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Articles 61 - 90 of 292

Full-Text Articles in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

Internet Of Things In Sustainable Energy Systems, Abdul Salam Jan 2020

Internet Of Things In Sustainable Energy Systems, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Our planet has abundant renewable and conventional energy resources but technological capability and capacity gaps coupled with water-energy needs limit the benefits of these resources to citizens. Through IoT technology solutions and state-of-the-art IoT sensing and communications approaches, the sustainable energy-related research and innovation can bring a revolution in this area. Moreover, by the leveraging current infrastructure, including renewable energy technologies, microgrids, and power-to-gas (P2G) hydrogen systems, the Internet of Things in sustainable energy systems can address challenges in energy security to the community, with a minimal trade-off to environment and culture. In this chapter, the IoT in sustainable energy …


A Review Of Problem Structuring Methods For Consideration In Prognostics And Smart Manufacturing, Patrick T. Hester, Andrew J. Collins, Barry Ezell, John Horst Jan 2020

A Review Of Problem Structuring Methods For Consideration In Prognostics And Smart Manufacturing, Patrick T. Hester, Andrew J. Collins, Barry Ezell, John Horst

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Successful use of prognostics involves the prediction of future system behaviors in an effort to maintain system availability and reduce the cost of maintenance and repairs. Recent work by the National Institute of Standards and Technology indicates that the field of prognostics and health management is vital for remaining competitive in today’s manufacturing environment. While prognostics-based maintenance involves many traditional operations research-centric challenges for successful deployment such as limited availability of information and concerns regarding computational efficiency, the authors argue in this paper that the field of prognostics and health management, still in its embryonic development stage, could benefit greatly …


Dual Degree Agreement For College Of Engineering With Tennessee Wesleyan, University Of Tennessee, Knoxville Nov 2019

Dual Degree Agreement For College Of Engineering With Tennessee Wesleyan, University Of Tennessee, Knoxville

SACSCOC Documentation

No abstract provided.


The Business Case For Industrial Safety: Revealing The Comprehensive Value Of Ergonomic Investments For Manufacturing Enterprises In Industry 4.0, Shane Stan Oct 2019

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 …


Design And Validation Of A Modular Instrument To Measure Torque And Energy Consumption In Industrial Operations, Mary De La Cruz, Ramiro Gonzalez, Jesus A. Gomez, Atilano Mendoza, Javier A. Ortega Aug 2019

Design And Validation Of A Modular Instrument To Measure Torque And Energy Consumption In Industrial Operations, Mary De La Cruz, Ramiro Gonzalez, Jesus A. Gomez, Atilano Mendoza, Javier A. Ortega

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A modular torque measuring instrument capable of performing tapping torque tests (TTT) according to the ASTM D-5619 standard was designed, developed, and validated. With this new instrument, the performance of different lubricants can be evaluated in terms of frictional torque and energy consumption during tapping processes. This instrument can adapt onto any conventional milling machine or CNC machine and operate under various machining operations such as tapping, drilling, and other processes. To validate the design and performance of this new device, three commercially available lubricants were evaluated. From the three tested conditions, the results showed good repeatability, with consistent results …


Action Recognition In Manufacturing Assembly Using Multimodal Sensor Fusion, Md. Al-Amin, Wenjin Tao, David Doell, Ravon Lingard, Zhaozheng Yin, Ming-Chuan Leu, Ruwen Qin Aug 2019

Action Recognition In Manufacturing Assembly Using Multimodal Sensor Fusion, Md. Al-Amin, Wenjin Tao, David Doell, Ravon Lingard, Zhaozheng Yin, Ming-Chuan Leu, Ruwen Qin

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Production innovations are occurring faster than ever. Manufacturing workers thus need to frequently learn new methods and skills. In fast changing, largely uncertain production systems, manufacturers with the ability to comprehend workers' behavior and assess their operation performance in near real-time will achieve better performance than peers. Action recognition can serve this purpose. Despite that human action recognition has been an active field of study in machine learning, limited work has been done for recognizing worker actions in performing manufacturing tasks that involve complex, intricate operations. Using data captured by one sensor or a single type of sensor to recognize …


Maquiladoras In Central America: An Analysis Of Workforce Schedule, Productivity And Fatigue., Jose L. Barahona Jul 2019

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 Jun 2019

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 …


Application Of Artificial Neural Networks To Assess Student Happiness, Gokhan Egilmez, Nadiye O. Erdil, Omid Mohammadi Arani, Mana Vahid Jan 2019

Application Of Artificial Neural Networks To Assess Student Happiness, Gokhan Egilmez, Nadiye O. Erdil, Omid Mohammadi Arani, Mana Vahid

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to develop an analytical assessment approach to identify the main factors that affect graduate students' happiness level. The two methods, multiple linear regression (MLR) and artificial neural networks (ANN), were employed for analytical modelling. A sample of 118 students at a small non-profit private university constituted the survey pool. Various factors including education, school facilities, health, social activities, and family were taken into consideration as a result of literature review in happiness assessment. A total of 32 inputs and one output variables were identified during survey design phase. The following survey conduction, data collection, …


An Energy Profile Model For Fused Deposition Modeling 3d Printing Process, Calvin Hawkins Jan 2019

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.


Cost Benefit Analysis Of Led Vs Florescent Lighting, Kurtis Clark, Phillip Humphrey Nov 2018

Cost Benefit Analysis Of Led Vs Florescent Lighting, Kurtis Clark, Phillip Humphrey

Student Research

Over the last few years, the state of Oklahoma has been looking at ways to reduce expenses to address concerns about a budget deficit. There have been efforts made to reduce expenses due to the use of energy. It has been said, when the lights are on, work is getting done. Running lights is therefore the cost of doing business. Our research examines the question, “is there a way to provide better lighting while operating at a lower cost.” This research examines the current lighting at Southwestern State University, primarily fluorescent lighting (FL), and a cost benefit analysis of switching …


Embedding Sustainability In Lean Six Sigma Efforts, Nadiye O. Erdil, Can B. Aktas, Omid M. Arani Oct 2018

Embedding Sustainability In Lean Six Sigma Efforts, Nadiye O. Erdil, Can B. Aktas, Omid M. Arani

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The emphasis on the concept of sustainability in businesses and operations is growing either due to increasing public interest, regulatory pressures, or corporate social responsibility. However, where and how to integrate sustainability needs further development for broadening its applications. Using Lean and Six Sigma (LSS) principles in sustainability studies is becoming popular in research and practice. The common approach in these studies is to identify a sustainability project followed by current state sustainability performance assessment, and then work towards improving sustainability performance using LSS tools. The goal of this study was to develop a model framework to fully embed sustainability …


Evaluating The Effect Of Shear Stress On Graft-To Zwitterionic Polycarboxybetaine Coating Stability Using A Flow Cell, Andrew Belanger, Andre Decarmine, Shaoyi Jiang, Keith Cook, Kagya Amoako Oct 2018

Evaluating The Effect Of Shear Stress On Graft-To Zwitterionic Polycarboxybetaine Coating Stability Using A Flow Cell, Andrew Belanger, Andre Decarmine, Shaoyi Jiang, Keith Cook, Kagya Amoako

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The effect of surface coatings on the performance of antifouling activity under flow can be influenced by the flow/coating interactions. This study evaluates the effect of surface coatings on antifouling activity under different flows for the analyses of coating stability. This was done by exposing DOPA-PCB-300/dopamine coated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to physiological shear stresses using a recirculation system which consisted of dual chamber acrylic flow cells, tygon tubing, flow probe and meter, and perfusion pumps. The effect of shear stress induced by phosphate buffered saline flow on coating stability was characterized with differences in fibrinogen adsorption between control (coated PDMS not …


In Vitro Cytocompatibility Of Antibacterial Levels Of Polymer Nitric Oxide Release, Rana Gbyli, Christina Zito, Kagya Amoako Jul 2018

In Vitro Cytocompatibility Of Antibacterial Levels Of Polymer Nitric Oxide Release, Rana Gbyli, Christina Zito, Kagya Amoako

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Although the antibacterial property of nitric oxide (NO) has been well documented in gram positive and gram negative bacteria cultures, its cytotoxic effects are not completely clear. To limit potential in vivo cytotoxicity, our group recently investigated the effects of a range of NO fluxes on S. epidermidis and S. aureus to determine a minimum effective NO level. In this study, we report the antibacterial function of this minimum NO level also on gram negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa as well as its cytocompatibility effects on lung and kidney cells. Standardized bacterial cultures were treated with NO releasing PDMS substrates followed by …


4-D Printing Of Pressure Sensors And Energy Harvesting Devices For Engineering Education, Tzu-Liang Bill Tseng, Aditya Akundi, Hoejin Kim Jun 2018

4-D Printing Of Pressure Sensors And Energy Harvesting Devices For Engineering Education, Tzu-Liang Bill Tseng, Aditya Akundi, Hoejin Kim

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper elaborates on the development of laboratory project modules in the Industrial manufacturing and systems engineering department at The University of Texas El Paso based on Four-Dimensional (4D) printing technology. These modules are aimed at introducing the students to interdisciplinary manufacturing and emerging dimensions in manufacturing technology. 4D printing is a new dimension in additive manufacturing wherein, the 3D printed structures react to the change of parameters within the environment such as temperature, and humidity, resulting in shape change or in functionality such as electricity output, and self-healing. Recently 4D printing of simple devices for pressure sensors application were …


Factors Influencing Household Solar Adoption In Santiago, Chile, Jeffrey P. Walters, Jessica Kaminsky, Claudio Huepe Jun 2018

Factors Influencing Household Solar Adoption In Santiago, Chile, Jeffrey P. Walters, Jessica Kaminsky, Claudio Huepe

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

In Santiago, Chile, the market conditions are seemingly excellent for the household adoption of photovoltaic (PV) technology, yet the uptake is negligible. To explore this paradox, the authors conducted a Delphi study to solicit the knowledge of a panel of Chilean PV experts. These efforts yielded 26 factors—both motivations and barriers—impacting the diffusion of PV in Santiago. Of the 26, experts were in consensus on the relative importance of 21. The literature suggests that diffusion of PV technologies is influenced by complex technical, economic, and social factors. Similarly, the experts saw influence from financial, environmental, and energy supply (e.g., electrical …


Communication Based Control For Dc Microgrids, Mahmoud S. Saleh, Yusef Esa, Ahmed Mohamed Jan 2018

Communication Based Control For Dc Microgrids, Mahmoud S. Saleh, Yusef Esa, Ahmed Mohamed

Publications and Research

Centralized communication-based control is one of the main methods that can be implemented to achieve autonomous advanced energy management capabilities in DC microgrids. However, its major limitation is the fact that communication bandwidth and computation resources are limited in practical applications. This can be often improved by avoiding redundant communications and complex computations. In this paper, an autonomous communication-based hybrid state/event driven control scheme is proposed. This control scheme is hierarchical and heuristic, such that on the primary control level, it encompasses state-driven local controllers, and on the secondary control level, an event-driven MG centralized controller (MGCC) is used. This …


Stochastic Bi-Level Optimization Models For Efficient Operating Room Planning, Amin Abedini, Wei Li, Honghan Ye Jan 2018

Stochastic Bi-Level Optimization Models For Efficient Operating Room Planning, Amin Abedini, Wei Li, Honghan Ye

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Within a hospital, the operating room (OR) department has the largest cost and revenue. Because of the aging population, the demand for surgical services has been increasing sharply in recent years. At the other hand, the rate of OR capacity expansion is lower than the rate of increasing demand. As a result, OR managers must leverage their resources by efficient OR planning. OR planning is challenging because of multiple competing\conflicting objectives such cost minimization and throughput maximization. Inherent uncertainty in the surgical procedures and patients arrivals complicate the decision making process. This increases the risk of non-realization of the system …


Benchmarking Environmental Efficiency Of Ports Using Data Mining And Rdea: The Case Of A U.S. Container Ports, Yong Shin Park, N. Muhammad Aslaam Mohamed Abdul Ghani, Fesseha Gebremikael, Gokhan Egilmez Jan 2018

Benchmarking Environmental Efficiency Of Ports Using Data Mining And Rdea: The Case Of A U.S. Container Ports, Yong Shin Park, N. Muhammad Aslaam Mohamed Abdul Ghani, Fesseha Gebremikael, Gokhan Egilmez

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

This study provides step-wise benchmarking practices of each port to enhance the environmental performance using a joint application of the data-mining technique referred to as Kohonen’s self-organizing map (KSOM) and recursive data envelopment analysis (RDEA) to address the limitation of the conventional data envelopment analysis. A sample of 20 container ports in the U.S.A. were selected, and data on input variables (number of quay crane, acres, berth and depth) and output variables (number of calls, throughput and deadweight tonnage, and CO2 emissions) are used for data analysis. Among the selected samples, eight container ports are found to be environmentally inefficient. …


Achieving Totally Local Anticoagulation On Blood Contacting Devices, Rana Gbyli, Anna Mercaldi, Harihara Sundaram, Kagya Amoako Dec 2017

Achieving Totally Local Anticoagulation On Blood Contacting Devices, Rana Gbyli, Anna Mercaldi, Harihara Sundaram, Kagya Amoako

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The recent years have witnessed an increased activity in biocompatibility research aimed at limiting biomaterial-induced blood coagulation. From 2008 to 2016, a total of $36,946,764.00 USD was awarded in grants to 213 research proposals and as large as 50.4% ($18,627,854.00) of that award monies were distributed to 101 proposals over the fiscal years of FY14 to FY16 alone. However, the complexity in blood responses to biomaterials, variability in blood function between individuals and animal species, and differences in medical device application and test setting all continue to pose difficulties in making a breakthrough in this field. This review focuses on …


Cyber-Physical System Characterization And Co-Regulation Of A Quadrotor Uas, Seth E. Doebbeling Aug 2017

Cyber-Physical System Characterization And Co-Regulation Of A Quadrotor Uas, Seth E. Doebbeling

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

An Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) in which a host of real-time computational tasks contending for shared resources must be cooperatively managed to obtain mission objectives. Traditionally, control of the UAS is designed assuming a fixed, high sampling rate in order to maintain reliable performance and margins of stability. But emerging methods challenge this design by dynamically allocating resources to computational tasks, thereby affecting control and mission performance. To apply these emerging strategies, a characterization and understanding of the effects of timing on control and trajectory following performance is required. Going beyond traditional control evaluation techniques, …


An Optimization Model For Operating Room Scheduling To Reduce Blocking Across The Perioperative Process, Amin Abedini, Wei Li, Honghan Ye Jul 2017

An Optimization Model For Operating Room Scheduling To Reduce Blocking Across The Perioperative Process, Amin Abedini, Wei Li, Honghan Ye

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Operating room (OR) scheduling is important. Because of increasing demand for surgical services, hospitals must provide high quality care more efficiently with limited resources. When constructing the OR schedule, it is necessary to consider the availability of downstream resources, such as intensive care unit (ICU) and post anaesthesia care unit (PACU). The unavailability of downstream resources causes blockings between every two consecutive stages. In this paper we address the master surgical schedule (MSS) problem in order to minimize blockings between two consecutive stages. First, we present a blocking minimization (BM) model for the MSS by using integer programming, based on …


Strategic Level Proton Therapy Patient Admission Planning: A Markov Decision Process Modeling Approach, Shengfan Zhang, Ridvan Gedik, Chase Rainwater Jun 2017

Strategic Level Proton Therapy Patient Admission Planning: A Markov Decision Process Modeling Approach, Shengfan Zhang, Ridvan Gedik, Chase Rainwater

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

A relatively new consideration in proton therapy planning is the requirement that the mix of patients treated from different categories satisfy desired mix percentages. Deviations from these percentages and their impacts on operational capabilities are of particular interest to healthcare planners. In this study, we investigate intelligent ways of admitting patients to a proton therapy facility that maximize the total expected number of treatment sessions (fractions) delivered to patients in a planning period with stochastic patient arrivals and penalize the deviation from the patient mix restrictions. We propose a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model that provides very useful insights in …


A Constraint Programming Approach For The Team Orienteering Problem With Time Windows, Ridvan Gedik, Emre Kirac, Ashlea Bennet Milburn, Chase Rainwater May 2017

A Constraint Programming Approach For The Team Orienteering Problem With Time Windows, Ridvan Gedik, Emre Kirac, Ashlea Bennet Milburn, Chase Rainwater

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The team orienteering problem with time windows (TOPTW) is a NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem. It has many real-world applications, for example, routing technicians and disaster relief routing. In the TOPTW, a set of locations is given. For each, the profit, service time and time window are known. A fleet of homogenous vehicles are available for visiting locations and collecting their associated profits. Each vehicle is constrained by a maximum tour duration. The problem is to plan a set of vehicle routes that begin and end at a depot, visit each location no more than once by incorporating time window constraints. …


Mapping And Integrating Value Creation Factors With Life-Cycle Stages For Sustainable Manufacturing, P. Bilge, S. Emec, G. Seliger, Ibrahim S. Jawahir Apr 2017

Mapping And Integrating Value Creation Factors With Life-Cycle Stages For Sustainable Manufacturing, P. Bilge, S. Emec, G. Seliger, Ibrahim S. Jawahir

Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing Faculty Publications

Instead of implementing each element individually, engineers must be aware of multiple interactions among all major value creation factors and their life-cycle stages. Interactions are analyzed by a set of factors and hierarchical levels within a production system based on empirical observations and described in analytical models. Such analyses and missing information about the current condition of the system and its parts remain limited to addressing specific aspects of interactions among factors and stages for multiple decision making. To build a case-based scope addressing the interactions among a set of factors and life-cycle stages, a comprehensive approach for mapping and …


Work Zone Simulator Analysis: Driver Performance And Acceptance Of Missouri Alternate Lane Shift Configurations, Suzanna Long, Ruwen Qin, Dincer Konur, Ming-Chuan Leu, S. Moradpour, S. Thind, H. Nadathur Feb 2017

Work Zone Simulator Analysis: Driver Performance And Acceptance Of Missouri Alternate Lane Shift Configurations, Suzanna Long, Ruwen Qin, Dincer Konur, Ming-Chuan Leu, S. Moradpour, S. Thind, H. Nadathur

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The objective of this project is to evaluate MoDOT’s alternate lane shift sign configuration for work zones. The single signproposed by MoDOT provides the traveler with enough information to let them know that all lanes are available to shift around thework zone, whereas the MUTCD signs require drivers to see two signs. This research simulation project evaluates the drivers’ laneshifting performance and acceptance of the alternate lane shift sign proposed by MoDOT to be used on work zones as compared tothe MUTCD lane shift signs. Based on the study results, no difference was observed between MUTCD lane shift sign andMoDOT …


Carbon Footprint Stock Analysis Of U.S. Manufacturing: A Time Series Input-Output Lca, Gokhan Egilmez, Khurrum Bhutta, Bulent Erenay, Yong Shin Park, Ridvan Gedik Feb 2017

Carbon Footprint Stock Analysis Of U.S. Manufacturing: A Time Series Input-Output Lca, Gokhan Egilmez, Khurrum Bhutta, Bulent Erenay, Yong Shin Park, Ridvan Gedik

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to provide an input-output life cycle assessment model to estimate the carbon footprint of US manufacturing sectors. To achieve this, the paper sets out the following objectives: develop a time series carbon footprint estimation model for US manufacturing sectors; analyze the annual and cumulative carbon footprint; analyze and identify the most carbon emitting and carbon intensive manufacturing industries in the last four decades; and analyze the supply chains of US manufacturing industries to help identify the most critical carbon emitting industries.


Condition Assessment Of End-Of-Use Products For Remanufacturing, Jovan Morgan Jan 2017

Condition Assessment Of End-Of-Use Products For Remanufacturing, Jovan Morgan

Research Opportunities for Engineering Undergraduates (ROEU) Program 2016-17

The goal of the project is to use the automated 3-D laser scanner using a Capnut as a test object to detect surface defects, corrosion and calculation error through offline quality inspection. potentially reducing labor time and cost for both consumers and manufacturers.


Modeling Of Selective Laser Sintering/ Selective Laser Melting, Xuan Wang, Connor West Jan 2017

Modeling Of Selective Laser Sintering/ Selective Laser Melting, Xuan Wang, Connor West

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Selective laser sintering and selective laser melting are powder based additive manufacturing (AM) process that can rapidly manufacture parts with comparable mechanical properties to conventional manufacturing methods directly from digital files. However, the processing recipe development and design optimization of AM parts are often based on trial and error which erodes the benefit of AM. Modeling is a powerful tool to enable faster development cycle by significantly reducing the experimental efforts. In this paper we discussed the current status of selective laser sintering/melting modeling, in which the laser and powder interaction was studied to understand and predict the process and …


Sensitivity Analysis Method To Address User Disparities In The Analytic Hierarchy Process, Marie Ivanco, Gene Hou, Jennifer Michaeli Jan 2017

Sensitivity Analysis Method To Address User Disparities In The Analytic Hierarchy Process, Marie Ivanco, Gene Hou, Jennifer Michaeli

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Decision makers often face complex problems, which can seldom be addressed well without the use of structured analytical models. Mathematical models have been developed to streamline and facilitate decision making activities, and among these, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) constitutes one of the most utilized multi-criteria decision analysis methods. While AHP has been thoroughly researched and applied, the method still shows limitations in terms of addressing user profile disparities. A novel sensitivity analysis method based on local partial derivatives is presented here to address these limitations. This new methodology informs AHP users of which pairwise comparisons most impact the derived …