Cellular manufacturing, which is also referred to as group technology among researchers, has primarily been used as a means to increase productivity, efficiency and flexibility. Under group technology, similar jobs, which have similar shape, material, and processing operations are assigned to the same group. Moreover, dissimilar machines are assigned to...
Critical success factors (CSFs) are those things that must be done correctly for a project to be successful; however, CSFs are not sufficient by themselves to guarantee success. CSFs, as identified in the literature, vary from study to study. In addition, previous studies have not typically included contextual details for...
A number of computational tools now exist to aid in developing conceptual solutions based on a functional description of a design problem. A key limitation of these tools is the way results are organized for presentation to the user. In general, results are an undifferentiated mass of potential solutions. Analysis...
Future engineers need to be competitive in today's expanding global industries. They must have capabilities beyond standard engineering practice. In an attempt to develop students capable of working in a globally distributed design and manufacturing environment, Oregon State University (OSU) and Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Ravensburg (DHBW) have developed a senior...
A flexible flowshop, comprised of one or more stages having unrelated parallel machines, is investigated in this research. Unrelated parallel machines can perform the same function but have different capacity or capability. Since this problem is motivated by industry research, dynamic job release times and dynamic machine availability times have...
Training is a key business process used to increase the skills and knowledge of employees in an effort to improve overall performance. Evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of training processes is necessary to ensure time, money, and resources are used to provide the most benefit possible. This investigation is...
This research studied the relationship between three input variables and outcomes related to the use of quality circles (QCC) in a Chinese manufacturing company. After a thorough review of the literature, three managerial input variables were identified, including goal clarity, goal difficulty, and management support. Five outcomes were measured, including...