strategy, project prioritisation and selection, maximising R and D strategy, the project management process, and the SPM process. The framework validation was a follow-up discussion, which was conducted with project management practitioners in the selected research organisations in Nigeria. Reflecting on their experiences in the management of R and D projects, the participants acknowledged that the proposed SPM framework and its ten key variables were fundamental to the effective execution of R and D projects in PROs in Nigeria. It was concluded that the use of such a framework would highlight areas that needed to be addressed in order to achieve effective execution of R and D projects in these organisations.

To what extent do development projects achieve their purpose and reach their goals? Are we doing things right (efficiency) and are we doing the right things (effectiveness)? “Impact Monitoring and Assessment” (IMA) is an instrument that provides managers, staff and consultants in rural development programmes and projects with building blocks for projectspecific impact monitoring. As part of a project’s self-evaluation, IMA is an instrument of reflection, learning and quality control that can be applied throughout the project life cycle, in order to better adapt project activities to a changing context. IMA contains many examples from sustainable land management (SLM), an important component of sustainable development. Broad involvement by stakeholders during the entire IMA procedure is essential and can also play a central role in their empowerment. IMA takes constraints on time and money in development projects into account, and proposes only simple and therefore cost-effective tools and instruments that have already been tested in practice. The aim of IMA is thus to find plausible indications and not scientific proof of a project’s impact. 1. The development of Instruments for impact monitoring and assessment There is an on-going discussion among development agencies and their partners about how to assess the impacts of development cooperation. “Impact Monitoring and Assessment, Volumes 1 & 2” (Herweg and Steiner 2002) is a contribution to this discussion. This publication presents impact monitoring and assessment (IMA) as part of the self-evaluation process of a project. It contains tools for reflection, learning and quality control throughout a project’s life cycle, in order to better adapt project activities to a changing context. The context is referred to as a project’s biophysical, socio-cultural, economic, institutional and political milieu or environment. Figure 1: When the context changes and the plan does not

Environmental impacts of balancing offshore wind power with compressed air energy storage (CAES)

Physicians may not realize that some of their patients have limited reading abilities. The AMC Cancer Research Center and the Primary Care Curriculum at the University of Colorado collaborated to develop and implement a project to teach medical students to identify and effectively communicate with limited-literacy patients regarding cancer screening. The project incorporated two standardized-patient (SP) cases on cancer screening and literacy into the existing curriculum for second-year students. A small-group, interactive problem-based learning (PBL) case on breast cancer screening and literacy introduced the concept of communicating about cancer screening and literacy issues. A clinical practice examination on colorectal cancer screening and literacy was given at the end of the year. The collaborative project proved successful in incorporating literacy and cancer screening into a medical school curriculum. Time spent training SPs to play the role of adults with limited literacy was very important, as was time spent pre-testing the cases. The PBL case effectively promoted group discussion of cancer screening and literacy. The project succeeded in making students aware of literacy and cancer screening issues. Outcome results are being analyzed.

Progress in software engineering has led to system development following models of the system life cycle. These models incorporate the use of prototyping and formal methods of program verification. They are becoming supported by integrated project support environments and permit the planning and monitoring of software development projects.In contrast, knowledge based systems (KBS) are developed using informal views of the system life cycle. Tools have been developed to support some stages of the life cycle in an undisciplined manner. The commercial use of KBS needs development projects to be planned and monitored. This requires methods and tools based on systematic life cycle models to be established for KBS.This paper reviews the current state of life cycle approaches to software engineering and KBS development projects in order to provide a direction for the development of methodical KBS life cycle models.

Background: Remote mining operations in Western Australia are faced with the challenge of transitioning to renewable energy solutions to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. A promising strategy for these off-grid sites is to integrate wind and solar energy with battery storage systems, reducing their reliance on fossil fuel-based energy sources like natural gas turbines. Objectives: This study investigates the feasibility of using two types of battery energy storage system – Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) and Vanadium Flow Batteries (VFB) – in off-grid Western Australian mine sites to achieve the net-zero emissions reduction target. Li-ion batteries possess the advantages of higher energy density, higher efficiency and widespread commercial availability whilst VFBs offer scalability, long cycle life and inherent safety features. Methods: A microgrid model was developed using HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources) Pro version 3.17.1. Key economic parameters – including the capital, operations and maintenance costs of wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, natural gas turbines, converters and batteries – were integrated into the model. Results: For each storage configuration, the simulation results which yielded the lowest discounted cash flows relative to a configuration in which only natural gas turbines were used to meet 100% of the projected load may be seen in Figure 1. The 4-hr Li-ion batteries (80% DOD) had the lowest initial capital costs for both the 0% and 10% capacity shortage simulations of all cases which met the minimum renewable fraction criteria. This was because of the higher round trip efficiency of the Li-ion batteries when compared to VFBs and the high DOD when compared to the 60% DOD Li-ion simulations. These factors resulted in fewer MWh of 4-hr Li-ion packs being needed to meet the projected load. However, the 80% DOD also resulted in the Li-ion batteries needing to be replaced more frequently than the 60% DOD Li-ion batteries, as shown by the sudden drops in the Total Discounted Cash Flow plot. By the end of the 20-year simulation period, the configurations supported by 10-hour duration VFBs yielded the highest cash flow increase due to their longer lifespan.Figure 1. Cumulative cash flow over a 20-year period for a Western Australian mine site microgrid implementing Li-ion batteries and VFBs.All storage options dramatically reduced the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) when compared to the ‘No Storage’ configurations, as shown in Table 1. This was due to a greater amount of solar and wind power generation being required when no storage was present, as shown in the Total Power Capacity results in Figure 1. These results also revealed that when storage was present, the simulations which produced the lowest net present cost had no wind power generation. This was due to a significant overlap in the periods of peak wind and solar generation in the region and the relatively low projected cost of solar generation. The results also showed that allowing a capacity shortage of 10% dramatically reduced the LCOE and cumulative costs associated with each storage type; however, further analysis is needed to assess the impact of shutting down the mine site during these shortage periods.Table 1. Levelized cost of energy associated with each storage configuration over the twenty-year simulation period. System Levelized Cost of Energy (AUD/kWh) 0% Capacity Shortage 10% Capacity Shortage Natural Gas Turbines Only (0% Renewable Fraction) 0.095 0.089 Solar + Natural Gas Turbines + Wind + No Storage (50% Renewable Fraction) 0.180 0.143 Solar + Natural Gas Turbines + 4-hr Li-Ion Packs (60% DOD) (50% Renewable Fraction) 0.124 0.112 Solar + Natural Gas Turbines + 4-hr Li-Ion Packs (80% DOD) (50% Renewable Fraction) 0.119 0.109 Solar + Natural Gas Turbines + 4-hr VFB Packs (80% DOD) (50% Renewable Fraction) 0.108 0.101 Solar + Natural Gas Turbines + 10-hr VFB Packs (80% DOD) (50% Renewable Fraction) 0.109 0.099 Figure 1

Abstract. The Austrian wine industry made the fundamental decision to intensify the marketing of Austrian wine via its origin. Therefore, the creation of protected wines of origin has once again become the focus of interest. Since the marketing of Austrian wine through vineyard designations is increasing every year, it is necessary to present Austria's vineyards in an informative way in order to bring the special features of the protected geographical origin of Austrian quality wines closer to the consumer. The comprehensive, precise and professional acquisition as well as appealing geographic map design of vineyards for different demands, tasks and presentations is widely seen as a conceptual framework for the dissemination of wine relevant issues.Under this assumption, a collaboration project between representatives of the wine industry and academia came into being. Developing Wine Maps for Austria is an embedded research and development project with the aim of conceiving a functional as well as user-centered geographic communication portal of all Austrian vineyards to record, represent and communicate relevant factors dealing with wine and their spatial-temporal characteristics. The Austrian Wine Marketing Company (ÖWM Österreich Wein Marketing GmbH) commissioned the project in cooperation with the University of Vienna, Department of Geography and Regional Research and the Technical Office for Landscape Planning plan+land, Artner & Tomasits OG in order to promote the creation of protected wines of origin as well as to explore new horizons of geo-communication.The project aims to establish a web portal that visualizes and disseminates information on Austrian vineyards in an effective and appealing way. Thus also communicating additional information to accentuate on wine specific features within a defined geographic entity. The goal is to play a pioneering role in the presentation of vineyards and associated products emphasizing in the objective of achieving (cartographic) image of excellence.The presentation will discuss the general conceptual framework clarifying the communication structures and workflow within the system. Thereby explaining the methods and structures based on the defined system architecture. In this context the development and implementation of interfaces for the digital storage and manipulation of all decreed vineyards in Austria will be introduced. These are embedded in a geographical and political hierarchy. This paper will also focus on the prerequisites of wine maps as well as their digital representation with special emphasis on quality assessment and map design. It will compare and discuss currently accessible geo-data sources as well as online applications and finally present an approach to accommodate the described difficulties to facilitate sustainable data caption, creation and design for wine maps that must fulfill the conceptual framework.

Chapter 2 - Process and Preparation

Annual Meeting, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2009

Today, technological innovation in the construction field faces an important challenge: the identification of solutions that may not only allow to maximize energy saving in the use phase, but that may also reduce environmental impact throughout the entire life cycle of materials and components. The paper illustrates a research activity and experimentation – funded by the European Union – carried out in synergy by research centres and private companies. Its end purpose was the design, prototyping, and monitoring of an eco-friendly brick envelope named BLOCK_PLASTER. Alternative configurations to the system have been identified and technological-environmental performances in the different phases of the life cycle have been verified through a multidisciplinary and a multi-objective approach.

Outstanding multinational companies from emerging countries have been using technology research and development (R&D) project management strategies to develop high level products and services. Open innovation that is based on building partnerships to explore new opportunities, capitalizing on the possibilities available by advancing the company's knowledge base, is an important tool for increasing its competitive advantage by creating business value. However, whether a company can gain competitive advantage in the short term depends heavily on the maturity level of its technologies. Long-term competitiveness, in turn, is related to investment on research and development (R&D) projects that will underpin future innovations. A company's technology readiness influences its technology R&D strategy and, in turn, the ongoing project portfolio. This readiness is related to how close the project outcome is to application or how much it is a more fundamental study, away from use. An important indicator of technology readiness developed by NASA -the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) -has great relevance in risk assessment of product and service development projects and has become a benchmark for rating R&D project portfolios. The case selected was the LAB O&G (O&G COMPANY R&D Center), which develops projects with different readiness and degrees of open innovation. The objective was, through a qual-quant approach, to use these variables to reflect on the dynamics and practices between the levels of technological readiness and the degree of openness of innovation in research and technology development projects. With this it was possible to identify that in O&G COMPANY the R&D projects with higher TRLs lead to greater cooperation from both supplier / partner companies and universities and in lower TRLs the universities have the leading role. In this work it was possible to increase the understanding of the role of each of these variables in the innovation process and to contribute to the open innovation literature through research at the project level.