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Full-Text Articles in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

United States Air Force Officer Manpower Planning Problem Via Approximate Dynamic Programming, Amelia E. Bradshaw Mar 2016

United States Air Force Officer Manpower Planning Problem Via Approximate Dynamic Programming, Amelia E. Bradshaw

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force (USAF) is concerned with managing its officer corps to ensure sufficient personnel for mission readiness. Manpower planning for the USAF is a complex process which requires making decisions about accessions. Uncertainty about officer retention complicates such decisions. We formulate a Markov decision process model of the Air Force officer manpower planning problem (AFO-MPP) and utilize a least squares approximate policy iteration algorithm as an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) technique to attain solutions. Computational experiments are conducted on two AFO-MPP instances to compare the performance of the policy determined with the ADP algorithm to a benchmark …


Additive Manufacturing Process Parameter Effects On The Mechanical Properties Of Fused Filament Fabrication Nylon, Eric S. Holm Mar 2016

Additive Manufacturing Process Parameter Effects On The Mechanical Properties Of Fused Filament Fabrication Nylon, Eric S. Holm

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to determine how varying Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) process parameters affect the mechanical properties of PA6 nylon dog-bone specimens produced on the Mark One 3D Printer. A design of experiment (DOE) was conducted using the factors of layer height and raster angle orientation. The mechanical properties measured in the experiment were tensile modulus, yield stress, percent strain at yield, ultimate tensile strength and percent strain at break. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to identify which factors were statistically significant in influencing mechanical properties. Results of the ANOVA showed that layer height was …


Analysis Of Inpatient Hospital Staff Mental Workload By Means Of Discrete-Event Simulation, Erich W. Maxheimer Mar 2016

Analysis Of Inpatient Hospital Staff Mental Workload By Means Of Discrete-Event Simulation, Erich W. Maxheimer

Theses and Dissertations

Many process improvement tools have been applied to the healthcare industry to improve safety and efficiency. However, nearly all of these tools have neglected to explicitly quantify mental workload of healthcare providers despite the consensus that it is related to human performance. This research uses the Improved Performance Research Integration Tool (IMPRINT), a discrete-event simulation (DES), to quantify mental workload. Specifically, this research examines staff members in an inpatient unit at the Wright-Patterson Medical Center to detect workload differences between staff, identify trends which lead to high workload demands, evaluate the influence of patient load on mental workload, and test …


Simulation Of Modeling Sortie Generation Process In Turaf, Bahadir Aykiri Mar 2016

Simulation Of Modeling Sortie Generation Process In Turaf, Bahadir Aykiri

Theses and Dissertations

Simulation is a useful technique for engineers and operations researchers. One of the primary advantages of simulation models is that they are able to provide users with practical feedback when analyzing real-world systems. This thesis builds a discrete event simulation of the sortıe generatıon process, to help decision makers in performing analyses regarding quantity of manpower, bottlenecks in supply and maintenance activities; as well as utilization of maintenance manpower, cost and number of sorties produced in a specific time. We only model one aircraft system with four Line Replacement Units (LRU), but any system and its LRUs can be included …


The Efficacy Of Implementing A Small, Low-Cost, Real Time Kinematic Gps System Into A Small Unmanned Aerial System Architecture, Kevin J. Hendricks Mar 2016

The Efficacy Of Implementing A Small, Low-Cost, Real Time Kinematic Gps System Into A Small Unmanned Aerial System Architecture, Kevin J. Hendricks

Theses and Dissertations

Along with the growing uses for small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) within the Department of Defense (DoD), is the utility of small UAS within the civilian market is also increasing. This has led to significant research and development on small UAS subsystems by the commercial market. The focus of this research is characterizing and investigating the application considerations of a small, low-cost real time kinematic (RTK) GPS receiver system. Work was also accomplished to characterize the accuracy and precision of the commonly used GPS receiver subsystem in small UAS to show the increased utility of the RTK GPS system. The …


Lifecycle Cost Evaluation Of Flexible Facility Designs, Trevor P. Ellis Mar 2016

Lifecycle Cost Evaluation Of Flexible Facility Designs, Trevor P. Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to ascertain the type of facility design, standard, robust, or flexible, that yields the greatest lower lifecycle costs (LCC) savings to the USAF. To this aim, the researcher constructed a Monte Carlo simulation to determine the LCC for flexible, robust, and standard administrative facility designs for thousands of potential facility lifecycles. The simulation also illustrates the circumstances under which each type of design would result in the lowest LCC. The results of this research will show the USAF the importance of focusing on LCC and designing flexible facilities. Standard and robust designs are the …


A Time-Variant Value-Focused Methodology For Supporting Pre-Acquisition, Brian K. Scheller Mar 2016

A Time-Variant Value-Focused Methodology For Supporting Pre-Acquisition, Brian K. Scheller

Theses and Dissertations

Military operations are dynamic in nature, as time-dependent requirements or adversary actions can contribute to differing levels of mission performance among systems. Future military operations commonly use multi-criteria decision analysis techniques that rely on value-focused thinking (VFT) to analyze and ultimately rank alternatives during the Analysis of Alternatives phase of the acquisition process. Traditional VFT approaches are not typically employed with the intention of analyzing time-variant performance of alternatives. In this research, a holistic approach towards integrating fundamental practices such as VFT, systems architecture, and modeling and simulation is used to analyze time-dependent data outputs of an alternative’s performance within …


Determination Of Fire Control Policies Via Approximate Dynamic Programming, Michael T. Davis Mar 2016

Determination Of Fire Control Policies Via Approximate Dynamic Programming, Michael T. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Given the ubiquitous nature of both offensive and defensive missile systems, the catastrophe-causing potential they represent, and the limited resources available to countries for missile defense, optimizing the defensive response to a missile attack is a necessary endeavor. For a single salvo of offensive missiles launched at a set of targets, a missile defense system protecting those targets must decide how many interceptors to fire at each incoming missile. Since such missile engagements often involve the firing of more than one attack salvo, we develop a Markov decision process (MDP) model to examine the optimal fire control policy for the …


Determining Air Base Installation Capacity Through Multivariate Analysis, Perry L. Cansick Mar 2016

Determining Air Base Installation Capacity Through Multivariate Analysis, Perry L. Cansick

Theses and Dissertations

Per the Air Force Strategic Master Plan, the Air Force will adjust their current basing structure to provide the most effective and efficient installations to support national defense objectives. The Air Force may be required to make strategic basing decisions that close installations and relocate missions to achieve an optimal basing structure. However, before making these decisions, the Air Force needs to have a comprehensive understanding of installation capacity. This research provides an operational definition of installation capacity, which is necessary for measuring installation-level, infrastructure capacity. Using this definition, the research evaluates a set of capacity indicators using principal component …


A Comparison Of Instructional Strategies For Teaching Entry-Level Welding At The High School Level, Jared Paul Massic Mar 2016

A Comparison Of Instructional Strategies For Teaching Entry-Level Welding At The High School Level, Jared Paul Massic

Theses and Dissertations

The traditional method of teaching welding has remained unchanged for decades. In this model, an instructor gives demonstrations to a class of students and then helps them individually as they practice the techniques of welding. This traditional instructional method has been effective but is time consuming. Due to a significant increase in the demand for skilled welders within the United States, efforts have been made to develop more efficient methods of providing welding instruction. Various electronic welding guidance systems and virtual welding systems have recently been developed. In this study, the researcher addressed two questions 1) Does the use of …


Using Mavt To Incorporate Public Perception When Choosing A Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Stephen Clement Jan 2016

Using Mavt To Incorporate Public Perception When Choosing A Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Stephen Clement

Theses and Dissertations

Nuclear energy is a source of carbon free power. With many countries striving to make deep carbon cuts in their energy sectors, nuclear energy could be a large part of the solution. One of the main obstacles standing in the way of the use of nuclear energy is the issue of used nuclear fuel disposal. According to the NEI, the U.S. creates about 2000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel per year and has generated around 76,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel over the last 4 decades. While there are technical problems that need to be solved, it is …


Continuous Decision Support, Jeremy P. Hendrix Dec 2015

Continuous Decision Support, Jeremy P. Hendrix

Theses and Dissertations

Organizations are often faced with portfolio construction efforts that require them to select one or more alternatives, subject to resource constraints, with the aim of achieving the maximum value possible. This is a well-defined problem with a number of analytically defensible approaches, provided the entire set of alternatives is known when the decision event takes place. Less well treated in the literature is how to approach this problem when the entire set of alternatives is unknown, as when the alternatives arrive over time. This change in the availability of data shifts the problem from one of identifying an optimal subset …


Application Of Executable Architectures In Early Concept Evaluation, Ryan M. Pospisal Dec 2015

Application Of Executable Architectures In Early Concept Evaluation, Ryan M. Pospisal

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores use of executable architectures to guide design decisions in the early stages of system development. Decisions made early in the system development cycle determine a majority of the total lifecycle costs as well as establish a baseline for long term system performance and thus it is vital to program success to choose favorable design alternatives. The development of a representative architecture followed the Architecture Based Evaluation Process as it provides a logical and systematic order of events to produce an architecture sufficient to document and model operational performance. In order to demonstrate the value in the application …


Collecting Unsolicited User-Generated Change Requests, Joseph W. Goldsmith Dec 2015

Collecting Unsolicited User-Generated Change Requests, Joseph W. Goldsmith

Theses and Dissertations

Unlike aircrew directly associated with acquisitions, line operators are not fully engaged in the methods to push materiel hardware or software change requests up the chain, to a decision maker, and then to the engineers. The Air Force trains these end users to logically apply expert systems knowledge to execute the mission but has not fully leveraged this resource for properly identifying and correcting operational shortfalls in an aircraft's design. Focusing on the Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) community, the research goal is to determine if the Air Force should establish a formal program for collecting and prioritizing unsolicited user change …


Characterizing The Effects Of Capillary Flow During Liquid Composite Molding, Michael Ray Morgan Dec 2015

Characterizing The Effects Of Capillary Flow During Liquid Composite Molding, Michael Ray Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

As the aerospace industry continues to incorporate composites into its aircraft, there will be a need for alternative solutions to the current autoclaving process. Liquid composite molding (LCM) has proven to be a promising alternative, producing parts at faster rates and reduced costs while retaining aerospace grade quality. The most important factor of LCM is controlling the resin flow throughout the fiber reinforcement during infusion, as incomplete filling of fibers is a major quality issue as it results in dry spots or voids. Void formation occurs at the resin flow front due to competition between viscous forces and capillary pressure. …


Integrating Process Mining With Discrete-Event Simulation Modeling, Siyao Liu Nov 2015

Integrating Process Mining With Discrete-Event Simulation Modeling, Siyao Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Discrete-event simulation (DES) is an invaluable tool which organizations can use to help better understand, diagnose, and optimize their operational processes. Studies have shown that for the typical DES exercise, the greatest amount of time is spent on developing an accurate model of the process that is to be studied. Process mining, a similar field of study, focuses on using historical data stored in software databases to accurate recreate and analyze business processes. Utilizing process mining techniques to help rapidly develop DES models can drastically reduce the amount of time spent building simulation models, which ultimately will enable organizations to …


Deriving System Vulnerabilities Using Log Analytics, Matthew Somers Higbee Nov 2015

Deriving System Vulnerabilities Using Log Analytics, Matthew Somers Higbee

Theses and Dissertations

System Administrators use many of the same tactics that are implemented by hackers to validate the security of their systems, such as port scanning and vulnerability scanning. Port scanning is slow, and can be highly inaccurate. After a scan is complete, the results of the scan must be cross checked with a vulnerability database to discover if any vulnerabilities are present. While these techniques are useful, they have severe limitations. System Administrators have full access to all of their machines. They should not have to rely exclusively on port scanning them from the outside of their machines to check for …


Integrated Systems Health Management As An Enabler For Condition Based Maintenance And Autonomic Logistics, Robert M. Vandawalker Sep 2015

Integrated Systems Health Management As An Enabler For Condition Based Maintenance And Autonomic Logistics, Robert M. Vandawalker

Theses and Dissertations

Health monitoring systems have demonstrated the ability to detect potential failures in components and predict how long until a critical failure is likely to occur. Implementing these systems on fielded structures, aircraft, or other vehicles is often a struggle to prove cost savings or operational improvements beyond improved safety. A system architecture to identify how the health monitoring systems are integrated into fielded aircraft is developed to assess cost, operations, maintenance, and logistics trade-spaces. The efficiency of a health monitoring system is examined for impacts to the operation of a squadron of cargo aircraft revealing sensitivity to and tolerance for …


Grabbing The Air Force By The Tail: Applying Strategic Cost Analytics To Understand And Manage Indirect Cost Behavior, Bradley C. Boehmke Sep 2015

Grabbing The Air Force By The Tail: Applying Strategic Cost Analytics To Understand And Manage Indirect Cost Behavior, Bradley C. Boehmke

Theses and Dissertations

Recent and projected reductions in defense spending are forcing the military services to develop systematic approaches to identify cost reduction opportunities and better manage financial resources. In response, the Air Force along with her sister services are developing strategic approaches to reduce front-line mission resources, commonly referred to as the Tooth . However, an underemphasized contributing source of costs are mission support activities, commonly referred to as the Tail . With the tail historically representing a sizable portion of the annual Air Force budget, strategically managing cost behavior of these indirect activities has the opportunity to generate significant cost reductions. …


A Simple Method For Evaluating Wear In Different Grades Of Tooling Applied To Friction Stir Spot Welding, Kirtis Frankland Kennard Jul 2015

A Simple Method For Evaluating Wear In Different Grades Of Tooling Applied To Friction Stir Spot Welding, Kirtis Frankland Kennard

Theses and Dissertations

In this study tools consisting of a 5mm cylindrical pin and a 12mm shoulder held by a simple tool holder were used to compare the wear of 11 tooling materials. The objective was to determine if using these tools in a spot welding configuration to simulate friction stir welding could differentiate the potential performance of tooling materials. All tools were made of varying percentages of polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN), tungsten (W) and rhenium (Re). The materials are referred to herein as GV1, GV2, G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6, G7, G8 and G9.

The tools were run to 205 …


Terminological Mediation In Information Technology And Related Fields, Jessica Smith Richards Jul 2015

Terminological Mediation In Information Technology And Related Fields, Jessica Smith Richards

Theses and Dissertations

Terminological dissonance is created by the inherent ambiguity of natural language and compounded by ontological specialization efforts within fields. Terminological dissonance creates high-risk miscommunications in two key areas: within Information Technology as a singular domain, and also between IT and other fields in interdisciplinary projects. A comprehensive literature review revealed a lack of previous effort to acknowledge or solve problems of terminological dissonance within Information Technology. This research provides a comprehensive overview and definition of the terminology mediation space as it relates to Information Technology and adjacent fields. An analysis and verification of the contents and implementation of the terminology …


An Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of Air Force Risk Management Practices In Program Acquisition Using Survey Instrument Analysis, Michael J. Maroney Jr. Jun 2015

An Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of Air Force Risk Management Practices In Program Acquisition Using Survey Instrument Analysis, Michael J. Maroney Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Air Force acquisition programs invest a large amount of resources to develop and field systems. Many of these resources go to risk management in order to help ensure those programs finish successfully with respect to cost, schedule, and technical performance goals. The question arises as to whether this is a sound investment. Although risk management has been shown to be effective in industry, scant empirical evidence exists for its effectiveness within the Air Force. Correlation and regression analysis of survey data show that a positive relationship does exist between specific risk practices and project success. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that …


Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of The F-15e Risk Management During Peacetime Operations, Elliot B. Vasquez Jun 2015

Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of The F-15e Risk Management During Peacetime Operations, Elliot B. Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations

Human factors are causal or contributory in 80% of Class A mishaps in the Air Force. Risk management tools are used throughout the service in every aircraft to help mitigate the risk of those human factors occurring. The F-15E Strike Eagle community was selected for analysis on the effectiveness of its risk management program but the data was comprised on Class A mishaps from Accident Investigation Boards since 2000 between the F-15 (all models), F-16 (all models), and F-22. Cases were selected if there were human factors root causes or contributory. A fault tree analysis coupled with the Department of …


A Method To Predict Compressor Stall In The Tf34-100 Turbofan Engine Utilizing Real-Time Performance Data, Shuxiang A. Li, Trevor G. Jones Jun 2015

A Method To Predict Compressor Stall In The Tf34-100 Turbofan Engine Utilizing Real-Time Performance Data, Shuxiang A. Li, Trevor G. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force current operations continue to undergo significant changes compelled by decreasing fiscal appropriations, aging aircraft, and personnel drawdown. The Air Force must effectively improve current maintenance operations in part to deal with these challenges. This study will explore the area of the A-10 aircraft fleet's TF34-100 high-pass turbo-fan engine sensor data to seek its deterioration modelling and prognostics capability. In futurity this will allow for achievement of greater confidence in predicting the compressor stall which leads to engine performance deterioration and a costly repair in maintenance. By utilizing an innovative method to forecast the probability of compressor stall, …


Supply Chain Interoperability Measurement, Christos E. Chalyvidis Jun 2015

Supply Chain Interoperability Measurement, Christos E. Chalyvidis

Theses and Dissertations

Academia recognizes that although supply chains have an inherent need to be validated for their performance, supply chain performance measurement systems are still inadequate and one of the major barriers to successful supply chain collaboration. In this research, theory of Systems Architecture is used to make the first step towards an innovative supply chain performance measure defined as supply chain interoperability. Interoperability is considered a similarity metric with regard to a set of deterministic and stochastic characters (criteria) describing supply chain participants, a methodology that adapts and expands an interoperability measurement tool initially developed in and for a military context. …


Minimizing Average Handling Time In Contact Centers By Introducing A New Process: Rowan Support Desk Case Study, Niusha Jafari Jun 2015

Minimizing Average Handling Time In Contact Centers By Introducing A New Process: Rowan Support Desk Case Study, Niusha Jafari

Theses and Dissertations

Quality of a call center performance is an important factor in insuring customer satisfaction. Customers, the "callers", want their requests solved quickly, permanently and to their satisfaction. Often, there are staff constraints, budget or cost limitation, and the Service Level Agreement (SLA) which is resource availability to accomplish a task within a deadline. The purpose of this research is to analyze feasible approaches to minimize the long-lasting open requests and enhance a call center's performance. Multiple challenges that a call center often faces in handling requests are studied to identify key bottlenecks in the process of handling requests. Rowan University …


Void Modeling In Resin Infusion, Mark Wesley Brandley Jun 2015

Void Modeling In Resin Infusion, Mark Wesley Brandley

Theses and Dissertations

Resin infusion of composite parts has continually been reaching to achieve laminate quality equal to, or exceeding, the quality produced with prepreg in an autoclave. In order for this to occur, developers must understand the key process variables that go in to producing a laminate with minimal void content. The purpose of this research is to continue efforts in understanding 1) the effect of process conditions on the resultant void content, with a focus on resin infusion flow rate, 2) applying statistical metrics to the formation, location and size of voids formed, and 3) correlate these metrics with the local …


Service Dependency Analysis Via Tcp/Udp Port Tracing, John K. Clawson Jun 2015

Service Dependency Analysis Via Tcp/Udp Port Tracing, John K. Clawson

Theses and Dissertations

Enterprise networks are traditionally mapped via layers two or three, providing a view of what devices are connected to different parts of the network infrastructure. A method was developed to map connections at layer four, providing a view of interconnected systems and services instead of network infrastructure. This data was graphed and displayed in a web application. The information proved beneficial in identifying connections between systems or imbalanced clusters when troubleshooting problems with enterprise applications.


Friction Bit Joining Of Dissimilar Combinations Of Dp 980 Steel And Aa 7075, Rebecca Hilary Peterson Jun 2015

Friction Bit Joining Of Dissimilar Combinations Of Dp 980 Steel And Aa 7075, Rebecca Hilary Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Friction Bit Joining (FBJ) is a new technology that allows lightweight metals to be joined to advanced high-strength steels (AHSS). Joining of dissimilar metals is especially beneficial to the automotive industry because of the desire to use materials such as aluminum and AHSS in order to reduce weight and increase fuel efficiency. In this study, FBJ was used to join 7075 aluminum and DP980 ultra-high-strength steel. FBJ is a two-stage process using a consumable bit. In the first stage, the bit cuts through the top material (aluminum), and in the second stage the bit is friction welded to the base …


Army Information Technology Procurement: A Business Process Analysis, Alexander M. Vukcevic Mar 2015

Army Information Technology Procurement: A Business Process Analysis, Alexander M. Vukcevic

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a business process analysis of the Army's ICT procurement system. The research identified several inefficiencies and proposes several potential solutions. the contributions of this research include a unified taxonomy, a method to prioritize requests, and system architecture products for development of an automated and sustainable collaboration interface for the CIO/G6 to streamline their IT acquisition process. Development of a centralized system would reduce waste in the request process from submission to formal accounting, hasten the movement of requests between stakeholders, maintain a digital signature authorization for each approval authority, provide a reporting database to recognize reprogramming thresholds, …