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This research focuses on cost reduction in the logistical system of the Engine Shop of the KLM. This logistical system is complex of nature and involves very high material costs. The research emphasises on inventory cost reductions. A comprehensive system analysis has been performed that gives insights in the logistical processes of the Engine shop. A data analysis has been executed to evaluate the logistical performance of the engine shop and helped to derive to the root of problems. This report suggests five alternatives that can jointly result in a significant reduction in capital employed in the engine shop’s inventories. The alternatives give suggestions for improvements that require almost no investments nor structural changes, which facilitates acceptation and eases implementation. The research can give insights, also for third parties, in how cost savings can be obtained in the field of inventory control in a high tech MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) shop.

In the construction industry, the design and construct (D&C) project delivery method is being used more often. Smaller public parties are becoming aware of the benefits of this approach. However, these benefits are not always reached in practice as both public and private parties deviate from their new roles. Especially the public party is blamed for not fulfilling its role in the D&C process. This research has created a framework of success factors that should lead to a successful D&C project. The research shows that public clients have difficulty with fulfilling their role as they want to keep control on the design and are not used to their new role. Furthermore, conflicting interest and expectations between the client and contractor are a burden on fulfilling the success factors. These deviations are, however, understandable. The public client has a representative role and has to take into account the desires and interests of a lot of stakeholders. The current literature on D&C projects needs to be improved by taking into account the role of the public party. Future research should be focused on increasing the amount of analyzed D&C projects. Furthermore, more attention should be given to the role of the private party.

Indonesia as one of the state members of UNESCO committed to achieve main goal of Education for All (EFA) UNESCO which is to improve education quality in the world. The education quality is inseparable from the teacher quality. Therefore the UNESCO and Indonesia put high concern to improve the teacher quality. Since Indonesian Government put high effort to achieve the UNESCO goal, the policies need to be evaluated in order to analyze whether those policies have met the criteria of EFA-UNESCO or not. A policy recommendation is presented if the policies are not effective to improve the teacher quality in Indonesia. Three research questions are answered in this research: (1) To what extent has the Indonesia government met the teacher quality of EFA? (2) What factors influence the criteria that have (not) met the EFA goal? (3) What role can the Ministry of National Education put to support the Indonesian government to achieve the EFA goal in more effective way?. In order to answer the research questions, three major methods were used: desk research, interviews, and policy analysis using causal relation diagram and multi criteria decision making. The desk research includes the literature studies of the related institutions reports such as UNESCO and Ministry of National Education. The interviews are executed via telephone to the related actors. The causal relation diagram is used to analyze the problem by capturing the teacher quality system and to identify what are the influencing factors. The policy analysis methods like system diagram, means end diagram, and actor network analysis is used to analyze what policy means can be proposed to solve the problem. Lastly, the proposed policy robustness is tested using a scenario analysis. Based on six criteria from Task Force on Teacher for EFA (TFTA) UNESCO, Indonesia is considered to fulfill the number of teacher needed, gender balance in teaching profession, and has good policies to improve teacher quality. However Indonesia still has to increase the student survival rate, lower the student repetition rate, and has to train and recruit many teachers. Indonesia is categorized as a country with the moderate level of achievement. When we look deeper to the Indonesia teacher condition and compare the assessment based on TFTE UNESCO criteria and Indonesian Government criteria, we can capture a different conclusion. According to UNESCO criteria, Indonesia fulfilled the teacher number needed but the unbalance teacher distribution leads to shortage number of teachers in many areas, especially the rural areas. The UNESCO also concludes that the gender balance in teaching profession has been achieved but we can see gender disparities since more male teachers are holding undergraduate degree. Moreover although the certification policy to improve the teacher quality is good in its implementation; a problem occurs after a teacher is certified. Many teachers cannot acquire their professional allowances because they cannot fulfill their obligation to teach 24 hours. There are two big problems which hamper the teacher quality improvement: (1) the unbalance teacher distribution between cities and rural areas and (2) the high teacher workload. The unbalance teacher number hampers teachers to fulfill their obligation to teach 24 hours per week. Meanwhile the high teacher workload limits teacher self-study time. The formulation of new teacher distribution management policy at province and national level is recommended to balance the number of teacher in the rural areas and the cities. When the district cannot fulfill their need of teacher, the province government helps to manage the teacher movement from one district to other district within the province; and when the province cannot fulfill the need of teacher, the Ministry facilitates the teacher movement from one province to other province. Meanwhile comprehensive teaching method development is recommended to reduce the teacher workload and to increase their quality. This comprehensive teaching method includes the teacher guidebook, student book, evaluation book and innovative teaching tools.

Rainwater harvesting is the primary source of fresh water on the majority of isolated and volcanic islands in the Eastern Caribbean island chain that lack reliable sources fresh water. Recent research studies have determined that the microbiological quality of rainwater in cistern systems is generally unstable and can lead to serious health implications when used for human consumption. Another related issue is that rainwater shortages occur more frequently due to fluctuating rainfall patterns and increasing rainwater consumption rates. In this paper minimum design requirements are determined, using data from the islands of Saba and St Eustatius, for the construction of new domestic rainwater systems on small volcanic islands in the Eastern Caribbean. These minimum design requirements can be used to prevent potential water quality and quantity issues. One of the conclusions of this research study is that mainly the collection and storage elements of rainwater systems need to be constructed using non-toxic and non-corrosive materials to mitigate potential health risks. Also, first-flush devices need to be installed in the collection system to divert the mostly contaminated first load of rainwater after a dry period. The storage tanks need to be watertight and protected from sunlight, preferably located at least 30 meters away from active bacterial sources (such as open street sewers or cesspits). The minimum rainwater catchment area for a standard rainwater system, based on a 4-person family with a modern water consumption pattern, is 113m2; the minimum cistern storage capacity is 24m3.

In this research an attempt was made to map the Indonesian water policy network through Social Network Analysis (SNA). Furthermore, the role of the distribution of information and knowledge in this (policy) network with respect to its’ capacity to perform well has been investigated. This research has shown that there are there are some fundamental issues at hand in Indonesian water management that cause systematic underperformance of the sector as whole. Although sector reformation has introduced several principles of integrated water resources management into the Indonesian water sector, positive results in terms of water policy and solutions remain unseen because they are limited by ineffective policy processes and water policy network in transition.

This thesis discusses several solutions to develop the use of climate scenarios in climate adaptation in Dutch water management. The solutions consist of: a different representation of uncertainty in the scenarios, more guidance on the use of climate scenarios and organizational changes in the making and publication of scenarios. The first two are tested with help of interviews. The last with help of literature research.

There are several signs that the acute care system in the Netherlands might not function optimal. This research focuses on ways to innovate, and thereby to improve the quality of the care delivered. The acute care system is complex. It is a large, safety-critical system in which people have to act fast and correct. Apart from qualitative, non-generalisable statements, not very much is known about the quality of acute care in the Netherlands. The goal of this research is to gain insight into the functioning of the acute care system in the Netherlands, with a first exploration in the field of error analysis as a means to find points for improvement. Looking at the system in a holistic way is done using systems thinking. This research leads up to a ‘roadmap’ that aims to offer a method for using error analysis for system innovation. The goal of the roadmap is to use knowledge about the system to create and support innovations that improve the quality of the acute care system. The roadmap is not a step-by-step guide, but rather aims to show a way of advancing the acute care system efficiently (aiming at those places where things go wrong right now) and effectively (with the right result).

The huger and huger imbalance of cargo flows between continents or between countries, such as the imbalance trade between East Asia and western world, pushes the repositioning cost of empty containers higher and higher. The problem of reducing the cost of empty repositioning becomes more and more essential in containerization. Among many solutions, the concept of ‘Foldable Container’ is promising and effective in decrease handling, storage and transportation costs of empty containers, but its potential impacts on the existing logistic chain is not so clear yet that for investors and actors involved, risk are high to really apply this new product into market. The goal of this research study is to improve the insight in the foldable containers’ implementation in the logistic chain, by comparing its economical and logistical performance to standard containers’. Research approach used here is system engineering and specific research method is Discrete Modeling using the software of Arena. In this way, the real issue of foldable containers’ application and logistic performance can be simulated on computer. Besides assisting problem forecasting, these simulation models can also help to obtain quantitative data for problem analysis.

A well designed public transportation system can provide convenience to the public, increase the profit of the transportation company, and reduce the cost to the society as a whole. The depot is an important part in the study of transportation systems. The choice of the capacity of the depots is a strategic decision. It will constrain the possible tactical decisions (such as vehicle planning) for a long time, due to the life-span of the infrastructure. It is therefore important to study the impact of the options before they are implemented. The transportation company now is facing the problem that there is no appropriate tool in the decision support system to assess the capacity of the depots and the vehicle planning on the deadhead-kilometer (non-value added trips) and the robustess of the service. The simulation model is an appropriate method for the main part of the study. It can be used to evaluate the key performance indicators of deadhead-kilometer and average delay time, to study the complex interactions among the different elements, and to improve the understanding of the behaviors of the transportation system. The simulation model is useful for evaluating both strategic decisions and tactical decisions. The analyzing tool is designed following the methodology of systems engineering. First the requirements were gathered and translated into specification. The design was then conducted to fulfill the requirements on the conceptual level. Specification of the key classes were then concluded from their functionalities and relationships. The detail design came out with detailed attributions and methods of the classes. The analysis is based on a part of the network which consists of five service lines. According to the analysis, compared to the current design (Scheveningen, Zichtenburg and Lijsterbes), the future alternative with “Remise Zuid” depot and closing down “Lijsterbes” depot achieves 18% reduction on average delay time, but with a cost of 15% of increase in deadhead-kilometer. With the ratings obtained from the policy advisors of HTM, the alternative with “Remise Zuid” outperforms the design of current situation on the overall performance. Though the methodology applies to the entire network, the analysis results so far portaits the impact on these five lines. A more comprehensive study can be conducted with the same method and the input data covering all the operating lines. Some improvement can be made on the management of depots by a better the training of the employees and a clearer definition of job responsibilities.

Providing higher quality, quantity and specificity of care for everyone at lower relative costs is currently the main challenge for Dutch healthcare. Private equity investment can be a solution, as public funding is substituted by private funding and the investors can drive realization of high potential efficiency and service quality gains. However, the investor faces complex governance, a landscape conservative towards for-profit involvement and high regulatory uncertainty. There are also risks for the public interests of quality, accessibility and affordability of care. How can private equity investment in Dutch medical specialist care be durably successful in light of these obstacles? Durable success is defined as when both the private interests of key actors, as the public interests are furthered. Taking the point of view of a private equity investor, a qualitative exploration was performed, based on an agency cost framework, case studies and interviews with important players. Using strategies that reduce agency costs between key actors proves to increase investment success. Two generic approaches appear feasible, which can be combined into a third. The approaches put different levels of emphasis on discerned obstacles for investment success and focus on different strategies for reducing agency costs.

Historic preservation is always a hot topic in contemporary city development. The heritage witnessed how human life evolved and how the city developed. The high historical value assembles the city’s spirit and it brings to the human a sense of belonging. However, with urbanization and modernization, the heritages are easily under the risks of being damaged. Since 1980s, China started to pay attention on heritage preservation. The historic buildings, sites and historic cities are continuously added into the preservation objectives. Harbin city is a Chinese city with influences of western culture in its architecture due to its history. The government took actions to preserve these heritages since late 1980s. But facing countless historic remaining, the process of historic preservation planning has many problems which lead to a dissatisfaction of Harbin city. So far, there are 22 legally listed historic cultural districts. Based on their functions, they are divided into 5 types. The three districts having the most problems regarding preservation are covered in this research while the other two with better conditions are left for further study. The main difficulties in historic preservation are stated to provide sufficient knowledge on what is happening in Harbin, namely the decay of historic cultural value, the extensive influence of the government and commercial developers over other actors, and the lack of funding on preservation projects. In order to improve the historic preservation planning system for Harbin, the research deeps into the current situation of Harbin and analyzes two European cases in order to draw lessons. Three main parts in the body of the analysis are inspiration phase, learning phase and the transplantation phase. The inspiration phase contains the current situation and the case introductions, the learning phase contains the case analysis and the transplantation phase is focusing on transferring the merits from cases to Harbin. Five aspects are found to be essential in historic preservation. These are guidance of operation, public participation, supervision in process, coordination with other organizations and money source. The activities of these aspects are discussed in the case studies. And in order to improve the historic preservation planning system in Harbin, together with the local situation and resources, this research recommends five mechanisms. According to Richard Rose’s theories on the alternatives of treating lessons learning, they are adapted to increase the suitability and effectiveness: The research suggests that the experts should come up with a clear and detailed operating guidance for the operators in real work. The public’s involvement and other organizations should be encouraged and stimulated to coordinate in the preserving process. The funding problem can be solved by getting support from central government and the society including rich groups and donations. The mass media should monitor the process in order to ensure the fairness of the process.

The increasing concerns about global climate change and rising environmental pressures have prompted countries and cities to explore new sustainable development pattern. The concept of eco-city has been proposed as a potential sustainable urban solution. China as the most populous country in the world, is especially challenged by its rapid urbanization and environmental degradation, and has launched a number of eco-city initiatives in recent years. Among them many are eye-catching bilateral collaboration projects with the engagement of international partners. The growing trend of Sino-foreign eco-city initiatives give rise to the main research question of this study: “What is the role of bilateral collaborations in Chinese eco-city development?” This question is further divided into three sub-questions, among which the first sub-question intends to categorize previous Sino-foreign eco-city collaborations based on distinct features observed through an investigation on eight previous Sino-foreign eco-cities. The second sub-question focuses on the critical success factors influencing bilateral collaborations in Sino-foreign eco-cities at political/institutional, organizational, and individual levels. Finally based on the lesson drawings from previous experience, the study intends to answer the question of what a viable Sino-Dutch collaboration alternative could look like in Shenzhen International Low-carbon Town. Qualitative research methods including case study and comparison are used in the study. Case studies on eight selected Sino-foreign eco-cities present detailed empirical information and analysis systematically. Following the case studies, three types of bilateral collaborations in previous Sino-foreign eco-city projects were concluded: client-provider/designer type collaboration, intergovernmental agreement based collaboration, and JV-based collaboration under joint supervisory board. Based on the case studies, a framework of success factors influencing bilateral collaborations in Sino-foreign eco-cities is also established. With the lesson drawings from previous experience and specific analysis for Shenzhen International Low-carbon Town, two potentially viable Sino-Dutch collaboration alternatives including the cultivating and sufficing collaborations are proposed. Finally, some general findings across the cases are discussed and summarized in the paper. This study intends to fill in the literature gap in international bilateral collaborations in eco-city development by focusing on China’s experience. Besides, it also can contribute to the academic and professional community by making an inventory of existing Sino-foreign eco-city projects. The empirics and findings in this study can also shed light on the design of future bilateral collaborations in Chinese eco-city development with proper adaptations.

With a sizeable expected growth of demand for rail transport in the Netherlands the coming decades, and limited resources for expansion of the rail network, intensified utilization of the infrastructure is to be expected. To adequately manage this growth a ppropriate tools for policy analysis are needed. Because of the unstructuredness of many problems in the rail sector and decision-making in a network type environment additional scrutiny is placed on these tools. By performing a modelling study into the interrelations of modal split, mobility and operations using System Dynamics, the possibilities and pitfalls of using this method for policy analysis in Dutch rail system have been explored. Although classical policy analysis has proven to be possible, modelling the operational part of the system has proven challenging. Alternative usages of System Dynamics for enhancing policy analysis, by improving understanding about the complex dynamic behaviour of the system are suggested.

Dit onderzoek is specifiek gericht op de relationele samenwerkingsvorm ‘partnering’, aangezien ‘partnering’ een veelbelovende nieuwe projectbenadering is en aansluit op de wijze waarop corporaties bouwprojecten kunnen organiseren. Bij partnering wordt in een vroeg stadium van de planontwikkeling samengewerkt, hierbij worden de werkprocessen en belangen tussen de betrokken partijen onderling afgestemd. De samenwerking is meestal in teamverband waarbij kennis en kunde van de betrokkenen in vertrouwen gedeeld wordt. In de internationale constructieliteratuur is veel onderzoek gedaan naar ‘partnering’. Daarbij is ook empirisch onderzocht welke ‘condities’ in hoofdlijn van belang zijn voor een succesvolle toepassing van ‘partnering’, dit zijn de zogenaamde ‘kritische succesfactoren’ (Nyström 2005; Yeung 2007; Chan 2010). Deze condities kunnen als checklist gebruikt worden om partnering succesvol toe te passen. Wanneer aan deze condities zorgvuldig invulling wordt gegeven, verhoogt dit de kans op succesvolle partnering.

Enterprise Architecture (EA) can support e-government initiatives within Dutch governmental organizations. It intends to manage the growing complexity on IT caused by these initiatives, by defining a set of organizational principles which are used to standardize business processes, systems and applications. EA can be seen as a product, but also as a process. It is a product which opts for communication among stakeholders, by its layered model. These layers (business, information, and technical) each define a specific view of the system and categorize different design goals for the organization to reach and to discuss. The process can be visualized as a path in which multiple stakeholders participate within decision-making processes to shape the EA. To extend on the product and process view on EA, an architectural change-trajectory (ACT) can be envisioned as the reform effort supported by projects within various departments of the organization, in which multiple stakeholders are participating and negotiating in developing Enterprise Architecture. Despite all long term investments and efforts on ACT’s, the overall effectiveness of them can vary within Dutch governmental organizations. In this research, we investigated this varying effectiveness by certain factors that have a great effect on it, mainly pronounced as implementation challenges. A literature study identified various implementation challenges which were reflecting the critical notes of authors on EA development. The resulting outcome was that most of these implementation challenges were mainly related to organizational complexity issues and dealt with the usage of EA Frameworks and Models. Therefore these aspects are investigated into more detail. In addition, three case study descriptions based on interview data were identifying new or similar implementation challenges opposed to the literature study. Each case study reflected a unique view on an ACT within a Dutch municipality. All output of this research lead to the structuring of an analytical framework, whereby feasible solution arrangements are embedded for a great part of implementation. The findings and recommendations should appeal to a broad audience including architects, business managers as well as consultants.

In dit onderzoek is gekeken naar de mogelijkheden om de ICT infrastructuur binnen een organisatie af te stemmen op de wensen van de opkomende generatie werknemers en klanten. Holland Casino verwacht dat door het veranderde gedrag van deze nieuwe generatie, de behoeften van het bedrijf aan structuur en processen ook zal veranderen en dit brengt nieuwe eisen ten aanzien van de infrastructuur met zich mee. In dit onderzoek is gekeken naar de vorm van verschillende modellen uit de organisatietheorie, de verwachtingen die geconstateerd kunnen worden ten aanzien van huidige technische en sociale ontwikkelingen en de huidige situatie binnen het bedrijf. Vervolgens wordt op basis van een gekozen toekomstscenario een aanbeveling gedaan ten aanzien van de architectuur van een passende IT infrastructuur.

Ecosystem management has made a shift from protected area management to multiple use management area, where humans are viewed as an integral part of the ecosystem. In practice, however, finding the balance between maximizing short-term gains on the one hand and long-term sustainability on the other seems harder. In this thesis the practice of managing a particular multiple-use management area, the Bigi Pan MUMA in Suriname is explored. Primary data was collected trough 25 semi-structured face-to-face interviews. This data was analysed by means of the Thematic analysis method and a composite picture of management practice and the existing problems in the Bigi Pan area emerged. The four main themes that emerged are: (1) the MUMA plan, which is not implemented for the greater part; (2) management of the area, where collaboration problems between management authorities were leading; (3) use of the area, where dissatisfaction among users was identified; and (4) the biophysical condition of the area, where detrimental changes were identified. By analysing the interconnectedness between the design of the MUMA plan, its implementation and operation, a framework for improving management of the Bigi Pan MUMA is developed. This let two potential intervention to stand out: (a) improving the understanding of the ecosystem and (b) improving the social support.

Decision-making for flood defense while facing a considerable change in driving forces demands other methods than the traditional approach of forecasting and optimal policy selection. Exploratory modeling can be a candidate for helping adaptive policymaking to deal with the uncertainties that confront decision-makers. In adaptive policymaking where changes , policies are considered that respond to changes over time. This thesis addresses the question whether exploratory modeling is appropriate to support the design of flood defense strategies and in particular to assess the value of flexibility in such designs. The literature review of this thesis explores the concept of flexibility and shows that exploratory modeling as a method for handling uncertainty can contribute to system control as well as system resilience, and to scientific analysis as well as process management. The case study of this thesis demonstrates the application of exploratory modeling to flood defense strategies. It shows (1) how alternative strategies can be compared and evaluated while considering seven uncertain system parameters, (2) how the relative performance of strategies can be expressed as a regret value, and (3) how these values can be visualized to let decision-makers see how changes in parameters impact on their regret of decision-maker. These 3 goals reached by an exercise of exploratory modeling. Interpretation of computer model of a pre-investment analysis leads to selection of most robust strategy. Beside the help of visualization technique to see and compare performance of different strategies, a tool developed that counts and compare performance of strategies based on their regret value. I call this tool “Regret Frequency Table”. After finding the robust strategy which in this case was “Dike relocation” there was a need to see is this strategy flexible in terms of design to let future developments or not. Therefore based on interviews and gathered information, a decision tree has been draw to see if selected strategy can let future developments. It emerged that it can support couple of available measures in project in future. This conclusion leads to an extension of practice of exploratory modeling to apply adaptive policymaking approach to see the performance of selected strategy after taking the next step. This extension of exploratory modeling included the selection of a signpost for taking the next step. Signpost selection depends on (1) risk tolerance of decision maker (2) and model structure. The main conclusion in this step is that the sign post should be a part model; either a component of model or a parameter of model. This outcome leads to selection of a component and a parameter in model with two different values corresponding to different risk attitudes of decision maker. The results again fitted into regret frequency table and the outcome has been compared based on regret value of strategy before taking the next step. This allows seeing the value of flexibility relatively in terms of how many percent it improves the no regret values of a flexible strategy after implementing future developments. This practice lets decision maker to make his final decision about next step based on his attitude toward risk. The final outcome of research is a new approach of practicing exploratory modeling tailored for adaptive approach of policy making. I call this method “Exploratory Modeling for Adaptive Policies”. It borrows seven steps from exploratory modeling analysis (EMA) and adds three more steps to adjust the practice for adaptive policy making.