Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Parker Aerospace Fluid Systems Division Product Support Facility Redesign, Sean Walker

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

With growing popularity for commercial air travel and aerial military operations comes an increase in demand for innovative, technological solutions of aircraft system components. As OEM sales of these components rise, this creates a burden on the aftermarket side of the business when these parts and systems require service in order to continue functioning properly. Parker Aerospace, Fluid Systems Division, and its Product Support Team are experiencing this growth burden and want to reconfigure necessary means within the layout to succeed in accommodating new program areas on the aftermarket side. During this process, cost reduction opportunities will be explored and …

Human Factor And Ergonomic Considerations And Improvements For A Table-Free Card Game Product, Enrique Daniel Aguirre

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project is to design a table-free Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Game product that will make the transition of said game from table to user more fluid and intuitive, improving on past designs in the process. Despite there currently being many similar products in the market, there has not yet been one that adequately fulfills game requirements and comfortably adapts to the range of players associated with the game. Taking ergonomic and human factor considerations into account during the development of the design, a prototype was created as part of this project that was subsequently tested against a past …

Flexi-Focus Lens: Pdms Variable Focal Length Lens, Patrick Angulo, Alex Doyle, Dylan Mcdaniel, Michael Olivarez

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The design of a variable focal length, or flexi-focus, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) lens incorporating a light emitting diode (LED) source is intended for future use on board commercial aircraft. Specifically, the design is intended for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, serving as a personal reading light for the passengers seated in the cabin. Most current reading lights on board aircraft are rigid, incandescent, and have very limited freedom in terms of adjusting the emitted light. Incandescent lamps are also inefficient with respect to energy consumption and light output as well as a high heat output. In an economy of increasing demand …

Quality Of Life Plus (Ql+) 2011 Rideable Tour, Daniel J. Pelisek

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Quality of Life Plus (QL+) does important work supporting members of the United States armed forces. Without significant funding, it is unlikely they could continue doing that work. Our goal was to hold a charity bike ride, the 2011 QL+ RideABLE Tour, to help them raise the funds they need. We approached the ride from two different perspectives, event planning and project management, with the hope that the two approaches could work in synergy towards a successful event. The project management approach focused on industrial engineering tools like work breakdown structures (WBS), cost analysis, and risk assessment. The goal was …

Continuous Improvement Efforts In J. Carrol's Screen Printing Process, Millan Arellano

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The following report details the analysis and procedure taken not only to determine the issues limiting J. Carroll’s screen printing capacity, but also provides the solutions necessary to address these issues. The report addresses one crucial operation in the screen printing process, changeovers, which contribute to roughly 24% of the screen printing process time and more than any other operation in the screen printing process. Within the changeover operation two specific tasks appear to be plaguing long changeover times: they are test print and design approval. The report elaborates on the Fishbone Diagrams utilized to bring up the potential causes …

Use Of Electroluminescent Wire For Monitoring Fatigue In Manual Materials Handling, Spencer Martinez, Chester Matkey

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

In the field of manual materials handling, millions of dollars are lost each year in accidents caused by physical fatigue. The purpose of this project is to design a device for monitoring fatigue in manual material handling operations. Combining our knowledge of electronics, new product design, ergonomics, and human factors, we were able to design and test a product to meet these specifications in hopes of developing a prototype for marketability. While we have only developed a prototype, the economic justification is performed for mass production of the product. Using statistics gathered on the percentage of injuries caused each year …

Human Resources Recruitment Management Plug-In For Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, Alex Riabov

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Enterprise Resource Planning (or ERP in short) systems today are a backbone of most large United States and international corporations. Around the 1990s these companies transitioned from using different software packages for each business unit to using the modules of Enterprise Resource Planning system for the business unit’s specific needs. Some functionality was lost. Human Resource function of recruitment was one example of large functionality left out of Enterprise Resource Planning systems such as SAP or PeopleSoft. As a result, these large companies turned to 3rd party Applicant Tracking Systems to manage recruitment and subsequently created redundancies in workflow, increased …

Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Passive Item-Level Rfid Tags Utilized In Inventory Counts, Joshua (Josh) Gilbert

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

In an effort to reduce the amount of manual labor associated with physical inventory counts of large warehouse type environments, a study was performed analyzing the effectiveness of item-level RFID to automate counts. Products were selected based off of certain characteristics and tagged with passive RFID tags. A design of experiment was developed specific to each product that best related to actual in store environments. Experiments were conducted in the Poly GAIT lab. Certain levels of analysis were performed and conclusions made specific to each product under question.

Efficient Operations And Procedures Of Children's Museums, Siobhan Sullivan

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Due to the recent economic downturn, the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum’s budget has been reduced by half. The entrepreneurial Museum Director is searching for ways to cut costs and increase revenue. This project aimed to apply Lean methodologies, traditionally used in manufacturing organizations, to the Museum, a non-profit service organization.

The project objectives were to have an organized storage area using principles of 5S; determine excess inventory; consolidate available exhibit information; create guidelines for exhibit production to ensure high quality exhibits with sufficient user documentation are created; perform a sampling of exhibit use in order to have a list …

Emergency Response Manufacturing: Lead Time Minimization And Human Factors For Ozone Water Filter Assembly And Kitting Process, Travis Gary

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

In the unfortunate event of a natural disaster affecting San Luis Obispo, response from national entities cannot be relied upon for a timely or efficient response. Local disaster recovery is superior because it minimizes response time, the need for costly stockpiling and creates a solution that is uniquely suited to the community that empowers local people in their most troubled times. Extensive planning is required for local disaster recovery and this project aims to provide the research and recovery system design required to implement an effective recovery plan.

Potable water is the primary need for people in the disaster situations …

Electroluminescent (El) Wire Soldering Solution, Sean Mitchell

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Electroluminescent (EL) wire is a unique kind of wire because it glows when attached to a power source. EL wire has many applications, both creative and practical. For example: Burning Man enthusiasts like to adorn their clothing with the flexible wire, and emergency responders use it to mark off accidents on the road at night. What makes EL wire glow is the electrical reactions between its copper wires and phosphor coating. The problem with this wire, however, is that it is very difficult to connect it to a battery. This is due to the wire’s structure. Beneath its protective plastic …

Missouri S&T Engineering Management Capstone Senior Design: Lessons Learned And Challenges To Come, Stephen A. Raper

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A more traditional, capstone senior design course was recently added as a requirement for Engineering Management undergraduates in the Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Department at Missouri S&T. The case studies course that had served that purpose was deemed to be insufficient for ABET accreditation purposes by department faculty. The most recent 2008 accreditation visit for the department verified this belief and caused the department to launch the new class earlier than anticipated to prove the class would be taught and that it would meet required standards. Thus, no weaknesses or concerns were noted in this area in the final …

Acuta Enews June 2011, Vol 40, No. 6

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

From ACUTA Headquarters........ Corinne Hoch, lnterim Executive Director

Voice and Data Networks Weather the Storms at Sewanee.......Jeanne Jansenius, Univ. of the South

Announcing New ACUTA Online forums

CUPA Salary Survey Results

From the ACUTA Community Listserv: VolP lssues

lnfo Links ............ Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern lowa

Board Report......... Riny Ledgerwad, SDSU

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Supervisory Evolutionary Optimization Strategy For Adaptive Maintenance Schedules, Zhaoxia Wang, C. S. Chang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of Milestone Versus Duration Projects In A University Environment, Nicholas James Mehas

Master's Theses

The Critical Path and Critical Chain project management methodologies have different and unique characteristics; both methods are used by project managers to manage projects. This research develops and implements two methodologies, milestones (critical path) versus duration (modified critical chain), in a university environment. The implementation of the two methods allows for the comparison of the effectiveness of both styles. The intent is to determine if there is a significant difference in the project management methodologies in a university setting. The design of both projects allows for easy implementation and the ability to easily record determined measureable statistics.

Wolf Ant, Gilbert L. Peterson, Christopher M. Mayer, Kevin Cousin

Faculty Publications

Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms can generate quality solutions to combinatorial optimization problems. However, like many stochastic algorithms, the quality of solutions worsen as problem sizes grow. In an effort to increase performance, we added the variable step size off-policy hill-climbing algorithm called PDWoLF (Policy Dynamics Win or Learn Fast) to several ant colony algorithms: Ant System, Ant Colony System, Elitist-Ant System, Rank-based Ant System, and Max-Min Ant System. Easily integrated into each ACO algorithm, the PDWoLF component maintains a set of policies separate from the ant colony's pheromone. Similar to pheromone but with different update rules, the PDWoLF policies …

The Canonical Decomposition Fuzzy Comparative Methodology For Assessing Architectures, Jason P. Dauby, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The challenge for system architects is to perform a realistic assessment of an inherently ambiguous system concept. Many existing assessment methods are available, but these are often subjective and unrepeatable. Repeatability, objectivity, and increased fidelity are desired. an architecture assessment methodology capable of achieving these objectives is possible by drawing on the strengths of existing approaches while addressing their collective weaknesses. the proposed methodology is the Canonical Decomposition Fuzzy Comparative approach. the theoretical foundations of this methodology are developed herein and tested through the assessment of three physical architectures for a peer-to-peer wireless network. an extensible modeling framework is established …

Improving Cal Poly Space Systems Infrastructure, Tyler Richier

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The goal of this project was to increase the usable space for the club Cal Poly Space Systems to work on its projects, improve the safety for its members, and reduce the time it takes to manufacture its products. The project demonstrated the effectiveness of 5S in improving a workspace. Club members were measurably more comfortable in the work environment and spent less time looking for tools. Current rooms were made more professional by ridding the workplace of non-valued items and finding sensible locations for high-traffic items. Additional rooms were added and they should indisputably support club projects the upcoming …

5s Implementation Plan For The Shipping Department At Helical Products Co., Eric William Walker

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Helical Products Company is a business that manufactures flexure products, such as couplings and u-joints. As part of a movement towards lean manufacturing, Helical Products Company of Santa Maria, California is in need of a principle that will help them continuously improve their shipping department. A study of 5S, a lean principle focused on waste reduction, will be done to investigate opportunity for implementation. A literature review takes a peek on research of lean manufacturing history, lean workbook/ tutorials and lastly case studies and journal articles. The output of research provides a design plan for Helical using 5S and other …

Ackermann Steering Geometry Applied To A Skateboard Truck, Daniel D. Downs

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Conventional skateboard trucks are currently unable to meet the challenges of the modern enthusiast. They are lacking in key performance metrics such as handling, stability, and traction. Longboard enthusiasts, whom rely heavily on handling performance, are hungry for new and innovative technology to help bring the sport to the next level. The aim of this project was to solve these problems by applying specific aspects of automotive steering geometry and best engineering practices. Three successive prototypes were designed, with the first two prototype sets being manufactured and extensively tested. The first prototype served as a proof of concept, but suffered …