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This article describes a study that has been made on the automation of deburring in a foundry. Circular castings weighing up to 20kg are deburred before delivery in order to make them fit into machining cells. The maximum production rate of the cylindrical castings on the foundry line is one casting every ten seconds. However, the castings are produced in small batches, typically ranging from 100 to 1,000. After casting and integrated sand blasting and cooling chambers, the castings are transferred further on a conveyor belt. Deburring is today done manually by lifting and pressing against different grinding and deburring machines. Bins and forklifts are used in transport and storage of castings, from production line to deburring and shipment.

Increasingly, the laborious task of removing burrs on castings is being automated with the introduction of robots. This is largely to ensure higher level of consistency and efficiency generally not possible with manual fettling. These burrs are unpredictable in size and shape, and if not removed, can lead to major problems in automated factory lines. Fettling is an important area in advanced robotic applications. This paper presents a strategy using a compliant wrist unit to obtain forces during robotic fettling. A specialised fettling wrist unit incorporating a remote centre of compliance (RCC) unit and a CCD camera is described. Experiments are carried out to evaluate the feasibility of this method. Fettling experiments are also performed using a force/torque sensing unit. A comparison of the results of these experiments is provided. The process parameters for fettling are described and relationships among these are established.

The main aim of this study is to contribute to the discussion on the factors that can influence the high performance of information systems (IS) project team members, from the individual perspective. This study also allows both IS project team members and their managers to have a thorough picture of high-performing project teams, helping them improve team design, management and performance in today's demanding business environment.

To address the research questions, the authors carried out an exploratory case study of a small-sized holding company and a qualitative analysis of the data.

Results show a set of perceived factors that can influence (facilitate/hinder) the high performance of IS project team members. “Proper reward systems” was the most mentioned facilitating factor. “Negative affectivity” and “Lack of competence” were the two most referred as hindering factors. Most of the perceived factors are classified in the literature as non-technical.

Besides being among the very few empirical studies consolidating knowledge on the high performance of IS project team members, this paper extends the authors' previous research (done at the team level) to the individual team member level (as opposed to the team or organizational levels). In spite of IS being a highly technical industry, this study came across mostly human-centered factors transversal to different professionals (IS and non-IS) involved in project teams.

The article aims to present the results of adapting the team boosting behaviors (TBB) scale to Polish cultural conditions and validating it.

The research methodology consisted of three steps. In the first step, I translated the TBB scale into Polish using a rigorous back-translation method. Next, to assess content validity, nine domain experts reviewed the initial version of the instrument for clarity and relevance. Finally, I applied the scale to a sample of 532 team members and underwent thorough psychometric testing to assess construct validity. I employed structural equation modeling (SEM) with the partial least squares (PLS) factor-based algorithm technique for confirmatory factor analysis to assess the scale’s reliability and validity.

After development, the Polish version of the TBB scale kept its three sub-scale structures. However, the validation process led to a slight reduction in the number of test items compared to the original scale.

The findings imply that the Polish version of the scale is a valid and reliable tool for assessing TBB. However, I recommend additional studies to confirm this instrument’s structure.

The results confirmed the reliability and relevance of the tool for measuring TBBs in Polish cultural conditions. The tool provides the basis for implementing further research with the TBB construct in Poland and internationally.

In order to study the importance of climate comfortable conditions of urban public open spaces in marginal season of winter cities for people's outdoor activities, first, the paper ascertained the specific times of Harbin's outdoor and marginal seasons based on meteorological data from 1984 to 2013. Second, this paper conducted field survey, which includes in situ measurement and structured interview, in three typical urban public open spaces in marginal season. The calculated results show that Harbin has an outdoor season from Apr 25th to Oct 1st, and the spring marginal season is from Apr 4th to Apr 24th, the fall marginal season is from Oct 2nd to Oct 24th. At the same time, the results of in situ measurement show that there is great room for the improvement of climatic conditions of urban public open spaces in the marginal season of winter cities, especially the public open spaces near to the high-rise buildings and waterfront, and the apparent temperature in these two open spaces is about 3°C lower than the air temperature simultaneously. The results of structured interview show that people would like to do some outdoor activities when it is nice weather outside in marginal season, and the regression analysis results show that people's outdoor activities time are severely affected by climate comfortable conditions in marginal season. They feel that fine microclimate is much more important for a person than enough facilities and green landscape of urban public open spaces in marginal season. The paper suggested that the specific times of outdoor and marginal seasons should be added to some urban design guidance as a specification in urban planning practice, and this paper advanced some urban planning strategies related to urban design to improve climatic conditions of urban public open spaces in the marginal seasons of winter cities.

The purpose of this paper is to report on studies on the ethics in the design phase in Norwegian construction projects. The ambition is to establish a descriptive picture of ethical challenges practitioners meet in the design phase in order to raise awareness among them.

In addition to a literature review and a document study of ethical frameworks within the industry, interviews with key participants were carried out according to a qualitative approach. The study was undertaken in order to address framework conditions for handling ethically challenging situations, challenges of an ethical nature practitioners commonly encounter in the design phase and finally the structural (systemic) reasons for such challenges.

This research finds indications of actors manoeuvring in the design phase for own benefit at the expense of other actors. The findings equally indicate that the design phase poses significant challenges in light of tender documents pricing and exploiting cost reimbursement contracts. In some of the projects examined, participants shifted loyalty after novation contracting and they actively tried to steer the decision processes in their own favour.

There does in fact seem to be perceptions of a room of manoeuvre between what is unlawful and what is ethically sound in this phase.

The purpose of this systematic narrative review is to discourse on vision and organizational performance. By analysing work-life and organization studies journals, the authors respond to a call to view the process of visioning more holistically.

The methodological approach is a discourse-oriented qualitative content analysis. The authors explore visioning through an epistemological lens, which emphasizes both the connections and differences between “traditional” philosophical approaches.

The findings show how the different interpretations of vision and related concepts are tied to the following themes: clarity, causality, embodiment and sensory experiences and actionability.

Through the frameworks of scientific realism and relativism, the authors illustrate novel insights into the ways in which visioning occupies a place in knowledge management.