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Major Projects (major + project)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	40%

Selected Abstracts

Brokering knowledge in organizational networks: The SPN approach

KNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 1 2002
S. Burnett
Over the last three years (at the time of writing this paper) the upstream oil and gas industry has experienced substantial changes at a structural level due a variety of factors including the low cost of oil, depleting reserves, maturing regions, strong competition, and the high costs for development projects. The growing pressure on organizations to operate more economically has led to the recent spate of cost-reduction initiatives including acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures and consortia agreements. Senior management are realizing that it is their intangible assets, in the form of knowledge, which provide the key to their continued success and their company policies are seeking to identify and manage their knowledge base more effectively by implementing a range of initiatives addressing behavioural, process and technological issues. This paper illustrates how, through the use of a knowledge broker, a major project was handled to realize the knowledge potential of the individuals and the team. Main outcomes from the ongoing project include the establishment of understanding and buy-in amongst all the alliance partners to the use of shared measures to align objectives, the development of a management structure to support the performance management system and the maintenance of pace and focus through the provision of dedicated resources. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Geothermal energy systems for major projects , design and construction / . Geothermieanlagen bei Großprojekten , Planung und Umsetzung

GEOMECHANICS AND TUNNELLING, Issue 5 2010
Dipl.-Ing.
Geothermal energy - Geothermie Abstract The application of geothermal energy has increased in the last couple of years in order to provide the heating or cooling demands of major projects. Open systems using groundwater directly can be used for geothermal energy extraction as well as closed systems with absorber pipes installed in underground structures. An accurate design, which considers the requirements of the energy consumer in particular but also the subsoiland groundwater conditions, the foundation concept and the building structure, as well as project-specific technical, legal and economic conditions, is required for economically efficient application. Diligent supervision is necessary during the construction stage to avoid any damage to absorber pipes, which could result in loss of performance. Zur Deckung des Heiz- oder Kühlbedarfs bei Großprojekten wird in den letzten Jahren vermehrt auf eine Erdwärmenutzung gesetzt. Dabei kommen sowohl offene Systeme wie eine direkte Grundwassernutzung als auch geschlossene Systeme mit Absorberleitungen in erdberührten Bauteilen zur Anwendung. Für eine wirtschaftliche Umsetzung bedarf es zunächst einer sorgfältigen Planung, wobei insbesondere die Anforderungen des Nutzers, die Untergrund- und Grundwasserverhältnisse, das Gründungskonzept einschließlich der Gebäudestruktur sowie projektspezifische technische, rechtliche und wirtschaftliche Randbedingungen zu berücksichtigen sind. In der Bauphase ist für eine plangemäße Umsetzung mit besonderer Sorgfalt vorzugehen, um Beschädigungen der Absorberleitungen und somit Leistungsminderungen zu vermeiden. [source]

Project Development in Complex Environments: Assessing Safety in Design and Decision-Making

JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2001
Joop F. M. Koppenjan
How can we be sure that safety risks are adequately dealt with in the design of complex, innovative projects? In The Netherlands, a number of recent innovative project initiatives have made this a relevant question. These initiatives include projects such as the construction of tunnels using new technologies, the construction of underground facilities that combine several functions, i.e. shopping, parking and transport, and the development of a transport corridor in which rail, road and waterway have been or will be combined. These projects combine several functions and have been, or will be, realised in densely built and populated areas. Although safety regulations for products and systems have been institutionalised through legislation and professional design practices, recent project proposals link systems and their environment in new and complex ways. The risks evolving from these links are unknown and the extent to which they are covered by existing safety approaches is uncertain. In this contribution, we examine how the attention paid to safety can be increased and maintained in the design process of infrastructural projects. First, we discuss the need to reorganise the safety focus in the design process. Then we describe the role of the design process in decision-making for major projects with regard to utility building, town planning and the construction of infrastructures. Third, we elaborate how the focus on safety can be organised within this context, given developments in the field of interactive decision-making and the design and management of interaction processes. We then outline a safety risk management method that can be used to achieve this and, finally, address the conditions that influence the use of this method. [source]

Robert McNamara and the limits of ,bean counting' (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 3 2010
Keir Martin
The recent death of Robert McNamara provides an opportunity to reflect on the shortcomings of the strategy of numerical rationality in management that defined his career. In both of the major projects in which he took a leading role, as President of the Ford Motor Company and US Defense Secretary during the Vietnam War, his strategy has retrospectively been held up as a model of development to avoid. In particular, management studies now champions the importance of ,culture' in running complex organizations. Ironically, the UK government increasingly seeks to run public services, including higher education, according to a McNamarite model in a bid to be more business-friendly, despite the evidence that many involved in private sector management have been moving away from this model for a quarter of a century. [source]