Fluent Essays

1- 1000 to 1200 words paragraph (references not included). 2- 5 references (see attachments).  You need to use each attachment once as a reference. 5 pdf files = 5 references. 3- NO MORE THAN 1200 WORDS 4- No introduction and conclusion needed. ONLY BODY. 5- plagiarism  free 6- Due tonight at 10pm est ( after less than 5 hours)Construction Engineering—Reinvigorating the Discipline Gregory A. Howell1; Glenn Ballard2; and Iris Tommelein, A.M.ASCE3 Abstract: Construction engineering is all about production, and producing something useful is the very reason for projects to exist. How then to explain why construction engineering has progressively fallen out of focus in construction project management education and research? For an answer, the development of the discipline of construction management since the 1950s must be understood, a development that yielded a non-production-oriented approach to project management, one that provides the currently accepted operating system for man- aging the work in projects. This paper first traces the history of the development of the traditional operating system and related commercial terms and organizational practices. It argues that traditional practices rest on an assumption that careful development of a project schedule, managing the critical path, and maximizing productivity within each activity will optimize project delivery in terms of cost and duration. Subsequently, an alternative operating system, developed and proposed by the Lean Construction community, is described. In contrast to the traditional approach, lean defers detailed planning until closer to the point of action, involves those who are to do the work in designing the production system and planning how to do it, aims to maximize project performance (not the pieces), and exploits breakdowns as op- portunities for learning. The history of this development will be traced in broad strokes. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000276. © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers. CE Database subject headings: Project management; Construction materials; Construction methods. Author keywords: Construction operations; Project management; Construction engineering; CPM; Lean construction. Introduction Professor Henry Parker at Stanford University completed a report for the Bureau of Yards and Docks of the US Navy in 1965. His observation in the third paragraph of the introduction is clear and bold (Parker 1965). “This study includes the observation and recordings of hundreds of jobs. It has reinforced an earlier conclusion that, in general, con- tractor organizations are abdicating their responsibilities to run their work efficiently. Procedures for doing the job are, too often, being controlled by semiskilled supervisors, craftspeople, and laborers. Management guidance is lacking at the level where many dollars are actually being wasted.” Now 45 years later, little has changed in relation to the way work is structured—who does what, when, where, and how. The authors attribute this lack of development to a combination of factors: • Dominance of the activity centered operating system (ACOS) of current project management, • Increased reliance on specialty contractors (this may itself be a function of the ACOS), and • Increased technical, organizational, and regulatory comple20 IET Engineering Management | August/September 2006 IET Engineering Management | August/September 2006 21 plan the whole project – the ‘how’ that will deliver the ‘what’ At this stage, the project is formally launched, having established the critical cost/benefit equation. � Execute the project/change event The change event or project is then executed to the plan using a simple process of risk and issue management, reporting and communication. A change management evaluation process ensures that the original scope of work can develop and evolve if the business needs dictate. � Implement the project/change event As the work content of the project is dealt with, attention eventually turns to the implementation and benefit realisation stages. It is here where the transition from the old method to the new method actually takes place, with competent people in post to run the new method. � Complete the project/change event At the end of the project, a sign-off procedure records the fact that the stages of work are complete and that the anticipated benefits have been realised. Finally, a review is carried out as a formal part of continuous improvement. Ultimately, if the preparation is carried out to the necessary standard, then the change event will be implemented successfully and reliably. While this is a defined process, it is also highly focused and simplified. Inevitably, the process must be underpinned by the requisite levels of interpersonal and management competency, but the same Pareto Principle applies to the 20\% of ‘the vital’ to the ‘soft skills’ defined as follows: getting yourself organised first; creative problem solving; effective delegation; essential communications and reporting; setting up, developing, co- ordinating and running teams; and performance management and continual improvement. LOOKING FOR THE PROOF? Having implemented the process in a range of organisations from both the private and public sector, I can vouch for the efficacy of the Pareto project management process as one that has been deployed successfully on many occasions to deliver complex business change. For example, the process was effectively used to deliver a fundamental sales business model change within a major financial services institution. Of particular importance within this project was the establishment of remote connectivity services for the field sales consultants (numbering approximately 1200).This involved a complete overhaul of the business critical IT infrastructure, both hardware and software where careful planning and thorough risk management were of vital importance. The lean change approach, based on the Pareto Principle was used so effectively that the migration to the new functionality was achieved to timescale and within budget, without affecting business as usual. In a second example, the procedure was deployed at a process manufacturer of fibre cement products in the UK. The scope of work was considerable, incT his article was prepared in connection with an experience in the maintenance group of a major US oil refinery. A new project manager had been assigned to the refinerys maintenance organization just as the company was reconciling current year finances and preparing to embark on another year of maintenance activity. After one month, the recently appointed project manager was informed that first quarter maintenance expenditures had caused the yearly budget to overrun. He was given the daunting task of providing adequate justification and outlining his course of action, such that a relapse would not occur. Following the assembly of his project controls team, the manager was able to discern why the overrun had occurred. During the companys accrual period, in mid-December of the previous year, a failure to accurately forecast vendor commitments had caused several fourth quarter invoices to be overlooked. Lack of an integrated and interactive cost control tool was forcing the project team to rely on spreadsheets to compile financial data, subjecting its forecasts to countless inaccuracies as the spreadsheet changed hands within the organization. Decreased fourth quarter staffing resulting from end of year vacations and downtime during periodic plant shutdowns made it impossible to recover from the inadequacies of the final months forecast. Failing to see how current procedures and practices would prevent a reoccurrence of such an event, the manager and his project control staff set out to rectify the situation. While the above scenario is real, for the purpose of this article, all quantities, vendor names, and associated costing, are theoretical. The authors example is being provided to demonstrate how commitment tracking was achieved through the assimilation of data in real-time, with minimal disruption to the project work environment. The intent of this article is two-fold. • to define the elements of cost control, more specifically cost tracking, as they relate to a project-oriented organization; and • to explore the framework and benefits of a forecasting tool designed to aid in the real-time cost tracking of vendor commitments. Accounting vs. Cost Control To accurately define cost control, one must first rectify the common misconception that frequently exists within todays project-oriented work environment: the tendency to assume that accounting and cost-control are identical. Such tendencies may, to some degree, limit managements ability to make informed decisions, and in turn, prevent the successful completion of a project. Successful completion refers to the optimal blend of cost, time and quality [1]. In general, accounting is defined as the art of recording, classifying, and summarizing economic transactions and events in terms of money [2]. Financial accounting, simply put, is the collection and comparison of historical transactions to report where a company has been. It is a status indicator, a reflection of 89 Introduction Agriculture is facing huge pressures in the 21st century to produce more as demand rises but, in an increasingly resource constrained world, there is less scope for it to use more resources such as land, water, energy, and nutri- ents (Baulcombe et al. 2009). The challenges of meeting surging demand for food, water, and energy while also adapting to climate change were clearly explained by Sir John Beddington in his “Perfect Storm” speech (Beddington 2009). The improvement of advisory services was identified as a priority in the UK government Foresight report, “The Future of Food and Farming” (Foresight 2011) and lack of information flow between scientists, practitioners, and policymakers is mentioned by Pretty et al. (2010) as a constraint to achieving growth in food production. Farm businesses need to find smart ways of producing and protecting high value and high yield pro- duce. To achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture, there is a need to improve access to information to allow farmers and others in the farming community to make better decisions. RE V IE W The CROPROTECT project and wider opportunities to improve farm productivity through web- based knowledge exchange Toby J. A. Bruce Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK © 2016 The Author. Food and Energy Security published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. and the Association of Applied Biologists. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Keywords Farmer research networks, impact, innovation, research policy, sustainable intensification, translational research Correspondence Toby J.A. Bruce, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK. Tel: +44 1582 763133; Fax: +441582762595; E-mail: [email protected] Funding Information Natural Environment Research Council (Grant/ Award Number: “NE/M016676/1″) Received: 25 August 2015; Revised: 21 January 2016; Accepted: 5 February 2016 Food and Energy Security 2016; 5(2): 89–96 doi: 10.1002/fes3.80 Abstract A key global 21st century challenge is to maximize agricultural production while minimizing use of resources such as land, water, and energy to meet rising demand for produce. To meet this challenge, while also adapting to climate change, agriculture will have to become more knowledge intensive and deploy smarter farming techniques. The intention of this study was to: (1) Highlight the opportunity for web- based knowledge exchange to increase farm productivity and thus contribute to achieving food and energy security, (2) Give some examples of online farming information services such as the “CROPROTECT” tool I am developing in the UK, the CABI “Plantwise” Knowledge Bank and the IRRI “Rice Doctor,” and (3) Consider lessons learnt so far. There are huge oppor- tunities to facilitate knowlREALIZE HIDDEN VALUE THRDDGH TIMELY PDRTFOLID DECISIDNS Dynamic portfolio simulation with aligned management processes can improve pharmaceutical research productivity. Roland Mohr, Harald Pad and Marcus Hartmann OVERVIEW: Sophisticated portfolio management tools have been developed and implemented to maximize the value of existing projects in the later phases of drug development. However, the almost equally cost-intensive early research phase with a large number of relatively small and risky projects has twt heen examined appro- priately. By taking into account key drivers of early phar- maceutical research, namely leveraging internal and external expertise identically across the organization, and recognizing the temporary validity of respective portfolio decisions while using utility value-based dynamic portfolio management techniques, it is possible to derive a consistent organizational model that should significantly enhance research productivity and pipeline value. KEY CONCEPTS: dynamic simulation, portfolio opti- mization, research productivity. The development and launch of an innovative new drug may take 10 to 15 years, and cost estimates vary from around $500 million to more than $2.000 million, depending on the therapy and the developing fimi (/). Roland Mohr is managing director oflnfraserv Höchst, Frankfurt. Germany. Prior to this he was head of drug innovation and approval-site operations, at Aventis Germany. He holds a master in chemistry from the Uni- versity of Wuerzhurg, a Ph.D. from the University of Muenster, and a Controlling degree from the IHK in Frankfurt, [email protected] Harald Pad has many years experience in the pharma- ceutical industry. He holds a masters in chemistry, a masters in business administration and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry. Marcus Hartmann has been working in the pharmaceu- tical industry since 2003. He has a Ph.D. in chemical economics from Technical University Berlin, and a masters degree in both biomédical sciences jrom Univer- sity^ of Marburg and finance from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. R&D budgets of international pharmaceutical com- panies trended around 15 percent of sales in 2006 (2). Additionally, the pharmaceutical R&D process is burdened with extremely high attrition rates, resulting in ever-fewer innovative dnigs coming to the market. Despite scientific breakthroughs and rapid technological advances in miniaturization and automation, potential drug candidates face a high degree of project termination during the rigorous testing and selection process. Faced with a dire need to close the innovation gap, a reorienta- tion toward value maximization has transformed the R&D departments of the large, muhinational pharma- ceutical companies (3). There have been any number of reports on value-driven portfolio management. However, current approaches {4) show an intriguing gap in addressing the specific aspect of early drug discovery, e.g., management of portfolios with p