Engineering Commons^™

The Impact Of Gemba Walks On Preventative Maintenance Productivity, Jake Donald Taylor

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Gemba Walks are a tool to get management involvement in areas where the work is taking place. Gemba Walks allow individuals involved first-hand to voice and reduce waste within the process and general operations. This research measured the benefits and improvements Gemba Walks had on the availability of equipment. For example, reducing the number of events that equipment is down for maintenance and its duration to repair these events, therefore improved availability. Maintenance is a critical aspect of keeping a company running, and making improvements found during this research significantly impacted the company by creating lean improvements. The improvements focused …

Manufacturing: The Qualitative Study Of A Transition To A Green Facility, Brandon David Staves

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This qualitative study focused on answering three core questions: How have facilities reduce pollutions in regards to the quality of air, water, land, light and noise? Which Types of pollution reduction projects are more or less successful to implement? What types of pollution are facilities focusing on and why? The results of the 15 companies surveyed show a variety of projects that facilities have used to reduce pollution, it also shows that cost is a major factor in the unsuccessful projects, and that facilities are actively focused on reducing Air, Land, and Water pollution. While the data shows a variety …

Statistical Study Of The Effect Of Implementing An Airveyor System On The Warpage Of Injection Molded Closures, Charles Wesley Bozarth

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Berry Global in Bowling Green, Kentucky produces predominantly polypropylene container closures. One variant, the 83mm lined jar closure, is produced by first being injection molded, placed in work-in-progress (WIP) hold for 24 hours to cool, and then finished through the auxiliary liner operation into a final product. While this process is an effective method to produce a quality large-diameter closure and allows the polypropylene adequate time to cool without warping out of shape, the 24-hour WIP time and the manpower needed to accomplish this can negatively impact several business metrics as well as employee safety.

The purpose of this thesis …

Changes In Consumer Market Preference And Purchase Frequency In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sean Thomas Dial

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research literature throughout 2020 indicate consumer behavioral changes in response to the systemic effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, but these studies investigate transient adaptations in consumer behaviors during the early quarantine period of the pandemic. This study intends to investigate lasting or permanent changes in consumer market preference and purchase frequency between BAM and online retail due to the effects of the pandemic. The principal investigator designed a survey for participants to estimate purchase frequencies and market preferences for apparel, electronics, groceries, and general purchases before and after the pervasive effects of the pandemic (N = 1195; n = …

Visual Management In Engineering Can Improve Resource Utilization And Reduce Administrative Non-Value Added Time, Brian Kirby Trent

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research has demonstrated how Visual Management (VM) can be used in an engineering environment to improve engineering resource utilization. Furthermore, it reduces the administrative time associated with unclear project scope, schedule, budget, and task alignment amongst engineers and project leadership. The research references a case study in which low engineering utilization was directly impacting overall project success. Inconsistent visibility of scheduled engineering activities, changes in tasking, and project metrics created uncertainty and resulted in greater than appropriate administrative time. The methodology used was to implement visual project management tools and track engineer utilization over two years. Quarterly utilization results …