Systems Engineering Commons^™

Development Of Stem Tools Using Nasa's Systems Engineering Design Approach, J Chevallier, D Hamilton, B Landers, W Landers, B Setayesh

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of Nasa's System Engineering Design Process In The Development Of An Optical Guitar Pickup, Stephanie Buckner, Jared Nelson, Ben Fowler, Samuel Hobbs, Chris Kirchner

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

How A Systems Engineer Starts..., Herman Migliore

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Dr. Migliore will review systems engineering as a process for developing products, processes, and services and suggest views that encourage systems thinking. As an example, he will focus on the beginning of the development process, the fuzzy front end, and discuss a method, ConOps, for getting started using examples from PSU's masters program.

International Space Station Systems Engineering Case Study, Air Force Center For Systems Engineering, Bill Stockman, Joe Boyle, John Bacon

AFIT Documents

This case study on the International Space Station considers what many believe to have been the ultimate international engineering project in history. The initial plans involved the direct participation of 16 nations, 88 launches and over 160 spacewalks-more space activities than NASA had accomplished prior to the 1993 International Space Station decision. Probably more important was the significant leap in System Engineering (SE) execution that would be required to build and operate a multi-national space station. In a short period of time, NASA and its partners had to work out how to integrate culturally different SE approaches, designs, languages and …

Second-Generation International Space Station Total Organic Carbon Analyzer Verification Testing And On-Orbit Performance Results, Nicole L. Bentley, Evan A. Thomas, Michael Van Wie, Chad Morrison

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The International Space Station (ISS) total organic carbon analyzer (TOCA) is designed to autonomously assess recovered water quality by providing an indication of total organic carbon (TOC). The current TOCA has been on the ISS since November 2008. Functional checkout and operations revealed complex operating considerations. Specifically, failure of the hydrogen (H2) catalyst resulted in development of an innovative oxidation analysis method. This method reduces activation time and limits the H2 produced during analysis, while retaining the ability to indicate TOC concentrations within 25% accuracy. Subsequent testing and comparison to archived samples returned from the station and tested on the …

Developing Sustainable Life Support System Concepts, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sustainable spacecraft life support concepts may allow the development of more reliable technologies for long-duration space missions. Currently, life support technologies at different levels of development are not well evaluated against each other, and evaluation methods do not account for long-term reliability and sustainability of the hardware. This paper presents point-of-departure Sustainable System Mass (SSM) evaluation criteria for life support systems that may allow more robust technology development, testing, and comparison. An example sustainable water recovery system concept is presented.

Post-Project Risk Perception And Systems Management Reaction, Baqer Alali

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this research is to identify whether risk management in projects has any role in risk management in systems. Projects, systems, and risk management are three integral concepts in the management of various enterprises and agencies. Risk management is a common concept in systems and project processes. To avoid failures or crisis during their life cycles, projects and systems managers practice risk management. Projects and systems have well defined life cycles during which the risk is defined, controlled, and managed. Risk management is conducted in each phase of projects and systems. Projects are initiated to close certain operational …

Lean Inventory Management System For Boeing Missile Defense, Danielle Partridge

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Lean inventory management is influential for business. One of the wastes businesses aim to reduce, using lean principles, is inventory. Inventory management provides the essential tools for eliminating extra inventory and cost that is tied up in capital.

Boeing’s Ground Based Missile Defense inventory area was failing at meeting their proprietary lean manufacturing goals. There was a need for an inventory system that included: lean principles, inventory management and user-friendly capability. The goal of this project’s inventory management database process was to minimize inventory investment while still meeting functional requirements. The deliverables for this project met the needs of Boeing’s …

Ergonomic Methods To Improve Safety In The Construction Sector And Reduce Costs, Mona Barjasteh

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Many small construction companies have difficulty providing a safe working environment for their employees because of their lack of resources. There is a need to provide a manual for small construction companies employing 10 or fewer workers with the best ergonomic solutions of the top most common injuries. Accidents in the construction field are very high with nearly 175,00o nonfatal injuries and 1,121 deaths in 2002. The nonfatal cases occur 7.1 times per 100 full time workers, while serious injuries occur 2.8 times per 100 full time workers. This information reveled the importance of focusing on minor injuries in order …

Increasing Production Capacity At A Start Up Biomedical Company, Traci J. Otsuji

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The following senior project was first introduced during a summer internship at a biomedical company called Asthmatx Inc. Asthmatx is responsible for the development and manufacturing of a catheter‐based device for moderate to severe cases of asthma. Upon the approval of FDA, Asthmatx had planned to ramp up their production capacity significantly in order to accommodate the potential growth.

The first step in the process improvement was a facility reconfiguration that involved the adjustment of process sequencing and the implementation of ergonomic catheter channels. Next, time studies were conducted to gain more accurate time standards of the production process. After …

Process Improvement For The Department Of Surgery Sierra Vista Medical Center, Jessica Paz

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This report proposes and analyzes process improvement methods for the Surgical Services Department at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center. The department currently operates with an average of 25% of elective cases starting on time. This can be attributed to a number of inefficiencies that occur throughout the hospital.

The following Industrial Engineering methods were utilized to improve patient flow:  creation of a data collection system to quantify delays  use of simulation and facility redesign techniques to determine feasibility and benefits of moving towards a surgical center model  development of a user interfaced database to record and analyze …

Police Operations Simulation, Robert Mcgee

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

In this report, the author explains the process of creating the Police Operations Simulation, shows step-by-step how it works, and statistically analyzes the results from SLOPD’s own proposed and current schedules. The data-gathering from the department and the simulation itself will receive the bulk of the coverage in this report, followed by sample results from SLOPD and a business plan for future sale to other departments.

Using the given numbers, it appears that the proposed schedule will result in significantly improved coverage for the city of San Luis Obispo. While any increase in the number officers on patrol tends to …

Ground Support Equipment For Northrop Grumman Massive Heat Transfer Experiment, Michael A. Manuel, Christopher J. Sparber, Greg A. Trent

Aerospace Engineering

California Polytechnic State University students designed, built, and certified ground support equipment for the Northrop Grumman Massive Heat Transfer Experiment. The Cal Poly design team built the 10000, 20000, and 30000 assemblies to meet Northrop Grumman requirements. The requirements included interface limitations, design load factors, delivery, and testing specifications. The design process consists of requirements generation, conceptual design, preliminary design, design reviews, manufacturing, and certification. The hardware was successfully completed and is used at the Johnson Space and Kennedy Space Center.

Polyenvi, Stephen Beard, Josh Engel, Paul Fake, Diego Flores, Alvaro Nunez, Miguel Wong

Electrical Engineering

Poor indoor air quality is a problem that is recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cause health issues. In order to raise awareness of this problem, this document outlines the construction of a device that economically measures air quality through five metrics: dust, smoke, ozone, humidity, and temperature. The device integrates with a router to provide users access to information about their indoor air quality anywhere over the internet as well as local access to the data via an LCD mounted on the router. By increasing indoor air quality awareness, this device will aid users in making adjustments …

Cable Time Estimation Database, Joshua L. Okerman

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The use of time standards are the basis for a high efficiency system in the manufacturing environment. This project will investigate the process followed to design and develop a database used to calculate accurate cable assembly time standards used for scheduling at General Atomics. This project will then justify the use of the Cable Time Estimation Database, through an economic analysis compared to the current methods applied.

A Decision Making Construct For Complex Situations, Van Edward Brewer

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The uncertainty inherently associated with complexity challenges decision-making processes, indicating a need for a construct for decision making in complex situations. A review of the literature on systems, complexity, and paradigms indicates that such a construct must be internally consistent with well-defined philosophical foundations and further that systems and complexity (as used in complex situations) are not necessarily internally consistent with traditional philosophical foundations. Therefore, a decision making construct for complex situations requires research into different foundations. This research addresses these gaps, deriving axiological and methodological components based on a set of principles consistent with the ontology and epistemology of …

Utilizing Knowledge Transfer To Promote Management Of Countervailing Risks In Value Stream Analysis, Jeffery A. Temple

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Organizations are frequently faced with the challenges of modifying and streamlining their processes by utilizing the latest process improvement techniques such as Lean Thinking. They use these techniques to allow them to better perform their organizational purposes through the elimination of waste and non-value added steps. Personnel performing these modifications need to account for potential outcomes and risks when streamlining processes. An association of knowledge transfer and experience to the identification and handling of these countervailing or alternative risks when performing Lean Thinking value stream analysis is investigated. The elements of risk management, Lean Thinking and knowledge transfer are described. …

Towards A Formal Theory Of Interoperability, Saikou Y. Diallo

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation proposes a formal theory of interoperability that explains 1) what interoperability is as opposed to how it works, 2) how to tell whether two or more systems can interoperate and 3) how to identify whether systems are interoperating or merely exchanging bits and bytes. The research provides a formal model of data in M&S that captures all possible representations of a real or imagined thing and distinguishes between existential dependencies and transformational dependencies. Existential dependencies capture the relationships within a model while transformational dependencies capture the relationships between interactions with a model. These definitions are used to formally …

Towards A Theory Of Understanding Within Problem Situations, Jose J. Padilla

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The concept of understanding is ambiguously used across areas of study, such as philosophy and cognitive sciences. This ambiguity partly originates from understanding's generally accepted definition of 'grasping' of something. Further, the concept is confounded with concurrent processes such as learning and decision making. This dissertation provides a general theory of understanding (GTU) that explains the concept of understanding unambiguously and separated from concurrent processes.

The GTU distinguishes between the process of understanding and its outcomes. Understanding, defined as a process, is the matching of knowledge, worldview, and problem. The outcome of this process is the assignment of a truth …

Nato Human View Architecture And Human Networks, Holly A. H. Handley, Nancy P. Houston

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The NATO Human View is a system architectural viewpoint that focuses on the human as part of a system. Its purpose is to capture the human requirements and to inform on how the human impacts the system design. The viewpoint contains seven static models that include different aspects of the human element, such as roles, tasks, constraints, training and metrics. It also includes a Human Dynamics component to perform simulations of the human system under design. One of the static models, termed Human Networks, focuses on the human-to-human communication patterns that occur as a result of ad hoc or deliberate …

Funeral Services Marketing Interface To Enhance Customer Service And Overall Productivity, Alyssa R. Habing

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal of any business regardless of the industry it resides in; it’s the sole driver of a company’s productivity levels and overall success within the market. Although numb to most market fluctuations, the funeral industry needs to reinvent their business strategies continuously in order to increase their market share. It’s especially important for smaller funeral homes across the world to take this idea to another level in order to stay competitive with the larger, corporate establishments. In the past twenty years, the industry has grown exponentially due to more interest and popularity. The increase in …

Nonprofit Management Through Effective Database Utilization, Jennifer Muscat

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project addresses problems found within a specific department within Lifewater International. Lifewater faces many unique challenges operating as a nonprofit. Like most nonprofits, elaborate costly solutions are simply not an option when solving department problems. This project addresses three interrelated problems within Lifewater’s Development and Communications Department. The three issues addressed are Volunteer Management, Donor Management, and Project Management. Each problem was examined to determine the areas for improvement that this project can handle and solve. Each problem was given an improved design. A Volunteer Management System was designed to increase volunteer utilization and appropriately match volunteers with appropriate …

Software Test Automation, Phillip Laplante, Fevzi Belli, Jerry Gao, Greg Kapfhammer, Keith Miller, W. Wong, Dianxiang Xu

Education Sciences and Professional Programs Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Layout And Procedure Re-Design Of Dcpp Receiving Warehouse, Nicole Elizabeth Riegel

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The receiving warehouse at Diablo Canyon Power Plant, owned by Pacific Gas and Electric, serves as a place to recognize the receiving of items into an ERP system, repackage and label items for long-term storage, and organize items for delivery inside the secured area. The warehouse managers would like to redesign the layout and procedures of the warehouse. Currently items are not received, scanned, or shipped in a timely manner. The flow of people and items in the receiving and shipping area is chaotic and space is limited especially during plant outages. The objective of this project is to: • …

Ernie Ball Guitars Woodshop Facilities Redesign, Cameron Lea Schlemer

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This report details a facilities design for Ernie Ball’s guitar and bass guitar manufacturing facility in San Luis Obispo, CA. Specifically, this project will redesign the layout for the Woodshop, the largest of the 5 manufacturing cells in the facility. This project was completed using the Systematic Layout Planning procedure and focused mostly on phase II and III in which the specifics for a layout are determined, however, space requirements were not evaluated as it was not within scope.

The first step was to develop departments in the facilities; two master departments were identified for the neck manufacturing process and …

Non-Profit Management System For Friends Of The Elephant Seal, Matthew Justus, Robert Macasi, Jeff Zinn

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Friends of the Elephant Seal (FES) are a non-profit organization based in San Simeon, California. Their current method of tracking and reporting information is inefficient. A project was proposed to develop a new information management system for FES, install it at their office and provide training including a user manual. The project was divided into three parts: Database Design and Implementation; User Interface Design and Ergonomics; and User Manual & Help System.

The objective of the project was to design a user-friendly interface specifically for the FES worker that allowed for easy access to data entry functions, reporting functions and …

Design For Manufacturing Of Sports Equipment, Cedrick Bit, Christopher L. Head

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project was to validate industrial designs for a product in its conceptual stage and suggest/implement design changes that suit the contracting company’s needs while assuring the product maintains its basic functional requirements. Techniques and methods used to validate the design include 3‐D solid modeling, physical product application using rapid prototyping to produce the product. Methods of design for manufacturing were analyzed in the design. Processes used in the validation and verification of the design include solid modeling design, methods of measurements, fixture design and manufacturing processes. Full design specifications and solid model files were finalized and …

Digester Selection And Operation For Heybeli Island, Spencer Fackler, Joseph Violetti

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Heybeli Digester project originated with Sema Alptekin in her personal research and was incorporated into a Senior Project opportunity at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The aim of this project was to select and design a plan for the use of a digester for the island of Heybeli, Turkey. The objective of this plan was to incorporate economic, social, and environmental justifications to evaluate if a digester would be a benefit to the community.

Systems Engineering analysis is a vital tool when working with complicated projects that include multiple systems interfacing with one another. Through the use …

Determining A Reliability Factor For Photovoltaic's In San Luis Obispo, Ryan S. Roach

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project will analyze raw photovoltaic (PV) solar panel performance data in order to determine a reliability factor for solar panels in San Luis Obispo. This project is a subset of a larger project being performed by SLO RESCO, which is funded by a grant from the California Energy Commission. Their project will explore the use of solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass renewable resources. The scope of this project is limited to a small section of RESCO's analysis of solar panel technology and implementation in which a reliability factor will be generated.

The objective is to determine a reliability factor …

Application Of Radio Frequency Identification To An Asset Checkout System, Ma'ayan K. Bennaim

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a growing technology which is increasingly utilized throughout industry. This senior project identifies an RFID alternative to the checkout system in the tool crib of the Cal Poly Aero Hanger. A new database is designed and built to interface with an RFIDeas AIR enroll reader. The system realizes vast time savings in check in times and increases student accountability for the tools which are checked out by tagging tools.