Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Reflective Analysis Of Industrial Engineering Leadership Skills Applied In Being A Capstone Team Leader, Sarah Nesmith

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper presents a reflective analysis of leadership skills that I, Sarah Nesmith, have acquired and applied as an honors student serving as a capstone team leader within the Industrial Engineering program at the University of Arkansas. My senior capstone project is in partnership with Walmart’s Transportation and Optimization Department and focuses on identifying the root and contributing causes of empty miles (miles driven without freight on a truck) and exploring backhaul opportunities. The ultimate goal is the development of a tool or method that can identify these opportunities to save money while maintaining service level. As the appointed team …

Processing Cost Analysis For Great South Metals, Evan Briggs, Madisen Laskos, Jared Perrin

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Great south Metals (GSM), a steel processing company based in Acworth, GA, has partnered with the Kennesaw State University (KSU) Industrial and System Engineering (ISYE) department to optimize its costing model. Currently, GSM uses a flat pricing structure for GSM-owned materials and estimates costs for toll processing. However, this approach has led to inaccuracies in pricing and challenges in tracking profitability. GSM seeks to transition to a more systematic and data-driven costing model that will improve both internal and external quoting while ensuring competitiveness in the market.

To address these challenges, the project focused on developing separate costing matrices for …

Exploring Human Responses In Conversations With Ai Entities, Phillip Semenov, Miguel Coronado

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This study argues that while AI systems have become increasingly advanced, they still evoke distinct emotional responses compared to human interactions, potentially limiting their effectiveness in emotionally-driven environments. We used the Emotiv Insight brain-computer interface to monitor participants' emotional responses during controlled interactions with both AI systems and other humans. Key emotional metrics, such as arousal, focus, and stress, were recorded in real time, providing a detailed picture of the emotional dynamics at play in each type of interaction. Participants exhibited higher levels of excitement, stress, and focus during interactions with humans compared to AI systems, while other emotions like …

Yankee Manufacturing Multi-Assembly Pvc-Gasket Assembly Mechanism, Lily Coss, Jessica Kun, Dana Chapin, Jenan Hasan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project focuses on designing and implementing an efficient mechanism to connect PVC and gasket pieces in the door assembly process at Yankee Manufacturing. The aim is to improve process efficiency and productivity by increasing the assembly rate from 130 to 195 assemblies per hour, a 38% improvement. The project involved research, design iterations, performance evaluations, and adherence to engineering codes and standards, particularly focused on safety, ergonomics, and sustainability. The design process includes addressing challenges from a previous attempt, redefining project scope, and incorporating new elements such as transitioning to the packaging process seamlessly. Ethical considerations include promoting operator …

Agile Thinking And Innovative Technology Development, Rocky Gay

Operations Management Presentations

Agile Project Management approaches have grown beyond software development and are being incorporated in many industries at a rapid pace. This expansion has created a need for a common language and methodology that fosters self-organized collaboration and an innate desire to deliver products that maximize customer satisfaction. There are a broad range of tools and techniques nested in a framework that facilitate a flexible and steady cadence of product delivery. Organizations have options in managing projects. Shifting to an agile mindset, values and principles may necessitate a culture change in project teams.

Size And Cost Reduction Of The Antenna 3000, Mario Mignott, Austin Deaver, Josh Madaris

Senior Design Project For Engineers

For our senior design project, we have partnered with Compass Technology Group to improve its Antenna 3000 manufacturing process. The Antenna we are working on is not actually called this, but due to NDA regulations, we will disguise it as the Antenna 3000. This will include finding a way to minimize material costs and labor hours involved to assemble this product together. Our minimum success criteria will be to reduce both the manufacturing time and materials' cost by 20%. Our primary approach to solving this problem will be to implement Lean Six Sigma practices such as the DMAIC principle.

Using …

Change Management: Increasing The Odds Of Adoption, Travis Mcneal

Operations Management Presentations

With rapid changes happening all around, organizations are finding themselves in positions where they need their workforce to adapt to new ways of working (technology, structural, process). Organizations develop strategies, programs and projects intended to address these changes. Unfortunately, history is littered with strategies and programs that fail to live deliver on expected results. This has led to the recent rise and proliferation of Change Management as a practice and skill set. Often times, however, Change Management theory is given preeminence over practicality. This webinar will explore practical and actionable ways you can take to immediately increase the odds …

Resilient Design And Crisis Management, Rich Ham

Operations Management Presentations

Explores the techniques to design resilience into systems, business functions, compliance, quality assurance and response to uncertainty. Includes an overview of Federal Emergency Management Agency principles in resilient design and crisis management, including implementation of National Incident Management System processes and industry standards to frame resilient design, procedures and planning documents. Learn to focus on the use of testing, exercises, and implementation of Plan, Do, Check, Act model to continually improve government, business and personal continuity through periods of cascading uncertainty.

Locating Relay Nodes To Maximize Wireless Sensor Network Lifetime: A Numerical Study, Maria Rene Arandia Jimenez

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a group of sensors deployed over an area, which monitor changes in the environment, collects them as data and forwards it between sensors through wireless links. Data is routed, either in a single-hop or multi-hop manner, with the goal of getting this collected data to the sink nodes, which have higher computational capabilities and connects the network with a user interface. Studies have determined that multi-hop WSNs that integrate relay nodes, which function is to only receive and forward data, can maximize lifetime network. A linear programming model, created by Chang and Tassiulas in …

Vulnerability Analysis Of Modern Electric Grids: A Mathematical Optimization Approach, Matthew Millis

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Electrical power must be transmitted through a vast and complicated network of interconnected grids to arrive at one’s fingertips. The US electric grid network and its components are rapidly advancing and adapting to the advent of smart technologies. Production of electricity is transitioning to sustainable processes derived from renewable energy sources like wind and solar power to decrease dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels. These newly pervasive natures of smart technology and the variable power supply of renewable energy introduce previously unexamined vulnerabilities into the modern electric grid. Disruption of grid operations is not uncommon, and the effects can be economically …

Optimization Of The Retention Rates Of Ready Mix Usa Drivers, Pruthvi Hira, Jaime Harmon, Kenneth Correa, Destiny Sessums

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Ready Mix USA, a CEMEX company, is a giant in the building materials industry, servicing the Southeastern region of the United States through various commercial and residential projects. The Atlanta Division of RMUSA currently consists of 15 operational plants in the state of Georgia with its headquarters located in Woodstock. From the years 2015 to 2018, managers at Ready Mix USA noticed a drastic increase in turnover rates of ready mix truck drivers and did not have an answer for the increasing percentages. The Continuous Improvement at RMUSA tasked the student project team from the Industrial and Systems Engineering department …

An Engineered Approach To Site Selection: Determining Where Facilities Should Be Located, Kerry Melton

Operations Management Presentations

The importance of facility location has dramatically increased over the last several years as the U.S. economy has expanded and different metropolitan areas and markets have experienced population growth, infrastructure changes, labor availability improvements, and better technologies. Global competition has also created the need to further drive down costs and strategize the location of facilities such as distribution centers, freight consolidation centers, retail stores, manufacturing plants, supplier locations for raw materials, farms to grow crops, port facilities, etc. Due to the importance of facility location, this presentation will consider and evaluate several traditional and more modern methods for determining the …

Stop “Droning” On About Unmanned Aircraft Systems And Do Something About It, Richard Ham

Operations Management Presentations

The use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is quickly becoming an expectation for inventory management, supply chain, engineering/construction and architectural inspections, agriculture assessment and surveillance. This webinar will provide an overview of compliance requirements, startup costs, and new use cases changing the way operations managers function and improve efficiency. Supply chain management and delivery, construction management, quality management inspections and homeland security requirements are already heavily invested in UAS integration. Learn how to use your knowledge as an operations manager to stay ahead of your competitors and discover creative ways to drive up productivity and reduce costs by adding UAS …

Leading Through Change, Travis Mcneal

Operations Management Presentations

In this webinar, you will learn how to leverage periods of change to develop better leaders. We all hear that "the only constant is change" and that "change is hard." What if there was a different narrative? What if organizations going through change actually resulted in higher performance, engagement and better leadership? It is widely known that effective change management requires sponsorship — this means every leader, from the C-Suite to the front-line supervisor. This webinar will share practical and repeatable ways to help all leaders improve the way they lead change.

Reducing Overall Overtime Hours Accumulated By San Luis Sourdough, Marie Scholl, Emily Vallejos, Randall Yonce

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The packaging department of San Luis Sourdough Company was redesigned to increase bread throughput and decrease overtime hours issued to employees. Time studies were performed to get an accurate representation of the average throughput of bread with the current packaging conveyor system. After collecting data and surveying the employees and management, we came up with three design solutions to improve their current packaging system. The first design recommendation has a low-investment and is quick to implement as it pertains to changing the worker’s schedule to alleviate the employees from working long hour shifts while increasing the bread throughput. The second …

Developing An Ergonomic Model And Automation Justification For Industrial Spraying Operations: A Case Study, Anthony Woods

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Industrial spraying tasks prove to be some of the most dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs in the modern day. Although it is a ripe area for automation, justification methods do not typically account for the potential improvements in the ergonomics of a task from automating it. In addition, there is a gap in the ergonomics literature in formal methodologies to comprehensively evaluate an industrial spraying task ergonomically, including all relevant musculoskeletal elements. This research focuses on first developing a formal, comprehensive methodology for ergonomically evaluating industrial spraying tasks and attaining a final classification of the ergonomic ranking of the task. …

Strategic Planning Tool Development Using Portfolio Decision Analysis, Luis B. Vargas Rojas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A portfolio decision analysis strategic planning tool was developed for the Facilities Management Office at the University of Arkansas. The tool provides information to support budget allocation decisions based on their Strategic Planning Project List, project attributes (e.g, seat utilization, scheduling preferences, and sustainability rank), and budget constraints. The projects are evaluated using multiobjective decision analysis. We introduce dynamic value functions, which vary the range of the value measures based on the planning horizon, to evaluate the projects). We determine facilities portfolios based on the project values and constraints using Linear Programming. In addition, insightful reports are generated, which provide …

Applying Sustainability From A Systems Perspective:, Timothy Brophy

Master's Theses

Becoming sustainable is no longer an option. Current industry methods will not be able to support the necessary changes our growing society demands. In order to keep up with ever increasing demands industry will be aimed toward making major system changes toward a fully sustainable model. As of right now only basic sustainability actions have been put in place. Industry needs to make a strategic change toward resilient systems with an end goal of evolving into fully biomimic systems. This thesis covers a brief history of production leading to the Industrial Revolution which created a need for increased sustainability efforts. …