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10 tips for dealing with jobsite conflict
Sue Dyer Construction & Building MaterialsA project team was separated only by the locked doors to the two trailers that sat side-by-side on their wastewater treatment project site. Every day for six months the owner's team and the contractor's team filled their days with writing letters. Back and forth, they literally emailed more than 1,200 letters. The purpose of each letter was clear — to prove the other side was to blame.
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Daimler brought blinking into the headlights again
Andrew Gaved ManufacturingRegular readers of my column will recall regular dispatches on the saga of automotive giant Daimler and its questionable relationship with European refrigerant law, in the shape of the EU Mobile Air Conditioning (MAC) Directive. As of Jan. 1, 2017, all new cars are required to be fitted with a refrigerant with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) under 150, and, now Daimler is back blinking in the headlights. The carmaker has apparently been censured by its own national motor transport authority, the KBA, which last week demanded a recall of some 134,000 of Daimler's models installed with "noncompliant refrigerant."
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Participatory planning: ‘Co-producing’ the neighborhood
Lucy Wallwork Civil & GovernmentOnce upon a time in the 1960s, the "master plan" was king in urban planning circles. The modernist approach to designing cities at the time saw the urban designer as supreme — utopian plans were designed in an architect's office and imposed upon unsuspecting residents.
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Why schools need to increase cybersecurity education
Bambi Majumdar EducationThe last 12 months have been a study in fake news, ransomware, hacking, allegations of media manipulation and malicious interference in public and private lives — all via the Internet. In such a scenario, it is quite understandable that parents and school administrators are worried about cybersecurity in schools.
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Manufacturing talent: The case for ‘homegrown’ expertise
Delany Martinez ManufacturingWhile the formulaic structure of manufacturing and assembly lines might not have much to do with company culture at a glance, the attitudes, expectations and even motivations of a brand still make their way into the factory. Even if two manufacturing outfits use the same machines and tools, everything from timing to technique can vary, which is why it's entirely possible for a manufacturing job candidate to look excellent on paper and terrible on the floor. For years, businesses tackled this issue in the same ways: patience, mentoring, on-the-job training, disciplinary measures and more.
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Are you ready for the ‘robocalypse’ coming to manufacturing?
Delany Martinez ManufacturingAutomation is the newest buzzword on everyone's lips when it comes to manufacturing. Is it reliable? Will it really replace humans effectively? Will there be a pushback from consumers? Apprehensive questions abound, but many are born out of misunderstanding the spread of automation, or overly-optimistic forecasts over how quickly "the turnover" will actually eclipse flesh-and-blood workers.
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Refrigerant firms in bid to prompt customer change
Andrew Gaved ManufacturingI have written here before about the way the F-Gas regulations in Europe were revised in such a way as to drive uptake of lower-GWP refrigerants, with their combination of production quotas and use bans. I have also written here before about the warnings from those familiar with the supply process.
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The root causes of poor communication on project teams
Sue Dyer Construction & Building MaterialsFor the past 10 years, I've asked project teams this question: "From your experience what it is that makes one project succeed and another fail?" Over 95 percent of team members said good communication was the reason for their success and poor communication was the reason for their failures. Clearly, communication appears to be the key to team success.
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How does industrial design work?
Renee Eaton EngineeringThe popularity of industrial design (also known as product design) has accelerated due, in part, to a new wave of designers and advances in technology, materials, processes and capabilities that have dramatically improved the design options available to clients. Working closely with engineers, industrial designers are trained on function, aesthetics, ergonomics, anthropometrics and manufacturing processes to provide clients with the best "working" concepts from sketches, to renderings, to CAD models that create their final products.
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The next frontier: Mining the deep sea
Stefanie Heerwig Natural ResourcesAs we continue consuming metals and rare earths at the same speed as today, we could run out of existing resources 20 years' time, according to an estimate of current resources and reserves worldwide. Rare earths are the basis for state-of-the-art renewable technology like solar panels. And replacing oil, gas and coal with existing renewable energy technology would require the extraction of rare earths to increase by 700 percent over the next 25 years, according to the latest MIT research.
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