Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Extracting Product Development Intelligence From Web Reviews, Ismail Artun Yagci

Dissertations

Product development managers are constantly challenged to learn what the consumer product experience really is, and to learn specifically how the product is performing in the field. Traditionally, they have utilized methods such as prototype testing, customer quality monitoring instruments, field testing methods with sample customers, and independent assessment companies. These methods are limited in that (i) the number of customer evaluations is small, and (ii) the methods are driven by a restrictive structured format. Today the web has created a new source of product intelligence; these are unsolicited reviews from actual product users that are posted across hundreds of …

Performance Analysis And Scheduling Strategies For Ambulatory Surgical Facilities, Xuanqi Zhang

Dissertations

Ambulatory surgery is a procedure that does not require an overnight hospital stay and is cost effective and efficient. The goal of this research is to develop an ASF operational model which allows management to make key decisions. This research develops and utilizes the simulation software ARENA based model to accommodate: (a) Time related uncertainties – Three system uncertainties characterize the problem (ii) Surgery time variance (ii) Physician arrival delay and (iii) Patient arrival delay; (b) Resource Capture Complexities – Patient flows vary significantly and capture/utilize both staffing and/or physical resources at different points and varying levels; and (c) Processing …

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Optimal Dredge Fleet Scheduling Within Environmental Work Windows, Heather Nachtmann, Kenneth N. Mitchell, Chase Rainwater, Ridvan Gedik, Edward A. Pohl

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers oversees dredging in hundreds of navigation projects annually, through its fleet of government equipment and through individual contracts with private industry. The research presented here sought to examine the decision to allocate dredge resources to projects systemwide under necessary constraints. These constraints included environmental restrictions on when dredging could take place in response to the migration patterns of turtles, birds, fish, and other wildlife; dredge equipment resource availability; and varying equipment productivity rates that affected project completion times. The paper discusses problem definition and model formulation of optimal dredge fleet scheduling within environmental …

Characterizing Forced Communication In Networks, Samuel C. Gutekunst

HMC Senior Theses

This thesis studies a problem that has been proposed as a novel way to disrupt communication networks: the load maximization problem. The load on a member of a network represents the amount of communication that the member is forced to be involved in. By maximizing the load on an important member of the network, we hope to increase that member's visibility and susceptibility to capture. In this thesis we characterize load as a combinatorial property of graphs and expose possible connections between load and spectral graph theory. We specifically describe the load and how it changes in several canonical classes …

How To Rein In The Volatile Actor: A New Bounded Perspective, Abhijit Gosavi

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Actor-critic algorithms are amongst the most well-studied reinforcement learning algorithms that can be used to solve Markov decision processes (MDPs) via simulation. Unfortunately, the parameters of the so-called "actor" in the classical actor-critic algorithm exhibit great volatility - getting unbounded in practice, whence they have to be artificially constrained to obtain solutions in practice. The algorithm is often used in conjunction with Boltzmann action selection, where one may have to use a temperature to get the algorithm to work, but the convergence of the algorithm has only been proved when the temperature equals 1. We propose a new actor-critic algorithm …

A Framework For The Development Of A Model For Successful, Sustained Lean Implementation And Improvement, Julie Sisson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lean is a business philosophy focused on shortening lead times by removing waste and concentrating on value-added processes. When implemented successfully, it not only allows for cost reduction while improving quality, but it can also position a company to achieve tremendous growth. The problem is that though many companies are attempting to implement lean, it is estimated that only 2-3% are achieving the desired level of success. The purpose of this research is to identify the key interrelated components of successful lean transformation. To this end, a thorough literature review was conducted and the findings indicate six key constructs that …

Facilitating Information Retrieval In Social Media User Interfaces, Anthony Costello

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the amount of computer mediated information (e.g., emails, documents, multi-media) we need to process grows, our need to rapidly sort, organize and store electronic information likewise increases. In order to store information effectively, we must find ways to sort through it and organize it in a manner that facilitates efficient retrieval. The instantaneous and emergent nature of communications across networks like Twitter makes them suitable for discussing events (e.g., natural disasters) that are amorphous and prone to rapid changes. It can be difficult for an individual human to filter through and organize the large amounts of information that can …

An Analytics Approach To Designing Patient Centered Medical Home, Saeede Ajorlou

Wayne State University Dissertations

Recently the patient centered medical home (PCMH) model has become a popular team based approach focused on delivering more streamlined care to patients. In current practices of medical homes, a clinical based prediction frame is recommended because it can help match the portfolio capacity of PCMH teams with the actual load generated by a set of patients. Without such balances in clinical supply and demand, issues such as excessive under and over utilization of physicians, long waiting time for receiving the appropriate treatment, and non continuity of care will eliminate many advantages of the medical home strategy. In this research, …

An Analytics Approach To Reducing Hospital Readmission, Issac Shams

Wayne State University Dissertations

One of the significant sources of waste in the Unites States health care systems is preventable hospital readmission. About 2.3 million Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries are re-hospitalized within 30 days after discharge which incurs an annual cost of $17 billion. However, it is reported by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission that about 75% of such readmissions can and should be avoided because they are the results of factors such as poor planning for follow up care transitions, inadequate communication of discharge instructions, and failure to reconcile and coordinate medications. Hence, reducing unnecessary rehospitalization through care transition and systems engineering principles has …

Carbon Constrained Integrated Inventory Control And Truckload Transportation With Heterogeneous Freight Trucks, Dinçer Konur

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper analyzes an integrated inventory control and transportation problem with environmental considerations. Particularly, explicit transportation modeling is included with inventory control decisions to capture per truck costs and per truck capacities. Furthermore, a carbon cap constraint on the total emissions is formulated by considering emission characteristics of various trucks that can be used for inbound transportation. Due to complexity of the resulting optimization problem, a heuristic search method is proposed based on the properties of the problem. Numerical studies illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method. Furthermore, numerical examples are presented to show that both costs and emissions can …

Nonlinear Modeling Using Neural Networks For Trading The Soybean Complex, Phoebe S. Wiles, David Lee Enke

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Recently, there has been a spike in the prices and popularity of commodities. On a macroeconomic level, developing countries are increasing production; while on a microeconomic level, speculative traders are becoming more involved in the market. Agricultural products have a diverse array of factors that can affect the price (i.e. political, government, population, weather, supply and demand). Commodity prices can suffer from extreme volatility in the short term, changing as much as 50% in one year. This research uses the soybean crush spread as a model. The soybean complex adds an interesting component as the underlying soybean product can be …

Introduction To Special Issue Of Journal Of Defense Modeling And Simulation: Novel Approaches To Defense And Military Modeling And Simulation, Scott D. Snyder, James M. Taylor Jr.

Peter Kiewit Institute: Faculty Publications

Developing solutions to complex problems in government and industry is a daunting task that often requires tremendous investment in time and resources to solve. Modeling and simulation (M&S) has incredible potential to streamline development and cut costs by conducting virtual experiments that give insight into performance under various test conditions. As many program managers in the federal acquisition process can attest, realistic testing of live equipment in an operational environment can be some of the most expensive parts of a development program. M&S can provide insight into mission success of yetto- bedesigned systems without the need to actually build and …

Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique For Renewable Energy Deployment Decisions (Smart Redd), James M. Taylor Jr., Betty Love

Peter Kiewit Institute: Faculty Publications

In the effort to provide electrical power service and the sustaining fuel required to run generators at forward-deployed bases in Afghanistan and Iraq over more than 10 years, the United States military spent billions of dollars and a paid a heavy toll in terms of human casualties. The green energy linear program for optimizing deployments (GELPOD) proof-of-concept model showed that a linear program could be used to optimize combat deployment of energy generation systems to minimize cost and casualties. Results indicated that reduction in both cost and casualties for renewable energy sources was highly dependent on fuel cost and deployment …

Day-Of-Discharge Planning At Acute Care Hospitals, Kylie M. Bertsch

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Hospitals provide a complex array of services to patient populations with highly variable conditions, needs, and preferences. These services are delivered with limited resources, and therefore, the synchronization of patient flow between various units in the hospital is essential for minimizing patient delay and congestion. Unfortunately, patient flow optimization is a topic in its research infancy, and, in current practice, hospitals struggle with the numerous ramifications of delays in care provision and increased costs. Emergency Department (ED) crowding and boarding have become a topic of increased interest as the ED becomes an increasingly popular entry point to acute care hospitals. …

Computational Complexity Measures For Many-Objective Optimization Problems, David M. Curry, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Multi-objective Optimization Problems (MOPs) are commonly encountered in the study and design of complex systems. Pareto dominance is the most common relationship used to compare solutions in MOPs, however as the number of objectives grows beyond three, Pareto dominance alone is no longer satisfactory. These problems are termed "Many-Objective Optimization Problems (MaOPs)". While most MaOP algorithms are modifications of common MOP algorithms, determining the impact on their computational complexity is difficult. This paper defines computational complexity measures for these algorithms and applies these measures to a Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) and its MaOP counterpart.

Study Of The Use Of A Genetic Algorithm To Improve Networked System-Of-Systems Resilience, Charles O. Adler, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Large scale failures or degradation resulting from smaller initial failures or disruptions in networked system-of-systems are an issue in multiple areas - for example cascading failures in electrical power grids or large disruptions in national air traffic due to local or regional weather conditions. The system architecture can have a significant impact on system-of-systems susceptibility to large scale failures. The study presented in this paper uses a simple interdependent networked system-of-systems failure model, integrated into a unique objective function that addresses both the overall level of failure and the rate of failure progression, and a genetic algorithm to demonstrate an …

Improving Emergency Department Patient Flow Through Near Real-Time Analytics, Shanshan Qiu

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

IMPROVING EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT PATIENT FLOW THROUGH NEAR REAL-TIME ANALYTICS

This dissertation research investigates opportunities for developing effective decision support models that exploit near real-time (NRT) information to enhance the "operational intelligence" within hospital Emergency Departments (ED). Approaching from a systems engineering perspective, the study proposes a novel decision support framework for streamlining ED patient flow that employs machine learning, statistical and operations research methods to facilitate its operationalization.

ED crowding has become the subject of significant public and academic attention, and it is known to cause a number of adverse outcomes to the patients, ED staff as well as …

Data Mining Based Hybridization Of Meta-Raps, Fatemah Al-Duoli, Ghaith Rabadi

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Though metaheuristics have been frequently employed to improve the performance of data mining algorithms, the opposite is not true. This paper discusses the process of employing a data mining algorithm to improve the performance of a metaheuristic algorithm. The targeted algorithms to be hybridized are the Meta-heuristic for Randomized Priority Search (Meta-RaPS) and an algorithm used to create an Inductive Decision Tree. This hybridization focuses on using a decision tree to perform on-line tuning of the parameters in Meta-RaPS. The process makes use of the information collected during the iterative construction and improvement phases Meta-RaPS performs. The data mining algorithm …

Systems Theory As The Foundation For Understanding Systems, Kevin Macg. Adams, Peggy T. Hester, Joseph M. Bradley, Thomas J. Meyers, Charles B. Keating

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

As currently used, systems theory is lacking a universally agreed upon definition. The purpose of this paper is to offer a resolution by articulating a formal definition of systems theory. This definition is presented as a unified group of specific propositions which are brought together by way of an axiom set to form a system construct: systems theory. This construct affords systems practitioners and theoreticians with a prescriptive set of axioms by which a system must operate; conversely, any set of entities identified as a system may be characterized by this set of axioms. Given its multidisciplinary theoretical foundation and …

A Heuristic For The Analysis Of Truncated Standard Normal Distribution Assemblies, John Walter Ralls, Cesar Ariel Pinto, Shannon R. Bowling, Resit Unal, Charles B. Daniels, S. Long (Ed.), E.H. Ng (Ed.), C. Downing (Ed.)

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The analysis of data sets and process conditions commonly assume the use of standard normal distributions and truncated standard normal distributions (TSND). The use of these distributions has application to various engineering disciplines along with numerous other industries (e.g., financial industries, medical fields, management, etc.). For engineering managers, the use of truncated standard normal distributions has particular relevance when evaluating process conditions commonly associated with assembly tolerances, manufacturing, and associated measures of quality. This article summarizes a heuristic approach for the analysis of assembly-level truncated standard normal distributions and associated research from a recent dissertation (Ralls, 2014). This article provides …

Employee-Task Assignments For Organization Modeling: A Review Of Models And Applications, Cansu Kandemir, Holly A. H. Handley, S. Long (Ed.), E.-H. Ng (Ed.), C. Downing (Ed.)

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

In this study, we present a review of task assignment problems in organizations, an area that has become more important as tasks become more complex and personnel skills become more specialized. The challenge is to design task assignments that meet all requirements and result in the best organizational performance. The consequences of poor design include failed tasks, reduced efficiency, and inability to meet deadlines. Moreover, inequity of workload between employees can cause lack of job satisfaction, loss of motivation and also boredom.

In general, work processes in organizations consist of different tasks, which require different expertise. Personnel usually have various …

Ieee Cibcb 2014-Computational Intelligence In Bioinformatics And Computational Biology [Conference Reports], Steven Corns

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The 2014 Conference on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CIBCB) was held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, from May 21-25. The papers presented at the conference covered the full range of computational intelligence techniques and applications. James Hughes from Brock University received the best student paper award from General Chair Steven Corns for his paper titled, 'Recentering and Restarting Genetic Algorithms Variations for DNA Fragment Assembly.' The best overall paper was awarded to Jennifer Hallinan, Owen Gilfellon, Goksel Misirli and Anil Wipat, all of Newcastle University, for their work 'Tuning Receiver Characteristics in Bacterial Quorum Communication: An …

Volatility Forecasting Using A Hybrid Gjr-Garch Neural Network Model, Soheil Almasi Monfared, David Lee Enke

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Volatility forecasting in the financial markets, along with the development of financial models, is important in the areas of risk management and asset pricing, among others. Previous testing has shown that asymmetric GARCH models outperform other GARCH family models with regard to volatility prediction. Utilizing this information, three popular Neural Network models (Feed-Forward with Back Propagation, Generalized Regression, and Radial Basis Function) are implemented to help improve the performance of the GJR (1,1) method for estimating volatility over the next forty-four trading days. During training and testing, four different economic cycles have been considered between 1997-2011 to represent real and …

A Study Of The Effect Of Basic Network Characteristics On System-Of-System Failure Propagation, Charles O. Adler, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Real life examples of large system level failures in complex networked system are fairly common, with national and regional level power grids providing numerous cases where local failures have resulted in broad systemic failures. As large networked systems-of-systems are increasingly common, their susceptibility to large scale failures is of significant interest. This paper presents the results of a study using a simple model to investigate the impacts of basic architecture characteristics on the spread of failures through a system-of-system after an initial failure occurs. The study reported here uses a non-symmetric inter-grid only failure model to investigate the sensitivity of …

On The Flexibility Of Systems In System Of Systems Architecting, Dincer Konur, Hadi Farhangi, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

System of Systems (SoS) architecting requires analyzing a set of individual but interconnected systems simultaneously in order to build a communicating SoS, which can provide the capabilities needed. In general, the systems can provide a set of capabilities and the SoS architect needs to decide which systems to include in the SoS so that each capability is provided by at least one system. In this case, the systems are inflexible, i.e., a selected system will contribute to the SoS with all the capabilities it can provide. On the other hand, if SoS architect can incentivize systems to contribute specific capabilities …

Fuzzy Optimization Of Acknowledged System Of Systems Meta-Architectures For Agent Based Modeling Of Development, Louis Pape, Siddhartha Agarwal, Kristin Giammarco, Cihan Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Acknowledged systems of systems (SoS) lie on a continuum between authoritarian central control and anarchy. The constituent systems are independent, with a life and purpose of their own. The systems require not only technical interfaces, but also social interactions, to create the SoS. A fuzzy optimization process may be used to select a desirable SoS configuration, but it may be unachievable due to the inability to persuade the systems to cooperate in the plan. Modeling the systems' internal decision processes could help understand how to design better SoS architectures. This research used generic, modular modeling processes to examine two proposed …

Conquering Complexity: Challenges And Opportunities: Preface, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Part Viii: Health Care Analytics: Preface, Cilan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

A Hybrid Neuro-Fuzzy Model To Forecast Inflation, David Lee Enke, Nijat Mehdiyev

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

One of the key issues in constructing monetary policy is accurate prediction of the inflation level. The complex behavior and non-linear nature of the financial markets makes it hard to forecast the inflation rate precisely. This paper introduces a hybrid model that attempts to forecast the inflation rate with a combination of a subtractive clustering technique and a fuzzy inference neural network to overcome the shortcomings of the individual methodologies. Selected macroeconomic factors were used to predict the historical CPI data from the US Markets. The results of the proposed hybrid model are measured in RMSE.