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Tsukada, Manabu. "Communications Management in Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems." Paris, ENMP, 2011. http://www.theses.fr/2011ENMP0092.
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Les systèmes de transport intelligents (STI) coopératifs sont des systèmes ou les véhicules, l'infrastructure routière, les centres de contrôle de trafic et d'autres entités échangent des informations afin d'assurer une meilleure sécurité routière, l'efficacité du trafic et le confort des usagers de la route. C'est dans ce but que l'architecture de station STI a été spécifié par l'ISO et l'ETSI. Le concept de cette architecture de référence permet aux stations STI-véhicules et stations STI-infrastructures de s'organiser dans un réseau véhiculaire adhoc (VANET), tout en utilisant des protocoles de communication tels qu'GeoNetworking IP v6 et IEEE802. 11p ainsi que toute autre technologie d'accès afin de se connecter de manière transparente à internet. Plusieurs chemins peuvent donc être accessibles à une station STI véhicule pour communiquer avec d'autres stations STI. Les chemins sont de trois types: le chemin direct, le chemin optimisé, et le chemin d'ancré. L'objectif de cette étude est d'optimiser la communication entre stations STI en sélectionnant le meilleur chemin de communication disponible. . Cela exige d'abord de recueillir les informations disponibles localement dans la station STI (la position, la vitesse, les exigences des applications, les caractéristiques des supports de communication, les capacités , l'état du chemin), ainsi que les informations des stations STI voisines (position, vitesse, services, etc. . ). Ces informations sont ensuite traitées par le biais d'un algorithme de prise de décision. Premièrement, nous définissons un module réseau qui permet la combinaison d'IPv6 avec le Geo Networking. Deuxièmement, nous proposons un module de gestion inter-couche pour la sélection du meilleur chemin. Nos contributions s'intègrent dans l'architecture de station STI par la définition de la relation entre la couche réseau et transport (qui héberge la contribution Geonetworking IPv6) et l'entité verticale de gestion inter-couche (qui accueille l'algorythme de décision pour la sélection de chemin). Nous avons spécifié les fonctions permettant l'échange de paramétres par l'intermédiaire de la SAP (Service Acess Point) entre la couche réseau et l'entité de gestion (MN-SAP). Les paramètres utilisés dans l'entité de gestion inter-couche sont extraits d'une manière agnostique par rapport aux protocoles de la couche réseau et transport, ce qui permet de remplacer facilement les éléments d'une couche sans affecter les autres (par exemple, remplacer NEMO par une autre protocole de mobilité) et de permuter plusieurs piles réseau (on peut choisir d'utiliser la pile par une autre protocole de mobilité) et de permuter plusieurs piles réseau (on peut choisir d'utiliser la pile IPv6 ou bien la pile GeoNetworking, ou encore une combinaison des deux à la fois ou même une autre pileCooperative Intelligent transportation Systems (Cooperative ITS) are the systems where multiple entities share information and tasks to achieve the ITS objectives (i. E. Road safety, traffic efficiency and comfort). Today, ITS Station architecture is being specified in ISO and ETSI as a result of discussion and consensus of the researchers and developers in ITS domain. In the architecture, ITS Stations are essential entities, that are distributed in vehicles, roadside infrastructure, centers and mobiles, to achieve the ITS objectives. The vehicle and roadside ITS Stations organize Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) to adapt multi-hop and highly dynamic network topology. GeoNetworking is a great candidate for VANET because the geographic routing shows strength in dynamic topology. In addition to VANET, the ITS Station equips multiple wireless network interfaces and connects to networks with multiple paths, which is called multihoming. The objective of the study is to optimize the communication between ITS Stations by improved decision-making algorithm using inter-component information exchange in IP-based cooperative ITS. First, we develop IPv6 GeoNetworking to take the advantages of both IP and GeoNetworking. Seconds, we propose a cross-layer based path selection management by extending a Service Access Point (SAP) between the network layer and the management entity specified in the ITS Station Architecture. The extended SAP is designed as most abstracted as possible to adapt to the future development of the ITS Station architecture. The proposed system is designed and implemented as a prototype. The prototype implementation is evaluated in both ideal and realistic scenarios using up to four vehicles. The network performance measurement is processed, visualized and analyzed with web-based tools
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Muñoz, Da Costa Ricardo Daniel. "The Effects of Text and Hybrid Graphic-Text Formats on Pilot Performance Using Flight Deck Data Communication Displays." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1369266508.
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Boniforti, Aldo. "Adaptive Scheduling in Intelligent Transportation Systems." Thesis, KTH, Reglerteknik, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-99005.
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Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) can substantially improve roadsafety and trac eciency. This is possible by allowing communicationamong nearby vehicles and among vehicles and xed roadside units. A popularstandard for vehicular communications is IEEE 802.11p. It is basedon a CSMA/CA MAC method that does not guarantee channel access in anite time and so is not suitable for real-time communications. It also needsmethods to control and limit the load, since the transmission of periodicinformation among vehicles can saturate the channel. In this thesis, a newreal-time scheduling algorithm suitable for ITS applications is introduced. Itis based on a TDMA MAC method, where the roadside unit has the tasks toestimate the channel conditions and assign fractions of time slot to users. Alinear programming approach is considered to minimize an index of utility ofthe transmissions. Multi-hop communication scenarios among the vehiclesare considered for both uplink and downlink communications. It is shownhow the optimal duration of the fraction of time slot depends on the channelconditions. A higher channel gain corresponds to a higher transmission timewhereas a lower channel gain corresponds to a lower transmission time. Itis concluded that the approach studied in the thesis can guarantee a highutility provided that the complexity of the optimization is reduced as thenumber of involved vehicles increases.
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Neill, William J. V. "Transportation policy formation in Detroit 1945-1985." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1986. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14469/.
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The thesis traces the development of transportation policy formation at regional and local levels of government in the Detroit region since 1945. Three postwar transportation policy climates are identified. The first, to the early sixties, was marked by a reasonable degree of regional consensus on freeways as the basis of regional transportation policy. The second, covering the period to the 1970's, saw this consensus begin to break down. The subsequent period to the present has been marked by an almost total collapse in regional consensus on transportation policy. Within the maintenance of a sensitivity to the dangers inherent in structuralist Marxist theorizing, the hypothesis is explored that class relationships have been of primary influence in accounting for this "macro dynamic" of transportation policy formation. The role of physical planners and implications for planning theory is a particular focus of study. The research concludes that, at a time when "grand" Marxist theorizing is coming under criticism, the primacy of class relationships as an explanatory variable can be sustained in the case of Detroit but in terms of the development of a more adequate theory of planning the research points to the need for supplemental theory construction on the discretion and influence of planners within the class pattern (as opposed to determination) of events.
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Staples, Kenneth C. "The mobile telephone: The transportation of social relationships." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1996. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/957.
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In the studies of contemporary electronic media artifacts and their effects on society, television, satellites, and computers have been extensively investigated and their various impacts well documented. With regards to telecommunication technologies, academic scholarship is somewhat less, with most comment being restricted to either historic evolution, or technical description. Exceptions to this are, Marvin's reference to the telephone in her publication, When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electronic Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century (1988}, and Umble's The Amish and the telephone: resistance and reconstruction (1992). Both of these publications are used for supporting arguments in my thesis investigating the societal and cultural effects associated with the use of the mobile telephone. I have selected this subject for my thesis, as I can find no previous significant scholarship relating to this particular field, and my research will redress this imbalance. In my thesis I present a contextual overview of the mobile telephone dealing with its historical evolution and technological change, and how its convergence with other technologies is reshaping future expectations in personal electronic communication strategies. Also within the overview I look at what conditions determine the access to becoming a mobile telephone user, the service expectations of the users against what is provided by the service suppliers, and how the service suppliers' advertising strategies are driving a burgeoning market in mobile communications. The main thrust of my research is contained within arguments concerning the three major research questions. My primary focus is on the relationships between place, time, and space with the mobile telephone. In past research, Meyrowitz (1985) and Giddens (1990) and (1991) have categorically stated that place is no longer important, as electronic media have permeated the confines of encapsulated areas, and transported social relationships away from the necessity for face to face interaction. I argue that the mobile telephone has re-instated the importance of place by its capacity to intrude into any place, at the will of its user, invading personal privacy of non-users within both private and public arenas. Further I argue that place is assuming importance through its exposure to environmental degradation, with the building of transmission towers to supply the mobile telephone service. My secondary focus is on how the mobile telephone is affecting the workplace. To investigate this problem i have researched the phenomenon of telecommuting, and used the findings as a base for my investigations into the mobile office. Many of the problems relate to control, where extreme difficulties arise for authorities to manage effectively their charges when determining workers' welfare, health regulations, and supervisory duties. In the case of the employees, the freedom from direct supervision, and the flexibility to organise work times to suit their personal requirements are stated advantages. The growth of mobile office working has the potential to change the traditional values of encapsulated workplaces, and as such will require different rules and strategies to be negotiated between employers and employees to adequately safeguard each others’ interests. Prior to my final major focus, the mobile telephone and 'monopolies of knowledge' (Innis, 1949, p.5), I look at technological convergence, and change. I examine the convergence of media technologies to show that the phenomenon is not new, but historically, a driving force behind the development of new communication systems. In the section titled 'change', I document how the mobile telephone has been accepted into many different societies and sub-cultures, bringing change to their communication habits and expectations. The sections on technological convergence, and change lead my research into the final major focus, where I examine the link between the mobile telephone and the creation of new ‘monopolies of knowledge' (ibid), forming elite groups or sub-cultures which weaken the structure of community-based societies. To underpin my research focus I have used Umble (1992) to illustrate what happens when a new technology is introduced into a community-based lifestyle, creating elite groups or sub-cultures, which then challenge the basic values which support that community. Finally, in seeking information for my thesis I conducted a survey of 100 households, where I sought replies from both mobile telephone users and non-users. The response to my survey was better than most returns predicted in the literature which I read describing strategies for mail surveys. However, due to my research being original in its field, my questions were general for the thesis subject matter, and so did not supply an abundance of information which could be used within the narrowed structure of the research questions. Nevertheless the aggregated results are included in the appendices of this thesis.
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Price, Rikki Alger. "Suspenseful Narratives and Transportation; Explorations of Individual Difference Factors and Transportation as Predictors of Story-Consistent Attitudes." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1495014313508847.
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Law, Lap-tak Brendan. "An investigation of realtime data in intelligent transportation systems." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2002. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?
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Verhaegen, Benoît M. "Aspects légaux des communications aéronautiques mobiles par satellites." Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=26226.
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The new ICAO CNS/ATM (Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management) concept, based on satellite use, entails globalisation of these new air navigation systems.Concerning the communications, the concept's architecture includes those for security as well as administrative communications of airlines and public correspondence of passengers.
From this point of view, the requested globalisation will lead to regulatory and institutional changes, especially for non-security communications as they are regulated by each State overflown, according to Article 30 of the Chicago Convention.
Every legal solution, of course, must take into account the chosen technology. In this domain, the experience of INMARSAT, with the mobile maritime communications by satellites, will be of tremendous importance.
A period of transition, with regional initiatives, will be necessary too before the general implementation of the CNS/ATM concept.
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Gur, Oymen. "The brand as a social system of interpenetration : conceptualizing brand through communications." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/239/.
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In this thesis I address oversights in the socio-cultural understanding of the brand by demonstrating the failings of three prevailing views. First, the brand is commonly captured through two dimensions: the functional and the symbolic. This conception results from an oscillation between two distinct worldviews: the material and the communicative. Second, the brand is conceptualized as the direct result of the motives of individuals, who are not reflexive of broader socio-cultural formations. Third, the brand is portrayed as a commercial entity that is coupled with a single ideology for competitive advantage. However, the multi-dimensional brand is neither essentially economic nor culturally one dimensional. Using Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, I observe communications media and the brand as self-reproductive social systems. Merging his methodology of functional analysis with Michel Foucault’s archaeology, I analyze the relevant academic literature and subject an actual brand to empirical examination. Herein I show how communication technologies and media make up ‘the communications system’, through which the society is not simply communicated but is created. Like all social phenomena, the brand as a social system (and its meanings) arises within the communications system by observing itself in relevant communicative events. The self-reproductive brand system exists within society by differentiating itself from its environment comprised of disparate social systems. The brand interpenetrates and then differentiates from each of these environmental systems via a particular distinction. The plurality and the interplay of these diverse distinctions enable the brand system. In turn, the brand as a social system of interpenetration fulfils its macro function in society by translating and synchronising these otherwise detached social systems. By understanding this broader societal function of the brand and its resulting dispositions, marketers can elevate their micro perspective in relation to a long-term macro view and thereby better guide the brand.
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Park, Hong. "Impact of supply chain security orientation on port performance." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/52117/.
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The terrorist attack at September 11, 2001 in the United States of America had a huge impact on the security of international cargo transportation. In order to minimize the threat of terrorism and secure the movement of goods in the supply chain, security initiatives such as ISPS code and CSI are adopted by the United Nations and the United States. Also, the term ‘security’ has emerged as an independent area of study in supply chain management studies after the 2000s. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of Supply Chain Security Orientation on Port Performance in the context of Korea. In order to explore the causal relationships, this study utilized Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to examine the relationships. Also, a multi-group analysis between port group (port A and B) and port user group (shipping companies, forwarding companies, etc) was conducted to investigate the differences of the perceptions in two groups. This is to fill the gaps from previous studies by conducting quantitative and confirmatory research in the field of supply chain security. This study develops a conceptual model by literature review and semi-structured interviews in order to identify the impact of the constructs: Antecedents, Supply Chain Security Orientation, and Port Performance. There are 11 variables in total, and in-depth analysis of the inter-relationships among variables is identified. In conclusion, this study empirically develops a structural model and identified the importance of Financial Resources (FR), Supply Chain Security Initiatives (SCSI), Security Preparation and Planning (SPP), Security Related Partnership (SRP), Security Dedicated Communication and Technology (SDCT), Security Culture (SC), and Security Education (SE) on Port Performance. Also, the differences in perceptions between port group and port user group of the variables in the construct were also explored.
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Papangelis, Konstantinos. "User driven design of real time passenger information solutions for supporting rural passengers in the context of disruption." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2015. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=228210.
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Rural communities face a range of challenges associated with accessibility and connectivity. Though real-time passenger information systems (RTPIS) have been long heralded as offering the potential to mitigate some of these challenges their deployment in rural areas has been very limited. The lack of real-time passenger information has been identified as a contributing factor to a multitude of issues, such as high car usage, low public transport use and travel uncertainty. There is considerable potential for appropriate technologies to contribute to the alleviation of these issues, as evidence exists that they can influence travel behaviour, and cultivate positive attitudes towards the service and the operator. This thesis investigated the interplay between rural passenger experience and real-time information provision. Overall, this work aims to provide an initial stepping point on to understanding the interplay between passenger behaviour, disruptions, passenger experience, and real-time information. In order to explore the aforementioned, first, a series of interviews and focus groups with rural public transport passengers, rural transport operators, government agencies and members of academia have been carried out to study the rural passengers' responses to planned and unplanned travel disruption. Based on these i) a conceptual model that aims to describe the passenger recovery phases to disruption and the associated passenger information requirements, ii) and a framework that highlights characteristics of transport behaviour, and aligns them with drivers of transport behaviour adaptation have been created. Next, through a series of co-designed sessions in various rural areas throughout the UK a mobile technology probe, which provides public transport real time information to the passengers has been developed. Then using the technology probe a two-week before-and-after intervention study with 15 participants has been carried out. The results indicate that real-time information provided through the technology probe adjusted the travel behaviour of the participants. Namely, it improved the utilisation of waiting time of the participants, improved the efficiency of their travelling, and enabled them to find alternatives when needed. Further, to get a better picture of the effect of real-time information on rural travellers, during the intervention study 6 of the participants in their everyday travels for 7 days have been actively observed by the author. The outcomes from this supplemented the data from the study and illustrated how the rural public transport travellers used the system in their day-to-day travels. Finally, all our findings have been combined to co-create a system design with rural public transport passengers that aims to improve their experience during disruption. The final design mainly concentrated on providing information regarding pre-trip, on-trip and on boarding point, journey planning, supporting the rural passenger experience through social media, and disruption. In order to evaluate the applicability and suitability of the design, and explore how it relates to the needs of the rural passengers, two focus groups have been conducted. The results of the evaluation activity illustrate that the mobile RTPI system design was perceived as highly useful and relevant to the needs of the rural passenger.
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Gerlach, Matthias [Verfasser]. "Trustworthy Ad Hoc Communications for Intelligent Transportation Systems - Trusted Network on Wheels / Matthias Gerlach." München : Verlag Dr. Hut, 2010. http://d-nb.info/1009095420/34.
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Andrews, Charles A. "From post station to post office communications in Tokugawa and early Meiji Japan /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3337274.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Cultures, 2008.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 28, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-12, Section: A, page: 4833. Adviser: Richard Rubinger.
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Law, Lap-tak Brendan, and 羅立德. "An investigation of realtime data in intelligent transportation systems." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2002. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31945715.
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Burgess, J. "An evaluation of managing diversity in the supply chain : a case study of an electrical wholesale distributor in the UK." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2011. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/10988/.
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The method of understanding and managing diversity within a business is at the heart of the reasoning behind the concept of „supply chain segmentation‟. The overarching principle is to find economic segments within the diverse product and customer mix and to match differentiated strategies accordingly. The aim is to prioritise resource to the products and customers which contribute the highest proportion of sales and to reduce operational costs to those that contribute the lowest proportion of sales, whilst matching service level requirements. In essence this strategy balances supply chain costs for individual products against their value to the business. As a result overall costs are reduced and subsequently profits are increased. This research study pulls together the extensive documentation which is available regarding many supply chain concepts and principles into a single approach. A critical evaluation of the current research is undertaken which concludes that the majority of supply chain segmentation is currently focused within the area of supply chain design and has parallels with the established lean and agile concepts. It is shown that supply chain segmentation can be considered a holistic supply chain strategy and by following a structured framework can be applied to all planning levels, strategic, tactical and operational. The drive of the research was to consider which factors can be used to segment both products and customers. This was tested within an operational environment and it is shown how different strategies can be applied accordingly to each segment. It is proposed by Smith and Slater (2001) that products can be assigned inventory strategies depending on which one of six segments they fall within. The results of a variability index and volume calculations are the determining factors for the segmentation process. It is proposed within this study that an added dimension of lead time variability and a coefficient correlation calculation to determine the level of variability will produce a more accurate inventory model. A segmentation strategy, which combines different supply chain and research methodologies, was applied to a company called Newey and Eyre, which operates within the electrical industry. This is presented within the case study chapter. The practical research programme was designed as three separate research projects and these represent the different planning levels of the business. The first and second research project was carried out within the South West region of the business, where changes were made to the design of the supply chain and to the design and layout of a regional distribution centre (RDC) based at Avonmouth respectively. The third research project is based upon analysis which was undertaken of the company‟s purchasing and inventory system. A discrete event simulation (DES) model of this system was created and this provided the platform to test a number of segmentation strategies against the current system of operation.
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El-Sakty, Khaled. "The development of a port performance measurement system : with reference to Damietta Port, Egypt." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2012. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/17488/.
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Ports compete through providing high quality services at the right price. Ports require reliable performance measurement systems so that their daily operations can be effectively managed, their port assets efficiently utilised, and cargo dwell and standing times minimised. Port performance studies have been approached from strategic, operational, functional, financial and managerial perspectives. Findings in the literature have concluded that the measurement systems currently used are limited because the focus is on measuring efficiency, especially for containerised cargo and terminals. Often, key variables have been ignored and there is focus on improving productivity rather than performance. This research addresses the issue of how current performance measurement systems can be developed to measure the performance of ports more effectively. The research has been designed to contribute to knowledge through conceptualising the needs of developing effective measurement systems in ports by using relevant measures and quantifying those key predictors that influence a port’s performance. Quantitative methods are traditionally used for assessing port performance. This research commences with a discussion of supply chain performance measurement systems in relation to ports. It investigates different supply chain measurement designs, categories and characteristics within each category and examines the effectiveness of the current measurement system applied in Damietta port, Egypt. Findings show that Damietta port currently has no formal measurement system and would benefit from the implementation of a performance measurement system. Data have been collected according to the four types of handled cargoes in Damietta port, namely general cargo, dry bulk, liquid bulk and containers. Data have been collected on a monthly basis. For each type of cargo, data have been edited and keyed and a categorisation scheme has been set up to cover those operations at terminals. The Damietta Port Performance Measurement System (DAPEMS) has been developed using three measures, including: time, revenue and flexibility measures. Initially the system was developed using time measures, where key determinants were discussed and multiple regression analyses applied. Relevant predictor variables were selected and incorporated into the regression models with varying degrees of significance. Following this, DAPEMS has been extended using revenue measures, where revenues resulted from operations time, clearance time and the time a ship stays in a port. The final measure considered was flexibility. This helps to cope with the complexity of operations and uncertainty at ports. DAPEMS has been tested for two months in Damietta Port. In addition, the system’s features, including: reliability, applicability and flexibility have been analysed. The system was tested for two months at Damietta port. The port managers reported the benefits of using DAPEMS as there is no system currently applied in the port. Using additional variables, understanding the relationship between variables, providing information about port revenue and providing managers with estimated future performance were appreciated by the port director and a top manager as this helps them and the port planners in a decision-making process. It is concluded that applying DAPEMS was highly appreciated for providing useful visibility about the port's performance. However, some limitations are addressed and suggestions are proposed to be carried out for future research.
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Gibson, Richard. "An evaluation of solution design in logistics outsourcing." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2011. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/12300/.
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Outsourcing within the logistics and supply chain sector is perceived as a method to save money and improve client service levels. The outsourcing process exists within a highly stratified market of service provision and high value commercial arrangements may extend over many years. The client has a responsibility to define the strategy for their supply chain and agree distribution channel objectives which support the wider organisation’s brand delivery. There is a variety of solutions to satisfy these objectives of which outsourcing is one and should be accompanied by clear success criteria as well as a governance structure in order to yield a long term successful commercial arrangement. It is perceived that organisations may not follow an iterative approach towards outsourcing and that failing to adhere to these principles results in a lack of satisfaction for both parties evidenced by high contract turnover rates. This Phd thesis has investigated the issue of solution design within outsourced logistics amongst a group of 400 senior logistics managers through case studies, interviews and a three round Delphi survey. The hypothesis for this investigation was ‘the length and stability of an outsourcing relationship is directly related to the amount of effort expended by the customer in designing their logistics solution’. It was found that clients develop logistics strategy in varying degrees and over varying timescales. Clients measure the cost of supply chain activities with varying frequencies and few follow a straight forward method to define the parameters of a successful supply chain. Within outsourcing arrangements, governance and the management of change were poorly interpreted and executed. The current and future stratifications of logistics service offerings relied on a degree of collaboration between the pursuant parties and it was difficult to determine the effectiveness of these approaches when the balance of power between the parties was so unequal. Both clients and service providers were found to be poorly prepared to grasp the opportunities presented by the rising costs of energy and the future demands of reducing carbon intensity within the sector. Contributions were defined in terms of service level stratification and likely risk, behaviours and a toolkit for clients to observe when working within the outsourced environment as well as the opportunities presented by the changes currently influencing the sector. In conclusion, the hypothesis was found to be valid and the important role the client has to play in specifying and managing their logistics service provision was applicable across the logistics and supply chain industry.
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Lin, Xiao. "Future perspective of electric bicycles in sustainable mobility in China." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2016. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/94809/.
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The thesis seeks to analyse the electric bicycle (e-bike) transition phenomenon in China by applying the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) Transition Theory and Multi-scalar Perspective MLP. The research is performed with abductive case studies drawn from mixed methods. Firstly, we synthesised secondary data to investigate the e-bike transition at the national level (China) and the city level (“mini” case studies of Beijing and Fuzhou) to explore the research questions of 1) Can socio-technical transition occur without deliberate policy support (RQ1)? 2) How can we explain the rapid emergence and enduring popularity of e-bikes in China (RQ2)? Then we performed exploratory research in Cardiff, UK and Nanjing, China using semi-structured interviews. The interview results are used to help design survey questionnaire in Nanjing case study. It is the key research step and addresses the following research questions: 1) How are e-bikes embedded in the current transport regime (RQ3)? 2) How much longer can e-bikes continue to be embedded in the transport regime (RQ4)? 3) What are the mechanisms underlying the rapid emergence of e-bikes (RQ5)? To analyse the data collected from the survey, Generalised Linear Models and Binomial Generalised Linear Models are adopted to investigate current mode choice behaviour and predict future choice. In the theoretical aspect, the thesis applied the Multi-scalar Perspective MLP, filling the gap that traditional MLP does not take into account geographical, socio-political heterogeneity. In addition, we paid attention to the individual role in travel mode behaviour. From a practical perspective, the thesis uses substantial empirical data to provide a comprehensive understanding of the e-bike transition. We invited various groups in the survey, including e-bike users, bicycle users, car drivers, pedestrians and traffic police. The thesis explores a wide range of influencing factors, such as user anxiety, feelings related to e-bike adoption, e-bike user charging behaviour, other travel mode users and traffic police attitude towards e-bike development which have not been studied in previous e-bike literatures. The main findings are: 1) The fast emergence of e-bikes in China is spontaneous, without direct policy support from governments; 2) E-bike transition in China begins with transformation pathway (P1), followed by de-alignment and re-alignment pathway (P2); 3) E-bike users in China are mainly young career-aged commuters and have a much higher education level than average, which are different from other countries; 4) E-bikes are well embedded in the current transport regime and they are adopted widely in many aspects of people’s daily lives, including commuting, going shopping, and collecting children; 5) The underlying reasons for the selection of e-bikes are they provide affordable personal mobility due to the advantages of effort saving, flexible trip times, time saving in traffic jams, and high accessibility, whereas environmental and health factors are negligible; 6) E-bikes are possibly an intermediate mode on Nanjing’s motorisation pathway.
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Wang, Lingjie. "Analyzing the dynamics between organizational culture and change : a case study of China Central Television (CCTV) in transition." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2006. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4072/.
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The Thesis sets out to analyze CCTV's transition from 1979-2003 with a special focus on its most influential reform entitled Producer Responsibility System (PRS). In order to present a real picture of CCTV's organizational culture, this research uses multiple research methods to synthesize valuable contributions from two schools of organizational culture theory driven by different research orientations. Data collection methods include a6 months' ethnographic research project inside CCTV. The research has two main research findings. First, following the introduction of PRS, the reform process has been uneven. A split has emerged at CCTV between an 'inner' and an 'outer' management circles, with very different organizational cultures and responses to organizational change. Second, the research identifies four logics which have shaped CCTV's organizational culture: Party logic, Commercial logic, Professional logic and Social and ethnic logic. CCTV's transition has been defined by a complex interaction and negotiation between these four logics. This thesis summarizes CCTV's organizational change from 1979-2003 into three stages, from a 'frozen' status to 'change by exception' and then to 'incremental change'. Analysis of the relationship between these four logics suggests that to achieve a real transition from Party mouthpiece to modem media enterprise, CCTV needs to achieve a new 'paradigm change'. The key to the success of this 'paradigm change' will be a systematic reconstruction of CCTV's organizational culture based on the central objective of building media professionalism. The single case study places some limits on the generalizability of the findings but other Chinese media businesses share a similar economic, historical and cultural context. The problems at CCTV can thus be seen to be representative general issues of the Chinese media industry in transition.
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Boateng, Kofi Agyenim. "ICT-driven interactions : on the dynamics of mediated control." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2009. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/253/.
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Interactions driven by Information Communications Technologies (ICT) have gained significant acceptance and momentum in contemporary organisational settings, this is illustrated by their massive adoption and varied deployment across the various levels of an organisation’s hierarchy. ICTs such as mobile telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), videoconferencing, BlackBerries and other forms of portable and immovable computing technologies provide enduring bases for mediated interactions in human activities. This thesis looks into the dynamics of ICT-driven interactions and, distinctively, focuses on the manifestations and implications of mediated control in a collaborative environment. The study draws on the concept of administrative behaviour which leads to the observation that the nature of mediated control is not static, but evolutionarily dynamic that springs from highly unpredictable contexts of work. Thus, interactions driven by ICTs influence and change the dynamics of mediated control against the background of the rhythm, structure and direction of an organisation’s purposeful undertakings. Findings indicate, quite paradoxically, that networks set up through the instrumentality of technology mediated interaction discourage domination and inspire individual discretion in spite of their promise of electronic chains. The analysis reflects the notion that mediated control is not only about the predetermination of targets that are attained at the subordinate level. Indeed, the study advocates a fundamental conceptualisation of mediated control as double-sided concept, integrating the use of discretion that, occasionally, makes subordinates drive and initiate key control techniques that steer organisational life. Therefore, through the application of philosophical hermeneutics for a rigorous data interpretation, this study develops an innovative and holistic understanding of mediated control which not only adds to, but also extends, the current organisational perception of control by the incorporation of discretion and, in the process, makes a distinctive contribution to scholarship.
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Slivka, Michael Howard. "The implications of advanced-telecommunications on the spatial structure of the urban system." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2005. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4071/.
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The missing component in studies that have attempted to assess the affects of advanced-telecommunications on urban form, and/or the location of economic activity in space, is the consideration and application of the urban system. Thus, in an attempt to justify the urban system as a framework for analysis as well as establish the context of the study, chapter 1 identifies the general characteristics of the urban system from the regional and spatial economic perspective. While the increased ability with which to interact across space and the Internet have and will no doubt continue to have wide ranging implications in, for example, a social and political context, the perspective of this study is purely a spatial economic one.
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Takahashi, Toshie. "Media, audience activity and everyday life : the case of Japanese engagement with media and ICT." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2002. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/671/.
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This thesis investigates the role of media and information communication technology (ICT) in Japanese society, exploring how, in their various ways of engaging with the media in everyday life, Japanese audiences reflexively 'create' and 'recreate' their sense of self and the social groups to which they belong. Changes in everyday life, linked to the proliferation of media forms and coupled with the communications revolution, underscore the complex relationships between people's lives and the media. The primary aim of this thesis is to analyse the complex and diverse ways in which audiences engage with media in the context of domestic social change and globalisation. I provide an integrated framework for understanding the complexity and dynamism of individuals, social groups, and cultures, replacing the concept of 'audience activity' with 'audience engagement', and the paradigm of the active audience with the paradigms of everyday life and complexity. Further, this analysis of the Japanese audience can serve as a modest step towards the de-Westernisation of media studies. In the process, key Japanese emic concepts are employed, adapting them in ways that reject as myth the homogeneity of the Japanese, in order to highlight culturally specific ways of constructing self and other. Methodologically, the qualitative approach employed is intended to complement the characteristic quantitative emphasis in audience research within Japanese academia. Specifically, the present study is an ethnography of so-called 'modern' Japanese families having in the media-rich Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The research demonstrates how (l) multiple dimensions of audience engagement, (2) the transformation of the notion of uchi (social groups) in a media-rich environment, and (3) the role of media and ICT in the process of self-creation are related to complex processes of globalisation and social change in Japan. From an analysis of this relationship I indicate future possibilities for Japanese society and the future of globalisation addressing the cultural, social, and political question of universalism set against cultural specificity.
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Courtois, Denis. "Talking to France : radio propaganda from 1940 to 1942." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/89549/.
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The technology of wireless transformed societies and re-defined the nature of national and transnational communication when radio broadcasting to the public began in the early 1920s. This thesis focuses on the three main wartime radio stations (the BBC, Radiodiffusion and Radio Paris) broadcasting to and in France from June 1940 to November 1942. By studying the narratives of the broadcasting that lay at the heart of each radio station’s politics, motivation, propaganda and interaction with the population at large, the thesis will attempt to give these radio stations the recognition that they deserve in the historiography of wartime France, and, in doing so, make a major contribution to knowledge on radio propaganda. This thesis goes beyond existing literature by offering a comparative analysis of radio propaganda messages, thus deepening the understanding of the evolution of broadcasts in the context of the complex political and social impact of the war on the French population. The narratives reveal the political rhetoric and the perceived social norms during the German Occupation, as well as the exercise of power, which may be taken for granted. For each radio station, a key theme is identified as the overarching basis for analysis: food and the impact of food policy on families for the BBC; youth and its idealised role in the construction of a New France for Radiodiffusion; and youth and its perceived role in a German-dominated New Europe for Radio Paris. Written and audio archives in England and France were consulted as the principal source for the research conducted. This research is limited in that the conclusions drawn are largely dependent on the material available to researchers, material which is incomplete and often piecemeal.
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Lai, Po-Lin. "A study on the relationship between airport privatisation and airport efficiency : an application of using AHP/DEA methods." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/46617/.
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In order to deal with the competitive environment surrounding the air transport industry, civil aviation authorities have undertaken several approaches to improve airport efficiency, such as investing in the infrastructure and privatising airport ownership or governance. Among these methods, airport privatisation policy has been implemented for around 25 years in the U.K., closely followed by other European countries. By contrast, decision makers elsewhere, such as in the Asia-Pacific region, are now interested in privatisation and in doing so evaluate the impact of this process elsewhere. Focussing on the most popular method for assessing airport efficiency, with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) a unit can appear efficient simply because of its pattern of inputs and outputs rather than any inherent efficiency. But only using DEA may not provide useful results about the efficiency of airports as different decision makers may weight the relative importance of inputs and outputs differently (for example, airport managers, and airline companies). In this research, another aim is to develop and demonstrate the applicability of different analysis techniques within the AEES. For this reason, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis is adopted to calculate the importance of each variable. These results are then integrated into both DEA and DEA, Assurance Region (AR) models, to reflect the different importance of the metrics. In the context of air transportation, an integrated AHP/DEA and AHP/DEA-AR model are applied for the first time to evaluate airport efficiency. A sensitivity analysis with different variable sets is carried out. In conclusion, an AEES is established and the result shows that the approach by adopting AHP/DEA-AR model in particular can provide more accurate values of relative efficiency than using the traditional DEA approach. There are also different priorities between stakeholder groups and these can affect the efficiency scores of airports. However, the results for each of the different analysis techniques show that there is no statistically significant relationship between airport ownership and efficiency. Therefore, the primary aim of this research is to examine the relationship between airport privatisation and efficiency, through an Airport Efficiency Evaluation System (AEES). The study covers Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, reflecting different attitudes towards the role of government within airport management. Focussing on the most popular method for assessing airport efficiency, with
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Brake, David R. "'As if nobody's reading'? : the imagined audience and socio-technical biases in personal blogging practice in the UK." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2009. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/4/.
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This thesis examines the understandings and meanings of personal blogging from the perspective of blog authors. The theoretical framework draws on a symbolic interactionist perspective, focusing on how meaning is constructed through blogging practices, supplemented by theories of mediation and critical technology studies. The principal evidence in this study is derived from an analysis of in-depth interviews with bloggers selected to maximise their diversity based on the results of an initial survey. This is supplemented by an analysis of personal blogging’s technical contexts and of various societal influences that appear to influence blogging practices. Bloggers were found to have limited interest in gathering information about their readers, appearing to rely instead on an assumption that readers are sympathetic. Although personal blogging practices have been framed as being a form of radically free expression, they were also shown to be subject to potential biases including social norms and the technical characteristics of blogging services. Blogs provide a persistent record of a blogger’s practice, but the bloggers in this study did not generally read their archives or expect others to do so, nor did they retrospectively edit their archives to maintain a consistent self-presentation. The empirical results provide a basis for developing a theoretical perspective to account for blogging practices. This emphasises firstly that a blogger’s construction of the meaning of their practice can be based as much on an imagined and desired social context as it is on an informed and reflexive understanding of the communicative situation. Secondly, blogging practices include a variety of envisaged audience relationships, and some blogging practices appear to be primarily self-directed with potential audiences playing a marginal role. Blogging’s technical characteristics and the social norms surrounding blogging practices appear to enable and reinforce this unanticipated lack of engagement with audiences. This perspective contrasts with studies of computer mediated communication that suggest bloggers would monitor their audiences and present themselves strategically to ensure interactions are successful in their terms. The study also points the way towards several avenues for further research including a more in-depth consideration of the neglected structural factors (both social and technical) which potentially influence blogging practices, and an examination of social network site use practices using a similar analytical approach.
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Harper, Gavin. "The role of business model innovation in transitioning ULEVs to market." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2014. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/71735/.
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This thesis explores whether ‘business model innovation’ could hold the key to advancing the ultra-low and zero carbon vehicle industry in the United Kingdom. This thesis presents a critical comparison of two case studies drawn from qualitative research conducted with a broad cross-section of UK vehicle manufacturers (VMs) that are interested in introducing zero carbon vehicles to the marketplace. The two cases, looking at large established producers of vehicles with trans-national presence (herein termed TNC/MNC VMs) and smaller producers (herein termed SME VMs). The two cases consist of a number of grouped embedded cases focusing on the activities of vehicle producers that are in the process of introducing Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) to the UK marketplace. These cases are constructed and informed by both primary research, semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives of these VMs, secondary analysis of interviews conducted with VM representatives and industry commentators and documentary analysis of contemporary sources and industry commentary. The thesis is framed within a broader academic debate regarding the nature of achieving socio-technical transitions. Within this frame of reference, particular attention is paid to the role of large incumbents vs. new start-up insurgents in bringing innovative technologies to the marketplace; innovative technologies being seen as a key component of a transition to a more sustainable world. In comparing the business models of large, well-established vehicle manufacturers, with smaller, newer, SME providers the ontology of Business Models developed by Osterwalder & Pigneur (2002) is used to interrogate, analyse and make comparisons between the business models of a range of companies that are very dissimilar in nature. Context is crucial to understanding the detail of case studies; as such, the thesis is also informed by the perspectives, gained through interviews, of a number of industry commentators, representatives of government organisations and automotive trade bodies. ~ xxviii ~ This thesis set out to explore a number of research themes and the contributions to knowledge that this thesis has made are: Establishing a theoretical linkage between Geels (2006) multi-level perspective of transitions literature and Osterwalder & Pigneur’s (2002) business model ontology. By bringing these two powerful tools together, it is proposed that a complimentary analysis of the business model on the micro level, embedded within an overall socio-technical transition at the macro level can be made. Furthermore, through an empirical analysis of business models in the car industry, a range of business model components, new directions for business models and “complementary” ancillary business models that support the introduction of ULEVs has been identified. Disappointingly, whilst some observation are made about the early stages of transitions, the slow uptake of ULEVs in the marketplace has shown that the incumbent regime is still reistant to transition – and no concrete transition mechanisms can be identified. There are however a collection of observations about the early stages of socio-technical transitions. The thesis also contributes to the ongoing debate about the tensions between incumbent and insurgent business contributing to the ongoing characterisation of the competitive forces that exist between them. Another important contribution to the business models literature, is a discussion of the role of product, process and business model design. Very recent work by Meertens, Starreveld, Iacob, & Nieuwenhuis (2013) has also explored this issue, however, this work takes a different perspective informed by the empirical data within the case studies.
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Golbuff, Laura. "Moving beyond physical mobility : blogging about cycling and urban transport policy." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2014. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/73196/.
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It is often acknowledged that movement exists in multiple, interdependent forms and that we live in an Information Age. However, mobilities perspectives on contemporary cycling tend to neglect the a) interconnections between transport (physical mobility of people and objects) and communication (mobility of symbolic information) b) paradigmatic shifts in modernity that affect how and why we communicate about transport. This thesis responds to such neglect. Firstly, it places urban cycling in an internet context by examining practices and perceptions of policy blogging, asking why do individuals blog about cycling-related transport policy and to what effect? Secondly, it analyses the answers to these questions through the theoretical lens of the risk society and reflexive modernisation theses. Empirical data is the result of 46 semi-structured interviews with bloggers and expert system representatives, mostly in London, New York and Paris. Blogging about cycling-related transport policy is shown to be an individualised response to the perceived failings of expert systems, as well as in Giddens’ words, a ‘reflexive project of the self’. Citizens who may otherwise only be policy subjects or passive consumers of transport, emerge as policy, media and civil society actors by virtue of their ability to publish information, which forms the basis of social relations. Through blogging, they produce and mobilise knowledge. Knowledge claims mediated by blogging interact with expert systems responsible for transport, which in turn adapt; routine institutional practices evolve; a new order emerges; blogging makes a difference. That difference is however limited, not least because the public remains reliant on expert systems. Ultimately, despite the obvious importance of physical mobility to cycling, this thesis seeks to move beyond it. Information and communication technologies have radically altered how we - researchers, the public, expert system representatives - communicate about and understand cycling, and as such, this project argues for a renewed emphasis on mobilities in a genuinely plural sense of the word as being about more than physically moving from A to B.
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Vagliasindi, Maria. "Competition, access pricing and regulation in a second degree price discrimination setting." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1995. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/81921/.
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In broad terms, this work aims to gain a greater understanding of the particular features introduced in the regulatory set-up by competitive issues and vertically related markets. Specifically, we explore their impact on the profitability of the market and the p~ssibility for the incumbent to maintain monopoly profits under different regulatory regimes. There was a time when utilities industries and in particular telecoms each seemed to be a natural monopoly. Most governments liked it that way because they owned the monopoly and siphoned off some of the profits. Nowadays, competition is spreading in most utilities market and it becomes imperative to assess its impact on the tariffs and in general on social welfare. We deal with a second degree price discrimination model allowing the players -namely, an incumbent, who has a natural monopoly on the network, and a rival- to make use of non-linear pricing in intermediate and final goods. In this framework the entrant's choice of the customer types is endogenised in a sequential multistage game, where the incumbent, who is undoubtedly the most powerful player, acts as a first mover. We also show that cream skimming, contrary to the general wisdom, can be welfare enhancing. Particular attention is devoted to the access pricing problem which is becoming the key issue to the regulators, examining the relevance of simple pricing rules, such as the Baumol-Willig rule. Despite the presence of a growing literature in these areas, other models fail to incorporate the use of non-linear access pricing. Since price discrimination is common in practice this omission can lead to misleading results. Our analysis shows that the regulator should not allow competition for the low-demand consumers' types or by a less efficient entrant and should impose the adoption of socially optimal non-linear access tariffs. Therefore the general conclusion is that competition will not obviate the need of regulation.
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Wang, Chenlan. "Price of anarchy for congestion games with stochastic demands." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2014. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/67674/.
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The price of anarchy is a game-theoretical concept and it measures system degradation caused by players' selfish behaviours. This thesis extends models of congestion games to take stochastic demands into account and studies the price of anarchy on the basis of generalised models developed in this research. In the presence of stochastic demands, the models developed in this study better re flect the reality of a transportation network. The study would help provide a theoretical foundation and insights into mechanism design of transportation games and traffic control in practice. This thesis is concerned with both non-atomic and atomic congestion games, which involve an infinite and finite number of travellers respectively. We introduce the notions of user equilibrium and system optimum under stochastic demands and investigate the behaviours of travellers and central coordinators in a stochastic environment. At a user equilibrium, travellers choose routes independently and aim to minimise their own expected travel costs, while at a system optimum, traffic is fully coordinated to minimise the expected total cost over the whole network. We extend two existing methods of bounding the price of anarchy and compute the quality upper bounds for polynomial cost functions and very general settings of demand distributions. More specifically, we consider positive-valued distributions and normal distributions for non-atomic congestion games, and positive-valued discrete distributions for atomic congestion games. Our results show that the price of anarchy depends on the class of cost functions, demand distributions and, to some extent, network topologies. All the upper bounds are tight in some special cases, including the case of deterministic demands. The two bounding methods are also compared.
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Kamla, Jwan Jameel Shekh Mohammed. "Analysing truck position data to study roundabout accident risk." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37386/.
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In order to reduce accident risk, highway authorities prioritise maintenance budgets partly based upon previous accident history. However, as accident rates have continued to fall in most contexts, this approach has become problematic as accident ‘black spots’ have been treated and the number of accidents at any individual site has fallen. Another way of identifying sites of higher accident risk might be to identify near-miss accidents (where an accident nearly happened, but was avoided), which are likely to be much more prolific than actual accidents, therefore they are useful in identifying high-risk sites. The principal aim of this research is to analyse potentially unsafe truck driving conditions that involving harsh braking incidents (HBIs) that may indicate accident risk. Most modern truck fleets now record position as part of fleet management. This research used position data collected by a truck fleet management company for 8000 trucks in the United Kingdom (UK) over a 2-year period (2011-2012) to identify incidents of harsh braking. This data was compared with STATS19 accident data events (specifically truck accidents) occurring in 70 selected roundabouts (284 approaches) over an 11-year period (2002-2012), to test the hypothesis that the HBIs could represent accident near-misses and therefore increased accident risk. The data used for model prediction comprised all vehicle accidents, truck accidents, HBIs, geometric properties, and traffic characteristics for whole roundabouts, within the circulatory lanes, and at approaches to the selected roundabouts. Random-parameters negative binomial (NB) count data models were used to estimate model parameters and the models were compared with fixed-parameters NB count data models. It was found that random-parameters count data models provide better goodness of fit and more variables were found to be significant, giving a better prediction of events. It is concluded that HBIs are influenced by traffic and geometric variables in a similar way to total and truck accidents, therefore they may be useful in considering accident risk at roundabouts. They are a source of higher volumes of data than accidents, which is important in considering changes or trends in accident risk over a much shorter time. The most important variables were Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) and percentage of truck traffic, which were found to have a positive influence on accidents and HBIs. Regarding the geometric variables, signalisation, circulatory roadway width, number of arms and two-lane indicator were the most important factors influencing accidents and HBIs. In addition to these models, numbers of HBIs was used as an independent variable in the models of total and truck accidents, along with traffic and geometric variables. From the results it can be concluded that at all approaches, HBIs are related to total accidents along with traffic and geometric variables, which can be used to study safety measures. A good predictive model for truck accidents at M-class approaches based on HBI, traffic and geometric parameters was identified that can be used for prioritising safety at these approaches in order to make roundabouts safer. For A- and B-class approaches a better fit model were identified when HBI were used as input variable along with traffic and geometric variables compared to the model without using HBI as input variable, but the influence of HBIs was negative (high HBIs with low numbers of accidents) which is probably an indicator of future accident risk in these locations. For at-grade roundabouts, a better fit model was obtained for total and truck accidents when it is compared to the model without HBIs, but the influence of HBIs was negative; this is probably an indicator of high accident risks in these at-grade roundabouts, however further investigation is required with more observations. These results for truck HBIs could help highway authorities to identify sites of increased accident risk more rapidly and without waiting for an accident history to develop.
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Salleh, N. H. M. "Strategic risk and reliability assessment in the container liner shipping industry under high uncertainties." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2015. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/4429/.
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The container liner shipping industry (CLSI) can be defined as one consisting of a fleet of vessels that provides a fixed service at regular intervals between ports of call. It is noteworthy that the CLSI is remarkably acting as an artery in making contributions to the growth of the global economy. However, in an era of unprecedented global changes, the CLSI faces a variety of internal and external risks. Moreover, the reliability and capability of liner shipping operators (LSOs) vary under different environmental conditions. Consequently, it is important for LSOs to ensure that the safety and reliability of their internal operations as well as external environments through proactive assessment of their reliability and capability are intact. The literature indicates that disruptive events have been assessed and investigated by many researchers and practitioners whilst the root causes arising from external risks have not yet been fully identified. The aim of this research was to develop integrated frameworks for assessing risk and reliability in the CLSI under high uncertainties. As a result, three interlocking levels of analysis have been highlighted in this research: 1) business environment-based risk (BEBR), 2) organisational reliability and capability (ORC) of LSOs, and 3) punctuality of containerships. To achieve the aim, firstly, this research employed a combination of different decision-making methods (i.e. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Fuzzy Set Theory (FST) and Evidential Reasoning (ER)) for the assessment of the BEBR. The research outcomes are providing LSOs with a powerful decision-making tool to assess the risk value of a country prior to investment and strategic decisions. In addition, LSOs are also able to regularly assess the overall level of existing BEBR in a host country prior to development of mitigation strategies that can help to minimise financial losses. Secondly, this research employs the Fuzzy Bayesian Belief Network (FBBN) method for evaluating the ORC of LSOs. By exploiting the proposed FBBN model, LSOs are able to conduct a self-evaluation of their ORC prior to the selection of a strategy for enhancing their competitive advantages in the CLSI. A significant concern in container liner shipping operations is the punctuality of containerships. Therefore, thirdly, this research concentrated on analysing and predicting the arrival punctuality of a liner vessel under dynamic environments by employing a combination of Fuzzy Rule-Base (FRB) and FBBN methods. Finally, a probabilistic model for analysing and predicting the departure punctuality of a liner vessel was generated. Accordingly, from the outcomes of this research LSOs are able to forecast their vessels’ arrival and departure punctuality and, further, tactical strategies can be implemented if a vessel is expected to be delayed. In addition, both arrival and departure punctuality models are capable of helping academic researchers and industrial practitioners to comprehend the influence of uncertain environments on the service punctuality. In order to demonstrate the practicability of the proposed methodologies and models, several real test cases were conducted by choosing the Malaysian maritime industry as a focus of study. The results obtained from these test cases have provided useful information for recommending preventive measures, improvement strategies and tactical solutions. The frameworks and models that have been proposed in this research for assessing risk and reliability of the CLSI will provide managerial insights for modelling and assessing complex systems dealing with both quantitative and qualitative criteria in a rational, reliable and transparent manner. In addition, these models have been developed in a generic sense so that they can be tailored for application in other industrial sectors.
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Al-Khatib, S. F. S. "Strategic logistics outsourcing : integrated models for evaluating and selecting Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) : upstream/downstream supply chain comparison." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2015. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/4406/.
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This research aims to maximize the logistics outsourcing benefits through developing new hybrid models for evaluating and selecting Logistics Service Providers (LSPs). The growing demand for logistics outsourcing and the increase in the number and type of LSPs highlight the increasing importance of the LSP evaluation and selection process. Firms use various approaches to evaluate and select their LSP partners. Most of these approaches seem to have overlooked the strategic side of the logistics outsourcing process. Additionally, the uncertainty issue of data, the complexity of the decision and the large number of criteria involved increase the attractiveness of the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approaches. A comparative literature review was used in order to identify crucial factors and methods that are used in logistics literature in fragmented ways and therefore, to establish and design a conceptual framework and models for logistics outsourcing. First, a long list of evaluation criteria was developed. Three main dimensions were identified: logistics performance, logistics resources and logistics services. Then a conceptual framework was developed using the three main dimensions with their related factors. Based on the comparative literature review outcomes, a number of integrated models have been developed and used to achieve this aim with emphasis given to FDEMATEL, FTOPSIS and FQFD techniques. Whereas the FDEMATEL technique contributed to construct influence relationships between factors under each dimension, develop impact-relationship maps and identify dependent and independent success factors (ISFs), the FTOPSIS technique used the weighted success factors to evaluate, rank and select the best LSP in three case studies. Twenty-one ISFs have been identified to be used in the final approach. These ISFs consist of eight LKPIs, seven logistics services and six logistics resources and capabilities. All of the factors were used to evaluate and select the best LSP alternative and ISFs were used to conduct the evaluation process. Different sensitivity analysis tests are used to confirm models’ robustness. Based on the outcomes of both cases, decision makers can use independent factors alone to evaluate and select the best LSP, which simplified the logistics outsourcing process in our study. The FQFD technique was used to link the LSUs strategic objectives with logistics requirements and the ISFs to develop a new strategic logistics outsourcing approach. Finally, two case studies representing the supply chain upstream and downstream are used to demonstrate the new hybrid approach effectiveness. The comparison of both cases’ findings highlighted their differences in terms of strategic objectives, logistics requirements and ISFs.
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Lun, Yuen-Ha. "Building a model of national shipping centre." Thesis, City, University of London, 2017. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/17283/.
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National shipping centres comprise both upstream and downstream firms in the logistics chain to conduct shipping and trade-related activities. Users of national shipping centres include traders, logistics service providers, shipping lines, terminal operators, and other actors. Shipping is the business of transporting goods to facilitate trade. Shipping and trade are closely associated. Shipping centres are located in transport complex economies that are desirable for their users to perform various shipping related business activities. To explore the formation of national shipping centres, this study identifies trade facilitation measures at both the macro and micro levels that enhance economic performance. To build the model of national shipping centre, hypotheses have been developed to illustrate the relationship between trade facilitation activities and trade costs. Furthermore, the economic outcomes are also examined in this theoretical model. To validate the proposed research model, data are collected from the World Bank, and analytical tool is used for data analysis. The results suggest that trade facilitation measures are negatively associated with trade costs. The results also suggest that the trade facilitation measures of a country are positively associated with its economic performance. The findings of this study are useful for both business managers and policy makers. Based on the finding, managers can formulate effective business strategies to select a location for their firms to conduct their business activities. On the other hand, policy makers can formulate relevant measures to attract business firms to locate at their countries. In studying the formation of national shipping centres, the importance of developing social capital for trade facilitation is also emphasized. To illustrate the validity of the findings, two case studies are presented. The first case study examines countries with more than one port. These countries are China, Japan, and Korea. The second case study look into areas with single port (i.e., Hong Kong and Singapore). Overall, this study builds a theoretical model and validates the model to seek answers to the following questions: • What are the roles of trade facilitation at the macro-level and micro-level in the development of national shipping centres? • Does trade facilitation influence the economic development of a country? • What is the link between the development of social capita (in terms of trade facilitation measures) and the economic performance of a country? • What are the differences national shipping centres between developed and developing countries?
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Koc, Cagri. "Heterogeneous location- and pollution-routing problems." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2015. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/384001/.
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This thesis introduces and studies new classes of heterogeneous vehicle routing problems with or without location and pollution considerations. It develops powerful evolutionary and adaptive large neighborhood search based metaheuristics capable of solving a wide variety of such problems with suitable enhancements, and provides several important managerial insights. It is structured into five main chapters. After the introduction presented in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 classifies and reviews the relevant literature on heterogeneous vehicle routing problems, and presents a comparative analysis of the available metaheuristic algorithms for these problems. Chapter 3 describes a hybrid evolutionary algorithm for four variants of heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problems with time windows. The algorithm successfully combines several metaheuristics and introduces a number of new advanced efficient procedures. Extensive computational experiments on benchmark instances show that the algorithm is highly competitive with state-of-the art methods for the three variants. New benchmark results on the fourth problem are also presented. In Chapter 4, the thesis introduces the eet size and mix location-routing problem with time windows (FSMLRPTW) which extends the classical location-routing problem by considering a heterogeneous fleet and time windows. The main objective of the FSMLRPTW is to minimize the sum of depot cost, vehicle fixed cost and routing cost. The thesis presents integer programming formulations for the FSMLRPTW, along with a family of valid inequalities and an algorithm based on adaptation of the hybrid evolutionary metaheuristic. The strengths of the formulations are evaluated with respect to their ability to yield optimal solutions. Extensive computational experiments on new benchmark instances show that the algorithm is highly effective. Chapter 5 introduces the fleet size and mix pollution-routing problem (FSMPRP) which extends the previously studied pollution-routing problem (PRP) by considering a heterogeneous vehicle fleet. The main objective is to minimize the sum of vehicle fixed costs and routing cost, where the latter can be defined with respect to the cost of fuel and CO2 emissions, and driver cost. An adaptation of the hybrid evolutionary algorithm is successfully applied to a large pool of realistic PRP and FSMPRP benchmark instances, where new best solutions are obtained for the former. Several analyses are conducted to shed light on the trade-offs between various performance indicators. The benefit of using a heterogeneous fleet over a homogeneous one is demonstrated. In Chapter 6, the thesis investigates the combined impact of depot location, fleet composition and routing decisions on vehicle emissions in urban freight distribution characterized by several speed limits, where goods need to be delivered from a depot to customers located in different speed zones. To solve the problem, an adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm is successfully applied to a large pool of new benchmark instances. Extensive analyses are conducted to quantify the effect of various problem parameters, such as depot cost and location, customer distribution and fleet composition on key performance indicators, including fuel consumption, emissions and operational costs. The results illustrate the benefits of locating depots located in suburban areas rather than in the city centre and of using a heterogeneous fleet over a homogeneous one. The conclusions, presented in Chapter 7, summarize the results of the thesis, provide limitations of this work, as well as future research directions.
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Park, Ji Hong. "Transport PPP decisions in Korea : value for money assessment and risk quantification." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2014. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/366813/.
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Value for money (VFM) assessment has been adopted worldwide as a public private partnership (PPP) decision methodology. In terms of quantitative assessment, this method considers only the public sector cost, assuming completion delay does not occur between delivery alternatives, so it is difficult to use where systematic completion delays in the conventional delivery are expected to occur like in Korea. Therefore, in this research a Modified VFM methodology was developed to consider completion delay as well as public sector cost, using the VFM assessment and the Net Present Value (NPV) technique. In addition, various risks including transferable risks (completion delay, construction cost and traffic volume risk) were quantified in order to examine the impact of the transferable risks on PPP decisions, through historical observations and a literature review. In total six case studies (2 National Highways, 2 National Expressways and 2 National Railways) were conducted, reflecting Build-Transfer-Operate (BTO) and Build- Transfer Lease (BTL), the most popular PPP options in Korea. The biggest difference between the BTO and the BTL options is that the private sector makes a profit from end users’ tariffs in the BTO option, whereas it makes a profit using the annual lease fee from the government in the BTL option. The most important finding is that a completion delay in the conventional delivery can be a decisive factor on the quantitative PPP decisions because of the resulting benefit difference between conventional delivery and PPP options. As this completion delay for conventional delivery becomes longer, the probability that PPP schemes are favourable increases. In addition, the critical completion delay, making the Modified VFM zero, varies depending on not only whether to include the construction cost risk and the traffic volume risk, but also on the PPP options considered. Another important finding is that, when including construction cost risk, the viability of PPP options in roads increases, whereas that in railways decreases. This is because the average winning bid ratio (winner’s price divided by estimated price) of turnkey/ alternative bids in roads, used in the calculation of the asset cost of the public sector comparator (PSC) according to the BTL guidelines of Korea, is higher than historical observations that include construction cost risk, whereas in railways it is lower than historical observations that include construction cost risk. This difference between roads and railways seems to arise from the fact that railways are usually delivered separately using six major work element contracts, while roads are usually delivered by a single contract, suggesting that separate contracts lead to greater cost overruns than a single contract. In addition, when reflecting traffic volume risk, the most appropriate delivery option, from a Government perspective, for road/railway cases with tariffs changes from the BTL to the BTO option. This is because traffic volume risk directly results in a shortfall in revenue, which makes the BTO option more favourable to the public sector. However, in the case of railways, the BTL option seems to be practically adopted because the revenue stream is so small that the BTO option is not affordable for the private sector, even considering the maximum governmental subsidy condition. For the success of a BTO project in Korea, a new traffic volume risk sharing scheme is also suggested, sharing revenue shortfall or excess according to the investment of each participant. Overall, this research suggests that, considering the transferable risks and the revenue stream size of each transport programme, the BTL option is the most appropriate for the National Railways, whereas the BTO is the most appropriate option for the National Expressways, provided that the BTO viability can be achieved in terms of the internal rate of return. With respect to the National Highway programme, the BTL option can be considered as an alternative to conventional delivery on a case by case basis. Finally, considering the land transport programme (roads and railways) of Korea, a meta-analysis indicates that the Modified VFM is positively influenced by project size, completion delay, benefit cost ratio, discount rate and consumer price index, whereas it is negatively influenced by the five year exchequer bond interest rate. In addition, the BTO option and Gyeonggi province (surrounding Seoul) respectively have a bigger positive influence on the Modified VFM than the BTL option and Gyungnam province (adjacent to Busan).
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Kwak, Dong-Wook. "Risk management in international container logistics operations : risk analysis and mitigating strategies." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2014. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/73558/.
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Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to investigate risk management strategies for international logistics operations that can minimise the occurrence and/or the impact of risks in order to achieve a desirable logistics network. For this purpose, international logistics risks were analysed to find out critical risk areas, and then strategies to mitigate those risks were developed and validated in relation to organisational orientations and outcomes. Methodology: Risk identification, risk clustering and risk analysis were conducted by using focus group research and Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) to investigate risk areas that should be mitigated. A risk management strategy model was developed using Information Processing Theory, a review of extant supply chain risk management studies and interviews with logistics practitioners. The model was empirically tested with questionnaire survey data using descriptive statistics, ANOVA and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings: International logistics risks consists of value streams; information and relationships; logistics activities; and the external environments. Among these, information and relationships risks were found to generate self-enhancing risk loops, thereby creating subsequent risk impacts after disruptions. To mitigate these risks, firms involved in international logistics implemented strategies, such as building a stable logistics network, leveraging logistics information, leveraging outsourcing contracts and developing logistics collaboration, although the level of implementation depends on the business context. Among the four strategies, building a stable logistics network and developing logistics collaboration strategies were most effective in strengthening both robustness and resilience in the logistics network. Customer orientation had positive impacts on all four strategies, but disruption orientation and quality orientation influenced certain types of strategies. Research Implications: This is the first study which has applied a three-phase risk management process to international logistics operations, thereby highlighting distinctive features of international logistics risks. This thesis empirically develops and validates a risk management strategy model which embraces both strategies and relevant tactical/operational initiatives. The antecedents and outcomes of risk management strategies were also investigated and conceptualised for future research. Practical Implications: The profile of risks, risk sources, loss types and risk levels provide a guideline for logistics managers to anticipate and proactively deal with potential risks. Also, they can evaluate the current status of risk management efforts and can benchmark suggested strategies and practices in consideration of the strategic fit to their organisations.
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Karim, Javid. "Development of a process driven approach to improving supply chain performance within the airline service industry : executive summary." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2002. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1298/.
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This programme of research investigated the development of a process driven approach to improving supply chain performance within the airline service sector. Work was undertaken within the Engineering division of an established UK scheduled airline, and specifically within the maintenance, repair and overhaul sector (MRO). The underlying objective of this research was to establish the relevance of supply chain management as a source of competitive advantage to the airline service sector. A detailed review of the literature revealed that best practice originated predominately from the Japanese automotive sector, notably a manufacturing based industry. A review of the characteristic differences between these two industry sectors was undertaken to identify the opportunity for cross-sectoral transfer of knowledge. This was complemented by a thorough benchmarking analysis that identified the airline industry's position relative to best practice. This confirmed the relative immaturity of supply chain management within the airline service sector, which was representative of progress achieved by the automotive sector in the early 1980's. The key aspects of best practice were then structured into a proposed process for improving supply chain performance. This process consisted of specific strategies with their corresponding tools and techniques for implementation. A number of case study implementations were then used to further validate, test and develop this generic process within a real airline operational environment. Significant improvements in both operational and financial performance were achieved through adopting this approach. A 40 % reduction in chemical sourcing costs was achieved, representing a £990,000 saving over three years for the case study company. A further 12.5 % reduction in landing gear overhaul costs was achieved (approximately £300,000), whilst at the same time improving the operational performance of this supply chain by 60 %. This research concludes by recommending a generic process for improving supply chain performance. The benefits achieved through implementing this process further confirm the relevance of supply chain management to the airline service sector. Finally, this paper proposes a deterministic tool to assist practitioners in the selection of the most appropriate supply chain strategy for a given situation. Whilst this tool requires further validation, the possibilities for it's application extend far beyond those of the airline service sector. As a result this work has significantly contributed to knowledge in the field, representing considerable innovation.
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Uthaisang, Pitaya. "Telecommunications reform programme of Thailand : institutionalism and the reform process." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2006. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2444/.
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The thesis presents an empirical study of the telecommunications reform experience of Thailand between the mid 1980s and 2000s in an attempt to explain the effect of national institutional arrangements upon the reform process. This time period permits an exploration of the development of the reform as well as its major impediments in relation to three different political settings. The progress of reform on the three basic reform issues (privatisation, liberalisation, and regulation) is thoroughly examined to understand the consequences produced by different industry environments. An historical institutionalist study of the Thai experience identifies the political tensions among the reform's interested parties as well as the unwieldy political settings that were the dominant features that heavily influenced the reform story. The thesis places a special emphasis on the latest political regime (the hegemonic era) since it provided a different industry outlook compared to the previous two regimes (the bureaucratic and pluralistic eras), allowing substantial progress towards reform to be made. The telecommunications reform in Thailand is not complete. Thus, it may be too early to confirm the advantage of the strong politics on the reform in the long run, especially considering the possibilities of rent-seeking or the overuse of political power of the hegemonic govenunent. In any case, the Thai reform experience confirms that an institutionalist framework is helpful, and that institutional arrangements really matter in the policy-formation, policy-implementation and policy-outcome of a particular country.
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Sutcliffe, Robert Keith. "Bringing forward shipping for government service : the indispensable role of the transport service, 1793 to 1815." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 2013. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/11449/.
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The Transport Board’s very significant and effective role in the preparation of all the major military expeditions and in the ultimate defeat of Bonaparte has been largely ignored by historians. The Board has hitherto been perceived as a subsidiary board of the Admiralty. However it was responsible to the Treasury and its main task was to transport and support the army overseas, on the instructions of the Secretary of State for War. The government depended upon the availability of merchant ships for this purpose. Yet less than 10 per cent of the registered merchant ships were suitable to be used as troop ships. At peaks of demand, in 1805, 1808 and 1814, the Transport Board chartered 30 to 39 per cent of this shipping. This had a significant impact international trade, on freight rates and the domestic price of commodities, particularly coal. There is strong evidence that between 1793 and 1805 government contracts sustained the British merchant shipping fleet by replacing the trade, previously conducted with European ports that were then controlled by the enemy. Without this support those ships would have been laid up. The government’s requirement to reduce the costs of war generally encouraged early termination of transports’ contracts, rather than retaining them for the next big expedition. This occurred particularly between 1807 and 1809. That and the restricted use of naval vessels to convey troops hindered the speedy preparation of exceptionally large expeditions. The study suggests that some of the proposed expeditions were just too big to be managed effectively. Despite the Transport Board’s direct communications with the Secretary of State it was not consulted for advice during the planning of expeditions and consequently the impact of seasonality was ignored and preparation times underestimated. There were inevitably delays in the preparations of expeditions but this thesis demonstrates that the times taken to prepare for major expeditions was between 10 to 16 weeks, not excessive even by today’s standards.
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Hedenstierna, Carl Philip. "Staggered deliveries in production and inventory control." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2016. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/87502/.
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This thesis investigates production-inventory systems where replenishments are received every period (for example every day or shift), but where production plans are determined less frequently (weekly, fortnightly, or monthly). Such systems are said to use staggered deliveries. This practice is common in industry, but the theoretical knowledge is limited to a small set of inventory models, none of which include capacity costs. This thesis uses time series analysis to expand our understanding of staggered deliveries from the perspectives of inventory and production-inventory control. The contribution to inventory theory consists in the development of an optimal policy for autocorrelated demand and linear inventory costs, including exact expressions for costs, availability, and fill rate. In addition the thesis identifies a procedure for finding the optimal order cycle length, when a onceper- cycle audit cost is present. Notably, constant safety stocks are suboptimal, and cause both availability and fill rate to fluctuate over the cycle. Instead, the safety stocks should vary over time, causing the availability, but not the fill rate, to be constant. The contribution to production-inventory theory comes from two perspectives: First, an optimal policy is derived for quadratic inventory and capacity costs; second, four pragmatic policies are tested, each affording a different approach to production smoothing and the allocation of overtime work (once per cycle, or an equal amount of overtime every period). Assuming independent and identically distributed demand, these models reveal that all overtime or idling should be allocated to the first period of each cycle. Furthermore, it is shown that the order cycle length provides a crude production smoothing mechanism. Should a company with long reorder cycles decide to plan more often, the capacity costs may increase. Therefore, supply chains should implement a replenishment policy capable of production smoothing before the order cycle length is reduced.
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Lin, Shang-Min. "An exploration of relationship structures, their integration and value in maritime logistics networks." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2015. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/91402/.
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Maritime logistics plays a critical but often unnoticed role in global supply chains. Management of buyer-supplier relationships is central to the success of SCM. Therefore, as the essential part within the global supply chain relationships, it is important to study the inter-organizational relationships in maritime logistics network. The dominant consideration of relationship management research in maritime logistics has been focused on a dyadic level, and little research has looked at this issue from a network view. In addition, bringing about higher value through the process of complex exchange in business has been recognized, but seldom been examined empirically, neither has been the relevance between service complexity and the relationship strength. This thesis thus aims to explore the relationship structure and the value generated within the maritime logistics from a network perspective, mainly considering the service complexity within a varied of influential factors. Mixed methods approach has been adopted, using semi-structure interviews, quantitative questionnaire survey and social network analysis. The research framework based on logistics triad is established, and rich insights were obtained from industry. This leads to the evaluation of the relationship strength in maritime logistics networks, the association between service complexity and the nature of relationship in them, and the value generated in the networks, by using three-level analysis and six-dimensional measurement for relationship strengths. In terms of the major findings, this research identifies that not every link has the same level of integration in the network. A range of contingency factors affecting relationship strength are recognised. There is generally a positive correlation between service complexity and relationship strength, although some links do not demonstrate this. Likewise, there is an affirmative correlation between service complexity and value perceived. Nevertheless, only the values perceived by freight forwarders in each types of service are statistically significant. Until now, there has been very little consideration of using network perspective to measure and analyse the relationship dynamics and value generated in line with different service complexity in the maritime logistics, and therefore this thesis represents a clear contribution to the literature.
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Dehe, Benjamin. "An empirical investigation in the decision-making processes of new infrastructure development." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2014. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/23706/.
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The aim of this research is to present and discuss the development and deployment of Lean thinking models and techniques applied to improve the decision-making within the planning and design processes of new infrastructures, within a healthcare organisation. In the UK, healthcare organisations are responsible for planning, designing, building and managing their own infrastructures, through which their services are delivered to the local population (Kagioglou & Tzortzopoulos, 2010). These processes are long and complex, involving a large range of stakeholders who are implicated within the strategic decision-making. It is understood that the NHS lacks models and frameworks to support the decision-making associated with their new infrastructure development and that ad-hoc methods, used at local level, lead to inefficiencies and weak performances, despite the contractual efforts made throughout the PPP and PFI schemes (Baker & Mahmood, 2012; Barlow & Koberle-Gaiser, 2008). This is illustrated by the long development cycle time – it can take up to 15 years from conception to completion of new infrastructure. Hence, in collaboration with an NHS organisation, an empirical action research embedded within a mixed-methodology approach, has been designed to analyse the root-cause problems and assess to what extent Lean thinking can be applied to the built environment, to improve the speed and fitness for purpose of new infrastructures. Firstly, this multiphase research establishes the main issues responsible for the weak process performances, via an inductive-deductive cycle, and then demonstrates how Lean thinking inspired techniques: Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) using ER and AHP, Benchmarking and Quality Function Deployment (QFD), have been implemented to optimise the decision-making in order to speed up the planning and design decision-making processes and to enhance the fitness for purpose of new infrastructures. Academic literatures on Lean thinking, decision theories and built environment have been reviewed, in order to establish a reliable knowledge base of the context and to develop relevant solutions. The bespoke models developed have been tested and implemented in collaboration with a local healthcare organisation in UK, as part of the construction of a £15 million health centre project. A substantial set of qualitative and quantitative data has been collected during the 450 days, which the researcher was granted full access, plus a total of 25 sets of interviews, a survey (N=85) and 25 experimental workshops. This mixed-methodology research is composed of an exploratory sequential design and an embedded-experiment variant, enabling the triangulation of different data, methods and findings to be used to develop an innovative solution, thus improving the new infrastructure development process. The emerging developed conceptual model represents a non-prescriptive approach to planning and designing new healthcare infrastructures, using Lean thinking principles to optimise the decision-making and reduce the complexity. This Partial & Bespoke Lean Construction Framework (PBLCF) has been implemented as good practice by the healthcare organisation, to speed up the planning phases and to enhance the quality of the design and reduce the development cost, in order to generate a competitive edge. It is estimated that a reduction of 22% of the cycle time and 7% of the cost is achievable. This research makes a contribution by empirically developing and deploying a partial Lean implementation into the healthcare‟s built environment, and by providing non-prescriptive models to optimise the decision-making underpinning the planning and design of complex healthcare infrastructure. This has the potential to be replicated in other healthcare organisations and can also be adapted to other construction projects.
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Lucas, Karen. "Upwardly mobile : private transport, regeneration and environment in the Thames Gateway." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 1998. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/8746/.
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The thesis presents case study research into private vehicle use as it relates to the process of regeneration in the Thames Gateway. In doing so, it investigates two key contemporary transport policy issues. The first is the burgeoning debate surrounding the nature and extent of the relationship between transport investment and economic activity. Secondly, it explores the ways and means of encouraging more environmentally sustainable and equitable forms and levels of personal mobility. It argues that, in their present form, regeneration strategies will undermine attempts to promote and implement sustainable transport policies in the area. Part One of the thesis is a review of the theoretical literature and central government policy that focuses on the role of transportation in the regeneration process. It explores the implications of the new sustainability agenda for private car use against the background of the Thames Gateway. It concludes that the Thames Gateway offers both the physical opportunity for, and the legislative will to plan land use and transport together in an integrated manner. It recognises that the strategy needs to be capable of supporting the increased need for accessibility which regeneration requires, whilst simultaneously reducing many of the negative impacts of unfettered use of the private car. The chapter identifies a number of potential constraints on the realisation of such an approach at the delivery stage. Part Two presents the findings of the first stage of the empirical research. Through an analysis of local plans and proposals and interviews with key actors, it investigates the extent to which centrally defined policy is being adopted and applied at the local point of delivery. It finds that, despite incorporation of the rhetoric of sustainability within local development plans, fundamental contradictions in terms of the principles of sustainability exist within the transport policy statements of some authorities. Furthermore, sustainable policy aims, as they relate to planning the location and transportation needs of new developments, are often not applied in practice. Part Three assesses the implications of the current transport strategy on private car use in the Thames Gateway for future sustainability targets. It uses the data collected through the research from a local travel survey of car users, currently resident in the Thames Gateway area, to make projections for future car use in the context of a regenerated scenario, developed according to the present land use and transport policy framework. Future levels of CO2 emissions arising from private vehicle use are estimated on the basis of current car use, identified within the survey sample population and proportionately extrapolated to the wider population. These are set against the wider context of national figures for CO2 emissions and internationally binding government agreements to reduce these by the year 2005. On the basis of the evidence presented, the research concludes that the projected levels of CO2 emissions arising from increased private vehicle use in the Thames Gateway, as a outcome of the regeneration process and based on a 'do nothing' transport policy scenario, run counter to the principles of sustainability.
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Ryley, Timothy John. "A study of individual travel behaviour in Edinburgh, to assess the propensity to use non-motorised modes." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2005. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/4277.
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Cooper, James Michael. "Taxi licensing, regulation and control : an analysis of taxi supply in medium sized UK cities." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2007. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/7242.
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The primary objective of this thesis is to provide a new approach to optimizing the supply of taxis as applied in UK cities. Taxi supply, both in the UK and elsewhere, is controlled by a series of regulations (defined in relation to controls affecting Quantity, Quality and Economics - QQE) that influence the ability of the market to respond structurally - in terms of access to the market, and operationally - affecting the ability to provide services within the market. This thesis identifies the existing structures in taxi regulation. It explores legislative disagreement and differences in both academic and practitioner literature and perspectives. The thesis provides both a new approach to, and a new model of, taxi regulation, which accommodates existing differences in regulatory structures. The thesis builds on existing methods applied in determining individual elements of control - which may be appropriate to some elements of control but fail to address a full cross section of impacts - and provides an enhanced approach and new modelling framework for taxi regulation. In constructing this approach use has been made of both survey and case study methodologies. Survey data has been collected from two surveys, of 52 cities and 21 licensing authorities respectively. The case studies used are of Glasgow! and West Dunbartonshire(2). The thesis concludes that existing approaches to regulation are conducted in separate regulatory domains without sufficient comprehension of the impacts of action in one regulatory domain on another. It also concludes that the instruments used in the assessment of the impacts of regulation on taxi supply are insufficiently specified and inadequately coordinated. It is possible to identify issues across regulatory domains that can be improved to better optimize supply appropriate in any given circumstance to the benefit of existing and potential passengers - this includes those with particular access needs. In optimizing supply, awareness of the needs of the taxi industry and its regulators has been an important element of consideration. The thesis makes recommendations for alterations in the application of standard methods of assessment of taxi supply. 1 Although central to the Strathclyde conurbation, the Glasgow licensing area relates to the central city area only (Clydebank, Paisley, etc. being included in separate council licensing areas). The city is thus defined as medium sized location. 2 Further focus city material bas been collected from Belfast and Edinburgh, which is included in comparison within the text, and summarised in the appendices of this document.
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Mohammed, Nadia. "Future of interactive technologies." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2011. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/4659.
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The concept of interactivity continuously enhances our day-to-day living, allowing us to experience a more convenient and enjoyable life style. Existing analogue technologies such as the internet, mobile phone and satellite have now entered their digital phase, making it possible to increase their capacity for interactivity. The technologies which provide this increased interactivity, namely the internet, mobile and television, are classed as interactive technologies. Television has been successful at marketing, having launched an interactivity interface known as iTV which initially offered superior commercial prospects. However, after a decade, the iTV industry is still quite young and has not reached its full potential. This thesis adopts a range of research methodology with which to forecast the future of interactive technologies, especially interactive TV (iTV). The uptake of new interactive technologies depends on many factors, notably the existing infrastructure in the country of adoption, cultural attitudes to new technology, the radicalism of the technology, social influences and interactions and ease of use, quality and cost. Beyond these, many other significant factors influence the acceptance of interactive technologies, the focus of this thesis is to ascertain the importance of those factors mentioned on technology adoption. This study has adopted technological and judgemental forecasting techniques to predict the future of interactive technologies, following which Cross- Cultural and Technology Acceptance studies were carried out to investigate interactive technology adoption. In the Cross-Cultural study, survey data were collected from the UK, Hong Kong and Pakistan so as to examine cultural factors pertaining to the likelihood of adoption, while Growth Curves were used to model and forecast future levels of adoption. Then technology trends in different countries were collected from the global marketing database Euromonitor. The Growth Curves, applied to a selection of interactive technologies, were evaluated and compared to identify the most useful model with which to forecast the future of interactive technologies. The findings identified the Bass Model, Simple Logistic Model and Gompertz Model as the most suitable models for the purpose, with different models identified as best for different cultures. The Judgemental study established that WWW will be the dominant service provider for financial services such as banking or financial products, while iTV will be the dominant service provider for entertainment. WWW will in fact be the dominant provider for most of the services, followed by iTV and then WAP. It is most likely that WWW, WAP and iTV will exhibit technology convergence in 20 years' time and in all probability will converge into WWW. Further to this the Cross-Cultural study confirmed that there are significant differences between cultures regarding the acceptance of interactive technologies, as it is affected by demographic and social interactions and influences. In addition, the study showed that each interactive technology has its own significant elements which influence its acceptance. Overall, the key elements identified as influencing acceptance of interactive technologies were Knowledge and Confidence, followed by the number of hours the individual spends with his or her family. The Technology Acceptance study identified a technology acceptance model for each interactive technology: WWW, WAP and iTV, which established the factors expected to influence the future growth of the technology. Managing these significant elements will assist further in promoting the growth of interactive technologies
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Ghashat, Hesham. "The governance of Libyan ports : determining a framework for successful devolution." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2012. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/5729.
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Following a period of isolation, and particularly since the lifting of sanctions imposed by the United Nations at the beginning of the 1990s in 2003, Libya's economy has witnessed a remarkable growth with a corresponding increase in external trade. The country's economic policy has changed and become more liberalised; involving a move towards a market economy, an increase in the participation of the private sector in all economic activities, and diversification of the sources of national income. At the port sector level Libya aims to rehabilitate and modernise the container port sector, in order to cope with the technological development that has occurred in the global shipping and port industry. The future of the sector will also involve moving beyond serving the local trade; there is a desire to convert one or more of country's ports into a hub in the Mediterranean region, and as a gateway serving the trade oflandlocked countries. Many researchers have suggested that to handle changes in the operational environments at the ports the structure of the port should be an organic one in order to secure port responsiveness. Organic structure can be achieved via implementation of a devolution policy, and over the past two decades, devolution of port governance has proved to be one way of enhancing the efficiency of ports and of handling port authorities/governments strategy shifts. Furthermore; thus far changes in governance structure, via the implementation of devolution policy, have assisted in resolving port problems, which include physical, management and administration. This research contributes significantly to the literature in the field of ports' studies; offering the policy makers of Libya with a guide for the best way to govern the port sector in Libya and outlining the steps that need to be followed to achieve this. To achieve this, the thesis reviews the policy of port devolution, and the current situation within Libya's port industry in detail; discussing the challenges' facing the Libyan port sector (container and general cargo ports). Empirically, the necessity for the devolution of Libya's ports is examined with a matching framework analysis and this is further demonstrated via a stakeholders' attitudinal survey, including suggestions for the best future governance structure and the expected impact of adopting a devolution policy. The findings are validated using a Delphi survey; the technique was utilised to deduce the critical determinants for the successful implementation of a port devolution policy in Libya. The findings reveal that in order to help the sector to survive in the existing competitive environment, the technical performance of Libya's ports needs to be improved. A fundamental change to the governance structure of the sector is perceived as a top priority for enhancing its performance; the results confirm that the allocation of responsibility for port functions does not fall neatly into the categories proposed in the widely-accepted port privatisation matrix, and is instead subject to different factors, e.g. the country's financial capabilities. A further contribution is that stakeholder interests were used as a basis for measuring the performance of the new governance structure. The analysis indicates that changes in port governance structure are widely expected to have a positive impact, leading to benefits for the majority of port stakeholders. However, the success of the devolution policy was found to be determined by factors beyond the selection of an appropriate governance structure and stakeholder satisfaction; some of the success factors identified relate to the institutional environment of the port sector. By combining the findings of the primary surveys with the literature, a systematic integrated vision for the success of port devolution in Libya is proposed.
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Woodburn, Allan G. "The role of logistical structure in the development of rail freight services in Great Britain." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2000. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/4875.
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Modal shift from road to rail for freight movements is a potential means by which the negative environmental and social impacts of such transport can be reduced. As such it features strongly in contemporary transport policies in Great Britain. This thesis examines the interactions between logistical structure and freight modal choice, to determine the extent to which rail's mode share is likely to be increased. The research assesses the influence of recent logistical changes both within companies and along supply chains on mode choice and identifies the likelihood of future changes resulting in greater rail usage. A combined approach involving a postal questionnaire survey and in-depth company interviews was adopted. Further, to consider the interactions between the supply of rail freight services and their level of uptake, original databases of rail freight services at the disaggregated level have been constructed and analysed for the years 1991, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000. The research thus provides a greater understanding of the importance of modal choice in individual firms' logistical decision-making processes, as well as through supply chains from source to customer. Key logistical issues that have affected, and are likely to affect, mode choice are identified and utilised to assess the potential for rail. Significant potential for modal shift is found to exist though many obstacles are also identified for many types of movement, relating to both supply- and demand-side factors. The importance of a coherent transport policy to deal with these obstacles to allow rail freight to meet its potential is highlighted.
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Alnaqbi, Khalfan Saeed. "Pedestrian right-of-way violations at signalised pedestrian crossings in Edinburgh." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2013. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/5967.
Full textAbstract:
The review of available literature related to pedestrian accidents indicates that the occurrence of pedestrian accidents is influenced by a diverse range of factors. However, few empirical studies have documented the effects of distance of pedestrian accidents from pedestrian crossing area or junction. The few studies which investigated the impact of the distance from the crossing line on pedestrian accidents, suggest that the longer the distance from road crossing facilities, the higher the likelihood of a pedestrian accident. With respect to the influence of the type of pedestrian crossing on the incidence of pedestrian accidents, a substantial body of literature has found that the types of pedestrian crossing indeed affect the frequency of pedestrian collisions. Additionally, all the available studies reviewed indicated the positive impact of signalised crossings on the reduction of pedestrian collision risk. Data from STATS19 show that pedestrian severity rates are higher over the pedestrian crossing points or within 50 meters of pedestrian crossing facilities than those away from it. This is contrary to the expectations that accidents should be least over these crossing facilities. This study investigates in more detail the factors that affect accident occurrence at signalised pedestrian junction and pelican or similar type of crossing facilities in the Scotland area. The main objective of this current research has been to investigate those factors most commonly associated with pedestrian injury severity at a pedestrian crossing or within 50m of one. Accident data of 14 years (from 1993 until 2006) in selected sites show that 942 pedestrian accidents occurred on or within 50m of a signalised pedestrian crossing area. Grid references of accident locations as well as locations of pedestrian crossings were obtained from the STATS 19 database and the local city council. The data was used to identify the locations of accidents relative to the location of pedestrian crossing facilities. In terms of severity of injuries models, results suggest that pedestrians from the older group received more severe injuries, compared with those from younger groups. Again, this finding underlines the importance of regulations and subsequent enforcement of traffic laws that protect and promote the safety of older pedestrians. The models also showed an association between the severity of injury and the type of pedestrian crossing. Since more KSI accidents have been associated with pelican crossings, there may be a need to undertake raising awareness and education for pedestrians to improve pedestrian safety. In terms of ROW models; it was shown that turning manoeuvres were more likely to violate pedestrian's ROW and result in accidents than other types of manoeuvres. Moreover, the model showed that heavy-goods vehicles and cars are associated with pedestrian's ROW, as compared to other types of vehicles. The various issues related to accidents resulting from pedestrian right-of-way can be effectively resolved by rationalisation of pedestrian crossing types; and provision of education with regards to the rules and responsibilities of both pedestrians and drivers at all available crossings. The models developed to profile pedestrian accidents in Edinburgh suggest that the highest number of pedestrian accidents occurred at pedestrian crossing lines; and that the number of pedestrian accidents decreased when moving away from pedestrian crossing lines or within 50 metres of pedestrian crossing lines. These have serious implications in terms of requiring improvements to pedestrian crossing facilities that can then ensure better pedestrian visibility and provide the public with more protection from moving vehicles. Moreover, another implication of this finding is that more regulatory instruments must be revalidated and further developed, since there are no laws to prevent pedestrians from crossing the road at certain points. The only laws being enforced in the UK are those relating to the prohibition of walking on motorways or slip roads but not regarding loitering on pedestrian crossings. Therefore, the guidelines specified in the Highway Code to deal with pedestrian behaviour while crossing the road have to be revisited and further developed. The results show that accidents rates decrease as distance increase from the pedestrian crossing facilities. The most risky locations are those at the pedestrian crossings or within 10 meters and the distance from 10 to 30 meters before the pedestrian crossing facilities. Analysis of pedestrian accidents rates and severities for each of pelican and signalised crossings were discussed. An investigation of right-of-way violations associated with pedestrian accidents at pedestrian crossing areas or within 50 metres of the same was carried out. Modelling accidents rates and severities at these pedestrian crossings is also presented in this thesis. Multinomial logit, ordinal and probit logit and binary logit modelling are used to analyse the results.
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Al, Zaidi Ahmed. "Investigation of driving cycles as tools to assess travel demand management in Edinburgh and Abu Dhabi." Thesis, Edinburgh Napier University, 2013. http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/5966.
Full textAbstract:
Traffic congestion today is a major problem in almost all of the metropolitan areas of the world. An increasing level of congestion results in negative impacts on the urban environment. These include environmental pollution, energy problems and traffic accidents. The analysis of these problems and the predictions of the impacts of any transport policies that could be devised to deal with them are very critical to their success. Traffic problems are almost the same in most modern cities either in developed countries or less economically developed countries. The driving cycle for a vehicle is the representation of a speed–time sequenced profile, which is developed for a specific area or city. It is an important requirement in the evaluation of the driver's behaviour and the performance of vehicles for a number of applications, mainly in the area of environmental studies. For example, fuel consumption and emissions' predictions need information input on the characteristics of driving patterns of traffic. The applications of driving cycle analysis can be extended however, to many more other areas. The motivation for this research is to investigate the detailed impacts of travel demand management (TDM) measures, that are already in application. This is to improve the network performance, using driving cycle analysis. It is important to explicitly assess these measures using a micro-level detailed approach in order to comprehend overall results in terms of emissions and network performance. These understandings will benefit government agencies and policy makers in their planning and appraisals. It will also benefit public transport providers to improve their service in attracting and retaining their customers. The developments of the real world driving cycles in Edinburgh and Abu Dhabi have been presented in this research. The analysis of real world data, which has been obtained from monitoring traffic conditions in both cities using the GPS tracking of traffic, is presented. This data was collected from trips which have been carried out on a number of traffic corridors in both cities. The assessment of various parameters of traffic (i.e. speed, time percentage spent on acceleration, deceleration, idling, cruising and cycle duration) and their statistical validity, produced a real world driving cycle for the buses as well as the private cars. Two TDM measures have been considered; bus lanes and traffic calming measures. At each corridor, a handheld GPS device was used to record speed, acceleration, deceleration and distances driven. This data enabled the analysis of driving cycles for the buses and for the private cars. The driving cycle analysis and investigations have further been investigated using regression analysis techniques. The results suggest that the approach shows potential but further research is needed with more data available. The results suggest that the driving cycle analysis approach would be very useful to have a better understanding of driving behaviour and also the detailed impacts of the transport policies on traffic. In terms of bus lanes and traffic calming measures, the results show some positive impacts of these policies, while there are evidences of some negative impacts as well. These findings would be very valuable for the policy decision makers. It is recommended from this research that the driving cycle analysis could be utilised effectively in the assessment of TDM measures. Further investigations and analysis of driving cycle is urgently recommended in a number of research directions. Combined GIS and GPS data could also enhance the development in this research.