Engineering Commons^™

Applying Inventory Control Practices Within The Sisters Of Mercy Health Care Supply Chain, Server Apras

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research lays a foundation for the better understanding of the application and acceptance of more advanced inventory control practices within the health care supply chain. The demand characteristics and optimal control policies for pharmaceutical items within a multi-echelon provider network are examined within the framework of a case study. Demand forecasting algorithms were applied to forecast demand for inventory control procedures. A spreadsheet-based inventory planning tool was used to minimize the inventory holding and ordering costs subject to fill rate constraints. The costs of inventory control models are compared to the current ordering and inventory control strategies to document …

Investigation Of Rfid Readability For License Plates In Static And Motion Testing, Srinivasan Venkatesan

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The most important function of RFID in vehicle tracking is to store information concerning tagged elements in order to improve the overall performance of movable asset management. There is a need to discover an RFID system for the tracking of vehicles, as existing vehicle tracking systems are undependable. Experiments were performed with SIRIT, SAVI, and RF code RFID systems under differing conditions, attaching the tag to the license plate instead of the windshield. Different spacers were also tested to reduce the effect of metal surfaces on RFID signals.

Preliminary experiments were performed before stationary and motion testing in order to …

Integration Of A Real Option Of An Environmental Project, Qi Yang

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores a problem of how to evaluate environmental projects under the Carbon Cap-and-Trade Scheme (CCTS) from the perspective of an individual firm. The focus is the integration of a real option approach for project investment timing and financial carbon option approach for carbon credit management. The real option is for a mid or long term decision on when to invest on the environmental project, and the financial option is for a supplementary decision to hedge short-term residue risks. Two uncertainties (the carbon price and carbon credit demand) are considered, and their changes are represented by a lattice of …

A Digital Hydraulic Valve, Actuated Using A Piezoelectric Linear Motor, Brian C. Bevill

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

Proportional control in hydraulics is widely utilized. The most widely used current types of proportional valves utilize solenoid technology. While this technology has been around for decades and has been proven an effective means of control, there is always a demand for improved performance of advancing technologies. Integrating piezoelectric devices as a means to control hydraulic systems helps advance control for hydraulic systems.

Piezoelectric stack devices have been used to control hydraulic systems with success. Advantages of these stacks include being relatively small with a high power to weight ratio, using less energy than solenoid operations, and being fast acting. …

Acuta Enews July 2011, Vol 40, No. 7

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This lssue

From the President: The "T" in ACUTA....... Joe Harrington, Boston College

Second Dues lnvoices Mailed

The Daily Grind: What's on Your Desk Today?.......... Mona Brennan-Cotes, Univ. of Western Ontario

Calling All Young Professionals Amy Burton, ACUTA Mgr., Membership Mkt. & Corp. Relations

"The Future of Voice Communications": Winter Journal Looking for Articles

Board Report..................Riny Ledgerwood, San Diego State Univ.

Share Your RFIs/RFPs

Good Question on the ACUTA Listserv

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

Disaster Recovery Requires Lots of What-lfs.................... Gary Audin, Delphi, lnc.

ACUTA Fall Seminar in Boston

ACUTA Webinar: Transitioning to lPv6 …

Keeping Employees Alive And Well, Farman A. Moayed

Department of Built Environment

No abstract provided.

A Study On Facility Planning Using Discrete Event Simulation: Case Study Of A Grain Delivery Terminal, Sarah M. Asio

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The application of traditional approaches to the design of efficient facilities can be tedious and time consuming when uncertainty and a number of constraints exist. Queuing models and mathematical programming techniques are not able to capture the complex interaction between resources, the environment and space constraints for dynamic stochastic processes. In the following study discrete event simulation is applied to the facility planning process for a grain delivery terminal. The discrete event simulation approach has been applied to studies such as capacity planning and facility layout for a gasoline station and evaluating the resource requirements for a manufacturing facility. To …

Towards A Unified Definition Of Supply Chain Management, Edward Sweeney

Articles

A wide range of definitions of supply chain management (SCM) have been developed over the last three decades. The philosophy of SCM is based firmly on a recognition that it is only by working in a more integrated manner that competitive advantage can be maximised. However, for this to become a reality the development of common definitions and understandings between supply chain partners is a critical success factor. The corollary of this is that a lack of definitional consistency and a common understanding is an inhibitor to the successful adoption of SCM thinking in practice. This paper reviews a number …

Finding Robust-Under-Risk Solutions For Flowshop Scheduling, Steven O. Kimbrough, Ann Kuo, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose and explore, in the context of benchmark problems for flowshop scheduling, a risk-based concept of robustness for optimization problems. This risk-based concept is in distinction to, and complements, the uncertainty-based concept employed in the field known as robust optimization. Implementation of our concept requires problem solution methods that sample the solution space intelligently and that produce large numbers of distinct sample points. With these solutions to hand, their robustness scores are easily obtained and heuristically robust solutions found. We find evolutionary computation to be effective for this purpose on these problems.

Real-World Parameter Tuning Using Factorial Design With Parameter Decomposition, Aldy Gunawan, Hoong Chuin Lau, Elaine Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we explore the idea of improving the efficiency of factorial design for parameter tuning of metaheuristics. In a standard full factorial design, the number of runs increases exponentially as the number of parameters. To reduce the parameter search space, one option is to first partition parameters into disjoint categories. While this may be done manually based on user guidance, an automated approach proposed in this paper is to apply a fractional factorial design to partition parameters based on their main effects where each partition is then tuned independently. With a careful choice of fractional design, our approach …

Effect Of Palletized Box Offset On Compression Strength Of Unitized And Stacked Empty Corrugated Fiberboard Boxes, S. Paul Singh, Jay Singh, Koushik Saha

Industrial Technology and Packaging

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of pallet type, tie-sheet and stack configuration on compression strength of a palletized load of boxes. Four boxes made from similar board grade and different dimensions were selected for this study. The column stack configuration which represented the control was compared with the 3 stack configurations either on a CHEP® or GMA pallet. The unitized load either had a tie-sheet in between layers or no tie-sheet between layers of boxes on the respective pallets, for compression strength comparison with the control unitized load represented by a column stack configuration. This …

Effect Of Horizontal Offset On Vertical Compression Strength Of Stacked Corrugated Fiberboard Boxes, Jay Singh, S. Paul Singh, Koushik Saha

Industrial Technology and Packaging

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of horizontal offset on the compression strength of stacked box configurations. Four different boxes of varying sizes and similar board combinations, made from similar flute but different manufacturers were studied. The single box compression strength for each type of box was determined to represent as the control for this study. The compression strength of control boxes were compared to overall strength of a three-high stack and in three different offset configurations. In addition a set of perfectly aligned boxes were compared to overall strength of a three-high stack and in …

Sustainable Oxygen: A Low Power Approach For Providing Emergency Medical Oxygen For Spacecraft And Hospitals In Developing Countries, Anndee L. Huff, Evan Rhead, Zdenek Zumr, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An oxygen concentrator targeting an 80% reduction in power demand over commercial systems is being developed using a pressure swing adsorption process. This system is targeted for a service interval five times longer than commercial systems, and is tolerant to high humidity environments- the leading cause of device failure in developing countries. This system could provide emergency medical oxygen in a spacecraft without increasing oxygen concentration in the vehicle. Flight surgeons seek this capability, but presently, there is no system that meets power, size, and delivery rate requirements. This type of system is also well suited for medical oxygen in …

Social Innovation Concepts At Nasa: Integrating International Development Challenges And Hands-On Prototyping With Spacecraft Design Training, Leonard Yowell, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The NASA Johnson Space Center Social Innovation program has been designed to encourage innovation within the NASA community that benefits both NASA's core mission as well as human needs domestically and internationally. By encouraging internal and external collaboration and providing resources including the new Johnson Space Center "Sandbox" design shop, new innovations are anticipated. Technologies developed for the human exploration of space share similar requirements with appropriate technology for the developing world. The technology goals of keeping people alive in a difficult environment involve addressing requirements for low maintenance and robustness and often include using renewable energy sources. Technologies developed …

Scalable Multiagent Planning Using Probabilistic Inference, Akshat Kumar, Shlomo Zilberstein, Marc Toussaint

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Multiagent planning has seen much progress with the development of formal models such as Dec-POMDPs. However, the complexity of these models -- NEXP-Complete even for two agents -- has limited scalability. We identify certain mild conditions that are sufficient to make multiagent planning amenable to a scalable approximation w.r.t. the number of agents. This is achieved by constructing a graphical model in which likelihood maximization is equivalent to plan optimization. Using the Expectation-Maximization framework for likelihood maximization, we show that the necessary inference can be decomposed into processes that often involve a small subset of agents, thereby facilitating scalability. We …

Message-Passing Algorithms For Quadratic Programming Formulations Of Map Estimation, Akshat Kumar, Shlomo Zilberstein

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Computing maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation in graphical models is an important inference problem with many applications. We present message-passing algorithms for quadratic programming (QP) formulations of MAP estimation for pairwise Markov random fields. In particular, we use the concave-convex procedure (CCCP) to obtain a locally optimal algorithm for the non-convex QP formulation. A similar technique is used to derive a globally convergent algorithm for the convex QP relaxation of MAP. We also show that a recently developed expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for the QP formulation of MAP can be derived from the CCCP perspective. Experiments on synthetic and real-world problems …

A Systemic Approach To Next Generation Infrastructure Data Elicitation And Planning Using Serious Gaming Methods, Ersin Ancel

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Infrastructure systems are vital to the functioning of our society and economy. However, these systems are increasingly complex and are more interdependent than ever, making them difficult to manage. In order to respond to increasing demand, environmental concerns, and natural and man-made threats, infrastructure systems have to adapt and transform. Traditional engineering design approaches and planning tools have proven to be inadequate when planning and managing these complex socio-technical system transitions. The design and implementation of next generation infrastructure systems require holistic methodologies, encompassing organizational and societal aspects in addition to technical factors. In order to do so, a serious …

The Inside-Out Classroom: A Win-Win Strategy For Teaching With Technology, Daniel J. Waldorf, Lizabeth Schlemer

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

As costs of higher education soar and many universities face uncertain funding models, institutional pressures have increased to improve instructor efficiency. At the same time, U.S. industry leaders and leading educators have called for improvements in engineering education based on more interactive, hands-on student learning experiences. Although many efforts have been made to take advantage of technology to either improve student learning or to maintain student learning while increasing instructor efficiency, few approaches have been shown to improve both learning and efficiency. A teaching method is proposed to improve student learning and increase student satisfaction while also addressing the instructors’ …

Evolving A Summer Engineering Camp Through Assessment, Katherine Chen, Lizabeth Schlemer, Heather Scott Smith, Teana Fredeen

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

EPIC (Engineering Possibilities in College) is a one-week summer program for high school students (entering 9th-12th grades) to learn about engineering and experience hands-on labs in a university atmosphere. It's an opportunity for students to explore the different types of engineering available at many universities. The aim of EPIC is to expand the College of Engineering mission to K-12 students: "To educate students for careers of service, leadership and distinction in engineering or other fields by using a participatory, learn by doing, ‘hands-on’ approach".

Design Projects With Out-Of-Town Companies, Lizabeth Schlemer

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The capstone design class in the industrial engineering department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) includes projects with companies. The projects are large ambiguous facilities design problems that allow students to incorporate many aspects of the IE curriculum. For the past 15 years students have been participating in these projects with local companies. Over the past several years, companies from out of town (200 miles to the north in Mountain View or 200 miles to the south in Oxnard) have participated. These out of town companies have presented certain logistical issues, but they have proven to …

E-10a Mc2a Systems Engineering Case Study, Air Force Center For Systems Engineering, William Albery

AFIT Documents

No abstract provided.

Face Recognition Via Ensemble Sift Matching Of Uncorrelated Hyperspectral Bands And Spectral Pcts, Mohd Fairul Mohd-Zaid

Theses and Dissertations

Face recognition is not a new area of study, but facial recognition using through hyperspectral images is a somewhat new concept which is still in its infancy. Although the conventional method of face recognition using Red-Green-Blue (RGB) or grayscale images has been advanced over the last twenty years, these methods are still shown to have weak performance whenever there are variations or changes in lighting, pose, or temporal aspect of the subjects. A hyperspectral representation of an image captures more information that is available within a scene than a RGB image therefore it is beneficial to study the performance of …

Enterprise Requirements And Acquisition Model, David A. Leach, Chad T. Searle

Theses and Dissertations

In support of senior leadership emphasis on improving early systems engineering and analysis, the Enterprise Requirements and Acquisition Model (ERAM) is a quantitative discrete-event process simulation model that accounts for activities from the identification of a desired space capability early in the JCIDS process through Milestone C of the acquisition system resulting in a probabilistic schedule distribution for a given concept. This model of the DoD's space capability development process will provide valuable decision making information for Concept Characterization and Technical Descriptions referenced during Analysis of Alternatives. The research focused on identifying activities, assigning historical triangular distributions and probabilities at …

A System Model For Green Manufacturing, Ahmed M. Deif

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Manufacturing systems evolution is afunction in multiple external and internal factors. With today’s global awareness of environmental risks as well as the pressing needs to compete through efficiency, manufacturing systems are evolving into a new paradigm. This paper presents a system model for the new green manufacturing paradigm. The model captures various planning activities to migrate from a less green into a greener and more eco-efficient manufacturing. The various planning stages are accompanied by the required control metrics as well as various green tools in an open mixed architecture. The system model is demonstrated by an industrial case study. The …

Optimal Process Design For Recycled Pet Blends In Injection Molding, Perry H. Johnson

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This case study on optimization of blends with process variables shows how application of advanced tools of Design of Experiments can simultaneously optimize a mixture formulation and processing conditions, taking advantage of complex interactions in the system. The effect of recycled PET and virgin PET on tensile strength and stiffness was studied. The optimal amount of mixture components to produce maximum recycled-content products is determined. As the results of doing systematic experimentation, using mixture experiments, the quality of recycled plastic products can be improved and becomes more robust to variations at the optimal thermal operating settings. This is done through …

Microfiche Digitization And Process Improvement For Cal Poly Senior Projects, Kyle Gaunt

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project addresses the need to digitize Senior Projects available on microfiche at the Cal Poly Robert E. Kennedy Library. Microfiche is an outdated document archival medium and is unfamiliar to most students, making Senior Project research inconvenient and frustrating to students. To make this process easier and more accessible to students, the University Library should consider digitizing its Senior Project collection and improving the current system in the mean time.

The Six Sigma DMAIC method was used to discover root cause problems of the current system, define performance metrics, and to develop data driven solutions for improving the current …

Radio Frequency Identification Classroom Management System, Andrew W. Wright

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Professors who manage large classes are unrealistically expected to grade each student fairly and accurately. Even with all of the technological advancements that have occurred in the past thirty years, very little progress has been made in classroom management, and as a result, professors are not equipped with enough tools to successfully manage large class sizes. Because radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is making its way into student issued identification cards, there is an opportunity to use it as a tool to aid professors in the classroom. The focus of this paper is to discover an effective system that can …

New Product Development Project Construction, Implementation And Continual Improvement: A Case Illustration From Semiconductor Manufacturing, Philip Daniel Walker

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Successful projects are the backbone of companies that lead their respective fields. Failed projects for one reason or another are more often than not the reason some companies fall further and further behind their counterparts. Projects are becoming more technologically advanced. Projects are more expensive and are receiving less funding than they used to due to a highly competitive economic climate. The projects in the second decade of 2000 have to meet the triple bottom line of cheaper, faster, and better than ever before. Due to these reasons projects have continued to fail at an alarming rate (nearly 70% in …

Setup Reduction Time At A Batch Manufacturing Plant, Mario A. Aguilar

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project documents the efforts to reduce setup times at a batch manufacturing culture media production plant. The company is one of the leading producers in medical and laboratory supplies, including culture media. In the production of culture media, the production line requires to switch between solutions once or twice a day depending on the production schedule.

The report provides the production plant with a concrete analysis of their current changeover method, which tends to be lengthy and complicated, and suggest alternatives in short and long term periods of time to reduce setup time.

After analyzing the time studies of …

Ms Access Database Designed For Community Service Office, Juan P. Ojeda Pedraza

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this senior project is to reduce the number of data entry errors in the community service worker system at the EcoSLO office. EcoSLO is a community service office located in San Luis Obispo, CA that seeks to better the environment through various events and programs such as recycling projects and environmental clean-up projects. Currently the EcoSLO office uses Microsoft Excel to store and keep track of community service workers. A Microsoft Access database will be designed to help minimize data entry errors and to make it easier to generate reports that must be submitted to the San …