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Critical Path Method and Earned Value Management
Published in J. Chris White, Robert M. Sholtes, The Dynamic Progress Method, 2016
J. Chris White, Robert M. Sholtes
If resources are used as the inputs for tasks, one of the first questions that must be asked is, “How much work can these resources do in a given amount of time?” This relates to resource productivity. As used here, the term productivity covers all aspects of getting work done in a specific period of time. First, productivity can apply to the speed at which work is done. For example, one person may be able to lay 1000 ft.2 of carpet in an hour, and another person may be able to lay 5000 ft.2 of carpet in an hour. Or, one machine may be able to produce 60 parts in an hour, and another machine may be able to produce the same part at a rate of 120 parts per hour. Second, productivity can apply to the total work done, or work throughput, which may include rework. For instance, two people can work at the same rate (e.g., 10 documents per hour), but one person may make more mistakes than the other person, and, therefore, this first person must spend more time fixing the mistakes (i.e., rework). In an hour, the first person may only get six documents completely finished, so this person’s resulting productivity is six documents per hour. The second person, making fewer mistakes and requiring less rework, may have a resulting productivity of nine documents per hour.
Indicators and their role in models
Published in Catalina Spataru, Whole Energy System Dynamics, 2017
One of the first examples of resource efficiency indicators is the initiative spearheaded by the European Union for a resource-efficient Europe as part of the Europe 2020 strategy. In this Resource Efficiency Roadmap, a detailed action plan is laid out exploring the details of the future action’s design and implementation.6 The Resource Efficiency Roadmap’s Annex 6 consists of a provisional set of indicators that are set out in a three-layer format. These are as follows: a headline indicator, which is the first layer that focuses on resource productivity and is calculated by dividing GDP by the domestic material consumption amount;a dashboard complementary macro indicator, which is the second layer that has a particular emphasis on measuring the impact of resources and the environment;a group of context-specific indicators to evaluate the progress of specific goals and objectives.
Markets for Green Buildings and Infrastructure
Published in Danny Myers, Construction Economics A new approach, 2022
Some analysts argue that much greater resource efficiency is achievable. In the 1990s, an important optimistic report – Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (Weizsäcker et al. 1998) – claimed that resource productivity could be increased by a factor of four. Obviously such an increase in efficiency would reduce the demands placed on the natural environment. To demonstrate that a quadrupling of resource productivity was technically possible the report included fifty examples. Twenty were related to energy productivity in various contexts, from refrigerators to hypercars; a further twenty were concerned with material productivity, ranging from residential water efficiency to timber-framed building. A decade later an even more ambitious target was set in the sequel Factor Five: Transforming the Global Economy (Weizsäcker et al. 2009). This work focused on four sectors, namely buildings, agriculture, transport and industry (steel and cement), and presented several best practice case studies. These included a whole systems approach to commercial buildings and a detailed analysis of the passive house movement. Encouragingly, in the context of construction economics, many of the examples were relevant to the markets for green buildings and infrastructure, and some of these are listed in Table 9.4.
Application of environmentally conscious manufacturing strategies for an automotive component
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 2019
RM. Thirupathi, S. Vinodh, R. Ben Ruben, Jiju Antony
With reference to the review, it is inferred that automotive industries have a greater concern for adopting environmental and sustainable manufacturing strategies and this has been quoted by various researchers in the past. The review provided insights on tools and strategies enabling environmental sustainability and its applications. In line with review, it is inferred that no concrete research study was found on deployment of environmental conscious manufacturing strategies to confirm sustainable performance of automotive component. Though the researchers proposed several techniques and concepts to enable and develop sustainable manufacturing methods, such techniques do not address the key issues of resource use and waste elimination that occurs in industrial system. This forms the scope for conducting this study. Most automotive component manufacturing organisations publish their annual sustainability report that consists of initiatives and details pertaining to economic, environmental and social impacts caused by the product. This report records information pertaining to the organisation’s governance model and discusses more about financial and corporate social responsibility reports. Though this report provides details pertaining to compliance with environmental regulations, it does not elaborately discuss about environmentally friendlier manufacturing practices or environmental impact reduction strategies that are being carried out in their organisation. Moreover, these reports provide an understanding on how their products would address the impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights and social activities. The present study addresses the gap by conducting a study on deploying environmentally conscious manufacturing strategies in an automotive component manufacturing firm for enabling environmental sustainability by applying three strategies namely eco-efficiency, waste minimisation and material efficiency. These strategies help in eliminating and reducing waste by increasing natural resource productivity by consuming less resource.