Systems Engineering Commons^™

A Method For Measuring Programmatic Dependency And Interdependency Between Dod Acquisition Programs, Matthew B. Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

There is currently no accepted method for quantitative measurement of acquisition program interdependency. While some methods exist for measuring dependency or interdependency at the component or system level, these methods do not translate well to program interdependency measurement. The objective of this thesis is to provide a model for measuring acquisition program interdependency accurately and quantitatively. The model presented in this thesis uses four Interdependency Factors to identify dependency relationships between programs. Specific Interdependency Levels are then used to measure the strengths of those dependencies. The model also accounts for measurement of dependencies upon programs that are not directly connected, …

Rapid Development: A Content Analysis Comparison Of Literature And Purposive Sampling Of Afrl Rapid Reaction Projects, Andrew R. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

In the current environment of military operations requesting faster delivery schedules to counter insurgent tactics, the engineering team often searches for how to quickly deliver the 80% solution, typically in 6-12 months. These are labeled rapid development projects. A content analysis of best practices in commercial product development literature, where time to market is often a driving factor, was accomplished showing varying emphasis of systems engineering technical and technical management processes. Technical Planning, Stakeholders Requirements Development, and Architecture Design were identified as important processes. This analysis confirms preconceived notions of plan upfront and early by emphasizing the SE processes of …

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 …

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 …

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). …

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. …

Test And Evaluation Of Fusion System Components For Space Integration, Whitley Collyn Loper

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Design Of A University Research Network: Analysis, Selection, And Implementation Planning, Anna P. Hopper

Master's Theses

This report focuses on the design of a university knowledge management system (KMS), and how such a system can provide the framework for students and faculty to partake in, share, and collaborate on research activities. The collaborative environment of a university KMS, or research network, must be established in order for a university to maintain its reputation as a competitive research institution and to develop its faculty and students outside the classroom. A research network may contain a variety of features, some of which include faculty profiles, forums, communication portals, publication links, biographies, faculty keywords, interest areas and contact information. …

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 …

Bring Your Own Water Treatment System: United States Patent, Evan A. Thomas, Maximilian Gold

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A method and apparatus for filtering a fluid is presented. In one embodiment, the apparatus converts contaminated water into water having a lower turbidity and bacterial contamination level than the contaminated water. The apparatus includes a settling unit for at least partially settling a portion of the water; a filter unit having a filtration media; wherein the filtration media comprises sand, anthracite coal, burnt rice husks, diatomaceous earth, gravel, pumice gravel, or combinations thereof; a sanitation unit; wherein the sanitation unit is an ultraviolet disinfection unit; a backwash unit; wherein the settling unit is in fluid communications with the filter …

Cyber Physical Complex Networks, Modeling, Analysis, And Control, Neveen Shlayan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research scrutinize various attributes of complex networks; mainly, modeling, sensing, estimation, safety analysis, and control. In this study, formal languages and finite automata are used for modeling incident management processes. Safety properties are checked in order to verify the system. This method introduces a systematic approach to incident management protocols that are governed by mostly unsystematic algorithms. A portion of the used data in this study is collected by means of radar and loop detectors. A weighted t-statistics methodology is developed in order to validate these detectors. The detector data is then used to extract travel time information where …

Social Innovation Concepts At Nasa: Integrating International Development Challenges And Hands-On Prototyping With Spacecraft Design Training, Leonard Yowell, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The NASA Johnson Space Center Social Innovation program has been designed to encourage innovation within the NASA community that benefits both NASA's core mission as well as human needs domestically and internationally. By encouraging internal and external collaboration and providing resources including the new Johnson Space Center "Sandbox" design shop, new innovations are anticipated. Technologies developed for the human exploration of space share similar requirements with appropriate technology for the developing world. The technology goals of keeping people alive in a difficult environment involve addressing requirements for low maintenance and robustness and often include using renewable energy sources. Technologies developed …

A Systemic Approach To Next Generation Infrastructure Data Elicitation And Planning Using Serious Gaming Methods, Ersin Ancel

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Infrastructure systems are vital to the functioning of our society and economy. However, these systems are increasingly complex and are more interdependent than ever, making them difficult to manage. In order to respond to increasing demand, environmental concerns, and natural and man-made threats, infrastructure systems have to adapt and transform. Traditional engineering design approaches and planning tools have proven to be inadequate when planning and managing these complex socio-technical system transitions. The design and implementation of next generation infrastructure systems require holistic methodologies, encompassing organizational and societal aspects in addition to technical factors. In order to do so, a serious …

Sustainable Oxygen: A Low Power Approach For Providing Emergency Medical Oxygen For Spacecraft And Hospitals In Developing Countries, Anndee L. Huff, Evan Rhead, Zdenek Zumr, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An oxygen concentrator targeting an 80% reduction in power demand over commercial systems is being developed using a pressure swing adsorption process. This system is targeted for a service interval five times longer than commercial systems, and is tolerant to high humidity environments- the leading cause of device failure in developing countries. This system could provide emergency medical oxygen in a spacecraft without increasing oxygen concentration in the vehicle. Flight surgeons seek this capability, but presently, there is no system that meets power, size, and delivery rate requirements. This type of system is also well suited for medical oxygen in …

E-10a Mc2a Systems Engineering Case Study, Air Force Center For Systems Engineering, William Albery

AFIT Documents

No abstract provided.

Enterprise Requirements And Acquisition Model, David A. Leach, Chad T. Searle

Theses and Dissertations

In support of senior leadership emphasis on improving early systems engineering and analysis, the Enterprise Requirements and Acquisition Model (ERAM) is a quantitative discrete-event process simulation model that accounts for activities from the identification of a desired space capability early in the JCIDS process through Milestone C of the acquisition system resulting in a probabilistic schedule distribution for a given concept. This model of the DoD's space capability development process will provide valuable decision making information for Concept Characterization and Technical Descriptions referenced during Analysis of Alternatives. The research focused on identifying activities, assigning historical triangular distributions and probabilities at …

Wolf Ant, Gilbert L. Peterson, Christopher M. Mayer, Kevin Cousin

Faculty Publications

Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms can generate quality solutions to combinatorial optimization problems. However, like many stochastic algorithms, the quality of solutions worsen as problem sizes grow. In an effort to increase performance, we added the variable step size off-policy hill-climbing algorithm called PDWoLF (Policy Dynamics Win or Learn Fast) to several ant colony algorithms: Ant System, Ant Colony System, Elitist-Ant System, Rank-based Ant System, and Max-Min Ant System. Easily integrated into each ACO algorithm, the PDWoLF component maintains a set of policies separate from the ant colony's pheromone. Similar to pheromone but with different update rules, the PDWoLF policies …

Systems Ideas For The Scientific And Societal Imperatives Of The Coastal Ocean: Case Of The Bp Oil Gusher In The Gulf Of Mexico, Spring & Summer 2010, Christopher Mooers

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

In recent decades, great progress has been made in advancing the scientific understanding of the coastal ocean (i.e., the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)) across a broad set of disciplines. Simultaneously, the societal use of the coastal ocean has skyrocketed through, for example, increased shipping & boating, sports & commercial fishing, and exploitation of non-living resources, such as, oil & gas extraction and sand & gravel mining. International law and national policy assign coastal nations the responsibility for stewardship (i.e., wise management) of their respective EEZs. The scope of the stewardship and applications can be summarized as (1) …

A-10 Thunderbolt Ii (Warthog) Systems Engineering Case Study, Air Force Center For Systems Engineering, David R. Jacques, Dennis D. Strouble

AFIT Documents

No abstract provided.

A Method To Improve The Sustainment Of Systems Based On Probability And Consequences, Michael Ashton Gaintner

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The FROST Method is presented which improves the efficiency of long-term sustainment of hardware systems. The FROST Method makes sustainment and scheduling decisions based on the minimization of the expected value of current and future costs. This differs from current methods which tend to base decisions not on the expected value of costs, but on the expected inventory demand found through projections using data which is often inaccurate.

Distributions are used to account for randomness and inaccuracy in inputs such as failure rates and vendor-claimed dates for end of production. A Monte Carlo technique is then used to convert these …

Towards An Organizational Strategic Vitality Theory: A Study Of A Public Sector Board Of Directors, Keith L. Woodman

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Boards of directors govern practically all organizations of significant size in the public and private sector. Improving the understanding of how boards function is critical because when boards fail, the results can be devastating. Little is understood about the functioning of boards of directors in the public sector, which accounts for a significant amount of the gross national product of the world's economy. The author observed a public sector board of directors for one year. Using the grounded theory research method to analyze the observations, he generated a theory of organizational strategic vitality that describes how a board of directors …

A Hybrid Lehmer Code Genetic Algorithm And Its Application On Traveling Salesman Problems, Jun Zhang

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Traveling Salesman Problems (TSP) is a widely studied combinatorial optimization problem. The goal of the TSP is to find a tour which begins in a specific city, visits each of the remaining cities once and returns to the initial cities such that the objective functions are optimized, typically involving minimizing functions like total distance traveled, total time used or total cost.

Genetic algorithms were first proposed by John Holland (1975). It uses an iterative procedure to find the optimal solutions to optimization problems.

This research proposed a hybrid Lehmer code Genetic Algorithm. To compensate for the weaknesses of traditional genetic …

Nurturing Systems Thinking: Developing A Framework Based On The Human Factors Analysis And Classification System (Hfacs) To Improve Systems Development Processes, Arjun Vijayanarayanan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Large systems engineering projects have an astonishingly high failure rate. The reasons hypothesized for such a high failure rate include the neglect of nonsalient system elements such as social and human or organizational aspects of systems. Social and human factors have long been known to be critical elements of systems that are frequently ignored (e.g., Goguen, 1994). Systems engineering processes can benefit and be improved by effective utilization of a framework that helps developers expand their attention and efforts beyond the salient aspects of the system and the development process. In the aviation field, the Human Factors Analysis and Classification …

A Structured Project-Risk Management And Life Cycle Framework For Complex Systems: Ship Repair And Maintenance (Sr&M) Projects, Michael Craig Plumb

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation contributes to insights regarding the implications of using Project Risk Management (PRM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in managing projects for a complex system. The PRM approach apprehends many forms of risk both internal and external within a given project and assists the manager in determining the level of importance of each individual project phase and component to optimize project success. The life cycle approach to project management is used with short-term limitations with respect to a product's life cycle over several years. The literature discusses many tools and techniques that assist project managers in implementing optimal solutions, …

A Primary Care Workload Production Model For Estimating Relative Value Unit Output, Rachel G. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

Health care costs have grown to unsustainable levels nationally and within the Department of Defense. Military health care costs have historically been difficult to isolate, causing budget cuts to be the vehicle for cost control. Maximum efficiency, therefore, is the goal in order to show improvement. With the Air Force’s new preventive health plan, they aim to drive a long-term posture for cost reduction through prevention. This research effort aimed to develop a tool to assist in future efforts to understand and improve efficiency in workload output, and whether a relationship exists between patient workload demand and the per-encounter variables …

Application And Validation Of Concept Maturity Assessment Framework, Mathews C. Scharch, Jeremy J. Homan

Theses and Dissertations

Far too often decision makers select concepts based on insufficient data, resulting in projects that are over-budget, over-schedule, and not what the customer wants. Research efforts have proposed a stage-gated concept maturity framework as a tool to assess and increase the maturity of concepts. This research uses multiple validation techniques to demonstrate the value this framework can provide. Interviews with acquisition professionals capture qualitative and quantitative data on the utility of the elements of the framework and the acquisition process. This research also applies the framework to a current acquisition program to determine if it can be broadly applied for …

Design Of Online Student Fee Committee Proposal Information System, Kenneth Cairns, Gregory (Greg) Jacobson

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project is to overhaul the IME department’s Student Fee Committee (SFC) proposal system. A web enabled database was designed in order to improve this system. A significant amount of time was spent researching different programming languages, paradigms, and frameworks in order to determine the most logical approach to the system redesign. After a few false leads, it was determined that the most appropriate solution to the problem was to design a C# based web form application using asp.NET technology, developed in Microsoft Visual Studio. A mockup was created in Access in an attempt to determine if …

Ambulatory Healthcare Utilization In The United States: A System Dynamics Approach, Rafael Diaz, Joshua G. Behr, Mandar Tulpule

VMASC Publications

Ambulatory health care needs within the United States are served by a wide range of hospitals, clinics, and private practices. The Emergency Department (ED) functions as an important point of supply for ambulatory healthcare services. Growth in our aging populations as well as changes stemming from broader healthcare reform are expected to continue trend in congestion and increasing demand for ED services. While congestion is, in part, a manifestation of unmatched demand, the state of the alignment between the demand for, and supply of, emergency department services affects quality of care and profitability. The central focus of this research is …

Standardization For Retail Facility Layout For Patagonia, Inc., Derek King

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project is to create a standard layout for Patagonia retail stores. Currently, Patagonia has no standard layouts to follow when they update or open a new store; this has resulted in improper layouts and not fulfilling customers’ needs. This project will develop a way for Patagonia to solve both of these problems based on statistical engineering. The outcome of this project will result in a standard way for determining the optimal layout for new or updated Patagonia retail stores while meeting the business needs of the location.

Mh-53j/M Pave Low Iii/Iv Systems Engineering Case Study, Air Force Center For Systems Engineering, William Albery, Raymond L. Robb, Lee Anderson

AFIT Documents

No abstract provided.