Resources for research: the 1991 census of population

The author discusses population censuses in general and describes their utility for research, with a focus on the arrangements under which researchers at institutes of higher education are being provided with data sets from the census. "Although much of the discussion will be specific to the United Kingdom, many of the issues raised will be important in other countries."     

Research using the 1991 census of population: development of tools for analysis

This is an introductory editorial to a selection of papers focusing on research using data from the 1991 census of the United Kingdom. The emphasis is on the increase in such research due to the availability of the data in machine-readable format and on the development of tools for analysis of the data.     

Research using the 1991 census of population,Part 2

This is the second of two special sections concerning research using data from the 1991 census of the United Kingdom. This selection includes papers focusing on deprivation, unemployment, ethnicity, and religion.     

Putting the 1991 census sample of anonymised records on your Unix workstation

"The authors describe the development of a customised computer software package for easing the analysis of the U.K. 1991 Sample of Anonymised Records. The resulting USAR [Unix Sample of Anonymised Records] package is designed to be portable within the Unix environment. It offers a number of features such as interactive table design, intelligent data interpretation, and fuzzy query. An example of SAR analysis is provided."     

Benchmarking-based process reengineering for construction management

In order to determine the most suited best practice processes to be implemented, a benchmarked company must conduct an accurate analysis of the gaps between best-practice processes and its own processes in order to redesign business processes successfully. This study applies benchmarking to BPR and meanwhile integrates semantic similarities and trend model concepts to develop a benchmarking-oriented process reengineering (BOPR) approach that will enable a project team to determine the best-practice company process most suited to benchmarked company needs. In BOPR approach, the concepts of semantic similarities analysis was applied to find the semantic-related objects between best-practice processes and benchmarking process; and the trend model methodology was applied to evaluate the degree of communication ease for best-practice processes once such are implemented in the benchmarked company. Finally, a procurement process case study from best-practice companies was analyzed to validate the feasibility of the developed BOPR method. In the case study, the BOPR method was implemented for the benchmarked company to assist the project team to determine the best choice paradigm for their benchmarking project.     

Research policy and review 30. How to add value to migration data from the 1991 census

"The form in which migration information is likely to be provided from the 1991 Census [of the United Kingdom] is reviewed, and suggestions are made about how this provision can be improved for the academic research community, building on the experience of the 1981 Census. The recommendations add considerable value to the information at relatively low cost."     

Process reengineering and improvement for building precast production

Current production methods for the building of precast concrete elements are gradually becoming insufficient to meet industry demands. Most precast factories incorporate fixed molding production lines to produce building structural elements such as beams, trabeculae and pillars. Improvement of current production has reached its limits. The objective of this study is to perform process reengineering so as to create more efficient precast processes. The results of the literature review and advice from 16 experts suggest that the current process used to produce a precast element, which is comprised of 16 steps in a single module, should be redesigned to include 13 steps in 3 modules. Using historical data as input, the Arena software, Version 13, is adopted to simulate both the traditional and proposed methods, and then compare the results for practicability. An overall savings of production time of 24% can be reached by changing the current/traditional method to the flow-shop type production method.     

Construction management process reengineering performance measurements

This study develops a construction management process reengineering performance measurement (CMPRPM) model based on an application of business process reengineering philosophy. Process operation time and customer satisfaction are used as efficiency and effectiveness evaluation indices. The CMPRPM model applies queuing theory to calculate process operation time in order to strike an optimal balance between process execution demand and manpower service capacity. In order to achieve customer satisfaction, customer demands are identified and a target attainability index is used to calculate process effectiveness. After integrating efficiency and effectiveness evaluation results, indices of process value (PV) and value improvement (VI) are proposed to allow performance prior to and after reengineering to be measured and compared. The proposed CMPRPM model addresses the performance of initial (“As-Is”) and significantly reengineered (“To-Be”) processes to facilitate successful BPR design. Results show that the construction industry stands to benefit significantly in terms of a successful BPR design by adopting the model proposed in this paper.     

Voting for highway construction in economic geography

This paper investigates the efficiency of voting for provision of transportation infrastructure such as highways, and discusses the effect on regional structure. The salient conclusions of this study show that voting and political competition engender overprovision of large-scale transportation infrastructure. In addition, consideration of industrial location reveals that the provision of transportation infrastructure exerts a negative effect on development of rural areas.     

Construction management process reengineering: Organizational human resource planning for multiple projects

Applying the business process reengineering and organization planning philosophy, this study focuses on human resource planning in construction management process reengineering (CMPR) to develop a team-based human resource planning (THRP) method for deploying laborpower. The THRP method has two purposes; the first is to determine the maximum loading of projects the original laborpower can carry, and the second is to identify the range of laborpower required for expected project loadings in the future. The THRP method includes four phases, namely, process reengineering, data preparing, human resource allocation, and simulation. Using the THRP method, a construction company cannot only design a team-based organizational structure, but also allocate human resources based on cross-functional processes. Moreover, human resource utilizations before and after CMPR can be compared to evaluate savings attributable to the CMPR. As a consequence, optimum laborpower can be assessed, and human resources allocated to fit the changing processes and circumstances of a construction company's growing business.     

黔阳风水·古城选址

众所周知,中国古代规划师就是风水师,城市建设就是风水理论的实践。风水,即易之应用,它是研究天文、水文、人文三者关系的学说,不管在什么时代,都有独特的价值。黔阳古城地处潕水河畔,沅水之滨,三面环水,一面依山,自然地势显要,     

黔阳风水·古城建筑

易学有四大理论基础:天人合一,道法自然,阴阳平衡,一的绝妙设计;形中正和谐。这些说法常能在建筑设计师的项目说明书中瞥见。效果,其与凤鸟图黔阳古城尽管整体形状平面上略显方形,但南、西两边随凡此种种,都潕水、沅水之势而筑,因地制宜。其建筑多就地取材,如红砂石、青石板、小青瓦、杉木、石片等。窨子屋建筑内,天斗、亮瓦、斗窗等低技术手法的构造,很好地解决了大进深建筑的采光、通风问题;雨水由天井滴落,四水归一,肥水不流外人田,乃天人合     

贯标砖瓦企业的业务流程再造

本文分析了以ISO9001标准为基础平台对质量经营的核心要素进行整合与再造,使砖瓦企业的质量经营体系卓越有效;以达到增强砖瓦企业核心竞争力.     

A multivariate classification of individual household census data for Italy

Never before have regional scientists had access to individual census data for an entire country. The paper describes the application of a taxonomic procedure to classify the 15.6 million households identified by the 1971 Italian census. The results are important both for what they reveal about Italian social structure and because they provide a basis for a constructing aggregate census data so that within area variations are retained.     

企业分销渠道再造项目管理问题研究

作为连接企业和消费者的唯一通道,承载信息流、资金流等重要业务流程,实现多项功能的企业分销渠道无疑是国内市场开发的核心环节。鉴于分销渠道的流程本质和分销渠道建设的复杂性,研究了企业分销渠道流程再造项目的全过程。基于分销渠道理论和业务流程再造理论,按照项目管理的内在逻辑,依次分析了分销渠道再造项目的启动、计划、实施与控制和收尾问题。     

Surviving in the jungle [business process reengineering]

There are many ways to transform a business. In this article, the author argues that business process reengineering is one of the better ways     

浅议信息技术在企业流程再造中的应用

通过分析现代企业流程中存在的问题和影响因素 ,就信息技术在优化企业流程再造 ,提高核心竞争力中的应用进行了论述 ,指出信息技术可提高企业的经济效益和发展速度。     

Visualizing changing social structure from a census

"In this paper it is shown how new visualization techniques are being used to analyze the first results of the British 1991 Census and other large data sets." The focus is on new ways to show how localities develop over time. The author suggests that this cannot be done effectively using traditional quantitative techniques. "Pictures are needed to show how different processes occur in different places, and holistic patterns need also to be seen without generalizing out the detail. Neither traditional thematic mapping nor commercial geographic information systems can do this well. Spatial visualization is an alternative approach in which the researchers choose what they wish to see and how they wish to view it. Many problems require new methods of visualization for their exploration. A new census presents us not only with new statistics, but also with the opportunity and impetus to develop radically different ways of envisioning information to reveal more fully the human facts contained within a mass of social statistics."