Engineering Commons^™

Guidelines For Using Process Mapping To Aid Improvement Efforts, Paul Savory, John Olson

John Olson

Process mapping is an easy-to-visualize method for people to analyze and agree on the most efficient routes for reengineering or improving a process. It aids in determining redundant tasks, uncovering hidden interactions between processes and people, and focusing on the processes that serve customers, improve quality, and generate income. This paper presents guidelines for using process mapping as an improvement tool. It is based on the authors’ experiences in aiding a variety of healthcare, service, and manufacturing companies.

Cracking The Shell To Student Learning: An Innovative Instructional Approach, John Olson, Paul Savory

John Olson

Management and Industrial Engineering courses is motivating students to learn and apply the quantitative and managerial aspects of the material. The aim of our educational methodology is to not only teach and reinforce the core principles of the disciplines, but to have students develop a set of skills that will make them competitive in the classroom and the workforce. Teaching is why a university exists. As a result, the objective of our instructional approach is to attract and retain dedicated students to the fields of Operations Management and Industrial Engineering and to keep those students competitive and in focus with …

Road Rescue Implements A Continuous Process Improvement Framework, John Olson, Paul Savory

John Olson

Continuous improvement programs traditionally focus on making small incremental improvements to a system. Unfortunately, their success can be limited due to the rapid changing environment within which most small companies operate. Improvement efforts should be flexible enough to capitalize on incremental and radical changes to a system. This paper presents a case analysis of how Road Rescue, an ambulance manufacturer, uses a continuous improvement framework to capitalize on both radical and incremental improvement opportunities. Results include a 10% increase in throughput, reduced cycle time of 44%, increased customer satisfaction, and higher quality.

Virtual R&D Teams: A New Model For Product Development, Nader Ale Ebrahim

Nader Ale Ebrahim

Increased global competitions have urged small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to develop new products faster. Virtual research and development (R&D) teams in SMEs can offer a solution to speed up time-to-market of new product development (NPD). However, factors that affect the effectiveness of virtual teams for NPD are still not adequately verified. This book presents the correlations between virtual R&D team constructs and virtual team effectiveness by developing a “Virtual Research and Development Team” (ViR&DT) model. The items, which may influence the effectiveness of virtual teams, are taken from the literature. Through an online survey and by application of structural …

A Hybrid Approach Of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set Theory And Dematel Method To Prioritize Selection Criteria Of Bank Branches Locations, Amin Vafadarnikjoo, Mohammadsadegh Mobin, Sajjad Allahi, Ali Rastegari

Amin Vafadarnikjoo

Optimally locating new bank branches is a strategic decision in banking industry in order to stay competitive. The importance of this issue is primarily due to the fact that locating branches in appropriate sites is one of the main factors in absorbing and satisfying bank customers. This results in a core benefit for banks, particularly in a vibrant competition. In addition, without a set of well-chosen selection criteria and their prominence, the goal of locating suitable sites for bank branches would not be efficiently achieved. In this research, six most widely used criteria for bank branch location consideration are obtained …

A Servqual Model Approach Integrated With Fuzzy Ahp And Fuzzy Topsis Methodologies To Rank Life Insurance Firms, Mahdi Saeedpoor, Amin Vafadarnikjoo, Mohammadsadegh Mobin, Ali Rastegari

Amin Vafadarnikjoo

Ranking life insurance firms, particularly regarding customer-oriented criteria, has become a significant research priority of many insurance research centers. This is mainly due to the effective role of life insurance in improving the capital market and the role of service quality in customer satisfaction. This issue has remained one of the major topics associated with insurance industry which has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. This study aims at prioritizing insurance firms which hold the majority proportion of Iran's total life insurance market. Life insurers are assessed and ranked with regard to 5 criteria of customer service quality in …

A Meta-Heuristic Approach To Locate Optimal Switch Locations In Cellular Mobile Networks, Amin Vafadarnikjoo, Seyyed Mohammad Ali Khatami Firouzabadi, Mohammadsadegh Mobin, Afshan Roshani

Amin Vafadarnikjoo

With increasing usage of cellular phones, providing optimum communication service systems becomes a strategic decision to increase subscriber satisfaction. In order to respond to this growing demand it is essential to have a proper design of mobile networks by optimally locating facilities such as Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), switches, etc. In this study, a kind of honeybee-inspired algorithm called Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is utilized to solve the problem of assigning cells to switches in the Personal Communication Services (PCS) networks. The model is mathematically developed as a binary non-linear problem with the objective of minimizing cost, which includes …

Why Toyota And Honda Topped The 2002 J.D. Power Quality Study, Susan Lightle, Kenneth Yale Rosenzweig, John Talbott

Kenneth Y. Rosenzweig

Toyota again topped the annual J. D. Power and Associates quality study released in late May of 2002. Toyota scored the highest mark ever with l 07 defects per l 00 vehicles, while Honda came in second with 113 defects. The study was based on responses of approximately 65,000 new car owners queried during their first 90-days of ownership. These results do not surprise us, as we have been fortunate to make numerous sojourns to the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, and observe the manufacturing processes. These trips were normally facilitated by a former Japanese student of ours, Minako Yanke, …

An Integrated Gray-Fuzzy Cause And Effect Approach To Determine The Most Significant Categories Of Project Risks, Amin Vafadarnikjoo, Mohammadsadegh Mobin, Christian Salmon, Nikbakhsh Javadian

Amin Vafadarnikjoo

Identifying critical risks in projects has become a core step in project risk management process; however, the nature of this step can be complex and unstructured, suggesting a benefit in research towards prioritizing project risks on the basis of a cogent method. This paper presents a Gray Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (GDEMATEL) method for prioritizing sources of project risk within a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) framework. The framework categorizes sources of risk via the Project Management Institutes’ (PMI) Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS). For this study, project expert judgments and preferences are the source of knowledge about project risk. …

An Integrated Ahp-Gis-Mclp Method To Locate Bank Branches, Sajjad Allahi, Mohammadsadegh Mobin, Amin Vafadarnikjoo, Christian Salmon

Amin Vafadarnikjoo

One of the most crucial decision making processes in banking is optimally locating new branches. This issue is highly important especially for private banks due to vibrant competition, limited budgets and high customer expectations. This study’s objective is to provide an integrated model for selecting optimal site location using available data sources and well accepted decision models, specifically Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP).As a case study, we applied the proposed method for branch location of a private bank in the city of Rasht, Iran. The process identified the most commonly used …

Human Performance Engineering Approach, Dotan I. Shvorin

Dr. Dotan Shvorin

Improving Tennis Player Performance Using System Development Interpretations Methodology, Dotan Shvorin, Kevin Taaffe

Dr. Dotan Shvorin

This research demonstrates a unique analytical approach to improving a player's performance in the game of tennis. We introduce a system development interpretations (SDI) methodology for associating player characteristics and factors in a hierarchical structure. We then show how this tool is applied in a human performance environment such as tennis. This approach was developed as a multi-disciplinary quality tool for process improvement that identifies factor dependencies and depicts their impact on the resulting player performance. From the implementation of the SDI methodology, the research was able to define the tennis player's difficulties and it has allowed the researchers to …

A Nano-Cheese-Cutter To Directly Measure Interfacial Adhesion Of Freestanding Nano-Fibers, Xin Wang, Johnny F. Najem, Shing-Chung Wong, Kai-Tak Wan

Dr. Shing-Chung Josh Wong

A nano-cheese-cutter is fabricated to directly measure the adhesion between two freestanding nano-fibers. A single electrospun fiber is attached to the free end of an atomic force microscope cantilever, while a similar fiber is similarly prepared on a mica substrate in an orthogonal direction. External load is applied to deform the two fibers into complementary V-shapes, and the force measurement allows the elastic modulus to be determined. At a critical tensile load, “pull-off” occurs when the adhering fibers spontaneously detach from each other, yielding the interfacial adhesion energy. Loading-unloading cycles are performed to investigate repeated adhesion-detachment and surface degradation.

Zespół Energii Odnawialnej I Zrównoważonego Rozwoju (Eozr), Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.