Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Modeling And Solving The Outsourcing Risk Management Problem In Multi-Echelon Supply Chains, Arian A. Nahangi

Master's Theses

Worldwide globalization has made supply chains more vulnerable to risk factors, increasing the associated costs of outsourcing goods. Outsourcing is highly beneficial for any company that values building upon its core competencies, but the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises have exposed significant vulnerabilities within supply chains. These disruptions forced a shift in the production of goods from outsourcing to domestic methods.

This paper considers a multi-echelon supply chain model with global and domestic raw material suppliers, manufacturing plants, warehouses, and markets. All levels within the supply chain network are evaluated from a holistic perspective, calculating a total …

Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling With Autonomous Learning Effects, Jordan M. Ticktin

Master's Theses

It's commonly assumed that experience leads to efficiency, yet this is largely unaccounted for in resource-constrained project scheduling. This thesis considers the idea that learning effects could allow selected activities to be completed within reduced time, if they're scheduled after activities where workers learn relevant skills. This paper computationally explores the effect of this autonomous, intra-project learning on optimal makespan and problem difficulty. A learning extension is proposed to the standard RCPSP scheduling problem. Multiple parameters are considered, including project size, learning frequency, and learning intensity. A test instance generator is developed to adapt the popular PSPLIB library of scheduling …

Application Of Big Data Analytics In Agriculture Supply Chain Management, Sankara Narayanan Mangalam Ananthapadmanabhan

Master's Theses

The increasing trend in frequency of natural disasters in tandem with globalization of business makes the agricultural supply chain significantly vulnerable to disruption. This thesis presents a pragmatic approach for creating a Business Continuity Model that can notify supply chain planners when there is an increase in risk of agriculture supply chain disruption due to natural disasters. The methodology presented in this thesis applied big data analytics and machine learning algorithms along with agriculture product related exponential decay function to create a regionalized composite risk score, that incorporated both direct and indirect risk associated with the Agriculture Fresh Supply Chain. …

A Simulation Model For Decision Support In Business Continuity Planning, Marissa Anne Mosunich

Master's Theses

Enterprises with a global supply network are at risk of lost revenue as a result of disruptive disasters at supplier locations. Various strategies exist for addressing this risk, and a variety of types of research has been done regarding the identification, assessment and response to the risk of disruption in a supply chain network.

This thesis establishes a decision model to support Business Continuity Planning at the first-tier supplier level. The decision model incorporates discrete-event simulation of supply chain networks (through Simio software), Monte Carlo simulation, and risk index optimization. After modeling disruption vulnerability in a supply chain network, costs …

A Set Union Based Formulation For Course Scheduling And Timetabling, Jesse Paul Bukenberger

Master's Theses

The Course Timetabling Problem is a widely studied optimization problem where a number of sections are scheduled in concert with the assignment of students to sections in order to maximize the desirability of the resulting schedule for all stakeholders. This problem is commonly solved as a linear program with variables for each student or group of students with identical schedules. In this paper we explore an alternative formulation that aggregates binary student variables into integer variables denoting the number of students enrolled in a course. Our solution method assumes decomposition of the general schedule into time blocks, and applies a …

Multi-Criteria Decision Modeling For Best Value Selections In Target Value Design Integrated Project Delivery, Brent Patrick Griffis

Master's Theses

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) combined with Target Value Design (TVD) is a better way to deliver value for the client than traditional guaranteed maximum price (GMP) methods. With traditional GMP delivery methods, the interests of the parties are often at odds. The goal of IPD is to align all party interests in order to achieve a win-win scenario. Due to the aligning nature of IPD and the fact that each party’s success is dependent on achieving the project objectives as a whole; a non-biased, transparent, decision-making process is necessary in order to deliver the project objectives within the constraints of …

Utilizing Atcs Data To Inform A Dynamic Reassignment System For Muni Metro Light Rail Vehicles Departing Embarcadero Station, April M. Hickey

Master's Theses

This is a report of a professional project intended to act as an informational tool for the evaluation of a dynamic dispatch system at Embarcadero Station for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). Systems that operate dispatch algorithms do so in response to on-time performance and reliability. The optimization problem is documented in many transportation contexts including airline networks, bus dispatch, and freight routing. According to the research, optimizing available options and re-routing based on available options can create a more efficient system that would minimize operating costs and improving service reliability for customers.

The methodology presented here uses …

An Optimization Approach To Employee Scheduling Using Fuzzy Logic, William G. Spence

Master's Theses

An Optimization Approach to Employee Scheduling Using Fuzzy Logic

William G. Spence

Selection of sales employees is critical because the sales employees represent the company’s image, competitive advantage, technology, and values. In many service systems the majority of consumer contact is with the sales department. Since there are different types of customers, scheduling quality salespersons who can adequately help consumers may affect revenue.

This thesis proposes a new methodology for the scheduling of employees in a service system. The methodology uses Fuzzy Logic to calculate possible sales and Linear Programming to create an optimal schedule. This approach enables the rating …

Artificial Neural Networking As A Decision Tool For Natural Gas Investment, Micah D. Denecour

Master's Theses

With the growing interest in the Marcellus Shale and its natural gas deposits, there are opportunities to purchase and hold land for investment purposes. A robust decision tool is needed to help guide investors towards the most profitable properties. Artificial neural networks have many unique benefits that make them an ideal candidate for this purpose.

The artificial neural networks created in this study had nine independent variables. Combinations of these nine variables were created to describe 300 theoretical properties available for purchase. Each of these properties were then evaluated by an expert in the field and given a score from …

A Microsimulation Of Traffic, Parking, And Emissions At California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo, Steven Michael Kilbert

Master's Theses

Traffic and parking congestion are significant issues at many universities nationwide. The delays experienced result in wasted time, money, and fuel for students, faculty and staff, not to mention the negative contributions to the environment. This paper quantifies the amount of vehicle emissions generated during an average morning peak hour in the university environment. Using VISSIM and CMEM microsimulation packages, a model is created for California Polytechnic State University- San Luis Obispo to aggregate the collective transportation behaviors and practices of the campus and recognize the implications these behaviors pose on the transportation network as a whole. Reasonable estimates are …

The Effects Of Anti-Price Gouging Legislation On Supply Chain Dynamics, Jason Edward Maynard

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to model the effects of anti-price gouging (APG) legislation on the costs to businesses during the recovery period of a disaster. A system dynamics model of a business’s replenishment procedures is used to simulate the effects of APG legislation on business performance. Economists have published expansive research on the effects of price ceilings on supply and demand, but there is little research evidence on the operational consequences of price ceiling legislation on business costs. APG legislation increases consumer’s forward buying and shortage gaming after a disaster by removing price incentives to be frugal. Forward …

Preference Driven University Course Scheduling System, Heather A. Bellardo

Master's Theses

University course planning and scheduling is the process of determining what courses to offer, how many sections are needed, determining the best term to offer each section, assigning a faculty member to instruct each section, and scheduling each section to a timeslot to avoid conflicts. The result of this task has an impact on every student and faculty member in the department. The process is typically broken down into three major phases: course offering planning, faculty assignment to planned course sections, and course scheduling into timeslots.

This thesis looks at each of these phases for the Industrial and Manufacturing department …