Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Human-Computer Communication Mode, Task Complexity, And Desire For Control On Performance And Discourse Organization In An Adaptive Task, Cristina Bubb-Lewis

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined how different communication patterns affected task performance with an adaptive interface. A Wizard-of-Oz simulation (Gould, Conti, & Hovanyecz, 1983) was used to create the impression of a talking and listening computer that acted as a teammate to help participants interact with a computer application.

Four levels of communication mode were used which differed in the level of restriction placed on human-computer communication. In addition, participants completed two sets of tasks (simple and complex). Further, a personality trait, Desire for Control (DC), was measured and participants were split into high and low groups for analysis. Dependent measures …

An Aggregation Procedure For Simulating Manufacturing Flow Line Models, Paul Savory, Gerald Mackulak

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

We develop a formal method for specifying an aggregate discrete-event simulation model of a production flow line manufacturing system. The methodology operates by aggregating production stations or resources of a flow line. Determining the specifications for representing the aggregated resources in a simulation model is the focus of our presentation. We test the methodology for a set of flow lines with exponentially distributed arrival and service times. Comparisons between analytical and simulation results indicate the aggregation approach is quite accurate for estimating average part cycle time.

As-Is Evaluation & Process Design Of The 17/18 Foot Refrigerator At General Electric In Decatur, Alabama, Yongke Thio, Nicole Hagood

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

An Integrated Approach To Simulation And Activity-Based Costing For Evaluating Alternative Manufacturing Cell Designs, Robert Williams, Paul Savory, Rodney Rasmussen

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

One effective technique for improving manufacturing efficiency involves the application of group technology part families and manufacturing cells. Selection of the best or optimum configuration of the manufacturing cell relies on the experience and judgment of the cell designer. This paper describes how activity-based costing (ABC) concepts can be integrated into a discrete-event simulation model and be used to evaluate manufacturing cell configurations. The output of the combined ABC simulation model provides a detailed “Bill of Activity” which allows the cell designer to consider costs as a critical factor in the cell design problem. Alternative cell configurations studied in this …

Selecting For Random Drug Testing At Union Pacific Railroad, Jennifer Meyer, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Many industries have recently implemented programs to detect and deter the use of recreational drugs in the workplace. The transportation industry has received careful government attention, particularly where the safety of the public may be seriously affected by employees who use drugs. Following federal guidelines, Union Pacific Railroad first implemented a random drug-testing plan in 1990. Because the assigned jobs, shifts, and work locations of many railroad employees change frequently, defining the selection population was particularly challenging. In its continuing efforts to validate and improve this plan, Union Pacific Railroad sought an external evaluation to determine the fairness of its …

Simulating Queue Scheduling Policies For A Spacecraft Simulator, Paul Savory, Gene Saghi

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The mission of the Cassini spacecraft is a unique opportunity to gain insights into major scientific questions about Saturn, the creation of the solar system, and the conditions that led to life on Earth. In preparation for the launch, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed a software simulator to emulate the hardware data-control system of the spacecraft. Its primary use is to validate and verify commands that will be transmitted to the spacecraft. To improve the performance of the simulator, we used the SIMAN simulation language to model numerous queue-scheduling policies. Implementation of the simulation results combined with a software-code redesign …

Technology Acquisition And Utilization In Metal Goods, N. Alp, B. Alp, Yildirim Omurtag

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper analyzes the technology acquisition and utilization process in metal goods manufacturing organizations through a survey instrument which is conducted in the Mid-West region of the US. The goal of this study is to identify the channels, types, reasons, impacts, difficulties, and limitations of technology acquisition and utilization process in metal goods sector.

Artificial Neural Network Based Model For Computation Of Injection Mould Complexity, Rawin Raviwongse, Venkat Allada

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The cost of injection mould construction depends primarily on the mould complexity. The ability to estimate the mould complexity before releasing the final drawings for construction purposes will greatly help the designers to understand the implications of their design on cost. Mould complexity depends on several factors such as part geometry, parting line, materials, and number of cavities per mould. In most industries, the mould complexity evaluation is performed manually based on past experiences of mould makers. Faced with a shortage of experienced mould makers, there is a pressing need for development of computer-aided tools for mould complexity evaluation. In …

Innovative Applications Of Groupware For Solving Engineering Design Problems, Leslie F. Monplaisir, Colin Othniel Benjamin, Choayuan Lu

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In these case studies, groupware was used as a group decision-making environment to assist teams evaluating a quality function deployment framework for risk management and agile manufacturing system designs. In the first case, teams identified customers' requirements and risk categories for a research and development project. They then mapped the relationship between these customer requirements and the risk categories. In the second case, cross-functional teams collaborated in selecting the best layout for a cellular manufacturing facility. These experimental findings support the use of group decision systems by design and project teams required to manage R&D projects or to design agile …

Self-Assessment Of Total Quality Management Programs, Hung Yi Wu, Henry Allen Wiebe, John Politi

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Total quality management (TQM) has been increasingly accepted as a management philosophy. Criteria such as those contained in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) often guide TQM implementation. However, reports indicate that fully assessing TQM efforts is difficult and hiring experts to help with this task is expensive. Using survey instruments is an attractive alternative to full-scale assessment. Despite the availability of many papers covering organizational performance assessment, few instruments specifically address TQM evaluation. Furthermore, none of the TQM assessment instruments has been subjected to rigorous validation; thus, only modest confidence can be placed in results obtained from their …

Hydro Unit Commitment In Hydro-Thermal Optimization, Chao-An Li, E. Hsu, Chung-Li Tseng, A. J. Svoboda, R. B. Johnson

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, the authors develop a model and technique for solving the combined hydro and thermal unit commitment problem, taking into full account the hydro unit dynamic constraints in achieving overall economy of power system operation. The combined hydrothermal unit commitment problem is solved by a decomposition and coordination approach. Thermal unit commitment is solved using a conventional Lagrangian relaxation technique. The hydro system is divided into watersheds, which are further broken down into reservoirs. The watersheds are optimized by network flow programming (NFP). Priority-list-based dynamic programming is used to solve the hydro unit commitment (HUC) problem at the …

A Biologically Inspired Connectionist Architecture For Directing Attention To Salient Visual Field Objects, David Lee Enke

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In an attempt to incorporate basic visual attention abilities into existing artificial vision systems, a neural model of the bidirectional interactions within and between the brain regions believed to be involved in human visual attention has been developed. This model currently gives an artificial vision system the ability to attend to salient, or pop-out features and objects within the vision system''s field of view. After a review of the physiology of human visual attention, a network model of the aforementioned neural interactions is presented, followed by a demonstration of its performance.

An Object-Based Evolutionary Algorithm For Solving Rectangular Piece Nesting Problems, Kanchitpol Ratanapan, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Nesting problems have been tackled by researchers using a vast number of algorithms in the past. Most of the algorithms, however, need to perform on a one-dimensional space. Therefore, the problem must be transformed into a one-dimensional space problem similar to the travelling salesman problem. Consequently, loss of solutions due to the dimensional reduction may occur. In this study, an object-based evolutionary algorithm for rectangular piece nesting problems is proposed. This methodology is created on truly two-dimensional space, allowing new mechanisms (i.e., individual representation, initialization, etc.) and new object-based genetic operators (i.e., hill-climbing, mutation, and recombination operators) to perform effectively …

Derivation Of Fuzzy Membership Functions Using One-Dimensional Self-Organizing Maps, Thomas E. Sandidge, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper discusses a system of self-organizing maps that approximate the fuzzy membership function for an arbitrary number of fuzzy classes. This is done through the ordering and clustering properties of one-dimensional self-organizing maps and iterative approximation of conditional probabilities of nodes in one map being the winner given that a node in the other map is the winner. Application of this system reduces fuzzy membership design time to that required to train the system of self-organizing maps.

Managing Cultural Differences For Engineers, Halvard E. Nystrom

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Understanding cultural issues, developing cross-cultural communication skills and recognizing the need to effectively apply these skills in the global arena are becoming critical success factors for an increasing number of engineers. To address these needs, an engineering management class has been developed at the University of Missouri-Rolla, USA, that uses a team project approach as the major method to achieve the learning objectives. The student teams develop training manuals for dealing with engineers from specific international cultures, based on the material learned in class as well as personal interactions with individuals of the specific ethnic background. An application of this …

Short-Term Resource Scheduling With Ramp Constraints [Power Generation Scheduling], Chung-Li Tseng, Chao-An Li, A. J. Svoboda, R. B. Johnson

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes a Lagrangian relaxation-based method to solve the short-term resource scheduling (STRS) problem with ramp constraints. Instead of discretizing the generation levels, the ramp rate constraints are relaxed with the system demand constraints using Lagrange multipliers. Three kinds of ramp constraints, startup, operating and shutdown ramp constraints are considered. The proposed method has been applied to solve the hydro-thermal generation scheduling problem at PG&E. An example alone with numerical results is also presented

Service Quality Using The Deviation-Score Approach To Fit In Contingency Theory In A U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers Setting, Donald Robert Groh

Doctoral Dissertations

"The purpose of this study is to learn how organizational work unit context, structure, and processes relate to service quality. The theoretical basis for the research is that organizational work units should be structured based on the work that they perform. If the work that a unit performs is highly variable, then the work unit should be structured in such a way as to provide flexibility, that is, few rules and procedures and highly decentralized decision making. If the work that a unit performs is not variable, then the work unit should be structured to provide a non-varying product or …

Acuta Enews December 1996, Vol. 25, No. 12

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Fifth Annual Institutional Excellence Awards Competition

ACUTA News will have a new look

Welcome New Members

President's Message

Emergency Phone Provide Security

DC at a Glance

Fiber Optic Video Systems for Campus Networking

Campus News Briefs

Industry Insights

From ACUTA Headquarters

The Threshold Value Of A Quality Index For Formation Of Cellular Manufacturing Systems, Hamid Seifoddini, Manocher Djassemi

Industrial Technology and Packaging

The superiority of cellular manufacturing to job shop manufacturing has been questioned by a number of simulation studies. The initial structure of the machine-part matrix seems to play an important role in the failure of cellular manufacturing systems in these studies. In this paper a grouping measure called 'quality index - QI' will be used to evaluate the relationship between the quality of a machine-part matrix and the performance of the corresponding cellular manufacturing system. A simulation study will be conducted to demonstrate how the procedure can be used to determine the threshold value for QI beyond which the cellular …

Determining The Optimum Strategy Of Techniques From The Municipal Solid Waste Management Hierarchy To Maximize Social Value, Camille M. Still

Theses and Dissertations

Environmental managers must make difficult decisions regarding how to manage solid waste generation and disposal. The primary waste management alternatives are source reduction, recycling, composting, incineration, and landfilling often, waste management policies are based entirely on technical considerations and ignore that actual disposal practices depend on individuals' attitudes and behaviors. This research formulated a decision analysis model that incorporates social value measures to determine the waste management strategy that maximizes the individuals' willingness to participate. The social values that are important and that were considered in the decision support model to assist with making decisions about solid waste management were …

A Decision Support Model For Municipal Solid Waste Recycling At United States Air Force Installations, Gergory A. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force requires each installation to operate a municipal solid waste recycling program. Two inherently conflicting objectives, waste material diversion and financial result, have been established for the program. Reducing landfill disposal is the primary objective, but the incentive for profit is strong because each installation can retain profits from the program. Installations can be divided into two distinct areas, commercial and residential, based on the waste stream composition and funding. Structuring of the recycling program is often done in an ad-hoc manner. A decision support model was developed to evaluate four methods for each area. The …

Independent Verification And Validation Of The Hazardous Material Cost Trade-Off Analysis Tool Developed By The Human Systems Center At Brooks Air Force Base, Thomas S. Choi

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force realizes that the life cycle cost (LCC) associated with hazardous materials is a significant cost in the acquisition of major weapon systems. In trying to mitigate the growth of environmental LCC for future weapon systems, the Air Force has developed a tool called the Hazardous Material Cost Trade-off Analysis Tool (HAZMAT CTAT). The HAZMAT CTAT estimates the LCC for weapon system hazardous materials, so that intelligent decisions can be made in the early stages of the acquisition process. The problem with implementing this program into the acquisition process is that an independent computer model evaluation has never …

Synergistic Decision-Making Systems: Using Models Of Decision-Making Behaviors And Resources To Design Better Decision-Making System, Ronald R. Carter

Masters Theses

Despite advances in decision-making systems, many practical issues remain unaddressed and much of the computer's potential for supporting decisions is unrealized. The existing systems are often limited to specific decision-making activities or domains, and they force the decision-maker to adopt a closed and inflexible way of doing things. What is needed is a new approach to building decision-making systems, one that is not focused on how decisions should be made, but on the behaviors and resources involved in decision-making and how they affect the results. This paper explores such an approach. It examines how models of decision-making behaviors and resources …

Digital Rosetta Stone: A Conceptual Model For Maintaining Long-Term Access To Digital Documents, Steven B. Robertson

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the rapid evolution of technology, future digital systems may not be able to read and/or interpret the digital recordings made by older systems, even if those recordings are still in good condition. This thesis addresses the problem of maintaining long-term access to digital documents and provides a methodology for overcoming access difficulties due to technological obsolescence. A review was conducted to determine the long-term access methods that have already been suggested by other researchers. These previously suggested methods are then combined with other ideas that were encountered and conceived while performing research for this project. The combination of …

Arts, Computers And Artificial Intelligence, Sol Neeman Ph.D.

Engineering Studies Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Science and art seem to belong to different cultures. Science and technology, mainly the products of the intellect, use terminology and vocabulary that are concise and well defined. In contrast, in artistic expression, ambiguity is a powerful component. Still the relationship between these two different categories of human activity is interesting and fascinating. In this paper, a general comparison of these two disciplines will be introduced. Then the possibility of mechanical creation of art using computers and artificial intelligence will be discussed. This will be followed by two techniques which are used to create poetry and music. First, a statistical …

Preparing The Leaders For Mechatronics Education, Sema E. Alptekin

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Mechatronics is the synergetic combination of precision mechanical engineering, electronic control and systems thinking in the design of products and processes. There is a need to develop interdisciplinary programs in Mechatronics that better prepare our graduates to design, build, and operate the products and systems of today and tomorrow. To address this need, National Science Foundation funded a project entitled "Preparing the Leaders for Mechatronics Education" undertaken by Cal Poly in 1995 - 1996. In this paper, the activities that took place during this two-year program is outlined. Several courses and course modules have already been developed and implemented by …

Acuta Enews November 1996, Vol. 25, No. 11

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Univ. of Idaho: Homepage Sweet Homepage

Institutional Excellence Award

Committee Member Approved

More Angles for 809 Fraud

Welcome New Members

President's Message

The '90s: New Challenges for Telecom

DC at a Glance

Campus News Briefs

Industry Insights

Acuta Enews October 1996, Vol. 25, No. 10

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

President's Message

FlexSourcing

Desk Top Video

Overheard on the Listserve

From ACUTA Headquarters

Numeric Keyboard Layouts: An Ergonomic Approach, Tricia S. Lowe

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

This study investigated the most effective method of numeric data entry, by means of a numeric keypad. The methods of numeric data entry were (a) two keypads with different numerical configurations, (b) two keypads with identical numerical configurations, and (c) one keypad with only a single numerical configuration. The two configurations utilized were the telephone and the calculator. An experimental design, with focus on the post-test only control group, was utilized. Sixty randomly selected students from the population attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University were assigned to five experimental groups.

The results indicated no significant differences: (a) for the number of errors …

Sensitivity Analysis In Cellular Manufacturing System In The Case Of Product Mix Variation, Hamid Seifoddini, Manocher Djassemi

Industrial Technology and Packaging

In this paper, performance measures such as mean flow time and work-in-process inventories will be used to determine the changes in the performance of a cellular manufacturing system due to product mix variations.