Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Achieving Universal Liaisons And Healthcare Contact Center Centralization Through The Use Of Decision Support Tools, Jared S. Fiacco

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Healthcare contact centers often experience a large volume of calls and traditional standardized guidelines can be difficult to follow during an active call. While more common workflows can be memorized, they change often because Healthcare is a dynamic field. Constant updates to workflows, an abundance of different processes and provider preferences, and a fast paced environment can lead Customer Service Liaisons (CSLs) to handle patient inquiries incorrectly. Active decision support tools enable a CSL to follow an updated workflow without needing to navigate through complex guidelines and emails. This research shows that contact center centralization through the use of decision …

Configuring Traditional Multi-Dock, Unit-Load Warehouses, Mahmut Tutam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of expected-distance formulas for multi-dock-door, unit-load warehouse configurations is the focus of the dissertation. From formulations derived, the width-to-depth ratios minimizing expected distances are obtained for rectangle-shaped, unit-load warehouse configurations. Partitioning the storage region in the warehouse into three classes, the performance of a multi-dock-door, unit-load warehouse is studied when storage regions can be either rectangle-shaped or contour-line-shaped. Our first contribution is the development of formulas for expected distance traveled in storing and retrieving unit loads in a rectangle-shaped warehouse having multiple dock doors along one warehouse wall and storage racks aligned perpendicular to that wall. Two formulations …

Modeling The Innovation Ecosystem And Development Of A Dynamic Innovation Index, Henriette Schoen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The topic of innovation currently generates a tremendous amount of interest around the world. Innovation is considered an essential part of the solution to creating more jobs and improving the socio-economic conditions of many countries around the globe. Innovation comes about through the existence of many interrelated solutions to socio-economic problems in an extensively interconnected network, which create value for each other. Such a complex creativity and innovation value-creating network is here called an Innovation Ecosystem (IE). The main objective of this dissertation research is to improve the current understanding of the IE by developing a simulation model that uses …

Barge Prioritization, Assignment, And Scheduling During Inland Waterway Disruption Responses, Liliana Delgado-Hidalgo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Inland waterways face natural and man-made disruptions that may affect navigation and infrastructure operations leading to barge traffic disruptions and economic losses. This dissertation investigates inland waterway disruption responses to intelligently redirect disrupted barges to inland terminals and prioritize offloading while minimizing total cargo value loss. This problem is known in the literature as the cargo prioritization and terminal allocation problem (CPTAP). A previous study formulated the CPTAP as a non-linear integer programming (NLIP) model solved with a genetic algorithm (GA) approach. This dissertation contributes three new and improved approaches to solve the CPTAP.

The first approach is a decomposition …

Solving School Bus Routing And Student Assignment Problems With Heuristic And Column Generation Approach., Di Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we solve a school bus routing problem of transporting students including special education (handicapped) students and assigning them in Oldham county education district. The main contribution of this research is that we consider special education students (Type-2) along with other students (Type-1) and design a comprehensive school bus schedule to transport both kinds of students at the same time. Also, a student assignment mathematical model is presented to optimize the number of bus stops in use as well as one important measure of service quality, the total student walking distance. Comparing to the classic clustering methods, heuristic …

Design And Qualification Of A Robust Polyurethane Based Conformal Coating Process For Sodimms, Rajat Dhiman

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Conformal coatings protect printed circuit board assemblies, including the electronic components that the assemblies are populated with. A variety of materials and application methods can be used to conformally coat assemblies. The process setup is crucial to repeatable process reliability. The manual spray based conformal coating is widely used. This method of application was selected due to its compatibility, affordability, and efficiency with the required application. Polyurethanes, one of the families of conformal coatings, provide resistance against abrasion, heat, and chemicals while reducing the risk of tin whiskers. In order to minimize the need for rework and create an efficient, …

Developing Optimization Techniques For Logistical Tendering Using Reverse Combinatorial Auctions, Jennifer Kiser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In business-to-business logistical sourcing events, companies regularly use a bidding process known as tendering in the procurement of transportation services from third-party providers. Usually in the form of an auction involving a single buyer and one or more sellers, the buyer must make decisions regarding with which suppliers to partner and how to distribute the transportation lanes and volume among its suppliers; this is equivalent to solving the optimization problem commonly referred to as the Winner Determination Problem. In order to take into account the complexities inherent to the procurement problem, such as considering a supplier’s network, economies of scope, …

Binder Jetting Additive Manufacturing Process Fundamentals And The Resultant Influences On Part Quality., Hadi Miyanaji

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Binder jetting additive manufacturing (BJ-AM) technology is a process by which a part is fabricated layer by layer through depositing liquid binder in the designated regions of each layer until the feature is complete. Due to the use of binder in geometry generation, this process possesses various advantages over the other additive manufacturing technologies including the ability to create colored objects via colored binders, lower cost, lack of heat-induced defects, and its potential capability to print a variety of materials such as metals, sands and ceramics. Although the application of the binder jetting process has been recently reported by different …

The Application Of Usability Engineering Methods To Evaluate And Improve A Clinical Decision Support System, Kristine Desotto

Masters Theses

Delays in the process of diagnosing and treating cancer are common and lead to confusion and undesirable outcomes. Care coordinators are often embedded within the system of care to manage follow-up care. Electronic and real-time reminder systems can be used to support the care coordinator’s work, but electronic health record (EHR) usability is known to be poor. This study, completed in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Connecticut Healthcare System, evaluated the Cancer Coordination and Tracking System (CCTS), an EHR-linked, web-based tool for cancer care management.

A set of expert-driven and user-driven usability engineering methods was applied to …

Does The Elicitation Mode Matter? Comparing Different Methods For Eliciting Expert Judgement, Claire Cruickshank

Masters Theses

An expert elicitation is a method of eliciting subjective probability distributions over key parameters from experts. Traditionally an expert elicitation has taken the form of a face-to-face interview; however, interest in using online methods has been growing. This thesis compares two elicitation modes and examines the effectiveness of an interactive online survey compared to a face-to-face interview. Differences in central values, overconfidence, accuracy and satisficing were considered. The results of our analysis indicated that, in instances where the online and face-to-face elicitations were directly comparable, the differences between the modes was not significant. Consequently, a carefully designed online elicitation may …

Throughput And Yield Improvement For A Continuous Discrete-Product Manufacturing System, Md Shahriar J. Hossain

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A seam-welded steel pipe manufacturing process has mainly four distinct major design and/or operational problems dealing with buffer inventory, cutting tools, pipe sizing and inspection-rework facility. The general objective of this research is to optimally solve these four important problems to improve the throughput and yield of the system at a minimum cost.

The first problem of this research finds the optimal buffer capacity of steel strip coils to minimize the maintenance and downtime related costs. The total cost function for this coil feeding system is formulated as a constrained non-linear programming (NLP) problem which is solved with a search …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling And In Situ Physics-Based Monitoring Of Aerosol Jet Printing Toward Functional Assurance Of Additively-Manufactured, Flexible And Hybrid Electronics, Roozbeh (Ross) Salary

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Aerosol jet printing (AJP)—a direct-write, additive manufacturing technique—has emerged as the process of choice particularly for the fabrication of flexible and hybrid electronics. AJP has paved the way for high-resolution device fabrication with high placement accuracy, edge definition, and adhesion. In addition, AJP accommodates a broad range of ink viscosity, and allows for printing on non-planer surfaces. Despite the unique advantages and host of strategic applications, AJP is a highly unstable and complex process, prone to gradual drifts in machine behavior and deposited material. Hence, real-time monitoring and control of AJP process is a burgeoning need. In pursuit of this …

Assessing The Tensile And Fatigue Behavior Of Aerosol Jet Printed Nano Silver Particle Traces On Polyimide Substrates, Roshan Muralidharan

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Flexible interconnects are integral to flexible hybrid electronics. Aerosol jet, inkjet or screen printing offer various advantages and disadvantages compared to electroplating, but the behavior of printed metal traces under various types of loading is very different and not yet well understood. This thesis presents an assessment of the electromechanical behavior of aerosol jet printed Nano silver particles on two common polyimide substrates, Upilex and Kapton.

There are many different aspects to electromechanical testing of flexible interconnects, but this work focuses on the effects of tension and cyclic loading. In comparison to the much more widely researched electroplated copper or …

Systems Engineering Analysis For Optimum Selection Protocol For Thermal Expansion Measurement Of A Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite Tube, Ronald Uchimiya

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

A material’s Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) is a valuable physical property, particularly for structural fiber reinforced composites that are routinely used in satellite/aerospace applications. Satellite space structures are routinely designed with a high degree of dimensional and thermal stability. Designing and verifying for near zero CTE performance is a common design requirement. The CTE is routinely a physical property with known values for common materials. However, the strength, stiffness and CTE properties on a multi-ply graphite fiber reinforced laminate composite can be tailored to specific engineering requirements. Because of this, a method of verification (testing) is routinely performed to …

A Framework And Exploration Of A Cybersecurity Education Escape Room, Justin Charles Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a review of educational-escape-room literature followed by a design-oriented framework (the Snyder Escape Room Framework or SERF) and demonstrates the potential efficacy of escape-rooms in cybersecurity education. Several authors have proposed frameworks and guidelines for game and educational design regarding escape rooms. This work coalesces some of those ideas into a more substantial and comprehensive framework (SERF) that designers can use when developing educational escape rooms. The Snyder Escape Room Framework provides heuristics for goals and objectives, players, activities, context, trajectory design, and evaluation. Additionally, this work describes and analyzes the novel prototyped BYU GCC escape room …

Tooling For Injection Molding Using Laser-Powder Bed Fusion., Mohith Ram Buxani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Laser-Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) has been considered for some time by the injection molding industry for the fabrication of tooling for injection molding in order to address large lead times and costs for tool-making. Computer-aided simulations are also routinely used to evaluate new part and mold designs as well as understanding the effects of material compositions and processing conditions on part quality and overall productivity. However, there remains a significant need to integrate the perspectives from injection molding, 3D printing, metal powders, and component design and process simulation to better utilize LPBF for fabricating tooling required for injection molding. The …

A Framework For Executable Systems Modeling, Matthew Amissah

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Systems Modeling Language (SysML), like its parent language, the Unified Modeling Language (UML), consists of a number of independently derived model languages (i.e. state charts, activity models etc.) which have been co-opted into a single modeling framework. This, together with the lack of an overarching meta-model that supports uniform semantics across the various diagram types, has resulted in a large unwieldy and informal language schema. Additionally, SysML does not offer a built in framework for managing time and the scheduling of time based events in a simulation.

In response to these challenges, a number of auxiliary standards have been offered …

A Representation Of Tactical And Strategic Precursors Of Supply Network Resilience Using Simulation Based Experiments, Yaneth C. Correa-Martinez

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Modern supply chains are becoming increasingly complex and are exposed to higher levels of risk. Globalization, market uncertainty, mass customization, technological and innovation forces, among other factors, make supply networks more susceptible to disruptions (both those that are man-made and/or ones associated with natural events) that leave suppliers unavailable, shut-down facilities and entail lost capacity.

Whereas several models for disruption management exist, there is a need for operational representations of concepts such as resilience that expand the practitioners’ understanding of the behavior of their supply chains. These representations must include not only specific characteristics of the firm’s supply network but …

Sequence-Based Simulation-Optimization Framework With Application To Port Operations At Multimodal Container Terminals, Mariam Aladdin Kotachi

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

It is evident in previous works that operations research and mathematical algorithms can provide optimal or near-optimal solutions, whereas simulation models can aid in predicting and studying the behavior of systems over time and monitor performance under stochastic and uncertain circumstances. Given the intensive computational effort that simulation optimization methods impose, especially for large and complex systems like container terminals, a favorable approach is to reduce the search space to decrease the amount of computation.

A maritime port can consist of multiple terminals with specific functionalities and specialized equipment. A container terminal is one of several facilities in a port …

Farmbot Trackless Redesign, Cole Thomas, Cailey Kamm, Clayton Alderson, Otto Akerstrom

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

For this project the team PLANT3D worked along with Rory Aronson and FarmBot to generate a cheaper more user-friendly design for the FarmBot Genesis 1.3. Working with Rory and FarmBot, we as a team generated a list of design requirements and engineering specifications for the project. These requirements centered around creating a more accessible FarmBot model for the average person to be able to purchase and set up with ease. Much of this required taking the existing system and eliminating the most common problem areas. These were the track system, built using 1.5 meter aluminum extrusions and the complex interchangeable …

Fixing Vertebral Compression Fractures With Medtronic, Kelly Fitzgerald, Trevor Bingham, Alex Denbaugh, Jordan Tang, Jon Stearns

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

No abstract provided.

High Bay Capacity Utilization Tool, Dante C. Mazzanti, Skyler L. Schilke, Conner P. Lawston

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Northrop Grumman’s Space Park facility has many inefficiencies in their high bay scheduling processes. Additionally, it is very hard for project managers to figure out the capabilities of each high bay in order to schedule their specific project. The purpose of this project is to develop a tool that can be used across the facility to easily create projects, assign projects, view room capabilities, and view a master schedule of the rooms. After researching commercially available tools, our approach to designing this system was to use tools that are already utilized at the facility (Microsoft Suite and Tableau) and engineer …

The Pad Route Setting Process Design, Katherine M. Peterson, Dylan C. Breitenbucher

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This study took place at The Pad Climbing, a rock climbing gym in San Luis Obispo. The problem was that the process of setting new climbing routes was time - consuming and potentially dangerous. This resulted in lower capacity, high labor costs, decreased customer satisfaction, and safety risk for employees and customers. The objective of this study was to analyze the route setting process and identify areas of waste and danger, then to redesign the process to improve these areas. Techniques such as time studies, Pareto charts, and process flow mapping were used to analyze the existing process. A new …

Design And Testing Of A Hands-Free Toilet Seat Opener/Closer, Jordan Benjamin Schaeffer

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

People tend to get frustrated when the toilet seat must be moved up or down before use. Men and women often leave the toilet seat in different positions when finished which can cause problems when men and women use the same bathroom. With gender neutral bathrooms gaining in popularity, this frustration will only increase. The objective of this project was to design and test a hands-free system to allow a user to quickly and easily open or close a toilet seat. For the product to be viable, it will have to be durable and easy to clean around, while also …

Solar Electric Immersion Heating Element Fabrication, Logan V. Kregness

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Believing that cooking with flame is cheaper and more efficient than cooking with electricity, Ugandan citizens have exposed themselves to several health and safety risks, including major respiratory issues through harmful emissions, pollution, and the burning down of many homes. Even though solar electric cooking is cheaper and healthier than cooking with flames in the long run, many Ugandans lack the resources to invest in cooking with electricity.

The Solar Stove student research team, led by Dr. Pete Schwartz, partnered with Aid Africa to bring solar panels and prototype solar electric cooking units to villages in Uganda. Observing how their …

Connected Alerts Across Manufacturing Facilities, Jordan J. Moy

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The lack of communication during a large project can result in costly delays when striving to achieve previously defined benchmarks. Often times, each part of a project will require verification from an employee of a specified area of expertise before being allowed to advance to the next stage. Finding these individuals can be extremely hard due to the large, spread out campus of manufacturing facilities as well as the numerous projects the company is concurrently working on. These floor support requests can sometimes take from an hour to even a whole work day, causing major delays in the production schedule. …

Process Improvement At "The Manse On Marsh", Kevin C. Manko

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Manse on Marsh is an independent and assisted living facility that prides itself on providing life-enriching care for the elderly. Considering that the staff is essential to supply this care and turnover rates are a constant factor, the company would like to reduce the time it takes to hire new employees by at least one week. To facilitate this goal, process flow maps are utilized to assess the current state of the hiring process and metrics are applied to support future state design decisions. After performing a value added analysis and identifying areas of waste, a total of 20 …

Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench Co. Inventory Management, Logan E. Barr, Sean P. Mcgaffigan

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This Senior Project Report includes three areas of focus pertaining to the inventory management practices of Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench Company (ACMTC) - cycle counting, ergonomics, and material purchasing. Various literature reviews as well as an analysis of the current state led to the project objectives. First, reduce time spent on the non-value added process of cycle counting. Second, eliminate the ergonomic hazard presented by the heavy inventory bins. Lastly, diminish the totals costs associated with inventory (ordering + carrying). The project objectives spurred numerous alternatives and a few specific deliverables. The creation of a ‘Small Parts Cycle Count’ Excel file …

Facilities Redesign Of Stockroom At Elcon Precision, David M. Brawner, Tyler O. Mastromattei, Jay Y. Matsumoto

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Elcon Precision is a company based out of San Jose, California specializing in the photochemical processing of materials and brazing of metals and ceramics for a variety of different industries. Three students from the Industrial Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo were contacted by Elcon Precision to help redesign their stockroom and inventory areas in their San Jose location in order to allow for the future growth of the company. Elcon asked the Cal Poly project team to help increase efficiencies throughout the stockroom by creating an alternative layout that best suited the company's needs. This …

Improving Efficiencies For The Loading And Packaging Departments At San Luis Sourdough, Alexis Bergstrom, Isabella Pereira, Claudia Robinson

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

San Luis Sourdough, currently has issues with efficiency and standardization in their packaging department, ergonomics problems in the packaging department, shipment accuracy in their loading department, and lacks an organized layout design. As a result, four objectives were designed within a six month period. The first was to create standard operating procedures for the packaging department. To inform this decision time studies were performed before and after creating these SOPs. It was discovered that there was a clear need for the SOPs due to variation in packaging efficiency among new and experienced associates. The second set of time studies showed …