http://gus.nottingham.edu.cn/blogs/green-tec

http://gus.nottingham.edu.cn/blogs/green-tec

If you are interested in news, reviews, interviews and other articles related to sustainable product design, green manufacturing, and other related clean technologies not only focussed on China then please follow the above link.

Personally I like the Feedjit Life Traffic Feed feature (right column, at the bottom of this page) because it gives an indication on location and time of the blog’s visitors. On the other hand, I can understand that some people might feel a bit like being part of a “Brave New World”…

Anyway, after -admittedly- not so careful consideration I decided to test the tool on this blog. I am looking forward to learning about your thoughts or reservations.

1. A technological research proposal

We have submitted a research proposal called “Energy efficiency in the regional Ningbo automotive industry” to the University’s Inter Campus Research Development Fund, utilising the international nature of The University of Nottingham by involving the three campuses, Malaysia, China, UK, and associated partners.

The project’s overarching vision is to reduce cost, and energy consumption in manufacturing processes, whilst increasing the fabricated parts’ quality. To proof the concept from a technological point of view, this project focuses on the analysis of energy consumption in an extrusion blow moulding process. An initial industrial case has been selected here in Ningbo to assess the influence of different part design features, and process and equipment configurations on energy consumption.

2. A delegation of the Ningbo Municipal Government

On 05/12/2008 representatives of the municipal government visited UNNC to get an overview of the science and technology research of the University and to learn about the related future plans.  The delegation was led by the Vice-Mayor of Ningbo, who was accompanied by the director of the Science and Technology Bureau, the deputy director of the Personnel Office, the assistant director of the Education Bureau, and the director of the Industry and Science Department.

We prepared a short presentation of the Engineering Division outlining our teaching portfolio (2+2 programmes in Mechanical, Civil, and Environmental Engineering), our research theme “Sustainable Manufacturing” and our planned research activities. As a direct result of this meeting the Science and Technology Bureau supported our first research seminar, inviting local companies to take part. This brings me to my next point:

3. “Research in Green Manufacturing”

I admit the invitation to this workshop has been published (in this blog) on short notice , but then again, here in China things tend to happen/work on very short notice. A summary, containing details about how the workshop went, can be found in this article, which I have written for the University news.

4. Postgraduate open day, 7 Dec 2008

Kuan Yoong gave a presentation about the engineering division, informing potential students and their parents about the advantages of being an engineer. More information about the event can be found here.

5. China mission

The NIMRC research trip has already been described on 29/12/2008.

• less fuel consumption of employees driving to work
• energy saving in the PCB assembly: no powering up of the reflow ovens, savings on airconditioning in the manufacturing area.

In addition, the company has noticed an improvement in productivity and employee morale.

Tianyi Pavilion Library

They arrived yesterday afternoon and I brought them along to say hello to some familiar faces from the UK now working here at UNNC. In addition, we visited the Engineering department and talked about old and new research ideas. Then we went out for a nice Szechuan style restaurant (i.e. very hot food- even for Chinese, as I learned on a few occasions by now), before finishing the evening with some more catching up at home. Today we headed to town for sightseeing, the oldest private library in China, Tianyi square, little street markets and similar, before saying goodbye later in the afternoon.

Ningbo, 2008: “Sustainable Manufacturing in China” – blog created

On the one hand, the creation of the “Sustainable Manufacturing in China” – blog is certainly not as significant as the above mentioned events. On the other hand, I would like to think the issue of sustainable manufacturing, specifically in China being the workshop of the world, is of similar importance.

The idea…

…of creating a blog about my activities here in Ningbo came from Professor Chris Rudd during his visit to Ningbo in September. I right away liked the idea, though not having any prior blogging experience. After a quick Google-search I ended up with WordPress being my first blog-host. I decided to write a few articles, before publishing the first posts on 25/09/2008. However, efforts to publicise the blog to a wider audience were not undertaken before October.

At present…

…the blog consists of 19 posts (including this one) focusing on topical actions and events here in China but also referring to related initiatives, technologies, etc. world-wide. So far, 5 comments have been submitted to the blog.

Blog stats

WordPress provides extensive statistics, such as: How many views the blog gets every single day? Which search engine terms people use to come to this site? Which other web pages or blogs refer to my blog? Etc. Here just the most interesting ones:

Total views: 668
Busiest day: 64 – Wednesday, October 15, 2008

World map of blog visitors

By the end of October I included the ClustrMaps widget, which captures and displays the locations of most of the visitors to this page. The figure above is taken from that widget showing that this blog’s visitors come from around the world.

The majority of site hits come from China, United States, United Kingdom, and Germany. Whereas one could argue that my personal links to Germany, UK, and China could have contributed to them being high on the list, the large amount of hits from the US show clearly the rising interest in, and importance of the topic in western countries.

Summary and outlook

After three months of existence this blog has had more than 650 views, averaging to about 200 views per month. Although in my opinion that is quite good for a start, there is clearly potential for improvement.

My efforts in the future should be focussed on making this blog more popular to live up to the importance of the topic. I have learned that the key steps in building up an audience are:

• Regular blogging
• Activity in the “blogging scene” e.g. comments in, and links to other relevant blogs.
• Interesting articles of high quality

I don’t want to judge the quality of my own articles. However, I do know that I can improve on the other two points, admitting that it has been particularly difficult to post on a regular basis during this month.

Finally, I would like to take this chance to ask for feedback, so please let me know any ideas, tips, suggestions you might have to enhance this blog.

The research trip was organised by Professor Nabil Gindy (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/school3m/staff-look-up/staff-by-role.php?id=NTM2NjEz&page_var=personal), director of the Nottingham Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (NIMRC) and his researcher Dr Yan Wang to get an insight of the sustainable manufacturing related research carried out across China. Under consideration of the recent establishment of the “Centre for Sustainability in Global Manufacturing” as part of the NIMRC, the exploration of possible collaborations was a particular aspect of the visits.

At this point, I would like to outline the journey (the map gives an indication of the places visited):

1. Chongqing, December 8-10, 2008

• Chongqing University
• Favgol-Chongqing No.2 Machine Tool Works Co., Ltd.

2. Changsha, December 10, 2008

• Hunan University

3. Hangzhou, December 10-11, 2008

• Zhejiang University

4. Shanghai, December 11-12, 2008

• Workshop Environmental Protection, organised by the German Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai
• Sustainable Manufacturing Forum, hosted by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Cooperation (SAIC) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University

After the Sustainable Manufacturing Forum I went back to Ningbo preparing for the Workshop on “Research in Green Manufacturing” carried out on December 16, 2008-12-29 at UNNC.

5. Beijing, December 16-18, 2008-12-29

• Beijing Institute of Technology
• Tsinghua University

More details on the trip will follow later on, giving my personal views on each of the stops. In addition, a report will be created about this journey. Interested parties could also get in contact with me to discuss any questions they might have.

Sustainable manufacturing: Risk or Chance? -可持续制造：机遇与挑战？

Workshop Invitation

The Division of Engineering at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China and the Nottingham Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (NIMRC), UK are co-organising a workshop on research in the area of green manufacturing.

Interested parties should contact me by email or telephone (see contacts link above).

The workshop will address the role of academic and industrial research in providing cleaner manufacturing solutions. It will provide delegates with a platform to exchange and discuss ideas and knowledge with regard to chances and risks in green production technology.

Participants will include creative thinkers from academic and industrial research institutions. In addition, governmental delegates are invited to give an overview of regulations, funding mechanisms and progression to date. Industrialists can outline their views on chances and risks regarding green technologies and business models. Furthermore, this workshop offers the unique opportunity to express industrial needs to realise energy and resource efficient production. Finally, the event provides a networking forum for discussing joint research projects.

Topics 主题

·         Clean manufacturing processes 清洁制造过程

·         Experiences, positive and negative cases 案例分析

·         Needs and expectations of industry 企业界的需求与期望

·         Company and business strategies 公司与商务策略

·         Governmental regulations on sustainability 政府在可持续性方面的有关法规

·         Possible cooperation between academia and industry 学术界与工程界潜在的合作机会

·         International collaboration 国际合作

·         Future plans, key issues in the next 10 years 未来发展计划，未来十年面临的主要问题

·         Chances and risks of sustainable manufacturing technologies 可持续制造技术的机遇与挑战

1. We have prepared and submitted a technological research proposal for the University of Nottingham’s “Inter Campus Research Development Fund” bringing together the three Nottingham campuses, Malaysia, UK and China.
2. A delegation of the Ningbo Municipal Government came to see UNNC. An overview of our activities had to be prepared and delivered to them.
3. We are currently preparing a seminar on “Research in Green Manufacturing” involving companies, local research institutions and government.
4. A postgraduate information day was held at UNNC on Sunday 08/12/2008.
5. On short notice I was invited to join Professor Nabil Gindy and Dr Yan Wang on their China mission, visiting research institutions across the country.

I have just returned from the above mentioned research journey. My initial idea of life blogging (which I got from here: http://www.cleanergreenerchina.com/2008/11/09/off-to-juccce-beijing-conference/ ), did not work because I couldn’t access this blog from any of the locations we visited…

To make up for the break in blogging I will write comprehensive articles on each of the above points as soon as possible.