Engineering Commons^™

Analysis And Selection Of New Rental Paintball Masks For Gladiator Paintball Park, Geoff Wakefield

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project is designed to select new rental paintball masks for Gladiator Paintball Park. The currently used rental masks are worn down and need replacement. Criteria for new rental masks are examined and include customer preferences, owner's constraints, and time studies. Candidate masks were found by asking customers what they like in rental masks, interviewing other paintball field owners, and referring to the online paintball community. Three candidate masks were found, the V-Force Vantage, JT Alpha, and Kingman java paintball masks. These masks were compared to the currently used rental masks, the V-Force Armor. Customers were surveyed to find out …

Acs Custom Creation's New Business And Assembly Operations, Kent Christensen

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

ACS Custom Creations had assembly and business operations that wasted time and wasted money. The objective of the project is to improve and implement ACS Custom Creations business and manufacturing operations. The proposed assembly process involves the rearranging of the bottlenecked steps to eliminate constraints. The assembly workstations were also redesigned to reduce cycle time. With the improvement of the new assembly and business operations, ACS is poised to grow into a bigger company. Financial Statements were created to improve visibility of the company’s historical data. These financial statements include an income statement, balance sheet, and a cash flow statement. …

Solder Qwik Pentm, Katherine E. Robbins

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Electronics soldering is a technique used frequently in the manufacturing of Printed

Circuit Boards (PCB) to attach small electronic parts or wires together. Often times

the need to remove a solder joint arises; this is known as desoldering. Solder wick,

fine braided copper wire infused with rosin, is one of the most effective ways to

desolder because it results in the cleanest joints. Currently using solder wick

involves several time consuming and somewhat awkward steps. This report will

cover the process behind designing, manufacturing, and testing a new ergonomic,

dispenser for solder wick that can be used with one hand. …

A Scanpath Comparison Of The Salient Features Of Weather Among General Aviation Pilots Based On Training And Experience, Michael Sawyer

All Dissertations

Over the last 20 years the number of annual accidents in general aviation has seen a steady decline. The annual number of fatal accidents, however, has remained relatively stable. Adverse weather is consistently cited as a leading cause of fatal accidents in general aviation; weather accidents have a fatality rate nearly four times that of other general aviation accidents. Reviews of accident data reveal that often these accidents occur when inexperienced pilots who are certified only for visual flight rules flight continue into adverse weather. The Situation Assessment Hypothesis suggests these accidents occur when pilots fail to accurately recognize weather …

Simpler Packaging, Tomiko Oden

Graphic Communication

This project explains how product packaging is become more "green", and thus more simple. Packaging needs to go beyond just simplifying materials and graphics - it needs to create a simpler process in order to reduce wasted time, energy, and resources.

An Investigation On The Use And Flexibility Of Genetic Algorithms For Logistic Regression, Sara Yoder

All Dissertations

Social scientists and other users of large data sets often desire a model to predict the probability that some condition exists, such as the probability that a person has diabetes or that a credit card transaction will be fraudulent. In general, this can be done by data mining techniques, which allow multiple records of data composed of numerous independent variables and one dependent variable to be examined in a statistical fashion to make a predictive model. One particular technique used is logistic regression. Logistic regression forms a predictive model based on a set of independent variables by assigning coefficients to …

Human Error In Mining: A Multivariable Analysis Of Mining Accidents/Incidents In Queensland, Australia And The United States Of America Using The Human Factors Analysis And Classification System Framework, Jessica Patterson

All Dissertations

Historically, mining has been viewed as an inherently high-risk industry. Nevertheless, the introduction of new technology and a heightened concern for safety has yielded marked reductions in accident and injury rates over the last several decades. In an effort to further reduce these rates, the human factors associated with incidents/accidents need to be addressed. A modified version of the Human Factors Classification and Analysis System (HFCAS-MI) was used to analyze lost time accidents and high-potential incidents from across Queensland, Australia and fatal accidents from the United States of America (USA) to identify human factor trends and system deficiencies within mining. …

A Logistic Regression Model To Predict Incident Severity Using The Human Factors Analysis And Classification System, Hrishikesh Kavade

All Theses

The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) is used to help identify causal factors that lead to human error. The framework has been used in a variety of industries to identify leading contributing factors of unsafe events, such as accidents, incidents and near misses. While traditional application of the HFACS framework to safety outcomes has allowed evaluators to identify leading causal issues based on frequency, little has been done to gain a more comprehensive view of the system's total risk. This work utilizes the concept of event severity along with the HFACS framework to help better identify target areas …

Effectiveness Of Team-Building And Teamwork In Real And Virtual Worlds, Rachana Ranade

All Theses

Given the increasing importance of globalization and collaboration, this research investigates the possibility of performing team-building training for globally dispersed teams using the capabilities of the virtual world Second Life. Three meeting conditions, the 3D virtual world Second Life, a combination of face-to-face and Second Life and face-to-face were evaluated. Thirty randomly assigned 3 person teams performed an ice-breaker session and then a team-building activity in each meeting condition. Four dependent variables were measured: task completion time; quality of task performance; the subjective satisfaction with the process based on group cohesiveness, perception of the process and satisfaction with the outcome; …

Thermoelastic Behavior Of A Small Bearing Cage, Eric Planting

All Theses

The full field non contact measurement of objects undergoing testing is one of interest for manufacturers of parts which are graded on their longevity. Unfortunately, for homogenous small parts with irregular geometries, such as bearing cages, the solution for testing is typically to use only a FEA model and compliment the testing of the model with simply cyclically loading the sample until failure. To better understand the stresses and behavior of a small object Thermoelasticity can be employed in order to see in a full field technique what stress patterns exist and their correlation to a FEA model.
The FEA …

A Particle Swarm Optimization Using Random Keys For Flexible Flow Shop Scheduling Problem With Sequence Dependent Setup Times, Vinodh Sankaran

All Theses

In this research, a particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) using random keys is developed to schedule flexible flow lines with sequence dependent setup times to minimize makespan. The flexible flow line scheduling problem is a branch of production scheduling and is found in industries such as printed circuit board and automobile manufacturing. It is well known that this problem is NP-hard. For this reason, we approach the problem by implementing a particle swarm optimization (PSO), a metaheuristic which is inspired by the motion of a flock of birds or a school of fish searching for food. The proposed PSO has …

Leed Certification Workbook For Eco-Charrette Process Improvement At The Boeing Company, Wesley R. Fromm

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Companies across the globe are greening their portfolios. In an effort to define green construction, the United States Green Building Coalition (USGBC) has developed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification. LEED provides a means for measurement and accountability in sustainable design. However, the volume of information to be processed when considering a building's candidacy is daunting. The LEED Certification Workbook for Eco-Charrette Process Improvement at the Boeing Company takes on this task. By utilizing observations from Boeing's Shared Services Group in Seal Beach, California, the designed solution meets the requirements for an effective gathering of stakeholders in the …

Scheduling For Service Stability And Supply Chain Coordination, Yuerong Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies scheduling for service stability and for supply chain coordination as well. The scheduling problems for service stability are studied from the single perspective of a firm itself, while the scheduling problems for supply chain coordination are investigated from the perspective of a supply chain. Both the studies have broad applications in real life.

In the first study, several job scheduling problems are addressed, with the measure of performance being job completion time variance (CTV). CTV minimization is used to represent service stability, since it means that jobs are completed in a relative concentrated period of time. CTV …

Qos Provision For Wireless Sensor Networks, Dengfeng Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

Wireless sensor network is a fast growing area of research, receiving attention not only within the computer science and electrical engineering communities, but also in relation to network optimization, scheduling, risk and reliability analysis within industrial and system engineering. The availability of micro-sensors and low-power wireless communications will enable the deployment of densely distributed sensor/actuator networks. And an integration of such system plays critical roles in many facets of human life ranging from intelligent assistants in hospitals to manufacturing process, to rescue agents in large scale disaster response, to sensor networks tracking environment phenomena, and others.

The sensor nodes will …

Effects Of Meeting Spaces On The Performance Of A Concept Selection Task By Engineering Design Teams, Necmettin Ozkan

All Theses

Given the increasing importance of collaboration and the resulting use of virtual tools, this research investigates the performance of engineering design teams using a concept selection task in three meeting spaces, face-to-face, 2D online and 3D virtual. Cisco's WebEx and Sun Microsystems' Wonderland were used as the 2D online meeting space and the 3D virtual environment, respectively. Twenty-four two-person design teams were formed and randomly assigned to the meeting spaces. Eight teams performed a cell-phone concept selection task in each meeting space. Four dependent variables were measured: task completion time, team satisfaction, self-evaluated quality and expert-evaluated quality. Following data collection, …

An Analytical Framework And Model Formulation For Measuring Risk In Engineering Enterprise Systems: A Capability Portfolio Perspective, Paul Raphael Garvey

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This work formulates an analytical framework and computational model for assessing risk in engineering enterprise systems. It addresses the engineering management problem of how to represent, model, and measure risk in large-scale, complex systems engineered to function in enterprise-wide environments.

The research in this dissertation extends current practice in the management of risk for traditional systems and creates new constructs and protocols for the management of risk in engineering large-scale, complex, and highly networked enterprise systems. This work advances engineering management theory and analytic practice as applied to the measurement and management of risk for enterprise systems engineered within capability …

A Study Of Decision Analysis Methods In Aerospace Technology Assessments, Sharon Monica Jones

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Managers of aerospace technology programs and projects are faced with the challenge of making technology portfolio decisions under conditions of limited data, rapidly changing macro level factors and organizational uncertainties. To help make these technology investment decisions, some aerospace managers and analysts have used techniques from the field of decision analysis. In addition, there have been a limited number of research studies of real decision problems.

This dissertation presents the results of a non-experimental examination of the use of decision analysis methods for the assessment of aerospace technology portfolios. A web-based survey instrument was developed based on the results of …

Reconciling Discontinuities And Disruptions: The Construction Of An Integrated Typology, David Jeffery Kern

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Radical innovations are often characterized by a rapid shift from one dominant design to another. The theories of discontinuous and disruptive innovation present two important and independent explanations for why these shifts occur. This research tests the usefulness of combining these two theories into a single integrated typology. First, a typology is constructed that classifies shifts in dominant designs according to the theories of discontinuous and disruptive innovation. Next, the usefulness of this typology is tested with a taxonomy derived from 100 randomly selected shifts in dominant designs from across a broad range of industries. This research reconciles the theories …

Optimizing Replenishment Order Quantities In Uncoordinated Supply Chains, Atipol Kanchanapiboon

Dissertations

Many modern supply chains can be described as a series of uncoordinated suppliers. That is each supplier establishes their individual inventory and production policies on both the input and output sides. In these supply links there is minimal coordination between suppliers, and typically only prices and delivery guarantees are contracted. As a consequence, the inventory behavior and associated costs do not exhibit standard patterns. This makes it difficult to model and optimize these chains using classical inventory models. The common approach, therefore, for evaluating uncoordinated supply chains is to use Supply Chain Analytics software. These retrieve operational data from Enterprise …

Development Of The Integrated Censored Robust-Tolerance Engineering Design Systems Via Improved Response Surface Modeling, Abdul-Baasit Shaibu

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, we intend to integrate censoring into robust-tolerance engineering using improved dual response surface modeling. This is perhaps the first attempt in the quality control literature. In the literature, response surface models have largely been restricted to second order (or quadratic) models and robust-tolerance designs have been restricted to situations involving complete observations. We intend to show that higher order response surface models can be more powerful in terms of prediction ability, and are therefore more reliable than the preferred quadratic models in the general context of robust design. We will also consider formulating robust and tolerance designs …

Design Of A Multi-Echelon Global Supply Chain Network With Microsoftå¨ Excel Premium Solver Plataform, Wilder Ferreira

All Theses

I designed a global supply chain distribution model of one single product, with the objective of minimizing the costs of transportation, handling materials, duties and tariffs, production, and fixed infrastructure. The distribution network has a combination of manufacturing facilities (fixed and to-be-determined), warehouses (to-be-determined), distribution centers (to-be-determined), and customer zones at fixed locations. This network design is similar to the mathematical mixed-integer linear model from Tsiakis, Shah and Pantelides (2001). This model has been implemented in Microsoft Excel, using the Standard Simplex method from Frontline, Inc. This model optimizes the number of facilities worldwide (multi-echelon) along with the flow of …

Investigating The Relationship Between An It Project Manager's Emotional Intelligence And The Customer's Perception Of Success, William Jacob Lamarsh Ii

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research focuses on the intersections of Project Management, Information Technology (IT), and Emotional Intelligence. The Project Management Institute (PMI) created the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, which is one of the most highly regarded and sought after professional certifications (Project Management Institute 2005, p. 15-18). This certification acknowledges the holder as a knowledgeable practitioner in Project Management. The purpose behind Project Management is to obtain requirements, sometimes fluid at best, and develop solutions that are traceable by schedule and cost controls. This approach allows a Project Manager to monitor and control the project through successful completion. However, the PMI …

"Hedging Future Uncertainty: A Framework For Obsolescence Prediction, Proactive Mitigation And Management", Craig L Josias

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

Component obsolescence in the "high-tech" electronics industry has become a problem that cannot be ignored. Although recent attention has been given to component obsolescence, in general this issue is still dealt with reactively. This often results in sustainment of a long-life system such as ships, airplanes, power plant, and space based programs to be extremely costly. In addition, delayed schedules, extended downtimes, and technology lags are common occurrences in approaches that deal with obsolescence as it occurs. In wake of the rapid pace of technology innovation, turbulent markets and growing globalization, developing proactive approaches for dealing with obsolescence is a …

Investments In Energy Technological Change Under Uncertainty, Ekundayo Shittu

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

This dissertation addresses the crucial problem of how environmental policy uncertainty influences investments in energy technological change. The rising level of carbon emissions due to increasing global energy consumption calls for policy shift. In order to stem the negative consequences on the climate, policymakers are concerned with carving an optimal regulation that will encourage technology investments. However, decision makers are facing uncertainties surrounding future environmental policy. The first part considers the treatment of technological change in theoretical models.

This part has two purposes: (1) to show-through illustrative examples-that technological change can lead to quite different, and surprising, impacts on the …

The Design And Development Of An Additive Fabrication Process And Material Selection Tool, Andrew Palmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the Manufacturing Industry there is a subset of technologies referred to as Rapid Technologies which are those technologies that create the ability to compress the time to market for new products under development . Of this subset, Additive Fabrication (AF), or more commonly known as Rapid Prototyping (RP), acquires much attention due to its unique and futuristic approach to the production of physical parts directly from 3D CAD data, CT or MRI scans, or data from laser scanning systems by utilizing various techniques to consecutively generate cross-sectional layers of a given thickness upon the previous layer to form 3D …

New Heuristics For The 0-1 Multi-Dimensional Knapsack Problems, Haluk Akin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation introduces new heuristic methods for the 0-1 multi-dimensional knapsack problem (0-1 MKP). 0-1 MKP can be informally stated as the problem of packing items into a knapsack while staying within the limits of different constraints (dimensions). Each item has a profit level assigned to it. They can be, for instance, the maximum weight that can be carried, the maximum available volume, or the maximum amount that can be afforded for the items. One main assumption is that we have only one item of each type, hence the problem is binary (0-1). The single dimensional version of the 0-1 …

Dod Acquisition Workforce Education: An Sba Education Case Study, Richard Davenport

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A Department of Defense (DoD) M&S education task force is in the process of studying the Modeling and Simulation (M&S) education of the acquisition workforce. Historically, DoD acquisition workforce education is not referred to as education, but rather what the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) refers to as "practitioner training, career management, and services." The DAU is the organization primarily responsible for training the DoD acquisition corps in conjunction with service schools and strategic partners in the civilian sector. DAU programs primarily focus on program management, contracting, and management of logistics across the system life cycle. Further, the examples and cases …

Data Entry Error In Mobile Keyboard Device Usage Subject To Cognitive, Environmental, And Communication Workload Stressors Present In Fully Activated Emergency Operations Centers, Samiullah Durrani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The diversity and dynamic nature of disaster management environments necessitate the use of convenient, yet reliable, tools for technology. While there have been many improvements in mitigating the effects of disasters, it is clearly evident by recent events, such as Hurricane Katrina that issues related to emergency response and management require considerable research and improvement to effectively respond to these situations. One of the links in a disaster management chain is the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The EOC is a physical command center responsible for the overall strategic control of the disaster response and functions as an information and communication …

Presence-Dependent Performance Differences Between Virtual Simulations And Miniature Worlds, Andre Huthmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of simulation is to avoid reality-based constraints by the implemen-tation of a synthetic model. Based on this advantage, interactive simulations have conquered all areas of applications from acquisition, and training, to research. Simulation results are transferred in many ways into reality and conclusions are drawn from the simulation to the application. Many anecdotal observations on human-in-the-loop simulations have shown a significant difference in actor behavior between simulations and reality-based applications. It seems that the factors that makes simulation so attractive, namely the absence of constraints and especially of imminent danger for persons and equipment, influence the behavior and …

Physical Ergonomic And Mental Workload Factors Of Mobile Learning Affecting Performance Of Adult Distance Learners: Student Pers, Rochelle Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Distance education is the fastest growing educational modality because of advances information technology has made over the past 25 years. Adult learners have become the fastest growing population in distance education. Adult learners, through technical tools and devices they use on the job, have become more digitally literate and mobile, making the ability to access class work on the go a necessity. Mobile learning or m-learning (learning that uses wireless, portable, mobile computing, and communication devices) is becoming an extension of distance learning, providing a channel for students to learn, communicate, and access educational material outside the traditional classroom environment. …