Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Algorithmic And Mathematical Programming Approaches To Scheduling Problems With Energy-Based Objectives, Kan Fang

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation studies scheduling as a means to address the increasing concerns related to energy consumption and electricity cost in manufacturing enterprises. Two classes of problems are considered in this dissertation: (i) minimizing the makespan in a permutation flow shop with peak power consumption constraints (the PFSPP problem for short) and (ii) minimizing the total electricity cost on a single machine under time-of-use tariffs (the SMSEC problem for short). We incorporate the technology of dynamic speed scaling and the variable pricing of electricity into these scheduling problems to improve energy efficiency in manufacturing.The challenge in the PFSPP problem is to …

A Sociotechnical Systems-Based Process To Facilitate The Development Of A Change Intervention Deployment Plan, Jorge Luis Nadal

EMSE Doctoral Projects

The purpose of this project was to formulate a process to facilitate the development of an effective change intervention deployment plan. The premise is that without a proper deployment plan, the successful implementation of a change intervention in an organization will be slow and require multiple revisions. This research utilized a Sociotechnical Systems (STS) approach to analyze the implementation of a major change intervention.

This research was in part prompted by a request by management of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the researcher to examine why it has taken so long to successfully implement this large-scale change …

Approximate Algorithms For The Combined Arrival-Departure Aircraft Sequencing And Reactive Scheduling Problems On Multiple Runways, Gulsah Hancerliogullari

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The problem addressed in this dissertation is the Aircraft Sequencing Problem (ASP) in which a schedule must be developed to determine the assignment of each aircraft to a runway, the appropriate sequence of aircraft on each runway, and their departing or landing times. The dissertation examines the ASP over multiple runways, under mixed mode operations with the objective of minimizing the total weighted tardiness of aircraft landings and departures simultaneously. To prevent the dangers associated with wake-vortex effects, separation times enforced by Aviation Administrations (e.g., FAA) are considered, adding another level of complexity given that such times are sequence-dependent. Due …

An Expert Based Multi Attribute Group Decision Making (Magdm) Model For Portfolio Evaluation: Application On Ground Force Units, Metin Gultekin

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This main objective of this dissertation is to propose an expert based multi attribute group decision making model (MAGDM) for portfolio evaluation and demonstrate it by applying it to evaluate brigade types under different military missions. Specifically, currently used Heavy, Mechanized Infantry, Airborne Infantry, and Stryker brigades are evaluated under a set of possible future military missions. The purpose of the study is to provide a model for decision makers, engaged in a force development process.

This study combined MAGDM and simulation by using expert judgments to create distributions rather than aggregating them into point values. Excel and Monte Carlo …

Polyparking, Christopher Blackmer, Michael Suttie

Biomedical Engineering

The purpose of this senior project is to analyze the various options for the implementation of a parking lot information system on the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo campus. This system would involve three main components: physical counting hardware, a database and analysis organization system, and a user interface for disseminating the gathered information. The project investigates and provides commentary on various available and commonplace systems, and the benefits and drawbacks of these systems. During the course of the project, a flexible database and user-interface was developed in Microsoft Access, which will allow counter output to be gathered …

Engineering Problem Solving And Sustained Learning: A Mixed Methods Study To Explore The Dynamics Of Engineering Knowledge Creation, Rachel Itabashi-Campbell

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation research explores processes by which engineering problem solving (EPS) results in sustained organizational learning. Approaching from a constructionist perspective, the study empirically examines the knowledge creation dynamics instigated by product-related problems using a mixed methods research approach. The research has identified the Japanese concept of ba, defined in this study as "shared experiential space," as a key construct that explains the phenomena of interest. A new framework that the study has developed, which interprets EPS as an epistemic journey to attain system-wide improvements, is highly complementary to the traditional structured routine based approaches to engineering operations and …

Demand Modeling And Capacity Planning For Innovative Short Life-Cycle Products, Saman Alaniazar

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on demand modeling and capacity planning for innovative short life-cycle products. We first developed a new model in the class of stochastic Bass formulations that addresses the shortcomings of models from the extant literature. The proposed model considers the common fact that the market potential of a product is not fixed and might change during a life-cycle due to exogenous (e.g., economic- or competitors-related) or endogenous (e.g., quality-related) factors. Allowing this parameter (market potential in the Bass model) to follow a geometric random walk, we have showed that the future demand of a product in each period …

A Methodology For Scheduling Operating Rooms Under Uncertainty, Marbelly Paola Davila

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An operating room (OR) is considered to be one of the most costly functional areas within hospitals as well as its major profit center. It is known that managing an OR department is a challenging task, which requires the integration of many actors (e.g., patients, surgeons, nurses, technicians) who may have conflicting interests and priorities.

Considering these aspects, this dissertation focuses on developing a simulation based methodology for scheduling operating rooms under uncertainty, which reflects the complexity, uncertainty and variability associated with surgery.

We split the process of scheduling ORs under uncertainty into two main components. First, we designed a …

Optimization Of Biomass Logistics System Using Genetic Algorithm And Particle Swarm Optimization For Biofuel Production, Ethel Regina Martinez-Schabez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As time goes by, Renewable Energy keeps proving to be an important and potential replacement for fossil fuels. All the different types of Renewable Energy offer a relief to the environmental aftermaths of the prolonged reliance on fossil fuel energy. Bioenergy is one of the types of Renewable Energy that can help by minimizing the emissions of fossil fuels. The Energy Independence and Security Act mandates the use of 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels including 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels by the year 2022. Biomass and Biofuels can clearly become a significant aid to sustainably supply energy in …

Supply Chain Optimization Of Blood Products, Serkan Gunpinar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Major challenges in the management of blood supply chain are related to the shortage and wastage of the blood products. Given the perishability characteristics of blood which can be stored up to a limited number of days, if hospitals and blood centers keep an excessive number of blood units on inventory, wastages may occur. On the other hand, if sufficient number of blood units are not stored on inventory, shortages of this resource may cause the cancellations of important activities and increase the fatality rates at hospitals. Three mathematical models have been developed with the goal to improve the efficiency …

Nylon Tension Pid Control During Raw Tire Assembly, Yuan-Yu Luo

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to evaluate several control methods to see which one has the best control of nylon tension during raw tire assembly. After nylon application step of the tire building process, the shape of the tire will undergo inflation that causes the nylon layers to expand and produces tension gradient. To overcome such a problem, the process needs to preapply a nylon trip with a gradient of tension so the tension can be balanced after the inflation step. The study evaluated several PID controllers and gathered data to see which controller results in the best nylon …

Using Modelling And Simulation To Improve Elderly Care In Ireland: A Case Study, Mohamed Ragab, Wael Rashwan, Waleed Abo-Hamad, Amr Arisha

Articles

Health care services both globally and domestically - are encountering critical issues due to the increasing demand for services at the time of economic recession. Hospital performance is subject to many constraints, and planning is made more difficult by the complexity and uncertainty of demand. Population ageing is creating immense pressures on healthcare facilities across the world, leaving them struggling to cope with the growing demand for elderly healthcare services. Current demand-supply gaps result in prolonged waiting times for patients and substantial cost burdens for healthcare systems due to delayed discharges. This paper reports on a project that uses modelling …

Capacity Planning For Elderly Care In Ireland Using Simulation Modeling, Mohamed Ragab, Waleed Abo Hamad, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

Global population aging is creating an immense pressure on healthcare facilities making them unable to cope with the growing demand for elderly healthcare services. Current demand-supply gaps result in prolonged waiting times for patients and substantial cost burdens for healthcare systems due to delayed discharges. This paper describes a project aimed at presenting modeling and simulation to address elderly care pathways within the Irish healthcare sector. The management of frail patients admitted to acute hospitals and the introduction of the new intermediate care beds are alternative interventions that healthcare executives are interested in simulating to examine their impact on the …

Locating And Protecting Facilities Subject To Random Disruptions And Attacks, Hugh Medal

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent events such as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan have revealed the vulnerability of networks such as supply chains to disruptive events. In particular, it has become apparent that the failure of a few elements of an infrastructure system can cause a system-wide disruption. Thus, it is important to learn more about which elements of infrastructure systems are most critical and how to protect an infrastructure system from the effects of a disruption. This dissertation seeks to enhance the understanding of how to design and protect networked infrastructure systems from disruptions by developing new mathematical models and …

A Model For Optimizing The Allocation Of Ethanol Production In The U.S., Anali Huggins

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the last five years, fuel prices have fluctuated from 2.86$/gallon to 3.87$/gallon which represents an increase of 35%. This situation has collocated the ethanol manufacturing in an advantageous situation. However, a major problem that is faced by the ethanol producers is the high cost of transportation. The objective of this thesis study is to determine the optimal allocation of ethanol production in the U.S. in 2009 that minimizes the transportation cost. This thesis is based on the application of a linear programing model. The thesis is focused on two questions. The first is the optimal allocation of ethanol between …

Development And Validation Of A Model For Granular Material Volume Measurements, Pourya Fasounaki

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Keeping inventory record of packed grains in silos poses challenges since the bulk material’s different segments do not discharge uniformly, leading to formation of random peaks and valleys on the surface. To facilitate obtaining accurate volume measurement of the grains by taking into account this non-linear behavior on the surface, laser or plumb-bob level-sensing devices are employed at different part of the surface to probe the level of material under those regions.

The main goals of this research is to study the behavior of granular material in silo while discharging downward and by doing so, differentiate certain flow patterns formed …

A Discrete Event Simulation Of Network Centric Operations: Modeling Unbalanced Combat Configurations In Symmetric Engagements, Mahmoud Turki Khasawneh

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Network Centric Operations (NCO) has been dubbed the most significant revolution in military affairs (RMA) in the past 200 years. The promise of NCO is based on the notion that information sharing and connectivity is fundamental to the effectiveness of a combat force. This due to the ability of a properly networked force to self-synchronize itself as it engages enemy forces. The purposeful arrangement of assets in a combat force is what makes it 'properly networked'. What is a purposeful arrangement of combat assets? How should a force organize to enhance information sharing and connectivity? And how does connectivity within …

A Study Of Queuing Theory In Low To High Rework Environments With Process Availability, Adam J. Brown

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

In manufacturing systems subject to machine and operator resource constraints the effects of rework can be profound. High levels of rework burden the resources unnecessarily and as the utilization of these resources increases the expected queuing time of work in process increases exponentially. Queuing models can help managers to understand and control the effects of rework, but often this tool is overlooked in part because of concerns over accuracy in complex environments and/or the need for limiting assumptions. One aim of this work is to increase understanding of system variables on the accuracy of simple queuing models. A queuing model …

Impact Of Rotated Aisles On Travel Distance In Manufacturing Facilities, Dale Masel, Samantha Hedges

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

To design a facility, expected flows between the resources is one of the most important input. Flows are usually calculated given some statistics of previous periods or from the expected demand and the process required. However, in a refurbishing and recycling facility, flows are very fluctuating and not trivial to predict. The quantity produced by such facility not only depends on the demand but also on the supplies which are returned products under guaranty or discarded products after their end-of-use. The uncertainty and the variability on these supplies are often higher than the one on the demand which makes it …

Simulation-Based Performance Improvement Of A Defense Logistics Warehouse, Banu Y. Ekren, Gerald W. Evans, Sunderesh S. Heragu, John S. Usher

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

Warehouses play a critical role in supply chains. They serve as a vital link between manufacturers and customers. In this study, we investigate performance of the largest warehouse (Eastern Distribution Center - EDC) of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) located in New Cumberland, PA and propose a near optimum design for the receiving area of the warehouse to improve its performance. First, we develop a simulation model of the system. Second, we interface an optimization model with the simulation in order to optimize the number of people working at the induction stations. In the optimization model, our goal is to …

Optimal Design Of Container Terminal Layout, Debjit Roy, Ren´E De Koster

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

Due to rapid growth in foreign trade using sea vessels, there is a growing focus in improving the infrastructure and operational efficiencies at the container terminals. Particularly, the operational responsiveness of loading and unloading of containers, affects the vessel idle times and profitability of the shipping liners. In this research, we deter- mine optimal stack layout design, which minimizes the container unload times using Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). To analyze alternate stack layout designs, we develop integrated queuing network models that capture the stochastic interactions among the container terminal processes (quayside, vehicle transport, and stack side), and provides realistic estimates …

Cycle Time Models For Aisle Changing As/Rs Considering Acceleration/Deceleration, Jörg Oser

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

In multi-aisle AS/RS systems one or more S/R machines serve several aisles with storage racks on both sides of the aisle. An important feature of multi-aisle configurations are aisle changing devices with transfer cars, curve guided aisle switching mechanisms or closed loop rail tracks with curved sections for a two-aisle layout. These systems offer an economic solution, when the number of storage and retrieval transactions is low and storage volume is high. One or several S/R machines each serving a specified number of aisles can be arranged in various layouts to meet the required storage capacity and throughput.

The Order Picking Problem In Fishbone Aisle Warehouses, Melih Celik, Haldun Sural

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

A recent trend in the layout design of unit load warehouses is the application of layouts without conventional parallel pick aisles and straight middle aisles. Two examples for such designs are flying- V and fish bone designs for single and dual command operations. In this study, we consider the same layout types under the case of multiple-item pick lists and show that, for both layout types, the routing problem can be solved in polynomial time. We also propose simple heuristics for this problem inspired by those put forward for parallel-aisle warehouses. Our computational results reveal that under certain cases, fish …

How To Choose An Order-Picking System, Marita Ellinger, Tim Geißen, Detlef Spee

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

Order-Picking-Systems are the parts of material flow systems, which have the largest variance of deployment alternatives. Since a long time there have been many attempts to systematize the way of identification of the order-picking- ystem that the “correct” solution can be found. The previous methods could not be enforced universally. Thus nearly all the material handling system suppliers have their own approach to find the right system, as it turned out at a market analysis of Fraunhofer IML. With the presented concept of finding a solution, a structured, fast method for system identification shall be presented. A stepwise approach to …

Evaluation Of Environmental Benefits Of Che Emerging Technologies By Using Lca, Nenad Zrnić, Andrija Vujičić

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

In the era of climate change combat transport industry is recognized as a sector with one of the largest environmental footprints. A part of transport industry is container shipping and handling division, which is currently growing with the fastest rate. This massive growth of container sector is due to containers pouring from Asia, mainly from China. Thus, container port operations are also experiencing significant increase in port emissions. This fact puts port authorities in position to find a way to reduce environmental impact of port operations and at the same time withhold increase in number containers being handled. In response …

Robust Design Of Public Storage Warehouses, Yeming Yale Gong, Rene De Koster

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

We apply robust optimization and revenue management in public storage warehouses. We optimize the expected revenue of public storage warehouses against the worst cases with a max-min revenue objective, and the decision variables are mainly the number of storage units for each storage type. With the robust design, we can observe worst-case revenue improvement.

Refurburshing And Recycling Facilities Design Methodology, Suzanne Marcotte, Benoit Montreuil

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

To design a facility, expected flows between the resources is one of the most important input. Flows are usually calculated given some statistics of previous periods or from the expected demand and the process required. However, in a refurbishing and recycling facility, flows are very fluctuating and not trivial to predict. The quantity produced by such facility not only depends on the demand but also on the supplies which are returned products under guaranty or discarded products after their end-of-use. The uncertainty and the variability on these supplies are often higher than the one on the demand which makes it …

Functional Design Of Physical Internet Facilities: A Road-Rail Hub, Eric Ballot, Benoit Montreuil, Collin Thivierge

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

As part of the 2010 IMHRC, Montreuil, Meller and Ballot enumerated the type of facilities that would be necessary to operate a Physical Internet (PI, π), which they termed, “π-nodes.” This paper is part of a three-paper series for the 2012 IMHRC where the authors provide functional designs of three PI facilities. This paper covers a PI road-rail hub. The purpose of a PI road-rail node is to enable the transfer of PI containers from their inbound to outbound destinations. Therefore, a road-rail π-hub provides a mechanism to transfer π-containers from a train to another one or a truck or …

Safe Control Of Manufacturing Vehicles Research Towards Standard Test Methods, Roger Bostelman, Will Shackleford, Geraldine Cheok, Kamel Saidi

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology‟s Intelligent Systems Division has been researching several areas leading to safe control of manufacturing vehicles to improve automated guided vehicle (AGV) safety standards. The research areas include:  AGV safety and control based on advanced two-dimensional (2D) sensors that detect moving standard test pieces representing humans;  Ability of advanced 3D imaging sensors, when mounted to an AGV or forklift, to detect stationary or moving objects and test pieces on the ground or hanging over the work area; and  Manned forklift safety based on advanced 3D imaging sensors that detect visible and …

Humanitarian Logistics – The First Week, Selina Begum, Bill Ferrell

12th IMHRC Proceedings (Gardanne, France – 2012)

Decisions made on material flow during the first week of a natural disaster are critical for victims. Currently, decision makers appears to be making important choices based on experience and intuition with little or no support from quantitative approaches because they do not exist. This research proposes a paradigm and offers two supporting models that will assist decision makers regarding the routing of materials during the first week of a disaster. It explicitly includes information regarding the victims’ needs and the degree to which routes are available in a quantitative way that allows updating as information improves. The paradigm involves …