Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Sampling Based Progressive Hedging Algorithms For Stochastic Programming Problems, Nezir Aydin

Wayne State University Dissertations

Many real-world optimization problems have parameter uncertainty. For instances where the uncertainties can be estimated to a certain degree, stochastic programming (SP) methodologies are used to identify robust plans. Despite advances in SP, it is still a challenge to solve real world stochastic programming problems, in part due to the exponentially increasing number of scenarios. For two-stage and multi-stage problems, the number of scenarios increases exponentially with the number of uncertain parameters, and for multi-stage problems also with the number of decision stages.

In the case of large scale mixed integer stochastic problem instances, there are usually two common approaches: …

Factors Impacting Technology Transfer: The Maquiladora Industry In Yucatan, Mexico, Ana Maria Canto, Carlos Blanco, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Technology transfer and knowledge transfer are the building blocks for innovation, efficiency and increased competitiveness. The topic of technology transfer in the context of multinational companies has been the focus of technology management researchers for well over two decades. Developing countries housing twin plans have been exposed to technology transfer from very diverse countries with different approaches to the technology transfer process and different levels of success. This cultural and national diversity adds an additional level of complexity to the technology transfer domain that has been largely unexplored. This paper will explore critical factors that had an impact in successful …

The Impact Of Online Collaboration Spaces On Virtual Team Outcomes, Anil Ustun, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

With the emergence of information technology, organizational teams often work virtually, relying on different technologies to successfully complete tasks. This paper investigates the influence of online collaboration spaces on team performance and team affective outcomes such as satisfaction with the process. An experiment will be conducted in which teams of 3 participants will work together on a survival decision-making activity (Lost at Sea). Teams will be collaborating in a web-conferencing (Adobe Connecta™) space and a 3D (three-dimensional) virtual space (Second Life). Based on Social Presence Theory, we expect that the avatar-based 3D environment will provide a richer environment for social …

A Framework For Personalized Dynamic Cross-Selling In E-Commerce Retailing, Arun K. Timalsina

Wayne State University Dissertations

Cross-selling and product bundling are prevalent strategies in the retail sector. Instead of static bundling offers, i.e. giving the same offer to everyone, personalized dynamic cross-selling generates targeted bundle offers and can help maximize revenues and profits. In resolving the two basic problems of dynamic cross-selling, which involves selecting the right complementary products and optimizing the discount, the issue of computational complexity becomes central as the customer base and length of the product list grows. Traditional recommender systems are built upon simple collaborative filtering techniques, which exploit the informational cues gained from users in the form of product ratings and …

Rfid-Based Business Process And Workflow Management In Healthcare:Design And Implementation, Xiaoyu Ma

Wayne State University Dissertations

The healthcare system in the United States is considered one of the most complex systems and has encountered challenges related to patient safety concerns, escalating costs, and unpredictable outcomes. Many of these problems share a common cause - a lack of efficient business process management and visibility into the real-time location, status, and condition of medical resources. The goal of this research is to propose a newly integrated system to model, automate, and monitor healthcare business processes using an automatic data collection technology to record the timing and location of activities and identify their various resources.

This dissertation makes several …

Using An Ahp/Anp Hybrid Methodology For Freight Transport Networks Selection Towards Sustainable Transportation, Andrea M. Graham

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The selection of an effective transportation network for the transport of container freight is one of the most important factors in supply chain and logistics planning. The current transport networks, hub-and-spoke and point-to-point, although optimal in many aspects are still plagued with issues in route optimization, empty travel, and bad intermodal synchronization. The trucking industry, the most utilized of all modes, offers unsustainable components in its current state that continually introduce negative impacts to an ever evolving supply chain network. This research investigates a third potentially more sustainable distributed multi-segment transportation network. This network will be compared to the traditional …

Constraint Optimal Selection Techniques (Costs) For Linear Programming, Goh Saito

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Simplex pivoting algorithms remain the dominant approach to solve linear programming (LP) because they have advantages over interior-point methods. However, current simplex algorithms are often inadequate for solving a large-scale LPs because of their insufficient computational speeds. This dissertation develops the significantly faster simplex-based, active-set approaches called Constraint Optimal Selection Techniques (COSTs). COSTs specify a constraint-ordering rule based on constraints' likelihood of being binding at optimality, as well as a rule for adding constraints. In particular, new techniques for adding multiple constraints in an active-set framework, and an efficient constraint-ordering rule for LP are proposed. These innovations greatly reduce computation …

Adaptive Dynamic Programming For High-Dimensional, Multicollinear State Spaces, Bancha Ariyajunya

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Dynamic programming (DP) is a mathematical programming method for optimizing a system changing over time and has been used to solve multi-stage optimization problems in manufacturing systems, environmental engineering, and many other fields. Exact solutions are only possible for small problems or under very limiting restrictions, but computationally practical approximate DP methods now exist. Most continuous-state problems require discretization of the state space. A design and analysis of computer experiments (DACE) approach for approximate DP uses experimental design and statistical modeling to approximate the value function in continuous-state problems. However, ideal experimental designs are orthogonal, and when the state variables …

Cnt Reinforced Epoxy Foamed And Electrospun Nano-Fiber Interlayer Systems For Manufacturing Lighter And Stronger Featherweight Composites, Vasileios M. Drakonakis

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Multiple works have been performed in improving carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites especially in terms of strength so delamination, which is the major defect in laminated composites, is prevented. Nevertheless, there is not much focus on improving conventional CFRP systems in terms of weight especially when these are used in primary structures. This work questions whether lighter and at the same time stronger CFRP composites can be manufactured in order to replace conventional CFRP systems in major applications. Under this perspective, this study demonstrates that inducing controlled porosity may offer a systemic approach for manufacturing light weight carbon fiber …

Evaluating Human-Robot Implicit Communication Through Human-Human Implicit Communication, Andrew Xenos Richardson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research is examining ways to make human-robot (HR) communication more natural. Incorporating natural communication techniques is expected to make HR communication seamless and more natural for humans. Humans naturally incorporate implicit levels of communication, and including implicit communication in HR communication should provide tremendous benefit. The aim for this work was to evaluate a model for humanrobot implicit communication. Specifically, the primary goal for this research was to determine whether humans can assign meanings to implicit cues received from autonomous robots as they do for identical implicit cues received from humans. An experiment was designed to allow …

Decision Support Models For The External Variety Of Configurable Products, Erkan Isikli

Wayne State University Dissertations

The decision of what configurations of a product to offer is a difficult one for marketing and sales departments. In this study, we developed decision support models that can help decision makers when using operational models to manage external variety of configurable products. Our main objective is to reduce the number of product variants offered in a proper way so that inventory and demand models do not suffer from the curse of dimension. Due to its ability and flexibility, our framework can be employed under various marketing actions. We applied our framework to both qualitative and quantitative data.

Data Mining Based Threshold Development For Novelty Detection, Poovich Phaladiganon

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The objective of this dissertation is to develop thresholds for novelty detection with applications to statistical process control (SPC). SPC is a widely used technique for improving process and product quality. The primary tool of SPC is a control chart that is used to monitor and detect abnormal processes. Traditional control chart techniques usually require a specific distributional assumption, typically the normal distribution, to establish their control limits. However, in modern manufacturing processes, the normality assumption is often violated. Novelty detection more generally seeks abnormal (or novel) patterns in data, and novelty detection techniques can be applied to control charts …

Multivariate Modeling For A Multiple Stage, Multiple Objective Green Building Framework, Pin Kung

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Green building is a sustainable concept to reduce environmental impact. Decision–making for green building is a complex task. A multi–stage green building framework will guide future development of a comprehensive multiple stage, multiple objective (MSMO) decision–making framework. The software eQUEST is utilized in a design and analysis of computer experiments (DACE) approach to study building options that potentially impact energy usage and cost metrics. The DACE approach uses experimental design and statistical analysis to uncover multivariate patterns that will provide guidance for green building decisions. The computer experiments execute the green building software tools ATHENA [11] and eQUEST [13]. The …

The Art Of Microchannel Molding In Microscope Glass Slides, Sree Bhupathiraju

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This research is an effort to develop a new process by combining engineering principles with the history of glass art molding to develop clear micro-level test features in glass, for bio-medical and drug experiments dealing with cells, tissue, and micro-level organisms. Most of the present research in the bio-medical field involving micro-level cell and brain tissue testing is done using expensive glass or developed using Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the main material. Disadvantages of PDMS is that, over time the cell or blood tissue reacts with polymers causing a reduction in clarity making it difficult for a research scientist to observe …

Rq-Tech, A Strategic-Level Approach For Conceptualizing Enterprise Architectures, Christine A. Hoyland

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to present a system-theoretic based methodology and corresponding model for Enterprise Architecture development. Enterprise Architecture models can assist managers by illustrating the systemic relationships of their business and the impact their decisions can make. Unfortunately, today's modeling practices are proprietary, time-consuming, and generally ineffective as tools for communicating strategic-level planning across and down all levels of the enterprise. This research explored the most significant factors that must be considered when translating authoritative text and rich pictures of business doctrine into semantic models. An ontology, namely RQ-Tech, was used to parse and tag representative samples …

An Analysis Of Factors Affecting The Effective Use Of Knowledge Management In Counter Improvised Explosive Device (C-Ied) Operations, Umit Gencer, Rafael E. Landaeta, Resit Unal, C. Ariel Pinto, Gokay Sursal

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is a weapon of choice and is likely to remain a major component of the Global War on Terrorism. It is critical that gaps in knowledge transfer are quickly addressed in order to more effectively equip personnel to counter IED (C-IED) threat. Therefore, the military must analyze the current Knowledge Management (KM) programs in C-IED arena in order to maximize transfer of knowledge derived from experience and skill to staffs and finally to commanders. This study investigates the factors that influence effective use of KM in C-IED operations in the military. The study suggests that effective …

Effectiveness In Executive Decision-Making Bodies: The Role Of Conflict, Chris L. Day, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The theory and practice related to team processes such as communication, coordination, conflict, and their impact on team performance and effectiveness has been focused on principles applied to teams in general and to specific subsets of teams/situations. Executive decision-making bodies are a specialized subset of teams charged with managing strategic and enterprise-wide change typically consisting of talented team members who make decisions having a broad impact on the organizations they lead. Executive decision-making bodies have been largely unexplored in the team research literature. This study presents an in-depth review of prior research exploring the role of input factors and conflict …

A Case Study Of Key Factors Driving Global Virtual Team Effectiveness, Pilar Pazos, Ana María Canto, Nina C. Magpili

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of the factors contributing to global virtual team effectiveness. We report on a case study on global virtual teams whose members differed in location and nationalities, worked on common collaborative projects, and used media to communicate and coordinate their work. This paper examines the relationships between input factors such as goal commitment, planning and resource availability and team outcomes. Data were collected from 14 teams in an international Master's program in Quality Management, Safety and Environmental Impact hosted in Bolivia and Chile. Students were from nine different countries in South …

Acuta Enews January 2012 Vol. 41, No. 1

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue...

1 Board Approves Slate of Nominees

2 From the President: New Building Network Designs at BC............ .--.Joseph Harrington, Boston College

3 Nominate a Colleague for the ACUTA Ruth A Michalecki Leadership Award

4 Member Benefit of the Month: Monthly Newsletter Subscriptions

4 Today's ACUTA for Today's CIO ................. Keith Fowlkes, UVA Wise

5 ACUTA Webinar: The Challenges of Mobile Connectivity

5 Board Report............... Riny Ledgerwood, SDSU

6 Info Links.............. .....Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern Iowa

7 How Transdisciplinarity Will Help Workers Thrive ...................James Fraleigh, Apollo Research Institute

8 Committee Corner

8 Thanks to Event Sponsors in 2011 …

Identification Of Rework Station Location To Enhance Reworkability Using Design For Disassembly, Juan Alejandro Saavedra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rework stations are commonly established as part of each assembly stations causing the material flow of the process to be constantly interrupted. Another option is to place the rework station at the end of the production, but this is not cost effective. This breakeven point between reworkability and cost methodology has been proposed in this thesis to identify the location of a single rework station in an assembly line in order to enhance reworkability using the Design for Disassembly (DfD) principles. The methodology uses the 17 guidelines of DfD in a manufacturing scenario in order to propose a reworkability index …