Fundamental Barriers

We believe fimdamental barriers lie at two levels. The first occurs before partners are even approached. This is the point where the need for partnerships is established. The second is in execution of the partnership. This is the point at which two parties have committed to working together. Here we amplify on the nature of the barriers and solutions to evade the inherent pitfalls. 

Ideally, we would like to see a vision for the supply chain, including the activity system tiie organization needs to carry out its strategy (Chapters 7 and 8). Out of tiiis vision will come a template for partnerships. This will define what types of partners are sought and what they should contribute to fulfilling the vision. 

The dialog needed to produce this result requires a vocabulary for defining partnership types. We propose such a vocabulary in the next chapter. It provides a good beginning for translating strategic needs into partner selection. It says in effect, the hole is roxmd. Lef s not select a square partner. 

Once a partner is selected, tiie hard work of implementation begins. We provide two tools for deployment at this stage. These are described in the next chapter. Together, they address many root causes for partnership failures. The first tool addresses the scope of partnership issues. Effective planning for partnership operations begins with a mutual understanding of the issues faced. Joint identification and resolution keep the partnership focused on common goals. 

The second tool is a structure for decision making and keeping partnership operations on track. This is the intercompany version of the organization and task structure for internal project completion. 

Once a partner is selected, the hard work of implementation begins. We provide two tools for deployment at this stage, as described in the 

Handbook of Supply Chain Management, Second Edition 

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In addition to the general systems inertia already mentioned, the uncertainties that always remain in view of all iimovations represent significantly more effective barriers to iimovation than all positive or negative motives and interests of the participants, which could be ascertained in the various case studies. The need to focus on innovation systems at supply chain level as well as overcoming system inertia and uncertainties and/or lack of knowledge, as fundamental barriers to innovation are some of the important findings of the SubChem project . However, this in turn produces new questions. 

Here, is the distance between atoms i andj, C(/ is a dispersion coefficient for atoms i andj, which can be calculated directly from tabulated properties of the individual atoms, and /dampF y) is a damping function to avoid unphysical behavior of the dispersion term for small distances. The only empirical parameter in this expression is S, a scaling factor that is applied uniformly to all pairs of atoms. In applications of DFT-D, this scaling factor has been estimated separately for each functional of interest by optimizing its value with respect to collections of molecular complexes in which dispersion interactions are important. There are no fundamental barriers to applying the ideas of DFT-D within plane-wave DFT calculations. In the work by Neumann and Perrin mentioned above, they showed that adding dispersion corrections to forces... 

The fundamental barrier to the commercialization of high Btu gasification is the lack of firm government decisions to, in some manner, pay the domestic cost that is going to be necessary to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The lack of these firm government decisions is due to confusion as to the specific barriers that must be overcome before facilities will be built and production started. These barriers to commercialization can be conveniently discussed in five categories ... 

While many experimental challenges and data reduction problems must be dealt with in order to extend FFF methodology to important complex colloids, no fundamental barrier appears to exist which would block progress in this direction. 

Although there is no fundamental barrier to performing the SRE, no one has yet attempted this experiment. 

The physics of the Z-ray-emission process presents an even more fundamental barrier to the usefulness of EDS in low-Z element analysis. The electron beam incident on a sample excites characteristic Z-rays (as distinct from bremstrahlung) via the radiative decay of core holes created as a primary event within the inner electronic structure of the element in question. However, these core holes can decay via competing channels, the most important of these being the Auger process in this, the energy associated with the neutralization of the core holes is transmitted to another electron in a shallower level, which is then ejected from the atom. The probability of radiative as opposed to Auger decay decreases with Z, so that for sodium the relative probabilities are 1 40, for carbon 1 400. Instrumental factors notwithstanding, this... 

The Faraday plate detectors, the mainstay of detector technology in IMS from its inception as a modern analytical method, are seen as robust and effective for field instruments and relatively small ions. Nonetheless, the poor gain and susceptibility to microphonic noise can also be seen as disadvantages. Probably, these worries and wishes are small compared to the fundamental barrier to improved resolving power, which is established with the ion shutter. The Bradbury-Neilson (BN) or Tyndall-Powell (TP) shutters have and will certainly be the method of choice into the foreseeable future for IMS analyzers. The constraint is ambient pressure based. The limitation induced with fleld-mobility-based injections are large, yet no improved solution has been demonstrated. 

Currently, SharedARK is a prototype - a system intentionally slightly before its time. The technology needed to support a truly useful version is rapidly falling in price, and I believe there are no fundamental barriers to the full realization of a distributed distance education system based on the SharedARK model. 

With thermosets, the high degree of cross-linking of the molecules constitutes a fundamental barrier to deformation. Therefore, the elastic, completely reversible... 

Kleitz M (1992) Reaction pathways anew electrode modelling concept. In McEvoy A (ed) Fundamental barriers to SOFC peifonnance. Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Bern, pp 4—12... 

The formation of a through-the-thickness crack in a film subjected to a residual or applied tensile stress relieves that stress in the film material at points adjacent to the crack path. At points in the film at some distance from the crack path, the stress remains unrelaxed due to the constraint of the substrate. Consequently, a long crack that is parallel to the first formed crack can also form. Indeed, an array of parallel cracks over the entire film surface is likely, and the point of the discussion in this section is to provide an estimate of the dependence of the spacing between cracks in such an array on the film thickness hf and the mismatch stress a. The discussion is limited to the case when the equi-biaxial mismatch stress is uniform throughout the film, the elastic properties of the film and substrate are nominally the same, and hg/hf is sufficiently large so that the behavior is insensitive to the substrate thickness hg. Furthermore, it is assumed that the cracks grow through the thickness of the film to the depth hj, but that they do not penetrate into the substrate. There is no fundamental barrier to relaxation of these limitations, but the relatively simple system is sufficiently rich in physical detail to reveal the principal features of behavior. 

There are many differences between macro and nanoscale robots. These occur mainly in the basic laws that govern their dynamics. Macroscaled robots are essentially in the Newtonian mechanics domain whereas the laws governing nanorobots are in the molecular quantum mechanics domain. Furthermore, uncertainty plays a crucial role in nanorobotic systems. The fundamental barrier for dealing with uncertainty at the nano scale is imposed by the quantum and the statistical mechanics and thermal excitations. For a certain nanosystem at some particular temperature, there are positional uncertainties, which cannot be modified or further reduced [ 1 ]. 

Kleitz, M., Reaction pathways a new electrode modeling concept, in Fundamental Barriers to SOFC Performance, lEA Publications, Berne, 1992, 4-12. 

The important point is that if a new energy technology fails in any of these critical dimensions, widespread commercialization will not occur. The research community should work to address each criterion for market acceptance when considering new technology options. While performance, cost, safety, and public acceptance are most important, researchers should aim to identify fundamental barriers to widespread use in any dimension. Research must be aware of the dimensions of performance that may become important and avoid focusing solely on emissions, separations, or power plants. 

I would like to finish with personal conclusions as someone with a private-sector perspective. The goal of R D in carbon management should be to create economically justified options for future technologies that will make a difference to the global energy situation. Taxpayer-funded research and development should seek to identify fundamental barriers to technology, as well as finding solutions that improve performance, cost, safety, environmental acceptability, and consumer acceptability. 

We have to identify the fundamental barriers to alternate energy production that limit the performance or keep the cost too high or create environmental barriers. We must find ways to focus on those, rather than on demonstration projects. It s not the time to rush these technologies into commercial use too soon in an uneconomic way. It s time to step back and say let s parse this system. Let s look at what it would look like. Let s identify the barriers, and let s go to work and research in those areas that limit use. That s what I think, but it s not just the performance side—it s cost, environmental acceptability, and safety. 

It should be noted that many of the operating problems woe satisfactorily resolved at the plants where they were encountoed. None are considered to rqnesent fundamental barriers to the successful application of the magnesium oxide process for SO2 removal. Moreovo, the PECo units have opoated ccmtinuously for more than 15 years. 

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