Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Engineering Of A Knowledge Management System For Relational Medical Diagnosis, Maria Carolina Herrera-Hernandez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasingly high costs of health care in the U.S. have led the general public to search for different medical approaches. Since the 1990's, the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has radically increased in the U.S. due to its approach to treat physical, mental, and emotional causes of illness. In 2009, the National Health Statistics reported the impact of CAM in the U.S. health care economy, with population expenditures of $14.8 billion out-of-pocket on natural Medicine and $12.4 billion out-of-pocket on visits to CAM providers as a complement to Western Medicine care.

CAM interconnects human functions to reach …

Empirical Analysis Of The Relay Network Design Problem, Sergio Maldonado Soria Galvarro

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Definition and optimization of alternative methods for truckloads routing.

Optimal Charging Scheduling For Battery Electric Vehicles Under Smart Grid., Nur Dayana Abd Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A projected high penetration of battery electric vehicles (BEV s) in the market will introduce an additional load in the electricity grid. Furthermore, uncontrolled BEV charging from residential users will exacerbate the existing peak load during evening hours. In this thesis, we propose two optimization models to alleviate the impact of extra demand from electric vehicles on the power grid. The first is a centralized charging scheduling model that coordinates the charging among BEV users under the goal of minimizing the total electricity cost for all users. The second model uses a decentralized agent-based approach to scheduling the BEV charging. …

City Of Industry: Los Efectos Concretos En El Condado De Los Angeles En La Economía, El Medio Ambiente Y La Salud Pública, Christina Andrea Hernandez

World Languages and Cultures

This project attempts to document the development of the City of Industry, located in eastern Los Angeles County, and to examine the environmental as well as socio-economic effects this industrial hub maintains on its surrounding neighborhoods. City of Industry, since its incorporation in 1957, has established an alarming precedent as a privatized city that has informed concrete changes in the local economy, the environment, and the public health of the surrounding communities that are predominantly Latina(o).

The research undertaken for this project represents an interdisciplinary intersection of a special topic in the study of Industrial Engineering: the global logistics industry, …

Adaptive Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy Planning Optimization With Changing Tumor Geometry And Biology Enforcing Both Cumulative And Fraction Size Dose Constraints, Behlul Saka

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is a modern technique of delivering radiation treatments to cancer patients. In IMRT technology, intensities must be chosen for the many small unit grids into which the beams are divided to produce a desired distribution of dose at points throughout the body with the goal of maximizing dose delivered to the tumor while sparing healthy tissues from excessive radiation and keeping dose homogeneous across the tumor. Although IMRT plans are optimized as a single overall treatment plan, they are delivered over 30-50 treatment sessions (fractions) and both cumulative and per-fraction dose constraints apply. The extended …

Integrated Planning For Rural Rail Transportation, Jeffrey Cohan Gwaltney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Population growth in rural areas has led to new interest in rail transportation. Planning a passenger rail system involves numerous difficult decisions, most representing a trade-off between customer service and cost. In this work, we attempt to integrate many of these planning decisions. We consider strategic decisions such as station location and vehicle procurement, as well as tactical issues that include vehicle scheduling. Our integrated model exploits the linear network structure that best suits many rural American communities, including Northwest Arkansas. Due to the intractability of the integrated rail planning problem, we have developed a customized heuristic approach to solve …

City Of Industry: An Historical Precedent And Its Concrete Effects, Christina A. Hernandez

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

Inventory Models For Intermittent Highly Variable Demand And Policy Parameter Adjustments To Meet Desired Service Level Requirements, Yasin Unlu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three assays. The first assay examines the robustness of lead time demand models for the continuous review (r;Q) inventory policy. A number of classic distributions as well as distribution selection rules are examined under a wide variety of demand conditions. First, the models are compared to each other by assuming a known demand process and evaluating the errors associated with using a different model. Then, the models are examined using a large sample of simulated demand conditions. Approximation results of inventory performance measures - ready, rate excepted number of backorders and on-hand inventory levels are reported. …

Economic Analysis Of Continuous Monitoring Of Commercial Truck Tire Pressure Using Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (Tpms) And Rfid Technologies, Afolabi A. Ogunwemimo

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

The trucking industry is a major contributor to the US economy. By providing the essential services of transportation and distribution needed in today’s dynamic industry, the transportation industry has evolved into an integral player in various supply chains. The trucking industry is the largest transportation provider for other industries and employs 10.1 million workers in the United States (ATA, 2003).

This research is an analysis of the economic impact of maintaining proper air pressure in the tires of commercial trucks. Various studies have been carried out on understanding the relationship between tire pressure and fuel consumption (National Research Council, 2006). …

Simulation-Based Optimisation Model For The Lean Assessment In Sme: A Case Study, Amr Arisha, Amr Mahfouz, John Shea

Conference papers

Due to their space limitation and small production scale, small and medium enterprises (SME) are vulner-able to rapid changes. Lean principles are considered as effective improvement approach to eliminate sys-tem’s waste and inefficiencies. Although much of the academic materials have addressed the lean practic-es into large, global companies, they can still be adjusted to SMEs. Risks are usually associated with lean implementation process due to the drastic required changes in business policies and operations. Simulation can be successfully used to predict the impact of the proposed changes ahead of the implementation which helps to mitigate risks. Integrating simulation with optimization …

Ethnic Difference In Healthcare Delivery, Benny Mathew Varghese

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

Quality in healthcare is a very important aspect; this is obtained when there is proper care provided to the patients without any discrimination. The healthcare system in the US can be improved in the fields of patient’s care, the amount of money spent and proper advice, if proper responsibilities are taken. Quality has been improving over the years, but the median by which there is an increase is too small. The other main factor is access to the healthcare system, which has over the year, has not progressed. Studies in healthcare quality should be conducted on a regular base, so …

Electronic Monitoring Of Hand Hygiene Compliance In An Inpatient Hospital Setting, Christopher M. Masek

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

Proper hand hygiene is known to reduce hospital acquired infections. Currently the most widely accepted method used to measure hand hygiene compliance is through direct observation. This method often provides data that may not accurately represent true hand hygiene compliance due to such factors such as the Hawthorne Effect. Perhaps a better approach is to use counting devices to capture hand hygiene opportunities and activities. This thesis focuses on the measurement of hand hygiene activities of all individuals that either work or visit an inpatient medical ward including healthcare workers, patients and visitors at the patient’s bedside for non-isolation patients. …

A Study Of Solder Joint Failure Criteria, Jianbiao Pan, Julie Silk

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

One of the challenges in an experimental study of solder joint reliability is to determine when cracks occur in a solder joint or when a solder joint fails. Cracks in a real solder joint are difficult to identify using an X-Ray system. Cross-sectioning and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a destructive method. A common non-destructive test method is to monitor resistance increase in a solder joint or a daisy-chain. However, no scientific research has been done in establishing the relationship between the crack area of an interconnection and the change in resistance of the interconnection. This paper proposes a method …

Selection Of Temperature Measuring Sensors Using The Analytic Hierarchy Process, Shadi Mohammad Al-B'Ool

Systems Science and Industrial Engineering Faculty Scholarship

This study presents an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to objectively select the best temperature sensor from among different alternative sensors in a certain industrial application. The underlying decision method based on AHP methodology, ranks temperature sensors with different features with a score resulting from the synthesis of relative preferences of each alternative with respect to the others at different levels considering independent evaluation criteria and sub-criteria. At each level, relative preferences of each candidate alternative with respect to the upper immediate level are calculated from pair-wise comparisons among the candidate alternative sensors with respect to a selected application. Pair-wise …

Effect Of Gold Content On The Reliability Of Snagcu Solder Joints, Jianbiao Pan, J. Silk, M. Powers, P. Hyland

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Electroplated Ni/Au over Cu is a popular metallization for printed circuit board finish as well as for component leads, especially wire-bondable high-frequency packages, where the gold thickness requirement for wire bonding is high. The general understanding is that less than 3 wt% of Au is acceptable in SnPb solder joints. However, little is known about the effect of Au content on the reliability of SnAgCu solder joints. The purpose of this paper is to determine the acceptable level of Au in SAC305 solder joints. Three different package platforms with different Au thicknesses were assembled on boards with two different Au …

Revised Reference Curves For Bone Mineral Content And Areal Bone Mineral Density According To Age And Sex For Black And Non-Black Children: Results Of The Bone Mineral Density In Childhood Study, Babette S. Zemel, Heidi J. Kalkwarf, Vicente Gilsanz, Joan M. Lappe, Sharon Oberfield, John A. Shepherd, Margaret M. Frederick, Xangke Huang, Ming Lu, Soroosh Mahboubi, Thomas N. Hangartner, Karen K. Winer

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Context: Deficits in bone acquisition during growth may increase fracture risk. Assessment of bone health during childhood requires appropriate reference values relative to age, sex, and population ancestry to identify bone deficits.

Objective: The objective of this study was to provide revised and extended reference curves for bone mineral content (BMC) and areal bone mineral density (aBMD) in children.

Design: The Bone Mineral Density in Childhood Study was a multicenter longitudinal study with annual assessments for up to 7 yr.

Setting: The study was conducted at five clinical centers in the United States.

Participants: Two thousand fourteen healthy children (992 …

Supply Chain And Logistics Technology Investment In Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises, Edward Sweeney

Practitioner Journals

No abstract provided.

Reducing Selection Bias In Case-Control Studies From Rare Disease Registries, J. Alexander Cole, John S. Taylor, Thomas N. Hangartner, Neal J. Weinreb, Pramod K. Mistry, Aneal Khan

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Background: In clinical research of rare diseases, where small patient numbers and disease heterogeneity limit study design options, registries are a valuable resource for demographic and outcome information. However, in contrast to prospective, randomized clinical trials, the observational design of registries is prone to introduce selection bias and negatively impact the validity of data analyses. The objective of the study was to demonstrate the utility of case-control matching and the risk-set method in order to control bias in data from a rare disease registry. Data from the International Collaborative Gaucher Group (ICGG) Gaucher Registry were used as an example.

Methods: …

Characterization Of Key Process Parameters In Injection Blow Molding For Improving Quality, Aspen D'Costa

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

The purpose of this study was to discover the performance of significant process parameters in manufacturing 20 oz. plastic beverage bottles. An experimental methodology was carefully designed to examine the characteristics of key variables such as ambient and operating temperatures, process line operators, resin types, resin colors and operating lines associated with a plastic bottle manufacturing line. More explicitly, this study seeks to identify the definitive relationship between the selected process parameters for the production machine (Sidel™) and the ensuing product quality. Also, this study was conducted to evaluate the performance characteristics of Post Consumer Resin (PCR), virgin resin and …

Applying Inventory Control Practices Within The Sisters Of Mercy Health Care Supply Chain, Server Apras

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research lays a foundation for the better understanding of the application and acceptance of more advanced inventory control practices within the health care supply chain. The demand characteristics and optimal control policies for pharmaceutical items within a multi-echelon provider network are examined within the framework of a case study. Demand forecasting algorithms were applied to forecast demand for inventory control procedures. A spreadsheet-based inventory planning tool was used to minimize the inventory holding and ordering costs subject to fill rate constraints. The costs of inventory control models are compared to the current ordering and inventory control strategies to document …

The Effects Of Weather Recognition Training On General Aviation Pilot Situation Assessment And Tactical Decision Making When Confronted With Adverse Weather Conditions, Chansik Kim

All Dissertations

Previous general aviation (GA) accident studies showed that decision errors were more associated with fatal GA accidents than other kinds of human errors, and weather related accidents, especially continued visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), remained the major cause of fatal GA accidents. Thus, finding the underlying causes of GA pilots' decision errors and continued VFR flight into adverse weather conditions are needed to reduce weather related GA accidents as well as fatal GA accidents.
Causal factors and hypotheses of weather related GA accidents show that knowledge, experience, motivation, and weather information frequently have been referred …

Evaluating The Capacity Of A Proton Therapy Facility, Ridvan Gedik

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A relatively new consideration in proton therapy planning is the requirement that the mix of patients treated satisfy desired percentages. Since it is very dicult to satisfy an integer number of patients in light of these requirements, deviations from patient mix preferences and their impacts on operational capabilities are of particular interest to healthcare planners. Therefore, we propose a bicriteria mathematical programming model that determines an outpatient schedule maximizing the number of fractions and minimizing the deviations from the patient mix ratios over the planning horizon. The tradeos between the two objectives are identied through analysis of ecient frontiers. Our …

An Empirical Investigation Of Supply Chain Excellence In Healthcare, Brian Keith Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research is motivated by opportunities to improve the cost and quality of healthcare delivery through improved supply chain processes. This research assesses the quality of the healthcare supply chain and identifies factors that are driving supply chain excellence among organizations in the healthcare industry. The first objective of this research is to assess the state of quality measurement in the healthcare supply chain. The achievement of this first objective is presented in Chapter 3 of this dissertation in the form of a manuscript accepted for publication in The Quality Management Journal. The second research objective is to develop …

Metaheuristics For Hub Location Models, Ornurai Sangsawang

All Dissertations

In this research, we propose metaheuristics for solving two p-hub median problems.. The first p-hub median problem, which is NP-hard, is the uncapacitated single p-hub median problem (USApHMP). In this problem, metaheuristics such as genetic algorithms, simulated annealing and tabu search, are applied in different types of representations. Caching is also
applied to speed up computational time of the algorithms. The results clearly demonstrate that tabu search with a permutation solution representation, augmented with caching is the highest performing method, both in terms of solution quality and computational time among these algorithms for the USApHMP. We also investigate the performance …

Anticipating U.S. Population-Level Health And Economic Impacts Using Discrete-Event Simulation To Guide Health Policy Decisions, Odette Reifsnider

All Dissertations

This dissertation presents two applications of discrete-event simulation (DES) to represent clinical processes: (1) a model to quantify the risk of the maternal obese and diabetic intrauterine environment influence on progression to adult obesity and diabetes, and (2) a model to evaluate health and economic outcomes of different smoking cessation strategies. The first application considers the public health impact of the diabetic and obese intrauterine environment's effect on the prevalence of diabetes and obesity across subsequent generations. We first develop a preliminary DES model to investigate and characterize the epidemiology of diabetes during pregnancy and birth outcomes related to maternal …

Improving Quality Of Service In Ems Systems By Reducing Disparities Between Service Zones, Sunarin Chanta

All Dissertations

Emergency medical service (EMS) systems respond to emergency or urgent calls so as to provide immediate care, such as pre-hospital care and/or transportation, to hospitals. Care must be provided in a timely manner; in fact quality of service is usually directly associated with response time. To reduce the response time, the number and location of vehicles within the service area are important variables. However with limited capacity, increasing the number of vehicles is often an infeasible alternative. Therefore, a critical design goal is to decide at which facilities stations should be located in order to serve as much demand as …

Influence Of Process Parameters On Health Outcome, Vijaya K. Musunuru

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

In the recent years, healthcare organizations have realized that quality in providing service is critical for their survival in this competitive world. This increased attention to service quality has forced many health care providers to reevaluate their systems to stay in business. The main purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis “Process Quality predicts the Product quality (patient satisfaction) in the healthcare domain”. The objective of this study was three- fold. The first objective is to analyze historical data both on patient satisfaction and on provider attributes to yield process parameters for a particular area in a hospital. …

The Inside-Out Classroom: A Win-Win Strategy For Teaching With Technology, Daniel J. Waldorf, Lizabeth Schlemer

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

As costs of higher education soar and many universities face uncertain funding models, institutional pressures have increased to improve instructor efficiency. At the same time, U.S. industry leaders and leading educators have called for improvements in engineering education based on more interactive, hands-on student learning experiences. Although many efforts have been made to take advantage of technology to either improve student learning or to maintain student learning while increasing instructor efficiency, few approaches have been shown to improve both learning and efficiency. A teaching method is proposed to improve student learning and increase student satisfaction while also addressing the instructors’ …

Evolving A Summer Engineering Camp Through Assessment, Katherine Chen, Lizabeth Schlemer, Heather Scott Smith, Teana Fredeen

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

EPIC (Engineering Possibilities in College) is a one-week summer program for high school students (entering 9th-12th grades) to learn about engineering and experience hands-on labs in a university atmosphere. It's an opportunity for students to explore the different types of engineering available at many universities. The aim of EPIC is to expand the College of Engineering mission to K-12 students: "To educate students for careers of service, leadership and distinction in engineering or other fields by using a participatory, learn by doing, ‘hands-on’ approach".

Design Projects With Out-Of-Town Companies, Lizabeth Schlemer

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The capstone design class in the industrial engineering department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) includes projects with companies. The projects are large ambiguous facilities design problems that allow students to incorporate many aspects of the IE curriculum. For the past 15 years students have been participating in these projects with local companies. Over the past several years, companies from out of town (200 miles to the north in Mountain View or 200 miles to the south in Oxnard) have participated. These out of town companies have presented certain logistical issues, but they have proven to …