Engineering Commons^™

The Effects Of Electricity Pring On Phev Competitiveness, Shisheng Huang, Bri-Mathias S. Hodge, Farzad Taheripour, Joseph F. Pekny, Gintaras V. Reklaitis, Wallace E. Tyner

PPRI Digital Library

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) will soon start to be introduced into the transportation sector, thereby raising a host of issues related to their use, adoption and effects on the electricity sector. Their introduction has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector, which has led to government policies aimed at easing their introduction. If their wide-spread adoption is set as a target it is imperative to consider the effects of existing policies that may increase or decrease their adoption rate. In this study, we present a micro level electricity demand model that can gauge the effects …

Integrating Balanced Scorecard And Simulation Modelling To Improve Emergency Department Performance In Irish Hospitals, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo-Hamad, Khaled Ismail

Conference papers

In the healthcare sector, there is a requirement for innovative solutions in managing the high levels of complexity and uncertainty within Emergency Departments (EDs). Simulation modeling is currently seen as a competent means of analyzing EDs, which allows changes effects to be understood and predicted more easily. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), well-known performance management concept, has become a steering method in approaching new improvement cycles. This paper presents a methodology that integrates BSC and simulation modeling to improve the performance of ED in a University Hospital in North Dublin. BSC design began with understanding patient's needs, ED activities, as well …

Coordinating Production And Recycling Decisions With Stochastic Demand And Return, Jianmai Shi, Guoqing Zhang, Jichang Sha, Saman Hassanzadeh Amin

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

In this paper, the joint production and recycling problem is investigated for a hybrid manufacturing and remanufacturing system where brand-new products are produced in the manufacturing plant and recycled products are remanufactured into as-new products in the remanufacturing facility. Both the brand-new products and remanufactured products are used to satisfy customer demands. Returns of used products that are recycled from customers are assumed to be stochastic and nonlinearly price-dependent. A mathematical model is proposed to maximize the overall profit of the system through simultaneously optimizing the production and recycling decisions, subject to two capacity constraints — the manufacturing capacity and …

Information Quality On The World Wide Web: A User Perspective, Jaikrit Kandari

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

Information Quality has emerged as an important measure for the success of Information Systems. At the same time the World Wide Web has established itself as the key infrastructure for information administration, exchange, and publication. Users are getting information from the web at the click of a button however they must filter sub-standard information before they can use quality content. Researchers have aimed to address this problem by suggesting various information quality frameworks. Research till date has seen twenty important Information Quality (IQ) frameworks emerge. These models though varied in their approach and application share a number of characteristics regarding …

Frameworks For Systemic And Structural Analysis Of Financial Innovations In Infrastructure, Ali Mostafavi, Dulcy M. Abraham

Infrastructure System-of-Systems (I-SoS ) Research Group

Financial innovations have emerged globally to close the gap between the rising global demand for infrastructures and the availability of financing sources offered by traditional financing mechanisms such as fuel taxation, tax-exempt bonds, and federal and state funds. The key to sustainable innovative financing mechanisms is effective policymaking. This paper discusses the theoretical framework of a research study whose objective is to structurally and systemically assess financial innovations in global infrastructures. The research aims to create analysis frameworks, taxonomies and constructs, and simulation models pertaining to the dynamics of the innovation process to be used in policy analysis. Structural assessment …

Product Life Cycle Theory And The Maturation Of The Internet, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Much of the recent debate over Internet policy has focused on the permissibility of business practices that are becoming increasingly common, such as new forms of network management, prioritization, pricing, and strategic partnerships. This Essay analyzes these developments through the lens of the management literature on the product life cycle, dominant designs, technological trajectories and design hierarchies, and the role of complementary assets in determining industry structure. This analysis suggests that many of these business practices may represent nothing more than a reflection of how the nature of competition changes as industries mature. This in turn suggests that network neutrality …

Agenda: 2010 World Energy Justice Conference: Emerging Solutions For The Energy Poor: Technological, Entrepreneurial And Institutional Challenges, University Of Colorado Boulder. Center For Energy & Environmental Security, Colorado Journal Of International Environmental Law And Policy

2010 World Energy Justice Conference (November 5)

This conference is a sequel to the 2009 World Energy Justice Conference (WEJC 2009) which began examining ways of mainstreaming safe, clean, and efficient energy for the world's Energy Poor (EP). The EP number two and a half billion people living on less than $1-2 a day who have no access to modern energy services. WEJC 2010 more fully develops these themes. WEJC 2010 will explore how the next round of global warming meetings in Cancun could design new flexibility mechanisms that give credits, for example, for the reduction of black carbon by the adoption of cookstoves, and embrace small …

Multi-Product Budget-Constrained Acquistion And Pricing With Uncertain Demand And Supplier Quantity Discounts, Jianmai Shi, Guoqing Zhang

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

We consider the joint acquisition and pricing problem where the retailer sells multiple products with uncertain demands and the suppliers provide all unit quantity discounts.The problem is to determine the optimal acquisition quantities and selling prices so as to maximize the retailer’s expected profit, subject to a budget constraint. This is the first extension to consider supplier discounts in the constrained multi-product newsvendor pricing problem. We establish a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model to formulate the problem, and developaLagrangian based solution approach.Computational results for the test problems involving up to thousand products are reported, which show that the Lagrangian …

Assessing Value Creation And Value Capture In Digital Business Ecosystems, Ravi S. Sharma, Francis Pereira, Narayan Ramasubbu, Margaret Tan, F. Ted Tschang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Interest in business modeling of technology enterprises – the activity of designing the architecture for revenues, costs, products and/or services delivery and the overall value of an enterprise – has risen to prominence with the global crossing of the Internet chasm. However, as several studies have pointed out (c.f., Osterwalder, Pigneur & Tucci, 2005; Teece 2010; Zott & Amit, 2010), the investigations of business models and their fit with the strategy of an enterprise, have received little scholarly attention. In this article we formulate a framework, called ADVISOR, for modeling the business strategies of enterprises in the Interactive Digital Media …

Culvert Material Cost Comparison, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

The following tables provide a detailed look at the role that culvert material and culvert diameter play in the overall cost of a culvert replacement project. Table 1 displays the cost per foot purchase price arranged by diameter size for the various culvert materials that are currently available. Table 2 displays the average additional culvert pipe material cost (increased cost to upsize minus original in-kind replacement cost) that would be incurred when upsizing a given diameter of culvert with a 50 foot length by factors of: 200%, 250% and 300%.

Slides: A Working Model For Oil And Gas Produced Water Treatment, Lee Schafer

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Lee Schafer, Integrity Production Services, Inc., for Anticline Disposal LLC

11 slides

Slides: Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project, Kathryn Mutz

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Kathryn Mutz, Natural Resources Law Center, University of Colorado at Boulder

21 slides

Slides: Drilling Waste, Blake Scott

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Blake Scott, Scott Environmental Services, Inc.

24 slides

Agenda: Opportunities And Obstacles To Reducing The Environmental Footprint Of Natural Gas Development In The Uintah Basin, Utah State University. Bingham Entrepreneurship And Energy Research Center, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project, Houston Advanced Research Center. Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

A public workshop to discuss “Opportunities and Constraints to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development” was held in Vernal, Utah on October 14, 2010 at the Vernal campus of Utah State University. The workshop was sponsored by Utah State University, The Bingham Energy Research Center; The University of Colorado Natural Resources Law Center; and the Houston Advanced Research Center, Environmentally Friendly Drilling Program.

The meeting included presentations and panel discussions on:

• Trends and environmental issues related to natural gas development
• Examples of environmental innovations being used in the Uintah Basin
• Examples of innovation & tools from outside the …

Slides: Engaging Stakeholders, Duane Zavadil

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Duane Zavadil, Bill Barrett Corporation

5 slides

Slides: Acts: Anadarko Completion Transport System, Jeff Dufresne

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Jeff Dufresne, Completions Manager, Anadarko Corporation

18 slides

Slides: The Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program, David Burnett

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: David Burnett, Texas A&M University and Houston Advanced Research Center

44 slides

Slides: Enhanced Reclamation Program, Stephanie Tomkinson

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Stephanie Tomkinson, Senior Biologist, QEP Company

33 slides

Slides: Geospatial Decision Support For Shale Gas Site Development, Malcolm Williamson, Jackson Cothren, Peter Smith

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Malcolm Williamson, Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of Arkansas

50 slides

Slides: Assessing Opportunities And Barriers To Reducing The Environmental Footprint Of Oil And Gas Development In Utah, Douglas Jackson-Smith, Lorien Belton, Brian Gentry, Gene Theodori

Opportunities and Obstacles to Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Natural Gas Development in Uintah Basin (October 14)

Presenter: Dr. Douglas Jackson-Smith, Utah State University--Logan Campus

37 slides

Gains In The Life-Cycle Of Adaptable, Self-Organizing Material Handling Systems, Jan R. Nopper, Guido Follert, Michael Ten Hompel

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

Compared to conventional material flow controls, self-organized material handling systems and the Internet of Things in facility logistics promise several advantages during the life-cycle. Most important is the increased adaptability in case of expansions or modifications due to a consistent modular design; this also promotes an increased robustness due to clearly defined interfaces and a decreased complexity of each module. The use of RFID technology increases the availability of real-time data about the system and the transported units. However, the introduction of self-organized material handling systems also causes costs, e.g. for necessary RFID tags and readers. Against this background, it …

Design Of Cross-Chain Internet Order Fulfillment Centres, Kees Jan Roodbergen, Iris F. A. Vis, Jaap Boter

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

Many consumers have embraced the option of ordering via the Internet, which has resulted in an enormous increase in direct orders compared to the times when direct ordering was done by catalogue and phone. The fulfillment process in the supply chain is an important factor for these consumers impacting how long they must wait between ordering and delivery. This fact has significantly increased the importance of the back-end fulfillment process. We present a novel supply chain design to enable cross-chain coordination of order fulfillment operations for internet sales. Shared warehousing facilities are used more and more to achieve competitive advantage. …

A Real-Time Picking And Sorting System In E-Commerce Distribution Centers, Yeming Gong, Erik M. M. Winands, Rene B. M. De Koster

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

Order fulfillment is the most expensive and critical operation for companies engaged in e-commerce. E-commerce distribution centers must rapidly organize the picking and sorting processes during and after the transaction has taken place, with the ongoing need to create greater responsiveness to customers. Sorting brings a relatively large setup time, which cannot be well admitted by existing polling models. We build a new stochastic polling model to describe and analyze such systems, and provide approximate explicit expressions for the complete distribution of order line waiting time for polling-based order picking systems and test their accuracy. These expressions lend themselves for …

Spiral Facility Layout Generation And Improvement Algorithm, Hatice E. Sanli, Fahrettin Eldemir

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

This study is concerned with construction and improvement of a facility layout heuristic called Spiral Facility Layout Generation and Improvement Algorithm (SFLA). The algorithm starts with positioning departments from center point and continues like a hologram from center to outside. The aim of any facility layout algorithm is to better allocate the departments within facility. SFLA is compared with the existing space filling curve methods, MCRAFT and MULTIPLE, that are available in the literature. To form an initial spiral curve, a block system is used, like the bands for MCRAFT. The width and length of the blocks are given by …

Merge Problems With High Speed Sorters, Dirk Jodin, Andreas Wolfschluckner

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

To meet customer demands on distribution the necessity of sorting systems for unit loads in regard to quantity and capacity is growing up constantly.

Due to that, manufactures offer powerful sorting machines with a capacity up to 15.000 pieces per hour. Those machines are for instance Crossbelt or Tilt-Tray sorters. The output of these sorters is calculated by the equation of throughput.

The point of interest is the merge, referring to the overall efficiency of the single sorter. The motion sequence during merging has to be absolutely quick and precise to achieve exact positioning using minimized distances of the single …

Dispatching Vehicles Considering Uncertain Handling Times At Port Container Terminals, Vu Duc Nguyen, Kap Hwan Kim

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

This paper considers the problem of vehicle dispatching at port container terminals in a dynamic environment. The problem deals with the assignment of delivery orders of containers to vehicles while taking into consideration the uncertainty in the travel times of the vehicles. Thus, a real-time vehicle dispatching algorithm is proposed for adaptation to the dynamic changes in the states of the container terminals. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, a simulation study was conducted by considering various values of decision parameters under the uncertainty in travel times. Further, the performance of the proposed algorithm was compared with those …

Investigating Possible Synergies In Intermodal Operations With Truck And Rail, G. Don Taylor, Mia K. Burns, Gary L. Whicker

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

As the trucking industry continues to examine ways to provide better service at lower cost, many companies are more heavily utilizing intermodal (IM) strategies between truck and rail, especially for those loads that are relatively non-critical in terms of delivery time requirements and that have longer lengths of haul. As IM business grows, supporting dray infrastructure naturally develops around IM rail yards. What is unknown is whether it is best to have a dedicated set of drivers performing dray operations or if efficiency and cost savings can result when utilizing a joint driving fleet to concurrently support IM and traditionally …

Optimization Of Costs And Service Level By Choosing The Best Customer Order Decoupling Point, Michael Schmidt, Detlef Spee

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

The customer order decoupling point (CODP) as the link in the supply chain between processes based on uncertain information, such as sales forecasts, and certain information in the form of customer orders is crucial for production efficiency, storage costs, and the quality of logistics. This paper focuses on developing an approach for identifying a CODP that provides the highest potential for achieving business objectives. Within the context of the above-mentioned topics, this paper focuses on the interrelations and the tradeoffs that have to be made when positioning the COPD. The goal of the paper is to present an effective and …

Analysis Of Picker Blocking In Narrow-Aisle Batch Picking, Soondo Hong, Andrew L. Johnson, Brett A. Peters

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

This study analyzes impacts by batch picking on picker blocking in narrow-aisle order picking, and determines appropriate batch formations for a better order picking throughput. We present multiple-pick analytical models to offer insights about picker blocking in batch picking. Several simulation studies over a variety of batching situations scrutinize order batching situations which give throughput benefits in narrow-aisle configurations by satisfying the analytical results. Our results highlight three findings for narrow-aisle batch picking processes: 1) variation of pick probability in batch picking is inevitable and is a primary driver of picker blocking; 2) a near-optimal distance-based batching algorithm can experience …

Drive And Motion Design In Material Handling Equipment, Jorg Oser, Christian Landschutzer

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

Drives account in many cases up to one third of the costs of material handling equipment. This fact justifies a closer look to important drive and motion issues. Typical design criteria for drives are energy and power consumption, wear, heat and noise generation. Engineering design activities start with the generation of the system configuration, that is to make appropriate topological decisions where to locate the drives in the equipment structure. These decisions define to a great extent the functional quality of the mechanical structure and the distribution of forces in the power train. For early design stages an elasto-kinetic model …