Browsing by Author "Evans, S."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • No Thumbnail Available
    ItemOpen Access
    An exploration of partnerships in the European automotive industry
    (Cranfield University, 2001-02) Wyatt, Clare Marie; Evans, S.
    Japanese automakers were the first to gain significant competitive advantage from strong relationships with suppliers. Over the past two decades, Western manufacturers have attempted to follow suit. The mantra of the industry has been collaboration and public attempts have been made to move away from adversarial practices of the 1970s. Partnership has been the most commonly used term to describe collaboration between vehicle manufacturers and their direct suppliers in the West. As yet there is no single, agreed definition of partnership and subsequently the term has been over-used and often abused. Research in the area has been from a range of disciplines and lacks a coherent theoretical framework. The result is a lack of understanding of partnerships and how they operate. In addition, evangelical proponents have generated unrealistic expectations and doubt and scepticism are emerging in the literature. The research described in this thesis explores partnership in the European automotive industry. The aim is to generate new knowledge based on the experience of those involved. ln Stage One the researcher is immersed in a large-scale change initiative implementing partnerships with Nissan and its European supply base in design and development. In Stage Two the researcher explores partnership issues in depth through semi-structured interviews of VM and supplier representatives. The findings suggest that partnership philosophy has yet to be translated into partnership behaviours, that expectations are unclear leading to a reliance on perception rather than reality and that both VMs and suppliers need to assess the balance of investment required to maintain a partnership over time. The research is exploratory and provides the basis for a new, more grounded understanding of partnerships in the European automotive industry.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Minimising the machining energy consumption of a machine tool by sequencing the features of a part
    (Elsevier, 2017-01-11) Hu, L.; Peng, C.; Evans, S.; Peng, T.; Liu, Y.; Tiwari, Ashutosh
    Increasing energy price and emission reduction requirements are new challenges faced by modern manufacturers. A considerable amount of their energy consumption is attributed to the machining energy consumption of machine tools (MTE), including cutting and non-cutting energy consumption (CE and NCE). The value of MTE is affected by the processing sequence of the features within a specific part because both the cutting and non-cutting plans vary based on different feature sequences. This article aims to understand and characterise the MTE while machining a part. A CE model is developed to bridge the knowledge gap, and two sub-models for specific energy consumption and actual cutting volume are developed. Then, a single objective optimisation problem, minimising the MTE, is introduced. Two optimisation approaches, Depth-First Search (DFS) and Genetic Algorithm (GA), are employed to generate the optimal processing sequence. A case study is conducted, where five parts with 11–15 features are processed on a machining centre. By comparing the experiment results of the two algorithms, GA is recommended for the MTE model. The accuracy of our model achieved 96.25%. 14.13% and 14.00% MTE can be saved using DFS and GA, respectively. Moreover, the case study demonstrated a 20.69% machining time reduction.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Towards a low-cost clinical multiple mutation diagnostic: cystic fibrosis as a model
    (2002-05) Bull, Elizabeth E. A.; Cullen, David C.; Evans, S.; O'Donnell, J. O.; Warner, P.
    Cystic fibrosis is used in this work as an example of a genetic disease where early diagnosis and medical intervention can improve quality of life. Current methods of cystic fibrosis diagnosis rely heavily on the sweat test, a biochemical method of measuring the concentration of sodium and chloride in sweat. A repeat test is required for sodium levels between 40 and 70 mmol per litre, which may occur in babies with either mild or no cystic fibrosis. The advantage of a DNA test is that a cut off value is not necessary, this reduces false positive and negative results. A mutation is either present in a person’s DNA or it is absent. Cystic fibrosis has been associated with over 500 mutations, therefore a type of mutation detection was investigated which could potentially examine a large proportion of these in one test. A simple, low cost method of mutation detection is required for use within the National Health Service. The reverse dot blot hybridisation allows a known sequence of DNA to be placed on a membrane (mutant and wild type) and hybridised with an unknown sequence (patients’ DNA). Covalent coupling of oligonucleotides to membrane produced increased attachment over physical attachment as examined via radioactive labels. Polystyrene slides were chemically modified (using 5% potassium permanganate in 1.2M H2SO4) to provide carboxyl groups for the covalent attachment of amino terminated oligonucleotides. Human DNA was amplified by PCR, labelled with biotin and detected via chemiluminescence. Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples with the Qiagen QIAamp system and both wild type and mutant sequences were amplified. Hybridisations were performed on nylon membranes and modified polystyrene slides. Hybridisation was specific at high stringency (0.1%SDS/0.1xSSC). Further work is required to produce a prototype diagnostic device.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    ItemOpen Access
    Understanding the successful improvement of co-development
    (Cranfield University, 2000) Jukes, Sarah; Evans, S.
    Through increasingly efficient mass-production techniques, car-ownership has been made affordable to a large segment of the world's population, beginning in Europe and North America in the first decades of this century and recently extending rapidly throughout all other continents. The industry, however, is running out of major new opportunities for growth, and automotive markets in the Western World have entered the phase of maturity; this is typified by slowing growth and intensifying competition. These factors are driving fundamental change in the economics of the industry, and are forcing rationalisation and consolidation across the world. In a drive to remain competitive, the major Vehicle Manufacturers are relying more and more on the capabilities of their first-tier suppliers, and are pushing design and development responsibility further down the supply chain; suppliers are taking on a new role within the automotive industry and are increasingly becoming involved in the design and development of new products in collaboration with their major customers. The core theme throughout this research enquiry has been to investigate such practices (which have been termed co development), with particular emphasis placed on the European automotive industry. The literature within the areas of customer-supplier relationships and product development is wide and varying, and both bodies of knowledge are beginning to stress the importance of co-development in a number of industries. However, even though academics and industrialists are suggesting co development is necessary in today's marketplace, research into this area remains scarce and few insights into the improvement of such relationships can be found. This research has begun to close this gap by identifying those factors that can influence the successful transformation of co development. Through a series of focus groups, fifty-two concepts were identified that were seen to influence the success of co-development improvement activity - due to the nature of the focus group methodology, these concepts were wide-ranging and covered all aspects of the cross-company relationship, highlighting many -areas for further investigation. These concepts were reviewed and grouped, and four concepts plus sixteen sub-concepts chosen for additional analysis - these include a preparation phase, in which both organisations recognise the need for improvement and commit to enhance their existing relationship, the nature of communication across organisational boundaries, the alignment of working practices at all levels of the business, and an implementation phase in which actual improvements are realised and further sustained. These have been represented in an initial conceptual model that simply depicts the interdependencies that exist between the four high-level concepts. This conceptual model has been further tested and expanded through seven case studies; six cases were conducted at first-tier suppliers, whilst one was completed within a European-based VM. The major data collection tool used during these studies was the semi-structured interview, providing deep insights into co-development improvement from both sides of the relationship. The case studies only reiterated the importance of the concepts and sub-concepts within a co-development environment, and provided insights into the 'who, what, where, when, and how' of the topics under consideration. Finally. the concepts have been validated through a twelve-month action-research study, involving the actual implementation of the conceptual model in an industrial setting. The researcher gained first hand experience of co-development improvement, and observed an organisation struggling with the complexities of the cross-company environment. The knowledge gained throughout this period has not only emphasised the importance of the concepts and sub-concepts to co-development improvement, but has provided future implementers with insights into how one organisation has successfully transformed forty of their co-development relationships.