Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Exploring Agricultural Production Systems And Their Fundamental Components With System Dynamics Modelling, Jeffrey P. Walters, David W. Archer, Gretchen F. Sassenrath, John R. Hendrickson, Jon D. Hanson, John M. Halloran, Peter Vadas, Vladimir J. Alarcon

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Agricultural production in the United States is undergoing marked changes due to rapid shifts in consumer demands, input costs, and concerns for food safety and environmental impact. Agricultural production systems are comprised of multidimensional components and drivers that interact in complex ways to influence production sustainability. In a mixed-methods approach, we combine qualitative and quantitative data to develop and simulate a system dynamics model that explores the systemic interaction of these drivers on the economic, environmental and social sustainability of agricultural production. We then use this model to evaluate the role of each driver in determining the differences in sustainability …

Risk Attitudes And Global Infrastructure Technology Choices, Jessica Kaminsky, Jeffrey P. Walters

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Past research shows that Hofstede’s cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance explains variance in nations’ technology choice for sanitation and electricity infrastructure construction. The uncertainty avoidance dimension describes the way that nations deal with ambiguity and uncertainty. This paper is part of a larger project that links that previous national scale research to the project level that is most relevant to the construction practice. As such, this paper reviews methods from the literature that measure individual risk attitudes, including issues of measurement and risk determinants. For example, this paper discusses paid real-stakes lotteries, general risk questions, and context specific risk questions. …

Knowledge Reuse Through Electronic Knowledge Repositories: An Empirical Study And Ontological Improvement Effort For The Manufacturing Industry, Peter Panha Chhim

Wayne State University Dissertations

Knowledge management adoption is growing, and will continue to grow in no small part because of its recent inclusion into the ISO 9001 quality standard. As organizations look towards ways in which to manage their knowledge, the codification of explicit knowledge through Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) and Electronic Knowledge Repositories (EKRs) will undoubtedly gain more interest.

An EKR is a form of KMS that emphasizes the codification and storage of organizational expertise for the purposes of Knowledge Reuse (KRU). Unfortunately, the factors surrounding KRU are not well understood. While previous studies have viewed EKR usage from a narrow perspective, a …

Perceptions Of The Advanced Manufacturing Competency Model (Amcm) For Curriculum Development, Mark Doggett, Muhammad Jahan

SEAS Faculty Publications

The Advanced Manufacturing Competency Model (AMCM) model emphasizes building of competencies at all levels ranging from the shop floor production worker to manufacturing engineers. It consists of different levels of competencies organized hierarchically. The levels are personal effectiveness, academic, workplace, industry-wide technical, industry-sector technical, management and organization-specific competencies.

This paper discusses survey research on the perceptions of manufacturing students, faculty, and industry advisory board members regarding the AMCM. The research evaluated the manufacturing program based on perceptions of the AMCM competencies and the curricular coverage required for entry-level manufacturing professionals. Specifically, the survey sought to answer the following research questions: …

Group Scheduling In A Cellular Manufacturing Shop To Minimise Total Tardiness And Nt: A Comparative Genetic Algorithm And Mathematical Modelling Approach, Gokhan Egilmez, Emre M. Mese, Bulent Erenay, Gürsel A. Süer

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, family and job scheduling in a cellular manufacturing shop is addressed where jobs have individual due dates. The objectives are to minimise total tardiness and the number of tardy jobs. Family splitting among cells is allowed but job splitting is not. Two optimisation methods are employed in order to solve this problem, namely mathematical modelling (MM) and genetic algorithm (GA). The results showed that GA found the optimal solution for most of the problems with high frequency. Furthermore, the proposed GA is efficient compared to the MM especially for larger problems in terms of execution times. Other …

A Simulation-Based Evaluation Of Efficiency Strategies For A Primary Care Clinic With Unscheduled Visits, Afrifah Bobbie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the health care industry, there are strategies to remove inefficiencies from the health delivery process called efficiency strategies. This dissertation proposed a simulation model to evaluate the impact of the efficiency strategies on a primary care clinic with unscheduled "walk-in" patient visits. The simulation model captures the complex characteristics of the Orlando Veteran's Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) primary care clinic. This clinic system includes different types of patients, patient paths, and multiple resources that serve them. Added to the problem complexity is the presence of patient no-shows characteristics and unscheduled patient arrivals, a problem which has been until recently, …

A Systems Approach To Assessing, Interpreting And Applying Human Error Mishap Data To Mitigate Risk Of Future Incidents In A Space Exploration Ground Processing Operations Environment, Tiffaney Alexander

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research results have shown that more than half of aviation, aerospace and aeronautics mishaps/incidents are attributed to human error. Although many existing incident report systems have been beneficial for identifying engineering failures, most of them are not designed around a theoretical framework of human error, thus failing to address core issues and causes of the mishaps. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a human error assessment framework to identify these causes. This research focused on identifying causes of human error and leading contributors to historical Launch Vehicle Ground Processing Operations mishaps based on past mishaps, near mishaps, and close calls. …

Computational Modeling Approaches For Task Analysis In Robotic-Assisted Surgery, Mahtab Jahanbani Fard

Wayne State University Dissertations

Surgery is continuously subject to technological innovations including the introduction of robotic surgical devices. The ultimate goal is to program the surgical robot to perform certain difficult or complex surgical tasks in an autonomous manner. The feasibility of current robotic surgery systems to record quantitative motion and video data motivates developing descriptive mathematical models to recognize, classify and analyze surgical tasks. Recent advances in machine learning research for uncovering concealed patterns in huge data sets, like kinematic and video data, offer a possibility to better understand surgical procedures from a system point of view. This dissertation focuses on bridging the …

Technology Decisions In New Product Development, Amir Sanayei

Wayne State University Dissertations

Selecting the right technology is one of the most important and challenging decisions in new product development (NPD) process that can greatly affect all downstream design activities which have a great impact on product success in the market place. Although new technologies may bring more competitive advantage by offering higher performance to price, they also make the NPD process more risky and challenging. We model the technology selection problem of a firm that is defining its new product in the presence of the technology uncertainty. At each review stage, firm has the options: select and commit to any technology alternatives …

Complex Adaptive Behavior: Pragmatic Idealism, Mustafa Canan, Andres Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The introduction of new concepts is a driver of organizational evolution and transformation. A newly introduced concept can introduce new meaning that is disparate to existing understanding. A new concept may also be interpreted in multiple ways, thereby introducing several disparate meanings. The disparity is resolved through adaptation. The disparity introduces complex adaptive behavior to the organization, requiring suitable changes to its management and design. The development of corresponding doctrine for new concepts, and training for the organization's constituents become indispensable. In so doing, constituents can be involved in the adaptation process through direct participation, and thereby include the cognitive …

Modeling Social, Economic, Technical & Environmental Components In An Energy System, Ange-Lionel Toba, Mamadou Seck

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Energy system models have become the main supporting tool for energy policy. Modern challenges in energy policy require energy systems models that integrate technical, environmental and societal aspects of the energy systems. In this paper, we introduce a conceptual model for an energy system model that specifies the relationships between social, technical, environmental, and economic aspects of an energy system. This conceptual model presented in the IDEF0 language will serve as a basis for a computational energy systems model. © 2016 The Authors.

Energy Sustainability Of Turkey In The Case Of Lng, Omer Ilker Poyraz, Omer Keskin, Resit Unal

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Energy is both vital and strategic element for a nation to sustain its fundamental activities like security, logistics, heating, etc. Countries sustain their energy demands through internal or external sources. In the case of not being able to maintain energy demands from their internal sources, they would need to import their requirements. Whenever they need to buy raw materials, they have to build terminals to process the raw material into the required form. The dependency on the imports may cause the importing country to weaken its advantage in international conflicts, unemployment, and welfare. Therefore, countries aim to mitigate dependence to …

The Effect Of Impeded Information Sharing And Transparency On Power Differentials And Organizational Dysfunction, Mustafa Canan, A. Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The constituents of an organization have to interact with each other. The purpose of the interaction is to maintain flow of information, to exchange knowledge, to share individual situational awareness, and to give rise to an organizational shared awareness. The rate of information exchange is constrained by multiple factors and impacts the effectiveness of the communication in an organization. For instance, extensive communication may not result in informativeness all the time. Communication channels induce constraints between the interacting agents. These constraints can impede information flow. Impeding information flow will result in an accumulation of knowledge with a particular agent. Consequently, …

Parametric Investigations Into Internal Surface Modification Of Brass Tubes With Alternating Magnetic Field, Harish Kumar, Sehijpal Singh, Anil K. Srivastava

Manufacturing & Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The final finish operations have great significance in an overall manufacturing cycle of a product. The surface finishing and modification of surfaces have been the vital requirements of most of the products. The processes like shot peening, shot blasting, abrasive finishing and super finishing are being largely employed for such requirements. While final finishing of flat and outside surfaces are relatively easy and well established, the internal surfaces such as those of pipes is not so simple. In this paper, the application of low frequency alternative magnetic field has been explored for imparting surface modification including surface on the internal …

Post-Disaster Supply Chain Interdependent Critical Infrastructure System Restoration: A Review Of Data Necessary And Available For Modeling, Varun Ramachandran, Suzanna Long, Tom Shoberg, Steven Corns, Hector J. Carlo

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The majority of restoration strategies in the wake of large-scale disasters have focused on short-term emergency response solutions. Few consider medium- to long-term restoration strategies to reconnect urban areas to national supply chain interdependent critical infrastructure systems (SCICI). These SCICI promote the effective flow of goods, services, and information vital to the economic vitality of an urban environment. To re-establish the connectivity that has been broken during a disaster between the different SCICI, relationships between these systems must be identified, formulated, and added to a common framework to form a system-level restoration plan. To accomplish this goal, a considerable collection …

Exploring Maintenance And Facility Operations Strategies For California Community Colleges, Virginia Parras Grande

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

California community college leaders are looking for strategies to sustain facilities and maintenance operations because the governor only approved the allocation of $87.5 million in the 2014-2015 Budget Act for facilities maintenance operations. Guided by the change and strategy theories, the purpose of this multicase study was to explore the strategies that a select group of college leaders have used to sustain or improve their facilities maintenance operations. The data collection process included a review of college planning documents and semistructured interviews with 10 senior administrators from 3 large California community colleges who have used strategies to address sustaining or …

An Integrated Design For Six Sigma-Based Framework To Align Strategy, New Process Development, And Customer Requirements In The Airlines Industry, Mohammed Alghamdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When organizations create new strategy maps, key new processes are often identified. This is important for organizations to stay competitive in the global marketplace. This document describes the development, implementation, and validation of a framework that properly aligns and links an organization's strategy and new process development. The proposed framework integrates the Balanced Scorecard management system (BSC) and the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology, leveraging their strengths, overcoming weaknesses, and identifying lessons learned to help bridge the gap between strategy development and execution. The critical-to-quality conceptual model is used as an integrative component for the framework. Literature search has …

An Experimental Investigation Of The State Of Creativity, Critical Thinking And Creativity Training In Undergraduate Engineering Students, Eric Sola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research explores creativity and critical thinking skills in undergraduate engineering students. The study undertook two experiments in order to gather a better understanding of several factors regarding the interactions between students' creative abilities and the effects of the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Experiment 1 focused on the differences in creative and critical thinking skills in freshman versus senior undergraduate engineering students. Experiment 2 centered on the variation in the effects of long-term versus short-term creativity training on senior engineering students. Creative skill was measured using the Test for Creative Thinking – Drawing Production (TCT-DP) developed by Urban and Jellen (2010). …

Modeling Of Selection Of Supply Sources For Hospitals, Siva Raghava Sai Rohith Valiveti

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Most of the hospitals in the USA carry out their purchasing of supplies, including pharmaceuticals, through Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO). GPO is an organization, which aggregates procuring volumes of their member hospitals and negotiates low prices from manufacturers or vendors. According to 2013 statistics, 98% of hospitals in U.S. are purchasing their bulk health care products through GPOs, and it saves U.S. health care industry approximately $36 billion annually. Through these hospitals enjoy advantages by purchasing through their GPOs, there are some disadvantages such as paying membership fees to their GPOs, restricting the purchasing power of the hospitals outside their …

Development Of An Instrument To Assess Capacity For Systems Thinking, Kaitlynn M. Castelle, Raed M. Jaradat

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

With the rapid growth and integration in technology and information, the behavior and structure of complex systems presents escalating challenges. Complex systems are marked by high level of ambiguity, uncertainty, and emergence. These conditions impose challenges and difficulties for practitioners responsible to successfully manage and design complex systems. There is a fundamental need to have a cadre of individuals who are capable of dealing with increasingly complex systems and their problems. One response is Systems Thinking, which can provide a holistic thinking paradigm that opens new channels and opportunities to think differently about complex systems as a whole unit. This …

Why Are All The Softies In Europe? A Discussion Of The Lack Of Penetration Of Soft Or In The Us, Andrew J. Collins, Patrick T. Hester

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Soft Operations Research (OR) methods are used for a variety of real-world problems due to their focus on qualitative or interpretative problem formulation and analysis. Analysts use Soft Systems Methodology for problem structuring, drama theory for understanding conflicts, and morphological analysis for decision support. These techniques have an advantage over their quantitative counterparts because they can be used to tame wicked problems. So why is the use of soft OR not widespread in the US? In this paper, we discuss the systems and forces in place that limit soft OR within the US' higher education system and, by extension, the …

Systemic Analysis Of Complex System Governance For Acquisition, Charles B. Keating, Joseph M. Bradley, Polinpapilinho F. Katina

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to explore Complex System Governance (CSG) issues related to systemic analysis of acquisition systems. CSG is an emerging field focused on the design, execution, and evolution of the functions necessary to provide continued system performance (stability) in the midst of incessant turbulence and increasing complexity. Integral to this field is the necessity to engage systems to address behavior or performance that is inconsistent with that which is desired. Systemic analysis for CSG serves to examine a system to discover fundamental system issues (e.g. acquisition). Arguably, system acquisition has an unremarkable record of success, ranging …

Modeling Resilience In System Of Systems Architecture, Paulette Acheson, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

System of Systems (SoS) can be represented by the SoS architecture which defines the constituent systems and their interfaces. SoS delivers capabilities beyond what the systems working independently can provide. Resiliency of the SoS is becoming increasingly more important and necessary for mission success. Resiliency can be defined as the ability of the SoS architecture to defend against emerging threats. This defense means adapting the SoS architecture to handle the new threat. As a new threat is uncovered, the SoS architecture evolves to a new SoS architecture resilient to the new threat. This paper presents a novel approach to modeling …

Stimulus And Optode Placement Effects On Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Of Visual Cortex, Nasser H. Kashou, Brenna M. Giacherio

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy has yet to be implemented as a stand-alone technique within an ophthalmology clinical setting, despite its promising advantages. The present study aims to further investigate reliability of visual cortical signals. This was achieved by: (1) assessing the effects of optode placements using the 10–20 International System of Electrode Placement consisting of 28 channels, (2) determining effects of stimulus size on response, and (3) evaluating response variability as a result of cap placement across three sessions. Ten participants with mean age 23.8 4.8 years (five male) and varying types of hair color and thickness were recruited. Visual stimuli …

Hand-Grasping And Finger Tapping Induced Similar Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Cortical Responses, Nasser H. Kashou, Brenna M. Giacherio, Ramzi W. Nahhas, Sudarshan R. Jadcherla

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Despite promising advantages such as low cost and portability of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), it has yet to be widely implemented outside of basic research. Specifically, fNIRS has yet to be proven as a standalone tool within a clinical setting. The objective of this study was to assess hemodynamic concentration changes at the primary and premotor motor cortices as a result of simple whole-hand grasping and sequential finger-opposition (tapping) tasks. These tasks were repeated over 3 days in a randomized manner. Ten healthy young adults (23.8 4.8 years) participated in the study. Quantitatively, no statistically significant differences were discovered between …

Finite Element Analysis Of Superior C3 Cervical Vertebra Endplate And Cancellous Core Under Static Loads, Isaac Mabe, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Subsidence is a type of failure associated with implanted cervical cages or artificial intervertebral discs. It is defined as a loss of postoperative disc height. Actuarial rates show a risk of subsidence at 16 weeks at 70.7 percent. This study examines the changes in the vertebral endplate morphology and the resulting effect on the stresses developed in the endplate and in the vertebral core. A three-dimensional linear elastic model was created from computed tomographic (CT) scans and material properties were assigned according to various studies. Particular care was taken in the superior endplate that was modeled according to experimental measurements. …

Analysis Of A Clinically Failed, Mechanically Intact, Hemi-Toe Implant, Swetha Varadharajan, Richard T. Laughlin, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

In this case study a clinically failed, mechanically intact, hemi-toe device was investigated. The clinical indication of the failure constitutes radiolucent line indicating loosening of the implant and possible interactions among the bone-implant initiated by osteolysis may become a factor, producing pain, inflammatory reactions, deformity and discomfort. The patient file was not available to determine these parameters. The device was titanium coated, Cobalt Chromium alloy used for making hemi-toe. Degeneration of hemi implant was due to spalling of the coating from the surface, causing loosening of stem from bone. However, pre-removal X-ray films were not available to confirm. Mechanism by …

A Framework For Quantifying And Managing Overcrowding In Healthcare Facilities, Abdulrahman Albar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emergency Departments (EDs) represent a crucial component of any healthcare infrastructure. In today's world, healthcare systems face growing challenges in delivering efficient and time-sensitive emergency care services to communities. Overcrowding within EDs represents one of the most significant challenges for healthcare quality that adversely impacts clinical outcomes, patient safety, and overall satisfaction. Research in this area has resulted in creating several ED crowding indices, such as National Emergency Department Overcrowding Scale (NEDOCS) and Emergency Department Work Index (EDWIN) that have been developed to provide measures aimed at mitigating overcrowding. Recently, efforts made by researchers to examine the validity and reproducibility …

A Neuroergonomics Study Of Brain Eeg's Activity During Manual Lifting Tasks, Awad Aljuaid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electroencephalography (EEG) has been shown to be a reliable tool in neuroergonomics studies due to the relatively low cost of brain data collection and limited body invasion. The application of EEG frequency bands (including theta, alpha and beta), enjoyed a wide range of interest in physical and cognitive ergonomics. The psychophysical approach has been used for decades to improve safe work practices by understanding human limitations in manual materials handling. The main objective of this research project was to study the brain's EEG activity expressed by the power spectral density during manual lifting tasks related to: 1) the maximum acceptable …

Cyber-Physical Systems: Complex System Governance As An Integrating Construct, Polinpapilinho F. Katina, Charles B. Keating, Adrian V. Gheorghe

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper examines contributions of Complex System Governance (CSG) as an integrating construct for the emerging fields of critical cyber-physical systems (CPS). CPS is concerned with physical entities that are controlled by computational elements. The field is relatively new, emerging, and also somewhat fragmented in development. There are multiple agencies, entities, and activities being undertaken to address a nexus of emerging issues (e.g., cybersecurity) in critical infrastructures. However, the development of critical CPS, as a field, albeit with good intentions and efforts, appears to be largely ‘self-organizing.’ In response, we suggest CSG as an organizing construct capable of provided a …