Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Development Of Integrated Process Simulation System Model For Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (Sftf) Design: Quarterly Report October 1-December 31, 2004, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and Transmutation Research Program- University Participation Program (TRP-UPP) supported by Department of Energy of the United States have been developing many important technologies for the transmutation of nuclear waste to address long-term disposal issues. While successfully embedding AMUSE module into a dedicated System Engineering Model (TRPSEMPro), developed by the Nevada Center for Advanced Computational Methods (NCACM) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas collaborating with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), ANL is interested in further simulating the Light Water Reactor (LWR) Spent Fuel Treatment Facility (SFTF) combining commercial process simulation and analysis packages and core …

Conversation Exchange Dynamics: A New Signal Primitive For Computer Network Intrusion Detection, John C. Mceachen, John M. Zachary, Junling Wang, Kah Wai Cheng

U.S. Navy Research

As distributed network intrusion detection systems expand to integrate hundreds and possibly thousands of sensors, managing and presenting the associated sensor data becomes an increasingly complex task. Methods of intelligent data reduction are needed to make sense of the wide dimensional variations. We present a new signal primitive we call conversation exchange dynamics (CED) that accentuates anomalies in traffic flow. This signal provides an aggregated primitive that may be used by intrusion detection systems to base detection strategies upon. Indications of the signal in a variety of simulated and actual anomalous network traffic from distributed sensor collections are presented. Specifically, …

Intelligent Simulation-Based Lot Scheduling Of Photolithography Toolsets In A Wafer Fabrication Facility, Amr Arisha, Paul Young

Conference papers

Scheduling of a semiconductor manufacturing facility is one of the most complex tasks encountered. Confronted with a high technology product market, semiconductor manufacturing is increasingly more dynamic and competitive in the introduction of new products in shorter time intervals. Photolithography, being one of the processes repeated often, is a fabrication bottleneck. Lot scheduling within photolithography is a challenging activity where substantial improvements in factory performance can be made. The proposed scheduling methodology integrates two common approaches, simulation and artificial intelligence. Using detailed simulation modeling within a structured modeling method, a comprehensive model to characterize the photolithography process was developed. An …

A Template-Based Conceptual Modeling Infrastructure For Simulation Of Physical Security Systems, Ashu Guru, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Although simulation is one of the most innovative and cost-effective tools for modeling and analyzing a system, simulation studies often fail to provide any useful results. One reason is attributed to the fact that model formulation depends on the skills of the analyst. This paper describes a research to develop a conceptual modeling infrastructure to assist a simulation analyst in specifying components for studying physical security systems. The modeling framework has been programmed as an internet-based web application. Using the application, the successful development and implementation of a physical security simulation model will be aided by a defined scientific methodology …

Academic Audit Of Afit Programs In Systems Engineering, United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board

AFIT Documents

This report provides an assessment and recommendations for the systems engineering educational programs at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). The Air Force needs in systems engineering education are briefly summarized, followed by an analysis of the educational program at AFIT. Based on the assessment of AFIT's program, a set of recommendations are given for improving the programs and their utility to the Air Force. Appendices to the report contain additional information on the AFIT programs and an assessment of other graduate systems engineering programs in the US.

Acuta Enews December 2004, Vol. 33, No. 12

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

From the President............................. Tamara J . Closs, ACUTA President, Georgetown University

Tech Talk: Pseudowire............................ Kevin Tanzillo, Dux Public Relations

Cell-Phone Directory to Be Published?

Web Tip: lnfo about and from ACUTA Events........................ Aaron Fuehrer, ACUTA Computer Svcs. Mgr.

Member Sites to See 5 Board Report.................. Cormine Piscopo, Providence College

DC Update................ Whitney Johnson, Retired, Northern Michigan Univ.

Welcome New Members

Integration Of Lean Manufacturing And Value Engineering Techniques To Improve The Internal Distribution System In A Manufacturing Company, Sripadjaraj Prahladaraj

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The XYZ Corporation is located in Lafayette, Georgia. The company produces cooking ranges for the North American market. It has 1500 employees with a daily production capacity of 1000 to 1500 cooking ranges. The company is implementing lean manufacturing techniques to improve their performance. One of their projects is to develop a distribution system, which will help in streamlining the internal distribution of Very High Pressure (VHP) adhesive tapes. The aim of this research is to develop a lean distribution system by applying techniques of lean manufacturing systems. To understand the existing process of distribution, a flow diagram was created. …

Implementation Of Critical Path Method And Critical Resource Diagramming Using Arena Simulation Software, Jamie Ehresman Gunter

Masters Theses

A relatively new resource management tool, which considers both time and resource requirements, is Critical Resource Diagramming (CRD). CRD is a simple extension to the CPM technique developed for resource management purposes. It is a graphical tool used mainly for resource scheduling.

The purpose of this study is to use the Arena simulation software and CRD to solve problems. This will be accomplished by setting up an example problem in the simulation program, Arena, and the CRD approach will be used as a deterministic and probabilistic problem.

The Arena output results for the deterministic parts of the example were compared …

Developing A Lean Based Model For A Hospital Pharmacy Environment, Jason North

Masters Theses

Lean strategies have become necessary in healthcare due primarily to two factors: a demand for efficiency and a need to reduce medical error. The case for the necessity of a lean program is based on trends of increasing costs and decreasing revenues resulting from government intervention. Profit margin per patient has been reduced, and therefore more patients per time period must be seen in order to meet profitability goals. Preventable medical error is shown to be a leading cause of death.

Current research in the area of hospital and healthcare efficiency proves that a parallel exists between healthcare efficiency today …

Causal Analysis Of Fatal Trenching Accidents, John Patrick Wagner

Masters Theses

A study was performed by the Construction Industry Research and Policy Center at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville to identify causation for U.S. trench collapse fatalities in the construction industry that occurred during the years 1997-1999. Of the 1217 fatality case files analyzed, 44 were categorized as trench collapse fatalities. The 44 trench collapse case files were analyzed and the contributed factors of the fatalities were identified in an effort to determine the causation of collapses. The results of the study showed a large number of trenches without any type of protective devices being used. The findings of the fatal …

Using Simulation Techniques To Evaluate Group Technology Heuristics: A Recommended Methodology For Comparison And Optimization, Ashley Nolen Akerman

Masters Theses

Machine cell formation is an important issue in industrial and manufacturing engineering. Properly assigned machine cells can improve manufacturing system efficiencies and decrease unnecessary material movement. To address the need for proper cell formation techniques a myriad of heuristics have been created that attempt to optimize the grouping of machines. Further, much industrial engineering research has been conducted on the application of simulation technology to manufacturing system evaluation.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the combination of traditional machine grouping heuristics with simulation technology and to create a generalized meta-model based upon this evaluation. This investigation analyzes the …

A Computer Modeling Approach Using Critical Resource Diagramming Network Analysis In Project Scheduling, Vincent Gilles Delgado

Masters Theses

The problem of resource constrained project scheduling (RCPSP) continues to be an important topic in project management. Different scheduling processes have been introduced to solve cases of RCPSP. Most of the developed methods are based on a network analysis approach. The two main technique of project network analysis used for planning, scheduling, and control are PERT and CPM. These approaches assume unlimited resource availability in project network analysis. In realistic projects, both the time and resource requirements of activities should be considered in developing network schedules. Another particularity of the methods created, so far, is the focus on activities during …

Lead-Free Solder Joint Reliability – State Of The Art And Perspectives, Jianbiao Pan, Jyhwen Wang, David M. Shaddock

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

There is an increasing demand in replacing tin-lead (Sn/Pb) solders with lead-free solders in the electronics industry due to health and environmental concern. The European Union recently passed a law to ban the use of lead in electronic products. The ban will go into effect in July of 2006. The Japanese electronics industry has worked to eliminate lead from consumer electronic products for several years. Although currently there are no specific regulations banning lead in electronics devices in the United States, many companies and consortiums are working on lead-free solder initiatives including Intel, Motorola, Agilent Technologies, General Electric, Boeing, NEMI …

Acuta Enews November 2004, Vol. 33, No. 11

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This Issue

From ACUTA Headquarters....................... Jeri A. Semer, CAE, Executive Director

Tech Talk........................ Kevin Tanzillo, Dux Public Relations

Overheard on the Listserv: Revising Work-Flow Processes

Web Tip: Products and Services Search Available .... Aaron Fuehrer, ACUTA Computer Svcs. Mgr.

Providing Network and Voice Services to Remote Locations....................... Dave Barta, Univ. of Oregon

Board Report.......................... Carmine Piscopo, Providence College

DC Update.................. Whitney Johnson, Retired, Northern Michigan Univ.

Welcome New Members

Evaluation Of Bus And Truck Automation Operations Concepts, H.-S. Jacob Tsao, Lan Zhang, Lin Lin, Deepa Batni

Faculty Publications

Traffic congestion will continue to worsen and likely worsen at a faster rate than ever. People throughput and freight throughput have become critical issues for California and the rest of the nation. PATH has funded with approximately $125K a research project entitled “Evaluation of Bus and Truck Automation Scenarios” jointly proposed by Jan Botha (Principal Investigator) of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Jacob Tsao (Co-PI) of Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at San Jose State University. This report summarizes the major findings of the research conducted by Professor Tsao and his assistants with approximately $44K out of …

A Periodic-Review Inventory Model With Application To The Continuous-Review Obsolescence Problem, Yuyue Song, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper we consider a stochastic-demand periodic-review inventory model with sudden obsolescence. We characterize the structure of the optimal policy and propose a dynamic programming algorithm for computing its parameters. We then utilize this algorithm to approximate the solution to the continuous-review sudden obsolescence problem with general obsolescence distribution. We prove convergence of our approximation scheme, and demonstrate it numerically against known closed-form solutions of special cases.

Job Scheduling With Unfixed Availability Constraints, Hoong Chuin Lau, C. Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Standard scheduling theory assumes that all machines are continuously available throughout the planning horizon. In many manufacturing and service management situations however, machines need to be maintained periodically to prevent malfunctions. During the maintenance period, a machine is not available for processing jobs. Hence, a more realistic scheduling model should take into account machine maintenance activities. In this paper, we study the problem of job scheduling with unfixed availability constraints on a single machine. We first propose a preliminary classification for the scheduling problem with unfixed availability constraints based on maintenance constraints, job characteristics and objective function. We divide our …

Logistics Network Design With Differentiated Delivery Lead Time: A Chemical Industry Case Study, Michelle Lee Fong Cheong, Rohit Bhatnagar, Stephen C. Graves

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Most logistics network design models assume exogenous customer demand that is independent of the service time or level. This paper examines the benefits of segmenting demand according to lead-time sensitivity of customers. To capture lead-time sensitivity in the network design model, we use a facility grouping method to ensure that the different demand classes are satisfied on time. In addition, we perform a series of computational experiments to develop a set of managerial insights for the network design decision making process.

Corrective Maintenance Optimization In An Air Force, Hoong Chuin Lau, K. Y. Neo, W. C. Wan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Successful military mission planning and execution depend critically on equipment serviceability and resupply. Due to the stochastic nature of demands, the forecast of optimal spares and resources needed to guarantee the level of serviceability is a complex problem, especially in a multi-echelon setting. In this paper, we propose a decision-support concept and software tool known as Corrective Maintenance Optimizer (CMO) that helps to optimize system availability, through proper allocation of spare parts, both strategically and operationally.

Two-Echelon Repairable Item Inventory System With Limited Repair Capacity Under Nonstationary Demands, Hoong Chuin Lau, Huawei Song

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We study a repairable item inventory system under limited repair capacity and nonstationary Poisson demands, motivated by corrective maintenance of military equipment. Our goal is to minimize the cost of both spare and repair resource allocation. We propose an efficient analytical model that combines optimization modeling and queuing theory.

Decision Factors For Cooperative Multiple Warhead Uav Target Classification And Attack With Control Applications, Douglas D. Decker

Theses and Dissertations

Autonomous wide area search, classification and attack using Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) is considered. The wide area search and attack scenario is modeled, capturing important problem parameters related to environment, seeker, and munitions. Probabilistic analysis is used to formulate and analytically solve for various probabilities, including the probability of mission success. Two methods are utilized. The first examines the sub-events required for various events to occur. The second utilizes a Markov chain approach. General expressions are first obtained that are applicable to any assumed a priori distributions of targets and false targets. These expressions are subsequently applied to a …

A Case Study Of Teaching A Quantitative Course Using Archived Streaming Video, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This case study highlights some of the issues and difficulties experienced in teaching a quantitative course using three methods of delivery: in-class to an audience of students, television broadcast over a satellite system to distance students, and archived streaming video accessible by students. The discussion is applicable to administrators and faculty exploring the option of teaching a course using multiple delivery approaches.

Work Flow Policy And Within-Worker And Between-Workers Variability In Performance, Kenneth Howard Doerr, Tali Freed, Terence R. Mitchell, Chester A. Schriesheim, Xiaohua Zhou

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Work flow policies are shown to induce a change in average between-workers variability (worker heterogeneity) and within-worker variability in performance times. In a laboratory experiment, the authors measured the levels of worker heterogeneity and within-worker variability under an individual performance condition, a work sharing condition, and a fixed assignment condition. The work sharing policy increased the levels of worker heterogeneity and worker variability, whereas the fixed assignment policy decreased them. These effects, along with work flow policy main effects on mean performance times and variability are examined. This article represents an initial step in understanding effects that may be important …

A Template-Based Conceptual Modeling Infrastructure For Simulation Of Physical Security Systems, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Although simulation is one of the most innovative and cost-effective tools for modeling and analyzing a system, simulation studies often fail to provide any useful results. One reason is attributed to the fact that model formulation depends on the skills of the analyst. This paper describes a research to develop a conceptual modeling infrastructure to assist a simulation analyst in specifying components for studying physical security systems. The modeling framework has been programmed as an internet-based web application. Using the application, the successful development and implementation of a physical security simulation model will be aided by a defined scientific methodology …

Acuta Enews October 2004, Vol. 33, No. 10

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

Streaming Video Patent lssue and Higher Ed........................... Doris Stock, Virginia Tech

ACUTA's Strategic Planning Process................................... Tamara Closs, ACUTA President, Georgetown Univ.

Tech Talk ................................. Kevin Tanzillo, Dux Public Relations

Junk Faxes: FCC and/or Congress Poised to Provide Relief?............................... John J. Smith, Attorney

DC Update............................ Whitney Johnson, Retired, Northern Michigan Univ.

ACUTA Web Tip.................... Aaron Fuehrer, ACUTA Computer Services Manager

Welcome New Members

Peer Review Of Teaching Project: Tiaa-Cref Hesburgh Award Application, Paul Savory, Amy M. Goodburn, Amy Nelson Burnett

Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Reports

The TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award recognizes exceptional faculty development programs designed to enhance undergraduate teaching and learning. This award is given each year to a program judged to have best met the three award criteria: significance of the program to higher education; appropriate program rationale; and successful results and impact on undergraduate teaching and student learning. in 2005, the Peer Review of Teaching Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was awarded a TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award Certificate of Excellence in recognition of it being an exceptional faculty development program designed to enhance undergraduate student achievement.

Lean Energy Analysis: Identifying, Discovering And Tracking Energy Savings Potential, J. Kelly Kissock, John Seryak

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Energy in manufacturing facilities is used for direct production of goods, space conditioning, and general facility support such as lighting. This paper presents a methodology, called lean energy analysis, LEA, for graphically and statistically analyzing plant energy use in terms of these major end uses.

The LEA methodology uses as few as 60 easily obtainable data points. Multivariable change-point models of electricity and natural gas use as functions of outdoor air temperature and production data are developed. The statistical models are used to subdivide plant energy use into facility, space-conditioning and production-related components.

These breakdowns suggest the savings potential from …

Application Of Queuing Theory And Procedure Time Estimation In A Local Healthcare System, Galina Tsoy

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

People in the United States pay more for their basic healthcare needs than do people in any other nation in the world. When we consider that the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, controlling the majority of the world's resources, it seems only reasonable to ask: Why should it be this way?

In an effort to address this problem, this thesis examines two possible methods of improving health care efficiency in hospitals. The thesis is thus in two parts: the first part examines resource allocation in medical units using Queuing Theory, and the second part examines a …

Development Of A Systems Engineering Model Of The Chemical Separations Process, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The whole chemical separation process is complex to the point that definitely requires certain level of systematic coordination. To perform smoothly and meet the target extraction rates among those processes, this research proposed a general-purpose systems engineering model.

A general purposed systems engineering model, Transmutation Research Program System Engineering Model Project (TRPSEMPro), was developed based on the above design concept. The system model includes four main parts: System Manager, Model Integration, Study Plan, and Solution Viewer. System Manager supervises all the case (problem) creation, and functionality definition. Model Integration identifies chemical extraction processes and their execution sequence. Study Plan is …

Development Of A Systems Engineering Model Of The Chemical Separations Process: Final Report, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The whole chemical separation process is complex to the point that definitely requires certain level of systematic coordination. To perform smoothly and meet the target extraction rates among those processes, this research proposed a general-purpose systems engineering model.

A general purposed systems engineering model, Transmutation Research Program System Engineering Model Project (TRPSEMPro), was developed based on the above design concept. The system model includes four main parts: System Manager, Model Integration, Study Plan, and Solution Viewer. TRPSEMPro can apply not only to chemical separation process, but also a general system model.

Software engineering and Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA&D) …