Lean Production Process Research Articles

Efficacy and efficiency of a lean cataract pathway: a comparative study

BackgroundThe demand for cataract surgery is rising, calling for pathways that have good access and are cost-effective. Lean thinking is a management strategy, aimed at improving quality while reducing costs....

Development of timber framed firms in the construction sector — Is EU policy one source of their innovation?

To enhance competition in the construction industry, EU policies have created and harmonised functional building codes. Moreover, many actors advocate the construction industry moves towards a lean production, process-based way of working for quality and cost reasons. Here, Timber Framed Engineering approaches are considered to have a competitive and environmental advantage. There is however underlying concerns that conservatism in the construction industry, and lack of timber engineering skills, may be obstacles to change. This paper therefore assesses whether EU construction policy innovation contributed to innovation at the firm level. Timber framed innovators in six European countries were identified, and their sources of innovation assessed. The results indicate that timber framed firms have become actors in the construction industry. Firms have made product, process and organisation innovations. All case firms have similar sources for innovation. The common factor that triggers the firms to innovate is business opportunities that arise from demographic changes in the environment outside the firm, such as environmental sustainability and affordable housing for lower income groups. To address these opportunities, the case firms implicitly recognised that traditional project and site-based construction approaches are an incongruity. The firms have consequently established in-house prefabrication, including developed of lean production processes to ensure quality as well as effectiveness. The firms have all recognised that a fundamental barrier to their business was the lack of timber framed engineering competencies in their customers' organisations. Accordingly, a business necessity for the case firms was developing construction design competencies. Firms benefited from governmental policy instruments that support timber framed R&D and knowledge transfer. However, firms also gained new knowledge from their own experiences, which they also use in their operations. Accordingly, policy instruments are not a sole or dominant source for innovation in the case firms. Nonetheless, the change in building codes has been a pre-requisite the firms' commercial developments.

Using the IKEA model and virtual prototyping technology to improve construction process management

Learning from manufacturing industries is a useful approach to improving the productivity of the construction industry and to solve problems arising from construction processes. Through the use of virtual prototyping (VP) technology, the lean production process engaged in the IKEA business model (IKEA model) is studied and implemented in a real‐life construction project. Specifically, based on the analysis of the IKEA model, the IKEA model can be applied to optimize construction processes and simplify management activities. A case study is analysed to demonstrate the improvement of construction process management through using the VP–IKEA approach.

Reservoir-Fluid Sampling and Characterization — Key to Efficient Reservoir Management

This paper, SPE 103501, is based on paper 101517 presented at the 2006 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference, Abu Dhabi, 5-8 November. Distinguished Author Series articles are general, descriptive representations that summarize the state of the art in an area of technology by describing recent developments for readers who are not specialists in the topics discussed. Written by individuals recognized as experts in the area, these articles provide key references to more definitive work and present specific details only to illustrate the technology. Purpose: to inform the general readership of recent advances in various areas of petroleum engineering. Abstract Reservoir-fluid properties play a key role in the design and optimization of injection/production strategies and surface facilities for efficient reservoir management. Inaccurate fluid characterization often leads to high uncertainties in in-place-volume estimates and recovery predictions, and hence affects asset value. Reservoir-fluid pressure/volume/temperature (PVT) characterization begins with acquisition of adequate volumes of representative fluid samples followed by PVT-data measurement with strict quality-assurance/quality-control (QA/QC) protocols and phase-behavior modeling through best-practice methods. In this paper, key steps involved in accurate fluid characterization are discussed for a wide spectrum of fluid types ranging from extra-heavy oils to highly volatile near-critical fluids and lean gas condensates undergoing a wide range of production processes from simple depletion to complex tertiary recovery. Selection of appropriate sampling methods and tools, design of tool strings, and customizing procedures are demonstrated through these examples. Routine and special laboratory-fluid-analysis strategies for various fluid types and for different production strategies are highlighted. Fluid-modeling techniques including optimum-component selection, accurate C7+ characterization, robust Gibb's energy minimization, and gravity/chemical equilibrium calculations are demonstrated through appropriate field examples. Introduction Reservoir-fluid PVT properties are critical for efficient reservoir management throughout the life of the reservoir, from discovery to abandonment (See complementary paper by Honarpour et al. 2006.) Reliable PVT properties of in-situ fluids are essential for the determination of in-place volumes and recovery-factor calculations and are key input to reservoir simulations for technical evaluation of reservoir-development/-depletion plans. Fluid characterization and distribution within the reservoir help in defining reservoir continuity and communication among various zones. Interpretation of well-test data and the design of surface facilities and processing plants require accurate fluid information and its variation with time. In addition to initial reservoir-fluid samples, periodic sampling is necessary for reservoir surveillance. Reservoir-fluid characterization consists of several key steps:acquisition of representative samples,identification of reliable service laboratories to perform PVT measurements,implementation of QA/QC procedures to ensure data quality, anddevelopment of mathematical models to capture fluid-property changes accurately as functions of pressure, temperature, and composition. The fluid type and production processes dictate the type and the volume of required fluid data. This paper outlines recommended sampling techniques, PVT-data-acquisition strategies, and modeling methods and presents field examples covering a wide range of fluid types from heavy oils to lean gas condensates and production processes such as depletion, pressure maintenance, and miscible recovery.

Concurrent-development process model

The lessons learned in managing a model that lets a user develop multiple functions concurrently over the entire development process, from requirements specification to system test are reviewed. The structure and dynamic behavior of a concurrent development process are discussed. The process management, project management, product management, organization management, and software-engineering environment elements of the concurrent development model are all described, although the focus is on process management. The concurrent development process is compared to sequential development, lean production, software factory, and capability maturity model processes.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>