Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A High-Level Discrete Event Simulation Model For The Harvesting Of White Button Mushrooms With Human-Robot Collaboration (Hrc), Ava Recchia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Canada is a leading global mushroom producer, with the white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) being the most popular type produced. Harvesting activities are labour-intensive, and farms are currently experiencing labour shortages, which are impacting productivity, growth, and overall revenue. Robotic technologies are valid mechanisms for mushroom harvesting and demonstrate a potential to reduce this gap. Examining the performance of a harvesting system with different robotics scenarios, such as manual, robotics automation, and human robot collaboration (HRC) is crucial to realizing this potential. Simulation models are useful tools for testing and assessing systems without making any physical change to the system. …

Applying Functional Data Analysis To Estimate The Mental Workload Of The Human Driver, David Olorunfemi Eniyandunmo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have focused on accurately estimating mental workload using machine learning algorithms and extracting features from psycho-physiological measures. However, feature extraction leads to the loss of valuable information and often results in binary classifications that lack specificity in the identification of optimum mental workload levels. This study investigates the feasibility of using raw psycho-physiological data (EEG, facial EMG, ECG, EDA, pupillometry) combined with Functional Data Analysis (FDA) to estimate mental workload of human drivers. A driving scenario with five tasks was employed, and subjective ratings were collected using the modified Bedford workload scale. Results demonstrate that the FDA applied …

Batch-Sizing And Machinability Data Systems For Milling Operations: An Optimal Sustainable Cost Of Quality Approach, Abdulnasser El-Gaddar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Because of globalization and high competition in emerging markets, manufacturers strive to produce products with lower machining costs while maintaining high quality, and sustainability must be considered. This research aims to propose a mathematical optimization model that considers the internal quality cost, environmental impact approach, and the effect of buffering for the micro-computer-aided process planning problem (CAPP). The mathematical model is developed for different milling operations: face, side, and peripheral milling to optimize the machining parameters, namely, cutting speed, feed rate, axial depth of cut, radial depth of cut, and nose radius and batch sizing while maximizing profit and meeting …

Multi-Period, Multi-Platform Design And Lot-Sizing For Hybrid Manufacturing Considering Stochastic Demand And Processing Time, Md Sadman Sakib

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the era of digitalization, customer demand has become more customized than before. For this reason, the variety of products is increasing rapidly. Manufacturing industries are experiencing extraordinary challenges due to frequent updates of customer requirements. Now the manufacturers are focusing more on mass customization than mass production to keep pace with this situation, however, managing variety using the make-to-stock strategy increases holding costs, and the make-to-order strategy increases lead time. Moreover, uncertainty in demand is making mass customization more challenging. Though hybrid manufacturing is a promising concept for variety management, very few works consider stochastic demand. The concept of …

Improvement To An Existing Multi-Level Capacitated Lot Sizing Problem With Setup Carryover, Backlogging, And Emission Control, Rifat Bin Hasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents a multi-level, multi-item, multi-period capacitated lot-sizing problem. The lot-sizing problem studies can obtain production quantities, setup decisions, and inventory levels in each period fulfilling the demand requirements with limited capacity resources, considering the Bill of Material (B.O.M.) structure while simultaneously minimizing the production, inventory, and machine setup costs. The paper proposes an exact solution to Chowdhury et al. (2018)'s[1] developed model, which considers the backlogging cost, setup carryover & greenhouse gas emission control to its model complexity. The problem contemplates the Dantzig-Wolfe (D.W.) decomposition to decompose the multi-level capacitated problem into a single-item uncapacitated lot-sizing sub-problem. To …

Mathematical Programming And Heuristic Design For Planning Of Operating Rooms, Justin William Britt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Canada, a significant percentage of government spending goes towards healthcare. The three biggest spending areas are hospitals, drugs, and physicians. In a hospital, operating rooms (ORs) and the downstream resources, such as recovery ward (RW) beds, used by surgical patients are expensive to operate but improve the welfares of patients and provide a large portion of the revenue. Hospital managers must plan and schedule the ORs in order to utilize the physical resources and the human resources who staff them as efficiently as possible. OR planning and scheduling problems are divided into three phases: strategic, tactical, and operational. In …

Investigating The Financial Implications Of Converting Manufacturing From Existing Portfolio To Ppe Products During Covid-19 For Canadian Manufacturing Companies, Varun Charavanan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past three years, we have witnessed the effects that a disruptive event like COVID-19 can have on the industrial sector as well as the effects that have so far been felt throughout the world's supply chain. When the pandemic first began, sales of PPE products increased, which led to a shortage of PPE products in Canada due to supply chain disruptions and limited PPE product production in Canada. So, the Canadian government began importing PPE goods. This incident highlights the need for local production in Canada as many people were unable to afford PPE in time. Due to …

Smart Manufacturing Execution System Framework For Small And Medium-Size Enterprises, Mohamed Mahmoud Masoud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's manufacturing scene, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) face the challenge of adapting to rapidly evolving technologies to remain competitive. Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) play a vital role in managing this transformation by systematically overseeing production processes. While Industry 4.0 has already established widely accepted automation techniques, Industry 5.0 presents further innovative advancements to enhance manufacturing. However, there is a scarcity of research on applying Industry 5.0. This thesis addresses this research gap by developing an Industry 5.0-based MES framework, specifically designed for SMEs. A systematic approach to implementing the framework is presented, starting with an analysis of common …

Development Of An Ergonomic Desk And Support For Optimal Keyboard Angle In The Sitting And Standing Workstation, Victor Eghujovbo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the proliferation of computers in homes and workplaces, the keyboard has become an integral part of our daily lives, and it is difficult to imagine using a computer without one. Given the high prevalence of WMSDs among computer users and the growing global computer workforce, concerns exist about the escalation of computer related injury with Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) being one of the most reported WMSDs among office workers. The forceful and repetitive movements of the hand and wrist, prolonged use of the hand and wrist and a non-neutral or awkward wrist posture (where there is a migration from …

System Reconfiguration For Reverse Logistics: A Case Study, Oritsegbubemi Omatseye

Major Papers

With climate change becoming very concerning in the world today, reverse logistics has become important for several companies with respect to regaining the value of their products and/ or for proper disposal or recycling of returned products. The reverse logistics framework in this paper is inspired by research papers in the literature; reverse logistics plays an important role in the return and the remanufacturing processes of products to meet specific demands.

Manufacturers face an increased flow of returned products in their system; hence, they need to effectively address the flow of returned products in their system and the challenges that …

A Multi-Objective Model For The Storage Location Assignment Problem, Kyle Armstrong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Order picking is the most laborious operation in a warehouse. Motivated by a real-world problem, this thesis developed a multi-objective model for the storage location assignment problem which assigns SKUs to storage locations such that the travel distance to pick a set of orders and the cost of damages associated with the order are minimized. This problem was formulated as a quadratic assignment problem and solved by CPLEX for the small and medium scale problems. A simple heuristic was introduced to solve for the large scale problem. This research refers to the warehouse operations of a large food retailer, Metro …

Human-Machine Collaboration In Healthcare Innovation, Breeze Fenton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Almost every individual has visited a healthcare institute, whether for an annual checkup, surgery, or a nursing home. Ensuring healthcare institutes are using human-machine collaboration systems correctly can improve daily operations. A maturity assessment and an implementation plan have been developed to help healthcare institutes monitor the human-machine collaboration systems. A maturity model, the Smart Maturity Model for Health Care (SMMHC), is a tool designed for maturity assessment. A four-step implementation plan was also created in this research. The implementation plan views the maturity of the institute and develops a strategy on how to improve it. The research utilized Integrated …

Simulation Analysis Of Patient Wait Times For Computed Tomography And Magnetic Resonance Imaging Considering Covid-19 Impact, Selena Celic

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to world-wide increasing population and life expectancy, the volume of chronic illnesses and number of patients admitted into hospitals is growing. Hospital services can be extremely important and expensive—particularly for Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) diagnostic imaging. Ontario hospitals follow a public healthcare system with four patient priority levels and wait time targets for each of the four priority levels. Along with increasing needs for diagnostic imaging services, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic virus on March 11th, 2020, by the World Health Organization (WHO), which was followed by the Premier of Ontario declaring a state of …

Work Order And Subassembly Identification And Tracking System, Israa El-Sabbagh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research encompassed in this thesis includes the development of a work order and subassembly identification and tracking software system created in-house and tested at SPM Automation (Canada) Inc. The research is motivated by the significant losses the company is enduring and the recurring problems occurring at the facility (i.e., excess inventory, late ordering, reordering, misplaced components, etc.). These problems are critical in the progress and profits of the company.

An extensive literature review was completed, and the research gaps were presented. The optimal work order and subassembly process was created using Process Mapping Methodology, Cause-and-Effect Diagrams, and 5Why Analysis. …

Energy Supply Chain Of Co-Firing System To Generate Electricity, Abinash Panda

Major Papers

The problem of air pollution on the streets of the national capital of India, New Delhi is a major concern. Majority of the pollutants are generally originated from either the vehicles on the roads or the burning of crops from the neighbouring states of the National Capital Region (NCR). To improve the condition of the air quality by the vehicles, implementation of the Electric Vehicles (EVs) in an energy supply chain is a suitable plan. The objective of this paper is to plan a supply chain of generation of electricity by the process of co-firing that prompts benefits both in …

Analysis Of A Garment-Oriented Textile Recycling System Via Simulation Approach, Reyhaneh Yavari

Major Papers

The textile industry is one of the polluting industries on the planet. Public awareness has increased manufacturers responsibility and forced them to shift from linear to the circular production line to reduce the amount of environmental impact such as; energy and freshwater consumption, toxic and fertilizer usage and cutting down the use of raw material. Also, some new business strategies like fast fashion which is a recent trend in the fashion industry by offering fast changing trend and inexpensive designs accelerate the process of purchasing new clothes that end up in landfills. Recycling, remanufacturing and reusing are some practices that …