Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

The Cube Per Order Index Slotting Strategy, How Bad Can It Be?, Peter C. Schuur

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A well-known and frequently applied policy to assign stock keeping units (SKUs) to (dedicated) storage locations in a warehouse is the Cube per Order Index (COI) slotting strategy. Basically, COI stores an SKU based on how frequently it is picked per unit of stock space required. Fast movers are located close to the Input-Output points. For single command order picking, COI slotting is well-known to minimize order picking travel time. For multi command this is no longer true. An interesting question is: how bad can it be? In this paper we show that there is no limit to this badness. …

Development Of A Heuristics For A Criteria Based Planning Of Pallet Storage Systems, Detlef Spee, Michael Schmidt, Steffen Schieweck

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Reproducible and quantitative reasoning as the foundation for high-quality planning processes evolves to be key to achieve high quality of speed for logistical processes. This article strives to fulfill this demand by developing a coherent heuristics for the planning of pallet storage systems. The heuristics uses quantitative approaches provided by the available literature. In case of nonexistent sources, the missing components are developed and integrated. To be applicable in an industrial environment, the comparison and assessment of the created implementation alternatives is mainly monetary based. The heuristics follows a modular structure to achieve adaptability and extensibility. It explicitly does not …

Data Model And Software Tools For Modeling Picking Operations, Jeffrey S. Smith

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Presenter will provide.

An Analysis Of Single-Command Operations In A Mobile Rack (As/Rs) Served By A Single Order Picker, Amine Hakim Guezzen, Zaki Sari

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A Mobile rack Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (MAS/ RS) are picker-to-stock retrieval model which are a variation of the multi aisles AS/RS. This mobile storage system is composed of racks moving laterally on rails so that one can open an aisle between any two adjacent racks, the input/output system, the storage and retrieval (S/R) machine and the computer management system or the control system. Evaluating an AS/RS could be done using several performance indicators, the two most important ones are: The utilization rate of the S/R machine and the average time necessary to serve storage or retrieval requests (the …

Order Batching With Time Constraints In A Parallel-Aisle Warehouse: A Multiple-Policy Approach, Soondo Hong, Andrew L. Johnson, Brett A. Peters

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A commitment of delivery time is critical in some online businesses (De Koster, 2003). An important challenge to meeting customers’ needs is timely order picking which is also relevant to worker safety, item freshness, overall operational synchronization, and reduced overtime. We analyze an order batch picking situation where a trip is constrained by vehicle capacity and must be completed within a specified time. We develop a model which partitions orders to batches to minimize the total travel time such that each trip meets the orders’ time constraints and capacity limit, and also determines a suitable operational policy for each batch. …

Designing Retail Facilities To Improve Product Exposure, Pratik J. Parikh, Corinne Mowrey

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

A retail facility should effectively engage consumers during their shopping trips if they want to convert demand into purchases. Unfortunately, the complexity of the retailing environment and lack of scientific tools often results in gut-feel approaches experimented in practice. A key factor to retail design often alluded to, but rarely analyzed, is product exposure to the travelling shopper. We define the extent of the shopper's field of vision in order to determine the actual exposure of products experienced by a traveling shopper. In so doing, we can explore the effect rack orientation has on product exposure. Our main contributions include …

Modular Design Of Physical Internet Transport, Handling And Packaging Containers, Benoit Montreuil, Eric Ballot, William Tremblay

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

This paper proposes a three‐tier characterization of Physical Internet containers into transport, handling and packaging containers. It first provides an overview of goods encapsulation in the Physical Internet and of the generic characteristics of Physical Internet containers. Then it proceeds with an analysis of the current goods encapsulation practices. This leads to the introduction of the three tiers, with explicit description and analysis of containers of each tier. The paper provides a synthesis of the proposed transformation of goods encapsulation and highlights key research and innovation opportunities and challenges for both industry and academia.

An Experimental Study Of The Impact Of Warehouse Parameters On The Design Of A Case-Picking Warehouse, Russell D. Meller, Lisa M. Thomas

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

The best design for a warehouse is based on its ability to meet the demands placed on the warehouse, which are typically characterized by warehouse parameters like the order , inventory requirements, etc. Consequently, these parameters should be considered in the design process. In this paper we characterize the design of a case-picking ware- house with design variables and identify the warehouse parameters that have the greatest impact in setting the values of these variables. With our analysis, the search for the optimal design can be reduced by limiting the design space considered.

A Frame Work And Analysis To Inform The Selection Of Piece-Level Order-Fulfillment Technologies, Jennifer A. Pazour, Russell D. Meller

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Thepiece-levelorder-fulfillmenttechnologyselectionproblemisanimportantstrategicproblemthatsignificantlyimpactsdistributioncentercosts andoperations,andistypicallysolvedbasedonempiricalexperiences.Given ademandcurveandasuiteofavailablepiece-levelorder-fulfillmenttechnologies, weanalyzewhereinthedemandcurvedifferentorder-fulfillment technologiesshouldbeapplied. Todoso, wedevelopaframeworkthat jointlydeterminesthebestcombinationofpiece-levelorder-fulfillmenttechnologiesandtheassignmentofSKUstothesetechnologies, whichrelaxes thesequential-modelingapproachofpreviousresearch. Wevalidateour methodologywithindustrydataandshowthatour modelprovidestechnologyrecommendationsandSKUassignmentsthatareconsistent with successfulimplementations. Throughasetofnumericalexperimentsand statisticalanalysis,weidentifykeyfactorsinimplementingmanualversus automatedorder-fulfillmenttechnologiesandprovideobservationsintothe applicationofdifferentorder-fulfillmenttechnologystrategies.Finally,we presentconclusionsandfutureresearchdirections.

Optimization Of Skus' Locations In Warehouse, David Sourek, Vaclav Cempirek

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Many companies, which deal with warehousing, optimize their warehouses. The main business of these companies is to offer to customers the warehousing services. It is possible to note that these companies are specialized in warehousing. On the other hand, we can find companies, which have as the main business the selling of goods to customers. These companies use the warehouses too but in a little bit different way. The arrangement of their warehouses can be very unsuitable and convenient for optimization. Our paper is focused on optimization of stored goods’ locations based on market basket analysis. The solution of this …

Grid Facilities Design: Dynamic Modular Deployment Of Production, Handling And Storage Resources, Suzanne Marcotte, Benoit Montreuil

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

To survive and thrive in a fast-moving environment, facilities must be designed to show adaptability, flexibility and robustness. As some facilities are depicted by heavy and sophisticated equipment costly and hard to displace, others are composed of moveable workstations with highly flexible workers. In most cases, the trade-off is between the cost of redeploying the resources and the excessive cost of material handling and storage incurred by an inefficient deployment of the resources. We propose a design strategy based on (1) conceiving and designing the facility as a stable grid of modules, (2) dynamically deploying production, storage and handling resources …

Modeling And Optimization Of Radio Frequency Identification Networks For Inventory Management, Atipong Suriya, Jose D. Porter

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

Stock loss and out-of-stocks are outcomes of poorly designed inventory management systems and can lead to significant revenue losses. Inventory management systems (IMSs) based on radio frequency identification (RFID) have the potential to minimize these losses if they are properly designed and deployed. However, the placement of RFID readers to support IMSs is often done on a trial and error basis which is time consuming and results in less than optimal coverage. A methodology to find the optimal location and number of RFID readers in a warehouse facility to ensure a desired level of radio frequency signal coverage was developed …

Real-Time Dock Door Monitoring System Using A Kinect Sensor, Hector J. Carlo, Cristina Pomales- Garcia, Yeiram Martinez

13th IMHRC Proceedings (Cincinnati, Ohio. USA – 2014)

This study presents a proof of concept where a single Microsoft Kinect sensor is used for automated monitoring of a dock door in real-time. The proposed system will automatically and in real-time: (1) detect when an object breaches the dock door perimeter, and its corresponding speed and direction, (2) count the number of pallets loaded/unloaded to/from a trailer, (3) record the loading/unloading time of each load, and (4) reconstruct an image of every loading/unloading trip at a dock door, irrespectively of the material handling travel speed and direction. Particular emphasis is given to discussing how to extend the proposed concept …

Global E-Mentoring: Overcoming Virtual Distance For An Effective Mentoring Relationship, Nancy Philippart

Wayne State University Dissertations

Mentoring can enhance an employee's career development and advancement but traditional face-to-face mentoring has become less relevant because of globalization, increased employee mobility and technology-enabled work. A new mentoring model enabled by technology has emerged to meet the needs of today's complex, fast changing global workplace. Although e-mentoring has several advantages over traditional mentoring, the absence of regular face-to-face interactions requires different strategies to develop an effective mentoring relationship. Moreover, additional complexities arise when this virtual mentoring is global.

This research utilizes the construct of virtual distance, the "psychological separation" that has been found to impact performance outcomes of geographically …

A Comparative Analysis Of Spatial Visualization Ability And Drafting Models For Industrial And Technology Education Students, Petros Katsioloudis, Vukica Jovanović, Mildred Jones

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The article presents the comparative study on the drafting models and spatial visualization ability of industrial and technology education students in the U.S. It discusses how the study was conducted which examined the issue based on technical drawings and with regards to the impacts of model types. The results reportedly revealed three-dimensional models are effective for promoting learning, however more studies have to be conducted.

Enhancing Agility Of Supply Chains Using Stochastic, Discrete Event And Physical Simulation Models, Alok K. Verma

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Managing supply chains in today’s distributed manufacturing environment has become more complex. To remain competitive in today’s global marketplace, organizations must streamline their supply chains. The practice of coordinating the design, procurement, flow of goods, services, information and finances, from raw material flows to parts supplier to manufacturer to distributor to retailer and finally to consumer requires synchronized planning and execution. Efficient and effective supply chain management assists an organization in getting the right goods and services to the place needed at the right time, in the proper quantity and at acceptable cost. Managing this process involves developing and overseeing …

Xqx Based Modeling For General Integer Programming Problems, Vijay P. Ramalingam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We present a new way to model general integer programming (IP) problems with in- equality and equality constraints using XQX. We begin with the definition of IP problems folloby their practical applications, and then present the existing XQX based models to handle such problems. We then present our XQX model for general IP problems (including binary IP) with equality and inequality constraints, and also show how this model can be applied to problems with just inequality constraints. We then present the local optima based solution procedure for our XQX model. We also present new theorems and their proofs for our …

Strategic Decision Support System Using Heuristic Algorithm For Practical Outlet Zones Allocation To Dealers In A Beer Supply Distribution Network, Michelle Lee Fong Cheong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We consider a two-echelon beer supply distribution network with the brewer replenishing the dealers and the dealers serving the outlet zones directly, for multiple product types. The allocation of the outlet zones to the dealers will determine the quantity of products the brewer replenishes each dealer, which will in turn impact the total warehousing and transportation costs. The non-linear optimization model formulated is difficult to solve to optimality, and the model itself does not include practical business considerations in the distribution business. A heuristics algorithm is designed and easily implemented using spreadsheets with Visual Basic programming to effectively and efficiently …

A Decision Modeling For Phasor Measurement Unit Location Selection In Smart Grid Systems, Seung Yup Lee

Wayne State University Theses

As a key technology for enhancing the smart grid system, Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) provides synchronized phasor measurements of voltages and currents of wide-area electric power grid. With various benefits from its application, one of the critical issues in utilizing PMUs is the optimal site selection of units.

The main aim of this research is to develop a decision support system, which can be used in resource allocation task for smart grid system analysis. As an effort to suggest a robust decision model and standardize the decision modeling process, a harmonized modeling framework, which considers operational circumstances of component, is …

Workplace Sleepiness: Causes, Consequences And Countermeasures, Neda Khalafi

Masters Theses

"Sleep deprivation is an epidemic problem in our society that adversely affects the quality and safety of our daily lives. At home and on the job, inadequate sleep is associated with considerable social, financial, and health-related costs, due to instability of waking functions. Research has shown that, sleep deprivation among workers, whether from sleep disorders, lifestyle or shift work, can hinder the proper performance, and in extreme cases may pose hazard to the workers themselves and their environment. Deficits in daytime performance can have profound effects in the processing industry where workers are often required to perform monotonous tasks that …

The Use Of Statistics And Its Analysis In Resolving Transportation Related Problems, Venkat Sravan Kothapalli

Masters Theses

"Statistical methods are traditionally used to summarize or describe a collection of data. This can be termed as descriptive statistics. This research focuses on application of certain statistical approaches, tools to solve transportation related problems. This research focuses on usage of statistical analysis in determine some of the significant factors and assumptions which should be taken into consideration while developing safety and maintenance related measures by transportation agencies. This research mainly focuses on; testing null hypothesis and frequency analysis. The research therefore is presented in two different case studies: 1) Statistical analysis of the work zone crash historical raw data …

Hedge Fund Replication Using A Strategy Specific Modeling Approach, Sujit Subhash

Masters Theses

"Institutional investors and wealthy individuals have in the past allocated a significant portion of their portfolios to hedge funds with the expectation of unconditional and uncorrelated returns to the market. However, the financial crisis of 2008 has heightened investor sensitivity to the high fees, illiquidity, and lockup periods typically associated with hedge funds. Hedge fund indexes showing excellent returns and low volatility contain funds that are closed to new investments, while the performance of investable funds have been shown to be inferior to their non-investable counterparts. The lack of transparency and extreme variation in the performance of hedge funds make …

Economic And Environmental Comparison Of Different Ordering Policies For An Integrated Inventory Control And Supplier Selection Problem, Sepideh Almasi Monfared

Masters Theses

"This study analyzes an integrated inventory control and supplier selection problem in stochastic demand environment under carbon emissions regulations. In particular, a continuous review inventory model with multiple suppliers is investigated under carbon taxing and carbon trading regulations. We analyze and compare the optimal supplier selection and order splitting decisions with single sourcing and two alternative delivery structures for multi-sourcing, namely, sequential ordering and sequential delivery. For each of the three ordering policies, a solution method is proposed and these policies are compared in terms of their economic as well as environmental performances. A numerical study is conducted to demonstrate …

A Framework For Workforce Management An Agent Based Simulation Approach, Mario Marin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's advanced technology world, enterprises are in a constant state of competition. As the intensity of competition increases the need to continuously improve organizational performance has never been greater. Managers at all levels must be on a constant quest for finding ways to maximize their enterprises' strategic resources. Enterprises can develop sustained competitiveness only if their activities create value in unique ways. There should be an emphasis to transfer this competitiveness to the resources it has on hand and the resources it can develop to be used in this environment. The significance of human capital is even greater now, …

Lean Fire Management: A Focused Analysis Of The Incident Command System Based On Toyota Production System Principles, Jeremiah S. Fugate

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

A primary role of the Incident Command System is to learn from past incidents, as illustrated by its origins in the wildland firefighting community. Successful emergency response operations under the Incident Command System has prompted its nationwide spread, this promulgation critically relies on the system’s capability to stabilize and continuously improve various aspects of emergency response through effective organizational learning. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential to apply fundamental principles of the Toyota Production System (Lean manufacturing) to improve learning effectiveness within the Incident Command System. An in-depth review of literature and training documents regarding both …

Stochastic Optimization For Integrated Energy System With Reliability Improvement Using Decomposition Algorithm, Yuping Huang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As energy demands increase and energy resources change, the traditional energy system has been upgraded and reconstructed for human society development and sustainability. Considerable studies have been conducted in energy expansion planning and electricity generation operations by mainly considering the integration of traditional fossil fuel generation with renewable generation. Because the energy market is full of uncertainty, we realize that these uncertainties have continuously challenged market design and operations, even a national energy policy. In fact, only a few considerations were given to the optimization of energy expansion and generation taking into account the variability and uncertainty of energy supply …

A Curricula Assessment And Improvement Quantitative Model For Higher Education: A Design For Six Sigma Methodology, Abdullah Halawany

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Curricula assessment is an integrated process to assist higher education institutions in addressing the challenges in a designated field of study and in exploring the opportunities to better educate and prepare their students for an increasingly complex world. Although assessment as a topic has been researched extensively, there has been a lack of quantitative tools that address the requirements of many of the stakeholders that may be critical to the curriculum design and assessment processes. This research proposes the utilization of Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) to develop a quantitative model for curriculum assessment and improvement for higher education institutions. …

Cost-Sensitive Learning-Based Methods For Imbalanced Classification Problems With Applications, Talayeh Razzaghi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Analysis and predictive modeling of massive datasets is an extremely significant problem that arises in many practical applications. The task of predictive modeling becomes even more challenging when data are imperfect or uncertain. The real data are frequently affected by outliers, uncertain labels, and uneven distribution of classes (imbalanced data). Such uncertainties create bias and make predictive modeling an even more difficult task. In the present work, we introduce a cost-sensitive learning method (CSL) to deal with the classification of imperfect data. Typically, most traditional approaches for classification demonstrate poor performance in an environment with imperfect data. We propose the …

A Holistic Framework For Transitional Management, Ahmed Elattar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For all business organizations, there comes a time when a change must take place within their eco-system. It consumes a great deal of thought and planning to ensure that the right decision is made as it could alter the entire course of their business for a number of years to come. This change may appear in the form of a brilliant CEO reaching the age of retirement, or an unsuccessful Managing Director being asked to leave before fulfilling the term of her contract. Regardless of the cause, a transition must occur in which a suitable successor is chosen and put …

Assessing Safety Culture Among Pilots In Saudi Airlines: A Quantitative Study Approach, Mohammad Alsowayigh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In high- risk industries, such as aviation, safety is a key for organization survivor. Most accidents involve human losses and bring substantial cost to organizations. Accidents can devastate the reputation and profitability of any organization. In aviation, more than 80% of aircraft accidents are related to human errors. Safety culture has substantial impact on the success of any organization. Employees' performance and behaviors are influenced by their perception of safety culture within their organization. In the aviation industry, pilots are considered the last resort to prevent accidents or mishaps in the air or ground. The focus on pilots' perception of …