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The concept of virtual cellular manufacturing systems (VCMS) is finding acceptance among researchers and practitioners as an extension to group technology. This paper is related to a research work which resulted in designing and developing VCMS, which by virtue of its abilities proves to be attractive to manufacturing organisations fitting into the category of SMEs. VCMS consists of enterprise modeller (EM), cell design manager (CDM), cell operation manager (COM), simulator (SIM), performance evaluator (PE) and report generator (REP). The “cell design manager” is a very important constituent of the VCMS, as this module helps to generate a number of cell configurations using different algorithms. A new algorithm styled as “Better alternative to ROC (BETROC)”, which possesses many distinct features to generate a number of alternative solutions, has been developed and reported in this paper.

This study aims to investigate the material extrusion additive manufacturing (MEAM) deposition parameters for creating viable 3-D printed polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) structures with a balanced mix of mechanical and electrical properties.

Different combinations of deposition conditions are tested, and the influence of these parameters on the final dimensional accuracy, semi-crystalline phase microstructure and effective mechanical strength of MEAM homopolymer PVDF printed parts is experimentally assessed. Considering printed part integrity, appearance, print time and dimensional accuracy, MEAM parameters for PVDF are suggested.

A range of viable printing parameters for MEAM fabricated PVDF Kynar 740 objects of different heights and in-plane length dimensions was determined. For PVDF structures printed under the suggested conditions, the mechanical response and the microstructure development related to Piezoelectric response are reported.

This research first reports on a range of parameters that have been confirmed to facilitate effective MEAM printing of 3-D PVDF objects, presents effects of the individual parameters and gives the mechanical and microstructure properties of PVDF structures fabricated under the suggested deposition conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of academic staff who are committed to embedding sustainability within tertiary curricula and pedagogy.

The focus of this paper is on a New Zealand university. A survey of staff was undertaken and in-depth interviews conducted with 11 sustainability “champions”. A narrative variant of thematic analysis was used to examine the ways these sustainability “champions” made sense of the work they do. Through an analysis of their metaphors and metaphorical language, a sense of the identities that they held as educators of sustainability was gained.

Three types of identities emerged – the sustainability “saviour”, “nurturer” and “struggler”. These identities reflected the champion’s experiences, disciplinary affiliations and pedagogical approaches. Interdisciplinarity emerged as a key tenet and challenge for such sustainability champions.

This paper provides rare insights into the experiences, identities and teaching approaches of sustainability champions within higher education. It highlights the need for university-wide conversations and cross-discipline support for such academics.

Drives to improve industry performance are being hindered by difficulties in managing the construction design process, preventing the UK construction industry from delivering projects on time, to budget and to the specified quality. This paper reports on a research project at a major UK civil and building design and construction company to develop and deploy a training initiative capable of making significant improvements to its design management performance and deliver benefits to many project stakeholders. It describes the development, content and trailing of the training material and a suite of 21 design management tools to drive change throughout the organization. The paper is likely to be of interest to those involved in design management and the development of tools and practices to help the industry improve design management performance.

IF SONS DID NOT EXTOL, many a worthy father would sink into oblivion and forever go unsung. As filial biographers, however, sons customarily meet with intimidating scorn and derision. There is a generally accepted notion that consanguineous biography is fraught more with fealty and filial frailty than with disinterested depiction. The best way to disprove this false assumption is to muster meritorious biographies written by scions and compare them with representative biographies of the ‘blame and blemish’ variety. Sympathetic assessment always stands up stronger than ostensible objectivity, for writers of the ‘warts and all’ kind of biography lose track of virtues and nearly always become engrossed in the imperfections of their victims.

The general characteristics of crimes occurring on American college and university campuses have changed, reflecting a much greater frequency and variety of criminal activities. Therefore, many campus police departments are considering alternative mechanisms aimed at crime control and diminishing the fear levels of constituents. While most municipal police agencies routinely arm themselves, traditionally, armed police forces have been uncharacteristic of campus law enforcement, especially at smaller, rural and suburban schools. The present research assesses campus constituency support and rationale for arming the police force at one university. Constituent status, gender, fear of crime, outcome of contact with an officer, and political ideology are among the variables discussed in relation to this contemporary issue.

The purpose of this paper is to present an account of a PAR project in a Thai community and to discuss the methodological implications of implementing a culturally responsive approach.

The paper draws on the frameworks for PAR conducted as a community development project with rural Thai communities.

The paper reviews the use of a PAR approach as a culturally responsive approach and presents an experience of culturally situated research practice.

This paper encourages researchers conducting participatory inquiry to engage in deeper critical reflection on the implications of these methods in keeping with PAR's critical ontological, epistemological and axiological orientation.

Building upon the results of a critical review of previous studies, the purpose of this paper is to present a framework to enhance the reliability of the theoretical model for international benchmarking of labour productivity (TMIBLP) method for construction project activities. The next part of the paper presents the results of implementing the proposed framework for construction activities in the Iranian construction industry.

This paper draws upon a critical review of the literature to highlight the drawbacks of the previous studies concerning implementing TMIBLP within the construction industry. Identifying these shortcomings, the authors propose a framework for construction projects, which presents the procedure for deploying TMIBLP for construction activities in a reliable manner. The final section of the paper demonstrates the empirical implementation of the proposed framework within the Iranian construction industry.

The primary contributions of the paper include: identifying the drawbacks of previous studies within the construction context, the framework that would lead construction managers towards more reliable implementation of benchmarking for construction projects, and determining the baseline of erecting steel structures in a developing country.

A practical implementation of the TMIBLP method was presented to address the lack of research in Iran and to show the feasibility of using the framework developed. The authors investigated the daily labour productivity for the activity of structural steel erection for six projects in Tehran in order to determine the values of the baseline productivity for each project. Accordingly, the disruption index, performance ratio and project management index as the project benchmarks were calculated for all six projects.

Underlining the necessity of implementing methods such as TMIBLP, this study outlines the outcomes of the first study on the benchmarking of construction activities deploying the proposed framework and using the data on erecting steel structures from six construction projects in Iran. The discussions provide guidelines for construction project managers regarding benchmarking labour productivity. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research opportunities.

FROM 5th to 8th October, 1951, Aslib was fortunate in holding its Annual Conference again at Ashorne Hill, near Leamington Spa, and our thanks are due for the third time to Colonel and Mrs. J. H. Alexander and their staff for the excellence of the catering and domestic arrangements. The weather also co‐operated and sunshine displayed all the autumn beauties of the garden and countryside.

A national technology foresight project was developed in Portugal in 1999 and 2000 (ET2000) with the major objective to understand and to boost the contribution of engineering and technology (E&T), to improve the competitiveness of Portuguese firms. This project was based on multiple networks promoting debate and interchange of perspectives between policy makers, administration, business and university experts. The work carried out was oriented to support the design and the implementation of policies to develop Portugal as a knowledge‐economy using E&T as a main comparative advantage achieving higher levels of internationalization, competitiveness and sustainability. Major features of ET2000 as well as its contribution to policy making are presented in this paper.