Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Modeling And Analysis Of Pca Workflow, Ewing Tiong

Masters Theses

Nursing shortage has been reported as a major problem faced not only by the United States but also by many other countries. One of the many interventions that has been used to curb nursing shortage is the increase in employment of Unlicensed Assistive Personnels (UAPs) as an alternative care delivery model. There are many types of UAP and one of them are Patient Care Assistants (PCAs). This research proposes a methodology to model and analyze the work ow of a PCA in terms of completing assigned tasks in a timely manner. The specific objectives of this research are to model …

Heuristic Solution For Separated Manufacturing Process, James Dee Davis

Masters Theses

Downtime is a major issue for manufactures. Downtime may occur from breakdowns, quality issues, lack of manpower, lack of materials, or in this case a lack of storage containers. A manufacturing system was studied that consists of an injection machine that supplies two assembly lines. The injection machine suffered from frequent downtime from lack of containers. The process was analyzed for root cause of downtime. After analysis of the system it was found that the injection process had high variability in production quantity and quality. The scheduling scheme called for production until all available containers were full regardless of actual …

Truckload Carrier Selection, Routing And Cost Optimization, Zhixin Han

Masters Theses

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the routing decision combined with common carrier selection for dedicated contract carriers to reduce full truckload routing cost on pickup and delivery service within time windows in a multiple depots scenario. Mixed Integer Programming and some heuristic algorithms such as the genetic algorithm and annealing algorithm have been successfully used to solve vehicle routing problems for a long time, but researchers seldom simultaneously focus on issues of carrier selection, multiple depots, time window, and the government regulations for a dedicated contract carrier. Therefore, this thesis involved constraints of pickup and delivery with …

Evaluation Of A Training Program (Strap) Designed To Decrease Young Drivers Secondary Task Engagement In High Risk Scenarios, Akhilesh Krishnan

Masters Theses

Distracted driving involving secondary tasks is known to lead to an increased likelihood of being involved in motor vehicle crashes. Some secondary tasks are unnecessary and should never be performed. But other secondary tasks, e.g., operating the defroster, are critical to safe driving. Ideally, the driver should schedule when to perform the critical tasks such that the likelihood of a hazard materializing is relatively small during the performance of the secondary task. The current study evaluates a training program -- STRAP (Secondary Task Regulatory & Anticipatory Program) -- which is designed to make drivers aware of latent hazards …

Economic And Environmental Optimization In The Supply Of Switchgrass In Tennessee, Jia Zhong

Masters Theses

The low efficiency of collection, storage and transportation in the switchgrass supply chain has hindered the commercialization of a switchgrass-based biofuel industry, even given its ecological and environmental advantages in carbon sequestrate, soil quality, water use, and pollution pressure. Thus, designing a switchgrass-based supply chain balancing both environmental and economic performance is important to expedite the development of the cellulosic biofuel industry to meet the national energy plan.

The objectives of this study are to 1) determine economic cost and multiple environmental outcomes in feedstock supply chains and 2) identify the relation between the economic and environmental performances. The first …

Integration Of Maintenance Into Design And Sustainability Of Buildings, Dinesh Reddy Patlolla

Masters Theses

Custodial maintenance is an important aspect of operational maintenance in a facility. Custodial maintenance improves an organization's discipline, performance and keeps surroundings healthy. That being said maintaining clean surroundings involves considerable cost. Custodial maintenance cost forms significant portion of building budgets, however these costs are often neglected. This research deals with the identification of variables that affect maintenance costs in a facility and reduction of maintenance costs. The minimization of cost is done by giving the administrator or facilities manager the option of selecting alternatives in frequency of maintenance, level of maintenance and the number of people required to complete …

Modelling Supercomputer Maintenance Interrupts: Maintenance Policy Recommendations, Jagadish Cherukuri

Masters Theses

A supercomputer is a repairable system with large number of compute nodes interconnected to work in harmony to achieve superior computational performance. Reliability of such a complex system depends on an effective maintenance strategy that involves both emergency and preventive maintenance. This thesis analyzes the maintenance records of four supercomputers operational at The National Institute of Computational Science located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We propose to use the generalized proportional intensities model (GPIM) to model the maintenance interrupts as it can capture both the reliability parameters and maintenance parameters and allows the inclusion of both emergency and preventive maintenance. …

Loss On Ignition Using Infrared Heating, Benjamin J. Binoniemi

Masters Theses

The focus of this study is a proof of concept that infrared heating can be used to produce a reliable and rapid method of performing the loss on ignition test. The loss on ignition test is a foundry industry standard test that requires all moisture and volatile organic compounds be vaporized from a sample of foundry sand. The standard test as recommended by the American Foundry Society uses a muffle oven and requires nearly four hours to perform. This new concept performs the same test in approximately ten minutes. The biggest issues with the loss on ignition test are time …

Value Stream Segmentation And New Product Development, Richard Lee Vaughn

Masters Theses

This research paper expands upon prior research into the pursuit of the successful new product launch. It reviews the evolution of how new product launches were handled in the past and the best practices used today. The article “Value Stream Segmentation Focuses on Customer Needs” expands upon the success and failure of the practices and poses a new concept for future new product launches. The concept of “value stream segmentation” is how a company should use value stream mapping to streamline its processes to achieve a successful new product launch. By analyzing and segmenting market requirements, a business that is …

Resilience Of Transportation Infrastructure Systems To Climatic Extreme Events, Alexandra C. Testa

Masters Theses

A topology-based approach has been used to measure the resilience of a highway network to climatic events. Civil infrastructure systems are inarguably critical to the everyday functions of society. Because such systems are regionally distributed, their components undergo a wide range of hazard intensities, often dependent on their relative locations. The ability of an infrastructure system to withstand, adapt to, and rapidly recover from extreme events is paramount to its ability to continuously serve users. The topological properties of a network can provide a good means to assess the resilience of the system which is adequate to comprehend the preparedness …

Rote-Lcs Learning Classifier System For Classification And Prediction, Benjamin Daniels

Masters Theses

"Machine Learning (ML) involves the use of computer algorithms to solve for approximate solutions to problems with large, complex search spaces. Such problems have no known solution method, and search spaces too large to allow brute force search to be feasible. Evolutionary algorithms (EA) are a subset of machine learning algorithms which simulate fundamental concepts of evolution. EAs do not guarantee a perfect solution, but rather facilitate convergence to a solution of which the accuracy depends on a given EA's learning architecture and the dynamics of the problem.

Learning classifier systems (LCS) are algorithms comprising a subset of EAs. The …

A Valuation Model For Two-Stage Contract Negotiations Over Multiple Interdependent Issues, Nnaemeka U. Amaeshi

Masters Theses

"Most real-world negotiation scenarios involve multiple interdependent issues over which the negotiating parties will seek an agreement. Simultaneous negotiation over multiple interdependent issues is an especially challenging problem because utility functions of negotiating agents are typically nonlinear and difficult to analyze. Also, negotiations often happen under circumstances of incomplete information, where either party has either little or inaccurate information about the preferences or utilities of the other party. Consequently, negotiations may go over multiple rounds until a mutually acceptable agreement is reached. The objective of this research is to create a quantitative model of decision-making that helps one negotiating party …

Utilizing Learning Style Preferences And Quality Function Deployment For Curriculum Development, Julie M. Ezzell

Masters Theses

"Workplace requirements continually evolve to keep pace with the developing global market. To meet ever increasing standards, educational institutions have been investigating methods to prepare students for their future employment. Course modifications should be carefully considered to meet the requirements of all stakeholders, including those of the students. The objective of this research was to provide students with an overall better learning experience that tailors the teaching methods to his/her individual learning preferences. To meet this objective, a comprehensive survey was provided to an undergraduate course in quality. The survey documented the student's individuality when learning and made note of …

A Decision Support Simulation Model For Bed Management In Healthcare, Raja A. Baru

Masters Theses

"In order to provide access to care in a timely manner, it is necessary to effectively manage the allocation of limited resources such as beds. Bed management is key to the effective delivery of high-quality and low-cost healthcare. An efficient utilization of beds requires a detailed understanding of the hospital's operational behavior. It is necessary to understand the behavior of a hospital in order to make necessary adjustments to its resources, and policies, which can improve patient's access to care. The aim of this research was to develop a discrete event simulation to assist in planning and staff scheduling decisions. …