scholarly journals Towards a closed steel eco-cycle - conjoint analysis as a decision tool

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
Stina Alriksson ◽  
Tomas Öberg

The Swedish steel industry has over the past 20 years made substantial efforts to promote energyefficiency and environment protection. However, the dominant part of these investments has beendirected to the individual production sites, most of which today have 'solved' their own acuteenvironmental problems. The focus has therefore switched to the properties and performance ofthe steel products where the evaluation of environmental performance is a complex task thatoften requires simultaneous consideration of many different attributes.Conjoint analysis is commonly used in marketing research, to evaluate how consumers appreciatespecific attributes in products. It has also been widely used in health care, traffic planning andquality management. Conjoint analysis has also been applied to environmental issues such asenergy, recreation, environmental valuation, ecosystem management, consumer preferences toproducts, public preferences to industrial projects, waste management, and environmental policydevelopment. This previous research has shown that the method is well suited for evaluatingenvironmental issues.Here we briefly present the methodology and review some papers on environmental applications.It is our intention to use this approach as a tool to integrate environmental considerations intoboth process and product development within the steel industry.

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Eggers ◽  
Henrik Sattler

Abstract Determining consumer preferences is still one of the most important topics in marketing research. Not surprisingly, numerous approaches have been developed for this task. Conjoint measurement techniques are among the most prominent and different forms have emerged over the years. Depending on the specific research setting, all of them have their advantages and drawbacks. The authors discuss the nature and applicability of recent conjoint approaches and provide examples. Guidelines for selecting the optimal technique help to identify which approach works best in a given situation.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Florian Schlosser ◽  
Heinrich Wiebe ◽  
Timothy G. Walmsley ◽  
Martin J. Atkins ◽  
Michael R. W. Walmsley ◽  
...  

Heat pumps are the key technology to decarbonise thermal processes by upgrading industrial surplus heat using renewable electricity. Existing insight-based integration methods refer to the idealised Grand Composite Curve requiring the full exploitation of heat recovery potential but leave the question of how to deal with technical or economic limitations unanswered. In this work, a novel Heat Pump Bridge Analysis (HPBA) is introduced for practically targeting technical and economic heat pump potential by applying Coefficient of Performance curves into the Modified Energy Transfer Diagram (METD). Removing cross-Pinch violations and operating heat exchangers at minimum approach temperatures by combined application of Bridge Analysis increases the heat recovery rate and reduce the temperature lift to be pumped at the same time. The insight-based METD allows the individual matching of heat surpluses and deficits of individual streams with the capabilities and performance of different market-available heat pump concepts. For an illustrative example, the presented modifications based on HPBA increase the economically viable share of the technical heat pump potential from 61% to 79%.


2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Wes Harrison ◽  
Timothy Stringer ◽  
Witoon Prinyawiwatkul

Conjoint analysis is used to evaluate consumer preferences for three consumer-ready products derived from crawfish. Utility functions are estimated using two-limit tobit and ordered probit models. The results show women prefer a baked nugget or popper type product, whereas 35- to 44-year-old men prefer a microwavable nugget or patty type product. The results also show little difference between part-worth estimates or predicted rankings for the tobit and ordered probit models, implying the results are not sensitive to assumptions regarding the ordinal and cardinal nature of respondent preferences.


2011 ◽  
Vol 134 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Peters ◽  
Zoltán S. Spakovszky

Due to their inherent noise challenge and potential for significant reductions in fuel burn, counter-rotating propfans (CRPs) are currently being investigated as potential alternatives to high-bypass turbofan engines. This paper introduces an integrated noise and performance assessment methodology for advanced propfan powered aircraft configurations. The approach is based on first principles and combines a coupled aircraft and propulsion system mission and performance analysis tool with 3D unsteady, full-wheel CRP computational fluid dynamics computations and aeroacoustic simulations. Special emphasis is put on computing CRP noise due to interaction tones. The method is capable of dealing with parametric studies and exploring noise reduction technologies. An aircraft performance, weight and balance, and mission analysis was first conducted on a candidate CRP powered aircraft configuration. Guided by data available in the literature, a detailed aerodynamic design of a pusher CRP was carried out. Full-wheel unsteady 3D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations were then used to determine the time varying blade surface pressures and unsteady flow features necessary to define the acoustic source terms. A frequency domain approach based on Goldstein’s formulation of the acoustic analogy for moving media and Hanson’s single rotor noise method was extended to counter-rotating configurations. The far field noise predictions were compared to measured data of a similar CRP configuration and demonstrated good agreement between the computed and measured interaction tones. The underlying noise mechanisms have previously been described in literature but, to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the individual contributions of front-rotor wake interaction, aft-rotor upstream influence, hub-endwall secondary flows, and front-rotor tip-vortices to interaction tone noise are dissected and quantified. Based on this investigation, the CRP was redesigned for reduced noise incorporating a clipped rear-rotor and increased rotor-rotor spacing to reduce upstream influence, tip-vortex, and wake interaction effects. Maintaining the thrust and propulsive efficiency at takeoff conditions, the noise was calculated for both designs. At the interaction tone frequencies, the redesigned CRP demonstrated an average reduction of 7.25 dB in mean sound pressure level computed over the forward and aft polar angle arcs. On the engine/aircraft system level, the redesigned CRP demonstrated a reduction of 9.2 dB in effective perceived noise (EPNdB) and 8.6 EPNdB at the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) 36 flyover and sideline observer locations, respectively. The results suggest that advanced open rotor designs can possibly meet Stage 4 noise requirements.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Sylcott ◽  
Jeremy J. Michalek ◽  
Jonathan Cagan

In conjoint analysis, interaction effects characterize how preference for the level of one product attribute is dependent on the level of another attribute. When interaction effects are negligible, a main effects fractional factorial experimental design can be used to reduce data requirements and survey cost. This is particularly important when the presence of many parameters or levels makes full factorial designs intractable. However, if interaction effects are relevant, main effects design can create biased estimates and lead to erroneous conclusions. This work investigates consumer preference interactions in the nontraditional context of visual choice-based conjoint analysis, where the conjoint attributes are parameters that define a product's shape. Although many conjoint studies assume interaction effects to be negligible, they may play a larger role for shape parameters. The role of interaction effects is explored in two visual conjoint case studies. The results suggest that interactions can be either negligible or dominant in visual conjoint, depending on consumer preferences. Generally, we suggest using randomized designs to avoid any bias resulting from the presence of interaction effects.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 8-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Nilsson ◽  
Kerstin Nilsson

An increasing number of older people in the population will bring new challenges for the society and care coordination. One of the most important questions in care coordination is the employees’ work performance. The overall aim of this study was to examine care employees’ experience of factors that rule how they allocate their time and tasks in the care work. The study was qualitative and consists of focus group interviews with 36 employees in elderly care in five Swedish municipalities. Much of the work that care employees perform is controlled by others in the municipality organised health care. The employees had a limited possibility to decide what should be given priority in their work. However, the employees who participated in the focus group interviews did not want to prioritise tasks and duties they felt were faulty or in direct conflict with their own convictions. When employees experienced that the assistance assessments were correct and helpful to the individual elderly patient this contributed to the employees’ priority and performance of the task. The formal and informal control systems caused the employees’ priority to be mainly quantitative and visible work tasks, rather than more qualitative tasks and care giving to the elderly. In the intention to organise good care coordination that fit each elderly patients’ need it is important that those who work closest to the patient to a greater extent are given the opportunity to make their voice heard in decisions of care planning and assistance assessments.


Author(s):  
Peter Peeling ◽  
Linda M. Castell ◽  
Wim Derave ◽  
Olivier de Hon ◽  
Louise M. Burke

Athletes are exposed to numerous nutritional products, attractively marketed with claims of optimizing health, function, and performance. However, there is limited evidence to support many of these claims, and the efficacy and safety of many products is questionable. The variety of nutritional aids considered for use by track-and-field athletes includes sports foods, performance supplements, and therapeutic nutritional aids. Support for sports foods and five evidence-based performance supplements (caffeine, creatine, nitrate/beetroot juice, β-alanine, and bicarbonate) varies according to the event, the specific scenario of use, and the individual athlete’s goals and responsiveness. Specific challenges include developing protocols to manage repeated use of performance supplements in multievent or heat-final competitions or the interaction between several products which are used concurrently. Potential disadvantages of supplement use include expense, false expectancy, and the risk of ingesting banned substances sometimes present as contaminants. However, a pragmatic approach to the decision-making process for supplement use is recommended. The authors conclude that it is pertinent for sports foods and nutritional supplements to be considered only where a strong evidence base supports their use as safe, legal, and effective and that such supplements are trialed thoroughly by the individual before committing to use in a competition setting.


Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 3152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Offermann-van Heek ◽  
Philipp Brauner ◽  
Martina Ziefle

Interactive textiles are reaching maturity. First technology augmented textiles in form of clothes and furnitures are becoming commercially available. In contrast to the close link between technological development and innovations, future users’ acceptance and usage of such interactive textiles has not been integrated sufficiently, yet. The current study investigates future users’ consumer behavior and acceptance of interactive textiles using a scenario-based conjoint analysis study, which was presented in an online questionnaire ( n = 324 ). Two prototypical interactive textiles were focused on: a smart jacket and a smart armchair. To assess the textile products, the participants had to choose the preferred product alternative consisting each of the acceptance-relevant factors “connectivity”, “input modality”, “feature range”, “usability”, and “ease of cleaning”and their respective levels. The results revealed that the “ease of cleaning” is the most important decision criterion for both textile devices (even more important for the smart jacket), followed by “feature range”, “connectivity”, and “usability”. In contrast, the “input modality” is perceived as least important. The study also identified user profiles based on the projected consumer behavior (“adopters”, “rejecters”, and “undecided”) for both products. Besides the differences in product evaluation and projected consumer behavior, the user groups are significantly influenced by the individual affinity to textiles (both products) and gender (smart jacket). The findings are used to derive design and communication guidelines referring to interactive textiles in order to incorporate users’ needs, wishes, and requirements into future products.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document