Search results

Performance measurement is a subject that has been high on the agenda for over two decades. This article proposes making a contribution to this field by discussing how to deal systematically with all the requirements a performance measurement system (PMS) should fulfil.

Different requirements suggested in the performance measurement literature from the past 20 years have been analysed in order to structure the different tasks to conduct when designing a PMS.

The article explains how to separate requirements that can be linked to a PMS and to an individual performance measure. It also suggests three system classes depending on what requirements a PMS fulfils. Finally a three‐step procedure is proposed that describes how to evaluate and improve an existing PMS in a company.

In practice, it is difficult to deal with numerous requirements simultaneously when designing a PMS. The article supplies measurement practitioners with tools to identify any priority important requirements.

Several new ideas to the field of performance measurement are introduced and explained: the concept of system classes, classification of requirements and a simple three‐step procedure to evaluate and improve PMS.

Performance measurements have become a prominent part of government steering of public agencies. At the same time, they are increasingly criticized for creating heavy administrative burdens. The purpose of this paper is to argue that consent on part of the heads of agencies is vital for making performance measurement an efficient tool for not only control but also organizational learning.

The paper reports a survey with a nearly total sample of Swedish Director Generals.

Findings suggest that Director Generals who feel that they are able to influence the goals and indicators of their agencies are significantly more willing to consent to the government’s reporting requirements.

The paper suggests that a more encompassing, interactive and participatory process might increase agency consent with reporting requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the productivity performance at the firm level from the perspective of manufacturing capability development at the process level. Moreover, it reveals how alignment of manufacturing capabilities with market requirements has influenced a firm’s productivity over a period that includes the 2008 global recession.

A conceptual framework was derived from established theories and employed as part of a case study design encompassing a multiple methods research approach. The case of a UK SME was selected to reflect some of the issues associated with the wider productivity stagnation experienced by the UK economy in recent years.

The firm’s manufacturing strategy had become incrementally misaligned with market requirements due to external changes in its business environment. The complex relationships between capabilities such as quality, speed and cost were characterised. Realigning the firm’s manufacturing strategy to regain productivity performance required a range of prioritised actions including capital investment and changes in management practices concerning bottom-up process improvement and regular, top-down strategy review.

The findings of the case study cannot be generalised and the outcomes are specific to just one firm. However, the approach lends itself to replication, particularly within SMEs.

Prior studies have focussed on capability development at higher levels of abstraction. The study operationalized established theoretical perspectives at the firm level to derive context-based outcomes that can be used to improve manufacturing strategy alignment and productivity. Furthermore, the study contributes empirical evidence from the SME sector to the ongoing debate regarding the UK’s productivity puzzle.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and validate user requirement related building performance attributes and sub attributes for performance evaluation of government residential buildings.

User requirements in a building were listed from ISO 6241-1984 (E). Seven building performance attributes were identified through literature review and linked with the user requirements. Three more attributes not directly related to building performance but that could influence user satisfaction were also identified. The attributes were grouped into physical, environmental and external factors to suit the intervention strategies proposed to be implemented by maintenance agencies to enhance user satisfaction. The need for amplifying the attributes for better comprehension by occupants was felt; hence, characteristics of each of these attributes were listed based on literature survey and review. In total, 42 such sub attributes were identified to amplify ten attributes. To validate the adequacy of these attributes, an online survey was launched to garner feedback on first adequacy of the attributes and secondly to confirm whether there is a necessity for amplification of attributes for better comprehension by occupants. In total, 200 responses were received through the online survey, and the data received were categorized as per gender, location, sector, profession and finally civilian/military.

The outcome of the survey revealed that 84% of the participants felt that the attributes were adequate enough to assess building performance and 75% of them agreed that amplification of attributes through sub attributes as essential for better comprehension and to avoid ambiguity in response. Also the seven identified attributes were ranked from 1 to 7 with 1 being the most important. Weights of each attribute in the scale of 1 were also arrived at based on the responses. Similar exercise was carried out for all sub attributes.

Present research is confined to government residential buildings that are constructed and maintained through public funds and hence individual occupants are not constrained by economics. Other type of building infrastructure used for training, sports, storage, medical, etc., will have certain more specific performance parameters in addition to the ones identified in this paper for residential buildings. Economics also become a factor from users' perspective in case of private residential buildings which does not form part of the scope of this paper. However, as a future scope, the number of attributes can be escalated depending upon the type of building being surveyed, keeping the identified attributes as core attributes.

This paper links the end user satisfaction with building performance and the outcome of surveys will provide useful insights to the behaviour of buildings as well the efficiency and effectiveness of the existing maintenance management systems. Survey based on these attributes and sub attributes will enable the facility managers to ascertain the satisfaction level of occupants with respect to building performance, satisfaction with respect to external factors such as accessibility, amenities and societal issues other than building performance. It will enable the facility managers and decision makers to prioritize their maintenance according to importance, availability of funds, etc. It will also provide a data bank over the years that can indicate the changing aspirations of occupants of government residential buildings. This will enable policymakers to review specifications, authorizations and scales.

This paper links user requirement with building performance. ISO 6241-1984(E) forms the basis for user requirement. Survey based on these user requirement related building performance attributes shall enable facility managers prioritize their maintenance efforts in management of facilities.

Although crowdsourcing has gained significant attention and is being used by numerous companies to develop new products and solve practical issues, the performance of crowdsourcing is not optimistic. The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated risk profile of crowdsourcing and investigate the relationships among different types of risks and those between risks and performance in crowdsourcing.

Based on the quantitative data collected from 136 crowdsourcing participants in China, two dimensions (i.e. social system and technical system risks) and five sub-dimensions (i.e. crowdsourcer, relationship, crowdsourcee, complexity, and requirement) of crowdsourcing risks are developed and validated. A theoretical model that integrates crowdsourcing risks and performance is developed. The technique of partial least squares is employed to assess the measurement model and test the hypotheses.

The empirical evidence determines the positive association of social system risks with technical system risks, which in turn negatively affect crowdsourcing performance. Specifically, relationship risk is positively affected by crowdsourcer and crowdsourcee risks, and these risks positively affect requirement and complexity risks. However, requirement and complexity risks negatively affect crowdsourcing performance.

This study explores the interrelationship between various risks and the relationship between risk and performance in the context of crowdsourcing by integrating risk-based view with socio-technical theory. Systematic but different risk mitigation strategies should be designed in crowdsourcing to manage risks and enhance performance.

The purpose of this paper is to present the post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of academic and research laboratory facilities. This is based on the premise that the performance of such facilities is directly connected to the productivity, health and wellbeing of its users.

The paper was carried out in two phases, first, the performance requirements for academic and laboratory facilities were identified through the extant literature. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was developed to carry out a POE of existing academic and research laboratory facilities in a university campus in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was designed using a Likert scale of one to five. Finally, the satisfaction index was computed, and rates of satisfaction with the various performance requirements were determined.

The paper resulted into 74 performance requirements grouped into three categories. The respondents showed general satisfaction with most of the performance requirements. However, dissatisfaction was observed in performance requirements related to technical features and the availability of sustainability features. Such findings suggest the growing importance of such technical and sustainable features in modern-day laboratories.

Though few studies have employed POE in assessing the performance of academic facilities, there is still a gap regarding its application to the laboratory facilities. Thus, the originality of this study is evident in its presentation of a set of performance requirements and its further application as a case study.

Present research on assessing performance of residential buildings is done for specific purposes and not holistically. The indicators, factors and attributes considered for evaluation are not consistent and are broadly based on knowledge base of the author. The purpose of this research is to identify building performance attributes based on user requirement.

With ISO 6241-1984(E) as a basis for universal acceptance, user requirements have been listed and based on these user requirements, related building performance attributes have been identified. End-user satisfaction is of primary importance to gauge performance of a facility. A quantified approach in evaluation of performance of a facility will enable a facility manager to assess the efficacy of the present policies pertaining to operation and maintenance of the facility. It will also provide valuable inputs to policy makers in initiating measures toward the goal of achieving desired user satisfaction. Performance measurement is done to measure the value created by the services, to justify the investment made in creating the facility or to determine if any additional investments are required for improvement of the facility.

In this literature review, an attempt is made to identify user requirements based on an internationally renowned standard ISO 6241-1984 (E), as a base and group building performance attributes on these requirements. The identified attributes are grouped into physical, environmental and external factors for ease of garnering user satisfaction and subsequent flexibility in assessment of data based on requirement of the surveys carried out for evaluation.

The identified list of user requirement-related building performance attributes is limited to government residential buildings. The research needs validation through a full-fledged user satisfaction survey.

It provides a comprehensive list of attributes for assessing performance from physical, environmental and external factors, enabling wholesome assessment of the performance of buildings. Moreover, as a universally accepted document ISO 6241-1984 (E), forms the basis of the paper, its application is not limited to a region.

Lot of research is happening in the field of assessing building performance. User satisfaction by virtue of being difficult to quantify, it has not found much favor till now. This attempt is to furnish a comprehensive list of building performance attributes that will enable a multipurpose survey which will not be based on perception of the researcher but on a universally accepted document. The premise of research is that end-user satisfaction is of primary importance to gauge performance of a facility.

Stakeholders such as customers, governments and environmental organisations are more concerned than ever about the impact of supply chain practices on the environment, leading firms to introduce environmental requirements into their supply contracts. While the extant literature on supply chains acknowledges this trend, it fails to inform comprehensively on the concept of “stringent environmental requirement” and its consequences. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this concept and explore how such requirements may translate into supplier environmental performance.

Qualitative methodology was adopted by the study and data were collected through conducting eight case studies in the Bangladesh ready-made garment (RMG) industry.

A number of factors were found to be influencing suppliers’ perception of stringency, such as uncertainty relating to the newness and deadline of buyers’ environmental requirements, the complexity of implementing the requirements, and the use of buyer-specific frameworks. The research also shows that suppliers’ efforts in building environmental capability play a vital role in dealing with stringent environmental requirements.

The case studies are limited to the Bangladesh RMG industry. Given that environmental regulations vary across different countries and industries, the data may not reflect all the possible variations in stringent environmental requirements.

The new insight proposed by this research can guide firms to further understand how supplier environmental performance and the sustainability of their supply chain can be achieved. The research provides broad insight into how suppliers can address stringent environmental requirements and improve their environmental performance.

This research establishes evidence for the relatively new phenomenon of “stringent environmental requirements”, and develops a theoretical framework to demonstrate the relationships among the critical determinants relevant to this phenomenon.

SINCE 1945 discussion of international standards for the fundamentals of civil aviation has been going on in the divisions and council of I.C.A.O. A highly controversial part of the airworthiness and operational legislation has been the relatively small section dealing with performance requirements. A considerable amount of time and money has been spent in the study and development of these requirements, and it is opportune at this moment to review the way in which the work has progressed and its importance to civil operations for the future.

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2002/91/EC introduced various obligatory requirements intended to achieve the reduction of use of energy resources in buildings. This directive had to be transposed into national legislation by the EU member states. Concurrently the European Committee for Standardisation developed a number of technical standards to assist member states to define the methodology for the calculation of the energy performance of buildings. The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative review of the relationship between the European directive and the standards, and the different country legislation and methodologies that have been implemented in Malta, Italy, Spain and Cyprus.

The analysis is based on a review of national legislation in the four states. Reference is also made to publications by the Concerted Action for the EPBD and to related publications by the national bodies responsible for the implementation of the EPBD. These include the Ministry for Economic Development in Italy, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism in Cyprus, the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs in Malta, and the Ministries of Industry Tourism and Commerce and of Housing in Spain.

This paper analyses and compares the implementation of the directive using the above‐mentioned sources. In so doing, it focuses on general principles rather than on the specific technical requirements for the calculation method in the various states. The paper then considers the implementation of these general principles within each state before finally drawing conclusions about whether legislation relating to the original Directive 2002/91/EC is meeting its objectives and the implications relating to the requirements of the recast Directive 2010/31/EC.

The introduction of the directive in the states considered has taken place slowly and gradually over the last three to four years. There are few publications relating to the actual implementation of the directive, and this limits the possibility of comparison of sources.

The relationship between the EPBD and the milder climate experienced in the Mediterranean is considered to be of great importance, particularly since world temperatures are slowly rising. However, it is acknowledged that insufficient research has been carried out on the energy performance of buildings in this region. This paper investigates the existing legal structures that have been put into place to implement the EPBD and the effectiveness of this implementation to date.