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Aston University has developed systems thinking, specifically soft systems thinking, into a new approach known as the Process Orientated Holonic (PrOH) Modelling Methodology which has been used to model, debate and implement changes to strategy and operational processes in service and manufacturing organisations. Through PrOH Modelling our research has changed the awareness, use, and long term legacy effect in a variety of organisations as exemplified here by 4 cases in which considerable operational and financial impacts have accrued. These impacts have been achieved by (i) increasing awareness of systems thinking, particularly soft systems thinking, by management (ii) implementing use of soft systems thinking (as PrOH modelling) to give demonstrable organisational improvement in specific change projects, and (iii) ensuring a legacy effect of systems thinking practice, as managers' use of systems thinking is more effective after an initial Aston University led project has been completed.
Impact: Policy and economic: Introduction of the concept of High Nature-Value (HNV) Farming and embedding this into EU Rural Development Policy: Guidelines and policy options for exploiting the concept have been refined such that the EC has incorporated the care of HNV into legislation and Rural Development planning.
Significance: HNV farming recognises that sustaining or enhancing biodiversity is a central feature of the management of rural areas.
Attribution: Prof. McCracken (SRUC)
Beneficiaries: Policy makers in all Member States of the EU.
Reach: All EU member states. It is estimated that HNV farming systems are being practiced on 30% (i.e. 52 million ha) of EU agricultural land.
Developing sustainable consumption and production policies and practices in industry requires analysis of technical, environmental, economic and social performance of supply chains delivering goods and services. In a programme covering the 20 years since its foundation, the University of Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) has played a major role in developing a systematic "whole system" approach to assessing and managing supply chains, starting from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Management (LCM) and progressing to sustainability analysis.
This approach underpins current national and international standards and policy and is embodied in the corporate strategies of a number of major companies (for example Unilever and M&S); the approach is also starting to be adopted in guiding the development of new consumer products.
Sea lice are the principal disease constraint for world Atlantic salmon culture and cost >€33m yearly in the UK and >€305m globally in terms of control measures and lost production. Research conducted by the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture (IoA) has provided tools and strategies for sea louse control in farmed salmon worldwide. Impacts have been delivered through an integrated pest management approach which involves
(1) introduction of management tools including fallowing, single year-class stocking and area management
(2) screening, development, licensing and monitoring of veterinary medicines
(3) development of alternative strategies such as use of cleaner fish (wrasse) and sea louse resistant salmon
(4) incorporation of integrated pest management principles into public policy and legislation.
These tools and approaches are now being used by the U.K. and global Atlantic salmon industries.
Cranfield's research on LCA has informed public debate ranging from ministerial statements to popular science books, underpinned public policy development in the UK and Europe, and provided major contributions to Foresight initiatives. Extensive LCA using advanced integrated systems approaches has led to quantification of environmental burdens and impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, from production systems such as livestock, arable crops and from changes in land use. The models underpinning these LCA are available publicly and been downloaded by over 800 users across the globe.
Research conducted by the University of Reading between 2002 and 2007 influenced management options mandated under the UK Government's agri-environmental schemes. Several innovative large-scale manipulative field experiments were used to measure the diversity of different groups of invertebrates in response to various management regimes in uncultivated field margins of farmland. The outcomes of this research fed directly into agri-environment scheme options and provided supportive evidence for management advice and advocacy work by several environmental non-government organisations. Changes in the management of field margins brought about through government scheme agreements and advocacy efforts by conservation groups has led to enhanced farmland biodiversity and improved habitat for threatened wildlife valued by the general public and conservationists.
The Green Guide to Specification is an environmental profiling system that enables designers and constructors to select building materials and components which have the lowest environmental impact. Designed and developed at Oxford Brookes University, the Green Guide methodology provides the construction industry with reliable environmental evaluations based on quantitative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data. Now in its 4th edition and part of the BREEAM and Code for Sustainable Homes programmes, Green Guide has been used to reduce environmental impacts for over 230,000 recorded construction projects, with a further 1.07 million projects registered awaiting certification worldwide. In 2009, the Green Guide was adopted as the official design standard for all construction materials used in the London 2012 Olympics.
Working with a farming co-operative in India, this project developed new software design and deployment methodologies to create a mobile phone system, Kheti, (Ref 4) for providing on-the-spot, and locally relevant agricultural advice.
In trials, Kheti handled queries from over 100 different farmers, helping to avoid critical threats to their crops and livelihoods.
Software companies employed the methodologies: Safal Solutions applied them to microfinance IT projects in India, generating savings for over one million people; SAP Research used methods evolving from this project to create technologies for supply chain management by thousands of small-scale Cashew and Shea Nut farmers in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
Led by Professor Andrews, a computational method for real time mission planning, based on Binary Decision Diagrams (BDD), was developed in the Mathematical Sciences Department at Loughborough University (LU) from 1993-2003. This is fast and accurate and can be used to support decision-making on system utilisation in real-time operation, which has led to the ability to diagnose in flight faults for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications.
The research has changed the understanding and awareness of the advantages of BDD, resulting in integration into major industrial trials and proprietary software products, including at BAE Systems, one of the world's largest companies in an area of vital importance to UK security and economic development. The methodology has attracted significant research funding in collaborative programmes with industry.
The volume and diversity of data that companies need to handle are increasing exponentially. In order to compete effectively and ensure companies' commercial sustainability, it is becoming crucial to achieve robust traceability in both their data and the evolving designs of their systems. The CRISTAL software addresses this. It was originally developed at CERN, with substantial contributions from UWE Bristol, for one of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments, and has been transferred into the commercial world. Companies have been able to demonstrate increased agility, generate additional revenue, and improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness with which they develop and implement systems in various areas, including business process management (BPM), healthcare and accounting applications. CRISTAL's ability to manage data and their provenance at the terabyte scale, with full traceability over extended timescales, based on its description-driven approach, has provided the adaptability required to future proof dynamically evolving software for these businesses.
This case study embodies a non-linear relationship between underpinning research, software development and deployment. It involves computer science research at UWE in conjunction with its applied development for the world's largest particle physics laboratory and onward deployment commercially into private sector industry.