Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Process Improvement And Lift Design For The Installation Of A Metrology Machine Assembly, Dalt J. Lasell, James Mitchell O'Meara, Matthew Steensma

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The objective is to work with Onto Innovations, a leading provider of semiconductor metrology and manufacturing solutions, to develop a system that safely installs a 250lb optics plate into the Atlas III: one of their metrology machines. Based in Milpitas, CA, Onto Innovations utilizes a variety of operations to create different products and assembles each product on site. The 250lb optics plates are WIP that are transferred between fixtures and the Atlas III using a combination of lifts and human workers. The WIP have long lead times, high tolerances, and large costs associated with their manufacturing process.

Onto Innovations identified …

Automation Of Data Analysis In Formula 1, Adam Joseph Mourad, Prescott Jeanne Delzell, Patrick Conner Mccabe

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper explores economic solutions for Formula 1 racing companies who are interested in data visualization tools. The research was conducted on the current development of data gathering, data visualization, and data interpretation in Formula 1 racing. It was found that a large chunk of racing companies within the league needs an affordable, effective, and automated visualization tool for data interpretation. As data collection in Formula 1 arises, the need for faster and more powerful software increases. Racing companies profit off-brand exposure and the more a racing team wins, the more exposure they receive. The goal of the paper focuses …

Three Essays On Data-Driven Optimization For Scheduling In Manufacturing And Healthcare, Ekin Koker

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays on data-driven optimization for scheduling in manufacturing and healthcare. In Chapter 1, we briefly introduce the optimization problems tackled in these essays. The first of these essays deals with machine scheduling problems. In Chapter 2, we compare the effectiveness of direct positional variables against relative positional variables computationally in a variety of machine scheduling problems and we present our results. The second essay deals with a scheduling problem in healthcare: the team primary care practice. In Chapter 3, we build upon the two-stage stochastic integer programming model introduced by Alvarez Oh (2015) to solve …

The Business Case For Industrial Safety: Revealing The Comprehensive Value Of Ergonomic Investments For Manufacturing Enterprises In Industry 4.0, Shane Stan

Honors Theses

How can today’s manufacturing enterprises construct, implement, and optimize modern safety initiatives in a manner that will present maximum return on investment and facilitate enterprise growth? Furthermore, how can these manufacturers assure individual ergonomic investments become part of a larger strategy to facilitate organizational change in safety? This work addresses these questions by placing industrial ergonomics in a business improvement context which comprehensively presents the financial returns and growth opportunities poised by modern safety initiatives. Additionally, to further strengthen the business case for industrial safety, an ergonomic action planning framework is established to guide the creation of holistic safety programs …

Maquiladoras In Central America: An Analysis Of Workforce Schedule, Productivity And Fatigue., Jose L. Barahona

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Textile factories or Maquiladoras are very abundant and predominant in Central American economies. However, they all do not have the same standardized work schedule or routines. Most of the Maquiladoras only follow schedules and regulations established by the current labor laws without taking into consideration many variables within their organization that could affect their overall performance. As a result, the purpose of the study is to analyze the current working structure of a textile Maquiladora and determine the most suitable schedule that will abide with the current working structure but also increase production levels, employee morale and decrease employee fatigue. …

Zinc Ferrite Based Gas Sensors: A Review, Kaidi Wu, Jianzhi Li, Chao Zhang

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Flammable, explosive and toxic gases, such as hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds vapor, are major threats to the ecological environment safety and human health. Among the available technologies, gas sensing is a vital component, and has been widely studied in literature for early detection and warning. As a metal oxide semiconductor, zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4) represents a kind of promising gas sensing material with a spinel structure, which also shows a fine gas sensing performance to reducing gases. Due to its great potentials and widespread applications, this article is intended to provide a review on the latest development in …

Human Powered Vehicle Trainer, Nicholas Hung Nguyen, Gregory Reece Bridges, Jacinta Garcia, Mitchell Sidney Smith

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) document describes the final design and completed prototype of a Mechanical Engineering senior project team at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project goal is to create an adjustable human powered vehicle training bike for George Leone that allows a rider to gain confidence with the unique reclined bike geometry ahead of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain, Nevada. This document outlines the customer’s needs and technical research performed which together determine the project’s scope and engineering specifications. Next, we present the initial idea generation process and its results, along …

Cisco Nexus 9200 Robustness Redesign, Colin Berge, Ethan Gold, Cole Christopherson, Rahul Makhijani

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Certain configurations of Cisco's Nexus 9200 product experienced issues with bending during shipping. Two solutions were developed to eliminate this problem: an external brace that could quickly address the problem yet was expensive and unsustainable, and a redesigned chassis, which was more economical but came with a longer time to implement. Real world packaging and shipping conditions were simulated in SolidWorks and Finite Element Analysis was used to model the stresses experienced when the product is dropped. Both designs were found to significantly reduce stress in critical areas, thus reducing the chance of failure and the cost of the problem. …

Redesign Of Cubesat For Beam Charging, Kuba Preis

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper is intended to be a study in the applications of the design freedom granted by additive manufacture in the design of a 1U CubeSat frame. The main loads experienced by a CubeSat are structural (during launch) and thermal (solar radiation). Beam charging is an emerging technology which involves charging a CubeSat using a laser beam. In this paper, a CubeSat frame was redesigned to account for the structural loads induced during launch and the thermal loads induced when beam charging. The thermal, weight, design, and structural requirements for a new CubeSat design were derived. The 1U CubeSat frame …

Fault Adaptive Workload Allocation For Complex Manufacturing Systems, Charlie B. Destefano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes novel fault adaptive workload allocation (FAWA) strategies for the health management of complex manufacturing systems. The primary goal of these strategies is to minimize maintenance costs and maximize production by strategically controlling when and where failures occur through condition-based workload allocation.

For complex systems that are capable of performing tasks a variety of different ways, such as an industrial robot arm that can move between locations using different joint angle configurations and path trajectories, each option, i.e. mission plan, will result in different degradation rates and life-expectancies. Consequently, this can make it difficult to predict when a …

Fracture Toughness And Fatigue Crack Growth Rate Characterization Of Inconel 718 Formed By Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Charles C. Hohnbaum

Theses and Dissertations

Continuing improvement in the field of AM of metals provides the opportunity for direct fabrication of aerospace parts. AM was once used in large part for rapid prototyping but improvements in technology and increases in the knowledge base of AM materials has provided the opportunity for manufacture of AM parts for operational use. The ability to create low numbers of unique parts without having to invest in expensive tooling provides great economic incentive to utilize this technique. IN718 is the most common high temperature alloy used in the aerospace industry and lends itself readily to formation by LPBF. The superior …

An Energy Profile Model For Fused Deposition Modeling 3d Printing Process, Calvin Hawkins

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2018-19

This project develops a strategy to monitor and estimate the energy consumption of fused deposition modeling (FDM) additive manufacturing, which will benefit manufacturers and designers seeking to design and manufacture products with minimal energy consumption.

An Analysis Of Resistance Spot Weld Quality Based On Acoustic And Electrical Signatures, Ivan Charles Butler

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

The union of a set of materials by way of Resistance Spot Welding is designed so that once fused together, a substantial amount of intentional, external force must be applied to separate the contents. Therefore, Resistance Spot Welding is often the preferred fusion method in high-volume manufacturing processes. The result of Resistance Spot Welding however is the formation of a weld nugget which is not visible to the naked eye. Destructive and/or ultrasonic methods applied off-line must be used to determine the quality of each weld; both inefficient and expensive processes. The following research analyzes the data fed back during …

Implementation And Analysis Of True Lean In A Startup Company By Using Pdca Model, A Case Study In A Manufacturing Venture, Ankit Jangid

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

The purpose of this research is to implement and analyze the true lean transformation in a manufacturing start-up organization. Often, lean transformations are observed in developed manufacturing organizations having sophisticated production lines and numerous employees, where lean tools are utilized to reduce waste while increasing profit. However, this type of transformation is narrowly focused on quantifiable process results and falls short of the ultimate goal, establishing a true lean culture within the organization. As a result, it is recommended that true lean principles, philosophies, culture, operations environment and tools be applied at the very beginning stages of an organization, or …

Investigation Of Chip-Form And Tool-Wear In Turning Of Hardened Af9628 Alloy Under Various Cooling And Lubrication Conditions, Jason Wolf

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Next generation defense and commercial applications for structural steels require new alloys that eliminate or reduce critical elements from their composition to lower cost and improve manufacturability, while maintaining or exceeding high strength and toughness requirements. A new alloy, denoted as AF9628, has recently been developed for this purpose and its manufacturing characteristics and the material response in component manufacturing must be fully understood.

In the present study, hardened AF9628 alloy was turned with a coated carbide cutting tool under fixed cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut parameters. This work focuses on chip-form and tool-wear analysis to understand, …

Material Interactions And Self-Assembly In Inkjet Printing, Karam Nashwan Al-Milaji

Theses and Dissertations

Inkjet printing has attracted much attention in recent years as a versatile manufacturing tool, suitable for printing functional materials. This facile, low-cost printing technique with high throughput and accuracy is considered promising for a wide range of applications including but not limited to optical and electronic devices, sensors, solar cells, biochips, and displays. The performance of such functional devices is significantly influenced by the deposit morphology and printing resolution. Therefore, fabrication functional devices with precise footprints by inkjet printing requires deep understanding of ink properties, material interactions, and material self-assembly.

In conventional inkjet printing process, where sessile droplets are directly …

Trade-Off Balancing For Stable And Sustainable Operating Room Scheduling, Amin Abedini

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

The implementation of the mandatory alternative payment model (APM) guarantees savings for Medicare regardless of participant hospitals ability for reducing spending that shifts the cost minimization burden from insurers onto the hospital administrators. Surgical interventions account for more than 30% and 40% of hospitals total cost and total revenue, respectively, with a cost structure consisting of nearly 56% direct cost, thus, large cost reduction is possible through efficient operation management. However, optimizing operating rooms (ORs) schedules is extraordinarily challenging due to the complexities involved in the process. We present new algorithms and managerial guidelines to address the problem of OR …

Remotely Controlled Industrial Robotic Arm And Simulation Of Automated Thermal Furnace, Prince Mehandi Ratta

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The right execution of controllers ensures the correct analysis of information, generating efficient results and better optimizing the system. In this report, two controllers were designed. Firstly, a remotely controlled robotic arm, since there are no such type commercially available controllers. Moreover, robotic platforms are costly, so students and researchers are often unable to learn the concepts of programming industrial robots. This project makes a non-destructive, remotely-controlled robotic arm to better teach students and researchers about programming and control of robotic arms. Secondly, simulation of an automated thermal furnace for ArcelorMittal on SIMULINK, which is used for the annealing process …

Energy Efficiency Evaluation Of Blower Heater Non-Purge Compressed Air Dryers, Alexandra M. Botts

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

There are several compressed air dryers available for industrial use including, refrigerant, desiccant, and membrane. This research focuses on twin tower regenerative closed loop desiccant dryers, specifically: blower heater non-purge (BHNP) with and without cooling water pumps, Compressed-air Heater Purge (CHP), Blower Heater Purge (BHP), and Pressure Swing Heaterless (PSH). These styles of dryers are used mainly in industries that require extremely dry air such as, food manufacturing, medical air, or sensitive technology manufacturers. The research was conducted by collecting and analyzing real time current draw data on air compressors and associated dryers at eight different facilities (13 compressor systems) …

Space Dynamics Laboratory Payload Challenge: Autonomous Water Sampling Uav, Thomas Wheeler, Zachary Williams, Joseph Stack

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The following report has been completed over the course of the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters at The University of Akron by Joseph P. Stack (Aerospace Systems Engineering), Thomas J. Wheeler (Mechanical Engineering) and Zachary M. Williams (Mechanical Engineering). The purpose of this project was to create a payload system for the Akronauts Rocket Design Team to use at the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) Spaceport America Cup. The Competition as a challenge that is sponsored by Space Dynamics Laboratory specifically regarding payload systems. The challenge in very open-ended and allows student to identify their own scientific experiment and …

Managing Variability In Assembly Lines, Sumanth Gokapai

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Every successful company have a diversified product portfolio based on their customer demand. Though products are branded as different variants, versions etc. most of them are similar products with little variations in their features or functions they perform. With the traditional, product centric approach to handle variation, new techniques like Clone and own were implemented in which engineers pick the most similar one available, copy it, make changes to it and present it as a new variant. Even though this approach employs reuse, but the savings occur once and only once. This project discussed how companies can exploit the commonality …