Digital Commons Network^™

Assignment Of E-Commerce Orders To Fulfillment Warehouses, Ahmad Basem Zamka

Theses

For large e-commerce companies such as Amazon, when an order comes, this order might be available at more than one fulfillment centers. Therefore, the question of which fulfillment center this order should be fulfilled from would arise.

In a typical situation, customer demand is fulfilled from the closest fulfillment center. However, this approach does not always provide the optimal solution since there are so many factors that could be involved in making such a decision. These factors might include inventory balance, product correlations, and future demand.

Our decision model focuses on putting future orders in consideration while assigning orders to …

Family Business: Innovation And Tradition In A Global Economy, Francesca Fornasari

Theses

Eighty-five percent of Italian companies are run as a family business. They are considered vital for Italian economy. The purpose of this thesis is to study how these companies challenge the global market to understand if the globalization can cause them disadvantages or benefits. The study explains what a family business is and who are the components that can be part of it. Then it focuses on the structure of the firms, how the families run their businesses and organize the tasks between the family members. This thesis considers the strategies of innovation adopted by the family to remain competitive …

Start-Up And Open Innovation, Gonxhe Tali

Theses

Nowadays, in many industries the traditional research and development approach has become obsolete. For this reason, during the past two years companies started focusing on Startups and the Open Innovation. Firms should use internal and external relationships, ideas and paths in order to advance their organizational process and technology. Open Innovation combines all those ideas into a system and defines all the requirements for the new business model.

The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate how Startups successfully organize and manage open Innovation with large and small companies and to highlights the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and barriers faced by …

Halal Certification For An Industrial Machine Intended To Come In Contact With Food, Luca Caffarelli

Theses

Halal Certification is a worldwide recognition that the products are permissible under Islamic law. These products are thus edible, drinkable or usable by Muslims. It can be extended to industrial machinery and tools. This Certification must be issued by a Notified Body under the supervision of an IMAM. Focus of the Certification are GMPs and Food Contact Materials and Articles. Four main phases to achieve Certification (the scheme is the same of ISO 14001, ISO 18001 and ISO 9001):

• Pre-Audit - The activity is to evaluate the documentation describing our internal system.
• Audit - The activity is to evaluate how …

Development Of The Commodity Strategy: The Case Of Sidel, Giuseppe Celiberti

Theses

The thesis will address the development of the sourcing strategy in Sidel, a manufacturing company that provides packaging equipment for liquids such as water, carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks, sensitive beverages like milk, and liquid dairy products.

It is developed the sourcing strategy structure that characterizes every commodity, with a particular focus on the commodity execution process. Then, it is discussed a concrete case: the one of Nitro Dozers. In order to achieve the goal, it is used a systematic approach that focuses on different steps, from the Product overview and Spend analysis to the supplier assessment and benchmarking.

After …

Knowledge Management In New Product Development (Npd), Luca Maria Mancinelli

Theses

This thesis analyses features that, in New Product Development process (NPD), foster knowledge, and their contribution to the creation and application of knowledge with the aim of increasing both global performance and organizational effectiveness. Since knowledge is becoming more important to achieve competitive advantage, companies have already started to focus on their ability to generate new competencies and create new opportunities for producing new knowledge.

One of the issues compelling knowledge management understands what aspects of the organization's work system and organizational design affect its ability to acquire, create and apply knowledge. In fact, the way that workers are organized …

An Examination Of Coordination Among Friends And Strangers From A Coordination Theory Perspective, Christopher D. Wamble

Theses

Within mobile social coordination, there is a field of study known as outeraction, the communicative processes used by people to manage future interactions. It is an important area of research because it identifies how informal interactions support complex collaboration between individuals and groups. Outeraction is primarily conducted through the interpersonal communication channels of texting, instant messaging (IM), face-to-face, and mobile phone or Skype conversations. Currently this area of research in mobile outeraction support systems is weak. It lacks a firm foundation in system building, has very few if any conceptual frameworks, and little empirical knowledge of user requirements and attitudes …

Water Purification In Haiti : An Engineers Without Borders Project, Melissa Valoura

Theses

The objective of this thesis was to present the necessary steps to help a town in Haiti develop an organization focused on improving their water quality. It goes through the technology needed to create the organization and explains the procedures for implementing a charitable project in a foreign country. A narrative of the student project in Milot, Haiti, where students from the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Engineers Without Borders Chapter implemented a water purification project, explains the course of action that was taken and gives an example of a successful project. A summary of Haiti and its history paints …

Developing A Virtual City For Emergency Preparedness Planning And Training, Jon K. Morgan

Theses

Existing techniques for emergency preparedness planning and training fail or lack the ability to convey training on a broad scale and timely fashion. Skill sets that are required for planning, mitigation, response and recovery issues are lost through information overload or failure to identify other channels in which to convey the information. In order to resolve some of the issues with currently existing methods such as tabletop training exercises (TTX), instructional video learning and full-scale exercises we can turn to virtual environments.

In a virtual environment teams can interact with their surroundings from the comfort of the office without having …

Determining Continual Improvement Process Methods Within Quality Management Systems, Diane M. Bové

Theses

Institutionalized standards require organizations to actively define and implement quality management systems, which includes active participation in continual improvement efforts. Interpretations and practices vary on implementation methodology.

Traditional views of quality do not integrate the technical disciplines into a defined science which would support a standardized approach for continual improvement implementation.

In order to optimize improvement efforts, a conceptual hypothesis is proposed to integrate quality through combining and collaborating implementation efforts of engineering, control, assurance, improvement and costs. The purpose of this thesis is to establish a roadmap to assist in choosing effective quality improvement methodologies and toolsets that assist …

Sharing The Big Apple : A Survey Study Of People, Place And Locatability, Samer Nadim Karam

Theses

Over the past half century social trends and new technologies have weakened local social ties and thus, the fabric of civil society itself. Mobile location-aware community systems offer one path to redress these problems by enhancing community cohesion and the formation of social capital by helping people to meet each other and coordinate their actions. However, little is known about the general population's desire and attitude towards these systems.

The design space described by the People-to-People-to-Geographical-Places Framework (P3-Framework), was used to guide a survey study of the impact of 'place' on people's social information needs and their willingness to share …

Digital Libraries And Middleware Technology, Muhammad Umar Qasim

Theses

Digital libraries deliver personalized knowledge directly to their users, without being restricted to the contents of a physical library. In a digital library information from any online source can be managed and shared, making more knowledge available to users than before. The information sharing is achieved by integrating many autonomous heterogeneous systems available. The challenge is to provide users with the ability to transparently access digital library contents in spite of the heterogeneity among the information sources.

Research communities have proposed several approaches to accomplish the system integration in digital libraries. In this thesis, the working of currently employed approaches …

Participatory Learning Environment : Requirements And Design Analysis, Vikas Manohar Achhpiliya

Theses

The primary purpose of this thesis is to develop the requirements and model preliminary database and class designs for the Participatory Learning Approach Environment (PLAE). The requirements and the designs will be presented for version 1.0 and 2.0 with version 2.0 supporting an enhanced requirements set.

Participatory Learning Approach Environment (PLAE) is an exercise management tool for the Participatory Learning Approach (PLA) - a pedagogy approach based on the theory of constructivism. The PLAE facilitates and enhances learning among students while easing the administrative burden of the instructor and cognitive overload of the students. The theory and concepts on which …

Electronic Marketplaces And Their Roles In The Staffing Industry : An Explorative Analysis, Vishal Khubani

Theses

This thesis will explore and analyze the role of electronic marketplaces in the staffing industry from the viewpoint of hiring executives, human resources personnel, staffing organizations, and candidates. Using analyses of popular electronic job marketplaces, this paper will establish the efficiency and effectiveness of electronic marketplaces as compared to traditional staffing methods. It will also provide a detailed view of various electronic marketplaces, their financial structure and analysis of their performance. This information will also result in a return on investment estimate for the average hiring organization using electronic marketplaces.

Intramural, Collaborative Learning Systems, Robert S. Friedman

Theses

This thesis focuses on three related concepts: problem-based collaborative learning; the use of multimedia tools in learning systems; and participatory design as a software engineering methodology to create multimedia tools to be used in learning systems. A literature review of the three areas is followed by an overview of the pedagogical, technological, and business trends that affect the direction of innovation in education, including problem-based learning. A discussion of a software engineering project to develop a multimedia application that enhances the learning of geography skills and puts the programming, interface design and multimedia systems capabilities of college students into action …

Decision Making Based On Quantitative And Qualitative Evaluations, Rohan A. Pandit

Theses

This study emphasizes mainly on the influence of evaluations, both qualitative and quantitative, on decision making for many occasions that occur in business and technically oriented settings. Decisions made with a certain fuzzy as wen as technical behavior are structured by means of computer-assisted decision-making tools. Decision support tools assist decision makers in making crucial decisions. For instance the tool that has been designed for the purpose of this research will be used for selecting capital-intensive products. It is also intended to prove that with the help of decision support systems decision makers could make decisions by reducing fuzzy decision …

Development And Characterization Of Techniques For Neuro-Imaging Registration, Carlo Ciulla

Theses

Three automated techniques were developed for the alignment of Neuro-Images acquired during distinct scanning periods and their performance were characterized. The techniques are based on the assumption that the human brain is a rigid body and will assume different positions during different scanning periods. One technique uses three fiducial markers, while the other two uses eigenvectors of the inertia matrix of the Neuro-Image, to compute the three angles (pitch, yaw and roll) needed to register the test Neuro-Image to the reference Neuro-Image. A rigid body transformation is computed and applied to the test Neuro-Image such that it results aligned to …

Development Of A Framework For Internet Based Education System, Srinivas Lanka

Theses

Development of a framework for Internet based education has demonstrated the use of Oracle tools for the use of delivery of education on the World Wide Web. This also has proved that for an efficient dynamic education scenario, the use of a database-based system with a proper retrieval system is required.

We have designed the system on an Oracle backend system with Designer/2000. Developer/2000 helped us with the design and development of the system. Oracle Web Server 2.1 helped us with the retrieval of the web pages.

The entire design of the system and the reasoning behind the system has …

Application Of The Internet Technology And Client/Server Paradigm For The Implementation Of Repi, Chetankumar G. Patel

Theses

There are many problems associated with Requirements Engineering such as defining the system scope, developing understanding among the communities involved in the system to be built, volatility of requirements etc. These problems may lead to poor requirements and therefore cancellation of the system development, or else the development of a system that is unsatisfactory, has high maintenance cost or is unacceptable. By improving Requirements Elicitation, the Requirements Engineering can be improved, leading to a better requirements specification and eventually a better product.

Requirements Elicitation requires effective communication among the team members, as communication is the key factor. Easing communications between …

Applications Of Internet Technology For Requirements Elicitation, Deepak Pandit

Theses

During the Requirements Elicitation part of a project various stakeholders need to be able to communicate their requirements to the developers, and the developers need to be able communicate their understanding back to the stakeholders. Communication between the various members of the project is the key factor during the Requirements Elicitation part of a project. Easing communications between stakeholders and developers makes the process of eliciting requirement easier, leading to better requirements specification and eventually a better product.

The Requirements Elicitation Process through Internet (REPI) web site has been designed and implemented to explore this idea. The prototype version of …

The Socio-Economic Role Of Crude Oil In The United States And Finland, Judith Deak Kallo

Theses

Running a company requires daily assessment of opportunities, risks and trends which involve socio-economic changes and scientific uncertainties. Technical-material resources play a major role in the uncertainty of corporate economics. Overproduction combined with increasing efficiencies have resulted in accelerated use and misuse of resources, accompanied by socio-ecological abuses related to wars and pollution. A significant current threat is global warming. As a result of this global challenge several companies have moved towards a more comprehensive environmental business management model. This is seen in corporate management initiating life cycle assessment and risk analysis of their products.

The socio-economic role of crude …

Evaluation Of Sale Forecasting Methods : A Case Study, Susan J. Canavan

Theses

This study investigated forecasting accuracy for sales. Three quantitative and one qualitative forecasting techniques were tested and two combinational models were generated and evaluated.

Three data sets, obtained from a market leader were used to forecast sales. The series represented monthly sales for three years. Three accuracy levels were employed in this study, these are: Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). Results indicated that the quantitative method outperformed the qualitative method; that combining two or more quantitative methods provide better forecasts than the individual methods; and that combining quantitative and qualitative …

Design, Simulation And Fabrication Of A Mems In-Situ Contactless Sensor To Detect Plasma Induced Damage During Reactive Ion Etching, Subramanian Ganesh

Theses

The present trend in the semiconductor industry is towards submicron devices. An inevitable process technique in achieving this is by reactive ion etching of the polysilicon gate. During RIE, the gate oxide may get damaged due to several causes. One of the main causes of the damage is the non-uniformity of the plasma. It is reported that these plasma inconsistencies are mainly due to electrode design and that they create spatial plasma potential fluctuation. These fluctuations are reported to be in the range of 10-20 Volts. By providing an in-situ monitoring of the wafers, the reliability of the device could …

Empirical And Theoretical Analysis Of Foreign Exchange Markets : A Case Of Belgium, Germany, And The Netherlands, Ozan Akyureklier

Theses

The paper uses an efficiency specification model of the spot and forward foreign exchange markets and tests the random walk, the general efficiency, and the unbiasedness hypotheses by utilizing a regression estimation and many different specification and diagnostic tests for the series and the error terms.

The paper discusses the important aspects of efficiency, expectations, and risk in the foreign exchange market. First a brief presentation of the existing single-equation structural models of exchange-rate determination is given. An efficiency specification model of the spot and forward foreign exchange markets applied to test the random walk, the general efficiency, and the …

A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis On Efficiency Of The Foreign Exchange Markets : An Empirical Evaluation Of The British Pound, French Franc And Canadian Dollar Testing For Cointegration And Unbiasedness, Panagiotis Paleologos

Theses

This paper discusses the important aspects of efficiency, expectations, and risk in the foreign exchange market. First, a brief presentation of the existing single-equation structural models of exchange-rate determination is given. A mathematical efficiency specification model is defined which employs of a system of interrelated equations testing the random walk and unbiasedness hypothesis. The model is validated by analyzing fluctuations in the spot and forward foreign exchange rates. Utilizing a regression estimation and many different specification and diagnostic tests for the series and the error terms (residuals), this study addresses the efficiency of the English, Canadian and French foreign exchange …

Integrating Key Functions In Product Development : A Conceptual Product Development Model For The Korean Context, Jong-Wook Kim

Theses

The high-tech market is characterized by market uncertainty, technology uncertainty and rapid change. To survive in this risky high-tech market, a company must create competitively effective product development practices that meet its own unique needs and circumstances.

One effective practice is cross-functional integration in the product development process. The advantages of integration include a shortened time to market, successful transformation of research results to production, productivity improvement, innovation project success, and high-quality problem solutions. However, these advantages are rarely obtained in the current product development practices of Korean companies. Their product development efforts are generally characterized by time consuming sequential …

Economic And Monetary Union In Europe, Charalambos K. Demetriou

Theses

The plans for Economic and Monetary Union in Europe became difficult to achieve during the period 1992-1993. The convergence criteria set up in the Maastricht Treaty block the road towards unification. It is very complex to expect twelve governments with different shades of political colour and twelve states with different economic interests to compromise in such criteria (as inflation, government borrowing, exchange rate stability and interest rates) and eventually, speak with one voice at the end of this decade.

This current research provides significant modifications in The Maastricht Treaty , policy making, objectives, even changes in political behavior for better …

Graphical Oodb Modeling For Medical Information Standards (Gommis), Jiping Liu

Theses

The graphical representation of database schemata has been a useful tool for the designer and users of database systems. Such a tool for OODB schemata should incorporate a wide variety of symbols which cover most concepts of existing Object-Oriented Database (OODB), so it is sufficient to support a diverse group of object-oriented data models.

In this paper we created a. graphical representation, using the OOdini system and language, of the European Prestandard for Medical Informatics on Message Exchange of Laboratory Information. This European Prestandard describes a standardized format for messages to be exchanged between a. health care provider and a …

The Individual Investor : Investment Objectives, Strategies, And Tactics, Clive Walcott

Theses

The individual investor's circumstances and investment behavior have received relatively little attention since it was discovered in the late sixties that he was withdrawing as a direct participant in the American equities market. The first major response to this withdrawal phenomenon was the 1974 Individual Investor Research Project (IIRP). For the first time, the individual investor's circumstances and decision processes were examined directly and not through broad-based trading statistics or portfolio simulations.

This current survey identifies the significant changes in investment objectives, strategies, and tactics since the IIRP. These changes were discovered when seven demographic variables were cross-classified with various …

Translation Of Semantic Aspects Of Oodini Graphical Representation To Onto Oodb Data Definition Language, Xiaoyong Wang

Theses

In this thesis we present a system to translate the semantic elements in the graphical schema language of OODINI from API of OODAL to the Type definition of ONTOS DB. To translate semantic constraints of the graphical language, we patch more information to existent class data structure in API of OODAL. After a brief review of OODINI, ONTOS DB and the existent translator without the ability to translate semantic constraints, we describe in detail the methods to translate the essential relationship. dependent relationship, multi-valued essential relationship and multi-valued dependent relationship. We employ an Inverse Reference to a "Set of" Type …