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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
A Holistic Framework For Effective Engineering Leadership Development Using 3d Virtual World Simulation, Hamed Almalki
A Holistic Framework For Effective Engineering Leadership Development Using 3d Virtual World Simulation, Hamed Almalki
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Problems associated with the limited success of traditional engineering leadership development are the absence of embedded real-life industry case studies in leadership development and incorrect applications of leadership strategies in the various contexts. Though recommended programs for enhancing leadership development exist, they lack an examined framework, especially when it comes to leadership development of undergraduate engineering students. In this research effort, the impact of a framework using 3D virtual world simulation and the 4-D Leadership System to enhance the leadership abilities of undergraduate engineering students at the individual and team levels based on industrial leadership case studies was investigated. The …
A New Six Sigma Implementation Approach For Power Generation Gas Turbines Repair Process Development, Somesh Ghunakikar
A New Six Sigma Implementation Approach For Power Generation Gas Turbines Repair Process Development, Somesh Ghunakikar
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Power Generation gas turbines used for heavy duty application mainly constitutes three modules; compressor, combustion and turbine. Typically, all these parts are designed by OEM companies for specific number of hours and cycles (also known as starts) before they become dysfunctional. In addition, Gas Turbine (GT) also have intended repair interval depending upon the type of part application and anticipated damages during service operation. Thus, GT parts need inspections and repair (overhaul) after certain operating hours in order to recondition them so that they can be fit for reoperation to produce power. In this dissertation, a unique six sigma DFSS …
The Effect Of Baldrige Performance Excellence Program On Organization's Innovation/Dynamic Capabilities, Mohammed Alomairy
The Effect Of Baldrige Performance Excellence Program On Organization's Innovation/Dynamic Capabilities, Mohammed Alomairy
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation investigated the effect of Baldrige performance excellence program on organization's innovation/dynamic capabilities improvement. According to the literature, there is little or no practical method for building dynamic/innovation capabilities within organizations. The study hypothesizes that Baldrige performance excellence program helps organizations to systematically develop the required dynamic/innovation capabilities for innovation. Twenty-four organizations that had implemented Baldrige program over the past five years participated in this research study. Two types of data were measured/collected from these organizations; Performance excellence data and Innovation capabilities data. To avoid bias in the data collection, the two data were measured and collected at different …
A Simulation-Based Evaluation Of Efficiency Strategies For A Primary Care Clinic With Unscheduled Visits, Afrifah Bobbie
A Simulation-Based Evaluation Of Efficiency Strategies For A Primary Care Clinic With Unscheduled Visits, Afrifah Bobbie
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In the health care industry, there are strategies to remove inefficiencies from the health delivery process called efficiency strategies. This dissertation proposed a simulation model to evaluate the impact of the efficiency strategies on a primary care clinic with unscheduled "walk-in" patient visits. The simulation model captures the complex characteristics of the Orlando Veteran's Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) primary care clinic. This clinic system includes different types of patients, patient paths, and multiple resources that serve them. Added to the problem complexity is the presence of patient no-shows characteristics and unscheduled patient arrivals, a problem which has been until recently, …
Assessing The Effect Of Social Networks On Employee Creativity In A Fast-Food Restaurant Environment, Mitchell Rabinowitz
Assessing The Effect Of Social Networks On Employee Creativity In A Fast-Food Restaurant Environment, Mitchell Rabinowitz
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Creativity has been widely recognized as critical to the economic success of organizations for over 60 years. Today, it is considered to be the most highly prized "commodity" of businesses. As such, there have been numerous efforts to better understand creativity with the goal of increasing individual creativity and therefore improving the economic success of organizations. An emerging area of research on creativity recognizes creativity as a complex, social process that is dependent upon many factors, including those of an environmental nature. In support of this perspective, a growing amount of research has investigated the effect of social networks on …
A Framework For Quantifying And Managing Overcrowding In Healthcare Facilities, Abdulrahman Albar
A Framework For Quantifying And Managing Overcrowding In Healthcare Facilities, Abdulrahman Albar
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Emergency Departments (EDs) represent a crucial component of any healthcare infrastructure. In today's world, healthcare systems face growing challenges in delivering efficient and time-sensitive emergency care services to communities. Overcrowding within EDs represents one of the most significant challenges for healthcare quality that adversely impacts clinical outcomes, patient safety, and overall satisfaction. Research in this area has resulted in creating several ED crowding indices, such as National Emergency Department Overcrowding Scale (NEDOCS) and Emergency Department Work Index (EDWIN) that have been developed to provide measures aimed at mitigating overcrowding. Recently, efforts made by researchers to examine the validity and reproducibility …
An Experimental Investigation Of The State Of Creativity, Critical Thinking And Creativity Training In Undergraduate Engineering Students, Eric Sola
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This research explores creativity and critical thinking skills in undergraduate engineering students. The study undertook two experiments in order to gather a better understanding of several factors regarding the interactions between students' creative abilities and the effects of the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Experiment 1 focused on the differences in creative and critical thinking skills in freshman versus senior undergraduate engineering students. Experiment 2 centered on the variation in the effects of long-term versus short-term creativity training on senior engineering students. Creative skill was measured using the Test for Creative Thinking – Drawing Production (TCT-DP) developed by Urban and Jellen (2010). …
A Systems Approach To Assessing, Interpreting And Applying Human Error Mishap Data To Mitigate Risk Of Future Incidents In A Space Exploration Ground Processing Operations Environment, Tiffaney Alexander
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Research results have shown that more than half of aviation, aerospace and aeronautics mishaps/incidents are attributed to human error. Although many existing incident report systems have been beneficial for identifying engineering failures, most of them are not designed around a theoretical framework of human error, thus failing to address core issues and causes of the mishaps. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a human error assessment framework to identify these causes. This research focused on identifying causes of human error and leading contributors to historical Launch Vehicle Ground Processing Operations mishaps based on past mishaps, near mishaps, and close calls. …
An Integrated Design For Six Sigma-Based Framework To Align Strategy, New Process Development, And Customer Requirements In The Airlines Industry, Mohammed Alghamdi
An Integrated Design For Six Sigma-Based Framework To Align Strategy, New Process Development, And Customer Requirements In The Airlines Industry, Mohammed Alghamdi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
When organizations create new strategy maps, key new processes are often identified. This is important for organizations to stay competitive in the global marketplace. This document describes the development, implementation, and validation of a framework that properly aligns and links an organization's strategy and new process development. The proposed framework integrates the Balanced Scorecard management system (BSC) and the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology, leveraging their strengths, overcoming weaknesses, and identifying lessons learned to help bridge the gap between strategy development and execution. The critical-to-quality conceptual model is used as an integrative component for the framework. Literature search has …
Data Mining Models For Tackling High Dimensional Datasets And Outliers, Orestis Panos Panagopoulos
Data Mining Models For Tackling High Dimensional Datasets And Outliers, Orestis Panos Panagopoulos
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
High dimensional data and the presence of outliers in data each pose a serious challenge in supervised learning. Datasets with significantly larger number of features compared to samples arise in various areas, including business analytics and biomedical applications. Such datasets pose a serious challenge to standard statistical methods and render many existing classification techniques impractical. The generalization ability of many classification algorithms is compromised due to the so-called curse of dimensionality. A new binary classification method called constrained subspace classifier (CSC) is proposed for such high dimensional datasets. CSC improves on an earlier proposed classification method called local subspace classifier …
Using Case-Based Reasoning For Simulation Modeling In Healthcare, Khaled Alshareef
Using Case-Based Reasoning For Simulation Modeling In Healthcare, Khaled Alshareef
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The healthcare system is always defined as a complex system. At its core, it is a system composed of people and processes and requires performance of different tasks and duties. This complexity means that the healthcare system has many stakeholders with different interests, resulting in the emergence of many problems such as increasing healthcare costs, limited resources and low utilization, limited facilities and workforce, and poor quality of services. The use of simulation techniques to aid in solving healthcare problems is not new, but it has increased in recent years. This application faces many challenges, including a lack of real …
A Predictive Model To Identify Caregivers At Risk Of Musculoskeletal Disorders, Abdulelah Ali
A Predictive Model To Identify Caregivers At Risk Of Musculoskeletal Disorders, Abdulelah Ali
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Healthcare systems face several challenges due to the aging workforce, recruitment shortages, increasing patient acuteness, and increasing patient size and weight. The most costly, leading, and prevalent problem in the healthcare industry and nursing professions is work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). MSDs are common among caregivers because of the nature of their work, which requires repetitive heavy physical activity. The development of MSDs among caregivers negatively impacts the quality of care, and incurs high costs such as worker compensation, days away from work, turnover, rehabilitation, and lower productivity. Therefore, it is essential to determine the factors that contribute to musculoskeletal disorder …
A Neuroergonomics Study Of Brain Eeg's Activity During Manual Lifting Tasks, Awad Aljuaid
A Neuroergonomics Study Of Brain Eeg's Activity During Manual Lifting Tasks, Awad Aljuaid
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Electroencephalography (EEG) has been shown to be a reliable tool in neuroergonomics studies due to the relatively low cost of brain data collection and limited body invasion. The application of EEG frequency bands (including theta, alpha and beta), enjoyed a wide range of interest in physical and cognitive ergonomics. The psychophysical approach has been used for decades to improve safe work practices by understanding human limitations in manual materials handling. The main objective of this research project was to study the brain's EEG activity expressed by the power spectral density during manual lifting tasks related to: 1) the maximum acceptable …
A Hybrid Simulation Framework Of Consumer-To-Consumer Ecommerce Space, Oloruntomi Joledo
A Hybrid Simulation Framework Of Consumer-To-Consumer Ecommerce Space, Oloruntomi Joledo
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In the past decade, ecommerce transformed the business models of many organizations. Information Technology leveled the playing field for new participants, who were capable of causing disruptive changes in every industry. "Web 2.0" or "Social Web" further redefined ways users enlist for services. It is now easy to be influenced to make choices of services based on recommendations of friends and popularity amongst peers. This research proposes a simulation framework to investigate how actions of stakeholders at this level of complexity affect system performance as well as the dynamics that exist between different models using concepts from the fields of …
Modeling And Solving Large-Scale Stochastic Mixed-Integer Problems In Transportation And Power Systems, Zhouchun Huang
Modeling And Solving Large-Scale Stochastic Mixed-Integer Problems In Transportation And Power Systems, Zhouchun Huang
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this dissertation, various optimization problems from the area of transportation and power systems will be respectively investigated and the uncertainty will be considered in each problem. Specifically, a long-term problem of electricity infrastructure investment is studied to address the planning for capacity expansion in electrical power systems with the integration of short-term operations. The future investment costs and real-time customer demands cannot be perfectly forecasted and thus are considered to be random. Another maintenance scheduling problem is studied for power systems, particularly for natural gas fueled power plants, taking into account gas contracting and the opportunity of purchasing and …
Assessing Safety Culture Among Personnel In Governmental Construction Sites At Saudi Arabia: A Quantitative Study Approach, Omar Alrehaili
Assessing Safety Culture Among Personnel In Governmental Construction Sites At Saudi Arabia: A Quantitative Study Approach, Omar Alrehaili
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Safety is an essential issue for organizations to survive, especially for hazardous industries such as the construction industry. The construction industry is considered to be one of the major industries that help in the growth of the economy and the infrastructure of all countries. Recently, scholars have paid increasing attention to the concept of safety culture due to its role in decreasing the occurrences of accidents and injuries. Safety culture has become the focus of all industries and has received much attention in recent years, especially within the construction industry. Absence of this culture is a major cause of injuries …
A Framework To Generate A Smart Manufacturing System Configurations Using Agents And Optimization, Khalid Nagadi
A Framework To Generate A Smart Manufacturing System Configurations Using Agents And Optimization, Khalid Nagadi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Manufacturing is a crucial element in the global economy. During the last decade, the national manufacturing sector loses nearly 30% of its workforce and investments. Consequently, the quality of the domestic goods, global share, and manufacturing capabilities has been declined. Therefore, innovative ways to optimize the usage of the Smart Manufacturing Systems (SMS) are required to form a new manufacturing era. This research is presenting a framework to optimize the design of SMS. This includes the determination of the suitable machines that can perform the job efficiently, the quantity of those machines, and the potential messaging system required for sharing …