Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

A Practical Collaborative Material Handling Strategy For Cross-Docks, Hector J. Carlo, Stephanie Santiago-Montano

International Material Handling Research Colloquium

Poster 8

15th International Material Handling Research Colloquium Program, College Industry Council On Material Handling Education, Mhi

International Material Handling Research Colloquium

Official Conference Program

An Optimal Airline Revenue Management Seat Pricing Plan Model, Constantine M. Koursaris, James W. Marion Jr.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The goal of an airline is to sell tickets at the highest fare possible, thus yielding maximum profit for the stakeholders. As airline seat pricing is divided into different fare classes, a revenue management system is created and maintained to identify opportunity costs where the airline may sell an optimum number of available seats in both discounted fare and full fare classes. Ideally, under perfect conditions, the airline will sell all available seats at full capacity for each leg of a trip. Under non-ideal conditions for the airline, not all available seats may sell at either full fare or discounted …

A Representation Of Tactical And Strategic Precursors Of Supply Network Resilience Using Simulation Based Experiments, Yaneth C. Correa-Martinez

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Modern supply chains are becoming increasingly complex and are exposed to higher levels of risk. Globalization, market uncertainty, mass customization, technological and innovation forces, among other factors, make supply networks more susceptible to disruptions (both those that are man-made and/or ones associated with natural events) that leave suppliers unavailable, shut-down facilities and entail lost capacity.

Whereas several models for disruption management exist, there is a need for operational representations of concepts such as resilience that expand the practitioners’ understanding of the behavior of their supply chains. These representations must include not only specific characteristics of the firm’s supply network but …

Sequence-Based Simulation-Optimization Framework With Application To Port Operations At Multimodal Container Terminals, Mariam Aladdin Kotachi

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

It is evident in previous works that operations research and mathematical algorithms can provide optimal or near-optimal solutions, whereas simulation models can aid in predicting and studying the behavior of systems over time and monitor performance under stochastic and uncertain circumstances. Given the intensive computational effort that simulation optimization methods impose, especially for large and complex systems like container terminals, a favorable approach is to reduce the search space to decrease the amount of computation.

A maritime port can consist of multiple terminals with specific functionalities and specialized equipment. A container terminal is one of several facilities in a port …

Fundamental Tradeoffs In Estimation Of Finite-State Hidden Markov Models, Justin Le

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Hidden Markov models (HMMs) constitute a broad and flexible class of statistical models that are widely used in studying processes that evolve over time and are only observable through the collection of noisy data. Two problems are essential to the use of HMMs: state estimation and parameter estimation. In state estimation, an algorithm estimates the sequence of states of the process that most likely generated a certain sequence of observations in the data. In parameter estimation, an algorithm computes the probability distributions that govern the time-evolution of states and the sampling of data. Although algorithms for the two problems are …

Quantitative Methods For Select Problems In Facility Location And Facility Logistics, Bin Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presented three logistics problems. The first problem is a parallel machine scheduling problems that considers multiple unique characteristics including release dates, due dates, limited machine availability and job splitting. The objective of is to minimize the total amount of time required to complete work. A mixed integer programming model is presented and a heuristic is developed for solving the problem. The second problem extends the first parallel scheduling problem to include two additional practical considerations. The first is a setup time that occurs when warehouse staff change from one type of task to another. The second is a …

Optimal Allocation Of Resources In Reliability Growth, Mohammadhossein Heydari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reliability growth testing seeks to identify and remove failure modes in order to improve system reliability. This dissertation centers around the resource allocation across the components of a multi-component system to maximize system reliability. We summarize this dissertation’s contributions to optimal resource allocation in reliability growth.

Chapter 2 seeks to deploy limited testing resources across the components of a series-parallel system in effort to maximize system reliability under the assumption that each component’s reliability exhibits growth according to an AMSAA model with known parameters. An optimization model for this problem is developed and then extended to consider the allocation of …

A Multi-Objective Affinity-Based Savings Algorithm For Improving Processes In Centralized Warehousing Operations, Mckenlee M. Coco

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traditional approaches to improving material management processes in warehousing operations tend to focus on one of three major areas: facility design, order picking and sorting, and order batching. In an effort to improve total system savings, a new affinity function is developed and applied to batching logic to create a multi-objective problem. The proposed multi-objective function incorporates user input to increase adaptability to changing demand and flexibility to changing requirements. Computational experience shows the new function leads to solutions that deviate no more than 25% from the most efficient distance based picking route by the same batching logic, while creating …

Essays On Applications Of Transportation Network Design And Optimization, Amirali Ghaharikermani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we address different transportation problems. The three main outcomes are: designing a battery swap station network, studying gaps in Empty Container Management literature, designing a model with similar characteristics to the vehicle routing problem as well as implementation scenario for it to be applied for a real-world case.

For the designed battery swap station, a model is developed for customer demand satisfaction that permits construction of different types of BSS in the planning network. Our solution methodology is a Tabu Search algorithm combined with a dynamic programming initialization. Numerous tests showed that the proposed TS approach provides …

Convergent Set-Based Design In Integrated Analysis Of Alternatives: Designing Engineered Resilient Systems, Zephan Wright Wade

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a comprehensive package for understanding and expanding set-based design quantification through the definition and demonstration of Convergent set-based design (SBD). Convergent SBD is a technique developed for the Engineered Resilient Systems program sponsored by the Department of Defense. Convergent SBD contributes a repeatable methodology with the goal of mathematically eliminating inefficient sets. The study of Convergent SBD led to the development of dominance identification criteria equations using comparison of statistical means. The demonstration of Convergent SBD also illustrates the effect of mission resilience in the tradespace and the impact mission resilience has on preference. Finally, Convergent SBD …

Implementing A Total Productive Maintenance Approach Into An Improvement At S Company, Xiaomeng Sun

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The study improved the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of machines and processes through the implementation of a total productive maintenance (TPM) approach at Company S over a three-month period. By comparing the OEE of equipment before and after the implementation of autonomous maintenance, this study concluded that autonomous maintenance improves OEE. The target of this study was one general product line at a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) plant. Due to time limitations, the study only applied autonomous maintenance to operational activities. This research involved machine and processes selection, condition assessment, baseline OEE assessment, operator training, execution of autonomous maintenance, and OEE measurement. …

Repeatability Case Study Of The 3d Printer In The School Of Engineering And Applied Science Lab, Naif Faleh S. Albaiji

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

3DP (three-dimensional printing) technologies have become more than just a tool to help companies with prototyping and designing in the pre-production stage. Some firms have already implemented 3DP technology to produce parts and end-use products. However, there are several challenges and barriers that this technology must overcome to replace traditional manufacturing methods. One of the most significant obstacles associated with 3D printing is its low level of accuracy in variable repeatability when it comes to making separate batches of the same product. There are several arguable reasons behind this variation. Some of the factors that can influence repeatability are the …

Contextual Framework Of Communications Functions Supporting Complex System Governance, Charles Wesley Chesterman Jr.

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a systems theory-based contextual framework of communication functions supporting complex system governance using an inductive research design. Communication, as one aspect of Management Cybernetics (communication and control for effective system organization) constructed of channels of communication, provides for the movement of information internally and externally for a system. This flow reflecting new information, decisions, questions, and intelligence is critical for viability of a system. This research looked for communication mechanisms as developed in system theory, communication theory, management theory, and organizational theory. The literature indicates the importance of communications, but a systemic …

A Multi-Level Longitudinal Investigation Of Transformational Leadership Influence On Team Members Development In Engineering Project Teams, Nathapon Siangchokyoo

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to contribute to the existing Transformational Leadership literature. Despite the overwhelming support that Transformational Leadership theory has garnered over the recent years, the underlying mechanisms and processes by which these leaders exert influence on their followers have yet to be adequately examined. More importantly, while the majority of advances in leadership research can largely be attributed to traditional areas of management and social sciences, studies of leadership in the context of engineering still remain relatively unexplored. Drawing on previous empirical research as well as the concept of Core Self-Evaluations, this study sets out …

Case Study On The Development Of Engineering Design Modification Projects For U.S. Nuclear Power Plants: A Knowledge Retention Tool In Support Of The Longevity And Resilience Of The Nuclear Power Industry, Pamela M. Torres-Jiménez

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The nuclear power industry in the United States (U.S.) has gone through various changes throughout its history. Most recently, plans to grow the industry through the construction of new power plants have ceased. Because of this, the industry is at a period where the longevity and resilience of existing nuclear power plants are vital to its subsistence.

One of the ways existing nuclear power plants can assure longevity and resilience is by performing engineering design modifications efficiently and at a lower cost. Strategic plans, such as the Delivering the Nuclear Promise, can support nuclear utilities to achieve this. Another strategy …

An Open Source Approach To Social Media Data Gathering, Anthony J. Kallhoff

Theses and Dissertations

Modern usage of social media affords the military intelligence and analytic communities novel approaches to gather information. However, the tools and resources to develop these methodologies are still maturing. Furthermore, current data acquisition tools are not available to the DoD for all social media platforms. This thesis addresses a small subset of this problem by developing an open source methodological approach to collect and manage data from a popular social media site that has previously been inaccessible to defense intelligence organizations. This approach was operationalized via the R package called instaExtract, and an exemplar analysis was performed to demonstrate its …

The Developmental Test Scheduling Problem, Joseph E. Schoenbeck

Theses and Dissertations

Developmental testing of aircraft systems in the United States Air Force requires a complex set of resources for each test. The optimal scheduling of those resources is the job of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base. With more than 20 different Combined Task Forces requesting resources for roughly 300 flying missions each week, manual scheduling is a difficult task. The current process takes a team of schedulers several days to get a workable result from which they can start tailoring the final schedule. While concepts and techniques can be taken from industry scheduling problems, the body of …

Assessment And Comparison Of Aviation Manufacturing Industries Throughout Mexico And Brazil, Omar E. Morsi, Kelly A. Whealan-George, Aaron D. Clevenger

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This literature review serves to provide insight and understanding in regards to the evolving aviation manufacturing industry throughout the globe and more specifically, Mexico and Brazil. Increased demand for aircraft units both in the commercial and private sectors have led to unprecedented expansions in aircraft manufacturing across the industry. In order to illuminate certain potentials and current growth levels of such industries, this review will delve into an array of information and specifications in regards to economic, political, and cultural influences throughout both Mexican and Brazilian markets respectively. In conclusion, the review will identify the transformation of an aviation manufacturing …

Minimizing Commute Distance For Small Groups: A Linear Programming Approach, Kevin Payne, Kritika Kumari, Levi Huddleston, Rabi Hassan

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

This paper aims to minimize total drive time between members and their respective group leader. Given a limit on group size and days available, how can a formulation of a group occur such that the sum of the total drive time is minimized. To accomplish this task a Linear Program (LP) is implemented that includes three sets of binary decisions variables summing to 4100 variables and a variety of constraints summing between 4200 and 4341 depending on the constraints enforced. For 200 members and 15 leaders the minimized average commuting time was found to be between 4.99 and 5.36 minutes …

Proactive Coordination In Healthcare Service Systems Through Near Real-Time Analytics, Seung Yup Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

The United States (U.S.) healthcare system is the most expensive in the world. To improve the quality and safety of care, health information technology (HIT) is broadly adopted in hospitals. While EHR systems form a critical data backbone for the facility, we need improved 'work-flow' coordination tools and platforms that can enhance real-time situational awareness and facilitate effective management of resources for enhanced and efficient care. Especially, these IT systems are mostly applied for reactive management of care services and are lacking when they come to improving the real-time "operational intelligence" of service networks that promote efficiency and quality of …

Shift Scheduling Optimization For Psu Library, Aayushi Gupta, Anju Babu, Lipishree Vrushabhendra, Shivani Purwar, Shravankumar Doosa

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Scheduling is important in any business as it creates an order and flow ensuring that all the tasks are covered at appropriate times. According to experts, scheduling determines the economics of a job, the quality of the team, and the skill-building and motivation of professionals doing the work. Therefore, it is essential to have optimized staff schedules to meet the requirements of staff availability, tasks coverage, shift equity and staff preferences. Though staff scheduling is of such prime importance, it is mostly implemented in traditional ways of manually creating spreadsheets and web calendars proving to be laborious and often leaving …

Evaluating Flexibility Metrics On Simple Temporal Networks With Reinforcement Learning, Hamzah I. Khan

HMC Senior Theses

Simple Temporal Networks (STNs) were introduced by Tsamardinos (2002) as a means of describing graphically the temporal constraints for scheduling problems. Since then, many variations on the concept have been used to develop and analyze algorithms for multi-agent robotic scheduling problems. Many of these algorithms for STNs utilize a flexibility metric, which measures the slack remaining in an STN under execution. Various metrics have been proposed by Hunsberger (2002); Wilson et al. (2014); Lloyd et al. (2018). This thesis explores how adequately these metrics convey the desired information by using them to build a reward function in a reinforcement learning …

In Defense Of The Broader Application Of Virtual Queues, Evan Rapone

Honors Program Theses

The broader application of virtual queues is proposed. A review of the current state of queuing theory is presented as well as an acknowledgment of the deficiencies in the practicality of queuing theory. It is suggested that the queuing process can be improved by implementing the option of pursuing a virtual line. Specifically, the potential utility of introducing virtual queues is discussed in the context of the FastPass system, highlighting the major features of the method as well as examining the disadvantages of the service. The implementation of a FastPass-style queuing process outside of theme parks is presented as a …

The Design, Test And Evaluation Of A Sensing System For Process Analytical Technology (Pat), Trevor Murphy

Theses

Increased globalisation and competitiveness has given rise to a more dynamic and diverse global market that has begun to place incredible strain on manufacturing supply chains. Conventional manufacturing methods such as the batch manufacturing methods employed largely by the materials processing industries i.e. pharmaceuticals, polymers and magnesium processing plants are ill-suited to cope with the demands of today. As products evolve with technological advancements they become more complex to produce and require alternative approaches to manufacturing to ensure product quality while reducing costs and increasing manufacturing efficiencies.

A potential solution to the growing demands on today's supply chain is process …

Stochastic Bi-Level Optimization Models For Efficient Operating Room Planning, Amin Abedini, Wei Li, Honghan Ye

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Within a hospital, the operating room (OR) department has the largest cost and revenue. Because of the aging population, the demand for surgical services has been increasing sharply in recent years. At the other hand, the rate of OR capacity expansion is lower than the rate of increasing demand. As a result, OR managers must leverage their resources by efficient OR planning. OR planning is challenging because of multiple competing\conflicting objectives such cost minimization and throughput maximization. Inherent uncertainty in the surgical procedures and patients arrivals complicate the decision making process. This increases the risk of non-realization of the system …

Optimal Supply Delivery Under Military Specific Constraints, Talena Fletcher

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Through-out military history, the need to safely and effectively allocate resources to various military operations was a task of extreme importance. Satisfying the needs of multiple consumers by optimally pairing with appropriate suppliers falls into the category of vehicle routing problems (VRP), which has been intensively studied over the years. In general, finding the optimal solution to VRP is known to be NP-hard. The proposed solutions rely on mathematical programming and the size of the problems that can be optimally solved is typically limited. In military settings, balancing the needs of multiple consumers with the current operational environment has always …

Location Optimization Of A Coal Power Plant To Balance Coal Supply And Electric Transmission Costs Against Plant’S Emission Exposure, Najam Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is focused on developing a location analysis methodology that can minimize the pollutant exposure to the public while ensuring that the combined costs of electric transmission losses and coal logistics are minimized. Coal power plants will provide a critical contribution towards meeting electricity demands for various nations in the foreseeable future. The site selection for a new coal power plant is extremely important from an investment point of view. The operational costs for running a coal power plant can be minimized by a combined emphasis on placing a coal power plant near coal mines as well as customers. …

การศึกษาและวิเคราะห์เครือข่ายการท่องเที่ยวภายในประเทศไทย, กฤษฎาภฤศ ปึงภัทรกิจ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้มุ่งเน้นการพัฒนา ศึกษา และวิเคราะห์เครือข่ายการท่องเที่ยวของประเทศไทยผ่านทางทฤษฎีเครือข่าย และค่าความเป็นศูนย์กลางแบบต่างๆ เพื่อใช้ในการระบุบทบาทหน้าที่ของแต่ละพื้นที่การท่องเที่ยว อันจะนำไปสู่การวางแผนพัฒนาพื้นที่ท่องเที่ยวอย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ และยั่งยืนต่อไปในอนาคต ทั้งนี้ เครือข่ายการท่องเที่ยวที่ถูกพัฒนาขึ้นจัดเป็นเครือข่ายแบบถ่วงน้ำหนักที่ค่าน้ำหนักของความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างพื้นที่การท่องเที่ยวแปรผันตามค่าอัตราการไหลของนักท่องเที่ยวระหว่างพื้นที่ ซึ่งขึ้นอยู่กับปัจจัยส่งเสริมการท่องเที่ยวต่างๆ เช่น จำนวนแหล่งท่องเที่ยว และที่พักในพื้นที่ท่องเที่ยว จากผลการศึกษา ผู้วิจัยพบว่า กรุงเทพมหานครถือเป็นจุดศูนย์กลางการท่องเที่ยวของประเทศไทยในทุกแง่มุม ส่วนหนึ่งเป็นผลเนื่องมาจากความพร้อมด้านประชากร และศักยภาพในการสนับสนุนการท่องเที่ยว ในขณะที่จังหวัดรอบนอกของกรุงเทพมหานครมีความสำคัญในเชิงการรองรับนักท่องเที่ยวที่จะเดินทางไปยังจุดศูนย์กลางการท่องเที่ยว นอกจากนี้ผู้วิจัยยังพบว่า จังหวัดเชียงใหม่ ปัตตานี ราชบุรี ชลบุรี ร้อยเอ็ด ถือเป็นจุดศูนย์กลางของพื้นที่การท่องเที่ยวรองในแต่ละภูมิภาคของประเทศไทย โดยมีจังหวัดนครราชสีมา ประจวบคีรีขันธ์ ชุมพร และนครสวรรค์ เป็นจังหวัดที่สำคัญต่อการเดินทางระหว่างพื้นที่การท่องเที่ยวภายในประเทศ

การยอมรับคำสั่งซื้อและการวางแผนการผลิตในระบบการผลิตแบบไหลเลื่อน, บุญญภัทร์ บุญศรี

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้นำเสนอวิธีการยอมรับคำสั่งซื้อและการวางแผนการผลิตตามนโยบายการผลิตตามคำสั่งซื้อ (Make to Order: MTO) โดยระบบการผลิตที่ศึกษาเป็นระบบการผลิตแบบไหลเลื่อนที่มีสถานีงานและชนิดผลิตภัณฑ์ที่หลากหลายที่ขึ้นกับข้อจำกัดการส่งมอบจำนวนผลิต และเวลากำหนดส่งที่ชัดเจนภายใต้กำลังการผลิตที่มีอย่างจำกัด ลักษณะของปัญหาประกอบไปด้วยสองปัญหาย่อย ได้แก่ 1.ส่วนการคัดเลือกคำสั่งซื้อที่มีจำนวนความต้องการที่ผลิตที่รับงานได้รวมเป็นวัตถุประสงค์หลัก 2.ส่วนการวางแผนการผลิตที่กำหนดจำนวนการผลิตในช่วงระยะวางแผนผลิตโดยที่มีจำนวนวัสดุคงคลังน้อยที่สุดเป็นวัตถุประสงค์รอง ผู้วิจัยได้นำเสนอรูปแบบจำลองสมการเชิงเส้นจำนวนเต็มผสม (Mixed Integer Linear Programing: MILP) ที่ประยุกต์ใช้จากแบบจำลอง Integrated production planning models with order acceptance (PP-OA) และนำเสนอวิธีการโดยตรงในการหาคำตอบ แต่เนื่องจากความซับซ้อนของปัญหาจากอัตราการใช้กำลังการผลิตที่แตกต่างกัน ส่งผลให้เวลาการหาคำตอบของวิธีการโดยตรงสูงขึ้นตามขนาดของปัญหา ผู้วิจัยจึงนำเสนอวิธีการทางฮิวริสติกจากการประยุกต์ใช้วิธีการ Branch and Bound (B&B) สำหรับส่วนการคัดเลือกคำสั่งซื้อ และนำเสนอวิธีการทางฮิวริสติกจากการประยุกต์ใช้การวางแผนการผลิตแบบถอยหลัง (Backward Scheduling) สำหรับส่วนการวางแผนการผลิต โดยการทดลองทางคอมพิวเตอร์ถูกนำมาใช้ในการทดสอบประสิทธิภาพการหาคำตอบของทั้งสองวิธีในสถานการณ์ที่แตกต่างกัน