Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

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. …

Optimization Of Rfid System Coverage In A Manufacturing Environment, Scott D. Malatesta

Master's Theses

This paper compiles existing ideas, theories, and experiments across multiple disciplines to provide guidance for a company looking to implement an optimal RFID system in their production facility. The desire is to maximize the information received by the system while minimizing the cost. Four potential layouts of RFID antennas, two with overlapping antenna coverage and two with non-overlapping layouts, are first analyzed to understand the special coverage and the number of antennas required. The value of information is then quantified to determine whether higher coverage layouts are worth the additional costs associated with the higher number of antennas required. It …

Multi-Level Analytic Network Process Model To Mitigate Supply Chain Disruptions In Disaster Recovery Planning, Martina Ursula Kroener

Master's Theses

Over the past few decades, environmental changes have led to more frequent occurrences and greater intensities of natural disasters worldwide. In terms of globally connected supply chains, this has resulted in an enormous economical loss for corporations. Therefore, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) planning and management has become essential for businesses in order to protect their critical business flow. Yet there is a lack of systematic and transparent methodologies for companies to handle this problem.

Hence, this thesis introduces a novel approach to combine consecutive steps of the Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) process within one application. The multi-criteria decision-making …

Manufacturing Execution System (Mes) An Examination Of Implementation Strategy, Riley F. Elliott

Master's Theses

The priorities of executing the manufacturing orders generated by an MRP system are often in operational conflicts with the dynamics of the manufacturing floor. It is not uncommon for a given manufacturing order to reach the shop floor several weeks or longer after being "opened" by an MRP system where it may face a chaotic case of large queues, machine down-time, parts shortage, scrap problems and other resource management constraints. Many companies have resorted to the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software solution to resolve these problems. This method first gained popularity in mid-90’s within the semiconductor industry. An MES approach …

Applying Sustainability From A Systems Perspective:, Timothy Brophy

Master's Theses

Becoming sustainable is no longer an option. Current industry methods will not be able to support the necessary changes our growing society demands. In order to keep up with ever increasing demands industry will be aimed toward making major system changes toward a fully sustainable model. As of right now only basic sustainability actions have been put in place. Industry needs to make a strategic change toward resilient systems with an end goal of evolving into fully biomimic systems. This thesis covers a brief history of production leading to the Industrial Revolution which created a need for increased sustainability efforts. …

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 …