Sandra made it!
It was an interesting subject: decrease the energy consumption of an electrically heated grill. Several students applied for it, including Sandra. She was not bothered either by the technical difficulty nor by the cultural risk - the project was to be carried out in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, in a very traditional ‘male dominated’ company. German would be the language of communication as well. Few Dutch students today speak this language fluently. Sandra stated that she had finished more difficult jobs before. In order to make some money she had worked as a luggage handler at Schiphol Airport, a typically physical, male type occupation. I was convinced, she got the assignment. There she went to conquer the world, starting with Gelsenkirchen. Her special appearance: showy clothes, short skirt, and piercings, was not the traditional idea of a female student in technology, at least not in traditional industry. Soon, people at the factory stopped working when Sandra walked in. In the canteen she was gazed at and her Dutch directness surprised many. Her results were great. Soon she could demonstrate that the excessive energy consumption of the product was not due to lack of insulation. Instead, it was due to bad positioning of the grill elements, wrongly designed heat cycles, an energy guzzling internal lamp and an old fashioned time clock. In fact it was the same story as conveyed in different forms in this book: revisit decisions of the past, address the application perspective better, and exploit enablers (modern technology, supply chain).
国际会议
The 4th International Conference on Waste Management and Technology(第四届固体废物管理与技术国际会议)
北京
英文
361
2009-11-28（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）