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- Aid, Graham, 1980-
(författare)
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Operationalizing Industrial Ecology in the Waste Sector : Roles and tactics for circular value innovation
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The take-make-waste approach to resource management in human production and consumption systems is contributing to a variety of environmental and social problems worldwide. Additionally, as the world’s population and affluence increase, so do the negative impacts of poor resource management. Lifting the waste management (WM) sector into a new phase of development, which takes its lead from the ideals of Industrial Ecology and circular economy, is seen by many scholars and practitioners as one potential to assist in alleviating these impacts. While there are many studies on how more efficient inter-organizational resource management is (or could be) constructed, there are relatively few business development studies which have explored novel approaches (from roles to tactics) that WM organizations might operationalize toward more efficient resource management.The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the development of knowledge and understanding of how the waste management sector can operationalize more effective and efficient resource management. In approaching this aim, two research questions guided the exploration of: 1) novel roles for WM and 2) support tactics for such roles. Grounded in the broader context of Industrial Ecology (IE) and Business Development, five studies were performed. Two studies, focused on the novel roles of inter-organizational resource management and high value secondary resource extraction, were performed through literature review and interviews, and market driver analysis respectively. In exploring support tactics, two design and proof of concept studies were carried out to investigate data analysis tools for inter-organizational resource management, and one long-term action research engagement project was coordinated to study hands-on inter-organizational collaboration tactics.The studies highlighted that the Swedish WM sector holds some key capacities for operationalizing (and in some cases, is already developing) the novel resource management roles identified: industrial symbiosis facilitator, eco-industrial park manager, holistic facility management, and high value resource extractor. However, depending on the portfolio of services to be performed in such roles, several capacities may need to be developed or strengthened. Main opportunities seen for these roles were – staying ahead of market developments, and aligning activities with organizational goals. The main general risk related to these roles was insufficient returns on investment. Looking forward, the main enablers identified were policy leadership for more balanced market mechanisms, increasing use of external knowledge, developing long term partnerships, lobbying, stockpiling resources, and carefully crafting new business models.The tools developed for strategically applying external information toward the identification of opportunities within new roles showed tactical potential. However, their implementation in broader development processes has yet to be fully validated. The hands-on exploration of change oriented collaboration, highlighted collective system framing and goal setting and face-to-face interaction as key activities for inter-organizational approaches within roles such as industrial symbiosis facilitator.Throughout the studies, several novel roles were investigated. Each of these roles will need to be individually evaluated by directing bodies of WM organizations, and evaluated from the organization’s vision and strategy. If certain roles are chosen to be explored in more detail, they will need to be developed within full business models - addressing issues such as income structure, internal processes and capacities to be developed, and key customers. Through applying IE and business development concepts and findings, WM organizations have possibilities to translate ambitious visions into novel offerings.
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| 2. |
- Jansson, Emil
(författare)
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Challenges with Driverless and Unattended Train Operations
- 2023
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Demand for transportation continues to increase, for both freight and passenger services. One of the most energy-efficient modes of transportation is rail. One solution to increase the attractiveness of rail transport is to introduce automatic train operation (ATO) with a high grade of automation (GoA). Driverless and unattended train operation could entail positive effects but would also bring challenges when removing the train driver. Thus, there is a need to understand the role of train drivers, especially in unplanned events. The main research objectiveis to understand the train driver roles during unplanned events and the frequency of such events. This thesis includes three papers to fulfill the research objective.This thesis studied delay logs and trackside sensor logs. A qualitative method, thematic analysis, was used to identify themes of the roles performed by train driver from the delay logs. The chi-square test statistical method was used to analyze these trackside sensor logs.Six main categories of tasks for train drivers were identified for unplanned events. Detect, Report, Inspect, Adjust, Manage passengers, and Respond to train orders. Each category was analyzed for each grade of automation by giving the responsibility for each category. The results highlight in a novel way the varied challenges between grade of automation in mainline systems. Detecting abnormalities was the most common task train drivers performed during unplanned events. Train drivers use four human senses to detect abnormalities: sight, hearing, touch, and smell. This indicates the need for onboard sensors. However, the real challenge is in processing all sensor data to gain anaccurate evaluation of any fault. One specific type of unplanned event in which the train driver is needed involves trackside sensor alarms. Freight trains are ten times more likely to trip an alarm than passenger trains. Alarms are more frequent in colder climate zones during winter months. These differences are statistically significant and indicate that not all lines and train types might be suitable for a high grade of automation.If driverless or unattended train operation will become a reality in future, many challenges must be met. This thesis gives deeper understanding of these challenges using a novel way to identify and quantify train driver tasks during unplanned events.
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| 3. |
- Lindfeldt, Olov, 1976-
(författare)
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Quality on single-track railway lines with passenger traffic : Anlytical model for evaluation of crossing stations and partial double-tracks
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Railway transportation is showing a substantial increase. Investments in new infrastructure, new fast and comfortable vehicles, and high frequency of service are important factors behind the increase.Infrastructure configuration and timetable construction play important roles in the competitiveness of railway transportation. This is especially true on single-track lines where the travel times and other timetable related parameters are severely restricted by crossings (train meetings). The crossings also make the lines’ operation more sensitive to disturbances.Since the major part of the Swedish railway network is single-track it is of great interest to examine the relationships between operation properties, such as travel times and reliability, and infrastructure configuration on single-track lines. The crossings are the core feature of single-track operation and this thesis focuses on the crossing time, i.e. the time loss that occurs in crossing situations.A simplified analytical model, SAMFOST, has been developed to calculate the crossing time as a function of infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, timetable and delays for two crossing trains. The effect of possible surrounding trains is not taken into account and all kinds of congestion effects are thus excluded from evaluation. SAMFOST has been successfully validated against the simulation tool RailSys, which shows that this type of simplified model is accurate in non-congested situations.A great advantage of disregarding congested situations is that analysis is independent of timetable assumptions. The model also explicitly shows the effect of punctuality, which is of particular importance on single-track lines where the interdependencies between trains are strengthened by the crossings.For the same reason, the timetable is severely constrained. Nonetheless, there is often a need for changes of the timetable (crossing pattern). The thesis proposes three simple measures of timetable flexibility, all based on assigned crossing time requirements. Together, these measures can be used to evaluate how infrastructure configuration, vehicle properties, punctuality etc affect possibilities to alter the timetable.As an example of its application, SAMFOST has been used to evaluate the effect of shorter inter-station distance, partial double-track and combined crossing and passenger stop. These measures affect the operational properties quite differently.More crossing stations result in a minor decrease in travel time (lower mean crossing time) but significantly higher reliability (lower crossing time variance). These effects are independent of punctuality, which is a valuable property.A partial double-track results in shorter travel times and in some cases also higher reliability. Both effects are strongly dependent on punctuality and high punctuality is needed to achieve high effects.A combined crossing and passenger stop results in a situation similar to that of a partial double-track. In this case it is important to point out that the assignment of time supplements in the timetable should be directly correlated to punctuality in order to achieve good operation.
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