In railway transportation the safety and reliability in operations of railway point mechanism must be ensured in order to improve the quality of the service. This article presents a case study in a railway turnout (U.S.: switch). The case study reports how the effect of the operating force data sampled and monitored during the switching of a railway point mechanism can be converted into continuous polynomial B-spline functions. These functions are employed to define, and periodically to update, tolerance bands for the purpose of condition monitoring. Data from variously faulty mechanisms were converted similarly, and the profiles found to differ sufficiently not only to detect 100 percent of faults but, from the distinctive shapes of the profiles, to diagnose (i.e., distinguish correctly between) some 70-80 percent of them.

Resumo Pesquisas sobre cognição nas organizações têm sido fundamentadas em áreas e estudos multidisciplinares que se desenvolveram principalmente nos últimos cinquenta anos. Cognição organizacional tem recebido contribuições de abordagens computacionais e interpretativas e pode ser compreendida como uma área de teoria das organizações. Todavia, apesar de apoiar esses desenvolvimentos, este artigo aponta para a necessidade de se avançar e propor definições mais concisas e precisas sobre cognição organizacional, na direção de conceitualizações que possam esclarecer a sua distinção e suas fronteiras com os conceitos de inteligência, autonomia, aprendizagem e gestão do conhecimento organizacional. Adicionalmente, este artigo destaca a necessidade de concentração de maiores esforços para a redução da distância entre teoria e prática no campo da cognição organizacional. Para atender a essas necessidades, este trabalho contribui para o campo da cognição organizacional através de revisão de literatura, conceitualizações e a sua introdução no contexto da administração estratégica de recursos.

The redesign of manufacturing systems for improved performance and effectiveness is rapidly becoming commonplace. Based on project work in the high–volume medium–variety environment of supplying products to the British motor industry, the present paper discusses selected key issues which determine success or failure in implementing change. These include the composition of project teams, manufacturing strategy, system design, manufacturing control systems, human issues and implementation.

The authors of this paper review how complex entities, composed of many interdependent subsystems, such as international rail operators, can improve their ability to recover from incidents through the better management of key interfaces. The principles of Normal Accident Theory and resilience engineering are discussed, and the case study of the Eurostar incident of 18–19 December 2009 is considered in detail. Lessons learnt from resilience engineering are applied to the case study to extract recommendations by which incident management for open access international rail transport may be improved.

Against the background of steadily increasing wind power generation worldwide, wind turbine manufacturers are continuing to develop a range of configurations with different combinations of pitch control, rotor speeds, gearboxes, generators and converters. This paper categorizes the main designs, focusing on their reliability by bringing together and comparing data from a selection of major studies in the literature. These are not particularly consistent but plotting failure rates against hours lost per failure reveals that problems with blades and gearboxes tend to lead to the greatest downtimes. New, larger wind turbines tend to fail more frequently than smaller ones so condition monitoring will become increasingly necessary if levels of reliability are to be improved.

Wind Turbines (WT) are one of the fastest growing sources of power production in the world today and there is a constant need to reduce the costs of operating and maintaining them. Condition monitoring (CM) is a tool commonly employed for the early detection of faults/failures so as to minimise downtime and maximize productivity. This paper provides a review of the state-of-the-art in the CM of wind turbines, describing the different maintenance strategies, CM techniques and methods, and highlighting in a table the various combinations of these that have been reported in the literature. Future research opportunities in fault diagnostics are identified using a qualitative fault tree analysis.

Este artigo estende a metáfora da corporação, baseada na árvore, e propõe que a cognição representa a principal habilidade que contribui para nutrir o desenvolvimento de competências essenciais na organização. A partir dessa extensão, este trabalho levanta a seguinte questão: Qual é o papel ou função da cognição na organização que busca o desenvolvimento de competências essenciais e vantagem competitiva sustentável? Este artigo responde a esse problema, ao apresentar duas perspectivas, que contribuem para a introdução do campo da cognição organizacional nos domínios da visão da empresa, baseada em recursos, e da teoria da contingência. Em sua primeira perspectiva, este artigo propõe uma visão da organização baseada em habilidades, que está fundamentada em conceitos da empresa, baseada em recursos, e em capacidades dinâmicas. Em sua segunda perspectiva, este trabalho introduz uma visão contingencial da cognição organizacional, desenvolvida por meio de relações causais e proposições. Com base nessas perspectivas, esta pesquisa sustenta a tese de que a cognição é fonte de controle da incerteza ambiental e, de forma complementar, a cognição contribui para a criação da vantagem competitiva sustentável da organização.

This study started with a full failure mode and effects analysis covering the 13 required functions of a barrier machine, the respective modes in which failure can occur, and, finally, their effects and the maintenance tasks they necessitate. Voltage, current, displacement, and pressure signals were then monitored at barriers on five sites in the UK, and both upper and lower thresholds were calculated for the purpose of condition monitoring and fault detection. The approach was found to detect around one-third of the total failures.

It is known that for a single DC powered train, energy savings can be obtained by a combination of motoring, braking and coasting during a journey. However, this does not necessarily yield all of the net energy savings that are possible if other trains are running within the same electrical section. Further savings may be available during motoring by using energy regenerated by other trains while they are braking. This paper first presents a single train trajectory optimisation to obtain minimum energy consumption with maximum regenerated energy, and then considers net energy reduction between two adjacent DC substations when the optimised trajectories are used. Each trajectory is optimised individually using a genetic algorithm to search for the best possible compromise between energy consumption and journey time requirements. A weighted combination of these two is used as the objective function and the rates of train acceleration, braking and coasting form a set of variables that define a driving strategy. In order to estimate the benefits and effects of optimised trajectories on net energy consumption, multi-train simulation was then performed for both fastest and optimised journeys. Both qualitatively and quantitatively, the results suggest that further considerable reductions of net energy consumption may be achieved by the adjustment of schedules for both the up and down direction so as to increase the receptivity of those trains within each subsection, or by the recalculation of single train trajectories with different optimisation criteria. Finally, consideration is given to the possible application of the technique on a real railway traction system. Although demonstrated here on a DC system, the method could equally be applied to AC electrified railways.

This paper proposes a new contingency view of the organization and it contributes to the theme through two complementary perspectives. First, it proposes cognition as a function which acts as the main mediator between the organization and the environment. Second, it introduces cognition as the core organizational ability which supports individuals, groups and organizations with intelligence, autonomy, learning and knowledge management, whereas, in such a perspective, cognition is viewed as the core resource in the service of the organization. Both perspectives, the mediation and the core organizational resource views, imply that cognition contributes toward managing environmental complexity and uncertainty. From this picture, this work analyzes the organization in the pursuit of high degrees of organizational cognition in order to manage high levels of environmental complexity and uncertainty. Grounded in these views, this paper presents a model of the organization as a set of fuzzy abilities. From all these backgrounds, this research opens new directions for future research on organizational abilities which subsume cognition, intelligence, autonomy, learning and knowledge management as important elements of organizational analysis.

Network Rail's decision in 2003 to bring track maintenance back in-house was long-overdue recognition that responsibility for safety on Britain's railways cannot be abdicated - but there was more to it than that. The accidents at Hatfield and Potter's Bar (both in Hertfordshire, UK), in particular, had exposed very vividly how privatisation had encouraged each now separated and competing part of the industry to operate in its own interests: records, data and expertise were fragmented, and track and train operators alike each sought to minimise their individual costs in isolation. This paper argues from a systems analysis perspective that, on vehicle and track maintenance at least, the overall costs to the industry are in such circumstances likely to be higher than if the various parties were to work together towards minimising total track and train maintenance costs between them. Far from increasing efficiency, privatisation had the effect of reducing it.

This paper proposes the features of future industrial organizations in order to provide them with the abilities to manage high levels of environmental complexity in the 21st century. For such a purpose, it introduces the concept of computational organization management networks.

Early attempts at monitoring the condition of railway point mechanisms employed simple thresholding techniques to detect faults, but success was limited and there were large numbers of false alarms and missed failures in the field. More recent research using data collected from line-side equipment and lab-based test rigs, though, is suggesting that it should indeed be possible to predict failures with sufficient accuracy and notice to be of genuine use to infrastructure maintainers and owners. This review into state-of-the-art predictive fault detection and diagnosis methods shows how some very different generic models have been tailored to the various types of mechanisms that are in use worldwide. In any specific case, the most appropriate combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques will be determined by the inherent failure modes of the system and the particular conditions under which it operates. Furthermore, it is vital to have a priori knowledge of the symptoms that are observable under fault conditions if diagnosis is to be reliable.

The results of tests on a new class of closed-loop electric train door were used to construct a mathematical model that could form the basis of a fast-response condition monitoring system. Faults are detected by identifying variations in selected mechanical and electrical hardware characteristics, these being evaluated through parameter estimation. The main obstacle is signal noise, but this can be overcome with linear integral pre-filtering.

Humans and organizations have limitations of computational capacity and information management. Such constraints are synonymous with bounded rationality. Therefore, in order to extend the human and organizational boundaries to more advanced models of cognition, this research proposes concepts of cognitive machines in organizations. From a micro point of view, what makes this research distinct is that, beyond people, it includes in the list of participants of the organization the cognitive machines. From a macro point of view, this paper relies on the premise that cognitive machines can improve the cognitive abilities of the organization. From such perspectives, it presents rationale and principles of a class of cognitive machines with capabilities to carry out complex cognitive tasks in organizations. It also introduces analyses of the cognitive machines in organizations through theories of bounded rationality, economic decision-making, and conflict resolution. The analyses indicate that these machines can solve or reduce intra-individual and group dysfunctional conflicts which arise from decision-making processes in the organization, and thus they can improve the degree of organizational cognition. From all these backgrounds, this research outlines implications of cognitive machines for organizations.

Organizational cognition concerns the processes which provide agents and organizations with the ability to learn, make decisions, and solve problems.Organizational and Technological Implications of Cognitive Machines: Designing Future Information Management Systems presents new challenges and perspectives to the understanding of the participation of cognitive machines in organizations. Containing extensive research by an international collaboration of experts, this book addresses the possible implications of cognitive machines for current and future organizations.

Railway decision support systems (DSSs) tend to address track and vehicle assets separately. This paper describes the development of a comprehensive set of high-level functional requirements for an integrated support system that optimizes the system as a whole. Interviews and workshops were held with key industry stakeholders covering regulation, infrastructure, condition monitoring, mass transit, and light rail to elicit their issues, needs, and desires. The needs were checked for relevance, duplication, and overlapping; and rephrased, decomposed, grouped, classified, and prioritized in order to achieve a consistent, complete, and unambiguous set of system stakeholder requirements. They were then used to derive a set of high-level system functional requirements for the DSS. The paper also demonstrates the importance of complete traceability between the two sets of requirements.