| 44161. |
- Koch, Christian, 1958
(författare)
-
The More the Better? Investigating cost, time and operational performance of the Danish and Swedish offshore wind farm cluster
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction. - 1366-4387 .- 1759-8443. ; 19:1, s. 24-37
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: To develop a combined social constructivist, internal and external conceptualisation of the process of realising offshore wind farms, and to investigate costs, time, delays and operational performance results of offshore wind farm power plant projects in Denmark and Sweden with a view to possible strategic misrepresentation.Design/methodology/approach: Desk study of a sample of seven Danish and Swedish offshore wind farms using triangulation of publicly available material.Findings: Some of the wind farm projects are successful and some less successful. In the latter group, budget and time overruns and under-performance are found. The paper discusses specific elements of possible strategic misrepresentation but finds a contradictory pattern. Also competences developed on the basis of experience do not produce clear results, since more recent wind farm performance is poorer than earlier.Research limitations/implications: If desk research were combined with other methods, it would be possible to detect projects’ internal phenomena better.Practical implications: There is a need to improve the efficiency of the wind farm building process and to improve the quality of offshore wind turbines, their foundations and cabling.Originality/value: Renewable energy power plants comprise an important societal investment, yet their costs and possible cost reductions are poorly understood
|
|
| 44162. |
- Koch, Christian, 1958, et al.
(författare)
-
The production of defects in construction – An agency dissonance
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Construction Management and Economics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1466-433X .- 0144-6193. ; 37:9, s. 499-512
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The costs of defects and quality issues in construction can be significant for stakeholders and can include societal consequences. The aim is to address how failures and defects are produced and handled in the social practices of construction projects and specially to scrutinize the unintended consequences of both structured and chaotic problem solving. The argument is based on a longitudinal ethnographic study of a dwelling project, encompassing just over 100 days of fieldwork. Structuration theory was applied to understand the interrelations between project actors and structures in the handling and redressing of quality issues and to elucidate unintended consequences of the practices. The analytical strategy was abductive, allowing theory and empirical material to inform each other. Two cases were selected; the well-structured process of erecting concrete panels and the chaotic processes of building a penthouse. The results show how routine and experience are helpful, but also how they maintain an “acceptable” level of defects, which should change the widespread appreciation of experience as being positive for building quality. The unintended consequences of routinized practices are corroborated by the lack of knowledge sharing beyond the project. Both reactive and proactive problem-solving practices are important, but the reactive tend to dominate.
|
|
| 44163. |
- Koch, Christian, 1958, et al.
(författare)
-
The quandaries of design developer competitions
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the 37th Annual ARCOM Conference, ARCOM 2021. ; , s. 664-673
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Public clients in Western countries, including Sweden are currently under pressure to create sustainable housing and urban environments and mitigate climate change. This calls for new types of societal planning and governance. In Sweden both architectural and design developer competitions is in use. In design developer competitions, the public client has allocated a particular piece of land, and requests responses to certain possibilities and limitations. The participants are developers or contractors who aim to develop business through winning the competition and constructing buildings on the land. The question is whether design developer competitions can deliver more sustainable housing at a fair cost. Theories of innovation, sustainable transition, and governance all contribute to the framework of understanding. The method is a critical reading and analysis of two design developer competitions scrutinizing them for sustainability aspects. All steps of the competitions, program, competition, jury verdict, and implementation, involve particular dilemmas for the actors. Sustainability aspects vary widely from singular to comprehensive solutions, reflecting a dilemma between creative designs versus controlled outcome. Competitions turns out to be less of an instrumental tool for societal planners with sustainability goals.
|
|
| 44164. |
- Koch, Christian, 1958, et al.
(författare)
-
Towards requisite integration of business development and mechatronics
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Nordic Academy of Management 2015.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mechatronics product development has been around for a long time. Yet the area is still assigned a large business potential and moreover many companies, especially SMEs, see a further business potential inherent in a more successful combination, or even integration of enabling technologies in systems for mechanical, computing, metrology, and control topics. But the challenges are not only involve combining technical systems, but also transforming them into products and to realisze business revenue. The aim of this paper is first to study a mechatronics SME company, its strategy, management and product development processes, and second what kind of integration is appropriate for mechatronics business.The theoretical approach is cross-disciplinary. It combines in a multidisciplinary manner contributions from mechatronics, product development, innovation management, business development, and management. The challenges of such a scientific juxtaposition is discussed and justified. The scientific areas complements each other, but also exhibit slight overlaps, enabling our analysis to commence identifying opportunities and barriers in mechatronics development.
|
|
| 44165. |
- Koch, Cosima, et al.
(författare)
-
Ultrasound-enhanced attenuated total reflection mid-infrared spectroscopy in-line probe: Acquisition of cell spectra in a bioreactor
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Analytical Chemistry. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0003-2700 .- 1520-6882. ; 87:4, s. 2314-2320
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents a novel method for selective acquisition of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra of microorganisms in-line during fermentation, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as an example. The position of the cells relative to the sensitive region of the attenuated total reflection (ATR) FT-IR probe was controlled by combing a commercially available ATR in-line probe with contact-free, gentle particle manipulation by ultrasonic standing waves. A prototype probe was successfully constructed, assembled, and tested in-line during fed-batch fermentations of S. cerevisiae. Control over the position of the cells was achieved by tuning the ultrasound frequency: 2.41 MHz was used for acquisition of spectra of the cells (pushing frequency fp) and 1.87 MHz, for retracting the cells from the ATR element, therefore allowing spectra of the medium to be acquired. Accumulation of storage carbohydrates (trehalose and glycogen) inside the cells was induced by a lack of a nitrogen source in the feed medium. These changes in biochemical composition were visible in the spectra of the cells recorded in-line during the application of fp and could be verified by reference spectra of dried cell samples recorded off-line with a FT-IR microscope. Comparison of the cell spectra with spectra of trehalose, glycogen, glucose, and mannan, i.e., the major carbohydrates present in S. cerevisiae, and principal components analysis revealed that the changes observed in the cell spectra correlated well with the bands specific for trehalose and glycogen. This proves the applicability and capability of ultrasound-enhanced in-line ATR mid-IR spectroscopy as a real-time PAT method for the in situ monitoring of cellular biochemistry during fermentation.
|
|
| 44166. |
- Koch, Christian, 1958, et al.
(författare)
-
Understanding operations strategizing in project-based organisations: middle managers’ interaction and strategy praxis
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Engineering Project Organization Journal. - : Engineering Project Organization Society. - 2157-3735 .- 2157-3727. ; 5:2-3, s. 106-117
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study of operations strategy (OS) in production organisations has largely focused on the content of highlevelstrategies, and less on their practical enactment. Little attention has been paid to the middle managerswho mediate the space between the strategic intent of production organisations and their operational realities.The role and strategic agency of such managers has been shown to be influential in shaping, impeding andenabling OS, but they remain surprisingly absent from much project organisation literature. In this paper, weexamine the role of middle managers in OS practice via a Strategy-as-Practice framework. We study twoproject-based organisations, one in Denmark and one in UK, developing lean production processes. In theDanish case, the change strategy was initiated bottom-up from the project actors, whereas in the UK, thechange strategy was imposed top-down as a strategic management initiative. In both cases, middle managersplayed a crucial role in mediating and translating intention. We show how strategy praxis, and the leadershipof operations, is highly distributed within project-based organisations regardless of where change is initiatedfrom. The findings have resonances for theory on the agency of middle managers, and for the understandingof micro activities of OS formulation and implementation within project-based forms of organisation.
|
|
| 44167. |
- Koch, Christian, 1958
(författare)
-
When blues meets blue eyes. Danish Management, Technology and Work between Democracy and Globalisation
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Northern Lights. Work Management and Welfare..
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This contribution argues that Scandinavian enterprises, societies and unions (“blue eyes”) have been inspired by, and responded to, new management theories, organisation and technological change developed in the USA (“the blues”), not just over the past twenty years, but continuously since the Second World War. As an overall observation, this mixing and balancing between blues and blue eyes has been successful in the sense that democratic values have prevailed and economic growth has been realised. Current developments are driven by globalised management concepts whose origins, and address, is less clear.
|
|
| 44168. |
- Koch, Christian, 1958, et al.
(författare)
-
Yet another Trojan horse? Is Facility Management Ready for Digitalisation?
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Ruddock, L, Van-Dijk, H and Houghton, CAM, (eds.) 2017, International Research Conference 2017: Shaping Tomorrow's Built Environment - conference proceedings, University of Salford, Salford, UK. - 9781912337040
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Digital practices of facility management (FM) are still rare. Several Nordic countries have ambitious hospital building projects, driven by large public clients with long term experience of operating complex building campuses. There is thus an opportunity of creating state of art regarding digital FM. However, a recurrent problem is that a technically focused implementation leads to prolonged learning and practice development in the involved organization and never get operational. Hence members of organisations successfully resist the perceived Trojan horse entering. This paper aims at investigating the role of digital FM in new hospital projects in Scandinavia. Based on a literature review, a framework of understanding of digital FM in hospital operation is established. This highlight the importance of integration between technical digitalization, competences, organization and management of digital FM. Two longitudinal cases are presented and analysed. A greenfield hospital and an extension of an existing hospital. The projects are in different phases and represent quite advanced preparations for digital FM. State of the art software FM system are prepared before operation. External consultants are involved, posing a dilemma of inhouse/outsource human resources in the future digital FM operation. The importance of managerial, organizational and competence preparation is highlighted as implication.
|
|
| 44169. |
- Koch, Daniel, 1976
(författare)
-
A cortege of ghostly bodies: Abstraction, prothesis, and the logic of the mannequin
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Architecture and Feminisms: Ecologies, economies, technologies. - 9781138304871 ; , s. 99-105
-
Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Bodies are both present and thoroughly gendered in commercial environments – and, by extension, in public space. Such gendered presence is addressed in studies of both the historical evolution and current conditions of consumption and public space alike, which show that it takes many, varied forms.[1] Where much discourse on bodies in such spaces tends to focus on photographic and video material – in magazines, on billboards, and on shopfronts – somewhat less attention has been given to the role of mannequins (here, specifically wax and plastic mannequin ‘dolls’ used to display fashion in shopfronts and inside stores). Mannequins clearly perform something other than the photographic material used to display fashion: they are less detailed, less formulated, and less expressive.[2] This is not due to an inability to make mannequins more ‘real’. Considering their prevalence and gendered presence and distribution, it is worth considering how they specifically contribute to processes of subjectification, embodiment, identity, and fashion negotiation.[3] This project builds on four primary sources: empirical research into commercial space, specifically two department stores;[4] Vanessa Osborne’s ‘The Logic of the Mannequin’;[5] Gilles Châtelet’s discussions on diagrams, space, and abstraction-prothesis processes;[6] and an experimental, explorative study undertaken at Dansmuseet (the Museum of Dance and Movement) in Stockholm in 2012.[7] The project aims to develop our understanding of how mannequins operate in commercial space and society – specifically, how in their abstraction these inanimate objects not only allow for but in fact demand completion from observers.
|
|
| 44170. |
- Koch, Daniel, 1976-
(författare)
-
Architectural Articulation and Configurations of Space : Advancing theory, principles and bases for spatial modelling
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the 12th Space Syntax Symposium. - Beijing : Beijing Jiaotong University. ; , s. 264-1:1-264-1:17
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Space syntax has established itself as a significant field of research into architectural and urban phenomena through the analysis of spatial configuration. Analyses that predominantly consist of variations on modelling spatial configurations as systems of axial lines, segments, convex spaces or isovists with further refinements. This analysis builds on the process of, as stated in the Social Logic of Space, first making discrete units out of continuous space, so as to create a system that can be analyzed, and then subjecting this system to analysis. The procedures of creating these discrete systems have seen many iterations, lately often employing a range of processes to road center line maps or similar existing geographical information or, increasingly dominantly for buildings, VGA analysis where isovists are distributed evenly in a grid in the space subject to analysis. This has allowed for more rapid analysis of larger sets of data and ostensibly less impact of human decisions in constructing the analytic models. At the same time, theoretical developments have increasingly looked to cognition to explain statistical results and to theorize the spatial units employed in syntactical analysis. This work has been important for the field. However, some important questions still await robust theoretical reconciliation. For instance, isovists, argued for as representation of vision, are employed both to analyze visibility and accessibility while the scale and type of object or material boundary that is considered a boundary in an axial line or convex space map varies. This article does not strive to provide a final resolution to these challenges, but discusses and refines the theoretical basis to provide potential paths forward. In this discussion, the article compares spatial configuration as the understanding of the combination of construction of pre-defined entities to spatial configuration as the result of subdivision and articulation of spatial differentiation in several ways, which incorporates cognition as an active faculty that operates in relation to intent and background of whomever is concerned, but also allows to consider the potential of different cultures embedded in cognition through notions of salience and articulation. It suggests that some of the difficulties in finding a clear-cut definition of e.g. ‘convex space’ lies in that rather than a geometric property of ‘space’, one might look to their formation and articulation by material boundaries as culturally and situationally conditioned. This allows for a more dynamic yet not completely relativistic theoretical ground for developing analytic modelling further and meeting challenges that are yet theoretically unresolved.
|
|
