Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Thermolysis And Kinetics Of Scrap Tyre And Bagasse For Energy Utilization, Petro Ndalila

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The increase of energy demand has brought concern to find alternative fuel that will at least sustain the requirement. Bagasse and scrap tyre are waste generated in our industrial activities, which can be used in energy production to subsidize the demand. This paper, aim to study the decomposition behaviour and kinetics of biomass (bagasse) and scrap tyre as preliminary stage of fuel sample analysis to be considered for energy production in gasification/combustion or pyrolysis facilities. The behaviour demonstrated with thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), shows that all samples have high volatile amount release, 84.21% for bagasse and 85.08% for scrap tyre, which …

Analysis Of Factors Affecting Technological Innovativeness In Engineering Enterprises In Tanzania, Emanuel Mjema

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

This paper discusses the technological innovativeness in engineering enterprises in Tanzania and analyses the factors affecting the innovativeness. It starts by analyzing various concepts regarding innovation, then analyzed from documentary review factors affecting innovativeness and then analyzed the innovativeness in Tanzanian enterprises. From the documentary review it was learnt that the following key factors influence technological innovativeness: Existence of innovation management; Existence of market to absorb the products of innovation; Existence of partnership between the universities and the firms; Existence of positive culture and politics towards innovation; The government playing its role to influence innovation; Existence of the right knowledge; …

Modeling Reliability Growth In Accelerated Stress Testing, Jason K. Freels

Theses and Dissertations

Qualitative accelerated test methods improve system reliability by identifying and removing initial design flaws. However, schedule and cost constraints often preclude sufficient testing to generate a meaningful reliability estimate from the data obtained in these tests. In this dissertation a modified accelerated life test is proposed to assess the likelihood of attaining a reliability requirement based on tests of early system prototypes. Assuming each prototype contains an unknown number of independent competing failure modes whose respective times to occurrence are governed by a distinct Weibull law, the observed failure data from this qualitative test are shown to follow a poly-Weibull …

Analysis Of The Industrial Skill Set; Lewis County Case Study, Jonathan Shane Wallingford

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Science and Technology Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Science by Jonathan Shane Wallingford on December 13, 2013.

Toughening Of Poly(L-Lactic Acid) With Cu3Btc2 Metal Organic Framework Crystals, Ajay Kathuria, Mohamad G. Abiad, Rafael Auras

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) and metal organic framework (MOF) composites were prepared by melt extrusion of PLLA with 5, 10 and 20% w/w of activated Cu₃(BTC)₂ MOF. The morphology and stability of injection-molded samples were evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), gel permeation chromatography, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The composites showed improved toughness during the tensile tests as compared to the neat PLLA matrix. Toughness mechanism of the composites was studied using SEM and rheological studies. SEM images indicated that cavitation induced by debonding at the interface of PLLA and MOF particles during …

Acuta Enews December 20132 Vol. 42, No. 12

ACUTA Newsletters

In this Issue...

1 Board Approves Slate of Nominees

1 A Gift from ACUTA to You!

2 Nominate Now for Ruth A, Michalecki Leadership Award i

3 What's on Your Desk?

4 From the Listserv

6 RF Video Distribution Solution for the University of the South

7 Info Links

8 Board Report

9 Welcome New Members

9 Check It Out

S1nn Gmbh & Co. Kg (Automobile Connectivity Module 1.1), Tyler Alexander Ball

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The results of this report show how when diagnostics were run on the Connectivity Module 1.1, the problems discovered such as potential short-circuiting, 90-degree copper tracing angles, and components overheating/tombstoning were addressed. By using the method of “DMAIC,” which stands for Design, Measure, Analyze, Implement, Control, successful corrections were made. In the first design of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB), 1454 critical issues were found. With the newly designed PCB’s modifications being implemented, only 12 critical issues remained, which were later addressed and corrected. The results from this report are a functional Automobile Connectivity Module 1.1.

Project Management Of High School Shadow And Building An Engineer Day, Andrea M. Carroll

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Building an Engineer Day and High School Shadow are semi-annual outreach events hosted by Cal Poly’s Society of Women Engineers section during fall and spring quarters. The events focus on encouraging women and minorities to take an interest in engineering. These events are the two largest outreach events hosted by The Society of Women Engineers and need to run smoothly in order to provide student attendees with a meaningful experience.

Building an Engineer Day and High School Shadow are currently un-organized and un-planned, which leads to problems with officer retention, increase in expediting process and a low attendance rate at …

Equipment Maintenance And Replacement Decision Making Processes, Michael W. Gage

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project contains recommendations for the decision making processes for support and production equipment maintenance and replacement for a large defense contractor. Recent literature has been reviewed to provide perspective on current trends in the field. A complete evaluation of their current processes and systems is included with recommendations on areas for improvement. A decision support system is also proposed to supplement their existing decision making.

Fixture For Carbon Fiber Spar Of Human Powered Helicopter, David John Ikeda, Luis Gonzalez

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The following report describes our contribution to Cal Poly Human Powered Helicopter for the 2012 competition for the Sikorsky Prize offered by the American Helicopter Society. In order to win this prize the team needs to build and fly a human powered helicopter for more than 60 seconds reaching and altitude of 3 meters while staying in a 10 meter square box. Our team was created to support the integration of Carbon Fiber parts, specifically the carbon fiber spars with rotor and landing gears. Precise cutting and accurate drilling was needed and our team was tasked with creating a fixture …

Disaster Relief Models: Location Of Points Of Distribution, Othman Boudhoum

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project consists of developing a Location Allocation model that focuses on determining the locations of relief supply Points of Distribution (PODs) after a natural disaster and how to assign demand points to them. According to FEMA, PODs are “centralized locations where the public picks up life sustaining commodities following a disaster or emergency” [1]. After each disaster, decisions have to be made to ensure a good delivery of resources in a timely manner. The road infrastructure may be damaged due to the disaster. Some roads might become inoperable, and some bridges are expected to fail. The model studied in …

Testing Virtual Machines For Cadrc Server Hosting, Robin Verweij

Computer Science and Software Engineering

No abstract provided.

Relative Value Iteration For Average Reward Semi-Markov Control Via Simulation, Abhijit Gosavi

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper studies the semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) under the long-run average reward criterion in the simulation-based context. Using dynamic programming, a straightforward approach for solving this problem involves policy iteration; a value iteration approach for this problem involves a transformation that induces an additional computational burden. In the simulation-based context, however, where one seeks to avoid the transition probabilities needed in dynamic programming, value iteration forms a more convenient route for solution purposes. In this paper, hence, we present (to the best of knowledge for the first time) a relative value iteration algorithm for solving average reward SMDPs via …

Single-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem For Home Delivery Of Pharmaceutical Products, Kimberly Starr Harms

Masters Theses

Some retail pharmacies offer home delivery services to establish a competitive advantage in the growing healthcare market. The handling of orders for home delivery includes several internal and external processing and transportation activities. In this work, models were developed for use in a pharmacy delivery system to assist personnel in their daily activities. This work includes standard operating procedures for picking, packing and loading of delivery orders and the assignment and routing of vehicles to deliver customer orders. Results from simulated delivery areas identified interesting tradeoffs when comparing densely populated areas to sparsely populated areas. In addition, recommendations for order …

College Football Rankings: An Industrial Engineering Approach, Brent H. Wiles

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In using an industrial engineering approach, we utilize optimization and mathematical modeling techniques to rank college football teams when viewed as a quadratic assignment problem.

Characteristics And Contributing Factors Of Emergency Vehicle Crashes, Naji Abdelwanis

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the contributing factors and characteristics associated with emergency vehicle(EV) crashes in order to generate insights about the emergency crashes. This dissertation consists of three approaches to address the purpose. In the first analysis a binary logistic regression model was used to identify the critical factors associated with EV crashes that resulted in fatality compared to those that did not. In the second analysis, an ordered regression model was used to identify critical factors that contributed to the severity of injuries that EV occupants experience in crashes as well as the effect of …

Use Of Polymer Rapid Tools As Functional Injection Mold Tooling, Sean Derrick

Masters Theses

Conventional tool making for injection molded plastics is expensive, time consuming, and generates a great deal of waste. Presently, industry is waiting for what is commonly referred to as Rapid Tooling (RT). The greatest opportunity for RT implementation would be the use of Additively Manufacturing (AM) technology. Specifically, AM techniques which use a high strength polymer resin substrate.

The following research is an initial feasibility study to determine if Polymer Rapid Tools (PRTs) could be used as functional injection mold tooling. The objective of the research was to determine if a PRT could mold a variety of features to a …

Social Media For Supply Chain Risk Management, Xiuju Fu, Rick S. M. Goh, J. C. Tong, Loganathan Ponnanbalam, Xiaofeng Yin, Zhaoxia Wang, H. Y. Xu, Sifei Lu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the rapid increase of online social network users worldwide, social media feeds have become a rich and valuable information resource and attract great attention across diversified domains. In social media data, there are abundant contents of two-way and interactive communication about products, demand, customer services and supply. This makes social media a valuable channel for listening to the voices from the market and measuring supply chain risks and new market trends for companies. In this study, we surveyed the potential value of social media in supply chain risk management (SCRM) and examined how they can be applied to SCRM …

Dynamic Queue Management For Hospital Emergency Room Services, Kar Way Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The emergency room (ER) – or emergency department (ED) – is often seen as a place with long waiting times and a lack of doctors to serve the patients. However, it is one of the most important departments in a hospital, and must efficiently serve patients with critical medical needs. In the existing literature, addressing the issue of long waiting times in an ED often takes the form of single-faceted queue-management strategies that are either from a demand perspective or from a supply perspective. From the demand perspective, there is work on queue design such as priority queues, or queue …

Systematic Parameter Analysis For Selective Laser Melting (Slm) Of Silver-Based Materials., Harald Rieper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is a growing technology for the additive manufacturing of parts and structures. Based on a powder layer technique, a laser locally melts the powder and forms new structures. [1] In this approach, silver-based alloy powders will be used. The processing of this kind of material is considered difficult compared to other powder materials such as mild steels or tool steels. Silver powder is a highly reflecting material and has excellent thermal conductivity. Both properties make it difficult to process using Selective Laser Melting. Due to its high price, industries use silver parts as economically as possible …

Linking Corporate Strategy To Operations : A Critical Review Of Prof. Kaplan’S Theories And The Development Of A Best-Practice Approach., Alexander Bogner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rising speed of change in global frameworks drives international companies into a non-stop changing organization with the need of generating optimal revenues under changing conditions. Regarding to the need to be a flexible and competitive organization the value of a vision and a perfectly streamed strategy to this vision becomes a main success factor for global business. The trend for the need of development of a clear and constant strategy is equally rising with the trend of globalization and intercontinental business companies and therefor the business of strategy consulting rises constantly from the late 1990. Most of the strategy …

The Effects Of Football Helmet Pressure On The Shock Taken During A Controlled Impact, Sullivan Grosz

Industrial Technology and Packaging

College and NFL football teams are focusing their efforts on protecting players more than ever before. With the recent attention on concussions and the troubling long-term effects of head injuries, more research is needed to find ways to ensure players have the adequate protection. The helmets being used have a hard polycarbonate shell with four inner pads that fit tight to the player’s head. These pads are filled with air.

The purpose of the testing and project is to find an ideal air pressure that helmets need to maintain in order to protect the player to the best of its …

Predicting Surgical Flow Disruption Recovery In Cardiothoracic Operating Rooms, Gary Palmer Ii

All Dissertations

Disruptions are common occurrences in a variety of healthcare settings and early research has shown that they are likely contributors to medical errors. For this reason, healthcare researchers have focused on studying and understanding the nature of Surgical Flow Disruptions (SFDs) to increase patient safety and quality of care within the operating room (OR). Many researchers have used simplistic taxonomies to collect and categorize the types of SFD that occur within the OR. Others have gone further to study SFD recovery and have link unrecovered and recovered SFD to minor and major adverse events experienced by patients. This dissertation, focused …

Hybrid Low-Order Modeling For Conceptual Vehicle Design, Robert Mau

All Dissertations

Design freedom, and particularly the freedom to incorporate innovative designs and strategies, is greatest at the very beginning of vehicle conceptual design. Conversely, this is when the least knowledge of the product exists. As product content decisions are made the level of freedom in the design decreases and the design becomes "locked in." The majority of vehicle lifecycle cost is also set by the end of vehicle conceptual design. This makes it critical to make well-informed and validated decisions in the concept design phase to avoid expensive iterations and redesign in the detailed design phase. Parametric vehicle modeling permits rapid …

Decision Trees To Model The Impact Of Disruption And Recovery In Supply Chain Networks, Loganathan Ponnanbalam, L. Wenbin, Xiuju Fu, Xiaofeng Yin, Zhaoxia Wang, Rick S. M. Goh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Increase in the frequency of disruptions in the recent times and their impact have increased the attention in supply chain disruption management research. The objective of this paper is to understand as to how a disruption might affect the supply chain network - depending upon the network structure, the node that is disrupted, the disruption in production capacity of the disrupted node and the period of the disruption - via decision trees. To this end, we first developed a 5-tier agent-based supply chain model and then simulated it for various what-if disruptive scenarios for 3 different network structures (80 trials …

Improving Patient Length-Of-Stay In Emergency Department Through Dynamic Queue Management, Kar Way Tan, Hoong Chuin Lau, Francis Chun Yue Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Addressing issue of crowding in an Emergency Department (ED) typically takes the form of process engineering or single-faceted queue management strategies such as demand restriction, queue prioritization or staffing the ED. This work provides an integrated framework to manage queue dynamically from both demand and supply perspectives. More precisely, we introduce intelligent dynamic patient prioritization strategies to manage the demand concurrently with dynamic resource adjustment policies to manage supply. Our framework allows decision-makers to select both the demand-side and supply-side strategies to suit the needs of their ED. We verify through a simulation that such a framework improves the patients' …

A Dynamic Programming Approach To Achieving An Optimal End State Along A Serial Production Line, Shih-Fen Cheng, Blake E. Nicholson, Marina A. Epelman, Daniel J. Reaume, Robert L. Smith

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In modern production systems, it is critical to perform maintenance, calibration, installation, and upgrade tasks during planned downtime. Otherwise, the systems become unreliable and new product introductions are delayed. For reasons of safety, testing, and access, task performance often requires the vicinity of impacted equipment to be left in a specific “end state” when production halts. Therefore, planning the shutdown of a production system to balance production goals against enabling non-production tasks yields a challenging optimization problem. In this paper, we propose a mathematical formulation of this problem and a dynamic programming approach that efficiently finds optimal shutdown policies for …

An Agent-Based Simulation Approach To Experience Management In Theme Parks, Shih-Fen Cheng, Larry Junjie Lin, Jiali Du, Hoong Chuin Lau, Pradeep Reddy Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we illustrate how massive agent-based simulation can be used to investigate an exciting new application domain of experience management in theme parks, which covers topics like congestion control, incentive design, and revenue management. Since all visitors are heterogeneous and self-interested, we argue that a high-quality agent-based simulation is necessary for studying various problems related to experience management. As in most agent-base simulations, a sound understanding of micro-level behaviors is essential to construct high-quality models. To achieve this, we designed and conducted a first-of-its-kind real-world experiment that helps us understand how typical visitors behave in a theme-park environment. …

Acuta Enews November 2013 Vol. 42, No. 11

ACUTA Newsletters

In this Issue...

1 The Concept of Context-Aware Computing

2 Nominate Now for Ruth A. Michalecki Leadership Award

3 Collaboration Is Not Automatic

4 Nominations for Board of Directors: Deadline November 18

5 Free Webinar: The Evolution of Control Systems Security Brief

5 What's on Your Desk?

6 Bring 8 Fall Seminar Sessions to Your Desktop or Tablet

6 Thanks to Fall Seminar Exhibitors 6 Sponsors

6 Get Your Logos Here

7 Info Links

8 Add Names from Your Campus to Your ' ACUTA Roster

8 Board Report

9 Welcome New Members

9 Check It Out

Extreme Learning Machines, Erik Cambria, Guang Bin Huang, Liyanaarachchi Lekamalage Chamara Kasun, Hongming Zhou, Chi Man Vong, Jiarun Lin, Jianping Yin, Zhiping Cai, Qiang Liu, Kuan Li, Victor C.M. Leung, Liang Feng, Yew Soon Ong, Meng Hiot Lim, Anton Akusok, Amaury Lendasse, Francesco Corona

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.